If you’ve been impacted by the Hopkins Fire that burned at the end of last summer, Phase II has begun of consolidated debris removal. On Monday, the second phase started for those who filled out the Right of Entry forms to allow state workers to take out household toxins and fire debris. The work will continue on Eastside Calpella Road along with a second crew on Lake Ridge Drive. They warn to be careful as you travel in the area because there will be heavy equipment and workers actively removing debris. They say to look out for other crews assessing hazardous trees.
Intro: The State of California has a new program to pay college students 10-thousand dollars to do public service work for a year. The state expects up to 65-hundred students can join the new “Californians for All College Corps”. Students have to donate 450 service hours, working on issues like COVID-19 recovery, climate change and education. Josh Fryday, chief service officer for the state, says it’s a way to help low-income students afford college, earn credits and gain valuable work experience.
| :07 “Like the G.I. bill, if you are willing to serve your community and give back in meaningful way, we are going to help you pay for college.” |
Tag: 45 Calif. campuses will take part – including schools from the University of California and California State University systems, plus community colleges and some private schools. For more info, visit the ‘Californians for All College Corps’ website for a list of schools and details on how to apply.
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Second Cut: Governor Gavin Newsom says the shared experience of giving back is intended to foster a new generation of civic-minded leaders.
| :08 “And if this thing works, we can go back to the Legislature and take it to a whole another level. We can take it to the rest of the country, because nobody else is doing this. Nobody!” |
Tag: And unlike AmeriCorps, this program will be open to so-called “Dreamers” – undocumented students who were brought to the U-S as children. Students who receive Pell Grants will also be able to count the 10-thousand-dollar grant toward their required personal contribution to their education expenses.
Intro: A coalition of more than a hundred local elected officials is pleading for action on the PUBLIC Lands Act, a bill to add protections for more than a million acres of land and 500 miles of rivers. The group sent a letter today thanking California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla for their support. Ventura County Supervisor Carmen Ramirez says more needs to be done to safeguard the state’s pristine wilderness areas before it’s too late.
| :16 “These are places with abundant diversity. That’s where a lot of our clean water comes from. We have tribal cultural sites. And oil drilling and other harmful industries should not be permitted where we have our natural resources.” |
Tag: The letter emphasizes the importance of public lands in the fight against climate change, and promoting access to the outdoors for public health and economic recovery.
Second Cut: Susan Seaman, the mayor of Eureka, says local economies thrive when the ocean, rivers and old-growth forests are protected.
| :17 “I think it’s pro-economic development to create a community that encourages visitors, encourages people to want to come and live here. The thing that makes us special is the lands that we have around it. And the more we can protect them, the more we can protect the culture that we love here.” |
Tag: The Senate bill was introduced in May but has yet to receive a vote. The House version passed last February which includes three bills covering northwest California, the Central Coast, and the San Gabriel Mountains.
Sonoma County is dealing with a spectacular surge of active COVID. There have been 18,415 since late last month. The Press Democrat reports that’s a tenfold increase since Christmas and four times more than last winter’s surge. The paper reports an infectious disease expert from UC Berkeley says positive cases could actually be two to three times higher than conservatively speaking because many people don’t even know they’re infected or never got a test. Dr. John Swartzberg says a more “aggressive” estimate would be “five or more times”.
It was a swift no at the Kelseyville Unified School District Board meeting to send a note to the state against a vaccination mandate. The board deadlocked as one board member was out, so the resolution died. And the board chair says it won’t see the light of day again. It comes after the State Department of Public Health issued a health order mandating school staff show proof of full vaccination or get tested at least once/week. Then the Gov. said he wanted the COVID-19 vaccine to be on the list of vaccinations for in-person school starting this summer. Konocti Unified, Lakeport Unified and Lucerne Elementary approved resolutions against the mandates and just last night Middletown joined.
Three separate car crashes in Lake County have killed three people. Lake Co News reports they happened Saturday through Sunday night. The first, a pedestrian was killed in Nice, then a wrong-way driver on Highway 29 near the Lake County Jail died after crashing and rolling his car, and a passenger died after a car they were in hit a parked truck in Lucerne. The pedestrian was identified as Kevin Jones, who the CHP says was in the roadway and hit by a driver Saturday night who couldn’t stop in time. Then later the wrong way driver was killed, he’s identified as Benjamin Britton, of Covelo and Lucerne. Witnesses say he entered the wrong side of Highway 29 in Lakeport, then hit a metal bridge abutment and rolled. The final crash killed Justin Dale of Lucerne who was the passenger in a car driven by Patricia Murphy who officers say made an unsafe turn and rammed a pickup truck. She’s suspected of DUI.
A barricade situation along the South Coast of Mendocino County has reportedly ended. Mendo Fever reports hearing a home invasion was happening on the police scanner near the intersection of Old State Road and Seaside School Road. There was a shelter in place order for nearby residents after two people were reportedly barricaded in their home with twenty others there who were armed and trying to get inside. When cops got there, they say several people outside who ran when they saw them. They put out a Be On the Lookout alert for at least one of them. Several local law enforcement officers responded and are investigating. The home was cleared and secured. No word on motives or arrests.
The Charter School Association of Willits has a hybrid board meeting, held in person and on Zoom. But some technical difficulties were reported for those online, saying they couldn’t hear a lot of what was going on. In any case, they proceeded with the Willits Elementary Charter School (WECS) and Willits Charter School (WCS) giving pandemic updates on mask wearing, quarantining and testing. They are not allowing parents on school grounds to slow the spread, but will revisit next month. They will test students twice/week in order to attend in person. Staff and students will wear masks on campus at all times. Schools have also been checking students’ temperatures.
The state of California is being impacted by the ongoing opioid epidemic, with it being super impacted by fentanyl. The drug reportedly killed as many as 10,000 residents in the year that ended April 2021. CalMatters reports the Governor has earmarked $50 million to educate young people about the risks of opioids and fentanyl through preventative measures, harm-reduction messaging, or both. The news site reports fentanyl is oftentimes mixed with other drugs and the user is in the dark about it. The report says the district attorneys in Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties are charging drug dealers with murder in fentanyl-related deaths, something some public defenders say is illegal.
