THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – A California Highway Patrol officer shot and killed a suspect with a stolen vehicle during a physical confrontation Wednesday afternoon.

The incident was reported to have take place on Highway 29 south of Lower Lake near the Twin Lakes Subdivision shortly after 2 p.m., according to witnesses.

District Attorney Don Anderson confirmed to Lake County News that his office was handling the investigation into the officer-involved shooting.

The shooting involved a female CHP officer who shot a suspect, Anderson said.

“She’s fine,” Anderson said of the officer.

The suspect, however, had died, Anderson said.

Sources close to the investigation told Lake County News that the female officer had pulled over a suspect in a stolen vehicle and a physical fight had ensued, with the officer being grabbed by the neck.

The officer had to use deadly force, and the suspect was shot, according to the sources.

Following the fight the officer was taken to be medically cleared at a local hospital, the sources reported.

Along with District Attorney’s Office investigators, at the scene late Wednesday afternoon were CHP and Lake County Sheriff’s officials.

The body of the suspect was covered with a yellow tarp and located near a small outbuilding just off the highway.

The CHP's Clear Lake Office did not respond to requests for information Wednesday afternoon.

Additional details will be posted as they become available.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Californians are urged to be a part of the oldest and the largest anti-drug effort in the country, National Red Ribbon Week, observed this year October 23-31.

Red Ribbon Week is observed nationally in states across the country. During the week, Americans wear red ribbons and pledge to live drug free.

There also are a number of anti-drug use events held within local communities for the public to attend.

The California Highway Patrol promotes a drug-free lifestyle and encourages all Californians to take a stance against drug abuse this week, and every week.

“Drugs destroy lives,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “Red Ribbon Week gives Californians an opportunity to stand united against an illegal, life-destroying behavior.”

The first statewide Red Ribbon Week was sponsored in California in October 1986 in response to the murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Agent assigned to a case in Mexico.

“Red Ribbon Week not only honors a fallen hero, it is also an opportunity to open the lines of communication with your children about the dangers of illegal substances,” added Commissioner Farrow. “It is important that parents and guardians remember that they are role models who play a vital role in influencing a child’s behavior.”

The Red Ribbon campaign is sponsored by the National Family Partnership. The theme for this year’s Red Ribbon campaign is: “The Best Me is Drug Free.”

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Sutter Lakeside Hospital has donated a building that previously housed its Upper Lake Medical Clinic to the Upper Lake School District this summer.  

The modular structure, originally a $247,000 investment, was constructed on school property in 1997.   

“We’ve had to make some difficult financial decisions here at Sutter Lakeside over the past year in order to become more affordable to our patients,” said Sutter Lakeside Chief Financial Officer Krista Touros.

“Because caring for everyone in community is our mission, several employees from the former Upper Lake Clinic are now working at our Family Medicine Clinic,” Touros said. “Our Mobile Health Services Unit visits the Upper Lake High School campus every Tuesday to provide care, as well. We want to ensure that our patients have access to quality health care.”

The building continues to house the Healthy Start program, a not-for-profit organization.

“We’ve been great neighbors with Sutter Lakeside for years and we’re grateful to them for giving us the keys to their building,” said Upper Lake High School District Superintendent Pat Iaccino. “Now, we’re searching for a new tenant to share the space with Healthy Start to add even more value to the space.”

Debbie Fenton, formerly with the Upper Lake Clinic, is now practicing in the Family Medicine Clinic on the Sutter Lakeside Hospital campus.  

The Mobile Health Services Unit can be found parked at the Upper Lake High School on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As the race to become the newest Lake County Superior Court judge enters its final weeks, the latest campaign finance reports for the two candidates show a close race in terms of money totals.

Judy Conard and Michael Lunas, both of Lakeport, are running to succeed Judge David Herrick, who presides over Lake County Superior Court Department 1. Herrick chose not to seek reelection and is retiring at year’s end.

In the spotlight local race for November, the two candidates have raised a total of approximately $79,856.65.

Their latest filings, submitted to the California Secretary of State’s Office this month, show Lunas edging Conard slightly in overall cash – $41,510.15 to $38,346.50, respectively – with Conard raising more actual cash and Lunas having more loans on his bottom line.

Their latest recipient committee campaign statements can be seen below.

Lunas’ recipient committee campaign statement, submitted Oct. 5 for the time period of July 1 through Sept. 30, showed he had raised $21,168.35 during that timeframe, and $41,510.15 overall since the start of the year.

Expenditures for the two-month period covered in his financial statement showed Lunas spent approximately $12,031.30, with a total of $31,860.11 spent from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30. His ending balance was $9,650.04.

Conard filed her latest recipient committee campaign statement as of Tuesday, with it covering Oct. 1 through Oct. 20.

Contributions for the period total $6,124.62, with the year’s totals through Oct. 20 totaling $38,346.50.

Expenditures for the October reporting period totaled $5,876.93, with Conard’s campaign spending $37,370.63 through Oct. 20. She had a $2,569.80 ending balance.

Looking at loans the candidates reported, Lunas loaned his campaign $20,000 during the two-month reporting period and $30,500 for the year to date.

Conard has loaned her campaign a total of $10,681.94, with $3,700 of that loaned in October.

As for nonmonetary contributions, Lunas listed $470 for the entire year and none for the July through September timeframe, while Conard brought in $424.62 in October, and $7,867.14 for the year through Oct. 20.

Conard has $11,266.08 in outstanding debt compared to $30,500 for Lunas.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man has been identified as the suspect in the burglary late last year of a Clearlake business.

Doyle Jeorge Harris, 23, of Clearlake, is facing charges in the case, according to Det. Sgt. Nick Bennett of the Clearlake Police Department.

In December 2011 Clearlake Police investigated a burglary at Sullivan Tires located at Old Highway 53 and Olympic Drive. Bennett said unknown persons had smashed out a window and attempted to remove the cash register from the business but were unsuccessful.

During the investigation Officer Mike Carpenter collected evidence left at the scene that was later submitted to the California Department of Justice, Bennett said.

This month, the Department of Justice notified the Clearlake Police Department that a DNA match had been made connecting the submitted evidence to a person in their data bank, according to Bennett.

That person, said Bennett, was Harris, who was contacted by Det. Tim Alvarado at Lake County Jail, where Harris was in custody on an unrelated case.

Jail records show that Harris has been arrested Oct. 13 and is being held on a misdemeanor probation violation.

When questioned about his involvement in the burglary and confronted with the DNA evidence, Harris admitted to the burglary, Bennett said.

Bennett said the case has been forwarded to the District Attorney’s office for charges.

The Clearlake Police Department is asking anyone with additional information on this case to contact Detective Alvarado at 707-994-8251.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Lake Family Resource Center is commemorating Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a number of events throughout October.

The final event will be a clothesline workshop and t-shirt display from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at Lake Family Resource Center’s Clearlake office, 15312 Lakeshore Drive.

The workshop will be available for those who wish to honor a loved one, a domestic violence survivor or victim.  

The resulting display of the art t-shirts bearing witness to violence against women, men and children will be hung until Nov. 1 at the Clearlake office.

Shirts created that day will be hung again next year as part of the continuing display of art honoring domestic violence survivors and victims.

Shirts and paints are being provided for your art. Don’t miss the opportunity to make your statement.

Lake Family Resource Center is determined to call awareness to the tragedy of domestic violence in the hope of ending it in Lake County.

The center provides a multitude of services to build family stability and strength, and supports Lake County residents in achieving stable, self-sufficient, and healthy families and communities.  

Call them at 707-279-0563 to find out more about what they offer.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Veterans Day will be celebrated at Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport again this year.  

Lake County veterans, their families and all supporters in the community are invited to Konocti Vista Casino to celebrate those who have served our country at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 11. Doors open at 10 a.m.

Annual past participants have included the high school bands, 4-H members, Sea Scouts, Lake County veteran organizations and the Military Funeral Honors Team.

The Veterans Day ceremony will include presentations of the County’s annual “Friend of the Veteran” and United Veterans Council’s “Veteran of the Year” awards.

Through the generosity of Konocti Vista Casino, a complimentary lunch will be provided to those in attendance.

Everyone is welcome to join in the celebration and honoring of our veterans.  

Konocti Vista Casino is located at 2755 Mission Rancheria Road in Lakeport.

For more information call 707-274-9512.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A popular annual event that has showcased Lake County’s natural beauty and unparalleled abundance of wildland is coming to an end.

The Heron Festival, which has developed into a springtime tradition over the past 18 years, is being discontinued, according to Marilyn Waits, president of the Redbud Audubon Society, which sponsors the event.

Waits told Lake County News that the pontoon boat tours to see birds and wildlife on Clear Lake, which was an original part of the event and has remained its fundamental nature education activity, will continue.

She said the tours are why Roberta Lyons started the festival in 1994, giving people a chance to get out and learn more about and see, firsthand, the nesting herons, osprey and grebes that breed during the spring and summer months.

“The rest of it really got added to give people more fun,” said Waits.

They’ve already set Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, as dates for the 2013 pontoon boat tours, Waits said.

The Children’s Museum of Art and Science plans to incorporate the same raptor show that the festival had featured for several years into its annual day camps. Waits said Audubon is going to pay to have the live owls and raptors brought to Lake County for that camp, which reaches local children, many of them low income.

“So we’re very happy that that part of the festival will continue,” Waits said.

However, Waits added, “Nobody else has approached us to do the other parts of the festival.”

The Heron Festival – which has continued to grow every year – appears to have been a victim of its own success.

“It was wonderful but eventually it just became too much for us,” Waits said, adding it wasn’t the best use of the chapter’s people resources.

Waits credited Lyons and Susanne Scholz for being the visionaries who created the Heron Festival, one of the very first birding festivals in California.

She said Lyons and Scholz steered the festival through the first nine years, then a new team headed by Tina Wasson, Robin Chapman and Waits guided the festival to new growth in the years at Clear Lake State Park.

Waits said the annual festival required four months of organization plus the work of 200 volunteers to pull off the event, which featured a popular owl and raptor show, nature fair, booths, children’s activities, silent auction and raffle, as well as the lake tours.

Attendance during recent festival weekends had grown to nearly 2,000 people, said Waits, with more than 550 people going out on the pontoon boat tours in both 2010 and 2011.

She said Redbud Audubon attempted to downsize the event from two days to one, with it being held this past spring in Clearlake’s Redbud Park. However, even with only a one day event, Waits said the work of planning the festival took just as much time as if it had remained a weekend long.

The festival has been positive for the community at large, drawing visitors from outside the county.

“It’s really a shame, because birding is such a fabulous industry,” Lake County Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton said of the decision to end the festival.

While the chamber hasn’t done an analysis of the Heron Festival’s impact, “If they’re getting 2,000 people, we know that those 2,000 people are not all Lake County residents,” Fulton said.

That, in turn, leads to a positive economic impact for local accommodations, restaurants and gas stations, Fulton said.

While the Redbud Audubon Chapter is sad about the festival’s demise, Waits said it will allow chapter members to work on Redbud Audubon’s four-year grebe conservation project.

The Heron Festival typically coincided with the beginning of grebe breeding season, which Waits said limited their grebe project-related activities.

The project, now beginning year three, involves public outreach to educate people who use the lake about avoiding colonies when there are nest, eggs and babies, Waits said.

She said the collaborative work with two other Audubon chapters has already generated significant public awareness about protecting nesting grebe colonies.

“It’s been a really exciting thing to do,” said Waits, noting that it also resulted in the chapter’s grebe Web cam, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world.

She said the chapter has received “tremendous positive praise” from the project’s funders.

In addition, the Redbud Audubon Society – like all Audubon chapters – has a mission, said Waits. “It’s become very important to focus on bird conservation and habitat conservation.”

She said Audubon is concentrating on the four flyways that cross the United States. In California, there is the Pacific Flyway, which extends from Alaska to South America.

“There’s so much that we can do for birds and for conservation that we’re kind of refocusing to narrow our activities primarily to that,” Waits said.

Visit the Redbud Audubon Society’s Web site at www.redbudaudubon.org/ .

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LUCERNE, Calif. – Lucerne residents are urged to attend a workshop this week to find out more information about proposed water rate hikes in their community.

California Water Service Co. will host the rate workshop beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, in Lucerne Elementary School's gym/multipurpose room, located at 3351 Country Club Drive in Lucerne.

The corporation has submitted a general rate case application with the California Public Utilities Commission, seeking a 77-percent rate increase in Lucerne between 2014 and 2016.

Representatives from Cal Water will provide details about planned water system improvements, how rates are set, and other important information about water rates.

Audience members also will have an opportunity to ask questions.

More information is available at www.calwater.com .

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Lake County Public Works Department is planning an emergency road closure this week in order to conduct bridge repairs in the Middletown area.

The agency said that Santa Rosa Avenue will be closed to all traffic from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, in order to repair and replace the bridge deck at mile post marker 0.25.

Public Works said that if residents need to leave their property on that day, they must do so by no later that 8 a.m. They should be prepared to not have access to their homes until after 5 p.m.

For more information call Lake County Public Works, 707-263-2341.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – There are some charming and friendly adult cats needing homes and awaiting adoption at Lake County Animal Care and Control.

The female domestic short hair mix is 6 years old, she has a soft white coat and big, beautiful blue eyes and enjoys attention.

She weighs 8.5 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 46, ID No. 34385.

The male domestic medium hair mix is 2 years old, has a plush gray coat and weighs 8.6 pounds.

He has big gold eyes and has been neutered.

He is in cat room kennel No. 11a, ID No. 34357.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

California’s first significant rainfall of the season, combined with cooler temperatures, has allowed Cal Fire to lift the statewide burn ban effective Monday, Oct. 22.

Cal Fire had suspended all residential burn permits and various types of outdoor burning within the 31 million acres of State Responsibility Area on Aug. 15.

While the statewide burn ban is lifted, local burn bans set by Cal Fire’s 21 operational units may still be in effect. Each of the 21 Cal Fire unit chiefs will determine when local weather conditions will allow for safe outdoor burning.

Lake County’s burn ban remains in effect.

Following the lifting of local burn bans, burn permits may be required in some areas so residents should always check with their local fire station and air quality district before burning.

“While the threat of wildfires has not diminished completely, many areas will be receiving enough rainfall to allow homeowners to safely burn outdoors once their local burn bans are lifted,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director. “It is still important that residents monitor the weather closely, as a warming trend could increase the fire threat.”

This fire season has kept firefighters across the State very busy as fire activity has been significantly higher this year.

To date, there have been over 5,500 wildfires in Cal Fire’s jurisdiction that have burned nearly 130,000 acres, compared to last year when there were 4,100 wildfires during the same time period that charred over 55,000 acres.

Even with the cooler weather, there is still the possibility of wildfires and CAL FIRE remains prepared to respond.

For more information on the burn ban and tips on safe burning visit the Cal Fire Web site at www.fire.ca.gov .