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LAKEPORT – Five of Lake County's new favorite sons rocked more than 220 of their biggest fans Saturday night, just 10 days before they're scheduled to participate in a huge battle of the bands showdown in Los Angeles.
The result of that competition is worth a million bucks – and a recording contract.
Nearly a fabled group, Faded at Four – Jon Foutch, Chris Murphy, Brian Kenner, Martin “Martan” Scheel and Chris “Pencil” Sanders – have managed during the past year or so to best more than 4,000 other bands invited to the Bodog Battle of the Bands, competition covering the entire country, Canada and Europe.
Their competition, now reduced to a dozen or so, continues in LA with the final eight bands participating in a reality-based TV show that will have the bands competing for national exposure as well as a recording contract and a cash prize of $1 million.
The band, together for more than five years, has yet to score big on the money side of the business. But they have multitudes of fans who crisscross all age groups.
They have a heavy metal sound that includes dynamic lyrics, and timely social and political statements.
I can’t wait to remind people ... I knew them when!
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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Ivan Garcia Oliver, 30, charged with the Nov. 20 murder of 67-year-old Michael Dodele, was in court Monday, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
The Monday court appearance was to set the preliminary trial date, which Hinchcliff reported will be May 13.
Oliver is accused of stabbing Dodele multiple times in the chest with a knife, as Lake County News has reported. The two men lived at the Western Hills Mobile Home Park in the unincorporated area of Lakeport.
The May court date will follow Oliver's next appearance in federal court in Southern California, where he has been indicted for an illegal dumping case.
Melanie Pierson, an assistant attorney with the US Department of Justice, said Oliver was arraigned in Southern California on the illegal dumping charges on Feb. 15, and will return in April for motions and trial setting.
Pierson said the process in the federal court should be fairly rapid; typically, a trial is scheduled within a month of the trial setting and motions. “It's not a long story, it's a short story,” she said.
Oliver and his half-brother are accused of dumping toxic materials into a San Diego County creek in the spring of 2005, not long after Oliver was released from state prison.
He had spent two years in prison for a 2003 conviction for felony assault with a deadly weapon with force likely to cause great bodily injury. Oliver had stabbed a security guard at a restaurant where he and some friends had attempted to skip out on the bill, as Lake County News has reported.
Pierson said the federal trial and any possible sentencing that might result won't interfere with Oliver's murder trial in Lake County.
“He would complete his proceedings in Lake County before he would be sent anywhere,” she said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Lake County’s January 2008 unemployment rate was 10.4 percent, up 0.8 percent from December, and 0.7 percent above the year-ago, January 2007 rate, according to Dennis Mullins of the Employment Development Department's North Coast region Labor Market Information Division.
The comparable California and U.S. rates were 6.3 and 5.4 percent respectively, Mullins reported.
Some surrounding county rates included 7.2 percent for Mendocino, and 5.2 percent for Sonoma. Marin had the lowest rate in the State with 4.0 percent and Colusa had the highest at 19.6 percent.
Lake County's unemployment rate ranked it at 40th out of the state's 58 counties.
Total industry employment increased 940 jobs (7.1 percent) between January 2007 and January 2008, ending the year-over period with 14,270, according to Mullins.
Mullins noted that year-over job growth occurred in farm; manufacturing; trade, transportation and utilities; financial activities; private educational and health services; other services; and government.
Year-over job losses occurred in natural resources, mining, and construction; professional and business services; and leisure and hospitality, Mullins reported.
The information industry was the only sector with no change over the year, Mullins added.
The government sector led industry gainers adding 760 jobs over the year, Mullins said. Farm and private educational and health services were up 220 and 110, respectively. Trade, transportation and utilities increased 40. Manufacturing and financial activities each gained 20 and other services added 10.
Natural resources, mining and construction led decliners, dropping 100 jobs, according to Mullins. Professional and business services and leisure and hospitality were down 90 and 50, respectively.
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The Gang Awareness Town Hall meeting will take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, 5430 Third St.
The meeting is sponsored by the Lake County Gang Task Force, which is made up of individuals from the Lakeport Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Lake County Sheriffs Office and the Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission, according to Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Commission chairperson Kathleen Sheckells.
CHP Officers Adam Garcia and Mike Humble, Lakeport Police Detective Norm Taylor, as well as a former gang members and other gang experts are scheduled to address the participants.
Topics will include a basic gang lifestyle orientation; a history lesson on Lake County gang activity, with an emphasis on ways to recognize when youngsters may be most influenced by the gang lifestyle;
current activities of various local gangs; and how to recognize true gang members by their clothing, behavior and communication techniques.
Event coordinator Katherine Rose encourages non-English speaking parents and families to attend as wireless headphones will be available through which English-to-Spanish translation will be available.
Pizza and soft drinks are provided for guests at no cost.
For more information about the event, contact Kathleen Sheckells, 262-1611, Extension 111.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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Late last month Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kansas) introduced HR 5475 to close a loophole in the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, also known as the Adam Walsh Act, which became law in 2006.
The act, named for the Florida child kidnapped and murdered in 1981, creates felony violations for federal sex law offenders who fail to register and for state sex law offenders who travel between states without registering.
Moore's new bill is in response to U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs' January decision to dismiss charges of violating the Walsh Act against Terry Lee Rich, 59, of Kansas City, Mo., formerly of Clearlake, where he was convicted of sex offenses in 1996.
Rich was indicted on federal charges last summer after he failed to register after moving to Missouri.
The dismissal of Rich's case, Sachs wrote in his decision, was based on the use of present verb tense in the statute, which says an offender who “travels” – rather than “traveled” – across state lines without notifying authorities is guilty of breaking the law.
Sachs said the wording led him to believe it was necessary to determine if Rich had traveled across state lines after the law was enacted in July 2006. Based on that criteria, Sachs ruled he could not find Rich had, in fact, made interstate trips, and therefore he had not violated the act.
Following his release from jail, Rich promptly disappeared, once again failing to register with law enforcement, according to a report from the Kansas City Star.
Rich has a string of convictions for sex crimes spanning nearly three decades, according to court records obtained by Lake County News.
In Oregon, he was convicted of child sexual abuse, attempted kidnapping and two counts of public indecency in 1971, 1978 and 1985, respectively, court documents relate.
Later, he moved to California, coming to Lake County. In 1996, he was convicted in Clearlake for two counts of annoying or molesting children who were 7 and 8 years old, according to court records.
Two years later, he was convicted in Santa Rosa of felony sexual battery on a child said to be 7 or 8 years old at the time of the offense.
Rich left California for Iowa in 2002, where court records indicate he was arrested that November for failing to register as a sex offender. He was arrested the following year for the same offense, and sentenced to five years in prison.
He didn't serve the full term, and was released from prison in February 2006, according to court records.
Moore's bill will make technical corrections to the bill, including adding retroactive language that will hold offenders responsible for registering with the proper authorities irrespective of the date of interstate travel.
“It’s unfortunate that this technical deficiency exists,” Moore said in a written statement. “Congress never intended to exclude any sex offenders from the registration requirements. I am confident that Congress will make the necessary change to ensure that all sex offenders comply with the law.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Officials are concerned that the car may be driven by a suspect in the case.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office is looking for a silver, 2006 Honda Accord four-door sedan, with California license plate number 5UJU394.
The public is asked to report any sightings of this vehicle immediately by calling 911. Any person in this vehicle should be considered dangerous and should not be approached.
The car belonged to an as-yet unidentified murder victim found by a park ranger early Sunday morning at the Blind Beach parking lot near Jenner, according to a report released late Sunday night.
The ranger contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff's dispatch to report the shooting, and also notified them of a vehicle that he had passed on Goat Rock Road.
While the deputies were making their way to the scene, one of them passed a vehicle matching the broadcasted description traveling in the opposite direction, away from the crime scene, at a high rate of speed, the report stated.
The deputy made a U-turn and caught up to the vehicle on Highway 116 at Crescent Avenue in Monte Rio, where a traffic stop was conducted, officials reported. Four subjects in the vehicle were detained and later questioned in regards to the incident.
Based on the information ascertained from witnesses, officials reported that the four subjects in the vehicle and physical evidence that was located at two separate crime scenes, all four subjects were later arrested and booked into the Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
The four suspects that have been arrested for the above listed charges are; David Prak, 19, of Santa Rosa; Sarith Prak, 21, of Santa Rosa; Preston Kahoone, 22, of Santa Rosa; and Quentin Russell, 24, of Santa Rosa.
Theinvestigation was conducted by detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Investigative Bureau in collaboration with patrol, Search and Rescue, California State Parks and the District Attorney’s Office.
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