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On Friday the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released a full status review of the Northeast Pacific population of white shark in which the agency concluded that the shark should not be granted endangered species protection under California law.
The review document can be seen below.
Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and Shark Stewards submitted the state listing petition – as well as a federal one – in August 2012.
In February 2013, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously to move the great white shark into candidacy for a state Endangered Species Act listing, which began a yearlong review.
Then, last June, the National Marine Fisheries Service declined to protect great white sharks off the coast of California under the Endangered Species Act.
In completing the review, California Department of Fish and Wildlife staff determined that the best scientific information available indicates the petitioned action is not warranted.
The listing petition included information that as few as 339 of the sharks live along the California coast.
However, the state review says there are a number of shark population estimates, ranging from as few as 339 up to more than 3,000.
“All current estimates involve some degree of uncertainty as there are significant gaps in the knowledge of white shark movements, reproductive biology and mating behaviors,” the review stated.
“Based on our thorough review of the best available scientific information, the Department believes the estimated abundance of 339 individuals stated in the Petition underestimates the true size of the population,” the document goes on to say, noting that the 3,000-shark population estimate was based on an “expanded data sets and more robust assumptions.”
As such, the agency is recommending that the California Fish and Game Commission not list the Northeast Pacific population of white shark as threatened or endangered under the California Endangered Species Act.
The final listing decision will be up to the commission, which is expected to take up the matter at a future meeting.
Updates will be posted on the commission's Web site, www.fgc.ca.gov .
Email Elizabeth Larson at
On Friday U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, and Elizabeth Esty (CT-5), vice chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, led the call against legislative language known as “riders,” in appropriations bills that would block efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence.
One hundred and six of their colleagues joined Thompson and Esty in sending a letter to House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on March 25 urging them to oppose the inclusion of gun-related riders in appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2015.
“The only people these riders benefit are criminals,” said Thompson. “They prevent the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health from conducting research on the causes of gun violence. They restrict law enforcement’s ability to track and combat the spread of illegal guns. And they harm efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence. The American people deserve an open debate on these backdoor legislative tactics that do nothing but make our communities less safe."
“It’s unacceptable for members of Congress to slip into must-pass bills controversial provisions that block efforts to reduce gun violence," said Esty. "The fact that gun-riders have prohibited federally-funded public health research on the causes and impact of gun violence and have limited efforts to track illegal guns underscores how harmful these under-the-table provisions can be. The American people deserve an open, public debate on issues that so deeply affect the health and safety of our families."
In previous years, members of Congress included gun-related riders without any public debate.
The riders include provisions known as the Rehberg restrictions that prohibit research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on gun violence prevention, the Tiahrt Amendments that hinder the ability of law enforcement to track and combat the spread of illegal guns, and the Dickey restrictions that have led Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to effectively halt all research into the causes and prevention of gun violence.
In their policy principles released in February, 2013, the U.S. House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force recommended that Congress repeal these riders and restore funding for public safety and law enforcement initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence.
The task force also urged Congress to fund law enforcement's efforts to reduce gun violence, while supporting federal research into the causes of gun violence.
In policy principle number nine found here, the task force recommended that Congress remove the Dickey, Rehberg and Tiahrt restrictions.
A full copy of the letter is below.
The Honorable John Boehner The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House Democratic Leader
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515 Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi:
As the House Committee on Appropriations develops each of the twelve fiscal year (FY) 2015 appropriations bills, we urge that you ensure the committee’s legislation not include harmful legislative language, or “riders,” that impact the enforcement of gun laws, the operations of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL), or research into the causes of gun violence and how to prevent it. Gun violence reduction and prevention is an important and sensitive issue. Given the renewed national focus on gun violence prevention, now is not the time to include controversial appropriations riders that negatively impact gun laws.
Instead, such changes to gun policy must be seriously and properly considered by Congress through the regular order. This must be done in an open and transparent process where a full range of options can be frankly discussed and debated by the proper committees of authorizing jurisdiction and the entire House of Representatives. Over the past several years, various appropriations riders related to gun policy have had unintended consequences that could have been prevented had these issues been properly and more thoroughly debated in Congress.
For example, the Tiahrt and Rehberg amendments, among others, have prevented law enforcement from requiring FFLs to keep an inventory of their firearms, prevented law enforcement and academic institutions from using gun trace data to better understand the pattern of crime gun transfers, and chilled unbiased scientific research into the causes of gun violence and the means of preventing it.
As the FY 2015 appropriations process begins through the respective Appropriations subcommittees, we urge you to support the development of legislation that is free of harmful gun-related riders. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft and Deep Space Network have uncovered evidence that Saturn's moon Enceladus harbors a large underground ocean, furthering scientific interest in the moon as a potential home to extraterrestrial microbes.
Researchers theorized the presence of an interior reservoir of liquid water in 2005 when Cassini discovered water vapor and ice spewing from vents near the moon's south pole. New data on the moon's gravity field reported in the April 4 edition of the journal Science strengthen the case for an ocean hidden inside Enceladus.
The gravity measurements suggest a large, possibly regional, ocean about 6 miles deep, beneath an ice shell about 19 to 25 miles thick.
The subsurface ocean evidence supports the inclusion of Enceladus among the most likely places in our solar system to host microbial life.
Before Cassini reached Saturn in July 2004, no version of that short list included this icy moon, barely 300 miles in diameter.
“The way we deduce gravity variations is a concept in physics called the Doppler Effect, the same principle used with a speed-measuring radar gun,” said Sami Asmar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., a coauthor of the paper. “As the spacecraft flies by Enceladus, its velocity is perturbed by an amount that depends on variations in the gravity field that we're trying to measure. We see the change in velocity as a change in radio frequency, received at our ground stations here all the way across the solar system.”
“This provides one possible story to explain why water is gushing out of these fractures we see at the south pole,” added David Stevenson of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, one of the paper's co-authors.
Cassini has flown near Enceladus 19 times. Three flybys, from 2010 to 2012, yielded precise trajectory measurements.
The gravitational tug of a planetary body, such as Enceladus, alters a spacecraft's flight path. Variations in the gravity field, such as those caused by mountains on the surface or differences in underground composition, can be detected as changes in the spacecraft's velocity, measured from Earth.
The technique of analyzing a radio signal between Cassini and the Deep Space Network can detect changes in velocity as small as less than one foot per hour (90 microns per second). With this precision, the flyby data yielded evidence of a zone inside the southern end of the moon with higher density than other portions of the interior.
The south pole area has a surface depression that causes a dip in the local tug of gravity. However, the magnitude of the dip is less than expected given the size of the depression, leading researchers to conclude the depression's effect is partially offset by a high-density feature in the region, beneath the surface.
“The Cassini gravity measurements show a negative gravity anomaly at the south pole that however is not as large as expected from the deep depression detected by the onboard camera,” says the paper's lead author, Luciano Iess of Sapienza University of Rome. “Hence the conclusion that there must be a denser material at depth that compensates the missing mass: very likely liquid water, which is seven percent denser than ice. The magnitude of the anomaly gave us the size of the water reservoir.”
There is no certainty the subsurface ocean supplies the water plume spraying out of surface fractures near the south pole of Enceladus, however, scientists reason it is a real possibility.
The fractures may lead down to a part of the moon that is tidally heated by the moon's repeated flexing, as it follows an eccentric orbit around Saturn.
Much of the excitement about the Cassini mission's discovery of the Enceladus water plume stems from the possibility that it originates from a wet environment that could be a favorable environment for microbial life.
“Material from Enceladus’ south polar jets contains salty water and organic molecules, the basic chemical ingredients for life,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini's project scientist at JPL. “Their discovery expanded our view of the 'habitable zone' within our solar system and in planetary systems of other stars. This new validation that an ocean of water underlies the jets furthers understanding about this intriguing environment.”
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
On Jan. 1, 2014, California amended its statutory definition of “undue influence” in section 15610.70 of the Welfare and Institutions Code.
This new definition of “undue influence” applies both to “financial elder abuse” that affects the victim while alive and also to undue influence that affect the victim’s “testamentary dispositions” after death.
Until 2014, proving undue influence often entailed proving the abuse of a “confidential relationship,” i.e., a relationship in which the victim trusted and confided in the perpetrator, “for the purpose of obtaining an unfair advantage.”
Now, “'undue influence’ means excessive persuasion that causes another person to act or refrain from acting by overcoming that person's free will and results in inequity.”
“Excessive persuasion” does not require the existence of any relationship whatsoever between the perpetrator and the victim, although that is one of the specific factors to be considered.
The old focus on a confidential relationship was sometimes preventing enforcement of elder abuse cases where the perpetrator had no real relationship, certainly not a confidential relationship, with the elderly victim.
It is not always the case that a confidential relationship exists between the victim and the perpetrator.
Now what is necessary is to show that an “inequitable result” was obtained through excessive persuasion.
That is a facts and circumstances analysis that requires consideration of each one the following factors: (1) victim’s vulnerability; (2) the influencer’s apparent authority; (3) the actions or tactics used; and (4) the fairness of the results. Each factor is elaborated upon in the statute.
The new definition’s initial focus is on “excessive persuasion that overcomes a person’s free will.”
This derives from a long line of California decisions involving “will contests” where abnormal or excessive pressure either subverted or overcame the free will of the testator and resulted in a disposition contrary to what the testator would otherwise have done freely.
The definition’s back end focus is on “inequity” as the end result. However, “evidence of an inequitable result, without more, is not sufficient to prove undue influence.”
Otherwise, without that language, whenever one beneficiary inherited more than someone else who arguablely should have inherited as much it might be argued that such an uneven result is unfair, even if it was freely intended by the testator.
For example, take a father who leaves most of his trust estate to a favored child and less to other not as favored children.
The new definition applies both to abusive transactions that take effect during a victim’s lifetime and those that take effect at death.
These are very different spheres of abuse.
The former includes the scenario where the perpetrator, “[t]akes, secretes, appropriates, obtains, or retains real or personal property of an elder or dependent adult for a wrongful use or with intent to defraud, or both.”
The second includes the scenario where the perpetrator coerces the elderly person into devising an estate plan that gift assets in a way that is not consistent with his free wishes.
Much remains to be seen as to how the statute will be applied by the courts. This is especially true in regards to what is considered to be an “inequitable result.”
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
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A case the Medical Board of California and the California Attorney General’s Office brought two years ago alleging that a longtime Upper Lake doctor violated professional codes while prescribing medical marijuana has been settled.
Barbara Yaroslavsky, chair of the Medical Board of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, signed a stipulated settlement and disciplinary order in the case of Dr. Milan Hopkins on March 12.
The settlement goes into effect on April 11, according to the case documents.
The case was filed against Hopkins in March 2012, as Lake County News has reported: http://bit.ly/IJkS2c .
The disciplinary action calls for revocation of Hopkins' medical license; however, it also stays the revocation in favor of five years' probation.
The order requires that Hopkins take continuing education coursework on prescribing practices, medical records keeping, and professionalism and ethics; that he make quarterly declarations; be immediately available for monitoring interviews; and cover his probation monitoring costs.
He also is required to notify all hospitals where he practices of the Medical Board decision, and during his probation he is prohibited from supervising physicians assistants.
Throughout the proceedings, Hopkins has been allowed to continue his medical practice.
“It doesn’t affect his status at all, or the status of his practice or his medical marijuana recommendations,” Hopkins' San Francisco-based attorney, Laurence J. Lichter, said of the Medical Board decision in a Thursday interview with Lake County News.
Both Hopkins and Lichter signed onto the settlement and order last spring, as did the Attorney General's Office. However, it took until last month for the Medical Board of California to finalize it.
“This took a little longer than it should,” Medical Board spokesperson Cassandra Hockenson told Lake County News on Thursday.
The approval process can take time, and in this case she attributed the delay to a “glitch,” adding, “It's not the norm.” She said the Medical Board is working on a new decision streamlining process.
The original 2012 complaint accused Hopkins of three counts of gross negligence for allegedly prescribing marijuana use to three separate patients without the required exams. The complaint said that he ignored serious health issues without making contact or coordinating with primary care physicians.
The fourth charge in the case was for repeated acts of negligence for not appropriately diagnosing a case, ignoring potential health issues and not following up on health issues.
In the case of one female patient – who, as it turned out, was an undercover investigator who visited Hopkins in October 2010 – Hopkins was accused of “searching for a reason for the medical marijuana recommendation to enable the patient to avoid legal issues with her recreational weekend marijuana use.”
The two male patients in the case, both aged 19 at the time, had reportedly driven from Los Angeles to Upper Lake in February 2011 to get medical marijuana recommendations, case documents state.
Lichter told Lake County News that Hopkins already has modified medical record-keeping procedures to address the Medical Board's concerns.
The Medical Board also wants Hopkins to take classes, and Lichter pointed out that all doctors must take continuing education coursework.
Lichter maintained that Hopkins was pulled into the case “accidentally” as the Medical Board was investigating another doctor in another county.
The agency's interest had nothing to do with medical marijuana, added Lichter, whose practice includes marijuana-related cases. He also acts as an advisor to the founders of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, where he originated the law curriculum and serves as the law faculty's dean.
Hopkins was faulted for not having complete medical records of some up the patients he saw. Lichter said Hopkins wants to make sure he has such records, but sometimes the people who come to him don't have a regular physician and so any medical records they may have are not readily available.
He said Hopkins serves a valuable function in the Lake County community. “A lot of people who go to see him up there would not ordinarily see a doctor,” said Lichter.
In such cases, Hopkins tries to steer them toward other specialists, with Lichter adding, “Unfortunately, cannabis doesn’t cure everything.”
Hopkins, who received his medical license in July 1972, had two previous cases which landed him before the Medical Board of California, and has so far spent almost 15 of his nearly 42 years of practice on probation, according to Medical Board records.
The first case was in 1979, when he was accused of gross negligence, incompetence and repeated acts of negligence for overprescribing controlled substances such as Quaaludes, Percodan, Dilaudid and other prescription drugs, receiving 10 years' probation, the Medical Board reported.
In 1998, Hopkins was charged with Business and Professions Codes violations for breaking federal or state statute regarding controlled substances, gross negligence, incompetence and repeated negligent acts, and received five years' probation, according to Medical Board records.
Hockenson said she couldn't comment on why the Medical Board decided on probation in this third case, as she was not privy to the decision.
The board takes many factors into account when making a decision, including the physician's age and past performance, Hockenson said.
The new five-year probation term “will be very strict,” with the Medical Board intending to keep “a close eye” on Hopkins, according to Hockenson.
If Hopkins fails to meet the requirements, his license will be revoked, Hockenson said.
Hopkins has been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana for many years, and some of his public statements in support of the drug – particularly in the form of newspaper and radio advertising for his medical practice – have raised issues with regional law enforcement.
In 2012, Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster challenged Hopkins on what Eyster said was “misleading” advertising in which he claimed that his medical marijuana recommendations would protect people in any county from prosecution under state law for 99 plants and 19 pounds of processed cannabis.
Eyster said Hopkins' assertions amounted to “risky exaggeration” and “nothing more than bad legal advice.”
Medical Board records show that Hopkins’ medical license remains valid through June 30.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
031214 Medical Board - Milan Hopkins Settlement and Disciplinary Order
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The organizers of Middletown Days are seeking young local women interested in being candidates for the event's rodeo queen and princess titles.
Queens must be in grades ninth through 12th, with princesses in the eighth grade and below.
The contest will be held June 14 and 15, with Middletown Days taking place June 20 through 22.
Those young women interested in taking part in the annual event should come to the first meeting for the queen and princess candidates at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, the Central Park Arena in Middletown.
Candidates must own or borrow a horse, and be present for all Middletown Days functions.
To qualify, prospective contestants must compete in Steam Country Equestrians, Middletown Rodeo Association or be approved by the Middletown Central Park Association board.
Queen contestants must sell $900 in beef raffle tickets and princess contestants must sell $600 in beef raffle tickets.
For more information, contact Krissy Tighe at 707-355-2275 or