LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week Lake County Animal Care and Control has a new group of dogs hoping for new homes.

There are a number of mixed breed adults, as well as two litters of puppies.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

 

 

 

 

Matombo

Matombo is a 10-month-old male pit bull terrier mix.

He weighs 62 pounds and is not neutered.

Matombo is located in kennel No. 17, ID No. 31231.

 

 

 

Female shepherd mix

This black female shepherd mix is 3 years old.

She has brown eyes, a long coat and weighs just under 48 pounds.

She is located in kennel No. 10, ID No. 31393.

 

 

 

St. Bernard mix

This 7-year-old male is a St. Bernard-springer spaniel mix.

He has a long, black and white spotted coat. He is unaltered.

Find him in kennel No. 13, ID No. 31453.

 

 

 

 

Boxer-pointer puppies

These five little female puppies are 11-week-old boxer-pointer mixes.

The pups are tan and white, with brown eyes. They have short coats.

They are in kennel No. 18a, ID No. 31496.

 

 

 

 

Brindle pit bull mix

This male pit bull terrier mix has brown brindle coloring and a short coat.

An estimate of his age was not given. He is not yet neutered.

He's in kennel No. 19, ID No. 31466.

 

 

 

 

Jack Russell-beagle mix

This female Jack Russell Terrier-beagle mix is 3 years old.

She has a short, white and tan coat and floppy ears. She is not yet spayed.

She's in kennel No. 23, ID No. 31495.

 

 

 

 

Dachshund mix puppies

These little pups are 7-week-old dachshund mixes.

The litter includes three males and five females.

They have long coats, mostly black in color but with some white markings, and floppy ears.

Find the puppies in kennel No. 3, ID No. 31446.

 

 

 

 

Female shepherd mix

This female shepherd mix is 4 years old.

She has black and tan coloring, brown eyes and a short coat.

Find her in kennel No. 5, ID No. 31429.

 

 

 

 

Female pit bull mix

This female pit bull terrier mix is 3 years old.

She has black and white coloring and a short coat, with brown eyes.

Find her in kennel No. 6a, ID No. 31471.

 

 

 

 

Female pit bull terrier mix

This 3-year-old female is a pit bull terrier mix.

She has black and white coloring, a short coat and a long tail, plus floppy ears and brown eyes.

Find her in kennel No. 6b, ID No. 31472.

Adoptable dogs also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dogs_and_Puppies.htm or at www.petfinder.com.

Please note: Dogs listed at the shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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Comets are icy and fragile. They spend most of their time orbiting through the dark outskirts of the solar system safe from destructive rays of intense sunlight. The deepest cold is their natural habitat.

Last November amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy discovered a different kind of comet.

The icy fuzzball he spotted in the sky over his backyard observatory in Australia was heading almost directly for the sun.

On Dec. 16, less than three weeks after he found it, Comet Lovejoy would swoop through the sun’s atmosphere only 120,000 kilometers above the stellar surface.

Astronomers soon realized a startling fact: Comet Lovejoy likes it hot.

"Terry found a sungrazer," said Karl Battams of the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC. "We figured its nucleus was about as wide as two football fields – the biggest such comet in nearly 40 years.”

Sungrazing comets aren't a new thing. In fact, the orbiting Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) watches one fall toward the sun and evaporate every few days.

These frequent kamikaze comets, known as “Kreutz sungrazers,” are thought to be splinters of a giant comet that broke apart hundreds of years ago.

Typically they measure about 10 meters across, small, fragile, and easily vaporized by solar heat.

Based on its orbit, Comet Lovejoy was surely a member of the same family – except it was 200 meters wide instead of the usual 10.

Astronomers were eager to see such a whopper disintegrate. Even with its extra girth, there was little doubt that it would be destroyed.

When Dec. 16 came, however, "Comet Lovejoy shocked us all," said Battams. "It survived, and even flourished.”

Images from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory showed the comet vaporizing furiously as it entered the sun's atmosphere – apparently on the verge of obliteration – yet Comet Lovejoy was still intact when it emerged on the other side.

The comet had lost its tail during the fiery transit – a temporary setback. Within hours, the tail grew back, bigger and brighter than before.

"It's fair to say we were dumbfounded," said Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. "Comet Lovejoy must have been bigger than we thought, perhaps as much as 500 meters wide."

That would make it the biggest sungrazer since Comet Ikeya-Seka almost 40 years ago.

With a tail that stretched halfway across the sky, Ikeya-Seki was actually visible in broad daylight after it passed through the sun's atmosphere in October 1965.

In Japan, where observers spotted the over-heated comet only half a degree from the sun, it was described as 10 times brighter than the Full Moon.

Comet Lovejoy wasn't that bright, but it was still amazing.

Only a few days after it left the sun, the comet showed up in the morning skies of the southern hemisphere.

Observers in Australia, South America, South Africa and New Zealand likened it to a search light beaming up from the east before dawn.

The tail lined up parallel to the Milky Way and, for a few days, made it seem that we lived in a double-decker galaxy.

Astronauts on the International Space Station also witnessed the comet.

ISS Commander Dan Burbank, who has seen his share of wonders, even once flying directly through the Northern Lights onboard the space shuttle, declared Comet Lovejoy “the most amazing thing I have ever seen in space.”

An armada of spacecraft including SOHO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA's twin STEREO probes, Japan’s Hinode spacecraft, and Europe's Proba2 microsatellite recorded the historic event.

"We've collected a mountain of data," said Knight. "But there are some things we're still having trouble explaining."

For instance, what made Lovejoy's tail wiggle so wildly when it entered the solar corona? Perhaps it was in the grip of the sun's powerful magnetic field.

What caused Lovejoy to lose its tail inside the sun's atmosphere—and then regain it later? “This is one of the biggest mysteries to me,” said Battams.

And then there is the ultimate existential puzzle: How did Comet Lovejoy survive at all?

As January unfolds, the “Comet that liked it Hot” is returning to the outer solar system, still intact, leaving many mysteries behind.

“It’ll be back in about 600 years,” said Knight. “Maybe we will have figured them out by then.”

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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A highly specialized NOAA jet typically used to study hurricanes will fly over the north Pacific Ocean during the next two months gathering data that will enhance winter storm forecasts for the entire North American continent.

From its temporary base at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Honolulu, NOAA’s high-altitude, twin-engine Gulfstream IV-SP aircraft will deploy special sensors to collect information where the jet stream and moisture from the ocean interact and breed potentially powerful winter storms that impact North America several days later.

Data on wind speed and direction, pressure, temperature and humidity from the sensors will be monitored and quality checked by meteorologists aboard the aircraft.

NOAA then will use the information to predict the location and intensity of high winds, destructive surf conditions, severe weather and flooding rainfall caused by winter storms.

“These atmospheric observations, combined with satellite and other data, have proven to significantly enhance four-to-seven day winter weather forecasts” said Capt. Barry Choy, chief science officer for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), part of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “Improved forecasts mean longer warning lead times for the public, emergency managers, air carriers, utility companies and others to prepare for significant winter storms, protect lives and property and minimize economic impacts.”

The mission will take the Gulfstream IV north, east and west of Hawaii, and occasionally as far as Alaska. Data gathered in the upper atmosphere by the NOAA aircraft, which flies at 45,000 feet, will be supplemented by data collected at lower altitudes by a U.S. Air Force Reserve weather reconnaissance plane. The flight tracks for both aircraft will be developed by NCEP.

“Together, these flights will help forecasters paint a detailed three-dimensional picture of weather systems over Pacific regions where more accurate information is needed for computer weather forecast models,” said Jack R. Parrish, flight director and meteorologist with NOAA’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

Based at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center, located at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., the Gulfstream IV is part of the NOAA fleet of aircraft and ships operated, managed and maintained by the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations.

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On Friday Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Governor Jerry Brown signed an agreement to expand a state and federal partnership that has, over the last two years, paved the way for more than a dozen utility-scale solar energy projects and more than 130 renewable power projects in California.

It's estimated that these projects, which underwent rigorous environmental review, will generate thousands of construction jobs and power local economies. If all of these projects were built today, California would have enough renewable power to meet the state’s 33 percent goal, the Governor's Office reported.

The agreement broadens the state and federal partnership to formally include transmission projects and bring in new partners, including the California Independent System Operator, the California Public Utilities Commission and the California State Lands Commission.

The agreement also renews a mutual commitment to landscape level planning efforts. The partnership, launched in 2009, works through a senior-level Renewable Energy Policy Group (REPG) to expedite review and processing of proposed projects.

“Now that our successful partnership has demonstrated that advancing renewable energy projects in California can be done, and can done in the right way, it is essential to ensure that transmission facilities to get this power to market are also part of the equation,” said Secretary Salazar.

He added, “As part of today’s agreement, which will expand our partnership on renewable energy, Interior and California will identify needed transmission projects to track, troubleshoot and shepherd. What’s happening in California is nothing short of a revolution – clean energy is creating jobs, powering our economies, and making believers out skeptics.”

“California has made tremendous progress in permitting renewable projects, and now we need to make sure the transmission lines that deliver this clean energy are built as quickly as possible,” said Governor Brown. “Putting these construction projects on a fast track will put people back to work and keep California a leader in renewable energy.”

The secretary and governor signed the memorandum of understanding on renewable energy at a solar project being built by Recurrent Energy in Elk Grove, a Sacramento metropolitan area community.

One of North America’s largest solar development companies, Recurrent Energy’s three Sacramento-area projects have generated more than 220 jobs during construction.

Earlier on Friday, Salazar, Interior Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes and the governor discussed critical California water issues, reflecting their commitment to advancing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and to taking action that will improve the health of the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem and the reliability of California’s water supply.

The REPG shepherded the renewable energy projects through a complex set of environmental reviews in time for appropriate proposals to take advantage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants, federal loan guarantees and production and investment tax credits. In 2012, the Policy Group will focus on the seven renewable energy and transmission projects in California on lands administered by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), BLM’s “priority projects” (www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/renewable_energy/2012_priority_projects.html) also will focus on additional projects on private lands, including five solar, one wind, and one geothermal.

Nationwide, Salazar has approved 27 commercial-scale renewable energy projects on public lands, or the transmission associated with them, since 2009, including 16 solar projects, four wind farms and seven geothermal facilities. Together these projects represent more than 6,500 megawatts, 12,500 jobs and when built, will power about 2.3 million homes.

The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan is another major component of Interior’s and California's renewable energy planning efforts. When completed, it is expected to further these objectives and provide binding, long-term endangered species permit assurances, while facilitating the review and approval of renewable energy projects in the Mojave and Colorado deserts in California.

The expanded partnership supports state and federal goals.

In April 2011, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill No. 2X which increased California’s renewable energy portfolio standard to 33 percent of all retail electricity sales by 2020.

The Obama Administration has encouraged the expanded use of renewable energy and launched initiatives to spur the development of these resources on U.S. public lands, most of which are managed by the Department of the Interior – which manages one-fifth of the land in the United States – and most of it in the West, including California.

Salazar’s Secretarial Order 3285A1, one of his first directives as Secretary, established a policy encouraging the production, development, and delivery of renewable energy as one of the department’s highest priorities and directed Interior agencies to work collaboratively with other federal agencies, states, tribes, local communities and private landowners to encourage the timely and responsible development of renewable energy and associated transmission, while protecting and enhancing the nation’s water, wildlife, cultural and other natural resources.

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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Clearlake man convicted last year of molesting his stepdaughter continuously over a three-year period was sentenced on Friday to 41 years in state prison.

Christopher Adam Sanders, 31, received the sentence from Judge Stephen Hedstrom in Lake County Superior Court’s Clearlake division on Friday afternoon.

Sanders was convicted by a jury in May 2011 of five felonies – a count of committing a lewd act with a child, two counts of lewd act with a child by duress, and one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child and statutory rape.

The abuse started when the girl was 11 years old in 2005 and continued for three years, ending in December 2008, according to the investigation. Sanders was arrested in January 2009 following a Clearlake Police investigation.

Prosecutor Ed Borg said a nurse testified at trial about physical evidence that was consistent with the victim’s report of abuse.

Borg said Sanders must serve 85 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole. According to the probation report submitted for the case, that will make Sanders approximately 69 years old when he becomes eligible for release.

When and if Sanders is released, he will have to register as a sex offender, Borg said.

Sanders’ attorney, Mitch Hauptman of Lakeport, did not respond to a request seeking comment on the sentencing.

Sanders originally had been scheduled for sentencing last July, but the process encountered numerous delays after Sanders dismissed attorney Chris Andrian of Santa Rosa, who had represented him at trial.

Borg said that at one point he was in discussions with Andrian for a plea agreement that would have had Sanders admitting to the two counts of committing a lewd act with a child by duress, with the rest of the charges dropped. That would have resulted in a sentence of between six and 16 years.

However, a final deal wasn’t reached, Sanders was convicted at trial, Andrian was dismissed and Sanders hired Hauptman to explore seeking a new trial. Late last year, however, Hauptman concluded that he would not pursue that new trial option.

Part of the case’s tragedy, said Borg, was the strains that it put on the girl’s relationship with her mother. For a time, she lived with a guardian as a result.

Borg credited the Clearlake Police Department and then-Officer Tim Hobbs – who has since been promoted to sergeant – for doing “an outstanding job” on the investigation that formed the case’s foundation.

Within 12 hours of receiving the victim’s initial report in January 2009, the Clearlake Police Department had completed the investigation and had Sanders in custody, Borg said.

The victim was not present at the Friday sentencing but had submitted a victim impact statement to the court that was included in the probation report, Borg said. The girl’s mother and her guardian also submitted victim impact statements.

In sentencing Sanders, Hedstrom chose the upper sentencing terms for each of the counts, finding that the factors of aggravation – the girl’s age, Sanders’ position of trust and the crime’s sophistication and planning – significantly outweighed the mitigating factor of Sanders having no previous criminal convictions, Borg said.

Borg said not having previous convictions is not unusual in offense cases, where defendants often are having their first brush with the law.

Also weighing in the decision was the duration and frequency of the offense, with the young victim – 17 at the time at the time of trial – taking the stand and testifying that the offenses happened multiple times per week over the three-year period, Borg said.

While Sanders had taken responsibility for the abuse and expressed remorse, Hedstrom gave those factors less weight because they came after Sanders was convicted, according to Borg.

Hedstrom, who presided over the trial, talked about the young victim at the sentencing. He noted that she was very courageous and strong during the trial, and Borg said he agreed with that assessment.

“This was extremely difficult for her, to get up and confront him and talk about the things that he had done to her,” said Borg, adding it was “a great example of courage.”

He said the young victim reported the abuse after she spoke with a friend who had reported being raped.

The friend, a 13-year-old girl, had reportedly been raped by 18-year-old Austin Duncan on Jan. 1, 2009, in an incident in Lucerne, as Lake County News has reported.

Once the girls convinced each other to report what had happened to them, the cases moved quickly. Sanders would be arrested Jan. 5, 2009, with Duncan arrested the following day, according to jail records.

Borg also prosecuted Duncan, who reached an agreement to plead no contest to one count of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14, with the remaining charges – another lewd and lascivious count, two counts of forcible rape and one count of forcible sexual penetration – dismissed.

Duncan later attempted to withdraw that plea and was sentenced to six years in prison by Judge Richard Martin on Sept. 27, 2010. The First Appellate District Court upheld the sentence last August.

The cases, said Borg, should offer hope to victims.

“They can come forward and we will take them seriously,” he said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s been a dry winter so far, but on Friday forecasters said Northern California could experience some rain next week.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a special weather statement Friday afternoon for areas of Northern California, including Lake County, explaining that extended forecast charts showed the possibility that rain and even snow could result from a change in the current dry weather pattern.

The agency said that a low pressure system coming from the Gulf of Alaska that's expected to pass over Northern California’s mountains Sunday and Monday will bring a light amount of precipitation.

That first system is forecast to be followed by a heavier weather pattern expected to bring rainstorms to interior Northern California next Wednesday through Friday, as well as snow to higher elevations, the National Weather Service reported.

While the signs of impending rain are promising, the National Weather Service warned that there is still the possibility that the second storm could pass by Northern California.

The forecast for Lake County during this three-day weekend calls for mostly sunny conditions during the daytime, with some nighttime cloud cover.

Chances of rain are predicted to begin next Wednesday, Jan. 18, with rain likely on Thursday, Jan. 19, and Friday, Jan. 20, according to the forecast. Temperatures are expected to be in the high 50s.

The Farmers Almanac is predicting wet weather for California Jan. 16-19 and again the last week of this month, with rain also expected in the middle and later parts of February.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

SACRAMENTO – Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the constitutionality of federal health care reform and urging the high court to uphold the landmark law.

"Though state governments and private actors have taken important and innovative steps to expand access to health care and to restrain the growth of health care costs, no remedy can be fully effective without action on a national level. The Commerce Clause empowers Congress to take such action, and Congress properly employed that power in addressing the nation's healthcare crisis through the reforms enacted in the Affordable Care Act," the amicus brief states.

In August 2011, a divided United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's minimum coverage provision, which requires that individuals maintain adequate health insurance, is unconstitutional.

The United States government appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear oral arguments in the matter in March 2012.

Attorney General Harris, joined by 12 other attorneys general, argued in a brief filed Friday in the U.S. Supreme Court that the Constitution gives Congress broad powers to regulate interstate commerce, including individual conduct that substantially affects interstate commerce.

The failure of millions of Americans to purchase health insurance has a substantial negative impact on interstate commerce, as well as state economies and budgets, Harris’ office reported.

In 2009, the health care economy accounted for 17.6 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, Harris’ office reported. In 2008, the cost of uncompensated health care – health care provided to those who lacked insurance or some other ability pay – was $43 billion nationally.

As a result, providers shift a significant portion of those costs onto insurance companies and other payers. Each American family, on average, pays $1,000 more than necessary in health insurance premiums as a result of the shifting of those costs, Harris reported.

"Health care is one of the fastest growing expenditures in the federal budget, California's state budget, and the budgets of families across America," Attorney General Harris said. "Federal health care reform is not only essential to improving access to quality health care in California, it also is central to the long-term health of our economy, as well as state and local budgets."

Proponents of the health care reform law will reduce the need to shift the cost of uncompensated care of the uninsured or underinsured and will reduce the expenses absorbed by the states and by individuals with health insurance. They also hold that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is an indispensable aid to the states in their own efforts to tackle the health care problems their residents face.

Other states joining California in this brief are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont. The brief also is joined by the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

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011312 Attorneys General Amicus Brief on Health Care Reform

SACRAMENTO – A recent discovery by California Highway Patrol (CHP) commercial vehicle inspectors prevented a shipment of bathroom tissue holders with radiation contamination from reaching retail stores in Northern California.

“Our commercial personnel have the training, equipment, and capability of locating items that may threaten the safety of public safety,” said CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow. “This equipment and training is essential in accomplishing our mission of providing safety, service and security.”

The items were detected during a routine commercial vehicle inspection and ultimately determined to be constructed from contaminated metal containing Cobalt-60.

The CHP notified the California Department of Health Services, which lead to a nationwide product recall.

The CHP has the largest commercial vehicle inspection program in the nation, conducting more than 600,000 inspections annually.

The department operates 51 Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Facilities in 37 locations throughout the state, plus 73 mini-sites. Sixteen of these facilities are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Through an ongoing effort, the CHP strives to improve commercial motor vehicle safety on California’s highway transportation system through enforcement, training, education, and new technologies,” said Farrow.

Although highway safety is the primary purpose of commercial vehicle inspections, the CHP’s inspection program commonly results in locating narcotics, illegal contraband and other potential hazards.

The commercial enforcement program is just one facet of a more comprehensive homeland security effort by the CHP.

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Effective Jan. 1, 2012, estates of decedents valued at less than $150,000 can be settled as small estates without probate.

Formerly, the limitation was $100,000.

To determine whether a decedent's estate is a small estate the following are excluded: Assets held in the decedent's trust or in a joint tenancy with a surviving joint tenant; assets in which the decedent had a life estate only; assets that pass at the decedent's death to designated death beneficiaries (e.g., life insurance, annuities, and retirement plans); and assets that pass to the decedent's surviving spouse or surviving registered domestic partner, as relevant.

Also excluded is up to $15,000 in uncollected (unpaid) salary or compensation owing to the

decedent.

If the total appraised value of the remaining assets is equal to or less than $150,000 then the estate is a small estate which may be administered through summary administration without formal probate.

Let us discuss how small estates are settled.

When real property is not involved, then the so-called "affidavit procedure" may be utilized once forty days have elapsed since the decedent's death. This allows a beneficiary to claim ownership to all or a part of the small estate without obtaining a court order. A certified death certificate is attached.

The affidavit may vary with the type of asset, or assets, and situation involved.

For example, if a promissory note is being transferred then particulars concerning the note are discussed.

With cars and boats the Department of Motor Vehicles has its own preprinted affidavit to complete. Financial institutions, especially banks, usually have their own preprinted affidavits.

With mobile homes, however, the affidavit procedure is unavailable.

Instead, the Department of Housing and Community Development requires that its "Multi-Purpose Transfer Form" be completed along with the original title, registration and a tax clearance certificate if the mobile home is on the county tax rolls.

The affidavit procedure creates a race to claim property amongst those claiming an inheritance right. It can be a race amongst beneficiaries themselves and also by the beneficiaries against the decedent's creditors.

Unlike with a probate, the decedent's creditors must pursue their enforceable claims against the beneficiaries individually to the extent the beneficiaries receive assets from the small estate.

Unless the creditors open a probate before the affidavit procedure is utilized the creditors are

in a weak position to recover their money.

When real property is involved, however, the affidavit procedure can only be used if the total value of all real properties is equal to or less than $50,000. If more, a petition for transferring title to real property of a small estate is required to obtain a court order transferring title.

Now, let us consider a decedent who owned a bank account with $17,000; a car worth $5,000; a mobile home worth $50,000; and a lot worth $60,000.

All assets are titled in the decedent's own name. The combined appraised date of death value of all assets is $132,000.

The decedent's heirs are his two children. They wait 40 days and take possession of the bank account and car using the affidavit procedure.

They complete HCD's Multi-Purpose Transfer Form and submit it with the title, registration, death certificate and tax clearance certificate (if relevant) to HCD. The lot is over $50,000, so a court order transferring title is necessary. All of this is done without notice to creditors, outside probate.

Families of decedents with small estates can save much money and time by using the appropriate summary administration methods relevant discussed above in lieu of probate.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com.

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COBB, Calif. – On Thursday evening a former U.S. secretary of labor came to Lake County to visit with Calpine workers who are on the verge of voting to join a union.

Robert Reich, who served as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of labor and now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, met with about 60 Calpine workers, organizers and members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1245 at the Little Red School House.

Approximately 219 workers at Calpine’s Geysers operations are eligible to take part in an election to join IBEW 1245 Jan. 25-26, according to the union.

Reich's visit follows a meeting several Calpine workers held with Gov. Jerry Brown about their efforts to unionize on Dec. 9.

In addition to getting the chance to hear from Reich, Calpine employees who came to the Thursday night meeting were able to ask questions of union organizers about the process and find out how contract negotiations could benefit them.

The union organizing committee asked the men and women who attended to introduce themselves and share how long they had been at the company.

There were many longtime employees, some who had worked more than 20 and sometimes 30 years as techs, in the steamfields, in maintenance and other areas.

 

The process of organizing the election to join the union has been a divisive one.

IBEW has accused Calpine – one of the county's largest employers – of fighting the organizational process, which Calpine has denied.

 

The union also has alleged that sick time and staffing levels have been reduced, while health premium offsets and choice of health plans has been eliminated, while at the same time executive pay has gone up.

For its part, Calpine maintains that its workers enjoy one of the best compensation and benefits packages in the industry – including annual raises, cash bonuses and 401k contribution matches – and are in the United States’ top 20 percent of wage earners.

One Calpine worker at the meeting Thursday evening acknowledged that pay rate, and questioned why they should ask for more from the company, which he felt treated them well.

Organizers urged workers to stand with the union, and emphasized that Calpine is not the enemy. They reported receiving support and attention from around the country.

Reich, who has openly supported unions, also encouraged workers to unionize.

“What you’re doing is really important,” Reich told the group.

He said wages and benefits for workers grew for decades after World War II, which he credited to the efforts of the labor movement.

But that’s stopped now, and Reich said the country is still in the grip of the “Great Recession” because American workers can’t afford to buy the goods the United States is producing.

Better wages and working conditions benefit everyone, Reich said.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. “It’s not a zero sum game.”

He emphasized that workers need a voice at the table. That’s especially important, he said, because the United States is the richest country in the world – it’s richer than ever before – but some are getting richer than everyone else.

“Everybody should get part of the pie,” he said.

Unions, said Reich, have historically had an important impact on the overall U.S. workforce. He said in 1955, 35 percent of U.S. workers were in unions, which was enough to influence the prevailing wage. Today, only 7 percent of the private sector workforce is unionized.

Reich told Lake County News after the meeting that he believes there is an opportunity for a resurgence of union representation in light of the current economic stresses, and as more people come to understand the country's economic disparities.

He said people are fed up with economic stresses and insecurities. “They're feeding a new populist movement.”

That movement, he said, takes the form both of the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movements.

Similar social movements in the first decade of the 20th century, the 1930s and 1960s resulted in important developments for workers, Reich said.

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