How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Tribal Health is looking for American Indian and Alaskan Native eighth graders, 12th graders and college seniors from the Lake County community who will be graduating in the 2012-13 school year.
On June 18, Lake County Tribal Health will host the second annual “To Honor One is To Honor All” Tribal Community Event to recognize all American Indian/Alaskan Natives graduating this year from junior and senior high – including GED completion – and college.
During this event, graduates will be invited to make a special leadership drum with natural materials of wood, animal hides and sinew.
They will hear inspirational stories from Native American college graduates, learn about college opportunities and celebrate their educational achievement with their families and community.
If you know of an American Indian/Alaskan Native from the Lake County community who will graduate in the 2012-13 school year, please submit their name and contact information to Cassie Russ,
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Stockton man has been arrested for allegedly embezzling more than $100,000 from a Clearlake church where he previously was pastor.
Bruce Anthony Stark, 62, was arrested by Elk Grove Police Department on an outstanding Clearlake Police Department warrant for grand theft on Saturday, March 16, according to Clearlake Police Sgt. Nick Bennett.
Stark was booked into the Lake County Jail on Wednesday, March 20, for felony grand theft, with bail set at $40,000. Jail records indicated he later posted the required percentage of bail and was released.
Bennett said the case began in 2008 when members of the Hilltop Apostolic Church in Clearlake reported they were victims of a vehicle theft, misappropriation of church funds and grand theft of church property.
Stark was hired by the church as pastor in 2002. Between 2002 and 2007 it is alleged that he embezzled cash and property in excess of $100,000, Bennett said.
Clearlake Police Det. Carl Stein began a lengthy investigation which involved numerous cash transactions and illegal property mortgage collateral loans involving church properties where Stark converted the monies for his personal use, according to Bennett.
During the course of the investigation Det. Stein uncovered additional crimes Stark may have been involved in but were occurring in other jurisdictions, Bennett said.
After interviewing 26 people who were involved in the Clearlake case, reviewing years of bank statements and multiple county records, the case was submitted to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for a complaint, Bennett said.
Bennett said the Lake County Superior Court issued the arrest warrant for Stark in December 2012.
Stark’s booking sheet said he is scheduled to appear in Lake County Superior Court on Monday, April 2.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The California Board of Parole Hearings has denied parole to a former Kelseyville man convicted of murdering a child in 1990.
At a hearing Thursday, March 21, the Board of Parole Hearings denied parole for convicted murderer and child abuser Leonard Scott Snider, 53, according to Lake County Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, who attended the lifer hearing at the High Desert State Prison in Susanville to argue against Snider’s release.
Snider was found guilty by a jury on Aug. 31, 1990, of the first-degree murder of a 3 and a half year old Lakeport boy, and felony child abuse of another young boy, and sentenced to 31 years to life.
He was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Robert L. Crone Jr. Snider was originally prosecuted by District Attorney Stephen Hedstrom, who is now one of Lake County’s Superior Court judges.
According to investigation reports, between 1988 and 1990 Snider was involved in several incidents of domestic violence against his girlfriends, including threats and physical violence.
The 8-year-old son of one of Snider’s girlfriends, during a 1990 interview, reported to a District Attorney’s Office investigator that Snider had been abusing him for a long time.
The victim reported being beaten by Snider many times, including beating him against a wall, slapping him, placing him in steaming hot water in a bathtub numerous times, smashing his face into things, giving him a black eye, kicking him in the groin with hiking boots, holding his head under water, pulling hair out of his head, tying a rope around his neck so he had difficulty breathing, and repeatedly beating, bruising and threatening the victim.
The child victim also reported Snider put a rubber band around the child’s genitals and repeatedly snapped it while covering the victim’s mouth so he could not scream.
On April 7, 1990, Lake County sheriff’s deputies and Lakeport Police responded to the hospital in Lakeport regarding a 3 and a half year old boy, the son of Snider’s new girlfriend at the time, who was dying from severe trauma.
Snider initially claimed that the boy had fallen off of a deck and injured himself. However, doctors at the UC Davis Medical Center determined the child had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
At the time the child had severe bruising to his body, cerebral trauma and swelling, scars on his body, scarring of his genitals, burns on his legs, and a fractured arm.
Police responded to the child’s home in Sixth Street in Lakeport and found several areas of blood inside the house. During the investigation Snider finally admitted he lost it and spanked the child too hard.
During the investigation an adult relative of the child advised investigators she had previously witnessed Snider beating the child, and had seen severe bruising to the child and chunks of hair missing from the child’s head. When asked at the time the child said Snider caused the injuries.
During a post-conviction interview Snider claimed that both children loved him, he loved them and he was like a father figure to the children. Snider blamed the child’s mother for the death and denied abusing the children.
In an October 2012 interview in prison Snider continued to deny committing any child abuse and claimed he was wrongfully incriminated.
During his time in prison Snider has been a disciplinary problem and has been caught with inmate manufactured alcohol 10 times and has been disciplined for incidents of violence seven times.
At the March 21 hearing, Hinchcliff advised the parole commissioners that because of the severity, gruesomeness and callousness of the crimes committed against the children, along with Snider’s conduct while in prison, the Lake County District Attorney’s Office would be attending every parole hearing for Snider and making every effort to keep Snider in prison for the rest of his life.
Pursuant to a stipulation that included the agreement of the parole commissioners, parole was denied was for five years, and Snider’s next parole hearing will be in 2018, Hinchcliff reported.
Hinchcliff reported that the District Attorney’s Office will be at that 2018 hearing to oppose parole.
LUCERNE, Calif. – On Tuesday evening at the Lucerne Hotel, Marymount California University hosted a dinner to update community leaders about the college’s new campus at the site and to introduce a host of visiting students.
Marymount President Dr. Michael Brophy said the evening also was an opportunity for the university to bring together its two families – the new one in Lake County and those students and staff who came from Southern California.
The students have kept busy during their spring break visit, taking part in what Brophy called an “archaeological dig” at Anderson Marsh – which college officials said actually was a trash cleanup project – and enjoying time at Blue Lakes, with plans to visit Lucerne Elementary School and a food pantry, with a hike of Mt. Konocti and a visit to the redwoods also planned. They’re staying at the Lodge at Blue Lakes due to construction still being under way at the Lucerne Hotel.
Speaking to more than 100 people in the hotel’s dining room, with its view of Clear Lake, Brophy said of the building, “This is an amazing testament to this county leadership.”
He gave special mention to Kelly Curtis Intagliata, Marymount’s director of communications, who played an important role in selecting the new university name; retired County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox; Cox’s successor Matt Perry; Eric Seely, deputy county administrative officer for special projects; and Lake County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook for their work to give Marymount a home in Lake County.
Last fall, Marymount signed a lease agreement with the county of Lake for the Lucerne Hotel, which will become its third campus, in addition to Rancho Palos Verdes and San Pedro.
Built in the 1920s, “the Castle” – as community members have known the hotel for decades – was purchased by the county in 2010 and then offered as an educational campus through a request for proposals sent out to colleges and universities.
Brophy said that request for proposals – written by Cox, who has since retired – landed on his desk in June 2011.
“It really inspired us,” said Brophy, explaining that Marymount’s trustees thought a rural location would be great to add to its research offerings.
Brophy said Lake County will be the university’s rural research location, with Rancho Palos Verdes the urban location and students also able to work at a Methodist university in Ghana.
This year, Marymount will have what Brophy called a “quiet” opening as small numbers of upper division and graduate students begin arriving.
During his Tuesday evening remarks Brophy explained that students from Southern California will come to Lake County to take part in internships and research on a wide range of topics.
In 2014 college officials expect to offer more educational opportunities. “We’re going to deliver in a major way” at the upper class levels, said Brophy, with Marymount to seek accreditation to award degrees to students who study at the Lucerne campus.
In the meantime, they’re searching for a campus executive director who is expected to be in place by July or August, Brophy said.
That individual, Brophy explained, will – among other things – work on “town and gown” relations and hiring staff.
Over the next 18 months the university will be looking for good educational talent for the Lucerne campus, Brophy said.
Marymount is expanding its educational offerings in many ways. Last September it announced the application to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges for accreditation for two new master’s degrees programs – master of science in community psychology and a master of science in leadership and community development – for a fall 2013 launch.
College officials also reported that Marymount will begin offering professional development and personal enrichment courses beginning late this summer targeting local educators, members of the business community and Social Services and Mental Health employees.
In addition, they are planning for a transfer program to begin in fall 2014 for students from Yuba College and Mendocino College.
Brophy said Tuesday that the institution’s new name – Marymount California University, announced last week – also is an acknowledgement that Marymount has moved beyond its Southern California roots and found a new home in Lake County, Brophy said.
He offered his thanks to everyone who had welcomed Marymount California University to Lucerne.
Marymount’s students, he added, would make everyone proud.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
A new national strategy will help strengthen California’s ongoing efforts to manage climate change and protect natural resources.
In partnership with state and tribal agencies, the Obama Administration on Tuesday released the first nationwide strategy to help public and private decision makers address the impacts that climate change is having on natural resources and the people and economies that depend on them.
Developed in response to a request by Congress, the National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy is the product of extensive national dialogue that spanned nearly two years and was shaped by comments from more than 55,000 Americans.
The National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy can be found at www.wildlifeadaptationstrategy.gov .
“The specific implications of climate change on fish and wildlife are uncertain and will vary on a regional and state basis,” said Kevin Hunting, Chief Deputy Director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). “However, climate change is escalating and accelerating these threats, making it much more difficult and costly for agencies to manage. That’s why the development and release of the National Strategy is important because it serves as a foundation of a science-based and collective nationwide effort and is truly a national strategy – not just a federal strategy.”
The National Strategy provides a roadmap of key steps needed over the next five years to reduce the current and expected impacts of climate change on our natural resources, which include: changing species distributions and migration patterns, the spread of wildlife diseases and invasive species, the inundation of coastal habitats with rising sea levels, changing productivity of our coastal oceans and changes in freshwater availability.
The National Strategy builds upon efforts already under way by federal, state and tribal governments, and other organizations to safeguard fish, wildlife and plants and provides specific voluntary steps that agencies and partners can take in the coming years to reduce costly damages and protect the health of our communities and economy.
The strategy does not prescribe any mandatory activities for government or nongovernmental entities, nor suggest any regulatory actions.
In California, significant changes have been measured in its climate such as changes in temperature and precipitation since the late 1800s. The state is experiencing more frequent and larger wildfires.
Precipitation is shifting toward more rain and less snow, which has implications for species and habitats as well as for water supplies in its rivers.
Climate scientists project that in the coming decades California’s climate will warm even faster, with more frequent and intense heat waves, and further changes to the snowpack.
“Climate change is very real here and we’ve responded,” Hunting said. “The National Strategy and the 2009 California Climate Adaptation Strategy are examples of how federal and state efforts can work together to address climate change impacts to our fish, wildlife and plants. Addressing climate change is about partnerships at all levels. State fish and wildlife agencies recognize that climate change is a large-scale issue that will require a large-scale response to support robust populations and healthy habitats. We believe that this is the best insurance in an uncertain future.”
The California Climate Adaptation Strategy can be found at www.climatechange.ca.gov/adaptation/strategy/index.html .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A fund has been set up to help a local couple with their effort to get a lifesaving bone marrow transplant for their young son.
Rodd and Kellie Joseph found out in February that their baby boy Ryland, born last October, has a rare and life-threatening disorder called Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, as Lake County News first reported earlier this month.
Children like Ryland with the more severe form of the disease, which predominantly affects boys, have a life expectancy of about 5 to 8 years, as Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome makes them prone to autoimmune deficiencies, bleeding, and other diseases like leukemia or lymphoma.
At this time, only a bone marrow transplant offers Ryland a full cure, and the costs of such a procedure are estimated at $1 million or more.
An account has been opened in the name of The Ryland Robert Joseph Be The Match Fund at Mendo Lake Credit Union in Clearlake to help with medical bills.
To donate to this cause, visit any Mendo Lake Credit Union branch and make a deposit to The Ryland Robert Joseph Be The Match Fund account, 7XXX2080.
A bone marrow drive and fundraiser for Ryland Joseph will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 20, at Lake County Fire Protection District’s Station 70, 14815 Olympic Drive in Clearlake.
Community members are urged to join the national bone marrow registry, Be the Match, www.bethematch.org , either by going online or by attending the April 20 event.
People between the ages of 18 and 44 are the key donor age group, although donors remain in the registry typically until age 61.
Testing is simple and painless, involving a cheek swab for DNA analysis, according to the registry.
There are currently 10.5 million registry members nationwide. Be the Match facilitated 5,800 bone marrow transplants in 2012, and earlier this month the registry reported that more than 800 people in California needed bone marrow transplants.
The Joseph family is encouraging people to register not just in the hope that they could find a match for Ryland, but also to help the thousands of patients nationwide needing the procedure.
Email Elizabeth Larson at