Fast moving winds closed Yosemite National Park. The park staying closed over the weekend as two massive sequoias fell, causing millions of dollars in damage. Park officials were looking at reopening Tuesday, but areas south of Yosemite Valley, including one entrance are staying closed. It’s after high winds on Monday took down trees and power lines across the state. 300,000 homes and businesses were without electricity and some utility companies also intentionally blacked out tens of thousands of homes and businesses to try to stop their equipment from starting any fires. Park officials say trees smashed trucks and damaged buildings, including employee homes and came down onto a boardwalk and bathroom just installed during a multi-million dollar restoration project. Campgrounds and lodges were already closed because of coronavirus.
Millions spent on shoring up security at the Calif. Capitol on inauguration day. National Guard troops and fencing fortifying the area after the insurrection at the US Capitol 2 weeks ago. The state reportedly put almost $19 million dollars into the extra security. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services says they’re maintaining some of the security the next several days. They reported only one Trump supporter showed up on Wednesday as Biden took his oath of office. And there was also a small group of counter protesters at parks close to the Capitol. There were no confrontations reported. The same scene across many state capitols across the country, in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA there were some arrests.
A website is up and running in Calif from a group of volunteers to track where you can get a vaccine in the state. It’s called VaccinateCA and apparently the volunteers routinely call hospitals and pharmacies to get updated information about vaccinations in the state. The site is reportedly crowdfunded. Users can search for hospitals and pharmacies based on their ZIP code or region. It also shows how many doses are available and whether there are walk ins allowed and what tier of distribution they’re in. The site was just launched last week. They have over 100 people who’ve volunteered to make calls.
A petition to get Shanél (Sanel) Valley Academy as a Charter School approved. Trustees had a special meeting Wednesday and said yes to a recommendation for the petition’s approval from the school district. It’ll be for kids in Transitional Kindergarten to 6th grade, but they said no to grades 7 and 8. The whole thing is also contingent on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ukiah Unified by May 13th and a proof of facilities agreement by May 1st. The board president said she was excited and looked forward to the school’s success as kids in Hopland deserve to go to school in their home community. This means kids in Hopland won’t have to hop a bus to get to school in Ukiah.
Ukiah city officials say the amount of new Covid-19 cases in the county is down, but there are not as many vaccines as they would like. The City Manager Sage Sangiacomo reporting to the city council this week, the lack of vaccine is not due to anything to do with the city, but a lack of supply. The Emergency Services Administrator was not there, but someone in her department says they had three pop up vaccination clinics at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center which have administered about 500 doses. That came after the freezer failure at Adventist Health, another clinic a week later where teachers and school staff got inoculated and a third event the same week. The county’s still reporting 35-40 cases/day, slightly down. So far the county’s had 3,206 cases and 32 deaths.
A handful of Calif. school districts say the Gov. needs to rework his school reopening plan. Five organizations who represent school districts and county offices of education that said nothing on the plan before are looking to get school districts to begin reopening with major revisions so the Governor’s plan would be more workable. A letter sent to the Gov. Tuesday with revisions as the Senate was to take up the Governor’s $2 billion plan to help districts adopt a safety and health protection plan, COVID19 testing procedures and a schedule to start to phase in the return of elementary students. The group recommending changes so districts have more flexibility on testing, have the state pay for all testing and not have labor unions in charge of safety protocols. They also want liability protection and more availability of substitute teachers.
It wasn’t just 100 doses of the supposedly tainted batch of Moderna Vaccine, more like 400. Mendocino County Public Health reports before the state put a pause on a Moderna vaccine lot connected to an event in San Diego where recipients had a severe reaction, the county used some of the same batch at an event at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds Jan. 7th, 300 more doses from the same batch at an event for seniors at Adventist Health in Willits. First the county said they had not used any, then came back and said 100 were used and they’d contact those who got it. Then we here about the Adventist health event. The county says they expect the hospital to be in touch with the 300 who received it there because they got it directly from the state and the county has no access to their vaccine information or their lot numbers. The state has since said the batch could start being used again after some consultations on the matter.
A man accused of buying and selling stolen property and DUI has been denied probation. Jerry Lee Thorpe in court this month after an April 2019 incident in Lucerne where he crashed into a tree in a stolen car while under the influence. Court papers say Thorpe has a history of drug use and he was under the influence during the crimes so he couldn’t get probation. He was found guilty of buying, selling or receiving stolen property and DUI and sent to prison for a year, plus he was fined over $1,600. He is due to turn himself in next month. The CHP said at the time the car was stolen from Santa Rosa.
The police chief in Clearlake has received approval from the city council to put up more cameras around town to help solve more crimes. Chief Andrew White asked the council for additional cameras, but no more than $65,000 as part of the Automated License Plate Recognition Program, which they started last fall. It’s generally used for detecting stolen vehicles, the chief says it’s also good for helping them find wanted and missing persons, plus already they’ve use it to help in a drug-related shooting; and for finding, then arresting someone wanted on an out-of-state kidnapping warrant.
As far as the pace of vaccines in Calif, a top official says it could take up to five months for the 65 and older group. The state’s lead epidemiologist, Dr. Erica Pan says the data comes from the state population of around 6.2 million people age 65 and over. They’d like to get at least 70% vaccinated or nearly 4.5 million seniors, but the current rate of doses from the federal government is 400-500,000 doses a week which means it would be June before that group was vaccinated. Dr. Pan speaking to a panel with others there saying under the new federal administration there’s a better chance to fight the virus and things will speed up shortly.
The man who was renting out space to artists at that doomed warehouse in Oakland that burned down and killed 36 people will plead guilty at his second trial. The master tenant of the Ghost Ship, Derrick Almena is set to plead guilty today to avoid a second trial. His first for the 2016 fire ended in a hung jury. Prosecutors reportedly telling the families of some of the victims he’s pleading to 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter for a nine-year sentence. And he could get little to no time depending on the time he’s already spent in jail and for good behavior, something that has some of the families up in arms about, saying it’s just like a slap on the wrist. He was in jail since 2017 but was released in May because of the pandemic. He’s been on house arrest with an ankle monitor in Upper Lake.
