In honor of the men and women who served during the Vietnam War, the state of California will commemorate “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day” on Tuesday, March 30.
The Vietnam War, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, claimed the lives of more than 58,000 U.S. service members, including 5,822 Californians.
In Lake County, there are 2,268 Vietnam, said County Veteran Service Officer Saul Sanabria.
In a proclamation issued on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the commemoration pays tribute to the brave men and women who selflessly answered our nation’s call.
“Despite their harrowing sacrifices – many suffering for the rest of their lives from the physical and mental wounds of war – our veterans did not receive the support and gratitude owed them upon returning home, a shameful reality we vow to never repeat. California is proud to stand by our veterans and is steadfastly committed to connecting them and their families with the benefits they have earned many times over, through education, advocacy and direct services,” the proclamation said.
It concluded, “Today, we reaffirm one of our most fundamental obligations as citizens of this great country: to honor those who have served and those who continue to serve with the respect, care and gratitude they profoundly deserve.”
Heavy caseloads, job stress and biases can strain relations between parole and probation officers and their clients, upping offenders’ likelihood of landing back behind bars.
On a more hopeful note, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-ordered supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients and, arguably, better able to deter them from criminal backsliding.
The findings, published March 29 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, on average, a 13% decrease in recidivism among the clients of parole and probation officers who participated in the UC Berkeley empathy training experiment.
“If an officer received this empathic training, real-world behavioral outcomes changed for the people they supervised, who, in turn, were less likely to go back to jail,” said study lead and senior author Jason Okonofua, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley.
The results are particularly salient in the face of nationwide efforts to reduce prison and jail populations amid a deadly pandemic and other adversities. The U.S. criminal justice system has among the highest rates of recidivism, with approximately two-thirds of incarcerated people rearrested within three years of their release and one-half sent back behind bars.
“The combination of COVID-19 and ongoing criminal justice reforms are diverting more people away from incarceration and toward probation or parole, which is why we need to develop scalable ways to keep pace with this change,” said Okonofua, who has led similar interventions for school teachers to check their biases before disciplining students.
How they conducted the study
At the invitation of a correctional department in a large East Coast city, Okonofua and graduate students in his lab at UC Berkeley sought to find out if a more caring approach on the part of court-appointed supervision officers would reverse trends in recidivism.
Among other duties, parole and probation officers keep track of their clients’ whereabouts, make sure they don’t miss a drug test or court hearing, or otherwise violate the terms of their release, and provide resources to help them stay out of trouble and out of jail.
For the study, the researchers surveyed more than 200 parole and probation officers who oversee more than 20,000 people convicted of crimes ranging from violent crimes to petty theft. Research protocols bar identifying the agency and its location.
Using their own and other scholars’ methodologies, the researchers designed and administered a 30-minute online empathy survey that focused on the officers’ job motivation, biases and views on relationships and responsibilities.
To trigger their sense of purpose and values, and tap into their empathy, the UC Berkeley survey asked what parts of the work they found fulfilling. One respondent talked about how, “When I run across those guys, and they’re doing well, I’m like, ‘Awesome!’” Others reported that being an advocate for people in need was most important to them.
As for addressing biases — including assumptions that certain people are predisposed to a life of crime — the survey cited egregious cases in which probation and parole officers abused their power over those under their supervision.
Survey takers were also asked to rate how much responsibility they bear, as individuals and members of a profession, for their peers’ transgressions. Most answered that they bore no responsibility.
Ten months after administering the training, researchers found a 13% decrease in recidivism among the offenders whose parole and probation officers had completed the empathy survey.
While the study yielded no specifics on what prevented the parolees and people on probation for reoffending in the period following the officers’ empathy training, the results suggest that a change in relationship dynamics played a key role.
“The officer is in a position of power to influence if it’s going to be an empathic or punitive relationship in ways that the person on parole or probation is not,” Okonofua said. “As our study shows, the relationship between probation and parole officers and the people they supervise plays a pivotal role and can lead to positive outcomes, if efforts to be more understanding are taken into consideration.
Co-authors of the study are Kimia Saadatian, Joseph Ocampo, Michael Ruiz and Perfecta Delgado Oxholm, all at UC Berkeley.
Yasmin Anwar writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County’s move earlier this month out of the most restrictive tier on the state’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy has allowed for more local schools to open up for on-campus instruction.
Since the start of the school year, only two local districts – Upper Lake Unified and Lucerne Elementary – started all grades in the “hybrid” model that allowed for in-person instruction as well as distance learning, as Lake County News has reported.
The Lake County Office of Education reported that its schools also have been open since August for in-person classes, as has the Lake County International Charter School.
The rest of the districts at that point were in the distance learning model, and had been planning to reopen in the winter but had to remain in distance learning due to the county going into the purple, or most restrictive, tier on the blueprint at the end of November.
Even before the tier adjustment, elementary schools were able to open under the governor’s State Safe Schools for All plan, which focused on bringing the younger grades back first and phasing in other grade levels through the spring. The plan’s phased-in approach was based on the understanding that younger children are at a lower risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19.
Konocti Unified School District opened to in-person hybrid instruction for kindergarten through sixth grades on Feb. 22, with grades seventh through 12th returning to campus on March 22.
Kelseyville Unified School District’s kindergarten through fifth graders returned to school on March 8, and sixth through 12th on March 23.
Lakeport Unified School District reopened on March 8 for in-person classes for K-6 and on March 22 for seventh through 12th grades.
In the Middletown Unified School District, Minnie Cannon and Cobb Elementary School opened to in-person instruction on half-days on March 1, the same date that Coyote Valley opened to in-person hybrid instruction.
Middletown Middle School is open to in-person instruction – no hybrid – and students returned to campus on March 22. All other grade levels at Middletown unified are in the in-person hybrid mode.
All schools are still offering distance only learning to those families that choose it, said Jill Ruzicka of the Lake County Office of Education.
Kelseyville Unified Superintendent Dave McQueen said the district was able to reopen transitional kindergarten through fifth grades while still in the purple tier.
Once Lake County went into the red tier, the district reopened Mountain Vista Middle School and the high school for hybrid instruction, McQueen explained.
“All the sites are open,” he said.
He said half of the district’s students are back on campus and half remain on distance learning because they wanted to stay home.
In the Lakeport Unified School District, Superintendent Jill Falconer said the principals of the middle and high schools, which opened for in-person learning last Monday, “report that things are going well and that students are very happy to be back on campus.”
She added, “Students have been respectful of the new rules and guidelines. We are overall very pleased to have had a smooth transition to Hybrid and it is just awesome to have some of our students back on campus.”
In related news, federal officials reported $28.3 million in assistance from the American Rescue Plan is allocated to help Lake County’s schools.
The breakdown is as follows:
– Kelseyville Unified, $5,054,000; – Konocti Unified School District, $13,835,000; – Lakeport Unified School District, $3,239,000; – Lucerne Elementary School District, $944,000; – Middletown Unified School District, $2,454,000; and – Upper Lake Unified School District, $2,848,000.
“We don't have any idea when we will actually see the money,” Falconer said.
She said the district is using its current budget/Local Control and Accountability Plan advisory committee to help gather input from stakeholders and determine the best use of the money.
Special thanks to Jill Ruzicka of the Lake County Office of Education for assistance in confirming the dates of in-person instruction reopening of the county’s school districts.
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.
A new U.S. Geological Survey study highlights the importance of homeowners testing their well water to ensure it is safe for consumption, particularly in drought-prone areas.
The first-of-its-kind national-scale study of private well water, conducted in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that drought may lead to elevated levels of naturally occurring arsenic and that the longer a drought lasts, the higher the probability of arsenic concentrations exceeding U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard for drinking water.
Researchers estimate that during drought conditions, 4.1 million people in the lower 48 states who use private domestic wells are potentially exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic. This is an increase of 54% from the estimated 2.7 million people exposed to unhealthy arsenic levels in private wells during normal, non-drought conditions.
Arsenic is a metal that can occur naturally in bedrock and sediments around the world and is commonly reported in drinking-water supply wells.
However, chronic exposure to arsenic from drinking water is associated with an increased risk of several types of cancers, including bladder, lung, prostate and skin cancers. Other adverse effects include developmental impairments, cardiovascular disease, adverse birth outcomes and impacts on the immune and endocrine systems.
The study’s findings can help public health officials and emergency managers notify well owners in areas potentially affected and further refine their strategies for addressing the issue.
The EPA regulates public water supplies, but maintenance, testing and treatment of private water supplies are the responsibility of the homeowner.
Private well owners can work with their local and state officials to determine the best way to test and, if necessary, treat their water supply.
“The population potentially exposed to arsenic levels exceeding the EPA standard during simulated drought conditions amounts to roughly one-tenth of the estimated 37.2 to 43.2 million people in the conterminous U.S. who use domestic wells for household water supply,” said Melissa Lombard, a USGS hydrologist and lead author of this study.
This is the first national-scale study to assess the potential impact of drought on arsenic levels in private domestic wells. It is also the first to estimate the population of private well users who are potentially exposed during droughts to arsenic levels above EPA’s limits, which are intended to protect human health.
The study also estimated that 2.7 million people are exposed to elevated arsenic levels above EPA standards under normal conditions. This is an increase from a 2017 study by the USGS and CDC that estimated 2.1 million people were exposed to elevated arsenic levels. The increase reflects new estimates of well locations and the population reliant on private wells.
The new study, which did not examine private domestic wells in Alaska or Hawaii, includes maps showing where simulated drought conditions are likely to increase the probability of high arsenic levels and the number of people potentially exposed.
The states with the largest populations facing elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water during the simulated drought conditions are Ohio (approximately 374,000 people), Michigan (320,000 people), Indiana (267,000 people), Texas (200,000 people) and California (196,000 people).
Even without drought conditions, relatively large numbers of people are estimated to be exposed to elevated arsenic levels in private domestic well water. Under normal conditions, the largest populations potentially exposed to high levels of arsenic are in Ohio (approximately 241,000 people), Michigan (226,000 people), Indiana (162,000 people), California (157,000 people) and Maine (121,000 people).
This study is the first to explore the potential large-scale impact of drought on naturally occurring arsenic in private drinking water wells,” said Lombard. “While the results suggest that drought will have a negative impact, the study cannot predict what might happen at an individual well, further highlighting the importance of testing.”
The occurrence of arsenic in groundwater is due to a variety of complex interactions, added Lombard. The reasons for the increase in arsenic during drought and as drought persists could vary depending on changes to groundwater flow, alterations in water chemistry and other factors.
Further exacerbating these challenges, climate models predict increasing temperatures and decreasing precipitation in portions of North America during the 21st century. USGS findings suggest that as the duration of drought increases, the probability of arsenic concentrations greater than EPA’s drinking water standard will also increase.
This study used an existing USGS statistical model that predicts the probability for elevated arsenic concentrations in domestic well water. In the new research, scientists used the model to simulate drought conditions by changing precipitation and groundwater levels. The researchers also used data from the drought of 2012, one of the worst on record in the U.S., to investigate how drought duration can impact arsenic levels.
Read the study “Assessing the Impact of Drought on Arsenic Exposure from Private Domestic Wells in the Conterminous United States” published in Environmental Science and Technology at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.9b05835.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The governor has announced the distribution of $50 million in Community Power Resiliency grants through the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES, funds meant to protect local communities and vulnerable Californians from the impacts of utility-initiated power shutoffs.
“Even amidst a global pandemic, we continue to prepare our state for the natural and man-made disasters that may lie ahead,” said Gov. Newson. “These grants are part of our continued commitment to make sure that no Californian is left behind when disasters strike.”
This is the second round of public safety power shutoff resiliency grants from successive budget cycles proposed by the governor and supported by the Legislature.
In FY19-20, the Legislature approved the governor’s proposal to allocate $75 million in resiliency grants to counties, cities, tribes and state agencies.
Over these two budget cycles, counties have received $39 million, cities have received $23 million, tribes have received $4 million, state agencies have received $37.5 million and special districts have received $20 million.
This latest round of funds, allocated through the 2020-21 state budget, are designed to maintain the continuity of critical services that can be impacted by power outages, including schools, county election offices, food storage reserves and COVID-19 testing sites.
The funds are being distributed to 225 recipients, including all 58 counties, 51 incorporated cities, 20 federally recognized tribes and 96 special districts.
The state said the allocations include $13 million to counties, with allocations based on population and the counties required to use at least 50 percent of their award to support public safety power shutoff resiliency for one or more of the following priority areas – schools, elections offices, food storage reserves and/or COVID-19 testing sites.
Lake County will receive $183,393.
Cities also will receive $13 million, which the state allowing cities to apply for up to $300,000 on a competitive basis. Cities are encouraged to allocate funds to one or more of the following priority areas: schools, election offices, food storage reserves and/or COVID-19 testing sites. Neither of Lake County’s two cities are on the recipient’s list.
The state said $2.5 million has been allocated to California federally recognized tribes, with tribes allowed to apply for up to $150,000 on a competitive basis.
The Robinson Rancheria Citizens Business Council received $150,000.
Another $20 million will go to special districts that have an identified critical facility or facilities, or provide critical infrastructure, pursuant to the de-energization guidelines adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission. Funds also were awarded on a competitive basis to special districts, which were allowed to apply for up to $300,000.
Middletown Unified School District was the only special district in Lake County to receive grant funds. It was allocated $300,000.
This young male domestic longhair cat is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14436. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic longhair
This young male domestic longhair cat has a gray and white coat and gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14436.
This male domestic short hair cat is in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. 14386. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic short hair cat
This male domestic short hair cat has a black and white coat and green eyes.
He has been neutered.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. 14386.
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.
Photo Credit: Kim Riley. Name: Lacy Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) Family: Boraginaceae (Borage) Common Names: Friend-Of-The-Bees, bee feast, blue tansy, scorpionweed
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Early springtime, windows down, what is that tantalizing scent along the Lake County section of State Highway 20 from Glenhaven to Lucerne?
Most likely, it is Lacy Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), which is found blooming along the Northshore in profusion typically beginning in early March through April.
Phacelia tanacetifolia is an attention-grabber not only for your eyes and nose, this wildflower native to Lake County and the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, is used in many places as a hedgerow on farms, as it attracts bees and other beneficial insects.
Planted in vineyards and alongside row crops with irrigation, it will continue to grow and flower into the summer months and is highly prized for its long, coiling flower clusters of nectar-rich flowers which open in sequence, giving a long flowering period that attracts not only native and European honey bees, it is also attracts to hoverflies (family Syrphidae), which are useful as biological pest control agents because they eat aphids and other pests.
Photo Credit: Terre Logsdon. They also entertain the eyes of those driving along Highway 20 on the Northshore, interspersed with California poppies – the state flower.
This annual wildflower grows two to four feet tall, both in full sun or part shade, with fragrant flowers ranging from white to lavender to blue.
According to Judith Larner Lowry in her book, “Gardening with a Wild Heart,” “researchers in integrated pest management interplanted tansy-leaf phacelia with sugar beets. They found that sugar beet yields were significantly higher in plots grown with phacelia, possibly because adult syrphid flies, which feed on the floral nectar and pollen of phacelia,were significantly abundant. These syrphid flies were credited with reducing the aphids on the nearby sugar beets. Hoverflies as far as 200 meters from the planted phacelia were found with the characteristic blue, star-shaped phacelia pollen in their guts.”
Adding beneficial Lake County native wildflowers to your garden, vineyard, or orchard like Phacelia tanacetifolia is not only good for your crops – it is great for the native wildlife!
Terre Logsdon is an environmentalist, composter, and advocate for agroecology solutions to farming. An avid fan and protector of California wildflowers, plants, natural resources, and the environment, she seeks collaborative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Kim Riley is retired, an avid hiker at Highland Springs, and has lived in Lake County since 1985. After 15 years of trail recovery and maintenance on the Highland Springs trails, she is now focused on native plants, including a native plant and pollinator garden on her property as well as promoting and preserving the beauty of the Highland Springs Recreation Area. Karen Sullivan has operated two nurseries to propagate and cultivate native plants and wildflowers, has lived in Kelseyville for the past 30 years, rides horses far and wide to see as many flowers as possible, and offers native plants and wildflowers for sale to the public. They are collaborating on a book, Highland Springs Recreation Area: A Field Guide, which will be published in the future. In the meanwhile, please visit https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsNaturalists and https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsRecreationArea.
In May of 2018, USGS Hydrologic Technician Dave Knauer found a batch of zebra mussels attached to the boat anchor in the St. Lawrence River in New York. Credit: John Byrnes, USGS. Public domain. A citizen’s report of an invasive zebra mussel found in an aquarium moss package found in a pet store prompted a U.S. Geological Survey expert on invasive aquatic species to trigger nationwide alerts that have led to the discovery of the destructive shellfish in pet stores in at least 21 states from Alaska to Florida.
Amid concerns that the ornamental aquarium moss balls containing zebra mussels may have accidentally spread the pest to areas where it has not been seen before, federal agencies, states, and the pet store industry are working together to remove the moss balls from pet store shelves nationwide.
They have also drawn up instructions for people who bought the moss balls or have them in aquariums to carefully decontaminate them, destroying any zebra mussels and larvae they contain using one of these methods: freezing them for at least 24 hours, placing them in boiling water for at least one minute, placing them in diluted chlorine bleach, or submerging them in undiluted white vinegar for at least 20 minutes.
The decontamination instructions were developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USGS and representatives of the pet industry.
Zebra mussels are an invasive, fingernail-sized mollusk native to freshwaters in Eurasia. They clog water intakes for power and water plants, block water control structures, and damage fishing and boating equipment, at great cost. The federal government, state agencies, fishing and boating groups and others have worked extensively to control their spread.
In 1990, in response to the first wave of zebra mussel invasions, the USGS set up its Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, which tracks sightings of about 1,270 non-native aquatic plants and animals nationwide, including zebra mussels. State and local wildlife managers use the database to find and eliminate or control potentially harmful species.
The coordinator of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, USGS fisheries biologist Wesley Daniel, learned about the presence of zebra mussels in moss balls on March 2 and alerted others nationwide about the issue. Moss balls are ornamental plants imported from Ukraine that are often added to aquariums.
“The issue is that somebody who purchased the moss ball and then disposed of them could end up introducing zebra mussels into an environment where they weren’t present before,” Daniel said. “We’ve been working with many agencies on boat inspections and gear inspections, but this was not a pathway we’d been aware of until now.”
On Feb. 25, an employee of a pet store in Seattle, Washington, filed a report to the database that the employee had recently recognized a zebra mussel in a moss ball. Daniel requested confirming information and a photograph and received it a few days later.
Daniel immediately notified the aquatic invasive species coordinator for Washington State and contacted invasive species managers at the USGS and USFWS. He visited a pet store in Gainesville, Florida, and found a zebra mussel in a moss ball there. At that point federal non-indigenous species experts realized the issue was extensive.
The USFWS is coordinating the response along with the USGS. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, several state wildlife agencies and an industry group, the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, are also taking steps to mitigate the problem. National alerts have gone out from the USFWS, the federal Aquatic Nuisance Task and regional aquatic invasive species management groups. Reports of zebra mussels in moss balls have come from Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington and Wyoming.
“I think this was a great test of the rapid-response network that we have been building,” Daniel said. “In two days, we had a coordinated state, federal and industry response.”
The USGS is also studying potential methods to help control zebra mussels that are already established in the environment, such as low-dose copper applications, carbon dioxide and microparticle delivery of toxicants.
Armistice Day celebrations on Nov. 11, 1918, worried public health experts as people crowded together in cities across the U.S. AP Photo
Picture the United States struggling to deal with a deadly pandemic.
State and local officials enact a slate of social-distancing measures, gathering bans, closure orders and mask mandates in an effort to stem the tide of cases and deaths.
The public responds with widespread compliance mixed with more than a hint of grumbling, pushback and even outright defiance. As the days turn into weeks turn into months, the strictures become harder to tolerate.
As familiar as it all may sound in 2021, these are real descriptions of the U.S. during the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic. In my research as a historian of medicine, I’ve seen again and again the many ways our current pandemic has mirrored the one experienced by our forebears a century ago.
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, many people want to know when life will go back to how it was before the coronavirus. History, of course, isn’t an exact template for what the future holds. But the way Americans emerged from the earlier pandemic could suggest what post-pandemic life will be like this time around.
Sick and tired, ready for pandemic’s end
Like COVID-19, the 1918 influenza pandemic hit hard and fast, going from a handful of reported cases in a few cities to a nationwide outbreak within a few weeks. Many communities issued several rounds of various closure orders – corresponding to the ebbs and flows of their epidemics – in an attempt to keep the disease in check.
These social-distancing orders worked to reduce cases and deaths. Just as today, however, they often proved difficult to maintain. By the late autumn, just weeks after the social-distancing orders went into effect, the pandemic seemed to be coming to an end as the number of new infections declined.
People clamored to return to their normal lives. Businesses pressed officials to be allowed to reopen. Believing the pandemic was over, state and local authorities began rescinding public health edicts. The nation turned its efforts to addressing the devastation influenza had wrought.
For the friends, families and co-workers of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who had died, post-pandemic life was filled with sadness and grief. Many of those still recovering from their bouts with the malady required support and care as they recuperated.
At a time when there was no federal or state safety net, charitable organizations sprang into action to provide resources for families who had lost their breadwinners, or to take in the countless children left orphaned by the disease.
For the vast majority of Americans, though, life after the pandemic seemed to be a headlong rush to normalcy. Starved for weeks of their nights on the town, sporting events, religious services, classroom interactions and family gatherings, many were eager to return to their old lives.
Taking their cues from officials who had – somewhat prematurely – declared an end to the pandemic, Americans overwhelmingly hurried to return to their pre-pandemic routines. They packed into movie theaters and dance halls, crowded in stores and shops, and gathered with friends and family.
Officials had warned the nation that cases and deaths likely would continue for months to come. The burden of public health, however, now rested not on policy but rather on individual responsibility.
Predictably, the pandemic wore on, stretching into a third deadly wave that lasted through the spring of 1919, with a fourth wave hitting in the winter of 1920. Some officials blamed the resurgence on careless Americans. Others downplayed the new cases or turned their attention to more routine public health matters, including other diseases, restaurant inspections and sanitation.
Despite the persistence of the pandemic, influenza quickly became old news. Once a regular feature of front pages, reportage rapidly dwindled to small, sporadic clippings buried in the backs of the nation’s newspapers. The nation carried on, inured to the toll the pandemic had taken and the deaths yet to come. People were largely unwilling to return to socially and economically disruptive public health measures.
Our predecessors might be forgiven for not staying the course longer. First, the nation was eager to celebrate the recent end of World War I, an event that perhaps loomed larger in the lives of Americans than even the pandemic.
Second, death from disease was a much larger part of life in the early 20th century, and scourges such as diphtheria, measles, tuberculosis, typhoid, whooping cough, scarlet fever and pneumonia each routinely killed tens of thousands of Americans every year. Moreover, neither the cause nor the epidemiology of influenza was well understood, and many experts remained unconvinced that social distancing measures had any measurable impact.
Finally, there were no effective flu vaccines to rescue the world from the ravages of the disease. In fact, the influenza virus would not be discovered for another 15 years, and a safe and effective vaccine was not available for the general population until 1945. Given the limited information they had and the tools at their disposal, Americans perhaps endured the public health restrictions for as long as they reasonably could.
A century later, and a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, it is understandable that people now are all too eager to return to their old lives. The end of this pandemic inevitably will come, as it has with every previous one humankind has experienced.
If we have anything to learn from the history of the 1918 influenza pandemic, as well as our experience thus far with COVID-19, however, it is that a premature return to pre-pandemic life risks more cases and more deaths.
Sticking with all these coronavirus-fighting factors or easing off on them could mean the difference between a new disease surge and a quicker end to the pandemic. COVID-19 is much more transmissible than influenza, and several troubling SARS-CoV-2 variants are already spreading around the globe. The deadly third wave of influenza in 1919 shows what can happen when people prematurely relax their guard.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new small dogs joining the canines waiting to be adopted.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of boxer, cattle dog, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, heeler, Husky, McNab, terrier and pit bull.
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.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
“Sophie” is a female boxer-pit bull mix in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14356. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Sophie’
“Sophie” is a female boxer-pit bull mix with a short red coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 14356.
“Mandy” is a heeler mix in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14424. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Mandy’
“Mandy” is a heeler mix with a short tan and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14424.
This male cattle dog-terrier mix is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14415. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Cattle dog-terrier mix
This male cattle dog-terrier mix has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 14415.
This male McNab mix is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 14425. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male McNab mix
This male McNab mix has a medium-length black coat and gold eyes.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. 14425.
“Husk” is a male shepherd mix in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14429. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Husk’
“Husk” is a male shepherd mix with a short black and brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14429.
This female German Shepherd is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14434. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female German Shepherd
This female German Shepherd has a medium-length black and red coat and brown eyes.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14434.
This female Chihuahua is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14431. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female Chihuahua
This female Chihuahua has a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14431.
This young male husky-pit bull terrier mix is in kennel No. 33, ID No. 14437. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Husky-pit bull terrier mix
This young male husky-pit bull terrier mix has a short blue and white coat and brown eyes.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. 14437.
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.
If you’re on the ground during a thunderstorm, you might witness a spectacular show of lightning.
But if you’re observing that same thunderstorm from the vantage point of the International Space Station, you might see a bolt of energy shooting up from the clouds. And it might be red. Or blue. Or even green.
These particle outbursts are like nothing seen from the ground, and may prove useful to predict weather outcomes more precisely, better understand changes to our climate and increase the safety of planes and ships approaching dangerous storms.
They have names that sound like they were taken from a fantasy novel: Blue Jet. Gigantic Jet. Red Sprite. Halos and Elves. But all belong to a more scientific-sounding family, transient luminous events or TLE’s; flashes and glows that appear above storms that are results of activity occurring in and below those storms.
Dr. Timothy Lang is a lead research aerospace technologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. He explainED how two key observational instruments aboard the orbiting laboratory are helping scientists better understand these colorful bursts of energy:
“We use the Lightning Imaging Sensor, or LIS, to map lightning in two dimensions with global-scale coverage. It shows us where the thunderstorms are taking place, and how powerful each one is based on the size of its lightning flashes. So it’s akin to a macro camera. Another instrument, the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, or ASIM, is operated by the European Space Agency. ASIM gives us very fine detail of a TLE’s flash. In essence, it’s akin to a micro camera,” Lang said.
Torsten Neubert, ASIM Principal Investigator at Denmark’s National Space Institute addED that “ASIM and LIS make observations in different ranges of the color spectrum, allowing for different views of these particle events.”
So, LIS is macro; ASIM is micro, and together they provide a powerful combination for exploring lightning and TLEs.
The space station offers an excellent vantage point to scientists studying TLEs. At about 250 miles up, it is much closer to these phenomena than a geosynchronous satellite. Further, the stations’ orbit allows for coverage of storms world-wide.
All this allows LIS and ASIM to produce a unique space-based dataset of thunderstorms and their effects, which in turn helps support other observational instruments. LIS for example, has been used to calibrate instruments and verify data for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper on NASA and NOAA’s GOES satellites, and will also support the lightning imager on the European satellite, Meteosat Third Generation. This support helps make data produced by these sensors the highest quality for serving the public.
From the space station, LIS can provide lightning data in near-realtime for the benefit of those on Earth. It can report lightning nearing dry areas of forests prone to wildfires. It’s integrated into the NOAA Aviation Weather Center's operations, which provides weather forecasts and warnings to the US and international aviation and maritime communities. And, over time, it can map data points to help scientists observe changes to our climate over broad tracts of land and sea.
In short, studying lightning and its effects both below and above the clouds can have a big impact on how we view our planet. Doing so from the International Space Station is improving that view in ways that couldn’t be accomplished anywhere else.
For more electrifying information about the International Space Station, go to www.nasa.gov/iss-science.
To discover more about the space on, around, and beyond our planet visit http://science.nasa.gov.
The Garibays from Maxwell, California. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After a one-year hiatus, the popular Catfish Derby is returning to Clearlake Oaks on May 14, 15 and 16.
Past participants are being notified of the decision and the precautions that will be in effect.
Widely known as the biggest Catfish Derby west of the Mississippi, the event traditionally draws fishing enthusiasts from throughout the United States who come for a chance to hook a big fish, win a cash prize and enjoy the camaraderie that makes the tournament the type of event groups and families enjoy, year after year.
This year will mark the 37th Derby.
“In recent years, participation has grown to about 1,000 fishing enthusiasts and their families,” said Dennis Locke, chairman of the Catfish Derby Committee.
The much-anticipated event was cancelled last year due to COVID-19 restrictions that precluded events drawing large crowds of the size the Derby normally attracts.
“We aren’t expecting as large a crowd this year,” Locke said. “But we have been fielding calls from our most avid participants and so far, the mail in application rate is encouraging. Also, for the first time this year we’re accepting online applications so overall, we’re seeing good results early in the process.”
Camille Gouldberg, president of the Clearlake Oaks-Glenhaven Business Association which sponsors the Derby, said that many aspects of the event will be different this year.
“The one thing that won’t change is the fishing,” she said. “Hopefully the individuals, groups and family bubbles that normally enter the contest will return to enjoy the best catfishing around.”
“We decided to move forward this year after considerable discussion and careful consideration of the operational changes needed to minimize potential spread of the COVID virus,” Locke said. “We are following the most current local and state guidance. If restrictions ease up by May, we’ll evaluate the feasibility of revising some procedures.”
Locke also said that the Catfish Derby supports the local economy in numerous ways, boosting sales at bait and tackle shops, stores, coffee houses, restaurants, hotels, resorts, casinos, and more. “It draws more people from outside the county than any single event I can think of and the proceeds go right back into the community” he said. “It’s an important fundraiser for our little town.”
Gouldberg said the business association had to limit the amount of donations given in 2020. “The event proceeds from this year will hopefully allow us to resume more robust funding of the activities we traditionally support including schools, the local senior center and events that benefit our children, seniors and the community at large,” she said.
A number of significant changes have been made including two location changes. The on-site registration is moving from the fire station to the Clearlake Oaks Plaza on 12483 Foothill Blvd. and the fish weigh-ins will move to the Clearlake Oaks public boat launch ramp on 12684 Island Drive, west of the fire station off highway 20.
“We won’t be providing food or beverages this year and we’re foregoing the raffles, t-shirt sales and photo booth. Also, no entertainment or spectators this year and no awards ceremony at the conclusion of the Derby. Instead, tournament results will be posted on our website and social media. Prize awards will be sent to winning contestants by mail,” Locke said.
“It’s a scaled down version of what we’ve done,” Locke said, “but the prize levels are the same.”
A total of $10,000 in cash prizes will be awarded. In the adult division, 20 prizes ranging from $5,000 to $40 will be awarded. In the two kid’s divisions, 5 prizes are awarded in the 11 to 15 category and 5 in the “up to 10-year-old” category. Prizes in these divisions range from $100 to $10.
For updated information on the 2021 Derby call 707-596-0248, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the website at www.clearlakeoaks.org/derby.
“Our committee is made up of volunteers, mostly over the age of 65,” said Gail Jonas, former Catfish Derby Committee chair. “We missed the derby last year and hopefully, soon, we can return to more traditional times. But for now, we need to be cautious.”
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