NORTH COAST, Calif. – The annual quarantine on sport-harvested mussels gathered along the Mendocino Coast is now in effect.

The quarantine is in effect because testing by the California Department of Public Health has detected elevated levels of domoic acid and high numbers of the algae that produce this toxin.

“The quarantine is in place to protect the public against poisoning that can lead to severe illness, including coma and death,” said California Department of Public Health Director and State Health Officer Dr. Ron Chapman. “It is critical that the public honor this quarantine, as toxins found in mussels have no known antidotes. These toxins are not reliably destroyed by cooking.”

This quarantine, which typically starts on May 1 and ends Oct. 31, protects the public from paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and domoic acid poisoning (DAP).

Both of these toxins are linked to plankton consumed by filter-feeding animals, including bivalve shellfish, like mussels. The majority of human cases of PSP illnesses occur between spring and fall.

“Last year’s toxin levels resulted in extended warnings and quarantines in some areas,” added Chapman. “It’s very important that the public be aware of the current conditions.”

PSP affects the central nervous system, producing a tingling around the mouth and fingertips as soon as a few minutes after eating toxic shellfish.

These symptoms are typically followed by a loss of balance, lack of muscular coordination, slurred speech and difficulty swallowing. In severe cases, complete muscular paralysis and death from asphyxiation can occur.

Symptoms of DAP, also known as amnesic shellfish poisoning, can occur within 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating toxic seafood.

In mild cases, symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness. These symptoms disappear completely within several days. In severe cases, the victim may experience difficulty breathing, confusion, disorientation, seizures, permanent loss of short-term memory, coma and death.

Commercially harvested shellfish are not included in the annual quarantine. That’s because all commercial shellfish harvesters in California are certified by the state and subject to strict requirements to ensure that all oysters, clams and mussels entering the marketplace are free of toxins.

More information about the quarantine, PSP and DAP can be found on the CDPH Annual Mussel Quarantine FAQ Web page, www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/MusselQuarantineFAQ.aspx .  

For updated information on quarantines and shellfish toxins, call the CDPH Biotoxin Information Line (1-800-553-4133).

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The US Attorney’s Office has dropped the case against a Middletown man indicted earlier this year in a case alleging conspiracy in a home invasion robbery, while it has reached a plea agreement with another defendant and is moving forward with the cases against two other men.

Earlier this month US Attorney Melinda Haag’s office dismissed without prejudice its case against Eric Mendonca, who in January was indicted along with Petaluma residents Terry Jacksen and Michael Puckett, and Jack David Pollack of Hidden Valley Lake on suspicion of having robbed a Hidden Valley Lake resident of his marijuana, as Lake County News has reported.

Calls and emails to the public information office of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California regarding the case were not returned.

“The case against Eric should not have been brought,” Mendonca’s federal defender, Elizabeth Meyer Falk, told Lake County News in an email.

During raids in Middletown and Hidden Valley Lake last December, the Federal Bureau of Investigation took Mendonca – a former Lake County Sheriff’s deputy and Petaluma Police officer – into custody along with Jacksen and Pollack, while Puckett was arrested in January.

In January a federal grand jury charged the four men with robbery affecting interstate commerce, conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce, possession of a firearm in furtherance of the robbery, conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, impersonating an officer and making a search or arrest while impersonating an officer.

The men had been accused of committing an October 2012 home invasion robbery in Hidden Valley Lake, where 48 marijuana plants valued at $96,000 and a variety of other items were taken, according to the indictment.

Pollack, who owns a well pump business, allegedly had cased the home. Later, Jacksen – who had been staying on property rented by Mendonca in Middletown – arrived, allegedly dressed as a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy, and told the home’s occupants that he was working with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and was there to conduct a search. The home’s occupants were tied up and the marijuana plants were stolen.

According to the original case documents, Mendonca had been alleged to have provided Jacksen with the police uniforms.

During a search of Mendonca and Jacksen’s property in Middletown on Dec. 19 items including guns, a set of Lake County Sheriff’s Office handcuffs and a cellular telephone containing images of Jacksen and Puckett posing in Lake County Sheriff’s Office uniforms with firearms were discovered, according to case documents.

On March 13, US District Court Judge William Alsup signed an order to sever the case of Mendonca from his codefendants.

“Having heard a long day’s worth of testimony over the truthfulness or not of the search warrant affidavit, the Court is concerned that the case against Eric Mendonca has been built on innuendo and surmise rather than admissible evidence and that possibly he is an innocent man,” the order stated.

“Mr. Mendonca wants a speedy trial to vindicate himself, but his co-defendants do not,” the document continued. “The Court is further concerned that forcing Mr. Mendonca into a large trial, whenever it may eventually occur, with other co-defendants on unrelated issues will prejudice his right to a fair trial. Removing Mr. Mendonca from the mix will also simplify the later, larger trial.”

The March 13 severance order indicated Mendonca’s trial was to be set for late April, but just a few weeks after that order was filed, the US Attorney’s Office followed up by dismissing the indictment against Mendonca only without prejudice, which means the case could be filed again at a later time. Judge Alsup signed that dismissal order.

The cases against Mendonca’s codefendants, however, have proceeded, according to court records.

Jacksen reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. On April 16 a change of plea hearing was held for Jacksen before Judge Alsup, at which point documents indicated Jacksen pleaded guilty to one of the seven counts against him, namely, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. The court accepted Jacksen’s plea and ruled he was convicted as charged.

The count carries a maximum prison term of 10 years’ imprisonment, a maximum three years’ supervised release and a fine that could go as high as $250,000, based on the indictment.

As a result of the plea agreement, the government will dismiss the remaining counts at sentencing, which is scheduled for 2 p.m. July 23. The matter was referred to probation for a presentence report.

In Pollack’s case, a motion hearing has been set for May 14, and a bond hearing for Puckett is set for Thursday, May 2, before Judge Laurel Beeler.

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. – Fast motorcycles have been Tim Stenberg’s lifelong love, even if on a couple of occasions they almost shortened his life.

“I’ve had a couple of brushes,” acknowledges Stenberg, who carves out a living in an environment of sleek Harley-Davidsons and scattered parts of other motorcycles in varied stages of assembly at his Street Machines Cycleworks at 2345 S. Main St. in Lakeport.

“I had a crash back in ‘86 that tore up my face and pulled my right eye out of the socket. The tear duct in my eye was torn; it waters a lot,” he continues.

“Fortunately, I haven’t broken any bones, but I separated a shoulder. I was riding my dirt bike at the time at a place called ‘The Pit’ in Phoenix. I came up out of the Pit about 6 feet in the air. When I came down I saw that a road grader had dug a big trench shaped like a catcher’s mitt. I didn’t see it until I was up in the air and then it was too late.

“I was by myself, so I had to pick up my bike with one arm and get it started. Then I had to get it through four miles of river bottom to get to my van and drive myself to the hospital.”

But in the true spirit of the “motorcycle man” Stenberg’s love is eternal.

“It’s just in the blood,” he says.

Stenberg’s “saint” is Burt Munro, a New Zealand bike racer who set several speed records on the Bonneville (Utah) Salt Flats in the 1950s and 1960s on bikes of his own creation.

Munro was more or less deified among motorcycle devotees in a 2005 film, “The World’s Fastest Indian,” with Anthony Hopkins in the title role.

Come August, Stenberg plans to make his own assault on the Utah salt in quest of a speed record in the 1,000 cc (cubic centimeters in the measuring of engine displacement) class.

One piece at a time over the last several months he has been building the bike he’ll ride in his quest to eclipse the Southern California Timing Association’s current record in the classification for the bike he’ll be riding, known officially as the A-PG class.

The SCTA’s record for that class is 159.08 miles per hour. Stenberg figures he’ll need to hit speeds in the 170 mph range to eclipse it.

Under SCTA rules, a record-challenger’s speed is determined by what he averages on two three-mile runs. The process takes about an hour to complete, he says.

Stenberg moved to Lakeport about 14 years ago from his native Arizona, where he still holds a speed record at Phoenix’s Firebird International Raceway drag strip. He set the record, 114 mph, in the 500 cc class, in 1996.

He opened his own shop at Lampson Field airport and moved to his present shop in April 2012.

“I raced before I learned to drive,” he says. “I was pretty good on dirt bikes and I’ve (competed in) motocross, drag racing, road racing, everything from A to Z. But I’ve always wanted to go to Bonneville.”

So why hasn’t he done it before? And why now?

“Opportunity,” Stenberg responds. “I’m 55 years old and not getting any younger. If I’m going to do it, I’ve got to do it now.

Motorcycles have been his life for 40 of those years. When he was married in a lakeside ceremony in Lakeport he rode a motorcycle up the aisle with his mother seated behind him.

“It was the first time she had ever been on one,” Stenberg remembers with a grin. “My parents, especially my mom, were anti-motorcycle. She was scared to death of them. I remember the first time when I was in sixth grade and my friend had this little minibike. When I rode it home there was a look of horror on my mom’s face.”

Using various and sundry parts, Stenberg has always built his own bikes.

“All hand-built,” he says proudly. “There’s nothing I ride that I haven’t had my hands on. In my circle I’ve always been known for oddball motorcycles. I don’t go in for what everybody else is doing. I’ve always had smaller bikes than anybody else and less expensive than anybody else.”

With all the painstaking hours Stenberg invests in building his own machines it’s little wonder that he thinks of them almost as living organisms.

“You get attached to them,” he says as he shows a reporter a blue-colored motorcycle he has kept in storage he calls “Mighty Mouse.”

“It’s the bike I set the (Phoenix Firebird) record on,” he says. “It took me eight months to build it. The week after the record I entered it into a global wheels car show at Phoenix Coliseum and won a first-place trophy. That bike was really good to me. I probably have about five grand into it, but if somebody wanted to build one like it it would cost them $25,000.”

Stenberg’s objective is to have less than $3,500 into the bike he’ll ride to challenge the record on the Bonneville salt flats, where, he says “you see everything from garage and backyard-built bikes and others up to $100,000 and $200,000.”

He’s “very confident” about his shot at a record.

“I have seen the salt,” he says. “I know what it takes. I have a lot of experience and I have a lot of friends who have been at the salt. They tell me about the conditions, the dos and the don’ts. There are a lot of differences between racing on salt and racing on asphalt. For one thing, there’s a limited amount of traction.”

To challenge a record at Bonneville, a man has to know his salt.

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

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A Middletown man died on Friday night as the result of a crash that involved five vehicles and injured several people in Rancho Cordova.

Ivan Cecil Calvin, 51, died in the crash, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office confirmed to Lake County News on Monday.

In a report issued by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office – which contracts with the Rancho Cordova Police Department – the agency explained that the crash occurred just before 11:15 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the intersection of Folsom and Sunrise boulevards, resulting in the closure of streets in the area for several hours.

Rancho Cordova Police officers and Sacramento County Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the location in response to numerous calls from people reporting the crash, officials reported.

Officials said preliminary information suggested that a Volvo sedan – driven by Calvin – was traveling westbound on Folsom Boulevard at an extremely high rate of speed when it collided with a Range Rover SUV traveling southbound on Folsom Boulevard through the intersection.

The collision initiated a chain reaction in which three other passenger vehicles were struck, the sheriff’s office said.

Calvin was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the report.

The sheriff’s office said a 4-year-old boy who was a passenger in the Range Rover was ejected from the vehicle and thrown into the street. He sustained injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening.

The driver of the SUV, the child and occupants from three other vehicles all were transported to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries, which were not reported to be life-threatening, officials said.

The report said the crash remains under investigation by the Rancho Cordova Police Department's Traffic Motor Unit.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The 19th annual Heron Days bird tours event is Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5, sponsored by the Redbud Audubon Society.

The event features 90-minute pontoon-boat birding tours to see nesting birds and wildlife at two different locations on Clear Lake this year.

On Saturday, May 4, boats will leave from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. from the boat launch docks at Lakeside County Park in Kelseyville. The boat tours will go north along the shoreline of Clear Lake to the heron rookery near Corinthian Bay.

Sunday, May 5, boats will leave during the same hours from the boat launch docks at Redbud Park in the City of Clearlake. The boat tours will visit the heron rookery in Anderson Marsh at the south end of Clear Lake.

Each boat will have an experienced Audubon guide to explain the birds being seen on the tours. Besides several species of nesting herons and egrets, tour guests may see nesting osprey and cormorants, yellow-headed blackbirds, and Western and Clark’s grebes in courtship displays where they “dance” in pairs across the lake surface.

Boat tour tickets are $20 each and are available for on-line purchase at www.redbudaudubon.org or call 707-263-8030.

The other activities held at past Heron Festivals have been discontinued, including speakers, exhibit booths, and children’s activities.

With attendance reaching 2,000 people in recent years, the Heron Festival had grown to a point requiring over 200 Audubon volunteers and four months’ planning time for the all-volunteer festival managers. Consequently, this year’s event focuses only on the birding boat tours.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Newspapers sprouted all around Lake County before radio, television and the Internet supplied the news.

Lower Lake was home to the Lower Lake Sentinel and later the Lower Lake Bulletin. Kelseyville had the Kelseyville Sun. From Upper Lake came the Upper Lake Star and the Upper Lake Standard. Other early titles were the Lake County Avalanche, the Clear Lake Courier and the Clear Lake Times.

Information on Lake County’s newspapers before the mid-1860s is hard to come by. According to the 1881 History of Napa and Lake Counties, in 1866 a paper called the Observer was published in Lower Lake and the Clear Lake Courier was published in Lakeport. This book also states that there were other newspapers published in Lake County before 1866, but nearly nothing is known of them.

The newspapers that exist today all have long histories. Lake County’s longest running newspaper operation is the Lake County Record-Bee, the latest descendant of a line of papers that began in 1872 in Cloverdale. The Clear Lake Observer-American and the Middletown Times Star can trace their histories to the 1930s.

The genealogy of the Lake County Record-Bee (briefly outlined on the accompanying chart) illustrates the bewildering changes of ownership that have occurred in Lake County’s newspapers.

J. B. Baccus started the Cloverdale Bee in 1872, then moved his equipment to Lakeport and started the Lake County Bee in 1873. Baccus sold his interest to L. Wallace, and in 1885 Baccus was running the Clear Lake Press. Both the Press and the Bee are ancestors of today’s Record-Bee.

Long before Facebook, Twitter and email, Lake Countians shared their important personal news in the popular social media: newspapers. The local newspapers chronicled the visits of out-of-town friends and relatives, trips that local residents made, changes in local businesses, significant purchases like autos (a big announcement in 1913), and the medical conditions of the townspeople.

A century ago, Lakeport boasted two newspapers, the Lake County Bee and the Clear Lake Press. Kelseyville residents read about their neighbors in the Sun, and Middletown had its Independent. Copy and paste is nothing new – the Lake County newspapers routinely copied news from each other in their quest for news to fill their columns.

Special correspondents wrote weekly social news columns for the major papers, a practice that existed into the 1970s when people like Thelma Griner in Upper Lake and Marie Forbes in Lucerne reported social news from around the county. The correspondents contacted people in their towns, asking them for news which they then submitted to the newspapers.

Sometimes the editors and publishers themselves were the actors in the dramas that played out on the front pages.

One such case began in November, 1913, when Hugh Cross decided to retire and lease the Lake County Bee’s plant and business to John J. Morton.

On Nov. 6, Morton published his first edition, then, according to Cross, influenced by “certain people whose moral turpitude impels them to tell lies and meddle in other people’s affairs, Mr. Morton developed a pronounced case of cold feet and passed up the deal after the papers had been signed.”

Cross then returned to the editor’s desk while Morton returned to San Francisco. For weeks Cross reported the progress of the debacle while over at the Clear Lake Press, editor Percy Millberry capitalized on the spectacle. His lively writings with headlines like “Mexican Tangle Outdone In Quick Change Of Bee Editors” likened Cross to a Mexican dictator and Morton to a Texas insurgent.

Morton tried to regain control of the Bee but Cross refused to comply. Morton filed suit against Cross; Judge Bruton dismissed the suit and Morton and Cross settled the matter with Morton back in control.

John J. Morton’s editorial (“We Have the Gun; Tell us Where to Fire,” Jan. 22, 1914) declared that “[a]fter much litigation and bitter invectiveness this paper has again come into the possession and control of John J. Morton, the present proprietor and editor. We come today before the people of Lake County with a straight game and the cards up, but we claim your indulgence if we do not show our complete hand. Every method of opposition that could be used, every unfair scheme that could be devised was employed by the interests who though it unsafe to let the present editor get possession of this paper. We do not accuse the late editor of having knowledge [of] the interests behind this game. The latter gentleman was merely an unknowing cog in the wheel of the scheme to fleece Lake County. But let us dismiss the unsavory mistakes of the past and speak of the glorious possibilities of Lake County’s future.”

Editors managed to publish their papers despite disasters and personal tragedies. With dedication that the Lake County Bee termed “heroic,” Lavinia Yates Noel, ill with pneumonia contracted in the “Spanish Flu” influenza pandemic, published her last issue of the Lower Lake Bulletin five days before dying in January 1919.

Fire destroyed or damaged several buildings in downtown Lakeport on April 20, 1926, including the offices of both of Lakeport’s newspapers.

The Lake County Bee employees, having rescued the press and other equipment, returned to their nearly-completed issue and went to press five hours after the fire started.

The same fire destroyed the nearby office of the Clear Lake Press, but owners Ed Moore and Sid Roche published the next issue with help from the Bee.

Rival editors battled over the issues of their times and addressed each other in strong terms. In no uncertain terms, Hugh Cross of the Lake County Bee took Mort Stanley of the Middletown Independent to task for his support of the Yolo Water and Power Co. in 1913 and complimented Eubra Bryant of the Kelseyville Sun on his stand against Yolo Water and Power.

The newspapers made no secret of their political affiliations, declaring allegiance to the Republicans or Democrats. In the 1870s, Lakeport had two rival Democrat newspapers the Lake Democrat and the Lake County Bee, which merged in 1880.

Lake County’s newspapers were often “mom-and-pop” enterprises with family members performing all the roles from sweeping the floor to writing editorials and handling the finances.

Spouses Alonzo and Lavinia Noel ran the Lower Lake Bulletin together for five years until Alonzo’s death in 1893, and then Lavinia published and edited the Bulletin for another 26 years.

Manning and Marcia Mayfield bought the Clear Lake Press in 1893. Manning died in 1903 and Mrs. Mayfield continued the business with her son-in-law David F. McIntire until her retirement in 1905.

J.S. and Nora McEwen operated the Kelseyville Sun for 10 years before selling it to Eubra and Alice Bryant in 1911. The Bryants owned the paper until 1942 when “ill health and war conditions forced its closure.”

Ed and Florence Moore owned the Lake County Bee, the Lake County Record and the Clear Lake Press, all antecedents of the Record-Bee, between 1926 and 1951.

Bonny and Ross Hanchett bought the Clear Lake Observer-American in 1955 and ran the paper until 1986, when they sold it. Ross Hanchett died a short time later and Bonny became the owner of the Cloverdale Reveille for nearly 20 years.

Among Lake County’s newspapermen have been people who started young in printing and journalism, such as Eubra Bryant and Ed Moore, but others began their careers in other fields.

Lawyers such as Alonzo Noel, David Hanson, R. W. Crump and D. F. McIntire were drawn to newspapering and all published newspapers in Lake County. Hanson, Crump and McIntire all served as Lake County’s district attorney.

The publishers kept up with technology, embracing the latest technology to produce their papers.

Marcia Mayfield was one of those who set type by hand before Percy Millberry brought a Merganthaler linotype machine to Lake County in 1912. Linotype machines were standard equipment in Lake County’s newspaper plants. The Record-Bee made major changes in 1973, retooling its operation with a photo-offset press.

Computerization has changed the industry. Composition and layout is done on computers and the news itself is now published online.

Dec. 19, 2006, was an historic day in Lake County journalism, when Elizabeth Larson, her husband John Jensen and others, having left the Record-Bee, started Lake County News ( www.lakeconews.com ), a wholly online news service.

Larson and Jensen married their newspaper backgrounds with their computer skills to bring paperless news to Lake County.

The Record-Bee now publishes both an online version and an e-version. The day may come when all of Lake County’s news will be published online and newsprint might be only a memory.

Printed newspapers are losing ground to instant, electronically-delivered news.

All of Lake County’s local newspapers struggle to survive in competition with multiple electronic media. The papers are thinner than in former days. The Clearlake Observer American, now part of MediaNews Group along with the Record-Bee and about 50 other papers across the country, has returned to being published once a week.

Local ownership of Lake County’s newspapers is rare now. The Middletown Times-Star continues in local hands, but the Record-Bee and the Clearlake Observer American belong to MediaNews Group. Lake County’s online news service, Lake County News, is locally-owned.

For those people interested in reading Lake County’s historical newspapers, microfilm has preserved many of them, making it possible to explore the county’s history as it unfolded.

The California State Library filmed many papers, and the Lake County Library routinely microfilms current Lake County newspapers.

The library’s microfilm collection can be viewed at the Lakeport Library and the Redbud Library in the city of Clearlake on computerized readers that can print, save or email from the films.

Lake County history scrolls through the viewing window, a kind of time machine that offers glimpses of times past.

Jan Cook has lived in Lake County for about 40 years. She works for the Lake County Library, is the editor of the Lake County Historical Society's Pomo Bulletin and is a history correspondent for Lake County News. If you have questions or comments please contact Jan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

January 1913 Lake County Bee Editorial by LakeCoNews

Lake County Record-Bee Genealogy by LakeCoNews

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The second annual list ranking the country’s best bass lakes has been released by Bassmaster Magazine.

Michigan’s Lake St. Clair took the No. 1 spot, while Falcon Lake, which was last year’s No.1, fell to seventh.

Texas’ Sam Rayburn Reservoir took the second spot, while Clear Lake was ranked No. 3.

Lake Guntersville, Ala., and Lake Erie – which stretches through Michigan, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania – landed in fourth and fifth places, respectively.

“It is truly amazing how much a fishery can change in the span of 12 months,” said BassmasterMagazine Editor James Hall. “Most bass anglers, including me, figured Falcon would be ranked No. 1 for the next decade. However, the fishing there has been tough because of drought and fishing pressure. And based on the metrics we use to create the list, then rank the lakes, Lake St. Clair deserved the title of best bass lake in America.”
 
St. Clair’s smallmouth population is legendary, but it is the emergence of its largemouth fishery that solidified its No. 1 ranking.

Elite Series pro Jason Christie won the most recent B.A.S.S. event there with a three-day total of 67-4. But the most astounding fact from that July tournament was that 135 of the 147 pro anglers boated five-fish limits every day, with more than two tons of bass being weighed in.
 
The metrics used to create the rankings included catch rate and shock data from state wildlife agencies; a survey of B.A.S.S. Nation conservation directors and presidents based on tournaments held across the country; and a survey of 3,500 B.A.S.S. members across the country to detail nontournament lakes.

To finalize the rankings, Bassmaster enlisted a panel of outdoor writers, Elite Series pros and fishing industry insiders.
 
“The process is as all-encompassing and data-driven as we can make it. Our goal is to identify the hottest lakes in the country so fishermen don’t have to worry about doing the research,” Hall said. “An angler can look at this list and know that the lakes are very healthy, and the odds of having a fantastic day on the water are high.”
 
He added, “One of the biggest jumps was Chickamauga Lake in Tennessee. That body of water is on fire right now with 40-pound limits being caught. It was 61st last year, and climbed to the sixth spot this year.”
 
Lake Okeechobee (Fla.), San Joaquin Delta (Calif.) and Toledo Bend Reservoir (Texas) round out the Top 10.

For the complete listing of lakes and details on the fisheries, visit www.Bassmaster.com/top100 .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Four cats are ready and waiting for adoption at the county’s animal shelter this week.

Three females and a male are needing new homes. They range in age from 2 to 8 years, and all have been altered.

In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped 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 there, hoping you'll choose them.

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

Domestic short hair calico

This female domestic short hair mix is 2 years old.

She has a short calico coat and gold eyes, and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 2, ID No. 36033.

Black male cat

This black male cat is 2 years old.

He weighs 8 pounds, has a short coat and gold eyes, and has been altered.

Find him in cat room kennel No. 49, ID No. 35862.

Domestic short hair mix

This female domestic short hair mix is 8 years old.

She has a gray and white coat, green eyes, weighs nearly 8 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 105, ID No. 36162.

‘Susie Q’

“Susie Q” is an 8 year old domestic medium hair mix.

She has green eyes, a gray and white coat, weighs 14 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in cat room kennel No. 106, ID No. 36161.

Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .

Please note: Cats listed at the shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A new and varied bunch of dogs are available for adoption at Lake County Animal Care and Control this week.

Need a Chihuahua or a hound? A retriever or a terrier? You can find one down at the shelter.

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”).

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

Female Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix is 2 years old.

She has a short tan and brown coat, weighs 7 pounds, and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 35907.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 7 years old.

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

Find him in kennel No. 18, ID No. 36150.

Pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 6 months old.

She has a short brown and white coat, has gold eyes, weighs 25 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 19, ID No. 35880.

‘Sparkles’

“Sparkles” is a 2 year old terrier mix.

She has a short black and white spotted coat, floppy ears and has been spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 20, ID No. 35947.

Beagle-Australian Shepherd mix

This male beagle-Australian Shepherd mix is 7 years old.

He has a short brown and white coat, weighs 47 pounds, has a docked tail and has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 36111.

Pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix, called “Bella,” is 3 years old.

She has a short brown coat, weighs 48 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 26, ID No. 36074.

‘Blaze’

“Blaze” is a 3-year-old male pit bull terrier mix.

He has a short blue and white coat, weighs 70 pounds and has not yet been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 28, ID No. 36173.

Female hound

This female hound mix, called “Bella,” is 2 years old.

She has a short tricolor coat, weighs 46 pounds and has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 35356.

Male shepherd mix

This male shepherd mix is 4 years old.

He has a short white coat and has not been altered.

Find him in kennel No. 31, ID No. 36078.

Labrador Retriever mix

This male Labrador Retriever is 8 months old.

He weighs 86 pounds, has a short yellow coat and has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 32, ID No. 36131.

Please note: Dogs listed at the county shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday, May 1.

The meeting will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the conference room at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

Agenda items for Wednesday include a report on Lakeport’s branding efforts, a discussion of regional economic development, committee member reports and business outreach efforts. They also will schedule future speakers and meetings, and there will be the opportunity for citizen’s input.

At the end of the meeting there also may be a site visit to the Carnegie Library, for which the group is looking at possible future uses.

The committee advocates for a strong and positive Lakeport business community and acts as a conduit between the city and the community for communicating the goals, activities and progress of Lakeport’s economic and business programs.

Members do not have to be Lakeport residents. Current members include Mireya Turner, Melissa Fulton, Carol Hays, Barbara Johnson, George Linn, Nina Marino, Wilda Shock, Bill Eaton and Taira St. John. City staffers Andrew Britton and Margaret Silveira are ex-officio committee members.

The committee is next scheduled to meet from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 5, at Lakeport City Hall.

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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Lake County Land Trust will hold its annual spring dinner on Monday, May 13, at the Saw Shop Gallery Bistro in Kelseyville starting at 6 p.m.

The Land Trust’s Spring Dinner is one of two major fundraising events held each year by the trust.

Proceeds facilitate the work of the organization, including the current Big Valley Wetlands project. The Land Trust is working to protect a majority of the remaining tule marshes and wetlands on the west side of Clear Lake, between the Clear Lake State Park and south Lakeport.

Proceeds from the annual spring dinner are also used to manage and improve the Nature Education Center at the Rodman Slough Preserve.

Weekly walks are held at the preserve and programs are held at the education center on a quarterly basis.

Starting in June, a children’s nature program will be offered on the third Saturday of each month, developed and led by local children’s nature education specialist Elaine Mansell.

The Land Trust also owns and operates the Rabbit Hill Park in Middletown and is currently co-managing with The Nature Conservancy, the fabulous Boggs Lake Preserve, a unique vernal pool habitat on Mt. Hannah.

The dinner is $70 per person with all proceeds going to Lake County Land Trust projects. Dinner is served at 7 p.m. The public is cordially invited.

Services, food, and wine for a delicious four-course dinner are graciously donated by Marie Beery of the Saw Shop Gallery Bistro. Reservations are required and can be made by calling the Saw Shop at 707-278-0129. Payment is taken at the door.

The Lake County Land Trust is a private, nonprofit corporation. Donations are tax-deductible.

For more information, go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org . Membership in the Land Trust starts at just $20 a year, and with donations of $100 or more per year various fun member benefits are offered.

The Solar System is a beautiful place filled with wonders that NASA space probes are only beginning to discover.

There’s a tendency, though, for people to become indifferent; every year Hubble, Cassini, MESSENGER and other spacecraft beam back gigabytes of jaw-dropping images.

After a while, you don’t have any more “gasps” left in you.

Well, maybe just one more. Inhale deeply, because at the end of April, Saturn will put on a breathtaking display.

No space probe is required to see it. Just set up a telescope in your back yard – even a small department store ‘scope will do – and point the optics toward the constellation Virgo. Saturn is there, not far from the bright star Spica.

On April 28, Saturn makes its closest approach to Earth, appearing bigger and brighter than at any other time in 2013.

Astronomers call this event “an opposition,” because Saturn will be opposite the sun in the skies of Earth. The golden planet rises at sunset, soars almost overhead at midnight, and stays up all night long.

Observers who see Saturn for the first time through the eyepiece of a telescope often gasp. The view is Hubble-esque, but the experience is much more personal.

You’re seeing Saturn with your own eyes, a celestial wonder right out of the pages of an Astronomy magazine. The sight of that cloudy sphere suspended in the middle of crisp, thin icy rings is almost unreal.

To the naked eye, Saturn at opposition is about twice as bright as a first-magnitude star. This makes it relatively easy to find.

On April 28 Saturn will be closest to Earth – about 1.3 billion kilometers away. If clouds intervene, don’t worry; there are many more opportunities to look. Saturn will remain a golden jewel in the midnight sky for weeks to come.

Meanwhile, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is circling Saturn, exploring the planet and its environment at point-blank range.

Since it reached the Saturn system in 2004, Cassini has found a moon with “tiger stripes” spewing geysers of salty water; an electrical storm big enough to swallow Earth; methane lakes and rain on Titan; braids, spokes and other strange ripples in Saturn’s rings; a hexagonal cloud system surrounding Saturn’s north pole; a satellite that looks like a sponge, and much more.

Saturn is near. Save the indifference for another planet!

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