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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Grand Jury still has openings for the 2014-15 fiscal year and is seeking community members to fill them.
The 19-person grand jury – which investigates and reports upon the affairs of local government – is selected from the different supervisorial districts in proportion to the population of each district.
The term of service runs through June 30, 2015.
To qualify, candidates must be at least 18 years old, a US citizen residing in Lake County for at least one year prior to selection, not currently holding any elected office and free from any felony convictions.
Grand jurors are reimbursed for mileage and receive a small per diem.
Those selected will need to be thoughtful, open-minded, hard-working and willing to devote the time required, which is between 10 and 20 hours of work per week attending committee and general meetings, responding to citizens’ complaints, performing research, investigating the operations of governmental agencies, and allegations of wrongdoing by public officials or employees.
The Lake County Grand Jury has civil investigative powers and provides a vital government oversight function.
In recent years, grand jury investigations have resulted in more efficient government operations in many county departments and stand-alone districts by shining a light on practices that needed improvement.
Personal interviews will be scheduled prior to final selection.
You can learn more about the grand jury at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Boards/Grand_Jury.htm .
Applications can be acquired at http://www.lake.courts.ca.gov/files/GrandJuryApplication.pdf ; at the Lake County Superior Court Clerk’s Office, located at 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, in Lakeport, or at 7000 A South Center Drive in Clearlake; or by sending a letter with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the Grand Jury Coordinator, 255 N. Forbes, Fourth Floor, Lakeport, CA 95453.
Further information may be obtained by calling the Grand Jury coordinator at 707-263-2374, Extension 2282.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has five cats and kittens needing homes as the week begins.
The kittens range in age from 9 to 16 weeks, with the adult cats in the range of 2 years old.
In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets there, hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (other cats pictured on the animal control Web site that are not listed here are still “on hold”).
Male domestic short hair mix kitten
This male domestic short hair mix is 16 weeks old.
He has gold eyes, a white and gray coat, weighs 4.2 pounds and has been neutered.
He's in cat room kennel No. 6, ID No. 40066.
Male tabby
This male tabby is 2 years old.
He has a short buff-colored coat, weighs 9 pounds and has gold eyes. Shelter staff did not report if he has been altered.
He's in cat room kennel No. 10, ID No. 40277.
Female domestic long hair mix
This female domestic long hair mix cat is 2 years old.
She has dilute tortie markings, weighs 10 pounds and has been spayed.
She's in cat room kennel No. 56, ID No. 39764.
'Asia'
“Asia” is a 10-week-old female domestic short hair mix.
She has torbie markings and green eyes, and has been spayed.
She's in cat room kennel No. 57, ID No. 40304.
'Lucy'
“Lucy” is an 9-week-old female domestic short hair mix kitten.
She has torbie and white markings, and gold eyes, and has been spayed.
Find her in cat room kennel No. 57, ID No. 40341.
Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .
Please note: Cats listed at the shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A man drowned in the Russian River Saturday afternoon.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office did not release the name of the victim, who had been kayaking near Duncan Mills.
Just after 4 p.m. Sonoma County Sheriff's deputies from the Guerneville substation, and fire and medical personnel from Cal Fire, California State Parks, Bodega Bay and Monte Rio Fire protection districts responded to a report of a male swimmer in distress on the Russia River west of the Casini Ranch Campgrounds, located at 22855 Moscow Road.
Witnesses called 911 after observing a kayak capsize on the river. One of the two people on board appeared to be in distress and had problems staying afloat in the water before disappearing, according to the report.
The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office report estimated the male was under water for approximately seven to 10 minutes before being located and rescued.
Medical personnel on scene performed CPR on the male but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and the male was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.
The Sonoma County Coroner’s Office responded to the incident and is currently conducting a followup investigation.
The universe is a big place, full of unknowns.
Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have just catalogued a new one.
“I couldn't believe my eyes,” said Esra Bulbul of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. “What we found, at first glance, could not be explained by known physics.”
Together with a team of more than a half-dozen colleagues, Bulbul has been using Chandra to explore the Perseus Cluster, a swarm of galaxies approximately 250 million light years from Earth.
Imagine a cloud of gas in which each atom is a whole galaxy – that's a bit what the Perseus cluster is like. It is one of the most massive known objects in the Universe.
The cluster itself is immersed in an enormous 'atmosphere' of superheated plasma—and it is there that the mystery resides.
Bulbul explains: “The cluster's atmosphere is full of ions such as Fe XXV, Si XIV, and S XV. Each one produces a 'bump' or 'line' in the x-ray spectrum, which we can map using Chandra. These spectral lines are at well-known x-ray energies.”
Yet, in 2012 when Bulbul added together 17 day's worth of Chandra data, a new line popped up where no line should be.
“A line appeared at 3.56 keV (kilo-electron volts) which does not correspond to any known atomic transition,” she said. “It was a great surprise.”
At first, Bulbul herself did not believe it.
“It took a long time to convince myself that this line is neither a detector artifact, nor a known atomic line,” she said. “I have done very careful checks. I have re-analyzed the data; split the data set into different sub groups; and checked the data from four other detectors on board two different observatories. None of these efforts made the line disappear.”
In short, it appears to be real.
The reality of the line was further confirmed when Bulbul's team found the same spectral signature in X-ray emissions from 73 other galaxy clusters.
Those data were gathered by Europe's XMM-Newton, a completely independent X-ray telescope.
Moreover, about a week after Bulbul team posted their paper online, a different group led by Alexey Boyarsky of Leiden University in the Netherlands reported evidence for the same spectral line in XMM-Newton observations of the Andromeda galaxy.
They also confirmed the line in the outskirts of the Perseus cluster.
The spectral line appears not to come from any known type of matter, which shifts suspicion to the unknown: dark matter.
“After we submitted the paper, theoreticians came up with about 60 different dark matter types which could explain this line. Some particle physicists have jokingly called this particle a 'bulbulon',” she laughs.
The menagerie of dark matter candidates that might produce this kind of line include axions, sterile neutrinos, and “moduli dark matter” that may result from the curling up of extra dimensions in string theory.
Solving the mystery could require a whole new observatory. In 2015, the Japanese space agency is planning to launch an advanced X-ray telescope called “Astro-H.”
It has a new type of X-ray detector, developed collaboratively by NASA and University of Wisconsin scientists, which will be able to measure the mystery line with more precision than currently possible.
“Maybe then,” said Bulbul, “we'll get to the bottom of this.”
To see the ScienceCast visit http://youtu.be/3439YtdQZ1Y .
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – So, Ruby Glebe, what do you do in your spare time?
Lake County’s newest centenarian might answer that question by saying, what spare time?
Glebe turned 100 on Wednesday, July 23.
What she’s done and continues to do for a number of organizations and causes, along with her many personal pursuits, leaves her no idle time.
She participated in launching a handful of organizations. She is a charter member of the Lake County Historical Society (organized in 1944) and a former historian for the county, the Native Daughters of the Golden West (founded in 1972) and, more recently, the Lioness Club and Vikings of Lake Lodge.
She became a member of the Big Valley Grange 66 years ago and on Sundays she attends Kelseyville Presbyterian, which was the first church that she walked into 74 years ago when she came to Lake County because she liked the music she heard coming from it.
Nobody chauffeurs her to all these locations.
“I’ve had a driver's license for 84 years,” she said. “When I was 96 I had good enough eyesight so they gave me a license, which is good till I’m 101. Then, depending what shape I’m in, I will try to get a license that’s good for five more years. “
That is not a foreseeable problem.
“They had me take off my glasses for distance and I can see a long way,” Glebe said.
Despite her vintage, Ruby Glebe is no candidate for assisted living. She lives quite alone in the same house in Kelseyville that has been her home for 36 years. Her son, a Vietnam veteran, visits her often to check on her.
She is of solid second-generation American stock whose parents came from Germany.
From her earliest years – spent in various places, including Alaska and Vacaville – she has been a model of independence.
She was the only girl on her country school baseball team.
“I had to play on the baseball team; they didn’t have enough players for a team if I didn’t,” she said.
Handy with a gun, she was better at taking down a deer for the dinner table than her three brothers, one of them her twin who in his 90s fell victim to a disease diagnosed as supranuclear palsy.
Glebe became a good shooter at a family hunting camp in the Mayacamas mountain range. For a number of years she drove to the camp in her four-wheel-drive vehicle to hunt deer for the humans and rabbits for the dogs.
“I was a good shot because I pestered my brothers all the time and got their .22 (caliber rifle) and used it,” she asserted.
She rode her horse bareback for a number of years – out of necessity.
“I was on a horse when I was 6 years old,” said Glebe. “I finally worked up enough courage to ask my father if I could have a saddle and he said, 'I have to feed this horse, I have to put shoes on it. You can ride it bareback.' So I never had a saddle.”
Above all she is one tough – make that indestructible – lady who in her lifetime admits to having had 12 surgeries.
“Nothing more than gall bladder, tonsils, adenoids, and a few odds and ends,” she explained.
During one eight-year stage she could not eat solid foods unless they were turned to grain by a ricer.
But all this was as nothing when compared to a March night seven years ago when Glebe, 93 at the time, was run over by her own SUV, which slipped into gear and pinned her while she was opening a gate.
After regaining consciousness, she was able to extract her hand from under a wheel. And when “nothing rattled” she found her way to her front door and called for help.
Doctors and x-ray technicians were stunned when they discovered the bones of neither of her legs were broken after being run over by a heavy vehicle. She pulled up her pant legs to show this reporter purplish discolorations left from the accident.
A three-ring binder that provides glimpses of much of Glebe’s life was presented to her at an open house in her honor at Big Valley Grange last Sunday.
Among the tales included in the portfolio was one that occurred after her parents bought her an “upright” piano when she was 11.
“Learning to play was an adventure in many ways,” Glebe wrote, and then went on to describe one of them involving a teacher whom she said was a “marvelous musician and an excellent teacher – when she was not drinking lemon or vanilla extract.”
She found it curious when she observed that the windows and the windshield of a car owned by the teacher’s husband had been smashed. Worse yet, it was the teacher who broke them during a pique of temper.
“I never knew quite what to expect,” Glebe recalled. Certainly didn’t expect what occurred when the teacher looked out window and spotted a neighbor’s half-grown cat on her property.
“For some reason this upset her terribly,” Glebe wrote. “She jumped up, grabbed a butcher knife ... and proceeded to finish off the cat, all the while explaining to whomever happened to be near what she thought about the neighbor or their cat.”
At that point she got a new piano teacher.
In 1937 Glebe moved from Los Angeles to Lake County, where she saw and rode out the worst of the Great Depression.
Among her first experiences in Lake County was driving herself to a dentist, whose office was on Lakeport’s Main Street.
The office was above a drug store. While mounting a dark staircase to it Glebe needed to step around a dead bird.
She had further misgivings about the dentist when, after entering his office, she observed a jumble of patient records, a stubby pencil and an ashtray for the dentist’s cigar butt on top of a bureau and a plethora of tools, various papers and tubes of paste jutting out from the bureau drawers.
What manner of practitioner would operate in in such disarray?
Glebe soon found out. The dentist, whom she remembers only as Dr. Fruchtnicht, was a tall, slim man in rumpled clothing, combat boots and a bloodied apron.
Despite all this the oral procedure that followed was successful with one exception: The anesthetic that Dr. Fruchtnicht administered left Glebe too woozy to drive home.
The dentist knew exactly what to do under such circumstances. He led Glebe back down the staircase to a city park bench where she could sleep off the effects of the drug.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I can easily watch out for you from my window across the street. But you won’t have any difficulty and soon you’ll be right as rain and can drive.”
And indeed she did.
Two days later when Glebe went back to Dr. Fruchtnicht for a checkup she found the dead bird was still on the staircase.
Perhaps some people are like wine. Some simply age and some get better with age.
So it isn’t too much of a stretch to see Glebe turn her dreams for the future into substance.
She wants to travel.
No, not to China. She did that in February 1973 – taking in the Terracotta Army in the process – just months after then-President Richard Nixon became the first US president to visit the country since 1949.
No, not to Siberia. She’s had a train trip over that forsaken terrain.
And, no, not to the Amazon. She’s been down that river and seen the rain forest people.
Asked for a recommendation for living a long life, Glebe said, “A lot of it is your attitude. You need to keep your mind active. When you get into trouble get on your feet and don’t stand around and moan about it.”
Email John Lindblom at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week Lake County Animal Care and Control once more has several large dogs awaiting adoption.
The dogs this week primarily are pit bull mixes, with shepherd mix and kelpie mixes also needing new homes. They range in age from 14 weeks to 3 years.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
'Kermit'
“Kermit” is a 7-month-old pit bull terrier mix.
He has a short tan and white coat, and gold eyes, weighs 50 pounds and has been neutered.
He's in kennel No. 3a, ID No. 40175.
'Brutus'
“Brutus” is a 14-week-old male Australian Kelpie-hound mix.
He weighs 20 pounds, has a short blue coat and blue eyes, and has been neutered.
Find him in kennel No. 3b, ID No. 40019.
Female shepherd mix
This female shepherd mix is of undetermined age.
She has a short brown coat and brown eyes,and floppy ears. Shelter staff did not report if she has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 40345.
'Blue'
“Blue” is a 2-year-old male pit bull terrier mix.
He has a medium-length blue coat, weighs 73 pounds and has not been neutered.
Find him in kennel No. 28, ID No. 39852.
'Sparkey'
“Sparkey” is a 3-year-old pit bull mix.
The dog, whose gender was not reported, weighs 77 pounds and has a short tan and white coat.
Sparkey is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 40350.
Female pit bull mix
This female pit bull terrier mix is 3 years old.
She has a short black and brindle coat, weighs nearly 40 pounds and has been spayed.
She's in kennel No. 32, ID No. 40298.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at