How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News reports
The state Legislature has given final approval to and sent to the governor a bill by Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast) to give law enforcement tools to battle illegal drug operations, protecting environmentally sensitive forest lands and those who use them.
AB 2284 goes to the governor for his signature nearly a year after the death of Ft. Bragg City Councilmember Jere Melo, who was killed when he stumbled on an illegal grow while inspecting forest lands near the city on Aug. 27, 2011.
“The best way to prevent illegal drug operations from damaging the environment and threatening those who use our forests is to stop these operations from being established in the first place,” Chesbro said.
“This legislation gives law enforcement new tools to protect our public resource lands and private industrial timberland,” Chesbro added. “AB 2284 also increases the financial penalties for conducting criminal enterprises on our forest lands to provide the funding needed to investigate these cases and clean up the environmental damage.”
AB 2284 allows law enforcement to stop and question drivers who are transporting in plain sight irrigation supplies – commonly used in illicit grows – over unpaved or gravel roads that run through specified resource lands. These include public lands and private Timber Preserve Zone forest lands of 50,000 acres or larger. Owners of TPZ lands of 2,500 acres or more can also opt in.
“I would like to thank Assemblymember Chesbro for authoring this bill and highlighting this huge environmental devastation that results from marijuana being grown in the forest,” said Madeline Melo, who started a foundation to protect forest lands in the name of her late husband. “Marijuana cultivation has caused large scale damage to wildlife and humans. While this bill is not the ultimate solution, it is a step in the process.”
Chesbro added, “My objective and the mission of the Jere Melo Foundation is not only to protect the environment and humans, but to ensure that nothing like what happened to my husband would happen to anyone else in the future. I hope to, once again, make the forest a safe place for people to do their jobs.”
Gov. Jerry Brown has until Sept. 30 to act on AB 2284.
- Details
- Written by: Dr. Tony Phillips
NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced Wednesday they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury.
Making its first movement on the Martian surface since landing Aug. 5, Curiosity’s drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.
NASA has approved the Curiosity science team’s choice to name the landing ground for the influential author, who was born 92 years ago Wednesday and died this year. The location where Curiosity touched down is now called Bradbury Landing.
“This was not a difficult choice for the science team,” said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. “Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.”
Wednesday’s drive confirmed the health of Curiosity’s mobility system and produced the rover’s first wheel tracks on Mars, documented in images taken after the drive.
During a news conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the mission’s lead rover driver, Matt Heverly, showed an animation derived from visualization software used for planning the first drive.
“We have a fully functioning mobility system with lots of amazing exploration ahead,” Heverly said.
Curiosity will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet to the east-southeast.
“Curiosity is a much more complex vehicle than earlier Mars rovers. The testing and characterization activities during the initial weeks of the mission lay important groundwork for operating our precious national resource with appropriate care,” said Curiosity Project Manager Pete Theisinger of JPL. “Sixteen days in, we are making excellent progress.”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A wildland fire complex in northern Mendocino County has continued to grow, with new mandatory evacuations ordered near Covelo and in several areas of the Mendocino National Forest.
The North Pass Fires, sparked by lightning early last Saturday morning, had burned 12,500 acres by Wednesday evening with 12 percent containment, according to a report from Cal Fire, which has unified command with the US Forest Service on the incident.
The two fires are burning near Mendocino Pass Road in the Williams Valley, 10 miles northeast of Covelo.
One outbuilding has been destroyed, and Cal Fire said 45 residences and five commercial properties are threatened by the fires.
Resources assigned on Wednesday evening included 961 personnel, 93 engines, 26 fire crews, two airtankers, three helicopters, 37 bulldozers and 25 water tenders, Cal Fire reported.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported on Wednesday afternoon that it was ordering new evacuations for the area of Mendocino Pass Road (Forest Highway 7), north and south of the highway from the Eel River work center east to the Tehama/Glenn County line, including Bauer Ranch subdivision, all private residences and forest service campgrounds, the sheriff’s office said.
On Wednesday mandatory evacuations remained in place for residences along Indian Dick Road east of Covelo, from the intersection of Mendocino Pass Road north, to the Trinity County line and east to the Tehama County Line.
The order also continues to cover all residences and US Forest Service campsites at Howard Lake Campground, Little Doe Campground and Hammerhorn Lake Campground, and all USFS Wilderness Trailheads at Blands Cove, Hell Hole, Stick Lake, Foster Glade, Asa Bean, Rock Cabin, Georges Valley, Soldier Ridge, Smokehouse Ridge and Green Springs.
Also remaining under evacuation was Blands Cove Road east of Covelo, from the start of the Traveler's Home Wilderness Trail Head, north to the Trinity County line.
The agency said Blands Cove Road and Indian Dick Road will be closed to all non-emergency traffic in the evacuation areas and will remain closed until the mandatory evacuation order is rescinded.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Rich Mellott
This week’s Fall Football Preview is following the county’s high school teams as they get ready for the upcoming season.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Any way you crunch them, the numbers are coming up small at Clear Lake High this football season.
Consider the number of returning starters on offense (3) or on defense (4). Or the number of Cardinals who led the team in noteworthy statistical categories last year, such as rushing, passing, scoring, receiving or tackling: 0.
Or the number of varsity players who, though obviously too old for Pop Warner ball, tip the scales under that league’s 145-pound size limit: 10.
There are fewer players this season, too.
“We’re low on numbers, “said head coach Glenn “Milo” Meyer, who, as of Tuesday, had 22 varsity players and 23 on his JV team.
The junior varsity turnout was the smallest in his years at Clear Lake, Meyer said. “Usually, we’ll have 40 on the JVs.”
But amid all the shrinking numbers, Cardinal fans can find solace in some other stats that light up the corridors of Clear Lake High’s football annals.
As Meyer starts the second year of his second stint as Clear Lake’s coach, his record of turning out winners stokes the embers of optimism.
In a 12-year stretch from 1997 to 2008, his teams won 76 games and four league titles, and were fixtures in the North Coast Section playoffs.
The Cardinals won the NCS title in his second year (1998), beating a tough Kelseyville team that had a quarterback named Rob Ishihara, who’s now in his third season as Kelseyville’s head coach.
Meyer stepped down after the 2008 season. “It was combination of things,” he said to explain his two-year leave of absence from the varsity coaching job (though he did remain as the school’s athletic director).
“There was some burn-out involved, plus my wife’s health wasn’t the greatest. The thing about coaching football, it takes up so much time. There are a lot of late nights.”
Schad Schweitzer took over in 2009 and coached for two seasons. Then he lost his day job and had to move out of the area to find work.
So Meyer took the reins again last year and the first thing he did was bring back his three assistants who were on his first staff at Clear Lake in ’97, and were there the following year when the Cardinals won the NCS title.
Steve Newnham is again the defensive coordinator, Rick Hayes is the offensive coordinator, and Mike Hansen coaches the running backs and linebackers.
The Cardinals suffered some blowouts early last season and opened the North Central League at 0-3.
Then they got competitive.
They were in three close games – and pulled out three league victories: 34-26 over Lower Lake, 7-3 over Kelseyville, and, in the league-opener that ultimately gave them fourth place, a 21-14 win over Fort Bragg.
Clear Lake finished at 4-6 overall and 4-3 in the NCL behind St. Helena, Willits and Middletown.
The strong finish didn’t surprise anyone familiar with Meyer’s coaching skills.
“Milo is organized and structured – he has a definite plan for what he wants to do,” said Hansen, his long-time assistant. “We’ve worked with him long enough to know the drills. But the thing about Milo is, he knows how to adjust to the kind of players we have. On this level, you have to adjust.”
Some adjustments will no doubt be required this season as the coaches search for ways to remain competitive with a small and inexperienced lineup.
The biggest kids are up from a JV team that went 4-6 last year: junior tight end and defensive lineman Gabe Strong (6-6, 225 pounds) and sophomore lineman Julian Lewis (5-10, 230).
But the rest of the “big guys” are more the size of senior Josh Larsen (6-0, 185), the only returning starter from last year’s line.
Indicative of their smallness is when 5-6, 160-pound Andre Buendia, a cornerback last year, was switched to linebacker.
Still, Buendia has 20 pounds on the Cards’ starting quarterback, 5-7, 140-pound Kenny Henninger.
“It’ll be a challenge for us,” Meyer said. “We haven’t had a team that’s this small and with so little experience.”
But he adds that this season will provide some important continuity to the rebuilding process.
When Meyer left in 2008, so did his option veer offense, which takes a couple of years for the players (especially the quarterbacks) to master.
In the meantime, coaches around the league aren’t about to overlook Clear Lake this season.
“You always have to prepare to face a team Milo coaches,” said Middletown coach Bill Foltmer. “He and his assistants do a great job. You can never overlook them.”
On Thursday: The Middletown Mustangs get set for the season.
Rich Mellott can be reached at
Clear Lake Cardinals
Coach/Record: Glenn “Milo” Meyer (14th year), 80-56-3.
Assistants: Offensive coordinator Rick Hayes, defensive coordinator Steve Newnham, RB/LB coach Mike Hansen.
Last year: 4-6.
League: 4-3 (4thth place).
JVs: 4-6.
Offense: Option veer.
Returning starters: 3 on offense, 4 on defense.
Top players: OL/DL Josh Larsen (5-10, 185), Sr.; TE/DL Gabe Strong (6-6, 225), Jr.; OL/DL Julian Lewis (5-10, 230), Soph.; QB/DB Kenny Henninger (5-7, 140) Jr.; RB/LB Andre Buendia (5-6, 160), RB/LB Luke Punzalan (5-9, 185) Sr.
Keep an eye on: Whether the coaches can get their undersized and inexperienced players ready to compete with league rivals Fort Bragg, Lower Lake, Kelseyville and Cloverdale; or looking at it another way, how long will it take for the inexperienced players (including some decent athletes playing football for the first time) to start contributing.
Key games: How the Cardinals do in early NCL games at Fort Bragg and at home against Cloverdale will say a lot about their prospects for a successful season.
