LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An incoming wind event that officials said is expected to have the driest humidity levels and the strongest winds of the wildfire season thus far could result in Pacific Gas and Electric turning off the power to portions of 38 counties on Sunday.

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning across a large swath of Northern and Central California.

In Lake County, the red flag warning will be in effect from 11 a.m. Sunday until 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The agency also has issued a wind advisory that’s active from 5 p.m. Sunday through 11 a.m. Monday, and a freeze watch from midnight on Monday to 9 a.m. that day.

PG&E said as of early Sunday morning that shutoffs are likely, and that 26,227 Lake County customers – including 2,047 in the Medical Baseline program – are included in the potential outage area. That’s down from 31,590 county customers that initially were expected to be impacted.

The local shutoffs are tentatively scheduled to occur between 4 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

In Lakeport, where 1,228 customers are expected to be included if the shutoff occurs, city officials said they have deployed generators to critical water and wastewater facilities to ensure continued operation of these systems during the expected outage.

Customers can look up their address online to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff, and find the full list of affected counties, cities and communities here.

PG&E said its Emergency Operations Center, Meteorology team and Wildfire Safety Operations Center are working together and tracking the wind event.

The National Weather Service’s specific forecast for Lake County said winds are expected to be up to the mid-40s on Sunday and in the high 30s on Monday.

If PG&E goes forward with the shutoff, it said it will open seven community resources centers in Lake County. The centers will be open from 3 to 10 p.m. Sunday.

At the centers, community members will be able to get snacks and water, charge devices, use wifi, and have access to an ADA-accessible restroom and washing station.

The centers will be located at the following locations:

– Clearlake Senior Community Center, 3245 Bowers Ave., Clearlake.
– Mountain High Coffee, 16295 Highway 175, Cobb.
– Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Red Hills Property, 7130 Red Hills Road, Kelseyville.
– Konocti Vista Casino, 2755 Mission Rancheria Road, Lakeport.
– Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, 22223 Highway 29, Middletown.
– Community Baptist Church, 2877 State Highway 20, Nice.
– Upper Lake Middle School, 725 Old Lucerne Road.

While there is still uncertainty regarding the strength and timing of this weather wind event, PG&E said high fire-risk conditions are expected to arrive Sunday morning and to subside Monday morning in most impacted areas, with windy conditions lingering in some regions through early Tuesday.

Once the all-clear is called, PG&E said it will begin patrol of the de-energized lines to assess whether they were damaged during the wind event.

PG&E said it will safely restore power as quickly as possible, with the goal of restoring most customers within 12 daylight hours, based on current weather conditions.

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. – I've always enjoyed observing bats appear at dusk as though by magic, while I'm relaxing on the deck at dusk.

They wing their way about the woods, silently sending out sound waves to echolocate moths, mosquitoes and more.

A bat or two has surprised me by flying out of the big shade umbrella as I unfurled it.

I wasn't able to attract bats to the bat boxes attached to trees in the yard, but plan to play host to some bats as soon as I relocate the houses at the proper ten feet above ground in an open area directed to the south-southeast, with six to seven hours of sunshine.

I draw the line at my bat appreciation when they appear to show interest in my own home, however.

While tidying up outdoors beneath the chimney I noted some bat droppings or guano. At least I think that's what it is, and I'll know for sure after I have an inspection by a professional.

By doing a bit of bat research I've learned that many bats are protected species by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW, due to the important role they play by consuming 50 to 100 percent of their weight in insects per night.

The CDFW's website states that, “Population declines have caused 17 of California's 24 native bat species to receive some level of state or federal protection.”

Since there are around 1,400 species of bats in the world and most are insectivorous, bats are heralded by farmers and the timber industry for their insect-suppressing abilities across the world.

Some species of bats are great at pollinating plants; in fact they are revered in Mexico where they pollinate agave, for tequila-making.

Some bats are known to aid in saving stroke victims. It turns out that there is an anti-clotting enzyme in bat saliva that can be synthesized.

Bats have supported science in other ways too, such as sonar research, advances in vaccine development and more.

Bats are mammals with a lifespan of 30 years or more. These furry critters can reach flight speeds of 60 miles per hour. Also, bats groom themselves like a cat and nurse their young – usually one 'pup' per year.

In nature, the bat's main predators are snakes, hawks, owls and raccoons. Typically bats find a snug place to roost, such as loose tree bark or tree cavities, but they may find a nice place under roof shingles, in attics or crevices in buildings to raise their pups. They can enter a crack or crevice that is less than half an inch in width!

Did you know Oct. 24 to 31 is International Bat Week? The CDFW tells us that during this time folks are invited to become “bat heroes” by informing others of the important role bats play, protect bats and their habitat, install a bat box home for bats on your property or join a citizen-science bat monitoring program.

To learn more about bats, bat box building, and learn a song called “Bats on the Brink” by Mister G a Latin GRAMMY winner, visit https://batweek.org/.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – In addition to destroying and threatening thousands of homes and businesses, the devastating Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties jeopardized the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program – until the Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville came to the rescue.

The Feather River Fish Hatchery is owned and maintained by the California Department of Water Resources, and operated by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, or CDFW.

Each year, CDFW raises approximately 800,000 Chinook salmon smolts and fingerlings for planting and recreational fishing in large foothill and valley reservoirs from Fresno County to Trinity County.

These landlocked salmon often grow quite large and fill an ecological and recreational angling niche in these deep-water impoundments not typically occupied by other fish species.

The state record inland Chinook salmon came from Trinity Lake in 2013 weighing 20 pounds, 15 ounces. Anglers regularly catch inland Chinook salmon weighing 7 to 8 pounds at Lake Oroville and 5 to 6 pounds at Folsom Lake.

The inland Chinook salmon originate with eggs collected and spawned at the Feather River Fish Hatchery each fall from salmon returning to the Feather River. The eggs and fish are excess to the hatchery’s annual production goals.

About 1.4 million Chinook salmon eggs were collected from the Feather River Fish Hatchery in early October and designated for the Inland Chinook Salmon Program.

Ordinarily, most of these eggs are taken to CDFW’s Silverado Fisheries Base in Napa County for incubation, where they remain until the baby salmon are big enough for stocking.

The Silverado Fisheries Base suffered power outages and came under evacuation orders as a result of the Glass Fire.

In response to the emergency and with assistance from CDFW’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program staff, temporary adjustments were made at the Feather River Fish Hatchery to keep the eggs, incubate them and grow out the salmon until the Silverado Fisheries Base is once again able to accommodate the fish, likely in November.

CDFW staff set up additional fish-rearing incubators in their Inland Chinook Salmon Building. That building typically only has space to hold 300,000 eggs and baby salmon destined for Lake Oroville. Thanks to the extra effort, the Feather River Hatchery is now holding 1.4 million eggs that represent the entire annual production of the state’s Inland Chinook Salmon Program.

“Understanding the inherent risk of losing an entire year’s production, CDFW staff will play a crucial role in ensuring future inland Chinook fisheries in Folsom, Oroville and eight other lakes and reservoirs,” said Kyle Murphy, a senior environmental scientist with CDFW’s Fisheries Branch. “This interagency teamwork will have long-reaching effects for thousands of anglers in central and northern California.”

Adding to the stress, the Feather River Fish Hatchery itself was ordered to evacuate for a day Oct. 15 due to a nearby fire in Oroville. Both the Oroville fire and the Glass Fire have been contained and no longer pose threats to either facility.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has two new dogs among the canines waiting for new families this week.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

‘Banjo’

“Banjo” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4267.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female American Bully mix.

She has a short beige and tan coat.

She is dog No. 3537.

‘Charlie’

“Charlie” is a male adult Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

He has been neutered.

Charlie is recovering from surgery to fix a broken leg.

He is dog No. 4277.

‘Chester’

“Chester” is a male Chihuahua mix with a short tan coat.

He is dog No. 360.

‘Chuckie’

“Chuckie’ is a small male adult German Shepherd mix.

He has a short tan and black coat.

He is dog No. 4297.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short yellow coat.

He is dog No. 4155.

‘Lady’

“Lady” is a female German Shepherd mix.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3683.

The shelter is open by appointment only due to COVID-19.

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.

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Earth’s surface was a menacing, hot mess. Long before the emergence of life, temperatures were scorching, and the air was toxic.

Plus, as a mere toddler, the Sun bombarded our planet with violent outbursts of radiation called flares and coronal mass ejections. Streams of charged particles called the solar wind threatened our atmosphere. Our planet was, in short, uninhabitable.

But a neighboring shield may have helped our planet retain its atmosphere and eventually go on to develop life and habitable conditions. That shield was the moon, says a NASA-led study in the journal Science Advances.

“The moon seems to have presented a substantial protective barrier against the solar wind for the Earth, which was critical to Earth’s ability to maintain its atmosphere during this time,” said Jim Green, NASA’s chief scientist and lead author of the new study. “We look forward to following up on these findings when NASA sends astronauts to the moon through the Artemis program, which will return critical samples of the lunar South Pole.”

A brief history of the moon

The moon formed 4.5 billion years ago when a Mars-sized object called Theia slammed into the proto-Earth when our planet was less than 100 million years old, according to leading theories.

Debris from the collision coalesced into the moon, while other remnants reincorporated themselves into the Earth. Because of gravity, the presence of the moon stabilized the Earth’s spin axis. At that time, our planet was spinning much faster, with one day lasting only 5 hours.

And in the early days, the moon was a lot closer, too. As the moon’s gravity pulls on our oceans, the water is slightly heated, and that energy gets dissipated. This results in the moon moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5 inches per year, or about the width of two adjacent dimes. Over time, that really adds up.

By 4 billion years ago, the moon was three times closer to Earth than it is today – about 80,000 miles away, compared to the current 238,000 miles. At some point, the moon also became “tidally locked,” meaning Earth sees only one side of it.

Scientists once thought that the moon never had a long-lasting global magnetic field because it has such a small core. A magnetic field causes electrical charges to move along invisible lines, which bow down toward the moon at the poles.

Scientists have long known about Earth’s magnetic field, which creates the beautifully colored aurorae in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. The movement of liquid iron and nickel deep inside the Earth, still flowing because of the heat left over from Earth’s formation, generates the magnetic fields that make up a protective bubble surrounding Earth, the magnetosphere.

But thanks to studies of samples of the lunar surface from the Apollo missions, scientists figured out that the moon once had a magnetosphere, too. Evidence continues to mount from samples that were sealed for decades and recently analyzed with modern technology.

Like Earth, the heat from the moon’s formation would have kept iron flowing deep inside, although not for nearly as long because of its size.

“It’s like baking a cake: You take it out of the oven, and it’s still cooling off,” Green said. “The bigger the mass, the longer it takes to cool off.”

A magnetic shield

The new study simulates how the magnetic fields of the Earth and moon behaved about 4 billion years ago. Scientists created a computer model to look at the behavior of the magnetic fields at two positions in their respective orbits.

At certain times, the moon’s magnetosphere would have served as a barrier to the harsh solar radiation raining down on the Earth-moon system, scientists write.

That’s because, according to the model, the magnetospheres of the moon and Earth would have been magnetically connected in the polar regions of each object. Importantly for the evolution of Earth, the high-energy solar wind particles could not completely penetrate the coupled magnetic field and strip away the atmosphere.

But there was some atmospheric exchange, too. The extreme ultraviolet light from the Sun would have stripped electrons from neutral particles in Earth’s uppermost atmosphere, making those particles charged and enabling them to travel to the moon along the lunar magnetic field lines.

This may have contributed to the moon maintaining a thin atmosphere at that time, too. The discovery of nitrogen in lunar rock samples support the idea that Earth’s atmosphere, which is dominated by nitrogen, contributed to the moon’s ancient atmosphere and its crust.

Scientists calculate that this shared magnetic field situation, with Earth and moon’s magnetospheres joined, could have persisted from 4.1 to 3.5 billion years ago.

“Understanding the history of the moon's magnetic field helps us understand not only possible early atmospheres, but how the lunar interior evolved,” said David Draper, NASA’s deputy chief scientist and study co-author. “It tells us about what the moon's core could have been like – probably a combination of both liquid and solid metal at some point in its history – and that is a very important piece of the puzzle for how the moon works on the inside.”

Over time, as the moon’s interior cooled, our nearest neighbor lost its magnetosphere, and eventually its atmosphere. The field must have diminished significantly 3.2 billion years ago, and vanished by about 1.5 billion years ago.

Without a magnetic field, the solar wind stripped the atmosphere away. This is also why Mars lost its atmosphere: Solar radiation stripped it away.

If our moon played a role in shielding our planet from harmful radiation during a critical early time, then in a similar way, there may be other moons around terrestrial exoplanets in the galaxy that help preserve atmospheres for their host planets, and even contribute to habitable conditions, scientists say.

This would be of interest to the field of astrobiology – the study of the origins of life and the search for life beyond Earth.

Human exploration can tell us more

This modeling study presents ideas for how the ancient histories of Earth and moon contributed to the preservation of Earth’s early atmosphere. The mysterious and complex processes are difficult to figure out, but new samples from the lunar surface will provide clues to the mysteries.

As NASA plans to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon through the Artemis program, there may be multiple opportunities to test out these ideas.

When astronauts return the first samples from the lunar South Pole, where the magnetic fields of the Earth and moon connected most strongly, scientists can look for chemical signatures of Earth’s ancient atmosphere, as well as the volatile substances like water that were delivered by impacting meteors and asteroids.

Scientists are especially interested in areas of the lunar South Pole that have not seen any sunlight at all in billions of years – the “permanently shadowed regions” – because the harsh solar particles would not have stripped away volatiles.

Nitrogen and oxygen, for example, may have traveled from Earth to moon along the magnetic field lines and gotten trapped in those rocks.

“Significant samples from these permanently shadowed regions will be critical for us to be able to untangle this early evolution of the Earth’s volatiles, testing our model assumptions,” Green said.

The other co-authors on the paper are Scott Boardsen from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; and Chuanfei Dong from Princeton University in New Jersey.

Elizabeth Landau works for NASA Headquarters.

When the moon had a magnetic field, it would have been shielded from incoming solar wind, as shown in this illustration. Credits: NASA.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In 2020, Red Ribbon Week, the nation's largest and longest-running drug-use prevention campaign which runs from Oct. 23 to 31,, turns 35.

Red Ribbon Week has informed millions of children and parents about the danger of drugs and alcohol, influencing positive choices and behaviors.

However, one drug that hasn’t received as much attention lately is nicotine, which is highly addictive.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released its 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which measures a variety of risky behaviors, including tobacco use.

The survey found that in California, more than 42 percent of high school students reported having tried e-cigarettes and more than 18 percent reported using currently. More than seven percent reported currently using smokeless tobacco.

The common thread among these products is flavored nicotine which the tobacco industry uses to spark curiosity and mask the harsh taste of tobacco. If sweet fruity flavors seem harmless, the high dose of nicotine teens get when they use, isn’t.

Rural communities have long been targeted by the tobacco industry. For decades, the tobacco industry has taken advantage of often weaker tobacco retail laws in rural areas and push misleading advertising, marketing and promotions that tie tobacco use to values such as strength, independence and resilience, while using images of cowboys, hunters and racecars to make smoking seem like it’s a part of life.

In recent years, they have added new products like e-cigarettes, but the intent is the same.

For example, Lakeport Unified School District was part of the California Healthy Kids Survey that also measures risk-related behaviors.

The 2018-19 survey found that 27 percent of 11th graders reported using e-cigarettes in the past 30 days (and 26 percent for ninth graders), but just 5 percent report using traditional cigarettes.

The 2019 High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey also found that California high school students overall are using smokeless tobacco more than students nationally.

Part of the problem may also be the perception of nicotine.

“Make no mistake, nicotine is the tobacco industry’s tool to hook our kids to deadly products – that hasn’t changed,” said Shelly Brantley, project director of Rural Initiatives Strengthening Equity, or RISE, a program dedicated to combatting tobacco’s harms in California’s rural communities, such as Lake County.

“What’s changed is how they’re packaging this drug. The tobacco industry continues to target our communities and portray tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes or smokeless tobacco, as being less harmful, but that’s far from the truth, especially for youth,” she said.

“Aside from the health problems these products present, they often contain high amounts of nicotine, which is a harmful drug that is basically brain poison for youth, and the tobacco industry now has it wrapped up in sweet, fruity flavors in a variety of forms to entice kids to try them, and far too often, get addicted,” said Brantley. “Not only is nicotine a highly addictive drug for youth, but nicotine exposure can actually change the chemistry in teens’ brains and can impact learning, memory and attention.”

Brantley added, “The tobacco industry views our kids as their next generation of customers, and nicotine is their tool to hook them. We need to talk with our kids about what nicotine really is – it’s a harmful, addictive drug.”

To find out information about how RISE combats tobacco harm in rural communities, including Lake County, and to take action, visit https://www.ca-rise.org/.

LUCERNE, Calif. – Lake County Behavioral Health Services has been awarded $2 million to expand early psychosis intervention services through a competitive grant.

This grant opportunity came through the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, which also oversees Mental Health Services Act funding for California counties.

Behavioral Health Services has long provided services to young people experiencing the early onset of psychosis, as well as other behavioral or emotional challenges.

Officials saisd this grant will facilitate a significant expansion of services in line with an evidence-based fidelity model.

Significant growth is expected in the following areas:

– Clinical training on cutting-edge, evidence-based practices for this population;
– Training on community screening and identification of youth experiencing the early onset of psychosis;
– Supported employment;
– Co-occurring substance use disorder services;
– Psychoeducational groups for families, caregivers and parents; and
– Psychoeducational and wellness groups for youth.

Symptoms of psychosis can appear in childhood and adolescence, and may or may not lead to a life-long mental illness.

The goal of early intervention services is to effectively treat and hopefully prevent these symptoms from becoming a chronic illness.

It is estimated that 5 to 8 percent of the general population may experience symptoms of psychosis in a given year, and there may be an even higher incidence in children and adolescents.

Signs and symptoms of psychosis may include:

– Hearing, seeing, tasting or believing things that others don’t;
– Persistent, unusual thoughts or beliefs that can’t be set aside regardless of what others believe;
– Strong and inappropriate emotions or no emotions at all;
– Withdrawing from family or friends;
– A sudden decline in self-care;
– Trouble thinking clearly or concentrating.

Behavioral Health Services will begin implementation of this grant later this year, and project implementation will take place over four years.

The agency said this is an exciting opportunity to expand and improve our services to young people in Lake County.

“Lake County Behavioral Health Services strives to provide the highest quality behavioral healthcare to some of our most vulnerable community members,” the county said in a written statement.

For more information, contact Lake County Behavioral Health Services at 707-274-9101 or 707-994-7090.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance clarifying what exactly “close contact” means when it comes to transmission of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The previous guidance suggested that a close contact occurred when a person was within six feet of an infectious individual for 15 consecutive minutes. Now, the CDC is acknowledging that even brief contact can lead to transmission. Specifically, the new guidance suggests that those spending a total of 15 minutes of contact with an infectious person over the course of a 24-hour period should be considered in close contact.

Despite the change, most public health professionals have been clear for months that there is nothing magic about six feet. In the same way, there is nothing magic about 15 minutes. These should be used as rough estimates to indicate the types of contact that are relatively higher risk.

This new guidance, then, is an important recognition of the ease with which this virus can spread. It is not a dramatic reversal of CDC guidance, like those related to masks and the back-and-forth on testing of asymptomatic individuals.

This change reflects new evidence that has emerged. This change is an example of how science works. As an epidemiologist who studies respiratory virus transmission, I actually don’t think this change will greatly impact how we live our lives during the pandemic, but it does represent continued evidence of how easily this virus spreads. 

Why the change?

The new advice comes on the heels of an outbreak investigation published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The investigation found that a prison employee in Vermont was infected, most likely during a series of brief contacts with infected but asymptomatic inmates.

The inmates were waiting on test results in a quarantine unit. The employee reported no close contacts outside of work and they hadn’t traveled outside the state. At the time Vermont was experiencing low levels of community spread. The outbreak investigation used video evidence from surveillance cameras in the prison to document the short interactions. Each interaction lasted about a minute, and in total the employee was in close contact with the infected inmates for about 17 minutes over the course of an eight-hour shift. For at least some of those interactions, the infected inmates weren’t wearing masks.

Documenting infectious contact is hard for respiratory viruses. After all, we can’t see the virus moving through the air. The video footage in this case represents pretty robust evidence. And so the CDC is recognizing the possibility that shorter interactions carry some risk.

This change is also an acknowledgment that the previous definition makes at least one explicit assumption that may not be true. The major assumption of the old rule is that there is a threshold effect of exposure. That is, once you’ve been exposed to a certain amount of virus (15 minutes’ worth), your risk of disease increases. The flip side of this assumption is that at levels below that threshold your risk remains low. That is why we’ve seen some schools mistakenly moving students around at 14-minute intervals.

The new guidance suggests that there is more of a dose-response relationship between viral exposure and risk of disease. Which is to say, the more virus you are exposed to, the higher your risk, even if the exposure doesn’t happen all at once.

What does it mean?

While I don’t think this update will result in big changes, one thing it does do is expand the pool of people for contact tracing. In the ideal scenario, this change could mean that we catch more cases early after exposure. Those people can then begin to quarantine before they become infectious and spread it on to others.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

Take, for example, the upcoming holidays. Having family over for Thanksgiving typically means sharing a meal, and likely spending several hours in close contact with others. That is still a risk, especially since those without symptoms can spread the disease.

The people who attend that gathering would all have been considered close contacts before, and they still are. But now, brief interactions that add up over time – for example, with a server at a restaurant – will be considered close contact.

This change by CDC suggests that we need to be more careful about brief interactions – for example, in the office or at school. We shouldn’t think to ourselves “This will only be a minute, I don’t need my mask.” The importance of wearing masks at all times to protect others has never been more clear. We may not know that we’re infected, and even a brief, unmasked encounter could spread the virus.

Ryan Malosh, Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport has opportunities for the general public to become involved in local government by serving on local commissions and committees.

The city invites applications for three upcoming vacancies on the Measure Z Advisory Committee, or MZAC.

These appointments would be effective as of Jan. 1, 2021.

Membership to this committee is open to residents of the city of Lakeport residing within the city Limits.

If you are interested in serving on the MZAC, applications are available on the city website under the Community News Topic, “Now Recruiting: Commission/Committee Openings,” or under the “Government” tab (Committees & Commissions).

The MZAC consists of five members appointed by the Lakeport City Council who serve four-year terms.

These are voluntary positions. This committee meets quarterly.

The role of MZAC is to review all revenues and expenditures of the Measure Z transactions and use tax, and make recommendations to the city council regarding those expenditures.

Applications will be accepted until Nov. 24 at 5 p.m.

For additional information, please contact Deputy City Clerk Hilary Britton at 707-263-5615, Extension 102, or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Two days after touching down on asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission team received on Thursday, Oct. 22, images that confirm the spacecraft has collected more than enough material to meet one of its main mission requirements – acquiring at least 2 ounces (60 grams) of the asteroid’s surface material.

The spacecraft captured images of the sample collector head as it moved through several different positions.

In reviewing these images, the OSIRIS-REx team noticed both that the head appeared to be full of asteroid particles, and that some of these particles appeared to be escaping slowly from the sample collector, called the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) head.

They suspect bits of material are passing through small gaps where a mylar flap – the collector’s “lid” – is slightly wedged open by larger rocks.

“Bennu continues to surprise us with great science and also throwing a few curveballs,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “And although we may have to move more quickly to stow the sample, it’s not a bad problem to have. We are so excited to see what appears to be an abundant sample that will inspire science for decades beyond this historic moment.”

The team believes it has collected a sufficient sample and is on a path to stow the sample as quickly as possible. They came to this conclusion after comparing images of the empty collector head with Oct. 22 images of the TAGSAM head after the sample collection event.

The images also show that any movement to the spacecraft and the TAGSAM instrument may lead to further sample loss. To preserve the remaining material, the mission team decided to forego the Sample Mass Measurement activity originally scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 24, and canceled a braking burn scheduled for Friday to minimize any acceleration to the spacecraft.

From here, the OSIRIS-Rex team will focus on stowing the sample in the Sample Return Capsule, or SRC, where any loose material will be kept safe during the spacecraft’s journey back to Earth.

“We are working to keep up with our own success here, and my job is to safely return as large a sample of Bennu as possible,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. “The loss of mass is of concern to me, so I’m strongly encouraging the team to stow this precious sample as quickly as possible.”

The TAGSAM head performed the sampling event in optimal conditions. Newly available analyses show that the collector head was flush with Bennu’s surface when it made contact and when the nitrogen gas bottle was fired to stir surface material. It also penetrated several centimeters into the asteroid’s surface material. All data so far suggest that the collector head is holding much more than 2 ounces of regolith.

OSIRIS-REx remains in good health, and the mission team is finalizing a timeline for sample storage. An update will be provided once a decision is made on the sample storage timing and procedures.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing flight operations. Goddard and KinetX Aerospace of Tempe, Arizona, are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft.

OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric began issuing alerts to customers on Friday evening alerting them to another proactive power shutoff that could begin on Sunday afternoon across portions of 38 counties, including Lake.

This latest power shutoff is being triggered due to a large wind event forecast to move over the region beginning this weekend, the company said.

Counties that PG&E said would be impacted if the shutoff occurs are Alameda, Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Humboldt, Kern, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba.

Altogether, 466,093 customers could be impacted, PG&E said.

In Lake County, early estimates are that 31,590 customers – who account for most of the county’s residents – will have their power shut off between 2 and 6 p.m. Sunday. Of those customers, 2,613 are in the medical baseline program, according to PG&E.

PG&E said customers are expected to have their power restored by 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Information about the public safety power shutoff is available at the PG&E website.

The company’s mapping of shutoff sites is here.

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 on Tuesday began the process of approving more than $5 million in raises for county staff in a process that has been mostly conducted in closed-door negotiations, with little public dissemination.

During a sometimes confusing three-hour discussion, the majority of the board approved raises for management, confidential and District Attorney’s Office employee units but held off until next week, at the earliest, on agreements with numerous employee groups representing the rank and file, as those agreements were determined to not be ready.

The raises approved on Tuesday are set to go into effect immediately. If the other agreements aren’t approved on Tuesday or shortly thereafter, county officials indicated those employee groups may not see raises until March.

In a prepared video played during the meeting, Board Chair Moke Simon, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson spoke about the proposed raises.

Huchingson said an early 2018 county staff survey found that 34 percent had applied for a job outside of the county in the prior 12 months, 87 percent were seeking more money, 75 percent of employees believed they were underpaid and fewer than 50 percent reported they could afford to go to the doctor when they needed to.

At that time, staff vacancy rates were about 25 percent, Huchingson said. This week, her office told Lake County News that the vacancy rate is 20 percent.

While COVID-19 has hit many communities hard in the short term, “We now believe we are entering a period of uncommon opportunity in Lake County,” Sabatier said, citing a strong housing market, sales tax revenue and a thriving cannabis industry.

Despite the tone set in the video, later in the morning, Sabatier came out against going further on some of the employee agreements, which were not in the final form staff had indicated they were, raising his concerns that negotiations had now moved into the public domain.

Supervisor Rob Brown, who was clear in his support of giving employees raises, also raised concerns about moving forward on some of the agreements.

He also was concerned about discussing some of the matters with the employee groups in open session and had asked to move into closed session.

“We’re not ready. We’re not ready to act on a lot of these,” Brown said.

Sabatier, Brown and Supervisor Tina Scott said they were under the impression that all of the agreements had been ready to go when the developments at the meeting revealed they clearly weren’t.

Sabatier asked the board to wait until all of the agreements were signed and finalized.

Despite those concerns, Simon urged the board to move forward with approving the agreements, even in tentative form, saying it had been done in the past.

The meeting would only become more confusing as the board switched back and forth among the agreements, finally approving some and not others.

The study behind the raises

The raises are the result of a $100,000 classification and compensation study that the county hired CPS HR, a Joint Powers Agency based in Sacramento, in November 2018 to complete.

The study, the first of its kind since 2003, compared the county of Lake’s salaries and classifications to 12 other counties: Calaveras, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, Nevada, Sonoma, Sutter, Tehama, Yolo and Yuba.

The study proposed reducing the county’s 12-step pay range to a five-step range, which is the framework the proposed agreements adopted.

CPS HR was set to present its study to the board at its March 17 meeting. However, that presentation was canceled, and the board instead focused on COVID-19 related issues, including approving Sheriff Brian Martin’s emergency declaration due to the pandemic. Two days later, the county went under a shelter in place order.

In response to questions posed to the board and county administrative staff by Lake County News in an email sent the night before the meeting, Huchingson referred to the fact that the study originally had been scheduled to go to the board in March, but that it was canceled. She did not explain why the contractor was not asked to give the presentation at another time.

Huchingson has been a key proponent of getting the study completed. Based on the numbers provided to Lake County by her own office, she is set to get a nearly 30-percent raise thanks to the action the board took.

But that’s not the highest percent increase: That honor goes to the Public Works director position, now held by Scott De Leon, which is in line for a 42.63-percent increase.

Responding to questions from Lake County News, Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein said the most recent raises given to county employers were a 3-percent negotiated increase for the Lake County Safety Employees Association in January 2017 and 2 percent bargained by Lake County Correctional Officers’ Association in December 2017.

In the 2015-16 fiscal year, Rothstein said “essentially all” county employees received a 3-percent cost of living adjustment and a 7-percent salary adjustment. At the same time, due to pension reform, Rothstein said public employers were required to cease paying the employee’s share of retirement costs, equivalent to 7 percent, which meant most employees netted an increase of less than 3 percent.

Rothstein said that this past December, a one-time stipend of $1,500 was provided to all full-time permanent employees, as a gesture of good faith, while bargaining units awaited implementation of our classification and total compensation study.

Salary changes proposed in several actions

In a cluster of nine untimed items, the board on Tuesday was to consider approving raises for the Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association; Lake County Employees Association Units No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5; Lake County Safety Employees Association; Lake County Correctional Officers Association; Lake County Deputy District Attorney’s Association; Lake County Sheriff’s Management Association; employees assigned to Confidential Units, Section A and B; and management employees.

The agreements’ language states that they will be in effect from Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021, and will raise salaries to 85 percent of the market median, or the midpoint of the 12 counties included in the study.

The exceptions are the Lake County Sheriff’s Management Association and all other management employees, which will receive raises at 80 percent of the market median and for whom the agreements date from Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021.

Huchingson said they’re doing a one-year agreement rather than a longer agreement in order to continue to assess the impacts of the pandemic.

Buried in the bottom of the MOU reports, in small print, was the total amounts to implement the raises: approximately $5,225,124 million, of which $1,919,285 comes from discretionary revenue in the general fund and $3,305,839 in state and federal funding sources that Huchingson’s office said is “readily available but historically underutilized.”

Only the agreement for the Lake County Deputy District Attorney’s Association had been signed. That morning, the Lake County Correctional Officers Association rejected the MOU offered to it, as did the Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association President Gary Frace, who joined the meeting virtually, said the association had no idea that the item was to be on the agenda until seeing it in a Lake County News story on Monday.

Frace said they had never had a tentative agreement with the county, not even up until that morning. Frace recently took over as president and county staff said they had been in negotiations with another individual.

Overall, the staff reports left out information that specifically explained how those figures were arrived at, overall impacts on county funds, how many employees were at what steps, an analysis of ongoing impacts and how the proposals fit with the county’s Fiscal Crisis Management Plan.

In response to the questions submitted by Lake County News to the board and the County Administrative Office on Monday night, Deputy County Administrative Officer Stephen Carter said they are using extra revenue in the general fund, which has totaled $2 million annually over the past five years, to help pay for the raises, along with the state and federal funding sources.

Carter said the raises, if all of them are approved, would constitute a 9-percent increase to the county’s payroll costs and a 9-percent increase to the general fund.

“It’s a significant increase overall but there is room within our current ongoing revenues to support it,” he said.

Among the questions Lake County News asked was one about how the county was able to give the raises without the sales tax it had pitched to voters two years ago, which it said was necessary to increase salaries.

In response to that question, Scott said that had they gotten the sales tax, they would have raised salaries more, possibly to 100-percent of market median, not just 85 percent.

In voting for the memorandum of understanding with the Lake County Sheriff's Management Association, Sabatier abstained due to the timing. “I’m uncomfortable with management moving forward and employees being left behind.”

The only specific action the supervisors took to not increase salaries was to approve the first reading of an ordinance that will keep their current pay rates unchanged, an action necessary because, otherwise, the increases in staff pay would have increased theirs as well. By ordinance, they receive 60 percent of the average annual salaries of the district attorney, sheriff, assessor, auditor/controller and treasurer/tax collector.

Supervisors will continue to make $63,714 annually, with the board chair receiving additional compensation of $2,400.

The board also voted to change the titles of 52 positions and to abolish 30 others in order to meet the salary scale.

Lake County News has submitted several followup questions with the County Administrative Office regarding the impacts of the raises and will report that information in upcoming articles.

Summary of the board’s actions

The board’s Tuesday actions are as follows.

7.3: Consideration of an ordinance amending Section 2-3A.1 of Article I, Chapter 2 of the Lake County Code, Compensation of the Board of Supervisors. The board chose to defer enforcing its ordinance so that its members don’t receive salary increases as a consequence of the actions taken to implement the classification and total compensation study. Action: Approved 5-0 on the first reading, with a second reading set for Oct. 27.

7.4: Consideration of job classification changes based on the October 2019 CPS-HR Classification and Compensation Study. Action: Approved 5-0.

7.5: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Deputy Sheriff’s Association Units and the county of Lake for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Voted 5-0 to continue to the Oct. 27 meeting.

7.6: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Employees Association Units No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 and the county of Lake for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Voted 4-1 to continue to Oct. 27 meeting; Chair Moke Simon voted no because he wanted to act at the Oct. 20 meeting.

7.7: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Safety Employees Association and the county of Lake for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Approved 3-0; Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and Supervisor Tina Scott abstained.

7.8: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Correctional Officers Association Units and the county of Lake for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Voted 5-0 to continue to the Oct. 27 meeting.

7.9: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Deputy District Attorney’s Association and the county of Lake for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Approved in a 5-0 vote.

7.10: Consideration of memorandum of understanding by and between the Lake County Sheriff’s Management Association Units and the county of Lake for Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021. Action: Approved in a 4-0 vote; Sabatier abstained, citing timing.

7.11: Consideration of resolution establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to the Confidential Unit, Section A, for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Approved in a 5-0 vote.

7.12: Consideration of resolution establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to the Confidential Unit, Section B, for Oct. 21, 2020, to Oct. 20, 2021. Action: Approved in a 5-0 vote.

7.13: Consideration of resolution establishing salaries and benefits for management employees for the period of Nov. 1, 2020, to Oct. 31, 2021. Action: Approved in a 4-0 vote; Sabatier abstained.

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.