UPPER LAKE, Calif. – An Upper Lake man was injured and later arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence following a single-vehicle wreck Thursday night.

Derek Franklin Killough, 32, sustained major injuries in the crash, according to a report issued Saturday night by the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake Area office.

The CHP said the crash occurred on Elk Mountain Road north of Rancheria Road at approximately 9:38 p.m. Thursday.

Killough was driving a 1996 Toyota 4 Runner westbound at an undetermined speed when, for reasons yet to be determined, he allowed the vehicle to travel off the west side of the road and into a wire fence, according to the report.

After hitting the fence, Killough's Toyota continued in a northwesterly direction onto private property and rolled multiple times, the CHP said.

The CHP said Killough, who was wearing a seat belt, was unable to get out of the vehicle by himself.

Authorities evaluated Killough at the scene and arrested him on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, the CHP said.

Killough suffered major injuries, according to the CHP, including lacerations to his head and face, and a complaint of pain to his shoulder.

The CHP said Killough was transported by REACH air ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Oct. 14, 2001, Gov. Gray Davis signed Senate Bill 41, which requires new educational information and materials be introduced in California school to boost California Indian culture and history.

As a fourth grade teacher I applauded these efforts. It wasn’t all that long ago that textbooks ignored this important, and vast subject – California Indians.

Unless a teacher took great pains to enhance the curriculum with outside sources, it appeared that California Indians ceased to exist after the end of the 19th century.

Some of the Indian tribes of what we now call Lake County included the Pomo, Miwok, Patwin, Yuki and Wappo Indians.

Wappo Indian territory included southern Middletown, the valley of the Napa River by Yountville, the base of the Sonoma Valley, also near the Geysers and Geyserville/Russian River area.

It is more than likely that they traveled to Clear Lake, as well as the Pacific Coast during the summer months, as there was a Wappo fishing village at the south shore of Clear Lake, near Soda Bay. Some of the Wappo probably made annual summer excursions to the Pacific Ocean as well.

The name “Wappo” is said to have come from the Spanish word, “guapo” – which in some usages means brave – a name given to them in Mission era time.

No one can be sure just how large their numbers were initially, but by 1908 there were, sadly, only 40 Wappo counted.

Wappo belongs to a small family of languages including Coast Yuki, Yuki, and Huchnom. Wappo has always stood as a separate language, being the most unique, or different of the four.

Laura Somersal, the last speaker of the Wappo language felt that “c o-noma” might have been the origin of the name for Sonoma. It meant “abandoned camp.”

The archaeology of Napa Valley shows occupation from about 2,000 to 4,000 years ago. They may have been the first settlers after the people of the Borax Lake complex.

Archaeologists wonder about the division of the Wappo language by Pomo land from other languages to which it is related.

Did the Pomo interrupt and separate the Wappo, or did a group of Yukian speakers migrate? The evidence is scarce, but seems to lean toward migration.

They were probably always in the minority, and it appears that they got along well with the people around them.

One of the few known exceptions to their generally nonviolent reputation among the other tribes was the Wappo-Pomo war.

The Wappo seemingly attacked the Alexander Valley Pomo, which had carried off some Wappo supplies of acorn – an important food staple. Unfortunately, because of the two attacks, an unspecified amount of Pomo were killed.

The Pomo sought after peace, which was readily established, but the Pomo never returned to their Alexander Valley villages.

Other times of retaliation occurred during the Mission era, when Napa Valley Wappo fought bitterly against the Spanish.

They fought to keep their lifeways, but many were kidnapped to work the missions. Some were held at the mission at Sonoma between 1823 and 1834.

Another time of altercation occurred because of a disagreement over the Cole and Kelsey creeks fishing rights that ended in the Wappos using their digging sticks to create a diversion of the creeks near their mouth.

Somersal related a story about a gathering of Indians in the Russian River area who had decided to leave, for good, their permanent homes, for a great religious gathering.

As their numbers swelled, and the amount of Indians gathering became “too great,” the army was called in to disperse, or drive off the Indians, They fled to Clear Lake. Among this group was Somersal’s grandmother.

A Wappo village, like many other tribal villages, was usually conveniently located on a creek or near other water sources. Their village included one or two sweat houses.

Their chief could be elected, or chosen for any given position. It wasn’t uncommon for there to be more than one chief at a time. In Wappo society a woman could become a chief as well as a man could.

The chief had four main tasks: assuring dealings with other villages, both in times of peace and strife; domestic functioning of the village; ceremonies; and dispersing news. The position of chief was held until death.

In the Wappo culture, the birth of a baby was followed by one of the most complex customs to be found in North America.

For at least four days both the baby’s parents were confined to their beds, under strict taboos whose purpose was to secure the welfare of the child.

The games played by those of the Wappo tribe were like those of the Pomo: the game of shinny, the grass game, dice, and a variety of guessing games, and games involving comparisons of the players’ strength and physical prowess.

Homes of the Wappo included grass huts over poles. Each house had a door and a smoke hole. If more than one family shared a dwelling, there was a smoke hole for each family living there.

Tools utilized by the Wappo included wedges, fire drills and axes. There were tools to scrape animal skins, and there were shells and baskets for dishes.

Wappo Indians were known as skilled basketmakers, having been influenced by the master basket weavers, the Pomo.

The Wappo, like other tribes used clamshell bead money, and magnesite cylinders were in use both for money and decoration.

Exceptional qualities of the Wappo included both their humbleness and kindness in spirit. They greatly loved their children, and had a tendency to spoil them. Children were usually raised by any senior female relative.

They dearly loved their lands and families; however, property ownership per se was not held as a concept. It was believed that if someone owned something, then it was at the expense of someone else.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Construction Fundamentals class at Mendocino College’s Lake Center has collaborated with the Orphan Dog rescue organization to build a beautiful new kennel to house rescue dogs. 

Orphan Dog and Mendocino College thanked sponsors First Pick Construction, Lucerne Roofing and Trex Building Materials.

Orphan Dog and Glenn Mueller, the course instructor, donated additional materials and plans to the construction class, and students and instructor provided the labor. 

The students will present the kennel to Orphan Dog on Thursday, April 21, at 6 p.m. at the Lake Center in Lakeport.

This is the first Construction Fundamentals class offered at the Lake Center by Mendocino College’s Sustainable Technology Program, which is planning to offer additional courses in the building field this summer and in the coming semesters. Check the www.mendocino.edu online schedule for details.

Orphan Dogs is a 501(3)C organization that rescues dogs from Lake, Mendocino and Humboldt Counties. All of the animals are housed in foster homes or on the 80-acre Orphan Dog Ranch.

This year will mark the 3,000th dog homed by Orphan Dog, which is an all-volunteer rescue group. One hundred percent of every donation goes to the rescue, care, and rehoming of the dogs.

If you are interested in donating to help build the next kennel, contact Glenn Mueller at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Interested in being a foster dog caregiver? Contact Karen Shaver at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a wide range of dogs of all ages that are in need of new homes.

The dogs available this week include mixes of border collie, boxer, cattle dog, Chihuahua, hound, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rottweiler, terrier and shepherd.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

'Smee'

“Smee” is a young male Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

He's in kennel No. 2, ID No. 4736.

Female Chihuahuas

These two female Chihuahuas have short multicolored coats.

They're in kennel No. 3a and No. 22, ID Nos. 4637 and 4636, respectively.

'Luther'

“Luther” is a male pit bull terrier mix who is listed in "urgent" need of a home, as he has been at the shelter since Feb. 28.

He has a short black coat with white markings.

Shelter staff said he is great with other dogs, both male and female, is very sweet and while he gets excited he doesn't jump on people.

He walks well on a leash and has basic commands.

In addition, he allows handling of his ears, mouth, paws and allowed nail trimming, has no food guarding, avoided cats and didn't mind the horses.

He's in kennel No. 4, ID No. 4511.

Female boxer mix

This female boxer mix has a short gray coat with white markings.

Shelter staff said she needs basic leash training, but is manageable for her size. She also allows handling of her ears, mouth, paws and body, and tolerated nail clipping without pulling away.

She has no food aggression, and would do great in a home with no cats. Staff said she has been tested with another dog and got along well.

They believe she will be happiest in a quiet home and will form a very strong bond with her handler.

She's in kennel No. 5, ID No. 4551.

'Cali'

“Cali” is a female Labrador Retriever.

She has a short yellow coat.

She's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 4683.

Cattle dog-pit bull terrier

This male cattle dog-pit bull terrier has a short white coat with black markings.

He's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 4694.

Male shepherd mix

This male shepherd mix has a short brown coat with white markings.

Shelter staff said he needs leash training but is very manageable, and in the play yard came when called when food was used as a motivator. He doesn't know basic commands yet, but did volunteer the behavior when another dog was doing it for treats.

He has no food aggression towards people or dogs, and allows handling of ears, mouth, paws and tail without any problems. He avoided the cats.

He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 4560.

Labrador Retriever mix

This young male Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat with white markings.

He's in kennel No. 10, ID No. 4738.

Rottweiler-border collie mix

This female Rottweiler-border collie mix has a short black coat with tan and white markings.

She's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 4722.

This female Labrador Retriever mix puppy is in kennel No. 15f, ID No. 4681. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Labrador Retriever mix puppy

This female puppy is a Labrador Retriever mix.

She has a short brown coat with white markings.

She's in kennel No. 15f, ID No. 4681.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix has an all-white coat.

He's in kennel No. 17, ID No. 4591.

'Snowball'

“Snowball” is a female Chihuahua mix with a short tan and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 19a, ID No. 4705.

'Smokey' and 'Sandy'

“Smokey” and “Sandy” are two Chihuahuas in need of a new home.

They are in kennel No. 19b and 19c, ID No. 4706 and 4707.

Hound-Labrador Retriever mix

This female hound-Labrador Retriever mix has a short white coat with black markings.

She's in kennel No. 21, ID No. 4641.

Female Chihuahua

This female Chihuahua mix has an all-white coat.

She's in kennel No. 23, ID No. 4733.

'Bronco'

“Bronco” is a male cattle dog mix.

He has a short white and brown coat.

Shelter staff said he needs some basic training and has a lot of potential.

He's in kennel No. 24, ID No. 4592.

Female pit bull mix

This female pit bull mix has a short gray and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 4588.

Male pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has a short brown coat with white markings.

He's in kennel No. 27, ID No. 4673.

'Rosie'

“Rosie” is a female boxer-pit bull mix.

She has a short brown brindle coat with white markings.

Her adoption fee will be less expensive due to already being spayed.

She's in kennel No. 32, ID No. 4670.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

Persons marrying for a second time in California often want to protect themselves, in the event they divorce, and to protect both their surviving children and their new spouse if they become incapacitated and when they die.

Balancing these competing goals requires good planning.

Consider a hypothetical illustration: Jane owns a service business, which she incorporated as an LLC; she is employed by the LLC. She also owns various real estate, she has an investment account; and has a 401 (k) retirement account and an Individual Retirement Account (IRA). She has an 8-year-old daughter, Evelyn.

Jane is engaged to John, who is employed, has an IRA, and does not own any real estate. They plan to purchase a new home together once married. How may Jane likely proceed? [Note: Consult an attorney regarding any real-life situation.]

Jane decides to keep her substantial separate assets in her own revocable living trust to maintain their separate property character.

When she marries John, Jane amends her trust and her will to state her marriage and to provide for John in the event of her incapacity and death; otherwise, failing such amendment, John as a surviving omitted spouse could claim a share of Jane’s estate, if he survive her.

As his spouse, Jane owes John a right of support while they are married, and her estate plan will honor her obligation.

In the event of death, Jane wants John to have a place to live. Perhaps Jane will buy life insurance naming John as the primary beneficiary or, better yet, naming their joint trust together as beneficiary (so that the mortgage on their house together is paid off).

Also, Jane's separate trust might provide that certain assets are held in further trust for John's benefit until he dies or remarries at which time Evelyn inherits what remains, either outright or in further trust if she is then still a minor.

The same or different assets will be held in further trust for Evelyn until she reaches adulthood. The Trust will say how the trustee will use the assets to assist her daughter during her minority and afterwards.

Jane and John will probably want to own the home they buy together in a joint revocable living trust as co-trustees, as the residence is their community property.

Once married, because their employment earnings become community property, they will deposit their marital earnings into a joint account or into an account owned by their joint trust. Jane will keep her investment account in her separate trust.

Likewise, any retirement contributions that either spouse makes from marital earnings should go into new (IRA) accounts established during marriage.

Each spouse’s retirement contributions before marriage remain their separate property. Jane’s 401(k) is controlled by the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”) and thus outside California’s Community Property laws.

Over the course of their marriage, the community property estate will gain an increasing interest in Jane's business through her work.

Such interest which would have to be compensated if Jane and John divorce. Jane’s real property will remain her separate property, but the community property estate would be entitled to reimbursement for any marital earnings used to pay off any mortgage or improvements to Jane's separate real property. Jane will want to keep records of such payments.

If Jane and John have children together, Jane will again update her estate planning to include such children as beneficiaries of her trusts and her retirement accounts.

Jane may ask John to sign a premarital agreement to establish what is each spouse's separate property, the couple’s community property, their rights of reimbursement, and rights to spousal support; child custody and child support, however, cannot be included.

Such premarital agreements require full and open disclosure of assets, liabilities and income by each party.

To be enforceable, such agreements must be entered into voluntarily and without undue influence or fraud. Each must be apprised of his/her legal rights and be encouraged to obtain independent counsel.

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. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com .

Newsflash: Assembly of the next great space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is now underway at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Launch target: 2018.

JWST is an infrared telescope, which means it will sense the heat of stars and galaxies millions and even billions of light years away.

Eric Smith, JWST Program Director and Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC said, “It will show us the first stars and galaxies that formed in the early universe. We’ll be able to watch the universe light up for the first time!”

A really big mirror is required to collect light from objects more than 13 billion light years away. The telescope’s mirror is so large – 21 feet 4 inches across – that it will have to be folded with its sunshield when it's time to fit in a rocket for launch.

There are 18 mirror segments, each 4.3 feet in diameter, that have recently been mounted on the structure that will ultimately hold them in place and let them perform as if they were part of a single giant hexagonal mirror.

Once the telescope is fully assembled and attached to the instrument module, the whole unit will be vibration and acoustic tested.

Final cryogenic testing takes place at Johnson Space Centerin early 2017in the same vacuum chamber that tested the Apollo lunar lander.

Then the telescope will be integrated with the spacecraft and sunshield at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California.

Next, it will be placed in a special transportation container on a large ship to voyage from California through the Panama Canal to Kourou, French Guiana, where it will catch a ride to space on an Ariane 5 rocket supplied by the European Space Agency.

And then?

In addition to showing us the universe’s first “fireworks,” the world's largest infrared telescope will be a canny explorer of planets circling faraway stars.

JWST will be able to carry out detailed, high precision followup studies of the myriad of exoplanets other telescopes have been flushing out of hiding.

“It will be like taking a deep breath of an alien planet’s atmosphere,” Smith said.

The JWST telescope will be very good at observing and taking spectra of gas giant planets where it could detect, water, carbon dioxide and methane among other compounds.

It will also be used to take some spectral data on smaller planets. Webb will also zoom in to study newly discovered super Earths.

Using a technique called coronagraphy, the telescope will even be able to find planets on its own.

There will no doubt be surprises – in addition to exoplanets – along the way.

“The science community is very creative,” said Smith. “They’ll think up things for JWST to do that we never even imagined.”

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has detected the faint but distinct signature of dust coming from beyond our solar system.

The research, led by a team of Cassini scientists primarily from Europe, is published this week in the journal Science.

Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn since 2004, studying the giant planet, its rings and its moons.

The spacecraft has also sampled millions of ice-rich dust grains with its cosmic dust analyzer instrument.

The vast majority of the sampled grains originate from active jets that spray from the surface of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus.

But among the myriad microscopic grains collected by Cassini, a special few – just 36 grains – stand out from the crowd.

Scientists conclude these specks of material came from interstellar space – the space between the stars.

Alien dust in the solar system is not unanticipated.

In the 1990s, the ESA/NASA Ulysses mission made the first in-situ observations of this material, which were later confirmed by NASA's Galileo spacecraft.

The dust was traced back to the local interstellar cloud: a nearly empty bubble of gas and dust that our solar system is traveling through with a distinct direction and speed.

“From that discovery, we always hoped we would be able to detect these interstellar interlopers at Saturn with Cassini. We knew that if we looked in the right direction, we should find them,” said Nicolas Altobelli, Cassini project scientist at ESA (European Space Agency) and lead author of the study. “Indeed, on average, we have captured a few of these dust grains per year, travelling at high speed and on a specific path quite different from that of the usual icy grains we collect around Saturn.”

The tiny dust grains were speeding through the Saturn system at over 45,000 mph (72,000 kilometers per hour), fast enough to avoid being trapped inside the solar system by the gravity of the sun and its planets.

“We're thrilled Cassini could make this detection, given that our instrument was designed primarily to measure dust from within the Saturn system, as well as all the other demands on the spacecraft,” said Marcia Burton, a Cassini fields and particles scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and a co-author of the paper.

Importantly, unlike Ulysses and Galileo, Cassini was able to analyze the composition of the dust for the first time, showing it to be made of a very specific mixture of minerals, not ice.

The grains all had a surprisingly similar chemical make-up, containing major rock-forming elements like magnesium, silicon, iron and calcium in average cosmic proportions.

Conversely, more reactive elements like sulfur and carbon were found to be less abundant compared to their average cosmic abundance.

“Cosmic dust is produced when stars die, but with the vast range of types of stars in the universe, we naturally expected to encounter a huge range of dust types over the long period of our study,” said Frank Postberg of the University of Heidelberg, a co-author of the paper and co-investigator of Cassini's dust analyzer.

Stardust grains are found in some types of meteorites, which have preserved them since the birth of our solar system. They are generally old, pristine and diverse in their composition. But surprisingly, the grains detected by Cassini aren't like that. They have apparently been made rather uniform through some repetitive processing in the interstellar medium, the researchers said.

The authors speculate on how this processing of dust might take place: Dust in a star-forming region could be destroyed and recondense multiple times as shock waves from dying stars passed through, resulting in grains like the ones Cassini observed streaming into our solar system.

“The long duration of the Cassini mission has enabled us to use it like a micrometeorite observatory, providing us privileged access to the contribution of dust from outside our solar system that could not have been obtained in any other way,” said Altobelli.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cosmic Dust Analyzer is supported by the German Aerospace Center (DLR); the instrument is managed by the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Emily Baldwin works for the European Space Agency.