LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Several new kittens have joined the array of felines now available for adoption at Lake County Animal Care and Control.

This week there are three new orange tabby kittens, along with several charming black and white and gray kittens, as well as several very nice adult cats.

In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped 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 there, hoping you'll choose them.

The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (other cats pictured on the animal control Web site that are not listed here are still “on hold”).

Domestic short hair mix kitten

This female domestic short hair mix kitten is 10 weeks old.

She has a black and white coat, has blue eyes, weighs 2 pounds and has been spayed.

She's in cat room kennel No. 4a, ID number 36088.

Domestic short hair mix kitten

This female domestic short hair mix kitten is 10 weeks old.

She has a short black and white coat, has blue eyes, weighs nearly 2 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 4b, ID No. 36089.

Domestic short hair mix kitten

This male domestic short hair mix kitten is 10 weeks old.

He has a short black and white coat, has blue eyes, weighs almost 2 pounds and has been neutered.

He's in cat room kennel No. 4c, ID No. 36090.

Domestic short hair mix kitten

This female domestic short hair mix kitten is 10 weeks old.

She has a short white and gray tabby coat, has blue eyes, weighs almost 2 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 4d, ID No. 36091.

Orange tabby kitten

This male orange tabby kitten is 17 weeks old.

He has gold eyes, a short coat, weighs 2.4 pounds and has been neutered.

You can find him in cat room kennel No. 8a, ID No. 36280.

Orange tabby kitten

This female orange tabby kitten is 17 weeks old.

She has gold eyes, a short coat, weighs 2 pounds and has been spayed.

She is in cat room kennel No. 8b, ID No. 36281.

Orange tabby kitten

This female Orange tabby kitten is 17 weeks old.

She has gold eyes, along coat, weighs 2.2 pounds and has been spayed.

She is in cat room kennel No. 8c, ID No. 36282.

White domestic medium hair

This female white domestic medium hair ca will t is 9 years old.

She weighs 24 pounds, has blue eyes and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 22, ID No. 36285.

Female brown tabby

This female brown tabby is 3 years old.

She has a long, luxurious coat with white markings and gold eyes, and she has been spayed.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 29, ID No. 36214.

Male domestic long hair kitten

This male domestic long hair kitten is 9 weeks old.

He has a gray and white coat, weighs nearly 2 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in cat room kennel No. 45b, ID No. 36383.

Domestic short hair mix

This female domestic short hair mix is 8 years old.

She has a gray and white coat, green eyes, weighs nearly 8 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 105, ID No. 36162.

‘Susie Q’

“Susie Q” is an 8 year old domestic medium hair mix.

She has green eyes, a gray and white coat, weighs 14 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 106, ID No. 36161.

Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .

Please note: Cats listed at the shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

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, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.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.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Denny Salisbury's best friend is his bicycle, the one the former Marine corporal will ride to encircle Clear Lake – a distance of about 100 miles – on Sunday, June 9, in honor of his compatriots in arms who were fatalities of the war on terror in Iraq.

The distance is no big deal for Salisbury, who will be joined by other members of Ride 2 Recovery Patriot Guard Riders on his ride. He is a regional rider for his Northern California project team.

Bicycling for an infinite number of miles has been the one true aid in Salisbury's five-year quest to rehabilitate himself from the wounds and agony he suffered in Iraq and since then.

Along with other program members in October of last year, he completed a “challenge” ride of 477 miles from San Francisco to Santa Monica and a 100-mile challenge ride in one day in the Las Vegas area.

“I remember when I first started riding 10 miles it beat the crap out of me,” he confided. “I would be physically just drained. My clothes would be soaking wet. Now if I do 10 miles I'm not even warmed up.

“What we do is help veterans recover,” Salisbury said regarding Ride 2 Recovery's mission. “Getting on a bike not only improves your health, it helps your mind. You're focusing on a whole 'nother thing. So you're not depressed or feeling anxiety or any of that. When you're on a bike you can communicate with your body and your friends.”

So the bike is a most integral part of this just-turned-26 native of Kelseyville's recovery process?

“Absolutely. Bicycling has changed my life around. I would be lost still without riding. With the fitness you get from it your mind is a lot healthier,” said Salisbury, who was awarded the Purple Heart and medically discharged from active duty in 2008 just three years after being awarded his high school diploma.

He was not yet 21 years old at the time he was designated 100-percent disabled. For a long time he experienced migraines and memory loss.

Indeed Salisbury was disabled, first from an incident involving an improvised explosive device – or IED – then post-traumatic stress disorder and later from addiction to prescribed drugs, which cost him a marriage (he has a daughter, Versailee), temporary discontinuance of his pursuit of a college degree and the mental process needed to hold a job.

Consequently, Salisbury is reluctant to seek the aid of doctors.

“My drug addiction caused me to get emotionally detached from my family and friends,” he said. “I wasn't told how to come back to the U.S. From Iraq. It wasn't like 'Oh, you're going to have all these problems and nightmares. You're going to be wishing you still had your gun.' Sometimes I feel like I'm still back there. But after a (PTSD) program I graduated from last year I'm at peace with it all. I think about it, but it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.”

What happened to Salisbury in Iraq he may never forget.

“We were just doing a regular patrol and we got ambushed by a car with a guy with a gun,” he said. “So we ran back to our truck, but then an IED got our truck. They (the terrorists) wanted to run us back to our vehicles so that they could set us up for the IED. We got in our truck and started pursuing and that's how I got it.

“Two of my friends – my lieutenant and my driver, a lance corporal – were killed. My gunner broke both his ankles, his leg and his back. The guy sitting next to me was busted up and bloody. I had a hole and in my leg and second degree burns on my face. Of the five people in the vehicle I was the only one to walk out of the situation.”

While he was recovering from his injuries, a third of his friends was shot by a sniper.

“I was back at the base listening to our radio and heard that he got shot,” Salisbury said.

An executive officer confirmed that his friend was a sniper's victim, he recalled.

Salisbury's initial gung ho motivation for enlisting in the Marine Corps and disillusionment after going off to war is doubtlessly not unique for a teenager, especially a rough and tumble one who was a tight end and a defensive end on the Kelseyville football team.

But such patriotic fervor is not restricted to the very young.

A decade ago, Pat Tillman of San Jose turned down a $3.6 million contract offer by the St. Louis Rams to enlist in the U.S. Army only to be killed by “friendly fire” in Iraq.

Salisbury's Marine Corps entrance test scores were high, which qualified him for virtually any specialty of his choosing.

“But I wanted to go into the infantry,” he said, “because I wanted to fight. I just felt like it needed to be done.

“When I went in I was going to fight for freedom, I was going to defend this country from the Iraqis, the Taliban and al-Qaida,” he said. “The thing with this war, not all the enemy was Iraqi. From what I saw it was 'If you want to fight Americans just drop down to Iraq and have a war,' which brought in all these mercenaries from other countries. Syrian snipers were big in our area.

Regarding the continued presence of U.S. Troops in the Mideast, Salisbury added,”We are fighting 1 percent of 1 percent of their population. After 10 years we are sending our best men and women over there to fight this war and what really did we do over there? I'm failing to see the benefit of this war. I don't want to get all vertical, but it frustrates the **** out of me that I've lost friends over there and I can't see a ******* cause. What did we gain from it? I don't think that we helped anyone.

“What really hurt me was going over there and kicking innocent families out of their houses and then coming back here and seeing the same ******** happening to our U.S. citizens. If America is struggling right now and trying to survive, what the **** are we doing in other countries?”

Salisbury still hopes to complete his college education. His initial effort ended after he continuously fell asleep in class and crashed three cars while in school, he says, because of his medication. Consequently, he lost the financial aid of the GI bill.

“I don't want to bash the VA or the government,” he added. “But to survive you had to go to college so you get paid, but if you're addicted to all this medication and falling asleep in class and crashing cars trying to get to school, what the hell's the point?

“Sometimes I feel that the doctors – I don't know how to phrase it – don't understand every situation. When you focus on different veterans, each one has different problems. You have to really get specific ... That's probably why I haven't gone to doctors and kind of detached myself from them. I know it's not the case, but I personally feel that they haven't helped me in the way I wanted to be helped. I kind of feel like they medicated me and pushed me aside.”

Salisbury believes he will eventually get a job. For the moment, though, he wants to help other veterans, possibly through motivational speaking.

Deb Ingalls, who teaches art and physical education at KHS as she did while Salisbury was in high school, sees him as getting progressively stronger.

“He is an awesome young man and he worked really hard all the time and was very positive. I saw him when he came back from Iraq and he was having a really hard time,” she said. “Now when I see him he looks fantastic. I'm proud of him.”

Through it all, Salisbury still loves the Marines and is a member of an honors team that fires 21-gun salutes at military funerals.

Said Salisbury: “I'm sure that there are people out there who have had it worse than me. The way I look at it, I'm not a victim; I'm a survivor. Bring on the next thing.”

Email John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Although the risk of hurricane striking California is very low, knowing what to do when one hits could save your live and the lives of loved ones if an event similar to hurricanes Katrina, Sandy or Andrew as well as a tropical storm such as Debby, Marie or Nicole.

“Because Mother Nature has blessed California with a very diverse topography and we live in a very, very mobile society, Californians can go to the ocean one day, the beach the next and the mountains the day after,” said California Emergency Management Agency (Cal EMA) Secretary Mark Ghilarducci. “Regardless of where Californians go, though, it’s important that they remember that some danger comes with the beauty of that area and the same is true if they are traveling to other states.”

Hurricane season began June 1. In anticipation of its arrival, the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center sponsored National Hurricane Preparedness Week, May 26-June 1.

“Even though the last time a hurricane made landfall in California is believed to have occurred in the 1800s, we are not immune from tropical storms affecting the Gulf of California and other parts of the Pacific,” said Ghilarducci.

He noted that although only one tropical storm has directly made landfall in California since 1900, coming ashore in San Pedro on Sept. 25, 1939, packing winds of up to 50 miles per hour, dropping nearly a foot of rain and is believed responsible for several deaths, California counties have felt the impacts of tropical storms or cyclones that did not reach land in California.

“Tropical Storm Kathleen didn’t make landfall in California in 1976, but the high winds and the flooding generated by it and its remnants were so severe that they caused more than $120 million in public and private-sector damages in Imperial, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, resulting in a federal disaster declaration for those counties,” Ghilarducci said.

“Hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes and other high-wind events can wreak considerable damage,” he added. “The tragic tornado in Oklahoma, damaging windstorms in the San Gabriel Valley in late November and early December of 2011, as well as hurricanes Sandy and Irene illustrate how intense wind conditions can impact a community.”

Even though 24 homes and five businesses suffered major damage, another 12 homes and five businesses, more than 200,000 residents were without power and emergency response and repair costs incurred by affected jurisdictions in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties totaled more than $34 million, no one died as a result of the emergency.

In comparison, last week’s tornado and the hurricanes caused of deaths and injuries, thousands homeless and prompted the mobilization hundreds, if not thousands, of first responders, volunteers and others to provide assistance, including of members of national urban search and rescue task forces based in the Golden State.

The Cal EMA secretary urged Californians, especially those who plan to visit states that are at risk, to take time to learn about hurricanes, tropical storms and cyclones, as well as storm surges and other hazards associated with them by visiting the National Hurricane Center Web site, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/prepare/ .

Additional information on emergency preparedness is available at http://www.calema.ca.gov/Pages/default.aspx .

Ghilarducci said it's a good time for Californians who haven’t already done so or who are planning to visit the East Coast, the Gulf Coast and other areas subject to hurricanes and tropical storms to review and adjust their emergency plans, add appropriate supplies to their emergency kits, make sure their flashlights and portable radios are operable and learn what they should do if they are in a hurricane or other wind-related emergency.

“Many of the preparedness actions they take now will help prepare them for the next earthquake, fire, flood or other emergency that strikes California,” he said.

Once they reach their destination, he said, Californians should “maintain situational awareness about weather conditions, roadways, evacuation routes and listen to a radio for information and instructions from local authorities if an emergency occurs or a warning is issued. Most of all be sure to cooperate with them fully.”

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – With the weather warming up and fire season here, residents recently took advantage of an opportunity to learn about being prepared.

Wildland fire awareness, prevention and safety was the theme of the day for the fourth annual Wildfire Safety Expo held at Kelseyville Lumber on Saturday, May 18.

The Lake County Fire Safe Council, local fire protection districts, Bureau of Land Management, Cal Fire and the United States Forest Service, along with other agencies and vendors all cooperated in what proved to be an informative day for approximately 500 local homeowners and their children.

The fire departments showed off an array of firefighting tools, including a live-fire training trailer, a variety of wildland fire suppression engines, local fire district engines and the emergency support unit.

Kelseyville Lumber, a strong supporter of the expo and local community events, generously donated the use of their facility for the event. They even helped inflate balloons for the kids.   

An assortment of booths provided materials about the good and the bad that can come from a wildfire.  

There was information about landscaping, fire resistant plants, hardening homes, emergency check lists, animal evacuation, and services to protect your home if damaged by fire.  

Residents also learned about the local ham radio operators and the role they and agencies like the Red Cross play in emergency situations.

At the expo, homeowners were able see how they could help protect their homes in case of a wildfire and what tools are available to do the job.  

Local fuel reduction companies had their equipment on display and were available for questions by interested residents.

One of the highlights held throughout the day were live fire demonstration by the local fire departments.  

Another was when CALSTAR landed their brand new helicopter and demonstrated their coordination with the fire districts during emergency operations.   

Officers from Lake County Animal Care & Control were on hand to talk about the Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection (L.E.A.P.) group, which helped with animal evacuation during the 2012 fire season.

University of California Cooperative Extensioni master gardeners, Pacific Gas and Electric and the Natural Resources Conservation Service were all on hand to give advice about fire safe landscaping and plants.

Smokey Bear was a prominent figure throughout the day and children enjoyed the bounce house, sponsored by the Lake County Fire Chiefs’ Association, and overseen by Sparky the Fire Dog.   

Members of the Cobb Mountain and Blue Heron 4-H groups, along with students from Lower Lake High School’s “Kids Club,” assisted with the children enjoying the bounce house.

The “Firewise Community” trailer was also on hand at the event. This education campaign is designed to encourage neighbors to work together to do the work necessary to keep their neighborhoods and properties fire safe.

The Wildfire Safety Expo provided adults and children with the opportunity to get up-close and personal with firefighting equipment and the personnel that protect them during the state's wildfire season.

The event provided residents with the information they need to create defensible space around their properties, and provide firefighters with a safer environment as they strive to protect lives and property during California's dangerous fire seasons.

All participating partners say they're ready to do it again next year, with even more activities and information available in 2014.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The official start of summer is just around the corner, and it's a great time to adopt a canine companion.

Want a dog to enjoy hikes, trips on the lake or walks in the neighborhood? Chances are the local shelter or the county's many rescue groups have just the dog for you and your family.

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

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”).

Female pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 7 months old.

She weighs nearly 26 pounds, has been spayed, and has a short brown and white coat.

She is currently in foster, ID No. 35880.

Chihuahua-wirehaired terrier

This male Chihuahua-wirehaired terrier is 8 months old.

He weighs nearly 10 pounds, has a long tan coat and has been altered.

He’s currently in foster, ID No. 36211.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 9 months old.

He has a short tan coat, weighs 4 pounds and has not yet been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 3, ID No. 36498.

Female Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix is 3 years old.

She has a short black and tan coat and weighs nearly 8 pounds. It was not reported if she had been altered.

Find her in kennel No. 4, ID No. 36406.

Male boxer mix

This male boxer mix is 2 years old.

He has a short brown brindle and white coat, weighs 47 pounds and has not yet been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 36409.

Labrador Retriever mix

This male Labrador Retriever mix is 2 years old.

He has a short brown coat and weighs 112 pounds. Shelter staff did not report if he had been altered.

Find him in kennel No. 10, ID No. 36407.

Mastiff-hound mix

This mastiff-hound mix is 8 months old.

She has a short brown brindle and black coat and weighs 60 pounds. It was not reported whether or not she had been altered.

She’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 36411.

Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix is 9 months old.

She has a short tan coat, weighs 7 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 18a, ID No. 36421.

Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 9 months old.

He has a short tan coat, weighs 7 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 18b, ID No. 36420.

'Peanut'

“Peanut” is a 5-year-old Pomeranian Chihuahua mix.

He has a short red coat and has been altered.

Shelter staff said peanut needs a home with no small children.

He's in kennel No. 20, ID No. 35966.

Terrier mix

This male terrier mix is 17 weeks old.

He has a short tan coat, weighs 15 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 21, ID No. 36303.

Pit bull terrier-hound mix

This male pit bull terrier-hound mix is 4 months old.

He weighs 18 pounds, has a short tan and white coat, and has been spayed.

He’s in kennel No. 22c, ID No. 36139.

Please note: Dogs listed at the county shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

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, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.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.

Despite satellite images that show vast networks of channels, past Mars rover missions have shown limited evidence for flowing water on Mars.

Now, rocks analyzed by NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover team, including Linda Kah, associate professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, provide solid evidence that Mars had rivers or streams.

This suggests that the environment was drastically different than today's cold and dry conditions, with the potential to support life.

A paper on the team's findings was published in last week's edition of Science.

Since its landing last August, the Curiosity Rover has been looking for clues to whether the Martian surface has ever had environments capable of sustaining, or potentially evolving, life.

Critical evidence may include hydrated minerals or water-bearing minerals, organic compounds or other chemical ingredients related to life.

Scientists of the Mars Science Laboratory mission used images collected from the rover's MastCam, which includes two high-resolution cameras mounted onto its mast.

The cameras take full-color images and have filters that can isolate wavelengths of light that provide information about minerals present on the planet's surface.

As the rover moved from its landing site to its current location in “Yellowknife Bay,” the cameras captured images of large rock formations composed of many rounded pebbles cemented into beds several centimeters thick.

While such deposits are very common on Earth, the presence of these types of rocks on Mars has great significance for the Red Planet.

“These (rock formations) point to a past on Mars that was warmer, and wet enough to allow water to flow for many kilometers across the surface of Mars,” said Kah, who helped work the cameras.

The clasts, or pebbles within the rock formation, appear to have been rounded by erosion while carried through water, such as in a stream or river. The size and orientation of the pebbles suggest they may have been carried by one or more shallow, fast-moving streams.

Using published abrasion rates and taking into consideration reduced gravity, the scientists estimate the pebbles were moved at least a few kilometers.

Analyzing the grain size distribution and similar rock formations, the scientists believe the river was less than a meter deep and the water's average velocity was 0.2 to 0.75 meters per second.

“These rocks provide a record of past conditions at the site that contrasts with the modern Martian environment, whose atmospheric conditions make liquid water unstable,” said Kah. “Finding ancient river deposits indicates sustained liquid water flows across the landscape, and raises prospects of once habitable conditions.”

The mission will not conclude until at least 2014.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl .

COBB, Calif. – Two moderate-sized earthquakes were reported near The Geysers geothermal steamfield on Saturday afternoon.

The US Geological Survey said in its preliminary reports that the quakes each measured 3.4 in magnitude.

The first quake occurred at 1:35 p.m. and was centered one mile north northwest of The Geysers and 14 miles south southwest of Clearlake, at a depth of 1.1 miles, the USGS said.

The survey received shake reports from Angwin, Kelseyville and San Francisco.

The second quake occurred at 4 p.m. and was centered one mile north northeast of the geysers and 13 miles south southwest of Clearlake, at a depth of 1.4 miles, according to the USGS report.

The USGS received shake reports from Middletown, Brentwood, Calistoga and San Francisco for the second quakes.

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. – An inmate escaped from the Lake County Jail on Friday night, only to be recaptured a short time later.

The male inmate was reported to have gotten away from the jail late Friday evening, according to reports from the scene.

The inmate, said to be a trustee and therefore allowed to work in various capacities, was said to have been found south of the jail on Hill Road.

A passerby reportedly helped apprehend the man.

Additional details were not immediately available.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lakeport skilled nursing facility has received the most severe penalty and highest fine under state law for the 2011 death of a woman who was given the wrong medication and not transported to the hospital for acute care.

Dr. Ron Chapman, director and state health officer of the California Department of Public Health, said Evergreen Lakeport Healthcare received a Class “AA” citation and a $100,000 fine from the state of California.

Chapman said a CDPH investigation found facility deficiencies resulted in the death of the resident, whose name was not released in the report.

Evergreen Lakeport Healthcare – part of Evergreen California Healthcare and EmpRes Healthcare – is a 99-bed skilled nursing facility located on Craig Avenue that offers both short- and long-term care.

Neither Evergreen Lakeport nor any of its associated entities have so far issued a statement in response to the penalty.

The citation packet – including corrective action items to prevent similar occurrences in the future was delivered to the facility's executive director on May 16, state documents showed.

The woman whose death resulted in the penalty was admitted to Evergreen with a coronary artery bypass graft, pacemaker for sick sinus syndrome and atrial fibrillation, the report said. She lived with her daughter and was said to be alert, independent and spry.

According to the investigation, at around 1:30 a.m. Aug. 8, 2011, a nurse incorrectly administered an oral dose of 30 milligrams of methodone for pain to the female resident in question instead of another patient.

The state investigation said that methodone was not in the physician's orders for the woman.

In addition, the state faulted Evergreen for not transporting the patient to a hospital for treatment.

The investigation found that a physician's order for life-sustaining treatment dated Aug. 1, 2011, which the woman had signed, called for full treatment and transfer to a hospital if indicated, including intensive care.

Evergreen's medical staff also didn't administer a reversal agent, Narcan, to the patient, according to the report.

“These failures resulted in delay in treatment of acute methadone toxicity,” and resulted in the woman's death, the investigation report stated.

After giving the woman the dose of methadone, Evergreen staff kept her at the facility, giving her oxygen and monitoring her vital signs, according to the investigation.

Her oxygen saturation levels went down; eight hours later, her blood pressure dropped and she stopped breathing. The report said staff called 911 and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed on the woman, who was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

According to the Lake County Coroner's report, dated Aug. 10, 2011, the nurse practitioner told officials that she did not give the reversal agent for methadone “as we usually don't do that.”

The nurse practitioner went on to tell officials that she should have sent the woman to the hospital immediately but decided to watch her and take her vitals to see how she would progress.

She told coroner's staff that she sees many advanced age residents at the facility all year around that are sent to the hospital and then sent right back to Evergreen, which offers comfort care.

The coroner's office determined the woman's cause of death to be acute methadone toxicity, based on the autopsy and toxicological investigation, the state reported.

State officials concluded that Evergreen's protocol violations “presented an imminent danger to the Resident and were a direct proximate cause of the death of the Resident.”

CDPH said all nursing facilities in California are required to be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations governing health care facilities. Facilities are required to comply with these standards to ensure quality of care.

California has the statutory authority to impose fines against nursing facilities it licenses as part of enforcement remedies for poor care, CDPH officials reported.

State citations that require a civil monetary penalty be imposed are categorized as Class B, A or AA. The associated fines range from $100 to $2,000 for Class B, $2,000 to $20,000 for Class A and $25,000 to $100,000 for Class AA.

The citation class and amount of the fine depend upon the significance and severity of the substantiated violation, as prescribed and defined in California law.

By providing nursing facilities it licenses with consequences for substantiated violations, CDPH said it strives to protect the health and safety of vulnerable individuals.

The citation process is part of CDPH’s ongoing enforcement efforts in improving the quality of care provided to residents of the state’s approximately 1,400 skilled nursing facilities.

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. – A Middletown man who allegedly was involved in a fight with a deputy and a California Highway Patrol officer on Thursday, leading to the discharge of one of the officers' weapons, was booked into the Lake County Jail on Thursday night.

Yolpaqui Hernandez, 34, was booked into the Lake County Jail on felony charges of obstructing or resisting a peace officer, assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm on a peace officer, battery with serious bodily injury and removing a peace officer's firearm, according to Lake County Jail records.

Hernandez's bail is set at $150,000 and he remained in custody on Friday evening.

District Attorney Don Anderson, whose agency is leading the criminal investigation into the incident, said Hernandez is expected to be arraigned on Monday afternoon.

Anderson said Hernandez's girlfriend had called law enforcement for a civil standby on Thursday morning at her Rose Anderson Road home in Anderson Springs as Hernandez was moving out.

There had not been any violence between the two, however, “The girlfriend was getting concerned over him,” said Anderson.

The deputy who eventually would arrest Hernandez – and was listed on the booking sheet as Scott Lewis – arrived at the scene and began talking to Hernandez, said Anderson.

Anderson said Hernandez began arguing with Lewis inside the home. Lewis noticed a machete and a sheath on a nearby table and went to move it, at which point Hernandez grabbed him.

At that point the two men began to physically fight, said Anderson, with Hernandez allegedly trying to take the deputy's gun away from him.

Anderson said a CHP officer arrived – a CHP official had said Thursday that the officer was called as a cover unit – and as the struggle continued Hernandez allegedly attempted to grab the CHP officer's AR-15 rifle.

During the struggle the rifle went off, but no one was hit, Anderson said.

Hernandez subsequently was hit with a Taser three times and continued to fight while being taken into custody, Anderson said.

Neither Lewis nor the CHP officer – Anderson did not have the CHP officer's name – were harmed, and Anderson said Hernandez was treated for a minor cut at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

Hernandez was booked into the Lake County Jail shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday, according to jail records.

Anderson said the investigation into the fight “will probably go pretty quick.” Such investigations are part of the critical incident protocol followed for officer-involved shootings, he said.

Anderson was not aware if Hernandez had undergone testing for drugs or alcohol at the hospital on Thursday. However, he said both the deputy and CHP officer were tested for drugs and alcohol as part of the investigative protocol.

“That's just standard procedure,” Anderson 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.

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – An area of the Mendocino National Forest ravaged by a massive wildlife last summer has reopened to recreational uses.

Forest officials said the Mill Fire Closure, formally referenced as Order Number 08-13-03, expired at midnight Friday.

Beginning last July 7, the Mill Fire burned more than 29,500 acres between the Letts Lake area and the community of Stonyford on the Grindstone Ranger District of the Mendocino National Forest.

With the closure order's expiration, forest officials said the area is officially reopened for recreation, including off-highway vehicles under designated roads and trails.

Forest officials reopened the Mill Fire area to hiking and walking in January, as Lake County News has reported.

While many recreational uses have been reinstated in the fire area, forest officials said visitors should be aware that Old Mill Campground remains closed.

For more information, contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316, the Stonyford Work Center at 530-963-3128 or visit www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino .

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.

Astronomers using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have identified 28 new families of asteroids.

The findings are a critical step in understanding the origins of asteroid families, and the collisions thought to have created these rocky clans.

“We're separating zebras from the gazelles,” said Joseph Masiero of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who is lead author of a report on the new study that appears in the Astrophysical Journal. “Before, asteroid family members were harder to tell apart because they were traveling in nearby packs. But now we have a better idea of which asteroid belongs to which family.”

An asteroid family is formed when a collision breaks apart a large parent body into fragments of various sizes. Some collisions leave giant craters.

For example, the asteroid Vesta's southern hemisphere was excavated by two large impacts. Other smashups are catastrophic, shattering an object into numerous fragments, as was the case with the Eos asteroid family.

The castoff pieces move together in packs, traveling on the same path around the sun, but over time the pieces become more and more spread out.

The new families were found in millions of infrared snapshots from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE all-sky survey, called NEOWISE.

The NEOWISE team looked at about 120,000 main belt asteroids out of the approximately 600,000 known.

They found that about 38,000 of these objects, roughly one third of the observed population, could be assigned to 76 families, 28 of which are new. In addition, some asteroids thought to belong to a particular family were reclassified.

“NEOWISE has given us the data for a much more detailed look at the evolution of asteroids throughout the solar system,” said Lindley Johnson, the program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This will help us trace [near-Earth asteroids] back to their sources and understand how some of them have migrated to orbits hazardous to the Earth.”

Previous knowledge of asteroid family lineages comes from observations of their orbits. NEOWISE also looked at the asteroids' reflectivity to identify family members.

Asteroids in the same family generally have similar mineral composition and reflect similar amounts of light. Some families consist of darker-colored, or duller, asteroids, while others are made up of lighter-colored, or shinier, rocks.

It is difficult to distinguish between dark and light asteroids in visible light. A large, dull asteroid can appear the same as a small, shiny one. The dark asteroid reflects less light but has more total surface area, so it appears brighter.

NEOWISE could distinguish between the dark and light asteroids because it could detect infrared light, which reveals the heat of an object. The larger the object, the more heat it gives off.

When the size of an asteroid can be measured, its true reflective properties can be determined, and a group of asteroids once thought to belong to a single family circling the sun in a similar orbit can be sorted into distinct families.

The next step for the team is to learn more about the original parent bodies that spawned the families.

“It's as if you have shards from a broken vase, and you want to put it back together to find out what happened,” said Amy Mainzer, the NEOWISE principal investigator at JPL. “Why did the asteroid belt form in the first place and fail to become a planet? We are piecing together our asteroids' history.”

More information about the mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/wise .

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.