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LAKEPORT – As a bass fishing tournament this past weekend was attracting hundreds of visitors to Lakeport, another group of visitors had law enforcement on alert.

Lakeport Police Det. Norm Taylor said the Lake County chapter of the Vagos, an outlaw motorcycle gang, held a poker run around the county over the weekend, basing it out of Lakeport's Buckhorn Club bar.

The gang, said Taylor, is spread across all of California and into Mexico, with chapters in Nevada and Hawaii, and in some East Coast locations.

The Vagos are a criminal street gang, said Taylor. Over the years, Vagos members around the country have been indicted for weapons and drug violations, conspiracy to commit homicide, kidnapping and much more, he said.

A report from the California Attorney General's Office states that there are 47 outlaw motorcycle gangs in California; among the most prominent, the report says, are the Hells Angels, Mongols and the Vagos.

In recent years the Vagos, founded in Southern California, have shown an increased presence in Northern California, the report noted. The Vagos reportedly have 33 chapters with 300 members statewide.

As far as local gangs go, Taylor said the Surenos have been much more criminally active and visible than the Vagos, which are spread out across the county. Sureno gang members are implicated in the stabbing of a young Clearlake Oaks man in Library Park last month.

Local Vagos have been arrested before, but none of them have been charged with being members of criminal street gangs, said Taylor. He added that the Vagos have been “relatively low key” as far as criminal activity locally.

Taylor estimated between 50 and 60 motorcycles were included in the weekend run, which was billed as a benefit for the Fallen Riders Trust. About half of those riders were “average folks” who enjoy taking part in poker runs, he said. Riding alongside them were 24 Vagos members.

At the event police identified Vagos members from Lake County, Redding, Nevada, San Jose and the Sacramento area, said Taylor.

Last September, Lake County's Vagos chapter held its inaugural ride, said Taylor. That event, he said, caught police completely off guard. “We were not aware of it until it was already happening,”he said.

No arrests were made, he said. But after that experience, he said, Lakeport Police wanted to be prepared in case another run took place.

The department has been tracking gang activity, he said, which helped them find out about this latest gathering.

The ride was held on the weekend of the 50^th anniversary of the formation of the Hells Angels. Although the two gangs aren't considered rivals, there is tension between them in Northern California, said Taylor. He said he didn't believe there was a direct correlation between the ride and the anniversary.

Taylor said the county has a gang task force that includes members of several local law enforcement agencies.

As part of the enforcement effort last weekend, Lakeport Police had assistance from California Highway Patrol, Clearlake Police, Lake County Probation, State Parole and Lake County Narcotic Task Force. He declined to say just how many officers were on the street keeping track of the Vagos ride.

Taylor said authorities tightened enforcement – specifically of vehicle codes – in order to keep things in order.

There were no criminal incidents, Taylor reported, and no noted interference in the bass tournament.

There were, however, three arrests made, said Taylor. One of those was a Vagos gang member, arrested by the Lake County Narcotic Task Force.

Taylor said Lakeport Police will continue watching the Vagos activity. “We have a local chapter so I expect we will continue to see similar type activities go on in the future – at what frequency is still to be seen,” he said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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LAKE COUNTY – Fire crews were able to quickly contain a wildland fire that broke out mid-afternoon Wednesday.

The fire above Bartlett Springs was reported at 3:24 p.m., according to Cal Fire – formerly known as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The fire was originally believed to have been located at Pinnacle Rock, but later officials located it on state-managed lands at Hogsback Ridge.

Between 10 and 15 acres of timber burned, but by nighttime the fire was contained by firefighters from the Northshore Fire Authority and four Cal Fire hand crews.

Three Cal Fire engines – two from Lake County, one from Ukiah – responded, along with a Forest Service engine, Cal Fire reported.

Two Cal Fire helicopters, one from the Tehama-Glenn station and the second from Boggs Mountain, made repeated trips up the mountain to drop water on the fire. The helicopters staged in a field across from Ceago del Lago along Highway 20. Cal Fire Engineer Phil Mateer of Lakeport said one of the copters made about 30 trips.

Fire crews, a few engines and a dozen were still on the scene after 8 p.m. mopping up, according to Cal Fire's incident command.

The cause of the fire is not yet known, Cal Fire reported.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Harold LaBonte contributed to this article.

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CLEARLAKE OAKS – A structure fire on hilly Widgeon way in Clearlake Oaks Tuesday afternoon sent four people to the hospital with fire-related injuries.

Black smoke billowing into the sky above Clearlake Oaks was first spotted by a conservation crew traveling past in a bus, said Northshore Fire Chief Jim Robbins.

Between 15 and 18 Northshore firefighters were dispatched, and were soon joined by firefighters from nearly every department around the lake and Cal Fire, as the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is now known, Robbins reported.

The fire destroyed the first structure – a three-level hillside residence – caught another home on fire and set the grassy hillside ablaze, Robbins said.

Nearly three acres of wildland were charred before Northshore firefighters and mutual aid departments were able to extinguish it, said Robbins.

The steep hillside made fighting the fire more difficult, Robbins said. “You could only fight it from two sides."

Robbins commented that it was odd that the fire consumed a hillside full of green grass. "You would never have believed it," he said. "Grass doesn't usually burn when it's green."

Three firefighters and the occupant of the first structure to catch fire were sent to the hospital, Robbins reported.

The firefighters were transported to Sutter Lakeside in Lakeport with smoke inhalation injuries, said Robbins, while the occupant was transported to Redbud Hospital in Clearlake.

E-mail John Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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LAKEPORT – The effort to build a new county animal shelter came one step closer to reality Monday, with officials gathering to break ground on the long-awaited project.

More than 20 people showed up for the Monday morning ceremony, held at the new shelter location on Hill Road.

County Supervisors Denise Rushing, Ed Robey, Anthony Farrington and Jeff Smith, along with Animal Care & Control Director Denise Johnson and County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox, took up shovels to turn the ground in anticipation of the project's first phase.

Behind the group a piece of heavy equipment waited quietly to begin preparing the ground for the site of the new 6,800-square-foot shelter.

During the ceremony, County Public Works Director Gerald Shaul described the genesis of the project. {enclose Groundbreaking_Animal_control.mp3}

The shelter effort is about about saving lives, said Johnson. "Our only goal is to save lives and promote adoption.”

The current shelter was built in the 1940s, and is both outdated and too small. The new $2 million shelter will ultimately have twice the current capacity for dogs with a total of 72 kennels, and have 30 to 40 more cages for cats, Johnson said.

 

The new facility will have the space to quarantine sick animals and protect healthy animals from disease, Johnson said.

"In our facility we didn't have any way to separate them," she said, "so a lot of lives were lost.

"Here we won't be so overcrowded, especially in the cat area,” she added. “We've had some serious overcrowding in the cat room. The building is just not big enough. This new building will have a lot of space."

 

 

The two-phase project will include preparing the ground for the facility by removing several trees, flattening out a hill and installing sewer, water and power lines. Phase one is estimated to be completed in 30 days.

 

 

The shelter's phase two will include the construction of a 3,400-square-foot building that will house Animal Care & Control's office and indoor kennels, Shaul said, as well as a detached, 3,400-square-foot kennel building.

 

 

After the ceremony concluded with a dog digging up a bone on the site of the groundbreaking, Johnson stressed that much credit was due to the assistance of Shaul.

"It's been really nice to have his support and his guidance," she said.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the shelter fund, donations may be mailed either to Lake County Animal Care & Control, 887 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport CA 95453 (write "shelter donation" on your check), or Lake County Animal Services Shelter Fund, P.O. Box 662, Lakeport, CA 95453.

For more information about helping animals locally, including adopting pets or education, visit the following Web sites: Lake County Animal Care & Control, www.co.lake.ca.us/countygovernment/animalcontrol/animalcontrol.asp; or Lake County Animal Services, www.lakecountyanimalservices.org.

E-mail John Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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LAKEPORT – About 900 spectators in Library Park watched as bass fishing history was made Sunday on the final day of the ESPN Bassmaster Golden State Shootout.

Clear Lake became home to a new tournament record, surpassing the old record set last year by nearly 7 pounds and raising bass fishing to a new level.

Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., won the four-day tournament, bringing in a tournament record of 122 pounds, 14 ounces of bass, a feat which sends him home with a $110,000 check.

The previous tournament record – 115 pounds, 15 ounces – was set last year on Santee Cooper Reservoir in South Carolina by Preston Clark, ESPN reported.

This is Kennedy's first-place win, according to ESPN's Bassmaster statistics. In 2006, Kennedy was BASS Rookie of the Year, ESPN reported. The Golden State Shootout is his 27^th tournament, and brings his career winnings to $420,107.

In second place was Skeet Reese of Auburn, who came in with 117 pounds, 6 ounces for his four-day total, which also surpassed Clark's tournament record from last year. Reese earned $30,000.

Red Bluff's Greg Gutierrez placed third and won $27,500 for bagging 108 pounds, 1 ounce of bass on Clear Lake.

The lake was clearly a favorite of the fishermen who competed this past week, as well as the sponsors, such as Triton Boats.

Melissa Fulton of the Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce said she was pleased with the event, and she reported event officials were as well.

The event wouldn't have been complete without bass fishing fans, who were out in force to ask their favorite fishermen for autographs.

The weigh-in was shown live on ESPN2.com on Sunday, and will air next Saturday at 6 a.m. on ESPN2.

 

For full tournament coverage, visit sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/index. 

 

For more photos of the tournament, click on the "Gallery" button at the top of the page, and go to the ESPN Bassmasters Tournament album.

Elizabeth Larson contributed to this report.

 

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LAKE COUNTY – A new report from the state Department of Education on the base Academic Performance Index (API) for the state's schools shows an overall rise in scores statewide.

For Lake County schools, the report shows growth in scores among a majority of schools.

Last week, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell released the 2006 Base Academic Performance Index (API) report for 9,400 California schools that were given targets for improvement.

The API was established in 1999 to track schools' academic performance and progress on statewide assessments. The Department of Education also reports that API results are used for federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirements.

The annual report once again reflects the consistent rise in median API scores since the API, a numeric index from 200 to 1000, began in 1999.

"I am proud of our students, parents, and educators in California whose continued work toward academic excellence is reflected in the steady academic progress in our schools’ API scores," O’Connell said. "The API is a powerful, comprehensive tool that holds our schools publicly accountable for progress made by all of our students. It supports California’s rigorous standards and ambitious definition of what constitutes ‘proficiency.’"

The 2006 median Base API for elementary schools is 758, up 8 points from 2005. Middle school and high school median scores show similar gains of 10 points and 7 points respectively.

Also, the percentage of elementary schools at or above 800, the statewide performance target adopted by the State Board of Education, is 34.6 percent, up from 31.8 percent in 2005; middle schools is 23.9 percent, up from 20.6 percent; and high schools is 13.6 percent, up from 11.9 percent.

In Lake County, several schools have API targets near 800, including Kelseyville Elementary, Riviera Elementary, Lakeport Elementary, Lakeport Alternative and Coyote Valley Elementary.

Of the 38 local schools assigned 2006 base scores, 20 showed improvements during last year's testing.

Local schools that have recorded schoolwide and comparable improvement – the latter meaning that all numerically significant subgroups at the school met their API subgroup targets -- are Kelseyville Elementary, Mountain Vista Middle School, Burns Elementary School, Lower Lake Elementary, Cobb Mountain Elementary, Coyote Valley Elementary, Middletown Middle and Upper Lake High.

The featured chart for Lake County's schools includes 2007 API targets, 2006 statewide ranks, 2006 growth and base scores, 2005-06 growth and base, along with met growth targets. The chart also includes explanations of the rankings.

While the 2006 API results reflect solid academic gains over the last eight years, they also highlight what O’Connell considers the overriding issue facing California education today – the achievement gap that exists between traditionally higher- and lower-scoring subgroups of students.

Student subgroups are defined by ethnicity, socio-economic, and disability status as well as whether or not a student is an English learner.

Since the API system originated in 1999, schools have been expected not only to meet schoolwide academic growth targets but also student subgroup targets. However, this year the API will focus schools more intensely on narrowing achievement gaps.

The recent reports also reflect the addition of results from new 2006 science assessments, O'Connell reported.

For more reports and data on school districts, visit www.cde.ca.gov.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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		API						Met Growth Target
	2007 API Target	2006 Statewide Rank	2006 Growth	2006 Base	2005-06 Growth	2005 Base		School-wide	Comparable Improvement (CI)	Both Schoolwide and CI
KELSEYVILLE UNIFIED	D	D	724	725	28	696*
Elementary Schools
Kelseyville Elementary	794	7	790	789	61	729		Yes	Yes	Yes
Riviera Elementary	787	6	784	782	-24	808		No	No	No
Middle Schools
Mountain Vista Middle	694	4	690	688	36	654		Yes	Yes	Yes
High Schools
Intermountain High
Kelseyville High	711	6	699	706	16	683		Yes	No	No
ASAM Schools
Donaldson (ED) Education Center
Kelseyville Community Day
KONOCTI UNIFIED	D	D	658	659	14	644
Elementary Schools
Burns Valley Elementary	680	2	682	680	29	653		Yes	Yes	Yes
Lower Lake Elementary	719	4	721	719	38	683		Yes	Yes	Yes
Pomo Elementary	673	2	674	673	2	672		No	No	No
Middle Schools
Oak Hill Middle	629	2	622	620	12	610		Yes	No	No
High Schools
Lower Lake High	666	4	657	659	0	657		No	No	No
Small Schools
East Lake Elementary	704	3*	701*	699*	-2	703		No	No	No
Lewis (Richard H.) Alternative	686	4*	644*	680*	-52	696*		No	Yes	No
ASAM Schools
Blue Heron	D	D	396*	417*	-24	420*		No	Yes	No
Carle (William C.) High (Continuation)	D	D	697*	691*	135	562*				N/A
Genesis High	D
LAKE COUNTY OFFICE OF EDUCATION	D	D	507	507	18	489
Small Schools
Clearlake Community	469	1*	445*	452*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Redbud Community	D	D	503*	497*	28	475*				N/A
Renaissance Court	D
LAKEPORT UNIFIED	D	D	726	730	-5	731
Elementary Schools
Lakeport Elementary	796	7	793	791	2	791		Yes	No	No
Middle Schools
Terrace Elementary	726	5	720	721	-6	726		No	No	No
High Schools
Clear Lake High	734	7	718	729	-5	723		No	No	No
Small Schools
Lakeport Alternative	800	9*	778*	799*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Natural High (Continuation)	D	D	503*	525*	120	383*				N/A
LUCERNE ELEMENTARY	D	D	714	711	4	710
Elementary Schools
Lucerne Elementary	716	3	714	711	4	710		No	No	No
MIDDLETOWN UNIFIED	D	D	752	752	15	737
Elementary Schools
Cannon (Minnie) Elementary	697	3	694	692	1	693		No	Yes	No
Cobb Mountain Elementary	A	9	865	863	8	857		Yes	Yes	Yes
Coyote Valley Elementary	800	7	800	798	10	790		Yes	Yes	Yes
Middle Schools
Middletown Middle	774	7	764	769	40	724		Yes	Yes	Yes
High Schools
Middletown High	706	6	699	701	3	696		No	No	No
Small Schools
Lake County International Charter	720	4*	715*	715*	B					N/A
ASAM Schools
Loconoma Valley High
Middletown Community Day
Middletown Elem Community Day
UPPER LAKE UNION ELEMENTARY	D	D	667	665	-11	678
Elementary Schools
Upper Lake Elementary	688	2	684	682	5	679		No	Yes	No
Middle Schools
Upper Lake Middle	656	2	648	648	-32	680		No	No	No
ASAM Schools
The Grove
UPPER LAKE UNION HIGH	D	D	659	656	68	591
High Schools
Upper Lake High	669	4	667	662	64	603		Yes	Yes	Yes
ASAM Schools
Clover Valley High (Continuation)
Upper Lake Community Day
In order to meet federal requirements of No Child Left Behind, a 2006 API Growth is posted even if a school or LEA had no 2005 API Base or if a school had significant population changes from 2005 to 2006. However, the presentation of growth targets and actual growth would not be appropriate and, therefore, are omitted.
Legend for “Target Growth” notations:
" * " means this API is calculated for a small school or LEA, defined as having between 11 and 99 valid Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) Program test scores included in the API. The API is asterisked if the school or LEA was small in either 2005 or 2006. APIs based on small numbers of students are less reliable and therefore should be carefully interpreted.	"A"means the school scored at or above the statewide performance target of 800 in 2005.				"B" means the school did not have a valid 2005 API Base and will not have any growth or target information.			“C” means the school had significant demographic changes and will not have any growth or target information.
“D” means this is either an LEA or an Alternative Schools Accountability Model (ASAM) school. Target information is not applicable to LEAs or to ASAM schools.	“E” indicates this was an ASAM school in the 2005 API Base Report and has no target information even though the school is no longer an ASAM school.				2006 Statewide Rank: On the API base reports, schools are ranked in 10 categories of equal size, called deciles, from 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest). A school's statewide rank compares that school to other schools of the same type in the entire state. The school types are elementary, middle and high. Each decile contains 10 percent of all schools of that type. A school's statewide rank is the decile where that school's API Base falls compared with the Base APIs of the other schools statewide of the same school type. Special education schools and schools in the ASAM do not receive statewide ranks.
Targets Met - In the "Met Growth Target" columns, the growth targets reflect state accountability requirements and do not match the federal Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements. The AYP requirement for the API is a 2006 API Growth of 590, or a one-point increase from the 2005 API Base to 2006 API Growth for a school or LEA.