Tuesday, 10 December 2024

News

MIDDLETOWN – An Oakley man was injured Sunday when his motorcycle collided with a van on Highway 29.


The crash, which occurred at 4:45 p.m. Sunday, injured 51-year-old Darren Deberry, according to the California Highway Patrol.


The report from CHP Officer Steve Tanguay explained that Vargas Trejo, 37, of Middletown, was driving a 1994 Mercury Voyager van southbound on Highway 29 with six juvenile passengers – ages 3 to 17 – in the van.


Trejo was stopped and waiting to turn left onto Bradford Road when he looked in his mirror and saw that there was a motorcycle traveling southbound approaching his location, Tanguay said.


It appeared to Trejo that the motorcycle was not going to be able to stop in time before it got to the van, and so he moved the van forward to try to create more space for the motorcycle, according to Tanguay.


Tanguay said that Deberry, who was riding his 2000 Harley Davidson motorcycle, ran into the rear of the van and was ejected from the motorcycle, landing in the roadway.


Deberry was transported by CHP helicopter to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for injuries sustained in this collision, which Tanguay said didn't injury anyone in the van.


He said alcohol is not believed to be a factor in this collision, which is being investigated by Officer Kevin Domby.


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The 2010 Census emphasizes that the success of the count is in everyone's hands. Photo by Tera DeVroede.
 

 

 

 

CLEARLAKE – With the 2010 Census now in full swing, the Lake County Complete Count Committee hosted the “March to the Mailbox” event Saturday to encourage participation in the national population count.


The event drew a large crowd at Clearlake’s Austin Park.


This year the Lake County Complete Count Committee is going all out in an effort to get everyone counted in this decade’s US Census.


“With this event, we’re trying to reach those who didn’t get forms in the mail or don’t know how to fill it out,” said Melissa Swanson, Clearlake's city clerk, a Complete Count Committee member and the event's key organizer.


April 17 was the very last day to mail 2010 Census forms in order to be counted by mail.


Census forms were available but were not being accepted at the event; the forms still needed to make their way to the post office.


It costs taxpayers only 42 cents to mail back the postage-paid census form, but it costs $57 to recruit, hire, train and send a census worker out to collect information from the same 10-simple questions for each and every non-responding household, as Lake County News has reported.


The event was intended to bolster Lake County’s current participation rate, which was 57 percent over the weekend, according to the US Census Bureau. That's up three percentage points over 2000.


The city of Clearlake has 58 percent of its population counted thus far, according to the US Census Bureau, while California is currently at 67 percent participation, trailing behind the national average of 69 percent.


The March to the Mailbox event attracted a variety of people, from those who did not get a census form in the mail to dignitaries and those running for office. Lake County sheriff candidate Deputy Francisco Rivero was there speaking with individuals.


Swanson advised citizens that the US Census Bureau doesn’t send forms to post office boxes, so all houses in the community were mapped onto GPS.


However, this year many Clearlake residents reported not receiving their forms in time to return them by mail.


“I didn’t get a form and I’ve been here in Clearlake for 35 years,” said city resident Joan Moore.


“It’s the first year we haven’t gotten a form,” added Clearlake resident Harold West, “and we have been here for 27 years.”


“I’ve heard there seems to be a glitch in the Census Bureau’s forms,” said Swanson.

 

 

 

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Community members stopped to fill out 2010 Census forms at the March to the Mailbox event at Austin Park in Clearlake, Calif., on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Photo by Tera DeVroede.
 

 

 


Lower Lake High School’s Jazz band and show choir performed at the event. But before the music started, several public speakers had a few words for the event-goers.


Clearlake Mayor Judy Thein issued a proclamation designating April 17 as March to the Mailbox Day and encouraging Clearlake residents to mail their census forms.


“By doing so, our community will receive its fair share of federal funds, census jobs and congressional representation,” the proclamation read.


After the proclamation, District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith encouraged everyone to fill their forms out and ask their friends to do the same. He emphasized that getting counted saves everyone money.


County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck offered a few words for the Spanish-speaking community and helped with translations during the event.


Elaine Dempsey of the US Census Bureau had a statement regarding the fact that many people did not get their forms in the mail this year.


“On behalf of the Census Bureau, we must have slipped up somewhere,” she said.


She continued on to explain that on May 1 people should be expecting a knock on their doors in an ongoing effort to reach everyone in the county.


Fred Hebert, assistant manager for recruiting for the Census Bureau, said a few words about how a county’s counted population affects it residents.


Each person counted equals $15,000 per years in funding, he said.


After the speakers delivered their messages, event-goers were treated to music and a show from Lower Lake High School's musician, as well as numerous tables of informational resources.


Groups represented at the event or who supported it with donations included the Lake County Fire Protection District, the city of Clearlake, Lake County Office of Education, Lower Lake Fire Department VIPs, Healthy Start, Soroptimist International, Ray’s Food Place, Safeway and Clearlake Chamber of Commerce.


For more information about this year’s Census, visit www.2010census.gov.

 

 

E-mail Tera deVroede at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

 

 

 

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Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck and Clearlake City Clerk Melissa Swanson are members of the Lake County Complete Count Committee. Swanson and Geck were among the organizers of the March to the Mailbox event at Austin Park in Clearlake, Calif., on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Photo by Tera DeVroede.
 

 

CLEARLAKE – A crash on Old Highway 53 in Clearlake on Friday afternoon killed one man and injured two other people.


The collision occurred at 1:15 p.m. on Old Highway 53 north of Konocti View Road, according to Clearlake Police Sgt. Tim Hobbs.


Hobbs said a Hyundai Tiburon driven by a male subject was traveling north on Old Highway 53 when he crossed over the double-yellow lines into the southbound lane and hit head-on a Ford Explorer with two elderly people riding in it.


The Hyundai's driver died at the scene, while the Ford Explorer's occupants were taken to St. Helena Hospital Clearlake with minor to moderate injuries, Hobbs said.


Clearlake Police and the Lake County Fire Protection District responded to the scene, where Hobbs said the roadway was shut down until about 4 p.m. The Lake County Sheriff's Office also sent a deputy for coroner duties.


Hobbs said the speed limit through that stretch of road is 30 miles per hour, however due to the damage sustained by both vehicles – which he said looked more like what would be seen in a highway crash – he believed that the Tiburon's driver was likely traveling much faster. He said the Explorer was probably traveling slower than the speed limit.


“At this point we can't say he died as a result of this collision,” Hobbs said of the Hyundai's driver.


On Saturday Hobbs didn't release the identities of those involved, as he said he had been unable to verify that family members had been notified of the incident.


E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

LAKE COUNTY – The two candidates in this year's race for District 2 supervisor will take part in a debate on Tuesday, April 27.


Challenger Joyce Overton and incumbent Jeff Smith will appear at the special event, which will be held in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.


The debate will begin at 6:30 p.m. and is expected to last an hour.


The Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and Lake County News are sponsoring the debate, which will be broadcast live on TV8.


The public is invited to submit questions to Lake County News via e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; fax, 707-274-8650; mail, P.O. Box 305, Lakeport, CA 95453-0305; or via Lake County News' Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .


Questions also may be submitted to the Clear Lake Chamber via e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; fax, 707-994-3603; mail, P.O. Box 5330, Clearlake, CA 95422; or drop them off at the chamber office, 3245 Bowers Ave. The chamber can be reached by telephone at 707-994-3600.


The format used for the debate will put the same questions to both candidates, so as much as possible questions should be broadly applicable.


A small number of questions will be taken via note cards at the debate.


Questions about the debate may be directed to debate moderator Elizabeth Larson, 707-274-9904, or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .


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LAKE COUNTY – After the first sunny weekend with warm daytime temperatures in several weeks, beginning on Monday a cooling trend returns once again, with a winter storm watch issued for parts of Lake County.


According to the National Weather Service in Sacramento, a wintry storm will begin to move over the North Coast and into northern Lake County overnight and during the day on Tuesday, bringing with it the potential for moderate amounts of snow above 4,000 feet, with some snow mixed with rain down to 3,000 feet.


During the day on Tuesday, the National Weather Service predicts a chance of thunderstorms that may produce periods of heavy rains, gusty winds and small hail.


Monday's high temperatures are expected to warm once again to the high 60s, but as the colder and unstable system moves in overnight, the National Weather Services predicts a 70-percent chance of rain and temperatures lowering to the low 40s.


On Tuesday, the National Weather Service expects daytime temperatures to be 10 to 15 degrees cooler, with highs only in the low 50s or upper 40s in Lake County, with a 60-percent chance of rain with periods of heavy rain and the possibility of hail and a mix of rain and snow.


As the system moves out of Lake County, the National Weather Service forecasts a slight chance of rain on Wednesday, with daytime temperatures remaining cool and in the low 50s.


Thursday is expected to be clear and warmer once again, as temperatures inch back up in to the 60s, according to the National Weather Service, with sun and clear skies continuing through the weekend.

 

For up-to-the-minute weather information, please check the home page.


E-mail Terre Logsdon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

CACHE CREEK – May is California’s Watershed Awareness Month, designated to promote watershed education and stewardship activities at the local community level.


The public is invited to attend Cache Creek Discovery Day, a free, family-friendly outdoor event on Saturday, May 1, at the Bureau of Land Management's Cowboy Camp Equestrian Campground, on Highway 16 just one mile south of Highway 20 in Colusa County, along the Bear Creek tributary to Cache Creek.


The event is geared toward all ages, with special emphasis on youth outdoor-learning about a broad range of topics relevant to the watershed.

Guided hikes along the High Bridge Trail, wildlife viewing, Native American basketry, and displays highlighting stream ecology, local fish, wildlife tracks and signs, native plants, habitat restoration, native pollinators and local agriculture are among the planned activities.


The Cache Creek watershed, which includes the entire Clear Lake basin, encompasses rugged, forested mountains and lakesides in Colusa and Lake counties, ranches and organic farming in Capay Valley, extensive agricultural lands on the valley floor, and the seasonal wetlands of the Yolo Bypass.


It provides a diverse array of functions including winter foraging territory for wildlife such as Bald Eagles, and recreational opportunities for boaters, kayakers and white-water rafters.


Cache Creek Discovery Day is free to the public, and will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A barbecue lunch will be available for purchase at the noon hour (accompanied by live music), or visitors are welcome to bring a picnic.


Cowboy Camp hosts wildlife viewing platforms, creek access, and regular visits by local Tule elk herds. Just up the road are the renowned wildflower fields of Bear Valley, and just downstream is Cache Canyon Park, where rafters find white-water creek access.


This event is sponsored by the Cache Creek Watershed Forum, a tri-county group of natural resource, agricultural, and educational partners, including the following stakeholders: US Bureau of Land Management; Colusa, Yolo, East Lake and West Lake RCDs; the Counties of Lake and Yolo; Cache Creek Conservancy; Tuleyome; Sierra Club Lake Group; UC Davis; and Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.


For more information please contact Greg Dills at the East and West Lake Resource Conservation District, 707 263-4180, or download a flyer at www.lakelive.info/ccwf/CCDD10flyer.pdf.


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LUCERNE – California Water Service Co. on Monday lifted a boil water notice that had been put into effect last Friday.


Company officials on Monday issued a notice to Lucerne water customers stating that water quality testing confirmed that the water provided to Cal Water’s Lucerne system customers met all state and federal water quality standards.


That made it no longer necessary to boil water used for drinking and cooking, the company reported.


Cal Water and the California Department of Public Health issued the advisory on April 16 because a mechanical failure the previous evening resulted in the water at the treatment plant not being properly disinfected, with no chlorine added for 12 hours, as Lake County News has reported.


The company said Monday that it will continue to monitor the water quality to ensure that it meets all water quality standards, and that the boil water advisory was a precautionary measure taken until water quality testing could be completed.


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MIDDLETOWN – A collision that occurred late in the afternoon on Sunday resulted in major injuries.


It was reported at about 4:45 p.m. Sunday at 24606 Highway 29 at Bradford Road near Middletown, according to the California Highway Patrol.


Two motorcycles were down blocking the roadway. The CHP report noted that another vehicle may have contributed to or caused the crash, but additional details weren't available late Sunday.


The highway was blocked until shortly before 5:30 p.m., when the CHP reported both lanes had been reopened.


The crash victims were reportedly transferred to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, but their identities and the extent of their injuries was not available from the CHP Sunday.


E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

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Larry Graham at the San Francisco Regency Ballroom on Friday, April 2, 2010. Photo courtesy of www.larrygraham.com.

 


 

It was another Good Friday for the Funk. I remember in about 1970 when Larry Graham premiered the original version of Graham Central Station at the long-gone Keystone Berkeley. It was an Easter weekend then as well. Mr. Graham must feel his element ‘round this time of year.

 

The main floor of the Regency Ballroom is near capacity at three minutes before show time on April 2. The balcony is sparse but starting to fill rapidly also. An exciting buzz fills the crowd.

 

The DJ is spinning mad R&B, the Isley Bros., Esquires, Teddy P., Rick James, etc.

 

It’s 9 p.m. The lights dim. There’s a band up there tuning up. Must be Slave. They look too young to be Slave. The lead singer is Mr. Donny P. The rhythm section is male. A woman on keys. Two women background singers.

 

The original version of Slave recorded a large catalog of music for the Cotillion, Atlantic and Ichiban labels from 1977 through 1995.

 

The band kicks of a slew of hits and riffs that tantalize the funky nostalgia cortex in the brain. Pleasure central of the auditory realm. “Watching You.” “Just A Touch Of Love.”

 

The band performs a medley of hits, some originally by Slave, some not, culminating with the monster hit “Slide.” People are up dancing. The bass player is really bringing it, knowing that the King of the Funky Bass is up next.

 

Just before 10:30 p.m. the lights again dim, eliciting a roar of approval from the assembled.

 

Suddenly a marching tempo of snare, tom and bass drum is heard from the rear of the room. Led and punctuated by new GCS member and seeming Drillmaster Ashley Cole, the new Graham Central Station marches toward the stage in cadenced precision, chanting the GCS cheer, “Gee, cess ess, the baddest band from east to west ...”

 

As the crowd gradually becomes aware of what’s really happening, the roar of approval transcends into a deafening, sonic, out-of-many one voice.

 

When they reached the stage, the group reprised the anthemic a capella “Entrow,” from their first self-titled album:

 

“We been waiting for so long, waiting to play for you some of our songs

cuz we been waiting …”

 

The band launches into the frenetic crowd pleasers “Ain’t No Fun To Me” followed by “It’s Alright.”

 

At the end of the opening two-song medley – which really had the folks dancin’, sangin’ and swayin’ – Larry attempted to address the crowd. They would not let him. They were already overcome.

 

The crowd’s out-of-many one voice returned in pure, uncut, unadulterated adulation. The true original sound of San Francisco Bay Area Funk had returned. It was truly a magic, emotional moment.

 

The King of the Funky Bass pounds his chest and points to the crowd, silently speaking volumes over the seismic ovation. It goes on for a good five minutes, a grateful crowd, thankful for being itself again and unspoken, heartfelt, telepathic ebb and flow of love from the Bass master.

 

And so it went. Song after song. Much of the Graham Central catalog as well as the baritone hits of Larry Graham as vocalist. An arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” lifted the whole room.

 

They graced the staged fully for two and a half hours, proving fully that they are not only fit to tour Europe, but fully poised to introduce the Funk to the legions some three generations later.

 

For those of you who weren’t born when it happened, Larry Graham, before Gee Cee Ess, was the original bass player for the much-heralded co-creators of Funk, Sly & The Family Stone. Graham invented the slapping or thump and pluck method of bass playing which has influenced legions of bass players in his wake.

 

This group broke so much new ground with its hybrid mix of Church of God In Christ Holy Ghost rhythms, psychedelic rock, Stax/Motown altered offerings that, not only made Sly a favorite musician of Jazzster Miles Davis, the group heavily influenced Herbie Hancock as well.

 

The testimony to that is the Funk friendly fusion period of the 70’s that pointed toward the Family Stone as the source of inspiration.

 

In 1969, at the mother of all Rock Festivals, Woodstock, was held in upstate New York in front of more that a quarter of a million folks. Carlos Santana, whose band also played wonderfully at Woodstock, is quoted as saying “Sly & The Family Stone outplayed them all.”

 

Since the dissolutions of the original incarnations of Sly & The Family Stone and Graham Central Station, Larry has stayed busy. He reinvented himself as a soulful balladeer in 1979 with the album and single “One In A Million You” which was nominated for Best R&B Performance, Male.

 

Throughout the 80s he released a string of successful albums as well as a duet with Lady Soul Aretha Franklin.

 

In the 90s he collaborated musically with Eddie Murphy followed by an evolved unit of Gee Cee Ess featuring former Sly band mates Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini.

 

Incidentally Larry was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of Sly & The Family Stone and received a Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer award in 2001 as well. He has also become affiliated with Prince and remains in constant collaboration with him musically.

 

Currently, in April of 2010, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station are touring Europe since the aforementioned April 2 debut in San Francisco. Early press reports indicated that Gee Cee Ess is killing them with the Funk.

 

New U.S. dates have are being added to their itinerary for the month of June including New York, D.C. and Minneapolis. Additionally, a new CD is in the works.

 

For more information on Larry Graham including an audio interview done on April 12 go to www.larrygraham.com. There will be rebroadcast on In The Free Zone at KPFZ 88.1 FM on April 23 at 3 p.m.

Keep prayin’, keep thinkin’ those kind thoughts!

 

T. Watts is a writer, radio host and music critic. 

 

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NICE – After nearly a year and a half of filing appeals, writing letters and holding meetings with federal officials, last week dozens of local American Indians who had been disenrolled from Robinson Rancheria in Nice in December of 2008 began receiving certified letters from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.


While many of the ousted tribal members said they had been led to believe that the BIA was going to rule in their favor, the 11-page letter – with a stamped date of April 9 – was quite different.


“Based on the information provided, I have decided to affirm the Business Council's decision that you are not eligible to be a member of the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians,” wrote BIA Acting Regional Director Dale Risling.


His letter concludes by stating that his decision is final for the BIA.


About 20 of the individuals hit with the disenrollment actions met on Friday in Nice to discuss what actions to take going forward.


They pledged to continue fighting and to seek an appeal, but one of their number, Wanda Quitiquit, noted, “We have to prepare ourselves for the true denial of our civil rights.”


Robinson Tribal Chair Tracey Avila did not return calls from Lake County News seeking comment, and directed her staff not to release to this publication a written press statement she sent to a local newspaper last week, instead suggesting that Lake County News could get the document from the newspaper.


In that statement, it was reported that 45 disenrollments had been upheld, but that number only accounts for appeals made to the BIA, according to documents submitted to the BIA by the tribe itself and obtained by Lake County News.


In fact, the names of another 22 people were removed from the tribal rolls in action taken in December 2008, according to those same documents.


Risling's letter explained that, according to tribal law, authority was delegated to the regional director to decide whether or not the actions taken by the Robinson Rancheria Citizens Business Council on Dec. 5, 2008, were legal based on the tribe's constitution.


On that date, the council – including Buffy White, Curtis Anderson Jr., Kim Fernandez, Stoney Timmons, Nicholas Medina and Chair Tracey Avila – took the final disenrollment action.


They began by disenrolling a dead woman, Marie Boggs Quitiquit – the mother of several of the proposed disenrollees – then passed 63 disenrollment resolutions for individuals including a 2-year-old child up to elders, one of them, Mildred Goforth, a native speaker of the Pomo language.


In addition, they disenrolled three other people who did not receive resolutions, for a total of 67 disenrollment actions, according to copies of the disenrollment documents and business council transcripts obtained by Lake County News.


Avila had told Lake County News in a December 2008 interview that the people whose names were removed from the rolls had been “on the table for many, many years.”


Risling's letter referred to a complicated series of past decisions by the tribal council regarding adoption ordinances and membership requirements, which was the reported basis for the disenrollment actions.


However, the Quitiquits and others whose names were stricken from the membership rolls say that they share lineage with the Anderson family, the current family in power whose members include Avila.


The group of disenrollees who met on Friday vowed to appeal the decision and keep fighting, despite the fact that they said BIA officials have told them they have no appeal alternatives.


Risling could not be reached for comment by Lake County News, with his staff reporting that he was in Washington, DC, last week.


Attempts to reach other BIA officials, including Fred Doka, who is reportedly one of Risling's deputies, also were unsuccessful.


Lake County News then attempted to reach BIA Central California Agency Superintendent Troy Burdick in Sacramento.


Although Burdick has spoken to this publication before, his staff said Lake County News needed to contact the BIA's Washington, DC press office, but refused to provide contact information.


Two calls placed to that office failed to elicit any explanations about the disenrollment action or if the people affected have any appeal or recourse.


Lake County Supervisor Denise Rushing said she was “stunned” by the decision and immediately concerned for those affected by it.


“Disenrollment has very real human impacts affecting members of our local community,” she said. “To whom can these people turn when they lose home, job, health care and income in one swift action at the hand of tribal government?”


Election matters still undecided


The Quitiquit family and other disenrollees point to contradictions in Risling's analysis of the tribe's constitution, conflicts between this action and previous actions taken by the BIA in tribal leadership matters, and to the BIA's indecision in the validity of a June 2008 election.


On June 14, 2008, the tribe's membership elected EJ Crandell as its new tribal chair, as Lake County News has reported.


However, Crandell alleges that Avila and her family members who sit on the tribe's election committee illegally invalidated that election in order for her to remain in power. Despite other elections that have taken place since that have selected other chairs, Avila remains in power.


The validity of the June 2008 election is up to Burdick to decide, but in recent meetings with Crandell and the Quitiquits, Burdick reportedly admitted that he has not made any decision on the matter.


That's a critical issue in connection to the disenrollment issue; opponents of the disenrollment said that the rightfully elected council wasn't seated at the time the actions were taken to strike the 67 members from the rolls.


Crandell and the Quitiquits also allege that the disenrollment action was taken in retaliation for Avila being voted out in June 2008. In previous statements Avila denied that. Since the disenrollment, several of those involved also are in danger of losing their homes through eviction actions.


While Risling said the business council followed the tribe's constitution in carrying out the disenrollment action, Wanda Quitiquit said that council resolutions are supposed to be released to the general tribal membership for approval, and that didn't happen.


The business council's disenrollments affected the family of Crandell's wife, and he said he believes he and other current tribal members who oppose the council are going to be targeted next.


Wanda Quitiquit agreed, saying that the BIA's decision has opened a “Pandora's box.”


She said Friday that she and her family members are concerned about whether or not they will now be barred entirely from the rancheria, including the burial sites of families and ancestors, and questioned if they will be prevented from using health care services provided through local American Indian health clinics that have funding from Robinson Rancheria.


Crandell said the business council is disregarding the wishes of the tribal members who formed the rancheria after termination, when the federal government basically dismantled the tribes.


He accused the BIA of allowing disenrollment to continue as a way of fully assimilating native peoples.


Rushing said she was concerned about what options are open to those who were disenrolled.


“Even in circumstances where disenrollment is upheld, I would hope that the tribe has a fair and just transition plan and that the BIA has an appeal process in the event that individuals civil rights are violated,” Rushing said. “I have not heard that such processes are in place, so this has the potential to be a significant justice issue.”


Disenrollment a nationwide issue


The local action to disenroll natives is not an isolated issue. In November 2007, the Elem Colony disenrolled 25 members, including the tribe's last native speaker, as Lake County News has reported.


The American Indian Rights and Resources Organization (AIRRO), a group that focuses on human and civil rights issues – to which several members of the Quitiquit family have belonged well before their own disenrollment – has tracked the issue around Indian Country.


The group's most recent estimate is that 11,000 American Indians around the United States have had their human and civil rights violated through actions taken by their own tribes.


In Northern California alone, they estimate more than 1,300 Indians have been stripped of their rights in some fashion, including disenrollment and banishment in tribes such as Pinoleville, Upper Lake, Hopland, Elem, Sherwood Valley and Potter Valley.


Nearly 2,200 more have been displaced in other parts of the state, including 770 from the Picayune Chukchanski and 440 from Pechanga, both in Southern California .


John Gomez, president of AIRRO, is one of those disenrolled from Pechanga six years ago, along with his entire family.


Over the weekend, Gomez led an AIRRO meeting in Sacramento in which the group collected stories of human rights violations.


Gomez said he's submitting those stories to the United Nations in Geneva on Monday morning as part of the United Nations' Universal Periodic Review of human and civil rights violations in the United States.


He said the United States is turning a blind eye to the growing issue of disenrollment, which he also blamed the federal government for creating through bad policies and broken treaties, including the Indian Civil Rights Act.


That 1968 law, which grew out of abuses by tribal leadership around the country, is supposed to prohibit tribal governments from creating laws that violate certain individual rights – such as freedom of religion, right to speedy and public trials, and freedom from bill of attainder and ex post facto laws, according to an explanation by the Columbia Legal Services and Northwest Justice Project in Washington state.


However, Gomez said those basic rights aren't always enforced by tribes or by the federal government. He said Indian activists have been trying to get the federal government to institute language to enforce the rights guaranteed in the Indian Civil Rights Act.


“We were hoping that under this administration it might gain some traction, but it's not a concern, it's really not on the radar right now,” with budgets and health care taking precedence, he said.


While the questions for potential Department of Interior secretarial nominees included a query about disenrollment, Gomez said Secretary Ken Salazar has done little to address the growing problem.


The United States and Canada have not signed on to the United Nations' indigenous rights declaration passed several years ago, which Gomez suggests is “because of their historical abuses of native people.”


He said many American Indians look at the United States' inability to enforce the Indian Civil Rights Act as “another broken treaty,” and a continuation of bad policies.


“Tribal officials are doing this to their people and the federal government is just not doing anything about it,” he said, with the reason being because of tribal sovereignty. “That excuse just doesn't hold water anymore.”


Even in cases where the BIA has ruled in favor of disenrollees – such as with the San Pasqual tribe – those people still have not had their rights restored by the tribe, Gomez said. “It leaves individuals and families in the same position as being disenrolled.”


Gomez accused the BIA of treating disenrollment “like a dirty little secret,” when really it's a policy failure. He suggested that members of Congress should be willing to work on the behalf of disenrollees.


He was concerned that it may take something drastic to get any action on the matter.

“Maybe Congress and the courts really won't do anything until someone gets hurt,” he said. “That might be what triggers a review of this.”


E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

CLEARLAKE – Two drivers escaped serious injury on Sunday when they collided at the intersection of Highway 53 and Olympic Drive in Clearlake.


Clearlake Police officers were dispatched to the scene at approximately 2:21 p.m., according to Officer Lauren Vance.


Vance said a pickup traveling southbound on Highway 53 failed to stop and hit another pickup that was traveling northbound and making a lefthand turn onto Olympic Drive.


She said neither of the drivers involved sustained major injuries.


Due to a high number of collisions at the site, Caltrans installed stop signs at the intersection in February, with a view to installing a traffic signal in 2012, as Lake County News has reported.


There have been some crashes there since the stop signs went in, but Vance said the number of incidents hasn't been high.


E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

Dissolving one’s marriage creates many complications, including the need to change one’s estate plan to make it current.


This should not be neglected because should one die during the divorce proceedings the surviving spouse can still inherit under the deceased spouse’s will, if named as a beneficiary.


Likewise, the surviving spouse may still inherit if named as a designated death beneficiary on any pay-on-death policy – such as life insurance, retirement plans, etc. – notwithstanding a decree of legal separation; the decree does not terminate the marital status.


Filing the dissolution petition, however, limits each spouse’s ability to change their estate plan.


Prior to filing, a married person can unilaterally control the disposition on death of their one-half share of any community property assets and all of their separate property assets.


Upon filing the dissolution petition and issuance of a summons, however, the automatic temporary restraining order (“ATRO”) immediately imposes four different rules. Let us examine these rules.


First, the ATRO absolutely prohibits each spouse from cashing, borrowing against, canceling, transferring, disposing of, or changing the beneficiaries of any insurance or other coverage, including life, health, auto or disability, held for the benefit of the spouses and their children for whom support may be ordered. This is to prevent either spouse or their children from being harmed from any detrimental changes to insurance.


Second, the ATRO also restrains each spouse (1) from transferring any property, real or personal (except in the usual course of business or for necessities of life); and (2) from changing the death beneficiaries named on any nonprobate asset (such as retirement plans, annuities and revocable living trusts).


Either the prior written consent of the other spouse or a court order is needed to accomplish any changes.


Third, the ATRO, however, still allows each spouse to revoke a revocable living trust, or other nonprobate transfer, and also to sever a joint tenancy, provided that notice of any such change is filed with the court and is served on the other spouse before the change takes effect.


Severing the joint tenancy, and thereby creating a co-equal tenancy in common, is important to prevent the other spouse from inheriting the entire joint tenancy estate should one spouse die while the joint tenancy remains in effect.


Fourth, the ATRO also allows each spouse, without notice or permission, to create, modify or revoke a will; create an unfunded revocable or irrevocable trust; and otherwise modify a nonprobate transfer, such as a trust, in a manner that does not affect the disposition of the property – for example, changing the designated successor trustee of an existing trust.


Thus, either spouse – without the permission of the other spouse or a court order – can create an unfunded living trust that would be funded on death by way of a pour-over will in order to effectuate estate planning changes.


The drawback is that a probate of the pour-over will is needed in order to transfer assets into the trust.


In summary, persons getting divorced are well advised to update their estate plan in case they should die prior to the decree of dissolution of marriage, and their existing estate plan in favor of the estranged spouse be given effect.


Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .

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