Christine Duggan and her son Mathew Gardiner were arrested on Tuesday, March 29, 2011, with investigators alleging that they were involved in a series of Clearlake Oaks burglaries. Lake County Jail photos.
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A Clearlake Oaks woman and her adult son were arrested last week in connection with a series of residential burglaries in the Clearlake Oaks area.
Christine Annette Duggan, 47, and her 22-year-old son, Mathew Martin Gardiner, were arrested on Tuesday, March 29, according to a Wednesday report from Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman said the arrests resulted from ongoing investigations the Sheriff's Major Crime Unit was conducting into the burglaries. The arrests also resulted in recovery of stolen property.
He said that, over the past several months, the sheriff’s office has responded to multiple reports of burglaries or thefts in the community of Clearlake Oaks.
Sheriff’s detectives and patrol deputies have been coordinating their investigations to develop leads on the cases, and Bauman said last week their efforts led them to a home where stolen property was being stored.
On March 24, sheriff’s detectives received information from one of the burglary victims that Duggan and Gardiner may have been involved in the thefts. Bauman said detectives were told that Duggan and Gardiner had been seen taking items of property in and out of a vacant residence on Oak Grove Avenue at night.
He said further investigation revealed that the Oak Grove Avenue home was owned by an Oakley man, who later confirmed the home was supposed to be vacant and no one had permission to be there. Detectives informed the owner of the situation and obtained permission to search the home for stolen property.
On March 28, detectives searched the Oak Grove Avenue home and found evidence that it had been recently occupied. Bauman said their search revealed several items of property, some of which were confirmed stolen in at least two of the prior burglary cases.
Detectives subsequently contacted other burglary victims and confirmed other items of property found in the search were stolen in two other burglaries, he said.
On March 29, sheriff’s deputies working the Clearlake Oaks area located and detained Duggan and Gardiner near the Oak Grove Avenue home, Bauman said. Detectives responded to assist and both suspects were subsequently arrested.
Duggan’s Chevy pickup truck was impounded as it was also believed to contain stolen property. A search warrant for the truck was secured and detectives located two iPods in Duggan’s purse, inside of the truck. The iPods were seized as suspected stolen property, Bauman said.
Duggan and Gardiner, both of whom were listed as caregivers on their booking sheets, were booked at the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility, according to jail records.
Duggan was charged with receiving stolen property, with bail set at $10,000, and Gardiner was charged with first-degree burglary, with bail at $25,000. Both have since posted bail and been released.
As a result of the arrests, Bauman said four burglary cases have been closed, however the investigation continues.
The Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying other recovered property that has yet to be tied to any of the burglaries. Bauman said property items recovered that have yet to be identified include appliances, kitchen ware, computer equipment, power tools, jewelry and numerous DVDs.
The sheriff’s office also reminds the public to always record serial numbers and descriptive information for valuable items and keep such information in an inconspicuous place in the home.
Bauman said the information is essential for investigators to recover, identify and return stolen property to victims, and to apprehend and prosecute suspects.
Anyone who may be a burglary or theft victim, or who may have information relating to these burglaries, is encouraged to call Detective Sgt. John Gregore at 707-262-4200.
Clear Lake Hitch hover near the surface during a brief calm moment in their spawning migration on Saturday, April 2, 2011. Photo by Ed Oswalt.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – There are many signs of spring's arrival in Lake County, and one of them – the spring spawning migration of the Clear Lake Hitch – is making a gradual comeback after many years when it appeared the fish was about to disappear into memory.
The hitch – known as the “chi” to the local Pomo peoples – is a Clear Lake native, has strong links to the Pomo cultural past and is well remembered by many people who have called the county home for the last several decades.
Sometime within the last 40 years the hitch started to decline, but more recently the fish has become a comeback kid of sorts, as it's the focus of tribal monitoring projects and a community group, the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, that's dedicated to the fish's preservation.
On Saturday, April 2, the Chi Council hosted a field trip for community members who wanted to watch the fish make their way up local streams for spawning.
Peter Windrem, a Chi Council member who led the tour, said he remembered the hitch in abundance in local creeks when he was a boy.
His childhood friend, Keith Petterson, who joined in the Saturday morning field trip, said the fish would sometimes be backed up into the little streams that ran through pear orchards.
A Chi Council map shows that most of Clear Lake's major tributaries at one time were home to hitch spawning runs.
But over the last several decades the hitch population has taken a precipitous decline, according to those who study the fish. Now, the hitch are mostly to be found in Kelsey, Adobe and Thompson creeks, although a small population is believed to live in Middle Creek near Upper Lake.
Windrem said the hitch is one of four fishes native to Clear Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake completely within California boundaries.
In addition to the hitch, those native species included the Clear Lake Splittail, now believed extinct – biologist Rick Macedo said the last sighting of one was in 1975 – the pikeminnow and Sacramento sucker.
Windrem said the sucker isn't seen much, but when it is he said it's a treat, because it's such a beautiful fish – golden in color, with black markings.
Where once the streams ran thick with hitch, today its numbers are far fewer, with little columns of them now making their way upstream to spawn.
Unlike salmon, however, the trip upstream isn't a long goodbye. Rather, once they spawn, it's back to Clear Lake for the hitch, with the possibility that they can return for several more years to come to repeat the process.
The reasons for the hitch's decline are many, according to Chi Council members and biologists.
On the first stop of the Saturday field trip, Windrem led the group to the bridge over Kelsey Creek at the west end of Kelseyville.
Looking down from the bridge, he showed a historical picture from 1899 of hitch crammed together in Kelsey Creek, taken from a vantage point about 100 yards down the creek from the bridge. At the time of that picture, the creek was more shallow, like an omelet pan, said Windrem.
“Historically, these streams have a very gradual grading,” he explained.
However, today the creek runs much deeper, with more defined banks.
In the 1960s and 1970s, gravel extraction operations on local creeks caused the level of Kelsey Creek to drop by about 30 feet, Windrem said.
At one point, there were concerns that the footing of the Kelseyville bridge over Kelsey Creek was being exposed so much that it might fall over, so Windrem said reinforcements were installed along its base to stabilize it.
But the changes to the creek's essential topography had more far-reaching consequences for the hitch, he said.
Whereas once the hitch could move easily along, with no serious changes in creek elevation, Windrem and Macedo, who took part in the Saturday tour, said the fish began to confront barriers they couldn't overcome during their multistage migration.
A fish ladder was added to an area of Kelsey Creek on the north side of the bridge, but the ladder's design favors salmonids, and, as Windrem pointed out, “Hitch don't jump.”
Macedo, considered a hitch expert, said that because they're not strong jumpers, hitch struggled to navigate both the ladders and the streams when the elevations become more steep.
He suggested the crossing under the Kelseyville bridge could be vastly improved for hitch if a trench was dug between the bridge's footings.
Other changes to streams and water resources play a part. Retired state Fish and Game biologist Jim Steele said, “The game is over when you get a reservoir.”
When asked if he remembered a point when the hitch population began to drop off, Petterson said, “I think it's just been a gradual change.”
On the field trip's second stop, at the Bell Hill low water crossing on Adobe Creek, Macedo said needed repairs at the crossing – particularly lowered culvert openings – benefited the fish, allowing them to pass easily pass through to a small area of rapids.
Good-sized clusters of the fish could be seen pooling in various areas around the crossing, and Macedo and Steele waded into the stream to catch a few hitch to show to the group traveling along on the trip.
Wearing a backpack device that some of the tour members said reminded them of equipment in “Ghostbusters,” Macedo used a long pole with a mesh square at one end that was attached to the backpack to mildly stun the fish in order to catch a few to put in a bucket of water.
Macedo called the fish – about a foot in length – “exceptionally large.”
The field trip goers gathered around to take a closer look at the silver-colored fish which, as they started to come out of their brief stupor, slapped disapproving tails on the insides of the buckets.
After just a few minutes in the bucket, Macedo carried them around the rapids and deposited them in a still pool so they could resume their trip upstream.
Biologist Erik Ringelberg tags a Clear Lake Hitch on Saturday, April 2, 2011. Photo by Ed Oswalt.
Research filled with new discoveries
For all of science's power to collect data and expand understanding, the hitch is still a fish largely surrounded by mystery.
“Everything that we learn about this fish is completely new,” said Paula Britton, environmental director for the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake.
Britton has been part of a study of the fish that's now in its third year.
For the county's tribes, the hitch historically was an important food source, with its spring spawning runs providing tribes with a critical harvest.
Today, the tribes aren't engaged in catching the fish for food, but rather for research, with a view to preserving it.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service granted Habematolel, Big Valley and Robinson Rancheria grants to study and tag the fish, now a “species of special concern,” Britton said.
Britton said the hitch project is the only one that doesn't involve an endangered species, and competition for funding is intense.
On Saturday, Britton was part of a team tagging the fish on a narrow portion of Thompson Creek off of Highland Springs Road, between Lakeport and Kelseyville.
The previous day they tagged 76 hitch in four hours, she said.
In about 45 minutes Saturday morning, they tagged 14 more, and Britton said they were planning to continue their work throughout this week and, possibly, into the coming weekend.
The fish – which must be 1 pound before they'll be tagged – were caught, put into a large cooler with water and a mild sedative to calm them. The fish were then handed to biologist Erik Ringelberg, who measured them and looked for anomalies like parasites, bird strikes and other injuries.
Ringelberg then handed them over to Britton – who was keeping the statistics – who then weighed them before putting them into another cooler filled with water with added oxygen to help the fish recover from the anesthetic.
“They're pretty amazing little fish,” said Britton.
Part of Habematolel's effort includes restoration on Middle Creek, including improving weirs there, she said.
The equipment being used to track the hitch allows researchers to follow the hitch's movement in the creeks, mostly on Adobe Creek, said Ringelberg.
However, they can't currently track what the fish do when they ultimately return to Clear Lake. Ringelberg said another proposed project would pursue tracking them in their lake home.
All of this carefully pursued research is adding to knowledge of the fish, but raising yet more questions that still haven't been answered, such as if the fish return to their natal streams, much like salmon do, he explained.
One of the surprising findings of the research, said Ringelberg, is that the fish, if they meet obstructions while passing through streams, will attempt to burrow through the streambed to get around the barriers.
Ringelberg said a requirement of Habematolel's grant is that the information be reported. Among the entities they report to are the California Natural Diversity Database.
Exploring the causes of the decline
The hitch is known to scientists as Lavinia exilicauda chi. The fish is the only species reported to be within the genus Lavinia.
University of California, Davis biologist Dr. Peter Moyle's seminal work, “Inland Fishes of California” discusses the fish in detail. It's an important book that Macedo keeps with him, pulling it out on Saturday to show to those on the tour interested in the hitch.
Moyle is a much respected scientist who is considered an expert on anadromous fish – those that migrate from salt water to fresh water for spawning – and whose knowledge and opinion have been called upon in studies on the Bay-Delta and the state's larger water issues.
In a 2009 e-mail exchange with Lake County News, Moyle said that he believed there was no question the hitch's numbers have declined, although the evidence is largely anecdotal.
The hitch and splittail were historically the lake's main plankton-eating fish, and had an enormous food supply, in addition to also eating the Clear Lake gnat, he said.
Moyle, who worked in Lake County in the 1970s, recalled seeing hundreds of spawning fish at “virtually any stream with water in it,” including drainage ditches of fields near Seigler Creek which he estimated was as many as 15 miles from Clear Lake.
Moyle attributed the fish's population decline to three main causes.
They included loss of spawning habitat, with streams being “increasingly channelized, dewatered, altered with barriers, and otherwise made inhospitable to hitch, including making them more vulnerable to predation, human and non-human.” He added that the hitch “have survived mainly because they spawn so early, the eggs hatch quickly, and the larvae wash into the lake.”
The second cause Moyle identified was loss of rearing habitat, particularly tules and marshes. He said that the larval hitch appear to benefit from being reared among tule stems, which protects them from predators like silversides and provides them with abundant microscopic food sources like rotifers, a tiny aquatic animal.
Moyle said the third – and probably most important – cause is the introduction of alien species into Clear Lake, including silversides and threadfin shad that compete with hitch for important food sources like zooplankton and which he believed also prey on the larvae and small juveniles.
The Florida largemouth bass for which the lake has become known are what Moyle called “a voracious predator” on larger hitch, which also are preyed upon by three species each of catfish and sunfish, and mosquitofish.
He estimated that huge fluctuations in shad numbers should have an impact on hitch populations both by periodically depleting food supplies and by allowing predator populations such as grebes to build up before the crash.
Moyle concluded, “It is evident that the Clear Lake hitch get hammered throughout their life cycle. It is a bit of miracle that they have persisted despite all this. Their decline makes the work of the Chi Council extremely important. Without active protection and management, the hitch will disappear.”
To learn more about the hitch, visit the Chi Council's Web site, http://lakelive.info/chicouncil/ . The group next meets at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, at the Lake County Agriculture Center, 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport. The public is invited to attend.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Thirty-seven French firefighters are visiting Northern California this month to learn and exchange ideas about wildland firefighting success.
Cal Fire, which has a worldwide reputation as a superior wildland firefighting and emergency response department, is hosting the group from France’s Ecole Nationale Superiure des Officiers Sapeurs Pompiers (ENSOSP), which translates to “The National School of Superior Fire Officers.”
The group will shadow Cal Fire Incident Command Team 5 and meet with Cal Fire personnel from April 4 to 12.
“Along with the privilege of living in our beautiful and diverse state comes the responsibility to be prepared for the host of natural and man made disasters California is vulnerable to," said Ken Pimlott, acting Cal Fire director. “We are happy to share our experiences with our French colleagues who experience similar challenges such as a climate that's hospitable to large, damaging wildfires and terrain that can make fighting them difficult.”
The French instructors and graduates are members of the 72nd French Academy for Fire, Rescue and Civil Protection Officers of ENSOSP.
Each class from ENSOSP has the opportunity for further study once they have graduated and this year the group decided to come to the United States to exchange ideas, information and technology with CAL FIRE personnel regarding “All Hazard” emergency service techniques.
The entire cost of their trip is being paid for by the ENSOSP group through donations and fundraising efforts.
On Tuesday, April 5, the group will be in Napa County to receive instruction on Cal Fire's Fire Prevention Program and Cooperative Fire Protection Services.
On Wednesday, April 6, the group will be in Lake County in the morning and see a demonstration of Cal Fire's hand crew and bulldozer operations. In the afternoon the group will tour the State Capitol in Sacramento and visit the Fallen Firefighters Memorial.
In the morning on Thursday, April 7, the group will be introduced to Cal Fire's Air Program at McClellan Air Park and will meet later with Cal Fire Acting Director Ken Pimlott. The day will end with a visit to California Operation Center at CalEMA.
On Friday, April 8, the group will tour the Angora Fire Incident in South Lake Tahoe where 3,100 acres and 309 homes were destroyed in 2007.
The group will be in Butte County on Saturday, April 9, and Sunday, April 10, and will review a vegetation management plan burn, a hazardous material incident, a swift water rescue and a high angle/low angle rescue technique demonstration, as well as other rescue type demonstrations.
The last stop on the tour will be a trip to Cal Fire's Northern Operations Center in Redding on Monday, April 11, officials said.
State and federal leaders are asking President Barack Obama for a major disaster declaration for California following the damage the state suffered last month that was triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan.
Gov. Jerry Brown and North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) penned separate letters sent to Obama on Wednesday asking for the assistance for the state, which suffered $48 million in damage to ports, harbors, boats, businesses and infrastructure due to a water surge triggered by Japan's March 11 quake and tsunami.
That $48 million damage estimate, Brown said, exceeds California’s state threshold of $44 million as established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and is adding to California's current economic crisis.
Thompson's letter to Obama supports Brown's requests.
“Last month’s tsunami caused significant damage to infrastructure up and down California’s coast,” Thompson said in a statement issued by his office. “Without assistance, I am extremely concerned that recovery efforts in affected communities, including those I represent, will languish. That’s why my colleagues and I are strongly urging the president to support Governor Brown’s request for a federal disaster declaration to help get local communities back on their feet.”
Brown's letter asks for additional federal resources to supplement state and local repair and recovery efforts.
It follows emergency proclamations Brown issued for Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, which his letter said were “significantly impacted,” with Del Norte and Santa Cruz reportedly hit hardest.
Brown's letter said the Crescent City Harbor, which last year generated crab and fish revenues of $12.5 million, sustained an estimated $19.9 million in eligible damage, and the Santa Cruz Port sustained an estimated $26.4 million in eligible damage.
The Santa Cruz Port District, whose businesses employ approximately 800 people, operates as a government-owned business, funded entirely by user fees and generates approximately $16.8 million annually for Santa Cruz County, Brown reported. The port district has reported that businesses in the harbor, and those dependent upon harbor operations, are experiencing a loss of almost $59,000 per day.
Brown also had issued an executive order issued to waive the waiting period for victims to apply for unemployment insurance, expedite the hiring of emergency and cleanup personnel and request state tax officials to accommodate those affected by the water surge.
He also reported that, since January 2010, California has received four major federal disaster declarations, had six fires declared under FEMA's Fire Management Assistance Grant Program, endured 20 events for which funds under the California Disaster Assistance Act were issued, and received four disaster designations from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and seven U.S. Small Business Administration designations.
Thompson's letter, signed by 22 fellow members of the California Congressional Delegation, also asks Obama to provide California with federal disaster assistance. He said the funding would be used to repair and rebuild harbors and other damaged infrastructure, and to safeguard coastal communities from future losses.
The letter notes that more than 150 vessels have been damaged, and over 30 vessels have sunk. “Additionally, oil sheens have been reported, and the sunken vessels continue to pose the threat of substantial hazardous releases, as well as navigational dangers, that would exacerbate the economic devastation.”
The letter added, “California state authorities are working with local governments and the United States Coast Guard and have taken a proactive and timely response. Efforts to secure loose vessels, remove debris and sunken vessels, assess damages, and monitor coastal areas for oil sheens are fully underway. However, additional federal assistance is necessary to repair and rebuild harbors and other damaged infrastructure, as well as to safeguard our communities from future losses.”
The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association's sixth annual Old Time Bluegrass Festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, and will feature a lineup including Grammy award winner Laurie Lewis with her band, the Right Hands, the always exciting Stairwell Sisters. Courtesy photo.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association (AMIA) has announced the acts that will be performing at the sixth annual Old Time Bluegrass Festival, to be held rain or shine at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park on Saturday, Sept. 10.
The event will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
“I’m thrilled about this year’s lineup, which will include Grammy award winner Laurie Lewis with her band, the Right Hands, the always exciting Stairwell Sisters, Lake County’s own Pat Ikes and Bound to Ride and the singing and yodeling of Fur Dixon & Steve Werner,” said Festival Musical Director Don Coffin.
Also being featured from Lake County are 3-Deep, the Cobb Stompers, the Konocti Fiddle Club and the Clear Lake Clikkers, Coffin said. Joining the Festival from Sonoma County are Mighty Chiplings and Two Rock Ramblers.
“The festival is a family event, with great music, food, art and crafts, a children’s activity area and more,” says Festival Coordinator Henry Bornstein. “With two stages and non-stop music from 10 a.. to 6:30 p.m., there’s something for everyone.”
Bornstein said in addition to music there will be special activities for children all day and musician’s workshops led by pros such as Laurie Lewis, Jim Williams, Steve Werner, Pat Ikes, Andy Skelton and Don Coffin.
There also will be a wine and beer garden featuring Lake County wines, demonstrations of wool spinning and weaving, an Art-in-the-Barn exhibit and dozens of food and handicraft booths.
“We encourage those attending to bring their instruments for workshops and informal jam sessions behind the ranch house,” Bornstein said.
This year, the festival will close with everyone being invited to an outdoor dance to the music of the Stairwell Sisters, a favorite of festival attendees.
“The Old Time Bluegrass Festival is a community fundraiser supporting the work of AMIA”, says Gae Henry, AMIA Board member. “Our mission is to protect and support the natural and cultural resources at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.”
The event is held each year at the Park, which is on Highway 53, between the towns of Clearlake and Lower Lake.
For more information, or to become involved in this year’s Bluegrass Festival as an AMIA member, volunteer or sponsor, you may contact AMIA at 707-995-2658 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
After a three-year effort by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to improve the process, ill and injured military members still endure a long, complex and often contentious evaluation system when seeking disability ratings and compensation for service-related health conditions.
The process has been made more convenient and even shortened by an average six to eight months under a pilot program jointly run by the two departments and which continues to be expanded to more military bases.
Yet the Defense Department’s personnel chief and the Army’s surgeon general both have concluded, and said publicly, that the “integrated” disability evaluation system, or IDES, remains a disappointment.
More dramatic changes, they suggest, have to occur or else wounded warriors and other disabled service members still will be saddled with a process not befitting their sacrifices to serve the country.
Clifford L. Stanley, under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, first revealed the depth of his concern to the annual Military Health System conference in January.
Stanley said he had been “raising Cain” over the time that injured and ill members still spent in “limbo” awaiting medical appointments and medical review board decisions.
Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, Army’s top medical officer, told the House military personnel subcommittee in March that the pilot run by the two departments since late 2007, called IDES or the Integrated Disability Evaluation System, “remains complex and adversarial.”
Soldiers, he said, “still undergo dual adjudication where the military rates only unfitting conditions and the VA rates all service-connected conditions.”
That produces separate ratings “confusing to soldiers and leaves a serious misperception about Army’s appreciation of wounded and injured soldiers [and their] medical and emotional situation.”
Interviewed in his Pentagon office late last month, Stanley said he agrees with that criticism of IDES, though the pilot continues to be improved as it replaces, base by base, the far more flawed legacy DES.
The legacy system, still used for 40 percent of members seeking disability ratings, requires each service to conduct its own medical evaluation to identify only “unfitting” conditions and award them a rating.
If the rating is 30 percent or higher, the member is retired and draws a lifetime annuity and other retiree benefits including access to military medical care.
If the rating is below 30 percent, the member is separated, usually with a lump sum severance payment. Veterans then go to VA where a new evaluation process begins, this time of every service-related condition found. VA ratings and compensation usually are higher than the service allowed.
Back in 2007, it took an average of 540 days to clear both DES processes. The pilot program to integrate them uses one set of medical examinations done by VA doctors to VA standards. It has honed the total process time down to an average of just over 300 days.
Members leave service with both their military and VA ratings set and with their compensation, usually based on the VA, starting immediately.
Stanley and Schoomaker agree that IDES, where it operates, has been an improvement. Yet both leaders say it doesn’t go far enough to simplify and accelerate the process for the 26,000 members moving through it at any given time.
Stanley has had a working group studying its weaknesses. Recommendations to improve it will be presented to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at the end of April.
The ideal system, Stanley said, would produce “a single evaluation based upon one medical record,” and over which Defense and VA officials “have joined hands and made a decision: ‘Here’s the disability rating. Period.’ That’s what we’re looking for … That’s nirvana.”
But such a change, presuming the one and only rating were set by VA, would make many more military members eligible to be disabled “retirees” thus driving up DoD retirement and medical costs.
Neither Stanley nor Schoomaker have addressed, at least publicly, the possible cost consequences of their vision.
What both appear to be embracing is a key recommendation of the 2007 Dole-Shalala Commission, which Congress and the Department of Defense choose to ignore because of the costs involved.
Dole-Shalala, formerly called the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors, was formed after the scandal involving neglected wounded warriors on the campus at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
It recommended getting “DoD completely out of the disability business” by giving VA sole responsibility for setting disability ratings and awarding compensation.
It urged replacing “confusing parallel systems” of DoD and VA ratings with a single simple and more generous system.
Congress instead passed more modest reforms to partially integrate the two processes. In the pilot, DoD and VA use the same set of exams. Both rating occur while members remain on active duty. But IDES still allows the military to rate only “unfitting conditions” for determining retirement eligibility and the VA to rate all conditions.
Stanley, in our interview, said this dual adjudication process keeps the system too long and complex, and shakes the bond of trust members should have with their service branch as they leave for civilian life.
Disability evaluation shouldn’t be something that the private first class, or even the general has to briefed on for hours “to understand,” Stanley said. It should just be there to serve them well and fairly.
Stanley isn’t persuaded, as some DES experts are, that the law would have to be changed to allow the services to use more than just “unfitting conditions” to set disability ratings for determining retirement eligibility.
While that debate continues internally, Stanley is pressing IDES officials to take more steps to cut down wait times for members, and at the same time ensure that their rights to due process are protected.
“At no time in this process are we talking about going faster than they want to go,” Stanley said. “We’re not trying to rush people out. We’re talking about respecting them [and] giving them an opportunity to go through a process that is not dehumanizing.”
To comment, send e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, 20120-1111.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Alcohol is believed to be a factor in a weekend crash in the south county that injured three people.
The crash in question occurred Saturday, April 2, at 6:20 p.m. on the Dry Creek Cutoff near Middletown, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A Monday report from CHP Officer Steve Tanguay explained that the single-vehicle collison involved a 1981 Toyota pickup driven by 23-year-old Middletown resident Justin McCarty.
Tanguay said McCarty was driving the pickup eastbound on the Dry Creek Cutoff toward Highway 29, with 24-year-old Shane Sims of Middletown riding in the front passenger seat and Sina Radley, 21, of Clearlake riding in the truck's bed.
According to the report, McCarty lost control of the truck, which veered to the left and went off of the roadway, colliding with a tree and rolling over onto its left side.
Radley was thrown from the bed of the truck, which came to rest in a ditch, Tanguay said.
Sims was able to get out of the truck while McCarty was trapped in the driver’s seat. Tanguay said neither McCarty nor Sims were wearing their seatbelts at the time of the collision.
When McCarty was removed from the vehicle, he was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for major injuries sustained in the collision, Tanguay said. Sims and Radley were transported by South County Fire Ambulance to Saint Helena Hospital, Clearlake for treatment of their injuries.
CHP Officer Erica Coddington is the investigating officer, Tanguay said.
The Army Reserve’s reliance on a private contractor to conduct medical screening of drilling reservists has driven up costs and reduced readiness of medics and reserve units, says a freshman congressman who also is an Army Reserve colonel and physician.
But an advocate for the contractor counters that the percentage of Army reservists medically ready to deploy within 72 hours actually has jumped over the last several years, from 24 percent to 62 percent.
Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) says he has watched with rising frustration as an arrangement with Logistics Health Inc. (LHI) of La Crosse, Wis., has handcuffed his Reserve medical staff on weekend drills from providing basic preventive health services to fellow reservists.
Heck charges that this has cut training opportunities for reserve medics. And LHI contract rules create barriers to using reserve medical personnel effectively, to give flu shots, for example, or to do preventive dental care.
Heck also contends that thousands of reservists every year are wrongly classified as medically nondeployable because LHI relies too heavily on soldiers’ responses to health questionnaires to assess fitness for duty.
On written responses alone LHI will lower medical readiness profiles of soldiers needlessly, sometimes for conditions that medical boards already have reviewed and deemed soldiers fit and deployable, Heck says.
An advocate for LHI, who asked not to be identified, says Heck seems not to understand that the Army Reserve was and is incapable of providing enough health services on its own to bring overall readiness rates higher.
Besides being a freshman member of Congress, Heck commands the Western Area Medical Support Group in San Pablo, Calif., one of four such groups in the Army Reserve. He oversees 2200 medically trained reservists assigned to 13 units across six states.
LHI does important work to ensure reservists stay medically fit, Heck says. “The problem is it doesn’t really accomplish that in a timely, cost-effective manner.”
“I would send a soldier who was well to a PHA” – Periodic Health Assessment conducted by LHI – “and he would come back broken, this is, medically nondeployable for an issue that was really not an issue,” Heck said. “But it would take six months to a year for us to clear it up.”
Heck estimated that 10,000 Army Reservists currently have a “P-3 profile” from LHI “that renders them medically nondeployable. And most of those, I am sure, will be adjudicated as not valid.”
Army Reserve Mobilization Support Units still are responsible for medical processing of reservists when mobilized and on return. But if the same personnel “want to do soldier readiness processing at my unit, they can’t do it on a drill weekend for my soldiers even though that’s their job should they be mobilized,” Heck said.
Heck raised these issues last week at House military personnel subcommittee hearing where senior defense health officials and the military surgeons general testified on TRICARE fees.
He expanded on his concerns in a phone interview for this column. Heck says he has asked Defense and Army medical leaders to answer a number of questions including whether LHI adds value for the government and whether contract changes are planned.
LHI, in a statement, said that neither the company nor the Reserve Health Readiness Program it services prohibits reserve components “from performing their medical readiness services organically.”
LHI said it only follows guidance from the Army Reserve Surgeon’s office and the office for Force Health Protection and Readiness under the assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. And “LHI only initiates” the annual health profile for drilling reservists.
“LHI is not the final authority on eligibility. For Army Reserve, the regional support command surgeon’s office has the authority to override any issue identified.”
LHI said in the last three years the Army Reserve “has witnessed historical medical and dental readiness improvement.”
Heck said he has been raising questions about the LHI contract for at couple of years based on “my firsthand experience. Now it’s just that I’m in a position to maybe get some answers.”
Maj. Gen. Richard A. Stone, deputy surgeon general of the Army for mobilization, readiness and reserve affairs, said in a statement that readiness of the Army Reserve and Army National Guard “has steadily improved with the growth of the Reserve Health Readiness Program.”
He notes that the two reserve components “have taken different approaches” to achieve soldiers’ medical fitness. “The Army Reserve has used LHI, thus freeing their medical providers for collective training during a time of intense utilization of the Army Reserve medical force,” Stone said.
Donald J. Weber, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran, is CEO and chairman of LHI. He started it in 1999 and soon landed a contract with DoD to help with mass immunization of military members against anthrax. Weber previously had founded National Health Screenings, which provided preemployment drug testing services, a business he sold before starting LHI.
When Reserve and National Guard mobilizations after 9/11 found many members nondeployable because of dental and medical issues, the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services formed the Federal Strategic Health Alliance (FEDS_HEAL), a joint initiative to provide medical support to reserve units.
LHI’s business boomed under FEDS_HEAL. It hired prominent names in government health. Tommy G. Thompson, former governor of Wisconsin and former HHS secretary for President George W. Bush, became company president in 2005. In 2007, William Winkenwerder Jr., former assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, joined the LHI executive team.
Later that year the FEDS_HEAL contract was restructured as the RHRP, and a five-year contract worth up to $790 million was awarded to LHI. It now has 839 full-time employees at its La Crosse headquarters and uses a nationwide network of 25,000 medical and dental providers.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The North Coast's congressman said he won't support a budget plan put forth by the House Budget Committee because the deep $6 billion in spending cuts it proposes would come at the expense of American families.
Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), a senior member of the House Committee on Ways & Means and the Blue Dog Coalition, said the country's debt crisis is a serious problem, and concrete action to decrease spending, increase saving, and balance the budget is needed to keep the national solvent.
But, “it’s important that we accomplish these goals in the right way,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the majority’s budget would hurt working families, seniors, children, and our middle class. This isn’t a workable approach if we’re going to achieve the broad bipartisan agreement necessary to enact a responsible budget.”
In a March 18 statement, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan criticized President Barack Obama's budget, saying it spent too much, taxed too much and borrowed too much.
“In the weeks ahead, the House Budget Committee will lead where the president has failed. In sharp contrast to the empty promises and diminished future offered by the president’s budget, we will chart a path to real security and a prosperous future,” Ryan said. “The American people demand – and deserve – honest leadership on our greatest fiscal and economic challenges.”
But that budget isn't going over well with members of Congress like Thompson, who said it slashes some of the most important investments and programs relied on by American families.
“The proposed budget would privatize Medicare, forcing seniors into the private health insurance market to shop for coverage with a government voucher,” Thompson said.
He explained that it also would mandate a block grant of federal Medicaid spending, severely undercutting California and other states’ ability to provide health care to our most vulnerable citizens. \
Additionally, the budget would establish an unprecedented fast track process to force Congress to cut Social Security benefits, jeopardizing the program for future generations, he said.
“In any budget discussion, all options should be on the table to start,” Thompson said. “But if the final plan hurts more Americans than it helps, then it’s time to reassess these options.”
Thompson said he he's not afraid to cut spending where it’s deserved, “but I won’t support a budget that decreases smart investments, increases bad ones and threatens our country’s fragile economic recovery.”
He added, “Moving forward, I hope the majority is willing to take a step back, reassess its priorities, and work across the political aisle to develop a viable alternative that puts America and the American people on a path toward long-term fiscal success.”
Thompson held a budget town hall in Lakeport in February in which he pointed to the need for serious budget reforms, including corporate tax structure, but worried that deep cuts in some programs might push the country's recovery backward, as Lake County News has reported.
SACRAMENTO – Driver distraction is a significant and growing problem in California, and the California Highway Patrol is joining with other law enforcement partners this month in an effort to save lives by encouraging drivers to keep their eyes on the road.
Inattention while behind the wheel proved to be especially deadly in 2009 as 116 people statewide lost their lives as the result of a collision in which at least one driver was distracted, the CHP reported. More than 17,000 others were injured under similar circumstances.
To address this growing concern, the CHP and more than 200 law enforcement agencies throughout the state are conducting a series of enforcement efforts during April, which is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.
The crackdown began Monday with the first, two-day statewide enforcement effort.
“When you're behind the wheel of a vehicle, any distraction can be serious, even life-threatening,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “Texting, especially, while driving, is not only illegal, it is just not a good idea.”
Farrow said most distracted driving crashes can be prevented if the drivers change their behavior and focus on driving.
Not only do drivers put themselves at risk while multitasking, drivers increase the risk of injuring or killing their passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians or innocent victims traveling in another vehicle, the CHP reported, adding that it is the responsibility of all drivers to keep the roads safe.
To help address the deadly problem, the CHP received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
In addition, local police and sheriffs’ departments will be adding several “zero tolerance” enforcement days throughout the month.
“OTS is proud to both help provide the CHP with the additional resources they need to combat this problem and to sign up over 275 local law enforcement agencies to join in this kickoff campaign,” said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy. “This is a problem that threatens to grow even larger and faster if California's drivers are not convinced that mobile device use is dangerous.”
While the number one source of driver inattention is the use of cell phones, distracted driving is more than just using technology when driving. It represents a range of activities that impact a driver’s visual, auditory, physical or cognitive abilities when driving.
Hoping to drive the message home and convince motorists to disconnect from this distracting, often deadly behavior while behind the wheel, the CHP will, in addition to the enforcement effort, launch a grant-funded public service campaign, conduct educational presentations and staff booths at community events at which educational materials can be distributed.
“Through the combined efforts of California’s law enforcement agencies, our traffic safety partners like OTS, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the Department of Motor Vehicles our goal is to enlighten drivers statewide about the dangers of distracted driving,” said Farrow. “Too many lives are destroyed every year because of distracted driving; it’s not worth it.”
The Clear Lake State Park Education Pavilion in Kelseyville, Calif., was dedicated at an afternoon ceremony on Saturday, April 2, 2011. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – As volunteers, park officials, elected representatives and community members looked on Saturday afternoon, the State Parks Department formally received an important gift – the new Clear Lake State Park Education Pavilion.
Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association President Madelene Lyon not only officially handed over the seven-year labor of love to State Parks Director Ruth Coleman, she also topped off the gift with a hug.
That gesture captured not just personal warmth but also pointed to the greater cooperation that has formed between private and public interests in accomplishing the pavilion's completion.
The new building sits across from the park's visitor center. It features a covered area with an outdoor sink, counter and power outlets, and a secure enclosed portion where equipment can be stored.
CLSPIA's goal, the group said, was to create an outdoor educational space for young people, to keep them engaged and to make sure “no child was left inside.”
The vision turned into action in 2004, and Lyon and the group pursued years of fundraising, planning and lobbying to turn ideas into sketches, and sketches into a structure.
Along the way, one of the worst economic climates in memory hit, which has had critical impacts on state funding and, especially, the state parks.
Clear Lake State Park itself was on a list of parks former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed for closure, but a local grassroots campaign by the group and the community at large spared the park.
It was the community's very vociferous defense of its park – as well as CLSPIA's ongoing commitment to offering educational programs like the Junior Rangers, park tours and bird walks – that kept the park open, officials said Saturday.
Coleman had been a staffer for Mike Thompson when he was in the state Legislature, before he moved into Congress. Noting, “Once you work for Mike you always work for Mike,” Coleman recalled Thompson calling her in about 2005 to ask if she had money to devote to the pavilion project.
The state did put aside funding for the project before leaner times arrived. While it took a lot of time and more than the estimated $20,000 to build it, Coleman said the pavilion was nonetheless an important example of what private and public entities can do when they work together.
She said the park would not be nearly as successful as it is if it weren't for its nonprofit partner, CLSPIA, adding that partnership “is the reason this park is still open.”
Thompson, who along with wife Jan came over for the afternoon for the dedication, credited Lyon's tenacity with pushing the project forward, which he said made “absolute perfect sense” in its goal of reaching young people, whose ability in science will be crucial to the country.
With so many partners – the community, the government and the organization – pushing in the same direction, it spelled success, he said.
Assemblyman Wes Chesbro – who Saturday afternoon was heading back to Sacramento and back to work in the Legislature – said it's seemed like a dark time for the state, with its budget woes.
However, Chesbro was heartened by the hope he said he saw expressed in the project's cooperative nature.
It was an example that Chesbro said could be used to confront other problems.
Chesbro said when a community supports a state park, it makes it easier for their government representatives to push to keep them open.
“I'd say this park is in good hands,” said Chesbro, who noted he loved the park and had visited it with his family many times.
Lauding Lyon, Coleman and Thompson, Chesbro added, “Really, the whole community deserves the credit.”
Clear Lake Section Superintendent Bill Salata also spoke, thanking CLSPIA. “What they did was just incredible.”
He also thanked the California Conservation Corps, which built the pavilion.
Lyon, before she turned over the pavilion and the hug to Coleman, thanked everyone, agreeing with others who had spoke that it took the entire community to make it possible.
“We saw such a huge need for this,” she said.
CLSPIA reported that major donors to the project included the Keeling-Barnes Family Foundation, Wildhurst Vineyards, Brad and Kathy Barnwell, William and Roberta Beat, the California State Park Foundation, D.A. and Leona Butts, Henry and Dorothy Hurkett, Madelene and Walt Lyon, Ernie Mendes, Dorothy Meyer, Tom and Val Nixon, Brad Onorato, the Priest Family Charitable Fund, Rotary Club of Lakeport, Grant Cary Family, Thrivent, Neil and Bobbi Towne, and Tom and Tina Wasson.
The dedication ceremony also coincided with the opening of the park for the season. Officials reported that a new ranger was on temporary assignment for the summer to assist at the park.
The blueprints for the education pavilion at Clear Lake State Park in Kelseyville, Calif., were prepared by Bud Hurkett, a Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association volunteer. The plans were submitted to the state in 2005. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.
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