A new report on Mendocino County’s Jail Based Competency Treatment for the mentally ill shows the program’s a model being shared around the state. A program clinician, J. Holden has put out the report about those found incompetent to stand trial because of serious mental illness. The report says nearly a dozen seriously mentally ill misdemeanor defendants and another with a felony charge were cared for outside the jail system, they were restored to competency in some fashion so they could either be further treated or stand trial in their case. The report did say however that psychotic disorders, homelessness, substance abuse, and medication noncompliance were major risk factors associated with incompetency. The report also shows restoring the seriously mentally ill to competency cost more than $7,000 per patient.
A new board member has been selected for Mendocino Coast District Hospital. The hospital and the Mendocino Coast Healthcare District Board of Directors announced Tom Birdsell as the new board member starting this past Monday. He’ll serve until the next election in November and was the top pick of the eight community members who applied for the position. They all gave a two minute opening statement, answered five questions from a community moderator, and then had a two minute closing summary statement. Birdsell had served on the Mendocino Coast Healthcare District Board previously from 2007 through 2016, and was also on the Finance and Planning Committees from 2015 until now.
Microphor, a longtime Willits business says it’s closing. The Wabtec facility is closing at the beginning of next year, putting 18 people out of work. It will apparently start in phases on January 1st. It means all Microphor operations should cease to operate by the end of the first quarter next year. Then operation will be consolidated into a facility Wabtec owns in Greenville, South Carolina. The parent company saying those affected by the plant closing who don’t plan to relocate will get severance packages and assistance transitioning to new jobs, plus they can also apply for jobs at other Wabtec locations.
A movement to divide California into three states has been turned down by the state’s highest court. The state Supreme Court with an order for the secretary of state not to add the ballot initiative because of the validity of the idea. The court’s also considering whether the environmental group, the Planning and Conservation League’s argument that it would drastically change California’s government structure is something that shouldn’t be decided simply thru a ballot initiative. The initiative to slice the state into Northern California, California and Southern California. Those who support it say the state is just too big.
It’s been a minute, but the scenic stretch of Highway 1 by Big Sur has finally reopened to traffic. It’s been more than a year since that gigantic landslide closed off access to Big Sur. It’s opened two days ahead of schedule. The state Dept. of Transportation made the announcement on the newly built, two-lane stretch of road opening after closing in May of 2017. The area of Mud Creek near Ragged Point in Big Sur hit by a slide with millions of tons of soil moving down the hillside, moving 75 acres of land. It also created 15 new coastline acres, 9 miles north of the Monterey-San Luis Obispo county line.
The one bar in Forestville, there for years, is closing. The bar’s entrance locked with signs saying it’s unsafe to enter because of a Sonoma County Code saying there were too many structural problems that make it unsafe for those inside. The club owner says he hopes he can reopen while repairs are ongoing. The owner says the county over reacted to big cracks and gaps in a rear concrete wall and a retaining wall.
Free postage for those voting by mail. The Governor announcing he signed the bill requiring return ballot envelopes have prepaid postage. Right now about a dozen or so of the state’s counties will provide postage paid ballots for the upcoming election in November. The counties have to cover the cost but might be able to get paid back from the state. It starts officially next year.
A judge tossing a case in Sacramento someone brought against the Attorney General Xavier Becerra saying he wasn’t qualified to serve. A Republican lawyer, Eric Early, ran unsuccessfully against Becerra and two other attorney general candidates in June went to court before the election saying Becerra didn’t meet the statutory requirements for his job. He says he’s not surprised at the outcome and that he will appeal. He claims Becerra can’t serve because he was admitted to the bar in 1985 but listed as inactive from 1991 to 2017 when he was in Congress.
A 72 year old man recovering after a group of young man beats him in Berkeley. Police say the man was walking in the city a couple Fridays ago when the group of six to eight young men attacked him from behind. Police say one of them hit the older man in the back of his head, so he fell, then the others repeatedly kicked him, so much, he could barely crawl. Berkeley police say the group did not know the man and they don’t know what the motive is. Cops now on the lookout for a car seen leaving the scene.
A home in Ukiah’s been gutted by a fire and another nearby has been damaged. Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Cal Fire and firefighters from Hopland and Redwood Valley came out to the report of the fire on North Oak Street. Some of the first reports say it may have been a gas line outside one of the homes that had broken. There were no reports of injuries.
A driver in Texas in trouble with the law after trying to light up some meth next to a police car at a red light. A couple of cops in El Paso in their patrol car and looked over and say Fredrick Brown in a white 2018 Ford Fiesta lighting up, they immediately pulled the guy over finding more than 22 grams of crystal meth on him, a half-ounce of marijuana and several pipes. He’s arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.
