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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is attempting to locate a Lucerne man reported missing last month.
Lt. Corey Paulich said Ronald James Meluso, 63, was reported missing to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 22.
Meluso was last heard from on Aug. 18, Paulich said.
Paulich said Meluso is currently believed to be without a vehicle, has not reached out to family, friends, or law enforcement for help or aid, and is not returning phone calls, behavior which is reported to be out of character for Meluso.
Since the date of the report, investigators have conducted searches in multiple jurisdictions and have served multiple search warrants in an effort to locate Meluso, Paulich said.
Anyone with information regarding Ronald Meluso’s whereabouts is asked to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at 707-262-4233.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
Lt. Corey Paulich said Lonnie Ray Sullivan, 64, died in the wreck, which occurred shortly before 7:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office said Sullivan was driving a 1996 Honda Civic eastbound on the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff west of the Rodman Slough when he was hit head-on by a 2016 Chevy Camaro driven by Steven Michael Pruitt, 35, of Lakeport.
The CHP said Pruitt had crossed over the double yellow lines.
Sullivan was declared dead at the scene, the CHP said.
Both Sullivan and Pruitt were wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash, according to the CHP report.
Pruitt was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs and vehicular manslaughter and booked into the Lake County Jail after he was medically cleared, authorities said.
Jail records show that Pruitt remains in custody, with bail set at $1 million.
The crash that claimed Sullivan’s life was the second fatal in Lake County this week. A Willits man died in a solo-vehicle crash on Monday afternoon on Highway 20, as Lake County News has reported.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
Travis Jay Minor, 26, was arrested in the case, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
At 1:30 p.m. Thursday, a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy was patrolling in the Middletown area when he observed a male walking in the Armstrong Street area around several vehicles behind a convenience store. The deputy believed the male was possibly tampering with the vehicles, Paulich said.
The deputy contacted the male subject who was identified as Minor. Paulich said Minor told the deputy he was stuck in Middletown because his vehicle had run out of gas and it was parked near the park.
Paulich said the deputy was familiar with Minor and knew he had been arrested the previous week for tampering with vehicles. The deputy conducted field tests and determined Minor was under the influence of a controlled substance.
The deputy again asked Minor where his vehicle was. He told the deputy it was parked in front of the convenience store near Armstrong and Highway 29, Paulich said.
Minor was not able to tell the deputy what type of vehicle he was driving. Paulich said the deputy believed that Minor was being evasive about the vehicle because it was possibly stolen.
Paulich said the deputy placed Minor under arrest for being under the influence of a controlled substance.
During a search of Minor the deputy located a Mercedes key. Paulich said the deputy checked the area in front of the convenience store for a Mercedes vehicle, locating a silver Mercedes that he believed was related to Minor.
The silver Mercedes was not locked so the deputy attempted to use the key from Minor to start the vehicle, but the key did not match the vehicle. Paulich said it was later determined that this Mercedes was not related when the owner of the vehicle contacted the deputy in front of the store.
Paulich said the deputy again questioned Minor about the location of his vehicle. Minor told the deputy it was parked further north.
The deputy drove north on Highway 29, locating a black Mercedes parked across the street from Hardister’s Market. The deputy used the Mercedes key found on Minor to unlock this Mercedes and found they matched, Paulich said.
Paulich said the deputy contacted the registered owner to verify that Minor was supposed to have the vehicle. The owner told the deputy he was just calling to report it stolen.
The vehicle’s owner responded to the deputy’s location and took possession of his Mercedes. He told the deputy that Minor had spent the night at his residence the previous night. When the owner woke up he noticed Minor and his vehicle were gone. Minor never had permission to take the Mercedes, Paulich said.
Paulich said Minor was booked into the Lake County Jail on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance and vehicle theft.
Minor remained in custody on Saturday. Booking records show he is being held on $15,000 bail, and is scheduled to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Monday.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
“As the nation’s most diverse state, we are stronger and more vibrant because of our immigrant communities,” said Gov. Newsom. “This important legislation removes the word ‘alien,’ which is not only an offensive term for a human being, but for far too long has fueled a divisive and hurtful narrative. By changing this term, we are ensuring California’s laws reflect our state’s values.”
AB 1096, authored by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) will replace the word “alien” with language more reflective of today’s legal terminology, such as “noncitizen” or “immigrant.”
The term “alien” has been used to identify individuals who were not born in the United States by the federal government since 1798 and in California since 1937.
In the 1990s, the word “alien” began to be used as a political dog whistle to express bigotry and hatred without using traditionally racist language.
By 2015, the term was officially replaced with “noncitizen,” however “alien” is still widely used in many aspects of California law.
In addition to signing AB 1096, Gov. Newsom signed a series of bills to protect the health and safety of immigrants, including legislation to clarify safety standards at detention facilities, ensure rights and protections for unaccompanied undocumented minors, and cement protection for immigrants under hate crime legislation.
California’s existing pro-immigrant policies include expanding access to higher education, expanding access to health care and public benefits, advancing protections for immigrant workers, supporting immigrant students through partnerships with school districts, improving opportunities for economic mobility and inclusion through access to drivers licenses and pro bono immigration services.
Newsom’s California Comeback Plan offers an additional $1,000 in stimulus checks to undocumented families through the expanded Golden State Stimulus; the largest renter assistance program in the country; $5.2 billion to help low-income renters cover their back-rent and their rent for several months into the future; and $2 billion to help Californians pay past-due utility bills. The California Comeback Plan also enacts a first-in-the-nation expansion of Medi-Cal to undocumented Californians over 50 years old, providing access to critical health care services.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, California has made free COVID-19 testing and treatment available for all Californians, regardless of insurance or immigration status. The state also prioritized high-risk neighborhoods for COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate people most at-risk of contracting the virus, reaching many communities with large immigrant populations.
To support food and agriculture workers who tested positive for or were exposed to COVID-19 and did not have a place to quarantine safely, California created Housing for the Harvest, a first-in-the-nation framework with FEMA that provided shelter and quarantine options for farmworkers to isolate.
The program was expanded to also provide in-home quarantine support and cash assistance to participants.
California also created a first-in-the-nation statewide public-private partnership to provide $150 million in disaster relief assistance to undocumented Californians.
California’s $75 million investment reached 150,000 people across the state.
In addition to AB 1096, Gov. Newsom also signed:
AB 263 by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), which clarifies the requirement of private detention facilities, including those used to house and detain immigrants in California, to comply with local and state public health orders. It also requires private operators to abide by Cal/OSHA workplace safety rules and regulations.
AB 600 by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno), which clarifies that existing law includes immigration status under the definition of “nationality” so that crimes targeting people due to their immigration status are considered a hate crime.
AB 1140 by Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), which ensures that all children housed in state-licensed facilities, including unaccompanied undocumented minors, will be under the jurisdiction of the California Foster Care Ombudsperson’s Office and will thereby receive all of the resources and protections they are entitled to under state law.
SB 334 by Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles), which requires private, for-profit detention facilities operating in California to uphold basic health and safety standards for people being detained in these facilities and maintain minimum levels of insurance coverage related to medical professional liability and liability for civil rights violations.
SB 714 by Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), which amends California election code to allow aspiring citizens such as DREAMers to be appointed and elected members in a county central committee.
For full text of the bills, visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.