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- Written by: Lake County News reports
“As we recognize the serious dangers of illegal fentanyl, California is continuing to tackle this issue head-on. Our efforts are getting this poison off our streets and out of our communities as we continue to support people struggling with substance use,” Newsom said.
In March alone, the Counterdrug Task Force, with the help of state, local and federal partners, helped seize over 5,000 pounds of fentanyl and nearly 1.3 million fentanyl pills.
“The CalGuard is committed to supporting our state, federal, local and tribal law enforcement partners to eliminate the scourge of fentanyl,” said CalGuard Major General Matthew Beevers. “The State’s unprecedented investment in our Counterdrug Task Force is delivering significant, measurable interdiction results, denying operating capital to transnational criminal organizations while making our state safer.”
May 7 is recognized nationally as Fentanyl Awareness Day to provide information about the serious dangers of fentanyl poisoning from fake pills and other illicit drugs.
California has worked to improve public safety in a number of ways. The Governor’s Master Plan for Tackling the Fentanyl and Opioid Crisis provides a comprehensive framework to deepen the impact of these investments, including aggressive steps to support overdose prevention efforts, hold the opioid pharmaceutical industry accountable, crack down on drug trafficking, and raise awareness about the dangers of opioids, including fentanyl.
The state recently announced progress in cracking down on fentanyl in communities across the state, including San Francisco.
Last year, the governor increased the number of CalGuard service members deployed to interdict drugs at U.S. ports of entry along the border by approximately 50%.
The operations CalGuard supported resulted in the record seizure of 62,224 pounds of fentanyl in 2023 — a 1066% increase since 2021.
CalGuard’s coordinated drug interdiction efforts in the state are funded in part by California’s $30 million investment to expand CalGuard’s work to prevent drug trafficking by transnational criminal organizations.
Fentanyl is primarily smuggled into the country by U.S. citizens.
In support of President Biden’s bilateral cooperation agreement with China on counternarcotics, the governor spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping in October about combating the transnational shipping of precursor chemicals used to create fentanyl.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The meeting will take place beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 7, in the Tom Aiken Student Center at Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St.
Agenda and backup materials can be found at the board webpage on the district website.
The discussion about the proclamation was held over to this week after a crowd three times the size of the occupancy of the board room at the district office showed up for the regular board meeting on April 23, during which the proclamation was to have been discussed.
The resolution seeks to implement land acknowledgements at major district events and states that “this district acknowledges that its name represents a painful past for citizens of these nations and their ancestors who have lived here for generations.”
That language has raised opposition from community members who believe it’s connected to a separate effort to rename the town of Kelseyville.
The idea for the resolution first emerged in March and has been put forth by Board Clerk Gilbert Rangel.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The State of California is continuing to make changes to improve equity in its child support system.
On Sunday, Assembly Bill 207 (AB 207), signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022, began to be implemented.
Collections that are received for government-assigned debt due to participation in the CalWORKs program will be passed through to those families who no longer receive CalWORKs.
This does not mean the parents paying child support to these families are paying more, but instead California is making child support a better source of income to assist vulnerable families by waiving the government practice of “paying back” the aid to the state.
“Passing through the money previously owed to government to the family once cash aid is no longer being received helps ease the burden on some of the most deeply impacted parents in our caseload,” said David Kilgore, director of the California Department of Child Support Services. “By allowing debt to be paid off while passing more money directly to families, child support is effectively helping both paying and receiving parents and their kids. I am glad to see changes like this improving the child support program in California.”
Before March 2020, intercepts of Federal tax refunds first paid back any funds due to the government for any CalWORKs payments to the family, and then went to the support recipient. Federal law requires this intercept if the taxpayer has any past due child support.
With many Californians losing employment due to the pandemic, Gov.Newsom took executive action to ensure any federal stimulus funds went to pay the families first and recoup for CalWORKs payments last.
The Legislature voted to make this permanent in 2021 and since then, each legislative session has brought more changes to the child support program, taking into account the vast demographic and income shifts among parents, and the changes in how Californians define their families.
That same month, the Legislature voted to expand the amount of child support that is passed through to families who are currently receiving CalWORKs benefits from the first $50 each month to $100 for families with one child and $200 for families with two or more children.
Child Support Services implemented this change beginning in January 2022, greatly increasing the support paid to CalWORKs families.
Under the Newsom Administration, the state has taken action to update child support statutes to better serve the current needs of children and families, ending practices that have long created inequitable results for California parents.
State officials said California is making changes to improve equity, implementing programs that assist rather than punish parents, creating efficiencies and improving outcomes that together serve as a model for the nation.
For more information, visit the Child Support Services website.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
On Monday, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) called upon Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino) to deliver the first land acknowledgment recognizing area tribes on whose lands the state Capitol stands prior to the opening of an Assembly floor session.
The land acknowledgment begins at 51:13 at https://www.assembly.ca.gov/media/assembly-floor-session-20240506.
“I was moved by the speaker’s request to perform a land acknowledgment. Tribes have always populated this state. We had no boundaries, and we resided on our long-held homelands until Europeans and settlers immigrated to what is now known as California. To acknowledge the first stewards of the land is an important step toward healing between the state and tribes,” Ramos said.
He added, “Peter Burnett, California’s first governor, called for extermination of the Indian race. In 2019, Gov. Newsom apologized for the genocide and other atrocities committed against California Indians. Now, in 2024, our 71st speaker, Robert Rivas, stepped along the healing path with a call for the first legislative session land acknowledgment. I thank him.”
“As I reflect on California’s history, which is checkered with great wrongs to Native Americans, I cannot help but recognize the resilience of the state’s first stewards,” Rivas said. “We must never forget that past, and we begin by acknowledging those to whom the land was entrusted from Time Immemorial.”
Rivas said that In 2018, it was his honor to be sworn in with the first Ramos. “And today, as Speaker of the Assembly, I was proud to initiate the Legislature’s first land acknowledgment of the Capitol region’s First People, the Nisenan and Miwok tribes.”