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- Written by: Lake County News reports
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) wardens have arrested two Menlo Park men on poaching charges for shooting a deer after temporarily blinding it with a light in the Mendocino National Forest.
Cecundino Angel, 50, his son, Rogelio Angel Quevedo, 21, and another juvenile son were arrested, according to a DFG report.
In the early morning hours of Sep. 16, pilot and Warden Gavin Woelfel was flying a DFG aircraft looking for poachers with a night vision device. He noticed two men driving slowly down a remote U.S. Forest Service road in the darkness while shining a light out the windows of their truck.
They appeared to be spotlighting, which is when poachers shine a light into deers eyes at night. The bright light causes the deer to freeze, making it an easy shot.
From his airplane, Woelfel watched two men exit the vehicle and one fire his rifle at an object off the side of the road. The man then walked off the road and fired his rifle a second time before returning to his vehicle and driving off.
Woelfel monitored the vehicle as it drove back to the Dry Oak Campground in the Mendocino National Forest.
Wardens Michael Pascoe, Patrick Freeling and Timothy Little, along with USFS Law Enforcement Officer Christopher Magallon, were called to the scene.
When they arrived at 3:25 a.m., they located the suspects pickup and made contact with its occupants, including the driver Cecundino Angel, and his sons. The cab of the pickup was found to contain two rifles, one pistol and a large flashlight.
Meanwhile, DFG Lt. Loren Freeman, who is based in Clearlake Oaks, responded to the site of the shooting, where he located a freshly killed doe.
Both of the older suspects ultimately admitted to spotlighting deer and Angel admitted to killing the doe. One of the rifles in Angel’s possession was found to be stolen out of Washington.
Angel was arrested and booked into Mendocino County Jail on charges of possession of a stolen firearm, spotlighting, shooting big game at night and waste of game.
USFS Officer Magallon also issued Angel a citation for littering, an unsafe campfire and other assorted federal violations.
The older son, Quevedo, was cited for spotlighting and shooting big game at night.
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- Written by: Dauna Coulter
Adam Steltzner doesn’t sound much like an ordinary engineer.
For instance, when we asked him if he would talk about Curiosity – and explain why the Mars rover matters to ordinary people – the former rock-n-roller responded, “I’m totally down with that.”
He really is down with it.
Steltzner is the NASA engineer who helped take the country’s cool new Curiosity rover to the surface of Mars with moves – and flair – even Evel Knievel would envy.
“I’m so thankful to Clara Ma for suggesting the name ‘Curiosity.’ It embodies a fundamental attribute that defines us as humans,” he said.
“Why do we explore? It’s our nature,” he said. “Human curiosity is why you and I can talk across the country by phone. It’s why I’m sitting 60 feet above the ground in a building made of alloys and other high-tech composite materials. We dominate this planet because we wonder what’s around the next corner.”
When people ask Steltzner “Is the new rover worth $2.5 billion?” he has a compelling answer:
“It’s not $2.5 billion we stuffed in a trunk and blew into space. It’s thousands of high tech jobs spread over 37 states. It’s honing and developing our skills in science, engineering and math.”
He notes that the U.S. has slipped to 14th in science education and 18th in math – in a world where we’re competing for economic prosperity with nations one through 13.
“This mission is an investment in high tech jobs, in inspiring the youth of our country, in stepping up rung by rung toward 1st place,” he said. “It’s the best stimulus you could imagine!”
OK, curiosity matters – but does it matter more than rock-n-roll? Steltzner played guitar in a rock band for years, so he has the chops to answer this question, too.
“In some sense, exploration and music are both art forms,” he said. “They’re both expressions of our humanity. But exploration can surprise us more – or at least differently – than music can. Music can surprise us only about what we find in ourselves. Exploration surprises us with what we learn of ourselves and of the universe.”
Steltzner said music led him to exploration. During high school he played in a rock band. One night driving home from a gig he noticed that the constellation Orion was in a different place than it had been before.
But why? “I hadn’t paid attention during high school classes at all. So I didn’t know.”
His curiosity made him decide to take an astronomy class. First, though, astronomy had prerequisites such as elementary algebra and conceptual physics. He took them all. “I basically redid my high school education at the community college.”
The rest – which includes a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, a master’s degree from Caltech, a job at JPL, and a daredevil landing on Mars – is history.
After the glory of the Curiosity landing fades, what will this explorer do next?
“Our solar system offers us grand challenges,” said Steltzner. “I’d like to see a Mars sample return. I’d like to land on the surface of Europa – the most likely place in the solar system for life. And third, I’d like to float a boat on the methane lakes of Titan.”
“The solar system is calling out to us,” he says. “The wind’s at our back. It’s time to explore!”
Daun Coulter works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Kamala Harris and Mexico Attorney General Marisela Morales Ibáñez on Friday signed an accord to expand prosecutions and secure convictions of criminals who engage in the trafficking of human beings.
The accord will increase coordination of law enforcement resources targeting transnational gangs that engage in the sale and trafficking of human beings across the California-Mexico border.
The accord calls for closer integration on human trafficking investigations between the two offices and the sharing of best practices for law enforcement to recognize instances of human trafficking and provide support and services to victims.
Prosecutors from the two offices today held the second of a series of meetings to implement the initiative.
“California and Mexico are together taking steps to disrupt and dismantle the criminal networks that traffic human beings into our state as if they were just another commodity,” said Attorney General Harris. “Trageting transnational gangs is a vital component of our efforts to protect public safety in California.”
Human trafficking is estimated to be a $32 billion global industry and the world’s third most profitable criminal enterprise behind drugs and arms trafficking.
The United States Department of State estimates that between 14,000 and 17,500 individuals are trafficked into the country each year.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline and Resource Center received more than 54,000 calls between 2007 and 2011, with more than 15 percent originating from California.
“Criminal trafficking organizations are among the most dangerous threats that we confront and they are drawn to the trafficking of human beings by the high profit and low risk,” said Attorney General Harris. “If we aim to be smart on crime, we have to change that calculus. Our goal is to disrupt trafficking networks, increase convictions and force these international traffickers away from our borders.”
Earlier this month, Attorney General Harris announced the arraignment on drug trafficking charges of six individuals with suspected links to the La Familia and Sinaloa cartels.
Together, these two busts resulted in the seizure of more than 43 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of nearly $2 million.
Attorney General Harris has made the fight against human trafficking a career priority.
The Justice Department is preparing an update to California’s Human Trafficking Report, which, in part, will examine the human trafficking activities of transnational gangs in California.
This report is an update of a 2007 report mandated by the California Human Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2005, which was sponsored by then-District Attorney Harris and first made human trafficking a felony in California.
In June, Attorney General Harris partnered with Yahoo! and the Polaris Project to direct users to the national human trafficking hotline whenever certain terms related to human trafficking are searched through Yahoo!
The goal of the initiative is to identify more victims of human trafficking by connecting survivors and community members to resources and support.
In addition, two bills sponsored by Attorney General Harris have been sent to Governor Edmund G. Brown for his signature. Assembly Bill 2466 (Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield) ensures that criminal defendants involved in human trafficking will not dispose of assets that would otherwise be provided as restitution to victims, and Senate Bill 1133 (Senator Mark Leno) expands the list of assets that a human trafficker must forfeit and provides a formula for using those resources to help victims of human trafficking.
For more information on human trafficking, visit www.oag.ca.gov/human-trafficking .
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – An early Friday morning fire in a historic downtown Lakeport building burned up the contents of a store and began to enter the building's second story before firefighters knocked it down.
The fire was located in the Lunas building at 306 N. Main St., at the corner of Main and Third streets in downtown Lakeport.
Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells said the fire broke out some time between 5:30 a.m. and 6 a.m.
Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said his officers and firefighters arrived at around 6 a.m. after receiving a call about the fire.
Wells, who responded to the scene, said, “We had flames coming out of the bottom story upon our arrival.”
The fire destroyed the Penny Lane Emporium on the first floor before it spread lightly into the second story, where the Feeney and Lunas law offices are located, according to Wells.
Rasmussen said they closed Main Street between Second and Fourth streets, as well as Third Street between Park and Main streets with the help of Lakeport Public Works employees, who put up barricades to cordon off the fire area while firefighters worked.
Wells said he and two Lakeport engines and a ladder truck responded, with Northshore Fire sending an engine and Kelseyville responding with an engine and chief. Lakeport Police controlled the crowd and traffic with help from sheriff's deputies.
By about 9:30 a.m. most of the resources had been released, with Wells, an engine and ladder truck remaining on scene. At that point Wells was waiting for fire investigators to arrive.
“We're going to go in there and try to determine cause and origin,” Wells said, adding that the insurance company already had been on scene.
Wells had no estimate of damage. “The whole downstairs is completely destroyed. There is nothing salvageable in the shop downstairs,” he said.
Attorney and judicial candidate Michael Lunas' office is located upstairs. It was not destroyed although Rasmussen said the upstairs area appeared to have had heat and smoke damage.
Rasmussen said he had a detective standing by to assist with the investigation.
He said there was nobody in the building at the time of the fire.
“There were witnesses in the area at the time that we talked to and the fire department also has talked to,” Rasmussen said.
Main and Third streets had been reopened to traffic at 9 a.m., Rasmussen said.
Controlled traffic is in effect at the intersection of Third and Main streets, and Park Street is closed from the alley behind Lakeport City Hall to Main Street, according to Rasmussen.
He said the parking lanes in front of the Lunas building and the sidewalk were closed in the interest of safety until the fire investigation is complete, which should last several hours.
The 1870s-era Lunas building recently was the site of a Lake County Quilt Trail installation. Owned by Darlene Lunas, Michael Lunas’ mother, the building has seen disasters before, having survived the 1906 earthquake.
Email Elizabeth Larson at