NORTH COAST, Calif. – Two little girls who went missing near their Benbow home on Friday evening were found safe on Sunday morning during a search that involved agencies from around the region.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office said search and rescue teams located Caroline Carrico, age 5, and Leia Carrico, age 8, alive and well, more than 44 hours after they were last seen in southern Humboldt County.

Authorities said searchers Delbert Chumley and Abram Hill from the Piercy Volunteer Fire Department located the two girls at close to 10:30 a.m. Sunday, approximately 1.4 miles away from their home in Benbow.

Chumley and Hill found boot prints believed to belong to the girls at around 8:30 a.m. Those tracks led the team southeast to an area near Richardson Grove State Park, authorities said.

Caroline and Leia responded when crew members called out to them. The girls were located huddled together under a bush, according to the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff’s office said the sisters were evaluated by medical personnel for dehydration and given water and warm, dry clothing. They were reunited with family shortly after being located.

The girls told first responders that they were following a deer trail when they had become lost. The two decided to stay put, drinking fresh water from huckleberry leaves, the sheriff’s office said.

More than 250 personnel from across the state responded to assist in this operation. Participating agencies included the California Office of Emergency Services, Humboldt Bay Fire, Piercy Volunteer Fire Department, Redway Fire, Fortuna Fire, Cal Fire, Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Posse, California Highway Patrol, California National Guard, United States Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, California State Parks and Salmon Creek Fire.

Lake was among the counties that sent sent search and rescue personnel, along with Mendocino, Marin, Trinity, Napa, Alameda, Solano, Santa Clara, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Siskiyou County, Del Norte, Placer, El Dorado, San Mateo and Nevada.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office thanked all of the agencies and jurisdictions involved in bringing Caroline and Leia home safe.

“We would like to especially thank the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for their assistance in coordinating agency response from across the state, the California National Guard for their ground and air support provided, and Mendocino, Napa and Marin counties for helping organize the search and rescue operation,” the agency said in a statement.

The public tip line established by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has now been deactivated.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office also thanked the public for overwhelming support during this entire effort.

“Throughout this process we have received several inquiries from those who wanted to help in the ground search effort,” the agency said, adding that it encourages those who want to help to get involved in its Sheriff’s Search and Rescue Posse.

"The voice of nature is always encouraging." – Henry David Thoreau

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – On a recent cool and damp winter day, about a dozen Middletown Art Center art and nature enthusiasts met in southern Middletown at Rabbit Hill and Chaparral Preserve for a walk to discuss plans for a new art trail on the property.

The excursion was the initiation phase of a shared art trail design and implementation venture between MAC’s Restore project and the Lake County Land Trust.

The art trail design will be inspired by Rabbit Hill's unique environment and put into play the proposals of thinkers and doers at MAC, led by Lisa Kaplan, the center’s director and teacher who works with clay, sculptors and teaching artists Marcus Maria Jung (natural wood) and Emily Scheibal (plaster and cement).

All art trail design proposals will be approved by the Lake County Land Trust.

Rabbit Hill was burned in the devastating Valley fire, and although stark evidence of the fire remains – especially in the form of “terrible totems” of charred gray pines and other evergreens – signs of renewal and regeneration can be seen across Rabbit Hill.

Throughout the walk, Kaplan paused to discuss artistic possibilities at various vantage points. With her practiced skills in looking through an artist's eyes it became evident that at specific spots along the trail your eye is drawn uphill, or out to Middletown's picturesque Callayomi Valley below. At one vantage point, a clear view of the Middletown Trailside Park is in view.

Middletown Trailside Park, also consumed by the Valley fire, was once home of the EcoArts Sculpture Walk and is also being revitalized through the Middletown Art Center.

EcoArts, also called EcoArts of Lake County, was founded by artist Karen Turcotte 14 years ago. To revitalize the park, EcoArts of Lake County is reimagining five acres of the 107-acre park with art in the theme, “Locus.”

Keeping in mind the habitats and soils of Lake County that once inhabited both parks – Middletown Trailside and Rabbit Hill – is a high priority.

Along that vein there was an informative lecture held recently at MAC on the subject, during which resident director Cathy Koehler of the McLaughlin Reserve University of California research station outside of Lower Lake spoke in depth.

During the walk and talk at Rabbit Hill, each turn in the trail presented its own unique perspective for thoughtful ideas to be brought to life here.

Art ideas that may be appropriate to the Rabbit Hill property were bandied about, with everything from totems to honor the mighty gray pines which once thrived here, to a mounted hoop or circle in which the viewer peers across the wide valley to view the sister park that is Middletown Trailside park, to a stone or mosaic walkway to honor the past owners, the Huck and Skee Hamann.

The Hamanns resided here on Rabbit Hill until their deaths, Huck in 1975 and Skee in 1983.

The Hamanns turned Rabbit Hill into a sanctuary to honor the memory of their daughter, Joan Hamann Dole, who was murdered at her Anderson Springs home in 1966.

Huck Hamann ran a lapidary on the hill, creating artistic jewelry with skilled hands. In 1968 Rabbit Hill was deeded to the Madrone Audubon Society, then it came under the care of the Lake County Land Trust in 1999.

Unique perspectives and native plants in the landscape

Dispersed amongst impressive boulders of serpentine, California's state rock, and other unique geologic features, plenty of California native plants have sprung up to reclaim their place in nature on Rabbit Hill.

Here in the shadow of swiftly moving rain clouds you will find hardy leather oaks, which are small scrubby plants holding unique acorns that cover almost half of their seeds- the mighty acorn.

Acorns were a staple food of most California Indians in the past, when they took pains to shell them, mash and leach them to make the food palatable by removing the bitter, naturally occurring tannins.

Other California native plants making their return to Rabbit Hill by taking advantage of the unique soils here include the Yerba Santa, or “blessed herb.”

This shrub belongs to the waterleaf family, and received its moniker from Spanish settlers who, along with California Indians before them, made a tea with the plant. This plant produces a sticky substance on its leaves, along with delicate white flowers which bloom from April through July.

In time, the gray pines will regenerate. This towering tree produces large pinecones with an abundance of pine nuts which were used by California Indians as a food source. Pine nuts were favored due to their delicious flavor, as well as for their nutrition and high calorie count. Pine nuts are a good source of carbohydrates and protein.

Rabbit Hill was once home to distinctive Konocti manzanita, a subspecies of the common manzanita, which is on the California Native Plant Society's Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. It too, was once consumed by California Indians in the form of a tea.

Many soaproot plants have reappeared on the Rabbit Hill. Soaproot is a low-lying green plant which was used in a variety of ways by California Indians. Soaproot is also called soap plant or amole, and is considered to be one of the most abundant bulbs in California.

A relative of the lily, it is easily identified even without a flower. The leaves are narrow and long with a slightly wavy edge.

Soaproot has been used to make brushes from the brown fibers which cover the bulb. After the fibers were removed from the bulb, they were cleaned of debris, and were fashioned into various sized bundles for sifting acorn.

Soaproot, as its name implies, was used for soap, as well. First, the bulb was crushed, then mixed with water for a foamy, fresh cleaner.

Along with soaproot's many other uses, it was used traditionally to stun fish in a dammed creek, and its bulb was also cooked and consumed.

The toyon shrub grows in abundance on Rabbit Hill. Toyon is a California native plant and is much-loved by many bird species for its bright red berries.

MAC encourages all ideas and welcomes those who are interested in joining this enriching community art project, as well as signing up for one or many of its Restore classes.

The Restore project’s arts classes offered at MAC are low-cost, and offer opportunity to take part in an array of artistic activities which utilize a host of materials and techniques in sculpture, mixed media, printmaking or even creative writing.

MAC's Restore classes in sculpture and mixed media will largely center on implementation of the Rabbit Hill Art Trail. Classes take place most weekends through May.

Visit the Middletown Art Center’s Web site for more information, and learn more about the Lake County Land Trust here.

Kathleen Scavone is a writer and retired educator. She lives in Middletown.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Calpine Corp. has awarded a $20,000 check to the Friends of Boggs Mountain for the purchase of a mini excavator to assist in the building of trails in Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest.

Calpine presented the check to the FOBM Board of Directors at Mountain High Coffee in Cobb on Jan. 16.

Friends of Boggs Mountain members said the trail building excavator, a Bobcat E10, will be an incredible asset when rebuilding the trails destroyed in the forest during the Valley fire in 2015.

The group partnered with Cal Fire by signing a memorandum of understanding allowing Friends of Boggs Mountain to lead the trail rebuild project.

Friends of Boggs Mountain, under the guidance of Cal Fire, will work with nonprofits representing all user groups.

The Friends thanked Calpine “for supporting our community and your efforts in bringing back outdoor recreation to Boggs Mountain State Forest.”

Trail work is scheduled to begin in early 2019.

“We look forward to working with community volunteers to rebuild the trails over the next few years,” Friends of Boggs Mountain said in a statement on the donation. “We’ve all missed our trails, and it will be delightful to return to the outdoors and the trails in Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest again.”

Visit the Friends of Boggs Mountain Facebook page for information on future volunteer trail work days. You can also email Friends of Boggs Mountain at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with specific questions.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new dogs needing homes this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian Cattle Dog, boxer, Catahoula Leopard Dog, pit bull, shepherd and Treeing Walker Coonhound.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Female pit bull

This female pit bull has a short brindle and white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 11828.

Australian Cattle Dog-Catahoula Leopard Dog

This young male Australian Cattle Dog-Catahoula Leopard Dog has a medium-length tricolor coat.

He’s in kennel No. 20, ID No. 11831.

Treeing Walker Coonhound

This male Treeing Walker Coonhound has a short tricolor coat.

Shelter staff said he is dominant with other dogs and would prefer not to play but just soak up human affection. He can live with other dogs but prefers to not have them in his space. He’s good with children age 6 and up.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 11771.

Pit bull terrier-boxer mix

This female pit bull terrier-boxer mix has a short tan and black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 11825.

‘CoCo’

“CoCo” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short brown and white coat.

Shelter staff said he is good with other dogs but likes to play rough so a meet and greet with other dogs in the potential adopter’s home is recommended. He’s great with people and would benefit from obedience training.

He’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 11763.

Female shepherd

This female shepherd has a short tricolor coat.

Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, and very gentle and submissive. She would benefit from socialization with other dogs and people to build her up. She’s good with kids of all ages.

She’s in kennel No. 29, ID No. 11770.

‘Alaki’

“Alaki” is a male pit bull terrier.

He has a short brindle coat with white markings. He already has been neutered.

Shelter staff said Alaki is great with other dogs that will tolerate his level of play. He would benefit from daily exercise and behavior training, and he is very willing to learn. They said he would be good with children ages 12 and over.

He’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 6386.

Female shepherd

This female shepherd has a medium-length red coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 11826.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

 

A hundred years ago, a person wandering the back roads of coastal New England might have come across an odd sight: at the edge of a farmyard, cheek by jowl with pigs and chickens and cows, a tall pole topped with a massive stick nest. And standing guard in the nest, a large brown-backed, white-headed wild bird of prey – an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus).

Farmers in this region knew that nesting Ospreys were vigilant watchdogs, quick to chase “chicken-hawks” and other predators away. But as fish eaters, Ospreys were no threat to farm animals. And they were trusting enough to live comfortably near humans. So farmers lured them by building them places to nest – generally, an old wagon wheel atop a bare pole, mimicking the dead trees in which Ospreys had nested for millennia.

Although these clever farmers didn’t know it, they were pioneering methods that would help to bring Ospreys back from the edge of extinction decades later. As I recount in my new book, “Ospreys: The Revival of a Global Raptor,” these birds have made a spectacular recovery from chemical pollution, guns and traps, thanks to many dedicated conservationists and an amazing ability to thrive in close quarters with humans.

Gone in the blink of an eye

Up to 1950, Ospreys were one of the most widespread and abundant hawks in North America. Few rivers, lakes or ocean shorelines lacked a nesting pair. In certain favorable spots, such as islands along the Atlantic coast, wooded swamps in Florida and western states, and shallow-water lagoons bordering the Gulf of Mexico and Baja California, hundreds of nests were often clustered together in just one or two square miles.

But the bottom dropped out after World War II. Insecticides developed for military use – particularly DDT – flooded onto the civilian market to control farm and forest pests and mosquitoes in towns and villages. These chemicals accumulated in food chains, so Ospreys received large doses from the fish they consumed. In their bodies, DDT thinned their eggshells, causing a disastrous drop in the number of eggs that produced live chicks. In addition, other insecticides poisoned nestling and adult Ospreys.

By the mid-1960s, the number of Ospreys breeding along the Atlantic coast between New York City and Boston had fallen by 90 percent. And, as I document in my book, most other populations in the United States and Canada had declined by half to two-thirds.

This was the era of “Silent Spring,” biologist Rachel Carson’s blockbuster exposé, which sounded one of the first alarms about the hidden environmental costs of pesticides.

Ospreys played a lead role in this drama. Their well-documented crash provided concrete data for court cases brought to block indiscriminate spraying. Sanity prevailed: The most lethal and persistent insecticides were banned by the 1970s, giving Ospreys and other birds, including the Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon, a respite in the nick of time.

A seismic shift in nesting sites

But restoring robust numbers of Ospreys to regions where most or all of the breeders were gone required more than just curbing the flow of environmental contaminants. Nest sites were increasingly scarce along shorelines as development consumed old pastoral landscapes. With fewer safe places to raise young, Osprey recovery prospects appeared dim, no matter how clean the environment or how abundant local fish populations were.

But concerned naturalists took a cue from those old farmyard nest poles and began to erect new poles in the 1970s and ‘80s, especially along the broad ribbon of salt marshes hugging the Atlantic seaboard. Ospreys adapted remarkably, zeroing in to nest on these poles, as well as on a kaleidoscope of other artificial sites springing up along U.S. coasts and rivers: power and lighting structures, channel markers and buoys, and more recently, even megatowers supporting cellphone and other electronic communications equipment. Other nesting birds of prey make occasional use of such sites, but Ospreys have been the champion colonizers.

No one could have predicted such a dramatic shift a generation ago, or what a boost it would give to Osprey numbers. Within just a few miles of where I live along the Massachusetts coast, over 200 Ospreys now nest each year, lured in by abundant nest poles we’ve built on wide-open marshes. Fewer than 20 Ospreys were found here in the 1960s.

This is not an isolated phenomenon. Thousands of pole nests now dot the coastal landscape from Maine to Florida – testimony to persistent work by hundreds of dedicated people. In Florida, at least 1,000 pairs of Ospreys have made cell towers their nesting homes. Along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, nearly 20,000 Ospreys now arrive to nest each spring – the largest concentration of breeding pairs in the world. Two-thirds of them nest on buoys and channel markers maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard, who have become de facto Osprey guardians.

A global resurgence

These new nests have powered quick growth in numbers, with more Ospreys in the United States and Canada today than ever before. Many are colonizing new areas.

And this revival extends well beyond the Americas. Ospreys have a global reach, from Scotland to Japan and from the Mediterranean to Australia. Particularly in Europe, where most Ospreys were eliminated by guns and traps rather than by insecticides, we are seeing extraordinary recoveries.

Traveling to Europe in the summer of 2016 to research my book, I discovered flourishing new osprey populations. Artificial nest sites – supports built mostly in trees to stabilize existing nests and encourage new ones – were plentiful and packed with young ospreys ready to fledge. In Germany, shallow wire baskets secured atop enormous power pylons provided foundations for hundreds of new nests that had taken hold in areas long-abandoned by Ospreys.

Some researchers complain that providing these birds with nest sites is making them “prisoners of platforms” – creating artificial populations where none were meant to be. But rampant coastal development, plus industrial farming and forestry in surrounding regions, have badly degraded the landscapes in which Ospreys once thrived. To have robust numbers of this species back again is a reward for all who value wild animals, and a reminder of how nature can rebound if we address the key threats.

Alan Poole is the author of:

Ospreys: the Revival of a Global Raptor

Alan Poole, Research associate, Cornell University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

NASA has selected a new mission that will help scientists understand and, ultimately, forecast the vast space weather system around our planet. Space weather is important because it can have profound impacts – affecting technology and astronauts in space, disrupting radio communications and, at its most severe, overwhelming power grids.

The new experiment will, for the first time, obtain global observations of an important driver of space weather in a dynamic region of Earth’s upper atmosphere that can cause interference with radio and GPS communications.

The Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) mission will cost $42 million and is planned to launch in August 2022, attached to the exterior of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station. From its space station perch, AWE will focus on colorful bands of light in Earth’s atmosphere, called airglow, to determine what combination of forces drive space weather in the upper atmosphere.

Researchers once thought that only the Sun’s constant outflow of ultraviolet light and particles, the solar wind, could affect the region. However, recently they have learned that solar variability is not enough to drive the changes observed, and Earth’s weather also must be having an effect. To help unravel that connection, AWE will investigate how waves in the lower atmosphere, caused by variations in the densities of different packets of air, impact the upper atmosphere.

AWE is a Mission of Opportunity under NASA’s Heliophysics Explorers Program, which conducts focused scientific research and develops instrumentation to fill the scientific gaps between the agency’s larger missions. Since the 1958 launch of NASA’s first satellite Explorer 1, which discovered Earth’s radiation belts, the Explorers Program has supported more than 90 missions. The Uhuru and Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) missions led to Nobel prizes for their investigators.

“The Explorers Program seeks innovative ideas for small and cost-constrained missions that can help unravel the mysteries of the universe and explore our place in it,” said Paul Hertz, NASA’s Director of Astrophysics. “This mission absolutely meets that standard with a creative and cost-effective mission to solve mysteries about Earth’s upper atmosphere.”

AWE was selected for development based on its potential science value and the feasibility of its development plans. The mission is led by Michael Taylor at Utah State University in Logan and it is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA also has selected the Sun Radio Interferometer Space Experiment (SunRISE) for a seven-month, $100,000 extended formulation study. SunRISE would be an array of six CubeSats operating like one large radio telescope. This proposed mission would investigate how giant space weather storms from the Sun, called solar particle storms, are accelerated and released into planetary space.

While SunRISE has not yet demonstrated its readiness for the next phase of mission development, the proposed concept represents a compelling use of new NASA-developed technology. SunRISE is led by Justin Kasper at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The Explorers Program, the oldest continuous NASA program, is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space using principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the work of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in astrophysics and heliophysics.

The program is managed by Goddard for the Science Mission Directorate, which conducts a wide variety of research and scientific exploration programs for Earth studies, space weather, the solar system and universe.

For more information about the Explorers Program, visit https://explorers.gsfc.nasa.gov.

For information about NASA missions and activities, visit https://www.nasa.gov.

LUCERNE, Calif. – The county of Lake has closed escrow on the sale of the historic Lucerne Hotel.

Carol Huchingson, the county’s administrative officer, said the county received the $2.5 million asking price on Thursday.

Members of the Board of Supervisors told Lake County News they had only had confirmation of the sale from Huchingson during a special Wednesday board workshop.

The Romero Institute, headquartered in Santa Cruz, did not respond to a Friday request from Lake County News for comment.

The historic building, sold over the objection of many community members, was purchased by the county in 2010. The goal was to renovate it and possibly use it for a conference center. The county’s renovation and remodeling efforts resulted in it becoming a Northshore stimulus project.

The building had housed a four-year college, the county’s first and only, until Marymount California University abruptly left in June 2017, as Lake County News has reported.

Since then, Huchingson had pushed the sale through the board, claiming it was necessary because of the county’s financial situation. She led a consultant selection committee that chose the Romero Institute’s proposal to put “New Paradigm College” in the building and then secured the board’s agreement in August to sell the building to the group.

Currently, a search of national and state charitable registries showthere is no freestanding nonprofit to support the entity, New Paradigm College, the Web site of which say it will offer “an academically challenging, culturally rich, and practically grounded degree program in Global Studies.”

According to the proposal selected by the county, New Paradigm College will establish a “preeminent four year accredited educational institution pioneering bachelor of arts program in Integrative Global Studies, an accredited university extension program offering extension courses, certificate granting and degrees completion programs in addition to operating an event and conference center.”

The proposal states that a dedicated project funder “stands ready to provide the funding for the purchase and renovation of The Lucerne Castle as the Campus for New Paradigm College” and that renovations will begin upon close of escrow.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A Finley man was arrested on Thursday after he assaulted a teenager girl on her way home from school and then fought with two deputies, injuring one of them.

Alfredo Corona Ramirez, 31, of Finley was taken into custody on Thursday afternoon, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Paulich said that at 3:30 p.m. Thursday deputies were dispatched to the area of Fifth Street in Kelseyville for a reported assault.

The deputies arrived in the area and contacted a 17-year-old female who told them she was walking home from school when she was approached by an unknown male who punched her in the face several times without provocation. The male then ran away towards Live Oak Drive, Paulich said.

Paulich said the deputies searched the area, locating a male subject they later identified as Ramirez in the area of Lauenroth Trucking.

Ramirez ran away from the deputies jumping over a fence. Paulich said bystanders in the area told the deputies that Ramirez was running toward the Live Oak Grill. Deputies located Ramirez on Live Oak Drive near Brotherson Street.

Paulich said Ramirez reached for his waistband as if he was reaching for a weapon. One of the deputies drew his firearm and order Ramirez to the ground. Ramirez showed his hands to the deputy, but refused to get on the ground and continued walking towards the deputy.

Ramirez attempted to grab the deputy, but the deputy was able to push him away. Paulich said the deputy holstered his firearm and attempted to arrest Ramirez as another deputy arrived to assist.

As the deputies attempted to arrest Ramirez he punched and kicked both of them. At one point Ramirez was able to grab one of the deputy’s firearms while it was holstered, Paulich said.

The deputies were able to get Ramirez to release the firearm, but he continued to resist. Ramirez attempted to grab both deputies’ firearms before they were able to take him to the ground, according to Paulich’s report.

Paulich said Ramirez continued to punch, kick and bite the deputies. A third deputy arrived and used his Taser which allowed the other two deputies to handcuff Ramirez.

One of the deputies was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for treatment of an injury he received during the arrest of Ramirez. Paulich said it was later determined the deputy had suffered a broken hand.

The 17-year-old female victim of the original assault also suffered a possible broken nose, Paulich said.

Paulich said Ramirez was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for medical clearance. While at the hospital Ramirez made several threats to kill deputies that live in the area and burn down their homes.

Once he was cleared, Ramirez was transported to the Lake County Jail where he was booked on charges of threatening an officer, battery with serious bodily injury, resisting officer resulting in great bodily injury, attempting to take a firearm from peace officer and battery on a peace officer.

Ramirez remained in custody on Saturday with bail set at $30,000.

Jail records indicate he is due be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Monday.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man was arrested after a police officer found him in possession of a large amount of methamphetamine during a traffic stop.

Ivan Magallon Escalera, 24, was arrested on Friday, Feb. 22, for a number of drug charges, according to Sgt. Elvis Cook of the Clearlake Police Department.

At 10:40 p.m. that day Officer Mauricio Barreto conducted a traffic stop in the 5600 block of Old Highway 53, pulling over a vehicle driven by Escalera, Cook said.

Cook said that during the incident, Officer Barreto located a significant quantity of methamphetamine in Escalera's vehicle, which was later determined to be approximately 30.3 grams.

Escalera also was in possession of a replica firearm that was modified to look real, Cook said.

Escalera was arrested for possession of methamphetamine for sales, transportation of methamphetamine for sales, false compartment in a vehicle, altering a imitation firearm and a probation violation, according to Cook.

Escalera was later booked into the Lake County Jail. He remained in custody on Friday on a no-bail hold.

Two immediate questions that trust beneficiaries want answered are what do I receive, and when do I receive it.

For answers we look first to the trust.

Trusts typically provide that most, if not all, of the trust estate – i.e., all the trust assets – shall be divided into separate shares for each of the beneficiaries.

The shares may be equal or unequal. Other distributions may involve monetary bequests and specific gifts of real and/or personal property.

For example a trust may say, “Upon my death, the trust estate shall be divided into equal shares: one share for each surviving child of mine and one share for each deceased child of mine with issue who survive me.”

Applied to a deceased settlor with two surviving children and one deceased child who leaves three surviving children, the trust estate is divided into three equal shares; the three grandchildren share their deceased parent’s share.

Next, when is each share to be distributed?

If the Trust says that distributions “shall be made upon the settlor’s death” then the trustee must distribute the shares in the normal course of the trust administration – the word “shall” means “must.”

Distribution of the trust estate only occurs after the trustee has paid – or has kept a reserve to pay – all trust administration expenses and all the decedent’s reasonably foreseeable legal debts and taxes, both owed and anticipated.

The trustee must wait until such foreseeable expenses, debts and taxes are ascertained to avoid personal liability due to premature or excessive distributions.

Distributions do not always occur after the settlor’s death. Sometimes a trust provides that some or all distributions shall not occur until a certain time, requirement, or a condition, is satisfied.

For example, the trust may say that distributions shall occur in stages, such as, one-half once the beneficiary reaches 30 years of age, and the balance when the beneficiary reaches 40 years of age.

Sometimes the trust gives the trustee discretion to withhold distribution of either part or all of a beneficiary’s share.

For example, the frust may provide that if compelling circumstances exist that would justify withholding the beneficiary’s inheritance – e.g., the beneficiary has judgement debts, a pending divorce, or suffers from drug addiction – then the trustee may withhold the beneficiary’s inheritance while such circumstances exist.

During the withholding period the trust may allows the trustee utilize the withheld assets to make certain payments on the beneficiary’s behalf, like paying for drug rehabilitation.

Next, how is the distribution made? Trust instruments may provide that assets must be sold, must be distributed in-kind, or may either be sold or distributed in-kind as the Trustee sees fit.

Recently, in the Trolan v. Trolan appellate court decision, California’s Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, held that where the trust allows the trustee discretion on whether to liquidate or to distribute assets in-kind, the trustee’s decision must be respected by the court.

With in-kind distributions a beneficiary may either receive an undivided partial ownership or an exclusive ownership of an asset. Unless beneficiaries receive the same percentage each distributed asset – a pro rata distribution – as their percentage share in the trust estate the trustee will have to value assets for distribution purposes.

For example, consider a trust estate with a residence worth $300,000, stocks worth $200,000 and $100,000 on deposit to be divided equally between two children.

If non pro rata distributions are allowed, usually the case, the trustee may distribute the residence to one child and the other assets to the other child; each receives $300,000 in value.

The foregoing simplified example ignores the income tax effect of distributing assets on a non-pro rata basis.

When the trust does not answer these, or other, trust administration questions the trustee, or beneficiary, often petitions the court for instructions, and significant legal expenses are incurred. Having a well drafted trust that addresses the important issue helps to prevent going to court.

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com.

Astronomers using the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune’s smallest moon.

The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbour Proteus.

A team of astronomers, led by Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the origin of the smallest known moon orbiting the planet Neptune, discovered in 2013.

“The first thing we realised was that you wouldn’t expect to find such a tiny moon right next to Neptune’s biggest inner moon,” said Mark Showalter.

The tiny moon, with an estimated diameter of only about 34 km, was named Hippocamp and is likely to be a fragment from Proteus, Neptune’s second-largest moon and the outermost of the inner moons.

Hippocamp, formerly known as S/2004 N 1, is named after the sea creatures of the same name from Greek and Roman mythology.

The orbits of Proteus and its tiny neighbour are incredibly close, at only 12 000 km apart. Ordinarily, if two satellites of such different sizes coexisted in such close proximity, either the larger would have kicked the smaller out of orbit or the smaller would crash into the larger one.

Instead, it appears that billions of years ago a comet collision chipped off a chunk of Proteus. Images from the Voyager 2 probe from 1989 show a large impact crater on Proteus, almost large enough to have shattered the moon.

“In 1989, we thought the crater was the end of the story,” said Showalter. “With Hubble, now we know that a little piece of Proteus got left behind and we see it today as Hippocamp.”

Hippocamp is only the most recent result of the turbulent and violent history of Neptune’s satellite system. Proteus itself formed billions of years ago after a cataclysmic event involving Neptune’s satellites.

The planet captured an enormous body from the Kuiper belt, now known to be Neptune’s largest moon, Triton.

The sudden presence of such a massive object in orbit tore apart all the other satellites in orbit at that time. The debris from shattered moons re-coalesced into the second generation of natural satellites that we see today.

Later bombardment by comets led to the birth of Hippocamp, which can therefore be considered a third-generation satellite.

“Based on estimates of comet populations, we know that other moons in the outer Solar System have been hit by comets, smashed apart, and re-accreted multiple times,” noted Jack Lissauer of NASA’s Ames Research Center, California, USA, a coauthor of the new research. “This pair of satellites provides a dramatic illustration that moons are sometimes broken apart by comets.”

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – A Woodside man died on Thursday evening when his pickup crashed and went into Clear Lake.

David James Killilea, 64, died in the wreck near Clearlake Oaks, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office issued a Friday report on the crash that explained that at approximately 5:28 p.m. Thursday Killilea was driving his 2006 Chevrolet pickup westbound on Highway 20, west of Island Drive, when the pickup veered onto the highway’s north shoulder and up an embankment.

The CHP said the pickup continued out of control and traveled back onto Highway 20, hitting a stone wall on the south side of the roadway.

The pickup broke through the stone wall and overturned into Clear Lake, according to the CHP.

The CHP said Killilea died at the scene.

Reports from the scene stated that passersby had attempted to help pull Killilea from the vehicle.

Killilea, who was wearing a seat belt, was trapped in the upside down vehicle. It took firefighters more than two hours to extricate him, based on radio reports.

The CHP said on Friday that it was unknown if alcohol or drugs were factors in the crash.

The cause of this crash is under investigation, the CHP said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.