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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College presents Dr. Ruby Payne at the Konocti Education Center Cornelison Event Center on Friday, Sept. 9.
The event will take place from 3:45 to 6:30 p.m. at the event center, located at 15850 Dam Road Extension in the back of the Konocti Education Center.
Admission is free to everyone. Lake County Campus obtained an Adult Ed Grant which has helped fund this workshop.
Dr. Payne’s presentation topic will be “Understanding and Engaging Under-Resourced College Students.”
She is well known for her books such as “A Framework for Understanding Poverty” and “Bridges Out of Poverty.”
This workshop will address the needs of the under-resourced college student and provides a wealth of resources for post-secondary education.
The professional development moves faculty and staff through a transformational process by first building understanding of the “what and why” of under-resourced college students, to developing the “how-to” teaching and program design strategies to help students succeed.
Participants will learn to use teaching strategies to build cognitive ability, develop high-impact community engagement strategies, redesign programs to better serve students in poverty, and much more.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to learn new ways to break the barriers that poverty creates for many of our adult students.
For more information please contact Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College at 707-995-7900, visit us on our campus at 15880 Dam Road Extension, or visit Web site at http://lcc.yccd.edu .
SACRAMENTO – California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith on Tuesday urged health care providers to adopt new recommendations recently announced by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force calling for adults 18 years of age or older who are at increased risk of tuberculosis (TB) to be screened for the disease.
Those considered to be at increased risk of TB include individuals born in countries with elevated rates of the disease and individuals who live in settings with a large number of people, like group homes or homeless shelters.
“I urge health care providers in the state to adopt these new screening recommendations as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Smith. “Local health departments should work with providers to ensure that today’s new recommendations are implemented. Today’s recommendations, if universally adopted, can help us eliminate TB in California in the next few decades.”
Evidence shows that screening of individuals at increased risk for TB is an effective method for preventing the development of TB disease.
TB is a disease caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs but can also attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine and brain. It can be spread through the air from one person to another by coughing, sneezing or speaking.
When TB bacteria actively grow in people and cause symptoms, the condition is known as TB disease and can be deadly. People with TB disease can infect others. The bacteria can also be inactive, causing no symptoms and held in check by the immune system. This condition is known as latent TB.
Elimination of TB in California is possible by detecting and treating latent TB infection before it progresses to infectious TB disease.
In California, an estimated 2.4 million people have latent TB infection. In 2015, 2,137 people were diagnosed with TB disease in the state.
Health care providers can consult with their local health departments to develop specific plans for screening their patient populations. The CDPH Tuberculosis Control Branch provides technical assistance to local health departments and health plans to implement tuberculosis prevention efforts.
CDPH has developed the California Risk Assessment Screening Tool to help health care providers to quickly identify people at risk for developing the disease and also a fact sheet that offers suggested courses of treatment.
For more information on TB, please visit the CDPH Tuberculosis Control Branch web page.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A portion of N. High Street was closed late Tuesday due to a vehicle crash, according to the Lakeport Police Department.
Police said the solo-vehicle wreck broke a utility pole out of its base in the sidewalk on the west side of N. High Street just south of 20th Street.
As a result, police said Tuesday night that N. High Street between 20th and 17th streets was closed to through traffic and Via Del Lago Street at N. High Street was closed to vehicles entering or exiting the Del Lago community.
Del Lago residents can access their community via N. Main. Police said a detour around the N. High Street closure has been set up using 17th and 20th streets to Hartley Street.
On Tuesday night, police said the utility pole, belonging to AT&T, was only supported by the phone lines attached to it and the adjacent poles.
Lakeport Police and Lakeport Public Works are concerned that the pole and lines over the roadway are not stable, according to the late Tuesday report.
Police also advised pedestrians and bicyclists to use the detour route and not walk or ride under the unstable pole and lines.
The Lakeport Police Department said it has been in contact with AT&T and was advised that the company is working on having a crew on site by about 3 a.m.
However, police said late Tuesday that they did not have an estimated time on when the pole will be replaced or when the closures will be lifted.
If the closures are still in place during business hours on Wednesday, traffic needing to access those businesses in the closure zone will be allowed into the area, police said.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – City officials said that the Clearlake Planning Commission meeting set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, has been canceled.
The meeting will be rescheduled.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In response to what he says has become a commonplace problem in the local courts, Lake County's district attorney has launched a new Perjury Investigation Unit which now is moving forward on its first case.
District Attorney Don Anderson said that when a witness testifies in a court of law or submits declarations to the court it is always submitted under the penalty of perjury. Even so, he said lying to the court and juries are common occurrences that undermine the integrity of the judicial system.
“The idea of people lying in court has always been an issue. It's always been a big problem,” and one that's been going on unchecked, said Anderson.
“It bothers me that there's so much lying going on in court,” said Anderson, who believes there should be serious ramifications for lying in court.
So he decided to do something about it.
He began the new specialized Perjury Investigation Unit in June, tapping Deputy District Attorney Danny Flesch to handle the cases.
Flesch will be assisted by the agency's entire team of investigators, with Andrew Chapman – a new addition to the department – acting as the specialist, Anderson said.
Anderson said they will actively seek out, investigate and prosecute perjury cases, which will include following up on complaints filed with his department.
Not only will the unit work to discourage perjury among witnesses and litigants, but Anderson said it's also meant to caution attorneys against encouraging the practice, as he said he can foresee situations where people will claim their attorneys told them to make untrue statements.
“Most attorneys I've talked to like the idea I've come up with and are very supportive of our perjury prosecution unit,” Anderson said.
Cases they're pursuing will rely heavily on strong evidence of a material lie – either in court or in a declaration, he said.
As for the potential number of cases, “I think we'll be overwhelmed by them,” Anderson said.
He said he will be keeping statistics on his effort to help chart its effectiveness.
The penalty for perjury or subornation of perjury can carry a prison sentence of two, three or four years, Anderson said.
Anderson pointed out that the California Penal Code section that deals with perjury contains a section that makes it possible for a perjury conviction to be punishable by death if a person gave false testimony that led to someone being convicted and put to death wrongly.
Specifically, that section of the penal code, PC 128, relates to aggravated perjury. It allows for a death sentence or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Anderson said he's not sure that section in the California penal code has ever been used.
The first filing
The first case Anderson's new unit has filed came last month.
On Aug. 17, the unit concluded its investigation of in-court perjured testimony with the arrest of 38-year-old Clearlake resident Merissa Leigh James, Anderson said.
Anderson said the Perjury Investigation Unit had received information that James would be submitting fraudulent documents to the court in her own defense.
Court records show that James has had several criminal convictions in Lake County, including one in 2002 for making or passing a fictitious check, to which she pleaded guilty, and two separate cases in 2014 in which she entered no contest pleas to theft and a felony drug offense.
James had about half a dozen probation violations on those cases, according to court records.
One of the conditions of her probation was to make monthly reports to the Lake County Probation Department, Anderson said.
While James claimed she was complying, “In reality, she wasn't making reports,” Anderson said.
Rather, he said she was claiming she had submitted the reports and that they had been lost by the Probation Department.
Anderson said James then decided to submit doctored reports for the months of February through September of 2015.
Those false reports were entered into evidence and James testified on Aug. 17 that she had signed and mailed the reports to the Probation Department early this year, Anderson said.
The problem was, she used a newer version of the required probation form that wasn't in use until last month, Anderson said.
As James left the courtroom, Anderson said his staff met her outside and she admitted what she had done.
She subsequently was arrested and charged with felony counts including perjury, offering false evidence and preparing false documentary evidence, as well as a special allegation that she committed these new crimes while released on her own recognizance during the pendency of a felony matter, according to Anderson.
Prior to the hearing, James had a recommended 30-day county jail sentence. Now, with the felony perjury charges, she faces up to six years in state prison if convicted, Anderson said.
Anderson said James' arrest is the first in a series of arrests that he anticipates will take place as a result of the unit's work.
He said arrest warrants in another case – this one pertaining to family law – are expected to be issued soon.
New approach to an old problem
Until now, perjury prosecutions locally just haven't happened, said Anderson, adding that the only local case he's heard of took place 30 years ago.
“It's extremely rare any place in the state for someone to be prosecuted for perjury,” he said.
In creating his new unit, Anderson said he was building it as he went, with no model as a guide. “I don't know of any DA's office in the state that has this type of unit.”
While Anderson said perjury is common in all sorts of cases, it seems to be an almost constant problem in family law cases.
Anderson's formation of the unit came in the wake of revelations earlier this year that a former Clearlake woman had pressured her daughter to lie about being molested by Luther Jones, the woman's former boyfriend.
Jones and the woman had another, younger child together who the courts had given him custody of, but shortly thereafter his former girlfriend retaliated by having her older daughter make the molestation allegation.
In 1998 Jones was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in state prison, where he remained until February, when the young woman who had made the allegations as a child came forward to tell Anderson and his staff that she had been pressured to life. Within a week, Jones was released.
Anderson has said in previous interviews that while he is looking at pursuing a perjury prosecution in that case, it would be challenging due to the length of time that has passed.
Angela Carter, who heads up the county's indigent defense contract, agrees.
Carter and Anderson worked together on the effort to have Jones freed. “It was complete teamwork, beginning to end,” said Carter, including in that team effort the work of Judge Andrew Blum, who had ordered that Jones be freed right away rather than allowing the process to be prolonged with additional hearings.
Jones has since received more than $930,000 from the state for the wrongful conviction and incarceration, as Lake County News has reported.
While Jones' health is failing – he just recently came out of a coma – Carter, who has acted as his attorney since his release, said he's surrounded by family, eating his favorite foods and able to see some justice after years of being wrongfully locked up.
Carter thinks it's understandable that in light of the Jones case Anderson would want to try to take on the problem through the new perjury prosecution unit.
However, while Carter said a grave injustice was done to Jones, like Anderson she's doubtful that a perjury case could be successful against Jones' ex-girlfriend due to the amount of time that has elapsed.
In assessing the idea of the perjury unit as a whole, Carter offers a caution, noting that she's concerned it could have a possible chilling effect on witnesses in all sorts of cases.
She explained that witnesses can, and do, draw inaccurate conclusions or make honest mistakes without any intent to deceive.
As well, she said witness recollection may be inaccurate, especially when a trial takes place months or even years after the events at issue.
There's also the impact of the trauma and fear a person experiences when witnessing a crime, which can impact perfect recall, Carter said.
Carter said she gets calls all the time from potential witnesses who have issues with their recollection of events and are nervous about going on the stand in the first place, which all by itself can be a frightening experience.
“Now there's an additional piece of fear going on,” she said of the fear some witnesses might have about being prosecuted for perjury.
Carter said she understands why Anderson is taking this approach, acknowledging perjury in the legal system is a commonplace occurrence.
“Perjury, I think, happens more than any of us want to acknowledge, but it's really hard to prove,” she said. “I'll be curious to see how it plays out.”
She also lauded Anderson for his creative thinking and for not being afraid to do something new and different to address a longstanding problem right here in Lake County.
“I love seeing things that are cutting edge come out of our judicial system,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Association of Realtors reported that the median sales price for single family residential sales for the month of July remained close to the same as June sales.
The median sales price for July was $245,250 which was down 5.31 percent from June’s median price of $259,000.
There were 78 sales in July compared to 81 sales in June, a 3.7% reduction on a month to month comparison.
On a year-over-year basis, the median sales rose 16.23 percent, $245,250 in July 2016 versus $211,000 in July 2015.
The number of sales were down 4.9 percent, 78 sales in July 2016 versus 82 sales in July 2015.
“Just about everything in July looked like June over again,” said LCAOR President Erin Woodward. “With the slight decreases in sales and median prices the Lake County market is mirroring the California market as a whole.”
On a month-to-month basis the median days to sell was relatively the same with sales in July taking 68 days to sell and sales in June taking 65 days.
Year-over-year, July 2016 compared to July 2015 was a different story. In July 2015 the median days to sell was 90.
Inventory levels continued at six months, a figure that is considered normal for real estate markets.
More than 48 percent of the 2016 July sales used conventional financing in the purchase of a property. Cash sales accounted for 23 percent of the financing.
On a statewide level the California Association of Realtors reported existing, single family home sales totaled 415,840 in July, down 4.1 percent from June and 5.1 percent from July 2015.
July’s median home price was $509,830, down 1.8 percent from June and up 3.9 percent from July 2015, the report showed.
LAKE COUNTY NUMBERS AT A GLANCE
July 2016
Median price: $245,250
Median days to sell: 68
Units sold: 78
June 2016
Median price: $259,000
Median days to sell: 65
Units sold: 81
July 2015
Median price: $211,000
Median days to sell: 90
Units Sold: 82