Calaveras County News

With summer starting this week, Mother Lode hikers, joggers, gardeners and others spending time outdoors should be aware that it's rattlesnake season.

"Welcome To The Worlds Greatest Bank." Challenging convention and going where no bank has gone before is what we do best.

Several medical marijuana dispensaries began operating recently in the region, despite conflicts with ordinances and the threat of federal prosecution.

More than 25 natural resources professionals participated in a recent workshop on the biology and management of the California red-legged frog hosted by the Placer County Resource Conservation District .

A group of amateur paranormal investigators are documenting what they claim is evidence of otherworldly haunting at various historic locales in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties in a YouTube video series.

The Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection will suspend all burning permits within state responsibility areas of Calaveras County, eastern San Joaquin County, eastern Stanislaus County and Tuolumne County, authorities said.

Calaveras County water officials say they can't keep putting a band-aid on the infrastructure problem and customer rates will have to go up.

Calaveras County may end this year with a $2 million deficit and its general fund budget is shrinking next year, yet it appears jobs may remain safe.

The Catholic diocese serving parishes from Lodi to Turlock has spent about $15 million in judgments, settlements and legal costs regarding clergy abuse cases by priests and former priests, according to Bishop Stephen Blaire.

A third medical marijuana dispensary has opened in Calaveras County, according to a medical marijuana advocate familiar with the business.

Stephanie Henry with the National Weather Service regional office in Sacramento reports that it was very close.

The population of the Mother Lode continued to shrink the past two years, according to recently released state and federal estimates.

Calaveras County District 1 Supervisor Cliff Edson will host a town hall meeting to connect district residents to county government services 6 to 8 p.m. June 19 at San Andreas Town Hall, 24 Church Hill Road, San Andreas.

Calaveras County Water District in coming weeks will hold several town hall meetings to discuss water and sewer rate hikes proposed for the next five years.

Fire Fighters are on the scene of a vegetation fire near Valley Springs. The flames broke out on Palomino Ridge Road off of Hogan Dam Road.

Karl Karlsen, the Seneca County man accused of killing his son in 2008, probably also killed his first wife in a fire 22 years ago, a New York state trooper told a California newspaper.

It's called the world's oldest profession. But from the looks of things in the Mother Lode, prostitution isn't old -- it's downright extinct.

The John Muir Geotourism Center will present "The Tramp and the Rough Rider," a professional dinner theater fundraiser, beginning with a garden wine reception at 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Granite Dell Gardens on Highway 132, eight miles southwest of Coulterville.

The two died 17 years apart, and on opposite sides of the continent. She burned to death in Murphys.

The Calaveras Council of Governments is planning to spend about $3.4 million a year over the next five years to maintain and improve the county's roads and highways.