UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Officials on Monday continued their efforts to locate a young Northshore woman who went missing last week.

The search remains under way for 23-year-old Kimberly Marie Hazelwood of Nice.

Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Lake County Search and Rescue was performing a search in the Upper Lake area on Monday, with assistance from K-Corps, Willits Fire Swift Water Rescue Team and California Department of Fish and Game.

Brooks said a California Highway Patrol helicopter also was to assist with the search Monday afternoon.

Hazelwood, who has been undergoing cancer treatment, was last seen on the night of Dec. 23 when she left a home in the 10000 block of Rancheria Road near Upper Lake, according to an initial sheriff’s office report issued last week. She was reported missing after 9 p.m. that night.

A short time before deputies were dispatched to the Rancheria Road residence, fire officials responded to a report of a person who was in Middle Creek near the 9100 block of Bridge Arbor Road, about two miles south of where Hazelwood was last seen. Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said they were unable to locate anyone.

Hazelwood is 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 160 pounds, has brown eyes and long brown hair.

Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690, or her family at 707-245-2772, 707-900-1401 or 707-900-1946.
 
John Jensen contributed to this report.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The new year is expected to arrive with frosty temperatures, according to the National Weather Service.

The forecast for the coming week includes patchy nighttime and early morning frosts, with light winds and highs in the mid 50s.

Monday is forecast to have winds up to 15 miles per hour with mostly sunny conditions and daytime highs up to 56 degrees, with lows down to 26 degrees, according to the forecast.

Similar frost and temperature conditions are expected on New Year’s Day and night, as well as on Wednesday. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 30s on Wednesday night.

On Thursday, the forecast calls for mostly cloudy conditions with a chance of rain during the day and evening. Daytime highs will range up to 53, with nighttime lows down to 32 degrees.

Cloud conditions and chances of rain also are predicted from Friday through next Sunday, with daytime temperatures in the mid 50s and nighttime lows down to 32 degrees.

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

In a discovery that raises further concerns about the future contribution of Antarctica to sea level rise, a new study finds that the western part of the continent’s ice sheet is experiencing nearly twice as much warming as previously thought.

The temperature record from Byrd Station, a scientific outpost in the center of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), demonstrates a marked increase of 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) in average annual temperature since 1958.

The rate of increase is three times faster than the average temperature rise around the globe for the same period.

The study will is published in the journal Nature Geoscience. It was conducted by scientists at Ohio State University (OSU), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with funding coming from the National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor.

“Our results indicate that temperature increases during the past half century have been almost twice what we previously thought, placing West Antarctica among the fastest warming regions on Earth,” said NCAR scientist Andrew Monaghan, a co-author. “A growing body of research shows that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is changing at an alarming rate, with pressure coming from both a warming ocean and a warming atmosphere.”

This study reveals warming trends during the summer months of the Southern Hemisphere (December through February), notes co-author David Bromwich, professor of geography at OSU and senior research scientist at the Byrd Polar Research Center.

“Our record suggests that continued summer warming in West Antarctica could upset the surface mass balance of the ice sheet, so that the region could make an even bigger contribution to sea level rise than it already does,” Bromwich said. “Even without generating significant mass loss directly, surface melting on the WAIS could contribute to sea level indirectly by weakening the West Antarctic ice shelves that restrain the region’s natural ice flow into the ocean.”

Researchers consider the WAIS especially sensitive to climate change because the base of the ice sheet rests below sea level, making it vulnerable to direct contact with warm ocean water.

Its melting currently contributes 0.3 millimeters to sea level rise each year. This is second only to Greenland, whose contribution to sea level rise has been estimated as high as 0.7 mm per year.

Due to its location some 700 miles from the South Pole and near the center of the WAIS, conditions at Byrd Station are an important indicator of climate change throughout the region.

In the past, researchers haven’t been able to make much use of the Byrd Station measurements because of incomplete temperature observations.

Since its establishment in 1957, the station has not been occupied continuously. A year-round automated station was installed in 1980, but it has experienced frequent power outages, especially during the long polar night when its solar panels can’t recharge.

Monaghan and Bromwich realized the extent of the data gaps when they previously reconstructed the Antarctic-wide temperature record over the past half-century using station records from around the continent.

When the reconstruction was published in a 2008 paper, they noted that the incomplete Byrd record caused substantial uncertainty in their results.

The two scientists, working with colleagues at OSU and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, filled in the data gaps by using a powerful computer model of the atmosphere and a numerical analysis method.

In addition to offering a more complete picture of warming in West Antarctica, the new study shows for the first time that significant melt is occurring during summer.

Monaghan said the summertime warmth is particularly troubling because that is the season in which enhanced surface melting could most affect the WAIS and potentially weaken the ice shelves that buttress it.

“We’ve already seen enhanced surface melting contribute to the breakup of the Antarctic’s Larsen B ice shelf, where glaciers at the edge discharged massive sections of ice into the ocean that contributed to sea level rise,” he said. “The stakes would be much higher if a similar event occurred to an ice shelf restraining one of the enormous WAIS glaciers.”

“West Antarctica is one of the most rapidly changing regions on Earth, but it is also one of the least known,” said Bromwich. “Our study underscores the need for a reliable network of meteorological observations throughout West Antarctica, so that we can know what is happening – and why – with more certainty.”

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Cal Fire veteran has been tapped as the new chief of the agency’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit.

Eric Hoffman, 51, who just finished his 30th firefighting season with Cal Fire, will start the new year in the unit chief’s position after serving since 2009 as chief of the unit’s west division, which covers Sonoma County.

If Hoffman’s name is familiar to Lake County readers, that’s because he spent time in the county this past summer as incident commander on the Wye and Walker fires, and the Scotts fire.

In his new role as unit chief, he will oversee four divisions – the north, which covers Lake County; the south, covering Napa County; the east, which includes Solano, Yolo and Colusa counties; and the west, the biggest division of the four, which covers Sonoma County, he explained.

The unit covers a total of six counties and, geographically, is the largest State Responsibility Area in California, Hoffman said.

The Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit covers 10,000 square miles – or just over 2.1 million acres – and includes 20 state stations, 31 engines, 11 crews, five bulldozers, a helitack base at Boggs Mountain and an air attack base in Sonoma County, and 250 personnel, according to Hoffman.

“It’s huge,” Hoffman said.

The unit’s staffing increases in the summertime firefighting season, when Hoffman said personnel numbers top 400.

Yet, as big as it is, it runs well.

“The good news is, I’m not inheriting anything broken,” said Hoffman,

Since he started with Cal Fire in 1983, Hoffman has seen numerous changes in firefighting and how Cal Fire itself works.

One of the big changes has to do with training, he said.

When he began firefighting in his early 20s, Hoffman said it sounded like fun work. Back then, a young firefighter would get a week’s worth of training before they were assigned to an engine and setting out on the fire lines.

Firefighters today undergo far more intensive training, with Hoffman explaining that their level of professionalism has increased.

A firefighter now must have a minimum of 180 hours of training before they’re placed on an engine, said Hoffman, adding that most firefighters starting work now have “a pile of certificates” that he said is bigger than those he amassed.

Firefighters now are coming into the agency trained, educated and ready – they are certified in hazmat and as emergency medical technicians, and they’ve completed a six-month academy to receive a firefighter level one certificate.

“We give them the wildland experience,” said Hoffman.

In his time with Cal Fire, the other big change Hoffman has seen is in the area of technology and how it has affected firefighting.

Hoffman said firefighters used to draw topographical maps on fire scenes with grease pencils. Now they rely on high speed Internet for both mapping and weather data.

“The technology behind the scenes is incredible,” he said.

On some big Southern California fires they’ve used military and NASA drones to help map the fires. More commonly, they use helicopters with a GPS mapping program and infrared capability to fine tune perimeters.

Hoffman, acting as incident commander on the Wye and Scotts fires this summer, said those incidents illustrated how the California fire service works.

The cooperation between state and local agencies was seamless, he said.

Cal Fire had been short on resources at the time, but was able to get local government strike teams through its relationship with the California Emergency Management Agency, he said.

“Although there was a lot of fire, it worked pretty well,” he said.

With the Scotts and Wye fires within Lake County’s boundaries, as well as the nearby 16 and Sites fires in Colusa County, and the Mill Fire in the Mendocino National Forest, “Lake County just seemed to be at the eye of the storm this summer,” Hoffman said.

Altogether, all of those fires inside and outside of Lake County’s boundaries burned approximately 64,183 acres.

The Walker and Wye fires – managed as the Wye Fire incident – hit in the second week of August, spreading rapidly to thousands of acres, burning at least one residence as well as outbuildings before being fully contained at 7,934 acres.

The damage could have been worse, but Hoffman said Cal Fire was able to focus its efforts on hitting the fire from the air and keeping it out of New Long Valley.

Hoffman said a cause still hasn’t been determined for the Wye incident.

Less than a month later, the Scotts Fire hit west of Scotts Valley Road, burning a total of 4,618 acres. “The Scotts Fire was really challenging, just because it stayed there above Scotts Valley Road and kinda hung there,” he said.

The cause of the Scotts Fire also hasn’t been determined, Hoffman said.

A factor in the summer’s fires were the dry conditions. Hoffman said there were record levels of dryness in fuels – or vegetation – as well as a dry spring. “And we’re not in a prolonged drought.”

The first 20 days of the fire season was normal, and overall it wasn’t the fire season with the most acres burned. But Hoffman said firefighters were busy for a prolonged period of time, with 50 days of resource drawdown. That equaled many exhausted firefighters.

Beyond busy fire seasons, Hoffman will be occupied with longterm planning for the unit and its future leadership.

One of his areas of concentration will be on establishing the next generation of first level company officers for the unit.

There are a lot of people to hire. In the coming year, he said they will need to hire between five and seven battalion chiefs and a new division chief to succeed him.

“It’s a constant effort for success and planning,” Hoffman 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.

Average premiums for employer-sponsored family health insurance plans rose 62 percent between 2003 and 2011, from $9,249 to $15,022 per year, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report.

The report, which tracks state trends in employer health insurance coverage, finds that health insurance costs rose far faster than incomes in all states.

Workers are also paying more out-of-pocket as employee payments for their share of health insurance premiums rose by 74 percent on average and deductibles more than doubled, up 117 percent between 2003 and 2011.

The report, State Trends in Premiums and Deductibles, 2003-2011: Eroding Protection and Rising Costs Underscore Need for Action, finds that total health insurance premiums now amount to 20 percent or more of annual median family incomes in 35 states, affecting 80 percent of the U.S. working-age population.

States in the South and South-Central U.S. had the highest costs relative to household income – in West Virginia, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas, average total health insurance premiums amounted to more than 25 percent of median incomes.

“Wherever you live in the United States, health insurance is expensive, and for many middle- as well as low-income families it is becoming ever less affordable,” said Commonwealth Fund senior vice president Cathy Schoen, lead author of the report. “Workers are paying more for less financial protection when they get sick. The steady increase in health care costs over the past decade underscores the urgent need to build on the groundwork laid by the Affordable Care Act to slow the growth in private insurance costs.”

In 2011, average annual premiums for family plans ranged from about $12,400 to $13,500 in the lowest-cost states (Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, Tennessee, Idaho, Mississippi, Utah, and North Dakota), to more than $15,000 a year in 21 states.

Premiums averaged from $16,000 to nearly $17,000 in Delaware, Alaska, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, the District of Columbia, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, which have the highest average family premiums.

Paying more for less

Premiums rose far faster than incomes across the country from 2003 to 2011. While average family premiums jumped 62 percent during that time, median family income rose just about 11 percent.

The increase in premiums ranged from 42 percent in the lowest-growth state, Tennessee, to 76 percent in the highest-growth state, New York. Twenty-seven states had increases of 60 percent or more.

The report finds that deductibles and employees’ premium shares grew, leaving employees with more out-of-pocket expenses and less protective health insurance benefits.

The average annual amount an employee paid toward a family health insurance plan rose from $2,283 in 2003 to $3,962 in 2011 – a 74 percent increase.

Looking state-by-state, employee contributions ranged from about $3,300 in Indiana, Hawaii, West Virginia, Ohio, and Wisconsin, to more than $4,600 in Arizona, South Carolina, New Mexico, Colorado, and Mississippi.

Deductibles more than doubled from 2003 to 2011, increasing an average of 117 percent per person during the eight years the report studied.

In 2011, 78 percent of workers faced deductibles, up from 52 percent in 2003. In 2011 average deductibles exceeded $1,000 in 35 states, compared to none in 2003. Deductibles have been rising for employees working for large as well as small firms.

However, workers in small firms with fewer than 50 employees typically face higher deductibles than those working for larger firms.

Deductibles in small firms were highest in North Carolina, Texas, and Vermont, exceeding $2,200 per person.

Future trends: Affordable Care Act provides platform for further action

If historical trends continue, family premiums will reach $24,740 by 2020, an increase of 65 percent from 2011.

The analysis also shows that slowing the rate even modestly would make a significant difference for families and businesses.

For example, reducing the annual growth rate by one percentage point would lead to $2,029 in savings for families by 2020. Slowing annual cost growth by 1.5 percent would yield savings of $2,986 per family.

The report’s authors note that the Affordable Care Act lays the groundwork for lowering cost growth and improving and expanding insurance coverage. The law’s provisions put pressure on private insurance plans to lower their overhead and focus on the underlying costs of health care, setting standards for how much of each premium dollar must go to health care, as opposed to administrative costs, with insurers who don’t meet the new standard paying rebates to policyholders.

Other reforms provide private insurers with a platform for further cost-reduction efforts. The authors conclude, however, that more will need to be done to confront the forces driving up the cost of care in private insurance markets.

“The Affordable Care Act has put the United States on a path toward a high performing health care system, where everyone has access to high-quality, affordable, and secure health care,” said Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis. “As we implement the law’s reforms, it will be crucial to stabilize cost growth by holding care systems and private insurers accountable for better outcomes and lower costs.”

Of the three telescopes carried by NASA’s Swift satellite, only one captures cosmic light at energies similar to those seen by the human eye.

Although small by the standards of ground-based observatories, Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) plays a critical role in rapidly pinpointing the locations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the brightest explosions in the cosmos.

But as the proxy to the human eye aboard Swift, the UVOT takes some amazing pictures. The Swift team is celebrating eight years of UVOT operations by collecting more than 100 of the instrument’s best snapshots in a web-based photo gallery.

The images also can be viewed with the free Swift Explorer Mission iPhone app developed by the Swift Mission Operations Center (MOC), which is located in State College, Pa., and operated by Penn State.

Swift has detected an average of about 90 GRBs a year since its launch in 2004.

“When we aren’t studying GRBs, we use the satellite’s unique capabilities to engage in other scientific investigations, some of which produce beautiful images from the UVOT that we’re delighted to be able to share with the public,” said Michael Siegel, the lead scientist on the UVOT and a research associate in astronomy and astrophysics at the MOC.

The targets range from comets and star clusters to supernova remnants, nearby galaxies and active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes.

“One of our more challenging projects in the past was completing an ultraviolet mosaic of M31, the famous Andromeda galaxy,” said Stefan Immler, a member of the Swift team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “Because the galaxy is so much larger than the UVOT field of view, we had to take dozens of pictures and blend them together to show the whole object.”

An ongoing mosaic project targets the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two small satellite galaxies orbiting our own, and makes the Andromeda effort look like child’s play.

Although the galaxies are much smaller than M31, they are both much closer to us and extend over much larger areas of the sky. The task involves acquiring and aligning hundreds of images and is far from complete.        

With the UVOT’s wavelength range of 1,700 to 6,000 angstroms, Swift remains one of few missions that study ultraviolet light, much of which is blocked by Earth’s atmosphere.

The 6.5-foot-long (2 meter) UVOT is centered on an 11.8-inch (30 cm) primary mirror. Designed and built by the Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Surrey, England, the telescope module includes the primary and secondary mirrors, an external baffle to reduce scattered light, two redundant detectors – only one has been used to date – and a power supply.

Each detector lies behind an identical filter wheel. The wheel holds color filters that transmit a broad range of wavelengths as well as devices called grisms, which spread out incoming light in much the same way as a prism spreads sunlight into a rainbow of component colors.

The detectors retain information on the position and arrival time of each photon of light, an operating mode similar to typical X-ray telescopes.

Because most ultraviolet light never reaches the ground, Swift’s UVOT provides a unique perspective on the cosmos.

For example, it can measure the amount of water produced in passing comets by detecting the ultraviolet emission of hydroxyl (OH), one of the molecular fragments created when ultraviolet sunlight breaks up water molecules.

Other types of UVOT science include exploring emissions from the centers of active galaxies, studying regions undergoing star formation, and identifying some of the rarest and most exotic stars known.

Toward the end of its energy-producing life, a star like the sun will blow away its outer layers as its core transforms into a compact, Earth-sized remnant known as a white dwarf.

This chapter of stellar evolution, known to astronomers as the post-asymptotic giant branch phase, lasts only about 100,000 years – just an eye-blink in comparison to the star’s total lifetime. To better understand the process, astronomers need to study large numbers of these unusual stars.

“The UVOT’s capabilities give us a great tool for surveying stellar populations and cataloging rare types of ultraviolet-bright stars,” Siegel explained.

One of the first targets for the stellar survey was the giant cluster Omega Centauri, which hosts millions of stars and may be the remains of a small galaxy.

Thanks to Swift’s UVOT, astronomers at Goddard and Penn State have cataloged hundreds of rare stellar types in the cluster and are now comparing their properties and numbers to predictions from theoretical models describing how stars evolve.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The year 2012 was a very busy one at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum.

Docents greeted visitors each weekend day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The docent pool continued to grow and now includes people of many diverse talents. We have woodworkers, seamstresses, floral arrangers, bakers, computer geeks, historians and barn builders, to name just a few. Displays change as new acquisitions are received.

In April, Congressman Mike Thompson visited the museum as part of his Lake County tour. He saw firsthand how all involved with the museum have contributed to preserving a part of Lake County history.

Fulfilling a promise made during that visit he returned to the museum on Oct. 15 to present a United Sates flag that was flown over the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

The museum has become a destination for social and educational events.

On separate Saturdays in May the museum welcomed the Lake County Model A Club and a science and museum camp put on by the Lake County Children’s Museum of Art and Science.

In June the Lake County Historical Society held its annual picnic on the grounds giving members and guests a special opportunity to learn about the county’s colorful history of highwaymen as well as history of the Ely Stage Stop itself.

At the 2011 Lake County Wine Alliance Auction, a Wildhurst Winemaker Dinner using the stage stop as its setting was purchased as a silent auction item. That dinner was held at the Stage Stop on July 22 and proved a huge success.

Partnering with the community took hold this year in three forms. One was with the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club as they took the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum on as one of their newest civic beautification projects.

Phase one has been completed with the construction, installation and planting of four beautiful planter boxes just off the museum porch. This project will benefit the community for many generations.

A second partnering was with this year’s 20th Anniversary of the Kelseyville Pear Festival inside the Pear Pavilion. The museum’s authentic stagecoach was on display and docents were available during the day to answer questions about the stage stop and museum facilities and plans for the future.

The third partnering was with Wildhurst Vineyards as a Fall Farm to Table Winemaker Dinner was presented on Oct. 20 as a benefit for the stage coach which was on display for the diners.

And let’s not forget our latest news – our long-awaited barn raising has begun.

Over the weekends since Aug. 18, weather permitting, volunteers have met at the museum site to begin the first display barn.

The 2,000-square-foot barn will house many of the Lake County Historical Society’s artifacts. The Carpenter’s Star quilt patch, donated anonymously through the Lake County Quilt Trail Project, will grace the side of the completed barn.

Come share the excitement as 2013 beings.

The museum is located at 9921 Soda Bay Road (Highway 281) in Kelseyville near the Clear Lake Riviera.

Current hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday.

Linda Drake is a docent at the Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum in Kelseyville, Calif.

LUCERNE, Calif. – A water heater fire damaged a Lucerne home on Saturday night.

The fire, reported at about 6 p.m. Saturday, occurred in a singlewide mobile home in the 6400 block of 10th Avenue.

When Northshore Fire Protection District firefighters first arrived they reported seeing light smoke.

However, once they established there was an active fire at work, additional resources were called in from around the district, with Chief Jay Beristianos and Deputy Chief Pat Brown also responding.

Brown said the fire started in the water heater, then went under the home before running up into the attic.

Smoke was billowing out from under a secondary roof that had been built on the trailer. Firefighters had to use chainsaws and other tools to cut through that second roof roof in order to access the fire.

The home’s resident evacuated and was unhurt. Brown said Red Cross had been contacted to provide temporary housing.

Brown estimated damage in the range of around $20,000.

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Several adult cats and a kitten are waiting at the county’s animal shelter for adoption.

The cats, ranging in age from 10 weeks to 7 years, are ready to start out the new year in loving, forever homes.

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

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

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

Male orange tabby

This male orange tabby is 6 years old.

He has green eyes, a short orange coat and weighs 10 pounds. He has been neutered.

Find him in cat room kennel No. 9, ID No. 35111.

Male brown tabby

This male brown tabby is of undetermined age.

He has green eyes and a short coat. Shelter staff didn’t report if he had been altered.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 42, ID No. 35146.

Brown female tabby kitten

This little brown tabby is 10 weeks old.

She has green eyes, a short brown striped coat, weighs 2 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 46c, ID No. 35102.

Domestic short hair mix

This male domestic short hair mix is of undetermined age.

He has seal point coloring and blue eyes. Staff did not report if he was altered or not.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 63, ID No. 35131.

Female domestic short hair mix

This female domestic short hair mix is 2 years old.

She has green eyes and a short gray tabby coat, and weighs 9 pounds. She has been spayed.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 88, ID No. 34940.

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

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

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

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

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

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

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

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

LAKEPORT, Calif. – As the year winds down, the county’s animal shelter has another interesting variety of pooches awaiting homes.

Poodles, and mixes of American Bulldog, German Shepherd, Rottweiler and beagle are ready for adoption.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

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

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

American bulldog mix puppy

This male American Bulldog puppy is 11 weeks old.

He weighs 14 pounds, has a short white and brown spotted coat and has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 35087.

Male German Shepherd mix

This male German Shepherd mix is 4 years old.

He has a short black and tan coat, erect ears and has not been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 14, ID No. 35152.

Mini poodle mix

This miniature poodle mix is 8 months old.

She has a long white and apricot coat. Shelter staff did not report if she was altered.

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 35143.

Labrador Retriever-shepherd mix

This male Labrador Retriever-shepherd mix is 8 months old.

He has a short black coat, weighs nearly 32 pounds and has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 35108.

Beagle-hound mix

This female beagle-hound mix is 5 months old.

She has a short tan coat, weighs 27 pounds and has been spayed.

You can find her in kennel No. 29, ID No. 35118.

Jack Russell Terrier mix

This female Jack Russell Terrier mix is a year and a half old.

She has a short black and white coat, weighs 18 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 34766.

Male Rottweiler mix

This male Rottweiler mix is 4 months old.

He has a short black and tan coat, and is of medium size. It was not reported if he was altered.

Find him in kennel No. 34, ID No. 35136.

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

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

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

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

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

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

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Three men federal officials arrested earlier this month in connection with a series of local home invasion robberies are scheduled to appear for their preliminary hearings and arraignments early in January.

Eric Van Mendonca, 42, a former Lake County Sheriff’s deputy, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at his Middletown home on Dec. 19, along with Terry Jacksen, 46, who lived on Mendonca’s rental property and 54-year-old Hidden Valley Lake resident Jack David Pollack, as Lake County News has reported.

The case against them alleges that they participated in a series of home invasion robberies in and around Lake County.

Dressed in Lake County Sheriff’s uniforms, the men targeted and robbed marijuana grows, the FBI alleged in its complaint against them.

They made brief court appearances last week in San Francisco federal court and returned to court this week for additional proceedings, according to court documents.

Mendonca is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce, and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison as well as a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley signed an order on Monday setting conditions for Mendonca’s release. He was released after posting $50,000 bond secured by property, case documents showed.

His preliminary hearing has been set for 9:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 7, in San Francisco before Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler, according to the court calendar.

Jacksen is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and Pollack is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

While Mendonca was released, court records showed that both Jacksen and Pollack remain in federal custody, with their preliminary hearings and arraignments also set for Jan. 7 before Magistrate Judge Beeler.

If convicted, Jacksen could receive as much as 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, with Pollack facing a maximum 20-year prison sentence and $1 million fine if he’s found guilty.

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