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With supply of vaccines expected to significantly increase in the coming weeks, the state is expanding vaccine eligibility to more Californians.

Starting April 1, individuals aged 50 and over will be eligible to make an appointment, and individuals 16 and over will be eligible to make an appointment to be vaccinated starting on April 15.

“With vaccine supply increasing and by expanding eligibility to more Californians, the light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter,” said Gov. Newsom. “We remain focused on equity as we extend vaccine eligibility to those older than 50 starting April 1, and those older than 16 starting April 15. This is possible thanks to the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration and the countless public health officials across the state who have stepped up to get shots into arms.”

Based on the current estimates, California expects to be allocated approximately 2.5 million first and second doses per week in the first half of April, and more than 3 million doses in the second half of April. California currently receives about 1.8 million doses per week.

These estimates may be adjusted as time goes on. The state has the capacity to administer more than 3 million vaccines per week, and is building the capacity to administer 4 million vaccines weekly by the end of April.

“We are even closer to putting this pandemic behind us with today’s announcement and with vaccine supplies expected to increase dramatically in the months ahead," said California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. "However, we are not there yet. It will take time to vaccinate all eligible Californians. During this time, we must not let our guard down. It is important that we remain vigilant, continue to wear masks and follow public health guidance."

In addition to increased allocations of vaccines to providers serving the hardest hit communities, the state has embarked on a series of initiatives to vaccinate those populations that have faced the highest rates of COVID infections before vaccines become available to the entire 16+ population.

These efforts include:

– Provider funding for programs to reach and vaccinate communities facing the biggest health disparities;
– Working with organized labor to reach essential workers;
– Partnering with agricultural organizations and community-based organizations to vaccinate agricultural workers;
– Allowing providers to target by ZIP code via My Turn with single-use codes (scheduled to launch at the end of March);
– Supporting a subset of community-based organizations currently partnering with the state on COVID-19 education to provide direct vaccination appointment assistance;
– Prioritizing currently eligible populations and allowing providers the discretion to vaccinate those who live in high-impact areas (County Healthy Places Index Quartiles 1 and 2), including families.

Even with expanded vaccine supplies, it is expected to take several months for willing Californians to be vaccinated. Based on public information shared by vaccine manufacturers and the federal government, California expects to receive several million vaccine doses per week starting sometime in April.

Along with the expanded eligibility and to align with upcoming federal guidance, California will update its vaccine allocation methodology.

This will transition over four weeks, beginning with the March 22 allocation (delivered to providers the following week), from one based on the distribution of the 65+ population, workers in the agriculture and food, education and child care, and emergency services sectors to one based on the distribution of the 16+ population across California.

This will be done in conjunction with completion of the shift to the state directly allocating vaccines to providers. The state will continue to double the amount of vaccine allocated to the lowest Healthy Places Index (HPI) quartile as announced on March 4.

Forty percent of COVID-19 cases and deaths have occurred in the lowest quartile of the HPI, developed by the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, which provides overall scores and data that predict life expectancy and compares community conditions that shape health across the state.

The rate of infections for households making less than $40,000 per year (5.7) is 84 percent higher than that of households with an income of $120,000 or more (3.1). At the same time, California’s wealthiest populations have received 50 percent more vaccinations when compared to the rate of our most vulnerable populations. This approach recognizes that the pandemic did not affect California communities equally and that the state is committed to doing better.
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Keilah Marie Coyle, 21, of Novato, California, remains in custody on $2 million bail for vehicular manslaughter for a crash near Middletown, California, on Saturday, March 13, 2021, that killed two Clearlake residents. Lake County Jail photo.


LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Novato woman will return to court in April for further proceedings as she faces prosecution for a crash that killed two Clearlake residents earlier this month.

Keilah‌ ‌Marie‌ ‌Coyle,‌ ‌21,‌ was in court on Tuesday for her second court appearance, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.

On the night of March 13, authorities said Coyle was driving drunk in a 2003‌ ‌Ford‌ ‌F-250‌ ‌pickup‌ on Highway 29 north of Middletown when she crossed the double-yellow lines and collided head-on with a 2000 GMC van driven by Cassandra‌ ‌Elaine‌ ‌Rolicheck,‌ ‌53.

Rolicheck and her passenger, 47-year-old Miguel‌ ‌Maciel‌ ‌Dominguez, were declared dead at the scene, officials said.

Hours earlier, Coyle was involved in a noninjury hit-and-run crash in Sonoma County, which authorities are continuing to investigate.

Hinchcliff has charged Coyle with eight felony charges – two counts each of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, negligent vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, gross vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence causing injury. – and special allegations of causing great bodily injury to both victims and an enhancement that would give additional prison time on conviction for causing death to more than one person.

Hinchcliff said Coyle has hired Tim Hodson, an attorney from Sacramento, to represent her.

She will return to court on April 13 for the next hearing, which will include bail review, Hinchcliff said.

Until then, Coyle’s bail is still $2 million and she remains in custody at the Lake County Jail, jail records showed.

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Hodson is from Fairfield.

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.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s real estate market is showing strong prices with houses selling quickly and close to the asking price.

Across Lake County for the month of February, inventory was at record lows and prices were up.

This results in lower days on the market and sales prices being closer to the list price.

The active listings throughout the county for the month of February totaled 120, which is down 57.6 percent from last year.

Active listings totaled 18 in Lakeport, which is down 40 percent from last year; Kelseyville, 21, down 67.7 percent; Clearlake, 20, down 63.6 percent; and Hidden Valley Lake at low of nine listings, which is down 79.5 percent in a year-over comparison.

Prices up over last year

The median price for single family dwellings for the county is $327,000, which is up 38.9 percent from last year.

Median prices around the lake are as follows:

– Lakeport: $375,000, up 49.1 percent from last year;
– Kelseyville: $320,000, up 8.5 percent;
– Clearlake: $212,000, up 3.2 percent; and
– Hidden Valley Lake: $352,000, up 18.4 percent.

The median days on market for the county is 36 days.

In Lakeport, homes are staying on the market for a median 31 days; Kelseyville, 55; Clearlake, 14; and Hidden Valley Lake, 25.

Throughout the county the sales to list price was 99 percent. This means homes are selling very close to list price.

Lakeport homes are selling on average for 98.4 percent of list price; Kelseyville, 98.6 percent; Clearlake, 100 percent; and Hidden Valley Lake at 99.5 percent.

The bottom line is, if you are thinking of selling based on these stats, it couldn’t be a better time.

Tama Prokopowich of Century 21 North Bay Alliance is president-elect of the Lake County Association of Realtors.

Lake Real Estate Info Graphics by LakeCoNews

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Dennis‌ ‌Fordham.‌ ‌Courtesy‌ ‌photo.‌ ‌

Estate planning often involves various asset types, such as, real property, tangible personal property, bank accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance.

How each asset type is managed during incapacity and transferred at death to beneficiaries also varies.

Real property, tangible personal property, and bank accounts can be transferred to a trust for lifetime management (in the event of incapacity) and distribution at death outside probate.

California law, under certain circumstances, permits assets omitted from a living trust to be transferred into the trust upon court petition.

Using a so-called, “Heggstad petition” assets titled in a decedent’s name may be retitled to the decedent’s trust.

This requires evidence that the settlor (who created the trust) had intended to transfer the omitted assets to the trust. Evidence can be in the form of a pour over will (leaving all assets in the decedent’s individual name to the trust), an assignment of assets to the trust, and the decedent’s declaration to hold assets in trust.

Next, a will speaks only at death and says who inherits the decedent’s probate assets. In California, probate is required when a deceased resident has an estate whose probate assets have a combined gross value over $166,250 (2020). Thus, people use a living trust to hold title to their real and tangible personal property.

The will, however, does not speak to “non-probate” assets, such as assets in a trust, joint tenancy assets (e.g., financial accounts and real property) that pass to the surviving joint tenant(s), and assets with designated death beneficiaries (e.g., bank accounts, brokerage accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance) that pass to the surviving beneficiaries.

Whether such assets should pass to the surviving joint tenant or designated death beneficiary, however, can be challenged. That is, if there is clear and convincing evidence showing a contrary intention by the decedent.

Such evidence needs to be specific and credible. A will itself can provide clear and convincing evidence that the decedent’s prior designation of a death beneficiary was no longer the person whom the decedent intended to inherit the account.

The fact that a decedent’s estate planning documents (e.g., wills and trusts) can be used to overturn designated death beneficiary forms raises concern. A person may intentionally leave certain financial accounts and real properties outside his living trust or will to different beneficiaries.

Estate planning documents may speak in general terms when discussing the allocation of assets whereas designated death beneficiary forms are very specific.

For example, a wife may name her second husband as death beneficiary on her transfer on death, or TOD, brokerage account but leave other assets in her living trust to her children.

The wife’s living trust may be accompanied by a general assignment assigning all her financial accounts (including brokerages) to her living trust.

That assignment, if executed after she named the husband as the TOD death beneficiary, might be offered by the children as arguable proof that she intended the TOD brokerage account to pass to her children under the trust.

Next, another way that complications may arise is with powers of attorney and joint tenancy bank accounts or when a principal either has more than one power of attorney, has more than one agent under the same power of attorney, or has an agent who is not the same as the joint tenant on a bank account.

Problems may arise if the agents and/or joint tenant(s), as relevant, do not act together in agreement to control the same assets or affairs.

The foregoing general discussion shows the importance of having a knowledgeable estate planning attorney who understands and can address such issues so that they do not later create problems.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
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State Sen. Mike McGuire’s legislation confronting California’s increasing wildfire risk by establishing new safety standards for developments in high risk wildfire areas passed overwhelmingly in the Senate’s Governance and Finance Committee on Thursday.

The 2020 wildfire season burned more than 4.2 million acres, making it by far the largest in the history of California.

Eight out of the 10 largest wildfires in California history have occurred in the past 10 years, including the August Complex fire, which burned more than one million acres in the fall of 2020, making it the state’s first “gigafire” – a term for a fire that burns at least one million acres of land.

And in each of these major fires, tens of thousands of Californians ran for their lives, sometimes in the dark of night with just the clothes on their back, scrambling to find any way to escape the roaring flames.

McGuire’s office said the way the state strategically grows its communities has also come into question as the reality of mega fires has set in here in the Golden State.

Development practices in very high fire risk areas must change. If they don’t, more death and destruction will follow, McGuire’s office said.

In fact, the California Attorney General’s Office has already intervened with lawsuits on three development projects in the wildland urban interface because of their wildfire impacts.

“Over the last six years, we have all seen too much destruction and pain caused by this era of mega fires. Wildfires have clearly become a risk to the long-term livelihoods of millions of Californians. We must change the way we build in high fire risk zones, and if certain common sense health and safety requirements can’t be met, we shouldn’t be building at all. The new normal in California is here, and that is why we need SB 12,” Sen. McGuire said.

SB 12 sets up a transformational process for the State Fire Marshal to establish new standards that ensure developments as a whole are designed to withstand wildfire, not just the buildings within those developments.

This legislation states that if developments can’t meet these standards, locals can’t approve them.

And, crucially, these standards are tiered so that the standards get increasingly stronger as developments get larger. Larger developments put more people in the wildland urban interface and so they must meet higher standards than smaller developments.

As of 2010, California had 4.5 million homes in the wildland urban interface; two million of those are at high or extreme risk from wildfire, according to a 2018 analysis by Verisk, a data analytics firm.

Half of the buildings lost over the last decade in wildfires were in the WUI, built under current fire code standards.

McGuire’s office said SB 12 presents a comprehensive approach to ensuring data driven, fire-safe development. This would include providing enhanced ingress and egress routes (mandating primary and secondary access roads) along with mandated public safety vehicle access.

Mandated funding mechanisms for defensible space maintenance and vegetation management is embedded in this legislation along with mandated wildland fire hazard mitigation planning, among other critical policy items.

SB 12 is supported by the American Planning Association California Chapter, California Fire Chiefs and Fire Districts and the Sonoma Land Trust.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department will once again participate in the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 24, as a drive-thru dropoff on the west side of the police station at 2025 S. Main St.

Physical distancing and face masks will be required. Persons arriving at the event will be directed to remain in their vehicles until receiving instructions by police staff.

During the event, the police department will accept all over-the-counter or prescription medication in pill, tablet or capsule form including schedule II-V controlled and non-controlled substances.

Pills need to be emptied out of their containers and placed in a plastic bag – not paper, so they can easily see the contents to make sure there is nothing in the bag they can't take.

The police department said it will collect vape pens or other e-cigarette devices from individual consumers only after the batteries are removed from the devices. The agency stressed that it will not be responsible for removing the batteries from the devices.

Items that will not be accepted are illegal drugs, needles, inhalers and aerosol cans.

Since the Lakeport Police Department started participating with the prescription Take Back Program in January of 2019, it has collected 634 pounds of prescription drugs, many of which were dangerous narcotics including opioids.

“This protects our community by keeping these drugs from being diverted to illegal use and keeps it out of our environment and water,” the department reported.
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This illustration captures an exoplanet as it is about to cross in front of – or transit – its star. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.


In the quest for habitable planets beyond our own, NASA is studying a mission concept called Pandora, which could eventually help decode the atmospheric mysteries of distant worlds in our galaxy.

One of four low-cost astrophysics missions selected for further concept development under NASA’s new Pioneers program, Pandora would study approximately 20 stars and exoplanets – planets outside of our solar system – to provide precise measurements of exoplanetary atmospheres.

This mission would seek to determine atmospheric compositions by observing planets and their host stars simultaneously in visible and infrared light over long periods. Most notably, Pandora would examine how variations in a host star’s light impacts exoplanet measurements. This remains a substantial problem in identifying the atmospheric makeup of planets orbiting stars covered in starspots, which can cause brightness variations as a star rotates.

Pandora is a small satellite mission known as a SmallSat, one of three such orbital missions receiving the green light from NASA to move into the next phase of development in the Pioneers program. SmallSats are low-cost spaceflight missions that enable the agency to advance scientific exploration and increase access to space.

Pandora would operate in Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit, which always keeps the Sun directly behind the satellite. This orbit minimizes light changes on the satellite and allows Pandora to obtain data over extended periods. Of the SmallSat concepts selected for further study, Pandora is the only one focused on exoplanets.

“Exoplanetary science is moving from an era of planet discovery to an era of atmospheric characterization,” said Elisa Quintana, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the principal investigator for Pandora. “Pandora is focused on trying to understand how stellar activity affects our measurements of exoplanet atmospheres, which will lay the groundwork for future exoplanet missions aiming to find planets with Earth-like atmospheres.”

Maximizing the scientific potential

Pandora concentrates on studying exoplanetary and stellar atmospheres by surveying planets as they cross in front of – or transit – their host stars.

To accomplish this, Pandora would take advantage of a proven technique called transit spectroscopy, which involves measuring the amount of starlight filtering through a planet’s atmosphere, and splitting it into bands of color known as a spectrum.

These colors encode information that helps scientists identify gases present in the planet’s atmosphere, and can help determine if a planet is rocky with a thin atmosphere like Earth or if it has a thick gas envelope like Neptune.

This mission, however, would take transit spectroscopy a step further. Pandora is designed to mitigate one of the technique’s most crucial setbacks: stellar contamination.

“Stars have atmospheres and changing surface features like spots that affect our measurements,” said Jessie Christiansen, the deputy science lead at the NASA Exoplanet Archive at Caltech in Pasadena, California, and a co-investigator for Pandora. “To be sure we’re really observing an exoplanet’s atmosphere, we need to untangle the planet’s variations from those of the star.”

Pandora would separate stellar and exoplanetary signals by observing them simultaneously in infrared and visible light. Stellar contamination is easier to detect at the shorter wavelengths of visible light, and so obtaining atmospheric data through both infrared and visible light would allow scientists to better differentiate observations coming from exoplanet atmospheres and stars.

“Stellar contamination is a sticking point that complicates precise observations of exoplanets,” said Benjamin Rackham, a 51 Pegasi b Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and a co-investigator for Pandora. “Pandora would help build the necessary tools for disentangling stellar and planetary signals, allowing us to better study the properties of both starspots and exoplanetary atmospheres.”

This illustration (not to scale) depicts Pandora’s orbital pattern in Sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit, located approximately 435 to 497 miles (700 to 800 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, as it observes its targeted exoplanets and stars. This orbit enables Pandora to obtain multiple observations of exoplanets over long periods and the Earthshine exclusion zone helps avoid reflected light from Earth. Credits: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.


Synergy in space

Joining forces with NASA’s larger missions, Pandora would operate concurrently with the James Webb Space Telescope, slated for launch later this year. Webb will provide the ability to study the atmospheres of exoplanets as small as Earth with unprecedented precision, and Pandora would seek to expand the telescope’s research and findings by observing the host stars of previously identified planets over longer periods.

Missions such as NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), Hubble Space Telescope, and the retired Kepler and Spitzer spacecraft have given scientists astonishing glimpses at these distant worlds, and laid a strong foundation in exoplanetary knowledge. These missions, however, have yet to fully address the stellar contamination problem, the magnitude of which is uncertain in previous studies of exoplanetary atmospheres. Pandora seeks to fill these critical gaps in NASA’s understanding of planetary atmospheres and increase the capabilities in exoplanet research.

“Pandora is the right mission at the right time because thousands of exoplanets have already been discovered, and we are aware of many that are amenable to atmospheric characterization that orbit small active stars,” said Jessie Dotson, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and the deputy principal investigator for Pandora. “The next frontier is to understand the atmospheres of these planets, and Pandora would play a key role in uncovering how stellar activity impacts our ability to characterize atmospheres. It would be a great complement to Webb’s mission.”

A launch pad for exploration

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, or LLNL, in Livermore, California, is co-leading the Pandora mission with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

LLNL will manage the mission and leverage capabilities developed for other government agencies, including a low-cost approach to the telescope design and fabrication that enables this groundbreaking exoplanet science from a SmallSat platform.

NASA’s Pioneers program, which consists of SmallSats, payloads attached to the International Space Station, and scientific balloon experiments, fosters innovative space and suborbital experiments for early-to-mid-career researchers through low-cost, small hardware missions. Under this new program, Pandora would operate on a five-year timeline with a budget cap of $20 million.

Despite tight constraints, the Pioneers program enables Pandora to concentrate on a focused research question while engaging a diverse team of students and early career scientists from more than a dozen of universities and research institutes. This SmallSat platform creates an excellent blueprint for small-scale missions to make an impact in the astrophysics community.

“Pandora’s long-duration observations in visible and infrared light are unique and well-suited for SmallSats,” said Quintana. “We are excited that Pandora will play a crucial role in NASA’s quest for finding other worlds that could potentially be habitable.”

For more information about the Pioneers program, visit https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/astrophysics-pioneers.

This illustration depicts Pandora’s use of transit spectroscopy to reliably identify an exoplanet’s atmospheric composition as it passes in front of its host star. Credits: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has two more dogs joining its group of canines available for adoption.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

“Bear.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Bear’

“Bear” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short brown coat.

He is dog No. 3476.

“Dorito.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Dorito’

“Dorito” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white and gray coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4576.

“Dusty.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Dusty’

“Dusty” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier with a tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4750.

“Hector.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Hector’

“Hector” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short brindle coat.

He is dog No. 4697.

“Inky.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Inky’

“Inky” is a male German Shepherd mix with a long black coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4324.

“Juno.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Juno’

“Juno” is a female German Shepherd mix with a brown and black coat.

She is dog No. 4742.

“Lumpy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Lumpy’

“Lumpy” is a male American Bulldog with a white and brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 4715.

“Nandor.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Nandor’

“Nandor” is a male American Bulldog mix with a short gray and white coat.

He is dog No. 4725.

“Ranger.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Ranger’

“Ranger” is a 5-year-old male husky mix with a long red and white coat.

He has been neutered.

Ranger is dog No. 4443.

“Tia.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Tia’

“Tia” is a female American Bully with a short black with white markings.

She is dog No. 4602.

“Toby.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Toby’

“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.

He has a short tan and white coat.

He is dog No. 4389.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

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.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom has nominated Assemblyman Rob Bonta of Alameda County to be the new California attorney general, to succeed Xavier Becerra. Photo courtesy of Bonta’s office.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will submit to the State Legislature the nomination of Alameda Assemblymember Rob Bonta as the next California attorney general, filling the seat vacated by Xavier Becerra, who was recently sworn in as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The nomination is subject to confirmation by the California State Assembly and Senate within 90 days.

Bonta will become the first Filipino American to serve as California attorney general.

The Latino Caucus of California Counties welcomed Bonta’s nomination, calling him “incredibly intelligent, tenacious and determined.

Caucus Vice President Debra Lucero said the group “could not be more excited” for Bonta’s nomination. “At a time where divide and hate are perpetuated daily in this country, California continues to be the nation’s gold standard of inclusion and diversity. As the first Filipino Attorney General, Rob Bonta will undoubtedly work to protect all Californians and ensure that there is no community left behind.”

Throughout his career in public service, Assemblymember Bonta has taken on big fights to reverse historic injustice – many affecting communities of color. He has been a leader in the fight to reform our justice system and stand up to the forces of hate.

“Rob represents what makes California great – our desire to take on righteous fights and reverse systematic injustices,” said Gov. Newsom. “Growing up with parents steeped in social justice movements, Rob has become a national leader in the fight to repair our justice system and defend the rights of every Californian. And most importantly, at this moment when so many communities are under attack for who they are and who they love, Rob has fought to strengthen hate crime laws and protect our communities from the forces of hate. He will be a phenomenal attorney general, and I can’t wait to see him get to work.”

Bonta was elected to the California State Assembly's 18th District in 2012, where he represents the cities of Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro.

He became the first Filipino American state legislator in California’s then 160-plus-year history.

Bonta thanked the governor for nominating him.

“I am humbled by the confidence you have placed in me,” said Bonta. “I became a lawyer because I saw the law as the best way to make a positive difference for the most people, and it would be an honor of a lifetime to serve as the attorney for the people of this great state. As California’s attorney general, I will work tirelessly every day to ensure that every Californian who has been wronged can find justice and that every person is treated fairly under the law.”

Gov. Newsom made the announcement at the historic International Hotel in San Francisco, a site where Asian and Pacific Islander Californians famously rallied in 1977 to save homes of elderly residents and preserve their community. The protests helped fuel a rise in AAPI political activism.

Bonta’s mother, who helped organize the protest at the International Hotel, was on hand today to witness the governor making his selection.

A child of social justice movements, Bonta’s fight for justice is hardwired in his DNA.

Bonta grew up the son of activists. His mother, Cynthia, a proud Filipina, immigrated to California in the 1960s by a three-week boat ride.

His father, Warren, who grew up in Ventura County, was committed to service and social justice from a young age. As a student, Warren Bonta joined Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights organizing in Alabama to pass the Voting Rights Act.

Warren and Cynthia Bonta were working as missionaries in the Philippines when their son was born, training young people to serve the needs of rural Philippine villages through service, community organizing and ministry.

Shortly after leaving the Philippines, the Bontas moved to a trailer in La Paz, in the Tehachapi Mountains outside Bakersfield and served in the headquarters for the United Farm Workers movement.

Rob Bonta’s parents worked alongside Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and Philip Veracruz, organizing Latino and Filipino farmworkers for racial, economic and civil rights. His dad worked in the front office and helped set up health clinics for the farmworkers, while his mother worked at the daycare, Casa de Nana, to support farmworker organizer families.

Rob Bonta’s padrino, or godfather, Jose Gomez, was the executive assistant to Cesar Chavez.

It was in La Paz, surrounded by other UFW families, that Rob Bonta’s parents gave him his first lessons in right and wrong and taught him that everyone had an obligation to speak out when another person is treated unfairly.

Growing up, Bonta had been inspired by characters like Atticus Finch in “To Kill A Mockingbird” to pursue justice through the law, and reflecting on the stories of the farmworkers his family had known only strengthened that resolve. Throughout college and in his community work, he saw injustice and the power to right wrongs through the law, and after college, he was accepted to Yale Law School. It was also at Yale that he met his wife Mia, who he calls “his partner in life and in service.”

After law school, Bonta moved back to California and went into private practice, working pro-bono to protect Californians from exploitation and racial profiling. A few years later, Bonta decided to pursue his passion for public service and put his legal experience to work to help his community full-time.

Bonta served nine years as a deputy city attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, representing the city and its employees, before running for local office in Alameda County.

At the State Capitol, Bonta passed major reforms that reversed long-standing injustices.

In 2012, Bonta became the first Filipino American in California history to win election to the Legislature, representing Assembly District 18 in the cities of Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro. He quickly became a statewide leader in the fights for racial, economic and environmental justice, advancing reforms that put California on the cutting edge.

In the Legislature, Bonta authored legislation that made California the first in the nation to ban for-profit prisons and immigration detention centers and, following statewide marijuana legalization, he authored the California law to automatically expunge and modify criminal records for people convicted of minor marijuana charges.

He authored major environmental justice legislation and has been a leader in the fight against climate change and to ensure every community equitably benefits from our green economy.

Bonta also led the fight to pass statewide protections for renters, ultimately resulting in the nation’s strongest protections against wrongful evictions.

He introduced a number of bills to improve hate crime statutes, support victims of hate violence, and build bridges between law enforcement and targeted communities, authored first-of-its-kind legislation requiring immigrants to be informed of their rights before speaking to ICE agents, sought to end predatory bail laws and co-authored the law that required an independent investigation when there is a death of an unarmed civilian by law enforcement.

The Bontas live in the East Bay with their three children and dog Lego.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – One of Lake County’s members of Congress hosted local and regional leaders on Thursday in a discussion to update community members on the rollout of the American Rescue Plan.

Congressman Mike Thompson said during the online panel discussion that help is on the way for Americans thanks to the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus legislation, signed into law earlier this month by President Joe Biden.

In addition to $1,400 stimulus checks, the American Rescue Plan extends unemployment, subsidizes COBRA health insurance and extends the child tax credit, which Thompson said economists are reporting will cut childhood poverty in half.

The bill also will put children safely back in school, with $130 billion to fund school reopenings and help children regain lost learning.

He said it also will help ensure essential workers such as first responders, teachers and health care providers stay on the job.

A key priority in the bill is the vaccine rollout, according to Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace, who joined Thompson in the virtual meeting.

Pace said the bill gives a lot of hope that the community can finally move on to a life that’s not controlled by fear of the virus.

He said the vaccine distribution and rollout in California is the most exciting and impactful part of the bill, noting that for many months it’s been an “all hands on deck” approach with all staffing and resources going to vaccinations.

In Lake County, more than a third of all people age 16 and older have been vaccinated, with two-thirds of those age 75 and older receiving the vaccine, Pace said.

He said all residents of the county’s skilled nursing facilities are now vaccinated. Those facilities give an example of what the future can look like.

“Those places were a disaster in the fall,” he said, explaining that they were locked down and people were dying.

However, with residents now vaccinated, they are accepting visitors and it’s starting to look like normal life, with no new cases reported, he said.

Pace said the more people are vaccinated, the more we can get back to normal, with less suffering.

He said the funding will help get out the vaccines and also will help with communications, including educating people to address vaccine hesitancy.

“I believe we’re through the worst of the pandemic but it’s not over,” said Pace, adding that the vaccine is the best tool to address the coronavirus.

Critical help for local governments

Besides offering help to individuals, the American Rescue Plan is providing financial assistance to counties, cities and school districts.

The county of Lake is expected to receive $12.4 million, the city of Lakeport just over $900,000 and the city of Clearlake approximately $2,873,678, officials reported.

Local school districts are anticipated to receive the following amounts: Kelseyville Unified, $5,054,000; Konocti Unified School District, $13,835,000; Lakeport Unified School District, $3,239,000; Lucerne Elementary School District, $944,000; Middletown Unified School District, $2,454,000; and Upper Lake Unified School District, $2,848,000.

Officials on Thompson’s panel said the funding is supposed to arrive for local governments in two payments, with 50 percent expected to be disbursed by May 10.

Napa Mayor Scott Sedgley said the bill is great news for small cities like his.

“It’s going to make all the difference in the world,” he said, explaining they had to cut back on services.

Sedgley said cities are seeking to get payments directly from the federal government and not funneled through the state, an effort on which he said Thompson is working.

Separately, Lake County News checked in with Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora about the funds the city expects to receive.

“There has been little detailed information at this point. We are all still waiting on Treasury guidance,” Flora said Thursday.

“As we currently understand, the feds have 60 days from bill signing to pass the funds to the state and the state has 30 days to pass the funds to us,” he said.

That is consistent with the timeline given during the Thursday press conference, with Flora confirming the funds are to come in two payments.

Flora said the main categories for spending the $2,873,678 the city is set to receive include providing government services affected by revenue loss, providing premium pay to essential employees, addressing economic impacts through aid to households and small businesses, or investments in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.

“This is pretty much all we know at this point,” Flora said. “We believe the biggest long term impact with this ‘one-time funding’ is likely best invested in local infrastructure, but we will need to see the actual guidance when it is released to determine for sure.”

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.
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Vaccine trials are just getting started for younger children. FGTrade via Getty Images

A big question among parents and teachers as more schools reopen is when their kids will be vaccinated against COVID-19. Some have wondered whether the vaccine is even necessary for children. Dr. James Wood, a pediatrician and assistant professor of pediatric infectious diseases, explains what doctors know today about the risk children face of getting and spreading the coronavirus and when vaccines might be available.

Do kids really need to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

The short answer is yes. A lot of studies have shown that COVID-19 isn’t as severe in children, particularly younger kids – but that doesn’t mean kids aren’t at risk of getting infected and potentially spreading the virus.

Children under 12 who get COVID-19 do tend to have mild illnesses or no symptoms, while teenagers seem to have responses somewhere between what adults and younger kids have experienced. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that teens were about twice as likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 as children ages 5-11.

Researchers are still trying to understand why we’re seeing these differences between older and younger kids. Behavior probably plays a part. Teenagers are more likely to engage in social or group activities, and they may or may not be wearing masks. Immune differences and biologic factors may also play a role. Non-SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses are common in children, often resulting in upper respiratory infection. Is their frequent exposure to other coronaviruses helping protect them from severe COVID-19? That is one hypothesis. We know younger kids’ immune responses in general are different from adults, and likely play a role in protection.

It’s important to remember that while most children get only mild symptoms, they still face risks. At least 226 U.S. children with COVID-19 have died, and thousands have been hospitalized.

The key to minimizing the risk is to make sure kids eventually get vaccinated, follow social distancing recommendations and wear masks.

Are kids spreading the virus?

In a setting like a school where mask-wearing and social distancing are enforced, young kids seem to not spread the virus very much when the rules and guidelines are being followed. One CDC review found little difference in community cases in counties with elementary schools open and those with remote learning.

If precautions aren’t being taken, children infected with the coronavirus very well could spread it to adults. What isn’t clear yet is how great that risk is.

A girl wearing a mask heads to school past adults without masks.
In school settings, younger children have been less likely to spread the virus to adults. Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images


To keep schools as safe as possible, continuing schoolwide mask and social distancing policies will be important. With teenagers in particular, mask rules can’t hinge on whether the person has been vaccinated or not. Until herd immunity within the whole community is at a good level, social distancing and masking is still going to be the recommendation.

So, when can kids get vaccinated?

Right now, the Pfizer vaccine is the only one in the U.S. authorized for teenagers as young as 16. Before kids under 16 can be vaccinated, clinical trials need to be completed in thousands of young volunteers to assess the vaccines’ safety and efficacy.

Vaccine manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer both have trials underway with adolescents and expect to have data by late spring or early summer. If their vaccines are shown to be safe and effective, kids 12 and up could be vaccinated before school starts in the fall.

Realistically, young children probably won’t be eligible for the vaccine until late fall or winter at the earliest. Moderna just announced on March 16 that it has started testing the vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years. Pfizer hasn’t reached that stage yet, and these trials take time.

What’s different about the vaccines kids will get?

The composition of the COVID-19 vaccines for children is the same as used in adults – the difference is that children may require a different dose.

The first step in vaccine trials is to figure out the right dose. The companies want to find the lowest possible dose that is both safe and produces a target level of antibodies. For example, Moderna uses a 100-microgram dose in adults. It is testing three different doses for children under age 2 – 25, 50 and 100 micrograms – and two doses for children over age 2, at 50 and 100 micrograms.

Once the company determines the optimal dose, it will launch a placebo-controlled trial to test its effectiveness, in which some children will get a placebo and some will get the vaccine.

A student plays a flute through a mask during band practice.
Students are now seated farther apart in many schools. The CDC recently changed its recommendation from 6 feet between children in K-12 schools to 3 feet unless the community has a high rate of viral spread. AP Photo/Haven Daily


A rigorous system for pediatric vaccine trials is well established in the U.S. These trials are key to assessing the safety and efficacy of vaccines in children, which can differ from adults.

I am optimistic that a safe and effective vaccine will be available for children. Thus far, there have not been any safety signals from either the adult or adolescent studies that have been worrying to me as a pediatrician, but the studies still need to be done in children.

How can parents create safe playdates for kids?

When I talk to parents, I explain that it’s a risk-versus-benefit question. Each family has a different tolerance.

From a medical standpoint, the mental health of kids and having them play with other kids is an important part of childhood.

[Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

I would say that unvaccinated kids playing indoors without masks on is still not a great idea. The risk is just too high at this point. As weather warms up, I would encourage kids to play outside. Ride bikes, play and socialize – just do it in a safe manner.

We all have pandemic fatigue, including medical professionals. As the weather gets warmer, I think everyone just wants to get back to normal. The worst thing we can do, right as we start to see a light at the end, is fall backward again – because that would just make it that much longer for everyone.The Conversation

James B. Wood, Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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UC San Francisco and Johns Hopkins University today announced the launch of the Opioid Industry Documents Archive, a digital repository of publicly disclosed documents from recent judgments, settlements, and ongoing lawsuits concerning the opioid crisis.

The documents come from government litigation against pharmaceutical companies, including opioid manufacturers and distributors related to their contributions to the deadly epidemic, as well as litigation taking place in federal court on behalf of thousands of cities and counties in the United States.

The documents in the archive include emails, memos, presentations, sales reports, budgets, audit reports, Drug Enforcement Administration briefings, meeting agendas and minutes, expert witness reports, and depositions of drug company executives.

The Opioid Industry Documents Archive leverages extraordinary expertise within UCSF and Johns Hopkins University in library science, information technology, and digital archiving. It also relies on scholarship focused on many dimensions of the opioid epidemic, ranging from the history of medicine to pharmaceutical policy to clinical care.

Key organizations at UCSF involved include the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies; Department of Clinical Pharmacy; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences; Department of Family and Community Medicine; and Library. From Johns Hopkins University, the project involves the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness; Welch Medical Library; Institute of the History of Medicine; and Sheridan Libraries’ Digital Research and Curation Center.

The new archive will provide free public access to anyone who is interested in investigating the activities that have led to the devastating epidemic, which has now contributed to the deaths of nearly 500,000 people.

The archive will promptly include new documents as they become available through resolution of legal action against companies that contributed to the deadly opioid crisis.

The launch coincides with the universities’ efforts to house more than 250,000 documents produced by opioid manufacturer Insys in the course of its bankruptcy proceedings following opioid litigation.

Provide information to experts, policymakers

The archive is similar to the groundbreaking Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive at UCSF, which has fostered scientific and public health discoveries shaping tobacco policy in the U.S. and around the world. This new archive from two top research universities will deliver a wealth of information that experts can analyze to help policymakers prevent another disaster like this from happening again.

“This archive serves a vital public health purpose. Thanks to the efforts of the many parties involved, including the leaders of our communities and states nationwide, private lawyers working on their behalf, state attorneys general, and the Multidistrict Litigation Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, the archive will shine the bright light of day on previously private documents that help explain the background of how the epidemic arose,” said G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and founding director of its Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness.

Alexander, who has provided expert testimony on behalf of plaintiffs in opioid-related litigation, added, “Johns Hopkins University and its Bloomberg School of Public Health bring remarkable expertise and scholarship directly related to the opioid crisis that are vital to this project’s success.”

Michael Steinman, MD, professor of medicine at UCSF, said, “UCSF’s ongoing work, through its Industry Documents Library, to provide public access to millions of documents about the tobacco industry has supported significant scientific and investigative research that have facilitated efforts to reduce smoking and related diseases, saving millions of lives worldwide. This new archive will similarly reflect on the opioid industry, whose actions have led to an extraordinary level of suffering and death across the country.”

The archive will be guided by an external advisory committee that will include individuals who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic and others who have been directly affected by it.

Transparency into opioid epidemic

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first wave of the rise in opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. began with increased opioid prescriptions in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids increasing since at least 1999.

From 1999 to 2018, nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. died from an overdose involving opioids, including prescription and illicit opioids.

According to the White House Council of Economic Advisors’ most recent analysis, the opioid epidemic cost $696 billion in 2018 and more than $2.5 trillion between 2015 and 2018.

“This project will provide much-needed transparency into some of the origins of our recent opioid epidemic, informing policies and practices to prevent another such catastrophe,” said Joshua Sharfstein, MD, the Bloomberg School’s vice dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement and director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.

In response to the crisis across the U.S., counties, cities, states, and thousands of municipalities have filed lawsuits against various opioid manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies, and consulting firms.

The lawsuits and document discovery from the litigation – such as the recent settlement by states attorneys general with McKinsey & Co. – have exposed how opioid defendants pursued strategies to increase sales of addictive and deadly products, including producing manipulative and misleading marketing, casting doubt on the addictiveness of these products, ignoring or downplaying health risks, or otherwise overlooking signals of opioid oversupply and unsafe use.

“Public archives promote transparency and accountability,” said Kate Tasker, MLIS, UCSF Industry Documents Library Managing Archivist. “With the creation of the Opioid Industry Documents Archive, UCSF and Johns Hopkins University commit to preserving these materials – and future documents – in a centralized and full-text searchable database, to make this information freely and openly available to the public.”

The archive currently contains 3,300 documents (more than 131,000 pages) in six collections:

– Washington Post Opioid Collection;
– KHN OxyContin Collection;
– Oklahoma Opioid Litigation Documents;
– Kentucky Opioid Litigation Documents;
– National Prescription Opiate Litigation Documents;
– Insys Litigation Documents.

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