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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The inaugural “Lake County CAN!” food drive entered its final phase on Friday, when volunteers gathered to prepare food and supplies at a packing event at the Upper Lake United Methodist Church.
Close to 200 volunteers – clad in bright red Lake County CAN! t-shirts – created a swirling bustle of perpetual motion as they sorted and packed food.
Other community members stopped in to donate bags of canned goods and prepared meals.
The effort Friday night gave rise to several “loaves and fishes” moments, as it became clear how generous the community had been in its donations for those in need both here and overseas.
One group of volunteers used the donations to rapidly fill boxes, backpacks and hygiene bags in the church sanctuary.
The food they sorted and boxed will be used to stock the seven Methodist Church food pantries around Lake County, supply backpacks to local schoolchildren who don’t have access to food on the weekends and provide women at Freedom House domestic violence shelter with hygiene items.
A large group in another part of the church packed 10,000 meals to ship overseas.
It took the second group of volunteers about a half hour to pack the first 1,000 meals, with a gong ringing out to announce the achievement.
It took half that time to prepare the second 1,000, with the process moving ever faster, to the point that the gong was being heard in five minute increments.
Pastor Shannon Kimbell-Auth of United Christian Parish Church in Lakeport said the 10,000 meals packed to go overseas on Friday will be combined with another 10,000 to be packed at Clearlake Methodist Church on Saturday.
Those meals are then going to be shipped to Afghanistan, one of the world’s poorest countries with one of the lowest standards of living, according to The World Factbook.
Kimbell-Auth said the meals will be distributed at schools in an effort to entice parents to send their children for food and education.
Lake County CAN! has attempted to take on the dual issue of hunger at home and abroad. Kimbell-Auth said the effort illustrated that people have the ability to address both.
Community members are invited to drop off food donations at the meal packing to take place in Clearlake on Saturday.
Food, backpacks and hygiene bags will be prepared from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Clearlake United Methodist Church, 14521 Pearl Ave., Clearlake.
For more information visit www.lakecountycan.org .
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Pacific storm moving over interior Northern California is predicted to bring rain to much of the region – including Lake County – plus snow in higher elevations.
The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook on Friday for Lake County.
National Weather Service forecasters reported that the storm's main impact is expected to hit Saturday and into Sunday,
In Lake County, rain is expected on Saturday, with about an inch possible throughout the day, according to the forecast. The county could also see hail and thunderstorms.
Winds are expected to develop into Saturday, with gusts as high as 31 miles per hour in the evening.
The hazardous weather outlook warned that Northern California – specifically in the Sierra Nevada – could see heavy mountain snow on Saturday.
The forecast calls for sunny weather on Sunday, with a slight chance of rain returning Tuesday through the remainder of the week.
Daytime temperatures on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be in the 50s, dipping into the 30s at night.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
California gasoline prices jumped 23 percent in 2011 to an average of $3.86 as consumer consumption dropped 1.8 percent, according to a report released Friday by the California State Board of Equalization.
“Many Californians are straining to pay the increasing price of gasoline and seeking ways to reduce their consumption such as driving vehicles that consume less gas or using alternative methods of transportation,” said First District Member Betty T. Yee.
Diesel fuel prices in California went up 25 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to $4.13 as consumption increased 2.3 percent.
According to the Board of Equalization Economic Perspective, the overwhelming majority of diesel fuel sold for use on California roads is for commercial trucks.
The diesel market is affected by the economy, imports and exports through California ports, and supply and demand conditions in residential and nonresidential construction, and agriculture.
The decline in gasoline consumption began in 2005 and has continued since then as consumers, struggling with high prices, take steps to reduce their gasoline purchases, including driving fuel-efficient and hybrid vehicles, and taking alternative forms of transportation such as buses, light rail, and trains.
California is a leader in promoting these methods to support conservation and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
In addition, consumers may be using less gasoline because of the national fuel economy standards that have increased the miles per gallon required for new cars.
The decline in gasoline use in California has also been affected by the high unemployment rates caused by the recession, which have reduced the number of drivers on the highways and the number of long commutes.
The national average price of a gallon of gasoline was up 17 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to $3.43, while diesel prices increased 23 percent to $3.87.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the cost of crude oil, which is set on the world market, determines about 72 percent of the price of gasoline.
Some energy experts agree that the way to reduce gasoline price spikes is to decrease the dependence on oil, regardless of where the oil comes from.
Energy economist Severin Borenstein with U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business explained that oil prices drive gasoline prices and current oil prices are high.
Global factors, such as high demand in India, China and elsewhere in the developing world, largely determine the price of oil.
As a result, cut backs on gas purchases by Californians have only a minor impact on worldwide demand.
Similarly, U.S. oil production has only a small impact on the world supply. U.S. oil production was up 13 percent in 2011 over 2008, but still remains less than one-tenth of the world oil market.
California gasoline and diesel fuel figures are net consumption, including audit assessments, refunds, amended and late tax returns, and the State Controller’s Office refunds.
BOE is able to monitor gallons through tax receipts paid by fuel distributors in California. Board of Equalization updates the fuel reports at the end of each month.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Clear Lake Area California Highway Patrol will offer two free Start Smart traffic safety classes for teenage drivers and their parents in April.
The classes will run approximately two hours and will be offered beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 19, and Thursday, April 26, at the CHP office, located at the corner of Highway 29 and Live Oak in Kelseyville.
Traffic collisions are the No. 1 killer of teenagers in America. Nationally about 5,000 teens will die in automobile crashes. About 10 percent of those deaths are in California alone.
In California in 2009, there were 61,029 collisions involving teenage drivers statewide, 346 resulted in fatalities.
The program aims to help future and newly-licensed teenage drivers learn the responsibilities that accompany the privilege of being a licensed driver.
It is an educational tool for parents and teens to reduce the number of teen injuries and deaths resulting from traffic collisions.
The program provides information on defensive driving, state traffic laws, dynamics of traffic collisions, tips on avoiding collisions and DUI awareness.
Space is limited for this class.
For more information or reservations, call Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP office, 707-279-0103.
There's a tiny moon orbiting beyond Saturn's rings that's full of promise, and maybe – just maybe – microbes.
In a series of tantalizingly close flybys to the moon, named "Enceladus," NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed watery jets erupting from what may be a vast underground sea. These jets, which spew through cracks in the moon's icy shell, could lead back to a habitable zone that is uniquely accessible in all the solar system.
"More than 90 jets of all sizes near Enceladus's south pole are spraying water vapor, icy particles, and organic compounds all over the place," said Carolyn Porco, an award-winning planetary scientist and leader of the Imaging Science team for NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. "Cassini has flown several times now through this spray and has tasted it. And we have found that aside from water and organic material, there is salt in the icy particles. The salinity is the same as that of Earth's oceans."
Thermal measurements of Enceladus's fissures have revealed temperatures as high as -120 deg Fahrenheit (190 Kelvin). "If you add up all the heat, 16 gigawatts of thermal energy are coming out of those cracks," said Porco.
She believes the small moon, with its sub-surface liquid sea, organics, and an energy source, may host the same type of life we find in similar environments on Earth.
"The kind of ecologies Enceladus might harbor could be like those deep within our own planet. Abundant heat and liquid water are found in Earth's subterranean volcanic rocks,” Porco said. “Organisms in those rocks thrive on hydrogen (produced by reactions between liquid water and hot rocks) and available carbon dioxide and make methane, which gets recycled back into hydrogen. And it's all done entirely in the absence of sunlight or anything produced by sunlight."
But what makes Enceladus special is that its habitable zone offers itself up for easy access.
"It's erupting out into space where we can sample it,” Porco said. “It sounds crazy but it could be snowing microbes on the surface of this little world. In the end, it's is the most promising place I know of for an astrobiology search. We don't even need to go scratching around on the surface. We can fly through the plume and sample it. Or we can land on the surface, look up and stick our tongues out. And voilà … we have what we came for."
The source of Enceladus' heat appears to be Saturn itself. Researchers say Saturn's gravitational pull causes the moon's shape to change slightly on a daily basis as it orbits.
Flexing motions in its interior generate heat – like the heat you feel in a paper clip when you bend it back and forth rapidly.
"But the tidal flexing occurring now is not enough to account for all the heat presently coming out of Enceladus,” Porco said. “One way out of this dilemma is to assume that some of the heat observed today was been generated and stored internally in the past."
Porco believes Enceladus's orbit could have been much more eccentric, and the greater the eccentricity, she said, the greater the tidal flexing and resulting structural variations that produce the heat.
In this scenario, the heat would have been stored inside the little moon by melting some of the ice to recharge the liquid sea.
"Now that the orbit's eccentricity has lessened, the heat emanating from the interior is a combination of heat produced today and in the past. But since more heat is coming out presently than is being produced, Enceladus is in a cooling off stage and the liquid water is returning to ice. There are models to show that it never really freezes entirely, so the eccentricity may increase again, restarting the cycle."
Whatever is turning up the heat, Porco has a plan of action. It's simple.
"We need to get back to Enceladus and check it out,” she said.
Dauna Coulter works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Facing a continued drop in revenue and higher numbers of uninsured patients, Sutter Lakeside Hospital notified staff on Wednesday that staff cuts are beginning immediately.
Lake County News obtained a two-page “Turn-Around Progress Report” sent to all Sutter Lakeside Hospital staff, community advisory committee and foundation board members in which Chief Administrative Officer Siri Nelson announced the layoffs.
“Our net revenue has shrunk in the last four years from an average of $5.5 million a month in 2007 to an average of $4.8 million a month for the first 2 months of 2012. During this same time our operating expenses have continued to grow,” Nelson wrote.
“We have come to the tough, but unavoidable conclusion that the only way to achieve the significant cost savings necessary is through staff reductions,” she told staff.
In a Thursday interview with Lake County News, Nelson said Sutter Lakeside – which currently has 300 full-time employees – will see a 10-percent staff reduction across all areas of the hospital.
She said every individual at the hospital will feel the impact – from those losing their jobs to those who have to pick up extra responsibility due to the staff cuts.
Nelson said the hospital has taken numerous steps in recent years to reduce operating expenses, increase efficiencies and cut waste.
“We've done a lot of things to avoid having to do this,” Nelson said of the layoffs.
Some of the measures Nelson outlined in her report to staff included working to increase patient volumes and revenue, improving operational efficiencies, “aggressive flexing” of work schedules to respond to patient volumes, and a recently instituted wage freeze for managers and all exempt staff.
Nelson’s report said that if the hospital doesn’t take additional action it’s on track to lose more than $10 million this year.
Based on Sutter Lakeside’s Form 990 filings, which are submitted to the Internal Revenue Service, the hospital has been registering larger losses in recent years.
In 2009 – the most recent year available – the documents showed $70.3 million in income and $76.7 million in expense that year, for a total loss of $6.3 million.
That’s compared to $68.7 million in revenue and $72.5 million in expense in 2008, when the organization registered a loss of $3.7 million.
For 2007, the hospital had $66.5 million in revenue and $67.4 million in expense, for a loss of just over $939,000.
Last week, the nonprofit Sutter Health – of which Sutter Lakeside is a part – announced its financial performance for 2011, when total income was $634 million, compared to $878 million in 2010.
The system’s total 2011 operating revenues for 2011 were $9.1 billion, compared to $8.8 billion in 2010. Operating expenses in 2011 were $8.3 billion last year, compared to $8 billion the year before.
Sutter Lakeside last announced layoffs in January 2010, when 19 support and administrative positions were cut, as Lake County News has reported. Those cuts were attributed to dropping patient volumes.
A challenging economic climate
The biggest problem Sutter Lakeside Hospital is facing right now is Lake County's economic climate, Nelson said Thursday.
She explained that the hospital's financial challenges can be correlated to the recession in recent years and its impact on the county, including a shrinking commercial base and loss of jobs. There also are anticipated cuts from state and federal reimbursements.
“I don't know if this is the bottom,” she said.
Because of the tough economic times, Nelson said there has been a big shift in the hospital’s “payer mix.”
Specifically, there has been a big increase in the number of uninsured patients and those who can’t afford to pay for services, she explained.
Nelson said Sutter Lakeside Hospital is a nonprofit, and therefore it takes all patients regardless of ability to pay.
In past years, the hospital has offered an average of $7 million annually in health care services to the uninsured, Nelson said.
That number, Nelson added, jumped to $12 million in 2011, and it may be higher in 2012.
Nelson said the Wednesday report to staff, committee and board members was the first step in carrying out the workforce reductions.
The document stated that staff who will be laid off will be notified over the next few weeks, and that they will be assisted in a number of ways, including preferential hiring for openings that become available at Sutter Lakeside Hospital and other Sutter Health affiliates.
Because the hospital is subject to collective bargaining rules with the two unions with which its employees are members, it has a number of complex steps to go through to complete the layoff process, she said.
Not all of the details of how the process will proceed are available, Nelson said.
“The goal is to get everything done by April 20,” she said.
Nelson said she wanted to calm community fears – “We’re not closing,” she said – and emphasized that the hospital was cutting staff in order to continue to serve the community.
“Our goal is to provide care for Lake County long into the future,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at