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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The fifth-annual, family-friendly Kelseyville Olive Festival, an event which focuses on the olive industry in Lake County, as well as other local products, will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 27.
It will be held at Chacewater Winery & Olive Mill, located at 5625 Gaddy Lane.
The festival will feature locally produced olive oil, education and demonstrations, and a variety of other contests and activities for the whole family.
Vendors offering olive-related and other local products, including options for lunch and snacking, will be present the day of the event, offering samples and selling products, as well as providing educational materials about olives and our local industry. A children’s area will also be featured.
There is no cost to attend the festival; samples and demonstrations are free of charge. Local wine and beer tasting with a commemorative glass will be available for a $15 fee from noon to 4 p.m.
Several related contests will be held up to and during the festival, including a Poster Contest, Olive Pit Spitting Contest, and People’s Choice Olive Oil Contest.
Event proceeds from the silent auction, wine store sales, and wine and beer tasting fees will benefit Lake Family Resource Center. The Resource Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit agency in Kelseyville that provides several programs in Lake County, including the Child Abuse Treatment Program, Rape Crisis Center, 24/7 Community Crisis Line, Behavioral Health Services, Early Head Start, Domestic Violence Assistance, and the Adolescent Family Life Program. For more information, call 707-279-0563.
Bring the family and come enjoy this celebration of Lake County’s olive industry.
For details visit www.KelseyvilleOliveFestival.com .
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Federal officials have completed a preliminary report outlining the events leading to a fatal April 10 crash near Orland involving a FedEx semi and a bus filled with high school students.
On Friday the National Transportation Safety Board released its basic outline of the wreck, which resulted in 10 deaths and dozens of injuries.
The crash occurred on Interstate 5 near Orland when the FedEx semi pulling two trailers, driven by Timothy Paul Evans, 32, of Elk Grove, crossed the median, sideswiped a Nissan Altima driven by Washington resident Bonnie Duran and collided head-on with the 2014 Setra motorcoach with Talalelei Feleni Lealao-Taiao, 53, of Sacramento at the wheel.
Evans and Lealao-Taiao died in the crash, along with chaperones Mattison Leatrice Haywood, 25, of Chino and Michael Lee Myvett Jr., 29, of Los Angeles; and students Ismael Jimenez, 18, of Inglewood; Jennifer Caroline Bonilla, 17, of Los Angeles; Denise Eraina Gomez, 18, of Inglewood; and Marisa Elaine Serrato, 17, of Riverside.
Humboldt State admissions office staffer Arthur Arzola, who was traveling with the students to a preview event at the campus, also was killed.
Bonnie Duran and her husband had minor injuries, officials reported.
The California Highway Patrol and the NTSB are in the midst of lengthy investigations into the crash, with final reports not expected to be completed for several months at the earliest.
The preliminary NTSB report is published below in its entirety.
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PRELIMINARY REPORT
HIGHWAY
HWY14MH009
The information in this report is preliminary and will be supplemented or corrected during the course of the investigation.
On Thursday, April 10, 2014, about 5:40 pacific daylight time, a 2007 Volvo truck tractor in combination with two 28-foot trailers operated by FedEx Corporation was traveling southbound in the right lane of Interstate 5 (I-5) in Orland, California. At the same time, a 2014 Setra motorcoach operated by Silverado Stages Inc., and occupied by a driver, 43 high school students, and three adult chaperones was traveling northbound on I-5 in the right traffic lane. In the vicinity of milepost 26.02, the FedEx combination vehicle moved to the left, departing the southbound traffic lanes and entering the 58-foot wide center median. The vehicle drove through a line of oleander bushes in the center of the median and entered the northbound traffic lanes of I-5. It collided with the left rear portion of a white 2013 Nissan Altima four-door passenger car, occupied by a driver and one passenger, which had just passed the Sentra motorcoach and moved back into the right lane of northbound I-5. The Nissan rotated counterclockwise and departed the highway on the east side. Following the impact with the passenger car, the combination vehicle collided with the motorcoach, and both vehicles departed the highway to the east.
A post-crash fire ensued. The fire consumed the combination vehicle and partially burned the motor coach. The front of the motorcoach received significant damage that exposed the vehicle’s interior.
As a result of the collision, the drivers of both the combination vehicle and motorcoach were fatally injured. Eight motorcoach passengers were also fatally injured. The remaining passengers received injuries of varying degree. The occupants of the Nissan passenger car received minor injuries.
The combination vehicle had originally departed from the FedEx facility in Sacramento, California, at about 10:00 a.m. and drove to Weeds, California (located in Siskiyou County, approximately 49 miles south of the Oregon border), where the driver delivered two trailers. At about 3:30 p.m., the driver picked up two other 28-foot trailers and was en route back to Sacramento when the accident occurred. The motorcoach, part of a chartered trip originating from Los Angeles, California, was taking high school students to Humboldt University, in Arcata, California, for a tour of the campus. The motorcoach had made a scheduled stop in Sacramento, where a replacement driver took over operation of the vehicle.
NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest “brown dwarf” known – a dim, star-like body that surprisingly is as frosty as Earth's North Pole.
Named “WISE J085510.83-071442.5,” the brown dwarf appears to be 7.2 light-years away, earning it the title for fourth closest system to our sun.
“It's very exciting to discover a new neighbor of our solar system that is so close,” said Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, University Park.
Brown dwarfs start their lives like stars, as collapsing balls of gas, but they lack the mass to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight. The newfound coldest brown dwarf is a chilly temperature between minus 54 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 48 to minus 13 degrees Celsius).
Previous record holders for coldest brown dwarfs, also found by WISE and Spitzer, were about room temperature.
“It is remarkable that even after many decades of studying the sky, we still do not have a complete inventory of the sun's nearest neighbors,” added Michael Werner, the project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This exciting new result demonstrates the power of exploring the universe using new tools, such as the infrared eyes of WISE and Spitzer.”
WISE was able to spot the rare object because it surveyed the entire sky twice in infrared light, observing some areas up to three times.
Cool objects like brown dwarfs can be invisible when viewed by visible-light telescopes, but their thermal glow – even if feeble – stands out in infrared light.
In addition, the closer a body, the more it appears to move in images taken months apart. Airplanes are a good example of this effect: a closer, low-flying plane will appear to fly overhead more rapidly than a high-flying one.
“This object appeared to move really fast in the WISE data,” said Luhman. “That told us it was something special.”
After noticing the fast motion of WISE J085510.83-071442.5, Luhman spent time analyzing additional images taken with Spitzer and the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachon in Chile.
Spitzer's infrared observations helped determine the frosty temperature of the brown dwarf. Combined detections from WISE and Spitzer, taken from different positions around the sun, revealed the object's parallax, and thus its distance.
The closest system to Earth, a trio of stars, is Alpha Centauri, at about 4 light-years away. WISE J085510.83-071442.5 is only a few light years farther than that.
WISE J085510.83-071442.5 appears to be three to 10 times the mass of Jupiter. With such a low mass, it could be a gas giant similar to Jupiter that was ejected from its star system. But scientists estimate it is probably a brown dwarf rather than a planet since brown dwarfs are known to be fairly common. If so, it is one of the least massive brown dwarfs known.
In March of 2013, Luhman's analysis of the images from WISE uncovered a pair of much warmer brown dwarfs at a distance of 6.5 light years, making that system the third closest to the sun.
His search for rapidly moving bodies also demonstrated that the outer solar system probably does not contain a large, undiscovered planet, which has been referred to as “Planet X” or “Nemesis.”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The Wednesday service of a search warrant led to the arrest of a Clearlake Oaks woman, the eradication of more than 1,800 marijuana plants and seizure of two firearms.
Narcotics detectives arrested 52-year-old Jane Cook, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Brooks said that detectives secured a search warrant for a residence located in the 12000 block of Cerrito Drive in Clearlake Oaks on Tuesday, serving it the following day at 11:15 a.m. He said they were unable to locate anyone at the residence during the search warrant service.
During the search detectives located three hoop-style greenhouses on the property that contained a total of 283 marijuana plants, Brooks said.
Brooks said the detectives located a grow inside the garage, which contained 1,599 cloned marijuana plants. A total of 1,882 marijuana plants were located on the property and eradicated.
During a search of the residence detectives located and seized a 9 millimeter semiautomatic pistol with three loaded magazines in a bedroom, Brooks said.
In the same bedroom detectives located $3,130 in U.S. currency, which Brooks said was seized pending asset forfeiture proceedings. They also located and seized a loaded .22-caliber revolver inside a liquor cabinet in the kitchen.
The person responsible for the property was identified as Cook, Brooks said.
At 2:25 p.m. Wednesday, detectives located Cook and arrested her for the cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sale and being armed while in the commission of a felony. Brooks said she was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked.
Cook's bail was set at $25,000. Jail records indicated she posted the required percentage of bail and was released.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – After six months of construction, the new Live Oak Senior Center is set to open this coming Monday.
The building of the new $1.5 million center on Foothill Boulevard began last September, and this week the county is wrapping up final inspections, with the old center next door demolished on Wednesday.
Live Oak Senior Center Executive Director Pat Grabham said the center has been closed for about a week in preparation for the switch to the new building.
On Monday, seniors will be welcomed back to have their first meal in the new center, she said.
“It's going to be a lot of fun,” she said, adding, “Our seniors are champing at the bit to get back here and have a good lunch.”
Eric Seely, deputy county administrative officer for special projects, said county fire and building officials have completed inspections on the building, with mechanical and electrical engineers inspecting the building on Thursday.
Lake County Environmental Health will conduct one final inspection on Friday and then the county will issue the certificate of occupancy, Seely said.
He said the construction costs for the 4,000-square-foot building have remained pretty much on budget, and the project was completed within the estimated construction timeframe thanks to good weather over the last several months.
“This was a nice, uneventful, smooth project,” said Seely, who also is overseeing other major county projects, including the Lucerne Hotel renovation and, soon, the renovation of the Gard Street School property in Kelseyville, which will be the new home of Child Support Services.
Chico-based Randy Hill Construction is the Live Oak Senior Center project's general contractor. Seely said local subcontractors including Dynamic Construction – which did framing and finishing work – and Totorica Fire Protection, which had the sprinkler contract, were involved.
Seely said the project planning started several years ago when the county still had a redevelopment agency. The county applied for Community Block Grant Funding for the center, but was unsuccessful.
“Then we just started saving money until we had sufficient funds to go to construction,” Seely said.
Grabham, who has been the center's executive director for 17 years, said of the new center, “It's been a long time coming.”
The newer, bigger and better designed center not only will offer seniors a comfortable time to gather and socialize, but will continue to be a community meeting place, Grabham said.
She said the Live Oak Senior Center serves an average of 80 to 100 meals a day on site and 30 to 35 meals daily through its Meals on Wheels program.
Grabham said she is seeing an increase in the need for services for seniors, and she hopes more people will take advantage of the larger senior center, including coming in for the congregate meals.
The center sends a bus out to Spring Valley, Glenhaven and other outlying areas around Clearlake Oaks in order to bring the seniors in for the daily meals, she said. Usually it takes more than one bus load to bring in all of the seniors who want to take part.
Seniors usually arrive around 10:30 a.m., enjoy time visiting, then have lunch and play cards afterward, leaving at around 1 p.m., Grabham said.
That daily socialization is “really important,” Grabham said.
Grabham said the Live Oak Senior Center doesn't compete with other centers around the lake. “We just all need to work together.”
One last part of the work remains, which is the construction of the parking lot where the old senior center building had stood.
Seely said that work will be completed during the first part of May.
Grabham and Seely said a dedication for the new senior center will be announced in the near future.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Forty boats are expected to set sail Saturday in the 30th annual Konocti Cup on Clear Lake.
And, said race spokesman Pat Brown, that’s surprising because the lake is supposed to be a little shallow this year.
The Konocti Bay Sailing Club is hosting the event, which will be headquartered out of Braito's Buckingham Harbor.
The Cup, which is organized into three different classes of boats, will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the Full Cup race, limited to monohull boats of 19 feet.
Tom Burden from Santa Cruz will be on Clear Lake to defend his 2013 Konocti Cup title in his Ultimate 20 “Layla,” Brown said.
The Bilafer family, which holds the 26-mile course record, Brown added, will not be competing because of low water.
In some places in the southern part of the lake where the race course is located, the draw is reported to be only 8 feet, Brown said.
Following the Full Cup race will be the Half Cup, also restricted to monohull craft, at a distance of 13 miles, according to Brown.
The third launch will be for multihull boats, with Bill Erkelens – who won last year’s multihull Cup in his Master Tornado “Go Nan Go” – set to compete.
An 8:30 a.m. skippers meeting will precede the Cup and a Sunday awards event at Braito’s Buckingham Marine will follow the race on Sunday.
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