NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As the August Complex burns deeper into public lands, officials are planning an online meeting this week to update the community on their efforts to contain the fires.
The US Forest Service said the August Complex added another 13,000 acres from Tuesday to Wednesday, with containment up by 1 percent to 39 percent.
The complex, which began on Aug. 17, is burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests, where it’s destroyed 35 structures and continues to threaten nearly 1,600 more. It’s expected to be fully contained on Nov. 15.
The team managing the August Complex-South Zone will hold a virtual public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday to provide a fire overview and to allow the public to ask questions. The meeting will be live-streamed on the Mendocino National Forest Facebook page.
Officials said firefighters completed burning operations to the north of Lake Pillsbury on Tuesday, finishing firing activities that have been occurring over the past several days.
Evacuation orders in Lake County remain in effect in the Pillsbury Ranch and Lake Pillsbury basin areas.
Crews will now complete holding and mopping up actions along the control lines used in these efforts. This includes looking for and extinguishing areas of remaining heat near these lines. Once the area has cooled over the next few days, additional containment in this area is expected, officials said.
The Forest Service said helicopters have been assisting in cooling the fire and holding control lines through water drops near Mill Creek and areas to the northwest of Pillsbury Ranch.
Fire crews and dozers from Cal Fire continue suppression efforts near the main edge of the fire to the northwest, including constructing line where possible, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Forest Service said firefighters continue structure protection in the Pillsbury Basin and along control lines to the west. This includes installing and testing hose lays and sprinklers for use in holding operations.
In the complex’s South Zone, in addition to the evacuation orders for Lake County, there also are active orders for Mendocino County, officials said.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to direct the Registrar of Voters Office to move forward with verifying more than 2,000 signatures submitted as a referendum challenge to an ordinance passed last month to enforce state and local Public Health orders.
The Tuesday morning vote was unanimous, with Rob Brown and Bruno Sabatier – who had voted against the ordinance last month – joining the rest of the board, explaining that they wanted to follow the normal verification process, which would ultimately determine whether or not the board needs to take action.
The other option was for the board to vote to rescind the ordinance, passed on Aug. 18. It was to have gone into effect 30 days from approval but it is now suspended because of the referendum petition’s submission, said County Counsel Anita Grant.
The ordinance, set to sunset on Oct. 1, 2021, unless the board extended it, would enforce state and local Public Health orders related to COVID-19, including masking, social distancing, mandated hygiene requirements and failure to close specific business sectors when required.
A combination of education and training is to be the first approach for compliance before using an administrative fine process of up to $100 for a first violation, up to $200 for a second violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation and not more than $500 for each additional violation of the same ordinance within one year of the first violation.
The ordinance only applies to the unincorporated county, Grant pointed out Tuesday.
“There are existing administrative fine ordinances in both the city of Lakeport and the city of Clearlake, which have been in effect for some time,” said Grant. “Those are unaffected.”
The board’s discussion of the matter came on the same day that Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace released a video in which he said that Lake County’s recent increase in COVID-19 cases has landed it in the state’s most restrictive tier in its recovery blueprint, and so could see new restrictions implemented if numbers don’t improve over the next two weeks.
Over the past week, the county’s COVID-19 caseload grew by nearly 100 to a total of 516 on Tuesday, with four deaths reported for the week, for an overall total of 11.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said her office received the referendum petition on Sept. 16. Approximately 2,507 signatures were submitted.
During the meeting, Frank Dollosso, who filed the petition, said he collected more than 400 additional signatures to make sure there were enough.
Huchingson told the board that it would likely want to have the Registrar of Voters Office verify the signatures. The registrar has 30 working days from the petition’s submission to determine if it’s sufficient.
If there were enough qualified signatures, Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez would then certify the results to the board, at which time the board could rescind the ordinance in its entirety or present it to the county’s voters.
If there aren’t enough signatures, Huchingson said the board would need to take no action and the ordinance would take effect.
Board supports following the established process
During public comment, several members of the audience, both those speaking in person in the board chambers and those taking part virtually, wanted to return to the debate over the effectiveness of masking and other measures that have been directed at the state level to protect against COVID-19, and which Lake County has adopted in its own health orders.
The supervisors also heard from concerned residents that the enforcement ordinance is pitting businesses and people against each other, with businesses reporting some customers becoming violent and threatening when told they need to comply with masking requirements.
Grant, however, repeatedly reminded the board and public that comments needed to be limited to the agenda item – whether or not to rescind the ordinance or direct signature verification. She said the board didn’t have the ability to change state law.
Bryan Dobrowski, representing a group calling itself the Konocti Patriots, told the board it had a choice, to respect the voice of its constituents and rescind “this ridiculous ordinance” or ignore them.
He followed up by telling Supervisor Tina Scott that they only needed to collect 1,900 signatures to start a recall against her and that they only needed 450 to begin a recall against Board Chair Moke Simon.
Dollosso told the board he filed the referendum because of his issues with the vague language regarding who is responsible for enforcement. He said the ordinance isn’t limited to just masks but any order by local and state health officials.
He said the board had good intentions but went about it the wrong way.
Scott said she was concerned that the petitioners didn’t want the signatures verified, and she and Sabatier both said they wanted to have the Registrar of Voters Office move forward with the verification process.
“The referendum is not complete until the signatures are counted. Right now it’s just a piece of paper that’s unverified,” said Sabatier.
In reference to an unnamed commenter on Zoom who misquoted numbers on tuberculosis deaths as a way of arguing against masking, Sabatier said, “We really need to stop pulling numbers out of our butts that make no sense at all,” offering accurate numbers and asking people to do proper research and reading.
Sabatier also wanted to talk to Valadez about whether or not she would need extra help, as he didn’t want the signature verification process to impede her preparations for the presidential election on Nov. 3.
Pointing out that prior boards have taken similar action with having referendum petition signatures verified, Brown said, “It’s just part of the process.”
In response to Sabatier’s concerns about Valadez needing help, Brown said she could come to the board if she wanted a conversation and needed help.
Brown said that, whether he agreed with the ordinance or not, he joined with the rest of the board in supporting signature verification, saying that simply rescinding it without that step is not how the process works.
“Out of respect for the process, we have to run its course,” he said.
Supervisor EJ Crandell agreed and moved to direct the registrar of voters to conduct the signature verification, which Scott seconded and the board approved 5-0.
The Board of Supervisors last had an ordinance challenged by the referendum process in early 2014 when a petition was filed against Ordinance No. 2997, which the board passed in December 2013 to regulate and restrict the cultivation of medicinal marijuana.
The board voted in February 2014 to put that ordinance on the ballot that June, when voters passed it as Measure N.
Measure N was the third referendum the county faced over a nearly three-year period – from the fall of 2011 to the summer of 2014 – with all of them related to marijuana.
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.
Baraquiel Simon Ruiz, 33, of Lakeport, California, was arrested on Sunday, September 20, 2020, for setting a fire near Upper Lake, California. Lake County Jail photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Sunday Lake County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Lakeport man who a witness said set a small vegetation fire near Upper Lake.
Baraquiel Simon Ruiz, 33, was taken into custody in the case, according to Lt. Corey Paulich.
At 6:50 p.m. Sunday, deputies responded to the 6600 block of Westlake Road in Upper Lake for a reported arson. Paulich said a witness reported observing a male starting a fire in the area.
When deputies arrived, they contacted the witness, who told them he saw a male lighting a fire on the side of the road that was approximately a 5-foot by 5-foot area, Paulich said.
Paulich said the witness yelled at the subject to stop and the subject started to stomp out the fire. Once the fire was mostly out, the male subject who set it left the area toward Highway 29. The witness was able to capture the subject on video using his cell phone.
The deputies searched the area, locating a male subject identified as Ruiz, who matched the description provided by the witness, Paulich said.
The deputies conducted an in-field line up and the witness identified Ruiz as the individual who set the fire. Paulich said Ruiz admitted to starting the fire to burn some trash. He could not provide a reason why he was burning trash on the side of the road.
The fire ultimately burned a 10-foot by 10-foot grassy area, Paulich said.
Fire personnel reported there had been a separate fire in the same area around 2 p.m. that day. Paulich said it is unknown at this time if Ruiz was responsible for that fire.
Ruiz was placed under arrest at 8 p.m. Sunday and booked at the Lake County Jail for arson, according to jail records. He remained in custody on Tuesday with bail set at $250,000.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation or the fire earlier in the day is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-262-4200.
New California State University Chancellor Joseph I. Castro. Photo courtesy of the California State University Office of the Chancellor. The California State University Board of Trustees has appointed Joseph I. Castro, Ph.D., to serve as the eighth chancellor of the California State University.
Castro has served as the eighth president of California State University, Fresno since 2013.
He is the first California native and first Mexican American to be appointed to oversee the 23-campus university.
Castro will succeed Timothy P. White who is retiring after leading the university since late 2012.
“The California State University provides unprecedented and transformational opportunities for students from all backgrounds to earn a high-quality college degree and to better their families, their communities and the industries in which they become leaders. There is no other institution that makes this great of an impact on the entire state – the CSU is key to a growing and thriving California," said Castro. “I am truly grateful for and excited about this unique and wonderful opportunity, and I look forward to working with the talented faculty, staff and presidents of the 23 campuses as well the Board of Trustees and executives and staff at the Chancellor's Office to further increase achievement for our 482,000 students."
As president of Fresno State, Castro led the university to become a national leader in recruiting, supporting and graduating students from diverse backgrounds. Fresno State is routinely among the top public colleges in rankings issued by Washington Monthly, U.S. News and World Report and Money Magazine for its efforts to enhance student achievement as measured by graduation rates and social mobility.
Castro is a respected scholar in the fields of higher education leadership and public policy and has mentored many other university presidents and other senior officers across the nation over the course of his career.
“Dr. Castro is a passionate and effective advocate for his students, his campus and the CSU – in his local community, in Sacramento and in Washington, DC.," said Lillian Kimbell, chair of the CSU Board of Trustees. “Above all, he is a leader who inspires greatness in students, faculty and in the broader community. He is the right leader for the California State University in our current circumstance and for our future."
Prior to joining Fresno State, Castro served for 23 years in the University of California system, holding a variety of leadership positions culminating in roles of vice chancellor of student academic affairs and professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
Castro was born in Hanford in California's San Joaquin Valley. He is the grandson of immigrants from Mexico, son of a single mother and the first in his family to graduate from a university.
He received his bachelor's in political science and a master's in public policy from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in higher education policy and leadership from Stanford University. Castro has been recognized with alumni excellence awards from the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.
Castro and his wife, Mary, have three children (Isaac, Lauren and Jess). He will begin his duties as chancellor on January 4, 2021.
Following consultation with stakeholders at Fresno State and with the board chair, Chancellor White will soon announce an interim appointment who will serve as campus president beginning early next year. The Board of Trustees anticipates launching a national search in the new year for Castro's successor.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With Lake County seeing a rise in cases in recent weeks, the Public Health officer said Tuesday that the community could face increased restrictions due to moving into a higher tier on the state’s COVID-19 blueprint.
“Recently we have been seeing an upsurge in cases,” Dr. Gary Pace said in a Tuesday video, which can be seen above.
On Tuesday, Lake County’s case total had risen to 516, an increase of 98 – or 23 percent – over the previous Tuesday.
Of those total cases, 97 are active, one is hospitalized and 408 are recovered.
To date, there have been 11 deaths, four in the last week alone and three of those from an outbreak at the Lakeport Post Acute skilled nursing facility.
Pace said Lake County’s case rate as of Tuesday was 8.8 percent, which puts it in the purple tier – the most restrictive – on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, while the county’s 5.7-percent positivity rate puts in the red tier, the second most restrictive.
While case numbers around the region and state have been improving in recent weeks, Pace said Lake County’s cases have been rising. Those cases include the outbreak at Lakeport Post Acute.
While that outbreak now appears to be slowing down, it has led to a total of seven deaths, Pace said. The facility has a COVID-19 ward and is “following all of the protocols recommended,” he said.
Pace said Public Health currently is analyzing the data to see how much of Lake County’s rate increase is due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak and how much is due to community spread.
He said the outbreak appears to have started with community spread with a worker contracting it outside of the facility and then bringing it to work.
Pace said another facility also has an outbreak. The state identified that second facility – which has both patients and staff with the virus – as Rocky Point Care Center in Lakeport.
For many weeks, Lake County has been in the red tier, the second-most restrictive tier in the Blueprint for a Safer Economy, Pace said.
However, on Tuesday, Pace said the state notified Lake County that its case data has landed it for the first time in the purple tier, the most restrictive.
If Lake County’s case outlook doesn’t improve in two weeks, it will be forced entirely into the purple tier, Pace said.
If that happens, Pace said indoor dining at restaurants and indoor movie theaters must stop, places of worship will have to go to outdoor-only services, with gyms and fitness centers also required to move activities outdoors. Museums also would be closed and retail would only be open at 25-percent capacity, with the exception of essential businesses.
“This could happen as early as next week,” Pace said.
He said the county is talking to the state to see if there might be an exception in its tier ranking due to the skilled nursing facility outbreak. As part of those discussions, the county is seeking another week to prepare in order to bring case numbers down.
“Once we would get on the purple tier, we would have to stay on it for a minimum of three weeks,” he said.
All of Lake County’s six school districts are now open for school, with two districts – Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified – having in-person classes while the rest are conducting classes online, as Lake County News has reported.
If the state moves Lake County into the purple tier, the schools that are open could remain so, but any other districts would have to wait to open their doors until the county moves back into the red tier, Pace said.
He said the majority of Lake County’s cases continue to happen in households or in social gatherings where people don’t use the proper precautions.
The pandemic and the lockdown have been impacting Lake County for six months and Pace said it’s understandable that people are getting tired of it.
However, he said more is now known about controlling the virus.
Pace said the best way to prevent contracting the virus is to increase precautions, including masking, social distancing and staying away from group settings, including indoor ones.
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. – Lake County, like the rest of California and the nation, continued to see improved employment numbers in August, according to the state’s latest report on joblessness.
The Employment Development Department said Lake County’s August unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, down from an adjusted 11.7 percent in July, 14.2 percent in June, 15.5 percent in May and 16.7 percent in April.
Lake County’s August 2019 unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, based on state records.
California’s overall unemployment rate improved to 11.4 percent in August, down from 13.5 percent last month but up from 3.9 percent from August of last year, the state said.
August’s statewide unemployment rate of 11.4 percent marked the first month since March 2020 that California’s unemployment rate was lower than the 12.3 percent mark set during the height of the Great Recession – March, October and November 2010 – according to the report.
The number of Californians holding jobs in August totaled 16,574,300, an increase of 291,700 jobs from a downward-revised (-11,300) July, but down 2,081,600 from the employment total in August of last year, the state said.
The report showed that the number of unemployed Californians was 2,134,600 in August, a decrease of 408,700 over the month, but up by 1,370,800 compared with August of last year.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nation’s unemployment rate in August was 8.4 percent, down from 10.2 percent in July and more than double the 3.7 percent reported in August 2019.
In Lake County, the civilian workforce in August totaled 28,640, up by nearly 2,000 people over July, when the workforce numbered 26,960 members, according to the state report.
Locally, the total farm job category had the most growth in August, 37.2 percent, or 420 jobs, while still being down by 2.5 percent compared to 2019, the state said.
The Employment Development Department said the total nonfarm category was up by 9.2 percent in August compared with July, but down by 7.5 percent in the year-over comparison.
Total nonfarm’s main subcategories that showed growth in August were service providing, 10.3 percent; private service providing, 7.4 percent; and total private, 6.2 percent. Goods producing was down by 1.6 percent.
Lake County earned a statewide ranking of No. 24 for its August jobless rate, tying with Mendocino County.
Lake’s neighboring county jobless rates and ranks in the latest report are Colusa, 11 percent, No. 49; Glenn, 8.1 percent, No. 17; Napa, 8.3 percent, No. 19; Sonoma, 7.7 percent, No. 10; and Yolo, 7.5 percent, No. 6.
The county with the highest jobless rate in August remained Imperial, at 22.9 percent, while the lowest unemployment rate, 6.7 percent, was reported in Lassen County.
Details of statewide job picture
In August, California’s employers added 101,900 jobs, following July’s downward-revised gain of 83,500 jobs. The Employment Development Department said California has now regained nearly a third – 33.9 percent – of the 2,615,800 nonfarm jobs lost during March and April as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
California payroll jobs totaled 15,874,400 in August 2020, up 101,900 from last month but down 1,598,200 from August of last year.
The month-over decrease in California’s unemployment rate (-2.1 percentage points) was larger than that of the nation as a whole (-1.8 percentage points).
Total nonfarm jobs decreased by 1,598,200 (a 9.1-percent decrease) from August 2019 to August 2020 compared to the U.S. annual loss of 10,246,000 jobs (a 6.8 percent decrease).
Six of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in August: Government increased by 66,100, the largest job gain, due to federal temporary hiring for the 2020 Census and growth in local government education; trade, transportation and utilities’ increased by 26,000, buoyed by transportation and warehousing and general merchandise stores; professional and business services increased by 19,400; education and health services, 7,900; construction, 6,700; and manufacturing, 900.
Leisure and hospitality posted the largest industry job loss in August (-14,600), and 561,900 of the sector’s 633,000 year-over job losses have occurred since March 2020. Other services showed a drop of 5,700 jobs, information jobs declined by 4,300, mining and logging was down by 400 and financial activities decreased by 100.
The Employment Development Department said the number of jobs in the agriculture industry decreased by 3,400 from July, to 326,800 jobs in August 2020. The agricultural industry has lost 101,100 farm jobs since August 2019.
Update on Unemployment Insurance
The Employment Development Department also reported there were 2,837,209 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the August 2020 sample week. That compares to 3,144,098 people in July 2020 and 309,691 people in August 2019.
Concurrently, the state said 196,855 initial claims were processed in the August 2020 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 47,651 claims from July 2020, but a year-over increase of 162,080 claims from August 2019.
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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced that he will aggressively move the state further away from its reliance on climate change-causing fossil fuels while retaining and creating jobs and spurring economic growth.
Newsom issued an executive order requiring sales of all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035 and additional measures to eliminate harmful emissions from the transportation sector.
The transportation sector is responsible for more than half of all of California’s carbon pollution, 80 percent of smog-forming pollution and 95 percent of toxic diesel emissions – all while communities in the Los Angeles Basin and Central Valley see some of the dirtiest and most toxic air in the country, Newsom’s office said.
“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Newsom. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”
NextGen California said Newsom’s executive order “puts us on the right track.”
“Burning gasoline and diesel for transportation is by far the biggest source of air pollution and is what drives California's contributions to the climate crisis,” said NextGen California Senior Policy Advisor David Weiskopf. “This order lays down an important marker that we need to tackle this problem in a just and systematic way – from the wellhead where oil is produced to the vehicles we drive.”
Weiskopf added, “We can achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, but it will take ambitious actions like these across the whole economy – including burning gas in buildings, heavy industry, agriculture, and improving how we manage lands and waters in the state. We will also need to create more and better clean housing and transportation options across the state, and start making smart infrastructure decisions that begin to undo the toxic legacy of environmental racism that continues to harm low-income and communities of color. This order takes important steps in that direction by including transit, walking, biking, and other clean transportation infrastructure components.”
While eliminating greenhouse gases in California will not be enough to solve the climate crisis, Weiskopf said, “If we do this well, our state can be the pivot point that turns both the national and global economies towards a more just and sustainable model.”
Pushback on Newsom’s plan began immediately on Wednesday, with the California Fuels & Convenience Alliance calling Newsom’s plan to unilaterally enact the policy “both troubling and a cause of great distress for millions of Californians.”
The group added, “This order not only represents an egregious transgression of the legislative process, but also an outright disregard for the millions of Californians struggling to just get by in today's most taxing of circumstances.”
It also said the state’s power grid does not have the capacity to bear the weight of carrying one of the largest personal transportation sectors in the world. “California already cannot meet its own energy demand without widespread EV adoption,” the group said, adding that EV’s remain out of reach for many working Californians.
"California's transportation industries continue to make strides in greener and environmentally responsible solutions from renewable fuels, to vehicles with unfathomable efficiency, and this order is a blatant affront to these great advancements. The path to a greener tomorrow cannot be a one-size-fits-all 'solution' forced down by a one-party regime,” the group said.
The California Chamber of Commerce said it agreed with Newsom that California has been a leader in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, especially by adopting a market-based cap-and-trade program, and phasing in a greater share of renewable electricity generation.
"To develop a comprehensive and effective approach to climate change policy, California needs to have standards that other states and nations can follow. We can’t do it alone,” CalChamber said in a Wednesday statement. "Banning vehicles with internal combustion engines in just 14 years is unrealistic, since it presumes that consumer demand will not create a viable ZEV market by 2035.”
Unless California, along with other states and countries, supports a market for ZEVs that ensures vehicle performance, range, safety, functionality, price, and choice for automobile consumers, then California residents alone will be left with higher energy and transportation costs without a material effect on global GHG emissions, the group said.
“Eliminating the infrastructure for fueling internal combustion engines will only further exacerbate this cost increase for low-income Californians and will wipe out major elements of local government and schools’ property tax base,” CalChamber asid.
State agencies, Legislature, private sector to be involved in process
Following the order, the California Air Resources Board will develop regulations to mandate that 100 percent of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks are zero-emission by 2035 – a target which would achieve more than a 35 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and an 80 percent improvement in oxides of nitrogen emissions from cars statewide.
In addition, the Air Resources Board will develop regulations to mandate that all operations of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles shall be 100 percent zero emission by 2045 where feasible, with the mandate going into effect by 2035 for drayage trucks.
To ensure needed infrastructure to support zero-emission vehicles, the order requires state agencies, in partnership with the private sector, to accelerate deployment of affordable fueling and charging options. It also requires support of new and used zero-emission vehicle markets to provide broad accessibility to zero-emission vehicles for all Californians.
The executive order will not prevent Californians from owning gasoline-powered cars or selling them on the used car market.
Newsom’s office said California will be leading the nation in this effort – joining 15 countries that have already committed to phase out gasoline-powered cars and using our market power to push zero-emission vehicle innovation and drive down costs for everyone.
By the time the new rule goes into effect, zero-emission vehicles will almost certainly be cheaper and better than the traditional fossil fuel-powered cars. Newsom’s office said the upfront cost of electric vehicles are projected to reach parity with conventional vehicles in just a matter of years, and the cost of owning the car – both in maintenance and how much it costs to power the car mile for mile – is far less than a fossil fuel burning vehicle.
Newsom’s office said the executive order sets clear deliverables for new health and safety regulations that protect workers and communities from the impacts of oil extraction. It supports companies that transition their upstream and downstream oil production operations to cleaner alternatives. It also directs the state to make sure taxpayers are not stuck with the bill to safely close and remediate former oil fields.
To protect the health and safety of our communities and workers, the governor is also asking the Legislature to end the issuance of new hydraulic fracturing permits by 2024.
The executive order directs state agencies to develop strategies for an integrated, statewide rail and transit network, and incorporate safe and accessible infrastructure into projects to support bicycle and pedestrian options, particularly in low-income and disadvantaged communities.
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As deadly Ebola raged in Africa and threatened the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pinpointed a problem: The agency had many sources of data on the disease but no easy way to combine them, analyze them on a single platform and share the information with partners. It was using several spreadsheets and applications for this work — a process that was “manual, labor-intensive, time-consuming,” according to the agency’s request for proposals to solve the problem. It spent millions building a new platform.
But at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the CDC still struggled to integrate and share data. The system it had built during the Ebola crisis wasn’t up the task. An effort to modernize all of the agency’s data collection and analysis was ongoing: One CDC official told a congressional committee in March that if the agency had modern data infrastructure, it would have detected the coronavirus “much, much sooner” and would have contained it “further and more effectively.”
By April, with coronavirus cases spiking in the U.S. and officials scrambling to wrangle information about the pandemic, the CDC had a proof-of-concept for a new system to pull together all of its various data streams. But it was having trouble figuring out how to securely add users outside the agency, as well as get the funding and political backing needed to expand it, according to two sources with close knowledge of the situation.
So the CDC turned to outsiders for help. Information technology experts at the federal Department of Health and Human Services took control of the project. Five days later, they had a working platform, dubbed HHS Protect, with the ability to combine, search and map scores of datasets on deaths, symptoms, tests, ventilators, masks, local ordinances and more.
The new, multimillion-dollar data warehouse has continued to grow since then; it holds more than 200 datasets containing billions of pieces of information from both public and private sources. And now, aided by artificial intelligence, it is shaping the way the federal government addresses the pandemic, even as it remains a source of contention between quarreling health agencies and a target for transparency advocates who say it’s too secretive.
The Center for Public Integrity is the first to reveal details about how the platform came to be and how it is now being used. Among other things, it helps the White House and federal agencies distribute scarce treatment drugs and supplies, line up patients for vaccine clinical trials, and dole out advice to state and local leaders. Federal officials are starting to use a $20 million artificial intelligence system to mine the mountain of data the platform contains.
People familiar with HHS Protect say it could be the largest advance in public health surveillance in the United States in decades. But until now it has been mostly known as a key example of President Trump’s willingness to sideline CDC scientists: In July, his administration suddenly required hospitals to send information on bed occupancy to the new system instead of the CDC.
The Trump administration has added to the anxiety surrounding HHS Protect by keeping it wrapped in secrecy, refusing to publicly share many of the insights it generates.
“I want to be optimistic that everything is happening here is actually a net improvement,” said Nick Hart, CEO of the Data Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for open government data. “The onus is really on HHS to explain what’s happening and be as transparent as possible... It’s difficult to assess whether it really is headed in the right direction.”
A long history of data frustration
To hear some tell it, the reason behind the CDC’s long struggle to upgrade its data systems can be learned in its name: the Centers — plural — for Disease Control and Prevention. Twelve centers, to be exact, and a jumble of other offices, each with its own expertise and limited funding: the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, for example, or the Center for Preparedness and Response. Scientists at each myopically focus on their own needs and strain to work together on expensive projects to benefit all, such as upgrading shared data systems, experts familiar with the CDC said. A 2019 report from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists found that the agency had more than 100 stand-alone, disease-specific tracking systems, few of them able to talk to each other, let alone add in outside data that could help responders stanch outbreaks.
“CDC has been doing things a certain way for decades,” said a person familiar with the creation of HHS Protect who was not authorized to speak on the record. “Sometimes epidemiologists are not technologists.”
The U.S. government knew for more than a decade it needed a comprehensive system to collect, analyze and share data in real time if a pandemic reached America’s shores. The 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act directed federal health officials to build such a system; in 2010 the Government Accountability Office found that they hadn’t. A 2013 version of the law required the same thing; in 2017 the GAO found again that it hadn’t happened. Congress passed another law in 2019 calling for the system yet again. In 2020 the coronavirus struck.
“We’ve had no shortage of events that have demonstrated the importance of bringing together both healthcare and public health information in a usable, deeply accessible platform,” said Dr. Dan Hanfling, a vice president at In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit with ties to the CIA that invests in technology helpful to the government. “We’ve missed the mark.”
In fighting a pandemic, the nation struggles with data at every turn: from collecting information about what’s happening on the ground, to analyzing it, to sharing it to sending information back to the front lines. The CDC still relies on underfunded state health departments using antiquated equipment — even fax machines — to gather some types of information. The agency for years has also had ongoing, formal efforts to upgrade its data processes.
“There’ve been a lot of false starts in this area,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, the head of the CDC during the Obama administration. Frieden blamed money already spent on existing systems and local governments unwilling to make changes, among other reasons. “We had decades of underinvestment in public health at the national, state and local levels, and that includes information systems.”
“The way to make Americans safer is to build on, not bypass, our public health system,” says Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC during the Obama administration. (Vital Strategies)
The CDC attempted to fix at least some of those problems — joining and analyzing and sharing data from disparate sources — with the system it built during Ebola, known as DCIPHER. The system saved the agency thousands of hours of staff time as it responded to a salmonella outbreak and lung injuries from vaping. But it couldn’t keep up with the coronavirus. It was stored on CDC servers instead of the cloud and couldn’t handle the flood of extra data and users needed to fight COVID-19, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.
So CDC officials handed the proof-of-concept for a new system to the chief information officer of HHS, Jose Arrieta. The CDC was having trouble figuring out how to approve and ensure the identities of new users from outside the agency, such as the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and give them appropriate permissions to view data, according to two sources with close knowledge of the situation. Arrieta and his team solved the technical problems, stitching together eight pieces of commercial software to build the platform and pulling in data from both private and public sources, including the CDC.
“Our goal was to create the best view of what's occurring in the United States as it relates to COVID-19,” said Arrieta, a career civil servant who has worked for both Republicans and Democrats, speaking for the first time since his sudden departure from HHS in August. He said, and a friend confirmed, that he left his job primarily to spend more time with his young children after months of round-the-clock work. “It changes public health forever.”
The system allows users to analyze, visualize and map information so they can, for example, see how weakening local health ordinances could affect restaurant spending and coronavirus deaths in mid-size cities across America. Arrieta’s team assembled the platform from eight pieces of commercial software, including one purchased via sole-source contracts worth $24.9 million from Palantir Technologies, a controversial company known for its work with U.S. intelligence agencies and founded by Trump donor Peter Thiel. CDC used the Palantir software for both the HHS Protect prototype and DCIPHER, and it works well, Arrieta said; contracting documents cited the coronavirus emergency when justifying the quick purchase.
And now a new artificial intelligence component of the platform, called HHS Vision, will help predict how particular interventions, such as distributing extra masks in nursing homes, could stanch local outbreaks. Arrieta said HHS Vision, which is not run with Palantir software, uses pre-written algorithms to simulate behaviors and forecast possible outcomes using what experts call “supervised machine learning.”
Though many of the datasets in HHS Protect are public, a scientist who wanted to use them would have to hunt for them from many agencies, clean them and help them relate to one another. That work is already done in HHS Protect.
“It is a big leap forward,” said Dr. Wilbert van Panhuis, an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh who is working to get access to the platform for a group of 600 researchers. “They are making major progress in this pandemic.”
But the new system became a source of controversy this summer when officials told hospitals to stop reporting information on beds and patients to a well-known and revered CDC system, the National Healthcare Safety Network, and instead send it to Teletracking, a private contractor connected to HHS Protect. Observers feared the move undermined science and was another example of political interference with the CDC’s work. In August, hospital bed data from Teletracking sometimes diverged wildly from what states were reporting, though now it aligns more closely, said Jessica Malaty Rivera, science communication lead for the Covid Tracking Project, a volunteer organization compiling pandemic data.
“If there’s one major lesson we have from emergencies in the last 20 years… it’s not to try to create a new system but take the most robust system you have and scale it,” Frieden said. “The way to make Americans safer is to build on, not bypass, our public health system.”
Some familiar with the switch from the CDC to Teletracking said it allowed the federal government to compile more data on more hospitals. It happened, they said, because the White House task force members asked for more hospital information to prepare for the winter. Teletracking was able to start collecting extra data from hospitals in a matter of days, while the CDC said it would take weeks to make those changes.
"Our goal was to create the best view of what's occurring in the United States as it relates to COVID-19."
Jose Arrieta, former chief information officer of HHS
A CDC official familiar with the situation disputed those claims, saying that the National Healthcare Safety Network provided excellent data without overburdening already-stressed hospitals. Making the switch to HHS Protect, he said, is “like taking a veteran team off the field to replace that team with rookies. You get a lot of rookie mistakes.”
The hospital data dust-up aside, some CDC officials remain skeptical of HHS Protect.
“It is a platform. It isn’t a panacea,” said a CDC official familiar with the system who didn’t want his name published because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Some of the outside data sources HHS Protect depends on — including the hospital data from Teletracking — aren’t reliable, the official said, sometimes showing, for example, that a hospital had a negative number of patients in beds. “We’re seeing enough of it to warrant overall big-time concerns about the hospital data quality.”
Some are also concerned about the system’s ability to guard patient privacy: More than a dozen lawmakers sent a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar in July questioning how HHS Protect would protect individuals’ privacy.
But officials say HHS Protect contains no personal information on patients or others. It tracks users’ every interaction with the data and blocks them from datasets they don’t have authority to see, allowing the federal government to guard privacy and prevent data manipulation, sources familiar with the system said.
Under wraps
The Trump administration adopted data principles in 2018 that include promoting “transparency… to engender public trust.” But much of the data in HHS Protect remains off limits to the public, glimpsed only in leaked reports and occasional mentions by White House task force members. The platform’s public web portal displays the hospital bed data that caused so much controversy this summer but little else. Observers of all stripes, from Frieden to the conservative Heritage Foundation, have called for the Trump administration to make more of its data public.
Van Panhuis said HHS Protect clearly was designed with federal government users in mind, not academic researchers or the public.
“It’s a bit disappointing,” he said. “Currently we have to invent that part of the system.”
Basic data about the pandemic contained in HHS Protect remains secret and is sometimes obscured even from local public health officials. The White House task force’s secret recommendations to governors use HHS Protect data on cities’ test positivity rates, but the White House does not release those reports. And that national dataset is still nowhere to be found on any federal website. When asked, an HHS spokesperson could not point to it.
Some secrecy surrounding HHS Protect data exists for good reason, officials said: Some private companies share their data with HHS on the condition that it will be used to respond to the public health crisis and not be revealed to competitors. And releasing some of the data, even though they contain no personal information, could trigger privacy concerns, forcing officials to redact some of it. For example, it might become obvious whose symptoms were being described in data from a small, rural county with one hospital and one coronavirus patient.
But the secrecy around HHS Protect frustrates transparency advocates who want government data to be shared more openly.
Ryan Panchadsaram, who helps run the coronavirus data website Covid Exit Strategy, would like HHS Protect to publish in one location information on cases, test results and other metrics, for every city and county in the U.S., in an easily accessible and downloadable format.
“Making it available to the public shouldn’t be that difficult,” he said. “It's a political and policy decision.”
People looking for county-level information — to make decisions about whether to visit grandparents, for example — are often out of luck. And if they want a one stop-shop for state-level data, they must turn to private sources: Panchadsaram said that even employees of state and federal agencies visit Covid Exit Strategy for information on the coronavirus. The state of Massachusetts uses his site’s data to decide which travelers must quarantine when they arrive.
“It is shocking that they come to us when the data is sitting in its purest form” in HHS Protect, he said.
Federal officials, attempting to deliver on at least some transparency promises, say they are working to set up congressional staffers with logins to HHS Protect. Staffers monitoring the pandemic say they have yet to be granted access, though some states are using the system.
The secrecy surrounding HHS Protect also means that outsiders also can’t evaluate whether the platform is living up to its promise. Despite repeated requests from Public Integrity, HHS and CDC spokespeople did not make any officials available for on-the-record interviews regarding HHS Protect.
“The federal government has an obligation to make as much data and information public as possible,” said Hart, of the Data Coalition. “HHS should consider ways to improve the information it’s providing to the American people.”
A previous Kelseyville Pear Festival, with streets packed with locals and visitors alike coming to celebrate Lake County, California’s farming heritage. Courtesy photo. KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Kelseyville Pear Festival is a one-day celebration of Lake County’s harvest of pears, walnuts, olives and winegrapes.
This has always been a family-focused event that showcases the rich agricultural heritage of many generations.
It features a grand parade, historical displays, local businesses, craftsmen, food vendors, musicians, dancers, horses, kids’ town, and community services.
This is the best-attended, one-day event in Lake County.
For the past 27 years Lake County families and those from beyond have planned reunions, enjoyed outdoor concerts and cheered at high school homecomings, all to coincide with the Kelseyville Pear Festival held on the last Saturday of each September.
A recent feature is the sold-out farm-to-fork dinner centered in the middle of Main Street on Friday night.
Sadly, 2020 has seen traditional community events canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And again, Lake County endures horrific fires and weather conditions that make any sort of outdoor event nearly impossible this September.
With all the defugalties, the all-volunteer Kelseyville Pear Festival Committee will be planning to bring everything back on Sept. 25, 2021. Mark that day on your calendar and we will see you then.
For more information go to www.pearfestival.com or contact C. Richard Smith at 707-278-7268.
Vicky Parish Smith has worked with the pear festival organizing committee.
Michael Anthony Dore, 18, of Lucerne, California, is facing numerous weapons charges for a drive-by shooting at Highland Springs Reservoir near Lakeport, California, on Saturday, September 19, 2020. Lake County Jail photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office this week took a Lucerne man into custody on multiple felony charges after a witness identified him as the gunman in a noninjury drive-by shooting on Saturday at Highland Springs Reservoir.
Michael Anthony Dore, 18, was arrested on Monday following a traffic stop, according to Lt. Corey Paulich.
The investigation that led to Dore’s arrest began on Sunday. At 5 p.m. that day, Paulich said the sheriff’s office was contacted by a male subject who reported that his residence in Lakeport had been burglarized sometime between Sept. 18 and 20, and several firearms were taken.
Paulich said the burglary victim believed Dore was responsible for the theft as he had recently been at the residence.
Deputies contacted Dore at his residence in Lucerne and questioned him about the burglary. Paulich said Dore denied any involvement with the theft of the firearms and consented to a search of his residence. Deputies located several types of ammunition but did not locate any firearms.
Then, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, the burglary victim contacted deputies telling them Dore had recently shot at a male subject at Highland Springs Reservoir. The burglary victim was able to provide information related to the identity of the person Dore shot at, Paulich said.
Paulich said deputies were able to contact the shooting victim, who told them that at 11 p.m. Saturday he was attending a party at Highland Springs Reservoir. A vehicle drove towards him and he saw Dore was a passenger. Dore pointed a handgun at him, fired three shots at his feet and then left the area.
At 1:10 a.m. Monday, a sheriff’s deputy conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for traffic violations on Highway 20 near 16th Avenue in Lucerne. Paulich said the driver of the vehicle was Dore. Paulich said the deputy questioned Dore regarding the shooting at Highland Springs Reservoir. Dore admitted to being at the reservoir but denied shooting at anyone.
Dore was arrested and booked at the Lake County Jail on charges related to the shooting, Paulich said.
At 7:30 a.m. Monday, employees from the Lake County Public Services Department reported finding a loaded firearm near the Lucerne Community Garden, which was near the location where Dore had been stopped in his vehicle, Paulich said.
Paulich said a sheriff’s deputy recovered the Glock handgun and discovered it had been reported stolen almost a year ago from a residence in Lucerne.
The deputy contacted Dore at the jail and questioned him about the gun. Paulich said Dore admitted throwing the gun out of his vehicle just prior to being stopped by the deputy.
Dore told the deputy he had found the gun in an old marijuana grow in Upper Lake approximately a year ago, Paulich said.
Dore remains in custody at the Lake County Jail on charges of carrying a loaded firearm in public, possession of a stolen firearm, shooting from a vehicle, assault with a deadly weapon, carrying a concealed firearm, and removing serial numbers from a firearm. His bail is currently set at $250,000.
Anyone who has information about the shooting at Highland Springs Reservoir is asked to contact Det. Richard Kreutzer at 707-262-4233.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials said Tuesday that firefighters held the growth of the lightning-caused August Complex over the course of the previous day to less than 200 acres while pushing containment up by several percentage points.
All three zones of the complex – burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests – have burned a total of 846,898 acres, with containment up to 38 percent, the US Forest Service reported.
Officials said fire crews continued burning operations to the north of Lake Pillsbury on Monday, further increasing protection of communities and overall progress toward containment.
As smoke lifted during the afternoon Monday, firefighters were able to utilize both ground crews and aerial resources in ignition efforts along the M1 from the summit south to Cabbage Patch at the M1-M6 junction, officials said.
The use of helicopters allows operations to take place in areas that are unsafe or inaccessible by firefighters on the ground and complete the operations more quickly to take advantage of favorable weather conditions, the Forest Service reported.
Crews and equipment continue to improve both primary and alternate control lines to the west and northwest of Lake Pillsbury near Sunset Gap. Officials said the improvements include setting up pumps and hoses and removing trees and vegetation that could cause control problems during future firing and holding operations.
Meanwhile, Cal Fire crews on the West Zone of the August Complex have been working eastward and constructing additional control lines along the fire edge.
No new structure losses have been reported, with the damage reports so far remaining at 35 structures destroyed while 1,595 remain threatened, the Forest Service reported.
In the South Zone of the August Complex, evacuation orders are in effect for portions of Mendocino and Lake counties. In Lake County, orders remain active for Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday voted to approve a new ordinance to implement changes to rules regarding commercial cannabis operations, allowing more of them to open in the city.
Thursday’s discussion about the rule changes was the third meeting in a row in which the council discussed them.
The item begins at the 1:29:15 mark in the video above.
The discussions initially had begun at the Aug. 25 meeting, when staff asked the council if it wanted to increase the maximum number of permittees allowed.
At the time, City Manager Alan Flora said the city had a continued demand for licenses and the city’s existing cannabis businesses were seeing success with their operations.
At the Sept. 3 meeting, Flora returned with more information at the request of the council – relating to the number of permittees, police calls at the facilities, available commercial zoning and financial impacts.
The council at that point gave the go-ahead for changes to the number of businesses allowed and locations.
In his report for the Sept. 17 meeting, Flora said retail dispensaries would continue to be limited to three as they currently are in the city municipal code.
The rule changes would lift the caps on delivery-on dispensaries, which is two, and other cannabis businesses, which is 12, and rather than using a total number as the basis would instead limit them to locations on the city’s Commercial Cannabis Combining District map, Flora said.
In an email before Thursday’s meeting, Flora told Lake County News that there is immediate interest for at least four additional permits.
During the council discussion, staff read a public comment from city resident Joan Mingori, who asked if they wanted the city to be the cannabis capital. She added that she believed it was criminal to not let people speak to the council face-to-face about the matter, a reference to the fact that the council meetings continue to remain closed to in-person participation by the public.
She said there is a growing black market issue and asked why staff continued to bring up the matter, questioning how many of them live in the city.
Councilman Russ Perdock said he disagreed with removing the number cap, pointing out that at the Sept. 3 meeting he had suggested increasing the cap numbers by six.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton, maintaining that she was the only one to be against allowing the cannabis businesses to begin with, said she didn’t think the new rule changes would be a big issue.
Councilman Phil Harris moved to approve the first reading of the ordinance, which was seconded by Vice Mayor Dirk Slooten. The council approved the ordinance 4-1, with Perdock voting no.
In other business on Thursday, the council got an update on animal shelter operations, heard a presentation from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on public safety power shutoffs, approved the first reading of an ordinance adopting the city’s development impact fee program for transportation, awarded a $455,000 contract to the California Engineering Co. for professional engineering services for the Sulphur Fire Road Rehabilitation Project, approved a radio voting receiver site for the police department, adopted a third amendment to the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget to appropriate funding for professional services, equipment and supplies, and gave Overton direction on voting for resolutions as the city’s delegate at the 2020 League of California Cities Annual Conference, which is virtual this year.
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.
