UPPER LAKE, Calif. — Households on the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Rancheria facing barriers to internet access will soon have access to high-quality, high-speed broadband services thanks to a $500,000 federal grant.
The tribe will also use the funding to connect nontribal households to the internet with access extending to anyone in the service area.
The half million dollar grant was awarded to the tribal community through the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA, Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program.
The Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake Tribe was one of only nine tribes to receive the funding.
“The Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake is pleased to receive much needed funding for broadband services on our reservation,” said tribal Chairwoman Sherry Treppa. “Access to high-speed Internet is a critical component in our modern society to access education, health care, and employment opportunities. The tribe is appreciative of NTIA's efforts to include the needs of smaller tribes, as it is much harder to get corporate third parties to invest funding into infrastructure for smaller, remote populations, making the need for this type of funding much greater for smaller tribes.”
The Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake will use the $500,000 grant to not only provide a wireless network connecting numerous tribal households, but also provide access to nontribal households currently facing barriers to internet services.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — High schools across Lake County have begun celebrating their graduations this week.
Over the next two weeks, hundreds of seniors will don caps and gowns to mark the transition from high school.
This year’s graduations began with Loconoma Valley High School in Middletown on Wednesday evening. The last graduation will take place at Kelseyville High School on June 16.
The Lake County Office of Education reported the following graduation schedule.
Wednesday, May 31
Carle High School: 6 p.m., Lower Lake High School Football Field
Lakeport Alternative School: 6 p.m., Marg Alakszay Center
Natural High School: 6 p.m., Marg Alakszay Center
Richard H. Lewis Alternative School: 6 p.m., Lower Lake High School Football Field
Thursday, June 1
Konocti Education Center: 6 p.m., Lower Lake High School Football Field
Friday, June 2
Clear Lake High School: 6 p.m., Don Owens Stadium, Lakeport
Middletown High School: 6 p.m., Foltmer Stadium
Upper Lake High School: 6 p.m., Upper Lake High School Stadium
Lower Lake High School: 7:30 p.m., Lower Lake High School Football Field
Monday, June 12
Ed Donaldson Education Center: 7 p.m., Kelseyville High School Student Center
Friday, June 16
Kelseyville High School Friday: 8 p.m., Kelseyville High School Football Stadium
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research announced on Thursday $8 million in project awards through Round I of the Adaptation Planning Grant, including funding for Lake County.
The grant, funded through Gov. Newsom’s 2021-22 Climate Budget and established through SB 170, will support communities statewide in developing adaptation projects that address climate risks and strengthen resilience.
Based on California’s best available science, climate impacts are projected to accelerate statewide, with vulnerable populations most at risk.
To minimize these impacts, projects in the first round will support local governments, community-based organizations, and tribes in assessing local hazards, conducting robust engagement, and creating equitable and community-driven strategies to minimize climate impacts experienced on the ground.
There is a clear need for investments of this kind as $63 million in awards was requested for only $8 million in funding.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research said the 14 projects represent “a significant step toward fostering cross-sector collaboration and equity in statewide efforts to adapt to climate change.”
Nine of the projects are located within Justice40 communities and will advance the Biden Administration’s goal to invest in communities burdened by legacy pollution.
Of the nine projects, three are led or coled by California Native American tribes.
One of the grant’s goals is to build local capacity to help position climate-vulnerable communities to leverage additional state and federal funding.
“These projects are transformative in nature as they meaningfully center California’s most climate-vulnerable communities and leverage the expertise of multiple stakeholders,” said Sam Assefa, Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. “We are thrilled to make these awards today to help local partners accelerate their work to build capacity, assess risk, and develop tailored solutions and partnerships- essential to our success in building a resilient California for All.”
Projects in the first round bring together eight cities, eight nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, seven community-based organizations, or CBOs, six counties, four special districts, three California Native American tribes, two universities, one joint powers authority, or JPA, one council of governments, or COG, and one metropolitan planning organization, or MPO.
The coalitions underscore a collective commitment to developing projects that yield multiple benefits and are rooted in diverse partnerships.
The Adaptation Planning Grant projects awarded Thursday include:
Planning for an Equitable, Climate Safe Lake: $649,350 Planning for an Equitable, Climate-Safe Lake will create an inclusive and collaborative framework for improving climate adaptation planning and implementing risk reduction projects in Lake County. The project supports the Community Risk Reduction Authority, or RRA, in becoming a self-sustaining climate action provider with an equity focus, including embedding diversity, equity and inclusion values into RRA's leadership and processes, assessing vulnerabilities, implementing actions from the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and tracking progress.
Yosemite Slough Adaptation Plan: $649,000 The Yosemite Slough Adaptation Plan aims to address the disparity in adaptation planning between the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood and the rest of San Francisco's urban waterfront. The plan focuses on building community capacity, developing equitable adaptation strategies, and positioning Yosemite Slough for federal funding. Project partners include the San Francisco Planning Department, En2Action, BAYCAT, San Francisco Estuary Institute, California State Parks Foundation, and other city agencies.
Hoopa Valley Tribe Climate Adaptation Plan: $338,448 The Hoopa Valley Tribe will complete climate adaptation scoping activities, a Vulnerability Assessment, and develop a Climate Adaptation Plan in partnership with the community and tribal staff.
San Rafael Climate Adaptation Planning Collaborative: $644,200 The San Rafael Climate Adaptation Planning Collaborative will work with disproportionately vulnerable communities in partnership with local organizations in the Canal neighborhood to cocreate solutions for improved safety and resilience. Partners will work to improve understanding of climate hazards, prioritize adaptation measures, and build climate capacity within community-based organizations while providing STEM educational opportunities for students from the Canal neighborhood.
City of San Fernando Climate Action and Resilience Plan: $599,918 The City of San Fernando will complete a Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP) and update elements in its General Plan (land use, circulation, open space, and conservation) which are crucial for effective resiliency planning and aligning with local, regional, and state initiatives. The project will engage the community early on to gather input in an equitable manner, develop targeted strategies to address disparities, and support vulnerable populations to address climate-related concerns.
Shade Equity Masterplan for the Unincorporated Eastern Coachella Valley: $644,411 The Shade Master Plan for Eastern Coachella Valley's unincorporated communities in Riverside County will benchmark and develop strategies for shade in predominantly low-income, Spanish-speaking areas experiencing temperatures exceeding 120 degrees. The plan will serve as a blueprint for investing in new shade infrastructure and adapting to extreme heat and associated benefits to residents, agencies, and stakeholders in the area.
Ramona Barona Climate Adaptation and Action Plan: $596,600 The Ramona-Barona Climate Collaborative, led by the Ramona Municipal Water District and its partners the Barona Band of Mission Indians, Sustainable Ramona and the Ramona Chamber of Commerce, aims to develop a comprehensive climate adaptation and action plan to address climate impacts in the area including extreme heat, water shortages, landslides, flooding, and wildfires.
San Jose interdependent Water, Energy, Security Electrified Transportation Climate Adaptation Plan: $649,970 The San José Interdependent Water, Energy, Security & Electrified Transportation Climate Adaptation Planning Proposal aims to develop a comprehensive climate adaptation plan that focuses on critical infrastructure and incorporates the needs of vulnerable communities.
City of Berkeley Safety Plan and Environmental Element Update: $600,000 The City of Berkeley, in partnership with the Ecology Center and the Berkeley Climate Equity Collaborative, will cocreate with community an update to Berkeley’s General Plan Safety Element, development of a new General Plan Environmental Justice Element, and creation of metrics that incorporate equitable outcomes to monitor and evaluate progress toward meeting the City’s climate and resilience goals.
Stockton Climate Action and Adaptation Plan: $650,000 The City of Stockton will partner with trusted, local nonprofits and engage a highly qualified consultant to create a new Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. The City's current CAP hasn't been updated since 2014, leaving the City and its partners without a clear vision for the future of Stockton's environment. A new CAP that focuses on public health and equity will guide strategies to address the impacts of climate change, particularly for disadvantaged communities in Stockton.
Lake Elsinore Climate Adaptation Plan: $401,100 Lake Elsinore’s Climate Adaptation Plan will assess climate change impacts and the adaptive capacity of residents, especially Lake Elsinore’s most vulnerable community members, and develop strategies to respond to specific impacts.
San Mateo County OneWatershed Climate Resilience Framework: $649,648 The San Mateo County OneWatershed Climate Resilience Framework Project aims to develop a model for community-led risk identification, a replicable watershed approach, resilient neighborhoods and watersheds, and breaking down silos in water-related infrastructure planning to address climate adaptation challenges holistically.
LA’s Cool Capital Stack: $506,000 The LA Cool Capital Stack creates a pipeline of viable community-led climate resilient infrastructure projects designed to strengthen LA County communities most vulnerable to extreme heat and other climate hazards. It establishes an agency-community collaborative that brings together LA County, Metro, and Infrastructure Justice Los Angeles (IJLA) to cocreate an approach to equitable, climate resilient infrastructure development.
WRCOG Energy Resilience Plan 2.0 Microgrid Feasibility Studies: $421,000 WRCOG will develop an Energy Resilience Plan 2.0, which will identify up to 10 sites across Western Riverside County to conduct feasibility studies to determine the potential to implement microgrids and community resilience centers.
The Adaptation Planning Grant aims to enhance local communities’ resilience in the face of climate change impacts. The Adaptation Planning Grant Program, a key component of the Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resilience Program, provides funding to support integrated climate adaptation planning efforts in California.
The Office of Planning and Research, or OPR, serves as the comprehensive state planning agency for California. OPR's mission is to improve the quality of life for all Californians by developing and implementing innovative policies and programs that balance environmental, economic, and social equity objectives.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has many dogs waiting to be adopted this week.
This week the shelter has 43 adoptable dogs.
The dogs that are available for adoption include “Red,” an 8-year-old male German shepherd-Labrador retriever mix with a reddish-tan coat.
“Red would enjoy a quiet home to let his personality flourish at his own pace. He has done well with other dogs at the shelter, and having another dog in the house might make him feel more comfortable,” shelter staff reported.
There also is “Tinkerbell,” a long coat Chihuahua mix with red and white coloring.
Another of the available dogs is “JuJu,” a female terrier mix with a black coat and white markings.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Get ready for the Lake County Library's exciting summer reading challenge, starting on Thursday, June 1.
This year's theme invites all to "Find Your Voice!”
By participating in the library's summer reading program, children, teens and adults have a chance to win prizes, ranging from stickers and small toys for kids to a Kindle Fire tablet or local business gift cards.
Engaging in this program is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to challenge themselves to read more.
For students, reading during the summer break helps prevent learning loss and sets them up for a successful start to the next school year.
Reading for pleasure also builds vocabulary and literacy skills.
The library offers tailored programs for pre-K, kids, teens and adults. Even children who haven't yet mastered reading on their own can participate, with parents recording the books they read together.
Starting June 1, residents can register for the summer reading challenge on the Library's website or in person at the library.
Registration remains open until August 5, ensuring ample time for signing up.
Residents are also invited to visit their local branch in person to sign up. On Saturday, June 3, starting at 10:30 a.m., each library will host a Super Sign Up event complete with sidewalk chalk and fun.
Once registered, participants can dive into books and earn points by logging their reading progress either online or by visiting the library.
All types of reading material borrowed from the library counts, including eBooks, print books, audiobooks, magazines and comics.
To make summer reading even more enjoyable, the library offers enticing prizes. Adults and teens have a chance to win exciting rewards through a prize drawing at the end of the program. Kids can earn fun toys and stickers. The more points participants earn, the higher their chances of winning.
The prizes are generously provided by the Friends of the Lake County Library, a community nonprofit membership organization.
Upon reaching 1,000 points, participants will also have a book donated to the library in their name by the Friends of the Lake County Library. The book will bear their name, commemorating their reading achievement, and they will have the privilege of being the first person to check it out.
Don't miss out! Visit the Lake County Library website at http://library.lakecountyca.gov to discover more about this exciting summer reading challenge.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has confirmed that multiple sightings of what is believed to be the same wolverine occurred in May in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains.
Two sightings were in the Inyo National Forest in Inyo and Mono counties. A third sighting occurred in Yosemite National Park in Tuolumne County.
Images and video of the wolverine, taken in May by separate individuals in different locations, were sent to CDFW for analysis, which consulted with wolverine experts from the U.S. Forest Service.
Scientists identified the animal as a wolverine by its size, body proportion, coloration and movement patterns.
CDFW field teams then confirmed the sighting locations through coordinates imbedded in the photos and video.
“Wolverines can travel great distances, making it likely that the recent sightings are all of the same animal,” said CDFW Senior Environmental Scientist Daniel Gammons. “Because only two wolverines have been confirmed in California during the last 100 years, these latest detections are exciting.”
Scientists documented a single wolverine in California from 2008 to 2018. That wolverine was first discovered in February 2008 in the Truckee region of the Tahoe National Forest. The recent detections were likely of a different wolverine given that the species’ lifespan is typically 12 to 13 years.
Prior to that, the last confirmed wolverine sightings in California were in the 1920s.
Wolverines are the largest terrestrial member of the weasel family and resemble a small bear. They are widely distributed in Canada and Alaska with smaller populations in the Rocky and Cascade mountains.
In California wolverines are classified as fully protected and listed as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.
CDFW plans to collaborate with the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service to collect genetic samples from the wolverine through hair, scat or saliva found at feeding sites.
A new federal agency to regulate AI sounds helpful but could become unduly influenced by the tech industry. Instead, Congress can legislate accountability.
Instead of licensing companies to release advanced AI technologies, the government could license auditors and push for companies to set up institutional review boards.
The government hasn’t had great success in curbing technology monopolies, but disclosure requirements and data privacy laws could help check corporate power.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged lawmakers to consider regulating AI during his Senate testimony on May 16, 2023. That recommendation raises the question of what comes next for Congress. The solutions Altman proposed – creating an AI regulatory agency and requiring licensing for companies – are interesting. But what the other experts on the same panel suggested is at least as important: requiring transparency on training data and establishing clear frameworks for AI-related risks.
Another point left unsaid was that, given the economics of building large-scale AI models, the industry may be witnessing the emergence of a new type of tech monopoly.
As a researcher who studies social media and artificial intelligence, I believe that Altman’s suggestions have highlighted important issues but don’t provide answers in and of themselves. Regulation would be helpful, but in what form? Licensing also makes sense, but for whom? And any effort to regulate the AI industry will need to account for the companies’ economic power and political sway.
An agency to regulate AI?
Lawmakers and policymakers across the world have already begun to address some of the issues raised in Altman’s testimony. The European Union’s AI Act is based on a risk model that assigns AI applications to three categories of risk: unacceptable, high risk, and low or minimal risk. This categorization recognizes that tools for social scoring by governments and automated tools for hiring pose different risks than those from the use of AI in spam filters, for example.
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology likewise has an AI risk management framework that was created with extensive input from multiple stakeholders, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of American Scientists, as well as other business and professional associations, technology companies and think tanks.
Federal agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Trade Commission have already issued guidelines on some of the risks inherent in AI. The Consumer Product Safety Commission and other agencies have a role to play as well.
Though OpenAI’s Altman suggested that companies could be licensed to release artificial intelligence technologies to the public, he clarified that he was referring to artificial general intelligence, meaning potential future AI systems with humanlike intelligence that could pose a threat to humanity. That would be akin to companies being licensed to handle other potentially dangerous technologies, like nuclear power. But licensing could have a role to play well before such a futuristic scenario comes to pass.
Algorithmic auditing would require credentialing, standards of practice and extensive training. Requiring accountability is not just a matter of licensing individuals but also requires companywide standards and practices.
Experts on AI fairness contend that issues of bias and fairness in AI cannot be addressed by technical methods alone but require more comprehensive risk mitigation practices such as adopting institutional review boards for AI. Institutional review boards in the medical field help uphold individual rights, for example.
Strengthening existing statutes on consumer safety, privacy and protection while introducing norms of algorithmic accountability would help demystify complex AI systems. It’s also important to recognize that greater data accountability and transparency may impose new restrictions on organizations.
Scholars of data privacy and AI ethics have called for “technological due process” and frameworks to recognize harms of predictive processes. The widespread use of AI-enabled decision-making in such fields as employment, insurance and health care calls for licensing and audit requirements to ensure procedural fairness and privacy safeguards.
Given the lack of transparency in the training data used by these companies, AI ethics experts Timnit Gebru, Emily Bender and others have warned that large-scale adoption of such technologies without corresponding oversight risks amplifying machine bias at a societal scale.
It is also important to acknowledge that the training data for tools such as ChatGPT includes the intellectual labor of a host of people such as Wikipedia contributors, bloggers and authors of digitized books. The economic benefits from these tools, however, accrue only to the technology corporations.
Proving technology firms’ monopoly power can be difficult, as the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Microsoft demonstrated. I believe that the most feasible regulatory options for Congress to address potential algorithmic harms from AI may be to strengthen disclosure requirements for AI firms and users of AI alike, to urge comprehensive adoption of AI risk assessment frameworks, and to require processes that safeguard individual data rights and privacy.
Idaho, Montana and Florida, all red states, had the greatest population growth among U.S. states between 2020 and 2022. Meanwhile, New York and Illinois, both blue states, and Louisiana, a red state, suffered the biggest population losses. California, another blue state, has experienced significant recent population loss as well.
One key reason for this migration is the high cost of living in places like New York and California, compared with the lower cost of living in red states such as Georgia or Indiana.
I am a scholar who studies the intersection between politics, media and psychology. I think it is important to note that another trend, though, is that people are largely migrating to places with lower life expectancies.
For instance, people born in New York and California – two of the richest states in the country, which largely vote Democratic – have a life expectancy of 77.7 and 79 years, respectively. But people in Mississippi and Louisiana – two of the poorest states, which tend to vote Republican – live, on average, until they are 71.9 and 73.1 years old.
Poverty is an indicator for life expectancies in the U.S. – the poorer someone is, the more likely to die younger.
But there are likely other issues at play in people in red states’ having lower life spans.
Health differences
Research in 2020 showed that Americans in blue states tend to live longer than people in red states, primarily because of state policies on everything from seat belt laws to abortion laws. That research also identified health policies as a major factor.
Moreover, when looking at the rates of people who are diagnosed with cancer in each state, it is clear that people in red states are generally less healthy than people in blue ones. Red-state residents are also more likely to die from heart disease than people in blue states.
But health rates vary greatly across racial and ethnic groups. Black and Hispanic people are far more likely than white and Asian people in the U.S. to not have access to quality affordable health care, regardless of their state of residence.
Another key factor in this life span trend is that people in red states have lower levels of education than people in blue states.
This matters, since some recent research has shown that education levels are the best predictor of a person’s life span for a variety of complex, interconnected reasons, including an increased likelihood that receiving a higher education will lead to a boost in income.
Experts also often consider race and ethnicity another major factor, in part because of structural inequalities facing people of color that may place access to quality affordable education out of reach, for example.
Lack of education may be the most direct reason for lower incomes and shorter lives – but it is not clear if attaining a higher level of education makes people wealthier, or if people who are born into wealth receive more and better education.
Are people moving to die young?
There are other reasons that factor into the complex question of life expectancy, and discrepancies in longevity across states.
One reason identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, is that there are more gun deaths – by homicide and suicide – in red states than blue states.
People are moving to different states in the U.S. for a variety of reasons – including, in some cases, political ideologies. While blue ZIP codes have been found to be getting bluer, red ones are becoming even more red.
But it is important to keep in mind that data on life spans and health are simply averages, and so there can be a high variation within particular locations.
Thee are people in red and blue states who defy these statistics – many people living long lives in poor red states, and people dying younger in rich blue ones.
Still, the overall trends are clear. People living in blue states – by and large – tend to live longer, healthier and wealthier lives.
On Wednesday, Lake County’s representative in the House of Representatives joined the majority of House members in voting for a bill to avoid a government default.
Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) voted to pass H.R. 3746, the Bipartisan Budget Agreement, which his office said will “avoid a catastrophic default and protect America’s economy.”
“A default would have pushed our economy into an unprecedented crisis and harmed communities in our district and across our country,” said Thompson. “I voted for the Bipartisan Budget Agreement to avoid a default and keep our economy strong. There are provisions of the bill I don’t like, but in a divided government, negotiation requires compromise. This bill saves us from an economic disaster that would harm every family in America, and I will continue to work with my colleagues to address the shortcomings of this bill with the potential economic default behind us.”
Rep. Thompson spoke on the House floor during debate of this legislation.
During his remarks, Thompson said the American people cannot afford a default, which he called “an economic disaster with consequences for every one of our constituents. Congress can’t let that happen.”
He emphasized that while the bill isn’t perfect, it achieves two key points: It prevents default, averting an economic disaster, and it preserves not only key programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, but also protects climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Thompson authored with his colleagues in the Ways and Means Committee.
It also preserves the PACT Act, which preserves veterans health care.
Thompson said he was concerned with aspects of the bill, noting he was particularly opposed to the demand by Republicans to cut mental health care which, after climate change, is the single biggest crisis in the United States.
“There is no reason to cut critical funding for mental health,” Thompson said.
He said the cuts to the Internal Revenue Service won’t decrease the deficit but will increase it. “A fully funded IRS is in everyone’s best interest,” Thompson said.
“Overall, this legislation is a compromise, which is what the American people expect and deserve from a divided government,” Thompson said.
“And most important, it averts the catastrophe of a default,” he added, urging his colleagues to vote for the bill.
With its passage by the House, the bill now moves to the Senate.
Thompson previously pointed out the impacts that a default would have on the Fourth District, including killing 7,300 jobs in district alone — and more than seven million nationwide — and also would jeopardize Social Security payments for 91,000 families in the district, put health benefits at risk for 285,000 people who rely on Medicare, Medicaid, or Veterans Affairs health coverage, increase the lifetime mortgage costs for the typical homeowner in California by $92,000, raise the costs of a new-car loan for the typical American by $800 and threaten the retirement savings of 96,800 people near retirement in the Fourth district, eliminating $20,000 from the typical retirement portfolio.
Thompson represents California’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — At its meeting this week, the Clearlake City Council is set to hear from police leadership about the findings of an investigation into conditions at the city’s animal shelter.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 1, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Comments and questions can be submitted in writing for City Council consideration by sending them to City Clerk Melissa Swanson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
To give the council adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit your written comments before 4 p.m. Thursday, June 1.
Thursday’s agenda includes a presentation and discussion of an investigative report by Clearlake Police Lt. Ryan Peterson into allegations regarding the conditions at the Clearlake animal shelter.
Police Chief Tim Hobbs’ memo to the council for the Thursday meeting said that, in response to the complaints the city received, on April 3 Flora directed North Bay Animal Services “to immediately address the number of animals in the shelter, the use of crates, access to the facility by the public, laundry, and cleaning protocols. The City Manager also directed the police department to initiate an investigation to look into the validity of the allegations.”
Flora’s directive was the result of numerous complaints about North Bay Animal Services’ operations, including overcrowding, health of the animals, veterinary care and distribution of donations.
Peterson was given a month to complete the report, and Flora told Lake County News that the document Peterson presented to city administration was about 75 pages.
Hobbs said Peterson interviewed 22 people during his investigation. “They consisted of complainants, volunteers, past employees, current employees, and animal care and control professionals. Information reviewed and used during the investigation included photographs, emails, policy & procedures, community information, research, and visits to the Clearlake animal shelter and the Mendocino County animal shelter.”
Hobbs’ memo continued, “As a result of the investigation, findings were developed regarding the allegations. Some allegations were found to be valid and are being corrected; others were found not to be accurate. Some require more discussion with North Bay Animal Services.”
He said Peterson’s report containing the specific findings will be provided to the City Council and the public early next week, as the report is under a final legal review to ensure all the information included is publicly disclosable.
“This report has been completed to provide the City Administration and the City Council with the information to make further decisions regarding animal services,” Hobbs said.
Also on Thursday, there will be a presentation of a proclamation declaring June 2023 as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month and a public hearing to consider a resolution authorizing the extension of the temporary road closure of certain roads, to reduce illegal dumping and to protect the environment, and the public health and welfare.
A planned public hearing for the appeal of the Koi Nation of Northern California of the Planning Commission's April 25 decision for approval of the Burns Valley Development Project is being continued to 3 p.m. Thursday, June 8.
On the meeting's consent agenda — items that are considered routine in nature and usually adopted on a single vote — are warrants; consideration of Resolution 2023-24 to adopt a list of approved projects for submission to the California Transportation Committee for funding pursuant to SB1; approval of Resolution No. 2023-24, approving a temporary road closure for the Battle of the Bands Concert and Car Show; authorization of an amendment of the on-call contract with California Engineering for the Arrowhead/Burns Valley Road Improvement Project in the amount of $202,336.77; and adoption of the sixth amendment to the FY 2022-23 Budget (Resolution 2022-44) Adjusting Appropriations and Revenues, Resolution No. 2023-26.
The council also will hold a closed session to discuss labor negotiations regarding the Clearlake Middle Management Association.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — A large fight that erupted at the Lake County Fairgrounds on Sunday night left one person with serious injuries, and authorities are asking for the community’s help in identifying the individuals responsible for the assault.
The brawl occurred during the second night of the Memorial Weekend Opener for the Lakeport Speedway, which is now under the management of a new promoter, Blair Aiken of B.A.D Racing.
Because the incident occurred on the fairgrounds, which is considered state property, the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office is leading the investigation into the fight.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen told Lake County News that his agency, along with California State Parks law enforcement officers and Lake County Sheriff’s deputies, responded with the CHP to the fight, which he said was “pretty much dispersed when we arrived.”
The CHP said its officers and the allied agencies responded to the fairgrounds at 9:46 p.m. Sunday on the report of a large fight occurring during the boat races.
When officers arrived, they identified one victim with serious injuries “stemming from a physical altercation involving several unknown assailants,” the report said.
The CHP identified the victim in the fight as Joseph Simpson Nelson, 58, of Ukiah.
Nelson was treated by emergency medical personnel on scene and then airlifted to Kaiser Hospital in Vacaville for further treatment, the CHP said.
Sgt. Josh Dye said Monday evening that the CHP had spoken to Nelson’s family and was working to get additional updates on his condition.
Based on the statements and evidence the CHP has obtained so far, officers determined that Nelson had been beaten about the head and face by several unknown assailants, resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the report.
Lake County Fair Chief Executive Officer Sheli Wright told Lake County News on Monday evening that, by that point, she had only gotten small pieces of information on the incident, and hadn’t yet received a report from CHP.
“I have lots of questions but do not have the answers yet,” Wright said.
“I can tell you the turnout was not something expected,” said Wright, adding that last year, under the former race promoter, they were lucky if there were 200 people in the stands.
Wright said the District Agricultural Association, the fair’s official name, hopes that Nelson is OK.
The CHP said Officer Johnson is investigating the felony battery incident.
The agency is asking for assistance from witnesses, as well as any available video of the incident.
Anyone who believes they have useful information or video associated with the incident is asked to call the CHP’s Clear Lake Area office at 707-279-0103.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.