The county is looking for anyone interested, and qualified in serving on the 2022/2023 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury. The application period has opened for the Superior Court with the deadline, Friday, May 27th. The new jurors will be sworn in one month later. They tout it as a great way to learn about the inner workings of government at the same time providing a valuable service to the community. There are 19 members of the Civil Grand Jury who serve for one year with the power to investigate the operations of county, city and district governments; provide civil oversight of local government departments and agencies; and respond to citizen complaints. The Jury sets its own agenda and meeting schedule. Jurors make $25 per full panel meeting, $10 per committee meeting and committee attendance at public meetings. Mileage is also reimbursed with free onsite parking too.
A family in Lake Tahoe got quite the surprise. Hearing a weird noise like rumbling under their home this winter, they found out a family of bears had hibernated beneath the home all winter. The mama with three cubs and one adopted orphaned cub were in the crawl space under the home for the winter. The wildlife group, the BEAR League posted the story on Facebook, adding the family also heard snoring but ignored it. But they woke from their long slumber last Tuesday and the family then called the BEAR League for help.
A new report sheds light on how well California would have done without COVID19 vaccines. Researchers at UC San Francisco working with the state Dept. of Public Health reports on what the state might have had to deal with, had there been no shots after the pandemic broke out. The report says the vaccines prevented as many as 1.5 million coronavirus infections, nearly 73,000 hospitalizations, and almost 20,000 deaths in California. The report was published last Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. A co-author of the study says they know the inoculations work, and that they allowed people to go to work, be with their families safely and not to have such socioeconomic disruption.
Two people got stranded, one for nearly a week in Lassen County, after their truck got stuck on a dirt road in the snow. The woman, 52-year-old Sheena Gullett ate snow and rationed the six pack of yogurt she had with her. Her friend 48-year-old Justin Lonich hiked out after Gullett lost the soles of her boots and stayed back in the truck. Lonich got out and hitched a ride to Susanville and reported Gullett missing to the Sheriff’s office. There was a search, but Lonich lost his bearings and couldn’t remember exactly where they got lost. He went with searchers and last Wednesday, she was found. She says she saw the rescue helicopter, but apparently, they didn’t immediately see her, as she was stuck in heavy snow.
The Mendocino County Library is offering Memory kits at its branches as many in the community are living with or taking care of someone who has Alzheimer’s, or other forms of dementia, or cognitive impairment. The library won a grant from the State Library’s Mental Health Initiative to develop the kits. They help so folks communicate with each other as they deal with memory loss. The kits include activities, books, movies, and music that center around a theme or a decade. The kits can be checked out with a library card.
For more information, please visit www.mendolibrary.org or contact the Mendocino County Cultural Services Agency at 234-2873.
A man from Willits, whose already been to Ukraine is going back with supplies in an effort to help refugees leave the war-torn country. David Caspino, an EMT who served an Army medic already traveled to Ukraine along with $60,000 worth of donated insulin, medical supplies, VHF radios and body armor. He stayed on to help women and children leave the capital of Kyiv to get to the Poland border. He’s looking for donations again before he heads back late this week or the beginning of next. He says there’s a lot of sex trafficking in the war zone, and that’s the main reason he’s going back to help. He says last time he helped as many as 400 people.
During National Volunteer Appreciation Week, the Fort Bragg Food Bank says they’ve delivered celebratory lunches and small gifts to local businesses as a way to honor their work. They have around 50 volunteers and a student team from Anchor Academy. National Volunteer Appreciation Week started last Friday. The Food Bank says all of the volunteer lunches are being provided by the owner of Sugar Coated Catering and the gift bags are filled with virgin olive oil and chocolates. The gift bags are for volunteers who donate over two hours a week. They also contain a voucher to exchange for a prize from Dragonfly Wellness.
As new restrictions on abortion take hold across the nation, Calif. is bracing for an influx of patients in need. As a matter of fact, reports say abortion clinics in Calif. are even building new facilities near transit hubs and training more staff. Lawmakers are also moving Legislation to expand how many providers are allowed in the state, how they can provide financial assistance to women who come here for help and how lawmakers can protect the doctors who treat them. The president and CEO of Planned Parenthood in Calif. says people are looking to California as a safe haven, and she says it’s our “moral imperative” to provide the leadership that people are looking for. Planned Parenthood has about half of the abortion clinics in California and says they’ve already treated dozens of out-of-state patients after Texas adopted a strict law restricting abortion to only six weeks of pregnancy.
A new business popped up in Kelseyville. Nearly two weeks ago, the Bell Haven Flower Store opened on Main St. They carry flowers from their own Soda Bay Farm. They say they are all picked within 24 hours before, calling them “locally grown, not flown.” The owners originally hail from Los Angeles but spent their honeymoon in Lake County and spent 40 years of summers there. They then bought an old R.V. Park and cleared it out to build their flower farm. They started at Farmer’s Markets and now have eight full time employees and have four permanent greenhouses.
The Lake County Planning Commission says yes to a new resort on the shore in Lucerne. It was a unanimous vote for the commission at their meeting last week. Nicole Farb applied for a design review permit for her Nikki Island Resort on 1.5 acres of State Highway 20. The proposed resort was deemed to be in alignment with the general plan, shorelines plan and zoning ordinance, as well as being compatible with existing development. The proposal is for nine overnight lodging units or one story “casitas” and a one-story house which once was a Pearl Harbor survivor’s home. It will be converted into a gathering space, lobby, kitchen and dining room. There will also be an outdoor kitchen, in-ground pool and hot tub, new landscaping, parking and pedestrian paths.
A group of Mendocino County marijuana farmers say it’s been an uphill battle after a recent crash in wholesale cannabis prices. 20 farmers working with a delivery agent in Sacramento to sell to folks in Sacramento and Butte counties. Apparently the program would give the farmers a bigger cut that would have gone to dispensaries and other delivery services. The North Bay Business Journal interviewed a small farmer from Covelo who said they were getting only $250 to $300/pound, not nearly enough to survive, when a year or so ago, they’d been getting $1,000 a pound. The journal reports wholesale marijuana prices in Calif. dropped to the lowest prices they’ve been at since the drug was legalized in the state. Farmers were trying to grow more to keep up with demand after the pandemic hit, but since many lost their jobs, they couldn’t afford it after their stimulus checks and extended unemployment dried up.
