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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Napa County Sheriff's investigators are hoping to speak with additional motorists who were on Highway 29 early Sunday and who may have witnessed events connected to what authorities believe was a fatal hit-and-run.
The body of a woman was found lying in the southbound lane in the 4100 block of Highway 29 near Old Lawley Toll Road on the Napa County side of Mount St. Helena shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, as Lake County News has reported.
Capt. Doug Pike told Lake County News that the first people on scene – who subsequently reported the incident to law enforcement – were Lake County residents on their way to work.
The woman, who had major injuries, died as she was being flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, and the Napa County Sheriff's Office subsequently began to investigate her death as a possible homicide, closing the highway for several hours for crime scene processing.
Pike said authorities have positively identified the woman – a 57-year-old Bay Area resident – but he told Lake County News late Tuesday afternoon that sheriff's officials are still trying to locate her family. Her name is being withheld pending family notification.
An autopsy of the woman was conducted on Monday afternoon, Pike said.
The cause of death, he said, “likely resulted from multiple blunt force trauma consistent with being struck by a vehicle.”
However, Pike said the final determination of her cause of death is pending the results of a toxicology report, which will take three to six weeks.
Pike said investigators would like to talk to anyone who drove through the area between 4 and 5 a.m. that day.
He said detectives are attempting to build a timeline of the events leading to the woman's death.
Anyone with information is asked to call Napa County Sheriff's Det. Chris Pacheco at 707-253-4591.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The U.S. Postal Service has named Maria Lane as the postmaster of Lakeport.
Lane, who was most recently postmaster of Upper Lake, will be sworn in at a ceremony beginning at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at the Lakeport Post Office on 11th Street. The public is invited to attend the ceremony.
Lane is the first female postmaster in Lakeport in 100 years. The previous female postmaster was Myrtle Haycock in 1914.
“I’m extremely happy to be back where my Postal Service career began,” Lane said.
She joined the Postal Service in 1995 and was a part-time letter carrier in Lakeport.
“The Post Office belongs to the community and I’m glad to be a part of it,” Lane said.
She added that her first priority as postmaster will be service. “I plan to continue the long tradition of excellent customer service here at the Lakeport Post Office.”
After a brief break, Lane began her career in earnest as a full-time clerk in Clearlake Oaks in 1997.
She transferred to Upper Lake in 2000 and continued until 2008 when she became the postmaster of Hopland.
She returned to Upper Lake in 2010 where she served as postmaster to that community before taking the postmaster reins in Lakeport.
Lane said she is looking forward to being involved with the community.
“The Postal Service has a lot of great products that can help a small business grow,” Lane said. “I want to be a part of Lakeport’s success.”
Married to husband Randy, Lane has four children – two girls, Erin 28, Jessie 24 and two boys, Terry 22 and Ootie 18.
She has been a resident of Lakeport for the past 22 years.
Lane is responsible for 5,807 deliveries. With 17 employees she serves 10 carrier routes and 1,234 Post Office boxes.
The Lakeport Post Office was established in 1861 and Lane is the 29th postmaster to serve the community.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
The US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Tuesday announced it is calling for a national recall of vehicles with certain driver’s side frontal air bags made by Takata.
This decision is based on the agency’s evaluation of a recent driver’s side air bag failure in a vehicle outside the current regional recall area and its relationship to five previous driver’s side air bag ruptures, all of which are covered by existing regional recalls.
“By demanding this national recall, NHTSA has demonstrated once again that it will follow data and evidence to protect the lives of Americans on the road and to hold manufacturers accountable,” said Secretary Anthony Foxx.
NHTSA contacted Takata and the vehicle manufacturers this week to call for the national recall of these vehicles after evaluating a recent incident that involved a failure in a driver’s side air bag inflator outside an area of high absolute humidity.
Based on this new information, unless Takata and the manufacturers quickly agree to this recall, NHTSA will use the full extent of its statutory powers to ensure vehicles that use the same or similar air bag inflator are recalled.
As part of these efforts and its ongoing investigation into both the defect and the scope of the recalls, the agency also issued a general order to Takata and all 10 of the vehicle manufacturers that use Takata air bag inflators – BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and Toyota – requiring each manufacturer to file, under oath, a detailed report and produce all related documents about completed, ongoing or planned testing of Takata inflators outside the current regional recall areas.
The agency is demanding this information to compel Takata and the affected industry to be frank with not only NHTSA, but the American public, as to what testing and additional steps they have done and plan to do to control and mitigate the risk associated with Takata’s defective inflators.
Additionally, NHTSA issued a special order to Takata, the second the agency has issued to the manufacturer regarding this defect, compelling it to provide, under oath, documents and detailed information on the propellant used in Takata’s inflators.
In recent days, Takata has publicly conceded that it changed the chemical mix of its air bag inflator propellant in newly designed inflators.
As part of its ongoing investigation, the agency will analyze the information received to determine if the chemical composition of Takata’s propellant mix may be a cause and/or contributing factor in the air bag inflator ruptures.
“We now know that millions of vehicles must be recalled to address defective Takata air bags and our aggressive investigation is far from over,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman. “We’re pushing Takata and all affected manufacturers to issue the recall and to ensure the recalls capture the full scope of the problems.”
In addition to the general order and special order, NHTSA is issuing a recall acknowledgement letter, a routine response to all safety recall reports filed with the agency.
The letter summarizes the details of the most recent report submitted by Takata regarding its defective passenger side air bag inflators and identifies the information gaps the agency is insisting Takata clarify to ensure it provides the full information required by law.
While NHTSA is not aware of either field incidents or test data suggesting that the problem affecting passenger-side air bags in the areas of persistently high humidity extends beyond those areas, the agency has been pushing the industry to perform testing to ensure that current recalls effectively cover vehicles with air bags that could be potentially affected by this defect.
The information the agency receives from Takata and the auto manufacturers will provide further information and details needed to continue its investigation into this complex issue.
Responses to the general order and special order are due to NHTSA by Dec. 5.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In the wake of the Nov. 4 passage of a voter initiative to reduce some felony crimes to misdemeanors, hearings held last week in Lake County Superior Court led to a number of inmate releases as well as sentence reductions.
Proposition 47, The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act, reduces felonies such as commercial burglaries, forgeries, vehicle theft and stolen property possession to misdemeanors when the thefts total less than $950, and also reduces most firearm thefts and drug possession charges from felonies to misdemeanors, as Lake County News has reported.
The state Legislative Analyst's Office has estimated that the proposition could save several hundred million dollars annually for county criminal justice systems across the state, with the net state criminal justice system savings reaching the “low hundreds of millions of dollars” each year.
An analysis completed by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice attempted to give a more specific range to the Legislative Analyst's Office's conclusions, estimating that Proposition 47 could result in between $400 million and $700 million in savings to counties every year, freeing from 10,000 to 30,000 jail beds on an annual basis.
However, vocal opponents such as the California Police Chiefs Association argue that the proposition is creating danger to the community by making as many as 10,000 inmates eligible for early release and overburdening the justice system with petitions to change sentences.
The initiative went into immediate effect after the Nov. 4 election and is retroactive.
It is impacting both current cases working their ways through the courts and cases where time already is being served, with those convicted of the crimes listed in the initiative able to petition to have sentences reduced.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday, several Lake County Jail inmates were let out as a result of the proposition, according to District Attorney Don Anderson, who – along with Clearlake Police Chief Craig Clausen and Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen – opposed the initiative.
Then, on Thursday in Lake County Superior Court the first Proposition 47-related hearings were held, Anderson said.
He said a total of 85 cases – involving between 40 and 50 defendants – were heard that day.
By noon, 17 people had been released from the Lake County Jail, with about 10 more released later in the day, he said.
“Some of the people who were being released were pretty hardened criminals,” said Anderson, offering as an example individuals who were in jail for drug possession but had lengthy histories of violent crimes.
Another 20 to 30 individuals had charges or sentences reduced as a result of those hearings, he said.
In many of those cases where inmates remained in custody, the sentences may have been modified or reduced but inmates still had more time to serve so were not released, Anderson explained.
Still more petitions for sentencing changes are coming into Anderson's office, he said, with more hearings to be scheduled. He estimates hundreds more petitions are coming in the next year.
In some cases, Anderson and his prosecutors – all of whom have cases that are being affected – can oppose reduced sentencing petitions by raising concerns relating to the danger certain individuals may pose to the community.
He said the process is putting a heavy burden on his prosecutorial staff.
Anderson credited the superior court with doing a good job of managing the large caseload that has resulted from Proposition 47, with judges moving quickly through the cases.
A number of felons sentenced in Lake County and sent to state prison also are facing the potential for release, according to Anderson.
He said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has informed his office that 19 such individuals in the state prison system are eligible to either be released or have their sentences modified due to the changes implemented under Proposition 47.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Planning Commission this week will host a public hearing to discuss the proposed extension of a wireless communication tower.
The commission will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
On the agenda is a public hearing to consider the approval of a mitigated negative declaration of environmental impact based on an initial study and approval of a use permit and variance application submitted by AT&T Mobility.
Deputy City Clerk Julie Burrow's report to the commission explained that AT&T Mobility has an existing wireless telecommunication facility at the Konocti Water District water tower, located at 15764-B Woods Ave.
She said the variance application will allow for a reduction of the required 20-foot front yard setback to a 10-foot setback, and allow a variance from the maximum 35-foot height limit to 80 feet for construction of a “mono-pine,” which is a wireless tower that is made to look like a pine tree.
The antennas on the water district's water tower would then be relocated to the mono-pine – and placed at a height of 50 to 60 feet – and a 50 kilowatt emergency backup generator would be installed, Burrow reported.
Staff is recommending approval of the use permit, variance request and mitigated negative declaration, as Burrow notes that potential significant environmental impacts related to aesthetics, biological and cultural resources, soils, hydrology, water quality, hazards and hazardous materials, transportation, traffic and public services will be mitigated to less than significant levels by permit conditions.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Association of Realtors reported that the median sales price of single family residences for Lake County fell from $185,000 in September to $162,500 for October.
Month-to-month fluctuations in median sales price are not uncommon in areas where the number of sales are limited, the association reported.
The association said there were 63 single family residence sales in October, up from 57 in September.
The median days to sell rose from 59 days for September sales to 75 days for October. For the previous six months the median days to sell was 70, according to the report.
Inventory levels decreased from 7.91 months to 6.73. The report said normal inventory levels are considered to be six months.
“The median price for the last six months has been relatively stable,” said Rick White, 2014 LCAOR president. “October’s price of $162,500 is just below the year to date median of $169,000.”
The percentage of distressed sales – properties that were sold after foreclosure or ones that were sold for less than what was owed – was 22 percent, which the association said is running higher than the state average of 9 percent.
The encouraging news, according to the association, is that this distressed sales number is down from 34 percent in 2013 and 59 percent in 2012.
On the financing front, the association said cash buyers purchased 31.75 percent of the sold homes in October, which is consistent with what has been seen over the majority of 2014.
Conventional loans were used in nearly 35 percent of the transactions, while the report said FHA loans accounted for 12.7 percent of the financing.
Visit the Lake County Association of Realtors online at http://www.lcaor.com/members/ .