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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
WOODLAND, Calif. – U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff visited Woodland Community College on Thursday for a campus tour and an in-depth discussion with students, highlighting the essential role community colleges play in workforce preparation, educational access and civic engagement.
Sen. Schiff was welcomed to campus by Woodland Community College President Lizette Navarette, who shared an overview of the college’s mission and its impact on students throughout Yolo, Lake and Colusa counties, and the surrounding region.
Officials said the visit underscored WCC’s commitment to student opportunity and economic mobility.
During the campus tour, Sen. Schiff explored several of the college’s key programs and facilities.
At the WCC Greenhouses, he met with agriculture faculty who discussed hands-on, career-technical education and the importance of agriculture to the local economy.
He also visited Student Services, where he learned how WCC provides comprehensive, wraparound support to help students navigate enrollment, persist in their studies, and complete their educational goals.
The tour continued through the Performing Arts and Culinary Center and the eLearning Studio, where instructional design faculty highlighted the college’s investment in online learning and innovative teaching practices.
Throughout the visit, college officials said Sen. Schiff engaged in informal discussions with faculty and campus leaders, gaining insight into academic programs and services that support student success.
Following the tour, Sen. Schiff met with students for a conversation with a political science class.
In his opening remarks, he reflected on his background and service in Congress, including his role as the first California U.S. Senator in decades to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
He also spoke about the responsibilities of public office, emphasizing the importance of upholding the U.S. Constitution and protecting democratic institutions.
The discussion highlighted the value of civic education, informed participation in democracy, and the vital role community colleges play in preparing engaged and informed citizens.
Students took part in a lively question-and-answer session, raising topics such as access to higher education, concerns surrounding immigration enforcement, the protection of democratic norms, and the essential role individuals play in sustaining a healthy democracy.
“This visit gave our students a meaningful opportunity to engage directly with a U.S. senator and share their perspectives,” said President Navarette. “Sen. Schiff’s time on campus underscored the vital role community colleges play in expanding opportunity, and we are grateful that he chose a rural-serving institution to learn more about the value we bring to our state and communities.”
For more information about Woodland Community College and its programs, visit www.wcc.yccd.edu.
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- Written by: ESA/Hubble
Some stars appear to defy time itself. Nestled within ancient star clusters, they shine bluer and brighter than their neighbours, looking far younger than their true age.
Known as blue straggler stars, these stellar oddities have puzzled astronomers for more than 70 years.
Now, new results using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are finally revealing how these “forever young” stars come to be and why they thrive in quieter cosmic neighbourhoods.
Blue straggler stars stand out in old star clusters because they appear hotter, more massive and younger than stars that should all have formed billions of years ago. Their very existence contradicts standard theories of stellar ageing, prompting decades of debate over whether they are created through violent stellar collisions or through more subtle interactions between pairs of stars.
A new study provides some of the clearest evidence yet that blue stragglers owe their youthful appearance not to collisions, but to life in close stellar partnerships, and to the environments that allow those partnerships to survive.
An international research team analysed ultraviolet Hubble observations of 48 globular clusters in the Milky Way, assembling the largest and most complete catalogue of blue straggler stars ever produced. The sample includes more than 3,000 of these enigmatic objects.
Their host clusters span the entire range of possible environmental conditions, from very loose to very dense systems (as illustrated in Image A). This vast dataset allowed astronomers to investigate the long-suspected links between blue straggler stars and their surroundings.
Rather than finding more blue stragglers in the most crowded, collision-prone clusters, the team was surprised to discover the opposite: dense environments host fewer blue stragglers. Instead, these stars are most common in low-density clusters, where stars have more space and where fragile binary systems are more likely to survive.
“This work shows that the environment plays a relevant role in the life of stars,” says Francesco R. Ferraro, lead author of the study and professor at the University of Bologna in Italy. “Blue straggler stars are intimately connected to the evolution of binary systems, but their survival depends on the conditions in which they live. Low-density environments provide the best habitat for binaries and their by-products, allowing some stars to appear younger than expected.”
The team found that blue stragglers are closely linked to binary star systems, in which two stars orbit one another. In such systems, one star can siphon material from its partner or merge with it entirely, gaining fresh fuel and shining more brightly and blue (effectively resetting its stellar clock).
However, these observations show that denser environments host less binaries, suggesting that in densely packed clusters, frequent close encounters between stars can break binaries apart before they have time to produce a blue straggler. In calmer environments, binaries survive and blue stragglers flourish.
“Crowded star clusters are not a friendly place for stellar partnerships,” explains Enrico Vesperini from Indiana University in the United States. “Where space is tight, binaries can be more easily destroyed, and the stars lose their chance to stay young.”
This discovery marks the first time that such clear and opposite-to-expectation relationships have been observed between blue straggler populations and their environments. It confirms that blue stragglers are a direct by-product of binary evolution and highlights how strongly a star’s surroundings can influence its life story.
“This work gives us a new way to understand how stars evolve over billions of years,” said Barbara Lanzoni, co-author of the study from the University of Bologna in Italy. “It shows that even star lives are shaped by their environment, much like living systems on Earth.”
By resolving individual stars in crowded clusters and observing them in ultraviolet light, Hubble was uniquely suited to uncovering this long-hidden pattern. The findings not only solve a long-standing astronomical mystery, but also open new paths for understanding how stars interact, age and sometimes find ways to start anew.
These results have been published in Nature Communications.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Kelseyville man has been charged with murder after his wife died from injuries she suffered in a brutal assault last week.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Travis Ryan Bonson, 45, has been charged with first-degree murder for the death of 44-year-old Ayano Bonson.
Travis Bonson was arraigned for the homicide charge before Judge J. David Markham on Wednesday afternoon.
At 8 a.m. Jan. 16, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch responded to a residence in the 5900 block of Single Spring Drive after receiving a call from Travis Bonson.
He told authorities he had physically assaulted a female adult, who the sheriff’s office confirmed on Thursday was Ayano Bonson.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the residence and located Ayano Bonson, who was in critical condition. She was transported to an out of county hospital for medical treatment.
The sheriff’s office said Ayano Bonson died of her injuries on Tuesday.
The Lake County District Attorney’s Office charged Travis Bonson with first-degree murder on Wednesday, the same day that he was arraigned, according to court records.
The sheriff’s office said Travis Bonson remains in custody and is being held without bail.
Travis Bonson’s criminal record includes a 2005 conviction for misdemeanor assault and battery that occurred in August 2004.
In 2012, he was convicted of a felony, committing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under age 14, and sentenced to three years in state prison. State records show he was actually released from prison in 2014.
In 2015 he was sentenced to six months in county jail after his felony probation was revoked.
Bonson is listed as a registered sex offender on the Megan’s Law website.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation into Ayano Bonson’s murder is ongoing.
Anyone who believes they may have information related to this case is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 707-262-4088 or Sgt. Jeff Mora at 707-262-4224.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lingzi Chen
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — County officials on Thursday said their response to the massive Clearlake sewage spill “fully aligned” with protocols as residents remain under public health advisory to relocate and avoid using water from their wells.
The county’s daily update — comprising contributions from Environmental Health, Special Districts and the Public Health officer — offered few concrete details on new developments, claims of protocol alignment, as well as "encouraging" lab results on sanitized wells.
This multi-department response work has been prompted by a three-million-gallon sewage spill that began on Sunday, Jan. 11, caused by the rupture of a 16-inch force main operated by Lake County Sanitation District, which is overseen by Lake County Special Districts.
The spill was reportedly stopped at 9:55 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, according to county officials.
As of the county’s Thursday update, the affected area remained at 297 acres.
Work to sanitize, test and retest wells, along with cleanup and remediation efforts remain actively underway, according to the update. However, it did not provide any aggregated data on well sanitization or testing progress, nor on test results.
In the meantime, all public health guidance for the impacted area remains in effect, including temporary relocation; avoiding use of water from private wells until they are tested safe; and the recommendation of a minimum of 60 gallons of portable water per person per day for drinking, food preparation, cleaning and laundry.
Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Bernstein also advised residents who develop symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, fever or flu-like symptoms, skin rashes or infections, and eye, ear or wound infections to seek medical care.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the county update warned, residents in the immediately affected area are advised not to consume free-range eggs or livestock for 30 days, effective from Jan. 11.
The county said that clean hay has been provided to livestock to reduce potential exposure to the sewage.
The next town hall-style informational event regarding the spill is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 28, at 6 p.m. at Clearlake City Hall.
County officials: response actions ‘fully aligned’ with protocol and ‘encouraging’ lab results
The Environmental Health section of the update stated there have been “ongoing discussions with the State Water Resources Control Board” and that those discussions “have confirmed that response actions taken to date are fully aligned with established protocols.”
The update did not specify the nature of those discussions, or which departments participated in the discussion. Nor did it identify who confirmed the claim of full alignment.
Furthermore, it said "regulators have expressed confidence in the steps implemented so far and have commended the coordinated team effort.”
“Work is continuing to establish clear guidance for when it will be safe to resume normal water use and lift existing Do Not Use notices,” said the update, which means water in the affected area remains unsafe to use for now.
The update also stated that a “defined standard” has been established to guide future steps and estimate timelines, though it did not detail the specific metrics of that standard.
It also described recent laboratory results as “encouraging,” noting that initial post-sanitization samples from “several wells” showed non-detect results.
At Wednesday’s town hall meeting, Environmental Health Director Craig Wetherbee said that of the 94 wells tested, 39 were found to be contaminated with E. coli and coliform. Of those, four returned levels so “astronomically high” they were outside of the scope of the test.
Beginning this weekend, Wetherbee said drillers and pump teams were in the spill area, shocking — or treating — 51 wells.
The county’s Thursday update did not specify how many wells, out of the total tested and sanitized, produced the “encouraging” non-detect results.
The update noted these initial "non-detect" findings are not a green light for residents. Officials stated that additional samples must be collected after "flushing the systems to confirm consistency" before discussions can begin about restoring well use.
Rainfall cited as potential factor
The county update also introduced a caveat regarding the reliability of future testing, warning that environmental factors such as rainfall “are also being carefully considered.”
It said that significant rain events producing runoff “can affect aquifer conditions and may appear in testing results.”
“Importantly, the presence of contaminants following such events does not necessarily indicate a connection to the recent incident,” the update stated.
Officials noted that clarifying guidance from the State Water Board on this distinction — determining whether contamination is from the massive spill or normal runoff — is being documented.
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake Police Department is asking for the community’s help in locating a missing man.
They are attempting to locate Jordan Nagel, 32.
Nagel was known to be in the Lower Lake area on Dec. 11. He was possibly headed to Sacramento on Dec. 12.
He is described as a white male, 5 feet 5 inches tall and 150 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
Nagel typically wears sweatshirts and baggy pants.
If you have any knowledge of Nagel’s whereabouts please contact Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251, Extension 1.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — There are many dogs at Clearlake Animal Control this week that are waiting for their new homes.
The shelter has 56 adoptable dogs and puppies listed on its website.
This week’s dogs include “Pablo,” a 2-and-a-half-year-old pit bull terrier mix.
Shelter staff said Pablo loves to give kisses and makes a great cuddle bug. Pablo also likes taking walks and playing in water on hot days.
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
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- Written by: Lingzi Chen
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Ten days after a three-million-gallon sewage spill left some Clearlake residents without clean running water, the Board of Supervisors approved a $750,000 budget resolution to purchase and fill water tanks for affected households during a special meeting on Wednesday.
The discussion began with District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, whose district is ground zero for the incident, requesting a $500,000 transfer from the general fund reserve to the Lake County Sanitation District’s Southeast Regional System to purchase water tanks for residents advised not to use their private wells due to contamination concerns.
“We need to provide a certain level of dignity and quality of life back to the people that are living in those areas,” said Sabatier.
Providing and installing these water tanks until residents can re-access safe and clean water wells and go back to normality — “That is the least of what we should be looking at doing,” he said.
The $500,000 amount would cover only the purchase and installation of 60 water tanks, each with a capacity of 2,500 gallons.
To cover water refilling, “it would need to be raised a little bit, at least to $600,000,” said Assistant County Administrative Officer Stephen Carter.
“Where is that money coming from to fill the tanks?” Supervisor Brad Rasmussen asked.
“I believe that Special Districts is expected to continue to burden the costs,” said Robin Borre, administrator of the agency. “We are out of money; we've depleted our reserves in that district.”
On top of that, Borre suggested an uncertain timeline of the situation.
“We don't know if the sanitation of the wells is going to be successful,” Borre said. “So this could be a two-week thing. It could be a two month-thing — we don't know how long it's going to go on.”
“So why not make it $750,000 and if we don't spend it, we don't spend it,” said Sabatier. “If we have to spend it, at least it's available so we don't have to have an urgent situation of money.”
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the increased amount.
The Lake County Sanitation District, or LACOSAN, is overseen by Lake County Special Districts. LACOSAN operates a 16-inch force main near Robin Lane and Pond Road in Clearlake that ruptured on Sunday, Jan. 11, resulting in a sewage spill.
Lake County Special Districts reported being notified of the spill at 7:30 a.m. that day. The spill was stopped at 9:55 p.m. on Jan. 12.
An estimated 2.9 million gallons of raw sewage spilled across hundreds of acres east of Smith Lane, west of Old Highway 53, south of Pond Road and north of Bowers Avenue, with 3,900 gallons released into a drainage ditch that ran to Burns Creek and into Clear Lake, according to county staff.
By the time the board approved the resolution on Wednesday, impacted residents had been living without clean running water for 10 days.
“I do wish that this had been done earlier, but it is here today,” Sabatier said at the meeting.
At the meeting, Sabatier demanded repeatedly that an order of water tanks be placed by the end of Wednesday.
“I don't mean to be rude or overly directive — as soon as this meeting is over, we need to order ASAP,” Sabatier said.
As a response, Borre said twice she had to check in with staff about quotes. “It's my understanding we have one quote so far,” Borre said.
However, both Carter and Sabatier said there were multiple.
“So please get that accomplished,” said Sabatier, who added, “I’ll be checking it.”
During the town hall in the evening at Clearlake City Hall, Borre said that 20 water tanks had been ordered.
Delayed response
At the beginning of the discussion, Sabatier said he had not expected board action would be required to allocate funds for disaster relief.
“I was not aware that we needed to do what we're doing today,” he said. “I would expect that dollars made available in what we call disaster relief and recovery should be accessible immediately.”
The city of Clearlake declared a local emergency on Monday, Jan. 12, while the spill was still active.
The following day, Jan. 13, the Lake County Office of Emergency Services and the county’s Public Health officer declared a local emergency near the end of the Board of Supervisors meeting. That remained the only time spent on the sewage spill during that board meeting, which lasted less than three minutes.
A week after the proclamation, barriers to immediate fund allocation still exist.
“I was not aware that things were on hold until I had to put this together,” Sabatier said at Wednesday's special meeting. “So I feel the frustration of the people that are involved, and I don't disregard their frustration with me. We also have barriers that should not be here for emergencies, and we need to solve that for the future.”
“I'm just asking staff — please make it as simple as possible,” he said. “This is the beginning of it, but this is an emergency that is unlike any others. This is not a natural disaster.”
While the board was discussing the budget resolution, Sabatier said water tanks had been brought in and installed for some residents.
"Tanks are being installed, as we speak,” Sabatier said. “I saw a lot of them yesterday. I don't know that any of them have been installed, but they are starting."
Lake County News sought clarification from the county. “At least one tank has been installed, as of this time, and multiple are in process,” Chief Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein said in an email Wednesday afternoon.
Those tanks were 1,500 gallons per tank, funded via the Social Services-administered Home Safe program and intended for relatively small households, Rothstein said.
The process of allocating funds, ordering and installing water tanks for residents started 10 days after the incident started, a week after the county Public Health officer advised 60 gallons of clean water for daily use per person per day.
Both Carter and Borre mentioned the “depletion” of department funds during the special meeting.
In response to questions from Lake County News about when those funds were depleted and when the depletion was formally reported, “Funding initially available toward disaster response was depleted; not all Special Districts funding,” Rothstein responded in an email.
“Staff in County Administration have been closely following expenditures associated with this event, and it became evident over the weekend additional funding would need to be allocated to support the response,” Rothstein said.
Lake County News followed up with questions asking how much funding was initially available for disaster response and how much has been spent responding to the spill. No response had been received as of publication.
Community members voiced grievances
During public comment, impacted residents voiced frustration over the county’s outreach and notification during the disaster.
“I found out about this meeting today because I happened to read my local paper. I found out about the town hall meeting last week because I happened to check the city of Clearlake’s Nixle — not their obligation; each and every one of yours,” said Jacqueline Snyder, who lives on Old Highway 53 within the impact zone. “This is becoming rapidly a joke.”
“I haven't had any outreach other than I called and I asked for water for my three dogs, three cats and six chickens, and I got two gallons [of water],” she said at the meeting. “Nobody has been out to my property to test.”
Snyder later told Lake County News that the abovementioned exchange took place on Saturday, and that the household had continued to use water from their private well until last Wednesday, Jan 14.
“I'm on the outlying part of the zone,” she said during a phone call. “But we didn't realize at that point that we were in the zone.”
Speaking on Zoom, Cassandra Hulbert, a Robin Lane resident who lives in the spill area, demanded county notification by mail.
“We need documentation because there are people still drinking their water that aren't taking this seriously because they have not received notification,” She said, adding that Facebook and Nixles are not reaching people who do not have access to social media.
“There's been nothing in our mailboxes saying anything about anything. We've gotten no well test results that have been documented,” Hulbert said. “I don't have anything on a piece of paper that says this is even happening.”
“There are still people, as of yesterday, that still did not know what was happening,” she added.
During her comment, Snyder also spoke against the demeanor of Susan Parker, county administrative officer, or CAO, before the meeting started.
“I also observed your [CAO] laughing, hopefully hurriedly getting out of here today," said Snyder, who said she overheard Parker laughing and saying the meeting would take five or 10 minutes.
“[This] is exactly why I'm taking at least three minutes, so you have to stay three minutes longer,” Snyder added. “This is disgusting.”
This sentiment and observation were echoed by a Facebook post by Rachel White right after the meeting.
“I was irritated because I just felt like she should have shown a little more professionalism,” said Snyder of Parker in a phone call.
Lake County News reached out to the county for comment.
“Unfortunately, it appears Ms. Snyder overheard a differently oriented comment and received it out of context,” Rothstein said in an email.
Parker’s comment on a brief meeting time “spoke to her confidence that the item responded to a clearly demonstrated public need, as well as the urgency of work commencing that was enabled by today's action,” he added.
The email said Parker has taken the incident “very seriously, and has also sought to ensure all responding remain calm and effective in their work.”
“Any laughter that may have been observed was in no respect making light of what affected residents are facing,” Rothstein added.
The discussion at the special meeting, including all public comment and action, ended up lasting about 30 minutes.
Email staff reporter Lingzi Chen at
