LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week will talk about a proposed response to Northshore Fire officials regarding the handling of the Measure N fire tax last month and consider accepting a donation for trail development on Mount Konocti.

The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

In an item timed for 9:15 a.m., the board will consider a response to questions the Northshore Fire Protection District submitted in a letter last month regarding the Measure N election.

The measure failed to get the supermajority of 66.7 percent in order to into effect.

District 3 Supervisor EJ Crandell, in a memo to the board, said that he received the letter from Northshore Fire on Nov. 15.

“Although Northshore Fire is not questioning the unofficial results of the election, it is important that our Board respond to the topics and questions raised in their letter,” Crandell said.

In an untimed item, the board will consider accepting a gift of $20,000 from Barrick Gold of North America Inc. – formerly Homestake Mining Co. – to help with the development of trails within Mount Konocti County Park.

The board is also scheduled to have a closed session discussion on a permanent registrar of voters appointment. Last week, the board appointed Diane Fridley, who retired a year ago from the post, as the interim registrar, as Lake County News has reported.

The full agenda follows.

CONSENT AGENDA

5.1: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No.19-0237 with the state of California, Department of Food and Agriculture which includes the postconsumer- content certification and contractor certification clause for exotic pest detection trapping activities FY 2019-20.

5.2: Second reading, continued from Dec. 10 meeting, adopt an ordinance amending Chapter 5 of the Lake County Code and adopting by reference the 2019 California Building Standards Code.

5.3: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the atmospheric river event of 2019.

5.4: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Mendocino Complex fire incident (River and Ranch fires).

5.5: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Pawnee Fire incident.

5.6: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Kincade fire incident, the Burris fire incident and the October 2019 Pacific Gas and Electric public safety power shutoff events.

5.7: (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services; (b) approve the customer price quote from AMS.NET for the purchase of server equipment for the Sheriff/Central Dispatch facility in the amount of $107,116.38, (c) approve the quote confirmation from CDW-G in the amount of $5,034.40 and authorize the sheriff/coroner and director of Information Technology to issue purchase orders.

5.8: Approve appointment of Eileen Bostwick as member at large for the Area Agency on Aging of Lake and Mendocino Counties PSA26 Governing Board.

5.9: Approve contract between the county of Lake and National Council on Crime and Delinquency, or NCCD, for access to SafeMeasures in the Amount of $26,323.50, from Oct. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2021, and authorize the chair to sign.

5.10: Adopt proclamation commending Robert Saderlund for 35 years of service to the county of Lake.

TIMED ITEMS

6.2, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation commending Robert Saderlund for 35 years of service to the county of Lake.

6.3, 9:15 a.m.: Consideration of Letter in response to the questions of the Northshore Fire Protection District.

6.4, 9:30 a.m.: Consideration of continuation of a local health emergency and order prohibiting the endangerment of the community through the unsafe removal, transportation, and disposal of fire debris for the Mendocino Complex fire.

6.5, 9:35 a.m.: Presentation by Health Services Tobacco Education Program and overview of program objectives for fiscal years 2019 to 2021.

6.6, 10 a.m.: Discussion and consideration of a subcommittee to the County of Lake Emergency Medical Care Committee, or COL-EMCC, to review and suggest updates to current county ambulance ordinance and provide suggested updates to the Board of Supervisors, to ensure that ambulances are operating safely, meet minimum levels and standards of equipment, staffing and mechanical liability.

6.7, 10:30 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration of the proposed general plan amendment (GPAP 16-08), rezone (RZ 16-05), general plan of development (GPD 16-01) and major use permit (UP 16-11) for a specific plan of development for Heart Consciousness Church (Harbin Hot Springs).

UNTIMED ITEMS

7.2: Discussion and consideration of clarification to be provided to the auditor-controller for payment of recognition and retention stipends to permanent employees.

7.3: Consideration of appointment to the Mental Health Board.

7.4: Consideration of acceptance of $20,000 donation for Mount Konocti Park Trails from Barrick Gold of North America Inc.

CLOSED SESSION

8.1: Public employee appointment pursuant to Gov. Code Section 54957(b)(1): Appointment of Registrar of Voters.

8.2: Conference with labor negotiator: (a) Chief negotiator: M. Long; County Negotiators: C. Huchingson and P. Samac; and (b) Employee Organizations: LCDDAA, LCDSA, LCCOA, LCEA, LCSEA and LCSMA.

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will select it leadership for the new year and consider a proposed process for moving forward with its planned annexation of a portion of South Main Street.

The council will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

Tuesday’s meeting, the council’s last of the year, will include the annual council reorganization, consisting of the nomination and election of the mayor and mayor pro tem for a period of one year.

In other business, City Manager Margaret Silveira will ask the council to approve a proposed letter to the Board of Supervisors supporting the city of Clearlake’s request last month for action on tax defaulted properties.

Silveira also will ask the council to provide a response to the Lake Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCo, regarding the city’s willingness to participate in good faith with a proposed process outlined in a Dec. 4 letter regarding the South Lakeport Annexation Project.

LAFCo is asking both the city and the county to participate in resolving their existing disputes pertaining to property and sales tax apportionments in the annexation area.

Other items on the agenda include three appointments each to the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee and the Parks and Recreation Committee effective Jan. 1, 2020, and expiring Dec. 31, 2021; the appointment of one member to fill a vacancy on the Lakeport Planning Commission effective Jan. 1, 2020, and expiring Dec. 31, 2022; and the appointment of one member to the Lakeport Fire Protection District Board effective Jan. 1, 2020, and expiring Dec. 31, 2023.

Community Development Director Kevin Ingram also will present a proposed concrete design for use along the Library Park lakefront promenade.

On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on Nov. 19; the Dec. 12 warrant register; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the Mendocino Complex fire; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the February 2019 storms; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the October 2019 public safety power shutoff; direction to the city clerk to prepare the 2020 Maddy Act Appointments List and post at City Hall and the Lakeport Public Library; approval of the side letter agreement for the City of Lakeport Police Officers Association enacting the 7(k) exemption to the Fair Labor Standards Act; and review and filing of the fiscal year 2019-20 first quarter financial update.

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.

121719 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As the season prepares to transition from fall to winter, the weather forecast is calling for the possibility of more rain.

The National Weather Service said another series of weather systems is heading to the region this week.

The systems are forecast to be mostly weaker, but a much stronger system is expected to build off the Pacific Northwest coast on Friday before moving inland Saturday and Saturday night.

The Lake County forecast calls for a cloudy Monday, with chances of rain every day for the rest of the week.

There also is the potential for snow in the higher elevations, such as Cobb, on Tuesday, the forecast said.

Light winds are predicted on Monday, building up to wind speeds on Tuesday of 21 miles per hour and gusts of 24 miles per hour in the south county, based on the forecast.

Daytime temperatures will range from the mid 40s to low 50s, with nighttime temperatures ranging from the mid 30s to the high 40s, forecasters said.

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.

 

Living in rural America certainly comes with a number of benefits. There is less crime, access to the outdoors, and lower costs of living.

Yet, not everything is rosy outside the city limits. Rural communities face growing infrastructure problems like decaying water systems. And they have more limited access to amenities ranging from grocery stores to movie theaters, lower quality schools, and less access to high-speed internet.

Yet perhaps most daunting are the tremendous health disparities rural Americans face, in terms of both their own health and accessing care.

As a number of my recent studies indicate, these disparities may be exacerbated by insurance carriers and the networks they put together for their consumers.

A sick system that’s getting worse

At the turn of the last century, cities were known to be cesspools rampant with disease. Much has changed since then. Today, health care disparities between urban and rural America have indeed reversed. And they are growing wider.

Part of the problem is demographic. Over the last several decades, many rural areas have lost a large share of their residents. In many areas, the young are moving away, leaving an aging population behind.

Besides being older, those staying behind are poorer and have lower levels of education. To make things worse, they are also more likely to be uninsured. And they tend to be sicker, exhibiting higher rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease. It comes as no surprise that their life expectancy is generally lower as well.

The demographic challenges are made worse by the limitations posed by the health care system. For one, rural areas are experiencing tremendous health care provider shortages. Access is often particularly limited for specialty care. But much more mundane health care services that most of us take for granted, like hospitals – including public hospitals and maternity wards – are also affected.

Politics have made rural access challenges worse in many places. Partisan opposition to the Affordable Care Act has led many states with large rural populations, like Texas and Kansas, to refuse to expand their Medicaid programs or support enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplaces. This stance is particularly damaging because the program provides a crucial lifeline to rural providers.

A stark divide

Rural communities across the country face tremendous health care access issues. And as recent study my colleagues and I did of access to cardiologists, endocrinologists, OB-GYNs and pediatricians shows, insurance plans may further complicate the issue.

Focusing on California, we compared access between plans sold under the Affordable Care Act and commercially available plans. We also made comparisons to a hypothetical plan that included all of the state’s providers. In theory, this would be the plan available to consumers under various Medicare-for-All proposals.

Overall, we found that consumers living in large metropolitan areas faced only very limited access challenges. However, as distance from cities increased, access worsened significantly. Consumers had fewer providers to choose from, and had to travel further to see them.

One of our starkest findings was the existence of what we called “artificial provider deserts” – areas where providers are practicing and seeing patients, but insurance carriers do not include any of them in their networks. Without access to local providers, some rural residents are forced to travel 120 miles or more to reach in-network care.

Our findings hold for both Affordable Care Act plans and those commercially available, which fared only slightly better.

The problems we found in this study extend well past plans sold on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Two of my other studies found similar, if not worse problems, for rural consumers of Medicare Advantage plans in New York and California.

More protections for rural Americans

There are many reasons for the growing disparities between urban and rural America. Many of these aren’t always easily or quickly remedied through government intervention. Indeed, some may be inherent to living outside of metropolitan areas.

Yet when it comes to health care access, our recent work indicates that decisions by insurance carriers may further worsen the situation. Conceivably, insurers may limit access to providers to push sicker populations to enroll with other insurers.

However, the fault may not exclusively lie with insurers. Rural providers may also demand large fees to enter into contracts with insurers, leading insurers to exclude them from their networks.

While regulating provider networks comes with a slew of challenges, it seems apparent to me that our current approach is not working for Rural America. It is time to rethink how we provide and regulate health care access to millions of Americans living in rural areas.

[ You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors. You can get our highlights each weekend. ]

Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Authorities are investigating what led to a solo-vehicle wreck on Friday that killed a Lakeport man.

The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office did not release the name of the 65-year-old man in its report on the crash, pending notification of family.

The CHP said the crash occurred at 12:35 p.m. Friday.

The driver was in his 1992 Dodge Ram 3500 pickup, traveling northbound on Waldo Lane north of Soda Bay Road, at between 15 and 20 miles per hour, the CHP said.

For unknown reasons, the man allowed his pickup to leave the roadway. The CHP said the pickup hit a fence and a coop before coming to a stop.

A nearby individual heard the collision and called 911 to report the incident, the CHP said.

The CHP said emergency responders arrived on scene and found the driver unresponsive.

The man, who was not wearing his seat belt, was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel, the CHP said.

Neither drugs nor alcohol are suspected as factors in the crash, according to the CHP.

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.

COBB, Calif. – The mountains of Lake County are many and varied, situated as we are here in this land of contrasts.

Cobb Mountain is located at a lofty 4,720 feet, making it the highest in the Mayacamas mountain range.

According to the Lake County Historical Society's Pomo Bulletin (now named Konocti Chronicles), the mountain was named for John Cobb, who hailed from Henry County, Kentucky.

Cobb, born on May 19, 1814, arrived in the Cobb Valley in the month of October in 1853. Prior to arriving in the Cobb area, which was then part of Napa County, he was a river boater and farmer in and around Kentucky.

His first wife and both of his children passed away before 1848 was over. Cobb then married Esther E. Deming from Ohio and they raised six children together.

The great West was calling him, so, along with his wife and one of his children they set off for California in the spring of 1850.

After stopping over in several places, they finally arrived in California in July of 1851. Cobb was voted in as assessor of Napa County in 1854. After he resided in what we now call Cobb Valley for around five years, he moved down to the Middletown area, in the Callayomi Valley where he farmed.

When Lake County was divided from Napa County, Cobb worked the Callayomi and Guenoc Land Grants for Robert Waterman.

At about that same time Cobb moved to the Stone House in what is now Hidden Valley, where he farmed, as well as leased some of the lands to settlers.

Cobb moved around throughout the years, but ended up residing in Little High Valley at the Lea Neu Ranch.

He died Nov. 13, 1893, and rests forever at the Lower Lake Cemetery.

Geographically speaking, Cobb Mountain's area encompasses about 74 square miles of mixed and pine forests, oak woodlands as well as chaparral.

Geologically, Cobb resides in the Franciscan assemblage with its mish-mash of sandstone, chert, shale, serpentinite and greenstone rock.

Cobb Mountain possesses peaks which are volcanic in nature, such as Mount Hannah at 3,978 feet in elevation, Boggs Mountain at 3,720 feet and Seigler Mountain at 3,692 feet. The relatively nearby Mount Konocti is 4,299 feet high.

Cobb Mountain dresses up in snow a few times a year, matching some of the other tall peaks in Lake County, such as Mount Saint Helena and Snow Mountain.

Most of Cobb Mountain resides in the Clear Lake and Cache Creek watersheds. Much of the mountain's melt waters and creeks at its eastern side create the headwaters of Putah Creek, which flows on into the Sacramento River, then into the San Francisco Bay, all the way to the great Pacific Ocean.

At its southwest section Cobb Mountain's flow runs into Cobb Creek, and next pours into Big Sulphur Creek to the Russian River and again into the Pacific.

Along Cobb's northwest the moisture is diverted into Alder Creek, on into Kelsey Creek, Clear Lake to Cache Creek to the Sacramento River.

From south county's Middletown looking west it is easy to see that Cobb Mountain stretches out to the world famous Geysers Geothermal Field.

Some of Cobb Mountain's other claims to fame have been its resorts and small communities of Hobergs, Cobb, Loch Lomond and Whispering Pines.

Other distinctions it held was its timber lands, as well as its refreshing spring waters belonging to Cobb Mountain Spring Water and bottled as Mayacamas Mountain Spring Water.

Although the nightmare 2015 Valley fire devastated much of Cobb Mountain, the area still remains a crest of beauty with its abundant wildlife in the mountain's riparian and wetland communities, such as blacktail deer, coyote, black tailed jackrabbit, western grey squirrel, black bear and even mountain lions.

Cobb possesses unique vernal pools which host rare or endangered plant species like orcuttia grass, Boggs Lake hedge-hyssop and delicate dimorphic snapdragons.

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.”

BERKELEY, Calif. – Fiber-optic cables that constitute a global undersea telecommunications network could one day help scientists study offshore earthquakes and the geologic structures hidden deep beneath the ocean surface.

In a paper appearing in the journal Science, researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI, and Rice University describe an experiment that turned 20 kilometers of undersea fiber-optic cable into the equivalent of 10,000 seismic stations along the ocean floor.

During their four-day experiment in Monterey Bay, they recorded a 3.5 magnitude quake and seismic scattering from underwater fault zones.

Their technique, which they had previously tested with fiber-optic cables on land, could provide much-needed data on quakes that occur under the sea, where few seismic stations exist, leaving 70 percent of Earth’s surface without earthquake detectors.

“There is a huge need for seafloor seismology. Any instrumentation you get out into the ocean, even if it is only for the first 50 kilometers from shore, will be very useful,” said Nate Lindsey, a UC Berkeley graduate student and lead author of the paper.

Lindsey and Jonathan Ajo-Franklin, a geophysics professor at Rice University in Houston and a faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab, led the experiment with the assistance of Craig Dawe of MBARI, which owns the fiber-optic cable.

The cable stretches 52 kilometers offshore to the first seismic station ever placed on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, put there 17 years ago by MBARI and Barbara Romanowicz, a UC Berkeley professor of the graduate school in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science.

A permanent cable to the Monterey Accelerated Research System (MARS) node was laid in 2009, 20 kilometers of which were used in this test while off-line for yearly maintenance in March 2018.

“This is really a study on the frontier of seismology, the first time anyone has used offshore fiber-optic cables for looking at these types of oceanographic signals or for imaging fault structures,” said Ajo-Franklin. “One of the blank spots in the seismographic network worldwide is in the oceans.”

The ultimate goal of the researchers’ efforts, he said, is to use the dense fiber-optic networks around the world – probably more than 10 million kilometers in all, on both land and under the sea – as sensitive measures of Earth’s movement, allowing earthquake monitoring in regions that don’t have expensive ground stations like those that dot much of earthquake-prone California and the Pacific Coast.

“The existing seismic network tends to have high-precision instruments, but is relatively sparse, whereas this gives you access to a much denser array,” said Ajo-Franklin.

Photonic seismology

The technique the researchers use is Distributed Acoustic Sensing, which employs a photonic device that sends short pulses of laser light down the cable and detects the backscattering created by strain in the cable that is caused by stretching. With interferometry, they can measure the backscatter every 2 meters (6 feet), effectively turning a 20-kilometer cable into 10,000 individual motion sensors.

“These systems are sensitive to changes of nanometers to hundreds of picometers for every meter of length,” Ajo-Franklin said. “That is a one-part-in-a-billion change.”

Earlier this year, they reported the results of a six-month trial on land using 22 kilometers of cable near Sacramento emplaced by the Department of Energy as part of its 13,000-mile ESnet Dark Fiber Testbed. Dark fiber refers to optical cables laid underground, but unused or leased out for short-term use, in contrast to the actively used “lit” internet. The researchers were able to monitor seismic activity and environmental noise and obtain subsurface images at a higher resolution and larger scale than would have been possible with a traditional sensor network.

“The beauty of fiber-optic seismology is that you can use existing telecommunications cables without having to put out 10,000 seismometers,” Lindsey said. “You just walk out to the site and connect the instrument to the end of the fiber.”

During the underwater test, they were able to measure a broad range of frequencies of seismic waves from a magnitude 3.4 earthquake that occurred 45 kilometers inland near Gilroy, California, and map multiple known and previously unmapped submarine fault zones, part of the San Gregorio Fault system. They also were able to detect steady-state ocean waves – so-called ocean microseisms – as well as storm waves, all of which matched buoy and land seismic measurements.

“We have huge knowledge gaps about processes on the ocean floor and the structure of the oceanic crust because it is challenging to put instruments like seismometers at the bottom of the sea,” said Michael Manga, a UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science who is not a co-author of the paper. “This research shows the promise of using existing fiber-optic cables as arrays of sensors to image in new ways. Here, they’ve identified previously hypothesized waves that had not been detected before.”

According to Lindsey, there’s rising interest among seismologists to record Earth's ambient noise field caused by interactions between the ocean and the continental land: essentially, waves sloshing around near coastlines.

“By using these coastal fiber optic cables, we can basically watch the waves we are used to seeing from shore mapped onto the seafloor, and the way these ocean waves couple into the Earth to create seismic waves,” he said.

To make use of the world’s lit fiber-optic cables, Lindsey and Ajo-Franklin need to show that they can ping laser pulses through one channel without interfering with other channels in the fiber that carry independent data packets. They’re conducting experiments now with lit fibers, while also planning fiber-optic monitoring of seismic events in a geothermal area south of Southern California’s Salton Sea, in the Brawley seismic zone.

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through Berkeley Lab’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, the National Science Foundation (DGE 1106400) and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. The final analysis was supported by the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory as part of the GoMCarb project (DE-AC02-05CH11231).

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a big selection of many types of dogs needing homes.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian Shepherd, bluetick coonhound, cattle dog, Doberman Pinscher, pit bull, poodle, Rhodesian Ridgeback, terrier and treeing walker coonhound.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

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”).

Male poodle

This senior male poodle has a long black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. 13343.

Male terrier

This young male terrier has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 3a, ID No. 13349.

Male terrier

This young male terrier has a short red coat.

He is in kennel No. 3b, ID No. 13350.

Female boxer-pit bull mix

This female boxer-pit bull mix has a short black and white coat.

She is in kennel No. 5, ID No. 13338.

Female Doberman Pinscher

This young female Doberman Pinscher has a short gray and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. 13335.

Male pit bull terrier

This young male pit bull terrier has a short brown brindle coat.

He was found in the Lower Lake area. He is reported to be good in vehicles and good with cats.

He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. 13342.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. 13345.

‘Patsy’

“Patsy” is a female treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix with a short tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 13290.

‘Max’

“Max” is a male pit bull terrier with a short tan and white coat.

He has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 23, ID No. 13173.

‘Hazel’

“Hazel” is a female cattle dog with a medium-length tricolor coat.

She has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 13255.

Male Australian Shepherd

This male Australian Shepherd has a long black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 13250.

‘Daisey’

“Daisey” is a female treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix with a short tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13291.

‘Lucy’

“Lucy” is a female pit bull terrier with a short brindle coat and cropped ears.

She has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 13263.

‘Goofy’

“Goofy” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback with a short tan and black coat.

He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

New time-lapse videos of Earth’s glaciers and ice sheets as seen from space – spanning nearly 50 years – are providing scientists with new insights into how the planet’s frozen regions are changing.

At a media briefing Dec. 9 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, scientists released new time series of images of Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica using data from satellites including the NASA-U.S. Geological Survey Landsat missions.

One series of images tells illustrates the dramatic changes of Alaska’s glaciers and could warn of future retreat of the Hubbard Glacier.

Over Greenland, different satellite records show a speed-up of glacial retreat starting in 2000, as well as meltwater ponds spreading to higher elevations in the last decade, which could potentially speed up ice flow.

And in Antarctic ice shelves, the view from space could reveal lakes hidden beneath the winter snow.

Using images from the Landsat mission dating back to 1972 and continuing through 2019, glaciologist Mark Fahnestock of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has stitched together six-second time-lapses of every glacier in Alaska and the Yukon.

“We now have this long, detailed record that allows us to look at what’s happened in Alaska,” Fahnestock said. “When you play these movies, you get a sense of how dynamic these systems are and how unsteady the ice flow is.”

The videos clearly illustrate what’s happening to Alaska’s glaciers in a warming climate, he said, and highlight how different glaciers respond in varied ways. Some show surges that pause for a few years, or lakes forming where ice used to be, or even the debris from landslides making its way to the sea. Other glaciers show patterns that give scientists hints of what drives glacier changes.

The Columbia Glacier, for example, was relatively stable when the first Landsat satellite launched 1972. But starting in the mid-1980s, the glacier’s front began retreating rapidly, and by 2019 was 12.4 miles upstream. In comparison, the Hubbard Glacier has advanced 3 miles in the last 48 years. But Fahnestock’s time-lapse ends with a 2019 image that shows a large indentation in the glacier, where ice has broken off.

“That calving embayment is the first sign of weakness from Hubbard Glacier in almost 50 years – it’s been advancing through the historical record,” he said. If such embayments persist in the coming years, it could be a sign that change could be coming to Hubbard, he said: “The satellite images also show that these types of calving embayments were present in the decade before Columbia retreated.”

The Landsat satellites have provided the longest continuous record of Earth from space. The USGS has reprocessed old Landsat images, which allowed Fahnestock to handpick the clearest Landsat scenes for each summer, over each glacier. With software and computing power from Google Earth Engine, he created the series of time-lapse videos.

Scientists are using long-term satellite records to look at Greenland glaciers as well. Michalea King of Ohio State University analyzed data from Landsat missions dating back to 1985 to study more than 200 of Greenland’s large outlet glaciers. She examined how far the glacier fronts have retreated, how fast the ice flows, and how much ice glaciers are losing over this time span.

She found that Greenland’s glaciers retreated an average of about 3 miles between 1985 and 2018 – and that the most rapid retreat occurred between 2000 and 2005. And when she looked at the amount of glacial ice entering the ocean, she found that it was relatively steady for the first 15 years of the record, but then started increasing around 2000.

“These glaciers are calving more ice into the ocean than they were in the past,” King said. “There is a very clear relationship between the retreat and increasing ice mass losses from these glaciers during the 1985-through-present record. "While King is analyzing ice lost from the front of glacier, James Lea of the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom is using satellites data to examine ice melting on top of Greenland’s glaciers and ice sheets, which creates meltwater lakes.

These meltwater lakes can be up to 3 miles across and can drain through the ice in a matter of hours, Lea said, which can impact how fast the ice flows. With the computing power of Google Earth Engine, Lea analyzed images of the Greenland ice sheet from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellites for every day of every melt seasons over last 20 years – more than 18,000 images in all.

“We looked at how many lakes there are per year across the ice sheet and found an increasing trend over the last 20 years: a 27 percent increase in lakes,” Lea said. “We’re also getting more and more lakes at higher elevations – areas that we weren’t expecting to see lakes in until 2050 or 2060.”

When these high-elevation meltwater ponds punch through the ice sheet and drain, it could cause the ice sheet to speed up, he said, thinning the ice and accelerating its demise.

It doesn’t always take decades worth of data to study polar features – sometimes just a year or two will provide insights. The Antarctic ice sheet experiences surface melt, but there are also lakes several meters below the surface, insulated by layers of snow. To see where these subsurface lakes are, Devon Dunmire of the University of Colorado, Boulder, used microwave radar images from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite. Snow and ice are basically invisible to microwave radiation, but liquid water strongly absorbs it.

Dunmire’s new study, presented at the AGU meeting, found lakes dotting the George VI and Wilkins ice shelves near the Antarctic Peninsula – even a few that remained liquid throughout the winter months. These hidden lakes might be more common than scientists had thought, she said, noting that she is continuing to look for similar features across the continent’s ice shelves.

“Not much is known about distribution and quantity of these subsurface lakes, but this water appears to be prevalent on the ice shelf near the Antarctic peninsula,” Dunmire said, “and it’s an important component to understand because meltwater has been shown to destabilize ice shelves.”

For more information on Landsat and the upcoming Landsat 9 mission, visit: https://nasa.gov/landsat or https://usgs.gov/landsat .

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon said he plans to seek a second term on the Lake County Board of Supervisors.

Last week, the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office reported that Simon’s name was on the list of those who had filed to run for local offices, as Lake County News has reported.

Simon is being challenged by Julia Mary Bono, a businesswoman, minister and scientist.

“It has been a privilege to serve my first term as District 1 supervisor, and thanks to the work of so many, our efforts have brought us to a pivotal point in fire recovery, protection of Clear Lake and our remarkable environment, supporting and expanding housing opportunities, and partnering with communities, agriculture and the private sector to determine the economic direction and future of our region,” Simon said.

“In addition to acting on my pledge to be accessible to the people of District 1 by creating regular local office hours, attending community meetings and events, and coaching high school football, I am proud to be the governor’s appointee to the State Board of Fire Services – the only county supervisor out of California’s 58 counties to serve on the board. I also now advocate for District 1 and county interests as a member of numerous state and regional commissions and organizations,” he said.

Simon added, “As supervisor, my focus will always be on serving local interests and strengthening our sense of community. It is our common welfare that energizes and motivates me to seek re-election – and to pledge a lifetime of service to the people of District 1 and the county. I ask for your support as we work together to realize our enormous potential.

Simon can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-272-3368.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The majority of county of Lake offices will be closed to the public Monday, Dec. 23, through Friday, Dec. 27, in observance of the holidays.

In previous years, the county observed a three-day closure surrounding Christmas day.

Beginning in July of this year, the Board of Supervisors took action to provide employees in all represented and unrepresented groups five days off in consideration of the winter holidays.

The Lake County Library’s branches will also be closed Saturday, Dec. 28, and Lake County Animal Care and Control will be closed to the general public that day as well, as Lake County News has reported.

“Historically, demand for most County services has lulled around the holidays,” said County Administrative Officer, Carol J. Huchingson. “Our board saw this norm as an opportunity to partner with labor representatives to provide employees a meaningful benefit, without prohibitive additional cost to the county’s general fund. Employees have in recent years been provided two annual personal days, and those were exchanged by our employee groups for more time off around the holidays.”

Huchingson said that while county offices will generally be closed to the public, county officials and select staff will work behind closed doors to fulfill mandates and support critical functions.

“Behavioral Health Crisis services, jail staff, sheriff patrol and Central Dispatch, for example, will remain available 24/7. Some departments have made additional accommodations for local independent Special Districts, and our Auditor-Controller anticipates issuing payroll checks for the local entities their office supports,” Huchingson said.

Concern has been expressed regarding late-December real estate transactions, and County Assessor-Recorder Richard Ford reported that he will open the office on Friday, Dec. 20, to compensate for the added year-end volume.”

“We evaluate the calendar and adjust accordingly, every year,” Ford said.

“Road crews will be on-call and available to respond to road hazards, as required,” said County Public Works Director Scott De Leon.

Any hazards should first be reported to the California Highway Patrol, which will appropriately route the inquiry.

Public Services Director Lars Ewing reported the Eastlake Landfill will be closed to the public Dec. 24 to 26, but otherwise open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Outdoor county park facilities will be available during their customary hours.

The Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum and the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport will be open Friday, Dec. 27, and Saturday, Dec. 28, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Courthouse Museum will likewise maintain its customary Sunday hours – noon to 4 p.m. – on Dec. 29. Gibson Museum and Cultural Center in Middletown is closed for a building remodel through Jan. 2.

The Lake County Superior Court will be open the week of Dec. 23, with the exception of Christmas Day.

All county offices with responsibilities to support court-related matters and proceedings have planned to provide appropriate coverage.

The Sheriff’s Records Bureau and Civil Division will be open 8 a.m. to noon, with the exception of Christmas Day.

On Friday, California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, along with Cal Hospital Compare, recognized hospitals across California for their high performance in maternity care, patient safety and commitment to safe opioid care.

Officials said 36 hospitals met performance standards in both maternity care and patient safety, 134 hospitals met performance standards in maternity care, 77 hospitals met performance standards in patient safety, and 60 hospitals are being recognized for participating in the pilot year of the opioid care honor roll program.

Lake County’s two hospitals, Adventist Health Clear Lake and Sutter Lakeside Hospital, are on the Maternity and Patient Safety Honor Roll, and also were listed among the hospitals that met the maternity care and patient safety standards, with Adventist Health Clear Lake also participating in the opioid care honor roll program pilot.

“Improving the quality of patient care in hospitals is critically important,” said Dr. Ghaly. “These annual measurements through Cal Hospital Compare allow us to acknowledge hospitals doing excellent work and also inform hospitals when improvement is needed.”

“Cal Hospital Compare is proud to contribute to the statewide effort to improve quality in the hospital setting by providing a roadmap and way to evaluate performance for hospitals in the important areas of maternity, patient safety, and opioid care – and show where improvement is needed,” said Bruce Spurlock, MD, the executive director of Cal Hospital Compare. “We invite all California hospitals to use these honor rolls as a tool to evaluate and benchmark performance against other hospitals.”

Cal Hospital Compare, a nonprofit organization, has been providing Californians with objective hospital performance ratings for more than a decade.

For the last four years, California has also recognized hospitals that meet or surpass a statewide target of C-section rates of 23.9 percent for low-risk, first-births.

For mothers, overuse of C-sections can result in higher rates of complications like hemorrhage, transfusions, infection, and blood clots. The surgery also brings risks for babies, including higher rates of infection, respiratory complications, neonatal intensive care unit stays, and lower breastfeeding rates.

The California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative collects the data and actively works with hospitals to safely reduce low-risk C-sections.

Between 2014 and 2018, the percentage of California hospitals meeting the target went from 40 percent to 57 percent, representing 134 hospitals statewide.

While there is still significant opportunity for improvement, the fact that so many hospitals have already reached or surpassed this target indicates that reducing unnecessary C-sections is a top priority for California hospitals providing maternity care.

Cal Hospital Compare is also releasing its first Patient Safety Honor Roll today, recognizing 77 hospitals with high safety profiles in comparison to other California hospitals. Cal Hospital Compare has rigorously evaluated a set of publicly available patient safety measures to evaluate hospitals across several areas in patient safety, including hospital acquired infections, adverse events, sepsis management, patient experience and more.

This year Cal Hospital Compare launched the Opioid Care Honor Roll to help address the ongoing opioid crisis.

According to state data, nearly 2,200 Californians died of an opioid-related overdose in 2017. Patients with opioid use disorder are frequently hospitalized or visit the emergency department due to complications of the condition without also receiving treatment for the underlying disease of opioid addiction. This is a missed opportunity and leaves patients untreated and at high risk of future overdose.

In this pilot year of the program, 60 hospitals voluntarily reported their progress on addressing the opioid crisis. While results show that all participating hospitals are making progress, it is clear more work is needed.

In 2020, Cal Hospital Compare will continue to offer learning opportunities to support the rapid spread of evidence-based practices among hospitals.

“I encourage all hospitals to participate in the Opioid Care Honor Roll program next year,” said Dr. Ghaly. “Participating in the Opioid Care Honor Roll demonstrates a hospital’s commitment to treating opioid use disorder and reducing deaths from addiction.”

The California Health and Human Services Agency and Cal Hospital Compare recognize the following 36 hospitals for achieving recognition on the Maternity and Patient Safety Honor Rolls.

For more information on individual honor rolls and recipients, please refer to the Cal Hospital Compare website here.

36 Hospitals with Maternity and Patient Safety Honor Roll Status

Adventist Health Bakersfield, Bakersfield
Adventist Health Clear Lake, Clearlake
Adventist Health Hanford, Hanford
Barton Memorial Hospital, South Lake Tahoe
Centinela Hospital Medical Center, Inglewood
Community Memorial Hospital, Ventura
Doctors Hospital of Manteca, Manteca
Doctors Medical Center of Modesto, Modesto
El Camino Hospital Los Gatos, Los Gatos
French Hospital Medical Center, San Luis Obispo
John Muir Medical Center - Walnut Creek Campus, Walnut Creek
Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center, Downey
Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, Fontana
Kaiser Permanente Fresno Medical Center, Fresno
Kaiser Permanente Modesto Medical Center, Modesto
Kaiser Permanente Orange County - Anaheim Medical Center, Anaheim
Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center, Panorama City
Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center, Redwood City
Kaiser Permanente Riverside Medical Center, Riverside
Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center, Roseville
Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center, Santa Clara
Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center, Sacramento
Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center, Vallejo
Memorial Hospital Los Banos, Los Banos
PIH Health Hospital – Whittier, Whitter
Redwood Memorial Hospital, Fortuna
Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, Chula Vista
St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, Red Bluff
St. Louise Regional Hospital, Gilroy
Sutter Lakeside Hospital, Lakeport
Sutter Roseville Medical Center, Roseville
Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, Santa Rosa
Sutter Solano Medical Center, Vallejo
UC Irvine Health, Orange
UC San Diego Health - Hillcrest, UC San Diego Medical Center, La Jolla
UCLA Medical Center - Santa Monica, Santa Monica