LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a shelter filled with dogs this week needing new, loving homes.

This week's dogs feature mixes of Australian Shepherd, boxer, cattle dog, Chihuahua, fox terrier, Jack Russell terrier, Labrador Retriever, mastiff, pit bull, Schnauzer 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.

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”).

Chihuahua-fox terrier mix

This male Chihuahua-fox terrier mix has a short tan and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 2, ID No. 2304.

'Barney'

“Barney” is a Jack Russell Terrier-Chihuahua mix with a short brown and tan coat.

Shelter staff said Barney is shy at first but is very nice once he warms up. They said he would be good for an older couple, or somebody who doesn't have any children.

He's in kennel No. 3, ID No. 2051.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix has a short white coat.

He's in kennel No. 4, ID No. 2321.

Labrador Retriever-cattle dog mix

This male Labrador Retriever-cattle dog mix has a short tan and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 5, ID No. 2227.

Male Schnauzer mix

This male Schnauzer mix has a clipped gray coat.

He's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 2331.

Female pit bull mix

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

She's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 2241.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short gray coat and a friendly face.

He's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 2269.

'Amadeus'

“Amadeus” is a male Chihuahua mix with a short tan coat.

He's in kennel No. 12, ID No. 2208.

Male pit bull terrier mix

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

Shelter staff calls him a “big squishy guy” who is very gentle. They believe he would be fine with children.

He has no food aggression, gets along with other dogs both male and female, and is very appropriate in every way.

The shelter is looking for that special "pitty" lover to take him home and care for him.

He's in kennel No. 13, ID No. 2035.

Male pit bull mix

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

Shelter staff said he is pretty well behaved with a moderate to low energy level.

They said he has been through a lot he appears to have been dumped in the middle of nowhere; when he arrived he was full of punctures all on his legs, possibly from a dog fight.

Despite all of that, shelter staff said he is very social and friendly with dogs.

He's in kennel No. 15, ID No. 2094.

'Diesel'

“Diesel” is a boxer mix with a short black and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 16, ID No. 2270.

Chihuahua-terrier mix

This female Chihuahua-terrier mix has a short tan coat.

She's in kennel No. 17, ID No. 2237.

'Abu'

“Abu” is a male mastiff-pit bull terrier mix.

He has a short brown and white coat.

Abu is in kennel No. 24A, ID No. 2218.

'Panda'

“Panda” is a young female mastiff-pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short dark brown coat with white markings.

She's in kennel No. 24B, ID No. 2219.

'Tippy'

“Tippy” is a female Australian Shepherd.

Shelter staff said they do not know her background, but she needs a home with women only, as she is very afraid of men.

Tippy is good with other dogs and has been fine with mellow children.

She is being fostered; ID No. 2142.

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.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – SACRAMENTO — Construction of a temporary emergency drought barrier at West False River in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is nearing completion about two weeks sooner than anticipated, according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR).

The barrier now spans the approximately 750-foot-wide river between Jersey and Bradford islands and blocks salt water that tidal action attempts to push eastward from San Francisco Bay into Franks Tract.

The trapezoidal barrier is about 120 feet wide at its base and 12 feet wide at its top above the waterline. About 150,000 tons of rocks have been dropped from barges with hinged bottoms or lifted from barges and dropped by crane into the river’s channel to create the barrier.

Typically when saltwater threatens to encroach deeper into the Delta, water project operators repel it either by slowing the pumping of water from the Delta or increasing the amount of water flowing into the Delta from upstream reservoirs.

In this fourth year of drought, Delta pumping by the state and federal water projects is already negligible, and it takes three to five days for fresh water released from Lake Oroville or Shasta Lake to reach the Delta.

The emergency barrier is an additional tool to help limit salinity intrusion should high winds or another unexpected event push salt farther east than expected this summer.

The emergency barrier also will help mitigate a worst-case circumstance in which upstream reservoirs lack sufficient water to meet the minimum outflow requirements to limit Delta salinity intrusion.

Some 25 million people rely on the Delta-based federal and state water projects for at least some of their supplies, including residents of the Delta and Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties.

Adding to water managers’ concerns during the drought is California’s record-low snowpack, which will contribute little runoff into reservoirs as it melts.

Storage in all of California’s major reservoirs currently is far below historical averages for late May. Shasta Lake, the state’s largest, is at 62 percent of that average, Lake Oroville is at 53 percent and New Melones now holds 30 percent of its late May average.

Boat passage on West False River is now blocked by the barrier, which will be removed by mid-November to avoid the traditional flood season and potential harm to migratory fish. Removal is expected to take 45 to 60 days.

Warning signs, lights and buoys alert boaters of the barrier’s presence. DWR notified marinas and individuals in the Delta about these restrictions several weeks before construction began. Alternative routes between the San Joaquin River and interior Delta, including Bethel Island marinas, are available.

Design, installation, monitoring and mitigation are estimated to cost roughly $22 million; the cost for removal is estimated at $15 million. Costs are to be paid with a mix of funding from Proposition 50, a $3.4 billion water bond approved by voters in November 2002, and General Fund dollars.

Earlier consideration of emergency barriers

The West False River site raises fewer concerns for threatened and endangered fish than other potential barrier sites considered by DWR. Last year, DWR studied the potential impacts of potential temporary barriers at three locations: Steamboat Slough, Sutter Slough and West False River.

The analysis found anticipated impacts could be mitigated to a less-than-significant level.  DWR received and reviewed considerable public comments on the Initial Study and Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration, available here.

DWR is not pursuing installation of temporary emergency barriers at Sutter Slough or Steamboat Slough in 2015.

The April 1, 2015 Executive Order by Governor Brown helped expedite installation of the West False River barrier in time to address emergency drought conditions this year.

DWR last used emergency drought barriers to reduce salinity intrusion in 1976-77. DWR considered the installation of emergency drought barriers in 2014 but determined in late May of last year that they would not be needed, in part because February and March storms improved water supply conditions.

Planning for future emergency drought barriers continued after last year’s decision, with a focus on West False River, Steamboat Slough and Sutter Slough.

Earlier this year, based on the input of Delta residents, the Department also considered the feasibility and effectiveness of barriers on Miner Slough in the western Delta and on Steamboat Slough downstream of its confluence with Sutter Slough – in lieu of the original Sutter Slough and Steamboat Slough locations.

Emergency drought barriers on Miner and Steamboat sloughs were eliminated from consideration because of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerns about potential effects on threatened Delta smelt.

Current drought emergency

The three-year period from 2012 through 2014 was the driest three-year period on record in California, and 2015 opened with the driest January in the state’s recorded history.

The Sierra Nevada snowpack typically peaks by April 1; this year, the snowpack was measured at five percent of historic average on April 1, the lowest measurement in recorded history.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency on Jan. 17, 2014 and directed state officials to take all necessary actions to prepare for water shortages.

The State Water Resources Control Board on March 17 announced new restrictions on water use, including limiting outdoor watering to two days per week and prohibiting lawn watering during rainfall and during the following two days.

In April, Gov. Brown directed the State Water Board to implement mandatory water reductions in cities and towns across California to reduce water usage by 25 percent. On May 5, the State Water Board established water conservation standards for communities throughout the state, ranging from a low of 4 percent to 36 percent as compared with a community’s 2013 water use and depending on per capita water use in each community.

To learn about all the actions the state has taken to manage our water system and cope with the impacts of the drought, visit www.Drought.CA.Gov .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Superior Court is seeking at least 30 applicants willing to serve as jurors and alternates on the 2015-16 Lake County Grand Jury panel.

The 19-person grand jury is selected from the different supervisorial districts in proportion to the population of each district.

The grand jury serves as the public’s “watchdog” by investigating and reporting upon the affairs of local government.

The term of service runs from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016, and may entail from 10 to 20 hours of work per week attending committee and general meetings, responding to citizens’ complaints, performing research, and investigating the operations of governmental agencies and allegations of wrongdoing by public officials or employees.

The court is looking for applicants in good health who are interested in community affairs, are objective, and are able to work cooperatively with others.

Experience in researching, interviewing, writing and editing, and/or auditing is desirable, and having a general knowledge of the responsibilities and functions of governmental and other public entities is helpful.

A grand juror must be a U.S. citizen, age 18 or older, speak English, be a resident of California and Lake County for at least one year prior to selection, and not hold an elected office or have any felony convictions.

Applications may be obtained online at www.lake.courts.ca.gov or by mailing a letter with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Grand Jury Coordinator, 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, Lakeport, CA 95453.

Applications also are available at each Superior Court Clerk’s Office, located at 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, in Lakeport, or at 7000 A South Center Drive in Clearlake.

Further information may be obtained by calling the grand jury coordinator at 707-263-2374, Extension 2282.

Applications must be received by June 19, 2015.

Personal interviews will be scheduled prior to final selection.

If you are interested, please apply, or if you know someone who may be, let them know of this opportunity.

The asteroid that slammed into the ocean off Mexico 66 million years ago and killed off the dinosaurs probably rang the Earth like a bell, triggering volcanic eruptions around the globe that may have contributed to the devastation, according to a team of University of California, Berkeley, geophysicists.

Specifically, the researchers argue that the impact likely triggered most of the immense eruptions of lava in India known as the Deccan Traps, explaining the “uncomfortably close” coincidence between the Deccan Traps eruptions and the impact, which has always cast doubt on the theory that the asteroid was the sole cause of the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

“If you try to explain why the largest impact we know of in the last billion years happened within 100,000 years of these massive lava flows at Deccan … the chances of that occurring at random are minuscule,” said team leader Mark Richards, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science. “It’s not a very credible coincidence.”

Richards and his colleagues marshal evidence for their theory that the impact reignited the Deccan flood lavas in a paper published in The Geological Society of America Bulletin.

While the Deccan lava flows, which started before the impact but erupted for several hundred thousand years after re-ignition, probably spewed immense amounts of carbon dioxide and other noxious, climate-modifying gases into the atmosphere, it’s still unclear if this contributed to the demise of most of life on Earth at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, Richards said.

“This connection between the impact and the Deccan lava flows is a great story and might even be true, but it doesn’t yet take us closer to understanding what actually killed the dinosaurs and the ‘forams,’” he said, referring to tiny sea creatures called foraminifera, many of which disappeared from the fossil record virtually overnight at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, called the KT boundary.

The disappearance of the landscape-dominating dinosaurs is widely credited with ushering in the age of mammals, eventually including humans.

He stressed that his proposal differs from an earlier hypothesis that the energy of the impact was focused around Earth to a spot directly opposite, or antipodal, to the impact, triggering the eruption of the Deccan Traps.

The “antipodal focusing” theory died when the impact crater, called Chicxulub, was found off the Yucatán coast of Mexico, which is about 5,000 kilometers from the antipode of the Deccan traps.

Flood basalts

Richards proposed in 1989 that plumes of hot rock, called “plume heads,” rise through Earth’s mantle every 20-30 million years and generate huge lava flows, called flood basalts, like the Deccan Traps.

It struck him as more than coincidence that the last four of the six known mass extinctions of life occurred at the same time as one of these massive eruptions.

“Paul Renne’s group at Berkeley showed years ago that the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province is associated with the mass extinction at the Triassic/Jurassic boundary 200 million years ago, and the Siberian Traps are associated with the end Permian extinction 250 million years ago, and now we also know that a big volcanic eruption in China called the Emeishan Traps is associated with the end-Guadalupian extinction 260 million years ago,” Richards said. “Then you have the Deccan eruptions – including the largest mapped lava flows on Earth – occurring 66 million years ago coincident with the KT mass extinction. So what really happened at the KT boundary?”

Richards teamed up with experts in many areas to try to discover faults with his radical idea that the impact triggered the Deccan eruptions, but instead came up with supporting evidence.

Paul Renne, a professor in residence in the UC Berkeley Department of Earth and Planetary Science and director of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, redated the asteroid impact and mass extinction two years ago and found them essentially simultaneous, but also within approximately 100,000 years of the largest Deccan eruptions, referred to as the Wai subgroup flows, which produced about 70 percent of the lavas that now stretch across the Indian subcontinent from Mumbai to Kolkata.
 
Michael Manga, a professor in the same department, has shown over the past decade that large earthquakes – equivalent to Japan’s 9.0 Tohoku quake in 2011 – can trigger nearby volcanic eruptions.

Richards calculates that the asteroid that created the Chicxulub crater might have generated the equivalent of a magnitude 9 or larger earthquake everywhere on Earth, sufficient to ignite the Deccan flood basalts and perhaps eruptions many places around the globe, including at mid-ocean ridges.

“It’s inconceivable that the impact could have melted a whole lot of rock away from the impact site itself, but if you had a system that already had magma and you gave it a little extra kick, it could produce a big eruption,” Manga said.

Similarly, Deccan lava from before the impact is chemically different from that after the impact, indicating a faster rise to the surface after the impact, while the pattern of dikes from which the supercharged lava flowed – “like cracks in a soufflé,” Renne said – are more randomly oriented post-impact.

“There is a profound break in the style of eruptions and the volume and composition of the eruptions,” said Renne. “The whole question is, ‘Is that discontinuity synchronous with the impact?’”

Reawakened volcanism

Richards, Renne and graduate student Courtney Sprain, along with Deccan volcanology experts Steven Self and Loÿc Vanderkluysen, visited India in April 2014 to obtain lava samples for dating, and noticed that there are pronounced weathering surfaces, or terraces, marking the onset of the huge Wai subgroup flows.

Geological evidence suggests that these terraces may signal a period of quiescence in Deccan volcanism prior to the Chicxulub impact.

Apparently never before noticed, these terraces are part of the western Ghats, a mountain chain named after the Hindu word for steps.

“This was an existing massive volcanic system that had been there probably several million years, and the impact gave this thing a shake and it mobilized a huge amount of magma over a short amount of time,” Richards said. “The beauty of this theory is that it is very testable, because it predicts that you should have the impact and the beginning of the extinction, and within 100,000 years or so you should have these massive eruptions coming out, which is about how long it might take for the magma to reach the surface.”

Since the team’s paper was accepted for publication, a group from Princeton University published new radioisotopic dates for the Deccan Traps lavas that are consistent with these predictions.

Renne and Sprain at UC Berkeley also have preliminary, unpublished dates for the Deccan lavas that could help solidify Richards’ theory, Renne said.

Co-authors of the paper, in addition to Richards, Renne, Manga and Sprain, are Walter Alvarez, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus of earth and planetary science and the co-originator of the dinosaur-killing asteroid theory; Stephen Self, an adjunct professor in the same department at UC Berkeley; Leif Karlstrom of the University of Oregon; Jan Smit of Vrije Universeit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Loÿc Vanderkluysen of Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Sally A. Gibson of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

Everyone has the right to execute a will, or a trust, to say who inherits their assets when they die. Nor is there any requirement to leave any assets to family members.

What then is the remedy when someone does not receive what they had expected due to the possible wrongdoing of a third party?

Sometimes the decedent’s will, or trust, was other than what the decedent truly intended because of fraud or undue influence.

Then a will contest to overturn the will or trust can be brought by someone who would benefit more under the decedent’s prior will or trust, or else inherit more as an heir if there is no earlier document.

A will contest can be risky and expensive. It can violate a “do not contest” clause and may jeopardize the contestant’s right to receive whatever was left under the contested will or trust.

California law conclusively invalidates certain types of inherently untrustworthy gifts, specifically, gifts made to the person who drafted the gift instrument – such as the person who wrote the decedent’s will – are invalid per se.

Also gifts where the beneficiary is either related to or associated with the person who drafted the gift instrument and is also is either “a fiduciary for the giver” or is “a personal caregiver to the giver” are invalid.

Examples of fiduciaries include the giver’s attorney, the giver’s agent and the giver’s accountant. An example would be if the giver’s agent had a will drawn up by the agent’s own personal attorney that left a major gift to the agent.

California law also presumes (but does not conclude) that certain other types of gifts are invalid due to a fraud or undue influence being perpetrated by the recipient of the gift upon the giver.

This includes gifts to a fiduciary of the giver when such person caused the instrument to be drafted, and gifts to personal care givers, unless the caregiver is related to the donor or another exception applies.

California law, however, makes the following notable exceptions: gifts to someone related by blood or affinity (within the fourth degree) to the transferor or the transferor’s cohabitant (i.e., someone who lives with the transferor and has an intimate relationship); gifts that have been approved by court order through a substituted judgment procedure.

Next, sometimes the issue is not whether the will or trust is the product of fraud or undue influence but whether the decedent failed to take action because someone else interfered and prevented this from happening.

For example, take a decedent who while alive was prevented from creating a will (or trust) or was prevented from modifying or revoking his or her existing will or trust. As a result the old distribution scheme for the decedent’s estate was given effect.

Here a will contest does not provide a remedy. Instead a possible remedy is suing the person who interfered personally under a so-called “intentional interference with the expectation of an inheritance” (“IIEI”) cause of action.

To succeed with an “IIEI” lawsuit, one must prove that it was reasonably certain that he or she would have received an expected gift but for the fact that someone intentionally and wrongfully prevented the decedent from following through so that the gift was not made.

The law can only go so far in protecting people against wrongdoing.

Vulnerable people, including those who are lonely and needy, are much more likely to be befriended by predators who gain the person’s confidence.

They are, therefore, more likely than most to fall victim to fraud, undue influence and wrongful interference.

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 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, California. Fordham 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 .

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – There is still work to do when it comes to keeping teen drivers safe on the roads.

The good news is that teen crashes have decreased. But, nearly two-thirds of those killed or injured in a teen driver crash are people other than the teen behind the wheel and summer continues to be the most dangerous time for young drivers.

In 2013 alone, 371,645 people were injured and 2,927 were killed in crashes that involved a teen driver.

This information can be found in a new report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

This report ushers in at the beginning of the “100 Deadliest Days” of summer, the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day when teen crash fatalities historically climb.
 
The study analyzed police-reported crashes of driver aged 15-19, from 1994-2013 and found that:

· In the past 20 years, nonfatal injury crashes and fatal crashes of teen drivers decreased by 51 percent and 56 percent respectively. In comparison, all non-fatal and fatal crashes including those of teen drivers fell by 25 percent and 17 percent respectively.

· While the overall number of teen crashes are down, the majority of people killed (66 percent) and injured (67 percent) in crashes involving a teen driver are people other than the teen themselves

· Nearly 50 percent of those injured were in another vehicle; 17 percent were in the teen driver’s car; and 2 percent were either a pedestrian or bicyclist

· Nearly 30 percent of those killed were in another car, 27 percent were the teen’s passenger and 10 percent were either a pedestrian or bicyclist

· The U.S. government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System shows that in 2013, an average of 220 teen drivers and passengers died in traffic crashes during each of the summer months, a 43 percent increase compared to the rest of the year.

“To help their teen drivers to be safe on the roads this summer parents can create a contract with their teen,” suggests Cynthia Harris, AAA Northern California spokesperson. “This contract could use the Graduated Driving laws as a guideline to include nighttime curfews, limitation on the number of passengers, and prohibiting the use of cell phones and other distractions. Parents can also ride with their teens to monitor their progress and to help them with new driving situations such as canyon or freeway driving.”

AAA has online resources to help parents coach teen through the learning-to-drive process and has sample parent teen driving contracts at www.TeenDriving.AAA.com .

The AAA StartSmart online program is helpful to parents to quickly become effective in-car coaches, make informed decisions about access to a vehicle and manage their teen’s overall driving privileges.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – District attorney's offices around California – including Lake's – have reached a settlement with Dollar Tree Stores Inc. over environmental violations.

The Virginia-based corporation agreed to pay $2.72 million in civil penalties, costs and supplemental environmental projects as part of the settlement with 46 county district attorneys and two city attorneys.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Morris Jacobson ordered Dollar Tree Stores Inc. to pay the settlement amount and to implement an improved hazardous waste compliance program at its retail stores and distribution centers in California.

The suit, led by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, alleged that Dollar Tree illegally disposed of hazardous wastes at its more than 480 retail stores and distribution centers around California.

O'Malley called the settlement “a significant step toward protection of our environment and statewide public health.”  

Officials said an investigation that included statewide inspections of Dollar Tree Stores’ dumpsters by inspectors from district attorney’s offices and other environmental regulators discovered that Dollar Tree was routinely and systematically putting hazardous waste products into store trash bins and, subsequently, sending it into local landfills not permitted to accept such waste products.

Those hazardous items included ignitable and corrosive liquids, toxic materials, batteries, electronic devices and other e-waste, and other hazardous waste generated by circumstances including spills and damage, according to a statement issued by O'Malley.

O'Malley reported that inspections of Dollar Tree Stores over the years also demonstrated that the corporation routinely failed to properly handle and dispose of hazardous waste.

When prosecutors alerted Dollar Tree Stores to the widespread violations, Dollar Tree Stores was cooperative throughout the continued investigation, O'Malley said, adopting and implementing new policies and procedures and training programs designed to properly manage and dispose of hazardous waste.

The hazardous waste is now being collected by state-registered haulers who transport it to authorized disposal facilities, and disposal is properly documented, according to O'Malley.

Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson said this was not a big case for his office, which was represented by a circuit prosecutor from the California District Attorneys Association.

His office's portion of the settlement comes to $1,250 and Lake County Environmental Health receiving $875, with the county's settlement checks arriving on Friday.

Anderson said the settlement was distributed based on the number of stores in a jurisdiction.

In the case of Lake County, there are two Dollar Tree stores – one in Clearlake on Olympic Drive and one in Lakeport on S. Main Street.

As for Lake County's stores, Anderson said they were not specifically investigated, and to his knowledge those two stores had not done anything wrong.

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.

In the brightest region of this glowing nebula called RCW 34, gas is heated dramatically by young stars and expands through the surrounding cooler gas.

Once the heated hydrogen reaches the borders of the gas cloud, it bursts outwards into the vacuum like the contents of an uncorked champagne bottle – this process is referred to as champagne flow.

But the young star-forming region RCW 34 has more to offer than a few bubbles; there seem to have been multiple episodes of star formation within the same cloud.

This new image from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile shows a spectacular red cloud of glowing hydrogen gas behind a collection of blue foreground stars.

Within RCW 34 – located in the southern constellation of Vela – a group of massive young stars hide in the brightest region of the cloud.

These stars have a dramatic effect on the nebula. Gas exposed to strong ultraviolet radiation – as occurs in the heart of this nebula – becomes ionized, meaning that the electrons have escaped the hydrogen atoms.

Hydrogen is treasured by cosmic photographers because it glows brightly in the characteristic red color that distinguishes many nebulae and allows them to create beautiful images with bizarre shapes. It is also the raw material of dramatic phenomena such as champagne flow.

But ionized hydrogen also has an important astronomical role: it is an indicator of star-forming regions. Stars are born from collapsing gas clouds and therefore abundant in regions with copious amounts of gas, like RCW 34.

This makes the nebula particularly interesting to astronomers studying stellar birth and evolution.

Vast amounts of dust within the nebula block the view of the inner workings of the stellar nursery deeply embedded in these clouds.

RCW 34 is characterized by extremely high extinction, meaning that almost all of the visible light from this region is absorbed before it reaches Earth.

Despite hiding away from direct view, astronomers can use infrared telescopes, to peer through the dust and study the nest of embedded stars.

Looking behind the red color reveals that there are a lot of young stars in this region with masses only a fraction of that of the Sun. These seem to clump around older, more massive stars at the center, while only a few are distributed in the outskirts.

This distribution has led astronomers to believe that there have been different episodes of star formation within the cloud.

Three gigantic stars formed in the first event that then triggered the formation of the less massive stars in their vicinity.

The image above uses data from the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph instrument attached to the VLT, which were acquired as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – During a joint meeting Wednesday night, board members from the Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and the Upper Lake Union High School District voted unanimously to approve a final report on the feasibility of unifying the two districts.

That sets the stage for the two boards to hold separate meetings next month, at which time they will consider approving resolutions to unify.

About a dozen people – including parents and board members from the Lake County Office of Education – attended the Wednesday meeting, which ran just under an hour at the Upper Lake High School cafeteria.

The two boards first met last summer to discuss the possibility of unifying.

That initial meeting led to the boards holding five more joint meetings, beginning in January, to work through nine criteria that the California Department of Education mandates be considered as part of the unification process.

Those criteria address having an adequate number of pupils enrolled, district organization based on community identity, an equitable division of property and facilities, potential for segregation and discrimination, no substantial cost increases to the state, having a sound educational system in place, no significant increase in school housing costs, that unification is designed for purposes other than significantly increase property values, and that bringing the new district would be fiscally sound.

Analysis of those criteria carried out by Upper Lake High School Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino, Upper Lake Elementary Principal/Superintendent Valerie Gardner, Lucerne Elementary Principal/Superintendent Mike Brown – whose district isn't taking part but which is a feeder school for the high school – along with the districts' business managers, makes up the report, which can be seen below.

The document concludes that the feasibility study “shows adequate justification to unify Upper Lake Union Elementary School District and Upper Lake Union High School District based on the analysis of the criteria.”

While there is only criterion not substantially met – the first, that the new district must have at least 1,501 students enrolled – Gardner reported during the meeting that the districts have been assured by a state Department of Education representative that the unification could still move forward, and that recent consolidations in other parts of the state also have involved small districts with total enrollment under that target number.

“The study goes on to show that both districts are financially sound and will continue to be so upon unification,” the study said, adding that the newly formed district won't result in a substantial increase in state costs.

Before discussing the feasibility report, the boards heard from several parents, most of whom indicated support for the proposed consolidation.

Angel Huntley said she supported it because she believed it would help the districts better use resources.

Kalyn Noble read from a list of questions she said she formulated after talking to parents and community members.

The questions included whether sports, music and arts, and foreign languages would be available if the districts combined; if older students would be available to mentor younger students; where liability would fall and would it cost less; whether parents who reach out for support would get it; and if students would be offered the resources they need.

“Will joining together as one make us stronger?” she asked, adding, “As we lose more and more students every year, maybe change is necessary.”

Jaleen White, who went through the Upper Lake school system, is guardian for her nephew, who is now a student in the middle school.

Her concern was that her nephew is having less opportunities as a student than she did, and she suggested that unification would help students get a better education, “which everything should lead to.”

She added, “A lot of people are discussing leaving Upper Lake,” and looking at Lakeport and Kelseyville. White said her nephew wants to leave the district “because he wants to be challenged academically.”

Janine Fernandez, another former student who now has a child in eighth grade, told the boards, “Being one district, there would be a smoother transition from one school to the next, all the way through.”

Board discusses feasibility report

During a brief discussion of the feasibility report, Upper Lake Elementary Board member Don Meri asked about the study's statement that students would remain at current school sites. He asked if that wasn't a decision that the new board for the unified district would determine.

Specifically, Meri asked if eighth graders might be moved to the high school.

Iaccino said it was a good question, and he said in his nine years in his job one of the greatest fears he's encountered relates to moving seventh and eighth graders to the high school.

He said he has had that discussion with his board because, when looking at facilities in general and the best way to serve students, it's important to look at all the options.

In such a situation, seventh and eighth graders can have access to high school courses. However, Iaccino said, “To me, that's more a community issue,” and it's a long process to go through, including a lot of work at the negotiation table.

Iaccino said it's an option. “I would tell the community, don't ever take the options away from yourselves.”

During the discussion, Upper Lake High Board member Rich Swaney said the discussion of unification arose as the district tried to think outside of the box because its current business model wasn't working.

Meri pointed out of that model, “It used to work.”

Swaney said things are different from when he was a child, and the community isn't stagnant. He said the school system wasn't at the top of its game now.

Gardner emphasized that the unification doesn't change where children go, and that they don't need new facilities or a move of students to make the unification happen.

“It's really clear that there is nothing different,” she said.

Upper Lake High Board President Keith Austin pointed to the need to develop better plans for articulation between the lower and higher grades.

Gardner said when she thinks of articulation, it's not just about academics. It also is about common professional development for teachers, and for addressing bullying and improving social skills.

She said it's a tiered approach, with every single grade level building on each other all the way through.

The boards voted unanimously to approve the feasibility report before taking up the discussion of the amended unification timeline, which it also approved.

The timeline calls for the Upper Lake Union Elementary School Board to hold a meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 3, at the middle school to consider approving a resolution to unify and the criteria report.

The following week, at 6 p.m. June 10, the Upper Lake High School Union High School Board will meet to consider its own version of the documents.

If those resolutions are approved by the two boards, the resolutions would be submitted to the Lake County Office of Education by July.

Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg must vet the documents before submitting them to the Lake County Board of Education, which – sitting jointly as the Committee on School District Organization – must hold its own public hearing process on the unification proposal this summer.

The resolutions, reports and recommendations must then be submitted to the State Board of Education.

While officials have been aiming at being on the state board's September agenda, Gardner told Lake County News following the Wednesday meeting that the unification may not make the state board agenda until November.

However, she said that isn't expected to impact Falkenberg's appointment of an interim board by December, with the new unified district expected to come into being in the 2016-17 school year.

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 school districts unification feasibility study

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The Glenn County Sheriff's Office is investigating the Thursday discovery of human remains that appear to be those of a child.

The agency said that just before 10:30 a.m. Thursday the Artois Volunteer Fire Department was extinguishing a grass fire in the area of County Road D south of County Road 33 when firefighters noticed what appeared to be possible burned human remains in the fire area.

They immediately notified the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office, which sent personnel who secured the scene and began an investigation with the assistance of crime scene specialists from the California Department of Justice and forensic pathologist Dr. Thomas Resk.

Glenn County Sheriff’s personnel were able to confirm the remains of one human body found in the burnt area, with the agency reporting that the body had been damaged in the fire.

At that point, they couldn't tell how long the body may have been in the area, but officials said the proximity to the road suggested it may have been recent.

An initial autopsy of the remains was conducted Friday morning, the agency reported.

Officials said the autopsy revealed the body was a juvenile female estimated to be between 5 and 10 years of age. The body has been turned over to the Chico State Human Identification Laboratory for further investigation.

The early indications are that this is a homicide; however, the identity of the victim and the cause of death still have not been determined, officials said. DNA has been collected and submitted to help identify the victim.

Although this victim was found burned, there appears to be no connection or similarities to any other burned body found in Glenn County, sheriff's officials said.

Anyone who may have any information, or who may have seen any unusual activity or parked vehicles in the area of County Road D between County Roads 33 and 35 is asked to contact Det. Kelly Knight at the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office, 530-934-6431 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man accused of a fatal 2011 shooting took the stand in his own defense on Thursday as his trial nears its completion.

Daniel Ray Loyd, 53, of Nice, spent the morning and part of the afternoon on the stand in Judge Stephen Hedstrom's courtroom.

Loyd is on trial for the fatal shooting of 48-year-old Cindy Yvette Quiett of Upper Lake early on the morning of Sept. 13, 2011.

On that day, Loyd – who on Thursday admitted to selling drugs – went to Lucerne with plans to rob Patrick Ryden, according to the investigation. Loyd said he had given Ryden about $1,200 worth of methamphetamine to sell.

Although Loyd initially told investigators that he had planned to rob Ryden, he has since said he went instead to take back the drugs after Ryden refused to return his calls.

Loyd said he went to Lucerne and confronted Ryden, holding a gun to his head. During an ensuing struggle, Ryden pushed the gun away and Loyd shot Quiett in the stomach, which he said was an accident. She died later at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

For several weeks prosecutor John DeChaine has presented evidence and testimony in the case, accompanied at court by sheriff's Det. John Drewrey, who arrested Loyd within hours of the shooting. Loyd has remained in custody since that time.

Loyd's attorney, David Markham, presented his defense on Thursday, with Loyd and sheriff's Deputy Nicole Costanza being the only witnesses he called.

DeChaine cross-examined Loyd at length about a letter the prosecution was seeking to enter into evidence.

In the letter – which Loyd admitted on the stand that he wrote on April 21 to a female friend who visits him in jail each week – he told the woman that she needed to contact other witnesses in the case to explain the felony murder theory to them and tell them that if they came to court to testify, he was going to prison for life.

At one point, the attorneys had a sidebar with Hedstrom, who had the jury briefly removed from the courtroom.

With the jury out of the court, Markham moved for a mistrial.

He said he had gone to great lengths to keep from the jury that Loyd was in custody.

Markham made the motion due to DeChaine's line of questioning about the letter, which mentioned Loyd's female friend making jail visits.

“It was just put out there for the jury,” said Markham, explaining that if someone is in custody for a crime, it tends to give charges more credibility.

Hedstrom noted that it already had been disclosed to the jury that Loyd has had several felony and misdemeanor convictions, and in the questioning the timing of the jail visits wasn't disclosed.

With Loyd's last conviction being in 2005, if it was known that the woman was visiting him over the last three and a half years, Markham was concerned that jurors would know he was in custody for the current charges.

DeChaine said he would be comfortable if the court admonished the jury to strike statements of concern that resulted from the questioning related to the letter. He said the indication of Loyd being in custody was not intentional, and the letter has been authenticated.

DeChaine also noted that before the last court break, there had been concern about correctional staff taking Loyd to the restroom while jurors were standing in the hallway. DeChaine said he heard Markham say not to worry about it, that they – meaning the jurors – already know about Loyd's custody status.

Hedstrom denied the mistrial motion, explaining that he felt the reference to the in-custody visits was minuscule. “They may or may not have totally picked up on it,” he said of the jurors, calling the concern a “tempest in a teapot” and not something he saw as creating prejudice.

When the testimony reconvened before the jury, DeChaine read portions from Loyd's letter to his friend, which gave the phone number and address for the father of a witness as well as directions to his house. Loyd told the woman to get the word out to everyone about the felony murder issue.

“Why don't we just read the letter,” said Loyd, suggesting DeChaine was nitpicking it “and misleading the jury.”

Hedstrom stopped Loyd from saying anything further out of the direct line of questioning.

When DeChaine asked Loyd if he wanted the witnesses to not show up at court, Loyd replied, “I wanted them to understand the felony murder rule.” If they understood it, he said, “They wouldn't show up.”

Markham asked Loyd why he wanted the witnesses to understand the felony murder rule. He replied that he wanted them to know how harsh it is, and no matter if the killing was an accident or unintentional negligence, he was facing life in prison.

Next, Markham asked Loyd what he said to Ryden when he pulled the gun on him. “I told him to give me his s***,” said Loyd.

Loyd was asked to describe his state of mind on the day of the shooting, when he was speaking to Drewrey. He said he was overwhelmed with remorse, and had been up for 10 days straight without any sleep, having taken half a gram of methamphetamine each of those 10 days.

Markham then called Costanza – who had testified earlier in the trial as a prosecution witness – to the stand.

In her original report, Costanza said that in an interview Angel Dusty Spring – who originally had been taken into custody along with Loyd because she had been with him at the time of the shooting – told her that she knew who Loyd was going to meet that day but didn't know he had a gun.

After listening again to a recording of the interview, Costanza said she was uncertain if Spring had acknowledged knowing who Loyd was going to meet.

The defense then rested, and with DeChaine unable to contact a rebuttal witness, the court adjourned for the day, and is expected to complete witness testimony early Friday.

Closing arguments in the case are anticipated to take place on or before this coming Thursday.

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

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Over the weekend police arrested a Clearlake man for driving under the influence after he crashed through a fence and hit two children with his vehicle.

Thomas Mark Nordahl, 30, was arrested at the scene of the crash Sunday evening, according to a report from Sgt. Nick Bennett.

Just before 9 p.m. Sunday Clearlake Police Officer Trevor Franklin was dispatched to the 14000 block of Uhl Avenue on a report of a vehicle crash, Bennett said.

When he arrived Franklin saw that a vehicle had crashed through a chain-link fence and struck two young girls, ages 8 and 10, who had been playing in the front yard of a residence, according to Bennett.

Bennett said both children were transported to medical facilities for treatment, where it was determined that neither sustained life-threatening injuries.

Witnesses at the scene stated just prior to the crash that the vehicle that struck the children had been driving in the area at a high rate of speed and in a reckless manner, Bennett said.

Nordahl, who Bennett said was still present at the scene of the crash, subsequently was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, child endangerment, reckless driving with injury, driving with a suspended license and violation of Post Release Community Supervision, which relates to his state parole.

Bennett said the Clearlake Police Department is forwarding a report on the incident that seeks charges against Nordahl to the Lake County District Attorney's Office for review.

Nordahl remained in custody on Thursday at the Lake County Jail due to the parole violation, based on jail records.