LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Friday's rain topped expectations in most parts of the the county.
The National Weather Service had predicted up to half an inch of rain during the day and about another tenth of an inch Friday evening, as Lake County News has reported.
As of 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the agency's weather stations reported the following 24-hour totals, in inches:
– Bear Canyon (Cobb area): 1.20; – Boggs Mountain: 1.0; – High Glade Lookout (above Upper Lake): 1.22; – Indian Valley Reservoir: 0.44; – Kelseyville: 0.69; – Lower Lake: 0.27; – Lyons Valley (near Lakeport): 0.86; – Putah Creek (near Middletown): 0.77; – Upper Lake: 0.50.
The rains have helped keep Clear Lake just above the “full” level of 7.56 feet Rumsey. It was at 7.57 feet Rumsey early Saturday, according to US Geological Survey records.
Forecasters said there could be more rain on Sunday night – when there is a 20-percent chance – with conditions then clearing until Tuesday night, when there will be a slight chance of showers continuing through Wednesday night.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
SACRAMENTO – As part of their commitment to increased roadway safety, California transportation entities recently completed their 500th Traffic Incident Management (TIM) responder training session, which includes instruction on the best practices for detecting, verifying, responding to, and clearing traffic incidents safely and efficiently.
Since January 2014, these sessions have trained 13,000 first responders in California, the most in the United States.
TIM training, which is offered by the Federal Highway Administration at no cost, is designed to train law enforcement, fire/rescue, emergency medical services, transportation, public works, towing, and dispatcher personnel.
Graduates have applied these skills in the field with considerable benefit for both the responders and the general public.
“Caltrans’ highest priority is safety, both for our workers and the traveling public,” said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty. “This responder training is a key step toward protecting both of them when an incident occurs on the highway.”
Almost 40 percent of TIM participants are from the California Highway Patrol (CHP).
“Tragically, the CHP lost one of its own officers last month as he worked to make the roadway safer for travelers,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. “TIM remains an important part of training for all who are responsible for making our roadways safer.”
An average of one traffic injury occurs every three minutes in California, or 184,000 annually. In addition to travel delays and increased greenhouse gas emissions, these incidents come with an additional deadly price: In California, 26 responders have been struck and killed while dealing with incidents since 2010.
All responder disciplines have been fatally impacted, including fire/rescue, California Highway Patrol, Caltrans, emergency medical technicians and towing personnel.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The Lake County Sheriff's Office reported Friday that doctors have declared the deputy injured this week off the Mendocino Coast brain dead.
Jake Steely, 39, and his 11-year-old son were rescued from the ocean at Mendocino Headlands State Park on Monday, as Lake County News has reported.
Steely subsequently was flown to Enloe Medical Center in Chico for treatment, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
At 2:40 p.m. Thursday, doctors at Enloe Hospital determined that Steely had suffered irreversible brain damage and pronounced him brain dead, Brooks said.
Deputy Steely, a nine-year law enforcement veteran at both the Lakeport Police Department and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, had chosen to be an organ donor. With his family’s approval, he remains on life support so that his organs may be donated this week, according to Brooks.
Brooks said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, along with several other law enforcement agencies, will escort Steely and his family home to Lake County within the upcoming days.
Deputy Steely is survived by his wife, Lynda Steely; children, Alexsandria Calbreath, Braiden Wayment, Tori Wayment, Nia Steely and Ty Steely; brother, Caleb Steely and David Laird; sisters, Anna Mix, Leabeth York, Abigail Steely, Becky Steely and Deborah Langley; parents, Luke and Karen Steely; and grandmother, Marian Steely.
Cards and condolences will be accepted at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 1220 Martin St., Lakeport, CA 95453.
For those wanting to make a donation to assist the Steely family during this tragic time, a Go Fund Me account has been set up in Deputy Steely’s name at https://www.gofundme.com/29y4dxk4 , and a “Dep. Jake Steely Family” account has been opened at Mendo-Lake Credit Union in Lakeport.
The California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, or CACEO, has launched an election costs Web site, produced as a result of a generous grant from the James Irvine Foundation, and created in partnership with Q2 Consulting.
“Election costs vary from county to county and this new website is designed to assist the public in understanding election costs throughout California,” said Orange County Registrar of Voters and CACEO President Neal Kelley.
From polling places to poll workers – ballot production to multi-lingual support – you will be able to explore and compare costs dating back to 2004.
CACEO will continue to collect costs from counties for the 2016 Primary and General elections – updates will be posted in 2017.
“We are very happy to share the results of many months of work collecting and analyzing the costs data from California counties,” added Shasta County Clerk/Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen. “Our hope is that, with Irvine's support, as this project grows over time, this information helps to illuminate the larger discussions about election reform both within California, and nationally.”
The site shows that information is unavailable for several counties, including Lake. Why Lake's wasn't available was not clear on Friday.
“We have 47 counties participating and we are hoping for more in 2017,” Kelley told Lake County News.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Caltrans reports that the following road projects will be taking place around Lake County and the North Coast during the coming week.
Included are Mendocino County projects that may impact Lake County commuters.
LAKE COUNTY
Highway 20
– Pavement repairs from Manzanita Drive to the junction of Routes 20/53 will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 15-minute delays.
Highway 29
– Valley Fire recovery work from the Lake/Napa County line to Hidden Valley will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 15-minute delays.
Highway 175
– Valley Fire recovery work from the junction of Routes 29/175 in Middletown to Loch Lomond will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 30-minute delays.
MENDOCINO COUNTY
Highway 1
– PG&E has been granted a Caltrans Encroachment Permit for utility repairs near Big Gulch Road beginning Friday, April 28. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Geotechnical studies near the Little River Bridge and Jack Peters Creek Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Highway repairs just north of Ocean Meadows Circle will continue. One-way traffic control with a temporary signal will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 101
– Caltrans will perform slide repairs near the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge (near Frog Woman Rock). Northbound traffic will be restricted to one lane 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists may experience minor traffic slowdowns.
– Highway construction just south of the Haehl Overhead Bridge will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
– Pavement repairs from County Road 307 to Rattlesnake Creek will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 15-minute delays.
– Emergency slide repairs just south of Standish-Hickey State Park will continue. One-way traffic control will be in effect 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Motorists should anticipate five-minute delays.
Highway 253
– Electrical work from Cattle Pass to Butler Ranch will begin Wednesday, April 27. One-way traffic control will be in effect from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists should anticipate 10-minute delays.
The Caltrans Traffic Operations Office has reviewed each project and determined that individual project delays are expected to be less than the statewide policy maximum of 30 minutes, unless noted otherwise above.
For information pertaining to emergency roadwork or for updates to scheduled roadwork, please contact the California Highway Information Network (CHIN) at 1-800-GAS-ROAD (1-800-427-7623).
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The five candidates seeking the District 4 supervisorial seat met to discuss their reasons for running and how they would serve the district at a Wednesday forum.
Ted Mandrones, Phil Murphy, Ron Rose, Martin Scheel and Tina Scott participated in the event, which took place Wednesday evening at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.
All five will be on the June 7 primary election ballot.
Lake County News and the Lake County Economic Development Corp. partnered to present the event.
The forum, which lasted an hour and 40 minutes, can be seen in its entirety in the video above.
On Sept. 14, waves of energy traveling for more than a billion years gently rattled space-time in the vicinity of Earth.
The disturbance, produced by a pair of merging black holes, was captured by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) facilities in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana.
This event marked the first-ever detection of gravitational waves and opens a new scientific window on how the universe works.
Less than half a second later, the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up a brief, weak burst of high-energy light consistent with the same part of the sky. Analysis of this burst suggests just a 0.2-percent chance of simply being random coincidence.
Gamma-rays arising from a black hole merger would be a landmark finding because black holes are expected to merge “cleanly,” without producing any sort of light.
“This is a tantalizing discovery with a low chance of being a false alarm, but before we can start rewriting the textbooks we'll need to see more bursts associated with gravitational waves from black hole mergers,” said Valerie Connaughton, a GBM team member at the National Space, Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and lead author of a paper on the burst now under review by The Astrophysical Journal.
Detecting light from a gravitational wave source will enable a much deeper understanding of the event. Fermi's GBM sees the entire sky not blocked by Earth and is sensitive to X-rays and gamma rays with energies between 8,000 and 40 million electron volts (eV). For comparison, the energy of visible light ranges between about 2 and 3 eV.
With its wide energy range and large field of view, the GBM is the premier instrument for detecting light from short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which last less than two seconds.
They are widely thought to occur when orbiting compact objects, like neutron stars and black holes, spiral inward and crash together. These same systems also are suspected to be prime producers of gravitational waves.
“With just one joint event, gamma rays and gravitational waves together will tell us exactly what causes a short GRB,” said Lindy Blackburn, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “There is an incredible synergy between the two observations, with gamma rays revealing details about the source's energetics and local environment and gravitational waves providing a unique probe of the dynamics leading up to the event.”
Currently, gravitational wave observatories possess relatively blurry vision. This will improve in time as more facilities begin operation, but for the September event, dubbed GW150914 after the date, LIGO scientists could only trace the source to an arc of sky spanning an area of about 600 square degrees, comparable to the angular area on Earth occupied by the United States.
“That's a pretty big haystack to search when your needle is a short GRB, which can be fast and faint, but that's what our instrument is designed to do,” said Eric Burns, a GBM team member at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “A GBM detection allows us to whittle down the LIGO area and substantially shrinks the haystack.”
Less than half a second after LIGO detected gravitational waves, the GBM picked up a faint pulse of high-energy X-rays lasting only about a second. The burst effectively occurred beneath Fermi and at a high angle to the GBM detectors, a situation that limited their ability to establish a precise position. Fortunately, Earth blocked a large swath of the burst's likely location as seen by Fermi at the time, allowing scientists to further narrow down the burst's position.
The GBM team calculates less than a 0.2-percent chance random fluctuations would have occurred in such close proximity to the merger. Assuming the events are connected, the GBM localization and Fermi's view of Earth combine to reduce the LIGO search area by about two-thirds, to 200 square degrees.
With a burst better placed for the GBM's detectors, or one bright enough to be seen by Fermi's Large Area Telescope, even greater improvements are possible.
The LIGO event was produced by the merger of two relatively large black holes, each about 30 times the mass of the sun. Binary systems with black holes this big were not expected to be common, and many questions remain about the nature and origin of the system.
Black hole mergers were not expected to emit significant X-ray or gamma-ray signals because orbiting gas is needed to generate light. Theorists expected any gas around binary black holes would have been swept up long before their final plunge.
For this reason, some astronomers view the GBM burst as most likely a coincidence and unrelated to GW150914. Others have developed alternative scenarios where merging black holes could create observable gamma-ray emission. It will take further detections to clarify what really happens when black holes collide.
Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity a century ago, and scientists have been attempting to detect them for 50 years. Einstein pictured these waves as ripples in the fabric of space-time produced by massive, accelerating bodies, such as black holes orbiting each other.
Scientists are interested in observing and characterizing these waves to learn more about the sources producing them and about gravity itself.
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy and with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
For more information about NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, visit http://www.nasa.gov/fermi .
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Sutter Lakeside Hospital will host its monthly Wellness & Stroke Recovery support group on Wednesday, April 27, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the hospital conference room.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Bereavement counselors from Hospice Services of Lake County will present to the group on grief, loss and coping mechanisms following the death of a loved one or the diagnosis of a chronic illness such as diabetes, heart failure or COPD.
Grief is defined as deep sorrow typically triggered by a significant loss, such as the death of a loved one or the diagnosis of a life-altering illness such as diabetes, heart failure or COPD.
While individuals cope with grief differently, research shows that a social support system and healthy habits greatly impact the ability to overcome grief, according to the American Psychological Association.
Severe grief, defined by the APA as the bio-psycho-social impact of the death of a loved one that can complicate daily function, requires individualized attention and treatment.
Bereavement support groups can offer a safe place for grieving people to find fellowship with others who are empathetic and understanding.
Groups can help an individual validate his or her feelings of loss, alleviate the loneliness that often accompanies a significant loss, and offer ways to work through the emotional and spiritual implications of sorrow, according to the Hospice Foundation of America.
The group is free and open to the public.
For questions about the group or for more information, please contact Nikki Bullock, M.S.W. by phone at 707-264-9492 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Morgen Wells is community relations and fund development specialist at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Rain is back in the forecast for Friday, but clearer conditions are expected to return this weekend and into early next week.
Showers began early Friday morning, and are anticipated to continue into Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.
Up to half an inch of rain could fall on Lake County during the day on Friday, with less than a tenth of an inch forecast Friday night.
Weather models posted by the National Weather Service showed that the heaviest rain was likely to hit before 5 a.m. and in the early afternoon.
Also forecast are winds with gusts into the high 20s on Friday night, based on the local forest.
No showers are forecast so far on Saturday and Sunday, when mostly sunny conditions are expected.
The forecast calls for a chance of showers to return on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Daytime temperatures are forecast to be in the mid 60s, with nighttime lows in the high 30s, the National Weather Service said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Committee to Elect Ted Mandrones for District 4 Supervisor is announcing a fundraising dinner to be held at the Lakeport Senior Center on Saturday, April 30, from 4 to 7 p.m.
The dinner will feature appetizers, tri tip, baked potato, salad and bread, which will be prepared by Jim Goetz.
The cost is $35 per person.
The committee is inviting the public and those who wish to support Mandrones in his run for District 4 supervisor.
Mandrones will be available for public discussion about the issues affecting the county and his ideas for solving some of the problems.
Miss Lake County Outstanding Teen Hanna Scully will be present to greet guests as they arrive.
There will be a 50/50 raffle for those attending. At the present time the committee is still finalizing plans for local wineries to serve wines and other possible entertainment.
To purchase tickets for the fundraising dinner you may use PayPal on the Web site at www.tedmandrones.com or call Arlene Hanlon at 707-263-5678.
SACRAMENTO – California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Director and State Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith is lifting the health advisory regarding Dungeness crabs caught from ocean waters south of 40°46.15′ N Latitude (a line extending due west from the west end of the north jetty at the entrance of Humboldt Bay), including all ocean waters of Humboldt Bay.
Recent tests show traces of domoic acid have declined to low or undetectable levels in Dungeness crabs caught in these areas.
This partial lifting comes after the March 18, 2016 announcement lifting the advisory for Dungeness crab caught south of the Sonoma/Mendocino County Line (Latitude 38° 46.1' N).
The advisory remains in effect for Dungeness crab caught in state waters north of the north jetty at the entrance of Humboldt Bay (Latitude 40°46.15′ N).
CDPH and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment concur that meat from Dungeness crabs caught along the coast south of the Sonoma/Mendocino County line is safe to consume.
However, consumers are advised to not eat the viscera (internal organs, also known as “butter” or “guts”) of crabs. The viscera usually contain much higher levels of domoic acid than crab body meat.
When whole crabs are cooked in liquid, domoic acid may leach from the viscera into the cooking liquid.
Water or broth used to cook whole crabs should be discarded and not used to prepare dishes such as sauces, broths, soups or stews (for example, cioppino or gumbo), stocks, roux, dressings or dips.
The best ways to reduce risk are:
1) Remove the crab viscera and rinse out the body cavity prior to cooking; or
2) Boil or steam whole crabs, instead of frying or broiling, and discard cooking liquids.
Symptoms of domoic acid poisoning can occur within 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating toxic seafood.
In mild cases, symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness. These symptoms disappear within several days.
In severe cases, the victim may experience trouble breathing, confusion, disorientation, cardiovascular instability, seizures, excessive bronchial secretions, permanent loss of short-term memory (a condition known as Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning), coma or death. There have been no confirmed illnesses associated with this year’s domoic acid event.
Domoic acid accumulation in seafood is a natural occurrence that is related to a “bloom” of a particular single-celled plant. The conditions that support the growth of this plant are impossible to predict.
While the bloom that occurred last year has dissipated, it takes a period of time for the organisms feeding on the phytoplankton to eliminate the domoic acid from their bodies.
CDPH will continue to coordinate its efforts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the fishing community to collect crab samples from the central and northern California coast until the domoic acid levels have dissipated.
To receive updated information about shellfish poisoning and quarantines, call CDPH’s toll-free Shellfish Information Line at 800-553-4133.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake VA Clinic will host its sixth annual VA2K Walk and Roll on Wednesday, May 18, at noon in back of the clinic, located at 15145 Lakeshore Drive.
Preregistration is not required. Anyone interested in participating should arrive by 11:40 a.m.
The VA2K Walk and Roll is dedicated to supporting homeless veterans and encouraging healthy activity. It is free and open to the community, veterans, and VA staff.
Participants are encouraged (though not required) to bring new socks or canned goods to the event to be donated to local homeless veterans.
“Healthy employees are happy workers,” says Kirk Andrus, MD, clinic medical director. “VA2K is a great way for our staff to take a few minutes out of their day to improve their personal health, get some exercise and help support homeless veterans.”
The Clearlake VA clinic is proud to participate in this event, joining with 200 other VA medical centers and VA clinics across the country.
Last year, more than $325,000 in clothing was collected nationwide for homeless veterans.
After the walk, there will be a “meet and greet” at the clinic.
For more information about this event, contact local VA2K coordinator Fred Berdan at 707-995-7252 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
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