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NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco announced its 2013 awards through the bank’s Access to Housing and Economic Assistance for Development (AHEAD) Program this week.
The grants are provided through member financial institutions both large and small.
This year, 21 Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco members will be supporting 33 innovative initiatives which address a variety of needs and populations thanks to funding from the FHLBSF AHEAD program funding – including three fortunate applicants, sponsored by Mendo Lake Credit Union (MLCU).
Awards will go to California Human Development, Redwood Children’s Services and the Resource for Native Development.
“MLCU is honored to provide access to FHLBank San Francisco funding for local organizations,” said Mendo Lake Credit Union CEO Richard Cooper. “We have a close connection with all three organizations. All three recipients are nonprofit organizations that foster economic development and promote community stability and self-sufficiency which align with our own organizational goals and objectives.”
California Human Development (CHD), a Santa Rosa-based 46-year-old nonprofit agency serving 31 California counties, was awarded $42,000 to fund its Mobile Migrant Farmworker Housing Unit Demonstration Model project.
The project proposes using portable housing units as temporary homes for seasonal migrant farmworkers.
Antonio Silva, CHD housing director, said that the grant “will allow CHD to demonstrate the feasibility of a mobile housing solution to meet the housing needs of peak harvest workers. These workers often struggle to find adequate housing at harvest time. Our concept is to bring the housing to the workers.”
The funds to construct a prototype mobile unit – providing housing for up to four to six workers – will allow CHD to both test and market the concept to a larger audience of funders, growers and farmworkers.
“With success, CHD envisions a fleet of these mobile units which will provide much needed short term and affordable housing as the units rotate among California’s significant agricultural regions. We are excited and grateful to have the opportunity to test this concept,” said Chief Executive Officer Christopher Paige.
Redwood Children’s Services will use its $25,000 grant to support its Arbor Youth Program. The Arbor currently serves 1,700 low-income foster or at-risk youth between the ages of 14 and 24 in the Ukiah Valley area.
Young people using the center have access to computers, clothing, food, employment assistance, education support, and community connections, as well as gang prevention programs and support groups for young mothers.
The grant will help to fund facility expansion, new equipment purchases, and the hiring of a bilingual staff person.
MLCU staff support the Arbor program by providing financial literacy classes and banking services for Arbor clients.
The Resource for Native Development (RFND) provides business development, consumer and home repair loans to Indian tribes within a nine-county region of California.
Tribal economies within this region are severely underdeveloped, with low rates of home-ownership, asset growth, and business development.
“The $25,000 AHEAD award will provide operating support to RFND to obtain certification as a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) from the US Treasury as the first Native CDFI serving this area,” said Darlene Tooley, executive director of the Northern Circle Indian Housing Authority.
“Our market study supports the need for financial education and opportunities for Native people to access capital and financial services,” Tooley said. “RFND obtaining this certification will be a significant step forward to address that need in our community.”
As a CDFI credit union, MLCU has supported RFND’s progress in obtaining their own CDFI designation through funding and volunteer service.
“The bank is pleased that Mendo Lake Credit Union continues to be such an effective user of our AHEAD Program,” said Marietta Núñez, vice president of community lending at FHLBank San Francisco. “The breadth of the needs being addressed in the projects Mendo Lake is sponsoring speaks to how an engaged financial partner, no matter its size, can be a valuable partner for innovation in so many diverse areas.”
For more information on the AHEAD program and a full list of 2013 awardees go to http://www.fhlbsf.com/community/docs/2013-ahead-recipients.pdf .
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer – or LADEE – is headed toward the moon after launching on a Minataur V rocket Friday night from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
LADEE will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about its atmosphere, conditions near the surface and environmental influences on lunar dust.
LADEE is the first spacecraft designed, developed, built, integrated and tested at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
Using a Modular Common Spacecraft Bus architecture, also developed by Ames, LADEE will demonstrate how to build a first class spacecraft at reduced cost.
The LADEE spacecraft makes use of general purpose spacecraft modules that allow for a plug-and-play approach to manufacturing and assembly.
Earth's atmosphere is critically important to all of us. In addition to providing us with air to breathe, it protects us from temperature extremes, harmful space radiation, and vast numbers of incoming meteoroids. The atmosphere is a very complex system that we are only beginning to understand.
Gaining a better understanding of the atmosphere, how it protects us, and how we can protect it is in all of our interests.
In order to understand Earth's atmosphere and how it works, it is essential to study atmospheres under a wide range of conditions beyond Earth. Examining atmospheres on other planets allows this. For example, by studying the atmosphere of Venus, we learned about the role of carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, and saw how it drives the temperature on Venus as high as 860 degrees Fahrenheit (460 degrees Celsius).
The moon has a type of atmosphere scientists call a surface boundary exosphere. This very thin atmosphere may actually be the most common type of atmosphere in our solar system.
Yet despite occurring so frequently, surface boundary exospheres largely remain a mystery. The moon, Mercury, larger asteroids, many moons orbiting the solar system's giant planets and even some of the distant Kuiper Belt Objects beyond Neptune, all have surface boundary exospheres.
To fully understand atmospheres and how they work, we also need to understand the most common type. Fortunately, the moon is in our own celestial "backyard," and LADEE observations of the lunar atmosphere and surface conditions will provide insights scientists can apply to many worlds.
For more information about the LADEE mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ladee .
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The service of a search warrant by the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force has resulted in one arrest and the seizure of marijuana, cash, steroids and a firearm.
Forrest Fredrick Kuecker, 34, was arrested for possession of marijuana for sales, cultivating marijuana, being armed while in the commission of a felony and possession of a controlled substance, according to Lt. Steve Brooks.
On Aug. 27, narcotics detectives secured a search warrant for Kuecker's person, home and vehicle, Brooks said.
At 7:30 a.m. Aug. 28, detectives served the warrant at the residence, which is located in the 7000 block of Westlake Drive in Upper Lake. Brooks said when detectives entered the property they detained Kuecker and 31-year-old Valerie Nichole Sears of Upper Lake without incident.
During the search narcotics detectives located and seized 137 marijuana plants and approximately 30 ounces of processed marijuana, Brooks said.
Brooks said detectives also located an indoor grow room inside the residence. The grow room was set up with high pressure sodium lights which were controlled by timers.
Detectives said it appeared that Kuecker was growing marijuana year round and would harvest plants every 90 days, Brooks said. Kuecker told detectives he was growing far more marijuana plants than he needed.
Detectives located $3,800 in U.S. currency inside the master bedroom closet. All of the money was in $100 bills, which was wrapped in a $10,000 money band. Brooks said both Sears and Kuecker denied having any knowledge of the money, which was seized pending asset forfeiture proceedings.
Narcotics detectives also located two vials containing a clear liquid, inside a cabinet in the bathroom. Upon further investigation detectives determined one of the vials contained Testosterone Cypionate and the other contained Enanthate. Brooks said both were determined to be steroids and are listed as schedule III controlled substances.
Detectives also located a firearm in one of Keucker’s vehicles. Both the steroids and the firearm were seized as evidence.
Brooks said Kuecker was arrested and transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked.
Detectives released Sears at the scene, but are submitting the crime report to the Lake County District Attorney's Office for a complaint regarding her involvement in the marijuana cultivation, Brooks said.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Changes to the Lake County Department of Public Works' construction schedule will mean bus service in a portion of Lakeport will be canceled for two days next week.
Lake Transit Authority General Manager Mark Wall said the Route 8 bus service on Lakeshore Drive in the city of Lakeport will be canceled between Park Way and Margot Lane on Wednesday, Sept. 11, and on Thursday, Sept. 12.
Originally, Lake Transit Authority had reported that the construction would cause a service cancellation on Tuesday, Sept. 10, but a revised construction schedule made available on Friday changed that.
Route 8 buses will detour after leaving Lakeside Health Center. Buses will travel via Lakeshore Drive, Hill Road, and Park Way to return to Lakeshore Drive, according to Wall.
He said the route will operate its usual schedule south of the intersection of Lakeshore at Park Way.
Service is expected to return to normal on Friday, Sept. 13, Wall said.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A late-night vehicle crash along Highway 20 led to a small wildland fire and traffic holdups.
The fire was first reported shortly before 12 a.m. Friday on Highway 20, about 18 miles west of Williams inside the Colusa County line, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Reports from the scene said a vehicle flipped off the north side of the road and went 30 feet down a ravine.
Firefighters arriving at the scene found a small wildland fire that resulted from the crash. The fire traveled up and out of the drainage and started uphill, burning grass and trees.
CHP was requested to respond for traffic control and a ground ambulance was dispatched for a person who suffered minor injuries in the crash, radio reports indicated.
The fire was reported to be about 2 acres shortly before it contained just before 1 a.m.
Traffic control was in effect for a short period of time while firefighters worked at the scene, the CHP said.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Thursday, the nonprofit that operates Lake Transit Authority reached an agreement for a new three-year contract with union-represented workers who had gone out on two separate strikes this summer.
Paratransit Services of Bremerton, Wash., reported that it met with representatives of Teamsters Local 665 on Thursday and reached the agreement on a tentative collective bargaining agreement.
Teamsters Local 665 President Ralph Miranda told Lake County News that the new three-year contract was ratified by about 20 union members who met in Clearlake on Thursday, the same day the contract went into effect.
The new contract calls for a 2.2-percent wage increase, but the restoration of step pay increases that the union had fought for aren't included, Miranda said.
“It is essentially the same offer that Paratransit offered prior to the strike,” he said.
Paratransit Services confirmed that the deal reached Thursday mirrored Paratransit Services' best and final offer which initially was presented on June 18.
Teamsters members went out on a two-day strike July 1-2. After they didn't make headway over the step increases – which they said they had given up in 2010 with the belief that they would be added back when the economy improved – they began an indefinite strike on July 29, as Lake County News has reported.
Christie Scheffer, Paratransit Services' chief operating officer and executive vice president, said that when the indefinite strike was called, Paratransit Services' priority was to maintain and restore transportation services as quickly as possible to Lake County.
Paratransit Services also moved forward with hiring permanent replacement workers and gradually restoring services. Scheffer said the nonprofit “kept every commitment and restored significant portions ahead of schedule.” All services were fully restored by Sept. 3, according to Lake Transit.
The second strike ended on Aug. 16 after the striking union members voted to go back to work unconditionally in order to restore the transit services that had been curtailed during the walkout.
“We had a legal right, given the expenses we have incurred to restore services as quickly as possible to
Lake County to pull our wage offer off the table, but we had made an initial fair wage offer and remained committed to our employees and have kept our word,” said Scheffer.
Miranda said that, for the union, the decisions to end the strike and to settle on the new contract resulted after Paratransit Services successfully hired replacement workers.
“We had thought all along that replacement workers were not that readily available,” Miranda said. “Apparently they hired people from whatever location they could and put them in the seats.”
That has left many union workers waiting to return to work. Miranda said Local 665 and Paratransit Services agreed that workers should be recalled for openings based on seniority.
As of Monday, six Teamsters – five drivers and one dispatcher – had returned to work for Lake Transit, Miranda said. That leaves 23 Teamsters still waiting to go back to work.
Scheffer said Paratransit Services is looking forward “to service expansion and continuing to make a difference in serving Lake County.”
Miranda said the union is going to refocus, and switch its effort to get Paratransit Services replaced as the transit authority's operator. He said the contract is expected to come up for renewal next June.
“We will continue to make appearances at the Lake Transit Authority meetings, we will continue to agendize items and speak our mind,” Miranda said.
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