CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more new dogs waiting to go to their forever families this week.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 34 adoptable dogs.
This week’s dogs include “Romeo,” a male German shepherd mix with a tricolor coat.
And of course there is “Juliet,” a 2-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever mix.
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.
State and local leaders discussed unique challenges facing rural California at an event hosted by the Public Policy Initiative of California last month. The event put a spotlight on a statewide initiative to support regional economic development efforts—the focus of a 2022 Little Hoover Commission study.
"California's vibrant sustainable future depends on its rural communities,” said Ashley Swearengin, former Mayor of Fresno and current President and CEO of the Central Valley Community Foundation. She added that investment in rural California "actually means a brighter future for other parts of the state.”
California has a unique opportunity to further its efforts to build a “regions up” approach to development that brings together goals surrounding economy, equity, and environment through the Regional Investment Initiative, Swearengin told the crowd.
The Regional Investment Initiative (formerly the Community Economic Resilience Fund, or CERF, is a $600 million state initiative launched in 2021 to support regional collaboratives as they work to develop and implement strategies for inclusive development.
In its November 2022 report Equitable Economic Development across California, the Commission applauded Governor Newsom and state leaders for this bold investment in California’s regional economic agenda.
The initiative, the commission found, offered a tremendous opportunity for the state to strengthen and expand existing grassroots coalitions and accelerate more inclusive and sustainable regional economic growth.
In turn, these efforts would help California lift up its inland and rural regions, which suffer from disparities in income, employment, and opportunity, as compared to the state’s coastal cities.
However, the commission also learned that the initiative suffered from challenges, including balancing among different outcome goals, ensuring that regions receive the scale of investment necessary to change their economic trajectories, and coordinating the range of state programs that can support inclusive regional economic development.
In recognition of these obstacles, the commission outlined several recommendations to help the state better support regions as they seek to execute economic development strategies:
• Prioritize historically disadvantaged regions and subregions for funding within the Regional Investment Initiative and related programs. • Provide greater strategic clarity to the Regional Investment Initiative by focusing the program more specifically on the creation of quality jobs in sustainable industries with high growth potential and on connecting members of disadvantaged communities with the quality jobs created. • Encourage and support regional investments in traded sectors (those that sell goods and services outside of the region). • Create a single, senior point of leadership for regional economic development. Further, the state should coordinate state funding and programs in support of regional economic development strategies. • Increase regional capacity for inclusive economic development by dedicating ongoing funding for regional partnerships responsible for guiding regional economic development. The state should also plan for how to structure and sustain regional collaboration after the end of Regional Investment Initiative. • Allocate ongoing funding to better enable colleges and universities to act as leaders in regional economic development and improve alignment with regional economies. • Institutionalize the regular reporting of metrics relating to the health of regional economies and the extent of regional economic disparities.
Regional collaboratives are in the midst of developing roadmaps, including a strategy and recommended series of investments, for their respective regions.
Last month, Gov. Newsom also announced the creation of the California Jobs First Council, which will help support regional collaboratives to expand industry and create jobs locally.
Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative movement disorder that progresses relentlessly. It gradually impairs a person’s ability to function until they ultimately become immobile and often develop dementia. In the U.S. alone, over a million people are afflicted with Parkinson’s, and new cases and overall numbers are steadily increasing.
There is currently no treatment to slow or halt Parkinson’s disease. Available drugs don’t slow disease progression and can treat only certain symptoms. Medications that work early in the disease, however, such as Levodopa, generally become ineffective over the years, necessitating increased doses that can lead to disabling side effects. Without understanding the fundamental molecular cause of Parkinson’s, it’s improbable that researchers will be able to develop a medication to stop the disease from steadily worsening in patients.
Many factors may contribute to the development of Parkinson’s, both environmental and genetic. Until recently, underlying genetic causes of the disease were unknown. Most cases of Parkinson’s aren’t inherited but sporadic, and early studies suggested a genetic basis was improbable.
Nevertheless, everything in biology has a genetic foundation. As a geneticist and molecular neuroscientist, I have devoted my career to predicting and preventing Parkinson’s disease. In our newly published research, my team and I discovered a new genetic variant linked to Parkinson’s that sheds light on the evolutionary origin of multiple forms of familial parkinsonism, opening doors to better understand and treat the disease.
Genetic linkages and associations
In the mid-1990s, researchers started looking into whether genetic differences between people with or without Parkinson’s might identify specific genes or genetic variants that cause the disease. In general, I and other geneticists use two approaches to map the genetic blueprint of Parkinson’s: linkage analysis and association studies.
Linkage analysis focuses on rare families where parkinsonism, or neurological conditions with similar symptoms to Parkinson’s, is passed down. This technique looks for cases where a disease-causing version of the gene and Parkinson’s appear to be passed down in the same person. It requires information on your family tree, clinical data and DNA samples. Relatively few families, such as those with more than two living, affected relatives willing to participate, are needed to expedite new genetic discoveries.
“Linkage” between a pathogenic genetic variant and disease development is so significant that it can inform a diagnosis. It has also become the basis of many lab models used to study the consequences of gene dysfunction and how to fix it. Linkage studies, like the one my team and I published, have identifiedpathogenic mutationsin over 20 genes. Notably, many patients in families with parkinsonism have symptoms that are indistinguishable from typical, late-onset Parkinson’s. Nevertheless, what causes inherited parkinsonism, which typically affects people with earlier-onset disease, may not be the cause of Parkinson’s in the general population.
Conversely, genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, compare genetic data from patients with Parkinson’s with unrelated people of the same age, gender and ethnicity who don’t have the disease. Typically, this involves assessing how frequently in both groups over 2 million common gene variants appear. Because these studies require analyzing so many gene variants, researchers need to gather clinical data and DNA samples from over 100,000 people.
Although costly and time-consuming, the findings of genome-wide association studies are widely applicable. Combining the data of these studies has identified many locations in the genome that contribute to the risk of developing Parkinson’s. Currently, there are over 92 locations in the genome that contain about 350 genes potentially involved in the disease. However, GWAS locations can be considered only in aggregate; individual results are not helpful in diagnosis nor in disease modeling, as the contribution of these individual genes to disease risk is so minimal.
Together, “linked” and “associated” discoveries imply a number of molecular pathways are involved in Parkinson’s. Each identified gene and the proteins they encode typically can have more than one effect. The functions of each gene and protein may also vary by cell type. The question is which gene variants, functions and pathways are most relevant to Parkinson’s? How do researchers meaningfully connect this data?
Parkinson’s disease genes
Using linkage analysis, my team and I identified a new genetic mutation for Parkinson’s disease called RAB32 Ser71Arg. This mutation was linked to parkinsonism in three families and found in 13 other people in several countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, Tunisia, the U.S. and the U.K.
Although the affected individuals and families originate from many parts of the world, they share an identical fragment of chromosome 6 that contains RAB32 Ser71Arg. This suggests these patients are all related to the same person; ancestrally, they are distant cousins. It also suggests there are many more cousins to identify.
RAB32 Ser71Arg is the first linked gene researchers have identified that directly connects the dots between prior linked discoveries. The proteins encoded bring together three important functions of the cell: autophagy, immunity and mitochondrial function. While autophagy releases energy stored in the cell’s trash, this needs to be coordinated with another specialized component within the cell, mitochondria, that are the major supplier of energy. Mitochondria also help to control cell immunity because they evolved from bacteria the cell’s immune system recognizes as “self” rather than as an invading pathogen to destroy.
Identifying subtle genetic differences
Finding the molecular blueprint for familial Parkinson’s is the first step to fixing the faulty mechanisms behind the disease. Like the owner’s manual to your car’s engine, it provides a practical guide of what to check when the motor fails.
Just as each make of motor is subtly different, what makes each person genetically susceptible to nonfamilial Parkinson’s disease is also subtly different. However, analyzing genetic data can now test for types of dysfunction in the cell that are hallmarks of Parkinson’s disease. This will help researchers identify environmental factors that influence the risk of developing Parkinson’s, as well as medications that may help protect against the disease.
More patients and families participating in genetic research are needed to find additional components of the engine behind Parkinson’s. Each person’s genome has about 27 million variants of the 6 billion building blocks that make up their genes. There are many more genetic components for Parkinson’s that have yet to be found.
As our discovery illustrates, each new gene that researchers identify can profoundly improve our ability to predict and prevent Parkinson’s.
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If the James Webb telescope was 10 times more powerful, could we see the beginning of time? - Sam H., age 12, Prosper, Texas
The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built. Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021, and within a month arrived at its final destination: 930,000 miles away from Earth. Its location in space allows it a relatively unobstructed view of the universe.
The telescope design was a global effort, led by NASA, and intended to push the boundaries of astronomical observation with revolutionary engineering. Its mirror is massive – about 21 feet (6.5 meters) in diameter. That’s nearly three times the size of the Hubble Space Telescope, which launched in 1990 and is still working today.
It’s a telescope’s mirror that allows it to collect light. JWST’s is so big that it can “see” the faintest and farthest galaxies and stars in the universe. Its state-of-the-art instruments can reveal information about the composition, temperature and motion of these distant cosmic objects.
As an astrophysicist, I’m continually looking back in time to see what stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes looked like when their light began its journey toward Earth, and I’m using that information to better understand their growth and evolution. For me, and for thousands of space scientists, the James Webb Space Telescope is a window to that unknown universe.
Just how far back can JWST peer into the cosmos and into the past? About 13.5 billion years.
Time travel
A telescope does not show stars, galaxies and exoplanets as they are right now. Instead, astronomers are catching a glimpse of how they were in the past. It takes time for light to travel across space and reach our telescopes. In essence, that means a look into space is also a trip back in time.
This is even true for objects that are quite close to us. The light you see from the Sun left it about 8 minutes, 20 seconds earlier. That’s how long it takes for the Sun’s light to travel to Earth.
You can easily do the math on this. All light – whether sunlight, a flashlight or a light bulb in your house – travels at 186,000 miles (almost 300,000 kilometers) per second. That’s just over 11 million miles (about 18 million kilometers) per minute. The Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth. That comes out to about 8 minutes, 20 seconds.
But the farther away something is, the longer its light takes to reach us. That’s why the light we see from Proxima Centauri, the closest star to us aside from our Sun, is 4 years old; that is, it’s about 25 trillion miles (approximately 40 trillion kilometers) away from Earth, so that light takes just over four years to reach us. Or, as scientists like to say, four light years.
The James Webb Space Telescope is looking much farther back in time than previously possible with other telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope. For example, although Hubble can see objects 60,000 times fainter than the human eye is able, the JWST can see objects almost nine times fainter than even Hubble can.
The Big Bang
But is it possible to see back to the beginning of time?
The name is a bit misleading, however, because it suggests that some sort of explosion, like fireworks, created the universe. The Big Bang more closely represents the appearance of rapidly expanding space everywhere in the universe. The environment immediately after the Big Bang was similar to a cosmic fog that covered the universe, making it hard for light to travel beyond it. Eventually, galaxies, stars and planets started to grow.
That’s why this era in the universe is called the “cosmic dark ages.” As the universe continued to expand, the cosmic fog began to rise, and light was eventually able to travel freely through space. In fact, a few satellites have observed the light left by the Big Bang, about 380,000 years after it occurred. These telescopes were built to detect the splotchy leftover glow from the Big Bang, whose light can be tracked in the microwave band.
However, even 380,000 years after the Big Bang, there were no stars and galaxies. The universe was still a very dark place. The cosmic dark ages wouldn’t end until a few hundred million years later, when the first stars and galaxies began to form.
The James Webb Space Telescope was not designed to observe as far back as the Big Bang, but instead to see the period when the first objects in the universe began to form and emit light. Before this time period, there is little light for the James Webb Space Telescope to observe, given the conditions of the early universe and the lack of galaxies and stars.
Peering back to the time period close to the Big Bang is not simply a matter of having a larger mirror – astronomers have already done it using other satellites that observe microwave emission from very soon after the Big Bang. So, the James Webb Space Telescope observing the universe a few hundred million years after the Big Bang isn’t a limitation of the telescope. Rather, that’s actually the telescope’s mission. It’s a reflection of where in the universe we expect the first light from stars and galaxies to emerge.
By studying ancient galaxies, scientists hope to understand the unique conditions of the early universe and gain insight into the processes that helped them flourish. That includes the evolution of supermassive black holes, the life cycle of stars, and what exoplanets – worlds beyond our solar system – are made of.
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Reinforcing California’s commitment to supporting legal cannabis operators and dismantling the illegal market, the Governor’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce, or UCETF, seized more than $53,620,600 million in illegal cannabis in the first quarter of this calendar year.
Other enforcement highlights from the period of Jan. 1, 2024, through March 31, 2024, includes:
• 31,866 pounds of unlicensed cannabis seized. • 54,137 unlicensed cannabis plants eradicated. • $34,858 in cash seized. • 11 firearms seized. • Four arrests.
“California is home to the largest legal cannabis market in the world,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom. “As we continue to cultivate a legal marketplace, we're taking aggressive action to crack down on those still operating in the shadows — shutting down illegal operations linked to organized crime, human trafficking, and the proliferation of illegal products that harm the environment and public health.”
“UCETF continues to strengthen its momentum by focusing on priority targets and strategically removing operations having a significant impact on the illegal cannabis supply chain,” said Nathaniel Arnold, acting chief of the CDFW Law Enforcement Division. “We are utilizing all the available resources from our partner agencies and are committed more than ever to providing public safety, protecting the environment, and helping the regulated market succeed and thrive.”
“A key to UCETF’s success is a collaborative approach relying on intelligence gathering, targeted investigations and leveraging the expertise of our members,” said Bill Jones, chief of the Law Enforcement Division for DCC. “The Taskforce continues to play a crucial role in protecting the legal cannabis market while eliminating the often-dangerous activities associated with unlicensed cannabis operations.”
The following state agencies and departments participated in UCETF operations during Q1 2024: Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Department of Cannabis Control, Employment Development Department, Department of Fish and Wildlife, California National Guard Counter Drug Task Force, California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, California State Parks, and the Department of Tax and Fee Administration. In addition, multiple federal and local partners assisted with enforcement operations during the first quarter of 2024.
A total of 18 search warrants were served during Q1 2024 in the following counties: Alameda (2); Fresno (1); Kern (5); Los Angeles (1); Riverside (2); San Joaquin (1); and Orange County (6).
Since inception, UCETF has seized $371,199,431 in unlicensed cannabis through 236 search warrants. The taskforce has also eradicated 401,458 plants and seized 139 firearms.
Created by Governor Newsom in 2022, the Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce has been charged to further align state efforts and increase cannabis enforcement coordination between state, local and federal partners. UCETF’s enforcement actions protect consumer and public safety, safeguard the environment, and deprive illegal cannabis operators and transnational criminal organizations of illicit revenue that harms consumers and undercuts the regulated cannabis market in California.
The taskforce is co-chaired by the Department of Cannabis Control and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and coordinated by the Homeland Security Division of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The taskforce includes more than two dozen local, state, and federal partners working together to disrupt the illegal cannabis market.
The Department of Cannabis Control, or DCC, licenses and regulates commercial cannabis activity within California. DCC works closely with all stakeholders, including businesses and local jurisdictions, to create a sustainable legal cannabis industry and a safe and equitable marketplace. DCC develops and implements progressive cannabis policies with robust protections for public health, safety, and the environment.
To learn more about the California cannabis market, state licenses and laws, visit www.cannabis.ca.gov.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — The Northwest Forest Plan Area Federal Advisory Committee will meet April 16 to 18.
This will be the fourth meeting for the Federal Advisory Committee to provide the Forest Service with recommended updates for the Northwest Forest Plan Amendment.
The meeting will take place at the Redding Rancheria Trinity Health Center, 81 Arbuckle Court, Weaverville.
The secretary of agriculture established this committee to support ongoing efforts to amend the Northwest Forest Plan.
The Federal Advisory Committee brings together representatives with diverse perspectives, experiences and expertise — including community, tribal, government and other interest groups from across the Northwest Forest Plan landscape to inform the plan amendment.
This group is helping the agency identify ways to effectively conserve key resources while considering social, ecological, and economic conditions and needs.
FAC meetings are open to the public with an opportunity to submit comments. Details on meetings, including how the public can provide information to the committee is posted on the regional website.
The Federal Advisory Committee does not replace the public involvement process or the public’s opportunity to engage directly with the Forest Service regarding Northwest Forest Plan amendment efforts during the planning process.
The Northwest Forest Plan covers 24.5 million acres of federally managed lands in northwestern California, western Oregon, and Washington. It was established in 1994 to address threats to threatened and endangered species while also contributing to social and economic sustainability in the region.
After nearly 30 years, the Northwest Forest Plan needs to be updated to accommodate changed ecological and social conditions.
Of note, forests in California included in the NWFP FACA planning are:
1. Klamath National Forest and Butte Valley National Grassland; 2. Lassen National Forest; 3. Mendocino National Forest; 4. Modoc National Forest; 5. Six Rivers National Forest; 6. Shasta-Trinity National Forest.
Additional information about the Northwest Forest Plan is available here.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s newest municipal advisory council’s members have been selected and the group is expected to hold its first meeting this month.
At its April 2 meeting, the Board of Supervisors selected the five members and one alternate to fill the seats on the council, which will represent the Kelseyville planning area.
The council was officially formed at the board’s March 12 meeting.
The supervisors voted unanimously to appoint Angel Acosta, Megan Lankford, Big Valley Tribal Chair Flaman McCloud, Brian Hanson and Joy Merrilees to the general membership seats, and Greg Panella as the alternate.
Acosta, Lankford, Hanson, Merrilees and Panella were all part of the group involved with drafting the new council’s bylaws.
However, so far, an agenda has not been released or posted on the county’s website, and the new council isn’t listed on the county webpage for board-appointed councils and commissions.
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. — An incoming cold front is expected to bring rain Friday and over the weekend.
Lake County has enjoyed several sunny days with warmer temperatures, a pattern forecast to hold on Thursday.
The National Weather Service said the warmer seasonal conditions will give way to “widespread light rain and gusty south wind Friday afternoon into the weekend. Warmer weather will return mid next week.”
The Lake County forecast calls for rainfall amounts of up to an inch for Friday and Saturday, with slighter chances of rain on Sunday.
Gusting winds of about 10 miles per hour are in the forecast for Friday and Saturday.
Temperatures from Friday to Sunday will range from the high 50s during the day to the low 40s at night.
From Monday through Wednesday, temperatures will be on the rise again, reaching the high 60s during the day while at night lingering in the low 40s.
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 Lake County Sanitation District's operations within the city of Clearlake were one of the key items on the Clearlake City Council’s agenda last week.
At the April 4 meeting, City Manager Alan Flora led a discussion with the council on the county’s Southeast Regional Wastewater System and issues that have arisen with regard to a new housing development.
“This hasn’t been a very good year for the sewer system in Clearlake,” which is what initiated the discussion, Flora said.
Flora said Special Districts Administrator Scott Harter was invited but had another meeting.
One of the chief issues related to Konocti Gardens, a new 102-unit low-income apartment project built on 11 acres at 3930 Old Highway 53, developed by CSI Construction Co.
Flora said that although Konocti Gardens is ready to come online and be occupied in June, the county won’t allow the project to connect to the wastewater system until upgrades are made to the system.
That means the apartment complex won’t be online until October or November, “causing some pretty significant financial impacts to the project,” Flora said.
Flora said that the decision not to let the complex connect to the system was based on a capacity analysis required by Special Districts for projects over 20 units. He said he wasn’t sure why, but the city didn’t receive the draft report until early February.
That report indicated there is 2,200 feet of pipe in the collection system that would be over capacity as a result of this project, Flora said.
Flora noted later in the discussion that the city had been told by the county that the capacity plan was a formality and that everything would be fine, “but it wasn’t.”
He said the county did an updated sewer model in 2022. “This is a section of the collection system that is a problem with or without development.”
It was the city’s understanding, Flora said, that there aren’t areas of significant concern in the city for collection other than Highlands Harbor, which has spills every time there is a significant rain event.
However, based on this most recent capacity analysis, Special Districts won’t allow Konocti Gardens to connect to the sewer system, Flora said.
As a result, the county — including Supervisor Bruno Sabatier — along with the city and the developer have been having almost weekly meetings. “There’s some promising progress” in the developer being able to get occupancy, Flora said.
Flora said Special Districts is open to doing things to speed up design and construction of the needed upgrades.
If construction can’t be completed, there will be a design for a bypass from that project around the impacted area and added back into the system in another area with capacity to handle it, Flora said.
Flora said Lacosan’s system had a large wastewater spill last winter, and six to seven spills this winter totaling close to one million gallons that have hit water bodies, including Clear Lake, within the Southeast system.
He said Konocti Gardens really illustrates the fact that Lacosan has millions of dollars in reserves that have been accumulated and no apparent upgrade plan for the system. Meantime, Highlands Harbor has been a decades-long problem.
All these things lead to, “what can the city do to get some more answers here and maybe be a little bit more involved,” Flora said.
He added, “It is a little bit unusual that most of the infrastructure was developed before the city was incorporated.”
When the incorporation happened — which occurred in 1980 — it was required that the sanitation district’s board of directors provide at least one seat to the city. Flora said city staff found a 1983 resolution in which the city delegated that seat back to the Board of Supervisors.
Flora said he met the week before with County Administrative Officer Susan Parker, Board Chair Bruno Sabatier and Vice Chair EJ Crandell to share the city’s research and what they believe to be the county’s obligation, which is to give the city a seat on the sanitation district board.
There may be another arrangement with the county. “Ultimately, the city just wants this to work,” Flora said.
He said his discussions led him to conclude the county is interested in meeting and talking more about the situation, and figuring out a way for the city’s concerns to be addressed.
The council ended up unanimously adopting a resolution requesting a role in the direct governance of Lacosan’s operations of the Southeast Regional Collection System.
In other business, the council held the second reading of Ordinance No. 269-2024 updating Clearlake Municipal Code Section 3-5 relating to fire mitigation fees.
The change in the ordinance did not include changing the fire mitigation fees. Flora said they decided to hold off on adopting any changes by resolution until there is interest to have a countywide discussion on fire mitigation fees and construction.
When asked by council members about when the matter could be wrapped up, Flora said it could be done by the end of the fiscal year in the summer.
Also on Thursday, the council presents a proclamation declaring April 2024 as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and a proclamation declaring April 14 to 20 as Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, offered certificates of appreciation for the Bunny Brunch and received the Recreation and Events Department’s quarterly report.
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.
Chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04), is lauding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ final rule expanding required background checks before firearm sales.
“Today’s rule is a leap forward in closing dangerous, decades-old loopholes that have allowed many firearm buyers to bypass background checks,” said Thompson in a statement released early Thursday morning. “There’s no doubt this rule will help save lives by keeping guns out of dangerous hands.”
Chairman Thompson has long supported expanding background checks for firearm sales. Rep. Thompson has introduced background check legislation every Congress since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting which killed 20 children and six adult staff members.
The Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has submitted to the Federal Register the “Engaged in the Business” Final Rule, which makes clear the circumstances in which a person is “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms and thus required to obtain a federal firearms license, in order to increase compliance with the federal background check requirement for firearm sales by federal firearms licensees.
Previously, only sellers “engaged in the business” of firearm dealing were required to register as a Federal firearm licensee, or FFL, and therefore conduct background checks for firearm sales.
The new rule expands the definition of "engaged in the business" of dealing firearms to anyone who sells firearms to earn a profit, greatly expanding the number of firearms dealers legally required to register as FFLs.
Firearms sellers previously operating without running background checks will be obligated to perform them before selling a firearm to a buyer.
“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This regulation is a historic step in the Justice Department’s fight against gun violence. It will save lives.”
This rule was made possible by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most consequential gun violence prevention legislation signed into law in decades which Rep. Thompson said he was proud to help pass.
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act enhanced background checks and closed loopholes, including by redefining when a person is ‘engaged in the business’ of dealing in firearms. Today’s rule clarifying application of that definition will save lives by requiring all those in the business of selling guns to get a federal license and run background checks — thus keeping guns out of the hands of violent criminals,” said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. “I applaud the hard work of ATF in drafting this rule and reviewing the hundreds of thousands of public comments, which overwhelmingly favored the rule announced today. Because of that work, our communities will be safer.”
“This is about protecting the lives of innocent, law-abiding Americans as well as the rule of law. There is a large and growing black market of guns that are being sold by people who are in the business of dealing and are doing it without a license; and therefore, they are not running background checks the way the law requires. And it is fueling violence,” said Director Steven Dettelbach of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). “Today’s Final Rule is about ensuring compliance with an important area of the existing law where we all know, the data show, and we can clearly see that a whole group of folks are openly flouting that law. That leads to not just unfair but, in this case, dangerous consequences.”
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), enacted June 25, 2022, expanded the definition of engaging in the business of firearms dealing to cover all persons who devote time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business to predominately earn a profit through the repetitive purchase and sale of firearms.
On March 14, 2023, President Biden issued Executive Order 14092, which, among other things, directs the Attorney General to develop and implement a plan to clarify the definition of who is engaged in the business of dealing in firearms and thus required to obtain a federal firearms license.
The Final Rule conforms the ATF regulations to the new BSCA definition and further clarifies the conduct that presumptively requires a license under that revised definition, among other things.
Federally licensed firearms dealers are critical to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement in our shared goal of promoting public safety. Licensees submit background checks on potential purchasers to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which helps to keep firearms out of the hands of prohibited persons.
Further, licensees keep records of sales transactions to help ensure that when a gun is used in a crime and recovered by law enforcement it can be traced back to the first retail purchaser; they help identify and prevent straw purchasers from buying firearms on behalf of prohibited persons and criminals; and they facilitate safe storage of firearms by providing child-safety locks with every transferred handgun and offer customers other secure gun storage options.
Unlicensed dealing, however, undermines these public-safety features — which is why Congress has long prohibited engaging in the business of dealing in firearms without the required license.
To increase compliance with the statutes Congress has enacted, the Final Rule identifies conduct that is presumed to require a federal firearms license. And, in addition to implementing the revised statutory definition discussed above, the Final Rule clarifies the circumstances in which a license is — or is not — required by, among other things, adding a definition of “personal firearms collection” to ensure that genuine hobbyists and collectors may enhance or liquidate their collections without fear of violating the law. The Final Rule also provides clarity as to what licensees must do with their inventory when they go out of business.
The Final Rule goes into effect 30 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register.
On Sept. 8, 2023, the Justice Department published a notice of proposed rulemaking, and during the 90-day open comment period, ATF received nearly 388,000 comments.
The number of foreign-born people in the United States rose by more than 5 million over 10 years to 45.3 million or 13.7% of the nation's population, according to the 2018-2022 5-year American Community Survey, or ACS, estimates.
We compare estimates for the 2018-2022 period to the 5-year ACS period a decade earlier (2008-2012) when there were 39.8 million foreign-born people, or 12.9% of the population.
A new Census Bureau visualization explores where immigrants lived in the United States and how it changed between the two five-year periods at the national, state and county level.
It also features select indicators of socio-cultural and economic integration at the national level. Data users can look at the foreign-born population overall or select a specific place of birth, including regions (e.g., Africa), sub regions (e.g., Eastern Africa) and countries (e.g., Ethiopia).
The foreign-born population consists of anyone living in the United States who was not a U.S. citizen at birth, including naturalized U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (immigrants), temporary migrants such as foreign students, humanitarian migrants such as refugees and asylees, and unauthorized migrants. Estimates in the data visualization exclude those born at sea.
Highlights of the foreign-born population in 2018-2022 compared to 2008-2012:
• Immigrants made up over a fifth of the population in four states: California (26.5%), New Jersey (23.2%), New York (22.6%) and Florida (21.1%). Their numbers grew in all four states over the 10-year span. • California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas had the largest increases, with Florida and Texas each gaining more than 850,000 foreign-born people. • New Mexico was the only state whose foreign-born population decreased during that period. Harris County, Texas, had the largest increase, followed by Miami-Dade County, Florida, and King County, Washington. • The top 10 states where immigrants lived did not change, led by California, Texas and Florida in 2018-2022. • Nine of the top 10 counties did not change, with Broward County, Florida, joining the group and Maricopa County, Arizona, leaving. • Almost half (49.1%) of all immigrants in the United States entered the country before 2000. More than half (52.3%) were naturalized U.S. citizens. • Nearly a quarter of the foreign-born population 25 years and older had a bachelor’s (18.7%) or graduate or professional degree (14.9%), compared to 21.4% and 13.1% for the native-born population. • An estimated 63.5% were employed, with over a third of the civilian employed foreign-born population (16 years and older) in management, business, science and arts occupations.
Joyce Hahn is a demographic statistician in the Foreign-Born Population Branch in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. Lauren Medina is chief of the Foreign-Born Population Branch in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Area Town Hall, or MATH, will this week host an update on the process to update the Middletown Area Plan.
MATH will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the Middletown Community Meeting Room/Library at 21256 Washington St., Middletown. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the meeting via Zoom click on this link; the meeting ID is 869-1824-5695, pass code is 808449. Call in at 669-900-6833.
MATH is meeting earlier than usual in order to hold a community workshop on the area plan.
The meeting will get started with an update on the Middletown Art Center’s Water Basket Project.
The town hall’s members also will discuss and consider approving MATH’s proposed response to the Lake County Community Development Department’s request for a review of the updated Guenoc Valley Project. The deadline to respond is April 12.
At 6:10 p.m., MATH will host the Lake County 2050-Middletown Area Plan Update community workshop.
Community Development Department Director Mireya Turner and her staff, along with planning consultant PlaceWorks, will provide an overview presentation of the process for the Middletown Area Plan Update.
The two-hour workshop will include breakout sessions and time for public input, questions and answers.
MATH’s next meeting will take place on May 9.
MATH — established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 — is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
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