A man from Ukiah has been arrested after reports a man was being shot at by another man last Sunday. The Sheriff’s Dept. reports finding Miguel Lopez in the street in front of a home and that he seemed drunk, with his shirt off and being verbally hostile towards the Deputies. He was detained for public intoxication, and they found a gun in the console of a truck connected to him. When they checked his records, they found out he was not allowed to have a firearm, so he was arrested. Charges included Unlawful possession of a firearm and Public Intoxication. He was being held on $25,000.00 bail.
Because he was found with a dagger, a man from Ukiah is behind bars. Mendocino Deputies say they responded to a domestic call Monday and couldn’t find anyone at the address, so they searched around and found Jeremiah Medlin. They say he was in an argument with a woman, but there wasn’t any physical violence, however they found a large, fixed blade knife hidden in his shirt sleeve. He was arrested for Felony Carry Concealed Dirk or Dagger and then they found meth and paraphernalia on him, so he was further charged for that and held on $15,000.00 bail.
The Mendocino County Treasurer-Tax Collector has resigned. Sheri Schapmire who’s been on the job for fifteen years and working for the county for forty. Mendo Fever reports Schapmire told them there were too many issues with the county government and she can’t work with the current Board of Supervisors, so she decided to retire March 19th, almost a year before the end of her term. She says after she was directed to reorganize the county’s fiscal departments to combine her office with the Auditor-Controller, and told the board they should just replace the retiring controller instead. Then it all fell apart.
Just because the state is rescinding the latest mask mandate, starting next week, Mendocino County is not. The county does not have to follow the state mandate and can enforce its own restrictions. The Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren says indoor masks will still be required because of a strain locally on hospitals. He says rescinding our mask mandate would be a bad idea, but that there will be some modifications for indoor venues for folks who’ve been vaccinated. According to the CDC guidelines, Mendocino County’s transmission rate is considered “high”. Coren says more info will be released by next Tuesday.
The Community Foundation of Mendocino County is accepting applications for its 2022 Scholarship Program. Locals establish the scholarships which help honor someone. Some are countywide, others regional. Donors choose what kind of applicant they’d like to see receive the scholarship. Last year they gave out nearly $285,000. They also give out vocational scholarships for students interested in a technical, trade or vocational school.
State Senator Mike McGuire’s legislation to stop a potential environmental threat by allowing coal to slip thru Northern Calif. in a secret operation, has passed. SB307 will prevent any state money to help improve the long defunct North Coast rail line which McGuire is also trying to turn into a recreation site instead. He says the “proposed toxic coal train is an environmental disaster in the making”. McGuire says the clandestine operation was looking to move coal through thriving communities, ancient redwoods, and directly along the banks of the Eel and Russian rivers, a main drinking water source for nearly 1 million people. The bill moves to the Assembly next.
Congressman Jared Huffman working with colleagues, including Representative Katie Porter, also of Calif. to send letters to a half dozen cryptomining companies due to their massive energy usage. The letters went to Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital Holdings, Stronghold Digital Mining, Bitdeer, Bitfury Group, and Bit Digital about their cryptomining operations, massive energy consumption and the possible impact it may be having on the climate and local environments. They claim that is helping to drive up electricity costs for ordinary American consumers. Cryptomining in upstate New York alone reportedly spiked yearly electric bills by about $165 million for small businesses and $79 million for consumers.
The state is looking at ways to make sure folks who have had to take time off due to getting infected or dealing with some aspect of coronavirus, get paid. The Legislature passed a bill this week making sure businesses give workers up to two weeks paid time off if they get sick from the coronavirus. It’s also retroactive to the beginning of the year. State and federal requirements since the beginning of the pandemic said most employers had to give workers PTO, but a lot of the laws expired, including in Calif., last September. But then omicron happened. A bunch of Republicans said it would cost too much and voted against it. And some Democrats say they’d like to see the state help businesses so they could afford it.
A special election is happening to choose a new member of the Middletown Unified School District Board after one was tossed. The Superintendent of Schools has asked the Board of Supervisors to allow the Registrar of Voters Office to set the election during the statewide primary on June 7th. The Board has unanimously agreed to the request after a group of residents filed a petition to get Annette Lee off the board for statements about masking and vaccinating children. She was chosen after another board member quit over COVID-19-related mandates. Lake Co News reports the same board seat will come up again November during the General Election.
Cleanup by the state is done for the Cache Fire which burned in Clearlake last summer. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services said the state contractors pulled out the rest of the debris, including burned metal, concrete, ash and contaminated soil out of nearly 80 homes and on property where owners allowed the state onto their properties for the cleanup work. In some cases, private contractors are hired too. The same for 19 properties in the Hopkins Fire footprint in Mendocino County. The state reports removing over 5,020 tons of debris from Mendocino County and about 9,300 from Lake County.
The Ukiah Planning Commission will take up approval of the proposed butterfly mural at the Alex R. Thomas Jr. plaza. The Design Review Board recommended it last month. The mural would showcase the three stages of a Monarch butterfly. The artist has previously done two other murals in Ukiah, at the High School and the Mendocino County Juvenile Detention Center. The meeting is tonight at 6 on Zoom.
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