Two people reportedly abducted have been found dead. Someone wandering in the area of Hulls Valley Road north of Covelo reportedly found the bodies. The Sheriff’s Office has not confirmed for sure they are the two missing Covelo residents, Traci Bland and Kyle McCartney, but assume they are. The two reportedly kidnapped on Sunday. A man telling deputies he was with the two until they encountered 4 either Hispanic or Native American men. Their 2007 Chevy Tahoe was found abandoned. Deputies are reportedly going back to the area where the bodies were found for more evidence gathering and investigation into the case. Deputies are asking anyone who may know the pair or have any other info connected to the case to be in touch.
Police in Fort Bragg are asking for the public’s help and a warning that catalytic converters are being ripped out of Toyota Prius’ in the area. The police department says between last Tues., November 17th and yesterday, there were three incidents where catalytic converters were stolen out of a Toyota Prius. They say they think it happened mostly at night. They’re asking anyone who may have noticed any sort of criminal activity or persons around or under a vehicle to call the police department.
Sonoma County is experiencing a dramatic increase in cases of COVID, something the county has not been able to shake off, so any waiver for school reopenings are being put on hold. The county has not been above the purple tier and even though county officials tried last week, the governor announced a new set of guidelines ahead of Thanksgiving, including evening lockdowns, or curfews. The county’s counsel office says any remaining applicants trying to reopen schools are on hold due to an increase in cases and after the new restrictions from Sacramento. The Press Democrat reports the Sonoma County Public Health Officer Sundari Mase decided to freeze local applications after consulting with the state on waiver applications.
A false sense of security, that’s what the Sonoma County Public Health Officer calls getting a Covid-19 test ahead of holiday travel. Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase warning you could be infected and get a false test, then travel and infect others at Thanksgiving gatherings. Dr. Mase and other health officers nationwide say the safest thing to do is avoid get-togethers with large groups of friends and extended families. A reminder that it could take up to 14 days for symptoms to appear after exposure, so tests a few days before Thanksgiving could come back negative even though people are actually infected. Mase held a press conference yesterday with a strong message to stay home this holiday season to help avoid another huge increase in cases.
Willits Police and the Little Lake Fire Protection District delivering turkey dinners to those in need. Members of the two departments got together and gave out 40 complete turkey dinner kits after getting donations from Grocery Outlet, Willits Safeway, Fisher Wireless Services, and the Willits Police Officers’ Association. The kits included a whole turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, and a pie from Kemmy’s Pies. The drive thru service outside the WPD station yesterday afternoon. In a couple of hours, the officers and staff loaded up 40 cars with the holiday dinners as they have in years’ past. This time it was drive thru though, due to the pandemic.
No school reopening plans discussed at this month’s Willits Unified School District Board meeting. They met on Zoom last Thursday night a couple of days after the county entered the Purple Tier. There can be no classroom-based instruction unless a school district had already opened. The school superintendent commented on Measure I passing so that the district can pull money to complete projects, including paving the parking lot at Willits High. The initiative is reportedly going to bring in as much as $2.8 million for the school district, $400,000 of it goes to charter schools. Besides the paving, they’re also looking to repair the roof at an elementary school and fix the heating and cooling system in a building at the high school.
A man from Riverside has been found not guilty of first degree murder in the death of a friend during a road trip in Northern California. However Mavrick Fisher was convicted in the death of Grant Whitaker of Mackinaw, IL of involuntary manslaughter and taking a vehicle. The incident in August of 2019, police found Whitaker’s body at a Scotts Valley property close to Lakeport. The men were friends and planned to open a camp for the deaf together and reportedly got into an altercation which ended in Whitaker’s death. The DA said Fisher beat Whitaker w/a rock while he was sleeping in a tent they were sharing at Richardson Grove State Park. Fisher’s lawyer said he beat him up in self-defense. The trial was delayed because of the pandemic, but began last month at the Lake County Fairgrounds for social distancing reasons. Fisher will be sentenced December 21st and faces only four years in local jail, not state prison. Plus he’s eligible for half time credit since he’s already served almost 18 months. So he could be released early next year.
Cases of COVID – 19 continue to increase in Mendocino County. The Public Health Office reported another 17 cases yesterday, for over 1,440 cases now. 130 people are isolating and 9 are in a hospital. There are 270 people in quarantine.
The state’s paying a bundle for unemployment due to the economy closing in the early days of the pandemic. The latest report from the California Employment Development Department says the state’s paid out $110 billion dollars. The new data also shows they received more applications and processed more claims last week than the week before for the first time in around 4 weeks. About a quarter of the claims were for the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation extension. Also the department reported getting about 64 percent into the backlog of claims where some have waited more than 21 days to get their claim through.
A new report shows parents are concerned that kids are on Zoom, television or electronic devices too much. Some experts say it’s too much screen time which could have negative impacts on the youngest children. The National Institutes of Health ran a study of 10,000 children starting in 2018 which said kids who were on screens over 2 hours a day scored lower on language and thinking tests. Now some children have to be on their screens longer than that, and the study showed more than seven hours a day of screen time showed a thinning of the brain’s cortex, that’s we were get our critical thinking and reasoning abilities. And the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends kids 18 months and younger should avoid screen use altogether.
The Willits Harrah Senior Center is closed like area restaurants or other areas where groups gather. But it’s where seniors can get cheap and it’s also where they receive their Meals on Wheels deliveries from. But the Senior Center is still doing drive and walk through service. The Community Foundation of Mendocino has helped the center with grant money from FEMA. The money is managed or regranted from the foundation, which is mostly used to help those who are most vulnerable and seniors or others with health conditions. The executive director at the senior center says they got $39,000 after the pandemic first arose, but that ran out, so they’ve just received another $18,000 which she says can cover food costs through the end of the year.
A man and his adult daughter in Willits have been arrested after a heads up for dad’s warrant from the the Modoc County Sheriff’s Office. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Dept. reports Modoc deputies alerted them about the arrest warrant for Ricky Lee Beck for lewd and lascivious acts and bail set at $1,000,000. Deputies tried several times to arrest the guy around Willits, and tried him at his daughter, Renee’s home. Deputies say the man was hiding out there even though Renee said he wasn’t there. But a man there who said he was someone else turned out to be Ricky Lee Beck so he was arrested and booked in Mendocino County Jail on the Modoc warrant for Lewd and Lascivious Acts w/a child. Additionally, Renee was arrested and charged with being an accessory and held on $15,000.00 bail.
3 people at Adventist Health have tested positive for Covid-19. The Chief of Staff at Mendocino Coast, William Miller says they’re not alone as there have been multiple outbreaks in healthcare workers throughout the state. He also says it’s usually transmitted thru other healthcare workers in a break room when they take off their mask and socialize with co-workers. He says four staffers were sick over the weekend and three tested positive. So that meant the rest of the staff in that department are being tested. They’ve also done a thorough cleaning of the area. They don’t provide direct patient care there. He says testing is now being offered seven days a week at the Fairgrounds in Ukiah and will soon be expanded to the Coast and other outlying communities.
Mendocino County Supervisor Carre Brown has been awarded for her service to the California State Association of Counties. Brown received the Circle of Service Award from the Association. The Executive Director says as wildfires continued to be a top priority for the organization, Brown was always willing to travel to Sacramento and testify on behalf of her community sharing her first-hand experiences. She says her straightforward nature, provided a dose of local reality to the legislative experience. Brown had previously been on their Board of Directors and Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
