LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several adult cats that it’s looking to place in new homes.
The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
This Siamese cat is in kennel No. 16b, ID No. 11840. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Siamese cat
This Siamese cat of undetermined gender has a long coat and blue eyes.
It’s in kennel No. 16b, ID No. 11840.
This male domestic short hair cat is in kennel No. 73, ID No. 11916. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair cat has a gray tabby and white coat, and green eyes.
He’s in kennel No. 73, ID No. 11916.
This female domestic short hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. 11827. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair cat has a gray coat.
She’s in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. 11827.
This female lilac point cat is in kennel No. 130, ID No. 11930. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female lilac point cat
This female lilac point cat has a short coat and blue eyes.
She’s in kennel No. 130, ID No. 11930.
This male domestic longhair cat is in cat room kennel No. 138, ID No. 11877. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic longhair
This male domestic longhair cat has a gray tabby and white coat and green eyes.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 138, ID No. 11877.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
This view of asteroid Bennu ejecting particles from its surface on January 19 was created by combining two images taken on board NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Other image processing techniques were also applied, such as cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast of each image. Credits: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona/Lockheed Martin. A NASA spacecraft that will return a sample of a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu to Earth in 2023 made the first-ever close-up observations of particle plumes erupting from an asteroid’s surface.
Bennu also revealed itself to be more rugged than expected, challenging the mission team to alter its flight and sample collection plans, due to the rough terrain.
Bennu is the target of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, which began orbiting the asteroid on Dec. 31.
Bennu, which is only slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building, may contain unaltered material from the very beginning of our solar system.
“The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “And the rugged terrain went against all of our predictions. Bennu is already surprising us, and our exciting journey there is just getting started.”
Shortly after the discovery of the particle plumes on Jan. 6, the mission science team increased the frequency of observations, and subsequently detected additional particle plumes during the following two months.
Although many of the particles were ejected clear of Bennu, the team tracked some particles that orbited Bennu as satellites before returning to the asteroid’s surface.
The OSIRIS-REx team initially spotted the particle plumes in images while the spacecraft was orbiting Bennu at a distance of about one mile (1.61 kilometers).
Following a safety assessment, the mission team concluded the particles did not pose a risk to the spacecraft. The team continues to analyze the particle plumes and their possible causes.
“The first three months of OSIRIS-REx’s up-close investigation of Bennu have reminded us what discovery is all about – surprises, quick thinking, and flexibility,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We study asteroids like Bennu to learn about the origin of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx’s sample will help us answer some of the biggest questions about where we come from.”
OSIRIS-REx launched in 2016 to explore Bennu, which is the smallest body ever orbited by spacecraft. Studying Bennu will allow researchers to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the sources of water and organic molecules on Earth, the resources in near-Earth space, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.
The OSIRIS-REx team also didn’t anticipate the number and size of boulders on Bennu’s surface. From Earth-based observations, the team expected a generally smooth surface with a few large boulders. Instead, it discovered Bennu’s entire surface is rough and dense with boulders.
The higher-than-expected density of boulders means that the mission’s plans for sample collection, also known as Touch-and-Go (TAG), need to be adjusted. The original mission design was based on a sample site that is hazard-free, with an 82-foot (25-meter) radius.
However, because of the unexpectedly rugged terrain, the team hasn’t been able to identify a site of that size on Bennu. Instead, it has begun to identify candidate sites that are much smaller in radius.
The smaller sample site footprint and the greater number of boulders will demand more accurate performance from the spacecraft during its descent to the surface than originally planned. The mission team is developing an updated approach, called Bullseye TAG, to accurately target smaller sample sites.
“Throughout OSIRIS-REx’s operations near Bennu, our spacecraft and operations team have demonstrated that we can achieve system performance that beats design requirements,” said Rich Burns, the project manager of OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Bennu has issued us a challenge to deal with its rugged terrain, and we are confident that OSIRIS-REx is up to the task.”
The original, low-boulder estimate was derived both from Earth-based observations of Bennu’s thermal inertia – or its ability to conduct and store heat – and from radar measurements of its surface roughness.
Now that OSIRIS-REx has revealed Bennu’s surface up close, those expectations of a smoother surface have been proven wrong. This suggests the computer models used to interpret previous data do not adequately predict the nature of small, rocky, asteroid surfaces. The team is revising these models with the data from Bennu.
The OSIRIS-REx science team has made many other discoveries about Bennu in the three months since the spacecraft arrived at the asteroid, some of which were presented Tuesday at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Conference in Houston and in a special collection of papers issued by the journal Nature.
The team has directly observed a change in the spin rate of Bennu as a result of what is known as the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack effect.
The uneven heating and cooling of Bennu as it rotates in sunlight is causing the asteroid to increase its rotation speed. As a result, Bennu's rotation period is decreasing by about one second every 100 years.
Separately, two of the spacecraft’s instruments, the MapCam color imager and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer, have made detections of magnetite on Bennu’s surface, which bolsters earlier findings indicating the interaction of rock with liquid water on Bennu’s parent body.
Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing flight operations.
Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
Dennis Fordham. Courtesy photo. Lifetime events relating to a person’s assets and family situation can materially affect how their estate is distributed when they die.
Consider lifetime gifts and loans by a parent to a child. A person’s trust or will may say that lifetime gifts and/or unpaid loans to a child shall be counted as advances against the child’s eventual inheritance. If the document is silent, however, lifetime gifts are not advances.
If they count, however, lifetime advances are first added back into the undistributed estate to compute the entire estate and determine each child’s proportionate share. The advance is then subtracted from the share of the enlarged estate of the child who received the advance.
While the explanation is straightforward, administration is more complicated. Disputes can arise over the amount and terms of such lifetime gifting and/or loans to be repaid. Records of each lifetime gift or loan should exist to avoid, or to limit, the dispute. The trust can refer to the lifetime gifts or loans and the type of ongoing record keeping.
For example, a trust may say that the parent loaned the child $100,000 at 4% compound annual interest and say that the parent is keeping ongoing repayment records.
Sometimes a child loans a parent money to cover the parent’s necessary household expenses. If so, the child and parent should sign a written agreement detailing the terms of repayment. The loan might also be secured against the residence to give the child priority over unsecured creditors (e.g., credit card companies).
Again, ongoing record keeping is important. Like all other debts, any unpaid balance is first repaid before the remaining balance of the estate is distributed amongst the beneficiaries.
Generally, if a specifically gifted asset – like real property -- is sold while the owner is alive, and the owner’s trust (or will) is not updated to remove the gift, then the specific gift is, “adeemed”, i.e., revoked.
Any unspent sale proceeds left in the decedent’s estate – after paying the decedent’s personal debts, taxes and the expenses of settling the decedent’s estate – is distributed with the balance of the estate.
The distribution of the balance of the estate – called the residue – may or may not mirror how the specific gift was to be distributed.
However, when specifically gifted property is sold on behalf of an incapacitated person while alive – by an agent under a power of attorney, a conservator, or the trustee of the person’s trust – then, generally, the death beneficiary is entitled to a gift of money equal to the net sale price of the property sold unreduced by any encumbrance to be paid off (e.g., mortgage).
Next, if the property being specifically gifted was destroyed, condemned, sold, or foreclosed, as relevant, then the beneficiary is entitled to receive the undistributed insurance proceeds, condemnation award, the sales payment, or any property acquired as a result (or in lieu of) foreclosure, as relevant, still owed to the decedent.
For example, if the decedent’s residence was destroyed by fire then the intended death beneficiary is entitled to the unpaid insurance proceeds.
Also, intervening births, marriages, deaths and divorces can affect the distribution of a person’s estate generally, and specific gifts too. Thus, an estate plan is then revisited to address major lifetime events if existing documents did not address these eventualities.
Staying current with one’s estate planning is necessary. Events between when one signed one’s living trust and when one dies may affect the planned distribution of assets in unintended and unforeseen ways.
As a rule of thumb, it is good practice to review one’s estate plan every five years, and sooner when major events occur.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The annual Redbud Audubon Heron Days event is returning this spring.
Redbud Audubon will continue to follow the format that was started last year with Heron Days taking place over two weekends at two different locations: Lakeside County Park on Saturday, April 27, and Sunday, April 28, and at Clear Lake Campground on Cache Creek in Clearlake on Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5.
The Redbud Audubon Society has held this event for more than 20 years. It includes taking visitors on pontoon boats to different sites on Clear Lake to see nesting great blue herons, egrets and double-crested cormorants.
Often seen on the boat rides are numerous other wildfowl, most notably the Western and Clarkes Grebes that often put on grand displays of “dancing,” across the water as part of their courtship ritual.
Grebes too are often on their nests that are formed on tules along the shoreline in certain areas of the lake.
Boats are careful not to disturb wildlife and visitors are often treated to unexpected sightings such as otters, muskrats, and even bald eagles.
One of the colorful grebes that live on Clear Lake. Photo by Brad Barnwell. The 90-minute tours will leave between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. The tour fee is $30.
Tours from Lakeside County Park follow the shoreline where numerous grebes, cormorants and other wildlife can be viewed as well as an active Great-blue Heron rookery, or nesting site.
The trip from Clear Lake Campground travels into Anderson Marsh and along Cache Creek, which is the location of another heron rookery and may be hosting nesting and mating Western and Clarks Grebes.
Well-behaved children over 8 are welcome but no pets, please.
Registration will open on March 20 and will be available on the Redbud Audubon Web site at www.redbudaudubon.org. You may also call 707-263-8030 for more information.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Middletown on Friday to proclaim a state of emergency throughout California ahead of the coming fire season and to announce a series of projects and associated efforts to protect life and property.
Newsom gathered with members of the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Brian Martin, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and state Sen. Mike McGuire, noting he had spoken to them about Lake County’s challenges in wildfire response and recovery since 2015.
“We’re here to celebrate the tenacity and commitment and resolve of this community, and we’re here to do more to support this community as well,” he said.
The governor added that the state wants to help with Lake County’s recovery and rebuilding, help invest in it, “and get this community back on its feet.”
Part of Newsom’s announcement involved expediting forest management projects that will protect 200 of California’s most wildfire-vulnerable communities, in response to a report Cal Fire released earlier this month that identified 35 priority fuel-reduction projects covering 94,000 acres that can be implemented immediately to help reduce the public safety risk for wildfire.
None of those listed projects are in Lake County; among the closest are two in Mendocino County, in Ukiah and Willits, and one in Elk Creek in Glenn County.
That and other parts of the plan are meant to be strategic in protecting 2.2 million homes in the wildland urban interface, he said.
Newsom said he chose to make the declaration “in advance of an emergency” as part of taking a new approach to the state’s fire-related challenges.
“Rather than reacting, we want to get ahead of this by moving forward in an efficient and effective manner to protect lives and protect property, before lives are lost and property is lost,” he said.
He said the action is controversial as some people want to maintain the state’s processes. However, Newsom said the state can choose to go through its usual advertising, procurement and environmental process “or we can actually get some stuff in real time.”
The bottom line, Newsom said, is that the state has to step up its game. “This fire season, it’s right around the corner.”
He added, “We cannot be once again flat-footed and just in a reactive and suppression mode. We’ve got to be much more proactive.”
Last year, 1.9 million acres burned across California, he said.
More than a quarter of that acreage total was burned in the Mendocino Complex, the largest fire in California history since fires began to be recorded, at 459,123 acres. It burned across Mendocino and Lake counties, and into Colusa and Glenn counties from late July into mid September.
The complex, made up of the Ranch and River fires, resulted in thousands of Lake County residents being evacuated, with nearly 300 structures destroyed.
Then in November, the Camp fire destroyed Paradise in Butte County, killing 85 people, and burning more than 18,800 structures and more than 153,000 acres. It was reported to be the deadliest fire in a century.
“We’ve got to do more, we’ve got to do better,” Newsom said.
Sheriff Brian Martin said Lake County has endured a lot. “Lake County really embodies being tough in California.”
He agreed with the governor that it’s important to be proactive. “It’s not a matter of if this is going to happen again, it’s a matter of what we do when it happens again.”
“There is no other county that has been impacted with wildland fire like Lake County,” said Sen. McGuire.
McGuire said 60 percent of Lake County’s land mass has burned since 2015.
Since that time, Lake County has only been able to rebuild 17 percent of its burned homes, with 35 percent still in the permitting process, McGuire said.
That’s compared to the Coffey Park area in Santa Rosa, burned in the October 2017 fire storm. McGuire said that area has seen 75 to 80 percent of its destroyed homes rebuilt or in the permit stage in less than a year and a half.
“This county needs the state’s help,” McGuire said.
Newsom’s plan includes time-saving waivers of administrative and regulatory requirements to protect public safety and allow for action to be taken in the next 12 months, which will begin to systematically address community vulnerability and wildfire fuel buildup through the rapid deployment of forest management resources.
He said that if the California Environmental Quality Act can be fast-tracked for arenas and football stadiums, “we certainly should be able to do so to save people’s lives.”
The governor also said he appreciated President Donald Trump’s visit to Butte County last year in the wake of the Camp fire. “It made a difference. I saw it in the face of the people when he came in.”
Newsom added, “This is not an area for politics. Emergency preparedness, recovery, is not an area for politics. We all have to rise above it.” The governor said he had reached out to the president privately to express those sentiments.
Other parts of the governor’s plan to be proactive include the following:
– The “Innovation Procurement Sprint” seeks to turn government contracting on its head by giving the best and brightest minds an opportunity to have their wildfire solutions tested and evaluated in the field. The governor ordered this “sprint” so that the best tools and technologies can be purchased under government contract while they are still cutting-edge, in an effort to save lives and properties.
– The $50 million California for All Emergency Preparedness Campaign, a joint initiative between Cal Volunteers and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, will augment the efforts of first responders by ensuring at least one million of the most vulnerable Californians are connected to culturally and linguistically competent support.
– The California Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Conservation have announced the award of $20 million in block grants for regional projects that improve forest health and increase fire resiliency. This Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program helps communities prioritize, develop and implement projects that strengthen fire resiliency.
– The administration is publishing Emergency Alert and Warning Guidelines. The guidelines, which were mandated as a result of SB 833 (McGuire), aim to help cities, counties and the state get on the same page when it comes to communicating with Californians in an emergency.
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.
According to the 1958 law that established NASA, where the first “A” in NASA stands for aeronautics, the agency is charged with solving the problems of flight within the atmosphere.
But the law doesn’t say which planet’s atmosphere.
In that spirit, when the decision was made to add a small helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover mission to the Red Planet, experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California looked to the agency’s finest aeronautical innovators on this planet for help.
“Flying a heavier-than-air vehicle within Mars’ thin atmosphere has never been done before, and we’re excited our aeronautics experts could help with this important space mission,” said Susan Gorton, NASA’s manager for the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project.
This first Mars Helicopter will serve as a technology demonstrator that, if successful, will enable future scientists to remotely explore regions of the planet’s surface far from its mothership’s landing site.
“The Mars Helicopter’s initial flight will represent that planet’s version of the Wright Brothers’ achievement at Kitty Hawk and the opening of a new era,” Gorton said. “For those of us whose research revolves around all things related to flight, that would be a remarkable, historic moment.”
Still, there are no guarantees.
Cleared for takeoff
The problems facing the Mars Helicopter design team were and are daunting. The vehicle must fly in Mars’ thin atmosphere, survive brutally cold nights, and operate essentially on its own since it’s millions of miles from the nearest pilot on Earth.
Nevertheless, the engineers at JPL came up with a design that can deal with those concerns, and more.
For example, take the Martian atmosphere. At the surface where the Mars 2020 rover is targeted to land, the atmospheric pressure is equivalent to about 100,000 feet above the Earth’s surface. No helicopter has ever reached even half that distance above Earth.
Yet the Mars Helicopter will be able to fly as high as about 15 feet above the Red Planet thanks to its two sets of rotor blades – each four feet long, tip-to-tip – spinning at 2,400 rotations per minute, which is about 10 times faster than an Earth helicopter.
The smallness of the main helicopter body helps too. It’s only about the size of a softball and will weigh just under four pounds.
The plan at Mars is to attempt up to five flights, each one flying just a little farther and each lasting up to 90 seconds. A solar array on the top of the vehicle will recharge the batteries, which will be used both to rotate the blades and to keep the vehicle warm, especially at night.
And while just the act of flying the helicopter at Mars is the main goal, a small camera nearly identical in capability to the average smart phone will take pictures of the surface below for transmission back to Earth.
A little help
It was just after the overall Mars Helicopter concept was defined that JPL sought out the experts at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia and Ames Research Center in California to help refine and test the vehicle’s design and operation.
“When JPL asked for our expertise, we put together a small but very effective team to help them with configuration, sizing and aerodynamic performance; along with testing and simulation work,” Gorton said.
To do this the team used some of its workhorse computer tools to characterize and better understand how well the Mars Helicopter would fly in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. These included codes used to analyze conceptual design and vehicle sizing called the NASA Design and Analysis of Rotorcraft tool, as well as a more detailed computational fluid dynamics analysis tool known as OVERFLOW.
Their work began in late 2013 and has continued to the present, Gorton said, noting that even during the recent government shutdown, one of the RVLT research engineers was called to duty to help assess the data from a round of final testing.
“When a vehicle goes to Mars it’s going to have to operate autonomously. When it gets there the whole control system and everything that makes it fly must be tuned so that it can fly on its own, which this final round of testing addressed,” Gorton said.
Back on Earth
Although not directly linked to the Mars Helicopter in terms of the technology used, the work NASA Aeronautics is doing with Urban Air Mobility (UAM) also requires many of the same kind of autonomous operational considerations, Gorton said.
One of the most important elements required for UAM to work is for the unmanned vehicle – whether it is carrying cargo or passengers in or around a large city – to be able to make immediate decisions on its own when something unexpected happens.
That could be correcting for a sudden wind shear as it flies between buildings, maneuvering away from another vehicle flying too close, or detecting a technical problem requiring a safe landing as soon as possible.
While the Mars Helicopter isn’t expected to run into any other vehicles flying about, a technical problem or unpredicted change in atmospheric conditions could require the vehicle to immediately cut power and gently drop to the surface.
“That’s what autonomous operations is all about,” Gorton said.
Looking to the future, if the Mars Helicopter works as planned, JPL scientists say future missions to the Red Planet could carry and deploy even more helicopters to extend the scientific reach of the landers they arrived on.
Should that happen, and the skies of Mars start to get a little busy with autonomous helicopters flying about, parts of a drone-related traffic management system descended from work being done today by NASA Aeronautics also could find a home on the Red Planet.
“Whatever the future holds for flight in our atmosphere, the skies above Mars, or over any other planet that’s out there, we’re ready to share the skills and expertise we’ve gained over decades of aeronautics research,” Gorton said.
Jim Banke works for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate. The editor is Lillian Gipson.
Between 2009 and 2017, rates of major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled. Ana Ado/Shutterstock.com
The first signs of a problem started to emerge around 2014: More young people said they felt overwhelmed and depressed. College counseling centers reported sharp increases in the number of students seeking treatment for mental health issues.
Even as studies were showing increases in symptoms of depression and in suicide among adolescents since 2010, some researchers called the concerns overblown and claimed there simply isn’t enough good data to reach that conclusion.
The idea that there’s an epidemic in anxiety or depression among youth “is simply a myth,” psychiatrist Richard Friedman wrote in The New York Times last year. Others suggested young people were simply more willing to get help when they needed it. Or perhaps counseling centers’ outreach efforts were becoming more effective.
But a new analysis of a large representative survey reinforces what I – and others – have been saying: The epidemic is all too real. In fact, the increase in mental health issues among teens and young adults is nothing short of staggering.
An epidemic of anguish
One of the best ways to find out if mental health issues have increased is to talk to a representative sample of the general population, not just those who seek help. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has done just that.
It surveyed over 600,000 Americans. Recent trends are startling.
From 2009 to 2017, major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent. Depression surged 69 percent among 16- to 17-year-olds. Serious psychological distress, which includes feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, jumped 71 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds from 2008 to 2017. Twice as many 22- to 23-year-olds attempted suicide in 2017 compared with 2008, and 55 percent more had suicidal thoughts. The increases were more pronounced among girls and young women. By 2017, one out of five 12- to 17-year-old girls had experienced major depression in the previous year.
Is it possible that young people simply became more willing to admit to mental health problems? My co-authors and I tried to address this possibility by analyzing data on actual suicide rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is a behavior, so changes in suicide rates can’t be caused by more willingness to admit to issues.
Tragically, suicide also jumped during the period. For example, the suicide rate among 18- to 19-year-olds climbed 56 percent from 2008 to 2017. Other behaviors related to depression have also increased, including emergency department admissions for self-harm, such as cutting, as well as hospital admissions for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
The large increases in mental health issues in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health appeared almost exclusively among teens and young adults, with less change among Americans ages 26 and over. Even after statistically controlling for the influences of age and year, we found that depression, distress and suicidal thoughts were much higher among those born in the mid- to late-1990s, the generation I call iGen.
The mental health crisis seems to be a generational issue, not something that affects Americans of all ages. And that, more than anything else, might help researchers figure out why it’s happening.
The shift in social life
It’s always difficult to determine the causes behind trends, but some possibilities seem less likely than others.
Although the increase in mental health issues occurred around the same time as the opioid epidemic, that crisis seemed to almost exclusively affect adults older than 25.
But there was one societal shift over the past decade that influenced the lives of today’s teens and young adults more than any other generation: the spread of smartphones and digital media like social media, texting and gaming.
While older people use these technologies as well, younger people adopted them more quickly and completely, and the impact on their social lives was more pronounced. In fact, it has drastically restructured their daily lives.
No matter the cause, the rise in mental health issues among teens and young adults deserves attention, not a dismissal as a “myth.” With more young people suffering – including more attempting suicide and more taking their own lives – the mental health crisis among American young people can no longer be ignored.
Twenty states have abolished the death penalty – eight of them recently. Four more, including California, have placed a moratorium on its use.
Most of these states were already refraining from executing anyone when they abolished the death penalty. In addition to this wave of abolitionism, the death penalty is used less frequently in the 26 states that still have it, partly because drug companies increasingly refused to provide their drugs for use in executions.
This shift matters because attempts to challenge the legality of the death penalty rely on the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. What counts as cruel and unusual punishment, the Supreme Court ruled in 1958, changes over time with our evolving standards of decency.
A good example of this evolution is the gradual change in approach toward extreme punishment for juveniles.
California holds a unique position as a criminal justice pioneer. Because of the sheer size of its prison population, any policy change that increases – or decreases – incarceration in California can have dramatic effects nationwide.
In 1976, California moved from sentences set by the legislature to “indeterminate sentences” that allow judges to choose from a sentencing range. The state adopted the Three Strikes law in 1994. These two changes were among the important factors leading to a nearly 900 percent spike in the California prison population between 1976 and 2006.
Aswad Pop is one of 737 inmates affected by the moratorium on the death penalty in California.AP Photo/Eric Risberg
California is also unique in its political makeup. The contrast between its vehemently progressive coast and deeply conservative center makes for big differences in policies from county to county – and for surprising support for punitive policies in a state that is widely seen as liberal.
California’s mercurial political climate and the size of its death row mean it might influence other states and, possibly, the Supreme Court in the future.
What might happen next
Several important questions loom.
First, would the more conservative makeup of the Supreme Court affect its willingness to reexamine the constitutionality of the death penalty?
Second, how might the moratorium impact the strategy of death penalty abolitionists in the state seeking to reform the two other types of extreme punishment – life with and without parole?
On one hand, the distinction between the death penalty and life without parole, which was already tenuous, becomes even more blurred now that no one on California’s death row will be executed. Because policy is made incrementally, it is arguably time for abolitionist states to take a hard look at their other draconian sentencing practices.
On the other hand, in many cases abolition and moratoria are palatable to people who are on the fence about the death penalty precisely because of the existence of an alternative punitive sentence.
Third, there is plenty of work to be done in California. The powerful image of the death chamber being dismantled is a reminder that behind the death penalty lies a giant machine of lengthy and expensive litigation, dilapidated housing conditions and arcane regulations, which must now be considered. With less need to fund representation in these expensive cases, there might be room for other criminal justice reform.
And finally, careful analysis of homicide rates in the next few years should be conducted in order to learn whether, as many have come to assume, capital punishment does not deter crime.
The dismantlement of the death chamber is not the official end of the death penalty in California. But it could be the harbinger of abolition.
Christopher John Sorenson Jr., 28, of Lucerne, Calif., on Thursday, March 21, 2019, when a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy encountered him. Sorenson was arrested for misdemeanor charges of carrying a firearm in a vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm in public. Lake County Sheriff’s Office photo. LUCERNE, Calif. – On Thursday evening a sheriff’s deputy arrested a Lucerne man who had a loaded firearm, was wearing a badge and had a light bar on his vehicle and who claimed to be patrolling the community.
Christopher John Sorenson Jr., 28, was taken into custody in the case, according to Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
At 7:30 p.m. Thursday a deputy was patrolling in the Lucerne area when he observed a white Dodge Neon car travelling towards him with activated flashing emergency lights on top of the car, in the windshield and in the grill, Paulich said.
Paulich said the Neon’s driver, identified as Sorenson, stopped next to the deputy, who noticed the vehicle had the words “security patrol” displayed on the driver’s door.
Sorenson was wearing a black knit hat that had “security officer” on the front and a brown tactical vest with a star-shaped badge on it also labeled with “security officer,” according to Paulich.
Christopher John Sorenson Jr., 28, of Lucerne, Calif., was arrested on Thursday, March 21, 2019, for misdemeanor charges of carrying a firearm in a vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm in public. Lake County Sheriff’s Office photo. Paulich said Sorenson told the deputy that he was patrolling. The deputy asked Sorenson if he had a firearm and he said he did.
Sorenson got out of his vehicle and the deputy saw he had a semi-automatic pistol in a holster on his tactical vest. Sorenson was also wearing a duty belt with extra magazines, pepper spray, handcuffs, and flashlight, Paulich said.
The deputy took the pistol from Sorenson and found it to be loaded. Paulich said Sorenson provided the deputy with a Bureau of Security and Investigative Services permit for carrying an exposed firearm.
However, Paulich said the permit was only valid when Sorenson was employed performing duties related to the permit. Sorenson told the deputy he was not currently employed.
The tactical vest, belt, semi-automatic pistol, extra magazines, pepper spray, handcuffs and flashlight in the possession of Christopher John Sorenson Jr., 28, of Lucerne, Calif., when he was arrested on Thursday, March 21, 2019, for misdemeanor charges of carrying a firearm in a vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm in public. Lake County Sheriff’s Office photo. Sorenson was placed under arrest for misdemeanor charges of carrying a firearm in a vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm in public. He was transported to the Lake County Jail where he was later released after posting bail, Paulich said.
Paulich said Sorenson was not acting on behalf of any community patrol organizations, and he added that the sheriff’s office reminds citizens that it is illegal to carry a firearm even if you are part of a community patrol organization.
The community’s assistance with identifying potential suspects and crimes is greatly appreciated, but Paulich said authorities ask that citizens only observe and report and not take action.
Anyone who may have been contacted or detained by Sorenson is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690.
The Dodge Neon that Christopher John Sorenson Jr., 28, of Lucerne, Calif., was driving on Thursday, March 21, 2019, when a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy encountered him. Sorenson was arrested for misdemeanor charges of carrying a firearm in a vehicle and carrying a loaded firearm in public. Lake County Sheriff’s Office photo.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a group of working breeds and smaller dogs available to join new families this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Akbash, Australian Shepherd, beagle, Chihuahua, cocker spaniel, German Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Jack Russell terrier, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback, shepherd, Staffordshire bull terrier and terrier.
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”).
This male Jack Russell terrier is in kennel No. 4a, ID No. 11900. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Jack Russell terrier
This male Jack Russell terrier has a short black and tan coat.
He’s in kennel No. 4a, ID No. 11900.
This male terrier-cocker spaniel mix is in kennel No. 4c, ID No. 11903. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Terrier-cocker spaniel mix
This male terrier-cocker spaniel mix has a curly red coat.
He’s in kennel No. 4c, ID No. 11903.
“Hopps” is a male terrier-Chihuahua in kennel No. 5a, ID No. 11904. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Hopps’
“Hopps” is a male terrier-Chihuahua with a short black and tan coat.
He’s in kennel No. 5a, ID No. 11904.
“Buddy” is a male beagle in kennel No. 5c, ID No. 11906. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Buddy’
“Buddy” is a male beagle with a short brown and white coat.
He already has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 5c, ID No. 11906.
This male Chihuahua is in kennel No. 7, ID No. 11870. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Chihuahua
This male Chihuahua has a short fawn coat.
He’s in kennel No. 7, ID No. 11870.
“Rudy” is a male Jack Russell terrier-Chihuahua mix in kennel No. 8, ID No. 11920. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Rudy’
“Rudy” is a male Jack Russell terrier-Chihuahua mix.
He has a short tricolor coat.
He’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 11920.
“Jaelyn” is a female Chihuahua in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11861. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Jaelyn’
“Jaelyn” is a female Chihuahua with a short tan coat.
She already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11861.
“JessJess” is a male Chihuahua in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11862. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘JessJess’
“JessJess” is a male Chihuahua with a short tan coat.
He’s already been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11862.
“Sarra” is a female Akbash in kennel No. 12, ID No. 11855. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Sarra’
“Sarra” is a female Akbash with a medium-length white coat and green eyes.
Shelter staff said she should go to a home with no cats, small dogs or livestock.
She’s in kennel No. 12, ID No. 11855.
“Baylee” is a female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 14, ID No. 11892. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Baylee’
“Baylee” is a female pit bull terrier has a short brindle and white coat.
Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, has lived with cats and chickens, and was raised with children.
She already has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 14, ID No. 11892.
“Maebelle” is a female pit bull terrier in kennel No. 15, ID No. 11893. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Maebelle’
“Maebelle” is a female pit bull terrier with a short brindle and white coat.
Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, has lived with cats and chickens, and was raised with a small child.
She’s in kennel No. 15, ID No. 11893.
This male shepherd is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 11879. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male shepherd
This male shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 11879.
“Bobby Socks” is a female Staffordshire bull terrier-Rhodesian Ridgeback in kennel No. 21, ID No. 11911. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Bobby Socks’
“Bobby Socks” is a female Staffordshire bull terrier-Rhodesian Ridgeback.
She has a short red coat and has already been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 11911.
“Little Foot” is a white male Great Pyrenees is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 11854. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Little Foot’
“Little Foot” is a white male Great Pyrenees with a long white coat and gold eyes.
Shelter staff said the right home for him will not have cats, small dogs or livestock.
He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 11854.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
This map depicts the locations where there is a greater than 50-percent chance of major, moderate or minor flooding during March through May, 2019. Image courtesy of NOAA. Nearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states face an elevated risk for flooding through May, with the potential for major or moderate flooding in 25 states, according to NOAA’s U.S. Spring Outlook.
The majority of the country is favored to experience above-average precipitation this spring, increasing the flood risk.
Portions of the United States – especially in the upper Mississippi and Missouri River basins including Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa – have already experienced record flooding this year.
This early flooding was caused by rapid snow melt combined with heavy spring rain and late season snowfall in areas where soil moisture is high. In some areas, ice jams are exacerbating the flooding.
Offices across the National Weather Service have been working with local communities, providing decision-support services and special briefings to emergency managers and other leaders in local, state and federal government to ensure the highest level of readiness before the flooding began.
Additional spring rain and melting snow will prolong and expand flooding, especially in the central and southern U.S. As this excess water flows downstream through the river basins, the flood threat will become worse and geographically more widespread.
“This outlook will help emergency managers and community decision-makers all along the nation’s major waterways prepare people and businesses for the flood threat,” said Neil Jacobs, Ph.D., NOAA’s acting administrator. “In addition to the safety aspects, our rivers are critical to the economic vitality of the nation, supporting commerce, recreation and transportation. NOAA forecasts and outlooks help people navigate extreme seasonal weather and water events to keep the country safe and moving forward.”
Spring flood risk
Record winter precipitation across a large swath of the country has set the stage for the elevated flood risk. The upper Mississippi and Red River of the North basins have received rain and snow this spring up to 200 percent above normal.
The areas of greatest risk for moderate to major flooding include the upper, middle, and lower Mississippi River basins including the mainstem Mississippi River, Red River of the North, the Great Lakes, eastern Missouri River, lower Ohio, lower Cumberland, and Tennessee River basins.
Additionally, much of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River and portions of California and Nevada are at risk for minor flooding.
“The extensive flooding we’ve seen in the past two weeks will continue through May and become more dire and may be exacerbated in the coming weeks as the water flows downstream,” said Ed Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “This is shaping up to be a potentially unprecedented flood season, with more than 200 million people at risk for flooding in their communities.”
The flood risk outlook is based on a number of factors, including current conditions of snowpack, drought, soil moisture, frost depth, streamflow and precipitation. Local heavy rainfall, especially associated with thunderstorms, can occur throughout the spring and lead to flooding even in areas where overall risk is considered low. In the western U.S., snowpacks at higher elevations may continue to build over the next month, and the flood risk will depend on future precipitation and temperatures.
The National Weather Service, in coordination with local officials, defines flood levels for each of its river forecast locations when this is a greater than 50 percent or more likelihood of exceeding minor, moderate, or major flood levels. Image courtesy of NOAA.
Spring outlook for temperature, precipitation and drought
Above-average rain and snow in California this winter has pulled the entire state out of its seven-year drought. Scattered areas of the Southwest, Southeast and Pacific Northwest are abnormally dry, but the worst drought conditions in the U.S. are in northern New Mexico.
Springtime rain and melting of deep snowpack are favored to slightly improve the drought there. Drought will persist through spring in southern Alaska and Oregon, and may develop in Hawaii.
Above-average precipitation is favored from the Central Great Basin to the East Coast and in Alaska, compounding the flood risk for many states, especially in the Central and Northern Rockies and in the Southeast.
Warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast to extend from the Pacific Northwest to the Central Rockies, and from southern Texas, northward through the Great Lakes and eastward to encompass the entire East Coast.
The greatest chance for above-average temperatures exist in Alaska, the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. The interior of the U.S. from the Dakotas southward to northern Texas are favored to have below-average temperatures this spring.
“Severe weather and flooding can strike anywhere, whether or not you are in a high risk area,” said Daniel Kaniewski, Ph.D., deputy administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency. “Insurance is the first and best line of defense. Act now to make sure you have the right coverage for a flood by visiting floodsmart.gov, and don’t forget to download the FEMA mobile app to get real time weather alerts in your area.”
NOAA produces seasonal outlooks to help communities prepare for weather and environmental conditions that are likely during the coming months. Heavy rainfall at any time can lead to flooding, even in areas where overall risk is considered low.
The latest information for a specific area, including official watches and warnings are available at http://water.weather.gov. Empowering people with information to prepare and take action is key to NOAA’s effort to build a Weather-Ready Nation.
At left, David Santos, the president and chief executive officer of Adventist Health Clear Lake, presents a check for $100,000 to Mayor Nick Bennett in Clearlake, Calif., on Thursday, March 21, 2019. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Adventist Health Clear Lake leaders joined with city of Clearlake officials on Thursday evening to celebrate their partnership to improve quality of life in the community.
In a special joint meeting of the Clearlake City Council and Clearlake Planning Commission, David Santos, the president and chief executive officer of Adventist Health Clear Lake, presented a check for $100,000 to Mayor Nick Bennett.
The funds, raised through the hospital’s inaugural November gala, are intended to go to park and gym equipment for youth in the city’s Austin Park, which is slated for a major redesign that will create a new community cultural and recreational venue.
Picture boards with design concepts for the park were posted at the building. Planned amenities include a bandshell for outdoor concerts, a new pier, relocation of the playground equipment and a dog park.
“This is a momentous occasion,” Bennett said at the start of the meeting, held at the Clearlake Senior and Community Center.
In introducing Santos, Russell Perdock, a former Clearlake mayor who now works for the hospital with its community wellness program, noted, “His heart is here.”
During his comments, Santos addressed the hospital’s changing approach to health care, community wellness and dreaming big.
Santos said that, five years ago, the hospital’s leadership decided to pursue a number of ambitious goals, among them, to become the preeminent critical access hospital in the country. At the same time, the hospital had the system’s lowest patient experience and was losing money.
Today, Santos said the hospital’s ratings are among the best in the country, they are successfully recruiting more health care providers and they are expanding clinics, with 11 such facilities now around the county. The goal is to have a clinic is every one of Lake County’s communities.
“We are excited about the progress we have made,” he said, pointing to a new emergency room, state-of-the-art MRI and 3D mammography equipment, the clinics and an employee force pushing 600 – up from 370 five years ago.
Santos said they want to improve the county’s overall health status, which he said includes the happiness barometer and quality of life.
He said he has appreciated the opportunity to work with City Manager Greg Folsom and his team, and also lauded members of Rotary for their support.
Over the past four years, Adventist Health Clear Lake has contributed $2 million to improving community wellness and brought in another $2 million in grants. However, Santos noted, “It feels like a drop in the bucket.”
In describing the hospital’s first-ever fall gala fundraiser – the 50th Anniversary Golden Gala Celebration on Nov. 10, which launched a new program aligned with the city of Clearlake – Santos said they are committed to holding a similar event every year in order to make contributions to other communities.
He said that’s a commitment through the development council, which will soon be a foundation to support not just the hospital but to support efforts around improving the health of the county’s communities.
“We just simply want to participate in the revitalization and transformation of Lake County,” as they have tried – and are continuing – to do with the hospital, Santos said.
Santos said the hospital also wants to eradicate homelessness in Lake County. While it may seem difficult, “The plan is falling into place.”
“We can’t thank Adventist Health enough,” Folsom said, noting they’re very excited about the Austin Park project, the master plan for which they’ve been working on for awhile.
“It looks like it’s coming to fruition this year,” Folsom said, with construction bids to come in shortly.
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.
Guards take apart the death penalty chamber at San Quentin State Prison on Wednesday, March 13, 2019. 
