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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Teacher, nonprofit communications director and former Lake County resident Nils Palsson has filed as a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the Fifth Congressional District in the upcoming 2018 midterm election.

The district includes all of Napa County and parts of Lake, Sonoma, Solano and Contra Costa Counties.

Running as an independent “no party preference” candidate, Palsson, 32, represents a platform of social, racial, environmental and economic justice for all, with an emphasis on getting money out of politics and restoring our democracy. He was also a candidate for this Congressional seat in 2016.

Palsson is challenging ten-term Democratic incumbent Mike Thompson. One of the main factors leading Palsson to declare his candidacy was his discovery that Thompson accepts major political contributions from big banks and some of the worlds largest and most destructive corporations. Thompson’s political donors include military-industrial giants Honeywell and Lockheed Martin, mega-banks JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, telecom companies Verizon and Comcast, big pharmaceutical and health insurance corporations, fossil fuel companies, and many other large corporate PAC’s and lobbyists.

Palsson accepts no such lobbyist or Super-PAC contributions, building his campaign entirely on small individual donations and grassroots community action.

“Big money has taken over politics,” Palsson wrote in his official candidate statement, which will be mailed home to voters in April. “I am running for this office because we, the people, deserve a voice in government.”

Palsson has pledged to lead the movement in Congress to impeach President Trump, resist his policies, and support legislation for Medicare for All, affordable housing and education, a living wage, immigration reform, and a strong response to climate change.

A self-described “Berniecrat” (a progressive political candidate aligned with the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders), Palsson was elected to be a delegate for Sanders in 2016.

Palsson, who resided in Lake County from 2010 to 2016, currently lives in Santa Rosa, where he serves as communications director for the sustainability and community resilience nonprofit Transition US, national hub of the global “Transition Towns” movement to respond to climate change and economic instability by creating strong local communities and economies. Palsson also works as a science teacher, and formerly taught US and World History at Kelseyville High School. Before working toward his teaching credential, Palsson also substitute-taught in many grade levels and districts all around Lake County.

Achieving tuition-free public college and universal pre-K for all children, and ending the student debt crisis for the millions of Americans crippled by student loans, are among Palsson’s legislative priorities.

Father to 5-year-old Satya Rose, Palsson writes that parental concerns are a driving force behind his run for Congress. “The climate crisis is very real, and harmful practices like fracking are polluting our groundwater. The status quo is failing our children and grandchildren, failing future generations,” he writes. “Future generations will judge us for the actions we take right now to reverse the climate crisis and build a just society for all.”

Palsson claims that his refusal to accept corporate lobbyist funding places him in a stronger position to be a faithful representative to the people. “Unlike most of the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, including our own incumbent Congressman, I do not accept money from the fossil fuel industry or big banks. I will work to ensure that all our children inherit a healthy planet, a strong economy, and a just society. I stand with the people.”

Endorsements for Palsson’s 2016 campaign included the national group Elect Bernie Thinkers, and he is currently supported by a growing list of community members and working people from around the district.

Running in a four-way primary on June 5, in which the top two candidates advance to the November election regardless of party, Palsson hopes to be the one to challenge the long-time incumbent. The race also includes one Green Party candidate, Jason Kishineff, as well as an additional No Party Preference candidate, Anthony Mills, whose Facebook profile lists him as a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Palsson supports a Constitutional Amendment to end what he refers to as “the disastrous Citizens United ruling” and establish that corporations are not people, and that campaign contributions do not constitute free speech.

Born in San Francisco and educated at New York University, Palsson moved to Lake County in 2010, where he became involved in grassroots efforts to build a stronger local community.

He was displaced during the Valley Fire of 2015. Although the fire didn’t consume his home, Palsson was ultimately displaced when his landlords chose to sell the home he was renting in the burn zone. He subsequently moved to Santa Rosa.

“I am just like the rest of the people in my district,” Palsson wrote in a statement. “I’m dealing directly with challenges like student debt and the housing crisis. I know how it feels to be a working-class parent – and I am ready to represent the working-class people of this district in Congress.”

More information about his campaign is available at www.NilsforCongress.com. 

The primary election will be held June 5. The deadline to register to vote is May 21.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has six mixed-breed dogs this week eager to get to their new homes.

The dogs offered adoption this week include mixes of German Shepherd, Labrador Retriever, pit bull and shepherd.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Pit bull terrier

This female pit bull terrier has a short brown and blue coat.

She’s in kennel No. 7, ID No. 9588.

Pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix

This male pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 9591.

Female shepherd mix

This female shepherd mix has a medium-length tan and brown coat and floppy ears.

She’s in kennel No. 16, ID No. 9658.

Terrier mix

This male terrier mix has a tan and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 9659.

‘Onyx’

“Onyx” is a female shepherd mix.

She has a medium-length black coat with white markings, and already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 4174.

‘Daisy’

“Daisy” is a female black Labrador Retriever.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 24, ID No.9698.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

On the outskirts of our galaxy, a cosmic tug-of-war is unfolding – and only NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope can see who’s winning.

The players are two dwarf galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, both of which orbit our own Milky Way Galaxy.

But as they go around the Milky Way, they are also orbiting each other. Each one tugs at the other, and one of them has pulled out a huge cloud of gas from its companion.

Called the Leading Arm, this arching collection of gas connects the Magellanic Clouds to the Milky Way. Roughly half the size of our galaxy, this structure is thought to be about one or two billion years old. Its name comes from the fact that it’s leading the motion of the Magellanic Clouds.

The enormous concentration of gas is being devoured by the Milky Way and feeding new star birth in our galaxy. But which dwarf galaxy is doing the pulling, and whose gas is now being feasted upon? After years of debate, scientists now have the answer to this “whodunit” mystery.

“There’s been a question: Did the gas come from the Large Magellanic Cloud or the Small Magellanic Cloud? At first glance, it looks like it tracks back to the Large Magellanic Cloud,” explained lead researcher Andrew Fox of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. “But we’ve approached that question differently, by asking: What is the Leading Arm made of? Does it have the composition of the Large Magellanic Cloud or the composition of the Small Magellanic Cloud?”

Fox’s research is a followup to his 2013 work, which focused on a trailing feature behind the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. This gas in this ribbon-like structure, called the Magellanic Stream, was found to come from both dwarf galaxies.

Now Fox wondered about its counterpart, the Leading Arm. Unlike the trailing Magellanic Stream, this tattered and shredded “arm” has already reached the Milky Way and survived its journey to the galactic disk.

The Leading Arm is a real-time example of gas accretion, the process of gas falling onto galaxies. This is very difficult to see in galaxies outside the Milky Way, because they are too far away and too faint. “As these two galaxies are in our backyard, we essentially have a front-row seat to view the action,” said collaborator Kat Barger at Texas Christian University.

In a new kind of forensics, Fox and his team used Hubble’s ultraviolet vision to chemically analyze the gas in the Leading Arm. They observed the light from seven quasars, the bright cores of active galaxies that reside billions of light-years beyond this gas cloud. Using Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the scientists measured how this light filters through the cloud.

In particular, they looked for the absorption of ultraviolet light by oxygen and sulfur in the cloud. These are good gauges of how many heavier elements reside in the gas.

The team then compared Hubble’s measurements to hydrogen measurements made by the National Science Foundation’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, as well as several other radio telescopes.

“With the combination of Hubble and Green Bank Telescope observations, we can measure the composition and velocity of the gas to determine which dwarf galaxy is the culprit,” explained Barger.

After much analysis, the team finally had conclusive chemical “fingerprints” to match the origin of the Leading Arm’s gas. “We’ve found that the gas matches the Small Magellanic Cloud,” said Fox. “That indicates the Large Magellanic Cloud is winning the tug-of-war, because it has pulled so much gas out of its smaller neighbor.”

This answer was possible only because of Hubble’s unique ultraviolet capability. Because of the filtering effects of Earth’s atmosphere, ultraviolet light cannot be studied from the ground. “Hubble is the only game in town,” explained Fox. “All the lines of interest, including oxygen and sulfur, are in the ultraviolet. So if you work in the optical and infrared, you can’t see them.”

Gas from the Leading Arm is now crossing the disk of our galaxy. As it crosses, it interacts with the Milky Way’s own gas, becoming shredded and fragmented.

This is an important case study of how gas gets into galaxies and fuels star birth. Astronomers use simulations and try to understand the inflow of gas in other galaxies. But here, the gas is being caught red-handed as it moves across the Milky Way’s disk. Sometime in the future, planets and solar systems in our galaxy may be born out of material that used to be part of the Small Magellanic Cloud.

As Fox and his team look ahead, they hope to map out the full size of the Leading Arm – something that is still unknown.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

For more information visit NASA's Hubble Portal at www.nasa.gov/hubble or see the science paper at https://media.stsci.edu/preview/file/science_paper/file_attachment/311/Fox_published_APJ_paper.pdf.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Clearlake Oaks man charged for an October shooting spree in which he killed his father and a friend, shot and wounded two others including a California Highway Patrol officer, attempted to kill three others and set two fires as he fled has been ordered to stand trial.

On Wednesday, at the end of his preliminary hearing, Alan Leroy Ashmore, 62, was held to answer in the case, according to District Attorney Don Anderson, who is handling the case prosecution.

Ashmore’s defense attorney is Andrea Sullivan, who administers Lake County’s indigent defense contract.

“The evidence from the prosecution at the preliminary hearing revealed that Mr. Ashmore was making strange statements and bizarre claims in an interview with police after the incident,” Sullivan said.

“The issue in Mr. Ashmore’s case is not whether or not he committed the alleged acts, but his frame of mind and mental state at that time,” she said.

Anderson said Ashmore is charged with two counts of murder for the deaths of his father Douglas Ashmore and his friend Richard Braden; two counts of attempted murder regarding Harold Noell and Mauro Lopez; one count of attempted murder of a peace officer for CHP Officer Steven Patrick, who was injured when he was hit in his bulletproof vest by a shotgun slug; five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of shooting at an occupied dwelling, two counts of arson, robbery, burglary and a felon in possession of a firearm.

Anderson told Lake County News in a February interview that he would not seek the death penalty for Ashmore because of his age and the fact that, before the shootings, he had little criminal background.

During the daylong preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Anderson presented evidence alleging that on Oct. 23, Ashmore went on a shooting spree in Clearlake Oaks.

Ashmore first shot his female friend, Cantra Hoeck, in the foot because she would not have sex with him. When his father tried to intervene, Alan Ashmore shot him in the face, instantly killing him, Anderson said.

Ashmore then tried to kill his neighbor, Harold Noell, who witnessed the first shooting; however, the pistol misfired and Noell escaped. Anderson said Ashmore then fired several rounds into three separate residences from both inside and outside of the residences.

Anderson said Ashmore drove to the end of Anchor Village and shot and Killed Richard Braden with several rounds from his shotgun while Braden was seated in his vehicle.

Just prior to leaving the area Ashmore shot one round from his shotgun at Officer Patrick, striking Patrick on the side of his abdomen. Patrick was wearing his bulletproof vest, but still received a large bruise, Anderson said.

Patrick returned to work in January after three months off duty, as Lake County News has reported.

After injuring Officer Patrick, Ashmore drove to the Chevron Station on Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks where he met Mauro Lopez. After accidentally bumping into each other, Ashmore fired one round, barely missing Lopez’s head. Ashmore then stole a Pepsi from the store and when leaving the store he was shot at by Lopez, Anderson said.

Anderson said Ashmore then drove to the other end of town and entered the Power Mart store where he stole a pack of cigarettes. While leaving the store he pointed the gun at the store clerk. Once outside the store Ashmore fired several rounds.

Ashmore drove up High Valley Road with sheriff’s deputies and Patrick a few minutes behind him. Ashmore stopped along side of the road where he lit two fires to bring attention to that area, Anderson said.

Ashmore then drove to the Brassfield Winery where he encountered James Davis. Ashmore pointed a gun at Davis in an attempt to steal his vehicle. Davis was able to escape after a high speed chase from Ashmore, Anderson said.

After leaving Brassfield Winery and deputies in pursuit, Ashmore continued up High Valley Road until he came across a road block set up sheriff’s deputies, CHP and Lakeport Police officers. Anderson said Ashmore surrendered without resistance.

As for a possible motive, in a previous interview, Anderson said that Ashmore told investigators after he was taken into custody that he “would just kill anyone that f****** moved.

The next steps in the process of moving the case to trial involve Ashmore going back to court for arraignment, which Anderson said is set for April 24.

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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Two broken power poles discovered on Friday night led to power outages in Lower Lake and Kelseyville, with an extended road closure of Gaddy Court due to the damaged pole and downed lines.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m. Lake County Fire Protection District firefighters were dispatched to a report of arcing power lines off of Highway 29 near Spruce Grove Road outside of Lower Lake.

In less than 10 minutes Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta had found an issue with a pole off of Riata Road.

Pacific Gas and Electric reported that an outage affecting 271 people began at 8:55 p.m. in that area, extending down to outside of Hidden Valley Lake.

Repair crews arriving at the scene found a broken power pole in the area, PG&E said. Power is estimated to be restored by 4 a.m.

A few hours later another broken power pole and downed power lines in Kelseyville led to an extended closure of Gaddy Court beginning late Friday night.

Firefighters were first dispatched to the area of State Street and Gaddy Lane near Gaddy Court at around 11:30 p.m. on a report of downed lines and a pole.

Kelseyville Fire Protection District firefighters arrived on the scene minutes later to find a severed pole suspended over the roadway and downed lines, based on radio reports.

Radio reports indicated that incident command requested a county roads crew respond to the area to help manage the extended road closure and also asked PG&E to send a repair crew.

The California Highway Patrol would later report that Gaddy Court would be closed through the night from Blue Court to Clark Drive.

At the same time, PG&E reported a power outage in the area impacting approximately 321 customers which began at 11:30 p.m. Friday.

As of 1:30 a.m., PG&E had confirmed the discovery of a broken power pole but did not give a reason for it nor an estimated time of power restoration.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.

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.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has presented a $75,000 check to the Lake Area Rotary Club Association for an important local safety project.

PG&E’s Kevin Dasso, vice president of electric asset management, announced the company’s support for the project during the Clearlake City Council meeting on Thursday night.

“Years of drought, extreme heat and more than 129 million dead and dying trees have created a ‘new normal’ for our state, and we want to work together with our communities to be sure we are
continually adapting to meet these challenges. Unfortunately, no community has experienced this new normal more consistently than Lake County,” said Dasso, as he addressed council members.

Dasso said the funds will go toward improving response capability and strengthening the community’s resilience.

To that end, Lake Area Rotary Club Association, or LARCA, said the funds will be used to purchase a generator for Clearlake’s senior and community center, which during the county’s wildland fires has served as an emergency evacuation shelter.

“I’m just elated. We have been fundraising for several years to get the money to purchase and install a backup generator as well as showers and other necessities for the community senior center and now with PG&E’s donation, it’s finally going to happen.This means a lot to the city of Clearlake,” said Russ Cremer with the Lake Area Rotary Club Association.

Lake County has experienced five large wildfires in the past four years, all of which destroyed structures and required evacuations.

During these fires, the Clearlake Community Senior Center was open to evacuees as an emergency shelter. Given its proximity to the fires, the center lost power during two of those emergencies.

The community has been working on a solution for future emergencies – including purchasing a backup generator.

The generator will enable the community to have a fully-functioning emergency shelter in Clearlake, officials said.

“The community has welcomed us with open arms and the out-of-town crews who supplemented our local response to the recent wildfires have come away with such an appreciation for the beauty of this place and the kindness of the people here,” added Dasso.

PG&E said the donation is part of its larger strategy to assist communities in confronting the consequences of climate change.

That strategy was announced in late 2017 along with a $1 million shareholder contribution to the California Climate Challenge, a new corporate-giving initiative dedicated to helping communities prepare for, withstand and recover from extreme events caused by climate change.

The strategy has three major pillars:

– Respond: PG&E will work to support the effectiveness of first responders in both preventing and combating wildfires.

– Rebuild: PG&E will support fire-impacted communities and help them restore and rebuild what’s been lost for as long as it takes.

– Resilience: PG&E will support California’s efforts to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change, including infrastructure resiliency.

Also this week, PG&E announced its Community Wildfire Safety Program, a comprehensive effort in conjunction with first responders, civic and community leaders and customers to reduce
wildfire threats and improve safety.

For details on the new program as well as information on how PG&E is helping with rebuilding efforts in the areas impacted by the Northern California wildfires, visit www.pgecommitment.com.