Youth sports on hold for the moment as the state Department of Public Health is not releasing guidance due to the pandemic. The California Interscholastic Federation reports they don’t expect new guidance to allow schools to return to full practice or competition until after the New Year at the earliest. So more than 1,600 member schools and over 800,000 student-athletes are on hold for the time being. Cancellations for Season 1 of the Sports Calendar. And boys volleyball will be moved to Season 2 with an updated Season 2 calendar expected in January.
A man’s wanted in Fort Bragg for a robbery. The Sheriff’s office is asking for the public’s help after the ripoff yesterday at the NorCal Gasoline on Hwy 1. Deputies say they got a call that someone showed up at the store who had been told never to come back previously. But they came in, were asked to leave and wouldn’t. They also stole an alcoholic beverage and demanded cigarettes, the store clerk refused, so the guy went behind the counter and stole several packs and left. The suspect is described as a White man, about six feet tall, with a thin build, and light brown hair.
A new report shows why COVID-19 spread so fast this summer in California nursing homes. The study says skilled nursing facilities that meet recommended staffing levels for Registered Nurses had half the infections compared to those that don’t. And infection rates are three times higher at facilities with large numbers Black patients according to Kristof Stremekis with the California Health Care Foundation, who commissioned the report.
| :13 “Black and Latinx people in California are disproportionately impacted by this virus, and we need to make sure that those facilities which are serving Black and Latinx patients have the resources that they need to keep people safe.” |
Tag: The report says the risk factors have changed over time. In May, the data showed for-profit nursing homes had infection rates five to six times higher than nonprofits or government-owned facilities. But by August, other risk factors took precedence, with higher rates seen among male patients and people over age 85.
Second Cut: The report recommends the state strengthen oversight of nursing-care facilities and require higher staffing levels. Stremekis says as vaccines become available, the data will guide decisions on where to deploy resources first.
| :09 “It would allow us to prioritize things like the distribution of PPE, like distribution of the vaccine, to get it to folks who need it the most.” |
Tag: From January to mid-November, almost 30-thousand people in California nursing homes contracted the virus, and more than 48-hundred nursing-home residents have died.
Food is once again being distributed for Ukiah Unified School District students and any children 18 years or younger. Today and every Wednesday at Ukiah High School, from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. regardless of the weather. Menu items vary each week. The district says it’s excited to offer FREE food thru a California program. They remind when you arrive to be wearing a mask and practice physical distancing when receiving food.
The Lakeport City Council had been considering signing onto a letter to the governor from the Board of Supervisors or sending their own and has now switched gears. Lake Co News reports the city council discussed the letter last night after earlier in the day the Public Health Officer, Dr. Gary Pace told the board he expected the county would remain in the purple tier. The Board’s letter to the governor was looking for help for the small businesses and others during the pandemic, but the county ended up in the purple tier within days. Dr. Pace told the board he also expected the state would get stricter with public health rules too.
The California Department of Water Resources is allowing 10 percent of requested supplies for 2021. The allocations are based on assumptions and reservoir storage and other factors. The state reviews the allocations monthly and might change the amounts based on snowpack and runoff. Right now conditions are pretty dry, so the agency encourages residents to use water carefully, inside and outside their homes and businesses. There are eight precipitation stations in Northern California which recorded zero percent average rainfall for October and 53 percent in November.
There’s a new task force of sorts to help slow the spread of coronavirus on the Mendocino Coast. The Covid Response Network, a nonprofit, was started by several people with major contributions by psychologist and author Dr. Richard Miller, Thanksgiving Coffee co-founder Paul Katzeff and Dr. Michael St. John. They’re reportedly working to connect agencies and organize the public in the fight against the pandemic. They’re meeting each Friday on Zoom. Today they’re hosting a mask giveaway at Safeway in Fort Bragg, paid for from a $6,000 grant from North Coast Opportunities. For more info, CovidResponseNetwork.net.
A delay in this year’s commercial Dungeness crab season for a couple more weeks. The second delay of the season as the opening was supposed to happen November 15th, now it’s a month later, December 16 in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says they couldn’t gather a large enough sample for their pre-season testing to decide if the crabs passed the “meat quality test” to see if they’re mature enough. Apparently they have to pull about 300 pounds of crab and measure at least a quarter of it from meat to open the season.
A man from Forestville lands in the Sonoma County Jail after threatening a postal worker, then deputies with an ax. There was a five hour barricade situation with Michael Ritchie before he was finally arrested. Deputies got a call mid-morning Monday that a man with a knife confronted the postal worker as they left the Forestville Post Office. Deputies found the guy in front of his house where he threatened them with an ax and said he wanted to start a war, swinging it at them. Then he used chairs and a table on his porch and holed up in the fort like area. A SWAT team came out and fired a less lethal projectile his way and a police dog bit him in the leg. He tried to hit the dog with an ax, but he was tasered and arrested. He was booked into county jail for several crimes including assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats and held on $50,000 bail.
California’s won the dubious honor of being the first state to confirm 100,000 cases of coronavirus over one week time. State Assemblyman Jim Wood tweeted that we’re expected to run out of ICU beds by Christmas Eve as a surge of new cases is reported across the country. The Governor said Monday the state will be at 134% of capacity on Christmas Eve if we continue at the rate we’re currently at. There’s about 50% of hospital beds occupied in Northern Calif. right now, that’s projected to be 64% by Christmas Eve, and 85% of ICU beds are currently in use. Assemblyman Wood says rural hospitals will be hit hardest. He also says besides deaths, hospitals may never recover either. The state positivity rate is 6.25% with an 89% increase in hospitalizations the last two weeks without Thanksgiving numbers factored in.
The Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace telling the Board of Supervisors he expects the county to stay in the purple tier for a “couple months” as cases rise, we’re in the holiday season and headed into winter. The county just hit the purple tier Sunday. That includes an evening curfew, closure or outdoor only operations for businesses and capacity limits for others. Dr. Pace also says he believes there will be more restrictions from the state in coming days. He also reported an outbreak in the “Native American community” but didn’t specify. He said it’s significant and came after a large gathering. There have been over 950 cases in Lake County and 20 deaths.
A man from Calpella has been arrested after reports of a domestic violence dispute. A woman called the Sheriff’s Office to say her boyfriend, Brian Wieden was attacking her. She says he grabbed her and threw her to the floor so he was arrested for domestic violence battery and held in Mendocino County Jail on $25,000.00 bail.
A man from Fort Bragg has been arrested after reports of a strong arm robbery. As we reported earlier today, it happened at the NorCal Gasoline on N. Highway 1. A man called into say the man came in and wouldn’t leave. And that he’d been told in the past not to enter the store again. He first tried to get cigarettes and steal some booze, but the clerk refused and tried getting the alcohol away from him. He went behind the counter and took cigarettes then left the store. Deputies and the CHP went searching for him. They posted his picture on Facebook and tips came in that he was Nathan Lee Stickel. He was found and arrested last night and charged with strong arm robbery and held on $75,000.00 bail.
A woman from Ukiah who’d been in more than one run in with police is going to jail for embezzlement. The Mendocino County DA charged SONIA LUCIA LAU with embezzling money from Ammo Plus, where she worked. She was found guilty with no contest pleas to grand theft by embezzlement, plus she admitted a special sentencing allegation that eight counts created a pattern of related felony conduct and that pattern got her over $200,000 from April of 2014 to April 2017. Her case has been referred to the probation dept. for a sentencing recommendation. Her sentencing hearing is at the end of January. She will likely end up in the county jail as embezzlement, per state law, is considered a county problem. So she’d be ineligible for state prison.
