LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s jobless rate saw a minor improvement during the month of July, while national numbers also were down and state unemployment was unchanged.
The Employment Development Department, or EDD, said Lake County’s July unemployment rate was 7.4%, down from 7.5% in June and 11% in July 2020.
Leading the county’s job categories was total farm with a 6% growth over the month and 29.5% over the year. Leisure and hospitality was up by 2.5% over June and 17.5% over July 2020.
Nationwide, the jobless rate was down. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said July’s national unemployment rate was 5.4%, down from 5.9% in June and 10.2% in July 2020.
California’s unemployment rate was 7.6% in July, the same as June but down from 13.2% from July 2020.
California payroll jobs totaled 16,529,000 in July 2021, up 114,400 from June 2021 and up from 15,644,600 from July 2020.
Of the 2,714,800 jobs lost in March and April 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, California has now regained 1,582,900 jobs, or 58.3%.
The state said the number of Californians employed in July was 17,493,600, an increase of 56,000 persons from June’s total of 17,437,600 and up 1,225,600 from the employment total in July of last year.
The number of unemployed Californians was 1,433,800 in July, a decrease of 5,800 over the month and down 1,029,700 in comparison to July of last year, the EDD reported.
Lake County’s jobless rate earned it a statewide rank of No. 36.
Neighboring county jobless rates and ranks for July are: Colusa, 10.6%, No. 55; Glenn, 7%, No. 31; Mendocino, 6.3%, No. 19; Napa, 5.8%, No. 11; Sonoma, 5.6%, No. 7; and Yolo, 5.9%, No. 15.
Marin continued to have the lowest unemployment of the state’s 58 counties, 4.5%, while Imperial County had the highest rate, 18.9%.
In related data, the EDD said there were 834,513 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the July 2021 sample week. That compares to 592,867 people in June and 3,144,098 people in July 2020.
At the same time, 64,642 initial claims were processed in the July 2021 sample week, which was a month-over increase of 519 claims from June, but a year-over decrease of 179,864 claims from July 2020, the EDD reported.
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.
Thirty percent of unvaccinated American adults say they’re waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use to be officially approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has since granted that approval for those age 16 and older for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Aug. 23, 2021. What had to happen for the FDA to advance from emergency use authorization, or EUA, to full approval?
I’m a pharmacist who trains other pharmacists, health care providers and students on why, when and how to administer vaccines. Emergency use authorization, while streamlining the regulatory process so the vaccine is more quickly available to the public, still follows a rigorous process the FDA requires to ensure vaccine safety and effectiveness. The difference is that more time has passed and more data is available for review when a company applies for full approval.
EUA and full approval share similar first steps
For both emergency authorization and full approval, for COVID-19 vaccines, the FDA first requires initial safety studies on a small number of people. Here, researchers document potential adverse events, or side effects, that the vaccine may cause. Researchers also determine the safest and most effective dose of the vaccine.
Once the vaccine is determined to be safe and an optimal dose identified, researchers will create larger studies to ascertain how well it works in a controlled setting where some people are given the vaccine while others are given a placebo.
It is important to note that the number of people who participated in the initial COVID-19 safety studies was similar to that in the safety studies of other commonly used vaccines, including vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough and meningitis. Over 43,000 adults participated in the early phases of the Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial, over 30,400 in Moderna’s and over 44,000 in Johnson and Johnson’s. Half the participants in each study were given a vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo.
Where EUA and full approval differ
From this point on, emergency use authorization and full FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccines follow different clinical study requirements.
For the emergency use authorization, the FDA requires at least half of the participants of the original studies to be followed for at least two months post-vaccination. This is because the vast majority of vaccine-related side effects occur right after vaccination.
Full FDA approval, on the other hand, requires participants in the original studies to be followed for at least six months. Reviewers look at data from the same study participants but collected over a longer period of time. All adverse events are examined. The manufacturer must also provide more detailed manufacturing plans and processes, as well as a higher level of oversight and inspections. All of this adds significantly more time to the review process.
Both Pfizer and Moderna began their rolling submission for approval in the FDA’s “Fast Track” process, designed to speed up review. This allows the companies to submit portions of their approval application to the FDA for review as they’re completed.
Full FDA approval will initially apply to only the same age groups that were tested in the original emergency use authorization. This means that the vaccine has been approved first for people ages 16 and up for Pfizer, and will likely be approved for those 18 and up for Moderna. Rolling submission will allow approval of the vaccine for younger groups as more data becomes available.
Different timelines, same rigorous requirements
Full FDA approval is a milestone that may help build confidence among the vaccine hesitant about the safety of the vaccines. But the true test of the vaccine came when it first gained emergency use authorization. Then, researchers identified the majority of its potential side effects and proved its ability to protect against severe disease.
Article updated on Aug. 23, 2021 to reflect FDA approval of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for those ages 16 and older.
Members of the newly formed Konocti Women’s Service Club. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A new organization, the Konocti Women’s Service Club, has formed to continue the work that has been done for more than 40 years by the Konocti Lioness Club.
In the 1920s, service clubs called Ladies Auxiliary were partners in service with Lions Clubs.
By 1949 there were auxiliary clubs forming throughout the world and dedicating themselves to volunteering.
In 1975, the international body that governs the Lions Clubs formally recognized Ladies Auxiliaries as Lioness Clubs. By 1985, 5,300 Lioness Clubs were active in 92 countries with membership totaling 139,412.
In the shadow of Mount Konocti in Lake County, the Konocti Lioness Club was formed in 1980 and its members have served their community as dedicated Lionesses for 40 years with their motto of “For Kids’ Sake.”
In 1992 the international body that governs Lioness Clubs decided they could no longer support the Lioness Program as it was. Individual Lioness Clubs could continue as a service program with their local Lions Club still maintaining a Lion liaison officer.
Consequently, in 2018, that same governing body announced the end of the Lioness Program as it was known, dissolving all ties to the program effective June 30, 2021.
Across the globe, Lioness clubs have chosen to leave the international body in favor of their own programs and will launch under new names and banners.
That resulted in a new beginning.
In 2021, many of the former Lioness Clubs aligned to form the Global Service Organization, a global community of service clubs. Their goal is to continue the service the Lioness Clubs began creating a platform that will allow members to build a global service community and continue serving for many years to come.
The Konocti Lioness Club has reorganized to become the Konocti Women’s Service Club, a proud independent service club, looking forward to serving the Lake County community with the same motto, “For Kids’ Sake.”
All of the money raised goes to charities that support at-risk children.
The purpose of their club is to provide opportunities for women to unite in friendship and in mutual understanding, and to guide, teach and reach the children of our community.
Their goal is to give service and to be philanthropic with their money to support youth with dignity and motivation.
Over the last five years, the club has given high school scholarships totaling $15,000 and has supported their local schools with supplies.
They partnered with Flotilla 88 of Lake County to provide youngsters life jackets and have provided and staffed three summer day camps for elementary age children.
The Konocti Women’s Service Club has been supported recently by the folks at Dream of a Better World, whose generosity helped the club to provide Christmas gifts to individuals who had fallen on hard times in December of 2020.
Now, the club is glad to be on the move and happy to be a part of the worldwide community of the Global Service Organization.
Konocti Women’s Service Club members are fun, strong and energized to do good for their community. They are also looking forward to meeting other service clubs throughout the world.
Dorothy De Lope is a member of the new Konocti Women’s Service Club.
Forty-four percent of children experienced poverty for at least two consecutive months, also known as episodic poverty, between 2013 and 2016, according to a recently released U.S. Census Bureau report.
This rate was nearly triple the episodic poverty rate for individuals ages 65 and over.
The new report, Dynamics of Economic Well-being: Poverty, 2013-2016, includes longitudinal statistics like episodic and chronic poverty and the median length of poverty spells.
It shows the episodic poverty rate was higher (44%) for children (under age 18).
Seniors (ages 65 and over) had the lowest episodic poverty rate among all age groups with a rate of 15.8%. Working-age adults (ages 18-64) had a higher rate of 33.6% but still lower than the rate for children.
Chronic poverty
Across age groups, shorter poverty spells were much more common than multi-year poverty spells between 2013 and 2016.
Chronic poverty describes individuals in poverty for all months of the 2013-2016 period studied. As a result, the chronically poor are also captured within the episodically poor, as they have more than two consecutive months in poverty.
As with episodic poverty, children also had the highest chronic poverty rate (4.6%) among all three age groups from 2013 to 2016. The chronic poverty rate for seniors was 1.5%, the lowest among all age groups, and 2.4% for working-age adults.
Lifting out of poverty
The length of a poverty spell represents the number of consecutive months an individual was in poverty. A group’s median poverty spell length can provide information on its ability to exit poverty.
Seniors and children typically remained in poverty longer than working-age adults, based on the median length of poverty spells by age group.
While seniors notably had the lowest episodic poverty rate among all age groups, those in poverty appeared to have difficulty exiting poverty.
Seniors’ median poverty spell length (12.4 months) was longer than it was for working-age adults (10.1 months) and was not statistically different than for children (11.8 months) from 2013 to 2016.
Abinash Mohanty is a statistician in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division.
This female domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 53, ID No. LCAC-A-1503. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair kitten
This female domestic short hair kitten has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 53, ID No. LCAC-A-1503.
This 3-year-old female domestic medium hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 58, ID No. LCAC-A-1029. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Domestic medium hair cat
This 3-year-old female domestic medium hair cat has a brown tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 58, ID No. LCAC-A-1029.
“Marmalade” is a 5-year-old female domestic short hair cat in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-1444. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Marmalade’
“Marmalade” is a 5-year-old female domestic short hair cat with a calico and white coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-1444.
This female domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID No. LCAC-A-1504. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair kitten
This female domestic short hair kitten has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID No. LCAC-A-1504.
This male domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID Nos. LCAC-A-1502. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Domestic short hair kitten
This male domestic short hair kitten has all-black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID No. LCAC-A-1502.
This male domestic short hair is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has a gray and white coat.
He is 1-year-old and weighs nearly 6 pounds.
He is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874.
This 2-year-old female domestic short hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 123, ID No. LCAC-A-1152. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair
This 2-year-old female domestic short hair cat has a white coat and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 123, ID No. LCAC-A-1152.
This male domestic short hair kitten is in cat room kennel No. 125B, ID No. LCAC-A-1139. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Domestic short hair kitten
A male kitten from this litter remains available for adoption.
He is in cat room kennel No. 125B, ID No. LCAC-A-1139.
This 1-year-old female domestic short hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. LCAC-A-1133. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair
This 1-year-old female domestic short hair cat has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. LCAC-A-1133.
“Goldie” is a male domestic short hair kitten in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1442. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Goldie’
“Goldie” is a male domestic short hair kitten with a yellow tabby and white coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1442.
“Ophir” is a male domestic short hair kitten in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1443. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Ophir’
“Ophir” is a male domestic short hair kitten with a red and white coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1443.
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.
My son’s kindergarten teachers, holding class on Zoom last year, instructed: “Eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, bodies still.” However, I noticed my 6-year-old’s hands would stay busy with items found around our house, building with Legos, shaping clay or doodling with a crayon.
While some might describe this child as being “off task,” research suggests his manipulation of materials actually aroused his mind, allowing it to focus on the required task.
Most notably, remote learning assumes that as long as the mind is engaged, it’s fine if the body stays still. But this argument is backward.
Research from embodied cognition – the study of the body’s role in thinking – shows that the body must first be interacting with the world to activate and open up the mind for learning.
That’s why, for example, students working with a variety of tools and materials during a learning activity are better able to grasp abstract concepts, such as gravitational acceleration or fractions.
To ask students to sit still while performing their work actually increases their cognitive load, or the burden on the mind. It requires them to concentrate on quieting their bodies, which are seeking out avenues for sense-making, as well as on the primary task that fixes them to their desk or digital screen.
As psychologists Christine Langhanns and Hermann Müller concluded from studies of people solving math problems, “Sitting quietly is not necessarily the best condition for learning in school.”
In this way, thoughts are iterative. People sense their way through current moments while bringing to bear what they have learned over the body’s accumulated history. Learning to safely cross the road, for instance, takes practice. Over time, the brain organizes input from the senses to recognize a good time for crossing.
In problem-solving scenarios, research shows that for many math learners, their gestures show they understand strategies before they can articulate those solutions through speech. In this way, educators trained to look for and understand gesture can see a learner’s process and progress in understanding concepts before a student is able to translate that understanding to speech or a written test.
A view of the whole person, therefore, facilitates learning from one another. But that’s a stark contrast to a year spent seeing only the faces of fellow students and teachers, or just a blank box.
Some students will remain online this school year – due to health or other concerns – while others will return to in-person classrooms. I believe both models of school can better incorporate the body to support learning. The following tips are for educators designing remote or in-person classes, though parents and students can also encourage and help sustain an active classroom culture.
Normalize movement during classes, not just during movement breaks. For instance, make a neighborhood walk the mode of inquiry for the day’s science lesson. Ask students to bring back their observations to the whole group.
Begin every class with time to assemble different materials to think and work with, such as notebooks and different kinds of paper, various writing and drawing instruments, putty and blocks. Incorporate interaction with these tools throughout the lesson.
Encourage and use gestures. If online, invite camera use, and back away to give students a wider view.
Build in time for students to tune in to how their body is feeling as a window into their emotional state.
Provide opportunities for iteration, practicing a task in different contexts and with different tools and people that engage the body in different ways. The content or big idea stays the same, but how and with whom students engage shifts.
If online, try out videoconferencing platforms like Ohyay that try to replicate physical closeness and movement in a virtual space.
Consider the classroom as extending out into the school campus and neighborhood. Allowing students to experience a familiar location in a different way, with their classmates and teacher, can evoke new perspectives and thoughts.
Teachers, parents and students can all change their expectations of what being “on task” looks like. Walking, running or dancing may not seem related to a particular task at hand, but these activities often help people do their best thinking. Activating the body activates the mind, so “seat time” might better be titled “activity time.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting this week to discuss extending an urgency ordinance that implements a moratorium on early activation permits, hear about COVID-19 and local schools and hold a public hearing on the supervisorial redistricting process.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting ID is 935 3617 1596, pass code 598091. The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16699006833,,93536171596#,,,,*598091# US.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
In an item timed for 11 a.m., the board will hold a public hearing to consider extending an interim urgency ordinance establishing a moratorium on the issuance of early activation permits on all land use projects in the unincorporated county.
In other business on Tuesday, at 9:06 a.m. the board will get a Lake County schools COVID-19 update from Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
At 10 a.m., the board will hold its first public hearing to introduce the redistricting process for supervisorial districts.
At 10:30 a.m., the board will consider its response to the 2020-21 Grand Jury Final Report.
Other timed items include the agreement for an operational analysis of indigent defense services set for 11:30 a.m. and presentation of the Roadmap Task Force Pilot Project at noon.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Appoint temporary representatives to meet for unrepresented Confidential A and B employees regarding salary and benefits.
5.2: Adopt resolution amending Resolution No. 2021-68 Establishing Position Allocations for Recommended Fiscal Year 2021-2022 Budget, Budget Unit No. 2702, Planning.
5.3: Approve Amendment No. 1 to agreement for recruitment services for the Lake County Public Health officer.
5.4: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No.21-0341-000-SA with California Department of Food and Agriculture for Compliance with the Nursery Inspection Program for Period July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022, in the amount of $990.
5.5: Sitting as Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors, authorize the air pollution control officer to sign and submit the grant agreement between the district and ARB for AB617 Implementation Funds for the Community Air Protection Program, and sign all other program documents.
5.6: Approve Board of Supervisors meeting minutes for July 20, 2021.
5.7: Adopt resolution (a) authorizing entering into a funding agreement with the State Water Resources Control Board and (b) authorizing and designating Lake County Special Districts administrator to sign, on the behalf of CSA-21, North Lakeport Water, all grant related documents for the Drought Resiliency Project.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:06 a.m.: Lake County schools COVID-19 update.
6.3, 10 a.m.: Redistricting public hearing No. 1 — Introduction to the redistricting process.
6.4, 10:30 a.m.: Consideration of response to the 2020-21 Grand Jury Final Report.
6.5, 11 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration of an ordinance extending interim Urgency Ordinance No. 3107 10 months and 15 days which establishes a moratorium on the issuance of early activation permits for land use projects within the unincorporated area of Lake County and authorize chair to sign .
6.6, 11:30 a.m.: Consideration of agreement for operational analysis of indigent defense services.
6.7, noon: Presentation of Roadmap Task Force Pilot Project.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: (a) Consideration of a Presentation on PG&E’s Better Together Resilient Communities Grant Program; (b) consideration of a resolution of support for Trane Technologies to submit an application on behalf of the county of Lake to PG&E’s “Better Together Resilient Communities” Grant Program, in pursuit of funds for additional engineering and due diligence in the evaluation of potential advanced energy projects.
CLOSED SESSION
8.1: Public employee evaluation: Public Works Director Scott De Leon.
8.2: Public employee evaluation: Behavioral Health Director Todd Metcalf.
8.3: Public employee appointment pursuant to Gov. Code Section 54957(b)(1): (a) Appointment of Community Development director.
8.4: Conference with temporary representatives designated to meet with county department heads regarding salary and benefits of unrepresented management employees.
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.
Leonardo Rodriguez. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Lake County resident now studying at Mendocino College has been elected to a state board that will give him the opportunity to advocate for community college students.
Leonardo Rodriguez of Kelseyville, who turned 20 in June, was elected on Aug. 12 to the California Community College Trustees Board as its student member for the 2021-22 academic year.
Born in Mexico, Rodriguez’s family came to the United States when he was 5 years old.
He refers to himself as a “Dreamer” — a reference to the DREAM Act that was proposed, but not passed, in Congress to assist young people with immigration status.
He’s lived in Lake County since he was in fifth grade. He’s a 2019 graduate of Kelseyville High School and a first-generation college student.
Rodriguez also is the student trustee for the Mendocino-Lake College District Board of Trustees, a role he was selected to fill last semester by fellow students.
Student trustees have the same general responsibilities as all trustees to represent the interests of the entire community, while also providing a student perspective on the issues facing the board.
Mendocino College Superintendent/President Tim Karas said Rodriguez’s selection to the California Community College Trustee, or CCCT, Board is a first for the Mendocino-Lake College District.
“This is transformational for us. Student Trustee Rodriguez will provide a voice for 2.1 million California community college students. His voice will inform and shape statewide strategic directions. Having an advocate for rural colleges with an equity mindset is critical to deliver higher education to all,” Karas said.
The CCCT Board consists of 21 members elected statewide by the 73 district California Community College governing boards and a student-member elected by the student trustees.
The board takes positions on and formulates education policy issues that come before the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the State Legislature, and other relevant state-level boards and commissions.
This policy board provides input to the League Board to advance the mission and effectively serve the organization's member colleges.
Rodriguez told Lake County News that he ran for the CCCT Board on a platform of implementing anti-racist and equitable policies, expanding dual enrollment in urban and rural communities, and establishing student retention initiatives.
He wants to see policies instituted that are race conscious and which look at impacts on all student demographics. Making sure classes are culturally relevant and ensuring student success are part of implementing anti-racist policies, he said.
Rodriguez was endorsed by District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska and community organizer Luisa Acosta.
An introduction to service
Before he was elected to the college and state boards, Rodriguez served on the Lake County Latinx COVID-19 advocacy group, which started last year when there was an outbreak in the agricultural sector.
The group had urged officials to give out masks and do on-site testing, and it was there he worked with Acosta. He said he also felt then-Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace had valued his voice and ideas as he advocated for the Hispanic community.
Rodriguez felt that if his voice was valued there, he wondered if it would also be welcomed at the college board level.
“Really, it was about representation,” he said, explaining his entry into running for the college boards.
In July, Rodriguez also spoke to the Lake County Board of Supervisors to raise his concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on students, suggesting that with the surge and the fact that only about half of the county was vaccinated, that schools should probably not yet reopen.
Rodriguez told Lake County News that COVID-19 hasn’t revealed new problems in education, but rather has highlighted existing issues, including academic failure, financial insecurity, mental health and inequities when it comes to access to technology.
“Community colleges are often almost a home for a lot of students,” he said. “It really does become their space.”
Having their space taken away by COVID-19 has impacted students both in the short-term and the long-term as they struggled to make the transition from in-person to online courses, he said.
He said some students also are having to give up their dreams of college to help their families stay afloat, an issue he’s been hearing a lot about.
Students are missing the in-person dynamics, discussion and interaction that are part of the full package of what higher education is, Rodriguez said.
This is Rodriguez’s second year in college and he’ll be graduating from Mendocino College soon. He is on track to graduate with associates degrees in three majors — political science, history and liberal arts with a focus on social sciences.
He plans to transfer to Sacramento State University to pursue his bachelor's degree in political science and will then go on to obtain his master’s degree.
Rodriguez plans to do internships in Sacramento so he can meet legislators and continue working with the community to learn about the problems people in society face.
Advocacy for the Hispanic community is a key concern for Rodriguez, noting he looks forward to seeing immigration reform passed.
He said he wants to serve California and its people “in any capacity that will allow me to complete my life dream of being a voice for those who are unheard.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a large number of new dogs waiting for adoption this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian kelpie, beagle, Doberman pinscher, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, miniature pinscher, pit bull, rat terrier, Rhodesian ridgeback, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.
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.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).
“Coco” is a 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-1541. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Coco’
“Coco” is a 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever.
She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-1541.
“Carlos” is a 1-year-old male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-1566. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Carlos’
“Carlos” is a 1-year-old male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-1566.
This 1-year-old male miniature pinscher is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-1515. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male miniature pinscher
This 1-year-old male miniature pinscher has a short blond coat.
He is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-1515.
This 1-year-old male beagle is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-1524. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male beagle
This 1-year-old male beagle has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-1524.
This 5-year-old American pit bull terrier mix is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1483. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. American pit bull terrier mix
This 5-year-old American pit bull terrier mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1483.
This young female American pit bull-terrier mix is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1470. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female pit bull-hound mix
This young female American pit bull-terrier mix has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1470.
“Peanut” is a 1-year-old female Doberman Pinscher in kennel No. 14, LCAC-A-1447. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Peanut’
“Peanut” is a 1-year-old female Doberman Pinscher with a short red and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, LCAC-A-1447.
“Baby” is a 2-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback-pit bull mix in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-1520. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Baby’
“Baby” is a 2-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback-pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-1520.
This 2-year-old male pit bull is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-1568. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short gray coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-1568.
“Deisel” is a young male terrier mix in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1578. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Deisel’
“Deisel” is a young male terrier mix with a short blond coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1578.
This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-1349. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Labrador retriever
This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-1349.
“Oliver” is a 1-year-old Australian kelpie-rat terrier mix in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-1551. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Oliver’
“Oliver” is a 1-year-old Australian kelpie-rat terrier mix with a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-1551.
“Shamus McGee” is an 8-year-old male Labrador retriever mix in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1509. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Shamus McGee’
“Shamus McGee” is an 8-year-old male Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1509.
“Dusty” is a 2-year-old female pit bull terrier mix in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-611. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Dusty’
“Dusty” is a 2-year-old female pit bull terrier mix with a short gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-611.
“Jim” is a 2-year-old pit bull terrier mix in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-810. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Jim’
“Jim” is a 2-year-old pit bull terrier mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-810.
This 2-year-old female mastiff is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-1395.Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female mastiff
This 2-year-old female mastiff has a short brindle and white coat.
She weighs 102 pounds.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-1395.
“Rosco” is 3-year-old a male Rhodesian Ridgeback-Shepherd mix in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-1205. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Rosco’
“Rosco” is 3-year-old a male Rhodesian ridgeback-Shepherd mix with a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-1205.
“Rudy” is a 4-year-old male Chihuahua in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1394. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Rudy’
“Rudy” is a 4-year-old male Chihuahua with a short red coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1394.
This 4-year-old female pit bull terrier mix is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-812. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female pit bull terrier
This 4-year-old female pit bull terrier mix has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-812.
“Bubba” is a male pit bull terrier mix in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-1306. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Bubba’
“Bubba” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-1306.
This 1-year-old male Labrador retriever mix in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-1426. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Labrador retriever mix
This 1-year-old male Labrador retriever mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-1426.
This 2-year-old male husky is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1024. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male husky
This 2-year-old male husky has a red and cream coat.
He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1024.
This 2-year-old male pit bull terrier mix is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-1528. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull mix
This 2-year-old male pit bull terrier mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-1528.
“Ghost” is a 2-year-old female husky in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-1167. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Ghost’
“Ghost” is a 2-year-old female husky with an all-white coat and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-1167.
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. — Every 11 minutes, an American dies from opioid overdose; 91% of those overdoses are accidental.
Drug overdose is now the No. 1 cause of unintentional injury-related death in the United States.
In 2019, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses, over 6,000 of those here in California.
The leading driver of these deaths (greater than 70%) is opioid drugs, including fentanyl, heroin and prescription opioids.
Lake County's death rate due to drug use is more than four times higher than the state of California’s.
To help raise community awareness about drug overdose, Lake County Behavioral Health Services is shining a spotlight on it through International Overdose Awareness Day.
This is a global event which takes place annually on Aug. 31, to remember those gone too soon from drug overdose deaths.
A tribute event will take place on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with speakers at 12:30 p.m. in Lakeport’s Library Park.
Individuals who consume prescription opioids, even when following the prescribed dose, may eventually develop a tolerance to the drug.
When pain has decreased or gone away, some folks find it easy to stop taking the drugs. Others find it difficult to quit. Those who find it harder to quit may continue to take opioids longer than necessary; worse, they may develop an opioid use disorder.
People prescribed opioid pain relievers are also at risk of developing an opioid use disorder. Many are unaware their opioid use has become problematic.
The United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports over half of the people who have misused prescription drugs claimed they got the drugs from relatives or friends. Most people do not know sharing opioids is a felony.
People who take pain relieving drugs in doses too large or for an extended period of time are more at risk of developing an opioid use disorder, and face greater risk of death due to opioid overdose.
Nearly 10 million people over the age of 12 misused prescription drugs in 2019, with 2 million of those having opioid use disorder, per the National Safety Council.
The good news is opioid use disorders are treatable, and recovery can be achieved with effective treatment. Many people in recovery go on to live healthy, successful lives.
For more information, please contact Lake County Behavioral Health Services at 707-274-9101 or 707-994-7090.
If you or someone you know is in urgent need of help, please call the county’s 24-hour crisis line at 800-900-2075.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A three-vehicle collision temporarily closed Highway 20 on Saturday night, with several people injured.
The head-on crash occurred at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday on Highway 20 east of Clearlake Oaks, in the area of mile post marker 39.5, according to radio traffic and California Highway Patrol reports.
Vehicles involved were described as a silver SUV and a white sedan, with a third vehicle reported to be 30 feet down an embankment.
First responders reported the vehicles were blocking the roadway when they arrived.
There were a total of six patients, with two seriously injured, according to radio reports.
Firefighters and deputies were reported to be looking for additional crash victims in the creek but radio traffic did not indicate any were found.
Ground ambulances transported several of the patients, with two air ambulances requested to respond to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital to transport two crash victims to out-of-county trauma centers, scanner traffic said.
The air ambulances were reported to have flown the two most seriously injured patients to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
Firefighters reported clearing the scene just after 11 p.m.
Additional information was not immediately available late Saturday night.
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.
A side-by-side comparison of modeled ozone concentration in Earth's atmosphere with the Montreal Protocol (left) and without (right). Previous “world-avoided” experiments have shown that, without the Montreal Protocol, ozone levels would be depleted globally by the mid-20th century. Credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Protecting the ozone layer also protects Earth’s vegetation and has prevented the planet from an additional 0.85 degrees Celsius of warming, according to new research from Lancaster University, NASA, and others.
This new study in Nature demonstrates that by protecting the ozone layer, which blocks harmful ultraviolet, or UV, radiation, the Montreal Protocol regulating ozone-depleting substances also protects plants — and their ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere.
The impact from plants has not been accounted for in previous climate change research.
“We know the ozone layer is connected to climate. We know greenhouse gases affect the ozone layer. But what we’ve never done before this is connect the ozone layer to the terrestrial carbon cycle,” said lead author Paul Young, an atmospheric and climate scientist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, blocks UV radiation that can damage living tissue, including plants.
The ozone “hole,” discovered in 1985, is the result of humans emitting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are ozone-depleting chemicals and greenhouse gases that were once commonly used as coolants in refrigerators and in aerosols like hairspray. They were then phased out of use by the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 and its subsequent amendments.
Scientists have previously simulated the world that we avoided by banning CFCs. Now, the new study returns to the same question — what would happen if CFCs continued to be emitted? — and looked at the effect on plants.
“Past world-avoided experiments have never considered the impacts of increased UV radiation on plants, and what that would mean for the plants’ ability to sequester carbon,” said Young.
The team used a series of models to gain a more complete picture and simulate two hypothetical scenarios: the world projected and the world avoided. “The world projected is similar to the path we’re currently on,” said Luke Oman, a research physical scientist focusing on atmospheric chemistry and dynamics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The world avoided represents a path not taken.”
For the world-avoided scenario, the researchers assumed that CFC emissions would increase at the same rate, 3% every year, from the 1970s onward. The models show that there would be a huge thinning of the ozone layer across the globe by 2050. By 2100, ozone holes forming in the tropics would be worse than what has been observed in the Antarctic ozone hole.
In their models of the world-avoided, a depleted ozone layer would let more harmful ultraviolet radiation reach the surface, inhibiting plants from storing carbon in their tissue and in the soil. As a result, atmospheric CO2 levels are estimated to be 30% higher than they would likely be under Earth’s current trajectory. Consequently, Earth would likely be an additional 0.85°C hotter in that “world-avoided” scenario solely because of the impact on plants.
This global thinning of the ozone layer would allow significantly more harmful UV radiation from the sun to reach the surface, which would effectively sunburn the plants on Earth, said Young. Earth’s trees and vegetation would be much less efficient at photosynthesis, hindering their ability to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it, storing carbon in plant tissue and the soil for many years.
Overall, the damage to plants would result in 580 billion metric tons less carbon stored in forests, soil and vegetation. It would instead be released into the atmosphere, increasing atmospheric CO2 levels by 30% on average compared to the world projected scenario.
That huge increase in atmospheric CO2 alone would cause global temperatures to rise 0.85°C by 2100, according to the models. That’s on top of the warming Earth may experience due to prior and expected emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, as well as the 1.7°C of direct warming due to increased CFC emissions in this scenario.
But how do we know this “world-avoided” scenario is anything like the world that would come to be without the Montreal Protocol? The team checked their models against historical data collected by NASA satellites and other available data from NASA’s partners.
For example, they looked at ozone levels recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite and compared them to what the models “predicted” would have happened.
What happened in the model was very close to what actually happened in the past, giving the scientists confidence that their model could accurately project what may happen in the future.
Sofie Bates is a member of NASA's Earth Science News Team.
