CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Police are investigating a Wednesday night shooting that claimed the life of a Clearlake man.

Stephen Wooldridge, 33, died shortly after the shooting incident involving his mother's boyfriend, who told police that it was accidental, according to Lt. Tim Celli, acting Clearlake Police chief.

Celli said that at approximately 11:17 p.m. Wednesday Clearlake Police officers were dispatched to a residence located in 16200 block of 36th Avenue for a reported gunshot victim, with the first officer arriving on scene two minutes after dispatch.

When officers arrived, they discovered Wooldridge had suffered a single gunshot wound to the chest, Celli said.

Wooldridge was conscious, alert and breathing at the time the officers arrived. There were several family members and friends at the residence as well, according to Celli.

Celli said medical personnel were requested to the scene and on arrival immediately began treating Wooldridge, who was transported to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake. Radio reports indicated he was being combative with paramedics on the way to the hospital.

Medical personnel were preparing to fly Wooldridge to an out-of-county trauma center, but Celli said Wooldridge succumbed to his injuries before he could be flown out and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Clearlake Police detectives responded to the shooting scene to take over the investigation, Celli said.

Although the shooting remains under investigation, Celli said the preliminary reports indicate that the circumstances leading to the shooting began with Wooldridge arguing with his mother over the phone.

Celli said there had been an earlier conflict that continued into the evening. Wooldridge became further upset when his mother refused to answer his phone calls, prompting Wooldridge to go to her home on 36th Avenue.

When Wooldridge arrived at the residence, he was reportedly very upset, yelling and banging on the door, and demanding entry into the home. Celli said Wooldridge eventually forced his way into the residence through the garage door.

Once inside the residence, Wooldridge was met by his mother’s boyfriend, 82-year-old Johnny Stevenson, who also resided at the home, Celli said.

Celli said reports indicate that Wooldridge was threatening Stevenson, who had armed himself with a .22-caliber rifle. Wooldridge refused to leave the residence, threatening Stevenson that he was going to beat him up. It also was reported to police that Wooldridge was challenging Stevenson to shoot him.

Celli said Wooldridge began to approach Stevenson in a threatening manner. Stevenson claimed to have cocked the firearm to warn Wooldridge from approaching him when the firearm went off, hitting Wooldridge once in the chest.

Police interviewed numerous witnesses as well as Stevenson, Celli said.

After conferring with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office, Celli said it was decided that Stevenson would not be booked into Lake County Jail at this time for Wooldridge's death.

However, Celli said the investigation remains ongoing. Once the investigation is complete, it will be forwarded to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for further review.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters contained a Wednesday night wildland fire that burned in the hills above Clearlake near the site of a fire that occurred earlier this summer.

The Sulphur fire was first reported just minutes before 7:30 p.m. in the area of Lakeshore Drive and San Joaquin Avenue.

The first units arriving on scene from Lake County Fire reported over the radio that the fire had a slow rate of spread and was burning up the ridge to the area of Carter Lane, with no structures threatened.

It was in that same area that the Goose fire burned about six acres on June 20, as Lake County News has reported.

Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta said his agency, along with Northshore Fire and Cal Fire, responded. Cal Fire sent both engines as well as tankers and helicopters.

Altogether, the three agencies supplied 10 engines, two medic units, four battalion chiefs, a chief, two dozers, four aircraft, a helicopter and several water tenders, Sapeta said.

The fire's forward progress was stopped just after 8:30 p.m., according to Sapeta's report from the scene.

At that point he had requested Clearlake Police officers temporarily close down San Joaquin Avenue to all vehicles except for fire units while the mop up was taking place.

While firefighters hadn't yet been able to walk the fire area late Wednesday, Sapeta told Lake County News that the fire was estimated to be between 10 and 15 acres..

At one point the fire jumped over Carter Lane, with that slop over site measuring about one acre, Sapeta said.

He said firefighters were able to tie the fire into the Goose fire burn area, noting that the Wednesday night incident was just to the southwest of that previous fire.

Sapeta estimated five hours of mop up would be required, and units at the scene reported that they were not expecting to be back in quarters until about 2 a.m. Thursday. One unit reported that it would be on the incident scene through the night.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, with Sapeta reporting Wednesday night that investigators were still processing the scene.

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. – Local, state and nationwide unemployment rates edged up slightly in June, according to a new report.

Lake County's June unemployment was 6.7 percent, up from the revised 5.8 percent in May but still improved over the 7.2 percent reported in June 2016, according to the California Employment Development Department.

California's overall unemployment was 5.4 percent in June, compared to 5.2 percent in May and 6.2 percent in June 2015, the Employment Development Department reported.

Nationwide, June's unemployment rate was 4.9 percent, up from 4.7 percent in May and 5.3 percent in June of last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Lake County's unemployment rate ranked it No. 33 statewide. San Mateo County had the lowest rate with 3.3 percent, while Imperial had the highest, 23.7 percent.

The “total farm” category of employment in Lake County continued to show strong growth in June due to the summer harvest season. Jobs were up by 3.2 percent in June over May and rose 14.2 percent in a year-over-year comparison.

In the “total nonfarm” category, goods producing was up by 2.5 percent; private service producing, 0.5 percent; and service providing, 0.1 percent.

Across the state, in June nonfarm jobs totaled 16,459,700, an increase of 40,300 jobs over the month, according to a survey of 58,000 California businesses. The year-over-year change, from June 2015 to June 2016, showed an increase of 461,100 jobs, or a 2.9-percent increase.

In Lake County, the civilian labor force was estimated to be 29,520 in June, compared to 29,270 in May and 29,310 in June of last year.

The number of unemployed residents totaled 1,980 in May, compared to 1,700 in May and 2,120 in June 2015, according to the report.

On the state level, a federal survey of 5,500 households showed a decrease in the number of employed people, estimating that the number of Californians holding jobs in June was 18,078,000, down 4,000 from May but up 308,000 jobs from the employment total in June of last year.

The number of people unemployed in California was 1,022,000 in June, up 27,000 from May,
but down 160,000 from June of last year.

During the June survey week, 345,159 people throughout California were receiving regular Unemployment Insurance benefits, compared to 362,535 in May and 362,157 in June of 2016, according to the Employment Development Department report.

At the same time, new claims for Unemployment Insurance were 49,975 in June compared with 42,929 in May and 45,591 in June of last year, the agency said.

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. – A spectacular sight in the Wednesday night sky sparked concerns of a plane crash but turned out to be a rocket reentering the atmosphere.

Just after 9:40 p.m. firefighters were dispatched to a possible plane down in the area of Lucerne, with additional reports putting the sighting closer to Wilbur Springs.

Lake County Central Dispatch received numerous phone calls reporting either a plane down or a meteor.

One eyewitness told Lake County News that he saw what looked like an asteroid splitting in the sky in the Lower Lake area.

Additional reports came into Lake County News' Facebook page from readers around the county, the region and other parts of the country, reporting that they, too, had seen it.

A short time after those reports began flooding in, firefighters were dispatched to a possible wildland fire in the Indian Valley area.

However, it was determined not long after dispatch that there was no plane down – as firefighters were getting reports on social media of the object also having been seen outside of Lake County – and no fire.

Rather, Lake County residents were seeing what many others had seen around the Western United States.

It wasn't a downed plane, a meteorite or an asteroid, but rather the debris from a Chinese rocket.

The situation became clearer thanks to Twitter posts by Jonathan McDowell, @planet4589, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

McDowell tweeted that observation reports from Utah indicated the second stage from the first Chang Zheng 7 rocket, which was launched Jun 25, reentered the Earth's atmosphere at 0440 Universal Time, or 9:40 p.m. Wednesday, just minutes before Central Dispatch began receiving calls about the object from Lake County residents.

Space-Track, the Joint Space Operations Center, NORAD and the US Strategic Command confirmed that the object was a CZ-7 – or Long March 7 – rocket.

The Chinese Space Programme and Aerospace Power reported that the CZ-7 is a new generation of medium-lift orbital launchers. The development of the launcher began in May 2010.

It was intended to be used for the launch of the Tianzhou cargo resupply vehicle, with the new line CZ-7 of launchers to replace the country's current series of launch vehicles once its technologies are fully tested, anticipated to occur by 2020.

McDowell said that, as of Wednesday, there had been 25 reentries this year into Earth's atmosphere of objects massing one ton or more.

He said objects of five tons or more, like the CZ-7, are rare, also reporting that the only bigger reentry in 2016 occurred on New Year's Day, when a Russian Zenit rocket stage came down over Vietnam.

Trevor Kerr captured video of the rocket's descent into the atmosphere from the Las Vegas area. The video is shown above.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has a selection of both cats and dogs available for adoption this week.

This week's featured dogs include mixes of Akita, American Staffordshire Terrier and bull terrier, plus there are several cats needing new homes.

To meet the animals, contact Marcia Taylor, the animal control outreach technician, at 707-994-8201, Extension 103, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or contact Animal Control Officer Jenna Tuller at Extension 115 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. those same days or leave a message on Fridays or weekends.

Also follow Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook for the latest updates.

Below are this week's available pets.

'Flannel'

“Flannel” is a young male domestic short hair mix with a gray coat.

Shelter staff anticipate that he would make an excellent mouser.

'Kikie'

“Kikie” is a female domestic short hair mix with a gray coat.

Shelter staff said Kikie was rescued from a very bad situation.

Despite that, she loves everyone, and would make a great addition to any family, staff said.

She also is house trained.

'Little Man'

“Little Man” is a male domestic short hair mix with a tabby coat.

“Little Man has a truly sad story. He deserves to know what it's like to have a real home with food and water available at all times,” according to shelter staff.

He is house trained and ready for a new family.

'Monkey'

“Monkey” is a domestic short hair mix kitten with a gray tabby and white coat.

“Monkey truly lives up to his name while 'hanging' out in his crate. He is starving for attention but doesn't cry about it,” shelter staff said.

He's also reported to be very fun and entertaining. He wants to play with all the big dogs at the shelter and gets covered in dog drool.

He's good with anyone and all other animals, staff said.

'Nala'

“Nala” is a young American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white coat and brown markings.

Shelter staff describe Nala as a sweet little girl who needs someone to love her.

She already is spayed and microchipped, and ready to join her new family.

'Nutmeg'

“Nutmeg” is a 5-month-old American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a brown brindle coat and white markings.

She is reported to get along with other dogs and with cats.

“She is a sweet baby looking for her forever home,” said shelter staff.

'Sunny'

“Sunny” is a male Akita and bull terrier mix with an all-white coat.

“Sunny has a sunshine like disposition,” according to shelter staff.

He gets along well with others, loves to go for walks and get treats, is great on a leash and is very mellow.

Sunny is a well-mannered dog and a gentleman at heart, shelter staff reported, adding that he would make a great companion for someone looking for a low maintenance pet.

He's ready to go to a new home, as he is fully housebroken, up to date on shots and neutered.

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.

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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Fair Board has another new member.

Steven Brown, 33, of Kelseyville, has been appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to the 49th District Agricultural Association's Board of Directors.

Brown, the son of Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown, has been an attorney at Crump, Bruchler and La Velle since 2010. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Empire College School of Law.

The position does not require Senate confirmation and there is no compensation. Brown is registered without party preference.

“I thought it would be a good experience,” said Brown of his decision to apply after seeing a recent Lake County News story about the efforts to fill the seats on the board.

He said he thought he could offer the perspective of someone who was involved in youth organizations like 4-H, FFA and K-Corps.

Brown also has three young sons, one of whom is involved in 4-H and another involved in rodeo events.

“I just want to be an advocate for those important youth programs, and for the preservation of what I think are the traditional events that are community staples,” Brown said.

Brown was sworn in at the fair board's Monday night meeting, and got to meet other board members and administrative staff.

With the fair about a month away – it takes place over the Labor Day weekend – Brown said he expects he will be spending a lot of time at the fairgrounds in the weeks ahead and during the event itself.

He said he's excited about joining the board. “I think it's going to be fun.”

Brown's appointment to the fair board followed by nearly two months the appointment of another new member, Katherine McDowell of Cobb, and came a month after the reappointment of longtime members Janeane Bogner of Clearlake Oaks, Marcia Chauvin of Clearlake, James Cochrane of Kelseyville, Annette Hopkins of Lakeport, Meyo Marrufo of Upper Lake and Jerry McQueen of Lakeport, as Lake County News has reported.

The board has nine members, so one vacancy remains.

The fair board typically meets once a month on a Monday afternoon in the administration office at the fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

Anyone interested in serving on the fair board should go to the governor's appointment page at https://www.gov.ca.gov/m_appointments.php and submit an application.

Fair Chief Executive Officer Debbie Strickler also invites interested community members to call her for more information at the fair office, 707-263-6181.

Visit the Lake County Fair online at www.lakecountyfair.com .

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.