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The majority of bats found hibernating in the western United States typically congregated in groups of 10 or fewer, like these Townsend’s big-eared bats in northern California. Photo credit: Ted Weller/USDA Forest Service.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Conservation of bats has long been hindered by a lack of knowing their winter whereabouts, particularly in the western United States.

With the confirmed case of white-nose syndrome in western Washington in 2016, a new impetus has been placed on finding these secluded roosts scattered across millions of acres to more closely track the disease and its effects.

National wildlife databases contained sparse and sporadic data on winter roosts of western bats. However, a concerted effort by the scientific community has produced one of the largest, most complete dataset of recorded hibernacula in the western United States.

“We knew from the research of others that the data had to exist,” said Ted Weller, a wildlife biologist and bat specialist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station, who was one of the leaders on the project. “We just needed to get it all in the same place.”

Weller and his colleagues canvassed federal and state agencies, as well as the academic community, across 11 western states to amass 4,549 winter bat survey records.

Their findings, detailed in “A Review of Bat Hibernacula Across the Western United States: Implications for White-Nose Syndrome Surveillance and Management,” were recently released online in PLoS One.

White-nose syndrome is a highly lethal fungus presumed to be spread among bats during their winter hibernations, where their wet, cool hibernacula are conducive to the syndrome’s pathology.

Originally detected on the East Coast in 2006, the occurrence of white-nose syndrome in Washington state leap-frogged the disease’s western-most exposure by more than 800 miles, wildly outpacing its predicted rate of spread. And in the process, encapsulating the western bat population from both its eastern and western fronts.

The two most prevalent types of bats recorded in the surveys were bats within the genus Myotis and the Townsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii).

In the 82 structures that were surveyed five or more times since 1990, researchers reported that bat populations were found to be stable.

One somewhat encouraging finding was the relative seclusion in which bats roosted in the West. About 95 percent of Myotis encounters were of individuals or groups of 10 or fewer bats; 72 percent of Townsend’s big-eared bat encounters were similarly small.

“While such small roosting aggregations lead us to believe that there are a lot more hibernacula out there,” Weller said, “the relative isolation of these species’ roosting behavior could help mitigate the exposure or spread of white-nose syndrome.”

Of the survey records, only four documented Myotis aggregations of 500 or more bats, each located in a separate state (Arizona, Idaho, Montana and New Mexico). Only six records documented Townsend’s big-eared bat aggregations in excess of 100 bats, five of those records occurring in Nevada mines.

Weller said he and his colleagues hope others will be able to build upon their work of pooling the surveys of others to produce a collective monitoring database. Toward that end, the researchers have made their research available as a public dataset. The dataset removes structure names and only provides a general location description to prevent disclosure of exact hibernacula locations.

“We acknowledge the legal and proprietary concerns surrounding data sharing,” Weller said. “But the conservation community can no longer afford to lose occurrence records, especially when a unified effort could go a long way in monitoring hibernating bats in the face of disease or other emerging threats.”

Headquartered in Albany, California, the Pacific Southwest Research Station is part of the U.S. Forest Service’s Research and Development branch developing and communicating science needed to sustain forest ecosystems and other benefits to nature and society. Pacific Southwest Research Station scientists are engaged in research across a network of 14 experimental watersheds, ranges and forests and eight research facilities in California, Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The National Weather Service has issued another red flag warning for Lake and its neighboring counties due to a forecast of high winds.

The red flag warning for Lake, Colusa, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties is in effect from 12 a.m. Saturday through 6 a.m. Sunday.

A red flag warning means a combination of factors – high winds and low humidity, plus very dry vegetation – are resulting in critical fire weather conditions.

The regional forecast calls for northeast winds from 15 to 30 miles per hour, with gusts of 40 to 50 miles per hour locally, and up to 50 to 60 miles per hour in the highest peaks.

The specific Lake County forecast indicates that the south county will see the highest wind speeds, ranging into the mid 20s.

In response to the red flag event, the Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit has once again bolstered its firefighting resources.

Cal Fire said it is staffing all fire crews and bulldozers 24 hours a day and has additional personnel ready to fill command and control functions in the event of a major fire.

Cal Fire Unit Chief Shana Jones wants to remind residents creating defensible space is essential to improve your home’s chance of surviving a wildfire. To learn about what you can do to be ready visit http://www.readyforwildfire.org/Defensible-Space/.

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.
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Maria and Rogelio Guzman at their home dedication in Cobb, Calif. Hope City staff presented the Guzman's with a cross, a Bible and a quilt to mark the occasion. Photo by Valerie Cox.

COBB, Calif. – In Lake County, most people know someone who has lost a home in a fire.

However, the other side of that loss is the positive impact of a successful rebuild.

The Guzman family of Cobb is the newest Lake County family to celebrate the completion of the rebuilding of their home.

Rogelio and Maria Guzman are very pleased to finally be back on their property and in a home they can call their own.

At the recent dedication of his new home, Mr. Guzman had tears in his eyes as he thanked those in attendance.

“We have been waiting for three years and now we feel like we have come back to life, we are very happy. God Bless all the volunteers and everyone involved,” he said.

Their home was completed with help from a CalHome loan with 0-percent interest and no payment necessary for 30 years.

Hope City provided construction volunteers to do the labor and Hammers For Hope provided the grant, administered by North Coast Opportunities, or NCO.

To rebuild a community, one home at a time, help from multiple sources is needed.

“Thanks to the expertise of Hope City and Hammers For Hope, collectively we are able to help survivors return home. This funding is available to many individuals. It doesn’t matter if you are building a manufactured home, or a traditional home. Even if you only need a partial loan to close a gap in financing, CalHome Loans can help Lake County rebuild,” said NCO Executive Director Patty Bruder.

The CalHome Loan Program is funded through the California Department of Housing and Community Development, or HCD.

The program targets low-to moderate-income households who owned or rented a home destroyed by the recent fires.

Approximately $1 million in CalHome loans are expected to be awarded to eligible borrowers in Lake County by the end of 2018.

Funds are still available to help other residents. Individuals who have lost their home to a wildfire are encouraged to apply.

“Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a family successfully return to their home that was once lost. Hammers For Hope remains committed to helping people rebuild their homes,” adds Hammers for Hope Board President Rob Brown. “We hope that others who are in need of housing will apply for CalHome loans and continue to rebuild.”

Funding is still available for 0-percent interest loans and no payment necessary for 30 years through the CalHome Loan Program and Hammers For Hope.

If you would like more information about CalHome Loans, and to see if you qualify, please call Jon Kennedy at 707-489-4647 or email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you have lost your home to any of the recent fires, help is available, please contact Team Lake County case management and Peggy O’Day at 707-994-2910 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The new home in Cobb, Calif., of Maria and Rogelio Guzman. Photo by Valerie Cox.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – With daylight saving time ending on Sunday, Nov. 4, the time change may disrupt sleep patterns and affect the ability to concentrate and safely operate a motor vehicle.

To highlight the dangers of fatigued driving, the California Highway Patrol joins the Office of Traffic Safety, the California Department of Transportation and the National Sleep Foundation in recognizing Drowsy Driving Prevention Week, Nov. 5 to 12.

“Safely operating a motor vehicle while on California’s roadways should be the goal of every driver, and that includes staying alert and not allowing yourself to drive while drowsy,” said CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley. “Drowsy driving can be as much of an impairment as drugs or alcohol.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states going without sleep for at least 18 hours is the same as having a blood alcohol content of .05 percent.

“We all have places to go, but if you are too tired to drive, you should not be driving,” OTS Director Rhonda Craft said. “Like impaired or distracted driving, drowsy driving puts yourself and others at risk.”

Caltrans will use the electronic Changeable Message Signs along highways to raise awareness of the dangers of drowsy driving. Almost 900 signs across the state will display the message “Feel Drowsy? Exit and Rest.”

“In today’s 24/7 society, we need a good reminder that if you are driving fatigued or sleepy you need to exit and rest rather than putting your life and others in jeopardy,” said Caltrans Director Laurie Berman. “Caltrans maintains more than 80 safety roadside rest areas across the state.”

To find a rest area in your area, or to check for the latest travel information on state highways, visit http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/.

Some suggested tips to avoid drowsy driving include: getting enough sleep (at least seven hours a day), sticking to a sleep schedule, and avoid alcohol or medications that can cause drowsiness.

Caffeinated beverages may help in the short term, but are not a substitute for sleep or rest. Make it your goal to minimize the risks of driving drowsy for you, your passengers and other motorists.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A harmful pesticide that’s on a federal restricted list has been located in Lake County, according to Lake County health officials.

On Sept. 21, during searches conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office of cannabis grow sites on private property, samples of an unknown substance were obtained that were confirmed on Wednesday as US EPA severely restricted pesticides, according to the Lake County Health Services Department.

There are two sites with confirmed presence of the pesticide at very high concentrations, and three sites with specimens sent to the laboratory with results currently pending.

The known sites are in the Lower Lake area – one is on Rocky Creek Road off of Morgan Valley; the other is on Spruce Grove Road south of Lower Lake. Warning signs to avoid the areas will be posted at the entrances to the affected properties.

The pesticide confirmed is Carbofuran, which is an organophospahate, a harmful pesticide to the public and the environment.

A bird on one site was confirmed dead due to organophosphate poisoning. These chemicals can cause reproductive harm, acute poisoning, and have possible long-term effects.

Seek medical treatment if you believe you have been in contact with these chemicals or are experiencing the following symptoms: blurred vision, pinpoint pupils, tearing, excessive respiratory secretions; salivation; sweating; abdominal cramps, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea; lightheadedness; chest tightness, epigastric pain, labored breathing; cyanosis; muscle twitching; incoordination; convulsions; unconsciousness; respiratory failure; skin irritation.

The Lake County Health Services Department We will continue to notify the public until the spill has been remediated.

If you have a shallow well in the area, consider filtering your water with a granular activated carbon filter and non-ionic polymeric resin filters. Individuals can Google NSF 42, 53, and 401 point-of-use or point –of-entry filters.

For more information, contact the Lake County Health Services Department at 707-263-1090. After hours, please dial 9 to be connected.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Veteran homelessness in Lake County, California and across the United States is continuing to decline according to a new national estimate released by U.S. Housing and Urban Development.

HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report finds the total number of reported veterans experiencing homelessness in 2018 decreased 5.4 percent since last year, falling to nearly half of the number of homeless veterans reported in 2010.

In announcing the latest annual estimate, HUD Secretary Ben Carson and U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Secretary Robert Wilkie noted that local communities are reporting reductions in the number of veterans in their shelter systems and on their streets.

Each year, thousands of local communities around the country conduct one-night ‘Point-in-Time’ estimates of the number of persons experiencing homelessness – in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs and in unsheltered locations.

This year’s estimate finds 37,878 veterans experienced homelessness in January 2018, compared to 40,020 reported in January 2017. HUD estimates among the total number of reported veterans experiencing homelessness in 2018, 23,312 veterans were found in sheltered settings while volunteers counted 14,566 veterans living in places not meant for human habitation.

HUD also reports a nearly 10 percent decline among female veterans experiencing homelessness. In January 2018, local communities reported 3,219 homeless female veterans compared to 3,571 one year earlier.

The report shows that Lake County has seen a 47.8-percent drop in homeless veterans in 2018 compared to 2017. The number of homeless veterans in 2018 was put at 12, compared to 23 in 2017.

Neighboring Mendocino County has seen a 50-percent drop and California a 5.2-percent drop in homeless veterans, the report showed.

“We owe it to our veterans to make certain they have a place to call home,” said HUD Secretary Carson. “We’ve made great strides in our efforts to end veteran homelessness, but we still have a lot of work to do to ensure those who wore our nation’s uniform have access to stable housing.”

“The reduction in homelessness among veterans announced today shows that the strategies we are using to help the most vulnerable veterans become stably housed are working,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “This is good news for all Veterans.”

“In Home, Together, the new federal strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness, we redouble our commitment to ending homelessness among Veterans and among all Americans,” said Matthew Doherty, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. “Working together at the federal, state and local level, we can and will continue to make progress until all Americans have a stable home from which they can pursue opportunity.”

Officials said the decrease in veteran homelessness can largely be attributed to the effectiveness of the HUD-VA Supportive Housing, or HUD-VASH, Program, which combines permanent HUD rental assistance with case management and clinical services provided by the VA.

HUD-VASH is complemented by a continuum of VA programs that use modern tools and technology to identify the most vulnerable Veterans and rapidly connect them to the appropriate interventions to become and remain stably housed.

Last year alone, more than 4,000 veterans, many experiencing chronic forms of homelessness, found permanent housing and critically needed support services through the HUD-VASH program.

An additional 50,000 veterans found permanent housing and supportive services through VA’s continuum of homeless programs.

To date, 64 local communities and three states have declared an effective end to veteran homelessness, creating systems to ensure that a veteran’s homelessness is rare, brief and one-time.

HUD and VA have a wide range of programs that prevent and end homelessness among veterans, including health care, housing solutions, job training and education. More information about VA’s homeless programs is available at www.VA.gov/homeless.

More information about HUD’s program is available here.

Veterans who are homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless should contact their local VA Medical Center and ask to speak to a homeless coordinator or call the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 1-877-4AID-VET.

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Engineers and scientists gathered around a screen in an operations room at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., eager to lay their eyes on the first data from NASA’s STEREO spacecraft.

It was January 2007, and the twin STEREO satellites – short for Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory – which had launched just months before, were opening their instruments’ eyes for the first time.

First up: STEREO-B. The screen blinked, but instead of the vast starfield they expected, a pearly white, feathery smear – like an angel’s wing – filled the frame.

For a few panicky minutes, NRL astrophysicist Karl Battams worried something was wrong with the telescope. Then, he realized this bright object wasn’t a defect, but an apparition, and these were the first satellite images of Comet McNaught. Later that day, STEREO-A would return similar observations.

Comet C/2006 P1 – also known as Comet McNaught, named for astronomer Robert McNaught, who discovered it in August 2006 – was one of the brightest comets visible from Earth in the past 50 years.

Throughout January 2007, the comet fanned across the Southern Hemisphere’s sky, so bright it was visible to the naked eye even during the day. McNaught belongs to a rarefied group of comets, dubbed the Great Comets and known for their exceptional brightness.

Setting McNaught apart further still from its peers, however, was its highly structured tail, composed of many distinct dust bands called striae, or striations, that stretched more than 100 million miles behind the comet, longer than the distance between Earth and the Sun.

One month later, in February 2007, an ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA spacecraft called Ulysses would encounter the comet’s long tail.

“McNaught was a huge deal when it came because it was so ridiculously bright and beautiful in the sky,” Battams said. “It had these striae – dusty fingers that extended across a huge expanse of the sky. Structurally, it’s one of the most beautiful comets we’ve seen for decades.”

How exactly the tail broke up in this manner, scientists didn’t know. It called to mind reports of another storied comet from long ago: the Great Comet of 1744, which was said to have dramatically fanned out in six tails over the horizon, a phenomenon astronomers then couldn’t explain.

By untangling the mystery of McNaught’s tail, scientists hoped to learn something new about the nature of comets – and solve two cosmic mysteries in one.

A key difference between studying comets in 1744 and 2007 is, of course, our ability to do so from space. In addition to STEREO’s serendipitous sighting, another mission, ESA/NASA’s SOHO – the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory – made regular observations as McNaught flew by the Sun. Researchers hoped these images might contain their answers.

Now, years later, Oliver Price, a planetary science Ph.D. student at University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom, has developed a new image-processing technique to mine through the wealth of data.

Price’s findings – summarized in a recently published Icarus paper – offer the first observations of striations forming, and an unexpected revelation about the Sun’s effect on comet dust.

Comets are cosmic crumbs of frozen gas, rock and dust left over from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago – and so they may contain important clues about our solar system’s early history.

Those clues are unlocked, as if from a time capsule, every time a comet’s elliptical orbit brings it close to the Sun. Intense heat vaporizes the frozen gases and releases the dust within, which streams behind the comet, forming two distinct tails: an ion tail carried by the solar wind – the constant flow of charged particles from the Sun – and a dust tail.

Understanding how dust behaves in the tail – how it fragments and clumps together – can teach scientists a great deal about similar processes that formed dust into asteroids, moons and even planets all those billions of years ago.

Appearing as one of the biggest and most structurally complex comets in recent history, McNaught was a particularly good subject for this type of study. Its brightness and high dust production made it much easier to resolve the evolution of fine structures in its dust tail.

Price began his study focusing on something the scientists couldn’t explain. “My supervisor and I noticed weird goings-on in the images of these striations, a disruption in the otherwise clean lines,” he said. “I set out to investigate what might have happened to create this weird effect.”

The rift seemed to be located at the heliospheric current sheet, a boundary where the magnetic orientation, or polarity, of the electrified solar wind changes directions. This puzzled scientists because while they have long known a comet’s ion tail is affected by the solar wind, they had never seen the solar wind impact dust tails before.

Dust in McNaught’s tail – roughly the size of cigarette smoke – is too heavy, the scientists thought, for the solar wind to push around. On the other hand, an ion tail’s miniscule, electrically charged ions and electrons easily sail along the solar wind.

But it was difficult to tell exactly what was going on with McNaught’s dust, and where, because at roughly 60 miles per second, the comet was rapidly traveling in and out of STEREO and SOHO’s view.

“We got really good data sets with this comet, but they were from different cameras on different spacecraft, which are all in different places,” Price said. “I was looking for a way to bring it all together to get a complete picture of what’s happening in the tail.”

His solution was a novel image-processing technique that compiles all the data from different spacecraft using a simulation of the tail, where the location of each tiny speck of dust is mapped by solar conditions and physical characteristics like its size and age, or how long it’d been since it’d flown off the head, or coma, of the comet.

The end result is what Price dubbed a temporal map, which layers information from all the images taken at any given moment, allowing him to follow the dust’s movements.

The temporal maps meant Price could watch the striations form over time. His videos, which cover the span of two weeks, are the first to track the formation and evolution of these structures, showing how dust fragments topple off the comet head and collapse into long striations.

But the researchers were most excited to find that Price’s maps made it easier to explain the strange effect that drew their attention to the data in the first place. Indeed, the current sheet was the culprit behind the disruptions in the dust tail, breaking up each striation’s smooth, distinct lines.

For the two days it took the full length of the comet to traverse the current sheet, whenever dust encountered the changing magnetic conditions there, it was jolted out of position, as if crossing some cosmic speed bump.

“It’s like the striation’s feathers are ruffled when it crosses the current sheet,” University College London planetary scientist Geraint Jones said. “If you picture a wing with lots of feathers, as the wing crosses the sheet, lighter ends of the feathers get bent out of shape. For us, this is strong evidence that the dust is electrically charged, and that the solar wind is affecting the motion of that dust.”

Scientists have long known the solar wind affects charged dust; missions like Galileo, Cassini and Ulysses watched it move electrically charged dust through the space near Jupiter and Saturn.

But it was a surprise for them to see the solar wind affect larger dust grains like those in McNaught’s tail – about 100 times bigger than the dust seen ejected from around Jupiter and Saturn – because they’re that much heavier for the solar wind to push around.

With this study, scientists gain new insights into long-held mysteries. The work sheds light on the nature of striated comet tails from the past and provides a crucial lens for studying other comets in the future. But it also opens a new line of questioning: What role did the Sun have in our solar system’s formation and early history?

“Now that we see the solar wind changed the position of dust grains in McNaught’s tail, we can ask: Could it have been the case that early on in the solar system’s history, the solar wind played a role in organizing ancient dust as well?” Jones said.

Lina Tran works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Daylight saving time ends this Sunday, and the American Red Cross urges everyone to test their smoke alarms when turning back their clocks.

As the fall season ushers in cold weather, it also increases the risk of deadly home fires. That’s because heating equipment is the second most common cause of fatalities from home fires – which, on average, take seven lives every day in the U.S., according to the National Fire Protection Association. But working smoke alarms can double a person’s odds of survival.

“The Red Cross wants everyone to stay safe this winter,” said Trevor Riggen, CEO, American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region. “This weekend, please take time to ‘turn and test’ to protect you and your family against the season’s life-threatening risk of home fires.” Learn more in this video.

Every eight minutes, the Red Cross responds a disaster – most often, home fires. Last year, the Northern California Coastal Region volunteers have responded to nearly 800 home fires, assisting more than 4,500 families.

This weekend, the Red Cross asks everyone to take these simple steps:

– Check smoke alarm batteries. When turning the clocks back, take a few minutes to replace the smoke alarm batteries if needed and push the test button to make sure the alarms are working. It’s also a great time to check carbon monoxide detectors.

– Install smoke alarms. If you don’t have working smoke alarms, install them. At a minimum, put one on every level of the home, inside bedrooms and outside sleeping areas. Check local building codes for additional requirements.

– Practice an escape plan. Make sure everyone in the household knows two ways to get out of every room and how to get out of the home in less than two minutes.

Home Fire Campaign saves lives

Through the national Home Fire Campaign, the American Red Cross works with community partners to reduce deaths and injuries from home fires, which take more lives each year than all other natural disasters combined in the U.S. In high-risk neighborhoods here in Northern California and across the country, Red Cross volunteers and partners go door-to-door year-round to install free smoke alarms and help residents create home fire escape plans.

Since the campaign began in 2014, the American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region has reached more than 20,000 people in across Northern California by:

– Installing more than 20,000 smoke alarms;
– Replacing nearly 1,000 smoke alarm batteries;
– Helping families make more than 6,500 home fire escape plans;
– Reaching more than 14,000 children through youth preparedness programs.

People can visit www.redcross.org/homefires to learn more about how to protect themselves and their loved ones, or visit www.soundthealarm.org/norcalcoastal to find out about smoke alarm installation events in their community.

People can also help families in need by volunteering their time or making a donation today to Red Cross Disaster Relief by visiting www.redcross.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS or texting REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.

Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Ten Lake County residents are facing prosecution after being cited by the state on suspicion of being unlicensed contractors.

Over the past three years, upwards of 2,000 homes have been destroyed in different parts of Lake County by no less than eight devastating wildfires.

A lot of attention has focused on protecting fire survivors from being victimized by unlicensed or unscrupulous contractors trying to take advantage of people during the rebuilding process.

But, that doesn’t mean folks not directly affected by wildfires should let down their guard when hiring someone for home improvement work. On October 23, 2018, the Contractors State License Board, or CSLB, partnered with the Lake County District Attorney’s Office to conduct an undercover sting operation targeting suspected unlicensed contractors near the fire zones.

During the one-day operation, in a home near Copsey Creek, CSLB investigators invited suspected unlicensed contractors to provide bids for home improvement jobs ranging from painting, tree removal or trimming, to building a deck.

Ten people showed-up and provided undercover investigators bids that ranged from $800 to $4,000, well in excess of the $500 threshold (labor and/or materials) above which a state-issued contractor license is necessary.

As a result, these suspects were cited and could be charged with a misdemeanor count of contracting without a license (Business and Professions Code (BPC) section 7028). The penalty for a first-conviction includes up to six months in jail and/or up to $5,000 in fines.

Five of the suspects may also face a misdemeanor charge for illegal advertising (BPC §7027.1). Unlicensed contractors can only advertise if the ad states that they are not a state-licensed contractor, and the type of jobs advertised for are worth less than $500.

Those cited are:

– Jorge Manuel Vieira Sr., Clearlake; license classification – painting and decorating contractor; charge, contracting without a license;

– Jose Angel Gonzalez-Castro, Nice; license classification – tree service contractor; charges, contracting without a license, illegal advertising;

– Salvador Estrada, Upper Lake; license classification – tree service contractor; charges, contracting without a license, illegal advertising;

– Elijah Wesley Forrey, Clearlake; license classification – tree service contractor; charge, contracting without a license.

– Dave Edward Elliston Sr., Upper Lake; license classification – painting and decorating contractor; charge, contracting without a license.

– Ronald Dean Ridley Sr., Clearlake Oaks; license classification – painting and decorating contractor; charge, contracting without a license.

– Shane Lee Boyd, Nice; license classification – tree service contractor; charge, contracting without a license.

– Jesus Tecpoyot Pantaleon, Finley; license classification – siding and decking contractor; charges, contracting without a license, illegal advertising.

– Ronny Raymond Waddell, Lakeport; license classification – painting and decorating contractor; charges, contracting without a license, illegal advertising.

– Robert John Rudolph, Kelseyville; license classification – siding and decking contractor; charges, contracting without a license, illegal advertising.

“Consumers should be sure to take some simple steps before hiring anyone to work in or around their home,” said CSLB Registrar David Fogt. “The fastest way is to make sure they have a state license, and to check the license status using CSLB’s Instant License Check. Homeowners should also use CSLB’s Find My Licensed Contractor feature to download and/or print a list of qualified licensed contractors in their area."

CSLB will now forward the cases to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office with a recommendation for the criminal filings listed below.

All suspects were ordered to appear in court on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 8:15 a.m. at the Lake County Superior Court, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

All suspects are presumed innocent until their individual case is resolved.

CSLB conducts an average of one sting each week around the state to protect consumers, help level the playing field for legitimate contractors, and to curb the underground economy. Visit CSLB’s Web site for more tips on how to hire a licensed contractor.

The Contractors State License Board operates under the umbrella of the California Department of Consumer Affairs. CSLB licenses and regulates over 280,000 contractors in California and is regarded as one of the leading consumer protection agencies in the United States. In fiscal year 2017-18, CSLB helped recover more than $50 million in ordered restitution for consumers.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – State officials are conducting an investigation into a school construction accident that resulted in a worker’s death last week.

The incident occurred on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at Kelseyville High School, according to Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen.

On that day, an employee of the construction company FRC Inc. was injured while working on the high school’s new shop building. McQueen said the construction worker died of his injuries the following day, on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Kelseyville Fire Chief Joe Huggins said fire personnel responded to the scene and the injured man was flown out of county. He did not have additional details on the incident.

Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said that agency didn’t handle the coroner’s case, as he believed the man had been flown to Santa Rosa.

Frank Polizzi, spokesman for the Department of Industrial Relations in the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, said the agency is investigating the incident.

“Cal/OSHA was notified of a fatality in Kelseyville on November 1. The report to Cal/OSHA indicated that an apprentice carpenter for FRC Inc. suffered a fall from a scissor lift on October 23 and died on November 1,” Polizzi said.

“Cal/OSHA has opened an inspection to identify the cause of the incident and may issue citations for violations of workplace safety regulations,” he added.

Polizzi said Cal/OSHA has up to six months to issue citations in the case.

So far, it is not clear why the date of the worker’s death was reported to the state as being a week later than the date confirmed by Kelseyville Unified.

Cal/OSHA also did not release the man’s name – Polizzi said the man’s name would appear in Cal/OSHA’s records once the inspection is complete – and calls to the the Windsor-based FRC Inc. were not returned.

However, Jendi Coursey, who has assisted Kelseyville Unified on community outreach on its Measure U bond projects – which include the $3.5 million high school shop building – said she has been helping FRC Inc., and directed Lake County News to a Go Fund Me site for the young man who died.

That Go Fund Me page, started by the man’s family, identified him as Juan Pablo Cuevas Jimenez, a veteran of the United States Marines who leaves behind a wife.

“FRC is in the process of completing all the necessary reviews, while also trying to support the family of the deceased. It’s a heartbreaking situation all the way around,” Coursey said.

As of Friday night, the Go Fund Me page, which was started on Oct. 24 and has a goal of $9,000 to cover the expenses for Cuevas Jimenez’s Nov. 9 funeral in Santa Rosa, had raised $4,875.

McQueen said all students and employees from Kelseyville Unified are safe as they have fencing that keeps personnel and students safely away from bond construction sites.

“This was a real tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased,” McQueen 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.
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This illustration depicts NASA's exoplanet hunter, the Kepler space telescope. The agency announced on Oct. 30, 2018, that Kepler has run out of fuel and is being retired within its current and safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 exoplanet discoveries. Credits: NASA/Wendy Stenzel.

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets – more planets even than stars – NASA’s Kepler space telescope has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.

NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth.

Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

"As NASA's first planet-hunting mission, Kepler has wildly exceeded all our expectations and paved the way for our exploration and search for life in the solar system and beyond," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Not only did it show us how many planets could be out there, it sparked an entirely new and robust field of research that has taken the science community by storm. Its discoveries have shed a new light on our place in the universe, and illuminated the tantalizing mysteries and possibilities among the stars.”

Kepler has opened our eyes to the diversity of planets that exist in our galaxy. The most recent analysis of Kepler’s discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars visible in the night sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky, planets similar in size to Earth, and located within the habitable zone of their parent stars.

That means they’re located at distances from their parent stars where liquid water – a vital ingredient to life as we know it – might pool on the planet surface.

The most common size of planet Kepler found doesn’t exist in our solar system – a world between the size of Earth and Neptune – and we have much to learn about these planets.

Kepler also found nature often produces jam-packed planetary systems, in some cases with so many planets orbiting close to their parent stars that our own inner solar system looks sparse by comparison.

"When we started conceiving this mission 35 years ago we didn't know of a single planet outside our solar system," said the Kepler mission's founding principal investigator, William Borucki, now retired from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. "Now that we know planets are everywhere, Kepler has set us on a new course that's full of promise for future generations to explore our galaxy."

Launched on March 6, 2009, the Kepler space telescope combined cutting-edge techniques in measuring stellar brightness with the largest digital camera outfitted for outer space observations at that time.

Originally positioned to stare continuously at 150,000 stars in one star-studded patch of the sky in the constellation Cygnus, Kepler took the first survey of planets in our galaxy and became the agency's first mission to detect Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of their stars.

"The Kepler mission was based on a very innovative design. It was an extremely clever approach to doing this kind of science," said Leslie Livesay, director for astronomy and physics at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who served as Kepler project manager during mission development. "There were definitely challenges, but Kepler had an extremely talented team of scientists and engineers who overcame them.”

Four years into the mission, after the primary mission objectives had been met, mechanical failures temporarily halted observations. The mission team was able to devise a fix, switching the spacecraft’s field of view roughly every three months.

This enabled an extended mission for the spacecraft, dubbed K2, which lasted as long as the first mission and bumped Kepler's count of surveyed stars up to more than 500,000.

The observation of so many stars has allowed scientists to better understand stellar behaviors and properties, which is critical information in studying the planets that orbit them.

New research into stars with Kepler data also is furthering other areas of astronomy, such as the history of our Milky Way galaxy and the beginning stages of exploding stars called supernovae that are used to study how fast the universe is expanding.

The data from the extended mission were also made available to the public and science community immediately, allowing discoveries to be made at an incredible pace and setting a high bar for other missions.

Scientists are expected to spend a decade or more in search of new discoveries in the treasure trove of data Kepler provided.

"We know the spacecraft's retirement isn't the end of Kepler's discoveries," said Jessie Dotson, Kepler's project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. "I'm excited about the diverse discoveries that are yet to come from our data and how future missions will build upon Kepler's results."

Before retiring the spacecraft, scientists pushed Kepler to its full potential, successfully completing multiple observation campaigns and downloading valuable science data even after initial warnings of low fuel.

The latest data, from Campaign 19, will complement the data from NASA’s newest planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, launched in April.

TESS builds on Kepler's foundation with fresh batches of data in its search of planets orbiting some 200,000 of the brightest and nearest stars to the Earth, worlds that can later be explored for signs of life by missions, such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit https://www.nasa.gov/kepler.
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Lakeport Library’s Creative Club members viewed a color class on Creativebug, the library’s new online resource for artists and crafters, at the club’s October meeting. Creativebug is available to anyone who has a Lake County Library card. Courtesy photo.


LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library now offers Creativebug, a new free digital resource that lets library patrons use their library cards to access classes in sewing, quilting, art and design, jewelry, cooking, music and more.

Creativebug’s video library has more than 1,000 high quality online art and craft classes and adds new classes every day.

The Creativebug access is located on the library Web site, http://library.lakecountyca.gov, under “Resources.”

You can watch classes on Creativebug anytime, anywhere, in the library, on your home computer or on a phone or tablet.

Once you sign up for a free Creativebug account with your library card you can view or review any class as often as you like.

You can download or print out the patterns, instructions and recipes that accompany the classes.

Classes range from a few minutes in length to about an hour.

Creatirvebug offers many classes for both beginning and advanced crafters and artists. In the art and design category alone beginners can find an abundance of choices.

Budding artists can have fun with the “Creative Boot Camp: 6 Exercises to Spark Artistic Discovery” in easy painting, drawing, and collage projects. The “Daily Drawing Challenge” guides students through drawing patterns with brush tip pens. Other beginning art classes cover composition, perspective and creative doodling.

Creativebug seeks out the best, most engaging teachers for their classes. Their expert instructors have been featured in Vogue, Martha Stewart Living, O Magazine and other publications.

Funding for Creativebug comes from a grant through a pilot program from the California State Library and the Center for Childhood Creativity at the Bay Area Discovery Museum.

The Lake County Library is one of 10 libraries across California that have received grants to create community-driven makerspaces through this program.

Jan Cook is a library technician with the Lake County Library.

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