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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Mock Trial Program is returning for its second year, with teams gearing up from a January scrimmage and the main competition event in February.

The Mock Trial event was first held last year, after many community members and local officials – from judges to deputy district attorneys, private attorneys and educators – spent more than a year laying the groundwork, as Lake County News has reported.

Stephanie Wayment of the Lake County Office of Education, who works on the Mock Trial Competition, reported that once again this year Middletown High School and Upper Lake High School will take part.

Last year, Middletown won the inaugural Mock Trial Competition, which took place March 1 at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.

This year, the teams will compete in their first scrimmage on Thursday, Jan. 16, in the Clearlake Courthouse, with the official Lake County Competition taking place on Wednesday, Feb. 12, at the courthouse in Lakeport.

The Lake County Superior Court and Lake County Office of Education partnered to bring the Mock Trial Program to Lake County.

It offers students the chance to argue cases before real judges, in real courtrooms, with the winners having the chance to go on the state competition. State winners may go on to compete at the national level.

The program was first introduced in 1980 in California by the Constitutional Rights Foundation in order to educate students about the judicial system.

At the same time, it helps students to develop analytical and communication skills, and understand their obligations and responsibilities as participating members of society.

The foundation reported that 36 counties now participate.

The teams from the two local high schools work with teacher coaches and local attorneys to learn the materials and the rules in a courtroom.

Thanks to local donations, including a donation from the District Attorney’s Alternative to Community Service program, the winning Lake County high school team, will be able to travel to the state competition which is held in San Jose this year, Wayment reported.

“This is a great program that introduces students to the legal system. We are glad to be able to support our local youth,” said District Attorney Don Anderson.

Wayment said the Lake County Office of Education is very grateful to all of the local attorneys and deputy district attorneys who have partnered with the local teams and supported the youth.

She said donations are being sought to help support the winning team’s expenses at the state level competition.

For more information or to send a donation to support the state level competition, contact the Lake County Office of Education, Attn: Mock Trial Program, 1152 S. Main St., Lakeport CA 95453 or contact Stephanie Wayment at 707-262-4163, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, said he supports the Obama Administration’s two new executive actions to strengthen the federal background check system.

“These important executive actions will strengthen our criminal background check system and go a long way towards helping make sure guns don’t get into the wrong hands,” said Thompson.

The two announced executive actions will help make sure better and more reliable information makes its way into the background check system.

The first executive action involves a proposed rule issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to clarify terminology used by federal law to prohibit people from purchasing a firearm for certain mental health reasons. Many states have noted current terminology is ambiguous.

The second executive action involves a proposed regulation issued by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address barriers preventing states from submitting limited information on individuals prohibited from purchasing a firearm for mental health reasons to the federal background check system.

Some states have said that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) privacy provisions may be preventing them from making relevant information available to the federal background check system.

The proposed rule will not change the fact that seeking help for mental health problems or getting treatment does not make someone legally prohibited from having a firearm.

Furthermore, nothing in the proposed rule would require reporting on general mental health visits or other routine mental health care

Thompson said the evidence shows background checks work when they are used.

Last year, background checks identified and denied 88,000 sales to prohibited purchasers at licensed dealers. However, there is no way of knowing if those 88,000 prohibited purchasers, after being denied at a licensed dealer, then bought a gun at a gun show or over the Internet with no questions asked, he explained.

“This is a huge loophole that costs lives, and that’s why we need to pass my bipartisan background check bill expanding comprehensive and enforceable criminal background checks to cover commercial firearm sales such as those at gun shows and over the Internet,” Thompson said.

Thompson and U.S. Rep. Pete King (R-NY) are co-authors of H.R. 1565, bipartisan legislation to expand the current background check system to all commercial gun sales.

Joining them are original co-authors Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Pat Meehan (R-PA), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Peter Defazio (D-OR).

The bipartisan King-Thompson legislation is identical to the bipartisan agreement on background checks struck by A-rated NRA Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA).

Congressman Mike Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

Several sources confirm that the first discovered asteroid in 2014, designated 2014 AA, entered Earth’s atmosphere late Jan. 1 over the mid-Atlantic Ocean.

The Catalina Sky Survey operating near Tucson, Ariz., discovered this very small asteroid – 6 to 9 feet in size – early on the morning of Jan. 1, and immediately followed up on it.

The asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere about 21 hours later, and probably broke up.

The high-precision astrometry data and rapid follow-up observations provided by the Catalina Sky Survey team made it possible for orbit analysts from NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to determine possible Earth impact locations.

Before that, and based upon the Catalina Sky Survey observations, Steve Chesley of JPL produced a plot of the possible impact locations for asteroid 2014 AA.

The geolocation derived by Chesley allowed Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario, and Petrus Jenniskens of the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif., to search the data from low-frequency infrasound observation sites of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization.

They found weak signals from stations in Bolivia, Brazil and Bermuda that indicated that the likely impact location was indeed positioned within the predicted area.

The location, marked with a red dot, is still somewhat uncertain due to observational factors, including atmospheric effects on the propagation of infrasound signals.

Infrasound stations record ultra-low-frequency sound waves to monitor the location of atmospheric explosions.

These sites often pick up airbursts from small asteroid impacts, commonly called fireballs or bolides.

There are about a billion near-Earth objects in the size range of 2014 AA, and impacts of comparably sized objects occur several times each year.

Uncertainties present in the infrasound technique and the very limited amount of optical tracking data before impact make it difficult to pinpoint the impact time and location.

Even so, Chesley provided the following estimate:

• Impact time: Jan. 1, 2014 at 11:02 p.m. EST (Jan. 2 4:02 UTC);
• Impact location coordinates: 11.7 degrees north latitude, 319.7 degrees latitude.

This information is preliminary and has uncertainties of perhaps a few hundred kilometers, or miles, in location, and tens of minutes in time.

Prior to impact, the orbit of 2014 AA had a very low inclination (about 1 degree) with respect to the ecliptic plane and an orbit that ranged from 0.9 to 1.3 astronomical units from the sun, with an orbital period of about 1.2 years.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Some new young pups have joined the group of dogs available for adoption this week at Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Available are dogs ranging in age from 13 weeks to 10 years old, and everything from dachshund and Chihuahua mixes to dogs with ancestry including mastiffs and American bulldog.

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”).

Female dachshund mix

This female dachshund mix is 10 years old.

She has a short red coat and weighs nearly 14 pounds. Shelter staff did not report if she was altered.

She's in kennel No. 2, ID No. 38828.

Female pit bull terrier mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 13 weeks old.

She has a short brown coat, weighs 26 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 3, ID No. 38768.

Female shepherd mix

This female shepherd mix is 7 years old.

She has a medium-length brown coat, weighs 53 pounds and has been spayed.

Find her in kennel No. 7, ID No. 38783.

'Carter'

“Carter” is a 1-year-old male kelpie-terrier mix.

He has a short brown and white coat, and has been neutered.

Carter gets along with other dogs. Shelter staff said he is a dominant male so he would have to be tested with any other dogs in the home.

Carter also gets along well with cats, loves to be around people and is a great on a leash.

He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 38631.

Blue heeler mix

This female blue heeler mix is 4 years old.

She has a short blue merle coat, weighs 36 pounds and has been spayed.

She's in kennel No. 10a, ID No. 38765.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 2 years old.

He has a short tan coat, weighs 12 pounds and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 10b, ID No. 38766.

Male Chihuahua mix

This male Chihuahua mix is 1 year old.

He has a short white coat, weighs 8 pounds and has been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 12b, ID No. 38743.

'Happy Feet'

“Happy Feet” is a 1-year-old female pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short black and white coat, weighs 42 pounds and has not yet been spayed.

Shelter staff said she is a very sweet girl and is good with other dogs.

Find her in kennel No. 14, ID No. 38693.

'Bella'

“Bella” is a 4-month-old female pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short black and white coat, weighs 25 pounds and has been spayed.

She's in kennel No. 20, ID No. 38738.

'Joey'

“Joey” is a 3-year-old male mastiff-American Bulldog mix.

He has a short brown brindle and white coat, weighs almost 70 pounds and has been neutered.

Shelter staff said Joey is available for a low adoption fee.

He's very friendly and housebroken, gets along with female dogs but would need to be tested with other males.

Find Joey in kennel No. 29, ID No. 38803.

Pit bull terrier-boxer mix

This male pit bull terrier-boxer mix is 1 year old.

He has a short brown and white coat, weighs 52 pounds and has not yet been neutered.

He's in kennel No. 31a, ID No. ID: 38686.

Boston Terrier-pug mix

This male Boston Terrier-pug is 6 months old.

He weighs 29 pounds, has a short tan and white coat, and has been neutered.

Find him in kennel No. 33, ID No. 38782.

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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As California’s dry weather pushes into the new year, the Department of Water Resources on Friday announced that its first snow survey of the winter found more bare ground than snow.

Manual and electronic readings record the snowpack’s statewide water content at about 20 percent of average for this time of year.

That is a mere 7 percent of the average April 1 measurement, when the snowpack normally is at its peak before melting into streams and reservoirs to provide a third of the water used by California’s cities and farms.

“While we hope conditions improve, we are fully mobilized to streamline water transfers and take every action possible to ease the effects of dry weather on farms, homes and businesses as we face a possible third consecutive dry year,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “And every Californian can help by making water conservation a daily habit.”

In response to the survey, Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird said Friday, “California has just ended one of the driest years in recorded history in many areas. Today’s snowpack measurement was an abysmal 20 percent of normal. This is a clear call for all of us to cut back on the amount of water we use watering lawns and landscaping. We have to keep our showers short, and run our washing machines and dishwashers only when we have a full load.”

The last time California’s statewide snowpack was this dry was in 2012 when it also was 20 percent of the historical average. The readings Friday and in 2012 are the driest on record.

Friday's electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 11 percent of normal for the date and 4 percent of the April 1 average.

Electronic readings in the central Sierra show 21 percent of normal for the date and 8 percent of the April 1 average. The numbers for the southern Sierra are 30 percent of average for the date and 10 percent of the April 1 average.

In addition to the sparse snowpack, many areas of California ended calendar year 2013 with the lowest rainfall amounts on record.

Normally one of California’s wettest spots with an average annual rainfall of nearly 100 inches, Gasquet Ranger Station in Del Norte County ended the year with only 43.46 inches.

Sacramento, which normally gets about 18 inches, ended up with 5.74 inches of precipitation, and downtown Los Angeles, which since 1906 has averaged 14.74 inches of rain, ended the year with 3.4 inches, beating the previous low of 4.08 inches recorded in 1953.

DWR and cooperating agencies conduct manual snow surveys around the first of the month from January to May. The manual measurements supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings.

The average January 1 snowpack water content at Phillips Station, where the manual readings were taken on Friday, is about 12 inches and the April 1 average 27.6 inches.

Phillips had its lowest water content reading of 0.1 inch in 2012, in a snow depth of only 0.6 inches. On Jan. 2 last year (2013) at Phillips there were 12.1 inches of water in 48.8 inches of snow.

Besides 2012, the driest years at Phillips were 1987 (0.9 inches of snowpack water content), 1981 (2 inches), 1976 (2.7 inches) and 2000 (3 inches). Records at Phillips go back 50 years

DWR currently estimates it will be able to deliver only 5 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet of State Water Project (SWP) water requested for calendar year 2014 by the 29 public agencies that collectively supply more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland.

It is hoped the initial 5 percent delivery estimate – tied with calendar year 2010 for the lowest initial allocation ever – will increase as winter storms develop.

The initial 2010 delivery estimate, made on the heels of the 2007-2009 drought, was eventually increased to 50 percent as winter storms developed.

The final SWP allocation for calendar year 2013 was 35 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet requested. In 2012, the final allocation was 65 percent. It was 80 percent in 2011, up dramatically from an initial allocation of 25 percent. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007.

The last 100 percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years because of Delta pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish – was in 2006.

DWR weather watchers note that it’s early in the season and this winter could still turn out wet. The concern, however, is that irrigation-dependent San Joaquin Valley farms and some other areas will be hard hit if there is another dry year without the cushion of reservoir storage that the state has had in calendar year 2013 due to the storms in late 2012 before California began sliding toward drought.

Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s (SWP) principal reservoir, is at only 36 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity (57 percent of its historical average for the date).

Shasta Lake north of Redding, California’s and the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) largest reservoir, is at 37 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity (57 percent of average for the date).

San Luis Reservoir, a critical south-of-Delta reservoir for both the SWP and CVP, is a mere 30 percent of its 2 million acre-foot capacity (43 percent of average for the date) due both to dry weather and Delta pumping restrictions last winter to protect salmon and Delta smelt.

Delta water is pumped into the off-stream reservoir in winter and early spring for summer use in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California.

The continuing dry weather prompted Director Cowin on Dec. 13 to mobilize DWR’s drought management team “to offset potentially devastating impacts to citizen health, well-being and our economy.”

Gov. Jerry Brown has united DWR and other agencies in an Interagency Drought Task Force.

DWR and other agencies will streamline transfers of water from areas of relative abundance to areas of critical need, monitor water supply impacts in small rural communities whose groundwater sources are stressed by prolonged dry conditions, and take other steps to mitigate the effects of dry weather.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County gymkhana series begins Saturday at the Baldwin Pavilion at the Lake County Fairgrounds in Lakeport.

The public is invited to attend the gymkhana – which begins at 9 a.m. Saturday – to watch future professional rodeo performers.

It's an exciting time for the youthful participants, their families and the public who come to watch.

Many of the Lake County Rodeo participants from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association are homegrown folks from Lake County.

Each year at the Lake County Rodeo, held in July at the fairgrounds, there is the opportunity to watch members of the CCPRA perform.

Many of these now professionals were born right here in Lake County and grew up being members of the Clear Lake Junior Horsemen.

These youngsters perform at Middletown Days, local gymkhanas and the rodeo in July.

Stormie Shores of Kelseyville is one of those youngsters, now a young woman professional rodeo performer who has distinguished herself and her county.

Last Fall, Shores came away from the CCPRA Finals as the year end rookie in barrel racing.

Another professional from Lower Lake is Cathey Vallerga who took Year end reserve and finals average champion, also in barrel racing.

Vallerga is not a youngster in the world of barrel racing but is setting some impressive records.

A Kelseyville native, now a Redwood Valley man, J. Cody Jones, completed the CCPRA Finals with all around finals average champion. Jones also took the same award in steer wrestling and calf roping.

All three of these professional rodeo performers from Lake County will perform again this year at the 85th annual Lake County Rodeo July 11 and 12.

The Lake County Fairgrounds are located at 401 Martin St., Lakeport.