How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
Up to 20 percent of students in some Lake County Schools were absent from the classroom last week, according to a joint report Tuesday from the Lake County Public Health Department and the Lake County Office of Education.
Although reasons for absence are not tracked in detail, much of the drop in attendance is attributed to a rise in influenza cases, according to Lake County Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait.
Only hospitalized cases are currently reportable to local public health authorities, but a rise in influenza-like-illness has been evident through informal tracking of outpatient cases and calls from the public, Tait reported.
Testing at the state’s Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory indicates that the Pandemic 2009 H1N1 Influenza A virus continues to be the predominant strain of influenza A that is currently circulating, officials reported.
“It is safe to assume that the increase in flu-like illness is attributable to this new virus,” Tait said.
Tait said that, up until now, Lake County has had only four hospitalized cases resulting from Pandemic 2009 H1N1 Influenza A. Most cases can be treated at home and resolve like other forms of influenza.
However, along with increased numbers of outpatient influenza patients, there has been an increase in hospitalized cases suspected to be infected with the 2009 H1N1 strain and awaiting laboratory confirmation, said she.
Lake County Public Health and Lake County Office of Education have been working closely together on influenza issues since the first appearance of the new H1N1 pandemic strain virus in Spring 2009.
“School districts continue to provide teachers, school staff, and students with information and support in regards to ways to protect against the flu,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Dave Geck.
Geck said schools throughout the county have emphasized good hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette and cleaning of frequently touched environmental surfaces.
Lake County Office of Education Healthy Start and AmeriCorps programs most recently collaborated with county schools in disseminating H1N1 information at back to school nights and facilitating classroom based “Germ” lessons for students.
“The first concern was educating our students on healthy habits, such as hand hygiene,” said AmeriCorps Director Rob Young. “Promoting healthy habits limits the spread of germs, which reduces the chances of becoming ill with the flu.”
Young believes “the second concern is distancing the healthy students from the sick students.”
Of concern is whether parents are keeping ill children home while they are infectious with influenza.
Although guidelines from the Centers from Disease Control say that children can return to school 24 hours after resolution of fever (without the use of fever-reducing drugs), Lake County Public Health recommends adhering to earlier recommendations that call for seven days at home in addition to being fever-free for a full twenty-four hours. This more conservative approach considers that children may shed virus for longer periods of time than adults.
“The hope is to keep schools open, if possible, recognizing that wholesale dismissal of kids from school creates hardships for families and may result in greater transmission of infection in other settings, such as informal daycare arrangements,” said Tait.
However, the current approach requires the cooperation of all families and staff to keep ill persons away from the classroom.
“It is probably not possible to keep infectious people away 100 percent of the time because they may become contagious a day before their symptoms develop,” said Tait. “Effective control of disease transmission requires a combination of excluding infectious persons and good infection control measures in the classroom.”
Lake County Public Health will continue to work closely with Lake County Office of Education and individual schools as necessary to monitor absenteeism related to influenza illness.
“Although we still hope to avoid school closures, that option will be considered if we believe that ongoing transmission of infection is occurring in the classroom, as opposed to other settings where students congregate,” said Tait.
The new Pandemic 2009 H1N1 vaccine is expected to arrive in significant quantities in November, said Tait.
Currently, small supplies are available through several local clinics and doctors’ offices that treat young children. As larger quantities of vaccine arrive, more widespread vaccination efforts will help to curtail the spread of influenza, she said.
Since the regular seasonal influenza may eventually surface at any point during the flu season, both adults and children are also encouraged to be vaccinated with both seasonal influenza vaccine and, when it becomes available, H1N1 Pandemic influenza vaccine, officials reported.
Information about vaccination opportunities for Pandemic 2009 H1N1 Influenza A vaccine will be provided as soon as it is available.
Information on the virus can be found at www.cdph.ca.gov/HealthInfo/discond/Pages/SwineInfluenza.aspx .
Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .
The hearing will take place at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Cristallago, which has a Tuscan theme, is to be located on 860 acres along Hill Road in the north Lakeport area.
The plan, which is being proposed by developers Matt Boeger's and Mark Mitchell's Cristallago Development Corp., includes 650 single family homes, 325 resort units, an 18-hole Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, a trail system, clubhouse, spa, conference center and nature preserve.
The commission held off on certifying the project's environmental impact report (EIR) at its Sept. 10 meeting, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the five-member commission is expected to make a decision on the document Thursday, at which time they'll also consider amending the general plan to allow for the project as well as rezoning some of the land and approving a general plan of development.
Community members will be able to offer comments during the meeting.
Cristallago's final EIR and comment letters can be found online at the County's Web site, www.co.lake.ca.us .
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
The body of 51-year-old Dennis Wade Regusci was found by a friend floating in the ocean near the 40000 block of S. Caspar Drive on Monday, according to a report from Lt. Rusty Noe of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Noe said Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies were called to the scene at about 8 a.m. Monday, where they met a friend of Regusci's who had found him at the bottom of a bluff and in the water, unresponsive.
Deputies called Mendocino Fire and Rescue to recover Regusci's body, Noe reported.
The investigation revealed that Regusci had left his home at 4:30 p.m. Sunday to go fishing, according to Noe.
Regusci didn't return home, and the next morning family called the Fort Bragg Police to report him missing, Noe said.
The family friend was contacted and knew where the victim liked to fish, Noe said. The man subsequently went to that location and found Regusci.
Noe said the investigation revealed that Regusci had slipped and fallen into the water. The exact cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy.
LAKEPORT – The Lake County Sheriff's Office is investigating what appears to be a home invasion and attempted robbery that resulted in a man being shot several times at a Lakeport residence on Tuesday morning.
Sheriff's deputies and the Lakeport Police Department were dispatched to a residence on S. Main Street south of Kmart shortly after 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning on the report of a man yelling for help, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman said when the first two patrol units arrived at the scene, they found a man bound and hog-tied on the ground outside of the home.
The victim, who identity has not been released thus far, appeared to have been beaten and shot multiple times, Bauman said.
He said the evidence found at the scene indicates the assault may have been the result of an apparent home invasion and attempted robbery.
Rescue personnel from the Lakeport Fire Protection District transported the man to Sutter Lakeside Hospital where he was immediately transferred to a REACH air ambulance and flown out of county, said Bauman.
The assault victim’s condition was not known late Tuesday, Bauman said.
Bauman said sheriff's officials are continuing to investigate the incident, took place just outside of the city limits.
LAKE COUNTY – The 45-year-old Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization is in turmoil.
For the first time in decades, there has been no summer pageant, which the new organizers are pushing back to January 2010 due to lack of resources and time constraints.
Many past contestants have only just now received scholarship funds or are still waiting to be paid for their participation with the fall college semester already well under way.
Pageant officials also allege that they can't account for money and the “queen's closet,” which over the last few years has supplied dresses and costumes for pageant contestants, which has resulted in a Lake County Sheriff's Office investigation now being reviewed with the help of the District Attorney's Office.
In addition, there are allegations that locally raised funds might have been co-mingled and used to fund scholarships for contestants in Bay Area pageants.
“This is a sad situation,” said Bob Arnhym, president and chief executive officer of the Miss California Organization, which issues franchise agreements to pageants like Miss Lake County.
Sandra Orchid, one of the new pageant directors, said it feels like they're starting from scratch this year.
They have renamed the organization – now called the Miss Lake County Scholarship Program – and have established a new Web site, www.misslakeco.org, after the former executive director, Trish Combs, refused to turn over the former Web site and maintained that she owns the name “Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization.”
Orchid said the committee believes Combs should have handed over to them several thousand dollars, as is customary when an executive director leaves the position.
“Where did that all go?” Orchid asked.
Struggle over leadership
The problems appear to have started last year, following the 2008 pageant.
Last October, Combs, the program's executive director since 2005, moved with her husband, Dr. William Combs to Washington state.
Before leaving, she had recruited Lakeport business owners Tino and Kathy Gamber to succeed her in running the pageant.
Arnhym said he issued the Gambers a temporary franchise agreement in August, however, they “quickly withdrew” because they weren't happy with the organization's financial reports.
Combs alleged that the Gambers were “torpedoed” by others who she didn't identify.
Tino Gamber's take on the situation is markedly different from Combs'.
“Trish Combs left us with a bag of worms,” he said. “Because of that we decided to step down.”
Over the years the Gambers, who own the Lakeport clothing shop All About Me, have made numerous donations to the organization and the young contestants, including giving contestants everything from gowns to shoes.
They also put on a fashion show in 2008 to help cover the funds that the group would ordinarily have made from July 4 fireworks sales, which were canceled last year due to fire concerns, as Lake County News has reported.
Tino Gamber said they donated $5,000 to the organization as a result of the fashion show.
When Combs was preparing to leave, she sought the couple out to take over the organization's leadership. “She came to us and thought that we would be the right team to take it over,” Tino Gamber said, noting his wife was to act as executive director.
But Gamber said Combs wouldn't turn over the organization's account books to he and his wife, and said there were similar issues on other Bay Area pageants where Combs had been involved.
“Nobody could seem to get the records out of her,” he said.
The Gambers also had repeatedly demanded an accounting of where the $5,000 they donated to the organization went, but Tino Gamber said Combs has never given it to them.
He said he and his wife don't know that the organization ever got that money. Pageant officials reported that Combs' previous committee reported never hearing of the Gambers' donation.
“There's a lot of money that was donated, not just from us but from other people in the community,” Tino Gamber said.
After Combs relinquished the organization's control to the Gambers, they retained it for only a short time because they believed something was wrong.
When the Gambers stepped away, local pageant committee members contacted the state pageant's field director about the fact that there was no one to oversee the contestants.
State officials asked Sandra Orchid and Carla Butler if they were interested in leading the organization, and the Miss California Scholarship Program issued them a new franchise agreement on Dec. 10, 2008.
In interviews with Lake County News held in recent months, Combs claimed she was still the local pageant's executive director.
Combs' last franchise agreement was signed two years ago, and only was good through the end of August 2008, according to pageant documents.
“It's kind of sad for the pageant,” as well as for the community, which is skeptical now about supporting the group, Gamber said.
Although Combs maintains she's still executive director, pageant officials notified her last December, in writing, that a franchise agreement had been signed with the new group, headed by Orchid and Butler. At that time she also was told of the organization's concerns about her meeting the obligations to title holders.
When Combs refused to acknowledge the written notifications about the change in the franchise agreement, local pageant officials told her in person that same month.
With new leadership in place, local pageant officials began to realize there were problems. Sheriff's records show that they made a report alleging missing funds in January, a month after taking over.
Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the agency has investigated “allegations by current members of the organization's management, that as much as $50,000 in funds and property belonging to the organization is missing or unaccounted for and that Ms. Combs may be involved.”
Bauman said the case was sent to the District Attorney's Office for review in June to determine if the case even constitutes a criminal complaint.
“They may file a complaint for embezzlement, determine more follow-up investigation needs to be conducted for a criminal complaint, or determine the case is a civil matter and not a criminal one,” Bauman said.
District Attorney Jon Hopkins confirmed his office has the case.
“It has not been referred to us for prosecution,” he said. “It has been the request of the detective working the case to have one of our attorneys review the case and work with him on further investigation.”
In January, the same month as the local pageant made its reports to the sheriff, a property the Combses owned on Mission Rancheria Road went up for trustee sale as part of a foreclosure action.
Then, in September, a home they owned in Corinthian Bay also went up for a foreclosure trustee sale. According to county records, both properties appeared to have had significantly more owed on them than their original purchase prices several years previously.
The Gambers spoke to the Lake County Sheriff's Office, which has been conducting an investigation into the case. They were told that Trish Combs told investigators that the money is hers, she can do whatever she wants with it and doesn't owe anyone an accounting.
Combs said she's also been devastated by allegations that are being circulated about wrongdoing. “I've shed many tears, things I have heard.”
New committee hits roadblocks
Butler, whose daughter, Taylor-Paige, is this year's Miss Lake County, said the group is struggling financially, and it was a challenge to get funding to take them to this year's state competition, held in June.
Butler said the queen's closet, which was established to help support contestants of all income levels, is gone.
In addition to the $5,000 given to the organization last year by the Gambers, an anonymous donor also gave the group $5,000 last year after it voluntarily didn't sell fireworks due to fire concerns, she said.
She said there should have been $20,000 in the organization's account by now.
When they asked for accounting books, they were told there were none. “All the records are gone,” Butler said. “The bank accounts are gone.”
In addition to the local committee asking for all accounting books, funds and the queen's closet, the state pageant also has repeatedly asked Combs for a financial accounting.
Over the last two months, contestants have started to be paid as parents have sent registered letters and local and state pageant officials have pressed Combs on the payments. An accounting the current directors compiled showed that out of $7,000 in awards, $5,200 has been paid.
Combs also said she took out a newspaper ad to seek past contestants, and extended an Aug. 8 deadline for them to apply for their scholarships.
“These girls did what they were asked to do, period,” said Orchid, explaining that Combs finally was forced to come through with the funds.
A local appearance by Miss California also required months and repeated requests by pageant officials before Combs paid for it.
Then there are the concerns about the possibility that local funds went to support out-of-area pageants.
Combs placed $4,000 in deposit with Scholarship Associates, which is the holding organization for scholarships in connection with the Miss California Scholarship Program. But $1,500 of that funding reportedly was to go to pageants in San Jose, San Mateo and Redwood City with which Combs had been associated.
All of that money is now completely gone, said Orchid, and it appears local money went south to help the Bay Area pageants.
Representatives from those other organizations told Orchid that they had had to pay their own expenses because of also not getting funds they requested, and that they didn't know the source of the funds Combs put into their events.
Miss Redwood City-Miss San Mateo County Scholarship Organization did not respond to requests from Lake County News about working with Combs. The Miss San Jose Pageant wouldn't comment.
Contestants confused about the process
Some of the unfolding situation resembles misunderstandings and miscommunication.
Many of the contestants also were reportedly told by Combs that they had another year to apply for their funds, despite the fact that Combs had set an Aug. 8 deadline.
Jennifer Humble, 18, the first runner up in the 2008 pageant, received $1,200 in late August, which she needs to help pay for her schooling at Dominican University of San Rafael.
However, Orchid said Humble is still owed $1,000 from the previous year. Also owed $400 is Taylor-Paige Butler, this year's Miss Lake County.
Humble told Lake County News in an interview this past summer that the process to get the scholarship money was confusing for both her and her fellow contestants, who, at that point, didn't know what they needed to do to get their money and were “in the dark.”
Katie Murphy, 17, this year's Outstanding Teen, who had tried for months to get her money also was kept waiting for her $1,200 until Aug. 17, according to the group's accounting.
Orchid said when Murphy requested her scholarship from Combs, she was told to fill out a form, but Orchid maintains there isn't a form. Combs, however, said there is, and said she would send it to whoever requested it.
Murphy, whose sister Erin competed four years ago, said her parents had to pay for all of her expenses – from clothing to the hotel stay in Fresno for the state competition – out of pocket this year.
While her sister had the use of the queen's closet, Katie Murphy said this year's contestants didn't.
Murphy said she sent an e-mail to Combs asking her for shoes and shorts from the closet. She received no response, then Combs' son showed up with the wrong pair of shoes and some shorts.
At one point, Murphy – who had no evening gown for the competition – was loaned a dress by a woman at the competition. “People were kind of sympathetic to us,” Murphy said.
Saundra Combs, a former Miss Lake County, was once again in the Miss California Pageant this year, this time representing Culver City. Murphy said she saw Trish Combs at an orientation in relation to her daughter's presence in the competition.
“She came up to me when I was alone and said 'hello,' which I thought was bizarre,” said Murphy.
Murphy said Trish Combs offered to sponsor an ad page in the sponsor booklet, which officials confirmed that she did.
Tomorrow: Background on how the pageant runs, red flags arise and the committee works to rebuild.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.
CLEARLAKE OAKS – Two drivers involved in a Monday morning crash between a pickup and a big rig escaped serious injury.
The collision occurred shortly after 7 a.m. near the intersection of Highway 20 and Hillside Lane, according to the California Highway Patrol. The names of the two male drivers involved weren't available on Monday.
Highway 20 was completely closed for about a half hour, and it took nearly two and a half hours to fully clear the roadway, the CHP reported.
CHP Sgt. Scott Moorhouse, who was the scene's incident supervisor, said the crash involved a Chevrolet pickup truck headed westbound and a tractor trailer loaded with groceries that was headed eastbound to the Clearlake Oaks Tower Mart for a routine delivery.
Moorhouse said the pickup, because of speed and weather, lost control and slammed into the tractor trailer.
The collision caused the tractor trailer's saddle tank to rupture, with diesel fuel ending up on the highway and cleanup required, he said.
Responding to the scene along with CHP were Caltrans, Northshore Fire, Cal Fire and Lake County Environmental Health, said Moorhouse.
The pickup driver was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital where he was treated, said Moorhouse. “Surprisingly it was very, very, minor injuries.”
The tractor trailer's driver sustained no injuries, Moorhouse said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at