The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office has reported to an apartment complex in Ukiah after reports of a stabbing. Deputies on scene yesterday reported one man down with life-threatening injuries and multiple suspects who were no longer there when they arrived. Any more details on the event have not been released.
A house on fire reported south of Ukiah. Multiple emergency responders on the scene Saturday night on Blue Oak Drive south of Ukiah. The home was reportedly saved by responders. Hopland Fire Protection Chief Mitch Franklin told Mendo Fever the home’s garage and a chunk of the kitchen were destroyed. They have no cause yet. Joining Hopland at the scene, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Redwood Valley/Calpella Fire Department, Potter Valley Fire, and Cal Fire.
A man on a bike with a machete reportedly disappears into the night. Mendo Fever reports hearing on the scanner this weekend deputies called to a Mexican restaurant to a Hispanic man with a machete on a bike. But by the time they arrived, there was no sign of the guy.
Several people reportedly called 911 to report hearing gunshots in Ukiah. Some of those reporting said they saw a black truck speeding on Empire Drive. Someone else said they thought the gunshots were coming from Low Gap Road and North State Street. Police rushed to the scene, but no word if they found anyone.
A college student has been appointed to a commission on student aid by the Governor. The Mendocino College Superintendent announced Leonardo Rodriguez would represent community college students on the California Student Aid Commission. The commission is in charge of the state’s $4 billion portfolio of student financial aid programs and services and is the go-to for policymakers and community members on college affordability and financing. 20-year-old Rodriguez is also the 2021-2022 Student Trustee at Mendocino College, where he has been a student since 2019.
Even though we’ve had quite a bit of rain this fall, it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re out of the woods as far as the extreme drought goes. The National Integrated Drought Information Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports we have less than a 40% chance of water supplies getting back to normal after winter. Even more, they say there’s a 50% chance or higher, the state’s drought will even get worse. The report goes on to say, water levels at the state’s major reservoirs are still way below normal with La Nina conditions bringing a greater change of a drier, warmer winter than usual for some parts of the state.
It’s not out of the ordinary for major traffic jams on holiday weekends. Yesterday the Regional Transportation Commission in Nevada reported cars barely creeping along the California-Nevada border as people traveled between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There were backed ups 19 miles long reported on Saturday on the southbound I-15. Yesterday there was another 13 mile long jam up on the border. A 15 minute drive was taking 90 minutes.
Public health officials in Calif. say they’re keeping a close watch on the new COVID19 variant called Omicron. The director of the state Dept. of Public Health, Dr. Tomas Aragon said the state has not identified any cases yet and that vaccines are the best way to protect against serious illness. He also said those fully vaccinated should consider getting their booster, and that all Californians have “access to safe, effective, and free vaccines that can prevent serious illness and death”. The new strain was first identified in South Africa.
Sales of second homes across Calif. are at such record levels, multiple offers and outrageous bids now seem to be the norm. The company Redfin reported second-home sales across the country were up a whopping 70% in October from pre-pandemic levels. And the second home market was up last January with sales nearly doubling from a year before. The online brokerage company used their mortgage reporting data to track sales. They reported second-home sales in California up 54% in 2021. And that as many as 35,000 vacation and second homes will be sold this year. The wine country and Bay Area are popular spots for sales of second homes.
A grim reality in Humboldt County. After nearly two years of the pandemic, the county has confirmed almost 10,000 cases of COVID19. That’s about 1 in 13 of Humboldt’s 134,000 residents. As of Saturday the county was at 9,963 positive cases, under 40 away from the milestone. The Humboldt County Public Health director said there may actually be a much higher number of cases because of more at home testing. The state is in a much better place than a year ago, but so far this year, we’ve seen more cases that we did last year. Humboldt has more people in the hospital this year, then last too. The 7-day average was 11 hospitalizations compared to 3, a year ago.
A California labor union says a strike by some Kaiser Permanente staffers might have been the largest in over a century. And members of the hospital giant reported being impacted by the staff shortage too. Some Bay Area residents told local media they got automated messages when they called saying the hold time would be several hours. Others say they had calls to cancel medical procedures, screenings and even surgeries. The Sacramento Bee reports Kaiser executives sent the newspaper a letter for community members as an apology for “any inconvenience” (members) may have experienced during last week’s strikes.
A lawsuit has been filed by a shareholder advocacy organization against a new law mandating Calif. corporations appoint people of color or LGBTQ leaders to their boards of directors. The National Center for Public Policy Research is suing to get the new so-called “diversity quotas” tossed, claiming they injure the right for the plaintiff to vote for the candidate of their choice, free of a government-imposed race, sex, and sexual orientation quotas. The conservative group reportedly invests in more than a dozen California corporations they say would be impacted by the law, including Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla, Twitter and Wells Fargo.
A special meeting’s being held by the Lake County Board of Supervisors where they will put the finishing touches on their supervisorial districts and decide if they should send a letter to the state about mask mandates for indoor sports in schools. The meeting’s at the regular time, 9 am tomorrow morning at the courthouse. The new boundary maps will be presented to the board for the five supervisorial districts. Then they will discuss the letter that the board chair is asking for the board to send to the State Dept. of Public Health Secretary regarding mandatory mask wearing for indoor basketball players and referees after some schools contacted the board. The schools consider the mask wearing unrealistic and possibly even dangerous while they exercise. Instead they want twice weekly testing and no mask wearing.
A new website is online for North Coast Opportunities. The website was put together so it’s more user-friendly and includes a more comprehensive summary of how North Coast has helped the region and who their target demographic is. There’s a new navigation bar so it’s easier to find programs and projects and an alphabetized directory at the top of each page. There are easy to follow instructions for applicants to get disaster relief and assistance, easy to find news and announcements, volunteer opportunities and ways to support the agency too. Visit www.ncoinc.org to check it out.
The deadline is looming for wildfire survivors in California for the state’s Consolidated Debris Removal Program. At the same time contractors report making a major dent in removing debris for property owners filled out those Right of Entry forms and enrolled. So far in Lake County related to the Cache Fire crews have taken out burned metal, concrete ash and contaminated soil from 458 properties. The state also reported 64 site assessments and 64 asbestos assessments were done and 40 asbestos abatements. But the 458 properties were only about a third of nearly 1,500 in 10 counties in the debris removal program. Homeowners in Alpine, El Dorado, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare and Tuolumne counties have until tomorrow to sign up for the program.
