News

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – To help victims of the devastating Clayton fire, Safeway is partnering with the Lake Area Rotary Club Association, or LARCA, to raise funds for the LARCA Fire Relief Fund. 

Donations can be made at check stands in select Safeway stores now through Aug. 31 to help local fire relief efforts.
 
The Safeway stores in the following cities are collecting donations through Aug. 31: American Canyon, Arcata, Benicia, Clearlake, Corte Madera, Crescent City, Eureka, Fort Bragg, Fortuna, Guerneville, Healdsburg, Lakeport, McKinleyville, Mill Valley, Napa, Novato, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, San Anselmo, San Rafael, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, St. Helena, Ukiah, Vallejo, Willits and Windsor.
 

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is presenting an interactive exploration of Lake County varietals, appellations and wine making styles co-hosted by Shannon Michele. 

The series aims to help participants advance their sensory evaluation and wine tasting skills with specially selected varietals, flights and verticals paired with "snackatizers" to compliment the wine tasting experience.

The third session in the series from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, will focus on Pinot Noir, Grenache and Sangiovese.

Date and featured wines to follow are: Oct. 23 (Rhone Red Wines) $25/each session per person. Seating is limited. For reservations and additional information, contact Susan at 707-293-8752.

Lake County Wine Studio is both a gallery for display of arts and a tasting room, wine bar and retail shop for the fine wines of Lake County.

Artists' shows are held on a monthly basis with art and wine receptions held the first Friday and subsequent Saturday of each month except in January. 

The gallery is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake. June to August it is open daily from 1 to 7 p.m. and on Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.

The art show on display for the month of August is by Denise Rushing.

For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030 or visit www.lakecountywinestudio.com .

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has warned consumers not to eat rock crabs caught in Half Moon Bay and bivalve shellfish and rock crabs caught in Monterey Bay, due to the detection of dangerous levels of domoic acid, a naturally occurring toxin.
 
The warning is effective for crabs and bivalve shellfish caught in state waters south of Latitude 37° 11′ N. (near Pigeon Point) and north of Latitude 36° 35′ N (near Cypress Point in Monterey County).
 
Symptoms of domoic acid poisoning can occur within 30 minutes to 24 hours after eating toxic seafood.

In mild cases, symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headache and dizziness. These symptoms disappear within several days.

In severe cases, the victim may experience trouble breathing, confusion, disorientation, cardiovascular instability, seizures, excessive bronchial secretions, permanent loss of short term memory (a condition known as Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning), coma or death. There have been no reported illnesses associated with this event.
 
This advisory covers consumption of recreationally or commercially caught rock crab or recreationally caught mussels, clams, and the internal organs (viscera) of scallops caught in the specified area.

Dangerous levels of domoic acid have been detected in some of these species and are also likely to be present in the other species mentioned above.

Domoic acid accumulation in seafood is a natural occurrence that is related to a ‘bloom’ of a particular single-celled plant. The conditions that support the growth of this plant are impossible to predict.
 
Analysis of rock crabs recently caught in Half Moon Bay found domoic acid levels in the viscera at more than ten times the action level, which is set at 30 ppm.

While portions of Half Moon Bay, north of Pigeon Point, remain under a fishery closure, the spike in these levels in conjunction with an increase of the levels of domoic acid found in rock crabs and bivalves to the south in Monterey Bay, raise concern for crabs and bivalves taken from this entire geographic region.

This warning does not apply to commercially sold clams, mussels, scallops or oysters from approved sources. State law permits only state-certified commercial shellfish harvesters or dealers to sell these products. Shellfish sold by certified harvesters and dealers are subject to frequent mandatory testing to monitor for toxins.

CDPH will continue to coordinate its efforts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the fishing community to collect rock crab samples from the central and northern California coast until the domoic acid levels have dissipated.
 
To receive updated information about shellfish poisoning and quarantines, call CDPH’s toll-free Shellfish Information Line at 800-553-4133. For additional information, visit CDPH’s Natural Marine Toxins: PSP and Domoic Acid Web page and CDPH’s Domoic Acid health information Web page.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After a devastating arson fire delayed the start of the school year for local families and destroyed the local Habitat for Humanity office in Lower Lake, Pacific Gas and Electric Company has committed $40,000 to local organizations that are supporting the community in its recovery.

PG&E has been working around the clock since the Clayton fire broke out on Saturday, Aug. 13, restoring power, repairing and replacing damaged equipment, and supporting Cal Fire as it extinguishes the blaze.
 
The Konocti Unified School District will receive $15,000 and Habitat for Humanity Lake County will receive $25,000 from PG&E’s Foundation.

The funds will go toward school supplies and to help rebuild Habitat’s local office.
 
"We’re here to help our Lower Lake families and businesses get back on their feet. This is the second major fire in the area over the last 12 months. That’s unimaginable loss and creates a real struggle to maintain normal life for many people. We’re proud to contribute to both the school district and Habitat as they help everyone rebuild and recover," said Carl Schoenhofer, the local division manager for PG&E.
 
“While the fire has delayed the start of school, PG&E’s donation will help kids get a head start by filling an immediate need of school supplies, clothes, and whatever else they may have lost in the fire,” said Konocti Unified School District Superintendent Donna Becnel.
 
As of Friday afternoon, PG&E had restored power to all customers who were able to receive electric service.

PG&E customers who have questions and need support can call the company’s helpline day or night at 800-743-5000.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An out-of-area wildland fire – and not the Clayton fire – is the cause of the hazy air conditions over Lake County, according to the Lake County Air Quality Management District.

Lake County Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said the Cedar Fire in the Sequoia National Forest near Bakersfield is primarily responsible for the smoke and haze currently visible throughout Lake County.

The Cedar fire began Tuesday, and by early Saturday had burned 12,790 acres and was 5-percent contained, according to the US Forest Service.

Satellite imagery showed extreme levels of smoke generation drifting into the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. Gearhart said smoke can be expected to intrude into all of Lake County, with potential for moderate to unhealthy for sensitive individuals possible through the weekend.

Gearhart said the district is implementing an air monitoring plan Clayton fire recovery area and is monitoring for the transport smoke impacts. 

Current air quality in most of the county including Clearlake is generally considered good to moderate, though conditions in localized areas could reach unhealthy for sensitive individuals through the weekend, according to Gearhart.

Unhealthy air quality in the Clayton fire recovery area may result during and after repopulation due to the disturbance of ash and dust, Gearhart said.

Gearhart said exposure to ash and particulate from the fire can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and air passages, which can be hazardous in young children, the elderly, individuals with heart conditions or chronic lung disease such as asthma, bronchitis and other respiratory conditions. 

He urged community members to take precautions to minimize their exposure and to prevent exposing the community to the ash and dust in the burn area.

Localized areas of unhealthy air, regional haze and particulate from the Clayton fire are expected to continue throughout Lake County through the weekend until the weather pattern changes pushing the transported smoke back toward the Sacramento Valley, Gearhart said.

Eroded mesas and buttes reminiscent of the U.S. Southwest shape part of the horizon in the latest 360-degree color panorama from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.

The rover used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture dozens of component images of this scene on Aug. 5, 2016, four years after Curiosity's landing inside Gale Crater.

The visual drama of Murray Buttes along Curiosity's planned route up lower Mount Sharp was anticipated when the site was informally named nearly three years ago to honor Caltech planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), a former director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the Curiosity mission for NASA.

The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant to wind erosion.  This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer that formerly more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is now driving on.

Early in its mission on Mars, Curiosity accomplished its main goal when it found and examined an ancient habitable environment.

In an extended mission, the rover is examining successively younger layers as it climbs the lower part of Mount Sharp.

A key goal is to learn how freshwater lake conditions, which would have been favorable for microbes billions of years ago if Mars has ever had life, evolved into harsher, arid conditions much less suited to supporting life. The mission is also monitoring the modern environment of Mars.

These findings have been addressing high-priority goals for planetary science and further aid NASA’s preparations for a human mission to the Red Planet.

For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl or http://mars.nasa.gov/msl .