This vehicle caught fire early on Friday, April 15, 2011. Photo by Doug Moore.

COBB, Calif. – An early morning fire in Cobb on Friday destroyed a van but missed a nearby residence.

The fire was reported shortly after 2 a.m. Friday at 9347 Fox Drive in Cobb, according to radio reports.

Neighbors reported hearing an explosion and county dispatchers received multiple calls on the incident.

The fire burned a van, but while the fire originally was reported to have burned a nearby structure, the building wasn't affected, witnesses said.

South Lake County Fire Protection District did not return a call seeking comment on the fire.

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If you've ever stood in front of a hot stove, watching a pot of water and waiting impatiently for it to boil, you know what it feels like to be a solar physicist.

Back in 2008, the solar cycle plunged into the deepest minimum in nearly a century. Sunspots all but vanished, solar flares subsided, and the sun was eerily quiet.

“Ever since, we've been waiting for solar activity to pick up,” said Richard Fisher, head of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC. “It's been three long years.”

Quiet spells on the sun are nothing new. They come along every 11 years or so – it's a natural part of the solar cycle. This particular solar minimum, however, was lasting longer than usual, prompting some researchers to wonder if it would ever end.

News flash: The pot is starting to boil.

“Finally,” said Fisher, “we are beginning to see some action.”

As 2011 unfolds, sunspots have returned and they are crackling with activity. On Feb. 15 and again on March 9, Earth orbiting satellites detected a pair of “X-class” solar flares – the most powerful kind of x-ray flare. The last such eruption occurred back in December 2006.

Another eruption on March 7 hurled a billion-ton cloud of plasma away from the sun at five million mph (2200 km/s). The rapidly expanding cloud wasn't aimed directly at Earth, but it did deliver a glancing blow to our planet's magnetic field. The off-center impact on March 10 was enough to send Northern Lights spilling over the Canadian border into US states such as Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan.

“That was the fastest coronal mass ejection in almost six years,” said Angelos Vourlidas of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. “It reminds me of a similar series of events back in November 1997 that kicked off Solar Cycle 23, the solar cycle before this one.”

“To me,” says Vourlidas, “this marks the beginning of Solar Cycle 24.”

The slow build-up to this moment is more than just “the watched pot failing to boil,” said Ron Turner, a space weather analyst at Analytic Services, Inc. “It really has been historically slow.”

There have been 24 numbered solar cycles since researchers started keeping track of them in the mid-18th century.

In an article just accepted for publication by the Space Weather Journal, Turner shows that, in all that time, only four cycles have started more slowly than this one.

“Three of them were in the Dalton Minimum, a period of depressed solar activity in the early 19th century. The fourth was Cycle #1 itself, around 1755, also a relatively low solar cycle,” he said.

In his study, Turner used sunspots as the key metric of solar activity. Folding in the recent spate of sunspots does not substantially alter his conclusion: “Solar Cycle 24 is a slow starter,” he said.

Better late than never.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Auroras over Grand Portage, Minnesota, on March 10, 2011. Photo by Travis Novitsky.

The free Start Smart traffic safety class for teenage drivers and their parents will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 27 at the CHP office at Highway 29 and Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville. The class will run about two hours.

Traffic collisions are the No. 1 killer of teenagers in America. Nationally about 5,000 teens will die in automobile crashes, the CHP reported. About 10 percent of those deaths are in California alone.

In California in 2007, there were 82,506 collisions involving teenage drivers statewide, 457 resulted in fatalities, according to the CHP.

The Start Smart program aims to help future and newly-licensed teenage drivers learn the responsibilities that accompany the privilege of being a licensed driver.

The CHP said the program is an education tool for parents and teens to reduce the number of teen injuries and deaths resulting from traffic collisions.

The program provides information on defensive driving, state traffic laws, dynamics of traffic collisions, tips on avoiding collisions and awareness about driving under the influence.

Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Steven Tanguay at the CHP office, 707-279-0103.

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The walk will begin at 10 a.m. at Library Park, located on Park Street in Lakeport. Walk-up registration will be open beginning at 9:30 am.

The event begins with a special opening ceremony that includes the raising of the Flag of the Missing Child, a statewide initiative to raise awareness on child abuse prevention.

Children, families, teachers, groups, agencies and community members are welcome to show your public commitment to children.

Following the walk, the community is invited to all-day children’s festival.

Everything is free, and more than 30 Lake County agencies and organizations will provide fun children’s activities, giveaways and information on Lake County resources.

Both events are intended to unify the community around the common goal of caring for Lake County’s children by preventing child abuse and victimization, and providing a quality education for every child.

If you would like more information on any of these programs, please contact The Lake County Child Care Planning Council, 707-994-4795, www.lakecountychildcareplanning.com, or The Lake County Children’s Council at 707-262-4146.

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This year, the Earth experienced the 13th warmest March since record keeping began in 1880, as the climate phenomenon La Niña continued to be a significant factor, according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The annual maximum Arctic sea ice extent was reached on March 7 and tied with 2006 as the smallest annual maximum extent since record keeping began in 1979.

The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.

The study also found that global land surface temperature was 1.49 F (0.83 C) above the 20th century average of 40.8 F (5.0 C), and tied for the 12th warmest March on record.

Warmer-than-average conditions occurred across most of Siberia, southwestern Greenland, southern North America, and most of Africa. Cooler-than-average regions included: most of Australia, the western half of Canada, most of Mongolia, China, and southeastern Asia.

The March global ocean surface temperature was 0.65 F (0.36 C) above the 20th century average of 60.7 F (15.9 C), making it the 12th warmest March on record.

The warmth was most pronounced in the equatorial Atlantic, the western Pacific Ocean, and across the Southern Hemisphere mid-latitudes.

For the year so far, the combined global land and ocean average surface temperature was 0.77 F (0.43 C) above the 20th century average of 54.1 F (12.3 C), making it the 14th warmest such period on record.

The year-to-date worldwide land surface temperature was 1.08 F (0.60 C) above the 20th century average – the 21st warmest such period on record.

Warmer-than-average conditions occurred across northern Alaska, far northwestern Canada, southern Greenland and northern Siberia. Cooler-than-average regions included most of Europe, western Russia, Mongolia, much of China, Australia, and part of central North America.

The global ocean surface temperature for the year to date was 0.65 F (0.36 C) above the 20th century average and was the 12th warmest such period on record. The warmth was most pronounced across parts of the central western Pacific Ocean, the tropical Atlantic Ocean, the North Atlantic near Greenland and Canada, and the southern mid-latitude oceans.

La Niña conditions continued to weaken in March for the third consecutive month, although sea-surface temperatures remained below normal across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, La Niña will continue to have global impacts through the Northern Hemisphere spring, but neither La Nina nor El Nino conditions are expected by June.

The report also found that the average Arctic sea ice extent during March was much-below average, ranking as the second smallest March on record, behind March 2006.

On March 7, Arctic sea ice reached its annual maximum extent at 5.65 million square miles (14.64 million square kilometers), tying with 2006 as the smallest annual maximum extent in the satellite record.

The March 2011 Antarctic sea ice extent was 16.2 percent below average and was third lowest for March since records began in 1979.

Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during March ranked as the ninth largest on record, while the snow cover extent over North America was the sixth largest and largest since March 1979.

In global highlights, England reported its driest March in 50 years and fifth driest since records began in 1910, while average rainfall across Australia was 117 percent above average during March, making it the wettest March on record.

Scientists, researchers and leaders in government and industry use NOAA’s monthly analyses to help track trends and other changes in the world's climate.

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These are adults who are either unable to take care of himself or are susceptible to undue influence – especially anyone over age 65 years old.

On the one hand, the law presumes that gifts by dependent adults either to “disqualified persons” or to their unrelated care custodian – who receives payment for services – are the result of fraud, undue influence or duress, and thus invalid.

On the other hand, the law protects the right of dependent adults to make such gifts that if a certificate of independent review is obtained from an attorney who reviews the matter.

The certificate is the written assurance of the reviewing attorney that the legal instrument used to make the gift – often a will or trust – is not the product of undue influence, fraud or duress forced upon the dependent adult by the beneficiary.

But is a certificate always accepted at face value or can it be still successfully challenged so that the presumption of abuse is restored?

A certificate of independent review is only as reliable and effective as the quality of the underlying review that is conducted by the independent attorney who signed the certificate.

In Estate of Winans (183 Cal App 4th 182) the court confirmed that a certificate does not have to be accepted at face value. Thus a certificate of independent review may be successfully challenged by the unhappy family of the dependent adult.

The court agreed that an evidentiary trial was justified based on the facts and circumstances surrounding the issuance of the certificate.

This certificate was exposed as the product of an inadequate and superficial review by the reviewing attorney who stood to gain by approving the gift.

So what kind of review is needed for the certificate to be respected?

First, the reviewing attorney must be independent of the beneficiary of the gift and may not stand to gain from the outcome. Specifically, the reviewing attorney cannot have any, “legal, business, financial, professional or personal relationship with the beneficiary.”

Each such relationship is an impermissible conflict of interest and raises the possibility that the reviewing attorney is partial towards the beneficiary, and is not independent.

Nor may the attorney have a self interest such as being appointed to act as the executor or successor trustee under the dependent adult’s will or trust in question.

Second, the reviewing attorney should explain to the dependent adult that the gift he or she is making to the disqualified person or care custodian is presumed to be invalid. And, also explain how that presumption may be overcome through the certificate of independent review procedure.

Third, the reviewing attorney should then review the legal document in question with the dependent adult and ensure that the client understands that the gift is irrevocable and understands the consequences.

During their meeting the reviewing attorney should take careful notes which may later become evidence that a thorough and complete discussion regarding all the relevant issues occurred.

Fourth, the reviewing attorney might also inquire of third parties to hear what they have to say regarding the nature of the beneficiary’s relationship with the dependent adult. This means contacting the dependent adult’s family and friends, as relevant.

In sum, a certificate of independent review does not have to be accepted at face value. Whether the certificate works depends on whether or not an independent attorney properly reviewed the matter – for the presence of fraud, undue influence and duress – and properly counseled the dependent adult.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235.

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On Tuesday, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson announced the California Distinguished Schools for 2011.

Included on the list of 97 California schools was Clear Lake High in Lakeport.

Lakeport Unified Superintendent Erin Hagberg said it's the first California Distinguished School award for the district.

“It's extremely exciting and I couldn't be prouder,” said Hagberg.

The highly sought after award, now in its 25^th year, has recognized more than 5,300 exemplary California public middle and high schools since it began in 1986, the state reported. Elementary and secondary schools are recognized during alternate years.

“These schools are being recognized for attaining high levels of performance and sustained growth, and for making significant progress in closing the academic achievement gap,” Torlakson said. “Becoming a Distinguished School is a direct reflection of the dedication, hard work, and vision of each school's education community. They have succeeded despite a bleak economic environment and have endeavored to maintain their momentum and focus.”

The California Department of Education said this year's winning schools are to be found in areas ranging from rural communities to large cities, with most of the schools having significant populations of students living in poverty or learning English.

Clear Lake High is one of those rural schools, with 440 students, 25 faculty and five staff, according to Principal Steve Gentry.

Hagberg credited the achievement to several factors – outstanding instruction, the relationship that teachers maintain with students and collaboration among staffers that has not only helped Clear Lake High cope with a tough financial climate but continue to improve student performance.

“We've really tried to focus on what is essential to maintain in our district,” Hagberg said. “I think that the high school staff has to be credited for making those decisions.”

Gentry, Clear Lake High's principal since 1995 and a staffer since 1978, credited the school's remarkable students and excellent teachers for winning the award.

The California Department of Education reported that schools were identified for eligibility on the basis of their state Academic Performance Index and federal Adequate Yearly Progress results, which are school accountability models.

“You have to be moving in a positive direction for both of those numbers to be eligible,” said Gentry.

Clear Lake High School has had moderate increases in API scores since 1999, when California’s Public School Accountability Act created the current scoring system, the Lake County Office of Education reported.

When the school's API scores started to plateau after several years of increases, teachers and administrators worked together to create a system of incentives and teaching and testing strategies to address the issue, according to district officials.

In order to qualify to begin the Distinguished School application process, a school must have an API growth score of greater than 746, according to the Lake County Office of Education. Clear Lake High School far surpassed that with a 2010 API score of 790. The California average API score is 767.

“Clear Lake High School is very deserving of this recognition. This is difficult to achieve, and it is the result of a focus on student achievement,” said Tim Gill, senior director of Educational Services at Lake County Office of Education.

Once schools are determined to be eligible, they receive letters inviting them to apply, Gentry said.

The state required the applying schools to describe two “signature practices” that have led to an increase in student achievement and a narrowing of the achievement gap.

Gentry said the programs Clear Lake High listed were AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) and Project CRISS (Creating Independence through Student-Owned Strategies), the latter an instructional strategy for student engagement that gives teachers different strategies and tools they can use to help their students succeed.

A team of three people from the state then visited the school for a day on March 21 to validate the signature practices. Gentry said the team toured classrooms, and talked to teachers and students.

He said he got the news of the award on Tuesday afternoon, and informed the school's teachers at a Wednesday morning faculty meeting.

The 2011 California Distinguished Schools will be honored during an awards ceremony and dinner at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim on May 20, the state said. Gentry said school representatives may not be able to make the trip due to the cost.

As for a celebration at the school, Gentry said nothing is planned yet. However, he said after upcoming school testing is completed, he believes they'll put together an event.

Hagberg, who notified the Lakeport Unified School District Board of Trustees of the award on Wednesday afternoon, said she expects the board will discuss how to honor the school for its achievement at its Thursday evening board meeting.

Other winning schools north of the Bay Area included Sonoma County's Healdsburg Junior High and Santa Rosa High School, with the latter one of five schools statewide to earn the Exemplary Career Technical Education Program Award; Calistoga Junior-Senior High School in Napa County; Sierra Ridge Middle School in El Dorado County; Del Oro High School in Placer County; East Nicolaus High School in Sutter County; and Shasta County's Shasta Union High School in Redding, the state reported.

The California Department of Education said the schools winning the Distinguished School title this year have agreed to share their signature practices with other schools and serve as mentors to other educators who want to replicate their work.

Those practices will be included in a searchable database that will be updated and available later this spring at www.closingtheachievementgap.org/cs/ctag/print/htdocs/success_sig_search.htm.

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The Lake County Sheriff's Office partnered with the California Northern District of the United States Marshal’s Service, California State Parole agents and Clearlake Police officers to carry out the two-day effort to check compliance on convicted sex offenders around the county, according to Sheriff Frank Rivero.

“This is more about compliance than arresting people,” Rivero said, noting he was “very satisfied” with how the operation worked out.

Sheriff's Capt. James Bauman said that the operation, conducted Thursday, April 14, and Friday, April 15 – which included the work of the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force, Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit detectives, Patrol Division deputies and narcotics detection K-9 teams – involved 151 contacts with convicted sex offenders throughout the county by a total of seven, two-officer teams.

Bauman said 39 probation or parole searches were conducted and officials made seven arrests for parole violations, outstanding warrants or fresh criminal charges.

In addition, nine of the registrants they were searching for were discovered to be in facilities outside of Lake County and 15 contacts resulted in new cases requiring further investigation, which will likely result in arrest warrants, Bauman said.

He explained that the compliance checks entailed unannounced contacts at the homes of sex registrants to verify residency, detect and investigate any legal violations, and conduct searches of those on active probation or parole.

California has some of the nation's most stringent laws for monitoring and controlling registered sex offenders, Bauman said. Requirements include registering annually with local law enforcement jurisdictions where they reside within five days of their birthday, reporting any change in their place of residence within five days of moving to that residence and submitting DNA samples upon registration.

He said there are approximately 315 registered sex offenders currently residing in Lake County.

Bauman said the teams also checked for violations of probation or parole terms, such as possessing pornography or living within a prohibited distance of any school, park or day care facility.

“The ones that aren't in compliance, we're hauling off to jail to think about it,” Rivero said.

On Thursday, Clearlake residents Thomatra Eugene Lyons, 32, and Kelly Jonathan Mills, 24, were arrested for parole violations and booked into the Lake County Jail, Bauman said.

Those arrests were followed on Friday by several more, Bauman said.

Arrested that day in a Clearlake transient camp were Rickie Allen Wood, 57, who allegedly violated his parole and 40-year-old Jeffrey Thomas Zuidema, who was not a registered sex offender but was arrested on a local warrant, according to Bauman.

He said Jonathan Michael Baslee, 22, and Gordon Wilsey Dennler, 53, were contacted in their respective homes and arrested for parole violations.

While conducting a compliance check at another Clearlake location, narcotics detectives contacted 23-year-old Randolf Jay Reiger, who Bauman said was not a registered sex offender but was found to have an outstanding arrest warrant.

As Reiger was being searched, detectives recovered a baggie containing approximately one-half ounce of methamphetamine and narcotics paraphernalia. Bauman said Reiger was transported to the Lake County Jail and booked for possession of a controlled substance for sales, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Rivero told Lake County News the planning for the operation began in January.

He said the US Marshal for the Ninth Circuit came to Lake County to take part in the operation briefing.

Rivero himself took part in the operation, riding with a US deputy marshal through the Lower Lake, Hidden Valley and Middletown areas.

He said he visited 50 to 60 of the registrants during the compliance checks, noting their surprise to see the new sheriff show up.

“This team policing concept is a really good one,” he said, noting, “We're not going to leave any stone unturned.”

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshal’s Service Sex Offender Investigations Branch funded the branch, Bauman said.

Rivero expressed his deepest gratitude to Sheriff’s Sex Crimes Detective Mike Curran and the United States Marshal’s Service for coordinating the effort.

He also thanked the Sheriff’s Patrol Division, Major Crimes Detectives, Narcotics Task Force, Special Enforcement Detail, K-9 Narcotics Interdiction Units, Deputy U.S. Marshals, California State Parole agents and Clearlake Police officers for participating in the effort.

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Michael Anthony Gama, 28, of Nice, Calif., and Joseph Andrew Kimber, 34, of Lucerne, Calif., were arrested in connection with a burglary on Wednesday, April 13, 2011. Lake County Jail photos.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Proactive enforcement efforts and swift coordination between the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail, Sheriff’s Dispatch and the Sheriff’s Patrol Force has led to two arrests and the recovery of property stolen in a Middletown burglary.

Capt. James Bauman said deputies arrested 28-year-old Michael Anthony Gama of Nice and 34-year-old Joseph Andrew Kimber of Lucerne.

On Wednesday, April 13, at approximately 1:50 p.m., a sheriff’s deputy assigned to the Special Enforcement Detail stopped a silver Honda Civic on Keeling Avenue in Nice. Bauman said the deputy determined that the driver, identified as Gama, was driving with a suspended license and he was detained.

Pending an impound of the vehicle, an inventory search of the Honda revealed numerous items of property in the trunk. Bauman said none of the property belonged to either Gama or Kimber, his passenger. Among items of jewelry, tools and other property, the deputy located an auto club card and pieces of mail belonging to a Middletown man.

The deputy requested that Sheriff’s Dispatch call the man to determine if he had been the victim of theft. Bauman said dispatch informed the deputy that another deputy had just been dispatched to the man’s home in Middletown for a burglary report only minutes before the Honda had been stopped.

The Middletown deputy arrived at the scene of the burglary while Gama and Kimber were still being detained in Nice. Bauman said the burglary investigation revealed that several structures on the victim’s property had been broken into some time between midnight and 8 a.m. on Wednesday. Aside from property taken from the victim’s home, his Blue 1995 GMC Suburban also had been stolen.

Coordinating between Nice and Middletown by phone, the two deputies were able to determine that all of the property found in the trunk of the Honda was stolen in the Middletown burglary, Bauman said.

Gama and Kimber were both arrested for receiving stolen property and transported to the Hill Road Correctional Facility for booking. Bauman said the burglary victim responded to Nice and retrieved all of the property recovered by sheriff’s deputies.

When Gama and Kimber were removed from the arresting deputy’s car at the jail, the deputy discovered a broken “meth” pipe on the floorboard where Gama was seated. Bauman said the deputy determined that Gama had apparently retrieved it from his pocket and tried to destroy it while in transit to the jail.

Gama was charged with receiving stolen property, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, destroying evidence, and driving on a suspended license. Bauman said Kimber was charged with possession of stolen property.

The case is pending further investigation, including the recovery of additional stolen property and the victim’s stolen GMC Suburban, Bauman said.

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The California Highway Patrol reported that a sedan hit the hydrant in the area of Park Way, just west of Lakeshore Boulevard, at about 7:43 a.m. Wednesday.

There were no injuries to anyone in the vehicle, the CHP reported.

However, Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger said the car knocked the hydrant off, which had to be reinstalled. The hydrant was replaced about mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Dellinger said approximately 153 customers in County Service Area 21, which covers north Lakeport, were affected.

Water to those customers was restored by about 9 a.m., he said.

Lake County News was contacted by a resident of the area who reported the water from his faucets was cloudy and brownish Wednesday morning.

According to California Department of Public Health guidelines, whenever water supply is lost – even for a brief time – a district must issue a boil water notice as a precaution, Dellinger explained.

That's what Special Districts did in this case, issuing the notice to the affected residents in the southern part of CSA 21, mostly along Park Way and Oak Park, who were served by the 6-inch water pipe that feeds the hydrant, he said.

No commercial customers were impacted, just residents, Dellinger said.

“We had a few complaints but we responded to those,” he said.

Dellinger said Special Districts also notified Supervisor Anthony Farrington of the situation.

Special Districts will have to take samples before the notice can be lifted, which Dellinger estimated should happen within 24 to 36 hours of the incident.

“This should be straightened out by Friday,” he said.

Dellinger said it's difficult to assess how much actual damage the crash caused. He said the matter will go through the county's risk management process.

Dellinger said Special Districts hasn't had to issue a boil water notice since last August, when construction to increase the size of a water main in downtown Kelseyville caused low water pressure and, in some cases, resulted in no water for some Kelseyville and Finley customers.

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