LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many new dogs this week, from big fuzzy ones to little ones.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan malamute, Belgian Malinois, Chihuahua, German shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Schipperke, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Malachi’
“Malachi” is a 4-year-old male Alaskan malamute with a long black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-4434.
Lab-pit bull mix puppy
This female Labrador retriever-pit bull mix puppy has a short black coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-4451.
Male Schipperke
This 3-and-a-half-year-old male Schipperke has a long black coat.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-4453.
Male pit bull
This 3-year-old male pit bull has a short white coat with gray markings.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-4425.
Female German shepherd
This 10-month-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-4448.
Female Belgian Malinois
This 6-month-old female Belgian Malinois has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-4447.
Male pit bull terrier
This 4-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-4496.
Female Chihuahua
This 2-year-old female Chihuahua has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-4469.
Female pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short tan and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-4493.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-4494.
Female terrier
This 2-year-old female terrier has a short tan and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-4452.
Female hound
This 8-month-old female hound has a fawn coat.
She is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-4386.
Female pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short black coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4461.
‘Tyson’
“Tyson” is a handsome male husky with a red and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-4344.
Female terrier
This 7-month-old female terrier has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-4436.
Female pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-4484.
Male pit bull
This 3-year-old male pit bull has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-4445.
Female shepherd
This 3-year-old female shepherd mix has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-4449.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-4486.
Male shepherd
This 3-year-old male shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-4312.
Male terrier
This 1-year-old male terrier has a tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-4470.
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.
Early Saturday morning, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) was officially sworn in as United States Representative for California’s Fourth District in the 118th Congress.
He and other members were delayed in taking their oaths of office over the last several days as votes took place for the Speaker of the House job, which finally was settled on the 15th vote with the election of Kevin McCarthy.
“Serving the people of California’s Fourth District is an immense honor and I appreciate the faith and confidence of the people of our community to carry this responsibility of representing them in Congress. This Congress, I am focused on building on the bipartisan victories we accomplished over the last two years and continuing to advocate for the policies that matter most to our district,” said Thompson.
“That means lowering costs for working families, combating climate change, lowering health care costs, increasing access to affordable care through telehealth, ensuring fire survivors are not taxed on settlements, securing financial relief for growers impacted by drought and other natural disasters, ending the scourge of gun violence, and more,” he added.
“I’m ready to get to work,” Thompson said.
Following the 2020 Census, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission released new Congressional district lines for California, renumbering Rep. Thompson’s district from California’s Fifth to California’s Fourth.
California’s Fourth District includes all of Lake and Napa counties and parts of Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In a unanimous Thursday evening vote, the Clearlake City Council approved a contract with Tim Hobbs to be Clearlake’s new police chief.
Hobbs, 41, has spent his entire career of nearly 20 years with the Clearlake Police Department, and most recently held the rank of lieutenant.
On Dec. 19, he was sworn in as interim chief by Chief Andrew White as White prepared to leave for his new job as Martinez’s police chief.
On Thursday, the council voted to give Hobbs the job on a permanent basis.
City Manager Alan Flora presented Hobbs’ contract to the council.
Flora’s written report which accompanies the contract, beginning on page 39 of the agenda packet below, explained Hobbs’ selection as chief going forward.
“Under Chief White’s leadership Acting Chief Hobbs has developed into a strong leader that is prepared to continue and improve upon the success of the department over the past several years,” Flora wrote.
The contract has an initial three-year term, with a base salary of $155,812.80, a 5% incentive for completion of a bachelor’s degree, a 5% incentive for completion of the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training’s executive certificate, and other benefits consistent with the city’s management benefits plan.
“I’m hopeful that the council will approve this agreement with Mr. Hobbs as police chief,” Flora said.
Flora added, “We envision doing a more formal swearing-in of Hobbs as permanent chief later this month.”
There was no comment from the council and no public comment before Councilman Dirk Slooten moved to approve the contract, which both Councilmember Joyce Overton and Councilman Russ Cremer offered to second. In the vote, they were joined by Mayor Russ Perdock and Councilman David Claffey in giving final approval.
After the vote, the council and staff applauded Hobbs and offered him their congratulations.
Later in the meeting, Cremer reported that he had received a phone call that morning from Nick Bennett, a retired Clearlake Police sergeant and councilman who now lives in South Dakota. He said Bennett sent his best wishes to the city and to Hobbs in his new role.
Hobbs will oversee a department with 23 sworn officer positions, with just two of those unfilled as of White’s departure in December.
“We’re in a good place” with staffing, Sgt. Martin Snyder told Lake County News at White’s Dec. 19 farewell event.
In other business on Thursday, Mayor Perdock presented a proclamation in remembrance of retired Judge Richard Freeborn, who died Sept. 30, to his widow, Kathy.
The council also honored city employees and volunteers in recognition of their service, presented a proclamation declaring January 2023 as Human Trafficking Awareness Month, heard from city staff about the new recreation and events division’s efforts, approved mayor appointments and appointments of its members as representatives to the CalCities Redwood Empire Division, to represent the city and vote at the Division Legislative Committee meetings.
There also were two public hearings, one to accept updated state building codes and another to authorize the extension of the temporary closure of certain roads in order to reduce illegal dumping and protect the environment.
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 year 2022 was a tough one for the growing number of people living in food insecurity and energy poverty around the world, and the beginning of 2023 is looking bleak.
Russia’s war on Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain and fertilizer feedstock suppliers, tightened global food and energy supplies, which in turn helped spur inflation.
Drought, exacerbated in some places by warring groups blocking food aid, pushed parts of the Horn of Africa toward famine. Extreme weather disasters have left trails of destruction with mounting costs on nearly every continent. More countries found themselves in debt distress.
But below the surface of almost weekly bad news, significant changes are underway that have the potential to create a more sustainable world – one in which humanity can tackle climate change, species extinction and food and energy insecurity.
I’ve been involved in international sustainable development for most of my career and now teach climate diplomacy. Here’s how two key systems that drive the world’s economy – energy and finance – are starting to shift toward sustainability and what to watch for in 2023.
Ramping up renewable energy growth
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has reverberated through Europe and spread to other countries that have long been dependent on the region for natural gas. But while oil-producing countries and gas lobbyists are arguing for more drilling, global energy investments reflect a quickening transition to cleaner energy.
In December, the International Energy Agency published two important reports that point to the future of renewable energy.
First, the IEA revised its projection of renewable energy growth upward by 30%. It now expects the world to install as much solar and wind power in the next five years as it installed in the past 50 years.
The second report showed that energy use is becoming more efficient globally, with efficiency increasing by about 2% per year. As energy analyst Kingsmill Bond at the energy research group RMI noted, the two reports together suggest that fossil fuel demand may have peaked. While some low-income countries have been eager for deals to tap their fossil fuel resources, the IEA warns that new fossil fuel production risks becoming stranded, or uneconomic, in the next 20 years.
The main obstacles to the exponential growth in renewable energy, IEA points out, are antiquated energy policy frameworks, regulations and subsidies written at a time when energy systems, pricing and utilities were all geared toward fossil fuels.
Look in 2023 for reforms, including countries wrestling with how to permit smart grids and new transmission lines and finding ways to reward consumers for efficiency and clean energy generation.
The second system to watch for reform in 2023 is international finance. It’s also crucial to how low-income countries develop their energy systems, build resilience and recover from climate disasters.
Wealthy nations haven’t moved the energy transition forward quickly enough or provided enough support for emerging markets and developing countries to leapfrog inefficient fossil-fueled energy systems. Debt is ballooning in low-income countries, and climate change and disasters like the devastating flooding in Pakistan wipe out growth and add costs.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has brought together international financial institutions with think tanks and philanthropists to push for changes.
Countries like Mottley’s have been frustrated that the current international financial system – primarily the International Monetary Fund and the multilateral development banks, including the World Bank – haven’t adapted to the growing climate challenges.
Mottley’s Bridgetown Initiative proposes a new approach. It calls for countries’ vulnerability to be measured by climate impact, and for funds to be made available on that basis, rather than income. It also urges more risk-taking by the development banks to leverage private investment in vulnerable countries, including climate debt swaps.
The Bridgetown Initiative also calls for countries to reflow their IMF Special Drawing Rights – a reserve available to IMF members – into a proposed fund that vulnerable countries could then use to build resilience to climate change. A working group established by the G-20 points out that the “easiest” trillion dollars to access for urgent climate response is that already in the system.
In early 2023, Mottley and French President Emmanuel Macron, with others, will drive a process to examine the possible measures to improve the current system before the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in April, and then at a June summit called by France.
Watch in 2023 to see if this is the year the G-7 and the G-20 rekindle their global economic leadership roles. Their members are the largest owners of the international financial institutions, and also the largest emitters of carbon dioxide on the planet. India will lead the G-20 in 2023, followed by Brazil in 2024. Their leadership will be critical.
Watch small nations’ leadership in 2023
In 2023, expect to see small nations increasingly push for global transformation, led by the V-20 – the finance ministers of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.
In addition to the Bridgetown Initiative, Barbados has suggested a way to pool new funds working off the model of an oil spill damage fund at the International Maritime Organization. In the IMO fund, big oil importers pay in, and the fund pays out in the event of a spill. Barbados supports creating a similar fund to help countries when a climate event costs more than 5% of a country’s GDP.
This model is potentially a way to pool funds from a levy on the windfall profits of energy companies that saw their profits soar in 2022 while billions of people around the world suffered from energy price inflation.
Finally, the breakthrough agreement on biodiversity reached in December 2022 provides more promise for 2023. Countries agreed to conserve 30% of the world’s biodiversity and restore 30% of the world’s degraded lands. The funding – a $30 billion fund by 2030 – remains to be found, but the plan clarifies the task ahead and nature’s place in it. And we can hope 2023 is a year when signs of peace in our war against nature break out.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has many dogs waiting to go to homes in the new year.
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 following dogs are available for adoption. The newest dogs are at the top.
‘Aoki’
“Aoki” is a male Siberian husky mix with a white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50905477.
‘Athena’
“Athena” is a female American pit bull mix terrier with a short brindle coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49934476.
‘Atlas’
“Atlas” is a male German shepherd with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51331471.
‘Babs’
“Babs” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49505856.
‘Bella’
“Bella” is a female American pit bull with a short black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She’s dog No. 51462856.
‘Bruce’
“Bruce” is a 2-year-old American pit bull mix with a short gray coat with white markings.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50684304.
‘Buster’
“Buster” is a male pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50762164.
‘Chogi’
“Chogi” is a male American pit bull mix with a short tan and white coat.
He has been spayed.
He is dog No. 51373225.
‘Dennis’
“Dennis” is a male Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
He is neutered.
Dennis is dog No. 51682977.
‘Domino’
“Domino” is a male terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50815541.
‘Eros’
“Eros” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50754504.
‘Foxie’
“Foxie” is a female German shepherd with a red, black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49702845.
‘Goliath’
“Goliath” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.
He is dog No. 50754509.
‘Hakuna’
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Herman’
“Herman” is a 7-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51236411.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
‘Jack’
“Jack” is a 9-month-old male terrier mix with a short black and brindle coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50992658.
‘Kubota’
“Kubota” is a 4-year-old male German shepherd with a short brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50184421.
‘Little Boy’
“Little Boy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50075256.
‘Mamba’
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Maverick’
“Maverick” is a male pit bull-border collie mix with a short black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51027806.
‘Maya’
“Maya” is a female German shepherd with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50428151.
‘Mikey’
“Mikey” is a male German shepherd mix with a short brown and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51012855.
‘Molly’
“Molly” is a female Samoyed mix with a long white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50933031.
‘Noah’
“Noah” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51286102.
‘Paige’
“Paige” is a female American pit bull mix with a short brown coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 51194668.
‘Rascal’
“Rascal” is a male shepherd mix with a black and brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50806384.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball is a 1 and a half year old male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Tanner’
“Tanner” is an American Staffordshire mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
Tanner is dog No. 51150982.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Trike’
“Trike” is a male border collie-Australian shepherd mix with a black and white coat and blue eyes.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51029972.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596003.
‘Zeus’
“Zeus” is a male Samoyed mix with a long white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50933068.
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. — A former Middletown High School soccer coach and science teacher has been ordered to stand trial on numerous charges including stalking and sexual assault of minors.
Michael Antonio Dodd, 30, is charged with 14 counts involving nine juvenile victims, both males and females, said Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson.
Following Dodd’s Thursday preliminary hearing, visiting Judge Thomas Maddock from Contra Costa County ordered that Dodd be held to answer in the case.
Dodd now faces trial for one count of felony stalking, two counts of felony lewd and lascivious acts with a minor, eight misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a minor, and three counts of misdemeanor simple battery, which Watson said is harmful or offensive touching.
Dodd’s defense attorney, Andrea Sullivan, said she did not have a comment on the case at this time when contacted by Lake County News.
Watson said the Middletown Unified School District hired Dodd in the summer of 2021 as a science teacher and boys soccer coach at Middletown High School.
The time frame for the case is from the start of June 2021 to the end of September 2021, according to the amended charging complaint.
Watson said Dodd first made contact with students while coaching at soccer practice during the summer, and then later in his science classroom.
The first day of school for Middletown in the 2021-22 school year was Aug. 16, according to the district’s Facebook page.
Less than a month later, Watson said authorities were contacted by school officials about Dodd.
Specifically, Watson said the Lake County Sheriff’s Office was notified on Sept. 14, 2021, that a staff member had complained to the school about Dodd’s inappropriate behavior toward a student.
Watson said the initial report was vague beyond allegations of Dodd having inappropriate communications with a female juvenile.
By Sept. 17, 2021, Middletown Unified gave Dodd a letter of release, terminating him from his job based on the school’s own investigation into allegations, “which is pretty fast,” Watson noted.
The initial investigation involved just one juvenile victim, Watson said.
District Attorney Susan Krones filed the original complaint against Dodd on Sept. 21, 2021.
That document referred to the original alleged victim, charging one count of misdemeanor annoying and molesting a child under the age of 18.
As a result of the followup investigation, Watson amended the complaint this past July and added more counts for the additional eight victims.
The amended complaint alleged that Dodd stalked and harassed the original victim over the course of four months, making “a credible threat” against her that caused her to fear for her own safety and that of her family.
Watson said that if Dodd is convicted of the lewd acts charges, he faces lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Maddock ordered Dodd to be arraigned at 8:15 a.m. Feb. 7 in Superior Court Department 3, Watson said.
At arraignment, Watson said Dodd will enter a plea, and then new court dates will be set in the run up to the trial.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
What's up for January? The planets have some close encounters, the bright stars of winter, and a chance to catch a comet.
All month after sunset, you can see four planets without the aid of binoculars or a telescope.
You'll find Mars in the east, Jupiter high overhead, and Saturn in the southwest with Venus.
From about Jan. 18 to the 24, watch Venus cross paths with Saturn as the glow of sunset fades. Look for the pair low in the southwest about 45 minutes after the Sun dips below the horizon.
The two planets appear at their closest on Jan. 22, when they'll be only a third of a degree apart on the sky. You'll be able to capture both of them in the same field of view through binoculars or a small telescope.
On Jan. 23, the two planets are still only a degree apart, and will be joined by a slim crescent moon.
And on Jan. 25, looking to the southwest 30 to 45 minutes after sunset, look high above Venus and Saturn to find the Moon only a degree apart from Jupiter, about halfway up the sky.
January nights are filled with bright stars. Looking toward the south or southeast in the first few hours after dark, you'll spy the bright constellations of winter in the Northern Hemisphere: Of course there's Orion the hunter; the big dog constellation Canis Major; and the lesser known little dog, Canis Minor with its bright star Procyon.
Y-shaped Taurus, the bull, includes the bright Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. And just east of Orion, you'll find the bright stars Castor and Pollux, which form the heads of the twins in Gemini.
Make sure you take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the January sky, which more than meets the definition of "star studded," with so much to marvel at.
A recently discovered comet is now passing through the inner solar system and should be visible with a telescope and likely with binoculars.
The comet, which has a mouthful of a name — C/2022 E3, or ZTF — was first sighted in March last year, when it was already inside the orbit of Jupiter.
It makes its closest approach to the Sun on Jan. 12, and then passes its closest to Earth on Feb. 2.
Comets are notoriously unpredictable, but if this one continues its current trend in brightness, it'll be easy to spot with binoculars, and it's just possible it could become visible to the unaided eye under dark skies.
Observers in the Northern Hemisphere will find the comet in the morning sky, as it moves swiftly toward the northwest during January. (It'll become visible in the Southern Hemisphere in early February.)
This comet isn't expected to be quite the spectacle that Comet NEOWISE was back in 2020. But it's still an awesome opportunity to make a personal connection with an icy visitor from the distant outer solar system.
Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at nasa.gov.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Effective Jan. 1, 2023, California’s Welfare and Institution Law is amended to add new sections 21000 – 21008 enacting the “Supported Decisionmaking” law, or AB 1663 (2022).
Note: The phrase, “Decision Making” is melded into a single word, “Decisionmaking” in this instance.
Supported decisionmaking is the centerpiece within the broader AB 1663 legislation that also reforms California’s Conservatorship law.
AB 1663 was co-sponsored by numerous organizations including the ACLU California Action and Free Britney.
Its intent is to reduce how many disabled people are conserved. Conservatorships put a conservator in charge of many aspects of a person’s life and thus take rights and self-determination away.
“Adults with disabilities, including older adults with disabilities, are presumed competent and to have the capacity to make decisions regarding their day-to-day health, safety, welfare, and social and financial affairs, unless otherwise determined through legal proceedings.”
“Supported Decisionmaking offers adults with disabilities a flexible way to maintain autonomy and decisionmaking authority over their own lives by developing and maintaining voluntary supports to assist them in understanding, making, communicating, and implementing their own informed choices.” It should reduce the number of conservatorships of disabled persons.
“Supported Decisionmaking means an individualized process of supporting and accommodating an adult with a disability to enable them to make life decisions without impeding the self-determination of the adult.” It enables disabled persons to seek assistance with managing their day-to-day personal living, health care, financial and legal affairs.
Supported decisionmaking involves a written “supportive decisionmaking agreement” that must, amongst other things, include a list of the areas in which the adult with a disability requests support and a list of the areas in which the supporter agrees to provide the support.
Such written agreements are another tool, in addition to powers of attorney and advance health care directives as alternatives to conservatorship.
Through supported decisionmaking a disabled person is entitled to have their “supporters” present in meetings with health care providers, financial planners and attorneys, amongst other professionals, in order for the disabled person, “to understand, make, and communicate decisions and to express preferences, including, but not limited to, medical and financial powers of attorney, authorized representative forms, health care directives, release of information forms, and representative payees.”
Many people, disabled or not, seek assistance with decisions and bring trusted confidants to meetings. What is new, however, is that the disabled person’s legal capacity to make decisions and execute documents will now, “… be assessed with any supports, including supported decisionmaking, that the person is using or could use.”
It is intended that, “supported decisionmaking can be a way to strengthen the capacity of an adult with a disability.” Presently, a person’s capacity to understand, communicate, make decisions, and execute documents must be established without the involvement of supports.
Attorneys presently often ask other attendees to leave the meeting so that the attorney can engage in a one-on-one discussion with the client to evaluate whether he or she sufficiently understands the available options, opportunities and risks at issue, and also that the client is acting voluntarily.
Persons who executed legal documents with questionable capacity may wish to utilize supported decisionmaking to execute new documents.
It remains to be seen how supported decisionmaking will be implemented in California. Some experienced attorneys have expressed opposition, reservation and concern about whether supported decisionmaking will be more beneficial or more harmful to disabled persons.
The foregoing is a brief discussion of some portions of supported decisionmaking.
To read AB 1663 go to www.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov and search for Bill Number “AB 1663” in the 2021-22 Session Year. For legal guidance 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, 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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service said another strong Pacific cyclone will begin to impact the North Coast region on Friday, bringing more winds, high mountain snow, rain and the threat of further flooding.
The agency said that on Friday Northern California will see an abrupt end to the brief intermission in the heavy rain it experienced this week as the cyclone arrives.
“This storm system will bring gusty to strong southerly winds, high elevation snow and a new widespread flooding threat from heavy rainfall on top of already saturated ground,” the forecast said.
The cyclone will be joined by another atmospheric river that will be drawn into the region on Friday, the forecast said.
During Thursday’s Clearlake City Council meeting, City Manager Alan Flora reported that, overall, the city has fared well during this week’s heavy winter storms.
He said he was very proud of the city’s police and public works departments for their response.
“They always do their best to prepare for winter early,” he said.
Regarding their work on Wednesday, during the height of the storm, “They were all pretty soggy by the time the day was over,” Flora said.
He said the city was having daily briefings with the Lake County Office of Emergency Services and the National Weather Services.
Flora said that another 6 to 8 inches of rain is expected to fall from Saturday through Tuesday.
“Everything is saturated so we’re going to have more localized flooding,” said Flora.
He noted a “marked change” in communication coming from the county, especially referencing County Administrative Officer Susan Parker who he said has been sharing information, which hasn’t always been the case with the county government during emergencies.
Flora said Congressman Mike Thompson’s office also reached out to offer the city assistance.
Across Lake County on Thursday, efforts continued to restore power to thousands of residents who lost their electricity due to the storms.
Road conditions overall were improving as downed trees and lines were cleared.
The California Highway Patrol reported Thursday night that Witter Springs Road remained closed at the bridge and Scotts Valley Road also was closed to flooding.
One area that’s benefiting from the intense rainfall is Clear Lake, which has been at the lowest level since the drought of the 1970s.
Early Friday, the lake was at -0.79 feet Rumsey, the special measure used just for Clear Lake, an improvement of nearly a foot thanks to this week’s rain.
The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook for Lake County, predicting that as much as an inch of rain could fall on Friday, with up to 4 inches possible on Saturday, and nearly 2 inches on Sunday.
Rain also is forecast through the first half of next week, with rainfall estimates not yet available.
Temperatures into the middle of next week will hit daytime highs in the low 50s and nighttime lows in the low 40s, based on the forecast.
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 updated forecast for the incoming Pacific cyclone and atmospheric river warns that Lake County could see close to a dozen inches of rain over the weekend and into the new week.
The National Weather Service's Eureka Office is predicting up to 12 inches of additional rain from Saturday through Tuesday for portions of Lake County.
The forecast also predicts strong southerly winds, heavy high elevation snow, and a new widespread flooding threat from heavy rainfall atop of already saturated ground.
The National Weather Service placed all of Lake County under a flood watch from 4 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10. Forecasters also issued a hazardous weather outlook for Lake County.
Areas including Lakeport and the Northshore are expected to have up to 7 inches of rain in that time.
Cobb, Kelseyville and southern Lake County are forecast to get more rain, with predictions putting Cobb at more than 11 inches in that time frame.
The winds in the forecast for Lake County could be as high as 25 miles per hour, with gusts in the 40s. Across the region, ridges could see gusts of up to 60 miles per hour.
Temperatures into next week will mostly hover in the high 40s, moving into the low 50s on Sunday, Monday and then on Thursday, with nighttime lows in the low 40s.
Pacific Gas and Electric on Friday continued to restore power around Lake County and the rest of its service areas.
By Friday night, the company reported that about 50 Lake County customer accounts were still waiting for restoration, which the company reported was expected to be complete by Saturday.
By late Friday, Clear Lake was at -0.63 feet Rumsey, the special measure for the lake.
The lake level had been hovering around -2.34 feet Rumsey just before Christmas.
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.
In early January NASA’s retired Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, or ERBS, is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere after almost four decades in space.
For 21 of those years, the ERBS actively investigated how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols.
As of Thursday, Jan. 5, the Department of Defense predicted that the 5,400-pound satellite will reenter the atmosphere at approximately 6:40 p.m. EST on Sunday, Jan. 8 with an uncertainty of +/- 17 hours.
NASA and the Defense Department will continue to monitor the reentry and update the predictions.
NASA expects most of the satellite to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, but some components are expected to survive the reentry. The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is very low – approximately 1 in 9,400.
Launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on Oct. 5, 1984, the ERBS spacecraft was part of NASA’s three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment, or ERBE, mission. It carried three instruments, two to measure the Earth's radiative energy budget, and one to measure stratospheric constituents, including ozone.
The energy budget, the balance between the amount of energy from the Sun that Earth absorbs or radiates, is an important indicator of climate health, and understanding it can also help reveal weather patterns. Ozone concentrations in the stratosphere play an important role in protecting life on Earth from damaging ultraviolet radiation.
ERBS far exceeded its expected two-year service life, operating until its retirement in 2005. Its observations helped researchers measure the effects of human activities on Earth’s radiation balance. NASA has continued to build on the success of the ERBE mission with projects including the current Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) suite of satellite instruments.
The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II, or SAGE II, on the ERBS made stratospheric measurements. SAGE II collected important data that confirmed the ozone layer was declining on a global scale. That data helped shape the international Montreal Protocol Agreement, resulting in a dramatic decrease around the globe in the use of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons.
Today, SAGE III on the International Space Station collects data on the health of the ozone layer.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Efforts are still underway to restore power to all of the Lake County residents who lost electricity during the midweek atmospheric river storm.
Several thousand Lake County residents were among the more than 500,000 customers whose power was knocked out by the storm, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday.
The outages were the result of the atmospheric river storm that arrived on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain that flooded areas already saturated by earlier storms along with winds as high as 100 miles per hour in some parts of the state.
PG&E that during the 24-hour period that ended at 3 p.m. Thursday, it had restored power to more than 406,000 customers.
At that point, there were still approximately 2,300 outages affecting 95,500 customers, with many in the North Coast, Bay Area and Central Coast areas.
The outages in Lake County resulted in Cobb Elementary School being closed on Thursday, school officials reported.
The county of Lake reported Thursday afternoon that there were still 42 outages in Lake County, representing 1,300 total meters, with most associated with the Middletown, Konocti, Lucerne and Hartley (Lakeport-area) substations. There were no estimated times of restoration.
Lake County News was unable to get an update on those specific numbers from PG&E on Thursday night.
However, on Thursday evening, during the Clearlake City Council meeting, City Manager Alan Flora said there were about 2,000 Lake County customers still out of power, of which about 100 to 200 were in the city itself.
He said it was “pretty phenomenal” to see the number of outages across the Bay Area due to the storm.
Later on Thursday night, the PG&E outage map showed the number of outages was dwindling, with the impacted Lake County residents in the hundreds, not thousands.
PG&E said it had mobilized more than 3,000 of its own co-workers, contractors and mutual-aid personnel from Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, with help coming from Oregon, New Mexico, Utah and Washington.
“Our crews are out in full force restoring customers safely and as quickly as possible. We are conducting assessments of damage and prioritizing repairs with a focus on critical facilities and resolving outages that are impacting the largest number of customers,” said Janisse Quiñones, PG&E’s senior vice president, electric operations.
The company said hazards such as fallen trees, floods and debris flows have made gaining access difficult in some areas and could delay power restoration efforts.
Incoming storms also could impact the restoration effort and cause more outages, the company said.
“We have a short window of time to make as much progress as we can before the next weather system in this series of storms enters our service area over the weekend,” said Quiñones.
The county also reported that PG&E was asking for help from county residents.
Anyone aware of power lines down on their property or nearby properties, or trees affecting lines on a property, is asked to call 800-743-5002 to report them. Callers are urged to document an address, cross-street or mile post marker.
PG&E said its customers can view real-time outage information at PG&E’s online outage center and search by a specific address, city or county. This site has been updated to include support in 16 languages.
Additionally, customers can sign up for outage notifications by text, email, or phone. PG&E will let customers know the cause of an outage, when crews are on their way, the estimated restoration time and when power has been restored.
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.