An 11-mile stretch of Highway 128 along the Mendocino County Coast is closed after a rockslide. CHP and Caltrans say the slide forced the closure both ways between Highway 1 and Flynn Creek Road near Navarro Beach. There is no ETA for reopening. You can get the latest information on CalTran’s QuickMap page.
An improving picture of respiratory viruses and Covid. The state says hospitalizations for RSV are trailing off, as they usually do in late February and early March. Also, after a spike just after Christmas, Covid positive rates have dropped to 7.1 percent. Flu levels have seen a corresponding dip. Health experts say if the trends continue, we could be near the end of Flus and RSV season until fall. While Covid numbers are also down, experts say we could still see peaks and valleys into the spring and summer.
Kudos to a student from Middletown High School for her poetry reading skills. Lily Morita was the winner in a recent “Poetry Out Loud” competition in Lake County. Four students from Lake County Schools took part in the contest sponsored by the Lake County Arts Council and the California Arts Council. Lilly’s winning recitations of two memorized poems mean a trip to the state final Poetry Out Loud Competition in Sacramento and possibly beyond
The “No Pets” clause in many apartment leases could go away under a bill proposed in the assembly. Assemblymember Dave Haney’s bill would prohibit landlords from barring pets from rentals. Haney says 70 percent of Californians have pets and 70 percent of landlords won’t allow them. He says that imbalance is making the state’s housing crisis worse by limiting rental choices for millions of pet owners. His bill would also eliminate monthly fees in places that do allow pets and limit the amount landlords can ask you to put down for a pet deposit. Property owners oppose the idea. They say pets can cause significant damage, meaning higher rent for everybody to cover damage expenses
The recent storms have made for an unusual sight in one of the driest and hottest places in the world. Part of the salt flats of Death Valley has been turned into a six-mile-long, three-mile-wide lake. It isn’t very deep–just a foot or so, and very salty, but visitors have taken advantage of the water, venturing out in kayaks. The lake won’t last. It will dry up as the temperature rises
