LUCERNE, Calif. – A semi driver escaped injury on Sunday when his truck hit an embankment along Highway 20.

The crash occurred shortly after 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Oakcrest Drive and Frontage Road in Lucerne, according to the California Highway Patrol.

CHP Officer Jeremy Jensen told Lake County News that the driver of the semi, which was heading westbound, said he had moved to the right to avoid cars coming toward him as he was going around a curve.

The truck hit a soft shoulder and the semi hit the rocky embankment, he said.

A witness report on the CHP’s online incident log also reported that the driver was taking the curve too quickly.

The driver was uninjured, according to Jensen.

Jensen did not have information on the truck’s cargo.

The semi sat against the embankment with cones set up in the roadway to help guide traffic around it while the CHP waited for a heavy tow truck to arrive later in the afternoon to help remove 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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council will meet this week to discuss a housing project parcel map and a resolution to begin abating properties where there is a fire hazard due to overgrown vegetation.

The council will meet in closed session at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, June 19, to discuss a potential case of litigation regarding Verizon Wireless before the public portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

On Tuesday the council is expected to approve the necessary resolutions to authorize and direct the issuance of bonds for a solar financing project.

In other business, Community Development Director Kevin Ingram will introduce the zone change ordinance for the Pacific West Communities parcel map for a multifamily housing project at 1255 Martin St. The council also will schedule a public hearing for a second reading of the zone change ordinance and adoption of a resolution for a general plan amendment and mitigated negative declaration based on the environmental review/initial study on July 17.

The council also will consider a proposed resolution to begin the process of abating properties where weeds and vegetation haven’t been mowed.

The resolution will declare dry weeds, brush and similar vegetation creating a fire hazard upon vacant and large lots throughout the city to constitute a public nuisance and direct staff to utilize the administrative citation procedures outlined in Chapter 8.30 of the Lakeport Municipal Code to
abate said public nuisance weeds.

The council also will authorize canceling the July 3 regular meeting.

On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; minutes of the council’s regular meeting on June 5 meeting; approval of Application 2018-022, with staff recommendations, for the 2018 Lakeside Car & Boat Show event, to be held August 18; approval of a resolution rescinding Resolution 2659 (2018) and revising the Master Pay Schedule in conformance with California Code of Regulations, Title 2, Section 570.5; approval of an amendment to the agreement between the city of Clearlake, City of
Lakeport and the County of Lake relative to operation of a local public, educational, governmental cable television channel, referred to as the PEG Channel.

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.

061918 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week will formally appoint the county’s new poet laureate and consider forming a tourism improvement district.

The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 19, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx . Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

In an item timed for 9:10 a.m., the board will present a proclamation appointing Richard Schmidt as Lake County Poet Laureate for the years 2018-2020.

At that time the board also will present a proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of Hidden Valley Lake.

At 10:30 a.m., the board will consider adopting a resolution declaring intent to establish the Lake County Tourism Improvement District, and will follow up by adopting a resolution requesting consent of the city councils of Lakeport and Clearlake to establish the Lake County Tourism Improvement District.

The full agenda follows.

CONTRACT CHANGE ORDERS

6.1: Consideration of (a) Contract Change Order No. 2 to contract between the county of Lake and Granite Construction Company for Eastlake Elementary SRTS & CDBG Project, in Clearlake Oaks, CA, Bid No 16-16, Federal Aid No. SRTSL-5914(097) for an increase of $6,827.65; (b) Contract Change Order No. 3 to contract between the county of Lake and Granite Construction Company for Eastlake Elementary SRTS & CDBG Project, in Clearlake Oaks, CA, Bid No 16-16, Federal Aid No. SRTSL-5914(097) for an increase of $18,036.14; (c) Contract Change Order No. 4 to contract between the county of Lake and Granite Construction Company for Eastlake Elementary SRTS & CDBG Project, in Clearlake Oaks, CA, Bid No 16-16, Federal Aid No. SRTSL-5914(097) for an increase of $8,024.91; (d) Contract Change Order No. 5 to contract between the county of Lake and Granite Construction Co. for Eastlake Elementary SRTS AND CDBG Project, in Clearlake Oaks, CA, Bid No 16-16, Federal Aid No. SRTSL-5914(097) for an increase of $26,622.52; (e) Contract Change Order No. 6 to contract between the county of Lake and Granite Construction.

CONSENT AGENDA

7.1: Approve minutes of the Board of Supervisors meeting held June 5, 2018.

7.2.: Adopt proclamation recognizing the 50th Anniversary of Hidden Valley Lake.

7.3: Adopt Proclamation appointing Richard Schmidt as Lake County Poet Laureate for the years 2018-2020.

7.4: Adopt a resolution creating extra help videographer series classifications and a senior Human Resources (HR) analyst classification.

7.5: Approve budget transfer in the amount of $12,000 to purchase a folding machine manufactured by Pitney Bowes, and authorize the chair to sign.

7.6: Approve Amendment 2 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Manzanita House for adult residential support services and specialty mental health services for Fiscal Year 2017-18 in order to add an additional patch rate to the current agreement and authorize the chair to sign.

7.7: Authorize advanced step salary (step 5) appointment for Ronald Yoder, retired planner to storm water and grading inspector II (Extra Help).

7.8: Authorize advanced step hiring of Scott Poma as district attorney investigator II, step five.

7.9: Sitting as Lake County Watershed Protection District Board of Directors, approve waiver of the 900 hour limit for quagga mussel ramp coordinator Edward Jones.

7.10: Approve a late travel claim reimbursement for out of state airfare to Social Worker Supervisor Sandra Miller in the amount of $1095.92 to pick up a dependent child.

7.11: Authorize mileage reimbursement for on-site construction inspectors for Anderson Springs Sewer System.

7.12: Authorize advanced step 5 hiring of Mark Dellinger for extra help construction inspector.

7.13: (a) Approve agreement between the county of Lake and Megabyte Systems Inc. for FY 2018-19 MPTS property tax system maintenance and Online Business Property Filing Licensing/Support, in the amount of $186,389.35 and authorize the chair to sign; and (b) approve web services addendum to the agreement between the county of Lake and Megabyte Systems Inc. for FY 2018-19 online tax bills and e-payment processing services, in the amount of $4,413.84, and authorize the chair to sign.

TIMED ITEMS

8.2, 9:10 a.m.: (a) Presentation of proclamation appointing Richard Schmidt as Lake County Poet Laureate for the years 2018-2020; and (b) presentation of proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of Hidden Valley Lake.

8.3, 9:15 a.m.: Hearing, nuisance abatement hearing request for Toby Coleman; 3905 Gaddy Lane, Kelseyville CA, APN: 008-028-34.

8.4, 9:30 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration of appeal of planning commission’s approval of Deviation DV 16-01 for Parcel Map PM 15-03; AB 18-01 APNs 024-049-07 and 10 Supervisor District 1.

8.5, 10 a.m.: Presentation to the board by County of Lake Environmental Health and Eric Rapport of the State Water Quality Control Board regarding the Lake County Local Agency Management Programs for onsite wastewater treatment systems.

8.6, 10:30 a.m.: Consideration of a) adopt resolution declaring intent to establish the Lake County Tourism Improvement District; and b) adopt resolution requesting consent of the city councils of Lakeport and Clearlake to establish the Lake County Tourism Improvement District.

UNTIMED ITEMS

9.2: Consideration of (a) Eastlake Sanitary Landfill solid waste disposal fees and (b) amendment one to franchise solid waste hauler contracts.

CLOSED SESSION

10.1: Employee disciplinary appeal (EDA 18-01) Pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54957.

10.2: Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(2)(e)(3): Claim of Global Discoveries Ltd.

10.3: Public employee appointment pursuant to Gov. Code Section 54957(b)(1): (a) Appointment of Water Resources director (a) appointment of Community Development director.

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.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Police took a Lakeport man into custody early Sunday following a vehicle pursuit, and they’re asking community members for any information they may have about the driver in the lead up to the incident.

Travis Lorin Criss, 44, was arrested after the chase, the Lakeport Police Department reported.

At 2 a.m. Sunday two Lakeport Police officers encountered a silver Mitsubishi Lancer in the downtown area. At that point they hadn’t initiated a traffic stop, but the vehicle abruptly turned and rapidly accelerated causing the officers to lose sight of it, the agency said.

A short time later an officer again spotted the vehicle at which time it again accelerated rapidly to a high rate of speed into the residential neighborhoods west of downtown, according to the police department report.

The officer initiated a traffic stop and a vehicle pursuit began with the vehicle continuing to travel at a high rate of speed and making abrupt turns, police said.

Police said the officer lost sight of the vehicle at which time the pursuit was terminated for public safety.

Officers remained in the area looking for the vehicle and at approximately 2:20 a.m. they began receiving 911 calls reporting a subject we were looking for in residential backyards in the area of Second and Crawford streets. Police reported that the officers then located the suspect vehicle abandoned with the motor and tires still warm.

While continuing to check the area, officers located a male subject walking down the street. Police said the man had stickers from weeds attached to his pants that matched stickers one of them got on their pants from a field they checked near the suspect vehicle.

The man was detained and identified as Criss, who police said was found to be wanted on a warrant out of Ukiah. Criss was stumbling and emitting a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.

Criss was arrested and during a search incident to arrest, the keys to the Mitsubishi Lancer were located on his person, police said.

Criss was arrested for the warrant, misdemeanor intoxicated driving and for the felony charge of fleeing from law enforcement with disregard for public safety. He was taken to a local hospital for blood testing and then booked into the Lake County Jail on bail of $40,000 but has since posted bail and been released. Police said his vehicle was towed and stored.

The Lakeport Police Department thanked the alert citizens who called 911 to help direct them to Criss’ location. Without their assistance he may have eluded capture.

Police said the incident remains under investigation and they are requesting that anyone with information contact us by sending us a private Facebook message @LakeportPolice, sending us an anonymous text message from your cell phone by texting the words TIP LAKEPORT followed by your message to the number 888777, by calling us at 707-263-5491 or by emailing investigating officers Casey Debolt at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Kaylene Strugnell at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The agency said there has been a high number of intoxicated driving incidents in the city of Lakeport this year and it is taking an aggressive stance against it.

“We thank all those community members who assist us in trying to eliminate the dangerous act of intoxicated driving, on both alcohol and drugs, that continues to put peoples lives at risk. With your help we can save lives together. Call 911 to report intoxicated drivers,” the department said in its Sunday statement.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Firefighters are nearing full containment on a wildland fire near Lower Lake that began on Saturday afternoon.

The Creek fire was first reported shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday in the 9400 block of Rocky Creek Road at Morgan Valley Road.

Units from Cal Fire and Lake County Fire responded. Cal Fire resources including a helicopter and dozers helped fight the fire.

In just over an hour the fire grew to 32 acres, at which point retardant lines were around it, according to radio reports.

By evening, the fire remained at 32 acres, with containment at 95 percent Cal Fire reported.

Also on Saturday, fire was reported along Highway 20 near Lake Mendocino.

The California Highway Patrol’s incident logs indicated that a tire came off a trailer, which may have been the cause of that fire.

The Mendocino County fire was reported to have caused traffic delays for a few hours along that stretch of highway.

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.

America has certainly seen its fair share of noteworthy political speeches.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and George Washington’s Farewell Speech number somewhere among the top.

We’ve also seen some stinkers, from William Henry Harrison’s presidential inauguration speech that lasted hours and went nowhere but to his early demise from when he contracted pneumonia to any one of Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush’s speeches where they mispronounced “nuclear.”

But possibly the most tone-deaf speech of them all came from one of America’s greatest political thinkers: Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton was born and raised in the East Indies – the Caribbean – until he travelled to British Colonial America to attend college.

While attending Kings College (later Columbia University) in New York City, young Hamilton made a name for himself as an adroit orator and cutting political essayist. Hamilton’s politics would always tend towards the elitist, believing that the best government was the one with the most mechanisms in place to limit direct democracy. His was a government of a strong central authority, a government many suspected closely resembled England’s monarchy.

After the war, as the new nation struggled to survive a deep economic recession, the leading politicians gathered in Philadelphia to rethink how they operated their government.

Back in 1775-76, the Continental Congress first wrote the Articles of Confederation. At the time, winning the war against England looked like a longshot.

When the separate colonies came together to oppose English aggression, they needed a document that laid out the powers of each colony and how they were supposed to cooperate to win the war.

The result of these deliberations: the Articles of Confederation. The fundamental flaw, as far as men like Alexander Hamilton and George Washington were concerned, was that under the Articles, each colony (soon-to-be state) was a sovereign country.

As independent entities, they agreed to join in confederation. Each colony, through its delegates elected to Congress, had equal say on matters relating to the confederacy. Every piece of legislation had to be unanimously agreed to – meaning just a single colony could hold up Congress indefinitely.

This had been the primary culprit for the chronic lack of supplies that time and again nearly starved Washington’s army during the war. After a decade being the law of the land, the Articles of Confederation had reached their end.

Hence, the convening of this new convention in Philadelphia in 1787 – the Constitutional Convention.

Who were these men, whose genius went into creating a country that thrives to this day? Well, they were certainly not representative of most Americans at the time.

There were 55 delegates; all of them were white and all of them men. A majority were lawyers and wealthy landowners. Most were the type of aristocrats that Alexander had striven to be since first stepping foot on American soil. The average age was 42 years old; meaning 32-year-old Alexander Hamilton was one of the youngest to attend. The oldest man in attendance was 81-year-old Benjamin Franklin.

In theory, the convention had been called only to amend the Articles, not throw them out the window. But on May 30, a man named Edmund Randolph presented a plan to the convention, chiefly formulated by James Madison, that proposed to do just that. The following week or more of debate pretty much established that this convention would walk away not with revised Articles, but a completely new framework.

Throughout these debates, Alexander Hamilton sat quietly on the sidelines – peculiar behavior for a man known for his long speeches. His friends and allies were equally confused. They couldn’t understand why Alexander, usually so vocal about everything, just sat there. Some thought that being so young compared to the other delegates, Hamilton was deferring to their seniority.

In the end, Alexander Hamilton did what he did best. On June 18, 1787, he rose from his seat one afternoon during the debates and began speaking. He spoke, and he spoke, and he spoke some more.

After six hours had passed, Hamilton sat down, probably to a great sigh of relief from the other delegates.

Hamilton would later regret some of the things he said in his speech, but at the time he spoke his ideas with the same wit and energy as he had always done. We have no written transcript of the speech, but James Madison and others did take notes as Hamilton rambled on.

To begin with, Hamilton scoffed at the idea of so much democracy in a national government. Of all the men in that room, Hamilton probably had the lowest opinion of the wisdom of the common people. He had seen angry mobs too many times to have much faith in the masses.

He pointed to the Virginia Plan proposed by James Madison, which gave a lot of power to the people and laughed. “And what even is the Virginia Plan,” he asked, standing and sweating in the hot, stifling room, “but democracy checked by democracy …?” Instead, Hamilton set out his own plan; let’s call it the Hamilton Plan.

Under the Hamilton Plan, the nation would elect a president and a senate.

So far so good, thought most of the delegates.

The president and senate would then have their positions for life, so long as they maintained “good behavior.” Although he didn’t say it, he envisioned that both the president and the men of the Senate would come from the elite of the states – no rabble here, please.

What? A term for life? How is that any different from a monarchy?

In addition to a senate and a president, there would be another legislative body, the House of Representatives. Those men would be elected directly by the people and would serve a term of three years.

Okay, not bad.

And then Alexander Hamilton, in a moment of unusual poor judgement, started to praise England’s form of government.

That was the last straw for many delegates. In the coming years, his political enemies would point to this speech as evidence that Hamilton favored monarchy.

Alexander Hamilton would go on to make several other blunders over the course of his career in politics, but none that persisted as long as his speech at the Constitutional Convention.

Nevertheless, he achieved a level of power and influence that rivaled the president before his eventual murder at the hands of Aaron Burr during that famous duel in 1804.

Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lake County Library is a recipient of a grant of $5,700 to host the NEA Big Read in Lake County.

A national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

The Lake County Library is one of 79 nonprofit organizations across the country to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading program between September 2018 and June 2019.

The NEA Big Read in Lake County will focus on Into the Beautiful North by Luis Albert Urrea. Activities will take place in October 2018.

"I'm thrilled to receive the support of the National Endowment for the Arts again this year,” said Lake County Librarian Christopher Veach. “The NEA Big Read is a fun series of events, and it's also a wonderful way to celebrate the importance of reading and literacy in our community.”

Book lovers in Lake County selected “Into the Beautiful North” for the NEA Big Read in a survey.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support opportunities for communities across the nation, both small and large, to take part in the NEA Big Read,” said NEA Acting Chairman Mary Anne Carter. “This program encourages people to not only discuss a book together, but be introduced to new perspectives, discuss the issues at the forefront of our own lives, and connect with one another at events.”

The NEA Big Read showcases a diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, aiming to inspire conversation and discovery.

The main feature of the initiative is a grants program, managed by Arts Midwest, which annually supports dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection.

In Lake County, some of the local partners are Clark McAbee of the Lake County Museums, the Lake County Arts Council, Edgar Ontiveros at La Voz de la Esperanza Centro Latino, Lisa Kaplan at the Middletown Art Center, Richard Schmidt at the Lake County Arts Council, Mendocino College Lake Center, Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, Jabez William Churchill, Woodland College’s Gina Jones, Bruno Sabatier, Rod Cabreros, Kandice Goodman and Ian Anderson, KPFZ 88.1, and local educators Kathy Perkins and Jo Fay of the Little Read.

Organizers expect to add more partners as planning continues between now and October.

Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,400 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $19 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country.

Over the past 11 years, grantees have leveraged more than $44 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.9 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 82,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, please visit www.arts.gov/neabigread.

The Lake County Library is on the internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and Facebook at www.Facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary.

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is the independent federal agency whose funding and support gives Americans the opportunity to participate in the arts, exercise their imaginations, and develop their creative capacities.

Through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector, the NEA supports arts learning, affirms and celebrates America’s rich and diverse cultural heritage, and extends its work to promote equal access to the arts in every community across America. Visit arts.gov to learn more about NEA.

Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. Based in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years. For more information, please visit www.artsmidwest.org .

Hailed by National Public Radio as a "literary badass" and "master storyteller with a rock and roll heart," Luis Alberto Urrea is the award-winning, bestselling author of numerous books of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction and a member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame.

Raised in Tijuana and San Diego by a Mexican father and American mother, Urrea inherited a rich legacy of cultural lore and a love of storytelling from his extended family on both sides of the border, though he claims he’s “more interested in bridges” than borders. In his third novel, “Into the Beautiful North,” an idealistic 19-year-old woman is inspired by the film “The Magnificent Seven” to travel from her home in Mexico to the United States to enlist seven men who’ve left her town to return and help protect it from drug-dealing bandidos.

Jan Cook is a technician with the Lake County Library.

They only seem to grow up so fast. VCoscaron/Shutterstock.com

I am one of those men for whom it is impossible to find Father’s Day gifts.

I don’t wear ties. My socks are all the same, in the interest of efficiency. I enjoy cooking, which would seem to open up some possibilities. But I have an annoying habit of buying useful gadgets as I need them, leaving my relatives to purchase paper bags specially designed for storing cheese, say, or devices that carve vegetables into the shape of noodles.

With sympathy for my family, the truth is that my favorite Father’s Day gift this year has been the gift of time. Or more precisely, a new understanding of how my perception of time is warped by the brain. I am a social psychologist who studies how people’s minds shape their subjective experiences. And there are few experiences more subjective than the experience of time.

A childhood whooshing by

Surely every parent has suffered the same pains I am feeling as my daughter turns 8.

In her first year, the sleepless nights were eternities passed under the glowing blue rectangles of an LCD clock. The days stretched out too, as I wished for the time when she could be entertained on her own by a toy or a cartoon, for even a few minutes. It felt like climbing uphill in anticipation of that time when we could coast.

Now, as she stretches from the roundness of a baby toward the long gazelle lines of a pre-teen, I feel that we have somehow accelerated too fast. Somewhere, we crested the top, but there was no coasting, only a whooshing that I can’t slow down.

Is this feeling of time whistling past inevitable? Scientists have uncovered startling insights about how the brain registers the passage of time. Understanding them won’t make that whooshing feeling go away, exactly, but it can make it less painful.

The passage of time

This feeling of time speeding up or slowing down happens in a lot of areas of life.

We generally feel that our moments become more fleeting as we get older. Remember how long summer vacation seemed as a kid? And, ironically, as we get older larger chunks of time like decades seem to fly faster than smaller chunks like days or minutes.

Unpublished research by Heidi Vuletich in my lab finds that scarce resources make the future feel further away, which helps explain why poor children make more impatient decisions than middle-class kids. Time also seems to slow down during an emotionally intense event, whether it’s a car crash or a sleepless night.

Does time really go into slow motion during a car crash? Does it really speed up as we age? What these phenomena have in common is that they are all experienced retrospectively or prospectively, not in real time. There is no way to re-experience the car crash without traveling through the doorway of memory. So when we experience time speeding up or slowing down, is that happening in real time? Or is it a memory illusion?

Neuroscientist David Eagleman and his colleagues ran an ingenious experiment to find out. They used a sky-diving tower at an amusement park in Dallas. Subjects ascended in an elevator to the top of a 100-foot tower and then let themselves free fall into a net at the bottom.

Strapped to their wrists was a chronometer – a device for measuring time perception. It was a screen on which numbers flickered back and forth very quickly – so quickly that it’s difficult to identify the numbers. The point of the chronometer is that if time really slows down for the brain when falling, then a person in free fall should be able to accurately perceive more flickering numbers per second, relative to when they’re safe on the ground.

So what happened? When asked afterward to estimate how long they were falling, subjects overestimated the time they were in the air by more than a third. In their memories, time had indeed slowed down. But, according to the numbers participants reported seeing on the chronometer, time passed at the same ordinary rate as it did before the free fall.

This is why even though we seem to experience a car crash in slow motion, the extra time does not allow us any extra ability to steer out of the way. That’s because the slow motion is in our memories, not in the moment. Think of what this means for our experiences of time slowing down and speeding up: That whooshing feeling is not in our present, but only in our memories of it.

The present is now

So are we doomed to feel that our children’s youth is speeding away?

It is likely to feel that way whenever we reminisce about the past. The more important lesson, though, is not about the past but the present. Now that I’m free falling toward her adolescence, it’s important to understand that time is not really whistling away from me. Each moment lasts the same as it did when she was a baby. Each moment holds as much joy and as much pain now as it will tomorrow.

And so, this insight is a call to let the remembered past and the fretted future go and to return attention relentlessly to the present. Someday I will look back, my head swimming, and remember today like those long, lazy summer days. But right now, a moment is just a moment. Right now she still loves to lay beside me and hear me read to her. Right now I am the big one and the strong one who can scoop her up in one arm when she needs it.

Right now, I am not “my dad,” I am daddy. What more could a father want?

Keith Payne, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control a new group of big dogs waiting for their new homes this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of husky, mastiff and pit bull.

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

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”).

‘Alex’

“Alex” is a handsome male husky with a long gray and white coat.

Shelter staff said he is a great companion who gets along with other dogs, small or large, male or female. Anyone interested in adopting him is asked to bring their dogs for a meet and greet with Alex.

Alex walks well on a leash, has very good manners and will roll over for belly. Staff recommends a secure fence to keep him from getting loose to go explore.

Alex is in kennel No. 20, ID No. 10154.

‘Leah’

“Leah” is a female pit bull terrier with a short black and white coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 24, ID No. 10124.

Male mastiff mix

This male mastiff mix has a short brown and black coat.

He’s in kennel No. 25, ID No. 10189.

Male mastiff mix

This male mastiff mix has a short tan and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 26, ID No. 10191.

Male mastiff mix

This male mastiff mix has a short tan and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 10192.

Male pit bull terrier

This male pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 29, ID No. 10217.

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.

Tom Woods knows about space gunk.

As the principal investigator for the Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment, or EVE, instrument aboard NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, he’s all too familiar with the ways that exposure to the harsh space environment can lead to a spacecraft instrument’s degradation.

“Since its launch in 2010, EVE’s sensitivity has degraded by about 70 percent at some wavelengths,” Woods said.

When your job is to measure subtle variability in extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, light emitted by the Sun, that amount of degradation, left unchecked, can be a big problem.

But all is not lost: To correct for the effects of degradation, Woods uses calibration sounding rockets. The seventh such rocket will launch from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico. The launch window opens at 1 p.m. Mountain Time on June 18.

EVE calibration sounding rockets carry a copy of the EVE instrument to approximately 180 miles above Earth, where it measures EUV light from the Sun for about 10 minutes before parachuting back down to Earth for recovery.

The measurements, made by the rocket instruments unaffected by degradation, are compared to the those from the degraded satellite EVE instrument, so Woods and his team can correct for any discrepancies.

“That’s why the sounding rockets are so important – they’re like a second channel, to calibrate the channel that is seeing the Sun all the time.”

The EVE sounding rockets are a critical part of the mission. “Without the calibration, EVE wouldn’t be able to do its job,” Woods continued. “We really wouldn’t know what the brightness of the Sun is, because we wouldn’t know how much the instrument has degraded.”

Measurements from the EVE sounding rocket are used to calibrate extreme ultraviolet instruments aboard several other spacecrafts, including NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics; Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment; Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory; the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite Program; and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA's Hinode.

Thanks to calibration sounding rockets like EVE we can keep our space instruments working at full capacity — and through them, keep our eyes continuously on the skies.

Miles Hatfield works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport McDonald’s restaurant has been allowed to reopen after it was closed temporarily earlier this week due to a sewer system issue, with ongoing repairs required for a water leak.

James Scott of Lake County Environmental Health told Lake County News that county staff responded to the restaurant on Monday in response to a significant backup in the restaurant’s sewer lines.

When county staff arrived, the restaurant was still in operation, and there was standing water – specifically sewage – and debris on the floors, with every drain backed up, he said.

The restaurant staff thought it was compliant but Environmental Health informed them that they were required to close due to the circumstances.

“Our goal is to protect the public,” Scott said.

He said at that time there were objects found in the sewer laterals, which were cleaned out. That pipe, he said, appeared to have had a liner put in it and also has a low spot which may have contributed to the problem.

Restaurant staff had to do extensive cleanup inside the restaurant, including washing, rinsing and sanitizing floors and all equipment, Scott said.

During the middle of the week Lake County News heard from community members who said they found the restaurant’s driveway was blocked off and diners weren’t allowed inside.

On the followup inspection, Environmental Health staff found a soggy area in the floor in and around the women’s bathroom. Scott said water would come up out of the flooring when they walked on it.

The restaurant called out Roto-Rooter, which helped find a water leak that had been going for some time, he said.

Repairs of the area where the water leak was discovered are continuing. Scott said the restaurant is keeping that area isolated and sealed off with a tent-like area with plastic sheeting around the women’s restroom and the hallway in front of it.

By Friday the restaurant had reopened, despite repairs continuing. “They’re permitted to operate,” he said.

Scott said the city of Lakeport Building Official Tom Carlton is working with the restaurant, which may need a new sewer lateral.

Environmental Health also remains involved. “We’re working very closely with the management there,” Scott said.

The closure gave rise to conjecture and a number of theories circulating on social media about the possible reasons, including feces in kitchen equipment.

“That’s all fantasy,” said Scott.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The city of Clearlake is receiving a federal grant to help it be better prepared for natural disasters.

Clearlake City Manager Greg Folsom announced that the city will receive up to $112,000 through the Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

The grant will enable the city to lay out a mitigation strategy that identifies specific projects aimed at reducing and eliminating risk from future natural disasters.

Following the completion of a Local Hazards Mitigation Plan, the city would be eligible for additional FEMA funding for the completion of those projects identified within the plan, Folsom said.

"While we are not able to prevent the drought conditions and natural disasters that have devastated our community in recent years, we can commit to do what we can to reduce the threat by supporting and implementing projects to lessen future risk to lives and property," Folsom said.