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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Rodeo's search for the 2013 grand marshal is under way.
The 84th annual rodeo, put on by the all-volunteer Lake County Rodeo Association, is seeking nominations from the community in order to select this year's grand marshal.
Nominees should have a longstanding interest in supporting the rodeo way of life.
They should exhibit a lifestyle that reflects respect for others and their community, support rodeo activities in Lake County and encourage future generations to become involved in rodeo-style events.
Every nomination should contain as much information as possible about the nominee in order to provide the committee with sufficient facts to make an informed decision about the candidates.
The deadline for nominations is March 15, 2013. Nominations will be accepted if postmarked by that date.
Nominations should be submitted to Grand Marshal, Lake County Rodeo, P.O. Box 63, Lakeport CA 95453; they also may be submitted online at www.lakecountyrodeo.com .
The review committee includes members of the Lake County Rodeo Association Board of Directors.
Their grand marshal selection will be announced at the fourth annual Rodeo Kick-Off Dance on Saturday, April 27, at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A man who last spring escaped from the Lake County Jail was seen this week in the city of Clearlake, where he fled from police.
Roger Daniel Vigil, 50, was seen Wednesday afternoon on 32nd Avenue by Det. Travis Lenz, who was in the area on an unrelated matter, according to a report from Sgt. Dominic Ramirez of the Clearlake Police Department.
Vigil had walked away from the Lake County Jail on April 23, 2012, where he was an inmate assigned to minimum custody, as Lake County News has reported.
When Lenz saw Vigil on Wednesday, he was riding as a passenger on an off-road motorcycle that was leaving a driveway, Ramirez said.
Vigil and the unknown operator of the dirt bike fled from Lenz, who pursued them and notified dispatch, according to Ramirez.
Ramirez said Clearlake Police officers responded to the area in order to assist in capturing Vigil who, along with the motorcycle's driver, was able to flee from officers using the dirt paths which contain terrain not suitable for police vehicles.
A lengthy search of the area was conducted, however Ramirez said police were unable to locate Vigil or the other subject.
Vigil is described as a white male adult, 5 feet 7 inches tall and approximately 165 pounds, with a shaved head, according to Ramirez.
When Vigil escaped from custody last year, sheriff's officials released additional identifying characteristics. Vigil has brown eyes and a number of tattoos, including one of Mickey Mouse on his left arm, with his right arm having tattoos of Jesus and a peacock. He also has a peacock tattooed on his back.
Ramirez said Vigil has a warrant for his arrest from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, with bail set at $50,000.
Anyone with information as to Vigil's whereabouts is asked to contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251. Callers may remain anonymous.
On Thursday Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, announced the task force’s comprehensive set of policy principles designed to reduce gun violence while respecting the Second Amendment Rights of law-abiding Americans.
“As a hunter and gun owner I believe we should protect law-abiding individuals’ Second Amendment right to own firearms,” said Thomspons. “As a father and grandfather I also believe that we have a responsibility to make our schools, neighborhoods and communities safe. This comprehensive set of policy principles accomplishes both those goals and Congress should act on them without delay. Moving forward I will use these recommendations to develop and influence legislation in both the House and Senate and work to get legislation based on these principles signed into law.”
“As a survivor of the mass shooting in Tucson two years ago, I am determined that no one else should have to endure such grief and loss. And as a member of Congress and as a vice chairman of this task force, I am unwavering in my commitment to push forward with legislation that will protect our children and our communities,” said task force member Rep. Ron Barber (AZ).
“In conversations I’ve had with residents in Newtown and across my district and in the thousands of letters, emails, and phone calls I’ve received from constituents on gun violence, I’ve heard a resounding call for commonsense policies to save lives. I’m proud to support these commonsense, comprehensive principles as a guide for our continuing national discussion on gun violence prevention and for action moving forward. What happened almost two months ago in Newtown was an unimaginable tragedy. What happens now is up to us. We must meet this call to action to protect our children, our families, and our communities,” said Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT), another task force member.
For nearly two months, the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, under the leadership of Thompson, has met with people on both sides of the aisle and all sides of the issue to develop a comprehensive set of policy principles that respect the Second Amendment and will make our schools, neighborhoods, and communities safer.
The task force met with and solicited input from victims of gun violence and gun safety advocates; gun owners, hunters, and outdoor sportsmen; federal, state, and local law enforcement; educators and community workers; mental health experts and physicians; representatives of the motion picture, television, music, and video game industries; leaders in our faith communities; and representatives of gun manufacturers and retailers, as well as cabinet secretaries and the vice president of the United States.
The task force also met with members of Congress from all sides of the issue, and held hearings in Washington, DC to consider ways to address this issue.
Chairman Thompson and the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force urge Congress to do the following:
– Support the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. The United States Supreme Court affirmed individuals’ Second rights to firearms in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008). However, the Supreme Court also held that “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited,” within the limits described by Heller, the federal government has the responsibility to take appropriate steps to protect our citizens from gun violence.
– Support citizens’ rights to possess firearms for hunting, shooting sports, defense, and other lawful and legitimate purposes: In the United States, there is a long tradition of hunting and recreational shooting, and firearms are often passed down within families from generation to generation. Policies passed by Congress should respect this.
– Reinstate and strengthen a prospective federal ban on assault weapons: These weapons are designed to fire a large number of rounds in a short period of time. They constitute a lethal threat to law enforcement and other first responders.
– Reinstate a prospective federal ban on assault magazines: These magazines hold more than ten rounds and allow a shooter to inflict mass damage in a short period of time without reloading. Banning them will save lives.
– Require a background check for every gun sale, while respecting reasonable exceptions for cases such as gifts between family members and temporary loans for sporting purposes: It is estimated that four out of ten gun buyers do not go through a background check when purchasing a firearm because federal law only requires these checks when someone buys a gun from a federally licensed dealer. That would be like allowing four out of ten people to choose if they’d go through airport security. This loophole allows felons, domestic abusers, and those prohibited because of mental illness to easily bypass the criminal background check system and buy firearms at gun shows, through private sellers, over the internet or out of the trunks of cars.
– Strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) database: Immediate action is needed to ensure the information in the NICS database is up to date. Many federal and state agencies remain deficient in transferring important records to the database. Without the information, the background checks aren’t complete. This needs to change.
– Prosecute those prohibited buyers who attempt to purchase firearms and others who violate federal firearm laws: Federal law bars nine categories of people – including felons and those prohibited because of mental illness – from buying guns. But when prohibited persons attempt to buy guns, they are hardly ever prosecuted. More can and must be done to make these investigations and prosecutions a priority.
– Pass legislation aimed specifically at cracking down on illegal gun trafficking and straw-purchasing: Straw-purchasing is when a prohibited buyer has someone with no criminal history walk into a gun store, pass a background check and purchase a gun with the purpose of giving it to the prohibited buyer. This puts guns in the hands of people who are prohibited from having them. Congress should pass a law that will put an end to this practice.
– Restore funding for public safety and law enforcement initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence: Congress should fund law enforcement’s efforts to reduce gun violence, while supporting federal research into causes of gun violence. Put simply, there is no reason the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) or the National Institute of Health (NIH) should be inhibited from researching the causes of gun violence. And there is no reason for the restrictions federal law places on our law enforcement officers’ ability to track and combat the spread of illegal guns.
– Support initiatives that prevent problems before they start: Local communities should have assistance in applying evidence-based prevention and early intervention strategies that are designed to prevent the problems that lead to gun violence before those problems start.
– Close the holes in our mental-health system and make sure that care is available for those who need it: Congress must improve prevention, early intervention, and treatment of mental illness while working to eliminate the stigma associated with mental illness. Access to mental health services should be improved, the shortage of mental health professionals should be addressed, and funding should be made available for those programs that have proven to be effective.
– Help our communities get unwanted and illegal guns out of the hands of those who don’t want them or shouldn’t have them: Congress should help support and develop local programs that get unwanted guns off our streets. And Congress should work with states to develop programs that get guns out of the hands of those convicted of certain crimes or those prohibited because of mental illness.
– Support responsible gun ownership: Congress should support safety training, research aimed at developing new gun safety technologies and the safe storage of firearms.
– Take steps to enhance school safety. Congress must help all schools implement evidence-based strategies that support safe learning environments tailored to the unique needs of students and local communities. And Congress must work with all schools to develop emergency response plans.
– Address our culture’s glorification of violence seen and heard though our movie screens, television shows, music and video games: Congress should fund scientific research on the relationship between popular culture and gun violence, while ensuring that parents have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about what their families watch, listen to, and play.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to move the great white shark into candidacy for a state Endangered Species Act listing.
The famed apex predator’s North Eastern Pacific population, found off the West Coast between Alaska and Mexico, will now become the subject of a one-year review to determine if it will be listed as an endangered species.
“This is an iconic species for the ocean,” said commission President Michael Sutton as he and his colleagues prepared to vote at the end of the hour-and-a-half-long hearing.
Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and Shark Stewards submitted the state listing petition last August.
At the same time, they submitted a federal Endangered Species Act listing petition for the shark. The National Marine Fisheries Service is now reviewing that petition, with a decision expected in 2013.
After an extensive petition review, California Department of Fish and Wildlife staff recommended that the commission advance the North Eastern Pacific great white shark population to candidacy.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife environmental scientist Mandy Lewis gave the commission a presentation on the listing petition evaluation.
Based on the agency’s evaluation criteria, Department of Fish and Wildlife staff concluded the petition contained sufficient scientific information and that action may be warranted, she said.
However, Lewis pointed out that there also is contrary information available that will need to be considered, specifically, population estimate trends and abundance estimates, the degree and immediacy of threat and the impacts of existing management on the great white shark’s West Coast population.
While the great white shark is found throughout the world, the North Eastern Pacific population is genetically distinct and does not interbreed with other populations found elsewhere, Lewis said.
West Coast great whites aren’t distributed equally through their range, Lewis said. While they’ve been found from Alaska to Mexico’s southern tip, they tend to be found more commonly in aggregation areas which have large seal and sea lion populations. Two of those areas on the California coast include Tomales Point and the Farallon Islands.
She said not a lot is known about great white shark breeding, as no one has witnessed it.
The sharks spend the late fall and winter near central and Southern California, going as far south as Guadalupe Island, Mexico, Lewis said. In spring they move into places like the shared offshore foraging area, also called the great white shark café, located between Southern California and Hawaii.
In late spring and early summer, female great whites go to an area offshore of Southern California where their pups are born. After giving birth, the females go back to the main aggregation sites, Lewis said.
Great white shark research history is not very long and is limited, so even if with a population estimate, there is no historic population estimates with which to compare it, Lewis explained.
The listing petition included an abundance estimate of 339 adults and subadults, a number which Lewis told the commission Wednesday is not definitive, with concerns that it’s incomplete. To get a complete population picture, she said juvenile population trends must be considered.
Key concerns about the sharks include the high levels of DDT and PCBs found in juvenile white sharks. While such large predators tend to bioaccumulate pollutants, Lewis said the high levels in shark tissue are not detrimentally affecting their ability to reach a mature age and reproduce.
A main threat to the sharks is believed to be gillnets, which are known to capture juveniles, although Lewis said adult sharks usually are able to break through the nets.
Also noted during Lewis’ presentation is a large increase in sea otter mortality due to white shark bites. Lewis said that could mean more white sharks are moving into areas where sea otters live.
Strong support for candidacy; opponents question data
Of the 24 people who addressed the commission about the proposed candidacy, 19 spoke in favor of it and five spoke against it.
Assemblyman Paul Fong (D-Cupertino) was first to the podium during public comment to offer his support. He’s been dubbed the “shark champion” of the California Assembly for his work as principal author of AB 376, which banned the shark fin trade in California – a bill which has survived an initial challenge in federal court, Sutton pointed out.
Loss of such an apex predator in a marine ecosystem can have devastating consequences, said Fong. For the West Coast, losing the great white shark, he suggested, could start a much larger decline of overall ocean health.
“California must maintain its leadership in shark protection,” said Fong, who presented the commission with a letter signed by fellow state legislators supporting the petition candidacy.
Dr. Geoff Shester, California program director for Oceana, said white sharks have an “irreplaceable role” in the ocean ecosystem.
Shester called them magnificent, powerful and inquisitive creatures. “The population is clearly at risk,” Shester said, explaining that the white shark situation is exactly what the Endangered Species Act was meant to address.
Bycatch remains unregulated, and he said the endgame isn’t just an endangered species listing for the white shark but actively managing the bycatch threat to juvenile great whites.
Sutton noted that there also are issues with what is happening with great whites in Mexican waters. “They are killing a lot of sharks in Mexico,” he said, adding that as part of the status review it would be important to get a handle on what is going on south of the border.
Bill Adams, representing the California Coalition of Diving Advocates, argued that white sharks already get a substantial amount of protection under existing laws, and he didn’t see data justifying further protection.
“California is a very minute part of its range and that's even speculative,” he said.
Santa Barbara commercial fisherman Andrew Rasmussen said he also opposed the listing, noting he’s only caught a few juvenile white sharks in the last several years, one of which was released alive and the other given to scientists for research.
Rasmussen said statements about a dwindling population come from extremists. Based on his own observations, “There’s a lot more white sharks around than there was 10 years ago,” he said, adding, “Anyone that says the population is dwindling is not being honest.”
Dr. Chris Harrold, director of research programs for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, said the aquarium was supportive of the listing candidacy.
Since 2004, the aquarium has showcased a half-dozen young great white sharks for periods of up to six and a half months, introducing them to more than three million visitors, according to Harrold.
Harrold said that while the state review process takes place this year, the Monterey Bay Aquarium will not collect a young great white shark for exhibit.
He said they hope that any listing decision regarding California’s white sharks will include policies under which white sharks can continue to be studied in California waters and collected for exhibit.
Harrold said the great white shark has proved to be a “powerful ambassador” in helping the public understand their importance.
While Commissioner Jim Kellogg said he’s been very critical of such listing proposals over the years, he supported the white shark’s candidacy and review.
His colleague Richard Rogers agreed. Rogers said many petitions seemed based more on fundraising for organizations. “This particular petition, however, does concern me,” he said.
Rogers said it was incredibly important to evaluate the great white shark’s situation, suggesting they may find there are a lot more of them. “We still may end up listing the animal.”
Sutton said the carnage of the international shark fin trade may lead some people to believe that all sharks are endangered. The law requires that the commission look at all petitions on their own merits.
“Not all shark species are created equal and we must look at this one carefully,” Sutton said before the unanimous vote.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Markedly cooler weather is on tap for Lake County today and tomorrow, with rain showers likely throughout the day today and into Friday and higher elevations receiving a dusting of snow.
A much colder but relatively small storm front began moving into Lake County and Northern California last night, with the National Weather Service in Sacramento giving local areas a 60 to 80 percent chance of rain showers throughout the day today. Higher elevations are forecast to receive small amounts of snowfall.
The forecasters at Western Weather Group predict about one-third of an inch of rain will fall today as a small weather front moves through, followed by a much colder and drier system that could spark isolated thunderstorms throughout the day and into the evening.
Rain is expected to continue into the morning hours on Friday, but taper off as the weather system moves out of the area.
Daytime highs today and Friday will top out near 50 degrees, with sunny skies throughout the weekend.
As the cold air mass continues to move out of the area, overnight temperatures Friday and throughout the weekend are predicted to dip into the low to mid-20s, with some valley areas seeing overnight low temperatures in the upper teens, according to the forecast.
Email Terre Logsdon at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Child Care Planning Council, along with many other Lake County agencies, organizations and individuals, are uniting once again to honor Early Childhood Educators through the fifth annual Early Childhood Educator Award program.
Each year, the event grows, as award winners and nominees are honored by local dignitaries and leaders in the field.
This year’s event will be held at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport on May 10 in order to accommodate an even larger number of attendees.
Nomination forms are being distributed widely throughout the county through Lake County Office of Education, and child care programs, and an online submission form is available to make nominating a professional as convenient as possible.
Nomination forms are now available, and winners will be selected based on a detailed interview and evaluation process that considers their education, commitment to their profession and effectiveness in their role as educators.
To nominate a child care provider, please visit www.lakecountychildcareplanning.com .
Nominations must be received by March 29.
“Early Childhood Educators contribute significantly to our communities. Quality early childhood education dramatically impacts high school graduation rates, keeps our communities working, and helps Lake County develop productive, effective citizens of the future,” said Shelly Mascari, of the Lake County Child Care Planning Council.
“Many of these educators have dedicated decades to their profession; their education in many cases equals that of the K-12 educator; and yet we were lacking a forum to recognize excellence in their field,” Mascari added. “The goal of the Early Childhood Educator award program is to do just that.”
The winners will be honored at an award dinner held at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre and will receive an award package that includes scholarships to our local community colleges, gift certificates for classroom materials, press recognition, award plaques and more. Awards will be presented in the following categories:
- Provider of the year (family child care);
- Provider of the year (infant/toddler-center based);
- Provider of the year (preschool-center based);
- Provider of the year (after school-center based);
- Outstanding special needs inclusion;
- “Leading the Field.”
To find out how to be involved in this program or support this important work financially, contact The Lake County Child Care Planning Council, 707-995-9523, www.lakecountychildcareplanning.com .