In light of reports of a weird virus, known as monkeypox outside of Calif. the Mendocino County Public Health Office is shedding light on a reported case inside the state. Dr. Andy Coren reports the state Department of Public Health began investigating a possible case of monkeypox in Sacramento County in someone who had recently travelled abroad. The virus is generally found in Central and West Africa and isn’t usually seen in the United States or Europe. There have been cases suddenly reported in Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom of the rare and usually mild illness. It presents with flu-like symptoms and a rash of sores and is passed through close contact with the lesions. The risk locally is considered to be very low. The public health office is also reporting on severe acute hepatitis cases in children. They appeared from October 2021 and February 2022 in young children in European countries and in
the United States. While public health has not reported any local cases, the state is warning to consider liver enzyme tests in children with stomach ailments or jaundice.
Four teenagers, one of them legal age, have all been arrested after reports of an armed robbery in Cloverdale. Since it happened so close to Mendocino County, the sheriff’s office was informed the suspects may be headed over the county line. Cloverdale police found out the four were headed to Yorkville and their vehicle was seen outside a home there. A search warrant was obtained, and a SWAT team was called out. They commanded ten people, two adults and 8 juveniles, to get out of the home. The group was detained, and evidence was found linking four people to the armed robbery. Officers also found a stolen firearm. 18-year-old Angel Marron and three juveniles were arrested and brought back to Sonoma County for processing.
A man from Boonville is in jail after a call from his wife that he was vandalizing their home. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s office reported with CalFire as the woman said the man was also burning items and had a knife. Anderson Valley Fire and California Fish & Wildlife Wardens responded too. Fire personnel and Deputies found Stacey Rose had threatened to kill anyone on the property. They deployed a drone which caught an aerial view of the man and used the drone’s speaker to talk with him, but he would not comply. He finally put his hands up in the air and was taken. But family members say he pointed an assault rifle at them. Deputies found an imitation firearm; which looked like an AR-15 rifle. Rose was booked for several crimes including Felony Criminal Threats, Misdemeanor Resist, Obstruct Public Officer and held on $20,000.00 bail.
The state reports a Sacramento County resident just back from Europe may have contracted monkeypox. Health officials have not confirmed the virus in the man yet with the CDC, but say the patient traveled to areas where monkeypox was recently confirmed. The patient is isolating at home away from others, even though the virus is considered a low risk for transmission to the general public. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscles aches, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion and a rash, starting on the face, a day to three after developing a fever. Transmission occurs when the infected person has prolonged contact with another person or animal, it enters through broken skin, respiratory tract, eyes, nose or mouth.
A man from Redding admitted he set a bunch of Northern Calif. fires in 2019 and 20. 41 year old Eric Smith was arrested in the summer of 2020 and charged with four counts of starting fires on federal land. Police say he set nearly a dozen fires between the summers of 2019 and 2020 using hard to detect items to ignite them, like cigarette lighters and handheld torches. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California also noted he started the fires when not a lot of people were around, like in the early morning in remote areas. Many were small and knocked down fast, but one closed part of a highway for a time. CalFire identified him as a suspect after one fire burned 600 acres. Smith faces 20 years in prison and a $1-million fine.
After the August Complex fire burned over a million acres a couple summers ago, cleanup is still happening. Now, as part of that, the Six Rivers National Forest has opened public comment for the Mad River Restoration Project. There is some fuels management to be done along with native plant and habitat restoration, plus economic recovery of dead timber. The forest service is also looking to install a new radio repeater and antenna set up on Grizzly Peak. The project on about 12,400 acres of high fire-severity area. The Mad River District Ranger says it will help them use disaster relief money to continue removing dead and dying trees and plant trees in strategic areas of the Upper Mad River watershed above Ruth Lake, North Fork Eel River and Upper Van Duzen River watersheds.
For more info: www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=60286.
Written comments can be submitted via one of the following three methods:
Mail to or hand delivered between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays to the Mad River Ranger District, 741 Highway 36, Bridgeville, CA 95526
Fax comments to (707) 574-6273
E-mail comments to sm.fs.madrivernepa@usda.gov. Please make sure that August Complex Restoration Project is in the subject line of your email.
A new business is opening in Ukiah. The palliative care provider Madrone Care Network will have its ribbon cutting ceremony a week from Monday at 4:30pm. They’re located at 643 S. Main Street. The chief operating officer for the new care center says they provide a way for folks to “navigate the complexities of the healthcare system” in Mendocino and Lake counties. They treat patients with cancer; heart, lung or liver disease; multiple sclerosis; ALS; and many other serious illnesses. On staff, they have nurses, social workers and chaplains.
A report by police late last night to stay away from the area of Orchard Avenue. This morning Mendo Fever reports after ten last night law enforcement were on the scene with two people being held by them at gunpoint. The news site reports the two were being held in connection to a shooting on the outside of Ukiah’s substance abuse treatment center on Ford Street. A staff member at the Ford Street Project called saying multiple shots were fired from a handgun at the building out of a car. No injuries were reported as the shots hit the building and trees. The news site reports the two being held were minors.
A new mental healthcare facility is being considered by the Ukiah Design Review Board. The matter to be reviewed at their meeting tomorrow for a planned 16-bed mental health treatment facility along the 101 near the Social Security building and old Best Western hotel, which is now the Live Oak Apartments. The project would be located on South Orchard Avenue. The application is by Redwood Community Services for the project to be built on what is now a vacant piece of land. They hope to put in in and outpatient mental health services, administrative offices and meeting rooms. The application says it will be for Medi-Cal beneficiaries 18 years of age and up.
The meeting of the Design Review Board will begin at 3 p.m. May 26.
To participate or view the virtual meeting, click here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82497678329Or you can call in using your telephone only: 1-888 788 0099, Access Code: 824 9767 8329.
Warning signs will stay up at Pudding Creek Beach in Fort Bragg warning folks to stay out of the water until test results come back. The Mendocino County Environmental Health Dept. reports that should be tomorrow. This is all happening after a bacteria report came back that it didn’t meet state standards. It was the second time in less than a month bacteriological quality didn’t meet state standards. The sampling is done weekly from April to October at Pudding Creek and at Big River, Little River, Hare Creek and Caspar Beach to make sure the levels of three bacteria species harmful to mammals and birds: coliform, E. coli and enterococcus are at safe levels.
The city of Clearlake has sold a piece of property to a developer for a new apartment complex to be built next to a new sports and recreation center. The city manager says the five acre parcel on Burns Valley Road closed last week and the sale documents were recorded on the $1.5 million deal Monday. He also said the project would probably cost about $50 million to complete. The sale comes after the city council voted unanimously to approve the deal with the company Danco for an 84-unit apartment complex with mixed-income family units. Lake Co News reports the city’s mayor said they were behind schedule about a month to six weeks where they wanted to be on the project.
