UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Officials said Monday that the effort to fully contain the Elk fire is nearly complete.

The 670-acre fire on Monday evening was at 90-percent containment, Cal Fire said.

The fire began on Wednesday in the 12000 block of Elk Mountain Road. The cause remains under investigation.

Firefighters are continuing mop up on the incident, according to Cal Fire, which has been in unified command with the United States Forest Service since the fire began last week.

Cal Fire said command of the fire will transition to the Mendocino National Forest on Tuesday morning.

Crews will continue to conduct mop up and patrol for hot spots over the next three to five days, Cal Fire said.

As the fire nears full containment, the resources committed to it have been significantly reduced. Cal Fire said personnel assigned to the fire as of Monday evening included 300 firefighters, 25 overhead or command personnel, five water tenders, four fire crews and two bulldozers.

Due to the existing fire danger, authorities continue to urge the public to be extremely cautious when using equipment or recreating. Learn more by visiting www.preventwildfireca.org .

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.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Elk fire was moved closer to full containment on Sunday.

Cal Fire said the 670-acre blaze was at 75-percent containment as of Sunday night.

The fire has been burning since Wednesday afternoon off of Elk Mountain Road and Mount Dinger Road north of Upper Lake.

The United States Forest Service and Cal Fire continue to hold unified command on the incident, the cause of which remains under investigation.

Cooperating agencies also include Northshore Fire Protection District, the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the California Highway Patrol.

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. – Mark your calendars – on Sept. 27 a total eclipse of a supermoon will occur. 

This is a rare event you do not want to miss.

What’s a supermoon? It is a full moon when the moon is closest to the Earth.

The moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical. When it is the furthest from Earth it is at apogee.  Perigee is when it is closest.

A supermoon occurs at perigee, and can appear to be up to 30-percent brighter and 14-percent bigger than your run-of-the-mill full moon.

What makes September’s supermoon spectacular is the total eclipse. The eclipse begins at 6 p.m. and ends at 9:30 p.m.

In Lake County, the supermoon will rise at 7:50 p.m.

This is a rare event. The last eclipse of a supermoon happened in 1982. It won’t happen again until 2033.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon is in the Earth’s shadow.

While waiting for the supermoon at the end of September, the rest of the month can be spent admiring the Milky Way.

It is directly overhead, running north and south through the constellations Cygnus and Aquila.

The Milky Way looks like a large cloud. In reality it is made up of millions of stars.

When you look at the Milky Way, you are looking toward the center of our galaxy.

We believe our galaxy looks like our nearest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.

John Zimmerman is a resident of Lake County and has been an amateur astronomer for over 50 years. For more information about astronomy and local resources, visit his Web site at www.lakecountyskies.com .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – An Oakland woman died on Sunday evening following a single-vehicle crash on Highway 29.

The 35-year-old woman, whose name has not been released pending notification of next of kin, was riding as the passenger in a 1996 Honda Accord driven by Ioan C. Gruia, 31, of San Francisco, according to a Monday report from the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said the crash occurred at 6:15 p.m. Sunday on Highway 29, south of the Hill Road undercrossing.

Gruia was driving southbound on Highway 29 in the No. 1 lane at an undetermined speed when, for unknown reasons, he allowed the Honda to drift off the roadway and onto the dirt center median, according to the CHP.

The CHP said Gruia attempted to drive the Honda back onto Highway 29 by sharply turning to the right, but he overcorrected and lost control of the car.

The Honda skidded across the highway's southbound lanes, hitting a raised curb and a dirt embankment, the CHP said.

The CHP said the impact with the curb and embankment caused the Honda to roll multiple times. The car traveled down a dirt embankment, where it came to rest on its roof on Hill Road, which in that area is a frontage road of Highway 29.

The female passenger suffered major injuries and had to be extricated by firefighters. The CHP said she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A REACH air ambulance flew Gruia to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, the CHP said.

Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the incident, and both Gruia and his passenger were properly using their seat belts at the time the wreck occurred, the CHP said.

CHP Officer Adam Garcia is leading the crash investigation.

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 six cats available to new homes this week.

The adult cats – two males and four females – will be vaccinated in preparation for going to their new homes.

In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets there, hoping you'll choose them.

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

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

Domestic medium hair mix

This male domestic medium hair mix has an orange and white coat.

He's in cat room kennel No. 7, ID No. 3138.

Domestic medium hair mix

This male domestic medium hair mix has a mostly white coat with light orange markings.

He's in cat room kennel No. 62, ID No. 3137.

Domestic longhair mix

This female domestic longhair mix has a multicolored coat.

She's in cat room kennel No. 64, ID No. 3167.

Domestic medium hair cat

This beautiful all-black female cat has a medium-length coat.

She's in cat room kennel No. 70, ID No. 3156.

Domestic longhair mix

This female domestic longhair mix has a gray, orange and white coat.

She's in cat room kennel No. 74, ID No. 3139.

Female domestic short hair mix

This female domestic short hair mix has a brown and gray tabby coat.

She's in cat room kennel No. 78, ID No. 2984.

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

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

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

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has another big group of dogs – from a unique variety of breeds – needing homes this week.

The dogs offered for adoption this week include mixes of border collie, cattle dog, corgi, dachshund, German Shepherd, pit bull, Rottweiler, Shetland Sheepdog, wheaten terrier and wirehaired 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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

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

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

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short brown and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 2, ID No. 3226.

Corgi-dachshund mix

This female corgi-dachshund mix has a short gold and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 4, ID No. 3169.

Wheaten terrier mix

This wheaten terrier mix has a long curly coat.

He's in kennel No. 5, ID No. 3168.

Wirehaired terrier mix

This male wirehaired terrier mix has a tan and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 3112.

Male Rottweiler mix

This male Rottweiler mix has a short black and tan coat.

Shelter staff said he had a sweet temperament.

He's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 3158.

Border collie-shelter mix

This male border collie and Shetland Sheepdog mix has a medium-length multicolored coat.

He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 3197.

Pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short mostly white coat with brown markings.

Shelter staff said he has no food aggression and does well with female dogs. He was introduced to the cats, and was scared, but curious, so they think he might not do well with cats.

Overall, he is a very sweet boy, shelter staff reported.

He's in kennel No. 10, ID No. 3105.

Border collie-shepherd mix

This male border collie-shepherd mix has a short black and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 12, ID No. 3166.

German Shepherd mix

This beautiful female German Shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.

She's in kennel No. 14, ID No. 3179.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

Shelter staff said she will do great in a home with children ages 7 and above and no cats. She has no food aggression, and does fine with other dogs once she warms up. This friendly shepherd also has a ball drive, and loves getting into the kiddie pool.

She is available for a very low adoption fee of $45.

She's in kennel No. 23, ID No. 1918.

'Prince'

“Prince” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short, steel-gray coat.

Prince is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 3162.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short chocolate and white coat.

Shelter staff said he has no issues with food aggression, and didn't mind when a trainer pulled on his tail or skin.

He would do good in a home with no cats, and needs some work with other dogs, as shelter staff said he is under-socialized, and gets very excited when introduced to another dog.

He's in kennel No. 26, ID No. 3163.

'Penny'

“Penny” is a female cattle dog mix.

Shelter staff said she is a very sweet girl, loves treats and has a docile temperament.

Penny is in kennel No. 34, ID No. 3188.

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

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Dozens of classic cars stopped over in Middletown on Saturday for Twin Pine Casino's car show.

The event took place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the casino's event center.

Lake County News contributing photographer Kurt Jensen stopped in and captured a number of great photos of the colorful, pristine autos, shown above and below.

The critical importance of brake safety in commercial vehicles is the focus of Brake Safety Week, a nationwide campaign Sept. 6 to 12.

The weeklong campaign provides the California Highway Patrol an opportunity to educate drivers, mechanics, and others on the importance of proper brake inspection and maintenance.

The CHP’s 51 Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facilities (CVEF), located throughout the state, will participate with enforcement or educational activities.

Educational events, such as information booths at rest areas and truck stops, are valuable ways for the CHP to enhance commercial vehicle safety.

“Whether you are behind the wheel of a big rig, city bus, or family car, safe and reliable brakes are fundamental to protecting everyone on our roads,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. “The ultimate goal of the Brake Safety Week campaign is to reduce the annual number of highway collisions caused by faulty braking systems on commercial vehicles and improve brake safety throughout California year-round.”

More than 1,000 CHP employees are dedicated to commercial vehicle enforcement. The CHP conducts an average of 500,000 commercial vehicle inspections each year.

The inspections, conducted both on highway and off by the CHP, help ensure commercial vehicle owners and operators comply with state laws.

During Brake Safety Week in 2014, 9,989 vehicles were inspected and 1,514 were taken out of service.

Brake-related violations are the most frequent reason for commercial vehicles to be taken out of service during roadside inspections by the CHP.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – California agencies fighting the spread of invasive quagga and zebra mussels remind boaters to remain vigilant over the Labor Day weekend.
 
People who launch vessels at any body of water are subject to watercraft inspections and are encouraged to clean, drain and dry their motorized and nonmotorized boats, including personal watercraft, and any equipment that comes into contact with the water before and after recreating at a waterway.
 
Quagga and zebra mussels, non-native freshwater mussels native to Eurasia, multiply quickly and encrust watercraft and infrastructure, and compete for food with native and sport fish species.

These mussels can be spread from one body of water to another attached to nearly anything that has been in an infested waterbody, or via standing water from an infested waterbody entrapped in boat engines, bilges, live-wells and buckets.
 
To ensure that watercraft is clean, drained and dry, many local agencies are conducting boat inspections.

CDFW has posted a list of these inspections on its Web site ( www.wildlife.ca.gov/mussels ) along with additional information about the invasive mussels and what people can do to help prevent their spread in California.

Boaters should call ahead to check for restrictions prior to visiting their destination.
 
Take the following steps before traveling to a waterbody to prevent spreading invasive mussels, to improve your inspection experience and to safeguard California waterways:
 
– CLEAN: Inspect exposed surfaces and remove all plants and organisms;
– DRAIN: All water, including water contained in lower outboard units, live-wells, and bait buckets; and
– DRY: Allow the watercraft to thoroughly dry between launches. Watercraft should be kept dry for at least five days in warm weather and up to 30 days in cool weather.
 
CDFW has developed a brief video demonstrating the ease of implementing the clean, drain and dry prevention method, which can be viewed above.

In addition, a detailed guide to cleaning vessels of invasive mussels is available on the California State Parks Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) at www.dbw.parks.ca.gov/quagga .
 
Travelers are also advised to be prepared for inspections at California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Border Protection Stations.

Over the past eight years, more than one million watercraft entering the state have been inspected at the Border Protection Stations.

Inspections, which can also be conducted by CDFW and California State Parks, include a check of boats and personal watercraft, as well as trailers and all onboard items. Contaminated vessels and equipment are subject to quarantine or impoundment.
 
Quagga mussels were first detected in the Colorado River system in January 2007 and were later found in San Diego and Riverside counties.

They are now known to be in 29 waters in California, all in Southern California. Zebra mussels were discovered in San Justo Reservoir in San Benito County in January 2008.
 
Both species can attach to and damage virtually any submerged surface. They can:
 
– Ruin a boat engine by blocking the cooling system and causing it to overheat;
– Jam a boat's steering equipment, putting occupants and others at risk;
– Require frequent scraping and repainting of boat hulls;
– Colonize all underwater substrates such as boat ramps, docks, lines and other underwater surfaces, causing them to require constant cleaning;
– Cost the owners of these items a lot of money.
 
A multi-agency effort that includes CDFW, DBW, California Department of Water Resources, and CDFA has been leading an outreach campaign to alert the public to the quagga and zebra mussel threats.

A toll-free hotline at 1-866-440-9530 is available for those seeking information on quagga or zebra mussels.

More than 90 percent of our planet’s freshwater ice is bound in the massive ice sheets and glaciers of the Antarctic and Greenland.

As temperatures around the world slowly climb, melt waters from these vast stores of ice add to rising sea levels.

All by itself, Greenland could bump sea levels by 23 feet if its ice melted completely.

And … it’s melting.

In August 2014, Eric Rignot, a glaciologist working at the University of California, Irvine  and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led a team in mapping ice cliffs at the front edges of three outlet glaciers in Greenland.

The researchers found cavities that undercut the base of these leading edges that can destabilize the ice front and enhance iceberg calving, the process where parts of the glacier break off and float away.

“In Greenland we have melt rates of a few meters a day in the summer months,” said Rignot.

What’s causing this “big thaw”?

Rignot’s team found that Greenland's glaciers flowing into the ocean are grounded deeper below sea level than previously measured.

This means that the warm ocean currents at depth can sweep across the glacier faces and erode them.

“In polar regions, the upper layers of ocean water are cold and fresh,” he explained. “Cold water is less effective at melting ice.”

“The real ocean heat is at a depth of 350 to 400 meters and below. This warm, salty water is of subtropical origin and melts the ice much more rapidly,” he said.

Rignot’s research team is providing critical information needed to document this effect and accurately predict where and how fast glaciers will give way.

The team gathered and analyzed around-the-clock measurements of the depth, salinity, and temperature of channel waters and their intersection with the coastal edge of Greenland's ice sheet.

They found that some of the glaciers balance on giant earthen sills that are protecting them, for now. But other glaciers are being severely undercut out of sight beneath the surface, meaning they could collapse and melt much sooner.

It’s not easy gathering such data. On top of the rough waters, wind, rain, and cold weather, there’s the ice itself.

“We came to study glaciers that discharge into the fjord. And the fjords are full of ice. In some places it can be so full of ice that the boat can’t even push through,” Rignot said.

But ice holds a peculiar fascination for Rignot. “I’ve always been interested in polar regions," he said. "My friends wanted to cruise in the Caribbean but I’d rather cruise here in these waters. I don’t know why. I just like them.”

What’s next?

“OMG,” answered Rignot. And he’s not using chatspeak.

OMG stands for Ocean Melting Greenland – the name of a new NASA-funded 5-year project that will take their investigation even further, to the four corners of Greenland by ship and by plane.

“We hope that the data collected will be a game changer for studying ice-ocean interaction in Greenland,’’ said Rignot. “It will help modelers make better projections of Greenland ice sheet melt in the future.’’

Rignot’s results have been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and are now available online.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Fair kicked off in hilarious style on Thursday evening with the inaugural donkey baseball game.

The hour-and-a-half-long game pitted firefighters and law enforcement – plus their donkeys – against each other.

In addition to firefighters from agencies around the county, the game featured representatives from the California Highway Patrol, including Clear Lake Area Commander Lt. Hector Paredes; the Clearlake Police Department; the Lakeport Police Department, with Chief Brad Rasmussen helping direct the action; the Lake County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Brian Martin; Lake County Probation; and the Lake County District Attorney's Office.

The fire team won 11-10, with the law enforcement team making a late scoring run.

The winning team got to choose a charity to receive the $500 purse, and the fire team selected the American Red Cross as the recipient this year.

Check out the action above in the video by John Jensen of Lake County News.

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 team of Caltech researchers that has spent years searching for the earliest objects in the universe now reports the detection of what may be the most distant galaxy ever found.

In an article published Aug. 28 in Astrophysical Journal Letters, Adi Zitrin, a NASA Hubble postdoctoral scholar in astronomy, and Richard Ellis – who recently retired after 15 years on the Caltech faculty and is now a professor of astrophysics at University College, London – describe evidence for a galaxy called EGS8p7 that is more than 13.2 billion years old.

The universe itself is about 13.8 billion years old.

Earlier this year, EGS8p7 had been identified as a candidate for further investigation based on data gathered by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Using the multi-object spectrometer for infrared exploration (MOSFIRE) at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, the researchers performed a spectrographic analysis of the galaxy to determine its redshift.

Redshift results from the Doppler effect, the same phenomenon that causes the siren on a fire truck to drop in pitch as the truck passes.

With celestial objects, however, it is light that is being “stretched” rather than sound; instead of an audible drop in tone, there is a shift from the actual color to redder wavelengths.

Redshift is traditionally used to measure distance to galaxies, but is difficult to determine when looking at the universe's most distant – and thus earliest – objects.

Immediately after the Big Bang, the universe was a soup of charged particles – electrons and protons – and light (photons). Because these photons were scattered by free electrons, the early universe could not transmit light.

By 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe had cooled enough for free electrons and protons to combine into neutral hydrogen atoms that filled the universe, allowing light to travel through the cosmos.

Then, when the universe was just a half-billion to a billion years old, the first galaxies turned on and reionized the neutral gas. The universe remains ionized today.

Prior to reionization, however, clouds of neutral hydrogen atoms would have absorbed certain radiation emitted by young, newly forming galaxies – including the so-called Lyman-alpha line, the spectral signature of hot hydrogen gas that has been heated by ultraviolet emission from new stars, and a commonly used indicator of star formation.

Because of this absorption, it should not, in theory, have been possible to observe a Lyman-alpha line from EGS8p7.

“If you look at the galaxies in the early universe, there is a lot of neutral hydrogen that is not transparent to this emission,” said Zitrin. “We expect that most of the radiation from this galaxy would be absorbed by the hydrogen in the intervening space. Yet still we see Lyman-alpha from this galaxy.”

They detected it using the MOSFIRE spectrometer, which captures the chemical signatures of everything from stars to the distant galaxies at near-infrared wavelengths (0.97-2.45 microns, or millionths of a meter).

“The surprising aspect about the present discovery is that we have detected this Lyman-alpha line in an apparently faint galaxy at a redshift of 8.68, corresponding to a time when the universe should be full of absorbing hydrogen clouds,” Ellis said. Prior to their discovery, the farthest detected galaxy had a redshift of 7.73.

One possible reason the object may be visible despite the hydrogen-absorbing clouds, the researchers say, is that hydrogen reionization did not occur in a uniform manner.

“Evidence from several observations indicate that the reionization process probably is patchy,” Zitrin said. “Some objects are so bright that they form a bubble of ionized hydrogen. But the process is not coherent in all directions.”

“The galaxy we have observed, EGS8p7, which is unusually luminous, may be powered by a population of unusually hot stars, and it may have special properties that enabled it to create a large bubble of ionized hydrogen much earlier than is possible for more typical galaxies at these times,” said Sirio Belli, a Caltech graduate student who worked on the project.

“We are currently calculating more thoroughly the exact chances of finding this galaxy and seeing this emission from it, and to understand whether we need to revise the timeline of the reionization, which is one of the major key questions to answer in our understanding of the evolution of the universe,” Zitrin said.