LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will get an update from the county Public Health officer on COVID-19, consider upcoming events and discuss an application for federal grant money to respond to the pandemic.
The meeting will take place via webinar beginning at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 5.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here or join by phone by calling 415-930-5229 or toll-free, 877-309-2074. The access code is 620-529-293; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Please indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that read to the council will be subject to the three minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council prior to the meeting.
On Tuesday, the council is scheduled to get a presentation from Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace on the current progress in containing the COVID-19 outbreak in Lake County. Pace had been set to speak to the council at its last meeting in April but had a time conflict.
In council business, City Manager Margaret Silveira is asking the council to review the application for the July 18 Rhythm & Brews event and other similar events using public areas in light of shelter in place orders.
“Staff is seeking direction in processing and scheduling events using public areas in Lakeport in the upcoming months. Since March 18, Shelter-in-Place orders have been instituted in Lake County to help stop the spread of COVID-19. It is likely that some type of order will continue through the summer months, making it difficult to respond to public requests for events and the subsequent street closures,” Silveira wrote in her report to the council.
Options for the council to consider include denying the Rhythm & Brews event, approving it with staff recommendations, or directing staff to cancel all events scheduled for May through September.
In other business, the council will consider the proposed resolution adopting the Eleventh Street Corridor Multimodal Engineered Feasibility Study and make a recommendation that the Lake Area Planning Council also adopt the proposed Study.
Staff also will ask the council to proceed with the preparation of a Community Development Block Grant application for $70,681 in aid through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on April 21 and the special council meeting on April 24; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the Mendocino Complex fire; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the February 2019 storms; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the October 2019 public safety power shutoff; confirmation of the continuing existence of a local emergency for the COVID-19 public health emergency; and receipt and filing of the draft minutes of the regular meeting on April 22 of the Measure Z Advisory Committee.
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 fives dogs available to homes this week.
While the shelter has moved most of its dogs into foster, potential adopters can make appointments to meet and adopt available dogs.
The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.
‘Buddy’
“Buddy” is a male spaniel mix with a black and white coat.
He is dog No. 3667.
‘Lady’
“Lady” is a female German Shepherd mix.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 3683.
‘Princess’
“Princess” is a female German Shepherd with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
Princess is young and energetic. She previously lived around a smaller dog and has been around the office cat. She will benefit from training and attention.
She is dog No. 3669.
‘Spud’
“Spud” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier with a short brindle and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 3733.
‘Tyson’
“Tyson” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 1863.
Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.
Hours of operation are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.
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.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at 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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The latest testing of raw sewage at Lake County Special Districts’ four treatment facilities found no presence of the virus that causes COVID-19 at any of the plants late in April, despite the fact that samples earlier in the month confirmed its presence.
Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger reported Friday that she received the latest test results from Biobot, a Massachusetts firm that is offering the testing as part of a pro bono program it’s conducting along with MIT, Harvard and Brigham and Women's Hospital.
The tests are used to detect the presence of SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus is shed in the stools of infected people.
Sewage testing also has successfully tracked the poliovirus and consumption of drugs such as opioids, according to Dr. Mariana Matus, chief executive officer and cofounder of Biobot.
Biobot is seeking to use wastewater testing to proactively detect outbreaks and help governments and communities to get ahead of public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Special Districts is conducting the tests at its four sewage treatment plants – Kelseyville, Middletown, Northwest Regional in north Lakeport and Southeast Regional in Clearlake and Lower Lake – on a weekly basis.
Coppinger said the latest results were for samples taken on April 14 and 21.
For April 14, SARS-CoV-2 was found only in the Southeast Regional plant, while the April 21 testing found no presence of the virus at any of the four plants.
Special Districts began doing the sampling in late March. While initial detections didn’t find the virus, samples taken on April 7 found it at all four treatment plants, as Lake County News has reported.
Coppinger told Lake County News that Biobot estimated that the virus was less than 1 percent of catchment in those April 7 tests.
“We did not try to equate that to cases due to the inconsistent way it is shed in the stools,” Coppinger said.
The samples with confirmed traces of SARS-CoV-2 were collected at the Special Districts plants in the same week in April that the first local cases of COVID-19 were confirmed.
Information on SARS-CoV-2 in the stool suggests some people shed much larger amounts of the virus than others.
Additionally, Biobot’s published research so far on its sampling protocols have shown daily variability in the amount of virus found in the same areas and facilities.
Wastewater testing in other areas reveals more potential cases
Coppinger called the latest test results “excellent news,” but cautioned that no detection of the virus at the plants doesn’t necessarily mean there are no cases in those districts. “This data does suggest there are not enough cases to be detected in the samples.”
Biobot’s research has found that wastewater testing results are pointing to much larger numbers of cases than have been confirmed in testing. That’s the situation in one Massachusetts community, where 446 cases were reported but Biobot’s methodology estimated that as many as 115,000 people were infected.
Coppinger said that when COVID-19 is detected in raw sewage, it is diluted with chlorine, detergents and disinfectants that kill the virus. Non-toxic levels of chlorine are present in many public water systems, and household and commercial laundry, cleaning and disinfecting products also end up in sewage.
While raw sewage is toxic at all times, the presence of COVID-19 does not make it any more dangerous than it has always been, Coppinger said.
In a wastewater epidemiology webcast published April 24 by the Water Environment Federation, Biobot’s Dr. Matus said that, when testing for the virus, they destroy it through a process that includes pasteurization.
While evidence suggests that the virus already is inactive by the time it’s captured for testing in wastewater, Matus said the pasteurization process is an extra precaution Biobot takes to further guarantee safe handling of test samples.
The detection of COVID-19 in raw sewage has no effect on local water supplies, whatsoever, Coppinger said. Delivery of tap water and management of wastewater are completely separate processes, and the water provided by Lake County Special Districts is safe to drink.
Coppinger said Special Districts intends to continue to conduct weekly testing through the month of May.
“Biobot has been working to increase their capacity, and they are hopeful results will be available in a more timely manner in the future. We will continue to report the results, as they come in,” Coppinger said.
At Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Coppinger had told the board that Biobot was working to get caught up after more than 160 agencies nationwide had joined its testing program.
The city of Lakeport separately confirmed to Lake County News that it is on a waiting list to join the testing, and has installed the necessary equipment to take samples at its sewer treatment plant.
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.
A comparison of daily deaths in Italy since January 2020 with those over the previous five years there indicates that the fatality rate in that country for those infected with the new coronavirus is at least 0.8 percent, far higher than that of the seasonal flu and higher than some recent estimates.
Extrapolating from the Italian data, University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory data scientists estimate that the fatality rate in New York City and Santa Clara County in California can be no less than 0.5 percent, or one of every 200 people infected.
These conclusions contrast with those of a study posted in April by Stanford University epidemiologists, who pegged the fatality rate at between 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent. An affiliated team from the University of Southern California later in April reported a similar fatality rate in Los Angeles.
“Their final number is much lower than our estimate,” said senior author Uros Seljak, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab and member of the Berkeley Institute for Data Science. He also is co-director of the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics, or BCCP.
Seljak says that getting COVID-19 doubles your chance of dying this year.
“If you want to know what are the chances of dying from COVID-19 if you get infected, we observed that a very simple answer seems to fit a lot of data: It is the same as the chance of you dying over the next 12 months from normal causes,” said Seljak.
Current uncertainties can push this number down to 10 months or up to 20 months, he added. His team discovered that this simple relation holds not only for the overall fatality rate, but also for the age-stratified fatality rate, and it agrees with the data both in Italy and in the U.S.
“Our observation suggests COVID-19 kills the weakest segments of the population,” Seljak said.
The paper was posted online last week on MedRxiv in advance of peer review and submission to a journal.
Italy’s deaths twice the official count
The study by Seljak and his colleagues predicts that the true number of deaths in Italy from COVID-19 is more than twice the official figure: around 50,000 people, as of April 18. The country’s official statistics listed more than 150,000 confirmed cases, as of that date, and more than 20,000 attributed deaths.
The difference, the researchers say, is likely due to many deaths among older people that have not been counted in the official Italian statistics. The team found a much higher fatality rate for those over 70 years of age: In Lombardy, a region hit hard by the pandemic, those between 70 and 79 had a 2.3 percent infection fatality rate, while those 80 to 89 had an almost 6 percent fatality rate. Nearly 13 percent of those over 90 died.
In comparison, those 40 to 49 had a 0.04 percent fatality rate.
These differing fatality rates can explain the observed higher number of deaths among younger people in New York City. Because the population there is younger that in Italy, more deaths among young people are expected, despite their lower fatality rate. The researchers predict that about 26 percent of all deaths from COVID-19 in New York City will be among those younger than 65.
The population of Italy, on the other hand, is older, yielding a higher overall fatality rate for the country’s population: 0.8 percent, versus 0.5 percent for New York. Only 10 percent of Italian deaths will be younger than 65.
The team also estimated, based on the predicted fatality rate for those infected with the new coronavirus and the positivity rate for those tested for COVID-19 in New York City, that about one-quarter of that city’s population has been infected with the virus. This agrees with the recent announcement by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of 21 percent infection.
The team’s predicted infection rate for Santa Clara is around 1 percent, while that for Los Angeles is around 2 percent, based on current mortality rates.
Given known infection and fatality rates on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the team also calculated an upper limit on the fatality rate for those infected: about twice the lower limit, or 1 percent, for New York City and Santa Clara County.
Uncertainty fueled by lack of diagnostic tests
Uncertainty about the fatality rate for those infected by the new virus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, resulted from delays in testing, due to a shortage of test kits and testing labs. This left public health officials in the dark about the true rate of infection in the general population, which is needed to calculate what percentage of infected people die.
The Stanford study estimated an infection rate in Santa Clara County of between 2.5 percent and 4.2 percent of residents, whereas the USC study estimated an infection rate in Los Angeles between 2.8 percent and 5.6 percent. Both are much higher than previous estimates, which means the number of confirmed COVID-positive deaths relative to those infected dropped to a low of 0.2 percent.
Based on these studies, some of the Stanford authors have argued that COVID-19 is little worse than the seasonal flu, casting doubt on decisions to mandate shelter-in-place and the closing of many businesses.
“Of course, it (the infection fatality rate) matters, for policy decisions,” Seljak said. “Is this just a bad case of flu, as they would like to claim, or is it something much more serious?”
To answer that question, Seljak and his colleagues mined a previously untapped source of data: the daily death rate for 1,688 towns in Italy between Jan. 1 and April 4 for the years 2015 through 2020, provided by the Italian Institute of Statistics. The excess deaths between January and April of this year, presumably due to COVID-19, can be used to calculate a lower limit for the death rate from the virus.
“The dataset is a treasure trove for statistical analysis of COVID-19 mortality,” Seljak said. “For example, it can give mortality rate as a function of age better than any other data out there, a sad consequence of tens of thousands of deaths from COVID-19 in Italy. With this data, we established that if one gets infected and is above 90 years of age, the probability of dying is at least 10 percent, because that is the fraction of the entire population of Bergamo province in this age group that died. In contrast, the corresponding number for ages 40 to 49 is 0.04 percent, far lower than previous estimates.”
The Lombardy region of Italy, for example, was a viral hotspot, with the province of Bergamo hardest hit: The infection spread to so many people in Bergamo — likely two-thirds of the population, if not the entire population — that it is possible that so-called herd immunity has set in, Seljak said. That means that enough people are immune, at least temporarily, to stanch the spread of the virus among the uninfected.
With essentially everyone in Bergamo infected, and the known deaths since January — predicted to be more than 6,000 out of a population of 1 million — it was easy to calculate the lowest possible infected fatality rate: 0.56 percent.
For Lombardy, the researchers estimated that the lowest possible fatality rate was even higher: about 0.84 percent. They also estimated that 23 percent of the population of Lombardy was infected, as of April 18 — on average, 35 times the number of positive tests in the province.
The team conducted an analysis for all Italian towns that reported daily death data and for all age groups, using a counterfactual analysis: estimating the expected number of deaths daily between January and April 2020, based on the previous five years, and comparing those numbers with reported deaths. The excess is assumed to be due to COVID-19. The researchers employed statistical methods often used in analyzing large sets of data: the Conditional Mean with a Gaussian process (CGP) and a Synthetic Control Method (SCM).
In nearly all towns, the excess deaths in early 2020 exceeded the official count attributed to COVID-19.
The numbers the team came up with are lower limits, the researchers emphasize, since deaths in many Italian towns are not fully up to date.
“Some of my colleagues think that we have been overly conservative, which might be true,” Seljak said. “We have just accounted for the people who have died up until today, but people are still dying.”
The first author of the paper is Chirag Modi, a physics graduate student in BCCP. Other co-authors are postdoctoral fellows Vanessa Böhm and George Stein and research scientist Simone Ferraro of Berkeley Lab and the BCCP, and former Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley.
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Behavioral Health Services invites community members to join it in celebrating Mental Health Month this May.
Launched in 1949 by Mental Health America, this is the most recognized mental health awareness event in the United States.
Just last year, Mental Health Month media and materials were seen and used by nearly 250 million Americans.
When you or a loved one is grappling with a mental health concern, sometimes it can be a lot to handle. It is critical to keep in mind mental health is important to everyone’s overall health and well-being. Good mental health is a key contributor to good physical health.
This month, Lake County Behavioral Health Services is focusing on how a healthy lifestyle can help prevent the onset or worsening of mental health conditions, along with diabetes, heart disease, obesity and other chronic health issues.
Healthy lifestyle choices can also help folks successfully recover from these types of medical conditions. Managing stress, eating healthy foods, getting enough sleep, and exercising can go a long way in making one both mentally and physically healthy.
“It is important to take a really hard look at your overall health, both mentally and physically, in order to achieve wellness,” said Todd Metcalf, director of Lake County Behavioral Health Services. “Eating healthy foods that positively impact your gut health, getting the appropriate amount of exercise, getting enough rest and stress reduction — it’s all about achieving the right balance to benefit both body and mind.”
Lake County Behavioral Health Services wants everyone to know mental illnesses are real, and recovery is always the goal. Living a healthy lifestyle may not always be easy, but taking a look at one’s overall health every day — both mentally and physically — goes a long way to ensure a focus on fitness.
The agency said this is especially critical during these unprecedented times, as we navigate the uncharted waters of COVID-19.
Join Lake County Behavioral Health Services in celebrating Mental Health Month by spotlighting the importance of both healthy mind and body.
For assistance and more information, please contact Lake County Behavioral Health Services at 707-274-9101 or 707-994-7090.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department has assigned a new homeless outreach officer to further our efforts to help those experiencing homelessness in our community.
Police Officer Melissa Bedford is now assigned to this duty and will work with the police administration to coordinate the agency’s efforts to address this very complex societal problem.
“As the public should be aware, the police cannot singlehandedly solve this problem. If the problem is ever to be solved there must be a coordinated effort which includes law enforcement, social services, behavioral health services, alcohol and drug counseling services, community organizations and numerous others,” the department said in a Friday statement.
The Lakeport Police Department has long been a community-oriented policing service agency; as such, it essentially works with the entire community to solve and mitigate problems which include homelessness.
“Many in our community have serious concerns about homelessness in Lakeport and going forward we hope to address all of those concerns and assist those in need, but remember we cannot do this alone,” police said.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made the homeless problem even more difficult for police to address. The department said each of its police officers have always been part social worker and part mental health counselor but that’s the case now more than ever, and they need more help.
Unless a person is over 65, is sick or has serious medical issues, is willing to self-isolate alone in a room during the shelter in place and be able to get into the special state-funded Roomkey project, the only homeless shelter in Lake County is the Hope Harbor COVID-19 temporary shelter in the city of Lakeport.
“At capacity, this shelter will not accommodate all of the homeless individuals we are aware of just in the city of Lakeport. We hope to direct those in need of services to the appropriate agencies and work with the community in our ongoing efforts,” the department said.
“Success isn’t measured by how many people you arrest but how many people you can get directed to help themselves. Over the past few weeks, we have seen success stories. A few weeks ago Rose was homeless in Lakeport and we were able to get her into the Hope Harbor COVID-19 temporary shelter. Rose is off the streets and doing remarkably well and making positive changes in her life,” police said.
On Thursday, the Lakeport Police Department was able to work with another homeless woman who had been on the Lakeport streets for the past two months. “We were able to get her into temporary housing where hopefully she can get back on her feet, back to work and back into permanent housing and a better life.”
The department said it has a strong partnership with Hope Harbor and its officers have been doing considerable work with getting people into the shelter. “However, this shelter is temporary during the shelter in place and we do not yet know how it will look in the future.”
Anyone wishing to provide police with thoughts or suggestions regarding homelessness in the community or how police can help those in need can email Officer Bedford at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Find a pretty tablecloth, get out your best china and put on your most elegant hat! Having a proper English tea at home is a fun diversion while being sheltered in place and it can also make for a very special Mother’s Day celebration.
Other than water, tea is the most ubiquitous drink in the world. Its consumption easily equals all the other manufactured drinks on the planet put together – that is, coffee, chocolate, sodas and alcoholic beverages.
In England, tea is both a drink and a meal. The British love their tea, with over 165 million cups of it being served there each year. That’s nearly three cups per day per British citizen.
Tea became popular in Britain in the 1660s via the marriage of King Charles II to a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, who brought her habit of drinking tea to the British royal court.
While tea had been previously introduced to Britain, it was not yet a popular beverage, perhaps because at the time it was extremely expensive. (Some aficionados even kept their tea under lock and key in specially made tea chests.)
While in her native Portugal, Princess Catherine regularly enjoyed the beverage and continued doing so after marrying and moving to England. The people followed suit and tea remains beloved in Britain to this day.
It wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the concept of ‘afternoon tea’ (that is, tea served with food) came about. As is true with much historical trivia, there are conflicting stories as to how the tradition of English tea came to be.
One story tells of a duchess who found it difficult making it through the long stretch between the light lunch and late supper that were traditional in England at that time.
She asked her servants to bring her sweets and tea in her chambers in the mid-afternoon and enjoyed it so much that it became a daily event. The tradition spread and is now part of English culture.
Another version is that the English brought the Chinese tradition of dim sum, small portions of food served with tea, back to England. Dim sum originated in the Chinese region of Canton, where rural farmers would go to tea houses after working in the fields.
In Cantonese, going to dim sum is usually known as going to “drink tea.” The drinking of tea is as important to dim sum as the food.
Either way, the tradition remains intact today, and having tea is a mainstay of British culture.
In today’s Britain, there are three times that tea (meaning the beverage along with food) is taken.
“Elevenses” is tea and a light snack (say, scones, muffins or biscuits) taken in the late morning during a break from one’s work. Though a relatively new custom – it likely popped up in the 20th century - it’s well ingrained in British society. (If it sounds familiar, it might be because it was mentioned in “The Lord of the Rings” as a hobbit’s third meal of the day.)
“Afternoon tea” is what we typically think of when referring to an English tea. Taken in the afternoon between 2 and 4 p.m., it’s known for temptations such as scones, dainty crustless sandwiches, cookies and the like. Though the food presented may be abundant, afternoon tea is intended to be a light meal.
Afternoon tea emerged as a social event for the well-heeled sometime in the 1830s or 1840s. During the Victorian era, people dressed for the occasion, often donning gowns, gloves and hats.
Though things have relaxed a bit, etiquette surrounding afternoon tea was initially quite strict, with rules on such things as how to handle one’s spoon after stirring milk into tea.
“High tea,” despite its name, originated with the lower classes. This was a hearty meal taken immediately after work because often there wasn’t the luxury of a break for a midday meal. Fare such as cheeses, meats and pies were consumed to sate hunger and served as one’s supper.
Some regions have their own form of afternoon tea, such as the now-famous Devonshire Cream Tea, which consists of scones, strawberry jam and the vital ingredient, Devon clotted cream. As to the beverage, true tea is only from the plant species Camellia sinensis.
The type of tea – whether it’s white, yellow, green, oolong, or black – depends on the processing it goes through after it’s picked.
Tea leaves begin to wilt and oxidize shortly after picking if not dried quickly. During this process, the leaves turn progressively darker as the chlorophyll breaks down and tannins are released. This is known as fermentation, though it’s not a true fermentation caused by microorganisms; rather, it’s enzyme oxidation.
White tea is comprised of wilted leaves that are not oxidized. Yellow tea is the same but is allowed to turn yellow.
Green tea is not oxidized either but is made from unwilted leaves. Oolong tea is wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized, while black tea is wilted, sometimes bruised, and fully oxidized.
Herbal “teas” are more correctly called herbal infusions or tisanes as they don’t contain true tea leaves; rather, they’re made with flowers, fruits, or herbs.
If your mother is with you while sheltering in place, hosting a traditional English tea on Mother’s Day is a special way to give the gift of time to her, not to mention some well-deserved pampering along with a delectable meal.
If not, a gift certificate for a future tea holds promise for an experience to be cherished later.
A traditional afternoon tea (one that is more of a meal than a snack) typically consists of a scone course (think lemon curd and Devonshire cream with scones), an appetizer course (for example, cucumber tea sandwiches with the crusts cut off), and a dessert course (such as shortbread cookies or a trifle).
The recipes included in today’s column are those I created for an English tea culinary class. Each course is represented – scone, savory and dessert – and can serve as a template for your tea or as inspiration for your own ideas.
Most of all, enjoy! As C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, said, “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
Lavender cream scones
You or a friend may have a lavender bush that can be harvested; if not, culinary lavender is available online or at specialty stores.
2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon baking powder 2 teaspoons dried lavender buds At least 1 cup heavy cream
~ Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
~ Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl.
~ Add lavender and blend to distribute evenly.
~ Gradually add just enough cream to form a soft dough.
~ Knead lightly on a floured board, handling the dough gently to retain the air needed for the scones to rise.
~ Roll out to a ½ to ¾ inch thickness and cut into rounds with a cookie cutter or sharp knife.
~ Arrange on an ungreased baking sheet, leaving a ½ inch space between them.
~ Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 8 large or 16 small scones.
~ Serve with lemon curd and/or lavender butter (recipes below).
Note: These scones may be made without the lavender, or with orange zest and cranberries in place of it, or with finely chopped walnuts.
Lemon curd
Unused lemon curd may be stored in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator, where it will keep for a week.
3 eggs 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 cup granulated sugar Juice and zest (grated rind, yellow part only) of two lemons
~ Beat the eggs into the melted butter.
~ Stir in the sugar and beat until thoroughly combined.
~ Add the lemon juice and zest gradually.
~ Cook in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until thickened, stirring constantly. Allow to cool before using.
Lemon curd may be used atop scones, crumpets, toast, English muffins or cookies. It may also be used to fill tartlets or as a filling for layer cakes.
Lavender butter
Frozen, the butter stays fresh tasting for about a month. In the refrigerator, it keeps for about a week.
¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature 1 tablespoon honey or lavender honey 1 tablespoon lavender, finely ground in spice grinder or coffee grinder
Place the butter, honey, and lavender in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until just combined. Transfer to a sheet of parchment or wax paper. Roll into a 1” wide log. Refrigerate or freeze.
Curried shrimp sandwiches with lemon-dill butter
These tasty bites may also be served as a sandwich. If so, cut off bread crusts and spread lemon-dill butter on both bread slices, or, if open-faced, on one. Thin slices of English cucumber may be added.
½ pound bay shrimp, rinsed and drained well ¼ cup mayonnaise 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (typically about or a bit less than ½ lemon) 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 2 tablespoons finely diced fresh red pepper Curry to taste (begin with ¼ teaspoon) Salt and pepper to taste Lemon-Dill Butter (recipe follows) 1 French bread or sourdough baguette Sprigs of fresh dill for garnish
~ Thinly slice baguette and spread slices with lemon-dill butter.
~ Spread baguette slices on a baking sheet and, using broiler, allow butter to melt and slices to crisp and brown a bit.
~ Remove from broiler and cool.
~ When ready to serve, spread a layer of shrimp mixture on bread.
~ If desired, garnish each piece with a sprig or sprinkling of fresh dill.
Lemon-dill butter
This compound butter is also tasty on noodles, salmon or asparagus.
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature Zest of one lemon 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (typically about or a bit less than ½ lemon) Salt and pepper to taste and a pinch of sugar
~ Pulse all ingredients (except salt & pepper) in a food processor using a quick on/off pulse until mixture is well blended.
~ Season with salt & pepper to taste and pulse to blend.
~ Makes about ¾ cups.
~ Store in an airtight container in fridge for 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
Puff pastry swirls
These savory appetizers are festive and colorful.
1 sheet frozen puff pastry ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (approximate) 1 – 10-ounce package frozen chopped spinach, drained and squeezed dry 6 mushrooms, stems removed, and diced 1 medium shallot, diced 2 tablespoons butter ¼ cup toasted walnuts, chopped fine Salt and pepper to taste Roasted red bell pepper (or a fresh red bell pepper in small dice) 1 egg, beaten
~ Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
~ Melt butter in pan and add diced shallots. Sauté until they begin to soften and then add mushrooms. Sauté for another minute or so.
~ Add spinach and walnuts and stir to combine. (If using fresh bell pepper, add to mixture.) Cook to warm through.
~ Add salt and pepper to taste. Set pan aside.
~ Roll out puff pastry sheet on parchment paper. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over pastry.
~ Spread spinach mixture over pastry.
~ If using roasted pepper, spread strips over spinach to add a touch of red.
~ Roll up jelly-roll fashion slice into 20 – ½ inch slices. Lay them on parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and brush with egg.
~ Bake 15 minutes or until golden. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Shortbread cookies
Shortbread, a rich, tender and crumbly cookie (called a biscuit in Ireland and the British Isles), originated in Scotland.
2 cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon salt 1 cup (2 sticks) sweet cream butter at room temperature ½ cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
~ Whisk flour and salt together; set aside.
~ Beat the butter until smooth and creamy.
~ Add the sugar and beat until smooth.
~ Beat in the vanilla extract.
~ Gently stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
~ Flatten dough into disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate to chill for at least an hour.
~ Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in middle of oven. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.
~ On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a ¼ inch thick circle.
~ Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter.
~Place on the prepared baking sheets and refrigerate for 15 minutes, which allows the cookies to retain their shape.
~ Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned.
~ Cool on a wire rack.
Makes about 20 cookies, depending on size of cookie cutter.
All recipes by Esther Oertel.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa, Calif. She lives in Middletown, Calif.
Earth’s climate is the product of many rich and complex systems.
It’s affected by water in its many forms; on land, in the air, in the oceans, and as ice. It feels influences from vegetation, from soil conditions, from the carbon cycle, from human impacts.
We study and observe our planet’s ever-changing conditions in many ways, from many locations. One location, in particular, provides a unique and powerful vantage point, allowing us to see our planet in high detail and on a broad scale. Space.
The International Space Station is home to many instruments that help with the study of our planet in a variety of ways. Each is an amazing resource for scientists and researchers, but together they paint a picture of Earth richer and more detailed than anyone instrument could provide.
From the vantage point of the orbiting laboratory, GEDI measures Earth’s surface vegetation, producing 3D views of forest height and structure, and the surface topography beneath.
Forests and other plant life respond to a variety of environmental stresses, and the ECOSTRESS instrument allows researchers to study plant temperature and provides insights into how life on Earth responds to changes in water availability. OCO-3 measures atmospheric CO2 with high accuracy, helping researchers better understand CO2 increases and decreases and the impacts of those changes.
And through the use of two cutting edge spectral imagers on the station, HISUI and DESIS, researchers have access to highly detailed information on materials across Earth’s surface, from identifying minerals and rock types to distinguishing between plant species.
There’s another, and often overlooked observational instrument on board the space station: crew members, equipped with digital cameras. Over 3,000,000 images have been collected by astronauts from the station, and those images can be put to a variety of uses.
William Stefanov is branch chief for the Exploration Science Office, a part of the Exploration Integration and Science Directorate at Johnson Space Center.
“Handheld cameras used by the crew act as a complement to the data gathered by the station’s various instruments. And that comes down to the ability of the crew to take pictures that are panoramic and oblique versus a straight-down look,” said Stefanov.
That panoramic view can be quite useful when observing natural disasters as they occur, such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions.
“A camera is an excellent tool for examining the plumes created by wildfires or volcanos because it gives you an immediate three-dimensional picture of what the plume looks like, what its structure is, and how far it’s extending,” Stefanov said.
The observational instruments aboard the space station provide science capabilities that are more than the sum of their parts. These instruments, along with photography from crew members, serve to keep a multifunctional eye on the condition of our home planet.
The California Highway Patrol announced that it is beginning to distribute 100,000 face coverings supplied by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to truck drivers in California.
“The California Highway Patrol is honored to be a part of the distribution of these protective face coverings for truck drivers,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “The Department recognizes the essential task these drivers are providing to keep critical goods and supplies available.”
“The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration worked closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and trucking stakeholders to coordinate and ship 800,000 protective masks to State Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program law enforcement agencies throughout the country for distribution to truckers all over the country,” said Collin B. Mooney, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance.
State and local partners, in conjunction with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, continue to assist in the distribution of the masks in order to ensure that the masks are supplied directly to truckers who maintain the nation’s supply chain during this crisis, Mooney said.
“The agency is appreciative of FEMA for supplying these masks, and for our state partners who have worked together to ensure they reach America’s truck drivers,” Mooney said.
The CHP will distribute the face coverings to its 17 commercial vehicle enforcement facilities in each of its eight field divisions throughout the state based on known truck volume.
Truck drivers will be provided coverings at the front counter of the enforcement facilities and during other contacts by departmental commercial vehicle personnel.
To find the locations of CHP Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facilities by CHP Division, go to https://www.chp.ca.gov/find-an-office , scroll down and click on a specific geographic Division or call 1-800-TELL-CHP (1-800-835-5247).
The mission of the CHP is to provide the highest level of safety, service, and security.
The coronavirus pandemic has set off a global gardening boom.
In the early days of lockdown, seed suppliers were depleted of inventory and reported “unprecedented” demand. Within the U.S., the trend has beencompared to World War II victory gardening, when Americans grew food at home to support the war effort and feed their families.
The analogy is surely convenient. But it reveals only one piece in a much bigger story about why people garden in hard times. Americans have long turned to the soil in moments of upheaval to manage anxieties and imagine alternatives. My research has even led me to see gardening as a hidden landscape of desire for belonging and connection; for contact with nature; and for creative expression and improved health.
These motives have varied across time as growers respond to different historical circumstances. Today, what drives people to garden may not be the fear of hunger so much as hunger for physical contact, hope for nature’s resilience and a longing to engage in work that is real.
Why Americans garden
Prior to industrialization, most Americans were farmers and would have considered it odd to grow food as a leisure activity. But as they moved into cities and suburbs to take factory and office jobs, coming home to putter around in one’s potato beds took on a kind of novelty. Gardening also appealed to nostalgia for the passing of traditional farm life.
For black Americans denied the opportunity to abandon subsistence work, Jim Crow-era gardening reflected a different set of desires.
In her essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” Alice Walker recalls her mother tending an extravagant flower garden late at night after finishing brutal days of field labor. As a child, she wondered why anyone would voluntarily add one more task to such a difficult life. Later, Walker understood that gardening wasn’t just another form of labor; it was an act of artistic expression.
Particularly for black women relegated to society’s least desirable jobs, gardening offered the chance to reshape a small piece of the world in, as Walker put it, one’s “personal image of Beauty.”
This isn’t to say that food is always a secondary factor in gardening passions. Convenience cuisine in the 1950s spawned its own generation of home-growers and back-to-the-land movements rebelling against a mid-century diet now infamous for Jell-O mold salads, canned-food casseroles, TV dinner and Tang.
For millennial-era growers, gardens have responded to longings for community and inclusion, especially among marginalized groups. Immigrants and inner-city residents lacking access to green space and fresh produce have taken up “guerrilla gardening” in vacant lots to revitalize their communities.
In 2011, Ron Finley – a resident of South Central L.A. and self-identified “gangsta gardener” – was even threatened with arrest for installing vegetable plots along sidewalks.
Such appropriations of public space for community use are often seen as threats to existing power structures. Moreover, many people can’t wrap their heads around the idea that someone would spend time cultivating a garden but not reap all of the rewards.
When reporters asked Finley if he were concerned that people would steal the food, he replied, “Hell no I ain’t afraid they’re gonna steal it, that’s why it’s on the street!”
Gardening in the age of screens
Since the lockdown began, I’ve watched my sister Amanda Fritzsche transform her neglected backyard in Cayucos, California, into a blooming sanctuary. She has also gotten into Zoom workouts, binged on Netflix and joined online happy hours. But as the weeks stretch into months, she seems to have less energy for those virtual encounters.
Gardening, on the other hand, has overtaken her life. Plantings that started out back have expanded around the side of the house, and gardening sessions have stretched later into the evening, when she sometimes works by headlamp.
When I asked about her new obsession, Amanda kept returning to her unease with screen time. She told me that virtual sessions gave a momentary boost, but “there’s always something missing … an empty feeling when you log off.”
Many can probably sense what’s missing. It’s the physical presence of others, and the opportunity to use our bodies in ways that matter. It’s the same longing for community that fills coffee shops with fellow gig workers and yoga studios with the heat of other bodies. It’s the electricity of the crowd at a concert, the students whispering behind you in class.
And so if the novel coronavirus underscores an age of distancing, gardening arises as an antidote, extending the promise of contact with something real. My sister talked about this, too: how gardening appealed to the whole body, naming sensory pleasures like “hearing song birds and insects, tasting herbs, the smell of dirt and flowers, the warm sun and satisfying ache.” While the virtual world may have its own ability to absorb attention, it is not immersive in the way gardening can be.
But this season, gardening is about more than physical activity for the sake of activity. Robin Wallace, owner of a photo production business in Camarillo, California, noted how the lockdown made her professional identity “suddenly irrelevant” as a “non-essential” worker. She went on to point out a key benefit of her garden: “The gardener is never without a purpose, a schedule, a mission.”
As automation and better algorithms make more forms of work obsolete, that longing for purpose gains special urgency. Gardens are a reminder that there are limits to what can be done without physical presence. As with handshakes and hugs, one cannot garden through a screen.
You might pick up skills from YouTube, but, as gardening icon Russell Page once wrote, real expertise comes from directly handling plants, “getting to know their likes and dislikes by smell and touch. ‘Book learning’ gave me information,” he explained, “but only physical contact can give any real … understanding of a live organism.”
Filling the void
Page’s observation suggests a final reason why the coronavirus pandemic has ignited such a flurry of gardening. Our era is one of profound loneliness, and the proliferation of digital devices is only one of the causes. That emptiness also proceeds from the staggering retreat of nature, a process underway well before screen addiction. The people coming of age during the COVID-19 pandemic have already witnessed oceans die and glaciers disappear, watched Australia and the Amazon burn and mourned the astonishing loss of global wildlife.
Perhaps this explains why stories of nature’s “comeback” are continually popping up alongside those gardening headlines. We cheer at images of animals reclaiming abandoned spaces and birds filling skies cleared of pollution. Some of these accounts are credible, others dubious. What matters, I think, is that they offer a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be: In a time of immense suffering and climate breakdown, we are desperate for signs of life’s resilience.
My final conversation with Wallace offered a clue as to how this desire is also fueling today’s gardening craze. She marveled at how life in the garden continues to “spring forth in our absence, or even because of our absence.” Then she closed with an insight at once “liberating” and “humiliating” that touches on hopes reaching far beyond the nation’s backyards: “No matter what we do, or how the conference call goes, the garden will carry on, with or without us.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Friday evening, Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace issued an update to his shelter in place order, extending it through the middle of May.
Pace had told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he expected to extend the order – which went into effect on March 19 – until May 17, and on Friday he formally took that action.
The release of his updated order took place several hours after a group of protesters gathered in Lakeport and drove through town, demanding that Clear Lake be reopened to the community as part of reopening the county as a whole.
Pace said the shelter in place order will continue “largely unchanged,” until May 17.
In response to public input, the new order will permit fishing from nonmotorized boats, but Pace kept in place the prohibition against sailboats for now. He also offered clarification on golfing activities, which can be seen in the order below.
Pace said Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay at home rule is the overriding rule, and the local order can be more – not less – restrictive. “Unfortunately, we have not been provided a clear timeline or indication of specific changes he intends to make.”
He said efforts are ongoing to prepare to open the economy back up in a “well-thought-out and safe manner,” with county leadership meeting with local business partners to sketch out safe ways for different sectors of the economy to reopen at the earliest responsible time.
Gov. Newsom has put forth several preconditions to loosening his stay at home order, including adequate testing, a manageable level of infections, good hospital surge capacity, adequate protections for workers and the public, and adequate sick time for workers to be able to stay home when not well, Pace said.
Pace said most of these factors are present to some extent in Lake County, where the seventh COVID-19 case was confirmed this week but the predicted hospital surge hasn’t taken place.
County officials are working to get adequate testing capacity in place, including drive-thru testing that is set to begin next week, Pace said.
He said the county’s economy will reopen with the lowest risk activities.
Large events such as weddings and festivals will not be allowed to resume until “much later on.” Pace is recommending the cancellation of this year’s Lake County Fair and also telling high schools that they should make plans for virtual graduation ceremonies.
“Unfortunately, these important events present too great a risk for viral transmission due to the mixing of large numbers of people,” Pace said.
New orders issued in neighboring counties
In neighboring counties, some officials were extending their shelter in place orders this week while others maintained existing orders.
Colusa County’s order will remain in effect until 11:59 p.m. May 8; Glenn County continues to implement the state’s stay at home order, which has no expiration date; Mendocino County’s order is in effect until May 10; and Napa County’s latest order has no end date until rescinded by the health officer.
Yolo County extended its shelter in place order on Thursday from May 1 until May 31.
Under that order, as of May 4, Yolo’s order allows drive-in religious services and all construction to resume as long as they follow the county’s guidelines and social distancing protocols.
Like Lake’s order, Sonoma County’s order was due to expire on May 3. On Friday, Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase issued a new shelter in place order that has no specific end date.
While it continues masking requirements and directs people to stay home unless engaged in “essential activities” or “essential businesses,” the Sonoma County order also expands the definitions of what those essential activities and businesses are.
That includes allowing more construction and construction support services; arborists, landscapers, gardeners, pool maintenance and environmental site remediation services, permits retail sales at gas stations and auto supply, auto repair and automotive dealerships; bicycle shops for sales and repairs; nurseries for retail sales; professional services, such as legal, notary or accounting services; allows golf courses and driving ranges to operate; and clarifies that facial coverings are encouraged (but not required) for children in childcare facilities.
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.
These two Hubble Space Telescope images of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and 23, 2020, provide the sharpest views yet of the breakup of the fragile comet.
Hubble identified about 30 fragments on April 20, and 25 pieces on April 23. They are all enveloped in a sunlight-swept tail of cometary dust.
"Their appearance changes substantially between the two days, so much so that it's quite difficult to connect the dots," said David Jewitt, professor of planetary science and astronomy at UCLA, Los Angeles, and leader of one of two teams that photographed the doomed comet with Hubble. "I don't know whether this is because the individual pieces are flashing on and off as they reflect sunlight, acting like twinkling lights on a Christmas tree, or because different fragments appear on different days."
"This is really exciting – both because such events are super cool to watch and because they do not happen very often. Most comets that fragment are too dim to see. Events at such scale only happen once or twice a decade," said the leader of a second Hubble observing team, Quanzhi Ye, of the University of Maryland, College Park.
The results are evidence that comet fragmentation is actually fairly common, say researchers. It might even be the dominant mechanism by which the solid, icy nuclei of comets die. Because this happens quickly and unpredictably, astronomers remain largely uncertain about the cause of fragmentation.
Hubble's crisp images may yield new clues to the breakup. Hubble distinguishes pieces as small as the size of a house. Before the breakup, the entire nucleus may have been no more than the length of two football fields.
One idea is that the original nucleus spun itself into pieces because of the jet action of outgassing from sublimating ices. Because such venting is probably not evenly dispersed across the comet, it enhances the breakup. "Further analysis of the Hubble data might be able to show whether or not this mechanism is responsible," said Jewitt. "Regardless, it's quite special to get a look with Hubble at this dying comet."
The comet was discovered on Dec. 29, 2019, by the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) robotic astronomical survey system based in Hawaii. This NASA-supported survey project for Planetary Defense operates two autonomous telescopes that look for Earth-approaching comets and asteroids.
The comet brightened quickly until mid-March, and some astronomers anticipated that it might be visible to the naked eye in May to become one of the most spectacular comets seen in the last 20 years.
However, the comet abruptly started to get dimmer instead of brighter. Astronomers speculated that the icy core may be fragmenting, or even disintegrating. ATLAS' fragmentation was confirmed by amateur astronomer Jose de Queiroz, who was able to photograph around three pieces of the comet on April 11.
The disintegrating comet was approximately 91 million miles (146 million kilometers) from Earth when the latest Hubble observations were taken. If any of it survives, the comet will make its closest approach to Earth on May 23 at a distance of about 72 million miles (116 million kilometers), and eight days later it will skirt past the Sun at 25 million miles (40 million kilometers).
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.