The Lake County Planning commission has said no to a large cannabis operation planned near Hidden Valley Lake. The county staff had recommended that the project be denied. We Grow LLC wanted to put that operation on 309 acres in Middletown. Lake Co News reports it would have included 34 greenhouses, four drying buildings, a shed, 20 water tanks, and privacy fencing. Area residents appealed an earlier approval last year and won their case based on a faulty environmental document. Developers resubmitted their application, but now that too has been denied. The sticking point was a plan to cut down 130 mature blue oak trees that would have been replaced, but the commission didn’t think the replacement plan was sufficient. There were other concerns too, including traffic, security, and land use. The lawyer for the developer argued that the planning commission was unfair to his client, who he says did everything the commission asked. There is a seven-day window to appeal that denial.
You may have done it before. It’s a cold morning. You go out to start your vehicle, leave it running to warm up, and step back inside—for just a minute. Ukiah police say THIEVES could end up driving off in that warm car instead The Police Department says it has received numerous reports of stolen vehicles over the past two months and most were running and unattended. Police say they get that it is inconvenient to sit in the car as it warms up, but that is is MORE inconvenient to have your car stolen. Cops say car thieves love cold mornings and empty cars, which could be gone in 30 seconds The UPD suggests other ways to keep the vehicle’s windshield from icing, on cold mornings. Cheapest way – put a bath towel, or similar type of fabric on the windshield the night before. You can also buy windshield covers available at retail stores or online. Triple A.dot com has more tips on how to keep yourself safe from car thefts.
Safety of a different kind is the goal of a new policy from CalTrans. CalTrans Director Toks Omishakin has unveiled those new guidelines, which he says commit his department to make roads safer and reducing—and even eliminating—fatal crashes by 2050. He calls it a fundamental shift to make safety the first priority in highway planning, operation, construction, and maintenance. There will also be a shift to focus on preventing the worst crashes, not ALL crashes. Omishakin says the new policy lines up with a new safety initiative the US Department of Transportation started in January. In California, more than 3,600 people die each year in traffic crashes and more than 13,000 people are severely injured. Figures from last year show a 17 percent increase in highway deaths from the year before—even though fewer people were driving during the first months of the pandemic.
We told you about a petition to save the bear, Hank the Tank in the Lake Tahoe region. Apparently, the bear had broken into several homes looking for food. But now we get word, Hank is actually three bears. DNA evidence shows the 500-pound black bear is at least three bears who have ransacked homes so the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is going to start trapping bears, then tagging them so they can continue collecting genetic info on the animals. They will release them to “suitable habitat” and say they have no plans to euthanize the animals. One of the Hanks is blamed for smashing a window at a home while people were there. There have been over 150 incident reports related to the bears in Northern California and Nevada.
A new report says wildfires were worse at night over the last twenty or so years, especially that ones that burned in California and the western United States. The Univ. of Boulder and University of Merced joint study showed night fires were as much as 7% more intense globally between 2003 and 2020. And they were 28% more intense in the western US during the same time. They used satellite and climatological data for the study. Researchers say the changes are mostly due to the drought and drier fuels in Calif. and the western US. The study says there are now about 11 more flammable nights a year than there were back in 1979 across the western United States, a 45% increase.
There’s a new traffic light up at the intersection of Waugh Lane and East Gobbi Street. It’s not on yet but should be by this spring. The Public Works Director says the signal should be in working order by the end of April. It was put there due to traffic congestion on Gobbi Street. The report on the work by city staff says after a Citywide Circulation Study in 2007, it was recommended the city put in either a roundabout or traffic light where East Gobbi and Waugh Lane meet. So the city went to the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) as part of the 2011 Regional Improvement Program (RIP) to get the money for the work, and won $716,000. There will also be a traffic signal installed at East Gobbi and Main streets.
A man from Talmage has been convicted of murder for the shooting death of his stepson. The Mendocino County DA’s Facebook page had the conviction posted. The post says 66 year old Thomas Dean Jones was found guilty of first-degree murder for the death of his stepson, Jamie Eugene Wilcox. He’s also been convicted for first-degree attempted murder in the shooting of Jayme Schneider Garden, his stepson’s wife. The jury found he shot them both for financial gain. The pair shot in a car and Jones was waiting for them, so it was premeditated. The DA reports Jones will be sentenced next month and faces life without parole in state prison for the Sept. 2020 murders.
Assemblyman Jim Wood has a new bill in the Legislature to help improve drought conditions. The Santa Rosa lawmaker’s bill would create a dedicated Drought Section as part of the Division of Water Rights to change the way the state responds to drought conditions and climate resiliency. Wood says the drought has not been an “episodic event… for decades”. He says now when they come, they’re longer, happen more often, are more severe and “seriously threaten the health of rivers and streams, wildlife and their habit and the ability to provide North Coast communities with safe and affordable drinking water.
Reports of a black Corvette weaving in and out of traffic, driving up to 120 miles an hour through both Mendocino and Lake counties triggers a BOLO alert for the car and driver. Scanners blared out what was happening in Mendocino County’s north hill country to Clear Lake. Kym Kemp reports the CHP went after the Vette, but pulled back when it became too unsafe. But two hours after the pursuit began the driver was found after that BOLO was issued. It started around dinner time. A Black man wouldn’t stop after officers first saw the car without license plates north of Willits. That’s when the pursuit began.
State Senator Mike McGuire, Mendocino Supervisor John Hashak and the Sheriff Matt Kendall are holding a virtual town hall. They’re focusing on Hashak’s district, in the northern region of the county next Wednesday, March 2nd. McGuire is hosting the meeting with Hashak and Kendall joining.
When: Wednesday, March 2nd at 6:30 pm. Email McGuire’s office or call 707-468-8914.
No bull kelp harvesting allowed on the Mendocino and Sonoma County coasts. The California Department of Fish & Wildlife put a three year moratorium on the harvesting to protect the kelp. Plus they placed a yearly 8,000 pound limit for Humboldt and Del Norte counties too. A report by the agency says over 90% of North Coast kelp forests have disappeared over the last decade so they’re putting projects in place, per a report last month, focusing solely on a marine algae species. Regulators also have an option to extend the moratorium if need be. Mendo Voice reports the Intertribal Council supports the move.
