Final County Votes Give Obama Local Win Mccain Easily Wins with by BEN BROWN and County’S Vote Left to Be Counted, Reporting on Wednesday Morning, Percent
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Potter Valley Weekend FORUM girls basketball entertainment Our readers write tops Geyserville .............Page 6 ..............Page 3 ..................................Page 4 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Partly sunny; H 64º L 38º 7 58551 69301 0 THURSDAY Feb. 7, 2008 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 149 Number 304 email: [email protected] Final county votes give Obama local win McCain easily wins with By BEN BROWN and County’s vote left to be counted, reporting on Wednesday morning, percent. county’s GOP voters; ROB BURGESS New York Sen. Hillary Clinton Illinois Sen. Barack Obama appeared As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Clinton The Daily Journal appeared to have the county in the to have won in Mendocino County, was leading Obama 44.08 percent to those who voted outside At 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, with bag. What a difference a day makes. with 44.12 percent of the vote, fol- 40.13 percent. party invalidated ballots less than 8 percent of Mendocino With 100 percent of precincts lowed closely by Clinton with 42.34 See ELECTION, Page 15 PREPARATIONS UNDER WAY FOR THIS WEEKEND’S EVENT OF THE HEART RV man accused of threatening with knife Jailed on charges of attempted murder The Daily Journal A Redwood Valley man was arrested on charges of attempted murder Tuesday night after he allegedly threat- ened a woman with a kitchen knife over the weekend. According to reports from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the woman, a 64-year-old Redwood Valley resident, called sheriff’s deputies and told them she had been attacked by her roommate, John Ayotte, 66, of Redwood Valley. The victim told deputies that, on Sunday, Ayotte grabbed a kitchen knife and threatened her, chasing her out into the yard. Ayotte allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat and threatened to stab her, according to sheriff’s reports. The woman told deputies she knocked the knife out of the suspect’s hand and escaped his hold. A neighbor then came out of a nearby house, allowing the woman to flee the home. At 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies drove to Ayotte’s home in the MacLeod Pappidas/The Daily Journal 8400 block of Uva Drive and arrested Cyril Colonius, executive director of MCAVN , is preparing for the 21st annual Event of the Heart, to be held Saturday him on suspicion of attempted murder night at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds. and threats. Ayotte was booked into the Mendocino County Jail, where he is MCAVN hoping to raise $25,000 being held on a $500,000 bond. By ZACK SAMPSEL break from the dreary weather of the past The Daily Journal ‘We’re a local organization. We serve locally and month. The event will begin Saturday at 6 Rain takes we depend on local donations. ...The event has a p.m. with a reception sponsored by The or 21 years, the Mendocino County Mendocino Wine Company inside Carl Purdy AIDS Volunteer Network has played great reputation, and people come to have a Hall at the Redwood Empire Fairgrounds -- host to the Event of the Heart, and the home of the event for the past 15 years. out Willits with a new local focus, Executive great time and dance. It’s fun for them to dress F Colonius said the diverse atmosphere and Director Cyril Colonius expects this to be the up and be a part of a fancy affair.’ theme of the evening will come together with best year yet. a Mediterranean-inspired meal, catered by phone lines “We’re spicing it up a bit this year,” Zack’s Catering, which includes grape leaves By BEN BROWN Colonius said as he prepared the decorations and Middle Eastern appetizers. for Saturday night’s event. “Our raffles this CYRIL COLONIUS, executive director of MCAVN The Daily Journal “Our black and white color scheme is also Repair crews from AT&T have been year will be for local businesses instead of guiding the decorations and the food. I’ve our usual vacations.” from local businesses like The Ukiah working around the clock this week to been redecorating panels that we’ve used dry and repair phone lines that provide Previous event’s raffles have offered trips Brewing Company. before, but this year we’re redoing them for to exotic destinations like Mexico, but “We’ve focused on local things, because service to 500 customers in the Willits the event,” Colonius explained as he area. Colonius said MCAVN wanted to keep the that’s what’s most important to us,” Colonius stretched fabric across the star-covered pan- focus in Ukiah with 10 local businesses giv- said with a smile. AT&T spokeswoman Brooke Burgess els. said the heavy rains that have fallen in the ing out a grand prize worth more than $2,000. The theme for this year’s Event of the A silent auction where attendees can bid This Mendocino County-first attitude also Heart is ‘Midnight at the Oasis,’ which Willits area in the last two weeks flooded comes in the form of beer and wine donations Colonius said was the perfect way to take a See HEART, Page 15 portions of the sewer system where AT&T’s copper phone lines are housed. “Rain is the biggest enemy of our cop- per network,” Burgess said. The first problems were reported on BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Sunday and by Tuesday, 500 users had reported problems with their phone ser- Fire District bestows vice. Repair crews have been pumping County to explore adding water out of three flooded manholes, dry- awards on firefighters ing out the lines and splicing them where The Daily Journal Insurance. necessary. The Ukiah Valley Fire Career Capt. Jeff Adair was staff reports to Web site Burgess said working in manholes is District honored several fire- given the award for safety. By ROB BURGESS mation available on the Web,” Smith complicated because only two techni- fighters last week with its Adair was given the award for The Daily Journal said. “I asked to put this on the agenda cians can fit into the space at a time. annual firefighter awards. his work implementing the dis- The Mendocino County Board of and that we begin a very basic discus- On Wednesday, Burgess said the num- Volunteer Apparatus trict’s online safety program, Supervisors took the first steps sion on this.” ber of people in the Willits area without Engineer John Lattimore was which allows volunteer fire- Tuesday toward posting supplemental Third District Supervisor John phone service had dropped to 485. “It’s named firefighter of the year fighters to receive safety train- information along with its agendas on Pinches said he was cautious about going down by the minute,” she said. for his hard work and leader- ing via the Internet. Adair has its Web site. moving too hastily on the item. Burgess said AT&T hopes to have ship. Lattimore is one of the been working for the Fire The item was added to the meeting’s “I think this needs to be put into phone service restored to the area by district’s newest apparatus District for 17 years. agenda by 4th District Supervisor committee,” he said. “There’s going to today. engineers. He joined the dis- The emergency medical ser- Kendall Smith after repeated requests be a lot of staff time involved. It could Anyone experiencing problems with trict as a volunteer in 2003 and vices award was given to vol- to take action by those who took to the run into a very expensive project. For phone service is encouraged to call was promoted to engineer in unteer firefighter and emer- microphone during the public com- the most part it’s a very small amount AT&T’s customer support line at 1-800- 2007. Lattimore was also gency medical technician ment portions of previous meetings. of people requesting this and potential- 310-2355. named firefighter of the year in “It’s very important for the outlying Ben Brown can be reached at 2006. He works for State Farm See UVFD, Page 15 areas; we only have very basic infor- See COUNTY, Page 15 [email protected]. 2 – THURSDAY, FEB. 7, 2008 DAILY DIGEST Editor: Jody Martinez, 468-3517 The Ukiah Daily Journal [email protected] POLICE REPORTS Bragg Police Department at Voters approve major expansion of tribal gambling 9:09 a.m. Tuesday. The following were BOOKED -- Vincent By AARON C. DAVIS That means he’s banking that they will lions of dollars in new revenue for the compiled from reports Charles McKenny, 18, of Associated Press Writer begin the work of installing new slot state each year, and once again said yes to prepared by the Ukiah Arcata, was booked into jail LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold machines almost immediately. standing with California’s Indian tribes” Police Department. To on suspicion of driving Schwarzenegger says he’s counting on Even if the governor and tribes are said Salazar. anonymously report under the influence, being four wealthy Indian tribes and their right, the deals would cover just 4 percent The deals would not have required crime information, call under the influence of a con- expanding gambling operations to help of the state’s shortfall. And at most, the voter approval, but a coalition of two 463-6205. trolled substance and pos- close California’s massive budget short- gambling revenue would amount to less other gambling-rich tribes, a horse track ARREST -- Joel Paul session of a controlled sub- fall.