LAKEPORT, Calif. – When it meets next week the Lakeport City Council will consider possible changes to city rules regarding both personal marijuana cultivation and commercial marijuana uses.

The council will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

A report from city Community Development Director Kevin Ingram explained that the proposed changes would reflect state regulations associated with the recently approved
Proposition 64 that legalized the personal use of marijuana, or cannabis, in California and other recent legislative changes concerning cannabis over the past couple of years.

At that meeting, the council will review proposed ordinance amendments that include, but not be limited to, the following.

Personal cannabis cultivation:

– Number of cannabis plants permitted on residential parcels.
– Permitted zoning districts for personal cannabis cultivation.
– Regulations for the cultivation of cannabis on residential properties.

Commercial cannabis uses:

– Potential performance standards for commercial cannabis uses including: cultivation, manufacturing, testing, retail, etc.
– Appropriate zoning districts for the allowance of commercial cannabis uses.
– Consideration of buffer distances for Commercial Cannabis uses (e.g., schools, parks, etc.).
– Commercial cannabis operation plan requirements and application selection criteria.

The public is encouraged to attend and participate.

An electronic version of the staff
report and other meeting materials can be viewed on the City of Lakeport’s Web site at http://www.cityoflakeport.com/departments/page.aspx?deptID=36&id=229.

If you have any questions feel free to contact the Community Development Department at 707-263-5615, Extension 204, or email Kevin Ingram at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Authorities arrested a Clearlake Oaks man on Thursday after finding him in possession of drugs and weapons.

David Wayne Christensen, 61, was arrested in the case, according to Lt. Corey Paulich.

At 10:30 p.m. Thursday a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy conducted a traffic stop on a Chevy pickup for a vehicle code violation in 12000 block on Widgeon Way in Clearlake Oaks, Paulich said.

The deputy contacted the driver, who was identified as Christensen, who told the deputy that he was on searchable probation related to marijuana sales. Deputies searched Christensen’s truck, but did not locate anything illegal, according to Paulich.

Paulich said deputies then went to Christensen’s residence, which also is located in the 12000 block of Widgeon Way, and conducted a probation search.

During the search deputies located a gallon-size plastic bag containing approximately 13 ounces of suspected methamphetamine. Paulich said deputies also located approximately 14.5 pounds of marijuana that was packaged in one pound increments.

A loaded .38-caliber handgun and high capacity magazine were located in Christensen’s bedroom. Paulich said the suspected methamphetamine had a street value of approximately $37,000 and the marijuana had a street value of approximately $14,000.

Paulich said Christensen was placed under arrest and transported to the Lake County Jail, where he was booked into custody for possession of a controlled substance for sale, possession of methamphetamine while armed, possession of marijuana for sale, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Christensen also was charged with possession of a large capacity magazine and a violation of probation, Paulich said.

Christensen remained in custody on Saturday, with bail set at $25,000, according to jail records.

Paulich said the sheriff’s office will continue its efforts to eradicate narcotics from the communities of Lake County and seize the suspected profits of drug trafficking for asset forfeiture whenever possible.

Anyone with information that can assist the Narcotics Unit with this effort is encouraged to call the anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.

Our solar system now is tied for most number of planets around a single star, with the recent discovery of an eighth planet circling Kepler-90, a Sun-like star 2,545 light-years from Earth. The planet was discovered in data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.

The newly-discovered Kepler-90i – a sizzling hot, rocky planet that orbits its star once every 14.4 days – was found using machine learning from Google. Machine learning is an approach to artificial intelligence in which computers “learn.” In this case, computers learned to identify planets by finding in Kepler data instances where the telescope recorded signals from planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets.

“Just as we expected, there are exciting discoveries lurking in our archived Kepler data, waiting for the right tool or technology to unearth them,” said Paul Hertz, director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division in Washington. “This finding shows that our data will be a treasure trove available to innovative researchers for years to come.”

The discovery came about after researchers Christopher Shallue and Andrew Vanderburg trained a computer to learn how to identify exoplanets in the light readings recorded by Kepler – the minuscule change in brightness captured when a planet passed in front of, or transited, a star.

Inspired by the way neurons connect in the human brain, this artificial “neural network” sifted through Kepler data and found weak transit signals from a previously-missed eighth planet orbiting Kepler-90, in the constellation Draco.

While machine learning has previously been used in searches of the Kepler database, this research demonstrates that neural networks are a promising tool in finding some of the weakest signals of distant worlds.

Other planetary systems probably hold more promise for life than Kepler-90. About 30 percent larger than Earth, Kepler-90i is so close to its star that its average surface temperature is believed to exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit, on par with Mercury. Its outermost planet, Kepler-90h, orbits at a similar distance to its star as Earth does to the Sun.

“The Kepler-90 star system is like a mini version of our solar system. You have small planets inside and big planets outside, but everything is scrunched in much closer,” said Vanderburg, a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow and astronomer at the University of Texas at Austin.

Shallue, a senior software engineer with Google’s research team Google AI, came up with the idea to apply a neural network to Kepler data.

He became interested in exoplanet discovery after learning that astronomy, like other branches of science, is rapidly being inundated with data as the technology for data collection from space advances.

“In my spare time, I started googling for ‘finding exoplanets with large data sets’ and found out about the Kepler mission and the huge data set available,” said Shallue. "Machine learning really shines in situations where there is so much data that humans can't search it for themselves.”

Kepler’s four-year dataset consists of 35,000 possible planetary signals. Automated tests, and sometimes human eyes, are used to verify the most promising signals in the data.

However, the weakest signals often are missed using these methods. Shallue and Vanderburg thought there could be more interesting exoplanet discoveries faintly lurking in the data.

First, they trained the neural network to identify transiting exoplanets using a set of 15,000 previously-vetted signals from the Kepler exoplanet catalogue.

In the test set, the neural network correctly identified true planets and false positives 96 percent of the time.

Then, with the neural network having "learned" to detect the pattern of a transiting exoplanet, the researchers directed their model to search for weaker signals in 670 star systems that already had multiple known planets.

Their assumption was that multiple-planet systems would be the best places to look for more exoplanets.

“We got lots of false positives of planets, but also potentially more real planets,” said Vanderburg. “It’s like sifting through rocks to find jewels. If you have a finer sieve then you will catch more rocks but you might catch more jewels, as well.”

Kepler-90i wasn’t the only jewel this neural network sifted out. In the Kepler-80 system, they found a sixth planet.

This one, the Earth-sized Kepler-80g, and four of its neighboring planets form what is called a resonant chain – where planets are locked by their mutual gravity in a rhythmic orbital dance. The result is an extremely stable system, similar to the seven planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Their research paper reporting these findings has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. Shallue and Vanderburg plan to apply their neural network to Kepler’s full set of more than 150,000 stars.

Kepler has produced an unprecedented data set for exoplanet hunting. After gazing at one patch of space for four years, the spacecraft now is operating on an extended mission and switches its field of view every 80 days.

“These results demonstrate the enduring value of Kepler’s mission,” said Jessie Dotson, Kepler’s project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “New ways of looking at the data – such as this early-stage research to apply machine learning algorithms – promises to continue to yield significant advances in our understanding of planetary systems around other stars. I’m sure there are more firsts in the data waiting for people to find them.”

Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. This work was performed through the Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowship Program executed by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the community’s help in locating a missing 15-year-old girl who may have run away.

Authorities are trying to find Avril Wright of Upper Lake, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Paulich told Lake County News that on Thursday the girl’s mother, Sahra Wilcoxson, contacted the Lake County Sheriff's Office to report her daughter missing.

He said Wilcoxson told authorities that the girl did not return home from school from Upper Lake High School.

Wilcoxson stated Avril was last seen at 12:30 p.m. Thursday during her lunch break at school. Avril was not seen after her last period of school, Paulich said.

Paulich said Wilcoxson believes Avril may be en route to Wichita, Kansas, where her father is currently awaiting surgery.

Avril was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt with white lettering, blue jeans and boots. She has blonde hair, blue eyes, is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds, Paulich reported.

Paulich said the sheriff’s patrol units are following up on the case as they receive more information.

If you have any information of the whereabouts of Avril Wright, please contact the Lake County Sheriff's Office at 707-263-2690.

SOUTH LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A favorite holiday event that went on hiatus after the Valley fire has returned and is once again spreading Christmas cheer across south county communities.

The South Lake County Firefighters Association this holiday season is once again conducting its “Candy Cane Run.”

The association is assisted in presenting the event by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office as well as guests of honor, Santa and Mrs. Claus.

The first of the three runs took place in Middletown Dec. 8.

“It was great,” association President Todd Fenk said of the first run.

The next two runs are scheduled for Friday in Cobb and Saturday in Hidden Valley Lake, beginning at around 6 p.m. each evening.

Santa and Mrs. Claus will be on a decorated flat bed utility, with engines and ambulances following, and firefighters handing out candy canes and playing Christmas music.

The Friday night Cobb run will move from Loch Lomond and Highway 175 to Lema Lane and Lema Court, Venturi and Elliott, Venturi and Pamela Drive, Fox and Regina, Upper Fox, St. Helena, Hoberg’s Loop, Pine Summit Pool, Estates Drive and Meadow, Golf Road, Gifford Springs and Starview Loop, with a stop at Black Rock Golf Course.

Saturday’s Hidden Valley Lake run will travel through areas including Mt. Meadow North, Mt. Meadow South, Spyglass, Hidden Valley Road to Deer Hill, Greenridge/Buckhorn, Greenridge to Stonegate and North Shore from the main gate, with stops at Raven Hill Park and Marine View.

While there’s no rain in the forecast for Friday and Saturday, should rain occur, the Cobb run will be rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 19, and the Hidden Valley Lake run for Wednesday, Dec. 20.

The association has about 20 members, many of whom take part in the planning. Fenk said they can get the events fleshed out within a few meetings.

“We’ve been doing it for many years so it’s not too hard to plan it,” Fenk said.

But, for the last few years, Fenk said the event hadn’t taken place in the wake of the Valley fire, which dealt a big blow to the community.

In Cobb, the year after the fire, “There was really nobody there,” he said.

Instead, in 2015, the association switched gears and worked on a massive toy drive for children impacted by the Valley fire, Fenk said.

Fenk said the volunteers put their hearts and souls into the toy drive. “It was an absolute and total success.”

Now, with the situation in the south county seeming a bit more settled, it was time to get back to the Candy Cane Run, which Fenk said is “a bit of normalcy” after the fire.

“We like to keep the tradition going,” he said.

He added, “The kids love it,” and welcome seeing Santa Claus.

Fenk noted that Santa’s big red suit goes nicely with the big red fire trucks.

Firefighters will be out along with Santa, handing out candy canes and visiting with community members. Fenk said it’s exciting to be a part of it, even on chilly December nights.

“The hearts and joy of the community kind of keep you warm,” he said.

So be on the lookout for a jolly host of firefighters, Santa and Mrs. Claus on a holiday visit over the next few nights.

“If you hear an engine, it may just be Santa coming around the corner” on a fire engine, Fenk said.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Forecasters have issued a fire weather watch for Lake County and other areas of Northern California due to unseasonably dry conditions.

The National Weather Service said the fire weather watch is in effect from 10 p.m. Friday through 10 a.m. Sunday due to potentially critical fire weather conditions this weekend.

A fire weather watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur, the agency said.

The forecast predicts that a dry weather system will move in from the north late on Friday
will produce a combination of gusty winds and low humidity values.

“Due to these factors and the recent long stretch of warm and dry conditions, a very elevated fire weather risk can be expected particularly for higher elevation locations,” according to the National Weather Service message.

Earlier this week, Lake County Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart told Lake County News that no burn days are in effect in Lake County through Dec. 18, and possibly longer, at the request of state and local fire officials due to lack of resources as well as dry weather conditions.

The forecast calls for low humidity readings – ranging between 10 and 20 percent – Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Lake County’s specific forecast calls for light winds on Friday most areas except the south county, where north wind speeds could be in the low 20s, and gusts in the mid 20s.

On Saturday, north winds speeds will range into the mid 20s, with gusts in the low 30s on Saturday night, the forecast said.

Temperatures will range from the low 30s at night to the low 60s during the day through the weekend, the National Weather Service said.

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

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Mountain Vista Middle School in the Kelseyville Unified School District recently received notification that they are one of only 12 California schools to receive the distinction as an “Exemplar Site” for the state-wide Project READ program.

Linda Long, California director of Project READ sent a letter stating, “Your selection was based on a rigorous panel review process and approved by the California Department of Education.”

Mountain Vista Middle School Principal Nicki Thomas says, “Reading instruction is now at the heart of what we do at Mountain Vista Middle School.”

Project READ was introduced by the California Department of Education through a federal grant from the US Department of Education, as a way to improve literacy in middle-school students.

It is an intensive five year adolescent literacy intervention program dedicated to increasing the literacy skills of all students - including students with disabilities, English Learners, and Socioeconomically Disadvantaged students.

Mountain Vista Middle School applied to take part in Project READ in 2013, and through a competitive application process, was one of 44 middle schools selected to participate in the state of California.

The Site Leadership Team at Mountain Vista Middle School consists of Jen Conrad, MVMS Project READ Lead, ELD and Literacy Specialist; Christina Taylor, seventh grade ELA/History; Kerry Smith, resource teacher; and Nicki Thomas, principal.

The leadership team works closely with their Project READ coach, Chantell Caldwell, from Walnut Creek to provide ongoing professional development to the MVMS staff, and focuses on how to teach reading in all content areas.

Thomas added, “All MVMS teachers view themselves as reading teachers, and are using the same reading strategies school-wide. As a result of our hard work, students continue to improve their reading skills and teachers continue to improve their instructional practices."

Team members and the Project READ coach visit classrooms, observe teachers, and use that data to determine next steps in professional development.

Additionally, team members work closely with reading and special education teachers on providing high quality intervention classes to all “at-risk” students.

As an Exemplar Site, the Mountain Vista Middle School Site Leadership Team will be providing professional development to other California school sites through webinars and site visits, as well as presenting at the Project READ Statewide Institute in Spring 2018 in Anaheim, California.

Teams from several California schools have visited MVMS this year to learn best practices, and schools from the Bay Area have sent teams to visit in previous years.

“Project READ has brought our staff together and allowed us to focus on instructional practices that best meet the needs of our students,” Thomas said. “Through Project READ, our staff have become even better teachers and our students are reaping the rewards.”

Dave McQueen, superintendent of the Kelseyville Unified School District, added, "We are excited to see what is happening at MVMS. A big congratulations to Principal Thomas and the staff at MVMS. The bottom line in all this good news is that students are gaining skills and getting the help they need to succeed. We will continue to make strides in helping all students at Kelseyville achieve."

For more information on Project READ at Mountain Vista Middle School in Kelseyville, please contact Nicki Thomas or Jen Conrad at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to schedule a site visit.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol will offer a free “Start Smart” traffic safety class for soon to-be-licensed, newly licensed, and teenage drivers and their parents or guardians on Wednesday, Dec. 20.

The class will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Clear Lake Area CHP office, located at 5700 Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.

The CHP said a teenager is killed in a traffic collision every four hours nationwide. That equates to more than 1,870 teenagers killed each year. Another 184,000 teenagers are injured in traffic collisions.

These deaths and injuries can be substantially reduced or prevented by eliminating high-risk driving behaviors through education, and the CHP said its “Start Smart” program can help prevent these tragedies.

The Start Smart program focuses on providing comprehensive traffic safety education classes for teenagers and their parents.

Start Smart employs innovative techniques to capture the attention of teenagers and parents, providing a lasting experience.

The curriculum includes information on collision statistics, teen driver and passenger behaviors, graduated driver’s license laws, cultural changes in today’s society and the need for stronger parental involvement in a teenager’s driving experience.

Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Efrain Cortez or Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP office, 707-279-0103, or email Reynolds at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday honored a Cal Fire engineer who lost his life in the devastating Thomas fire.

Cal Fire Engineer Cory Iverson, 32, of Escondido, died Thursday while fighting the 249,500-acre Thomas fire near Fillmore in Ventura County.

The fire, which began Dec. 4, has destroyed nearly 1,000 structures.

“Anne and I are saddened by Engineer Cory Iverson’s tragic death. His bravery and years of committed service to the people of California will never be forgotten,” said Brown.

Iverson was an eight-year veteran of Cal Fire.

He is survived by his wife, Ashley, who is pregnant, and their 2-year-old daughter, Evie; mother, Denise Butler; stepfather, Scott Butler; and father, Craig Iverson.

In honor of Engineer Iverson, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s district attorney said he intends to seek a seat on the Lake County Superior Court bench.

District Attorney Don Anderson announced his candidacy for superior court judge to his staff on Wednesday at his department’s annual Christmas party.

Last month, Anderson had told Lake County News that he intended to seek a third term at the same time that Kelseyville attorney Steven Brown announced he would challenge Anderson for the district attorney’s job in 2018: http://bit.ly/2AG6yPF.

However, since then, Judge Stephen Hedstrom announced that he will not seek reelection in 2018.

Immediately after that announcement from Hedstrom, local attorney J. David Markham – one of the administrators of Lake County’s indigent defense contract – announced he would seek Hedstrom’s Department 4 seat, as Lake County News has reported.

Then came Anderson’s announcement this week of his decision to run for judge.

Anderson said this was the most difficult decision he has had to make in his seven-year tenure at the District Attorney’s Office.

“I have faced a lot of challenges over the past seven years. I have met those challenges and accomplished a lot along the way. But now it is time for me to move on and face new challenges for the betterment of the community, my loved ones and myself,” he said.

“When I took over leadership at the District Attorney’s Office in January of 2011, the department needed new direction,” Anderson said. “Changes need to be made to improve the efficiency of the department and modernize the prosecution of crime in Lake County that is consistent with the changes in the law. My philosophy is to always aggressively prosecute crime, but to keep a balance between understanding those who commit criminal acts and the compassion that is due their victims. When you can keep that balance then justice can be done.”

Anderson cited accomplishments including increasing the District Attorney’s Office conviction rate from 66 percent to 87 percent while still taking more cases to trial.

He received national recognition for establishing the country’s first ever perjury intervention unit; created a program that has contributed about $250,000 to local charities; and modernized crime scene investigations.

In addition, he has personally prosecuted many homicide and high profile cases himself.

In 2014 Anderson received the California Narcotic Officers' Association Region One prosecutor of the year award, and last month received the California Prosecutor of the Year award for lifetime achievement in the administration of justice and law enforcement.

Anderson started his career as a Lake County Deputy sheriff, working for 15 years in patrol, narcotics and major crime investigations.

He was a private attorney for 20 years and practiced civil, family and criminal law.

During his career he has acted as a judge pro tem, judicial arbitrator and administrative law judge.

For the past seven years he has been the elected district attorney for Lake County.

“As a judge I can take my temperament and experience and apply it to the problems that are facing our county, the courts and the people,” Anderson said.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A fire in the boiler room at a Clearlake apartment complex resulted in a temporary evacuation of residents on Wednesday night.

The fire at Olympic Village apartments, 15097 Olympic Drive, was first reported at around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to radio reports.

Lake County Fire and Cal Fire units responded, based on reports from the scene.

Shortly before 9:30 p.m. Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta reported over the radio that they were evacuating the upper portion of the complex.

He later told Lake County News that about 20 residents were evacuated for a few hours while firefighters worked at the scene.

Sapeta said the fire was located in the complex’s boiler room.

A total of three engines, two other units and two company officers responded, Sapeta said.

Forward progress was stopped on the fire at about 9:40 p.m., and firefighters terminated the incident just under two hours later, according to radio reports.

Sapeta said residents were able to go back to their apartments before firefighters cleared the scene.

The manager is doing an overnight fire watch and a contractor will be on scene on Thursday to do repairs, including replacing sheetrock that had to be ripped out by firefighters, Sapeta said. The residents have power but no hot water temporarily.

It’s still unclear if the fire’s source was mechanical or electrical. Sapeta said the cause remains under investigation.

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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The annual “Wreaths Across America” commemoration in honor of late veterans is set for this Saturday at cemeteries across Lake County.

Youth organizations and veteran organizations have volunteered to conduct the Wreaths Across America ceremonies this year beginning at 8:50 a.m. at the Hartley, Kelseyville, Upper Lake, Lower Lake and St. Mary’s cemeteries.

Everyone is invited to attend.

Lake County residents will once again gather to show veterans and their families that they will not be forgotten.

Youth organizations including Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H, FFA, the Clear Lake High School Band, California Highway Patrol Explorers, Lake County Sheriff’s Explorers, St. Mary’s Confirmation Kids, Interact Students and members of Antoinette’s Musical Theater will be joined by the Lake County Military Funeral Honors Team, Patriot Guard Riders, Knights of Columbus and Honor Guard from the Travis Air Force Base in leading the ceremonies.

Seven ceremonial wreaths will be placed to remember all soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who served, honor their sacrifices and teach younger generations about the high cost of freedom.

The truck that has come across the country with the remembrance wreaths will arrive on Friday. Watch for the escort of the truck through Kelseyville around 11:45 a.m. and through Lakeport around 1:15 p.m. as it delivers more than 460 wreaths to Hartley Cemetery.

Each year veterans proudly volunteer to drive these beautiful semi trucks across country to remember and honor our veterans. The truck delivering these wreaths will feature the cemetery at Normandy in France.

Wreaths Across America pursues its mission with nationwide wreath-laying events at the holiday season, and year-round educational outreach inviting all Americans to appreciate our freedoms and the cost at which they are delivered.

Ceremonies will be coordinated simultaneously at more than 1,230 participating locations all across the country and overseas.

In 2016, Wreaths Across America and its national network of volunteers laid more than 1.2 million veteran remembrance wreaths with help from more than 1,500 fundraising groups in all 50 states, corporate contributions, business and personal sponsorships and thousands of helping hands.

More than 400 truckloads of wreaths were delivered across the country by hundreds of volunteer professional truck drivers.

Bundle up and show your support for what these veterans and their families have sacrificed and place a remembrance wreath. If you can’t make it don’t miss an opportunity to thank a veteran.

Organizers thank all of those individuals, businesses and groups that have so generously sponsored wreaths this year and in the past to assure veterans in Lake County are honored and remembered.