This past week, the United States passed 200,000 deaths due to COVID-19. When Dr. Deborah Birx predicted this death toll back in March, the high number was called alarmist; now, it is a sad reality for thousands of families who have lost their loved ones in this pandemic.

The novel coronavirus continues to rage across the country. K-12 schools in many states are open for in-person learning and college students have returned to campus – but schools like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have already sent students back home due to rampant outbreaks.

Cases are rising in the Midwest, specifically in South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic.

Though testing is trending up in some regions, the increasing use of antigen tests makes it difficult to determine accurate counts.

As has been true throughout America’s COVID-19 history, every state – and even every county – has its own COVID-19 story, driven by local policies and behaviors.

To help you see how your region compares, Stacker has developed two national data visualizations which present the state of COVID-19 infection rates in America right now.

The state-level visualization uses data from the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic, a volunteer project, which compiles COVID-19 case, testing, and outcomes figures from state public health agencies.

The county-level visualization uses data from The New York Times’ COVID-19 data repository, which includes case and death values compiled from state and local health agencies.

Both visualizations rank geographic regions according to their current infection rates, calculated by summing the region’s case count for the past week (Sept. 15 to 21), then dividing by the region’s population (using population data from the U.S. Census’ 2018 American Community Survey).

The visualizations also include data on current death rates, positivity rates, and hospitalizations at the state level.

County-level test positivity data are taken from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ county testing dataset, and are as of Sept. 9, the most recent date available.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A longtime Lake County resident who has for decades been a devoted mom to an ever-increasing number of children through foster care and adoption is being honored for her work.

Congressman Mike Thompson announced that his nominee, Denice Solgat of Cobb, has been chosen as the 2020 “Angel in Adoption” for California’s Fifth Congressional District.

The Angels in Adoption Program is run by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and honors people and organizations that promote strong adoption, permanency and child welfare programs across the county.

Each year they recognize individuals who are dedicated to these issues and make a deep national impact.

“Denice represents the very best in foster parents, having fostered more than 300 children over the past 25 years and adopting 11. She is particularly adept at helping medically fragile and special needs children who can get otherwise passed over by foster parents,” said Thompson. “She’s made a measurable difference in the lives of so many and I am proud that she has been selected as this year’s Angel in Adoption for our district.”

Solgat said the award is “an amazing honor.”

She calls her work with foster children “a grand adventure.”

Solgat said she’s always been a “kid person,” beginning to babysit when she was just 10 years old. “I’ve always been somebody kids migrate to.”

She spent part of her childhood in Marin County before her family moved to Lake County in 1978. She attended Kelseyville schools and Mendocino College.

When Solgat was a child, she said her aunt was a foster mom. Doing such work provided her aunt with a way to stay home yet bring in a second income.

So like her aunt, when Solgat first started into foster care 28 years ago, it also was a way for her to earn some extra income while she and husband, Dave, raised their three biological children.

“It just evolved into a passion, a very great passion, and something our family is very good at,” she said.

As a result of years of experience and a team of care providers who support her family, they are now able to accept with open arms and open hearts whatever child needs them.

Over the past 25 years, she’s seldom had an empty bed in her home, where she takes a maximum of six foster children at any given time. She’s quick to point out that doesn’t mean there are only six children around at once, as she still has grandchildren and extended relations coming over to hang out on a regular basis.

Between placements, she said she takes a break to refuel and recharge her family, as she acknowledges that it takes a lot of energy from everyone to incorporate a new member.

Most of the children she fosters are reunited with their families, Solgat said. “That’s the nature of the business.”

Typically, the county tries to reunify families within 18 months, preferably 12 months. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” Solgat said.

“Going to foster care is a timeout for your whole family,” she said, explaining that her family is a safety net and a time out for other families to reset priorities and to heal.

Solgat said the majority of times it works thanks to lots of good social workers and families working hard to make positive things happen.

The Solgat family specializes in serving children that are medically fragile with sometimes health complexities.

They’ve been known to travel across the country to find medical solutions for children with serious health issues.

The intricate care network Solgat has developed to support the medically vulnerable and special needs children she fosters includes relationships with agencies from the California Children’s Services, to UCSF, to the Children’s Hospital Oakland.

Solgat also credits a team of local health care providers – including Marlene Quilala, a pediatrician at Lake County Tribal Health, and Ruby Carlson at Riviera Dental – for providing a key part of her family’s foster parenting structure.

When you have long-term relationships with medical providers you’re able to communicate at a different level, Solgat said.

The Solgats have also had to face the challenges that come with wildland fires, including days-long evacuations such as the one they faced when leaving their Cobb home during the 2015 Valley fire.

“We have quite the contingency evacuation plan,” she said.

“We tend to just go calmly and with grace, and put it all in the God box and play lots of Uno,” she added.

Solgat said they treat evacuations like camping adventures. “Retreating means that we’re just going camping and we don’t know when we’re coming back and it’s a grand adventure,” she said. “It certainly adds another dimension of challenge.”

When word gets out that her family has an opening, she said she’ll get calls not just from Lake County but from Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

“The counties are really trying to do the right fit placement, and that’s a luxury,” she said, explaining that a home like hers that specializes with an established team for medically fragile kids is unique.

“Finding the right fit is so important for everybody involved,” she said, adding that it prevents foster parent and social worker burnout.

She said her husband Dave is “full-time Mr. Mom.”

About 23 years ago, she started work at Mendocino College’s Lake Center. “He came home to stay home with the kids. We traded places for health insurance.”

She serves as the center assistant at the college’s Lake Center in Lakeport. “It’s just another mom role,” in which she said she nurtures students and helps them navigate the complexities of the system.

The Solgats’ oldest daughter, Jacqueline Solgat, is now a foster provider in Lake County; her special niche is working with newborn babies.

“I can’t do babies anymore, I need my sleep at night,” Denice Solgat said.

In addition to the children they’ve adopted, Solgat said they regularly hear from about 20 others who have been reunified with their families but still like to keep in touch because they appreciated her family’s efforts on their behalf.

One thing she hears a lot from them is, “I wish I would have listened to you.”

“I have to believe that the kids are going to take from you what they can,” and apply it in their own time, she said.

For people who have an interest in helping children and the capacity to do it, Solgat encourages them to consider being foster parents.

“There’s a desperate need for foster homes, continually,” not just locally but statewide, she said.

Solgat said the county of Lake is now certifying its own foster homes.

Interested individuals can contact Lake County Social Services, 707-262-0235, for more information.

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. – Finally! As I write this, our favorite star, the sun is shining brightly in our beautiful, blue Lake County skies once again.

After living in a sepia-colored, smoky world for so long I began paying attention to the diversity of yellow flora and fauna in the surrounding landscape now.

Those who study color psychology tell us that the color yellow solicits our attention more than almost any other color.

Yellow is said to be the shade of cheerfulness and contentment; of hopefulness, creativity along with inspiration. The happy-face color is also the color of vibrant lemons and cheerful daffodils.

Yellow tarweed makes itself known before it is even seen, through its piquant scent that clings to clothes if you happen to brush against it as you wander by. If you touch it you'll have sticky fingers for some time to come.

According to Calscape, the California Native Plant Society guide there are 51 kinds of tarweed native to California, and most are yellow or white in color.

These summer-to-fall blooming flowers have earned their name due to the secretions that coat their leaves and stems.

The special coating plays several important roles. One is that it aids the plants in retaining moisture during the heat of the day, thereby rendering them drought-tolerant, and another is that tarweed's coating keeps them from being eaten by insects or animals.

There are studies that show that some tarweed species attract insects by causing them to adhere to the plants' sticky coating then in turn, allow yet another kind of insect to dine on the tarweed victims who are stuck. This clever ability causes a decline in insects that are undesirable to the tarweed.

Some varieties of the plant were used by native peoples when they harvested the seeds to make pinole.

The book, “California Indians and their Environment” by Kent G. Lightfoot and Otis Parrish, explains that seeds from some tarweed varieties were stored raw, for use during the year when they could be cooked and pounded prior to consumption.

Is there any flower more cheering than the pollinator-friendly sunflower? These butter yellow beauties attract a large variety of both native bees and honey bees along with other pollinators such as moths and butterflies, all while producing delicious and nutritious seeds for human and avian consumption.

The Great Sunflower Project is a great way to investigate this humble plant as well as to contribute to citizen science. The organization has more than 100,000 members and has a handy set of bee identification cards for those who are interested and curious.

Native sunflowers, which grow in spring, and are smaller in stature, are also terrific pollinator-friendly plants and were used as a food source for native peoples.

A familiar but invasive yellow plant is the starthistle, a noxious weed that probably arrived in California during the Gold Rush era by fastening itself to alfalfa seed. This spiky plant originated in Turkey or Greece.

The release of a particular type of weevil – along with control burns and herbicides in some areas – has somewhat reduced the onslaught of starthistle plants. Its mellow yellow color, along with the fact that it attracts honey bees, is not reason enough to like this plant, since it takes over and crowds out native plant populations and is poisonous to horses.

I've never met a bird I didn't like, and the lesser goldfinches that congregate at my feeder always put a smile on my face. They are found in open woodlands in the oaks, cottonwoods and willow trees where they consume a variety of seed types.

These diminutive yellow and black songbirds use their sturdy bills to pry open seeds but sometimes complement their diet with plant lice.

The primary color of yellow may influence your mood and your thinking – it may even determine your snack choice by persuading you to dine on some delectable golden, locally grown pears and apples.

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.”

 

When voters cast their ballots in November, they won’t just decide who will be president in 2021 – they will also have a voice in determining the partisan makeup of Congress until 2030. Following each census, which happens every 10 years, states are required to adjust their congressional district boundaries to keep district populations equal.

District boundaries can profoundly shape election results – most notably when they are drawn in ways that benefit one political party or the other.

In the 2011 redistricting after the 2010 census, for example, Pennsylvania’s Republican-led legislature drew up districts that significantly disadvantaged Democrats. In the state’s 2012 congressional elections, Democrats won a majority of the votes, but Republicans won two-thirds of the state’s 18 seats in Congress. Our research has found that similarly biased redistricting – called partisan gerrymandering – is common across the country.

Most states give the power to draw new boundaries to their legislatures. So when voters in November pick among the candidates for state legislatures, they are choosing the people who will make the new electoral maps. That means the 2020 election will potentially affect the balance of power and the degree of partisan conflict in the House of Representatives for the next decade.

Legislators often draw biased lines

In drawing new boundaries, state legislators usually have very few constraints. The U.S. Constitution requires that each congressional district should represent a roughly equal number of people – except in states with too few people to have multiple districts – Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. They all get at least one representative in Congress.

But other than that, state lawmakers make their own rules. So it’s not surprising that congressional district lines tend to unfairly advantage the party whose members are a majority of the group drawing the lines.

In the seven small, single-district states and the District of Columbia, this isn’t a problem because the state boundaries are also those of the congressional district. In five others – Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island – there are only enough people to warrant two congressional districts, making it statistically impossible to manipulate district boundaries to advantage one party.

But of the remaining 38 states, our analysis found that 22 created gerrymandered districts that benefited one party or the other. Other political scientists have come to similar conclusions after their own analyses. This is true despite the natural, nongerrymandered tendency for like-minded people, especially Democrats, to live near each other.

Most of the partisan gerrymandering created after the 2010 census benefited the Republican Party. That is because Republicans won control of many state legislatures in the 2010 elections, and then delivered congressional districts in their favor.

The bias from partisan gerrymandering was so high after the 2010 round of redistricting, particularly in seven states – Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Virginia and Florida – that the 2012 elections produced a House of Representatives controlled by the Republican Party even though Democratic congressional candidates won more votes nationwide.

The 2020 state legislative elections will be similarly decisive of who will control the redistricting process, and what congressional elections will look like for the next decade.

Reforming the process

There are efforts to fix the redistricting process. In 2019, the Supreme Court effectively barred federal courts from considering whether partisan gerrymanders are constitutional, so reformers must look elsewhere for a solution.

Reform movements are working to take control of district boundaries out of the hands of legislators.

Several states have pioneered ways to draw their congressional boundaries more fairly. In New York, for instance, there is a commission that will advise lawmakers on potential maps that avoid partisan advantages. In Arizona and California, independent commissions have complete control over the district boundaries.

In New Jersey and Hawaii, commissions made up of politicians and political appointees draw the boundaries. And in three states – Connecticut, Indiana and Ohio – the legislature gets a first attempt to draw the boundaries, but must relinquish power to an independent commission if lawmakers can’t agree.

In some states, citizens have created independent redistricting commissions by popular referendum – through ballot propositions or initiatives – when legislators didn’t want to strip themselves of this key power. Colorado, Michigan and Utah all did this in 2018. Voters in Virginia will be given an option in the 2020 election to hand redistricting authority over to an independent commission.

Our research and others’ has found that commissions of all types tend to produce maps that are less biased than legislative ones. However, redistricting reforms in some states are now facing a backlash from state lawmakers who are attempting to reclaim power over the redistricting process through legislation, lawsuits or ballot measures of their own.

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

In presidential election years, the public is obviously focused on the race for the White House, but the decisions voters make in state legislative races affect the partisan composition of Congress for years to come. Without changes in who draws district lines, the U.S. is likely to enter another decade in which congressional elections are shaped not by everyday voters but by those who hold the power.

Robin Best, Associate Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University, State University of New York and Steve Lem, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control again this week has a mix of all kinds of dogs waiting for new homes.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, border collie, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, husky, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback and Shar Pei.

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.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 6a, ID No. 14038.

‘Mamacita’

“Mamacita” is a senior female Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 6b, ID No. 14040.

Female Labrador Retriever

This female Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat with white markings.

She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 13989.

Male pit bull

This male pit bull has a short white and brindle coat.

He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14058.

Rhodesian Ridgeback-Shar Pei mix

This male Rhodesian Ridgeback-Shar Pei mix has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14023.

Belgian Malinois mix

This female Belgian Malinois mix has a short brindle coat.

She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14024.

Male border collie

This young male border collie has a short black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14052.

‘Lilly’

“Lilly” is a female pit bull-husky mix with a short brown and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13991.

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.

A historic moment is on the horizon for NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

In just a few weeks, the robotic OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will descend to asteroid Bennu’s boulder-strewn surface, touch down for a few seconds and collect a sample of the asteroid’s rocks and dust – marking the first time NASA has grabbed pieces of an asteroid, which will be returned to Earth for study.

On Oct. 20, the mission will perform the first attempt of its Touch-And-Go, or TAG, sample collection event.

This series of maneuvers will bring the spacecraft down to site Nightingale, a rocky area 52 feet in diameter in Bennu’s northern hemisphere, where the spacecraft’s robotic sampling arm will attempt to collect a sample.

Site Nightingale was selected as the mission’s primary sample site because it holds the greatest amount of unobstructed fine-grained material, but the region is surrounded by building-sized boulders.

During the sampling event, the spacecraft, which is the size of a large van, will attempt to touch down in an area that is only the size of a few parking spaces, and just a few steps away from some of these large boulders.

During the 4.5-hour sample collection event, the spacecraft will perform three separate maneuvers to reach the asteroid’s surface.

The descent sequence begins with OSIRIS-REx firing its thrusters for an orbit departure maneuver to leave its safe-home orbit approximately 2,500 feet from Bennu's surface.

After traveling four hours on this downward trajectory, the spacecraft performs the “Checkpoint” maneuver at an approximate altitude of 410 feet. This thruster burn adjusts OSIRIS-REx’s position and speed to descend steeply toward the surface.

About 11 minutes later, the spacecraft performs the “Matchpoint” burn at an approximate altitude of 177 feet, slowing its descent and targeting a path to match the asteroid's rotation at the time of contact.

The spacecraft then descends to the surface, touches down for less than 16 seconds and fires one of its three pressurized nitrogen bottles. The gas agitates and lifts Bennu’s surface material, which is then caught in the spacecraft’s collector head.

After this brief touch, OSIRIS-REx fires its thrusters to back away from Bennu’s surface and navigates to a safe distance from the asteroid.

After the orbit departure maneuver, the spacecraft undertakes a sequence of reconfigurations to prepare for sampling. First, OSIRIS-REx extends its robotic sampling arm – the Touch-And-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism, or TAGSAM – from its folded storage position out to the sample collection position.

The spacecraft’s two solar panels then move into a “Y-wing” configuration over the spacecraft’s body, which positions them safely up and away from the asteroid’s surface during touch down.

This configuration also places the spacecraft’s center of gravity directly over the TAGSAM collector head, which is the only part of the spacecraft that will contact Bennu’s surface during the sample collection event.

Because the spacecraft and Bennu are approximately 207 million miles from Earth during TAG, it will take about 18.5 minutes for signals to travel between them.

This time lag prevents the live commanding of flight activities from the ground during the TAG event, so the spacecraft is designed to perform the entire sample collection sequence autonomously.

Prior to the event’s start, the OSIRIS-REx team will uplink all of the commands to the spacecraft and then send a “GO” command to begin.

To autonomously navigate to site Nightingale, OSIRIS-REx uses the Natural Feature Tracking, or NFT, navigation system. The spacecraft begins collecting navigation images about 90 minutes after orbit departure. It then compares these real-time images to an onboard image catalog, using identified surface features to make sure that it’s on the right course toward the site.

As the spacecraft approaches the surface, OSIRIS-REx updates the Checkpoint and Matchpoint maneuvers based on the NFT's estimate of the spacecraft’s position and velocity.

OSIRIS-REx continues to use the NFT estimates as it descends to the surface after the Matchpoint maneuver to monitor its position and descent rate. The spacecraft will autonomously abort should its trajectory vary outside of predefined limits.

To ensure that the spacecraft touches down on a safe area that avoids the region’s many boulders, the navigation system is equipped with a hazard map of site Nightingale, which delineates areas within the sample site that could potentially harm the spacecraft.

If the spacecraft’s NFT system detects that it is on course to touch one of these hazardous zones, the spacecraft will autonomously wave off its approach once it reaches an altitude of 16 feet. This keeps the spacecraft safe and allows for a subsequent sample collection attempt at a future date.

As the spacecraft performs each event in the sample collection sequence, it will send telemetry updates back to the OSIRIS-REx team, albeit at an extremely slow data rate.

The team will monitor the telemetry during the excursion and will be able to confirm that the spacecraft has successfully touched down on Bennu’s surface soon after TAG occurs.

The images and other science data collected during the event will be downlinked after the spacecraft has backed away from the asteroid and can point its larger antenna back to Earth to transmit at higher communication rates.

OSIRIS-REx is charged with collecting at least 2 ounces of Bennu’s rocky material to deliver back to Earth – the largest sample return from space since the Apollo program – and the mission developed two methods to verify that this sample collection occurred.

On Oct. 22, OSIRIS-REx’s SamCam camera will capture images of the TAGSAM head to see whether it contains Bennu’s surface material. The spacecraft will also perform a spin maneuver on Oct. 24 to determine the mass of collected material.

If these measures show successful collection, the decision will be made to place the sample in the Sample Return Capsule for return to Earth.

If sufficient sample has not been collected from Nightingale, the spacecraft has onboard nitrogen charges for two more attempts. A TAG attempt at the back-up Osprey site would be made no earlier than January 2021.

The mission team has spent the last several months preparing for the sample collection event while maximizing remote work as part of its COVID-19 response.

On the day of TAG, a limited number of team members will monitor the spacecraft from Lockheed Martin Space’s Mission Support Area, taking appropriate safety precautions.

Other members of the team will also be at other locations on-site to cover the event, while also observing safety protocols.

The spacecraft is scheduled to depart Bennu in 2021 and it will deliver the collected sample to Earth on Sep. 24, 2023.

Brittany Enos writes for the University of Arizona.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it’s planning to move forward with a public safety power shutoff on Sunday that will impact 89,000 customers in parts of 16 counties, including Lake, due to a strong and dry offshore wind event.event.

The incoming weather conditions prompted the National Weather Service to issue a red flag warning for much of Northern California from Saturday night through Monday, with Cal Fire staffing up around the region due to fire weather concerns, as Lake County News has reported.

PG&E said Saturday evening that approximately 55 Lake County customers – two of them medical baseline – will be impacted. A PG&E map of the impacted areas showed Lake County’s customers will be near the Lake and Napa County line, south of Middletown.

In neighboring Napa County, 216 customers will have their power shut off, with two customers in Sonoma County also to be included, PG&E said.

PG&E said it began making notifications to customers on Thursday about the potential for shutting off power.

The company said its first phase of deenergization will begin at 2 a.m. Sunday and impact approximately 15,000 customers.

The forecast predicts a lull in wind activity during the day on Sunday, and then escalating again Sunday late afternoon. At 4 p.m. Sunday, PG&E will begin its second phase of shutoffs to 74,000 customers, primarily in the Central Sierra region.

The PG&E map for the shutoff indicates power is to be shut off in Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties between 5 and 6 p.m. Sunday, with power restoration expected around noon on Monday.

PG&E said once the high winds subside on Monday morning, it will inspect the deenergized lines to ensure they were not damaged during the wind event, and then restore power.

The company’s plan for power restoration is to conduct it as quickly as possible; the goal is to have power back on for most customers impacted 12 daylight hours after severe weather has passed.

Customers can use an address lookup tool to find out if their location is being monitored for the potential safety shutoff at www.pge.com/pspsupdates.

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. – With forecasted high winds and dry, hot conditions raising concerns for fire danger, the National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for much of Northern California, including Lake County, which in turn has caused Cal Fire to increase its staffing.

The red flag warning will be in effect from 9 p.m. Saturday through 8 a.m. Monday for areas above 2,000 feet in elevation.

The National Weather Service said a red flag warning means that critical fire weather conditions
are either occurring now or will shortly.

The forecast predicts dry east to northeast winds of between 15 and 25 miles per hour will develop over Lake County during Saturday night, and then the remainder of northwest California during Sunday.

The combination of gusty ridgetop winds of up to 40 miles per hour, low humidity and dry fuels will result in critical fire weather conditions through Monday morning, the National Weather Service reported.

The Lake County forecast calls for daytime highs in the 90s through Monday, with nighttime temperatures in the 60s.

The heightened fire weather conditions have firefighters across the region preparing, from those working on the massive August Complex in the Mendocino Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests in the north to those on the lookout for the potential for new fires closer to home.

In response to the issuance of the red flag warning, Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit reported that it has increased its staffing on all available engines not already on the 25 major fires across the state.

The unit also reminded residents to prepare their families, have an emergency supply kit ready and have evacuation plans in place in case the event a fire starts near you.

Cal Fire offers more information on fire season preparations on its 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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Kelseyville High School Civics teacher Shane Boehlert and his students are hosting a live-streamed Kelseyville Unified School Board Candidates Forum on Wednesday, Sept. 30.

The forum will take place beginning at 7 p.m. on the school district’s Facebook page.

Candidates for Kelseyville Unified School Board on the Nov. 3 ballot are Beniakem Cromwell, Natalie Higley, Mary Beth Mosko and Gilbert Rangel.

“We’ve been working on a lesson about civic engagement, and with the election coming up, I thought this would be a good opportunity for students to get more involved,” said Boehlert.

In preparation for the forum, Boehlert taught students about the role of school boards in local education.

He then encouraged his students to write questions that would help them (and the public) better understand why the candidates chose to run for office and what they hope to achieve.

“We invite everyone to join us,” Boehlert said.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, State Parks Director Armando Quintero and Department of Transportation Director Toks Omishakin on Friday announced a series of actions to identify and redress discriminatory names of features attached to the State Parks and transportation systems.

Agencies also will expand representation and increase transparency around a state committee tasked with recommending changes to geographic names in California.

The moves come in the wake of a national conversation about the names of geographic features, markers and statues affiliated with the Civil War, genocide of Native Americans and other remnants of institutionalized discrimination.

Steps announced Friday dovetail with additional measures announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom to mark Native American Day in California following the governor’s formal apology to Native Americans last year.

“The governor fundamentally changed the way Californians grapple with the difficult beginnings of this state when he formally apologized to California Native Americans last June,” said Governor's Tribal Advisor and Executive Secretary to the Native American Heritage Commission Christina Snider.

“For California Native Americans who have survived generations of depredations against our very existence, these disparaging and dehumanizing names serve as a constant reminder that we were never intended to be part of the California dream,” Snider said. “The leadership of the California Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Transportation in furthering these corrective initiatives demonstrates the state's real commitment to act on the promise of the governor's apology, heal relationships and work to make historically dispossessed communities whole.”

Assembly Member James C. Ramos (D-Highland), the first California Native American elected to the state Legislature, welcomed the announcements.

“Ensuring that state facilities are respectful and inclusive of California’s history and all its people is a much-welcomed step,” Ramos said. “As a Native American, I look forward to the acknowledgement of our presence and culture as well as the education that will occur during a renaming process.”

Secretary Crowfoot said it is past time to revisit historic names that stem from a dark legacy that includes discrimination, violence and inequity.

“Recent protests over racial inequality have spurred a national conversation about institutional and systemic racism in the United States. That conversation includes a new reckoning over monuments, symbols and names found in our public spaces,” Secretary Crowfoot said. “We are committed to continuing this dialogue in an open and transparent way.”

Crowfoot is directing the Natural Resources Agency to expand the membership of the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names by adding members designated by the Native American Heritage Commission, California State Library, California African American Museum and California Department of Transportation, as well as the legislative Selective Committee on Native American Affairs and Black, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucuses.

At the same time, the California Department of Parks and Recreation has begun to inventory racist markers and names of features within the State Parks system.

State Parks is developing a process to assess the inventory and solicit input on potential name changes. State Parks also is refining plans in consultation with tribes and other groups to update interpretive signage, exhibits and educational materials for student programs.

“This is a generational moment that calls for the California Department of Parks and Recreation to take stock of and critically examine our state’s historical legacy,” Director Quintero said. “We want every Californian, whether they are first generation or the 500th generation, to feel welcome in parks and see stories shared by all voices.”

As part of Friday’s announcement, Caltrans will carry out a detailed review of all named assets located on the state transportation system and develop a proposal identifying those to be renamed or rescinded.

“Transportation is meant to bring people together, bridge divides, cross immovable boundaries and connect people from all walks of life,” Director Omishakin said. “Caltrans cannot accomplish this mission without addressing the specter of exclusionary, prejudiced place names located throughout the California State Highway system. While long overdue, the department is honored to stand with the Natural Resources Agency and help facilitate a new legacy celebrating diversity, equity and inclusion.”

People want their confidential information inside of their living trust to remain confidential.

However, after a trust is executed the settlors often find it necessary to disclose certain limited information in order to retitle assets into the trust, borrow money against trust assets and insure the trust as owner of real property.

Fortunately, third parties requesting information about the trust – like banks, insurance companies and brokerages – only ask for limited information. That is, is the trust revocable or irrevocable; who are the current trustees; what powers does the trustee have; how should trust assets be titled; what is the trust’s taxpayer identification number; and has the trust been amended? A trustee’s certification of trust provides all such information.

In California, section 18100.5 of the Probate Code provides that, “(a) The trustee may present a certification of trust to any person in lieu of providing a copy of the trust instrument to establish the existence or terms of the trust. A certification of trust may be executed by the trustee voluntarily or at the request of the person with whom the trustee is dealing.”

The certification must meet the following requirements: (1) say that the trust has not been revoked, modified, or amended in any manner which would cause the representations contained in the certification of trust to be incorrect; (2) be signed by all of the currently acting trustees of the trust; (3) have a notarial certificate acknowledging each trustee signature.

A certification of trust is helpful, or even required, when dealing with banks, stock transfer agents, brokerage houses, insurance companies, title companies, and other third parties.

Estate planning attorneys often provide one with the trust for the client to copy and provide to retitle and insure trust assets.

If a third party who receives a certification of trust still insists on copies of the trust document to verify its information then the person providing the certification may refuse.

If the matter becomes controversial and goes to court and the court determines that the third party acted in bad faith in requesting the trust documents (section 18100(h) Probate Code) then damages, including attorney’s fees can be awarded.

The initial certification of trust that you receive with your trust, however, becomes stale over time and must be updated. Each time you amend your trust you need a new certification of trust to reflect the amendment.

Even without amendments, an old certification of trust often is unacceptable to third parties seeking to rely on it. Clients call me saying that their bank needs a more recent certification of trust to refinance their home.

Sometimes a client needs to provide a portion (excerpt) of the trust providing information not typically found in a certification of trust.

For the excerpt to be acceptable, the trustee will need to provide a trustee’s certification of the abstract of trust. The certification, made under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of California, says that the attached abstracted copy of said trust is a true and correct copy of the original trust as executed.

Lastly it is not always necessary to provide either the certification of trust or the abstract of trust. Some third parties are satisfied if the settlor provides them with a copy of the following pages from their trust: first page (title/declaration page), section listing the names of trustees, the signature (execution) page and the notary page.

Accordingly, ask whether this more simplified approach is acceptable. If not, anyone needing to provide a certification of trust by a trustee or a certification of abstract of trust by a trustee may consider calling an estate planning attorney for assistance.

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

This year’s Arctic sea ice cover shrank to the second-lowest extent since modern record-keeping began in the late 1970s.

An analysis of satellite data by NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, or NSIDC, at the University of Colorado, Boulder shows that the 2020 minimum extent, which was likely reached on Sept. 15, measured 1.44 million square miles.

In winter, frozen seawater covers almost the entire Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas. This sea ice undergoes seasonal patterns of change – thinning and shrinking during late spring and summer, and thickening and expanding during fall and winter.

The extent of summer sea ice in the Arctic can impact local ecosystems, regional and global weather patterns, and ocean circulation. In the last two decades, the minimum extent of Arctic sea ice in the summer has dropped markedly.

The lowest extent on record was set in 2012, and last year’s extent was tied for second – until this year’s.

A Siberian heat wave in spring 2020 began this year’s Arctic sea ice melt season early, and with Arctic temperatures being 14 to 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average, the ice extent kept declining.

The 2020 minimum extent was 958,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average of yearly minimum extents, and 2020 is only the second time on record that the minimum extent has fallen below 1.5 million square miles.

“It was just really warm in the Arctic this year, and the melt seasons have been starting earlier and earlier,” said Nathan Kurtz, a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The earlier the melt season starts, the more ice you generally lose.”

Thin ice also melts quicker than thicker floes. Dramatic drops in sea ice extent in 2007 and 2012, along with generally declining summer extent, has led to fewer regions of thick, multi-year ice that has built up over multiple winters. In addition, a recent study showed that warmer water from the Atlantic Ocean, which is typically deep below the colder Arctic waters, is creeping up closer to the bottom of the sea ice and warming it from below.

There are cascading effects in the Arctic, said Mark Serreze, director of NSIDC. Warmer ocean temperatures eat away at the thicker multiyear ice, and also result in thinner ice to start the spring melt season.

Melt early in the season results in more open water, which absorbs heat from the Sun and increases water temperatures.

“As the sea ice cover extent declines, what we’re seeing is we’re continuing to lose that multiyear ice,” Serreze said. “The ice is shrinking in the summer, but it’s also getting thinner. You’re losing extent, and you’re losing the thick ice as well. It’s a double whammy.”

The second-lowest extent of sea ice on record is just one of many signs of a warming climate in the north, he said, pointing to the Siberian heat waves, forest fires, hotter-than-average temperatures over the Central Arctic, and the thawing permafrost that led to a Russian fuel spill.

Kate Ramsayer works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.