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- Written by: Lake County News reports
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Due to energy upgrades completed at two city buildings and the retrofit of street and parking lights, the city of Clearlake will begin to see cost savings in its energy usage.
The city also is expected to score big energy efficiency-wise and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Using a $86,138 federal block grant from the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery Assistance Act (ARRA) – and administered by the California Energy Commission – the city installed cool-roofing at its facility housing both Clearlake City Hall and the Clearlake Police Department.
Because of the energy upgrade, most of which was completed late last year, Clearlake expects to save 130,600 kilowatt hours or $16,730 in energy costs, and reduce greenhouse emissions by almost 40 tons every year.
White roofs clad in solar-reflective thermal plastic are an inexpensive way to prevent buildings from absorbing heat on hot days, and keep them cooler when the temperature rises.
About 1,000 lighting fixtures at these buildings and the Highlands Senior Center were retrofitted with bulbs that use less energy, but glow brighter.
More than 25 occupancy sensors also were installed to turn lights off when offices are not in use.
The city’s energy makeover likewise targeted the replacement of 56 traffic signal lights on Old Highway 53 and Lakeshore Drive with energy-saving and longer-lasting light emitting diodes (LEDs).
To cap the upgrade, 27 high-sodium vapor street lights at various locations were replaced with LEDs.
Federal stimulus funds to small cities and counties awarded under the ARRA's Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grants and administered by the Energy Commission are providing more than $33 million to 201 to eligible localities throughout California.
Large cities and counties are receiving funding directly from the U.S. Department of Energy.
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- Written by: Dauna Coulter
Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is en route to intercept a comet – and to make history.
In 2014, Rosetta will enter orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and land a probe on it, two firsts.
Rosetta’s goal is to learn the primordial story a comet tells as it gloriously falls to pieces.
Comets are primitive leftovers from our solar system's 'construction' about 4.5 billion years ago.
Because they spend much of their time in the deep freeze of the outer solar system, comets are well preserved – a gold mine for astronomers who want to know what conditions were like back “in the beginning.”
As their elongated orbits swing them closer to the sun, comets transform into the most breathtaking bodies in the night sky.
A European Space Agency mission launched in 2004 with U.S. instruments on board, Rosetta will have a front-row seat for the metamorphosis.
What we know of comets so far comes from a handful of flyby missions.
"In some ways, a flyby is just a tantalizing glimpse of a comet at one stage in its evolution," said Claudia Alexander, project scientist for the U.S. Rosetta Project at JPL. "Rosetta is different. It will orbit 67P for 17 months. We'll see this comet evolve right before our eyes as we accompany it toward the sun and back out again."
Fierce solar heat will have a profound effect on Rosetta’s target. "We'll watch the comet start as just a little nugget in space and then become something poetic and beautiful, trailing a vast tail."
At the moment, Rosetta is "resting up" for the challenges ahead. It's hibernating, engaged in its high-speed chase while fast asleep.
Reveille is on or around New Year's Day 2014, when the spacecraft begins a months-long program of self-checkups.
If all goes well, in August of the same year, Rosetta will enter orbit around 67P's nucleus and begin scanning its surface for a landing site.
Once a site is chosen, the spacecraft will descend as low as 1 kilometer to deploy the lander.
The lander’s name is “Philae” after an island in the Nile, the site of an obelisk that helped decipher – you guessed it – the Rosetta Stone.
Touchdown is scheduled for November 2014, when Philae will make the first ever controlled landing on a comet's nucleus.
"When we land, the comet could already be active!" said Alexander.
Because a comet has little gravity, the lander will anchor itself with harpoons. “The feet may drill into something crunchy like permafrost, or maybe into something rock solid,” she speculated.
Once it is fastened, the lander will commence an unprecedented first-hand study of a comet’s nucleus.
Among other things, it will gather samples for examination by automatic onboard microscopes and take panoramic images of the comet’s terrain from ground level.
Meanwhile, orbiting overhead, the Rosetta spacecraft will be busy, too.
Onboard sensors will map the comet’s surface and magnetic field, monitor the comet’s erupting jets and geysers, measure outflow rates, and much more.
Together, the orbiter and lander will build up the first 3D picture of the layers and pockets under the surface of a comet.
The results should tell quite a story indeed.
Dauna Coulter works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) will begin planting rainbow trout in Lake Mendocino for the first time this February.
Approximately 15,000 pounds of trout will be put into the lake throughout the winter and early spring, giving anglers an opportunity to enjoy one of the state’s most popular activities.
“There are very few trout fishing opportunities in Mendocino County,” said DFG Environmental Scientist Scott Harris. “We are pleased that we can add Lake Mendocino to the annual allotment list as a winter trout fishery.”
This is the first time that Lake Mendocino has been stocked by DFG. Historically, only the Mill Creek ponds east of Talmage have been stocked during winter and early winter months in Mendocino County.
The triploids will be put in the lake several times during the winter and early spring, the agency said.
To ensure there is a constant supply of fish in the upper East Branch Russian River area, fish will be planted in the East Branch Russian River in Potter Valley from late April to October.
The planted fish are between a half and three-quarter pounds each and are raised at the Darrah Springs Hatchery in Paynes Creek.
Other popular fish species inhabiting the lake include large and smallmouth bass, striped bass, channel catfish and black crappie.
DFG sells approximately 1 million fishing licenses a year. Anyone over the age of 16 must have a valid fishing license in their possession while fishing.
To buy a California fishing license, visit www.dfg.ca.gov/licensing/ols/.
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- Written by: Dennis Fordham
A cardinal rule of trust administration is that the intentions of the settlor(s) – the person(s) who created the trust – are to be given effect. A second cardinal rule is that a trust must be strictly administered according to its stated terms.
What happens, then, when the stated terms of an executed trust no longer give the same effect as a settlor’s intention at the time of signing the trust instrument? All is not necessarily lost.
Let us examine some possible scenarios and how the situation may be salvaged.
In the easiest situation, when the settlor is still alive and competent, the settlor can always amend his/her revocable trust to correct any inadequacy or drafting error.
What, however, if the settlor is not competent, or, if the trust is an irrevocable trust (e.g., a special needs trust) or it became irrevocable upon the settlor’s own death?
If the settlor is incapacitated – as that term is defined in the trust instrument or as adjudicated by a court – then we must see whether the trust grants someone else power to amend the trust that are sufficient to correct the error.
Perhaps the trust allows the incapacitated person’s agent acting under a durable power of attorney, or a trust protector, the authority to amend the trust.
If so, we must further examine whether the powers of amendment granted are sufficient to fix the problem.
For example, an agent who can amend the trust to change who becomes successor trustee might not also be authorized to amend the distribution of trust assets, and if the latter is the problem the agent cannot correct it.
In that case, another solution would be to amend the incapacitated settlor’s revocable trust by means of a court order using a petition for substituted judgment. Such a petition can only be brought by the conservator of the settlor’s estate. A temporary conservatorship could suffice and be terminated after the court order is obtained.
A substituted judgment proceeding, amongst other things, allows the conservator to petition the court to exercise the incapacitated settlor’s own reserved authority to amend the trust.
The conservator must first convince the court that what is proposed is justified under the circumstances and the law. Moreover, substituted judgment petitions can be contested and result in trials.
If the settlor is deceased and their living trust is now irrevocable, or if the trust was irrevocable at the outset, then a court proceeding either to reform or to modify the trust or for instructions to the trustee are all options.
Reformation and modification of a trust are completely different approaches.
In a reformation action, an aggrieved party petitions the court to rewrite the terms of a trust to correct an inaccuracy due to a mistake or fraud. Evidence outside of the trust may be allowed to show its inaccuracy. Once reformed, it is as if the trust were written as reformed from the start.
In a modification action, on the other hand, a beneficiary, trustee or settlor petitions the court to modify the trust on a go forward basis in order to address a problem involving an ambiguity or changed circumstances, i.e., circumstances that did not exist at the time the trust was established.
When the settlor is deceased and an ambiguity is involved, all beneficiaries must consent to the modification.
Lastly, instructions to the trustee may solve problems where interpretation of existing language is at issue.
It is very important to a successful outcome that the correct approach be taken. It is also important to consider the implications of any no contest clause before proceeding with any action.
Obviously, court proceedings should be undertaken with the assistance of a qualified attorney.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
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