LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Teamwork between the county’s two police departments led to the arrest of a Lakeport man who had been released a day earlier from the Lake County Jail.
The Clearlake Police Department said it arrested Austin Anthony Schweitzer, 28, on Feb. 17 for possession of a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine and for being under the influence of narcotics. He was booked into the Lake County Jail but soon released.
On Feb. 18, after Schweitzer’s release from custody, police said he is believed to have stolen a vehicle that was left running to warm up in Lakeport. The vehicle contained several credit cards in the vehicle owner’s name.
Police said Schweitzer then drove the vehicle to Clearlake and parked it. He attempted to use the stolen victim’s credit cards at a gas station but was unsuccessful.
Lakeport Police officers learned of the credit card usage and alerted Clearlake Police officers of the situation, according to the report.
Police said the vehicle was quickly located near the gas station by a community service officer along with evidence linking Schweitzer to the vehicle. The vehicle was returned to the owner.
A short time later, police said Schweitzer returned to the gas station where an employee spotted him, but now associated with another vehicle, and notified police.
An alert Clearlake Police officer spotted the vehicle at Walmart and Schweitzer was taken into custody without incident, authorities said.
Police said Schweitzer was found to be in possession of the stolen credit cards, the stolen vehicle’s keys and other property from the stolen vehicle.
He was transported and booked back into the Lake County Jail, where he remains in custody on misdemeanors related to the credit card theft, and felonies for taking the vehicle, being in possession of a stolen vehicle and first-degree burglary.
“We are grateful for the collaboration between the agencies and the community that resulted in the return of the vehicle and apprehension of the suspect,” the Clearlake Police Department said.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Dr. Gary Pace on Friday released a formal statement on his plans to step down as Lake County’s Public Health officer, a development that came to light publicly during a Clearlake City Council meeting on Thursday night.
Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora had reported Pace’s plans to resign to the Clearlake City Council during its Thursday night meeting. Flora had been in a meeting earlier in the day in which Pace had announced his intentions to leave his post, as Lake County News has reported.
On Friday, the county of Lake released a statement from Pace, who has served as Lake County’s Public Health officer for the past 16 months.
He said the decision to resign was “a very difficult one” and his official last day in the role will likely be in mid-April, but he expects to provide support over a longer period if he’s needed.
Pace, who worked for more than 20 years in family medicine, said he’s returning to clinical practice in the coming months.
“Serving Lake County during the COVID-19 pandemic has been one of the most rewarding experiences and greatest challenges of my career. Particularly over these past 11 months, I have given all I had the capacity to give. I sought to listen to the needs of local residents, and provide safety measures and other health recommendations that best reflected the available science, knowing they would often be widely criticized,” Pace said.
Board of Supervisors Chair Bruno Sabatier said he found out early this week that Pace was planning to leave.
“Dr. Pace feels the pandemic has reached a new chapter where his skill sets aren't as necessary or needed as they were early on. Logistics and organization is what is needed currently to ensure appropriate and efficient deployment of the vaccine,” Sabatier told Lake County News.
Sabatier said that the board would discuss its next steps with regard to Pace’s resignation during its Tuesday meeting.
On Friday, Pace reported the same, noting that at that time the board will discuss its strategy to select his successor.
Under state law, California counties are required to have Public Health officers.
The news comes as Lake County this week reached 40 COVID-19 related deaths, with more than 3,000 confirmed cases, based on Lake County Public Health statistics.
Pace said his greatest sadness is leaving the relationships he’s developed in the Public Health officer role, he expressed his gratitude to the supervisors, and county administration, department heads and staff, and thanked the many people who have supported his work in Lake County.
“The team at the Health Services Department, under Denise Pomeroy’s capable leadership, is truly remarkable. I have seen people at all levels of the organization do incredible things, and that lends great hope for the future,” he said.
“While my primary responsibility has been to protect the health of Lake County’s communities, it has been truly heartbreaking to see the many types of consequences that have come for individuals and businesses in the past year,” he continued.
He said the nearly 48,000 deaths from COVD-19 in California alone, “have shook every one of us; no one can be unaffected.”
Pace also noted the other impacts of the pandemic, including children missing a full year of in-person instruction and the social barriers to educational attainment being greatly exacerbated, and the “still-mounting consequences to businesses of all sizes.”
“We also continue to count the costs associated with mental health effects of the rapid social changes of the past year, and the social isolation that has too often stemmed from “social distancing” mandates,” he said.
“Now, we stand at an inflection point in our pandemic response. The high boil of the initial crisis has transitioned toward a sustained, long-term-focused response that will require intensive partnership with the state and other organizations in our communities. Our COVID-19 vaccination effort, so key to a return to some kind of ‘normal,’ is still in the early phases, but there is hope supply and distribution will continue to ramp up in the coming months,” Pace said.
“I truly believe better days are ahead for Lake County,” Pace concluded.
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.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has a large group of dogs continuing to wait for adoption this week.
The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.
‘Agatha’
“Agatha” is a female Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short red and black coat.
She is dog No. 4603.
‘Boog’
“Boog” is a male Rottweiler with a short black coat.
He is dog No. 4609.
‘Breeze’
“Breeze” is a female American Pit Bull Terrier mix.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 4445.
‘Dorito’
“Dorito” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short white and gray coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 4576.
‘Inky’
“Inky” is a male German Shepherd mix with a long black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 4324.
Jerry
“Jerry” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short brindle coat.
He is dog No. 4455.
‘Mommas’
“Mommas” is a female American Pit Bull terrier mix with a white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 4499.
‘Rudolph’
“Rudolph” is a male shepherd mix.
He has a short tan and black coat.
He is dog No. 4436.
‘Scooter’
“Scooter” is a male shepherd mix puppy.
He has a medium-length tan and white coat.
He is dog No. 4649.
‘Tiabeanie’
“Tiabeanie” is a female American Bully with a short black with white markings.
She is dog No. 4602.
‘Toby’
“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.
He has a short tan and white coat.
He is dog No. 4389.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
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.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Friday announced the sentencing of Alex Morales III, a former California Department of Transportation employee who received payment in exchange for awarding contracts for projects that required some form of Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
Morales pleaded guilty in December to two counts of felony bribery and was sentenced on Friday to four years in prison, which is suspended pending successful completion of a two-year probation term.
The terms of probation include one year of home detention with electronic monitoring and monthly $500 restitution payments to Caltrans.
Morales will also forfeit any CalPERS benefits he accrued between August 2010 and January 2015, when the crimes were committed.
“When you violate the public’s trust, you will be held accountable,” said Becerra. “As public servants, we are held to a higher standard. There is no place for this kind of criminal behavior in our state or state government. At the California Department of Justice, we’re always ready to go to bat for the people of California.”
Morales was employed as an Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, coordinator for Caltrans, a role which involves making Caltrans systems, including bridges and public walkways, ADA compliant.
The California Department of Justice arrested Morales in 2015 after a nine-month investigation. Following a preliminary hearing in 2017, a judge held Morales to answer on 39 counts of bribery.
At trial in 2019, the jury acquitted Morales on two counts and deadlocked on the remaining counts.
A new trial was scheduled for 2021, but Morales pleaded guilty in December 2020 to accepting multiple bribes over the course of approximately five years.
The bribes were made in cash payments ranging from $1,875 to $12,000 and included the acceptance of a new white Ford Expedition.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s Public Health officer is expected to leave his post by the spring, local officials have confirmed.
Dr. Gary Pace made the announcement in a Thursday morning meeting with local leaders, Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora told Lake County News.
Flora, who was present at the Thursday meeting where Pace stated his resignation plans, reported the situation to the Clearlake City Council on Thursday night.
Flora, who called the situation “a little disappointing,” said the county will be recruiting for a new Public Health officer over the next few months, and that Pace had indicated he would be around until some point in April.
Pace, who has been Lake County’s Public Health officer for 16 months, did not respond to a Thursday evening email from Lake County News regarding his plans to leave the county’s employ.
Separately, Board of Supervisors Chair Bruno Sabatier confirmed to Lake County News on Thursday night that Pace is resigning.
Sabatier said a discussion about how the board will move forward regarding the Public Health officer position will be on the supervisors’ Tuesday agenda.
California state law requires counties to have Public Health officers to enforce local health orders and ordinances, and state regulations and statutes.
Tuesday also is the day that Pace is scheduled to give the board another COVID-19 update and discuss the work of his recently convened COVID-19 Ethics Ad Hoc Committee, which is to address vaccine equity and prioritization.
The Board of Supervisors appointed Pace, a Sonoma County resident, Public Health officer on a permanent basis in October 2019, after he had filled the position for two months on an interim basis.
Previous to his interim service in 2019, he also had been Lake County’s interim Public Health officer from late 2017 to spring of 2018 and from the summer of 2018 until fall of 2018, as well as Mendocino County’s Public Health officer, as Lake County News has reported.
At the time of his permanent appointment, Supervisor Tina Scott, then chair of the board, lauded Pace as “a truly thoughtful individual and excellent medical mind” who she said “will help us progress toward a healthier Lake County.”
Five months later, Pace was in charge of Lake County’s COVID-19 response, taking a wide variety of actions including issuing a shelter in place order for county residents and a followup order that, for a time, closed Clear Lake and other local waterways to avoid drawing visitors, and also closed lodging facilities to anyone who wasn’t in health care worker or other essential fields.
In his report to the council on Thursday night, Flora said of Pace, “Overall he’s been a good partner with the city and we’ve enjoyed working with him, and he’s always been responsive to the concerns that we’ve had. So we wish him the best.”
In related news, on Wednesday the county of Mendocino announced the appointment of Mary Alice Willeford as that county’s interim Public Health director.
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. – While parts of the nation continue to see brutal winter weather, Lake County and the North Coast are forecast to have some more rain late in the week.
The National Weather Service’s Eureka office said another round of rain will arrive Thursday and continue across the region through Saturday morning, when colder air is forecast to arrive.
Snow levels could rise from 2,500 feet to over 6,000 feet, especially near the coast, the forecast said.
Across the North Coast, rainfall amounts will range from a half-inch to an inch in most areas with higher amounts in the mountains. Less than a quarter inch is expected in much of Lake County, forecasters said.
The Lake County forecast calls for less than a tenth of an inch of rain Thursday night, with rain again on Friday and into Friday night.
On Friday, winds with gusts topping 21 miles per hour are expected across Lake County, the forecast said.
During the day on Saturday, conditions are expected to be mostly sunny, with single-digit winds, and patchy fog on Saturday night into Sunday morning.
Sunday and Monday will be clear, then the forecast calls for times of patchy fog from Monday night through Wednesday, then clearing to mostly sunny conditions.
Daytime temperatures through Saturday are to be in the low 50s, rising into the 60s next week. Nighttime conditions will hover in the high 30s and low 40s.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Married clients in second marriages with prior children often have to balance the future wellbeing of their spouse with that of their own children.
In California, a community property state, a resident can bequeath (leave) one-hundred percent of their separate property assets and one-half of their community property assets.
A resident may only bequeath the entirety of a community property asset to someone other than their spouse with their spouse’s consent or acquiescence.
Let’s discuss.
First, does the client’s spouse even need support? Sometimes not. If not, then the client usually leaves his or separate property assets directly to his or her own children.
Nonetheless, as the surviving spouse remains an heir of the client, the client’s will and/or trust must acknowledge the marriage and say that that the spouse is not inheriting.
Otherwise, the surviving spouse as heir may be entitled either to a one-half or one-third share in the decedent’s separate property and all of the couple’s community property assets.
The surviving spouse would inherit if the client died intestate (with no will or trust) or the client died with an old trust or will she signed prior to the marriage that omitted her spouse.
If the spouse needs support then then consider the assets and family relationships involved. Are the client’s assets her separate property either from prior to marriage or from inheritance while married? Do the client’s spouse and children get along? Are the spouse and client’s children close in age? Is it possible for the beneficiaries to inherit separate assets?
If the client's spouse and children often disagree and/or are close in age, and separate assets can go to each party, then perhaps they should inherit separate assets outright and part ways.
Otherwise entanglement occurs when the spouse is the lifetime beneficiary and children are death beneficiaries of a trust. Perhaps the client’s house goes to her children and her retirement plan goes to her spouse (who takes required minimum distributions over his lifetime).
If it is neither possible nor necessary to disentangle the spouse and children then consider making the spouse a lifetime beneficiary of a trust that owns some or all of the client’s assets. Such a trust requires careful drafting.
When and to what extent is the spouse allowed to invade the trust principal (in addition to receiving the income)? Is the spouse only allowed if the spouse’s own income and resources are first exhausted? Who will be the trustee that balances the competing interests of the spouse and children?
Next, do the children need support? If so, what support? Do the children receive SSI or Medi-Cal? Are the children able to manage an outright inheritance? Perhaps either a special needs or a support trust is needed and appropriate. Alternatively, consider delayed gifting using an annuity to prolong the benefits.
Next, what if the client wants to leave her home to her children but the community property estate has an interest in the residence? That is, perhaps community property money was used to pay down the mortgage.
For example, the client owned a home prior to marriage and continued paying off the mortgage with her own earnings while married. If so, the community property estate receives an ownership interest in the home to the extent either spouse’s earnings while married paid off the mortgage or improved the home.
Nevertheless, the client’s estate plan may still leave the home to her children but offsetting assets (like brokerage accounts) to compensate the spouse for his interest in the home. This is a “forced election”: Either the surviving spouse enforces their community property rights (in the home) or the spouse receives other assets (brokerage accounts) left him or her by the deceased spouse.
The foregoing is a brief and limited foray into a much broader and more complex subject. It is no substitute for consulting a competent estate planning attorney.
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.
A few months ago, a young athletic guy came into my clinic where I’m an infectious disease physician and COVID-19 immunology researcher. He felt tired all the time, and, importantly to him, was having difficulty mountain biking. Three months earlier, he had tested positive for COVID-19. He is the kind of person you might expect to have a few days of mild symptoms before recovering fully. But when he walked into my clinic, he was still experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and he could not mountain bike at the level he was able to before.
Tens of millions of Americans have been infected with and survived COVID-19. Thankfully, many survivors get back to normal health within two weeks of getting sick, but for some COVID-19 survivors – including my patient – symptoms can persist for months. These survivors are sometimes dubbed long-haulers, and the disease process is termed “long COVID” or post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. A long-hauler is anyone who has continued symptoms after an initial bout of COVID-19.
Numerous studies over the past few months have shown that about 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 will have symptoms that last longer than the typical two weeks. These symptoms affect not only people who were very sick and hospitalized with COVID-19, but also those with milder cases.
Long COVID is similar to COVID-19
Many long-haulers experience the same symptoms they had during their initial fight with COVID-19, such as fatigue, cognitive impairment (or brain fog), difficulty breathing, headaches, difficulty exercising, depression, sleep difficulty and loss of the sense of taste or smell. In my experience, patients’ symptoms seem to be less severe than when they were initially sick.
Despite persistent symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 – the virus itself – is not detectable in most long-haulers. And without an active infection, they can’t spread the virus to others.
Who are the long-haulers?
Patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 are the most likely to have persistent long-term symptoms.
In a study published in July 2020, Italian researchers followed 147 patients who had been hospitalized for COVID-19 and found that 87% still had symptoms 60 days after they were discharged from the hospital. A more recent study, published in January, found that 76% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, were still experiencing symptoms six months after first getting sick.
This Wuhan study was particularly interesting because the researchers used objective measures to evaluate the people reporting lingering symptoms. People in the study were still reporting persistent breathing problems six months after getting sick. When researchers performed CT scans to look at the patients’ lungs, many of the scans showed splotches called ground-glass opacities. These likely represent inflammation where SARS-CoV-2 had caused viral pneumonia. Additionally, the people in this study who had severe COVID-19 could not walk as fast as those whose illnesses were less severe – these lung problems reduced how much oxygen was moving from their lungs into their bloodstream. And remember, this was all measured six months after infection.
Other researchers have found similar objective health effects. One study found evidence of ongoing viral pneumonia three months after patients left the hospital. Another study of 100 German COVID-19 patients found that 60% had heart inflammation two to three months after initial infection. These German patients were relatively young and healthy – the average age was 49, and many had not needed hospitalization when they had COVID-19.
The sickest COVID-19 patients are not the only ones to suffer from long COVID. Patients who had a milder initial case that didn’t result in hospitalization can also have persistent symptoms.
To put these numbers in context, only 10% of people who get the flu are still sick after 14 days.
Long-term symptoms, long-term effects
The medical community still does not know just how long these symptoms will persist or why they occur.
According to recent research that has yet to be peer-reviewed, many long-haulers cannot return to work or do normal activities because of brain fog, pain or debilitating fatigue. Before my patient got sick, he would bike up a mountain in our Colorado town almost every day. It took him four months to recover to the point where he could climb it again.
SARS-CoV-2 hurts people in more ways than the medical community originally recognized. At Colorado State University, my colleagues and I are studying long-haulers and exploring whether immune system imbalances play a part in their disease process. Our team and many others are diligently working to identify long-haulers, to better understand why symptoms persist and, importantly, to figure out how the medical community can help.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Local officials said that extreme weather that hit parts of the Eastern United States this week has impacted the supply of COVID-19 headed to Lake County.
The Lake County Health Services Department’s Public Health Division began drive-thru vaccination clinics this week.
However, due to the severe weather in other parts of the country, there have been challenges related to the delivery of Lake County’s shipment of the Moderna vaccine.
As a result, Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said the department is canceling all first dose appointments scheduled on Thursday, Feb. 18, and Friday, Feb. 19.
Pace said they are hoping the vaccine supply will arrive in the next few days, so they can resume vaccination clinics on Monday, Feb. 22.
If you had an appointment for a first dose, you should receive a call this afternoon by Thursday morning. Those who had appointments will be placed on the list to reschedule for next week. Do not come to the site this Thursday or Friday if you were scheduled for your first dose, because they will not have a vaccine for you.
Second vaccine doses will continue this week. Four weeks ago, if you had your first dose, you should receive your second dose this week.
The location and the day have changed:
– Thursday, Feb. 18: Those individuals who received their first dose on Jan. 22 at the Clearlake Senior Center will receive a call to schedule their second dose at Redbud Park.
– Friday, Feb. 19: Those individuals who received their first dose on Jan. 23 and 25 at the Clearlake Senior Center will receive a call to schedule their second dose at Redbud Park.
– Monday, Feb. 22: Those individuals who received their first dose on Jan. 26 at the Lake County Fairgrounds will receive a call to schedule their second dose at the Lakeport Auto Movies.
Next week, individuals with canceled second-dose appointments should receive a call in the near future.
If there is a problem, contact Public Health at the MHOAC Team number, 707-263-8174, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.early next week.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your understanding in these challenging times,” Pace said.
Editor’s note: On Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission arrived at the red planet and successfully landed the Perseverance Rover on the surface. Jim Bell is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and has worked on a number of Mars missions. He is the primary investigator leading a team in charge of one of the camera systems on Perseverance. We spoke with him in late January for The Conversation’s new podcast, The Conversation Weekly.
Below are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.
What’s the goal of this mission?
What we’re looking for is evidence of past life, either direct chemical or organic signs in the composition and the chemistry of rocks, or textural evidence in the rock record. The environment of Mars is extremely harsh compared to the Earth, so we’re not really looking for evidence of current life. Unless something actually gets up and walks in front of the cameras, we’re really not going to find that.
Where is the Perseverance Rover landing to look for ancient life?
There was a three- or four-year process that involved the entire global community of Mars and planetary science researchers to figure out where to send this rover. We chose a crater called Jezero. Jezero has a beautiful river delta in it, preserved from an ancient river that flowed down into that crater and deposited sediments. This is kind of like the delta at the end of the Mississippi River in Louisiana which is depositing sediments very gently into the Gulf of Mexico.
On Earth, this shallow water is a very gentle environment where organic molecules and fossils can actually be gently buried and preserved in very fine-grained mudstones. If a Martian delta operates the same way, then it’s a great environment for preserving evidence of things that were flowing in that water that came from the ancient highlands above the crater.
There’s lots of things we don’t know, but there was liquid water there. There were heat sources – there were active volcanoes 2, 3, 4 billion years ago on Mars – and there are impact craters from asteroids and comets dumping lots of heat into the ground as well as organic molecules. It’s a very short list of places in the solar system that meet those constraints, and Jezero is one of those places. It’s one of the best places that we think to go to do this search for life.
What scientific tools is Perseverance carrying?
The Perseverance Rover looks a lot like Curiosity on the outside because it’s made from something like 90% spare parts from Curiosity – that’s how NASA could afford this mission. Curiosity has a pair of cameras – one wide angle, one telephoto.
In Perseverance, we’re sending similar cameras, but with zoom technology so we can zoom from wide angle to telephoto with both cameras – the “Z” in Mastcam-Z stands for zoom. This allows us to get great stereo images. Just like our left eye and our right eye build a three-dimensional image in our brain, the zoom cameras on Perserverance are a left eye and a right eye. With this, we can build a three-dimensional image back on Earth when we get those images.
3D images allow us to do a whole range of things scientifically. We want to understand the topography of Mars in much more detail than we’ve been able to in the past. We want to put the pieces of the delta geology story together not just with two-dimensional, spatial information, but with height as well as texture. And we want to make 3D maps of the landing site.
Our engineering and driving colleagues really need that information too. These 3D images will help them decide where to drive by helping to identify obstacles and slopes and trenches and rocks and stuff like that, allowing them to drive the rover much deeper into places than they would have been able to otherwise.
And finally, we’re going to make really cool 3D views of our landing site to share with the public, including movies and flyovers.
What else is different about this mission?
Perseverance is intended to be the first part of a robotic sample return mission from Mars. So instead of just drilling into the surface like the Curiosity Rover does, Perseverance will drill and core into the surface and cache those little cores into tubes about the size of a dry-erase marker. It will then put those tubes onto the surface for a future mission later this decade to pick up and then bring back to the Earth.
Perseverance won’t come back to the Earth, but the plan is to bring the samples that we collect back.
In the meantime, we’ll be doing all of the science that any great rover mission would do. We are going to characterize the site, explore the geology and measure the atmospheric and weather properties.
This is where it gets a little less certain, because these are all ideas and missions in the works. NASA and the European Space Agency are collaborating on a concept to build and launch a lander that will send a little fetch rover that goes and gets the little tubes, picks them up and brings them back to the lander. Waiting on the lander would be a small rocket called a Mars Ascent Vehicle, or MAV. Once the samples are loaded into the MAV, it launches them into Mars orbit.
Then you’ve got this grapefruit- to soccer-ball-sized canister up there, and NASA and the Europeans are collaborating on an orbiter that will search for that canister, capture it and then rocket it back to the Earth, where it will land in the Utah desert. What could possibly go wrong?
If successful, that’ll be the first time we’ve done that from Mars. The scientific tools on the rovers are good, but nothing like the labs back on Earth. Bringing those samples back is going to be absolutely critical to getting the most out of the samples.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on Feb. 4. The editor’s note was updated to reflect the successful landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars.
The share of the U.S. population living in poverty areas declined in the second half of this decade, dropping below levels a decade earlier, according to recent data.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015-2019 5-year American Community Survey (ACS) shows the percentage of people in the United States living in poverty areas – defined as census tracts where at least 20% of the population lives in poverty – increased between 2005-2009 and 2010-2014. It then decreased in 2015-2019 to a lower level than in 2005-2009.
These changes reflect the broader economic trends of the last decade.
The data cover a 15-year period that included both the Great Recession (December 2007 to June 2009) and the subsequent period of economic expansion. Data collection for the 2015-2019 ACS concluded in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Living in communities with high poverty concentrations exposes residents to several challenges, such as poor housing conditions, limited job opportunities and high crime rates. Government programs often target resources to these high-poverty neighborhoods.
Poverty areas by state and region
Figure 1 shows the percentage of people living in poverty areas varied in the states with some sharp regional differences.
The Census Bureau defines four regions: Northeast, South, Midwest and West. Six of the seven states with over 30% of their population living in poverty areas were in the South region.
In the 2015-2019 period:
– 21.1% of the U.S. population lived in poverty areas, ranging from a low of 5.2% in New Hampshire to a high of 42.4% in Mississippi. – In seven states, all in the South except for New Mexico, and the District of Columbia, at least 30% of residents lived in high poverty areas. In Mississippi and New Mexico, at least 40% of people lived in high-poverty areas. – In seven states, 10% or less of the population lived in poverty areas. These states were spread across the country: three in the West, two in the Northeast, one in the South and one in the Midwest.
The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty areas changed during the 15-year period stretching from 2005 to 2019.
In the 2005-2009 period, 21.3% of the nation’s population lived in poverty areas. During the 2010-2014 period, this increased by 6.4 percentage points to 27.7%. The rate then declined by 6.6 percentage points to 21.1% in the 2015-2019 period.
From 2005-2009 to 2015-2019, the percentage of people living in poverty areas in the United States fell by 0.2 percentage points. But there was more variation between these two time periods at the state level (Figure 2).
From 2005-2009 to 2015-2019:
– The percentage of people living in poverty areas increased in 25 states and decreased in 23 states and the District of Columbia. The change was not statistically significant in two states. In three states — Nevada, Delaware and Florida —the percentage of the population living in poverty areas rose by more than four percentage points. – In four states (Washington, North Dakota, Colorado and Texas), the slice of the population living in poverty areas dropped by four percentage points or more.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon on Wednesday announced that they have reached an agreement on a $9 billion package that includes immediate actions to speed needed relief to individuals, families and businesses suffering the most significant economic hardship from the COVID-19 recession.
The package – which Sen. Mike McGuire, who represents Lake County in the State Senate, said is California's largest economic recovery package in a generation – builds on the initiatives in the governor’s state budget proposal to provide cash relief to lower-income Californians, increase aid to small businesses and provide license renewal fee waivers to businesses impacted by the pandemic.
In addition to these measures, the agreement provides tax relief for businesses, commits additional resources for critical child care services and funds emergency financial aid for community college students.
“As we continue to fight the pandemic and recover, I’m grateful for the Legislature’s partnership to provide urgent relief and support for California families and small businesses where it’s needed most,” said Gov. Newsom. “From child care, relief for small business owners, direct cash support to individuals, financial aid for community college students and more, these actions are critical for millions of Californians who embody the resilience of the California spirit.”
“We’re nearly a year into this pandemic, and millions of Californians continue to feel the impact on their wallets and bottom lines. Businesses are struggling. People are having a hard time making ends meet. This agreement builds on Governor Newsom’s proposal and in many ways, enhances it so that we can provide the kind of immediate emergency relief that families and small businesses desperately need right now,” said Senate President pro Tempore Atkins. “People are hungry and hurting, and businesses our communities have loved for decades are at risk of closing their doors. We are at a critical moment, and I’m proud we were able to come together to get Californians some needed relief.”
“Californians have been hurting. Our response tackles the human and the economic impacts of COVID in a way that echoes President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and will help those who are hurting most. We are building an economic foundation for the recovery of jobs, small businesses and, indeed, our everyday lives,” said Speaker Rendon.
McGuire, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said he will be supporting this economic stimulus package in committee on Thursday. It will be voted on next week by the full Senate and Assembly before going to the governor for his signature.
“California’s landmark economic recovery package will help benefit millions of working families and seniors along with investing heavily in small business recovery,” McGuire said. “This is California's largest economic recovery package in a generation and it will be a desperately needed shot in the arm for local communities by investing billions in small business grants and advancing PPP loan conformity with state income taxes. The package will put food on the table for families and our most vulnerable neighbors, help them pay their bills, support farmworkers impacted by Covid-19, fund food bank operations and support our colleges by restoring past cuts to the UC and CSU system.”
McGuire said it has been nearly a year since California’s first wave of pandemic-induced business closures, lost jobs, lost dreams, illness and heartache, noting “the realities California families have faced this year have been nearly unbearable.’
He added, “But we will persevere and we will lift each other up in our greatest time of need. That is what we do in California and this economic stimulus is one important step in our collective Golden State recovery.”
Separately, the Governor and legislative leaders said that discussions are continuing on measures for the safe reopening of the state’s K-12 schools, including strategies to address learning loss caused by the pandemic.
Below are key provisions of the Immediate action agreement.
Direct relief to individuals and families
The agreement incorporates the Governor’s Golden State Stimulus plan to assist California households that have borne the disproportionate economic burden of the COVID-19 Recession – those with incomes below $30,000, as well as those unfairly excluded from previous federal stimulus payments.
The agreement provides $600 in one-time relief to households receiving the California EITC for 2020. In addition, the agreement provides a $600 one-time payment to taxpayers with Individual Tax Identification Numbers, or ITINs, who were precluded from receiving the $1,200 per person federal payments issues last spring and the more recent $600 federal payments. The agreement would provide the $600 payments to households with ITINs and income below $75,000. ITIN taxpayers who also qualify for the California EITC would receive a total of $1,200. The payments will be provided to these households shortly after they file their 2020 tax returns.
The agreement broadens this initial plan and now provides direct relief to more lower-income Californians through a $600 one-time grant to households enrolled in the CalWORKS program and recipients of SSI/SSP and Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants, or CAPI. Grant payments for CalWORKS households are expected by mid-April; timing for the delivery of SSI/SSP and CAPI grants is currently under discussion with federal officials.
Combined, the agreement represents a total of 5.7 million payments to low-income Californians.
Immediate relief for small businesses quadrupled
The agreement reflects a four-fold increase – from $500 million to more than $2 billion – for grants up to $25,000 for small businesses impacted by the pandemic, and also allocates $50 million for cultural institutions.
The agreement also partially conforms California tax law to new federal tax treatment for loans provided through the Paycheck Protection Plan, allowing companies to deduct up to $150,000 in expenses covered by the PPP loan. All businesses that took out loans of $150,000 or less would be able to maximize their deduction for state purposes. Larger firms that took out higher loans would still be subject to the same ceiling of $150,000 in deductibility. More than 750,000 PPP loans were taken out by California small businesses. This tax treatment would also extend to the Economic Injury Disaster Loans as well.
Fee waivers for most impacted licensees
The agreement provides for two years of fee relief for roughly 59,000 restaurants and bars licensed through the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control that can range annually from $455 to $1,235. The agreement also reflects fee relief for more than 600,000 barbering and cosmetology individuals and businesses licensed through the Department of Consumer Affairs.
More resources for critical child care
The agreement adds just over $400 million in new federal funds that will provide stipends of $525 per enrolled child for all state-subsidized child care and preschool providers serving approximately 400,000 children in subsidized care statewide. The new federal resources will extend care for children of essential workers through June of 2022, and funds increased access to subsidized child care for more than 8,000 children of essential workers and at-risk children – who are not currently served in the system – through June of 2022.
Additional aid for individuals and families
The agreement provides an additional $24 million for financial assistance and services through Housing for the Harvest – a program providing support for agricultural workers who have to quarantine due to COVID-19. The agreement also provides a combined $35 million for food banks and diapers.
Emergency financial relief to support community college students
The agreement provides an additional $100 million in emergency financial aid for qualifying low-income students carrying six or more units, with award amounts to be determined locally and made available by early April. The agreement also provides $20 million to reengage students who have either left their community college studies because of the pandemic or to engage students at risk of leaving.
CalFresh student outreach and application assistance
The agreement provides roughly $6 million to support outreach and application assistance to University of California, California State University and California Community College students made newly eligible for CalFresh – the state-administered federal program for supplemental food assistance. The agreement also provides $12 million in state funds to support associated county administrative workload.
In addition, the following provision is included in the agreement:
Restoration of reductions
The agreement restores previously enacted reductions, effective July 1, for the University of California, California State University, the Judicial Branch, Child Support Services and for moderate-income housing.