Little League Giving Back ON THE MARKET action column Guide to local real estate .......................................Inside ..........Page A-6 ............Page A-3 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper .......Page A-2 Tomorrow: Cloudy and cool; may rain 7 58551 69301 0 FRIDAY May 19, 2006 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 22 pages, Volume 148 Number 40 email: [email protected] Nursing home group sued over care ness practices, violations of the health and “There is a direct correlation between the Company owns safety codes and violations of the Consumer level and quality of care a patient receives and Legal Remedies Act. the direct nursing staff available at the facili- Ukiah Convalescent The suit, filed May 10 in Los Angeles ty,” Garcia said. By BEN BROWN Superior Court by Stephen M. Garcia of the The suit is being filed on behalf of Barbara The Daily Journal Garcia Law Firm, alleges that many of the 29 Davidson, a former resident of the Shoreline Twenty-nine nursing homes, including one nursing homes owned by the Ensign Group Healthcare Center in Long Beach, the in Ukiah, have been named as a party in a Inc. have failed to provide the state-required class action lawsuit alleging unlawful busi- 3.2 nursing hours per-patient per-day. See LAWSUIT, Page A-13 Flood rescue award Ukiah swiftwater rescue team to receive national honors By LAURA CLARK Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal The Daily Journal Heidi Vaughan, a Ukiah resident, Four Ukiah firefighters will helps prep the daily meal at receive the 2006 Higgins and Plowshares community kitchen on Langley Swiftwater Rescue Thursday morning.Vaughan has been Incident Award in honor of the volunteering at the kitchen for more successful rescue of more than than 20 years. 50 residents from the flooded Oak Manor subdivision on New Year’s Eve weekend. STRETCHED TO THE LIMIT Three Laytonville volunteer firefighters -- Capt. Terry Guerrero and firefighters Daniel Zumkeller and Ryan Grand jury says Smith -- will also be honored for assisting Ukiah Fire Capt. Charlie Miller, firefighter/para- local safety net medic Nathan Vagt, volunteer firefighter/emergency medical stretched thin technician Tyler Bushby, and volunteer firefighter/EMT Ron The Daily Journal Roysum in their last and most The Mendocino County grand jury this dangerous rescue. week issued a report lauding the work of After some four dozen res- four longtime inland empire nonprofits and cues, Miller’s team needed help warning that they will need help to continue with one “major rescue,” so the serving the community. group requested mutual aid, and “If it were not for them, local government the state sent in the trio from would be expected to bear even more of the Laytonville. burden than it already does,” wrote grand “We had two people stranded Isaac Eckel/The Daily Journal jurors. at the very end of Gobbi Street. (Above) Ukiah Fire Depart- They referred to the Plowshares The river was flowing through ment Capt. Charlie Miller Community Dining Room; the Ukiah that area with very strong cur- (left), volunteer firefighter/ Community Center and Food Bank; the Ford EMT Tyler Bushby (center), Street Project, which runs the homeless shel- ter and housing programs for people in sub- See RESCUE, Page A-13 and firefighter/paramedic Na- than Vagt perform mainte- stance abuse recovery; and Project nance on UFD’s inflatable res- Sanctuary, with programs for battered Photo courtesy of the Ukiah Fire Department cue boat.The three, as well as women and men and rape victims. (Right) Volunteer firefight- volunteer firefighter/EMT Ron “In times of financial cutbacks in er/EMT Ron Roysum, one Roysum and three members Mendocino County, the demand for the ser- of the team leaders on the of the Laytonville Volunteer vices provided by these agencies rises dras- Ukiah Fire Department’s Fire Department will receive tically while their funding is cut back,” the Swiftwater Rescue team, the 2006 Higgins and Langley report notes. practices rescue drills with Swiftwater Rescue Incident Citing recent studies that estimate home- an unidentified student Award for their efforts during lessness at about 6 percent of the population during a swiftwater rescue the New Year’s flood. in Mendocino County, 22 percent of the pop- training. ulation on Medi-Cal, 38 percent out of the workforce and 16 percent below the poverty See GRAND JURY, Page A-11 School transfer requests spark discussion Rattlesnake By TONY REED “She’s always had a peer group that’s more Fort Bragg Advocate-News ‘There’s this mindset that the only place you’re Mendocino,” she said, “and hasn’t really set up FORT BRAGG -- Saying they’re not happy going to get a quality education if you’re a middle peers here.” anti-venin to find parents trying to get their kids trans- Frasier noted that even though her daughter ferred into Mendocino schools because they class Caucasian kid is to go to Mendocino. That’s has always lived inside Fort Bragg School are perceived as better institutions, Fort Bragg District boundaries, she has always attended in stock here Unified School District board members what we keep seeing, and that is what I have a schools in the Mendocino geographical area. The Daily Journal approved a limit of 127 students to transfer to problem with.’ When asked, Frasier said she had toured The Ukiah Valley Medical Center other school districts for the 2006-07 year. Fort Bragg Middle School, talked with the reports that its pharmacy has eight vials Although the transfer limit adoption seemed TRUSTEE JENNIFER OWEN principal and plans to attend a school open of rattlesnake anti-venin in stock at the quick and procedural, two requests for student house. hospital and if needed the hospital can transfers touched off an outpouring of discus- “I hate to be the monster here and deny and get more. sion on the issue by trustees. McColley went on to say that his family lives turn your own children away from their It has agree- FOLLOW-UP Parents John McColley and Carla Frasier near the border between the districts, actually friends,” said Trustee Jennifer Owen. “I just ments with other each came to the May 11 board meeting to closer to Mendocino than to Fort Bragg. think that there is this mindset that the only area Adventist hos- explain the reasons behind their transfer Frasier said her daughter was moving on to place you’re going to get a quality education if pitals, including Howard Hospital in requests. middle school from the K-5 Mendocino satel- you’re a middle class Caucasian kid is to go to Willits, Redbud in Lakeport and Sutter “We enrolled our son in pre-school when he lite school in Caspar, and hopes that she can Mendocino. That’s what we keep seeing, and in St. Helena to provide anti-venin was 2; he is now about to start in kindergarten,” transfer with her peers to Mendocino. that is what I have a problem with.” when needed. The cost of each vial is McColley told the board. “We have established Frasier said she is in the process of appeal- She said her children attended Fort Bragg $1,500. relationships with parents and friends there ing a previous denial for her daughter’s trans- who are basically our sole support here.” fer. See TRANSFERS, Page A-11 SSAYAY NNOO TTOO HHIGHIGH Create Your Own 509 S. State St. • Ukiah FFUELUEL CCOSTS!OSTS! Backyard Vacation 462-7305 A-2 – FRIDAY, MAY 19, 2006 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] sion of methamphetamine for FUNERAL NOTICES DA REPORTS sale. The following were Those arrested by law enforcement [\ cargo under hazardous up-beat, life-affirming ter. officers are innocent until proven guilty. compiled from reports People reported as having been arrest- conditions. person with a wonderful He graduated from prepared by the Ukiah ed may contact the Daily Journal once After the war Franklin sense of humor and Jefferson High School in Police Department. To their case has been concluded so the became a legal stenograph- an encyclopedic knowledge Portland in 1951, enlisted results can be reported. Those who feel anonymously report the information is in error should con- er recording court proceed- of facts both important and in the Army in crime information, call tact the appropriate agency. In the case ings and administrative trivial. He was an accom- 1952, and served in Kenai, 463-6205. of those arrested on suspicion of dri- hearings in American plished Alaska, where he ving under the influence of an intoxi- Samoa and pianist and a witty conver- met Esther. After leaving cant: all DUI cases reported by law SENTENCING -- Judge enforcement agencies are reported by South Korea. Following his sationalist with a the Army, he David Nelson sentenced the newspaper.The Daily Journal makes return to the Unit- wry sense of humor and an worked at Boeing Airplane Diane Sheila Sodosky, 40, of no exceptions. ed States he worked as a oft-expressed Co. in Renton, Fort Bragg, to three-years and court reporter for empathy for the oppressed. Washington, and then eight-months in state prison the California court system He was a fre- returned to Anchorage for charges of possession for CORRECTIONS serving in San quent and generous giver to where he became involved sale of methamphetamine, The Ukiah Daily Journal Francisco, Ventura, San many charities in accounting and possession for sale of cocaine reserves this space to correct Diego and Oakland. and a long-time member of real estate. After twenty and vandalism. errors or make clarifications During his career he the American Civil years in Alaska, he Sodosky was found in to news articles.