LAKEPORT, Calif. – With an earlier deadline to abate dry vegetation and weeds now in effect, city of Lakeport officials are urging residents to do the necessary work on their property to help keep the community fire safe.
In April, the Lakeport City Council unanimously approved a new hazardous weed abatement ordinance which changed the date by which dry vegetation on private properties must be abated from early July to June 1, as Lake County News has reported.
That ordinance was part of a larger and more aggressive approach to vegetation abatement that city officials said they had undertaken along with the Lakeport Fire Protection District to protect the community against fire.
The updated ordinance, which is now part of Section 8.28 of the Lakeport Municipal Code, defines dry vegetation creating fire hazard conditions as a nuisance and outlines a procedure that allows the city to abate declared nuisance properties if property owners do not self-abate such identified hazardous vegetation in a timely manner.
The city reported that property owners are required to abate dry vegetation at least once between May 1 and June 1 each year.
The weed abatement standards are not a one-time observance; the city said a property owner will likely need to remove dry vegetation on their property more than once during the year, especially during the high fire months of April through October.
However, the city said property owners must mow weeds safely, as one small spark from a mower blade hitting a rock can result in a large fire.
All mowing should be completed as early in the morning as possible, while temperatures are low, humidity is high, and grasses are still damp with dew. When mowing, always have a water fire extinguisher or other source and pointed shovel handy. Mow early and often, officials said.
Performing annual visits to properties is an important element in the city’s fire hazard prevention, and so city of Lakeport Code Enforcement staff and members of the Lakeport Fire Protection District will be performing on-site inspections of the parcels within the city beginning June 1, with followup inspections made as needed.
The intent of the visits is to verify that properties are in compliance with all hazardous weed abatement requirements. Findings from the visits will be compiled by city personnel and presented to the Lakeport City Council.
For more information visit the city’s Hazardous Weed Abatement page at www.cityoflakeport.com or contact the city of Lakeport Code Enforcement Division at 707-263-5615, Extension 205.
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.
There used to be a time when “monarch” and “king” were biting epithets people threw at their political rivals – they were shorthand for the despotic and corrupt, for the very antithesis of what Americans had fought so hard to free themselves of. And from the very beginning, our founding fathers took deliberate steps to steer clear of any hint of such power. The most notable example is George Washington.
George Washington’s inauguration ball was held at a dance hall on Broadway in New York City in 1789. It was a lively night with most of Congress and a range of foreign dignitaries in attendance.
With Martha Washington still back home at Mt. Vernon, the newly-elected president paired off with Mrs. Eliza “Betsy” Hamilton for dancing. “Dancing” might be too generous a term, with Mrs. Hamilton later recalling that the new president walked stiffly through the steps, with a certain “gravity.”
George Washington always was a little stiff, but then again he didn’t know how a president was supposed to act. No one did – the position was completely new to everyone, and dignitaries watched Washington closely that night.
John Adams suggested to Washington that he be referred to as “His Highness, the President of the United States and Protector of their Liberties.” Critics of the tubby vice president suggested Adams be referred to as “His Rotundity.” The barb stuck, and Adams added to his list of grievances, which were many.
Many critics of the American Revolution predicted that George Washington would simply take the place of King George III, becoming in fact, if not publicly, the new American sovereign. This was a line of reasoning that Washington was hyper-aware of, and took every opportunity to scuttle.
So, when he received a letter from one of his commanders during the waning days of the war that advocated just that, he was despondent. And angry.
Washington’s response on May 22 was sharp:
“With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment I have read with attention the sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured sir, no occurrence in the course of the war has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the army as you have expressed, [which are] big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable … Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your country – concern for yourself or posterity – or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your mind.”
Even when he appeared before Congress in 1783 to “surrender into their hands the trust committed to me” and resigned his commission, people were still skeptical of his true intent.
Those skeptics had a field day when George Washington stood for and was elected America’s first president. And so that inauguration ball was something to be watched.
From that day forth, President Washington was assessed, watched closely by foreign countries and his own alike.
It’s not as if he didn’t have ample opportunity to take as much power as he wished. After all, George Washington was loved by all.
When the question over where to establish the new capital hit the press, one newspaper editor of the day remarked – completely without sarcasm, “The usual custom is for the capital of new empires to be selected by the whim or caprice of a despot.” The editor noted that since George Washington “has never given bad advice to his country,” why not let the new president “point to a map and say ‘here’?”
For the next eight years, President Washington would indeed make some conservative moves, ones that some critics thought outside the bounds of his office and reminiscent of a kingly decree.
When he unilaterally made a treaty of neutrality with England to avoid America getting embroiled in the growing French Revolution, critics declaimed him a tyrant – a King Washington.
Ironically the biggest critic of this overstep by the executive was Thomas Jefferson, who as president in 1803 would in one stroke purchase most of North America for his country without anyone’s consent.
In the end, though, Washington would show that the office of the president was ultimately a limited one, as it should be.
When he decided that he had served his country long enough, President Washington decided the unthinkable – he would step down from office and relinquish all the power he had accumulated.
Checks and balances were built into our Constitution, but it has always been up to the men and women in office to maintain them.
King George III had said that if George Washington ever willingly relinquished his power, he would indeed be the greatest man on earth.
Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – With warm weather in the forecast and recreational water sports gearing up for the summer, health and water resource officials across the state are reminding the public to be mindful of harmful algal blooms, or HAB, in lakes, rivers, streams, creeks, and reservoirs, and to keep children and pets away from these HABs if they see one.
HABs are the result of a type of bacterium, known as cyanobacteria. These microscopic organisms are an essential part of the environment and have existed for millions of years. Typically, they live in balance with other living creatures.
When environmental conditions favor their growth, they can proliferate and accumulate in numbers that are sometimes visible to the naked eye, creating what is referred to as a HAB. Some cyanobacteria are capable of producing toxins that can harm pets or people that come into contact with them. Exposure can occur through direct skin contact, ingestion (eating or drinking), or breathing aerosols of affected water.
HABs occur in water bodies throughout the world. They can be recognized by several features, such as an oily or paint-like sheen on the water’s surface, floating mats, or a “pea soup” appearance of the water. There may be cyanotoxins in the water even if you do not see the description listed above.
HABs have been reported in Lake County in prior years, such as this one photographed last year from Monitor Point in the city of Clearlake.
Although HABs can occur anywhere in a body of water, in lakes they tend to be more concentrated in areas where water movement is limited and is downstream of wind and water currents.
In rivers or creeks, they can be found attached to the sediment on the bottom, floating along the shoreline, or in backwater eddies.
It is important to distinguish cyanobacteria (also known as “blue-green algae”) from green algae and water plants that are not thought to pose potential hazards to health.
Direct exposure to a HAB, if it is toxin-producing, can result in eye irritation, skin rash, mouth ulcers, vomiting, diarrhea, or cold and flu-like symptoms.
Pets can be especially susceptible because they tend to eat the cyanobacteria mats, drink while in the water and lick their fur after, increasing their risk of exposure and illness.
This year, monitoring of water from shoreline sites and around Clear Lake is again being conducted by the Big Valley Rancheria and Elem Indian Colony. Toxin reports are available online at: http://www.bvrancheria.com/clearlakecyanotoxins.
The California Water Boards have collaborated with the Bloom Watch App (http://cyanos.org/bloomwatch/), which allows anyone observing a potential HAB to document it and send information to water managers. In using the app, each user will be asked to answer a few basic questions and provide pictures of the potential HAB.
The public can also report the bloom directly to the California Water Boards by calling their free HAB Hotline 1-844-729-6466 or report the bloom through their online HAB Portal http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/habs/do/index.html#how.
The Statewide Guidance on Cyanobacteria and Harmful Algal Blooms recommends the following for waters impacted by harmful cyanobacteria:
– Keep pets and other animals out of the HAB-affected water. Do not allow them to drink the water or eat algal material (scum) on shore. If they do get in the water, do not let them drink the water, swim through algal material, scums or mats, or lick their fur after going in. Rinse pets in clean water to remove algal material and potential toxins from fur.
– Do not drink, cook, or wash dishes with untreated water directly from the lake. Common water purification techniques such as camping filters, tablets, and boiling do not remove toxins.
– People should not eat mussels or other bivalves collected from HAB-affected areas. If fish are consumed, remove the guts and liver, and rinse filets in clean drinking water.
– Get medical treatment immediately if you think that you, your family, your pet, or livestock has gotten sick after going in the water. Be sure to alert the medical professional to the possible contact with HABs. Also, make sure to contact Lake County Health Services Department, Public Health Division at (707) 263-1090.
Remember to always practice healthy water habits:
– Pay careful attention to all instructions on posted advisory signs. – Avoid body contact with HABs. – Keep an eye on children and pets, ensuring that they do not approach areas with HABs growth. – Do not drink untreated lake, river, and creek water. Common water purification techniques such as camping filters, tablets, and boiling do not remove toxins. – Do not cook or wash dishes with untreated water directly from the lake, river, and creek. – Wash yourself, your family, and your pets with clean water after lake, river, and creek play. – Consume fish only after the guts and liver have been removed. Rinse filets.
Liberian mask (left) and Yoruba caricature of Queen Victoria are among more than 3 million objects that can be viewed via the new Hearst Museum Portal. Photos courtesy of Phoebe A. Hearst Museum. The University of California, Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, whose world-class collections range from Egyptian mummy sarcophagi to Peruvian textiles to Native American baskets, has opened a digital portal to expand public access to its collections of more than 3 million objects, photographs, films, and sound recordings.
Two years in the making, the Hearst Museum Portal will enable researchers and the public at large to go online and examine all of the museum’s cataloged objects and much of the accompanying documentation via a user-friendly interface.
“In line with the Hearst Museum’s vision of serving as a place where cultures connect, we view the portal as contributing to the resources on offer to our stakeholders,” said Hearst Museum Director Benjamin Porter, an associate professor of Near Eastern archaeology.
With an estimated 3.8 million objects, the museum, housed in the campus’s Kroeber Hall, boasts among the nation’s largest anthropological collections.
Michael Black, the museum’s head of research and information, led the project with input from a wide range of stakeholders, including UC Berkeley anthropology students. Staff and volunteers photographed roughly 2,000 items each week at stations with special lighting.
“I definitely wanted to be able to explore the collections visually,” said Alex Perkins, an anthropology major who worked on the project. “There are so many objects with fascinating photographs and being able to easily access those was one of the big things I hoped to see in the new portal.”
The Hearst Museum teamed up with UC Berkeley’s Research IT Museum Informatics program to create the portal.
“This is a great example of how technology can be a strategic enabler of our campus mission,” said Jenn Stringer, UC Berkeley’s chief academic technology officer and assistant vice chancellor for teaching and learning.
The portal links directly to the Hearst Museum’s database and can be explored using simple Google-like keyword queries as well as more advanced multifield searches.
In particular, the portal is designed to serve people with cultural connections to societies represented in the Hearst Museum’s collections. They include Native Californian educators, spiritual leaders, repatriation coordinators, tribal government officials and artists, who rank among the most frequent visitors to the museum's archives and storage facilities.
“We are pleased to serve as a resource for Native California across a variety of research areas, and the portal will greatly expand that access,” said Jordan Jacobs, the Hearst Museum's head of cultural policy and repatriation.
With guidance from the Hearst Museum's Native American Advisory Council (NAAC), access to images of human remains, funerary objects and objects known as “charm stones” is restricted as part of a greater effort to collaborate with Native American communities.
For example, people seeking to view images of restricted objects via the portal will need to contact the museum to arrange for permission.
“The museum has listened to our input and we have shaped the policies that will help guide them into the future,” said NAAC vice chairperson Kesner Flores.
Founded in 1901 by philanthropist Phoebe Apperson Hearst, the museum’s collections span the globe and document nearly 2 million years of human development and innovation.
Originally located in San Francisco, Hearst launched the museum with her personal collections of objects, photographs and audio recordings from expeditions to Egypt, Peru, Italy, California and the American Southwest.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has more shepherds and terriers among the dogs available to new homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Cano Corso Mastiff, German Shepherd, hound, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler and terrier.
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”).
“Ceasar” is a male Cano Corso Mastiff in quarantine kennel No. 7, ID No. 10010. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Ceasar’
“Ceasar” is a male Cano Corso Mastiff.
He has a short red coat and already has been neutered.
He’s in quarantine kennel No. 7, ID No. 10010.
This male shepherd mix is in kennel No. 8, ID No. 10035. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Shepherd mix
This male shepherd mix has a medium-length black and brown coat.
He’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 10035.
This male pit bull-rottweiler mix is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 10024. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.Pit bull-Rottweiler mix
This male pit bull-Rottweiler mix has a short brown and brindle coat.
He’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 10024.
“Emma” is a female German Shepherd in kennel No. 11, ID No. 9657. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Emma’
“Emma” is a very sweet senior female German Shepherd who has been through heartworm treatment and is ready for her new home.
She has a short black and tan coat and already has been spayed.
She is available for free to the first approved application.
She’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 9657.
This female terrier mix is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 10043. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female terrier mix
This female terrier mix has a short tricolor coat.
She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 10043.
“Kuma” is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 10038. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Kuma’
“Kuma” is a female German Shepherd with a long black and tan coat.
She already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 25, ID No. 10038.
This male pit bull terrier mix is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 10000. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier mix has a short white coat.
He’s in kennel No. 26, ID No. 10000.
This male German Shepherd is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 10011. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male German Shepherd
This male German Shepherd has a medium-length black and tan coat.
He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 10011.
This male Labrador Retriever mix puppy is in kennel No. 29b, ID No. 10027. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Labrador Retriever pup
This male Labrador Retriever mix puppy has a short black and white coat.
He’s in kennel No. 29b, ID No. 10027.
This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 10013. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short red coat.
He’s in kennel No. 31, ID No. 10013.
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.
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.
As we develop more and more powerful tools to peer beyond our solar system, we learn more about the seemingly endless sea of faraway stars and their curious casts of orbiting planets. But there’s only one star we can travel to directly and observe up close — and that’s our own: the Sun.
Two upcoming missions will soon take us closer to the Sun than we’ve ever been before, providing our best chance yet at uncovering the complexities of solar activity in our own solar system and shedding light on the very nature of space and stars throughout the universe.
Together, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe and ESA’s (the European Space Agency) Solar Orbiter may resolve decades-old questions about the inner workings of our nearest star.
Their comprehensive, up-close study of the Sun has important implications for how we live and explore: Energy from the Sun powers life on Earth, but it also triggers space weather events that can pose hazard to technology we increasingly depend upon.
Such space weather can disrupt radio communications, affect satellites and human spaceflight, and — at its worst — interfere with power grids. A better understanding of the fundamental processes at the Sun driving these events could improve predictions of when they’ll occur and how their effects may be felt on Earth.
“Our goal is to understand how the Sun works and how it affects the space environment to the point of predictability,” said Chris St. Cyr, Solar Orbiter project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This is really a curiosity-driven science.”
Parker Solar Probe is slated to launch in the summer of 2018, and Solar Orbiter is scheduled to follow in 2020. These missions were developed independently, but their coordinated science objectives are no coincidence: Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter are natural teammates.
Parker Solar Probe will swoop to within 4 million miles of the Sun's surface, facing heat and radiation like no spacecraft before it. Launching in 2018, Parker Solar Probe will provide new data on solar activity and may make critical contributions to our ability to forecast major space-weather events that affect life on Earth.
Both missions will take a closer look at the Sun's dynamic outer atmosphere, called the corona. From Earth, the corona is visible only during total solar eclipses, when the Moon blocks the Sun's most intense light and reveals the outer atmosphere’s wispy, pearly-white structure. But the corona isn’t as delicate as it looks during a total solar eclipse – much of the corona’s behavior is unpredictable and not well understood.
The corona’s charged gases are driven by a set of laws of physics that are rarely involved with our normal experience on Earth. Teasing out the details of what causes the charged particles and magnetic fields to dance and twist as they do can help us understand two outstanding mysteries: what makes the corona so much hotter than the solar surface, and what drives the constant outpouring of solar material, the solar wind, to such high speeds.
We can see that corona from afar, and even measure what the solar wind looks like as it passes by Earth – but that’s like measuring a calm river miles downstream from a waterfall and trying to understand the current’s source. Only recently have we had the technology capable of withstanding the heat and radiation near the Sun, so for the first time, we’re going close to the source.
“Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter employ different sorts of technology, but – as missions – they’ll be complementary,” said Eric Christian, a research scientist on the Parker Solar Probe mission at NASA Goddard. “They’ll be taking pictures of the Sun’s corona at the same time, and they’ll be seeing some of the same structures – what's happening at the poles of the Sun and what those same structures look like at the equator.”
Parker Solar Probe will traverse entirely new territory as it gets closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has come before – as close as 3.8 million miles from the solar surface.
If Earth were scaled down to sit at one end of a football field, and the Sun at the other, the mission would make it to the 4-yard line. The current record holder, Helios B, a solar mission of the late 1970s, made it only to the 29-yard line.
From that vantage point, Parker Solar Probe’s four suites of scientific instruments are designed to image the solar wind and study magnetic fields, plasma and energetic particles – clarifying the true anatomy of the Sun’s outer atmosphere.
This information will shed light on the so-called coronal heating problem. This refers to the counterintuitive reality that, while temperatures in the corona can spike upwards of a few million degrees Fahrenheit, the underlying solar surface, the photosphere, hovers around just 10,000 degrees. To fully appreciate the oddity of this temperature difference, imagine walking away from a campfire and feeling the air around you get much, much hotter.
Solar Orbiter will come within 26 million miles of the Sun – that would put it within the 27-yard line on that metaphorical football field. It will be in a highly tilted orbit that can provide our first-ever direct images of the Sun’s poles – parts of the Sun that we don’t yet understand well, and which may hold the key to understanding what drives our star’s constant activity and eruptions.
Both Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter will study the Sun’s most pervasive influence on the solar system: the solar wind. The Sun constantly exhales a stream of magnetized gas that fills the inner solar system, called solar wind. This solar wind interacts with magnetic fields, atmospheres, or even surfaces of worlds throughout the solar system. On Earth, this interaction can spark auroras and sometimes disrupt communications systems and power grids.
Data from previous missions have led scientists to believe the corona contributes to the processes that accelerate particles, driving the solar wind’s incredible speeds – which triple as it leaves the Sun and passes through the corona.
Right now, the solar wind travels some 92 million miles by the time it reaches the spacecraft that measure it – plenty of time for this stream of charged gases to intermix with other particles traveling through space and lose some of its defining features.
Parker Solar Probe will catch the solar wind just as it forms and leaves the corona, sending back to Earth some of the most pristine measurements of solar wind ever recorded. Solar Orbiter’s perspective, which will provide a good look at the Sun’s poles, will complement Parker Solar Probe’s study of the solar wind, because it allows scientists to see how the structure and behavior of the solar wind varies at different latitudes.
Solar Orbiter will also make use of its unique orbit to better understand the Sun’s magnetic fields; some of the Sun’s most interesting magnetic activity is concentrated at the poles. But because Earth orbits on a plane more or less in line with the solar equator, we don’t typically get a good view of the poles from afar. It’s a bit like trying to see the summit of Mount Everest from the base of the mountain.
That view of the poles will also go a long way toward understanding the overall nature of the Sun’s magnetic field, which is lively and extensive, stretching far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
The Sun’s magnetic field is so far-reaching largely because of the solar wind: As the solar wind streams outward, it carries the Sun’s magnetic field with it, creating a vast bubble, called the heliosphere. Within the heliosphere, the solar wind determines the very nature of planetary atmospheres. The heliosphere’s boundaries are shaped by how the Sun interacts with interstellar space.
Since Voyager 1’s passage through the heliopause in 2012, we know these boundaries dramatically protect the inner solar system from incoming galactic radiation.
It’s not yet clear how exactly the Sun’s magnetic field is generated or structured deep inside the Sun – though we do know intense magnetic fields around the poles drives variability on the Sun, causing solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
Solar Orbiter will hover over roughly the same region of the solar atmosphere for several days at a time while scientists watch tension build up and release around the poles. Those observations may lead to better awareness of the physical processes that ultimately generate the Sun’s magnetic field.
Together, Parker Solar Probe and Solar Orbiter will refine our knowledge of the Sun and heliosphere. Along the way, it’s likely these missions will pose even more questions than they answer – a problem scientists are very much looking forward to.
"There are questions that have been bugging us for a long time," said Adam Szabo, mission scientist for Parker Solar Probe at NASA Goddard. "We are trying to decipher what happens near the Sun, and the obvious solution is to just go there. We cannot wait — not just me, but the whole community."
Micheala Sosby works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Robert Wade Hitchcock, now 48, shown in his mugshot taken on September 28, 2016, the day he was arrested following a crash that killed Nichole M. Welborn, 40, of Clearlake, Calif. Hitchcock accepted a plea agreement with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office that will have him service just over two and a half years in state prison for the wreck. Lake County Jail photo.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Clearlake man who killed a pedestrian in downtown Lower Lake in September 2016 has been sentenced to prison in a plea deal that has drawn the criticism of the victim’s father.
Robert Wade Hitchcock, 48, reached an agreement with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office in which he pleaded to driving under the influence of a methamphetamine and special allegation of causing great bodily injury or death to 40-year-old Nichole M. Welborn on Sept. 28, 2016.
Hitchcock, who had remained in the county jail since his arrest the day of the crash, will spend two years and seven months in state prison, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Krones, who prosecuted the case.
“These cases are very difficult,” said Krones, adding, “This resolution is not inconsistent with other cases that we’ve had” with similar situations.
The California Highway Patrol said that Hitchcock was driving his 1993 Ford F-150 pickup westbound on Main Street in Lower Lake at about 4:40 p.m. He veered across Main Street and hit Welborn as she was attempting to get into her vehicle, which was parked on the shoulder in front of Barreda's Lower Lake Feed Store.
Welborn was pinned between the vehicles and died at the scene, the CHP reported.
Her father, Walter Welborn, a former Lake County correctional officer who now lives in Utah, said he’s angered by the plea agreement for a variety of reasons, including his belief in its leniency and that the District Attorney’s Office did not contact him to tell him of the deal.
Krones – along with District Attorney Don Anderson – is a target of Walter Welborn’s ire over the handling of his daughter’s case. With Krones seeking the district attorney’s job and Anderson running for judge, it’s become an election year issue, with Welborn attacking both of their candidacies and outlining his displeasure in a letter to the editor.
For her part, Krones explained the case’s challenges and the reasons why it was charged as it was and why the plea agreement was offered.
She said that, originally, Hitchcock was charged with murder, several counts of vehicular manslaughter – with and without gross negligence and while intoxicated. Krones said she charged everything she thought she could prove based on the initial investigative reports.
The homicide charge was based on a 1990 misdemeanor DUI with injury conviction in Lake County on Hitchcock’s record, she said.
One of the wrinkles in keeping that homicide charge was that judges now advise everyone convicted of DUI that if they are again found driving under the influence in a case involving death, they can be charged with murder, said Krones.
That is what is known as a “Watson murder,” based on the 1981 California Supreme Court case, People v. Watson, which established that a defendant in a drunk driving case involving a fatality can be charged with, and convicted of, second-degree murder.
However, in tracking down the records for Hitchcock’s previous case, Krones said the record gave no indication Hitchcock had been given that admonition, which meant she did not have a case for murder.
Krones said the laws regarding DUI with injury are tricky, and to charge and prove gross negligence, “It requires more than just driving down the street under the influence.”
Nichole M. Welborn, 40, of Clearlake, Calif., died on September 28, 2016, after she was hit and pinned between two vehicles by Robert Wade Hitchcock, also of Clearlake, Calif. Photo courtesy of Walter Welborn. Father angry by case handling
Walter Welborn said he worked at the sheriff’s office for 21 years and has known Don Anderson for a long time.
He had moved to Utah in 2006 and had tried to get his daughter to move there as well. But she didn’t want to because of her many friends in Lake County. “She wanted to be with her friends.”
Nichole Welborn, who has a daughter who is now 21, was living in Clearlake with a job delivering medication at the time she died, her father said.
He said he had just spoken to his daughter shortly before she was killed. She had gone to her vehicle to get something and that’s when she was hit and pinned by Hitchcock’s pickup.
As there was no evidence of skidmarks, Walter Welborn thinks Hitchcock may have fallen asleep at the wheel.
He said he called Krones once to discuss the case and she told him she was “uncomfortable” with going to a jury trial for second-degree murder in the case. “I’m pretty sure she meant she couldn’t handle it,” he said.
Walter Welborn said he got no other contact from the District Attorney’s Office, but his many friends helped him keep up-to-date on the case.
Krones said it’s more difficult to prove DUI cases involving drugs. She could prove that Hitchcock had methamphetamine in his system. “It was picked up by the blood test.” However, the test did show the quantitative amount.
She said the District Attorney’s Office ultimately made an offer that Hitchcock accepted, pleading to the DUI and admitting the great bodily injury special allegation. Because of Hitchcock’s minimal prior record, it was expected he would receive the midterm of two years, which ultimately he did.
Krones acknowledged that she had talked to Walter Welborn early on in the case and added that she tries to talk to victims’ families in such circumstances. However, she acknowledged, “When it came time for the settlement conference, I did not talk to him beforehand.”
The District Attorney’s Office and the Probation Department agreed that Hitchcock’s was a midterm case due to his lack of prior record, Krones said.
Even so, “The judge struggled with it,” she said of Judge Andrew Blum, who handled the sentencing and asked her a lot of questions before making his decision.
Krones said that it’s hard to know what a jury will do in such a case. Without the plea and considering his credits, Hitchcock was looking at six years at halftime, and so would have only received six months more in custody.
With the plea agreement, Krones said Hitchcock is looking at just over two and a half years in prison still to serve, besides the nearly two years he already has spent in custody.
She said during the sentencing Nichole Welborn’s family gave victim impact statements, and they were obviously very unhappy about the outcome.
Walter Welborn was unhappy with the plea agreement and how the case was resolved, saying the District Attorney’s Office sold out the matter and Krones took the easiest way out possible. “It boils down to, they didn’t give any justice to the victims.”
Krones said she understands the family’s anger. “It’s just a horrible thing that happened.”
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 view of the action on the water during the 34th annual Konocti Cup sailing regatta on Saturday, April 28, 2018, in Lake County, Calif. Image courtesy of Brad King.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Konocti Bay Sailing Club hosted its 34th annual Konocti Cup sailing regatta on Clear Lake April 28.
While attendance was down somewhat due to a popular race on the San Francisco Bay, there were still close to 30 intrepid vessels participating in four divisions, some for the 13 mile Half Cup but most for the 26 mile Full Cup.
Boats from as far as Oregon, Sierra foothills and the “sister” club in Richmond came to enjoy great sailing on a great spring day of light showers and sun with challenging winds.
Commodore Brad King said the club always enjoys the annual attendance of the Wylie Wabbit fleet from Richmond Yacht Club. A very fast keelboat with crews that hike out on trapezes, they not only have a great shot at winning the big race but are fun sailors with boat names that reflect sailors' fleet attitudes; names like Kwazy and Weckless.
While they are the boats to beat, local racers on Capri 25s can have their day as the boats are well suited to local conditions and this year proved the point.
The race was fun and one Wabbit, Bad Hare Day, won the overall honors by finishing the 26 mile race in just over four hours. King said local boats and sailors took the next three positions.
Each year the racers are greeted back at Braito’s harbor with a great meal hosted by the local Coast Guard Auxiliary squadron and most visitors stay over the weekend to attend an awards ceremony at a local venue – this year at Riviera Hills Restaurant – and take advantage of the many attractions unique to Lake County.
Local businesses are gracious in contributing to help the club host a quality event. This year, the marquee sponsor, Clear Lake Veterinary Clinic, gave generously so they could provide a pre-race breakfast, cool swag and trophies.
King said the Konocti Bay Sailing Club season is under way with the usual full slate of activities.
While many members sail all year at the informal OSIRs sail each week, the club organizes regattas twice a month as well as social sails and gatherings on and off the water throughout the warmer months. These include activities appropriate for anyone from novices wanting to learn to highly competitive buoy races.
King said the oldest regular sailor is an 88 year old foredeck specialist and the youngest is 17. More than a quarter of the members are female and comprise the core of some of the best drivers.
Since most skippers need crew one basically needs only to show up to get a ride. After a few sails, you will learn what types of boat or crews best suit your way to spend a beautiful day on the lake.
Whether you want racing experience you can take to the SF Bay, info on prepping for a blue water cruise, or simply want a “don’t spill the Chardonnay” ride, there’s probably a boat for you.
If you want to sail, volunteer, sponsor or improve this venerable institution that keeps sailing on Clear Lake generation after generation please. Visit http://www.kbsail.org/ for more information or follow the group on Facebook.
This Google map shows the Konocti Cup courses. Courtesy image.
Delta Teen Team members Miles Kaneko and Jared De Fremery, both of Berkeley, Calif., won the 2018 Bass Pro Shops FLW High School Fishing Clear Lake Open in Lakeport, Calif., on Sunday, May 13, 2018. Photo courtesy of FLW.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Delta Teen Team duo of Miles Kaneko and Jared De Fremery, both of Berkeley, brought a five-bass limit to the scale Sunday weighing 19 pounds, 2 ounces to win the 2018 Bass Pro Shops FLW High School Fishing Clear Lake Open and earn the title of TBF/FLW California State Champions in Lakeport.
The win advanced the team to the 2018 High School Fishing National Championship, held June 26 to 30, on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Alabama.
According to post-tournament reports, the duo caught their limit on the south end of Clear Lake, fishing docks in 5 to 8 feet of water. Their key bait was a 6-inch Margarita Mutilator-colored Roboworm on a drop-shot rig and an unnamed wacky-rigged weightless worm.
In second place was the Lake County High School Fishing Team of Jason Gentle and Nathan Phillips, both of Kelseyville, Calif., with five bass, 17-10.
A field of 72 teams competed in the no-entry fee tournament, which was a combined event for high-school anglers.
Teams from across the U.S. were eligible to compete in the Clear Lake Open, while only California schools competed in the California State Championship.
The combined tournaments launched from the Konocti Vista Casino Resort and Marina in Lakeport.
In FLW/TBF High School Fishing competition, the top 10-percent of teams competing advance to the High School Fishing National Championship.
The top seven teams on Clear Lake that advanced to the 2018 High School Fishing National Championship were:
First: Delta Teen Team – Miles Kaneko and Jared De Fremery, both of Berkeley, Calif., five-bass, 19-2.
Second: Lake County High School Fishing Team – Jason Gentle and Nathan Phillips, both of Kelseyville, Calif., five bass, 17-10.
Third: Phoenix High School Bassmasters – Derek Richards and Taj White, both of Glendale, Ariz., five bass, 16-10.
Fourth: California Student Angler Federation – Josh Poore and Brendan Holden, both of Clovis, Calif., five bass, 16-7.
Fifth: Nor Cal Junior Bass Club – Grant Toler and Garrett Frick, both of Redding, Calif., five bass, 16-3.
Sixth: Yuba City High School, Yuba City, Calif. – Alec Engelhardt, Yuba City, Calif., and Shawn Fields, Nevada City, Calif., five bass, 16-2.
Seventh: Pleasant Valley High School, Chico, Calif. – Conner Urling, Roseville, Calif., and James Hawkinson, Chico, Calif., five bass, 16-2.
Rounding out the top 10 teams were:
Eighth: Vista Del Lago High School, Folsom, Calif. – Clark Demacabalin and Weston Kennedy, both of Folsom, Calif., five bass, 16-1.
Ninth: Alameda High School, Alameda, Calif. – Nicholas Velasquez and Joey Yang, both of Alameda, Calif., five bass, 15-13.
Tenth: Freedom High School, Oakley, Calif. – Tyler Hurney and Justin Hurney, both of Oakley, Calif., five bass, 15-13.
The 2018 Bass Pro Shops FLW High School Fishing Clear Lake Open was a two-person (team) event for students in grades 7-12, open to any Student Angler Federation (SAF) affiliated high school club in the United States.
The 2018 TBF/FLW High School Fishing California State Championship was also two-person (team) event for students in grades 7-12, but open to only Student Angler Federation affiliated high school clubs in California.
The top 10 percent of each Challenge, Open, and state championship field will advance to the High School Fishing National Championship. The High School Fishing national champions will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship to the school of their choice.
In addition to the High School Fishing National Championship, all High School Fishing anglers nationwide automatically qualify for the world’s largest high school bass tournament, the 2018 High School Fishing World Finals, held in conjunction with the National Championship. At the 2017 World Finals more than $60,000 in scholarships and prizes were awarded.
Once the estate planning signing ceremony is done – and the revocable living trust and supporting documents are signed – other tasks still remain.
Assets intended for the living trust – typically listed on an attached schedule – need to be formally retitled and insurance policies updated. Let us discuss.
Let’s start with the real property going into the living trust.
Typically estate planning attorneys provide their clients with both trust transfer deeds and preliminary change of ownership of reports. You file them with the county recorder’s office in each county where real property is located.
Bring a copy of each such document for the county recorder to stamp as proof of filing. Also bring a check to pay the recording fees and the new $75 Building Homes and Jobs Act fees unless an exemption – such as the owner occupied residence exemption – applies.
Contact your casualty insurance company to request a rider on each residence that names the trust as an additional insured.
In the event a claim the successor trustee can then obtain the proceeds. This could help to avoid a probate where the owner of the residence dies and cannot personally collect on the insurance claim.
Also consider contacting your title insurance company to request a rider on the title insurance that insures against defects in title to name the living trust as an additional insured.
Next, retitle those financial accounts that you want in your living trust. Your attorney may have provided you with a California Statutory Certification of Trust by Trustee when you sign your living trust. Take this certification with you to the banks.
Brokerage companies will typically have their own in-house certification of trust and account title documents that you will have to request and complete. Most of the information needed is found on the California Statutory Certification of Living Trust.
Consider retitling your bank safe deposit box into the name of your living trust, provided you want the contents as part of the living trust. That way your successor trustee will have control in the event of your incapacity or death.
Vehicles, unless they are valuable antiques or high end automobiles, typically remain outside of a trust. Title can be held by spouses in a way that easily allows the surviving spouse to retitle in his or her name.
New certificates of title and registration for manufactured and mobile homes in the name of the trust are requested from the California Housing and Community Development, or HCD. Doing so entails completing bureaucratic HCD paperwork, surrendering the existinG CERTIFICATE OF TITLe, paying various HCD fees and lots of patience.
Certificate of ownership in business entities should be reissued in the name of the trust. Ownership information records for closely held corporations will need to be updated with the Secretary of State’s Office.
Income earned by trust assets is still reported using the settlor’s Social Security number on the settlor’s annual state and federal income tax returns. No taxpayer identification number is needed while the settlor (owner) is the trustee.
Lastly, consider naming the trust as the designated death beneficiaries on any life insurance policies and annuities so that the death proceeds are paid to and administered by the trust.
The foregoing may entail naming a sub trust within the one’s living trust – such as the survivor’s trust or a special needs trust, as relevant.
The foregoing touches upon some common tasks to be completed as soon as reasonably possible. It is not exhaustive. Your estate planning attorney should tell you what tasks you still need to do, so that you proceed in the right direction.
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.
In 2018, a new atomic refrigerator will blast off for the space station. It’s called the Cold Atom Lab, or CAL, and it can refrigerate matter to one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero, just above the point where all the thermal activity of atoms theoretically stops.
“At this temperature, atoms lose their energy and start to move very slowly,” explains Rob Thompson, CAL Project Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “At room temperature, atoms bounce off each other in all directions at a few hundred meters per second. But in CAL they’ll slow down a million-fold and condense into unique states of quantum matter.”
CAL is a multiuser facility that supports many investigators studying a broad range of topics.
Eric Cornell, a physicist at the University of Colorado and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, will be leading one of the first CAL experiments. Cornell and his team will use CAL to investigate particle collisions and how particles interact with one another.
Ultra-cold gases produced by the Cold Atom Lab can contain molecules with three atoms each, but which are a thousand times bigger than a typical molecule.
This results in a low-density, "fluffy" molecule that quickly falls apart unless it is kept extremely cold. How is particle behavior affected as more particles are introduced? What can be learned about quantum objects when several atoms are interacting at the same time?
Cornell said, "The way atoms behave in this state gets very complex, surprising and counterintuitive, and that's why we're doing this."
Cornell shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in physics for creating Bose-Einstein condensates – another state of quantum matter that can be studied inside CAL.
Bose-Einstein condensates are essentially blobs of quantum matter that look and behave like waves that exist at these ultra-cold temperatures. In the freefall of space, the condensates can hold their wavelike forms for five to ten seconds – much longer than on Earth – providing researchers a window into the quantum realm.
Thompson said, “We can use CAL to test general relativity and quantum mechanics. One of the biggest questions in physics today is how those two work together.”
University of Rochester physicist Nick Bigelow, and University of Berkeley scientist Holger Müller along with their colleagues plan to use CAL to test a cornerstone of Einstein’s theory of relativity – the equivalence principle, which holds that gravity and external acceleration cannot be distinguished experimentally.
They plan to repeat Galileo’s iconic experiment dropping cannonballs off the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but using atoms instead.
Dropping atoms inside CAL and letting them fall for several seconds as the station orbits Earth will allow researchers to precisely figure out the differences between how the atoms accelerate.
This experiment may reveal how gravity and space-time are woven through the quantum realm.
A researcher at JPL named Jason Williams also plans to use ultracold two-atom molecules to develop tools for the next generation of precision gravity tests with quantum gases.
Many more experiments are planned for this “cool” new laboratory – and no one knows where they will lead. “With CAL,” says Thompson, “We’re entering the unknown.”
Lake County high school seniors accepted into four-year universities are honored at the Lake County Office of Education University Admittance Reception on Monday, May 14, 2018. Courtesy photo.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – More than 300 Lake County high school seniors, parents, school administrators and counselors packed the Thomas Aikens Student Center at Kelseyville High School on Monday evening to celebrate the acceptance of 120 Lake County high school seniors into four-year universities for the 2018-2019 school year.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg opened the evening proclaiming, “Lake County has some of the brightest students in the country.”
Although almost 80 percent of college-bound Lake County students are going to attend a University of California or California State University, Lake County students will also be attending universities in Vermont, New York, Texas, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, Arizona and Oregon.
Almost 30 percent of college-bound Lake County students will attend UC campuses in 2018-2019. Thirteen Lake County high school seniors will attend UC Davis next year, and five will attend UC Berkeley. Students will also be attending UC campuses at Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Merced, Santa Cruz and Irvine.
Tammy Serpa, education specialist from the Lake County Office of Education, and coordinator of the University Admittance Reception points out that UC Santa Cruz has students from all five Lake County school districts attending next year.
This was the 13th year the Lake County Office of Education has hosted this event. Its primary purpose is to honor the Lake County students who gained acceptance into four-year universities.
“The event also provides an opportunity for students who attend different Lake County high schools to create connections with students who will be attending the same university,” added Falkenberg.
The soon-to-be graduates also received advice from three former Lake County students: Jamie Buckner-Bridges (CLHS Class of 2003), Tietta Mitchell (LLHS Class of 2015) and Mariah Bickham (LLHS Class of 2017).
Each made a presentation based on lessons learned during their own college experiences. Advice ranged from self-care to strategizing with their parents beforehand on how to stay safe on college campuses.
Serpa thanked those who helped coordinate and sponsor the event including Kelseyville Lumber; Michelle Borghesani, director of Food Services at Kelseyville Unified School District; and Kelseyville Unified School District for providing the facility.
For a list of Lake County seniors who were accepted into four-year universities, please go to www.lakecoe.org.
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