Mendo Local Weekly Roundup — August 22, 2026

🏛️ Mendocino County

Access to STEM Kits Expands for Teachers in Mendocino County
By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 22
Access to hands-on STEM kits is expanding for teachers across Mendocino County. The kits include projects that teach students how to build and repair the electronics used in automotive systems.
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Judge Denies Petition to Strike Hart From the District 3 Ballot
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 20
A Mendocino County Superior Court judge rejected Clay Romero's petition to remove Eric Hart from the November ballot for 3rd District supervisor, ruling Hart established legal residence in the district before the filing deadline. Judge Ann Moorman found Hart's testimony "believable and credible," clearing the way for a November runoff between Hart and Buffey Wright Bourassa.
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An Oxford Historian Captured Mendocino's Weed Stories Before They Disappeared
By Richard Miller, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
British historian Charlie Harris has documented Mendocino County's shift from timber country into the heart of California's cannabis trade in a new book, "Mendo," published by Counterpoint Press in June. Harris raced to capture the black-market stories of loggers and Back-to-the-Land newcomers before they vanished, chronicling how marijuana became the region's economic lifeline until legalization crashed prices.
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📰 Anderson Valley

Anderson Valley's Earliest Harvest Meets Its Oldest Problem: Visibility
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 21
Anderson Valley's grape harvest is arriving earlier than growers can remember, ripening one of the world's renowned appellations at record speed. Yet the region still fights an old problem — visibility — with its acclaimed wines remaining hard to find on mainstream shelves like Safeway.
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🌲 Caspar

What Belongs on a Contaminated Mill Site in the Middle of a Neighborhood?
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
Mendocino Forest Products is seeking county permits to use a former 36-acre lumber mill near Caspar for forestry-material storage, private fleet parking, and a firefighter-training facility built without permits in 2022. Neighbors and nearly all 29 public commenters objected, citing the site's history as a leaking-underground-storage-tank cleanup area where petroleum has contaminated residential wells.
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⛰️ Covelo

Covelo's Award-Winning Library Raises $10,000 to Fix Its Solar Power
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
Covelo's Round Valley Public Library — named the Best Small Library in America by Library Journal in 2024 — raised $10,000 to repair the failed solar inverter powering its historic Commons building, beating its $6,000 goal. The Friends of the Round Valley Public Library, which owns and maintains the building, raised the money through farmers'-market outreach, a banner on MendoLocal.News and news articles.
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🚨 Fort Bragg

Mendocino Coast Clinics Buys the Mendocino Coast Pharmacy for Undisclosed Amount
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 21
Mendocino Coast Clinics has bought the Mendocino Coast Pharmacy, adding a retail drugstore to the federally qualified health center's operations for the first time; Executive Director Lucresha Renteria declined to disclose the price.
Disclosure: Elise Cox, editor of MendoLocal.News, is a patient at Mendocino Coast Clinics.
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Mendocino Cove Completes Reimagining of Former Pine Beach Inn
By Carole Brodsky, Ukiah Daily Journal · Aug. 20
Teresa Raffo and partner Chris Hougie — owners of Mendocino Grove — have reopened the former Pine Beach Inn as Mendocino Cove, a reimagined 9-acre lodge on the coast south of Fort Bragg. The property opened to the public after a soft launch last Labor Day, with final renovations and amenities still being completed.
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After Backlash, Caltrans Agrees to Modify Fort Bragg's Highway 1 Fence
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
After public backlash over a new wooden fence blocking ocean views along Highway 1's southern entrance to Fort Bragg, Caltrans and city officials said they will work together to modify the $97,000 structure. Neither agency has specified the changes yet; Caltrans District 1 said it was "receptive to community concerns" and will consult its contractor.
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Fort Bragg Tsunami Preparedness
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 17
The Fort Bragg police department successful evacuated residents in the wake of a Tsunami warning following the Dec. 5, 2024, magnitude-7.0 quake. However, a Mendocino Voice examination found an annex to a 49-page emergency plan was never written. The tsunami siren sounded just six to eight seconds, and officers evacuated neighborhoods street by street with patrol-car sirens. In addition, the city didn't open its emergency-operations software until 14 minutes after the first surge arrived.
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🔨 Gualala

Gualala Community Center Rebuild Awarded to Warner Construction
By Kat Gleason, Independent Coast Observer · Aug. 20
The Board of Directors of the Gualala Community Center awarded the project to rebuild the center to Chad Warner of Warner Construction.
Read more (Subscription to the Independent Coast Observer required)

👮 Laytonville

Ben Miller Back in Custody
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
Benjamin Austin Miller, 48, was captured Tuesday night, Aug. 19, in a wooded area south of Lucas Lane in Laytonville, ending an intensive manhunt that began after he allegedly tried to enter a home while armed in violation of a restraining order. Deputies found him with a loaded .22-caliber rifle nearby; he was booked on new felony charges including first-degree burglary and felon in possession of a firearm and held without bail.
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💐 Leggett

A Trip to Reggae on the River Ends in Tragedy
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 19
Jose "Johnny" Mandujano, 40, of Willits was found dead Aug. 18 at the bottom of a 35-foot cliff off Highway 101 near Leggett after attending the Reggae on the River festival. His vehicle had been in a collision near the same spot early on Aug. 16; the cause and manner of death remain under investigation pending autopsy.
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🚗 Little River

Another Car Goes Off the Road Onto Van Damme Beach
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · Aug. 20
A vehicle went off the road onto Van Damme Beach near Little River around 9:51 p.m., leaving both occupants with minor injuries; the roadway stayed open. It was the second vehicle to go off the road at the beach in recent months, after another went off near Little River Bridge about a month earlier.
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🔧 Mendocino

State Parks Sued Over Sewer Pipe Near Jack Peters Creek
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · Aug. 20
Oceanfront property owners near Jack Peters Creek Bridge, along with a prospective buyer, are suing California State Parks, alleging the agency secretly ran a sewage pipe beneath their land about 50 years ago without permission — an ongoing trespass. The suit, over a line carrying sewage from Russian Gulch State Park, seeks at least $2 million in damages or the right to connect to the pipe; a case-management hearing is set for Dec. 4 before Judge Ann Moorman.
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💧 Potter Valley

Potter Valley Elementary School's Water Fix Finally Comes Together
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 17
Potter Valley's elementary school has finished installing a three-stage water-filtration system, the final piece of a treatment plant the state ordered five years ago after classifying the campus's only well as surface water.
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🚗 The Sea Ranch

Entrance to The Sea Ranch Lodge Damaged by Vehicle Collision
By Karen Elowitt, Independent Coast Observer · Aug. 20
The Sea Ranch
The iconic Marker Building at the entrance to The Sea Ranch Lodge was damaged the morning of Sunday, Aug. 16, when a southbound Ford Mustang veered off Highway 1 just north of Sea Walk Drive.
Read more (Subscription to the Independent Coast Observer required)

🏙️ Ukiah

Ukiah Dog Toast of the Big Apple. Welcome Home, Jinny Lu!
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 18
Jinny Lu, a 6-year-old rescue pug from Ukiah, was crowned World's Ugliest Dog at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds on Aug. 14 and returned home at 2 a.m. Tuesday after two days of national television in New York. She spent her first morning back asleep in her pearls at Ukiah's Pug Hotel, unbothered by the 11 other pugs working the room.
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Amazon Facility Opens North of Ukiah
By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · Aug. 17
A newly built Amazon delivery center just north of Ukiah began sending and receiving vehicles on Aug. 14. Amazon bought the property from previous owner Ross Liberty in 2025 and finished construction earlier this year; branded semitrucks and vans now move in and out of the lot.
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🚂 Willits

Willits City Council — August 12, 2026 — Full Report
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · Aug. 22
The Willits City Council appointed Helen Sims and Kevin Copperfield to the Cannabis Dispensary Selection Committee, worked through the June and July accounts payable, and pulled an item on relocating the Mark Walker sculptures to Highway 20 Park for further research. Council Member Bruce Burton flagged the erroneous rezoning of a Lopez Road property, and Mayor Tom Allman raised sidewalk liability and 72-hour parking enforcement, in a meeting that ran to 9 p.m.
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Willits Grocery Outlet Has Grand Reopening
By Jennifer Poole, Willits Weekly · Aug. 20
Willits Grocery Outlet held a grand reopening on Aug. 12, cutting the ribbon after repairing damage from June's earthquake. The Willits mayor and the store's Karen McKinney did the honors.
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Two Candidates for Two Seats on the Willits City Council
By Jennifer Poole, Willits Weekly · Aug. 20
Willits
Two candidates filed for two open seats on the Willits City Council: teacher Robin Leler, who filed by the Aug. 7 deadline, and retired finance director Sherrie Ebyam, who filed during the extended period.
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Tito, the White-Faced Capuchin Monkey, Visits the Willits Library
By Maureen Jennison, Willits Weekly · Aug. 20
Gabe Kerscher of the Colfax-based nonprofit Conservation Ambassador's Wild Things brought six displaced animals — including Tito, a white-faced capuchin monkey — to the Willits library for a wildlife-education presentation. Willits was one of five county stops, alongside Round Valley, Point Arena, Fort Bragg, and Ukiah.
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🐻 California

Homeless Counts Dropped in These California Counties This Year
By Marisa Kendall, CalMatters · Aug. 21
More than half of the 28 California counties that released preliminary 2026 point-in-time homeless counts reported declines, extending a statewide drop that began in 2025. Officials credited new shelter beds and low-income housing funded by recent state money, though some activists warned that intensified encampment enforcement may be scattering people and skewing the tallies.
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Lawmakers Gut Major DUI Reform Through 'Hostile Amendments'
By Lauren Hepler and Robert Lewis, CalMatters · Aug. 20
A California Senate committee gutted one of the state's most substantial DUI reform bills in years through "hostile amendments," stripping a provision that would have required in-car breathalyzers for all first-time DUI offenders and brought the state in line with most others. The committee is chaired by Sen. Sabrina Cervantes — herself arrested for DUI in 2025. The move dismayed victims' families as alcohol-related road deaths in California have jumped more than 50% in a decade, killing over 1,300 people a year.
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