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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
LAKEPORT – A Lake County Superior Court judge on Friday turned down a motion to reduce charges against a man accused of felony manslaughter involving a boat and boating under the influence.
Sacramento defense attorney Victor Haltom sought the charge reductions on behalf of his client, Bismarck Dinius, 40, of Carmichael.
Dinius is facing charges that arise from an April 2006 boating collision on Clear Lake, during which Willows resident Lynn Thornton, 51, was fatally injured, dying a few days later.
He was at the tiller of a sailboat owned by Thornton's fiance, Mark Weber of Willows, when the sailboat was hit by a speedboat driven by Russell Perdock, currently a captain in the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Following an investigation which the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office was called in to lead, Dinius was charged in the case. The District Attorney's Office alleges that the sailboat's running lights weren't on and says Dinius was under the influence of alcohol. Perdock was not charged in the case.
Following several hours of delays due to other cases, Dinius' case was heard Friday afternoon by Judge Richard Martin.
Haltom had filed a request that the felony charges against Dinius be reduced to misdemeanors. In his argument he went one step further, referring to a procedure which gives a magistrate or superior court judge the authority to grant a full dismissal of all charges.
Deputy District Attorney John Langan offered no opposing arguments during the afternoon court session.
Judge Martin said he had spent a significant amount of time researching Haltom’s basis for the motion.
Then, in a 20-minute response, Martin denied Haltom's request, explaining that, despite the technical and creative merits of Haltom’s motion, it was not timely, as a window of opportunity to submit motions of this type had come and gone.
Martin further explained that the next window of opportunity available to the defense to request a review of such a motion would be between the point of conviction and the time of sentencing.
Following the decision, Haltom asked the court to allow members of Lynn Thornton’s family to address the court. Several of them – who had mailed letters to the judge stating their position in defense of Dinius – were present in court on Friday.
Martin denied the request to hear from the family, suggesting that the best place for such testimony is in front of a jury.
While still in the courtroom and discussing future court dates with Martin and Langan, Haltom informed the court that he would be seeking DNA samples from Perdock. Haltom openly expressed his doubts as to the validity of the blood samples allegedly taken the night of the incident.
“I have good reason to believe that the blood in the vials may not be Perdock's blood,” said Haltom.
Prior to the hearing, Dinius told Lake County News that he was cautiously optimistic about the motion's possibility of success. The worst-case scenario for him now is that he could end up spending four years in prison for the manslaughter charge.
After the hearing Dinius said he felt that local authorities will force the case to go before a jury.
Before the hearing, Haltom stated that the ability to charge Perdock in the case runs out on April 26 due to the statute of limitations. He made that point in court as well.
Langan remained in the courtroom on court business and was unavailable for comments immediately after the hearing.
The next court appearance in the case is March 27, during which Dinius does not need to be present. Other pretrial hearings are scheduled for April 20 and May 15, with his trial tentatively scheduled to begin on May 19.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Schwarzenegger's office said that the bipartisan budget package takes the necessary steps to reduce spending, bring in new revenue, improve the business climate and create jobs, and make government more efficient.
First District Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) voted for the package, which he called “a compromise of deep cuts and revenue increases that required both sides of the aisle to make concessions.”
Said Chesbro, “The cuts we made are the most severe in the history of California budgets. All Californians will be asked to make sacrifices, either in the form of service cuts or paying a little more in taxes to return our state to solvency. If we had not acted on this solution now – if we had waited any longer – the pain for all Californians would have been worse.”
Chesbro said he doesn't like taxes, or cutting spending on education and other vital programs. “But the Legislature had to act now,” he said, explaining that failure to act would have jeopardized California’s eligibility for federal economic stimulus funds. Thousands more Californians employed in the public and private sector would have lost their jobs as one project after another was shut down, he added.
On Friday Schwarzenegger used his line item veto authority to cut $958 million from the 2009-10 budget's general fund.
Those line item cuts include at least a 10-percent reduction to most of the constitutional offices; replacing general fund appropriations with federal funds that the state otherwise would not receive for higher education; and, finding additional savings within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Other features of the budget include a strengthening of the rainy-day fund, opening up of primary elections and elimination of legislative pay raises during deficit years.
“We have achieved a great victory for California today,” Schwarzenegger said. “By staying focused on what was best for the people of our state and not the special interests, we were able to come together and solve our $42 billion deficit and also find meaningful and lasting solutions to our broken budget system.”
Despite having to make some tough decision, the state is “back on the best path forward,” said Schwarzenegger. “We will continue to work with our most important partners – the people of our great state – to ensure we never again face the kind of catastrophic budget scenario we experienced this year.”
The budget includes $14.9 billion in spending reductions, Schwarzenegger's office reported.
The reduction from most constitutional officers’ budgets, which resulted from the line item veto, will achieve $47 million in savings, according to the governor.
He added that the cut to the constitutional officers' budgets reflects equity among all executive branch agencies for the state employee compensation reductions within the budget through furloughs, elimination of positions, overtime reform and reducing paid state holidays. The constitutional officers will have the flexibility to implement the savings within their own offices.
Higher education will receive federal funding to replace general fund monies in the amount of $255 million each to the University of California and California State University systems. Additional savings of $400 million will come from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation through continued reforms and other cost saving measures that will not jeopardize public safety.
The budget includes temporary revenue increases totaling $12.5 billion through a one-cent increase in the state sales tax, an increase in the vehicle license fee to one percent and an increase in the personal income tax that federal stimulus funding will likely help offset. The vehicle license fee will also include an additional ongoing 0.15 percent increase that will be dedicated to local law enforcement programs. Additionally, the state will bring in revenue through modernizing the state lottery and bringing in $5 billion in 2009-10 that will offset the need for additional tax increases or program cuts.
Chesbro said the budget package he voted for will have a far less negative impact on the First Assembly District than what the governor had originally proposed.
He said the Legislature saved the rural sheriffs program and greatly reduced the impacts of deferred payments to county services. They also saved the California Conservation Corps., minimized cuts to education spending and made sure schools will be repaid in the future. Schools also received greater flexibility in how they spend state funds, and cuts to health and human services were limited.
Without the budget solution, Chesbro said veterans would have been among those to suffer first and most severely. “The state was in real jeopardy of losing federal funds needed to care for those who served in the armed forces and fought for our freedom.”
Chesbro said the budget sought to keep the state's workforce intact. The vast services those workers provide includes everything from ensuring environmental protections, to building transportation projects, to helping people file unemployment claims, to fighting wildfires.
The governor said he fought hard to include needed economic stimulus to help create jobs and boost the state's economy at the same time as the budget asks Californians to pay more in taxes while reducing their services.
The budget includes incentives and gives a competitive edge to companies that are creating jobs for Californians and to encourage companies to expand in and relocate to California. Also, a “new hire” tax incentive will target small businesses that create new California jobs in the coming two years – when we need them most, officials reported.
The package also provides for more public-private partnerships and design build authority to create more jobs and build projects quicker and more cost-effectively for the taxpayer. As well as, incentives to lure television and movie production back to California.
Other budget highlights include flexibility for categorical education funding allow local schools and districts to use it as they see best fit to serve children and keep more money in the classroom. And the state will move forward this year to reorganize its IT functions to save an estimated $1.5 billion over the first five years and creates a new streamlined, cabinet-level office for the state’s energy-related functions helping California focus on energy stability and eliminating redundancy.
Schwarzenegger's office reported that one item of importance to the governor – that was highlighted among his campaign promises – was that the rainy-day fund, or the budget stabilization account, will be increased and reformed making budget spending more predictable and stable.
Additionally, through the budget package, Californians will have the opportunity to enact true reforms for the state including open primaries to provide more moderate candidates and eliminating pay raises for elected officials when California is spending more money than it is taking in.
The structural changes to put California back on track will go before voters. Schwarzenegger said he intends to form a partnership with the people to pass these ballot initiatives.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED; THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY HAS UPGRADED THIS QUAKE FROM 3.3 TO 3.7 MAGNITUDE.
THE GEYSERS – A 3.7-magnitude earthquake hit The Geysers area early Friday morning.
The quake occurred at 2:29 a.m., and was centered one mile north of The Geysers, five miles west southwest of Cobb and seven miles west northwest of Anderson Springs, according to the US Geological Survey.
The US Geological Survey report noted that the quake was recorded at a depth of 1.4 miles.
Residents of Kelseyville and Cobb reported feeling the quake, which also was felt as far away as El Cerrito and San Francisco, according to the US Geological Survey's shake reports.
The last earthquake measuring 3.0 or above reported in Lake County occurred on Jan. 22, measured 3.0 on the Richter scale and was centered one mile northwest of The Geysers, as Lake County News has reported.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
MIDDLETOWN – Earth-friendly technologies and sustainable ways of supporting energy and business were a theme in Lake County on Thursday.
In the morning, Congressman Mike Thompson was on hand for the dedication of the county's solar array near Lakeport. Then, on Thursday afternoon, he made the trip to the Calpine Visitors Center, where he was honored by Calpine, which named a new fish ladder on Big Sulfur Creek in his honor.
Supervisors Jim Comstock and Jeff Smith, as well as state and federal officials, were on hand for the presentation at the Calpine Visitors Center.
The Big Sulfur Creek fish passage project is a joint project between Calpine, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.
Completed last October, the fish ladder was shaped to create stable streaming flow conditions along its margins at moderate to high water levels. It includes ladder steps designed to provide juvenile fish passage at lower flows, and allows upstream fish migration over a wider range of stream flows compared to traditional fish ladders.
Calpine spent six years working on the project, beginning in 2001, said Calpine Senior Vice President Mike Rogers.
“This really is an exceptional example of sustainability,” said Rogers, who added that it's an example of industry and government coming together on an important project.
The company had been meeting with officials from state Fish and Game when the subject of Russian River steelhead came up, Rogers said. The fish were having trouble migrating through a part of the river.
Specifically, a road crossing on The Geysers property, consisting of a triple concrete box culvert, was found to be a partial barrier to fish migrating upstream, according to a Calpine report.
So began what would be years of what Rogers called “formidable tasks” – from studying the stream to designing a project, getting complex permits and diverting the stretch of river while the fish ladder was constructed, said Rogers.
The end result was unobstructed, year-around access to the largest suitable spawning and rearing habitat on Big Sulfur Creek – one of the largest tributaries to the Russian River – above the confluence with Squaw Creek, according to Calpine.
Officials explained that steelhead trout spawn from December through April in coarse gravel areas of small streams and tributaries where cool, well-oxygenated water is available year-round.
David White of NOAA explained that the steelhead is a threatened species, and Big Sulfur Creek is a unique habitat. The fish ladder maximizes the amount of habitat available in the river, he said.
To underline the project's importance, White explained that the Russian River's steelhead runs were estimated to have 65,000 fish in the 1970s. In recent years, that number has plummeted to between 3,000 and 6,000 steelhead.
The reduction in habitat and dewatering of stream tributaries were devastating the steelhead population, White said.
But there's hope that the steelhead – which is very sensitive to environmental conditions – will come back. White said two adult steelhead were found at the project site, along with close to 2,400 juveniles. They also found 1,000 yellow-legged frog tadpoles, two California giant salamanders and about 1,000 red-legged salamander larvae.
The creek is home to a very rich assembly of California native fishes, said White.
Rogers paid tribute to Thompson, who was on the short list of candidates considered to lead the federal Department of the Interior.
Thompson lauded the work of the NOAA scientists, who he said are doing good scientific work for the government.
He said fish are an environmental canary in the mine shaft.
“If the fish aren't living where they're supposed to be living, something is wrong,” said Thompson.
Thompson recalled that he and Calpine go back a long way.
While he was in the state Legislature in the 1990s, the effort got under way to put in place Lake County's effluent pipeline to The Geysers – where the treated wastewater is injected into the steamfields to help generate geothermal power.
Thompson was elected to Congress in 1998 and when he got to Washington, DC, he started working on the pipeline issue. It was placed in a bill but the Army Corps of Engineers said it would not allow the project even if the bill was approved.
“I was up against the wall,” said Thompson.
He said he received a call from a White House staffer asking if he was still going to support the bill in which the pipeline was included, and Thompson said no.
A short time later he got a call from the President Bill Clinton asking why he was changing his vote.
Thompson said he told Clinton about Lake County's pipeline and the problems he was having with the Army Corps of Engineers.
“It is so, so wonderful when you're needed,” said Thompson, recalling how the problem was suddenly solved and the pipeline was allowed to go forward.
“Renewable energy is so important to us and our future,” Thompson said.
He said he hopes to see the steelhead numbers recover after a 90-percent drop in fish numbers since the 1960s.
For the First Congressional District, steelhead and salmon are a big part of the economy, heritage and culture, Thompson said.
A trip had been planned to go to the fish ladder, but Calpine officials said concerns about a rock slide on the road preempted the trip. Instead, visitors were taken up to see The Geysers site.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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