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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Yuba College's Clear Lake Campus was hit by graffiti vandalism last week, at the same time as damage also occurred at the nearby courthouse.
Pam Bordisso, a counselor at the college – located at 15880 Dam Road Extension – said graffiti on the library wall was discovered on the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 23.
That same morning, spray painted graffiti also had been discovered on the Clearlake courthouse, located a short distance away on South Center Drive, as Lake County News has reported.
In the case of the college, Bordisso said the tagging was on a 10-foot by 30-foot section of the library wall, and also on a nearby stairwell.
Officials have not reported if the two tagging incidents are linked.
Sgt. Nick Bennett of the Clearlake Police Department told Lake County News that the incident had not been reported to his agency. Bordisso said the damage was reported to the Yuba College Police Department.
Bordisso said the vandalism at the college was painted over on the same day that it was discovered.
“The head maintenance man said that he thinks it cost about $300 to take care of the damage and interfered with him getting to other important tasks that day,” she said.
In the case of the courthouse, which is owned by the state, that vandalism is estimated to require about $3,300 in repairs, according to Lake County Superior Court Chief Executive Officer Krista LeVier.
Bennett said the courthouse vandalism appeared to have been done by local Norteno street gang members.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – An early Friday morning fire damaged a garage at a Lakeport home.
The fire on Polk Street was reported at around 12 a.m., according to radio reports.
“We got a quick knockdown on it,” said Odell Landers, a Lakeport Fire firefighter/paramedic, who estimated that firefighters were able to control the blaze within about five minutes of arrival.
There was a pile of objects just inside the garage that was burning, he said.
Kelseyville Fire also had been dispatched to assist, but was canceled en route as the fire quickly was brought under control, Landers said.
Radio reports indicated that firefighters went into overhaul and mop up mode by 12:35 a.m., and terminated the incident at just after 1:30 a.m.
Overall, there was minimal damage to the garage itself, although Landers said there was some smoke damage to the nearby home.
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Some people wish to pass down more than just their material wealth to their surviving descendants. They also wish to transfer their important values, life experiences and family traditions, all of which can help to shape the character and lifestyles of their descendants.
Let us consider how such goals can be accomplished.
Families who value charitable giving and community involvement often want their descendants likewise to become involved.
Naturally, much of the outcome depends on how these younger generations are raised; what values are instilled by example and what opportunities to participate are taken.
But when the older generation is no longer around what else can be done to promote the children’s involvement after the older generation has passed on?
One possibility is to leave money dedicated to paying a child or grandchild’s membership dues in one or more charitable or service organizations.
Paying membership fees would certainly remove a barrier to participation, provided the child/grandchild is otherwise committed to participation.
Another possibility, for those with more money, is to start a family run tax exempt private foundation for specific charitable giving purposes.
While alive, the older generation can show the younger generation how the foundation serves an important charitable purpose, such as giving money to the performing arts. That way when control is handed over to the younger generation they are ready to assume leadership.
Other people may wish to preserve and convey their own unique personal life experiences.
For example, one grandmother was videotaped sharing her experience as one of America’s earliest female airplane pilots.
During WWII, while her male counterparts were employed in the military, she flew planes domestically to transport important packages.
Watching the video, you could see how lively she was telling her very interesting and lively story about the particularly harrowing flying experience when her plane ran short of fuel. Thanks to her efforts her story will continue for future generations to hear.
Next, many families have longstanding family traditions, such as family reunions, genealogy, and other leisure pastimes. Why not involve the younger generation now in those activities to establish something worthwhile that can continue into the next generation?
For example, in the right circumstances, leaving a family home or hunting/fishing cabin with great family significance in further trust – so that it cannot be sold and remains available for the children and their families to share vacations and family holidays – can further family get-togethers and bonding.
The trust would leave one person, at a time, in charge and provide how the benefits and burdens are equitably shared by the children and their families.
And, for families who are avid about particular pastimes, like hunting, sailing, golfing photography, playing music and gardening, gifts related to such endeavors, such as guns, boats, golf clubs, camera equipment, musical instruments and gardening tools, as the case may be, can be very satisfying to the right recipient.
Lastly, for some families, genealogy records and other artifacts are worthwhile to be cataloged and passed on to an interested family recipient to preserve the family legend for years to come.
Without doubt, every family has some core values, life experiences and pastime pursuits that are worth preserving for the next generation.
The end of the old year and the start of the coming year offers us a good time to seriously consider the subject. What do you want your legacy to be?
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, California. Fordham can be reached by e-mail at
Auroras are the most visible manifestation of the sun's effect on Earth, but many aspects of these spectacular displays are still poorly understood.
Thanks to the joint European Space Agency and NASA's Cluster mission combined with data from a past NASA mission called the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, or IMAGE, a particular type of very high-latitude aurora has now been explained.
Known as a theta aurora – because seen from above it looks like the Greek letter theta, an oval with a line crossing through the center – this type of aurora sometimes occurs closer to the poles than normal aurora.
While the genesis of the auroral oval emissions is reasonably well understood, the origin of the theta aurora was unclear until now.
A paper in the Dec. 19 issue of Science shows that hot plasma funneled into near-Earth space from the sun helps cause these unique aurora.
“The possibilities have been debated since the first satellite observations of the phenomenon were made in the 1980s,” said Robert Fear of the University of Southampton in the U.K. (formerly at the University of Leicester), and lead author of the Science paper.
Although separated by some 93 million miles, the sun and Earth are connected by what's known as the solar wind. This plasma – electrically charged atomic particles – streams from the sun and travels across the solar system, carrying its own magnetic field along for the ride.
Depending on how this interplanetary magnetic field is aligned in relationship to Earth's magnetic field, there can be various results when the solar wind arrives at near-Earths space.
At the point where the two fields meet, Earth's magnetic field points north. If the interplanetary field points in the opposite direction – south – then something called magnetic reconnection occurs, causing magnetic field lines pointing in opposite directions to suddenly realign into a new configuration.
The realignment opens the door so that solar wind material can funnel into the magnetosphere – the giant magnetic bubble surrounding Earth.
This is what leads to the aurora, which is produced when the particles funnel down along Earth's magnetic field lines and strike atoms high in the atmosphere.
The interaction with oxygen atoms results in a green or, more rarely, red glow in the night sky, while nitrogen atoms yield blue and purple colors.
Normally, the main region for this impressive display is the auroral oval, which lies at around 65-70 degrees north or south of the equator, encircling the polar caps.
But when the interplanetary magnetic field points northward, auroras can occur at even higher latitudes, sometimes resulting in theta aurora.
Prior to the recent work, scientists suspected that theta aurora had something to do with the particles observed in the lobe regions of the magnetosphere.
The plasma in the lobes is normally cold, but previous observations suggested that theta auroras are linked with unusually hot lobe plasma – but just how was unclear.
“It was unclear whether this hot plasma was a result of direct solar wind entry through the lobes of the magnetosphere,” said Fear. “Or if the plasma is somehow related to the plasma sheet on the night side of Earth. One idea is that the process of magnetic reconnection on the night side of Earth causes a build-up of trapped, hot plasma in the higher latitude lobes.”
The mystery was finally solved by studying data collected simultaneously by the Cluster and IMAGE spacecraft on Sept. 15, 2005.
While the four Cluster satellites were located in the southern hemisphere magnetic lobe, IMAGE had a wide-field view of the southern hemisphere aurora.
As one Cluster satellite observed uncharacteristically energetic plasma in the lobe, IMAGE saw the arc of the theta aurora cross the magnetic footprint of Cluster.
The team found that the energetic plasma appeared on high-latitude magnetic field lines that had been closed by the process of magnetic reconnection driven by the northward pointed fields. This in turn caused the plasma to become relatively hot.
Such observations support the idea that theta aurora are due to plasma trapped inside the magnetosphere, rather than material being directly pushed in from the solar wind.
“Solving the question of the origin of the theta aurora required Cluster's high inclination orbit that sweeps over the region where the aurora are generated together with the imaging capability of IMAGE, which is no longer functioning,” said Melvyn Goldstein, Cluster project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Hopefully, future missions will give comparable capabilities to view the polar regions of the magnetosphere.”
Cluster consists of four satellites flying in formation around Earth. The data presented in this report were collected by Cluster-1.
The Cluster mission was launched in 2000 and is still operating. IMAGE was launched in 2000 and concluded operations at the end of 2005.
The data presented in this report were collected by the satellite's far-ultraviolet Wideband Imaging Camera.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clearlake and Kelseyville Junior Giants youth baseball leagues are partnering to bring local San Francisco Giants fans a treat for the new year.
The groups will host a display of the Giants' World Series trophies for the years 2010, 2012 and 2014 on Thursday, Jan. 8, as part of the World Champions Trophy Tour, according to Kelseyville Junior Giants Commissioner Dan Camacho.
The trophies will be on display from 5 to 7 p.m. at Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St., Camacho said.
There is a requested $2 per-person donation to see the triple trophy display, with all proceeds to benefit the Clearlake and Kelseyville Junior Giants leagues and the Lake County Youth Center, Camacho said.
Visitors can have one photo taken for free if they bring a cell phone or digital camera with them, and a professional photographer with Giants Fan Photos will be available to take pictures which can be purchased online.
Camacho said members of the Kelseyville Business Association are dressing up downtown in orange and black – Giants' colors – and, depending on weather, a police escort is planned to bring the trophies into town.
This is the second time that the World Series trophies have made a stop in Lake County.
In February 2013 Camacho was successful in getting Lakeport on the Giants trophy tour, as Lake County News has reported.
Camacho estimated about 700 people visited the 2010 and 2012 trophies during that event, with the league raising about $400.
Having hosted the trophies previously, the chances were slimmer that there might be a return visit, since there are many Junior Giants leagues vying for spots on the trophy tour, Camacho said.
This year's tour will visit 35 communities, with Lake County being the second stop on the tour, the San Francisco Giants reported.
The tour will begin in Sacramento Jan. 7 and continues ends on opening day of baseball season April 13 in San Francisco, with Nevada and Oregon locations also on the list, according to the San Francisco Giants Web site.
For more information about the tour, visit http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/fan_forum/trophy_tour.jsp .
This year Kelseyville and the new Clearlake league partnered to apply for a spot on the tour, Camacho explained.
“We're actually doing it as a group effort,” Camacho said.
He credited Youth Center Director Joyce Overton and Board member Mike Vandiver for their efforts in the successful application process.
The Giants Community Foundation funds the Junior Giants Program, which is “a free, non-competitive and innovative baseball program” for boys and girls ages 5 to 18 years old, according to the program's Web site, http://sanfrancisco.giants.mlb.com/sf/community/gcf/about_juniorgiants.jsp .
Founded in 1994, the program has reached more than 22,000 at-risk children in 90 leagues across California, Nevada and Oregon, offering activities that emphasize character development and provide alternatives to crime, drugs, violence and gang involvement, the organization reported.
Camacho said the Kelseyville league, overseen by the Sheriff's Activity League, has been in existence for about 15 years. About 140 children participate in that league.
The Clearlake Junior Giants league formed last spring, bringing in another 200 children, he said.
Camacho called the creation of the new Clearlake league “a beautiful thing,” explaining that the program was needed in the community, where transportation to Kelseyville had been a issue for some participants.
Dates for this year's Junior Giants registration are still to be announced.
For more information about the Kelseyville Junior Giants League, call Camacho at 707-349-2484; for information about the Clearlake league, call Lake County Youth Services at 707-994-5437.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The local Disabled American Veterans group is seeking volunteers who are willing to drive veterans to appointments to the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Fort Miley.
The van, donated by the Disabled American Veterans to transport local vets, leaves Clearlake Monday through Friday for the trip to Fort Miley, stopping at four pickup spots.
The van's schedule is as follows:
– 5 a.m.: Leaves the Clearlake Police Department, 14050 Olympic Drive.
– 5:15 a.m.: Stop at the Masonic Lodge, 7100 South Center, Lower Lake.
– 5:30 a.m.: Stop at Middletown Post Office, 21177 Calistoga Road.
– 6:30 a.m.: Stop at the Napa McDonald's, 806 W. Imola Ave., Napa.
– 8 a.m.: Arrival at Fort Miley, depending on traffic.
Vets who take the van are asked to arrange for morning appointments so the van can be on the road at 2 p.m.
Volunteers should have a normal Class C license and provide a Department of Motor Vehicles printout that is clear for the last five years.
All volunteers must go through an approval process that includes a physical.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Veterans Transportation Coordinator Marilyn Nosaka at 415-379-5612 or 877-487-2838, press No. 6.
More information also is available at http://www.sanfrancisco.va.gov/patients/volunteertransport.asp .