How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
Shirley Schield, 75, was last seen early Monday, the sheriff’s office said in a Nixle alert issued shortly before 10 p.m. Monday.
Her family said she may suffer from dementia.
At approximately 3:06 a.m. Monday, Schield left the Northport Trailer Park, located at 5020 Lakeshore Boulevard in Lakeport.
She was carrying a dog leash and headed on foot toward the Lakeport area on Lakeshore Boulevard.
Schield is a Caucasian woman, approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and 130 pounds. She has blue eyes and short white hair and may respond to “Carol” or “Shirley.”
She was last seen wearing a light blue and pink sweater with light blue pants.
If anyone has seen Shirley Schield or anyone matching her description, please contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office nonemergency line at 707-263-2690.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said the crash occurred at 5:28 p.m. Sunday on Highway 29 north of Hilderbrand Drive.
Authorities did not release the name of the 10-year-old girl who was fatally injured in the wreck.
The CHP said Manuel Santos Torres, 24, of Middletown was driving a 2007 BMW 550i northbound on Highway 29 with Jennifer Palalia-Zuniga, 26, and the 10-year-old girl, both of them also from Middletown, riding as his passengers.
For reasons that the CHP said are still under investigation, the BMW veered off the east side of the roadway and hit multiple trees.
Due to the force of the impact, the BMW caught fire and began a small vegetation fire, which the CHP said was extinguished quickly.
The CHP said emergency personnel removed the three occupants from the BMW.
The child died of her injuries at the scene, the CHP said.
Santos Torres and Palalia-Zuniga, both of whom were wearing their seat belts, sustained major injuries and were transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital for treatment, the CHP said.
Radio reports indicated air ambulances couldn’t fly because of the weather on Sunday.
The CHP said neither drugs nor alcohol are suspected as factors in the wreck.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Over the course of the weekend, Lake County saw several inches of rainfall as an atmospheric river passed over Northern California.
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter said the rainfall came about a month ahead of average.
The region badly needs the water due to the ongoing drought. As well, California has been hard-hit by another wildfire season.
“Repeated storms delivering such copious rainfall will have a major effect on the wildfire season — effectively ending the wildfire season from Northern California northward,” Porter said.
The storms also are forecast to bring heavy snowfall to the Cascades and Sierras.
There was steady rainfall from Saturday night into Sunday afternoon before the precipitation started to ease.
The National Weather Service’s observation stations in Lake County reported that, for the 36-hour period ending 2 a.m. Monday, there were rainfall totals around the county ranging from 4.29 inches near Upper Lake, 4.43 inches in Kelseyville, to 5.41 inches in Lyons Valley, 6.09 inches in Lower Lake, 6.75 inches near Lake Pillsbury, 7.69 inches at Bartlett Springs, 8.73 inches at Hidden Valley Lake, 9.23 inches in Middletown and 9.52 inches in Whispering Pines.
While Porter said the parade of storms that has brought the heavy rainfall to Lake County and Northern California “will have a positive impact on the water table,” he added, it “won’t be enough to solve all of the water problems which have been compounding for many years.”
Along with the heavy rainfall came numerous reports from Saturday night through Sunday of downed trees, downed lines, boulders in roadways and mudslides.
A mudslide on Sunday afternoon closed Highway 20 in both directions at Highway 16, with another slide later reported near Island Drive in Clearlake Oaks.
The National Weather Service said lighter rainfall would continue in Lake County into Monday and Tuesday, with nearly another inch of rainfall possible in that time
The unsettled weather is the tail end of a strong upper low pressure system winding down into British Columbia through Monday, the National Weather Service reported.
Conditions are expected to clear beginning on Wednesday and continuing until later in the week, according to the forecast.
Temperatures will increase toward the end of the week from the mid 50s to the high 70s in some parts of Lake County, the forecast said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A new state jobless report shows that in September Lake County experienced its lowest unemployment rate since the pandemic began, while California’s overall rate remained unchanged.
The Employment Development Department on Friday released labor force data for September.
The report showed that Lake County’s unemployment was 6.2% in September, down from 7% in August. Lake County’s September 2020 jobless rate was 8.9%.
The lowest previous rate since last year’s pandemic onset for Lake County was 6.9% in May.
Additionally, this is Lake County’s lowest jobless rate since February 2020, according to state data.
A total of 570 unemployment claims were filed in Lake County in September, according to a state dashboard, compared to 837 in August. In September 2020, the state said 2,795 unemployment claims were filed in Lake County.
In September, California’s rate was 7.5%, unchanged from August. In September 2020, the state’s jobless rate was 10.6%.
The number of Californians employed in September was 17,594,600, an increase of 43,300 persons from August’s total of 17,551,300, and up 1,159,100 from the employment total in September of last year.
The state’s unemployed totaled 1,418,800, a decrease of 12,700 over the month and down 531,300 in comparison to September of last year.
The picture appeared better nationwide last month, when unemployment was 4.8%, down from 5.2% in August and 7.8% in September 2020, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.
In Lake County, job sectors showing growth last month were wholesale trade, 11.1%, and government, 2.3%.
Sectors that were down included total farm, which showed a decline of 28.1%; mining, logging and construction, down 2.1%; leisure and hospitality slipped by 1.6%; and educational and health services declined by 1.4%.
Lake County’s jobless rate in September ranked it No. 39 out of California’s 58 counties.
Neighboring county jobless rates and ranks were: Colusa, 8.4%, No. 55; Glenn, 5.7%, No. 29; Mendocino, 5.1%, No. 20; Napa, 4.6%, No. 8; Sonoma, 4.5%, No. 7; and Yolo, 4.7%, No. 12.
The lowest unemployment rate in the state in September was 3.6% in Marin. Imperial County had the highest, with 18.1%.
The statewide picture
California’s employers added 47,400 non-farm payroll jobs, which account for 24.4% of the nation’s 194,000 overall jobs gain in September 2021.
So far, California has now regained 1,723,800, or 63.5%, of the 2,714,800 jobs that were lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The state’s payroll jobs totaled 16,669,900 in September 2021, up from 16,622,500 in August 2021 and 15,874,100 in September 2020.
Nine of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in September. Leisure and hospitality added 23,300 jobs last month thanks to strength in performing arts and spectator sports, with professional and business services posting a notable gain of 6,900 jobs thanks to increases in computer systems design and architectural and engineering services.
Job gains also were reported in manufacturing, 5,700; information, 5,000; government, 3,100; education and health services, 2,600; trade, transportation and utilities, 1,900; construction, 1,400; and financial activities, 1,300.
The “other services” sector registered the largest month-over employment decline with more than half of its 3,700 job losses coming in religious, grants, civic, and professional and like organizations. The other industry to report a job decrease was mining and logging, which reported 100 lost jobs.
The state said the number of jobs in the agriculture industry increased by 700 from August 2021 to 420,400 jobs in September. The agricultural industry has 16,900 more farm jobs in September 2021 than it did the September prior.
In related data that figures into the state’s unemployment rate, the Employment Development Department said there were 493,987 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the September 2021 sample week. That’s compared to 638,976 people in August and 2,801,538 people in September 2020.
Concurrently, 78,878 initial claims were processed in the September 2021 sample week, which was a month-over increase of 15,325 claims from August, but a year-over decrease of 147,394 claims from September 2020, the Employment Development Department said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at