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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Department of Water Resources will be reopening off-road trails in the Highland Springs Recreation Area to bicycles and horses on Monday April 1.
These trails had been closed to prevent trail deterioration and soil erosion during the rainy months.
In previous years, heavy wet-season trail use damaged some of the trails. Seasonal trail closure to horses and bicycles is designed to prevent further damage to and deterioration of the trails and to minimize soil erosion throughout the park.
One segment of trail will remain closed for repairs, as posted at the site.
A recent grant obtained by the Lake County Horse Council, in cooperation with the Department of Water Resources and Highland Springs Trails Volunteers, will provide funding to help repair a section of damaged trail; it is anticipated the trail repair work will begin in May.
Managed by the Department of Water Resources, the Highland Springs Recreation Area comprises more than 3,200 acres of watershed area with approximately 30 miles of single-track trails.
For more information about the closure and repair work, contact the Lake County Department of Water Resources at 707-263-2344.
For information about the Lake County Horse Council, visit www.lakecountyhorsecouncil.com .
For more information about trails, maps, closures, as well as volunteering opportunities with the Highland Springs Trails Volunteers, visit www.highlandspringstrailsvolunteers.com .
What is the difference between a will and a living trust? This is a basic question people need answered.
Let us examine the primary differences between wills and trusts. These differences relate to the following issues: whether a probate is involved; what assets and legal affairs are implicated; and when does the document take effect?
The will is a “legal instrument” that allows you to name an executor to act as the personal representative of your estate.
A will only takes effect after you die. Under court supervision, the personal representative will process and settle creditor claims, transact unfinished legal matters, and distribute what remains to your named beneficiaries according to the written terms of the will after you die.
A will controls so-called probate assets – such as interests in real property, personal property, assets and financial accounts – if interests in these are held in the deceased person’s name individually. It does not control assets that pass automatically to designated beneficiaries (e.g., persons inheriting under insurance, joint tenancy, or retirement plans); nor does it control assets held in Trust.
That said, in California a will must be “probated” if the total probate estate exceeds $150,000 in gross value (i.e., debts are not subtracted).
Probate requires a petition for probate to admit the will and authorize the personal representative. It then proceeds with the inventory and appraisal of assets, the notification of creditors, the payment of all taxes, the settling of claims, and essentially ends with a petition to distribute assets to the beneficiaries of the Will.
The foregoing process takes five to six months at a minimum (usually longer), and may take much more if there are complications (e.g., creditor disputes , controversy over the terms of the will, and valuation issues, etc.).
A will is necessary, even if one has a trust, for a number of reasons.
Perhaps the decedent has unfinished legal business (a lawsuit for example) pending at the time of death that requires a court-appointed personal representative to finish. Perhaps some probate assets were not transferred into the decedent’s trust prior to death.
Next, consider the trust. A trust is a contract between the “settlor” (the person who establishes the trust) and the “trustee,” the person who agrees to hold certain property “in trust” for the benefit of “beneficiaries” according to the terms of the trust.
A trust controls those assets that are legally transferred to the trustee. Typically this would include one’s home, rentals, and nonretirement investment brokerage accounts.
Unlike the will which takes effect at death, the trust commences once funded. When the settlor later becomes disabled, resigns, or dies, a new trustee (whom the settlor nominated) becomes trustee. He or she manages the trust assets and uses or distributes them according to the trust’s own terms.
A trust thus avoids the need for a court-supervised probate at death, and also for a court-supervised conservatorship (of the estate) during disability, at least in regards to assets held in the trust.
So, when would you want a will instead of a trust? Very simply put, a will is usually preferable for anyone with under $150,000 in probate assets – this excludes pay on death accounts.
Below $150,000, tangible personal property, financial assets and mobile homes can be transferred using the “affidavit procedure.” Incapacity planning would be based on powers of attorney.
Above $150,000 a trust is usually preferred, as settling a trust estate is usually less expensive, time-consuming and aggravating than settling a court-supervised probate estate.
Lastly, a trust may be needed for reasons related to the beneficiary such as the beneficiary is a minor, receives SSI/Medical, is susceptible to undue influence, or is incapable of managing money.
In such cases the beneficiary’s inheritance would be held in further trust for their lifetime.
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 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at
Over the years, the spacefaring nations of Earth have sent dozens of probes and rovers to explore Mars. Today there are three active satellites circling the red planet while two rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, wheel across the red sands below. Mars is dry, barren, and apparently lifeless.
Soon, those assets could find themselves exploring a very different kind of world.
“There is a small but non-negligible chance that Comet 2013 A1 will strike Mars next year in October of 2014,” said Don Yeomans of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program at JPL. “Current solutions put the odds of impact at 1 in 2000.”
The nucleus of the comet is probably 1 to 3 km in diameter, and it is coming in fast, around 56 km/s (125,000 mph). “It if does hit Mars, it would deliver as much energy as 35 million megatons of TNT,” estimated Yeomans.
For comparison, the asteroid strike that ended the dinosaurs on Earth 65 million years ago was about three times as powerful, 100 million megatons.
Another point of comparison is the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February of 2013, damaging buildings and knocking people down. The Mars comet is packing 80 million times more energy than that relatively puny asteroid.
An impact wouldn’t necessarily mean the end of NASA’s Mars program. But it would transform the program – along with Mars itself.
“I think of it as a giant climate experiment,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA headquarters. “An impact would loft a lot of stuff into the Martian atmosphere – dust, sand, water and other debris. The result could be a warmer, wetter Mars than we’re accustomed to today.”
Meyer worries that solar-powered Opportunity might have a hard time surviving if the atmosphere became opaque. Nuclear-powered Curiosity, though, would carry on just fine. He also noted that Mars orbiters might have trouble seeing the surface, for a while at least, until the debris begins to clear.
A direct impact remains unlikely. Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program stresses that a 1 in 2000 chance of impact means there’s a 1999 in 2000 chance of no impact. “A near-miss is far more likely,” he pointed out.
Even a near miss is a potentially big event. The latest orbit solutions put the comet somewhere within 300,000 km of the red planet at closest approach. That means Mars could find itself inside the comet’s gassy, dusty atmosphere or “coma.” Visually, the comet would reach 0th magnitude, that is, a few times brighter than a 1st magnitude star, as seen from the Red Planet.
“Cameras on ALL of NASA’s spacecraft currently operating at Mars should be able to take photographs of Comet 2013 A1,” said Jim Bell, a planetary scientist and Mars imaging specialist at Arizona State University. “The issue with Mars Odyssey and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be the ability to point them in the right direction; they are used to looking down, not up. Mission designers will have to figure out if that is possible.”
“The issue with the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers will be power for imaging at night,” he continued. “Opportunity is solar powered and so would need to dip into reserve battery power to operate the cameras at night. Whether or not we will be able to do this will depend on how much power the rover is getting from dusty solar panels in the daytime. On the other hand, Curiosity is nuclear powered, so it could have better odds at night-time imaging.”
Researchers will be keenly interested to see how the comet’s atmosphere interacts with the atmosphere of Mars. For one thing, there could be a meteor shower. “Analyzing the spectrum of disintegrating meteors could tell us something interesting about the chemistry of the upper atmosphere,” notes Meyer.
Another possibility is Martian auroras. Unlike Earth, which has a global magnetic field that wraps around our entire planet, Mars is only magnetized in patches.
Here and there, magnetic umbrellas sprout out of the ground, creating a crazy-quilt of magnetic poles concentrated mainly in the southern hemisphere. Ionized gases hitting the top of the Martian atmosphere could spark auroras in the canopies of the magnetic umbrellas.
Even before the comet flyby was known, NASA had already decided to send a spacecraft to Mars to study the dynamics of the Martian atmosphere.
If the probe, named MAVEN (short for “Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution”), is launched on time in November 2013, it would reach Mars just a few weeks before the comet in 2014.
However, notes MAVEN’s principal investigator Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, the spacecraft won’t be ready to observe the comet when it reaches Mars.
“It takes a while to get into our science mapping orbit, deploy the booms, turn on and test the science instruments – and so on,” he explained. “MAVEN won’t be fully operational until perhaps two weeks after the comet passes. There are some effects that I would expect to linger for a relatively long period--especially if the comet hits Mars – and we will be able to observe those changes.”
Astronomers around the world are monitoring 2013 A1. Every day, new data arrive to refine the comet’s orbit. As the error bars shrink, Yeomans expects a direct hit to be ruled out. “The odds favor a flyby, not a collision,” he said.
Either way, this is going to be good. Stay tuned for updates as the comet approaches.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Police have arrested a city resident on an arrest warrant for charges of child molestation and rape of an underage female.
Clearlake Police Det. Ryan Peterson and Det. Sgt. Nick Bennett arrested Samuel Rangel, 24 years old, at his home in Clearlake at approximately 2:13 p.m. Friday, Bennett reported.
Bennett said the Clearlake Police Department had opened the investigation in January based upon a report of possible child molestation and rape of an underage female.
Through interviews conducted by Det. Peterson and a Lake County District Attorney’s Office forensic interviewer, authorities determined the offenses had taken place over an extended period of time, Bennett said.
Rangel was taken into custody without incident on a warrant issued by a Lake County Superior Court judge for the offenses, according to Bennett.
Rangel was booked into the Lake County Jail on two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child, oral copulation of a child and rape of a child.
His bail has been set at $275,000, according to jail records.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Law enforcement officials are continuing to investigate a series of bank robberies around the region to determine how many of them were the work of two Napa County men arrested on Thursday following a failed robbery attempt at a Novato bank that previously had been targeted.
Joshua James Metoxen, 23, of American Canyon was arrested on Thursday afternoon – along with his alleged accomplice, Jack Henry Dennis, 20, of Napa – according to a Friday report from the Novato Police Department.
Novato Police said it is working with various allied agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, to determine the involvement of both Metoxen and Dennis in bank robberies that have been reported around Northern California.
Metoxen is the suspect in two Middletown bank robberies, Westamerica Bank on Feb. 27 and Tri Counties Bank on March 7, where he escaped with undisclosed amounts of cash.
He’s also a suspect in bank robberies in Mill Valley, Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park, as well as Novato, where he’s alleged to have robbed the US Bank, located inside the Safeway at 5720 Nave Drive, on Feb. 19, officials reported.
On Thursday at 1:43 p.m., Novato Police officers and detectives responded to that same US Bank that previously had been robbed on the report of another robbery, according to the Novato Police report on the arrests.
Police said an employee had recognized Metoxen as having been involved in the Feb. 19 robbery. That employee then moved to a secure location and called police before Metoxen fled on foot.
A responding Novato Police detective located a vehicle leaving the area which was believed to be involved and conducted a high-risk traffic stop on northbound US Highway 101 on the Rowland Boulevard off-ramp, according to the report.
Metoxen and Dennis, who were inside the vehicle, were subsequently taken into custody, police reported. There were no injuries to the robbery victims, police or the suspects.
Lt. Oliver Collins of Novato Police told Lake County News on Friday that the car the men were using to flee the scene was a champagne- or gold-colored Honda Accord.
Collins said investigators are continuing to try to determine what crimes the men committed so decisions on where to take them for prosecution can be made.
“Our detectives are diligently working to try to put that together,” Collins said.
Part of that work is determining Dennis’ involvement. An accomplice had not previously been identified in the cases in Middletown, and Collins said no accomplice had been mentioned in the reports of the Feb. 19 Novato bank robbery. Collins said it’s possible Dennis could have been driving the getaway car in previous cases, although that has not been determined and remains under investigation.
He said the men could be tried independently in various counties, which is more expensive and less efficient, or the matter could be handled in one jurisdiction. “They’ll probably try to bundle them together,” Collins said of the various cases.
The decision on how to proceed with the prosecution will be based on input the FBI gives the Marin County District Attorney’s Office, since bank robbery is a federal crime, Collins said.
Metoxen is being held in the Marin County Jail on charges of felony robbery, burglary, attempted robbery, possession of a controlled substance, threatening a crime with intent to terrorize and misdemeanor grand theft, with bail set at $1 million, according to jail records.
He also has a $750,000 arrest warrant from Lake County noted on his booking sheet. That warrant was issued earlier this month after he was identified as the suspect in the two Middletown bank robberies.
Dennis is being held in the Marin County Jail on felony charges of attempted robbery and burglary, with bail set at $500,000, jail records indicated.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Although cloudy skies and very brief intermittent rain showers were the weather pattern over Lake County for the last few days, a change is in store for the weekend.
Friday is forecast to be partly sunny and balmy, with higher-than-normal temperatures coupled with high humidity, and increasing chances for rain over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
Daytime highs are expected to reach well into the 70s on Friday, forecasters said.
A low pressure system is expected to approach for the weekend, bringing with it increasing chances for much-needed rain, according to forecasters.
Temperatures are forecast to cool back into the mid-60s during the day on Saturday as the chances for rain increase throughout the afternoon into the evening.
More showers will be possible on Sunday, according to Western Weather Group Lake County, as forecast models have the center of the system over the Bay Area – including Lake County – by late Sunday, which may dampen Easter egg hunting.
Isolated showers will taper off by Monday afternoon, according to forecasters, as the system dissipates, but temperatures are predicted to remain mild throughout the weekend and into early next week.
Daytime highs throughout the weekend should reach the low- to mid-60s, with overnight lows well above freezing and only dipping into the 40s.
As the new week approaches, skies will clear and daytime warming will bring temperatures back up into the 70s by Tuesday.
Forecast models currently predict a slight chance of rain to return by Wednesday.
Email Terre Logsdon at