An event in Lake County shines a light on healthy living, the Blue Zone Project. A community wide project the county libraries got a grant for based on the book Blue Zones of Happiness. The Hope4Health Festival/Hope in the Park Concert is also on Saturday. It’s all part of the human health project that shows ways to make permanent changes to an area’s environment, policy and social networks. The libraries will start a walking group and host healthy cooking classes with CalFresh. Both activities will go eight weeks. Those living in Lake County are invited to the events, beginning with the concert at Austin Park in Clearlake at 3p this Saturday. A Blue Zone is where there are the highest concentration of people living to 100 years or older.
Since so many trees are dying in Lake County, the Board of Supervisors passed a local emergency resolution. This can help the county gather money to help take down the dead and dying trees, which are a safety hazard, especially during peak fire season. The board also heard from the Watershed Protection District which asked for $500,000 in matching funds for the Blue Ribbon Committee Storm Water Project Grant, with a $50,000 advance to get going until grant money comes in. And code enforcement asked the board to abate a home in Nice which is in tax default.
The Governor is pushing an idea for California taxpayers to help pay for abortions for women who have to leave their home state or who live here but can’t afford them. Its already covered for some people through Medicaid. There are some who don’t qualify for the healthcare program or have private health insurance. Yesterday the Governor said he wanted the state to hold $40 million in grant money to offer to clinics to help offset those costs. Newsom commented the state wouldn’t stand by and allow extremists to roll back basic constitutional rights, so he wants to make sure all women, not just residents, know they will have their fundamental rights protected. Those against abortion are against this and proposals in the Legislature regarding abortion rights.
Adults 21 and under can still have a semiautomatic weapon now that an appeals court tossed the ban. It was 2-1 in the 9th Circuit with justices saying the law violated the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. The court also ruled a judge in San Diego should have blocked “an almost total ban on semiautomatic centerfire rifles” for young adults, likening the right to bear arms for this demographic, to the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in the revolutionary army. Guns rights advocates were trying to block Calif. from forcing young adults to show hunting licenses in order to buy a rifle or shotgun for those 21 or younger not in the military or law enforcement.
The Dept. of Water Resources is working with the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to protect the state’s salmon population, which continues to be at serious risk. It’s a tough balance for the agencies as the state is in severe drought. That mixed with climate change is having a negative impact on native species and ecosystems. Scientists and fish biologists have been working together for a while protecting the salmon populations and now there are dozens of projects to help restore critical habitat in places like the Feather and Sacramento Rivers.
A new report says the state may be about to help adjunct, or part-time instructors at community colleges pay for healthcare. The Governor’s draft budget for 2022-23 that came out at the beginning of the year had set aside $200 million to fund healthcare coverage at the state’s 72 local community college districts for adjuncts. The Governor has to send his budget to lawmakers by this Saturday. But there’s no word yet if the $200 million is still in the spending plan. The Faculty Association of the Calif. Community Colleges along with the California Federation of Teachers are pushing for the funding.
There’s a new campaign in place to save Kelp Forests. The forests are said to be just as important to forests on land, like in the Amazon or Redwood forests. The Advocate reports starting in 2014 kelp forests on the North Coast, mostly on the Sonoma and Mendocino County coastlines are down by as much as 96%. It’s due to poor oceanographic conditions like, no more apex predators, and purple urchins switching from passive to active grazers creating the aquatic deforestation. The Nature Conservancy is working to protect and restore the kelp forest ecosystems in California and elsewhere. They’re partnering with UC Los Angeles, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Greater Farallones Association to research various roadmaps to resolution. For more info: Kelpwatch.org, the world’s largest map of kelp forest canopy in both time and space extending from Baja California, Mexico, to the Oregon-Washington State border seasonally from 1984 to 2021.
Locals in Mendocino County are being supported by the West Business Development Center who want to startup their own business. The Center has the StartUp Mendocino Business Accelerator Program, which is hosting a reception for the latest group of graduates next month. On Thursday, June 9th the public’s invited to meet the new grads at the Rivino Winery. The public will be able to learn about the businesses and celebrate the participants success. They went through a 23 week long training with various local sponsors paying for the education. 14 applicants and 13 businesses were accepted for this cycle.
The state’s been trying to get the less fortunate to get a COVID19 vaccine, without a lot of luck. The Dept. of Health Care Services says 84% of residents in the state 5 years of age and older have at least one dose of vaccine, but only about 57% of folks in Medi-Cal have at least one shot, at least, as of last month. The state started a $350 million incentive program last year targeting Medi-Cal users so they’d get vaxxed. CalMatters reported as of last August when the incentive program started, compared to now, for those 12 and up, the numbers went up only slightly. The report says people who live in the poorest areas of the state who are enrolled in Medi-Cal were vaccinated at the lowest rates. And people not inoculated against COVID were nearly 9 times more likely to end up in the hospital, compared to those vaccinated and boosted
The city of Lakeport is going to the private sector to get money for water infrastructure. The City Council voted last week to go after private money from a bank. The council voted unanimously after the assistant city manager and finance director showed members the options to get nearly $6 million dollars in water system capital improvement projects. But those rates were from last August. The city manager, also at the meeting said the projects outlined were not the only ones needed over the next decade. So they would have to potentially find more money down the road. The city’s coming up with an entire list of projects to get moving on the work ASAP.
A man from Lakeport pretty much admitted guilt related to a fatal DUI last year. Steven Pruitt pleaded no contest in March to the crash in Clearlake Oaks that killed Lonnie Sullivan. Pruitt crossed the double yellow lines crashing into Sullivan west of Rodman Slough. His no contest plea to the felony charge of DUI — under the influence of a drug while causing injury, means he accepts his conviction, without admitting he was guilty of the crime. He’s in jail on $1 million bail.
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