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The James Webb Space Telescope is the biggest orbital telescope ever built and was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021. NASA/Desiree Stover, CC BY

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched into space on Dec. 25, 2021, and with it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to form in the universe, will search for Earthlike atmospheres around other planets and accomplish many other scientific goals.

I am an astronomer and the principal investigator for the Near Infrared Camera – or NIRCam for short – aboard the Webb telescope. I have participated in the development and testing for both my camera and the telescope as a whole.

To see deep into the universe, the telescope has a very large mirror and must be kept extremely cold. But getting a fragile piece of equipment like this to space is no simple task. There have been many challenges my colleagues and I have had to overcome to design, test and soon launch and align the most powerful space telescope ever built.

A gold section of the mirror with the sensors extended out in front of the mirror.
In order to detect the most distant and oldest galaxies, the telescope needs to be huge and kept extremely cold. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY


Young galaxies and alien atmospheres

The Webb telescope has a mirror over 20 feet across, a tennis-court sized sun shade to block solar radiation and four separate camera and sensor systems to collect the data.

It works kind of like a satellite dish. Light from a star or galaxy will enter the mouth of the telescope and bounce off the primary mirror toward the four sensors: NIRCam, which takes images in the near infrared; the Near Infrared Spectrograph, which can split the light from a selection of sources into their constituent colors and measures the strength of each; the Mid-Infrared Instrument, which takes images and measures wavelengths in the middle infrared; and the Near Infrared Imaging Slitless Spectrograph, which splits and measures the light of anything scientists point the satellite at.

This design will allow scientists to study how stars form in the Milky Way and the atmospheres of planets outside the Solar System. It may even be possible to figure out the composition of these atmospheres.

A complicated, gold-plated, hexagonal instrument standing on four silvery legs.
The NIRCam, seen here, will measure infrared light from extremely distant and old galaxies. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY


Ever since Edwin Hubble proved that distant galaxies are just like the Milky Way, astronomers have asked: How old are the oldest galaxies? How did they first form? And how have they changed over time? The Webb telescope was originally dubbed the “First Light Machine” because it is designed to answer these very questions.

One of the main goals of the telescope is to study distant galaxies close to the edge of observable universe. It takes billions of years for the light from these galaxies to cross the universe and reach Earth. I estimate that images my colleagues and I will collect with NIRCam could show protogalaxies that formed a mere 300 million years after the Big Bang – when they were just 2% of their current age.

Finding the first aggregations of stars that formed after the Big Bang is a daunting task for a simple reason: These protogalaxies are very far away and so appear to be very faint.

Webb’s mirror is made of 18 separate segments and can collect more than six times as much light as the Hubble Space Telescope mirror. Distant objects also appear to be very small, so the telescope must be able to focus the light as tightly as possible.

The telescope also has to cope with another complication: Since the universe is expanding, the galaxies that scientists will study with the Webb telescope are moving away from Earth, and the Doppler effect comes into play. Just like the pitch of an ambulance’s siren shifts down and becomes deeper when it passes and starts moving away from you, the wavelength of light from distant galaxies shifts down from visible light to infrared light.

A golden mirror with multiple layers of silvery material spread out beneath it.
The five layers of silvery material underneath the gold mirror are a sunshield that will reflect light and heat to keep the sensors incredibly cold. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY


Webb detects infrared light – it is essentially a giant heat telescope. To “see” faint galaxies in infrared light, the telescope needs to be exceptionally cold or else all it would see would be its own infrared radiation. This is where the heat shield comes in. The shield is made of a thin plastic coated with aluminum. It is five layers thick and measures 46.5 feet (17.2 meters) by 69.5 feet (21.2 meters) and will keep the mirror and sensors at minus 390 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 234 Celsius).

The Webb telescope is an incredible feat of engineering, but how does one get such a thing safely to space and guarantee that it will work?

The assembled telescope being wheeled out of a large chamber.
Engineers and scientists tested the entire telescope in an an extremely cold, low-pressure cryogenic vacuum chamber. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY


Test and rehearse

The James Webb Space Telescope will orbit a million miles from Earth – about 4,500 times more distant than the International Space Station and much too far to be serviced by astronauts.

Over the past 12 years, the team has tested the telescope and instruments, shaken them to simulate the rocket launch and tested them again. Everything has been cooled and tested under the extreme operating conditions of orbit. I will never forget when my team was in Houston testing the NIRCam using a chamber designed for the Apollo lunar rover. It was the first time that my camera detected light that had bounced off the telescope’s mirror, and we couldn’t have been happier – even though Hurricane Harvey was fighting us outside.

People sitting at desks using computers.
Rehearsals and training at the Space Telescope Science Institute are critical to make sure that the assembly process goes smoothly and any unexpected anomalies can be dealt with. NASA/STScI, CC BY


After testing came the rehearsals. The telescope will be controlled remotely by commands sent over a radio link. But because the telescope will be so far away – it takes six seconds for a signal to go one way – there is no real-time control. So for the past three years, my team and I have been going to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore and running rehearsal missions on a simulator covering everything from launch to routine science operations. The team even has practiced dealing with potential problems that the test organizers throw at us and cutely call “anomalies.”

A tall, rectangular bundle of silvery material, gold mirrors and metal framing.
To fit inside a rocket, the telescope needs to fold into a compact package. NASA/Chris Gunn, CC BY

Some alignment required

The Webb team continued to rehearse and practice until the launch date, but our work is far from done now.

[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter.]

We need to wait 35 days after launch for the parts to cool before beginning alignment. After the mirror unfolds, NIRCam will snap sequences of high-resolution images of the individual mirror segments. The telescope team will analyze the images and tell motors to adjust the segments in steps measured in billionths of a meter. Once the motors move the mirrors into position, we will confirm that telescope alignment is perfect. This task is so mission critical that there are two identical copies of NIRCam on board – if one fails, the other can take over the alignment job.

This alignment and checkout process should take six months. When finished, Webb will begin collecting data. After 20 years of work, astronomers will at last have a telescope able to peer into the farthest, most distant reaches of the universe.

This story was updated with the launch.The Conversation

Marcia Rieke, Regents Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona

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

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Sean de Guzman left, Chief of the California Department of Water Resources Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Section, and Anthony Burdock, right, Water Resources Engineer in the Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit, are seen during the measurement phase of the first media snow survey of the 2022 season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The survey is held approximately 90 miles east of Sacramento off Highway 50 in El Dorado County. Photo taken Thursday, December 30, 2021, by Andrew Innerarity/California Department of Water Resources.


Early winter storms this month provided a strong start to the season and some drought relief, but California remains in a drought.

That was the report from the California Department of Water Resources, which conducted the first snow survey of the season at Phillips Station on Thursday.

Thursday’s manual survey recorded 78.5 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 20 inches, which is 202 percent of average for this location on this date.

The snow water equivalent measures the amount of water contained in the snowpack and is a key component of DWR’s water supply forecast. Statewide the snowpack is 160 percent of average for this date.

“We could not have asked for a better December in terms of Sierra snow and rain,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “But Californians need to be aware that even these big storms may not refill our major reservoirs during the next few months. We need more storms and average temperatures this winter and spring, and we can’t be sure it’s coming. So, it’s important that we continue to do our part to keep conserving – we will need that water this summer.”

Californians only need to look to last winter and the state’s disappointing snowpack runoff due to high temperatures, dry soil and evaporation as a reminder that changes to our climate mean it will take more than an average year to recover from drought.

“California continues to experience evidence of climate change with bigger swings between wet and dry years and even extreme variability within a season. A wet start to the year doesn’t mean this year will end up above average once it’s all said and done,” said Sean de Guzman, Manager of DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit.

December is the first of the three typically wettest months of California’s water year. Significant January and February precipitation would be required to generate enough runoff to make up for the previous two winters that were California’s fifth- and second-driest water years on record.

California has experienced wet Decembers before only to have storms disappear for the remainder of the season.

In 2013, the first snow survey provided promising results after a wet December, similar to this year. However, the following January and February were exceptionally dry, and the year ended as the driest on record, contributing to a record-breaking drought.

On average, the Sierra snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California’s water needs and the snowpack is an important factor in determining how DWR manages the state’s water resources. Its natural ability to store water is why the Sierra snowpack is often referred to as California's “frozen reservoir.”

As spring sets in, the snowpack begins to melt. Water that is not absorbed into the ground, called “runoff,” trickles into mountain streams, which feed rivers and eventually aqueducts and reservoirs, where it can be stored for use throughout the dry season. Climate change is affecting California’s snowpack, as more precipitation falls as rain and less as snow. Excessively dry soils and dry, warm spring temperatures are also reducing yearly runoff.

Due to these climate-induced changes, DWR is investing in partnerships and implementing emerging and proven technologies to improve forecasts of precipitation, seasonal snowpack, and runoff to support more efficient water management now and to help estimate the impacts of climate change on future flood and drought conditions. Forecast improvements and monitoring enhancements increase the reliability of data used to inform water managers about flood risks, allowing opportunities to create more storage in reservoirs ahead of big storms while also ensuring water supply reliability in periods of dry or drought conditions.

DWR conducts five media-oriented snow surveys at Phillips Station each winter near the first of each month from January through April and, if necessary, May.

Low clouds move over a Sierra Nevada Mountain peak in El Dorado County, California, that is covered with deep snow after a series of storms that blanketed the region with snow measured from nearly 80 inches to 190 inches. Photo taken December 30, 2021, by Jonathan Wong/California Department of Water Resources.
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As the United States ages and the youngest baby boomers are now 58, the remarkable changes American families have gone through in recent decades highlight a new phenomenon: older adults without children.

Declines in marriage and fertility and increased cohabitation in the general population are starting to be reflected in the lives of aging adults.

Whether by choice or circumstance, many older adults do not have children. A new Census Bureau report, Childless Older Americans: 2018, provides much-needed information on these older adults and their well-being.

How many older adults are childless?

Of the 92.2 million adults ages 55 and older in 2018, 15.2 million (16.5%) are childless, defined here as having no biological children.

Moreover, childlessness is more common among the younger cohort of older adults. This suggests that childless adults will make up an even greater share of the older adult population in the future.



How do childless older adults compare to older parents?

Childless adults have higher levels of personal net worth and educational attainment than older parents of biological children. They also are less likely to have a disability.

However, childless older adults are also more likely than parents to receive financial support from friends or family and more likely to be in poverty.

This suggests that the childless older adult popula­tion is multifaceted, with a portion who are socioeconomically well-off and another who may be at greater risk of financial hardship.

Other differences emerge when we analyze older childless women and men separately:

• Childless women have higher median personal net worth ($173,800) than childless men ($132,500).
• Childless women are also more likely to consider themselves in good health (77%), compared to 72% of childless men.



Who supports older childless adults?

While we do not have direct measures of caregiving, we use the detailed relationship information collected for all household members to identify potential sources of support within their household.

Childless older adults have fewer sources of potential support within their households: about 4 in 10 childless older adults live alone, compared to 2 in 10 parents.

Childless adults are also less likely to have gotten married and, therefore, less likely to be living with a spouse than are parents.

About 40% of childless adults are living with a spouse, compared to 63% of parents.

They are more likely than parents to be living with a cohabiting partner, but these relationships are still relatively uncommon among older adults: only 5% of childless adults and 3% of parents are cohabiting.

About 13% of older parents and 12% of older childless adults live with another type of relative such as an aunt/uncle, cousin, nephew, or parent.

It is important to remember that although childless adults have fewer sources of potential support within their households, those with more resources may be in a better position to obtain paid care than parents.

These data come from the 2018 Survey of Income and Program Participation, or SIPP. The SIPP is a nationally representative longitudinal survey administered by the U.S. Census Bureau that provides comprehensive information on the dynamics of income, employment, household composition, and government program participation.

Because the SIPP provides detailed socioeconomic and relationship information about household members, along with well-being indicators and complete fertility histories of men and women, this report provides a holistic view of this growing population.

More information about SIPP data quality is available on the SIPP website's Technical Documentation page.

Note: This research was supported in part by the National Institute on Aging.

Tayelor Valerio is a survey statistician and Rose M. Kreider is a branch chief in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division. Wan He is director of the Aging Research Program in the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake is among a number of counties included in an emergency declaration issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday in response to a series of December storms.

Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra and Yuba counties to support the ongoing response to the recent storms, which have included heavy rainfall and snow.

The proclamation notes that, beginning on or about Dec. 10, 16 and 21, “a series of winter storm systems struck California, bringing substantial precipitation, including record-breaking snowfall, damaging winds, and flooding, and storms continue to impact significant portions of the state.”

Lake County has not been as hard hit as other areas. While some snow has fallen down to the lake level it quickly melted off. Deeper snowfall has taken place at higher elevations, with the mountains ringing Clear Lake capped with snow on Thursday.

In other parts of the state, the situation has been more severe.

This week, Caltrans urged drivers to avoid traveling to the Sierra due to record snowfall.

Caltrans also has closed 45 state highways since Dec. 24 due to record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada. Most of those highways have reopened although there are areas where chain controls and delays continue.

Newsom’s Thursday emergency proclamation supports response and recovery efforts, including expanding access to state resources for counties under the California Disaster Assistance Act to support their recovery and response efforts, directing Caltrans to request immediate assistance through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program in order to obtain federal assistance for highway repairs or reconstruction, and easing access to unemployment benefits for those unemployed as a result of the storms.

“This order clears regulatory hurdles and increases the states capacity to rapidly respond to the impact of these storms and will bolster long term recovery,” said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, or Cal OES.

Ghilarducci said the governor activated the State Operations Center to monitor storm conditions and coordinate the states response and support requests for assistance from local governments.

“We are also closely coordinating with and supporting the work of state partners like Caltrans, the California Highway Patrol, Cal Fire and others to rapidly respond to issues as they arise,” he said.

Caltrans has 1,350 field staff clearing mountain highways, working around the clock in 12-hour shifts and has deployed more than 600 snowplows statewide, Ghilarducci said, while the CHP is monitoring road conditions, responding to calls for assistance and working to keep travelers safe.

The state also is working to ensure supply chain continuity and to make sure utility companies restore power as quickly as possible with support to the most vulnerable in the community , he said.

Other efforts include staging fire and rescue resources near burn scar areas in case of significant new weather events, which Ghilarducci said will allow teams to quickly mobilize in the event of mud flows, avalanches or flash floods.

The full proclamation is below.


EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT STATE OF CALIFORNIA
PROCLAMATION OF A STATE OF EMERGENCY


WHEREAS beginning on or about December 10, 2021, December 16, 2021, and December 21, 2021, a series of winter storm systems struck California, bringing substantial precipitation, including record-breaking snowfall, damaging winds, and flooding, and storms continue to impact significant portions of the state; and

WHEREAS these storms affected communications and other critical infrastructure, resulted in power outages to thousands of households and businesses, and caused trees and free limbs to fall, damaging structures and obstructing major highways and local roads; and

WHEREAS these storms damaged and forced the closure of dozens of major highways and local roads, including primary corridors into the Tahoe Basin; and

WHEREAS these storms have resulted in the threat of mud and debris flows, particularly on burn scars from recent wildfires, necessitating the prepositioning of emergency response resources; and

WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8558(b), I find that conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist due to these storms; and

WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8558(b), I find that the conditions caused by these storms, by reason of their magnitude and combined impact, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single local government and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to appropriately respond; and

WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8625(c), I find that local authority is inadequate to cope with the magnitude of the damage caused by these storms; and

WHEREAS under the provisions of Government Code section 8571, I find that strict compliance with various statutes and regulations specified in this Proclamation would prevent, hinder, or delay the mitigation of the effects of these storms.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the State Constitution and statutes, including the California Emergency Services Act, and in particular, Government Code section 8625,

HEREBY PROCLAIM A STATE OF EMERGENCY to exist in Alameda, Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Sierra, and Yuba counties due to these storms.

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:

1. All agencies of the state government utilize and employ state personnel, equipment, and facilities for the performance of any and all activities consistent with the direction of the Office of Emergency Services and the State Emergency Plan. Also, all residents are to obey the direction of emergency officials with regard to this emergency in order to protect their safety

2. The Office of Emergency Services shall provide assistance, if appropriate, under the authority of the California Disaster Assistance Act, Government Code section 8680 et seq., and California Code of Regulations, Title 19, section 2900 et seq.

3. As necessary to assist local governments and for the protection of public health and the environment, state agencies shall enter into contracts to arrange for the procurement of materials, goods, and services necessary to quickly assist with the response to and recovery from the impacts of these storms. Applicable provisions of the Government Code and the Public Contract Code, including but not limited to travel, advertising, and competitive bidding requirements, are suspended to the extent necessary to address the effects of these storms.

4. The provisions of Unemployment Insurance Code section 1253 imposing a one-week waiting period for unemployment insurance applicants are suspended as to all applicants who are unemployed as a direct result of these storms and who applied for unemployment insurance benefits during the time period beginning December 10, 2021 and ending on the close of business on June 21, 2022, and who are otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

5. The California Department of Transportation shall formally request immediate assistance through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program, United States Code, Title 23, section 125, in order to obtain federal assistance for highway repairs or reconstruction.

I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this Proclamation be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given of this proclamation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 30th day of December 2021.

GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, PH.D.
Secretary of State

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Ed and Sarah Fuchs bid farewell to the Konocti Unified School District at the district’s final regular board meeting of 2021 on Wednesday, Dec. 8, in Lower Lake, California. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.


LOWER LAKE, Calif. — Earlier this month, at its final regular meeting of the year, the Konocti Unified School District Board offered a fond and heartfelt farewell to a couple that has served the district and community for decades.

It was during the district’s Dec. 8 board meeting that it formally accepted the resignations of Ed and Sarah Fuchs.

Their last day with the district is this Friday, Dec. 31.

They’ve been in the community for 25 years and said they are excited for the next adventure, which will take them to Wisconsin.

Ed Fuchs is an eighth grade physical education teacher, eighth grade class adviser and boys’ wrestling coach, while his wife has worked as the College and Career Center adviser, testing coordinator and athletic director at Lower Lake High School.

Beginning as an assistant football coach and working up to a PE position, Ed Fuchs said in his resignation letter that he was “beyond grateful to have been able to give back to my community that I grew up in for over 20 years.”

He said the decision to leave wasn’t an easy one. “I will bleed Trojan Blue for as long as I live and I will never forget where I come from,” and he concluded by thanking the board and Superintendent Dr. Becky Salato for the “the greatest opportunity that I have experienced in my life.”

Sarah Fuchs also grew up in the community, graduating from Lower Lake High in 2002 and coming back to work in the district. “Coming to work for Konocti was one of the best decisions I could have made for my career and future,” she wrote in her resignation letter.

They also spoke briefly during the meeting’s public comment portion, and received a standing ovation.

Ed Fuchs said he was “beyond grateful.”

“You’ll be greatly missed. Greatly missed,” said Board member Mary Silva.

During the agenda item in which the board needed to accept personnel changes, including the resignations, Board member Bill Diener thanked the couple, noting the difficulty of losing staff members who are so special to the community and are in the middle of their careers.

“I love both of you,” said Diener, who has worked with Sarah Fuchs and coached with her husband.

He said he’s going to miss them a lot. “I can’t explain how much you’ve done for the community, this district and the students you’ve touched,” noting they’ve touched a lot of students’ lives and changed things for the better.

Despite them moving to Wisconsin, Diener said he will “never, ever” be a Green Bay Packers fan.

Board member Joan Mingori said that as athletic director, Sarah Fuchs didn’t miss games. She also took over ACT and SAT testing.

“You don’t realize how much you have touched the lives of this community,” said Mingori.

The board then voted unanimously to accept the resignations. As they did so, Sarah Fuchs, who had a box of tissue sitting beside her, wiped her eyes.

Salato told them they will never be gone due to the hearts they’ve touched in the community.

“Always remember where you came from,” Silva said.

In her resignation letter, Sarah Fuchs offered her gratitude for opportunities to grow professionally, and to work with incredible co-workers “whose dedication to these students has always been a constant reminder of why we do what we do.”

She said she will be forever grateful to everyone who gave her the chance to make a difference in the lives of students.

She concluded, “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?”

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.
Konocti Unified School District Board member Bill Diener, along with Superintendent Dr. Becky Salato, seated at left, and board members Joan Mingori and Pamela Bening-Hale, give Ed and Sarah Fuchs a standing ovation as they prepare to leave the district on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — At its last meeting of 2021, the Board of Supervisors took the final step in completing its redistricting process.

The second and final reading of an ordinance adopting the new supervisorial district boundaries took place as part of the board’s consent agenda at its Dec. 21 meeting. Approval of the consent agenda was unanimous.

Like the state, the board is required to do the redistricting every 10 years, once new census data have been completed and delivered to the state and counties.

Following a series of public meetings that began in late summer, county staff, assisted by consultant Margaret Long, proposed several maps with slightly different configurations of the five supervisorial districts.

At the board’s Nov. 30 meeting, it selected a final map and directed staff to come back with the necessary resolution and ordinance to adopt it.

Staff returned with the resolution on Dec. 14, at which time the board approved the resolution and held the first reading of the ordinance to establish the new district boundaries.

The deadline for the board to take that action was Dec. 15, said Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein, who oversaw the county’s redistricting process.

Based on the county’s population, each supervisorial district has to have 13,633 residents, or be within a 10% deviation.

The final map places the population this way: District 1, 13,479; District 2, 14,243; District 3, 13,875; District 4, 12,957; and District 5, 13,609.

Lake County’s supervisorial redistricting process has been more smooth than other counties, board members noted during the Dec. 14 meeting.

The process has been reportedly controversial in counties including Butte, Mendocino and Sonoma, where community pushback was reported on some of the options those boards of supervisors considered. Butte County’s board was divided in its final vote and in Sonoma County there have been allegations of gerrymandering.

Board Chair Bruno Sabatier said he wanted to make Lake County’s final map available for the next 10 years on its GIS site as it’s very confusing to look at the districts by census blocks.

“All of the draft maps will be retained over the next 10 years,” said Rothstein.

Supervisor Moke Simon offered three separate motions at that meeting: to adopt the resolution, to waive the ordinance reading and have it read in title only and to advance the ordinance for a second reading at the Dec. 21 meeting.

The board adopted all three motions unanimously.

Sabatier thanked Long and her office and Simon added his thanks to the public for participating in the process, whether it was attending meetings in person or virtually.

A week later, the Board of Supervisors took its final vote to approve that map at its final 2021 meeting.

The board’s last action on Dec. 21 was six days ahead of the final steps in the California Citizens Redistricting Commission’s process, which is a concurrent but separate procedure.

The state commission delivered its final maps for congressional, State Senate, State Assembly and Board of Equalization districts to the California Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday, Dec. 27, the deadline set by the California Supreme Court.

The statewide maps showing where Lake County is placed in the newly drawn districts for Congress, the state Legislature and Board of Equalization can be seen here.

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.
The final supervisorial districts approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2021. Image courtesy of the county of Lake.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol is asking drivers to continue to be careful this weekend, as winter weather is combined with holiday celebration.

The CHP is planning its New Year’s maximum enforcement period, or MEP, from 6:01 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31, through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 2.

The agency also held a maximum enforcement period to ensure road safety over the Christmas weekend, from Friday, Dec. 24, to Sunday, Dec. 26.

Officer Efrain Cortez of the Clear Lake Area CHP office reported that during that Christmas enforcement, 28 people were killed in vehicle crashes throughout California.

Cortez said no fatalities occurred in Lake County over the Christmas weekend.

That's compared to at least 38 people who were killed in crashes throughout the state during the Christmas holiday enforcement period of 2020, Cortez said.

As wet weather and heavy snow continue to cover Northern California, Cortez said the CHP is advising drivers to pay attention to road hazards, Caltrans employees and emergency personnel.

“Please be aware of the road conditions, wear your seat belt, turn on your headlights when your windshield wipers are activated, and please don’t drive while impaired,” he said.

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Clear Lake, seen here from Lucerne Harbor Park in Lucerne, California, is rising thanks to recent rains. Photo courtesy of the Konocti Bait Shack.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — While California is still considered to be in a drought, 2021 has been a better year for rainfall based on National Weather Service data.

The US Drought Monitor reported that all of California is in a drought, with much of it in the “extreme” designation and an area of the state’s southern portion is in the “exceptional” category.

Lake County is among the areas reported as being in an extreme drought, for a second year in a row.

The US Drought Monitor reports that Lake County has been in some state of drought — ranging from abnormally dry to extreme and exceptional drought — seven of the last 11 years.

This year, Clear Lake has fallen to its lowest since the drought of the late 1970s, reaching nearly -2.5 feet Rumsey, the special measure for the lake, in November, according to United States Geological Survey data.

However, the rains so far this fall and winter are improving conditions.

As of 1 a.m. Thursday, Clear Lake was at -0.02 feet Rumsey, having risen nearly a foot and a half since the second week of December, according to the US Geological Survey gauge on the lake.

The National Weather Service’s Eureka office said it didn’t have reliable or consistent snow data for Lake County for 2020 or 2021, but it did have rainfall totals for five sites for both years. Totals for 2021 are as of Tuesday afternoon.

That information showed that southeast Clearlake received 4.35 inches of rain in 2020, compared to 13.13 inches in 2021; northeast Clearlake Oaks, 5.59 inches in 2020 and 22 inches in 2021; north Lakeport, 6.96 inches in 2020 and 24.01 inches in 2021; southeast Middletown, 20.48 inches of rain in 2020, 43.61 inches in 2021; and western Upper Lake, 16.11 inches in 2020, 36.53 inches in 2021.

The fall and winter storms have bulked up California’s snowpack.

As of early Thursday, the California Department of Water Resources’ California Data Exchange Center said the Northern Sierra was 145% of normal for this date, with the Central Sierra at 162% of normal and the Southern Sierra at 167% of normal.

Following the early winter storms, the California Department of Water Resources said it will conduct the first Phillips Station snow survey of the season on Thursday.

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 foothill yellow-legged frog. Credit: Rebecca Fabbri/USFWS.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing Endangered Species Act protections for four geographically and genetically distinct population segments of the foothill yellow-legged frog, but is not planning listings for the frog in areas of California including Lake County.

The foothill yellow-legged frog, named for its yellow belly and underside of its rear legs, is found from the Willamette Valley in Oregon to the Santa Lucia mountain range in Southern California and from the Pacific coast to the western slopes of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada.

The agency said the amphibian faces several threats, including altered water flows related to water infrastructure; competition with and predation by nonnative species; disease; precipitation and temperature changes related to climate change; high-severity wildfires; water-related recreation; and habitat conversion and degradation.

“We closely examined the condition of each DPS and the threats they face. Using the best available science, we determined which populations warranted protections under the ESA and where future recovery efforts should be focused,” said Michael Fris, field supervisor of the Service’s Sacramento Fish and Wildlife Office.

The six distinct population segments, or DPS, in California are the North Coast, the region in which Lake County is located; Central Coast; North Feather; North Sierra; South Coast; and South Sierra.

To assess the condition of each DPS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife evaluated data collected on the frog’s occupancy of streams in its historical range.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife said four of those segments warrant protection for the frog.

The service is proposing to list the South Coast DPS and South Sierra DPS as endangered due to a strong pattern of declining stream occupancy, as well as rapid reductions in occupied range.

The North Feather DPS and Central Coast DPS are proposed to be listed as threatened due to decreasing levels of stream occupancy and the potential for a variety of threats to cause additional declines.

The North Coast DPS and North Sierra DPS are not warranted for listing after the data showed high levels of occupancy in streams located throughout their ranges, making them more resilient to environmental changes and catastrophic events.

“Our goal is to help the foothill yellow-legged frog recover across its range,” said Fris. “Ongoing collaboration with a number of partners will result in positive conservation gains and put this frog on the road to recovery.”

The service is working closely with partners at the Oakland Zoo, U.S. Forest Service, Garcia and Associates, Pacific Gas and Electric and California Department of Fish and Wildlife to raise foothill yellow-legged frogs in captivity and release them into Plumas National Forest.

The first group of captive-reared frogs, 115 in total, was released in July 2020. A second group of 36 was released in April 2021.

A copy of the finding published in the Federal Register on Dec. 28.

The service plans to develop and propose critical habitat at a later date.

The public can submit comments on the proposed listing and read supporting information at www.regulations.gov by searching Docket Number FWS — R8 — ES — 2021—0108.

Comments should be submitted by Feb. 28, 2022.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County’s interim Public Health officer said that while the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has not yet been identified in Lake County, risks associated with it are growing.

Dr. Gary Pace said surrounding counties are finding Omicron, which he said “almost certainly is spreading through our community.”

“We anticipate a large climb in cases in the coming weeks, and encourage businesses, schools, and families to prepare for many people testing positive and getting sick. Unvaccinated people are considered especially vulnerable to severe illness,” Pace said Thursday.

Statewide, Pace said there is a rapid increases in cases, with a slower increase in the hospitalizations. Death rates have remained stable.

“The lower proportion of serious illness may be due to Omicron causing milder disease, or simply lag time from catching the virus and having the infection become severe. Hospitals locally and around the state are pretty full, as is often the case this time of year. Further surges in COVID cases could quickly become overwhelming,” Pace said.

Pace said businesses and health care facilities are concerned about staffing. If large numbers of workers get sick and have to isolate, or have to quarantine as a close contact, it can cause real strain.

He urged residents to get vaccinated. “Without a doubt, the best strategy to slow this wave of Omicron-driven COVID-19 infections is to get fully vaccinated and boosted.”

Vaccination with a booster seems to provide good protection from serious illness, as seen in the United States and around the world. Pace said vaccinated people are still getting infected and can be contagious, although at lower rates than unvaccinated people. “The booster offers important additional protection, and everyone who is eligible should get one ASAP.”

In Lake County, Pace said more than one-third of the total population, greater than 20,000 people, have no vaccine-related immunity (residents younger than age 5 remain ineligible to be vaccinated, and 32-33% of those eligible are unvaccinated).

Lake County’s eight regular ICU beds and ongoing shortages in EMS ambulance transport out of county make it particularly vulnerable if large numbers of people get ill at once, Pace said.

Pace said the Health Department, county leaders, healthcare partners, and community organizations are all trying to work together to prepare, in case things get worse.

He encouraged people to wear masks indoors, and to upgrade to KN95 or N95 masks, when possible as Omicron appears especially able to transmit through the air.

In addition, Pace suggested those who are symptomatic or who have come into close contact with an infected person to get tested. Testing resources are available here.

Pace said the county is requesting state resources to help get a van that can be part of providing mobile vaccine sites in the coming weeks.

In other parts of the world, Pace said the Omicron spike rose rapidly, then dropped four to six weeks later.

“We encourage people to take extra precautions in the next few weeks, especially if you are at higher risk or unvaccinated. Hopefully, this wave will pass fairly quickly, and we can return to a more regular lifestyle. Taking some extra steps these next few weeks could be critical in preventing severe outcomes,” Pace said.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The ushering in of a new year brings with it the anticipation of a fresh start, positive changes and healthy resolutions. What it should not bring are headlines of tragedies caused by drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

To encourage safe travel for those who are out on the road, the California Highway Patrol will conduct a maximum enforcement period, or MEP, starting at 6:01 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 31, through 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 2.

“Ringing in the new year should be an exciting time filled with celebration and hope,” CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray said. “To help keep the roadways safe through the holiday and beyond, our officers will be out in force to deter, detect, and remove impaired drivers.”

During the previous New Year’s Day MEP, 56 people were killed in crashes in California. The CHP said half of the vehicle occupants killed in the crashes were not wearing a seat belt.

During that same 78-hour MEP, CHP officers made 709 arrests for driving under the influence throughout the state.

To help bolster this year’s holiday traffic safety effort across state lines, the CHP will again partner with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and the Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota state patrols in a Western States Traffic Safety Coalition for the “Drive High, Get a DUI,” campaign.

With the focus of the New Year’s operation to identify and remove impaired drivers from the road, the CHP will have all available personnel on patrol, including Drug Recognition Evaluators to conduct evaluations of suspected impaired drivers.

For daily MEP updates and other valuable traffic safety-related information, follow @CHP_HQ on Twitter.
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The novel coronavirus. Image credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH.

The Alpha variant of SARS-CoV-2 — the first variant of concern — evolved mutations that allowed it to more efficiently suppress the immune system’s early response to infection, according to a new study led by scientists at the UC San Francisco’s Quantitative Biosciences Institute, or QBI, and University College London.

The researchers have discovered that the variant has ramped up production of a protein that it uses to stifle infected cells’ immune-stimulating signals.

The mutations responsible for this change likely help the Alpha variant evade immune detection and accelerates its transmission, and importantly similar mutations exist in Omicron.

The findings are reported in the Dec. 23 issue of Nature.

The team, led by senior authors Nevan Krogan, Ph.D., of UCSF and Claire Jolly and Greg Towers, Ph.D., of University College, London, found that Alpha’s enhanced infectivity arose from mutations outside of “spike,” the proteins that have attracted much of scientists’ attention since the start of the pandemic.

Spike, which the virus uses to enter the cells of its host, is critical to infection and is the target of all available COVID-19 vaccines. But it is just one of many tools that the virus uses to manipulate its host.

While scientists have closely monitored mutations in the spike region of new variants — Omicron has over 30 — Krogan emphasized that changes in other regions might also have important impact.

“The mutations in spike allow the virus to get into cells more effectively. But what about after the virus gets into cells? There may be other mutations that allow it to replicate more,” said Krogan, who also leads UCSF’s QBI and its Coronavirus Research Group, or QCRG).

After it was first detected in the United Kingdom in late 2020, Alpha spread rapidly around the world, suggesting it was significantly more transmissible than the original virus.

But experiments in Towers’ lab indicated that the new variant replicated no faster than its predecessor. Seeking an explanation, the QCRG set out to learn if the new variant interacted differently with the cells it infected.

The team, which also included researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, compared the variant’s impact on host cells to that of virus isolated early in the pandemic.

To do so, postdoctoral scholar Mehdi Bouhaddou, Ph.D., QBI senior scientist Lorena Zuliani-Alvarez, Ph.D., both colead authors on the study, measured the activity of each gene and monitored protein levels in lab-grown cells infected by the virus.

They also surveyed the phosphorylation status of the proteins — an analysis that detects chemical modifications that can temporarily adjust proteins’ function.

Using this data to compare the response to infection with Alpha and the original virus, the researchers found that many of the significant differences involved the innate immune response, the body’s first line of defense against pathogens. Many of the genes involved in rallying this defense were barely activated in the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant.

In addition, the team discovered that the Alpha-infected cells contained large amounts of three viral proteins known to help the virus evade the body’s immune response. Further experiments showed that one of them, called Orf9b, accomplishes that task by latching on to a protein that switches on immune-stimulating genes.

The findings suggest it may be possible to help the immune system fight SARS-CoV-2 by developing drugs that block this interaction and offer a potential strategy for doing so.

Alpha has since been outpaced by newer variants whose mutations spur even more aggressive transmission. “The virus will keep evolving and adapting to the host, and every time it will adapt better and better,” Zuliani-Alvarez said.

Both the Delta and Omicron appear to be cousins of Alpha, each having mutations in two of the three regions the team studied, suggesting they may have similar effects on the innate immune system.

The findings demonstrate the value of understanding the full scope of changes shaping the behavior of viral variants. “Studying the variants of concern gives us ideas about how SARS-CoV-2 evolves,” said Bouhaddou. “Now we have a sense of the proteins that are mutating most frequently, and the biological consequences of those mutations. I think this helps us prepare for what might come next.”

The University of California, San Francisco, or UCSF, is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.

QBI fosters collaborations across the biomedical and the physical sciences, seeking quantitative methods to address pressing problems in biology and biomedicine. Motivated by problems of human disease, QBI is committed to investigating fundamental biological mechanisms, because ultimately solutions to many diseases have been revealed by unexpected discoveries in the basic sciences. Learn more at qbi.ucsf.edu.

Robin Marks writes for the University of California, San Francisco.

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