LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs of different breeds available this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of border collie, boxer, bulldog, bull terrier, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever, pit bull, poodle, shar pei, shepherd, terrier and treeing walker coonhound.
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.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Female boxer
This 5-year-old female boxer has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-3672.
Female Great Pyrenees
This 3-year-old female Great Pyrenees has a white coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-3669.
‘Misty’
“Misty” is a 4-year-old female bulldog with a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-3667.
‘BonBon’
“BonBon” is a 2-year-old male poodle with a long curly coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-3668.
‘Autumn’
“Autumn” is a 6-year-old female treeing walker coonhound with a tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-1776.
‘Cali’
“Cali” is a female pit bull terrier with a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-3571.
Shar Pei-pit bull mix
This 9-year-old female shar pei-pit bull mix has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-3622.
‘Missy’
“Missy” is a 3-year-old female pit bull terrier with a black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-3524.
Male pit bull terrier mix
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier mix has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3627.
Female pit bull
This young female pit bull has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-3630.
Male pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short brown coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-3640.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-3642.
Female shepherd
This 2-year-old female shepherd mix has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3643.
Pit bull-bull terrier mix
This 1-year-old male pit bull-bull terrier has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-3644.
Male American bulldog mix
This 2-year-old male American bulldog mix has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-3645.
Border collie-Labrador retriever mix
This young male border collie-Labrador retriever mix has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3646.
Female bulldog
This 2-year-old female bulldog has a short white coat with brown markings.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3658.
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.
Protecting and preserving assets in a decedent’s estate may require important actions to be taken soon after the decedent’s death and before a general probate administration commences.
For example, if the decedent’s estate includes investment or business assets were owned by the decedent individually, and not jointly or inside a trust and/or business entity, e.g., LLC or partnership, then protecting and preserving such assets may require the immediate appointment of a personal representative; sooner than when a personal representative is otherwise eventually appointed under the primary petition for probate.
In California, section 8540 of the Probate Code provides that, “(a) if the circumstances of the estate require the immediate appointment of a personal representative, the court may appoint a special administrator to exercise any powers that may be appropriate under the circumstances for the preservation of the estate.”
Section 8540 fashions the scope of the appointment to the circumstances. That is, “(b) the appointment may be for a specified term, to perform particular acts, or on any other terms specified in the court order.”
Section 8544 provides the special administrator with so-called “limited powers” to do the following: “(1) Take possession of all of the real and personal property of the estate of the decedent and preserve it from damage, waste, and injury; (2) Collect all claims, rents, and other income belonging to the estate; (3) Commence and maintain or defend suits and other legal proceedings; and (4) Sell perishable property.”
Additional specific powers may be requested as needed.
For example, a special administrator may be appointed to control the finances of a business so that its employee payroll and other business expenses are timely paid. Otherwise, a going business might fail and the estate lose a valuable asset. Often the same person is petitioning to be appointed as the general personal representative is appointed as the interim special administrator.
Sometimes even “general powers” — the same as granted the personal representative appointed under a general petition for probate — are also granted when the special administration is expected to be long lasting.
Consider a will contest where competing petitions to appoint different persons as the personal representative are before the superior court. Pending the outcome of the will contest lawsuit, a special administrator may serve for months before a personal representative is eventually appointed.
The administration of the estate cannot be delayed that long. In such a situation a neutral professional private fiduciary is often appointed to serve as special administrator.
If the special administrator is granted only limited powers, he or she has a limited scope of authority and responsibility respecting the estate. That is, the special administrator with limited authority does not notify creditors of the estate to file creditor claims and does not deal with preparing the decedent’s last income tax returns.
A petition for special administration can only be filed when a petition for general administration has already been filed (or when both are filed at the same time).
The general administration is about notifying and paying creditors, filing tax returns and paying tax liabilities, and distributing assets to the beneficiaries of the estate. Whereas any interim special administration is about safeguarding and preserving the estate’s assets pending the general administration.
The foregoing is not legal advice. Anyone confronting the issue of protecting and preserving the assets of a decedent’s estate should seek appropriate legal and investment counsel before proceeding.
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. — Hot weather is forecast to return early next week, when temperatures are expected to be near the century mark.
The National Weather Service said temperatures are anticipated to rise beginning on Sunday, with Monday to be the hottest across Lake and Mendocino counties.
Daytime temperatures on Friday and Saturday are forecast to be in the low to mid 80s, with nighttime temperatures in the high 50s.
On Sunday, temperatures will top out in the mid 90s, and on Monday could exceed 100 degrees, the forecast said.
Conditions will start to cool slightly on Tuesday, with temperatures dropping into the mid 90s and then the high 80s on Wednesday and Thursday.
Nighttime temperatures from Sunday through Thursday will range from the high 60s to low 60s, the forecast said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
After analyzing data gathered when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft collected a sample from asteroid Bennu in October 2020, scientists have learned something astonishing: The spacecraft would have sunk into Bennu had it not fired its thrusters to back away immediately after it grabbed dust and rock from the asteroid’s surface.
It turns out that the particles making up Bennu’s exterior are so loosely packed and lightly bound to each other that if a person were to step onto Bennu they would feel very little resistance, as if stepping into a pit of plastic balls that are popular play areas for kids.
“If Bennu was completely packed, that would imply nearly solid rock, but we found a lot of void space in the surface,” said Kevin Walsh, a member of the OSIRIS-REx science team from Southwest Research Institute, which is based in San Antonio.
The latest findings about Bennu’s surface were published on July 7 in a pair of papers in the journals Science and Science Advances, led respectively by Dante Lauretta, principal investigator of OSIRIS-REx, based at University of Arizona, Tucson, and Walsh.
These results add to the intrigue that has kept scientists on the edge of their seats throughout the OSIRIS-REx mission, as Bennu has proved consistently unpredictable.
The asteroid presented its first surprise in December 2018 when NASA’s spacecraft arrived at Bennu. The OSIRIS-REx team found a surface littered with boulders instead of the smooth, sandy beach they had expected based on observations from Earth- and space-based telescopes. Scientists also discovered that Bennu was spitting particles of rock into space.
“Our expectations about the asteroid’s surface were completely wrong,” said Lauretta.
The latest hint that Bennu was not what it seemed came after the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft picked up a sample and beamed stunning, close-up images of the asteroid’s surface to Earth. “What we saw was a huge wall of debris radiating out from the sample site,” Lauretta said. “We were like, ‘Holy cow!’”
Scientists were bewildered by the abundance of pebbles strewed about, given how gently the spacecraft tapped the surface. Even more bizarre was that the spacecraft left a large crater that was 26 feet (8 meters) wide. “Every time we tested the sample pickup procedure in the lab, we barely made a divot,” Lauretta said. The mission team decided to send the spacecraft back to take more photographs of Bennu’s surface “to see how big of a mess we made,” Lauretta said.
Mission scientists analyzed the volume of debris visible in before and after images of the sample site, dubbed “Nightingale.” They also looked at acceleration data collected during the spacecraft’s touch down. This data revealed that as OSIRIS-REx touched the asteroid it experienced the same amount of resistance — very little — a person would feel while squeezing the plunger on a French press coffee carafe.
“By the time we fired our thrusters to leave the surface we were still plunging into the asteroid,” said Ron Ballouz, an OSIRIS-REx scientist based at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Ballouz and the research team ran hundreds of computer simulations to deduce Bennu’s density and cohesion based on spacecraft images and acceleration information. Engineers varied the surface cohesion properties in each simulation until they found the one that most closely matched their real-life data.
Now, this precise information about Bennu’s surface can help scientists better interpret remote observations of other asteroids, which could be useful in designing future asteroid missions and for developing methods to protect Earth from asteroid collisions.
It’s possible that asteroids like Bennu — barely held together by gravity or electrostatic force — could break apart in Earth’s atmosphere and thus pose a different type of hazard than solid asteroids.
“I think we’re still at the beginning of understanding what these bodies are, because they behave in very counterintuitive ways,” said Patrick Michel, an OSIRIS-REx scientist and director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Côte d’Azur Observatory in Nice, France.
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.
The university leads the science team and the mission's science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built the spacecraft and provides 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, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate Washington.
Lonnie Shekhtman works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.
By identifying clouds in data collected by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the public can increase scientists’ understanding of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
NASA scientists hope to solve a fundamental mystery about Mars’ atmosphere, and you can help. They’ve organized a project called Cloudspotting on Mars that invites the public to identify Martian clouds using the citizen science platform Zooniverse.
The information may help researchers figure out why the planet’s atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s even though ample evidence suggests the planet used to have a much thicker atmosphere.
The air pressure is so low that liquid water simply vaporizes from the planet’s surface into the atmosphere. But billions of years ago, lakes and rivers covered Mars, suggesting the atmosphere must have been thicker then.
How did Mars lose its atmosphere over time? One theory suggests different mechanisms could be lofting water high into the atmosphere, where solar radiation breaks those water molecules down into hydrogen and oxygen (water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom). Hydrogen is light enough that it could then drift off into space.
Like Earth, Mars has clouds made of water ice. But unlike Earth, it also has clouds made of carbon dioxide (think: dry ice), which form when it gets cold enough for the Martian atmosphere to freeze locally.
By understanding where and how these clouds appear, scientists hope to better understand the structure of Mars’ middle atmosphere, which is about 30 to 50 miles (50 to 80 kilometers) in altitude.
“We want to learn what triggers the formation of clouds – especially water ice clouds, which could teach us how high water vapor gets in the atmosphere – and during which seasons,” said Marek Slipski, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
That’s where Cloudspotting on Mars comes in.
The project revolves around a 16-year record of data from the agency’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, which has been studying the Red Planet since 2006. The spacecraft’s Mars Climate Sounder instrument studies the atmosphere in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye.
In measurements taken by the instrument as MRO orbits Mars, clouds appear as arches. The team needs help sifting through that data on Zooniverse, marking the arches so that the scientists can more efficiently study where in the atmosphere they occur.
“We now have over 16 years of data for us to search through, which is very valuable – it lets us see how temperatures and clouds change over different seasons and from year to year,” said Armin Kleinboehl, Mars Climate Sounder’s deputy principal investigator at JPL. “But it’s a lot of data for a small team to look through.”
While scientists have experimented with algorithms to identify the arches in Mars Climate Sounder data, it’s much easier for humans to spot them by eye. But Kleinboehl said the Cloudspotting project may also help train better algorithms that could do this work in the future. In addition, the project includes occasional webinars in which participants can hear from scientists about how the data will be used.
Cloudspotting on Mars is the first planetary science project to be funded by NASA’s Citizen Science Seed Funding program. The project is conducted in collaboration with the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences. For more NASA citizen science opportunities, go to science.nasa.gov/citizenscience.
JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission – as well as the Mars Climate Sounder instrument – for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more than a dozen dogs waiting to meet adopters this week.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
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.
The following dogs are available for adoption.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He is dog No. 49951647.
‘Bro’
“Bro” is a male terrier mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
Bro is dog No. 50262527.
‘Colt’
“Colt” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short rust and black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49812106.
“Hondo.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
‘Kubota’
“Kubota” is a male German shepherd mix with a short tan and black coat.
He has been neutered.
Kubota is dog No. 50184421.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Newman’
“Newman” is a 1-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Newman is dog No. 49057809.
‘Sister’
“Sister” is a female terrier mix with a short tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50262516.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball” is a male American Staffordshire mix terrier with a white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Ziggy’
“Ziggy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Ziggy is dog No. 50146247
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A quick response by firefighters on Friday prevented a wildfire near Lower Lake from advancing.
The Main fire was first spotted at around 2:45 p.m. Friday by a Mount Konocti fire lookout volunteer.
It was dispatched a short time later in the area of Main Street and Highway 29 in Lower Lake, with dispatch reporting they had received numerous calls with multiple different locations for it given.
The first units to arrive on scene just after 3 p.m. said the fire was three to five acres, with a moderate to rapid rate of spread and wind pushing it.
Cal Fire, Lake County Fire, Northshore Fire and Kelseyville Fire all sent resources to the incident. In addition to engines, Cal Fire sent air attack, tankers, helicopters and dozers. Some of the engines that responded were sent to protect nearby structures.
Just before 6 p.m., incident command reported that hose and dozer lines were all around the incident and that additional resources were not needed.
Air attack reported mapping the fire at nearly 21 acres.
Incident command reported that the fire would be an extended incident, with resources to stay on it overnight and into Saturday.
Information on a cause wasn’t immediately available.
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. — The results for the June primary are now final, with slight changes in margins but the same overall results.
The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office posted the final results on its website on Thursday.
The posting signals the official canvass period has ended. Next the canvass results will go to the Board of Supervisors for final approval.
Primaries tend to have lower turnout. The final canvass showed that overall turnout was 36%. For comparison, the final turnout for the June 2018 primary was 43.1%.
Several incumbents were returned to office in uncontested races. Those included Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, District 3 Supervisor Eddie “EJ” Crandell and Sheriff Brian Martin.
Jenavive Herrington ran for her first term as county clerk-auditor unopposed. She will succeed Cathy Saderlund.
For the Middletown Unified School District Board seat, which is a partial term that will be back on the ballot later this year, Charise Reynolds won with 1,128 votes to 915 cast for Bryan Pullman, a margin of 55.21% to 44.79%.
In the assessor-recorder race, incumbent Richard Ford was elected to a third term with 63.84% of the vote or 7,766 ballots compared to challenger Hannah Faith Lee’s 36.16% or 4,398 ballots.
The district attorney’s contest margin changed little. Incumbent Susan Krones won a second term with 7,661 ballots cast in her favor compared with 4,953 votes for challenger Anthony Farrington, a former four-term county supervisor. Krones won the race by a 60.73% to 39.27% margin.
For treasurer-tax collector, with incumbent Barbara Ringen set to retire at year’s end, the field was open, with Patrick Sullivan, the county’s tax administrator, winning the race with a 60.82% to 39.18% margin over Paul Flores, a former county employee and a treasury and cash analyst. Sullivan received 7,197 votes to 4,636 cast for Flores.
In state and federal races for candidates representing Lake County, incumbents also won handily.
The California Secretary of State’s Office reported that Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, received 68.5% of the vote compared to the 31.5% received by Republican challenger Bryan Pritchard.
Democrat Mike McGuire, Lake County’s representative in the state Senate, received 75.8% of the vote over his Republican challenger, Gene Yoon of Cobb, who received 24.2% of the vote.
In the race for the newly drawn District 4 seat in Congress, incumbent Congressman Mike Thompson led the field with 66.9% of the vote, with Republican Matt Brock finishing second with 15.8%.
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.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — A new exhibit of contemporary Native American art curated by acclaimed Pomo basket weaver and cultural educator Corine Pearce will open at the Middletown Art Center this weekend.
The public is invited to the opening reception of “Earth Sky and Everything in Between,” which opens at Middletown Art Center from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9. An introduction and blessing will take place around 6:30 p.m.
This is the first exhibit of its kind in Lake County.
The exhibit includes baskets, paintings, photos, digital media and installations.
Artwork on display celebrates traditional cultural arts and resilience while highlighting current, and longtime challenges and issues including ongoing colonialism, land access and place-based land management — also known as traditional ecological knowledge or TEK — along with intergenerational trauma, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, identity and blood quantum.
“The Earth Sky and Everything in Between exhibit is a very exciting event for the small town of Middletown and Lake County,” said Millie Simon, Middletown Rancheria tribal elder. “Indian people honor the artwork of our Ancestors. Our past, present, and future connect through the arts of basket and regalia making. Art is education, and cultural education is very important among the tribes.”
The exhibit is part of MAC's yearlong project, “Weaving Baskets Weaving Bridges,” codesigned by Corine Pearce together with Millie Simon, Elem Cultural Educator Rose Steele, adult education specialist at the Lake Campus of Woodland Community College and MAC Board Member Mary Wilson, and MAC Executive and Artistic Director Lisa Kaplan.
“Weaving” uses the art of basketry as a vessel for cross-cultural healing and understanding through cultural exposure and the holistic practice of weaving — from native plant cultivation and preparation to weaving in community.
The county of Lake's historical museums will concurrently exhibit Pomo baskets that are normally kept in storage. Learn more about the project at www.middletownartcenter.org/weaving.
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to create an Indigenous space at the MAC that includes native artists from this region and from all over (the country). It’s been my pleasure to weave together artists and include family, friends, and colleagues,” said Pearce, an enrolled member of the Redwood Valley Rancheria with ancestry from both Lake and Mendocino County tribes. “Sharing subject matter that is culturally significant with a larger audience is beneficial for everyone. My hope is that this show is just the beginning of growing understanding and communication across diverse cultural communities.”
Learn more about Corine Pearce, her weaving practice, and work in communities to revitalize, sustain and share cultural traditions at www.corinepearce.com.
The Weaving project and the exhibit Earth, Sky, and Everything in Between are funded in part by Middletown Rancheria, Robinson Rancheria, Charlotte Griswold and the California Arts Council, a state agency.
The MAC is located at 21456 State Highway 175 at the junction of Highway 29 in Middletown.
To find out more about Earth Sky and Everything in Between or other events, programs, opportunities, and ways to support the MAC’s efforts to weave the arts and culture into the fabric of life in Lake County, visit www.middletownartcenter.org or call 707-809-8118.
Monika L. McDermott, Fordham University and David R. Jones, Baruch College, CUNY
Gun control legislation almost never passes Congress, even when there is widespread public support for action in the wake of mass shootings such as those in Buffalo and Uvalde.
Based on our expertise studying public opinion and the U.S. Congress, here are four reasons we believe some gun control measures got enacted this time around.
1. Public attention
Public opinion is fickle. What concerns people on a given day may not concern them soon after, especially if the news cycle loses sight of it.
In this case, the issue of gun control did not fade from the public agenda after the Buffalo and Uvalde shootings in May. It rose in importance. While just after the shootings gun control was not at the top of the public’s congressional to-do list, by mid-June it was, rivaling the economy – 48% to 51%, respectively – as a top priority. In addition, public support for stricter gun control laws continued to climb in the intervening period.
What happened to increase the public’s support and demand for gun control? One of many factors is that Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican and staunch Second Amendment supporter, came out publicly and declared, “I’m interested in what we can do to make the tragic events that occurred less likely in the future.” Within a week of the Uvalde shooting, he and Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, announced they would start meeting to discuss potential gun legislation. The actual possibility of reform kept the issue on the media’s, and thereby the public’s, agenda.
Media and public attention were also stoked by an impassioned public plea from Uvalde native and Hollywood star Matthew McConaughey at the White House, which went viral on social media. Additionally, emotional testimonies in a U.S. House committee hearing provided graphic details of the horrific experiences of students, teachers and parents.
2. Noncontroversial provisions
The new law enhances background checks for gun buyers between ages 18 and 21, provides money for states that enact “red flag” laws that allow a judge to take away the someone’s gun if they’re deemed dangerous to themselves or others, provides funding for mental health and school safety, and closes the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” which allows abusive boyfriends and even stalkers to have access to guns. How did these provisions get past Republican filibusters, which have stymied other gun reform bills?
One key factor is that provisions like these receive widespread support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Reports indicate that Cornyn, the lead Republican negotiator in the Senate, presented internal poll numbers showing broad support for these specific provisions among gun owners to his fellow Senate Republicans during deliberations. This reassurance of support from their base likely helped sway the 15 Republican senators who ended up voting for the bill. In the end, these 15 Republican votes were crucial to creating a filibuster-proof majority – at least 60 senators – in support of the bill.
While the legislation certainly is an accomplishment, it is a far cry from what large majorities of the public actually want, including most Republican voters. In the most recent Morning Consult/Politico poll, the public expressed strong majority support for aspects of legislation that were rejected in these negotiations. The mid-June poll shows 89% support universal background checks; 81% support a mandatory three-day waiting period; 80% support selling assault weapons only to those age 21 or older and 79% support raising the minimum age for any gun purchase to 21.
So while the law makes some progress, it’s not clear whether the public’s attention will move on, or whether the public will continue to press for further action.
3. Who’s got an election?
Contrary to expectations, the Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, gave a green light to the bipartisan efforts for gun control. This was evident when he appointed Cornyn to serve as the GOP’s lead negotiator.
McConnell’s support for passing a bill favored by Democrats represents an about-face. During Obama’s presidency, McConnell discouraged GOP senators from supporting Democratic proposals because it would make the ruling Democrats look reasonable and effective.
Why the flip? This time around McConnell seems to be betting that it is his party that needs to look reasonable heading into the 2022 midterm elections. Republicans only need to gain a total of one more seat to make McConnell the Senate majority leader once again. Close races are taking place in “purple” states such as Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The path to victory in these states goes through moderate suburban voters, who are supporters of gun reform.
A bipartisan gun reform bill may help inoculate the Republican Party and its candidates from Democratic charges of extremism and lack of concern for the safety of American schoolchildren. This thought appeared to be on McConnell’s mind when he said shortly before the bill’s passage: “I hope it will be viewed favorably by voters in the suburbs we need to regain in order to hopefully be in the majority next year.”
Not only does the new law provide cover for prospective Republican candidates in purple states, but it also required few red state Republicans to cast a vote that would put them in electoral danger.
Of the 15 Republican senators who voted for the bill, only two are up for reelection this year: Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who does not have to run in a closed Republican primary, and Tod Young of Indiana, who had already won his Republican primary by the time of the vote. Another four of the 15 GOP Senate supporters are retiring and won’t have to face voters: Roy Blunt, Richard Burr, Rob Portman and Pat Toomey.
4. Democratic leaders’ need for a legislative win
Democrats, specifically Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, appear to have also been rethinking their electoral strategy when it comes to gun control.
In the past, Democrats have often reflexively rejected gun reform proposals put forward by Republicans as insufficient half-measures – even going so far as to vote against them. In turn, Democrats offer up gun control measures they know in advance have no chance of passing, because Republicans staunchly oppose them and will have to go on record as doing so.
Republicans charge that Democrats would prefer to have gun control remain as a political issue to embarrass them rather than to engage in sincere compromise to get something done.
After Buffalo and Uvalde, Schumer faced the familiar pressure from progressives not to settle for what they saw as watered-down solutions to gun violence. Schumer could have once again forced Republicans to vote against universal background checks or an assault weapons ban.
But the context was somewhat different than in 2016.
For over a year, Senate Democrats have been unable to pass any version of President Biden’s signature Build Back Better plan, or much of any notable legislation at all. The party’s need for some sort of policy win could well have weighed more than taking a principled stance and fighting for a more comprehensive, but legislatively doomed, bill.
Schumer’s decision to allow his lead negotiator, Sen. Chris Murphy, to abandon some long-held Democratic priorities in order to compromise with Republicans may have been crucial to the U.S. Congress finally getting a gun reform bill enacted after decades of frustration.
One of Lake County’s members of Congress is leading an effort to protect contraception access.
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) introduced the Protecting Access to Contraception Act of 2022, legislation to codify the right of Americans to access contraception.
This follows Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion stating that the court should reconsider substantive due process precedents, including Griswold v. Connecticut, the 1965 court decision recognizing the constitutional right of married adults to access contraception without government restriction.
“Last month, the Supreme Court released a decision that gutted Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that provided the right to an abortion. In Justice Thomas’ concurring opinion, he opened the door to going after other fundamental rights that Americans have enjoyed for decades, including the right to contraception,” said Thompson. “I believe that everyone, regardless of the state in which they live, should have access to safe, effective, affordable and accessible methods of family planning and contraception. That’s why today, with my colleague Rep. Jayapal, I introduced legislation preventing states or localities from prohibiting or restricting the sale, purchase, possession, transportation, or use of contraception to ensure that further rights are not eroded by this extreme Supreme Court.”
"When it comes to our reproductive freedom, it is clear that this right-wing, extremist Supreme Court will not stop at stripping us of our right to safe and legal abortion. It is incumbent on us to ensure that our right to reproductive health care remains protected," said Jayapal. "Access to contraception is crucial to limiting unintended pregnancies. We are already seeing efforts by state and local governments to take away access to contraception methods. With this bill, we will guarantee that anyone who wants access to contraceptive care can be able to get it without state or local officials weighing in on their bodies and their reproductive choices."
Griswold recognized a constitutional right to privacy regarding reproductive decisions. Before the decision, 32 women were dying for every 100,000 live births in the United States. Today, the rate is less than half of that.
Access to contraception helps people live healthier lives, and often is used for something other than pregnancy prevention.
A study from the Guttmacher Institute showed that women use contraception to better achieve their life goals.
Specifically, the Protecting Access to Contraception Act of 2022 would forbid state or local governments from prohibiting or otherwise restricting the possession, sale, purchase, transportation or use of any contraceptive that relates to interstate commerce.
The bill allows for a private right-of-action for individuals harmed by violations of this law and authorizes the Department of Justice to bring civil action to remedy any violation of the bill.
Lastly, the legislation provides a broad definition of contraceptive, crafted to cover birth control medication, IUDs, condoms, and emergency contraception, as well as other relevant FDA-approved products, devices, or medications.
Congressman Thompson is a co-sponsor of the Women’s Health Protection Act which would reverse the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization by codifying Roe v. Wade.
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — A Millbrae man was arrested on July 4 after police said he fired off illegal fireworks that seriously burned a child.
Ellery Penas, 46, was arrested following the incident, which occurred Monday night, the Lakeport Police Department reported.
The agency said its officers were dispatched to a North High Street location to investigate the report of a juvenile being struck and burned by a firework at 9:30 p.m. Monday.
When officers arrived, Lakeport Fire Protection District personnel were already on scene attending to the victim, police said.
The investigation revealed that Penas lit a multi-round firework launcher loaded with flaming ball charges.
After the system began to fire, a charge launched toward a group of people and struck a 4-year-old child in the torso area, burning through the clothing. A later medical examination at a hospital determined the child had received second-degree burns.
Officers placed Penas under arrest for felony child endangerment causing injury, launching a dangerous firework likely to injure and for possession of illegal fireworks. Penas was booked into the Lake County Correctional Facility.
The Lakeport Police Department said it has zero tolerance for illegal fireworks, and will be aggressive in efforts to seize them and prosecute offenders.
“These fireworks are dangerous and have the potential to cause very serious or fatal injuries as well as destructive fires. We are lucky that this child’s injuries were not more severe than they were,” the agency said in a Wednesday statement.
In addition to this incident, the agency said it had several other fireworks related incidents and arrests, including a grass fire started by a shooting firework. Police also seized more than 380 illegal fireworks.
Between July 1 and 4 there were hundreds of illegal fireworks being shot off in the city and many complaints from citizens regarding these incidents, police said.
This investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information regarding the case is asked to contact Investigating Officer Juan Altamirano at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-263-5491.