LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care has a new group of cats of various ages ready for homes.
The following cats and kittens at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair has a calico coat with gold eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 4, ID No. 13387.
‘Isabella’
“Isabella” is a female domestic short hair cat with a chocolate point coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She is in cat room kennel No. 15a, ID No. 13413.
‘Delilah’
“Delilah” is a female brown tabby with a short coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She’s in cat room kennel No. 15b, ID No. 13414.
Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has a brown tabby coat and gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. V70, ID No. 13398.
‘Ishta’
“Ishta” is a female domestic medium hair cat with a seal point coat and blue eyes.
She has been spayed.
She’s in cat room kennel No. V105, ID No. 13411.
Male domestic short hair
This young male domestic short hair has a gray tabby and white coat with gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. 117, ID No. 13405.
‘Oreo’
“Oreo” is a female domestic short hair with an all-black coat and green eyes.
She has been spayed.
She is in cat room kennel No. 121, ID No. 13312.
‘Mama’
“Mama” is a female domestic medium hair with a dilute tortoiseshell coat and green eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 134, ID No. 13388.
Female domestic longhair
This female domestic longhair cat has a tortie coat and gold eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. 13347.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
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 U.S. has just entered the new decade of the 2020s.
What does our country look like today, and what will it look like 10 years from now, on Jan. 1, 2030? Which demographic groups in the U.S. will grow the most, and which groups will not grow as much, or maybe even decline in the next 10 years?
I am a demographer and I have examined population data from the U.S. Census Bureau and from the Population Division of the United Nations.
Projections show that whites will decline; the number of old people will increase; and racial minorities, mainly Hispanics, will grow the most, making them the main engine of demographic change in the U.S. for the next 10 years and beyond.
The U.S. is the third largest country in the world, outnumbered only by the two demographic billionaires, China and India, at just over 1.4 billion and just under 1.4 billion, respectively.
Ten years from now, the U.S. population will have almost 350 million people. China and India will still be bigger, but India with 1.5 billion people will now be larger than China, with 1.46 billion.
Today, there are over 74.1 million people under age 18 in the U.S. country. There are 56.4 million people age 65 and older.
Ten years from now, there will almost be as many old folks as there are young ones. The numbers of young people will have grown just a little to 76.3 million, but the numbers of old people will have increased a lot – to 74.1 million. A lot of these new elderly will be baby boomers.
For example, take the really old folks – people over the age of 100. How many centenarians are in the U.S. population today and how many are there likely to be 10 years from now?
According to demographers at the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of centenarians in the U.S. grew from over 53,000 in 2010 to over 90,000 in 2020. By 2030, there will most likely be over 130,000 centenarians in the U.S.
But this increase of centenarians by 2030 is only a small indication of their growth in later decades. In the year of 2046, the first group of surviving baby boomers will reach 100 years, and that’s when U.S. centenarians will really start to grow. By 2060 there will be over 603,000. That’s a lot of really old people.
I sometimes ask my undergraduate students how many of them have ever actually seen a person 100 years old or older. In my classes of 140 or more students, no more than maybe six raise their hands. Lots more college students will be raising their hands when they are asked that question in 2060.
3. Racial proportions will shift.
In 2020, non-Hispanic white people, hereafter called whites, are still the majority race in the U.S., representing 59.7% of the U.S. population.
Today, after whites, the Hispanic population is the next biggest group at 18.7% of the U.S., followed by blacks and Asians.
What will the country look like racially in 2030? Whites will have dropped to 55.8% of the population, and Hispanics will have grown to 21.1%. The percentage of black and Asian Americans will also grow significantly.
So between now and 2030, whites as a proportion of the population will get smaller, and the minority race groups will all keep getting bigger.
However, on the first day of 2020, whites under age 18 were already in the minority. Among all the young people now in the U.S., there are more minority young people than there are white young people.
Among old people age 65 and over, whites are still in the majority. Indeed white old people, compared to minority old people, will continue to be in the majority until some years after 2060.
Hispanics and the other racial minorities will be the country’s main demographic engine of population change in future years; this is the most significant demographic change Americans will see.
I’ve shown above how much older the U.S. population has become and will become in the years ahead. Were it not for the racial minorities countering this aging of the U.S. population, the U.S. by 2030 and later would have become even older than it is today and will be in 2030.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee will begin the year by choosing its leadership and getting project updates.
The committee, or LEDAC, will meet from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The meeting is open to the public.
This first quarterly LEDAC meeting of the year will include election of the chair, vice chair and secretary for 2020, and an update on city projects and activities.
Committee members also will discuss the Lakeport Economic Development Strategic Plan implementation and get reports on various aspects of the plan, including the 2020 schedule for business walks, public safety power shutoff survey results and presentations, workforce development and coordination, ordinance revisions to strengthen the city’s downtown and lakefront areas, an update to the “Doing Business in Lakeport” brochure and a review of new activities for 2020.
LEDAC advocates for a strong and positive Lakeport business community and acts as a conduit between the city and the community for communicating the goals, activities and progress of Lakeport’s economic and business programs.
Members are Chair Wilda Shock and Vice Chair Denise Combs, Candy De Los Santos, Bill Eaton, Melissa Fulton, Pam Harpster, Judith Kanavle, Terre Logsdon, Andy Lucas, Laura Sammel and Panette Talia. City staff who are members include City Manager Margaret Silveira and Community Development Director Kevin Ingram.
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. – On the last evening of 2019, a steady stream of loyal customers arrived at a cherished local eatery.
They came not only to share a holiday celebration but to give flowers, raise a bubbling glass and express heartfelt cheers to the original proprietor, Marie Beery, who opened the beloved establishment in 2001.
The Saw Shop Gallery Bistro closed at midnight 2019 and become the Saw Shop Public House restaurant at the entrance of 2020, with the new owner and county resident Weston Seifert at the helm of the Saw Shop legacy.
As the reservations were arriving and the staff was preparing for a very busy New Year’s Eve service, there weren’t many people in the building who were not aware of the significance of the moment.
That spoke to the loyalty Beery has inspired through creating and maintaining the quality of the Saw Shop as a fine dining restaurant, and through her steady philanthropy in so many areas of the Lake County community.
Beery was named Lake County Woman of the Year in 2019. Congressman Mike Thompson said, “Marie’s hard work and dedication has touched every part of the Lake County community; from business to agriculture to charitable work to mentorship, her work boosts the entire area. As a business leader, she has helped to put Lake County food and wine on the map. As a community leader, she’s helped support many important charitable causes.”
Beery’s staff is known to be as loyal as her customers. Brad Brin, one of the earliest servers and longest employed staff member of the Saw Shop, recalled that from day one Beery emphasized that the guests “should feel at home the moment they walk in the door.”
Brin also noted Beery’s steadfast generosity in supporting charitable causes, local schools and artists. Honing her business career in the wine industry during a time when women in the workplace were consistently undervalued, Beery is known by her refreshing and, at times, startling directness.
At a time when the county continues to struggle with the impacts of cyclical fire disasters, Main Street in Kelseyville is revitalized through the efforts of the Kelseyville Business Association.
“Marie Beery and the Saw Shop have been an anchor of Main Street,” said incoming KBA President Sabrina Andrus, owner of the A&H General Store and Maker, a handmade specialty boutique.
Although Beery will remain active in the community, most notably through the annual Lake County Wine Auction – which has raised nearly $2 million for charitable causes since 1998 – her departure from the Saw Shop is big news for the town of Kelseyville and the entire Lake County community.
Melissa Chapman of Chapman Real Estate, who brokered the selling process, emphasized how important it was to find a good match for the Saw Shop. Weston Seifert is not only a local but a former employee and customer of the Saw Shop.
Originally from Minnesota, Seifert and his wife Terra have lived in Lake County since 2008. Their daughter Quinn and son Fletcher were born in Lake County.
The entire family will be involved with the enterprise of running the Saw Shop Public House. Weston Seifert’s extensive background in many facets of the restaurant industry is similarly aligned with a passion for community.
He described his definition of success as being measured by customer satisfaction and “going the extra mile.”
“This is a very special place,” said Seifert recently, as he sat at the Saw Shop’s hand-carved black walnut bar, where he once tended.
His vision for the restaurant, which is now named the Saw Shop Public House, includes continued philanthropy and an emphasis on staff development and education.
The Saw Shop Public House will continue to operate during the transition process, with Executive Chef Sergio Ramos and Sous Chef Essie Negrete keeping the culinary standards intact.
Seifert said it’s important to him to keep staff employment continuous during the transition, which includes installing a new computer system. He asked for the public to be patient during this process.
There will be questions that only the new owner can answer and only in real-time, as he guides the restaurant forward with his vision.
But one thing is certain; the Saw Shop has been at the heart of the community with Marie Beery at its very center. That heart is acknowledged as the Saw Shop legacy continues, in good hands.
Casey Carney was the 2014-2016 Poet Laureate of Lake County and first started working at the Saw Shop Bistro in 2011.
Supriya Chakrabarti, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Perhaps you remember the opening scene of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” that took place on Privet Drive. A bearded man pulled a mysterious device, called a deluminator, from his dark robe and one by one the lights from the street lamps flew into it.
For the last decade or more, Muggles around the world – including me – have been busy designing and perfecting a similar device called a coronagraph. It blocks light from stars so scientists can take pictures of planets orbiting them – the exoplanets.
More than 500 years ago Italian friar Giordano Bruno postulated that stars in the night sky were like our Sun with planets orbiting them, some of which likely harbored life. Starting in the 1990s, using ground-based and satellite observations astronomers have gathered evidence of the existence of thousands of extra-solar planets or exoplanets. The discovery of exoplanets earned the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.
The next major milestone in exoplanetary research is imaging and characterizing Jupiter-sized exoplanets in visible light because imaging Earth-size planets is much more difficult. However, imaging exo-Jupiters would show that astromomers have all necessary tools to image and characterize Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars, where life might exist. Space missions capable of imaging exo-Earths in their habitable zones, such as Habitable Exoplanet Observatory or HabEx and Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor or LUVOIR, are currently being designed by scientists and engineers around the globe and are at least a decade away from their flight.
In preparation for these flagship-class missions, it is critical that key technologies and software tools are developed and validated. A coronagraph is essential to all of these imaging efforts.
I am a professor of physics and lead a research group that has designed many experiments that have flown on NASA missions. For the last decade or so, our team has been developing technologies needed to directly image and characterize exoplanets around nearby stars and test them aboard rockets and balloons before they can be selected for flight on major space missions.
Imaging exoplanets in visible light
Even though we know about the existence of over 4,000 exoplanets, most were detected using indirect methods such as the dimming the light of the parent star when a planet passes in front and blocks some of its light – just like the recent transit of Mercury. This is the technique employed by the Kepler and Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite or TESS missions. The 2019 Nobel Prize winners used another indirect method, that relies on the measurement of minute and periodic motion of stars caused by planets orbiting them. But a photograph of an exoplanet, with characteristics similar to those in our Solar System, has not yet been taken.
Imaging exoplanets is hard. For example, even a huge planet like Jupiter is a billion times dimmer than the Sun. And when seen from far away, the Earth is 10 times dimmer than Jupiter. But the difficulty of imaging exoplanets is not because they are dim – large telescopes including the Hubble Space Telescope have imaged much fainter objects.
The challenge of imaging exoplanets has to do with taking a picture of a very faint object that is close to a much brighter one. Since the stars and their planets are far away, when photographed they appear as one bright spot in the sky, just like the headlights of a car look like one bright light from a distance. So, the challenge of imaging even the nearest exoplanet is akin to a person in California taking a picture of a fly 10 feet away from the bright light of a lighthouse in Massachusetts.
PICTURE-C’s coronagraph creates artificial eclipses to dim or eliminate starlight without dimming the planets that the stars illuminate. It is designed to capture faint asteroid belt like objects very close to the central star.
While a coronagraph is necessary for direct imaging of exoplanets, our 6,000 pound device also includes deformable mirrors to correct the shape of the the telescope mirrors that get distorted due to changes in gravity, temperature fluctuations and other manufacturing imperfections.
Finally, the entire device has to be held steady in space for relatively long periods of time. A specially NASA-designed gondola called Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP) carried PICTURE-C and got us part way. An internal image stabilization system designed by my colleagues provided the “steady hand” necessary.
The maiden flight of PICTURE-C
After many tests to demonstrate that all systems were ready for flight our team launched PICTURE-C on the morning of September 29, 2019 from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico.
After the 20-hour test flight confirming that all systems worked well, PICTURE-C returned to the Earth using its parachute to land softly. The experiment has been recovered and returned to our laboratory. PICTURE-C wasn’t supposed to actually discover any exoplanets on its first test run. But it will fly again on another balloon when it will photograph several stars to explore if any of them have asteroid belts. These would be easier to see, and if we are lucky, it will snap a shot of a Jupiter-sized planet in September 2020.
State agencies on Friday released a draft water resilience portfolio with a suite of recommended actions to help California cope with more extreme droughts and floods, rising temperatures, declining fish populations, aging infrastructure and other challenges.
The California Natural Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Food and Agriculture developed the draft to fulfill Gov. Gavin Newsom’s April 29 executive order calling for a portfolio of actions to ensure the state’s long-term water resilience and ecosystem health.
Shaped by months of public input, the draft portfolio outlines more than 100 integrated actionable recommendations in four broad areas to help regions build water resilience as resources become available, while at the same time providing state leadership to improve infrastructure and protect natural ecosystems.
Those areas include:
– Maintain and diversify water supplies: State government will continue to help regions reduce reliance on any one water source and diversify supplies to enable flexibility amidst changing conditions. Diversification will look different in each region based on available water resources, but the combined effect will strengthen resilience and reduce pressure on river systems.
– Protect and enhance natural ecosystems: State leadership is essential to restore the environmental health of key river systems to sustain fish and wildlife. This requires effective standard-setting, continued investments, and more adaptive, holistic environmental management.
– Build connections: State actions and investment will improve physical infrastructure to store, move, and share water more flexibly and integrate water management through shared use of science, data, and technology.
– Be prepared: Each region must prepare for new threats, including more extreme droughts and floods and hotter temperatures. State investments and guidance will enable preparation, protective actions, and adaptive management to weather these stresses.
“This draft portfolio has been shaped to provide tools to local and regional entities to continue building resilience and to encourage collaboration within and across regions,” Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said. “At the same time, state government needs to invest in projects of statewide scale and importance and tackle challenges beyond the scope of any region. Taken together, the proposed actions aim to improve our capacity to prepare for disruptions, withstand and recover from shocks, and adapt from these experiences.”
To develop the portfolio, state agencies conducted an inventory and assessment of key aspects of California water, soliciting broad input from tribes, agencies, individuals, groups, and leaders across the state.
An interagency working group considered the assessment and input from more than 20 public listening sessions across the state and more than 100 substantive comment letters.
“From Northern California to the Central Valley and the South, Californians from cities, farms, and other sectors are working together to develop innovative solutions to the climate-related water challenges that the state is already experiencing and that are expected to worsen,” said California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Jared Blumenfeld. “This draft portfolio is an important step toward building resilience to ensure the long-term health of our water supplies and ecosystems.”
Members of the public will be able to submit written feedback on the draft portfolio through Feb. 7. A final water resilience portfolio will be released soon after that.
“State agencies are only one set of water decision-makers in California,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “Continuing to improve our water systems relies on collaboration across all groups of water users and all stakeholders. Accordingly, feedback on this draft will be important to refining and finalizing our portfolio.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters spent several hours working on the scene of a structure fire in Upper Lake on Saturday evening.
Northshore Fire firefighters along with Cal Fire and Lakeport Fire were dispatched to the incident in the 1800 block of Clover Valley Road shortly before 7:30 p.m. Saturday, according to radio reports.
Firefighters responding to the scene reported that they could see the fire up on a ridge from as far away as Robinson Rancheria.
They also were unsure of how to access the fire initially until the homeowner called to give them the address on Clover Valley Road, which was accessed off of Bambi Lane, according to radio reports.
Units arriving on scene reported that a two-story wood structure was fully involved. Pacific Gas and Electric also was asked to respond to the property.
The firefighting effort continued late into the night, with the Northshore Fire Support Team requested to respond.
The support team returned to quarters shortly after 11:30 p.m. and fire units continued to clear the scene after 12 a.m. Sunday.
Additional information on the fire was not immediately available.
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. – On Friday, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office released videos from a Dec. 28 incident in which a deputy shot and killed a Lower Lake man during a fight.
On the night of Dec. 28, Deputy Wesley Besgrove shot 34-year-old Craig Ellis See as the two struggled in a creekbed behind the Dollar General store in Clearlake Oaks.
The shooting occurred at approximately 9:50 p.m., following a physical fight that lasted several minutes, authorities said.
Sheriff Brian Martin released two videos on Friday. One is a nearly 11-minute-long critical incident debrief, shown above, in which Martin introduces and explains the circumstances that led to the shooting.
That critical incident debrief video also has subtitles for the sometimes muffled words spoken or shouted during the incident.
The second video, posted below, runs 29 minutes and includes both mobile audio visual camera footage from inside Besgrove’s patrol vehicle as well as his body worn camera, which fell off during the foot pursuit but recorded audio from the deadly encounter.
The audio indicates that Besgrove shot his service weapon five times. Authorities have so far not reported how many times See was struck.
Both videos include language and audio that may be disturbing to some listeners.
Videos document deadly confrontation
Martin said that Besgrove had been patrolling Clearlake Oaks on the night of the shooting when he spotted See riding his bicycle down Highway 20 and into the Dollar General parking lot.
Two weeks prior to the shooting, Martin said Besgrove had investigated a report that See had shot a person in the foot.
The victim in that case had positively identified See as the suspect and Martin said Besgrove had submitted a report to the District Attorney’s Office. However, during that time he hadn’t been able to locate See.
The video begins with Besgrove getting into his patrol vehicle, which is parked along Highway 20 behind another vehicle after an apparent vehicle stop, facing west. A bicyclist rides by, wearing a headlamp but with no other lights on the bike.
After the vehicle in front of him leaves Besgrove pulls onto Highway 20 and does a u-turn, heading east, following the bicyclist, who had moved into the center lane of the highway before turning off the road and wheeling his bicycle across a sidewalk and then the grass in front of the Dollar General store.
Besgrove pulls into the store parking lots, parks his car facing the bicyclist, and exits the vehicle.
“How you doin’, man?” Besgrove is heard to say as he gets out of his vehicle and walks in front of the car and out of view toward See.
The video then changes to the body worn camera. It also shows Besgrove arriving at the scene and approaching See, who lays his bike down in the grass near the store’s front door. See is wearing blue jeans, a black hoodie, gray knit cap and a gray jacket.
Besgrove told See that he was speaking to him because he didn’t have proper lights and reflective equipment on the bicycle. See said there was a light on the bike.
Besgrove then asked See if he had his identification card on him. See said he didn’t, and then gave Besgrove a false name, said he was not on probation or parole, and also gave a false date of birth.
See asked Besgrove if he could go buy a pack of cigarettes. “Not right now,” Besgrove said.
Besgrove asked See to turn around and put his hands behind his head so he could do a pat-search because, according to Sheriff Martin, the deputy had seen what appeared to be a dirk or dagger concealed in See’s waistband. The video shows what appears to be a knife sheath on See’s left hip.
See raised his hands and started to turn around and then begins to run down the sidewalk, with Besgrove radioing dispatch and giving chase, shouting, “Stop now! Stop now!”
Martin said that the foot pursuit led around the building and into a creekbed. As he was running, Besgrove’s camera fell off and landed in tall grass, but it continued to record audio of the fight.
“As the deputy caught up to See in the creekbed, he felt a popping sensation in his knee,” Martin said. Besgrove would later find out his leg was broken.
Much of the video is black, but the two men can be heard struggling.
“Stay the f*** down! Keep your hands where I can see them, you understand me?” Besgrove shouted at See.
Besgrove told See that if he didn’t let go of Besgrove’s hand he was going to get socked.
“Please, just let me go, dude,” See said.
Martin said that See violently fought Besgrove, grabbing his arm and repeatedly biting him.
Besgrove used his pepper spray on See, but it didn’t have an effect on him and instead went back into Besgrove’s eyes, Martin said.
See then began to gouge Besgrove’s eyes, and the two struggled down a small hill, with See landing on top of Besgrove, according to Martin.
Martin said See headbutted Deputy Besgrove twice; the second time, it caused Besgrove’s vision and orientation to distort momentarily but he recovered.
At some point during the fight, Martin said See armed himself with the knife. Just before the five-minute mark in the 29-minute video, Besgrove begins yelling at See repeatedly to drop the knife.
See told him to let him go, Besgrove told him he wouldn’t let him go unless he dropped the knife.
Martin said See tried to stab Besgrove, who grabbed ahold of the knife as they both struggled for control of it.
With both hands on the knife, Besgrove felt pressure on his holstered service weapon. Martin said Besgrove believed See was trying to take his weapon away and then realized See was trying to unholster it.
In the audio, See can be heard saying, “You’re a punk (unintelligible) dude … I, I (unintelligible).” Based on the video, those are the last words he uttered.
Martin said that Besgrove, fearing for his life, removed his weapon and shot See several times.
Three gunshots are heard in rapid succession, with See screaming after the third. Besgrove then shoots twice more. The shooting begins at the 5:41 minute mark in the longer video, and at 8:47 in the shorter critical incident update video.
After the shooting, Besgrove radios, “Central 455, shots fired, shots fired. Suspect down.”
Besgrove then shouts at See, “Arms out! Arms out! Put your arms out at your side, now!”
Besgrove continued to tell See to put his hands out. He then radios to Central Dispatch that See had a knife and he wasn’t sure if he still had it. It also sounded as if Besgrove reported that he wasn’t injured.
However, Martin said that Besgrove was injured and that, due to his injuries, he was unable to render aid to See or place him in handcuffs.
At 9:55 p.m., according to Central Dispatch radio traffic, a dispatcher had called Besgrove several times, asking for his location.
When Besgrove responded a few minutes later, he reported that he was holding See at gunpoint. He asked for medical personnel and additional deputies to respond to his location in the creekbed.
See can still be heard groaning and breathing as Besgrove radios his location to Central Dispatch and asks for a Code 3 response – which means lights and sirens – to his location.
In the audio, there are about eight audible breathing sounds coming from See shortly after he was shot. They slow and cease just before the 6:30 minute mark in the full video. Besgrove continues to tell See not to move.
Just before the eight-minute mark, Besgrove reports to Central Dispatch that See is armed with a knife, although he was not sure if he still had it.
Sirens are first heard at about the 8:30 minute mark, as Besgrove tells See to keep his arms where he can see him.
At the 9:11 minute mark, Besgrove says there are possible crossfire issues as deputies approach Highway 20, and that he was trying to change his position.
At about the 9:40 minute mark, Besgrove calls out, “Lou!” to an arriving deputy.
“DId you shoot?” the other deputy asks.
Besgrove said yes. The second deputy radios to report shots were fired.
Other deputies then begin to arrive. Besgrove tells them he grabbed See’s knife and he’s not sure if his hand is cut.
One of the arriving deputies begins to order that medics respond.
“Were you facing him when all of this happened?” the other deputy asks.
“We were literally fighting, right over here,” said Besgrove, who added that his eyes hurt.
Other deputies’ flashlights begin to illuminate the grass around Besgrove’s camera at that point in the video.
One deputy orders others to go get crime scene tape.
Besgrove said his camera was in the creekbed. “I’m not worried about your camera,” the other deputy responded.
The lead deputy at the scene began to direct other deputies to start a crime scene log, to retrieve his cell phone from his vehicle and make notifications. Other approaching sirens can be heard in the background.
At about the 18:40 mark, another deputy starts yelling obscenities and said he hurt his knee.
A fixed-blade knife was recovered at the scene, Martin said.
Besgrove was transported to the hospital for treatment. Martin said Besgrove sustained a broken leg, a laceration to one of his fingers, several bite marks and other injuries.
See was declared dead at the scene, Martin said.
Sheriff’s office, District Attorney’s Office continue separate investigations
Martin said the sheriff’s office conducts very thorough use of force investigations, which require investigators to interview multiple witnesses, view numerous hours of video footage and analyze a significant amount of forensic evidence.
“These investigations can often take up to a year to complete, and our understanding of this incident may change as evidence is collected, analyzed and reviewed,” said Martin.
He said they don’t draw any conclusions about whether the deputy acted consistently with department policies and the law until all the facts are known and the investigation is complete.
Martin said that in Lake County, incidents involving the use of deadly force or in which a civilian or deputy suffers great bodily injury are investigated separately by the District Attorney’s Office.
“This is done to ensure that the investigation is, in fact, impartial,” he said.
District Attorney Susan Krones told Lake County News on Friday that she didn’t have an update on her investigation’s progress or a timeline yet for when it might be complete.
She said she and her investigator are waiting for a lot of forensic evidence to come back in the case.
Krones said See’s autopsy has been completed, but authorities have not released results from that yet.
“I would like to get it done as soon as possible,” Krones said of the investigation.
The sheriff’s office said Besgrove, who has been a patrol deputy with the sheriff’s office for one year following three years in corrections, was placed on administrative leave after the shooting. That is standard protocol in incidents when a weapon is discharged.
The sheriff’s office reported that, before the shooting, it had minimal contact with See for theft and trespass issues, in addition to his being identified as the suspect in the shooting case earlier in December.
See also had a 2018 felony domestic violence case, with an added misdemeanor charge of stalking from 2019, filed against him for incidents in Clearlake, based on court documents.
Rob Brown, a county supervisor who also owns a bail bonds business, confirmed to Lake County News that See had failed to appear in court on the case over the summer and so he had been looking for him because he had jumped bail.
Records released in accordance with state law
To maintain transparency and community trust, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said it has developed a way to disseminate records for public inspection in qualifying cases in accordance with state laws SB 1421 and AB 748, both of which went into effect in September 2018 after being approved by then-Gov. Jerry Brown.
Lt. Rich Ward said members of the public can find a list of documents, videos, photographs and other information by navigating to the “Use of Force” page on the Lake County Sheriff’s website.
Ward said additional materials in the case will be released as they become available.
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.
Below are the radio traffic audio recordings for the shooting incident on the night of Dec. 28. On the first audio recording, the incident doesn’t begin until 20 minutes into the recording. The second recording continues the incident traffic.
The Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration for the Mars 2020 rover mission, intended to show the feasibility and utility of using helicopters for Mars exploration.
This technology may enable future missions to perform reconnaissance or independent science, and to access terrain not reachable by rovers and astronauts.
When NASA’s next Mars rover sets out for the Red Planet in 2020, it will bring along a passenger. Nestled under the belly of the rover, the Mars Helicopter will be on a mission to notch a “first” for humankind: flying a helicopter on another planet.
By sending the helicopter to Mars as a technology demonstration, NASA aims to expand its exploration capabilities to include an aerial dimension, potentially opening new areas to exploration, and enabling faster reconnaissance for the benefit of future rovers or astronauts.
With a four-foot rotor and a weight of only four lbs, the Mars Helicopter’s unique design is driven by the harsh realities of the Mars environment.
The Martian atmosphere is extremely thin and cold; at only 1 to 2 percent, the density of sea-level air and with temperatures down to -130˚ F, it resembles Earth’s atmosphere at 100,000 feet – an altitude far beyond the capabilities of regular helicopters.
To make the Mars Helicopter a reality, researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Langley Research Center and AeroVironment Inc., worked together over several years to understand the unique challenges of flying on Mars, and to develop a viable vehicle design that is part aircraft and part spacecraft.
A crucial aspect of the design is to keep the mass as low as possible, but to carry enough power and energy to sustain the helicopter during flight. Recent technological advances in areas such as batteries and solar cells, miniaturized sensors and computers, and lightweight materials are key to achieving this goal.
Many components of the Mars Helicopter were developed for the commercial cell phone and drone markets. They were qualified for the Mars Helicopter mission through testing in Mars-like temperatures and by subjecting them to radiation levels that would be experienced in space.
The Mars Helicopter is designed to operate independently on Mars, performing flights of about 90 s in duration at a height of 16 feet. The two rotors spin in opposite directions at approximately 2500 revolutions per minute.
Between flights, the helicopter recharges its batteries using an onboard solar panel. A 12-Megapixel camera takes pictures during flight, which are beamed back to the rover for relay to Earth. During the cold Martian nights, the batteries and sensitive electronics are kept warm inside a heated and insulated fuselage.
During flight the helicopter must navigate with full autonomy, unassisted by humans and without GPS or other navigation aids.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory researchers developed a vision-based navigation system for the helicopter, which analyzes camera images and combines the information with measurements from an inertial measurement unit and an altimeter to keep track of the helicopter’s position, velocity, and attitude.
To develop the control system for the helicopter, the team performed extensive modeling and simulation, as well as low-density experiments, to determine how the thin atmosphere would affect the response of the helicopter to control inputs, wind and gusts.
The team’s “Wright brothers’ moment” came in May 2016, when controlled flight was achieved with a test vehicle inside the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Twenty-Five-Foot Space Simulator, a large vacuum chamber where the conditions of the Martian atmosphere were replicated.
In 2018, tests were performed with emulated Martian winds, produced using nearly 900 fans. Furthermore, the Mars Helicopter Flight Model, which will be sent to Mars, was built and tested, before performing its maiden hover flight in early 2019.
It will now be integrated with the rover and await the chance to fly again – this time on Mars.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has another varied selection of dogs needing homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of bluetick coonhound, bull terrier, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Shiba Inu, shepherd, spaniel and treeing walker coonhound.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Bull terrier-shepherd
This young male bull terrier-shepherd has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. 13417.
Female pit bull terrier
This female pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. 13406.
Female Shiba Inu
This female Shiba Inu has a medium-length black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 12a, ID No. 13362.
‘Max’
“Max” is a male bluetick coonhound-treeing walker coonhound with a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 13289.
‘Daisey’
“Daisey” is a female treeing walker coonhound/bluetick coonhound mix with a short tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13291.
‘Betty Boo’
“Betty Boo” is a female spaniel with a short black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 13227.
Male shepherd mix
This male shepherd mix has a short black and brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 13386.
‘Goofy’
“Goofy” is a young male Rhodesian Ridgeback with a short tan and black coat.
Shelter staff said this boy is great with other dogs, although he is high energy and would benefit from obedience training. He would love to go jogging every day, he is very food motivated and willing to learn new things.
Goofy has been at the shelter since Nov. 5. He was originally taken from someone in Upper Lake and found on the highway in Clearlake. If anyone has any information on his owner please contact the shelter.
He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
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. – A new series of winter weather systems are forecast to bring the potential for more rain over the next week.
The National Weather Service said an upper-level trough and a cold front pushing into the region is spreading showers over the Coastal Range into Saturday.
The agency said another short wave trough system – an extended low-pressure region – will push over the area Saturday night into Sunday, with light showers possible over the higher elevations.
Chances of showers will continue over the northern mountains into Sunday afternoon. Forecasters said quieter conditions will return early this coming week.
The extended forecast shows potential for a weak weather system that could bring light rain on Tuesday, to be followed by a system expected to arrive on Friday and bring rain through next weekend.
The local forecast calls for showers Saturday, clearing in the evening, to be followed by clear and sunny conditions on Sunday and Monday.
Chances of rain are forecast on Tuesday, with conditions clearing again on Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, there is a slight chance of rain.
Daytime temperatures over the next week are expected to range from the high 40s to mid-50s. Nighttime temperatures will hover in the low to mid-30s.
Single-digit winds of up to 9 miles per hour are forecast on Saturday and Sunday, the forecast said.
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. – A three-vehicle crash in Clearlake on Thursday afternoon left several people injured.
The crash occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m. in the 14000 block of Lakeshore Drive, in front of Highlands Park, according to radio reports.
One of the vehicles rolled onto its top and the wreck completely blocked the roadway, police reported.
There also was one person trapped with a possible head injury, with incident command requesting over the radio that an air ambulance respond.
Altogether, incident command reported that there were two people with minor injuries, one with moderate injuries and one with major injuries.
Shortly after the crash, the Clearlake Police Department issued a Nixle alert reporting that Lakeshore Drive was closed between Palmer and Alvita avenues due to the wreck.
A REACH air ambulance responded to Adventist Health Clear Lake to transport the person with major injuries, based on radio traffic.
An update on the person who was flown out was not immediately available from police.
Later on Thursday afternoon, police asked over the radio for city public works staff to respond to nearby Highlands Park due to damage to a pole and other equipment.
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.