A fire burning in Amador County has spread fast with only 5% containment. The Electra Fire was reported last night to be 3,900 acres with over 1,200 structures threatened. Cal Fire reported the fire was active and the threat to infrastructure was critical. The fire’s activity picked up in the afternoon yesterday along the Amador and Calaveras county line. There are mandatory evacuation orders in place all around the fire and several roads are closed. Cal Fire also reported the fire was threatening “critical power infrastructure”. It started July 4th near a PG&E station where some vacationers took shelter after the ignition. There were about 100 people there until first responders cleared trees and power lines to rescue them.
A wildfire has been contained in Kelseyville. Fire officials say it started as a one-acre grass and oak woodland fire that had a moderate rate of speed. Power lines were also reported down in the area. There had been concern the fire could have split and gone in two directions, but thankfully that didn’t happen. There was also one structure threatened for a time. The fire burned a couple of acres but was contained after retardant was dropped around nearly the entire fire.
Fort Bragg’s massive salmon barbeque was a hit. Even though the weather wasn’t great, many came out for what they call the World’s Largest Salmon BBQ. The annual event happens each year around Independence Day, on the first Saturday of July. Folks travel from all over to chow on fresh grilled salmon and listen to live music in Noyo Harbor. They put it on to raise money to support salmon restoration on the North Coast. In the past money has gone to the Mendocino Land Trust’s salmon stream restoration project on the Noyo River, the Eel River Recovery Project’s salmon monitoring efforts, and Mendocino High School’s School of Natural Resources or SONAR program.
Another fire has broken out in Mendocino County. The fire in the Covelo area was last reported as 100% contained with “crews mopping up” The fire was reportedly hard to get to due to steep and rugged terrain. There were several fire departments on the Nome Fire, including Cal Fire, the US Forest Service, Laytonville Fire, Brooktrails Fire, and California Department of Corrections. A Nixle Alert was sent out by the Sheriff’s office that a fire was burning, but they didn’t order any evacuations. They said to visit mendoready.org for more information. Cal Fire reported the fire at 20 acres.
A big turnout in Fort Bragg for a protest against the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Over 100 people outside town hall this Fourth of July weekend with Congressman Jared Huffman in the crowd. He spoke too, Friday night, saying he was part of the “overwhelming majority of Americans” against the Supreme Court’s historic move. He also mentioned another ruling by the Supremes, in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency which strangles the federal government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Huffman told attendees to use their energy to support reproductive rights groups and abortion funds and said access here in Calif. would be protected.
Two new pharmacy residents have been welcomed into the fold at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley. The two started last week in the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Postgraduate Year One (PGY-1) Pharmacy Residency Program. The program is pretty new, just starting in 2019 getting its full accreditation in 2020. It’s part of a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) Education like an internship. Michael Kim who got his PharmD degree from Touro University and a BS from Davis is one of the new residents. And Angela Van also got her PharmD degree at Touro, but got her BS from the University of California, Merced.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors has unanimously agreed to authorize Public Services to accept a grant to improve local parks. The Board authorized the Public Services Director to prepare the needed documents and get them to the Department of Transportation for the Clean California Local Grant Program. The state awarded Lake County over 1.3M dollars for a park improvement project. Plus, the city of Clearlake is getting over 1.5M to clean and beautify its downtown corridor. The grants from the Clean Calif. Initiative to beautify areas, clean trash, and debris and more. The money for Lake will pay for work at 15 county parks to include removing trash, cleanup and beautification, public art, shade structures, trees, drinking fountains, benches, trash/recycling receptacles and litter abatement signs.
A new report says the reason there was so much COVID19 in state prisons was due to overcrowding, sometimes in really old buildings, and the quickly changing conditions and complex coordination. The report put out by UC San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley showed state corrections leaders and staff used “extraordinary” and sometimes innovative efforts to keep the virus in check It fell short of preventing the tens of thousands of COVID cases that broke out and infected inmates and prison staff. Report authors say many of the prison officials statewide did heroic work in extremely difficult circumstances, but in many cases, it still wasn’t enough. Researchers said there were over 50,000 cases of COVID among inmates — including 240 deaths — by December 2021.
Have a great chili recipe? The Willits Harrah Senior Center is putting on their traditional Chili Cook Off once again. This year it will be at Recreation Grove Park in Willits on Aug. 19th. The coordinator says it’s outdoors this year due to COVID. She says they’ve barely had any fundraisers since the pandemic started, and this is one of the biggest. They’ll open registration August 1st. Anyone interested should call the Senior Center. Be prepared to cook about two gallons of chili to bring to the park the day of the event. Awards are handed out for best chili and best decorated table. Full tables are $100 and half tables are $50. They also have a pancake breakfast fundraiser coming up and need volunteers for both events.
Call (707) 459-6827 for more information or to volunteer.
A new report says the state has missed a year of rain in many places. The extreme drought adds up to one year of missed rain over the last three years, per the Bay Area News Group interview with a meteorologist at Golden Gate Weather Services in Half Moon Bay. The report showed the three years ending June 30th saw most Northern California cities getting just about a half to two-thirds of their historical average rainfall. Apparently, Southern California has been closer to normal with Los Angeles getting 77% of its historical average the last three years. But San Diego was better, with 85% of normal. No matter though, because the majority of California’s biggest reservoirs are in Northern California which got barely half of its historical average rainfall for the three years in the study.
Because of so many complaints and a loss of revenue for so many cannabis businesses, the state is revamping its cannabis tax structure. That includes doing away with a tax on growers to see if it will bolster the struggling recreational industry. The changes put in place last week are part of the latest state budget. It also means tax credits for some in the recreational business, an expansion of labor rights in the industry and a change in the collection of a state excise tax going from distributors instead to retailers. Many industry groups were in favor of the changes and it won mass approval in the Legislature. But, some retailers weren’t really into it, saying they won’t feel it at all, and some lawmakers complained it didn’t scratch the surface as far as ongoing racial disparities go.
