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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A young woman who grew up in Lake County has advanced another step in her military career.
Stevie Rhodes has been promoted to sergeant in the United States Air Force.
Rhodes is one of the emergency managers for the 19th Civil Engineer Squadron stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base.
She recently returned from a tour of duty in an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.
Rhodes graduated from Kelseyville High School a few years ago. She will be returning sometime the week of June 12 to attend her sister Scarlett Rhodes' graduation.
The tragic event which occurred in Orlando, Fla., this past weekend reminds us of the monumental task yet to be accomplished.
That monumental task is the teaching of tolerance, of love, of respect, of understanding, of compassion and of the right to choose who to be with.
Choosing to be a heterosexual or a same sex couple should be the decision of those involved.
Whether we choose to be a couple from the same ethnic origin or different ethnic origins should also be the decision of those involved.
Changing a person's heart, mind, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, et al. will never be accomplished with force, coercion, intimidation, threats or death.
We, the Lake County Unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, offer our sincerest condolences to the families and loved ones of all affected by the tragic events that occurred in Orlando.
Let us take a lesson from this event – all life is precious, is important, and all life matters!
Rick Mayo is a member of the NAACP's Lake County Unit. He lives in Clearlake, Calif.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Kelseyville's popular summertime “Kickin' in the Country” street dances begin this season on Thursday, June 16.
The Kelseyville Business Association will host the free event with live music from 7 to 10 p.m. on Main Street.
This week's featured band is Beatz Werkin', a lively bunch that plays many fun and popular dance tunes from the 1970s.
The lineup for the monthly dances is as follows:
– July 21: The Funky Dozen.
– Aug. 18: The Hip Replacements.
– Sept. 15: The Prather Brothers.
Then on Oct. 15 there will be the Kelseyville Beer, Wine & Swine Bacon Festival.
For more information contact the Kelseyville Business Association at 707-279-9022, or visit the association's Web site at http://www.visitkelseyville.com/ or its Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/visitKelseyville .
SACRAMENTO – The California Community Colleges has expanded its guaranteed transfer agreement with historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to include an additional 12 schools.
In March 2015, the California Community Colleges Board of Governors signed the initial agreement with the leaders of nine HBCUs, guaranteeing admission for California community college students who meet certain academic criteria admission.
The California Community Colleges is the only statewide community college system to have a transfer agreement of this kind with HBCUs.
“The expansion of this historic agreement creates a tremendous opportunity for our students,” said California Community Colleges Interim Chancellor Erik E. Skinner. “HBCUs have a reputation for being among the finest and most culturally diverse institutions of higher learning in the nation. We’re thrilled we can expand the pathway for students to embrace all these historic schools have to offer.”
The new HBCUs participating in the agreement are:
• Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
• Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio.
• Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Ga.
• Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Fla.
• Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens, Fla.
• Grambling State University in Grambling, La.
• Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas.
• Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Ky.
• Lane College in Jackson, Tenn.
• Lincoln University of Pennsylvania in Oxford, Penn.
• Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss.
• West Virginia State University in Institute, W.Va.
Under the agreement, students who apply to the schools and obtain a transfer-level associate degree with a GPA of 2.5 or higher and complete either the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (accepted at both the University of California and California State University), or the California State University General Education Breadth pattern, will be guaranteed admission with junior standing.
Students are also guaranteed admission by earning an Associate Degree for Transfer or by completing 30 or more CSU or UC transferrable units with a GPA of 2.5 or higher.
HBCUs were founded to serve the higher education needs of African-American students, though they are open to all students. They are located mostly in the South and East Coast regions.
The nine HBCUs included in the inaugural agreement are:
• Bennett College in Greensboro, N.C.
• Dillard University in New Orleans, La.
• Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn.
• Lincoln University of Missouri in Jefferson City, Mo.
• Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark.
• Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
• Talladega College in Talladega, Ala.
• Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Ala.
• Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.
For more information on the guaranteed transfer agreement and all of the participating colleges and universities, please visit www.cccco.edu/HBCUTransfer ,
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation composed of 72 districts and 113 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year.
For more information about the community colleges, please visit http://californiacommunitycolleges.cccco.edu/ , https://www.facebook.com/CACommColleges or https://twitter.com/CalCommColleges .
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters quickly contained a small wildland fire in Clearlake that burned close to structures, caused a power outage and led to the evacuation of a nearby school.
The fire was first reported shortly before 1 p.m. on Arrowhead Road near Ukiah Street in the city of Clearlake, according to radio reports.
Cal Fire Division Chief Greg Bertelli said the fire was less than an acre, adding, “It was in really close proximity to several structures.”
Bertelli said the fire occurred in the “mutual threat zone,” which led to a combined response from Cal Fire and Lake County Fire Protection District, with the two agencies initially holding unified command on the incident.
“We both respond together to make sure we get enough resources,” Bertelli said.
In addition to engines and crews from Lake County Fire, Bertelli said Cal Fire sent a full wildland dispatch that included three air tankers, one helicopter, one air attack, five engines, two dozers and hand crews.
Clearlake Police officers also were on scene, with Bertelli reporting that they did an excellent job of quickly setting up roadblocks and preparing for evacuations if necessary, he said.
The fire led to the cancellation of the remainder of the first day of summer school at nearby Pomo Elementary School, according to Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel.
“We decided to go ahead and relocate the kids because at one point we lost power,” Becnel said.
Becnel said at 1 p.m. the district began notifying parents and shifting the children whose parents they couldn't contact over to Burns Valley School.
Some of the children are only on campus for a half day, so they already were headed home by the time the fire occurred, Becnel said.
Once they decided to end school for the day, “We didn't go ahead and move anybody back to the school,” Becnel added.
The Clearlake Police Department set out a Nixle alert just after 1 p.m. suggesting that residents of Burns Valley Road between Woodland and Ciwa could evacuate but it was not mandatory.
The agency followed up just before 1:30 p.m. to report that residents could return home but asking people to stay out of the area of Burns Valley Road, Ukiah Street and Arrowhead Road for the duration of the incident.
Burns Valley Road between Pomo and Woodland still remained closed at around 1:30 p.m., police said.
Bertelli said it took up to 25 minutes to contain the fire, which had some moderate but erratic winds hitting it.
He said they wanted to make sure they had good line all the way around the fire before calling it fully contained.
Bertelli said resources were being released from the scene as early as 2:30 p.m., with a few engines expected to stay on later in the day for monitoring.
Radio reports indicated that the incident command was terminated just before 3 p.m.
Bertelli said the cause remains under investigation. What appeared to be a power line came down during the incident, but he said it was a guy wire, not an energized line.
Pacific Gas and Electric reported that its crews also were at the scene Monday afternoon working to restore power to a small number of customers impacted by the outage the fire caused.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The body of a man who went missing from his sailboat last week on Clear Lake has been recovered.
Michael Eugene Haberski, 59, of Sebastopol had gone missing on the evening of Tuesday, June 7, in Konocti Bay, as Lake County News has reported.
His body was found at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, close to where he had last been seen, according to according to Lt. Steve Brooks.
On the night he disappeared witnesses reported seeing a man go into the water without a life jacket, according to reports from the scene.
Northshore Fire's fire boat and the Sheriff's Marine Patrol responded to find Haberski's sailboat 300 yards offshore in the middle of Konocti Bay, based on radio reports.
The search that followed primarily used side scan sonar, as visibility issues prevented the use of divers, Brooks said.
Officials with the Lake County Sheriff's Office Marine Patrol had brought in search K9s from out of county to assist with the search on Saturday, and they were preparing to deploy the dogs when Haberski's body was found, having surfaced in the search area, according to Brooks.
Brooks said authorities are still investigating why Haberski went into the lake.
An autopsy is scheduled that will give Haberski's cause of death and will document any injuries, said Brooks, adding it will take at least a few days to get those preliminary results.
Haberski was a retired Petaluma firefighter who also had taught fire technology at Santa Rosa Junior College, according to his Linked In profile.
He was the third person to have died in Clear Lake in about a week and a half, as Lake County News has reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at