LAKEPORT, Calif. — Agencies in Lake County are continuing their efforts to provide help and services to homeless individuals in the community.
On Friday, in collaboration with Sutter Lakeside Hospital and the Lake Family Resource Center a team was deployed to provide assistance to unhoused neighbors within the city of Lakeport, the Lakeport Police Department reported.
The team includes a Sutter Lakeside Medical director, hospital social worker, community benefit and patient access manager, Lakeport Police sergeant, Lake Family Resource Center and Lakeport Police Department community crisis responder and a volunteer with veterinary technician experience.
Police said the purpose of this outreach is to provide a helping hand and guidance to individuals experiencing homelessness and get them connected to the proper resources such as setting up medical care appointments, behavioral health assistance, housing assistance, other social services connections and care for any pets they may have.
“By going into the community we are not only extending access to care beyond the walls of our hospital and clinics, and helping people in the moment, but we’re also learning directly from the most vulnerable about their barriers to receiving ongoing care for mental health challenges or addiction,” said Rachel Walsh, community benefit and patient access manager for Sutter Lakeside.
Sutter Health recently invested in behavioral health and substance use navigators to address the growing problems of mental health disorders and drug dependency, both worsened by the pandemic.
Navigators play a unique role by providing people with the medical treatment, emotional support and other assistance that can foster long-term psychological stability and recovery from addiction.
“Lessons from today will certainly inform our work,” remarked Walsh.
The Sutter Lakeside substance use navigators are available to community members struggling with alcohol or drug dependency, including prescription opioids, and can be reached at 707-262-5088.
The Sutter Lakeside behavioral health navigator works in the hospital emergency department, offering support through referrals to ongoing outpatient care and follow-up to ensure patients access the services they need.
Courtesy of Hope Rising, Sutter Lakeside Hospital and other community partners, the team has also been able to offer winter warming kits, food, personal hygiene products, sleeping bags and other supplies to persons in need.
This is the second such outreach that the Lakeport Police Department and Sutter Lakeside Hospital have been able to do in Lakeport this year.
The outreach is also part of a bigger goal of continuing to collaborate with the many local agencies and organizations working to end homelessness in our community.
“I’m excited to have law enforcement working directly with medical and social service providers to ensure a better response to those experiencing homelessness in our community,” said Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — In early November, a unique crew of U.S. Forest Service-certified sawyers from the Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, or TERA, helped harvest more than 20 indoor-sized Christmas trees to decorate federal offices throughout the U.S. Capitol, as part of the Forest Service’s U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree initiative.
The Christmas tree initiative is not just about spreading holiday cheer. Removing smaller, densely packed trees also helps make national forests more fire resilient.
Small trees are ignitable fuels, according to Julia Everta, Six Rivers National Forest land and minerals specialist who oversaw the companion Christmas tree harvest.
“Gathering indoor Christmas trees thins small, crowded trees and reduces nutrient and water competition for remaining trees to grow,” Everta said.
Everta and her team began planning for the companion tree harvest on Six Rivers National Forest in February 2021.
There was a coordinated effort involving Forest Service staff and volunteers to scout the best trees with symmetrical limbs, dense crowns and straight trunks.
Behind the scenes, another Forest Service partner worked to get TERA involved in the Christmas tree harvest.
After learning the Forest Service needed certified sawyers to fell the Christmas trees, Judy deFreitas, community relations principal at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, connected Everta with TERA and helped PG&E sponsor TERA’s work on the Christmas tree initiative.
By the time the TERA crew arrived in November, the best red and white firs on the Mad River District were flagged for cutting, all at about 5,000 feet elevation or higher.
The biggest challenges during the harvest were weather and potential safety concerns, according to TERA crew member Lance McCloud of Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians of California.
“Weather kept changing every half hour. It started snowing, then hailing, then raining,” said McCloud.
Even with the unpredictable weather, the three-person crew got the job done, felling more than 20 trees in a single day.
For Everta, TERA’s safety expertise and problem-solving skills were essential.
In March 2021, the TERA crew had been trained in the Forest Service’s safety culture and became certified to operate chainsaws on public lands by Mendocino National Forest’s Elk Mountain Hotshot Crew.
“Everyone on the team was engaged in making it a success,” said Everta. “Some of the trees were spread out, and we had to problem-solve to cut, carry and bail them in the truck.”
Once the trees were harvested, they were wrapped and secured for the 3,500-mile journey to Washington, D.C. The trees are now decorated and on display throughout Congress and federal offices.
Today, TERA works as a full-time, multi-tribal hand crew throughout Lake County and has agreements with the Mendocino National Forest to complete fuels reduction projects and share traditional ecological knowledge with the Forest Service.
Forest Service eager to learn and apply tribal approach to land management
The companion Christmas tree harvest is one illustration of the deliberate efforts being made to incorporate the tribal workforce and indigenous expertise on public lands.
In November, the Departments of Agriculture and the Interior issued a policy to facilitate agreements with tribes to improve collaboration and co-stewardship.
Mendocino National Forest, which began working nearly three years ago alongside the Robinson Rancheria Pomo and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians in partnership with TERA, is poised to take action that aligns with the new policy.
An integral part of the collaboration with TERA is the exchange of modern and traditional knowledge and practices, according to Hinda Darner, fuels specialist for the Upper Lake Ranger District.
“We are working with them in a way that we can learn from them also,” said Darner. “When Native Americans managed the landscape, it was much more resilient to wildfire.”
“We’ve heard from our tribal partners how incredibly impactful it has been for them to be working on their ancestral lands again,” said Mendocino District Ranger Frank Aebly.
TERA Program Director Lindsay Dailey is also inspired by the way TERA approaches land management, through its promotion of “good fire” or prescribed fire and cultural burning.
“We all have something to learn from that whether we’re native or not,” said Dailey. “This partnership with the Mendocino National Forest is a great model for how people and land managers everywhere need to be collaborating with tribes, listening, supporting and learning from them.”
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun. NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere — the corona — and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Joy Ng.
For the first time in history, a spacecraft has touched the Sun.
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has now flown through the Sun’s upper atmosphere — the corona — and sampled particles and magnetic fields there.
The new milestone marks one major step for Parker Solar Probe and one giant leap for solar science. Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the very stuff the Sun is made of will help scientists uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.
"Parker Solar Probe ‘touching the Sun’ is a monumental moment for solar science and a truly remarkable feat," said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Not only does this milestone provide us with deeper insights into our Sun's evolution and its impacts on our solar system, but everything we learn about our own star also teaches us more about stars in the rest of the universe.”
As it circles closer to the solar surface, Parker is making new discoveries that other spacecraft were too far away to see, including from within the solar wind — the flow of particles from the Sun that can influence us at Earth. In 2019, Parker discovered that magnetic zigzag structures in the solar wind, called switchbacks, are plentiful close to the Sun. But how and where they form remained a mystery. Halving the distance to the Sun since then, Parker Solar Probe has now passed close enough to identify one place where they originate: the solar surface.
The first passage through the corona — and the promise of more flybys to come — will continue to provide data on phenomena that are impossible to study from afar.
“Flying so close to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe now senses conditions in the magnetically dominated layer of the solar atmosphere — the corona — that we never could before,” said Nour Raouafi, the Parker project scientist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “We see evidence of being in the corona in magnetic field data, solar wind data, and visually in images. We can actually see the spacecraft flying through coronal structures that can be observed during a total solar eclipse.”
Closer than ever before
Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018 to explore the mysteries of the Sun by traveling closer to it than any spacecraft before. Three years after launch and decades after first conception, Parker has finally arrived.
Unlike Earth, the Sun doesn’t have a solid surface. But it does have a superheated atmosphere, made of solar material bound to the Sun by gravity and magnetic forces. As rising heat and pressure push that material away from the Sun, it reaches a point where gravity and magnetic fields are too weak to contain it.
That point, known as the Alfvén critical surface, marks the end of the solar atmosphere and beginning of the solar wind. Solar material with the energy to make it across that boundary becomes the solar wind, which drags the magnetic field of the Sun with it as it races across the solar system, to Earth and beyond.
Importantly, beyond the Alfvén critical surface, the solar wind moves so fast that waves within the wind cannot ever travel fast enough to make it back to the Sun — severing their connection.
Until now, researchers were unsure exactly where the Alfvén critical surface lay. Based on remote images of the corona, estimates had put it somewhere between 10 to 20 solar radii from the surface of the Sun — 4.3 to 8.6 million miles.
Parker’s spiral trajectory brings it slowly closer to the Sun and during the last few passes, the spacecraft was consistently below 20 solar radii (91 percent of Earth’s distance from the Sun), putting it in the position to cross the boundary — if the estimates were correct.
On April 28, 2021, during its eighth flyby of the Sun, Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii (around 8.1 million miles) above the solar surface that told scientists it had crossed the Alfvén critical surface for the first time and finally entered the solar atmosphere.
“We were fully expecting that, sooner or later, we would encounter the corona for at least a short duration of time,” said Justin Kasper, lead author on a new paper about the milestone published in Physical Review Letters, and deputy chief technology officer at BWX Technologies, Inc. and University of Michigan professor. “But it is very exciting that we’ve already reached it.”
Into the eye of the storm
During the flyby, Parker Solar Probe passed into and out of the corona several times. This is proved what some had predicted — that the Alfvén critical surface isn’t shaped like a smooth ball. Rather, it has spikes and valleys that wrinkle the surface.
Discovering where these protrusions line up with solar activity coming from the surface can help scientists learn how events on the Sun affect the atmosphere and solar wind.
Six panels of images taken from inside a coronal streamer. They appear grayish with white streaks showing particles in the solar wind.
At one point, as Parker Solar Probe dipped to just beneath 15 solar radii (around 6.5 million miles) from the Sun’s surface, it transited a feature in the corona called a pseudostreamer. Pseudostreamers are massive structures that rise above the Sun’s surface and can be seen from Earth during solar eclipses.
Passing through the pseudostreamer was like flying into the eye of a storm. Inside the pseudostreamer, the conditions quieted, particles slowed, and number of switchbacks dropped — a dramatic change from the busy barrage of particles the spacecraft usually encounters in the solar wind.
For the first time, the spacecraft found itself in a region where the magnetic fields were strong enough to dominate the movement of particles there. These conditions were the definitive proof the spacecraft had passed the Alfvén critical surface and entered the solar atmosphere where magnetic fields shape the movement of everything in the region.
The first passage through the corona, which lasted only a few hours, is one of many planned for the mission. Parker will continue to spiral closer to the Sun, eventually reaching as close as 8.86 solar radii (3.83 million miles) from the surface. Upcoming flybys, the next of which is happening in January 2022, will likely bring Parker Solar Probe through the corona again.
“I’m excited to see what Parker finds as it repeatedly passes through the corona in the years to come,” said Nicola Fox, division director for the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “The opportunity for new discoveries is boundless.”
The size of the corona is also driven by solar activity. As the Sun’s 11-year activity cycle — the solar cycle — ramps up, the outer edge of the corona will expand, giving Parker Solar Probe a greater chance of being inside the corona for longer periods of time.
“It is a really important region to get into because we think all sorts of physics potentially turn on,” Kasper said. “And now we're getting into that region and hopefully going to start seeing some of these physics and behaviors.”
Narrowing down switchback origins
Even before the first trips through the corona, some surprising physics was already surfacing. On recent solar encounters, Parker Solar Probe collected data pinpointing the origin of zig-zag-shaped structures in the solar wind, called switchbacks. The data showed one spot that switchbacks originate is at the visible surface of the Sun — the photosphere.
By the time it reaches Earth, 93 million miles away, the solar wind is an unrelenting headwind of particles and magnetic fields.
But as it escapes the Sun, the solar wind is structured and patchy. In the mid-1990s, the NASA-European Space Agency mission Ulysses flew over the Sun’s poles and discovered a handful of bizarre S-shaped kinks in the solar wind’s magnetic field lines, which detoured charged particles on a zigzag path as they escaped the Sun.
For decades, scientists thought these occasional switchbacks were oddities confined to the Sun’s polar regions.
In 2019, at 34 solar radii from the Sun, Parker discovered that switchbacks were not rare, but common in the solar wind. This renewed interest in the features and raised new questions: Where were they coming from? Were they forged at the surface of the Sun, or shaped by some process kinking magnetic fields in the solar atmosphere?
The new findings, in press at the Astrophysical Journal, finally confirm one origin point is near the solar surface.
The clues came as Parker orbited closer to the Sun on its sixth flyby, less than 25 solar radii out. Data showed switchbacks occur in patches and have a higher percentage of helium — known to come from the photosphere — than other elements. The switchbacks’ origins were further narrowed when the scientists found the patches aligned with magnetic funnels that emerge from the photosphere between convection cell structures called supergranules.
In addition to being the birthplace of switchbacks, the scientists think the magnetic funnels might be where one component of the solar wind originates. The solar wind comes in two different varieties — fast and slow — and the funnels could be where some particles in the fast solar wind come from.
“The structure of the regions with switchbacks matches up with a small magnetic funnel structure at the base of the corona,” said Stuart Bale, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and lead author on the new switchbacks paper. “This is what we expect from some theories, and this pinpoints a source for the solar wind itself.”
Understanding where and how the components of the fast solar wind emerge, and if they’re linked to switchbacks, could help scientists answer a long-standing solar mystery: how the corona is heated to millions of degrees, far hotter than the solar surface below.
While the new findings locate where switchbacks are made, the scientists can’t yet confirm how they’re formed. One theory suggests they might be created by waves of plasma that roll through the region like ocean surf. Another contends they’re made by an explosive process known as magnetic reconnection, which is thought to occur at the boundaries where the magnetic funnels come together.
“My instinct is, as we go deeper into the mission and lower and closer to the Sun, we're going to learn more about how magnetic funnels are connected to the switchbacks,” Bale said. “And hopefully resolve the question of what process makes them.”
Now that researchers know what to look for, Parker’s closer passes may reveal even more clues about switchbacks and other solar phenomena. The data to come will allow scientists a glimpse into a region that’s critical for superheating the corona and pushing the solar wind to supersonic speeds.
Such measurements from the corona will be critical for understanding and forecasting extreme space weather events that can disrupt telecommunications and damage satellites around Earth.
“It’s really exciting to see our advanced technologies succeed in taking Parker Solar Probe closer to the Sun than we’ve ever been, and to be able to return such amazing science,” said Joseph Smith, Parker program executive at NASA Headquarters. "We look forward to seeing what else the mission discovers as it ventures even closer in the coming years."
Parker Solar Probe is part of NASA’s Living with a Star program to explore aspects of the Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.
The Living with a Star program is managed by the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, manages the Parker Solar Probe mission for NASA and designed, built, and operates the spacecraft.
Mara Johnson-Groh works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control is introducing new dogs available to be adopted this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of beagle, border collie, Chihuahua German shepherd, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, pit bull and Rhodesian ridgeback.
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.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-1892.
‘Cinnamon’
“Cinnamon” is a 5-year-old female chocolate Labrador retriever-pit bull mix with a short chocolate-colored coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-1769.
‘Bruce’
“Bruce” is a 2-year-old male pit bull terrier with a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-2351.
Female mastiff
This 3-year-old female mastiff has a short brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-1868.
Male husky
This 1-year-old male husky has a black and white coat with bright blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-2190.
Male beagle-terrier mix
This young male beagle-terrier mix has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-2389.
Male Chihuahua
This 1-year-old male Chihuahua has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-2393.
Cattle dog-terrier mix
This 2-year-old male cattle dog-terrier mix has a short yellow coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-2394.
Female border collie mix
This 2-year-old female border collie mix has a black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-2207.
‘Snuffy’
“Snuffy” is a 1-year-old black Labrador retriever mix.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-2152.
Male German shepherd
This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-1903.
Male shepherd mix
This 2-year-old male shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-1743.
‘Duke’
“Duke is a 1-year-old male Rhodesian ridgeback with a short brown coat.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Friday that USDA is investing approximately $90 million to build and improve critical rural infrastructure in California, including a project in Lake County.
In Lake County, Harbor View Mutual Water Co. in Kelseyville is allocated about $1.8 million to be used to construct steel tanks.
This funding will prevent leaks and increase storage which is essential as the current tank is not meeting current needs.
“When we invest in rural infrastructure, we invest in the livelihoods and health of people in rural America,” Vilsack said. “Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is committed to building a better America by investing in America’s rural infrastructure, expanding access to broadband, clean drinking water and resilient power infrastructure. The investments we are announcing today will drive the creation of good-paying union jobs and grow the economy sustainably and equitably so that everyone gets ahead for decades to come.”
This announcement follows the recent passage of President Biden’s historic bipartisan infrastructure law and reflects the many ways USDA Rural Development’s programs are helping people, businesses and communities address critical infrastructure needs to help rural America build back better.
The other projects include the following.
In Fresno and Madera counties, The Ponderosa Telephone Co. is allocated $17,225,000. This loan will extend to the premises, or FTTP, and install attendant electronic equipment to the rural areas of their Auberry, Big Creek, Friant, North Fork, O'Neals, Shaver Lake, and Wishon exchanges, making these exchanges 100 percent FTTP. Upgraded radio electronics will only be installed in the Cima exchange. Ponderosa Telephone Company proposes to construct 78.15 miles of FTTP and install all associated electronics. The improvements will sustain customer demand in broadband connectivity.
In Madera and Mariposa counties, the Sierra Telephone Co. Inc. is allocated $40,228,000. This Rural Development investment will be used to expand fiber-to-the-premise service in Coarsegold, Mariposa and Raymond exchanges. Fiber will be deployed in all three exchanges using a passive optical network design that will allow up to 1Gbps service. The new facilities will be constructed in the town areas of each exchange and in the more densely populated rural areas. In addition to the loan funds, a general fund of $52,711,00 will be contributed to accomplish the project. Sierra Telephone Co.'s current 15,761 subscribers will benefit from this investment.
In Alameda County, $157,600 is allocated to Earth Island Institute. They also received another for $62 thousand. These Rural Development investments will be used to provide technical assistance and training through direct and indirect assistance to 26 California, seven Arizona, 13 Nevada and four New Mexico federally recognized tribes to reduce their solid waste streams. The project will accomplish this task by providing one-on-one direct consultations, workshops and tutorials with rural and remote tribes that fit the criteria including population, median household income, poverty levels, and underserved trust areas. The project is designed to empower tribal environmental programs and governments with tools and training that increase innovation in problem solving while improving their waste management infrastructure and protecting tribal environments.
The city of Yreka is allocated more than $6 million to be used to replace aging infrastructure, reduce inflow and infiltration, provide adequate hydraulic capacity, and ensure safe and reliable transmission of wastewater to the city's wastewater treatment plant. The proposed project includes improvements to the City's sewer collection system within the Caltrans road right-of-way along Highway 3 (Main Street) between Lennox Road and Oberlin Road.
The Tuolumne Utilities District is allocated a loan for approximately $9 million and a grant for $4.3 million. The investment will be used to make renovations to the Sonora Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility. Deficiencies will be addressed by making improvements to each unit process: secondary treatment, disinfection, sludge stabilization and drying, and sludge dewatering. This will allow the system to increase the treatment capacity — including full nitrification/denitrification, handle variable flow and load including septage, and improve the effluent quality to ensure regulatory compliance.
Sierra County Waterworks District No. 1 is allocated $499,000 to resolve a fire flow issue that Sierra County Waterworks District No. 1-Calpine has been dealing with over the last couple of years. The Calpine Water System was cited for violating the Health and Safety Code on March 4, 2015 (arsenic issues, which is resolved), but now are faced with inadequate water flow during a fire, which resulted in four homes being burned down over the last couple of years. The Calpine Water System Improvement project consists of construction of a new water tank with 140,000-gallon capacity, new piping, inlets and outlets, erosion control, foundation building, and site restoration. The new water tank will allow the district to take down their other water tank and do needed maintenance, as well as enable the district to have sufficient water supply for daily water demand, fire storage and the possibility of expansion. The project will not only ensure safe, clean drinking water is provided to all residents of the Big Bend service area, but the insurance of extra water flow during a fire event.
In Napa County, more than $9 million is allocated to the City of St. Helena, to install a packaged MBR Treatment plant. This Rural Development investment will be used for a treatment pond retrofit for influent flow equalization and emergency storage. As well as the construction of a new influent lift station, retrofit of existing treatment pond distribution box structure and construction of mechanical screening and disposal system. This Rural Development investment will also be used to construct a sludge dewatering and disposal system, flow meter reconstruction, chlorine disinfection system upgrades. This Rural Development investment will be used to install an underground effluent pipeline for distribution to pond 5 or Napa River outfall, electrical improvements, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, site improvements, and construction of a noise-barrier wall.
In Imperial County, more than $180,000 is allocated to Ocotillo Mutual Water Co. to install approximately 4,100 feet of eight-inch polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, sewer main and install manholes along Monroe Street near the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation in southwestern Riverside County. The new 8-inch sewer main will be connected to an existing 33-inch sewer main, owned and operated by the Coachella Valley Water District. The new sewer main will connect a subdivision, church, and community building located within the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation to the existing sewer collection system operated by CVWD. The housing units and facilities that will connect to the new sewer main currently discharge sewage into septic tanks located on each property. The Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian tribe has determined that these tanks are failing and have caused seepage of sewage to ground water and in cases sewage has been detected above ground. The proposed project will allow the tribe to abandon the failing septic tanks and allow them to connect to CVWD's existing sewage treatment system.
In Yolo County, $900,000 is allocated to Rural Community Assistance Corp. to establish a revolving loan fund to repair or replace individually owned water wells or wastewater disposal systems for eligible homeowners.
In Orange County, $90,000 is allocated to Walking Shield American Indian Society Inc. to build the capacity of the three rural Native American Indian tribes to address critical needs associated with clean drinking water and wastewater management impacting residents living on the reservations. They will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the identified water deficiency projects with recommendations to develop action plans for solutions.
In Sacramento County, $138,000 is allocated to OCT Water Quality Academy to provide training to water operators and associated personnel to improve management and operation of water and wastewater disposal facilities.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — During a special Thursday afternoon meeting, the Clearlake City Council met to discuss and approve a property sale that is expected to bring more than 20 new market rate homes to the city and a land purchase that’s part of a major commercial development project on the city’s former airport site.
In a meeting that ran just under 30 minutes, the council unanimously supported the separate sale and purchase proposals, which address the city’s goals of increasing its housing stock and pursuing the construction of a major shopping center that will front Highway 53.
The property sale involves 29 acres at 2890 Old Highway 53, which is owned by the former successor agency to the city’s former redevelopment agency.
City Manager Alan Flora was not sure of exactly when the agency took over the property, explaining that a developer who had planned a subdivision on the land — for which a tentative map had been adopted — lost the property when the project fell apart as a result of the Great Recession. The redevelopment agency bought it shortly afterward.
Last year, the council accepted a proposal from TJG/Summitt Development for a subdivision there, but the company notified the city in May that it wasn’t moving forward with the project.
Flora said the city was required by state law to notice and list the property as surplus to public agencies and through the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s database for affordable housing development.
Over the summer, four developers came forward and two provided proposals, including Danco Communities, which has another project in the city.
The land where that project is being built is a portion of a 31-acre property the city purchased last December. The other 26 acres will include a new city sports complex and corporation yard.
As proposed, the new project on Old Highway 53 would be consistent with the previous one, which Flora said calls for 22 lots, each 1.25 acres in size.
The proposed sale price is $100,000, with a $5,000 deposit, after which Flora said escrow would be opened. Escrow will close after the tentative map is recorded.
Danco Communities President Chris Dart, who attended the meeting via Zoom, said the company plans to build the subdivision as previously intended, on the 51,000 square foot lots.
He said the homes will be 2,000- to 3,000-square-foot ranch style homes.
The project is similar to one they are now building in Humboldt County on one-acre lots, Dart said.
The city received two emails from a family living nearby who didn’t want the subdivision built because it would impact the quiet neighborhood and country atmosphere. They said they would have loved to have the opportunity to purchase the property to build stables there.
In response to questions submitted during the meeting by Lake County News regarding the time to develop the site, Flora said they have some “generous” time frames in the sale agreement.
Flora said development of the subdivision project should begin at some point next year as the apartment complex is being built on Burns Valley Road.
“This is the most difficult type of housing to develop either in Clearlake or Lake County,” Flora said, adding he isn’t aware of a similar project under development anywhere else in Lake County.
Regarding the comments about the sale prices from the neighbors, Flora said the market value in normal situations for such a property is significantly above $100,000. The reason it’s been offered to the developer at that price is to encourage its development for housing of this type.
He said the taxpayers have invested in purchasing this property. “Letting it sit as green space is probably not really an option, at least from my perspective,” Flora said, noting housing development is badly needed.
Dart said they are going to work on the entitlements on the property right away, and that could take six to 12 months.
He said they are going to build the subdivision out while they are under construction with the affordable housing project. That’s a way to make it work, to already be under construction on another project, as there are efficiencies.
Flora said the county’s redevelopment oversight board will have to approve the sale. He hopes to schedule a meeting of that board in January, noting it’s been OK with similar deals previously.
Mayor Dirk Slooten said the city sorely lacks market rate housing and he’s excited about the project.
It’s a place where nurses and schoolteachers will be able to live. “We don’t have that in this town,” Slooten said.
Vice Mayor Russ Perdock and Councilman Russ Cremer agreed.
Cremer said the property has been subdivided for a number of years and waiting for the right moment.
He said he was thrilled Danco is stepping in to do the project.
Cremer then moved to approve the sale agreement with Danco Communities, which Perdock seconded. The council approved the agreement 4-0; Councilwoman Joyce Overton was absent.
Property purchase to facilitate intersection construction
The council then moved on to discuss Flora’s request to approve the agreement with Edwin Jinks to purchase from him properties at 6461 Manzanita Ave. and 6452 Francisco Ave. for $550,000.
The properties, each of which has a large self-storage building on it, together total just under half an acre, according to county property records.
They are located just to the west of the Highway 53 and 18th Avenue intersection, on the edge of the city-owned property that previously was the Pearce Field airport.
The parcels the city is purchasing from Jinks will be added to a 40-acre area along Highway 53 where the city is conducting strategic master planning for a commercial and retail development.
Flora explained that the city has been working on a lot of things related to the airport retail development. That includes intersection and road design in order to extend 18th Avenue from Highway 53 west to Old Highway 53.
“In order to have a safe and attractive intersection there, there’s a need to construct the road through one of these parcels,” he said.
The city had been in talks with Jinks for some time and reached agreement on the $550,000 sale price, Flora said.
Flora asked for the council’s approval to give him the authority to sign the agreement.
He said the sale should close between 45 and 60 days.
Once Jinks’ personal property is removed, Flora said they can start work on the road project.
There was no public comment before Cremer moved to approve the agreement, which was seconded by Councilman David Claffey. The council approved the agreement 4-0.
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 headlines suggested a comparison with the “Zero Day” announcement in Cape Town, South Africa, during a drought in 2018. That was the projected date when water would no longer be available at household taps without significant conservation. Cape Town avoided a water shutoff, barely.
While California’s announcement represents uncharted territory and is meant to promote water conservation in what is already a dry water year, there is more to the story.
California’s drought solution
California is a semi-arid state, so a dry year isn’t a surprise. But a recent state report observed that California is now in a dry pattern “interspersed with an occasional wet year.” The state suffered a three-year drought from 2007 to 2009, a five-year drought from 2012 to 2016, and now two dry years in a row; 2020 was the fifth-driest year on record, and 2021 was the second-driest.
Over a century ago, well before climate change became evident, officials began planning ways to keep California’s growing cities and farms supplied with water. They developed a complex system of reservoirs and canals that funnel water from where it’s plentiful to where it’s needed.
Part of that system is the State Water Project.
First envisioned in 1919, the State Water Project delivers water from the relatively wetter and, at the time, less populated areas of Northern California to more populated and drier areas, mostly in Southern California. The State Water Project provides water for 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland, with about 70% for residential, municipal and industrial use and 30% for irrigation. There are 29 local water agencies – the state water contractors – that helped fund the State Water Project and in return receive water under a contract dating to the 1960s.
While the State Water Project is important to these local water agencies, it is usually not their only source of water. Nor is all water in California supplied through the State Water Project. Most water agencies have a portfolio of water supplies, which can include pumping groundwater.
What does 0% mean?
Originally, the State Water Project planned to deliver 4.2 million acre-feet of water each year. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to cover a football field in water 1 foot deep. An average California household uses around one-half to 1 acre-foot of water per year for both indoor and outdoor use. However, contractors that distribute water from the State Water Project have historically received only part of their allocations; the long-term average is 60%, with recent years much lower.
Based on water conditions each year, the state Department of Water Resources makes an initial allocation by Dec. 1 to help these state water contractors plan. As the year progresses, the state can adjust the allocation based on additional rain or snow and the amount of water in storage reservoirs. In 2010, for example, the allocation started at 5% and was raised to 50% by June. In 2014, the allocation started at 5%, dropped to 0% and then finished at 5%.
This year is the lowest initial allocation on record. According to the state Department of Water Resources, “unprecedented drought conditions” and “reservoirs at or near historic lows” led to this year’s headline-producing 0% allocation.
That’s 0% of each state water contractor’s allocation; however, the department committed to meet “unmet minimum health and safety needs.” In other words, if the contractors cannot find water from other sources, they could request up to 55 gallons per capita per day of water to “meet domestic supply, fire protection and sanitation needs.” That’s about two-thirds of what the average American uses.
The department is also prioritizing water for salinity control in the Sacramento Bay Delta area, water for endangered species, water to reserve in storage and water for additional supply allocations if the weather conditions improve.
Under the current plan, there will be no water from the State Water Project for roughly 10% of California’s irrigated land. As a result, both municipal and agricultural suppliers will be seeking to conserve water, looking elsewhere for water supplies, or not delivering water. None are easy solutions.
Those who can afford to dig deeper wells have done so, while others have no water as their wells have gone dry. During the 2012-2016 drought, the Public Policy Institute of California found that a majority of affected households that lost water access from their wells were in “small rural communities reliant on shallow wells – many of them communities of color.”
As someone who has worked in California and the Western U.S. on complex water issues, I am familiar with both drought and floods and the challenges they create. However, the widespread nature of this year’s drought – in California and beyond – makes the challenge even harder.
This “zero allocation” for California’s State Water Contractors is an unprecedented early warning, and likely a sign of what’s ahead.
A recent study warned that the snowpack in Western states like California may decline by up to 45% by 2050, with low- and no-snow years becoming increasingly common. Thirty-seven cities in California have already issued moratoriums on development because of water supply concerns.
If voluntary conservation does not work, enacting mandatory conservation measures like San Jose’s tough new drought rules may be needed. The state is now weighing emergency regulations on water use, and everyone is hoping for more precipitation.
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Lara B. Fowler, Senior Lecturer in Law and Assistant Director for Outreach and Engagement, Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, Penn State
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a multipronged plan to fight and prevent crime in California.
The Governor’s Real Public Safety Plan focuses on new investments that will bolster local law enforcement response, ensure prosecutors hold perpetrators accountable and get guns and drugs off our streets.
“We're doubling down on our public safety investments and partnerships with law enforcement officials up and down the state to ensure Californians and small businesses feel safe in their communities — a fundamental need we all share,” said Newsom. “Through robust new investments and ongoing coordination with local agencies, this plan will bolster our prevention, deterrence and enforcement efforts to aggressively curb crime, hold bad actors to account and protect Californians from the devastating gun violence epidemic.”
While long-term crime trends in California are down in almost every category, states across America have seen a recent uptick in organized retail theft and other violent crimes, particularly those involving a firearm.
The Governor’s Real Public Safety Plan will support existing efforts and new initiatives, including a permanent Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit led by CHP, funding for a statewide organized theft team in the Attorney General’s Office to prosecute cross-jurisdictional theft-related crimes, the largest gun buyback program in the country and grants for local law enforcement, prosecutors, and small businesses victimized by retail theft.
Gov. Newsom announced the plan alongside Attorney General Rob Bonta, CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, California Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci and other state and local leaders at the CHP’s Dublin Area Office.
“Every family in every neighborhood in California deserves to feel safe and be safe as they live, work, and play in their communities,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “That’s what the Real Public Safety Plan is about — keeping Californians safe by doubling down and allocating additional resources to fight and prevent crime. My office is proud to partner with the governor in this effort, and build upon our existing work to combat organized retail crime, dismantle gangs, defend our common sense gun laws, and hold those who commit crime accountable.”
“On behalf of retailers across California, I want to thank Gov. Newsom for his commitment to addressing the growing problem of organized retail crime,” said President and CEO of the California Retailers Association Rachel Michelin. “The Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit and other state- level theft teams will provide more regions of the state with the vital expertise necessary to bring resolution to these often challenging and complex crimes without further compromising local resources.”
Building on the administration’s ongoing efforts, the Real Public Safety Plan’s three core areas of focus crack down on crime to keep communities safe by:
Bolstering local law enforcement response to stop and apprehend criminals
• Increased local law enforcement to combat retail theft: The Real Public Safety Plan includes $255 million in grants for local law enforcement over the next three years to increase presence at retail locations and combat organized, retail crime so Californians and small businesses across the state can feel safe.
• Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit: Gov. Newsom’s Plan includes a permanent Smash and Grab Enforcement Unit. Operated by the California Highway Patrol, the unit will consist of enforcement fleets that will work with local law enforcement to crack down on organized retail, auto and rail theft in the Bay Area, Sacramento, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles and San Diego regions.
• Keeping Our Roads Safe: With the Real Public Safety Plan, CHP will now be able to strategically deploy more patrols based on real-time data to help keep our roads safe. Gov. Newsom will also work with the Legislature to upgrade highway camera technology to gather information to help solve crimes.
• Support for Small Businesses Victimized by Retail Theft: Gov. Newsom’s Plan will create a new grant program to help small businesses that have been the victims of smash-and-grabs to get back on their feet quickly.
More prosecutors to hold perpetrators accountable
• Dedicated retail theft prosecutors: The plan will ensure District Attorneys are effectively and efficiently prosecuting retail, auto and rail theft-related crime by providing an additional $30 million in grants for local prosecutors over three years.
• Fighting crime statewide: The Real Public Safety Plan will allow the Attorney General to continue leading anti-crime task forces around the state, including High Impact Investigation Teams, LA interagency efforts and task forces to combat human trafficking and gangs.
• Statewide Organized Theft Team: Gov. Newsom’s plan includes $18 million over three years for the creation of a dedicated state team of special investigators and prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office to go after perpetrators of organized theft crime rings that cross jurisdictional lines.
Getting guns and drugs off our streets
• The largest gun buyback program in America: The governor’s plan will create a new statewide gun buyback program, working with local law enforcement to provide matching grants and safe-disposal opportunities to get guns off our streets and promote awareness of gun violence.
• Holding the gun industry accountable: In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Governor is working with the California Legislature to propose a nation-leading law that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes or sells unlawful assault weapons, as well as “ghost guns,” ghost gun kits or their component parts.
• Leading the nation’s gun violence research efforts: When Congress refused to allow America to study the impacts of gun violence, California stepped up. The Real Public Safety Plan includes additional funding for California’s nation-leading gun violence research center at UC Davis.
• Intercepting Drugs: The governor’s plan will keep drugs off our streets and includes $20 million to support the National Guard’s drug interdiction efforts, targeting transnational criminal organizations.
Newsom’s office said protecting public safety and addressing organized retail crime has been a top priority.
Last month Newman directed CHP to increase its presence in highly-trafficked shopping areas through the holiday season to assist allied partners in the apprehension of criminals.
In July the governor took action to extend the California Highway Patrol Organized Retail Crime Task Force, which coordinates with allied law enforcement agencies and district attorneys to identify and prosecute organized theft rings, recover lost merchandise and collaborate with the retail industry to reduce theft and improve safety for shoppers.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — California Attorney General Rob Bonta is urging county prosecutors to work with superior courts to prioritize the updating of cannabis convictions, an action Lake County District Attorney Susan Krones said she has completed.
Bonta said the work will help Californians who have such convictions to promptly obtain the relief they are entitled to under the law, namely, AB 1793, of which he was lead author.
Before July 2019, the California Department of Justice identified and provided county prosecuting agencies with a list of Californians that might have convictions eligible to be reduced or removed under AB 1793, Bonta’s office reported.
However, to date, Bonta’s office said there are still past convictions in the state's database that are potentially eligible for resentencing.
“Since this law went into effect, tens of thousands of Californians have been able to turn the page and make a fresh start — but unfortunately there are still some who are waiting for relief. I urge counties to prioritize processing their records so that these Californians can finally get the relief they deserve. My team is available as a resource, and we won't stop working until every Californian eligible for relief under AB 1793 is experiencing the law’s intended benefits,” Bonta said.
In 2016, California voters passed Proposition 64, legalizing the possession, cultivation and sale of cannabis by adults 21 years and older.
At the same time, Proposition 64 allowed individuals convicted of the possession, cultivation or sale of cannabis to petition, as appropriate, for resentencing.
Bonta, then a member of the Assembly, wrote AB 1793 to streamline the process, requiring the Department of Justice to review records in the state summary criminal history information database and to identify past convictions potentially eligible for recall or dismissal of sentence, dismissal and sealing, or re-designation.
If there is no challenge to the resentencing, Bonta’s office said courts are required to automatically reduce or dismiss the conviction and to notify the Department of Justice to update the state summary criminal history information database to reflect the resentencing.
Krones told Lake County News that the law required the Department of Justice to compile a list of marijuana convictions for each county.
She had until July 1, 2020, to review them all and decide if she was going to challenge the reduction or dismissal of any of the convictions.
“I did not oppose any of the cases to be reduced or dismissed,” she said.
Krones received assistance in organizing the information about the cases from Code for America, whose projects include criminal record clearance and expungement.
The nonprofit helps write computer programs to assist in analyzing data in a format that can be easier to understand. Krones said they used the information provided by the Department of Justice.
She sent 550 cases to the courts to be reduced or resentenced by the July 2020 deadline.
“The courts now have the list of cases that should be reduced or dismissed and will need to do the next steps to take action on them,” Krones said.
Bonta’s bulletin to county agencies can be read here.
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.
Engineers are developing the crucial hardware needed for a series of daring space missions that will be carried out in the coming decade.
Testing has already begun on what would be the most sophisticated endeavor ever attempted at the Red Planet: bringing rock and sediment samples from Mars to Earth for closer study.
The multi-mission Mars Sample Return campaign began when NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars this past February to collect Martian rock samples in search of ancient microscopic life.
Out of Perseverance’s 43 sample tubes, four have been filled with rock cores and one with Martian atmosphere. Mars Sample Return seeks to bring select tubes back to Earth, where generations of scientists will be able to study them with powerful lab equipment far too large to send to Mars.
Getting those samples into terrestrial labs would take a decade and involve European partners and multiple NASA centers.
The European Space Agency, or ESA, is developing a rover for the effort, with engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, designing its wheels. The rover would transfer samples to a lander, being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, that would use a robotic arm (developed by ESA) to pack the samples into a small rocket, called a Mars Ascent Vehicle, being designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The rocket would launch from the lander to deliver the sample capsule to an ESA spacecraft orbiting Mars. Inside the orbiter, the capsule would be prepared for delivery to Earth by hardware that a team led by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is developing.
This preparation would include sealing the sample capsule within a clean container to trap any Martian material inside, sterilizing the seal, and placing the sealed container into an Earth-entry capsule before the return trip to Earth.
The lander
To develop the lander, as well as the system that would help launch the sample-laden rocket from it, engineers at NASA’s JPL are drawing from a long history of Mars exploration: JPL has led nine successful Mars landings, including rovers and stationary landers.
But the Sample Retrieval Lander would be the largest, heaviest spacecraft of its type to ever go to Mars, and the Mars Ascent Vehicle launching from it would be the first rocket ever fired off another planet.
This is where the testing comes in.
To carry and launch the Mars Ascent Vehicle, the lander needs to be a sturdy platform, weighing about 5,291 pounds — almost twice as heavy as Perseverance, which was lowered to the Martian surface with cables from a rocket-powered jet pack.
The Sample Retriever Lander wouldn’t have a jet pack; its legs would have to absorb the impact of touchdown, relying on retrorockets to slow its descent, similar to recent Mars lander missions like InSight and Phoenix.
That’s why Pavlina Karafillis has been dropping a prototype lander — repeatedly — in a warehouselike space at JPL. As test engineer for the Sample Retrieval Lander’s legs, she and her colleagues have been using high-speed cameras to observe this prototype’s legs slam onto a base.
QR-code-like marks on each of the prototype’s “feet” help the cameras track the legs’ motion. The team uses slow-motion video to continually update their computer models, which help them understand how energy would be dispersed throughout the lander.
“The last step of the journey is really important,” Karafillis said. “There’s all kinds of landing conditions you have to take into account, like rocks, or really soft sand, or coming in at an angle. This is why we have to do all this testing.”
Karafillis and her colleagues have started with a prototype roughly one-third the size of what the actual spacecraft would be; a lighter prototype is one way to learn how the final lander design would move in Mars’ low gravity. Later in the program, they will drop a full-scale lander, as well.
The rocket
Surviving landing is just part of the challenge: Safely launching the nine-foot-long (2.8-meter-long) two-stage rocket that will sit atop the lander’s deck adds another level of difficulty. Mars’ gravity is one-third that of Earth’s, and the rocket’s weight, combined with its exhaust, could cause the lander to slip or tilt.
So engineers have conceived of a system to toss the rocket into the air just before it ignites. The whole process happens in a finger-snap, tossing the rocket at a rate of 16 feet (5 meters) per second.
During testing, a cradle equipped with gas-powered pistons flung an 881-pound (400-kilogram) mock rocket 11 feet (3.3 meters) in the air; cables suspended from a tower 44 feet (13 meters) high offloaded more than half of the test article’s weight to simulate Martian gravity.
“It’s kind of like being on a really fast roller coaster when someone hits the breaks,” said Chris Chatellier, the system’s lead engineer at JPL. “There are a lot of safety aspects to consider. Testing happens in a very controlled sequence of events with everyone outside of the building.”
This system, known as Vertically Ejected Controlled Tip-off Release (VECTOR) system, also adds a slight rotation during launch, which pitches the rocket up and away from the Martian surface.
“Launching with VECTOR means the lander could be oriented the wrong way on a slope, and we could still pull this off,” Chatellier said.
Chatellier and his team have conducted 23 tests this year, changing the rocket’s mass and center of gravity along the way. They also added springs to the bottom of their lander stand-in, watching how much “bounce” the launch system created. Next year, they’ll toss a heavier rocket even higher.
“We’re on the right path,” Chatellier said. “Our analysis and predicted models were very close to what we saw in the tests.”
More about Mars sample return
NASA’s Mars Sample Return, or MSR, will revolutionize our understanding of Mars by returning scientifically-selected samples for study using the most sophisticated instruments around the world.
The mission will fulfill a solar system exploration goal, a high priority since 1980 and the last two National Academy of Sciences Planetary Decadal Surveys.
This strategic partnership of NASA and ESA will be the first mission to return samples from another planet, including the first launch and return from the surface of another planet.
These samples collected by Perseverance during its exploration of an ancient river-delta are thought to be the best opportunity to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential for life.
Find out more details about Mars Sample Return here.
A trustee has a so-called “fiduciary” duty — i.e, a duty that involves legal responsibility and accountability to the trust beneficiary — to manage the assets of a trust strictly according to the terms of the trust for the sole benefit of the beneficiaries.
A Trustee cannot favor the interests of one beneficiary over another beneficiary (i.e, the “duty of impartiality”) unless the trust instrument so allows.
In California, a trustee must execute his or her fiduciary duties using the authority granted in the trust instrument and in the Probate Code, as further defined by case law.
Some provisions in the trust are mandatory — i.e, must be implemented — and often involve “objective” (measurable) standards to be carried out.
Other provisions, however, are permissive and/or are mandatory but still involve subjective standards for implementation. Anything that is permissive or subjective involves discretion and usually gives the trustee some flexibility as to whether, how and when to act.
Whether a decision is mandatory or discretionary and how much flexibility the trustee has is primarily determined by the trust instrument, but secondarily determined by the Probate Code and any relevant case law decisions.
Mandatory provisions involve no trustee discretion. For example, “the trustee shall distribute principal for the beneficiary’s health, education, maintenance and support.” The use of the word “shall” requires the trustee to meet the beneficiary’s needs.
However, other provisions involve trustee discretion. That is, a trustee must use his or her best judgment in a fiduciary capacity.
For example, “the trustee may distribute principal for the beneficiary’s maintenance and support as the trustee sees appropriate.”
The use of the word “may” requires the trustee to exercise his or her best judgment under the prevailing circumstances, in good faith, and in furtherance of the purpose of the trust.
As a general rule, section 16040(a) of the Probate Code provides that, “[t]he trustee shall administer the trust with reasonable care, skill, and caution under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity would use in the conduct of an enterprise of like character and with like aims to accomplish the purposes of the trust as determined from the trust instrument.”
California case law has further defined the foregoing “prudent person” standard to mean that a trustee must act in good faith and with reasonable prudence, discretion and intelligence.
Next, the general rule regarding a trustee’s investment decisions in particular is section 16047(a) of the Probate Code which provides that, “[a] trustee shall invest and manage trust assets as a prudent investor would, by considering the purposes, terms, distribution requirements, and other circumstances of the trust. In satisfying this standard, the trustee shall exercise reasonable care, skill, and caution.”
However, a trust can expressly remove the prudent person and prudent investor standards and provide the trustee with “absolute” discretion.”
Even then section 16081 (a) of the Probate Code provides that, “… if a trust instrument confers ‘absolute,’ ‘sole,’ or ‘uncontrolled’ discretion on a trustee, the trustee shall [still] act in accordance with fiduciary principles and shall not act in bad faith or in disregard of the purposes of the trust.”
Thus, a trustee as a fiduciary still must always act appropriately given all relevant considerations and the purposes of the trust. A trustee with absolute discretion still cannot simply disregard the trust’s purpose or act in bad faith. To do so would defeat the purpose(s) of the trust which would violate the trustee’s fiduciary duty of loyalty to the trust.
When a trustee breaches a fiduciary duty or fails to act (i.e, a nonperforming trustee), a beneficiary can petition the court for instructions regarding the administration of the trust and/or for removal of the trustee.
Doing so is litigation and leads to a trial or a negotiated settlement. Selecting a competent and capable trustee and having a well drafted trust can minimize these risks.
The foregoing is not legal advice. Consult an attorney if you are confronting these issues.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has several more dogs waiting for homes this week.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The newest dogs are listed at the top of the following list.
‘Gingy’
“Gingy’ is a female terrier mix with a tan and white coat.
She is dog No. 49228146.
‘Priscilla’
“Priscilla” is a female Brittany spaniel mix with a white and copper coat.
She is dog No. 49089138.
‘Bear No. 2’
“Bear No. 2” is a male American pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48731556.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Arnold’
“Arnold” is a male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short brindle coat with white markings.
He is dog No. 49029348.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
‘Bella’
“Bella” is a female American pit bull mix with a short gray brindle coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48448381.
‘Levi’
“Levi” is a male golden retriever-Labrador retriever mix.
He has a short golden coat.
He is dog No. 48975687.
‘Maria’
“Maria” is a female Shar-Pei mix with a short tan coat.
She is dog No. 49047315.
‘Mitzi’
“Mitzi” is a female Australian cattle dog mix with a medium-length black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48443306.
‘Nala’
“Nala” is a 1-year-old female German shepherd mix.
She has a medium-length black and tan coat.
She is dog No. 48289638.
‘Sassy’
“Sassy” is a female American pit bull mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48443128.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball” is a male American Staffordshire mix terrier with a white coat.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Tanisha’
“Tanisha” is a female Australian cattle dog mix with a short red and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48443302.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Turk’
“Turk” is a male chocolate Labrador retriever mix.
He is dog No. 48911836.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male Chihuahua mix with a short black coat and white markings.
He is dog No. 49141640.
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.