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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Three Bay Area residents were arrested on Thursday afternoon as they were allegedly attempting to transport marijuana to Oakland.
Chiew Meuy Saephan, 26, and Chan Chiem Saephan, 52, both of Oakland, and Chan Tong Saephan, 50, of Suisun City were arrested after a California Highway Patrol officer stopped their pickup in the area of Highway 175 and McKinley Drive near Middletown.
The report from the CHP's Clear Lake Area office said Officer Rob Hearn was driving directly behind the 2004 Toyota pickup, which had a closed tonneau cover, just before 4 p.m. Thursday when he smelled the overwhelming odor of unburned marijuana and stopped the pickup.
When Hearn contacted the pickup's three occupants, they admitted to transporting marijuana and said they were headed to Oakland, according to the report.
The CHP said approximately 100 marijuana plants were found in the pickup.
Although all three subjects presented medical marijuana recommendations, they were found to be violation of Proposition 215 and were arrested, the CHP said.
Chiew Meuy Saephan was charged with felony counts of marijuana cultivation and transportation. Her bail was set at $15,000.
Chan Tong Saephan was booked on the same charges, with an additional misdemeanor count of driving without a license, while Chan Chiem Saephan was charged with a single count of felony marijuana cultivation, according to jail records. The bail for the men also was set at $15,000 each.
Jail records showed that Chan Tong Saephan posted the required percentage of bail and was released, while the other two subjects remained in custody on Friday evening.
The Lake County Sheriff's Narcotics Task Force assisted the CHP with transporting the marijuana from the scene to be destroyed, the report said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The first scoop of soil analyzed by the analytical suite in the belly of NASA's Curiosity rover reveals that fine materials on the surface of the planet contain several percent water by weight.
The results were published recently in Science as one article in a five-paper special section on the Curiosity mission. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Dean of Science Laurie Leshin is the study's lead author.
“One of the most exciting results from this very first solid sample ingested by Curiosity is the high percentage of water in the soil,” said Leshin. “About 2 percent of the soil on the surface of Mars is made up of water, which is a great resource, and interesting scientifically.” The sample also released significant carbon dioxide, oxygen, and sulfur compounds when heated.
Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on the surface of Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, charged with answering the question “Could Mars have once harbored life?”
To do that, Curiosity is the first rover on Mars to carry equipment for gathering and processing samples of rock and soil.
One of those instruments was employed in the current research: Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) includes a gas chromotograph, a mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer enabling it to identify a wide range of chemical compounds and determine the ratios of different isotopes of key elements.
“This work not only demonstrates that SAM is working beautifully on Mars, but also shows how SAM fits into Curiosity's powerful and comprehensive suite of scientific instruments,” said Paul Mahaffy, principal investigator for SAM at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. “By combining analyses of water and other volatiles from SAM with mineralogical, chemical, and geological data from Curiosity's other instruments, we have the most comprehensive information ever obtained on martian surface fines. These data greatly advance our understanding of surface processes and the action of water on Mars.”
“This is the first solid sample that we've analyzed with the instruments on Curiosity. It's the very first scoop of stuff that's been fed into the analytical suite. Although this is only the beginning of the story, what we've learned is substantial,” said Leshin, who co-wrote the article, titled “Volatile, Isotope and Organic Analysis of Martian Fines with the Mars Curiosity Rover.” Thirty-four researchers, all members of the Mars Science Laboratory Science Team, contributed to the paper.
In this study, scientists used the rover's scoop to collect dust, dirt, and finely grained soil from a sandy patch known as “Rocknest.” Researchers fed portions of the fifth scoop into SAM. Inside SAM, the “fines” – as the dust, dirt, and fine soil is known – were heated to 835 degrees Celsius.
Baking the sample also revealed a compound containing chlorine and oxygen, likely chlorate or perchlorate, previously known only from high-latitude locations on Mars. This finding at Curiosity's equatorial site suggests more global distribution. The analysis also suggests the presence of carbonate materials, which form in the presence of water.
In addition to determining the amount of the major gases released, SAM also analyzed ratios of isotopes of hydrogen and carbon in the released water and carbon dioxide. Isotopes are variants of the same chemical element with different numbers of neutrons, and therefore different atomic weights. SAM found that the ratio of isotopes in the soil is similar to that found in the atmosphere analyzed earlier by Curiosity, indicating that the surface soil has interacted heavily with the atmosphere.
“The isotopic ratios, including hydrogen-to-deuterium ratios and carbon isotopes, tend to support the idea that as the dust is moving around the planet, it's reacting with some of the gases from the atmosphere,” Leshin said.
SAM can also search for trace levels of organic compounds. Although several simple organic compounds were detected in the experiments at Rocknest, they aren't clearly martian in origin. Instead, it is likely that they formed during the heating experiments, as the non-organic compounds in Rocknest samples reacted with terrestrial organics already present in the SAM instrument background.
“We find that organics are not likely preserved in surface soils, which are exposed to harsh radiation and oxidants,” said Leshin. “We didn't necessarily expect to find organic molecules in the surface fines, and this supports Curiosity's strategy of drilling into rocks to continue the search for organic compounds. Finding samples with a better chance of organic preservation is key.”
The results shed light on the composition of the planet's surface, while offering direction for future research, said Leshin.
“Mars has kind of a global layer, a layer of surface soil that has been mixed and distributed by frequent dust storms. So a scoop of this stuff is basically a microscopic Mars rock collection,” said Leshin. “If you mix many grains of it together, you probably have an accurate picture of typical martian crust. By learning about it in any one place, you're learning about the entire planet.”
These results have implications for future Mars explorers. “We now know there should be abundant, easily accessible water on Mars,” said Leshin. “When we send people, they could scoop up the soil anywhere on the surface, heat it just a bit, and obtain water.”
In addition to her work research as part of the Mars Science Laboratory Team, Leshin is Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she leads the scientific academic and research enterprise at the nation's first technological university.
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – A Tuesday afternoon enforcement stop by a Lake County Sheriff’s patrol deputy has resulted in the arrest of a Santa Rosa man and the seizure of 61 pounds of processed marijuana.
Andres Contreras Carrillo, 35, was arrested for the possession of marijuana for sale and for the transportation of marijuana, according to Lt. Steve Brooks.
At 3 p.m. Tuesday, a deputy was traveling southbound on Highway 29 in the Lower Lake area when he noticed a black Mercedes Benz traveling in front of him, Brooks said.
As the Mercedes approached Clayton Creek Road, the driver suddenly turned on his left turn signal and made a quick turn onto Clayton Creek Road, Brooks said. As the vehicle turned, it crossed over both of the double yellow lines.
Brooks said the deputy noticed a vehicle traveling northbound on Highway 29 in the same area and believed the driver of the Mercedes made an unsafe turn by not allowing enough distance between him and the oncoming vehicle.
The deputy conducted an enforcement stop of the Mercedes on Clayton Creek Road, near the entrance of Modern RV and contacted the driver, identified as Carrillo, Brooks said.
As the deputy was explaining the reason for the stop, he could smell the strong odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle. Brooks said the deputy advised Carrillo that he could smell the marijuana and asked how much he had in the vehicle.
Carrillo said he had about 40 pounds of marijuana in the back seat area of the vehicle, Brooks said. Carrillo told the deputy he had a medical marijuana recommendation, although he did not have the document with him.
Brooks said the deputy searched the vehicle and located on the back seat a bed sheet covering two large garbage bags. Inside the garbage bags were multiple smaller bags containing processed marijuana. Each smaller bag weighed about one pound. The deputy opened the trunk and located two more large garbage bags filled with processed marijuana.
Carrillo told the deputy that he was traveling to a storage shed to store the marijuana when he was pulled over. Brooks said Carrillo also told the deputy that he smokes about 60 pounds of marijuana a year and said it may even be more than 60 pounds a year he uses.
Carrillo was arrested and transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked. All four garbage bags had a combined weight of approximately 61.5 pounds, Brooks said.
Carrillo is currently still in custody on a no bail immigration hold. His bail on the marijuana charges is currently set at $15,000, according to jail records.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – A century and a half after he served in the Civil War as a member in the 37th Regiment of the Wisconsin Infantry, Lorenzo T. Adams has found a home in Lake County.
Pvt. Adams was welcomed into the Middletown Cemetery on Thursday by the Military Funeral Honors Team of Lake County, the Patriot Guard Riders, a small gathering of Middletown townspeople and his descendents – most notable among them Beverly Adams, his great-granddaughter, who came to attend the Middletown ceremony from Montana.
The honoring of L.T. Adams included a rifle salute by the Military Funeral Honors Team and presentation of an American flag to Beverly Adams by a California State Honor Guard representative.
Adams was actually interred at the Middletown Cemetery many years ago, following his death in January 1898 at the age of 49. However, his burial place was lost in 1912 due to a fire that burned up the cemetery's records.
Adams' descendents have Bob and Judy Kauffman to thank for relocating his marker under mounds of soil.
Meriel Medrano of Anderson Springs, the cemetery manager, said the Kauffmans dug up earth for the better part of three weeks before they found Adams' resting place.
It was actually outside a fence bordering the cemetery property that was erected some years after the original cemetery was created.
Adams is one of 17 Civil War soldiers buried at the Middletown Cemetery. One of the deceased interred there is a Confederate soldier.
According to the local VFW History Project, approximately 164 Civil War veterans are buried in Lake County.
To further honor Adams, some members of the Military Funeral Honors Team wore Civil War Union uniforms.
One of them, Mark R. Brown, said he wore the uniform of a Union chaplain because of the special significance he attaches to the soldiers who fought and died in the four-year-long Civil War.
“It was the turning point of our country. So many people died,” said Brown.
For years, the death toll among Union and Confederate soldiers was put at just over 618,000, although a new estimate offered by a scholar last year placed the number at 750,000.
Brown and his wife visited Gettysburg a year and a half ago. “What got me was Lincoln's Gettysburg address,” he said. “That's why we're here today. L.T. Adams gave his last ounce of devotion to his country. You couldn't honor at a better time, a better place or a better person.”
Beverly Adams said that her great-grandfather suffered a brain injury in the Civil War and had seizures for the rest of his life.
“It was in June of 1965, after he mustered in March of that year, his father was dead,” she explained. “He served a year and a half before the war ended.”
Adams was mustered out of the Wisconsin Volunteers on July 26, 1865, according to a regimental history. During his time in service, seven officers and 149 enlisted men were killed and mortally wounded. Two more officers and 89 enlisted men died as the result of disease. The total dead was 247.
Adams was involved in the siege and fall of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign during his 18 months of warfare, based on military records.
“He sure did see action. The seizure he suffered was very bad,” said Beverly Adams, then added with a grin, “but it didn't stop him from having babies. He had six sons and a daughter.”
Email John Lindblom at
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – On Sunday, Oct. 6, more than 20 representatives from schools, districts, agencies and service providers crowded into the newly renovated building known as “The Hub,” adjacent to the Upper Lake High School campus, to welcome State Superintendent of Schools Tom Torlakson and show support for the innovative initiative.
Torlakson praised the collaboration, enthusiasm and determination of the The Hub team.
The Hub – based on the community school model, where services for children and families are located on or near the local school – is common to urban areas, but there are limited examples of rural communities developing such a model.
Torlakson recognized the collaborative spirit, and the hard work of willing partners in developing a dynamic rural community school model.
One in five students in the United States attends a rural public school, and The Hub is considered a model for rural communities to create a support system to ensure that our children have equal opportunities for future success.
The Hub, which opened its doors on the first day of school, removes barriers for students and families to get the support they need.
It can be difficult to navigate the various agencies to find needed resources and services, and transportation around the Lake is often challenging.
The Hub seeks to be a “one stop shop” where students and families can connect with the resources that will help them succeed.
“The concept of The Hub is to support families by providing services and resources that meet the needs of the whole child, all centered around the school as ‘the hub’ of the community,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook. “The more we can support families, and build a community of support to provide access to the services and resources they need, the more we can help each and every child reach their full potential.”
The long-term vision is to establish The Hub in each community in Lake County.
For more information on The Hub, please contact Joan Reynolds at 707-262-4146 or visit http://www.lakecoe.org/departments/program_subpages/lake_county_office_of_education_healthy_start/436 .
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Caltrans reported that the Highway 53 rehabilitation project in Clearlake will require traffic control on Saturday, Oct. 12, for paving at the intersection of Highway 53 with Lakeshore Drive/40th Avenue.
Work hours will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
One-way traffic control will be in effect, and motorists should anticipate up to 15-minute delays.
This project includes installing a traffic signal at Olympic Drive, widening shoulders, adding and lengthening turn pockets at intersections, and repaving more than four miles of Highway 53 from 40th Avenue to just south of Highway 20.
Work is anticipated to be completed later this fall, Caltrans said.
The contractor is Teichert Construction of Davis.
For more information about this project contact Dan Kraft, Caltrans resident engineer, at 707-994-5074.
For the most current road information on all California State highways, call 1-800-427-7623 (1-800-GAS-ROAD) or visit www.dot.ca.gov .