UPPER LAKE, Calif. — The Western Region Town Hall will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
The meeting will take place from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Habematolel community center, 9470 Main St.
Community members also can attend via Zoom; the webinar ID is 961 4614 3787, the pass code is 528334.
On the agenda are discussions on several topics.
Those include the application status for the Rancho Novoa wedding venue at Blue Lakes.
They also will discuss the Northshore Fire Protection District, Pyle Road, traffic safety at Upper Lake schools, vegetation removal requests for Elk Mountain Road, and droughts and floods.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council will consider a contract to recruit a new police chief and discuss whether to allow storefront cannabis businesses and temporary cannabis events in the city when it meets this week.
The council will meet Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
The meeting will start off with a proclamation designating January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
On Tuesday’s agenda, the council will be asked to consider an agreement with Bob Hall and Associates for the executive recruitment of a new chief of police and approve a budget amendment in the amount of $27,000 for the expenditure.
Police Chief Brad Rasmussen intends to retire this fall. He’s also running for the District 4 supervisorial seat.
The council also will hold a study session on retail storefront cannabis businesses and temporary cannabis events and consider whether or not Lakeport should permit such operations and events.
“If City Council elects to permit retail storefront cannabis businesses and/or temporary cannabis events staff would come back to the Planning Commission at a future date with a draft ordinance for review. Once the prospective draft ordinance(s) are reviewed by the Planning Commission, staff will bring the item back to City Council for further review and potential action,” Community Development Director Joey Hejnowicz wrote in his memo to the council.
In other business, on the agenda is a presentation from the Lake County Water Resources Department regarding the “Clear Lake Integrated Preparedness and Resilience Plan for Dreissenid Mussel Management: A Rapid Response and Transition to Containment Plan.”
Rasmussen will ask the council for a five-year contract extension for the Automated License Plate Reader cameras, there will be a presentation of the first quarter financials update and the council will consider adopting a resolution appointing representatives to represent and vote on behalf of the City at the League of California Cities, Redwood Empire Division Business meetings and represent the City and vote at Division Legislative Committee meetings.
On the consent agenda — items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the City Council’s regular meeting on Dec. 19; approval of application SCC2023-002, with staff recommendations, for the street closure at 5th and Main for the Rotary Crab Feed; approval of application G2024-003, with staff recommendations, for the reserved parking spaces on Park and Third streets for the Clearlake Environmental Research Center Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaboration; and adoption of a resolution approving the Successor Agency of the Lakeport Redevelopment Agency Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule 24-25 for the period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — On Thursday, the Middletown Area Town Hall held its first meeting of the year, during which it chose its leadership for 2024.
MATH’s annual board election took place at the end of a meeting which also featured a forum for the candidates in the District 1 supervisorial race.
Four candidates ran for a two-year term: incumbent Bill Waite, Nanette DeDonato, 2023 alternate Julia Bono and Lisa Kaplan.
After the candidates spoke the votes were cast and tallied.
DeDonato, Waite and Kaplan won terms, and Bono and Rosemary Cordova accepted roles as alternates.
They will join Chair Monica Rosenthal and Secretary Ken Gonzalez.
The MATH Board will elect officers and report the results back at the February meeting.
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.
An unprecedented number of billion-dollar disasters — 28 in total — struck the U.S. in 2023, as the remarkably warm year wrapped up with a record-warm December.
“For millions of Americans impacted by a seemingly endless onslaught of weather and climate disasters, 2023 has hit a new record for many extremes,” said NOAA Chief Scientist Sarah Kapnick. “Record warm U.S. temperatures in December, a record-setting number of U.S. billion-dollar disasters in 2023 and potentially the warmest year on record for the planet are just the latest examples of the extremes we now face that will continue to worsen due to climate change.”
Here’s a recap of the climate and extreme weather events across the U.S. in 2023:
Climate by the numbers
2023
The average annual temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 54.4 degrees F — 2.4 degrees above the 20th-century average — ranking as the nation’s fifth-warmest year in NOAA’s 129-year climate record.
The year ended on a record-warm note as well. December 2023 ranked as the nation’s warmest December with an average temperature of 39.97 degrees F, 7.29 degrees above normal, besting the previously record-warmest December of 2021.
Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Texas each saw their warmest year on record, while Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Vermont and Virginia each saw their second-warmest. An additional 24 states experienced a top-10 warmest year on record.
Annual precipitation across the contiguous U.S. totaled 29.46 inches (0.48 of an inch below average), which placed 2023 in the driest third of the climate record. Louisiana had its eighth-driest year on record, while Maine ranked fifth wettest and Vermont and Connecticut both ranked sixth wettest. Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island all saw a top-10 wettest year.
Drought reached a peak coverage of 46.3% of the contiguous U.S. at the beginning of 2023. Drought coverage across the nation shrank as atmospheric rivers and the summer monsoon brought above-normal precipitation to much of the western U.S., recharging some of the major reservoirs that dropped to their lowest levels in 2022. Drought reduced to a minimum extent of 19% on May 30 — the smallest footprint for the contiguous U.S. since mid-2020.
Billion-dollar disasters in 2023
Last year, the U.S. experienced 28 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. This surpasses 2020 — which had 22 events — for the highest number of billion-dollar disasters in the U.S. on record.
“The U.S. was hit with more billion-dollar disasters in 2023 than any other year on record, highlighting the increasing risks from our changing climate,” said NOAA NCEI Director Deke Arndt. “Record heat waves, drought, wildfires and floods are a sobering reminder of the consequences of the long-term warming trend we’re seeing across our country. These findings underscore the need for the data products and services provided by NOAA, like this annual report, to help create a more informed and climate-ready nation.”
The 28 events from 2023 include:
• 17 severe weather/hail events. • 4 flooding events. • 2 tropical cyclones (Idalia in Florida and Typhoon Mawar in Guam). • 2 tornado outbreaks. • 1 winter storm/cold wave event. • 1 wildfire event (Maui Island of Hawaii). • 1 drought and heat wave event.
The total cost for these 28 disasters was $92.9 billion, but that may rise by several billion dollars when the costs of the December 16-18, 2023, East Coast storm and flooding event are fully accounted for.
The most costly events in 2023 were the Southern/Midwestern drought and heat wave event at $14.5 billion, and the Southern/Eastern severe weather event in early March, at $6.0 billion.
Adding the 2023 events to NOAA’s billion-dollar disaster record dating back to 1980, the U.S. has sustained 376 separate weather and climate disasters. The damage costs for each of these events reached or exceeded $1 billion. The cumulative cost for these 376 events exceeds $2.660 trillion.
Other notable climate and weather events in 2023
Extreme heat scorched parts of the nation: Several historic heat waves sizzled across the U.S. in 2023.
Some of those events include:
• June 20: Del Rio, Texas, and Rio Grande, Texas, both hit 113 degrees F and San Angelo, Texas, reported a high of 114 degrees, setting the all-time heat record at each location. • July: Phoenix, Arizona, had an average temperature of 102.8 degrees F for the month of July — the hottest month on record for any U.S. city. • July 16: Death Valley, California, soared to 128 degrees F, setting a daily-temperature record, and reported its hottest midnight temperature on record at 120 degrees on July 17. • Aug. 24: Temperatures in Chicago soared to 100 degrees F — the first 100 degree temperature since July 6, 2012. The heat index hit 120 degrees, the highest ever recorded at Chicago’s official climate observation site. • September: San Juan, Puerto Rico, reported a monthly average temperature of 85.8 degrees F during the month of September — becoming the hottest month on record for the city. • An above-average tornado year: The tornado count for 2023 was above average with 1,197 tornadoes reported, and an additional 97 preliminary tornadoes still under verification for the Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 period.
Some significant tornado events from 2023 include:
• Jan. 16: Two tornadoes were confirmed by NOAA’s National Weather Service in Iowa — the state’s first January tornadoes since 1967. • March 22: An EF-1 tornado touched down in the Los Angeles area, developing into the strongest tornado to hit the area since 1983. • March 31: Nearly 28 million people were under tornado watches as a widespread and deadly tornado outbreak occurred across portions of the Midwest and southern U.S. More than 110 tornadoes, including one EF-4 and eight EF-3s, were confirmed by the National Weather Service — the largest outbreak in a 24-hour period for the month of March. • April 1: A 700-yard-wide EF-3 tornado touched down in Delaware — the widest tornado in the state's history and tying as its strongest.
A near-normal number of wildfires: The number of wildfires in 2023 was close to average, with more than 55,500 wildfires reported over the year. The total acres burned from these wildfires — 2.6 million acres — were well below the ten-year average of 7.1 million acres. In Alaska, nearly 300,000 acres burned during the 2023 fire season — less than half of the state’s seasonal average.
Hajar Yazdiha, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Since the onset of Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza and the West Bank after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, debates have arisen among historians and media pundits about Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance on Israel and its conflicts with Palestinians.
Some claim King was a fierce Zionist and point to his speech on Mar. 25, 1968, before the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly.
“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity,” King said. “I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”
Others, like American-Israeli scholar Martin Kramer, have pointed to King’s views on Palestinian rights to their homeland. During a 1967 interview with ABC News, shortly after Israel launched the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria and Jordan and seized control of land in Gaza and the West Bank, King said that Israel should return Palestinian lands.
“I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory, because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs,” he said.
As a scholar who researches social movements, racial politics and democracy, I believe there is a larger story beyond King’s stance on Israel and Palestinians. That story is on King’s views of war – and his courage to stand for peace.
This is the story of the anti-war King who understood that violence begets violence and that the political courage to speak for peace is essential to democracy.
At the same time, King was asking hard questions about Johnson’s wartime decision-making and unmet promises of social uplift through his Great Society programs. King wondered how a nation could drop tons of bombs and napalm on civilians in the name of peace and freedom while violently subjugating its own Black citizens.
How could a nation spend so much money on a war, King asked, when it could not feed or protect its own people?
“The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam,” King said in a speech in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25, 1967. “Billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. … The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. They destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”
The Johnson administration argued that military force was essential to protect South Vietnam from the encroachment of communism from the north. As Johnson saw it, North Vietnam and its National Liberation Front were a threat to democracy in Southeast Asia.
King’s advisers pleaded with him not to speak out and argued that the political costs would be too high. Most importantly, they reminded King that there was more than enough work to do in the U.S. to end poverty and secure equal rights for Black citizens.
But King ultimately broke with his advisers and President Johnson.
By 1967, King followed the lead of his wife – and anti-war activist – Coretta Scott King and began speaking out.
In March 1967, King led his first anti-war march in Chicago. At the rally, he called on peace activists to organize “as effectively as the war hawks.”
A month later, on April 4, 1967, King gave the speech at the Riverside Church in New York City that changed the course of the last year of his life – “Beyond Vietnam − A Time to Break the Silence.” In that revolutionary speech, King described how he was morally compelled to speak out against the war.
In the days and weeks after, he would lose masses of supporters, Black and white alike. He lost hard-earned political allies, including President Johnson.
King was also shunned and denounced by 168 newspapers that questioned King’s failure to condemn the enemy, fueling long-standing rumors about communist ties.
Saving the soul of America
King had no regrets.
He understood the difficulty of speaking out against the war. “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war,” he said.
For King, a preacher at heart, silence had become betrayal.
Calling the U.S “the greatest purveyor of violence today,” King said the soul of America “can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.” He warned that America had lost moral authority abroad and derided “the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.”
King pointed to the role of the U.S. in prohibiting the realization of “a revolutionary government seeking self-determination” in Vietnam.
Most poignantly in that 1967 speech at Riverside Church, King detailed the devastating costs of the Vietnam War and described the millions of children and women who were killed by American bombs and bullets and the poor masses who were spared slaughter only to face a slow, painful death by disease and starvation.
Then King turned to the so-called “enemy,” the North Vietnamese. “Even if we do not condone their actions,” King said in the speech, “surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.”
How can the U.S., as King would ask the nation, move forward from here?
In the 1960s, King grappled with this very question. On the one hand, he felt a deep solidarity with the Jewish struggle against persecution, and on the other hand, he rejected the violent occupation of Palestinian lands that would run counter to the noble cause.
He saw resolution through a commitment to breaking cycles of violence and practicing radical peace, “a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation.”
Nearly 60 years later, the fight for King’s “radical revolution of values,” where human life and dignity were the most valued, still rages. But as the life of King reminds us, speaking out for justice can be costly. Yet he would also say that the cost of remaining silent is far greater.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a big new group of dogs ready to go to new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan husky, border collie, boxer, bulldog, French bulldog, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Queensland heeler, shepherd and 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.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page 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.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
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.
Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022.
Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the Pew Research Center, which showed that 53% of millennials had gone to their local library over the previous 12 months. By comparison, that same study found that 45% of Gen Xers and 43% of baby boomers visited public libraries.
So why might Gen Z and millennials – sometimes characterized as attention-addledhomebodies – still see value in trips to the public library?
A preference for print
We found that Gen Zers and millennials prefer books in print over e-books and audiobooks, even though their other favorite reading formats are decidedly digital, such as video game chats and web novels. American Gen Zers and millennials read an average of two print books per month – nearly double the average for e-books or audiobooks, according to our data.
The preference for print also manifests itself in the types of books Gen Z and millennials are borrowing and buying: 59% said they prefer the same story in graphical or manga format than in text only.
And while some graphic novels, comics and manga can be read on a screen, print is where these intricately illustrated books truly shine.
Beyond reading
We were most surprised by our finding that 23% of Gen Zers and millennials who don’t identify as readers nonetheless visited a physical library in the past 12 months.
It’s a reminder that libraries don’t just serve as a repository for books. Patrons can record podcasts, make music, craft with friends or play video games. There are also quiet spaces with free Wi-Fi, perfect for students or people who work remotely.
Younger generations tend to be more values driven than older ones, and libraries’ ethos of sharing seems to resonate with Gen Zers and millennials – as does a space that’s free from the insipid creep of commercialism. At the library, there are no ads and no fees – well, provided you return your books on time – and no cookies tracking and selling your behavior.
Our survey found that 64% of Black Gen Zers and millennials visited physical libraries in 2022, a rate that’s 10 percentage points higher than the general population. Meanwhile, Asian and Latino Gen Zers and millennials were more likely than the general population to say that browsing library shelves was a preferred way to discover new books.
A crucial moment for libraries
Though libraries have been forced to reckon with book bans and the politicization of public spaces, Gen Zers and millennials still see libraries as a kind of oasis – a place where doomscrolling and information overload can be quieted, if temporarily.
Perhaps Gen Zers’ and millennials’ library visits, like their embrace of flip phones and board games, are another life hack for slowing down.
Printed books won’t ping you or ghost you. And when young people eventually log back on to their devices, books make excellent props for #BookTok, the community on TikTok where readers review their favorite books.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The latest real estate data shows sales were down in November while prices have risen slightly over a year ago.
Over the month of November 2023, a total of 59 single family homes were sold through the multiple listing service, compared to 78 in October and 68 sold a year ago during the month of November 2022.
These include traditionally built “stick-built” houses as well as manufactured homes on land.
There were four sales of mobile homes in parks in November, compared to nine in October and five sold during the month of November 2022.
For bare land (lots and acreage), 25 were sold in November, compared to 24 closed land sales in October and substantially more than the 13 sold during November 2022.
There are 393 “stick built” and manufactured homes on the market right now. If the rate of sales stays the same at 59 homes sold per month, there are currently 6.66 months of inventory on the market at the moment.
That means that if no new homes are brought to the market for sale, in 6.66 months, all of these homes would be sold and there would be no homes available for sale.
Less than six months of inventory is generally considered to be a “sellers’ market” while more than six months of inventory is often called a “buyers’ market.”
The November data is a shift from October, where more than 5.47 months of inventory were available.
Agents continue to report a drop in requests for property tours, with fewer clients writing offers, which is consistent with the national home sales data.
The total percentage of homes bought for all cash in November: 41% (compared to 31% for October and 41% for November 2022); 29% were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (“conventional loans”) compared to 32% for October and 35% for the November 2022; 17% were financed by FHA (compared to 23% in October and 13% in November 2022); 4% were financed by the VA or CalVet (compared to 4% in October and compared to 10% for November 2022); 7% had other financing such as private loans, USDA, or seller financed notes (compared to 3% in October, and compared to 0% for November 2022).
None of the closed sales in November were assumable loans that were assumed by the buyer.
The homes in November sold at an average of 96% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract, but an average of 89% when compared to the original asking price when the property first came on the market.
This means that the asking home prices had been reduced from their original list prices on the homes that sold before they actually sold.
In October homes also sold for 96% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract, and 89% of the original asking price.
A year ago in November, homes were selling at 95% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract and also 89% when compared to the original asking price.
The median time on the market in November was 32 days, compared to 36 days in October and 49 days in November 2022.
The median sale price of a single family home in Lake County in November was $269,000, which is lower than the $318,750 median sale price for October and also lower than the median sale price of $287,000 during November 2022.
This would indicate that last month, the lower priced homes were selling in greater numbers to bring the median sale price down compared to October 2023 (and similar to the activity in November 2022).
The median asking price of homes on the market right now is $357,000, which is a drop from October’s $372,000.
In November, 31% of homes sold had seller concessions for an average concession of $11,286; the rate of concessions is lower compared to October 2023’s numbers, when 40% of homes sold had seller concessions with an average concession of $9,069.
In November 2022, 31% of homes sold had an average seller concession of $6,841.
Average concessions were highest for conventional loans in November 2023, with an average concession of $18,000.
VA loans had an average concession of $9,705; FHA loans had an average concession of $5,141.
The most common microplastics in the environment are microfibers – plastic fragments shaped like tiny threads or filaments. Microfibers come from many sources, including cigarette butts, fishing nets and ropes, but the biggest source is synthetic fabrics, which constantly shed them.
Textiles shed microfibers while they are manufactured, worn and disposed of, but especially when they are washed. A single wash load can release several million microfibers. Many factors affect how many fibers are released, including fabric type, mechanical action, detergents, temperature and the duration of the wash cycle.
My research focuses on coastal ecology and water pollution, including work in New York and New Jersey marshes and estuaries that are heavily affected by human activities. Here are some things to know about reducing microplastic pollution from your washing machine.
From fabric to water and soil
Once garments release microfibers in washing machines, the fibers enter the wastewater stream, which generally goes to a wastewater treatment plant. Advanced treatment plants can remove up to 99% of microfibers from water. But since a single laundry load can produce millions of fibers, treated water discharged from the plant still contains a huge number of them.
Microfibers that are removed during treatment end up in sewage sludge – a mix of solid materials that is processed to remove pathogens. In many cases, treated sewage sludge is applied to soil as a fertilizer. This allows microfibers to enter air and soil, and to be transferred to soil organisms and up the terrestrial food web or taken up by crops.
Not all fabrics shed microfibers at the same rate. A loosely woven fabric that feels fluffy or fuzzy, such as fleece, sheds more than a tightly woven one. While garments made of natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, would appear to be a solution, unfortunately they also shed microfibers that can pick up pollutants in the environment.
Some textile scientists and manufacturers are developing fabrics that shed less than existing ones, thanks to features such as longer fibers and coatings to reduce shedding. Meanwhile, here are some ways to reduce microfiber shedding from your laundry:
Do laundry less often. Washing full loads instead of partial loads reduces release of microfibers because garments are exposed to less friction during the wash cycle.
Dry laundry on a clothesline. Running clothes in dryers releases additional microfibers into the air from the dryer vent.
Several types of products collect microfibers in the washer before they are released with wastewater. Some are laundry bags made of woven monofilament, a single-polyamide filament that does not disintegrate into fibers. Laundry is washed while enclosed in the bag, which traps microfibers that the garments release. A study of one such product, Guppyfriend, found that it collected about one-third of released microfibers.
Another device, the Cora Ball, is a plastic ball with spines topped with soft plastic discs that capture microfibers. It reduces microfibers by about 25% to 30%, but may not be suitable for loose knits because it can snag on threads and damage clothing.
In a 2021 study, researchers installed washing machine filters in 97 homes in a town in Ontario, Canada, which represented about 10% of the households in the community. They found that this significantly reduced microfibers in treated water from the local treatment plant.
In my view, requiring manufacturers to add filters that can trap microfibers to washing machines is a reasonable and affordable step that could rapidly reduce the enormous quantities of microfibers in wastewater. The eventual solution will be reengineered textiles, which won’t shed, but it will take some time to develop them and move them into clothing supply chains. In the meantime, filters are the most effective way to tackle the problem.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Sunday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) announced Clearlake Police Officer Daniel Eagle and Northshore Fire Protection Capt. Chrissy Valadez as the Lake County Public Safety Heroes.
Each year, Thompson honors law enforcement officers and first responders in our community who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
“Our first responders and law enforcement are the first line of defense for our communities and work to keep us safe. Our district is home to outstanding public safety officials who go above and beyond in their service, and I am proud to recognize them each year as Public Safety Heroes,” said Thompson.
“Officer Eagle and Captain Valadez are outstanding individuals who are dedicated to serving Lake County, and I am proud to recognize their commitment to service,” Thompson added.
Clearlake Police Officer Daniel Eagle
Eagle was born in Clearlake and grew up in Lake County, graduating from Middletown High School in 2013.
He attended college in New Mexico where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice management.
From an early age, Eagle had the desire to become a police officer and to help our community.
Today, at the Clearlake Police Department, Eagle serves as a police officer, field training officer, and canine handler. He has been with his canine partner, Zeus, for several years now.
Eagle is also the president of the Police Officer Association and enjoys working with local leaders on community improvement projects.
He has a passion for traffic enforcement and investigations. This includes infractions such as driving under the influence, or DUI, stolen vehicles, and traffic collisions.
Eagle has conducted numerous DUI investigations which resulted in the prosecution of over 25 DUI arrests. For his selfless work, Mr. Eagle received an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 2023. Eagle was also presented with the Law Enforcement and Prosecution Recognition award.
His dedication to the community continues as he strives to address traffic related issues within the city of Clearlake, making it a safer place to live, work and visit.
“Officer Eagle is an example of what it means to keep our community safe, and through his work in traffic enforcement and investigations, he has made Lake County a better place,” Thompson said.
Northshore Fire Protection Capt. Chrissy Valadez
Chrissy Valadez began her career in 2003 with Lucerne Fire Department which consolidated and formed Northshore Fire Protection District in 2006. She has served as Northshore Fire Protection District’s EMS Liaison since 2007.
She is also a part of the Lake County Emergency Medical Care Committee and has been a field training officer precepting paramedic interns since 2008.
Having worked for nearly 21 years in Lake County, she has assisted in many of the major wildfires, including the 2018 Ranch Fire that devastated the community.
Valadez teaches CPR to a wide range of community members including high school students and school staff. She’s also been educating community and tribal organizations on Narcan administration, tackling the opioid crisis head-on.
As the driving force behind the Every 15 Minutes program at Upper Lake High School, she has been helping students understand the dangers of driving under the influence.
Valadez is currently finishing her bachelor’s degree in science education with an end goal of teaching health science and emergency medical services to high school students.
“Capt. Valadez goes above and beyond to serve our community in Lake County through trainings on the opioid crisis, the dangers of drunken driving, CPR education, and EMS services to high school students,” Thompson said.
The full list of Public Safety Heroes for the Fourth Congressional district includes:
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service said an atmospheric river was responsible for the rainfall that fell across Lake County and the rest of the North Coast on Saturday.
Forecasters said an “impressive cyclone” evident along the coast of central Oregon aligned with a plume of subtropical moisture to position an atmospheric river over Northwest California throughout the day Saturday.
“Consistent moderate to heavy rain has pelted the North Coast through the day today. Over the course of only 6 hours, 2 to 4 inches of rain have fallen all along the coast,” the agency reported.
Rainfall totals in inches for the 24-hour period ending at 1 a.m. Sunday in Lake County are as follows:
— Hidden Valley Lake: 0.92. — Indian Valley Reservoir: 1.04. — Kelseyville: 0.86. — Lake Pillsbury: 2.74. — Lower Lake: 0.43. — Lyons Valley: 1.39. — NIce: 1.43. — Whispering Pines: 1.52.
The forecast expects “mostly calm” weather next week, with more rainfall predicted beginning in the middle of the week.
Temperatures will range from the low to high 50s during the day and the high 30s to low 40s at night, according to the forecast.
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Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures last year were around 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.
“NASA and NOAA’s global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing. There’s still more work to be done, but President Biden and communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks and help communities become more resilient – and NASA will continue to use our vantage point of space to bring critical climate data back down to Earth that is understandable and accessible for all people. NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are working to protect our home planet and its people, for this generation – and the next.”
In 2023, hundreds of millions of people around the world experienced extreme heat, and each month from June through December set a global record for the respective month. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Overall, Earth was about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than the late 19th-century average, when modern record-keeping began.
“The exceptional warming that we’re experiencing is not something we’ve seen before in human history,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS. “It’s driven primarily by our fossil fuel emissions, and we’re seeing the impacts in heat waves, intense rainfall, and coastal flooding.”
Though scientists have conclusive evidence that the planet’s long-term warming trend is driven by human activity, they still examine other phenomena that can affect yearly or multi-year changes in climate such as El Niño, aerosols and pollution, and volcanic eruptions.
Typically, the largest source of year-to-year variability is the El Niño – Southern Oscillation ocean climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean. The pattern has two phases – El Niño and La Niña – when sea surface temperatures along the equator switch between warmer, average, and cooler temperatures. From 2020-2022, the Pacific Ocean saw three consecutive La Niña events, which tend to cool global temperatures. In May 2023, the ocean transitioned from La Niña to El Niño, which often coincides with the hottest years on record.
However, the record temperatures in the second half of 2023 occurred before the peak of the current El Niño event. Scientists expect to see the biggest impacts of El Niño in February, March, and April.
Scientists have also investigated possible impacts from the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano, which blasted water vapor and fine particles, or aerosols, into the stratosphere. A recent study found that the volcanic aerosols – by reflecting sunlight away from Earth’s surface – led to an overall slight cooling of less than 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 0.1 degrees Celsius) in the Southern Hemisphere following the eruption.
“Even with occasional cooling factors like volcanoes or aerosols, we will continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas emissions keep going up,” Schmidt said. “And, unfortunately, we just set a new record for greenhouse gas emissions again this past year.”
“The record-setting year of 2023 underscores the significance of urgent and continued actions to address climate change,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Recent legislation has delivered the U.S. government’s largest-ever climate investment, including billions to strengthen America’s resilience to the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. As an agency focused on studying our changing climate, NASA’s fleet of Earth observing satellites will continue to provide critical data of our home planet at scale to help all people make informed decisions.”
Open science in action
NASA assembles its temperature record using surface air temperature data collected from tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments. This 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.
Independent analyses by NOAA and the Hadley Centre (part of the United Kingdom Met Office) concluded the global surface temperatures for 2023 were the highest since modern record-keeping began. These scientists use much of the same temperature data in their analyses but use different methodologies. Although rankings can differ slightly between the records, they are in broad agreement and show the same ongoing long-term warming in recent decades.
Building on a half century of research, observations, and models, the Biden-Harris Administration including NASA and several federal partners recently launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to make critical climate data readily available to decisionmakers and citizens. The center supports collaboration across U.S. government agencies and the non-profit and private sectors to make air-, ground-, and space-borne data and resources available online.
NASA’s full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2023, as well as details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS. 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.