A brush fire that popped up Sunday evening along Seigler Canyon Road west of Lower Lake is said to be contained. CalFire said on X around 6pm that they and local agencies responded to the fire near Seigler Canyon Road and Perini Road burning in light flashy fuels at a moderate rate of spread and they immediately attacked with aircraft. But by 7pm they announced that forward progress had been stopped and aircraft were released. Crews stayed on the ground building control lines and mopping up for the next few hours.
Three people are facing charges for poaching and other environmental crimes following a series of raids on illegal cannabis grows in Mendocino County. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says they served warrants at five properties north of Laytonville September 18 with help from the Mendocino and Lake County Sheriff’s Offices. The raids stemmed from investigations into illegal cannabis cultivation and officers eradicated more than 7400 plants and destroyed more than 1000 pounds of processed pot. But they say they also found a poached deer and some opium poppy plants and eight water diversions from headwater streams connected to salmon runs.
It’s life in prison for a Fort Bragg man convicted on six counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. The Mendocino County District Attorney says Tomas Yah Pool was sentenced last week after being convicted by jury in July for the incidents that happened from 2004 to 2020 involving children ages 3 to 6. The DA says Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Victoria Shanahan sentenced Pool to multiple life sentences which given the math involved means he will likely never be released. But the DA says should the Board of Parole Hearings ever deem Pool eligible for release, he will also become eligible for civil commitment consideration as a sexually violent predator.
A Hopland man who called police because he thought his girlfriend was holding a gun on him has been arrested for allegedly dealing in psychedelic mushrooms. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded Wednesday to a report of a man being held at gunpoint in his vehicle on Mountain House Road. The man said his girlfriend had become paranoid that they were being followed and shined a flashlight at him from behind which he thought was a gun. He pulled over and ran off and called for help. He gave deputies permission to look inside his vehicle and while they found no weapon they did allegedly find a pound-and-a-half of psilocybin mushrooms packaged in mylar bags. Michael Giles was arrested for Possession and Transportation of a Controlled Substance for Sales. There is no word of the girlfriend facing any charges.
You’re invited to a Q & A session tomorrow night to hear from the candidates running for Ukiah City Council and California Assembly District 2. It’s Tuesday beginning at 6pm at the Ukiah Civic Center. The Candidate Forum is presented by the Mendocino Women’s Political Coalition, the American Association of University Women with the assistance of the Northern California Youth Policy Coalition. It starts with Assembly candidates Mike Greer and Chris Rogers at 6pm and then at 7pm will be the Ukiah City Council candidates. Those running for the two open seats on the City Council are incumbents Doug Crane and Josefina Duenas, and challengers Jacob Brown, Heather Criss, Kristina Mize and John Strangio. The moderator for the evening will be Wendy DeWitt.
Unemployment is up a bit in California as a whole but holding steady in Lake County and down a tick on Mendocino County. The August numbers from the California Employment Development Department show the state unemployment rate moved to 5.3% after three consecutive months at 5.2%. Lake County’s unemployment rate in August was at 6.1%, same as in July. Mendocino’s jobless rate for August was 5.2%, down from 5.3% in July.
