KELSEYVILLE, Calf. – The Board of Supervisors and the city councils of Clearlake and Lakeport, along with their staffs, will meet for a special meeting on Monday, Dec. 9.

The workshop will be held beginning at 9 a.m. in the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 5340 Third St.

In 2018, the county and cities adopted a Lake County Economic Development Strategy.

The Monday workshop will provide an update on the Lake County Economic Development Strategy and cross-jurisdictional efforts to develop a Lake County Broadband Master Plan and a dig once ordinance.

The public is invited to attend.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a selection this week of mostly big dogs ready to be in new homes for the holidays.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian Shepherd, border collie, bluetick coonhound, cattle dog, Chihuahua, corgi, Doberman Pinscher, McNab, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback 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 Doberman Pinscher

This male Doberman Pinscher has a short black and brown coat.

He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 13284.

‘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.

‘Freckles’

“Freckles” is a male McNab-border collie mix with a medium-length black and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 13299.

‘Max’

“Max” is a male treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix with a short tricolor coat.

He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 13289.

Chihuahua-corgi mix

This male Chihuahua-corgi mix has a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 13274.

‘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.

‘Tatum’

“Tatum” is a male pit bull terrier with a short gray and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 34, ID No. 13172.

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.

 

Americans love their pets, spending more than US$70 billion last year on their beloved companions. This far exceeds the $7 billion spent on legal marijuana, and $32 billion on pizza, just for two examples.

Of the $70 billion, close to $20 billion pays for veterinary care, $16 billion is on supplies and over-the-counter medicines, and $32 billion is for food.

These large sums make it evident that Americans put great value on the lives of their pets. Yet how much value? We set out to find an answer for the pet Americans are particularly fond of: their dogs.

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Read more: Why losing a dog can be harder than losing a relative or friend

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We did so by using an experimental survey design that has been used to establish the value of human lives and many other “priceless” things. Ultimately, we concluded that the value is of the average dog is about $10,000. While some may chuckle at our research, we believe it holds important implications for human medicine, health and well-being.

The path to monetizing Bowser

Starting in the 1920s, the federal government initiated efforts to rationalize its decision-making processes by more systematically accounting for potential costs and benefits of public interventions. While the Flood Control Act of 1936 codified these developments, the Roosevelt administrations sought to expand the range of impacts accounted for in these cost-benefit analyses to shape public policy.

Analysts quickly ran into a daunting problem: How should they incorporate the value of goods and services that are not readily traded in the marketplace into their estimates? The valuation of human life serves as perhaps the most controversial such estimate.

But how do you value the invaluable?

What will people pay?

Initially, analysts solved this conundrum by relying on a human capital focus – that is, estimating individuals’ future productivity and income. Naturally this introduced large discrepancies into analyses based on individuals and populations affected. It also posited one particularly vexing challenge with regard to one group who did not “earn” a paycheck: housewives.

To account for these limitations, researchers began to rely on contingent valuation, that is their willingness to pay for certain goods. This consumer-based approach assigns monetary values to small changes in risk that are then aggregated across populations. Values developed in this way are commonly referred to as “shadow prices.”

Based on willingness-to-pay approaches, researchers have developed a wide variety of these shadow prices.

When it comes to valuing human life, federal agencies have currently settled around values of $10 million.

Other shadow prices have been established to account for the cost of rape and sexual assaults (approximately $300,000 in 2016 dollars) to the benefits gained from recreational activities like backpacking ($64.30 in 2016 dollars) and the preservation of bald eagles ($359 per person in 2016 dollars).

Yet conspicuously missing from the list has been Americans’ best friend.

From priceless … to $10,000?

So how much is a dog’s life worth? To most dog lovers, including ourselves, the answer is obvious: They are priceless. As true as this answer may be, it provides little guidance on how to value the effect of private and public decisions on our four-legged companions.

To provide an answer, we designed and fielded a large, nationally representative survey of dog owners. We used stated preferences of individuals to assess how much they are willing to pay to obtain small reductions in mortality risk for their dogs.

In our cases, the estimates ultimately amounted to a value of a statistical dog life of about $10,000.

There are a number of good reasons to get a better grasp on how Americans value their pets.

The most obvious application of our findings relate directly to the regulation of the health and safety of pets. Federal and state agencies publish hundreds of thousands of pages of regulation annually. Often, these affect the lives and health of animals, including dogs. Regulators, however, largely relied on their best guesses to value their costs and benefits as they related to their effect on dogs.

New regulations issued in the wake of numerous cases of contaminated dog food or pharmaceuticals present a case in point. With well over 1 million dogs killed in traffic annually, another potential use for our findings relates to traffic safety regulation investments.

Of course, our findings also provide a starting point for compensation in tort cases resulting from injuries and deaths of dogs. As currently adjudicated, compensation is solely based on the market value of the dog. Naturally, this severely limits compensation for many dog owners, particularly those whose dogs are not purebred. Our findings illustrate that compensation for owners should be much higher to account for the loss of companionship and associated emotional distress.

More generally, our estimates also offer a value of companionship applicable to assessing programs for the disabled as well as the broader effects of animal companionship on human health. This specifically includes the formal and informal use of dogs to provide emotional support or other services.

Finally, like the baby presented to King Solomon, dogs cannot be split in half. Today, most states still treat dogs merely as property. Particularly, in messy divorces, custody battles over dogs can quickly escalate and turn nasty. Our estimates offer a reasonable reference point to make divorce settlements less contentious, at least when it comes to four-legged companions.

To quantify or not to quantify?

The growing influence of quantification in general, and cost-benefit analysis in particular, has been lamented both inside and outside of academia. Critiques have focused on methods as well as underlying normative and ethical concerns.

Of course, neither the method of cost-benefit analysis nor the underlying developments of shadow prices are without their limitations. Yet, what are the alternatives?

We argue that cost-benefit and policy analyses, when done and utilized appropriately, provide needed insights into complex policy issues. This particularly holds in times marred by excessive partisan wrangling and misinformation.

Moreover, shadow prices allow analysts to incorporate costs and benefits into their analyses for societal groups that often remain unrepresented in the political discourse.

Perhaps most importantly, with governments at all levels facing resource limitations, every policy choice made always entails forgone alternatives. Accounting for costs and benefits, to the best of our abilities, thus offers our best chance to use our limited public resources wisely.

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

Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University; Deven Carlson, Professor of political science, University of Oklahoma, and Joe Ripberger, Deputy Director for Research, Center for Risk and Crisis Management, University of Oklahoma

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

In August 2018, NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched to space, soon becoming the closest-ever spacecraft to the sun.

With cutting-edge scientific instruments to measure the environment around the spacecraft, Parker Solar Probe has completed three of 24 planned passes through never-before-explored parts of the sun's atmosphere, the corona.

On Dec. 4, 2019, four new papers in the journal Nature describe what scientists have learned from this unprecedented exploration of our star — and what they look forward to learning next.

These findings reveal new information about the behavior of the material and particles that speed away from the sun, bringing scientists closer to answering fundamental questions about the physics of our star.

In the quest to protect astronauts and technology in space, the information Parker has uncovered about how the sun constantly ejects material and energy will help scientists re-write the models we use to understand and predict the space weather around our planet and understand the process by which stars are created and evolve.

“This first data from Parker reveals our star, the sun, in new and surprising ways,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Observing the sun up close rather than from a much greater distance is giving us an unprecedented view into important solar phenomena and how they affect us on Earth, and gives us new insights relevant to the understanding of active stars across galaxies. It’s just the beginning of an incredibly exciting time for heliophysics with Parker at the vanguard of new discoveries.”

Though it may seem placid to us here on Earth, the sun is anything but quiet. Our star is magnetically active, unleashing powerful bursts of light, deluges of particles moving near the speed of light and billion-ton clouds of magnetized material.

All this activity affects our planet, injecting damaging particles into the space where our satellites and astronauts fly, disrupting communications and navigation signals, and even – when intense – triggering power outages. It’s been happening for the sun's entire 5-billion-year lifetime, and will continue to shape the destinies of Earth and the other planets in our solar system into the future.

“The sun has fascinated humanity for our entire existence,” said Nour E. Raouafi, project scientist for Parker Solar Probe at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which built and manages the mission for NASA. “We’ve learned a great deal about our star in the past several decades, but we really needed a mission like Parker Solar Probe to go into the sun’s atmosphere. It’s only there that we can really learn the details of these complex solar processes. And what we’ve learned in just these three solar orbits alone has changed a lot of what we know about the sun.”

What happens on the sun is critical to understanding how it shapes the space around us. Most of the material that escapes the sun is part of the solar wind, a continual outflow of solar material that bathes the entire solar system. This ionized gas, called plasma, carries with it the sun's magnetic field, stretching it out through the solar system in a giant bubble that spans more than 10 billion miles.

The dynamic solar wind

Observed near Earth, the solar wind is a relatively uniform flow of plasma, with occasional turbulent tumbles. But by that point it’s traveled over ninety million miles – and the signatures of the sun's exact mechanisms for heating and accelerating the solar wind are wiped out.

Closer to the solar wind's source, Parker Solar Probe saw a much different picture: a complicated, active system.

“The complexity was mind-blowing when we first started looking at the data,” said Stuart Bale, the University of California, Berkeley, lead for Parker Solar Probe’s FIELDS instrument suite, which studies the scale and shape of electric and magnetic fields. “Now, I’ve gotten used to it. But when I show colleagues for the first time, they’re just blown away.”

From Parker’s vantage point 15 million miles from the sun, Bale explained, the solar wind is much more impulsive and unstable than what we see near Earth.

Like the sun itself, the solar wind is made up of plasma, where negatively charged electrons have separated from positively charged ions, creating a sea of free-floating particles with individual electric charge.

These free-floating particles mean plasma carries electric and magnetic fields, and changes in the plasma often make marks on those fields.

The FIELDS instruments surveyed the state of the solar wind by measuring and carefully analyzing how the electric and magnetic fields around the spacecraft changed over time, along with measuring waves in the nearby plasma.

These measurements showed quick reversals in the magnetic field and sudden, faster-moving jets of material – all characteristics that make the solar wind more turbulent. These details are key to understanding how the wind disperses energy as it flows away from the sun and throughout the solar system.

One type of event in particular drew the eye of the science teams: flips in the direction of the magnetic field, which flows out from the sun, embedded in the solar wind.

These reversals – dubbed "switchbacks" – last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes as they flow over Parker Solar Probe.

During a switchback, the magnetic field whips back on itself until it is pointed almost directly back at the sun. Together, FIELDS and SWEAP, the solar wind instrument suite led by the University of Michigan and managed by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, measured clusters of switchbacks throughout Parker Solar Probe's first two flybys.

“Waves have been seen in the solar wind from the start of the space age, and we assumed that closer to the sun the waves would get stronger, but we were not expecting to see them organize into these coherent structured velocity spikes," said Justin Kasper, principal investigator for SWEAP – short for Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons – at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. "We are detecting remnants of structures from the sun being hurled into space and violently changing the organization of the flows and magnetic field. This will dramatically change our theories for how the corona and solar wind are being heated.”

The exact source of the switchbacks isn't yet understood, but Parker Solar Probe's measurements have allowed scientists to narrow down the possibilities.

Among the many particles that perpetually stream from the sun are a constant beam of fast-moving electrons, which ride along the sun’s magnetic field lines out into the solar system.

These electrons always flow strictly along the shape of the field lines moving out from the sun, regardless of whether the north pole of the magnetic field in that particular region is pointing towards or away from the sun.

But Parker Solar Probe measured this flow of electrons going in the opposite direction, flipping back towards the sun – showing that the magnetic field itself must be bending back towards the sun, rather than Parker Solar Probe merely encountering a different magnetic field line from the sun that points in the opposite direction.

This suggests that the switchbacks are kinks in the magnetic field — localized disturbances traveling away from the sun, rather than a change in the magnetic field as it emerges from the sun.

Parker Solar Probe's observations of the switchbacks suggest that these events will grow even more common as the spacecraft gets closer to the sun.

The mission's next solar encounter on Jan. 29, 2020, will carry the spacecraft nearer to the sun than ever before, and may shed new light on this process. Not only does such information help change our understanding of what causes the solar wind and space weather around us, it also helps us understand a fundamental process of how stars work and how they release energy into their environment.

The rotating solar wind

Some of Parker Solar Probe's measurements are bringing scientists closer to answers to decades-old questions. One such question is about how, exactly, the solar wind flows out from the sun.

Near Earth, we see the solar wind flowing almost radially – meaning it's streaming directly from the sun, straight out in all directions. But the sun rotates as it releases the solar wind; before it breaks free, the solar wind was spinning along with it.

This is a bit like children riding on a playground park carousel – the atmosphere rotates with the sun much like the outer part of the carousel rotates, but the farther you go from the center, the faster you are moving in space. A child on the edge might jump off and would, at that point, move in a straight line outward, rather than continue rotating.

In a similar way, there's some point between the sun and Earth, the solar wind transitions from rotating along with the sun to flowing directly outwards, or radially, like we see from Earth.

Exactly where the solar wind transitions from a rotational flow to a perfectly radial flow has implications for how the sun sheds energy. Finding that point may help us better understand the lifecycle of other stars or the formation of protoplanetary disks, the dense disks of gas and dust around young stars that eventually coalesce into planets.

Now, for the first time – rather than just seeing that straight flow that we see near Earth – Parker Solar Probe was able to observe the solar wind while it was still rotating. It's as if Parker Solar Probe got a view of the whirling carousel directly for the first time, not just the children jumping off it.

Parker Solar Probe's solar wind instrument detected rotation starting more than 20 million miles from the sun, and as Parker approached its perihelion point, the speed of the rotation increased. The strength of the circulation was stronger than many scientists had predicted, but it also transitioned more quickly than predicted to an outward flow, which is what helps mask these effects from where we usually sit, about 93 million miles from the sun.

“The large rotational flow of the solar wind seen during the first encounters has been a real surprise," said Kasper. "While we hoped to eventually see rotational motion closer to the sun, the high speeds we are seeing in these first encounters is nearly ten times larger than predicted by the standard models."

Dust near the sun

Another question approaching an answer is the elusive dust-free zone. Our solar system is awash in dust – the cosmic crumbs of collisions that formed planets, asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies billions of years ago.

Scientists have long suspected that, close to the sun, this dust would be heated to high temperatures by powerful sunlight, turning it into a gas and creating a dust-free region around the sun. But no one had ever observed it.

For the first time, Parker Solar Probe's imagers saw the cosmic dust begin to thin out. Because WISPR – Parker Solar Probe's imaging instrument, led by the Naval Research Lab – looks out the side of the spacecraft, it can see wide swaths of the corona and solar wind, including regions closer to the sun.

These images show dust starting to thin a little over 7 million miles from the sun, and this decrease in dust continues steadily to the current limits of WISPR's measurements at a little over 4 million miles from the sun.

"This dust-free zone was predicted decades ago, but has never been seen before," said Russ Howard, principal investigator for the WISPR suite — short for Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe — at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. "We are now seeing what's happening to the dust near the sun."

At the rate of thinning, scientists expect to see a truly dust-free zone starting a little more than 2-3 million miles from the sun – meaning Parker Solar Probe could observe the dust-free zone as early as 2020, when its sixth flyby of the sun will carry it closer to our star than ever before.

Putting space weather under a microscope

Parker Solar Probe's measurements have given us a new perspective on two types of space weather events: energetic particle storms and coronal mass ejections.

Tiny particles – both electrons and ions – are accelerated by solar activity, creating storms of energetic particles. Events on the sun can send these particles rocketing out into the solar system at nearly the speed of light, meaning they reach Earth in under half an hour and can impact other worlds on similarly short time scales.

These particles carry a lot of energy, so they can damage spacecraft electronics and even endanger astronauts, especially those in deep space, outside the protection of Earth's magnetic field – and the short warning time for such particles makes them difficult to avoid.

Understanding exactly how these particles are accelerated to such high speeds is crucial. But even though they zip to Earth in as little as a few minutes, that's still enough time for the particles to lose the signatures of the processes that accelerated them in the first place.

By whipping around the sun at just a few million miles away, Parker Solar Probe can measure these particles just after they've left the sun, shedding new light on how they are released.

Already, Parker Solar Probe's ISʘIS instruments, led by Princeton University, have measured several never-before-seen energetic particle events – events so small that all trace of them is lost before they reach Earth or any of our near-Earth satellites.

These instruments have also measured a rare type of particle burst with a particularly high number of heavier elements – suggesting that both types of events may be more common than scientists previously thought.

"It’s amazing – even at solar minimum conditions, the sun produces many more tiny energetic particle events than we ever thought," said David McComas, principal investigator for the Integrated Science Investigation of the sun suite, or ISʘIS, at Princeton University in New Jersey. "These measurements will help us unravel the sources, acceleration, and transport of solar energetic particles and ultimately better protect satellites and astronauts in the future."

Data from the WISPR instruments also provided unprecedented detail on structures in the corona and solar wind – including coronal mass ejections, billion-ton clouds of solar material that the sun sends hurtling out into the solar system.

CMEs can trigger a range of effects on Earth and other worlds, from sparking auroras to inducing electric currents that can damage power grids and pipelines. WISPR's unique perspective, looking alongside such events as they travel away from the sun, has already shed new light on the range of events our star can unleash.

"Since Parker Solar Probe was matching the sun's rotation, we could watch the outflow of material for days and see the evolution of structures," said Howard. "Observations near Earth have made us think that fine structures in the corona segue into a smooth flow, and we're finding out that's not true. This will help us do better modeling of how events travel between the sun and Earth."

As Parker Solar Probe continues on its journey, it will make 21 more close approaches to the sun at progressively closer distances, culminating in three orbits a mere 3.83 million miles from the solar surface.

“The sun is the only star we can examine this closely,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “Getting data at the source is already revolutionizing our understanding of our own star and stars across the universe. Our little spacecraft is soldiering through brutal conditions to send home startling and exciting revelations.”

Sarah Frazier works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Authorities have arrested Kelseyville High School’s music teacher for having a relationship with a female student.

Cory Michael Cunningham, 38, of Kelseyville, was arrested on Friday night, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

The Kelseyville Unified School District is taking its own action in the case, according to Assistant Superintendent Tim Gill.

“We’re initiating an internal investigation immediately,” Gill told Lake County News on Saturday. “That will be a separate process than the investigation by the sheriff’s department.”

Gill added that, due to the circumstances, he couldn’t offer further comment on either investigation.

Paulich said that at 9:30 p.m. Friday, Lake County Sheriff’s deputies responded to Kelseyville High School for a report of a teacher possibly having an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old female student.

At the school, deputies contacted Cunningham, who Paulich said admitted to having an intimate relationship with the female student for the past several months.

Cunningham denied ever having sexual intercourse with the student, Paulich said.

Deputies arrested Cunningham, who Paulich said was booked at the Lake County Jail on charges of sending lewd material to a minor, genital penetration by foreign object, annoying or molesting a child, willful cruelty to a child, and destroying or concealing evidence.

Cunningham remained in custody on Saturday with bail set at $75,000. Jail records indicate he is to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Gill said Cunningham has been placed on administrative leave and was notified of that action. That’s a standard district response due to the criminal nature of the charges.

Adding to the sensitive and complex nature of the case is the fact that Cunningham is married to the niece of district Superintendent Dave McQueen, and so Gill has been delegated to respond to questions about the case because of that family connection.

However, McQueen did speak to the situation in a statement released by the district earlier on Saturday, explaining that Kelseyville Unified’s first priority is to safeguard students.

“We will inform KHS students this week that their teacher will remain out of the classroom until this matter is resolved, and we have put our counselors on notice in case any students need extra support,” McQueen said.

“This is a legal matter, so we are collaborating with our legal counsel and local law enforcement,” McQueen said. “We understand that people are curious about the details of the case; however, we will not share information that may jeopardize the legal investigation or compromise anyone’s right to privacy and/or due process.”

McQueen said Kelseyville is a small, close-knit community and having a teacher arrested on such allegations can bring up a range of difficult emotions for students and the community.

“Rumors and public speculation are not helpful and can be harmful,” McQueen said.

Cunningham became Kelseyville High School’s full-time music teacher in August 2018, Gill said.

In that capacity, he introduced a mariachi band, and traveled with smaller high school music groups – such as the jazz band and choir – to out-of-county events, according to a district website post.

He also continued to perform as a musician himself, according to the district website and social media posts.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The seats for three supervisorial districts will be on the ballot next year, and the fields of candidates are now being finalized.

Cathy Saderlund, Lake County’s auditor-controller/county clerk who is temporarily acting as interim registrar of voters, reported on local candidates who have filed to run for districts 1, 4 and 5 on the Board of Supervisors in 2020.

Saderlund emphasized that the list of candidates she released to Lake County News on Friday – the last day of the filing period for declarations of candidacy, nomination papers and candidates’ statements – remains unofficial.

“Candidate paperwork was being received up until 5 p.m. today and review and verification will continue,” she said on Friday evening.

Submitting paperwork to run in District 1 are Julia Mary Bono, a businesswoman, minister and scientist, and first-term incumbent Jose “Moke” Simon III, both of Middletown.

In District 4, Chris Almind, a water/operating engineer, has entered the race and will challenge first-term incumbent Tina Scott. Both are from Lakeport

For District 5, candidates are Kevin Ahajanian of Cobb; retired pharmacist Bill Kearney of Kelseyville; Jessica Pyska, an educator from Cobb; and Lily Woll, an English as a second language and Spanish teacher, from Kelseyville.

Longtime District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown has not filed to run for reelection. Brown has said repeatedly in recent years he didn’t intend to seek another term.

Because Brown hasn’t filed nomination papers, the elections calendar includes a five-day nomination extension period during which any qualified person other than the incumbent may file. That period ends on Dec 11.

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.

PG&E Corp. and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. have agreed to a settlement with the Official Committee of Tort Claimants, or TCC, and with firms representing individual claimants who sustained losses from the 2017 Northern California Wildfires and 2018 Camp fire.

The settlement agreement, announced Friday night, is valued at approximately $13.5 billion and has the support of the TCC.

Officials said the settlement will resolve all claims arising from those fires, including the 2017 Tubbs fire, as well as all claims arising from the 2015 Butte fire and 2016 Ghost Ship fire in Oakland. PG&E does not admit fault in the Tubbs fire or Ghost Ship fire.

The settlement is subject to a number of conditions and is to be implemented pursuant to PG&E’s Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization, which is subject to confirmation by the bankruptcy court in accordance with the provisions of the bankruptcy code.

Bankruptcy court approval of the settlement agreement would put PG&E on a sustainable path forward to emerge from Chapter 11 by the June 30, 2020, deadline to participate in the state of California’s go-forward wildfire fund.

“From the beginning of the Chapter 11 process, getting wildfire victims fairly compensated, especially the individuals, has been our primary goal. We want to help our customers, our neighbors and our friends in those impacted areas recover and rebuild after these tragic wildfires,” CEO and President of PG&E Corp. Bill Johnson said in a Friday night statement released by the company.

“We appreciate all the hard work by many stakeholders that went into reaching this agreement. With this important milestone now accomplished, we are focused on emerging from Chapter 11 as the utility of the future that our customers and communities expect and deserve,” Johnson said.

Johnson said there have been many calls for PG&E to change in recent years. “PG&E’s leadership team has heard those calls for change, and we realize we need to do even more to be a different company now and in the future. We will continue to make the needed changes to re-earn the trust and respect of our customers, our stakeholders and the public. We recognize we need to deliver safe and reliable energy service every single day – we’re determined to do just that.”

Johnson said the company shares the state’s focus on helping mitigate the risk of future wildfires and it will continue to do everything it can to help reduce those risks across its system.

This new agreement is the third major settlement that PG&E has achieved in its Chapter 11 case.

PG&E previously reached settlements with two other major groups of wildfire claim holders, including a $1 billion settlement in June with cities, counties and other public entities – which included the city of Clearlake and the county of Lake, which had filed suit over the 2017 Sulphur fire – and an $11 billion agreement with insurance companies and other entities that have already paid insurance coverage for claims relating to the 2017 and 2018 wildfires.

With all major wildfire claims now on a path to be resolved and the total amount of wildfire liabilities determined, PG&E said ti will now amend and finalize its reorganization plan, which will satisfy all wildfire claims in accordance with Assembly Bill 1054 (AB 1054) and otherwise comply with all requirements of the bankruptcy code.

The company remains on track to obtain regulatory approval and bankruptcy court confirmation of its plan in advance of the June 30, 2020, statutory deadline set by AB 1054 for participation in the state’s go-forward wildfire fund.

In addition, PG&E has received over $12 billion of equity backstop commitments to support the settlement and its plan.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Recent rains and cooler temperatures across the region have lowered the threat of wildfires, allowing Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit to transition out of peak fire season effective Monday, Dec. 9, at 8 a.m. in Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Solano, Yolo and Colusa counties.

Cal Fire will continue to maintain staffing to meet any potential threat, as well as maintaining the ability to strategically move resources to areas that remain at a higher threat level.

Cal fire also will continue to monitor weather conditions closely and still has the ability to increase staffing should weather conditions change or if there is a need to support wildfires or other emergencies in other areas of the state.

Statewide, CAL FIRE and firefighters from many local agencies responded to more than 5,641 wildfires within the State Responsibility Area that burned nearly 128,831 acres.

In the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, Cal Fire responded to 177 wildfires that charred 80,916 acres.

During the cooler winter months, Cal Fire will continue to actively focus efforts on fire prevention and fuels treatment activities as guided by the state’s strategic fire plan and localized unit fire plans. These will be done through public education, prescribed burns and various types of fuel reduction.

These activities are aimed at reducing the impacts of large, damaging wildfires and improving overall forest health.

Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Chief Shana Jones reminds residents to still take precautions outdoors in order to prevent sparking a wildfire.

Before you burn, ensure it is a permissive burn day by contacting your local air quality district and then make sure you have any and all required burn permits.

During burning, make sure that piles of landscape debris are no larger than four feet in diameter, provide a 10-foot clearance down to bare mineral soil around the burn pile and ensure that a responsible adult is in attendance at all times with a water source and a shovel.

With flu reaching levels typically seen later in the season, including widespread influenza activity throughout California, the California Department of Public Health is reminding people that now is the time to get a flu shot.

Since Sept. 29, when the flu season started, there have been 16 influenza-coded deaths identified on death certificates.

In addition, two influenza-associated deaths in children under the age of 18 have been reported to CDPH.

Measures of influenza activity monitored by CDPH are showing flu season has started earlier in California than in recent years.

Getting vaccinated is the best defense against the flu. It takes a couple of weeks after vaccination for the body to build immunity, so don’t delay getting a shot.

“Flu activity is starting earlier than usual in California this season,” said Dr. Sonia Angell, state public health officer and CDPH director. “The flu shot protects you and those around you by making it less likely you’ll get sick if you’re exposed to the virus, and if you do get ill, you’ll tend to have fewer days of symptoms and they’ll be less severe.”

Besides getting immunized, you can also take some other simple steps:

– Stay away from people who are sick and stay home when you or your child are sick.
– Cover coughs or sneezes with your sleeve or disposable tissue.
– Wash hands frequently and thoroughly with soap and warm water, or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
– Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.

CDPH recommends the annual flu vaccination for everyone six months of age and older. While anyone can get the flu, pregnant women, adults 65 years of age and older, and people with chronic conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes and asthma are particularly at risk for flu-related complications.

Children 5 years old and younger, especially those under 2, and all children with long-term health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and disorders of the brain or nervous system are at risk of serious complications if they get the flu.

It is important that parents speak with their doctor as soon as possible if their child develops flu symptoms, particularly children with a higher risk for flu complications.

Parents of any child with flu symptoms should make sure their child is well-hydrated and gets plenty of rest.

“The flu isn’t merely a winter cold: it is a serious, and very contagious virus that can be deadly. The flu is preventable, but a vaccination is needed every year to maintain the greatest protection,” said Dr. Angell.


Across the U.S. and in California, we currently have an outbreak of acute lung disease associated with vaping.

The early symptoms can be similar to those associated with influenza or other respiratory conditions.

If you vape or use e-cigarettes, it’s particularly important that you get your flu shot this year. If you visit your health care provider for symptoms you think might be influenza, be sure to tell your provider about your use of e-cigarettes or vaping.

For more information about the flu, visit CDPH’s website. For the flu vaccine location nearest you, visit www.flu.gov .

What happens when a beneficiary of a deceased person’s probate estate or living trust dies during an ongoing administration and before receiving the full distribution of their inheritance?

The death of a beneficiary scenario can arise in settling either a probate estate or a trust administration.

The beneficiary’s death affects both the administration of the first decedent’s probate estate or trust and the administration of the beneficiary’s own estate.

Consider an ongoing probate administration of a deceased mother’s estate where a son dies prior to receiving his inheritance.

The deceased son’s estate can claim his undistributed inheritance; which it will in turn distribute to the beneficiaries or heirs of the son’s estate, as relevant.

This, however, may unfortunately require probating the deceased child’s estate.

Whether a probate is required depends both on the gross value of the son’s own probate estate, which is increased by the amount of the son’s unreceived inheritance, and also whether some or all of the son’s estate passes to his surviving spouse or registered domestic partner, as relevant.

When is a probate required? In California, probate is required when the gross value of a decedent’s estate exceeds $150,000 and passes to someone other than the decedent’s surviving spouse or registered domestic partner.

No probate is required to transfer assets to a decedent’s surviving spouse or registered domestic partner.

A surviving spouse or domestic partner is entitled to use a spousal property court petition to transfer title to real property and other assets held in the name of the deceased spouse into the surviving spouse or the registered domestic partner’s name, as relevant.

Small estates under $150,000 also do not require probate and can usually be settled by affidavits or, when the estate includes real property worth more than $50,000, a small estate petition to confirm title to real and to personal property.

Sometimes a probate of a small estate is necessary due to issues related to the decedent’s debts or determining who is entitled to receive a portion of the estate.

Holding assets in a living trust avoids going to court: It avoids probate, spousal property petitions, and small estate petitions. Thus anytime real property worth more than $50,000 is involved it usually makes sense for the owner to hold title in his trust.

Who inherits from the deceased son’s estate?

If the son had a last will and testament then it controls. If the son had a living trust then the son almost always has an accompanying “pour over will.” It, as its name implies, leaves, i.e., “pours,” everything in the son’s estate to his revocable living trust.

Either way the son’s will might need to be probated, discussed above. Without a will, the son’s heirs inherit under the laws of intestate succession. The decedent’s surviving spouse, or registered domestic partner and children are always the heirs if they survive.

Settling an intestate estate, like settling a testate estate, i.e., where the decedent has a will, can involve probate, a spousal property petition, small estate affidavits or small estate court petitions to confirm title to real and personal property, discussed above.

Next, instead consider a trust beneficiary who dies during an ongoing administration of a decedent’s trust.

Sometimes, the trust may provide that any undistributed inheritance not received by a beneficiary because the beneficiary dies during trust administration passes directly to specified alternative beneficiaries.

That greatly simplifies matters and also better ensures that the deceased settlor’s assets go to intended beneficiaries.

Anyone confronting any of these legal issues should consult a licensed attorney and not reach any legal conclusions from the above general discussion.

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

The International Space Station is Earth’s only orbiting laboratory.

That’s important because it not only allows us to conduct research that benefits all of us on Earth, it also provides the only microgravity environment in which we can test technologies critical to our deep-space exploration in the near and far-term future.

Here, engineering models can be validated, and new technologies and systems for future missions can be demonstrated, without risk to crew members.

Historically, the Mercury program enabled the Gemini program which, in turn, enabled the Apollo program through technology and systems advancements.

Today, the space station is giving us a similar experience in long-duration spacecraft operations, and serving as a test bed for new technologies and upgraded vehicle systems, which are enabling future missions.

Dave Hornyak is NASA’s ISS Technology Demonstration Research Portfolio Manager. He noted: “The ISS lets us demonstrate that a technology works as intended in a spacecraft environment. Demonstrations on the space station inform operators and flight crews how the system operates, proves interoperability with other systems and demonstrates system safety and reliability.”

There are many technologies and capabilities that need to be developed as we move forward to the Moon and on to Mars.

For example, researchers have recently tested a new design of solar array that will be used on the first module for the Deep Space Gateway – our future space station that will serve as a home base for astronaut expeditions to the Moon.

Solar arrays in operation right now need to unfold before becoming active. But new designs allow future solar arrays to roll out, and also retract. They were tested for strength and durability on the ISS, and were designed to be more compact than current rigid panels.

NASA’s Orion Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle is a four-person exploration craft designed to take astronauts farther in space than anyone has gone before. Its backup navigation system uses a new technology that is optically based.

It captures images of the Moon or Earth, and based on their size and angle, an algorithm determines Orion’s location.

These optics can’t be tested on Earth because our atmosphere would distort the images enough to make the algorithm inaccurate.

Aboard the ISS however, the algorithm was confirmed to work properly. A secondary benefit is the system was tested at spacecraft speed, making for a realistic navigation scenario.

As people travel deeper into space, they’ll need solutions to a variety of safety challenges. For instance, if a fire breaks out, how fast can it grow and spread in a micro-gravity environment?

NASA’s Spacecraft Fire Safety, or SAFFIRE, program has already conducted a series of experiments on 3 ISS cargo vehicles to measure flame growth, oxygen use and combustion products.

Results are helping to improve spacecraft fire detection, response and extinguishment, and crew protection.

“Ultimately,” said Hornyak, “Technology and operations demonstrations occurring on the ISS today are guiding our planning, reducing risk, and providing capabilities to enable future exploration missions.”

For more inside information about the tech being tested aboard the station, visit www.nasa.gov/iss-science.

For more on the science of space exploration, visit http://science.nasa.gov.