LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The updated Lake County forecast calls for the possibility of more rain this weekend.
The county received some June rain on Thursday, with cloudy skies on Friday that cleared as the day wore on. Temperatures also have been far cooler than seasonal norms.
The National Weather Service’s updated Lake County forecast for the weekend calls for chances of rain both Saturday and Sunday, along with winds of up to 20 miles per hour.
On Sunday, there also are chances of thunderstorms, based on the forecast.
Daytime temperatures this weekend are expected to be in the mid 60s, with nighttime lows in the low 40s.
Forecasters said conditions should begin clearing on Sunday night, with sunny conditions to return on Monday and extend through the coming week.
Temperatures also are forecast to rise with the clearing weather, with predictions putting daytime highs near the century mark on Friday.
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.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol will hold another driving class for seniors this month after its debut class quickly filled up in May.
Every year, drivers 65 years of age and older look to the CHP for assistance in maintaining or improving their ability to drive safely.
In response, the CHP provides the “Age Well, Drive Smart” program to equip senior drivers with the necessary tools to remain safe and confident on the road.
The Clear Lake Area CHP invites senior drivers to attend a free, two-hour Age Well, Drive Smart class, which will be held Friday, June 23, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., at the CHP Office at 5700 Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.
This class is an excellent opportunity for senior drivers to refresh their knowledge of California driving laws, evaluate their driving abilities and improve their driving skills.
The Age Well, Drive Smart program covers various topics ranging from California driving laws, safe driving practices, and the effects of aging on a person’s ability to drive safely.
It is not uncommon for senior drivers to be unaware or deny changes in their physical or mental conditions which negatively affect their ability to drive safely.
Therefore the Age Well, Drive Smart program was designed with a self-assessment component to assist senior drivers with identifying these changes and providing possible corrective options.
“Giving senior drivers the tools they need to continue to be safe drivers is not only important to the safety of the motoring public, but also for seniors to maintain their independence,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “Our senior driving course affords the continued education that can benefit seniors, helping to ensure they enjoy safe driving well into their golden years.”
If you or a family member would like to attend the Age Well, Drive Safe class, please contact Officer Kory Reynolds at 707-279-0103 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Call to reserve your spot soon, as space is limited.
Reynolds said the first class, held May 19, filled up immediately, so anyone interested is urged to sign up as quickly as possible.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County residents could see a break in the sunny weather later this week, based on the updated forecast.
The National Weather Service reported that a weather system in the eastern Pacific Ocean is anticipated to bring rain to much of Northern California on Thursday and into Friday.
Along with rain, forecasters said the weather system will bring with it a cooling trend lasting into the weekend.
Forecast models show that rainfall levels could range from as little as a quarter of an inch in the south county, to close to an inch in the county’s northern, mountainous areas.
The specific Lake County forecast calls for rain beginning as early as Wednesday night and continuing through Friday morning.
During that time, temperatures are expected to dip into the high 40s at night and the high 60s in the daytime, with light winds of up to 10 miles per hour.
Cooler temperatures in that range are forecast through Saturday, with daytime highs rising into the low 80s by the start of early next week.
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.
The moon hanging in the night sky sent Robert Hurt’s mind into deep space – to a region some 40 light years away, in fact, where seven Earth-sized planets crowded close to a dim, red sun.
Hurt, a visualization scientist at Caltech’s IPAC center, was walking outside his home in Mar Vista, California, shortly after he learned of the discovery of these rocky worlds around a star called TRAPPIST-1 and got the assignment to visualize them. The planets had been revealed by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and ground-based observatories.
“I just stopped dead in my tracks, and I just stared at it,” Hurt said in an interview. “I was imagining that could be, not our moon, but the next planet over – what it would be like to be in a system where you could look up and see continental features on the next planet.”
So began a kind of inspirational avalanche. Hurt and his colleague, multimedia producer Tim Pyle, developed a series of arresting, photorealistic images of what the new system’s tightly packed planets might look like – so tightly packed that they would loom large in each other’s skies. Their visions of the TRAPPIST-1 system would appear in leading news outlets around the world.
Artists like Hurt and Pyle, who render vibrant visualizations based on data from Spitzer and other missions, are hybrids of sorts, blending expertise in both science and art.
From squiggles on charts and columns of numbers, they conjure red, blue and green worlds, with half-frozen oceans or bubbling lava. Or they transport us to the surface of a world with a red-orange sun fixed in place, and a sky full of planetary companions.
“For the public, the value of this is not just giving them a picture of something somebody made up,” said Douglas Hudgins, a program scientist for the Exoplanet Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These are real, educated guesses of how something might look to human beings. An image is worth a thousand words.”
Hurt says he and Pyle are building on the work of artistic pioneers.
“There’s actually a long history and tradition for space art and science-based illustration,” he said. “If you trace its roots back to the artist Chesley Bonestell (famous in the 1950s and ’60s), he really was the artist who got this idea: Let’s go and imagine what the planets in our solar system might actually look like if you were, say, on Jupiter’s moon, Io. How big would Jupiter appear in the sky, and what angle would we be viewing it from?”
To begin work on their visualizations, Hurt divided up the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets with Pyle, who shares an office with him at Caltech’s IPAC center in Pasadena, California.
Hurt holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and has worked at the center since he was a post-doctoral researcher in 1996 – when astronomical art was just his hobby.
“They created a job for me,” he said.
Pyle, whose background is in Hollywood special effects, joined Hurt in 2004.
Hurt turns to Pyle for artistic inspiration, while Pyle relies on Hurt to check his science.
“Robert and I have our desks right next to each other, so we’re constantly giving each other feedback,” Pyle said. “We’re each upping each other’s game, I think.”
The TRAPPIST-1 worlds offered both of them a unique challenge. The two already had a reputation for illustrating many exoplanets – planets around stars beyond our own -- but never seven Earth-sized worlds in a single system. The planets cluster so close to their star that a “year” on each of them -- the time they take to complete a single orbit -- can be numbered in Earth days.
And like the overwhelming majority of the thousands of exoplanets found so far, they were detected using indirect means. No telescope exists today that is powerful enough to photograph them.
Real science informed their artistic vision. Using data from the telescopes that reveal each planet’s diameter as well as its “weight,” or mass, and known stellar physics to determine the amount of light each planet would receive, the artists went to work.
Both consulted closely with the planets' discovery team as they planned for a NASA announcement to coincide with a report in the journal Nature.
“When we’re doing these artist’s concepts, we’re never saying, ‘This is what these planets actually look like,’” Pyle said. “We’re doing plausible illustrations of what they could look like, based on what we know so far. Having this wide range of seven planets actually let us illustrate almost the whole breadth of what would be plausible. This was going to be this incredible interstellar laboratory for what could happen on an Earth-sized planet.”
For TRAPPIST-1b, Pyle took Jupiter’s volcanic moon, Io, as an inspiration, based on suggestions from the science team. For the outermost world, TRAPPIST-1h, he chose two other Jovian moons, the ice-encased Ganymede and Europa.
After talking to the scientists, Hurt portrayed TRAPPIST-1c as dry and rocky. But because all seven planets are probably tidally locked, forever presenting one face to their star and the other to the cosmos, he placed an ice cap on the dark side.
TRAPPIST-1d was one of three that fall inside the “habitable zone” of the star, or the right distance away from it to allow possible liquid water on the surface.
“The researchers told us they would like to see it portrayed as something they called an ‘eyeball world,’” Hurt said. “You have a dry, hot side that’s facing the star and an ice cap on the back side. But somewhere in between, you have (a zone) where the ice could melt and be sustained as liquid water.”
At this point, Hurt said, art intervened. The scientists rejected his first version of the planet, which showed liquid water intruding far into the “dayside” of TRAPPIST-1d. They argued that the water would most likely be found well within the planet’s dark half.
“Then I kind of pushed back, and said, ‘If it’s on the dark side, no one can look at it and understand we’re saying there’s water there,’” Hurt said. They struck a compromise: more water toward the dayside than the science team might expect, but a better visual representation of the science.
The same push and pull between science and art extends to other forms of astronomical visualization, whether it’s a Valentine's Day cartoon of a star pulsing like a heart in time with its planet, or materials for the blockbuster announcement of the first detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in February 2016. They've also illustrated asteroids, neutron stars, pulsars and brown dwarfs.
Visualizations based on data can also inform science, leading to genuine scientific insights. The scientists’ conclusions about TRAPPIST-1 at first seemed to suggest the planets would be bathed in red light, potentially obscuring features like blue-hued bodies of water.
“It makes it hard to really differentiate what is going on,” Hurt said.
Hurt decided to investigate. A colleague provided him with a spectrum of a red dwarf star similar to TRAPPIST-1.
He overlaid that with the “responsivity curves” of the human eye, and found that most of the scientists’ “red” came from infrared light, invisible to human eyes.
Subtract that, and what is left is a more reddish-orange hue that we might see standing on the surface of a TRAPPIST-1 world – “kind of the same color you would expect to get from a low-wattage light bulb,” Hurt said. “And the scientists looked at that and said, ‘Oh, ok, great, it’s orange.’ When the math tells you the answer, there really isn’t a lot to argue about.”
For Hurt, the real goal of scientific illustration is to excite the public, engage them in the science, and provide a snapshot of scientific knowledge.
“If you look at the whole history of space art, reaching back many, many decades, you will find you have a visual record,” he said. “The art is a historical record of our changing understanding of the universe. It becomes a part of the story, and a part of the research, I think.”
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A new AmeriCorps team is at work in Lake County to help rebuild in the wake of the past two summers’ devastating wildland fires.
North Coast Opportunities, or NCO, and Hope City will be receiving the support of nine members from the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Team Green Eight.
This is the fourth NCCC team to be working directly with Hope City to assist NCO in its efforts to rebuild homes that were destroyed in the wildfires that swept through Lake County.
The mission of North Coast Opportunities is to develop and provide services that strengthen communities.
To do this NCO has partnered with Hope City, a nonprofit based out of Indiana whose mission is to assist in the rebuilding process using volunteer labor.
The NCCC has been supporting the missions of both organizations by working directly with Hope City to rebuild homes for survivors of the wildfire, and by working in the NCO Food Pantry.
This will be the fourth and final project for Green Eight, whose members have previously completed environmental stewardship and disaster response projects in Louisiana, Southern California and Oregon.
“Our team’s very first project was doing disaster response, so it is a fitting end to our time in AmeriCorps to have the team’s final project be in disaster recovery,” said Green Eight member Katie Niemeyer.
When asked what NCO and the community of Middletown should expect from the team, she replied, “They should expect a hardworking team that is passionate about their work and excited to get out and help the community.”
The AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps and its FEMA Corps units engage 2,800 young Americans in a full-time, 10-month commitment to service each year.
AmeriCorps NCCC members address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development; FEMA Corps members are solely dedicated to disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery work.
The programs are administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads President's national call to service initiative, United We Serve.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A film about Anderson Marsh State Historic Park in Lower Lake has won an Emmy Award.
“A Walk Through Time: The Story of Anderson Marsh” won in the “Historic/Cultural-Program/Special” category in the 46th annual Northern California Emmy Awards, which were presented on Saturday in San Francisco.
The 28-minute film documents 14,000 years of the park’s history and the first people who lived there, the Koi Nation of Northern California.
“Everything was just fantastic,” said Dino Beltran, the Koi Nation’s tribal administrator and treasurer who also was a producer and the narrator for the film.
He was on hand to collect the Emmy and called the experience “pretty exciting.”
Along with Beltran, production team members who attended the Emmy Award ceremony on Saturday included Director Dan Bruns of the Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology at California State University, Chico; archaeologist Dr. John Parker, another of the producers, along with his wife, Cheyanne, who also is an archaeologist; Executive Producer Leslie Steidl, a retired associate state archaeologist with the California Department of Parks and Recreation; and Eduardo Guaracha, the superintendent of the California State Parks Northern Buttes District, which includes Lake County.
“It was an incredible experience to take part in the award ceremony, but even more amazing to be involved in a project that brought together archaeologists, Native Americans, pioneer families, volunteers, State Park representatives, geologists, and media specialists to shine a light on a piece of Lake County’s past,” said Dr. Parker.
The film debuted in 2015, but was nominated for an Emmy for its broadcast in 2016 on Sacramento-based KVIE 6, a Public Broadcasting System member television station.
“A Walk Through Time” was produced through a partnership of the Koi National and the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Beltran said the film’s production took about two years, between weather and scheduling.
Parker said that during work on the film, the production team established friendships that will last a lifetime. “We learned from each other and many of us continue to work together to protect Lake County’s cultural legacy.”
“We didn’t anticipate winning,” said Beltran.
He said “A Walk Through Time” was just a little film that was the result of a lot of people working together using a small amount of money.
It was in competition with “Emperors' Treasures: from the National Palace Museum,” produced by KGO ABC 7, and “Jimmy Borges - A Life Story,” by KGMB 9, nominees that were backed by big television stations and had name recognition.
“We went there for the experience, and the next thing I know, they announced our film and we were all elated,” Beltran said.
On the stage, the group members were handed facsimile statuettes. Once offstage, they were directed to the interview area. After the award presentation they also exchanged the statuettes given to them during the ceremony for ones with their names on them, which they had to sign for, Beltran said.
“A Walk Through Time” features interviews with archaeologists including Parker and Greg White, geoarchaeologist, Jack Meyer, Koi Nation Chair Darin Beltran and Vice Chair Drake Beltran and retired State Parks Ranger Tom Nixon.
It discusses the Clear Lake Basin’s oak woodlands, riparian habitat, obsidian resources, flora and fauna, archaeology and history.
In particular, it describes the journey over thousands of years of the Koi Nation.
“They lived in Paradise,” Darin Beltran explained in the film.
White said that in most regions of California there are big breaks in the archaeological record that are indications of widespread movement and movement.
However, in the Clear Lake Basin, the evidence shows that there was gradual change among the peoples living there, which indicates the same people were living there throughout the entire 14,000 years of the archaeological record.
“This is unique. It’s unlike any other place in California,” White said.
He added, “We have every reason to believe that the Pomo were the first people. And they are still here.”
By the 1840s, however, the Koi Nation and other local Pomo tribes began to come under pressure from white settlers. Up to one half of the Koi Nation was forcibly resettled for use as slave labor to Gold Rush settlements and Mexico ranchos in areas in current-day Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
By the 1950s, they lost complete access to their ancestral lands.
In the 1970s, the effort began to preserve Anderson Marsh as a state park, an effort facilitated by the work of Parker, who has studied Lake County’s natural and human history for 45 years.
He said it was during the first 15 of those years that the uniqueness of Lake County’s prehistoric sites prompted him to lobby locally and in Sacramento to preserve 38 of those sites in Anderson Marsh as a Cultural Preserve State Park.
In 1982, the 1,300-acre Anderson Marsh State Historic Park was created.
“Since then, I have tried to share this amazing history with others, hoping to instill an appreciation that would help preserve those resources,” he said. “I think the documentary ‘A Walk Through Time’ is a giant step in that direction. The honor given to the film by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences brings the value of Lake County’s unique natural and cultural resources to a much wider audience. Those of us who live here should be proud of these resources and strive to protect them.”
The film also won the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award in 2015 and, that same year, was selected for the 40th annual American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco.
With an Emmy now in hand, Beltran and his colleagues are looking forward to more filmmaking endeavors.
“We’ve already started production on another one, without big money,” he said, adding that the Emmy gives them “a head start.”
This new short documentary, which also will be close to 30 minutes long, will focus on sacred site protection efforts here in Lake County, Beltran said.
Beltran said the Koi Nation and Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake are working together to produce the film, which will look at the evolution of Ancestors 1, a consortium formed by the Koi Nation, Robinson Rancheria and the Habematolel Pomo.
Ancestors 1 in turn entered into a memorandum of understanding with the county of Lake in 2015 to increase protections for cultural resources, winning the Governor's Historic Preservation Award for 2016 for those efforts.
“It’s also going to cover our relationship with Sheriff Martin and how he’s been backing us for our sacred site protection and archaeological signs,” he said of the film.
Peter Coyote, the award-winning actor, director and documentary narrator, has agreed to narrate the new film, said Beltran.
The two men became friends after Beltran was asked to narrate “A Walk Through Time.” He reached out to Coyote, who in turn responded with advice and tips on narration and then agreed to work on the newest effort.
Beltran said he’s also gotten Gov. Jerry Brown to agree to make an appearance in the film. He said he met the governor at an event where Brown spoke about sacred site protection, one of his interests.
Chico State’s Advanced Laboratory for Visual Anthropology also has signed on once again to film this newest documentary, Beltran said.
The new film’s outline has just been completed, said Beltran.
He said their target for completion is a year.
“A Walk Through Time” can be seen in its entirety above.
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 Lake County Library is a recipient of a grant of $5,000 to host the NEA Big Read in Lake County.
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
Lake County Library is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program between September 2017 and June 2018.
The NEA Big Read in Lake County will focus on “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. Activities will take place in October.
“The Big Read isn’t just a series of fun community events, it’s a great way to promote the importance of reading and literacy for our community,” said Christopher Veach, director of the Lake County Library. “There is more information out there than ever and people need a high level of literacy to be able to evaluate and understand the information they need for their school, work, or personal life. The best way to increase literacy is to read.”
“Through the NEA Big Read we are bringing contemporary works to communities across the country, helping us better understand the diverse voices and perspectives that come with it,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “These 75 organizations have developed unique plans to celebrate these works, including numerous opportunities for exploration and conversation.”
The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery.
The main feature of the initiative is a grants program, managed by Arts Midwest, which annually supports approximately 75 dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection.
Planning is already underway for the Big Read in Lake County. As well as the library the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, the Friends of the Lake County Library, the Friends of the Middletown Library, and many other community organizations will be helping to bring the Big Read to Lake County.
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $19 million in grants to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country.
Over the past 11 years, grantees have leveraged more than $42 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.8 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 79,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 37,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible.
Last summer, the NEA announced a new focus for the NEA Big Read Library on contemporary authors and books written since the NEA was founded 50 years ago.
For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit www.neabigread.org .
Since its creation in 1974, the Lake County Library system has provided library service to the public of Lake County with four convenient branch locations in Lakeport, Clearlake, Middletown and Upper Lake.
To learn more about the programs and services offered by the library, including the Big Read, visit http://library.lakecountyca.gov .
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities.
Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit www.arts.gov to learn more about NEA.
Jan Cook is a technician with the Lake County Library.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Volunteers from the Rotary Club of Clear Lake and Citizens Caring for Clearlake were out Tuesday planting flowers and putting the final touches on the long-awaited visitors center and Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce building located in Highlands Park.
The ribbon cutting celebrating the completion of the building will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 10.
Mayor Russ Perdock and board members of both the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce are expected to be there and the general public is welcome to attend.
The county of Lake has contributed $100,000 to the rehabilitation of the building and the city of Clearlake has provided additional funding and personnel to work on the rehabilitation.
However, this was really a community project that succeeded due to the efforts of volunteers and donations.
“The community really stepped up with this project, most especially Mike Vandiver who put in hundreds, if not thousands of volunteer hours on this project,” said City Manager Greg Folsom. “We are extremely appreciative of his efforts, as well as the other local businesses, craftspeople, and volunteers who made contributions of time or resources.
Folsom added, “Public Works Director Doug Herren also deserves a lot of credit for coordinating this project and working with Mike Vandiver on his own time to make this project happen.”
“The completion of the visitor’s center has been long in coming, but I think everyone will be pleased with it,” Mayor Russ Perdock said. “The original hardwood floors have been beautifully refinished and stained thanks to Rotarian Mike Anderson. There is a kitchen with granite counters and just an amazing view of the lake from the back meeting room. Thanks to all who were a part of this special place.”
Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce President Denise Loustalot was excited to show off the new building.
“This is a great achievement for the chamber and is just the beginning of the things we are planning,” said Loustalot. “Come out and see our new building and join us as we take the chamber to a new level.”
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man convicted of a July 2015 Clearlake murder was sentenced on Monday after spending nearly a year seeking a new trial.
Judge Andrew Blum handed down the sentence to Billy Raymond Mount, 37, of Clearlake during a Monday afternoon appearance in Lake County Superior Court.
A jury convicted Mount in August of the shooting death of 40-year-old Steven Galvin of Clearlake.
Mount was found guilty of second-degree murder, assault with a firearm, discharge of a firearm from a vehicle, felon in possession of a firearm, and special allegations including shooting a firearm from a vehicle, discharge of a handgun, personal use of a firearm, inflicting great bodily injury and being a member of a criminal street gang in August, as Lake County News has reported.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe said that in his sentencing decision, Judge Blum stayed some of the lesser charges of which Mount was convicted, such as discharge of a handgun and personal use of a firearm.
“He stayed some lesser offenses and allegations that were included in the sentence for some greater and more aggravated counts and allegations,” Grothe said.
Blum gave Mount a determinate sentence of 17 years; after Mount is done serving those 17 years, he will begin to serve the indeterminate part of his sentence, which Grothe said is 45 years to life.
Since his conviction last summer, Mount had been attempting to get a new trial, Grothe said.
Mount hired a new attorney, who Grothe said needed a long time to review the trial record.
Galvin had been walking through a neighborhood on 35th Avenue in Clearlake on the afternoon of July 2, 2015, when a small white pickup pulled up and two shots were fired. He was struck once in the back by a .22-caliber bullet.
Galvin died a short time later, not long after he had told a detective who arrived on scene that “Cyclops” – a Clearlake man named David Cox – was responsible for shooting him.
The defense had argued that Cox had actually been the gunman due to his confrontations with Galvin because Cox believed Galvin had stolen his tablet computer.
Cox received three immunity agreements from local authorities for cooperating with the investigation as well as for testifying both at the preliminary hearing and trial.
At trial, Cox said Mount confessed to him that he shot Galvin.
Another witness who testified at the trial, Sean Whiteman, said Mount had ridden in Whiteman's white Chevy S10 pickup to the shooting scene.
Whiteman also led police to a gun that he said was involved in the shooting, although authorities could not lift prints or DNA from the weapon. However, they were able to find Mount’s print and DNA on a CD case in Whiteman’s pickup.
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. – Veteran Al Plyley’s home is situated on a hillside in the Clearlake Park area, necessitating special requirements in order for him to get in and out of his home.
Until recently, his long steep sidewalk sufficed, but when Habitat for Humanity went to his home to provide critical home repair services, the work staff quickly surmised that something else needed to be done if Plyley was to avoid becoming house-bound.
After a lengthy search, and with funding provided by the Home Depot Veteran’s Repair Program, a special 10-foot-tall lift was found for Plyley’s use to assist him in getting from his front door to his vehicle.
Gifford’s Backhoe Service used their crane to assist Habitat for Humanity staff in getting the lift into place so that it could be set up and made workable.
“After the fires the last few years, I’ve been worried about how I could get in and out of my house if one came here,” Plyley said. “I’m grateful that Habitat took the time to do this for me; now I don’t have to worry so much.”
Time is running out for Habitat for Humanity to distribute funds for veteran home repair projects under the grant.
If you are a military veteran who owns your home, or if you are a family member living with a veteran in your home and your home is in need of repairs, please contact Habitat for Humanity Lake County immediately at 707-994-1100 for an application.
Applications also can be picked up at Habitat for Humanity’s office at 15312 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake.
Applicants are served on a first-come, first-served basis and slots are limited.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A young Kelseyville woman was in a vehicle crash on Highway 101 on Monday in an area where traffic had been slowed in the wake of a grass fire.
Elena Goss, 19, was driving one of the two vehicles involved in the rear-end crash on southbound Highway 101 south of Calpella in Mendocino County, according to the Ukiah Area office of the California Highway Patrol.
At about 3 p.m. that day there was a grass fire on the west shoulder of Highway 101 in that area, with Cal Fire responding to put the fire out and the CHP providing traffic control, according to the report.
The CHP said traffic was reduced to one lane for approximately 30 minutes, causing traffic to back up, before the fire was put out and the CHP opened up all lanes of traffic.
At approximately 3:48 p.m., traffic was still slow in the area, the CHP said.
Justin O’Neal, 27, of Redwood Valley was driving his 2001 Toyota Tacoma southbound and had come to a stop behind traffic, south of the Calpella exit, according to the CHP. O’Neal turned on his emergency flashing lights to warn traffic behind him.
Goss was driving her 2009 Ford Focus southbound south of the Calpella exit. The CHP said she looked down to change the music on her phone while driving. When she looked up, she saw traffic had come to a stop ahead of her.
The CHP said Goss applied the brakes and began sliding. The Focus then hit the rear of the Tacoma.
The Tacoma overturned into the median and the Focus came to a stop in the No. 2 lane, blocking traffic, the CHP said.
Multiple bystanders stopped to help the crash victims. The CHP said Goss, Justin O’Neal and his passenger, John O’Neal, also of Redwood Valley, were all taken to Ukiah Valley Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries.
The CHP said all three were wearing their seat belts.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Habitat for Humanity Lake County is marking the completion of the 20th home it has built in the community and is about to dedicate its 21st home project.
Habitat celebrated the dedication of house No. 20 for the Pantoja family on Saturday, June 3.
Family, friends, staff and volunteers gathered to enjoy a delicious lunch and the fellowship of all of those who made this house possible.
Groundbreaking for this Clearlake house took place just prior to the eruption of last year’s Clayton fire, and experienced delays as a result, but the family feels blessed to have it completed at last.
“We never thought this was possible. We feel blessed and excited and appreciate everyone’s work to get this done. We thank everyone for their help,” said new homeowner Trancito Pantoja when asked how he felt about this day arriving at last.
The dedication of another home at 3592 Toyon St. in Clearlake is scheduled for this Saturday, June 10, at noon.
Everyone is invited to join in welcoming the Gwin family to their new home, to see the work Habitat for Humanity does in Lake County and to talk to staff and volunteers about how you can get involved or might qualify for a home.
If you or someone you know has a housing need and would like to find out if you qualify for help from Habitat for Humanity, visit www.lakehabitat.org , stop by Habitat’s Clearlake office at 15312 Lakeshore Drive or call 707-994-1100 for more information or a preapplication.
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
