A man in Willits has been arrested after cops connected him to a man being hit in the head with a baseball bat. Police say they found the victim bleeding from the hits. There were also several witnesses who said Damian Villegas, who’s a relative of the victim, was the attacker. They said the pair were drinking together at a local bar, but then got kicked out for starting fights and went to a second bar where another fight ensued in the parking lot. Witnesses say Villegas retrieved a bat from the trunk of his car, hit the victim multiple times, then took off. Villegas was known to police from previous contacts. After reports of a man with a bat hitting a sign, they went to his house and found his girlfriend who claimed she didn’t know where he was or about the bar fight. They found him nearby and arrested him for Assault with a Deadly Weapon. And his girlfriend is facing charges for Aiding and Abetting and Accessory After the Fact.
Environmental activists are up in arms again after an eight-month hiatus of logging in the Jackson Demonstration Forest restarts. The state had announced a new co-management deal between Cal Fire and local tribes and that they would log only smaller groves. Now tribal leaders and activists say this could get in the way of the co-management plans for the forest. Some tribal leaders are reportedly displeased with the decision to restart logging. Mendo Voice reports the leaders saying they were not informed about the logging starting up again. The Save Jackson Coalition put out a statement too, it says the chair of the Coyote Valley Band of Pomos told them the state wants to continue logging on their Homeland while still negotiating with them, which makes him question their commitment to a co-management deal.
Fort Bragg is getting back to pre-pandemic celebrations with the return of Paul Bunyan Days. The event is happening over Labor Day weekend after a COVID19 pause for safety reasons. Applications to participate are now open. There will be a parade on Labor Day itself. Other events through the weekend include the logging show and log rolling competition, Belle of the Redwoods competition, kiddie games, and more. The theme this year is “the tradition continues.” A full schedule for the weekend, along with entry forms are on the Paul Bunyan Days website, and Facebook page.
A new report shows murders in the state of California were up again, and so were violent crimes. The state Department of Justice has put out the latest crime reports showing crimes up, but arrests down. The State Attorney General was in Southern Calif. earlier this week touting gun control laws were keeping homicides down. But there were over 2,360 murders in the state last year, 150 more than the year before. Still much lower than the highest year, 1993, when there were nearly 4,100. But there were more deaths in the state last year than the last 15 years. There were about 2,800 arrests per 100,000 people in 2020, and 2,606 last year, down by more than 200.
Redwood Credit Union says it’s matching donations for the Mendocino College Student Emergency Fund. The Fall 2022 semester has begun at the school and students are getting back to it and starting their career prep after an unpredictable few years. Inflation has also kicked in, making prices for food, gas, books and living expenses higher. The Fund will help students challenged during these times. The College says the Fund is one way they can help students worry less and study more. They have $12,000 dollars from the Credit Union to distribute up to $500 one-time emergency grants. And donors will be matched, so it could reach $24,000 in emergency aid for students in Ukiah, Lakeport, Willits and Fort Bragg.
Visit foundation.mendocino.edu/donate and choose Student Emergency Fund.
If the Governor signs off the state of California could begin to release an increased number of sick or dying inmates. The state Assembly first has to approve the bill the Senate has already passed. Those against the current plan in place say it’s too strict and ill or dying inmates are too sick to pose a threat. And it would ease overcrowding and be less expensive. Over 90% of inmates died while waiting for compassionate release between January 2015 and April 2021. The nonprofit Families Against Mandatory Minimums also says 304 inmates were trying to get compassionate release, and only 53 were released through the courts.
The drought in California is serious, as most of us know, but apparently there’s just a small percentage of voters who say they’ve been impacted by the water shortage. The poll of 9,000 voters across Calif. showed 71% thought the issue was “extremely serious,” but 23% said it was only somewhat serious. The poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times also revealed only 9% of respondents said they and their families were affected “a great deal” by the current water shortage, and 32% said they’ve been affected somewhat. 57% said they were affected “only a little” or not at all.
There’s a huge new mural gracing the side of a building in Fort Bragg. On the corner of McPherson and Redwood, the Alleyway Project has organized the piece by Ryan Grossman featuring giant redwoods. It’s the second mural by Grossman for Alleyway. The other outside a hardware store on Highway 1. The new one is planned to wrap around the whole Forrester building, but it’s so big, you may want to walk across the street to check it out. The Forrester has an art studio below and rental units above. And is named after the owner’s grandpa.
For more information about the Alleyway Project and for a map of their murals and several of the others that dot the town, go to www.fortbraggalleywayart.org.
