Frustrated tribal leaders and lawmakers are set to press top California State University administrators on Tuesday about their decades-long failure to return Native American human remains and artifacts to appropriate tribal descendants in violation of state and federal laws.
A news briefing with tribal officials and legislators will be followed by a joint committee oversight hearing highlighting findings from a state auditor’s report released in June.
The review cites the CSU system’s lapses and failures to ensure the timely return of Native American remains and cultural objects.
Lawmakers will closely probe CSU officials for their responses to the audit and for an explanation of the state system’s failure to comply with the 1990 federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGRPRA, and its 2001 state counterpart, CalNAGPRA.
Only 6% of CSU’s almost 700,000 remains and items have been repatriated, according to the audit.
Key findings of the audit — which reviewed all 23 CSU campuses and conducted on-site reviews at four sites, Chico State University, Sacramento State University, San Diego State University, and San Jose State University — included:
• Twelve of the 21 CSU campuses with collections have not finished reviews required by NAGPRA, and 16 campuses have little or no repatriation activities. • Two campuses returned remains to tribes without following NAGPRA’s requirements for notifying other tribes and six campuses violated CalNAGPRA by handling collections without first consulting with tribes. • Campuses lack the policies, funding, and staff to support repatriation efforts.
CSU Interim President Sylvia Alva will testify at the hearing along with the following CSU campus representatives:
• Min-Tung “Mike” Lee, president of Sonoma State University, which had the largest number of collections at 185,300 during the audit period, even as the campus review of remains and items has not been completed. Only 0.2% of the collection has been repatriated. • CSU Chico President Steve Perez, whose campus has the second highest number of collections — 150,200 — and has returned some remains or items but has not followed the process outlined in NAGPRA. • Luke Wood, president, CSU Sacramento, with the third largest collection numbered at 115,900, with 5% percent of the remains and artifacts repatriated. Its review has not been completed. • Amir Dabirian, provost, CSU Fullerton, a campus with 8,300 collections of which 0.2%have been repatriated.
Four CSU campuses — Monterey Bay, Stanislaus, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — have not yet provided data needed to estimate the size of their NAGPRA collections.
The state auditor reported these four campuses showed human remains in their collections and disclosed holding more than 100 boxes still needing review.
Over time, extensive fire suppression has set the stage for the increasingly destructive wildfires we see today.
The problem with fighting every fire
The way the U.S. deals with wildfires today dates back to around 1910, when the Great Burn torched some 3 million acres across Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia. After watching the fire’s swift and unstoppable spread, the fledgling Forest Service developed a military-style apparatus built to eradicate wildfire.
The U.S. got really good at putting out fires. So good that citizens grew to accept fire suppression as something the government simply does.
Today, state, federal and private firefighters deploy across the country when fires break out, along with tankers, bulldozers, helicopters and planes. The Forest Service touts a record of snuffing out 98% of wildfires before they reach 100 acres (40 hectares).
At the same time, people have built more homes and cities in fire-prone areas. And the greenhouse gases released by decades of increasingly burning fossil fuels have caused global temperatures to rise.
The wildland-urban interface starts on the edges of cities where homes are built closer to forests and grasslands.Courtesy of Jessy Stevenson
Climate change and wildfires
The relationship between climate and wildfire is fairly simple: Higher temperatures lead to more fire. Higher temperatures increase moisture evaporation, drying out plants and soil and making them more likely to burn. When hot, dry winds are blowing, a spark in an already dry area can quickly blow up into dangerous wildfire.
Given the rise in global temperatures that the world has already experienced, much of the Western U.S. is actually in a fire deficit because of the practice of suppressing most fires. That means that, based on historical data, we should expect far more fire than we’re actually seeing.
Fortunately, there are things everyone can do to break this cycle.
What fire managers can do
First, everyone can accept that firefighters can’t and shouldn’t put out every low-risk wildfire.
Remote fires that pose little threat to communities and property can breathe life into ecosystems. Low-level fires that clear out undergrowth but don’t kill the trees create space for trees, plants and wildlife species to thrive, and they return nutrients to the soil. Some tree and plant species depend on fires to open their seeds to reproduce.
Natural fires can also help avoid catastrophic fires that occur when too much underbrush has built up for fuel. And they create fuel breaks on the landscape that could halt the advance of future flames.
Controlled burns are used to clear out undergrowth that can fuel catastrophic blazes under dry, windy conditions.U.S. Forest Service
Fire managers have advanced mapping technology that can help them decide when and where forests can burn safely. Thoughtful prescribed burning – meaning low-intensity fires intentionally set by professionals – can offer many of the same benefits as the flames that historically burned in forests and grasslands.
The Forest Service is aiming to ramp up its prescribed burning on more acres in more areas across the country. However, the agency struggles to train adequate staff and pay for the projects, and environmental reviews sometimes cause yearslong delays. Other groups offer beacons of hope. Indigenous groups across the country, for example, are returning fire to the landscape.
Adapting homes to fire risk
For decades, scientists have understood the relationship between wildfire and community destruction. However, little has been done to live safely with fire on the ground. More than one-third of U.S. homes are in what’s known as the wildland-urban interface – the zone where houses and other structures intermingle with flammable vegetation.
The biggest risk to homes comes from burning embers blowing on the wind and landing in weak spots that can set a house ablaze. Those embers can travel over a miles to nestle in dry leaves or pine needles clogging a gutter, a wood-shingle roof or shrubs, trees and other flammable vegetation close to a structure.
Owning a home in the wildland-urban interface means paying attention to fire risks. Risks are highlighted on the left and solutions on the right.Courtesy of Jessy Stevenson
Some of these vulnerabilities are easy to fix. Cleaning a home’s gutters or trimming back too-close vegetation requires little effort and tools already around the house.
Grant programs exist to help harden homes against wildfire. But enormous investment is needed to get the work done at the scale the fire risk requires. For example, nearly 1 million U.S. homes in wildfire-prone areas have highly combustible wooden roofs. Retrofitting those roofs will cost an estimated US$6 billion, but that investment could both saves lives and property and reduce wildfire management costs in the future.
Homeowners can look to resources like Firewise USA to learn about the “home ignition zone.” It describes the types of vegetation and other flammable objects that become high risks at different distances from a structure and steps to make properties more fire resilient.
The fire chief for Spokane, Wash., explains ways to protect your property from wildfires.
For example, homes should not have flammable plants, firewood, dried leaves or needles, or anything burnable, on or under decks and porches within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of the house. Between 5 and 30 feet (9 meters), grasses should be mowed short, tree branches should be pruned to at least 6 feet (2 meters) from the ground, and the tree canopy should be at least 10 feet (3 meters) from the structure.
What communities can do
Many counties and cities have their own wildfire programs to educate homeowners and connect them with resources. Some have started “tool libraries” to help anyone begin the necessary work on their property.
These can include developing zoning rules and regulations that require developers to build with fire-resistant materials and designs or might even prohibit building in areas where the risk is too high. The International Wildland-Urban Interface Code, which provides guidance for safeguarding homes and communities from wildfire, has been adopted in jurisdictions in at least 24 states.
Protecting homes from wildfires includes maintaining a safe perimeter clear of potential fuel for a fire.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Living in a world with wildfire
Prevention and suppression will always be critical pieces of wildfire strategy, but adapting to our fiery future means everyone has a role.
Educate yourself on proposed forest projects in your area. Understand and address risks to your home and community. Help your neighbors. Advocate for better wildfire planning, policy and resources.
Living in a world where more wildfire is inevitable requires that everyone see themselves as part of solving the problem. Wildfire can be terrifying, but also natural and essential. Embracing both isn’t always easy, but I believe it is the only way forward.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said he filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in defense of a federal law that prohibits individuals under domestic violence restraining orders from possessing firearms.
The case, United States v. Rahimi, is being heard by the Supreme Court following the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals's decision ruling this lifesaving federal “red flag” law unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
The governor’s brief argues that the lower court incorrectly interpreted the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision last year and that the federal government’s ability to enact gun regulations to protect families from dangerous individuals is supported by a longstanding historical tradition.
“It’s simple: Domestic abusers shouldn’t have guns, and America’s gun safety laws are supported by the Constitution and longstanding historical tradition. The Second Amendment is not a suicide pact. The Supreme Court must reverse the lower court’s decision,” said Newsom.
Newsom’s action to file an amicus brief followed Monday’s action by House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chairman Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who led 151 representatives and 18 senators in an amicus brief which repudiates the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Rahimi and calls on the Supreme Court to set a clear standard that allows for Congress to pass laws that keep the American people safe.
Thompson’s office called the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Rahimi “one of the many disturbing decisions concerning gun violence that have been influenced by the recent Bruen decision.”
“The Fifth Circuit’s ruling in the Rahimi case has tragic and dangerous implications for people in domestic violence situations,” said Thompson. “I believe it is the responsibility of Congress to ensure that our laws protect the most vulnerable among us. The availability of firearms to be possessed by individuals with domestic violence restraining orders can escalate domestic violence and increase the risk of death or serious injury — the Supreme Court must not allow this to happen.”
The defendant in United States v. Rahimi was suspected of five shootings in Texas between 2020 and 2021. Police searched his home and found multiple firearms. He had a domestic violence restraining order which prevented him from owning a firearm under federal law.
The New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit agreed to rehear his case after the Bruen decision and applied the new “history and tradition” legal test. The court found that the federal statute was not sufficiently similar to any historical laws raised by the government. The prosecutor presented numerous historical laws that disarmed individuals dating from the colonial period. The court thought these laws were aimed at preserving political and social order, and not protecting an identified person from a specific threat posed by another.
If the Fifth Circuit decision in Rahimi is upheld, Thompson’s office said “it would open the floodgates to domestic violence abusers and other dangerous people seeking to possess firearms.”
California has its own red flag laws that allow victims of domestic violence to seek protective orders to prohibit their abuser from possessing a gun.
Across the nation, 45 states have similar laws enacted that limit the ability of those under a domestic violence restraining order from accessing firearms — saving lives and protecting victims from potential violence.
The governor’s amicus brief defends the federal government’s ability to enact commonsense gun safety laws, and builds on California’s longstanding efforts to reduce gun violence, protect victims and survivors, and save lives.
Recently, the governor introduced a proposal to end the gun violence crisis through a historic amendment to the U.S. Constitution, signed a package of gun safety laws making it easier for Californians to sue manufacturers of illegal assault weapons and those bringing them into our communities, allowing lawsuits against irresponsible gun industry members, strengthening prohibitions on ghost guns, and restricting marketing to minors.
The governor also launched an 18-month campaign to promote gun violence restraining orders.
A study from the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis found that California’s red flag law has been used to stop 58 threatened mass shootings since 2016.
California’s gun safety laws work. In 2021, California was ranked as the No. 1 state for gun safety by the Giffords Law Center, and the state saw a 43% lower gun death rate than the national average.
According to the CDC, California’s gun death rate was the 44th lowest in the nation, with 8.5 gun deaths per 100,000 people – compared to 13.7 deaths per 100,000 nationally, 28.6 in Mississippi, 20.7 in Oklahoma, and 14.2 in Texas.
More than 80% of U.S. nursing homes reported staffing shortages in early 2023. SciLine interviewed Dr. Jasmine Travers, a gerontological nurse practitioner and assistant professor of nursing at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, and asked her how the shortage affects health care for nursing home residents, if nursing homes in poorer neighborhoods have been hit harder by the shortages, and what can be done to fix the problem.
Dr. Jasmine Travers discussed the impact when nursing homes are short-staffed.
Below are some highlights from the discussion. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Who lives in nursing homes in the United States?
Jasmine Travers: There are 15,000 nursing homes with approximately 1.2 million residents. That population can range in age, although most commonly it’s those 65 years of age or older.
What is the current state of nursing home staffing?
Jasmine Travers: In 2001, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed minimum staffing standards. They indicated that total nursing hours should be 4.1 hours per resident per day. And that’s including the registered nurse, the licensed practical nurse and the certified nursing assistants. Only 25% of nursing homes were found to be meeting those total nursing hours in 2019.
How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect nursing home occupancy and staffing?
Jasmine Travers: Occupancy levels hovered at about 80% prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, occupancy went down to a low of 67%. By the end of 2022, those levels had gone up to 72%.
Lower occupancy levels can be a significant issue. Higher occupancy brings in more revenue to the nursing homes. With lower occupancy and less revenue coming in, then that’s a decrease in financial support that the nursing home needs to run their day-to-day activities.
How does nursing home staffing affect the quality of care and health outcomes for residents?
When nursing homes are understaffed, that means there might not be a sufficient number of certified nursing assistants to, for example, answer call bells. That might translate to residents sitting in their beds needing help for longer periods of time.
In those instances, if a person doesn’t have someone to get them out of bed, sometimes they might try to get up themselves. And when they do that, they could be at risk of falling. Or if they stay in bed and they’re soiled, they’re at increased risk for urinary tract infections or pressure ulcers.
What can be done to alleviate nursing home staffing challenges?
Jasmine Travers: Areas that are socioeconomically deprived or that lack good transportation, housing and schools are less desirable places to work.
Just recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an announcement that they are going to allow for those in pediatric specialties to receive loan reimbursements and loan forgiveness for working in underserved areas. A similar program for those working in nursing homes would likely increase staffing.
I’d also like to see improved wages and benefits and more investment in retention efforts to keep the people who are already working in nursing homes working there.
One of the biggest issues when it comes to staffing is turnover. People will stay when the work environment is changed. And when people stay longer, they know their residents more. That consistency translates to better quality of care.
SciLine is a free service based at the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science that helps journalists include scientific evidence and experts in their news stories.
In August 2023, scientists from NOAA, NASA, and 21 universities from three countries are conducting multiple, coordinated research campaigns to investigate how air pollution sources have shifted over recent decades. Image credit: NOAA. Scientists from NOAA, NASA and 21 universities from three countries are deploying state-of-the-art instruments in multiple, coordinated research campaigns this month to investigate how air pollution sources have shifted over recent decades.
Since the 1970s, U.S. scientists and environmental regulators made significant strides in reducing air pollution by cleaning up tailpipe and smokestack emissions.
Yet levels of two of the most harmful types of pollution, ground-level ozone and fine particulates, have decreased only modestly in recent years. Both still contribute to the premature deaths of more than 100,000 Americans every year.
“This is an unprecedented scientific investigation — in scope, scale and sophistication — of an ongoing public health threat that kills people every year,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, PhD. “No one agency or university could do anything like this alone.”
Using multiple satellites, seven research aircraft, vehicles, dozens of stationary installations — even instrumented backpacks — scientists will measure air pollution from sources that include transportation, industrial facilities, agriculture, wildfires and consumer products such as paint, pesticides and perfumes.
The data will be scrutinized, analyzed and run through sophisticated chemical and weather models by scientists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in an effort to improve air pollution forecasts. Findings will be shared with state and local environmental officials to inform decisions about the most effective ways to reduce air pollution.
The data will also be used to evaluate the first observations made by NASA’s groundbreaking TEMPOoffsite link instrument — the first geostationary space-borne sensor to continuously measure air pollution across North America. Lessons learned will aid the development of the new GeoXO satellites being jointly developed by NOAA and NASA.
Probing the causes of persistent pollution
EPA, which sets national air quality regulations, currently lists about 200 U.S. counties as failing to meet the 8-hour ozone standard established in 2015. Sixty-nine counties are failing to meet the standard for fine particulates, or PM2.5, set in 2006. After decades of decline in ground-level ozone and fine particulate matter in the U.S., downward trends have slowed in recent years.
Scientists from four NOAA research labs, led by the Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), along with NOAA satellite scientists and research pilots, are leading three of the research projects. The largest, AEROMMA, has NOAA scientists and collaborators operating 30 specialized instruments aboard NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory, collecting a myriad of chemical measurements over highly populated cities, including New York City, Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles.
“In order to make progress on reducing air pollution that negatively affects millions of Americans, we need to have a better understanding of the current sources of pollutants and what happens to these pollutants once they are in the atmosphere,” said CSL scientist Carsten Warneke, one of the AEROMMA project’s mission scientists.
For decades, fossil fuel emissions were the primary source of urban volatile organic compounds or VOCs, which along with nitrogen oxides, or NOx, act as precursors to both ground-level ozone and particulate pollution.
As VOCs from the transportation sector have declined, recent NOAA research shows that consumer products derived from fossil fuels (so-called “volatile chemical products”) may now contribute as much as 50% of total petrochemical VOC emissions in densely populated urban cities.
These may not be properly accounted for in emission inventories or considered in air quality management strategies.
The campaigns may also have an opportunity to investigate another emerging air pollution source: wildfire smoke that has blanketed the Midwest and East Coast states this summer.
Collecting data from the sidewalks to satellites
NASA researchers are also deploying two of their Gulfstream research aircraft with the DC-8, mapping air quality and methane from high altitudes over the five cities while the DC-8 collects measurements at lower altitudes.
Similar to the other projects, data collected by NASA’s STAQS mission will be compared to TEMPO’s high-resolution estimates of trace gas and aerosols, as well as with emission inventories and atmospheric processes.
“NASA is excited to partner with NOAA and EPA during these field campaigns to learn how best to use the TEMPO satellite to observe hourly changes in air quality at the neighborhood scale over North America," said Barry Lefer, NASA's program scientist for tropospheric composition.
A concurrent NOAA research mission, CUPiDS, will use NOAA’s Twin Otter research plane to zero in on the meteorology and dynamics of the atmosphere that creates and transports pollutants from the New York metro area downwind over Southern New England.
Another element pairs a University of Maryland instrumented Cessnaoffsite link aircraft and a NOAA instrumented SUV making simultaneous measurements in the air and at the surface to better understand the vertical distribution of air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the Northeast corridor from DC-Baltimore up to New York City and Long Island Sound.
On the ground, researchers from Yale University, Aerodyne Research Inc. and other NOAA-funded collaborators will be taking measurements from a rooftop site at the The City College of New York campus, downwind in Guilford, Connecticut, from a 62-meter research tower on Long Island, in coordination with the DC-8 and Twin Otter flights. NOAA’s Climate Program Office is providing major funding for these and other affiliated studies.
“This regional network of ground sites has enormous potential to help us understand urban and downwind air pollution — not just today but under a continually changing climate,” said Yale Professor Drew Gentner, who is coordinating ground sites in New York and Connecticut.
In Manhattan, scientists will be carrying air pollution sensors in backpacks in a NOAA pilot project to investigate surface ozone and PM2.5 in underserved neighborhoods in New York City, where pollution directly impacts human health, especially during heat wave events.
Tying it all together
“The large number of participants, measurements, the variety of platforms involved, and the way they are working together in a highly choreographed and coordinated way is unique,” said CSL Director David Fahey. “Our goal is a comprehensive view of air pollution spanning the U.S. to improve forecasts of urban and regional air quality and advance the health of our nation.”
Thousands of Maui’s cats, dogs and other companion animals went missing or were injured. Maui Humane Society, CC BY-ND
An estimated 3,000 pets were still missing more than a week after deadly wildfires ripped through Maui in August 2023 and left thousands of people – many of whom had companion animals – homeless. The Conversation asked Sarah DeYoung, who has conducted research in Hawaii and studies what happens to pets after disasters, to explain why rescuing companion animals is a high priority following wildfires and how donors can help animals and pet owners recover from this disaster.
What happens to pets after a catastrophic fire?
When disasters strike, people often evacuate with their pets, as long as it’s possible for them to quickly grab their dogs, cats or other kinds of companion animals. However, you may not have time to gather your animals during a quick-onset event like a wildfire, or your animals might be hiding.
This is especially true for cats, because they can be skittish. There are other complications, such as evacuation by boat – which makes it harder to bring animals along. When owners flee without a leash or carrier, their animals might bolt at any stopover or shelter.
Owners will spend weeks, months or even years after a fire searching for their missing cats and dogs. It can be challenging to identify and match pets with their humans because burn injuries can change the animal’s appearance, they may not have a microchip, or the owners themselves may have died in the fire.
Like people, animals that survive fires may experience trauma and stress symptoms, such as regressing on housetraining or other issues for days and weeks after the fire. The pets may need quiet time and support to recover from their stress. They may also need to be treated for burn injuries or lung damage from inhaling smoke. Some animals may not survive their injuries.
People who lose their housing for any reason may need to board their pets. Unfortunately, nearly all of Hawaii’s animal shelters are already at full capacity due to the state’s pet overpopulation, leaving little space available during emergencies.
Smaller animal sanctuaries may take in animals temporarily, but they also have limited space and staffing. Because of these challenges, animal-foster networks become key during and after disasters. Truly stray animals – cats, dogs and other animals that belong in homes but live on the streets – can also be flown to other places for adoption.
But before that happens, it’s critical to first make every effort to reunite lost companion animals with their owners.
Is aid for animals worth it when people are suffering?
In Hawaii, during the 2018 lava flows, I heard many people call their pets their “keiki” – the Hawaiian word for children. Losing pets is often devastating.
Some shelters allow people who have been forced to leave their homes or who have been left homeless to stay with their pets.Maui Humane Society
That’s why emergency shelters should allow people to stay with their pets if possible. Hotels or other providers should also consider temporarily waiving pet fees and relaxing their restrictions on companion animals to reduce barriers for displaced people and their pets.
People who lose their animals in a fire may experience depression and other mental health issues, which is one of the many reasons why mental health care is essential for the communities that experience disasters.
If a companion animal has died in a fire, it helps the owners to get confirmation that the death occurred because of their need for closure. Some pet owners and community members construct shrines, memorials or other structures to memorialize the pets that died in the disaster. After the 2018 Camp Fire in California, people in the scorched town of Paradise constructed a memorial for the animals they lost.
Are there long-term problems for animal recovery?
In a place like Maui that gets many visitors and has a high percentage of vacation rentals, there will likely be challenges in terms of displaced local people finding rental units that accept pets. Many available housing units might have restrictive pet policies.
In my research with Ashley Farmer of Illinois State University, we found that people sometimes surrender their pets after disasters because they can’t find temporary housing that allows dogs or cats, or due to breed restrictions. A wave of animal surrenders causes already full shelters to become overcrowded.
There will be a need for some of those surrendered animals to be adopted or fostered for a longer period of time to ensure that there is enough room in local shelters. People will also need help as they continue searching for their missing animals.
Animal rescue teams leave bowls of food and water out as they search for missing pets after wildfires.David Ryder/Getty Images
What’s the best way to help?
In the college classes I teach regarding disaster response and recovery, I often emphasize the difference between intentions and impacts when it comes to volunteering, donations and other relief efforts.
Animal lovers in other places will often want to donate big bags of kibble, canned food, chew toys, dog crates and other physical items. As an animal lover myself, I can appreciate their great intentions and eagerness to help.
But shipping those items may not be helpful after disasters, and in fact, those donations may even be harmful. While conducting research in disaster zones, I’ve seen animal shelters get inundated with donated pet food that expired before it could be consumed.
Unless local animal shelters have robust distribution systems, the logistics of dealing with massive amounts of donated supplies can become overwhelming. It’s much more effective for donors who want to help companion animals and their owners after disasters to give organizations like the Maui Humane Society money. Those funds can pay for urgently needed goods and services, including spay and neuter surgeries and flea treatments.
My research team has seen that people in locations far away sometimes want to adopt a “disaster pet.” While some animals might be relocated from the islands eventually, the best way to immediately help is to give money to groups supporting people and their pets. This increases the chances that the people and animals who are already bonded to one another can stay together.
Keep in mind that animal shelters and other organizations that support pets and their owners after disasters will still need help months after the media has moved on. In other fire events, such as the Tubbs and Camp fires in California, animal organizations used the recovery phase as a time to trap and neuter feral cats, and then return them to the communities where they were living. Simultaneously, those organizations can keep on helping to reunite missing pets with their owners.
Finally, I believe it’s important to be compassionate toward people who lost pets in the Maui fire since they may be in mourning for quite a while. Losing a beloved cat, dog, rabbit, goat or turtle can be devastating at any time. During a disaster, the loss of a pet amplifies the overall horror of the event. Similarly, reuniting with a missing disaster pet can also be a symbol of hope and recovery.
The Lake County Fair midway during the 2019 event. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The final preparations are underway for the annual Lake County Fair, which opens next week.
The fair will take place from Thursday, Aug. 31, through Sunday, Sept. 3.
The gates open on Aug. 31 at 6 p.m., starting with the Blue Ribbon Dinner and the 8 p.m. grand opening.
This year’s grand marshal is the Lake County Tribal Health Consortium.
Volunteer of the Year is Larry Leonard of Leonard’s Hauling & Tractor Service.
Lake County Fair’s nightly grandstand events start at 8 p.m. and are always free with admission.
Kicking off a fun-filled four days of all things fair will be Thursday night’s toughest trucks, Jeeps and more in the Mud Boggs.
On Friday, you have to see the amazing sideways action sponsored by Twin Pine Casino of the drifters and burnouts.
Saturday’s double action night with the destruction derby and the enduring favorite — the boat races.
Sunday, Fiesta Day is Lake County Tribal Health’s Los Campeones Mas Jovenes Del Jaripeo Ranchero Professional and bandas, música and baile.
This year’s fair also will include corn hole, free kids area, Lake County Idol, daily karaoke, Mr. & Miss Lake County Fair and on Sunday during the diaper race a new washing machine will be given away by Pardini Appliance.
The Lake County Fairgrounds are located at 401 Martin St., Lakeport.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — After more than a year of Lake County being without a permanent Public Health officer, the Board of Supervisors has hired a doctor who previously led Mendocino County’s health department during the pandemic and now works for Santa Barbara County.
Following a closed session discussion on Aug. 15, the Board of Supervisors emerged to announce that it had appointed Noemi C. Doohan, MD, Ph.D., MPH as Public Health officer, and then voted unanimously in open session to approve a one-year renewable employment agreement contract with her.
The appointment is effective Sept. 1.
Doohan served as Mendocino County’s Public Health officer on a part-time basis from July 2019 to May 2023.
That job overlapped with her position as the chief medical officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, where she was hired in October.
She also previously was a public health medical officer for the California Department of Public Health.
Medical Board of California records show that she graduated from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 2003.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Mills College, a Master of Public Health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Doohan will provide “Public Health officer services” for a one-year period, with an option to renew.
She will be paid the annually renewable not-to-exceed amount of $290,000, as well as a $20,000 hiring incentive, according to county documents. In addition, Doohan will receive employee benefits through the county.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein told Lake County News that the contract amount was negotiated and is annually renewable on completion of a performance evaluation. He said it’s not associated with a particular step for the Public Health officer position.
The county’s job description for the Public Health officer says that the position’s annual salary is $265,000.
Doohan will report directly to the Board of Supervisors, the appointing authority, as the job description says.
Rothstein confirmed that previous Public Health officers also have reported directly to the board, not the Health Services director, noting, “The PHO does work closely and collaboratively with the Health Services/Public Health team.”
California counties are bound by state law to have health officers in place to enforce local health orders and ordinances, and state regulations and statutes relating to public health.
Doohan will be the first Public Health officer not serving on a temporary basis since Dr. Erik McLaughlin resigned in June of 2022, as Lake County News has reported.
McLaughlin’s three-and-a-half-month tenure was the shortest of any permanently appointed Public Health officer in Lake County in 20 years. At the time of his hire, he wasn’t licensed to practice medicine in the state of California.
After McLaughlin’s departure, the county hired Dr. Gary Pace, who had held the Lake County Public Health officer position during the pandemic, to take on the role again for a short period of time.
On Sept. 13, the supervisors appointed Dr. Karl A. Sporer as interim Public Health officer for a six-month term, in an amount not to exceed $6,000 a month. Sporer lives in Sonoma County and works in Alameda County.
The board amended that contract to extend it an additional six months at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Seeking options
This isn’t the first time the county of Lake has contracted with Doohan for health-related services.
At its Nov. 8 meeting, the board unanimously approved a contract with Doohan for a Lake County Public Health officer mentor program in response to having had few, if any, candidates for the position, out of 110 potential candidates identified across the state by a county-hired recruiter.
Some of that reluctance was attributed to the political nature of the job, which also had come under more fire during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At that time, County Administrative Officer Susan Parker said Doohan wasn’t interested in the Public Health officer job.
That mentor program contract called for Doohan to be paid a consulting rate of $250 per hour for three to six months, with a not-to-exceed amount of $25,000.
In her report to the board for the Aug. 15 meeting, Parker said that the county has not been able to find a permanent full-time Public Health officer since Pace left the position in April of 2021, “despite an aggressive nationwide search,” and outreach to professional associations, the California Department of Public Health and California Conference of Local Health Officers.
“None of these efforts attracted an enduring and permanent Public Health Officer. Describing this position as, ‘Difficult to Fill,’ is an understatement; the reasons are numerous,” Parker wrote in her memo to the board.
“Strains of the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented turnover in the Public Health professions. What had been crucial and largely behind-the-scenes roles were suddenly thrust into the spotlight. With the overwhelming workload that came in initial pandemic response, long hours in the face of ever-changing information, many long-time practitioners understandably burned out; late career professionals also retired in significant numbers,” Parker wrote.
Following the departure of Dr. Karen Tait, who served from April 2008 to December 2017, no Lake County Public Health officer has served for longer than 20 months. The longest tenure has been that of Pace, who filled the role from Aug. 2019 to April 2021, Parker said.
Parker said there have been more than 10 changes in staffing of the Public Health officer role over a period of five and a half years.
Sporer advised the county that he couldn’t continue in the job past Sept. 30 and hoped to end the job sooner than that if possible, according to Parker’s report.
Referring to the contract with Doohan, Parker said, “Providing stability in the Public Health Officer role for a period of one year, with the option to renew, will provide critical support to the Health Services Department and broader community.”
There had been concerns over McLaughlin — who lived in Nevada — not being in Lake County for some key inspections and work that requires an on-site presence.
Doohan, who lives in Solvang, will be required to be in-person full-time for four of her first six weeks on the job. For the following month, she must be in-person for two weeks and can be remote for two weeks.
That will be followed by one week full-time in person and three weeks remote per month for the remainder of the contract.
Doohan will be responsible for developing a two-year Public Health officer workplan for the board’s approval and can perform other “current contractual obligations” if they don’t conflict with Lake County employment policies.
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.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport Police Department, city of Lakeport, Lake County Behavioral Health Services and Lake Family Resource Center are collaborating to hold a town hall meeting regarding homelessness and mental illness in the community.
The meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 27, at the Soper-Reese Theater, 275 S. Main St. in Lakeport.
This is a complex issue requiring the collaboration of agencies and the community.
The intent of this meeting is to engage with the community and hear questions and concerns.
The agenda will include:
• Overview of legislative and voter changes to criminal justice laws over the past decade. • The mental health system in California, including criminal justice aspects. • Response to mental illness locally and constraints we face in that response in a rural county. • The status of the Lakeport Police and Lake Family Resource Center Crisis Responder Program. • A community call to action. • A survey to receive public feedback.
Officials urge community members to attend this important meeting.
For more information, follow the event on Facebook.
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. — A fire that lightning caused more than a week ago in the Mendocino National Forest has been fully contained.
The Slide 1 fire, located 1.5 miles north of Mount Linn in the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness, was 100% contained at 473 acres as of Tuesday evening, forest officials reported on Wednesday.
The fire began Aug. 14 due to lightning from thunderstorms passing over the forest.
“I want to express my deep appreciation for everyone’s hard work,” said Forest Supervisor Wade McMaster.
Precipitation moved over the fire on Monday and rained on firefighters for several hours during the day shift.
Hotshot crews finished securing the containment line during Tuesday’s shift, officials said.
On Wednesday, crews backhauled supplies and equipment from the fireline using aircraft.
Officials said that over the next several days firefighters will be working with resource advisors on opportunities for suppression repair. Several crews and equipment are being demobilized. A helicopter remains assigned to the incident for reconnaissance.
On Thursday the type-3 incident will transition to a type-4 incident, which means more resources will need to be assigned.
Forest officials remind visitors that a closure is in effect for the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness area within the Grindstone Ranger District, Ides Cove Backpacker Trailhead, Ides Cove Horsepacker Trailhead, roads and trails in that area.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, has released new research and data showing that, despite historically high housing needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, rates of sheltered homelessness declined in 2021.
HUD experts and independent research suggest that pandemic relief efforts prevented a potential surge in evictions and housing instability and temporarily reduced homelessness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an article published Tuesday in HUD’s online magazine, the PD&R Edge, HUD experts also outline key lessons from past research about how the federal, state and local governments can work together to prevent and end homelessness.
The executive summary of the biennial Worst Case Housing Needs report, published Tuesday, analyzes data from 2021 and estimates that 8.53 million renter households had “worst case needs” in that year, the highest number since HUD started estimating these needs in 1978.
Households with worst case needs are defined as renter households with very low incomes (incomes at or below 50% of area median income) who do not receive government housing assistance and pay more than one-half of their income for rent, live in severely inadequate conditions, or both.
Much of this increase was driven by rising rents and severe cost burdens faced by many low-income families as the rental market tightened.
Despite these trends, HUD’s Annual Homelessness Assessment Report: Part 2 for FY21, published last month, shows that fewer people entered a shelter program in 2021, and sheltered homelessness overall decreased by 17% between 2019 and 2021.
In an article in HUD’s online magazine, the PD&R Edge, HUD leaders summarize the research and suggest that federal interventions, including the Emergency Rental Assistance program, eviction moratoria, income supports like stimulus payments, the enhanced unemployment insurance, and the enhanced Child Tax Credit, the federal government helped prevent a worsening of homelessness and evictions.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress were able to prevent millions of people from experiencing evictions and housing loss. We were able to prevent a spike in homelessness during the height of the pandemic,” said HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “While we didn’t solve the challenge of homelessness - only ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing and access to supportive care can do that - these data provide valuable insights about how we address homelessness and ensure every person has a safe and stable place to call home.”
Building on best practices and evidenced-based research, the Biden-Harris Administration has deployed historic resources in 2023 to address the crisis of homelessness.
Earlier this year, HUD released a first-of-its-kind package of grants totaling $486 million and approximately 3,300 housing vouchers to help 62 communities address unsheltered homelessness and homeless encampments.
In addition, through the ALL INside initiative, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and its 19 federal member agencies will partner with state and local governments to strengthen and accelerate local efforts to get unsheltered people into homes in six places: Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix Metro, Seattle, and the State of California.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Air Quality Management District reported that smoke from wildfires in Northern California, Oregon and areas to the north are creating regional smoke impacts throughout Lake County and the western states.
The district said current air monitor readings throughout Lake County show “unhealthy for sensitive groups” air quality levels.
All areas of Lake County experienced “moderate” to “unhealthy for sensitive groups” air quality on Monday.
The air quality forecast through Wednesday will range from “moderate” (AQI of 51-100) to “unhealthy” (AQI of 151-200) with areas at higher elevations expected to experience the most smoke impacts.
Current weather models indicate continued smoke and haze through Tuesday and possibly into Wednesday.
Expect fluctuating periods of poorer air quality as the occasional wind gust pushes smoke into Lake County.
Starting on Wednesday, a change is expected, with most areas of Lake County forecasted to reach “moderate” to “good” air quality.
This smoke forecast is based on the latest weather, monitoring, fire activity information and will be updated as necessary.
The district is actively monitoring the smoke impacts throughout the county. Additionally, you may go to www.lcaqmd.net and follow the quick links for air monitoring for current smoke and air quality conditions.
Concentrations of smoke may vary depending upon location, weather, elevation and time of day. Smoke from wildfires and structure fires contain harmful chemicals that can affect your health. Smoke can cause eye and throat irritation, coughing, and difficulty breathing.
People who are at greatest risk of experiencing symptoms due to smoke include: those with respiratory disease (such as asthma), those with heart disease, young children, and older adults.
These sensitive populations should stay indoors and avoid prolonged activity. All others should limit prolonged or heavy activity and time spent outdoors.
Even healthy adults can be affected by smoke. Seek medical help if you have symptoms that worsen or become severe.
Follow these general precautions to protect your health during a smoke event:
• Minimize or stop outdoor activities, especially exercise. • Stay indoors with windows and doors closed as much as possible. • Do not run fans that bring smoky outdoor air inside – examples include swamp coolers, whole-house fans, and fresh air ventilation systems. • Run your air-conditioner only if it does not bring smoke in from the outdoors. • Change the standard air conditioner filter to a medium or high efficiency filter. If available, use the “recirculate” or “recycle” setting on the unit. • Do not smoke, fry food, or do other things that will create indoor air pollution.
If you have lung disease (including asthma) or heart disease, closely monitor your health and contact your doctor if you have symptoms that worsen. Consider leaving the area until smoke conditions improve if you have repeated coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, wheezing, chest tightness or pain, palpitations, nausea, unusual fatigue, lightheadedness.
Localized areas of unhealthy air quality are possible throughout this fire season. Take appropriate measures whenever smoke is present.
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