LATEST NEWS

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office:. DUI: Louren M. Alexander, 24, of Hayward, was booked at Mendocino County Jail May 27 on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and of DUI while on probation. She was arrested by the Willits Police Department.

Law enforcement reportedly held a subject at gunpoint and deployed pepper spray this evening during a foot pursuit in the Covelo area. Scanner traffic beginning around 11:00 p.m. indicated officers was attempting to create a perimeter around one or two subjects somewhere in the area of Highway 162 and Mendocino Pass Road.

Six people at a clinic in Ukiah started experiencing symptoms after being exposed to a package yesterday. They have reportedly been medically cleared, and are no longer experiencing feelings of illness. The investigation is ongoing, but the package has tested negative for hazardous substances so far, and the clinic has...

Home to thousands of winemakers who produce 80 percent of the wine in the U.S., California vineyards also yield their share of unscrupulous employers who profit by taking advantage of migrant and seasonal farmworkers as the harvest season approaches. To combat violations that deny workers their hard-earned wages or jeopardize...

FORT BRAGG, 6/3/23 — The City of Fort Bragg launched the official start of summer during June’s First Friday celebration. Laurel and Franklin streets were closed for music and a cornhole tournament. If people playing in the parks and bragging on social media is any indication, cornhole and pickleball are now among Fort Bragg’s most popular sports. At June’s First Friday, players tossed beanbags from the steps of city hall into targets on the other side of the closed street. Around the corners, live music and dancing went on in the middle of East Laurel Street in the city-sponsored event.

Mendocino County Animal Services has announced the closure of the Fort Bragg Animal Shelter as early as July 1st due to diminishing county coffers. The shelter which reopened in 2019 after a previous closure is unlikely to be reopened even if budget woes subside. I spoke to Richard Molinari the director of Animal Care Services for the county and Judy Martin the Executive Director of the Mendocino Coast Humane Society, which runs a separate shelter about how this will impact coastal residents and domestic pets.

Pre-enrollment is currently open at Brookside Elementary School for the 2023/2024 school year. One big change coming up next year is that transitional kindergarten (TK) will be a full day class, from 8:10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. In the past, including the current year, TK has been a half...

Two people recently sworn in as deputies for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office were both raised locally, the MCSO reported this week. According to the MCSO, on May 30, 2023, Deputy Isaac Sanchez and Deputy Sierra Rogina were sworn in as deputies of Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner Matt Kendall. Kendall’s...

Wildland firefighters have been deployed to Round Valley near Covelo to extinguish a vegetation fire. Originally dispatched around 4:26 this afternoon, scanner traffic indicates the fire is between a quarter acre to a half acre in size and located near the intersection of Oak Lane and Biggar Lane. Around 4:54...

An unknown substance that caused at least five people to fall ill Thursday afternoon led to a partial closure of the Adventist Health Ukiah Valley emergency room, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority reported. UVFA Battalion Chief Eric Singleton said the incident began around 4:15 p.m. June 1 when two people...

On Sunday, May 21, around the world the global Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride community came together and celebrated in dapper fashion. The event featured classic and vintage style motorcycles, dressing dapper and riding to raise funds and awareness for men’s mental health and prostate cancer research. This year 104,110...

Willits Song Circle will be held on Wednesday, June 7 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at Willits Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, School and Pine streets. What is a Song Circle? A group of people who like to sing together, a community of song. Open to all! This will be hosted by Jane McCabe, led by Don Willis and Madge Strong, but anyone can lead a song. Rounds, popular songs, folk songs, simple part songs — anything that can be learned easily. Guitar, drum, shaker — anything that you can sing along with.

Route 1 (62/62.2) – Bridge work in Fort Bragg from Manzanita Street to Pudding Creek Road will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Motorists should expect up to 5-minute delays. Route 1 (73/74) – Utility work near Blue Slide Gulch will...

GALLAWAY, Calif. — At the southwestern edge of Mendocino County is a geological phenomenon that only appears when the tide is low. It’s a part of Schooner Gulch State Park known as 'Bowling Ball Beach.'. The sandy cliffsides offer some stark views along Highway 1, but if you...

A kitchen fire quickly grew out of control yesterday evening resulting in the total loss of a Fort Bragg home. Fort Bragg Fire Department Chief Steve Orsi told us when his agency arrived on the 18000 block of Old Coast Highway around 9:30 p.m. the home was fully involved and the “fire was coming out of pretty much everywhere.”

FORT BRAGG, CA — On May 16-18, 2023, Fort Bragg Police officers received multiple tips about a subject selling controlled pharmaceutical pills in and around the City of Fort Bragg. The investigation revealed the subject lived in a house in the 31000 block of Digger Creek Drive, just outside city limits.

A man who was arrested in New York City late last year while trying to flee to South America after robbing a market in Mendocino County was recently sentenced to state prison, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office reported. According to the office of DA David Eyster, Matias Tomas...

TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. — If you buy weed illegally, you unwittingly could be supporting Mexican cartels and other criminal syndicates that lure workers to farms in Northern California and Southern Oregon, where they often suffer inhumane conditions and sometimes sexual abuse. Or worse. Some disappear, presumed murdered, their bodies...

In general, I think the important concepts for expenditures are as follows: spend money on things that help people and the planet, and stop spending money on things that hurt people and the planet. We should stop spending so much money on weapons. We should keep spending money on converting our economy to renewable energy; we could probably save money by being smarter about how we do that, and that is a good discussion to have. On the revenue side, it’s kind of a no-brainer. We need to tax the rich (individuals and corporations) and actually collect the taxes that the rich owe. They don’t need or deserve all that money (though they may feel like they do).

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company is advising residents of inland Mendocino County that it is “conducting an internal inspection of our natural gas pipelines in the Willits and Redwood Valley areas” for the next few months. “These In-Line Inspections are done throughout our natural gas system to...