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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The test will begin at 11 a.m.
Officials said the test is being conducted to assure the functionality of the warning sirens.
During the test, additional messaging will be sent out as a reminder.
Should there be an active response to local fires in progress, the test will be canceled, and resume the following month.
The Sheriff’s Office encourages you to make sure that your e-mail address is entered into the LakeCoAlerts system.
Visit the website and sign into your account or establish a new account to receive notifications.
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- Written by: Sarah Frazier
NASA’s Parker Solar Probe was at the right place at the right time to capture a unique view of comet NEOWISE on Saturday, July 5.
Parker Solar Probe’s position in space gave the spacecraft an unmatched view of the comet’s twin tails when it was particularly active just after its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion.
The comet was discovered by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or NEOWISE, on March 27.
Since then, the comet — called comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE and nicknamed comet NEOWISE — has been spotted by several NASA spacecraft, including Parker Solar Probe, NASA’s Solar and Terrestrial Relations Observatory, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, and astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The image above is unprocessed data from Parker Solar Probe’s WISPR instrument, which takes images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and solar wind in visible light. WISPR’s sensitivity also makes it well-suited to see fine detail in structures like comet tails.
Parker Solar Probe collected science data through June 28 for its fifth solar flyby, but the availability of additional downlink time allowed the team to take extra images, including this image of comet NEOWISE.
The twin tails of comet NEOWISE are seen more clearly in this image from the WISPR instrument, which has been processed to increase contrast and remove excess brightness from scattered sunlight, revealing more detail in the comet tails.
The lower tail, which appears broad and fuzzy, is the dust tail of comet NEOWISE — created when dust lifts off the surface of the comet’s nucleus and trails behind the comet in its orbit. Scientists hope to use WISPR’s images to study the size of dust grains within the dust tail, as well as the rate at which the comet sheds dust.
The upper tail is the ion tail, which is made up of gases that have been ionized by losing electrons in the Sun’s intense light.
These ionized gases are buffeted by the solar wind — the Sun’s constant outflow of magnetized material — creating the ion tail that extends directly away from the Sun.
Parker Solar Probe’s images appear to show a divide in the ion tail. This could mean that comet NEOWISE has two ion tails, in addition to its dust tail, though scientists would need more data and analysis to confirm this possibility.
Sarah Frazier works for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace on Thursday confirmed the release of the three inmates to Lake County from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“They were not released to jail, but into the community,” Sheriff Brian Martin told Lake County News.
In response to a COVID-19 outbreak across the state prison system, CDCR said it was implementing a community supervision program meant to increase capacity and space to help with inmate movement, physical distancing and isolation efforts.
The program releases eligible inmates who have 180 days or less to serve on their sentences and are not currently serving time for domestic violence, or a violent or serious crime as defined by law, or are a person required to register as a sex offender, CDCR reported.
The program began on July 1.
CDCR said inmates set for release are offered testing for COVID-19 within seven days of their anticipated release.
“For those who test positive, CDCR will work with state and local public health and law enforcement officials to find housing where the incarcerated person can be safely isolated and monitored,” the agency said.
Inmates who are released are given five reusable cloth barrier masks provided by the department with appropriate precautionary measures taken during transportation.
As of Thursday night, CDCR reported that there were approximately 5,747 state prison inmates with COVID-19, of which 2,269 were active, 3,324 were resolved and 31 have died.
CDCR’s COVID-19 dashboard also noted that 123 inmates with active COVID-19 infection were released.
Pace said that all three inmates received by Lake County were COVID-19 positive. However, at the same time, he said two of the individuals had completed their isolation prior to CDCR release and the other was released into the community prior to completing the self-isolation protocol. That third individual’s isolation period has now been completed.
“These three cases are attributed to the county where the correctional facility that previously housed these inmates is located. To avoid double-counting, they are not added to Lake County’s totals,” Pace said.
“Contact with these people has been minimal due to various logistical problems. These miscommunications carry risk to public health, and meetings are ongoing with CDCR officials to ensure more effective communication in the future,” said Pace.
Sheriff Martin said the names of the three individuals are confidential but the sheriff’s office has them flagged in its system in the event law enforcement or the Probation Department comes in contact with them.
Martin said his office received prior notification of early releases from CDCR but the medical information is only shared with Public Health.
“Public Health now shares it with us when they get the information,” he said.
That’s different from what occurred earlier this year, when CDCR had similarly implemented an early release program that resulted in a COVID-19 positive male prisoner from the California Institution for Men in Chino being released back to Lake County on April 6, as Lake County News has reported.
Public Health had been notified but didn’t inform the sheriff’s office until Martin pressed Pace on whether any inmates set for early release had tested positive for the virus.
“I’m not too happy about the practice of early releasing prisoners, particularly COVID-positive ones,” Martin said.
Adding to the frustration for Martin is the fact that the state has stopped accepting people from county jails who are sentenced to prison, such as Alan Ashmore, the Clearlake Oaks man sentenced on Tuesday to 140 years in prison for an October 2017 shooting spree that killed two people and wounded two others.
It’s not just Ashmore who is awaiting transfer to the state prison system. Lt. Corey Paulich told Lake County News that 18 inmates at the Lake County Jail are waiting to be transported to CDCR.
CDCR said that, between the suspension of county jail intake as well as the expedited parole of approximately 3,500 incarcerated persons in April, it has reduced the incarcerated population by more than 8,000 since mid-March.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
This week Rainbow Ag’s Lakeport store, located at 1975 Argonaut Road, enacted a brief closure in order to sanitize the facility after a member of an employee’s household tested positive.
Also this week, the owners of the Lakeport McDonald’s said the restaurant closed temporarily after finding out one of its employees had tested positive for COVID-19. Following cleaning, the restaurant has reportedly reopened.
Rainbow Ag reported that the employee whose family member tested positive had last worked on Monday, loading hay and feed. He was masked and distanced during his work time. He’s now in isolation and getting tested.
Rainbow Ag’s procedures ensure that high touch surfaces have been sanitized multiple times per day and all staff members have passed a health check before working.
Out of an abundance of caution, Rainbow Ag owner Jim Mayfield told Lake County News that they chose to close the Lakeport store on Wednesday afternoon and hired West Coast Fire & Water to professionally sanitize the entire store facility. That work was completed on Thursday.
At the same time, he said all 20 Lakeport store staffers are on paid leave, isolated and getting tested – with up to a seven-day wait for results – and won’t return to work until they have been cleared.
He said his staff at the Middletown and Ukiah stores are rallying to send team members over to help cover the Lakeport store, which will reopen on Friday, with slightly reduced hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Creating a plan for moving forward
Before COVID-19, Mayfield said Rainbow Ag has had to make adjustments to closures due to wildland fires – such as what occurred in the summer of 2018 – and purchased a generator in order to remain open during the public safety power shutoffs in the fall.
Since the pandemic started, Mayfield said work has continued at his five stores in Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
“We’ve been essential so we’ve never been closed,” he said.
While the stores’ hours initially were reduced, over the last month they’ve turned to regular hours, he said.
Mayfield said that over the last several months he’s tried to stay ahead of the situation, with his company writing the procedure for keeping his staff and customers safe as they went along. Mayfield said he told his staff they were practicing a three-month fire drill.
Outside of those efforts, “there is no playbook,” Mayfield said. “The state doesn’t tell you what to do, the county doesn’t tell you what to do,” and even the industry is vague on protocols.
He said his “team behind the masks” has done a phenomenal job of maintaining heightened awareness, developing a protocol for giving people masks or, if they won’t take them, asking them to social distance or offering to load up their vehicles.
So when the COVID-19 test in his employee’s household was reported, Mayfield said he had a plan for what to do.
He said he called Lake County Public Health about the case.
“They didn’t have a clue,” he said. “It was a very disappointing phone call, to tell the truth.”
He said all that Public Health could do was refer him to the public testing site. As for contact tracing of cases, he said on Thursday that Public Health hadn’t contacted his company.
At the same time, Mayfield – an early adopter of social media – used Facebook to communicate the situation with customers and the community.
“I was almost in tears at the response,” said Mayfield, calling it “incredibly supportive.”
He said it’s a great testament to the people he works with in his company.
When the Lakeport store reopens on Friday morning, Mayfield said the store will be sanitized, the staff will be masked and customers will meet a crew they haven’t seen before.
“We have to be more diligent now than we have ever,” Mayfield said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at