LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a selection of several adult cats waiting for homes this week.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
This female domestic short hair is in cat room kennel No. 4, ID No. 13387. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair has a calico coat with gold eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 4, ID No. 13387.
“Isabella” is a female domestic short hair in cat room kennel No. 15a, ID No. 13413. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Isabella’
“Isabella” is a female domestic short hair cat with a chocolate point coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She is in cat room kennel No. 15a, ID No. 13413.
“Delilah” is a female brown tabby in cat room kennel No. 15b, ID No. 13414. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Delilah’
“Delilah” is a female brown tabby with a short coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She’s in cat room kennel No. 15b, ID No. 13414.
This male domestic short hair in cat room kennel No. V70, ID No. 13398. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has a brown tabby coat and gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. V70, ID No. 13398.
“Ishta” is a female domestic medium hair in cat room kennel No. V105, ID No. 13411. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Ishta’
“Ishta” is a female domestic medium hair cat with a seal point coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She’s in cat room kennel No. V105, ID No. 13411.
“Mama” is a female domestic medium hair in cat room kennel No. 134, ID No. 13388. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Mama’
“Mama” is a female domestic medium hair with a dilute tortoiseshell coat and green eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 134, ID No. 13388.
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, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new dogs added to those waiting for new homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of bluetick coonhound, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback, shepherd and treeing walker coonhound.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
“Bruno” is a male shepherd mix in kennel No. 18, ID No. 13432. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Bruno’
“Bruno” is a male shepherd mix with a medium-length tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 13432.
This male Labrador Retriever mix puppy is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 13427. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Labrador Retriever mix
This male Labrador Retriever mix puppy has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 13427.
This female pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 23, ID No. 13428. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female pit bull terrier
This female pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. 13428.
This female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 24, ID No. 13429. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female pit bull terrier
This female pit bull terrier has a short blue coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. 13429.
“Max” is a male bluetick coonhound-treeing walker coonhound in kennel No. 25, ID No. 13289. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Max’
“Max” is a male bluetick coonhound-treeing walker coonhound with a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 13289.
“Blanca” is a female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 26, ID No. 13406. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Blanca’
“Blanca” is a female pit bull terrier with a short white coat and black markings.
She has been spayed.
She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 13406.
“Oso” is a male shepherd mix in kennel No. 27, ID No. 3173. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Oso’
“Oso” is a male shepherd mix with a long black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 3173.
This male Labrador Retriever is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 13408. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Labrador Retriever
This male Labrador Retriever has a long tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 13408.
“Daisey” is a female treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13291. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Daisey’
“Daisey” is a female treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix with a short tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13291.
“Goofy” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Goofy’
“Goofy” is a young male Rhodesian Ridgeback with a short tan and black coat.
Shelter staff said this boy is great with other dogs, although he is high energy and would benefit from obedience training. He would love to go jogging every day, he is very food motivated and willing to learn new things.
Goofy has been at the shelter since Nov. 5. He was originally taken from someone in Upper Lake and found on the highway in Clearlake. If anyone has any information on his owner please contact the shelter.
He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210.
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, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – At its first regular meeting of the year, the First 5 Lake Commission elected its leadership for 2020.
Tina Scott, District 4 supervisor for the county of Lake, will serve as the commission’s chair.
The chairperson of the First 5 Lake Commission presides at all meetings and may present to the commission matters that she deems as requiring attention, beginning discussions of such matters for the good of Lake County’s children – prenatally through age 5 – and their families.
The chair also exercises general supervision over the business and property of the commission and jointly executes all formal documents on behalf of the commission along with its executive director.
“As a county supervisor, I feel a sense of responsibility to build a better future for our youth. In my role as a commissioner, I am able to advocate for Lake County’s youngest residents and families,” said Scott. “We need to look for ways to create a culture that nurtures each child, giving them opportunities to achieve their full potential. As chair, I hope to continue the momentum of working collaboratively with our community partners.”
Denise Pomeroy, director of Health Services for the County, was elected as vice chair and will act as chairperson at any meetings and in any duties where the chair is absent.
“As the Health Services director, I have a responsibility to promote healthy lifestyles, good physical and mental health for all residents to lead a full, productive and enjoyable life,” Pomeroy said. “This starts with supporting our youngest community members and their families. The future health and wellbeing of our community starts with early childhood systems that allow for the success of our children at the earliest age possible.”
The next regular meeting of the First 5 Lake Commission will be held on Feb. 12 at the Lower Lake Town Hall. Meetings alternate monthly between Lower Lake and Lakeport.
Using funds derived from California Proposition 10’s voter-mandated tax on tobacco products, the First 5 Lake County Commission funds programs and services that benefit the health and development of young children and educate parents, grandparents, caregivers and teachers about the critical role they play during a child’s first five years.
Since its inception in 2000, First 5 Lake has supported thousands of families with programs and services designed to help Lake County children grow up healthy and ready to succeed in school and life. The Executive Director for First 5 Lake is Carla Ritz and current First 5 Lake
Commissioners are Dr. Derrick Barnes, vice chief of staff and obstetrician, Sutter Lakeside Hospital; Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg; Susan Jen, Health Leadership Network director; Pam Klier, retired kindergarten teacher; Crystal Markytan, Lake County Social Services director; Allison Panella, Hope Rising executive director; Denise Pomeroy, Lake County Health Services director; Tina Scott, Lake County District 4 supervisor; Carly Swatosh-Sherman, Lake County Office of Education, education specialist.
The shoreline of the 200-acre Wright property near Lakeport, California, which the Lake County Land Trust is purchasing with a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Land Trust.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Thanks to a state grant, the Lake County Land Trust is in the midst of finalizing its largest property purchase to date, one which is meant to preserve a key area of Clear Lake’s wetlands.
The state Wildlife Conservation Board approved a $675,000 grant for the 200-acre Wright property purchase at its Nov. 21 meeting.
“It’s really exciting. It’s a keystone project for us, so we’re thrilled,” said Land Trust President Valerie Nixon, who noted that the Land Trust has been interested in the property for at least 15 years.
That grant was among a total of $28.7 million in grant funding the board approved at that time.
The Wildlife Conservation Board reported that funding for the projects comes from a combination of sources including the Habitat Conservation Fund and bond measures approved by voters to help preserve and protect California's natural resources.
The Land Trust’s Wright property project is located at the southwestern shore of Clear Lake, behind the Lakeport movie drive-in. It includes parts of the original Manning Creek channel, Nixon said.
The project is meant to protect shoreline freshwater wetlands, riparian woodlands and wet meadow habitats that support the state-threatened Clear Lake hitch along with the western pond turtle, a state species of special concern. The land also is home to everything from deer to waterfowl, and otter, mink, turkey and raptors. A key goal is to provide future wildlife-oriented, public-use opportunities.
The Land Trust reported that the Wright property is “as close to original shoreline as you can get.”
The Land Trust previously received a $110,000 Wildlife Conservation Board grant for its purchase of what is known as the Melo property, a 34-acre parcel also located in the Big Valley wetland areas, located on Clipper Lane off Soda Bay Road. The total purchase price was $215,000, with that purchase completed in October 2016.
Nixon said the Land Trust is grateful to the Wright family for offering the property and being willing to wait through the process, as well as the community for its support.
Nixon offered special recognition to Bernie and Lynne Butcher, owners of the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon, who put up the initial $40,000 match for the property purchase, noting they’ve been fantastic supporters of the Land Trust and the community at large.
At left, Lake County Land Trust Executive Director Tom Smythe and Land Trust President Valerie Nixon (right) greeted John Walsh (center left) and Jasen Yee of the Wildlife Conservation Board when Land Trust members traveled to Sacramento to accept the approval of a major grant to the Land Trust for purchase of the 200 acre Wright property near Lakeport, California, on Thursday, November 21, 2019. Photo courtesy of the Lake County Land Trust. “Without the local support, we just couldn’t move forward,” Nixon said.
Nixon said the Big Valley wetlands is the No. 1 area in the Land Trust’s conservation priority plan.
The Land Trust first developed its conservation priority plan in 2007 with public workshops that involved state and local land use and natural resources experts identifying and ranking Lake County’s unique areas and ecosystems in order to prioritize the organization’s conservation efforts.
The Land Trust reported that the Wright property was identified by community stakeholders as a priority for saving and preserving because of the special qualities found there.
The Big Valley wetlands area, which stretches from Clear Lake State Park to Lakeport, also is part of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Big Valley Conceptual Area Plan. The wetlands are prioritized for preservation because of their impacts on Clear Lake watershed’s health.
The process to purchase the Wright property began a few years ago, Nixon said.
The Wright property is the largest that the Land Trust has purchased, and Nixon said it’s a very special place. The first time she went out to visit, she saw a prairie falcon – rare in Lake County – and a large number of pelicans.
The goal is to allow public use and access so people can see the wetlands and the wildlife, Nixon said.
The land currently isn’t heavily used but is still grazed. Nixon said the Land Trust may continue to allow grazing to keep the grasses down.
Nixon said the next step is to close escrow. She said they’ve received the grant, done the match and are now making sure the land is clear of liens. Helping on that process is Land Trust Executive Director Tom Smythe, a retired county of Lake employee whose expertise on lands has been key to the group’s work on the purchase.
Once escrow is complete, the Land Trust will begin working on the next, more extensive aspect, which is stewardship, including how to allow safe public access.
Nixon said the Wright property is just part of what the group would like to acquire in the Big Valley wetlands area. “As easements or other properties come up, we will be looking to purchase those,” Nixon said.
There are other areas in the county where they are interested in acquisitions, including property near a development at Langtry Estate and any land protecting oak woodlands, Nixon said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
A map showing the Wright and Melo properties, acquired by the Lake County Land Trust.
Astronomers using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, have shown that Alpha Draconis, a well-studied star visible to the naked eye, and its fainter companion star regularly eclipse each other. While astronomers previously knew this was a binary system, the mutual eclipses came as a complete surprise.
“The first question that comes to mind is ‘how did we miss this?’” said Angela Kochoska, a postdoctoral researcher at Villanova University in Pennsylvania who presented the findings at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu on Jan. 6. “The eclipses are brief, lasting only six hours, so ground-based observations can easily miss them. And because the star is so bright, it would have quickly saturated detectors on NASA’s Kepler observatory, which would also mask the eclipses.”
The system ranks among the brightest-known eclipsing binaries where the two stars are widely separated, or detached, and only interact gravitationally. Such systems are important because astronomers can measure the masses and sizes of both stars with unrivaled accuracy.
Alpha Draconis, also known as Thuban, lies about 270 light-years away in the northern constellation Draco. Despite its “alpha” designation, it shines as Draco’s fourth-brightest star. Thuban’s fame arises from a historical role it played some 4,700 years ago, back when the earliest pyramids were being built in Egypt.
At that time, it appeared as the North Star, the one closest to the northern pole of Earth’s spin axis, the point around which all of the other stars appear to turn in their nightly motion.
Today, this role is played by Polaris, a brighter star in the constellation Ursa Minor. The change happened because Earth’s spin axis performs a cyclic 26,000-year wobble, called precession, that slowly alters the sky position of the rotational pole.
TESS monitors large swaths of the sky, called sectors, for 27 days at a time. This long stare allows the satellite to track changes in stellar brightness. While NASA’s newest planet hunter mainly seeks dimmings caused by planets crossing in front of their stars, TESS data can be used to study many other phenomena as well.
A 2004 report suggested that Thuban displayed small brightness changes that cycled over about an hour, suggesting the possibility that the system’s brightest star was pulsating.
To check this, Timothy Bedding, Daniel Hey, and Simon Murphy at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Aarhus University, Denmark, turned to TESS measurements. In October, they published a paper that described the discovery of eclipses by both stars and ruling out the existence of pulsations over periods less than eight hours.
Now Kochoska is working with Hey to understand the system in greater detail.
“I've been collaborating with Daniel to model the eclipses and advising on how to bring together more data to better constrain our model.” Kochoska explained. “The two of us took different approaches to modeling the system, and we hope our efforts will result in its full characterization.”
As known from earlier studies, the stars orbit every 51.4 days at an average distance of about 38 million miles (61 million kilometers), slightly more than Mercury’s distance from the Sun. The current preliminary model shows that we view the system about three degrees above the stars’ orbital plane, which means neither star completely covers the other during the eclipses.
The primary star is 4.3 times bigger than the Sun and has a surface temperature around 17,500 degrees Fahrenheit (9,700 C), making it 70 percent hotter than our Sun. Its companion, which is five times fainter, is most likely half the primary’s size and 40 percent hotter than the Sun.
Kochoska says she is planning ground-based follow-up observations and anticipating additional eclipses in future TESS sectors.
“Discovering eclipses in a well-known, bright, historically important star highlights how TESS impacts the broader astronomical community,” said Padi Boyd, the TESS project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “In this case, the high precision, uninterrupted TESS data can be used to help constrain fundamental stellar parameters at a level we’ve never before achieved.”
TESS is a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Additional partners include Northrop Grumman, based in Falls Church, Virginia; NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley; the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts; MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory; and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. More than a dozen universities, research institutes and observatories worldwide are participants in the mission.
Francis Reddy works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
SACRAMENTO – On Friday Gov. Gavin Newsom submitted to the Legislature his 2020-21 State Budget proposal which he said makes responsible investments in the state’s economic future while tackling head-on persistent challenges facing the state.
“California’s economic growth has fueled the nation’s economy. As 2020 begins, California’s economy is the strongest in the nation and the fifth largest in the world. We’re eliminating debts, paying down pension liabilities, growing our reserve funds – the largest ever at $21 billion – and one out of every seven new U.S. jobs is in California,” said Gov. Newsom. “Despite the progress we’ve made, there are deep, structural challenges that threaten our state’s future and demand our urgent attention. These problems – our widespread affordability crisis, expanding homelessness crisis and catastrophic wildfires – have been decades in the making and won’t be fixed overnight. California is doing more than ever to tackle these challenges and this budget builds on that work with new investments and ideas to take on these longstanding issues.”
Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents Lake County in the State Senate, lauded the budget. “Governor Newsom has put forward an ambitious budget that prioritizes tackling some of our state’s biggest challenges like homelessness, affordable housing and emergency response, all while investing record funding in California’s kids and our public schools.”
McGuire also cited Newsom’s proposed investment in firefighting in order to get more boots on the ground to confront California’s new reality of mega fires. He said the proposal “would put more firefighters in the field than we’ve had in four decades and it’s about damn time.”
The California Farm Bureau said Newsom’s proposed budget follows through on his pledge to elevate issues affecting farmers, ranchers and rural communities.
“The governor’s budget reinforces his commitment to rural California,” CFBF President Jamie Johansson said. “In his inaugural address last year, Governor Newsom promised not to leave rural California behind, and he reiterated that commitment in a meeting with our Board of Directors last summer. The proposals contained in his draft budget reflect his concerns for the future of farmers, ranchers and the rural areas they support,” Johansson said.
The budget must be passed by the Legislature by June 15 and signed by the governor by July 1.
Building reserves and reducing liabilities
Newsom’s office said California is continuing to build a strong economic foundation to anticipate potential risks.
The budget continues to grow the reserves in the Rainy Day Fund and assumes an additional transfer of nearly $2 billion in 2020-21 and an additional $1.4 billion over the remainder of the three-year forecast period.
The Rainy Day Fund balance is projected to be $18 billion in 2020-21 and $19.4 billion by 2023-24.
The budget also:
– Maintains $900 million in the Safety Net Reserve. – Sets aside $110 million more in the Public School System Stabilization Account, bringing its total balance to $487 million. – Reserves $1.6 billion in the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties to address emergencies and other unforeseen events. Overall, the Budget has $21 billion set aside in reserves.
Addressing the affordability crisis
The state’s affordability crisis continues to threaten working families who are burdened by the rising costs of health care and prescription drugs, and the sky-high cost of housing and rent.
Last year, the state passed historic measures to expand access to health care subsidies for the middle class, approved the strongest renter protection law in the nation, and provided $1 billion in tax relief for working families through the expanded earned income tax credit, while investing in affordable housing production efforts.
The administration has announced a new CalRx generic drug program making California the first state to create its own generic drug label and making the state’s generic prescription drugs available for sale to all Californians.
The budget transforms Medi-Cal to a more consistent and seamless system by reducing complexity and increasing flexibility and establishes a single market for drug pricing within the state.
The budget also moves the state toward universal coverage and furthers cost containment goals by expanding full-scope Medi-Cal coverage to low-income undocumented Californians aged 65 and above.
Building on the state’s new renter protection law and unprecedented $1.75 billion investment in last year’s budget to increase housing supply and hold cities accountable for regional housing goals, this year’s budget authorizes $500 million annually for the state's housing tax credit program and continues to support housing development on excess state lands. In addition, the administration is streamlining state processes to accelerate housing production.
Finally, the administration continues to work to establish a trust with $331 million that will provide borrower relief and support housing counselors or other legal aid agencies in representing homeowners and renters in housing-related matters.
Confronting the homelessness crisis
Homelessness is an issue that impacts both urban and rural communities throughout the state, and puts stress on public resources from emergency rooms to jails and public works departments.
It is a complex social services problem and must be combatted at its root causes, which is why the budget introduces several new strategies to build on the $1.15 billion provided to local governments in the last two budgets.
The budget proposes more than $1 billion to radically shift the state's involvement to house the many unsheltered individuals living in California, by launching the California Access to Housing and Services Fund with a $750 million initial investment.
This fund will create a structure for developing affordable housing units, supplementing and augmenting rental subsidies, and stabilizing board and care homes.
The additional funding will come from the Medi-Cal Healthier California for All initiative and will also contribute to addressing the homelessness crisis by transforming the Medi-Cal system to better serve individuals experiencing mental illness and homelessness.
The administration will form a task force to improve the state's behavioral health system as well as strategies to strengthen enforcement of behavioral health parity laws.
Emergency response and effective government
The 2019 Budget Act included nearly $1 billion to enhance the state's emergency response capabilities.
The budget builds on this foundation with investments that further strengthen California’s ability to prevent and respond to fires and that provide the state’s first responders with additional capabilities and support.
The budget enhances the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s operational capabilities by adding funding for new firefighters during peak fire season, increasing the number of year-round engines, and providing further relief coverage to support state firefighter health and wellness.
The budget also increases the use of technology by obtaining Light Detection and Ranging data to better inform resources management and hazard assessment decisions, and establishes a new Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center to analyze data on wildfire risk.
Promoting opportunity for all
The administration said it continues working toward a universal preschool system and a comprehensive, quality, and affordable child care system for California while helping parents thrive.
The budget builds on the historic investments made last year to expand access to child care, preschool and full-day kindergarten with funding for 10,000 additional full-day or full-year preschool slots, moving the state closer to its goal of universal preschool for all income-eligible four-year-olds.
The budget also expands the earned income tax credit, and increases the amount of child support payments retained by families on CalWORKs, effective Jan. 1, 2022.
The 2019 Budget Act expanded paid family leave from six to eight weeks, moving two-thirds towards the goal of six months of paid family leave for two parents to bond with a new child. The budget builds on this expansion by proposing to extend job protections to more employees, thereby expanding the number of families that can take advantage of this benefit.
The budget also proposes developing a new adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, cross-sector training program with the goal of reducing adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress by half in a generation and establishing a new Department of Early Childhood Development under the Health and Human Services Agency, effective July 1, 2021.
Largest K-12 education per-pupil expenditure in history
Preparing students to succeed is important to California’s future. That’s why the budget proposes a historic level of funding for K-12 schools.
Per-pupil funding has grown by more than $7,200 since its low point in 2011-12 and achievement gaps are closing for many students.
The state has a well-documented, long-term, statewide teacher shortage in the areas of special education, science and math.
The budget proposes an investment of approximately $900 million in teacher training, including professional development, educator service awards, and teacher residency programs. These investments will increase and improve the teacher workforce, which is foundational to improving student outcomes.
The budget also includes $300 million one-time for grants and technical assistance to prepare and implement improvement plans at the state’s lowest-performing schools, and includes $300 million one-time for grants to develop community school models with innovative partnerships that support mental health and the whole child.
The budget includes a 40-percent increase in state funding for school nutrition programs to boost the quality of meals provided and to expand access. It also includes $10 million for grants to foster innovative farm-to-school linkages that support sustainable agriculture and make more healthy foods available to schoolchildren.
Local educational agencies will also continue to benefit from the massive $3.15 billion non-Proposition 98 General Fund payment made on their behalf to the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS, and the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, Schools Pool.
An estimated $850 million is buying down the employer contribution rates in 2019-20 and 2020-21 and the remaining $2.3 billion is being paid toward long-term unfunded liabilities. Overall, these payments are expected to save schools $6.9 billion over the next three decades.
Expanding access to higher education
The 2019 Budget Act included major investments in higher education that provided two years of tuition-free community college and increased enrollment and investments to improve student success across all segments.
The budget establishes expectations that the University of California and California State University increase undergraduate enrollment, increase student supports and encourage degree completion through innovative delivery methods, including University Extension centers.
The budget proposes major investments in Inland California communities that face higher unemployment and create fewer jobs in high-wage sectors.
The budget allocates additional ongoing funding to expand enrollment and increase operational support for the UC Riverside School of Medicine and to expand the UC San Francisco School of Medicine Fresno Branch Campus in partnership with UC Merced. The budget also includes funding for a major new food innovation corridor in the Central Valley.
Climate budget
The budget proposes a comprehensive approach to California’s investments to protect the state’s environment, address the effects of climate change, and promote resiliency. This climate budget includes $12 billion over the next five years.
Three key areas of the climate budget are a proposed climate resilience bond, cap-and-trade expenditures to continue the transition to a carbon-neutral economy, and a new Climate Catalyst Fund to promote the deployment of new technologies, especially by small businesses and emerging industries.
The Climate Catalyst Fund, which will be administered by the Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, will finance investments in low-carbon transportation, sustainable agriculture and waste diversion through low-interest loans. The budget proposes to capitalize the fund with $1 billion General Fund over the next four years.
The fund will have a revolving loan structure that will leverage private capital and will support projects well into the future. It will be designed to support good jobs and a just transition to achieving California's climate goals.
Reimagining criminal justice
The budget builds on important steps taken last year, including shifting juvenile justice to focus on rehabilitation and reentry, investing in restorative justice, community-based violence prevention, substance-use disorder treatment, prison literacy and pretrial diversion.
The budget proposes to continue expansion of opportunities for rehabilitation and treatment – starting with the youngest offenders in state prison. It proposes to cluster the 5,800 young offenders (under age 26) into campus-style environments within existing facilities, with specialized programming and educational opportunities.
The budget also includes a major investment in technology for inmates participating in academic programs and expanded access to higher education programming through partnerships with the California State University system.
The proposed budget includes a major proposal to enhance staff development through a new training facility and training program for correctional officers and counselors.
Jobs, the economy and protecting the environment
As California enters a new decade, it must prepare for the jobs and economy of tomorrow. Rapid advancements in technology, automation and artificial intelligence are reshaping the economy and the nature of work, and the state needs to better align data, policy and program analysis for the state's workforce training programs.
The budget includes funding to establish a new Department of Better Jobs and Higher Wages to consolidate the workforce functions currently dispersed across the Labor and Workforce Development Agency.
It also funds the next $1 increase in the state’s minimum wage, bringing it to $13 per hour for most employees as of Jan. 1, 2020.
The budget also proposes to reduce the minimum franchise tax for new small businesses, removing a barrier to entrepreneurship and job creation.
Finally, the budget allocates $53 billion to the state's infrastructure over the next five years, focusing on investments that underpin economic activity and create a sustainable and resilient California.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture said the budget proposal also includes a significant change in the regulatory structure for cannabis, with the administration consolidating the three licensing entities – CDFA, the Department of Public Health and the Bureau of Cannabis Control – into a single Department of Cannabis Control by July 2021. The administration will submit more details on this proposal in Spring 2020.
More information on Governor Newsom’s budget proposal, including the full budget summary, is available at www.ebudget.ca.gov .
Republicans respond
Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) issued a response to the budget on Friday.
"This year's budget proposal continues to add to the state's Rainy Day Fund which Republicans have long pushed for. Money for better emergency preparedness and forest management is overdue. I'm pleased that the governor is continuing to focus on the wildfire efforts with the additional funding for CalFire positions which will help ensure better disaster preparedness and response,” Grove said.
"But too much of this budget is out of touch with everyday Californians. For example, nearly $20 million will go towards cracking down on AB 5 and limiting worker's freedom, despite the pleas from so many industries to fix the law. This is a clear case of poor prioritization. We should be using this funding to house Californians instead of preventing them from earning an income the way they choose,” Grove said.
"More than 50 percent of Golden State residents are already considering fleeing because Democrats have imposed high costs on too many basic necessities. The governor offers a lot of new programs, but it's time to get back to the basics such as lowering the cost of living, ensuring safe communities, providing high-quality education, and serving the disabled,” Grove explained.
"Another immediate priority must be tackling the out-of-control homelessness crisis that we all agree on, but California needs to be smart about it. The state has provided significant investments on this issue over the last several years, yet the homeless population dramatically increased in California. Instead of addressing the root-causes of homelessness such as mental health and drug abuse, the Democrats have poorly prioritized their spending," said Grove.
Senate Republicans' priorities include the following:
– Improve Californians' quality of life by lowering the cost of living and shortening commutes. Address the homelessness crisis by providing shelter and access to mental health services and substance use treatment. – Prepare for natural disasters and bring down the high cost of insuring rural homes. – Ensure California students have access to higher education and vocational training. – Fulfill our longstanding commitment to fund needed services for those with developmental disabilities. – Invest in public safety by properly funding our courts and law enforcement efforts. – Increase the state's budget reserves and spending responsibly to prepare for the next recession.
Tall pines along Boggs Ridge Nature Trail in Cobb, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone.
COBB, Calif. – Taking a walk in still-beautiful Boggs Ridge Nature Trail located behind Cobb Elementary School is like music to my soul.
Although it will never be the same after the 2015 Valley fire, there is still grandeur among the pines, oaks and other flora with thrilling panoramas to take in.
This quiet corner of Lake County – about 50 acres – resides in the Cache and Putah Creek watersheds. Our amazing watershed, a hydrologic system, in due course, arrives at the Pacific Ocean!
According to the park's Nature Trail interpretive panel:
"Water from the north side of Cobb and Highway 175 drains into Kelsey Creek which in turn drains into Clear Lake ... Clear Lake's only outlet is Cache Creek at the southern end of the Lake, which borders Anderson Marsh State Historic Park. From there, Cache Creek winds its way south passing through Cache Creek Dam and then entering the Capay Valley. As the Creek leaves Capay Valley it enters the northern Central Valley. The Creek becomes smaller and smaller as farms along its banks remove water for irrigation of crops. The Creek eventually enters a settling basin east of Woodland with excess water flowing through a flood control canal into the Sacramento River. Water from the south side of Cobb and Highway 175 drains into Putah Creek which flows into Lake Berryessa. That water is used by local cities with some of the excess water continuing to flow down Putah Creek below the Lake and eventually enters the Sacramento River. The Sacramento River drains into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which in turn drains into the San Pablo Bay. The same water that falls as rain where you are standing turns into runoff and travels hundreds of miles through creeks, lakes, and bays and then enters the San Francisco Bay and its final destination the Pacific Ocean."
The Boggs Ridge Nature Trail sign in Cobb, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone. The interpretive panel, one of numerous and informative signs along the trail, goes on to describe how watersheds make up a large natural habitat that is home to important species of plants and animals.
It describes the importance of maintaining our watersheds through keeping them clean, beginning with the tippy-top of our creeks, to the ground-stores, or aquifers deep below the ground through monitoring the use of cleaning products, fertilizers, etc.
What a boon this park is to the lucky Cobb Elementary students!
Plants that thrive up on Boggs include white fir, Douglas fir, California fescue, California bay laurel, coffeeberry, sugar pine, Pacific madrone, mountain dogwood, canyon live oak, California black oak and much more.
Animals that call Boggs home include dusky-footed wood rat, gray fox, black bear, striped skunk, mountain lion, western gray squirrel, Sonoma chipmunk, black-tailed jackrabbit, black-tailed deer, raccoon and other forest-dwellers.
Boggs Mountain obtained its name from Henry Boggs, who hailed from Missouri, and landed in Lake County in 1864, making his arrival over a decade after John Cobb.
The Cobb Strong plaque on the Boggs Ridge Nature Trail in Cobb, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone. Boggs was an industrious fellow who controlled ventures such as a gristmill, a steam-powered sawmill as well as a wood planer on what is now the east portion of Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest. Boggs purchased and logged most of the area by 1884. After his time, Boggs was clear-cut by subsequent owners all of the way up to 1949.
Next, the California Division of Forestry, now known as Cal Fire, acquired 3,433 acres for their demonstration forest.
You don't have to peer closely to locate Boggs’ beauty of another “genre.” There is some interesting geology at Boggs Ridge Nature Trail.
Along the trail amazing Boggs Mountain andesite boulders proliferate. Andesite is an igneous volcanic rock that started out in a sweltering fluid state.
Since, according to the interpretive display, Boggs Mountain State Forest is located on a lava cap roughly 1 mile wide, by 3 1/2 miles long andesite is exposed over large areas of the forest.
These flows, known as originating from a Clear Lake volcanic lava flow, are one to two million years old!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”
Andesite boulders on the Boggs Ridge Nature Trail in Cobb, California. Photo by Kathleen Scavone.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service said two strong winter storms are headed to the region over the coming week, bringing rain and mountain snow.
The agency’s long-range forecast said that the first of the storms will push into interior Northern California Monday night.
That first storm will bring chances for snow in elevations above 3,000 feet. There are expected to be accumulations around 12 to 18 inches at Sierra pass levels and a few inches of snow possible for the I-5 mountain pass as well.
Midweek another wet weather system is expected to bring rain and lower snow levels to elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 feet – and potentially heavy mountain snow – across the North State.
The system also has the potential for gusty winds, the National Weather Service said.
The local forecast calls for a mostly sunny Saturday, with winds into the mid-teens and gusts of around 20 miles per hour.
There are chances of showers from Sunday through Friday, with winds in the mid-teens forecast through Sunday night. The possibility of snow also exists in Lake County’s higher elevations.
Temperatures overall are expected to be colder in the coming week. Nighttime temperatures will range from the low to high 30s and daytime temperatures from the lost to high 40s.
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.
NASA has captured an extremely crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy. NASA has captured an extremely crisp infrared image of the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Spanning a distance of more than 600 light-years, this panorama reveals details within the dense swirls of gas and dust in high resolution, opening the door to future research into how massive stars are forming and what’s feeding the supermassive black hole at our galaxy’s core.
Among the features coming into focus are the jutting curves of the Arches Cluster containing the densest concentration of stars in our galaxy, as well as the Quintuplet Cluster with stars a million times brighter than our Sun. Our galaxy’s black hole takes shape with a glimpse of the fiery-looking ring of gas surrounding it.
The new view was made possible by the world’s largest airborne telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA. Flying high in the atmosphere, this modified Boeing 747 pointed its infrared camera called FORCAST – the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope – to observe warm, galactic material emitting at wavelengths of light that other telescopes could not detect.
The image combines SOFIA’s new perspective of warm regions with previous data exposing very hot and cold material from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory.
An overview paper highlighting initial results has been submitted for publication to the Astrophysical Journal. The image was presented for the first time at the American Astronomical Society annual meeting this week in 2020 in Honolulu.
“It’s incredible to see our galactic center in detail we’ve never seen before,” said James Radomski, a Universities Space Research Association scientist at the SOFIA Science Center at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. “Studying this area has been like trying to assemble a puzzle with missing pieces. The SOFIA data fills in some of the holes, putting us significantly closer to having a complete picture.”
Birth of stars
The Milky Way’s central regions have significantly more of the dense gas and dust that are the building blocks for new stars compared to other parts of the galaxy. Yet, there are 10 times fewer massive stars born here than expected.
Understanding why this discrepancy exists has been difficult because of all the dust between Earth and the galactic core getting in the way – but observing with infrared light offers a closer look at the situation.
The new infrared data illuminates structures indicative of star birth near the Quintuplet Cluster and warm material near the Arches Cluster that could be the seeds for new stars. Seeing these warm features in high resolution may help scientists explain how some of the most massive stars in our entire galaxy managed to form so close to each other, in a relatively small region, despite the low birthrate in the surrounding areas.
“Understanding how massive star birth happens at the center of our own galaxy gives us information that can help us learn about other, more distant galaxies,” said Matthew Hankins, a postdoctoral scholar at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California and principal investigator of the project. “Using multiple telescopes gives us clues we need to understand these processes, and there’s still more to be uncovered.”
Ring around the black hole
Scientists can also more clearly see the material that may be feeding the ring around our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole. The ring is about 10 lightyears in diameter and plays a key role in bringing matter closer to the black hole, where it may eventually be devoured.
The origin of this ring has long been a puzzle for scientists because it may be depleted over time, but the SOFIA data reveal several structures which could represent material being incorporated into it.
The data were taken in July 2019 during SOFIA’s annual deployment to Christchurch, New Zealand, where scientists study the skies over the Southern Hemisphere. The full, calibrated dataset is currently available to astronomers worldwide for further research via the SOFIA Legacy Program.
The Spitzer Space Telescope will be decommissioned on Jan. 30 after operating for more than 16 years. SOFIA continues exploring the infrared universe by studying wavelengths of mid- and far-infrared light with high resolution light that are not accessible to other telescopes, and helping scientists understand star and planet formation, the role magnetic fields play in shaping our universe, and the chemical evolution of galaxies.
Some of the very faint points and dark regions revealed in SOFIA’s image can help plan targets for the telescopes of the future, like the James Webb Space Telescope.
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 106-inch diameter telescope.
It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center, DLR. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley manages the SOFIA program, science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California.
You don’t have to run a marathon to get into better shape. Make walking a part of your routine every day. Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com
A new year typically brings new resolutions. While making resolutions is easy, sticking with them is not. Exercise-related resolutions consistently make the top 10 list, but up to 80% of resolutions to be healthier, including promises to exercise more, are tossed aside by February.
You know physical activity is good for you. But, that isn’t always enough to get or keep you moving. You’re not alone. Fewer than half of American adults are as active as they should be.
How active should you be? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every week.
So, let’s think about physical activity in a different way. As a nurse who researches exercise, I can tell you that it is likely the closest thing to a fountain of youth or a magic pill that you will have in your lifetime.
Exercise improves mood and sleep in addition to lowering your risk for many diseases.Jacob Lund/Shutterstock.com
Bottom line: If you want to live a long and healthy life, you need to be active.
But “that’s easier said than done,” you might be saying to yourself. In fact, increasing your physical activity is probably easier than you think. You don’t need to buy expensive equipment or join a gym. And you will begin to reap the rewards of physical activity almost as soon as you start. Adding small amounts of movement to your daily routine goes a long way.
Brisk walking, at a pace of at least a 20-minute mile, provides health benefits similar to running, and probably more social benefits. Plus, your risk of injury is much lower. And you can walk – for free with nothing more than comfortable shoes – from almost anywhere: your neighborhood, your office, or in lieu of waiting behind the wheel of your car in the pickup line at your kid’s school. A 22-minute walk every day, or two 11-minute ones, would put you just over 150 minutes every week.
It isn’t cheating to break your 150 minutes a week into small increments. In fact, even for people who are physically fit and exercise every day, breaking up periods of sitting is critically important. Even if you are getting enough exercise, sitting for the rest of the day can undo the health benefits of your workout. If you aren’t yet ready to aim for 2.5 hours of brisk walking each week, reducing the time you spend sitting would be a great starting goal.
Setting other goals
Many experts who work with clients or patients to set goals use the acronym SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-based) to guide goal-setting. This simple method could help you achieve a goal to sit less and move more in the new year:
Be specific. Rather than just “sit less, move more,” include when you will start and how will you do it. Specify what actions you will take to meet your goal. For example, make a list of how you can get more steps in each day by doing specific things, like taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Make it measurable. Again, “less” and “more” are hard to measure. Instead, try “Walk for 5 minutes after every hour of sitting.” Without a way to measure your goal, it becomes hard to know when you have achieved it.
Make it attainable. If you currently don’t exercise at all, 150 minutes a week may not be realistic. How about three 20-minute walks per week? You can slowly increase after you achieve that first goal. And choose an activity you might enjoy. If you already know you hate running, a goal to do it every day would be less attainable.
Set realistic goals. Your new activity goal should work for you and fit within your lifestyle. It’s great to challenge yourself, but break up challenging goals into smaller, more realistic, goals to help keep on track.
Set a time by which you will meet your goal. For example, will you take a certain number of steps by noon each day? Or, will you build up to 150 minutes a week by mid-April? You’re more likely to achieve short-term goals that lead into a long-term one.
One of the best ways to keep up with your efforts is to track your progress. You can do it with pen and paper, in a journal, or in one of many smartphone apps. As you see yourself making progress, it can be easier to keep up the routine.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you don’t have to go a gym to get moving. There are ways to make exercise part of your lifestyle, without too much inconvenience.
Get the family involved. Play tag, go on a scavenger hunt at a local park, or walk to your favorite hangout.
Park farther away from your workplace, the store, the library, etc.
Walk during your breaks at work and over your lunch period.
Instead of having coffee with friends, take a walk with them.
Whenever you are on the phone, stand up and walk around.
If you are at your kid’s or grandkid’s sporting event, walk the sidelines instead of sitting on the bleachers.
Try to find ways to make walking more meaningful. For example, try walking your own dog or a shelter dog. Dogs make great exercise companions that will never turn down an opportunity to walk.
As you undertake the big change from being inactive to becoming active, understand that setbacks happen. Don’t let one slip-up derail your whole goal. When possible, have a backup plan to deal with barriers like weather or time constraints. And celebrate the small victories you make toward reaching longer-term goals.
Looking for more tips on how to get started? Check out this guide.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday, Jan. 21, Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05) will hold two events in Lake County.
In the first event, Thompson will host a town hall at the Tom Aiken Community Hall at Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St., from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The second event, “Coffee with our Congressman,” will be held at the Grinders Steep Coffee Shop, 21187 Calistoga Road in Middletown, from noon to 1 p.m.
All constituents of California’s Fifth Congressional District and members of the press are invited to attend.
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
From left, Officer Chris Kelleher and Police Chief Andrew White look on at Capt. Tim Celli of the Clearlake Police Department makes a presentation regarding Kelleher’s receipt of a life-saving award at the Clearlake City Council meeting on Thursday, January 9, 2020. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. CLEARLAKE, Calif. – At Thursday night’s Clearlake City Council meeting, a Clearlake Police officer was honored for saving a man’s life.
Officer Chris Kelleher received a certificate and a life-saving award medal that he’s entitled to wear on his uniform to signify his efforts.
Presenting the award to Kelleher was Capt. Tim Celli and Chief Andrew White.
“Every once in a while we're at the right place at the right time, but this officer's actions went above and beyond,” said Celli.
On Dec. 2, Kelleher was on patrol on Walnut Avenue when he saw two suspicious subjects entering a property, Celli said.
Celli said Kelleher then saw a male subject on the ground. Kelleher found the man was not breathing and had no pulse, with his condition the result of a possible drug overdose.
Kelleher advised dispatch that he needed an emergency medical response and conducted cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the man until he developed a pulse, according to Celli.
Medical personnel then arrived on scene and found the man had a pulse and was breathing, Celli said.
Celli said the man was taken to the hospital for treatment, and he’s since been seen walking around town by other officers.
Based on the totality of the circumstances, Celli said they believe Kelleher’s actions saved the man’s life.
As a result, Celli recommended Kelleher for the life-saving award, which White presented to Kelleher.
Kelleher has been with the department for about four years.
Chief White told Lake County News that it was Celli, while serving as the department’s interim police chief, who instituted the life-saving award.
Previous recipients include Sgt. Travis Lenz, who saved a woman who had been held hostage at gunpoint in October 2015, and Officer Trevor Franklin, who in March 2016 saved an elderly couple from a house fire.
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.
