LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – When you visit the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter in Lakeport, you never know what kinds of dogs you might find.

This week they have mixes of beagles, pugs, Labrador Retrievers, terriers, Chihuahuas and Shar Pei.

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

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

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

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

'Chocolate'

“Chocolate” is a 1-year-old beagle-fox terrier mix.

He has a short brown and white spotted coat, weighs 31 pounds and has been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 3, ID No. 39610.

Beagle-pug mix

This female beagle-pug mix is of undetermined age.

She weighs 32 pounds, has a curly white and brown coat, and has been spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 6, ID No. 39493.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 3 years old.

He has a short black coat and weighs 10 pounds, and has been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 7a, ID No. ID: 39318.

Female Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix is 8 years old.

She has a short tan coat and weighs 12 pounds, and has beens spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 7b, ID No. 39319.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix is 9 months old.

He has green eyes, a short brown brindle and white coat, weighs 38 pounds and has not been neutered.

Shelter staff said he is good with other dogs, is well-mannered for a pup and eager to learn.

He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 39269.

'Midnight'

“Midnight” is a 6-year-old male Labrador Retriever mix.

He has a short black coat, weighs 62 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 9, ID No. 39579.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 2 years old.

He has a short coat and brown eyes, and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 10, ID No. 39500.

Female pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 6 months old.

She has a short brown brindle coat and brown eyes. Shelter staff did not report if she has been altered.

She's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 39592.

Labrador Retriever-Shar Pei mix

This male Labrador Retriever-Shar Pei is 6 months old.

He has a short black coat and brown eyes. Shelter staff did not report if he has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 12, ID No. 39540.

Pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 16 weeks old.

She has cropped ears, a short brown and white coat, and weighs 22 pounds. She has been spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 13, ID No. 39400.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix is 1 year old.

He weighs 45 pounds, has a short black and white coat, and has not been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 14, ID No. 39608.

'Palermo'

'Palermo' is a 1-year-old beagle-fox terrier mix.

He has a short brown and white spotted coat, weighs 22 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 15, ID No. 39611.

Beagle-fox terrier mix

This female beagle-fox terrier mix is 6 months old.

She has a short brown and white spotted coat, weighs 13 pounds and has been spayed.

She's in kennel No. 24b, ID No. 39613.

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.

LUCERNE, Calif. – As it prepares to open its doors this fall to its first group of undergraduate and graduate students, Marymount California University’s Lakeside Campus is already busy offering educational opportunities for community members.

The campus concluded its first continuing education course April 21. The course, “Fundamentals of Speech,” focused on communication skills, public speaking, organization of ideas, critical thinking, and audience adaptability.  

The students met off-site as construction continues at the new campus, the former Lucerne Hotel. Graduates of the course were excited and pleased to have been part of the “pioneering class” of the new Lakeside Campus, made possible by a partnership between the county of Lake and Marymount California University.

“I believe the subject matter was very appropriate to my work duties, especially in regard to presenting Compliance and Quality Improvement information, both at the departmental level and when representing the County at regional and state meetings,” said Marta Ford, senior staff services analyst, compliance and quality improvement coordinator for the Lake County Behavioral Health Department.

Sandy Davis, an employee with the Lake County Department of Social Services, also attended the class.

“I feel truly honored to have been one of the first to attend Marymount California University. It far exceeded my expectations,” said Davis. “It was an exceptionally positive experience and I cannot thank all of you who pulled this together enough. The vision is commendable. I am excited about the impact that MCU is going to have on Lake County. Being a long time Lake County resident I have to say that this is one of the most exciting milestones in its history since I’ve been here.”

The county and Marymount California University continue to work in partnership towards the realization of the shared vision of creating a first-class educational facility complete with full-spectrum technology, allowing for a myriad of educational and conference capabilities.

Beginning this August Marymount California University’s Lakeside Campus will offer bachelor’s degree completion in business, psychology, and liberal arts (with business and psychology emphases) as well as master’s degree programs in community psychology, leadership and global development, and business (MBA).

Students expressed their appreciation for the opportunity and the instruction of Jerry Stuefloeten. Stuefloeten emphasized helping students become effective and caring public speakers.

“He encouraged us and provided us with valuable feedback,” Ford said.

The students concluded their course with a mini-tour of the campus conducted by Executive Director Michelle Scully.

“What a perfect location and building for such a vision,” said Davis. “I can envision the halls bustling with excited students on their journey to higher knowledge. I also envision myself being one of those students. This is such an exceptional opportunity for this county I am in awe, overwhelmed with hope for the future. I will definitely encourage my co-workers, friends, strangers, everyone I have an opportunity to speak with regarding education to attend MCU. It has been a terrific experience.”

Marymount California University will have new offerings beginning in fall 2014 when the inaugural classes of degree-completion students start their fall semester.

For more information on programs and offerings please contact Enrollment Coordinator Sharon Maher at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Feb. 21 of this year, 6-year-old Ellie Swanson, a rare little girl, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.

Its clinical name is ganglioneuroblastoma, and it develops from nerve cells.

Ellie is among the five children out of one million children each year that experts say are stricken with the condition.

On Saturday, May 3, the city of Clearlake where the Swanson family lives and people from throughout Lake County will have an opportunity to come to her aid in a fundraising dinner at the Clearlake Senior Community Center at 3245 Bowers Ave.

Funds from the dinner, which will include a silent and live auction will help pay the costs of four rounds of chemotherapy for Ellie.

The dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. Doors open a half-hour earlier. Costs are $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12 years old.

Melissa Swanson, Ellie’s mother, said she was told by doctors that her daughter’s condition is usually diagnosed in newborn to 2-year-old infants.

“Her doctor told me Ellie probably contracted it right after she was born and has been there all along,” said Melissa, who is the clerk for the city of Clearlake.

Ellie’s cancerous tumor was discovered in her left lung during an examination for what was thought to be a severe cold and possibly pneumonia.

The tumor was is 10 millimeters, or about the size of two adult male fists.

Since the diagnosis, Ellie’s parents, Thomas and Melissa, have needed to ensure that she doesn’t exert herself, because she quickly runs out of breath as a result of the tumor.

Otherwise, said Melissa, “Ellie is a little ball of sunshine, wonderment and energy,” who loves to play with her 18-year-old brother Christopher, who is a freshman at the University of Hawaii.

Tommy, a second brother, is a 13-year freshman at Lower Lake High School.

“Ellie is very smart,” Melissa added. “She is a first-grader who reads at a fourth-grade level. Her teacher is amazed at how quickly she learns and takes on projects that are higher than her grade level.”

The Swanson family lives in the Pomo Elementary School District, but at present Ellie is being taught at home.

The cost for treating Ellie, Melissa says, is in the seven-figure range.

“If we didn’t have insurance,” she added, “we would be in debt for hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Anyone who would like to contribute to the Swanson Family Benefit Fund in behalf of Ellie or learn more about her may obtain additional information by logging on to http://www.gofundme.com/Team-Ellie .

Email John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

In the movies, humans often fear invaders from Mars. These days, scientists are more concerned about invaders to Mars, in the form of micro-organisms from Earth.

Three recent scientific papers examined the risks of interplanetary exchange of organisms using research from the International Space Station.

All three, “Survival of Rock-Colonizing Organisms After 1.5 Years in Outer Space,” “Resistance of Bacterial Endospores to Outer Space for Planetary Protection Purposes” and “Survival of Bacillus Pumilus Spores for a Prolonged Period of Time in Real Space Conditions,” have appeared in Astrobiology Journal.

Organisms hitching a ride on a spacecraft have the potential to contaminate other celestial bodies, making it difficult for scientists to determine whether a life form existed on another planet or was introduced there by explorers. So it’s important to know what types of micro-organisms from Earth can survive on a spacecraft or landing vehicle.

Currently, spacecraft landing on Mars or other planets where life might exist must meet requirements for a maximum allowable level of microbial life, or bioburden. These acceptable levels were based on studies of how various life forms survive exposure to the rigors associated with space travel.

“If you are able to reduce the numbers to acceptable levels, a proxy for cleanliness, the assumption is that the life forms will not survive under harsh space conditions,” explained Kasthuri J. Venkateswaran, a researcher with the Biotechnology and Planetary Protection Group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a co-author on all three papers.

That assumption may not hold up, though, as recent research has shown that some microbes are hardier than expected, and others may use various protective mechanisms to survive interplanetary flights.

Spore-forming bacteria are of particular concern because spores can withstand certain sterilization procedures and may best be able to survive the harsh environments of outer space or planetary surfaces.

Spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 have shown especially high resistance to techniques used to clean spacecraft, such as ultraviolet (UV) radiation and peroxide treatment.

When researchers exposed this hardy organism to a simulated Mars environment that kills standard spores in 30 seconds, it survived 30 minutes.

For one of the recent experiments, Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 spores were exposed for 18 months on the European Technology Exposure Facility (EuTEF), a test facility mounted outside the space station.

“After testing exposure to the simulated Mars environment, we wanted to see what would happen in real space, and EuTEF gave us the chance,” says Venkateswaran. “To our surprise, some of the spores survived for 18 months.” These surviving spores had higher concentrations of proteins associated with UV radiation resistance and, in fact, showed elevated UV resistance when revived and re-exposed on Earth.  

The findings also provide insight into how robust microbial communities are able to survive in extremely hostile regions on Earth and how these microbes are affected by radiation.

In another investigation, spores of Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 and another spore-forming bacteria, Bacillus subtilis 168, were dried on pieces of spacecraft-quality aluminum and subjected for 1.5 years to the vacuum of space, cosmic and extraterrestrial solar radiation and temperature fluctuations on EuTEF.

These samples also were subjected to a simulated Martian atmosphere using EuTEF. Most of the organisms exposed to solar UV radiation in space and in the Mars spectrum were killed, but when UV rays were filtered out and samples were kept in the dark, about 50 percent or more of those subjected to other space- and Mars-like conditions survived.

That makes it likely that spores could survive a trip on a spacecraft to Mars if they are sheltered against solar radiation, perhaps in a tiny pocket of the spacecraft surface or underneath a layer of other spores.

The third study placed rock-colonizing cellular organisms in the EuTEF facility for 1.5 years, further testing a theory of how organisms might move from one planet to another, known as lithopanspermia. In this scenario, rocks ejected from a planet by impact with, say, a meteor, carried organisms on their surface through space and then landed on another planet, bringing that life with them.

For this investigation, researchers selected organisms especially adapted to cope with the environmental extremes of their natural habitats on Earth, and found that some are also able to survive in the even more hostile environment of outer space.

Lithopanspermia would require thousands or even millions of years, much longer than the experiment’s duration, but results provide the first evidence of the hardiness of these organisms in space and suggest the possibility that space-traveling rocks could carry life between planets.

Future exploration missions can use the results of these investigations to help find ways to minimize the risk of contaminating another planet.

The findings also will help prevent scientists from incorrectly identifying an organism that hitchhiked on the exploring spacecraft as a native of the planet, when in fact it’s an invader.

That’s a good thing, because no one wants to be responsible for an alien invasion of Mars.

Under California law every person is presumed to be competent to make his or her own personal care decisions unless otherwise determined incompetent by a court.

Nonetheless capacity decisions are made all the time by others that affect one’s rights.

Seniors may be especially concerned about others taking away their decision making rights. So what are these personal care rights?
    
Unless a court order says otherwise, or in the case of a so-called 5150 situation (i.e., someone is either dangerous or gravely disabled), you have the right to make your own health care decisions, even when your agent under an advance health care directive disagrees.

Thus, so long as you communicate your wishes to the medical care providers, they will follow your instructions and not those of either your agent under an advance health care directive or family member.

This may not always turn out to be the best.

Recently, a client of mine told me that when her husband and she were in the hospital’s ER to treat her husband for a concussion, the ER doctor would only listen to her husband, when he said that he did not want a CAT scan; even though she was both his wife and his agent for health care decisions.

A day or so after, when the husband was more lucid, he was incredulous as to why his wife did not assert more authority and insist that he be given a CAT scan.

As I explained, as her husband’s agent under a health care directive, she only had secondary authority to her husband, the principal. He could dismiss her as his agent at any time.

Thus, whenever a principal communicates his or her wishes regarding health care a medical care provider will follow those instructions and will likely disregard any competing instructions given by an agent.

Next, what about the right to determine where you live?

Unless a court order says otherwise, you also have the right to decide where you live and don’t live.

All admissions to a nursing home must be voluntary, unless pursuant to a court order committing someone. That means, any person being placed can overrule their agent’s or family member’s decision to admit them.

Furthermore, once admitted, the person admitted still retains all his or her legal rights, including the right to decide personal care decisions affecting his or her person.

This includes the right to make informed decisions regarding medications, i.e., informed consent.

Legally, only a court appointed conservator exercising court authorized special powers can require someone to take antipsychotic medication against their wishes or without informed consent.

Unfortunately, the informed consent requirement is not always observed in practice. That is, difficult to manage persons – including persons suffering dementia, Alzheimer’s and senility – have been given drugs to restrain their behavior and have been physically forced by nursing home staff to submit to physical hygiene (such as bathing).

Moreover, another right is the right to control one’s visitation, telephone calls, and mail. This right applies to a conserved person unless the court orders differently.

Otherwise, as has tragically happened, a conserved person can be made isolated and become estranged from their close friends and family.

Protecting such fundamental rights and correcting abuses is the subject of proposed legislation AB 2171, The Residential Care Facility Bill of Rights, presently before the State Legislature.

Anyone seeking more information can visit http://www.canhr.org/legislation .

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, California. Fordham can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com .

On Thursday, the final snow survey of the year found more bare ground than snow as California faces another long, hot summer after a near-record dry winter.

The manual and electronic readings recorded the statewide snowpack’s water content – which normally provides about a third of the water for California’s farms and cities – at a mere 18 percent of average for the date.

Just as telling was the April 1 survey that found water content at only 32 percent of average at the time of year it normally is at its peak before it begins to melt into streams and reservoirs with warming weather.

“Anyone who doesn’t think conservation is important should drive up the hill and take a look,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “Coupled with half our normal rainfall and low reservoir storage, our practically nonexistent snowpack reinforces the message that we need to save every drop we can just to meet basic needs.”

Most dramatically, Thursday's electronic readings show a dismal 7 percent of average water content in the northern Sierra snowpack that helps fill the state’s major reservoirs which currently are only half full.

Electronic water content readings for the central and southern Sierra are 24 and 18 percent of normal, respectively.

Snow surveyors from DWR and cooperating agencies manually measure snowpack water content on or about the first of the month from January through May to supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings from remote sensors up and down the mountain ranges.

California’s reservoirs obviously will not be significantly replenished by a melting snowpack this spring and summer.

Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s (SWP) principal reservoir, today is at only 53 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity (65 percent of its historical average for the date).

Shasta Lake north of Redding, California’s and the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) largest reservoir, also is at 53 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity (61 percent of its historical average).

San Luis Reservoir, a critical south-of-Delta reservoir for both the SWP and CVP, is at 47 percent of its 2 million acre-foot capacity (52 percent of average for this time of year).

With most of the wet season already past, it is highly unlikely late-season storms will significantly dampen the effects of the three-year drought on parched farms or communities struggling to provide drinking water.

On Jan. 31, with no relief from the three-year drought in sight, DWR set its allocation of State Water Project (SWP) water at zero.  

The only previous zero allocation was for agriculture in the drought year of 1991, but cities and others that year received 30 percent of requested amounts.

After late season storms, DWR on April 18 increased this year’s allocation to 5 percent of requested SWP amounts. If it stands, this will be the lowest across-the-board allocation in the 54-year history of the SWP.

Collectively, the 29 public agencies that deliver SWP water to more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated agriculture requested 4,172,536 acre-feet of water this calendar year.

The final SWP allocation for calendar year 2013 was 35 percent of the 4.1 million acre-feet requested. In 2012, the final allocation was 65 percent of the requested 4.1 million acre-feet. It was 80 percent in 2011, up dramatically from an initial allocation of 25 percent. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007.

The last 100 percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years because of Delta pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish – was in 2006.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The woman, said Sharon Dawson, was “drop-dead beautiful.”

The photographic portrait Dawson created of her on the wall in her Middletown photographic studio said as much.

Dawson added that the woman is 28 years old and, the last she knew, was headed for Florida to begin working in a position in the arts, and gave her name as Michelle.

It challenged belief that Michelle hadn’t always been so attractive and, in fact, in her younger years was scorned by classmates so severely that she kept a “suicide kit” under her bed and had indeed contemplated dropping dead.

“She has a mix of ethnicity,” Dawson said. “She had the kinky hair of a Middle Easterner. So when her family moved into a white neighborhood when she was 5 years old she learned she was “weird-looking” by society’s standards.

“When she hit school there more kids and more teasing. She was horribly bullied. It got to where she grew her hair to hide her face and be invisible,” Dawson said. “She would hide some place to eat her lunch without being teased or tortured. She developed huge blisters on her face and the kids would say, ’Don’t touch that pencil; the leper girl touched it.

“Every day she would plan her suicide.”

Then, Dawson said, Michelle became involved in a theater and dance group whose participants “didn’t  tease her, talk about her skin condition, her hair or her ethnicity.”

That’s one story that Dawson tells about the individuals she refers to as “Waves” in her year-old “Wave of Hope” project. There are at least 30 more and the list is growing.

Dawson founded the project a year ago in May. It is a traveling exhibition of portraits and personal stories that she plans to place in public places and on a Web site, www.awaveofhope.com .

She plans to launch the program on May 31 on the lawn in front of the Middletown Library.

Her first “Wave” of stories and portraits will consist of 20 Lake County residents.

“I started it because I got pissed off at the ridiculously high suicide rate in Lake County,” said Dawson.

According to the California Department of Public Health's new County Health Status Profiles 2014 report, Lake County is ranked No. 53 out of the state's 58 counties for its high suicide rate.

Since she originated Wave of Hope she has made several discoveries, Dawson added.

One is that most people don’t want to talk about suicide.

And because of the absence of dialog those who do contemplate doing away with themselves erroneously think they are all alone in those thoughts.

And, finally, there are individuals and organizations who are willing to help Wave of  Hope achieve its mission.

“Konocti Lionesses and Six Sigma sponsored us,” said Dawson. “There were more than 100 people who (contributed) $5 to $100 and two $1,000 donations from people who believe that the dialog I’m trying to open matters.”

Dawson also has received some significant in-kind donations.

Imagine, Digital and Classic and Beyond, both of Middletown, helped her with the promotional material for the video and the Web site, and Studio 175, also of Middletown, did all the styling, according to Dawson.

“All this amounted to well over $10,000 if not $20,000. There is no way in hell I could have afforded it on my own,” she said.

“They believe in this. They really do. And they believe in me which gets scary sometimes,” she added. “But I can't stop and deal with my insecurities right now. It's not just me. That’s what people don’t understand. Yes, I conceptualized this. Yes, I created this. And yes, l put the legwork and $5,000 of my own into it. But these people are the ones who are putting their heart and soul out there for the world to see.”

Open communication, Dawson contended, is critical to individuals who have reached a point in their lives when they think they are alone in their misery.

“You get into a bad place where you think that you’re the only person (with a particular depressing problem) so you don’t talk to anybody,” Dawson said. “Maybe you don’t know how to talk about it or maybe you don’t have anybody to talk to and then it grows in your mind.

“If we all knew that we weren’t the only person who went through a hard time it would be better. But the stigma is most people don’t want to talk about it to the rest of the world. It’s alienating.”

Dawson is not a psychiatrist. She is a professional photographer.

“There is no one system and I am not presumptuous enough to think that what we’re doing with Wave of Hope is superior to what a psychiatrist or a counselor could do for people,” she said.

“What I am doing is something that they can’t because they have confidentiality restrictions,” said Dawson. “The people come forward to tell their stories about where they were, what they are now and what they would say to somebody who might be where they were.”

In terms of getting troubled people to understand they are not alone and tell their stories for the benefit of others, Dawson said she is succeeding.

“I want somebody to come up and read that story and say, ‘OK, I’m not the only person who’s felt this way. I don’t have to be ashamed because I lost my house, I don’t have to be ashamed because I was bullied, I don’t have to be ashamed because I suffer from depression, or that I’m on medication for bipolar or when I was 40 I was doing drugs.’

“We need to be done with that. We need to talk out loud.”

To ensure that her mission receives the widest scope of dissemination, Dawson said posters will be at bus stops, on the walls of public places, in bars.

“We’re going to be everywhere that people can get to,” she added.

Central to her project is creating the understanding that individuals who have contemplated suicide cannot be typecast.

“There is no common thread between these people. No economics, no age,” she said, noting her youngest “Wave” is 13 years old. “Almost anybody who’s lost somebody to suicide will tell you they had no idea. I’d say 90 percent say they never saw it coming.

“It doesn’t matter who you are. Everybody goes through hard times.”

Email John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Last month (April 8-11), scientists, government officials, emergency planners and others converged on Boulder, Colorado, for NOAA's Space Weather Workshop – an annual gathering to discuss the perils and probabilities of solar storms.

The current solar cycle is weaker than usual, so you might expect a correspondingly low-key meeting. On the contrary, the halls and meeting rooms were abuzz with excitement about an intense solar storm that narrowly missed Earth.

“If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces,” says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado, who presented a talk entitled The Major Solar Eruptive Event in July 2012: Defining Extreme Space Weather Scenarios.

The close shave happened almost two years ago.

On July 23, 2012, a plasma cloud or “CME” rocketed away from the sun as fast as 3000 km/s, more than four times faster than a typical eruption.

The storm tore through Earth orbit, but fortunately Earth wasn't there. Instead it hit the STEREO-A spacecraft.

Researchers have been analyzing the data ever since, and they have concluded that the storm was one of the strongest in recorded history.

“It might have been stronger than the Carrington Event itself,” said Baker.

The Carrington Event of Sept. 1859 was a series of powerful CMEs that hit Earth head-on, sparking Northern Lights as far south as Tahiti. Intense geomagnetic storms caused global telegraph lines to spark, setting fire to some telegraph offices and disabling the “Victorian Internet.”

A similar storm today could have a catastrophic effect on modern power grids and telecommunication networks.

According to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, the total economic impact could exceed $2 trillion or 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina. Multi-ton transformers fried by such a storm could take years to repair and impact national security.

A recent paper in Nature Communications authored by UC Berkeley space physicist Janet G. Luhmann and former postdoc Ying D. Liu describes what gave the July 2012 storm Carrington-like potency.

For one thing, the CME was actually two CMEs separated by only 10 to 15 minutes. This double storm cloud traveled through a region of space that had been cleared out by another CME only four days earlier. As a result, the CMEs were not decelerated as much as usual by their transit through the interplanetary medium.

Had the eruption occurred just one week earlier, the blast site would have been facing Earth, rather than off to the side, so it was a relatively narrow escape.

When the Carrington Event enveloped Earth in the 19th century, technologies of the day were hardly sensitive to electromagnetic disturbances.  Modern society, on the other hand, is deeply dependent on sun-sensitive technologies such as GPS, satellite communications and the Internet.

“The effect of such a storm on our modern technologies would be tremendous,” said Luhmann.

During informal discussions at the workshop, Nat Gopalswamy of the Goddard Space Flight Center noted that “without NASA's STEREO probes, we might never have known the severity of the 2012 superstorm. This shows the value of having 'space weather buoys' located all around the sun.”

It also highlights the potency of the sun even during so-called “quiet times.” Many observers have noted that the current solar cycle is weak, perhaps the weakest in 100 years. Clearly, even a weak solar cycle can produce a very strong storm.

Says Baker, “We need to be prepared.”

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The Department of Water Resources on Wednesday released a report on groundwater showing that throughout California groundwater resources are at historically low levels.

Directed by Gov. Edmund G Brown Jr.’s emergency drought declaration in January, the report details basins with potential water shortages and gaps in groundwater monitoring.

This report will form the basis for future actions to address current gaps in monitoring and oversight of groundwater resources.

 “Millions of Californians rely on groundwater every day,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “Being good stewards of our groundwater basins is essential for ensuring that we can turn to them during dry years when these resources are critically needed.”

Since spring 2008, groundwater levels have experienced record historical lows in most areas of the state and especially in the northern portion of the San Francisco Bay Hydrologic region, the southern San Joaquin Valley, and also the South Lahontan and South Coast hydrologic regions.

In many areas of the San Joaquin Valley, recent groundwater levels are more than 100 feet below previous historical lows.

Thirty-six alluvial groundwater basins throughout the state have a high degree of groundwater use and reliance may possess greater potential to incur water shortages as a result of drought.

The basins exist in the North Coast, Central Coast, Sacramento River, Tulare Lake and South Coast hydrologic regions.

Key findings of the report include:

• Groundwater levels have decreased in nearly all areas of the state since spring 2013, and more notably since spring 2010.
• The greatest concentration of recently deepened wells is in the fractured bedrock foothill areas of Nevada, Placer and El Dorado counties.
• The Kaweah and Kings sub basins have the greatest numbers of deepened wells in an alluvial groundwater basin.
• Of California’s 515 alluvial groundwater basins, 169 are fully or partially monitored under the California Statewide Groundwater Elevation Monitoring (CASGEM) program as of April 15, 2014.
• Forty of 126 High and Medium priority basins are not monitored under CASGEM as of April 15, 2014. There are significant CASGEM groundwater monitoring data gaps in the Sacramento, San Joaquin River, Tulare Lake, Central Coast, and South Lahontan hydrologic regions.
• Several areas of the state lack a current groundwater management plan that addresses all related requirements of the California Water Code.

The report is available at www.water.ca.gov/waterconditions , and as directed by Gov. Brown’s April 25th Executive Order, DWR will update this report later this year.

The report is a compilation of information available from existing sources, such as DWR’s draft California Water Plan Update 2013, and from existing groundwater monitoring programs.

Presented together, these data provide a compelling picture of the status of California groundwater and groundwater monitoring conditions.

In an average water year, groundwater supports about 40 percent of the state’s urban and agricultural water uses. Reliance on groundwater increases dramatically when drought causes shortages in surface water supplies.

Present dry conditions have exacerbated long-standing management issues in basins having a high reliance on groundwater, highlighting the need for long-term sustainable management of California’s groundwater.

The California Water Action Plan developed by the Natural Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Food and Agriculture identifies improving groundwater management as a key priority.

The plan expresses the governor’s commitment to work with the Legislature and ensure that local agencies have the tools and authority needed for sustainable management of groundwater resources.

The Governor’s 2014-15 budget proposed $618.7 million for funding various actions in the plan, including support for improved groundwater management.

Much of that funding as well as additional funding for drought response and groundwater assistance was accelerated as part of the emergency drought legislation signed by the governor in March.

 “We must work together to control groundwater overdraft to avoid impacts such as land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and migration of poor quality water,” said Director Cowin.

As directed by the January drought emergency declaration, DWR is working to update monitoring of land subsidence in the Central Valley.

DWR has also been working with county agencies to ensure that water well drillers submit required well logs for newly constructed and deepened wells in a timely manner to facilitate tracking of areas that are experiencing drought-related groundwater problems.

Additional groundwater information is available at the DWR Groundwater Information Center at  http://www.water.ca.gov/groundwater/ .

To learn more about the state’s efforts to improve groundwater management, visit www.Groundwater.CA.Gov .

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – The Lake Community Pride Foundation will host the seventh annual Safe House of Lake County Golf Tournament, Dinner & Fundraiser on Saturday, May 17.

The fundraiser will be held at the Hidden Valley Lake Golf Course, 19210 Hartmann Road.

In addition to golfing, the event also will feature a buffet barbecue and silent auction.  

All golfers will check in at noon at the Hidden Valley Lake Golf Course Clubhouse with the plan to tee off at 1 p.m. with a four-person scramble.  

At the time of registration the golfers will be able to purchase mulligans and the opportunity to win some cash on the 11th hole for the “Pot O Gold.”

This year, on hole No. 4, golfers will have the opportunity for the “longest drive,” where a lucky golfer could take home a brand new car.  

At 5 p.m. the event will continue with no host cocktails. The second half of the event will start at 6 p.m. with a dinner, auction and awards.  

The meal this year for the golf event is barbecue ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, potato salad, baked beans and dessert. The meal will be served outside in the barbecue area adjacent to the golf course, with a view not only of the golf course but of 100-year-old oak trees.   

During dinner there will be a live auction. Raffle tickets will be sold during the course of the event for $1 each or six for $5. The silent auction items will be on display in the barbecue area during the event.  

Interested in golfing? For $90, you be given access to the links and a golf cart as well as a dinner ticket. For $45 you can join the rest of the golfers for dinner guest for the second half of the event.

Lake Community Pride Foundation has been providing a safe place for homeless teens in the Clearlake area for the past three years, the Safe House.  

The Safe House provides shelter for up to six teens, not including a counselor who volunteers their time to help keep the house clean, in good order and to ensure that the tenants go to school and and succeed in their endeavors.  

Lake Community Pride Foundation is able to maintain the Safe House through grants and fundraisers.  Recently the foundation was awarded a grant from the Lake County Wine Alliance. The primary fund raiser that  Lake Community Pride Foundation organizes is the golf tournament.  

To sign up for the Safe House fundraiser, go online to www.lakecountysafehouse.org .

For more information please contact Lake Community Pride Foundation President Georgina Lehne at 707-987-7337 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , or Aggie Berry at 707-489-6524.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A vehicle stop conducted Thursday night has resulted in one arrest and the seizure of nearly 8 ounces of methamphetamine.

Jose Eugenio Cabrera, 23, of West Sacramento was arrested following the stop, according to Lt. Steve Brooks.

On Thursday at 11:15 p.m. a patrol deputy noticed a vehicle traveling westbound on Highway 20 in Nice, which had a defective brake light. Brooks said the deputy conducted an enforcement stop of the vehicle, which pulled into the parking lot of the Robinson Casino.

The deputy contacted the driver, who was identified as 25-year-old Tory Patrick Hogan of Nice. While talking to Hogan, the deputy smelled the odor of marijuana emitting from inside the vehicle, Brooks said.

Brooks said the deputy contacted the front passenger, who was identified as Cabrera, and a rear passenger, who was identified as 19-year-old Gregory Lee Symon, both of West Sacramento. The deputy had all three subjects exit the vehicle and step back to his patrol car.

The deputy explained that he could smell marijuana and asked if he would find any illegal drugs inside the vehicle. Cabrera said the only thing inside the vehicle was a small amount of marijuana. The deputy obtained consent to search all three subjects and did not find any weapons or contraband, Brooks said.

Brooks said Cabrera said the vehicle belonged to him and provided the deputy with consent to search the vehicle.

A K-9 unit arrived on scene to assist with the enforcement stop. Brooks said the K-9 deputy deployed his partner to conduct a sniff of the vehicle. The canine provided a positive alert to the area under the front passenger seat, indicating that the odor of a controlled substance was present.

Deputies searched the vehicle and noticed a lock box under the front passenger seat, which was locked. When the deputy searched all three subjects, he remembered that Cabrera was wearing a lanyard around his neck containing keys, Brooks said. He removed the keys from Cabrera and used them to open the box under the seat.

Inside the box, the deputy located two plastic bags containing a large amount of a white crystalline substance which was determined to be methamphetamine, Brooks said. Also inside the box was a glass methamphetamine pipe. A small amount of marijuana was also located inside the vehicle.

Cabrera was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale, transportation of a controlled substance, being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia, according to Brooks.

Brooks said Cabrera was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked. Jail records indicated he remained in custody on Friday, with bail set at $35,000.

Hogan and Symon were released at the scene, Brooks said.

The methamphetamine was later weighed and determined to have a combined gross weight of 7.75 ounces. If sold at the street level, the methamphetamine would be worth approximately $22,000.

The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – For the second year in a row, Lake County's has earned the distinction of having the cleanest air in the United States.

The news comes in the American Lung Association's latest State of the Air 2014 Report, released annually.

The report grades state and local area air quality on an A through F scale by comparing local ozone and small-particulate concentrations with the federal air quality standards.

Although many areas, especially within California, were given failing grades, Lake County passed with flying colors.

Lake County received an “B” grade for ozone, an “A” grade for short term particulate pollution, and is ranked the Cleanest County in the Nation for annual particulate average concentrations for the second consecutive year.

Out of California’s 58 counties, Lake County is one of only 12 counties in California that did not have any days of particulate matter exceeds from 2010 through 2012, according to the report.

This impressive record has been documented by continuous air quality monitoring, which showed that fine particulate in the air never exceeded allowable levels during that time, according to Air Pollution Control Officer Douglas Gearhart of the Lake County Air Quality Management District.

The report presents data showing what the residents of Lake County actually are breathing on a daily basis.

It does not exclude wildfire impacts or other natural events that may be excluded when determining Lake County's attainment status. This shows that despite the Wye, Walker, and Scotts fires, the residents of Lake County overall still enjoy the cleanest air in the nation.

The American Lung Association grades are the latest recognition of a long history of air quality accomplishments in Lake County, Gearhart said.

Strong local support for clean air measures has enabled the county to comply in full with not only the federal clean air standards, but also with the more rigorous California standards for ozone and other air pollutants for the past 24 consecutive years, Gearhart said.

No other air district in California can match that record, Gearhart added.

Gearhart attributes the success of the program to strong community support, cooperation of local agencies, fire protection districts, Cal Fire, the agricultural community, industry, the district board of directors and to the Lake County Air Quality Management District staff.

“It is great to have our local community efforts nationally recognized,” he said. “To be ranked number one for two consecutive years is a testament the the community in which we live. ”

Ala Sota 2014 Full 27