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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Debra was born in Buffalo, Wyo., to Donna Watchous West and Glen West. 

She passed from this life on July 17, 2016, in St. Helena, Calif. An accomplished craftsman and her love of flipping houses was well known.

She is survived by Sally West, Heather Regan, Summer Regan-Lampert, John and Anthony Ramirez and families in Louisiana and Texas.

A celebration of her amazing life will be held at 11 a.m. Aug. 6 with a luncheon gathering at her home on Island Circle in the Keys.

For further information, please contact Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary at 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Registrar of Voters reported that elected positions on local community services, fire protection and health care districts and boards of education will be on the ballot this fall.

Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley said the following seats will be part of the Nov. 8 election.

Northshore Fire Protection District

– Clearlake Oaks Zone: Four-year term.
– Upper Lake Zone: Four-year term.
– Lucerne Zone: Two-year unexpired term.

Redbud Health Care District

– Zone 1: One vacancy, four-year term.
– Zone 3: One vacancy, four-year term.
– Zone 5: One vacancy, four-year term.

Hidden Valley Lake Community Services District

– Three vacancies: Four-year terms.

Yuba Community College District

– Trustee Area No 7: One vacancy, four-year term. Areas covered: Lake County, Konocti and Middletown Unified school districts; Colusa County, Maxwell, Princeton and Williams Unified school districts; Glenn County, Stony Creek Joint Unified School District.

Konocti Unified School District

– Two vacancies: Four-year terms.

Middletown Unified School District

– Two vacancies: Four-year terms.

The filing period ends at 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12.

Official declaration of candidacy forms for eligible candidates desiring to file for the elective offices listed above may be obtained from the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office, located in Room 209 on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport, telephone 707-263-2372.

Regular business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Clear Lake Area California Highway Patrol will offer a free “Start Smart” traffic safety class for soon to-be-licensed, newly licensed, and teenage drivers and their parents or guardians on Wednesday, July 27.

The class will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Clear Lake Area CHP office, located at 5700 Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.

The leading cause of death for Americans 15 to 19 years old is motor vehicle collisions, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The CHP's goal is to reduce the death rate among young drivers as the result of these collisions.

“The CHP is committed to mitigating traffic collisions involving young, inexperienced drivers, because they are preventable,” said Lt. Hector Paredes, commander of the CHP's Clear Lake Area office. “Start Smart is an excellent program that promotes safe driving for young new drivers.”

The “Start Smart” program is aimed at helping newly licensed and future licensed teenage drivers understand the critical responsibilities of driving and to understand that accidents happen, but collisions are 100-percent preventable. 

The program is designed to provide an interactive safe driving awareness class which will illustrate how poor choices behind the wheel of a car can affect the lives of numerous people.

“Start Smart” also focuses on responsibilities of newly licensed drivers, responsibilities of parents or guardians and collision avoidance techniques.

Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP office, 707-279-0103.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the TV series “StarTrek” has captured the public’s imagination with the signature phrase, “To boldly go where no one has gone before.”

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope doesn't “boldly go” deep into space, but it is “boldly peering” deeper into the universe than ever before to explore the warping of space and time and uncover some of the farthest objects ever seen.

When “Star Trek” was first broadcast in 1966, the largest telescopes on Earth could only see about halfway across the universe – the rest was uncharted territory. But Hubble's powerful vision has carried us into the true “final frontier.”

This is epitomized in the latest Hubble image released today in time for the new motion picture “Star Trek Beyond.”

The Hubble image unveils a very cluttered-looking universe filled with galaxies near and far.

Some are distorted like a funhouse mirror through a warping-of-space phenomenon first predicted by Einstein a century ago.

In the center of the image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located four billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther.

Thanks to Hubble's exquisite sharpness, the photo unveils the effect of space warping due to gravity.

The huge mass of the cluster distorts and magnifies the light from galaxies that lie far behind it due to an effect called gravitational lensing. This phenomenon allows Hubble to see galaxies that would otherwise be too small and faint to observe.

This “warp field” makes it possible to get a peek at the very first generation of galaxies. Already, an infant galaxy has been found in the field, as it looked 1 billion years after the big bang.

This frontier image provides a sneak peak of the early universe, and gives us a taste of what the James Webb Space Telescope will be capable of seeing in greater detail when it launches in 2018.

The cluster contains approximately 100 million-million solar masses, and contains 51 confirmed galaxies and perhaps over 400 more.

The Frontier Fields program is an ambitious three-year effort, begun in 2013, that teams Hubble with NASA's other Great Observatories – the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory – to probe the early universe by studying large galaxy clusters.

Identifying the magnified images of background galaxies within these clusters will help astronomers to improve their models of the distribution of both ordinary and dark matter in the galaxy cluster.

This is key to understanding the mysterious nature of dark matter that comprises most of the mass of the universe.

To learn more about Hubble’s impact on our pop culture, and how you can get involved with #spothubble, visit http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/2016/spothubble .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Napa Auto Parts of Lake County has honored Habitat for Humanity Lake County with a donation of $2,000 in support of Fire Rebuild Fund.

Deanne Padel, owner of Napa Auto Lake County said, “I’ve been inspired to give back to the community during its time of need, after the support Lake County has shown Napa Auto over the years.”
 
The funds for this gift to Habitat for Humanity Lake County were derived from their sales event that was partnered with NASCAR.  Up and coming race car driver Chase Elliot was on hand to sign autographs.
 
Donations to the Fire Rebuild Fund can be made by mail to Habitat for Humanity Lake County CA Inc., PO Box 1830, Lower Lake CA 95457, or visit www.lakehabitat.org to donate with Paypal.

All donations made will be used to provide homes for displaced victims of the 2015 fires.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has issued a consumer alert advising Californians to use care when playing location-based virtual games, such as the Pokémon Go treasure hunt app, just released this month.

Pokémon Go is an augmented reality application that generates a virtual treasure hunt taking place in the real world. Consumers of all ages, including minors, play it on their mobile devices.

Using the forward-facing camera on a mobile device, players search for Pokémon characters in their vicinity, including at local parks, landmarks, and retail locations.

For Pokémon Go to work, a player must grant the app access or “permission” to his or her mobile device’s GPS function, location, and camera when downloading the app. To play and “capture” the virtual Pokémon creatures, the player must then go to physical locations, called “Pokéstops” or “gyms,” where other players may also be gathering.  

Consumers should be aware that the virtual experience in Pokémon Go can expose players to physical danger.

For example, there have been reports of predators and thieves adding beacons or “Lure Modules” to Pokéstops to bait individuals playing the game to certain locations in order to steal from them. Recently in Southern California, two men were so distracted that they fell off a cliff while playing Pokémon Go, and another man playing the game alone late at night in a park in Anaheim was stabbed multiple times by a group of men when he was distracted.

The Attorney General offers consumers the following tips to help them better ensure their physical safety and protect sensitive location data while still having fun playing Pokémon Go:

– Stop and think before you share your personal information with an app.

– If you elect to download Pokémon Go and therefore allow the app access to the location function of your device, you should deactivate the app’s location access when you are not using it. This prevents Pokémon Go from “running in the background” and having access to your location when you are not playing.

– On Android phones, review the permissions tab on app pages in Google Play store, which displays the information and features that the app can access on your phone.

– On iPhones, review the permissions you have already granted by viewing Pokémon Go in iPhone Settings. Make sure you are operating the updated version of the app to protect the security of your mobile device and privacy of your data.

– Consumers and parents should take the time to review the privacy settings on their mobile devices and the permissions within the app.

– To prevent children from making in-app purchases – buying extra content and subscriptions once the app has been downloaded – parents can adjust the settings on their mobile device. For iPhones, turn off in-app purchases and for Android, set your phone to request a password before purchases can be made. For parents who do not want to create a Google account for their child, there is an option to create a Pokémon Trainer account. Parents also have the right to refuse collection, use, and/or disclosure of their child’s personal identifiable information by directly notifying the game’s developer, Niantic.

– As you search for characters, remember that Pokémon Go is a game you play in public, with the public. As you play, be aware of your surroundings and the people around you. If possible, only go to a Pokéstop with a friend or partner.

– Parents and guardians should take extra care to know where children are going, when and with whom when they are playing the game.

– Pokémon Go characters and locations are randomly generated and some real locations may be dangerous or unsafe for players to enter. Stay alert and always watch where you’re going – being distracted by a phone in your hand could make you a target for a crime or susceptible to injury.

– Don’t trespass onto private property and don’t go into areas that are unfamiliar or risky to your personal safety.

– Business owners and local leaders can play a role in community safety by determining if their business, park or landmark is a Pokéstop or gym.

– Don’t play Pokémon Go while you are operating a vehicle or riding a bike or skateboard.

The Attorney General has published a consumer information sheet that gives step-by-step instructions for better controlling your location privacy on iPhone and Android devices, “Location, Location, Location Tips on Controlling Mobile Tracking,” at https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/privacy/cis-18.pdf? .

Also see “Getting Smart About Smartphones: Tips for Consumers,” https://oag.ca.gov/sites/all/files/agweb/pdfs/privacy/smartphones_consumers.pdf? , for general information on protecting privacy when using mobile devices.