The year 2022 will be remembered across the U.S. for its devastating flooding and storms – and also for its extreme heat waves and droughts.

By October, the U.S. had already seen 15 disasters causing more than US$1 billion in damage each, well above the average. The year started with widespread severe winter storms from Texas to Maine, affecting tens of million of people and causing significant damages. Then, March set the record for the most reported tornadoes in the month – 233.

During a period of five weeks over the summer, five 1,000-year rainfall events occurred in St. Louis, eastern Kentucky, southern Illinois, California’s Death Valley and Dallas, causing devastating and sometimes deadly flash floods. Severe flooding in Mississippi knocked out Jackson’s troubled water supply for weeks. A historic flood in Montana, brought on by heavy rain and melting snow, forced large areas of Yellowstone National Park to be evacuated.

In the fall, hurricanes Ian and Fiona deluged Florida and Puerto Rico with over 2 feet (6.6 meters) of rain in areas and deadly, destructive storm surge. Ian became one of the most expensive hurricanes in U.S. history. And a typhoon pounded 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of the Alaska coast.

While too much rainfall threatened some regions, extreme heat and too little precipitation worsened risks elsewhere.

Persistent heat waves lingered over many parts of the country, setting temperature records. Wildfires raged in Arizona and New Mexico on the background of a megadrought in the Southwestern U.S. more severe than anything the region has experienced in at least 1,200 years.

Drought also left the Mississippi River so low near Memphis in the fall that barges couldn’t get through without additional dredging and upstream water releases. That snarled grain shipping during the critical harvest period. Along the Colorado River, officials discussed even tighter water use restrictions as water levels neared dangerously low levels in the major reservoirs.

The United States was hardly alone in its climate disasters.

In Pakistan, record monsoon rains inundated more than one-third of the country, killing over 1,500 people. In India and China, prolonged heat waves and droughts dried up rivers, disrupted power grids and threatened food security for billions of people. Widespread flooding and mudslides brought on by torrential rains also killed hundreds of people in South Africa, Brazil and Nigeria.

In Europe, heat waves set record temperatures in Britain and other parts of the continent, leading to severe droughts, low river flows that slowed shipping, and wildfires in many parts of the continent. Much of East Africa is still in the grips of a multiyear drought – the worst in over 40 years, according to the United Nations – leaving millions of people vulnerable to food shortages and starvation.

This isn’t just a freak year: Such extreme events are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity.

Climate change is intensifying these disasters

The most recent global climate assessment from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found significant increases in both the frequency and intensity of extreme temperature and precipitation events, leading to more droughts and floods.

Extreme flooding and droughts are also getting deadlier and more expensive, despite an improving capacity to manage climate risks, a study published in 2022 found. Part of the reason is that today’s extreme events, enhanced by climate change, often exceed communities’ management capabilities.

Extreme events, by definition, occur rarely. A 100-year flood has a 1% chance of happening in any given year. So when such events occur with increasing frequency and intensity, they are a clear indication of a changing climate state.

Climate models showed these risks were coming

Much of this is well understood and consistently reproduced by climate models.

As the climate warms, a shift in temperature distribution leads to more extremes. For example, globally, a 1 degree Celsius increase in annual average temperature is associated with a 1.2 C to 1.9 C (2.1 Fahrenheit to 3.4 F) increase in the annual maximum temperature.

In addition, global warming leads to changes in how the atmosphere and ocean move. The temperature difference between the equator and the poles is the driving force for global wind. As the polar regions warm at much higher rates than the equator, the reduced temperature difference causes a weakening of global winds and leads to a more meandering jet stream.

Some of these changes can create conditions such as persistent high-pressure systems and atmospheric blocking that bring more intense heat waves. The heat domes over the Southern Plains and South in June and in the West in September were both examples.

 

Warming can be further amplified by positive feedbacks.

For example, higher temperatures tend to dry out the soil, and less soil moisture reduces the land’s heat capacity, making it easier to heat up. More frequent and persistent heat waves lead to excessive evaporation, combined with decreased precipitation in some regions, causing more severe droughts and more frequent wildfires.

Higher temperatures increase the atmosphere’s capacity to hold moisture at a rate of about 7% per degree Celsius. This increased humidity leads to heavier rainfall events.

In addition, storm systems are fueled by latent heat – the large amount of energy released when water vapor condenses to liquid water. Increased moisture content in the atmosphere also enhances latent heat in storm systems, increasing their intensity. Extreme heavy or persistent rainfall leads to increased flooding and landslides, with devastating social and economic consequences.

Even though it’s difficult to link specific extreme events directly to climate change, when these supposedly rare events occur with greater frequency in a warming world, it is hard to ignore the changing state of our climate.

The new abnormal

This year might provide a glimpse of our near future, as these extreme climate events become more frequent.

To say this is the “new normal,” though, is misleading. It suggests that we have reached a new stable state, and that is far from the truth. Without serious effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, this trend toward more extreme events will continue.

This updates an article originally published on Sept. 21, 2022.

Shuang-Ye Wu, Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton

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

Dear Lady of the Lake,

I am wondering about the fish health of Clear Lake and what projects are being done to improve conditions for fish, especially the native Clear Lake Hitch?

Thanks And Merry Fishmas from Frank

Dear Frank,

Merry Fishmas to you too! Great question Frank and I have some fun answers for you.

In today's column I will be talking about two very important fish projects that are happening now on Clear Lake; The Kelsey Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project and the Common Carp and Goldfish removal project. The first project is aimed to improve the physical habitat for the Clear Lake Hitch in Kelsey Creek in Kelseyville and the second project is aimed to improve both lake water quality and lake habitat for hitch within the lake.

For some background information on the Clear Lake Hitch, please refer to my previous column "How About The Hitch" from Jan. 16, 2022.

The scientific name of the Clear Lake hitch is Lavinia exilicauda chi, and the native indigenous peoples of Clear Lake (the Hinthil, Gowk Xabatin, or the Pomo) refer to the fish as “chi” (pronounced CH-eye). In this article I will use hitch and chi interchangeably, as they are commonly recognized under both names.

The Kelsey Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project

The project was started by Elem Indian Colony in about 2014. In response to the inventory of fish passage barriers identified by the Hitch Adaptive Management Plan developed by the local Tribes, Elem proposed a project to US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to remove the non-permitted and ineffective fish ladder near Main Street Bridge in Downtown Kelseyville.

Elem received a USFWS Tribal Wildlife Grant and hired consultants to develop the project. In 2020, the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians (Big Valley) acquired additional funding to complete the project design and conduct the environmental review through CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act).

The project site is located directly downstream from the Main Street Bridge in downtown Kelseyville. The project was initiated to create an improved design to include special attention to the steep drop of the concrete grade control structure that prevents hitch from passing the moving up river during spawning season.

This would be accomplished through demolition and removal of the existing fish ladder and associated infrastructure downstream of the grade control structure and construction of a new reduced slope system in the same area. The project would still provide protection for the Main Street Bridge.

The current fish ladder, located on the east side of the creek, adjacent to the bridge, was installed many years ago by a group of well-meaning locals. The fish ladder was an attempt to reduce the stream velocity enough so the hitch could, step-by-step, make it upstream without having to jump over the steep concrete grade control structure at the bridge footings.

The velocity (speed) of the water in Kelsey Creek is unnaturally high because of previous gravel mining operations in the creek, and the channelizing of the creek in previous decades. Kelsey Creek, like most creeks in Lake County, originally meandered and flooded into surrounding lowland areas, called flood plains. Development, mining, and channelizing forces the creek flow through a more restrictive pathway, which increases velocity of the stream, especially during high flow storm and rain events.

Changes to natural flows and movements of creeks create other conditions such as erosion and further risk of flooding. The current fish ladder was not permitted by the state, does not address erosion, flooding, and does not actually slow down the velocity to allow hitch to pass.

To any casual observer watching the chi try to navigate the passage in the spring, can easily see that the current ladder and drop are preventing the chi from moving further upstream. Chi are not enthusiastic or capable jumpers like salmon; they can’t physically move past barriers that are too tall or create too high velocity flows.

In addition to any new design for the benefit of the hitch, the new design should also prevent erosion downstream, limit flood potential to local area, and protect the footings of the Main street Bridge.

The proposed design finalized by the project will accomplish all of these goals.

Construction of a project of this size is very expensive, but thanks to the hard work of Big Valley, funds have been sourced and secured from several avenues, including the CDFW Restoration Grants (Prop 1), Caltrans Mitigation Funds, and Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake.

The new proposed design, called step-pool, mimics the natural form of the creek. The design includes a series of small steps, which are accessible by the hitch. The structure consists of a boulder-weir, welded together, which will withstand the strong velocity that sometimes occurs in the creek. This design will maintain stream form and function, protect the bridge footings, while allowing hitch passage access further upstream into several more miles of high-quality habitat for spawning.

As I described in my column last year about the hitch, this species is in peril and at close risk of becoming extinct, so any project that can improve habitat and increase chance of spawning survival, such as the Kelsey Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project, is extremely important and needs to be completed. Additionally, this project is another example of how local Tribes are taking a multi-pronged approach to protecting the native species of this area.

Next steps and barriers to completion

Big Valley, with consultants at FlowWest, have been able to secure funds for implementation and have acquired all the state, federal, and local permits, including a majority of CEQA and USACE approval. The project is literally ready to break ground!

However, access to the site is being hindered by a single landowner who is denying access to the stream area that is needed to begin the construction. Hopefully the landowners preventing progress on this project will acquiesce soon so this project can go forward.

Once completed this project will provide a huge improvement to hitch habitat in Kelsey Creek and will go a long way in preventing extinction of this culturally important and valuable Clear Lake fish species.

If you would like to learn more, or see how you can support Big Valley with this project, please contact Sarah Ryan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Common Carp and Goldfish Tagging and Removal Project

This project is being led by Robinson Rancheria with partners from CDFW and WSB engineering Fisheries division.

WSB Fisheries staff have been successfully removing invasive carp from other water bodies across the nation for years. 

Why are carp a problem?

To understand why carp are a problem, you have to know some background and life history characteristics about the species.

Common carp (Cyprinus carpio) are non-native to Clear Lake and California. Carp are generalists, and actually do pretty well in turbid, cloudy eutrophic (nutrient-rich and green) lakes and streams. They can tolerate very cold (4 degree C) and very warm waters (30 degree C) and are also very tolerant of low oxygen levels (1 - 3 ppm).

Most fish are not tolerant of these conditions, so when conditions become stressful, such as during a drought, with high temps and low oxygen levels, most other species can struggle to survive while the carp will do just fine.

Carp females lay 500 eggs at a time and can lay between 50,000 and 2,000,000 in a single season, and carp can comfortably live up to 15 years. On average, carp can grow to more than 2 feet in length and weight over 10 pounds. However, carp caught from Clear Lake during Robinson Rancheria’s project were on average longer and heavier then these averages described in the literature.

You can learn more about the Common Carp at the UCD Clear Lake Aquatic website.

In Clear Lake, common carp have been thriving, and have grown to very high population levels, competing with hitch, bass, crappie, and other species for food and space, in the shallow zones along the shoreline of the lake.

Most importantly, carp consume large quantities of food, mostly green algae and aquatic plants, and everything they eat comes out the other end as nutrient-packed waste. All that fish excrement is being added to the Clear Lake ecosystem as algae and cyanobacteria food.

Robinson Carp removal project

Part of the long-term plans to improve Clear Lake water quality, and to improve shoreline hitch habitat, includes addressing the Clear Lake carp problem.

Robinson Rancheria’s fishery division is tackling this problem head-on, with a stratified plan to locate, mass-catch, remove, monitor, and sustainably manage the carp population in Clear Lake. Phase 1 of this project is almost completed, but really will be ongoing throughout the duration of the project.

A large part of phase 1 included the locating of carp, some preliminary tagging and monitoring, and some analysis to identify exactly how much impact the carp are having on the lake’s ecosystem and nutrient budget.

According to preliminary analysis completed by WSB Engineers, the expert carp removal consultants working with Robinson Rancheria and CDFW on this project, there are about 172 pounds of carp per acre of Clear Lake, and at about 44,000 acres this means there is about 7.6 million pounds of carp swimming around in the lake.

Goldfish are similar in that there are about 65 lbs per acre, or 2.8 million pounds of goldfish in our lake for a total of 10.4 million pounds of large-scaled, slimy, carp and goldfish in Clear Lake. Both of those fish are eating food that hitch and bass need and are creating large quantities of nutrients that are fueling the algae and cyanobacteria blooms.

Robinson Rancheria and consultants also identified that for Clear Lake, 89 pounds per acre of these fish is considered the “tipping point,” where the ecosystem is maxed out and the ecology is being disrupted.

Additionally, the carp are also major contributors to internal loading of phosphorus at a calculated load of 16,135 Kg per year. This is the amount of phosphorus the carp are releasing into the water column from the lake bottom sediments.

This process, called bioturbation, occurs as the fish root around in the bottom sediments, causing plumes of phosphorus-rich soils to flow into the water column and also when they yank, pull-up and eat aquatic plants, and eventually contribute waste into the system.

According to the State of California’s Clear Lake TMDL program, phosphorus inputs from the county of Lake, the cities of Clearlake, and Lakeport urban areas are only allowable up to 2,000 kg per year. Therefore, the carp in Clear Lake alone are contributing 8X more phosphorus to the lake ecosystem than all the urban areas around the lake are contributing.

This is a pretty significant finding and when Robinson Rancheria’s project is successful, the water quality improvements to the lake will be quite noticeable.

This project is currently in phase 2, of about 7 phases. The first phase was the tagging and tracking of common carp and goldfish in Clear Lake, to identify where the groups of carp and goldfish are congregating in the lake so that they can be systematically collected and removed, which is the main portion of several later phases. Phase 2 will include conducting a feasibility study to identify the best method for removing the target amount of carp and goldfish biomass, and funds, materials and effort to sustain the program.

The other phases will include the maintenance portion of the project. Population monitoring and regular removal to maintain a low population in the lake will be the most important part of this project, so that the population doesn’t rebound and get to the current numbers where they impact water quality and native fish populations.

About now, you might be thinking, “Lady of the Lake, what are they planning to do with ALL that carp biomass that will be removed?” And that’s a great question!

Not only has WSB been successful in removing carp from other lake systems, but they also have identified markets to sell the collected carp, whether for human or pet food, or fertilizer. Having a safe, reliable place to send harvested carp has been a barrier to past removal efforts in the lake. This component hasn’t been explicitly identified as of yet for Robinson Rancheria’s project, but work has started and will probably involve some creative solutions.

Commercial harvest of carp in the past has been relatively successful in managing carp in Clear Lake, but there just isn’t a local demand for carp as there are for other fisheries, so maintaining low numbers of the species using that method did not prove sustainable.

While this project is still in its first stages, it’s extremely promising and has been fully funded through phase 2, with phase 2 funds having been approved by the Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake.

If you want more information or want to support this project, you can contact the manager at Robinson Rancheria Water Resources Division/interim Environmental Director Karola Kennedy, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or the project’s fisheries biologist, Luis Santana at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Sincerely,

Lady of the Lake

Angela De Palma-Dow is a limnologist (limnology = study of fresh inland waters) who lives and works in Lake County. Born in Northern California, she has a Master of Science from Michigan State University. She is a Certified Lake Manager from the North American Lake Management Society, or NALMS, and she is the current president/chair of the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Lady of the Lake would like to acknowledge and thank Karola Kennedy and Luis Santana from Robinson Rancheria, Sarah Ryan from Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians, and Anthony Falzone from FlowWest for assistance and approval in completing this column.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many dogs that would rather be home for the holidays.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of border collie, border terrier, German shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, pit bull, Schipperke, 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.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.

Lab-pit bull mix puppy

This female Labrador retriever-pit bull mix puppy has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-4451.

Male Schipperke

This 3 and a half year old male Schipperke has a long black coat.

He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-4453.

Female pit bull

This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4461.

Female border terrier

This one and a half year old female border terrier has a tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-4450.

Male pit bull

This 3-year-old male pit bull has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-4428.

Male pit bull

This 3-year-old male pit bull has a short white coat with gray markings.

He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-4425.

Female hound

This 8-month-old female hound has a fawn coat.

She is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-4386.

Female pit bull terrier

This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4461.

Female terrier

This 7-month-old female terrier has a short brown coat.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-4436.

'Hank'

“Hank” is a 5-year-old male mastiff-shepherd mix with a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-4249.

Female German shepherd

This 10-month-old female German shepherd has a short light-colored coat.

She is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-4297.

Male shepherd

This 3-year-old male shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-4312.

Male border collie-shepherd

This 2-year-old male border collie-shepherd has a short black coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-4437.

Male American pit bull terrier

This 3-year-old male American pit bull terrier has a short brindle coat.

He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-4402.

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.

 

The holidays are a time for family, connection and love. Family traditions are an important component of the holiday season. They are constant and reliable. They allow us to slow down and be in the moment, appreciate each other and express gratitude.

The holidays are happy times where generations and families come together to share time with and show generosity to one another. These are particularly important experiences in childhood, when we are starting to understand relationships and how the world works.

These special times together — laughing, squabbling, playing — allow us to be part of something larger than ourselves. To love and feel loved. They create memories we can take with us and provide children with a sense of security.

It also allows us to look forward to something enjoyable. Family traditions allow an opportunity to share the love we have for each other and recognize the importance of being together.

Love is important

Love is the greatest gift we can give our children. The opportunity to be seen, heard and understood and to feel valued, worthy and special is invaluable to their holistic development.

Childhood experiences impact who we become and how we understand relationships and the world. They live under our skin for our whole lives, creating patterns which can be difficult (but not impossible) to change.

Children are constantly evolving, forming ideas, making connections and developing relationships with the most important people in their lives. These relationships impact their development, neurology, the way they interpret and understand themselves and their experiences throughout their lives.

Knowing who your child is and what they love allows you to see their future self and build experiences to support their development. These opportunities to feel seen and known are important for your child’s sense of belonging in the family, within themselves and in the world. They will learn who they truly are, what makes them unique and perhaps share their beautiful sparkle as part of the family tradition.

Holiday struggles

There can be a lot of pressure and stress during the holidays.

Parents can feel overwhelmed by holiday preparations and expectations — especially if they are back in their childhood home or with their parents and siblings. These experiences may bring back old patterns of behaviours from their own childhoods.

Parents might unintentionally be less sensitive toward their children and respond more impulsively based on their own unconscious experiences, resulting in unanticipated expectations or responses from the child’s perspective.

Family gatherings and events can also cause us to feel like we need to be perfect or provide perfect experiences. This added pressure is often externalized to children because parents feel judged based on their children’s behaviour and engagement. This is not fair to children, who do not understand the nuances of complex social situations, patterns and family history.

For the child, it might feel like dad or mom is less available or responds sharply and quickly, in a way that is not typical of them. Creating time and space to share feelings will help your child to understand the environment, while reinforcing that the love you share is secure, stable and constant.

Setting expectations

Parenting is difficult. We are often consumed by shame and guilt when things go wrong, believing we should know how to do it naturally.

We tend to parent the way we were parented because parenting is intergenerational and lives under our skin the same way our childhood experiences do. If we grew up in a family that felt emotionally secure, safe and loving, we will likely create secure, trusted relationships. Early experiences impact who we become and how we understand the world.

Creating safe, secure, loving environments and being present with your children is the greatest gift you can give. Creating boundaries and setting expectations is important for helping children feel in control of themselves and their environment.

Addressing an upset

If there is an upset, have an age-appropriate conversation with your child to talk about what happened and why you were upset. It’s important for children to understand what occurred and what they have done.

Without clarity, the child is left to interpret the situation from their own limited perspective. They may create an unintended association, such as associating getting in trouble with expressing their feelings, when the consequence was to teach them about how to use their words and not throw things in the house when upset.

The parent privately sharing their feelings and experiences helps the child understand their upset feelings and provide healthy and safe alternatives for expressing and sharing their feelings.

The parent may also find balance in this reflection by spending time together, cuddling, talking, drawing and playing. The child can process their emotions and experiences while connecting and reconciling, which will make everyone feel cozy in a space of security, trust and love.

Creating secure relationships

Moments of reconciliation create secure loving connections and become a child’s internal model. This model becomes ingrained within them, affecting their holistic development, positively impacting who they become and how they understand themselves, relationships and the world.

Forming secure connections positively affects a child’s self-esteem, confidence, organizational skills, emotional and social skills and school performance. It affects everything in a child’s life because they learn to self-regulate, develop empathy, deal with emotions and conflict and take care of themselves. They learn they can manage the unknown by learning perseverance and resilience. They learn they matter, are valued, worthwhile and loved.

Family traditions and being present provide children with trusted, safe, secure, loving experiences and relationships that are important for their healthy development and future self. They are the greatest gift you can give your child.

This is love in action — the ripple effect that will last a lifetime.

Nikki Martyn, Program Head of Early Childhood Studies, University of Guelph-Humber

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

A titanium tube containing a rock sample is resting on the Red Planet’s surface after being placed there on Dec. 21 by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

Over the next two months, the rover will deposit a total of 10 tubes at the location, called “Three Forks,” building humanity’s first sample depot on another planet. The depot marks a historic early step in the Mars Sample Return campaign.

Perseverance has been taking duplicate samples from rock targets the mission selects. The rover currently has the other 17 samples (including one atmospheric sample) taken so far in its belly.

Based on the architecture of the Mars Sample Return campaign, the rover would deliver samples to a future robotic lander. The lander would, in turn, use a robotic arm to place the samples in a containment capsule aboard a small rocket that would blast off to Mars orbit, where another spacecraft would capture the sample container and return it safely to Earth.

The depot will serve as a backup if Perseverance can’t deliver its samples. In that case, a pair of Sample Recovery Helicopters would be called upon to finish the job.

The first sample to drop was a chalk-size core of igneous rock informally named “Malay,” which was collected on Jan. 31, 2022, in a region of Mars’ Jezero Crater called “South Séítah.”

Perseverance’s complex Sampling and Caching System took almost an hour to retrieve the metal tube from inside the rover’s belly, view it one last time with its internal CacheCam, and drop the sample roughly 3 feet (89 centimeters) onto a carefully selected patch of Martian surface.

But the job wasn’t done for engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which built Perseverance and leads the mission. Once they confirmed the tube had dropped, the team positioned the WATSON camera located at the end of Perseverance’s 7-foot-long (2-meter-long) robotic arm to peer beneath the rover, checking to be sure that the tube hadn’t rolled into the path of the rover’s wheels.

They also wanted to ensure the tube hadn’t landed in such a way that it was standing on its end (each tube has a flat end piece called a “glove” to make it easier to be picked up by future missions).

That occurred less than 5% of the time during testing with Perseverance’s Earthly twin in JPL’s Mars Yard. In case it does happen on Mars, the mission has written a series of commands for Perseverance to carefully knock the tube over with part of the turret at the end of its robotic arm.

In coming weeks, they’ll have other opportunities to see whether Perseverance needs to use the technique as the rover deposits more samples at the Three Forks cache.

“Seeing our first sample on the ground is a great capstone to our prime mission period, which ends on Jan. 6,” said Rick Welch, Perseverance’s deputy project manager at JPL. “It’s a nice alignment that, just as we’re starting our cache, we’re also closing this first chapter of the mission.”

More about the mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Three important Lake County projects will receive important funding thanks to the efforts of Rep. Mike Thompson.

Just in time for Christmas, on Friday Thompson (CA-05) announced that $3,738,600 for three projects in Lake County is included in the final 2023 appropriations government funding bill.

“Working with local leaders to identify projects that will help our community is one of my top priorities every year,” Thompson said Friday. “I am proud that three vital projects in Lake County were included in the government funding bill passed today. These projects will boost local revenue, create jobs, provide state-of-the-art first responder facilities, improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and restore wetlands.

He said he is proud to have secured this funding and he looks forward to seeing President Joe Biden sign this bill into law.

This funding includes:

• $2,000,000 for the Clearlake Burns Valley Sports Complex and Recreation Center Project, which will support the construction of a large sports and recreation center complete with baseball fields, soccer fields, a 20,000 square foot rec center, a small amount of retail space, a public works corporation yard and an 80-unit affordable housing project.

• $988,600 for the Lakeport Armory Facility Repurposing Project, which will rehabilitate and repurpose a decommissioned National Guard Armory facility in Lakeport for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office headquarters and the county’s Emergency Operations Center.

• $750,000 for the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project which will restart an authorized Corps of Engineers project in the Middle Creek area near Upper Lake to reduce flood and catastrophic loss, improve water quality, and restore vital wetlands habitat with cultural significance for the surrounding tribal communities.

“The Burns Valley Sports Complex is one of the most transformative projects we are working on for our community,” said Clearlake City Councilman Dirk Slooten, who served as mayor this past year. “We are so appreciative of Congressman Thompson’s support and that he is back representing the city of Clearlake! The $2 million contribution is the last piece of the funding puzzle that we expect will allow us to break ground in 2023.”

Supervisor EJ Crandell said the projects are vital to Lake County’s growth, and he thanked Thompson for his advocacy and representation.

“The Middle Creek restoration project has been ongoing for at least 30 years,” Crandell said. “We know Congressman Thompson is very familiar with the amount of impact this project will have on the health and revitalization of the Lake. The funding for this project will assist in another foundational reserve that gives the Army Corps more indication that Lake County is serious about bringing this project to the finish line for the people of Lake County.

In addition to those projects, Thompson also secured $3.7 billion for the Emergency Relief Program — or ERP, formerly known as WHIP+ — for agricultural losses sustained in 2022 due to wildfires, drought, freeze and other natural disasters.

Growers have been facing an unprecedented drought, and this program will help producers to rebuild and recover by providing financial assistance to cover a portion of their losses.

Thompson’s office said this program is important because it helps to ensure that farmers and ranchers have the resources they need to continue operating their businesses, even in the face of natural disasters.

It also helps to stabilize rural communities and keep the agricultural sector strong, which is vital for maintaining a secure and reliable food supply for the country.

Thompson also secured $1,205,966 for UC Davis to acquire two pieces of equipment which are essential for grape smoke exposure research in our district.

Research on smoke taint is vital to help winemakers and grape growers better understand the effects of smoke taint, as well as develop strategies for mitigating its impact.

This is important because smoke taint can significantly reduce the value and marketability of affected wines, which can have serious economic consequences for the wine community.

This bill passed the Senate by vote of 68-29. The bill passed the House by a vote of 225-201-1.

It will now go to President Biden’s desk for his signature.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The dogs at Clearlake Animal Control shelter are waiting to find their Christmas families.

The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

The following dogs are available for adoption. The newest dogs are at the top.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female American pit bull with a short black and tan coat.

She has been spayed.

She’s dog No. 51462856.

‘Chogi’

“Chogi” is a male American pit bull mix with a short tan and white coat.

He has been spayed.

He is dog No. 51373225.

‘Dennis’

“Dennis” is a male Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.

He is neutered.

Dennis is dog No. 51682977.

‘Tanner’

“Tanner” is an American Staffordshire mix with a short tan coat.

He has been neutered.

Tanner is dog No. 51150982.

‘Aoki’

“Aoki” is a male Siberian husky mix with a white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50905477.

‘Athena’

“Athena” is a female American pit bull mix terrier with a short brindle coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 49934476.

‘Atlas’

“Atlas” is a male German shepherd with a black and tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51331471.

‘Babs’

“Babs” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 49505856.

‘Bruce’

“Bruce” is a 2-year-old American pit bull mix with a short gray coat with white markings.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50684304.

‘Buster’

“Buster” is a male pit bull mix with a short tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50762164.

‘Domino’

“Domino” is a male terrier mix with a short white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50815541.

‘Eros’

“Eros” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50754504.

‘Foxie’

“Foxie” is a female German shepherd with a red, black and white coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 49702845.

‘Goliath’

“Goliath” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.

He is dog No. 50754509.

‘Hakuna’

“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50176912.

‘Herman’

“Herman” is a 7-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a brown coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51236411.

‘Hondo’

“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.

He has been neutered.

He’s dog No. 50227693.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a 9-month-old male terrier mix with a short black and brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50992658.

‘Kubota’

“Kubota” is a 4-year-old male German shepherd with a short brown coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50184421.

‘Little Boy’

“Little Boy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50075256.

‘Mamba’

“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 49520569.

‘Matata’

“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50176912.

‘Maverick’

“Maverick” is a male pit bull-border collie mix with a short black and white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51027806.

‘Maya’

“Maya” is a female German shepherd with a black and tan coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 50428151.

‘Mikey’

“Mikey” is a male German shepherd mix with a short brown and tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51012855.

‘Molly’

“Molly” is a female Samoyed mix with a long white coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 50933031.

‘Noah’

“Noah” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51286102.

‘Paige’

“Paige” is a female American pit bull mix with a short brown coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 51194668.

‘Rascal’

“Rascal” is a male shepherd mix with a black and brown coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50806384.

‘Snowball’

“Snowball is a 1 and a half year old male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 49159168.

‘Terry’

“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.

He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.

Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.

He is dog No. 48443693.

‘Trike’

“Trike” is a male border collie-Australian shepherd mix with a black and white coat and blue eyes.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 51029972.

‘Willie’

“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50596003.

‘Zeus’

“Zeus” is a male Samoyed mix with a long white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 50933068.

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.

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that he has granted 10 pardons.

The pardons are for individuals who were convicted of crimes involving drug possession and sale, burglary, robbery and taking a vehicle without consent.

The earliest of the convictions went back to 1973, while the most recent was from 2008.

The California Constitution gives the governor the authority to grant pardons.

The governor regards clemency as an important part of the criminal justice system that can incentivize accountability and rehabilitation and increase public safety by removing counterproductive barriers to successful reentry.

A pardon may also remove unjust collateral consequences of conviction, such as deportation and permanent family separation.

Pardons do not forgive or minimize the harm caused by crime. Instead, these pardons recognize the pardon grantees’ self-development and rehabilitation since then.

Gov. Newsom weighs numerous factors in his review of clemency applications, including an applicant’s conduct since the offense, whether the grant is consistent with public safety and in the interest of justice, and the impact of a grant on the community, including crime victims and survivors.

While in office, Gov. Newsom has granted a total of 140 pardons, 123 commutations and 35 reprieves.

The Governor’s Office encourages victims, survivors and witnesses to register with CDCR’s Office of Victim and Survivor Rights and Services to receive information about an incarcerated person’s status.

For general Information about victim services, to learn about victim-offender dialogues, or to register or update a registration confidentially, please visit www.cdcr.ca.gov/Victim_Services/ or call 1-877-256-6877 (toll free).

Additional information on executive clemency can be found here.

The full list of pardons can be seen below.

12.23.22 Pardon Certificates by LakeCoNews on Scribd

 

Winter solstice brings the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a great night to spend reading.

I’ve taught English and creative writing in snowy Binghamton, New York, for more than 40 years – reading, writing, reviewing and judging books all the while – so it’s never hard for me to find something to read. Only to choose.

To save you the same indecision, I’ve picked five books for the darkest time of the year.

1. Henry David Thoreau, “Walden Pond” (1854)

Thoreau’s “Walden Pond” is America’s most celebrated nature book, filled with the author’s observations of the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. “Walden” begins in July, but Thoreau welcomes winter in some of the book’s most beautiful passages.

“The north wind had already begun to cool the pond,” Thoreau writes, when he “went into winter quarters.” Not that he stayed indoors much.

Most of us won’t stretch out face down “on ice only an inch thick,” as Thoreau reports doing, but we can read about him doing it while staying warm. Thoreau noticed frozen bubbles, stacked “like a string of beads” or “silvery coins poured from a bag.” He catalogs – how he loves cataloging! – the colors of the pond, from “transparent” to dark green to “opaque and whitish or gray.” In winter he burned pine, decaying stumps, hickory, dry leaves and logs he’d dragged home while skating across the pond. Fuel provided him warmth, cooked food and company. “You can always see a face in the fire,” Thoreau wrote.

In winter he welcomed rare humans, such as fellow writer Louisa May Alcott’s father, Bronson. But mostly he encountered foxes, squirrels, chickadees, jays and a barred owl that he described as the “winged brother of the cat.” Thoreau delights in the sound of the ice booming in a thaw and describes moonlit rescues of hikers he escorted back to the edge of civilization.

The five chilly chapters of “Walden” comprise a winter sampler for those who haven’t read this mighty book — and for those returning to it.

2. Robert Frost, “The Poetry of Robert Frost”

No poet sang of winter like poet laureate and New Englander Robert Frost. In his great “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” he pays homage to winter’s solitude:

“Between the woods and frozen lake/The darkest evening of the year.”

“The Poetry of Robert Frost” weighs in at more than 600 pages. “You Come Too,” a beautifully curated edition of poems for the young, is less than 100.

Both books contain popular midwinter favorites. Even their titles suggest the poet’s strong connection to winter: “Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter”; “A Hillside Thaw” (“Ten million silver lizards out of snow!”); “Good-by and Keep Cold”; “A Patch of Old Snow.”

In “Birches,” Frost writes of branches that turn raindrops into ice crystals melted by sunlight.

Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust –

Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away

You’d think the inner dome of heaven has fallen.

Frost’s poems are easily memorized and lovely to read aloud over any blustering gales.

3. Dylan Thomas, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” (1952)

As Frost wrote for all ages, so did Dylan Thomas in “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” – available in its original Tiffany blue New Directions paperback edition, decorated exquisitely with illustrations by Ellen Raskin – a winter’s poem made to be sung. We can even hear the poet chanting it aloud on his 1952 recording.

One need not be Welsh to love Thomas’ seaside childhood. One need not even celebrate Christmas.

“One Christmas was so much like another,” the poem opens, “that I can never remember whether it snowed/for six days and six nights when I was 12/or whether it snowed for 12 days and/12 nights when I was six.”

4. Italo Calvino, “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler” (1979)

Italo Calvino bundles magic, metafiction, philosophy, danger and love into “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.” It’s Calvino’s most mystifying work, challenging readers’ assumptions about reading and storytelling.

Not exactly a novel, it comprises the first chapter of 10 invented novels by 10 imaginary authors. Is it still winter? a reader may wonder. Was it ever winter?

As Calvino admits, “The only truth I can write is that of the instant I am living.”

5. James Fenton, “A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds” (2002)

Some gardeners spend all winter dreaming. Others spend it busily planning.

“A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds” proposes a radically old-fashioned approach – to grow a garden simply sprung from seed. Author James Fenton explains, “[S]imple-mindedness was a part of what I was after: buy a packet of nasturtium seeds and plant them, grow some very tall sunflowers – this is what gardening should be all about.”

A garden doesn’t need expensive starter plants or even a plan. The great question in life, as well as with gardens, is: What do I want to grow?

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Winter unearths simplicity – the stark black-and-white vista it presents, the bare-boned landscape. It encourages readers to follow suit by ridding themselves of the extraneous and making room for life. As the celebrated saying goes, “If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but the same amount of snow.”

Besides, as December ends, we turn the corner toward light.

Liz Rosenberg, Professor of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, Binghamton University, State University of New York

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

A space telescope designed to search for the hardest-to-find asteroids and comets that stray into Earth’s orbital neighborhood, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Surveyor, or NEO Surveyor, recently passed a rigorous technical and programmatic review.

Now the mission is transitioning into the final design-and-fabrication phase and establishing its technical, cost, and schedule baseline.

The mission supports the objectives of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, or PDCO, at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 460 feet across that come within 30 million miles of our planet’s orbit.

Objects of this size are capable of causing significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth.

“NEO Surveyor represents the next generation for NASA’s ability to quickly detect, track, and characterize potentially hazardous near-Earth objects,” said Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer at PDCO. “Ground-based telescopes remain essential for us to continually watch the skies, but a space-based infrared observatory is the ultimate high ground that will enable NASA’s planetary defense strategy.”

Find them first

Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NEO Surveyor will journey a million miles to a region of gravitational stability — called the L1 Lagrange point — between Earth and the Sun, where the spacecraft will orbit during its five-year primary mission.

From this location, the NEO Surveyor will view the solar system in infrared wavelengths — light that is invisible to the human eye.

Because those wavelengths are mostly blocked by Earth’s atmosphere, larger ground-based observatories may miss near-Earth objects that this space telescope will be able to spot by using its modest light-collecting aperture of nearly 20 inches.

NEO Surveyor’s cutting-edge detectors are designed to observe two heat-sensitive infrared bands that were chosen specifically so the spacecraft can track the most challenging-to-find near-Earth objects, such as dark asteroids and comets that don’t reflect much visible light.

In the infrared wavelengths to which NEO Surveyor is sensitive, these objects glow because they are heated by sunlight.

In addition, NEO Surveyor will be able to find asteroids that approach Earth from the direction of the Sun, as well as those that lead and trail our planet’s orbit, where they are typically obscured by the glare of sunlight — objects known as Earth Trojans.

“For the first time in our planet’s history, Earth’s inhabitants are developing methods to protect Earth by deflecting hazardous asteroids,” said Amy Mainzer, the mission’s survey director at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “But before we can deflect them, we first need to find them. NEO Surveyor will be a game-changer in that effort.”

The mission will also help to characterize the composition, shape, rotation, and orbit of near-Earth objects. While the mission’s primary focus is on planetary defense, this information can be used to better understand the origins and evolution of asteroids and comets, which formed the ancient building blocks of our solar system.

When it launches, NEO Surveyor will build upon the successes of its predecessor, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE.

Repurposed from the WISE space telescope after that mission ended in 2011, NEOWISE proved highly effective at detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, but NEO Surveyor is the first space mission built specifically to find large numbers of these hazardous asteroids and comets.

Already in the works

After the mission passed this milestone on Nov. 29, key instrument development got under way. For instance, the large radiators that will allow the system to be passively cooled are being fabricated.

To detect the faint infrared glow of asteroids and comets, the instrument’s infrared detectors need to be much cooler than the spacecraft’s electronics. The radiators will perform that important task, eliminating the need for complex active cooling systems.

Additionally, construction of the composite struts that will separate the telescope’s instrumentation from the spacecraft has begun.

Designed to be poor heat conductors, the struts will isolate the cold instrument from the warm spacecraft and sunshield, the latter of which will block sunlight that might otherwise obscure the telescope’s view of near-Earth objects and heat up the instrument.

Progress has also been made developing the instrument’s infrared detectors, beam splitters, filters, electronics, and enclosure. And work has begun on the space telescope’s mirror, which will be formed from a solid block of aluminum and shaped by a custom-built diamond-turning machine.

“The project team, including all of our institutional and industrial collaborators, is already very busy designing and fabricating components that will ultimately become flight hardware,” said Tom Hoffman, NEO Surveyor project manager at JPL. “As the mission enters this new phase, we’re excited to be working on this unique space telescope and are already looking forward to our launch and the start of our important mission.”

More about the mission

The mission is tasked by NASA’s Planetary Science Division within the Science Mission Directorate; program oversight is provided by the PDCO, which was established in 2016 to manage the agency’s ongoing efforts in planetary defense.

NASA’s Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall Space Flight Center provides program management for NEO Surveyor.

The project is being developed by JPL and is led by survey director Amy Mainzer at the University of Arizona. Established aerospace and engineering companies have been contracted to build the spacecraft and its instrumentation, including Ball Aerospace, Space Dynamics Laboratory, and Teledyne.

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder will support operations, and IPAC-Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for processing survey data and producing the mission’s data products. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information about NEO Surveyor is available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/neo-surveyor.

LUCERNE, Calif. — During a special Wednesday night meeting, the Lucerne Area Town Hall approved a resolution condemning a plan by the Scotts Valley Pomo to use a state grant to purchase the Lucerne Hotel for homeless youth housing.

The vote came toward the end of a two-hour meeting held in Lucerne Elementary School’s multipurpose room.

The town hall also voted to direct Chair Kurt McKelvey to send the letter to county, state and federal leaders.

The town hall moved its meeting location to Lucerne Elementary after the Lucerne Hotel’s owner, Andrew Beath, refused to allow them to meet if they were going to discuss the sale to the Scotts Valley Band.

District 3 Supervisor EJ Crandell then sent out a cancellation notice setting the next meeting in January, which the group’s bylaws don’t give him the authority to do.

Concerned about reports that escrow was set to close by the end of December, McKelvey called the special meeting for Wednesday night in an attempt to give the community a chance to comment.

Even in the midst of the busy holiday season, three dozen people showed up to discuss the matter in person — with about 20 more on Zoom at one point as well as others who watched the livestream on Facebook. They voted to approve the resolution, concerned about matters including the impacts on the community and the lack of transparency.

Crandell was not present at the meeting.

The resolution, which can be seen in its final version below, raises issues about community impacts, highest and best use for the building — which the county had owned but sold to Beath in 2019 over community objections — and suggests that the former juvenile hall, which has served as a shelter and is available for purchase for significantly less than the 94-year-old hotel, would be the better site.

The resolution ends by saying, “Lucerne will not be a sacrifice zone.”

At one point the document has used the word “colonialism” to describe the situation. A small number of meeting participants objected to that word and the group agreed to remove it.

In November, the tribe received the $5.2 million Tribal Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention Program grant from the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency. The single grant consumed a quarter of the funding made available in this round to the state’s 110 federally recognized tribes.

The intent is that the hotel would house up to 60 individuals ages 16 to 24, including some families. The target group would be both tribal and nontribal, and from Lake and Mendocino counties.

The grant was written in 10 days in June by Tribal Administrator Tom Jordan, who is not a tribal member, and Ana Santana, who oversees the Lake County Office of Education’s Healthy Start Program.

It lists the Lake County Office of Education as the “primary partner,” and nearly 40 local organizations as “secondary” partners.

However, Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg said his agency had no idea about the project, and so far Lake County News has not been able to confirm that any of the secondary partners knew about it, either.

Falkenberg also said that based on his understanding of the grant documents and after discussions with Santana and Jordan, it was revealed that the intent was for the Lake County Office of Education to run the homeless housing facility.

Falkenberg said that while the agency supports the goals of the project, it has no intent to be the primary partner and won’t operate the facility, as that is outside of its scope.

Nevertheless, the state has decided to go forward with granting the funds, claiming the grant application is accurate despite the claims about nonexistent partnerships.

McKelvey had invited Jordan to last week’s town hall meeting to discuss the project with the community, but he declined, asking instead to come in January.

When McKelvey asked him to come to the special Wednesday meeting, Jordan told him he couldn’t clear his schedule.

That’s because while the town hall was gathering, Jordan was at a special meeting of the Lake County Board of Education, which wanted to know more about the grant and how it had bypassed the Lake County Office of Education’s processes, as Falkenberg acknowledged it had.

Getting answers about the grant and process

At the Board of Education meeting, Falkenberg emphasized that the project proposal aligns with the Office of Education’s core values, which focus on the needs of children and putting children first.

The agenda he’s shared with his staff includes that the Office of Education, or LCOE, will be a support center for school districts, they will foster partnerships to support all Lake County students and build an internal culture based on best practices.

He also raised the issue of respect, and said that if the project was going to move forward, “that bridge of respect has to be addressed and rebuilt.”

Board of Education members questioned Jordan and Santana on how the grant got through without the administration knowing, resulting in board members and agency leadership being surprised.

Jordan and Santana described to the board the hurried process, and Santana admitted she had not formally asked the partners for support.

They acknowledged they do not have firm funding past renovation and the first year of operation. Santana said there are state and federal funding sources, and Jordan said the tribe intended to seek its third state Homekey grant which would give them a five-year operating subsidy.

Santana said it is not a homeless shelter. “It's homeless youth housing.”

She also said she was surprised by the community response, had no idea others were trying to buy the building — the tribe has locked up the building in a purchase agreement for months — and that although she lives in Lucerne, she had no idea there was a town hall.

Falkenberg said a neutral third party has been asked to review the Office of Education’s grant process and see if there are areas where they can improve so this doesn’t happen again.

Board Chair Denise Loustalot said the board, which hadn’t known about the grant beforehand, now had to ask how the project is supposed to work.

Jordan said Scotts Valley is the lead in the grant. “It's their responsibility to figure all of that out,” he said, adding that it is expected to take place over the next three to six months.

It also was explained by Jordan during the discussion that there was not yet a confirmed closing date. He said the state is transferring the money to the tribe, which has to handle other issues with the property owner, Beath. Those are likely to include hundreds of thousands of dollars in property tax that Beath is disputing with the county.

“This is a community issue and it’s a controversial one also so it’s hard not to have an opinion on the whole process,” said Board of Education member Anna Ravenwoode.

Ravenwoode said Lake County needs a homeless youth center. “That’s a given.” However, it also needs the economic development that the Lucerne Hotel can provide.

She asked if there was another facility that could house the facility Jordan and Santana proposed, “and leave the Lucerne Hotel for economic development.”

“I want both,” Ravenwoode said.

“I think we all do,” said Loustalot.

Santana said in her 17-plus years with LCOE, her focus has always been on unrepresented youth. She said homelessness and lack of stable housing for communities has been an ongoing issue. So when the grant came available and the hotel was put up for sale, it seemed like a perfect opportunity.

She said they created a list of partners who have supported other grant opportunities, and because LCOE was not supposed to be the financial sponsor, she didn’t let Falkenberg know. She said she realizes now that was a mistake.

Santana said she never imagined the grant would create the “harsh” amount of emotion, and apologized to the community for any hard feelings and to the agencies named as partners that were not contacted.

Board member Dr. Mark Cooper said he was bothered by the statement in the grant that LCOE was the primary partner. “What led you to believe that the LCOE would be the primary partner? Was there something that went on during that time?”

Jordan said it was the belief that LCOE would be able to provide those services. When writing a grant, he said, he anticipates what the granter is looking for. “They were looking for partners, we used the term ‘partner.’”

Jordan also apologized to the board for the discomfort he and Santana had created in the process, adding that collaboration is important.

He made a point of reporting that for the past year the tribe has been in the process of transitioning his position from tribal administrator to a lesser, part-time position in economic development.

As a result, starting in mid-January, he anticipates he will no longer be tribal chair.

“It's time for me to take a lesser role,” he said, emphasizing the transition had been ongoing and had nothing to do with the grant situation.

Jordan did not name who his successor would be or if they were familiar with the next steps in the process.

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.

LATH Resolution A0004 — Signed 12-21-2022 (1) by LakeCoNews on Scribd

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Superior Court reported that an interim chief probation officer has been named to succeed Rob Howe, appointed this week by the Board of Supervisors to be sheriff.

Presiding Judge J. David Markham has appointed Wendy Mondfrans as interim chief probation officer, while a recruitment process for a permanent replacement can be conducted.

Mondfrans said she’s excited for the opportunity to lead the Probation Department.

“The Department is filled with dedicated staff and probation officers who have a strong commitment to community safety and helping those involved with the justice system to change their lives,” she said in an email to Lake County News. “Working with them every day is an honor and a privilege!”

She said she plans to pursue the job on a permanent basis.

Howe’s appointment to succeed Sheriff Brian Martin, who is retiring, will take effect on Jan. 2, at which point Mondrans will take over the Probation Department.

Howe had served as chief probation officer since March 2012, following 19 years with the sheriff’s office.

“The Court would like to thank Chief Howe for his leadership over the last 10 years. He has
successfully led the Probation Department through many significant changes in the law,” the court said in a written statement issued on Thursday afternoon.

Mondfrans has worked for Probation since 2010. She has held several positions including deputy probation officer, senior, chief deputy probation officer and, most recently, assistant chief probation officer since January 2018.

Before her work with Probation, Mondfrans was a practicing attorney.

The Probation Department says on its website that its mission “is to continually improve the quality of community life by enhancing public safety, by assisting victims with restoration and by offering the hope of a more productive lifestyle for offenders.”

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.