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The Jan. 8 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson – allegedly by a mentally disturbed 22-year-old, Jared Loughner – has given rise to numerous debates about the shooter's possible motivations, and also has raised questions about the safety of the other 434 House members and 100 senators.
North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) said security is normally a topic of consideration for Congress, but he told Lake County News in an interview this week that he, personally, doesn't plan on changing how he approaches his district.
“I think that the same security issues are in place now that have been,” said Thompson, who is in the district this week and set to return to Washington next Tuesday.
The United States Capitol Police, which is taking part in the investigation into the Giffords shooting, said in a Jan. 8 statement that while it doesn't discuss specifically discuss the security of members of Congress, it communicated with lawmakers, “advising them to take reasonable and prudent precautions regarding their personal safety and security.”
The basic common practice, said Thompson, is to alert law enforcement to any possible threats or other safety concerns, noting that the district contains “outstanding” law enforcement agencies, both police and sheriff's departments.
Otherwise, he said, “I'm not doing anything different that when I always do.”
Thompson normally travels through the district, including Lake County, on his own, with wife, Jan, or with a small group of staffers, including his well-known district representative, Brad Onorato, who is based in Thompson's Napa office.
The small entourage travels at a fast pace, with daylong itineraries that would exhaust most people.
This reporter spent a day traveling around Lake County with Thompson, Onorato and a staffer last spring, on a day when he visited the Bottle Rock Power Plant on Cobb, the groundbreaking of the new Veterans Affairs clinic in Clearlake, took part in a Habitat for Humanity groundbreaking in Clearlake and headed up a meeting in Kelseyville for business and community leaders regarding the new health care bill.
He said this week that he's never felt unsafe or threatened in his district, even during these times of heightened passion and political rhetoric. Thompson added that it's impossible to completely prevent any tragedy from happening in an open society like that of the United States.
He said he wants his district staff to stay aware of potentially threatening situations. “Sometimes we take things for granted.”
For example, following the Arizona shooting, what Thompson called “an alarming e-mail” was sent to his office that, at first, his district staff discounted before he directed they turn it over to the authorities just to be cautious.
Thompson also has a special perspective on the shooting: He said he knows Giffords well and considers her a friend.
“She's a great person. She's a great member of Congress. She's a great leader. She's a great American,” he said.
Both Thompson and Giffords are members of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition, made up of members of Congress who consider themselves moderates, and who also champion a fiscally conservative approach to governing.
“I helped her in all of her campaigns,” he said, explaining that she's visited his North Coast district and he and his wife visited Giffords' district in Arizona last year. At that time, he did a parachute jump along with astronaut Scott Kelly, the twin brother of Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, also an astronaut.
Speculation as to the root causes of Loughner's attack have centered on political rhetoric, the man's reported mental illness and anti-government sentiment, and even his ability to purchase the Glock pistol he used, which he is reported to have done legally.
Thompson said there may be a little truth in “all of the above,” noting, “We still haven't found out everything” about Loughner's reasoning, which appears to have included clear plans for Giffords' assassination.
He said laws to help the mentally ill need to be improved, and if there are additional gun laws that make sense and would keep Americans safe, they should be considered, noting he wants to balance that with support for the Second Amendment.
As to political rhetoric, Thompson suggested a person would have had to have lived under a rock for the last few years to think that the tone of how the country's political sides are talking to each other hasn't contributed somehow.
“We've got some huge challenges and we've got to come together to figure out how we're going to address those,” he said.
If the political volume is so high and facts are thrown to the wind, with lies replacing honest debate, “we'll never even get to the table let alone sit down at the table” and discuss problems, he said.
He pointed to particularly heated comments in a regional publication that named one of his colleagues in Congress in an article published before the shooting. Blog commenters said the woman should have a bulletproof vest and a car because of an action she had taken.
Thompson said if you “scare the hell” out of people over legislation – he used the example of the health care legislation and the “death panels” rhetoric – a frightening response can be expected.
The country also just emerged from what Thompson estimated was the worst, dirtiest and most unproductive campaign cycle that the nation has seen in a long time. As such, he said people need to take responsibility for being honest and trying to work together on solving the issues that are so important not only to the North Coast district but to the country.
Thompson said of the Tuscon incident, “This is an attack on our country, this is an attack on our democracy,” as well as the people of the United States. “We can't allow that to happen.”
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The meeting will start at 3 p.m. in the board room at the Lakeport Unified School District office, 2508 Howard Ave.
The main focus will be on the work of the group’s subcommittees.
The meeting is in a different location and at a different time than prior meetings, organizers say, to attempt to boost attendance and participation. Task force members have discussed holding meetings in various locations of the county and at different times of the day to accommodate interested individuals’ locale and schedules.
The meeting is open to the public, and the task force welcomes participation by new members.
The Lake County Respect For All Task Force, a group of local individuals, is striving to increase awareness about safe and inclusive learning environments.
The group is working to identify possible actions to help the Lake County community. Task force members are focusing on reducing bullying in schools and providing students with information on resources.
Subcommittees are working on outreach projects, gathering information for a list of community resources, providing training and awareness for school personnel and administrators, strengthening policies and procedures for use in the schools, and helping campuses with their efforts for student activities.
The Respect For All Project is a program of GroundSpark. More information about the project is available on the GroundSpark website, www.groundspark.org.
GroundSpark, The Respect for All Project “is a non-profit organization that seeks to create safe, hate-free schools and communities by providing youth and the adults who guide their development the tools they need to talk openly about diversity in all of its forms.”
As part of its work toward safe and inclusive learning environments, task force members identified a list of goals and split up responsibilities. The goals include identifying community resources, networking and expanding the task force, pursuing support for gay/straight alliances, developing and fundraising for Challenge Day events at schools, and reviewing policies and implementation strategies.
The Lake County Respect For All Task Force is a diverse group of volunteers including educators, school counselors, students, media representatives, and organization and business people.
Individuals interested in helping the task force in its efforts to assist youth and their families in assuring safe and inclusive learning environments are invited to attend the meetings. The group has been meeting every other month.
In Lake County, the Respect For All Project was started approximately two years ago as a pilot project through GroundSpark and in cooperation with Lake County Healthy Start and Lake County Family Resource Center.
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This year marks the 15th anniversary of the abduction of Amber Hagerman and the program that was named in her memory.
In 1996, 9-year-old Hagerman of Arlington, Texas was abducted and later found murdered. At the time, there was no system in place to inform and alert the public of the abduction.
Residents contacted area radio stations in the wake of this tragedy and suggested that a special alert
be in place for child abductions.
Working with local law enforcement agencies, radio and television stations in Texas developed a plan using emergency broadcast systems across media outlets to alert the public of child abductions; these alerts became known as AMBER Alerts.
Today, there are AMBER Alert programs in all 50 states.
California’s AMBER Alert program, the California Child Safety AMBER Network, which is coordinated by the California Highway Patrol (CHP), was implemented in August 2002.
To date, there have been 213 children safely recovered following 174 AMBER Alert activations in California.
“The overwhelming success of this program is the direct result of a partnership between government, law enforcement, broadcast media and the public,” said California Highway Patrol Commissioner Joe Farrow.
The goal of an AMBER Alert is to provide immediate information to the public about the most serious child abduction cases via widespread media broadcasts and other means to solicit help in the safe and swift return of an abducted child.
The program continues to grow, taking advantage of new technology and other means to expand the way the public is alerted to a child abduction.
For example, this year, the CHP and the California State Lottery Commission have teamed up to display AMBER Alerts anywhere lottery tickets are sold.
Additionally, AMBER Alerts will be available on Facebook. According to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, users of the social media platform will be able to sign up for AMBER Alerts in their state/region.
“It is important that we use every communications tool at our disposal to get the word out in a timely manner in a child abduction case,” added Commissioner Farrow. “Every second counts.”
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WILLITS, Calif. – A Washington man on the run from the law and charged with his ex-girlfriend's December murder was found under a bridge Tuesday and arrested by Mendocino County officials.
Shawn David Gulseth, 40, of Kent, Wash., was arrested after he was located under Willit's Broaddus Creek Bridge Tuesday afternoon, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Smallcomb said the sheriff's office received information Tuesday from the Kent Police Department in Washington that Gulseth was wanted for murder, was an escapee from the Washington State Department of Corrections and was possibly staying in the Willits area.
The Kent Police Department reported that the victim was 45-year-old Bonnie Peterson, found murdered in her East Kent apartment on Dec. 20 after police received a call from her friends who were concerned about her.
“This is a crime of violence committed by a very dangerous person,” Kent Police Lt. Pat Lowery said in a written statement released Dec. 21 that asked for the community's help in finding Gulseth, who police already had identified as the suspect.
The department had warned community members not to try to approach Gulseth, who was considered to be armed and dangerous.
Smallcomb said officials received information that Gulseth had last been seen at a local business establishment located in the Willits area on Monday.
He said reports from community members led law enforcement to believe Gulseth was possibly still in the area.
Personnel from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Willits Police Department and the California Highway Patrol responded to the area of the Broaddus Creek Bridge, located in downtown Willits, and searched the area, finding Gulseth and arresting him without incident, Smallcomb said.
Smallcomb said Gulseth was transported to the Mendocino County jail where he is currently being held pending an extradition hearing.
The Seattle Times reported Tuesday that Gulseth has been charged with first-degree murder in the case.
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The Northern California Ocean and Coastal Protection Act – which Thompson introduced on Tuesday – is meant to protect the unique and dynamic marine environment along the Northern Coast of California’s outer continental shelf (OCS) from off shore drilling.
“It is critical that we permanently protect our coast and its vital marine life from the environmental hazards of off-shore drilling,” Thompson said in a statement. “In past Congresses, this important issue has become a political dispute rather than a debate on legitimate policy. This legislation will steer the debate back to sensible, science based policy, and ensure the wellbeing of our oceans for future generations.”
During the 110th Congress the ban on OCS drilling expired, which leaves the North Coast susceptible to drilling. The moratorium on OCS drilling had been a bipartisan agreement in Congress since 1982, but came under regular attack, and was not renewed in 2008.
Thompson also introduced this legislation in the 111th Congress.
“One of the four most crucial upwellings in the world's oceans is located off of California’s North Coast and sustains 20 percent of the ocean’s fish,” said Thompson. “Regardless of who is in charge in Washington in the future, we need to ensure now that our coast is permanently protected from needless and harmful offshore drilling.”
The coastal areas that support extremely abundant and productive marine life are known as upwelling regions. This is because an upwelling brings cold, nutrient-rich waters from the ocean depths that, when combined with sunlight, enhance seaweed and phytoplankton growth.
The seaweed and phytoplankton supply energy for some of the most productive ecosystems in the world, including the North Coast fisheries and many of the world’s most important fisheries.
Thompson said drilling for oil off of California’s North Coast could cause serious harm to the unique and productive ecosystem and abundant marine life found off the coast, including the fish many local North Coast economies depend on.
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LUCERNE, Calif. – In his 86 years, Jim Harris' eyes had settled on scenes that, for most, are confined to history books.
He had survived Pearl Harbor, had been blown off his ship in the Pacific and lived to tell the story and had gone on to serve at the invasion of Normandy, all before he turned 20 years old.
So when his eyes closed for the last time on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 8, he took with him memories that could fill volumes.
Harris' friend, Ronnie Bogner, said he often joked with Harris that he should either buy a lottery ticket or not bother, because he was either the luckiest or unluckiest man he'd ever met.
“He was around for a lot of interesting stuff,” said Bogner, who acts as the master of ceremonies of the annual Pearl Harbor commemoration at Library Park and is an honorary member of the local Pearl Harbor Survivors Association group.
Harris' rich life will be celebrated at a memorial service planned for 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 13, at the Lucerne Community Church, 5870 E. Highway 20, not far from where Harris and his wife, Helen, lived on the shore of Clear Lake.
A reception will be held afterwards at Kapitan's Kafe, 6150 E. Highway 20, also in Lucerne.
Harris had been diagnosed with terminal cancer last fall, but his robust demeanor hardly betrayed the fact in his more recent appearances.
Given between three months and a year to live, he continued attending meetings of local veterans groups, and took his place of honor at the Veterans Day and Pearl Harbor commemorations held late in the year, wearing his usual Pearl Harbor survivor uniform of white pants, a Hawaiian shirt, his service hat and a necklace of large, black Hawaiian kukui nuts.
At the county Veterans Day commemoration on Nov. 11, Supervisor Rob Brown presented to Harris a proclamation honoring his service in World War II, with Brown calling Harris “one of the finest men I've ever met.”
Harris, who received a standing ovation from the crowd, only spoke briefly, telling the hundreds in attendance, “I want to thank you all for being my friends.”
The following month, several of his fellow Pearl Harbor survivors traveled from Lake County to Hawaii to take part in the last gathering of survivors. Harris didn't go because he was a caregiver for his wife, Helen. But he had attended the 50thanniversary commemoration in Hawaii in 1991.
He and fellow Pearl Harbor survivors Henry Anderson of Lakeport, Clarence “Bud” Boner of Glenhaven and “sweetheart” – or widow – Vanya Leighton were on hand for the local commemorations on Dec. 7, where they received commemorative ship pennants flown over the US Capitol from Brad Onorato, district aide for Congressman Mike Thompson.
A young man's trip through the war
Harris was the youngest of the local Pearl Harbor survivors.
Born in 1924 in Los Angeles, his family would later move to New Orleans when he was a teenager. He worked there in a fishing fleet and, at the age of 15, lied about his age – he said he was 19 – so he could join the Navy in 1940, which took him to San Diego for a year for sonar school.
He was next assigned to the destroyer USS Ellet, which took him to Pearl Harbor, where he was given yet another assignment – serving as part of the admiral’s flag allowance aboard the destroyer tender USS Dobbin, a repair and mother ship for destroyers, he said in a 2007 interview.
On what might otherwise have been a quiet Sunday morning on Dec. 7, 1941, Harris had just come up from breakfast and was standing on the Dobbin's quarterdeck when he saw airplanes sweep in over the Aiea Hills and head for Pearl Harbor.
At first, he and his fellow sailors thought the planes were from the USS Enterprise, which that same day had launched scout planes en route back to the harbor, according to a Navy chronology.
But as the planes banked, Harris said they could see “the read meatball” – the red sun and imperial seal of the Empire of Japan.
“After a few cuss words we identified them,” he said.
The officer of the deck hit the alarm for general quarters and called all boats away, trying to get the smaller boats moored to the battleships clear so the larger boats could move.
Harris moved onto the admiral's barge, which went around the hospital ship USS Solace which had anchored off the Dobbin.
He watched as, just after 8 a.m., the USS Vestal and the USS Arizona – which had been moored together – were hit, and the Vestal's captain was blown off the ship's bridge. The captain survived, and as the admiral's barge started for him, Harris said the captain waved them toward the Arizona.
“We started toward the Arizona to pick up survivors, and that's when she exploded,” said Harris.
He said that by the time they got to the Arizona, “There were no survivors to pick up as far as we could find.”
Harris and his fellow sailors would hurry to try to pull fellow sailors from the oil-coated waters. In one case, he recounted trying to pull a man up and having the man's skin come off in his hands.
Later, he would be assigned to a work team sent to the USS Arizona to identify bodies, he said in a recorded interview late last year with Kelseyville resident Steve Davis, the county's retired California Highway Patrol commander.
In one place on the Arizona, Harris recounted that the work team found a human humerus bone – the long bone of the upper arm – driven through eight-inch armor in the ship.
They also gained entry to a boiler room where they found 21 bodies of reservists who had assembled on Dec. 7 for training, he said.
“They were trapped,” Harris said.
The men, who didn't know how to get out, kept a log for 17 days, before they starved to death, in what Harris said was one of the attack's untold stories.
Surviving Pearl Harbor would be only one of the horrifying chapters of the war Harris would live through.
After Pearl Harbor Harris found himself traveling farther into the Pacific Theater, where he was assigned to the destroyer USS Stewart.
During the February 1942 Battle of Badung Strait he was blown off the Stewart's bridge, but rescued by a Dutch PBY seaplane, which transported him to a hospital in nearby Surabaya, Indonesia.
Harris said in a 2009 interview that he and other patients were warned to leave the hospital because of the Japanese, invading from the north. Harris and his fellow patients secured a launch and traveled by night along the shore until they happened upon an American destroyer, the USS John D Ford, sitting camouflaged in a river.
He said he later found out that those who stayed behind at the hospital – patients too ill to travel and staff who stayed to care for them – were slaughtered, some beheaded by the Japanese.
Moving into the European Theater
Within a few years, Harris found himself on the other side of the world, in the European Theater.
By age 19, he was assigned to the destroyer USS McCook, which saw duty in the Mediterranean before heading off to England to prepare for the Normandy invasion.
In April 1944 the then-second class petty officer and sonar man was aboard the USS McCook as part of Operation Tiger, a preparation exercise for D-Day held at Slapton Sands, off the coast of Devon, England.
“This rehearsal was what you might call chaos,” Harris said at the county's June 2009 D-Day commemoration.
Hundreds of men died after German submarines showed up and sank three troop ships. Harris said the incident was kept so quiet that the men who died there were counted as casualties at D-Day.
Two months later, on June 6, 1944, the McCook and Harris would be at Omaha Beach as the Allies sought to invade France and break Germany's stranglehold on the continent.
Harris said the McCook's captain saw Germans firing from the cliffs above onto the Allied forces on the beaches, and the admiral gave the command to go after them.
He said the 345-foot McCook was steered into the breakers, trying to avoid mines while attempting to get close enough to shoot at the cliffs above. With each wave, the ship had to be thrust into reverse to avoid the mines or running aground.
The McCook shot an estimated 1,000 rounds into the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, hitting “Tiger” tanks and German soldiers who were firing down on the landing Allied Forces, according to historical accounts.
Harris said of D-Day, “That was the longest day I ever lived.”
As a member of the McCook crew, Harris would take part in invading southern France as part of Operation Anvil.
By the end of 1944, Harris was sent home to the US because of an injury suffered earlier in the war in the South Pacific.
After the war
After the Navy, Harris went to work in the Bay Area as an agent for American National Life Insurance Co. On April 6, 1950, he and the love of his life, Helen, were married.
The Harrises raised a daughter, Diane, and eventually they made their way to Lake County in 1967.
Their daughter died in 2001, but they moved forward, Jim Harris staying acting in veterans groups and keeping the memory alive of what he and other men like him had survived in the war.
That included helping inspire the Pearl Harbor Survivors’ Memorial Mast at Library Park in Lakeport, which his brother, Leon Harris, designed, and which was taken on as a project by the Lakeport Rotary.
At a Pearl Harbor Survivors Association breakfast in August 2009, Bogner arranged for Harris to receive a surprise in the form of a long-desired token of his service – the French Liberation Medal, which the French government issued to commemorate its liberation from the Nazis in World War II.
Harris called the medal “the most wonderful surprise I've had in many, many years.”
Recently, Brown took a contingent of Kelseyville High School wrestlers, who he coaches, to meet Harris, because he said he wanted them to meet a real American hero.
Bogner had seen Harris about a week before he died, taking him an old postcard of the USS Dobbin that he had purchased for Harris on eBay.
Janeane Bogner spoke with Harris on the phone the day before his death. Harris seemed to be doing well, Ronnie Bogner said, noting that no one expected Harris would go so soon.
Harris' death follows by two months that of Clearlake Oaks resident Chuck Bower, who was at the US Sub Base at Pearl Harbor. Bower died Nov. 12.
With the passing of Bower and Harris, there are now five Pearl Harbor survivors remaining in Lake County – Clarence “Bud” Boner, Floyd Eddy, Bill Slater, Walter Urmann and Henry Anderson, and “sweethearts” – or widows – Alice Darrow, Vanya Leighton, Lynn Poehler and Charlotte Bower, and now Helen Harris.
Bogner said Pearl Harbor survivors from Lake County and beyond are planning to attend the Thursday memorial.
In a December 2007 interview Harris said of his experiences at Pearl Harbor, “Everybody came away from there with a different attitude. Only time has made a difference to us.”
For additional stories on Jim Harris, please see the following:
Recalling the 'Day of Days': Vets gather for D-Day ceremony
Veterans remember attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor survivors talk of life after the attack
Solemn ceremony honors Pearl Harbor's living and lost
Solemn commemoration marks 65th D-Day anniversary
Pearl Harbor and D-Day veteran receives special token of service
Survivors, community members gather to remember Pearl Harbor attack
Harrises celebrate 60 years together
County's annual Veterans Day ceremony honors service of the past, present and future
Solemn Dec. 7 commemoration acknowledges debt of gratitude
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