Tree mortality is now a local emergency in Mendocino County. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously for the declaration due to the amount of bark beetle activity there’s been in conifer trees. It’s not helped by fires, the drought, firefighting and poor forest management practices. This comes after a statewide emergency was declared by former Governor Jerry Brown so the trees could more easily be removed. But in Mendocino County, the wildfires and drier weather has moved the problem to other species of trees too. The Board has been urged by stakeholders to pursue grant funding to pull the trees and plant new ones. The language around the declaration says they “encourage any State and Federal funding to assist with replanting of trees and supporting healthy forests and watersheds, as appropriate”.
A man from San Francisco has been identified as the victim of a solo car crash near Bell Springs Rd. off Highway 101. 33-year-old Fredy Ceron Franco was killed in the crash Saturday morning in a 2006 Toyota Tacoma. He reportedly crashed in wet weather when his truck lost traction and rolled, stopping after hitting a tree. Officers investigating the crash say he was probably going at an unsafe speed for the conditions. A passenger with him ended up in the hospital in Willits with moderate injuries. The crash happened after a second crash Saturday when a driver hit a tree along Highway 128, east of Boonville. That driver was identified as 29-year-old Omar Gutierrez Nunes, of Santa Rosa.
Police in Ukiah have arrested a man after reports of a burglary in the government building. Police say they got a call to the 500 block of Low Gap Rd. after employees found an open door. Officers searched but didn’t find anyone there. They say an outside door had been pried open. County employees said several laptops were taken. Then cops poured over surveillance video and caught a man on camera. He was identified as Justin Williamson, who was found outside nearby, under a bridge. He had on the same hoodie as seen in surveillance video and had a couple of laptops near him. He was arrested and was searched where more electronics were found along with a methamphetamine pipe. He’s charged with various crimes related to the burglary.
Ukiah police have arrested a man they say was acting erratically. Police say they got a call October 30th and found Ryan Kotterman showing symptoms that he may be high. He was immediately arrested for public intoxication and being in possession of a methamphetamine pipe. He was booked into jail. But a neighbor said they thought he might have a gun so they went back to the home and found a ghost gun and a bunch of ammo. Checking a safe, they found more weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He also had several previous felony convictions on his record, so he was not allowed to have guns or ammunition. He had also just been released from jail the day before. He’s booked again and held on $25,000 bail, but posed bail and was released.
Police in Fort Bragg have responded to gunshots fired. Witnesses say a home had a damaged window, but the police chief says it wasn’t from a bullet. The home on Azaela Way is believed to have been hit by a tiny meteor, the size of a grain of rice. It coincides with the Taurid meteor shower Friday night. The chief says he has seen scores of damaged, or bullet-ridden windows in his 2 decades of service and knows this was not that. The person living at the home said it seemed like a bullet larger than a .22 damaged the window. And the chief says nobody said they heard gunshots. The police chief says a projectile probably came from a high angle and there was “strange” damage to the window. In any case, he’s not an astronomer, but thought it might be a possibility after reading about the meteor shower above Northern Calif. around the same time.
A new report says poverty is down in Calif. but may be because of the state and national safety net programs during the pandemic, especially federal child tax credits being expanded. The deadline to file for the tax credit ends next Wednesday, November 17th. Some lawmakers had a press conference to remind about the tax credit. At the same time the nonprofit, the California Policy Lab says around 290,000 California kids who live at or near poverty could miss out on the 2021 child tax benefit. And that would mean almost a billion dollars left not used. But the poverty report from the Public Policy Institute of Calif. showed the rate was off nearly 5 percent from 2019 to a projected 11.7% in the fall of 2021. Still, about 4.5 million Californians live in poverty, making under $37,000 a year for a family of four.
The CHP is out on the roads more thanks to a grant to curb fast and aggressive driving. The Speed Prevention, Education and Enforcement Deterrence, or SPEED, grant, through the California Office of Traffic Safety is helping the CHP bring down the amount of fatal crashes and those where someone is injured in a crash related to speed which is reported to be a factor in 40% of all fatal and injury crashes in California. More than 26,250 crashes in Calif. from Oct. 1, 2019, and Sept. 30, 2020 killed 290 people and injured more than 38,150 more. The CHP had money from a similar grant from Jan. 1, 2020, to Sept. 20, 2021 from the federal government to educate drivers and try to stop dangerous driving behaviors with enhanced speed enforcement operations on state routes.
In Lake County, a business owner has won a $25,000 prize in a small business competition. Melinda Price of Peace and Plenty Farms won the cash in the established business category at “Hands Up Lake County 2022”. For startups, it was Baylee Grove of Rock N Rolled Ice Cream who won $10,000. Both of the winners said after their wins on Saturday they would use the money to further expand their businesses. The small business competition is put on by the local nonprofit 1Team 1Dream, which works to bolster the local economy.
A Community Development Financial Institution, Economic Development Corporation, and Small Business Lending Center, has won a multimillion dollar grant from the state for sustainable industries. The Arcata Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) won a $5 million grant from the California Community Economic Resilience Fund to help with planning. This means AEDC is going to manage the money for the Redwood Coast Region which includes Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Lake Counties. CalPoly Humboldt’s California Center for Rural Policy is overseeing the leadership collaborative and will get involved in community engagement and research to inform the development of the regional plan.
Intro: Millions of Californians have already voted, but millions more may be headed out to the polls today for in person voting or to drop off their ballot. Groups fighting for clean elections say they want to clear up some myths about the ballot this year. Kim Alexander with the nonpartisan nonprofit California Voter Foundation says some people worry, mistakenly thinking they have to vote on every race.
:09 "This is a pretty long ballot. And if you don't feel comfortable making a decision on something on the ballot, you're free to skip that contest and move on to the next ballot."
Tag: As a reminder, voters must sign the ballot envelope for it to be counted. If you want to mail it, it must be postmarked today and received within seven days. County election officials will contact voters with missing or challenged envelope signatures to give them a chance to submit a valid signature.
Second Cut: Alexander notes that people should not expect full results tonight.
:18 "It's likely that there will be contests where you're looking at the results on election night, and it may look like it's going one way. And then once all the ballots get counted, it turns out going in the other direction. And that is to be expected, because what shows on election night is just a small portion of all the ballots that will be counted. "
Tag: She adds that during the June primary, more than 91 percent of votes were cast by mail, and just under half were counted within two days after election day. As of 10:40 p-m on election night five months ago, only 41 percent of the votes had been counted.
