LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council will consider a contract to recruit a new police chief and discuss whether to allow storefront cannabis businesses and temporary cannabis events in the city when it meets this week.
The council will meet Tuesday, Jan. 16, at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the city clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments before 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
The meeting will start off with a proclamation designating January as Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
On Tuesday’s agenda, the council will be asked to consider an agreement with Bob Hall and Associates for the executive recruitment of a new chief of police and approve a budget amendment in the amount of $27,000 for the expenditure.
Police Chief Brad Rasmussen intends to retire this fall. He’s also running for the District 4 supervisorial seat.
The council also will hold a study session on retail storefront cannabis businesses and temporary cannabis events and consider whether or not Lakeport should permit such operations and events.
“If City Council elects to permit retail storefront cannabis businesses and/or temporary cannabis events staff would come back to the Planning Commission at a future date with a draft ordinance for review. Once the prospective draft ordinance(s) are reviewed by the Planning Commission, staff will bring the item back to City Council for further review and potential action,” Community Development Director Joey Hejnowicz wrote in his memo to the council.
In other business, on the agenda is a presentation from the Lake County Water Resources Department regarding the “Clear Lake Integrated Preparedness and Resilience Plan for Dreissenid Mussel Management: A Rapid Response and Transition to Containment Plan.”
Rasmussen will ask the council for a five-year contract extension for the Automated License Plate Reader cameras, there will be a presentation of the first quarter financials update and the council will consider adopting a resolution appointing representatives to represent and vote on behalf of the City at the League of California Cities, Redwood Empire Division Business meetings and represent the City and vote at Division Legislative Committee meetings.
On the consent agenda — items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the City Council’s regular meeting on Dec. 19; approval of application SCC2023-002, with staff recommendations, for the street closure at 5th and Main for the Rotary Crab Feed; approval of application G2024-003, with staff recommendations, for the reserved parking spaces on Park and Third streets for the Clearlake Environmental Research Center Hometown Wildfire Safety Collaboration; and adoption of a resolution approving the Successor Agency of the Lakeport Redevelopment Agency Recognized Obligation Payment Schedule 24-25 for the period of July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — On Thursday, the Middletown Area Town Hall held its first meeting of the year, during which it chose its leadership for 2024.
MATH’s annual board election took place at the end of a meeting which also featured a forum for the candidates in the District 1 supervisorial race.
Four candidates ran for a two-year term: incumbent Bill Waite, Nanette DeDonato, 2023 alternate Julia Bono and Lisa Kaplan.
After the candidates spoke the votes were cast and tallied.
DeDonato, Waite and Kaplan won terms, and Bono and Rosemary Cordova accepted roles as alternates.
They will join Chair Monica Rosenthal and Secretary Ken Gonzalez.
The MATH Board will elect officers and report the results back at the February meeting.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The new president of Woodland Community College made her first visit to the Lake County Campus on Friday, hearing from staff and community leaders about their hopes for the future and what’s needed to rejuvenate the campus.
Dr. Lizette Navarette, accompanied by Chancellor Dr. Shouan Pan, received a warm welcome and, in turn, shared her hopes for the college’s — and the campus’ — future.
The Yuba Community College District Board named Navarette the new college president in November and approved her $208,869-per-year contract in December. The contract is for two and a half years, from her official start date on Jan. 8 through to June 30, 2026.
The visit came at the end of her first week on the job.
While Navarette is still getting adjusted to her new position, Dr. Pan said he wanted to make sure she came to visit the college as soon as possible.
Last fall, ahead of Navarette’s selection, college staff, students and community members had begun to raise pointed concerns about the future of the Lake County Campus, now in its 51st year, and whether it could survive a lack of resources that to many have looked like a purposeful campaign of attrition against it. At the same time, staff have pointed to more resources being given to the main Woodland campus.
Those concerns came to a head on Nov. 9, when the college board held its annual meeting at the Lake County Campus. At that meeting, a room filled with community members made their alarm clear to the college leadership and demanded the help needed to expand the college in order to benefit Clearlake and Lake County.
Pan said at Friday’s reception that Navarette watched that meeting online, so she was aware of what community members were concerned about when it came to the campus’ future.
Laying out priorities
Those in attendance included Clearlake City Council members Russell Cremer and Dirk Slooten; City Manager Alan Flora; college Trustee Doug Harris; District 2 Supervisor Bruno Sabatier; professors Dr. Laurie Daly, Jennifer Hanson and Dr. Annette Lee; retired instructor Sissa Harris; Chef Robert Cabreros, head of the Culinary Arts program; and numerous college classified staff.
During a reception that lasted more than an hour and a half, Navarette thanked everyone for the warm welcome and outlined her three priorities: Listen, learn, collaborate.
Navarette is a first-generation college graduate who most recently served as executive vice chancellor at the California Community College Chancellor’s Office.
She hails from Southern California, and is the daughter of immigrant parents who worked as laborers, and who benefited from community college.
Navarette said she sees the college’s primary role as helping cultivate the aspirations of people like her family.
She said she plans to be in Clearlake once a month to build connections not just with the campus but the larger community, its businesses and leaders, explaining she wants to reinvigorate the campus and is looking forward to the collaboration process.
In response to the continuing belief among some community members that the campus could be lost, Pan assured the group that’s not the case. “It’s not going away.”
He said he, Navarette and the board are committed to the campus. “That’s not just saying the words. That’s commitment.”
However, Pan has emphasized that there are many challenges ahead.
During the reception, Doug Harris said he sees as essential the campus’ revitalization. To get there, he said it will require putting together a strategic and thoughtful set of plans for how the college and community can work together.
“This campus is the pinnacle of higher education in Lake County,” he said.
Harris added, “It needs to be brought back to a position of growing that importance rather than watching it dwindle.”
Pan said Harris’ sentiments are consistent with what college leadership has heard from others.
Staffers including Natasha Cornett emphasized the need for guided pathways and a different approach to handling classes that doesn’t include canceling them too early.
Leadership is key
As he has done in other discussions, Pan emphasized the importance of key leadership positions. With Navarette now in place, they next need to hire a permanent dean for the Lake County Campus.
Once that new dean is selected, Pan said he believes there will be a closer working relationship between the Woodland Community College leadership and the Lake County Campus.
He also pointed to the impact of a large amount of staff turnover in college leadership that occurred over the past year. “We’re beginning a new page, a new time for the system.”
Daly, a professor of early childhood development, said she remembered when the college had been busy, and now it isn’t.
“This campus to me, means, just hope,” she said, adding that she believes education is the way out of poverty.
Shared governance between the campus and the administration is important, and she questioned what happened to it, pointing to a top-down approach that has led to disconnect. One example: Her requests for class sections were ignored and, as a result, a key class needed for students to finish their certifications was left off the schedule.
“This place means the world to me,” said Sabatier, a former student and employee at the college, who credited everything he is doing today as coming from the campus.
He said about 30% of Clearlake’s population is in poverty, compared to about 16% countywide. Only 8% have bachelor’s degrees.
To get out of poverty, students need peer support. When rust is lost, it erodes the capability of people to get out of the system, Sabatier said.
Sabatier said there will be tough conversations, but that they are going to build strong relationships.
Hanson, who said she remembers the campus’ glory days, added that she has yet to see the resource attrition for the campus stop. She said she is concerned about the intense inequity between what happens at Woodland Community College and the Lake County Campus.
Lee followed up by giving an impassioned overview of the campus’ needs, from organizational efficiency to taking better care of students.
Nearly a decade ago, when the Lake County Campus was realigned with Woodland College, Lee said the campus community was torn down and disrupted.
She said they are now getting great new programs like the Caring Campus, designed to increase student retention and success in community colleges. But she said they’d had programs like that and were told to stop.
Positions need to be made full-time, counselors need to be hired and they need to look at ways to get new people onto campus — such as through career technical education — with Lee explaining that students who are doing well online won’t be coming back.
Lee said staff knows how to bring the campus back. “It’s just such a grind working with this organization because we are so dismissed.”
However, she said she’s excited for the new leadership and believe Navarette and Pan can succeed.
Slooten said people felt Woodland College didn’t pay attention to what the community needs are and that the college administration felt they knew better than the campus leadership, which they didn’t.
“The city of Clearlake really needs this campus to flourish,” Slooten said.
Cremer said he wants to see more agriculture classes, and more willingness by the college to invest in new programs.
Cabreros, whose culinary program is one of the campus’ great successes, said all of his classes are over-full and have waiting lists. He said he’s looking forward to meeting with Navarette to share his vision for the campus.
Flora joked that Pan had told him Navarette would solve all of the campus’ problems.
“We feel like the campus has been squeezed beyond where it can be successful,” Flora said.
Mary Wilson, student engagement and outreach specialist, said 20% of the Clearlake population doesn't have a high school diploma, and they also have a high percentage of people who don’t speak English. As a result, she said they need adult education skills classes. The college doesn’t have those now due to the elimination of the LEARN program.
Patricia Barbara, the Lake County Campus’ interim dean, said many students continue to struggle, especially after the impacts of having to go online during the pandemic, and the LEARN program helped address that.
Pan thanked the group for coming and speaking candidly and forcefully about their concerns. “We’re committed to working with you.”
He said leadership matters but it can’t solve every problem, and it will take everyone working together.
Navarette said she plans to follow up with people about their comments and concerns.
She recognized that Lake County has challenges and has endured disasters.
However, she said, “There is hope.”
Navarette asked for patience as they worked through the process of getting people back on campus.
Learning is a great privilege, but Navarette said that at the end of the day, students come to college to get a better job.
A key question she raised is how they prepare the workforce to be ready, and she wants to brainstorm together on finding the answer.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Hajar Yazdiha, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Since the onset of Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza and the West Bank after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, debates have arisen among historians and media pundits about Martin Luther King Jr.’s stance on Israel and its conflicts with Palestinians.
Some claim King was a fierce Zionist and point to his speech on Mar. 25, 1968, before the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly.
“Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all of our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity,” King said. “I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land almost can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy.”
Others, like American-Israeli scholar Martin Kramer, have pointed to King’s views on Palestinian rights to their homeland. During a 1967 interview with ABC News, shortly after Israel launched the Six-Day War against Egypt, Syria and Jordan and seized control of land in Gaza and the West Bank, King said that Israel should return Palestinian lands.
“I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory, because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs,” he said.
As a scholar who researches social movements, racial politics and democracy, I believe there is a larger story beyond King’s stance on Israel and Palestinians. That story is on King’s views of war – and his courage to stand for peace.
This is the story of the anti-war King who understood that violence begets violence and that the political courage to speak for peace is essential to democracy.
At the same time, King was asking hard questions about Johnson’s wartime decision-making and unmet promises of social uplift through his Great Society programs. King wondered how a nation could drop tons of bombs and napalm on civilians in the name of peace and freedom while violently subjugating its own Black citizens.
How could a nation spend so much money on a war, King asked, when it could not feed or protect its own people?
“The promises of the Great Society have been shot down on the battlefield of Vietnam,” King said in a speech in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25, 1967. “Billions are liberally expended for this ill-considered war. … The security we profess to seek in foreign adventures we will lose in our decaying cities. The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. They destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America.”
The Johnson administration argued that military force was essential to protect South Vietnam from the encroachment of communism from the north. As Johnson saw it, North Vietnam and its National Liberation Front were a threat to democracy in Southeast Asia.
King’s advisers pleaded with him not to speak out and argued that the political costs would be too high. Most importantly, they reminded King that there was more than enough work to do in the U.S. to end poverty and secure equal rights for Black citizens.
But King ultimately broke with his advisers and President Johnson.
By 1967, King followed the lead of his wife – and anti-war activist – Coretta Scott King and began speaking out.
In March 1967, King led his first anti-war march in Chicago. At the rally, he called on peace activists to organize “as effectively as the war hawks.”
A month later, on April 4, 1967, King gave the speech at the Riverside Church in New York City that changed the course of the last year of his life – “Beyond Vietnam − A Time to Break the Silence.” In that revolutionary speech, King described how he was morally compelled to speak out against the war.
In the days and weeks after, he would lose masses of supporters, Black and white alike. He lost hard-earned political allies, including President Johnson.
King was also shunned and denounced by 168 newspapers that questioned King’s failure to condemn the enemy, fueling long-standing rumors about communist ties.
Saving the soul of America
King had no regrets.
He understood the difficulty of speaking out against the war. “Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war,” he said.
For King, a preacher at heart, silence had become betrayal.
Calling the U.S “the greatest purveyor of violence today,” King said the soul of America “can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.” He warned that America had lost moral authority abroad and derided “the deadly Western arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long.”
King pointed to the role of the U.S. in prohibiting the realization of “a revolutionary government seeking self-determination” in Vietnam.
Most poignantly in that 1967 speech at Riverside Church, King detailed the devastating costs of the Vietnam War and described the millions of children and women who were killed by American bombs and bullets and the poor masses who were spared slaughter only to face a slow, painful death by disease and starvation.
Then King turned to the so-called “enemy,” the North Vietnamese. “Even if we do not condone their actions,” King said in the speech, “surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.”
How can the U.S., as King would ask the nation, move forward from here?
In the 1960s, King grappled with this very question. On the one hand, he felt a deep solidarity with the Jewish struggle against persecution, and on the other hand, he rejected the violent occupation of Palestinian lands that would run counter to the noble cause.
He saw resolution through a commitment to breaking cycles of violence and practicing radical peace, “a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one’s tribe, race, class, and nation.”
Nearly 60 years later, the fight for King’s “radical revolution of values,” where human life and dignity were the most valued, still rages. But as the life of King reminds us, speaking out for justice can be costly. Yet he would also say that the cost of remaining silent is far greater.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a big new group of dogs ready to go to new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan husky, border collie, boxer, bulldog, French bulldog, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, Labrador retriever, pit bull, Queensland heeler, shepherd and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
Those dogs and the others shown on this page at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The shelter is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The city of Clearlake reported that its efforts to revitalize the former Pearce Field property and promote economic development for the community cleared a major hurdle after a Lake County Superior Court judge sided with the city in a lawsuit brought by the Koi Nation of Northern California.
The notice of judgment is now available which includes a full transcription of the judge’s Nov. 20, 2023 decision. It is published below.
The dispute centered around the 18th Avenue project, which the city called “a vital piece of infrastructure needed to support the much-anticipated hotel project.”
The Koi alleged that the city had not participated in consultation with the tribe as required by state law.
The court denied all claims brought by the Koi, instead ruling the city’s analysis of tribal cultural resources was sufficient.
In the ruling, the court also found that the Koi’s claims that tribal consultation procedures were not followed by the city were false and that, in actuality, the Koi never even adequately requested consultation.
After the ruling was issued the Koi asked the court to grant a “stay” of any construction work until a hearing could be granted on a possible appeal.
The court heard arguments on the stay on Dec. 11 and rejected the stay request due to a lack of merit.
City officials said the ruling follows their lengthy efforts to ensure development efforts to not harm tribal resources, including consultation with tribes, commissioning a thorough survey and report from a professional archeologist, allowing the tribe to provide contractor cultural sensitivity training before work starts and putting into place a number of mitigation measures in case there is an inadvertent discovery.
In his in-depth ruling, Judge Michael Lunas explained, “I am compelled and left with the finding that there is substantial evidence supporting the city’s determination, including their assessment of the evidence offered by petitioner. There is substantial evidence supporting the city’s determination independent of the evidence offered by petitioner, and there is substantial evidence supporting the city’s determination in consideration and assessing the evidence offered by petitioner and the entirety of the evidentiary record under the applicable legal standard. Accordingly, the city has properly reviewed and considered tribal cultural resources and specifically considered and assessed the evidence presented by petitioner. The city properly considered petitioner’s input, properly heard and considered petitioners evidence regarding knowledge of the site and whether tribal cultural resources were present. The mitigation adopted was appropriate to the facts. And as a result, the city did not fail to consider cumulative impacts regarding this project and other projects. The causes of action set forth in the petition fail on this review. Each cause of action, including as already noted, the cause of action based on improper consultation is denied on its merits and not sustained on the evidence. The petition for writ is denied.”
The project will extend 18th Avenue to connect the Old Highway 53 with State Route 53, another important part of improving the city’s overall transportation system.
It also includes a four-story, 75-room Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel, one-story meeting hall and parking lot.
The site is on almost 3.5 acres of land on the former Pearce Airport landing strip, long used as a city storage and equipment yard.
“We are working hard to improve the city’s roads, parks, housing and tourism options, among other priorities,” said Mayor David Claffey. “This project is a four-way winner; it includes transportation improvements, new jobs, additional hotel rooms and a community gathering space. We take the issues raised by the Koi very seriously and it’s why we go to great lengths to proactively identify and mitigate potential concerns. It’s reassuring to have such a clear ruling from the court that validates our thoughtful approach to development, and we look forward to returning to a practice of reasonable and collaborative efforts with all our community members.”
Downey Brand represented the City of Clearlake in this case and continues to represent the city in a similar lawsuit also filed by the Koi Nation in July over plans for the Burns Valley sports complex and recreation center. That lawsuit has not yet come to hearing.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The latest real estate data shows sales were down in November while prices have risen slightly over a year ago.
Over the month of November 2023, a total of 59 single family homes were sold through the multiple listing service, compared to 78 in October and 68 sold a year ago during the month of November 2022.
These include traditionally built “stick-built” houses as well as manufactured homes on land.
There were four sales of mobile homes in parks in November, compared to nine in October and five sold during the month of November 2022.
For bare land (lots and acreage), 25 were sold in November, compared to 24 closed land sales in October and substantially more than the 13 sold during November 2022.
There are 393 “stick built” and manufactured homes on the market right now. If the rate of sales stays the same at 59 homes sold per month, there are currently 6.66 months of inventory on the market at the moment.
That means that if no new homes are brought to the market for sale, in 6.66 months, all of these homes would be sold and there would be no homes available for sale.
Less than six months of inventory is generally considered to be a “sellers’ market” while more than six months of inventory is often called a “buyers’ market.”
The November data is a shift from October, where more than 5.47 months of inventory were available.
Agents continue to report a drop in requests for property tours, with fewer clients writing offers, which is consistent with the national home sales data.
The total percentage of homes bought for all cash in November: 41% (compared to 31% for October and 41% for November 2022); 29% were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (“conventional loans”) compared to 32% for October and 35% for the November 2022; 17% were financed by FHA (compared to 23% in October and 13% in November 2022); 4% were financed by the VA or CalVet (compared to 4% in October and compared to 10% for November 2022); 7% had other financing such as private loans, USDA, or seller financed notes (compared to 3% in October, and compared to 0% for November 2022).
None of the closed sales in November were assumable loans that were assumed by the buyer.
The homes in November sold at an average of 96% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract, but an average of 89% when compared to the original asking price when the property first came on the market.
This means that the asking home prices had been reduced from their original list prices on the homes that sold before they actually sold.
In October homes also sold for 96% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract, and 89% of the original asking price.
A year ago in November, homes were selling at 95% of the asking price at the time the property went under contract and also 89% when compared to the original asking price.
The median time on the market in November was 32 days, compared to 36 days in October and 49 days in November 2022.
The median sale price of a single family home in Lake County in November was $269,000, which is lower than the $318,750 median sale price for October and also lower than the median sale price of $287,000 during November 2022.
This would indicate that last month, the lower priced homes were selling in greater numbers to bring the median sale price down compared to October 2023 (and similar to the activity in November 2022).
The median asking price of homes on the market right now is $357,000, which is a drop from October’s $372,000.
In November, 31% of homes sold had seller concessions for an average concession of $11,286; the rate of concessions is lower compared to October 2023’s numbers, when 40% of homes sold had seller concessions with an average concession of $9,069.
In November 2022, 31% of homes sold had an average seller concession of $6,841.
Average concessions were highest for conventional loans in November 2023, with an average concession of $18,000.
VA loans had an average concession of $9,705; FHA loans had an average concession of $5,141.
The most common microplastics in the environment are microfibers – plastic fragments shaped like tiny threads or filaments. Microfibers come from many sources, including cigarette butts, fishing nets and ropes, but the biggest source is synthetic fabrics, which constantly shed them.
Textiles shed microfibers while they are manufactured, worn and disposed of, but especially when they are washed. A single wash load can release several million microfibers. Many factors affect how many fibers are released, including fabric type, mechanical action, detergents, temperature and the duration of the wash cycle.
My research focuses on coastal ecology and water pollution, including work in New York and New Jersey marshes and estuaries that are heavily affected by human activities. Here are some things to know about reducing microplastic pollution from your washing machine.
From fabric to water and soil
Once garments release microfibers in washing machines, the fibers enter the wastewater stream, which generally goes to a wastewater treatment plant. Advanced treatment plants can remove up to 99% of microfibers from water. But since a single laundry load can produce millions of fibers, treated water discharged from the plant still contains a huge number of them.
Microfibers that are removed during treatment end up in sewage sludge – a mix of solid materials that is processed to remove pathogens. In many cases, treated sewage sludge is applied to soil as a fertilizer. This allows microfibers to enter air and soil, and to be transferred to soil organisms and up the terrestrial food web or taken up by crops.
Not all fabrics shed microfibers at the same rate. A loosely woven fabric that feels fluffy or fuzzy, such as fleece, sheds more than a tightly woven one. While garments made of natural fibers, such as cotton and wool, would appear to be a solution, unfortunately they also shed microfibers that can pick up pollutants in the environment.
Some textile scientists and manufacturers are developing fabrics that shed less than existing ones, thanks to features such as longer fibers and coatings to reduce shedding. Meanwhile, here are some ways to reduce microfiber shedding from your laundry:
Do laundry less often. Washing full loads instead of partial loads reduces release of microfibers because garments are exposed to less friction during the wash cycle.
Dry laundry on a clothesline. Running clothes in dryers releases additional microfibers into the air from the dryer vent.
Several types of products collect microfibers in the washer before they are released with wastewater. Some are laundry bags made of woven monofilament, a single-polyamide filament that does not disintegrate into fibers. Laundry is washed while enclosed in the bag, which traps microfibers that the garments release. A study of one such product, Guppyfriend, found that it collected about one-third of released microfibers.
Another device, the Cora Ball, is a plastic ball with spines topped with soft plastic discs that capture microfibers. It reduces microfibers by about 25% to 30%, but may not be suitable for loose knits because it can snag on threads and damage clothing.
In a 2021 study, researchers installed washing machine filters in 97 homes in a town in Ontario, Canada, which represented about 10% of the households in the community. They found that this significantly reduced microfibers in treated water from the local treatment plant.
In my view, requiring manufacturers to add filters that can trap microfibers to washing machines is a reasonable and affordable step that could rapidly reduce the enormous quantities of microfibers in wastewater. The eventual solution will be reengineered textiles, which won’t shed, but it will take some time to develop them and move them into clothing supply chains. In the meantime, filters are the most effective way to tackle the problem.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has a group of new puppies joining the many adoptable dogs in its care.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 47 adoptable dogs.
The adoptable dogs include “Emily,” a 1-year-old female Doberman pinscher mix with a red and copper coat.
There also is “Luna,” one of several 2-month-old pit bull terrier puppies.
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 email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service said an atmospheric river was responsible for the rainfall that fell across Lake County and the rest of the North Coast on Saturday.
Forecasters said an “impressive cyclone” evident along the coast of central Oregon aligned with a plume of subtropical moisture to position an atmospheric river over Northwest California throughout the day Saturday.
“Consistent moderate to heavy rain has pelted the North Coast through the day today. Over the course of only 6 hours, 2 to 4 inches of rain have fallen all along the coast,” the agency reported.
Rainfall totals in inches for the 24-hour period ending at 1 a.m. Sunday in Lake County are as follows:
— Hidden Valley Lake: 0.92. — Indian Valley Reservoir: 1.04. — Kelseyville: 0.86. — Lake Pillsbury: 2.74. — Lower Lake: 0.43. — Lyons Valley: 1.39. — NIce: 1.43. — Whispering Pines: 1.52.
The forecast expects “mostly calm” weather next week, with more rainfall predicted beginning in the middle of the week.
Temperatures will range from the low to high 50s during the day and the high 30s to low 40s at night, according to the forecast.
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Earth’s average surface temperature in 2023 was the warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Global temperatures last year were around 2.1 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.
“NASA and NOAA’s global temperature report confirms what billions of people around the world experienced last year; we are facing a climate crisis,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “From extreme heat, to wildfires, to rising sea levels, we can see our Earth is changing. There’s still more work to be done, but President Biden and communities across America are taking more action than ever to reduce climate risks and help communities become more resilient – and NASA will continue to use our vantage point of space to bring critical climate data back down to Earth that is understandable and accessible for all people. NASA and the Biden-Harris Administration are working to protect our home planet and its people, for this generation – and the next.”
In 2023, hundreds of millions of people around the world experienced extreme heat, and each month from June through December set a global record for the respective month. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Overall, Earth was about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.4 degrees Celsius) warmer in 2023 than the late 19th-century average, when modern record-keeping began.
“The exceptional warming that we’re experiencing is not something we’ve seen before in human history,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS. “It’s driven primarily by our fossil fuel emissions, and we’re seeing the impacts in heat waves, intense rainfall, and coastal flooding.”
Though scientists have conclusive evidence that the planet’s long-term warming trend is driven by human activity, they still examine other phenomena that can affect yearly or multi-year changes in climate such as El Niño, aerosols and pollution, and volcanic eruptions.
Typically, the largest source of year-to-year variability is the El Niño – Southern Oscillation ocean climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean. The pattern has two phases – El Niño and La Niña – when sea surface temperatures along the equator switch between warmer, average, and cooler temperatures. From 2020-2022, the Pacific Ocean saw three consecutive La Niña events, which tend to cool global temperatures. In May 2023, the ocean transitioned from La Niña to El Niño, which often coincides with the hottest years on record.
However, the record temperatures in the second half of 2023 occurred before the peak of the current El Niño event. Scientists expect to see the biggest impacts of El Niño in February, March, and April.
Scientists have also investigated possible impacts from the January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai undersea volcano, which blasted water vapor and fine particles, or aerosols, into the stratosphere. A recent study found that the volcanic aerosols – by reflecting sunlight away from Earth’s surface – led to an overall slight cooling of less than 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 0.1 degrees Celsius) in the Southern Hemisphere following the eruption.
“Even with occasional cooling factors like volcanoes or aerosols, we will continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas emissions keep going up,” Schmidt said. “And, unfortunately, we just set a new record for greenhouse gas emissions again this past year.”
“The record-setting year of 2023 underscores the significance of urgent and continued actions to address climate change,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Recent legislation has delivered the U.S. government’s largest-ever climate investment, including billions to strengthen America’s resilience to the increasing impacts of the climate crisis. As an agency focused on studying our changing climate, NASA’s fleet of Earth observing satellites will continue to provide critical data of our home planet at scale to help all people make informed decisions.”
Open science in action
NASA assembles its temperature record using surface air temperature data collected from tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments. This data is analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations.
Independent analyses by NOAA and the Hadley Centre (part of the United Kingdom Met Office) concluded the global surface temperatures for 2023 were the highest since modern record-keeping began. These scientists use much of the same temperature data in their analyses but use different methodologies. Although rankings can differ slightly between the records, they are in broad agreement and show the same ongoing long-term warming in recent decades.
Building on a half century of research, observations, and models, the Biden-Harris Administration including NASA and several federal partners recently launched the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center to make critical climate data readily available to decisionmakers and citizens. The center supports collaboration across U.S. government agencies and the non-profit and private sectors to make air-, ground-, and space-borne data and resources available online.
NASA’s full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2023, as well as details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS. GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
Spring, summer, fall and winter – the seasons on Earth change every few months, around the same time every year. It’s easy to take this cycle for granted here on Earth, but not every planet has a regular change in seasons. So why does Earth have regular seasons when other planets don’t?
I’m an astrophysicist who studies the movement of planets and the causes of seasons. Throughout my research, I’ve found that Earth’s regular pattern of seasons is unique. The rotational axis that Earth spins on, along the North and South poles, isn’t quite aligned with the vertical axis perpendicular to Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
That slight tilt has big implications for everything from seasons to glacier cycles. The magnitude of that tilt can even determine whether a planet is habitable to life.
Seasons on Earth
When a planet has perfect alignment between the axis it orbits on and the rotational axis, the amount of sunlight it receives is fixed as it orbits around the Sun – assuming its orbital shape is a circle. Since seasons come from variations in how much sunlight reaches the planet’s surface, a planet that’s perfectly aligned wouldn’t have seasons. But Earth isn’t perfectly aligned on its axis.
This small misalignment, called an obliquity, is around 23 degrees from vertical for Earth. So, the Northern Hemisphere experiences more intense sunlight during the summer, when the Sun is positioned more directly above the Northern Hemisphere.
Then, as the Earth continues to orbit around the Sun, the amount of sunlight the Northern Hemisphere receives gradually decreases as the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the Sun. This causes winter.
The planets spinning on their axes and orbiting around the Sun look kind of like spinning tops – they spin around and wobble because of gravitational pull from the Sun. As a top spins, you might notice that it doesn’t just stay perfectly upright and stationary. Instead, it may start to tilt or wobble slightly. This tilt is what astrophysicists call spin precession.
Because of these wobbles, Earth’s obliquity isn’t perfectly fixed. These small variations in tilt can have big effects on the Earth’s climate when combined with small changes to Earth’s orbit shape.
The wobbling tilt and any natural variations to the shape of Earth’s orbit can change the amount and distribution of sunlight reaching Earth. These small changes contribute to the planet’s larger temperature shifts over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years. This can, in turn, drive ice ages and periods of warmth.
Translating obliquity into seasons
So how do obliquity variations affect the seasons on a planet? Low obliquity, meaning the rotational spin axis is aligned with the planet’s orientation as it orbits around the Sun, leads to stronger sunlight on the equator and low sunlight near the pole, like on Earth.
On the other hand, a high obliquity – meaning the planet’s rotational spin axis points toward or away from the Sun – leads to extremely hot or cold poles. At the same time, the equator gets cold, as the Sun does not shine above the equator all year round. This leads to drastically varying seasons at high latitudes and low temperatures at the equator.
When a planet has an obliquity of more than 54 degrees, that planet’s equator grows icy and the pole becomes warm. This is called a reversed zonation, and it’s the opposite of what Earth has.
Basically, if an obliquity has large and unpredictable variations, the seasonal variations on the planet become wild and hard to predict. A dramatic, large obliquity variation can turn the whole planet into a snowball, where it’s all covered by ice.
Spin orbit resonances
Most planets are not the only planets in their solar systems. Their planetary siblings can disturb each other’s orbit, which can lead to variations in the shape of their orbits and their orbital tilt.
So, planets in orbit look kind of like tops spinning on the roof of a car that’s bumping down the road, where the car represents the orbital plane. When the rate – or frequency, as scientists call it – at which the tops are precessing, or spinning, matches the frequency at which the car is bumping up and down, something called a spin-orbit resonance occurs.
Spin-orbit resonances can cause these obliquity variations, which is when a planet wobbles on its axis. Think about pushing a kid on a swing. When you push at just the right time – or at the resonant frequency – they’ll swing higher and higher.
Mars wobbles more on its axis than Earth does, even though the two are tilted about the same amount, and that actually has to do with the Moon orbiting around Earth. Earth and Mars have a similar spin precession frequency, which matches the orbital oscillation – the ingredients for a spin-orbit resonance.
But Earth has a massive Moon, which pulls on Earth’s spin axis and drives it to precess faster. This slightly faster precession prevents it from experiencing spin orbit resonances. So, the Moon stabilizes Earth’s obliquity, and Earth doesn’t wobble on its axis as much as Mars does.
Exoplanet seasons
Thousands of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, have been discovered over the past few decades. My research group wanted to understand how habitable these planets are, and whether these exoplanets also have wild obliquities, or whether they have moons to stabilize them like Earth does.
We investigated Kepler-186f, which is the first discovered Earth-sized planet in a habitable zone. The habitable zone is an area around a star where liquid water can exist on the surface of the planet and life may be able to emerge and thrive.
Unlike Earth, Kepler-186f is located far from the other planets in its solar system. As a result, these other planets have only a weak effect on its orbit and movement. So, Kepler-186f generally has a fixed obliquity, similar to Earth. Even without a large moon, it doesn’t have wildly changing or unpredictable seasons like Mars.
Looking forward, more research into exoplanets will help scientists understand what seasons look like throughout the vast diversity of planets in the universe.