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Lakeport Police logs: Saturday, Jan. 10
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
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Occurred at Lake County Law Library on 3D....
Estate Planning: Managing the affairs of an aging parent
As a parent ages, or declines in health, he or she may see the need to rely more on their children, typically, to manage their financial, property and legal matters.
This includes managing assets titled to the parent’s living trust, assets owned individually by the parent, and the parent’s other financial and legal affairs.
Relinquishing control is difficult. A parent may fear becoming a bystander. How can an aging parent remain involved with their finances, avoid losing access to their assets, and still receive assistance?
First, consider the parent’s trust owned assets, usually real property and investment accounts. Trust assets can either be co-managed by the parent and one or more children together as co-trustees or be managed by the child(ren) as trustee(s) with the parent’s indirect (behind the scenes) involvement.
An aging or ill parent may decide to remain as a co-trustee to keep his or her name on title to trust assets.
The trust may give the other trustees varying degrees of authority, including independent authority so that any one trustee can act on behalf of the trust without requiring the written consent or joinder of the other trustees.
This last approach is not without risk should the trustees not act in concert with each other or if disagreements arise. Nonetheless, it is a flexible option that allows one or more children to assist in managing the trust.
Alternatively, a parent may resign as trustee but indirectly control the living trust assets. I say indirectly because the trustee of a revocable trust owes their fiduciary duties as trustee to the person with the authority to revoke the trust, in our discussion the parent.
Thus, the child as trustee owes the duty to the parent as the settlor because the assets in the living trust belong to the settlor who can revoke the trust and regain direct title to the assets. Moreover, the parent can terminate and replace trustees.
Second, consider the parent’s financial, property and legal affairs outside of managing the parent’s trust own assets, including retirement accounts and government benefits. A parent may appoint a child with present authority to act on behalf of the parent to manage operating accounts and pay day to day expenses; this way parents’ bills and living expenses do not become delinquent.
The scope of authority granted in the power of attorney may be narrow or broad. The parent may also name the child as an authorized signor on one or more of the parent’s bank accounts so that the child can write checks and pay the parent’s bills from such “signor accounts.”
The funds in the account still belong to the parent. However, as with any power of attorney, the possibility for abuse exists.
Third, the parent may also appoint a child, or children, as representatives under an advanced health care directive and Health Insurance Portability Act, or HIPAA, release so that the child can attend doctor meetings, discuss the parent’s health condition, help the parent to understand options and make health care decisions.
Fourth, a lesser level of representative authority can be granted to a “supporter” under a supported decision-making agreement to allow a “supporter” of a disabled person to participate at meetings (including at banks and with professionals) and to act as an advisor to, and as a representative of, a disabled person, as directed by the disabled person.
Depending on the scope of the supported decision-making agreement, the supporter’s role can generally involve many of the same issues covered by powers of attorney and advanced health care directives.
However, the disabled person must still be able to make and communicate their decisions (usually with recommendations) that the supporter can then assist with implementing. This is a much newer approach whose practice remains unfamiliar to most and is not yet so well established.
Lastly, the parent is not limited to relying on children. Trusted friends and professional fiduciaries are alternative options. Anyone who assumes the role does so as a fiduciary with legal duties and liabilities for breach of duties. They need legal guidance.
The foregoing is not legal advice. Consult a qualified estate planning attorney for guidance.
Dennis A. Fordham, Attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at
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- Written by: DENNIS FORDHAM
Space News: Hubble captures a cosmic cloudscape
The universe is a dusty place, as this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image featuring swirling clouds of gas and dust near the Tarantula Nebula reveals.
Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Tarantula Nebula is the most productive star-forming region in the nearby universe, home to the most massive stars known.
The nebula’s colorful gas clouds hold wispy tendrils and dark clumps of dust.
This dust is different from ordinary household dust, which may include bits of soil, skin cells, hair, and even plastic.
Cosmic dust is often composed of carbon or of molecules called silicates, which contain silicon and oxygen.
The data in this image was part of an observing program that aims to characterize the properties of cosmic dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud and other nearby galaxies.
Dust plays several important roles in the universe. Even though individual dust grains are incredibly tiny, far smaller than the width of a single human hair, dust grains in disks around young stars clump together to form larger grains and eventually planets.
Dust also helps cool clouds of gas so that they can condense into new stars. Dust even plays a role in making new molecules in interstellar space, providing a venue for individual atoms to find each other and bond together in the vastness of space.
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- Written by: Goddard Space Flight Center
Witness recounts shooting that took life of poet
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The man who witnessed the killing of his friend in Library Park has offered an account of the incident as part of attempting to clear up incorrect information circulating in the community.The shooting on the night of Friday, Jan. 31, took the life of 32-year-old Vicente Zeta Colacion of Lakeport.
Joshua Jacob Tovar, 33, has been charged with the killing. Authorities are investigating the role of a second man, Parker John Coggins, 27, also of Lakeport, who could face charges in the case.
Lake County News spoke with a witness to Colacion’s killing. He asked that his name not be used due to fear of retaliation.
Separately, Lake County News confirmed with Lakeport Police Chief Dale Stoebe that the man was indeed a witness to the crime.
The witness said he and Colacion were at the Clearlake Club on Main Street on the night of the shooting. He said he and Colacion, a poet, were reciting poetry back and forth to each other.
They had gone outside, but Colacion decided to go back into the bar. It was then that there was a dispute between Colacion and Coggins, who came out of the bar, followed by Colacion.
Colacion, followed by his friend, went to Library Park where Coggins and two other men, one of them believed by authorities to be Tovar, were standing by a large tree by the seawall.
The witness said he followed Colacion as he approached the three men, one of whom pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot. As soon as he did that, Colacion’s friend said he put up his hands and backed away.
Before Colacion could back away, Coggins attacked him and hit him with a bluetooth speaker. The witness said Colacion, in turn, knocked Coggins to the ground.
A man police believed to be Tovar then pulled a gun and shot Colacion, the witness said. There were a total of three shots.
“It didn’t seem to stop them. They kept fighting,” Colacion’s friend said.
He said Colacion and Coggins continued to fight, with Coggins knocked to the ground.
“There was no drug deal involved. There was no knife involved. There was no gang members involved. It was just a matter of a simple physical dispute that could have been handled,” Colacion’s friend explained.
After the fight, the suspects walked northbound. “I dropped to my knees and grabbed Vicente,” Colacion’s friend said.
He said Colacion had been shot twice but he only saw one wound, and it caused Colacion to suffer massive bleeding.
The witness said he placed Colacion on his side so he could breathe while holding pressure on his wound and calling 911.
“He passed before the police got here,” the witness said.
Tovar, who is being represented by the Public Defender’s Office, will return to court on March 26 for his preliminary hearing.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Field, Rosenthal appointed to Lake County Planning Commission
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to approve two new members for the Lake County Planning Commission.New supervisors Helen Owen and Brad Rasmussen, who took office at the start of January, presented their choices for their planning commissioners at the board’s Tuesday meeting.
Owen, representing District 1, requested the appointment of Monica Rosenthal, a Middletown resident and farmer who previously served as the district’s planning commissioner from 2007 to the start of 2009 under then-Supervisor Ed Robey.
Rosenthal, who along with husband David grows winegrapes, is a previous Lake County Winery Association executive director, ran for District 1 supervisor in 2016 and in 2018 was named Woman of the Year by Congressman Mike Thompson. She also has chaired the Middletown Area Town Hall.
Rasmussen appointed Maile Field, a longtime pear and winegrape farmer with deep family roots in the community, to represent District 4 on the commission.
Like Rosenthal, Field also previously served on the Planning Commission representing District 5 for three years, appointed by Supervisor Jessica Pyska. She resigned last year after she moved outside of the district.
The board received two online comments opposing Rosenthal because she signed onto a Dec. 3 letter from a group calling it itself the Lake County Community Action Project: Planning
Coalition, or CAP, which has been raising concerns with local cannabis regulations and the Cannabis Ordinance Task Force’s work to modify those rules.
The two comments, from Michael Colbruno and Erin McCarrick, questioned Rosenthal’s ability to be fair to cannabis-related projects and decisions.
McCarrick suggested that “it would be good to find more balance” and select other candidates than Rosenthal and Field, pointing out that both are in the winegrape industry and Farm Bureau members.
During the brief discussion that followed, board members addressed those concerns.
“Everyone has the right to have their personal opinion,” said Supervisor Bruno Sabatier. “The job of a planning commissioner allows you to still maintain those personal opinions, but be able to follow the rules and regulations of what a planning commissioner is required to do, which is looking at our zoning ordinance and our municipal code as to whether or not projects fit within the code that exists.”
Pyska said the planning commissioners uphold the county ordinance the way it is written, and that it will be Rosenthal’s experience to do so.
“I have no doubt that she’ll do a good job. She’s been in this position before,” said Owen.
Rosenthal has experience with planning, and Owen said she has assured her that she is not anti-cannabis. “She’s just ‘smart cannabis.’”
Owen moved to appoint Rosenthal, with Sabatier seconding and the board voting 4-0. Board Chair EJ Crandell was absent, with Rasmussen, as vice chair, leading the meeting.
Rasmussen then introduced Field’s proposed appointment, noting her experience.
“Just for transparency, I will say I did receive some public concern. It didn’t go to the whole board. I reached out to those folks and addressed that yesterday before the meeting, so I’m comfortable moving forward having done that,” Rasmussen said.
Pyska moved to approve Field’s appointment, with Owen seconding and the board voting 4-0.
They are expected to take their seats at the next Lake County Planning Commission meeting on Feb. 27.
The other three commissioners are Everardo Chavez Perez, District 2; Batsulwin Brown, District 3; and Sharon Zoller, District 5.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson