NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — Four people died Sunday when the helicopter they were riding in crashed near Colusa.

The Colusa County Sheriff’s Office said that at 1:15 p.m. Sunday it received a report of a helicopter crash near Highway 45 at Reservation Road.

The agency responded to the scene along with Sacramento River Fire personnel.

When they arrived, authorities said the first responders located four passengers on board the helicopter.

Authorities said the passengers were confirmed deceased at the scene.

The passengers’ identification was not released Sunday pending family notifications.

As of Sunday evening, no additional information on the victims was available.

The Colusa County Sheriff's Office said it was continuing to investigate the scene on Sunday, along with interviewing persons who may have seen the helicopter crash.

The agency said it notified the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, and they will take the lead on the investigation.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has numerous cats and kittens ready for new homes.

The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.

Domestic short hair kittens

Two females in this litter of domestic short hair kittens remain available.

They are in cat room kennel No. A1, ID Nos. 1173 and 1174.

Male domestic shorthair kitten

This male domestic short hair kitten has a gray tabby coat.

He is in cat room kennel No. 11c, ID No. LCAC-A-1144.

Female domestic shorthair kitten

This female domestic short hair kitten has a black coat.

She is in cat room kennel No. 11d, ID No. LCAC-A-1145.

Domestic medium hair cat

This 3-year-old female domestic medium hair cat has a brown tabby coat.

She is in cat room kennel No. 58, ID No. LCAC-A-1029.

‘Furball’

“Furball” is a 6-year-old female domestic longhair cat with a brown tabby coat.

She is in cat room kennel No. 84, ID No. LCAC-A-969.

Male domestic shorthair

This male domestic shorthair has a gray and white coat.

He is 1-year-old and weighs nearly 6 pounds.

He is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874.

Female domestic shorthair

This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a white coat and blue eyes.

She is in cat room kennel No. C123, ID No. LCAC-A-1152.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. — I was transported to Brazil on Thursday, though I didn’t have to travel far — just the 30 or so miles from Middletown to Lakeport.

I was connected by a colleague of mine to Euni Barbosa Sloan, a local Brazilian woman who is delightfully enthusiastic about dishes from her native land.

I was invited to join the two of them to sample feijoada (pronounced fay-jwa-da), a quintessential Brazilian stew and a specialty of Sloan’s, to whose home I had trekked.

The day was hot — near 100 in Lakeport — but it didn’t rival the warm welcome I received when I reached my destination and knocked on the door.

Brazilians are known for their friendliness (hospitality is characteristic of Brazil), and my host unquestionably embodied this trait. After being greeted with a hug I was ushered into the kitchen, where the components of our lunch were ready and laid out.

Arrayed in front of me were bowls of traditional accompaniments to feijoada: succulent slices of orange, toasted cassava flour with bacon (known as farofa in Brazil), and a juicy salsa of sorts, made joyfully colorful by a rainbow of bell peppers.

Sloan piled white rice fresh from the stove into a bowl and ladled fragrant stew into a tureen. A mound of finely shredded deep green kale was put in a skillet to sauté, something done last minute to ensure its freshness.

Since there are so many components to this dish, Sloan had printed a picture showing how to assemble one’s plate, something this novice appreciated.

Once our plates were full and we were ready to eat, talk turned to Sloan’s homeland. I learned a bit about its history and gained greater knowledge of its food.

Brazilian cuisine is influenced by a mixture of European, Indigenous, and African ingredients and traditions.

Feijoada, a stew of black beans and pork, is sometimes called the national dish of Brazil. It likely originated with African slaves who worked on Brazil’s coffee, cotton and sugar cane plantations.

Its name stems from feijão, the word for black beans in Portuguese, the language of Brazil.

After the plantation owners had feasted on pork, slaves would use the leftovers, typically the “undesirable” parts such as the ears, tails and feet, to make a stew with black beans.

These days many eliminate the original parts used by slaves and substitute ribs, bacon and sausage; however, Sloan offers a nod to the initial configuration by adding a pig’s foot to the more modern version.

Her stew was rife with deep flavor, rich and smoky, and I found myself reaching for the tureen to replenish my plate. The juices of the black beans and pork mixed well with the graininess of the farofa, and the oranges, kale, and salsa provided balance by adding bright notes to the dish.

It was a truly sublime experience, and I find myself thinking of the flavor even now, though I eat mostly plant-based foods.

Sloan enjoys cooking the dishes she grew up with in Brazil and strives to make them as authentic as possible, though it can be a challenge to find true Brazilian ingredients.

For example, in Brazil she makes feijoada with calabrese, a sausage that originated in Italy’s Calabria region, a reflection of the Italian influence in some of Brazil’s cuisine, particularly in the south.

In the U.S. she subs more available linguica or kielbasa, smoked sausages hailing from Portugal and Poland, respectively.

She often has luck finding ingredients at Bruno’s Shop Smart in Lakeport, but if all else fails, she orders what ingredients she can online.

Sloan refers to the cassava flour I mentioned as yuca flour (not to be confused with yucca, another plant with edible parts). Other names for the root from which this flour is made include manioc, mandioca, casabe and, as we may more commonly know it, tapioca.

In Portuguese, cassava flour is known as farinha de mandioca.

As to what food Sloan misses most, she longs for pão francés, a sourdough French bread warm from the bakery and spread with butter. I could almost taste it through her description. She’s been unable to find it here.

I learned of pastel, a thin crust savory or sweet Brazilian pastry filled with cheese, meat, or bananas and cinnamon, and coxinha, a Brazilian chicken croquette, which is a popular street food there.

I also learned that the custom in Brazil is to eat a heavy meal midday and a snack in the evening. Sloan has convinced her American husband to embrace this custom. Luckily he works nearby and can come home for lunch to enjoy his wife’s lavish cooking.

Our meal was finished with coffee and bolo de laranja, a rich Brazilian cake flavored with a whole orange, rind and all, that manages to be both dense and delicate.

Brazil is known for its passionate love of meats, and there are some Brazilian steakhouses and barbecue restaurants within driving distance, though not in Lake County. Napa, Sacramento, San Jose and San Francisco were mentioned by Sloan, and Brazilian food may also be available in nearby Sonoma County.

Sloan prepared feijoada for her husband’s birthday celebration less than two weeks prior to my visit, and I’m grateful she made it a second time for me. I deeply appreciate her valuable contributions to today’s column, as well as her warm Brazilian hospitality.

I also extend my sincerest thanks to Teresa Marks, a fellow literacy tutor and Lake County Literacy Coalition board member, for suggesting the subject and introducing me to Sloan.

Brazil, which occupies half of South America’s land mass, was ranked by Condé Nast Travel editors as the most beautiful country in the world. (This is no small task, to be sure.) As Condé Nast reports, with its many and delightful natural wonders, Brazil has “no shortage of grandeur.”

While I’ve never traveled to Brazil (I hope to someday), my visit to the Sloan residence, what I now think of as a local Brazilian outpost, was both grand and delightful.

Today’s recipes are generously shared by Sloan and are for her feijoada and Brazilian orange cake.

Feijoada (Brazilian black bean and pork stew)

1 pound dried black beans (soaked at least four hours or overnight), drained and rinsed
4 ounces slab bacon, rind removed, diced
1 pound pork ribs, cut into individual ribs
2 smoked sausages, such as linguica or kielbasa, sliced
4 ounces pork meat, cut into small pieces
1 pork foot, cut into small pieces
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 or 4 bay leaves
Water, about 8 cups
Oil for pot
Salt to taste

Add oil to a large, heavy-bottomed soup pot. Add bacon and cook over medium heat until crisp. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

In the same pot, brown ribs and sausages in batches. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

If needed, add more oil to the pot and sauté garlic over medium heat until soft and fragrant, being careful not to burn, about a minute or less.

Add the beans, bacon, sausages, ribs, pork meat, pork foot, salt, and bay leaves to the pan. Cover with water, about 8 cups.

Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to low. Cover and let it cook for 2 to 2 ½ hours, or until the beans are soft.

If the stew has too much liquid, uncover the pot and continue cooking to allow some of the liquid to evaporate.

Bolo de Laranja (Brazilian orange cake)

1 whole orange with skin, cut into pieces with white pith removed
1 cup neutral oil (Sloan uses avocado oil)
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Powdered sugar for decoration

Grease and flour a tube pan.

In a blender or food processor, puree orange, oil, eggs and sugar. Set aside.

Mix flour and baking powder in a large bowl.

Add blended orange mixture to the bowl and incorporate well.

Pour into a greased and floured tube pan and bake at 360 degrees F for 30 minutes.

When cool, remove from the pan.

Lightly sprinkle powdered sugar over the cake to decorate.

Recipes by Euni Sloan.

Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Authorities said two separate crashes in different parts of Lake County on Saturday resulted in fatalities.

The wrecks occurred near Middletown Saturday morning and Blue Lakes in the afternoon.

The first crash was reported at 8:40 a.m. on Highway 29 at Mirabel Road, south of Middletown.

Reports from the scene stated that the crash involved a large box truck carrying mail and a pickup.

There were two patients, one with moderate injuries and one with major injuries, with extrication needed, according to radio reports.

Shortly after 9 a.m., an air ambulance requested to the scene was canceled.

The California Highway Patrol confirmed the crash resulted in a fatality.

The CHP said the roadway wasn’t fully reopened until just before 1 p.m.

Shortly before 3 p.m., Northshore Fire and Cal Fire were dispatched to a head-on crash on Highway 20 just west of Blue Lakes Road that blocked the roadway.

Incident command reported that two vehicles were involved with a total of three patients, two with major injuries, one with moderate injuries. Two air ambulances were requested to respond.

The CHP also confirmed that the crash resulted in a fatality but additional information was not immediately available on Saturday.

The roadway was not fully reopened until shortly after 4:45 p.m., the CHP reported.

Additional information on the wrecks will be published when it becomes available.

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. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs available to new families this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian cattle dog, basset, boxer, bulldog, husky, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.

Male Labrador Retriever

This 2-year-old male Labrador Retriever has a short black coat with white markings.

He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-1349.

Basset-husky-hound mix

This 2-year-old female basset-husky-hound has a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1331.

‘Dusty’

“Dusty” is a 2-year-old female pit bull terrier mix with a short gray coat.

She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-611.

‘Jim’

“Jim” is a 2-year-old pit bull terrier mix with a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-810.

Male terrier

This 6-year-old male terrier has a short black coat.

He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-1149.

‘Rosco’

“Rosco” is 3-year-old a male Rhodesian Ridgeback-Shepherd mix with a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-1205.

Rottweiler-pit bull mix

This 1-year-old female Rottweiler-pit bull mix has a short black coat.

She has been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-731.

‘Canelo’

“Canelo” is a young male Australian cattle dog with a short red and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1348.

Female pit bull terrier

This 4-year-old female pit bull terrier mix has a short white coat.

She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-812.

‘Bubba’

“Bubba” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short black coat.

He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-1306.

Male husky

This 2-year-old male husky has a medium-length red and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1024.

‘Dee’

“Dee” is a 1-year-old male shepherd mix with a black coat.

He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-1347.

‘Ghost’

“Ghost” is a 2-year-old female husky with an all-white coat and blue eyes.

She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-1167.

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.

Team USA has sent 613 athletes from 46 states to this summer’s 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, which were postponed a year due to the pandemic.

California, the most populous state, is sending the most (126) but Colorado is sending more per capita (5.9 per million).

The full roster of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team shows athletes by state, including their name, sport, hometown and event(s).

Competition (some baseball and soccer games) began on July 21, before the opening ceremony on July 23. The closing ceremony is Aug. 8.

These Olympics are featuring 339 medal events in 33 sports. Four sports are new this year: karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing. Baseball and softball are returning for the first time since 2008.

Team USA athletes from 46 states

— California’s 126 athletes make up 20.5% of the U.S. team. Next are Florida (51), Colorado (34), Texas (31) and New York (27). On a per capita basis, Colorado (5.9 athletes per million population), Hawaii (5.7), and the District of Columbia (5.6) beat out all other states, including California (3.2).

— The nine states with populations over 10 million contributed 322 athletes (California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina). The seven states with populations under 1 million sent 10 (Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, District of Columbia, Vermont and Wyoming).

— Aside from the 50 states, the District of Columbia is home to four athletes (men’s basketball, fencing, tennis and triathlon) and Puerto Rico to one (baseball). There’s even one Italian on Team USA (men’s water polo).

More U.S. sports facts

— In 2019, there were 39,297 fitness and recreational sports centers establishments in the United States. They employed 777,590 people with a $12 billion annual payroll.

— The United States had about 140,000 athletes, coaches and umpires out of a workforce of 114 million in 2019. That’s about 1,228 per million population.

A brief history about the Olympics and Japan

— The modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens, Greece.

— The United States has hosted more Olympics than any other country: four Summer Games (1904, 1932, 1984, 1996) and four Winter Games (1932, 1960, 1980, 2002).

— Japan has hosted four Olympics, tied for third with Italy: two Summer Games (1964 and 2020 held this year) and two Winter Games (1972 and 1998).

— During these Olympics, Japan is expected to host 11,238+ athletes from 206 countries. The official Games motto: United by Emotion.

— Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world with a population of 38.14 million in 2016.

— Japan is ranked 11th with a 2021 population of 124.7 million.

The next three Summer Games are set to be held in 2024 in Paris, 2028 in Los Angeles and 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.

India, the second most populous country in the world, has never hosted the Olympics. Neither has any country on the continent of Africa.

Derick C. Moore is a senior communications specialist in the Census Bureau's Communications Directorate.

Fifty years ago, Apollo 15 lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, sending Commander David R. Scott, Command Module Pilot Alfred M. Worden, and Lunar Module Pilot James B. Irwin on the first of three Apollo “J” missions.

These missions gave astronauts the opportunity to explore the Moon for longer periods using upgraded and more plentiful scientific instruments than ever before. Apollo 15 was the first mission where astronauts used the Apollo Lunar Surface Drill, or ALSD, and the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV.

Scott and Irwin would land on the Moon and use the ALSD at the site where they set up several scientific instruments during the nearly 67 hours they were on the surface of the Moon.

The tool was a rotary-percussive drill that used a combined motion that hammered a rotating drill bit into the surface to make a hole.

The overall purpose of gathering core samples was part of NASA’s lunar geology studies to learn more about the composition of the Moon and discover more about its history by looking at different kinds of rocks, including some from below the surface.

Now, NASA is going back to the Moon as part of the agency’s Artemis missions and has a new drill headed to the lunar surface as a commercially delivered payload via the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative.

The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrain, or TRIDENT, is key to locating ice and other resources on the Moon.

“Honeybee Robotics designed the TRIDENT drill for NASA to sample lunar regolith,” said Amy Eichenbaum, the Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1, or PRIME-1, deputy project manager. “TRIDENT will help understand the physical properties of the lunar regolith while also allowing analysis of the resources present in samples taken from various depths.”

TRIDENT is also a rotary-percussive drill, but one major difference between it and its Apollo counterpart is that TRIDENT does not need astronauts to operate it manually.

Honeybee Robotics originally partnered with NASA through the Small Business Innovation Research program, a highly competitive program that encourages small businesses to engage in federal research.

PRIME-1 will be the first in-situ resource utilization demonstration on the Moon. For the first time, NASA will robotically sample and analyze for ice from below the surface.

PRIME-1 will use TRIDENT to drill in a single location at a site with a high likelihood of having water – whether in liquid or ice form.

It will drill down about 3 feet below the surface, each time bringing up samples that NASA will analyze with a scientific instrument — the Mass Spectrometer observing lunar operations, or MSolo.

“MSolo will measure water ice and other volatiles released from the sample brought to the surface by the TRIDENT drill,” said Dr. Janine Captain, the principal investigator for MSolo. “These measurements will help us start to understand the distribution of resources on the lunar surface, a key to enabling a long-term presence on the Moon.”

Apollo 15 landed near the Hadley Rille, a long, deep channel-like gorge in the Moon’s surface, which was at the base of the Apennines Mountains to the north of the Moon’s equator.

PRIME-1’s destination is the Moon’s South Pole — new territory far from all the Apollo landing sites — a location very interesting because NASA has previously detected water there from space.

However, gathering more accurate data requires PRIME-1, like ALSD, to land and drill into the surface to examine what is there.

What PRIME-1 discovers will help to update resource models for where explorers are most likely to find water on the Moon.

About a year after the PRIME-1 mission, NASA will send an exploratory rover — Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, or VIPER — to the surface.

VIPER is NASA’s first mobile robotic mission to the Moon, and will carry a TRIDENT drill and scientific instruments that enable it to directly analyze water ice on the surface and subsurface of the Moon at varying depths and temperature conditions. VIPER will explore multiple sites on the lunar South Pole for about 100 days.

PRIME-1 and VIPER will build upon the legacy of Apollo 15 by using drills and rovers, allowing NASA the chance to look below the surface and detect what is there.

Much like Apollo 15, NASA is preparing to send new capabilities to the Moon that will enable people to stay there for longer than ever before, because learning how to find and use water is a key to living and working on the Moon and other deep space destinations.

“The Apollo missions first introduced the concept of drilling to provide subsurface understanding of a foreign world,” said Dan Andrews, VIPER Project Manager. “PRIME-1 and VIPER will expand the state of the art as we look to a future of sustainable exploration and learning how to live off the land.”

Leejay Lockhart works for NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Health officials said Lake County’s COVID-19 caseload has reached such critically high levels that the emergency departments at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport and Adventist Health in Clearlake have now been significantly stretched for more than a week.

The Lake County Health Services Department has received reports that some people with mild symptoms that can be associated with COVID-19 have continued to utilize local emergency rooms for COVID testing. Others have sought vaccination at our hospitals.

“As a small, rural county, we have limited intensive care and emergency medicine resources. They must be reserved for those in medical distress; those in need of immediate care. Overutilization of these resources extends wait times, and delays care for those in the greatest need,” said Charlie Evans, MD, Lake County’s acting Public Health officer.

“At this time, we ask people with mild symptoms to please contact their medical providers and nursing advice lines, rather than going straight to the emergency room,” said Evans. “If you are in need of immediate medical care, go to the ER. However, if you are mildly ill, use alternative resources.”

Visit http://health.co.lake.ca.us/Coronavirus/Vaccines.htm and http://health.co.lake.ca.us/Coronavirus/Testing.htm to learn more about vaccination and testing resources available in Lake County.

COVID-19 testing resources in Lake County

OptumServe at Lower Lake Town Hall, 16195 Main St.: Mondays and Thursdays, 7 to 11 a.m. and noon to 4 p.m. Appointments are highly recommended, limited on-site registration is available.

Rite Aid is conducting drive-thru testing in Clearlake and Ukiah: Appointments can be made online at https://www.riteaid.com/pharmacy/services/covid-19-testing. Insurance is not required.

Labcorp offers home testing by mail. Visit https://www.pixel.labcorp.com/. Insurance is not required.

Lake County Tribal Health offers testing by appointment to established patients with or without symptoms. For appointments, call 707-263-8382.

Clearlake VA Clinic is offering COVID-19 tests to veterans experiencing symptoms or prior to procedures. Please call the TLC line at 800-733-0502 for information.

Quest Diagnostics offers home testing by mail. Visit https://questdirect.questdiagnostics.com/ for information and to see if you're eligible for $0 out-of-pocket-testing. (Quest Diagnostics in Lakeport is not offering in-lab testing for active COVID-19.)

Sutter Health (outpatient clinics) are offering testing to existing patients, if ordered by your provider. Please contact your provider's office for details.

Adventist Health is offering testing to existing pediatric patients (children) in limited circumstances. Please contact your provider's office for details.

Lake County Public Health will test by appointment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Call 707-263-8174 to schedule or for information.

LAKEPORT, Calif. — The city of Lakeport said it is planning to shut down its Third Street boat ramp because of low water conditions on Monday, the same day that construction will begin on a new parking project.

While the Third Street launch will be closed, the Fifth Street launch will remain open and continue to be monitored, city officials reported.

Officials said the depth at the end of the Third Street ramp is -3.6 feet Rumsey, the special measure used for Clear Lake, while the Fifth Street launch is -5.3 feet Rumsey, making it the deepest public ramp in the county.

City Manager Kevin Ingram told Lake County News that this is the first time the Third Street ramp has been closed due to low water since it was built in 1984.

The city also reported that the Waterfront Parking Rehabilitation Project will begin on Monday.

Argonaut Constructors has contracted with the city to construct the project. Work includes water line replacement, storm drain upgrades, curb, gutter, sidewalk and the reconstruction and paving of the parking lot between Third and Fifth streets.

The first phase of construction will include utility and concrete work in sections of the parking lot for minimal disruptions to the parking areas.

Temporary lane closures, vehicle and pedestrian detours will be implemented at various stages of the project.

The parking area will be closed from Sept. 20 to Oct. 8 to allow for the complete reconstruction and paving of the parking lot.

Some portions of work will be completed at night to minimize the impact on traffic.

The project’s estimated completion date is Nov. 17.

For more information, contact the Lakeport Public Works Department at 707-263-3578.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Woodland Community College’s Lake County Campus will host a socially distanced barbecue on Monday, Aug. 2, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The event will serve as an opportunity to learn more about the student services and academic programs offered by the college.

The WCC-Lake County Campus is located at 15880 Dam Road Extension in the City of Clearlake.

Staff and faculty will host the event for the entire community.

Those in attendance will have the opportunity to meet program staff, enroll in classes for the fall semester, get information about financial aid and enjoy fun activities.

The event has no cost to attend and goodie bags will be available to participants, while supplies last.

“This event will serve as an opportunity to welcome back our students and community to our campuses in a safe manner, refocus on our future and get back on track to improving the lives of the communities we serve,” said WCC President Art Pimentel.

For those who can’t attend the event, the college invites the community to visit the website at http://woodland.edu or stop by the Lake County Campus in the City of Clearlake.

Campus office hours are scheduled, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In-person and virtual services are available.

The fall semester begins on Monday, Aug. 16.

For more information, contact Carid Servin at 530661-5711 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to discuss wildfire challenges across local, state and federal agencies.

Governor Newsom called for federal investments for additional firefighting personnel, aerial firefighting equipment, more aggressive wildfire response, and long-term access to satellite technology for early fire detection.

Gov. Newsom, President Biden and Vice President Harris were also joined by six additional governors battling Western wildfires, including Brad Little of Idaho, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Greg Gianforte of Montana, Kate Brown of Oregon, Jay Inslee of Washington and Mark Gordon of Wyoming.

“I’m grateful President Biden and Vice President Harris have taken a hands-on approach to combating devastating wildfires across the western states,” said Gov. Newsom. “In California, we’re taking bold steps to address our year-round climate-change-driven wildfire season with historic investments in wildfire resiliency and emergency management. Wildfires know no borders - we need to work together across states and with our federal partners to combat wildfires burning down our forests and destroying homes and critical infrastructure.”

Earlier this week, Gov. Newsom and Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak surveyed a Tamarack Fire damage area.

The Tamarack Fire has burned 68,696 acres on both sides of the California-Nevada border.

Amid unparalleled risk of catastrophic wildfire driven by climate change impacts, Newsom’s office said he has invested $2.2 billion to build wildfire resiliency and advance emergency response this calendar year alone, the largest such investment in state history.

The funding supports additional firefighting crews, new firefighting equipment and expanded land and forest management efforts and builds on the Governor’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience action plan, previous budget investments in emergency management, and executive actions to help combat catastrophic wildfires.

Additionally, Newsom surged Cal Fire’s firefighting ranks in March by authorizing the early hire of 1,399 seasonal firefighters, and this month supplemented the department’s capacities with 12 additional aircraft to fight this year’s wildfires.

Last year, Gov. Newsom announced the first statewide Climate Action Corps to mobilize Californians to be part of the solutions to address climate change.

The first class of Climate Action Corps fellows are focused on projects that advance wildfire resilience, urban greening and food waste recovery.

The wildfire cohort is supporting 13 community partners from Butte County down to San Diego in wildfire mitigation activities such as asset and risk mapping, community education and direct fuels reduction.

In California, the yearly increase in the assessed value of real property cannot exceed 2%, due to Proposition 13.

Thus, when after many years under Proposition 13, a reassessment to current fair market values occurs it can cause a dramatic increase in real property taxes.

Reassessments are a result of a “change in ownership” (sections 60, et. seq. of the Revenue and Taxation Code).

Whether a change in title triggers a partial or complete change in ownership depends on how real property is being retitled and other factors.

Let us consider the change in ownership rules for tenants in common and for joint tenants (California Code of Regulations sections 462.020 and 462.040).

The creation, transfer of termination of either a tenancy in common or a joint tenancy is a change in ownership of the interest that is transferred unless an exception applies.

Important exceptions exist for interspousal transfers, transfers of a primary residence from parent to child (and sometimes from grandparent to grandchild), and a transfer at death from one cotenant of their primary residence.

Interspousal transfers excepted from reassessment include, “the creation, transfer, or termination, solely between spouses, of any co-owner’s interest,” and, “transfers which take effect upon the death of a spouse.”

For example, take adding your spouse to title; transferring a portion of your undivided interest as a tenant in common to your spouse, either as an additional tenant in common or as a joint tenant with you as to your original undivided interest.

As of Feb. 15, 2021, under Proposition 19, the parent to child exclusion is limited to transfers from parent(s) to child(ren), or grandparents to grandchildren (where the parent is deceased), of the transferor’s primary residence provided that the child(ren), or grandchildren (if applicable), live there as their primary residence (and do so within one year of the transfer).

For transfers before Feb. 15, the prior Proposition 58 rules still apply.

A transfer of ownership at death between either tenants in common or joint tenants of their primary residence whereby the surviving tenant owns 100% of the residence is excepted from reassessment upon filing an affidavit of cotenant residency.

Specific change in ownership rules apply once joint owners create a joint tenancy. That is, once joint owners transfer their undivided interests to themselves as joint tenants they become so-called, “original transferors.”

Moreover, the same is true even if the transfer adds additional owners, who are called “other than original transferors.” So long as all original owners either become or remain as joint tenants, after the transfer, there is no change in ownership.

If an original transferor joint tenant dies or transfers his interest whether there is any change in ownership depends on if after the death or transfer there remains one, or more, of the original transferor joint tenants on title.

If an “other than original transferor” joint tenant dies or transfers his interest then whether there is a change in ownership depends on if an “original transferor” joint tenant remains. So long as there is an original transferor there is no reassessment.

Once the interest of the last original transferor ceases (due either to death or transfer) then there is a 100% change in ownership.

Also excluded from reassessment is termination of a joint tenancy if the co-owners retain their same proportionate interests in a new form of co-ownership.

For example, the joint tenants transfer their interests to themselves as equal tenants in common.

In order to administer the real property tax rules when title to real property changes, change in ownership documents are required to be filed with the local assessor.

Additionally, to claim an exclusion from reassessment, documents such as the “claim for reassessment exclusion for a transfer between parent and child” or the “affidavit of cotenant residency” must be filed on a timely basis with the local county assessor’s office to request an exclusion.

The foregoing discussion is only a simplified and partial discussion of more complex tax rules. Consult an attorney if needing real property tax advice.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.