How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
California's State Treasurer John Chiang on Friday stressed that uncertainty roiling world markets in the wake of Britain’s planned departure from the European Union is not expected to substantially impact investments managed by his office or the state’s outstanding debt.
About two-thirds of the $75 billion Pooled Money Investment Account is invested in low risk and liquid U.S. government securities. The balance is in prime-rated capital market investments. The account includes $22.5 billion in local government agency funds, Chiang reported.
In addition, Chiang said the state’s outstanding, general obligation debt portfolio is conservative, with 95 percent in fixed-rate bonds and just 5 percent in variable-rate bonds.
The vote to leave the EU will have no impact on the state’s fixed-rate bonds. There have been only minimal changes to interest rates on variable-rate bonds, he said.
“Market volatility could be sharp until many questions surrounding Brexit can be resolved over the coming two years,” said Chiang. “Californians can be assured, however, that my office is monitoring developments closely and will take appropriate actions to safeguard the state’s financial integrity.
“Our $75 billion investment portfolio and another $75 billion in outstanding general obligation debt are in strong positions to weather the uncertainty as Great Britain and the European Union embark on a complex and unprecedented separation,” Chiang said.
Generally speaking most people are best served by having a will, regardless of whether or not they also have a living trust.
It is the will, not the trust, which speaks to assets held in a decedent’s name, excluding any so-called non probate assets such as those held in joint tenancy (where there is a surviving joint tenant) and any so-called pay on death or transfer on death accounts which pass to a surviving death beneficiary.
Typically though not all assets of a person are held the living trust. Often one or more checking accounts, vehicles are outside of the trust in the person’s name.
Sometimes amounts due the decedent, such as undistributed inheritances, are pending when the decedent died, and also subject to the decedent’s will.
That is why a so-called pour over will typically accompanies the living trust. The pour over will leaves assets to the decedent’s living trust.
The non-trust assets once transferred into the trust become integrated into the trust’s distribution scheme and also enjoy any asset protections afforded by the trust.
However, there are times where a standalone will may accompany a trust.
If the decedent has a small estate – under present California law a small estate is an estate with assets which total under $150,000 in gross value – outside the living trust then the small estate is not subject to probate.
Transferring major assets into the trust that will inevitably become answerable for the decedent’s debts – such as real estate subject to liens – can sometimes result in a small estate outside the trust. Then a standalone will may favor a person’s beneficiaries over the decedent’s creditors.
Assets inside a small estate are not subject to any formal administration, such as either postmortem trust administration or probate.
The successor trustee of a deceased settlor’s trust, or the personal representative of a deceased settlor’s court supervised probate estate, must notify all of the decedent’s reasonably ascertainable creditors and pay all valid debts.
With small estates assets are typically claimed without any probate by the beneficiaries using a small estate procedure.
The small estate beneficiaries inherit without assuming any legal duty to solicit creditor claims from the decedent’s creditors. This has been described by some as “take the money and run” informal estate administration.
The foregoing is not to say that the beneficiaries will not themselves decide to pay the decedent’s debts, they may well do so as they feel doing so is justified or for the best.
That said, not having a duty to solicit does not mean these beneficiaries who receive assets necessarily escape potential liability to the decedent’s creditors.
Rather the creditors of the decedent’s estate, and/or living trust, must themselves either open a timely probate or proceed directly against the individual beneficiaries who received assets.
In that case, the beneficiaries may then be held liable to pay for the decedent’s debts, up to the value of what the assets received or the sale proceeds of such assets.
Nevertheless, tracking down all beneficiaries, discovering what each received, and prosecuting recovery claims can be too onerous and not worthwhile to the creditors.
In addition, any other non-probate assets, besides the living trust assets, such as life insurance, joint tenancy assets, and pay on death accounts (including retirement accounts) also pass directly to the surviving beneficiaries outside of the decedent’s trust or probate administration, as relevant; except in unusual cases when the trust or the decedent’s estate receives these assets, such as when there is no surviving beneficiary or when the estate or trust is the named death beneficiary.
Depending on the type of non probate asset involved, like life insurance, these nonprobate assets may sometimes themselves not be answerable for the decedent’s debts.
Clearly, when a person has serious debts the foregoing considerations are relevant to the estate planning.
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
When the NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft buzzed by Pluto last year, it revealed tantalizing clues that the dwarf planet might have – or had at one time – a liquid ocean sloshing around under its icy crust.
According to a new analysis led by a Brown University Ph.D. student, such an ocean likely still exists today.
The study, which used a thermal evolution model for Pluto updated with data from New Horizons, found that if Pluto’s ocean had frozen into oblivion millions or billions of years ago, it would have caused the entire planet to shrink.
But there are no signs of a global contraction to be found on Pluto’s surface. On the contrary, New Horizons showed signs that Pluto has been expanding.
“Thanks to the incredible data returned by New Horizons, we were able to observe tectonic features on Pluto’s surface, update our thermal evolution model with new data and infer that Pluto most likely has a subsurface ocean today,” said Noah Hammond, a graduate student in Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, and the study’s lead author.
The research, which Hammond coauthored with advisors Amy Barr of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona and Brown University geologist Marc Parmentier, is in press in Geophysical Research Letters.
The pictures New Horizons sent back from its close encounter with the Kuiper Belt’s most famous denizen showed that Pluto was much more than a simple snowball in space.
It has an exotic surface made from different types of ices – water, nitrogen and methane. It has mountains hundreds of meters high and a vast heart-shaped plain.
It also has giant tectonic features – sinuous faults hundreds of kilometers long as deep as 4 kilometers. It was those tectonic features that got scientists thinking that a subsurface ocean was a real possibility for Pluto.
“What New Horizons showed was that there are extensional tectonic features, which indicate that Pluto underwent a period of global expansion,” Hammond said. “A subsurface ocean that was slowly freezing over would cause this kind of expansion.”
Scientists think that there may have been enough heat-producing radioactive elements within Pluto’s rocky core to melt part of the planet’s ice shell.
Over time in the frigid Kuiper belt, that melted portion would eventually start to refreeze. Ice is less dense than water, so when it freezes, it expands.
If Pluto had on ocean that was frozen or in the process of freezing, extensional tectonics on the surface would result, and that’s what New Horizons saw.
There aren’t many other ways on Pluto to get such features. One way might have been through a gravitational tug of war with its moon, Charon.
But the active gravitational dynamics between the two have long since wound down, and some of the tectonics look fairly fresh (on a geologic timescale). So, many scientists believe that an ocean is the strongest scenario.
But if Pluto had an ocean, what is its fate today? Could the freezing process still be going on, or did the ocean freeze solid a billion years ago?
That’s where the thermal evolution model run by Hammond and his colleagues comes in. The model includes updated data from New Horizons on Pluto’s diameter and density, key parameters in understanding the dynamics in Pluto’s interior.
The model showed that because of the low temperatures and high pressure within Pluto, an ocean that had completely frozen over would quickly convert from the normal ice we all know to a different phase called ice II.
Ice II has a more compact crystalline structure than standard ice, so an ocean frozen to ice II would occupy a smaller volume and lead to a global contraction on Pluto, rather than an expansion.
“We don’t see the things on the surface we’d expect if there had been a global contraction,” Hammond said. “So we conclude that ice II has not formed, and therefore that the ocean hasn’t completely frozen.”
There are a few caveats, the researchers point out. The formation of ice II is dependent on the thickness of Pluto’s ice shell.
Ice II only forms if the shell is 260 kilometers thick or more. If the shell is thinner than that, the ocean could have frozen without forming ice II. And if that were the case the ocean could have frozen completely without causing contraction.
However, the researchers say there’s good reason to believe that the ice shell is more than 260 kilometers.
Their updated model suggests that Pluto’s ice shell is actually closer to 300 or more kilometers thick. In addition, the nitrogen and methane ices that New Horizons found on the surface bolster the case for a thick ice shell.
“Those exotic ices are actually good insulators,” Hammond said. “They may be helping Pluto from losing more of its heat to space.”
Taken together, the new model bolsters the case for an ocean environment in the furthest reaches of the solar system.
“That’s amazing to me,” Hammond said. “The possibility that you could have vast liquid water ocean habitats so far from the sun on Pluto — and that the same could also be possible on other Kuiper belt objects as well — is absolutely incredible.”
The research was supported by the NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship and NASA Planetary Geology & Geophysics.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – After 17 years with Rev. Shannon Kimbell-Auth as their pastor, on this Sunday, June 26, members of United Christian Parish will say goodbye to the longest serving pastor in the history of the church.
Kimbell-Auth led her first Sunday worship service at United Christian Parish in July 1999, although she had already led two funerals for the Lakeport church before then. She has officiated at hundreds since and is particularly well known for her uplifting memorial services.
On June 26 she will share highlights of her ministry here using the theme “Stones of Remembrance.”
From the “stone that was rolled away” in Luke’s Easter account, to the stones of Iona, Scotland, to the stone thrown through her car window after a particularly contentious church meeting, stones have been a significant image for Kimbell-Auth.
She will tell of headstones and wedding stones, cornerstones and youth … on a rock. She has also led trips to explore church history, mission trips to help Louisiana rebuild after hurricanes Katrina and Rita and is now part of the fire recovery work of Team Lake County.
The public is invited to join the church for her final Lakeport celebration, Sunday at 10 a.m. at the church, located at 745 N. Brush St. in Lakeport.
Diane Kay Curran, beloved wife of Stan Curran and mother of four children, passed away on June 21, 2016, in Sandpoint, Idaho. She will be inurned in Kelseyville, Calif., at a later date.
Diane was born in Inglewood, Calif., on Jan. 17, 1933, to Roy and Lohene Boyd.
Diane leaves behind her husband of 62 years, Stan; her children, Michael (Denise) Kelseyville, Susie (Roy) of Benicia, Calif., Steve (Debbie) of Puyallup, Wash., Barbara (Bruno) of Merrimack, NH; eight grandchildren; and many great-grandchildren. She also leaves behind her former daughter-in-law, Linda Curran, of Houston, Texas.
Diane graduated high school in Chico, Calif., in 1950. She attended Kaiser Permanente School of Nursing in Oakland, Calif., graduating in 1954. Diane and her family relocated to Lake County in 1959.
She later graduated from Chico State University in 1985 with a BSN, PHN, and school nurse credential. She worked as a school nurse for 15 years.
She and Stan retired in 1991 and in 1996 they left Lake County to begin 11 years of full time RV travel over the U.S. and Canada.
Diane enjoyed making afghans for her children and grandchildren. She collected coats for Coats for Kids, clothing for LOV Inc. and Kinderhaven until age slowed her down.
She considered her greatest and most rewarding achievement to be her four children, each of whom have achieved higher education and excelled in their chosen careers.
Eight years ago, Diane joined her First Lutheran Church family. She thoroughly enjoyed her family at First Lutheran.
There will be a service at First Lutheran Church at 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 25, officiated by Pastor Lori Morton and Pastor Steve Neuder.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Kinderhaven, 900 Spruce St., Sandpoint, ID 83864. Kinderhaven is a community organization dedicated to supporting children in crisis.
Family and friends are invited to sign Diane’s online guest book at www.coffeltfuneral.com .
Arrangements are entrusted to the care of Coffelt Funeral Service.
HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – The Hidden Valley Lake Ladies 40-9ers Golf Club held a nine-hole scramble on Thursday, June 16.
The results are as follows:
– First place team, score 22.5: Nancy Erickson, Julia Yamashita, Floydean Greenlow and Darcy Miller.
– Second place team, score 23.8: Mariana Bendinelli, Michelle Harbeson, Gwen DeRosa and Pat Bright.
– Third place team, score 25: Joy Ryan, Liz Cummesky and Linda Millard.