KZYX News

January 7, 2020 — The sheriff’s presentation before the board of supervisors this week elicited critiques of his data, a request for a resident deputy in Covelo, and demands for him to issue a formal apology for including an image of a hog-tied Black man on a PowerPoint slide. Sheriff Matt Kendall was asking the board to give him the go-ahead to request funding from the state to hire, train and eq...

Jan 6, 2021 — Yesterday was the first board of supervisors meeting of the new year, and the first one ever for First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty and Second District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren, who were sworn in on Monday. Judson Howe, the new CEO for the local Adventist hospitals, was also on hand for a bit of an after-action review of a malfunctioning hospital freezer that set off a mad d...

January 5, 2021 — Two new county supervisors were sworn in yesterday morning, shortly before the compressor went out in a freezer containing 830 doses of the Moderna vaccine at the Ukiah Valley Adventist Hospital. Adventist Health and the county’s public health department get separate allocations of vaccines from the state. So far, the county has received one batch of 975 doses from Pfizer and one...

January 4, 2021 — The covid outbreak at the jail continues and has spread to the women’s facility. A total of 90 people have tested positive at the jail since the outbreak began on December 19th, including 77 inmates and 13 staff. As of Sunday night, there are 59 active cases among inmates and seven active among deputies and other staff. Eighteen inmates have recovered or been released, and six st...

January 1, 2021 — The coronavirus vaccine has arrived during a surge in covid-19 cases and an outbreak at the jail that has tripled over the course of the week. There are currently 47 inmates in the jail who have tested positive. Nine employees have tested positive since the outbreak started on December 19, and four of them have made it through their isolation period. Another twelve inmates who te...

People on the streets of Mendocino Village talk about how to say goodbye to 2020 and hello to 2021.

December 30, 2020 — The Ukiah City Council will be short one member as soon as Second District Supervisor-elect Maureen Mulheren leaves the council to take her seat on the Board of Supervisors next week. Earlier this month, the Council voted to fill her seat by appointment rather than special election. The council has replaced departing members by appointment at least since 1947, according to a do...

December 29, 2020 — Food banks are a lifeline for people living on the financial edge: seniors, families, and those with little job security. We’ll hear from volunteers at three food banks from three very different communities in Mendocino County: Gualala, Anderson Valley, and Ukiah.

Listen to the many contributions of area churches as they present a virtual Christmas concert on youtube.

December 24, 2020 — The synthetic opioid fentanyl is a huge problem in the US right now, according to Sheriff Matt Kendall, who sees some of the social effects first-hand. “It is the biggest problem,” he says, because fentanyl is so much cheaper than methamphetamine or heroin to make. “I believe there’s more fentanyl on the streets right now than heroin,” he added. “This is going to be the new epi...

MENDOCINO, 12/23/2020 - Cal Fire has six timber harvest plans lined up for Jackson Demonstration State Forest. The first plan is slated to begin this spring. Jackson is California's largest state forest and is home to a significant amount of the states redwood trees. Local conservation group, the Mendocino Trail Stewards, doesn't want the logging to happen. They think that, considering climate cha...

As a health care professional, Miranda Ramos has a heightened awareness of limiting exposure to the virus. Nevertheless, she contracted the disease, and chose to share her experience online, and with the KZYX audience.

December 21, 2020 — The legal cannabis industry in Mendocino County is more uncertain than ever, with a local ordinance that does not set up local growers for success in getting their annual licenses from the state. Those will be required by the first of the year in 2022. The local program started out in the ag department, which is on its fifth ag commissioner since the regulatory process started,...

December 18, 2020 — The covid-19 vaccine is here, but leading medical experts urge continuing safety measures, like mask-wearing and staying home for the holidays. The list of who can be vaccinated in phase 1b, the next round of shots, is still being developed, but Lori Nezhura, co-chair of the vaccine task force at the California Office of Emergency Services, says food and ag workers, emergency w...

December 18, 2020 — Uyen Thai, a pharmacist resident at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley, says she felt honored to be chosen for the historic role she played yesterday afternoon, when the first recipients of the first doses of the covid 19 Pfizer vaccine to hit the county rolled up their sleeves for her and her colleague Jenny Nyugen so they could be immunized in front of their friends, colleagues, a...

Globally, wildfires are getting more frequent and more extreme, and in Mendocino County it’s no different. Actually, wildfire is part of the natural ecosystem process in Mendocino, so it’s an inevitable part of life in this region of the north coast. And climate change, a failure to manage forests properly, and building in wildland-urban-interfaces has only made the situation worse.  Earlier this...

December 16, 2020 — Supervisors Carre Brown and John McCowen were honored at their last Board of Supervisors meeting yesterday, with Senator Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Jim Wood sharing a retrospective of their accomplishments. Public Health Officer Dr. Andrew Coren disclosed new school guidance loosening restrictions on cohorts, which Ukiah Unified School District Superintendent Deb Kubin said w...

December 15, 2020 — The cannabis ordinance has been a puzzle for years: how to move culltivators through the county permit process and on to a state license, which will be required as of January first, 2022? The state requires site-specific CEQA review for every grow, which the county does not. State agencies and the county are short on staff, and there are over a thousand cultivators waiting in t...

December 14, 2020 — December 12 is an important day for local Catholics, who celebrated the birthday of the Vigin of Guadalupe this Saturday in their cars, with no singing, no live music, and lots of social distance. It was unlike any of the previous celebrations, which were sometimes lavish, with parades to the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds and mariachi bands and lights and food and a Mass before da...

December 11, 2020 — A narrow section of land long claimed by the historic cemetery in Redwood Valley is under dispute, with a neighboring property owner saying the land is his and he wants it back. Now the district wants to find the descendants of people it believes are buried in unmarked graves in the fifteen by hundred foot strip.

The year 2040 may seem like the distant future. But the Ukiah is already making decisions about what the city will look like in 20 years.  Currently, the city of Ukiah is working on it’s 2040 general plan. A general plan is a document that outlines the goals for the cities or towns creating them. The State of California requires local jurisdictions to update or re-write their general plans periodi...

December 9, 2020 — The Board of Supervisors spent the whole morning yesterday on the novel coronavirus update, with reports from Dr. Coren and Dr. Doohan, high-level hospital staff, and the CEO of Redwood Community Services, who reported on the outbreak at Building Bridges, the homeless shelter and day program in Ukiah. Yesterday, 37 new cases were reported countywide, and the day before, another...

12/8/2020 - If you’re a PG&E customer, you should start preparing yourself for an increase in your electricity bill. On March 1st, a rate hike of 8 percent will take effect. The boost was approved by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday, December 3rd. And According to reporting done by the Associated Press, it will result in an average increase of $13.44 per month, or 161 dol...

12/8/2020 - Lead Park Ranger at Lake Mendocino, Poppy Lozzoff, admitted that the water level at the lake looks terrifyingly low. “As a visitor, it is a dramatic site to see so much exposed ground,” she wrote in an email. Lake Mendocino currently sits at 712 ft above sea level. That’s very low. But despite years of dry conditions and the fact that California water year 2019 to 2020 was the third dr...

December 7, 2020 — On Wednesday night, Ukiah City Councilman Juan Orozco became the city’s first Latino mayor. He took over from newly re-elected Councilman Douglas Crane, and will serve in the role for one year. Orozco has been on the council since 2018. Josefina Duenas, who was newly elected on November third, was seated on the Council for a four-year term. Orozco was born in Mexico and came to...