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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Two women were injured in a Saturday crash east of Clearlake Oaks.
The single-vehicle wreck occurred on Highway 20 near Walker Ridge Road shortly before 2:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Northshore Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the small passenger vehicle in which the two women were riding went off the road and traveled about 150 feet down an embankment.
Radio reports indicated the vehicle rolled several times while going down the hill.
Northshore Fire brought in its own rescue unit and also received mutual aid from Williams Fire, which sent a heavy rescue unit, Brown said.
The two women were extricated and brought up the hill with the help of a rope rescue, an operation that Brown said requires a lot of manpower, which was one of the reasons for bringing in mutual aid.
He said both women sustained head injuries.
Due to the weather, Brown said an air ambulance was not available to transport the patients.
In addition, because of the terrain, “We couldn’t have landed anything up there,” he said.
Northshore Fire and Lake County Fire each transported one of the women to St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake by ambulance, Brown said.
The crash occurred in an area of Highway 20 that saw a number of similar crashes several years ago, with vehicles going off the road and down the embankment, particularly in rainy weather.
Caltrans has since installed a rumble strip, signage and other safety measures to reduce the number of crashes, as Lake County News has reported.
“That’s the first one I’ve had there in a while,” Brown said of Saturday’s wreck.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – In the wake of an appeals court hearing that overturned a rape conviction based on a more than century old loophole, the state senator representing Lake and several other North Coast counties said on Friday she would introduce legislation to fix the law.
Sen. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), who chairs the Senate Judiciary committee and the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, said she would introduce the legislation in reaction to a Second District Court of Appeal decision filed Wednesday.
That decision, People v. Julio Morales, reversed a rape conviction of a Southern California man based on a law codified in 1872.
Morales was accused of entering the dark bedroom of a female acquaintance after her boyfriend left and having sex with her while she slept, without disclosing his identity.
When the woman woke up and realized it was not her boyfriend, she pushed him away and began to cry and yell, and he left, the decision explained.
California Penal Code 261(a)(5) states that rape includes situations “where a person submits under the belief that the person committing the act is the victim’s spouse, and this belief is induced by any artifice, pretense, or concealment practiced by the accused, with intent to induce the belief.”
By referencing a “spouse,” the law does not cover single women.
The appeals court’s decision explains it this way: “A man enters the dark bedroom of an unmarried woman after seeing her boyfriend leave late at night, and has sexual intercourse with the woman while pretending to be the boyfriend. Has the man committed rape? Because of historical anomalies in the law and the statutory definition of rape, the answer is no, even though, if the woman had been married and the man had impersonated her husband, the answer would be yes.”
The justices pointed out that while Penal Code Section 261 has been amended numerous times over the past 140 years, two subdivisions – one, (a)(4), relating to a person “unconscious of the nature of the act, and this is known to the accused,” and the second being (a)(5), relating to a person submitting believing the person committing the act is their spouse – have not been changed.
“Therefore, we reluctantly hold that a person who accomplishes sexual intercourse by impersonating someone other than a married victim’s spouse is not guilty of the crime of rape of an unconscious person under section 261, subdivision (a)(4),” according to the decision.
The appeals court decision also noted that the record did not make clear if the jury made its decision based on a legally invalid theory of the case presented by the prosecutor.
“I am shocked and appalled that the court didn’t see fit to uphold justice for this rape survivor,” Evans said. “The fact that such an outdated loophole still exists is baffling but I will introduce legislation this session that will bring uniform clarity. The definition of rape is found in the act itself and having sex with an unconscious person is rape. Period.”
California Attorney General Kamala Harris, whose office argued against the conviction being overturned before the appeals court, also decried the decision.
“The evidence is clear that this case involved a nonconsensual assault that fits within the general understanding of what constitutes rape,” Harris said in a Friday statement. “This law is arcane and I will work with the Legislature to fix it.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Nine bills authored by Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) in 2012, ranging in topic from religious freedom to reporting of elder abuse to pilot safety, become effective in 2013.
Yamada now represents Lake County, as part of the Fourth District, in the California Assembly.
The bills include the following.
AB 1964: Workplace religious freedom
Prohibits employers from segregating an employee from coworkers or the public due to the employee’s religious attire, grooming, or other observance.
AB 40: Criminal physical abuse of an elder or dependent adult
Requires nursing home staff and other mandatory reporters to report directly to law enforcement any suspected incidents of abuse resulting in serious bodily injury.
AB 511: Meteorological evaluation tower: Markings for pilot safety
Establishes a statewide standard for marking Meteorological Evaluation Towers (METs), which developers of wind farms use to measure wind velocity.
METs are invisible to low-flying agricultural pilots without such safety markings.
AB 999: Long-term care insurance: Rate increase controls
Modifies the long-term care (LTC) insurance ratemaking process to protect consumers from excessive rate increases by giving the insurance commissioner the discretion to allow a lower premium increase if he or she determines that it is in the interest of policyholders.
In addition, allows the insured, if the premium becomes too expensive, to convert paid-up coverage to a lifetime benefit equal to the amount of premiums paid to date for the coverage, instead of canceling, ensuring that the policyholder will not lose all their money or all their coverage.
AB 1623: Weights and measures: Consumer protections
Ensures that consumers receive the true amount of what they buy by raising the fee collection limitation on county weights and measures programs to allow fees that fully cover the costs of annually inspecting vendor and manufacturing measuring equipment, such as scales in grocery stores.
AB 1710: The Nursing Home Administrator ‘Right Sizing’ Act of 2012
Maintains state enforcement standards for nursing home care by requiring the annual adjustment of Nursing Home Administrator licensing program fees to fully support state costs of screening, testing, and investigating nursing home administrators.
AB 1793: Emergency preparedness: Nursing homes
Ensures that nursing homes are included in the planning and providing of emergency medical care during a disaster and that they are reimbursed from federal disaster funds for their services, like other entities providing such services.
AB 1823: Veterans homes: Notice of financial obligation
Requires quarterly financial statements sent to California’s veterans home residents to include clearly written information about prospective health-related charges due upon the death of a veteran and payable by his or her estate.
AB 1626: Contesting false and misleading ballot statements
Allows a county clerk to contest in court possible false and misleading arguments on a ballot.
Visit Yamada online at www.asm.ca.gov/yamada .
AccuWeather reports beginning near or just past the middle of the month, signs are pointing toward waves of frigid air moving southward across North America from the North Pole.
Much of the nation has been experiencing higher-than-average temperatures and lower heating bills so far during the cold weather season, with the exception of some bouts the past couple of weeks.
However, there are signs of a potential change on the way beginning during the second half of January.
A phenomenon known as sudden stratospheric warming has occurred in the arctic region during the past few days. The stratosphere is located between six miles and 30 miles above the ground.
Often when this occurs, it forces cold air to build in the lowest layer of the atmosphere then to drive southward.
The problem is the exact timing and location of the emergence of this cold air is uncertain. Typically, the movement of cold air begins 10 to 14 days later.
During the next week or so, a flow of milder Pacific air will invade much of the nation.
Because of the time of year, some locations – in particular, the northern part of the Great Basin and northern New England – may hold on to the cold they have now due to long nights, light winds and weak sunshine. However, most locations will experience an upswing in temperature for at least a several-day period.
According to AccuWeather.com’s Long Range Team, including Mark Paquette, “Overlaying this with other tools, we expect to see cold air spreading out from central Canada later next week into week three of January.”
It is possible the cold push will arrive in one big blast. However, it is more likely the cold will advance along in waves of progressively colder air with each wave driving farther south and east.
According to Long Range Weather Expert Paul Pastelok, “The early indications are that the initial thrust of the brutal cold will be directed over the Northwest, northern Rockies or northern Plains first, with subsequent waves reaching farther east.”
Expert Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson stated, “Initially, the cold may seem to be run-of-the-mill or even delayed, but once the cold air engine starts, it may run for quite a while with progressively colder and colder waves of air.”
According to Expert Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston, “As the waves of cold air spread to the south and east, some energy may be released in the form of a series of storms riding the cold air.”
The storms may initially track from the Southwest to the Upper Midwest, then the western Gulf to the Great Lakes, the eastern Gulf to the Appalachians and perhaps finally northward along the Atlantic Seaboard.
Expert Senior Meteorologist Joe Lundberg added, “While a zone of high pressure off the southern Atlantic coast will offer some resistance to the cold initially in the East, most of the time in situations like this, cold air finishes the job and reaches the Atlantic Seaboard.”
So while the atmosphere may seem to be settling into a pattern like last winter for some people, meteorologists at AccuWeather.com will be watching the evolution of the winter beginning in mid-January with great interest.
Folks may want to check their supply of fuel for the second half of the winter sooner rather than later, in the event the waves of arctic air develop to their full potential.
Alex Sosnowski is an expert senior meteorologist for www.AccuWeather.com .
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Glenn County officials on Friday arrested two Bay Area men who allegedly were found to be in possession of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine.
Marcos Miguel Rodriguez-Villanueva, 20, of Richmond and Carlos Alejandro Mendoza-Villanueva, 39, of Novato were arrested by Glenn Interagency Narcotics Task Force agents.
The task force reported that it responded to a request from the California Highway Patrol at 11 a.m. Friday after receiving a request from CHP for a possible drug trafficking case.
Glenn Interagency Narcotics Task Force agents took over the investigation and seized 13.1 pounds of crystal methamphetamine with a street value of approximately $200,000 along with $2,475 in cash, and arrested the two men.
Rodriguez-Villanueva and Mendoza-Villanueva were booked into the Glenn County Jail. Bail was set at $600,000 for each of them, the task force reported.
The investigation is ongoing, task force officials said.
NASA-funded researchers analyzing a small meteorite that may be the first discovered from the Martian surface or crust have found it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites from unknown origins.
This new class of meteorite was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed “Black Beauty,” it weighs approximately 11 ounces.
After more than a year of intensive study, a team of U.S. scientists determined the meteorite formed 2.1 billion years ago during the beginning of the most recent geologic period on Mars, known as the Amazonian.
“The age of NWA 7034 is important because it is significantly older than most other Martian meteorites,” said Mitch Schulte, program scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We now have insight into a piece of Mars’ history at a critical time in its evolution.”
The meteorite is an excellent match for surface rocks and outcrops NASA has studied remotely via Mars rovers and Mars-orbiting satellites. NWA 7034’s composition is different from any previously studied Martian meteorite The research is published in Thursday’s edition of Science Express.
“The contents of this meteorite may challenge many long held notions about Martian geology,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “These findings also present an important reference frame for the Curiosity rover as it searches for reduced organics in the minerals exposed in the bedrock of Gale Crater.”
NWA 7034 is made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock that forms from rapidly cooled lava. The fragments are primarily feldspar and pyroxene, most likely from volcanic activity.
This unusual meteorite’s chemistry matches that of the Martian crust as measured by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Odyssey Orbiter.
“This Martian meteorite has everything in its composition that you’d want in order to further our understanding of the Red Planet,” said Carl Agee, leader of the analysis team and director and curator at the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics in Albuquerque. “This unique meteorite tells us what volcanism was like on Mars 2 billion years ago. It also gives us a glimpse of ancient surface and environmental conditions on Mars that no other meteorite has ever offered.”
The research team included groups at the University of California at San Diego and the Carnegie Institution in Washington. Experiments were conducted to analyze mineral and chemical composition, age, and water content.
Researchers theorize the large amount of water contained in NWA 7034 may have originated from interaction of the rocks with water present in Mars’ crust.
The meteorite also has a different mixture of oxygen isotopes than has been found in other Martian meteorites, which could have resulted from interaction with the Martian atmosphere.
Most Martian meteorites are divided into three rock types, named after three meteorites; Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassigny.
These “SNC” meteorites currently number about 110. Their point of origin on Mars is not known and recent data from lander and orbiter missions suggest they are a mismatch for the Martian crust.
Although NWA 7034 has similarities to the SNC meteorites, including the presence of macromolecular organic carbon, this new meteorite has many unique characteristics.
“The texture of the NWA meteorite is not like any of the SNC meteorites,” said co-author Andrew Steele, who led the carbon analysis at the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory. “This is an exciting measurement in Mars and planetary science. We now have more context than ever before to understanding where they may come from.”
The research was funded by NASA’s Cosmochemistry Program and Astrobiology Institute, part of the Planetary Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.
The research also was supported by the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium in Las Cruces, and the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va.