Ukiah resident, 36-year-old Kelisha Alvarez, has been found guilty by a Mendocino County Superior Court jury. She was found guilty of being in possession of a “crack” pipe that she covertly tried to bring into the Low Gap jail facility, which is a felony. Prior to trial, Alvarez was found in violation of her post-release community supervision. She’s a career criminal in the local justice system, going back to at least 2009. The Redheaded Blackbelt says Alavarez was also incarcerated twice in the state prison system.
City officials are targeting a longstanding drainage issue near the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds as city staff reported to the Ukiah City Council at its meeting on Wednesday. City Manager Sage Sangiacomo says he and Public Works Director Tim Eriksen are in communication with the fairgrounds pertaining to a failed storm drain system. The Ukiah Daily Journal reports that fairgrounds officials and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, along with the city, are working together to find a solution. Eriksen says that staff from the city and the fairgrounds have been discussing the failed drainage pipe since 2011, including who’s responsible for paying for the repair.
San Rafael State Assemblymember Damon Connolly is running for the state Senate’s 2nd District seat, which includes Del Norte, Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Sonoma and Trinity counties. The district’s current state senator is Mike McGuire, who is the highest-ranking member of the state Senate. However, he’s ineligible to run for the Senate seat again in the 2026 election due to term limits. The Mendocino Voice says Conolly was elected to the state Assembly in 2022. Conolly says if he’s elected, he hopes to expand vegetation management, wildfire detection, evacuation programs and public fire safety education projects across the district, with wildfire prevention the major focus of his campaign.
Lakeport Rotary celebrated 100 years of service and leadership at the Lakeport City Council of Chambers at its meeting on Tuesday. The first meeting took place on May 5,1925 at Hotel Lakeport. The Record Bee says the Rotary has been a model of service, supporting youth programs, local projects, and international efforts and they say they will continue to do so for the next 100 years.
A key policy committee in the state legislature has approved a measure in the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization to make California Native American Day a paid holiday for state employees. It will be celebrated on the fourth Friday of September. Lake County News says AB 989, introduced by San Bernardino Assemblymember James C. Ramos, now heads to the Committee on Public Employment and Retirement. Ramos, who’s the first California Native American lawmaker elected in the state’s history, has been working to enact a California Native American Day since 1998.
The California Transportation Commission has recently set aside $1 billion for projects across the state that aim to improve safety and upgrade the state’s network of streets and highways. It includes nearly $100 million for projects in Mendocino County. Caltrans says about one-third of the investment comes from the Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and another $301 million is from Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017. The Ukiah Daily Journal reports that some of the local projects include roadway widening and the construction of left-turn lanes and a merge lane on Highway 101 from the Hopland Overhead to Mountain House Road and the construction of a concrete median barrier and rumble strips along with other improvements north of the Outlet Creek Bridge on the 101 near Willits.
A new bill in the California legislature could ban some teens from sitting in the front seat of a car. Assembly Bill 435 would require kids under ten years old to use booster seats and ban anyone under 13 from sitting in the front seat. It would also ban anyone under 16 from the front seat if they are not tall enough. The bill’s author says data shows small-framed children, no matter their age, are disproportionately hurt in crashes when not in a booster seat or the back seat. The bill passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee and heads now to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
