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Posts Tagged ‘Northern California’

EMILY AVILES, Ode Magazine, October 26, 2009
Lately, the shores of San Francisco, California have been attracting more than wet-suit clad surfers and their boards.
A site five miles off the city’s western beach is being considered for a new Oceanside Wave Energy project.
Australian energy company BioPower Systems is collaborating with the City of San Francisco to [...]

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Dan Bacher, October 23, 2009
Environmentalists and fishermen on California’s North Coast are calling for an independent investigation into the killing of an endangered blue whale off Fort Bragg by a mapping survey boat contracted by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
In order to stop the killing of any more whales, locals are also asking for an [...]

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Editor’s Note:  When walking Manny, my dog, at Seaside Beach on the Mendocino coast on October 3rd, I noticed evidence from the tsunami in the dramatically high water markings left behind and advised below:
Ukiah Daily Journal, September 29, 2009
A 25-inch tsunami is expected to hit the Mendocino Coast tonight at 8:53 p.m., according to county [...]

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Editor’s Note: The family of Allison Krause seeks and supports the creation of Four Days In May, the Kent State Truth Tribunal, a collaborative, multimedia, sharing event to dialog, document, discover and uncover the truth in the events leading to the killing of four students and wounding of nine at the Kent State Massacre.
Here’s [...]

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JAMES RICKMAN, Seeking Alpha, June 8, 2009
Oceans cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface. As the world’s largest solar collectors, oceans generate thermal energy from the sun. They also produce mechanical energy from the tides and waves. Even though the sun affects all ocean activity, the gravitational pull of the moon primarily drives the [...]

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OurGreenJourney, May 20, 2009
Sonoma County has funded its first clean energy loan secured by a lien on property taxes. As we have posted before, the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program is California’s first county wide energy efficiency financing district, authorized by AB 811.
The loan of $25,500 went to homeowners and paid for a 5 [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, May 20, 2009
At this core energy technology incubator, energy policy is created as renewable energy technologies and science move swiftly from white boards and white papers to testing, refinement and implementation.
The Vision
Mendocino Energy is located on the Mendocino coast, three plus hours north of San Francisco/Silicon Valley. On the waterfront of Fort Bragg, utilizing [...]

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Excerpts of FRANK HARTZELL’s article, Mendocino Beacon, May 7, 2009
GreenWave Energy Solutions, an “alternative energy startup has been granted a three-year preliminary permit to study wave energy off Mendocino.
It’s locals’ first look at action by a newly recast Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which is tasked by the Obama Administration to make a greater push [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, April 26, 2009
The California Energy Commission is conducting a workshop on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 in Sacramento, to discuss the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provisions related to funding for energy projects.
The workshop will focus on Assembly Bill 811 (Levine, Chapter 159, Statutes of 2008) that finances the installation of energy efficiency improvements, [...]

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MARK CLAYTON, The Christian Science Monitor, April 24, 2009
Three miles off the craggy, wave-crashing coastline near Humboldt Bay, California, deep ocean swells roll through a swath of ocean that is soon to be the site of the nation’s first major wave energy project.

Like other renewable energy technology, ocean energy generated by waves, tidal currents or steady offshore [...]

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JEFF QUACKENBUSH, North Bay Business Journal, October 6, 2008
Santa Rosa – Sonoma County governments have aggressive goals and strategies for curbing gases blamed for climate change, and they now have a new tool for enticing owners of existing commercial and residential structures into reducing emissions via energy-efficient upgrades.
Several North Bay local governments have put in [...]

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COLIN SULLIVAN, The New York Times, April 14, 2009
Palo Alto — Technology for tapping ocean waves, tides and rivers for electricity is far from commercial viability and lagging well behind wind, solar and other fledgling power sectors, a panel of experts said last week during a forum here on climate change and marine ecosystems.
While the [...]

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Publisher’s Note:  Feb 09, 2009 – Not only has Finavera surrendered their Makah Bay license noted below, they also announced surrendering the Humboldt County, California Preliminary Permit to explore wave energy:
“Finavera Renewables has filed applications to surrender its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license for the Makah Bay Wave Energy Pilot Project in Washington and the [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 31, 2009
On January 26, 2009, Lockheed Martin and Ocean Power Technologies agreed to work together to develop a commercial-scale wave energy project off the coasts of Oregon or California.
OPT is providing their expertise in project and site development as they build the plant’s power take-off and control systems with their PowerBuoy for electricity [...]

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Editors Note:  On May 11, 2009, PG&E pulled-out of Mendocino WaveConnect, read it here: http://tinyurl.com/qwlbg6 . The remains of the $6M are now solely allocated to Humboldt WaveConnect.
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
PG&E caught a major renewable energy wave today as the California Public Utilities Commission approved $4.8 million in funding their centerpiece wave energy [...]

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Please Take Action By MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2009 before 2:00 pm!
MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
Just a couple of weeks ago, Ann Miles, Director of Hydropower Licensing at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission visited the Mendocino coast.  The centerpiece of her presentation on January 13, 2009 at Fort Bragg Town Hall was to explain the FERC Hydokinetic [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 29, 2009
As the Monday, February 9, 2009 before 2 p.m. deadline for filing FERC Motion to Intervene papers regarding the Green Wave LLC wave energy preliminary permit off the Mendocino village coast approaches, locals, the City of Fort Bragg and fishing organization are participating and electronically filing their views with FERC.
Here’s the excellent [...]

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STEPHEN POWER, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2009
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar indicated Tuesday that the Obama Administration could be open to expanded offshore drilling and is considering doing away with a controversial program that allows oil companies to pay in kind for oil and natural gas taken from public lands.
Salazar inherited a Bush Administration [...]

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Let Your Voice Be Heard by March 23, 2009
by MendoCoastCurrent and pointarenabasin
Beginning January 22, 2009 and ending on March 23, 2009, a 60-day Public Comment Period opened regarding new offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling in the pristine waters off northern California.
And while this is a multi-step process and before things are cast in stone, NOW [...]

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JANE KAY, San Francisco Chronicle, January 17, 2009
The U.S. Interior Department, acting in President Bush’s final days in office, proposed on Friday opening up 130 million acres off of California’s coast to drilling for oil and natural gas, including areas off Humboldt and Mendocino counties and from San Luis Obispo south to San Diego.
After a [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 17, 2009
Here’s the post from MendoCoastCurrent in the Citizen’s Briefing Book at President-elect Barack Obama’s change.gov site:
Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force
Immediately establish and staff a Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force chartered with exploring and fast-tracking the development, exploration and commercialization of environmentally-sensitive renewable energy solutions in solar, wind, wave, green-ag, et [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 17, 2009
Today at the Citizen’s Briefing Book at President-elect Barack Obama’s change.gov site, I shared this:
Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force
Immediately establish and staff a Renewable Energy Development (RED) federal task force chartered with exploring and fast-tracking the development, exploration and commercialization of environmentally-sensitive renewable energy solutions in solar, wind, wave, green-ag, [...]

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FRANK HARTZELL’s article with MendoCoastCurrent edits, January 15, 2009
After nearly two years of local pleas for specifics on the WaveConnect project, PG&E representatives surprised Fort Bragg and Mendocino County representatives with many new details.
Those included the promise by PG&E that all environmental studies would be public, not private information. In the recent past, PG&E had [...]

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CBS 5 with MendoCoastCurrent edits, January 8, 2009
New legislation may prevent oil drilling off the California coast in Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Growing concern about the nation’s reliance on foreign oil has led to rekindled enthusiasm in some quarters for coastal oil drilling, and renewed efforts to protect the Northern California coast.
Two bills [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, January 7, 2009
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher today issued the following statement:
Today I announce my intention to step down as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), effective January 20, 2009. Although my term as commissioner does not end until 2012, I will also immediately begin to recuse myself from [...]

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JANE KAY, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 29, 2008
The federal government is taking steps that may open California’s fabled coast to oil drilling in as few as three years, an action that could place dozens of platforms off the Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt coasts, and raises the specter of spills, air pollution and increased ship [...]

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Excerpts from article by FRANK HARTZELL, The Mendocino Beacon, December 24, 2008
On January 13, 2009, from 5-7p.m. at Fort Bragg Town Hall, a “top official from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will appear to explain the agency’s strategy on developing what it calls “hydrokinetic” power as an alterative energy source.
Ann F. Miles, FERC’s director [...]

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JOHN KING, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 19, 2008
The impacts of climate change are a hot topic among scientists and environmental activists.  Now the Bay Conservation and Development Commission wants to hear from another perspective: the design community.
The state agency is preparing to launch a $125,000 competition that will invite architects, planners and engineers to bring innovative proposals [...]

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Redwood Times, December 17, 2008
California State Senator Patricia Wiggins has introduced new legislation to encourage more production of solar power by compensating smaller producers for all of the solar power that they generate.
Currently, residential electric customers can participate in the state’s solar program, known as the California Solar Initiative, and receive subsidies for the installation [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article at the Mendocino Beacon, December 11, 2008
On December 9, 2008  “the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) granted a Southern California development company exclusive rights to 17 square miles off the town of Mendocino for a wave energy study.
GreenWave LLC’s intent is to eventually produce a 100 megawatt wave energy power [...]

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MARGOT ROOSEVELT, The Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2008
California regulators adopted the nation’s first comprehensive plan to slash greenhouse gases on December 11th and characterized it as a model for President-elect Barack Obama, who has pledged an aggressive national and international effort to combat global warming.
The ambitious blueprint by the world’s eighth-largest economy would cut [...]

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MendoCoastCurent, December 9, 2008
SRI International, an independent, nonprofit research and development organization, demonstrated and tested a buoy-mounted, wave powered generator in the ocean near Santa Cruz, Calif. This demonstration was part of a program sponsored by HYPER DRIVE Corporation, a Japanese company focused on the development of wave powered generators around the world. The generator [...]

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JESSICA LUSSENHOP, Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 9, 2008
“I hope I don’t get seasick,” says a Japanese translator as she and several visitors from the Tokyo-based company Hyper Drive prepare to board Velocity, a 60-foot Stagnaro whale-watching boat, to see the newest model of the company’s ocean wave-powered generator—which is at this very moment bouncing around in [...]

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SolanoCountyBusinessNews.com, November 27, 2008
Escondido-based EnXco, a subsidaiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles Co., recently announced that it has closed on the project financing for the Shiloh II Wind Energy Project under construction in the Montezuma Hills area of Solano County, California.
Lenders to the projects are Nord/LB as lead administrative agent, Dexia and Credit Industriel et Commercial; [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, November 21, 2008
San Francisco — Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced that it has entered into a long-term agreement with Hatchet Ridge Wind LLC, a subsidiary of Babcock & Brown, to purchase up to 103 megawatts (MW) of wind energy. The project will generate up to 303 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy annually. This [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, November 9, 2008
MendoCoastCurrent applauds Frank Hartzell’s reporting in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon, and in winning reporting awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association’s Better Newspapers Contest for work published in 2007. The awards were recently announced at CNPA’s annual awards luncheon in late October 2008.
Reporter Frank Hartzell’s on-going, in-depth and [...]

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MATT NAUMAN, San Jose Mercury News, October 27, 2008
The California Public Utilities Commission rejected a Pacific Gas & Electric contract for wave energy, saying the utility was going to pay too much for a technology that’s still largely experimental.
Last December, PG&E said it would be the first utility in the nation to get energy from [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, October 16, 2008
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) claimed that it has jurisdiction over hydroelectric projects located on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), pointing to laws that define its role.
FERC addressed the jurisdictional question, raised by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Mineral Management Service (MMS), in the context of a rehearing order on [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article in the Fort Bragg Advocate-News, September 18, 2008
PG&E “expects to be granted $1.2 million this week by the U.S. Department of Energy to study wave energy off Fort Bragg and Eureka” and is seeking “the new money earlier this summer to move its local wave energy study under a Federal [...]

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KEVIN McCALLUM, The Press Democrat, September 19, 2008
Three months after smoke from wildfires carpeted California’s vineyards, some winemakers in the thick of harvest are reporting grapes giving off unusual odors that may be signs of smoke taint.
Smoke from wildfires makes the sun look red as it sets over a vineyard off Geysers Road in June.
While [...]

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Excerpts from FRANK HARTZELL’s article at the Mendocino Beacon, September 4, 2008
PG&E decided last week not to be the national test case for the Minerals Management Service’s wave energy program.
Just two weeks earlier, the utility officially filed paperwork to pursue those same far offshore wave energy leases. None of the filings have yet been provided [...]

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MADDALENA JACKSON with MendoCoastCurrent edit, The Sacramento Bee, August 11, 2008
Oil companies, some politicians and commuters paying $4 for a gallon of gas might look at California’s coast and think of crude oil pooled below the sea floor.
California’s North Coast, however, holds promise of another energy bounty.
In less time than it would take to fire [...]

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DAVID R. BAKER, The San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 2008
The U.S. Interior Department ratcheted up the pressure on Congress Wednesday to open more of the country’s coastline to offshore oil drilling, a move petroleum companies have sought for decades.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said his department will lay the groundwork for selling undersea oil-drilling leases on [...]

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DAVID R. BAKER, Village Green/SFGate.com, July 23, 2008
Drilling for undersea oil along the east and west coasts has quickly turned into one of America’s loudest political fights, as anyone reading the comments on SFGate can attest. But it’s not the Bush administration’s only plan for offshore energy.
For the past few years, the administration has been [...]

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Publishers Note: In early August 2008, FERC Denied Rehearing the Mendocino Coast related to the following post. This is one in a series of actions that Federal Government has taken to obstruct community involvement and begin the necessary dialog on environmental concerns.
MendoCoastCurrent, July 21, 2008
An alliance of Northern California coast commercial and recreational [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 19, 2008, 6:30 pm
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 54,817 acres
Containment: 100% contained
Structures Threatened: No current threat
Structures Destroyed: 1 residence and 1 outbuilding
Injuries: 47
Evacuations: All Evacuations have been lifted
Road Closures: All roads are currently open
Evacuation Centers: All Evacuation [...]

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CHRIS BOWMAN, Sacramento Bee, July 18, 2008
If every cloud has a silver lining, what good can be said of the big brown dome of wildfire smoke that capped much of California these past few weeks? Plenty, say ecologists who study the effects of fire on the landscape.
While the siege of lightning-sparked fires continues to inundate [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 18, 2008, 7:00 am
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 53,300
Containment: 100% contained
Structures Threatened: No current threat
Structures Destroyed: 1 residence and 1 outbuilding
Injuries: 46
Fatalities: 1
Evacuations: All evacuations have been lifted
Road Closures: All roads are currently open
Evacuation Centers: All Evacuation Centers have [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 17, 2008, 6:30 am
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 53,300
Containment: 95% contained
Expected Containment: July 17, 2008
Structures Threatened: No current threat
Structures Destroyed: 1 Residence and 1 Outbuilding
Injuries: 45
Fatalities: 1
Evacuations: All evacuations have been lifted
Road Closures: All roads are currently [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 15, 2008, 10:30 am
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 53,300
Containment: 90% contained
Expected Containment: July 16, 2008
Structures Threatened: No current threat
Structures Destroyed: 2 residences
Injuries: 43
Fatalities: 1
Evacuations: All Evacuations have been lifted
At 10 a.m. on 7/13 the evacuation warning for the community [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent: July 14, 2008, 6:00 pm
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 53,300
Containment: 85% contained
Expected Containment: July 16, 2008
Structures Threatened: 30 residences
Structures Destroyed: 2 residences
Injuries: 43
Fatalities: 1
Evacuations: All evacuations have been lifted
At 6 p.m. on 7/14 the following evacuation warnings have been [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 11, 2008, 7:00 am
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 52,290
Containment: 65% contained
Structures Threatened: 335 residences
Structures Destroyed: 2 residences
Injuries: 38 minor injuries
Fatalities: 1
Evacuation “Warnings” remain in effect for:

Community of Rockport
Red Mountain Road – From the intersection of Red Mountain Road and Bell [...]

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BEN BROWN, The Daily Journal, July 9, 2008
Among the 18 aircraft currently being used to fight fires in Mendocino County are two Blackhawk helicopters on loan from the military.
Cal Fire spokeswoman Tracy Boudreaux said the two helicopters have been outfitted with buckets and are being used like any other helitack helicopter for water drops and [...]

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MendoCoastCurrent, July 9, 2008, 7:00 am
Date/Time Started: June 20, 2008, 6:00 pm
Administrative Unit: CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit
County: Mendocino County
Location: Throughout Mendocino County
Acres Burned: 51,200
Containment: 60% contained
Structures Threatened: 335 residences
Structures Destroyed: 2 residences
Injuries: 34 minor injuries
Fatalities: 1
Evacuation Centers: All Evacuation Centers have been placed on standby
Evacuation “Warnings” remain in effect for:

Community of Rockport
Red Mountain Road [...]

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PAUL PAYNE, The Press Democrat, July 8, 2008
An army of firefighters in Mendocino County today continued their almost 3-week-old battle and braced for expected extreme temperatures.
“Our biggest concern now is the heat,” said Frank Kemper, a Cal Fire spokesman.
Temperatures in the Ukiah Valley are projected to reach 113 degrees, part of a heat wave sweeping [...]

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