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The foundation reported that it discovered that the some vaccines may not have been stored at the correct temperature, which means they may not be effective in protecting those who received the shots.
As a precaution, they're urging revaccination for those who received vaccines between January and June this year at Sutter facilities at 5150 Hill Road in Lakeport, near the main Sutter Lakeside Hospital campus.
Other affected care centers included 5300 Snyder Lane Family Practice, Farmer’s Lane Pediatrics, Landmark Family Practice Suite 202, Landmark Obstetrics Suite 165, Landmark Pediatrics Suite 120, Rohnert Park Pediatrics, Sebastopol Family Practice 652 Petaluma and Summerfield Family Practice in Sonoma County; Novato Primary Care in Marin County and 595 Buckingham Way, 1375 Sutter and Cesar Chavez Primary Care in San Francisco.
Those who received vaccines at different care centers are not affected.
For those needing to be revaccinated, there will be no charge for the visit or vaccine. Call the foundation's our toll-free number to schedule an appointment or speak with a nurse at 1-877-657-8987, between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday to Friday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
The foundation said there are no short- or long-term harmful effects from the original vaccine, or from being vaccinated again so soon after the initial immunization.
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The National Weather Service had issued a red flag warning through Tuesday evening for the upper portions of California due to significant lightning potential without much rainfall. The combination of the dry lightning and gusty winds will lead to a heightened fire danger.
A red flag warning also had been in effect for the Eastern Sierras through Tuesday due to gusty winds and low humidity.
Weather forecasters late Tuesday continued to issue new advisories regarding those potentially problematic weather conditions. A low pressure system from Southern Oregon is expected to move into Northern California on Wednesday.
While temperatures have been unseasonably cooler over the past few weeks, the number of wildfires Cal Fire has responded to has remained steady, the agency reported. Most of these fires have been contained to 10 acres or less, mainly due to the mild weather and the aggressive initial attack by firefighters.
Cal Fire urged Californians to be extremely cautious, especially during red flag warnings.
Officials urge area residents to do any mowing or weed eating before 10 a.m. – and never during extremely dry conditions; never use lawn mowers in dry vegetation; ensure that campfires are properly extinguished; and never pull your vehicle over in tall dry grass.
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On Aug. 12, Teamsters Local 624, based on Santa Rosa, and representatives from Washington-based Paratransit Services met for another round of negotiations, which both sides said had yielded some new offers.
Christie Scheffer, Paratransit Services' chief operating officer, said she had asked for the additional session to make sure everyone was on the same page. She termed the negotiations positive, productive and respectful.
The nonprofit transit organization made a best and final offer that included a 1-percent wage increase, with the ability to reopen wage negotiations at the end of the first and second years of the contracts, she said.
Scheffer said it was an offer they considered extremely fair, especially in light of cuts to transit funding across the state, including Lake County.
“We got a lot closer although we did not reach an agreement,” said union representative Ralph Miranda.
Then, in a Sunday afternoon vote of a Teamsters committee, Miranda said they overwhelmingly rejected Paratransit Services' offer.
He's since notified the company and asked for another bargaining session.
The union has set the Aug. 26 deadline for coming to an agreement or else it will pursue strike action, he said.
Teamsters Local 624 represents 35 employees, of which about 20 are full-time, Miranda said. They include drivers, dispatchers and mechanics.
Miranda said negotiations have been going on for about three months. More recently, a federal mediator has been assisting in the talks.
The issues with the latest offer centered on health and welfare issues, said Miranda.
In the former contract – which Miranda said Paratransit inherited from its predecessor, Laidlaw – the company and full-time employees split the costs of health insurance, which penciled out to about $150 per employee. That amount covers not just the employee but their entire family, although the plan has no dental or vision components.
In the latest negotiations, Miranda said Paratransit wanted employees to pick up the entire health care cost, which Miranda said was a big reason for rejecting the offer.
He said they were willing to consider keeping the current medical plan if they could reopen negotiations each year on any proposed changes.
While the union appreciated a wage increase offer, he said it only amounted to about 10 cents per hour, which doesn't cover the 20 cents per hour of impact expected from picking up additional health care costs.
A third area of concern was Paratransit's desire to freeze longevity pay, which Miranda said is a step increase after five years of service, with a cap at 10 years.
Even though the negotiations haven't reached impasse, union employees already have been notifying riders to make arrangements if a strike ensues, Miranda said. Those notifications began about two weeks ago.
Short of meeting the union's demands, a strike is inevitable, Miranda said.
Scheffer called it “a very challenging time for everyone.”
There is a concern that a strike could actually take place, Scheffer said. “There's always a concern when you reach this point in negotiations, when there's still unresolved economic items on the table.”
Paratransit Services' contract rate was reduced 3.1 percent due to a dropping consumer price index. While many transit agencies would ask employees to take wage reductions, Scheffer said they didn't do that.
As a result of the previous contract that was agreed to between Laidlaw and the Teamsters, Scheffer said employees' wages increased 32.49 percent over three years, while the CPI was only 3 percent during that time.
Employees also received very good health increases over that time, said Scheffer.
Miranda said Teamsters Local 624 also has contracts with transit companies in Santa Rosa and Mendocino County. Compared to those areas, Lake County's wages are much lower, with a driver in Lake County starting as low as $9 per hour compared to $15 per hour in Mendocino and $15 in Santa Rosa for paratransit drivers.
County transit workers didn't have a union before the Teamsters began representing them in 2007, said Miranda.
Mark Wall, general manager of Lake Transit, said Paratransit has done an excellent job in its time working in the county. He said he believes employees are much happier working under the group than they were before.
The contract negotiations are set against a backdrop of transit authority budget challenges and aging equipment. Wall said half of the transit authority's vehicles are beyond their life expectancy, and ridership – as well as fair revenue – is down.
Wall said he had been notified there was a possibility of a strike.
“We're all hopeful that this all gets worked out, because we don't want to see services disrupted,” he said.
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Lake Parts, which for decades has been at home at 120 N. Main St., is moving on down the road to 1015 S. Main, the location of Napa Auto Parts.
Lake Parts owner Deanne Padel said that, as of Tuesday, her store will be open for business in the new location.
She said the two locations are merging, but will retain the Lake Parts name.
“It's very exciting,” she said.
The move will give her the chance to expand product lines in a 6,000-square-foot space, as opposed to the 4,400-square-foot area at 120 N. Main, where the business has been for 30 years, she said. Unlike the old location, the Napa store at the corner of Main Street and Lakeport Boulevard also has its own parking lot.
She said they'll offer more performance race car items and will sell go cart parts, both drawing on the local racing community.
Padel said she's going to try to utilize all of the current employees – the five at her former store and the six at the new location.
The Napa store was offered to Padel in a deal that she said began earlier this year, when Genuine Parts Co. – which owns the Napa auto parts group – approached her.
An inventory of both stores was under way on Monday in preparation for the ownership to be turned over to Padel, which Charlie Nelson of Genuine Parts Co.'s corporate office in Sacramento said became effective at midnight.
Nelson, who was in Lakeport on Monday to take part in the inventory, said the deal evolved since late in May.
“There was a change of ownership on the store here in Lakeport from the original owner,” he said.
That original owner was RJ Hoskins, said Nelson. Hoskins reportedly had owned Napa stores around Lake County and in Willits and Ukiah before selling the stores earlier this year.
Nelson said Genuine Auto Parts purchased the store – which he estimated has been in the market since the 1950s – at the end of May and began talking with Padel about a “merger-type situation.”
He said Padel will be the Lakeport Napa affiliate.
Padel began working for Lake Parts under its former owner, Dick Sylar, in 1989. In 2004, she purchased the business.
Growing up with brothers who were into racing, working with cars “was just kind of in my blood,” said Padel, who was born and raised in Lake County.
Lake Parts has been locally owned and operated since its beginnings in 1945, Padel said.
Today, she and her son, Chris Mansell, work together in the business, and she said they strive to support the local economy.
The parts business has been slow for a time, said Padel, but the new business arrangement comes at a time when business is starting to pick back up.
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The gathering will begin at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.
Simons said he wanted to host the meeting to give community members an opportunity to come and have an open forum to express their various concerns.
“I've been trying to do this for a long time,” said the 84-year-old first term councilman.
He said he's previously met with resistance from city hall when proposing a town hall.
“This time I decided I'm just going to do it on my own,” he said. “They can all go to heck.”
City Clerk Melissa Swanson helped him set up the meeting, which Simons said he appreciated.
Simons said he wanted to get a feeling for what community members' frustrations may or may not be.
Attendees can bring up “anything at all,” he said, with no agenda or discussion items set.
The plan is for him not to enter the discussion himself, but leave it open. He will, however, try to answer what questions he can.
His remaining time on the council is short – he's decided not to seek reelection this fall.
“I don't want no more of this. It's just too tough a deal,” he said.
He is, however, interested in facilitating community discussion.
“These kinds of meetings periodically are good,” he said. “They get the blood stirred up.”
Simons previously held a town hall meeting on repaving Lakeshore Drive in 2009, which had a good turnout.
However, Simons – who said he's felt the deck has been stacked against him during his time on the council – said nothing came of the meeting's goal, which was to effect change in the town's center.
Simons said he expects the meeting to last a few hours.
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A recent two-day operation, the Glenn County Sheriff’s Marijuana Eradication Team, United States Forest Service and the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), assisted by California State Fish and Game and the California Highway Patrol, eliminated five marijuana growing areas on public lands within the Mendocino National Forest, according to a report from Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones.
A total of 34,332 plants and 500 pounds of processed marijuana were taken, with a potential street value of approximately $69 million, Jones said.
He said 8,422 plants were removed from the Kill Dry Creek area and 3,150 from southeast of Ice Springs. The Hardin Ridge area yielded two different grow sites with 8,272 and 4,587 plants, respectively. Another 9,901 plants and 500 pounds of processed marijuana were removed from the area of Mill Creek.
All five growing areas were consistent with organized drug trafficking organizations, Jones said. Camps and equipment were found at or near all the grow sites.
The Marijuana Eradication Team orchestrated raid teams hitting several of the large grows simultaneously. Jones aid no arrests were made and no weapons were sized. Clean up of the grows will be undertaken by the US Forest Service.
Deer season for archers opens this Saturday, Aug. 21, Jones said. Hunters coming into the Mendocino this week to scout potential hunting areas and those arriving to hunt this weekend should be ever mindful of marijuana grows and drug traffickers.
Glenn County alone is experiencing a record year for plants, according to Jones, who said there is the possibility of encountering marijuana grows while hunting is high. Hunters are cautioned to be aware of this.
Jones said marijuana growers are very protective of their plants and, in most cases, are armed. If black plastic water pipe or remote camps sites are happened upon, take no action and remove yourself from the area by the same route you entered. If possible, record the location by GPS and at your earliest opportunity, notify law enforcement.
He suggested that it also is a good idea to tell someone where you will be hunting and what time you are expected to return.
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