LOWER LAKE, Calif. — On Saturday, Oct. 1, the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association, or AMIA, will host a celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the founding of Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
The event, to be held in the picnic area of the park, will include music, refreshments, a few speeches and a few surprises.
Roberta Lyons, AMIA president, played a large part in the community effort to protect the Native American cultural sites located within the present park boundaries from being destroyed by commercial development.
“For those of us who were involved in the fight to save Anderson Marsh from development, it is hard to believe that it’s been 40 years since we accomplished that goal through the creation of Anderson Marsh State Historic Park,” said Lyons. “Since then, the road has been a little rocky, but the park is still open and Anderson Marsh is still here to be enjoyed by us all.”
The day will begin with a guided nature walk at 9 a.m., followed by a welcoming address by Lyons and a talk by Tom Nixon, former State Parks Ranger assigned to the park, about the founding of the park and its history since that time.
In addition to other surprise speakers, the day will feature music on the ranch house porch by Don Coffin and friends, tours of the exhibits in the South Barn and, of course, a 40th birthday cake.
AMIA invites everyone to spend a lovely fall day with friends and neighbors while we celebrate Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
AMIA is a nonprofit association cooperating with the California Department of Parks and Recreation to promote educational and interpretive activities at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
For information about Anderson Marsh State Historic Park or AMIA, visit www.andersonmarsh.org or contact AMIA at either This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-995-2658.
BERKELEY, Calif. — Checking off one of its key goals, the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, imaged its first exoplanet — a young, gas giant planet six to 12 times more massive than Jupiter orbiting a star 350 light years from Earth.
“The JWST cameras were designed to take photos of exoplanetary systems, and we just demonstrated that everything works like a charm,” said astronomer Paul Kalas, an adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-investigator for the telescope’s Early Release Science, or ERS, program focused on exoplanets. “The planet was first discovered in 2017 by ground-based observatories, but JWST is able to capture the planet’s warm emission at longer, infrared wavelengths.”
The star, HIP 65426, is very young and hot, having recently completed its planet-forming stage. It lies in the southern constellation Centaurus.
“This planetary system is only 14 million years old, and these new data will advance our knowledge of how planets form and evolve,” Kalas said.
The young planet, which is designated HIP 65426b, is several thousand times fainter than the star, so sophisticated cameras aboard JWST — the Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, and Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI — had to artificially eclipse the starlight using coronagraphs in order to capture the images.
This is the first image of an exoplanet in mid-infrared wavelengths — that is, wavelengths greater than 5 microns (a millionth of a meter, or a thousandth of a millimeter).
“Obtaining this image felt like digging for space treasure,” said team member Aarynn Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz who led the analysis of the images. “I think what’s most exciting is that we’ve only just begun. There are many more images of exoplanets to come that will shape our overall understanding of their physics, chemistry and formation. We may even discover previously unknown planets, too.”
Carter is first author of a paper describing the results that has been submitted for publication. A non-peer reviewed preprint is available online.
The ERS exoplanet team was tasked with evaluating how well the NIRCam and MIRI work in suppressing starlight, so it pointed JWST toward a known exoplanet. The team’s analysis showed that JWST is so sensitive that it could detect young Saturn-mass planets, a capability unmatched by any other astronomical observatory.
Much of the expertise needed to design these cameras and science programs originated from sophisticated, ground-based efforts, such as with UC’s Lick and Keck observatories, Kalas said.
A former UC Berkeley graduate student, Marshall Perrin, worked to commission JWST and trained with Kalas and professor James Graham at both Lick and Keck more than a decade ago. Perrin is also a member of the ERS exoplanet team, as are current Berkeley astronomers Keming Zhang and Marta Bryan.
Webb is an international mission led by NASA in collaboration with its partners, the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.
Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
Sufficient proof of a person’s identity, such as a state issued driver’s license, is needed in many situations related to estate planning and estate administration.
Consider, for example, notarizing estate planning documents, obtaining a medallion signature guarantee to transfer securities, opening a bank account, obtaining possession of legal documents, and receiving an inheritance. Let us discuss.
Trusts, deeds, powers of attorney and advance health care directives, amongst others, are all documents that are typically required to be notarized.
According to the National Notary Association’s website, “[n]otarization is the official fraud-deterrent process that assures the parties of a transaction that a document is authentic, and can be trusted. … Above all, notarization is the assurance by a duly appointed and impartial Notary Public that a document is authentic, that its signature is genuine, and that its signer acted without duress or intimidation, and intended the terms of the document to be in full force and effect.”
Notarization requires that the signor provide an acceptable picture proof of identification, such as a driver’s license, passport, or tribal card, provided it either is current or was issued within five years.
Unfortunately, some senior citizens no longer have a driver’s license. Such seniors can still obtain a state issued “non-driver’s proof of identity” which is adequate proof of identity.
Alternatively, California allows a notary to accept the sworn statement of two credible witnesses each of whom knows the signor and has their own acceptable government issued proof of identity.
Next, a so-called, “medallion guarantee stamp” is required to transfer securities and to open a brokerage account, such as when transferring a decedent’s brokerage account.
According to the National Notary Association’s website, “[a] Medallion Signature Guarantee is used primarily when a customer transfers or sells securities, and it represents an assurance by the financial institution that the signature on the transaction is genuine and the financial institution accepts liability for any forgery. These guarantees are performed by specially assigned bank employees.”
A medallion guarantee stamp is typically obtained from a bank or brokerage with whom one has an open account. Like a notarial act, a medallion stamp requires a valid government issued proof of identification.
Opening a bank account may not only require presenting a government issued proof of identify but sometimes can also require providing other supporting legal documents, such as a trustee’s certification of trust (to open a trust account), or certified court issued letters of administration of a decedent’s estate and a certified court order (to open a personal representative’s account in a probate). These supporting documents prove the person’s representative authority.
Taking possession of legal documents at a bank safe or from an attorney’s office will also require proof of identification. With a bank safe, however, it is also necessary for the person to have the key to the safe deposit box.
Receiving an inheritance may require identifying oneself to a bank (to claim a pay on death benefit) or to an administrator or trustee of a decedent’s estate when a person’s current name differs from the name used in the estate planning document.
A so-called “one and the same” affidavit may be sufficient. The affidavit is a sworn statement under penalty of perjury that the person is known by two or more names. It requires a notarial act known as a jurat, which itself requires proof of identification of the name used to sign the affidavit.
Clearly not having an acceptable government issued identification issued within the last five years can be an obstacle to estate planning or estate administration.
While not everyone needs a driver’s license, everyone should at least consider maintaining a current non-driver’s state issued form of identification, a current passport or a current tribal card.
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.
Although it still feels like beach weather across much of North America, billions of birds have started taking wing for one of nature’s great spectacles: fall migration. Birds fly south from the northern U.S. and Canada to wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, sometimes covering thousands of miles. Other birds leave temperate Eurasia for Africa, tropical Asia or Australia.
Using observation records and data collected through bird banding, 20th-century ornithologists roughly mapped general migration routes and timing for most migratory species. Later, using radar at airports and weather stations, they discovered how weather and other factors affect when birds migrate and how high they fly.
Today, technological advances are providing new insights into bird migration and showing that it is more complex and wonderful than scientists ever imagined. These new and constantly improving technologies are key aids for protecting migratory birds in the face of habitat loss and other threats.
Now, scientists are setting up a global network of receiver stations called the Motus Network, which currently has 1,500 receivers in 31 countries. Each receiver constantly records the presence of any birds or other animals within a nine-mile (15-kilometer) radius that scientists have fitted with small, lightweight radio transmitters, and shares the data online. The network will become increasingly useful for understanding bird migration as more receiver stations become active along migration tracks.
Tracking individual birds via satellite
Three new technologies are rapidly expanding what we know about bird migration. The first is satellite telemetry of bird movement. Researchers fit birds with small solar-powered transmitters, which send data on the birds’ locations to a satellite and then on to a scientist’s office computer. The scientist can learn where a bird is, the route it took to get there and how fast it travels.
For example, the bar-tailed godwit, a pigeon-sized shorebird, breeds in Alaska and then migrates to New Zealand. Satellite transmitters show that godwits often fly nonstop from Alaska to New Zealand. Recently, a godwit set the record for the longest nonstop flight by a land bird: 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers) in 10 days, from Alaska to Australia.
Satellite telemetry studies show how much individual birds, even those from the same breeding location, vary in their migratory behavior. Individual differences in migratory behavior are probably due to differences in physical condition, learning, experience and personal preferences.
Another shorebird, the whimbrel, also makes a phenomenally long journey over the ocean. Satellite telemetry has shown that some whimbrels travel from northwest Canada, across the North American continent to Canada’s east coast, then set off over the Atlantic Ocean on a 3,400-mile (5,400-kilometer), six-day nonstop flight to the coast of Brazil. In total, they may travel 6,800 miles (11,000 kilometers).
Many birds are too small to carry a satellite transmitter. Given the energetic effort required for migration, a device must weigh less than 5% of a bird’s body weight, and many migratory songbirds weigh under 0.7 ounces (20 grams).
An ingenious solution for small birds is a geolocator tag, or geologger – a tiny device that simply records time, location and presence or absence of sunlight. Scientists know the timing of sunrise and sunset on a given date, so they can calculate a bird’s location on that date to within about 125 miles (200 kilometers).
Birds carrying geologgers must be recaptured to download the data. That means the bird must survive a migration round trip and return to the same place where it was first captured and tagged. Amazingly, many geologger-tagged small birds do.
Geologgers have shown that Blackpoll warblers – small songbirds that breed in the boreal forests of North America – fly long distances over the Atlantic in fall, heading to the Amazon basin. Birds breeding in eastern North America head out over the Atlantic in maritime Canada or the northeastern U.S. and make a 60-hour, nonstop, 1,500-mile (2,500-kilometer) flight to the Greater Antilles. There they rest and recuperate, then continue across the Caribbean to South America.
Blackpolls breeding in Alaska fly across the North American continent before leaving shore on the Atlantic coast and flying to South America. In total, they journey 6,600 miles (10,700 kilometers) over 60 days.
Even more amazing, geologgers show that another small songbird, the northern wheatear, migrates from North America to sub-Saharan Africa. Wheatears that breed in Alaska fly 9,100 miles (14,600 kilometers) across Asia to East Africa, taking three months to do so. Those breeding in eastern Canada journey 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers) across the Atlantic to Europe and then on to West Africa – including a 2,100-mile (3,400-kilometer), four-day nonstop overwater flight.
Recording birds’ night migration calls
Two hours after sunset in fall, I like to sit outside and listen to birds migrating overhead. Most birds migrate at night, and many give a species-specific “chit,” “zeep” or other call-note while in flight. The calls may serve to keep migrating flocks together, including different species heading to the same destination.
Ornithologists are using automated passive acoustic recording to study these nocturnal calls and identify the species or group of related species that make each sound. The technology is a microphone directed at the sky, connected to a computer that continuously records the sound stream and is aided by sound recognition software. Sometimes it reveals migrants overhead that are rarely seen on the ground.
Nick Kachala, an honors student in my lab, set up recording units on three university properties in the fall of 2021. One of the most common migrants recorded was the gray-cheeked thrush, a shy bird of the northern boreal forest that is rarely seen in the northeast U.S. during fall migration. He also detected the dickcissel, a grassland bird that I have never seen in our area.
Radar monitoring indicates that the number of North American migratory birds declined by 14% between 2007 and 2017. There probably are multiple causes, but habitat loss is likely the principal culprit.
Satellite telemetry and geologgers show that there are special stopover sites along migration routes where migrants rest and refuel, such as the Texas Gulf Coast, the Florida Panhandle and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Conservation experts widely agree that to protect migratory birds, it is critical to conserve these sites.
Effective conservation measures require knowing where and how birds migrate, and what dangers they face during migration. Ornithologists, using these new technologies, are learning things that will help to stop and reverse the global decline in migratory birds.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A Lake County Library card is more powerful and even easier to get than ever before.
This small but mighty card unlocks a world of print resources at the four branches of the Lake County Library.
In the last three years, the library has made even more resources available with your card.
There are three options to get a library card.
Residents can visit their local library branch, can call their local branch over the phone, or can visit the library website and apply online.
The address of the library website is: http://library.lakecountyca.gov.
For many years now, a Lake County Library card provides free access to materials from the Lake, Sonoma, and Mendocino county libraries.
Altogether that's access to over a half a million physical items. Lake County alone owns over 120,000 items.
The entire Lake County collection contains more than 7,000 DVDs, as well as books, audio books, and music CDs. Patrons can search the library catalog online and request to pick up materials at their local branch.
This year, thanks to a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, IMLS, you can receive books by mail.
If you are homebound and aren't able to make it into your library branch you can sign up for the Books by Mail service. This service allows you to receive library materials through the United States Postal Service, at no cost to yourself.
Each Lake County Library branch has free Wi-Fi and public internet computers. Thanks to an IMLS grant, your library card also allows you to check out Wi-Fi hotspots and bring home the internet. You can also borrow a Chromebook, which is a small laptop, to take home.
The Lake County Library continues to provide a wealth of digital resources, and these have been expanded as well. A library card provides digital access to over one million eBooks, eAudiobooks, streaming movies, television shows, eMagazines, digital comics, and music. These digital items can be accessed on computers, smart phones, tablets and compatible televisions.
A library card also allows access to many online resources that provide job training, skill building and creative development.
Video learning sites like LinkedIn Learning or Coursera can help residents prepare for a new job. Creativebug offers virtual arts and crafts classes at the beginner to advanced level.
For kids, digital resources like BookFlix or ABCmouse help with early learning. These premium resources are all free with a library card.
Visit your local branch during September and take advantage of the array of free resources available.
Lakeport Library 1425 N. High St. Telephone 707-263-8817 Hours: Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Redbud Library 14785 Burns Valley Road, Clearlake Telephone 707-994-5115 Hours: Tuesdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Middletown Library 21256 Washington St. Telephone 707-987-3674 Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Upper Lake Library 310 Second St. Telephone 707-275-2049 Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Nature likes spirals — from the whirlpool of a hurricane, to pinwheel-shaped protoplanetary disks around newborn stars, to the vast realms of spiral galaxies across our universe.
Now astronomers are bemused to find young stars that are spiraling into the center of a massive cluster of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
The outer arm of the spiral in this huge, oddly shaped stellar nursery called NGC 346 may be feeding star formation in a river-like motion of gas and stars. This is an efficient way to fuel star birth, researchers say.
The Small Magellanic Cloud has a simpler chemical composition than the Milky Way, making it similar to the galaxies found in the younger universe, when heavier elements were more scarce. Because of this, the stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud burn hotter and so run out of their fuel faster than in our Milky Way.
Though a proxy for the early universe, at 200,000 light-years away the Small Magellanic Cloud is also one of our closest galactic neighbors.
Learning how stars form in the Small Magellanic Cloud offers a new twist on how a firestorm of star birth may have occurred early in the universe's history, when it was undergoing a "baby boom" about 2 to 3 billion years after the big bang (the universe is now 13.8 billion years old).
The new results find that the process of star formation there is similar to that in our own Milky Way.
Only 150 light-years in diameter, NGC 346 boasts the mass of 50,000 Suns. Its intriguing shape and rapid star formation rate has puzzled astronomers. It took the combined power of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, or VLT, to unravel the behavior of this mysterious-looking stellar nesting ground.
"Stars are the machines that sculpt the universe. We would not have life without stars, and yet we don't fully understand how they form," explained study leader Elena Sabbi of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. "We have several models that make predictions, and some of these predictions are contradictory. We want to determine what is regulating the process of star formation, because these are the laws that we need to also understand what we see in the early universe."
Researchers determined the motion of the stars in NGC 346 in two different ways. Using Hubble, Sabbi and her team measured the changes of the stars' positions over 11 years. The stars in this region are moving at an average velocity of 2,000 miles per hour, which means that in 11 years they move 200 million miles. This is about 2 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.
But this cluster is relatively far away, inside a neighboring galaxy. This means the amount of observed motion is very small and therefore difficult to measure. These extraordinarily precise observations were possible only because of Hubble's exquisite resolution and high sensitivity. Also, Hubble's three-decade-long history of observations provides a baseline for astronomers to follow minute celestial motions over time.
The second team, led by Peter Zeidler of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency, used the ground-based VLT's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument to measure radial velocity, which determines whether an object is approaching or receding from an observer.
"What was really amazing is that we used two completely different methods with different facilities and basically came to the same conclusion, independent of each other," said Zeidler. "With Hubble, you can see the stars, but with MUSE we can also see the gas motion in the third dimension, and it confirms the theory that everything is spiraling inwards."
But why a spiral?
"A spiral is really the good, natural way to feed star formation from the outside toward the center of the cluster," explained Zeidler. "It's the most efficient way that stars and gas fueling more star formation can move towards the center."
Half of the Hubble data for this study of NGC 346 is archival. The first observations were taken 11 years ago. They were recently repeated to trace the motion of the stars over time. Given the telescope's longevity, the Hubble data archive now contains more than 32 years of astronomical data powering unprecedented, long-term studies.
"The Hubble archive is really a gold mine," said Sabbi. "There are so many interesting star-forming regions that Hubble has observed over the years. Given that Hubble is performing so well, we can actually repeat these observations. This can really advance our understanding of star formation."
The teams' findings appear Sept. 8 in The Astrophysical Journal.
Observations with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope should be able to resolve lower-mass stars in the cluster, giving a more holistic view of the region. Over Webb's lifespan, astronomers will be able to repeat this experiment and measure the motion of the low-mass stars. They could then compare the high-mass stars and the low-mass stars to finally learn the full extent of the dynamics of this nursery.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.
A top-10 warm August capped off a distinctly hot summer, as the U.S. saw its third-hottest meteorological summer on record.
Last month was also marked by several extreme rainfall events across the nation that resulted in historic flooding, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information.
Climate by the numbers
Meteorological summer
For meteorological summer (June 1 through Aug. 31), the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 73.9 degrees F, 2.5 degrees above average, ranking as the third-hottest summer in 128 years.
Summer temperatures were above average across most of the contiguous U.S. Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Texas each saw their second-warmest summer on record, while seventeen additional states across the West, South and Northeast saw their top-10 warmest summer on record.
The summer precipitation total across the contiguous U.S. was 8.18 inches — 0.14 of an inch below average — ranking in the middle third in the historical summer record. Precipitation was above average along the West Coast, parts of the Southwest, Midwest, lower Mississippi Valley and northern New England.
Meanwhile, precipitation was below average across the Great Plains and portions of the East Coast. Arizona had its seventh-wettest summer on record as Nebraska saw its third-driest summer.
August 2022
The average temperature for August across the contiguous U.S. was 74.6 degrees F, 2.5 degrees above average, and ranked as the eighth-warmest August on record.
The contiguous U.S. monthly average minimum temperature was record-warm for the second month in a row during August. California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington each ranked warmest on record for August nighttime temperatures.
The average precipitation for August in the contiguous U.S. was 3.04 inches (0.42 of an inch above average), ranking in the wettest third of the climate record. Extreme rainfall events during the month of August contributed substantially to the record-wet August for Mississippi — as well as the third-wettest August for Nevada and Louisiana.
However, a few states stayed quite dry last month, with Nebraska seeing its second-driest August on record and Kansas seeing its seventh driest.
Year to date (YTD, January through August 2022)
The average U.S. temperature for the first eight months of 2021 was 55.4 degrees F — 1.5 degrees above the 20th-century average — ranking in the warmest third of the climate record. Florida had its fourth-warmest such YTD on record and California saw its fifth warmest.
The nation had 19.68 inches of precipitation for the YTD, 1.03 inches below average, ranking in the driest third of the January–August record. California ranked driest YTD on record, while Nebraska ranked fifth driest and Nevada ranked seventh driest for this YTD.
Other notable climate events
Multiple historic flooding events struck: Several extreme 1,000-year flooding events occurred across the U.S. in August. On August 2, parts of southern Illinois were drenched by 8–12 inches of rain in a 12-hour period. An area south of Newton, Illinois, recorded 14 inches of rainfall over the same period. On August 5, Death Valley National Park received 1.70 inches of rain, an all-time 24-hour rainfall record for the area, resulting in substantial flooding and damage to roads and vehicles, temporarily stranding park visitors and staff overnight.
On Aug. 22, some parts of Dallas, Texas, saw more than 13 inches of rainfall within 12 hours. Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a disaster for 23 Texas counties, including Dallas, after storms caused damage and devastating flash flooding.
Drought conditions improved overall: According to the August 30 U.S. Drought Monitor report, 45.5% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought, down about 5.9% from the beginning of August. Drought conditions lessened or were eliminated across portions of the Southwest, southern Plains, central Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes, parts of the Northeast and Puerto Rico.
Drought conditions expanded or intensified across portions of the Northeast, central and northern Plains, the Northwest and Hawaii.
As the record-setting heat wave across the western U.S. continues, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that he has signed legislation to help protect Californians from more frequent and severe heat waves driven by climate change.
The legislation builds on California’s Extreme Heat Action Plan released earlier this year, an all-of-government strategy to strengthen the state’s resilience and mitigate the health, economic and ecological impacts of extreme heat, which fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable Californians.
“This week’s unprecedented heat wave is a painful reminder of the costs and impacts of climate change — and it won’t be the last,” said Gov. Newsom. “California is taking aggressive action to combat the climate crisis and build resilience in our most vulnerable communities, including a comprehensive strategy to protect Californians from extreme heat. With lives and livelihoods on the line, we cannot afford to delay.”
Extreme heat ranks amongst the deadliest of all climate change hazards, with structural inequities playing a significant role in the capacity of individuals, workers, and communities to protect and adapt to its effects.
AB 1643 by Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) will create an advisory committee to inform a study on the effects of extreme heat on California’s workers, businesses and economy.
AB 2238 by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-Arleta) will create the nation's first extreme heat advance warning and ranking system to better prepare communities ahead of heat waves.
AB 2420 by Assemblymember Dr. Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) is a first-in-the-nation measure that directs the California Department of Public Health to review research on the impacts of extreme heat on perinatal health and develop guidance for safe outdoor conditions to protect pregnant workers.
SB 852 by Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa) will allow cities and counties to create climate resilience districts with financing power to invest in programs that tackle extreme heat, drought, wildfire and other climate impacts.
“California has been battling record breaking extreme heat all week. Unfortunately, each summer we are experiencing extreme heat weather events that are hotter and more devastating than the last,” said Assemblywoman Luz Rivas. “Thank you to Gov. Newsom for signing my legislation, AB 2238, that will help save the lives of Californians, and my thanks to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara for his leadership and dedication in pushing this legislation forward. California will now lead the nation with the first advance warning and ranking system for extreme heat waves.”
“California is once again leading the world in fighting climate change and its deadly effects. Ranking heat waves will be a powerful new tool to protect all Californians alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Extreme Heat Action Plan,” said Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who sponsored AB 2238 and issued the first California Climate Insurance Report. “I applaud the governor’s and the bill’s joint authors’ continued leadership on these necessary extreme heat investments and policies that will save lives and close the protection gap for our most at-risk communities as we face more heat waves in the years ahead.”
Earlier this week, Gov. Newsom signed AB 2645 by Assemblymember Freddie Rodriguez (D-Pomona), which requires counties to ensure community resilience centers can serve as community-wide assets to mitigate public health impacts during disasters, including extreme heat events.
Budget legislation signed by the governor earlier this week directs $315 million General Fund over two years to advance implementation of the Extreme Heat Action Plan across various programs that protect communities, the economy and natural systems.
Gov. Newsom’s historic $53.9 billion multi-year climate commitment includes $865 million in total to address extreme heat, with funding to plant trees and expand other school greening projects, bolster community resilience centers that help protect public health during climate-driven extreme weather events, and more.
Extreme heat endangers vulnerable Californians, including our elderly and those with health concerns.
This year’s state budget created the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications and invests $20 million over two years to support public education and outreach to these communities.
Resources and information to help the public stay safe, cool, and connected during this heat wave can be found here.
Tips for how to stay safe during extreme heat:
• If you don’t have an air conditioner, go to a shopping mall or public building for a few hours. If you must be outdoors, wear lightweight clothing and sunscreen, avoid the hottest parts of the day, and avoid strenuous activities. • Sweating removes needed salt and minerals from the body. Avoid drinks with caffeine (tea, coffee, and soda) and alcohol. • Check on friends and family and have someone do the same for you. If you know someone who is elderly or has a health condition, check on them twice a day. Watch for signs of heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Know the symptoms of heat-related illness and be ready to help. • Find cooling centers in your area by contacting your county or calling your local health department, or find one at Cooling Centers | California Governor’s Office of Emergency Management. • Employers who have questions or need assistance with workplace health and safety programs can call Cal/OSHA’s Consultation Services Branch at 800-963-9424. Complaints about workplace safety and health hazards can be filed confidentially with Cal/OSHA district office. Cal/OSHA’s Heat Illness Prevention program includes enforcement of the heat regulation as well as multilingual outreach and training programs for California’s employers and workers. Cal/OSHA inspectors will be conducting unannounced inspections checking for compliance at worksites throughout the state.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — While a week of record-breaking temperatures across Northern California isn’t over just yet, a break in the late summer heat wave is in sight.
The National Weather Service’s excessive heat warning for a large swath of California will remain in effect until 10 p.m. Friday.
In Lake County, forecasters are warning of dangerously hot conditions on Friday, with temperatures of up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.
That’s been the case all this week, with reports of temperatures that topped 110 degrees coming in from around Lake County, peaking midweek.
This week’s hot temperatures have led the California Independent System Operator, or Cal ISO — which operates the state’s energy grid — to issue several energy emergency alerts and flex alerts because of the stress on the power supply as Californians try to stay cool.
Cal ISO said Thursday night that it has issued a flex alert for 4 to 9 p.m. Friday.
“We are grateful to Californians and our many partners across the West who continue to help the #ISO work through this very challenging week,” Cal ISO said in a Thursday night tweet.
While the National Weather Service is anticipating more “unseasonably hot afternoon temperatures” continuing through Friday, there’s hopeful news in the forecast.
The agency said a significant cooling trend will occur this weekend with below normal temperatures likely next week.
Forecasters said temperatures will begin to moderate this weekend as a trough — an area of low pressure in the atmosphere — approaches the North Coast. The National Weather Service said troughs extend toward the equator and usually are associated with cool, wet weather.
Moisture from Hurricane Kay is expected to spread over the North Coast from Saturday night to early Sunday, although the Lake County forecast does not indicate rain will result. However, conditions are expected to be cooler.
“An upper level trough will linger across the area next week resulting in cooler weather and below normal high temperatures,” the National Weather Service said in its long-range forecast.
The specific Lake County forecast calls for daytime temperatures dropping into the high 80s to low 90s on Saturday, and then into the lower 80s through Monday, and into the high 70s through Thursday.
Nighttime temperatures will range from the high 60s over the weekend into the low 50s through late next week.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many puppies and young dogs along with older canines ready to be adopted this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian cattle dog, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, husky, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd 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.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Female pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier has a black and white coat.
Shelter staff said she is a gentle girl with a loving personality who came into the shelter needing some tender loving care.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-3856.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a gray and white coat.
Shelter staff said is a playful young dog who does well on a leash and loves fetch. He will benefit from training.
He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3855.
Male hound mix puppy
This 6-month-old male hound mix puppy has a short brindle coat.
Shelter staff said he is very playful with a lot of energy, and he loves toys. “He is extremely treat motivated and has shown he is eager to learn all the cool tricks you could teach him.”
This 2-month-old female treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 16d, ID No. LCAC-A-3927.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 17a, ID No. LCAC-A-3921.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 17b, ID No. LCAC-A-3922.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 17c, ID No. LCAC-A-3923.
Male Rottweiler-Australian cattle dog cross
This 5-year-old male Rottweiler-Australian cattle dog cross has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-3942.
Female pit bull
This 2-year-old female pit bull has a short brown brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-3918.
Female treeing walker coonhound
This young female treeing walker coonhound has a short black brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3776.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-3780.
Male German shepherd
This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
Shelter staff called him a “handsome sweet dude who is motivated by treats and does well walking on a leash.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-3870.
Male German shepherd
This 3-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-3929.
Female husky
This 1-year-old female husky has a cream and black coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3893.
‘Poppy’
“Poppy” is a 4-month-old female Great Pyrenees with a short white and gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3790.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3930.
‘Piper’
“Piper” is a young female Great Pyrenees with a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-3789.
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.
When Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, Britain was just seven years out of the second world war. Rebuilding work was still ongoing, and rationing key products such as sugar, eggs, cheese and meat would continue for another year or so.
But the austerity and restraint of the 1940s was giving way to a more prosperous 1950s. It is perhaps no wonder, then, that the Queen’s succession was hailed as the “new Elizabethan age”. Society was changing, and here was a young, beautiful queen to sit at its helm.
Seventy years later, Britain looks very different. Elizabeth II ruled over perhaps the most rapid technological expansion and sociopolitical change of any monarch in recent history. Looking back on Elizabeth II’s life raises key questions about not just how the monarchy has changed, but also how Britain itself has transformed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century.
Global Britain
If Elizabeth I’s reign was a period of colonial expansion, conquest and domination, then the “new Elizabethan age” was marked by decolonisation and the loss of Empire.
When Elizabeth II succeeded the throne, the last vestiges of the British Empire were still intact. India had been granted independence in 1947, and other countries soon followed throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Although it existed from 1926, the current Commonwealth was constituted in the London Declaration 1949, making member states “free and equal”. The Commonwealth has a veneer of colonial power given that it shares a history with Empire, and continues to invest the British monarch with symbolic power.
The Commonwealth featured heavily in the 1953 coronation ceremony, from television programmes showing Commonwealth celebrations, to the Queen’s coronation dress decorated with the floral emblems of Commonwealth countries. She continued to celebrate the Commonwealth throughout her reign.
The colonial history of the Commonwealth is reproduced in the values of Brexit, and related nationalist projects which suffer from what Paul Gilroy calls “postcolonial melancholia”. The Queen was the living embodiment of British stoicism, “the Blitz spirit”, and global imperial power, on which so much of the Brexit rhetoric hung. What will the loss of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch do to the nostalgia that contemporary right-wing politics draws upon?
The media and the monarchy
At the coronation, the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, allegedly responded to proposals to broadcast the ceremony on live television that “modern mechanical arrangements” would damage the coronation’s magic, and “religious and spiritual aspects should [not] be presented as if it were a theatrical performance”.
Television was a new technology at the time, and it was feared that televising the ceremony would be too intimate. Despite these concerns, televising the coronation was a big success. The research project “Media and Memory in Wales” found that the coronation played a formative role in people’s first memories of television. Even non-ardent monarchists could give an intimate account of their experiences.
The royal image has always been mediated, from the monarch’s profile on coins, to portraiture. For Elizabeth II this involved radical development: from the emergence of television, through tabloid newspapers and paparazzi, to social media and citizen journalism (processes related to democratisation and participation). Because of this, we now have more access to monarchy than ever before.
In my book, Running The Family Firm: How the monarchy manages its image and our money, I argue that the British monarchy relies upon a careful balance of visibility and invisibility to reproduce its power. The royal family can be visible in spectacular (state ceremonies) or familial (royal weddings, royal babies) forms. But the inner workings of the institution must remain secret.
The monarchy’s striving for this balance can be seen throughout the Queen’s reign. One example is the 1969 BBC-ITV documentary Royal Family. Royal Family used new techniques of “cinema verite” to follow the monarchy for one year – what we would now recognise as “fly-on-the-wall” reality television.
It gave us intimate glimpses of domestic scenes, such as family barbecues, and the Queen taking infant Prince Edward to a sweet shop. Despite its popularity, many were concerned that the voyeuristic style fractured the mystique of monarchy too far. Indeed, Buckingham Palace redacted the 90-minute documentary so it is not available for public viewing, and 43-hours of footage remained unused.
“Royal confessionals”, modelled on celebrity culture and notions of intimacy and disclosure, have haunted the monarchy over the past few decades. Diana’s Panorama interview in 1995 was iconic, where she told interviewer Martin Bashir about royal adultery, palace plots against her, and her deteriorating mental and physical health.
More recently, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey discussed what they described as “the Firm’s” racism, lack of accountability, and its dismissal of Markle’s mental health. These interviews really did expose the inner-workings of institution, and ruptured the visibility/invisibility balance.
Like the rest of the world, the monarchy now has an account on most major UK social media platforms. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Instagram account, run on behalf of Prince William, Kate Middleton and their children, is perhaps the most obvious example of royal familialism in the contemporary age.
The photographs appear natural, impromptu and informal, and the Instagram is framed as the Cambridge “family photo album”, allowing “intimate” glimpses into Cambridge family life. Yet, as with every royal representation, these photographs are precisely staged.
Social media has given the monarchy access to new audiences: a younger generation who are more likely to scroll royal photographs on phone apps than read newspapers. How will this generation respond to the death of the monarch?
Political figures
The Queen succeeded to the throne during a period of radical political transformation. The Labour Party’s Clement Atlee had won office in 1945 in a sensational, landslide election which seemed to signal voters desire for change. The establishment of the NHS in 1948 as a central policy of the postwar welfare state, promised support from cradle to grave.
Winston Churchill’s Conservative party retook parliament in 1952. Churchill spoke to a different version of Britain: more traditional, imperialist, and staunchly monarchist. Such contrasting ideologies were visible in responses to the Queen’s coronation in June 1953.
David Low’s satirical protest cartoon “The Morning After”, published in the Manchester Guardian on June 3 1953, depicted party litter (bunting, champagne bottles) and the text “£100,000,000 spree” scrawled across the floor. The cartoon promptly instigated 600 letters of criticism for being in “bad taste”, and drew attention to contrasting political ideologies.
In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government began a systematic dismantling the postwar welfare state, instead emphasising neoliberal free markets, tax cuts and individualism.
By the time of Tony Blair’s “Cool Britannia” years at the turn of the new millennium, the Queen was an older woman. Princess Diana was famously the “people’s princess” of the age, as her new brand of intimacy and “authenticity” threatened to expose an “out of touch” monarchy.
By 2000, three years after Diana’s death in a car accident in Paris, support for monarchy was at its lowest point. The Queen was believed to have acted inappropriately, failing to respond to public grief and “represent her people”. The Express, for example, published the headline “Show us you care: mourners call for the Queen to lead our grief”.
Eventually, she gave a televised speech which mitigated her silence by emphasising her role as grandmother, busy “helping” William and Harry address their grief. We’ve seen this grandmotherly role elsewhere too: in her 90th birthday photographs in 2016, taken by Annie Leibowitz, she sat in a domestic setting surrounded by her youngest grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
What next?
This is the image of the Queen that many will remember: an older woman, dressed pristinely, clutching her iconic, familiar handbag. While she was head of state throughout many of the seismic political, social and cultural changes of the 20th and 21st centuries, the fact that she rarely gave a political opinion means she successfully navigated the monarch’s constitutional political neutrality.
She also ensured that she remained an icon. She was never really given a “personality” like other royals, who have initiated a love-hate relationship with the public because we know more about them.
The Queen remained an image: indeed, she is the most represented person in British history. For seven decades British people have not been able to make a cash purchase without encountering her face. Such quotidian banality demonstrates monarchy’s – and the Queen’s – interweaving into Britain’s fabric.
The Queen’s death is bound to prompt Britain’s reflection on its past, its present and its future. Time will tell what the reign of Charles III will look like, but one thing is for sure: the “new Elizabethan age” is long gone. Britain is now recovering from recent ruptures in its status quo, from Brexit, to the COVID-19 pandemic, to ongoing calls for Scottish independence.
Charles III inherits a very different country than that of his mother. What purpose, if any, will the next monarchy have for Britain’s future?
WASHINGTON, DC — The Department of the Interior on Thursday announced the Board on Geographic Names has voted on the final replacement names for nearly 650 geographic features featuring a derogatory term used to describe Native American women, including 80 in California.
The final vote completes the last step in the historic efforts to remove the word “squaw” — a term that has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial and sexist slur, particularly for Indigenous women — from federal use.
“I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “I am grateful to the members of the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force and the Board on Geographic Names for their efforts to prioritize this important work. Together, we are showing why representation matters and charting a path for an inclusive America.”
Three sites in Lake County are included and are being renamed:
• Big Sq__ Valley will now be known as Habematolel Valley. • Little Sq__ Valley is now Log Valley. • Sq__ Valley Creek is now Habematolel Creek.
Among neighboring counties, Mendocino County had five sites renamed, and one each in Colusa, Glenn and Sonoma counties.
The final vote reflects a months-long effort by the Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force established by Secretary’s Order 3404, which included representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture’s U.S. Forest Service.
During the public comment period, the Task Force received more than 1,000 recommendations for name changes. Nearly 70 Tribal governments participated in nation-to-nation consultation, which yielded another several hundred recommendations.
While the new names are immediately effective for federal use, the public may continue to propose name changes for any features — including those announced today — through the regular BGN process.
The renaming effort included several complexities: evaluation of multiple public or Tribal recommendations for the same feature; features that cross Tribal, federal and state jurisdictions; inconsistent spelling of certain Native language names; and reconciling diverse opinions from various proponents. In all cases, the Task Force carefully evaluated every comment and proposal.
In July, the Department announced an additional review by the BGN for seven locations, including in California, that are considered unincorporated populated places. Noting that there are unique concerns with renaming these sites, the BGN will seek out additional review from the local communities and stakeholders before making a final determination.
Secretary's Order 3404 and the Task Force considered only the sq___ derogatory term in its scope. Secretary’s Order 3405 created a Federal Advisory Committee for the Department to formally receive advice from the public regarding additional derogatory terms, derogatory terms on federal land units, and the process for derogatory name reconciliation. Next steps on the status of that Committee will be announced in the coming weeks.