CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has several new dogs this week looking for their new homes.
The available dogs are Brewster, Kira, Poppy and Robbie.
To meet the animals, call Clearlake Animal Control at 707-994-8201 and speak to Marcia at Extension 103 or call Extension 118, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or leave a message at any other time.
“Brewster.” Courtesy photo. ‘Brewster’
“Brewster” is a 2-year-old shepherd mix who is a staff and volunteer favorite.
He’s very smart, knows how to sit and shake, and staff said he would be perfect with someone who works from home or could take him with them when they leave, as he suffers from some separation anxiety. He loves to sunbathe, get tucked in, is happy as long as he can see you and has been known to escape the kennels in order to find the nearest person.
Brewster is 45 pounds, and good with adults and older respectful children.
He’s a work in progress who appears to be tolerant of other dogs but he is still being evaluated.
“Kira.” Courtesy photo. ‘Kira’
“Kira” is a 2-year-old female Husky mix, weighing about 45 pounds.
Shelter staff said a dominating and assertive female, which is true to her breed. She responds well to other dogs and made appropriate corrections when necessary. She would be stable with other stable dogs.
Kira is very smart, sweet and vocal, and shelter staff suggested she would do best with an experienced husky household.
“Poppy.” Courtesy photo. ‘Poppy’
“Poppy” is a calm, lovable year-and-a-half-old shepherd mix, weighing 40 pounds.
She is good with other dogs; shelter staff said she is a dominant female and has taken corrections appropriately when introduced to or playing with other dogs.
They said she also is a little insecure and needs some confidence building; practicing skills will make her a good solid dog.
She is recommended for a home without small livestock.
“Robbie.” Courtesy photo. ‘Robbie’
“Robbie” is a young and happy-go-lucky mix – possibly Labrador Retriever and Rottweiler.
Shelter staff said is he around a year and a half old and weighs 50 pounds.
He walks well on a leash, makes friends with other dogs, and is playful but not super active.
Robbie is vaccinated and will be neutered prior to adoption.
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.
Members of the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Calif., presented a check for $80,000 to Northshore Fire Protection District Chief Jay Beristianos (left) on Wednesday, January 17, 2018, at the tribe’s Running Creek Casino. Courtesy photo.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – As part of an ongoing commitment to assist community organizations, the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake has made an $80,000 contribution to benefit the Northshore Fire Protection District.
Tribal officials said they presented the check to fire officials on Jan. 17.
“The unwavering partnership between Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake and first responders showcases the power of community in a tangible way. Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake is honored to contribute the needed funds for emergency personnel and the greater Upper Lake region,” the tribe said in a written statement.
Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said the tribe makes a similar contribution to the district annually.
“It’s going into the general fund,” he said.
Beristianos said the funds are typically earmarked for equipment maintenance and keeping the district’s fleet of 38 pieces of firefighting equipment rolling.
The equipment is allocated across seven stations, three of them staffed by volunteers, that serve the 357-square-mile fire district, one of the largest in the state based on land area, Beristianos said.
The tribe has also stepped forward to assist with other important community causes, including the Lights of Love stadium lighting project at Upper Lake High School. In 2017 the Habematolel tribe donated $130,000 to complete the project, as Lake County News has reported.
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.
After several more years of a depressed economy, another armed revolt threatened the new country. That time it took more than savvy political theater to extinguish it. It became known as Shays’ Rebellion. Public domain image.
America was born into debt.
Noble sentiments and lofty ideals might be enough to rally the troops for rebellion, but you can’t eat those inalienable rights, armies don’t march on liberty alone and no one has yet discovered a way to militarize the pursuit of happiness.
The harsh reality of their poverty hit the founding fathers almost immediately. They may have been willing to risk life and limb, but most Revolutionary leaders clung tightly to their personal wealth. It’s true that this wasn’t always the case.
The most extraordinary example of patriotic philanthropy being Robert Morris, a wealthy businessman who on several occasions personally funded the Continental Army in supplies and troop salaries.
Having said that, even Morris was guilty of financially benefiting from his positions as the bankroller of the Revolution. When he organized the smuggling of arms and goods from Europe and the Caribbean, it was his company who was contracted to ship them.
Since the budding country couldn’t rely on its own sources of money, it had to look elsewhere for capital. Most of the diplomats sent overseas during the war weren’t looking for allies to help fight England, but lenders willing to take a risk on funding a rebellion.
Between these loans, and printing out its own currency, America was able to win its independence from England. By the end of the war, America owed a modern day equivalent of $2.5 billion to the French and Spanish monarchies and Dutch bankers.
But like a new college graduate finally waking up to his mountain of student loan debt, our new government was not prepared to pay the piper. Today’s college graduates eventually tighten their belts, reduce their living expenses and begin the lifelong process of paying back their loans.
Post-revolutionary America took the alternative approach and pretended their loans didn’t exist. But no matter how many fingers they stuck in their ears, no matter how loudly they hummed to themselves, the roar of the creditors irritatingly insinuated itself into the hallowed halls of Congress.
To be fair, it wasn’t entirely Congress’ fault. You have to remember that the country was still operating under the Articles of Confederation, a document that established each colony as a separate, sovereign entity.
As far as the colonies (now states) were concerned, they existed only in a loose confederation with the others. So when it came time to collect money owed to it, Congress found itself utterly impotent. Every state was reluctant to pay back debt for a war that was already won.
To make matters worse, Congress had no other way to make money, since under the Articles, it was unable to collect tariffs from imported and exported goods and had no taxing power to speak of. They owed billions, but had no way to adequately get money to pay back the debt (again, much like student loan borrowers).
To make matters worse, Congress owed not only foreign investors, but the very men who had fought and died to make its existence a reality. In January of 1783, two years after Yorktown but still nine months before the official end of the war, a delegation of high-ranking army officers arrived in Congress with a petition for back pay.
Delegates included such esteemed men as generals Knox and McDougall as well as a litany of colonels from well-connected families. They demanded back pay not just for themselves, but the men they commanded. The army petition was clear, eloquent and left no room for misunderstanding.
The final sentences read, “Our private resources are at an end. The uneasiness of the soldiers, for want of pay, is dangerous. Any further experiments on their patience may have fata effects.”
For the next few months, Congress hemmed and hawed, tried unsuccessfully to get its due from the states and finally succeeded in only passing a motion that a permanent fund to pay the soldiers should be established. In response to which, the soldiers essentially told Congress where it could stuff its motion.
The situation finally boiled over and officers stationed at Newburgh, New York, circulated a memo among themselves setting up a secret meeting for March 12. George Washington, who had been staying clear of politics at the time, got wind of this meeting, and had it postponed until March 15.
Marching to the new officer’s barracks on the appointed day and time, Washington took to the lectern and gazed out at the faces of men he had known now for years. He paused, and his men shuffled uneasily. He then produced a letter from his breast pocket, which explained the difficulties the nation faced.
He started to read from the letter, stumbled and stopped. He then pulled from his pocket something none of his men had ever seen their commander and chief use before – spectacles.
“Gentleman, you must pardon me,” Washington said softly, “I have grown gray in the service of my country, and now I find myself growing blind.”
The hardened soldiers struggled to stifle tears, as they remembered Washington’s own sacrifices made throughout the past eight years. His men were nothing if not completely devoted to him.
The so-called Newburgh Conspiracy collapsed before it had begun.
Over the next two centuries, America would take on a burden of debt of some $300 billion, mostly to fight the wars it took to maintain us as a country.
According to John Steel Gordon, author of “Hamilton’s Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt,” our nation has taken on 36-times as much new debt in just the last 50 years.
More than ever, we desperately search for a George Washington and his spectacles, knowing all the while, I suspect, that like our nation’s solvency, his is a character irretrievable from the past.
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.
George Washington, as painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1776. Public domain image.
Yellow areas are parts of the San Francisco Bay shoreline at risk of flooding by 2100 because of sea level rise (SLR) alone, while red indicates those areas at risk because of both sea level rise and local land subsidence (LLS), based on a new study by UC Berkeley and Arizona State geologists. Image by ASU/Manoochehr Shirzaei.
BERKELEY, Calif. – Rising sea levels are predicted to submerge many coastal areas around San Francisco Bay by 2100, but a new study warns that sinking land – primarily the compaction of landfill in places such as Treasure Island and Foster City – will make flooding even worse.
Using precise measurements of subsidence around the Bay Area between 2007 and 2011 from state-of-the-art satellite-based synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University mapped out the waterfront areas that will be impacted by various estimates of sea level rise by the end of the century.
They found that, depending on how fast seas rise, the areas at risk of inundation could be twice what had been estimated from sea level rise only.
Previous studies, which did not take subsidence into account, estimated that between 20 and 160 square miles (51 to 413 square kilometers) of San Francisco Bay shoreline face a risk of flooding by the year 2100, depending on how quickly sea levels rise.
Adding the effects of sinking ground along the shoreline, the scientists found that the area threatened by rising seawater rose to between 48 and 166 square miles (125 to 429 square kilometers).
“We are only looking at a scenario where we raise the bathtub water a little bit higher and look where the water level would stand,” said senior author Roland Bürgmann, a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science. “But what if we have a 100-year storm, or king tides or other scenarios of peak water-level change? We are providing an average; the actual area that would be flooded by peak rainfall and runoff and storm surges is much larger.”
The data will help state and local agencies plan for the future and provide improved hazard maps for cities and emergency response agencies.
"Accurately measuring vertical land motion is an essential component for developing robust projections of flooding exposure for coastal communities worldwide,” said Patrick Barnard, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park. “This work is an important step forward in providing coastal managers with increasingly more detailed information on the impacts of climate change, and therefore directly supports informed decision-making that can mitigate future impacts."
The low-end estimates of flooding reflect conservative predictions of sea level rise by 2100: about one and a half feet. Those are now being questioned, however, since ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting faster than many scientists expected. Today, some extreme estimates are as high as five and a half feet.
That said, the subsidence – which the geologists found to be as high as 10 millimeters per year in some areas – makes less of a difference in extreme cases, Bürgmann noted. Most of the Bay Area is subsiding at less than 2 millimeters per year.
“The ground goes down, sea level comes up and flood waters go much farther inland than either change would produce by itself," said first author Manoochehr Shirzaei, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow who is now an assistant professor in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration and a member of NASA's Sea Level Change planning team.
Shirzaei and Bürgmann will publish their findings today in the online journal Science Advances.
Combining InSAR and GPS
InSAR, which stands for interferometric synthetic aperture radar, has literally changed our view of Earth’s landscape with its ability to measure elevations to within one millimeter, or four-hundredths of an inch, from Earth orbit.
While it has been used to map landscapes worldwide – Bürgmann has used InSAR data to map landslides in Berkeley and land subsidence in Santa Clara County – this may be the first time someone has combined such data with future sea level estimates, he said. The team used continuous GPS monitoring of the Bay Area to link the InSAR data to sea level estimates.
“Flooding from sea level rise is clearly an issue in many coastal urban areas,” Bürgmann said. “This kind of analysis is probably going to be relevant around the world, and could be expanded to a much, much larger scale.”
In the Bay Area, one threatened area is Treasure Island, which is located in the Bay midway between San Francisco and Oakland and was created by landfill for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. It is sinking at a rate of one-half to three-quarters of an inch (12 to 20 millimeters) per year.
Projections for San Francisco International Airport show that when land subsidence is combined with projected rising sea levels, water will cover approximately half the airport's runways and taxiways by the year 2100. Parts of Foster City were built in the 1960s on engineered landfill that is now subsiding, presenting a risk of flooding by 2100.
Not all endangered areas are landfill, however. Areas where streams and rivers have deposited mud as they flow into the Bay are also subsiding, partly because of compaction and partly because they are drying out.
Other areas are subsiding because of groundwater pumping, which depletes the aquifer and allows the land to sink. In the early 20th century, the Santa Clara Valley at the south end of San Francisco Bay subsided as much as nine feet (three meters) due to groundwater depletion, though that has stabilized with restrictions on pumping.
Shirzaei noted that flooding is not the only problem with rising seas and sinking land. When formerly dry land becomes flooded, it causes saltwater contamination of surface and underground water and accelerates coastal erosion and wetland losses.
The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Point Reyes Bird Observatory Conservation Science.
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a group of adults dogs who are waiting to meet their new families this week.
The dogs offered adoption this week include mixes of greyhound, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd 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”).
“Zeva” is a female Labrador Retriever-terrier mix is in kennel No. 4, ID No. 9553. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Zeva’
“Zeva” is a female Labrador Retriever-terrier mix.
She has a medium-length black coat and already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 4, ID No. 9553.
“Rowdy” is a female greyhound-Labrador Retriever mix in kennel No. 8, ID No. 9523. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Rowdy’
“Rowdy” is a female greyhound-Labrador Retriever mix.
She has a short black coat with white markings, and already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 9523.
This male Labrador Retriever is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 9546. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Labrador Retriever
This male Labrador Retriever has a short black coat.
He’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 9546.
“Onyx” is a female shepherd mix in kennel No. 22, ID No. 4174. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Onyx’
“Onyx” is a female shepherd mix.
She has a medium-length black coat with white markings, and already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 4174.
“Baby” is a female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 23, ID No. 9501. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Baby’
“Baby” is a female pit bull terrier with a short fawn coat.
She already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 23, ID No. 9501.
This young female pit bull is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 9465. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female pit bull
This young female pit bull has a short blue and fawn coat.
She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 9465.
This male pit bull is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 9480. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull
This male pit bull has a short blue and white coat.
Shelter staff said he is super sweet and bubbly.
He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 9480.
“BamBam” is a male Rottweiler mix in kennel No. 33, ID No. 9517. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘BamBam’
“BamBam” is a male Rottweiler mix.
He has a short tricolor coat.
He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 9517.
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.
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY AND NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Arp 256 is a stunning system of two spiral galaxies, about 350 million light-years away, in an early stage of merging. The image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, displays two galaxies with strongly distorted shapes and an astonishing number of blue knots of star formation that look like exploding fireworks. The star formation was triggered by the close interaction between the two galaxies. This image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is a new version of an image already released in 2008 that was part a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken for Hubble’s 18th anniversary. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA.
Galaxies are not static islands of stars – they are dynamic and ever-changing, constantly on the move through the darkness of the Universe.
Sometimes, as seen in this spectacular Hubble image of Arp 256, galaxies can collide in a crash of cosmic proportions.
Three hundred and 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus (the sea monster), a pair of barred spiral galaxies have just begun a magnificent merger. This image suspends them in a single moment, freezing the chaotic spray of gas, dust and stars kicked up by the gravitational forces pulling the two galaxies together.
Though their nuclei are still separated by a large distance, the shapes of the galaxies in Arp 256 are impressively distorted. The galaxy in the upper part of the image contains very pronounced tidal tails – long, extended ribbons of gas, dust and stars.
The galaxies are ablaze with dazzling regions of star formation: the bright blue fireworks are stellar nurseries, churning out hot infant stars. These vigorous bursts of new life are triggered by the massive gravitational interactions, which stir up interstellar gas and dust out of which stars are born.
Arp 256 was first catalogued by Halton Arp in 1966, as one of 338 galaxies presented in the aptly-named Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The goal of the catalogue was to image examples of the weird and wonderful structures found among nearby galaxies, to provide snapshots of different stages of galactic evolution.
These peculiar galaxies are like a natural experiment played out on a cosmic scale and by cataloguing them, astronomers can better understand the physical processes that warp spiral and elliptical galaxies into new shapes.
Many galaxies in this catalogue are dwarf galaxies with indistinct structures, or active galaxies generating powerful jets – but a large number of the galaxies are interacting, such as Messier 51, the Antennae Galaxies, and Arp 256. Such interactions often form streamer-like tidal tails as seen in Arp 256, as well as bridges of gas, dust and stars between the galaxies.
Long ago, when our expanding Universe was much smaller, interactions and mergers were more common; in fact, they are thought to drive galactic evolution to this day.
The galaxies in the Arp 256 system will continue their gravitational dance over the next millions of years, at first flirtatious, and then intimate, before finally morphing into a single galaxy.
This spectacular image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is a new version of an image already released in 2008 that was part a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken for Hubble’s 18th anniversary.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Several local races featured in the June 5 primary closed on Friday, with one supervisor choosing not to seek reelection and a new candidate joining the race this week for Lake County superintendent of schools.
The key election-related developments revealed this week are that District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele won’t run for another term and Patrick Iaccino, the retired Upper Lake Unified School District superintendent, is challenging incumbent Brock Falkenberg for the Lake County superintendent of schools seat.
The deadline for all races in which an incumbent is seeking reelection was 5 p.m. on Friday, according to the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office.
As of that deadline, Assessor-Recorder Richard Ford, County Clerk-Auditor Cathy Saderlund, Sheriff-Coroner Brian Martin and Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen all had filed for reelection and were unopposed, according to Chief Deputy Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez.
Also unopposed in seeking new terms are Lake County Superior Court Judge Andrew Blum and Judge Michael Lunas, Valadez said. Because they are unopposed, their names will not appear on the ballot and they will be considered reelected in November; that procedure is unique to judicial races.
In the race to succeed Judge Stephen Hedstrom, who is not seeking reelection, the deadline for filings also was 5 p.m. Friday, Valadez said.
Valadez said the three candidates in that race are District Attorney Don Anderson, Deputy County Counsel Shanda Harry and attorney Andre Ross.
In the race for Lake County superintendent of schools, Falkenberg, now in his first term, is seeking reelection, which he formally announced this week. Valadez confirmed all of his paperwork was filed by the Friday deadline.
But Falkenberg won’t run unopposed. Iaccino, who retired in June as the superintendent for the Upper Lake Unified School District, has joined the race, which he confirmed to Lake County News this week. Valadez said Iaccino’s name also is confirmed on the June ballot.
While those races are now closed, the filings for district attorney, and supervisorial districts 2 and 3 remain open until 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 14, because the incumbents haven’t filed to run for reelection, the Registrar of Voters Office reported.
In the district attorney’s race, attorney Steven Brown and Senior Deputy District Attorney Susan Krones have filed their papers and are confirmed candidates, Valadez said.
In the District 2 supervisorial race, Supervisor Jeff Smith has long made known his intention to not run for another term.
Clearlake Mayor Bruno Sabatier is seeking to succeed Smith and has filed all of the necessary paperwork to appear on the ballot, Valadez said.
As of Friday, Valadez said another Clearlake City Council member, Joyce Overton, had pulled nomination papers but still has to finalize the rest of her paperwork.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the week was that, according to Valadez, District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele – who had earlier pulled initial paperwork to seek reelection – did not finish the process of filing to seek a second term by the Friday deadline.
“I will confirm I did not file by 5 p.m.,” Steele told Lake County News on Friday evening.
“I waited to the last minute to think about it,” he said.
He said he would issue an upcoming statement explaining his reasons for not seeking reelection.
The race for the District 3 seat now includes Eddie J. Crandell Sr., the Robinson Rancheria tribal chair, and Denise Loustalot, a businesswoman who previously served as the city of Clearlake’s mayor.
Both Crandell and Loustalot were appointed by Steele to fill local governing roles – Crandell as the District 3 representative on the Lake County Planning Commission and Loustalot as chair of the East Region Town Hall.
“It’s going to be interesting,” Steele said of the race to succeed him.
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.
An illicit marijuana growth eradicated in the Kelseyville, Calif., area. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office reported that it busted two large illegal marijuana grows, made several arrests, eradicated thousands of plants and seized hundreds of pounds of marijuana with a street value of more than $1 million.
Lt. Corey Paulich said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit, with the assistance of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, served a search warrant related to a large-scale illegal marijuana grow in the 2700 block of Holdenried Road on Thursday.
Paulich said detectives arrested three male adults at the location; they were identified as Mario Santiago Santos, 35, of Sacramento; Carlos Reyna, 46, of Lodi; and Miguel Cruz, 35, of Fresno.
Detectives located and eradicated 1,643 marijuana plants growing within a set of eight 100-foot-long hoop-style greenhouses, Paulich said. In addition, the cultivation activity was occurring along Hill Creek with a large amount of garbage and grow site debris in and along the creek.
From left, Miguel Cruz, 35, of Fresno, Calif.; Carlos Reyna, 46, of Lodi, Calif.; and Mario Santiago Santos, 35, of Sacramento, Calif., were arrested on Thursday, March 8, 2018, on charges related to illicit marijuana growing. Photos courtesy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Paulich said the three men were booked into custody at the Lake County Jail for cultivation of marijuana while discharging substance or material deleterious to fish, plant life, mammals or bird life; maintaining a place for the purposes of unlawfully storing or distributing controlled substance for sale; and possession of marijuana for sale.
Detectives continued to investigate the male subjects and were able to identify a second location located in the 4600 block of Clark Drive in Kelseyville which was associated with Santos, Paulich said.
On Friday, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit along with the assistance of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife served a second search warrant at the Clark Drive location. Paulich said no suspects were located at this location.
Detectives found the property contained a total of nine additional large greenhouse structures and a sophisticated drying and processing station within a barn. Paulich said detectives located and eradicated a total of 5,554 marijuana plants and seized 760 pounds of processed marijuana.
Paulich said the processed marijuana had a street value of over $1 million.
Hoop-style grow houses authorities eradicated in the Kelseyville, Calif., area. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With Daylight Saving Time beginning on Sunday, March 11, Cal Fire officials are reminding all Californians to ensure they have working smoke alarms in their homes.
Smoke alarms save lives by providing the extra minutes needed to get out of your home safely.
“With the clocks springing forward, now is a great opportunity to spend a few minutes making sure your smoke alarms are less than ten years old, in good working condition and installed in the proper locations,” said Cal Fire Chief of Public Education Lynne Tolmachoff. “Most people know how critical smoke alarms are, but they take them for granted and forget to maintain them. When smoke alarms fail to operate, it is usually because batteries are missing, disconnected, or the smoke alarm unit is dead.”
Some alarming statistics: Did you know that smoke alarms sounded in more than half of the home fires reported? In fires in which the smoke alarms were present but did not operate, almost half of the smoke alarms had missing or disconnected batteries.
No smoke alarms were present in almost two out of every five home fire deaths. Dead batteries caused one-quarter of the smoke alarm failures.
With these facts, it is vital to have a working smoke alarm when you and your family have less than three minutes to get out of a burning home to stay safe, that is not a lot of time.
To help prevent a tragedy, we are highlighting the following life-saving strategies:
• Smoke alarms should be installed on every level of your home, in every sleeping area, and in the hallway leading to every sleeping area. Smoke alarms should be connected so when one sounds, they all sound.
• Inspect smoke alarms monthly, clean them yearly, and replace the entire unit every ten years.
• Replace the battery if the smoke alarm chirps. That is your warning sign that the battery is low.
• Protect your family by developing a home escape plan with two ways out of every room. Make sure to have an outside meeting place, and practice your escape during the day as well as the night.
• People who are hard-of-hearing or deaf can use special alarms. These alarms have strobe lights and bed shakers.
• An ionization smoke alarm is generally more responsive to flaming fires and a photoelectric smoke alarm is generally more responsive to smoldering fires. For the best protection, or where extra time is needed to awaken or assist others, both types of alarms, or combination ionization and photoelectric alarms are recommended.
You can do your part in preventing home fires by checking the dates on your smoke alarms and then testing them to make sure they work.
To find out how old your smoke alarm is and its expiration date, simply look on the back of the alarm where the date of manufacture is marked. If the date is more than 10 years old, it’s time to change the entire smoke alarm unit.
Having one’s affairs in order is like having good health. All related parts have to work together as a whole. That is, each separate estate planning instrument – be it the living trust, the power of attorney, or the designation of death beneficiary form – needs to function, where relevant, harmoniously with one another.
Let us consider some common scenarios where estate planning documents may interrelate.
The living trust and the power of attorney both pertain to incapacity planning. Typically the agent under the power of attorney will use the day to day checking account funds to pay necessary expenses while the principal is incapacitated.
Meanwhile the trustee will manage the investment and savings accounts and will also typically be required to pay upkeep and personal expenses.
The agent, if he or she is not also the trustee, should be authorized in the trust to obtain further money from the trustee if the checking account outside the trust (which is available to the agent) is ever insufficient to meet the principal’s living and healthcare expenses.
Typically the trust requires the trustee to provide the agent with extra funds as needed. Usually this is a moot point as the same person(s) often act as agent and as trustee.
Moreover, sometimes it can be very helpful for the agent under a power of attorney to amend an incapacitated person’s living trust.
Consider someone who tells her agent under a power of attorney that she wants to amend her trust to disinherit her estranged stepson. Then she becomes incapacitated before dying.
The power of attorney authorizes the agent to make changes to the trust. The trust, however, restricts the right to amend the trust to the settlor or his conservator. Accordingly, the trust’s own restrictions on who can amend the trust prevent the settlor’s agent exercising the full scope of authority granted within the power of attorney. The documents are not in harmony.
Next, the will, power of attorney, and designation of death beneficiary forms can also interrelate. That is, an agent under the power of attorney may be authorized to change designation of death beneficiary forms – which control who inherits death proceeds from life insurance, annuities, and retirement accounts.
The will can authorize a decedent’s surviving spouse to make changes to death beneficiary forms that affect the decedent’s community property interests.
Without such authorization the surviving spouse cannot exercise full control over who later inherits any life insurance, annuities and retirement accounts – even though owned by the surviving spouse – which previously were community property assets while the deceased spouse was still alive.
A person’s advance health care directive, power of attorney for personal care, power of attorney for property and financial assets, and living trust can also overlap.
The agents under the health care directive and power of attorney for personal care have the authority to make health care and living arrangements (such as placement in a residential nursing home). Such arrangements will create expenses that need to be paid.
Paying for these health care and living arrangements requires the cooperation of the agent under the power of attorney and the trustee, each of whom may have access to assets.
Accordingly, the power of attorney and trust instruments should either require that the agent pay such expenses or else the same person(s) should act in all roles.
A person’s ownership (title) documents need to be consistent with the person’s estate plan. That is, if the person with a living trust intends for real property assets to pass under a trust, those real properties should all be titled in the name of the trustee. Having them titled outside the trust may trigger an unintended probate.
The foregoing are just some illustrations of how estate planning instruments must be considered in connection with other related estate planning instruments so everything works harmoniously.
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.
Imagine an object moving at supersonic speed. This object, as it moves through a medium, causes the material in the medium to pile up, compress, and heat up. The result is a type of shock wave, known as a bow shock.
A bow shock gets its name from bow waves, the curved ridge of water in front of a fast-moving boat created by the force of the bow pushing forward through the water.
Bow waves and bow shocks can look similar, however bow waves only occur on the surface of water while bow shocks occur in 3 dimensions.
There are bow shocks everywhere, even in space--and these cosmic bow shocks can tell scientists cosmic secrets.
Even the emptiest regions of space contain protons, electrons, atoms, molecules and other matter. When planets, stars, and the plasma clouds ejected from supernovae fly at a high speed through this surrounding medium, cosmic bow shocks are generated in that medium.
The solar wind forms a bow shock in front of Earth's magnetosphere.
“The fast-moving plasma of the solar wind blows past Earth, but it cannot penetrate our magnetosphere,” explained Maxim Markevitch of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “The solar wind has a magnetic field, and the Earth's magnetosphere is almost like a solid body for that wind. So the solar wind forms a bow shock in front of the outer edge of the magnetosphere.”
Studying Earth’s bow shock can unlock the secrets of the solar wind, allowing us to better understand its complicated effects on our planet.
The high-speed collisions of stars with the interstellar medium create impressive bow shocks. Hot supergiant star Kappa Cassiopeia creates a shock that can be seen by the infrared detectors on NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In this Spitzer image, the pile-up of heated material around Kappa Cassiopeia is indicated in red.
Studying stellar bow shocks can reveal the secret motions of the underlying stars, telling us how fast they’re moving, which way, and what they’re moving through.
An example of a bow shock on an even grander scale is seen in this cluster of galaxies located in the Carina constellation, called 1E 0657-558. This X-ray image from the Chandra observatory captures the moment of a gigantic collision of two smaller clusters, the two white regions in the image.
“The clusters are filled with hot plasma, and one of them – the cluster on the right – is smaller and denser. As it flies through the less-dense cloud of plasma that is the bigger cluster it forms a bow shock,” Markevitch said.
Scientists study such cluster shocks to deduce their velocity in the plane of the sky. And the fine structure of the shocks reveals a lot about the interesting, complicated physical processes in the plasmas present in clusters as well as in many other astrophysical objects across the universe.
For more on shocking phenomena found beyond our solar system, stay tuned to http://science.nasa.gov.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated regarding the name, age and employment of one of the victims based on a Saturday afternoon followup report from the Napa County Sheriff’s Office.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Friday night the Napa County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office identified the shooter and his three female victims who were found dead following a daylong standoff with authorities at the Veterans Home in Yountville.
Capt. Steve Blower identified the shooter as Albert Wong, 36, from Sacramento, who was reported to have fired shots at law enforcement officers and taken three women as hostages on Friday morning before he was found dead on Friday evening.
Blower said the three victims are Jennifer Golick, 42, of St. Helena; Christine Loeber, 48, of Napa; and Jennifer K. Gonzales Shushereba, 32, of Napa.
Golick was the clinical director of the Pathway Home treatment program for veterans, located on the campus of the Veteran Home of California in Yountville, while Loeber was executive director and Shushereba was a clinical psychologist with the San Francisco Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, Blower said.
Blower also reported that Shushereba had been 26 weeks pregnant.
Wong had formerly taken part in the Pathway Home program, according to Blower’s report.
Autopsies of the three women and Wong will take place next week at the Napa Sheriff-Coroner’s Office Facility, Blower said.
“We are devastated by today’s tragedy at our Home in Yountville,” said CalVet Secretary Dr. Vito Imbasciani in a Friday night statement. “Our hearts are heavy for the entire Yountville Veterans Home community and the families and friends who are grieving for those who died. Nothing matters more than caring for our veterans and employees during this difficult time. We appreciate the tremendous law enforcement response today and unfailing support of this community.”
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office reported that the California Highway Patrol received a call at 10:20 a.m. Friday of gunshots fired at the Yountville Veterans Home in Yountville.
Several agencies, including the Sonoma County Sheriff’s SWAT team, responded and deputies arrived within four minutes, engaging Wong – who they agency said was armed with a rifle – and exchanging gunfire with him. At that time, there were no injuries.
Wong took the three women hostage and three tactical teams had him confined to a single room, with hostage negotiators from three different agencies part of the response.
The situation continued into the evening. Then, just before 6 p.m., law enforcement officers made entry into the room where Wong was holding the women hostage, according to CHP Golden Gate Division Assistant Chief Chris Childs in a Friday night press conference.
Childs said they found Wong and the three hostages all dead.
“This is a tragic piece of news, one we were really hoping not to come before the public to give,” Childs said.
Childs credited the initial responding Napa County Sheriff's Office Deputy who arrived at the scene and put himself in harm’s way, exchanging gunfire with Wong.
“”We believe and we credit him with saving the lives of others in the area by eliminating the ability for the suspect to go out and find further victims,” Childs said.
Childs said they found Wong’s vehicle, a rental car that was parked near a building.
“Initially, we had a bomb sniffing dog sniff the car and came back with a positive result. The CHP SWAT team and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit were called in and they cleared the car,” Childs said.
While they didn’t find a bomb in the car, Childs said they did find a cell phone.
Noting that it was still an active crime scene, Childs said couldn’t offer further details on other aspects of the incident, including what type of gun Wong had.
“The investigation will take some time to conclude,” Childs said. “We don’t anticipate we’ll have a lot of answers tonight.”
Authorities also asked people to stay away from the grounds of the veterans home while the investigation continued and the home was repopulated.
On Friday night Gov. Jerry Brown and a host of other officials responded to the outcome of the standoff.
“Anne and I are deeply saddened by the horrible violence at the Yountville Veterans Home, which tragically took the lives of three people dedicated to serving our veterans. Our hearts go out to their families and loved ones and the entire community of Yountville,” said Brown.
The governor ordered flags in the State Capitol to be flown at half-staff in recognition of the victims and their families.
“Tonight as a community, we mourn the tragic shooting at the Yountville Veterans Home and the devastating loss for the families, loved ones, and friends of those killed. Law enforcement from our district and around our region responded with truly commendable professionalism and we thank them for their selfless service,” said Congressman Mike Thompson, whose district includes Yountville.
“The Veterans Home is a place where veterans receive the help they have earned through their service. Pathway is a program that gives veterans a guide to improve their lives. Those killed were three wonderful and dedicated women who got up every morning to better the lives of veterans. Tonight all our hearts are heavy,” Thompson said.
“My heart breaks for the residents, visitors, staff, and their families affected by the tragic events at the Yountville Veterans Home today,” said Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry. “We lost three extremely dedicated individuals who did incredible work for our veterans, and nothing can prepare a community for something like this. I would like to thank the California Highway Patrol and all of the first responders and law enforcement that were on the scene today. They have been working for hours bringing comfort and aid, and are still providing assistance into the night. I hope all those impacted feel comfort from the showing support and love, and I will continue to be present as a resource and advocate as we move forward into the coming days."
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.
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