LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Last weekend's Independence Day celebrations around Lake County were accompanied by a slight increase in drunk driving arrests and crashes, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP ran one of its regular “maximum enforcement periods” from the evening of Friday, July 1, through the night of Monday, July 4, putting all available officers on area roadways to watch out for driving under the influence cases as well as speeding and distracted driving, the agency said.

Officer Kory Reynolds of the CHP's Clear Lake Area office said the statistics for the weekend showed DUI cases were up when compared with 2015.

Reynolds said this year's DUI arrests totaled eight, compared to seven in 2015.

In addition, there were two DUI collisions last weekend compared to one during the same weekend last year, Reynolds said.

He said the crashes both occurred on Sunday and were noninjury.

One occurred on North Shore Drive in Hidden Valley Lake, and involved one vehicle hitting a parked car, possibly backing into it, he said.

The other crash was on Soda Bay Road near Kelseyville Sunday afternoon and involved a vehicle into a pole, as Lake County News has reported. That crash resulted in extensive utility repairs that required the roadway to be closed until Monday morning.

Reynolds said both crashes resulted in arrests, but he did not report the names of the arrested drivers.

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.

Dinosaurs were fearsome creatures. Some had thick scales, sharp teeth, and, in many cases, lightning-fast reflexes.

One thing they didn’t have: a planetary defense office.
 
When an asteroid targeted Earth 65 million years ago, it took those masters of Earth by complete surprise.

While we know of no large object that is on a collision course with Earth in the next 100 years, descendants of survivors from that catastrophic impact are determined not to make the same mistake.
 
In 2016, human astronomers now routinely scan the heavens for signs of potentially hazardous objects.

When one is discovered, alerts are issued to observers around the world so space rocks cannot easily disappear into the blackness of space.

NASA-funded survey projects have found 98 percent of the known catalogue of almost 15,000 near-Earth objects – asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them within 30 million miles of Earth’s orbit. The list is growing at a rate of about 1,500 per year.
 
Meanwhile, researchers are giving serious thought to an even bigger problem: What would we do if a dangerous asteroid is discovered? How will we know if and when it will impact? Is it possible to deflect or destroy it before it reaches Earth?
 
All of this work – from discovery to tracking to potential mitigation – is being done by a sprawling network of government agencies, private and public universities, and both amateur and professional astronomers.

Helping them work together is the job of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office.
 
“Planetary Defense is a team sport,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

This office was established at NASA Headquarters to coordinate the players in planetary defense related activities across NASA, other US government agencies, and with international efforts and projects to detect any asteroid impact hazard and plan the appropriate response.”
 
A recent real world example illustrates how this all works.
 
Paul Chodas, manager for NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, described what happened: “The object was first detected by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Arizona on October 3rd, 2015, and tagged as detection WT1190F.”
 
Within a couple of days, astronomers suspected it was probably an artificial object: It was faint and small with its motion visibly altered by the gentle pressure of sunlight – a bit like a solar sail or perhaps a hollow rocket body.
 
As tracking data accumulated from multiple observers, astronomers realized that they would get a closer look. This would be a real world case to exercise the team’s skills.

WT1190F was predicted to hit Earth on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015. Orbit calculations by JPL analysts pinpointed the impact time and site: WT1190F would burn into the atmosphere off the coast of Sri Lanka.
 
For years, Peter Jenniskens of the SETI institute working with NASA’s Ames Research Center has been leading teams researching entry dynamics on airborne campaigns to observe objects ripping through Earth’s atmosphere.

In 2006, for instance, they recorded the return of NASA's Stardust Sample Return Capsule with its cargo of cometary dust. They’ve also observed a number of defunct spacecraft re-entries and a few natural meteor events.
 
Supported in part by the United Arab Emirates Space Agency and the International Astronomy Center, Jenniskens assembled a group of experts to witness the re-entry of WT1190F.

They flew to the Indian Ocean on a G450 aircraft armed with cameras and spectrometers. Exactly at the time and place predicted by NASA’s Near Earth Object Observations program, WT1190F produced a magnificent fireball in broad daylight.
 
“The spectra of one large fragment contained bands of titanium oxide and a line of hydrogen. So the object could have been a titanium-walled vessel containing residual fuel,” Jenniskens said.

Chodas, who had been attempting to reconstruct WT1190F’s past orbital motion, said, “My educated guess, is that it was Lunar Prospector’s trans-lunar injection module, which had a titanium case. Although we may never know for sure.”
 
One thing is certain: Astronomers supported by NASA found it, tracked it, and predicted where it would hit with pinpoint accuracy.

These are exacting skills that will come in handy the next time an actual asteroid comes to visit. 
 
For more about asteroids and NASA’s planetary defense capabilities, go to www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense .

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Officials at California State Prison-Sacramento are investigating the fatal Thursday stabbing of an inmate from Lake County who was serving a sentence for second-degree murder.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation identified the inmate who died as Humberto Torres, 33.

Torres was received from Lake County on Jan. 26, 2000, and was serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder with a firearm, authorities said.

Officials said Torres had been an inmate at California State Prison-Sacramento, also known as CSP-SAC, since June 18, 2015.

Prison officials have named inmates Rudy De Lossantos, 38, and Michael Robles, 33, as the suspects in Torres' killing.

Officials said Torres was on C Facility – one of three maximum security facilities at the prison – at 1:30 p.m. Thursday when he was attacked by De Lossantos and Robles, who stabbed him multiple times.

Torres was pronounced dead at 1:56 p.m. Thursday, officials said.

Prison officials used six rounds of 40 millimeter rubber bullets, two blast dispersion grenades and OC pepper spray to disrupt the attack, after which a stabbing instrument was discovered, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's report.

Three correctional officers were taken to an area hospital for minor injuries suffered during the incident, officials said.

De Lossantos is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence for first-degree murder and was received from Orange County on Nov. 1, 2006. He has been an inmate at CSP-SAC since May 27, 2015.

Robles is serving a 200-year-to-life sentence for second-degree murder and was received from Riverside County on Feb. 25, 2005. He has been an inmate at CSP- Sac since May 24, 2013.

Opened in 1986, CSP-SAC is located adjacent to Folsom State Prison. It was first known as New Folsom until its name was changed in 1992.

CSP-SAC is a Level IV maximum security prison that houses 1,204 inmates serving long sentences or who have been management problems at other prisons.

The prison also houses inmates requiring specialized mental health programming and inmates with high risk medical concerns.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Law enforcement from Lake, Marin, Mendocino and Napa counties as well as state and federal agencies will take part in extended remote search training exercises next week.

The training will take place from 7 a.m. to midnight on Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13, around Lake Mendocino and the Cal Fire Station at Howard Forest, according to Lt. Shannon Barney of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

Barney said the agencies participating in the training will include the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the California National Guard, Cal Fire, Search and Rescue Teams from Lake, Napa, Marin, and Mendocino counties, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In recent years California State Wilderness Search and Rescue professionals have seen an increase in extended search and rescue missions in difficult-to-access, mountainous terrain across California.  Many of these incidents have occurred in Mendocino County or in adjacent counties, Barney said.

These searches often require a large commitment of advanced search and rescue teams and significant logistical support that must be brought to the scene, according to Barney.

Barney said these search and rescue missions also are often dependent on aviation resources to insert and extract teams and to be available to provide rescue support in the event of injured searchers or lost persons.
 
As a result, California State Search and Rescue coordinators, with the assistance of California Office of Emergency Services, have drafted a plan or guideline to be presented to the California State Sheriff’s Association for adoption, according to Barney's report.

Part of this plan calls for a more formal plan involving air assets of cooperating agencies, such as the California National Guard and Cal Fire, to assist in deploying or extracting resources to remote areas and or to provide medical extractions (hoist) to injured subjects, either the missing/lost persons or searchers, Barney reported.
 
In addition to wilderness search and rescue missions the National Guard and Cal Fire can be called to assist other emergency response personnel, including law enforcement, during incidents involving emergencies or natural disasters and law enforcement missions, Barney said.

This assistance is provided as a mutual aid support system and can include: providing critical transportation of personnel, medical evacuation, general evacuation, logistical supply, and technical night search capabilities using forward looking infrared cameras, according to Barney.
 
Barney said this joint training effort will utilize helicopter resources and crews from the California National Guard and Cal Fire specifically to train law enforcement and search and rescue teams in the capabilities of and safe operations of their respective helicopter platforms. 

These helicopters will include the National Guard CH47D Chinook, U/HH60 Blackhawk, UH72A Lakota and the Cal Fire UH1H Super Huey, Barney said.

Starting on Monday, July 11, the public will see an increase in helicopter operations regarding this training exercise in the area of Lake Mendocino, around the Ukiah Municipal Airport and on the Ridgewood Grade near the Cal Fire Station, Barney said.
 
For safety reasons during this training the US Army Corps of Engineers has closed the South Lake Mendocino Wildlife Area, including all hiking trails east of the Lake Mendocino Dam to the general public. These areas will reopen on Thursday, July 14, Barney said.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A local businessman and member of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has been ordered to stand trial in a case charging him with the attempted rape of a former girlfriend last summer.

At the end of a Thursday morning preliminary hearing that lasted less than an hour, Judge Andrew Blum ordered Richard Alvin Hamilton, 60, to be held to answer in the case.

According to court documents, Hamilton is charged with attempted rape, rape by force, assault with the intent to commit rape, sexual battery and false imprisonment for attempting to rape an ex-girlfriend at her Lakeport home.

The alleged victim did not go to police until October, and following an investigation led by Lakeport Police Det. Dale Stoebe, Hamilton was arrested on Oct. 22, as Lake County News has reported.

The only testimony given on Thursday came from Stoebe, who was called to the stand by Senior Deputy District Attorney Ed Borg.

Stoebe recounted meeting in October with the woman who told him that Hamilton had attacked her. During his testimony, in response to questioning from Borg, Stoebe would say that in his experience investigating sexual assaults, it's not unusual for victims to delay reporting an assault to police.

Hamilton and the woman had dated for about 10 months, with the dating relationship ending about four to five months before the incident for which Hamilton is charged, Stoebe said.

Stoebe said the two had reconnected on July 7, 2015, had a consensual sexual encounter with the woman telling Hamilton in the following days that she was in another relationship and couldn't continue being involved with him beyond being friends.

Four days later, they met at a farmer's market in Kelseyville and later went back to her home, where they drank wine together out on the deck and talked, Stoebe said.

Stoebe said the woman told him that she had gone back into the home and sat down on the couch, at which time she said Hamilton came in and jumped on her. She said he forced her down, held her hands above her head and started pushing up her shirt and bra and trying to remove her shorts while removing his own pants.

Hamilton wouldn't stop despite the woman telling him to, Stoebe said. The attack only stopped once the woman was able to get her knees up to her chest and kick Hamilton off of her, at which time he fixed his clothing and left.

In the months that followed, leading up to his October arrest, Hamilton – who owns a local sign company and sells real estate – left his business cards on the woman's car four different times, specifically, while it was at her residence, at her boyfriend's and twice while she was at work, Stoebe said.

“She was scared by that,” and felt she was being stalked, said Stoebe.

Hamilton's attorney, David Markham, asked Stoebe about a series of Facebook messages of a sexual nature that the woman and Hamilton exchanged on or about July 7, 2015.

The messages suggested that the woman had not been unhappy about that particular sexual encounter that occurred days before the incident that precipitated the case.

Markham's line of questioning also went into whether the alleged victim in the case had described having consensual “rough sex” with Hamilton. Stoebe acknowledged she did.

At one point, the woman and Hamilton met in Library Park, a meeting observed by Stoebe. The woman also was wearing a recording device.

During that meeting, Hamilton told the woman he didn't know she was serious when she told him to stop. The woman emphasized that she had told him no repeatedly, which Stoebe said made Hamilton mad.

During the conversation she also referred to painful bruises – on her wrists and inner thighs – she received when Hamilton held her down, Stoebe said.

Stoebe said Hamilton stated during the conversation that it would never happen again, and he claimed he had never acted out of anger against a woman before.

Following Stoebe's testimony, the prosecution and defense gave their arguments.

Markham said Hamilton would have needed to have intent to commit rape during the incident last July 11. “I don't think that's been shown here, even by a strong suspicion standard.”

He suggested that rough sex and being tied up had been normal for the couple, and raised the issues of the consensual sex and the Facebook messages in the days before the incident.

Markham acknowledged that it was not reasonable for Hamilton not to stop when she told him to do so. But when she kicked him off, he stopped.

“I think his intent on that date was to have sex with her,” not to rape her, Markham said.

Markham also said he did not see any credible threat from Hamilton for leaving the business cards for the woman, arguing he didn't see a basis for the stalking charge.

While he said there was “no question” that sexual battery occurred, Markham said there was insufficient evidence on the other charges.

Borg noted that the only reason Hamilton stopped trying to force himself on the woman was because she physically kicked him off.

“Circumstances here are very clear. He intended to have sex with her whether she consented or not,” Borg said.

He said Hamilton then followed the woman around, leaving his cards on her car. That, said Borg, was Hamilton telling the woman he was keeping an eye on her, which Borg argued was enough to establish a credible threat.

Blum, in his deliberations, asked if Hamilton didn't intend leaving his business cards on the woman's car to be a threat, “What possible reason would he have to leave cards on her car?”

Markham replied they were friends. Blum said he has a lot of friends, but he doesn't leave business cards.

Blum continued that while Hamilton may not have had the intent to rape, “It's also quite possible that he did.”

Referencing Stoebe's testimony about Hamilton pulling the woman's clothes off, Blum – in more rhetorical fashion than a direct question to Hamilton – asked, “What part of no don't you understand?”

Blum concluded there was sufficient cause to believe Hamilton guilty of the charges and ordered him to stand trial.

And while the business cards had no additional message written on them, Blum said it was reasonable that the woman would be placed in fear. “I would be.”

Blum ordered Hamilton to return to court on July 18 for arraignment in the case.

This will not be the first time Hamilton has stood trial for rape.

He went on trial twice in 2002 in Sacramento County for the alleged rape of a woman there in 2001. Both proceedings ended in mistrials, with the prosecution subsequently dropping the case, based on court records.

Despite the recent allegations against Hamilton, the Lake County Chamber of Commerce has allowed him to remain on its board of directors.

Chief Executive Officer Melissa Fulton told Lake County News that Hamilton is innocent until proven guilty.

In recent months, he has continued to represent the chamber – and the county of Lake – at out-of-county tourism-related events.

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.

On June 27, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the SB 833 legislation sponsored by state Sen. Hernandez.

SB 833 will greatly reduce the future scope of California's Medi-Cal Estate Recovery against the estate of deceased Medi-Cal beneficiaries.

For Medi-Cal recipients who die on or after Jan. 1, 2017, claims by California Medi-Cal Estate Recovery will be reduced to what is minimally required under federal law.

Federal law requires the state to seek adjustment or recovery from an individual's estate for specified medical assistance, including nursing facility services regardless of age if the person was permanently institutionalized, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services, if the individual was 55 years of age or older when he or she received the medical assistance.

Presently Medi-Cal Estate Recovery can, subject to limitations, seek recovery from the estate of the surviving spouse of a deceased Medi-Cal recipient if the surviving spouse's estate includes assets which the surviving spouse had received from the Medi-Cal recipient's estate (at death).

Under SB 833, Medi-Cal will no longer be able to recover from the surviving spouse's estate with respect to Medi-Cal recipients who die on or after Jan. 1, 2017.

The surviving spouse of such a person will not have to transfer any assets received from a deceased spouse's estate to safeguard them from recovery claims against the surviving spouse's own estate, when the surviving spouse later dies.

This is a major victory for those who advocated Medi-Cal Estate Recovery reform.

Under SB 833, Medi-Cal only will be able to proceed against assets that are part of the deceased Medi-Cal recipient's “probate estate.”

The probate estate is limited those assets that would be included in a probate were the deceased recipient's estate to be probated.

Presumably this applies regardless of whether or not the deceased recipient's estate is ever actually probated or not; that is, assets inside the estate of a decedent which is appraised at under the $150,000 probate threshold would presumably be considered to be a part of the decedent's probate estate for Medi-Cal Estate Recovery even though no probate is required.

This offers a planning opportunity: Effective Jan. 1, 2017, assets that transferred into a living trust prior to the deceased settlor's death are, therefore, not subject to Medi-Cal Estate Recovery claims against the deceased settlor.

The same is true for assets held as joint tenancy estates and or life estate assets; these pass automatically at death without becoming part of the decedent's probate estate.

Likewise, it would appear that the same outcome will also apply for real property transferred by means of the new transfer on death deed.

This will likely motivate persons who receive Medi-Cal to consider how best to keep their assets outside of their probate estate (one way or another) to avoid Medi-Cal recovery against their estates and so protect their loved ones.

That assets held in a decedent's revocable living trust will avoid both probate and Medi-Cal estate recovery simultaneously is important.

Living trusts can provide more protections to decedent's intended beneficiaries and offer more "what if contingency planning than is true of joint tenancy, life estate or TOD deeds.

In addition, SB 833 will also provide the following benefits: Persons will be able to request an itemized bill each year listing the cost of the Medi-Cal services received (for a $5 cost); interest to be charged against the probate estate of deceased Medi-Cal recipient will be at a lower rate; homesteads of "modest means” will be exempt from Medi-Cal recovery; and acupuncture will added as an approved Medi-Cal service (now effective).

The foregoing is great news. Of course, we do not have all the answers regarding the new legislation. More remains to be seen in 2017 once the legislation begins to be implemented.

Dennis A. Fordham, Attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com .

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – At its regular meeting on Tuesday the Clearlake Planning Commission approved an expansion for a daycare and new signage rules, and got an update on a proposed development project that is still in the works.

The first item on the hourlong meeting's agenda was the request from Cherry McCracken of Rumsey Rascals daycare for a minor use permit to expand her facility, located on Rumsey Road.

Commissioner Russ Cremer, who is a neighbor of McCracken's, recused himself from the discussion.

McCracken plans to expand Rumsey Rascals from a small in-home family daycare facility with a maximum of eight children to a large in-home family daycare facility with a 14-child capacity.

A neighbor raised an issue of parking on the roadway, which she said is already small and not well maintained.

Overall the commission appeared to have minor concerns about the project and approved it 4-0 before Cremer rejoined the meeting.

The commission then turned to the business of necessary upgrades to the city's signage rules as the result of a US Supreme Court ruling handed down in June 2015 regarding an Arizona town's signage regulations.

Attorney Crystal Hodgson of the firm Jones and Mayer, sitting in for the city's usual attorney Ryan Jones, explained that as a result of the case Reed vs. The Town of Gilbert, some changes to the city of Clearlake's existing sign code were required.

“Before that case, most federal courts ruled that cities could have a limited number of content-based regulations where they regulated signs based on what the signs contained. That was a little bit of an undecided legal issue,” Hodgson said.

In the Reed case, Hodgson said the Supreme Court decided that if you have to look at a sign and read its content in order to decide how to regulate it, it's content-based and is unconstitutional unless it can meet a high standard of scrutiny. She added that standard is difficult to meet.

Hodgson said she helped Assistant Planner Julie Burrow go through the city's sign and election codes to identify areas that needed to be changed.

One area of the election code has regulations pertaining only to political signs, and because it's content-based it's no longer permissible, Hodgson said.

Instead, Hodgson recommended removing that section from the election code and adding another in the signage code to allow for temporary, noncommercial signs in all zoning districts.

“Those provisions would allow for political and ideological signs,” Hodgson said.

They also allow for temporary signs with any message in residential neighborhoods, including for one-time events like yard sales or neighborhood parties, she said.

Other changes included allowing properties growing agriculture additional signage, clarifications for calculating sign area and limiting the size of window signs.

City Manager Greg Folsom told the commission that, as part of the zoning code updates, city staff will be doing a detailed review of the whole sign ordinance.

The commission moved to approve the updates 5-0.

Also on Tuesday, Folsom gave the commission a brief update on a proposed development agreement between the city and Orosco Development No. 19, LLC for property located at 15885 Dam Road.

He said the property is located on Dam Road just north of the Carl's Jr. restaurant, and is the site where there had been plans at one point to place a Fresh and Easy grocery store.

Fresh and Easy went into bankruptcy and began selling off property, with a developer purchasing several of those properties, including the one on Dam Road, Folsom said.

Folsom said he's been in discussion with the developer for a while, talking about a development agreement.

“We currently do not have what are called development improvement impact fees,” which go toward improving streets and other capital facilities, Folsom explained.

As the city puts its new general plan in place, Folsom said there are plans for also implementing such fees.

“In lieu of that I've been negotiating with the developer to provide a payment to the city that would help us to pay for some street improvements, specifically the Dam Road extension,” which Folsom said will go from the end of Dam Road up to 18th Avenue.

He said they are still negotiating a certain point of the agreement, the final version of which he hopes to have back before the commission at its next meeting later this month.

“We're not ready to go into all the details on it,” Folsom said.

However, since the hearing already had been publicly noticed, Folsom gave the update to the commission, which continued the matter to its July 19 at his request.

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.