LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has three young cats awaiting new families.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Domestic shorthair kitten
This domestic shorthair kitten has a black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 6b, ID No. LCAC-A-2480.
Male domestic shorthair
This young male domestic shorthair has a unique striped gray tabby coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 53d, ID No. LCAC-A-2383.
‘Artista’
“Artista” is a female orange tabby kitten with a short coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 146, ID No. LCAC-A-2475.
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.
Rockets turn their fuel into momentum that carries people, satellites and science itself forward into space. 2021 was a year full of records for space programs around the world, and that momentum is carrying forward into 2022.
In total, in 2021 there were 134 launches that put humans or satellites into orbit – the highest number in the entire history of spaceflight. Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022. If things go well, this will smash last year’s record.
I’m an astronomer who studies supermassive black holes and distant galaxies. I have also written a book about humanity’s future in space. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2022. The Moon will get more attention than it has had in decades, as will Jupiter. The largest rocket ever built will make its first flight. And of course, the James Webb Space Telescope will start sending back its first images.
I, for one, can’t wait.
Everyone’s going to the Moon
Getting a rocket into orbit around Earth is a technical achievement, but it’s only equivalent to a half a day’s drive straight up. Fifty years after the last person stood on Earth’s closest neighbor, 2022 will see a crowded slate of lunar missions.
NASA will finally debut its much delayed Space Launch System. This rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty and produces more thrust than the mighty Saturn V. The Artemis I mission will head off this spring for a flyby of the Moon. It’s a proof of concept for a rocket system that will one day let people live and work off Earth. The immediate goal is to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2025.
NASA is also working to develop the infrastructure for a lunar base, and it’s partnering with private companies on science missions to the Moon. A company called Astrobotic will carry 11 payloads to a large crater on the near side of the Moon, including two mini-rovers and a package of personal mementos gathered from the general public by a company based in Germany. The Astrobotic lander will also be carrying the cremated remains of science fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke – as with Shatner’s flight into space, it’s an example of science fiction turned into fact. Another company, Intuitive Machines, plans two trips to the Moon in 2022, carrying 10 payloads that include a lunar hopper and an ice mining experiment.
Russia is getting in on the lunar act, too. The Soviet Union accomplished many lunar firsts – first spacecraft to hit the surface in 1959, first spacecraft to soft-land in 1966 and the first lunar rover in 1970 – but Russia hasn’t been back for over 45 years. In 2022, it plans to send the Luna 25 lander to the Moon’s south pole to drill for ice. Frozen water is an essential requirement for any Moon base.
All aboard the Starship
While NASA’s Space Launch System will be a big step up for the agency, Elon Musk’s new rocket promises to be the king of the skies in 2022.
The SpaceX Starship – the most powerful rocket ever launched – will get its first orbital launch in 2022. It’s fully reusable, has more than twice the thrust of the Saturn V rocket and can carry 100 tons into orbit. The massive rocket is central to Musk’s aspirations to create a self-sustaining base on the Moon and, eventually, a city on Mars.
Part of what makes Starship so important is how cheap it will make bringing things into space. If successful, the price of each flight will be US$2 million. By contrast, the price for NASA to launch the Space Launch System is likely to be over $2 billion. The reduction in costs by a factor of a thousand will be a game-changer for the economics of space travel.
Jupiter beckons
The Moon and Mars aren’t the only celestial bodies getting attention next year. After decades of neglect, Jupiter will finally get some love, too.
The European Space Agency’s Icy Moons Explorer is scheduled to head off to the gas giant midyear. Once there, it will spend three years studying three of Jupiter’s moons – Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. These moons are all thought to have subsurface liquid water, making them potentially habitable environments.
Additionally, in September 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft – which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 – is going to swoop within 220 miles of Europa, the closest-ever look at this fascinating moon. Its instruments will measure the thickness of the ice shell, which covers an ocean of liquid water.
Seeing first light
All this action in the Solar System is exciting, but 2022 will also see new information from the edge of space and the dawn of time.
After successfully reaching its final destination, unfurling its solar panels and unfolding its mirrors in January, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will undergo exhaustive testing and return its first data sometime midyear. The 21-foot (6.5-meter) telescope has seven times the collecting area of the Hubble Space Telescope. It also operates at longer wavelengths of light than Hubble, so it can see distant galaxies whose light has been redshifted – stretched to longer wavelengths – by the expansion of the universe.
When astronomers look out in space they look back in time. First light marks the limit of what humanity can see of the universe. Prepare to be a time traveler in 2022.
The International Space Station orbits Earth in the cold, solitary vastness of space.
But look closer. There’s a cornucopia of species bringing the interior of the station to life, and with it a plethora of scientific knowledge contributing to humans learning not only how to survive in space, but thrive both on Earth and beyond the edge of our planet.
Animals that fly in the air, animals that swim, squirt and float in water, animals that creep, crawl, walk and run on land — all are being studied to learn how they react, and adapt to microgravity conditions.
Since many share similar cells, tissues and other organic structures to humans, each is studied for what they can reveal to help astronauts withstand the rigors of long-range space travel. Some examples:
The tardigrade, or Water Bear, is well known to possess genes that can withstand extreme hot and cold temperatures, dehydration and radiation. What can we learn from these amazing creatures that might help keep astronauts safer in extreme environments?
Astronauts exercise two hours a day and closely monitor their diet, however the loss of muscle mass that occurs in space is still a serious obstacle that researchers are working to overcome. As such Roundworms were exposed to a microscopic obstacle course to study their unusual muscle strength, while Zebrafish have helped researchers develop countermeasures for muscle weakness.
Another fish, the Japanese medaka, have helped improve our understanding of the mechanisms behind organ tissue changes.
And of course, one of the most common space travelers, the rodent, was found to be more physically active in space than their Earthbound counterparts in one experiment. Why? This matters to scientists who are studying the effect of microgravity on bone loss.
Jennifer Buchli is the deputy chief scientist for the International Space Station Program Research Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She explains how studying multi generational organisms can have a big impact on our understanding of both animal and plant biology in space.
“Fruit flies multiply so quickly, we can observe several generations at one time. We can trace the actual development of an organism from conception to birth to adulthood and old age. And the genetic changes from one generation to another are easy to track.”
Regarding plants, Buchli says: “Plants develop differently in microgravity. They don't know which way is down anymore. They no longer have a gravity signal for their root structure. So we examine their RNA to see how it’s giving directions and signals, and how that differs from the way plants behave on Earth.” Many types of plants are grown on the station, from flowering plants to leafy greens to vegetables. What we learn could influence our approach to growing different plant types in the future.
Practical benefits for those on Earth have come from studying all these various forms of life in space. Traditional fertilizer can’t be used on plants in space, as they’re not grown with traditional soil. As a result, NASA scientists, working closely with the private sector, developed a fertilizer that would release its nutrients over a specific amount of time. The process proved to be not only successful in space — it can also be used on Earth in vertical farms and urban plant factories.
Life in space is not new. The study of numerous species going back several decades have given researchers multiple views of how life can exist and thrive in the harsh environment of space.
Buchli concludes: “We’ll conduct hundreds of experiments during each six-month expedition. We want to study a broad diversity of organisms that will help us travel beyond low earth orbit, while also giving us insights that may improve life on Earth.”
For more information about the multitude of life on board the Space Station, go to www.nasa.gov/iss-science.
To discover more about the space on, around, and beyond our planet visit http://science.nasa.gov.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lower Lake resident Rachel Ahlmann says she came late to the marathon game.
Even so, at age 37 and after roughly three years of training, she found herself at one of the most renowned foot races in the world, the Boston Marathon.
Though it was her first time running the historic race in Boston, she wasn’t a stranger to marathons, having done four of them locally before her trip to Boston in October of last year — one each in the Napa Valley and Sacramento, and two in Santa Rosa.
“Marathon racing is intense,” said Ahlmann, who is part of the Six Sigma Ranch and Winery family. “All the stars need to line up for success. So many little things can cause poor performance, even the caffeine in my morning cup of coffee.”
Thankfully, the stars lined up for her at the Boston Marathon, one of the world’s great running events. Some might say it’s the holy grail of marathon races.
The Boston Marathon is not only the nation’s oldest marathon race, it’s the longest running annual marathon in the world. Established in 1897, it was inspired by the success of the first marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.
Now an American institution, the Boston Marathon historically takes place every third Monday in April. This is also Patriots’ Day, when the first battles of the Revolutionary War are commemorated.
Ahlmann, who was born to American missionary parents in New Zealand, became involved with competitive running at the young age of 8 after the family returned to the United States.
It was Ahlmann’s mother who served as her running coach during childhood races in the summers between school years.
A runner herself, Ahlmann’s mother held the record for the fastest time in the women’s 800-meter dash at Kansas State University, a record that stood, impressively, for 25 years.
In high school Ahlmann ran competitively as a member of the track and cross-country teams, as well as playing basketball.
Raised in a family that cherishes athletics (her father still coaches youth basketball in his 60s), the entire clan enjoyed a variety of sports together. Ahlmann’s two older sisters were also runners but instead focused more on other pursuits — one was an accomplished musician, the other a talented gymnast. It was youngest sister Rachel who became an able and proficient competitive runner.
Like her mother, Ahlmann attended Kansas State but, unlike her, decided against competitive running while in college.
“Looking back, I have some regrets about not running, but by college I was ready for something else,” said Ahlmann. “Though my mother was a wonderful coach and I never felt pushed, I was just a little burned out by then. I had opportunities to run but turned them down.”
This break continued until after the birth of her oldest child, a son, in 2010, when she entered the running world again through a half marathon.
Ahlmann credits the Lake County Milers, a local running club, for reviving her interest in running in the years after that. Specifically, it was during one of their annual “Spring Has Sprung” races in Hidden Valley Lake that she was reminded of how much she loves running.
By this time, she was the mother of three children — two daughters in addition to her son — and she jokingly calls that 5K race her “first hurrah” after her last child was born.
Though her love of running was rekindled, it wasn’t until a few years later, in 2018, that she began marathon training in earnest.
“I’m a late comer to the marathon game,” said Ahlmann. “Many with the Lake County Milers have been running marathons for years. There’s a very strong running community in this county.”
Ahlmann ran her first marathon in Napa County in the spring of 2019 with a time that easily qualified her for the Boston Marathon, roughly 3 hours and 15 minutes.
In the fall of that year, her time in a Santa Rosa marathon was even better — a few seconds over two hours, 59 minutes.
Feeling ready for Boston, which requires a qualifying time of 3 hours, 30 minutes, she planned to run it in the spring of 2020.
By then, however, the worldwide coronavirus pandemic had reared its ugly head, which put a stop to those plans.
For the first time, the Boston Marathon was pushed back — to September of 2020 — but with the virus still a factor, the race that year ended up being virtual.
Ahlmann ran the virtual marathon on the paved roads throughout Hidden Valley Lake and, along with everyone else, got a medal for her participation.
Race officials had hoped to bring the race back in April 2021, its normal month, but because of COVID, it was pushed back again, this time to Oct. of that year.
In addition to the unusual two-year plus lapse between races, the field size was reduced from 30,000 to 20,000, making the qualifying window smaller. Even so, Ahlmann made it in, and she, along with her family, headed to Boston for the race, their first time in that city.
The morning of the race dawned with perfect conditions for running, an overcast 50 degrees with no wind. With a rolling start time of 9 a.m., Ahlmann was loaded onto a bus at 7:30 a.m. that morning for her trip to the starting line.
During a typical Boston Marathon, runners are bunched up behind the starting line and the race begins with a gun. Depending on where you are, it can take a full 10 minutes to cross the starting line.
This time, precautions were taken to prevent runners from being too close to one another. There was no gun to start the race en masse. Instead, runners had rolling start times and crossed the starting line in staggered numbers. This was made possible by a timing chip on the runners’ bibs.
Ahlmann enjoyed this more relaxed approach, as she could cross the starting line when warmed up and ready. At one point she almost crossed by mistake, but quickly retreated to remove her sweatshirt before beginning.
Ahlmann, who runs every day along the steep trails of Six Sigma Ranch and Winery that reach up to 1,600 feet in elevation, found the hilly sections of the sea level Boston Marathon less challenging than she anticipated.
She was surprised to find that she wasn’t struggling as some of the other runners were. Her training in the mountainous terrain outside her front door paid off.
Ahlmann had decided to run a smart race, rather than push herself with possible negative results. She wanted to finish well, and she did, with a time of just over two hours, 59 minutes, not unlike her time in the Santa Rosa marathon. That race, however, didn’t have the hills that the Boston Marathon does.
She jokes that marathon running is “voluntary torture.” Even so, it felt wonderful to run in Boston, to challenge her body and test its limitations.
Ahlmann was especially impressed by the encouragement of the spectators along the way. A particularly favorite memory was running through Wellesley College, where all the students were outside to cheer them on.
As Ahlmann says, “the organizers really know how to put on a marathon. Every inch was planned.” It was the most fun she’s ever had while running a marathon.
Her husband, Christian Ahlmann, posted his wife’s progress on Facebook in real time via a marathon app that used the runners’ timing chips to track them. He and their three children were at the finish line, craning their necks to see their wife and mother come through.
Though the experience was beyond her expectations, at this point Ahlmann doesn’t have plans to run the Boston Marathon again. Instead, she’s looking toward a March marathon in the Napa Valley, where she’ll run the familiar and spectacularly beautiful Silverado Trail.
She’ll continue to run at least a mile a day, fitting it in around parenting her three children and working in sales and hospitality at Six Sigma alongside husband Christian, who’s general manager of the ranch and winery.
When asked what she likes best about running, she referred to a quote from the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, where the great Scottish Olympic runner, Eric Liddell, tells his sister that God made him fast. “And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”
Ahlmann relates to that. She also enjoys seeing what the human body can do, how far it can be pushed.
And the worst thing for her about running?
“Endurance exercise is terribly painful — it shows how crazy you are,” said Ahlmann. “I get black and blue toes and it takes a lot of time.”
Two years ago, Ahlmann found something much worse than a sore body and finding scarce time to do marathon training — coming face-to-face with a mountain lion, which happened on a near dark morning during a sunrise run.
On that morning, Ahlmann was running along a paved rural road with her usual audiobook playing. For safety, she never puts the headphones on. Instead, she allows the book to play so that nearby critters can hear her coming.
Somehow, her senses alerted her to padded footsteps following behind her along the road. She turned around, and there it was — a full-grown mountain lion, with a look on its face like a house cat playing with its food. She realized then that she was its prey.
Once she registered what was happening, she threw her water bottle at it, then a series of rocks. She said it stopped advancing, but stood firm, looking at her.
At that moment a car happened by, and the cat retreated into the woods, still lurking. By a providential stroke of luck, the next car was a co-worker, who was able to drive her to safety.
Since then, Ahlmann has been determined not to run in the dark. When time pressures prevent a daylight run, she does a tiny loop around her home or uses her treadmill.
Ahlmann’s advice for aspiring runners is to run with others, rather than by yourself. Having a running buddy (or buddies) makes it more fun and provides accountability.
If marathons are your goal, she suggests doing a lot of long, slow miles. This makes it easier to do the first 20 miles of a marathon, which, as Ahlmann says, is “the warm-up for the 10K at the end.”
Ahlmann’s mother jokes that one gets 10 good years of running before the body gives up, and Ahlmann wants to make the most of the yet unused part of those 10 years. In addition to doing again the three local marathons she’s tackled in the past, Ahlmann has her eye on the possibility of a “destination marathon” in another part of the world.
As a final note, Ahlmann lost a toenail at the Boston Marathon, just 200 yards short of the finish line. Those last yards were excruciating for her, but she made it, limping across the finish line.
Despite that moment (and like the true runner she is), Ahlmann said, “But I felt so awesome afterward.”
Esther Oertel is a freelance writer in Middletown who's contributed to Lake County News since 2010. She especially enjoys writing about the people and places that make Lake County unique. For comments, questions and story suggestions, she may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and a local organization that provides services for victims is working to bring more attention to the crime.
Lake Family Resource Center received a $550,000 three-year grant in 2019 from the Office for Victims of Crime, part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kara Roberts, Lake Family Resource Center’s human trafficking program coordinator, said they are now in the third year of the grant and preparing to apply for more funding.
The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that arrests, prosecutions and sentencings in human trafficking cases have increased nationwide.
Human trafficking is estimated to be a $32 billion industry worldwide, according to
Roberts said Human Trafficking Awareness Month is a chance to educate the community about the crime, but she said the first question people ask her is if it’s happening here in Lake County.
“It’s a victimization that’s as old as time,” said Roberts, who called it “modern day slavery.”
In 2020, the first year of the grant, Lake Family Resource Center built its program to help the victims of human trafficking, Roberts said.
She said in year two — which was last year — they began providing direct services. In 2021, Lake Family Resource Center served 18 clients, of which 13 had been the victims of sex trafficking and five had been subjected to labor trafficking.
Altogether, Roberts said the organization provided 1,108 services that year to those 18 clients last year.
Services that she said are offered include one on one counseling, crisis intervention, referrals for therapy, emergency shelter, financial assistance for food and clothing, and advocacy — both personal and in the courts — along with support groups and transportation.
For the community at large, they are continuing their education efforts. However, Roberts noted that while she believes more people are understanding the issue, “There is a long way to go.”
She said they will work with Upper Lake High School in the next month to educate the high school students there and have plans to work with other local schools.
Roberts said it’s important to speak to students about the dangers, as the average age of recruitment for the victims of human trafficking is 12 to 14, Roberts said.
“They like to get them young” because they are easier to manipulate and brainwash, she said of traffickers.
Roberts added that when it comes to human trafficking, “It’s hard for people to talk about.”
This month, Roberts has received proclamations from the Board of Supervisors and the Clearlake and Lakeport city councils declaring Human Trafficking Awareness Month in Lake County.
She said the center also has done extensive outreach, including outdoor banners, social media and blue magnets placed on law enforcement vehicles. Of the magnets, Roberts said, “That was exciting. That was our second year doing that.”
They’ve also distributed stencils to be placed in the front windows of county businesses, with business owners and organizations also signing a pledge to combat human trafficking.
Roberts said Susie Q’s doughnuts also did a blue doughnut this month to raise funds for Lake Family Resource Center, Roberts said.
To find out more about the center’s human trafficking program, call 707-279-0563, visit the group’s Facebook page or its website.
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 county of Lake has given the final approvals for a new substance abuse treatment center in Lake County, which will be the only facility of its kind focusing just on women.
Hilltop Recovery Services’ new facility, Hilltop for Women Leandra’s House, received the Lake County Planning Commission’s approval for its major use permit on Jan. 13.
The facility is located in an expansive and fully remodeled former single-family home on 20 acres at 14725 Catholic Church Road in Clearlake Oaks.
Lori Carter-Runyon and her husband, Ryan Runyon, acquired the site in 2017, and have been working on plans to open the treatment center there since 2020.
Ryan Runyon said it will be Lake County’s only inpatient residential treatment center just for women, with a maximum of 20 beds at build out.
Another program in the county, Tule House in Upper Lake, is an eight-bed residential substance abuse treatment program but it’s different from Hilltop for Women in that it’s not for the general population but instead focuses on the perinatal population, welcoming women with children up to age 12.
Hilltop for Women is just across the road from Hilltop Recovery’s inpatient residential treatment center for men, which they purchased in 2015. That facility, located on five acres, has a capacity of 38 and as of Thursday had 32 residents, Runyon said.
Hilltop Recovery Services had been located for years on a 320-acre property that once had been a hot springs resort near Anderson Springs.
The 2015 Valley fire destroyed that treatment facility, prompting the Runyons to move their operations to Clearlake Oaks. They also have a clinic and three sober living environments — two for men and one for women — in Lucerne, Ryan Runyon said.
He said they purchased the Hilltop for Women property and did a complete renovation of the 3,500 square foot home, which also has a large garage.
Runyon said Leandra’s House is named for family friend Leandra Green, a talented young woman who was living on the East Coast when she overdosed on fentanyl and died.
A large sign with her picture is just to the right of the front door.
“That’s why we’re doing it, right there,” Runyon said, pointing to the sign and noting the danger of a drug that could kill such a capable and talented person.
The remodeled home has four bedrooms with bunk beds and four and a half bathrooms, and it’s ready to welcome residents.
On the walls are posters that read, “Bet on yourself” and “Actually I can.”
They’ve added a new pool in the big backyard, which also is being landscaped.
Runyon said residents from the men’s program have helped with the work and projects around the property. As part of their recovery, he trains them in new skills.
“Anything they learn they’re excited about,” he said.
The Leandra’s House property, much of it an old walnut orchard, occasionally sees bears and their cubs rambling through the trees. Runyon said they also have deer.
Nearby sits an RV and a trailer for evacuations. They’ve had experience evacuating, not just the south Lake County site but also from the men’s facility across the road, Runyon said.
At the men’s facility, two friendly dogs — Doofus, a big, good-natured mutt with a brindle coat who is good at scaring bears and Hope, with the looks of a large Labrador mix — roamed around and played with staff and residents.
The men’s facility also has a pool, a regulation-size beach volleyball court, a nine-hole movable disc golf course, a garden and a huge and ancient oak tree that Runyon hopes someday will feature a treehouse.
Lori Carter-Runyon said they are training staff for the women’s facility and it could be open as early as Feb. 15. If the training isn’t completed, they will plan for a March 6 opening.
“We have a waiting list,” Ryan Runyon said, explaining they have been doing screenings ahead of the county’s final approval in order to be ready, since they knew the need.
“We want people to get services,” he said.
Runyon said those who come for treatment often stay around 90 days, which in the scheme of things for an individual trying to rebuild their life after years of addiction isn’t long.
He said they’ve also had people stay longer — from six months and even up to a year.
Runyon said it’s not about going from bad to good; he wants the people who come for treatment to be happy and do well.
“I want them to heal,” he 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.
When elderly people stay active, their brains have more of a class of proteins that enhances the connections between neurons to maintain healthy cognition, a UC San Francisco study has found.
This protective impact was found even in people whose brains at autopsy were riddled with toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
“Our work is the first that uses human data to show that synaptic protein regulation is related to physical activity and may drive the beneficial cognitive outcomes we see,” said Kaitlin Casaletto, Ph.D., an assistant professor of Neurology and lead author on the study, which appears in the Jan. 7 issue of Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
The beneficial effects of physical activity on cognition have been shown in mice but have been much harder to demonstrate in people.
Casaletto, a neuropsychologist and member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, worked with William Honer, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia and senior author of the study, to leverage data from the Memory and Aging Project at Rush University in Chicago. That project tracked the late-life physical activity of elderly participants, who also agreed to donate their brains when they died.
“Maintaining the integrity of these connections between neurons may be vital to fending off dementia, since the synapse is really the site where cognition happens,” Casaletto said. “Physical activity — a readily available tool — may help boost this synaptic functioning.”
More proteins mean better nerve signals
Honer and Casaletto found that elderly people who remained active had higher levels of proteins that facilitate the exchange of information between neurons. This result dovetailed with Honer’s earlier finding that people who had more of these proteins in their brains when they died were better able to maintain their cognition late in life.
To their surprise, Honer said, the researchers found that the effects ranged beyond the hippocampus, the brain’s seat of memory, to encompass other brain regions associated with cognitive function.
“It may be that physical activity exerts a global sustaining effect, supporting and stimulating healthy function of proteins that facilitate synaptic transmission throughout the brain,” Honer said.
Synapses safeguard brains showing signs of dementia
The brains of most older adults accumulate amyloid and tau, toxic proteins that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease pathology. Many scientists believe amyloid accumulates first, then tau, causing synapses and neurons to fall apart.
Casaletto previously found that synaptic integrity, whether measured in the spinal fluid of living adults or the brain tissue of autopsied adults, appeared to dampen the relationship between amyloid and tau, and between tau and neurodegeneration.
“In older adults with higher levels of the proteins associated with synaptic integrity, this cascade of neurotoxicity that leads to Alzheimer’s disease appears to be attenuated,” she said. “Taken together, these two studies show the potential importance of maintaining synaptic health to support the brain against Alzheimer’s disease.”
Additional authors on the study include Anna VandeBunte of UCSF. For other authors, please see the study. Funding: This work was supported by NIH grants R01AG17917, K23AG058752, R01AG072475 and UCSF ADRC P30AG062422, as well as the Alzheimer’s Association AARG-20-683875.
Ryan E. Tompkins, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Susan Kocher, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
People living in the western U.S. have been concerned about wildfires for a long time, but the past two years have left many of them fearful and questioning whether any solutions to the fire crisis truly exist.
The Dixie Fire in the Sierra Nevada burned nearly 1 million acres in 2021, including almost the entire community of Greenville, California. Then strong winds near Lake Tahoe sent the Caldor Fire racing toward homes, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people – including one of us. They followed destructive wildfires in 2020 in California, and Colorado and Oregon also saw devastating fires in the past two years.
As foresters who have been working on wildfire andforest restoration issues in the Sierra Nevada for over a quarter of a century, the main lesson we gather from how these fires have burned is that fuels reduction and forest restoration projects are our best tools for mitigating wildfire impacts amid a changing climate, and not nearly enough of them are being done.
A new 10-year plan announced by the U.S. Forest Service in early 2022 aims to change that. It outlines an ambitious strategy, but Congress will now have to follow through with enough funding to carry it out.
The fires spread quickly over vast areas, but both burned less severely in areas with proactive forest restoration and fuels management projects, including near South Lake Tahoe and near Quincy.
Fuels reduction projects include thinning out trees, burning off woody debris and reducing “ladder fuels” like small trees and brush that can allow fire to reach the tree canopy. Forest restoration projects focus on forest structure, density and composition as well as reducing fuels.
These projects create more open forests that are less likely to fuel severe megafires. They also create strategic areas where firefighters can more easily fight future blazes. And because fires burn less intensely in thinned forests, these projects leave more intact forest after a fire for regenerating new trees and sequestering carbon.
A new 10-year plan
The Forest Service’s new 10-year plan sets a goal to treat as much as 50 million additional acres across the West over 10 years, just under 80,000 square miles. For comparison, the Forest Service treats around 2 million to 3 million acres a year now.
The first priorities in the plan are high-risk areas where communities have been threatened by out-of-control fires, including in the Sierra Nevada in California, the eastern side of the Rockies in Colorado and parts of the Pacific Northwest and the Southwest.
The Forest Service already has a “shared stewardship” agreement with California, reached in 2020, aiming to treat 1 million acres annually by 2025. Though, research indicates that current levels of treatment are closer to 30% of that million-acre goal. Remember that 1 million acres is about how much the Dixie Fire burned.
A lingering question is how the 10-year plan will be paid for, considering that it will require a workforce larger than the U.S. has seen in decades.
So far, Congress has approved additional funding through the 2021 infrastructure bill, which included about $655 million a year for fire management for five years. That’s in addition to the Forest Service’s annual funding for this work, which was about $260 million this fiscal year.
But in California alone, a group of scientists, land managers and former government leaders has recommended spending $5 billion a year on proactive management, roughly equivalent to what was spent to suppress fires in the state in 2020. Known as “The Venado Declaration,” this proposal, championed by former Gov. Jerry Brown and former Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott, calls for addressing forest resiliency on every acre and acknowledges that more than just funding is needed. It also discusses building infrastructure and a workforce and reevaluating regulatory barriers.
Four key steps
To manage fires in an era of climate change, when drier, hotter weather creates ideal conditions for burning, experts estimate that the area treated for fuels reduction needs to increase by at least an order of magnitude. We believe government needs to accomplish these four things to succeed:
1) Drastically increase funding and staff for agencies’ fuels reduction projects, as well as outreach, cost-sharing and technical assistance for private forestland owners. The new plan is a good start. Funding more federal and state agency positions would add forest restoration capacity for the long term. The Biden administration’s proposal for a Civilian Climate Corps could also bring in more young workers.
2) Reduce regulations on forest and fuels management efforts for both public and private land. While California and the federal government have made recent strides to streamline regulations, land management agencies need to acknowledge the biggest risk is doing nothing. Agencies need to plan larger restoration projects and drastically cut the time needed to implement them.
3) Invest in communities’ capacity to carry out local forest restoration work by providing long-term support to local organizations that provide outreach, technical assistance and project coordination services. Funding restoration through competitive grants makes development of long-term community capacity challenging at best. The new plan’s inclusion of state, tribal and private lands is an opportunity for partnerships.
4) Provide funds and financial incentives for at-risk communities to retrofit homes to withstand wildfires and reduce fuels around homes, communities and infrastructure.
Amid a changing climate, we will have to learn to coexist with wildfires in the U.S. West. This will require concerted action and a cultural shift in how we view and manage our forests and communities to be resilient.
This is an updated version of an article first published on Oct. 13, 2021.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — In-Home Supportive Services providers are getting some much-deserved help from the state.
The California Department of Social Services, or CDSS, said it is issuing one‑time $500 bonus payments to roughly 550,000 In-Home Supportive Services, or IHSS, providers throughout California.
The payments, which are already being distributed to IHSS providers, recognize these care providers for their critical efforts to help keep IHSS recipients safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IHSS program provides critical care and support to some of California’s most vulnerable residents, allowing them to remain safely in their own homes.
To be eligible, recipients must be over 65 years of age, or disabled, or blind. Disabled children may also be eligible for IHSS.
The California Department of Social Services reported that there are more than 1,800 IHSS providers in Lake County, serving more than 2,150 authorized recipients.
“I’d like to personally thank all IHSS care providers for their continued hard work, which helped protect the health and safety of some of the most vulnerable residents in our state during the pandemic,” said CDSS Director Kim Johnson. “In addition to helping caregivers, we hope these payments help encourage caregivers to continue providing these essential services.”
IHSS providers began receiving their payments automatically on January 20, 2022. Current IHSS providers who provided care to program recipients for a minimum of two months between March 2020 and March 2021 are eligible.
A total of $275 million in federal funds are set to be delivered through this effort. The funds were included in California’s Home and Community-Based Services spending plan.
IHSS providers who receive their regular payments through direct deposit will receive the $500 within 2-3 business days of issuance. It can take up to five to seven business days, or 10 calendar days, for providers who receive paper checks due to mail time.
The IHSS program is considered an alternative to out-of-home care, such as nursing homes or board and care facilities.
The types of services which can be authorized through IHSS are housecleaning, meal preparation, laundry, grocery shopping, and various personal care services.
“These $500 payments mark an important investment in the IHSS workforce who provide these critical services,” Johnson added. “We remain committed to supporting the continued recruitment and retention of California’s IHSS providers.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a brand-new and large group of dogs available for adoption now.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American Staffordshire terrier, Anatolian shepherd, Great Pyrenees, husky, Labrador retriever, mastiff, Rhodesian ridgeback, Shar-Pei, shepherd and pit bull.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control website not listed are still “on hold”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Male shepherd mix
This 2-year-old male shepherd mix has a medium-length black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-2467.
‘Iris’
“Iris” is a 3-year-old American Staffordshire terrier with a short black coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-1727.
Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-2473.
Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-2462.
Male pit bull
This 3-year-old male pit bull has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-2429.
Male pit bull-mastiff
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix has a short gray coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-2468.
‘Nova’
“Nova” is an 8-year-old female yellow Labrador retriever with a short coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-2509.
Male pit bull
This 6-year-old male pit bull terrier has a brown brindle coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-2471.
‘Nioki’
“Nioki” is a 1-year-old female shepherd with a black coat.
She is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-2442.
Male husky mix
This 2-year-old male husky mix has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-2512.
Female Shar-Pei-Rhodesian ridgeback mix
This 2-year-old female Shar-Pei-Rhodesian ridgeback mix has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-2560.
Anatolian shepherd mix
This 2-year-old female Anatolian shepherd mix has a short tan coat with black markings.
She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-2535.
Anatolian shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix
This 2-year-old male Anatolian shepherd-Great Pyrenees mix has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-2536.
Labrador-pit bull mix puppy
This male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix puppy has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 31b, ID No. LCAC-A-2521.
Labrador-pit bull mix puppy
This male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix puppy has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 31c, ID No. LCAC-A-2523.
‘Coal’
“Coal” is a male Labrador retriever-pit bull mix puppy with a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-2472.
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.
Some assets belong inside of one’s living trust and other assets do not. It is important to know the difference.
The primary purposes of a living trust are to avoid probate and to distribute assets according to one’s wishes in the most cost and time effective manner.
Assets normally titled inside of one’s living trust include real property, investment and bank accounts — other than one’s day to day checking account. Doing so may avoid a probate becoming necessary if the combined gross value of all such assets were to exceed the $166,250 threshold at which a probate is required.
Generally speaking, administering an estate owned inside of a decedent’s living trust is less expensive, time consuming and aggravating than administering the same estate inside a probate, i.e., when the assets are owned personally in the decedent’s name. While trusts require administration after the settlor (owner) dies the total expense of administration is usually less with a trust administration.
Other assets remain outside of the living trust. That is, retirement accounts – e.g., Individual Retirement Accounts (“IRA’s”), 401k defined contribution plans, and pensions – are not transferable into a trust while the account holder is alive.
These assets pass according to death beneficiary designation forms. Typically a participant will name his or her spouse as the primary death beneficiary and the participant’s children as the alternative death beneficiaries.
The surviving spouse is able to roll over the retirement plan into his or her own IRA as though the surviving spouse had funded the rollover IRA with his or her own contributed earnings. The alternative beneficiaries are typically the children.
A trust, however, if it meets certain income tax requirements, can be named as the death beneficiary to retirement accounts.
A trust might be named to receive and distribute a decedent’s retirement monies at death to beneficiaries for various reasons, such as the beneficiaries are minors, receive special needs benefits, have creditor problems, etc. In addition, a trust allows for more contingency planning.
Annuities and life insurance policies can either name individuals or a trust as death beneficiary to receive the proceeds on the death of the insured.
With a married couple, the insurance may name the spouse or the couple’s trust as the primary death beneficiary. If the trust receives the money it reduces the risk of a possible probate if the surviving spouse does not put the money into the trust.
Joint tenancy assets, pay on death, or POD, and transfer on death, or TOD, financial accounts also avoid probate. Unlike trusts they do not require administration for the death beneficiary to inherit. These assets are collected using certified death certificates and associated legal paperwork that varies with the asset.
Trust or probate administration each involve notification to the deceased settlor’s surviving heirs and death beneficiaries of the estate. The notice informs these persons of their right to dispute the trust or will.
Assets that pass automatically to surviving beneficiaries or surviving joint tenants, however, require no notices and thus are less likely to be contested.
It is advisable to have some amount of money in a POD or joint account readily available outside of a trust or probate administration to cover immediate financial needs pending a trust or probate administration.
Even use of the small estate affidavit procedure – applicable when the decedent’s estate is under $166,250 (2022) — still requires that 40 days pass from the date of the owner’s death before the claimant presents the affidavit to obtain assets, such as bank accounts.
The foregoing is not legal advice. Consult an attorney if you are confronting these issues.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.
The California Legislature’s only Native American member introduced new legislation on Wednesday to develop history teaching materials informed by tribal perspectives and knowledge.
AB 1703 by Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-Highland) proposes to foster and encourage local schools to partner with tribes located or historically located in their region with the aim of developing accurate, high quality curriculum and classroom materials.
California is home to 110 federally recognized tribes, with more than 80 other tribes reported to be seeking that same level of recognition, the state reported.
Lake County is home to seven tribes.
“I authored AB 1703 because it’s critical that we teach all students about the diversity of California’s more than 100 tribes,” Ramos said. “They each have different languages, customs, culture and history. To teach students we need partnerships and collaboration between the tribes in a community and their schools. Without that interaction, we cannot develop the more complete and high quality curriculum we seek, and we will continue to see incidents like that involving the Riverside math teacher.”
Ramos said support for revamping the state’s Native American social science curriculum has drawn backing from the California Department of Education as well as more than 600 individuals and 28 organizations.
In addition to encouraging local engagement between tribes and schools, AB 1703 would require that local districts identify the extent of the achievement gap between Native American students and their non-Native peers and strategies to close them. The findings would be submitted to the Assembly and Senate Education committees.
“It’s past time for California to support Native American communities by building a strong foundation: teaching local California Native American history in our schools in a factual and respectful manner and ensuring that local tribes are consulted in developing that instruction,” said Joey Williams, director of organizing for the California Native Vote Project. “These are the building blocks toward increasing knowledge of California’s beginnings and the culture and history of the state’s First People.”
Ramos is the first and only California Native American serving in the California Legislature. He represents the 40th Assembly district which includes Highland, Loma Linda, Mentone, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and San Bernardino.