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The workshop will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at the Sons of Italy Hall, located at 2817 E. Highway 20 in Nice.
Presented by the Lake County Redevelopment Agency and Mogavero Notestine Associates, this community workshop will open with an update by Supervisor Denise Rushing on community events and projects.
David Mogavero, principal at Mogavero Notestine Associates will provide observations regarding the Holiday Harbor site, including opportunities and constraints.
Community input will include both specific questions from Mogavero and an open forum.
Lake County Redevelopment Agency officials will outline the proposed next steps in the process, including the public presentation of the conceptual plan.
The Lake County Redevelopment Agency purchased the Holiday Harbor Resort and Marina, located at 3605 Lakeshore Boulevard, Nice, in June 2008.
The site includes 134 boat slips, picnic areas, restrooms, a boat launch and on-site caretaker.
The agency envisions development of the site and surrounding area as the future town center for Nice.
The short-term goal of the agency is to develop a market development plan, including conceptual plans and other marketing pieces, to attract investment in the site by a private developer.
Funding for the creation of the market development plan is provided by a Community Development Block Grant Planning and Technical Assistance grant.
The agency awarded a contract for development of the plan to Mogavero Notestine Associates through a competitive request for proposals in February.
Mogavero Notestine Associates is an award winning architecture, planning, urban design and development firm that specializes in innovative urban infill projects, such as the Holiday Harbor site.
Not only does MNA provide traditional architecture and planning services, but the agency expects their experience in feasibility analysis and private development to provide both a creative and tangible plan for the Holiday Harbor site and the future town center of the community of Nice.
Formed in 1999, the Lake County Redevelopment Agency works to eliminate blight and promote economic development in communities within the Northshore Redevelopment Project Area, which includes parts of Upper Lake, Nice, Lucerne, Glenhaven and Clearlake Oaks.
For more information about the project, contact the Lake County Redevelopment Agency at 707-263-2580 or visit www.co.lake.ca.us/redevelopment.
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The fire, which occurred early on April 1, destroyed a home in the 10000 block of Fairway Drive in the Clear Lake Rivieras.
The home's resident, 85-year-old Preben Rauholt, is believed to be the victim, although Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office said an official identification of the body found in the home is still pending.
Kelseyville Fire Protection District firefighters found the body in the back of the home in a hallway between a bathroom and a bedroom. The blaze's origin was believed to be located in the home's living room, as Lake County News has reported.
Bauman said preliminary reports indicate that the cause of the fire is unknown and that Rauholt died from smoke inhalation.
“We are waiting for some other test results to come in, relating to toxicology screening for the victim and some items being tested for the fire investigation,” Bauman said.
The sheriff's office previously stated that it had deemed the fire's circumstances as suspicious and therefore was treating it as a possible homicide.
However, Bauman said Tuesday, “At this point we have not identified any evidence of criminal intent with regards to the fire.”
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Chesbro was coauthor of state Sen. Joe Simitian’s Senate Bill 2X, which requires utilities to get at least 33 percent of electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020.
“This bill will bring many important benefits to California, including stimulating investment in green technologies in the state, creating tens of thousands of new jobs, improving local air quality, promoting energy independence, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Brown in his signing message.
“While reaching a 33 percent renewables portfolio standard will be an important milestone, it is really just a starting point – a floor, not a ceiling,” Brown continued in the message. “Our state has enormous renewable resource potential. I would like to see us pursue even more far-reaching targets. With the amount of renewable resources coming on-line, and prices dropping, I think 40 percent, at reasonable cost, is well within our grasp in the near future.”
“When the governor signed SB 2X today, California confirmed its position as the world leader in green energy technology,” Chesbro said. “This breakthrough legislation will create a large number of new living-wage jobs, attract new businesses to California, preserve the environment, improve air quality and protect public health.”
Senate Bill 2X applies to all electricity retailers in the state – investor-owned utilities (IOUs), municipal utilities and independent sellers.
The current 20-percent renewable energy requirement applies only to investor-owned utilities and independent sellers.
Municipal utilities have adopted renewable energy goals, which only some have met. Achieving 33 percent renewable energy by 2020 is a key element of the state's plan to meet the limits on greenhouse gas emissions established by AB 32.
Senate Bill 2X does not require utilities to reach the goal at any cost.
The California Public Utilities Commission must approve renewable energy contracts, and utilities may be granted exemptions if the price of energy, or the difficulty of moving it into the state’s grid, make the cost excessive.
For these reasons the bill was endorsed by the CPUC’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates and consumer watchdog The Utility Reform Network (TURN).
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Goodwin is replacing Linda Tyner, current alternative education director, who is retiring in July 2011, the Lake County Office of Education reported.
The Lake County Office of Education Alternative Education includes the Renaissance School for students in juvenile hall, the Clearlake Community School and the Lloyd P. Hance Community School.
These schools provide an alternative learning environment for students in grades seventh through 12th who are experiencing difficulties in a traditional school setting or who are exhibiting negative behavior patterns in school or in the community.
All three programs offer a complete high school graduation curriculum and support course work that will help students earn a diploma.
Goodwin will finish out the school year with Terrace Middle School, and Tyner and Goodwin are working together to develop a plan that will ensure smooth transitions for students and staff.
Goodwin has served at Terrace Middle School in Lakeport for the past three years, and brings with him more than 16 years of experience in education, working primarily in alternative education settings.
“Approximately 20 percent of our students are being served in alternative education settings,” Goodwin said. “There is a huge need in our communities for a strong positive influence in the lives of troubled kids, and this position really feels like a great fit for me.”
He added, “My time with Lakeport Unified and the Terrace Middle School community has been a wonderful opportunity and an experience that I will cherish and miss. I look forward to continued collaboration with this district as well as the six others. I’m looking forward to new opportunities for growth both for myself and for the county.”
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“Not only is the minimum coverage provision necessary to carry out Congress' goals of lowering the costs of medical care and expanding insurance coverage, it is a proper exercise of federal authority that does not alter the essential attributes of state sovereignty,” the amicus brief states. “The Affordable Care Act continues a longstanding and necessary partnership between the states and the federal government in the healthcare policy arena.”
In January, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the law's minimum coverage requirement, which mandates that individuals maintain health insurance or pay a fine, is unconstitutional because it regulates “inactivity” – or the decision to forgo coverage.
Harris, joined by nine other attorneys general, rejected that view in the amicus brief filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, which is based in Atlanta.
They argued that the Constitution gives Congress broad powers to regulate interstate commerce – and that an individual's decision to purchase health insurance has a significant impact on interstate commerce because it allows formation of risk pools, lowers healthcare costs nationally and reduces the cost of uncompensated care.
The failure of millions of Americans to purchase health insurance has a significant impact on the states, the group argued.
In 2009, more than 7.2 million Californians – nearly one in four people under the age of 65 – lacked insurance for all or part of the year. More than 5.5 million Californians who could not afford private health insurance are enrolled in government-sponsored health plans, which will cost the state a projected $42 billion in the next fiscal year.
According to the amicus brief, $27.1 billion of those funds comes from the General Fund, which faces a $25 billion deficit.
The minimum coverage provision of the Affordable Care Act will reduce the need to shift the cost of uncompensated care of the uninsured – and will thus reduce the expenses now absorbed by the states and by individuals with health insurance.
Others joining California in this brief are Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Vermont.
In January, the same group of attorneys general – except the District of Columbia – filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit arguing for the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act: http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2032&p=3.
In March, those attorneys general filed an amicus brief supporting the law's constitutionality in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit: http://oag.ca.gov/news/press_release?id=2047&p=3.
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Demetri Gilbert Amaya, 50, was taken into custody on Sunday, April 10, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Smallcomb said at 2:30 p.m. Sunday Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were patrolling the Four Mile Glade area of Cow Mountain when they observed a vehicle parked at the end of the roadway, which is just inside the Lake County jurisdiction.
When the deputies approached the vehicle it appeared unoccupied at first, but then they found the driver – later identified as Amaya – to be asleep across the front seat with a 40-ounce beer bottle perched on the steering wheel, Smallcomb said.
He said deputies also observed numerous firearms inside the vehicle and in the bed of the truck.
The deputies awakened Amaya and removed him from the vehicle, Smallcomb said. Due to the weapons in the vehicle, they asked and were given permission to search the vehicle.
Smallcomb said a records check revealed that two guns were reported stolen, one from Sonoma County and the second reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as being stolen from San Francisco.
He said both guns were confirmed to be stolen and Amaya was placed under arrest.
Amaya was transported to the Lake County Jail, where jail records indicated he was booked on a charge of receiving stolen property. Bail was set at $15,000.
Jail records indicated Amaya remained in custody late Monday.
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