Tuesday, 11 February 2025

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has hounds, terriers, an Australian Shepherd and a Rhodesian Ridgeback waiting for homes this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian Shepherd, bull terrier, fox terrier, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback and terrier.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

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 (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

“Goofy” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Goofy’

“Goofy” is getting top billing this week, as he’s been waiting a long time for a new home – since the start of November, after he was found on the highway in Clearlake.

He is a young male Rhodesian Ridgeback with a short tan and black coat.

Shelter staff said this boy is great with other dogs, although he is high energy and would benefit from obedience training. He would love to go jogging every day, he is very food motivated and willing to learn new things.

He’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 13210.

This young male Australian Shepherd is in kennel No. 8, ID No. 13550. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male Australian Shepherd

This young male Australian Shepherd has a tricolor coat and brown eyes.

He is in kennel No. 8, ID No. 13550.

This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 10, ID No. 13507. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male pit bull terrier

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

He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. 13507.

This young female pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix is in kennel No. 12, ID No. 13555. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Female pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix

This young female pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat and brown eyes.

She is in kennel No. 12, ID No. 13555.

This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 13546. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short blue and white coat and brown eyes.

He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 13546.

“Luna” is a female husky in kennel No. 16, ID No. 13540. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Luna’

“Luna” is a female husky with a medium-length gray and white coat and blue eyes.

She has already been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 16, ID No. 13540.

“Ricky” is a male pit bull terrier in kennel No. 18, ID No. 4850. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Ricky’

“Ricky” is a male pit bull terrier with a short red coat and green eyes.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 4850.

“Hank” is a male bull terrier-Labrador Retriever mix in kennel No. 20, ID No. 13510. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Hank’

“Hank” is a male bull terrier-Labrador Retriever mix with a short brown and white coat and gold eyes.

He’s in kennel No. 20, ID No. 13510.

These two fox terriers, one male, one female, are in kennel No. 22a, ID No. 13528, and No. 22b, ID No. 13530. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male and female fox terriers

These two fox terriers, one male, one female, have short brown and white coats and brown eyes.

The female is in kennel No. 22a, ID No. 13528; the male is in kennel No. 22b, ID No. 13530.

“Nook” is a female hound mix in kennel No. 23, ID No. 11790. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Nook’

“Nook” is a female hound mix with a short tricolor coat and brown eyes.

She has already been spayed.

She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. 11790.

This young male husky is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 13529. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

Male husky

This young male husky has a long white coat and blue eyes.

Shelter staff said he was found at Lower Lake High School.

He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 13529.

“Butter” is a female terrier in kennel No. 31A, ID No. 13534. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Butter’

“Butter” is a female terrier with a long tricolor coat and brown eyes.

She’s in kennel No. 31A, ID No. 13534.

“Chase” is a male husky-pit bull terrier mix in kennel No. 32, ID No. 13541. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control.

‘Chase’

“Chase” is a male husky-pit bull terrier mix with a short tan coat and blue eyes.

He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 13541.

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, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.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.

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.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An early Saturday morning structure fire resulted in two people being flown out to regional trauma centers for the treatment of burns.

The fire in the 7200 block of Liberty Street in Nice was first reported just before 3:20 a.m. Saturday, according to radio reports.

Northshore Fire personnel arriving at the scene minutes later reported finding a fully involved mobile home with multiple other structures threatened.

Incident command reported that the home’s residents said that everyone was out of the home and accounted for, based on radio traffic.

Firefighters found one person with third-degree burns on both hands and another with smoke inhalation. Incident command requested an air ambulance respond for the burn victim.

A short time later, Cal Fire dispatch reported receiving a request from another unit at the scene for a second air ambulance due to locating a second burn victim.

The air ambulances landed at the Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s helipad, first one from CalStar followed by one from REACH, according to radio reports.

The Northshore Fire ground ambulance with the two burn patients arrived at the landing zone just before 4:30 a.m., just head of incident command reporting that the fire had been knocked down.

Incident command estimated that firefighters would need to do a few hours of mop up.

Also responding to the scene were the Northshore Fire Support Team and Pacific Gas and Electric, according to radio traffic.

Incident command requested Red Cross respond to provide assistance for five adults and two children.

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.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – In an effort to gauge how it’s working with the community and those who live, work and visit there, the Lakeport Police Department is launching a new survey.

Chief Brad Rasmussen said the survey’s key points are community policing, law enforcement and procedural justice, or how police treat people and show concern.

The Lakeport Police Department is partnering with the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, or LEDAC, and Mendocino College Lake Center Police Community Relations class in rolling out the survey.

The online survey, available in both English and Spanish, can be found here.

For those who wish to print the survey out and fill it out on paper, it can be downloaded here.

Paper surveys also can be picked up and dropped off at the Lakeport Police Station, 2025 South Main Street, or at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St. Completed paper surveys can be faxed to 707-263-3846 or scanned and emailed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The survey will be available at a town hall meeting on community policing to be held at Lakeport City Hall from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 5.

It’s not just for Lakeport residents and property owners. Rasmussen asks that people across the county take part, as he says that most residents come to Lakeport – the county seat – at some point for services or other reasons.

“The end goal is to try to get community feedback and better refine our community policing effort,” he said.

“We can’t get better without having feedback from the public to know how they think things are going,” Rasmussen added, noting that the community can offer valuable suggestions and share information about issues of which police aren’t yet aware.

“We know how we think we’re doing but we don’t necessarily know how the community thinks we’re doing in all areas of community policing,” Rasmussen said.

He estimated the last time the department did such a community survey was about 15 years ago, around the time his predecessor, Kevin Burke, took over as chief.

Increased emphasis on community policing

While it’s not a new idea, in recent decades there has been an increasing emphasis on community policing both locally and across the nation, Rasmussen said.

That effort has been guided in part by the United States Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, which issues educational materials and COPS grants that help fund officer positions.

In July, the Lakeport Police Department formally began additional community policing programs based on receiving a US Department of Justice COPs grant.

Rasmussen defines community policing as how the police department integrates and works within the community itself – building relationships with citizens, businesses, community service organizations and other government agencies, with common goals of promoting safety and welfare.

The more police can succeed at that kind of integration, the better they’ll be at solving crimes, he said.

“We’ve been practicing community policing forever, we just didn’t call it that,” Rasmussen said of his department.

Rasmussen hearkened back to Sir Robert Peel, a British prime minister who founded the Metropolitan Police Service and today is known as the father of modern British policing.

Peel summed up how police should act this way: “To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police.”

Rasmussen said it's a view that he and his officers share.

Community policing has become more formalized over the past decade, and it’s included events like National Night Out and the forming of more Neighborhood Watch groups in Lakeport.

Many survey participants wanted

The survey is adapted from one created by the US Department of Justice COPS office, Rasmussen explained.

Rasmussen said the survey, which should take about five minutes to complete, will ask participants about how officers treat people, and if they are fair, respectful, responsive and trustworthy.

The more trust the community has for the police, the better they’ll be able to provide public safety, Rasmussen said, as it will mean community members will be willing to work with the department and its officers.

Through the survey, Rasmussen said they’re hoping to reach every aspect of the community including groups they’ve not had as much contact with traditionally, such as the Hispanic community. The department now has Spanish-speaking officers on staff.

Rasmussen said the survey will be out for about six weeks, or until the start of April.

They need a minimum of 500 responses to have a valid survey. Rasmussen said he’s hoping to get about 1,000.

As the surveys come in, the 11 students in the criminal justice class will help in a variety of ways. Rasmussen said they will input paper surveys into the system and analyze the data as it arrives.

Rasmussen said Bill Eaton, a member of LEDAC and an expert in statistical analysis, will use his software to extract and analyze the data for the purpose of putting it into a report.

The criminal justice class, which will get real-world experience in a community policing project, will write a research paper on the survey before their term ends in the middle of May, Rasmussen said.

“We do plan to release all of this information to the public once it’s done,” he said.

He encourages people to fill out the survey and for them to ask others to do so, too.

“It’s their police department, we really need their input on how they think we’re doing,” he said.

For more information about this project, contact Chief Rasmussen by telephone at 707-263-9650 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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.
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Dogs with terminal bladder cancer improved with this new modified anthrax treatment. Lucky Business/Shutterstock.com

Can the feared anthrax toxin become an ally in the war against cancer? Successful treatment of pet dogs suffering bladder cancer with an anthrax-related treatment suggest so.

Anthrax is a disease caused by a bacterium, known as Bacillus anthracis, which releases a toxin that causes the skin to break down and forms ulcers, and triggers pneumonia and muscle and chest pain. To add to its sinister resumé, and underscore its lethal effects, this toxin has been infamously used as a bioweapon.

However, my colleagues and I found a way to tame this killer and put it to good use against another menace: bladder cancer.

I am a biochemist and cell biologist who has been working on research and development of novel therapeutic approaches against cancer and genetic diseases for more than 20 years. Our lab has investigated, designed and adapted agents to fight disease; this is our latest exciting story.

Pressing needs

Among all cancers, the one affecting the bladder is the sixth most common and in 2019 caused more than 17,000 deaths in the U.S. Of all patients that receive surgery to remove this cancer, about 70% will return to the physician’s office with more tumors. This is psychologically devastating for the patient and makes the cancer of the bladder one of the most expensive to treat.

To make things worse, currently there is a worldwide shortage of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin, a bacterium used to make the preferred immunotherapy for decreasing bladder cancer recurrence after surgery. This situation has left doctors struggling to meet the needs of their patients. Therefore, there is a clear need for more effective strategies to treat bladder cancer.

Anthrax comes to the rescue

Years ago scientists in the Collier lab modified the anthrax toxin by physically linking it to a naturally occurring protein called the epidermal growth factor (EGF) that binds to the EGF receptor, which is abundant on the surface of bladder cancer cells. When the EGF protein binds to the receptor – like a key fits a lock – it causes the cell to engulf the EGF-anthrax toxin, which then induces the cancer cell to commit suicide (a process called apoptosis), while leaving healthy cells alone.

The EGF-anthrax protein binds to bladder cancer cells triggering apoptosis or programmed cell death, which is a regulated process leading to the death of cell. Soleil Nordic/Shutterstock.com

In collaboration with colleagues at Indiana University medical school, Harvard University and MIT, we designed a strategy to eliminate tumors using this modified toxin. Together we demonstrated that this novel approach allowed us to eliminate tumor cells taken from human, dog and mouse bladder cancer.

This highlights the potential of this agent to provide an efficient and fast alternative to the current treatments (which can take between two and three hours to administer over a period of months). I also think it is good news is that the modified anthrax toxin spared normal cells. This suggests that this treatment could have fewer side effects.

Helping our best friends

These encouraging results led my lab to join forces with Dr. Knapp’s group at the Purdue veterinary hospital to treat pet dogs suffering from bladder cancer.

Canine patients for whom all available conventional anti-cancer therapeutics were unsuccessful were considered eligible for these tests. Only after standard tests proved the agent to be safe in laboratory animals, and with the consent of their owners, six eligible dogs with terminal bladder cancer were treated with the anthrax toxin-derived agent.

Two to five doses of this medicine, delivered directly inside the bladder via a catheter, was enough to shrink the tumor by an average of 30%. We consider these results impressive given the initial large size of the tumor and its resistance to other treatments.

There is hope for all

Our collaborators at Indiana University Hospital surgically removed bladder cells from human patients and sent them to my lab for testing the agent. At Purdue my team found these cells to be very sensitive to the anthrax toxin-derived agent as well. These results suggest that this novel anti-bladder cancer strategy could be effective in human patients.

The treatment strategy that we have devised is still experimental. Therefore, it is not available for treatment of human patients yet. Nevertheless, my team is actively seeking the needed economic support and required approvals to move this therapeutic approach into human clinical trials. Plans to develop a new, even better generation of agents and to expand their application to the fight against other cancers are ongoing.

[ Thanks for reading! We can send you The Conversation’s stories every day in an informative email. Sign up today. ]The Conversation

R. Claudio Aguilar, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Purdue University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In June 2019, 31 Upward Bound Program seniors from Lower Lake and Upper Lake High Schools walked across the graduation stage having accomplished their four-year goal: College.

The students began the Upward Bound program as freshmen and participated in the college preparation program and elective class for all four years of high school.

These low-income, emerging first-generation college students learned how to turn their dreams into a reality.

In fact, 87 percent of the 2019 Upward Bound seniors enrolled in college by August 2019 as college freshmen, with 55 percent being accepted to and attending four-year universities.

Upward Bound is a federally-funded outreach and student services program in the United States designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The services are administered, funded and implemented by the U.S. Department of Education.

Sonoma State was awarded this federal funding and administers the grant program in Lake County.

The Upward Bound Program in Lake County has undoubtedly changed the college-going percentage at Lower Lake and Upper Lake High Schools.

Upward Bound began at Lower Lake High School in 2008 and, since and, since then, has impacted eight graduating classes.

Program participants are tracked for six years following high school graduation and are expected to earn a degree in that time. In 2019, the first two cohorts of Upward Bound graduated from LLHS had reached that six-year mark.

While only 49 percent of low-income students complete their degree nation-wide (PELL recipients), 57 percent of these Upward Bound students had completed a degree. Program leaders said this is remarkable for Lake County, where the average degree completion rate is 16 percent.

After graduating from schools such as UC Santa Barbara and UC Merced, many students from the 2011 and 2013 cohorts have returned to Lake County as successful social workers, teachers and accountants.

The first cohort of Upward Bound graduates from Upper Lake High School will reach their six-year mark in 2020.

Upward Bound has high expectations for its newest graduates, class of 2019, who are attending schools such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Merced, Sacramento State, Chico State and many more including local community colleges.

Upward Bound program alumni and staff are working to create a nonprofit organization to give scholarships to Upward Bound seniors, for whom the finances of college are a serious barrier.

“These students have worked incredibly hard for four years to be accepted to a four-year university, and we do not want to see a lack of funds hold them back from achieving their dream,” said Program Director Shannon Smith.

For additional information or to donate to the Lake and Mendocino Upward Bound Scholarship fund, please contact Shannon Smith at 707-245-7972 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The First 5 Lake Commission received a report on its 2019 Kindergarten Entry Developmental Profile study at its January meeting, and the results show that a book gifting program founded by country music legend Dolly Parton is helping children get ready for school.

The report was written and presented by evaluation consultant, Crystal Duarte of Social Entrepreneurs Inc. in Reno, Nevada.

Lake County’s Kindergarten Entry Developmental Profile, or KEDP, is a joint effort with Lake County Office of Education and involves a structured process whereby teachers observe the students in their classroom during the first few months of the new school year and then rate each child’s developmental level according to 15 indicators across five skill areas.

Those areas are social/interpersonal, language comprehension and expression, cognitive competence, math skills and literacy skills.

The study has been conducted annually since 2008 and reports are published on the First 5 Lake website and presented at a regular meeting of the First 5 Lake Commission as a way of tracking the school readiness of incoming students and to help guide investments.

In 2019, 12 schools participated in the KEDP with 31 kindergarten and transitional kindergarten, or TK, teachers completing assessments of their students, for a total of 637 children, or 74 percent of all children enrolled in TK and kindergarten in Lake County.

One key finding from the 2019 KEDP was the correlation of increased school readiness with previous participation in the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library program, founded by Parton in 1990, distributes one free book per month to children from birth to their fifth birthday, regardless of income.

First 5 Lake County has been a major funder of this program for several years in an effort to increase early literacy and provide opportunities for parents to read and bond with their children.

In 2019, 106 of the 520 assessed kindergartners were known to be participating in this program. The study shows that the percentage of developmental indicators rated as “school ready” for students participating in Imagination Library are higher across all five skill areas than those for students who did not participate in the program.

The report cautions that the study’s findings cannot be used to attribute causation, “Although children who participate in Imagination Library had higher percentages of developmental indicators rated as ‘school ready,’ families that are interested in enrolling their children in the program may also be more likely to enroll their children in other activities or engage in more educational activities at home.”

Additional comparisons were made in the report based on previous early childhood education experiences, age, ethnicity, gender, language and school district.

The 2019 ratings continued the trend seen in 2018 with increases in percentages of school readiness across virtually all skill areas for both kindergarten and TK students.

With the highest areas of readiness being Math (65%) and Literacy (58%), and Social/Interpersonal (53%) as the area of least readiness.

The full KEDP report and the presentation slides shared by Social Entrepreneur’s Inc. can be read and downloaded at http://www.firstfivelake.org/reports.php.

While the Imagination Library books are mailed free to children, there is an associated cost to the Lake County Office of Education of $25 per child, per year.

Administered by LCOE, this program is funded by donations from local businesses, community organizations and individuals.

To learn more about enrolling a child in the Imagination Library or supporting the program with your donations, go to https://www.lakecoe.org/Imagination_Library.

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Artist concept of the solar system. Credits: NASA.

NASA has selected four Discovery Program investigations to develop concept studies for new missions.

Although they’re not official missions yet and some ultimately may not be chosen to move forward, the selections focus on compelling targets and science that are not covered by NASA’s active missions or recent selections.

Final selections will be made next year.

NASA’s Discovery Program invites scientists and engineers to assemble a team to design exciting planetary science missions that deepen what we know about the solar system and our place in it.

These missions will provide frequent flight opportunities for focused planetary science investigations. The goal of the program is to address pressing questions in planetary science and increase our understanding of our solar system.

“These selected missions have the potential to transform our understanding of some of the solar system’s most active and complex worlds,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. “Exploring any one of these celestial bodies will help unlock the secrets of how it, and others like it, came to be in the cosmos.”

Each of the four nine-month studies will receive $3 million to develop and mature concepts and will conclude with a Concept Study Report. After evaluating the concept studies, NASA will continue development of up to two missions towards flight.

The proposals were chosen based on their potential science value and feasibility of development plans following a competitive peer-review process.

The selected proposals are as follows.

DAVINCI+ (Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging Plus)

DAVINCI+ will analyze Venus’ atmosphere to understand how it formed, evolved and determine whether Venus ever had an ocean. DAVINCI+ plunges through Venus’ inhospitable atmosphere to precisely measure its composition down to the surface.

The instruments are encapsulated within a purpose-built descent sphere to protect them from the intense environment of Venus. The “+” in DAVINCI+ refers to the imaging component of the mission, which includes cameras on the descent sphere and orbiter designed to map surface rock-type. The last U.S.-led, in-situ mission to Venus was in 1978.

The results from DAVINCI+ have the potential to reshape our understanding of terrestrial planet formation in our solar system and beyond. James Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is the principal investigator. Goddard would provide project management.

Io Volcano Observer (IVO)

IVO would explore Jupiter’s moon, Io, to learn how tidal forces shape planetary bodies. Io is heated by the constant crush of Jupiter’s gravity and is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.

Little is known about Io’s specific characteristics, such as whether a magma ocean exists in its interior. Using close-in flybys, IVO would assess how magma is generated and erupted on Io.

The mission’s results could revolutionize our understanding of the formation and evolution of rocky, terrestrial bodies, as well as icy ocean worlds in our solar system, and extrasolar planets across the universe.

Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson is the principal investigator. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland would provide project management.

TRIDENT

Trident would explore Triton, a unique and highly active icy moon of Neptune, to understand pathways to habitable worlds at tremendous distances from the Sun. NASA’s Voyager 2 mission showed that Triton has active resurfacing – generating the second youngest surface in the solar system – with the potential for erupting plumes and an atmosphere.

Coupled with an ionosphere that can create organic snow and the potential for an interior ocean, Triton is an exciting exploration target to understand how habitable worlds may develop in our solar system and others.

Using a single fly-by, Trident would map Triton, characterize active processes, and determine whether the predicted subsurface ocean exists. Louise Prockter of the Lunar and Planetary Institute/Universities Space Research Association in Houston is the principal investigator. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, California, would provide project management

VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy)

VERITAS would map Venus’ surface to determine the planet’s geologic history and understand why Venus developed so differently than the Earth.

Orbiting Venus with a synthetic aperture radar, VERITAS charts surface elevations over nearly the entire planet to create three-dimensional reconstructions of topography and confirm whether processes, such as plate tectonics and volcanism, are still active on Venus.

VERITAS would also map infrared emissions from the surface to map Venus’ geology, which is largely unknown. Suzanne Smrekar of NASA’s JPL is the principal investigator. JPL would provide project management.

The concepts were chosen from proposals submitted in 2019 under NASA Announcement of Opportunity NNH19ZDA010O, Discovery Program. The selected investigations will be managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the Discovery Program.

The Discovery Program conducts space science investigations in the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, guided by NASA’s agency priorities and the Decadal Survey process of the National Academy of Sciences.

Established in 1992, NASA’s Discovery Program has supported the development and implementation of over 20 missions and instruments. These selections are part of the ninth Discovery Program competition.

For more information about NASA’s planetary science, visit https://www.nasa.gov/solarsystem.
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MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – The Mendocino National Forest offers several fee-free days throughout the year at Forest Service managed campgrounds and the Red Bluff Recreation Area boat launch.

The fee waiver does not apply to campsites at Lake Pillsbury that are operated under concessionaire through PG&E, Sycamore Grove Campground at Red Bluff Recreation Area and Pine Mountain Lookout on the Upper Lake District.

The 2020 fee-free dates are:

– Feb. 17: President’s Day;
– June 13: National Get Outdoors Day;
– Sept. 26: National Public Lands Day;
– Nov. 11: Veterans Day.

“The Mendocino National Forest offers nearly one million acres to camp, hike, bird-watch and ride off-highway vehicles, just a three-hour drive north of Sacramento and San Francisco. We welcome families and friends to come and explore the Mendocino National Forest on these fee-free days,” Mendocino National Forest Supervisor Ann Carlson said.

In addition, all Mendocino National Forest offices (except for the Stonyford Work Center) will close Monday, Feb. 17, in observance of President’s Day and will resume regular business hours at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18.

The Stonyford Work Center will close Tuesday, Feb. 18, for the holiday and open at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19.

To prepare for a trip to the Mendocino, tell a friend or relative where you are going and when you are returning.

Carry emergency equipment and appropriate maps in your vehicle and remember that food, gas, and lodging are not available on the forest road network or within forest boundaries.

Roads are not plowed and cell phone coverage is not reliable in many areas of the forest.

For more information about the forest, please call 530-934-3316 or visit the website.
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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control is offering several new dogs to those looking for their four-legged Valentines this week.

The kennels also have many dogs that need to be reunited with their owners. To find the lost/found pet section, click here.

The following dogs are ready for adoption.

“Barkley.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Barkley’

“Barkley” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short red coat.

He is dog No. 3528.

“Blue.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Blue’

“Blue” is a female Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a short blue and white coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 2420.

“Blue.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Blue’

This dog, also named “Blue,” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a short white and brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 3539.

“Bonbon.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Bonbon’

“Bonbon” is a male pit bull terrier mix with a red coat and white markings.

He is dog No. 3606.

“Duchess.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Duchess’

“Duchess” is a female Chihuahua mix puppy with a short tan coat and white markings.

She is dog No. 3618.

“King.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘King’

“King” is a male purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a short brindle coat.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 3034.

“Lola.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Lola’

“Lola” is a female pit bull terrier mix with a short red and white coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3337.

“Mack.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Mack’

“Mack” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short black coat and white markings.

He has been neutered.

He is dog No. 3570.

“Phoebe.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Phoebe’

“Phoebe” is a female American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short black and white coat.

She is dog No. 3483.

“Roxy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Roxy’

“Roxy” is a female German Shepherd mix with a medium-length black and tan coat.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3545.

“Savannah.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Savannah’

“Savannah” is a female Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short brindle coat.

She has been spayed.

Savannah is dog No. 3625.

“Woodrow.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

‘Woodrow’

“Woodrow” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a black and white coat.

He is dog No. 3281.

Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.

Hours of operation are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at the city’s Web site.

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.
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The western meadowlark had a below-average count in the 45th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count held on Saturday, December 14, 2019, in Lake County, California. Photo courtesy of the Redbud Audubon Society.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The 45th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count is in the books.

After reviewing and eliminating possible double-counted birds, the total species remains at 134 species reported on the 2019 Christmas Bird Count held Dec. 14.

This number is a little below average (136) over the last 22 years. The high was 153 species in 2007, and the lowest count was 122 in 2003 and 2018.

There was a reduction in birding hours this year but despite that, the total number of birds seen was 41,666, which is a bit higher than average over the last 16 years of 39,636.

The highest count is still 135,312 in 2003, a year when thousands of Western and Clarke’s grebes were on Clear Lake.

The rare birds seen this year were the tri-colored blackbird, yellow-headed blackbird and great-tailed grackle.

This is the first CBC sighting of the yellow-headed blackbird, the second CBC sighting of the great-tailed grackle, and the eighth CBC sighting of the tricolored blackbird.

Western grebes were among the birds with the highest total numbers counted in the 45th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count held on Saturday, December 14, 2019, in Lake County, California. Photo courtesy of the Redbud Audubon Society.

Other high numbers included 71 hooded mergansers; nine greater white-fronted geese; 3,355 American white pelicans; 4,510 double-crested cormorants; 77 brown-headed cowbirds; 26 Townsend’s warblers; and three white-throated sparrows.

For the third year in a row, the Western/Clark’s grebes won the prize of the highest number with 11,754, however, this total is the lowest number counted for these species in the last six years.

Other higher-than-usual numbers include 78 ring-necked ducks (high of 61 last year); 1,966 common mergansers (1,217 last year); eight brown creepers; and 507 red-winged blackbirds.

The overall picture shows lower counts for most species.

Species with lower-than-average numbers include the following 36 species: Gadwall, American widgeon, northern shoveler, green-winged teal, canvasback, greater and lesser scaup, bufflehead, ruddy duck, wild turkey, California quail, common loon, white-tailed kite, Cooper’s hawk, American kestrel, killdeer, spotted sandpiper, California gull, herring gull, mourning dove, Nuttall’s woodpecker, northern flicker, Steller's jay, California scrub-jay, oak titmouse, Bewick’s wren, American pipit, spotted towhee, California towhee, song sparrow, white and golden-crowned sparrows, western meadowlark, house finch, lesser goldfinch and house sparrow.

The Redbud Audubon Chapter said it appreciated all the participants and their support and efforts in making the bird count as accurate and complete as possible.

The group invites community members to join in the 121st annual Christmas Bird Count and the 46th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count, which will be held Saturday, Dec. 19.

Kathy Barnwell is a member of the Redbud Audubon Society.
Thousands of American white pelicans were counted during the 45th Redbud Audubon Christmas Bird Count held on Saturday, December 14, 2019, in Lake County, California. Photo courtesy of the Redbud Audubon Society.
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Artist’s concept of a nearby civilization signaling Earth after observing our planet crossing in front of the sun. Astronomers have now scanned 20 nearby stars in the Earth transit zone in search of such signals. (UC Berkeley image courtesy of Breakthrough Listen)

The Breakthrough Listen Initiative on Friday released data from the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy and the region around its central black hole, and it is inviting the public to search the data for signals from intelligent civilizations.

At a media briefing in Seattle as part of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, Breakthrough Listen principal investigator Andrew Siemion of the University of California, Berkeley, announced the release of nearly two petabytes of data, the second data dump from the four-year old search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.

A petabyte of radio and optical telescope data was released last June, the largest release of SETI data in the history of the field.

The data, most of it fresh from the telescope prior to detailed study from astronomers, comes from a survey of the radio spectrum between 1 and 12 gigahertz. About half of the data comes via the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, which, because of its location in the Southern Hemisphere, is perfectly situated and instrumented to scan the entire galactic disk and galactic center.

The telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, owned and managed by the country’s national science agency, CSIRO.

The remainder of the data was recorded by the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, the world’s largest steerable radio dish, and an optical telescope called the Automated Planet Finder, built and operated by UC Berkeley and located at Lick Observatory outside San Jose, California.

“Since Breakthrough Listen’s initial data release last year, we have doubled what is available to the public,” said Breakthrough Listen’s lead system administrator, Matt Lebofsky. “It is our hope that these data sets will reveal something new and interesting, be it other intelligent life in the universe or an as-yet-undiscovered natural astronomical phenomenon.”

“For the whole of human history, we had a limited amount of data to search for life beyond Earth. So, all we could do was speculate. Now, as we are getting a lot of data, we can do real science and, with making this data available to the general public, so can anyone who wants to know the answer to this deep question,” said Yuri Milner, the founder of Breakthrough Listen.

Moonset, around 2:30 a.m., at the Very Large Array on the Plains of San Agustin, about 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. The VLA is teaming up with the SETI Institute to capture data that can be searched for intelligent signals.

Very Large Array joins SETI search

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, or NRAO, and the privately-funded SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, also announced today an agreement to collaborate on new systems to add SETI capabilities to radio telescopes operated by NRAO.

The first project will develop a system to piggyback on the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, or VLA, in New Mexico and provide data to state-of-the-art digital backend equipment built by the SETI Institute.

"The SETI Institute will develop and install an interface on the VLA, permitting unprecedented access to the rich data stream continuously produced by the telescope as it scans the sky,“ said Siemion, who, in addition to his UC Berkeley position, is the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. “This interface will allow us to conduct a powerful, wide-area SETI survey that will be vastly more complete than any previous such search."

"As the VLA conducts its usual scientific observations, this new system will allow for an additional and important use for the data we're already collecting," said NRAO Director Tony Beasley. “Determining whether we are alone in the universe as technologically capable life is among the most compelling questions in science, and NRAO telescopes can play a major role in answering it.”

Australia’s Parkes radio telescope, 210 feet in diameter, conducted the most comprehensive survey yet of radio emissions from the Milky Way galaxy in search of technosignatures from advanced civilizations around other stars. Photo courtesy of CSIRO.

Earth transit zone survey

In releasing the new radio and optical data, Siemion highlighted a new analysis of a small subset of the data: radio emissions from 20 nearby stars that are aligned with the plane of Earth’s orbit such that an advanced civilization around those stars could see Earth pass in front of the sun (a “transit” like those focused on by NASA’s Kepler space telescope).

Conducted by the Green Bank Telescope, the Earth transit zone survey observed in the radio frequency range between 4 and 8 gigahertz, the so-called C-band.

The data were then analyzed by former UC Berkeley undergraduate Sofia Sheikh, now a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, who looked for bright emissions at a single radio wavelength or a narrow band around a single wavelength. She has submitted the paper to the Astrophysical Journal.

“This is a unique geometry,” Sheikh said. “It is how we discovered other exoplanets, so it kind of makes sense to extrapolate and say that that might be how other intelligent species find planets, as well. This region has been talked about before, but there has never been a targeted search of that region of the sky.”

While Sheikh and her team found no technosignatures of civilization, the analysis and other detailed studies the Breakthrough Listen group has conducted are gradually putting limits on the location and capabilities of advanced civilizations that may exist in our galaxy.

“We didn't find any aliens, but we are setting very rigorous limits on the presence of a technologically capable species, with data for the first time in the part of the radio spectrum between 4 and 8 gigahertz,” Siemion said. “These results put another rung on the ladder for the next person who comes along and wants to improve on the experiment.”

Sheikh noted that her mentor, Jason Wright at Penn State, estimated that if the world’s oceans represented every place and wavelength we could search for intelligent signals, we have, to date, explored only a hot tub’s worth of it.

“My search was sensitive enough to see a transmitter basically the same as the strongest transmitters we have on Earth, because I looked at nearby targets on purpose,” Sheikh said. “So, we know that there isn't anything as strong as our Arecibo telescope beaming something at us. Even though this is a very small project, we are starting to get at new frequencies and new areas of the sky.”

Beacons in the galactic center?

The so-far unanalyzed observations from the galactic disk and galactic center survey were a priority for Breakthrough Listen because of the higher likelihood of observing an artificial signal from that region of dense stars.

If artificial transmitters are not common in the galaxy, then searching for a strong transmitter among the billions of stars in the disk of our galaxy is the best strategy, Simeon said.

On the other hand, putting a powerful, intergalactic transmitter in the core of our galaxy, perhaps powered by the 4 million-solar-mass black hole there, might not be beyond the capabilities of a very advanced civilization. Galactic centers may be so-called Schelling points: likely places for civilizations to meet up or place beacons, given that they cannot communicate among themselves to agree on a location.

“The galactic center is the subject of a very specific and concerted campaign with all of our facilities because we are in unanimous agreement that that region is the most interesting part of the Milky Way galaxy,” Siemion said. “If an advanced civilization anywhere in the Milky Way wanted to put a beacon somewhere, getting back to the Schelling point idea, the galactic center would be a good place to do it. It is extraordinarily energetic, so one could imagine that if an advanced civilization wanted to harness a lot of energy, they might somehow use the supermassive black hole that is at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.”

Breakthrough Listen, based at UC Berkeley, collects petabytes of data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia (right) and the Parkes radio telescope in Australia (left) and makes it available to the science community to analyze in search of signals from intelligent civilizations. Graphic courtesy of Breakthrough Listen.

Visit from an interstellar comet

Breakthrough Listen also released observations of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, which had a close encounter with the sun in December and is now on its way out of the solar system. The group had earlier scanned the interstellar rock ‘Oumuamua, which passed through the center of our solar system in 2017. Neither exhibited technosignatures.

“If interstellar travel is possible, which we don't know, and if other civilizations are out there, which we don't know, and if they are motivated to build an interstellar probe, then some fraction greater than zero of the objects that are out there are artificial interstellar devices,” said Steve Croft, a research astronomer with the Berkeley SETI Research Center and Breakthrough Listen. “Just as we do with our measurements of transmitters on extrasolar planets, we want to put a limit on what that number is.”

Regardless of the kind of SETI search, Siemion said, Breakthrough Listen looks for electromagnetic radiation that is consistent with a signal that we know technology produces, or some anticipated signal that technology could produce, and inconsistent with the background noise from natural astrophysical events. This also requires eliminating signals from cellphones, satellites, GPS, internet, Wi-fi and myriad other human sources.

In Sheikh’s case, she turned the Green Bank telescope on each star for five minutes, pointed away for another five minutes and repeated that twice more. She then threw out any signal that didn’t disappear when the telescope pointed away from the star. Ultimately, she whittled an initial 1 million radio spikes down to a couple hundred, which she was able to eliminate as Earth-based human interference. The last four unexplained signals turned out to be from passing satellites.

Siemion emphasized that the Breakthrough Listen team intends to analyze all the data released to date and to do it systematically and often.

“Of all the observations we have done, probably 20 percent or 30 percent have been included in a data analysis paper,” Siemion said. “Our goal is not just to analyze it 100 percent, but 1000 percent or 2000 percent. We want to analyze it iteratively.”

Breakthrough Listen, based at UC Berkeley, is supported by a $100 million, 10-year commitment from the Breakthrough Initiatives, founded in 2015 by Yuri and Julia Milner to explore the universe, seek scientific evidence of life beyond Earth and encourage public debate from a planetary perspective.

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this photo of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov in October 2019, two months before its closest approach to the sun. Photo courtesy of NASA, ESA and D. Jewitt, UCLA.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The four candidates seeking to win the District 5 supervisorial seat in the March primary will take part in a public forum next week.

The event, hosted by Lake County News, will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, in the Board of Supervisors chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

Four candidates are seeking to succeed longtime District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown, who chose not to seek reelection.

Running for the seat are Kevin Ahajanian of Cobb; retired pharmacist Bill Kearney of Kelseyville; Jessica Pyska, an educator from Cobb; and Lily Woll, an English as a second language and Spanish teacher, from Kelseyville.

During the forum, they will answer a round of at least 10 questions.

Community members may submit questions at the event or by emailing moderator Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The forum also will be recorded and posted online.

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