Women are over-represented in lower paying jobs and, as they age, the pay gap widens even more.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Quarterly Workforce Indicators (QWI) shows the pay and age dynamic of women and men. Here, we looked at workers ages 35-44.
According to the QWI data based on unemployment insurance wage records for the third quarter of 2020 (the most recent national data), women in the United States earned 30% less than men and that pay gap increased with age.
Although the gender pay gap has narrowed since the signing of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, women earned 82 cents for every dollar a man earns according to 2020 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The gender gap has narrowed for younger women as they increase their education level and break into occupations traditionally dominated by men.
While women have a growing presence in higher paying industries like Information or Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services, they are still over-represented in lower paying industries.
QWI Explorer provides easy access to national data on earnings of women and men. It shows a gap in monthly wages of almost $4,000 for women compared to men with a bachelor’s or advanced degree.
Women are more likely than men to be employed in professional and related occupations, according to a 2019 BLS report. Within the professional category, however, the proportion of women in higher paying jobs is much smaller than that of men.
The data also shows there are nearly 15 million women in Health Care and Social Services, over 7 million in Retail and Trade and 5.5 million in Accommodations and Food Services.
QWI Explorer
The QWI Explorer allows users to examine different aspects of the labor market through interactive tables that compare and rank labor force statistics on:
• Employment. • Job creation and destruction. • Wages. • Hires and separations.
Through interactive visualizations and detailed reports, users can analyze earnings by worker sex, race, education, industry, and age across national, state, metro/micropolitan and workforce investment areas.
An infographic published last year using 2019 data from the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics’ Quarterly Workforce Indicators Explorer illustrates the trend.
Earlene K.P. Dowell is a program analyst in the Census Bureau’s Economic Management Division/Data User and Trade Outreach Branch.
Deepa Burman, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences and Hiren Muzumdar, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences
Springing forward is usually harder that falling backward. Why?
The natural internal body clock rhythm in people tends to be slightly longer than 24 hours, which means that every day we tend to delay our sleep schedules. Thus, “springing forward” goes against the body’s natural rhythm. It is similar to a mild case of jet lag caused by traveling east – in which you lose time and have trouble falling asleep at an earlier hour that night.
Even though it’s technically just one hour lost due to the time change, the amount of sleep deprivation due to disrupted sleep rhythm lasts for many days and often throws people off schedule, leading to cumulative sleep loss.
Welead a sleep evaluation center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and regularly see patients who are dealing with sleep loss and internal clocks that are not synchronized with external time. Our experience has shown us that it’s important to prepare, as much as possible, for the time shift that occurs every spring.
Is there something to be done to help to deal with this loss of sleep and change of body clock timing?
Of course. The first step is increasing awareness and using the power of knowledge to combat this issue. Here are some quick tips to prepare yourself for the upcoming weekend.
Do not start with a “sleep debt.” Ensure that you and, if you’re a parent, your child get adequate sleep on a regular basis leading up to the time change each year. Most adults need anywhere from seven to nine hours of sleep daily to perform adequately. Children have varying requirements for sleep depending on their age.
Prepare for the time change. Going to bed – and for parents, putting your kids to bed – 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night in the week preceding the time change is ideal. Having an earlier wake time can help you get to sleep earlier. Try to wake up an hour earlier than is customary on Saturday, the day before the time change. If you have not been able to make any changes to your sleep schedule in advance, then keep a very consistent wake time on weekdays as well as weekends to adjust to the time change more easily.
Use light to your advantage. Light is the strongest cue for adjusting the internal body clock. Expose yourself to bright light upon waking as you start getting up earlier in the week before daylight saving time. If you live in a place where natural light is limited in the morning after clocks change, use bright artificial light to signal your body clock to wake up earlier. As the season progresses, this will be less of an issue as the sun rises earlier in the day.
At night, minimize exposure to bright light and especially the blue light emitted by the screens of electronic media. This light can shift your body rhythm and signal your internal clock to wake up later the next day. If your devices permit, set their screens to dim and emit less blue light in the evening.
In some geographic locations, it might be helpful to have room-darkening curtains at bedtime depending on how much sunlight your room gets at bedtime. Be sure to open the curtains in the morning to allow the natural morning light to set your sleep-wake cycle.
Carefully plan your day and evening activities. The night before the time change, set yourself up for a good night’s sleep by incorporating relaxing activities that can help you wind down, such as reading a book or meditating.
Incorporate exercise in the morning or early in the day. Take a walk, even if it is just around the house or your office during the day.
If you’re a parent or caregiver, try to be patient with your kids as they adjust to the new times. Sleep deprivation affects the entire family, and some kids have a harder time adjusting to the time change than others. You may notice more frequent meltdowns, irritability and loss of attention and focus. Set aside more quiet, electronic media-free time in the evening. Consider a brief 20-minute nap in the early afternoon for younger children who are having a difficult time dealing with this change.
[Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.Sign up today.]
Prioritizing sleep pays off in the short term and over the years. A good night’s sleep is a necessary ingredient for a productive and fulfilling day all year long.
This is an updated version of an article originally published on March 7, 2019.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – As spring approaches, it’s once again time to reset the clocks.
Daylight Saving Time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 13.
California goes from Pacific Standard Time to Pacific Daylight Time when clocks “spring forward” by one hour.
Besides adjusting the clock, fire officials urge community members to use the beginning of Daylight Saving Time to remember to change batteries in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors as well as in NOAA weather radios.
This year, Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday, Nov. 6.
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 Lakeport City Council is set to hold public hearings on new regulations to update city code involving skateboarding and skating and design standards for multifamily dwellings.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The agenda can be found here.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15.
On Tuesday, the council will get one of its regular reports from the All Children Thrive Youth Governance Council.
The council will hold a public hearing to adopt an ordinance adding new chapters to the Lakeport Municipal Code related to skating and skateboarding in any skate park, parklands and the downtown district.
Another public hearing is scheduled to consider a draft ordinance modifying city rules referring to accessory dwelling units and objective design standards, and setting a second reading for April 5, and adoption of a draft resolution establishing the Lakeport citywide residential objective design and development standards for multifamily dwellings.
Under council business, Community Development Director Jenni Byers will present the Housing Element Annual Report and Assistant City Manager Nick Walker will give the second quarter financial update.
Utilities Superintendent Paul Harris will ask the council to approve the contract award for a 40 pound-per-day ozone generator from Oxidation Technologies and approval to conduct a sewer capacity study of the city’s wastewater treatment plant in the amount of $65,970.
On the consent agenda — items usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the council’s regular meeting on March 1; adoption of a resolution authorizing continued remote teleconference meetings of the Lakeport City Council and its legislative bodies pursuant to Government Code section 54953(e); approve event application 2022-011, with staff recommendations, for the 2022 Children’s Festival; approve the Military use policy and city ordinance, as drafted, and set this matter for public hearing at the April 5 meeting; and authorize out-of-state travel for Utilities Superintendent Paul Harris, Water Operations Supervisor Forrest Stogner and Wastewater Facilities Supervisor Steven Grossner to attend the California Rural Water Association’s Annual Expo.
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 more dogs waiting for homes this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Anatolian shepherd, Australian cattle dog, Australian Kelpie, border collie, Catahoula leopard dog, Chihuahua, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, husky, Labrador retriever, shepherd and pit bull.
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”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Barney’
“Barney” is a 3-year-old male retriever with a brown and black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-2856.
Female German shepherd
This young female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 5, ID No. LCAC-A-2853.
‘Jasmine’
“Jasmine” is a young female husky with a gray and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-2850.
Female pit bull mix
This young female pit bull terrier mix has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-2890.
Female shepherd mix
This 5-year-old female shepherd mix has a tricolor coat.
She was in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-2793.
Female shepherd mix
This 7-year-old female shepherd mix has a tricolor coat.
She was in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-2792.
‘Jingo’
“Jingo” is a 3-year-old male Labrador retriever with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-2636.
Male Chihuahua
This 3-year-old male Chihuahua has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 13a, ID No. LCAC-A-2992.
Male Chihuahua
This 2-year-old male Chihuahua has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 13b, ID No. LCAC-A-2993.
Female Labrador retriever
This 4-year-old female Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-2694.
Female German shepherd mix
This 2-year-old female German shepherd mix has a short brown and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-2812.
‘Spike’
“Spike” is a 2-year-old male German shepherd with a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-2809.
‘Max’
“Max” is a 4-year-old male Australian Kelpie mix with a black and tan coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-2852.
Female German shepherd
This 2-year-old female German shepherd has a black coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-2844.
Female shepherd mix
This 1-year-old female shepherd mix has a short tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-2843.
Male pit bull terrier
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-2948.
‘Blue’
“Blue” is a 4-year-old female husky with a gray and white coat, and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-2816.
Anatolian shepherd-Great Pyrenees
This 2-year-old male Anatolian shepherd-Great Pyrenees has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-2536.
Female pit bull
This 1-year-old female pit bull has a short black coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-2824.
Australian cattle dog
This 1-year-old male Australian cattle dog has a short blue and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-2754.
‘Marmalade’
“Marmalade” is a 1-year-old female Catahoula leopard dog with a brown brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-2823.
‘Bruno’
“Bruno” is a 2-year-old male Catahoula leopard dog with a brown and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-2825.
Female pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-3085.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The world is in the grip of an oil price shock. In just a few months, prices have risen from US$65 a barrel to over $130, causing fuel costs to surge, inflationary pressure to rise and consumer tempers to flare. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prices were climbing rapidly because of roaring demand and limited supply growth.
Many factors can trigger oil price shocks. They include large shifts in either demand or supply anywhere in the world, since oil is a global commodity. Shocks can also result from war and revolution; periods of rapid economic growth in major importing nations; and domestic problems in supplier countries, such as political conflict or lack of investment in the oil industry. Overall, the worst spikes have combined two or more of these factors – and that’s the situation today.
50 years of ups and downs
Global oil production began in the mid-1800s and grew rapidly in the first half of the 20th century. For much of that time, oil majors – companies like Chevron, Amoco and Mobil that were created after the Supreme Court ordered the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911 – operated effectively as a cartel, maintaining production at levels that kept oil abundant and cheap to encourage its consumption.
This ended when Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in 1960, nationalizing their oil reserves and gaining real supply power. Over the following decades, other nations in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America joined – some temporarily, others permanently.
In 1973, Arab members of OPEC cut their oil production when Western countries supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War with Egypt and Syria. World oil prices shot up fourfold, from an average of $2.90 per barrel to $11.65.
In response, government leaders in wealthy countries introduced policies to stabilize oil supplies. These included finding more oil, investing in energy research and development, and creating strategic oil reserves that governments could use to mitigate future price shocks.
But six years later, oil prices more than doubled again when Iran’s revolution halted that country’s output. Between mid-1979 and mid-1980, oil rose from $13 per barrel to $34. Over the next several years, a combination of economic recession, replacing oil with natural gas for heating and industry, and shifting to smaller vehicles helped to mitigate oil demand and prices.
More disruptive price shocks occurred in 2005-2008 and 2010-2014. The first resulted from increased demand generated by economic growth in China and India. At that time, OPEC was unable to expand production due to long-term lack of investment.
Today, multiple factors are raising oil prices. There are three key elements:
Oil demand has grown more rapidly than expected in recent months as countries emerged from pandemic lockdowns.
OPEC+, a loose partnership between OPEC and Russia, has not raised production at a commensurate level, and neither have U.S. shale oil companies.
Countries have drawn on stocks of oil and fuel to fill the supply gap, reducing this emergency cushion to low levels.
These developments have made oil traders worry about looming scarcity. In response, they have bid oil prices up. It’s worth noting that while consumers often blame oil companies (and politicians) for high oil prices, these prices are set by commodity traders in venues such as the New York, London and Singapore stock exchanges.
Against this backdrop, Russia attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Traders saw the potential for sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports and bid energy prices even higher.
And on March 8, the U.S. and U.K. governments announced bans on imports of Russian oil. Neither country is a major Russian buyer, but their actions set a precedent that some analysts and traders fear could lead to escalation, with Russia reducing or eliminating exports to U.S. allies.
In my view, this set of conditions is unprecedented. It reflects not just increased complexity in the global market, but also an imperative for energy firms – which already are under pressure from shareholder climate activists – to avoid further reputational damage and leave one of the most oil-rich countries in the world. Some companies, such as BP, are abandoning assets worth tens of billions of dollars.
What could ease this shock?
As I see it, the key players that can help curtail this price shock are OPEC – mainly, Saudi Arabia – and the U.S. For these entities, holding back oil supply is a choice. However, there’s no evidence yet that they are likely to change their positions.
Restoring the Iran nuclear deal and lifting sanctions on Iranian oil would add oil to the market, though not enough to greatly reduce prices. More output from smaller producers, such as Guyana, Norway, Brazil and Venezuela, would also help. But even combined, these countries can’t match what the Saudis or the U.S. could do to increase supply.
All of these uncertainties make history only a partial guide to this oil shock. Currently there is no way to know how long the factors driving it will last, or whether prices will go higher. This isn’t much comfort to consumers facing higher fuel costs around the world.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a trio of cats ready to be adopted.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
‘Bruno’
“Bruno” is a young male Siamese with red markings and blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 255, ID No. LCAC-A-2828.
‘Precious’
“Precious” is a 2-year-old female domestic longhair with a gray and white coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 103, ID No. LCAC-A-3070.
‘Sticks’
“Sticks” is a young male Siamese with red markings and blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 255, ID No. LCAC-A-2829.
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.
NASA’s Psyche mission is almost ready for its moment in the Sun — a 1.5-billion-mile solar-powered journey to a mysterious, metal-rich asteroid of the same name.
Twin solar arrays have been attached to the spacecraft body, unfolded lengthwise and then restowed. This test brings the craft that much closer to completion before its August launch.
“Seeing the spacecraft fully assembled for the first time is a huge accomplishment; there’s a lot of pride,” said Brian Bone, who leads assembly, test, and launch operations for the mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This is the true fun part. You’re feeling it all come together. You feel the energy change and shift.”
At 800 square feet, the five-panel, cross-shaped solar arrays are the largest ever installed at JPL, which has built many spacecraft over the decades. When the arrays fully deploy in flight, the spacecraft will be about the size of a singles tennis court.
After a 3 ½-year solar-powered cruise, the craft will arrive in 2026 at the asteroid Psyche, which is 173 miles (280 kilometers) at its widest point and thought to be unusually rich in metal. The spacecraft will spend nearly two years making increasingly close orbits of the asteroid to study it.
Venturing to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, far from the Sun, presents challenges for this mission, which adapted standard Earth-orbiting commercial satellite technology for use in the cold and dark of deep space. Near Earth, the solar arrays generate 21 kilowatts — enough electricity to power three or four average U.S. homes. But at Psyche, they’ll produce only about 2 kilowatts — sufficient for little more than a hair dryer.
The underlying technology isn’t much different from solar panels installed on a home, but Psyche’s are hyper-efficient, lightweight, radiation resistant, and able to provide more power with less sunlight, said Peter Lord, Psyche technical director at Maxar Technologies in Palo Alto, California, where the arrays and solar electric propulsion chassis were built.
“These arrays are designed to work in lowlight conditions, far away from the Sun,” he added.
After the successful installation and deployment of the three center panels inside a clean room at JPL, Psyche’s arrays were folded back against the chassis and stowed for additional spacecraft testing.
The arrays will return to Maxar, which has specialized equipment to test the deployment of the two perpendicular cross panels. Later this spring, the arrays will be reunited with the spacecraft at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and stowed for launch from Cape Canaveral.
About an hour after launch, the arrays will deploy and latch into place in a process that will take 7 ½ minutes per wing. They will then provide all the power for the journey to asteroid Psyche, as well as the power needed to operate the science instruments: a magnetometer to measure any magnetic field the asteroid may have, imagers to photograph and map its surface, and spectrometers to reveal the composition of that surface.
The arrays also power the Deep Space Optical Communications technology demonstration that will test high-data-rate laser communications.
What those instruments relay to scientists will help them better understand the mysterious asteroid. One possible explanation for Psyche’s unusually high metal content is that it formed early in our solar system’s history, either as remnant core material from a planetesimal — one of the building blocks of rocky planets — or as primordial material that never melted.
This mission aims to find out, and to help answer fundamental questions about Earth’s own metal core and the formation of our solar system.
Arizona State University leads the Psyche mission. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar is providing the high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis. Psyche was selected in 2017 as the 14th mission under NASA’s Discovery Program.
What's up for March? Meet the morning planets, the nearest star cluster, and some do-it-yourself exoplanets.
Saturn joins Venus and Mars this month in the morning sky. Beginning around March 18 or 19, early risers may notice Saturn steadily moving toward Mars and Venus each day, to form a trio low in the east before sunrise.
The crescent moon joins the crowd on March 27 and 28. Saturn and Mars are headed toward a super-close meeting at the start of April. (More about that in next month's video.)
Look high in the southwest on March evenings, and you'll find the tall, Y-shaped constellation Taurus, the bull. And at the center of Taurus, forming the bull's face, is a grouping of stars known as the Hyades star cluster. It's the closest open star cluster to our solar system, containing hundreds of stars.
Now, an open cluster is a group of stars that are close together in space and loosely bound together by their mutual gravity. These are stars that formed together around the same time, from the same cloud of dust and gas. Over time they blow away that leftover nebula material and drift apart.
Because of this and their open, or diffuse, structures, they're called "open" clusters. Our own Sun formed in a cluster like this, and studying these structures helps us understand how stars form and evolve.
Another well-known open cluster is the Pleiades, which is also located in Taurus. The Hyades and the Pleiades are actually about the same size, at about 15 or so light-years across. But the Pleiades is about 3 times farther away, so it appears more compact.
You don't need a telescope to find the Hyades. Look for this V-shaped grouping of stars in Taurus. Use the stars of Orion's belt as a handy pointer, leading you to bright orange Aldebaran. (Aldebaran isn't actually part of the star cluster. It's located halfway to the Hyades, and just happens to be visible in the foreground.)
So check out the Hyades in March, where you'll see a handful of stars with the unaided eye, and more than a hundred with binoculars.
March skies contain several easy-to-find, bright stars that are known to have planets of their own orbiting around them. Locate these distant "suns" for yourself and you'll know you're peering directly at another planetary system.
First is Epsilon Tauri, the right eye of Taurus the bull. This orange dwarf star has a gas giant planet around 8 times the mass of Jupiter. Next is 7 Canis Majoris. This is the star at the heart of the dog constellation that contains blazing bright Sirius. This star is known to have two planets: a gas giant nearly twice the mass of Jupiter and another just a little smaller than Jupiter.
Moving on, we find Tau Geminorum, the star at the heart of Castor — northernmost of the twins in Gemini. Tau Geminorum has a huge gas giant planet 20 times the mass of Jupiter in an orbit only slightly larger than that of Earth. And finally, wheeling around to the north, is Beta Ursae Minoris, the brightest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper. This star has a 6-Jupiter-mass planet in orbit around it.
Researchers expect that most stars have a family of planets orbiting them, because forming planets is a natural part of forming stars. And now you know how to find a few of them yourself, no telescope required.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service is forecasting chances of rain throughout Lake County for much of the coming week.
Forecasters said a fast-moving cold front was expected to bring showers and gusty winds to much of northwest California overnight, with a wetter front to bring steadier rains and gusty winds on Sunday and into Monday night before showers taper off on Tuesday.
Trace amounts of rain were recorded in Lake County on Saturday afternoon, with rain expected overnight.
The forecast for Lake County calls for rain from Sunday through Tuesday, during which time about a quarter inch is expected to fall.
There will be a break for sunny and partly cloudy conditions on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, forecasters said.
Rain is likely on Friday night and on Saturday, the National Weather Service reported.
Conditions early this week also are expected to include winds with speeds above 10 miles per hour through Tuesday night, forecaster said.
Temperatures this week will range from the low to high 40s at night and the mid 50s to high 60s during the day, the National Weather Service reported.
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. — Registered nurses at Sutter Lakeside Hospital are planning to hold an informational picket at the hospital next week, joining nurses across 15 facilities who are seeking a contract that improves staffing, as well as workplace violence and pandemic readiness.
The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United said the picket in Lakeport will take place at the hospital from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 15.
“We have been on the front lines before and during this pandemic,” said Amy Erb, critical care RN at California Pacific Medical Center of San Francisco. “Throughout this time, we have witnessed Sutter Health become profitable while they refuse to invest in the resources we need in order for us to provide safe and effective care to our patients and community.”
Nurses notified Sutter Health corporate officials on March 4 that they would hold an informational picket.
The unions said Sutter Health RNs have been in contract negotiations since June 2021 for a new contract with little to no movement on key issues.
The RNs are asking Sutter’s management to invest in nursing staff and agree to a contract that provides safe staffing that allows nurses to provide safe and therapeutic care; pandemic readiness protections that require the hospitals to invest in personal protective equipment stockpiles and comply with California's PPE stockpile law; presumptive eligibility for workers’ compensation that covers infectious diseases and protocols that ensure nurses have the resources needed to keep their patients and themselves safe; and workplace violence protections that include plans to mitigate and prevent violence within the hospitals and comply with the state's workplace violence prevention law.
“Sutter Health is not investing in us, the nurses, or the community they should be serving,” said Renee Waters, RN in the trauma neuro intensive care unit at Sutter Roseville. “Instead, they are frequently using the word ‘commitment’ in their responses to us without actually agreeing to proposals that hold them accountable. Sutter failed us during the pandemic. Our proposals are intended to correct Sutter’s gaps in pandemic readiness and workplace violence prevention. We want to have a proactive approach to the protections we deserve. We need Sutter to back up their statements that we are heroes and valued, with agreements to our proposals at the bargaining table.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Community members were offered a look at the causes behind the growing problem of tree mortality across Lake County during a virtual town hall Thursday night.
District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska hosted the tree mortality and fire prevention town hall, which was presented by the Lake County Risk Reduction Authority and the Tree Mortality Task Force, the latter created recently in response to the extensive dieoff of so many Lake County trees.
A key presenter on Thursday was Dr. Michael Jones, University of California Cooperative Extension forestry advisory for Lake County and an entomologist, who discussed the county’s conifer mortality.
Jones said this is a forest health issue, explaining that forests are very dynamic systems. “Disturbances are incredibly important in forests,” he said, adding that fire is crucial in the health of our forests.
He suggested thinking about it from two perspectives: ecological, the natural process that leads to sustainable ecological conditions; and utilitarian, the production of forest conditions which directly satisfy human needs.
It’s important to consider how to think about the situation. “It really dictates how we think about managing our forests” and what we do when we have outbreaks, Jones said.
Jones said disturbances can be abiotic, which includes weather, earthquakes, floods, snow, ice mudslides, climate, drought, fire and asteroids, the latter a reference to the Tunguska 1908 incident in Siberia in which an asteroid or meteor leveled a forest.
They also can be biotic, which includes the impacts of humans — historical land management practices, changes in land use, fire suppression and climate change — as well as animals, insects and diseases, Jones said.
Looking at all of the dead trees on the landscape, it’s known that they’re caused by bark beetles and pests. “But it’s really important to remember that insects are a natural disturbance,” Jones explained.
“The insects that we are observing and detecting in this current infestation are all native,” he said.
Those insects serve an important ecological process, helping maintain the dynamic heterogeneity of forest structure. Jones said they also serve as food for wildlife, help cull dead, dying and diseased trees, and are crucial to maintaining the health of systems.
From a utilitarian perspective, they become forest pests because they have economic impacts and are competing for resources, Jones said.
Those insects are always present but a lot of mortality isn’t seen all the time. Disturbances have to align to cause a high level of mortality, and a lot of different factors have to come into play, he said.
Jones is part of an effort to track the landscape-level mortality event from northern Mendocino County, through Lake, Sonoma and Napa counties. “It’s a pretty significant outbreak we're experiencing,” and one they’re comparing to the one that happened in the Sierra a few years ago.
Explaining how the system moves from stressed to dying trees, Jones noted Lake County’s significant years of wildfire and pointed out that wildfire stressed trees are attractive to these beetles and prove to be ideal bark beetle hosts.
He said they feed on dead trees and can complete multiple generations each year. The beetles then spread to other stressed trees and exponentially increase in population as they go.
When they run out of the fire-stressed trees, they move to healthier trees, with the beetles doing a “mass attack” on one tree at a time.
Jones said healthy and vigorous trees can defend against the beetles, pushing them out with sap or pitch. However, if it’s stressed from fire damage, in a dense forest or water stressed due to drought, the tree won’t produce pitch and then the beetles’ feeding eventually kills it.
Outbreaks don’t end from management, Jones said, explaining that the synergistic conditions need to fall apart to stop infestation.
The main insect impacting Lake County’s trees is the western pine beetle, with the ponderosa pine as its host. Jones said it’s typically found in stressed trees and isn’t usually the primary agency of mortality; typically it's the last part of a larger suite of forest health issues.
Other beetles impacting Lake County’s forests include the red turpentine beetle, which is hosted by pines; the ips bark beetle, which targets western pine species; and the flatheaded fir borer, which is hosted by fir and Douglas fir.
Handling bark beetles is a very complicated process that comes down to integrated management. “There’s no one right answer,” Jones said.
Options are thinning, pheromones, insecticides, removing and destroying infested material and planting nonsusceptible hosts. Jones said there are no effective pheromone treatments for the species they’re dealing with and while insecticides work well with bark beetle, they’re reserved for high value trees due to cost.
Once an infestation is established, it can’t be eradicated and the best strategy is to remove and destroy the affected trees, Jones said.
PG&E assessment finds hundreds of dead trees
Pacific Gas and Electric representatives Melinda Rivera and Dan Kida participated in the town hall, giving an update on the company’s midyear patrol of the Cobb Mountain area.
Rivera said they found an exponential number of trees that were dying from drought or beetle kill — more than they’ve found in prior years.
“We are making plans now to mobilize additional tree crews,” Rivera said.
While the company doesn’t usually do wood hauling, due to the unprecedented impact of the dying trees, she said they will offer parcel owners the opportunity to have wood removed this year.
Kida, who works for PG&E in vegetation management, said they recognized that just going through and conducting an annual patrol was not enough to pick up all dead and dying trees.
Now they do an additional patrol six months after the annual patrol and have added enhanced vegetation management, Kida said.
In the Cobb area, Kida said they have identified 750 dead and dying trees, significantly more than forecasted.
The company expects to start tree work in the next week or two. Meantime, Kida said they have enhanced vegetation patrols taking place around Loch Lomond and Middletown.
“We realize this is an unprecedented event,” and they are trying to work quickly to address it, Rivera said.
Rivera said community members wanting more information can call 877-295-4949 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
More information on PG&E’s work is available here.
Fire chief warns of dry conditions
Paul Duncan, Cal Fire North Division operations chief, gave an update on the weather and fire conditions in Lake County.,
“We have not had significant rain since december. That’s really causing our environment to dry out here,” Duncan said.
He noted there have been several escaped control burns as well as higher fire spread.
“March 10 is really acting like June 10 for burning intensity,” Duncan said.
Duncan said Cal Fire is working to hire its seasonal firefighters by the first part of April.
Resources will be staffed up earlier, and large type one helicopters are going to be based in Sonoma and Napa counties.
Defensible space inspections will be taking place, Lake County County Fire will be working on escape corridors thanks to new grant-funded equipment and they've also been working to increase clearances around communications infrastructure, Duncan reported.
“Just be a good neighbor,” said Duncan, explaining that community safety is really about everybody in the community, not just one person, and it’s important to work on vegetation clearing.
He suggested that people report owners who are not clearing their property of hazardous vegetation should make a complaint to the Community Development Department.
Pyska noted on Thursday night, “A lot is happening. We take this work very seriously.”
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.