MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Area Town Hall will meet this week and hear reports from local officials.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 8, in the Middletown Community Meeting Room/Library at 21256 Washington St., Middletown. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the meeting via Zoom click on this link; the meeting ID is 659 964 1209. Call in at 669-900-6833.
At 7:05 p.m., Chief Paul Duncan of Cal Fire is scheduled to speak, followed by Pacific Gas and Electric representative Melinda Rivera.
At 8:05 p.m., Supervisor Moke Simon is scheduled to give his monthly report.
The MATH Board includes Chair Monica Rosenthal, Vice Chair Ken Gonzalez, Secretary Todd Fiora, Rosemary Córdova and Bill Waite.
MATH — established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 — is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
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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 Lakeport City Council will consider taking action to fill the seat of the departing mayor pro tem and hold the first reading for a zone change ordinance for a new housing project.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
Last week, Mayor Pro Tem Mireya Turner accepted the job of Lake County Community Development director on a permanent basis, as Lake County News has reported.
On the same day, Aug. 30, Turner immediately resigned her position on the Lakeport City Council after two terms.
On Tuesday, the council will be asked to direct City Clerk/Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia to solicit applications to fill Turner’s seat and to work with Mayor Stacey Mattina to set a date and time for interviews at either a regular or special meeting.
At the same time, the council will be asked to nominate and elect a new mayor pro tem.
On Tuesday, the council is set to hold a public hearing for staff to introduce approval of entitlements related to the Parkside Residential Project, proposed by Waterstone Residential.
The newest plans for the property includes 128 new apartment units and 48 cluster homes on the 15-acre site at 1310 Craig Ave.
Staff will introduce the project’s general plan amendment, zoning code amendment and approval of a mitigated negative declaration under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The council will hold the first reading of the zone change ordinance and schedule a public hearing for a second reading of the ordinance for Sept. 20.
The Lakeport Planning Commission considered the project at its Aug. 10 meeting and is recommending the council approve it.
In other business on Tuesday, the council will receive a presentation about the second phase of a feasibility study on a recreation center, will discuss the revised commercial lease agreement with the Lakeport Yacht Club for use of the facility located at 15 Fifth St., and consider approving the associated purchase agreement for the procurement of a 2023 John Deere 310 SL backhoe.
On the consent agenda — items usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the special and regular meetings on Aug. 16; adoption of a resolution authorizing continued remote teleconference meetings of the Lakeport City Council and its legislative bodies pursuant to Government Code section 54953(e); approval of event application 2022-021, with staff recommendations, for the 2022 Climb Out of the Darkness event; approval of event application 2022-024, with staff recommendations, for the Lore of the Lake event; authorize the city manager to submit city of Lakeport responses to the 2021-2022 Lake County Civil Grand Jury 2021-2022 Final Report to the Lake County Superior Court; and conduct a second reading and adopt the ordinance amending section 17.52.040 of Title 17 of the Lakeport Municipal Code regarding the text of the Sign Ordinance.
The council also will hold a closed session for labor negotiations with the Lakeport Police Officers’ Association.
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.
September is National Wilderness Month, a time to put special focus on the United States’ amazing natural resources.
From Wilderness Connect, Learn About Wilderness, Fast Facts:
The Beginnings of the National Wilderness Preservation System
“When the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, 54 areas (9.1 million acres) in 13 states were designated as wilderness. This law established these areas as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Since 1964, the NWPS has grown almost every year and now includes 803 areas (111,706,287) in 44 states and Puerto Rico. In 1980, the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) added over 56 million acres of wilderness to the system, the largest addition in a single year. 1984 marks the year when the most new wilderness areas were added.
“Overall, however, only about 5% of the entire United States—an area slightly larger than the state of California—is protected as wilderness. Because Alaska contains just over half of America's wilderness, only about 2.7% of the contiguous United States—an area about the size of Minnesota—is protected as wilderness.”
From The American Presidency Project, Proclamation 10248—National Wilderness Month, 2021:
“During National Wilderness Month, we affirm that our Nation's public lands and waters must be accessible to all Americans, we recognize that our lands and waters can revitalize the soul and solidify our respect for the natural wonders that surround us and the earth we share, and we recommit to their preservation and protection, today and for future generations.
“The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, opened a new chapter in American conservation by creating the National Wilderness Preservation System. The primary goal of the act is to preserve the places "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled." Today, the National Wilderness Preservation System includes more than 800 wilderness areas spanning more than 111 million acres. These wilderness areas are located within national forests, parks, wildlife refuges, and conservation lands and waters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans turned to these areas for physical recreation, mental well-being, and inspiration, and our public lands and waters became places of healing and sanctuary.
“But our natural wonders are at risk. Now more than ever, we must come together to combat the climate crisis and unprecedented acceleration of species extinction, to protect and conserve our great outdoors before it is too late.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The East Region Town Hall, or ERTH, will meet on Wednesday, Sept. 7.
The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at the Moose Lodge, located at 15900 Moose Lodge Lane in Clearlake Oaks.
The meeting can be attended in person or via Zoom; the meeting ID is 935 8339 6020, the pass code is 448228.
The guest speaker at Wednesday’s meeting will be Carter Jessop of the US Environmental Protection Agency, who will give the latest news on the Sulphur Bank Mine Superfund Site.
The EPA is due to release a proposed plan for cleanup of the on-land portion of the mine site this fall, with a public comment process to follow.
They also will hear the monthly updates on Spring Valley, commercial cannabis cultivation, the consolidated lighting district in Clearlake Oaks, the Lake County geothermal project watchlist, the Northshore Fire Protection District, the John T. Klaus 1994 Trust’s land donation for a new Clearlake Oaks park and get a report from Supervisor EJ Crandell.
ERTH’s members are Denise Loustalot, Jim Burton, Tony Morris and Pamela Kicenski.
For more information visit the group’s Facebook page.
It comes on the back of a wave of successful efforts to mobilize at Starbucks and Amazon. The growth of unionized stores at Starbucks in particular has been stunning. Since baristas in Buffalo, New York, became the first at the chain to unionize in December 2021, colleagues at a further 234 outlets have followed suit in recent months.
It comes as polling shows that public support of unions is at its highest since 1965, with the backing of 71% of Americans. Something is definitely happening in the labor movement in 2022.
A different kind of organizing
As a scholar of the labor movement who has observed union drives for two decades, what I find almost as striking as the victories is the unconventional nature of the organizing campaigns.
Workers at Amazon and Trader Joe’s are setting up independent unions, whereas at Starbucks and Chipotle, employees are teaming up with established unions. But that difference apart, the dynamics at play are remarkably similar: The campaigns are being led by determined young workers. For the most part, it is bottom-up unionizing, rather than being driven by official, seasoned union representatives.
Inspired by pro-union sentiment in political movements, such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential bids, Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Socialists of America, individuals are spearheading the efforts for workplace reform rather than professional union organizers. Indeed, one would be hard-pressed to find many experienced organizers among the recent successful campaigns.
Instead, the campaigns have involved a significant degree of “self-organization” – that is, workers “talking union” to each other in the warehouse and coffee shops and reaching out to colleagues in other shops in the same city and across the nation. This marks a sea change from the way the labor movement has traditionally operated, which has tended to be more centralized and led by seasoned union officials.
A labor revival
Perhaps more important than the victories at Starbucks, Amazon, Trader Joe’s and Chipotle themselves is their potential for creating a sense of optimism and enthusiasm around union organizing, especially among younger workers.
The significance of the recent victories is not primarily about the 8,000 new union members at Amazon or a gradual flow of new union members at Starbucks. It is about instilling in workers the belief that if pro-union workers can win at Amazon and Starbucks, they can win anywhere.
Historic precedents show that labor mobilization can be infectious.
In 1936 and 1937, workers at the Flint plant of General Motors brought the powerful automaker to its knees in a sit-down strike that quickly inspired similar action elsewhere. In the reported words of a Chicago doctor, when explaining a subsequent sit-down strike by wet nurses in the city: “It’s just one of those funny things. They want to strike because everyone else is doing it.”
After working on the front lines for over two years, many essential workers such as those at Amazon and Trader Joe’s believe they have not been adequately rewarded for their service during the pandemic and have not been treated with respect by their employers.
This appears to have helped spur the popularity of smaller, workplace-specific unions.
The homegrown nature of these campaigns deprives chains of employing a decades-old trope at the heart of corporate anti-union campaigns: that a union is an external “third party” that doesn’t understand or care about the concerns of employees and is more interested in collecting dues.
It has the effect of nullifying that central argument of anti-union campaigns despite the many millions of dollars that companies often pumped into them.
An unfavorable legal landscape
This “self-organization” is consistent with what was envisioned by the authors of the 1935 Wagner Act, the statute that provides the foundation of today’s union representation procedures.
The National Labor Relations Board’s first chair, J. Warren Madden, understood that self-organization could be fatally undermined if corporations were allowed to engage in anti-union pressure tactics:
“Upon this fundamental principle – that an employer shall keep his hands off the self-organization of employees – the entire structure of the act rests,” he wrote.“ Any compromise or weakening of that principle strikes at the root of the law.”
Over the past half century, anti-union corporations and their consultants and law firms – assisted by Republican-controlled NLRBs and right-wing judges – have undermined that process of worker self-organization by enabling union elections to become employer-dominated.
But for the long-term decline in union membership to be reversed, I believe pro-union workers will need stronger protections. Labor law reform is essential if the almost 50% of nonunion American workers who say they want union representation are to have any chance of getting it.
Meaningful labor law reform is unlikely to happen unless people are engaged with the issues, understand them and believe they have a stake in the outcome.
It isn’t known where this latest labor movement – or moment – will lead. It could evaporate or it may just spark a wave of organizing across the low-wage service sector, stimulating a national debate over workers’ rights in the process.
The biggest weapons that anti-union corporations have in suppressing labor momentum are the fear of retaliation and a sense that unionization is futile. The recent successes show unionizing no longer seems so frightening or so futile.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A group of Kelseyville residents determined to find ways to protect their communities against wildland fire have formed a new organization that has received an important donation from the district supervisor.
The Konocti Fire Safe Council on Tuesday received a $10,000 donation from District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska. The funds came from supervisors’ discretionary cannabis funds.
“For many years now, homeowners associations in the Kelseyville-area communities known as the Rivieras have been showing strong leadership, and working effectively to reduce the risk of wildfire,” Pyska said in a statement issued by the County Administrative Office. “Establishment of the Konocti Fire Safe Council brings valuable coordination to these efforts, and better positions these communities to access grant funding in the future.”
“Everyone in the county, by and large, agrees the Rivieras would be the worst place for a rural fire to occur. There are many homes, with a lot of local fuels, and limited access and firefighting capabilities,” said Konocti Fire Safe Council President Kathy Andre.
Council Treasurer Bill Groody told Lake County News the group officially formed in June, but that it has actually been meeting a year or longer. It grew out of an effort to get a new firehouse in the Soda Bay corridor as a means of lowering insurance rates and increasing response times.
He said that morphed into Measure A, which the Kelseyville Fire Protection District put before voters late last year. In addition to the firehouse, the measure was meant to increase staffing and equipment.
However, the measure failed. As a result, Groody said the new group grew out of community members in four homeowners associations — Clear Lake Riviera, Buckingham, Riviera West and Riviera Heights — asking how they could improve safety conditions in the Soda Bay corridor without the measure.
Thus the Konocti Fire Safe Council was born. In addition to Groody, the board includes President Kathy Andre, Vice President Phil Hartley, and members Cindy Jassar, John Nowell, Rian Sommerfield and Kathy Sylar.
Its coverage area runs along Clear Lake State Park and follows the lakeshore, extends down to Point Lakeview Road then back along Highway 29, up along Kelsey Creek in Kelseyville and Gaddy Lane to the state park. Groody said they also are including the western side of Mount Konocti, where a fire could potentially start and come over the mountain.
Groody said they are trying to bring together not just the four homeowners associations but also representatives from areas outside the associations’ boundaries.
The council seeks to increase community wildfire preparedness and survivability through education, project and resource development, evacuation readiness and hazardous fuel reduction.
When the group formed, Groody said each homeowners association agreed to contribute $1,000 a year. When Pyska saw those and other fundraising efforts were underway, Groody said she offered the discretionary funds. “We’re very thankful for that.”
Thanks to that funding, “We have our core operating expenses taken care of for the next three years,” Groody said, noting they’re operating on a “modest” budget.
That strong financial start will allow them to focus on fundraising and pursuing grants for bigger efforts, he said.
Groody said the group plans to coordinate and work with other community groups and local government agencies to improve wildfire safety around their communities.
He said they are still in the formative stages, getting the group off the ground and preparing to develop a social media presence and website.
They plan to pursue grants and other funding to carry out a number of projects, including working on evacuation routes, Groody said, and removing brush and dead tree clearing along the Soda Bay corridor, which are critical.
The situation on Soda Bay road is very urgent with regard to clearing, he said.
They’ve looked at options for brush clearing, including goats. “Every goat that’s available is out there eating now,” Groody said.
They also want to identify the 100 most hazardous trees in the area in order to have them removed. Groody pointed out that the board, at the request of Pyska, declared a tree mortality emergency.
He pointed out that in the past two and a half weeks there have been three fires in the council’s coverage area.
“The urgency is there,” he said.
The No. 1 priority, said Groody, is coordinating to use grant funds given to the county by Cal Fire to improve Soda Bay Road as an evacuation route.
“I think we’re going to be heavily involved in working on this evacuation plan,” he said.
With the county being short-staffed, Groody said the homeowners’ associations may end up being fiscal agents to help move that project along.
They’re also looking at ways to free up some of the assessment funding covering Clear Lake Riviera, Buckingham, Riviera West and Riviera Heights, as well as lots adjacent to them within County Service Area No. 23 that went into effect in 2019.
The one-time assessment, the proceeds of which were meant to be used for vegetation management, followed approval by voters in the associations and the Board of Supervisors based on a plan put forward by then-District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown.
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On Monday evening, the California Independent System Operator, or Cal ISO, requested the activation of temporary emergency power generators deployed by the Department of Water Resources, or DWR, in Roseville and Yuba City.
In total, the four generators can provide up to 120 megawatts of electricity to the statewide power grid during extreme heat events like the state is experiencing this week. That’s enough electricity to power up to 120,000 homes.
This was the first time that the generators were activated since they were installed last year.
DWR along with its energy partners at ISO and the California Energy Commission put this plan into motion following Gov. Newsom’s executive order in July 2021.
The agencies were able to deploy these units quickly and have them ready for any extreme heat events, wildfires or other climate-driven energy emergencies.
“DWR has been planning for this moment for months and we’re proud of our role in safeguarding the statewide energy grid. We are doing everything possible to help keep the lights on and the air conditioning running so millions of Californians can stay safe and healthy during this extreme heat event,” said Karla Nemeth, DWR director.
The temporary emergency power generators are powered by natural gas and are equipped with Selective Catalytic Reduction systems to reduce emissions and limit air quality impacts. The program is designed to support a transition to a clean energy future and is temporary in nature.
In addition to the 120 megawatts of generation from the temporary emergency power generators, DWR has coordinated with PG&E and Southern California Edison to procure, install, and operate dozens of backup generators to be operated only during a level 2 power emergency, as declared by ISO.
These backup generators are located in Northern California and Southern California and can provide up to an additional 80 megawatts of electricity into the statewide grid.
DWR is also developing the Strategic Reliability Infrastructure Assets program approved in June as part of the state's Strategic Electricity Reliability Reserve.
Programs under the reserve will result in a diverse set of backup electricity resources to act as an insurance for all utilities and balancing areas in the state as they address this challenge along with increasingly frequent and extreme climate-driven events and supply chain and related issues over the coming years.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 4-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a white coat with gray markings.
She is in kennel No. 13a, ID No. LCAC-A-3878.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 3-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a black coat.
She is in kennel No. 13b, ID No. LCAC-A-3880.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 4-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a white coat with blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 13c, ID No. LCAC-A-3881.
Female domestic shorthair cat
This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has an all-black coat.
Shelter staff said she is a “master greeter.”
“She is very talkative and likes softs pets down her back. She is uncomfortable when being picked up, but is more than happy to come to you, especially for pets,” and has a “chill” attitude, the shelter reported.
She is in cat room kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-3887.
‘Willow’
“Willow” is a female domestic shorthair cat with a gray and white coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 47, ID No. LCAC-A-3762.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This 4-month-old male domestic shorthair kitten has an all-black coat.
Shelter staff said he is a unique kitten, who is very sweet and playful despite having a limb deformity.
“He can run around and play with all the other kittens and he loves toys and adventure. He will need to be indoor only so he can live his life worry free,” the shelter reported.
He is in cat room kennel No. 62a, ID No. LCAC-A-3877.
Male domestic medium hair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic medium hair kitten has a black coat.
He is in kennel No. 62b, ID No. LCAC-A-3874.
Male domestic medium hair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic medium hair kitten has a white coat with blue eyes.
He is in kennel No. 62c, ID No. LCAC-A-3875.
Male domestic medium hair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic medium hair kitten has a gray coat.
He is in kennel No. 74a, ID No. LCAC-A-3873.
Male domestic medium hair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic medium hair kitten has a gray tabby coat.
He is in kennel No. 74d, ID No. LCAC-A-3876.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This female domestic shorthair kitten has a gray coat with white markings.
Shelter staff said she came to them with an injury to one of her eyes and needed to have the eye removed, but that has only made her more eager for head bonks.
“She has the cutest little meow and is a running shelter champion for the ‘best biscuit maker,’” the staff said.
She would be best as an indoor-only cat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 107a, ID No. LCAC-A-3842.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 4-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a white coat with blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 107b, ID No. LCAC-A-3882.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 4-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a white coat with blue eyes.
Shelter staff said she has a stunning Siamese coat, and is sweet and quiet. “She enjoys toys and gentle pets as well as curling up on a fluffy bed.”
She is in kennel No. 107c, ID No. LCAC-A-3889.
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.
A new paper reviews past earthquakes to better understand potential future risks.
The San Andreas may be the most well-known fault in California, but no one alive today experienced its most recent significant earthquake that ruptured 116 years ago.
The Great San Francisco Earthquake struck at 5:12 a.m. local time on April 18, 1906. The magnitude 7.9 quake caused shaking that lasted up to 60 seconds and sent vibrations all the way to southern Oregon, Los Angeles, and central Nevada. The earthquake and subsequent fires killed an estimated 3,000 people and left half of the city’s 400,000 residents homeless.
Researchers study older significant earthquakes like this one to better understand how frequently they strike on a fault. Although no one can predict when an earthquake will occur, scientists can better assess seismic hazards by calculating the probability of a ground-rupturing earthquake occurring in a specific area within a certain number of years.
Considering the historical average rate of large earthquakes on some faults in California, including the San Andreas, the odds that there hasn’t been a major earthquake in the last 116 years are very low.
In a new publication, USGS geologist Devin McPhillips studied sites along three faults in California with long histories of earthquakes to better understand what’s happening.
“The wait between earthquakes might be longer than we previously thought because the evidence for older earthquakes isn’t always 100% accurate,” McPhillips said. “If some of these older earthquakes are misidentified, then the long wait we are currently experiencing might be more typical.”
It's California's fault
The San Andreas Fault first captured the world’s attention on that fateful April day 116 years ago when it ruptured along the northernmost 296 miles (477 km) of the 800 mile- (1300 km) long fault that marks where the Pacific plate slides by the North American plate.
The relative movement along the fault varied from 2 to 32 feet (0.5 m to 9.7 m), which means if two people were standing on opposite sides of the fault, in some places one would slide away from each other by up to 32 feet from the other. In southern California, the last rupture of the San Andreas Fault occurred in 1857.
Geologists find that the total accumulated displacement from earthquakes (sudden fault movement) and creep (steady fault movement) is at least 350 miles (560 km) along the San Andreas fault since it came into being about 15 to 20 million years ago.
In addition to the San Andreas Fault, McPhillips also studied two additional sites on the Hayward and San Jacinto faults.
The Hayward Fault’s most recent damaging earthquake was more than 150 years ago. USGS scientists have found evidence for 12 quakes on the southern Hayward Fault during the past 1,900 years. Notably, the last six quakes (from 1134 to 1868) occurred at intervals of 95 to 183 years, with an average interval of about 150 years.
Using past clues to understand future earthquakes
Whenever an earthquake happens, it leaves telltale signs that eventually get buried or imprinted into outcrops and other geologic formations. For instance, fault scarps (when a side of a fault has moved vertically with respect to the other), offset or folded layers of sediment and soil, and parts of the landscape that have been tilted, uplifted, or torn apart are all signs of an ancient earthquake.
For the most part, researchers only see evidence for earthquakes above magnitude 6, because smaller quakes don’t typically leave behind evidence. To expose what happened, researchers can dig trenches along a fault. Inside a trench, they can see when and how frequently an earthquake hit that spot.
They tally how many past earthquakes they see and determine the number of years separating each earthquake. Those numbers help them determine a recurrence interval, which is the average time between earthquakes at the same site along a fault.
McPhillips calculated recurrence intervals for sites on the San Andreas, Hayward, and San Jacinto faults. He also refined some calculations of recurrence intervals to consider whether past earthquakes were correctly interpreted as unique earthquakes.
“Some trench sites can have 10 or more records of past earthquakes and recurrence intervals are usually a little over 100 years,” McPhillips said. “But we aren’t 100% confident on what we’re inferring about past earthquakes.”
At the Thousand Palms paleoseismic site in Southern California, the 97.5% confidence interval changes from 455 years to 1431 years when event likelihoods are considered. Event likelihood is the probability that the evidence has been correctly interpreted as a unique earthquake. “When we acknowledge that not all inferred past earthquakes are real and unique, the range of likely recurrence intervals can get much wider,” McPhillips said.
He incorporated the uncertainty into his research to better understand how it can affect recurrence intervals for various sites, including the one in Thousand Palms. Having more accurate recurrence intervals can bolster the Unified California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, which is a comprehensive model of earthquake occurrences for California.
“Anytime we can improve our earthquake models and data, we give people more confidence in our forecasts to better understand potential hazards,” McPhillips said.
Energy efficiency can save homeowners and renters hundreds of dollars a year, and the new Inflation Reduction Act includes a wealth of home improvement rebates and tax incentives to help Americans secure those saving.
It extends tax credits for installing energy-efficient windows, doors, insulation, water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners or heat pumps, as well as for home energy audits. It also offers rebates for low- and moderate-income households’ efficiency improvements, up to US$14,000 per home.
Together, these incentives aim to cut energy costs for consumers who use them by $500 to $1,000 per year and reduce the nation’s climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
With so many options, what are the most cost-effective moves homeowners and renters can make?
My lab at UMass Lowell works on ways to improve sustainability in buildings and homes by finding cost-effective design solutions to decrease their energy demand and carbon footprint. There are two key ways to cut energy use: energy-efficient upgrades and behavior change. Each has clear winners.
Stop the leaks
The biggest payoff for both saving money and reducing emissions is weatherizing the home to stop leaks. Losing cool air in summer and warm air in winter means heating and cooling systems run more, and they’re among the most energy-intensive systems in a home.
Gaps along the baseboard where the wall meets the floor and at windows, doors, pipes, fireplace dampers and electrical outlets are all prime spots for drafts. Fixing those leaks can cut a home’s entire energy use by about 6%, on average, by our estimates. And it’s cheap, since those fixes mostly involve caulk and weather stripping.
The Inflation Reduction Act offers homeowners a hand. It includes a $150 rebate to help pay for a home energy audit that can locate leaks.
While a professional audit can help, it isn’t essential – the Department of Energy website offers guidance for doing your own inspection.
Once you find the leaks, the act includes 30% tax credits with a maximum of $1,200 a year for basic weatherization work, plus rebates up to $1,600 for low- and moderate-income homeowners earning less than 150% of the local median.
Insulation can also reduce energy loss. But with the exception of older homes with poor insulation and homes facing extreme temperatures, it generally doesn’t have as high of a payoff in whole-house energy savings as weatherization or window replacement.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes up to $600 to help pay for window replacement and $250 to replace an exterior door.
Upgrade appliances, especially HVAC and dryers
Buildings cumulatively are responsible for about 40% of U.S. energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions, and a significant share of that is in homes. Heating is typically the main energy use.
Among appliances, upgrading air conditioners and clothes dryers results in the largest environmental and cost benefits; however, HVAC systems – heating, ventilation and air conditioning – come with some of the highest upfront costs.
That includes energy-efficient electric heat pumps, which both heat and cool a home. The Inflation Reduction Act offers a 30% tax credit up to $2,000 available to anyone who purchases and installs a heat pump, in addition to rebates of up to $8,000 for low- and moderate-income households earning less than 150% of the local median income. Some high-efficiency wood-burning stoves also qualify.
The act also provides rebates for low- and moderate-income households for electric stoves of up to $840, heat-pump water heaters of up to $1,750 and heat-pump clothes dryers of up to $840.
Change your behavior in a few easy steps
You can also make a pretty big difference without federal incentives by changing your habits. My dad was energy-efficient before it was hip. His “hobby” was to turn off the lights. This action itself has been among the most cost-saving behavioral changes.
Just turning out the lights for an hour a day can save a home up to $65 per year. Replacing old lightbulbs with LED lighting also cuts energy use. They’re more expensive, but they save money on energy costs.
We found that a homeowner could save $265 per year and reduce emissions even more by adopting a few behavioral changes including unplugging appliances not being used, line-drying clothes, lowering the water heater temperature, setting the thermostat 1 degree warmer at night in summer or 1 degree cooler in winter, turning off lights for an hour a day, and going tech-free for an hour a day.
Some appliances are energy vampires – they draw electricity when plugged in even if you’re not using them. One study in Northern California found that plugged-in devices, such as TVs, cable boxes, computers and smart appliances, that weren’t being used were responsible for as much as 23% of electricity consumption in homes.
Start with a passive solar home
If you’re looking for a home to rent or buy, or even to build, you can make an even bigger difference by looking at how it’s built and powered.
Passive solar homes take advantage of local climate and site conditions, such as having lots of south-facing windows to capture solar energy during cool months to reduce home energy use as much as possible. Then they meet the remaining energy demand with on-site solar energy.
Studies show that for homeowners in cold climates, building a passive design home could cut their energy cost by 14% compared with an average home. That’s before taking solar panels into account.
The Inflation Reduction Act offers a 30% tax credit for rooftop solar and geothermal heating, plus accompanying battery storage, as well as incentives for community solar – larger solar systems owned by several homeowners. It also includes a $5,000 tax credit for developers to build homes to the Energy Department’s Zero Energy Ready Homes standard.
The entire energy and climate package – including incentives for utility-scale renewable energy, carbon capture and electric vehicles – could have a big impact for homeowners’ energy costs and the climate. According to several estimates, it has the potential to reduce U.S. carbon emissions by about 40% by the end of this decade.
Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti are immunologists who study infectious disorders and how vaccines trigger different aspects of the immune system to fight infection. They weigh in on how the updated booster shots train the immune system and how protective they might be against COVID-19.
1. What is different about the updated booster shots?
The newly authorized shots are the first updates to the original COVID-19 vaccines that were introduced in late 2020. They use the same mRNA technology as the original vaccines. The key difference between the original COVID-19 shots and the new “bivalent” version is that the latter consists of a mixture of mRNA that encodes the spike proteins of both the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the more recent omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.
As of late August 2022, the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants are dominant worldwide. In the U.S., currently 89% of COVID-19 infections are caused by BA.5 and 11% are caused by BA.4.
The inability of the original vaccine strains to prevent reinfection and to trigger long-term protective immunity prompted the need for the reformulated vaccines.
2. How does a bivalent vaccine trigger an immune response?
In an actual COVID-19 infection, the SARS-CoV-2 virus uses its protruding spike protein to latch onto human cells and gain entry into cells. The spike protein triggers the production of so-called neutralizing antibodies, which bind to the spike protein and prevent the virus from invading other cells.
But when the virus mutates, as we know that it does, the antibodies that were previously produced in response to the virus can no longer effectively bind to the newly mutated spike protein. In this respect, the SARS-CoV-2 virus acts like a chameleon – a master of disguise – by changing its body configuration and escaping recognition by the immune system.
The ongoing viral mutations are why antibodies produced in response to the original vaccine strains have over time become less effective at fending off infections by new variants.
The concept of bivalent vaccines aimed at protecting against two different strains of a virus is not new. For instance, Cervarix is an FDA-approved bivalent vaccine that provides protection against two different types of human papillomaviruses that cause cancer.
3. How protective will the new shots be against infection?
There are as of yet no human studies on the efficacy of the new bivalent vaccine at preventing reinfections and providing long-term immune protection.
However, in human clinical trials and laboratory studies, both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna found that their initial version of the bivalent vaccine, which was directed against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and an earlier omicron strain, BA.1, induced a strong immune response and longer protection against both the original strain and the BA.1 variant. In addition, the companies reported that the same early combination generated a significant antibody response against the newest omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, though this antibody response was lower than that seen against subvariant BA.1.
Based on those results, in spring 2022 the FDA rejected the BA.1 bivalent boosters because the agency felt the boosters may fall short of providing sufficient protection against the newest strains, BA.4 and BA.5, which were by then spreading quickly throughout the U.S. and the world. So the FDA asked Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to develop bivalent vaccines specifically targeting BA.4 and BA.5, instead of BA.1.
Because clinical trials are time-consuming, the FDA was willing to consider animal studies and other laboratory findings, such as the ability of antibodies to neutralize the virus, to decide whether to authorize the bivalent boosters.
This decision has stirred up controversy over whether it is appropriate for the FDA to approve a booster without direct human data to support it. However, the FDA has stated that millions of people have safely received the mRNA vaccines – which were originally tested in humans – and that the changes in the mRNA sequences in the vaccines do not affect vaccine safety. Thus, it concluded that the bivalent vaccines are safe and that there is no need to wait for human clinical trials.
Based on available evidence from the previous COVID-19 vaccines, we believe it is very likely that the new boosters will continue to offer strong protection from severe COVID-19 leading to hospitalization and death. But whether they will protect against reinfection and breakthrough infections remains to be seen.
4. Will it only be a booster shot?
The bivalent vaccines can only be used as a booster shot at least two months after the completion of the primary series – or initial required shots – or following a previous booster shot. The Moderna bivalent vaccine is authorized for use in people 18 years of age, while the Pfizer bivalent vaccine is authorized for those 12 years of age and older.
Because of the superiority of the bivalent vaccines, the FDA has also removed the use authorization for the original monovalent Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for booster purposes in individuals 18 years of age and older and 12 years of age and older, respectively.
5. Will the new shots protect against future variants?
How well the bivalent vaccines will perform in the face of new variants that might arise will depend on the nature of future spike protein mutations.
If it is a minor mutation or set of mutations when compared to the original strain or to omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5, the new shots will provide good protection. However, if a hypothetical new strain were to possess highly unique mutations in its spike protein, then it’s likely that it could once again dodge immune protection.
On the flip side, the successful development of the updated vaccines demonstrates that the mRNA vaccine technology is nimble and innovative enough that – within a couple of months of the emergence of a new variant – it is now likely possible to develop and distribute new vaccines that are tailor-made to fight an emerging variant.
This article has been updated to reflect the CDC’s endorsement of the reformulated shots.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new puppies and dogs waiting to be adopted.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, husky, pit bull, Rottweiler, shepherd, treeing walker coonhound and Yorkshire 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.
Female pit bull terrier
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier has a black and white coat.
Shelter staff said she is a gentle girl with a loving personality who came into the shelter needing some tender loving care.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-3856.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a gray and white coat.
Shelter staff said is a playful young dog who does well on a leash and loves fetch. He will benefit from training.
He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3855.
Male Rottweiler-shepherd mix
This male Rottweiler-shepherd mix puppy has a short black and tan coat.
“This little pup is shy when meeting new people, but with the right toy and some TLC he warms up and shows some true puppy spirit,” shelter staff reported.
He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-3851.
Male hound mix puppy
This 6-month-old male hound mix puppy has a short brindle coat.
Shelter staff said he is very playful with a lot of energy, and he loves toys. “He is extremely treat motivated and has shown he is eager to learn all the cool tricks you could teach him.”
This 2-month-old female treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 16d, ID No. LCAC-A-3927.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 17a, ID No. LCAC-A-3921.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 17b, ID No. LCAC-A-3922.
Male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher puppy
This 2-month-old male treeing walker coonhound-Doberman pinscher has a short tricolor coat.
He is in kennel No. 17c, ID No. LCAC-A-3923.
Female hound mix
This 1-year-old female hound mix has a short brown and white coat.
Shelter staff said she loves to be around people and will show you the true meaning of a lap dog. She enjoys toys and walks well with a leash.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-3766.
Female treeing walker coonhound
This young female treeing walker coonhound has a short black brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3776.
Female German shepherd
This 1-year-old female German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-3780.
Male German shepherd
This 2-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
Shelter staff called him a “handsome sweet dude who is motivated by treats and does well walking on a leash.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-3870.
Male German shepherd
This 3-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-3929.
Female husky
This 1-year-old female husky has a cream and black coat.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3893.
Male Yorkshire terrier
This 2-year-old male Yorkshire terrier has a long black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-3950.
‘Poppy’
“Poppy” is a 4-month-old female Great Pyrenees with a short white and gray coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-3790.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3930.
‘Piper’
“Piper” is a young female Great Pyrenees with a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-3789.
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