Mendocino County Public Health is lifting its universal indoor mask mandate. Officials say COVID-19 infections have fallen dramatically in the last 2 months of the Omicron surge, and the stress on our hospitals is coming under control. The CDC shows the county is a high transmission community, so the Public Health office still recommends wearing masks indoors. Dr. Andrew Coren says the community has learned and continues to learn to cope with the pandemic but that we are not done with covid 19. He expects more surges in the future, with at least one new variant circulating and more likely. Federal and California state laws still require masks for everyone in some settings, such as public transit and health care facilities.
The incoming class at UC Berkeley will likely be a lot smaller after a court ruling. The order to trim the school’s freshmen enrollment by 3,000 students to 6,500 comes after a lawsuit by some Berkley residents which contended that more students put too much strain on city services, take up too much housing, and cause too much noise. Lawmakers could step in to exempt the campus from the environmental laws behind the decision. They’ll have to move fast though, because Cal has to tell incoming freshmen by March 24th if they’re admitted and students have to put down deposits by May 1st for the fall. Opponents of lower enrollment say it will deprive many worthy students of an affordable, high-quality education..
A new Superintendent has already been hired for the Middletown Unified School District. Only a couple of days after Superintendent Tim Gill resigned this week, the Board of Trustees found their new superintendent. Former board member, Thad Owens was chosen after a 90 minute discussion on the topic. The board accepted Gill’s resignation Tuesday, after it was tendered Monday, after a short time on the job. Owens resigned the board without reason, much like Gill leaving the Superintendent job. Gill was apparently the Superintendent recorded without his knowledge by a parent, launching an investigation by the Sheriff’s office earlier this week. Owens was last known to be the principal for the Konocti Unified School District’s Blue Heron Opportunity High School, and had previously been the principal at Middletown Middle School and Minnie Cannon Elementary.
The Governor has a new program, CARE Court, to help those with mental health and substance use issues to get care and services they need. It has to get the approval of lawmakers, but Newsom says it’s about acting with compassion to support these individuals, of which he says there are thousands in Calif. The plan is to give treatment to the most severely impacted and untreated and hold patients accountable to their treatment plan. Newsom says the state is acting to “break the pattern that leaves people without hope” which leads them to either become homeless or jailed. He says the approach will stabilize people with the hardest-to-treat behavioral health conditions.
An infant formula the FDA has recalled has reportedly turned up in some Mendocino County homes. That’s the word from the public health office who put out notice yesterday about the formula manufactured by Abbott Nutrition. The agency found cans of the recalled formula during in-home visits in multiple communities, Similac, Alimentum and EleCare, which the FDA says could be contaminated. You can learn more about the recall on the FDA website.
• the first two digits of the code are 22 through 37; and
• the code on the container contains K8, SH or Z2; and
• the expiration date is 4-1-2022 (APR 2022) or later
A Ukiah Unified School Board member has resigned. The board put out the word Board Member Molgard resigned yesterday, and they are looking to appoint someone to the board. You must be a registered voter living in Trustee Area Central. Applications are available at the school district’s website, or you can call the Superintendent’s office of the board office to obtain one. They’re due by April 12th. The current board members will interview Trustee Area Central applicants in open session at a special meeting April 28th.
The Mendocino County DA’s Office reports a man, formerly of Ukiah is going to prison for several years for child molestation. On the DA’s Facebook page, they noted 32 year old Joseph McKee was in court yesterday and sentenced to 16 years in state prison, the maximum for the crime committed. He pleaded guilty early last month to felony continuous sexual abuse of a child. The DA explains that means that the suspect has to have had committed three or more acts of substantial sexual conduct over a period of no less than three months or more with a child under the age of 14 years. The state also deems it a violent crime, so he will only be eligible for a 15% cut of his overall sentence. He will also have to register for life as a sex offender and stay in touch with law enforcement wherever he lives when he gets out of prison.
A woman from Mendocino County has been arrested in Mexico along with a man for having weapons. The Yucatan Times and Daily Mail reported Natalia Baigorri was with a man from Arizona, Devan Young, driving on a highway near Tulum last Saturday. They were found with two 9mm Glocks, a .22 caliber rifle, multiple rounds of ammunition, and the passport of an American. The two are suspected of multiple crimes and for the disappearance of another American. Mexican police also found a sensor that detects if there are security cameras nearby. The passport of the other American was for someone named Lian Zeitz. No word if it’s the American who disappeared. Baigorri is from the coastal town of Mendocino. Young is apparently a tribal member of the Erie Indian Moundbuilders in Arizona. The pair haven’t been charged or in court yet.
CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit has a new leader. Luke Kendall has taken the reins, overseeing six battalions, about 125 career firefighters, and 200 more seasonal personnel in ten fire stations. The 31 year veteran was sworn in last month. He’s the younger brother of our Sheriff, Matt Kendall. The pair grew up in Covelo. Luke has been with CAL FIRE since 1991. He has worked in Boonville and Ukiah, and as a captain in Covelo. He was also transferred for a time to Siskiyou County and was a battalion chief in Scotts Valley.
The woman in Northern Calif., you may recall, said she was abducted at gunpoint some years back, has been arrested. Sherri Papini had turned back up mysteriously in 2016 and claimed she was kidnapped by someone with a gun. But apparently she was shacking up with an ex-boyfriend. The story has gone viral after she was arrested yesterday for lying to investigators in 2020 when she was shown evidence the abduction was phony. She’s accused of defrauding California out of over $30,000 in victim assistance money. There was a nationwide search for her after she left her husband and children. She was found three weeks later on I-5 in Yolo County with a chain around her waist and a brand on her shoulder.
