LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has new dogs available to adopters this week.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, heeler, pit bull and Rottweiler.
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 Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Bruce’
“Bruce” is a male pit bull terrier with a gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 3, ID No. 14346.
‘Little Lady’
“Little Lady” is a young female heeler-German Shepherd mix with a medium-length black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. 14341.
‘Little Rose’
“Little Rose” is a young female heeler-German Shepherd mix with a medium-length black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 6b, ID No. 14342.
Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short brindle and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. 14339.
Male border collie
This male border collie has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 14331.
Female pit bull terrier
This female pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
She’s in kennel No. 10, ID No. 14330.
Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. 14338.
‘Sargent Chunk’
“Sargent Chunk” is a young male Rottweiler with a short red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14303.
Female Chihuahua
This senior female Chihuahua has a short liver-colored coat.
She is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 14324.
‘Jack’
“Jack” is a young male Rottweiler with a short black and red coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. 14328.
Male Belgian Malinois
This young male Belgian Malinois has a medium-length red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 14269.
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.
Tinglong Dai, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
The federal government had envisioned states using one national vaccine scheduling system, and it offered a contractor US$44 million to develop it. But that system turned out to be so poorly designed that all but nine states opted out before even trying to adopt it, even though it was being offered by the government for free.
As troubled as the VAMS website may be, it is also a predictable result. We’ve seen this movie before.
HealthCare.gov, the federal healthcare exchange website that was launched to implement the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion. When HealthCare.gov was launched on Oct. 1, 2013, only six people were able to sign up for health care on the first day. The Obama administration ended up having to enlist a team of engineers from Google, Amazon and Facebook to fix it.
The U.S. is among the most technologically advanced nations in the world, with some of the most powerful technology giants and the largest talent pool. So, why has the federal government repeatedly failed to deliver a functioning website essential to public health?
As an expert in health care operations management and contracting, I believe the complex federal contracting process bears much of the blame. The Biden administration has the power to fix it.
Three big problems with federal contracting
The U.S. government is the largest buyer on Earth. It spends more than half a trillion dollars a year procuring a wide range of goods and services from the private sector.
While private buyers may have their own rules governing purchasing, the U.S. government has to follow a set of procurement regulations. These regulations are known as the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or FAR, and they have been in place since 1983. The rules dictate all aspects of the federal purchasing process, including the contracting process for building websites such as HealthCare.gov and VAMS.
The Federal Acquisition Regulations were created to uphold the federal government and taxpayers’ interests through a uniform set of rules. Despite its good intention, this process has three key problems.
First, with thousands of clauses that are difficult to navigate, the Federal Acquisition Regulations have created a complicated and time-consuming contracting process, and many of those clauses are nearly impossible to implement in practice. That restricts the government to using a small group of vendors who are experienced in the game of contracting but are not necessarily the best choices for delivering products.
When the government announced the HealthCare.gov project, the tech giants that were eventually called in to fix it did not even participate in the bidding process, because the process favors past vendors such as CGI Federal, which specialized in federal contracting.
Second, in many cases, the complicated nature of the rules enables vendors to be selected without competition. In choosing a vendor for developing VAMS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that Deloitte was the only contractor that met the project requirements. The reason: The CDC believed VAMS required GovConnect, which is Deloitte’s propriety platform. The GovConnect platform was launched in June 2020 and has had some problems. It is not clear why a vaccine rollout platform had to be built on GovConnect.
Third, the contracting process discourages communications and interactions between vendors and contracting officers. For websites like HealthCare.gov and VAMS that have many stakeholders, the needs of those stakeholders typically evolve during the development process. Companies such as Google, Amazon and Facebook use an “agile” method designed for changes during development. The current federal acquisition process naturally supports a traditional “waterfall” model that largely specifies all requirements at the beginning and allows little room for change.
Fixing the federal contracting process
How can the federal contracting process be fixed? Repealing the Federal Acquisition Regulations would likely cause chaos, but fixing it is doable. The executive branch of the U.S. government can modify the Federal Acquisition Regulations on its own, so it is up to the Biden administration to make changes.
Next, the federal contracting process must value results, not only the process itself or the vendors’ history of winning federal contracts. Deloitte and CGI Federal both continue to win federal contracts worth billions of dollars despite past failures.
VAMS has sparked far less public outcry than HealthCare.gov, but its failure is no less consequential, because a rapid vaccine rollout is the key to ending the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Deloitte spokesman Austin Price told Bloomberg News the company “continues to enhance the system based on feedback and priorities of VAMS users.”
The Obama administration started some reforms of the federal contracting system, particularly moving it away from the “waterfall” approach to allow more changes during development. The Biden administration could continue that work as it rethinks the tangle of federal contracting rules.
Unless it fixes the outdated federal contracting process, the U.S. will almost certainly repeat the same disaster again and again.
This appointment was confirmed by a vote of the full committee on Thursday.
“It’s my honor to be again named by my colleagues to lead the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee on the Ways and Means Committee in the 117th Congress. This subcommittee has the power to help ensure everyone has a shot at success and fair and equitable taxation will be a high priority for us once again. This appointment allowed me to help steer many of the critical Coronavirus relief programs last year. I will be working with this Congress to ensure we deliver strong and sweeping aid to the American people to help combat this crisis,” Thompson said.
“I will also be working on measures to provide relief for communities like mine that were devastated by disaster in recent years,” he said. “And I will continue working to use the tax code to promote clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is an existential threat and we need to use every tool we can to combat it. Thank you to Chairman Neal and my colleagues for this vote of confidence. Please know I will do everything to ensure our district and our nation can get ahead.”
Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
NASA and three international partners have signed a statement of intent to advance a possible robotic Mars ice mapping mission, which could help identify abundant, accessible ice for future candidate landing sites on the red planet.
The agencies have agreed to establish a joint concept team to assess mission potential, as well as partnership opportunities.
Under the statement, NASA, the Italian Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency announced their intention to develop a mission plan and define their potential roles and responsibilities. If the concept moves forward, the mission could be ready to launch as early as 2026.
The international Mars Ice Mapper mission would detect the location, depth, spatial extent, and abundance of near-surface ice deposits, which would enable the science community to interpret a more detailed volatile history of Mars.
The radar-carrying orbiter would also help identify properties of the dust, loose rocky material – known as regolith – and rock layers that might impact the ability to access ice.
The ice-mapping mission could help the agency identify potential science objectives for initial human missions to Mars, which are expected to be designed for about 30 days of exploration on the surface.
For example, identifying and characterizing accessible water ice could lead to human-tended science, such as ice coring to support the search for life.
Mars Ice Mapper also could provide a map of water-ice resources for later human missions with longer surface expeditions, as well as help meet exploration engineering constraints, such as avoidance of rock and terrain hazards.
Mapping shallow water ice could also support supplemental high-value science objectives related to Martian climatology and geology.
“This innovative partnership model for Mars Ice Mapper combines our global experience and allows for cost sharing across the board to make this mission more feasible for all interested parties,” said Jim Watzin, NASA’s senior advisor for agency architectures and mission alignment. “Human and robotic exploration go hand in hand, with the latter helping pave the way for smarter, safer human missions farther into the solar system. Together, we can help prepare humanity for our next giant leap – the first human mission to Mars.”
As the mission concept evolves, there may be opportunities for other space agency and commercial partners to join the mission.
Beyond promoting scientific observations while the orbiter completes its reconnaissance work, the agency partners will explore mission-enabling rideshare opportunities as part of their next phase of study. All science data from the mission would be made available to the international science community for both planetary science and Mars reconnaissance.
This approach is similar to what NASA is doing at the Moon under the Artemis program – sending astronauts to the lunar South Pole, where ice is trapped in the permanently shadowed regions of the pole.
Access to water ice would also be central to scientific investigations on the surface of Mars that are led by future human explorers. Such explorers may one day core, sample, and analyze the ice to better understand the record of climatic and geologic change on Mars and its astrobiological potential, which could be revealed through signs of preserved ancient microbial life or even the possibility of living organisms, if Mars ever harbored life.
Ice is also a critical natural resource that could eventually supply hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. These elements could also provide resources for backup life support, civil engineering, mining, manufacturing, and, eventually, agriculture on Mars. Transporting water from Earth to deep space is extremely costly, so a local resource is essential to sustainable surface exploration.
“In addition to supporting plans for future human missions to Mars, learning more about subsurface ice will bring significant opportunities for scientific discovery,” said Eric Ianson, NASA Planetary Science Division deputy director and Mars Exploration Program Director. “Mapping near-surface water ice would reveal an as-yet hidden part of the Martian hydrosphere and the layering above it, which can help uncover the history of environmental change on Mars and lead to our ability to answer fundamental questions about whether Mars was ever home to microbial life or still might be today.”
The red planet is providing a great research return for robotic exploration and the search for ancient life in our solar system. This latest news comes ahead of the agency’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars, which is scheduled to take place on Feb. 18, following a seven-month journey in space. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) also recently announced they are moving forward with the Mars Sample Return mission.
What's Up for February? This month we follow the moon to three different points of interest in the winter sky.
First up, excitement about the red planet is building as NASA prepares to land its latest rover there, called Perseverance, on Feb. 18.
You'll find Mars high in the west after sunset all month long. It should be visible all evening, setting around, or soon after, midnight local time.
On the night of NASA's planned Mars landing, you'll find the half-full moon right next to the red planet. So go out and have a look with your own eyes – especially if you were one of the nearly 11 million people whose names traveled to Mars with Perseverance, etched into one of three microchips.
Staying with the moon in February, it next drifts through part of the sky that contains a familiar pattern of stars, also called an asterism. This is the Winter Circle, or Winter Hexagon – a ring of six bright stars that spans a very wide region of the sky.
The Winter Circle contains two other special groupings of stars: the constellation Orion, and another wintertime asterism, the Winter Triangle, made of the bright stars Sirius, Betelgeuse and Procyon.
Like their counterpart, the Summer Triangle, the Winter Circle and Winter Triangle are signposts of the season.
In the Northern Hemisphere, you'll see them rising in the east early in the evening during the time of long, cold nights, and setting in the west earlier and earlier as the season turns to spring.
Watch on Feb. 20 through 22, as the moon moves across the Winter Circle, growing a bit fuller each evening.
Finally, the moon continues on its journey, visiting the twins of Gemini. Unlike asterisms, Gemini is one of the 88 official constellations used by astronomers to help them describe the locations of objects in the sky. The two bright stars Castor and Pollux form the heads of the inseparable twins from Roman and Greek mythology for which the constellation is named.
On February evenings, Gemini is located high overhead in the south. On Feb. 23 the moon is just below Pollux.
NASA also has a history with Gemini, as it was the name of the human spaceflight program in the 1960s that tested technology and capabilities in preparation for the Apollo missions to the moon.
But while the constellation is pronounced "JEM-in-eye," not everyone knows the name of the NASA program was usually pronounced "JEM-ih-knee" within the space agency.
However you want to pronounce it is fine. Just make sure you go out and catch the moon's visit with Gemini on Feb. 23.
You can catch up on all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at www.nasa.gov.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control has shepherds, pit bulls and a boxer among the dogs it’s offering for adoption this week.
The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.
‘Mommas’
“Mommas” is a female American Pit Bull terrier mix with a white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 4499.
‘Yule’
“Yule” is a male husky with a black and white coat.
Yule is dog No. 4432.
‘Toby’
“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.
He has a short tan and white coat.
He is dog No. 4389.
‘Rudolph’
“Rudolph” is a male shepherd mix.
He has a short tan and black coat.
He is dog No. 4436.
‘Jerry’
“Jerry” is a male American Pit Bull terrier with a short brindle coat.
He is dog No. 4455.
‘Inky’
“Inky” is a male German Shepherd mix with a long black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 4324.
‘Breeze’
“Breeze” is a female American Pit Bull Terrier mix.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 4445.
‘Ben’
“Ben” is a male American Pit Bull terrier mix.
He has a short brindle coat.
He is dog No. 4454.
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.
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.
Emmy Award-winning documentarian Beverly Lindsay-Johnson is the director/producer of the new film on Soul/Rhythm & Blues legend Billy Stewart.
Stewart, to the uninitiated, was the ebullient, rotund, piano-playing crooner from Washington, D.C., whose highly original style of singing has not been replicated before or since. One writer described Stewart’s vocal stylings as the R&B equivalent of scat singing.
His take on two songs in particular; Gershwin’s “Summertime,” and “Secret Love,” made famous by Doris Day, altered the auditory receptors of American musical taste. William Larry Stewart rose to prominence through his association with Rock & Roll Daddy Bo Diddley. When Diddley rolled through D.C., the young Stewart’s piano playing amazed him so much, he hired him on the spot, spirited him away to Chicago, where Stewart signed a recording contract with Chess Records. It was 1956. Billy Stewart was still a teenager. Daddy Diddley played guitar on one of Billy’s first recordings, “Billy’s Blues.”
Six years would elapse before the hits began piling up. In 1962, the self-penned composition, “Reap What You Sow,” cracked the top 20 R&B chart. A second original piece, “Strange Feeling,” settled at No. 25 on the R&B chart. By 1965, Stewart was stretching into full flow with the two Top R&B 10 hits, “I Do Love You,” and “Sitting In The Park.” Those two songs both crossed over to the Top 40 Pop charts.
The biggest hit of his career was a retooling of the classic tune by George Gershwin, “Summertime.” It was released in 1966 on an album recorded in the wake of his 1965 hits and titled Unbelievable. “Summertime reached #10 on the Pop charts and No. 7 R&B.
His cover of “Secret Love” also fared well, landing at No. 11 on the R&B charts and No. 29 Pop. As a niche performer Billy Stewart is also a favored music component of Latinx Lowrider culture to this day.
Fat Boy screenings have been few in number and limited to the Washington, D.C. market, the hometown of Billy Stewart. It is slated for its (Bay Area) West Coast premiere on PBS affiliate KQED on Thursday, Feb. 18, at 11 p.m. It repeats on Friday, Feb. 19, at 5 a.m. and again on Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 3 p.m.
The filmmaker Beverly Lindsay-Johnson, in the wake of her success of Fat Boy, has been named director of the African American Music Association and took office on Jan. 4.
Hard work and dedication were the earmarks of her arduous climb. Lake County News asked about her dual proclivity for music and film.
“I’ve always been a music person as well as a TV and movie watcher,” she said. “I watched all the black and white stuff as a little girl. At 8, 9 and 10 years old, I was watching movies I knew I shouldn’t have been watching and asking myself, why is it this way?
“There were also books that I tried to read although I wasn’t supposed to be reading them. Then, when I found the movie that came from the book, I would try to see if the questions I had when I was reading the book, were answered. “
Lindsay-Johnson grew up in the Bronx, New York. Her father was an up-and-coming Doo-Wop singer, Bill Lindsay who sang with the popular Doo-Wop groups, the Cadillacs, and the Crickets. The young Beverly attended rehearsals and heard whispered conversations about Billie Holiday. She saw her dad cry when he learned of the death of Frankie Lymon of the group, The Teenagers.
Upon graduation from high school in New York, Lindsay-Johnson pursued a degree in legal secretary science and worked in that field until she decided that she didn’t like lawyers. She launched into television production classes at Hunter College in New York.
By a seeming stroke of divine appointment, the soon-to-be aspiring filmmaker landed a job at the Howard University Dental School which enabled her to start taking classes at the School of Communication.
She eventually secured a job at WHUT, Howard University Television, as a secretary. For six years she absorbed all she could about television production.
Though she told her employer her heart was in production and pitched him the same idea three times before he finally told her, “OK, you can do it.” The resulting documentary was entitled, “Swing, Bop, and Hand Dance.”
Lindsay-Johnson says the film “is a study of the phenomenon of urban partner dancing across the U.S. and its importance to African-American culture through its descendant, the Lindy Hop. People who do these urban partner dances don’t look at Lindy Hop, Jitterbug and Swing as descendants of their dance, but it is.”
“Swing, Bop, and Hand Dance” was made while Lindsay-Johnson worked as a secretary during the day. Consequently, all the shooting was done at night.
“When I produced that documentary, I was told that I needed to find something in it that would interest someone in say, Boise, Idaho. That was the whole connection with the Lindy Hop because though everybody might not know DC Hand Dancing, or Chicago Step or Philly Bop, or Norfolk Swing. But they know the Lindy Hop. The Lindy Hop dance craze gripped the whole nation from the 1930s to the 1950s,” she said.
“It was my first documentary, and nobody was saying no to me. Everyone was saying, ‘Yes, we’ll help you.’ When I finished it, my peers at the TV station didn’t believe I did it. They were like, You mean to tell me she did this? As it turned out, it was my first Emmy nomination.
“What challenged me to do my second documentary was the fact that I realized I had no ownership in the first documentary. I had the title of producer/director but no ownership at all. I vowed that it would never happen again,” she said.
Lindsay-Johnson’s next documentary was about the D.C. teen dance show known as “Teenarama.” It was the first African-American TV dance show, preceding Soul Train by a good eight years, running from 1963 to 1970, which was the year Soul Train started.
Unfortunately, no original footage of the show remained. Resourcefully, Lindsay-Johnson’s production team auditioned and trained teenaged dancers from today to execute the Boogaloo, Monkey, Twist, Jerk, Cha Cha, Bop and Hand Dance. The film’s effective historical reach garnered an Emmy for Lindsay-Johnson in 2006.
While researching “Teenarama,” Lindsay-Johnson was invited to work on a project that involved two popular Washington, D.C. entertainers: Billy Stewart and Van McCoy. A few years later the filmmaker sought out a grant program with assistance from the African-American Music Association.
Lindsay-Johnson’s resourcefulness again surfaced when she recognized that the known video archives for Billy Stewart were painfully thin.
“Through one of his cousins, I found out that his father had shot a lot of family footage on a 16 mm Kodak camera back in the 60s,” reflected Lindsay-Johnson. The family archive became the backbone of the documentary.
Skillfully woven in are interviews with many stars of R&B and Doo-Wop who witnessed the artistry of Stewart; Anthony Gourdine of Little Anthony and The Imperials, Herb Fame, of Peaches & Herb, Mitty Collier (“I Had A Talk With My Man Last Night”), The Bay Area’s Own – Queen of the West Coast Blues Sugar Pie DeSanto, (DeSanto wrote a song for Billy Stewart during her seven-year tenure with Chess), Grace Ruffin of the Jewells, Music Journalist Mike Boone, and Emanuel Raheim of the Disco/R&B group GQ.
The resulting marriage of the filmmaker’s vision of the preservation of yet another epoch of Black expression is richly deserving of the international acclaim PBS is affording this documentary.
Check it out. You should be home when it airs.
Editor’s note: In a previous version of this story, Beverly Lindsay-Johnson’s father’s name was incorrect. It is Bill Lindsay. We regret the error.
T. Watts is a music journalist who lives in Lake County, California.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – An early Friday morning crash on Highway 20 in Mendocino County left one driver dead and another injured.
The wreck occurred at 6:50 a.m. on Highway 20 near Marina Drive east of Ukiah, according to the California Highway Patrol’s Friday morning report.
The CHP said a 56-year-old Potter Valley man died in the wreck, with a 23-year-old Clearlake Oaks man injured.
The names of the two drivers were not released in the Friday report.
The CHP said that the Potter Valley man was driving a 2006 Toyota westbound on Highway 20 just west of Marina Drive at an unknown speed while the Clearlake Oaks man was driving a 2014 Peterbilt towing a 2018 Landoll trailer eastbound at a stated speed of 55 miles per hour.
For an unknown reason, the CHP said the Toyota traveled in a southwesterly direction over the solid double yellow lines and collided with the left side of the Peterbilt.
After hitting the Peterbilt, the CHP report said the Toyota continued in a westerly direction. The front of the Toyota then hit the left side of the Landoll trailer and continued on, side-swiping the trailer’s left side.
Following the crash with the semi and trailer, the Toyota traveled, out of control, in a southerly direction over the south solid white line of Highway 20 and down the hillside, south of the highway, the report said.
The CHP said the Toyota came to rest on the south descending hillside of Highway 20.
The Toyota’s driver sustained fatal injuries as a result of the crash, the CHP said. The Peterbilt’s driver sustained moderate injuries.
Traffic control was in effect for about two hours at the crash scene, according to CHP reports.
The CHP said both men were wearing their seat belts.
The cause of the collision is still under investigation, with the CHP reporting that neither drugs nor alcohol are believed to be factors.
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.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Mendocino County woman who last year was convicted of shooting her German Shepherd is potentially facing new charges after she was found in possession of chickens, which violates her probation.
Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster said Thursday that law enforcement officers conducted a search that morning of the Caspar residence of probationer Katie Rhiannon Smith, 35.
In December, Smith was sentenced for the December 2019 shooting of “Thunder the Wonder Dog: The Cone Dog from the Woods,” who was found days later wounded and wandering in Jackson State Forest in Mendocino County and rescued by two horseback riders.
In October, Smith pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty.
During Smith’s December sentencing, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Clayton Brennan reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, placed her on unsupervised probation for 36 months, suspended jail time, declined to order her to reimburse the county for her legal expenses, ordered her to complete 500 hours of community service and denied the prosecution’s request that Smith be prohibited from owning or possessing animals during the term of her probation.
She was, however, ordered to submit to probation searches and to attend counseling so she can avoid committing animal cruelty in the future.
Eyster decried Brennan’s ruling and is seeking appellate review. Last month he sought to disqualify Brennan from animal cruelty and firearm cases, as Lake County News has reported.
On Thursday, Eyster said a search of Smith’s property found she was residing in possession of six chickens, a violation of state law that prohibits people convicted of animal cruelty from possessing animals.
He said a dog Smith claimed to own in December was not located during search of the property.
The chickens were seized pursuant to the warrant and have been placed in the protective custody of Mendocino County Animal Control, Eyster said.
California’s law mandates that a defendant convicted of animal cruelty as a misdemeanor shall not, “within five years after her conviction, own, possess, maintain, have custody of, reside with, or care for any animal.” To do so is a public offense punishable by up to a $1,000 fine, Eyster said.
Eyster referred to Brennan's December order that Smith serve 360 days in the county jail. He then suspended that time on the condition that Smith “obey all laws.”
Subject to the standard charging review by the district attorney, Eyster said it is believed that the six animals found Thursday residing at her home constitute a failure by Smith to obey all laws.
Once he receives and completes a review of all the reports from today’s search, Eyster said he will make a charging decision on whether to file one or more new charges against Smith, file a petition seeking violation of Smith’s informal probation, or both.
When asked to comment about today’s enforcement action, Eyster said, “If I conclude that the evidence summarized in those reports supports the filing of a new case, it should be no surprise to anyone that I will have that new case filed in Ukiah versus having it filed in Judge Brennan’s courtroom in Fort Bragg.”
He added, “Further, if I conclude that the animals found today constitute a failure by the defendant to obey all laws, specifically a failure by her to obey the statutory prohibition that she cannot be around animals, we will initiate proceedings to violate her probation.
“If and when that happens, the community at large should watch and see if Judge Brennan stays true to his December words that a violation of probation will result in the defendant having to serve the 360-day jail sentence that he suspended,” Eyster said.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Monday, Feb. 8, Supervisors Bruno Sabatier and Eddie Crandell, representatives from the county of Lake, cities of Clearlake and Lakeport, and other business community stakeholders will again convene the Lake County Small Business COVID-19 Recovery Team.
The meeting will begin at 1 p.m.
To participate in Monday’s meeting, join Zoom at this link. The meeting ID is 989 0155 5727, the passcode is 450800. The meeting also can be joined by one tap mobile: +16699006833,,98901555727#,,,,*450800# US (San Jose).
Positioning Lake County businesses to take advantage of COVID-19 relief funding opportunities has been a matter of significant community priority, as well as taking proactive steps to advocate for further support for local businesses, when gaps or inequities are identified.
Monday’s agenda will include discussion of the federal stimulus package, and consideration/approval of a letter to the state to advocate for the unique needs of Lake County’s small businesses.
Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. is also the deadline to apply for the second round of the California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, which offers grants of up to $25,000 for eligible businesses with annual revenues of $2.5 million or less.
The Rural Relief Small Business Grant Program, a partnership between LISC and Lowes, is currently between funding rounds, but you can get information and sign up for updates on future opportunities here.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday voted unanimously to pursue a lease agreement that will allow the city to clean up land around Clearlake’s main shopping center that in recent years has been the scene of numerous fires and abatement issues.
City Manager Alan Flora took to the council the proposal to lease the 30.8 acres owned by RM Clearlake LLC at 15900, 15910, 15920 and 15970 Dam Road for a $1 a year in a lease with an initial term of two years.
The properties are next to the shopping center on Dam Road where Walmart, Tractor Supply and Big 5 are located.
Flora said RM Clearlake LLC originally had purchased the land to develop it as the second phase of the Walmart development, but changes in the economy ended those plans.
He said the land hasn’t had a lot of maintenance and over time there have been homeless camps, illegal dumping and fires – about a dozen of them.
There have been a number of efforts over the years to try to do something about the situation, and Flora said the property owners have expressed interest in donating the property to the city.
However, as the city has researched the property, Flora said they’ve come across title issues.
For that reason, Flora said he couldn’t recommend the city moving forward with a donation at this time.
However, due to the danger and blight that have been associated with the property, Flora said the city needed to step in and take a more active involvement.
He said the proposed lease would allow for Cal Fire to be a partner in cleaning up the land.
“Their regulations make it extremely difficult to do fire mitigation work on private property,” Flora said of Cal Fire.
However, there are ways around that. “Things are streamlined significantly if it’s considered to be public ownership and this lease would accomplish that goal,” Flora said.
He said the city has negotiated the agreement for some time and what he was presenting offered a way to protect the city's interest while moving forward.
In addition to the lease, which already was signed by RM Clearlake’s owners, Flora said there were documents necessary to execute for Cal Fire to start fire mitigation efforts.
Councilman Russ Cremer moved to approve the lease agreement, which the council approved 5-0.
Mayor Dirk Slooten said it’s important to do some fire prevention work in that area.
Flora told Lake County News after the meeting that he’s not sure of the timing for when Cal Fire will begin the fire mitigation work on the property, but it’s expected to start in the spring.
“Now that the lease is final we can move forward. Cal Fire really wants to see this cleaned up so they appear to be motivated to move forward as quickly as the paperwork can be processed and weather permits,” he said.
Flora added that the property is very rocky and hilly so he’s not completely sure they can remove all of the brush that covers the property, “but the intent is to remove as much as possible.”
Also on Thursday, the council observed a moment of silence for Marcia Felty Taylor, a former animal control staffer who died following a long battle with cancer on Jan. 29. Taylor was a tireless animal advocate and worked hard on behalf of animals in the city and the county.
Slooten read a proclamation declaring February as Black History Month in the city and the council received the annual Clearlake Police Department from Chief Andrew White.
The council also held a public hearing as part of the process of planning its application for funds through the Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CDBG-CV2 and CV3, program.
The city is eligible to apply for and potentially receive nearly $445,000, which staff proposed using to make upgrades to the kitchen at the Clearlake senior center. The council voted unanimously to pursue the funds and use them, as staff suggested, for senior center kitchen improvements.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Football fans may have to come up with a new game plan for this year’s Super Bowl festivities, but the California Highway Patrol still reminds everyone to put safety first.
California’s public health recommendations encourage residents to gather outdoors and with no more than three households.
In addition, Californians should stay close to home and limit non-essential travel to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
If you must travel, the CHP wants to remind you of some important traffic safety tips to help you arrive safely: drive sober, avoid distractions, always buckle up and leave plenty of time to get to your destination.
“The Super Bowl is one of the most celebrated sporting events of the year, and I am encouraging Californians to celebrate responsibly,” CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray said. “If you choose to drink, do not get behind the wheel. Designate a sober driver.”
CHP officers will be on high alert for impaired drivers this weekend. Alcohol is not the only substance that can lead to an arrest for driving under the influence. Cannabis, prescription medications and illegal drugs can all impair your ability to drive.
According to preliminary data from the CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, four people died in alcohol-involved collisions in California on Super Bowl Sunday in 2020, and 120 people were injured. In addition, the CHP made more than 300 DUI arrests that day.
The public can help keep California roadways safe by calling 9-1-1 if they suspect an impaired driver. Callers should be prepared to give the vehicle’s description, location, license plate number and direction of travel.