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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper Reese Theatre in Lakeport will bid farewell to 2015 and ring in 2016 with a New Year's Eve party on Thursday, Dec. 31.
The ever popular LC Diamonds will headline the event at the theater, located at 275 S. Main St. in Lakeport.
Dance the night away to vintage rock n' roll, rockabilly with a British twang, soulful blues and surf tunes by these talented Lake County stars.
Ticket price includes gourmet appetizers by Bellissimo! Wine Country Caterers, party favors and a glass of champagne to welcome 2016.
Doors open at 8 p.m. All seats are reserved.
Tickets cost $40 per person for loge seats, $50 per person for table seats and $250 for a table for four. Table seating is limited. Early reservations are recommended.
Tickets are available online at www.SoperReeseTheatre.com ; at the theatre box office on Fridays, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; or at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main, Lakeport, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Traveling in space has many odd effects on the human body. One of the strangest has to do with vision.
After spending some time on the International Space Station, many astronauts discover that they cannot see as well as they do on Earth. The effect is so well known that members of the crew routinely pack “space glasses” to correct their vision in orbit.
Many astronauts report a blurring of their eyesight in microgravity. Researchers are trying to get to the bottom of this phenomenon before astronauts travel to Mars and beyond.
Researchers still aren’t sure what causes the problem, but they would like to solve it before humans travel beyond low-Earth orbit.
A trip to Mars could take at least three years – five times as long as a mission to the station. So it’s important to learn about the adverse effects of microgravity on vision and develop ways to counter them.
Christian Otto of the Universities Space Research Association in Houston, Texas, is one of the researchers trying to get a clearer understanding of “space vision.” He is the Principal Investigator of the Ocular Health study now underway on the space station.
An accomplished off-road triathlete with an interest in human performance in extreme environments, Otto is well-suited to this PI role.
He once toted an ultrasound machine up Mount Everest to study the effects of oxygen deprivation on intracranial pressure. Now, with the Ocular Health study, he’s remotely conducting similar tests on astronauts.
“Testing astronauts before, during, and after their missions to the station shows us their status preflight and helps us identify changes that result from the environment and microgravity on the station,” explains Otto.
On the space station, the body’s fluids, particularly the blood supply, shift toward the head much like what happens on Earth when you lie down.
Therefore, it is hypothesized that the pressure inside the skull increases. That increase in intracranial pressure is believed to be transmitted to the eye and optic nerve, leading to changes in eye structure and visual acuity.
Optic Disc Edema (ODE) – swelling of the optic disc – is the most critical change. If it persists, it can lead to a loss of peripheral vision and eventual blindness. Astronauts have experienced only mild ODE to date, but no one knows how severe it could become on a Mars expedition.
“Data from this study will help researchers develop countermeasures for and reduce susceptibility to issues like ODE,” says Otto. “It will help us develop targeted treatments to prevent problems.”
Adding preliminary data from the Ocular Health study to data from previous Vision Impairment and Intracranial Pressure (VIIP) studies, Otto and his team have made some interesting discoveries.
“Around 70 percent of 33 International Space Station crewperson subjects have experienced mild VIIP, and we are finding that men are affected about twice as severely as women.
ODE is measured on a scale of 0-5, with 1 being the least effected and 5 being the most. Six out of seven subjects with ODE were grade 1, while the seventh subject had a grade 3 eye. All seven subjects that developed clinical grade ODE were men.
Results from the Ocular Health study will help doctors better understand disorders such as glaucoma and Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) that can plague people back on Earth.
The latter is a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid pressure rises and remains elevated for a long time, causing severe headaches that even the strongest pain medications can’t touch. Like glaucoma, the condition sometimes leads to vision loss and blindness.
Says Otto,“This study will tell us more about noninvasive measurement of intracranial pressure. The way doctors measure it now is through a spinal tap or making a burr hole in the skull and inserting an intraventricular monitor.”
“We are pushing the envelope in several areas of terrestrial clinical medicine. NASA’s Ocular Health study is providing new insights in neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, and cardio-vascular physiology. The clinical community is very excited.”
For more on studies on the International Space Station, go to www.nasa.gov/station .
COBB, Calif. – Bottle Rock Power LLC has been acquired by a Seattle-based company that previously had undertaken a geothermal drilling project near Middletown.
Baseload Clean Energy Partners, a clean energy portfolio owned and operated by AltaRock Energy, announced its acquisition of Bottle Rock Power LLC.
The three-story Bottle Rock Power Plant, situated on 350 acres, originally was constructed by the California Department of Water Resources as a 55-megawatt dry-steam geothermal plant.
The plant first opened in 1985, closed in 1990 and reopened in 2007, as Lake County News has reported.
The facility is part of a complex of geothermal plants located within The Geysers, the largest geothermal field in the world.
Baseload Clean Energy Partners reported that it purchased the remaining equity in the plant and associated leases for an undisclosed sum from Riverstone Holdings and U.S. Renewables Group.
The company said it plans to upgrade the existing facilities to include energy storage in an effort to better manage supply and demand on the power grid.
"The next step in our strategy is the integration of energy storage within existing plants," said Aaron Mandell, chief executive officer of Baseload Clean Energy Partners. "Bottle Rock is an extremely valuable asset given the project's access to the Northern California energy markets and future expansion potential of the geothermal resource. In the near term, we will focus on safely maintaining the existing plant and well field, but are actively working towards adding performance enhancements to enable flexible generation using energy storage."
AltaRock Energy Inc., founded in 2007, is a leading developer and operator of advanced geothermal power projects using geothermal stimulations, known as enhanced geothermal systems.
That technology involves drilling deep into the earth's surface to create bedrock fractures. Water is then injected into the fractures in order to get steam for use in geothermal power production.
In 2009, AltaRock began an engineered geothermal systems demonstration drilling project above Middletown on federal land leased from the Bureau of Land Management.
The goal of the project – funded in part by millions of dollars in federal Department of Energy and venture capital funds – was to test out the engineered geothermal systems technology.
However, the project – which had raised serious concerns among area residents over safety and increased seismicity – was suspended after the company said it encountered “physical difficulties” due to geologic anomalies.
At that time, AltaRock had indicated that it was planning to continue developing its engineered geothermal systems technology in the Lake County area.
Since it reopened, the Bottle Rock Power plant has been a source of concern for Cobb residents, who have complained about traffic, noise, grading, environmental management and compliance with its original use permit.
In 2011 the Friends of Cobb Mountain sued the county over certification of the environmental impact report for plant’s steamfield expansion project.
The suit was dropped in spring 2012 after the county and the group reached a settlement that provided, among other things, for reimbursement for residents in the case they needed to evacuate due to plant operation, funds for testing groundwater and wells in the project vicinity, the hiring of a geothermal coordinator for the county and the reactivation of the Lake County Geothermal Advisory Committee.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Washington man who had promoted a summertime extreme sports event in Lake County several years ago has died in a Florida plane crash.
Rob Stimmel, 61, and his wife, 45-year-old, Maria Jose Cepa, were killed in the crash, which occurred on Nov. 20 near Orlando, Fla., according to the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's office.
Stimmel and his wife had been married only days before and were returning from their honeymoon when the crash occurred, according to a statement from Redmond, Wash.-based Mohan Skiing and Boarding, for which the couple were instructors.
Stimmel had been best known in Lake County for BoardStock, which featured extreme sports both on land and on Clear Lake for several years.
A Federal Aviation Administration accident and incident notification on the crash said it happened just before 4:30 p.m. Nov. 20 five miles from Orlando as Stimmel was flying a single-engine Beechcraft.
In an odd coincidence, Clear Lake is the name of the Florida lake into which Stimmel's plane crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead investigative agency on the crash.
NTSB spokesman Nicholas Worrell told Lake County News that it's still too early to say what occurred.
Worrell said investigators are still gathering information and interviewing witnesses, as well as looking at the plane's machinery and the environment in which the crash took place.
The NTSB will release a preliminary accident report in about two weeks, Worrell said, but it will take six months to a year to conduct a full investigation.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The past four years of drought in California not only have led to extreme fire conditions, but contributed to the death of millions of trees and exacerbated the devastating impacts of the bark beetle.
Concerns about the bark beetle have heightened so much that late last month Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency and sought federal action to help bring California additional resources in dealing with the beetle infestation.
“California is facing the worst epidemic of tree mortality in its modern history,” said Gov. Brown in a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “A crisis of this magnitude demands action on all fronts.”
One of the results of the governor's call to action is that the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and Cal Fire are convening a Task Force on Tree Mortality comprised of state and federal agencies, local governments and utilities that will coordinate emergency protective actions and monitor ongoing conditions.
Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant explains in the video above that more than 22 million trees have died due to the drought and pests like the bark beetles, and the number of dead trees is expected to rise over the next several years before the epidemic slows down.
Much of the tree die-off has been concentrated in the Sierra over the past few years, Berlant said.
In fact, tree mortality issues have increased as the drought has continued, according to Berlant's report.
Bark beetles are a native pest that do have positive impacts in taking down weak trees, Berlant said. However, in drought conditions, with more weaker trees, the result is mass tree mortality.
Those dead and dying trees then become a fire hazard, he said.
The small beetle attacks the tree, and when trees are healthy and have plenty of water inside, they can fight off the beetle as it attempts to burrow into the bark, Berlant explained. However, drought conditions weaken trees, and in short order the beetles can start to kill the trees.
Once a tree starts to change color – from a healthy green to brown – and the beetles' trails into the bark are visible, not much can be done to save the tree, Berlant said.
Three key steps for homeowners to take to save trees including removing dead trees from around homes and infrastructure, thin and prune healthy vegetation, and water high value trees.
Information on tree health, signs of bark beetle infestation, how to prevent infestation and removal of dead trees is available at Cal Fire's Web site, www.prepareforbarkbeetle.com .
Email Elizabeth Larson at
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A special event early next month will look at Lake County's economic prospects over the next several years.
“Lake County Resilience: Guiding Lake County Toward 2020 and Beyond” will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 9, at the Twin Pine Event Center, 22223 Highway 29 in Middletown.
The Economic Outlook and Forecast event will feature keynote speaker, Robert Eyler, Ph.D and professor of economics at Sonoma State University.
Dignitaries from county, state and federal organizations will be present at the event.
Confirmed attendees include Assemblyman Bill Dodd, Brad Onorato from Congressman Mike Thompson's office (Thompson will have a video presence at the event) and State Board of Equalization member Fiona Ma, CPA.
Those interested in the economic resilience and success of Lake County are encouraged to attend the event.
The cost to attend is $10 per person.
Registration is open. To register, mail a check for $10 with “Economic Outlook” noted in the memo section to the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 295, Lakeport, Calif. 95453, Attn: Economic Outlook.
To register online with a credit card, go to https://www.eventbrite.com/e/economic-outlook-forecast-tickets-19534545351?aff=ebrowse ; a fee of $1.54 per registration will be added to the $10 event fee.
Contributing sponsors to the event include North Coast Builders Exchange, Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Lake County Winegrape Commission, Lake County Association of Realtors, Six Sigma Ranch and Winery, Community Development Services, Valley Oaks, Century 21 Northbay Alliance, Coldwell Banker Lake County, Lake County Farm Bureau, Sutter Lakeside Hospital, St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, Mendo Lake Credit Union, Hardester’s Markets and Twin Pine Casino and Hotel Event Center.
The event is held in partnership with the Middletown Area Merchants Association.
For more information contact Monica Rosenthal at 707-355-2762 or call the Lake County Chamber of Commerce at 707-263-5092.