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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Marge, 103 years young, passed away on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at her home in Kelseyville.

She was born in Los Angeles on March 5, 1913, to Arthur and Florence Esterberg.

She was predeceased by her husband Richard Holdenried, they shared 34 years together; her children,  Jim Kelley, Raymond Kelley and Carolyn Hergert.

She is survived by her daughter-in-law, Mary Kelley; grandchildren, Bob (Jennifer) Kelley, Tom (Julie) Kelley, Bruce (Pam) Gard, Janet (Brenndon) Bosse, Nikki Jones (Stephen Klein); and many great-grand and great-great-grand kids.

Marge was a member of the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, a two-time deacon. She enjoyed bowling, watching the Warriors, Giants, “The Price is Right,” “Jeopardy” and “Dancing with the Stars.” She will be remembered for her love of family, friends and caregivers.

Visitation will be held at Kelseyville Presbyterian Church on Monday, June 27, from 9 to 11 a.m. with a funeral service following at 11 a.m. Interment will be at Hartley Cemetery in Lakeport, with a reception back at Kelseyville Presbyterian Church.

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

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa), Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Silicon Valley) and State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo and Santa Clara) have introduced AB 2888 in response to the six-month sentence given to Brock Turner by Judge Aaron Persky in the recent Stanford rape case.

The bill will ensure that anyone convicted of sexual assault in California cannot be sentenced to probation.

The legislators worked with Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen in crafting the proposal.

“We need to send the message that sexually assaulting vulnerable victims who are intoxicated or unconscious is a serious crime,” said Dodd, who represents Lake County in the California Assembly. “Letting a rapist off with probation and little jail time re-victimizes the victim, dissuades other victims from coming forward and sends the message that sexual assault is no big deal. Like many people across the nation, I was deeply disturbed by the sentence in the Brock Turner case. Our bill will help ensure that such lax sentencing doesn’t happen again.”

Under current law, not all forms of sexual assault involving penetration are included in the list of offenses that would trigger a mandatory denial of probation.

Current law clarifies that a defendant’s use of force triggers a mandatory prison sentence. However, when a victim is unconscious or severely intoxicated, the victim is unable to resist, and the perpetrator does not have to use force.

For example, a perpetrator at a college party who chooses to forcibly rape a conscious victim will go to prison. However, a different perpetrator at the same party who chooses to watch and wait for a victim to pass out from intoxication before sexually assaulting her may get probation.

“Rapists like Brock Turner shouldn’t be let off with a slap on the wrist,” said Low. “Judge Persky’s ruling was unjustifiable and morally wrong, however, under current state law it was within his discretion. Current law actually incentivizes rapists to get their victims intoxicated before assaulting them. While we can’t go back and change what happened, we can make sure it never happens again.” 

“Sexual assault cases can be among the most troubling situations that law enforcement officials have to deal with. I believe perpetrators of sexual assault should receive sentences that the reflect the severity of their crimes,” said Napa County Sheriff John Robertson. “I applaud Assemblymember Dodd for introducing common sense legislation that will better serve our community and provide better justice for victims of sexual assault.”

In March 2015, Brock Turner, a Stanford University student, was convicted on three felony counts of sexual assault of an intoxicated and unconscious woman.

Despite the fact that the defendant was eligible for a sentence of up to 14 years in prison, Judge Aaron Persky sentenced the defendant to six months in jail and three years’ probation.

The sentence has been criticized by many as unethically lenient, given the horrific nature of the crime.

“We need to change the law to protect the next Emily Doe from the next Brock Turner,”’ District Attorney Rosen said during a news event announcing the proposed legislation outside of the Palo Alto courthouse where Turner was tried and convicted. “Let's give the next campus sexual assault victim no reason to fear that her attacker will end up walking around free after spending less time in jail than it takes to finish a single college semester.”

As wildfires burn across California, new estimates on the number of dead trees in California have been announced, prompting continued concern for California’s forest health and wildfire danger.

On Wednesday, the US Forest Service released the outcome of its latest aerial surveys over California forestland, finding that more than 66 million trees have now died due to drought and bark beetles since 2010.

That number is up from 29 million dead trees in 2015 and 3.3 million in 2014.

“The sheer number of dead trees is hard to imagine, but it’s real and what we have been anticipating for some time now,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director and state forester. “We must continue our work to remove dead trees around roadways and critical infrastructure, while homeowners remove dead trees around their homes.”

In October 2015 Gov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order due to the tree mortality, which created the state’s Tree Mortality Task Force.

More than 80 local, state and federal agencies, as well as utilities and various stakeholders make up the task force, whose efforts have continued to focus on the coordinated response.

The task force has been working to provide for public health and safety, as the dead trees pose a serious public safety and wildfire threat.

A coordinated effort has been under way to remove dead trees in the 10 counties identified to have the highest hazard. The 10 counties span from Placer County down through the Central Sierra to Kern County. 

While county public works crews have been removing trees along county roads, Caltrans has been hard at work focusing on state highways.

Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison and other utility companies have been removing hazardous trees around their power lines, all while Cal Fire and US Forest Service crews continue building fuel breaks and assisting the counties in their efforts.

“The recently released estimates show the voraciousness with which the tree mortality epidemic is gripping California,” said Kevin Cann, Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) Board member, Mariposa County supervisor, and member of the Governor’s Task Force on Tree Mortality.

“The situation is dire, not just to those living in rural communities directly dealing with the effects, but to all Californians impacted by the threat wildfires pose to the State’s resources,” said Cann. “The partnerships which have evolved between the impacted counties, CAL FIRE, Caltrans, PG&E, and many others while dealing with this emergency to quickly remove dead trees efficiently have been vital to the success of this response.”

Officials are urging the public to do their part as well as remove the dead trees around their homes in order to reduce their wildfire threat.

“It’s critical now that we are in fire season that everyone living in these high risk areas be prepared to evacuate before a wildfire breaks out,” Chief Pimlott added. “If a wildfire burns in an area with high tree mortality we know that it will burn faster than many residents may be ready for.”

In February 2016, Cal Fire awarded nearly two million dollars in local fire prevention grants for local projects focused on the removal of dead and dying trees in order to reduce the wildfire threat around homes.

Cal Fire, CAL OES, along with the Tree Mortality Task Force members, continues to coordinate additional assistance to help the public remove trees on their property.

For more information on how to be ready for wildfire and to learn how to make your trees healthy and prepared for bark beetles, visit www.ReadyForWildfire.org .

SACRAMENTO – Last year, State Sen. Mike McGuire and the Senate Human Services Committee requested an audit, through the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, to provide data on the prescribing patterns of psychotropics among foster youth.

The audit called on the Department of Health Care Services to answer questions regarding prescription rates and methods for foster children.

Psychotropic and antipsychotic medication prescription rates in California’s foster care system have soared over the past 15 years – there has been a 1400 percent increase.

The audit was an accountability measure that should have been released earlier this spring.

After an initial delay, the audit was again scheduled to be released this week. At the last minute, it was disclosed that the Department of Health Care Services didn’t release a significant block of data – over 50% – regarding prescription patterns throughout California, and so the audit has been delayed again.

“This is an egregious and inappropriate delay in providing the critical data the Senate Human Services Committee requested last year. At best, this is an unacceptable error, at its worst, the Department is trying to hide the ball. This is, unfortunately, another example of the state not stepping up and protecting our foster youth and these types of moves erode the public’s trust,” Senator McGuire said.

The audit is now scheduled to be released in August.

But, this isn’t the first time that State Senators have requested data on the prescribing patters of mind-altering medication to our state’s foster youth, and not received an appropriate response.

Last year, Senate President Pro Tempore de León, along with Senators Beall, McGuire, Mitchell and Monning, requested similar data from DHCS, specifically regarding physicians who have prescribed multiple psychotropic medications to foster youth.

Not surprisingly, that data was not entirely accurate and DHCS even acknowledged that they made mistakes, however the department has yet to correct those data errors.

“It is unacceptable that the department can’t get it together and release the data needed to make appropriate and safe changes to the way our foster children are prescribed life-altering drugs. Would this be the case if it wasn’t foster kids we were talking about? Teens in foster care are three and a half times more likely to be prescribed psych medication than their peers who are not in foster care and yet we have no system for evaluating the medical soundness of these soaring prescribing rates,” Sen. McGuire said.

Sen. McGuire is calling on California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Diana Dooley to discover exactly what has caused this delay, and to give the State Senate assurances that it will be fixed immediately.

“This has been an ongoing pattern when it comes to California’s foster youth and they deserve better,” Sen. McGuire said.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The moon is rising later each day, thus providing a great telescopic opportunity to view three visible planets, Saturn, Mars and Jupiter, plus a host of fascinating deep sky objects – the Great Hercules Star Cluster, the beautiful Ring Nebula and other Messier objects, under very dark skies.

These astronomical wonders can be seen Saturday night as the Friends of Taylor Observatory presents its annual “Fun with Telescopes” night as its June Window to the Universe event.

Local telescope owners are invited to bring their working or non-working telescopes for consultation with Taylor astronomers.

They also can get advice on how to purchase an appropriate sky-viewing device, whether it be a telescope, binoculars or a digital camera, perhaps with an equatorial mount to track star movement.

As a special bonus, there will be two short talks. Local astronomer Tom Schleif, also a Taylor board member, will describe his construction of an artisan Steampunk Dobsonian telescope out of spare parts.

This project combined Schleif's new interest in astronomy with a lifelong talent for fabrication of quality wood structures and furniture. The result will surprise and delight you, and this interesting scope may even see first starlight on Saturday night.

In a second talk, Friends of Taylor President Bill Haddon will present some first thoughts about the new concept of astrotourism for Lake County.

The idea is to designate our location as a recognized Dark Sky Community by obtaining official certification from the Dark Sky Society. 

This project, which has the potential to bring throngs of visitors to Lake County from the light-polluted Bay Area, Sacramento and Santa Rosa population centers, would be aided by our existing astronomy-friendly lighting ordinance passed some years ago in the county.

Such an ordinance, and the means to enforce it, is a prerequisite for a Dark Sky Community designation, thus providing a valuable head start on the project.

Haddon hopes to enlist individuals, local businesses, civic organizations and other interested groups in promoting this kind of tourism for the county. Such a designation, when obtained, will be only the third one in all of Northern California.

For the Saturday Window to the Universe Taylor will open at 6:30 p.m. Through the evening they will  have planetarium shows hosted by Eduardo Alatorre and David Velasquez, the Schleif and Haddon talks, consultations on telescopes, and finally, after dark, views through the Taylor’s various telescopes.

Further information is available from www.taylorobservatory.org , www.friendsoftaylor.org or by calling 415-209-3084 and by visiting the Friends of Taylor Observatory on Facebook.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West will meet on Thursday, July 14, for a membership social and organizational meeting.

The group meets at 5:30 p.m. for social time and 6 p.m. for the business meeting at Round Table Pizza, 821 11th St. in Lakeport.

If you were born in California and are over 16 you are a Native Californian eligible for membership in the Native Daughters of the Golden West organization.

The Native Daughters is a fraternal and patriotic organization founded in 1886 on the principles of:

– Love of home;
– Devotion to the flag;
– Veneration of the pioneers;
– Faith in the existence of God.

All Native Daughters are welcome to attend.

For more information contact Parlor Worthy President Carla Dore, 831-524-5588, or V.P. Dee Cuney, 707-235-2902, or visit the Native Daughters of the Golden West, Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 Facebook page.

For information about Lake County Konocti No. 159 Chapter of the Native Sons of the Golden West contact Tony Braito at 707-245-7663.