LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Towering like a beacon along creeks and streams atop stems up to eight foot tall, native Leopard lilies bloom when the days are long and summer is almost here inviting butterflies and hummingbirds to stop and rest for a spell, and the wildflower enthusiast to appreciate.
Preferring damp, shady locations, the Leopard lily — Lilium pardalinum ssp. Pardalinum — is found in forested areas of Lake County blooming in June and July, but only for a few weeks before they fade away.
There are five species of lilium that call Lake County home. The leopard lily and California tiger lily look very similar and have golden orange petals fading to a deep orange and flecked with reddish orange spots and bloom in June and July.
The chaparral (or redwood) lily has the longest bloom time, ranging from April through August, with creamy white to darker pink petals flecked with deep fuchsia spots.
Washington lily and purple flowered Washington lily (also known as the Cascade lily), both ranging from a pale to deep lilac and white, are elusive in the wild and mostly found in the northern parts of Lake County in the Mendocino National Forest June through August.
Between the three of us, we only have good photos of the leopard lilies, and are happy to have those as finding them in the wild can be a challenge.
Luckily for the home gardener, leopard and California tiger lilies are widely available commercially, so if you’re lucky enough to see one in the wild, please make sure to let it grow and bloom where it is to feed the native wildlife.
Now that spring is winding down and the wildflower season is waning, we’re going to pause our wildflower column for a while, but we’ll be back blooming again soon!
To see and learn more about these species of Lilium in Lake County, visit CalFlora.
Terre Logsdon is an environmentalist, certified master composter, and advocate for agroecology solutions to farming. An avid fan and protector of California wildflowers, plants, natural resources, and the environment, she seeks collaborative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Kim Riley is retired, an avid hiker at Highland Springs, and has lived in Lake County since 1985. After 15 years of trail recovery and maintenance on the Highland Springs trails, she is now focused on native plants, including a native plant and pollinator garden on her property as well as promoting and preserving the beauty of the Highland Springs Recreation Area. Karen Sullivan has operated two nurseries to propagate and cultivate native plants and wildflowers, has lived in Kelseyville for the past 30 years, rides horses far and wide to see as many flowers as possible, and offers native plants and wildflowers for sale to the public. You can check her nursery stock here. They are collaborating on a book, Highland Springs Recreation Area: A Field Guide, which will be published in the future. In the meanwhile, please visit https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsNaturalists and https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsRecreationArea.
On June 1, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover kicked off the science phase of its mission by leaving the “Octavia E. Butler” landing site.
Until recently, the rover has been undergoing systems tests, or commissioning, and supporting the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s month of flight tests.
During the first few weeks of this first science campaign, the mission team will drive to a low-lying scenic overlook from which the rover can survey some of the oldest geologic features in Jezero Crater, and they’ll bring online the final capabilities of the rover’s auto-navigation and sampling systems.
By the time Perseverance completed its commissioning phase on June 1, the rover had already tested its oxygen-generating MOXIE instrument and conducted the technology demonstration flights of the Ingenuity helicopter. Its cameras had taken more than 75,000 images, and its microphones had recorded the first audio soundtracks of Mars.
“We are putting the rover’s commissioning phase as well as the landing site in our rearview mirror and hitting the road,” said Jennifer Trosper, Perseverance project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Over the next several months, Perseverance will be exploring a 1.5-square-mile [4-square-kilometer] patch of crater floor. It is from this location that the first samples from another planet will be collected for return to Earth by a future mission.”
The science goals of the mission are to study the Jezero region in order to understand the geology and past habitability of the environment in the area, and to search for signs of ancient microscopic life.
The team will identify and collect the most compelling rock and sediment samples, which a future mission could retrieve and bring back to Earth for more detailed study. Perseverance will also take measurements and test technologies to support future human and robotic exploration of Mars.
Unique geology
Spanning hundreds of sols (or Martian days), this first science campaign will pursue all of the mission’s science goals as the rover explores two unique geologic units in which Jezero’s deepest (and most ancient) layers of exposed bedrock and other intriguing geologic features can be found.
The first unit, called “the Crater Floor Fractured Rough,” is the crater-filled floor of Jezero. The adjacent unit, named “Séítah” (meaning “amidst the sand” in the Navajo language), has its fair share of Mars bedrock but is also home to ridges, layered rocks, and sand dunes.
“To do justice to both units in the time allotted, the team came up with the Martian version of an old auto club-style map,” said JPL’s Kevin Hand, an astrobiologist and co-lead, along with Vivian Sun, of this science campaign. “We have our route planned, complete with optional turnoffs and labeled areas of interest and potential obstructions in our path.”
Most of the challenges along the way are expected to come in the form of sand dunes located within the mitten-shaped Séítah unit.
To negotiate them, the rover team decided Perseverance will drive mostly either on the Crater Floor Fractured Rough or along the boundary line between it and Séítah. When the occasion calls for it, Perseverance will perform a “toe dip” into the Séítah unit, making a beeline for a specific area of interest.
The goal of the campaign is to establish what four locations in these units best tell the story of Jezero Crater’s early environment and geologic history. When the science team decides a location is just right, they will collect one or two samples.
“Starting with the Crater Floor Fractured Rough and Seitah geologic units allows us to start our exploration of Jezero at the very beginning,” said Hand. “This area was under at least 100 meters [328 feet] of water 3.8 billion years ago. We don’t know what stories the rocks and layered outcrops will tell us, but we’re excited to get started.”
The first science campaign will be complete when the rover returns to its landing site. At that point, Perseverance will have traveled between 1.6 and 3.1 miles and up to eight of Perseverance’s 43 sample tubes could be filled with Mars rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).
Next, Perseverance will travel north then west toward the location of its second science campaign: Jezero’s delta region. The delta is the fan-shaped remains of the confluence of an ancient river and a lake within Jezero Crater.
The location may be especially rich in carbonates – minerals that, on Earth, can preserve fossilized signs of ancient life and can be associated with biological processes.
The start of Perseverance’s first science campaign also marks a transition on the team: On June 7, Jennifer Trosper became the mission’s new project manager. She succeeds Matt Wallace, who is moving on to become JPL’s Deputy Director for Planetary Science.
“From Sojourner to Spirit and Opportunity to Curiosity to Perseverance, Matt has played key roles in the design, construction, and operations of every Mars rover NASA has ever built,” said Trosper. “And while the project is losing a great leader and trusted friend, we know Matt will continue making great things happen for the planetary science community.”
More About the mission
A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life.
The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.
Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.
The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.
JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.
Lifetime gifting of property is an approach to estate planning that has its place under the right circumstances.
Lifetime gifting can either be outright or subject to a retained interest by the donor. An owner of real property, who owns their property free and clear, can deed (gift) their real property to another and still reserve (retain) a life estate for their lifetime. A deed with a life estate approach has its pluses and minuses.
A life tenant — i.e, the person with the life estate — has the use, rents and enjoyment of the real property until the life tenant either dies or relinquishes (gives up) their life estate. Thus, the life tenant can live there and/or collect any rent on the real property.
At the end of the life estate, ownership of the real property automatically passes to the holder(s) of the remainder interest named on the deed. No probate or trust administration is required. All that is required to transfer title is that an affidavit of death of life tenant or surrender of life estate, as relevant, be recorded with the county recorder’s office.
During the period of the life estate, the life tenant has all the obligations of ownership, including paying the real property taxes and insurance.
However, the life tenant alone can neither sell the property nor take out a reverse mortgage because the life tenant does not own a fee simple absolute (complete title).
To sell the property, the life tenant and the owner(s) of the remainder interest would all have to join together. The proceeds of the sale would be allocated (divided) based on the appraised value of the life estate at the time of sale factoring in the life expectancy of the life tenant.
Avoiding an administration at death may be viewed as particularly beneficial in some family circumstances. By transferring the property during the owner’s lifetime with a reserved life estate, no notice is required at the owner’s death to the owner’s heirs, as is required with either probate or trust administration.
This means that the heirs do not have an opportunity to contest the trust or will that might otherwise have been used as the owner’s estate planning tool.
Another use of the life estate applies when the owner wants to allow someone else the right to live in the property during their lifetime but wants the property to pass to a different person when the life tenant dies.
This is frequently seen in second marriages where the real property is owned by one spouse who wants to ensure that his or her children ultimately inherit the real property when the surviving spouse dies.
As life tenant, the surviving spouse can live at the residence but cannot prevent the deceased spouse’s own intended beneficiaries (usually the deceased spouse’s own children) from inheriting full ownership at the surviving spouse’s death.
However, in the foregoing situation it is more common for the owner to use a trust — and not a deed with a life estate — that allows their surviving spouse the right to live in the residence and gives the property to the owner’s children at the surviving spouse’s death.
The terms of the life estate are inside the trust. Using a trust to provide the life estate can allow the residence to be sold and a replacement residence to be purchased by the trust while the surviving spouse is alive. That way the surviving spouse can move or downsize their home.
The foregoing is a simplified discussion and not legal advice. Anyone considering or dealing with a life estate should consult an attorney.
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, California. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
NORTH COAST, Calif. — A moderately sized earthquake occurred late Saturday night near Cobb.
The 4.1-magnitude quake was reported at 11:54 p.m. Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A survey map showed the quake was just inside the Sonoma County line near Big Sulphur Creek.
The epicenter was 5.8 miles west of Cobb and 13.8 miles north of Healdsburg, the survey reported
The U.S. Geological Survey received dozens of shake reports from residents of Lake, Napa and Sonoma counties.
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. — The Lake County Superior Court reported Friday that it’s updating its operational protocols in response to state guidance.
As the court transitions its operations, it will continue to limit the number of cases on calendar, encourage physical distancing in court facilities as possible, monitor and apply state, local public health and Cal/OSHA guidance on face coverings as appropriate to court operations and will continue to handle matters via remote means when appropriate.
Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s “Beyond The Blueprint” plan, effective June 15, the physical distancing requirements and capacity restrictions currently in place will be removed.
In association with the plan, on June 9, the California Department of Public Health, or CDPH, issued revised guidance on the requirement of face coverings for indoor events that requires an unvaccinated person to wear a face covering unless specifically exempted.
Also on June 9, the Cal/OSHA Board acted to maintain the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards, pending further review, which require physical distancing and face covering by all employees in the workplace unless specifically excluded.
As a result of the governor’s plan, the court will make the changes outlined below to its operations.
Mandatory in-person court calendars
Beginning June 21, the calendars below will begin — or continue — to require in-person appearances.
Zoom appearances will be allowed for those parties or attorneys that were previously ordered to appear by remote appearance, or those authorized under statute or emergency rule.
Criminal and civil jury trials Felony settlement conferences, Department 3, Tuesdays Felony preliminary hearings, Mondays Felony sentencing hearings, Mondays (remote appearance may be ordered by the judicial officer) Family and civil court trials and hearings, both short and long cause settings (remote appearances may be ordered by the judicial officer) Felony law and motion, Tuesdays at 2:30 p.m. Unlawful detainer, Mondays, Clearlake (remote appearances may be ordered by the judicial officer) Small claims, Mondays in Clearlake (remote appearances may be ordered by the judicial officer) Civil and family law mandatory settlement conferences, beginning June 28
In-person or remote court calendars (Zoom)
Beginning June 21, 2021, the calendars below will allow either in-person or Zoom appearances, unless otherwise ordered by a judicial officer.
Felony law and motion, Tuesdays Misdemeanor, disposition/setting, motions, Mondays Misdemeanor, arraignment, settlements, Tuesdays Conservatorship calendar, 1:30 p.m., Mondays Family law, law & motion, case management conferences, Tuesdays Domestic violence restraining order calendar, Tuesdays Juvenile delinquency, Mondays Juvenile dependency, Mondays Civil harassment calendar, Tuesdays Veteran’s Court, Wednesdays (first and third) Juvenile drug court, Wednesdays Traffic and infractions, Clearlake, Mondays Department of Child Support Services Family Law, Clearlake, Tuesdays
In-person or remote court calendars (court call)
These calendars will allow in-person appearance and continue to allow appearances by court call. Compliance with all existing rules of courts for telephonic appearances will be required.
Civil law and motion, Mondays Civil case management conferences, Mondays Probate calendar, 2 p.m. Mondays
Calendars to continue by remote appearances (Zoom)
The following calendars will continue to be conducted only by remote appearance.
For a period of time after June 15, the court will continue to conduct jury selection at the fairgrounds facility in all cases.
After selection, the jury trials will be conducted at the courthouse except for cases specifically set for jury trial at the fairgrounds facility.
Jurors who are unable to serve because they are high-risk for COVID-19 related complications, will be excused before coming to the courthouse.
Additional details about the process and precautions will be provided with the jury summons.
Face covering requirements
At present, and continuing effective June 15, the court will require that all individuals wear a proper face covering when coming into a court facility.
The provisions of the General Order on the Requirement of Wearing Face Coverings will continue in effect until further notice.
The court continues the requirement of face covering due to the uncertainty regarding the scope of the Cal/OSHA ETS directives, including application to jury service and the current requirement that all employees wear a proper face covering in the workplace.
The Cal/OSHA Standards are scheduled to be reviewed and may be subject to revision or further delineation on June 17.
The CDPH requires that unvaccinated persons wear a face covering in indoor settings which would include public buildings and the court facility.
It appears the application of the current guidance under the plan, CDPH and Cal/OSHA will result in classifications of people who are, and those who are not, required to wear a face covering while at court resulting in increased time and effort by the court to monitor compliance by the intermixing of the classifications during normal court operations.
Court officials said they are striving, under the present circumstances, to act to protect the health and safety of those coming to court.
The CDPH authorizes a business or other entity to continue a requirement that all participants wear a face covering.
The court is informed that courts in other counties are acting to retain face covering mandates in courthouses across the state.
The Lake County Superior Court will monitor the CalOSHA Standards related to face covering requirements, and when they are modified, review and potentially modify the court’s general order on face coverings.
Mysterious blasts of radio waves from across the universe called fast radio bursts are getting more attention from astronomers. ESO/M. Kornmesser, CC BY-SA
On June 9, 2021, my colleagues and I announced the discovery of 535 fast radio bursts that we detected using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope (CHIME). Detected in 2018 and 2019, these bursts of radio waves last only milliseconds, come from far across the universe, and are enormously powerful – a typical event releases as much energy in a millisecond as the Sun does over many days.
Every newly captured event is allowing astrophysicists like me to learn more about these weird cosmic phenomena. And, as this is happening, some astronomers have begun to use fast radio bursts as incredibly powerful tools to study the universe itself.
What is a fast radio burst?
The name “fast radio burst” is pretty on the nose. These signals are bursts of radiation in radio frequencies that last for mere milliseconds. A defining property of these bursts is their dispersion: The bursts produce a spectrum of radio waves, and as the waves travel through matter, they spread out – or disperse – with bursts at higher radio frequencies arriving at telescopes earlier than those at lower frequencies.
This dispersion allows researchers to learn about two important things. First, telescopes like CHIME can measure this dispersion to learn about the stuff that radio bursts pass through as they travel toward Earth. For example, some of my colleagues were able to solve a long-standing mystery of missing matter that was scattered across the universe.
Second, by measuring dispersion, astronomers can indirectly determine one of the most important pieces of information in all of astronomy: how far apart things are. The larger the dispersion measure, the more material the signal encountered. So, presumably, passing through more stuff means the burst traveled farther across the universe.
The dispersion measures for fast radio bursts are so large that astronomers know the signals must be coming from outside of the Milky Way galaxy, but these estimates can be inaccurate because of the uneven distribution of matter in the universe. We therefore needed another way of finding distances to the sources of fast radio bursts to avoid assumptions on how matter is distributed and thus unlock a large amount of information and opportunities.
A striking solution to this problem came in 2017, when colleagues of mine were able to pinpoint the exact location of the source of a repeating fast radio burst in the sky. By taking images of repeating bursts on the sky, they found the specific galaxy that the bursts were coming from. Then, using optical telescopes, they determined the distance to this galaxy – approximately 3 billion light-years away from Earth.
Repeating fast radio bursts make it much easier to pinpoint the host galaxies of their sources by giving researchers multiple chances to catch them. While astronomers work to answer important questions about fast radio bursts – What are they? Are repeating bursts different from single bursts? Are they all caused by the same things? – these lingering mysteries don’t stop us from putting them to good use in the meantime.
Using fast radio bursts to study the cosmos
The unique properties of fast radio bursts and their host galaxies – combined with recent technological advancements like the CHIME telescope – have given researchers hope that these phenomena can be used to answer some long-standing questions about the universe.
For example, some theorists have proposed that fast radio bursts can be used to study the three–dimensional structure of matter in the universe. Others have shown that the most distant bursts could be used to learn about poorly understood early moments in the evolution of the universe. But to answer these and other questions, astronomers need a large number of fast radio bursts and their dispersion measures, strengths and locations in the sky.
And this is where our new catalog from CHIME comes in. By releasing information about 535 new fast radio bursts – including 61 bursts coming from 18 repeating sources – our team is more than quadrupling the total number of known events and pushing the field into an era of big data. With a large and growing number of measurements, all sorts of questions can finally start being addressed.
Recently, student members of the CHIME collaboration began releasing studies using this catalog. One study showed that the fast radio bursts detected by CHIME come equally from all directions – a fact that had previously been underdebate. Another team studied the shapes and sizes of bursts in the catalog and confirmed that repeating events behave differently from single bursts, pointing to multiple causes of fast radio bursts. And a third team for the first time confirmed that fast radio bursts are strongly associated with known galaxies. This means astronomers can use events to map out the structure of the universe.
An adventurous future lies ahead
CHIME and other telescopes are detecting more fast radio bursts every day, but researchers are just scratching the surface of what can be learned about – and done with – these mysterious and powerful cosmic events.
Colleagues of mine recently argued that attributing thousands of events to their individual host galaxies is “the most urgent observational priority for [fast radio burst] science.” Finding host galaxies is very challenging, though – only 14 galaxies that host fast radio bursts have been found so far. But other telescopes, like the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, have successfully detected and pinpointed a small number of nonrepeating bursts to their host galaxies. Next-generation telescopes are being designed to combine the high-detection capability of CHIME with the high-resolution imaging of the Australian telescope.
The field of fast radio burst astronomy is still in its infancy, and it is hard to predict what discoveries will be made next. But I expect the future of the field to be just like these profound cosmic events: bright and fast.
The Group of 7 is an informal group of seven powerful democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The presidents of the European Commission and European Council also attend G-7 meetings because several of Europe’s largest countries are also members.
Membership, which is decided internally, hasn’t changed much since the group’s founding in 1975. At the time, it included only six countries, all of which still belong. Canada joined a year later. Russia joined as an eighth member in 1998, temporarily changing the group’s moniker to the G-8, but Russia was ousted after it annexed Crimea in 2014.
Together, these seven wealthy nations form the foundation of the modern global economy and the cooperative rules-based system on which it is built.
Despite the decline, the economic might of G-7 nations remains undeniable, not least due to their collective position as countries at the forefront of technological innovation and industrial know-how. Moreover, G-7 economies are inextricably interwoven with global supply chains, which means that a policy change or economic shock in one G-7 country will, for better or worse, have ripple effects across the globe.
Ultimately, the G-7 may be the best hope for quick, decisive and meaningful policy action on pressing global problems.
While the G-7 doesn’t have the institutional clout of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization or NATO, it also doesn’t have their institutional red tape or bureaucracy.
And although the G-7 is a subset of the ascendant G20 – which also includes rising economic powerhouses China, India and Brazil – the G-7 has another advantage: it’s much easier to achieve consensus in an intimate group of similar nations than it is to find common ground among diverse nations with very different economic and political priorities.
None of these issues colors neatly within the lines of national borders. Countries need to cooperate to find solutions that do not simply kick the can to their neighbors.
An example of meaningful action by the G-7 is its June 5, 2021, announcement of an agreement on global minimum corporate tax rates, which marked a watershed moment in international taxation. If successful, the agreement could mean the end of tax havens and a dramatic shift in how companies record their profits around the world.
The Conversation U.S. publishes short, accessible explanations of newsworthy subjects by academics in their areas of expertise.
The meeting ID is 920 7500 9310, pass code is 896861.
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From any mobile or landline phone, you may also dial 1-669-900-6833, and enter the Meeting ID and Passcode above, when prompted. To contribute to this meeting from a phone, press *9 to raise your hand, and *6 to unmute, once you are recognized to speak.
The public is encouraged to attend and participate via Zoom.
The full meeting agenda for this meeting can be viewed here.
On Feb. 23, the Board of Supervisors unanimously proclaimed “Promoting Tolerance, Respect, Equity and Inclusion” among its utmost priorities.
That historic moment culminated significant community efforts, and was punctuated by each supervisor reading a portion of the proclamation, and affirming their commitment to host a community visioning forum to unearth priorities in the following categories:
· Meaningful actions and activities that will build bridges where there may be walls;
· Fostering tolerance, respect, understanding, equity and inclusion;
· Promotion non-violence and non-violent conflict resolution;
· Focusing resources on underlying causes and conditions that lead to inequitable resource and justice distribution; and
· Relevant solutions for any social injustices, as they may come to light.
Community members and governmental leaders that resonated with the board’s proclamation volunteered to be a part of this historic effort, by applying for a spot on the county’s new Community Visioning Forum Planning Committee.
Members include Supervisor Eddie Crandell, Beniakem Cromwell, Angela Cuellar-Marroquin, Delores Farrell, County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, Sally Peterson, JoAnn Saccato, Supervisor Tina Scott, Clearlake Mayor Dirk Slooten, Lakeport City Councilwoman Mireya Turner and Sue Williams. The law enforcement representative seat is vacant.
LUCERNE, Calif. — A Vacaville man died Friday afternoon after his motorcycle collided with a semi traveling along Highway 20 in Lucerne.
The fatal wreck occurred at 12:50 p.m. Friday on Highway 20 east of Rosemont Drive, the California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office reported.
The name of the 70-year-old man who died is not being released pending the notification of next of kin, the CHP said.
The CHP’s Friday evening report on the wreck said the Vacaville man was riding a 2009 Harley-Davidson westbound on Highway 20 east of Rosemont Drive.
Driving eastbound was Ryan Hicks, 50, of Stockton in a 2020 International truck-tractor and trailer combination, the CHP said.
Both vehicles were approaching each other within their respective lanes when, for reasons the CHP said are still under investigation, the motorcyclist entered the opposing lane of traffic and collided with Hick’s truck and trailer.
The CHP said a Northshore Fire Protection District ambulance transported the motorcyclist to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, where he died of his injuries.
Hicks was not injured. The CHP said both men were using their safety equipment.
Neither alcohol nor drugs are believed to be factors in the crash, the CHP said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs, including puppies, that it’s offering to new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Airedale terrier, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, husky, Labrador retriever, McNab, pit bull, Rottweiler 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.
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”).
“Peanut” is a male Airedale terrier with a curly tan and red coat.
He is estimated to be 10 years old.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-889.
Female Rottweiler-shepherd
This 2-year-old female Rottweiler-shepherd mix has a medium-length black and red coat.
She is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-791.
‘Indie’
“Indie” is a female German shepherd mix with a short black and tan coat.
She weighs 51 pounds and is estimated to be less than 1-year-old.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-768.
‘Ren’
“Ren” is a 2-year-old male McNab-sheepdog mix with a short brindle and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-785.
Female Great Pyrenees
This female Great Pyrenees has a medium-length white coat.
She is estimated to be 2 years old and 84 pounds.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-892.
Female pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-611.
Rottweiler-pit bull mix
This 1-year-old female Rottweiler-pit bull mix has a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-731.
‘Brutus’
“Brutus” is a 5-year-old male pit bull terrier with a short gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-670.
‘Apollo’
“Apollo” is a 2-year-old male husky mix with a medium-length red and white coat and blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-783.
Female pit bull terrier puppy
This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short black coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 33b, ID No. LCAC-A-853.
Male pit bull terrier puppy
This male pit bull terrier puppy has a short black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 33d, ID No. LCAC-A-855.
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.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday took action to lift pandemic executive orders as the state moves Beyond the Blueprint next week to fully, safely reopen.
That includes terminating the stay-at-home order that was implemented early in the pandemic to protect Californians and retiring the Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Effective June 15, restrictions such as physical distancing, capacity limits and the county tier system will end.
The governor is also continuing the wind down of executive actions put in place since March 2020 to help facilitate a coordinated response to the pandemic and ensure the state could quickly and efficiently respond to the impacts of the pandemic.
A subset of provisions that facilitate the ongoing recovery — such as the provision allowing pharmacy technicians to administer vaccinations as the state continues to vaccinate millions of eligible Californians every week — will remain in place.
“California is turning the page on this pandemic, thanks to swift action by the state and the work of Californians who followed public health guidelines and got vaccinated to protect themselves and their communities,” said Gov. Newsom. “With nearly 40 million vaccines administered and among the lowest case rates in the nation, we are lifting the orders that impact Californians on a day-to-day basis while remaining vigilant to protect public health and safety as the pandemic persists.”
The state’s decisive and early action through the stay-at-home order directing Californians to limit their interactions with people from other households and the blueprint criteria guiding the tightening and loosening of allowable activities based on the level of community transmission helped slow the spread of the virus, saving lives and protecting the state’s health care delivery system from being overwhelmed.
With nearly 40 million vaccines administered and among the lowest case rates in the country, California is entering a new phase, lifting these restrictions to fully reopen on June 15.
The Governor’s Office on Friday established a timeline and process to continue winding down the various provisions of the 58 COVID-related executive orders, which suspended statutes and regulations to help the state and businesses continue operations during the pandemic.
To ensure that impacted individuals and entities have time to prepare for the changes, the provisions will sunset in phases, beginning later this month, in July and in September.
For example, the suspension of certain licensing requirements for manufacturers to produce hand sanitizer will end on June 30, as shortages are no longer a concern.
By the end of September, nearly 90 percent of the executive actions taken since March 2020 will have been lifted.
On Friday the California Department of Public Health released a new state public health officer order that goes into effect on June 15.
The order replaces the previous pandemic public health orders with limited requirements related to face coverings and mega events, as well as settings with children and youth pending an expected update later this month to the K-12 school guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The action supports the full and safe reopening of the state, while maintaining focused public health requirements that address the risk posed by variants as some regions across the nation and world continue to experience high levels of transmission.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The American Rescue Plan Act is sending millions of dollars to Lake County to help communities that continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $1.9 trillion economic stimulus legislation was signed into law by President Joe Biden in March.
On Wednesday, Congressman Mike Thompson, whose Fifth Congressional District includes half of Lake County, including Lakeport, was in town to present ceremonial checks to city and county officials.
Lake County’s total allocation under the act, also known as ARPA, is $12,506,226, said Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein.
“The Board of Supervisors and county leaders are very grateful to Congressman Thompson for his strong advocacy on behalf of our county, and very much appreciate the congressman and his staff making a point to present our ceremonial check in person, yesterday,” Rothstein said Thursday.
The city of Lakeport will receive $1.2 million, said City Manager Kevin Ingram.
Ingram said the city hasn’t gotten any of the money yet.
“As a nonentitlement community we will be receiving our money in two tranches,” said Ingram.
“Tranche” is the term the federal government has used for the allocations.
He said the first installment should be allocated to the city by the end of this month.
Ingram said that on Thursday the city submitted its paperwork to the state to receive the allocations.
The city of Clearlake, which is in Congressman John Garamendi’s Third District, will receive an allocation of $3,652,191, said City Manager Alan Flora.
“It sounds like we will get the first 50% of the money in early July and the remaining 50% next June,” Flora said.
Flora didn’t report what the city plans to do with the funds.
As for Lakeport, Ingram said they are waiting for the final rules from the U.S. Treasury on how the money can be used. Those rules are expected to be issued on Aug. 15.
He said a plan will be brought to the Lakeport City Council for public input and approval in September.
Referencing comments made by County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson and Auditor-Controller/County Clerk Cathy Saderlund at the county’s Wednesday budget hearings, Rothstein said the planning process is underway for the county’s ARPA spending plan, and a plan is expected to be finalized soon.
Saderlund also reported Wednesday that the county has received its first installment of the ARPA funds, with the second installment of more than $6 million expected in May of 2022.
“Our full complement of federal and state representatives have been important and invaluable partners, as we have navigated challenges and new demands brought by the pandemic,” Rothstein said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.