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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Hours ahead of the deadline, county election officials completed the final canvass for the Nov. 6 presidential election, with the numbers showing turnout was down from four years ago.
Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said her staff finished the final canvass for the Nov. 6 election before lunch on Tuesday, well ahead of the 5 p.m. deadline.
The final results don’t show any placement changes for the candidates in the various city council and school board races, or the judicial contest.
However, the final count does give a more accurate picture of voter turnout for the election.
Among Lake County’s 34,938 registered voters, 13,470, or 38.6 percent, cast absentee or vote-by-mail ballots, compared to 10,215, or 29.2 percent, who voted at precincts.
The overall countywide voter turnout was 67.8 percent, compared to the 73.6 percent voter turnout the county reported for the 2008 presidential election.
Overall voter turnout in the new Congressional District Three, which covers the northern half of the county and will be represented by Congressman John Garamendi, was at 63 percent.
Congressman Mike Thompson will represent the new Congressional District Five, covering the southern half of the county, where voter turnout was 72.3 percent.
With city council elections in both cities, voter turnout was 55.7 percent in Clearlake and 71.1 percent in Lakeport.
The final counts showed that Measure E, the half-cent sales tax for water quality projects on Clear Lake, had a 63 percent yes vote, with 37 percent voting no. It needed 66 percent to win.
Also needing a 66-percent supermajority was the city of Clearlake’s Measure G, which would have funded road improvements and code enforcement. It had a 61.7 percent yes vote, to 38.3 percent voting no.
Voter turnout was 60.5 percent in the Konocti Unified School District and 71.4 percent in the South Lake County Fire Protection District, which had a successful measure, Measure F, to raise the district’s appropriation limits.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake man has been sentenced to 26 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child dozens of times in a six-month period.
Anthony Ellis Bugg, 52, of Clearlake received the sentence from Judge Richard Martin on Monday.
On Oct. 29 Bugg had pleaded guilty to two counts of molesting an 11-year-old child, according to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office.
Bugg’s public defender, Barry Melton, declined comment on the case, which was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Edward Borg, the assigned child sexual assault prosecutor for the Lake County District Attorney’s office. District Attorney Investigator Denise Hinchcliff also assisted in the investigation.
The investigative reports and testimony at the preliminary examination showed that the crimes committed by Bugg came to light when he emailed a suspected child molester in Nevada.
Bugg, using the pseudonym “Tony Smith,” boasted about his 11-year old girlfriend. Unknown to Bugg, that person had been arrested and his computer accounts were being monitored by law enforcement.
The account used by Bugg was traced to an address in Clearlake. After receiving the foregoing information, Det. Timothy Alvarado of the Clearlake Police Department, assisted by Det. Ryan Peterson, began an investigation in which he determined that Bugg lived at the address listed in the account.
During the investigation, the victim, an 11 year old girl, disclosed that Bugg had molested her on numerous occasions, beginning in December 2011. Most of the assaults took place in a shed behind Bugg’s residence.
The victim estimated that Bugg had molested her at least 30 times between January and May 2012. The investigation also disclosed a brief film clip of Bugg molesting the victim.
Bugg pleaded no contest to two separate felony offenses: lewd act with a child by force or violence, which was alleged to have occurred in December 2011, and continuous sexual abuse of a child, alleged to have occurred from January to mid-May 2012, officials reported.
Finding that the crimes displayed an aggravated level of cruelty and viciousness, Judge Martin sentenced Bugg to the upper term in each count.
Because both offenses are violent sex crimes, Bugg was sentenced to full consecutive terms, for an aggregate sentence of 26 years in state prison.
Additionally, Bugg will have to serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for release. When he is released, Bugg will be required to register as a sex offender.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A new study has identified several areas in California previously not known to have invasive breast cancer rates substantially higher than the state average, while Lake County’s rate appears low compared to many other parts of the state.
The Public Health Institute’s California Breast Cancer Mapping Project found four new “areas of concern” encompassing sections of Ventura, Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange counties.
In addition, the research found that parts of the north and south Bay Area – including portions of Sonoma, Marin, Napa, Solano, Contra Costa, Alameda, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties – showed elevated rates for the disease.
The California Breast Cancer Mapping Project developed and used a protocol to map breast cancer rates within and across county boundaries and by using data obtained from the California Cancer Registry by census tract.
Researchers said that breast cancer surveillance traditionally has relied on aggregate county-level data. That method of surveillance had not identified the new focus areas, which span sections of multiple counties.
“Breast cancer doesn’t know geographic boundaries and this study shows that mapping breast cancer rates by census tract is a useful and important supplement to county-level surveillance, which is still essential,” said Eric Roberts, MD, PhD, principal investigator of the CBCMP. “We found that the specific communities most impacted by breast cancer can fall within or across counties. By identifying these communities we can more efficiently and effectively direct resources to them.”
The new methodology pointed to rates in the newly identified areas of concern that were 10 to 20 percent higher than the state average between 2000-08, with 2008 being the most recent data available when the study began, the project reported.
Researchers analyzed sociodemographic factors of women with breast cancer in the four areas of concern.
The findings showed that white women have an elevated risk of having the disease, a pattern that already had been identified in previous research.
They also found that women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the Ventura/Los Angeles area of concern had less private insurance compared to the other areas of concern and the state overall.
Here in Lake County, the new mapping did not find above-average incidences, which matches other studies of breast cancer rates.
Both the California Cancer Registry and the California Department of Public Health’s 2012 Health Status Profile for Lake County showed comparatively low rates for the disease when compared with other types of cancers.
From 2005 to 2009, Lake County had an age-adjusted invasive breast cancer rate of 55.46 people per 100,000, the fifth-lowest rate in the state, according to California Cancer Registry statistics. The state average was 66.07 incidences per 100,000.
Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait said Lake County’s breast cancer incidence rate is actually low. However, she said mortality rates are not as good.
She pointed to the county health status profile’s findings that Lake’s age-adjusted death rate for breast cancer was 21.7, slightly above the national objective of 21.3 and the state rate of 20.7.
She said the higher mortality rate may have to do with virulence of the disease and access to treatment, the latter being influenced by socioeconomic issues.
Tait also pointed out that every one of Lake County’s high cancer rates is worsened by smoking. “And people just don’t realize that.”
The new research, while meant to map areas of concern, wasn’t meant to determine the causes of breast cancer rates or detect specific environmental triggers, according to the report.
While the role that environmental pollutants play in breast cancer is of concern, the study’s authors said research shows that cancer often does not develop until decades after these exposures take place.
The maps are based on women live when they were diagnosed; the research does not include where they lived previously or what pollutant exposures they may have experienced.
Researchers hope the new protocol will be put to good use.
“The CBCMP mapping protocol is a very useful tool to enhance surveillance of breast cancer, and possibly other cancers, at the local level,” said Roberts. “We look forward to exploring how it can be more widely utilized by public agencies and other stakeholders.”
The project’s full report is available at http://cehtp.org/resources/breast_cancer_mapping/ or can be viewed below.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN UPDATED AND CLARIFIED REGARDING INFORMATION ABOUT THE PERMIT AND MEETING ATTENDANCE.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – South county residents gathered last week to hear an update on Calpine Corp.’s plans to seek an extension of a permit covering several geothermal wells and to voice their concerns about geothermal operations in the area.
Calpine Corp. hosted the meeting last Tuesday, Nov. 27, at its visitor center in Middletown to discuss continued geothermal well operation at the Davies Estate geothermal well site on Foard Road.
About 15 community members, including residents of Anderson Springs, the community closest to the drilling, came to voice their concerns. The meeting was led by Bruce Carlsen, Calpine’s director of environmental health and safety.
Up for consideration was Calpine’s application to renew a 29 year old permit issued by the Lake County Community Development Department.
The permit, which expires Aug. 11, 2013, covers four existing wells on a pad at Davies Estate, privately owned land located less than a mile south of Anderson Springs.
Among those who attended the meeting was Meriel Medrano, who has lived in Anderson Springs since 1971.
Over the years, residents have been increasingly affected by small earthquakes caused by geothermal production. The shaking occurs almost every day, she said in a phone interview.
“We were here first,” Medrano said. And now, “we are three-quarters surrounded by power plants.”
The Geysers, which began operation in the 1960s, has developed into the largest complex of geothermal power plants in the world, with companies besides Calpine at work in the steam field.
Calpine operates 15 power plants at The Geysers and generates enough electricity to power 725,000 homes, according to the company’s Web site.
However, that clean energy production also has taken its toll on about 200 homes in Anderson Springs, according to residents.
Some Anderson Springs residents have had “considerable damages,” said Medrano, citing broken windows, a fallen chimney and cracked foundations.
The site in question is only one of many that impact residents, Medrano said. “We can only address the permits as they come up.”
Medrano is part of the Anderson Springs Community Alliance, a group that advocates for residents, and the health of the local environment.
She said she attended the meeting to find out, for one thing, for how long Calpine wants to extend the permit.
The residents want a deadline, she said. “We would feel more confident if there was a 10-year plan.”
In addition, the group wants some consideration of seismicity included in the permit.
If, for example, a large earthquake occurred, they would like to see “some condition” to address that possibility, such as shutting down the wells.
They also are asking for a new environmental review. The last one was done decades ago, prior to the original permit for the wells.
Ahead of the meeting, the group sent their comments to the Lake County Community Development Department, as well as to Calpine. Their goal, Medrano said, is to see that their concerns are added to the permit.
Calpine spokesperson Danielle Matthews Seperas said the company objects to each condition of the group’s proposal.
Seperas explained that the conditions would increase the costs of an already extremely costly business – yet the company won’t be making any changes at the site. There will be no new development.
She said geothermal permits in other areas generally do not expire.
She isn’t sure why the original 30-year life was imposed by the county; Sonoma County, for example, has no such deadline on geothermal permits, she added.
“We are asking for it to be unlimited,” Seperas said of the permit.
Such geothermal permits do not expire in terms of the construction of the well, according to Joe Austin, the district geothermal engineer with California Department of Conservation in Santa Rosa.
However, this is a land use permit which is filed with the county rather than the state, Austin explained. Therefore, it does expire.
Austin said Lake County is the lead agency in regard to any new environmental review. “It’s up to the county” if that should be done.
Seperas said a new environmental review isn’t necessary, citing the Class 1 Categorical Exemption, which is applicable to projects that involve negligible or no expansion of existing use at the time of lead agency’s determination. There will be no expansion of existing use at the Davies Estate site, only an extension of time.
Under the California Environmental Quality Act – known more commonly as CEQA – “We are exempt from another review,” Seperas said.
Medrano and her fellow Anderson Springs residents disagreed.
In the letter from the Anderson Springs Community Alliance, Jeffrey Gospe, the alliance’s president, argued that the permit should receive no such exemption. He said operation of the wells does and will change over time.
Gospe referred to CEQA guidelines that identify “cumulative impact” and “significant effect” – such as seismicity associated with the project – claiming that exemptions “are not applicable.”
The original use permit is so out of date that the alliance’s members said it doesn’t even mention induced seismicity.
According to Seperas, Calpine is already working under seismicity constraints. “Seismicity needs to be studied Geyser-wide” – and it is.
The four wells that comprise the Davies Estate project simply take steam through the plant, Seperas said, so they don’t intend to make any changes to the permit in regard to earthquakes.
Medrano admitted that even if drilling stopped at this one site, the earthquakes would not. But she said the community would still like to revisit the permit in the event of an unusually large earthquake.
Have they experienced increased seismicity over time?
“Oh my God, yes,” she said.
Starting in 2005, residents have been paid exact damages for their homes. To date, the repair costs amount to $190,000, Medrano estimated.
The funds are provided through another steam field operator, the nonprofit Northern California Power Agency.
Seperas said Calpine has tried to be a good neighbor. The company helps reimburse the community by funding local projects, which now total $545,582 to Anderson Springs, she estimated.
The company funds two committees, which also cover Cobb. Since 2005, when the committees were launched, Cobb has received $293,000, according to Seperas.
Medrano noted that Calpine also “tried to move some of the wells,” noting, “That helped a great deal.”
Medrano added, “We’re trying to work with them.”
And while she thinks the meeting “went really well,” the group plans to press on with their concerns about the permit, Medrano said.
They will have a second chance to do that on Dec. 13, when the Lake County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to consider Calpine’s application.
Sheila Pell is a Lake County News correspondent.