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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The city of Lakeport is planning a fall celebration for the opening of its new lakeside park.
The park’s grand opening will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, at 800 N. Main St.
While the park has been referred to as “Lakefront Park,” its official new name will be announced at the event.
The festivities also will include a ribbon cutting, a land acknowledgment, performances by the Clear Lake High School Band, a slideshow, DJ, refreshments, food trucks and more.
The new park’s development and the land purchase from the Lakeport Unified School District were funded by a $5.9 million California Department of Parks and Recreation grant the city received in February 2020.
The 6.9-acre park previously was the location of the Natural High School alternative school. Earlier this summer, the last school building on the site was demolished.
Crews are now in the final stretch of finishing work on the park, work which was hampered earlier this year by heavy rain and even snow.
In August, Lakeport Public Works Director Ron Ladd told the Lakeport City Council that inclement weather and higher-than-anticipated lake levels had delayed the park’s completion, originally set for May 25.
The park will feature amenities including a promenade, pavilion, splash pad, skate park, basketball courts, ninja gym and concession stand.
This week, crews were working on amenities including the basketball courts.
Ladd said last month that the final aspects of the work to be done on the park include turf placement and parking lot configuration.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
On Friday, President Joe Biden will announce the establishment of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to reduce gun violence, which has ravaged communities across the country, and implement and expand upon key executive and legislative action which has been taken to save lives, the White House reported.
The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will be overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been a key leader in the Biden-Harris Administration’s effort to end our nation’s gun violence epidemic.
Stefanie Feldman, a longtime policy advisor to President Biden on gun violence prevention, will serve as director of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, alongside leading gun violence prevention advocates Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox, who will join the Administration as Deputy Directors of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
“Every time I’ve met with families impacted by gun violence as they mourn their loved ones, and I’ve met with so many throughout the country, they all have the same message for their elected officials: ‘do something.’ It’s why, last year, I signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to keep guns out of dangerous hands, and have taken more executive action than any President in history to keep communities safe. But as I’ve said before – while these are important steps, they are just the first steps toward what is needed,” the president said.
“That’s why I’m announcing additional steps forward, with the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, overseen by Vice President Harris, to build upon these measures and keep Americans safe. The Office will include Stefanie Feldman, who has capably led my Administration’s gun violence prevention efforts and been a trusted aide for more than a decade, alongside leading experts Greg Jackson and Rob Wilcox whose own lives and families have been touched by the tragedy of gun violence. They have turned their pain into purpose and dedicated their careers to being advocates for change – that important work will continue as they join my team in these new roles,” said Biden.
“I’ll continue to urge Congress to take commonsense actions that the majority of Americans support like enacting universal background checks and banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But in the absence of that sorely-needed action, the Office of Gun Violence Prevention along with the rest of my Administration will continue to do everything it can to combat the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our families, our communities, and our country apart,” Biden concluded.
“Every person and every child deserves the opportunity to fulfill their dreams and live up to their God-given potential. Every family, in every community, should have the freedom to live and to thrive. We know true freedom is not possible if people are not safe,” said Vice President Harris. “This epidemic of gun violence requires urgent leadership to end the fear and trauma that Americans experience every day. The new Office of Gun Violence Prevention will play a critical role in implementing President Biden’s and my efforts to reduce violence to the fullest extent under the law, while also engaging and encouraging Congressional leaders, state and local leaders, and advocates to come together to build upon the meaningful progress that we have made to save lives. Our promise to the American people is this: we will not stop working to end the epidemic of gun violence in every community, because we do not have a moment, nor a life to spare.”
Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-04), who chairs the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, lauded President Biden for the action.
“Gun violence is an epidemic unique to our country, and it demands our attention at every level of government,” said Thompson. “The Office of Gun Violence Prevention at the White House will ensure that this issue is front and center for the Biden Administration and will help us advance commonsense solutions to help save lives and keep our kids safe. This office will be led by gun violence prevention experts and will focus on fully implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and executive actions. By finding creative solutions to gun violence while working directly with cities, states, survivors, and communities, this office will provide a unified and comprehensive approach to saving lives.”
Thompson said he looks forward to attending the formal announcement event at the White House on Friday “and celebrating this important step with our gun violence prevention community.”
President Biden’s efforts aimed ending gun violence in the United States include signing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which keeps guns out of the hands of individuals under 21 who are prohibited from purchasing firearms, empowers the Justice Department with new authorities to prosecute firearms traffickers, improves access to mental health services in our schools to help young people deal with the trauma and grief resulting from gun violence, and invests in community violence interventions.
In addition to announcing dozens of executive actions to address gun-related violence, President Biden continues to call on Congress to take additional action, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; requiring safe storage of firearms; requiring background checks for all gun sales; eliminating gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability; and enacting his Safer America Plan, which would put more police officers on our streets for accountable, community policing and invest in gun violence prevention and intervention.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 37 adoptable dogs.
This week’s dogs include a new arrival, “Brutus,” an American pit bull terrier mix. He is neutered and has a short white coat with brindle markings.
Another new dog available for adoption is “Bung Bung,” a male Alaskan malamute mix. He has a black and white coat, and is neutered.
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.
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- Written by: Mojtaba Sadegh, Boise State University and John Abatzoglou, University of California, Merced
As wildfires burn across the Western U.S., the people in harm’s way are increasingly those least able to protect their homes from fire risks, evacuate safely or recover after a fire.
In a new study, we and a team of fellow wildfire scientists examined who lived within the perimeters of wildfires over the past two decades in Washington, Oregon and California – home to about 90% of Americans in the U.S. West exposed to wildfires over that period.
Overall, nearly half a million people in California, Oregon and Washington were exposed to wildfires at some point during the past 22 years. Alarmingly, about half the people exposed to wildfires in Washington and Oregon were considered socially vulnerable.
While the number of people exposed to fire rose overall, the number of socially vulnerable people exposed more than tripled between the first and second decades.
How social vulnerability affects fire risk
A variety of factors shape social vulnerability, including wealth, race, age, disability and fluency in the local language.
These factors can make it harder to take steps to protect homes from wildfire damage, evacuate safely and recover after a disaster. For example, low-income residents often can’t afford adequate insurance coverage that could help them rebuild their homes after a fire. And residents who don’t speak English may not hear about evacuation orders or know how to get assistance after a disaster.
Older adults face rising fire exposure
We found that older adults in particular were disproportionately exposed to wildfires in all three states.
Physical difficulties and cognitive decline can hamper older adults’ ability to keep their properties clear of flammable materials, such as dry shrubs and grasses, and can slow their ability to evacuate in an emergency. The fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, California, in 2018 was a tragic example. Of the 85 victims, 68 were 65 years of age or older.
Poverty was another important factor in the exposure of people with high vulnerability to wildfires in Oregon and Washington.
The reasons that socially vulnerable people were increasingly exposed to wildfires varied by state.
In California, the rise was in large part due to socially vulnerable people moving into wildfire-affected areas, possibly in search of more affordable housing, among other factors.
In Oregon and Washington, however, wildfires have increasingly encroached on existing vulnerable communities over the past decade, mainly in rural areas. This is predominantly due to increasing trends of intense, destructive fires.
Nearly 17,000 people living within the perimeter of wildfires in Oregon and Washington over the past decade had high social vulnerability, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A smaller percentage of California’s exposed population from 2011-2021 was considered to have high social vulnerability, 11%, but that was still 26,100 people.
Secondary impacts of wildfires
Our definition of exposure to wildfire considered only those people who directly lived within a wildfire perimeter.
If you take into account secondary exposures – those living close to wildfire perimeters and likely experiencing evacuation, trauma and poor air quality – the number of people affected is many times larger.
Importantly, other hazards related to wildfires reach still more high-vulnerability communities. Wildfire smoke, for example, has frequently filled large metropolitan areas with unhealthy air in recent years, disproportionately affecting people who work outdoors and other vulnerable populations.
Policy changes that can help
To prepare and respond as wildfire risk rises in a warming world, knowledge of the local population’s social vulnerabilities is necessary, along with targeted community-based strategies.
For example, the exposure of populations with limited English-language skills highlights the need for disaster warnings and response resources in multiple languages.
While the federal government increased its investment for reducing wildfire threats to at-risk communities, including tribes, funding availability does not currently meet the demand.
Increasing exposure of certain populations, such as those living in nursing homes, requires significant investment to plan for and ensure proper and timely responses. When a wildfire in August 2023 burned more than 200 homes near Medical Lake, Washington, southwest of Spokane, it came close to a state-operated psychiatric hospital and a residential home for people with intellectual disabilities.
Finally, including social vulnerability when studying future wildfire trends is important to shape community responses and policies.
Many national disaster prevention programs skew funding toward wealthier communities because they use cost-benefit analyses to direct resources to areas with the greatest potential losses. But while wealthy residents may lose more in dollar value, low-income residents typically lose a larger percentage of their assets and have a harder time recovering. With the rising percentage of people with high social vulnerability at risk of wildfires, governments may need to rethink those methods and lower the barriers for aid.
Mojtaba Sadegh, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University and John Abatzoglou, Professor of Engineering, University of California, Merced
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.