The Clearlake Police Department reported that on Saturday, Nov. 12, police officers assisted Clearlake Animal Control in performing a special animal control-related enforcement.
Officers cited animal owners who have chosen to deliberately disobey the city’s mandatory spay/neuter law, haven’t had the required rabies vaccinations for their animals or disregarded city code requirements that all dogs be licensed.
In all, officers performed compliance checks at 38 locations, issuing 15 citations for 24 animals, according to the report.
The animal owners were cited for 38 separate violations which included failure to spay/neuter, failure to vaccinate for rabies and/or failure to license their dog.
Police said the special enforcement was very successful and there are plans for scheduling another in the near future.
Animal owners need to know that they will be cited if they choose not to follow the laws when it comes to being a responsible pet owner, police reported.
While citations were issued for no rabies vaccination and/or not having a dog license, the main focus of this special enforcement was the city’s mandatory spay/neuter law, in effect since June of 2006.
The city of Clearlake and the county as a whole have an abundantnce of dogs and cats which are not spayed or neutered. As a direct result, many animals end up on the streets, in a shelter or sent to a rescue agency. Police said that primarily due to a lack of responsible pet owners, this problem becomes a huge burden to the community, local animal control agencies and rescue groups.
The city of Clearlake Animal Control and Clearlake Police Department have pledged to have a “no tolerance policy” for dog and cat owners in the city who choose not to follow the law. If your pet is not spayed/neutered, vaccinated for the rabies virus and/or if your dog is not licensed, you will be issued a citation.
Following the law and becoming a responsible pet owner is not only the right thing to do, it is also the more affordable choice, according to the Clearlake Police Department. If you are cited for having an animal which is not spayed/neutered, the fine could be as much as $435 per animal, while the fine for violating the required rabies vaccination ordinance is $245 per animal and for having a dog which is not licensed the fine is $125. In addition to these fine amounts, owners will still be required to comply with the law.
To have your pet spayed/neutered and/or vaccinated for the rabies virus, contact your local veterinarian. The Animal Coalition of Lake County as well as the SPCA of Clearlake offer low cost spay/neuter vouchers and clinics.
To contact the Animal Coalition, visit them at 14104 Lakeshore Drive on Wednesdays from 10 am to noon. To contact the SPCA of Clearlake, call 707-279-1400.
The city of Clearlake Animal Control is hosting a low cost rabies vaccination clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to noon at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
The cost of rabies vaccination is $6 per animal; DHPP vaccinations for $14 and licensing for dogs will also be available. The clinic is for Clearlake residents only.
Bring to the clinic proof of physical address and prior rabies vaccination records if the animal has been previously vaccinated. Cash, check or money orders will be accepted.
Dogs must be leashed at all times and all cats must be contained in a type of carrier at all times at the clinic. Animals must remain under control at all times.
For more information regarding the low cost rabies vaccination clinic, call 707-994-8201, Extension 115.
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Arrested were Pablo Juan Arredondo, 29; Jose Antonio Rico, 31; Francisco Martinez Rico, 25; and Gerardo Rico Martinez, 24, according to a Monday report from Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said that at 11 p.m. this past Saturday, Nov. 12, Lakeport Police Department units assisted by Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies, California Highway Patrol officers and California State Parks rangers were dispatched to investigate the report of a large physical fight occurring at TJ’s Downtown Bar and Grill in Lakeport.
The first arriving Lakeport Police officer observed approximately 25 persons outside of the location with three separate physical fights, each involving numerous subjects and occurring at the same time, Rasmussen said.
He explained that the officer was contacted by TJ’s staff members who pointed out a group of four male subjects and identified them as assaulting both staff and patrons inside of the bar.
The officer approached the four subjects and ordered them to stop and go to the ground. Rasmussen said the subjects became verbally abusive and refused to follow the officer’s commands.
He said the officer made further attempts to control the four subjects who began resisting, obstructing and verbally and physically challenging him. At one point when two of the subjects advanced on the officer he discharged his Taser, striking one of them before they all fled the area, Rasmussen said.
Assisting units located the subjects in the area of Will-O-Point and all four were arrested for public intoxication, battery and obstructing or resisting a peace officer, according to Rasmussen.
Followup investigation determined that four TJ’s staff members were battered and injured by the four aforementioned subjects while investigating a report that they had harassed female customers. Rasmussen said the injuries consisted of lacerations, contusions, bite wounds and a broken finger.
The investigation of this incident is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact Officer Jarvis Leishman at the Lakeport Police Department, 707-263-5491.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The woman who introduced a healthy and delicious approach to feeding Kelseyville Unified School District’s students was featured on a nationwide news program this week.
Michelle Malm, head of the district’s food program, was profiled by CBS Early Show reporter Erica Hill as part of an ongoing series spotlighting people who represent the American spirit.
Under Malm’s leadership, Kelseyville Unified’s food program went from being $70,000 in debt and serving up boxed, unhealthy food, to being profitable and filled with fresh fruits and vegetables grown locally.
The school also participates in the Farm to School Program, the goals of which include not just bringing healthy foods to school cafeterias but also supporting local farmers.
Also featured in the profile was Upper Lake’s Colleen Seely Rentsch, one of the local farmers whose produce makes its way onto Kelseyville students’ plates.
Best of all, the students appear to enjoy eating the healthier, more wholesome foods. They also participate in growing some of the food in school gardens.
The five-minute profile can be viewed above.
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The software, known as “California's Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) Application and Evaluation Tool for Local Roadways,” provides Caltrans a better way to analyze safety projects submitted by local agencies and award funding to those projects that will increase roadway safety the most.
The application determines which projects offer the greatest potential of reducing fatalities and injuries on California’s local roads.
With the assistance of the HSIP tool, Caltrans awarded $75 million in federal funding to 179 safety projects statewide in Fiscal Year 2010-11.
The agency said these projects will save lives and provide a projected $743 million in safety benefits as a result of fewer vehicle crashes, injuries, and fatalities on local roads.
Included on the list is a $132,400 project on Lakeshore Boulevard between Ashe Street and Lange Street to install colored asphalt concrete in the bike lanes, upgrade edge lines and construct a small traffic circle.
“We strive to be the leader in roadway safety,” said acting Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “Safety is our highest priority and an essential component of every one of our state and local projects. This award for our Highway Safety Improvement Program drives us to continue efforts on innovative solutions that improve the safety of California’s roads for everyone.”
Under Caltrans’ direction, the University of California Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center also contributed to the creation of the HSIP Tool.
The National Roadway Safety Awards is a biennial competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Roadway Safety Foundation to recognize roadway safety achievements that move the nation “toward zero deaths” on highways and local roads.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of Northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake which has since disappeared.
However, a new report said that landslide left a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout.
Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems units, scientists recently found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river.
Today the Eel river is 200 miles long, carved into the ground from high in the California Coast Ranges to the river's mouth in the Pacific Ocean in Humboldt County.
The evidence for the ancient landslide, which, scientists say, blocked the river with a 400-foot-wall of loose rock and debris, is detailed this week in a paper appearing on-line in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research provides a rare glimpse into the geological history of this rapidly evolving mountainous region.
“This study reminds us that there are still significant surprises to be unearthed about past landscape dynamics and their broad impacts,” said Paul Cutler, program director in the National Science Foundation's Division of Earth Sciences, which funded the research. “For example, it provides valuable information for assessing modern landslide hazard potential in this region.”
It also helps to explain emerging evidence from other studies that show a dramatic decrease in the amount of sediment deposited from the river in the ocean just offshore at about the same time period, says lead author of the paper Benjamin Mackey of the California Institute of Technology.
“Perhaps of most interest, the presence of this landslide dam also provides an explanation for the results of previous research on the genetics of steelhead trout in the Eel River,” Mackey said.
In that study, scientists found a striking relationship between two types of ocean-going steelhead in the river – a genetic similarity not seen among summer-run and winter-run steelhead in other nearby waterways.
An interbreeding of the two fish, in a process known as genetic introgression, may have occurred among the fish brought together while the river was dammed, Mackey said.
“The dam likely would have been impassable to the fish migrating upstream, meaning both ecotypes would have been forced to spawn and inadvertently breed downstream of the dam. This period of gene flow between the two types of steelhead can explain the genetic similarity observed today.”
Once the dam burst, the fish would have reoccupied their preferred spawning grounds and resumed different genetic trajectories.
“The damming of the river was a dramatic, punctuated event that greatly altered the landscape,” said co-author Joshua Roering, a geologist at the University of Oregon.
“Although current physical evidence for the landslide dam and ancient lake is subtle, its effects are recorded in the Pacific Ocean and persist in the genetic make-up of today's Eel River steelhead,” said Roering. “It's rare for scientists to be able to connect the dots between such diverse phenomena.”
The lake formed by the landslide, the researchers theorize, covered about 18 square miles.
After the dam was breached, the flow of water would have generated one of North America's largest landslide-dam outburst floods.
Landslide activity and erosion have erased much of the evidence for the now-gone lake. Without the acquisition of LiDAR mapping, the lake's existence may have never been discovered, the scientists said.
The area affected by the landslide-caused dam accounts for about 58 percent of the modern Eel River watershed. Based on today's general erosion rates, the geologists believe that the lake could have filled in with sediment within about 600 years.
“The presence of a dam of this size was unexpected in the Eel River, given the abundance of easily eroded sandstone and mudstone, which are generally not considered strong enough to form long-lived dams,” Mackey said.
He and colleagues were drawn to the Eel River – among the most-studied erosion systems in the world- – to study large, slow-moving landslides.
"While analyzing the elevation of terraces along the river, we discovered they clustered at a common elevation rather than decreased in elevation downstream paralleling the river profile, as would be expected for river terraces," said Mackey.
“That was the first sign of something unusual, and it clued us into the possibility of an ancient lake,” Mackey said.
The third co-author on the paper is Michael Lamb, a geologist at the California Institute of Technology.
The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping also provided LiDAR data used in the project.
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South Lake County Fire Protection District and Cal Fire responded to a house fire at 15630 Eagle Rock Road in Hidden Valley Lake just after noon on Monday, Nov. 14, according to a Cal Fire report.
When firefighters arrived, they found the house filled with smoke and flames were visible in one wall of the structure. Cal Fire said firefighters were able to quickly knock down the fire and extinguish the flames.
Two dogs and a cat were trapped, unconscious in the home. A nearby Hidden Valley Lake security officer was able to remove one of the dogs while firefighters battled the flames. Cal Fire said firefighters rescued the second dog and a cat.
The cat succumbed to its injuries at the scene of the fire but rescue personnel performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the dogs using special animal oxygen masks carried on their paramedic unit, Cal Fire said.
Firefighters were able to revive both the dogs, which were then transported by Lake County Animal Control to a local veterinarian's office, Cal Fire said.
Despite quick attention by emergency personnel and veterinarian staff, one of the dogs later died from its injuries, officials reported.
The home sustained moderate smoke damage but the structure and its contents were saved by firefighters. Cal Fire said the cause is under investigation; however, investigators are looking at combustible materials placed too close to a free standing propane fueled fireplace as a possible cause.
"We'd like to remind residents that any combustible materials should be placed a minimum distance of at least three feet away from any heat source," said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Scott Upton.
Three South Lake County Fire Protection District/CAL FIRE engines, one paramedic unit, one battalion chief and one volunteer company responded to the fire, Cal Fire reported.
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The campaign’s overall goal is to reduce the number of alcohol-involved collisions and people killed and injured in these crashes through enhanced enforcement and a public awareness campaign.
“California has made great strides in reducing the number of people killed or injured as a result of DUI,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “We will continue our efforts in educating the public and arrest those who choose to endanger themselves and others.”
In 2009, the number of alcohol-involved collisions in California accounted for 14 percent of the total number of crashes reported in the state, the CHP reported.
As a result of the more than 8,600 alcohol-involved collisions, 754 people were killed and another 11,764 others were injured, the agency said.
The IDEA program will provide funding that will allow the CHP to conduct sobriety and driver license checkpoints, DUI task force operations and deploy proactive DUI enforcement patrol operations statewide.
The CHP also will conduct local traffic safety presentations in an effort to reach thousands of people throughout California. Additionally, funding is provided for a statewide media campaign.
“We will be tracking the progress of this anti-DUI program for positive results, as we work toward our goal of removing impaired drivers from California’s roadways,” added Farrow.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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Based on an average of these state ratings, the nation received a three-star rating on a five-star scale.
Also included in the report are updated figures showing that drunk driving costs the United States more than $132 billion annually, according to data compiled by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.
“While we’ve made substantial progress with the campaign over the past five years, the ratings earned by each state show that there is still much work to be done,” said MADD National President Jan Withers. “During this time of year, when drunk driving crashes are most prevalent, we are reminded that the goal of the campaign is to have no more drunk driving victims. MADD calls on the nation to rededicate itself to efforts to save lives, prevent injuries and eliminate this primary threat on our nation’s roadways.”
The states earning a five-star rating include Arizona, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska and Utah, while Montana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Dakota each earned one star.
California received four stars, according to the report.
The ratings are an indication of states passing effective laws and employing effective drunk driving countermeasures, and are independent of a state’s fatality numbers.
Each state’s rating was determined by adoption of the following proven drunk driving countermeasures, including requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, conducting sobriety checkpoints, creating enhanced penalties for those who drive drunk with children in the vehicle, participating in “no-refusal” activities for those suspected of drunk driving and utilizing administrative license revocation for drunk driving offenders.
“MADD urges states to adopt these important laws and countermeasures to save lives and support the campaign,” Withers said.
Withers said the campaign’s founding components include:high-visibility law enforcement such as sobriety checkpoints, ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers, and advanced and seamless in-vehicle technology to stop drunk drivers from getting on the road.
“While we have made great strides over the last 30 years, drunk driving is still the deadliest epidemic on America's roads, killing approximately 11,000 people every year,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “That's why the U.S. Department of Transportation is so committed to working with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to save lives by promoting strong anti-drunk driving laws, enforcement strategies and public awareness efforts.”
The Report to the Nation also outlines the $132 billion annual cost of drunk driving in America, which consists of monetary and quality-of-life costs to victims of drunk driving, along with costs to both the government and employers.
Those costs include $61 billion in monetary costs and $71 billion in quality-of-life losses stemming from all drunk driving crashes.
The federal government paid $4.5 billion of this bill, while state and local governments paid $3.2 billion. Employers paid $10.7 billion, including $3.7 billion related to crashes involving work trips and $7 billion due to crashes outside of work involving employees and benefit-eligible dependents.
Since MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving was launched in 2006, there has been substantial progress on its three components:
– Increased attention for high-visibility law enforcement efforts, such as sobriety checkpoints, along with support for national awareness campaigns, such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.”
– A change in the national conversation about ignition interlocks, with more than double the number of interlocks in use now than in 2006. In addition, the number of states requiring ignition interlocks for all drunk driving offenders has increased from one to 15 and the number of states requiring interlocks for some type of first-time offender has increased from four to 32.
– The Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety (DADSS) program has recently announced the beginning of Phase II in the ambitious research effort to develop an inexpensive, unobtrusive, reliable and hassle-free technology that will make a vehicle inoperable by a drunk driver (.08 blood alcohol concentration, or greater). This phase of the program is expected to produce a drivable test vehicle in two years, with a goal of having the technology available for voluntary installation in production vehicles in eight to 10 years.
“Today, there is no longer a debate on the effectiveness of ignition interlocks – we’ve seen the lifesaving results – and every state should require these devices for all convicted drunk drivers. Along with broad support for high-visibility law enforcement and the DADSS program, the nation is truly on a path toward the elimination of drunk driving,” concluded Withers.
To view MADD’s Report to the Nation, see below or visit visit www.madd.org/reporttothenation. MADD is the sole author of the report, which is based on 31 years of experience working on lifesaving legislation, along with data from various respected government, research and public safety organization sources.
For more information about MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving, visit www.madd.org/campaign.
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The California Board of Equalization's recent report showed that the total value of state-assessed and county-assessed property rose to $4.382 trillion for 2011-12, an increase of $11.6 billion, or 0.3 percent, from the previous year.
In addition, the value of county-assessed property increased by $5.3 billion, or 0.1 percent, to $4.297 trillion, while the value of state-assessed property, mainly privately owned public utilities and railroads, totaled $85.3 billion, an increase of $6.3 billion or 8.0 percent, the agency reported.
Lake County Assessor-Recorder Doug Wacker said each year he’s required to determine what the coming year’s tax roll will be.
For the coming 2011-12 year, he’s estimating it to be $6.64 billion, which translates into a growth rate of negative 1.33 percent, slightly better than the negative 1.5 percent the county roll experienced in 2010-11.
It’s a big change from tax roll growth seen earlier in the decade. Wacker said the county had seen 12- to 14-percent increases in some years.
“I don't see any real upward movement yet,” he said.
Wacker added that he hopes that land values start to improve soon, but cautioned, “It could be a couple more years yet. I hate to say it but it could be.”
He said the state has seen property value ups and downs since Proposition 13 was passed in the 1970s, including a slump in the 1990s, “but nothing to this degree.”
Lake's neighboring county of Colusa showed the highest year-to-year percentage increase, 19.5 percent, which the Board of Equalization said is largely related to utility assessments – which comprise more than one-third of the Colusa County's assessment roll – and was driven by the construction of a new power plant in the county.
The report showed that 20 counties posted year-to-year increases in assessed value, although jumps in value like those seen in Colusa County were not the norm, with only Kern, Madera and Trinity counties showing growth of more than 2 percent.
Thirty-eight of California's 58 counties experienced year-to-year declines in value, with Plumas County posting the largest decline, 5.3 percent. It was the only county declining by more than 5 percent, the state said.
The Central Valley, hard hit by the foreclosure crisis over the last several years, showed concentrated value declines.
The Greater Sacramento Area had a 2.9 percent decline, while the North San Joaquin Valley declined by 2.7 percent. The Southern San Joaquin Valley posted a 1.4-percent assessment value growth, which was attributed to the 2.4 percent growth experienced by Kern County.
California's 15 coastal counties, which account for over 60 percent of the state's total assessed valuations, gained 0.9 percent, while the state said that valuations in the 43 inland counties fell 0.6 percent, Southern California assessed values increased 0.7 percent and the San Francisco Bay Area’s values rose by 0.3 percent.
Of the 12 counties with rolls exceeding $100 billion, seven counties posted an increase in assessed value, while values in five counties fell. The Board of Equalization said values increased in the counties of San Mateo and Orange (1.0 percent), Santa Clara (0.9 percent), San Francisco (0.5 percent), San Diego (0.4 percent) and Alameda (0.1 percent).
Declines in value include the counties of Sacramento (-3.7 percent), Riverside (-1.2 percent), San Bernardino (-0.5 percent), Contra Costa (-0.4 percent), and Ventura County, which was only down slightly, virtually unchanged by percentage, according to the Board of Equalization.
Los Angeles County, with the largest assessment roll at $1.079 trillion, increased by 1.4 percent, up $15.0 billion over 2010-11, the state said.
Wacker and his staff have been proactive – and especially busy – with property reassessments under the Property 8 program since valuations locally began to drop in 2008.
While the tax roll closed in July, community members have until Nov. 30 to contact Wacker’s office to challenge their property valuation.
Wacker estimated his staff conducted more than 10,000 of the reviews last year.
“Our staff has been doing more of those than anything,” explained Wacker, adding that it’s becoming more of a challenge because his staff of 15 has been reduced by about a position and a half due to attrition, and budget cuts are keeping the jobs dark.
“We’re definitely going to have our hands full,” he said.
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HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – This year on the day before Thanksgiving, while most people are busy making last minute dinner preparations, 11-year-old Hidden Valley Lake resident Sarah Riccio will be at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford undergoing a high risk, open heart surgery.
Sarah had her first open heart surgery when she was just two days old, and three more surgeries followed in the next 30 days. She has been fighting for her life ever since.
Originally diagnosed with the rare congenital heart defect of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, her left ventricle is severely underdeveloped.
“She is now once again outgrowing the circulation that she currently has,” explained her mother Suzanne Riccio. “Her blood is getting very thick, which impedes the bloods ability to deliver oxygen to her body. Her oxygen saturation levels are dangerously low and the result is extreme fatigue and brain damage.”
According to her parents, the doctors have said that this upcoming surgery is especially high-risk due to the fact that Sarah’s right lung is no longer working.
“We’ve been told we should expect Sarah to be in the hospital for at least 30 days following the surgery,” said her father, David Riccio. “But last time we were told 30 days, it ended up being that she was in the hospital for three months.”
The Riccios have three children and have lived in Hidden Valley Lake for the past 10 years, where they have been actively involved in the community.
Friends of the Riccio family have set up a special Web site, www.everribbon.com/r/sarahsfund, where people can make donations to assist with the overwhelming medical costs of this delicate surgery.
The goal is $5,000; as of Sunday night, nearly $1,300 had been raised, according to the Web site.
For more information visit the Web site or call Carol Luis at 707-987-8757 for more information.
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