A sign left behind at the scene of a burglary in Lakeport, Calif., on Friday, July 26, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Lakeport Police Department. LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is investigating two late-night burglaries and seeking leads in identifying who is responsible.
The agency said that just before 7:30 a.m. Friday officers responded to a possible burglary at Plaza Paints on South Main Street.
Two hours later, officers were dispatched to the Lakeport Christian Center Preschool on South Forbes St. for a report of another burglary, police said.
Authorities said they believe the incidents are connected.
There also was a sign that was left behind on scene and police believe it was believed to have been left there by the person involved. The small cardboard sign has a message, written in black marker, that says, “2B honest, I need a beer. Or 6.”
Police want to hear from anyone who knows of this sign or has seen a subject in possession of it and can identify them.
If anyone does have any information regarding the burglaries or the person – or persons – involved, please contact the investigating Officer Joe Medici at 707-263-5491, Extension 120, or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also send an anonymous message from your cellular device by texting the word TIP LAKEPORT followed by your message to 888777 or by sending us a private message on Facebook
Police remind community members to report any suspicious activity and individuals during the late night hours.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric is reporting on updates to its efforts to minimize fire risk and increase the safety of its system as it continues to urge community members to be prepared should power shutoffs be necessary in the coming months.
Herman Hernandez, PG&E’s public affairs representative for Lake and Sonoma counties, made his latest meeting appearance at the Clearlake City Council on Thursday night.
Hernandez has previously spoken to the Lakeport City Council as well as to community groups, as Lake County News has reported.
His presentation, which begins at the 16:04 mark in the video shown here, covered the company’s Community Wildfire Safety Program, which includes the Public Safety Power Shutoff program, which it began to use last year.
He told the council on Thursday that he was there to encourage the city, community members, businesses and nonprofits to have plans in the case of power shutoffs.
“People are not taking this seriously,” he said.
He said that climate change, mismanagement of infrastructure and historically large wildfires are the reasons for taking these latest measures, which were arrived at after PG&E leadership visited San Diego, Australia and New Zealand to look at their approaches to wildland fire.
By 2022, PG&E intends to install 1,300 new weather stations across its service area to help them better monitor conditions, Hernandez said.
Hernandez said there are 12 new weather stations installed in Lake County. A listing of all of the company’s weather stations can be found here. The stations are shown in the map above.
At the same time, the company intends to install 600 high definition cameras by 2022. There is one camera in Lake County that he said has been found to not work and is being repaired.
He said PG&E is conducting enhanced vegetation management in high risk fire areas, on top of the work the company does year-round.
The company also has adopted new practices, like disabling automatic reclosers – a type of power switchgear – during fire season because Hernandez said they can cause sparking, which in turn can result in wildfire.
Hernandez explained that red flag warnings trigger review by PG&E’s emergency operations center, but they don’t automatically trigger a public safety power shutoff.
The shutoffs result from several factors working together – including red flag warnings, forecasted humidity at 20 percent or lower, constant winds of 25 miles per hour or higher, with wind gusts of up to 45 miles per hour or more, and dry vegetation, he said.
Lake County wasn’t on a list for a potential shutoff in June because the late rains in May meant that the vegetation hadn’t yet dried out, he said.
Hernandez said that, this year, the thresholds for potential shutoffs have increased, with every area and facility type now on the table.
“Everyone who lives in our service area can be subject to a public safety power shutoff,” he said.
Inspecting and repairing the system
From December through June, PG&E crews completed the Wildfire Safety Inspection Program in what Hernandez called a “blitz.”
PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras offered additional details on the company’s efforts to improve conditions across its system, particularly in Lake County, as part of the Wildfire Safety Inspection Program.
She said PG&E has completed visual inspections of approximately 99 percent of its electric distribution poles and visual or aerial inspections of approximately 98 percent of its electric transmission poles and towers in high-fire threat areas throughout its service territory.
Contreras said that includes approximately 50,000 electric transmission structures, 700,000 distribution poles and 222 substations, covering more than 5,500 miles of transmission line and 25,200 miles of distribution line statewide.
“Throughout the inspection process, PG&E has been addressing and repairing conditions that pose an immediate safety risk, while completing other high-priority repairs on an accelerated basis. Repairs for all other conditions are scheduled to be completed as part of PG&E’s work execution plan,” Contreras said.
She said PG&E teams with experience in system maintenance, engineering and maintenance planning are reviewing millions of high-definition photographs and inspection findings in order to identify needed repair issues.
Information on the repairs is posted on PG&E’s Web site, and can be viewed by city and county. The information is updated through May 31.
The repairs are broken down into category A, immediate, and category B, which Contreras said are conditions that generally need to be addressed within three months from the date a condition is identified.
Contreras said the kinds of repairs that crews are making range from installing new signs or electric components to replacing poles or towers.
Based on PG&E’s latest data, in Lake County PG&E identified 13 immediate repair conditions in distribution facilities, one in transmission and eight involving substations. All have been repaired.
In the less-immediate B category, the following conditions have been identified, repaired or remain open, or pending:
Altogether, 54 percent of the B category conditions have been repaired, PG&E reported.
In city-specific information, PG&E said crews identified immediate A category repairs needed in Clearlake that included one each in distribution and substation, but none in transmission. All have been repaired.
B category repairs in Clearlake total five in distribution, all of which remain open; 14 in transmission, all of which have been repaired; and six in substation, which also have been repaired. Altogether, 80 percent of B category repairs have been finished in Clearlake, PG&E reported.
In Lakeport, PG&E said no immediate category A conditions were identified.
PG&E identified category B conditions totaling three in distribution, two of which have been repaired. No category B issues were found in transmission or substation facilities.
System hardening under way
Contreras said that one of the main pillars of the Community Wildfire Safety Plan is “system hardening.”
Along with the new and enhanced safety measuring and real-time monitoring, the system hardening is meant to further reduce wildland fire risks, and includes installing stronger and more resilient poles and covered power lines across approximately 7,100 line miles of highest fire risk areas in its overall service area, the company said.
PG&E has so far completed nearly four miles of hardening work in Lake County, with another 12.6 more miles planned, Contreras said.
“The hardening consists of the installation of 130 new stronger and more resilient poles and lines that are covered and stronger. It’s also known as covered conductor or tree wire, to reduce the likelihood of outages when trees, branches, animals or birds contact lines,” Contreras said.
Hernandez said PG&E also has done targeted undergrounding work, and is testing resiliency zones, such as a beta project under way in Angwin where they are looking at whether or not they a section off parts of cities and keep them operating, even when other areas need to be shut down.
Resources and information
PG&E has offered the following resources for customers needing more information.
To learn more about the Community Wildfire Safety Program: – Call 1-866-743-6589 – Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – Visit www.wildfiresafety.com
To see if you are in a high risk fire area, visit the California Public Utilities Commission fire threat map: https://ia.cpuc.ca.gov/firemap/
Additional details also are in the presentation published below.
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.
Nearly 50,000 media stories on summer learning – such as the one by The Economist – appeared in 2018. The message influences policy as well. Lawmakers introduced 293 state bills related to summer programming in 2017. These bills dealt with summer learning in a number of ways – from a vetoed Maine bill that tried to establish a “Summer Success Program Fund” to a California bill that enables up to 30% of funds for before and after school programs go to summer learning.
Despite the seeming consensus that children lose learning during the summer, a 2017 report from the Brookings Institute showed that the research on summer learning is actually quite mixed.
Another 2018 analysis found evidence of learning loss every summer between second and ninth grade, but findings differ vastly from one study to the next.
This has lead some researchers – like me – to question if summer loss even occurs.
Using current, nationally representative data, I attempted to determine how big of an issue is summer learning loss. I focused on elementary school students.
Here’s what I found:
1. Most kids aren’t affected
My study using national data suggests that, by and large, the issue of summer learning loss is overblown. Specifically, only 7% of students lose the equivalent of one month of school year learning in reading and 9% in math over the summer between kindergarten and first grade. Over the summer before second grade, this increases to 15% in reading and 18% in math. This suggests that the majority of youngsters don’t experience summer learning loss.
In fact, my research suggests most children gain or maintain their skills over the summer.
2. Losses aren’t long-term
I also wanted to know if children who slid over the summer would stay behind during elementary school. Using national data, my findings suggest that summer sliders and gainers are not much different by the end of fourth grade. For instance, the average score for children who gained versus slid over the summer before second grade differed by just 0.04 points for math and 0.12 points for reading two years later.
3. Strongest students lose the most
I was also curious to see if it was possible to figure out what kinds of student characteristics and background factors relate to summer learning loss. You might predict – as I did – that children with weaker skills before summer would be more likely to lose over the summer. And you would be wrong – as I was.
It was actually children with higher reading or math scores before the start of summer who were more likely to experience a summer slide.
4. Summer ‘homework’ not that important
You also might think that students who do regular math, writing or reading over the summer would hold onto more knowledge over the summer. Overall, this was not the case. For instance, 78% of parents of gainers and 79% of parents of sliders read books to their child regularly; about half do writing activities regularly.
The only exception is that children who read to themselves more frequently were less likely to slide in reading between first and second grade. This is based on my study that shows 71.44% of parents of gainers reported that their child regularly read to themselves, compared to 67.81% of parents of sliders.
5. Let them play
All this is not to say that summer vacation doesn’t come with its share of risks to children, because it does. But if I were going to worry about a threat that summer break poses to my child, it wouldn’t be summer loss. I’d be more concerned about the research that shows children gain more weight over the summer than they do during the school year.
I have no quarrel with parents or educators who want children to read books or study math over the summer to stay sharp academically. But let’s make sure they get to go outside and play so that they can stay in shape physically as well.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Hot weekend temperatures across interior Northern California have led the National Weather Service to issue a heat advisory for areas including Lake County this weekend.
The advisory is in effect from 11 a.m. Saturday to 11 p.m. Sunday.
The National Weather Service said a heat advisory means a prolonged period of hot temperatures is expected and will create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible.
Temperatures are forecast to hit or surpass the century mark during the daytime on Saturday and Sunday as the result of building high pressure.
Nighttime temperatures will range into the high 60s, based on the forecast.
Area residents are urged to take extra precautions to guard against heat exhaustion and heat stroke, including drinking plenty of fluids, avoiding direct sunlight if possible, staying in an air-conditioned room, and checking on outdoor pets and those more sensitive to heat such as the elderly and young children. Officials also urge against strenuous activities during the middle of the day.
Early next week, daytime temperatures are forecast to drop into the low 90s, with nighttime temperatures into the mid 50s, according to the forecast.
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.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – In a special board meeting on Wednesday evening, the Mendocino-Lake Community College Board of Trustees unanimously voted to appoint Eileen Cichocki as interim superintendent/president.
Cichocki’s new role will officially begin Aug. 3.
“I am honored to be selected to serve in this interim capacity to provide leadership while the college selects its next superintendent/president,” Cichocki said. “There are many important initiatives under way at the college such as the accreditation reaffirmation process and implementation of the Chancellor’s Vision for Success, which includes a new student centered funding formula and guided pathways for students. I am excited to partner with the students, faculty, staff, managers, the board of trustees and community members to ensure Mendocino College continues to excel and move forward during this time of transition.”
She was selected after a formal internal application process and her appointment comes as a result of the recent resignation of President Dr. Arturo Reyes who will be moving on to assume the role of superintendent/president for Rio Hondo College in Southern California beginning Aug. 5.
“Ms. Cichocki has the institutional knowledge to shepherd Mendocino College through the upcoming accreditation process and so much more,” said Board of Trustees President Robert Jason Pinoli. “Given that Ms. Cichocki has been a part of the Mendocino College family for the past decade and a half, she is a natural fit to bridge this institution during a critical time of transition. Ms. Cichocki is someone that is well respected by her peers, staff, and the greater college community. As a product of the community college system, Ms. Cichocki is always mindful of the single reason we exist, our students.”
Cichocki has more than 25 years of experience working in the California Community College system.
She has been an employee of Mendocino College for 15 years. Since 2014, she has served as the college’s assistant superintendent/vice president of administrative services and previously as the director of fiscal services. Prior to coming to Mendocino College, Cichocki worked for 11 years at Santa Rosa Junior College.
She holds a master’s degree in business administration, a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies with an emphasis in city planning, and an associate’s degree in general education.
Both her master’s and bachelor’s degrees were awarded by Sonoma State University, while her associate’s degree was conferred by Santa Rosa Junior College.
She is a longtime member of both the Association of Chief Business Officials and the Association of California Community College Administrators.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The city of Clearlake is planning a project to test how it can extend the usable life and quality of the road grading projects it’s carrying out thanks to Measure V funding.
Consulting City Engineer David Swartz presented to the council earlier this month a proposal to do a chip seal project on a portion of the city’s gravel roads in an effort to ascertain whether they could extend the life of road improvements.
He said he took the plan to City Manager Alan Flora, who thought it was a good idea to present to the council.
The discussion at the July 11 meeting begins at the 35:44 minute mark in the video above. A staff report is included in the agenda packet below, beginning at page 37.
In April, city staff started planning about how to use the city’s Measure V sales tax funding for roads to do grading throughout the city, Swartz said.
He said one crew started in the Avenues and another in the “tree” streets – those named for type of trees.
Swartz said he and Road Superintendent Mike Baker visit the work sites weekly to see the challenges the crews face and understand what is prohibiting them from getting more street miles done.
In those inspections, Swartz said they’ve seen that the gravel roads that previously were graded already are degrading.
It seems, he added, like the city is in a cycle of grading and regrading, and he questioned if they could take another approach.
That led to considering solutions to start minimizing the need to regrade the same roads over and again. As a result, Swartz said they came up with a test project, which he said is a double chip seal over the top of gravel roads, which would provide a much longer lifespan of more than five years. Other rural communities use the double chip seal solution.
He said they analyzed manpower, staffing, fuel and other factors and said it currently costs $10,000 a mile to grade roads. That grading only results in six months of useful life, so the roads need to be regraded twice annually, for a total cost of $20,000.
Swartz said they were looking at a 24-foot-wide double chip seal project and have called contractors for bids.
The estimate is for $70,000 a mile to double chip seal the gravel roads, and such work would have a six-year lifespan, Swartz said. That’s compared to a cost of $120,000, per mile, for twice-annual road grading over a six-year period.
The city of Clearlake, Calif., is proposing a mile-long double chip seal project on 19th thorugh 22nd avenues and on Oak an Eureka avenues. The use of the number 1 on the map signifies the streets where the chip seal will be used, while number 2 shows the existing manholes. Image courtesy of the city of Clearlake.
Swartz said they looked at areas that would hold a chip seal and proposed a mile-long project area in the southwest Avenues, on 19th through 22nd avenues and on Oak and Eureka, that has good road base and drainage.
District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said the proposal was exciting, noting original quotes of $5 million over 10 years for basic road grading.
Sabatier pointed to the domino effect of road improvements, which increase the quality of neighborhoods, with property values in turn rising and improving the quality of life, and the city getting fewer complaints and requests for service.
He asked about the use of Perma-Zyme, a stabilization project meant to lower road construction and maintenance costs that the city previously had considered using. Swartz said the city assessed the product but found it didn’t hold up through the winter.
Flora added that crews have started using more gravel road base as part of their mix, which is new, and was part of their effort to try other things after they didn’t see the results they wanted from Perma-Zyme.
Mayor Russell Cremer said that, despite more gravel being added to the mix, the roads are still showing washboarding. Swartz agreed.
Community member Ray Silva asked about using recycled materials like those currently kept at the city’s corporation yard. Swartz said those leftover grindings don’t work well for the gravel roads and instead they are purchasing natural base rock and using the grindings for pothole repair.
Councilman Dirk Slooten asked if it would be easier to fix the chip seal project area after the six-year usable life. Swartz said yes.
“I’m all in favor of getting a test project going,” Slooten said.
Councilman Phil Harris said chip seal had been thought for some time to be cost prohibitive, but he said he had lived for many years in Spring Valley where chip seal was primarily used. He said those roads had heavy traffic but held up over the course of 10 to 15 years.
Going back to do chip seal over the top of a previous chip seal makes it almost like a paved road, Harris said.
Harris suggested city staff contact area utilities to find out what work they may need to do in the area to prevent them from cutting into the roads after they have been repaired.
He said the Perma-Zyme testing was done in an area of Ogulin Canyon Road with little traffic, and it held up there. “We may have done a very poor test run,” he said, adding they should have chosen a road with traffic.
The council agreed with Swartz’s plan and gave it the green light.
Flora told Lake County News on Wednesday that staff is now going ahead with the next steps.
“Staff is working up bid documents now and we will likely release those in the next week or so. We will open construction bids toward the end of August and then take a contract back to council for award,” Flora said.
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.
Dennis Fordham. Courtesy photo. Recently I was asked if I could help an elderly married couple who had run into an obstacle preventing them from selling their home.
The notary public had refused to notarize the wife’s signature because the wife apparently did not understand the documents she was to sign.
The wife did not have a durable power of attorney authorizing her spouse to act as her agent in selling the property and now apparently lacked the capacity to sign one. That left two options.
The preferred option was to petition for an order authorizing a particular transaction (section 3100 et. seq. of the California Probate Code).
When community property is involved and one spouse is competent and the other spouse is incompetent, the competent spouse can petition the court. Here the transaction involved was the sale of the couple’s residence, a community property asset.
The 3100 petition has numerous requirements, including the following:
First, the incapacitated spouse must be examined by a physician and a capacity evaluation form filed with the court, the same as in a conservatorship proceeding.
Second, a court must appoint a “guardian ad litem” to represent the incapacitated spouse’s interests. Persons whom I have seen appointed as the guardian ad litem include an adult child of the incapacitated spouse or an attorney. After investigating the proposed transaction, the guardian ad litem files a written report with a recommendation to the court.
Third, the transaction must involve the couple’s community property. There must be some community property interest in the transaction. The order can also affect additional separate property interests involved in the same transaction. In the absence of community property, the well spouse may “transmutes” (changes) some of the well spouse’s own separate property interests into community property in order to meet the requirement that community property be involved.
Fourth, the transaction must be for one of four allowed purposes, such as for the, “advantage, benefit or best interests of the spouses or their estates,” or for, “the care and support of either spouse or of such persons as either spouse may be legally obligated to support.”
For example, in the aforementioned instance, the purpose was to authorize the sale of the couple’s residence so that they could move out of state to live with children. Another example, transferring one spouse’s property to another spouse so that the incapacitated spouse becomes eligible for long term Medi-Cal at a skilled nursing home.
Fifth, the notice of hearing and a copy of the 3100 petition must be served on all of the incapacitated spouse’s siblings, children and grandchildren. This can involve numerous relatives. Any of these relatives potentially could object to oppose the transaction.
Whenever, the 3100 petition is an available option it is usually preferable to initiating a conservatorship (unless a conservatorship already exists). Initiating a conservatorship involves more legal papers to be prepared and filed, and more legal expenses to pay.
Once the conservatorship is established the conservator may also still need to prepare and file a petition for substituted judgement or a 3100 petition to obtain a court order authorizing the conservator to complete the transaction on behalf of the incapacitated spouse.
The costs involved with a court petition would have been avoided had the couple either owned their residence inside of a living trust or if the wife had a durable power of attorney authorizing her husband to sell her interest their residence. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, neither type of estate planning was in place.
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.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has several new dogs that have joined its lineup, waiting for new homes.
The kennels also have many dogs that need to be reunited with their owners. To find the lost/found pet section, click here.
The following dogs are ready for adoption.
“Bernard.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Bernard’
“Bernard” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a short brindle and white coat.
He already has been neutered.
He is No. 280.
“Blue.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Blue’
“Blue” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a short blue and white coat.
He is No. 2420.
“Buddy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Buddy’
“Buddy” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short black coat with white markings.
He is No. 2332.
“Cadbury.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Cadbury’
“Cadbury” is a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a smooth medium-length beige coat.
She is No. 1215.
“Casanova.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Casanova’
“Casanova” is a male German Shepherd mix with a short blond and gray coat.
He is No. 2457.
“Frank.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Frank’
“Frank” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short black and white coat.
He is No. 2345.
“Hamilton.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Hamilton’
“Hamilton” is a male German Shepherd with a medium-length brown and black coat.
He is No. 2177.
“Marley.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Marley’
“Marley” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short tan coat.
He is No. 2430.
“Melonie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Melonie’
“Melonie” is a female American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short red and white coat.
She is No. 2428.
“Mira.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Mira’
“Mira” is a female Queensland Heeler mix with a short red and white coat.
She is No. 2412.
“Panther.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Panther’
“Panther” is a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier mix with a short black and white coat.
She is No. 2418.
“Snowflake.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Snowflake’
“Snowflake” is a male Chihuahua with a white coat.
He is No. 1864.
“Sturgill.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Sturgill’
“Sturgill” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a medium-length yellow coat.
He is No. 2460.
“Tyson.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Tyson’
“Tyson” is a male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a medium-length gray and white coat.
He is No. 1863.
“Wiley.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Wiley’
“Wiley” is a male German Shepherd mix with a medium-length black and brindle coat.
He is dog No. 2451.
“Wynn.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Wynn’
“Wynn” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier with a short brindle coat.
Staff said he is a lovely fellow who has been at the shelter for several months.. He loves affection and is available for adoption or through the foster to adopt program.
He’s believed to be about 6 to 7 years old.
He is No. 969.
Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.
Hours of operation area noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.
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.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at the city’s Web site.
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.
The Lakeport Police Department is investigating a series of dog bites in Lakeport, Calif., involving this male Australian Cattle Dog. Photo courtesy of the Lakeport Police Department.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Authorities are investigating a series of dog bites involving one animal in Lakeport and are seeking additional victims.
The Lakeport Police Department, in conjunction with the Lake County Animal Care and Control Department – which is the city of Lakeport‘s animal control contract agency – said Wednesday that it is currently conducting an investigation regarding complaints of a vicious dog that has frequently been in Library Park and downtown Lakeport area over the past two months or more.
The dog is a male red and white Australian Cattle Dog, commonly referred to as Australian shepherd/heeler.
On Monday evening, Lakeport Police officers were dispatched to the area of the Lakeport Yacht Club to investigate the report of an aggressive dog with a person having been bitten.
During their investigation, officers identified an adult female who reported having been bitten by the dog on July 19 and a male adult who reported being bitten on July 7 by the same dog. Both of these incidents occurred at Library Park.
During the July 22 investigation, officers located the dog and owner near the Lakeport Yacht Club, police said.
“Based on the facts and circumstances known to us at the time and for public safety we ordered the dog impounded under the authority of the Lakeport Municipal Code. The dog was turned over to Lake County Animal Care and Control to be held pending this investigation,” the Lakeport Police Department said in a statement on the case.
Further Investigation revealed that the Lakeport Police Department had taken a report on May 27 regarding the same dog having bitten another adult female subject in downtown Lakeport. Additionally, the agency has other information and reports of the dog being aggressive toward people.
“We are seeking to identify and interview anyone who may have encountered this dog acting aggressive toward people in Lakeport in the recent past. Additionally, we are interested in any information regarding the dog running loose or being left tied up without supervision,” the Lakeport Police Department said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Dale Stoebe at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by telephone at 707-263-5491, Extension 102.
Looking up at the silvery orb of the Moon, you might recognize familiar shadows and shapes on its face from one night to the next. You see the same view of the Moon our early ancestors did as it lighted their way after sundown.
Only one side of the spherical Moon is ever visible from Earth – it wasn’t until 1959 when the Soviet Spacecraft Luna 3 orbited the Moon and sent pictures home that human beings were able to see the “far side” of the Moon for the first time.
A phenomenon called tidal locking is responsible for the consistent view. The Earth and its Moon are in close proximity and thus exert significant gravitational forces on each other. These tidal forces slow the rotations of both bodies. They locked the Moon’s rotation in sync with its orbital period relatively soon after it formed – as a product of a collision between a Mars-sized object and the proto-Earth, 100 million years after the solar system coalesced.
The Moon’s orbital period and rotational period are the same length of time.
Now the Moon takes one trip around the Earth in the same amount of time it takes to make one rotation around its own axis: about 28 days. From Earth, we always see the same face of the Moon; from the Moon, the Earth stands still in the sky.
Buzz Aldrin descends from the lunar module to the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969.JSC/NASA, CC BY
The near side of the Moon is well studied because we can see it. The astronauts landed on the near side of the Moon so they could communicate with NASA here on Earth. All of the samples from the Apollo missions are from the near side.
Although the far side of the Moon isn’t visible from our vantage point, and with all due respect to Pink Floyd, it is not accurate to call it the dark side of the Moon. All sides of the moon experience night and day just like we do here on Earth. All sides have equal amounts of day and night over the course of a single month. A lunar day lasts about two Earth weeks.
With modern satellites, astronomers have completely mapped the lunar surface. A Chinese mission, Chang'e 4, is currently exploring the Aitken Basin on the far side of the Moon — the first such mission ever landed there. Researchers hope Chang'e 4 will help answer questions about the crater’s surface features and test whether things can grow in lunar soil. A privately funded Israeli mission, Beresheet, started as a mission to compete for the Google Lunar X Prize. Despite crashing during an attempted landing earlier this month, the Beresheet team still won the Moon Shot Award.
Being shielded from civilization means the far side of the moon is “radio dark.” There, researchers can measure weak signals from the universe that would otherwise be drowned out. Chang'e 4, for instance, will be able to observe low-frequency radio light coming from the Sun or beyond that’s impossible to detect here on the Earth due to human activity, such as TV and radio broadcasts and other forms of communication signals. Low-frequency radio peers back in time to the very first stars and the very first black holes, giving astronomers a greater understanding of how the structures of the universe began forming.
Arrows indicate position of Chang'e 4 lander on the floor of the Moon’s Von Kármán crater. The sharp crater behind and to the left of the landing site is 12,800 feet across and 1,970 feet deep.NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University, CC BY
Rover missions also investigate all sides of the Moon as space scientists prepare for future human missions, looking to the Moon’s resources to help humanity get to Mars. For instance, water – discovered by NASA’s LCROSS satellite beneath the Moon’s north and south poles in 2009 – can be broken up into hydrogen and oxygen and used for fuel and breathing.
Researchers are getting closer to exploring the Moon’s polar craters, some of which have never seen the light of day – literally. They are deep and in just the right place to never have the Sun shine onto the crater floor. There are certainly dark parts of the Moon, but the whole far side isn’t one of them.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials reported that a wildland fire at Lake Berryessa in Napa County is fully contained, while work is continuing on a fire in Solano County.
The Canyon fire in Napa County reached 100-percent containment on Thursday, while the Marshview fire in Solano County was at 90-percent containment, according to Cal Fire.
Cal Fire said the Canyon fire began Monday afternoon on Wragg Canyon Road and Highway 128 at Lake Berryessa
Altogether, it burned 64 acres. Cal Fire said no structures were damaged.
The fire’s cause remains under investigation, Cal Fire said.
In Solano County, the Marshview fire began on Thursday morning on Interstate 680 and Marshview Road south of the community of Cordelia, according to Cal Fire’s report.
By Thursday night, Cal Fire said the blaze had burned 183 acres but was nearing full containment. No structures were reported threatened or damaged.
Cal Fire said firefighters made good progress on Thursday, with crews to continue to construct containment lines and put out hot spots throughout the night.
The Marshview fire’s cause also remains under investigation, Cal Fire said.
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The Trout Creek property. Photo courtesy of the Mendocino Land Trust.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino Land Trust and the Potter Valley Tribe, in partnership with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, announced that they have permanently conserved 879 acres of land in the Eel River watershed, just northeast of the town of Potter Valley.
In accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated by the California Public Utilities Commission in PG&E’s 2003 bankruptcy settlement agreement, these lands have been donated to the Potter Valley Tribe and a conservation easement over those lands has been conveyed to Mendocino Land Trust, in order to protect and enhance the beneficial public values of the site, in perpetuity.
Together, the Potter Valley Tribe and Mendocino Land Trust will protect the conservation values present on these properties, including fish and wildlife habitat, open space, public view-shed, forest ecosystems, historic and cultural values and public access.
This land constitutes a significant portion of Potter Valley Tribe’s aboriginal territory. As the historic inhabitants, stewards and now owners of these parcels, the tribe looks forward to enhancing existing resources, opening certain areas up for ceremonial and cultural activities, enhancing fishery resources, expanding environmental education programs, and participating in future recreational development opportunities.
The Potter Valley Tribe has been working towards this outcome for over a decade.
“On July 24, after nearly twelve years of diligent effort, the Potter Valley Tribe will receive a donation of over 800 acres from PG&E,” said Salvador Rosales, chairman of the Potter Valley Tribe. “The return of the land from PG&E to the Potter Valley Tribe was not an easy process, but will result in the beneficial public values of the land being protected in perpetuity. We are grateful for the Stewardship Council’s effort to restore ancestral land to the Tribe and the CPUC for approving this very important transaction.”
Mendocino Land Trust has been a leader in land conservation, stewardship and habitat restoration in Mendocino County for more than 40 years. Well known for its extensive network of coastal beaches and public access trails, Mendocino Land Trust also engages in conservation projects countywide. Since 1976, Mendocino Land Trust has worked with willing landowners to protect more than 14,000 acres of forests, wildlife habitat and agricultural lands in Mendocino County.
“Mendocino Land Trust is proud to have been selected by the Stewardship Council to hold these conservation easements for the Potter Valley Tribe. It has been a lengthy process but we feel that we have built a great working relationship with all involved and are happy to see this process to its conclusion. The benefits of watershed conservation and restoration extend to everyone in the county and beyond,” said Ann Cole, executive director of Mendocino Land Trust.
The Alder Creek property. Photo courtesy of the Mendocino Land Trust.
