LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has five dogs, a mix of big and little, waiting to meet new families this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of boxer, cattle dog, Chihuahua, terrier and pit bull.

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 Web site 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.

Boxer-pit bull terrier mix

This female boxer-pit bull mix has a short red coat.

She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14356.

‘Mandy’

“Mandy” is a heeler mix with a short tan and white coat.

She has been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14424.

Cattle dog-terrier mix

This male cattle dog-terrier mix has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14415.

Female Chihuahua

This young female Chihuahua has a short brown coat.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. 14421.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14419.

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.

Like millions of people around the world, David Shuster and his 7-year-old daughter cheered wildly as the Perseverance rover was lowered by sky crane to the Martian surface on Feb. 18 to start years of exploration.

But for him and a subset of the Mars 2020 science team, true gratification will be delayed.

Shuster is one of 15 members of the team focused on sample return, which means that they — or their graduate student successors — won't get their hands on actual Mars rocks for another 10 years, at the earliest. NASA and the European Space Agency will launch two additional missions to collect the rocks that Perseverance sets aside and rocket them back to Earth, ideally by 2031.

Nevertheless, Shuster, a professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley, and a specialist in dating old rocks, isn't bummed. He himself has studied moon rocks brought back by Apollo-era astronauts more than 50 years ago and feels a special affinity with the scientists who protected those precious samples for the benefit of those who came after. He, too, will be helping a new generation of scientists.

"One of the things that motivates me about this mission is the fact that I have benefited from those Apollo samples that were collected before I was born. I know firsthand what it is like to benefit from the really hard work, not just during the actual missions and by the astronauts themselves, but by scientists who curated and documented all of these samples," said Shuster. "I at once appreciate the value of that, but also the importance of doing that carefully for the Mars sample return mission. With all of the science that will be done on these samples, it matters what samples we collect. Not just any old rock works for the things that we do here in the lab."

For him, the key questions are: How old is Jezero Crater, where Perseverance landed, and when did liquid water exist on the surface and deposit the sediments and sculpt the alluvial features clearly visible in the crater? Estimates of the crater's age, which are based on the number of smaller impact craters inside the larger Jezero Crater, range anywhere from 1.7 billion years to more than 3 billion years, he said.

"One of the attractive things about this landing site is that it seems quite clear that at one point in the past — it's unknown as to when — Jezero Crater was a lake, and it was depositing sediment, such as this beautifully preserved fan," he said.

While instruments on board Perseverance can test rocks and sediment for chemical composition and mineralogy, they can't determine age. The radioactive isotope measurements needed to precisely pinpoint age can only be done in labs on Earth.

"Trying to get answers to those questions quantitatively, based on geochemical measurements, is not trivial — this is difficult to do even on Earth," said Shuster, who primarily uses the world-class, state-of-the-art equipment at the independent Berkeley Geochronology Center.

Complicating the analysis, the return samples — a mere 28, if all goes well — will be small, each the size of a stick of blackboard chalk. Scientists plan to analyze them with every chemical and mineralogical technique available, while saving as much of the samples for the future as possible, in hopes of improved analysis techniques. Luckily, though geochronological analysis destroys rock to determine its age, the process requires only tiny pieces.

"The big-picture question is, if we find any evidence for past life on Mars — which is a big motivation behind this mission — the very next question is going to be, 'When was that?'," Shuster said. "We need to know 'when' in an absolute sense, because the next question we are going to ask is, 'What was happening on Earth at that time, and how do these two compare?'"

'A selfless mission'

While Shuster plans to be around to conduct some of that analysis, his graduate student, Andrew "Drew" Gorin, is primed to reap the benefits, too.

"A lot of the people in charge of the mission are going to be retired by the time the samples come back — I feel awed that such a massive team of scientists would embark on such a selfless mission," said Gorin, who came to UC Berkeley last year and hasn't set foot in a campus lab since arriving. "People are dedicating the last 10 years of their career to this and may not get to develop the results themselves. So, it is exciting to be involved in the process as a graduate student."

Shuster, a 1996 UC Berkeley alumnus in geology, has conducted extensive work not only on lunar rocks, but also rocks from Mars: stones that were thrown from the Martian surface by a meteor impact and eventually wended their way through the solar system into Earth's orbit and entered the atmosphere as shooting stars. More than 100 such meteorites from Mars have been identified, but their violent history, combined with likely alterations when leaving Mars and falling to Earth, make them poor representatives of what rocks are like on Mars.

"There are some important limitations to studying meteorites from Mars: There is no geologic context, because you don't know where it is from; you don't know what the orientation of the rock was when it was on the planet, which you need for paleomagnetic studies; and not all materials are strong enough to survive the process of getting ejected and remaining a rocky material," he said. "These are all reasons why collecting samples on the planet itself is hugely advantageous. It simplifies all that stuff, it makes a lot of these problems just go away."

The sample return mission is designed to bring the first materials back from another planet, not just pieces of the moon or an asteroid or space dust. As the Perseverance rover navigates around Jezero Crater investigating interesting outcrops, Shuster and other members of the sample return science team will meet weekly, if not daily, to decide which rocks are worth sampling for return to Earth. Perseverance will then drill a core, store it hermetically in capsules and carry them around until it has accumulated enough to cache on the surface. At least two caches are planned: one inside the crater and one outside, as the rover moves from the younger crater interior to the presumably older rock in which Jezero is embedded.

"Our role is to provide expertise and advise on how best to collect and what samples to collect," he said, noting that the team has tentative plans that will evolve as the rover surveils the landscape. "The decisions are going to be based on all of the information that we have, and that information is evolving through time."

Counting meteor craters

Before drilling cores, the sample return team must decide which rocks will provide the answers they need. Volcanic, or igneous, rocks provide the best radiometric dates, Gorin said. He hopes Perseverance will pick up rocks that will help calibrate the standard technique — crater counting — now used to estimate the ages of the surfaces of planets and moons. This technique is based on correlations between crater counts and radiometric dating of rocks on the moon, with the assumption that the meteor population in the asteroid belt is similar around the moon and Mars, with some accommodation for the different gravity and atmosphere on Mars.

"The idea is, imagine you have some flat surface that gets bombarded with impactors through time at some knowable rate," he said. "Based on that, if you count the size distribution of craters, you can back out how long it has been since that surface was once completely flat. We have some anchor points we have gathered from the moon: basalt or lava flows, which we can imagine flattened the surface completely at some time. Lava flows are really excellent for radiometric dating."

Gorin has been tasked with assessing which rocks are likely to provide a date precise enough to calibrate meteor counts on Mars.

"We want to find a sample of an easily dated material within Jezero Crater where we can then apply this crater counting technique and also radiometrically date something in there, compare those and use that to shift the anchor point, which will allow us to better understand how the system works on Mars," he said.

Shuster noted that his sample return team must ride herd on other members of the science team to make sure that Perseverance has the time to gather key samples and cache them for pickup in the face of the curiosity-led desire to explore every interesting nook and cranny in Jezero Crater.

"This mission is very different from previous Mars rover missions because we have a specified date, at the end of which we have to have these samples that we are going to collect located at a fixed location," he said. "So, we have a pace on this mission that is undeniable."

Gorin will have gotten his Ph.D. by the time the Mars rocks return to Earth, but he hopes that his work on the mission — which he said is amazingly collaborative among younger and older scientists — will help him get access afterward. And it was all serendipitous. His master's thesis at Boston College involved using geochemistry to explore climate change over Earth's entire history, which he why he asked to work with Shuster when applying to UC Berkeley. He was surprised when Shuster asked whether his role with the Mars sample return mission, which would take up a lot of his time, would be a deal breaker for Gorin.

"When he asked me if I was interested in doing that sort of work, I was like, ‘Who would say no to that?’" Gorin said. "That sounds awesome. Doing work on the Mars mission reaches back to that childlike excitement for science that all of us have."

"I feel really lucky to have been given the opportunity to contribute to such an important mission," he added. It's also easier to explain his work to non-scientists. "I have been working on climate change research for a while, which I think is equally important,” he said, “but it is quite a bit easier getting people interested in this work."

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Have you ever looked out your window at night and seen a long pointy nose and two eerie green reflective eyes staring at you? Did you heart skip a beat? Did your dog go berzerk?

Not to fear, it’s just North America’s only marsupial, the Virginia Opossum (Didelphius virginiana).

Commonly just called opossum or “possum” for short, they are native to the Southeastern US.

They were introduced into California in the late 1890s to early 1900s at three separate locations; one near Los Angeles which expanded and soon colonized nearby Ventura County, one group intended for food near San Jose and one group near Visalia as an ill-fated fur farm.

Today, they can be found in most of the US states east of the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific Coast north to Western Canada and south to Baja California, Mexico. Over time, they have successfully become part of California’s “wildscape.”

Unique traits

Opossums are about the size of a house cat with males, called Jacks, being slightly larger than females, called Jills.

In California, they are primarily gray with a white face, naked ears and tail but colors do vary throughout their range.

They are excellent climbers and fine swimmers, and use their tails and thumbs to grip and grab things. I suppose they might possibly be considered relatively eerie-looking seeing as their long, narrow snout hides an impressive number of teeth. The delightful pink nose at the end of it makes up for the 50 choppers hiding inside.

Shy, primarily solitary and rather slow moving, they are active mainly from dawn to dusk but that can vary depending on the temperature. Additional nocturnal amenities include sensitive whiskers, keen eyesight and sharp, well-developed hearing.

Opossums don’t wander too far from water and can often be found in riparian habitats, and other areas that provide cover and food such as nearby woodlands, brushy areas and agricultural properties.

Ever the opportunistic snacker, possums thrive in residential areas, which is probably why you may have seen one or two bumbling about your yard. They eat rotting and fallen fruit (which helps you not have to clean up as much), food left out overnight for pets, bird food, and have zero qualms about rummaging through a trash or compost bin.

Ranchers may find them undesirable though since they do consider chicken eggs worthy of at least a couple Michelin Stars.

However, they do make up for their table manners by providing excellent neighborhood pest control by gobbling up things we find icky. Favorites include spiders, snails, cockroaches, crickets, ticks, and mice.

Although they are not immune to it, their body temperature is too low to carry or transmit rabies. Due to lower body temperature, they are also resistant to viruses that we vaccinate our pets against such as distemper, parvovirus and forms of feline hepatitis. And, they are remarkably immune to rattlesnake and other snake venom.

Family life

Mating usually occurs twice in the Golden State, once in January to February and again in June to July.

Although up to 25 joeys may be born, the number that survive ultimately depends on the number of teats the momma has (usually 13).

The young are born helpless, blind and hairless. About the size of a honey bee, they must climb into the mother’s pouch and latch on to one of her teats where they will remain for 50 to 60 days.

Once they are grown enough to move out, they will leave the pouch but remain with mom for about four to six additional weeks, catching a ride on her back and learning important possum life skills.

Once they are independent and set out on their own only about 50 percent of those will survive into adulthood.

Most of them only live about two years in the wild; main predators include cats, dogs and owls but most casualties are human related such as vehicle strikes.

Play like a possum

If cornered or threatened, the possums first line of defense is showing off their impressive number of teeth. It’ll growl, hiss, excrete urine and/or feces and other stinky stuff and flee if able.

But, they’re generally slow. And, if pressure really mounts for them, they will enter a catatonic state, fittingly called “playing possum.”

They stare straight ahead or tightly shut their eyes. They can extend their tongues letting them flop out of their mouths, drool and dramatically slow their breathing. They can remain this way for minutes to several hours. Assuming they are dead, the predator often loses interest. Biologists have not yet determined if this is a voluntary or involuntary reaction.

Opossums have enormous beneficial and impressive qualities, and I think actually quite charming. They’d much rather take flight than fight so if you see one in your neighborhood, give them a nod of gratitude for ridding your garden of snails.

Kristie Ehrhardt is Tuleyome's Land Conservation and Stewardship Program director. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from California State University, Bakersfield. Before Tuleyome she worked as a biologist up and down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys for consulting firms and in the land conservation and mitigation banking industry. Tuleyome is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland, California. For more information visit www.tuleyome.org.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is continuing the investigation into the killing of a Clearlake man earlier this month.

Donnie Gene Cruise III, 37, was the victim of the homicide, said Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

On the afternoon of March 10 Cruise was found unconscious with visible head injuries and a stab wound to his stomach near Clark’s Island and E. State Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks, as Lake County News has reported.

He died hours later after being transported to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital for treatment.

Paulich said Cruise’s death was the result of the stab wound he suffered.

He said there is no additional information the sheriff’s office is releasing about the crime at this time.

“Detectives are still canvassing and interviewing potential witnesses,” Paulich said.

Authorities are asking anyone with information in the case to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at 707-262-4233.

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.

On Friday, in observance of National Women’s History Month, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), along with Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) introduced a resolution to recognize March 21, 2021, as ‘National Rosie the Riveter Day’ to honor the millions of women who supported the war effort on the home front during World War II.

Between 1940 and 1945, the percent of women in the workforce jumped from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by the end of the war, nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home.

These “Rosies” took positions across various industries, but the aviation industry saw the biggest increase of female workers – with more than 310,000 working in the aircraft industry in 1943, representing 65 percent of its workforce.

Phyllis Gould, 99, of Fairfax, California, was one of the first six women to work as Navy-certified journeyman welders at the Kaiser-Richmond shipyards from 1942 to 1945, providing the weapons and ammunition to help end the war.

“During the Second World War, countless women answered the call of service by taking on new roles to support the wartime efforts at home,” said Rep. Huffman. “These ‘Rosies’ made tremendous sacrifices and contributions, redefining women’s role in the workforce, and setting a powerful example for women across the country. Decades later, they continue to inspire the generations who have followed in their footsteps. Their “We Can Do It” spirit in times of hardship is particularly inspiring as we persevere through the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have the privilege of representing some of these Rosies here in Congress and know the importance of continuing to honor them and the rest of these heroines for their bravery and service.”

“Rose Will Monroe, the original Rosie the Riveter, worked long hours at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan building the bombers that helped us win World War II,” said Congresswoman Dingell. “A National Rosie the Riveter Day won’t just honor and celebrate her contributions to this nation, but all of the Rosies who walked into factories demanding to serve and protect their nation. I can’t wait to get this resolution signed and get these fearless women the recognition they deserve.”

“Rosies represent an important part of our nation’s history, both in the impact they had on the home front effort in World War II and for the future of women in the workforce. At the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, these dedicated women confronted gender and race discrimination while breaking barriers by taking jobs as riveters, welders, and electricians that were pivotal in supporting our country’s war effort. I am so proud that the Rosie the Riveter Historic Site celebrates their legacies right here in Richmond, and I am pleased to join my colleagues in paying further tribute to them with a national day of recognition during Women’s History Month,” said Congressman Mark DeSaulnier.

"There is no greater call in life than serving your community and country, and innumerable, brave women answered that call during World War II. These 'Rosie the Riveters' made many personal sacrifices, but their ‘We Can Do It’ spirit inspired a nation navigating the unique hardships of war to rise up and energize the war effort across the country," said Rep. Fitzpatrick. "As we mark the valuable contributions and triumphs of women this Women’s History Month, I am incredibly proud to join the effort to honor and celebrate these heroes with a National Rosie the Riveter Day. I’m especially proud to represent Levittown’s Mae Krier. I admire Mae for her continued, tireless efforts advocating on behalf of her fellow ‘Rosies’ for this long-time, well-deserved recognition."

“The home front years were one of the most challenging periods in American history, but our Rosie the Riveters rose to the occasion,” said Rep. Speier. “They built the weapons, vehicles and ammunition that helped win the war; filled vacancies across male-dominated industries; kept their communities afloat; and pushed for government reforms to support women and families. By defying stereotypes and discrimination, Rosies fundamentally changed the American workforce and society. A ‘National Rosie the Riveter Day’ would acknowledge the tremendous debt of gratitude we owe these American heroes.”

The bill is cosponsored by Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Adam Smith (D-WA), Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Dina Titus (D-NV), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Scott Peters (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), and Grace Meng (D-NY).

When severe forest fires last year blanketed Oregon and California with a thick layer of smoke, the high concentrations of fine particulate matter spewed into the air created one of the worst air pollution events in recent history.

A large body of research has documented that breathing in these fine particulates has severe negative health impacts, leading to cardiovascular disease and respiratory illness, and, in some cases, death.

Exposure to fine particulates has also been linked to lower educational attainment and reduced earnings.

Now new research by the U.S. Census Bureau suggests that exposure to fine particulates not only harms those directly exposed but may also indirectly impact the economic health of their children and grandchildren.

In a recent U.S. Census Bureau working paper co-authored with Jonathan Colmer, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia, we explore the long-term and even the multigenerational effects of pollution.

Our findings: Pollution affects not only individuals exposed directly and those exposed while in the womb (“first generation”) but also the “second generation” or children of those directly exposed.

In other words, if a woman is exposed to pollution while pregnant, it may affect both the child she’s carrying and her grandchildren.

For example, according to the findings, children whose parents were exposed to less air pollution were more likely to attend college as adults and, consequently, have higher expected earnings.

To examine this, we first identified hundreds of millions of links between parents and children in the 2000 and 2010 decennial censuses. We then used the American Community Survey to measure whether the children later attended college and administrative records to identify where the parents were born.

By combining these stats with measures of outdoor air quality from the Environmental Protection Agency, we were able to measure exposure to particulate matter when parents (the first generation) were in the womb.



Effect of pollution

To examine what drives the effects of pollution exposure across generations, we first compared adopted second-generation individuals to biological children in the second generation.

We found no substantial differences, suggesting that the intergenerational effects of pollution exposure do not work through a biological channel.

But we did find that how much parents earn and invest in their children has an impact. When the first generation was exposed to less pollution, they tended to have higher earnings and spend more time on child-enrichment activities, suggesting that the effect on the next generation is driven by these parental investments.

Pollution and demographics

This research is especially important in light of several other recent papers that have shown there are substantial disparities in pollution exposure across different demographic groups.

A Census working paper from 2020 shows that African Americans were exposed to higher levels of particulate matter than Whites, although this gap has narrowed in the last two decades.

Another paper, recently published in Science, shows that while air quality has improved dramatically since the 1980s, the most polluted neighborhoods in 1981 were still the most polluted 30-40 years later.

Together, these results suggest that disparities in exposure to environmental hazards may be an important driver of differences in economic opportunity. Poor people are exposed to more pollution but pollution also harms the economic well-being of poor people and their children.



Connecting the dots with Census data

Census Bureau data is invaluable in the study of the connections between the environment, population and the economy.

To facilitate the use of this data, researchers in the Center for Economic Studies formed the Environment, Natural disasters and Energy Research Group, or ENERG. The group works to foster new innovative research and disseminate environmental insights produced from Census data with a goal of developing new public-use data products.

The research and statistics show how the environment — air and water pollution, a changing climate, and increasingly damaging natural disasters — affects America’s people and businesses.

An important part of this research is to understand how these effects interact with issues of environmental justice and the disproportionate environmental burden on disadvantaged communities. Answering these questions offers an exciting new opportunity for the Census Bureau.

John Voorheis is an economist in the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies.

The gas-giant orbiter is illuminating the provenance of Jovian polar light shows.

New results from the Ultraviolet Spectrograph instrument on NASA’s Juno mission reveal for the first time the birth of auroral dawn storms – the early morning brightening unique to Jupiter’s spectacular aurorae.

These immense, transient displays of light occur at both Jovian poles and had previously been observed only by ground-based and Earth-orbiting observatories, notably NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Results of this study were published March 16 in the journal AGU Advances.

First discovered by Hubble’s Faint Object Camera in 1994, dawn storms consist of short-lived but intense brightening and broadening of Jupiter’s main auroral oval – an oblong curtain of light that surrounds both poles – near where the atmosphere emerges from darkness in the early morning region.

Before Juno, observations of Jovian ultraviolet aurora had offered only side views, hiding everything happening on the nightside of the planet.

“Observing Jupiter’s aurora from Earth does not allow you to see beyond the limb, into the nightside of Jupiter’s poles. Explorations by other spacecraft – Voyager, Galileo, Cassini – happened from relatively large distances and did not fly over the poles, so they could not see the complete picture,” said Bertrand Bonfond, a researcher from the University of Liège in Belgium and lead author of the study. “That’s why the Juno data is a real game changer, allowing us a better understanding what is happening on the nightside, where the dawn storms are born.”

Researchers found dawn storms are born on the nightside of the gas giant. As the planet rotates, the soon-to-be dawn storm rotates with it into the dayside, where these complex and intensely bright auroral features grow even more luminous, emitting anywhere from hundreds to thousands of gigawatts of ultraviolet light into space. The jump in brightness implies that dawn storms are dumping at least 10 times more energy into Jupiter's upper atmosphere than typical aurora.

“When we looked at the whole dawn storm sequence, we couldn’t help but notice that they are very similar to a type of terrestrial auroras called substorms,” said Zhonghua Yao, co-author of the study at the University of Liège.”

Substorms result from brief disturbances in the Earth’s magnetosphere – the region of space controlled by the planet’s magnetic field – that release energy high into the planet’s ionosphere. The similarity between terrestrial and Jovian substorms is surprising because the magnetospheres of Jupiter and Earth are radically different.

On Earth, the magnetosphere is essentially controlled by the interaction of the solar wind – the stream of charged particles flowing from the Sun – with Earth’s magnetic field.

Jupiter’s magnetosphere is mostly populated by particles escaping from the volcanic moon Io, which then get ionized and trapped around the gas giant via its magnetic field.

These new findings will allow scientists to further study the differences and similarities driving the formation of aurora, providing a better understanding how these most beautiful of planetary phenomena occur on worlds both within our solar system and beyond.

“The power that Jupiter possesses is amazing. The energy in these dawn aurorae is yet another example of how powerful this giant planet really is,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of Juno from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The dawn storm revelations are another surprise from the Juno mission, which is constantly rewriting the book on how giant planet’s work. With NASA’s recent mission extension, we’re looking forward to many more new insights and discoveries.”

More information about Juno is available at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu.

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at https://www.facebook.com/NASASolarSystem and https://www.twitter.com/NASASolarSystem.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said it has arrested a Northshore man who stabbed an employee at a local gas station on Wednesday.

Moses Filburn James Reeves, 34, of Nice was arrested by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday in Mendocino County for public intoxication, said Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

At 8 p.m. Thursday, Reeves was released from the Mendocino County Jail and placed under arrest by a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy for the assault that occurred on Wednesday afternoon at the Pomo Pumps Gas Station in Upper Lake, Paulich said.

Paulich said Reeves was transported to the Lake County Jail where he was booked into custody for the charges of assault with a deadly weapon and battery, with bail set at $25,000.

As of Friday evening, jail records indicated Reeves was no longer in custody.

Reeves was arrested for stabbing a male employee at Pomo Pump Gas Station during a Wednesday afternoon confrontation. The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was flown to an out-of-county trauma center, as Lake County News has reported.

Later that same day, authorities arrested Jerrica Marie Reeves, 31, also of Nice, who investigators had identified as the other suspect in the assault.

Anyone with information about the assault is asked to contact Det. Dean Preader at 707-262-4231 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The city of Clearlake this week temporarily closed its Andy Johnson Memorial Skate Park in order to repair damage caused by vandalism, which the city manager said has become an ongoing problem.

City Manager Alan Flora said the Lakeshore Lions Club generously donated a brand-new gazebo to the park last month.

Since then, vandals have repeatedly damaged the gazebo, which Flora said has necessitated continual repairs.

Flora said the community and the city have invested heavily in Austin Park and the Public Works crew has been working hard to make Austin Park and the Andy Johnson Memorial Skate Park a destination our community can be proud of, “so it is extremely disappointing when things like this happen.”

He said repairing the damage from vandalism takes parks funds and the parks crew’s time away from other improvements they are working on.

“We need the community to respect our public facilities so all can enjoy them. We know it’s likely that one or two bad actors are spoiling the use of the skate park for the majority, and that’s disappointing, so please share any available information on those responsible,” he said.

Flora updated the Clearlake City Council about the situation at the Thursday night council meeting.

He said the Lions had to make repairs within the first week of the gazebo being in place.

Due to the repeated vandalism, Flora said the skate park has been closed for two weeks while repairs to the gazebo take place.

He called the situation “very frustrating.”

The park is public property, paid for by everyone. “It’s something that we should respect and pick up after ourselves and treat nicely,” he said.

Also frustrating for the city is that, while generally the community has been understanding of the situation, he said a number of adults associated with the park have shown “some extremely disturbing behavior.”

He said he’s received “a fair amount of correspondence” via fax and other methods – which he didn’t want to show at the meeting – threatening a number of things unless the skate park is opened again.

“This is extremely disappointing,” Flora said. “The city will not be bullied into opening the skate park so that it can be vandalized again.”

Flora said the park will remain closed for two weeks. “After that, we will open it again to see how it’s treated.”

If there is more vandalism, the city will close the skate park again, probably for a longer period of time, Flora said.

“We are working on some camera solutions for that area as well as other areas of the park,” said Flora, referring to the greater Austin Park facility.

Because of being a government agency, he said the city has requirements about using cameras and retaining the footage. He said Police Chief Andrew White is working on the camera matter.

Following the meeting, Flora shared with Lake County News some of the messages he’s received, which included disturbing images of pornography and racist language, a Donald Trump cartoon showing the former president making hand gestures associated with white supremacy and a picture of Adolf Hitler giving the Nazi salute.

Anyone who sees vandalism occurring in the city parks is asked to contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week took the next step in the process of acquiring a new headquarters for the sheriff’s office.

In January, the board had given staff approval to finalize plans to swap a 15.5-acre county-owned property at 15837 18th Ave. in Clearlake for the Lakeport National Guard Armory at 1431 Hoyt Ave., which is being vacated after the guard unit consolidated with another one, as Lake County News has reported.

The state would have the Clearlake property developed with 100 new affordable housing units while the county plans to use the former armory as the new headquarters for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, which currently is headquartered in an aging facility at 1220 Martin St. in Lakeport.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Deputy County Administrative Officer Susan Parker reviewed the board’s previous actions and updated the supervisors on the actions taken by the planning commissions for the county and the city of Clearlake to find the plan to be in conformance with the county and city general plans, respectively.

Parker said the board first needed to declare the Clearlake property surplus and its intent to exchange the property with the state by adopting two proposed resolutions.

The second action was to authorize County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson to negotiate, execute and implement the property exchange agreement with the state of California, Parker said.

“This looks very straightforward,” said Board Chair Bruno Sabatier.

Sabatier asked if it was the final step or if there would be other potential steps in the near future for the swap.

Parker said the county was waiting for a draft exchange agreement from the state to review and negotiate.

Sabatier followed up by asking if Parker had a timeline for when those things would happen. Parker said they didn’t know.

Sheriff Brian Martin thanked everyone for their efforts.

“It’s a long project. We’re not done with it yet,” he said, noting that there are a lot of moving parts.

Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora echoed Martin’s sentiments, adding that he appreciated the collaboration with the county on the project. Sabatier, in turn, thanked Flora for his efforts and those of the city planning commission.

The board unanimously approved the necessary resolutions.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has three new dogs joining those available to new homes this week.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

‘Bear’

“Bear” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short brown coat.

He is dog No. 3476.

‘Dorito’

“Dorito” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white and gray coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4576.

‘Hector’

“Hector” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short brindle coat.

He is dog No. 4697.

‘Inky’

“Inky” is a male German Shepherd mix with a long black coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4324.

‘Lumpy’

“Lumpy” is a male American Bulldog with a white and brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4715.

'Nandor'

“Nandor” is a male American Bulldog mix with a short gray and white coat.

He is dog No. 4725.

‘Ranger’

“Ranger” is a 5-year-old male husky mix with a long red and white coat.

He has been neutered.

Ranger is dog No. 4443.

‘Tia’

“Tia” is a female American Bully with a short black with white markings.

She is dog No. 4602.

‘Toby’

“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.

He has a short tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4389.

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.

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.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Thursday stepped down as attorney general.

Prior to confirmation by the United States Senate as the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Becerra selected Matthew “Matt” Rodriquez to serve as chief deputy attorney general.

In that role, Chief Deputy Rodriquez will lead the California Department of Justice as acting attorney general until Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nominee is confirmed by the California Legislature and takes the oath of office.

"As I begin my service as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I leave the California Department of Justice with deep gratitude,” said Becerra. “When I first started as a deputy attorney general in the Civil Division back in the 80s, I never imagined that one day I would come back to the Department of Justice as Attorney General. It has been an honor to serve the people and to represent the state as California Attorney General. Alongside the hardworking men and women of the Department of Justice, we rose to meet historic challenges and upheld the vital mission of serving the people of California. I could not be prouder of the work we have accomplished together, in pursuit of the interests and values of our state."

Chief Deputy Rodriquez joined the California Department of Justice in 1987 as a deputy attorney general in the Land Law Section where he represented the California Coastal Commission, the State Lands Commission, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

He was promoted to senior assistant attorney general for the Land Law Section in 1999 and was named chief assistant attorney general for the Public Rights Division in 2008.

He also served as an interim chief deputy attorney general for former Attorney General Kamala Harris until his appointment as secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2011 through 2018.

In 2019 he returned to the Department of Justice where he again served as the chief assistant attorney general for the Public Rights Division.

Prior to joining the California Department of Justice, Chief Deputy Rodriquez worked in the city attorney offices in the cities of Hayward and Livermore and also served as an Associate Program Analyst for the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.

He obtained his law degree from UC Hastings College of the Law and worked as a Graduate Student Assistant for the California Coastal Commission during his final year in school.

A copy of Attorney General Becerra's letter of resignation is published below.

AG Becerra Resignation Lett... by LakeCoNews