LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — After a week of temperatures topping 100 degrees, this week Lake County is forecast to have cooler conditions.
The National Weather Service reported on top temperatures around the region recorded on Friday, which included Middletown at 103 degrees; Lower Lake at 104 degrees; Clearlake, Kelseyville and Hidden Valley Lake at 105 degrees; and Indian Valley Reservoir at 108 degrees.
However, some relief is in sight.
Forecasters said daytime temperatures this week will top out in the low 90s throughout Lake County, rising to the mid-90s by the weekend.
Nighttime temperatures will range from the low to mid 60s.
As temperatures cool in the new week, the forecast calls for relative humidity to rise.
While there have been concerns about thunderstorms across the region, the forecast did not include chances of storms for Lake County this week.
Calm winds, particularly in the afternoons and evenings, also are in this week’s forecast.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — An Oroville-based nonprofit that has been operating Lake County’s emergency COVID-19 shelter said it will cease operating the facility in September.
In a statement published on its website, the Elijah House Foundation said it will no longer operate the shelter at 1111 Whalen Way in Lakeport as of Sept. 4.
The shelter has been operating in the county’s former juvenile hall facility which Elijah House has been in negotiations with the county to purchase.
“The reason why Elijah House is pulling out is due to funding,” Behavioral Health Services Director Todd Metcalf told Lake County News.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors — as part of its consent agenda — approved a request from Metcalf to extend the use of the former juvenile hall facility for a temporary support shelter targeting Lake County's chronically homeless population through Sept. 30.
Metcalf’s report for the item explained that on July 20, 2020, the board approved a contract between Lake County Behavioral Health Services and Elijah House to fund continued COVID-19 homeless shelter operations at the old juvenile hall.
He said Elijah House is confident it can continue to run the shelter through Sept. 30, “however, due to funding constraints, operations may cease before then.”
He said Lake County’s Space Use Committee “has provided ongoing support for the use of the former juvenile hall facility on a temporary basis for the purpose of a homeless shelter.”
The Elijah House Foundation said in its online statement that it is talking with the Lake County Continuum of Care and other agencies that address homelessness in hopes of identifying a nonprofit willing to take over operations of the emergency shelter.
Metcalf said he’s met with a nonprofit which is potentially interested in taking over the shelter, with a follow-up meeting planned for Aug. 4.
Since the 32-bed shelter opened on July 27, 2020, Elijah House said it has served more than 400 individuals, offering meals, laundry service, showers and personal items, and providing case management to connect shelter residents with services.
Elijah House said it offered housing navigation to help clients gain permanent housing, and provided independent living training and job development with the Back2Work program.
The organization said its employees have helped more than 100 people find permanent housing, reconnected 41 people with families and helped 38 people gain employment.
All of the shelter’s 32 residents will be placed in alternate housing, which Elijah House said was managed through working with Lake County agencies and connecting clients with their families, and with the generosity of local philanthropists.
Elijah House said it will continue to offer housing navigation, case management, employment development through the Back2Work Program, general counseling and placement into sober living housing at its Lucerne location, 6110 East Highway 20, the site of the former Lake County visitor center.
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 a daring team of engineers put a lander and the first rover on the Red Planet a quarter century ago, they changed how the world explores.
On a July evening in 1997, Jennifer Trosper drove home from work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory holding a picture of the Martian surface to her steering wheel.
Earlier that day, the agency’s Pathfinder mission had landed on Mars encased in protective air bags and taken the image of the red, rubbly landscape that transfixed her.
“As I was on the freeway, I had that image on my steering wheel and kept looking at it,” Trosper said, reminiscing. “I probably should have been looking more closely at the road.”
Given that Trosper was the mission’s flight director, her excitement was understandable. Not only had Pathfinder landed on Mars, a feat all its own, but it had done so at a fraction of the cost and time required of previous Mars missions.
And, the next day, the team was set to change the course of Mars exploration forever: They had sent instructions to Pathfinder to extend a ramp so that history’s first Mars rover, Sojourner, could roll down onto the planet’s surface.
Named after the fiery American abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth, the rover weighed just 25 pounds (11 kilograms) and was no larger than a microwave oven.
But after touching down and spending 83 days traveling the surface, the tiny spacecraft proved that exploring Mars with a rover was possible.
It also led Trosper to work on a series of ever-larger, more complex rovers: Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and NASA’s most advanced Mars rover to date, Perseverance, on which she served as project manager until recently.
In fact, just as Pathfinder took Sojourner along for the ride, Perseverance brought Ingenuity, the plucky little helicopter that proved powered, controlled flight in Mars’ thin atmosphere is possible. Slated for just five flights, Ingenuity has flown 29 times so far, and it has the potential to reshape Mars exploration every bit as much as Sojourner did a quarter century ago.
With every new mission and every new way of exploring Mars, humanity gains a better understanding of how the Red Planet once resembled Earth, covered by rivers and lakes and featuring the chemistry needed to support life.
NASA’s search for life on the Martian surface started in earnest in 1976, when the twin Viking landers arrived. The agency wouldn’t land another spacecraft on Mars until Pathfinder, which arose in an era when NASA had been directed to build its missions “faster, better, cheaper.”
Pathfinder’s team harnessed new approaches and technologies to deliver the mission ahead of schedule and at a lower cost than the Viking landers.
Jessica Samuels, an engineering intern in Arizona at the time of Pathfinder’s landing, remembers watching news coverage of the event with her roommate. The excitement helped lead her to pursue aerospace engineering.
“That moment — seeing this little mechanical rover exploring the surface of another planet — made me realize that’s something I would love to do,” said Samuels, now Perseverance’s mission manager. “I had always been interested in space, but that was the spark where I thought this could actually be my profession.”
To take the public along for the journey, the agency harnessed the power of another kind of relatively new technology: the Internet. A website devoted to the mission featured the latest images from Mars, and it became a sensation.
Doug Ellison, who today uploads commands to Curiosity from JPL, was about to enter college in rural England when Pathfinder touched down. After hearing about Pathfinder’s website, he bicycled into town to an IT business that let people pay by the hour for Internet access.
With the business’ employees huddled behind him, Ellison saved Pathfinder’s Martian landscapes onto a 3 1/2-inch floppy disk (this was an era long before cloud computing) and printed them out on a black-and-white dot matrix printer to create a vista of the Red Planet he could look at from home.
He taped the printouts up to form a circle. Then, he stuck his head in it.
“It was pretty much the worst VR experience ever,” Ellison said.
Even so, the Internet provided an inspiring new way to experience space exploration.
“Putting so much online so quickly was a paradigm shift. That’s the motivation today to share as much as we can as quickly as we can from our rover missions,” said Ellison. “I think the Mars program owes Pathfinder a debt of gratitude for being the entire steppingstone for everything since.”
Tech demos lead the way
Sojourner began as a technology demonstration, NASA’s way of testing and proving what is possible. Ingenuity began the same way — though now it’s an operations demonstration scouting locations on Mars not just for Perseverance, but for a possible landing spot for a future Mars Sample Return campaign.
The campaign would bring samples collected by Perseverance to Earth to be studied by powerful lab equipment searching for signs of ancient microscopic life. But the campaign would include other milestones, like the first instance of a rocket launching off the surface of another planet (a crucial part of getting samples from Mars to Earth). That feat would also support future efforts to land humans on Mars and bring them back home.
Back in 1997, Trosper and team had their hands full just learning to drive a rover on Mars for the first time. “We were a little bit cowboyish. We just didn’t know what we didn’t know,” she said.
What they did know was this: Their mission has lived up to its name, finding a path forward to what had seemed almost impossible before.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has cats and kittens ready to be adopted this week.
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.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has an orange tabby coat with white markings.
He is in cat room kennel No. A1a, ID No. LCAC-A-3662.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has a gray tabby coat with white markings.
He is in cat room kennel No. A1b, ID No. LCAC-A-3663.
‘Luna’
“Luna” is a female domestic shorthair kitten with a black and white tuxedo coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3745.
‘Mom’
“Mom” is a female domestic shorthair cat with a white coat and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 21, LCAC-A-3635.
Female gray tabby
This 2-year-old female gray tabby has a short coat with white markings.
She is in cat room kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-3661.
Domestic shorthair kitten
This female domestic shorthair kitten has an all-black coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. 84b, ID No. LCAC-A-3615.
Domestic shorthair kitten
This male domestic shorthair kitten has an all-black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 84c, ID No. LCAC-A-3616.
‘Fudge’
“Fudge” is a young female domestic shorthair cat with a gray tabby coat.
She is in cat room kennel No. A139, ID No. LCAC-A-3700.
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. — Since 2015, nearly two-thirds of Lake County’s landmass has been burned by wildfire.
In response, groups throughout the county are taking urgent action to make our communities safer.
Collaboration and partnership among firefighters and other fire protection professionals, tribal, county and city governments, community-based organizations and agencies and others have prepared us to make meaningful progress.
One recent success story is Northshore Fire Protection District’s Fuels Management Crew.
Under the leadership of Chief Mike Ciancio, this group is already conducting fire suppression and fire prevention activities in areas of high priority throughout Lake County.
This work is possible, in part, thanks to a $662,000 donation from the Habematolel Tribe of Upper Lake.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors has committed to support remaining anticipated first-year costs, up to $538,000, of a total of $1.2 million.
Are you interested in joining this important team, and helping to reduce Lake County’s wildfire risk?
Email your completed application, resume and/or certificate(s) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., to apply.
You can also mail your application NFPD, PO Box 1199, Lucerne, CA 95458.
For more information, call Northshore Fire at 707-274-3100 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
NORTH COAST, Calif. — Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, or LNU, has welcomed two additional type-1 helitankers.
The helitankers arrived on July 1, 2022.
Cal Fire has positioned two contracted type-1 helitankers used as exclusive use for aerial firefighting operations in the LNU.
Helitanker 1CH from Columbia Helicopters will be based out of Napa County Airport, and Helitanker 37S from Siller Brothers will be based out of Sonoma Air Attack base at the Sonoma County Airport.
In addition to the unit's own Type-1 Cal Fire HAWK "Copter 104" based in Lake County, the region will now have three large helicopters not only arriving quicker to any new fire but can send local aircraft to multiple fires occurring at the same time.
These aircraft will be available for fire assignments in the greater Bay Area and all of California.
As rapid fires spread and concurrent wildfires will continue to be the norm, and areas throughout the state previously thought to be immune to large and damaging fires are proving to be as vulnerable as areas with active fire histories.
Cal Fire said the entire state is at greater risk of major fires than at any other time in recorded history.
That includes the redwood coastal belts and the more temperate areas of Northern California, as evidenced by the 2020 San Mateo and Santa Cruz Unit Lightning Complex, which burned over 86,000 acres and destroyed 1,490 structures along the coast range of Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties.
Additional surge equipment will be required to enhance Cal Fire’s ability to meet the increasing operational deficiencies created by a changing climate, meet demands caused by a year-round fire regime, and provide a deeper pool of available equipment.
In addition to Cal Fire staffed helicopters, the department relies on exclusive use contracted or “call when needed” helicopters to increase its aviation response. Contracts which are based on a call when needed premise do not guarantee the availability of a helicopter when the department calls, and these arrangements are usually implemented when a large fire is ongoing and not for initial attack response.
Cal Fire has experienced the reliability and dependability of exclusive use contracts in that they provide greater efficiencies in getting helicopters to the initial attack stage of fires.
Helitanker 1CH, a Boeing CH-47D Chinook, is owned and operated by Columbia Helicopters of Aurora, Oregon.
Helitanker 1CH arrived at the Napa County Airport and has been on contract since June 16. This helitanker holds up to 2,800 gallons of water on a fixed tank, which is permanently attached to the aircraft. The fixed tank system also provides a safer operation since they do not have a bucket hanging underneath the helicopter while in flight.
Helitanker 37S, a Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane, is owned and operated by Siller Brothers out of Yuba City. Helitanker 37S arrived and has been on contract since July 1. This helitanker holds up to 2,000 gallons of water on a fixed tank.
“The S-64E helicopter features three experienced pilots — a command pilot, copilot and aft seat pilot, whose job is to guarantee precision on every job,” Siller Brothers reported.
These respective 2,800 and 2,000 gallon water droppers will enhance Cal Fire’s operations, ensuring that these mission critical resources are always available to respond to emergency fire events and operate safely in the field.
There will be additional firefighting resources that will help to address complex initial attack and large fire support operations. Cal Fire said this will not only increase its initial attack strength dramatically but will also reduce the time in getting these valuable resources to large fires as well.
The state also has on exclusive use contract this year three large air tankers with 3,000 and 4,000 gallon capacity as well as those normally available from Cal Fire’s partnership with the United States Forest Service.
These will be used in supporting roles behind the Cal Fire copters including the Cal Fire HAWK out of Boggs Mountain and the Cal Fire air tankers out of Sonoma, Ukiah, Sacramento and Chico, Cal Fire’s closest bases.
“Cal Fire LNU welcomes both Helitanker 1CH and 37S to the Unit and we look forward to working with both helitankers this year,” the agency said.
As of July 16, 2022, people have only to press three digits, 988, to reach the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline when they need help during a mental health crisis.
Research suggests that the pandemic has exacerbated the impacts of loneliness. Additionally, people’s fear of missing out, also known as FOMO, hasn’t decreased even since in-person social gatherings became less frequent. But small daily actions – such as a short walk, break from social media or even a catnap – can add up to have an impact on mental health. Separately, counseling, therapy and medication prescribed by health care providers are effective treatments for those experiencing mental illness.
The Conversation U.S. gathered four essential reads that explore some daily habits and practices that have been shown to improve mental health. These are food for thought, not guidelines or medical advice, but reading these articles could be the first steps toward a healthier lifestyle.
“Several studies have shown that even a five-day or weeklong break from Facebook can lead to lower stress and higher life satisfaction,” she writes. “You can also cut back without going cold turkey: Using Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat just 10 minutes a day for three weeks resulted in lower loneliness and depression.”
2. Exercise is like medicine for the brain
Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry at Wayne State University, shares the science behind the connection between exercise and mental well-being as well as his personal experience with the positive impacts of physical activity.
“Working out regularly really does change the brain biology, and it is not just ‘go walk and you will just feel better,’” he explains. “Regular exercise, especially cardio, does change the brain. Do not see it as all or none. It does not have to be a one-hour drive to and from the gym or biking trail for a one-hour workout vs. staying on the couch.
"I always say to my patients: ‘One more step is better than none, and three squats are better than no squats.’ When less motivated, or in the beginning, just be nice to yourself. Do as much as possible. Three minutes of dancing with your favorite music still counts.”
3. Think therapy is navel-gazing? Think again
People in need of therapy and counseling have long suffered from social stigma around mental illnesses, but these services are vital to protecting and improving our health.
“Decades of research show psychotherapy is effective for alleviating the most common forms of psychological suffering, such as anxiety and depression. But wellness is about more than reducing suffering,” writes Steven Sandage, professor of the psychology of religion and theology at the Boston University School of Theology. “Counseling informed by positive psychology can be effective in improving well-being and increasing such qualities as forgiveness, compassion and gratitude.”
4. Doing ‘nothing’
Though it may not always feel plausible or even comfortable, slowing down and allowing yourself a dedicated moment of rest can do wonders for mental well-being, especially when speed and efficiency seem to have become integral to our lives.
“In this 24/7, ‘always on’ age, the prospect of doing nothing might sound unrealistic and unreasonable. But it’s never been more important,” writes Simon Gottschalk, a professor of sociology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“To equate ‘doing nothing’ with nonproductivity betrays a shortsighted understanding of productivity,” he explains. “In fact, psychological research suggests that doing nothing is essential for creativity and innovation, and a person’s seeming inactivity might actually cultivate new insights, inventions or melodies.”
If you look at homes on real estate websites today, you’ll likely see risk ratings for flooding, hurricanes and even wildfires.
In theory, summarizing risk information like this should help homebuyers and renters make more informed housing choices. But surveys show it isn’t working that way, at least not yet. Housing developments and home sales are still expanding in flood- and wildfire-prone areas.
The problem isn’t necessarily that consumers are ignoring the numbers. In our view, as experts in hazards geography, it’s that the way risk information is being presented ignores long-established lessons from behavioral science.
These ratings tend to appear as a single number for each hazard and lack an intuitive interpretation. What does it mean to have a heat risk of 84 (“extreme”) with 52 hot days in 2050, or a flood risk of 10 (“extreme”)?
We believe that current and future hazard and climate risks can more effectively be translated as costs, savings and trade-offs.
We belong to a group of more than 20 interdisciplinary researchers at universities in Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina who are trying to improve risk rating information. We’re currently testing an online tool for the Gulf Coast that provides residents with actionable resilience information. It is an early model of what residential risk reporting could look like.
Rather than just presenting a score, the tool offers information on the costs annually and over time that one can expect from each hazard, such as flooding or wind damage, and how the home’s census block compares with the local area, county and state. To capture the effects of sea-level rise, for example, we model the number of years it will take for a home to go from outside a high flood risk area to being inside.
Homebuyers’ psychological hurdles
The development of real estate-focused climate and hazard risk metrics, such as those offered by First Street Foundation and ClimateCheck, is a step in the right direction, going beyond government risk maps that provide risk data by county. The next step is to ground those numbers in behavioral science research.
The motivation hurdle is lower for people with past experience, those who are aware of the risks and receptive to this kind of information, and those who have the financial resources to choose safer communities.
For others, the hurdle can be much higher. They might struggle with common decision biases, such as oversimplifying the severity of the risk, which leads to either an overestimation or underestimation of the threat depending on the type of hazard, focusing on today rather than the future, or simply assuming nothing bad is going to happen. They might just follow what others do – which research finds is what most of us do when deciding on a home.
The combination of these decision biases causes residents to underestimate the risk and impacts from disasters and climate change. Most people then underprepare and don’t consider these risks in their housing choices.
Risk ratings could help overcome those biases by expressing risk information in relatable terms such as the number of assistance requests made to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after disasters, the rejection rate and the average FEMA funds received per applicant in the area.
Next step: Pull it all together in one location
Ideally, homebuyers and renters would have a one-stop shop for all of this risk information about a property. To be prepared for climate change, risk must become a factor in housing choices similar to square footage and number of bedrooms.
Currently, risk data is scattered. For example, people can learn about insurance costs by checking flood insurance rate maps, which outline the areas with a 1% or greater annual chance of flooding. Or they can ask an insurance agent to generate a Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange report, which lists all flood insurance claims made on a property in the past five to seven years. A handful of states such as California require sellers to disclose the risk of natural hazards to the property.
In our view, the continuing influx of residents into high-risk areas, along with skyrocketing disaster losses, presents an urgent need to give prospective renters and buyers better information about the risks properties face.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — New dogs have joined Clearlake Animal Control’s lineup of adoptable canines this week.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The following dogs are available for adoption. The newest additions are at the top.
‘Luna’
“Luna” is an 8-month-old Labrador retriever-terrier mix with a black and white coat.
She is dog No. 50339254.
‘Mamba’
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
‘Betsy’
“Betsy” is a female American pit bull mix with a short white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50236145.
‘Bluey’
“Bluey” is a male retriever mix with a short black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50552999.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49951647.
‘Bro’
“Bro” is a male terrier mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
Bro is dog No. 50262527.
‘Colt’
“Colt” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short rust and black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49812106.
‘Hakuna’
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
‘Kubota’
“Kubota” is a male German shepherd mix with a short tan and black coat.
He has been neutered.
Kubota is dog No. 50184421.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Newman’
“Newman” is a 1-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Newman is dog No. 49057809.
‘Sadie’
“Sadie” is a female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49802563.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Tiramisu’
“Tiramisu” is a female Alaskan husky mix with a short brown and cream coat.
She is dog No. 49652833.
‘Ziggy’
“Ziggy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
Ziggy is dog No. 50146247
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
What's up for August? Grab your binoculars for planet viewing, the outlook for the Perseids, and flying with Cygnus the swan.
The morning planet parade we've been enjoying the past few months comes to an end in August, with Venus and Saturn making their exits on opposite sides of the sky. But that still leaves Mars and Jupiter high overhead to enjoy.
In fact, August begins with a close conjunction of the Red Planet and distant ice giant planet Uranus. Uranus can be difficult to find without a self-guided telescope, but it's an easy object for binoculars if you know where to look. And on the 1st, you'll find the tiny, bluish disc of Uranus just northwest of Mars in the morning sky. They'll easily fit within the same field of view through binoculars.
Moving on to the morning of the 15th, you'll find the Moon only a finger's width from Jupiter. Like Mars and Uranus, they'll make a great pairing through binoculars, and you'll also likely catch a glimpse of Jupiter's four largest moons.
The Moon then works its way eastward, to join Mars on Aug. 19. This is another nice pairing for binoculars, plus you'll find the pair super close to the Pleiades — you may even be able to fit them all into the same view.
Moving to the evening sky, Saturn is transitioning from a late night and early morning object to an all-night sight. It's rising as night falls in August. Look low in the east around 9 p.m. to find it as a steady, yellowish point of light. You'll find that the Ringed Planet rises a bit earlier each night over the course of the month.
Saturn's at opposition this month, meaning it's directly on the opposite side of Earth from the Sun. It's around this time when the Ringed Planet appears its biggest and brightest for the year.
By the end of the month, you'll start to notice Jupiter rising around 9 p.m. to join Saturn.
This means Jupiter will be pulling double duty as an early evening object, appearing in the eastern sky, and an early morning one, appearing in the west.
The Perseid meteors are an annual event many of us skywatchers look forward to, as they often produce lots of shooting stars to enjoy. Unfortunately, this year all but the brightest Perseids will be washed out by a full moon on the peak night of Aug. 12.
So, this is probably not the year to make a special trip in order to see the Perseids, but, if you find yourself outside between midnight and dawn on Aug. 13th, don't forget to look up anyway. Because you never know – you might just catch one of the bright Perseid meteors that defies the glare of the Moon. And don't forget the occasional early Perseid can streak across the sky as much as a week beforehand.
You'll find the constellation Cygnus, the swan, flying high in the eastern sky after dark in August. Cygnus has an overall shape like a T or cross, and contains a star pattern sometimes called "the Northern Cross."
Cygnus is anchored by its brightest star, Deneb, which represents the swan's tail. Deneb is the northernmost of the three stars in the Summer Triangle, and it's visible even in bright city skies. On the other end of Cygnus from Deneb is double star Albireo, which is a stargazing favorite, as it shows beautiful blue and gold colors through even the most modest telescope.
Now, Cygnus lies right along the plane of the Milky Way, so it's dense with glittering stars and dark dust clouds, with lots of interest for telescope observers and astrophotographers to enjoy, including the North America Nebula, the Veil Nebula, and the Blinking Planetary Nebula. It also includes the open star clusters M29 and M39, which are visible with binoculars.
However you're observing the sky where you live, August is a great time to discover the constellation Cygnus, the graceful swan soaring across the dusty lanes of the Milky Way.
Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney and advance health care directives all appoint persons to act in a fiduciary (legal representative) capacity.
What do such appointments mean to the person(s) named to act? What happens if such persons fail or decline to act? Can the planning appoint alternative representatives?
A will nominates someone to act as executor upon the death of the testator (will maker). Many people think that their being named as executor makes them executor. Not so. A will only nominates someone to act as executor. A person named as executor does not have to accept the nomination in the will.
A petition to a court for a court order appointing an executor and letters testamentary signed by the appointed executor are necessary for the named person to become executor.
An executor is an officer of the court with fiduciary duties, authority and powers to act as personal representative of the decedent’s estate.
With a small estate it is not necessary to appoint an executor because alternative simplified approaches mean that probate is usually not necessary.
If a person declines or fails to accept the position of executor in a probate matter then an alternative person can request appointment. Persons nominated in the will as alternatives have priority but others can also petition to be appointed as executor too, if necessary.
A trust appoints someone to act as successor trustee upon the death or incapacity of the settlor. The appointment, however, is not effective unless and until the appointee accepts their appointment.
This is usually done by the successor trustee signing an acceptance of the trustee, but can also occur by the successor trustee taking action on behalf of the trust exercising their representative authority as successor trustee.
Of course, a person named as successor trustee does not have to accept the nomination. Once a person accepts to become trustee the person as trustee has an affirmative fiduciary duty to manage the assets and affairs of the trust. That is, the person cannot simply ignore their responsibilities (not perform) after they accept appointment as trustee.
If a person declines or fails to accept the position of successor trustee then an alternative person can step in. Persons nominated in the trust have priority. A trust may also provide a mechanism for the selection and appointment of alternative successor trustees. Otherwise, a court petition to appoint a successor trustee becomes necessary.
A power of attorney nominates a person to act as an agent (“attorney in fact”) to manage the finances, property, and legal affairs of the principal (signor of the power of attorney). An agent, similarly, has no affirmative duty to act as agent. However, once the agent first starts to act they become legally responsible for their actions.
An advance health care directive appoints a person to act as agent for healthcare decisions of the principal (signor of the AHCD). An agent under an AHCD has no affirmative duty to act as agent simply because they are named in the ACHD. However, once the agent acts as agent they become legally responsible for their actions.
If none of the persons nominated to act as agent under a person’s power of attorney or advance health care directive, as relevant, accept appointment then it is often necessary for a conservator of the person’s estate and/or person to be appointed by the court.
This entails a petition for appointment of a conservator which involves an investigation of the situation and persons involved.
It may also be contested by the person who is to be conserved (due to the lack of an alternative approach) or by family members who dispute the need for a conservatorship or the appointment of the person requesting appointment as conservator.
Before accepting their appointment, anyone nominated to act in any legal representative capacity, in any of the ways discussed above, should first consider whether they are ready to assume such responsibilities.
The foregoing is not legal advice. Anyone confronting the issue of protecting and preserving the assets of a decedent’s estate should seek appropriate legal and investment counsel before proceeding.
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.
On July 21, 2022, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature placed the migratory monarch butterfly on its Red List of threatened species and classified it as endangered. Monarchs migrate across North America each year and are one of the continent’s most widely recognized species. The Conversation asked Oklahoma State University biologist Kristen Baum, who has studied pollinators for more than 25 years, to explain the listing’s implications for the monarch butterfly in the U.S.
What is the IUCN, and what does its action mean?
The IUCN is a network of public, private and nonprofit organizations that work to conserve nature worldwide. The Red List, which was developed in 1964, provides a standardized approach for assessing the extinction risks of species. Listing the monarch butterfly draws attention to its status and to areas where more research is needed to understand factors contributing to its decline.
The IUCN listing applies to the migratory subspecies of the monarch butterfly, or Danaus plexippus plexippus. There are two migratory populations: one east and one west of the Rocky Mountains.
The eastern population migrates thousands of miles from overwintering sites in central Mexico to breeding grounds in the Upper Midwest and southern Canada. The western population migrates from overwintering sites along the Pacific Coast in California and Baja California in Mexico to breeding grounds west of the Rocky Mountains. Monarchs in other locations throughout the world, such as in Europe and many Pacific Islands, don’t migrate and are not part of the listing.
Monarchs are particularly susceptible to threats during the parts of their annual cycle when many millions of them cluster together. For example, a winter storm in March 2016 killed 31%-40% of the monarchs in some overwintering colonies in central Mexico. Winter storms also blow down trees, which can reduce habitat for overwintering colonies in subsequent years.
Temperature and precipitation can influence monarchs’ spring and fall migrations and breeding season success. For example, spring weather is an important factor influencing the size of the summer monarch population. Slightly warmer and drier springs produce more monarchs on the summer breeding grounds.
Are monarch butterflies protected in the US?
Not yet, although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes that they are at risk.
The agency received a petition in 2014 to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. It concluded in 2020 that listing the monarch was warranted but precluded. This means that while monarchs are at risk of extinction, they are less at risk than other species that are currently higher priorities, such as the rusty patched bumblebee.
That decision put monarchs on the candidate list, where the agency reviews their status every year. Only a subset of species on the IUCN Red List is also protected under the Endangered Species Act. For insects, that number is less than 20%.
The IUCN report estimates that the eastern monarch population has declined by 22%-72% over the past decade, and the western population has declined by 66%-91%. Evaluating trends for insect populations can be challenging because they tend to fluctuate from year to year.
Another challenge for measuring the populations of migratory species is that patterns can differ depending on when in the annual cycle they are evaluated, such as breeding versus overwintering. To estimate how many eastern monarchs overwinter in central Mexico, scientists measure how many hectares of trees are covered with monarchs and convert that number into an estimated number of butterflies.
Many factors influence how densely monarchs cluster together in trees on their overwintering grounds. Estimates based on data from the summer breeding grounds are also challenging because monarchs go through multiple generations per year and breed across a large area.
Would an ‘endangered’ listing in the US help monarchs?
Migratory monarchs have a huge range that extends from southern Canada to central Mexico and includes all of the contiguous U.S. They use many types of open habitats, from prairies to urban parks. This makes it challenging to implement and enforce regulatory actions.
The IUCN report points out that the decline of the eastern migratory population seems to have slowed, or even stabilized, over the past 10 years. The 2014 petition to list monarchs under the U.S. Endangered Species Act spurred many actions to support monarchs that likely contributed to slowing their decline, from planting milkweeds and nectar plants in home gardens to large-scale restoration projects.
Supporting these efforts could provide more benefits than a listing under the Endangered Species Act. When a species is listed, the federal government produces a recovery plan that often includes restrictions on actions that threaten the species, such as hunting or land development. Studies have found that private land owners often become less willing to participate in conservation activities, such as allowing researchers to monitor the species on their property, after a species is listed.
It’s hard to say whether listing monarchs would have this effect. People love monarch butterflies, and community science projects that involve activities like monitoring eggs and caterpillars and tagging monarchs are very popular. Data collected by citizen scientists has expanded what researchers know about monarchs. Many of these efforts have taken place over large areas and long time spans that would be hard for scientists to replicate.
I see community scientists as critical for informing monarch conservation efforts, and hope the IUCN’s action will inspire more people to get involved.