Spring Valley Reservoir Fog in Fall, CA. 2018. Photo by A. DePalma-Dow. Dear Readers,
Now that Autumn is upon us, the landscapes will be changing. Lady of the Lake would like to remind you about the 2023 Lady of the Lake Photo Contest!
The annual contest was opened in spring, with submission closing Dec. 31, 2023.
The purpose of the photo contest is to get the readership to think about and appreciate lakes, rivers, creeks, and anything water in Lake County. Water holds a special beauty, especially paired with the beautiful contrast colors of fall. Now is the time to capture that beauty on camera.
Winners from each category will win a free breakfast or lunch (or Brunch!) with Lady of the Lake sponsored by Angelina’s Bakery on Main Street in Lakeport, CA. Photo winners will also be highlighted in the Lady of the Lake Column in the Lake County News. Every photo submitted to the contest will be eligible to be used in the Lake of the Lake Column alongside relevant column topics, with proper credit reference.
The rules are simple:
There are two submission groups; Novice and expert / professional.
There are two types of photo categories: Water and Wildlife.
Because this is the Lady of the Lake photos contest, all photos submitted have to include a lake, creek, stream, wetland, marsh, or pond. Landscapes and scenery will be included into the “water” category, and anything with an animal focus will be grouped into the “wildlife” category.
For example, a landscape shot of Clear Lake with birds flying in the sky will still be considered in the “water” category, but a close up of a grebe mating dance on Clear Lake, will be considered in the “wildlife” category.
This is a nature-centric photo contest. Humans, from a distance, can be included in photos, but their faces can not be close enough to be recognizable. For privacy, any photos with recognizable faces will be disqualified.
All photos must be sent as digital JPG / TIFF / PNG attachments or google drive links to the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email address.
When submitting photos, in the email subject line include: “Photo Contest _ group type_category” For example, if you are a novice submitting a photo of a river otter sunbathing on a rock, the subject of your photo would be “Photo Contest_novice_wildlife”. Save your photos files using your last name.
There is a limit to 3 photos submitted in each category by a single photographer, so a single photographer can submit a maximum of 6 photos, 3 in each category of water and wildlife.
Photos must not be more than 5 years old and taken within Lake County.
There are no restrictions on the type of camera used to take the photos, so feel free to use those camera phones as well as point and shoots and DSLRs.
Photos will be judged and ranked by a panel of three members of the community, yet to be confirmed. Judges will not be participants in the contest.
Good luck!
Sincerely,
Lady of the Lake
The Lady of the Lake column is written by Angela De Palma-Dow, a limnologist (limnology=study of fresh inland waters) who lives and works in Lake County. Born in northern California, she has a Masters of Science from Michigan State University. She is a Certified Lake Manager from the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS), the current president / chair of the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science, and a Lake County Certified Tourism Ambassador. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..Lucerne Harbor in Spring, 2023. Photo: Angela De Palma-Dow
As people, we are all shaped by the neighborhoods we grew up in, whether it was a bustling urban center or the quiet countryside. Objects in distant outer space are no different.
Like you, every supermassive black hole lives in a home – its host galaxy – and a neighborhood – its local group of other galaxies. A supermassive black hole grows by consuming gas already inside its host galaxy, sometimes reaching a billion times heavier than our Sun.
Theoretical physics predicts that black holes should take billions of years to grow into quasars, which are extra bright and powerful objects powered by black holes. Yet astronomers know that many quasars have formed in only a few hundred million years.
I’m fascinated by this peculiar problem of faster-than-expected black hole growth and am working to solve it by zooming out and examining the space around these black holes. Maybe the most massive quasars are city slickers, forming in hubs of tens or hundreds of other galaxies. Or maybe quasars can grow to huge proportions even in the most desolate regions of the universe.
Galaxy protoclusters
The largest object that can form in the universe is a galaxy cluster, containing hundreds of galaxies pulled by gravity to a common center. Before these grouped galaxies collapse into a single object, astronomers call them protoclusters. In these dense galaxy neighborhoods, astronomers see colliding galaxies, growing black holes and great swarms of gas that will eventually become the next generation of stars.
These protocluster structures grow much faster than we thought, too, so we have a second cosmic problem to solve – how do quasars and protoclusters evolve so quickly? Are they connected?
A simulation of a galaxy protocluster forming. In white, clouds of dark matter collapse and merge, while the red shows the motions of gas falling into the gravitational pull of the dark matter halos.TNG Collaboration, CC BY-NC-SA
To look at protoclusters, astronomers ideally obtain images, which show the galaxy’s shape, size and color, and a spectrum, which shows the galaxy’s distance from Earth through specific wavelengths of light, for each galaxy in the protocluster.
With telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers can see galaxies and black holes as they were billions of years ago, since the light emitted from distant objects must travel billions of light-years to reach its detectors. We can then look at protoclusters’ and quasars’ baby pictures to see how they evolved at early times.
An example of a galaxy image and spectrum from the ASPIRE program at the University of Arizona. The inset shows the infrared image of a galaxy 800 million years after the Big Bang. The spectrum shows signatures of hydrogen and oxygen emission lines, whose wavelengths translate mathematically to a 3D location in space.J. Champagne/ASPIRE/University of Arizona
It is only after looking at spectra that astronomers determine whether the galaxies and quasars are actually close together in three-dimensional space. But getting spectra for every galaxy one at a time can take many more hours than any astronomer has, and images can show galaxies that look closer together than they actually are.
So, for a long time, it was only a prediction that massive quasars might be evolving at the centers of vast galactic cities.
An unprecedented view of quasar environments
Now, Webb has completely revolutionized the search for galaxy neighborhoods because of an instrument called a wide-field slitless spectrograph.
This instrument takes spectra of every galaxy in its field of view simultaneously so astronomers can map out an entire cosmic city at once. It encodes the critical information about galaxies’ 3D locations by capturing the light emitted from gas at specific wavelengths – and in only a few hours of observing time.
The first Webb projects are hoping to look at quasar environments focused on a period about 800 million years after the Big Bang. This time period is a sweet spot in which astronomers can view these monster quasars and their neighbors using the light emitted by hydrogen and oxygen. The wavelengths of these light features show where the objects emitting them are along our line of sight, allowing astronomers to complete the census of where galaxies live relative to bright quasars.
One such ongoing project is led by the ASPIRE team at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. In an early paper, they found a protocluster around an extremely bright quasar and confirmed it with 12 galaxies’ spectra.
Another study detected over a hundred galaxies, looking toward the single most luminous quasar known in the early universe. Twenty-four of those galaxies were close to the quasar or in its neighborhood.
The neighborhood of galaxies around J0305-3150, a quasar identified approximately 800 million years after the Big Bang.STScI/NASA
In ongoing work, my team is learning more details about mini galaxy cities like these. We want to figure out if individual galaxies show high rates of new star formation, if they contain large masses of old stars or if they are merging with one another. All these metrics would indicate that these galaxies are still actively evolving but had already formed millions of years before we observed them.
Once my team has a list of the properties of the galaxies in an area, we’ll compare these properties with a control sample of random galaxies in the universe, far away from any quasar. If these metrics are different enough from the control, we’ll have good evidence that quasars do grow up in special neighborhoods – ones developing much faster than the more sparse regions of the universe.
While astronomers still need more than a handful of quasars to prove this hypothesis on a larger scale, Webb has already opened a window into a bright future of discovery in glorious, high-resolution detail.
“Cedar.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has two new dogs among the canines waiting for go to new homes this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website continues to list 32 dogs for adoption.
This week’s dogs include a puppy named “Cedar.”
He is a standard smooth-haired dachshund mix with a brown and copper-colored coat.
“Josie.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. There also is “Josie,” a 3 and a half year old Labrador retriever mix. She has a black coat with white markings, and she has been spayed.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
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.
Consider this analogy from the world of sports: Suppose a baseball player is having a great season, and his batting average is twice what it was last year. If he hits a ball out of the park on Tuesday, we don’t ask whether he got that hit because his batting average has risen. His average has gone up because of the hits, not the other way around. Perhaps the Tuesday homer resulted from a fat pitch, or the wind breaking just right, or because he was well rested that day. But if his batting average has doubled since last season, we might reasonably ask if he’s on steroids.
Unprecedented heat and downpours and drought and wildfires aren’t “caused by climate change” – they are climate change.
The rise in frequency and intensity of extreme events is by definition a change in the climate, just as an increase in the frequency of base hits causes a better’s average to rise.
And as in the baseball analogy, we should ask tough questions about the underlying cause. While El Niño is a contributor to 2023’s extreme heat, that warm event has only just begun. The steroids fueling extreme weather are the heat-trapping gases from burning coal, oil and gas for energy around the world.
Nothing ‘normal’ about it
A lot of commentary uses the framing of a “new normal,” as if our climate has undergone a step change to a new state. This is deeply misleading and downplays the danger. The unspoken implication of “new normal” is that the change is past and we can adjust to it as we did to the “old normal.”
Unfortunately, warming won’t stop this year or next. The changes will get worse until we stop putting more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the planet can remove.
The excess carbon dioxide humans have put into the atmosphere raises the temperature – permanently, as far as human history is concerned. Carbon dioxide lingers in the atmosphere for a long time, so long that the carbon dioxide from a gallon of gasoline I burn today will still be warming the climate in thousands of years.
That warming increases evaporation from the planet’s surface, putting more moisture into the atmosphere to fall as rain and snow. Locally intense rainfall has more water vapor to work with in a warmer world, so big storms drop more rain, causing dangerous floods and mudslides like the ones we saw in Vermont, California, India and other places around the world this year.
By the same token, anybody who’s ever watered the lawn or a garden knows that in hot weather, plants and soils need more water. A hotter world also has more droughts and drying that can lead to wildfires.
So, what can we do about it?
Not every kind of bad weather is associated with burning carbon. There’s scant evidence that hailstorms or tornadoes or blizzards are on the increase, for example. But if summer 2023 shows us anything, it’s that the extremes that are caused by fossil fuels are uncomfortable at best and often dangerous.
Without drastic emission cuts, the direct cost of flooding has been projected to rise to more than US$14 trillion per year by the end of the century and sea-level rise to produce billions of refugees. By one estimate, unmitigated climate change could reduce per capita income by nearly a quarter by the end of the century globally and even more in the Global South if future adaptation is similar to what it’s been in the past. The potential social and political consequences of economic collapse on such a scale are incalculable.
Fortunately, it’s quite clear how to stop making the problem worse: Re-engineer the world economy so that it no longer runs on carbon combustion. This is a big ask, for sure, but there are affordable alternatives.
Clean energy is already cheaper than old-fashioned combustion in most of the world. Solar and wind power are now about half the price of coal- and gas-fired power. New methods for transmitting and storing power and balancing supply and demand to eliminate the need for fossil fuel electricity generation are coming online around the world.
Just as the summer of 2023 was among the hottest in thousands of years, 2024 will likely be hotter still. El Niño is strengthening, and this weather phenomenon has a history of heating up the planet. We will probably look back at recent years as among the coolest of the 21st century.
This article was updated Sept. 15, 2023, with NOAA and NASA also confirming summer 2023 the hottest on record.
South Cow Mountain OHV Management Area in the Ukiah Field Office. Photo by Eric Coulter, Bureau of Land Management. NORTH COAST, Calif. — The Bureau of Land Management is inviting the public to roll up their sleeves and come out on Saturday, Sept. 23, from 9 a.m. to noon, to help beautify the Westside Staging Area at South Cow Mountain for the 30th annual National Public Lands Day.
Participants are encouraged to bring water, hats, sunscreen, gloves and sturdy work boots.
Volunteers are needed to help repair the loading ramp, clean the parking area of sediment runoff, remove damaged signs and paint bathrooms.
“Public land visitors who give back by pitching in during National Public Lands Days are a huge help in keeping our recreation areas clean and safe year after year,” said Ukiah Field Manager Nicholas Lavrov. “Volunteers make a big difference in helping the BLM offer the best recreation opportunity possible.”
South Cow Mountain Off-highway Vehicle Management Area is a favorite recreation area consisting of approximately 23,000 acres of public lands for off-highway vehicle use.
Event volunteers will receive a free tee-shirt and lunch will be provided. After lunch, there will be opportunities to explore South Cow Mountain with fellow enthusiasts and BLM staff.
Feel free to bring out an off-highway vehicle and safety gear.
For more information about the event, please reach out to Ukiah Assistant Field Manager Shane Garside at 707-468-4081, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or the Ukiah Field Office at 707-468-4000, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
This map depicts global temperature anomalies for meteorological summer in 2023 (June, July, and August). It shows how much warmer or cooler different regions of Earth were compared to the baseline average from 1951 to 1980. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin. Summer of 2023 was Earth’s hottest since global records began in 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, or GISS, in New York.
The months of June, July, and August combined were 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (0.23 degrees Celsius) warmer than any other summer in NASA’s record, and 2.1 degrees F (1.2 C) warmer than the average summer between 1951 and 1980. August alone was 2.2 F (1.2 C) warmer than the average. June through August is considered meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
This record comes as exceptional heat swept across much of the world, exacerbating deadly wildfires in Canada and Hawaii, and searing heat waves in South America, Japan, Europe, and the U.S., while likely contributing to severe rainfall in Italy, Greece, and Central Europe.
“Summer 2023’s record-setting temperatures aren’t just a set of numbers — they result in dire real-world consequences. From sweltering temperatures in Arizona and across the country, to wildfires across Canada, and extreme flooding in Europe and Asia, extreme weather is threatening lives and livelihoods around the world,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The impacts of climate change are a threat to our planet and future generations, threats that NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are tackling head on.”
NASA assembles its temperature record, known as GISTEMP, from surface air temperature data acquired by tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data from ship- and buoy-based instruments. This raw data is analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.
The analysis calculates temperature anomalies rather than absolute temperature. A temperature anomaly shows how far the temperature has departed from the 1951 to 1980 base average.
“Exceptionally high sea surface temperatures, fueled in part by the return of El Niño, were largely responsible for the summer’s record warmth,” said Josh Willis, climate scientist and oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon characterized by warmer than normal sea surface temperatures (and higher sea levels) in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.
The record-setting summer of 2023 continues a long-term trend of warming. Scientific observations and analyses made over decades by NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other international institutions have shown this warming has been driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, natural El Niño events in the Pacific pump extra warmth into the global atmosphere and often correlate with the warmest years on record.
“With background warming and marine heat waves that have been creeping up on us for decades, this El Niño shot us over the hump for setting all kinds of records,” Willis said. “The heat waves that we experience now are longer, they’re hotter, and they’re more punishing. The atmosphere can also hold more water now, and when it’s hot and humid, it’s even harder for the human body to regulate its temperature.”
Willis and other scientists expect to see the biggest impacts of El Niño in February, March, and April 2024. El Niño is associated with the weakening of easterly trade winds and the movement of warm water from the western Pacific toward the western coast of the Americas. The phenomenon can have widespread effects, often bringing cooler, wetter conditions to the U.S. Southwest and drought to countries in the western Pacific, such as Indonesia and Australia.
“Unfortunately, climate change is happening. Things that we said would come to pass are coming to pass,” said Gavin Schmidt, climate scientist and director of GISS. “And it will get worse if we continue to emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.”
NASA’s full temperature data set and the complete methodology used for the temperature calculation and its uncertainties are available online.
GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
This chart shows the meteorological summer (June, July, and August) temperature anomalies each year since 1880. The warmer-than-usual summer in 2023 continues a long-term trend of warming, driven primarily by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Credits: NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new dogs and puppies wanting new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian malinois, border collie, boxer, Cardigan Welsh corgi, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, pit bull, Siberian husky, schnauzer, shepherd and Yorkshire terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
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.
“Faith” is a 2-month-old female husky puppy in foster care, ID No. LCAC-A-5648. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Faith’
“Faith” is a 2-month-old female husky puppy with a gray and white coat.
She is in foster care, ID No. LCAC-A-5648.
“Teddy” is a 12-year-old male Yorkshire terrier-schnauzer mix in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-1896. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Teddy’
“Teddy” is a 12-year-old male Yorkshire terrier-schnauzer mix with a tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-1896.
This 1 and a half year old male Great Pyrenees is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-5469. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Great Pyrenees
This 1 and a half year old male Great Pyrenees has a white coat.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-5469.
This 2-month-old male boxer-pit bull puppy is in kennel No. 5a, ID No. LCAC-A-5806. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Boxer-pit bull puppy
This 2-month-old male boxer-pit bull puppy has a short tan coat with black and white markings.
He is in kennel No. 5a, ID No. LCAC-A-5806.
This 2-month-old male boxer-pit bull puppy is in kennel No. 5b, ID No. LCAC-A-5807. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Boxer-pit bull puppy
This 2-month-old male boxer-pit bull puppy has a short tan coat with black and white markings.
He is in kennel No. 5b, ID No. LCAC-A-5807.
This 1-year-old male border collie is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-5643. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male border collie
This 1-year-old male border collie has a black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-5643.
This 6-month-old male hound-pit bull terrier puppy is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-5834. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier-hound puppy
This 6-month-old male pit bull terrier-hound puppy has a black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-5834.
This 1-year-old male Cardigan Welsh corgi is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-5882. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Cardigan Welsh corgi
This 1-year-old male Cardigan Welsh corgi has a brown and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-5882.
This 6-month-old male hound-pit bull terrier puppy is in kennel No. 15a, ID No. LCAC-A-5831. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Hound-pit bull terrier
This 6-month-old male hound-pit bull terrier puppy has a black coat with white and tan markings.
He is in kennel No. 15a, ID No. LCAC-A-5831.
This 6-month-old male hound-pit bull terrier puppy is in kennel No. 15b, ID No. LCAC-A-5832. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Hound-pit bull terrier
This 6-month-old male hound-pit bull terrier puppy has a white coat with gray markings.
He is in kennel No. 15b, ID No. LCAC-A-5832.
This 5-year-old male German shepherd is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-5875. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male German shepherd
This 5-year-old male German shepherd has a long black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-5875.
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-5835. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-5835.
This 1-year-old male pit bull is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-5616. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull
This 1-year-old male pit bull has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-5616.
This 2-year-old male shepherd is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-5423. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male shepherd
This 2-year-old male shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-5423.
This 4-year-old male Siberian husky is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-5891. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Siberian husky
This 4-year-old male Siberian husky has a brown and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-5891.
This 1 and a half year old male shepherd in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-5424. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male shepherd
This 1 and a half year old male shepherd has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-5424.
This 7-year-old female German shepherd is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-5629. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female German shepherd
This 7-year-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-5629.
“Chikis” is a 5-year-old female boxer in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-3672. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Chikis’
“Chikis” is a 5-year-old female boxer with a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-3672.
“Nana” is a 2-year-old female shepherd in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-5277. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Nana’
“Nana” is a 2-year-old female shepherd mix with a short yellow coat.
She is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-5277.
“Xina” is a 3-year-old female Belgian malinois in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-462. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Xina’
“Xina” is a 3-year-old female Belgian malinois with a brown and black coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-462.
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 Lake County Registrar of Voters office encourages Lake County schools to participate in the 2023 High School Voter Education Weeks, which take place Sept. 18 to 29.
The purpose of High School Education Weeks is to bring awareness to our young and future voters, setting them on a pathway for continued civic engagement.
Eligible students ages 16 and 17 can be civically engaged by pre-registering to vote. If students pre-register to vote, they will automatically become voters when they turn 18.
Eligible students can register to vote online at https://registertovote.ca.gov/ or at the Lake County Registrar of Voters office at 325 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.
Registrations are also available at all Lake County Libraries and post offices. Staff will set up a booth on scheduled Farmer’s Market days including Tuesday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
By working together, we can educate and encourage our young citizens to register to vote and ensure their voices are heard when they are eligible to vote.
For additional information phone 707-263-2372 or toll-free at 888-235-6730.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Middletown Unified School District is changing its superintendent once more.
Thad Owens, who has served as the district superintendent for 18 months, is being assigned to another job for the remainder of the school year.
On Wednesday evening, the district’s board emerged from the latest of 19 closed session discussions and evaluations regarding his performance since his hire in March 2022 to announce the change in leadership. Seven of those closed sessions have happened since Aug. 9.
The board went into closed session just after 4 p.m. Wednesday.
When it convened in open session at 6 p.m., Board President Larry Allen reported that the board had taken action.
“The board moved to mutually agree with the superintendent to end his existing contract with the MUSD Board and move forward appointing him as administrator on special assignment for the duration of the 23-24 school year,” said Allen.
The vote was unanimous, Allen said.
The board also voted unanimously to appoint David Miller as interim superintendent with an intent to publish and ratify a contract with him in their next open session.
Owens was not seated at the board table as he has been in previous meetings.
This will be the third time that Miller has been appointed as an interim superintendent at district.
He is one of six people who have held the job either on a permanent or interim basis since the board released Superintendent Catherine Stone from employment in 2019.
She was followed by Heather Rantala, the then-chief business officer who acted as superintendent before the first of Miller’s interim appointments.
Miller held the position until Michael Cox was hired. Cox stayed in the job for 15 months; during his tenure, he was the subject of 10 closed session performance evaluations or discussions.
Cox was succeeded by Tim Gill, who served from October 2021 to March 2022. The board then temporarily appointed Chief Business Officer Julie Alves before Owens was hired at the start of March 2022.
At the end of Wednesday’s meeting, Board member Annette Lee asked for the request for proposals for the superintendent search to be on the board’s next meeting agenda.
Owens, a Montana native and a veteran of the U.S. Army, taught for 10 years in grades sixth through 12, and has been an elementary, middle, high school and alternative education principal.
He has been employed by Middletown Unified in the past as the Middletown High School assistant principal, Middletown High School athletic director, Middletown Middle School principal and Minnie Cannon Elementary principal.
Owens also worked as director of alternative education for Konocti Unified School District.
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. — Tuesday, Sept. 19 is National Voter Registration Day.
The Lake County Registrar of Voters office encourages Lake County residents to make sure they are registered to vote or update their voter registration information.
Eligible residents can register to vote online at https://registertovote.ca.gov/ or at the Lake County Registrar of Voters office at 325 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.
Voter registration forms are also available at all Lake County libraries and post offices.
If you require a voter registration form be mailed to you, call the Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372.
Eligible students, ages 16 and 17, can be civically engaged by preregistering to vote.
If students preregister to vote, they will automatically become voters when they turn 18 years old.
National Voter Registration Day efforts are designed to ensure every eligible voter has the opportunity to register to vote or update their voter registration information in order to be prepared for future elections.
For additional information, call the Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372.
Prakash Nagarkatti, University of South Carolina and Mitzi Nagarkatti, University of South Carolina
The CDC’s broad recommendation comes one day after the Food and Drug Administration approved Moderna’s and Pfizer’s updated mRNA vaccines that target a previously dominant variant of the omicron family called XBB.1.5. The updated shots will be available to the public within days.
The Conversation asked Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti, a husband and wife team of immunologists from the University of South Carolina, to weigh in on how the new vaccines might stand up against the latest COVID-19 variants that are swirling across the globe.
1. How are the new vaccines different from the previous?
When the first vaccine against COVID-19 was rolled out in December 2020, it was designed as a monovalent vaccine, meaning that it was formulated against only the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. That vaccine, as well as the updated ones, target the spike protein, which the virus uses to infect our cells and cause the disease.
That design made sense before the virus began mutating into a complex family tree of variants and sublineages. But as the virus structure shifted over time, the antibodies produced in response to the original vaccine became less effective against the new variants.
Unfortunately, XBB.1.5 is no longer the dominant strain in the U.S.; it has been displaced by other variants from the XBB lineage, thereby raising concerns about the potential efficacy of the new shot. As of mid-September, the dominant variants nationwide are EG.5, also known as Eris, followed by FL.1.5.1 – called Fornax – and XBB.1.16.6.
The CDC recommended that everyone ages 6 months old and up should get an updated COVID-19 vaccine so that they can be better protected against developing serious outcomes from COVID-19, including hospitalization. The agency noted that people who received the 2022-2023 bivalent COVID-19 shot “saw greater protection against illness and hospitalization than those who did not.”
Most Americans will be able to get the newly formulated vaccine at no cost, according to the CDC.
The FDA approved a single shot of the updated vaccine for anyone ages 5 and older – regardless of whether they were previously vaccinated or not. The agency also approved unvaccinated individuals 6 months to 4 years of age to receive three doses of the updated Pfizer vaccine or two doses of the updated Moderna vaccine.
For most people, doctors recommend getting both the COVID-19 and flu shots before the end of October.
3. How effective could the updated shot be against the latest variants?
Based on its current assessment, the CDC indicates that the BA.2.86 variant may be able to cause infection even in people who have been previously vaccinated or those who have had COVID-19 infection in the past. But the CDC says it still expects the updated fall 2023 booster shot to be effective at reducing severe disease and hospitalization.
Moderna reported in August 2023 that the new monovalent mRNA COVID-19 vaccine gave a “significant boost” in antibodies that are protective against two of the currently circulating variants: EG.5 – which is responsible for most cases in the U.S. as of mid-September – and FL.1.5.1. Then, in early September, Moderna announced that its most recent data from human trials showed an 8.7-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the newest variant, BA.2.86, following vaccination with the updated shot.
Similarly, new pre-clinical data from Pfizer shows that its version of the new mRNA vaccine produced antibodies that were effective at neutralizing the XBB.1.5, BA.2.86 and EG.5.1 variants.
This early research suggests that the new mRNA vaccines – although developed specifically against XBB.1.5 – are still effective against some of the most prevalent variants.
Novavax, which specializes in traditional protein-based vaccines, also announced in August that its updated COVID-19 vaccine directed against the XBB variant produced a broad neutralizing antibody response against key variants in animal studies. However, the company does not yet have data on its vaccine’s performance against two other key variants, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86. The Novavax vaccine has not yet gone up for FDA review, but its approval is also expected within months.
It is important to keep in mind that while all three vaccines have been shown to trigger antibodies that can neutralize most of the currently circulating variants, it is unclear whether the vaccines will be able to effectively prevent COVID-19 infection in humans. Such clinical studies are time-consuming, so given the urgency and speed needed to develop vaccines against the ever-changing COVID-19 variants, vaccine manufacturers rely on antibody levels as an indicator of protection.
4. Is there a ‘right’ time to get the new vaccine?
Antibodies produced after a COVID-19 infection or vaccination last for about six months, and then their levels start declining. This is called “waning immunity.”
About a year after getting a COVID-19 infection or vaccination, only a small fraction of antibodies can be detected. This is why health care providers recommend getting another shot if a year has passed since you were vaccinated or had an active infection.
However, taking two different vaccines at the same time could cause more side effects, such as fever, aches and pain. This is especially the case for people who have experienced such side effects in the past after taking the COVID-19 and flu vaccines separately.
5. Should some people wait for the updated Novavax vaccine?
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use the more recent vaccine technology based on mRNA, which instructs the body to produce a protein from a small portion of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The immune system responds by producing antibodies.
In contrast, the Novavax vaccine relies on a more traditional approach to vaccine production, injecting the viral protein directly into the body to stimulate antibody production. So while the two vaccine types use different pathways to trigger antibodies against the virus, the end result is the same.
The CDC has reported rare cases of myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, following vaccination with the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines. However, the same is true of the Novavax vaccine. So all three vaccines carry this very rare risk.
Although some people may have a preference for the traditional protein-based vaccine by Novavax, those who are at higher risk of catching COVID-19 should not wait for the approval of the Novavax vaccine to get their shot.
New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has revealed that U.S. drug overdose deaths reached a new high in 2023 – and deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids also reached a new high.
In response to this alarming news, Families Against Fentanyl, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of illicit fentanyl, is calling for President Joe Biden to establish a White House Task Force dedicated to the nation’s illicit fentanyl and overdose crisis.
The CDC estimates that more than 111,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in April — and more than 77,000 of those deaths involved fentanyl and other synthetic opioids other than methadone.
“This is alarming news and it should serve as a wake-up call to our leaders in Washington that more must be done — fast! We are calling on President Biden to immediately convene a White House task force dedicated to the overdose and fentanyl crisis that is taking so many American lives,” said Families Against Fentanyl founder Jim Rauh, who lost his son to illicit fentanyl poisoning in 2015.
“For thousands of families across this country, this is a matter of life or death. We need someone in the West Wing who is accountable directly to the President for leading the government’s response to this crisis. We need regular public briefings and real-time data. Americans deserve to know what is being done to save lives, and what is being done to uncover and stop the international manufacturers and traffickers of illicit fentanyl. This is the number one killer of our nation’s young adults. It is killing more and more children each year. There is nothing more valuable than our people. From one father to another, I’m urging President Biden to establish a White House task force immediately and demand emergency action," added Rauh.
In December 2021, Families Against Fentanyl released its groundbreaking finding that fentanyl was the No. 1 cause of death among Americans ages 18 to 45.
Fentanyl continues to be the No. 1 cause of death of Americans 18 to 45 and the new data from the CDC show deaths are continuing to increase.
Families Against Fentanyl has brought together thousands of families and bipartisan leaders calling for innovative action to stop drug-related deaths and save other families from the nightmare of losing a loved one to fentanyl poisoning.
More than 78,000 people have signed on to FAF’s petition calling for the US to designate illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
Bipartisan leaders including former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former CIA Director John Brennan joined with Families Against Fentanyl to warn of the threat posed by illicit fentanyl and urged President Biden to designate illicit fentanyl and its analogues as weapons of mass destruction.
Families Against Fentanyl is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness of the illicit fentanyl crisis and advocating for federal action.
The organization was founded by James Rauh of Akron, Ohio after his son was killed by fentanyl poisoning in 2015.
Families Against Fentanyl has become a leading voice for fentanyl awareness, bringing together thousands of families and producing research cited by leaders across the United States and around the world.