The latest session of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Citizens’ Academy is complete with 18 graduates. There were fifteen three hour classes featuring hands-on instruction with Deputy Sheriffs, Custody Staff,
Supervisors, Civilian Employees and Commanders. The graduates were done last Thursday. The next class is next summer. The Sheriff’s dept. is already reaching out to the public to encourage folks sign up for the program at lakesheriff.com. Applications will be accepted starting next spring. It’s free to take the classes, but you have to be a resident or have a job in Lake County, be at least 18 years of age, have no felony convictions or misdemeanors for three years and you have to go to all fourteen sessions.
Four people accused in the death of a man at a pot farm in Laytonville nearly two years ago still in the Mendocino County jail. Seven people had been charged in connection to the crime and three have taken plea deals. A trial for armed robbery and homicide was set for last Monday, but the jury selection’s been pushed to next Monday, October 1st instead. Jeffrey Settler was stabbed to death in November of 2016. Those left to be tried, Michael Kane, Frederick Gaestel, Jesse Wells and Gary Blank. Mendo Voice reports the trial’s been delayed because of a bill on the Governor’s desk about how an accessory to felony murder, who did not play a role in the killing, can be charged. The case to pick back up after we find out if the governor signs the bill into law.
City leaders in Clearlake considering overseeing the Lake Local Agency Formation Commission’s finances. At the City Council meeting Thursday the subject to be looked at after the Mayor requested the county transfer all of the commissions money to the city instead. The Mayor is also the chair of the commission. The commission or Lake LAFCO started in 2000 after a reorganization of state government. The county handles Lake LAFCO’s finances and the organization pays $2,500 a year for that. The others on the commission are two county supervisors and two Lakeport City Council members.
Volunteers are invited to clean up damaged areas from fires and help gather data about local landscape in Hopland. The UC Hopland Research and Extension Center burned July 27th and 28th in the River Fire, but homes and structures and ranch animals were saved because of those there fighting the flames off, including staff, neighbors, CALFIRE and the Hopland Fire Protection District. The Extension Center says the data collected today will be useful to help others manage and prepare for wildfire. For more info to help visit //bit.ly/SupportHREC.
A new state law aims to have California getting all electricity from clean power sources like as solar, wind and hydro-electric generation by 2045. The bill by Sen. Kevin de León has been signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown with a 100 percent mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The governor says the state’s committed to do whatever’s necessary to meet the existential threat of climate change.
Controversy around Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in a school text book in the Elk Grove Unified School District. The book talks about Newsom when he was the San Francisco mayor and how he ordered the city-county clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples back in 2004. The text says Newsom made sure people’s rights were respected and calls him a “champion” for people’s rights. But some parents say it’s to bolster his campaign for Governor and that Newsom was listed along with “Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King”. The inclusion in the book after California’s FAIR Education Act in 2012 which says school textbooks and curricula should include historically underrepresented demographics. The books in preview mode and are not in classrooms yet.
A man accused of multiple Northern Calif. rapes across several counties in court with victims. Roy Charles Waller at court yesterday and is being held without bail. He was arraigned and has not entered a plea for a double rape in North Natomas in 2006. Two victims in court, one believed to be the first victim who woke up to find the suspect over her in her home when she was 21 years old, the other also attacked in her home, tied up, but got away and stabbed him with scissors. Waller’s believed to have attacked nearly a dozen women between 1991 through 2006. He faces charges now for the last known attack where two women were tied up and assaulted over six hours in Oct. of 2006. DNA evidence used years later turns up Waller as the suspect. The same process used to nab the alleged Golden State Killer.
State officials are demanding the Trump administration change course on a plan to weaken national fuel economy standards that reduce car emissions at the same time saving folks gas money. The state says the new rules would hurt people’s health and make climate change worse. The chair of the Calif. Air Resources Board testified at a hearing in central Calif. where some of the worst air pollution exists, saying the state would take whatever actions were necessary to protect citizens and follow the law. The State Attorney General also says the state can’t afford to retreat in the fight against climate change, and talked about wildfires and high asthma rates for kids in the San Joaquin Valley. That’s where there was one of a trio of nationwide hearings on the mileage plan.
A bunch of weed munching goats left their workplace, wandering to nearby homes. The goats which eat grass and weeds for fire prevention in the Oakland hills got loose Monday morning. Their herder and firefighters rounding them back up in a couple hours and brought them back to the area. The 750 goats in the hills owned by Ecosystem Concept of Dixon. Some got thru a fence and wandered about a quarter mile away and went into yards or on roads. Residents called the fire department.
PG&E says it’ll put up nine high-definition cameras to look for possible wildfires in the North Bay. The utility giant says it hopes the cameras will go in by the end of the year in Sonoma, Napa and Marin counties. It’s about $700,000 to put in the cameras and run them for a year. It’s all part of the AlertWildfire system which is supposed to be like a real time eye in the sky sending live images to alertwildfire.org. The cameras put in as the utility company facing potential lawsuits for the October 2017 wildfires across those same counties. Cal Fire blames PG&E equipment for igniting 16 fires across Northern California. There’s still no definitive cause though for the most destructive fire of them all, the Tubbs fire.
A man from Lake County accused of causing the death of another man after a fight at the Graton Casino is facing involuntary manslaughter. First Morgan Lewis of Hidden Valley Lake was charged for felony assault causing great bodily injury after the victim, long time Santa Rosa Junior College custodian Hermilo Andrade fell to the ground and hit his head on a concrete sidewalk. He died after three days in the ICU. Andrade and Lewis apparently got into a fight after one of their car doors hit the other’s and Lewis’s girlfriend was pushed to the ground. Words were exchanged and it got physical later the evening of Sept. 15th. Surveillance video of the casino parking lot shows Lewis use his forearm to shove Andrade who fell down. Lewis was released from jail after posting $50,000 bail.
A reminder that PG&E is flying a helicopter low, patrolling electric lines in Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake Counties this week. The utility company says it’ll continue the practice the next several weeks for enhanced vegetation and safety work. They say they may fly lower than 200 feet but still following FAA regulations. It’s to see if there’s any vegetation contacting electric lines in high fire-threat areas. The flyovers will continue the next 7 weeks in Middletown, Konocti (including Hobergs and Adam Springs), Upper Lake, Lower Lake, Cobb (including Anderson Springs, Harbin Springs), Kelseyville (the Bottle Rock Road area), Clearlake Oaks and Spring Valley.
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