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One of Lake County’s members of Congress announced this week that he is an original cosponsor of the Green New Deal.

Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05) joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a host of others in supporting the legislation, which outlines broad recommendations on how to aggressively address the threat of climate change over the next decade.

“Climate change is the most existential threat we face today. I have long said that if we do not act now nothing else we do matters because there won’t be a planet to pass on to our children. That’s why I am a proud, original cosponsor of the Green New Deal, a resolution stating the steps we must take to address climate change,” Thompson said.

“Today the United States Congress is making a bold statement about climate change. We are saying that we must take this threat seriously, that we must take action, and that we must use every tool at our disposal to get this done. This includes strengthening our resiliency against future disasters exacerbated by climate change, modernizing our infrastructure, deepening our renewable energy capacity, and mitigating the negative health and economic impacts we are already experiencing due to climate change,” he continued.

I am proud of our new majority for taking this important step forward and stand willing and ready to continue on this path toward addressing climate change,” Thompson concluded.

You can click here to read the text of the Green New Deal.

Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Caltrans announced this week that the California Transportation Commission has approved $54.8 million in transportation projects across the state, including funding for work needed to advance a bridge project in Lake County.

The commission allocated the funds for 46 projects throughout California including $31.1 million for fix-it-first projects funded by Senate Bill 1, or SB 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017.

This funding will allow Caltrans to repair or replace 16 bridges, 168 lane miles and 150 drainage systems statewide.

In addition, 248 congestion reducing elements will be installed, including highway message signs, cameras and loop detectors to improve traffic flow.

“As a new year begins, we continue our commitment to improve California’s highways, providing drivers with a smoother ride,” said Caltrans Director Laurie Berman. “SB 1 is not only allowing us to fix our highways and local roads, but it is also reducing congestion, which allows residents and visitors to get where they need to go more safely and reliably.”

Area projects allocated SB 1 funds includes support costs for a bridge project on State Route 20 in Lake County.

This planned project will replace Bachelor Creek bridge near Upper Lake, approximately 3 miles west of the State Route 20/29 intersection.

The current multi-plate steel culvert bridge will be replaced with precast concrete box culverts. The project was allocated $14,000 in right-of-way support costs.

Also getting funding is a bridge project on State Route 96 and U.S. Highway 101 in Humboldt County which will revamp three bridges at the Willow Creek Bridge on Route 96, the Camp Creek Bridge on Route 96 in Orleans and the G Street Overcrossing along U.S. Highway 101 in Arcata. The project was allocated $171,000 in right-of-way support costs.

The Commission also allocated more than $13.7 million for 21 active transportation projects. Of these,13 received approximately $6.7 million in SB 1 funding to improve sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and provide safer routes to school for children who ride their bicycles or walk to school.

Since SB 1 was signed into law in April 2017, Caltrans has repaired or replaced 71 bridges, paved more than 1,300 lane miles, and increased visibility for drivers by adding highly reflective six-inch striping to more than 7,000 lane miles throughout California.

To date, Caltrans has completed 90 fix-it-first projects and begun work on nearly 400 additional projects.

You can find the complete list of State Highway Operations and Protection Program, or SHOPP, projects that were allocated funds at the January meeting at http://catc.ca.gov/meetings/2019/2019-01/Yellows/Revised_Complete_Book(697).pdf .

SHOPP is the state highway system’s "fix-it-first" program that funds safety improvements, emergency repairs, highway preservation and operational highway improvements. A significant portion of the funding for this program comes from SB 1.

SB 1 invests $5.4 billion per year to fix roads, freeways and bridges in communities across California and puts more dollars toward transit. These funds are split equally between state and local investments and will allow Caltrans to fix more than 17,000 lane miles of pavement, 500 bridges and 55,000 culverts by 2027.

In second marriages, how a person provides for his or her surviving spouse (or registered domestic partner) and/or surviving minor children often involves balancing their concern for the needs and expectations of their second family with their concern for the needs and expectations of any children from a prior relationship.

Unfortunately, the children from any prior marriage may be more concerned about their inheritances than they are about the welfare of their step-parent and/or their half-siblings.

Conflict may arise over the distribution of the estate, particularly as regards the sale of, and the distribution of the proceeds from, the deceased spouse’s residence, which the surviving spouse and minor children may still need to live-in.

The decedent’s residence is often the most valuable asset. Additional pressure can come from the decedent’s creditors.

Determining what protections the decedent’s surviving spouse and minor children involves answering numerous questions.

Was the decedent prior to death already required by family court order(s) to provide for his or her dependents by writing a will, establishing a trust or maintaining life insurance for their benefit?

Is the decedent’s estate subject to a probate? Does the decedent’s will or trust include protections for the family?

What assets go to the surviving spouse as surviving joint tenant? Do the decedent’s individual bank accounts, life insurance, annuities, and retirement plans go to the surviving spouse as designated death beneficiary?

In a probate, the California Probate Code provides Family Protections for the decedent’s surviving spouse and minor children against claims by the decedent’s creditors and heirs or beneficiaries under his will.

The Probate Code’s Family Protections apply only to the decedent’s probate estate; they do not apply to any non probate assets, such as, trust assets, joint tenancy assets, and financial assets designating surviving death beneficiaries.

A spouse’s own family protections rights can be modified or waived in a pre or post marital agreement and terminate upon legal separation, dissolution of marriage and upon remarriage. The rights of minor children end when they become adults.

The decedent’s surviving spouse and minor children are entitled to immediate, albeit temporary, possession of the family dwelling and the decedent’s clothing, appliances, household furniture, tools and vehicles.

Temporary possession ends 60 days after an inventory and appraisal of the decedent’s estate is filed in the probate proceedings, but can be extended by court order.

After filing the Inventory, the probate court may, at its discretion, then set-aside certain estate property for continued use by the surviving spouse and minors during the probate. The probate court may also grant a family allowance to be paid from the probate estate.

Most importantly, the court may set-aside a suitable dwelling for the surviving spouse and/or minor children by creating a “probate homestead.”

In selecting a suitable dwelling and establishing the duration for the Probate Homestead, the Court balances various competing interests of the surviving spouse, the minor children, the decedent’s creditors, and the decedent’s heirs or beneficiaries under the decedent’s will.

A surviving spouse and minor children are not required to be in the decedent’s will to receive a probate homestead.

With assets held in a trust, the trust provisions, and not the foregoing probate code family protections, apply. Any desired family protections must be contained in the trust.

The trust may provide outright gifts, gifts to be held in further trust, and/or with temporary rights, like the right to remain in the decedent’s residence rent free for a certain period (e.g. while it is listed for sale) to the beneficiaries.

While a probate homestead can sometimes be more advantageous to the surviving family, well drafted family protections inside a trust are usually more desirable: Neither a court petition nor the court’s discretion in selecting the property and dwelling to be set-aside are involved.

The family protections to be provided are defined and approved prior to the decedent’s death and are more immediately available upon the decedent’s death, and may last longer.

The foregoing discussion is not legal advice. To protect your surviving dependents consult a licensed estate planning attorney for assistance.

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. His Web site is www.DennisFordhamLaw.com.

Remember the old adage: Big things come in small packages?

NASA has updated it – in the form of CubeSats.

Imagine a real, working satellite that’s so small you can hold it in your hands: Just 4 inches (10 cm) across, these cubes can be expanded incrementally depending on their specific mission objectives.

The technology packed into these tiny denizens of space is impressive. Originally developed in 1999 by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Stanford University for educational purposes, NASA has since used them for new science missions and to test new electronics, sensors and software that might be included on larger missions.

“The ability to test new technology at a fraction of the cost of a larger satellite makes them invaluable. It really opens your eyes to many possibilities,” said NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Chief Technologist Mike Seablom.

Just as eye opening is the way CubeSats are quickly unlocking new scientific data.

For example, while conventional satellites have long observed clouds and have provided estimates of the liquid precipitation they hold, they have never observed the smaller ice particles that create enormous rain clouds.

The CubeSat known as IceCube contained a new submillimeter wavelength radiometer that could make a space-based measurement of the small, frozen crystals that make up ice clouds.

After being deployed from the International Space Station in May 2017, IceCube created a global map of ice clouds around the planet. Someday, this technique may help improve long range weather models and forecasts.

A long way from Earth, MarCO A and B traveled to Mars and are the only CubeSats so far to leave Earth’s orbit.

When the InSight mission was launched in May of 2018, the MarCO-A and MarCO-B CubeSats also began their 7 month journey to Mars. Now InSight has successfully landed on the red planet.

One of MarCO’s roles was to help relay communications during InSight’s landing process. Landing data was transmitted to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter where its radio stored and forwarded results to Earth after a delay.

MarCO A and B acted as a “bent pipe” signal relay during this critical stage of the mission to allow communication from Mars to Earth to happen in almost real time!

According to Charles Norton, special advisor for small spacecraft missions in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, another advantage of these compact cubes is they allow for very focused scientific inquiries to take place.

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer CubeSat, or MinXSS, for example, is a student project using a commercial, laboratory detector in space.

MinXSS measures the soft X-ray solar spectrum in the gap of energy coverage between two other missions, RHESSI and IRIS.

This “gap region” in the solar spectrum is important in the excitation of the Earth’s ionosphere and of particular interest for observations of solar flares and active regions.

Or consider a discovery as monumental as the origin of the universe itself. One longstanding mystery for astrophysicists is where one third of the Baryonic or ordinary matter that existed during the early formation of the universe might be found today.

Scientists suspect it lies in the very hot halos of gas that surround galaxies. HaloSat is a CubeSat that will examine X-rays from oxygen atoms surrounding our Milky Way to determine how much missing matter may lie in the halo of our galaxy.

While small in size, CubeSats have potential to make big scientific and technological impacts on Earth, in our solar system, and deep into the universe.

For more about other science missions, both big and small, visit http://science.nasa.gov.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Forecasters have issued a winter storm warning for Lake County and other parts of Northern California as new storms headed toward the region are expected to bring still more snow.

The warning goes into effect at 4 p.m. Friday and will remain active until 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service said two cold storms are forecast to bring significant snowfall to
the Northern California mountains and higher foothills over the weekend, which also will result in periods of dangerous winter driving conditions.

Forecasters expected the first storm will bring light mountain snow as early on Friday, followed by moderate snowfall Friday night through early Saturday.

A second and stronger storm will bring heavy snowfall Saturday afternoon through Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.

The National Weather Service said these cold systems will bring low snow levels with many foothill locations seeing snowfall again throughout the weekend.

Heavy snowfall is expected above 2,500 feet, with light accumulations down to 1,000 feet, based on the forecast.

For much of Lake County, snow is in the forecast from Friday through Tuesday. New snow accumulations are predicted to be half an inch a day from Friday through Saturday, with 1 to 2 inches possible on Sunday.

Daytime temperatures through the weekend will range from the high 30s to the mid-40s, while nighttime temperatures will drop into the mid-20s on Sunday night and rise slightly into the 30s the rest of the week.

There also will be light winds in the single digits on Saturday, with predictions of winds into the low 20s – and gusts into the 30s – on Saturday night in the south county.

With the Cobb area expected to get significant snowfall all day Friday, ahead of much of Lake County, on Thursday night the Middletown Unified School District canceled school in Cobb on Friday.

In a message posted on the district’s Facebook page, Middletown Superintendent Catherine Stone said that because of the snow the district also will not be able to send buses up the mountain to pick up Middletown Middle School and Middletown High School students, so Friday will be an excused absense.

Stone said all other schools will be in session and other buses will run as normal.

District officials will watch the weather next week closely as “we are concerned that we may need to have a late start due to ice on Monday morning,” Stone said. She urged parents to check the district Facebook page or Web site, or to call the district at 707-987-4149 for updated information.

All other Lake County schools will be open on Friday, according to the Lake County Office of Education.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors has directed county Community Development Department staff to begin contacting Valley fire area property owners whose temporary dwelling permits, offered under direction of the governor, have expired.

Community Development Director Michalyn DelValle and Chief Building Official Mary Jane Montana appeared before the board on Tuesday morning to discuss the issue.

DelValle said former Gov. Jerry Brown’s executive order – issued at the start of October 2015, just days before the fire, which ravaged the south county, was fully contained – suspended all land use and zoning ordinances for a period of three years, allowing for temporary dwellings.

She said that executive order expired Oct. 1.

Community Development records show the department issued 152 Valley fire temporary dwelling permits, 19 of which are still being used, DelValle said.

DelValle said she and her staff wanted the board’s guidance on how to move forward now that the governor’s executive order has expired and the rules it suspended in the county’s zoning ordinance are back in effect.

“We wanted to find out if we need to notify these 19 temporary dwelling permit holders that their permits have expired,” she said.

Supervisor Moke Simon, whose district includes most of the fire area, said he attended the Anderson Springs Community Alliance meeting last month, “And it definitely is an issue that keeps coming up,” both in Anderson Springs and across the entire Valley fire footprint.

Simon asked if an inventory had been done of the 19 remaining dwellings to see if they are in the process of rebuilding, or in any process at all. “What we don’t need is long term, which I think we’re getting.”

If those property owners aren’t doing anything, Simon said the county needed to send them a letter and encourage them to move forward. He said he thought the county had potentially been going to go on a case-by-case basis to look at the different properties.

“Those 19 remaining have not started the building permit process,” Montana replied.

Supervisor Rob Brown, who formerly served on the board of Hammers for Hope, one of the organizations that received state grant funding to assist fire survivors with rebuilding, said some applicants for that program were waiting to be approved through that process and were waiting to apply to the county for permits.

Simon said it was a similar situation with Hope City, another organization assisting with the rebuild. “I do believe that we need to get notice out to them, we need to let them know that the three years is up, you need to be in process,” and that the county can then slowly work through each case. He said he was willing to help make contact with the individuals involved.

Montana said Community Development is proposing to send a letter to those 19 permit holders letting them know that their temporary permits have expired and that in order to comply with county regulations they need to submit a building permit so they can stay there while the new house is being constructed.

She said they also would remind the 19 that the county recently had reduced the minimum square footage – from 720 to 360 square feet – which will be less of a financial challenge to rebuild for some, and then give them a timeframe to comply. She proposed six months, or 180 days, to submit a building permit application.

Montana said that plan doesn’t include the people living on properties in RVs who never got the temporary dwelling permits in the first place. She said they will be handled separately, and notified that they don’t comply with county rules and that they need to take action.

“They need to be notified that that’s no longer an option for them until they submit their building permit,” she said.

Simon asked if she had a number for those unpermitted RVs. She didn’t, but offered an educated guess of between 20 and 25, based on what she’s seen in the field.

Brown said it would be worth cross-referencing the temporary permit holders with those who have applied to Hammers for Hope, Hope City and Habitat for Humanity, noting that there had been some challenges getting people qualified for the rebuilding assistance. He said it’s not happening that fast for them due to no fault of their own.

Board Chair Tina Scott asked Montana if staff could add language to that effect, and Montana said they could ask in the letter if they have applications in place and, if so, to let Community Development know.

Brown said that, overall, 19 isn’t a huge number, and only about 1 percent of the structures lost in the Valley fire. “I’m with moke, we can’t go on forever with it. But, I know that, people are doing the best they can in a lot of cases.”

Special Districts Administrator Jan Coppinger said she’s working on the new sewer system project in Anderson Springs. She has about 15 people in that area that she’s not sure will qualify for state assistance in upgrading their systems because she doesn’t know if they have gone through the permit process. She said she knows who is on the list for Hope City and the state because they’ve contacted her.

However, there are a few people living in situations that are not legal, some of them letting sewage spill on the ground. “I don’t want to legitimize that,” Coppinger said.

“We need to deal with that right away,” said Brown.

Coppinger said she has sent pictures and information to Environmental Health, but that the people say they have no place to go.

Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he approved of the idea of the letter and how to address the situation. He said people are proposing different types of dwellings, like conex boxes, or cargo containers. But he agreed that something needed to be done separately with those who weren’t permitted in the first place and are creating health hazards.

“We’ve got to start somewhere,” and the letter is a great place to start, said Simon. He said he and Brown likely will be the first to get the phone calls, and they can work to find if the remaining 19 qualify for help and hopefully get them moved in the right direction. He said some people are just now getting building permits after three years, and others are still in the approval stages.

Brown suggested including contact information for Hammers for Hope and Hope City in the letter, since the property owners may not know that’s an option.

Simon also asked to see a draft of the letter before it goes out.

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.