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In what are now substantiated reports that Verizon Wireless throttled data plans of firefighters while they were battling the Mendocino Complex Fires, legislators from across California are calling out the carrier and demanding formal action be taken.
Legislators sent a letter to the chief executive officer of Verizon on Friday afternoon calling for answers and assurances that the safety of first responders, and communities that are threatened by these massive blazes, will not be put in jeopardy so the company can pad their bank accounts.
“This is corporate irresponsibility at its highest and there is no excuse to justify this most egregious behavior,” said Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes the areas where the Mendocino Complex Fire is burning and the counties the North Bay Firestorm devastated last October.
“We need to make sure the safety of our communities, the brave firefighters and all first responders are prioritized over profit for the corporation. We stand united and will work together to ensure this dangerous practice of throttling first responders will never happen again here in the Golden State,” McGuire said.
In court documents submitted in a lawsuit filed against the Federal Communications Commission, Santa Clara County Central Fire District Protection Chief Anthony Bowden described in detail the throttling by Verizon while firefighters responded to the Mendocino Complex Fire – the largest wildfire in California’s history.
After Verizon reduced the fire department’s data speed to 1/200 or less, Bowden’s department reached out to Verizon, who responded that they would need to upgrade their plan at double the cost, and only then would the throttling be lifted.
The letter states: “Lack of communication can be dangerous and deadly. Emergency personnel rely on cell and data technology for critical activities and even small delays can have devastating and life threatening impacts. Clearly this behavior is a direct violation of your duty under federal statutes governing telecommunications to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.”
State legislators are asking for a response from the Verizon CEO on a series of questions including, how many times, where and when, they have throttled the data technology of first responders during disasters.
The Legislature will continue to hold hearings on the throttling issue to examine in detail how and why this dangerous practice happened and how the state can make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The letter from California state legislators to Verizon is below.
Legislators sent a letter to the chief executive officer of Verizon on Friday afternoon calling for answers and assurances that the safety of first responders, and communities that are threatened by these massive blazes, will not be put in jeopardy so the company can pad their bank accounts.
“This is corporate irresponsibility at its highest and there is no excuse to justify this most egregious behavior,” said Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes the areas where the Mendocino Complex Fire is burning and the counties the North Bay Firestorm devastated last October.
“We need to make sure the safety of our communities, the brave firefighters and all first responders are prioritized over profit for the corporation. We stand united and will work together to ensure this dangerous practice of throttling first responders will never happen again here in the Golden State,” McGuire said.
In court documents submitted in a lawsuit filed against the Federal Communications Commission, Santa Clara County Central Fire District Protection Chief Anthony Bowden described in detail the throttling by Verizon while firefighters responded to the Mendocino Complex Fire – the largest wildfire in California’s history.
After Verizon reduced the fire department’s data speed to 1/200 or less, Bowden’s department reached out to Verizon, who responded that they would need to upgrade their plan at double the cost, and only then would the throttling be lifted.
The letter states: “Lack of communication can be dangerous and deadly. Emergency personnel rely on cell and data technology for critical activities and even small delays can have devastating and life threatening impacts. Clearly this behavior is a direct violation of your duty under federal statutes governing telecommunications to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.”
State legislators are asking for a response from the Verizon CEO on a series of questions including, how many times, where and when, they have throttled the data technology of first responders during disasters.
The Legislature will continue to hold hearings on the throttling issue to examine in detail how and why this dangerous practice happened and how the state can make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The letter from California state legislators to Verizon is below.
082418 California legislatores' Verizon thottling letter by LakeCoNews on Scribd
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – One of the Lake County Quilt Trail’s newest quilt blocks is located in Lower Lake.
“The Dressage Corner” quilt block has been installed on a new barn which is a boarding facility by the same name.
It is located at 17470 Morgan Valley Road.
Owner Marci McDaniel-Davis invites you to visit the Web site where you can view the facility, the progress of the center and a calendar of events for clinics and shows.
The Lake County Quilt Trail is an agricultural and tourism project designed to promote community pride.
The 4-foot by 4-foot quilt block was drawn and painted by the Lake County Quilt Trail team.
The team is a group of dedicated volunteer quilters, graphic artists, painters, writers and carpenters.
For more information about the Lake County Quilt Trail visit www.lakecountyquilttrail.com or visit the trail’s Facebook page.
Next month, NASA will launch into space the most advanced laser instrument of its kind, beginning a mission to measure – in unprecedented detail – changes in the heights of Earth’s polar ice.
NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) will measure the average annual elevation change of land ice covering Greenland and Antarctica to within the width of a pencil, capturing 60,000 measurements every second.
“The new observational technologies of ICESat-2 – a top recommendation of the scientific community in NASA’s first Earth science decadal survey – will advance our knowledge of how the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica contribute to sea level rise,” said Michael Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
ICESat-2 will extend and improve upon NASA's 15-year record of monitoring the change in polar ice heights, which started in 2003 with the first ICESat mission and continued in 2009 with NASA’s Operation IceBridge, an airborne research campaign that kept track of the accelerating rate of change.
A technological leap
ICESat-2 represents a major technological leap in our ability to measure changes in ice height. Its Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) measures height by timing how long it takes individual light photons to travel from the spacecraft to Earth and back.
“ATLAS required us to develop new technologies to get the measurements needed by scientists to advance the research,” said Doug McLennan, ICESat-2 project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “That meant we had to engineer a satellite instrument that not only will collect incredibly precise data, but also will collect more than 250 times as many height measurements as its predecessor.”
ATLAS will fire 10,000 times each second, sending hundreds of trillions of photons to the ground in six beams of green light. The roundtrip of individual laser photons from ICESat-2 to Earth’s surface and back is timed to the billionth of a second to precisely measure elevation.
With so many photons returning from multiple beams, ICESat-2 will get a much more detailed view of the ice surface than its predecessor, ICESat.
In fact, if the two satellites were flown over a football field, ICESat would take only two measurements – one in each end zone – whereas ICESat-2 would collect 130 measurements between each end zone.
As it circles Earth from pole to pole, ICESat-2 will measure ice heights along the same path in the polar regions four times a year, providing seasonal and annual monitoring of ice elevation changes.
Tracking ice melt
Hundreds of billions of tons of land ice melt or flow into the oceans annually, contributing to sea level rise worldwide. In recent years, contributions of melt from the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica alone have raised global sea level by more than a millimeter a year, accounting for approximately one-third of observed sea level rise, and the rate is increasing.
ICESat-2 data documenting the ongoing height change of ice sheets will help researchers narrow the range of uncertainty in forecasts of future sea level rise and connect those changes to climate drivers.
ICESat-2 also will make the most precise polar-wide measurements to date of sea ice freeboard, which is the height of sea ice above the adjacent sea surface. This measurement is used to determine the thickness and volume of sea ice.
Satellites routinely measure the area covered by sea ice and have observed an Arctic sea ice area decline of about 40 percent since 1980, but precise, regionwide sea ice thickness measurements will improve our understanding of the drivers of sea ice retreat and loss.
Although floating sea ice doesn’t change sea level when it melts, its loss has different consequences. The bright Arctic ice cap reflects the Sun’s heat back into space. When that ice melts away, the dark water below absorbs that heat. This alters wind and ocean circulation patterns, potentially affecting Earth’s global weather and climate.
Beyond the poles, ICESat-2 will measure the height of ocean and land surfaces, including forests. ATLAS is designed to measure both the tops of trees and the ground below, which – combined with existing datasets on forest extent – will help researchers estimate the amount of carbon stored in the world’s forests. Researchers also will investigate the height data collected on ocean waves, reservoir levels, and urban areas.
Potential data users have been working with ICESat-2 scientists to connect the mission science to societal needs. For example, ICESat-2 measurements of snow and river heights could help local governments plan for floods and droughts. Forest height maps, showing tree density and structure, could improve computer models that firefighters use to forecast wildfire behavior. Sea ice thickness measurements could be integrated into forecasts the U.S. Navy issues for navigation and sea ice conditions.
“Because ICESat-2 will provide measurements of unprecedented precision with global coverage, it will yield not only new insight into the polar regions, but also unanticipated findings across the globe,” said Thorsten Markus, an ICESat-2 project scientist at Goddard. “The capacity and opportunity for true exploration is immense.”
ICESat-2 is scheduled to launch Sept. 15 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. For more information about the mission, visit https://nasa.gov/icesat-2.
For more information about NASA’s Earth science activities, visit https://www.nasa.gov/earth.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As it entered its fourth week, the Mendocino Complex’s acreage increased again, thanks in part due to continuing firing operations that also have helped to slow its dramatic march through thousands of acres of forest lands.
Cal Fire said Friday evening that the Mendocino Complex’s size has grown to 424,419 acres – an increase of nearly 9,000 acres over the previous 24 hours – with containment inching up a few percentage points to 76 percent.
The acreage gain is only taking place on the Ranch fire portion of the complex, which is now up to 375,499 acres and 67 percent containment, Cal Fire said. The River fire was fully contained last week at 48,920 acres.
The two fires began within an hour of each other on July 27 in Mendocino County before spreading into Lake County, and eventually pushing east into Colusa and Glenn counties.
A large firefighting force remains in place on the complex. On Friday evening, 3,524 firefighting personnel remained assigned, along with 210 engines, 86 water tenders, 21 helicopters, 82 hand crews and 68 dozers.
The Mendocino Complex continued to be managed by the United States Department of
Agriculture Forest Service and Cal Fire under a unified command. California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 is managing the western zone of the Ranch fire, while Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 is overseeing the eastern zone of the Ranch fire.
Officials continue to expect it to be fully contained at Sept. 1.
The Friday evening report said firing operations are continuing on the fire’s northeastern areas throughout the night as conditions permit. Fire mapping showed that much of the recent growth on the northeastern portion appeared to be in western side of Glenn County.
A report from the Mendocino National Forest said firing operations will continue for the next several days as crews work to contain the fire. Increased smoke from this operation is likely to be visible to residents east of the fire and travelers along the I-5 corridor.
Very large air tankers – known more commonly as VLATs – are supporting firefighters with retardant drops to strengthen containment lines, forest officials reported.
On the northwestern portion of the fire in Lake and Mendocino counties, crews are continuing to make good progress, including building and reinforcing containment lines and mopping up.
In the areas of Bloody Rock and Little Round Mountain – located north and south, respectively, of Lake Pillsbury on the Lake County portion of the forest – crews have been mopping up hot spots, according to the Mendocino National Forest statement.
That report said felling teams with chainsaws have been cutting down hazardous trees to make conditions safer for crews working in the burned area, chipping crews removed vegetation that was cut to widen containment lines and firing operations on the fire’s northern flank were completed.
Firefighters have been mopping up hot spots in the Pine Mountain area southwest of Lake Pillsbury, and engine crews have continued patrolling the Rice Fork Summer Homes and Lake Pillsbury areas, forest officials said.
On Friday officials reduced a mandatory evacuation order to advisory for all areas south of County Road 301C and Forest Road M10, east of the Mendocino National Forest western boundary, west of the Lake County line and north of the Mendocino National Forest most southern boundary.
However, all roads and areas within the boundary of the Mendocino National Forest remain closed to the general public as part of the current Ranch Fire Forest Closure Order No.
08-18-14, officials said.
Landowners only will be allowed access to their property with proof of ownership. Landowners must obtain an access permit from the Mendocino National Forest, Upper Lake Ranger District, 10025 Elk Mountain Road, Upper Lake, telephone 707-275-2361 in order to legally enter the Ranch Fire Forest Closure Area and access their property.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – This week the Lakeport City Council chose to appoint two of its members to new four-year terms due to them running unopposed.
The council voted unanimously to appoint Mayor Mireya Turner and Councilwoman Stacey Mattina to the new terms. The item begins just after the 53 minute mark in the video above.
Earlier this month, Turner, who is finishing her first term, and Mattina, now in her second term, filed nomination papers to run for reelection.
City Clerk Kelly Buendia told the council at its Tuesday night meeting that the nomination period was 26 days, five of which the city was closed for the Mendocino Complex mandatory evacuation.
She said one other individual came in to speak to staff about his interest in running. However, she said it turned out that he lives outside of the city limits.
When the filing period closed on Aug. 10, only Turner and Mattina had filed nomination papers, Buendia said.
Because there were not more candidates than offices to be elected in the general municipal election on Nov. 6, state election code allows for the council to appoint the candidates who were nominated.
Buendia presented to the council a resolution to appoint the two women to new terms. The accompanying report said that if the resolution was adopted, the general municipal election on Nov. 6 would be canceled and Mattina and Turner would be sworn in after that date.
The report also explained that by making the appointments, the process of filing any statement of write-in candidacy would be eliminated.
The appointment process is expected to save the city between $4,000 and $6,000, Buendia said.
Councilman George Spurr questioned if the women could be part of the vote and whether that would be a conflict of interest. City Attorney David Ruderman said conflicts revolve around income, and that their pay from city council service doesn’t qualify.
Spurr said he also had concerns about eliminating the write-in option. However, he spoke with the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office, which explained that to qualify as a write-in candidate, individuals still have to file paperwork.
Councilman Kenny Parlet said the two women have done a great job on the council.
The council then unanimously voted to appoint them.
Both women expressed their gratitude, with Mattina noting during her report later in the meeting that she is grateful to be able to continue for another four years.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
082118 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Despite the haze of recent fires across Northern California, the Lake County Fair has an incredible line up of entertainment and fun planned for Labor Day weekend, Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
This year’s theme, “The Grape Escape” is shaping up to be an exciting culmination of live performances, contests, games and activities great for the whole family. And for every presale adult ticket purchased $1 will go to fire relief.
Festivities kick off Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with a parade from downtown Main Street in Lakeport to the fairgrounds front entrance, located at 401 Martin St.
Opening night is Kids Day, which means that admission for kids 11 and under is only $4. Tickets include strolling street performances by Mickey the Clown, Balloon Sculptor-Fill-Up, Skip Banks the Balloon Man, and the ever popular Magician Ken Garr.
And everyone who brings four canned food items to the fair between 6 and 7 p.m. will get into the fair free. All of the canned food will be donated to Lake County CAN!
On Thursday there will also be free live music on two stages and at 7 p.m. this year’s equestrian entertainment will return to dazzle the crowd in the grandstands during the Fiesta of the Horse, which is generously sponsored by St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake.
On Friday the fair gates will be open from 4 to 11 p.m. If carnival rides are your favorite fair time activity, be sure to pick up the Pay-One-Price Carnival wristband for just $30 (or $25 when you purchase in advance) and enjoy all of the rides you can handle. Enjoy non-stop carnival games, delicious fair food, and the chance to win a prize when you bring your a-game to this year’s midway. Dive into a bucket of mini donuts, deep fried turkey legs, or savory kettle corn as you make your way to the grandstands for an evening of off-road, dirt slinging Mud Bogging Friday night at 7 p.m.
The weekend schedule is loaded with live music ranging from Country to Blues to Classic Rock to Jazz. Catch popular bands on the Main Stage such as American Lore, Blue, and The Fargo Brothers just to name a few. On Saturday night pack your dancing boots for an all-new Barn Dance with Ranch House located at the Main Stage from 7 to 10 p.m.
Be sure to check out all of the community exhibits, demonstrations, and activities happening around the grounds. Enjoy a wide array of baking, crafts, and artisan shopping in Lewis and Fritch Halls. Don’t miss the weekend grandstand entertainment, the Destruction Derby on Saturday and the boat races on Sunday.
In addition to bringing the community together, at the heart of the Lake County Fair is agricultural education.
Ag students work year-round to care and groom for livestock animals with the goal of qualifying for the Junior Livestock Auction. Quality is judged on the well-being, breeding, and overall presentation of each animal. Only the highest quality animals are selected for the auction.
The auction is open to the public and the Lake County Fair invites you to show your support for our future ranchers and farmers. The auction will be held at noon in the Baldwin Pavilion and proceeds will directly benefit local 4-H and FFA programs.
Another great reason to get out to the Lake County Fair over Labor Day Weekend is the Presale Ticket Discounts. Through Aug. 29 (the day before the fair opens), tickets for adults are just $9, kids 11 and under are $4 and the carnival all-you-can-ride wristband is just $25.
For more information about “The Grape Escape” to the Lake County Fair or to get your tickets online, please visit www.LakeCountyFair.com.
