LOS ANGELES - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that the California Department of Justice has been awarded over two million dollars in federal grants to fight gang activity and the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine throughout the state. The grants were awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office.

California DOJ received $1,499,814 from the COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program and $747,629 from the COPS Anti-Gang Initiative. 

“Methamphetamine is a dangerous drug that threatens the health and safety of our communities,” said Attorney General Harris. “These federal dollars will support our statewide work to aid in the dismantling of criminal organizations and combat the deadly and violent impacts of this drug on our streets.”

The Attorney General’s 2014 report, Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime, found that California is the primary entry point for methamphetamine smuggled into the United States, with as much of 70 percent of it entering through San Diego alone. From 2012 – 2013, California DOJ-led task forces confiscated 3,146 pounds of the drug.    

The COPS Office is awarding more than $6.1 million under the COPS Anti-Methamphetamine Program to seven state-level law enforcement agencies dealing with high seizures of precursor chemicals, finished methamphetamine, and laboratories. The award will fund DOJ efforts to investigate illicit activities related to the manufacture and distribution of methamphetamine in California.

Under the COPS Anti-Gang Initiative, the COPS Office is awarding close to $5.8 million to nine multijurisdictional task forces to address gang activity. The initiative focuses on combating gang activity through enforcement, prevention, education, and intervention. This award aims to support multijurisdictional partnerships between federal, state, and local law enforcement to address all forms of gang activity.

The COPS Office is a federal agency within the United States Department of Justice responsible for advancing community policing nationwide.





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            LENEXA, KAN. - Dangerous wildfires have dominated newscasts for months. Out-of-control wildfires this year have raged in Washington, California, Idaho, Montana, and several other states. The threat of flame spread during wildfires is a key hazard for many homes. Fire Prevention Week from October 3-9, 2015 is the ideal time for homeowners to focus on roofing materials that can help keep their homes safe.




            "Real wood shake roofs can be extremely combustible and serve as kindling for wildfires," says Ray Rosewall, president and CEO of DaVinci Roofscapes. "If you live in an area with even a remote possibility of wildfires, you owe it to yourself and your family to invest in a roof that resists flame spread."

            Polymer roofing tiles from DaVinci have a Class A fire rating (ASTM E 108) when installed with proper underlayments.

            "Quite simply, our roofing tiles resist the spread of flames," says Rosewall. "That means that if embers from a fire land on our polymer roofing tiles, the tiles will not ignite. This can mean a home is saved instead of being consumed by flames."




            While no roof will resist a "ground up" fire that engulfs the entire home, DaVinci roofing tiles help protect a home from wind-driven embers that can ignite other roofing products.

            "The number of major wildfires in the United States seems to be increasing each year, and roofs made from wood can be more likely to ignite, which could result in a catastrophic loss for homeowners," says Rosewall. "Even if the wildfire is not an immediate threat, sparks and embers fanned by winds can ignite an untreated wood shake roof and spread to the entire home. A DaVinci polymer roof provides the same look as wooden shakes but retains its Class A fire rating for the life of the roof with no need for periodic retreatment."




            In addition to resisting fire spread, each DaVinci composite roof shingle is lightweight, impervious to freeze/thaw cycles, impact resistant, maintenance free, color fade resistant, UL 2218 Class 4 impact rated, and resists winds up to 110mph. Made of 100 percent recyclable virgin resins, the tiles also resist insects and algae.

            "There are many exceptional qualities of our roofs," says Rosewall. "But the ability to help save a home from fire spread has to be the feature we're most proud of when it comes to our polymer roofing."

            The experienced team members at DaVinci Roofscapes develop and manufacture industry-leading polymer slate and shake roofing systems with an authentic look and superior performance. DaVinci leads the industry in the greatest selection of colors, tile thickness and tile width variety. The company's reliable products have a limited lifetime warranty and are 100 percent recyclable. All DaVinci high-performing roofing products are proudly made in America where the company is a member of the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Roofing Contractors, the Cool Roof Rating Council and the U.S. Green Building Council. For information call 1-800-328-4624 or visit www.davinciroofscapes.com.

 

David Money (33) Reno.  Sentencing for felony stolen vehicle conviction.  Three years probation, 180 days jail.

 

Timothy Herrera (35) San Bernadino.  Two counts of failure to appear.  Three years probation, fine $940.

 

Jeffrey Kelley (49) Loyalton.  After a contested preliminary hearing, Kelley was ordered to stand trial on two felony counts of driving under the influence causing injury to another.

 

Nathan Wainscoat (21) Paradise.  After a contested preliminary hearing, Wainscoat was ordered to stand trial for felony marijuana cultivation.

 

Douglas Stevens (38) Camptonville.  Cultivation of marijuana in violation of the Sierra County Code (no permited structure on the property where the weed was growing).  One year probation, fine $650, and he forfeited his crop.

 

Jeffrey Wikoff (66) Loyalton.  Cultivation of marijuana in violation of the Sierra County Code (too many plants).  Fine $650.

 

Robert Moberly (59) Rancho Cordova.  Felon in possession of a firearm.  Sentencing is set for October 7.

 

Theodore Howell (52) Downieville.  Driving under the influence.  Three years probation, 8 days jail, fine $2497, attend alcohol classes.

 



 

 

 

Eric Welsh (41) Browns Valley.  Driving while suspended.  Three years probation, fine $1469.

 

Mark Pacheco (29) Reno.  Illegal use of leg hold trap in attempt to trap bobcats.  Fine $1685.

 

Casey McFarland (39) Downieville.  Felon in possession of a stun gun.  One year probation, 18 days jail, fine $1075.

 

Brandon Hellebrant (32) Reno.  Unlawful campfire.  Fine $650.

 

Some are clever when it comes to dodging the limelight and four members of Mountain Star Quilters finally got caught after some thirty-odd years of success. Most in the group have served as featured quilters at the guild's quilt shows by now, so Tammy Helm, Linda Frost, Bette Jo Lang and Mary Weight finally got nailed. It's really more a hostess-ing  job than pretending you're a celebrity, so the four will be on board at the quilt show next weekend (Oct 3 and 4) to greet aficionados and share stories of trials, errors, successes resources and techniques. Of course, each will bring examples of her efforts as part of the guild's display.




One of them---Tammy Helm---got into quilting inadvertently. She and her husband Mark have a B and B in Goodyear's Bar. In the late 90's, the guild needed a place to hold their annual "Mystery Quilt Weekend" wherein each member comes with a collection of fabrics cut to certain specifications. Directions are then doled out a page at a time, and the overall design of each member's quilt isn't revealed until the very end. Tammy didn't participate the first year this event moved to her place---but it looked like fun and the second year, she did although she had never quilted before. Several members taught her the basics during that weekend, and she was hooked!




Presently. Tammy likes to applique smaller pieces,although she still makes (or starts) a mystery quilt each spring; by summertime she's busy with the B and B until well into September. She's finished a couple of quilts for her grandchildren and when her husband walks through a room while she's sewing, he often says "Is that mine?" Her first quilts were tied rather than quilted. She finds the actual sewing together of all those little pieces wonderfully pleasant and calming, as opposed to cutting out or choosing colors or even finishing.




Linda Frost has an entirely different favorite step. She likes to get all her accumulation of fabrics and spread them out across the floor and see what colors seem to look wonderful with certain others and then shop for a shade  that seems to be missing. That's a favorite activity, but there is also the moment when a quilt is far enough along that you can get an inkling of what it will look like when finished.




Unfortunately, Linda won't be at the show this year, as some 50 members of her family are having a long-planned reunion in Sandwich, Mass., then. She feels a certain kinship with the theme of this year's Civil War era raffle quilt.She remembers her great grandmother who told of Harriet Beecher Stowe (writer of "Uncle Tom's Cabin") coming to their church to talk....and of course everyone singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic". 




Linda was among the mid-eighties founding group of quilters spear-headed by Barbara Davies although she had made quilts previously on her own. Before there was a club, several women all of whom practiced one craft or another, got together and had work sessions, each making progress on her own project. To this day, she misses that experience and wishes we had more visiting/gossiping/work parties with communing rather that output being the focus. Recently retired after 20 years with the county assessor's office, she feels the absence of human interaction a job entails, although her friendships are plentiful and flung far and wide.




She made quilts for her sons when they were little, and now each has received a more grown-up type. Six nieces and nephews and some in-laws have managed to consume much of her output although she has at least five UFO's, meaning UnFinished Objects. She prefers to work on pieced quilts rather than appliqued ones but mostly, she simply enjoys being a member of a wonderful group of people with a common interest.




Bette Jo Lang is the one who, along with Tammy Helm, chooses what the mystery quilt is to be, and they are tight-lipped on the subject while dealing out the clues each spring. She made all her quilts entirely by hand in the beginning, the reason being she really, really hated her sewing machine. This worked out well, since Barbara Davies, The one who launched Downievilles quilting craft back in the eighties, always had beginners start by making their own patterns out of cut-up cereal boxes, marking seam lines on fabric with a pencil, and then stitching by hand.




Later on, Bette Jo did acquire a sewing machine that worked to her liking---a good thing, since she and her husband Frank have three sons and numerous grandchildren, all of whom have beneficiaries of mystery quilts. When young, sons receive baby quilts; later a graduation is the requirement. That's a lot of graduating since one son is a doctor, one a lawyer and the third an atmospheric physicist. The result of all this is, Bette Jo has only one UFO."Of course", She says, "I have a lot of things I just haven't started yet!"




The aspect of quilting Bette Jo likes best is choosing the colors that best suit the recipient-to-be (she does have a slight edge there). The real appeal is the logic of it all---everything is geometric---octagons, triangles, hexagons and squares. This is understandable for one who was a surgical nurse as precision is important to both areas. It does not explain her stage presence and talent for acting, particularly if a bit of humor is required. The parts she has played in local production have proven both memorable and hilarious.




Tammy may like sewing little pieces together, Linda to amuse herself by playing with colors and Bette Jo may enjoy the logic of it all; but Mary Wright is just plain in love with a technique called paper foundation piecing. It began when she took a class on the internet taught by Carol Doakes who has written several books on the subject. Mary followed this up by taking a live class resulting in a quilt called "Christmas Pickle", which she will display in the upcoming show.




Another quilt Mary will show may never have seen the light of day, as it was lost for five years. She even accused her husband Allen of taking it to the dump, as she often stores quilts in large trash bags, and thought he might have included it with the rest of the discards. One day she was on a ladder looking in a high closet for some cotton batting, saw what looked to be s large roll of it, opened it out and voila! There was her missing quilt.




Mary says the reason she loves being a member of Mountain Star is that others are always coming up with new techniques and ideas that are fun to explore. She has just taken up appliqued wool felting, which involves a whole new world of colorful thread types.




One wonders when Mary has time to sleep, as she is Coordinator for the Sierra County Child Care Council, putting some 300 miles a month on her car just going to meetings. Even so she's had time to make quilts for her two grown children, two grandsons, other relatives and an old high school buddy that turned up one day.




"We miss those who helped us as beginners---Claire McDermid, Nadine Breed and Effa Jean Arms; some have moved away like Jo An Cochran, Pat Lawrence and Beatyanne Rasmussen. This year marks our 31st annual October event, and it's really an accomplishment to have dodged the "featured quilter" job for all this time!"




Mountain Star Quilters' Show  begins Saturday, October 3 from 10 am to 5 pm. On Sunday the hours are 10 am to 4 pm. Drawing for the opportunity quilt will be at 3 pm Sunday. Admission is $5.00. Downstairs in the Downieville Community Hall will be devoted to vendors; the show of quilts including the Hoffman Challenge exhibit will be upstairs.




Tickets for the opportunity drawing of the Civil War era quilt are available at the Gallery in Sierra City this weekend and next weekend in  Downieville at the  show.

Nearly 900 firefighters are battling 7 large fires. In Northern California, today's temperatures will be seasonable or a little below average, with some moderately strong to gusty north to northeast winds that will continue into this evening before becoming much lighter overnight. As the high pressure gains strength this week, there will be an overall warming trend expected by the end of the week. In Southern California, an area of low pressure will move through today causing scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms to continue over much of the area through this evening. Significant warming and drying will occur across the region Wednesday through Saturday as strong high pressure builds into the area.

CAL FIRE recommends that all residents be prepared for wildfire by remembering “Ready, Set, Go!” Flying embers can destroy homes up to a mile ahead of a wildfire. Part of being “Ready” is to prepare (harden) your home now before fire starts. Your roof is the most vulnerable part of your home. Homes with wood or shingle roofs are at high risk of being destroyed during a wildfire. Build your roof or re-roof with materials such as composition, metal or tile. Block any spaces to prevent embers from entering and starting a fire. To learn more about being prepared for wildfire visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org.


Fires of Interest:
 **CAL FIRE Incidents**
Valley Fire, Lake County (more info…)
Across southern Lake County
●  76,067 acres – 98% contained
●  1,958 structures destroyed


**Federal Incidents**
Rough Fire, Fresno County (more info…)
US Forest Service – Sierra & Sequoia National Forests
2 miles north of the Kings Wild and Scenic River
●  151,623 acres – 89% contained

South Complex, Trinity County (more info…)
US Forest Service – Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Near Hyampom, south of Hwy 299
●  29,416 acres – 94% contained

Fork Complex, Trinity County (more info…)
US Forest Service – Shasta-Trinity National Forest
South of Hyampom
●  36,503 acres – 97% contained

River Complex, Trinity County (more info…)
US Forest Service – Shasta-Trinity National Forest
New River Drainage, near Denny
●  77,081 acres – 69% contained

Nickowitz Fire, Del Norte County (more info…)
U.S. Forest Service – Six Rivers National Forest
●  7,509 acres – 93% contained

Gasquet Complex, Del Norte County (more info…)
U.S. Forest Service – Six Rivers National Forest
On the Gasquet Ranger District
●  30,361 acres – 69% containment
  

Micah Grant, Press Secretary

George Runner, Vice Chair

Board of Equalization – 1st District

Micah.grant@boe.ca.gov

W: 916-201-3108

C: 323-868-9067

By George Runner                 

California Forward, a political reform group, recently invited Californians to take a “Revenue Challenge.” The challenge consists of an online survey where participants can rate how more than a dozen legislative proposals—mostly aimed at raising taxes—meet a set of criteria for a sustainable tax system. The goal is to gather feedback on existing proposals, identify ways to improve them, and generate new ideas for building a revenue system California can rely on. 

Kudos to California Forward for trying to engage a public that’s lost faith in government. Changes to our tax laws should always be made with public input and transparency.

The “Revenue Challenge” has one major limitation: It’s focused largely on ways to raise more revenue. This isn’t CA Fwd’s fault. Its Financing the Future series highlights the revenue proposals moving through the Legislature or making their way toward the 2016 ballot—and most of them would raise taxes in various ways. The Revenue Challenge asks Californians to think about whether these measures will “move the state toward a better tax system.”

However, the challenge facing California isn’t about revenue, it’s about trust.

To move California forward, we need to ask how government can provide taxpayers with better value for the money they already send to Sacramento. I’m willing to bet the public would be more inclined to provide input if they didn’t feel politicians were only gathering input in order to find ways to raise taxes that would be the least offensive to taxpayers.

Consider the Governor’s recent push to hike the gas tax. It doesn’t seem to matter to Governor Brown and other lawmakers that in the six years following the great recession, gas tax revenue grew by $1.7 billion while road spending remained stagnant. And that’s not counting the billions of dollars now being siphoned from Californians due to the mysterious cap-and-trade auction on carbon emissions.

The public sees the gap between money spent and services provided and loses faith in government. Time after time politicians promise better roads and schools, and time after time those dollars are redirected to bureaucracy. After sending money to a government that fails to deliver the promised services, why would anyone want to send more?

A recent study released by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies shows that 63 percent of California voters oppose raising gas taxes to pay for better roads. Californians clearly don’t believe sending more money to Sacramento to fix roads is the solution to the problem; they’ve heard this story before.

No one likes a commute full of potholes and heavy traffic congestion. But if government can’t solve the problem with the billions in revenue it already has, why should anyone expect a higher gas tax to make a difference?

Despite all this, proposals to expand and create new taxes have dominated the discussion.

Over the years, we’ve seen a stream of attacks on Proposition 13, which provides homeowners and small business owners with much-needed protection from big jumps in property taxes. It’s hard to imagine how homeowners or business owners would benefit from the removal of these protections.

The Legislature also passed a controversial—and I believe, illegal—fire fee which can only be used for fire “prevention” efforts. I support our firefighters and my heart goes out to those who have lost their homes due to fires this year, but not a dime of fire fee money goes towards putting out fires. The program provides no new funding for trucks, hoses or helicopters. In fact, it may have even delayed grants to local fire prevention programs.

These are just few examples of Californians not getting what they are paying for.

And that, ultimately, is the state’s real revenue challenge.

George Runner represents more than nine million Californians as a taxpayer advocate and elected member of the State Board of Equalization.

By Hollie McKayPublished September 17, 2015FoxNews.com

Firefighters battling massive blazes across California

Wildfires are continuing to plague drought-stricken California and federal funding to fight them has dried up like parched El Dorado County farmland, leading critics to say the real problem lies nearly 3,000 miles away, in Washington.

For the year, more than 6 million acres -- an area the size of New Jersey -- have been burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. For the first time, the U.S. Forest Service will spend more than half its budget, some $1.2 billion, on fighting fires on the vast acreage it manages from the nation’s capital.




There is a better way, according to some experts, who believe more private ownership of land would divert the responsibility and cost from taxpayers.

“The federal government has shown itself to be a poor steward of its massive land holdings,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at public policy think tank the CATO Institute. “The issues with Western lands are far too complex and sensitive for far-away politicians and bureaucrats in Washington to be able to solve.”

"If private owners fail they go bankrupt. If Forest Service managers fail, at worst they are transferred to another forest.”

- Robert Smith, Competitive Enterprise Institute

With 190 million acres of land under its control, the Forest Service is ill-equipped to manage land to prevent fires or protect property once blazes break out, said Robert Smith, distinguished fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment.




“Private owners cannot afford to let their forests die of disease, insect infestations or wildfire,” Smith said. “They are on the job 24 hours a day, unlike 9-5 government bureaucrats. If private owners fail they go bankrupt. If Forest Service managers fail, at worst they are transferred to another forest.”

In total, the U.S. government owns about 640 million acres of land, predominantly in the drought-riddled western states. Some 85 percent of Nevada; 70 percent of Alaska and roughly half of Arizona, California and Utah are federal lands.

While the drought is having a damaging effect on much of the land, it is the Forest Service’s national forests and grasslands that are most affected by wildfires.

Firefighters in California are fighting several blazes, the worst of which are in the northern part of the state. (AP)

Smith in part blames the influence of radical environmentalists for blocking the Forest Service from managing woodlands by removing old or dead trees most vulnerable to fire. Critics also say the government’s refusal to open up roadways through forestland makes fighting fires unnecessarily difficult.

Environmentalists groups and the government claim the increase in fires is due to global warming, caused by the use of fossil fuels. The Forest Service contends that the threat has made the average wildfire season is now 78 days longer than it was four decades ago.

But whether it is global warming or the sum total of decades of mismanagement, all experts seem to agree forest fires are getting worse – and costing more.

Vilsack says the agency has no choice but to take money earmarked for other programs and use it to fight fires. (AP)

“We can’t avoid wildfires and wildfire has always been part of the western landscape,” Ray Rasker, executive director of Headwaters Economics, a nonpartisan development and land management research group focused on the West, told FoxNews.com. “Right now, the Forest Service spends so much money fighting wildfires – with 90 percent of it going to defend homes – it has to borrow from other accounts. And every year, it gets worse.”

Twenty years ago, firefighting made up just 16 percent of the U.S. Forest Service’s annual budget. This past fiscal year, an unprecedented 52 percent of funds went to fighting fires and, if left unchecked, the figure will rise to two-thirds by 2025.

The agency says it has no choice but to take funds from other programs and services, such as forest restoration and management, which would actually help prevent fires as well as aid protection and recovery from them. While other disasters -- such as tornadoes and hurricanes -- can leverage emergency funding, the Forest Service must stay within current budget allocations and take money from elsewhere in the agency to fund firefighting.

“[The Forest Service is] not in a position to do the restoration and resiliency work that’s important and necessary, not just to keep our forests healthy, but also to reduce the risk of these intense, enormous fires that we are now fighting,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose department oversees the Forest Service.

In some cases, fighting fires may be not only futile, but unwise, according to Timothy Ingalsbee, executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology. He said some fires serve a valid purpose and should be left to burn.

“We need to be stopping fires from spreading toward human assets like homes, and steering fires into backcountry wild lands that we want to burn in order to reduce fuel loads or restore fire-dependent species habitat,” he said. “Most of the small fires that we are able to put out are ones that we need to work with.”


Some critics say government ownership of land is part of the problem. (AP)

But Ingalsbee is dubious of claims that turning land over to the private sector would result in better management.

“Much more aggressive fire suppression occurs on public lands, in fact, to prevent wildfires from spreading onto private lands which are unprepared and unsustainable given wildfire,” he said.

Janine Blaeloch, director of the Seattle-based Western Land Project, which seeks to protect the environment the interest of the public in land ownership, agrees.

“Private ownership is always going to lead to maximum exploitation of resources for profit,” she said. “If you value preservation of functioning ecosystems and wildlife habitat, only public land will provide that in any significant way.”

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They Voice No Regret at Putting Service to Others at the Expense of Their Own Property

The Families of the Firefighters are Safe

Sacramento: CAL FIRE Local 2881, representing the 6,500 firefighters of CAL FIRE, is making emergency donations to the families of eight firefighters who have lost their homes in the past several days.

“We are giving our firefighters some emergency spending money since so many of them have lost almost everything they owned,” said Mike Lopez, President of CAL FIRE Local 2881. “We are also hearing this afternoon that two or three other firefighters may have lost their homes, too.”

Two of the stories:

Paul Duncan, 46, Battalion Chief with CAL FIRE, has been working fires for CAL FIRE for 14 years and has been on fire lines since he was 18.  Paul was on his day off when he responded to a fire in the town of Cobb, about twenty miles from his home.

He left behind his wife, who was recovering from back surgery just the day before and two daughters, aged 17 and 15.

He received a panic call from his family that a fire was approaching their home. Paul was able to talk to his wife and daughters as they drove through flames and burning landscape. 

Their four-bedroom and three-bath house burned to the ground. The Duncan family lost everything except some clothes, paper work and a computer. A World War I souvenir from his grandfather, a 1911 Colt 45, is also gone forever.

“I would have gone to Cobb even if I’d known the outcome at my own home,” Duncan said. “I am a firefighter because I think I can make a change when times are tough and service to the community matters … of course, I would have loaded up my truck with more things and gotten my family out of there sooner.

“There have been a lot of tears, a lot of hugs and important family time since the loss,” Duncan said.

Robert Taylor, 24, Firefighter I, has been with CAL FIRE for two years. He works out of the Kelsey-Cobb Station in Lake County, but he was fighting the fire in Butte County – on this assignment for a day-and-a-half.

He did not have cell coverage. The incident commander said he’d heard that the fire was intense in Lake County and that structures were being lost.

Once Robert got cell coverage again he accessed the calls from his mother three hours late. His family was being evacuated and she wanted instructions on what to do. By the time Robert reached her she’d been evacuated to Middletown High School and they were being evacuated again to the Calistoga Evacuation Center at the fairgrounds.

His mom said she was sure the house was a loss.

“I was put on a new engine when I returned to Kelsey–Cobb,” Robert said. “I eventually came across my neighborhood and all of the houses in the neighborhood, including mine, were gone. We lived in that house since I was in the third grade. We lost everything. My family got out –mom, dad and my little brother (17). They saved some clothes and pictures and heirlooms from grandma.

“In all honesty, I haven’t had time to think about the house,” Taylor said.  “I am still in the help-others mode. If I can prevent this happening to other people then I will. I am still in structure defense. I’m afraid that if I slowed down and thought about the loss it would eat me up. I am staying strong for the family.”

Taylor is ready to continue fighting fires. “I am hearing about other firefighters who have lost their homes, too. The fire doesn’t recognize who owns the homes. It just burns. We are at the mercy of the fires.”