2 men in Ukiah have been arrested after a traffic stop turns up weapons. The Sheriff’s office reports a patrol deputy pulled a pickup over Monday morning for expired registration, finding two men inside. The driver, Lawrence Ortiz and his passenger, Luiz Gonzalez who was found to be on Pre-Trial Release with terms for search. The deputy found he had a methamphetamine smoking pipe, meth and a weapon. There was an electroshock weapon and a baton with an electroshock device at the end. The driver was arrested for being in possession of the stun gun, possession of a billy club and drugs. He was let go on zero bail due to pandemic restrictions. Same for Gonzalez who was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.
The Lake County office of Emergency Services is having a meeting for the community ahead of fire season to be prepared. They say it’s an effort to better communicate with residents and businesses during evacuations or emergencies. They will have an interactive map to show which was launched online to provide important emergency info during an event. All of Lake County has been divided into specific zones which will be used for now on to identify areas affected by whatever event is happening. The meeting is this Tuesday night from 5:30pm and 7:00pm on Zoom and the Sheriff’s office Facebook page.
Meeting ID: 984 5261 8853 Passcode: 897589
A man in Willits has been arrested after an ATV from the city’s Waste Water Treatment Plant was stolen. Police say they got a call to the plant earlier this week and looked at surveillance footage. They say they also questioned community members who identified a possible suspect. They came to find the guy was arrested in Sonoma County on an unrelated charge and was being held for a warrant out of Willits. Then they turned up leads about where the stolen ATV was so they went to a home and found it, and confirmed it was the same suspect who probably took the ATV. They returned the vehicle to the City of Willits Waste Water Treatment Plant. Brandon Langenderfer of Willits has been identified as the man who took the ATV.
A fight between a man and woman in the town of Mendocino reported but no arrests are made. The Sheriff’s office on scanner traffic said they were responded to a domestic dispute where a woman hit a man with her truck and in turn the man hit the woman’s truck with a sledgehammer. The scanner traffic confirmed the woman was driving a green Nissan pickup truck with a damaged windshield and left the scene.
Sonic Drive-In has made a huge donation to teachers during the pandemic. The company says as teachers had to maneuver the ever-shifting learning environment, they put up $1.5 million for teacher requests on a national education nonprofit site, DonorsChoose. The donation was made on Teacher Appreciation Day, May 4th as part of the fast food company’s Limeades for Learning initiative. They say the donation funded over 7,000 teacher requests across the country including teachers in Redwood Valley at Peak Middle School, Ukiah, and at South Valley High. The company says their Limeades for Learning has allowed them to donate over $19 million to public school teachers, helping over 36,000 teachers, impacting almost 7.4 million students in public schools nationwide since 2009.
A new law, if the Governor signs the bill could help students who were impacted by the pandemic. An Assemblywoman from San Diego wrote the bill. It’s to protect kids she says who had low grades, and instead change them to a pass or no pass option, waive local graduation requirements that are higher than the state credit and course minimums for students who were juniors or seniors in the 2020-21 school year. And students could officially request their school allow them to repeat a grade. It passed the Legislature Monday.
The recall effort against Gov. Gavin Newsom keeps moving along. The Secretary of State’s office reports there were only 43 people who asked for their signatures to be withdrawn. There are still well over 1.7 million signatures on the petition, over the amount needed to trigger the recall election later this year. The news comes as CapRadio and NPR’s California Newsroom report said the Gov. had exaggerated the state’s progress on fire prevention. But the Cal Fire chief took the blame for progress the Gov. was touting, saying he didn’t communicate correctly to the public or the Governor’s office.
A new report says there’s a shortage of transporation options for those who don’t drive in Mendocino County. The Daily Journal reports the elder population is the biggest chunk of folks in the county. The report says in less than 10 years one out of 4 residents will be over 65. And the 85+ crowd will more than double by then. The report says the MTA’s Dial A Ride is in Ukiah and Fort Bragg and is only for those 62 and older. The Ukiah Senior Center also has a bus to take folks to medical appointments, to run certain errands and shop. There’s an MTA bus ride in Willits that also moves through town from senior housing, the senior center, hospital and health clinics, city hall, downtown and Evergreen shopping areas, and Sherwood Valley casino.
Lawmakers have passed a new bill so that statewide elected officials will be referred to with gender neutral names. Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan says while the Gov. was searching for a new Attorney General this year, she looked up the job requirements and found there was a lot of use in the state code of “he” and “him” and “his” regarding the attorney general and other statewide elected officials. Bauer-Kahan’s bill passed the Legislature yesterday so laws about statewide elected officials will be updated with gender-neutral terms. The bill heads to the Gov. to be signed into law.
