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In a significant step towards enhancing road safety in California, the California Highway Patrol is partnering with the California Office of Traffic Safety, or OTS, on a new yearlong campaign aimed at reducing impaired driving incidents in California.
The grant-funded “Reducing Impairment Statewide” campaign runs through Sept. 30, 2024.
Driving under the influence remains a critical concern, and this $5.9 million grant represents a critical injection of funding to support the CHP’s ongoing commitment to making California’s roads safer and protecting the lives of all who travel on them.
According to data from the CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, in 2021, 748 people were killed and 12,591 were injured in crashes involving an impaired driver within the CHP’s jurisdiction.
Each one of these injuries and deaths represents a preventable tragedy and underscores the continued need to focus efforts on reducing impaired driving.
“The California Highway Patrol is grateful for the federal funding that has made this initiative possible. Through education, enforcement, and community engagement, the CHP is determined to make our roads safer and reduce the devastating impact of impaired driving,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “I remind all Californians to never get behind the wheel when under the influence of drugs or alcohol and to always make a safe choice when traveling. The life you save could be your own.”
With this funding, the CHP will conduct additional DUI saturation patrols, sobriety checkpoints, and traffic safety education efforts throughout California.
The increased presence of the CHP will be focused on detecting and apprehending drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs while educating the public about the dangers of impaired driving.
DUI can encompass a range of substances, including alcohol, cannabis, impairing medications, illegal drugs, or any combination that affects a driver’s ability to drive, and will result in an arrest for those who are found to be under the influence.
To prevent DUI, the CHP encourages responsible behavior. Always designate a sober driver, take public transportation, or use a taxi or ride-share.
Additionally, the CHP would like to remind the public to call 9-1-1 if they observe a suspected DUI driver. Be prepared to provide the dispatcher a location, direction of travel, and vehicle description.
More information about the CHP’s impaired driver enforcement programs can be found on the CHP’s website.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the OTS, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The grant-funded “Reducing Impairment Statewide” campaign runs through Sept. 30, 2024.
Driving under the influence remains a critical concern, and this $5.9 million grant represents a critical injection of funding to support the CHP’s ongoing commitment to making California’s roads safer and protecting the lives of all who travel on them.
According to data from the CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, in 2021, 748 people were killed and 12,591 were injured in crashes involving an impaired driver within the CHP’s jurisdiction.
Each one of these injuries and deaths represents a preventable tragedy and underscores the continued need to focus efforts on reducing impaired driving.
“The California Highway Patrol is grateful for the federal funding that has made this initiative possible. Through education, enforcement, and community engagement, the CHP is determined to make our roads safer and reduce the devastating impact of impaired driving,” said CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee. “I remind all Californians to never get behind the wheel when under the influence of drugs or alcohol and to always make a safe choice when traveling. The life you save could be your own.”
With this funding, the CHP will conduct additional DUI saturation patrols, sobriety checkpoints, and traffic safety education efforts throughout California.
The increased presence of the CHP will be focused on detecting and apprehending drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs while educating the public about the dangers of impaired driving.
DUI can encompass a range of substances, including alcohol, cannabis, impairing medications, illegal drugs, or any combination that affects a driver’s ability to drive, and will result in an arrest for those who are found to be under the influence.
To prevent DUI, the CHP encourages responsible behavior. Always designate a sober driver, take public transportation, or use a taxi or ride-share.
Additionally, the CHP would like to remind the public to call 9-1-1 if they observe a suspected DUI driver. Be prepared to provide the dispatcher a location, direction of travel, and vehicle description.
More information about the CHP’s impaired driver enforcement programs can be found on the CHP’s website.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the OTS, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
NORTH COAST, Calif. — Pacific Gas and Electric Company invites North Coast Region customers to a virtual town hall to learn more about work in their region and discuss tips for safety and energy savings.
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., PG&E experts, including Regional Vice President for PG&E’s North Coast Dave Canny, will provide a brief presentation during which participants will have the opportunity to ask questions.
The event can be accessed through the below link, by phone or through PG&E’s website, www.pge.com/webinars.
Counties covered in the town hall are Lake, Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Siskiyou, Sonoma and Trinity.
To participate, use this link. To dial in, call 888-469-1174. The conference ID is 5429064.
In this meeting, PG&E will also provide an update regarding a pair of proposed decisions in the general rate case by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The proposed decisions would drastically reduce PG&E’s undergrounding plans of more than 2,000 miles between now and 2026.
American Sign Language interpretation will be available, along with dial-in numbers for those who aren’t able to join online.
For the full webinar events schedule, additional information on how to join and recordings and presentation materials from past events, visit www.pge.com/webinars.
On Wednesday, Nov. 1, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., PG&E experts, including Regional Vice President for PG&E’s North Coast Dave Canny, will provide a brief presentation during which participants will have the opportunity to ask questions.
The event can be accessed through the below link, by phone or through PG&E’s website, www.pge.com/webinars.
Counties covered in the town hall are Lake, Humboldt, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Siskiyou, Sonoma and Trinity.
To participate, use this link. To dial in, call 888-469-1174. The conference ID is 5429064.
In this meeting, PG&E will also provide an update regarding a pair of proposed decisions in the general rate case by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The proposed decisions would drastically reduce PG&E’s undergrounding plans of more than 2,000 miles between now and 2026.
American Sign Language interpretation will be available, along with dial-in numbers for those who aren’t able to join online.
For the full webinar events schedule, additional information on how to join and recordings and presentation materials from past events, visit www.pge.com/webinars.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 48 adoptable dogs.
This week’s include “Dandelion,” a female Doberman Pinscher/Mix with a black and brown coat.
There is also “Ninja,” a 1-year-old male pit bull terrier with a black and white coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Gemini South, one half of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, captures the billion-year-old aftermath of a spiral galaxy collision.
At the heart of this chaotic interaction, entwined and caught in the midst of the chaos, is a pair of supermassive black holes — the nearest pair to Earth ever recorded.
The swirling arms of a spiral galaxy are among the most recognized features in the cosmos: long sweeping bands spun off from a central core, each brimming with dust, gas, and dazzling pockets of newly formed stars.
Yet this opulent figure can warp into a much more bizarre and amorphous shape during a merger with another galaxy. The same sweeping arms are suddenly perturbed into disarray, and two supermassive black holes at their respective centers become entangled in a tidal dance.
This is the case of NGC 7727, a peculiar galaxy located in the constellation of Aquarius about 90 million light-years from the Milky Way.
Astronomers have captured an evocative image of this merger’s aftermath using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, or GMOS, mounted on the Gemini South telescope in Chile, part of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab.
The image reveals vast swirling bands of interstellar dust and gas resembling freshly-spun cotton candy as they wrap around the merging cores of the progenitor galaxies.
From the aftermath has emerged a scattered mix of active starburst regions and sedentary dust lanes encircling the system.
What is most noteworthy about NGC 7727 is undoubtedly its twin galactic nuclei, each of which houses a supermassive black hole, as confirmed by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, or VLT.
Astronomers now surmise the galaxy originated as a pair of spiral galaxies that became embroiled in a celestial dance about one billion years ago. Stars and nebulae spilled out and were pulled back together at the mercy of the black holes’ gravitational tug-of-war until the irregular tangled knots we see here were created.
The two supermassive black holes, one measuring 154 million solar masses and the other 6.3 million solar masses, are approximately 1600 light-years apart. It is estimated that the two will eventually merge into one in about 250 million years to form an even more massive black hole while dispersing violent ripples of gravitational waves across spacetime.
Because the galaxy is still reeling from the impact, most of the tendrils we see are ablaze with bright young stars and active stellar nurseries. In fact, about 23 objects found in this system are considered candidates for young globular clusters.
These collections of stars often form in areas where star formation is higher than usual and are especially common in interacting galaxies as we see here.
Once the dust has settled, NGC 7727 is predicted to eventually become an elliptical galaxy composed of older stars and very little star formation. Similar to Messier 87, an elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its heart, this may be the fate of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy when they fuse together in billions of years’ time.
At the heart of this chaotic interaction, entwined and caught in the midst of the chaos, is a pair of supermassive black holes — the nearest pair to Earth ever recorded.
The swirling arms of a spiral galaxy are among the most recognized features in the cosmos: long sweeping bands spun off from a central core, each brimming with dust, gas, and dazzling pockets of newly formed stars.
Yet this opulent figure can warp into a much more bizarre and amorphous shape during a merger with another galaxy. The same sweeping arms are suddenly perturbed into disarray, and two supermassive black holes at their respective centers become entangled in a tidal dance.
This is the case of NGC 7727, a peculiar galaxy located in the constellation of Aquarius about 90 million light-years from the Milky Way.
Astronomers have captured an evocative image of this merger’s aftermath using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph, or GMOS, mounted on the Gemini South telescope in Chile, part of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF’s NOIRLab.
The image reveals vast swirling bands of interstellar dust and gas resembling freshly-spun cotton candy as they wrap around the merging cores of the progenitor galaxies.
From the aftermath has emerged a scattered mix of active starburst regions and sedentary dust lanes encircling the system.
What is most noteworthy about NGC 7727 is undoubtedly its twin galactic nuclei, each of which houses a supermassive black hole, as confirmed by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, or VLT.
Astronomers now surmise the galaxy originated as a pair of spiral galaxies that became embroiled in a celestial dance about one billion years ago. Stars and nebulae spilled out and were pulled back together at the mercy of the black holes’ gravitational tug-of-war until the irregular tangled knots we see here were created.
The two supermassive black holes, one measuring 154 million solar masses and the other 6.3 million solar masses, are approximately 1600 light-years apart. It is estimated that the two will eventually merge into one in about 250 million years to form an even more massive black hole while dispersing violent ripples of gravitational waves across spacetime.
Because the galaxy is still reeling from the impact, most of the tendrils we see are ablaze with bright young stars and active stellar nurseries. In fact, about 23 objects found in this system are considered candidates for young globular clusters.
These collections of stars often form in areas where star formation is higher than usual and are especially common in interacting galaxies as we see here.
Once the dust has settled, NGC 7727 is predicted to eventually become an elliptical galaxy composed of older stars and very little star formation. Similar to Messier 87, an elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its heart, this may be the fate of the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy when they fuse together in billions of years’ time.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake and several other neighboring counties have been placed under a red flag warning for this weekend due to a forecast of high winds, and Cal Fire said it is staffing up due to increased fire danger.
An offshore wind event is anticipated this weekend with critical fire weather conditions possible, officials said.
The National Weather Service has issued a widespread red flag warning across the entire unit, encompassing Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Colusa, Yolo and Solano counties.
This red flag warning goes in effect from 5 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, through the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 29.
A red flag warning means that critical weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly.
A combination of strong winds and low relative humidity can contribute to extreme fire behavior.
During this event gusts of 45-plus miles per hour may be observed in higher terrain with humidity values dropping into the 10 to 25% range.
In preparation of the red flag warning Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit will have full staffing available with 31 engines, six dozers, six crews, Boggs Mountain Helitack and Sonoma Air Attack base.
Additionally, Cal Fire Northern Region will be dispatching additional resources as needed for this event.
Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit reminds residents to prepare your family, have your emergency supply kit ready, and have evacuation plans in place in the event a fire starts near you.
Visit Cal Fire’s website for more information.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — Hundreds of people came out on Thursday afternoon to celebrate and enjoy the city of Lakeport’s newest park.
Xabatin (pronounced Ka-bah-ten) Community Park, located on the lakeside at the former Natural High School site, was a longtime dream for the city of Lakeport.
The dream began to move into reality in early 2020, when the city received a $5.9 million State Parks grant that made it possible to purchase the majority of the property from the Lakeport Unified School District, along with a small portion from a family, and to pay for the construction.
Since the park project got underway, it had been called “Lakefront Park,” but that was a placeholder name. At the Lakeport City Council’s Oct. 17 meeting, it voted to approve naming the new facility “Xabatin Community Park,” as a tribute to Lakeport’s Pomo tribal history.
The city also honored the Pomo through inviting tribal members to be a key part of the Thursday ceremony, with a land acknowledgment, a blessing by Big Valley tribal elder Ron Montez and, at the new gazebo, Pomo dancers who twirled in feathers and colorful regalia as part of a traditional dance performance.
Thursday’s grand opening came just a year after the park’s construction officially began.
The Lakeport City Council awarded the $4,399,381 construction contract to Redding-based Builders Solutions Inc. in August 2022. Construction began on Oct. 17, 2022.
Public Works Director Ron Ladd told the Lakeport City Council at its Aug. 1 meeting that the park’s completion had originally been set for May 25.
However, the winter weather of earlier this year — including snow that coated the city — pushed back the park’s completion day.
Builder Solutions Inc. was afforded 150 days to complete the park. As of the start of August, Ladd said there had been 77 nonworking days due to inclement weather.
City Manager Kevin Ingram said that while the park was ready to be opened — the lights are active and the splash pad is operational, although it wasn’t in use on Thursday because of the bands — there is still “quite a punch list” of tasks to complete.
The new sod was recently put in place, but it will be three to four weeks before people can walk on it, he said.
The park features a lakefront promenade that winds all the way down to Library Park. The path around the edge of the park leads to a round viewing area perched on the edge of the lake.
The expansive view from that spot illustrates the meaning of Xabatin — “big water.”
The park is oriented toward Mount Konocti, and it gives the feeling that the mountain is part of it.
Mayor Stacey Mattina agreed with the visual impression that the park layout offers, calling it an “infinity park.”
The park also includes a skatepark for bikes and boards that was the site of special demonstrations by skilled riders, a basketball court, ninja gym, amphitheater, a splash pad shaped like Clear Lake, sheltered picnic areas and a building that houses both a concession facility and bathrooms.
Ingram recounted the challenges that went along with the park’s development.
Despite the $5.9 million grant, “We were a little short,” when it came to the funds necessary to complete the project, said Ingram.
Ingram said the council approved $1 million out of reserves so they didn’t have to cut amenities — like the ninja gym, which had been at the top of the list of what might have been removed.
“We were sweating bullets when the construction bids came back,” he said.
The city was concerned about what the price tag might be due to the supply chain issues that came about due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, he said Builder Solutions Inc. came in with a bid that allowed the city to complete the park.
“They’ve been fantastic partners,” he said of the company.
While Ingram said of the park, “We can see all the beautiful things” that it offers, what you can’t see — the park infrastructure — is built right and will last.
“It was truly a team effort,” said Paul Curren, the city of Lakeport’s engineer.
He said the city is blessed with talent, like Project Coordinator Vince Salcedo, who has 30 years of experience.
Mattina said Salcedo was on site every day, working on details such as which of several shades of blue to paint the splash pad.
The result, said Ingram, “is exactly what we were envisioning,” all the way around — from the grand opening to the completed park.
“This exceeds my expectations,” Ingram said.
With this major project completed, what’s next on the city’s to do list?
A new hotel, said Mattina.
The city plans to put out a request for proposals for the Dutch Harbor site next to the park. She said there already is interest in the site.
Mattina said they also want to build a new pool in the city.
She said the new park will help the hotel project, pointing out that Lake County is an easy place to get to from the Bay Area.
“Build it and they will come,” she said.
They’re also looking forward to seeing new Christmas traditions at the park.
And there is still more to do at Xabatin Park. “There’s a lot of room for additional things at this park,” such as more work along the lakefront, Ingram said.
“This is just a start,” he added.
During a visit last week, State Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire toured the park, and Ingram said McGuire told them he wants to see more projects from Lake County.
“I guess we’ll oblige,” Ingram said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
