LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Greg Cole, Traci Dutton, Ken Frank, and Peggy King will judge the second annual Cattails & Tules Wine & Food Pairing Festival, a major fundraiser for the Konocti Regional Trails and Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association.

The event, which pairs food from local restaurants with award-winning wines from Lake County, will be held Saturday, June 16, at Gregory Graham Winery and Vigilance Winery & Vineyards in Lower Lake.

Greg Cole is the executive chef and owner of Celadon and Cole's Chop House, both located in historic downtown Napa.

A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, Greg and his wife and business partner, Beth Fairbairn, opened the award-winning Celadon in 1996, and Cole’s Chop House in 2000. In 1998 Greg was selected as one of the 24 "hottest young chefs" in America by the Wine Spectator magazine.

Traci Dutton is the sommelier and beverage manager for The Culinary Institute of America at Greystone, located in St. Helena.

Dutton is responsible for selecting and purchasing wine, creating wine lists, menus, and food and wine pairings, and staff training for all components of the CIA Greystone campus, including the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant, the Professional Wine Studies Program, and Special Events. Her imaginative wine lists at the Wine Spectator Greystone Restaurant have won numerous awards.

Ken Frank, the executive chef and owner of La Toque in Napa, is entirely self-taught. He began his career at age 16 with a dishwashing job in France, and quickly worked his way through the kitchen ranks to become a successful chef at a very young age.

In 1979 he opened the original La Toque on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood at age 23. In 1998 Ken decided to pursue his dream of moving to Napa Valley, where he opened a new La Toque in Rutherford. In 2008, La Toque moved to the new Westin Verasa in downtown Napa.

Cookbook author Peggie King joined the healthy food revolution with her first cookbook, entitled “Fit Food for Foodies.” Her simple recipes are gluten-free, dairy-free, and sugar-free. Peggie has prepared her unique recipes for local community winery events featuring healthy lifestyle foods paired with local wines. Peggie’s “day job” is in environmental consulting.

Cattails & Tules will be held on June 16th from noon to 3 p.m. and will showcase local restaurants and chefs as they pair Vigilance and Gregory Graham wines with their creative cuisines.

The panel of judges will evaluate the pairings in four different categories: best presentation, most creative, best of show and best use of local products. Guests will vote on a special fifth category, "Consumers’ Favorite Wine & Food Pairing."

Tickets may be purchased at Shannon Ridge, Vigilance, and Gregory Graham Tasting Rooms, online at www.cattailsandtules.com or by calling 707-998-9656.

The price for the event is $40 per person, and proceeds will go towards the Konocti Regional Trails and Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association.

UKIAH, Calif. – This year’s “Gala on the Green,” Mendocino College Foundation’s annual fundraiser to benefit Mendocino College students and programs, will take place Saturday, June 23, at Campovida, 13601 Old River Road, Hopland.

The dinner will feature DK Catering and fine wines provided by Destination Hopland wineries.

The annual fundraiser includes appetizers and wine pairings, dinner, live and silent auctions, music by the George Husaruk Jazz Trio and dancing.

The gala begins at 5:30 p.m. and will be preceded by optional activities including an informational talk by Hubert Germain-Robin of Germain-Robin Distillery and a tour of the Campovida gardens between 4 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.

“This year’s line up of food pairings and fine wines prior to dinner, and the dinner itself, will not disappoint,” said Richard Cooper, foundation board member and chair of the Special Events Committee. “The entertainment also promises to be outstanding, and we look forward to having fantastic offerings in the live and silent auctions. Guests should also plan to arrive early to see Campovida’s gardens prior to the event. The garden tour is a real treat.”

Tickets for the event are $100 per person. Tables, with seating for eight people each, may be reserved for $700.

More than half the tables have sold, according to Katie Fairbairn, the foundation’s executive director; individuals wishing to attend should purchase their tickets soon, she said.

Additional information about tickets and table reservations is available on the foundation’s Web site, http://foundation.mendocino.edu .

Proceeds from the event are used to fund scholarships for students and provide support for college programs as recommended by the administrators.

Last year’s Gala on the Green raised more than $60,000 for scholarships and educational programs.

Expanding the “footprint” of the event by utilizing more of the Campovida grounds, the foundation’s Special Events Committee is planning for 400 guests this year for the largest gala ever.

“The Foundation is proud to be able to grow this event annually to help build awareness and raise funds to benefit the students of Mendocino College,” said Cooper.

DK Catering will prepare this year’s dinner. Event coordinator Travis Scott worked with the catering company’s husband and wife team, Dave and Patricia Huerls, to create “a wonderful menu of family-style dishes for the main dinner.” DK Catering also will produce four appetizer reception stations, Scott said.

The meal will consist of a Caesar salad, grilled chicken penne pasta with roasted mushrooms, red onions, sweet peppers and Chardonnay cream, plus Tuscan ravioli with tomatoes, herbs, Parmesan and light cream served with bread and butter. Dessert will be the chef’s choice.

The gala’s welcome reception is an added feature this year, according to the Mendocino County event planner and tour coordinator.

Eight wineries from Destination Hopland are scheduled to pour varietals during the wine and appetizers reception.

Participating wineries include Weibel, Parducci, Nelson Family Vineyards, Campovida, Cesar Toxqui, and Terra Savia, according to Scott.

Mendocino and Lake County food purveyors, including Stan’s Maple Café and Nicholas Petti of Mendocino College’s Culinary Arts Program, will join DK Catering in providing the appetizers.

Foundation board member and Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman is tapped as the master of ceremonies for the evening’s presentations and live auction.

Several sponsors are lending their support to the foundation to present the Gala on the Green. Campovida LLC is a “Presenting Sponsor” for the event. Use of Campovida, the setting for the annual event the last four years, is provided by owners Gary Breen and Anna Beuselinck.

Additional sponsors for this year’s event are Mendo Lake Credit Union, the Skunk Train, TLCD Architecture, Richard Cooper, SHN Consulting and Gary Smith.

Wells Fargo Advisors has offered to sponsor the appetizers for the event while the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College is sponsoring the Gala’s Dessert Bar.

Midstate Construction is the sponsor for the martini bar. Kit Elliott and George Husaruk have once again signed up to sponsor the live music, which is provided by Husaruk and his band.

Most recently, Ukiah Valley Medical Center, Savings Bank of Mendocino County, Wright Contracting, Jared Huffman for Congress, Gary Nix, and State Farm Insurance agents Jay and Lisa Epstein signed up as sponsors, Cooper reported. Also, Tri County Certified Inspections has donated its inspection services.

For more information about the annual Gala on the Green or about the Mendocino College Foundation, call the foundation office at 707-467-1018 visit the foundation’s Web site, http://foundation.mendocino.edu .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport woman was arrested early Friday for allegedly stabbing her boyfriend.

Krissandra Burrows, 26, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with great bodily injury and domestic violence, according to Sgt. Jason Ferguson.

On Thursday shortly before 6 p.m. a Lakeport Police Department sergeant responded to Sutter Lakeside Hospital to contact an assault victim, Ferguson reported.

The victim, a 42-year-old Lakeport man, reported he was stabbed multiple times in the left hand and right thigh by an unknown Hispanic male subject on the north side of Library Park, according to Ferguson.

Ferguson said the alleged victim was unable to provide any further information regarding the suspect who stabbed him.

A search of the parklands revealed no evidence to suggest a stabbing had in fact occurred at the location provided by the alleged victim, according to Ferguson.

During the course of the evening officers developed information which led to a potential suspect and location where the stabbing occurred, he reported.

Ferguson said officers responded to 250 15th St. and identified evidence of a crime scene outside the residence.

Officers contacted Burrows, the alleged victim’s girlfriend, and through followup investigation learned that Burrows allegedly stabbed the victim in a domestic violence disturbance, Ferguson said.

Ferguson arrested Burrows, who was transported to the Hill Road Jail where she was booked.

Bail was set at $25,000 and she remained in custody early Saturday, according to jail records.

On Tuesday, June 5, 2012, Venus will pass across the face of the sun, producing a silhouette that no one alive today will likely see again.

Transits of Venus are very rare, coming in pairs separated by more than 100 years.

This June's transit, the bookend of a 2004-2012 pair, won't be repeated until the year 2117. Fortunately, the event is widely visible. Observers on seven continents, even a sliver of Antarctica, will be in position to see it.

The nearly seven-hour transit begins at 3:09 pm Pacific Daylight Time (22:09 UT) on June 5. The timing favors observers in the mid-Pacific where the sun is high overhead during the crossing.  

In the USA, the transit will at its best around sunset. That's good, too. Creative photographers will have a field day imaging the swollen red sun "punctured" by the circular disk of Venus.

Observing tip: Do not stare at the sun. Venus covers too little of the solar disk to block the blinding glare. Instead, use some type of projection technique or a solar filter. A No. 14 welder's glass is a good choice. Many astronomy clubs will have solar telescopes set up to observe the event; contact your local club for details.

Transits of Venus first gained worldwide attention in the 18th century. In those days, the size of the solar system was one of the biggest mysteries of science.   

The relative spacing of planets was known, but not their absolute distances. How many miles would you have to travel to reach another world? The answer was as mysterious then as the nature of dark energy is now.

Venus was the key, according to astronomer Sir Edmund Halley. He realized that by observing transits from widely-spaced locations on Earth it should be possible to triangulate the distance to Venus using the principles of parallax.

The idea galvanized scientists who set off on expeditions around the world to view a pair of transits in the 1760s.  

The great explorer James Cook himself was dispatched to observe one from Tahiti, a place as alien to 18th-century Europeans as the Moon or Mars might seem to us now. Some historians have called the international effort the "the Apollo program of the 18th century."

In retrospect, the experiment falls into the category of things that sound better than they actually are.  Bad weather, primitive optics, and the natural "fuzziness" of Venus’s atmosphere prevented those early observers from gathering the data they needed.  

Proper timing of a transit would have to wait for the invention of photography in the century after Cook’s voyage. In the late 1800s, astronomers armed with cameras finally measured the size of the Solar System as Edmund Halley had suggested.

This year’s transit is the second of an eight-year pair. Anticipation was high in June 2004 as Venus approached the sun. No one alive at the time had seen a Transit of Venus with their own eyes, and the hand-drawn sketches and grainy photos of previous centuries scarcely prepared them for what was about to happen.  

Modern solar telescopes captured unprecedented view of Venus’ atmosphere backlit by solar fire. They saw Venus transiting the sun’s ghostly corona, and gliding past magnetic filaments big enough to swallow the planet whole. One photographer even caught a spaceship, the International Space Station, transiting the sun alongside Venus.

This year should be even better as cameras and solar telescopes have improved. Moreover, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is going to be watching too. SDO will produce Hubble-quality images of this rare event.

For more news and information as the date of transit approaches, stay tuned to http://science.nasa.gov .

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

AB 2284, a bill by Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast) to crack down on offenders who pollute the environment and endanger the public by growing or manufacturing illegal drugs on forest lands, is headed to the Assembly Floor for a vote after it was approved by the Appropriations Committee.

After recent amendments, AB 2284 would increase the penalties for those convicted of production or cultivation of a controlled substance on resource lands and timberland preserve zones of more than 50,000 acres.

“To address concerns surrounding the broad timberland definition originally included in the bill, I have continued to work with various interested parties to narrow the definition, which I included in the Assembly Appropriations Committee amendments,” Chesbro said. “I want to make it make it clear that the focus of this bill is on large industrial timber and public resource lands, and not smaller property owners and homeowners.”

He added, “This bill is not about the legal production or use of medical marijuana under California law. This bill is about pollution and illegal diversion of waterways, and the increasing violence that is occurring in our forests. AB 2284 is the direct outgrowth of two hearings I held this year as chair of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture.”

At the hearings, fisheries experts, the Department of Fish and Game and environmental groups described the increasing threat that illegal drug production represents, especially to endangered species such as the Coho salmon, Chesbro said.

AB 2284 would also, under a very limited scope, allow law enforcement to stop and question drivers transporting irrigation piping, which must be in plain view.

The vehicles must be traveling on gravel or unpaved roads within public resource land or timber preserve zones of more than 50,000 acres.

Law enforcement would not be able to stop and question those transporting irrigation piping on timber preserve zone lands under 50,000 acres unless the landowner has filed a written statement giving law enforcement permission to so.

“On many occasions law enforcement officers have seen people entering these resource lands with irrigation supplies in plain sight,” Chesbro said. “They do not have the authority to pull them over and simply ask questions, possibly stopping a marijuana cultivation site before it is planted. Preventing a site from being established is the best way to protect the forests and watersheds, safeguard the public and reduce the risk to law enforcement officers, who often face armed suspects while investigating established sites.”

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Due to more delays and procedural issues, jurors heard less than two hours of testimony on Thursday in the trial of two men for a fatal June 2011 shooting that killed a child and wounded five others.

Paul William Braden, 22, and Orlando Joseph Lopez, 24, are on trial for allegedly shooting into a crowd of people at the Lakeshore Drive home in Clearlake of Desiree Kirby and Ross Sparks on the night of June 18, 2011.

The shooting killed Kirby’s 4-year-old son Skyler Rapp, and wounded Kirby and Sparks, his brother Andrew, and friends Joseph Armijo and Ian Griffith.

On Thursday Kevin Stone, 29, a former codefendant of Braden and Lopez, briefly take the stand.

Stone’s preliminary hearing was held last fall along with Braden’s and Lopez’s.

He was held over for trial on the charges but last November reached a plea agreement with District Attorney Don Anderson that allows him to plead to charges of conspiracy to commit a robbery, a special allegation of being armed at the time of the crime and being an accessory after the fact in a homicide.

Anderson said previously that the agreement was contingent on Stone testifying in the trial.

Testimony on Thursday began with Lindy Degiorgis of Clearlake, currently in custody at the Lake County Jail on a bench warrant and a drug charge.

Degiorgis said her friend Curtis Eeds, who lived next door to Kirby and Sparks, was at her home hanging out with her and some other friends and family members that evening. She described his behavior as nothing out of the ordinary.

She said it was just getting dark when they heard what, at first, they thought were firecrackers. Degiorgis said it was her father who suggested that it sounded like gunshots.

Degiorgis said she clearly heard five gunshots.

When her father suggested it was gunfire, not firecrackers, Eeds jumped up, saying it sounded like it was at his house a short distance away. Degiorgis said Eeds looked “freaked out” and ran off to his house.

He didn’t come back that evening. “The cops were there and held him,” she said.

Clearlake Police Sgt. Martin Snyder’s testimony followed Degiorgis’, taking up the rest of the morning session.

Snyder, who was off duty the night of the shooting, was called to the scene by police dispatch.

He said he secured a burgundy-colored Nissan Axxess, which Crystal Painchaud testified on Wednesday belonged to her but had been loaned to her cousin, Leighann Painchaud, and Stone, who was dating Leighann Painchaud at the time.

Crystal Painchaud and her friend, Tyreshia Celestin-Willis, both said in court on Wednesday that they found the vehicle abandoned several blocks from the crime scene following the shooting. When Painchaud looked inside, she saw a green shotgun shell.

Stone is alleged to have driven Braden and Stone to the shooting scene in the vehicle.

The vehicle was towed to the Clearlake Police Department to be processed and secured, Snyder said.

Shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday, June 19, 2011, Snyder, Evidence Technician Victoria Estrella and a police volunteer returned to Sparks’ and Kirby’s home to process the crime scene, having secured the necessary search warrants.

Pictures Estrella took at the scene showed buckshot holes scattered across the exterior of the apartment building where Kirby and Sparks lived with their children.

Snyder said the damage to the apartment building’s siding was consistent with 15-pellet double ought buck shotgun ammunition.

On Eeds’ side of the fence police recovered three green expended shotgun shells. Near the apartment they recovered a shotgun wad, and Snyder said it was common for a wad to travel a distance such as that from the fence to the building, which pictures showed was about 20 to 30 feet. Snyder said pieces of several other wads also were found.

Police recovered three pellets; two of them were found outside the apartment, one 15-shot, one nine shot, and another nine-shot was found inside the apartment’s kitchen, Snyder said.

A picture of the apartment’s interior showed several large bloodstains on the carpet, and numerous evidence placards which Snyder said marked areas where they swabbed for blood samples.

The building’s exterior showed numerous pellet entry holes and Snyder said the apartment’s interior walls showed exit holes. Anderson showed the jury a picture of one such area of the wall where the pellets had passed through to the interior.

The netting on the playpen where Kirby’s and Sparks’ baby daughter had been sleeping at the time of the shooting also showed what Snyder said were holes from shotgun pellets.

Snyder testified that he was able to read the markings on the exterior of two of the three recovered shotgun shells. Those two readable shells showed writing indicating they were double-ought 15-pellet shells.

Asked about where shotgun shells usually eject, Snyder said it depends on the manufacturer, but most on the market today eject the shells on the righthand side, with the shells consistently falling two to three feet from the weapon.

After breaking for lunch early, the trial reconvened and Stone was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs and a jail uniform, his hair shaved close.

Stone’s attorney, Komnith Moth, was in attendance as his testimony began.

Stone said he had lived in Lake County off and on for eight years, having moved here from Santa Rosa. In Santa Rosa he worked as an electrician, and did auto detailing after he arrived in Lake County.

Under Anderson’s questioning, Stone admitted to having a past criminal history, including a December 2009 conviction for receiving stolen property. At the time of the shooting, he also had pending cases involving driving on a suspended license, methamphetamine possession, domestic violence and probation violations.

“You’ve had a big involvement in this case, have you not?” Anderson asked, regarding the murder case.

Stone acknowledged that he had, and that he was present during the shooting and afterward fled to Santa Rosa.

He had arranged with Clearlake Police Officer Mike Ray to turn himself in, but Stone said he didn’t show up.

“Why did you flee Lake County?” Anderson asked.

“‘Cause I heard there were people looking to kill me,” Stone said, adding, “That was the initial reason.”

He said he didn’t turn himself in because Ray appeared with a second officer he didn’t trust.

Stone would be arrested in Santa Rosa on July 1, 2011, along with Leighann Painchaud. He has remained in custody ever since.

Anderson, in his questioning, noted that a holding order was issued for Stone on Oct. 17, 2011, following the preliminary hearing. Stone and Moth began negotiations with Anderson’s office on Nov. 3, 2011. Stone said he met with Anderson three to four times while negotiating a plea agreement that included his testimony.

At that point in the proceedings Moth got up and left the courtroom with no explanation.

Shortly thereafter, Judge Doris Shockley stopped the proceedings.

“I want him back here,” she said of Moth.

A nearly hour-long recess was called shortly before 2 p.m., with part of that time involving an in-chambers discussion with Shockley and all of the attorneys, including Moth, who returned later.

When the jurors were brought back in, Shockley told them that an important procedural issue had arisen, and the court needed to address it before hearing any more testimony.

Shockley ordered the juror to return on Friday morning, with the caveat that they should call in Thursday evening to see if testimony was going to proceed Friday.

Anderson told Lake County News on Thursday evening that the procedural issues dealt with discovery documents. He said he could not say much more than that.

He said it was decided Thursday night that testimony would not continue on Friday, and that instead the attorneys would work on jury instructions.

He said testimony will resume on Wednesday, May 23, when two California Department of Justice experts will take the stand.

Stone will return to the stand on Thursday, May 24, Anderson said.

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

CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Northshore Fire Protection District firefighters were called to a structure fire in Clearlake Oaks early Saturday morning.

The fire was first dispatched shortly after 2:30 a.m. in the 12000 block of The Plaza, according to radio reports.               

Firefighters arriving at the scene reported finding a mobile home on fire.

The fire was located in the rear of the home, radio reports indicated.

The fire was reported contained at approximately 3:19 a.m.

The cause of the fire and details about the resources on scene were not immediately available early Saturday morning.

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

Life is not static and neither should be anyone’s living trust.

Adjustments have to be made when compelling circumstances arise which necessitate alternative approaches.  

For that reason a well drafted living trust should provide contingency planning alternatives.  

Unforeseen circumstances could relate to the settlors themselves, to the trust assets, or to the beneficiaries.  

Let us consider some possible scenarios and how a trust could be drafted to provide suitable alternative solutions.

First, the settlor's own circumstances could dramatically change.  

A settlor might require admission into a skilled nursing home and wish to apply for Medi-Cal assistance to help pay the costs.  

In that case, the settlor’s trust might authorize gifting of assets to family in order to accelerate his or her eligibility and/or to preserve the gifted assets against eventual estate recovery by Medi-Cal of assets exempt for eligibility purposes only after then settlor dies.  

Second, the assets that are available to distribute to the beneficiaries could be significantly different than those the settlor owned when he or she drafted the trust.  

Some or all of the important original trust assets that were specifically devised may have been given away, sold, and new ones acquired.  

Also, debts owed by the decedent may wipe out a large portion of the estate leaving much less to be distributed to any beneficiaries who receive a percentage of the remaining trust estate.  

For these reasons, a trust may provide alternative distribution schemes consistent with the decedent’s wishes should the estate be dramatically changed.

Third, the beneficiaries own life situations at the time of distribution may be significantly different.  

That is, some beneficiaries may have died, may be receiving needs based SSI or Medi-Cal benefits, may have debt issues, may be involved in a divorce, may be incarcerated or otherwise incapable of managing their own affairs. Thus, the trust may authorize the trustee to pursue more appropriate alternatives.  

Specifically, in the case of a deceased beneficiary, the trust may permit the trustee to distribute to alternative beneficiaries if a primary beneficiary, who survived long enough to inherit, has died prior to receiving the full inheritance – such alternative beneficiaries could either be named in the deceased settlor’s trust instrument or, if authorized, in the deceased beneficiary’s own will pursuant to a power of appointment.  

In regards to a beneficiary receiving SSI/Medi-Cal, the trust could redirect the inheritance into a special needs trust to assist such beneficiary.   

In the case of beneficiaries who have creditor or divorce issues, the trust could authorize the trustee to withhold all or part of distribution for any period of time up to an including the beneficiary’s entire lifetime and to utilize the withheld inheritance to assist the beneficiary.  

Lastly, regarding a beneficiary who is incarcerated or otherwise incapable of managing an inheritance, the trust may authorize that the trustee either retain and manage the inheritance in further trust or use the inheritance to purchase a single premium annuity for the beneficiary (to stretch out the payments over the beneficiary’s lifetime or term of years).  

As more time passes since when the trust was drafted the more changes occur and the more likely it becomes that the original plan as conceived will become either partially or completely inappropriate given the new circumstances.

It is, therefore, only good planning to draft flexibility into a trust to allow the trustee maneuvering room to respond to unforeseen circumstances.  

Needless to say, the foregoing discussion underscores why one’s estate plan should be reviewed by an attorney periodically – at least every five years – and sometimes sooner if events necessitate in order to make necessary adjustments to ensure its continued appropriateness.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com .

The California Highway Patrol and 265 local law enforcement agencies issued over 57,000 tickets in April to drivers who were using a hand-held cell phone or texting, according to a report from the California Office of Traffic Safety.

The agency said another 3,800 citations were handed out for other distracted driving violations in April.  This number is up from the 52,000 tickets issued in April of 2011.

The CHP and OTS praised the cooperation of hundreds of state and local agencies and the reaction of the public to the second annual “It’s Not Worth It!”enforcement and awareness campaign as part of the national Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

“Unfortunately, we’re seeing that the problem of cell phone use for talking and texting while driving is not going away anytime soon,” said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy.  “There are those who understand the dangers and have curtailed their use, while others think the hazards apply to everyone else but them.  We can’t stop until we convince everyone that they are putting their own life and others around them at risk with this perilous behavior.”

Use of cells phones and texting while driving is a problem in Lake County, too.

“We do see it here and the officers do take appropriate action when they see it,” said Sgt. Dave Stark of the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Office.

Stark said local CHP officers in April wrote 38 citations for violations of Vehicle Code 23123(a), which states, “A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using a wireless telephone unless that telephone is specifically designed and configured to allow hands-free listening and talking, and is used in that manner while driving.”

Stark said local officers wrote another two citations for violations of Vehicle Code 23123.5(a), which states, “A person shall not drive a motor vehicle while using an electronic wireless communications device to write, send, or read a text-based communication.”

In addition to the enforcement efforts, the OTS continued the “It’s Not Worth It!” public awareness campaign with TV and radio commercials, the Caltrans changeable message signs over highways, DMV messaging in field offices, plus Internet, social media and other outreach.  

The “Don’t Be a Distracted Driving Zombie” theme this year emphasized how up to 37 percent of brain functioning needed for driving gets switched to cell phone talking, making the driver severely lacking in ability to safely drive.

Recently OTS released the results of their second statewide cell phone observational survey that showed more than 10 percent of drivers were talking or texting while driving, representing hundreds of thousands of drivers at any given time.  

Especially troubling are the cell phone use figures showing drivers 16-25 years of age talking or texting at a rate of 18 percent, up from 9 percent in 2011.

The “It’s Not Worth It!” campaign will continue with both enforcement and public awareness efforts.  The State’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan is developing tactics to combat distracted driving, such as formulating plans to increase the data and research available to more accurately understand and combat the problem.  

With the lives of hundreds of Californians at stake, the message will continue to be that any phone call or text message can wait until you reach a safe place to stop.

Following a few uncomplicated steps would go a long way in keeping you safe from distracted driving:

• Put your cell phone out of reach when you get in the car so you won’t be tempted to use it.
• Mention on your outgoing voice mail message that you can’t answer because you might be driving.
• Don’t call or text anyone when there is a good chance that they may be driving.
• If you must call or text, pull into a parking space.
• The ability to safely multi-task while driving is myth.
• Never eat, groom, program a GPS, check Facebook, run an app, read or otherwise allow your full attention to leave the task of safely driving.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association has received a $5,450 grant from the California State Parks Foundation to aid the association's efforts to prevent the closure of Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.  

The grant is part of CSPF’s Park Operations Challenge Grant Program.

“We are pleased to announce these grants as part of our integrated effort to help keep threatened parks open,” said CSPF President Elizabeth Goldstein. “The grantees that have come forward to assist parks need our help now, and more organizations will have similar needs in the future.”

“This is an example of the value of public-private partnerships,” said California Department of Parks and Recreation Director Ruth Coleman. “We thank CSPF for mobilizing donors and resources to assist our nonprofit partners to get through this budget crisis.”

“We look forward to the moment when the ink dries on the deals between these nonprofits and the state,” said Goldstein. “They are very much in the process at the moment, and we think these grant announcements are an important milestone toward their completion.”

“The Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association is grateful for this financial support,” said AMIA Treasurer Henry Bornstein. “This grant will help us to meet our fundraising goals and enable us to be ready to move ahead with confidence in negotiating an operating agreement with Department of Parks and Recreation. We appreciate everything that the California State Parks Foundation is doing to assist the nonprofits that are working to prevent park closures.”

For information about Anderson Marsh State Historic Park, AMIA and how you can help, go to www.andersonmarsh.org or contact AMIA at either This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-995-2658.

In England it is known as the "Plough," in Germany the "Great Cart," and in Malaysia the "Seven Ploughs." Since humanity first turned its eyes skyward, the seven northern hemisphere stars that compose the "Big Dipper" have been a welcome and familiar introduction to the heavens.

"I can recall as a kid making an imaginary line from the two stars that make up the right side of the Big Dipper's bowl and extending it upward to find the North Star," said Scott Bolton, principal investigator of NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "Now, the Big Dipper is helping me make sure the camera aboard Juno is ready to do its job."

Launched on Aug. 5, 2011, the solar-powered Juno spacecraft is 279 days and 380 million miles (612 million kilometers) into its five-year, 1,905-million-mile (3,065-million-kilometer) journey to Jupiter.  

Once there, the spacecraft will orbit the planet's poles 33 times and use its nine instruments to image and probe beneath the gas giant's obscuring cloud cover to learn more about Jupiter's origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere, and look for a potential solid planetary core.

One of those instruments, JunoCam, is tasked with taking closeups of the gas giant's atmosphere.

But, with four-and-a-half years to go before photons of light from Jupiter first fill its CCD (charge-coupled device), and a desire to certify the camera in flight, Juno's mission planners took a page from their childhood and on March 21, aimed their camera at a familiar celestial landmark.

"I don't know if it's the first space-based image of the Big Dipper but, as it was taken when we were well beyond Mars orbit, it's probably from the farthest out," said Bolton. "But much more important than that is the simple fact that JunoCam, like the rest of this mission, works as advertised and is ready for its day in the sun – around Jupiter."

Juno's name comes from Greek and Roman mythology. The god Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief, and his wife, the goddess Juno, was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. JunoCam was developed and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.  

More information about Juno is online at http://www.nasa.gov/juno and http://missionjuno.swri.edu/ .

DC Agle is with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Something strange is about to happen to the shadows beneath your feet.

On Sunday, May 20, the Moon will pass in front of the sun, transforming sunbeams across the Pacific side of Earth into fat crescents and thin rings of light.

It's an annular solar eclipse, in which the Moon will cover as much as 94 percent of the sun.

Hundreds of millions of people will be able to witness the event. The eclipse zone stretches from southeast Asia across the Pacific Ocean to western parts of North America.

In the United States, the eclipse begins around 5:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time. For the next two hours, a Moon-shaped portion of the sun will go into hiding. Greatest coverage occurs around 6:30 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Because some of the sun is always exposed during the eclipse, ambient daylight won't seem much different than usual. Instead, the event will reveal itself in the shadows. Look on the ground beneath leafy trees  for crescent-shaped sunbeams and rings of light.

Near the center-line of the eclipse, observers will experience something special: the "ring of fire." As the Moon crosses the sun dead-center, a circular strip or annulus of sunlight will completely surround the dark lunar disk. Visually, the sun has a big black hole in the middle.

The "path of annularity" where this occurs is only about 200 miles wide, but it stretches almost halfway around the world passing many population centers en route: Tokyo, Japan; Medford, Oregon; Chico, Calif.; Reno, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Lubbock, Texas. In those locations the ring of fire phenomenon will be visible for as much as four and a half minutes.

"The ring of sunlight during annularity is blindingly bright," cautioned NASA's leading eclipse expert Fred Espenak of the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Even though most of the Sun's disk will be covered, you still need to use a solar filter or some type of projection technique. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. There are also many commercially-available solar filters."

Many astronomy clubs will have solar-filtered telescopes set up for public viewing.

Through the eyepiece of such an instrument, you can see the mountainous lunar limb gliding by dark sunspots and fiery prominences. It's a beautiful sight.

Be absolutely sure, however, that any telescope you look through is properly filtered. Magnified sunlight can cause serious eye damage even during an eclipse.

A safe and fun way to observe the eclipse is to use your own body as a solar projector. For example, try criss-crossing your fingers waffle-style. Rays of light beaming through the gaps will have the same shape as the eclipsed sun.

Or just stand under that tree. The sight of a thousand ring-shaped sunbeams swaying back and forth on a grassy lawn or sidewalk is unforgettable.

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