LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a full shelter of dogs needing new families this week.

The dogs offered adoption this week include mixes of Akita, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, golden retriever, Labrador Retriever, mastiff, pit bull, shepherd, Rottweiler 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.

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-terrier mix

This female Chihuahua-terrier mix has a short black and brown coat.

She is in kennel No. 3, ID No. 9368.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female Labrador Retriever-Rottweiler mix with a short black and brown coat.

She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. 9375.

Female pit bull terrier

This female pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 10A, ID No. 9322.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female pit bull with a short black coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 10b, ID No. 9323.

Male pit bull terrier

This young male pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 9315.

German Shepherd-Akita mix

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

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 9219.

Labrador Retriever-shepherd

This male Labrador Retriever-shepherd mix has a short gold and tan coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 15, ID No. 9312.

Male German Shepherd

This male German Shepherd Dog has a long black coat.

He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. 9321.

Pit bull terrier-mastiff

This male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix has a short brindle coat.

He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. 9289.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short tricolor coat.

He’s in kennel No. 18a, ID No. 9371.

Male pit bull terrier

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

He’s in kennel No. 18b, ID No. 9372.

Female shepherd mix

This female shepherd mix has a short black and white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 23, ID No. 9362.

Male pit bull terrier

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

Shelter staff describe him as a “lovely boy” who will sit on command and give you a handshake.

He’s in kennel No. 25, ID No. 9369.

Male pit bull terrier

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

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 26, ID No. 9262.

Golden retriever

This male golden retriever

Has a medium-length golden coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 9302.

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. – The last of five visioning forums to discuss the county of Lake’s budget issues and services will take place on Monday evening in Middletown.

The forum will take place beginning at 7 p.m. Monday at Twin Pine Event Center, 22223 Highway 29 in Middletown.

All Lake County residents are welcome.

At the forum will be District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon as well as several department heads to talk about the county’s budgeting challenges and take input from the community about issues including what services to prioritize.

Forums so far have been held in Kelseyville, Clearlake, Nice and Lakeport.

About 120 people were in attendance at the Kelseyville event, 70 in Clearlake, more than 110 in Nice and about 150 in Lakeport.

For more information or to take a county survey on budget priorities, visit http://www.lakecountyca.gov/vision/.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – With the completion of the volunteer dormitory in Middletown Central Park, a major obstacle has been overcome in Lake County’s efforts to rebuild itself after losing over 1600 homes to five major fires since 2015.

Although homeowners with good insurance are just now finishing their rebuilds, most of those who were uninsured or underinsured have been languishing on a long waiting list for assistance from Team Lake County, or TLC, a community-based consortium of nonprofits, churches and other volunteer humanitarian agencies which have been collaborating together to aid the needy.

Members of TLC since it was formed in October of 2015 have been North Coast Opportunities, St. Vincent de Paul, United Methodists, Mennonite Disaster Services, Catholic Charities, Hope City, New Harvest Community Church, Middletown Rancheria and Lake Area Rotary Clubs Association.

Nonprofit builders such as Kevin Cox’s Hope City, which performs the actual construction of new homes, have been hampered until now because it is with volunteers that they get their work accomplished.

Lack of housing for volunteers is no longer a problem. “We can house 47 volunteers,” Tim Saunders of Hope City said as a team of 10 AmeriCorpsvolunteers were moving in for a three-month assignment on Jan. 12.

“We’ve just arrived today,” said a determined looking young man wearing an AmeriCorps t-shirt as he was carrying some of his belongings from his vehicle into the dorm’s sleeping quarters. “We’ll start working tomorrow.”

Cox is the ringleader of the new volunteer headquarters in Middletown Central Park. It was his vision and leadership that inspired its creation.

The major donor for purchasing the building materials for the dorm was Lake County Rising, a fundraising entity for local winegrowers who contributed $200,000. Cox has also credited Kelseyville Lumber for their invaluable partnership.

Hope City, based in Indiana, has experience drawing upon groups of evangelical missionaries from throughout the United States and Canada who volunteer for a week or two at a time to assist in disaster recovery.

Mennonite Disaster Services, based in Pennsylvania, has been a major ally for Hope City in the construction of new homes. Their volunteer dormitory is at the Clearlake Methodist Church in Clearlake.

About 10 homes have been finished by Team Lake County in the first two years of building. Now, with the new dormitory available in Middletown Central Park, it is expected that the production rate will double or triple.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Qualified Clearlake residents are being sought to participate in a new ad hoc committee on animal control-related issues.

On Thursday, the Clearlake City Council approved the creation of an Animal Control Ad Hoc Committee to help work cooperatively with the city of Clearlake staff to resolve the challenging issues the community is facing due to stray dogs.

Plans are in process to create a new animal control facility and the input of the ad hoc committee will be very helpful, according to city officials.

The ad hoc committee also will look at ways to help reduce the stray animal population in the city.

Applications will be available at Clearlake City Hall starting Monday, Jan. 29, and completed applications for the ad hoc committee will be accepted until Thursday, Feb. 8.

Clearlake residents with knowledge, experience or connections with animal rescue operations are encouraged to apply.

Applicants must be able to attend meetings during normal city business hours.

Clearlake Animal Control Ad Hoc Committee Member Application 2018 by LakeCoNews on Scribd

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This year Lake County will be sending two dance teams to compete in “Dancing for the Stars and Stripes” to help raise money for the Veterans Resource Center of Northern California.

The teams this year will be “Star” Jim Dvorak with professional Zoe Richardson and “Star” Tina Scott with professional Larry Richardson, under the direction of another Lake County Resident Rod Rehe.

This gala fundraiser for veterans, which takes place April 7, is based on the popular television show “Dancing with the Stars,” in that members of the public can vote for their favorites and our on-stage judges who will give immediate feedback about how they did.

You can sponsor a team by going online to vote or purchase tickets to the event at www.dancingwiththestarsandstripes.org.  

For more information contact Tina Scott at 707-849-4414.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Planning Commission will hold a special meeting this week to discuss a daycare use permit application.

The commission will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

The main item on the agenda is the use permit application from Maribel S. Aguilar Daycare Center for a proposed expansion of an existing small family daycare home of eight or fewer children to a large family daycare home of 14 or fewer children.

The daycare is located within a home on a 5,000 square foot parcel located in residential zoning at 16021 39th Avenue.

Commissioners are Nathalie Antus, Richard Bean, Russ Cremer, Dirk Slooten and Carl Webb.

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.

If you live in the western part of North America, Alaska, and the Hawaiian islands, you might set your alarm early the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 31 for a lunar trifecta: a pre-dawn “super blue blood moon.”

Beginning at 2:30 a.m. PST on Jan. 31, a live feed of the Moon will be offered on NASA TV and NASA.gov/live. You can also follow at @NASAMoon.

“For the (continental) U.S., the viewing will be best in the West,” said Gordon Johnston, program executive and lunar blogger at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Set your alarm early and go out and take a look.”

The Jan. 31 full moon is special for three reasons: it’s the third in a series of “supermoons,” when the Moon is closer to Earth in its orbit – known as perigee – and about 14 percent brighter than usual.

It’s also the second full moon of the month, commonly known as a “blue moon.” The super blue moon will pass through Earth’s shadow to give viewers in the right location a total lunar eclipse. While the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow it will take on a reddish tint, known as a “blood moon.”

Jan. 31 brings a lunar trifecta: the super blue blood Moon! This full moon is the third in a series of “supermoons,” when the Moon is closer to Earth in its orbit – known as perigee – and about 14 percent brighter than usual. It’s the second full moon of the month, commonly known as a “blue moon.” The super blue moon will pass through Earth’s shadow to give viewers in the right location a total lunar eclipse. While the Moon is in the Earth’s shadow it will take on a reddish tint, known as a “blood moon.”

If you live in North America, Alaska, or Hawaii, the eclipse will be visible before sunrise on Jan. 31. For those in the Middle East, Asia, eastern Russia, Australia and New Zealand, the “super blue blood moon” can be seen during moonrise in the evening of the 31st.

“Weather permitting, the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii will have a spectacular view of totality from start to finish,” said Johnston. “Unfortunately, eclipse viewing will be more challenging in the Eastern time zone. The eclipse begins at 5:51 AM ET, as the Moon is about to set in the western sky, and the sky is getting lighter in the east.”

So for viewers in New York or Washington, D.C., the Moon will enter the outer part of Earth’s shadow at 5:51 a.m., but Johnston says it won’t be all that noticeable.

The darker part of Earth’s shadow will begin to blanket part of the Moon with a reddish tint at 3:48 a.m. PST, but the Moon will set less than a half-hour later.

“So your best opportunity if you live in the East is to head outside about 6:45 a.m. and get to a high place to watch the start of the eclipse – make sure you have a clear line of sight to the horizon in the west-northwest, opposite from where the Sun will rise,” said Johnston.

If you live in the Central time zone, viewing will be better, since the action begins when the Moon is higher in the western sky.

At 4:51 a.m. CST the penumbra – or lighter part of Earth’s shadow – will touch the Moon. By about 6:15 a.m. CST the Earth's reddish shadow will be clearly noticeable on the Moon. The eclipse will be harder to see in the lightening pre-dawn sky, and the Moon will set after 7:00 a.m. as the Sun rises.

“So if you live in Kansas City or Chicago, your best viewing will be from about 6:15-6:30 a.m,” said Johnston. “Again, you’ll have more success if you can go to a high place with a clear view to the West.”

In the Rocky Mountain region, the show begins as the umbra touches the edge of the Moon at 4:48 a.m. MST. The peak of the blood moon eclipse is at about 6:30 a.m. local time, and the Moon will set shortly after 7 a.m.

Californians and viewers in western Canada will be treated to the total eclipse phase from start to finish, though the penumbral shadow will pass after the Moon has set. The umbral eclipse begins at 3:48 a.m. Pacific Time. At 4:51 a.m., totality will begin, with best viewing between about 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. local time. The totality phase ends about 6:05 a.m.

Weather permitting, eclipse fans in Hawaii will experience the lunar eclipse from start to finish, as will skywatchers in Alaska, Australia and eastern Asia.

If you miss the Jan. 31 lunar eclipse, you’ll have to wait almost another year for the next opportunity in North America. Johnston said the Jan. 21, 2019 lunar eclipse will be visible throughout all of the U.S. and will be a supermoon, though it won’t be a blue moon.

Johnston has been following and writing about the Moon since 2004, when he and about 20 colleagues at NASA Headquarters would get together after work during the full moon in “celebratory attire”—which for Johnston meant his signature bow tie. Long after the socializing fell by the wayside, Johnston’s monthly blog lives on, with a dedicated following on NASA’s lunar website, http://moon.nasa.gov.

Said Johnston, “I have always been fascinated by the night sky. Most of what we can see without a telescope are points of light, but the Moon is close enough that we can see it and the features on it, and notice what changes and what stays the same each night.”

Take notes and record your own illustrations of the Moon with a Moon observation journal, ready to download and print at http://moon.nasa.gov.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Two Oakland residents were arrested this week in Clearlake on several weapons charges after officers found the two in possession of a stolen firearm.

Quintin Joseph Celestine, 32, and Ashley Sharday Bell, 29, were arrested on Wednesday night, according to a report from Clearlake Police Sgt. Elvis Cook.

Cook said that at 9:40 p.m. Wednesday Clearlake Police officers located a male and a female in a verbal dispute near the Walmart parking lot.

Officers were placing the male subject, later identified as Celestine, into custody for several charges. Cook said the female subject, later identified as Bell, was standing at the bus stop yelling at all officers.

Cook said Bell started approaching the officers and yelling. She had a camouflage backpack in her left hand with a sawed off firearm sticking out of the backpack.  

Officers gave her verbal commands to place the firearm down, which she failed to do. Cook said she then began walking away, in what was believed to be an attempt to conceal or remove the firearm.

The officers on scene physically took ahold of Bell and the backpack, placing her under arrest for several felony charges as well as felony warrant out of Oakland, Cook said.

Cook said the officers collected the firearm, which was discovered to be loaded, with the safety off.

The firearm was identified as a stolen firearm from a case the Lake County Sheriff's Office investigated, Cook said.

Cook said Bell and Celestine were placed under arrest for carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a loaded firearm that’s stolen, possession of a short-barreled firearm, concealed firearm on a person, possession of stolen property, conspiracy, obstructing a peace officer and a felony warrant from the Oakland Police Department and booked into the Lake County Jail.

Jail records indicated that Celestine remained in custody on Saturday but that Bell had been released.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday, Jan. 30, at approximately 10 a.m., the Lake County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services will initiate an “All-Call” with the Nixle 360 system.  

The “All-Call” is designed to test the system to ensure it is operating correctly and reaching as many people as possible.  

Nixle 360 provides emergency notification services to the residents in Lake County. The notifications are primarily done through landline, cell phone, text message and emails.  
 
"By utilizing the Nixle 360 emergency alerting system, we’re able to streamline and make the process much more efficient in the way we notify residents of actual emergencies including imminent threats, saving time and redirecting valuable resources elsewhere that we need to protect our community in times of crisis,” said Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin.  

Officials encourage all residents and businesses to go to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Web site at www.lakesheriff.com and click on the Nixle 360 “Services” tab on the Web page, then click on the “Nixle Alerts” tab.  

Residents and business owners are strongly encouraged to enter their contact information, including additional phone numbers, cell phone, text and email addresses. By doing this, it ensures the best chance of being contacted during an emergency or critical situation.

If you do not have Internet access, please contact a friend or family member to help add your contact information to the emergency database. You can also call the Lake County Office of Emergency Services at 707-263-1813 for assistance.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – A mountain lion was spotted in the Jago Bay area on Friday.

Jago Bay resident Paul Glendinning reported sighting to Lake County News.

He said the mountain lion was seen by a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. contractor at about 1:15 p.m. Friday at the corner of Anderson Road and Lake Boulevard, heading southwest up the mountain.

The animal was said to be 100 pounds and 2 and a half feet tall, according to Glendinning’s report.

Glendinning said he also reported the sighting to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He was advised that while it’s common for mountain lions to wander through the area, they’re not typically down that far.

In his time in the area, Glendinning said he’s not aware of a mountain lion sighting there, and added that he was concerned for area residents – many of whom are elderly – noting that they have small animals and take walks throughout the neighborhood.

Mountain lion sightings have become more common around Lake County in recent years. This past year in the Lakeport area several different mountain lion sightings were reported.

For advice on living in mountain lion country visit https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/keep-me-wild/lion.
 
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 – The discovery of the bodies of two women – one in a freezer, one in a pond – at an Arbuckle almond arm has led to a man’s arrest.

Martin Christian Ehrke, 49, who along with the women and other individuals was reported to have lived at the farm, was arrested on Thursday, according to the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office. He was arraigned on Friday.

The women whose bodies were found at the farm were identified by authorities as 39-year-old Kimberly Lynn Taylor and 25-year-old Jessica Lynn Mazak.

At 3:55 a.m. the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office responded to a residence in the 6000 block of Hillgate Road in Arbuckle, for a report of suspicious circumstances, officials said.

Upon the arrival of first responders, deputies were informed of a possible human body in a freezer, located in an attached residence on the property. The sheriff’s office said deputies discovered evidence of a crime scene as well as a possible body inside a freezer.

On-scene deputies notified detectives from the sheriff’s office, who also responded. A search warrant was prepared for the entire property and served at approximately 10 a.m. Thursday, according to the sheriff’s office report.

Upon service of the search warrant, detectives confirmed that an adult female body had been placed inside a chest freezer, inside a bedroom, in an attached residence on the property.

The sheriff’s office identified the deceased adult female as Taylor.  

The Colusa County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice continued to investigate the scene as well as interviewing persons who reside at the property.

Evidence from the investigation led to request of the Colusa County Dive Team to search a large pond located on the property. A second adult female was found submerged in the pond and recovered by the dive team. The deceased adult female was identified as Mazak, the sheriff’s office said.

Authorities said both Taylor and Mazak were known to reside on the property, but had no relationship to the property owner. Investigators also found an illegal marijuana grow and narcotics on the property.

Ehrke was detained on Thursday and taken to the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office for questioning. During the investigation, it was discovered that he left the residence on Wednesday evening and checked into the Colusa Medical Center for an unknown reason. He was released from the hospital a short time later, officials said.

The investigation led the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office to a residence in Colusa, where Ehrke was found and detained for questioning.

Ehrke was later charged with two counts of homicide and booked into the Colusa County Jail.

If anyone has information regarding this incident, they are asked to contact Sgt. Jose Ruiz or Detective Marvin Garibay at 530-458-0200.

The lunar eclipse on Jan. 31 will give a team of scientists a special opportunity to study the Moon using the astronomer’s equivalent of a heat-sensing, or thermal, camera.

Three lunar events will come together in an unusual overlap that’s being playfully called a super blue blood moon.

The second full moon in January will take place on the 31st, making it the first blue moon of 2018.

It also will be considered a supermoon – one that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual because it occurs when the Moon is near its perigee, or the closest point in its orbit to Earth.

In addition, a lunar eclipse will take place in the morning on Jan. 31, temporarily giving the Moon a reddish color known as a blood moon.

For the researchers, the eclipse offers a chance to see what happens when the surface of the Moon cools quickly.

This information will help them understand some of the characteristics of the regolith – the mixture of soil and loose rocks on the surface – and how it changes over time.

“During a lunar eclipse, the temperature swing is so dramatic that it’s as if the surface of the Moon goes from being in an oven to being in a freezer in just a few hours,” said Noah Petro, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Normally, the transitions into and out of darkness, and the temperature changes that go with them, are spread out over the course of a lunar day, which lasts 29-and-a-half Earth days. A lunar eclipse shifts these changes into high gear.

From the Haleakala Observatory on the island of Maui in Hawaii, the team will conduct their investigations at invisible wavelengths where heat is sensed. They’ve done this kind of study a few times already, singling out individual lunar locations to see how well they retain warmth throughout the eclipse.

“The whole character of the Moon changes when we observe with a thermal camera during an eclipse,” said Paul Hayne of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. “In the dark, many familiar craters and other features can’t be seen, and the normally non-descript areas around some craters start to 'glow,' because the rocks there are still warm.”

How quickly or slowly the surface loses heat depends on the sizes of the rocks and the characteristics of the material, including its composition, how porous it is and how fluffy it is.

Lunar scientists already know a lot about the day-to-night and seasonal temperature changes from the data collected by LRO’s Diviner instrument since 2009. Those longer-term variations reveal information about larger features and the bulk properties of the top few inches of regolith. The short-term changes due to the eclipse will get at details of the fine material and the very top layer of the regolith.

By comparing the two types of observations, the team is able to look at variations in particular areas – say, the lunar swirls at Reiner Gamma or an impact crater and the loose debris around it.

This kind of information is useful for practical purposes such as scouting out suitable landing sites. It also helps researchers understand the evolution of the surface of the Moon.

“These studies will help us tell the story of how impacts large and small are changing the surface of the Moon over geological time,” said Petro.

Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and is part of the Discovery Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Elizabeth Zubritsky works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.