Lake County’s unemployment is down a tad. Lake Co News reports the county was at 8.8 percent for January, slightly down from a month before when it was 9%. The news site also reports state and federal unemployment was slightly off too. The rate for the state down 0.3 percent to 9.0 percent in January with a loss of almost 70,000 jobs. One year ago, the unemployment in the state was 4.2 percent. In Mendocino County, the rate was 7.7%, and in Colusa, 15.6 percent, Glenn, 7.9 percent, Napa, 8.6 percent and Sonoma, 7.1 percent. The highest, as usual in the state, was in Imperial County, and Marin was the lowest in January. The hardest hit in the state, leisure and hospitality, then education and health services, manufacturing and construction.
A company’s being hired by the city of Clearlake to help develop the downtown strategic vision. The City Council voted unanimously last week for the City Manager to enter into a contract with Downtown Strategies, the sister company to another the city’s worked with Retail Strategies. That firm was hired to help keep retailers in business, and bring in new ones. The contract was paused during the pandemic, but has picked back up. Now Downtown Strategies has presented what it came up with to the city council after they came to town, and drew up some ideas. The company came up with low and no cost strategies to work on over three to five years depending how much the city can spend.
A woman from Novato has been arrested in connection to a crash near Middletown that ended in the death of two people from Clearlake. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims yesterday as 47 year old Miguel Dominguez and 53 year old Cassandra Rolicheck. The CHP reported 21 year old Keilah Coyle was driving a Ford F-250 pickup Saturday night headed south on Highway 29 and because, they say, due to how drunk she was, she drove over the double yellow lines and into the path of a 2000 GMC van head on. Coyle rolled her truck. She had minor injuries. The other two had to be extricated from the van but died at the scene. The highway was closed for about five hours due to the crash. Coyle was arrested early Sunday for vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with gross negligence, felony DUI and causing injury, and felony DUI and causing injury with a blood alcohol content above 0.08. She’s held on $2 million bail.
A fire reported in Albion. Firefighters were on the scene yesterday in the 28000 block of Navarro Ridge Road where they say a woman was inside, then got out with burned hands. They had a chopper on the scene. The woman then flown to the UC Davis burn center. The fire was knocked down quick and firefighters stayed on scene to mop up. No word yet how badly the 42-year-old woman was burned.
The Gov. has reportedly formed a political action committee to help raise money to fight the possible coming recall election. His committee is called “Stop the Republican Recall” and is being represented by Newsom as a Republican power grab by supporters of former President Donald Trump and extremists. The Gov. spoke on the matter yesterday saying white supremacist and right-wing militia groups like the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters are the organizers of the recall. He was on TV last night saying there’s worries about violence after the insurrection at the US Capitol in January. Organizers have reportedly collected more than 2 million petition signatures to get the issue on the ballot. They say 38% of those who signed are Independents And Democrats.
The Gov. says if it should happen that Sen. Dianne Feinstein retires before her term is up, he’ll appoint a Black woman. Feinstein’s term isn’t up until 2024, but there’s been concern raised about her mental capacity since the Supreme Court confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett. She’s also 87 year’s old, and the oldest sitting US senator. She won her last re-election in 2018. The Gov. was asked what he’d do during an interview last night on MSNBC where he was also asked about the recall effort against him. Feinstein for her part has been questioned about her memory and said in December she had no plans to step down. After former Senator Kamala Harris became Vice President, there were no Black women in the chamber.
Calif. lawmakers looking at ways for election officials not to toss ballots if a voter’s signature doesn’t exactly match what’s on file. The Democratic led legislature is working to get rid of the rule where election officials compare signatures, then can disqualify ballots if the signatures don’t match. But some people don’t always sign their name the same. Also, any changes with the Democratic led legislature could bring attention to the Democratic Governor’s possible recall election. But any bill that becomes law on the matter, wouldn’t take effect for about a year, so it would be beyond any recall election. That would be this year.
The Willits School District has some reopening dates. The School Board and District staff, teachers, parents and residents on a Zoom call last Wednesday discussing reopening plans. Kindergarten through 6th grade starts tomorrow at Brookside and Blosser Elementary’s and Baechtel Grove Middle School (BGMS). There were Zoom classes yesterday and today so teachers could get their classrooms ready. They will allow for 15 students per class. Then on Monday, Sherwood is opening kindergarten through eighth, Sanhedrin 9-12th and Baechtel is adding grades 7th and 8th. A week beyond, on the 28th, Willits is opening for 9th and 10th grade. All Independent Study kids can come on site if there’s room for them. Finally on April 12th High Schoolers in grades 11 and 12 return.
The Downtown Streetscape Project is back at work. Crews downtown Saturday making up for lost time due to bad weather. The project has been ongoing and is set to be done in July. Crews could be pouring new cement on the new sidewalks in the next few weeks on the east side of State Street between Perkins and Mill streets. The city is reportedly in touch with individual businesses to schedule the cement pours so some businesses could lose access for a time to their front doors. Underground electric continues to be installed, potholing is happening in some areas, which causes quite a lot of noise, that’s near the Civic Center, and East Church St. will be closed intermittently between 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The state’s looking for ways to slow or stop the use of microplastics related to drinking water. As of 2018 state law there would be four years of testing to make sure there were no microplastics in drinking water, then the state has to come up with ways to help water providers and consumers figure out what levels may be safe to drink. The state Water Resources Control Board is putting out some of the results in July. Some water suppliers say the process will be costly and tedious, but researchers say people could absorb more microplastics just by breathing. But research does show it’s been an environmental contaminant and one that effects animals around the world.
Police in Fort Bragg report to the scene of a car into a building. Police say a gold colored Toyota Tacoma pickup had minor damage to the front right side after landing into the front yard of a residential building in the 600 block of Stewart Street. Officers also saw a white Nissan Maxima with major damage and air bags deployed nearby, blocking one street. Officers talked to the drivers of both and checked with those living in the building and say there were no injuries. The vehicles were towed from the scene. And now police are asking anyone who may know anything about the situation to call.
Fort Bragg Police are reminding they have a trespass letter program whereby if someone trespasses on your property police can make an arrest on your behalf. It’s for individuals and businesses. You can also just grab one of the letters online at the police department website, go in person to the department, or get one from a police officer. The forms can be mailed or turned in online. They allow officers to advise individuals of trespassing on their property too. The letters last one year and have to be renewed annually. They’ve now expanded the program too so you can do the whole thing over the phone. They’re currently auditing old letters to see if they need renewing.
Ten years after that giant Tsunami that decimated parts of Japan and traveled out to California ports and harbors, damaging them too, the California Geological Survey has a couple of new maps for the North Coast. The Tsunami Hazard Area maps cover Del Norte and Mendocino counties. They were made using new technology and data from the 2009 maps. They show how far inland a surge on this side of the world could be devastating. They also show a small buffer zone outside of the inundation area that might help locally so local evacuation plans can be made. The changes are supposedly not too dramatic, but here in Mendocino County, where we’re pretty well protected from tsunamis due to huge cliffs, the new map shows a higher tsunami hazard up river valleys.
