NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As major wildland fires around Northern California neared full containment on Friday, a new incident erupted in Chico, threatening dozens of homes.

The County fire in Napa and Yolo counties is expected to be fully contained on Sunday and the Klamathon fire in Siskiyou County also rose in containment, while the Stoney fire in Chico began Thursday night.

Cal Fire said the County fire, remaining at 90,288 acres, reached 97 percent containment on Friday night.

The fire began on June 30 near Guinda. Cal Fire investigators said it began as a result of an improperly installed electric fencing unit.

The Klamathon fire grew to 37,900 acres on Friday, with containment up to 85 percent, Cal Fire said.

The fire began July 5, and has killed one civilian, injured three firefighters and destroyed 82 structures, according to Cal Fire.

In Chico, the Stoney fire near Bidwell Park began late Thursday night, burning more than 600 acres overnight and causing the evacuation of about 50 homes, according to Cal Fire.

By Friday night, Cal Fire said the Stoney fire was up to 700 acres, with containment at 40 acres.

The Stoney fire evacuations were lifted on Friday, officials 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.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A paraglider escaped injury after authorities say he crashed at Del Rio Woods Beach east of Healdsburg Friday.

At approximately 9:20 a.m. Friday, Misti Harris of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said the agency received a call of a paraglider crash at Del Rio Woods Beach, just off of South Fitch Mountain Road.

A Geyserville man was paragliding south from Geyserville. He clipped some power lines near Del Rio Woods Beach and crash landed on the beach, Harris said.

Harris said power was shut off in the area due to the damaged power lines.

The man was not hurt. He removed the parachute from the trees and walked away, according to Harris

Local fire and medical crews responded, including Healdsburg Fire Department. Harris said the man was medically evaluated and released at the scene.

PG&E crews responded and repaired the lines, Harris said.

 

About four billion years ago, when the planet Earth was still in its infancy, the axis of a black hole about one billion times more massive than the sun happened to be pointing right to where our planet was going to be on September 22, 2017.

Along the axis, a high-energy jet of particles sent photons and neutrinos racing in our direction at or near the speed of light. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole detected one of these subatomic particles – the IceCube-170922A neutrino – and traced it back to a small patch of sky in the constellation Orion and pinpointed the cosmic source: a flaring black hole the size of a billion suns, 3.7 billion light years from Earth, known as blazar TXS 0506+056. Blazars have been known about for some time. What wasn’t clear was that they could produce high-energy neutrinos. Even more exciting was such neutrinos had never before been traced to its source.

Finding the cosmic source of high-energy neutrinos for the first time, announced on July 12, 2018 by the National Science Foundation, marks the dawn of a new era of neutrino astronomy. Pursued in fits and starts since 1976, when pioneering physicists first tried to build a large-scale high-energy neutrino detector off the Hawaiian coast, IceCube’s discovery marks the triumphant conclusion of a long and difficult campaign by many hundreds of scientists and engineers – and simultaneously the birth of a completely new branch of astronomy.

The detection of two distinct astronomical messengers -– neutrinos and light –- is a powerful demonstration of how so-called multimessenger astronomy can provide the leverage we need to identify and understand some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Since its discovery as a neutrino source less than a year ago, blazar TXS 0506+056 has been the subject of intensive scrutiny. Its associated stream of neutrinos continues to provide deep insights into the physical processes at work near the black hole and its powerful jet of particles and radiation, beamed almost directly toward Earth from its location just off the shoulder of Orion.

As three scientists in a global team of physicists and astronomers involved in this remarkable discovery, we were drawn to participate in this experiment for its sheer audacity, for the physical and emotional challenge of working long shifts at in a brutally cold location while inserting expensive, sensitive equipment into holes drilled 1.5 miles deep in the ice and making it all work. And, of course, for the thrilling opportunity to be the first people to peer into a brand new kind of telescope and see what it reveals about the heavens.

A remote, frigid neutrino detector

At an altitude exceeding 9,000 feet and with average summertime temperatures rarely breaking a frigid -30 Celsius, the South Pole may not strike you as the ideal place to do anything, aside from bragging about visiting a place that is so sunny and bright you need sunscreen for your nostrils. On the other hand, once you realize that the altitude is due to a thick coat of ultrapure ice made from several hundred thousand years of pristine snowfall and that the low temperatures have kept it all nicely frozen, then it might not surprise you that for neutrino telescope builders, the scientific advantages outweigh the forbidding environment. The South Pole is now the home of the world’s largest neutrino detector, IceCube.

It may seem odd that we need such an elaborate detector given that about 100 billion of these fundamental particles sashay right through your thumbnail each second and glide effortlessly through the entire Earth without interacting with a single earthly atom.

In fact, neutrinos are the second most ubiquitous particles, second only to the cosmic microwave background photons left over from the Big Bang. They comprise one-quarter of known fundamental particles. Yet, because they barely interact with other matter, they are arguably the least well understood.

To catch a handful of these elusive particles, and to discover their sources, physicists need big – kilometer-wide – detectors made of an optically clear material – like ice. Fortunately Mother Nature provided this pristine slab of clear ice where we could build our detector.

At the South Pole several hundred scientists and engineers have constructed and deployed over 5,000 individual photosensors in 86 separate 1.5-mile-deep holes melted in the polar ice cap with a custom-designed hot-water drill. Over the course of seven austral summer seasons we installed all the sensors. The IceCube array was fully installed in early 2011 and has been taking data continuously since.

This array of ice-bound detectors can sense with great precision when a neutrino flies through and interacts with a few Earthly particles that generate dim patterns of bluish Cherenkov light, given off when charged particles move through a medium like ice at close to light speed.

Neutrinos from the cosmos

The Achilles’ heel of neutrino detectors is that other particles, originating in the nearby atmosphere, can also trigger these patterns of bluish Cherenkov light. To eliminate these false signals, the detectors are buried deep in the ice to filter out interference before it can reach the sensitive detector. But in spite of being under nearly a mile of solid ice, IceCube still faces an onslaught of about 2,500 such particles every second, each of which could plausibly have been due to a neutrino.

With the expected rate of interesting, real astrophysical neutrino interactions (like incoming neutrinos from a black hole) hovering at about one per month, we were faced with a daunting needle-in-a-haystack problem.

The IceCube strategy is to look only at events with such high energy that they are exceedingly unlikely to be atmospheric in origin. With these selection criteria and several years of data, IceCube discovered the astrophysical neutrinos it had long been seeking, but it could not identify any individual sources – such as active galactic nuclei or gamma-ray bursts – among the several dozen high-energy neutrinos it had captured.

To tease out actual sources, IceCube began distributing neutrino arrival alerts in April 2016 with help from the Astrophysical Multimessenger Observatory Network at Penn State. Over the course of the next 16 months, 11 IceCube-AMON neutrino alerts were distributed via AMON and the Gamma-ray Coordinates Network, just minutes or seconds after being detected at the South Pole.

A new window on the universe

The alerts triggered an automated sequence of X-ray and ultraviolet observations with NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and led to further studies with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, and 13 other observatories around the world.

Swift was the first facility to identify the flaring blazar TXS 0506+056 as a possible source of the neutrino event. The Fermi Large Area Telescope then reported that the blazar was in a flaring state, emitting many more gamma-rays than it had in the past. As the news spread, other observatories enthusiastically jumped on the bandwagon and a broad range of observations ensued. The MAGIC ground-based telescope noted our neutrino came from a region producing very high-energy gamma-rays (each about ten million times more energetic than an X-ray), the first time such a coincidence has ever been observed. Other optical observations completed the puzzle by measuring the distance to blazar TXS 0506+056: about four billion light years from Earth.

With the first-ever identification of a cosmic source of high-energy neutrinos, a new branch on the astronomy tree has sprouted. As high-energy neutrino astronomy grows with more data, improved inter-observatory coordination, and more sensitive detectors, we will be able to map the neutrino sky with better and better precision.

And we expect exciting new breakthroughs in our understanding of the universe to follow suit, such as: solving the century-old mystery of the origin of astoundingly energetic cosmic rays; testing if spacetime itself is foamy, with quantum fluctuations at very small distance scales, as predicted by certain theories of quantum gravity; and figuring out exactly how cosmic accelerators, like those around the TXS 0506+056 black hole, manage to accelerate particles to such breathtakingly high energies.

For 20 years, the IceCube Collaboration had a dream to identify the sources of high-energy cosmic neutrinos – and this dream is now a reality.

Doug Cowen, Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University; Azadeh Keivani, Frontiers of Science Fellow, Columbia University, and Derek Fox, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Thursday night, the Clearlake City Council gave its unanimous approval to the hire of the city’s new police chief.

With the 5-0 vote, the council directed City Manager Greg Folsom to appoint Andrew White to the job and to execute the proposed employment contract.

White, 33, who was not present for the meeting, is commander at the Suisun City Police Department in Solano County. He’s a 16-year law enforcement veteran and police academy instructor with a wide range of qualifications and experience that city officials decided made him the top choice for chief.

The city’s former chief, Craig Clausen, retired in December after being off work for two years due to an injury. Lt. Tim Celli had been acting chief since Clausen went off-duty in December 2015, and was named interim chief in December, upon Clausen’s retirement.

Folsom explained during Thursday night’s meeting that the city hired Ralph Andersen & Associates earlier this year to lead the executive search process for the new chief.

The recruiting firm met with Folsom, the city council, city department heads, Konocti Unified School District and Lake County Fire Protection District to develop the ideal candidate profile, Folsom said. The firm also held a public meeting in February to gather community input.

From there, Ralph Andersen & Associates created a brochure and began a confidential recruitment. Folsom said the process was kept confidential because most applicants have jobs and usually do not want their employers to know they are looking.

Folsom said the recruiter received more than 20 applications from throughout California and other states.

The recruiter did an initial screening and the top candidates were interviewed by a panel of community members, Clearlake Police Officers Association representatives and chiefs of similar sized communities, Folsom said.

That led to the top three candidates being interviewed by Folsom and the council, with White ultimately selected as the new chief.

Folsom said Suisun City has a population of about 30,000 residents and also has very similar challenges to Lake County.

White holds a bachelor’s degree in organizational management/IT from Union Institute and University, and has five certificates through the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

He’s also serves as commander for the Solano County Mobile Field Force, is a member of the California Police Chiefs Association Technology Committee and chairs the Solano County Animal Control Authority.

Folsom said that among White’s many skills and qualifications, he’s extremely adept at technology.

White’s background investigation, and medical and psychological exams have all been completed, Folsom said.

“His background investigation showed him to be of extremely high character and intelligence and he is highly recommended by all contacts,” Folsom said

He added that White has purchased a house and plans to reside within the Clearlake city limits.

Folsom said the terms of the proposed contract between White and the city includes a $130,000 annual salary, noting that Clausen’s salary was $126,000 annually.

The contract also will have an initial three-year term with the ability to renew, six months’ severance, eligibility for a 5-percent POST Executive Certificate incentive pay after two years of employment, use of a vehicle, a cell phone allowance, a one-time $5,000 relocation expense and the city’s payment of dues and expenses for his professional development.

There were no questions about the hire or proposed contract from the council or community members.

Mayor Bruno Sabatier said some people had expressed concerns about the expense of the recruitment; the city’s contract with Ralph Andersen & Associates was for $24,500, with up to $1,500 in contract change orders.

Considering the number – and quality – of applications the city received from the recruitment, Sabatier said he felt it was well worth the expense.

“I’m really happy with the outcomes of this,” and hoped the rest of the council is as well, Sabatier said.

Councilman Russell Cremer moved to have Folsom appoint White as chief, with Councilman Phil Harris seconding and the council voting 5-0.

Folsom said White’s swearing-in ceremony will take place at the next regular council meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m., Thursday, July 26. The meeting will take place at the community and senior center, 3245 Bowers Ave., with a reception to follow.

Also on Thursday, the council approved a resolution granting consent to the county of Lake to operate a tourism improvement district within the city limits in an effort to help fund marketing and sales promotion efforts, and heard a presentation from Lisa Kaplan of the Middletown Art Center about its Resilience Project.

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 Lake County Vector Control District and Lake County Public Health Department are urging the public to continue to be vigilant in protecting against mosquito-born illness such as West Nile virus.

The agencies said Lake County has had no West Nile virus, or WNV, or other mosquito-borne diseases detected yet in Lake County in 2018. Local mosquito activity is lower than average right now.

Statewide, WNV and St. Louis encephalitis virus, or SLEV, activity are increasing, which is typical for this time of the year.

In Lake County, WNV activity usually is detected two to three weeks after the Sacramento Valley. That’s because nights here are cooler and that slows the virus replication in the mosquitoes, and also lengthens the generation time for mosquitoes, so it takes longer for local virus activity to rise to detectable levels.

Lake County Public Health Officer, Dr. Sara Goldgraben notes “Warm weather is a great reason to be outdoors. West Nile Virus is transmitted to humans and animals by the bite of an infected mosquito. When outdoors, protection against mosquito bites is important to staying healthy and the best way to avoid West Nile Virus infection. ”

“The mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus come from backyard water sources like wading pools, ponds, buckets, swimming pools and spas that aren’t being maintained, and any other place where water sits for more than 3 days,” explained Jamesina Scott, Ph.D., district manager and research director for the Lake County Vector Control District. “You can protect your family from mosquito bites and West Nile virus by dumping out water where mosquitoes grow and keeping swimming pools and spas in working order. The district has free mosquito-eating fish for pools or spas that aren’t running, as well as water features and animal watering troughs.”

Scott added, “West Nile virus is found in local mosquitoes and dead birds every year. District staff are trapping mosquitoes throughout Lake County and testing them for West Nile and other viruses. Residents can help us detect West Nile virus by reporting dead birds to the State’s Dead Bird Hotline.”

Residents are urged to help reduce their risk of contracting mosquito-borne diseases by following these preventive guidelines:

– Dump or drain standing water on your property. Mosquitoes can't begin their lives without water.
– Defend yourself. Use mosquito repellent that contains one of these EPA-registered active ingredients: DEET, Picaridin, IR3535, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE), or Para-menthane-diol (PMD) to avoid mosquito bites.
– Avoid being outdoors when mosquitoes are present, typically dawn and dusk.
– Maintain swimming pools and spas. Just one unmaintained swimming pool can produce more than 1 million mosquitoes and affect people up to five miles away.
– Report dead birds to the state dead bird hotline: 1-877-968-2473 or www.westnile.ca.gov. You can also visit the California Department of Public Health's Web site at http://www.westnile.ca.gov/report_wnv.php. All reports are crucial to our West Nile virus surveillance program.

Since 2004, nine Lake County residents have been diagnosed with West Nile. For a current list of West Nile virus activity in Lake County this year, visit the district's Web site at www.LCVCD.org and for statewide information, visit the California Department of Public Health’s West Nile Virus Web site at http://www.westnile.ca.gov/.

The Lake County Vector Control District, is an independent special district and public health agency which serves all of Lake County.

Call the Vector Control District if you are being bit by mosquitoes or have questions about mosquitoes, ticks, or the diseases they transmit. The district can be reached at 707-263-4770 or request service online at http://www.LCVCD.org/Services/RequestService/index.html.

You can also visit the office between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Friday at 410 Esplanade in Lakeport to get free mosquitofish for ornamental ponds, livestock water troughs or neglected swimming pools.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Northern California’s two biggest fires are nearing full containment, officials said Thursday night.

The County fire, in Napa and Yolo counties, and the Klamathon fire in Siskiyou County have together burned more than 126,000 acres over the past two weeks.

At 90,288 acres, the County fire was at 95-percent containment on Thursday night, with Cal Fire expecting it to be fully contained by Sunday.

The fire, which has destroyed 20 structures and damaged three others, began on June 30 near Guinda in Yolo County. Cal Fire investigators ruled it was due to an improperly installed electric fencing unit.

On the Klamathon incident, since it began July 5 it has been the cause of one civilian death and three firefighter injuries, destroyed 82 structures and burned 36,500 acres near the community of Hornbrook.

On Thursday night the Klamathon fire was 75-percent contained, Cal Fire reported.

Fire officials said the fire became less active on its northern flank Thursday afternoon. At the same time, crews finished constructing hand-line on the north flank and all containment lines have been tied in and are holding to the current perimeter with a minimal chance of increased fire activity.

Cal Fire said mop up and strengthening of control lines will continue on all other flanks of the fire including fire suppression repairs.

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.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A Suisun man who authorities said profited from a sex worker who he transported around the county for the purposes of prostitution has been sentenced to six years in state prison.

Harold Edward Domingue, 36, was convicted in June of felony pandering, according to the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

On Thursday, Napa County Superior Court Judge Mark Boessenecker sentenced Domingue to six years in state prison, District Attorney Allison Haley reported.

Haley’s office said Dominge’s conviction stemmed from an October investigation into his role in controlling and profiting from a woman in Napa County who was involved in prostitution.

The investigation revealed that Domingue transported the sex worker in and around the county and financially benefited from her prostitution by using her income to pay his rent and utilities, authorities said.

Domingue’s moniker, “Fame,” was tattooed on the woman’s body, along with the words, “Money Maker,” the District Attorney’s Office said.

Hailey’s office, along with the Napa Special Investigations Bureau, handled the case investigation.

Late on Thursday, Haley followed up by reporting on her handling of other human trafficking cases.

“Of the seven human trafficking cases presented to the DA’s Office for prosecution, two offenders have pleaded guilty and accepted state prison sentences, one has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing to state prison, three are pending in the court system, and one has an outstanding arrest warrant,” a message from Haley said on her agency’s Facebook page.

“We aren't messing around when it comes to human trafficking cases,” Haley added.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A body found Sunday in Cache Creek has been identified as that of a young Southern California man.

The remains are those of 18-year-old Noe Figueroa, confirmed following an autopsy this week, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday afternoon a kayaker on Cache Creek found the body, which the sheriff’s office recovered approximately a half mile from the dam, on the lake side, as Lake County News has reported.

Through the investigation into Figueroa’s death, detectives learned that he came to the Ukiah area recently to visit family and made his way to the Lower Lake area where he had been staying for the past week at an unknown location, Paulich said.

Paulich said detectives are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Figueroa’s death.

The preliminary cause of death is drowning pending toxicology results, according to Paulich.

Sheriff’s detectives are asking anyone with information about Figueroa’s activities in Lake County from July 1 to 8, or anyone who may know where Figueroa was living, to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at 707-262-4233, or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council this week is set to consider the hiring of the city’s new police chief as well as support for the creation of a countywide tourism improvement district.

The council will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 12, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

One of the evening’s main items of business is the hiring of the city’s new police chief, Andrew White.

White, 33, is a 16-year law enforcement veteran currently serving as commander at the Suisun City Police Department.

He was selected following a lengthy process that began earlier this year, as Lake County News has reported.

City Manager Greg Folsom is asking the council to authorize him to appoint White and execute an employment contract that includes an initial three-year term, with pay at $130,000 annually.

In other business on Thursday, the council will consider a resolution granting consent to the county of Lake to operate a tourism improvement district within the city limits.

The Lake County Tourism Improvement District is a benefit assessment district meant to help fund marketing and sales promotion efforts for the county, according to Folsom’s report.

The district is expected to generate $340,000 annually through a 3-percent pass-through assessment, according to city and county documents.

If the cities both approve the district’s formation, a series of additional steps are required, including public meetings.

On Thursday, the council also will receive a presentation on the Middletown Art Center’s Resilience Project.

Items on the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are warrant registers; minutes of the meetings on June 28 and July 3; consideration of continuing the declaration of local emergency issued on Oct. 9, 2017, and ratified by council action on Oct. 12, 2017; and consideration of the second reading and adoption of Ordinance No. 206-2018 amending the purchasing ordinance (Ordinance No. 121-2006) to include the Interlocoal Purchasing System in Section 3-4.5(a)8.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The city of Clearlake is now accepting applications for a seat on the Clearlake Planning Commission.

A vacancy has resulted from the resignation and retirement of longtime Planning Commissioner Carl Webb.

Planning commissioners are appointed by the Clearlake City Council to review matters related to planning and development.

Recent issues have included the general plan update, a service station expansion, commercial cannabis, large family day-care centers, commercial signage and much
more.

Upcoming issues anticipated for discussion at the planning commission include additional commercial cannabis considerations; proposed motel expansion plans; proposed transitional housing; a proposed market-rate housing project; and an update to the city’s Zoning Code and Design Review manual.

“Commissioner Carl Webb was a part of the planning commission for many years and his leadership will be sorely missed,” said City Manager Greg Folsom.

“We are looking for residents who have an interest in the growth of Clearlake, and want to be involved in land use decisions as we move forward,” Folsom said. “This is a great time to be a part of the planning commission. The Big 5 and Tractor Supply Company projects are being built out and development interest in our city is starting to increase.”

The Clearlake Planning Commission meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

Applicants must be a resident of the city of Clearlake in order to be appointed to the planning commission.

Applications will be accepted until 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1.

The Clearlake City Council will consider appointing an applicant at its Aug. 9 meeting.

Applications are available at City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive, or on the city’s Web site at https://www.clearlake.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/1126/Planning-Commission-Application-2018.pdf.

For more information contact City Clerk Melissa Swanson at 707-994-8201 or via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has a full shelter, with dogs needing homes as soon as possible.

The available dogs are Arthur, Bebe, Bianca, Dingo, Max, Neptune and Wolfie.

To meet the animals, call Clearlake Animal Control at 707-994-8201 and speak to Marcia at Extension 103 Monday through Thursday, or leave a message at any other time.

Arthur

Arthur is a male American Staffordshire terrier mix.

He weighs 55 pounds, is healthy and young.

He likes to swim and play fetch, is affectionate and intelligent, and likes older children.

BeBe

Bebe is 2 years old and weighs 40 pounds, with a short brindle coat.

Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, and with both adults and children, but has not been tested with cats.

They said she is gentle and shy. She displayed friendly social cues and with more socializing she will gain confidence. BeBe would benefit from training as she is eager to please.

Bebe also loves to push her face into you for rubs.

Bianca

“Bianca” is a female American Pit Bull and shepherd mix.

She is healthy, weighs 50 pounds, is obedient, playful and affectionate, and likes toys.

She is intelligent, but also goofy and wants to please.

‘Dingo’

“Dingo” is described by shelter staff as a happy, friendly boy who is a true people dog.

He is 2 years old, weighs about 45 pounds, and is good with both adults and children.

Dingo likes to be by your side, has nice manners and sits for treats like a true gentleman. He also loves to play ball and probably Frisbee, too.

Shelter staff said he is great with other nice dogs, but has low confidence and prefers people. He will benefit from more socialization.

‘Max’

“Max” is a 2-year-old male kelpie-pit bull mix who weighs about 50 pounds.

Shelter staff said has a lot of energy and would make a great exercise partner.

Max is good with other dogs and loves to play. He’s also good with older children. He’s not been tested with children.

Staff said he is very social and will benefit from obedience training to work on his manners.

‘Neptune’

“Neptune” is 2 years old and weighs 65 pounds. He has been neutered.

Shelter staff said he is good with other dogs and children, but has not been tested with cats.

He has a mellow disposition, loves to play fetch and tug-o-war. Shelter staff said he is a “super friendly guy” who needs some leash work.

Neptune is vaccinated and ready for adoption or can go to rescue.

‘Wolfie’

“Wolfie” is a healthy and happy male dog.

They are not sure of his breed; possible ancestry includes shepherd or Akita.

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 small wildland fire in Lake County that began earlier this week has been fully contained, and as the region’s largest wildfire nears full containment, command on the incident is set to transition.

In Lake County, Cal Fire reported that the Spring 2 fire near the Spring Valley Lakes subdivision was fully contained at 80 acres on Wednesday.

The fire had begun on Tuesday in the area of Pawnee Trail, burning into the footprint of the Pawnee fire, as Lake County News has reported.

The region’s biggest fire, the County fire in Yolo and Napa counties, remained at 90,288 acres, with containment up to 89 percent on Wednesday night, Cal Fire said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Cal Fire announce that its investigators had determined that the fire, which began June 30 near Guinda in Yolo County, had been caused by an improperly installed electric livestock fence unit.

More than 1,000 firefighters remained assigned to the incident on Wednesday, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire Incident Command Team 3 will be transitioning the fire to the Cal Fire Sonoma Lake
Napa Unit on Friday.

In other regional fire news, the Klamathon in Siskiyou County remained at 36,500 acres, with containment up to 65 percent, officials reported.

The fire has been responsible for one civilian death, three firefighter injuries and the destruction of 82 structures, according to Cal Fire.

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.