There was a car accident this morning near Boonville leaving one with a head injury. MendoFever reports it happened around 6am. CHP reports the one vehicle crash happened on State Route 253 east of State Route 128. A sedan had veered off the road, down a 40 foot embankment and crashed into a creek. A patient with a head injury was taken to a nearby hospital. Authorities are investigating.
The Lakeport Fire Protection District is getting new equipment to help water rescue operations. The Lake County News is reporting the board of supervisors approved the purchase of two Jet Skis and a trailer for the water rescue program. The district is getting two Yamaha VX Cruiser WaveRunners. The two watercraft and trailer were purchased for $22,000 and were part of the last purchases in the 2022-2023 fiscal budget year.
Mendocino County’s Family and Children’s Services was investigated by a Grand Jury that reports not enough staff with experience and education is contributing to an environment that is hostile and toxic. KymKemp reports the investigation began eight years ago as one of the lowest scoring child protective service agencies in the state. Staffing issues go back over a decade when salaries were cut in 2011. Further, education requirements aren’t being met. Employees say it takes years to train, with a turnover rate of up to one third annually, low morale remains among those who stay. The Grand Jury’s final recommendation this year includes protocols, training and mentoring, recruitment and retention.
Representative Jared Huffman is headed to Gualala tomorrow for a town hall event at 4:30pm at the Gualala Arts Center. He plans to take questions and update the community on his work in DC. Constituents are encouraged to email questions to HuffmanQ&A@mail.house.gov and are asking those who plan to attend to RSVP by 5pm today. In a release issued by Huffman’s office the meeting will last until 5:30pm tomorrow evening. There is no guarantee for admittance, and large bags and signs won’t be allowed.
The Ukiah Planning Commission will meet today and decide on whether to demolish an abandoned car wash to build a new one on Talmage Road. The Ukiah Daily Journal reports an application by the Santa Rosa Avenue Partners to demolish then build a new car wash facility that will be automated. The Old Redwood Plaza Car Wash has been empty for years and fenced off. Plans for the “Splash Express Carwash” propose the modern car wash will use reclaimed water in an 85 foot long tunnel with nine vacuum stations. The Planning Commission is meeting tonight at 6pm in the Ukiah City Council Chambers, and the public is welcome to attend.
The California state reparations task force will make a final proposal to the Legislature in Sacramento tomorrow. Governor Newsom signed a bill three years ago urging the task force publicly meet and create recommendations for slavery in a report that will be sent to the California Department of Justice. The Press Democrat reports the task force chair is confident they’ll give lawmakers a road map for a first of a kind bill to give monetary compensation to Black Californians. The group says 95 recommendations have been identified and include an apology for historical atrocities. Another is the creation of a California American Freedmen Affairs Agency to cover reparations. The recommendations will head to the legislature and the Governor.
California State University is improving on dismal graduation numbers. The Bay Area News Group reports 35 percent of the class that began in 2018 graduated by last year. That’s an improvement from 19 percent a decade ago. CSU has about 460,000 students and is the largest university system in the country. But it trails behind the national average for graduation of about 44 percent. Graduating within 4 years can be hard for low-income students. The school has begun to see numbers shift with recent programs and laws.
Governor Newsom and lawmakers agreed late Monday on the budget, including covering over $31 billion in a budget deficit. Spending cuts and delayed spending will shift some funds, and the plan would borrow over $6 billion and set aside about $38 billion in reserves. The AP reports it would be the largest reserve in history. California’s state gas tax is set to increase this weekend as an automatic adjustment tied to inflation. The budget includes funding for public transit agencies following a decline in riders during the pandemic. Agencies will use about $5 billion in funding over the next three years, in the new budget. The budget does not raise income taxes but does have new tax on managed care organizations for about $32 billion over the next four years.
The Savings Bank of Mendocino County is working with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership. It’s a matching down payment grant program aimed at helping Mendocino and Lake County residents buy a home. The Savings Bank of Mendocino County will set aside funds to help low to moderate income first-time homebuyers in the two counties with up to $29,000 in down payment assistance this year. They have $12.5 million in program funds to allocate. An article in the Willits News reports that WISH grant program is joining with the Savings Bank of Mendocino County for the first time this year. The funds are aimed at working people and families. Grant funds from local, state, and federal mortgage loan programs can be paired along with the program.
CHP and the California Office of Traffic Safety are discouraging drivers from speeding. The Lake County News reports the two agencies are working ahead of the 4th of July holiday to encourage safe driving through education and enforcement. CHP is implementing a statewide maximum enforcement period beginning Friday evening through midnight on the 4th. Last year, there were about 1,000 arrests for DIU in the holiday enforcement period and 44 people were killed. They are urging people to call in any suspected impaired drivers.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office posted an update on social media on illegal grow sites in the county. Last week the Sheriff’s Marijuana team finished several investigations. Search warrants were served on 11 properties with teams pulling over 26,000 illegal plants. They seized over 5,500 pounds of processed marijuana and nearly $15,000 in cash. The California Fish and Game found 81 violations that included 12 water diversions and more. The Sheriff posted he gets complaints weekly on illegal sites, armed people and environmental crimes. The post notes drug trafficking organizations and cartels bring hard drugs, human trafficking and violence and they continue to be on alert.
Hate crimes in the state increased last year, according to KRON. Racism against Black people, homophobia and anti-Semitism rose last year, compared to 2021. The rate of hate crimes rose over 20 percent last year. The most widespread hate crimes targeted Black people and rose over 27 percent. Overall hate crimes are likely underreported according to state data released yesterday. Anti-Asian bias went down over 43 percent after immediate fallout during the COVID crisis. California’s AG announced the numbers yesterday in a news conference. Bonta said there is still much work to be done to combat hate in California, saying an attack against one of us is an attack against all of us.
DoorDash is accepting applications for its Restaurant Disaster Relief Fund with grants of $10,000 to restaurants impacted by natural disasters in the last year. Mendocino County is in the federally declared disaster zone.
The Mendocino County Museum announced First Saturdays Art Walk begins this weekend. This Saturday the East Commercial Street Summer Art Walk in Willits celebrates Inventors. They’ll have an exhibit open called Gadgets Galore and live music. The Mendocino County Museum Inventor Takeover will also feature Grid-Beam brothers Phil and Richard Jergenson. The walks are scheduled for July, August and September on the first Saturday of each month, from 5:30pm to 8:30pm.
County offices of Education in California will get an $80 million increase in funds for juvenile court and alternative schools if the budget agreement stands. Proposition 98 would fund schools for kids facing problems like absenteeism, along with foster kids and homeless students. An EdSource report in the Record Bee points out the state’s juvenile justice system is shifting to county levels in days. Some law and policy makers want more transparency to show the quality of instruction by county offices of education. The Legislature has not indicated if transparency measure will be included in the final budget. The budget increase will include artificial intelligence programs like ChapGPT and access to language classes as well as behavioral health counselors. Also included would be professional development for teachers.
The Lake County Office of Emergency Services announced that Zonehaven AWARE is now called the Genasys Protect as of yesterday. Zone information and numbers will not change. Starting in 2024, webpages will be consolidated to pretoct.genasys.com.
CHP announced more than $19 million in grant funds for 71 California law enforcement agencies, crime labs, and nonprofits to address the dangers of driving under the influence. In a release in Lake County News, CHP says the grants stem from Proposition 64; the Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act that tapped CHP to administer the grants. Taxes on cultivation and sales of cannabis products are funding the program. The CHP Commissioner said money will be used to help enhance traffic safety by educating the public on the dangers of impaired driving, and removing impaired drivers from the roadway through enforcement operations and advancing research. The Fort Bragg Police Department is one of the recipients of funds.
The Bureau of Land Management announced fire restrictions effective today for public lands including in Ukiah, Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma Counties. In a release in MendoFever, the Bureau says the exceptionally wet winter resulted in a significant amount of vegetation growth. As temps rise and dry conditions increase it is necessary to mandate additional fire restrictions. In the release, the Bureau notes wildfires caused by humans make up 95 percent of all fires in the state. Recreational target shooting has sparked more than half the fires in BLM managed public lands. Restrictions include no campfires, no smoking outside, no welding, no motorized vehicles or tools and no target shooting in the public lands.
