A worker stands at Ground Zero in New York City on October 3, 2001. Photo courtesy of the George W. Bush Library.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Ten years later, the memories of the events of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, are finding voice in commemorations, retrospectives and memorials around the United States, as both the victims of that day and the heroes are honored.

Terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and crashed a fourth plane in Shanksville, Penn., when the passengers rushed the cockpit of the plane, which was headed to another target in Washington, DC.

An estimated 3,000 people died in the attacks, which touched off a ripple effect of terror, anger and grief that spread across the country, touching people in every state.

In a Saturday address, President Barack Obama noted, “Ten years ago, ordinary Americans showed us the true meaning of courage when they rushed up those stairwells, into those flames, into that cockpit.”

Since then, the country's leaders have ratcheted up the strength of the country's intelligence agencies and its military.

President Obama said the United States has “taken the fight to al Qaeda like never before,” eliminating senior al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, killed earlier this year.

Five years ago, Congressman Mike Thompson, who represents Lake County in the US House of Representatives, joined the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

“These terrorists are here to stay,” said Congressman Mike Thompson. “Our lives have been changed forever.”

In looking back, Thompson said it's important to remember the 3,000 victims and their families. “We also give our deep thanks to the brave members of our armed forces, first responders and members of the intelligence community who each day perform their sworn duty to keep us safe and to recognize the sacrifices they and their families have made.”

The major impacts on life in Lake County have included the many young men and women going off to service in the military, and the loss of Lance Corporal Ivan Wilson and Sgt. David Hartman during their service overseas.

In the wake of the attacks, there have been other, more subtle impacts. In the area of law enforcement, Sept. 11's legacy has led to greater preparedness, awareness and even connectedness.

“It's become clear that we need to be part of the bigger picture and think nationally and globally,” Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen said of small local agencies like his.

Rasmussen pointed out that everyone needs to be on the lookout at all times.

His own staff has more training requirements in the area of homeland security and terrorism, recognition and preparedness. A staffer recently was sent to training regarding protecting local infrastructure.

The city of Lakeport also is in the process training city management staff and council members in emergency preparedness, which includes responding to terrorism incidents, said Rasmussen.

In addition, the Lakeport Police Department has a terror liaison officer to keep the rest of the staff up to date on terrorism activities in the country, he said.

“Terrorism has been around forever,” said Rasmussen, but the events of Sept. 11, 2001, made it clear that local law enforcement has an important role in keeping their communities – and the country – safe.

Called to action

Here on the West Coast, thousands of miles away from the attacks, men and women watched the events of Sept. 11 unfold, and some of them would be called to action to respond and lend a hand in ravaged New York city.

Among those who would travel from California to New York were Lake County residents Pat Brown of Clearlake Oaks, who today is the deputy chief of the Northshore Fire Protection District, and Pam Plank of Kelseyville, the Red Cross' Lake County disaster chair.

Pat Brown worked as a firefighter in Santa Clara County for 25 years, rising to the rank of captain before his retirement. He had worked for what was to become Northshore Fire Protection District before getting the job in Santa Clara, and continued to work locally as a battalion chief when not in Silicon Valley.

Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown took part in the recovery effort in New York City in the weeks following the attack on September 11, 2011. File photo.

The route that took him to Ground Zero, the ravaged site of the destroyed World Trade Center, actually began two years before he was chosen to join a rescue team that spent two and a half weeks in New York immediately following Sept. 11.

It was two years earlier that he took part in a Urban Search and Rescue deployment in Montgomery, Maryland.

The Maryland training lasted two weeks, and there he met the Fire Department of New York's US&R team, whose members he worked with and got to know. Brown said it was FDNY's Chief Ray Downey who started the US&R concept.

On Sept. 12, 2001, Brown got the call to come to New York. For the next two and a half weeks he and his 78-member team would work at Ground Zero.

Engineers, rescue specialists – of which Brown was one – search dogs and a doctor were part of the team, flying in to New York with 78,000 pounds of equipment because they needed to be self-sufficient during their stay, he said.

Brown was a member of US&R California Task Force Three, one of eight such teams in California and 28 nationwide, he said. “I think almost all the teams rotated through there,” he said of Ground Zero.

Brown said he and his team members soon noticed that New York's firefighters didn't have the equipment that their California counterparts did. He also remembered swapping items with a Seattle team member to get items he didn't have.

They worked hand-in-hand with FDNY, not just in recovery but also in answering regular calls, as FDNY's ranks had been devastated by Sept. 11, losing approximately 343 members.

Among the dead were all but one of the members of the US&R team Brown had worked with two years earlier, including Chief Downey, who at age 63 was last seen in the Marriott Hotel lobby on Sept. 11, directing rescue efforts. A Web site devoted to a scholarship fund in his memory, www.chiefraydowney.com, said Downey's body was never found.

Brown worked on the day shift, with most of his work done “out in the pile” that was the South Tower, the second of the towers to be hit by a plane. It collapsed at 9:59 a.m. Sept. 11, after the North Tower fell.

For two weeks they would search the rubble for survivors. They never found any, Brown said.

Brown spent the first week on the site going underground, rappelling into elevator shafts or going up through the subway to look for survivors. Using a gas-powered circular saw, they would cut through elevator doors.

“We found people but we never removed any,” he said, explaining that FDNY and the New York Police Department were in charge of removal.

In most of the areas they worked, they had to cut through huge beams and use a crane to pull them off before they could move on with recovery, he said.

Brown said the night crew on his team worked a lot in Building 7, a high security government building near the World Trade Center that also collapsed, although it wasn't hit by a plane. He said Building 7 was more intact that the other buildings.

Brown's team used listening devices and search dogs as they looked for victims. Most of the team's dogs were trained to find live people, and only two were trained as cadaver dogs.

The cadaver dogs were constantly getting hits on bodies, in part because body parts were throughout the rubble, Brown said.

Down in the subway areas, he called the work of the dogs “amazing,” with the dogs and their handlers quickly helping clear areas in search of survivors or bodies. “And then we saw rats as big as our dogs,” he added.

The signs of fatigue began to show within the two and a half weeks at Ground Zero. Brown said all of the US&R teams were staying at the Javits Convention Center. With people constantly coming and going, and forklifts and other equipment moving through the building, “Sleep was really hard.”

Brown said he remembered being angry on his seventh day on the site when, just after finally getting to sleep, he was awakened and told to put on his uniform. The reason? President George W. Bush was paying a visit to the convention center.

An exhausted Brown got up and got dressed, and watched as President Bush arrived. “He was just walking through,” he said.

During his stay, Brown said U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein would pay a visit and speak to his team. One night when he sat down to eat, actress Loretta Swit of “MASH” fame served him his dinner.

Brown said that what stands out in his experience in New York was the friends he made there, and their generosity.

When his team got ready to leave, he said his FDNY counterparts gave him the chief's shirt and radio.

“I still have it,” he said of the shirt.

He said his team members prided themselves on the fact that none of them later became sick. They believe that's because they diligently wore their breathing filters.

However, their canine team members weren't so lucky. Within three years of the recovery effort, “every dog that was in our team died,” Brown said.

A major contributing factor, he said, was believed to be the silicon dust the animals breathed as they worked the site.

Offering help and compassion

Pam Plank had been with the Red Cross for five years before she found herself heading to New York.

Following a retirement hastened by a medical condition, Plank said, “I knew that I had something to give other than just sitting at home,” and went in search of a way to serve. The Red Cross welcomed her.

She began working as a volunteer in the nonprofit's local office, then started taking classes, and quickly discovered she had an affinity for disaster-related work and helping people, which was put to work during local flooding in 1998.

While she had taken classes, Plank said she I realized that you can learn everything in a book but you're not smart. “That is where my life started to turn.”

She went into Disaster Services Human Resources, where she directly helped connect people with the services they needed. When she went to New York – she arrived on Sept. 14, 2001 – she went as a family services supervisor.

Plank was there for three weeks. “That was the only length of time they would allow anyone because of the mass destruction,” she said.

She was about three miles from Ground Zero, where she could still see smoke billowing up from the site of the collapsed buildings.

She has no pictures of her time there. “We were not allowed to take pictures at all,” she said, noting that they also were not allowed at the disaster site.

Her first two weeks were spent doing basic outreach to help locate those in need. Plank and her team – which also included people equipped to offer mental and physical health assistance – traveled to the city's affected areas and went door to door, asking people if they needed assistance.

She estimated she saw 30 clients a day. “You had to wait for them to go through their tears,” she said.

Families would suddenly find themselves in danger of losing their homes because the breadwinner had died, she said.

Red Cross also worked to connect with New York groups that could assist with helping people, she said.

Eventually the Red Cross was located on a pier in New York next to the Intrepid museum complex. There, they worked alongside many other agencies, including the FBI and CIA.

“The one memory that really sticks out is that everyone came together,” she said.

Plank said she remembered that one day a man of Middle Eastern descent came into the center and sat at the back. She said she saw the anger others displayed toward him because of the Arab hijackers who had run the planes into the towers.

“Something told me to just go and say hello to the man,” she said.

Plank said she shook his hand, a gesture which she said surprised him. He asked why she was willing to touch his hand. She jokingly asked if he forgot to wash it.

He said people wouldn't look at him because of their anger. “That has got to change” she said to him. “You didn't do it.”

She made a point of saying, loudly, that everyone there was seeking help, and it didn't matter where they came from, a remark that seemed to loosen people up. “I guess maybe I did make a difference.”

In another case, a woman came to the center asking for assistance. In her apartment she had heard a loud crash in the living room area, but was able to get out without going into that room. The woman kept saying how scared she was.

Plank and some of her team returned to the woman's apartment with her. A mental health worker went into the front room while Plank took the woman into another part of the apartment to pack clothes and other items.

In the front room was found the body of an airplane passenger, strapped into the seat, where it had crashed through the apartment's plate glass front window, Plank said.

She said that, to this day, she tears up when Sept. 11 is mentioned. Plank said the new monument is beautiful, noting that she finds water to be healing.

Last week, she sent her husband off to Albany, New York, where he is going to work with the Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Irene.

Plank said she told him to go to Manhattan if he gets the chance, and asked him to take pictures of the site. “I need that for closure,” she said.

Plank said she becomes upset when people allege that Sept. 11 was staged. “It's nothing that I really want to see again, but it has happened.”

Congressman Mike Thompson, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, says terrorists are here to stay, and the work of the intelligence community and the military is more important now than ever. File photo.

Looking back

Thompson told Lake County News in an interview late last week that many of the changes that resulted from Sept. 11 are very evident – airline screenings, the increased emphasis on awareness and public safety, and more metal detectors in public places.

He said the intelligence community and the military are working harder than ever to keep the country safe.

Now a senior intelligence committee member, Thompson attends three to four meetings and briefings a week on sensitive matters relating to the United States' safety, and travels around the world on committee business five to six times a year.

Most of that intelligence committee's work is done in closed session, he said, and he can't talk much about his service on the committee or the trips he takes.

He said he finds his work with the intelligence committee both rewarding and “very tough emotionally,” noting that a recent briefing had to deal with the deaths of numerous Navy SEALs in a crash in Afghanistan in August.

Thompson said after Sept. 11, he saw the country coming together, and the different political parties working together.

“That was very, very short-lived,” he said, asking that it also was exploited by some.

Now the country is showing incredible divisiveness, Thompson said.

There also was incredible goodwill from around the world. “We squandered a lot of that goodwill,” he said.

“We need to remember the tragedy and remember that there are people who want to harm us,” Thompson said.

In looking back, Plank – who has been to Missouri, North Carolina and San Diego on Red Cross support missions since then – said that her experiences in New York made her a better person. “I have more compassion for the people of other races now.”

On a community basis, Plank said she believes that there has been an increased emphasis on preparedness since Sept. 11 for all communities.

More recently, she's undergone treatment for renal cancer and lost a kidney, but she's on the mend.

She's not been back to New York since 2001. “If I have have a chance to go back there, I probably will,” she said.

As for Brown, he said his visit to New York changed his whole career. From there he was promoted and began higher levels of training.

He believes the main reason why so many firefighters and police officers died on Sept. 11 was related to a communication breakdown. “It always goes back to that.”

He said he also doesn't think a lot of people really understand the brotherhood of firefighters, who put their lives on the line every day.

“I think people have really forgotten that in this 10 years,” he said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

Sgt. Corey Paulich filed the case in July, alleging that Sheriff Frank Rivero repeatedly interrogated him following a March high speed chase involving two deputies under Paulich's supervision, as Lake County News has reported.

Paulich, a 16-year veteran of the Lake County Sheriff's Office, is seeking to have a disciplinary investigation and a proposed disciplinary letter set aside, and asking for $150,000 in civil penalties – $25,000 for each of the six alleged violations of his rights under the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act, or POBR.

With all of the county's judges recusing themselves from the case, retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge William McKinstry was assigned to hear the case Friday morning in Lake County Superior Court.

Paulich's attorney, Christopher Miller, asked the court to allow him to update his filings to allege contempt by the county, which went forward with proposed discipline of Paulich.

Deputy County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano, who appeared along with Rivero, objected to the request, arguing that such filings should have been made earlier.

Guintivano said he was ready to proceed on the merits of the case, adding that he believed the request “is just a delaying tactic by petitioner's counsel.”

McKinstry denied Miller's request for a continuance and the hearing proceeded.

During his arguments, Miller told the court, “The crux of this case really comes down to the interrogations conducted by the sheriff of Sgt. Paulich prior to the sheriff initiating the disciplinary action.”

According to case documents, the high speed pursuit of Clearlake resident Michael Bronsert had been initiated in the early morning hours of March 13 by the Clearlake Police Department, with the chase reaching speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. The deputies joined it, and one of them rammed Bronsert's vehicle, bringing the chase to an end.

Later on March 13 after Paulich had gone off duty for the day he was directed by Sgt. Gary Basor to contact Rivero by phone, with a 30-minute interrogation about the incident following. Later in the evening Rivero called Paulich again, reportedly admonishing him about the incident and questioning his understanding of departmental pursuit policy, and telling Paulich he had failed to perform his duties, according to the suit.

On the night of March 13, Rivero sent Paulich an email that warned he would be “held accountable” for the deputies' actions, and again early the following morning Rivero emailed Paulich to accuse him of failing to handle the pursuit in a proper manner, court documents state.

According to Paulich's suit, he was served the following day with an internal affairs investigation alleging that he had violated department rules and regulations in relation to the pursuit.

Guintivano and the county argued in replies to the suit that Rivero's questioning of Paulich was not related to the internal affairs investigation or the subsequent proposal that a letter of reprimand be placed in Paulich's personnel file.

However, Miller argued, “These are related actions.”

He added, “There is absolutely no basis for an assertion by the county that the sheriff's interrogations of Sgt. Paulich were some sort of routine contact.”

According to POBR, a peace officer cannot be interrogated by an employer regarding actions that could lead to discipline, said Miller, who argued that the county's assertions that Rivero's questions were part of training contacts were unfounded.

He said Rivero continued to question Paulich's actions, motivations and understanding, eliciting responses. “That's an interrogation,” and it would be subject to POBR even if no disciplinary action resulted, Miller said.

“The only defense that the respondents raised is that this was somehow routine contact or training and frankly they're absurd,” Miller said, pointing out that according to Rivero's own declaration it was not a routine matter.

“An interrogation doesn't require the bright lights and green lampshade,” said Miller. It only requires that an employee be questioned about a matter that leads to discipline which, in this case, it did, he argued, adding that's the best evidence that it was, in fact, an interrogation.

Miller asked for the investigation and proposed disciplinary action to be set aside, calling Rivero's interrogation of Paulich “outrageous behavior.” He alleged that there was a clear pattern of behavior on Rivero's part to violate Paulich's rights.

“He didn't do it once, he didn't do it twice, he did it three times within a 24-hour period,” said Miller.

He said Paulich was seeking the full administrative penalties, along with court and attorney costs for the “malicious” violation of his rights. He said the willful or malicious nature of the alleged violations are shown “where there is a blatant disregard for the rights of the officer under the statute.”

Miller, who said he practices law in the area of peace officer rights up and down the state, said virtually every law enforcement authority knows the fundamental rules of questioning employees. “There's no excuse for what the sheriff did,” he said.

He said the case reads “as though somebody lost control of their temper, was very angry,” and proceeded with questioning Paulich.

Guintivano argued that Miller defined interrogation too broadly. He also objected to references to disciplinary proceedings on the grounds that it was a personnel matter. “It should be deemed confidential,” he said, adding that the information also wasn't relevant to the allegations.

While Miller argued that Rivero's communications with Paulich weren't about training or routine matters, Guintivano said that the case exhibits showed that Rivero had cut and pasted department policies and procedures into his e-mails to Paulich.

Guintivano said Rivero first spoke with Paulich by phone to ask what happened, and followed up with another contact because Paulich did not provide an adequate account of what happened.

“Sheriff Rivero is entitled to know what actually happened out there,” Guintivano said.

Rivero's e-mail to Paulich was a memorialization of previous discussions with Paulich. Dismissal, demotion and discipline were not mentioned, Guintivano said. “There was no intent on Sheriff Rivero's part to investigate the petitioner.”

After Rivero reflected on the situation he realized Paulich needed to be investigated, Guintivano said.

Ruling for Paulich would creates a “slippery slope” that would make it difficult to deal with employees, and would require POBR compliance for every question the sheriff asks his employees, Guintivano argued.

In his final response, Miller said that what cases involving POBR reveal is that when a line of questioning is not routine counseling or training, regardless of the intention, the matter falls under the statute's rules against interrogation.

Had Rivero simply asked Paulich about the initial incident or asked for clarification as to when it had occurred, and assured him that it wasn't disciplinary in nature, there would not have been a problem, said Miller.

“That's clearly not what happened here,” he said.

While Rivero may have intended his interactions with Paulich to be routine training or inquiry, that's not what resulted, said Miller, who alleged that Rivero had obvious knowledge that he was violating Paulich's rights.

Judge McKinstry said he will give a decision as soon as he can, but noted that his visits to the county are infrequent and his communication with the court clerk is through “snail mail,” which could delay the decision's delivery.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

County of Lake and Lake County Sheriff's Answer to Paulich

County of Lake's Opposition to Sgt. Paulich Petition

Paulich Case - Reply Memo of P&a in Support of Petition

Sgt. Corey Paulich Supplemental Declaration

Lake Family Resource Center, on the advice of county health officials, moved out of their Clearlake building last month, as Lake County News has reported.

Natural geothermal activity is not uncommon in Lake County and residents of the Burns Valley neighborhood in the city of Clearlake have seen the signs of bubbling gas releases in puddles and smelled the rotten egg odor associated with sulfur gases for years, according to a Thursday report from Lake County Public Health.

Occasionally, those gases accumulate in enclosed spaces, causing health and safety concerns. However, Public Health reported that while the smell of sulfur can be a tip-off that geothermal gas vents are in the area, the odor does not correlate with the level of danger.

In fact, the human nose can detect hydrogen sulfide gas at levels even lower than what is measurable with detection equipment. Other geothermal gases may not produce any odor, according to the report.

While local agencies have responded to occasional geothermal gas concerns in Lake County for decades, they stepped up the frequency of air quality testing in the Burns Valley neighborhood starting two years ago in order to better understand the patterns and significance of the geothermal gas releases.

Over the years, Konocti Unified School District also monitored the air quality at Burns Valley Elementary School and twice arranged for indoor air quality studies by an outside party. Health officials said neither study detected measurable levels of concern in classrooms.

A continuous outdoor air monitoring device is operating at Burns Valley Elementary school under the supervision of the Lake County Air Quality Management District. The Konocti Unified School District plans to do further indoor monitoring.

The report said that ongoing evaluation of the geothermal gas releases in the neighborhood continues to be a subject of interest to numerous agencies, including Lake County Environmental Health and Public Health, Lake County Air Quality Management District, Konocti Unified School District, Lake County Fire Protection District and the city of Clearlake.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Lake County this year, Lake County News is publishing a series of historical stories about the county, its people and places. This week's story about the Jagos is written by Lake County Museum staffer Camisha Knowlton.

Most of you are familiar with Jago Bay, Jago Resort, Jago Grade and what used to be the Jago Store. The Jagos were early pioneers of Lake County. They not only established their business and family here, but they diligently worked hard at what they wanted to achieve. This is their story …

Louis Jago’s father was born in the Gibraltar area, of English parentage. He acquired large holdings in the shipping industry. The house, on the island of Malta, in which he lived and where Louis was more than likely raised, was considered one of the two or three most remarkable structures of that time.

In the beginning, Louis’ grandfather wished him to be a navigator and boat officer. Louis, a young man at the time, complied and signed on to a ship as an apprentice and put to sea.

While in Liverpool, England, Louis met a British man named Beakbane who persuaded him to come to California where he would find big opportunities. After his assignment at sea came to an end, Louis and Mr. Beakbane came to California traveling together by coach to Lake County and setteling in the Burns Valley area.

Louis worked hard in the orchards. During his residence in Burns Valley he met and fell in love with Emma Strothoff a young woman of German descent and they were soon married. They had one son, John.

Dr. Baylis was the first major landowner in the Lower Lake area and he built a home on what became known as Baylis Point.

Dr. Baylis and his wife came to Lake County in the 1860s. The two had nine children.

One of them was Percy Cecil Baylis, Louis Jago’s brother-in-law, who in the 1900s developed the Point Lakeview Subdivision.

In time, Louis lost interest in farming and he bought the first lot and built the first house in the Point Lakeview Subdivision. He went on to accumulate additional lots and founded Jago’s Resort.

The first telephone line in the area was built by Louis Jago and it was first owned and operated by the Jagos, Bob Beale, the Fryes of Thurston Lake and Walter Reichert. Pacific Telephone took it over in the 1940s.

Louis Jago was one of the most civic-minded men among the early settlers around the lake and was nicknamed “Mr. Lake County.”

Jago’s Resort was later owned and operated for many years by his son John and his wife Irene (Miller) Jago.

The road to Jago Bay was constructed in 1912-13 by a young man and his sisters. But that, my friends, is another story.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

A fifth-wheel travel trailer caught on fire and burned to the frame, causing a backup on Highway 20 just outside of the Lake County line on Friday, September 9, 2011. Photo by Terre Logsdon.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – A vehicle fire just outside of the Lake County line on Friday shut down Highway 20 and resulted in a small vegetation fire nearby.

Officer John Waggoner of the California Highway Patrol's Williams office said the fire in the fifth-wheel travel trailer began at 10:20 a.m.

Waggoner said 65-year-old Edward Alexander of Fort Bragg was towing the trailer with his pickup westbound on Highway 20 just east of Highway 16 when he looked in his mirror and saw smoke.

Alexander pulled over to the right as far as he could but was still partially blocking the westbound lane, Waggoner said.

At that point, the fire started spreading in the trailer. Waggoner said Alexander was able to unhook his pickup and get it away from the trailer.

Waggoner said the trailer fire sparked a vegetation fire.

Luckily, with a Cal Fire station located nearby, firefighters were able to quickly respond, Waggoner said. “They were able to get a jump on this fire before it got too far.”

Cal Fire spokesperson Suzie Blankenship said the fire burned up the hill from the trailer. In all, a total of four acres were burned.

Blankenship said there were no structures threatened and no injuries.

Cal Fire sent a helicopter, three engines and 15 firefighters, and a battalion chief, while the Williams Fire Department sent one engine and one water tender, with one water tender coming from Colusa, Blankenship said.

Waggoner said the trailer was a total loss, burning down to its frame.

The highway was completely closed for about an hour in order to let fire equipment access the trailer, Waggoner said.

Once the fire was extinguished, the highway was reopened with traffic control. Waggoner said the highway was completely reopened at 12:45 p.m.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

Highway 20 just outside of the Lake County line was closed for about an hour on the morning of Friday, September 9, 2011, following a fifth-wheel travel trailer fire that caught nearby vegetation on fire. Photo by Terre Logsdon.

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft for NASA lifted off from Space Launch Complex (SLC)-17B here at 9:08 a.m. EDT today. This launch marks the 9th flight for ULA in 2011, the 49th Delta II mission for NASA and the last currently-planned flight from this launch complex. The GRAIL mission will place two spacecraft into the same orbit around the Moon. GRAIL's primary science objectives are to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon. Photo by Thom Baur, United Launch Alliance.

NASA's twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, Sept. 10, to study the moon in unprecedented detail.

GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year's Eve 2011, while GRAIL-B will arrive New Year's Day 2012.

The two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field.

GRAIL will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

“If there was ever any doubt that Florida's Space Coast would continue to be open for business, that thought was drowned out by the roar of today's GRAIL launch,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “GRAIL and many other exciting upcoming missions make clear that NASA is taking its next big leap into deep space exploration, and the space industry continues to provide the jobs and workers needed to support this critical effort.”

The spacecraft were launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. GRAIL mission controllers acquired a signal from GRAIL-A at 10:29 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. GRAIL-B's signal was received eight minutes later.

The telemetry downlinked from both spacecraft indicates they have deployed their solar panels and are operating as expected.

“Our GRAIL twins have Earth in their rearview mirrors and the moon in their sights,” said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “The mission team is ready to test, analyze and fine-tune our spacecraft over the next three-and-a-half months on our journey to lunar orbit.”

The straight-line distance from Earth to the moon is approximately 250,000 miles (402,336 kilometers). NASA's Apollo moon crews needed approximately three days to cover that distance.

However, each spacecraft will take approximately 3.5 months and cover more than 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) to arrive.

This low-energy trajectory results in the longer travel time. The size of the launch vehicle allows more time for spacecraft check-out and time to update plans for lunar operations.

The science collection phase for GRAIL is expected to last 82 days.

“Since the earliest humans looked skyward, they have been fascinated by the moon,” said GRAIL principal investigator Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “GRAIL will take lunar exploration to a new level, providing an unprecedented characterization of the moon's interior that will advance understanding of how the moon formed and evolved.”

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the GRAIL mission. It is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida

More information about GRAIL is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/grail and http://grail.nasa.gov.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

The Advance Health Care Directive, the Do-Not-Resuscitate Order, and the Physicians Order for Life Sustaining Treatment are the primary documents to be aware of. Let's examine them.

The Advance Health Care Directive ("AHCD") has two primary purposes: first, to express your health care wishes; and second, to authorize a health care agent to make medical decisions on your behalf only when you become incapacitated.

For example, whether or not to receive heroic life-sustaining treatment when in an irreversible vegetative state; whether or not to receive pain killing medicine if terminally ill even if it hastens an inevitable death; and whether or not to donate organs.

But the directive can also say who should be allowed to visit you while you are in hospital; what kind of human contact you want to be allowed; and how your funeral should be conducted. Your AHCD agent will have access to your confidential health care information and be authorized to make decisions on your behalf consistent with the wishes you express in you directive.

Various printed AHCD forms are available. The California Medical Association ("CMA") form is widely used and recognized by California hospitals. It can be ordered by phone at 800-882-1262 or online at http://www.cmanet.org. California also has its own version of the AHCD form.

A health care directive, however, cannot by itself prevent emergency responders from administering life support such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). For persons who do not wish to have CPR and who wish to allow a natural death to occur, it is necessary to have either a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) form or a "physician's order for life sustaining treatment" ("POLST").

The Emergency Medical Services ("EMS") DNR form issued by the CMA is the older approach. A DNR form must be signed by the physician and the patient. A Medic-Alert bracelet should also be obtained and worn at all times so that emergency responders can immediately identify the person's DNR status. DNR forms require consultation with a physician and a physician's signature.

The more recent two page POLST form is much broader than the DNR form. Like the DNR form it requires a consultation with a physician. Unlike the DNR form, which serves only to say, "no CPR", the POLST form requires a broad discussion with the physician regarding the degree to which medical

treatment should be given on a wide range of issues: resuscitation, medical conditions, use of antibiotics, artificial nutrition, and other life sustaining treatments.

For example, the POLST form can be used to authorize that CPR be performed to restore one to a worthwhile condition of health, but otherwise to forego CPR.

POLST forms are signed by the physician and the patient, and are a doctor's order. The POLST form is

intended for a person who has a serious illness. It should accompany you wherever you go at all times. California's POLST is printed on bright pink stationary, but it can be printed on white paper too.

For more information regarding the POLST visit, www.capolst.org.

The POLST form, however, does not replace the AHCD. Only the AHCD allows you to authorize an agent to make health care decisions for you and to express your wishes regarding organ donation, funeral arrangements, and other concerns. Everyone should have an AHCD.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

A property owner and firefighters were able to protect a historic barn near Upper Lake, Calif., that was threatened by a small vegetation fire on Thursday, September 8, 2011. Photo by Gary McAuley.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A small wildland fire threatened an 1800s barn in Upper Lake on Thursday.

The fire, reported at 3:41 p.m., occurred at 10940 Elk Mountain Road, according to reports from the scene.

The vegetation fire, which radio reports indicated burned about a quarter acre, was in heavy brush and heavy grass.

It was heading toward a barn reportedly built in 1888 that the current property owner is attempting to restore. The barn suffered some minor damage.

The property owners were using a bulldozer and farm tractor to put a line around the fire when firefighters arrived, radio traffic indicated.

Three Northshore Fire engines, a battalion chief and the district chief responded, with Cal Fire arriving with a battalion chief and engine crew, according to reports from the scene.

The fire was reported to be contained at around 4 p.m., with fire units staying on scene another hour for mop up.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

Lake County Sheriff's deputies and a detective secured the scene of a shooting that occurred on the afternoon of Saturday, September 10, 2011, on Big Valley Road outside of Kelseyville, Calif. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A Kelseyville man who earlier this summer was arrested for ramming his pickup into his estranged wife's vehicle was arrested Saturday after he allegedly beat the woman and shot her male friend.

Andrew James Serrano, 38, was arrested Saturday afternoon by Lake County Sheriff's Det. Mike Curran.

Serrano is alleged to have shot Kelseyville resident William Turner, 41, in the chest in an incident that occurred at the Serranos' home at 3050 Big Valley Road shortly before 12:30 p.m., according to radio reports.

The initial calls to 911 indicated that Turner was shot in the upper right side of his chest. Reports from the scene indicated he was conscious and talking when medics arrived, and may have suffered more than one gunshot wound.

Serrano also allegedly assaulted his estranged wife, Lesa Serrano, beating her so badly she was left with a concussion.

Calls to 911 indicated that Andrew Serrano had Lesa Serrano by the hair out in the home's yard and was holding a gun to her head.

Sheriff's deputies arriving at the scene found Andrew Serrano and took him into custody at gunpoint, according to radio reports.

A REACH air ambulance landed in a field near the home to transport Turner to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The helicopter lifted off for Santa Rosa just after 1 p.m.

Family members began arriving at the home's driveway entrance a short time after the incident and were instructed to leave by sheriff's deputies, according to radio reports.

Lesa Serrano was transported from the scene by a friend who took her to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Her head was bandaged and she was complaining of pain and nausea.

Sheriff's deputies and an investigator secured the scene Saturday afternoon. Crime scene tape ringed an area of the yard and the back side of the house.

Within the taped-off area were two pickups, a light-colored extended cab with the doors on the driver's side standing open and what appeared to be a dark-green pickup with a lumber rack.

Officials on scene said they could not comment on the case's particulars.

Serrano was booked into the Lake County Jail late Saturday afternoon for attempted murder, felony assault with a firearm and inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, and a misdemeanor violation of a domestic violence restraining order. A no-bail hold was placed on him for the attempted murder charge.

His booking sheet indicated he is due to appear in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

On July 2 Lakeport Police had arrested Andrew Serrano for felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, a felony count of hit-and-run resulting in injury, a misdemeanor violation of a domestic violence restraining order and two misdemeanor violations of civil harassment restraining orders after he rammed his pickup into Lesa Serrano's SUV, as Lake County News has reported.

He allegedly circled a Lakeport restaurant where Lesa Serrano and two friends were eating three times before the ramming incident, according to the initial police report.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

Andrew James Serrano, 38, of Kelseyville, Calif. was arrested on Saturday, September 10, 2011, after he allegedly assaulted his estranged wife and shot Kelseyville resident William Turner in the chest.

Jay Scott Soderling, formerly of Healdsburg and now reported to be living in Hidden Valley Lake, was arrested on Wednesday on one count of tax evasion, according to a report from United States Attorney Melinda Haag and Scott O’Briant, special agent in charge of the Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation division.

Soderling, 54, made his initial appearance in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday before federal Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley, the US Attorney's Office reported.

During the brief arraignment, Soderling entered a not guilty plea and was assigned Geoffrey Hansen as his defense attorney, according to case documents. Assistant US Attorney Tom Moore is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Kathy Tat.

Following the hearing, Judge Corley signed an order directing the US Marshal to release Soderling on his own recognizance.

An investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation division led to the prosecution, the IRS and US Attorney's Office said Thursday.

A federal grand jury indicted Soderling on the tax evasion charge on Aug. 9. An arrest warrant was issued the same day, and the US Attorney's Office succeeded in having the court seal the indictment in order not to tip off Soderling to his pending arrest.

The indictment stated that Soderling, the owner of Ripp It Earth Movers, willfully attempted to evade paying $161,155.44 in federal income and employment taxes due for tax years 1995 through 2004.

He allegedly placed assets in the names of nominees, dealt in currency, caused debts to be paid through and in the name of nominees, submitted a false financial statement to the IRS and made false statements to an IRS revenue officer, according to court documents.

The case against Soderling also alleges that he used funds from a nominee bank account to pay creditors, spend for a Hawaiian vacation, a Mastercraft boat and trailer, and a Dodge Viper.

He faces a maximum of five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000, the US Attorney's Office said.

This isn't Soderling's first brush with federal prosecution.

Soderling and his brother, Leif, pleaded guilty in 1987 to bank fraud for stealing millions of dollars from depositors in their roles as directors and officers at the Golden Pacific Savings & Loan in Santa Rosa, based on case documents.

Court documents stated that the Soderlings did eight months in prison and were ordered to pay $6 million in restitution to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Rather than making payments on the restitution, however, a 1990 Fortune Magazine report said the Soderlings went on a $500,000 spending spree while on probation. A judge sent them back to prison for six years each.

After the Soderlings were released, Jay Soderling found himself back in federal court once again for violating his probation. In December 1997 Magistrate Judge Bernard Zimmerman sentenced Soderling to six more months in prison, according to the case history.

Over the last several years the brothers had been involved in unlicensed construction activities in Lake County and racked up large bills with local vendors. Ripp It Earth Movers is not licensed by the California Contractors State License Board, and neither of the Soderlings currently has an active contractor license, according to the board's online license database.

Neighbors of some of Jay Soderling's building projects in the Clearlake Park area told Lake County News that he attempted to harass and intimidate them. Soderling also clearcut oak woodlands on property he owned surrounding Borax Lake.

At one point in 2008 Jay Soderling had set up a pump to try to empty out Borax Lake. This reporter witnessed the setup, which neighbors later brought to the attention of state officials.

Neighbors told Lake County News that Soderling was trying to empty the lake to develop the land as part of a large subdivision.

According to a Santa Rosa Press Democrat article, Soderling had borrowed money from Sonoma County developer Clem Carinalli and backed up the loans with the 850-acre Borax Lake property. Carinalli foreclosed on the Borax Lake land in 2009.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.

080911 Jay Soderling Indictment

Vector Control District Manager and Research Director Dr. Jamie Scott reported Thursday that routine surveillance detected the virus in a sample of 31 Culex stigmatosoma – the banded foul water mosquito – collected near Kelseyville on Friday, Sept.

Scott reminded county residents that any source of standing water can produce mosquitoes, and that residents can help protect their community by maintaining their pools to prevent mosquitoes, and to letting the district know of unmaintained swimming pools and spas.

“Our employees have been working hard to make sure that neglected swimming pools are not producing mosquitoes,” said Scott. “A single unmaintained pool can produce hundreds of thousands mosquitoes per week, and those mosquitoes can fly up to five miles away.”

She said that one neglected swimming pool increase an entire community’s risk of mosquito bites and mosquito-borne illness.

West Nile Virus has been detected in Lake County every year since its arrival in 2004, but only three residents have become ill from WNV infection in that time. Scott attributes the low incidence of West Nile virus disease in Lake County residents to the district’s vigorous efforts to control mosquitoes.

The Vector Control District regularly traps and tests mosquitoes throughout the county to identify the areas that are at highest risk, and target those areas for source reduction and treatment.

The district reports that mosquito activity – particularly for the Culex mosquitoes that transmit WNV – has been very high in some localized areas of the county.

While mosquitoes are an important part of the environment and cannot be eliminated completely, the district works to reduce mosquito populations near places where people live and recreate to prevent disease.

The district recommends that residents dump out buckets, wading pools and other sources of water where mosquitoes develop; avoid being outside when mosquitoes are active, especially near dusk and dawn; wear long sleeves and pants and use a mosquito repellent – always read and follow label directions – if they are outside when mosquitoes are active.

The Lake County Vector Control provides free mosquito-eating fish to Lake County residents for use in animal water troughs, ornamental ponds and out-of-service (“green”) swimming pools.

Residents are urged to call the district at 707-263-4770 or visit the district's Web site at www.lcvcd.org to request service if they are having problems with mosquitoes or if they want to request mosquitofish.

Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews.