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The state's public health director and state health officer has released a new report on tobacco use and promotion in the state.
California Department of Public Health (CDPH) director and state health officer Dr. Ron Chapman released the state’s first “State Health Officer’s Report on Tobacco Use and Promotion” providing new data related to cigarette consumption declines, and the millions of dollars and lives saved.
The report also includes new data on illegal sales to minors, the disproportionate number of tobacco retailers and advertising in minority and low-income neighborhoods, the effect of tobacco advertising in retail stores, and troubling tobacco-use trends.
“The illegal sale of tobacco to minors is a serious issue and we are committed to working with retailers and inform the public in order to stop these practices,” said Chapman. “The tobacco industry’s advertising tactics towards a younger audience is disturbing and shameful. It is startling that the tobacco industry spends nearly $1 million every hour to market their products nationwide.”
Although not necessarily a trend, the increase in illegal sales to minors is a fact that CDPH takes seriously.
The department is concerned about any increase of youth access to cigarettes and aims to prevent any uptick in youth smoking. CDPH continues to find innovative ways to work with retailers and to inform the public to stop these practices.
In addition to the latest data on illegal sales to minors, the state report draws attention to the disproportionate number of tobacco retailers, advertising tactics, the effect of tobacco advertising in retail stores, and examples of emerging tobacco use.
Specific information about Lake County was not available in the report. CDPH spokesman Corey Egel said the county's prevalence estimates are included in regional figures, as the sample size for Lake County is too small to estimate the prevalence by detailed age grouping (i.e. young adults age 18-24).
Highlights of the report include:
- Since the inception of the Tobacco Control Program, the annual number of cigarette packs sold in California dropped by more than 1.5 billion per year, from 2.5 billion packs in 1998 to 972,000 packs in 2011;
- Illegal tobacco sales to minors rose to 8.7 percent from 5.6 percent in 2011, which was the state’s lowest rate since the survey began in 1995;
- Prevalence of smoking was higher at schools in neighborhoods with five or more stores that sell tobacco than at schools in neighborhoods without any stores that sell tobacco;
- In 2011, young adults 18-24 had the highest smoking prevalence among any age group in California;
- The popularity, promotion and availability of smokeless tobacco have greatly increased – examples include snus (a smokeless, spitless, moist-snuff product), cigarillos (small flavored cigars that are often sold individually), as well as dissolvable and flavored “orbs” and “sticks” that are currently being test-marketed in other states;
- In less than a decade, sales of smokeless products have nearly tripled, from $77 million in 2001 to $211 million in 2011; and
- Nearly one-third (32.3 percent) of California stores that sell tobacco had at least one cigarette advertisement less than three feet above the floor, where it is easily seen by children.
“In 2012, smoking and the use of other tobacco products continues to be a major public health concern in California, with approximately 3.6 million smokers in the state,” added Chapman. “More than 34,000 deaths from tobacco-related illnesses occur every year, and the cost of adult health care related to smoking in California is projected to be $6.5 billion this year, about $400 per taxpayer. The most cost-effective way to decrease health care costs is to encourage and support tobacco cessation. I strongly urge all Californians who still smoke to quit.”
Chapman also unveiled new ethnic-market advertisements that will continue to educate Californians on the harmful effects of tobacco use.
In addition to the ads, a new Spanish Web site, www.CAsinTabaco.com , was launched to complement the campaign and to provide the Spanish-speaking community the tools they need to quit. Ads will start airing in early January and can be viewed at www.TobaccoFreeCA.com .
The California Tobacco Control Program was established by the Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act of 1988.
The act, approved by California voters, instituted a 25-cent tax on each pack of cigarettes and earmarked five cents of that tax to fund California’s tobacco control efforts. These efforts include supporting local health departments and community organizations, an aggressive media campaign, and tobacco-related evaluation and surveillance.
California’s comprehensive approach has changed social norms around tobacco-use and secondhand smoke, resulting in dramatic results.
It is estimated California’s tobacco control efforts have saved more than one million lives and have resulted in $86 billion worth of savings in health care costs. Learn more at www.TobaccoFreeCA.com .
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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon Restaurant will close from Jan. 2 through Jan. 25 to completely redo their kitchen facilities and upgrade other aspects of the property.
“We apologize to our loyal customers for the downtime, but the quality of our food and service should be that much better as a result of these upgrades,” said owner Bernie Butcher.
Butcher said a grand reopening of the Blue Wing is planned on Saturday, Jan. 26, culminating with a Concert with Conversation in the Meeting House featuring the reed instrument virtuoso Paul McCandless and the Spanish guitarist Antonio Calogaro.
In addition to new plumbing, flooring and kitchen equipment, the hotel will use the downtime to service its state of the art geo-exchange heating and cooling system and to do a deep cleaning of the entire property.
“The hotel will be fully staffed at all time during the closure to handle questions, future bookings and group reservations,” said hotel manager Susan Mesick.
Mitchell Construction of Lakeport has been chosen as general contractor for the project.
Blue Wing Chef Brian Rebitzke has worked closely with the contractor to come up with the ideal kitchen design and equipment configuration.
“Although most of this won’t be visible to our customers, I think the proof of the pudding will be in better eating,” Rebitzke said.
The Blue Wing Saloon Restaurant in Upper Lake opened for business in 2005 and the adjacent Tallman Hotel a year later.
Through their unique facilities as well as musical and other events, they have become popular locally and helped to attract tourists to Lake County.
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A pair of NASA spacecraft that have been studying the Moon’s gravitational field are being prepared for a controlled descent into a mountain near the Moon’s north pole. Impact is expected at about 2:28 p.m. PST on Monday, Dec. 17.
“It is going to be difficult to say goodbye to our little robotic twins,” said MIT professor Maria Zuber, principal investigator of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission. “Planetary science has advanced in a major way because of their contributions.”
The two probes, named Ebb and Flow, are being sent purposely into the lunar surface because their low orbit and low fuel levels preclude further scientific operations.
Ebb and Flow’s successful mission to the Moon has yielded the highest-resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. The map will provide a better understanding not only of the Moon, but also of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.
The spacecraft have been flying in formation around the Moon since Jan. 1, 2012. They were named by elementary school students in Bozeman, Mont., who won a contest.
The first probe to reach the Moon, Ebb, also will be the first to go down, at 2:28:40 p.m. PST. Flow will follow Ebb about 20 seconds later.
Both spacecraft will hit the surface at 3,760 mph (1.7 kilometers per second). No imagery of the impact is expected because the region will be in shadow at the time. The impact site is located near a crater named Goldschmidt.
Ebb and Flow will conduct one final experiment before their mission ends. They will fire their main engines until their propellant tanks are empty to determine precisely the amount of fuel remaining in their tanks. This will help NASA engineers validate fuel consumption computer models to improve predictions of fuel needs for future missions.
“Our lunar twins may be in the twilight of their operational lives, but one thing is for sure, they are going down swinging,” said GRAIL project manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “Even during the last half of their last orbit, we are going to do an engineering experiment that could help future missions operate more efficiently.”
Because the exact amount of fuel remaining aboard each spacecraft is unknown, mission navigators and engineers designed the depletion burn to allow the probes to descend gradually for several hours and skim the surface of the moon until the elevated terrain of the target mountain gets in their way.
The burn that will change the spacecrafts’ orbit is scheduled to take place Friday morning, Dec. 14.
“Such a unique end-of-mission scenario requires extensive and detailed mission planning and navigation,” said Lehman. “We’ve had our share of challenges during this mission and always come through in flying colors, but nobody I know around here has ever flown into a Moon mountain before. It’ll be a first for us, that’s for sure.”
During their prime mission, from March through May 2012, Ebb and Flow collected data while orbiting at an average altitude of 34 miles (55 kilometers).
Their altitude was lowered to 14 miles (23 kilometers) for their extended mission, which began Aug. 30 and sometimes placed them within a few miles of the moon’s tallest surface features.
For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
When an individual or a couple, as settlors, establishes a revocable living trust they are usually the initial trustees and beneficiaries. This gives them complete control to do as they please with their trust assets.
Does this freedom change, however, if someone other than the settlor is trustee while the settlor is alive? Let us examine.
If the settlor’s trust appoints someone other than a settlor as the initial trustee then that trustee may obey the settlor so long as the settlor has the power to revoke the trust.
The trust usually requires the trustee to obey certain instructions by the settlor, such as distribution instructions.
The settlor’s power to revoke the trust is the power to amend and/or to end the trust and return the trust assets to the settlors. Thus, provided the settlors retains the power to revoke the trust, the settlor can do entirely as she pleases with the trust assets the same as if they were not held in trust.
For example, consider a father who appoints his daughter as initial sole trustee while he is still alive. He has not been adjudicated incompetent, but this fact does not mean that he is actually competent.
Father appoints daughter in order to let her direct his investments of trust assets on his behalf. Father tells daughter to invest in certain stocks which his other children – who are named in the trust as future beneficiaries to inherit upon father’s death – consider for good reason to be high risk.
They object and request the trustee/daughter not to follow father’s instructions. May the trustee/daughter nonetheless follow father’s instructions?
More than likely the answer is “yes.”
While father retains his ability as settlor to revoke his living trust, the trust assets are his to do with as he pleases.
The trustee owes no duty to the future death beneficiaries (the children) while the settlor is alive and can revoke the trust.
Furthermore, after father dies, the death beneficiaries (the children) cannot sue the trustee for following these instructions.
Notwithstanding the major strains on their relationship, the trustee/daughter may try to protect the settlor/father by establishing his incompetence.
The trust may say that the settlor is incompetent if an examining physician provides a certificate of incapacity. In other cases, it may be necessary to petition a court to adjudicate the settlor’s incompetence.
Once it is determined that the settlor is incompetent to revoke the trust, then the trustee/daughter may no longer follow his instructions.
This begs the question, “does the trustee owe the settlor a duty to determine whether he is still competent to revoke the trust?”
In Estate of Giraldin, the California Court of Appeals held that the trustee owed no duty to the settlor to inquire whether or not the settlor was competent.
The court said that the determining mental capacity was too complex and uncertain an inquiry to require of the trustee.
Thus, unless and until the settlor was ever determined to be incompetent by a court, the trustee could follow the lawful instructions of the settlor.
This decision is on appeal with the California Supreme Court. A decision is expected next year.
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
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County officials on Friday directed flags on all county buildings to be lowered to half-staff through Tuesday, Dec. 18, in honor of the victims of Friday’s deadly school shooting in Connecticut.
The incident at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown has claimed the lives of 27 people, including 20 elementary school students, according to police.
The seven adults killed included the school’s principal Dawn Hocksprung and the shooter himself, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, law enforcement reported. Lanza had fatally shot his mother before going to the school.
President Barack Obama addressed the nation on Friday.
“The majority of those who died today were children – beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old,” he said. “They had their entire lives ahead of them – birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers – men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.”
The president added, “So our hearts are broken today – for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little children, and for the families of the adults who were lost. Our hearts are broken for the parents of the survivors as well, for as blessed as they are to have their children home tonight, they know that their children’s innocence has been torn away from them too early, and there are no words that will ease their pain.”
The Connecticut shooting has been reported as the second-worst in the nation’s history, surpassed only by the Virginia Tech shooting of April 2007, which claimed 32 lives. The 1999 Columbine shooting resulted in the deaths of 12 students, one teacher and the two suspects.
Newtown is located in southwestern Connecticut, about sixty miles from New York City, with a population of nearly 28,000 people.
Follow Lake County News on Twitter, @LakeCoNews.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Mendocino College officials reported that a new superintendent and president has been selected to lead the community college district.
At the end of a Wednesday evening closed session, the Mendocino College Board of Trustees appointed Arturo Reyes as the next superintendent/president, according to district Human Resources Director Karen Chaty.
“I am thankful to the trustees for placing their faith in me to serve Mendocino College and the surrounding communities,” Reyes said in a written statement. “I am honored to contribute to Mendocino’s long standing reputation of academic excellence, exceptional support services and outstanding extracurricular activities. As superintendent/president, I am looking forward to working collaboratively with all college constituency groups to enhance the educational opportunities for the residents of Mendocino and Lake counties.”
Reyes will begin his new job on Jan. 7, with the board to ratify his contract at its Jan. 9 meeting, Chaty reported.
Chaty said the board of trustees on Wednesday also received the resignation of Roe Darnell, who had acted as interim superintendent and president following the departure of Kathy Lehner, who took the president's job at College of the Redwoods in May.
Reyes is coming from Solano Community College, where he has served as executive vice president of academic and student affairs for the last two and a half years, according to Chaty.
He also has been interim president and vice president of academic affairs for San Jose City College, and served for seven years as dean of humanities and social sciences for Cosumnes River College, Mendocino College reported.
Reyes taught Spanish full-time for Cosumnes River College and Will C. Wood High School in Vacaville, and currently is completing an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of California, Davis.
Chaty said his selection was assisted by a search committee that included Wilda Shock and John Tompkins of Lake County, as well as Larry Perryman, Virginia Guleff, Steve Hixenbaugh, Reid Edelman, Karen Christopherson, Eileen Cichocki, Larry Lang, Nancy Heth, Morgan Shippey, Gwen Chapman and Gary Smith.
The announcement of Reyes' appointment came the same day as college officials announced that the new Mendocino College Lake Center on Parallel Drive in Lakeport will open to students on Jan. 14.
Email Elizabeth Larson at