Open Letter From Adam Kokesh

 We can still take a stand! Last night I sent this letter to the emails listed in it:

tlovato@saguachecounty-co.gov, lthompson@saguachecounty-co.gov, tmccracken@saguachecounty-co.gov, AlonzoPayne@gmail.com, dwarwick@saguachecounty-co.gov, dale@centerco.gov

I would hate for my email to get buried under other emails from y'all encouraging Saguache County Government to enter negotiations with Captain Freebeard.

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Dear Friends, People of Saguache County, District Attorney Alonzo Payne, Sheriff Dan Warwick, Chief Dale Meek, Sergeant Aaron

Fresquez, Sergeant Adam Fresquez, & Officer Christian Guaderamma,

Merry Christmas, Blessed Solstice, Happy Festivus, & Seasons Greetings to all! My name is Adam Kokesh & I recently spent 12 days in solitary confinement in the Saguache County Jail thanks to the actions of three officers of the Center Police Department on December 10th. The three officers involved showed reckless disregard for the law, my rights, & the best interests of the people they supposedly serve. Having now beaten the charges I was falsely accused of, I have a pack of rabid dog civil rights attorneys drooling over this case, ready to sue all of those involved for everything you’re worth. Even if I were to lose the cases for wrongful search & seizure, property damage, wrongful imprisonment, injuries sustained, rights violations, & many more possibilities,it would cost me nothing to pursue those cases & you would lose at least thousands of dollars worth of resources & labor hours fighting me off. I don’t want to go that way, so with this letter, I present an alternative. In exchange for sparing you this, I only ask that you:

1. Provide $2400 for the material damages done to my truck & logistics costs.

2. Provide me with all records regarding the case to which I am legally entitled under Rule 16 of Colorado Criminal

Procedure including body camera footage & all recorded related correspondence.

3. Return the remaining property you took from me, including the psilocybin capsules.

4. Have a motion granted to get the dismissal of my case upgraded to “WITH prejudice.”

5. Never jail anyone in the county for simple drug possession ever again & adjust policy everywhere relevant to ensure it never happens again. Yes, Saguache will be a “decrim county,” on par with policy in Oregon.

6. Get your act together when it comes to inmate requests at the jail for things like clothing, pencils, paper, hygiene products,& showers. Get your act together providing a decent library & exercise opportunities for inmates. Get your priorities straight & provide a greater portion of your jail budget for food for inmates.

7. Institute a compassionate booking process that ensures immediate access to everything inmates are entitled to, especially health care, mental health screening, & legal consultation.

8. Create a Veteran Liaison position to designate someone to consult with every military veteran who enters SaguacheCounty Jail as an inmate.

9. Immediately release everyone in the Saguache County Jail who is there for victimless crimes unless you have a specific reason to believe they are an immediate, clear & present threat to the community.

10. Adjust policy everywhere relevant in the County to reflect respect for all Americans’ right to travel without harassment bylaw enforcement & our 4th Amendment rights to privacy.

11. Have the 3 officers responsible make a personal written apology to my dogs, Thelma & Louise, for the abuse they experienced with a commitment to all dogs that it won’t happen again.

12. Adjust policy to ensure that animals “seized” by law enforcement in the County are treated humanely.

13. Send a copy of this letter to every law enforcement officer in the County & post a copy in the bulletin board/employee notice area in every government building in the County until every item on this list is completed.

If you have any questions, you know how to get a hold of me. If you do not have this letter mounted in every building by close of business on Monday, January 3rd, I will take it as a rejection of my magnanimous offer. If you choose to reject this offer, all

funds that I generate from lawsuits will be used to create an endowment for my nonprofit, Homefront Battle Buddies, to fund scholarships for veterans from Saguache County to experience psilocybin at our facility in Arizona. All of the policy adjustments thatI am requesting are compassionate, revenue-positive reforms that are in everyone’s best interests. I’m open to negotiation & revising this letter. I look forward to hearing from y’all one way or another, but if I don’t, you’ll be hearing from me.

Yours truly,

Captain Freebeard aka Adam Kokesh

Friend of Humanity February 1st, 1982

Brother to Freedom Lovers Former Sergeant of Marines

Proposed fire district mergers in Calif. county face financial hurdles

As smaller agencies seek to join with the Sonoma County Fire District, officials are considering how consolidation would affect the county's budget

Randi Rossmann
The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, Calif.

SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. — Bodega Bay’s financially struggling firefighting agency could have a new name, more firefighters and more paramedics under a plan that would expand the growing Sonoma County Fire District next year — but only if the Board of Supervisors ponies up as much as $2.5 million a year to make it happen.

The 66-year-old coast agency and the 100-year-old Russian River Fire Protection District both want to join Sonoma County Fire, the latest in a series of moves meant to consolidate and modernize the county’s far-flung and somewhat antiquated fire services network.

Sonoma County Fire Chief Mark Heine called the changes important for firefighting but difficult for the agencies making them.

The Bodega Bay Fire Protection District is one of the fire agencies seeking to join with the Sonoma County Fire District. County officials are considering the financial hurdles that may arise with the merging of multiple fire agencies. (Photo/Bodega Bay Fire Protection District Facebook)

“It’s a very emotional thing for a board, disbanding a fire agency and combining it with another one,” said Heine.

On the east side of the county, another merger involves the nearly 100-year-old Glen Ellen Fire Protection District and the 39-year-old Mayacamas Volunteer Company, both seeking to join Sonoma Valley Fire. That would reduce the valley’s five fire agencies to three and guarantee added firefighters to the region.

The two plans next week are slated to move to a monthslong government review and could be in place by July 1, should they clear hurdles and be deemed beneficial to public service. While the smaller agencies would take on a new name, engines and stations would carry both names to retain part of their heritage.

The changes for Sonoma Valley and Russian River fire are expected to pass. But for Bodega Bay, the Board of Supervisors will need to find a major cash infusion to fill a financial gap that would result from the merger.

That hole is a result partly of the parcel tax savings that would come to residential landowners in Bodega Bay, who would see their annual charge for firefighting drop from $524 to about $180 — to match what is paid by residents throughout the sprawling Sonoma County Fire District, taking in Windsor, Rincon Valley and much of the outskirts of Santa Rosa. That change alone would create a $750,000 budget loss.

Other financial pressure stems from the spike in salaries for Bodega Bay firefighters, to match those in the larger district, and the addition of firefighting and paramedic posts. Added to ambulance, station and equipment costs, and the budget hole is about $2.5 million each year — an amount that’s not available from Bodega Bay or the Sonoma County Fire District, Heine said.

“It’s a big ask of the county at a time when they’re struggling financially as well,” he acknowledged.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, who represents the west county, called the plan a critical consolidation that would enhance service while keeping two fire agencies — Bodega Bay and Russian River — afloat.

She acknowledged the high cost of the Bodega Bay consolidation will be difficult to cover but said an effort to find the money is underway.

“There’s no easy money in local government,” Hopkins said.

This plan is seen as a major test for county supervisors, who have made fire agency consolidations a priority and have pledged funding for progress.

“The county wants consolidation,” said Bodega Bay Fire Chief Sean Grinnell, who supports the change. “It is exactly what the county asked for.”

Source ©2019 The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)https://www.firerescue1.com/legislation-funding/articles/proposed-fire-district-mergers-in-calif-county-face-financial-hurdles-BJLsjZ3LTLRu1uu7/?

Camp Fire: CPUC Investigators say PG&E Inspections Flawed Before Paradise Fire

PG&E Inspections Flawed Before Camp Fire: CPUC Investigators Say

Top: An eroded hook found on tower No. 81 on PG&E's Caribou-Palermo transmission line. Bottom: Two sets of hooks and steel plates from tower No. 01-14 and 14-117 show the area where fretting erosion occurs.
Photos: Obtained by NBC Bay Area

 State regulators have cited PG&E for violating a dozen utility safety regulations in the Camp Fire last year, saying the company failed to heed warning signs about the aging tower blamed for the fire, and its pre-fire inspection efforts were flawed and "ineffective."

In the report filed late Tuesday but made public Wednesday, the California Public Utilities Commission’s safety branch focused on critical safety lapses on the nearly 100-year-old Caribou-Palermo line related to the fire in November of last year.

They concluded that PG&E failed “to maintain an effective inspection and maintenance program to identify and correct hazardous conditions on its transmission lines” in the high fire risk area spanned by the line, where a worn C-hook snapped, triggering an explosion and the fire that left 85 people dead.

The various methods the company used to check on the tower and the line —both by air and on foot – as well as last-minute climbing inspections, were “ineffective in finding” the wear that triggered the fire, regulators said. They concluded the company's “current and prior inspection and maintenance programs were inadequate.”

Regulators emphasized that “visible wear” was evident on the arms of the tower tied to the fire, No. 27/222, but PG&E failed to carry out the climbing inspections to resolve any question about safety.

“This omission is a violation of PG&E’s own policy requiring climbing inspection on towers where recurring problems exist,” the report found.

The wear on the arms should have served as a red flag to look for wear in other steel components, like hanger plates, regulators said. Hanger plates are key because they secure the hooks to the tower structure. The report noted that post-fire inspections found 13 dangerously worn hanger plates on the Caribou-Palermo line.

Regulators concluded that “a climbing inspection of the incident tower during that time could have identified the worn C-hook before it failed, and that its timely replacement could have prevented ignition of the Camp Fire.”

Separately, regulators said, the company failed to explain why it took six years to carry out a regulatory mandate to replace an at-risk type of wire connector on the tower flagged by federal regulators.

State regulators also found that on the very next tower from the one blamed in the fire, No. 27/221, about 800 feet away, the company saw an anchor that secured the line had come loose. That loose component posed an urgent safety hazard, regulators said, but the company failed to prioritize it for immediate repair when it was spotted in September 2018. Instead, the company gave itself a year to fix the problem.

Regulators pointed out that in another inspection done after the fire, the company called for immediate repair of a similarly loose anchor.

When CPUC regulators checked another tower, No. 24/199, for themselves after the Camp Fire, they found that one C-hook had been worn more than half way through, concluding “that demonstrates that PG&E did not maintain the tower for its intended use.”

They noted that the aerial inspections done before the fire missed “significant wear” on both the tower that caused the fire and 24/199, and therefore were “not thorough.”

Many of the violations found by regulators were uncovered separately during NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit probe into the worst wildfire in the state’s history, which noted that the company had not climbed the tower tied to the fire for at least a decade.

NBC Bay Area first reported about questions surrounding last-minute inspections of towers on the Caribou-Palermo line, which declared many of the 79 towers to be in “overall great condition.” The fire happened before the inspections were completed, regulators said.

According NBC Bay Area’s review of PG&E records, eight towers that had passed last minute, pre-fire climbing inspections failed emergency inspections done in the fire’s aftermath. The problem with the pre-fire inspections, regulators found, was crews were “using an outdated inspection form during the detailed climbing inspections that PG&E conducted from September 19 to November 5, 2018.”

“This raises the question of whether inspectors were evaluating” the steel hardware on the towers “even when they performed climbing inspections.” Regulators say the company had changed its form to include hardware as of September 2018, just as the last-minute inspections had started, but the form the inspectors used that same month was the old one that did not include a category for hardware assessments.

That was a violation of PG&E protocols and standards, regulators concluded.

Regulators also cited the utility for failing to immediately report its role in a second fire on the same day as the Camp Fire, which was sparked when a tree knocked down a distribution line at Concow and Rim roads in the town of Concow. That fire was subsumed in the larger fire started on the Caribou-Palermo line.

In a statement to NBC Bay Area, PG&E said the company accepts the conclusion that the line was to blame for the fire and remains "deeply sorry about the role our equipment played in this tragedy."

The company says going forward, PG&E is focusing on helping in recovery, resolving claims and reducing wildfire risks.Original Article: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/PGE-Inspections-Flawed-Before-Camp-Fire-CPUC-Investigators-565563141.htmlBy Jaxon Van Derbeken
Published Nov 27, 2019
More info: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Long-Term-Wear-Found-on-PGE-Line-That-Sparked-Camp-Fire-565181442.html

Santa Barbara, Los Padres National Forest #CaveFire Location & Fire Perimeter Satellite Maps

#CaveFire Wildland Fire, Santa Barbara, Painted Cave, Los Padres National Forest.

Location: Highway 154 and E Camino Cielo near Painted Cave in the Los Padres National Forest, Santa Barbara County.
Size: 4100 acres. 0% containment.

Cave Fire Update Street Map 11/26/19 Noon

600 firefighters assigned.
Unified Command: Los Padres National Forest @LosPadresNF  Santa Barbara County Fire CAL FIRE SLO @CALFIRE_SLO



Cave Fire Update Cave Fire Update 11:30 11/26/19:

Cave fire satellite imagery map Noon 11/26/19:

Cave Fire Update 10:30 11/26/19: Evacuation map provided by LA Times: 

Cve Fire Evacuation map provided by LA Times

Cave fire location map including Thousand Trails Rancho Oso Resort 11/26/19 a.m.

Evacuations: Evacuation WARNING is being issued for the area West of Hwy 154 to El Sueno, below Cathedral Oaks to Calle Real. 
bombogenesis
The #UCSB campus is not currently under any immediate physical threat from the #CaveFire.

Update: Cave fire location map including Thousand Trails Rancho Oso Resort: 

Cave fire location map including Thousand Trails Rancho Oso Resort 11/26/19

Cave Fire Wildland Fire, Santa Barbara Location; Fire Perimeter Satellite Map
11/26/19

Cave Fire Wildland Fire, Santa Barbara Location; Fire Perimeter Satellite Map
11/26/19

Cave Fire Wildland Fire, Santa Barbara Location; Fire Perimeter Satellite Map
11/26/19

Arson suspect, Missouri man flies to California, sets 13 wildfires, then tries to fly home, cops say

Freddie Graham, 68, arrested Monday

A Missouri man flew to California, spent two days setting wildfires, then tried to fly home, officials say. He was arrested Monday.

Freddie Graham, 68, hopped on a flight from Missouri to San Jose last Thursday, KPIX reported. After renting a car, he spent the next two days setting fires as he drove the “narrow, windy roads” between Ed Levin Park and the Calaveras Reservoir in the foothills near San Jose, Deputy District Attorney Bud Porter said.

Officials say Graham would light pieces of paper on fire and then toss them out of his window as he drove, The East Bay Times reported. He’s believed to have set at least 13 fires — four on Friday and nine on Saturday — which are collectively referred to as the Reservoir Fire, officials say.

It took hours for firefighters to put out Friday’s blazes, officials say, but Saturday’s proved even more tenacious, taking firefighters the rest of the weekend to extinguish them, The East Bay Times reported. The fire burned more than 128 acres, though no injuries or damaged structures were reported.

Officials were alerted to Graham’s alleged involvement when a witness noticed his rental car near the blazes and took note of the license plate, KPIX reported.

“But for that Good Samaritan coming forward with the license plate, this crime probably would never have been solved,” Porter said, according to The East Bay Times.

Graham was arrested Monday while trying to return his rental car at the San Jose airport, according to NBC Bay Area.

Graham is charged with a number of offenses including 13 felony counts of arson of brushland, as well as two charges related to committing arson during a state of emergency, NBC Bay Area reported.

If he’s convicted of all charges, Graham faces up to 22 years in prison, KPIX reported. His bail is set at $2 million and he’s scheduled to enter a plea on Sept. 30.
https://www.modbee.com/news/nation-world/national/article235503592.html

BY DAWSON WHITE

SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 10:19 AM, UPDATED SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 10:24 AM

CAL FIRE Announces Availability of Funding for Projects that Proactively Address Fire Prevention and Forest Health

CAL FIRE NEWS RELEASE

CONTACT: Scott McLean Deputy Chief of Communications (916) 651-FIRE (3473) @CALFIRE_PIO   RELEASE DATE: September 26, 2019

CAL FIRE Announces Availability of Funding for Projects that Proactively Address Fire Prevention and Forest Health Sacramento – The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) announced the availability of over $80 million for Forest Health and Fire Prevention projects. CAL FIRE is soliciting applications for projects that work to proactively prevent catastrophic wildfires and restore forests to healthy, functioning ecosystems while also sequestering carbon and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. CAL FIRE’s Forest Health Grant Program seeks to significantly increase reforestation, fuels management, fire reintroduction, and treatment of degraded areas. An additional $7 million will be available through the Forest Legacy Program to conserve environmentally important forest land threatened with conversion to non-forest uses, and up to $2 million will be available specifically for applied research examining forest management and health. CAL FIRE’s Fire Prevention Grant Program seeks to fund local projects that address the risk of wildfire and reduce wildfire potential to communities in, and adjacent to, forested areas. Qualified activities include hazardous fuel reduction, fire prevention planning and fire prevention education with an emphasis on improving public health and safety. Find more information and sign up for announcements at www.fire.ca.gov/grants. Official Call for Applications: Fire Prevention Program: The call for applications opened on September 25, 2019 and will be due by 3:00 PM on December 4, 2019. Forest Health Program: The call for applications will open on September 27 and will be due by 3:00 PM on December 6, 2019. Public workshops will be held throughout California starting September 30; additional recorded webinars will be made available online. These grant programs are part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment– particularly in disadvantaged communities. These programs serve to complement the 35 priority fuels reduction and fire prevention projects that CAL FIRE has undertaken at the direction of Governor Gavin Newson. They also complement the State Forest Carbon Plan, which seeks to increase the ability of our forests to capture carbon and improve forest health. XXX

Sequoia National Forest: Wildland Fire #Schaeffer Fire west of Corral Meadow on the Kern Plateau. (Map) #Cafire #SQFfire

Sequoia National Forest, Forest Fire Name: Schaeffer Fire

Sequoia National Forest Schaeffer Fire Location Map

Location: Schaeffer Fire is located within the old McNally Fire scar, west of Corral Meadow on the Kern Plateau.
Suppression tactics include utilizing natural barriers and handlines in this heavy snag patch to minimize firefighter exposure.

Sequoia Nat'l Forest on Twitter

@sequoiaforest --- #Schaeffer Fire

Sequoia National Forest
Supervisors Office
1839 S. Newcomb
Porterville, CA 93257
(559) 784-1500
M-F 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m
Closed for lunch between 12:00 - 12:30 PM
TDD. 559.781.6650

Stanislaus National Forest plans prescribed burn: Moore-Bellfour Underburn Calaveras Ranger District

Stanislaus National Forest plans prescribed burn for resource and public benefit on Calaveras Ranger District

Moore-Bellfour Underburn project map.

This project is a planned prescribed burn. Please do not report as a wildfire.

SONORA, Calif. — The Stanislaus National Forest provides the following information about planned prescribed burns on the forest.

Prescribed Fire Name / Ranger District: Moore-Bellfour Underburn, Calaveras Ranger District

General and Specific Location: Project area is located along Forest Road 7N09 (Cabbage Patch Road) south of Salt Springs Reservoir.  Township 7 North, Range 16 East, Section 12 Smoke may be visible from Hwy. 4 and in the surrounding communities. Fire managers are working closely with local air districts and the California Air Resources Board to mitigate the effects of smoke on the public. View the project map.

This project is a planned prescribed burn. Please do not report as a wildfire.

Projected Duration: The prescribed burn may begin Sept. 12 and continue through fall as long as conditions allow.  Burning is contingent on weather, fuel moisture, and air quality.  All burning is monitored and conducted in accordance with state and county air quality guidelines and closely coordinated with local county air quality control districts  

Planned Size of Prescribed Burn: Project area includes between 300 and 800 acres. Burn units may be ignited in blocks throughout the fall. The size of these blocks will vary based on environmental conditions and smoke production.     

Type of Prescribed Burn: Underburn

Burn Project Objectives: Prescribed low-intensity fires enhance wildlife habitat, protect and maintain water quality and soil productivity, improve forest ecosystem health, and reduce the threat of uncontrolled conflagrations. The Sierra Nevada is a fire dependent ecosystem, where fire is a critical part of the natural forest process and helps to maintain resilient forests.

Public Benefits: Prescribed burning is an effective, cost efficient method of reducing the buildup of flammable forest fuels, both ground fuels and ladder fuels; reducing the threat of uncontrolled, large and damaging wildland fires and improving firefighting capabilities.

Original SNF post: https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/stanislaus/news-events/?cid=FSEPRD661897
Contact(s): Diana Fredlund

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NTSB: Marine Preliminary Report: California Boat(Conception) Fire, Santa Cruz Island

Marine Preliminary Report: California Boat Fire, Santa Cruz Island

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report on the September 2, 2019, marine accident involving the 75-foot commercial diving vessel Conception. The vessel was anchored in Platts Harbor off Santa Cruz Island, 21.5 nautical miles south-southwest of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire. Thirty-three passengers and one crewmember died. ------------------------------------ Preliminary Report: Marine DCA19MM047 Executive Summary ​The information in this preliminary report is subject to change and may contain errors. It will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.   Pre Accident photo of Conception. (Source: Truth Aquatics) On Monday, September 2, 2019, about 3:14 a.m. Pacific daylight time, US Coast Guard Sector Los Angeles/Long Beach received a distress call from the 75-foot commercial diving vessel Conception, with 39 persons on board. The Conception was owned and operated by Truth Aquatics, Inc., based in Santa Barbara, California. The Conception was classified by the Coast Guard as a small passenger vessel that took passengers on dive excursions in the waters around the Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara. The accident voyage was a three-day diving trip to the Channel Islands. On the last night of the voyage, the vessel was anchored in Platts Harbor off Santa Cruz Island, 21.5 nautical miles south-southwest of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire. Weather conditions were reported as slight to no winds with patchy fog, 2–3-foot seas, and air and water temperature about 65°F. The Conception was carrying 39 persons, 6 of which were crew. Thirty-three passengers and one crewmember died. The wood and fiberglass vessel was built in 1981. The vessel had three levels: the uppermost sun deck, containing the wheelhouse and crew rooms; the main deck, which included the salon and galley; and the lower deck within the hull, which housed the passenger berthing (bunkroom) and shower room, as well as the engine room and tanks. Initial interviews of three crewmembers revealed that no mechanical or electrical issues were reported. At the time of the fire, five crewmembers were asleep in berths behind the wheelhouse, and one crewmember was asleep in the bunkroom, which was accessed from the salon down a ladderwell in the forward, starboard corner of the compartment. The bunkroom had an emergency escape hatch located on the aft end, which also exited to the salon. There were two, locally-sounding smoke detectors in the overhead of the bunkroom.   A crewmember sleeping in the wheelhouse berths was awakened by a noise and got up to investigate. He saw a fire at the aft end of the sun deck, rising up from the salon compartment below. The crewmember alerted the crew behind the wheelhouse. As crewmembers awoke, the captain radioed a distress message to the Coast Guard. The crewmembers attempted to access the salon and passengers below. Unable to use the aft ladder, which was on fire, the crewmembers jumped down to the main deck (one crewmember broke his leg in the process) and tried to access the salon and galley compartment, which was fully engulfed by fire at the aft end and by thick smoke in the forward end, through a forward window. Unable to open the window and overwhelmed by smoke, the crew jumped overboard. Two crewmembers and the captain swam to the stern, reboarded the vessel, opened the hatch to the engine room, and saw no fire. Access to the salon through the aft doors was blocked by fire, so they launched a small skiff and picked up the remaining two crewmembers in the water. They transferred to a recreational vessel anchored nearby (Grape Escape) where the captain continued to radio for help, while two crewmembers returned to the Conception to search for survivors around the burning hull. Local Coast Guard and fire departments arrived on scene to extinguish the fire and conduct search and rescue. The vessel burned to the waterline by morning and subsequently sank in about 60 feet of water.  Later that day, the Coast Guard declared the accident a major marine casualty. The NTSB was named as the lead federal agency for the safety investigation and launched a full team to Santa Barbara, arriving on scene the following morning. The Coast Guard, Truth Aquatics, Inc., Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, and Santa Barbara County Fire Department were named as parties to the NTSB investigation. Investigators have collected documents from recent Coast Guard inspections and visited another Truth Aquatics vessel, Vision, a vessel similar to the Conception. Salvage operations to bring the wreckage to the surface for examination and documentation have begun. Investigators plan to examine current regulations regarding vessels of this type, year of build, and operation; early-warning and smoke-detection and alarm systems; evacuation routes; training; and current company policies and procedures. Efforts continue to determine the source of the fire. Probable Cause ​​The information in this preliminary report is subject to change and may contain errors. It will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.

Dunsmuir man Jason A. Tobey, age 46, was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine after threatening to shoot a firefighting helicopter

Jason A. Tobey, age 46, was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the United States Attorney.

A Dunsmuir man who lives near the Mott Airport was found guilty last week of one count of threatening, intimidating, and interfering with a forest officer after threatening to shoot a firefighting helicopter out of the sky last year.

Jason A. Tobey, age 46, was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the United States Attorney.

The verdict and sentence is the result of a one-day bench trial held on May 9 at the District Courthouse in Redding.

According to evidence presented at trial, in Sept. 2018, Tobey confronted a U.S. Forest Service employee multiple times threatening to shoot down helicopters that were assisting with efforts to fight the Delta Fire while it burned in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, according to the press release.

The Forest Service was using Mott Airport in Dunsmuir as a helibase in accordance with an agreement with the city and Siskiyou County. The helicopters were performing tasks such as infrared mapping to assist firefighters on the ground. Tobey lived adjacent to the airport and was angry about the helicopters’ flight path.

The Justice Department said Tobey told a Forest Service employee and a flight crew member that he was going to “shoot those [expletive referring to helicopters] out of the sky if I have to.” The following day Tobey returned to the airport gate after a helicopter landed and told the same Forest Service employee, “Did I not [expletive] make myself clear yesterday, or am I out of my [expletive] mind?”

Evidence at trial showed that pilots altered their preferred flight paths as a direct result of Tobey’s multiple threats. The judge rejected Tobey’s contention that his threats were protected by the First Amendment because threats to commit an unlawful act of violence like those made by Tobey are designed to intimidate and are not protected by the First Amendment, the release said.

Federal law prohibits threatening to damage, destroy, or disable any aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States with the apparent will and determination to carry out the threat, the release states.