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On Thursday State Controller Betty T. Yee launched a multi-faceted government transparency tool to help Californians analyze financial records for the state’s thousands of special districts.
The new interface is similar to those previously built for city, county, and defined-benefit and defined-contribution pension systems on www.ByTheNumbers.sco.ca.gov .
“A special district is usually lesser known than a city or county government, yet it can be just as important to people’s daily lives. Special districts vary significantly in size and budget, providing essential services such as health care and fire protection throughout California,” said Controller Yee, the state’s chief fiscal officer. “My new data search tool will enable any Californian with or without technical expertise to study how special districts are using tax dollars to fulfill their missions.”
Special districts are local agencies formed for a specific service such as hospitals, parks and recreation, irrigation, fire protection, cemeteries, or pest control.
The new search tool includes unaudited fiscal information for more than 4,800 special districts, including millions of new data fields.
The Web site allows users to check revenues, expenditures, liabilities, assets, and fund balances for 11 fiscal years – 2003 through 2013.
The new data set quadruples the amount of information available on the Controller’s By the Numbers Web site, which has grown to be a one-stop shop for public finance information in California.
The special districts data home page can be found at https://bythenumbers.sco.ca.gov/finance-explorer/view-by-special-district .
With new functions, users can:
– Do a trend analysis of revenues and expenditures comparing as many as five districts at once.
– Compare outstanding amounts of revenue bonds.
– Find out how much money a special district got from federal or state government.
Lake County residents will be able to track 57 local special districts through the site.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Winery Association has announced the charity partner for the 2015 Wine Adventure.
Following the successful partnership at the 2014 event, the association will again work with Lake County Relay for Life to raise money for the fight against cancer.
Raffle tickets for an “instant” wine cellar of Lake County wines will be sold during the Wine Adventure passport weekend with all proceeds going to Lake County Relay for Life.
The 2014 raffle raised $5,000 for the Lake County Relay for Life, the largest single donation that was received by the organization in the fight against cancer.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Relay for Life again in 2015,” said Lake County Winery Association Director Terry Dereniuk. “I don’t know anyone who has not come into contact with this dreaded disease either personally or through friends or family. ”
The 2015 Lake County Relay for Life event will be held Saturday, May 16, through Sunday, May 17, at Clear Lake High School in Lakeport.
“The Relay For Life movement unites communities across the globe to celebrate people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and take action to finish the fight once and for all,” said event organizer Danyelle Johnson.
Lake County’s wine region is the place to be this spring and summer. After scoring big wins in the prestigious 2015 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Lake County’s reputation for delicious award winning wines and friendly tasting rooms set in a beautiful landscape is calling you to join us for the 2015 Wine Adventure.
The 2015 Lake County Wine Adventure marks the 11th year of this passport style weekend.
The event has been moved to May to take advantage of the cooler spring weather.
This year, 25-plus Lake County wineries are set to welcome visitors.
Friday, May 15, kicks off the weekend with a gala evening at the Castle Speakeasy at the storied Lucerne Hotel – known locally as “The Castle” – which now is home to Marymount California University.
Lake County wines, delicious appetizer fare and dancing to BMP Swing band will offer a glimpse into the past.
The Castle was built in the 1920s and has a long history before being opened as Marymount's Lakeside Campus.
Guests will have an opportunity to enjoy the historic architecture and are encouraged to dress the part to add to the fun.
Tickets for this event will be limited to 250 attendees and advanced reservations are required.
Saturday and Sunday, participating locations will welcome guests with wine, food pairings, and fun as you explore the region.
“Whether you visit all of the wineries or have time for just a few, this event is a great way to explore the Lake County wine region,” said Dereniuk.
Passport tickets will be offered for both days with the Two-Day passport, or Sunday only. Passport kits will be offered for pick up the day before the event at several Lake County locations.
Winery check-in locations for this year’s event include Cache Creek Vineyard, Don Angel Cellars, Lake County Wine Studio, Langtry Estate and Vineyards, Moore Family Winery, Shannon Ridge at Vigilance Tasting Room, Six Sigma Ranch and Twin Pine “Off the Vine.”
For more information, visit www.lakecountywineries.org .
LCWA works to promote the wines of Lake County’s high elevation region. Membership is open to wineries, winegrape growers, and individuals or businesses interested in promoting the Lake County wine industry. For more information about upcoming events, sponsorship or membership opportunities, call 707-357-5237.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service has issued a special weather statement for parts of Northern California, including Lake County, ahead of a storm that's predicted to hit the region this weekend.
The agency's Sacramento office reported that a low pressure system is still on track to impact interior Northern California on Friday and Saturday.
Beginning on Thursday, northerly winds will increase as the cold system approaches Northern California, based on the updated forecast.
Higher elevations such as the Sierras are expected to get snow, while rain is predicted to arrive over the northern mountains early Friday morning, spreading south on Friday and Saturday, according to the forecast.
Small amounts of snow – up to 2 inches – also are possible in northern Lake County's higher elevations above 3,500 feet, based on forecaster predictions issued Wednesday.
The heaviest rain is expected late Friday into Saturday, according to the National Weather Service, which also is predicting the chance of afternoon thunderstorms in the Sacramento Valley on both days.
Forecasters said Lake County could see variable winds starting Thursday, with gusts up to 25 miles per hour in parts of the county Thursday night.
While forecasters expect the rain to arrive on Friday, there is a 20-percent chance of precipitation in Lake County on Thursday night.
Chances of rain increase to 40 percent on Friday, with windy conditions expected to continue through Friday night, according to forecasters.
On Saturday, chances of rain across the county are 30 percent during the day, tapering off to 20 percent that night.
Conditions are anticipated to clear on Sunday and into the middle of next week, with mostly sunny conditions. Daytime highs are forecast to be in the high 60s and nighttime lows in the low 30s, the National Weather Service reported.
More rain is needed to continue to raise the level of Clear Lake, which early Thursday was at 4.53 feet Rumsey, the special measurement for Clear Lake. A full lake is 7.56 feet Rumsey.
For comparison, lake depth last Feb. 25 was 1.04 feet Rumsey; 5.93 feet Rumsey on Feb. 25, 2013; 2.99 feet Rumsey on Feb. 25, 2012; and 7.11 feet Rumsey on Feb. 25, 2011, according to US Geological Survey water records.
Additional weather forecast updates will be posted as they become available.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – EcoArts of Lake County invites artists to apply to install and exhibit sculptural work in the 13th annual EcoArts: Lake County Sculpture Walk.
More than 300 sculptures by local, national and international artists have been installed over EcoArts' past 12 years.
The sculpture walk has a large audience and beautiful venue within the 107-acre Middletown County Trailside Park, located on Dry Creek Cutoff, off Highway 175, about three minutes from town.
Each year sculptural work with strong artistic merit made from and/or relating to nature are selected and sited along both sides of a central trail that winds three-eighths of a mile through meadows and woodland.
Public attendance is approximately 3,000 viewers per exhibit season, which runs from May through October.
EcoArts encourages local schools and community groups to apply and waives application fees for nonprofits.
Submission applications must be received by March 15.
Paperwork and fees – there is a $25 submission fee for each entry – are due by March 15 and can be submitted via email or U.S. post. Applications will be acknowledged upon receipt.
Acceptance of work will be determined by April 15 or sooner.
Works will be installed over a 12-day period from Friday, May 16, through Tuesday, May 27.
Each year a free public reception is held to meet the artists, enjoy a great exhibit, make music, hear poetry, view dance, and of course, make art.
This free community event takes place this year from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, June 7, at the park.
The artwork will remain on view until Oct. 12, and will be removed from Oct. 13 through 20.
Applications, information on the submission process and installation criteria are available at www.EcoArtsofLakeCounty.org .
For more information call EcoArts at 707-809-5398 or email
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Sonoma County authorities have arrested three men they say are responsible for holding a 22-year-old woman hostage for months and brutally sexually and physically assaulting her.
On Wednesday, detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Unit arrested Santa Rosans Jose Angel Barajas-Mireles and Guillermo Crestino Avina, both age 34, and Jaime Gomez Cisneros, 52, of Watsonville, according to a report from Sgt. Cecile Focha.
Focha said the agency's detectives, after an exhaustive investigation, developed probable cause to believe that the man who masterminded the criminal acts and committed the sexual assault crimes was Barajas-Mireles, the resident of the main house at 3555 Stony Point Road in Santa Rosa.
They authored a warrant for Barajas-Mireles's arrest. Focha said that, because Barajas-Mireles was a flight risk, the judge increased the bail amount to $6 million.
On Wednesday at about 4 p.m. three men came to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office to retrieve property seized during the search warrant service last Thursday. They were detained as they approached the building, Focha said.
Detectives subsequently arrested Barajas-Mireles, Avina and Cisneros, according to Focha.
Barajas-Mireles is charged with aggravated sodomy, aggravated oral copulation and aggravated rape. Focha said additional charges may be added as the investigation unfolds.
Focha said Avina and Cisneros were charged with false imprisonment and as an accessory to Barajas-Mireles’ criminal actions by aiding and abetting her captivity. Avina also had the charge of violation of probation. The two could also face additional charges as the investigation continues.
Detectives learned that the victim had been held against her will, threatened and brutalized since sometime during the holidays, until her escape several days ago, Focha said.
Out of an overwhelming sense of fear of retaliation, coupled with the traumatic events she endured, she initially stated to law enforcement that she had been kidnapped at gunpoint, according to Focha.
Focha said detectives determined that Barajas-Mireles orchestrated the events that led to the victim being held captive on the property on Stony Point Road.
Based on the investigation, investigators believe Barajas-Mireles is responsible for much of the sexual and physical assaults. Focha said Cisneros and Avina were responsible for guarding the victim and preventing her from leaving the compound.
The three men were booked into Sonoma County Jail. Barajas-Mireles bail was set at $6 million, with bail for Avina and Cisneros set at $11,000 each, Focha said. They are due to be arraigned on Friday afternoon.
The victim is safe at an undisclosed location, Focha said.
Focha said the investigation remains open and active. Additional information will be released when it will not jeopardize the case.
Anyone with information pertaining to this case is encouraged to call the Investigations Tip Line at 707-565-2185. You can leave a message anytime, day or night, and remain anonymous.
Birds are more important than previously recognized as hosts for Lyme disease-causing bacteria in California, according to a study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
The findings, to be published Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the journal PLOS ONE, shine a light on an important new reservoir in the western United States for the corkscrew-shaped bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, responsible for Lyme disease.
Wood rats, western gray squirrels and other small mammals have been identified in previous studies as wildlife hosts of the Lyme disease spirochete bacterium in California, but fewer studies have looked at the role of birds as reservoirs.
“The role of birds in the maintenance of Lyme disease bacteria in California is poorly understood,” said study lead author Erica Newman, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management. “This is the most extensive study of the role of birds in Lyme disease ecology in the western United States, and the first to consider the diversity of bird species, their behaviors and their habitats in identifying which birds are truly the most important as carriers.”
Moreover, the birds in the study that were found to be important hosts of Lyme disease bacteria, such as American robins, dark-eyed juncos and golden-crowned sparrows, are coincidentally ones that are commonly found in suburban environments.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States.
There are approximately 30,000 cases reported each year, with the large majority occurring in the eastern United States.
However, because actual cases are often underreported to the CDC, the agency notes that the number of people in this country diagnosed with the disease every year may be 10 times higher.
Mobile birds could spread disease
Morgan Tingley, an ornithologist who was not part of this UC Berkeley-led study, underscored the significance of discovering which birds are carriers of Lyme disease bacteria.
Tingley, now an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut, conducted studies on range shifts in birds in response to climate change while he was a graduate student at UC Berkeley.
“Birds are much more capable of carrying diseases long distances than the small-mammal hosts typical of Lyme disease, and so may constitute an underappreciated component of Lyme disease ecology,” said Tingley. “Particularly as we look to the future, birds may end up playing a larger role in disease ecology than other animals because of their ability to quickly and easily move long distances and to new habitats. In the same way that airplanes can help spread disease across nations, birds do the same thing for our ecosystems.”
Lyme disease is spread to humans through the bite of infected ticks. The black-legged deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) transmits B. burgdorferi in the eastern and north-central regions of the United States, while the western black-legged tick (Ixodes pacificus) spreads the bacteria in the West.
The bird and tick samples in this new study came from 14 sites within the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center in northwestern California.
The study included multiple natural habitats, ranging from savannas and grasslands to chaparral and dense woodlands.
Co-authors Lars Eisen and Rebecca Eisen, both UC Berkeley postdoctoral researchers at the time, took blood samples from 623 birds representing 53 species.
The Eisens, both now at CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases in Fort Collins, Colorado, also carefully removed and identified any ticks they found on the birds.
They collected a total of 284 juvenile ticks – more than 99 percent were western black-legged ticks – consisting of 192 larvae and 92 nymphs.
Birds as Lyme disease reservoirs
Lyme disease spirochetes were detected in 57 of the 100 birds that carried ticks. Among the ticks themselves, 13 percent of the larvae and nearly 25 percent of the nymphs were infected with B. burgdorferi or related spirochetes.
Among the 23 species of birds that were infected, the study authors highlighted the lesser goldfinch, oak titmouse and dark-eyed junco as birds that harbored more subtypes of Lyme disease bacteria than others. In addition, the golden-crowned sparrow was infected more frequently than other species.
Previous studies that tested birds have identified the dark-eyed junco as a likely source of Lyme disease bacteria for ticks that feed on them.
Perhaps one of the most surprising results of this study is that “another species of Lyme disease spirochete closely related to, but distinct from, Borrelia burgdorferi was detected in birds for the first time anywhere in the world,” said study co-author Robert Lane, a medical entomologist and UC Berkeley Professor of the Graduate School, and a leading expert on ticks and Lyme disease.
That spirochete, named Borrelia bissettii, has been known to cause a Lyme disease-like illness in people in central and southern Europe. Furthermore, this bacterium was the most common of the Borrelia species found in birds.
“The fact that we found this particular bacterium for the first time in birds in California is notable because of the ease with which birds can distribute spirochetes to different regions,” said Lane. “It is worth watching to see if this spirochete expands in this state.”
Tick-infested birds were found in all types of habitat studied, but the researchers unexpectedly found that chaparral correlated with the lowest counts of larvae and nymphs on birds among the ecosystems studies.
“Other studies have shown that there are plenty of ticks in chaparral, but that was not translating to transmission of Lyme disease bacteria in birds,” said Newman. “This is important because part of the fire management strategy in this state is to remove fire-prone chaparral. What this means for birds is that many species that only live in chaparral are then replaced by species from other habitats, some of which we also now know are more important carriers of Lyme disease bacteria. Our study suggests that by removing chaparral, we may be increasing the spread of Lyme disease in California.”
Sarah Yang writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.