LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has four cats ready to be adopted this week.
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.
Female domestic shorthair
This 1-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a yellow tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 70, ID No. LCAC-A-4988.
Female domestic shorthair
This 1.5-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a gray tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 74, ID No. LCAC-A-4930.
‘Wednesday’
“Wednesday” is a 3-year-old domestic shorthair cat with a short gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 127, ID No. LCAC-A-4463.
‘Flynn’
“Flynn” is a 9-year-old male Siamese cat with a medium-length white coat and blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-3460.
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.
What’s Easter about? In some ways, the answer is pretty simple: Jesus Christ, and Christians’ belief that he rose from the dead.
In other ways, though, the springtime holiday is far from straightforward. How did rabbits get involved? Where did the name “Easter” come from – and why is the English word different from the way many other cultures refer to the holy day? Even theologically, exactly what the Resurrection means is not universally agreed upon.
Here are four articles that delve into Easter’s history, its significance – and what a rock ‘n’ roll Broadway show has to do with it.
1. Picking the date
First things first: Easter is what’s called a “movable feast,” a holiday whose exact date changes year to year. In the Northern Hemisphere it falls soon after the spring equinox, as the world comes back into bloom – a fitting time to celebrate rebirth.
But Easter’s dating “goes back to the complicated origins of this holiday and how it has evolved over the centuries,” wrote Brent Landau, a religious studies scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Similar to Christmas and Halloween celebrations today, Easter blends together elements from Christian and non-Christian traditions.
The name “Easter” itself seems linked to a pre-Christian goddess named Eostre in what is now England; she was celebrated in springtime. And in fact, in most languages, the word for the holiday is related to Passover, since the Gospels say Jesus traveled to Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival in the days leading up to his crucifixion.
But “celebrating” Easter, per se, wasn’t always in fashion with Christians. For the Puritans, Landau explained, these holidays were regarded as too tainted by merrymaking and un-Christian influences. As 19th-century American culture embraced the idea of childhood as a special time in life, though – not just preparation for adulthood – both Christmas and Easter became popular occasions to spend time with family.
2. Holy hares
The Easter bunny’s bio starts long before the 1800s, though. Rabbits’ and hares’ famous fertility has made them symbols of rebirth for thousands of years. Some were ritually buried alongside people during the Neolithic age, for example.
Of course, that fecundity also makes them symbols of sex, as anyone who’s seen the Playboy logo is aware. “In the Classical Greek tradition, hares were sacred to Aphrodite, the goddess of love,” explained folklorist Tok Thompson, a professor at USC Dornsife. The goddess’s son Eros was also depicted carrying a hare “as a symbol of unquenchable desire,” and even the Virgin Mary is often painted with a rabbit, to symbolize how she overcame desire.
Modern-day Easter bunny traditions stem from folk traditions in Germany and England, and there is evidence that the goddess Eostre’s symbol was the hare as well.
3. Victory over death
Holy Week, the series of events in Christian churches that lead up to Easter, traces Jesus’ final days before death and resurrection, including Palm Sunday and the Last Supper. Easter Sunday itself is the climax of the story: his triumph over death.
“As a Baptist minister and theologian myself, I believe it is important to understand how Christians more generally, and Baptists in particular, hold differing views on the meaning of the resurrection,” wrote Jason Oliver Evans, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia.
Over the centuries, Evans wrote, Christians have had “passionate debates over this central doctrine of Christian faith” and what it means for Jesus’ followers – such as whether his body was literally raised from the dead.
4. Superstar
There are many ways to share the story of Holy Week – and one of the most controversial ones debuted on Broadway in 1971.
“Jesus Christ Superstar,” the rock musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, struck some Christians as blasphemous with its modern-day telling of the Passion and “Jesus is cool” ethos. Then there’s the show’s ending, which cuts off after the crucifixion – cutting out the Resurrection, and its theological message, entirely.
Half a century later, though, “Superstar” raises fewer eyebrows – a reflection of changes in U.S. culture and Christianity, wrote Henry Bial, a theater professor at the University of Kansas. Maybe that shouldn’t be such a shock: As he pointed out, theater and drama have always been entwined with Bible stories.
Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A month after it was closed due to damage from the heavy winter storms, the Highland Springs Recreation Area has reopened for recreational activities.
The county of Lake recommended that visitors use caution while recreating due to continued storm damage, including downed trees and partially fallen limbs on the disc golf course and recreational trails.
Due to wet weather conditions, trails are still closed to equestrians and bikers, officials said.
The Lake County Water Resources Department will continue to mark hazardous areas around the recreation area and continue cleaning up post-storm damage.
Officials said they appreciate the public’s continued patience and caution while enjoying the park.
Highland Springs Recreation Area is owned by the Lake County Watershed Protection District and managed by the Lake County Water Resources Department.
For more information, contact Water Resources at 707-263-2344 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — After a hiatus of several years, Earth Day in Middletown will return this month.
The celebration will take place on Saturday, April 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center, 15500 Central Park Road.
“We are thrilled to be hosting Earth Day again,” said Danielle Matthews Seperas, director of community affairs at Calpine. “After spending time in isolation our collaboration with Middletown Art Center promises to make this year’s event the best one yet. We can’t wait to celebrate Earth Day this year with friends both old and new.”
With a theme of sustainability, this year’s Earth Day will host many exciting vendors, live music, pony rides, and activities for families and children.
The Goddess of the Mountain will be serving a beautiful, healthy lunch based on the Three Sisters, which the Iroquois and the Cherokee called corn, bean, and squash, because they nurture each other like family when planted together.
The Middletown Community Garden will offer tours and workshops to further their mission of educating the community about sustainable food production and healthy eating. A tree planting ceremony will be featured at 1 pm.
The Lake County Master Gardeners will be on hand to answer your gardening questions and to hand out useful information and seeds.
Local vendors include a solar installation company, plant nursery, makers from around Lake County and more.
The Children's Museum of Art and Science in Clearlake will offer fun activities for kids. A veritable petting zoo with a donkey, miniature horse and a goat also will be there.
Jesus Christ Fellowship, next door to the Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center and the garden, will open its doors for the community to enjoy billiards and other games inside the church, as well as the Lions Club-sponsored Bocce ball out back.
Beaver Creek, a local biodynamic and organic winery will pour. Biodynamic farming is holistic land stewardship at its best. It is the highest paradigm of sustainable farming, offering one of the smallest carbon footprints of any agricultural method. They forgo the use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides and instead rely on practices such as composting to increase the activity of microorganisms in the soil and planting cover crops that control erosion and provide habitat and food for beneficial insects as well as green manure for the vines.
And since all great parties start with great music, Brandon Eardley will provide music for the first half of the day’s events with Carlos Garay providing the tunes for the second half.
The day will close with our local poet laureate, Georgina Marie Guardado reading poetry she composed specifically for this event.
For more information or to become a vendor please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The explosion of a star is a dramatic event, but the remains the star leaves behind can be even more dramatic.
A new mid-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides one stunning example. It shows the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A), created by a stellar explosion 340 years ago from Earth’s perspective.
Cas A is the youngest known remnant from an exploding, massive star in our galaxy, which makes it a unique opportunity to learn more about how such supernovae occur.
“Cas A represents our best opportunity to look at the debris field of an exploded star and run a kind of stellar autopsy to understand what type of star was there beforehand and how that star exploded,” said Danny Milisavljevic of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, principal investigator of the Webb program that captured these observations.
“Compared to previous infrared images, we see incredible detail that we haven't been able to access before,” added Tea Temim of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, a co-investigator on the program.
Cassiopeia A is a prototypical supernova remnant that has been widely studied by a number of ground-based and space-based observatories, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The multi-wavelength observations can be combined to provide scientists with a more comprehensive understanding of the remnant.
Dissecting the image
The striking colors of the new Cas A image, in which infrared light is translated into visible-light wavelengths, hold a wealth of scientific information the team is just beginning to tease out.
On the bubble’s exterior, particularly at the top and left, lie curtains of material appearing orange and red due to emission from warm dust. This marks where ejected material from the exploded star is ramming into surrounding circumstellar gas and dust.
Interior to this outer shell lie mottled filaments of bright pink studded with clumps and knots. This represents material from the star itself, which is shining due to a mix of various heavy elements, such as oxygen, argon, and neon, as well as dust emission.
“We’re still trying to disentangle all these sources of emission,” said Ilse De Looze of Ghent University in Belgium, another co-investigator on the program.
The stellar material can also be seen as fainter wisps near the cavity’s interior.
Perhaps most prominently, a loop represented in green extends across the right side of the central cavity. “We’ve nicknamed it the Green Monster in honor of Fenway Park in Boston. If you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s pockmarked with what look like mini-bubbles,” said Milisavljevic. “The shape and complexity are unexpected and challenging to understand.”
Origins of cosmic dust – and us
Among the science questions that Cas A may help answer is: Where does cosmic dust come from?
Observations have found that even very young galaxies in the early universe are suffused with massive quantities of dust. It’s difficult to explain the origins of this dust without invoking supernovae, which spew large quantities of heavy elements (the building blocks of dust) across space.
However, existing observations of supernovae have been unable to conclusively explain the amount of dust we see in those early galaxies.
By studying Cas A with Webb, astronomers hope to gain a better understanding of its dust content, which can help inform our understanding of where the building blocks of planets and ourselves are created.
“In Cas A, we can spatially resolve regions that have different gas compositions and look at what types of dust were formed in those regions,” explained Temim.
Supernovae like the one that formed Cas A are crucial for life as we know it. They spread elements like the calcium we find in our bones and the iron in our blood across interstellar space, seeding new generations of stars and planets.
“By understanding the process of exploding stars, we’re reading our own origin story,” said Milisavljevic. “I’m going to spend the rest of my career trying to understand what’s in this data set.”
The Cas A remnant spans about 10 light-years and is located 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
On April 3, 2023, NASA announced the four astronauts who will make up the crew of Artemis II, which is scheduled to launch in late 2024. The Artemis II mission will send these four astronauts on a 10-day mission that culminates in a flyby of the Moon. While they won’t head to the surface, they will be the first people to leave Earth’s immediate vicinity and be the first near the Moon in more than 50 years.
This mission will test the technology and equipment that’s necessary for future lunar landings and is a significant step on NASA’s planned journey back to the surface of the Moon. As part of this next era in lunar and space exploration, NASA has outlined a few clear goals. The agency is hoping to inspire young people to get interested in space, to make the broader Artemis program more economically and politically sustainable and, finally, to continue encouraging international collaboration on future missions.
From my perspective as a space policy expert, the four Artemis II astronauts fully embody these goals.
Who are the four astronauts?
The four members of the Artemis II crew are highly experienced, with three of them having flown in space previously. The one rookie flying onboard is notably representing Canada, making this an international mission, as well.
The commander of the mission will be Reid Wiseman, a naval aviator and test pilot. On his previous mission to the International Space Station, he spent 165 days in space and completed a record of 82 hours of experiments in just one week. Wiseman was also the chief of the U.S. astronaut office from 2020 to 2023.
Serving as pilot is Victor Glover. After flying more than 3,000 hours in more than 40 different aircraft, Glover was selected for the astronaut corps in 2013. He was the pilot for the Crew-1 mission, the first mission that used a SpaceX rocket and capsule to bring astronauts to the International Space Station, and served as a flight engineer on the ISS.
The lone woman on the crew is mission specialist Christina Hammock Koch. She has spent 328 days in space, more than any other woman, across the three ISS expeditions. She has also participated in six different spacewalks, including the first three all-women spacewalks. Koch is an engineer by trade, having previously worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The crew will be rounded out by a Canadian, Jeremy Hansen. Though a spaceflight rookie, he has participated in space simulations like NEEMO 19, in which he lived in a facility on the ocean floor to simulate deep space exploration. Before being selected to Canada’s astronaut corps in 2009, he was an F-18 pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
These four astronauts have followed pretty typical paths to space. Like the Apollo astronauts, three of them began their careers as military pilots. Two, Wiseman and Glover, were trained test pilots, just as most of the Apollo astronauts were.
Mission specialist Koch, with her engineering expertise, is more typical of modern astronauts. The position of mission or payload specialist was created for the space shuttle program, making spaceflight possible for those with more scientific backgrounds.
A collaborative, diverse future
Unlike the Apollo program of the 1960s and 1970s, with Artemis, NASA has placed a heavy emphasis on building a politically sustainable lunar program by fostering the participation of a diverse group of people and countries.
The participation of other countries in NASA missions – Canada in this case – is particularly important for the Artemis program and the Artemis II crew. International collaboration is beneficial for a number of reasons. First, it allows NASA to lean on the strengths and expertise of engineers, researchers and space agencies of U.S. allies and divide up the production of technologies and costs. It also helps the U.S. continue to provide international leadership in space as competition with other countries – notably China – heats up.
The crew of Artemis II is also quite diverse compared with the Apollo astronauts. NASA has often pointed out that the Artemis program will send the first woman and the first person of color to the Moon. With Koch and Glover on board, Artemis II is the first step in fulfilling that promise and moving toward the goal of inspiring future generations of space explorers.
The four astronauts aboard Artemis II will be the first humans to return to the vicinity of the Moon since 1972. The flyby will take the Orion capsule in one pass around the far side of the Moon. During the flight, the crew will monitor the spacecraft and test a new communication system that will allow them to send more data and communicate more easily with Earth than previous systems.
If all goes according to plan, in late 2025 Artemis III will mark humanity’s return to the lunar surface, this time also with a diverse crew. While the Artemis program still has a way to go before humans set foot on the Moon once again, the announcement of the Artemis II crew shows how NASA intends to get there in a diverse and collaborative way.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. — The Lake County Outdoor Passion Play is preparing for its next performances in May.
The play will be presented on Saturday, May 20, and Sunday May 21, from 4 to 6 p.m.
The event is free but donations are gratefully accepted.
The Passion Play invites everyone to join them as they share the story of the passion, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Lake County’s Passion Play has been rated by many spectators as among the best in the world.
The play is a prayerful expression of the faith of the people involved.
Men, women, and children from many denominations have come together to make what organizers call “a truly ecumenical experience, touched by the Holy Spirit.”
For the performances, bring your own chair. There are facilities for the handicapped. Water will be available.
There is no smoking, food, drink or pets allowed on the grounds.
The Lake County Outdoor Passion Play grounds are located at 7010 Westlake Road in Upper Lake, about four miles north of Lakeport, off Highway 29.
For more information, visit the Passion Play Facebook page or website, or call 707-263-0349.
LAKEPORT, Calif — Lakeport Unified School District property was used as a backdrop this week to active shooter training for local law enforcement.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation led two 16-hour Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training, or ALERRT, sessions in Lakeport this week.
The training at Clear Lake High School was coordinated by the Lakeport Police Department during the school’s spring break.
This program is the national standard, research-based active shooter response training for peace officers.
Officers are trained to respond alone or to respond with a group of officers to an active shooter call with the priority of stopping the threat.
ALERRT is based at Texas State University and certified for credit by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, or POST.
Sixty officers from eight local and state agencies attended this training, including Lakeport Police Department, Clearlake Police Department, California State Parks-Clear Lake Sector, California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office, Lake County District Attorney Investigations Division, Lake County Probation Department, Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Corrections Parole Division.
Four of these courses have been held in Lakeport in previous years, training 115 officers.
The Lakeport Police Department offered its thanks to the FBI, ALERRT, POST the attending agencies, and the Lakeport Unified Safety Committee, Lakeport Unified School District and Clear Lake High School for making this valuable training happen to further our ongoing and combined efforts to keep our schools and communities safe.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council on Thursday evening approved contracts for two road projects and agreed to a property sale.
The meeting began with several proclamations, followed by public comment in which several community members called out North Bay Animal Services for its performance in handling the city’s animal shelter.
In recent weeks the organization, based in Petaluma, has been coming under fire for a variety of issues related to housing and handling of animals and treatment of volunteers.
City Manager Alan Flora said he’s given directives for improvement in treatment of animals to the organization and Clearlake Police Lt. Ryan Peterson has been assigned to investigate the allegations about the conditions in the shelter.
After the meeting, Lake County News reached out to North Bay Animal Services about the situation for an article on the city’s plans to address the shelter’s operations.
On Thursday’s agenda were two road projects.
The first was for the 18th Avenue Improvement Project, which the council voted unanimously to award to Argonaut Constructors, which was the low bidder at $4,632,295. The highest bidder was Granite Construction at $7,234,337.50.
The council approved a second contract with Argonaut Constructors for the Dam Road Extension/South Center Drive Improvement Project in the amount of $989,009.85. Ghilotti Construction was the high bidder at $1,386,441.25.
Both contracts allow Flora to approve up to 10% in additional cost due to unforeseen contract amendments.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, who was at the meeting for a proclamation presentation, said there is a school immediately adjacent to the Dam Road Extension area and he hoped in the next few years the city can address the need for a sidewalk there.
Public Works Director Adeline Brown said that is part of the project, to have curb, gutter and sidewalk on both sides of the road.
Flora added that there is a section of the project that extends to the southern boundary of a planned housing development on 18th Avenue, with the developer required to do the rest of those improvements along that property.
In other business, the council approved selling a vacant, city-owned lot at 16178 35th Ave. to an adjacent property owner for $6,950.
The council on Thursday appointed an alternate member to the Lake County Recreation Agency JPA Board of Directors; offered proclamations for Child Abuse Prevention Month; Sexual Assault Awareness Month; Arts, Culture, and Creativity Month; Public Safety Telecommunicators Week; and hosted a presentation by the Lakeshore Lions Club to the Highlands Senior Service Center.
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 lots of dogs waiting to go to their homes this Easter.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Akita, Anatolian shepherd, Australian cattle dog, blue heeler, border collie, boxer, Chihuahua, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Labrador retriever, pit bull and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Ivy’
“Ivy” is a 2-month-old Akita-Anatolian shepherd mix with a short brown and black coat.
She is in foster, ID No. LCAC-A-5031.
‘LilDan’
“LilDan” is a 7-month-old short coat Chihuahua-terrier mix.
He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-4719.
Male American blue heeler
This 1.5-year-old male American blue heeler has a blue and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-4961.
Female pit bull terrier puppy
This 3-month-old female American pit bull terrier puppy has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-4788.
‘Shasta’
“Shasta” is a 1-year-old female pit bull terrier with a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 5, ID No. LCAC-A-4873.
Male border collie-shepherd mix
This 2-year-old male border collie-shepherd mix has a long black coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-5012.
Male Chihuahua-terrier mix
This 3-year-old male Chihuahua-terrier mix has a short buff coat.
He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-5008.
Female border collie
This 1-year-old female border collie has a black and white coat, and one brown eye and one blue eye.
She is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-4903.
Female pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a brindle and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-5000.
Female Great Pyrenees puppy
This 3-month-old female Great Pyrenees puppy has a short tan coat with black markings.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-5026.
Male pit bull terrier
This one and a half year old male pit bull terrier has a black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4843.
Female pit bull terrier puppy
This 3-month-old female American pit bull terrier puppy has a short brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-4787.
Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short brindle coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-5029.
Male mixed breed
This 2-year-old male mixed breed dog has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-5024.
Male boxer-pit bull mix
This 8-year-old male boxer-pit bull mix has a short brown brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-4678.
Male Great Pyrenees
This 2-year-old male Great Pyrenees has a long white coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-4821.
Male shepherd
This 2-year-old male shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-5023.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-5015.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has a wide array of canines needing homes.
There are 28 dogs available this week for adoption, with several having been adopted in the past week.
They include “Dennis,” a male Labrador retriever mix puppy, and “Bella,” a female pit bull terrier mix.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
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.