How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Wednesday, Lake County Vector Control received confirmation of a positive test result on a dead bird, according to District Manager Dr. Jamie Scott.
Scott said the positive finding was made on a dead crow collected in Lucerne on July 1.
“The holiday extended the time it took us to get the results,” said Scott.
Dead birds and tree squirrels are necropsied at the California Animal Health and Safety Laboratory laboratory at University of California, Davis, said Scott. Samples taken during the necropsies are forwarded to the UC Davis Center for Vectorborne Diseases for West Nile virus testing using the singleplex RT-PCR Taqman assay and confirmed with a second primer set.
So far this year, 22 dead birds had been reported around the county, but none had tested positive for West Nile Virus, which first appeared in Lake County in 2004, according to Vector Control records.
Vector Control keeps two sentinel chicken flocks – one in Upper Lake and a second near Anderson Marsh, between Lower Lake and Clearlake.
Those chickens have been sampled seven times this season – once every two weeks – for West Nile Virus antibodies, St. Louis encephalitis and Western equine encephalomyelitis, and have been clear on all counts, Vector Control reported.
In neighboring Yolo County, they've reported their first West Nile Virus positive chicken, said Scott. The only other West Nile Virus activity reported in neighboring areas were two dead birds founds in Colusa County.
As of Wednesday, West Nile Virus had been detected in 31 California counties this year, seven more than this time last year, according to the state's West Nile Virus Web site, www.westnile.ca.gov .
So far, no human cases of the virus have been reported in California, the state reported. Neither have horse cases been reported in 2009 thus far.
State records show there were 445 human West Nile cases last year, including 15 fatalities. The peak year for the virus in the state's human residents was 2005, with 880 cases and 19 deaths.
Equine cases numbered 32 in 2008, with 2004 being the peak year, with 540 cases, the state reported.
Scott said West Nile Virus has been particularly active is the Fresno area. “It's an unusual amount of activity for that part of the valley so early in the season,” she said.
Weather, water and temperatures conditions could account for fewer West Nile numbers in Lake County this year.
Cooler temperatures control virus activity, said Scott. Prime West Nile conditions include a combination of high mosquito numbers and very high temperatures.
Scott said cooler temperatures – specifically, nighttime temperatures cooler than 60 degrees – tend to kill West Nile Virus.
However, she cautioned that West Nile Virus is “still so new” to the United States, with this being the virus' 11th season here. While it's settling into the country's ecology, the only thing scientists have been able to identify as impacting the disease is temperature.
The lake's level is two feet below the 88-year average for this time of year, the district reported, which could affect other mosquito species.
“The low water has helped us out somewhat,” said Scott. She explained that mosquito species that hatch in flood water or shallow pools have been lighter in population this year.
However, the three mosquito species that carry West Nile Virus and are most prevalent locally – Culex tarsalis, Culex stigmatosoma and Culex erythrothorax – are “very opportunistic,” said Scotts.
“They will develop in any water standing for more than five days,” said Scott.
While some areas have no standing water due to lack of rain, irrigation is prevalent in other places, said Scott. The lake's weedy edges also provide good habitat for the mosquitoes.
Scott and a group of colleagues have just published a paper in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association on a recently introduced mosquito species, Aedes japonicus japonicus. The mosquito, which carries West Nile Virus, is now in 20 states, but isn't in California, having come as far as Michigan since in appeared in the US in 1998.
Besides West Nile, the district is keeping an eye on other diseases as well.
It collected 530 ticks from 14 sample sites, and have shipped all of them to the California Department of Health Services, and will be forwarded to the Centers for Disease Control and Surveillance so they may be tested for Rickettsia 364D and other tick-borne diseases.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH NEWS NUMBERS REGARDING THE TOTAL PLANTS ERADICATED.
LAKE COUNTY – On Tuesday local and federal law enforcement officials eradicated a massive illegal marijuana garden in the Mendocino National Forest, encountering armed suspects in the process.
The Lake County Sheriff's SWAT Team and detectives from the US Forest Service seized approximately 130,000 plants and five firearms – including a Tec 9 assault weapon with a makeshift silencer – according to sheriff's Capt. Rob Howe.
Howe said the raid took place at 7 a.m. Tuesday in the Lower Nye/Copper Butte area of the National Forest in Lake County.
Law enforcement personnel surrounded a tent located in the garden and began giving verbal commands, directing any occupants to exit the tent, Howe said.
Three suspects, identified as Hispanic male adults, immediately opened the tent and fled downhill, while one suspect, also described as a Hispanic male adult, remained in the tent and was taken into custody, according to Howe's report.
Deputies and agents found a 9 millimeter semi automatic handgun in a tent, Howe said.
At about 9:30 a.m., as they were walking the suspect out, Howe said detectives encountered two more suspects, described as Hispanic male adults, actively working in the garden, with one of the men holding a gun in his hand.
Howe said that as detectives approached the suspects the one holding the gun dropped it. Both then fled and the team wasn't able to capture them.
While it's early in the marijuana eradication season, Howe said this is the third marijuana cultivation operation so far this year in which sheriff's deputies have encountered armed suspects.
Howe noted, “We are very grateful these suspects have not pointed their weapons or fired at our personnel.”
Concerns over dangers about illegal marijuana growing operations on public and private lands led Sheriff Rod Mitchell to post a public safety message late last week on his Web site. The video presentation can be found in its entirety here: http://lakesheriff.com/weed_warning.asp .
The video explains that violence in connection with marijuana growing is increasing.
Last September, the county saw the first murder associated with a growing operation. In that case, the body of a Santa Rosa man was found in an illegal grow on Socrates Mine Road, where he had been shot to death, as Lake County News has reported.
The sheriff's office reported that 2009 is “already surpassing last year in seizures and violence.”
While eradicating a grow on Socrates Mine Road in June, deputies encountered two armed suspects who fled and evaded capture, according to the report.
In addition to locating firearms and armed growers, deputies have discovered booby traps, such as a rat trip outfitted with a shotgun shell, which they recreated and shot through a human-shaped target.
They've also found rat and mouse poison, litter and other environmental concerns in the grows.
Nearly all of the illegal grows are discovered and eradicated through the use of helicopters, which the county rents from private companies and pays for through a $275,000 Drug Enforcement Administration Grant.
Tuesday's raid brings this year's total for eradications to more than 285,000 plants and 15 arrests, based on various sheriff's reports.
That puts Lake County – which in recent years has led all of California's 58 counties in eradications of illegal marijuana – close to Mendocino County, which so far this year has netted close to 280,000 plants, made close to 60 arrests and seized around 50 firearms at more than 90 sites.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The results of the countywide balloting were announced Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of the Vector Control Board of Trustees, held at the district's headquarters in Lakeport.
The annual assessment is expected to bring in about $500,000 a year to the district, which currently has an annual budget of about $1.3 million.
Single family homes equivalents in Zone A – making up most of the county – will pay an average annual amount of $13.96, while single family homes in Zone B, located in more remote areas and including Bureau of Land Management and Mendocino National Forest lands, will be assessed $6.98 annually.
The maximum annual assessment is to be adjusted no more than 3 percent annually based on the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco Bay Area.
Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley, who tabulated the ballots, issued a report stating that 14,494 ballots were received out of 42,784 mailed to county residents. That represents a ballot return rate of 33.8 percent.
In all, 14,193 valid ballots were processed, according to Fridley. The assessment value of all of those processed ballots is $186,074.75.
Of those, there were 8,956 valid “yes” votes, for a return rate of 63.10 percent unweighted, or 57.74 percent weighted by assessment.
There were 5,237 valid “No” votes, for an unweighted return rate of 36.8 percent or 42.3 percent weighted by assessment, according to Fridley. The assessed value of those no votes was $78,628.23.
The Vector Control board held a public hearing at the courthouse on June 30 as part of the Proposition 218 process, which covers assessment and rate hikes. The district took comment at that time from several area residents who questioned the need for the assessment and how the balloting was being conducted.
At the end of that meeting, the balloting – which had begun early in May – officially closed.
The public hearing was continued to Tuesday, but no community members were present to make statements or ask questions.
Trustee Chuck Leonard told District Manager Dr. Jamesina Scott that the district did a good job in presenting the assessment to the community.
Leonard said he hadn't expected the assessment to pass, which is why he had voted against spending the money on it.
Scott previously reported that the district had paid about $126,000 in consulting, printing and mailing fees in order to take the assessment to the community.
Following the report on the balloting results, the board unanimously approved a resolution confirming the engineer's report on the assessment and ordering levy of the assessment for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office reported that James Boissiere, 37, of San Leandro; Joseph Lee Harrold, 33, of Ukiah; Deloran Reed Lawson, 19, of Hayward; and Elliott Merrill Marshall, 30, of Oakland, all have been taken into custody.
The four are alleged to have been involved in an armed robbery and kidnapping on Dec. 4, 2008.
A 45-year-old Talmage woman reported at the time that the suspects forced their way into her home at gunpoint, where two of the suspects demanded her marijuana, the sheriff's office reported.
The victim reportedly led them to a room where she gave them approximately one in a half pounds of processed marijuana. She then attempted to take the gun from the younger suspect, at which time a physical altercation took place and the suspect struck her on the head with the pistol frame. The suspect further struck the victim in the face which caused her facial cuts and lacerations.
The suspects then fled from the location on foot prior to the victim calling 911, according to the sheriff's report.
Mendocino County Sheriffs deputies, along with detectives and Ukiah Police officers, checked the area for the suspect with negative results.
A neighbor in the area did obtain a possible license plate number from the suspect vehicle, described as a Greenish Blue Mercedes Benz with a California License Plate of 5MWJ477.
The victim was transported via ambulance to Ukiah Valley Medical Center for treatment.
Based on their investigation, and with the help of the Oakland Police Department, Mendocino County Sheriff's office detectives identified the suspect.
On June 6, they arrested Harrold and booked him into the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held in lieu of $335,000 bail.
Boissiere was arrested on June 10 by Oakland Police Department. He's being held in a Bay Area jail pending transportation to the Mendocino County Jail.
Oakland Police also located and arrested Marshall on June 23. He was later was transferred to the Mendocino County Jail where he is currently being held in lieu of $335,000 bail.
The last of the group, Lawson, was arrested on July 8 by San Francisco Police for an unrelated case and booked into the San Francisco County Jail. He's also due to be transported to Mendocino County Jail upon the conclusion of the case in San Francisco.