This female domestic short hair kitten has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 53, ID No. LCAC-A-1503.
Domestic medium hair cat
This 3-year-old female domestic medium hair cat has a brown tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 58, ID No. LCAC-A-1029.
‘Marmalade’
“Marmalade” is a 5-year-old female domestic short hair cat with a calico and white coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-1444.
Female domestic short hair kitten
This female domestic short hair kitten has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID No. LCAC-A-1504.
Domestic short hair kitten
This male domestic short hair kitten has all-black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 101, ID No. LCAC-A-1502.
Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has a gray and white coat.
He is 1-year-old and weighs nearly 6 pounds.
He is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874.
Female domestic short hair
This 2-year-old female domestic short hair cat has a white coat and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 123, ID No. LCAC-A-1152.
Domestic short hair kitten
A male kitten from this litter remains available for adoption.
He is in cat room kennel No. 125B, ID No. LCAC-A-1139.
Female domestic short hair
This 1-year-old female domestic short hair cat has a black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. LCAC-A-1133.
‘Goldie’
“Goldie” is a male domestic short hair kitten with a yellow tabby and white coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1442.
‘Ophir’
“Ophir” is a male domestic short hair kitten with a red and white coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. LCAC-A-1443.
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.
My son’s kindergarten teachers, holding class on Zoom last year, instructed: “Eyes watching, ears listening, voices quiet, bodies still.” However, I noticed my 6-year-old’s hands would stay busy with items found around our house, building with Legos, shaping clay or doodling with a crayon.
While some might describe this child as being “off task,” research suggests his manipulation of materials actually aroused his mind, allowing it to focus on the required task.
Most notably, remote learning assumes that as long as the mind is engaged, it’s fine if the body stays still. But this argument is backward.
Research from embodied cognition – the study of the body’s role in thinking – shows that the body must first be interacting with the world to activate and open up the mind for learning.
That’s why, for example, students working with a variety of tools and materials during a learning activity are better able to grasp abstract concepts, such as gravitational acceleration or fractions.
To ask students to sit still while performing their work actually increases their cognitive load, or the burden on the mind. It requires them to concentrate on quieting their bodies, which are seeking out avenues for sense-making, as well as on the primary task that fixes them to their desk or digital screen.
As psychologists Christine Langhanns and Hermann Müller concluded from studies of people solving math problems, “Sitting quietly is not necessarily the best condition for learning in school.”
In this way, thoughts are iterative. People sense their way through current moments while bringing to bear what they have learned over the body’s accumulated history. Learning to safely cross the road, for instance, takes practice. Over time, the brain organizes input from the senses to recognize a good time for crossing.
In problem-solving scenarios, research shows that for many math learners, their gestures show they understand strategies before they can articulate those solutions through speech. In this way, educators trained to look for and understand gesture can see a learner’s process and progress in understanding concepts before a student is able to translate that understanding to speech or a written test.
A view of the whole person, therefore, facilitates learning from one another. But that’s a stark contrast to a year spent seeing only the faces of fellow students and teachers, or just a blank box.
Some students will remain online this school year – due to health or other concerns – while others will return to in-person classrooms. I believe both models of school can better incorporate the body to support learning. The following tips are for educators designing remote or in-person classes, though parents and students can also encourage and help sustain an active classroom culture.
Normalize movement during classes, not just during movement breaks. For instance, make a neighborhood walk the mode of inquiry for the day’s science lesson. Ask students to bring back their observations to the whole group.
Begin every class with time to assemble different materials to think and work with, such as notebooks and different kinds of paper, various writing and drawing instruments, putty and blocks. Incorporate interaction with these tools throughout the lesson.
Encourage and use gestures. If online, invite camera use, and back away to give students a wider view.
Build in time for students to tune in to how their body is feeling as a window into their emotional state.
Provide opportunities for iteration, practicing a task in different contexts and with different tools and people that engage the body in different ways. The content or big idea stays the same, but how and with whom students engage shifts.
If online, try out videoconferencing platforms like Ohyay that try to replicate physical closeness and movement in a virtual space.
Consider the classroom as extending out into the school campus and neighborhood. Allowing students to experience a familiar location in a different way, with their classmates and teacher, can evoke new perspectives and thoughts.
Teachers, parents and students can all change their expectations of what being “on task” looks like. Walking, running or dancing may not seem related to a particular task at hand, but these activities often help people do their best thinking. Activating the body activates the mind, so “seat time” might better be titled “activity time.”
LAKEPORT, Calif. — Authorities said they have charged a Lakeport couple with numerous felony counts for operating an unemployment insurance fraud scheme.
Richard James McAulay, 56, and Michelle Darlene Curtis, 50, have been the focus of an investigation for several weeks, the Lakeport Police Department reported.
The department said that earlier this month it developed information that McAulay and Curtis were defrauding the state of California in a significant unemployment insurance fraud scheme. It also was believed that McAulay was involved with opiates including fentanyl.
Because of the complexities and additional resources needed to properly and safely investigate this case, Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen asked the Criminal Investigations Division of the Lake County District Attorney’s Office to take the lead.
Over the course of the next several weeks a detailed investigation was conducted and probable cause was developed to seek charges and a search warrant for a residence on Konocti Avenue in the city of Lakeport.
On Tuesday, Aug. 24, at about 7:45 a.m., three Lake County District Attorney’s Office investigators, a Lake County welfare fraud investigator, five Lakeport Police officers and K-9 Olin served the search warrant, police said.
No one was home at the time of the warrant service, however, authorities said McAulay drove by the location during the search and was immediately stopped and arrested.
During the search of the residence, vehicles and McAulay himself, numerous items of evidence related to the unemployment insurance fraud were located and seized, police reported.
Additionally, police recovered a Smith & Wesson Governor handgun which fires a .45-caliber round or a 410 shotgun round, and it was loaded with a shotgun round, making it a felony to possess in California because it falls within the meaning of a short barreled shotgun.
During checks of vehicles, Olin alerted on suspected narcotics which were seized and are pending analysis.
As of Friday, McAulay and Curtis have been charged with multiple counts of felony unemployment insurance fraud, felony grand theft and felony perjury for the theft of in excess of what is currently known to be $40,000 of funds belonging to the state of California.
Additionally, McAulay is charged with felony possession of an illegal firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm due to the fact that he has suffered previous felony convictions in the state of California.
McAulay was in custody at the Lake County Jail on Friday, booking records showed.
At the time of this investigation, Curtis was in custody at the Sonoma County Jail on other charges. She will later be returned to Lake County to face her charges here, authorities said.
This investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact the Lake County District Attorney’s Office Investigations Division or the Lakeport Police Department.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Lake County resident now studying at Mendocino College has been elected to a state board that will give him the opportunity to advocate for community college students.
Leonardo Rodriguez of Kelseyville, who turned 20 in June, was elected on Aug. 12 to the California Community College Trustees Board as its student member for the 2021-22 academic year.
Born in Mexico, Rodriguez’s family came to the United States when he was 5 years old.
He refers to himself as a “Dreamer” — a reference to the DREAM Act that was proposed, but not passed, in Congress to assist young people with immigration status.
He’s lived in Lake County since he was in fifth grade. He’s a 2019 graduate of Kelseyville High School and a first-generation college student.
Rodriguez also is the student trustee for the Mendocino-Lake College District Board of Trustees, a role he was selected to fill last semester by fellow students.
Student trustees have the same general responsibilities as all trustees to represent the interests of the entire community, while also providing a student perspective on the issues facing the board.
Mendocino College Superintendent/President Tim Karas said Rodriguez’s selection to the California Community College Trustee, or CCCT, Board is a first for the Mendocino-Lake College District.
“This is transformational for us. Student Trustee Rodriguez will provide a voice for 2.1 million California community college students. His voice will inform and shape statewide strategic directions. Having an advocate for rural colleges with an equity mindset is critical to deliver higher education to all,” Karas said.
The CCCT Board consists of 21 members elected statewide by the 73 district California Community College governing boards and a student-member elected by the student trustees.
The board takes positions on and formulates education policy issues that come before the California Community Colleges Board of Governors, the State Legislature, and other relevant state-level boards and commissions.
This policy board provides input to the League Board to advance the mission and effectively serve the organization's member colleges.
Rodriguez told Lake County News that he ran for the CCCT Board on a platform of implementing anti-racist and equitable policies, expanding dual enrollment in urban and rural communities, and establishing student retention initiatives.
He wants to see policies instituted that are race conscious and which look at impacts on all student demographics. Making sure classes are culturally relevant and ensuring student success are part of implementing anti-racist policies, he said.
Rodriguez was endorsed by District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska and community organizer Luisa Acosta.
An introduction to service
Before he was elected to the college and state boards, Rodriguez served on the Lake County Latinx COVID-19 advocacy group, which started last year when there was an outbreak in the agricultural sector.
The group had urged officials to give out masks and do on-site testing, and it was there he worked with Acosta. He said he also felt then-Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace had valued his voice and ideas as he advocated for the Hispanic community.
Rodriguez felt that if his voice was valued there, he wondered if it would also be welcomed at the college board level.
“Really, it was about representation,” he said, explaining his entry into running for the college boards.
In July, Rodriguez also spoke to the Lake County Board of Supervisors to raise his concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on students, suggesting that with the surge and the fact that only about half of the county was vaccinated, that schools should probably not yet reopen.
Rodriguez told Lake County News that COVID-19 hasn’t revealed new problems in education, but rather has highlighted existing issues, including academic failure, financial insecurity, mental health and inequities when it comes to access to technology.
“Community colleges are often almost a home for a lot of students,” he said. “It really does become their space.”
Having their space taken away by COVID-19 has impacted students both in the short-term and the long-term as they struggled to make the transition from in-person to online courses, he said.
He said some students also are having to give up their dreams of college to help their families stay afloat, an issue he’s been hearing a lot about.
Students are missing the in-person dynamics, discussion and interaction that are part of the full package of what higher education is, Rodriguez said.
This is Rodriguez’s second year in college and he’ll be graduating from Mendocino College soon. He is on track to graduate with associates degrees in three majors — political science, history and liberal arts with a focus on social sciences.
He plans to transfer to Sacramento State University to pursue his bachelor's degree in political science and will then go on to obtain his master’s degree.
Rodriguez plans to do internships in Sacramento so he can meet legislators and continue working with the community to learn about the problems people in society face.
Advocacy for the Hispanic community is a key concern for Rodriguez, noting he looks forward to seeing immigration reform passed.
He said he wants to serve California and its people “in any capacity that will allow me to complete my life dream of being a voice for those who are unheard.”
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. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a large number of new dogs waiting for adoption this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian kelpie, beagle, Doberman pinscher, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, miniature pinscher, pit bull, rat terrier, Rhodesian ridgeback, Rottweiler, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).
“Coco” is a 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever.
She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-1541.
‘Carlos’
“Carlos” is a 1-year-old male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-1566.
Male miniature pinscher
This 1-year-old male miniature pinscher has a short blond coat.
He is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-1515.
Male beagle
This 1-year-old male beagle has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-1524.
American pit bull terrier mix
This 5-year-old American pit bull terrier mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1483.
Female pit bull-hound mix
This young female American pit bull-terrier mix has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1470.
‘Peanut’
“Peanut” is a 1-year-old female Doberman Pinscher with a short red and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, LCAC-A-1447.
‘Baby’
“Baby” is a 2-year-old Rhodesian Ridgeback-pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-1520.
Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short gray coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-1568.
‘Deisel’
“Deisel” is a young male terrier mix with a short blond coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-1578.
Male Labrador retriever
This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-1349.
‘Oliver’
“Oliver” is a 1-year-old Australian kelpie-rat terrier mix with a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-1551.
‘Shamus McGee’
“Shamus McGee” is an 8-year-old male Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-1509.
‘Dusty’
“Dusty” is a 2-year-old female pit bull terrier mix with a short gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-611.
‘Jim’
“Jim” is a 2-year-old pit bull terrier mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-810.
Female mastiff
This 2-year-old female mastiff has a short brindle and white coat.
She weighs 102 pounds.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-1395.
‘Rosco’
“Rosco” is 3-year-old a male Rhodesian ridgeback-Shepherd mix with a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-1205.
‘Rudy’
“Rudy” is a 4-year-old male Chihuahua with a short red coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1394.
Female pit bull terrier
This 4-year-old female pit bull terrier mix has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-812.
‘Bubba’
“Bubba” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-1306.
Labrador retriever mix
This 1-year-old male Labrador retriever mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-1426.
Male husky
This 2-year-old male husky has a red and cream coat.
He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-1024.
Male pit bull mix
This 2-year-old male pit bull terrier mix has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-1528.
‘Ghost’
“Ghost” is a 2-year-old female husky with an all-white coat and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-1167.
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. — The Lake County Sheriff’s Office has identified the woman killed in a wreck on Highway 29 on Thursday morning.
Suzette Michelle Casarotti, 59, of Clearlake, died in the crash, said Lt. Corey Paulich.
The California Highway Patrol said Casarotti was driving a 1998 Mazda Protege southbound on Highway 29 and north of Argonaut Road near Lakeport shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday when she drifted into the oncoming lane of traffic.
Casarotti’s Mazda collided head-on with a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by Charmaine Garcia, 66, of Kelseyville, the CHP said.
Authorities said Casarotti was pronounced dead at the scene, while Garcia suffered major injuries and was transported to Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
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 three-vehicle collision temporarily closed Highway 20 on Saturday night, with several people injured.
The head-on crash occurred at about 9:15 p.m. Saturday on Highway 20 east of Clearlake Oaks, in the area of mile post marker 39.5, according to radio traffic and California Highway Patrol reports.
Vehicles involved were described as a silver SUV and a white sedan, with a third vehicle reported to be 30 feet down an embankment.
First responders reported the vehicles were blocking the roadway when they arrived.
There were a total of six patients, with two seriously injured, according to radio reports.
Firefighters and deputies were reported to be looking for additional crash victims in the creek but radio traffic did not indicate any were found.
Ground ambulances transported several of the patients, with two air ambulances requested to respond to Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital to transport two crash victims to out-of-county trauma centers, scanner traffic said.
The air ambulances were reported to have flown the two most seriously injured patients to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
Firefighters reported clearing the scene just after 11 p.m.
Additional information was not immediately available late Saturday night.
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.
Protecting the ozone layer also protects Earth’s vegetation and has prevented the planet from an additional 0.85 degrees Celsius of warming, according to new research from Lancaster University, NASA, and others.
This new study in Nature demonstrates that by protecting the ozone layer, which blocks harmful ultraviolet, or UV, radiation, the Montreal Protocol regulating ozone-depleting substances also protects plants — and their ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere.
The impact from plants has not been accounted for in previous climate change research.
“We know the ozone layer is connected to climate. We know greenhouse gases affect the ozone layer. But what we’ve never done before this is connect the ozone layer to the terrestrial carbon cycle,” said lead author Paul Young, an atmospheric and climate scientist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.
The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, blocks UV radiation that can damage living tissue, including plants.
The ozone “hole,” discovered in 1985, is the result of humans emitting chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are ozone-depleting chemicals and greenhouse gases that were once commonly used as coolants in refrigerators and in aerosols like hairspray. They were then phased out of use by the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 and its subsequent amendments.
Scientists have previously simulated the world that we avoided by banning CFCs. Now, the new study returns to the same question — what would happen if CFCs continued to be emitted? — and looked at the effect on plants.
“Past world-avoided experiments have never considered the impacts of increased UV radiation on plants, and what that would mean for the plants’ ability to sequester carbon,” said Young.
The team used a series of models to gain a more complete picture and simulate two hypothetical scenarios: the world projected and the world avoided. “The world projected is similar to the path we’re currently on,” said Luke Oman, a research physical scientist focusing on atmospheric chemistry and dynamics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The world avoided represents a path not taken.”
For the world-avoided scenario, the researchers assumed that CFC emissions would increase at the same rate, 3% every year, from the 1970s onward. The models show that there would be a huge thinning of the ozone layer across the globe by 2050. By 2100, ozone holes forming in the tropics would be worse than what has been observed in the Antarctic ozone hole.
In their models of the world-avoided, a depleted ozone layer would let more harmful ultraviolet radiation reach the surface, inhibiting plants from storing carbon in their tissue and in the soil. As a result, atmospheric CO2 levels are estimated to be 30% higher than they would likely be under Earth’s current trajectory. Consequently, Earth would likely be an additional 0.85°C hotter in that “world-avoided” scenario solely because of the impact on plants.
This global thinning of the ozone layer would allow significantly more harmful UV radiation from the sun to reach the surface, which would effectively sunburn the plants on Earth, said Young. Earth’s trees and vegetation would be much less efficient at photosynthesis, hindering their ability to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it, storing carbon in plant tissue and the soil for many years.
Overall, the damage to plants would result in 580 billion metric tons less carbon stored in forests, soil and vegetation. It would instead be released into the atmosphere, increasing atmospheric CO2 levels by 30% on average compared to the world projected scenario.
That huge increase in atmospheric CO2 alone would cause global temperatures to rise 0.85°C by 2100, according to the models. That’s on top of the warming Earth may experience due to prior and expected emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, as well as the 1.7°C of direct warming due to increased CFC emissions in this scenario.
But how do we know this “world-avoided” scenario is anything like the world that would come to be without the Montreal Protocol? The team checked their models against historical data collected by NASA satellites and other available data from NASA’s partners.
For example, they looked at ozone levels recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite and compared them to what the models “predicted” would have happened.
What happened in the model was very close to what actually happened in the past, giving the scientists confidence that their model could accurately project what may happen in the future.
Sofie Bates is a member of NASA's Earth Science News Team.
On Friday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta lauded Judge Anne-Christine Massullo’s final approval of a landmark $575 million settlement with Sutter Health.
The settlement agreement was reached in 2019, and resolves allegations by the Attorney General’s Office, the United Food and Commercial Workers and Employers Benefit Trust and class action plaintiffs that Sutter’s anticompetitive practices led to higher health care costs for consumers in Northern California compared to other places in the state.
The settlement requires Sutter to pay $575 million in compensation, prohibits anticompetitive conduct, and requires Sutter to follow certain practices to restore competition in California’s health care markets.
“This is a groundbreaking settlement and a win for Californians,” said Bonta. “Sutter will no longer have free rein to engage in anticompetitive practices that force patients to pay more for health services. Under the terms of our agreement, Sutter’s transparency must increase, and practices that decrease the accessibility and affordability of health care must end. A competitive health care market is essential to ensuring patients and families aren’t bearing the brunt of health care costs while one company dominates the market.”
Sutter Health said in a previous statement that the settlement’s final approval would “ultimately help preserve our integrated network of care and is in the best interests of our patients and the communities we serve.”
Sutter is the largest hospital system in Northern California. The Sutter network consists of some 24 acute care hospitals — including Sutter Lakeside in Lakeport — along with 36 ambulatory surgery centers, and 16 cardiac and cancer centers. It also includes some 12,000 physicians and over 53,000 employees. In addition, Sutter negotiates contracts on behalf of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and many affiliated physician groups.
This settlement is the result of litigation that began in 2014 when UEBT filed a class-action lawsuit that challenged Sutter’s practices in rendering services and setting prices. They sought compensation for and an end to what they alleged were unlawful, anticompetitive business practices, which caused them to pay more than necessary for health care services and products.
In March 2018, the Attorney General’s Office filed a similar lawsuit against Sutter on behalf of the people of California, seeking injunctive relief to compel Sutter to correct its anticompetitive business practices moving forward.
The separate lawsuits were combined by the court into one case. In October 2019, one day before the trial, the parties reached an agreement to settle. The settlement was filed with the court on December 19, 2019, and in March, Judge Massullo granted preliminary approval.
Today’s finalized settlement requires Sutter to:
— Pay $575 million to compensate employers, unions, and others covered under the class action, and to cover costs and fees associated with the legal efforts.
— Limit what it charges patients for out-of-network services, helping ensure that patients visiting an out-of-network hospital do not face outsized, surprise medical bills.
— Increase transparency by permitting insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to provide plan members with access to pricing, quality, and cost information, which helps patients make better care decisions.
— Halt measures that deny patients access to lower-cost plans, thus allowing health insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to offer and direct patients to more affordable health plan options for networks or products.
— Stop all-or-nothing contracting deals, thus allowing insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to include some but not necessarily all of Sutter’s hospitals, clinics, or other commercial products in their plans’ network.
— Cease anticompetitive bundling of services and products which forced insurers, employers, and self-funded payers to purchase for their plan offerings more services or products from Sutter than were needed. Sutter must now offer a stand-alone price that must be lower than any bundled package price to give insurers, employers, and self-funded payers more choice.
— Cooperate with a court-approved compliance monitor to ensure that Sutter is following the terms of the settlement for at least 10 years. The monitor will receive and investigate complaints and may present evidence to the court.
— Prevent anticompetitive practices by clearly defining clinical integration to include patient quality of care. The settlement makes clear that for Sutter to claim it has clinically integrated a system, it must meet strict standards beyond regional similarities or the mere sharing of an electronic health record, and must be integrating care in a manner that takes into consideration the quality of care to the patient population. This is important because clinical integration can be used to mask market consolidation efforts by hospital systems, when in fact there is no true integration of a patient’s care. For example, saying that hospitals are regionally close or that hospitals are sharing electronic health records is not enough, there must be close coordination that will lead to less costly, higher quality care for local communities.
A report by the University of California, Berkeley showed that over-consolidation drives up prices for consumers. According to the study, outpatient cardiology procedures in Southern California cost nearly $18,000 compared to almost $29,000 in Northern California. For inpatient hospital procedures, the cost in Southern California is nearly $132,000 compared to more than $223,000 in Northern California, a more than $90,000 difference.
A 2016 study found that a caesarean delivery in Sacramento, where Sutter is based, costs more than $27,000, nearly double what it costs in Los Angeles or New York, making Northern California one of the most expensive places in the country to have a baby.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A new organization, the Konocti Women’s Service Club, has formed to continue the work that has been done for more than 40 years by the Konocti Lioness Club.
In the 1920s, service clubs called Ladies Auxiliary were partners in service with Lions Clubs.
By 1949 there were auxiliary clubs forming throughout the world and dedicating themselves to volunteering.
In 1975, the international body that governs the Lions Clubs formally recognized Ladies Auxiliaries as Lioness Clubs. By 1985, 5,300 Lioness Clubs were active in 92 countries with membership totaling 139,412.
In the shadow of Mount Konocti in Lake County, the Konocti Lioness Club was formed in 1980 and its members have served their community as dedicated Lionesses for 40 years with their motto of “For Kids’ Sake.”
In 1992 the international body that governs Lioness Clubs decided they could no longer support the Lioness Program as it was. Individual Lioness Clubs could continue as a service program with their local Lions Club still maintaining a Lion liaison officer.
Consequently, in 2018, that same governing body announced the end of the Lioness Program as it was known, dissolving all ties to the program effective June 30, 2021.
Across the globe, Lioness clubs have chosen to leave the international body in favor of their own programs and will launch under new names and banners.
That resulted in a new beginning.
In 2021, many of the former Lioness Clubs aligned to form the Global Service Organization, a global community of service clubs. Their goal is to continue the service the Lioness Clubs began creating a platform that will allow members to build a global service community and continue serving for many years to come.
The Konocti Lioness Club has reorganized to become the Konocti Women’s Service Club, a proud independent service club, looking forward to serving the Lake County community with the same motto, “For Kids’ Sake.”
All of the money raised goes to charities that support at-risk children.
The purpose of their club is to provide opportunities for women to unite in friendship and in mutual understanding, and to guide, teach and reach the children of our community.
Their goal is to give service and to be philanthropic with their money to support youth with dignity and motivation.
Over the last five years, the club has given high school scholarships totaling $15,000 and has supported their local schools with supplies.
They partnered with Flotilla 88 of Lake County to provide youngsters life jackets and have provided and staffed three summer day camps for elementary age children.
The Konocti Women’s Service Club has been supported recently by the folks at Dream of a Better World, whose generosity helped the club to provide Christmas gifts to individuals who had fallen on hard times in December of 2020.
Now, the club is glad to be on the move and happy to be a part of the worldwide community of the Global Service Organization.
Konocti Women’s Service Club members are fun, strong and energized to do good for their community. They are also looking forward to meeting other service clubs throughout the world.
Dorothy De Lope is a member of the new Konocti Women’s Service Club.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A woman who had worked for Lake County Social Services has been arrested for taking debit cards intended for individuals under the agency’s conservatorship as well as money from a bank account belonging to one of the conservatees.
Susan Marlowe, 44, of Lakeport was arrested earlier this week, said Lt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Paulich said Marlowe formerly was a deputy public guardian and deputy public administrator for Lake County Adult Protective Services, which is part of Social Services.
On April 2, a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy was contacted by personnel from Lake County Social Services regarding the theft of debit cards from one of their offices, Paulich said.
Paulich said the debit cards had been issued as part of the economic impact payments to individuals who were under conservatorship with Social Services. Each debit card had a value of $600. A total of 21 stimulus debit cards were reported missing.
During the investigation it was determined Marlowe had access to the debit cards. Paulich said her employment with Lake County ended on March 10.
Paulich said that during the investigation into the stolen debit cards, personnel from Lake County Social Services found suspicious activity in the bank account of a Lake County resident who was under conservatorship. Marlowe had been the deputy public guardian/deputy public administrator who managed the conservatee.
The case was assigned to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crime Unit, Paulich said.
He said detectives contacted the Lake County Department of Social Services, which assisted with the investigation.
Multiple search warrants were authored to obtain business records and bank records which were related to the investigation. Paulich said a detailed examination of bank records located four large withdrawals from the conservatee’s bank account.
Additional records were obtained through search warrants which showed the four withdrawals were used to make payments to a personal loan belonging to Marlowe. Paulich said the payments totaled approximately $5,800.
On June 10, a search warrant was served at Marlowe’s residence in Finley, Paulich said.
Paulich said Marlowe was contacted and interviewed. During the interview Marlowe admitted to using between six and 10 of the debit cards for her personal use. She also admitted to using the conservatee’s bank account to make payments on her loan.
The investigation continued and additional business and bank records were sought. Upon the receipt of the additional records, it was determined that Marlowe was responsible for three additional withdrawals from the conservatee’s bank account in December 2019, with those withdrawals totaling approximately $6,600, Paulich said.
The withdrawals were the result of three fake invoices that Paulich said Marlowe created for home repairs which did not occur to the conservatee's residence.
The case was forwarded to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for review. Paulich said the case was filed with the Lake County Superior Court and an arrest warrant for Marlowe was issued with a bail of $50,000.
Paulich said detectives attempted to arrest Marlowe on the warrant, but determined she was out of state.
On Tuesday, Aug. 24, Marlowe surrendered herself at the Lake County Superior Court and the arrest warrant was recalled, Paulich said.
Marlowe was released on her own recognizance. Paulich said she is scheduled to appear in court on Oct. 8.
Paulich said investigators suspect that Marlowe is responsible for the theft of all of the debit cards.
Anyone with information related to this case is asked to contact Det. Todd Dunia at 707-262-4232 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
A person who is authorized to act in a representative capacity is a fiduciary and must follow certain fiduciary (legal) duties.
Application of the duties vary with the legal authority granted and the situation.
Agents, conservators, trustees, personal representatives, and even spouses (in relationship to their spouse) are all fiduciaries.
Let us discuss how these fiduciaries may sell or gift real property using their fiduciary powers.
First, an agent can be authorized in a written power of attorney to sell or gift real property belonging to the principal (whom they represent).
The power of attorney must specifically authorize the agent to sell and/or to gift the real property, as relevant, and must specifically state the real property subject to such authority; title companies require the real property’s legal description to be included in the power of attorney.
The original power of attorney (or a certified copy by a notary public) must be recorded with the county recorder where the real property lies soon after its execution (for title companies to respect it). Gifting by the agent to themselves is prohibited unless the power of attorney specifically allows and waives the agent’s duty not to self-deal.
Second, in California, conservators are appointed by the superior court to manage the affairs of the person and/or the estate of a conservatee (i.e., a conserved person). Conservatorships occur due to the conservatee’s severe physical and/or mental disabilities or their severe inability to avoid fraud, coercion or undue influence.
When appointed, the court issues the conservator with “letters of conservatorship.” If the letters grant “independent powers” (under section 2590 of the Probate Code) the conservator can sell the conservatee’s real property, other than the conservatee’s personal residence, without court confirmation.
Court certified copies of the letters must be recorded with the county where the real property lies prior to sale. If a conservatee’s personal residence is being sold a court order approving the sale must also be recorded.
For a conservator to gift the conservatee’s real property, the conservator must first petition the court for an order of substituted judgment (under section 2580 of the Probate Code).
A substituted judgment proceeding requires notice to certain persons, a court petition and a court hearing (which may be contested) and, if successful, an order authorizing the action.
A certified copy of the court order of substituted judgment, and a certified copy of the letters, must be filed with the county recorder where the real property lies.
Third, in California, personal representatives of a decedent’s estate are appointed by the superior court and act as officers of the court to represent and manage a decedent’s estate.
When appointed, the court issues the conservator with either “letters testamentary” (to an executor) or “letters of administration” (to an administrator), “letters”, as relevant.
If the letters grant the personal representative “full authority” (not “limited authority”), under section 10400 et. seq. of the Probate Code, the Personal Representative can sell the decedent’s real property without court confirmation (approval).
To sell using “full authority,” a court certified copy of the letters must be recorded with the county where the real property lies and signed consents (or signed waivers) by the heirs or beneficiaries of the estate (as relevant) — in response to a timely notice of proposed action regarding the sale — must be filed with the superior court overseeing the probate.
Fourth, in California, other than selling the married couple’s family home, a spouse acting alone may, in the best interest of both spouses, sell real property that is their community property in limited situations.
Nonetheless, the written consent of the other spouse, or a court order, is always necessary to gift real property or to sell the family home and to sell any real property of a conserved spouse. Having a trust or a power of attorney is better planning.
The foregoing is a limited discussion and is not legal advice. If needing guidance on such issues, consult a qualified attorney.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.