A map of the U.S. plotted with 19 weather and climate disasters each costing $1 billion or more that occurred between January and July, 2024. Image credit: NOAA NCEI. Last month, areas of the U.S. sweltered through record heat and the impacts from raging wildfires, while others experienced the fury of Hurricane Beryl.
Also, through July, the U.S. has endured 19 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters — second only to 2023 for the highest amount for the first seven months of the year, according to experts from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Below are more takeaways from NOAA's latest U.S. monthly climate report:
Climate by the numbers
July 2024
The average July temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 75.7 degrees F (2.1 degrees F above average), ranking as the 11th warmest in the 130-year record.
Temperatures were above average to record-warm across much of the contiguous U.S. California and New Hampshire had their warmest July on record, with 19 other states seeing their top-10 warmest July on record.
July precipitation across the U.S. was 3.04 inches – 0.26 of an inch above average – ranking in the wettest third of the historical record.
Precipitation was below average across much of the West, eastern parts of the Ohio Valley to the Mid-Atlantic, southern Florida and across portions of the Plains. West Virginia had its eighth-driest July on record. Conversely, precipitation was above average across much of the South, Southeast, Midwest, Great Lakes and northern New England. Illinois had its seventh wettest July, while North Carolina had its eighth wettest.
Year to date (YTD, January through July 2024)
The YTD average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 54.4 degrees F (3.2 degrees F above average), ranking as the second-warmest YTD on record.
Temperatures were above average across nearly all of the contiguous U.S., while record-warm temperatures were observed in parts of the Northeast, Great Lakes, southern Plains and Mid-Atlantic.
New Hampshire and Vermont both saw their warmest January–July period. An additional 25 states had a top-five warmest year-to-date period. All states ranked in the warmest third of the historical record during this period.
The YTD precipitation total was 20.44 inches, 2.36 inches above average, which ranked 11th -wettest on record. Precipitation was above average across a large portion of the Upper Midwest, Northeast and Deep South, with Rhode Island, Minnesota and Wisconsin each ranking second wettest. Precipitation was below average across parts of the Northwest, northern Plains and west Texas during the January–July period.
Billion-dollar disasters (January–July)
There were 19 individual billion-dollar weather and climate events across the U.S. during the first seven months of 2024, including:
• One tropical cyclone event. • One wildfire event. • Two winter storm events. • 15 severe weather events.
These events resulted in at least 149 fatalities and caused more than $49.6 billion in damages (Consumer Price Index (CPI)-adjusted). Since 1980, when NOAA began tracking these events in the U.S., the nation has experienced 395 separate weather and climate disasters, where overall damages/costs reached or exceeded $1 billion (based on the CPI adjustment to 2024). The total cost of these 395 events exceeds $2.770 trillion.
Other notable highlights from this report
• Beryl barrels into the record books: On July 1, Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane and the second Category 5 on record during the month of July in the Atlantic Ocean. • Wildfires scorching the West: The Park Fire, which started July 24, is currently the fourth-largest wildfire in California history, burning more than 429,000 acres. The Thompson Fire caused more than 13,000 people to evacuate around Oroville, California, from July 2-3. • Bringing the heat: An early July heat wave broke records in the West: Palm Springs (124 degrees F on July 5); Las Vegas (120 degrees F on July 7); Redding, California (119 degrees F on July 6); Barstow, California (118 degrees F on July 7 and 8) and Palmdale, California (115 degrees F on July 6.)
A map of the U.S. plotted with significant climate events that occurred during July 2024. See more details in the report summary from NOAA NCEI at http://bit.ly/USClimate202407offsite link. Image credit: NOAA NCEI.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Registrar of Voters said Friday that the nomination period to file for candidacy for certain seats on several school, fire and special district boards in the Nov. 5 election has been extended until next week.
The extension for the specific seats is due to the incumbents not filing for reelection by the Friday deadline, the Elections Office reported.
Officials said the filing period for all qualified persons other than the incumbent officeholders is now 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 14.
The filing period has been extended for the following seats.
• Mendocino-Lake Community College District: Trustee Area No. 7, one vacancy, four-year term.
• Lake County Board of Education: Trustee Area No. 1, one vacancy, four-year term; Trustee Area No. 2, one vacancy, four-year term.
• Kelseyville Unified School District: One vacancy, two-year unexpired term.
• Konocti Unified School District: Two vacancies, four-year terms.
• Lakeport Unified School District: Three vacancies, four-year terms.
• Lucerne Elementary School District: One vacancy, four-year term; one vacancy, two-year unexpired term.
• Middletown Unified School District: Two vacancies, four-year terms.
• Lake Pillsbury Fire Protection District: Two vacancies, four-year terms; one vacancy, two-year unexpired term.
• Northshore Fire Protection District, Upper Lake Zone: One vacancy, four-year term.
• Butler-Keys Community Services District: Three vacancies, four-year terms.
• Buckingham Park Water District: Two vacancies, four-year terms; one vacancy, two-year unexpired term.
• Callayomi County Water District: Two vacancies, four-year terms.
Anyone wanting information regarding filing for any of the elective offices that have been extended until Aug. 14 are advised to contact the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office at 707-263-2372, 325 N Forbes St., Lakeport during regular office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. prior to the extended filing deadline.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport Fire Protection District Board of Directors will hold a special meeting to approve an increase in the Measure M parcel tax.
The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 9, at Station 50, 445 N. Main St.
The only item on the agenda is the review, discussion and possible vote on adopting Resolution 24/25-02, which will adjust the Measure M parcel tax cost per benefit unit for fiscal year 2024-25.
Voters approved Measure M in May of 2019 in response to the district’s need for increased revenue to restore positions and support ongoing expenses.
Originally, Measure M levied a tax of $6.14 per benefit unit annually on each parcel of property in the district.
At its Aug. 6 meeting, the fire board voted unanimously via motion to increase the parcel tax rate to $6.93 per benefit unit for fiscal year 2024/25.
However, Ray Lavelle, the board’s clerk and a district admin and finance staffer, said that parcel tax rates must be increased via board resolution and not board motion.
As a result, the special meeting on Friday has been called in order for the board to vote on a resolution ratifying its decision made on Thursday night to adjust the parcel tax rate.
Lavelle said the entire meeting is expected to last five minutes.
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 Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrograph (FURST) undergoes testing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in preparation for launch on Aug. 11. FURST will be launched aboard a Black Bryant IX sounding rocket and will observe the Sun in vacuum ultraviolet (VUV). The instrument was designed and built at Montana State University. NASA Marshall provided the camera, supplied avionics, and designed and built its calibration system. Credit: Montana State University. From Earth, one might be tempted to view the Sun as a unique celestial object like no other, as it’s the star our home planet orbits and the one our planet relies on most for heat and light.
But if you took a step back and compared the Sun to the other stars NASA has studied over the years, how would it compare? Would it still be so unique?
The Full-sun Ultraviolet Rocket SpecTrograph, or FURST, aims to answer those questions when it launches aboard a Black Brant IX sounding rocket Aug. 11 at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
“When we talk about ‘Sun as a star’, we’re treating it like any other star in the night sky as opposed to the unique object we rely on for human life. It’s so exciting to study the Sun from that vantage point,” said Adam Kobelski, institutional principal investigator for FURST and a research astrophysicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
FURST will obtain the first high-resolution spectra of the “Sun as a star” in vacuum ultraviolet, or VUV, a light wavelength that is absorbed in Earth’s atmosphere meaning it can only be observed from space. Astronomers have studied other stars in the vacuum ultraviolet with orbiting telescopes, however these instruments are too sensitive to be pointed to the Sun. The recent advancements in high-resolution VUV spectroscopy now allow for the same observations of our own star, the Sun.
“These are wavelengths that Hubble Space Telescope is really great at observing, so there is a decent amount of Hubble observations of stars in ultraviolet wavelengths, but we don’t have comparable observations of our star in this wavelength range,” said Kobelski.
Marshall was the lead field center for the design, development, and construction of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Because Hubble is too sensitive to point at Earth’s Sun, new instruments were needed to get a spectrum of the entire Sun that is of a similar quality to Hubble’s observations of other stars. Marshall built the camera, supplied avionics, and designed and built a new calibration system for the FURST mission. Montana State University (MSU), which leads the FURST mission in partnership with Marshall, built the optical system, which includes seven optics that will feed into the camera that will essentially create seven exposures, covering the entire ultraviolet wavelength range.
Charles Kankelborg, a heliophysics professor at MSU and principal investigator for FURST, described the mission as a very close collaboration with wide-ranging implications.
“Our mission will obtain the first far ultraviolent spectrum of the Sun as a star,” Kankelborg said. “This is a key piece of information that has been missing for decades. With it, we will place the Sun in context with other stars.”
Kobelski echoed the sentiment.
“How well do the observations and what we know about our Sun compare to our observations or what we know of other stars?” Kobelski said. “You’d expect that we know all this information about the Sun – it’s right there – but it turns out, we actually don’t. If we can get these same observations or same wavelengths as we’ve observed from these other sources, we can start to connect the dots and connect our Sun to other stars.”
FURST will be the third launch led by Marshall for NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program within five months, making 2024 an active year for the program. Like the Hi-C Flare mission that launched in April, the sounding rocket will launch and open during flight to allow FURST to observe the Sun for approximately five minutes before closing and falling back to Earth’s surface. Marshall team members will be able to calibrate the instruments during launch and flight, as well as retrieve data during flight and soon after landing.
Kobelski and Kankelborg each said they’re grateful for the opportunity to fill the gaps in our knowledge of Earth’s Sun.
The launch will be livestreamed on Sunday, Aug. 11, with a launch window of 11:40 a.m.– 12:40 p.m. CDT. Tune in on NASA’s White Sands Test Facility Launch Channel.
The FURST mission is led by Marshall in partnership with Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, with additional support from the NASA’s Sounding Rockets Office and the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research’s High Altitude Observatory. Launch support is provided at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico by NASA’s Johnson Space Center. NASA’s Sounding Rocket Program is managed by the agency’s Heliophysics Division.
Jessica Barnett writes for NASA.
Montana State University alumnus Jake Davis, left, Professor Charles Kankelborg, and doctoral students Catharine “Cappy” Bunn and Suman Panda, pose at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, where they are preparing for the launch of the FURST rocket mission to observe the sun in far ultraviolet. Credit: Montana State University.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more new dogs waiting to be adopted this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 42 adoptable dogs.
“Rocky.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. The available dogs include “Rocky,” an extra large male German shepherd.
There also is “Zola,” a large female German shepherd.
“Zola.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Pandas Yun Chuan and Xin Bao at their new home at the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office. SAN DIEGO — Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom celebrated the public debut of two giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo on Thursday as Panda Ridge officially opened to visitors.
Prior to the opening ceremony, the governor met privately with Chinese Ambassador to the United States Xie Feng to discuss the significance of the milestone for U.S.-China relations.
In October, Gov. Newsom led a weeklong visit to China, where he met with President Xi and other high-level officials to advance climate action, promote economic development and tourism, and strengthen cultural ties.
“Welcoming these national treasures to the San Diego Zoo is a proud moment for California that reflects our strong foundation of partnership with China on a host of issues, from climate action to economic development,” said Newsom. “Working together with our international partners to protect this iconic wildlife species, we can achieve remarkable outcomes for conservation and cultural exchange – benefiting our communities and the planet.”
The governor and first partner visited the zoo’s reimagined Panda Ridge habitat, home to 5-year-old male Yun Chuan and 4-year-old female Xin Bao who arrived in late June.
Yun Chuan is the son of Zhen Zhen, a female panda born at the San Diego Zoo in 2007, and the grandchild of Bai Yun and Gao Gao, who lived at the San Diego Zoo in the early 2000s.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the conservation partnership between San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and China Wildlife Conservation Association.
The collaboration has greatly advanced giant panda conservation, leading to the downgrading of the giant panda's status from endangered to vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2016.
This cooperation helps further the broader collaboration between California and Chinese partners on protecting biodiversity and advancing 30x30 efforts worldwide.
“We are delighted to introduce Yun Chuan and Xin Bao to the world," said Paul Baribault, president and CEO of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. “Guests will have an opportunity to visit with these remarkable giant pandas, be inspired by their importance, learn about all we do to help conserve them alongside our trusted Chinese partners, and join us to help protect their future.”
The state hopes that this conservation collaboration will lead to further exchanges and cooperation between California and China, which have a strong foundation of partnership built by governors Schwarzenegger and Brown and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as well as Gov. Newsom while serving as mayor of San Francisco.
The celebration on Thursday included the unveiling of an original portrait by California-based artist Shepard Fairey depicting Bai Yun, Yun Chuan’s maternal grandmother who lived at the San Diego Zoo for more than 20 years.
Learn more about the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s innovative conservation efforts and opportunities to visit Panda Ridge here.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom at Panda Ridge at the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California. Photo courtesy of the Governor’s Office.
Matthew Barnes. Photo courtesy of the University of California Cooperative Extension.
New UC Cooperative Extension director has worked extensively with Native American communities, youth groups
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Growing up in Upper Lake, along the Northshore of Clear Lake, Matthew Barnes lived near several of the Lake County region's seven federally recognized tribes.
Although he counted several Native Americans among his diverse circle of childhood friends, and was very familiar with those communities, Barnes was nonetheless quite nervous when he was appointed in 2009 as the inaugural executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of the Pomo Nation.
Barnes — a non-Native of European and Filipino descent — vividly remembers the tribal administrator paying him a visit on one of his first days on the job.
“He said, ‘Hey, you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak and you'll be fine,'” Barnes recalled. “And that's definitely stuck with me.”
That approach is continuing to guide Barnes in his new role as University of California Cooperative Extension director for Lake and Mendocino counties. He will guide and support research, outreach and education activities to meet the area's agriculture, natural resources, and youth and community development needs.
Since starting in May, Barnes has been getting a crash course from UCCE advisors and staff on viticulture research, pest management practices, 4-H camps, and a host of other projects and programs — while also meeting with local communities on the region's most pressing challenges.
“What I've been doing — and will continue to do — is just to listen and learn, and when I can add value to a conversation or project, then I'll do that,” Barnes said. “But leadership to me starts with the relationships we build — with our staff and with the community.”
Bringing a range of experiences in youth programs, social services
One area in which Barnes will certainly add value is developing youth and community programs.
During his time with Boys & Girls Club of the Pomo Nation, it was one of only three Boys & Girls Clubs established on tribal land in California. In that role, Barnes faced the unique challenge of integrating the Boys & Girls Club curriculum into a community for which it was not originally designed.
By adapting the curriculum to include culturally relevant topics, Barnes transformed the program into a model that eventually aided in the creation of a Native American-focused branch, Boys & Girls Clubs of America Native Services.
“This initiative now serves as a national standard for Boys & Girls Clubs on tribal lands,” Barnes said.
He later became a director of California Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, a direct cash assistance and supportive services program for Native American families in 17 counties across the state.
During his decade of TANF work, Barnes launched career development programs, alcohol and other drug counseling programs, and cultural revitalization initiatives. Some of the programs are still running and serving communities to this day.
“The trick is making those programs something that participants can see the value in,” Barnes explained. “And to do that, you go into the communities and talk to people and listen to what they need — instead of you telling them what they need.”
Barnes' experience partnering with Native American communities is just one of the many strengths he will bring to UCCE and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
“We're very excited to have Matthew join the UC ANR family,” said Lynn Schmitt-McQuitty, UC ANR's director of County Cooperative Extension. “His personal knowledge of Lake and Mendocino counties and his previous work with Indigenous populations will be a tremendous asset to extending and elevating our work.”
Immediately prior to joining UC ANR, Barnes served as director of Lake County's Upward Bound program, which helps students from three local high schools experience and prepare for higher education.
“Overall, what drives me personally is the opportunity to make an impact on communities, on youth, and on people in general through program development and management,” Barnes said.
Inspiring young people as a mentor
Barnes' passion for youth development — and the impetus for his bachelor's degree in social work from Cal Poly Humboldt — can be traced to his AmeriCorps experience while he was attending Mendocino College. For two years, he worked as a tutor for young people, in Lake County and then in Sonoma County, and saw firsthand the difference educators and mentors can make in their lives.
“You could say I kind of caught the bug — just seeing the light bulbs go on when you're helping a youth of that age,” Barnes said.
From there, Barnes took a position directing teen programs for the Boys and Girls Club of Healdsburg, where he began to fully appreciate the importance of trusted adults simply “being there” for young people as a listening ear for whatever they want to talk about.
Among the many teens Barnes worked with, “Rodrigo” was a middle schooler who was pegged by his school and community as someone who could “slip through the cracks.” Rodrigo was the last to go home at the end of each day, and Barnes would chat with him — answering his questions about life or just talking about a new rap album.
“I realized I was ‘that person' for him — that person outside his house, outside his school,” Barnes said.
Even after Barnes left the Boys and Girls Club, Rodrigo — bound for university — invited him to his high school graduation. Barnes said it is tremendously gratifying to know he had a “small role” in shaping the path for Rodrigo — and countless others.
“Their success is still theirs; it's not necessarily because of me,” Barnes added. “My job is to do what I can in the moment to hopefully plant some seeds that may sprout in the future.”
Settled in Middletown, not far from his hometown, where he and his wife are raising two children, Barnes is now positioned to help nurture a flourishing Lake County and resilient Mendocino County.
“I feel like my past experiences, both in life and my career, have prepared me for this,” Barnes said.
Michael Hsu is senior public information representative for University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Sachiko Amari, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
In space, there are clouds that contain gas and dust ejected from stars. Our solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago from such a molecular cloud. Most of these dust grains were destroyed during solar system formation. However, a very small amount of the grains survived and remained intact in primitive meteorites. They are called presolar grains because they predate the solar system. I am a scientist who studies the early solar system and beyond, focusing mainly on presolar grains.
The picture is an image of such a grain taken by a scanning electron microscope. This grain is silicon carbide (SiC). The scale bar is 1 micron, or one millionth of a meter (39.37 inches). The grain was extracted from the Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969.
A fragment of the Murchison meteorite from which the grain was extracted, hosted at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.Art Brom/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Scientists have investigated physical properties of the grain to determine its origin. Carbon has two stable isotopes, ¹²C and ¹³C, whose weights are slightly different from one another. The ratio between these isotopes is almost unchanged by processes taking place in the solar system such as evaporation and condensation. In contrast, nucleosynthetic processes in stars cause ¹²C/¹³C ratios to vary from 1 to over 200,000.
If this grain had originated within the solar system, its ¹²C/¹³C ratio would be 89. The ¹²C/¹³C ratio of the grain in this picture is about 55.1, which attests to its stellar origin. Together with other information about the grain, the ratio tells us that this grain formed in a type of star called an asymptotic giant branch star. The star was at the end of its life cycle when it profusely produced and expelled dust into space more than 4.6 billion years ago.
Scientists have found other types of presolar grains in meteorites, including diamond, graphite, oxides and silicates. Presolar grains like the one in the picture help researchers understand nucleosynthesis in stars, mixing of different zones in stars and stellar ejecta, and how abundances of elements and their isotopes change with time in the galaxy.
Discrimination in the form of microaggressions, slights and overt racism take a toll on the body, including neural activity in the brain. LeoPatrizi/E+ via Getty Images
Racism steals time from people’s lives – possibly because of the space it occupies in the mind. In a new study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, our team showed that the toll of racism on the brain was linked to advanced aging, observed on a cellular level.
Black women who were more frequently exposed to racism showed stronger connections in brain networks involved with rumination and vigilance. We found that this, in turn, was connected to accelerated biological aging.
Racial discrimination is a ubiquitous stressor that often goes unnoticed. It might look like a doctor questioning a Black patient’s pain level and not prescribing pain medication, or a teacher calling a Black child a “thug.” It is a constant stressor faced by Black people starting at an early age.
Rumination – reliving and analyzing an event on a loop – and vigilance, meaning being watchful for future threats, are possible coping responses to these stressors. But rumination and vigilance take energy, and this increased energy expenditure has a biological cost.
In our study of Black women, we found that more frequent racial discrimination was linked to more connectivity between two key regions. One, called the locus coeruleus, is a deep brain region that activates the stress response, promoting arousal and vigilance. The other is the precuneus, a key node of a brain network that engages when we think about our experiences and internalize – or suppress – our emotions.
Locus coeruleus highlighted in blue; region of precuneus highlighted in green.Negar Fani
These brain changes, in turn, were linked to accelerated cellular aging measured by an epigenetic “clock.” Epigenetics refers to changes that happen to our DNA from the environment. Epigenetic clocks assess how the environment affects our aging at a molecular level.
Higher clock values indicate that someone’s biological age is greater than their chronological age. In other words, the space that racist experiences occupy in people’s minds has a cost, which can shorten the lifespan.
What still isn’t known
Although we saw links between racism, brain connectivity changes and accelerated aging, we did not measure coping responses like rumination and vigilance in real time, meaning as people were experiencing them.
Researchers do not yet know what role other factors like gender identity or neighborhood advantage play on accelerated aging.Meeko Media/iStock via Getty Images
What’s next
Our next steps are to use real-time measurement of everyday racism along with physiological measurements and neuroimaging to take a deeper dive into these research questions.
We want to know how different types of racial discrimination and coping styles influence brain and body responses. Understanding these issues better can bring more attention to prevention, such as programs that target implicit bias in physicians and teachers. It can also inform interventions like neuromodulation, which involves the use of external or internal devices to stimulate or inhibit brain activity. Neuromodulation can be used as a therapy aid to reduce stress.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The city of Lakeport said the nomination period for the upcoming November City Council election has been extended.
The nomination period for three council members, all four-year terms, and one two-year council term have been extended to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4, due to non-filing by one of the incumbents.
Deputy City Clerk Hilary Britton told Lake County News that the extension is due to a technicality: Kim Costa was the incumbent for the two-year term, but she chose to run for a four-year term this time.
Likewise, Britton said Brandon Disney was the incumbent for the four-year term, but he chose to run for the two-year term this time.
The other seats up for election in November are those held by Mayor Michael Froio and Councilman Kenny Parlet.
Nomination papers must be issued by the City Clerk’s Office and are available by appointment beginning Monday, Aug. 12, and must be filed with the city clerk no later than 5 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 14.
Each candidate must be nominated by not less than 20 nor more than 30 registered voters; therefore, it is recommended that interested candidates pick up their nomination papers in advance of Wednesday’s 5 p.m. deadline to allow time to gather signatures and fill out the required paperwork.
If you are interested in running for Lakeport City Council, please contact City Clerk Kelly Buendia at 707-263‑5615, Extension 101, or Britton at Extension 102 for further information and to set up an appointment to go over the nomination packet.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. — Clear Lake State Park is inviting community members to participate in an upcoming workshop to help shape the park's future.
The open house general plan community workshop will take place from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21, at the Clear Lake State Park Visitor Center, 5300 Soda Bay Road in Kelseyville.
The park entrance fee will be waived after 4:30 p.m. for workshop attendees
In April, State Parks officials announced they were beginning the process to develop a comprehensive general plan for the future of Clear Lake State Park, which began with an online survey.
Officials said the plan is meant to “enrich the visitor experience, address critical resource management and infrastructure needs, and incorporate public input into decisions about the park’s future direction.”
The 590-acre park is considered a premier fishing destination. It is one of two state parks located entirely within Lake County. The other is Anderson Marsh State Historic Park in Lower Lake.
On Aug. 21, visitors can drop in any time during the workshop to learn about the general plan process, share ideas for park improvements and discuss their vision with State Parks staff.
Public input is important in guiding decisions about recreational development, natural and cultural resource protection and the park's overall future, officials said.
State Parks said the planning process for the Clear Lake State Park general plan is expected to be completed within a three-year timeframe.
“The plan aims to create a visionary framework for the park by defining objectives, goals, and guidelines to direct park staff and management in making strategic decisions about park operations, improvements, and the stewardship of its natural and cultural resources,” State Parks said in a statement about the process.
The Clear Lake State Park General Plan preparation process also will include an environmental impact report to evaluate potential environmental impacts associated with proposals within the general plan, State Parks said.
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Dominique Irene Molina-Dominguez. Lake County Jail photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Clearlake woman arrested last month for what authorities said was a premeditated killing appeared in court this week to enter a plea in the case.
Dominique Irene Molina-Dominguez, 33, appeared in Lake County Superior Court on Tuesday morning for the July 10 killing of 38-year-old DeAndre Grinner.
She is charged with first-degree murder and special allegations of personal and intentional use of a firearm, and special aggravating circumstances that include a crime that involved great violence and involved a weapon.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson said that during her Tuesday court appearance, Molina-Dominguez pleaded not guilty to all counts and denied all of the special allegations.
He said she also waived her right to a speedy preliminary hearing within 10 court days but did not waive her right to a preliminary hearing within 60 calendar days.
Molina-Dominguez’s preliminary hearing is set for Sep. 11, Watson said.
Authorities say Molina-Dominguez laid in wait for Grinner at a home they shared in Clearlake on July 10, fatally shooting him and then calling police.
She’d previously been scheduled to enter her plea on July 16, but the matter was continued at the defense request, as Lake County News has reported.
Watson said he expects to know more about a motive in the case, which remains under active investigation, by the time of the September preliminary hearing.
Until then, Molina-Dominguez remains in custody at the Lake County Jail on $1 million bail, according to jail records.
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.
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