LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council this week will consider strategies to recruit police officers and hear from the city’s code enforcement division about its operations.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
The council chambers will be open to the public for the meeting. Masks are highly encouraged where 6-foot distancing cannot be maintained.
If you cannot attend in person, and would like to speak on an agenda item, you can access the Zoom meeting remotely at this link or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799.
The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
The council on Tuesday will discuss providing direction to City Manager Kevin Ingram regarding the implementation of a recruitment and retention incentive program to attract and retain highly qualified personnel for hard-to-fill positions within the Lakeport Police Department, which has struggled to retain officers.
The city’s code enforcement division also will offer an update to the council on its operations, including an overview of violation resolution processes, International Property Maintenance Code and a summary of active cases.
Also on Tuesday, the council will hold a public hearing to consider amending the Lakeport Municipal Code to adopt the 2022 California Building Codes, meet new Public Works volunteer Ken Kelsen, receive a presentation on the Clean Water Program and consider executing the second extension in the form of an amendment to the professional services agreement with The Retail Coach for retail strategies.
On the consent agenda — items usually accepted as a slate on one vote — are ordinances; minutes of the regular council meeting on Oct. 18 and the special meeting on Oct. 27; and approval of the minutes of the Measure Z Advisory Committee meeting on Oct. 19.
The council also will hold a closed session to conduct a performance evaluation of the city manager.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Museums of Lake County will open an exhibit in early November on the role of the Bible as a tool for family record keeping, historical research, political ceremonies and how their preservation in museums keeps these records for future genealogists.
Included in the exhibit is a range of Bibles dating from 1739 through the 1950s.
These books are objects from Lake County families who came westward, the immigrants that came from other countries, and of family history that was passed down.
This exhibit will be offered at all three locations — the Courthouse Museum, the Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse, and the Gibson Museum — and will focus on different aspects of the Bible collection through these three perspectives: genealogy found in family bibles, education through schools and preservation through museums.
The Historic Courthouse Museum is open Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.
The Lower Lake Schoolhouse and the Gibson Museum are open Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Entre La Paginas Historia Del Condado De Sus Biblias Familiares
Los Museos De Condado Lago inaugurara una exposicion a principios de Noviembre sobre el papal de la Biblia como herramienta para el mantenimiento de registro familiares, la investigacion historica, las Ceremonias politicas Y como se conservan in los museous para futuros genealogistas. Incluida es una gama de biblias que datan de 1739 a 1950. Estos son objectos de familias del condado de Lago que vinieron hacia y de la historia familiar que se transmitio.
Esta Exhibicion se ofrecera en los tres lugares: La Escuela Historica de Lower Lake El Museo Courthouse Lakeport y El Museo Gibson. Se Centrara en diferentes aspectos de la preservacion familiar a traves de tres perspectivas: la genealogia que se encuentra en las biblias, la educacion atraves de las escuelas y conservaciones a traves de museos.
El Museo Historical Courthhouse esta abierto De Jueves a Sabado 10 a.m. a 4 p.m. y Domingo de 12 p.m. a 4 p.m.
Schoolhouse Museo Y Gibson estan abiertos de Jueves a Sabado 10AM a 4PM.
As the population of the U.S. has grown over the past century, the House of Representatives has gotten worse at being representative of the people it serves. That doesn’t have to happen – and it wasn’t always the case.
The House is the one segment of the federal government that was created from the beginning to directly channel the views of the people to Washington, D.C. But over the past century, the ability of any individual members of the House to truly represent their constituents has been diluted.
When the nation was founded, there were 65 members of the House, representing 3.9 million people in 13 states. On average, that’s one House member for every 60,450 people.
Today, there are 435 members representing 331 million people in 50 states – or one House member for every 761,169 people.
This means American democracy is less representative, and not all citizens are politically equal.
Changing sizes
Since 1913, the number of House seats has remained constant. But in the early years of the United States, the size of the House grew as the nation expanded. From 1791 to 1913, the House passed laws adding more seats in ways that reflected the admission of new states and the growing population. During the Civil War, when some Southern states seceded, the House actually shrank in size – and then resumed expanding as those states rejoined the Union and others were added.
The number of seats in the House was fixed at 435 by law in 1929. But it is not a constitutional provision. It is a federal law, so it can be repealed or amended just like any other.
Since that time the country’s population has more than tripled.
Potential solutions
Any changes would require a new law expanding the House, determining how many seats each state would get and drawing new districts based on U.S. Census Bureau data to achieve relatively equal representation.
It might not be widely popular to send even more politicians to Washington, D.C. A larger House would also cost more to operate: The total cost for the House now averages US$3.4 million per member. But an improvement in democratic representation might be worth the effort.
If the House had kept pace with population growth since 1913, I calculate that there would be 1,560 seats now.
Comparative political analysts have identified a general mathematical principle about the size of a properly representative national legislature, called the “cube root law”: Many legislatures around the world have, by various processes, ended up with a number of seats roughly equal to the cube root of the population they represent. That is the number which, when cubed, or multiplied by itself and itself again, equals the population. That would put the U.S. House size at 692, with each seat representing an average of 478,480 people.
The Wyoming Rule
Another way to consider expanding the House would be to use what is known as the “Wyoming Rule.” It ensures the least populated state – currently Wyoming – would receive one House seat and uses its population as the basis for House districts in the other states. Each state’s House delegation would change in size over time, to remain roughly proportional to its population even as the nation grew and its people moved from state to state.
According to the 2020 census, that would mean each House district would represent approximately 577,719 people. There are several technical methods for assigning districts to the states, because no other state’s population is evenly divisible by 577,719. But using a very basic method would produce a House with 571 seats.
California, the most populous state, has roughly 68 times as many people as Wyoming does. Under the current House size, it will have 52 seats in the Congress that begins in 2023. But under a simple version of the Wyoming Rule, it would have 69.
This would ensure all U.S. residents have roughly equal representation in the House, and it would better balance the Electoral College, though less populous states would continue to have an advantage because each voter has a larger influence on the two electoral votes from their senators. While the Electoral College will always disproportionately favor states with small populations, the more seats in the House means more electors to distribute, and the more electors there are the more fair the relative voting strength of each state.
Some states would be slightly over- or underrepresented, even under the Wyoming Rule, because state boundaries don’t line up evenly with population locations. But the disparity would be less than under the current 435-seat cap.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has eight cats that it’s making available for adoption this week.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Female domestic shorthair
This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a gray tabby coat.
“She is an adult cat with some playful kitten tendencies when toys are brought out. She has a sweet little meow and likes to have playful chats with you,” shelter staff said.
She is in cat room kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3661.
Male domestic shorthair
This 3-year-old male domestic shorthair cat has an orange tabby coat.
“This guy can be shy at first, but once he knows that you are all about the pets, he will roll right over and start his purr machine. He has a unique curly tail which he flicks around when curious,” shelter staff said.
He is in cat room kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-4021.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This 2-month-old male domestic shorthair kitten has an orange coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 36C, ID No. LCAC-A-4083.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic shorthair kitten has a black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 60a, ID No. LCAC-A-4113.
Male domestic shorthair kitten
This 3-month-old male domestic shorthair kitten has a black coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 60b, ID No. LCAC-A-4114.
Female domestic shorthair
This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a Siamese coat with reddish points and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 73, ID No. LCAC-A-4090.
Male domestic longhair cat
This 1-year-old male domestic longhair cat has a black and white coat.
“This guy had a hard start, but has a lot of love to give once he warms up to you,” shelter staff said.
Staff said he also loves brushing and shows his appreciation with purring and head bumps.
He is in kennel No. 107, ID No. LCAC-A-4023.
Female domestic shorthair kitten
This 2-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a gray coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 129b, ID No. LCAC-A-4085.
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.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new dogs, including hounds and Dobermans, waiting for homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American blue heeler, basset hound, border collie, Cardigan Welsh corgi, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, hound, husky, Labrador retriever and pit bull.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
‘Arlo’
“Arlo” is a 3-year-old male basset hound-Labrador retriever mix with a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-4164.
Male American blue heeler
This 1-year-old male American blue heeler has a short coat.
He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-4128.
Male pit bull terrier
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 12, ID No. LCAC-A-4127.
Female Labrador retriever
This 3-month-old female Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-4162.
Male Labrador retriever
This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-4112.
Male Labrador retriever
This 3-month-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-4163.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short white coat with brown markings.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-4110.
Female pit bull terrier
This 5-year-old female pit bull terrier has a short brown coat.
She is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-4109.
Female corgi
This 3-month-old female Cardigan Welsh corgi has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4138.
Male hound mix
This 2-year-old male hound mix has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-4176.
Male pit mix puppy
This 2-month-old male pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 23a, ID No. LCAC-A-4116.
Male pit mix puppy
This 2-month-old male pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 23e, ID No. LCAC-A-4120.
Female pit bull puppy
This 2-month-old female pit bull puppy has a short white and red coat.
She is in kennel No. 24b, ID No. LCAC-A-4121.
Female pit mix puppy
This 2-month-old female pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short white coat.
He is in kennel No. 24c, ID No. LCAC-A-4122.
Female border collie
This 1-year-old female border collie has a black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 30, ID No. LCAC-A-4186.
‘Ruby’
“Ruby” is a 6-month-old female hound mix with a brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3753.
Male German shepherd
This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-4204.
Male Doberman pinscher
This 6-month-old male Doberman pinscher has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-4207.
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.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The following dogs are available for adoption. New additions are at the top.
‘Domino’
“Domino” is a male terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50815541.
‘Mia’
“Mia” is a female American pit bull terrier mix with a short gray coat and white markings.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 51129358.
‘Reese’
“Reese” is a female German Shepherd with a black and an coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50884542.
‘Aoki’
“Aoki” is a male Siberian husky mix with a white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50905477.
‘Babs’
“Babs” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49505856.
‘Baby’
“Baby” is a female American pit bull mix with a white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50933640.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49951647.
‘Bruce’
“Bruce” is a 2-year-old American pit bull mix with a short gray coat with white markings.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50684304.
‘Buster’
“Buster” is a male pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50762164.
‘Eros’
“Eros” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50754504.
‘Foxie’
“Foxie” is a female German shepherd with a red, black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49702845.
‘Goliath’
“Goliah” is a male Rottweiler mix with a short black and tan coat.
He is dog No. 50754509.
‘Hakuna’
“Hakuna” is a male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Herman’
“Herman” is a 7-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51236411.
‘Hondo’
“Hondo” is a male Alaskan husky mix with a buff coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s dog No. 50227693.
‘Keilani’
“Keilani” is a 3-year-old female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed and she is house trained.
She is dog No. 50427566.
‘Little Boy’
“Little Boy” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50075256.
‘Luciano’
“Luciano” is a male Siberian husky mix with a short black and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596272.
‘Mamba’
“Mamba” is a male Siberian husky mix with a gray and cream-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49520569.
‘Matata’
“Matata” is male shepherd mix with a tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50176912.
‘Maya’
“Maya” is a female German shepherd with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 50428151.
‘Mikey’
“Mikey” is a male German shepherd mix with a short brown and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 51012855.
‘Poppa’
“Poppa” is a 3-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a short red and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50773597.
‘Rascal’
“Rascal” is a male shepherd mix with a black and brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50806384.
‘Sadie’
“Sadie” is a female German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49802563.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball is a 1 and a half year old male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
He is dog No. 48443693.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a male German shepherd mix with a black and tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 50596003.
‘Zeda’
“Zeda” is a female Labrador retriever mix.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 51108916.
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.
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
How was Halloween invented? – Tillman, age 9, Asheville, North Carolina
“It’s alive!” Dr. Frankenstein cried as his creation stirred to life. But the creature had a life of its own, eventually escaping its creator’s control.
Much like Frankenstein’s monster, traditions are also alive, which means they can change over time or get reinvented. Built from a hodgepodge of diverse parts, Halloween is one such tradition that has been continually reinvented since its ancient origins as a Celtic pagan ceremony. Yet beneath the superhero costumes and bags of candy still beats the heart of the original.
The Celts lived in what’s now Ireland as far back as 500 B.C. They celebrated New Year’s Day on Nov. 1, which they called Samhain. They believed that leading up to the transition to the new year, the door between the worlds of the living and the dead swung open. The souls of the recently dead, previously trapped on Earth, could now pass to the underworld. Since they thought spirits came out after dark, this supernatural activity reached its peak the night before, on Oct. 31.
The Celts invented rituals to protect themselves during this turbulent time. They put on costumes and disguises to fool the spirits. They lit bonfires and stuck candles inside carved turnips – the first jack-o’-lanterns – to scare away any spirits looking for mischief. If all else failed, they carried a pocketful of treats to pay off wayward spirits and send them back on their way to the underworld.
Sound familiar?
Although focused on the dead, Samhain was ultimately for the living, who needed plenty of help of their own when transitioning to the new year. Winter was cold and dark. Food was scarce. Everyone came together for one last bash to break bread, share stories and stand tall against the dead, strengthening community ties at the time they were needed most.
When Catholics arrived in Ireland around A.D. 300, they opened another door between worlds, unleashing considerable conflict. They sought to convert the Celts by changing their pagan rituals into Christian holidays. They rechristened Nov. 1 “All Saints Day,” which today remains a celebration of Catholic saints.
But the locals held on to their old beliefs. They believed the dead still wandered the Earth. So the living still dressed in costumes. This activity still took place the night before. It just had a new name to fit the Catholic calendar: “All Hallows Eve,” which is where we got the name Halloween.
Irish immigrants brought Halloween to America in the 1800s while escaping the Great Potato Famine. At first, Irish Halloween celebrations were an oddity, viewed suspiciously by other Americans. As such, Halloween wasn’t celebrated much in America at the time.
As the Irish integrated into American society, Halloween was reinvented again, this time as an all-American celebration. It became a holiday primarily for kids. Its religious overtones faded, with supernatural saints and sinners being replaced by generic ghosts and goblins. Carved turnips gave way to the pumpkins now emblematic of the holiday. Though trick-or-treating resembles ancient traditions like guising, where costumed children went door to door for gifts, it’s actually an American invention, created to entice kids away from rowdy holiday pranks toward more wholesome activities.
Halloween has become a tradition many new immigrants adopt along their journey toward American-ness and is increasingly being exported around the world, with locals reinventing it in new ways to adapt it to their own culture.
What’s so special about Halloween is that it turns the world upside down. The dead walk the Earth. Rules are meant to be broken. And kids exercise a lot of power. They decide what costume to wear. They make demands on others by asking for candy. “Trick or treat” is their battle cry. They do things they’d never get away with any other time, but on Halloween, they get to act like adults, trying it on to see how it fits.
Because Halloween allows kids more independence, it’s possible to mark significant life stages through holiday firsts. First Halloween. First Halloween without a parent. First Halloween that’s no longer cool. First Halloween as a parent.
Growing up used to mean growing out of Halloween. But today, young adults seem even more committed to Halloween than kids.
What changed: adults or Halloween? Both.
Caught between childhood and adulthood, today’s young adults find Halloween a perfect match to their struggles to find themselves and make their way in the world. Their participation has reinvented Halloween again, now bigger, more elaborate and more expensive. Yet in becoming an adult celebration, it comes full circle to return to its roots as a holiday celebrated mainly by adults.
Halloween is a living tradition. You wear a costume every year, but you’d never wear the same one. You’ve changed since last year, and your costume reflects that. Halloween is no different. Each year, it’s the same celebration, but it’s also something totally new. In what ways are you already reinventing the Halloween of the future today?
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And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention, issued a final recommendation on Oct. 11, 2022, published in the journal JAMA, stating that all children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 should be screened for anxiety, regardless of whether they have symptoms. The recommendation follows a systematic review that evaluated the potential harms and benefits of screening.
The Conversation asked Elana Bernstein, a school psychologist who researches child and adolescent anxiety, to explain the task force’s recommendations and what they might mean for kids, parents and providers.
1. Why is the task force recommending young kids be screened?
Nearly 80% of chronic mental health conditions emerge in childhood, and when help is eventually sought, it is often years after the problem’s onset. In general, recommendations to screen for mental health disorders are based on research demonstrating that youths do not typically seek help independently, and that parents and teachers are not always skilled at correctly identifying problems or knowing how to respond.
Anxiety is the most common mental health problem affecting children and adolescents. Epidemiological studies indicate that 7.1% of children are diagnosed with anxiety disorders. However, studies also estimate that upwards of 10% to 21% of children and adolescents struggle with an anxiety disorder and as many as 30% of children experience moderate anxiety that interferes with their daily functioning at some time in their life.
This tells us that many kids experience anxiety at a level that interferes with their daily functioning, even if they are never formally diagnosed. Additionally, there is a well-established evidence base for treating childhood anxiety.
The task force evaluated the best available research and concluded that, while there are gaps in the evidence base, the benefits of screening are clear. Untreated anxiety disorders in children result in added burdens to the public health system. So from a cost-benefit perspective, the cost-effectiveness of screening for anxiety and providing preventive treatment is favorable, while, as the task force pointed out, the harms are negligible.
The task force recommendation to screen kids as young as age 8 is driven by the research literature. Anxiety disorders are most likely to first show up during the elementary school years. And the typical age of onset for anxiety is among the earliest of all childhood mental health diagnoses. The panel also pointed to a lack of accurate screening instruments available to detect anxiety among younger children; as a result, it concluded that there is not sufficient evidence to recommend screening children age 7 or younger.
Anxiety disorders can persist into adulthood, particularly those disorders with early onsets and those that are left untreated. Individuals who experience anxiety in childhood are more likely to deal with it in adulthood, too, along with other mental health disorders like depression and an overall diminished quality of life. The task force considered these long-term impacts in making its recommendations, noting that screening in children as young as 8 may alleviate a preventable burden for families.
2. How can care providers identify anxiety in young kids?
In general, it is easier to accurately identify anxiety when the child’s symptoms are behavioral in nature, such as refusing to go to school or avoiding social situations. While the task force recommended that screening take place in primary care settings – such as a pediatrician’s office – the research literature also supports in-school screening for mental health problems, including anxiety.
Fortunately, in the past three decades, considerable advances have been made in mental health screening tools, including for anxiety. The evidence-based strategies for identifying anxiety in children and adolescents are centered on collecting observations from multiple perspectives, including the child, parent and teacher, to provide a complete picture of the child’s functioning in school, at home and in the community.
Anxiety is what’s called an internalizing trait, meaning that the symptoms may not be observable to those around the person. This makes accurate identification more challenging, though certainly possible. Therefore, psychologists recommend including the child in the screening process to the degree possible based on age and development.
Among the youths who are actually treated for mental health problems, nearly two-thirds receive those services at school, making school-based screening a logical practice.
3. How would the screening be carried out?
Universal screening for all children, including those with no symptoms or diagnoses, is a preventive approach to identifying youths who are at risk. This includes those who may need further diagnostic evaluation or those would benefit from early intervention.
In both cases, the aim is to reduce symptoms and to prevent lifelong chronic mental health problems. But it is important to note that a screening does not equate to a diagnosis, something that the task force highlighted in its recommendation statement.
Diagnostic assessment is more in-depth and costs more, while screening is intended to be brief, efficient and cost-effective. Screening for anxiety in a primary-care setting may involve completion of short questionnaires by the child and/or parent, similar to how pediatricians frequently screen kids for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
The task force did not recommend a single method or tool, nor a particular time interval, for screening. Instead, care providers were advised to consider the evidence in the task force’s recommendation and apply it to the particular child or situation. The task force did point to multiple available screening tools such as the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders and the Patient Health Questionnaire Screeners for generalized anxiety disorder, which accurately identify anxiety. These assess general emotional and behavioral health, including questions specific to anxiety. Both are available at no cost.
4. What are care providers looking for when screening for anxiety?
A child’s symptoms can vary depending on the type of anxiety they have. For instance, social anxiety disorder involves fear and anxiety in social situations, while specific phobias involve fear of a particular stimulus, such as vomiting or thunderstorms. However, many anxiety disorders share symptoms, and children typically do not fit neatly into one category.
But psychologists typically observe some common patterns when it comes to anxiety. These include negative self-talk such as “I’m going to fail my math test” or “Everyone will laugh at me,” and emotion regulation difficulties, like increased tantrums, anger or sensitivity to criticism. Other typical patterns include behavioral avoidance, such as reluctance or refusal to participate in activities or interact with others.
Anxiety can also show up as physical symptoms that lack a root physiological cause. For example, a child may complain of stomachaches or headaches or general malaise. In fact, studies suggest that spotting youths with anxiety in pediatric settings may simply occur through identification of children with medically unexplained physical symptoms.
The distinction we are aiming for in screening is identifying the magnitude of symptoms and their impact. In other words, how much do the symptoms interfere with the child’s daily functioning? Some anxiety is normal and, in fact, necessary and helpful.
5. What are the recommendations for supporting kids with anxiety?
The key to an effective screening process is that it be connected to evidence-based care.
The good news is that we now have decades of high-quality research demonstrating how to effectively intervene to reduce symptoms and to help anxious youth cope and function better. These include both medications or therapeutic approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, which studies show to be safe and effective.
The California Highway Patrol and the California Office of Traffic Safety are partnering on a new yearlong campaign of education and enforcement efforts aimed at reducing the number of crashes caused by impaired drivers.
The grant-funded “Don’t Drive Impaired” campaign runs through Sept. 30, 2023.
In 2020, 669 people were killed and 10,646 were injured in driving under the influence crashes[i] within the CHP’s jurisdiction.
Each one of these injuries and deaths represents a preventable tragedy, and a continued need to focus efforts on reducing impaired driving.
“Law enforcement throughout the state continues to do their part by removing impaired drivers from the roadway,” said CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray. “Reducing impaired driving through education and enforcement remains a high priority, and this campaign provides us another opportunity to further that goal. It is never worth the risk to drive impaired. Always designate a sober driver.”
The OTS grant provides the CHP with funding to conduct additional saturation patrols, DUI checkpoints, and traffic safety education efforts throughout California. These efforts are designed to remove DUI drivers from the roadway and educate the public about the dangers of impaired driving. Additionally, the CHP will actively participate in California’s Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over efforts.
The CHP reminds the public, “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Alcohol.” Cannabis, impairing medications, illegal drugs, or any combination can affect a driver’s ability to drive, and will result in an arrest for those who are found to be under the influence. Always designate a sober driver, take public transportation, or use a taxi or ride-share. There is always a better option than getting behind the wheel while impaired.
Additionally, the CHP would like to remind the public to call 9-1-1 if they observe a suspected DUI driver. Be prepared to provide the dispatcher a location, direction of travel, and vehicle description.
If you have questions regarding impaired driving, please contact your local CHP Area office. The Clear Lake Area office can be reached at 707-279-0103.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the OTS, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A longtime Lake County judge is being remembered by friends and colleagues for his care for people, dedication to the county and his championing of the Clearlake community.
Retired Judge Richard Freeborn died on Friday, Sept. 30, at his Clearlake home, surrounded by family, including wife of 59 years, Kathy, and sons Andrew, Matthew, Jason. He was 84 years old.
“We had a long, wonderful life together,” Kathy Freeborn said.
During a 2013 ceremony to honor his career, Freeborn said he had wanted to go into a profession that would be helpful to his fellow man.
“Service to humanity is the best work of life,” he said.
Since his death, many community members and leaders have honored Freeborn for his success in doing just that.
His accomplishments include nearly four decades of work in the justice system as well as for what he did outside of the courtroom — including the many years of promoting the Clearlake area and creating opportunities for informed discourse among its residents and the county as a whole.
Freeborn was a Renaissance man, with a vast number of interests. He was a careful and voluminous reader, an expert in United States history, a Boy Scout leader, a member of the fire department for 18 years, a dedicated outdoorsman and hiker, a sailor, and a keyboardist who played in a local band at venues such as the Lucerne Hotel and Konocti Harbor.
His curiosity continued throughout his life, and those who knew him recalled not just as a man of incredible intellect, but one who generously used his skills to help others, and who did his work with a dedication that was amplified by a true sense of compassion for those he met, whether inside or outside of the court.
Freeborn was known for his personal touch, his authentic concern about people, a desire to listen and understand, and the goal of seeing people advance, as well as his having performed many weddings.
One aspiration he didn’t accomplish was being a pilot. Although he took some lessons, wife Kathy said it was either fly or have a family. However, since their oldest son had been in the Air Force and had his own plane, Freeborn had a chance to fly with his son. “He’d let his dad take the controls,” Kathy Freeborn said.
Both his wife and his longtime friend Mark Cooper said Freeborn was particularly proud of his work in drug court, which gave many people an opportunity to avoid jail or prison by instead healing their lives through treatment and education. Cooper said he’s met people who have shared how Freeborn’s intervention through drug court saved their lives.
At a 2013 portrait hanging ceremony for Freeborn, retired Judge Arthur Mann acknowledged that he hadn’t initially been in favor of the drug court idea, but credited Freeborn for making it a successful program.
“He loved life and the community,” said Kathy Freeborn, explaining that her husband was a good person who always tried to help people.
“He gave so much to the community,” said Clearlake City Manager Alan Flora.
Flora pointed out one of Freeborn’s many contributions, the creation of the weekly “Judge’s Breakfast” in Clearlake, which has helped educate community members on important issues and collected money for local groups.
“That’s an inspiration,” said Flora. “Beyond that, he’s just a really good guy.”
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier, who called for a moment of silence in honor of Freeborn at the Board of Supervisors’ Oct. 4 meeting, told Lake County News about how Freeborn welcomed him into the community, and that while he was a judge professionally, Freeborn didn’t judge people on a personal level.
“He welcomed me and made a point to speak with me each time we saw each other, because no matter how different we may be, we were both committed to serving our communities together, and I think he respected that without having to know the details of who I am,” Sabatier said. “Luckily, because of humble and welcoming personality, I was fortunate enough to learn from him, speak with him, and be inspired by his love for community.”
The current and retired judges Lake County News spoke to about Freeborn remembered him as principled, kind, curious, thoughtful and intellectual.
One word came up commonly among those who shared their recollections: “Gentleman.”
Judge Andrew Blum said Freeborn was a gentleman in the true sense of the word, genuinely caring about those who appeared before him in court.
“He wasn’t just processing files,” said Blum, who as a senior chief deputy district attorney frequently was in Freeborn’s court from 1989 to 1997.
Blum said Freeborn often would take extra time with people — especially young people who had made mistakes — to talk with them and give them some fatherly advice in an effort to encourage them to get on the right track. “You don’t see judges do that very often.”
Like Blum, Judge Michael Lunas’ first experience with Freeborn was as a young attorney in his court.
Lunas said Judge Freeborn knew everyone and everyone knew him, and there was no real difference in his behavior as an attorney or as a judge. “His persona was the same. He was who he was.”
Stephen Hedstrom, who retired in 2018, was Freeborn’s successor in the Lake County Superior Court Clearlake Division.
“He always gave back to the community. He really did,” Hedstrom said of Freeborn.
Retired Judge Robert Crone said Freeborn had “long roots in the county,” and that he used to talk about working at his father’s business and pumping gas as a youngster.
Cooper said Freeborn has always been his hero. He was a role model to Cooper’s daughter, Jacqueline Snyder, now an attorney, for whom Freeborn administered the bar oath.
Freeborn was an expert in U.S. history. “He was one of the most intelligent men that I’ve been around,” said Cooper, adding he was honored every time he was around him to get his perspective.
As he pointed out to people who joined his well-known breakfast group, the Judges Breakfast, “he was a community junkie,” Kathy Freeborn said.
Growing up in Lake County; going to school in the city
Richard Lawrence Freeborn was born in Oakland on May 3, 1938, to Edna and Walter Freeborn. He claimed his middle name was due to the fact that his mother was enamored of T.E. Lawrence, the inspiration for “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Freeborn had a sister, Joan, who was seven years older than him.
His father, a machinist, later bought a small resort and gas station in Nice and the family moved to Lake County.
Freeborn arrived in Lake County at age 7 and, for the rest of his life — with time out for university in the Bay Area — the county would be his home.
He attended grade school and high school in Upper Lake. “They say he read every book in the Upper Lake Library when he was going to school,” said Cooper, attesting to his friend’s lifelong habit of voracious reading.
His sister attended the University of California, Berkeley. She then studied medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, completing residence in Boston and further training in Washington, D.C. ahead of a 51-year career as a pediatrician. She went on to marry Dr. Thomas C. Merigan, a professor at Stanford University, where they eventually endowed a chair at the School of Medicine.
Like his sister, Richard Freeborn attended UC Berkeley. Originally, he was interested in premedicine, but ultimately he went on to receive his law degree at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
He sometimes went to the San Francisco Airport for a cup of coffee after studying. It was on one such evening during his first year of law school that he happened to meet U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Warren invited him to sit down with him and chat.
They discussed law school, the famed Brown vs. Board of Education case and how to decide a case. Warren explained the process of reviewing evidence and law, before asking a final question: “Is it fair?”
It also was in San Francisco that Freeborn met his future wife, Kathy, “by accident,” she said, in an apartment building when he was starting to ask her roommate out for a date.
As he always told the story, he had started out to ask her roommate out for a date, “and ended up asking me instead,” Kathy Freeborn said.
They married on March 16, 1963, during his last year of law school. Kathy Freeborn said he had to take off an unexcused day from school, since getting married wasn’t considered a reason to miss class.
He was admitted to the State Bar of California on Jan. 12, 1965, according to Bar records.
While he had looked at a job in another location, Kathy Freeborn said her husband had a job waiting for him in Lake County. After their arrival, he worked in the District Attorney’s Office as an investigator and as a law clerk in the office of Lovett Fraser. He also later worked as a deputy district attorney.
The couple lived in Lakeport until 1967, when they moved to Kelseyville to a new home in Cole Creek Estates. However, Kathy Freeborn said she didn’t get to stay in her new home for long.
That’s because his friends talked him into moving to Clearlake in order to be appointed to a part-time position as a Clearlake Highlands justice court judge, a job he would get.
After only a week in their new home, they made the decision to sell it and move to Clearlake where they’ve made their home ever since. They’ve lived in the same home for more than 40 years, Kathy Freeborn said.
Decades on the bench
Freeborn worked as a justice court judge beginning in 1967, taking office on May 8, five days after his 28th birthday.
He continued in that role for 15 years in the Clearlake Highlands Judicial District, according to a biography presented by Hedstrom at the 2013 event to celebrate the hanging of Freeborn’s portrait in the Southlake Division courtroom. The video of that event is shown on this page, and includes information about his history and service from Freeborn and his colleagues.
Freeborn then took a break for about six years, during which time Betty Irwin was elected as a write-in candidate and served on the bench as the first elected female judge in Lake County. Crone said Freeborn returned to the justice court bench after Irwin’s departure.
In the late 1980s, legislation led to the justice courts consolidating into municipal courts. Crone said all the little courts on the south end of the lake merged into one municipal court district and then a separate district was formed for the Lakeport end of the county.
When Freeborn returned to the bench, he presided over what was then known as the Southlake Judicial District from 1988 to 1993, Hedstrom said during the 2013 ceremony.
In 1998, Freeborn became Lake County’s fourth Superior Court judge under a new consolidation law, filling that role until his 2001 retirement. Following retirement, he spent more than a decade filing in on assignments around the state.
Crone said when he arrived as a young lawyer in Lake County around 1972, he first met Freeborn when he was the justice court bench.
Freeborn also had a private practice in the Clearlake Highlands, which later became Clearlake. At that time, a justice court judge could do both — sit on the bench and handle cases separately, which Crone said could make for some interesting situations.
For 20 years, wife Kathy worked as Freeborn’s office manager in his private practice. At times she was the only secretary, but at its busiest time there were four secretaries, all of whom Freeborn kept busy with his legal work. Later, Kathy went to work for Yuba College for 13 years.
Crone said the Clearlake Highlands Justice Court was housed in a storefront on Lakeshore Drive, between the Chatterbox and Mario Lucchesi’s restaurant — known as “Mario’s Lounge” — and next to a plumbing supply store. That’s where Crone was introduced to Freeborn.
In that little court, “When jury went out, we all left,” leaving just the bailiff behind, Crone said.
More than one time Crone said he and Freeborn ended up out at Mario’s, relaxing until the jury had reached a verdict.
In January 1984, Crone, then Lake County’s district attorney, was appointed to the Superior Court bench by Gov. George Deukmejian to fill an unexpired term. That appointment had been held up as Crone finished prosecuting the Gerald Stanley murder case.
The seat then went on the ballot in June 1984. “You’re appointed one day, you’re in a contested election the next,” Crone said.
Crone, a Republican, and Freeborn, a Democrat, faced off in a tight race for the seat. Crone said they went on the “rubber chicken circuit” and took part in debates.
“I think it was pretty draining on him and myself,” Crone said.
Lunas, who then was a young attorney, recalled that race as “a heck of a contest.”
Crone added, “It was sort of like the governor’s election,” referring to the tight race between Deukmejian and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, with Crone and Freeborn having been involved in the campaigns for those respective candidates.
“It caused me to really be concerned and pay attention in that election because he had a lot going for him that I didn't have,” Crone said.
However, in the end, “I won by a whopping 131 votes,” Crone said.
He said Freeborn would later explain that Crone just belonged to one more club than he did. “When I got to thinking about it, he was right.”
Nevertheless, even in the midst of a tight race, “Dick was always a gentleman,” said Crone, explaining that he didn’t think they ever were mad at each other and that Freeborn didn’t hold a grudge.
They were always colleagues, said Crone. “It was a working relationship.”
Crone said Freeborn demanded that people in the courtroom give the court — not necessarily him — respect, and that they respect the court and the process by taking it seriously and abiding by the rules.
Freeborn was very concerned about people, and took time to listen to their circumstances. Crone said Freeborn looked for ways to help people, and favored drug courts and similar diversion programs at a time when those programs were in their infancy.
Cooper emphasized how proud Freeborn was of his work to establish a drug court in Lake County. “He felt so good about that.”
Kathy Freeborn said that her husband, with the help and support of staff, had a lot of success with drug court.
She and Cooper both recounted how Freeborn successfully used drug court as an alternative to time behind bars. Kathy Freeborn said he had a real advantage thanks to the community college’s presence, as he would require people to get further education and go back to school and get a high school diploma if they didn’t have one.
When Freeborn made judgments, he made them, said Cooper, and he could scare the hell out of a person when he banged the gavel. But he preferred a more compassionate way.
Retired Lake County Superior Court Judge Richard Martin called Freeborn “a great guy,” and someone he got to know Freeborn well when Martin was a young attorney appearing in his court. Martin worked first as a public defender before Crone — then the district attorney — called him to work for him. Martin credits both Crone and Freeborn for being mentors to him.
Martin said he liked Freeborn’s helpful and kind personality. “I think he was very fair, somebody that listens to people.”
After Martin came to the bench in 2005, Freeborn was still occasionally taking cases when other local judges were on vacation or traveling to other counties to fill in.
Lunas said Freeborn focused on what mattered in the case. “He was somebody whose work could be trusted.”
In the trials Lunas did with him, Lunas said he was always very thoughtful, concerned about getting things right, very interactive from the bench and a good communicator.
“He had an effective way of thinking out loud during cases which would serve to engage attorneys and litigants in the business at hand,” said Lunas.
Crone said Freeborn was a champion of Clearlake and its residents. He said Freeborn understood Clearlake and its people, and how important it was to that end of the county to maintain the presence of a court there.
There was a time in the mid-1990s there was a push to eliminate the presence of any court function in Clearlake and have everything in Lakeport. “He fought tooth and nail to make sure that didn't happen,” and was a big force in keeping as much judicial action in the Clearlake area as possible, Crone said.
Crone said he and Freeborn would eventually work alongside each other on the Lake County Superior Court bench.
That’s because, in 1998, voters passed Proposition 220, a constitutional amendment consolidating municipal and superior courts.
Crones said that’s how Lake County got four Superior Court judges. It already had two departments: In Department 1, it was Judge John Golden, who had been appointed in 1974, and Crone had been the Department 2 judge since 1984.
The consolidation added to that two more departments. Arthur Mann, the municipal court judge headquartered in Lakeport to service the north end of the county, became the Department 3 judge, while Freeborn, overseeing the south end of the county in the Clearlake Highlands Municipal Court, became the Lake County Superior Court judge for Department 4, serving in that role from 1998 to 2001, when he retired.
The Superior Court doesn’t operate in a vacuum, and Crone said all the judges got together regularly to discuss court matters. “Everybody was always a colleague with everybody else.”
Freeborn remained in the Clearlake courthouse. When Freeborn retired, Stephen Hedstrom, then the district attorney, was elected in 2000 in a race against attorney Steve Tulanian.
Hedstrom said that after his election, he spent two or three weeks in Freeborn’s courtroom, asking questions and observing, and getting ready to take over.
“He spent a significant amount of time helping me take over his position for which I am very grateful and always will be,” said Hedstrom.
“He was a great deal of help,” said Hedstrom. “You can have all that help and all that study, and it comes down, you’ve just to do it.”
Hedstrom said Freeborn was very kind with his time. “That's the way he always was — friendly, outgoing, sociable.”
Following his retirement, Freeborn worked half-time in Lake County and in other parts of the state on assignments, Crone said.
Music and the outdoors
Cooper, who moved to Lake County in 1974, said he met Freeborn through music. Cooper played the drums; Freeborn, like his sister, played piano. The men would play at Konocti Harbor and also participated in the jazz band at Yuba College’s Clearlake campus. Now called Woodland Community College’s Lake County Campus, at its recent 50th anniversary event, Cooper called on them to reinstate that band.
Freeborn started in Boy Scouts before he and Kathy had children and attended the Scout Jamboree in Washington, DC. All three of their sons became Eagle Scouts.
Cooper said Freeborn recruited him as a Scout leader and his own two sons became Scouts as part of Troop 44, which had begun in the 1950s but has since ceased. He, Freeborn and Bill Cornelison, later Lake County’s superintendent of schools, formed the Board of Directors of the Mount Diablo Silverado Scout Council.
The Coopers, the Freeborns and other families would vacation together. One memorable trip was to Hawaii, where Cooper has a very clear memory of a waitress handing Freeborn change which was too much, at which point he immediately gave it back to her rather than pocketing it.
“He was just the most honest man I ever met,” Cooper said.
Cooper, who was born and raised in San Francisco, had never camped outdoors before until he went with Freeborn, an outdoorsman who didn’t hunt but enjoyed hiking.
Hedstrom also recounted going camping with Freeborn and others and having a big abalone feed.
Cooper said Freeborn was a voracious reader who felt the written word was holy. He recounted how Freeborn had once asked him how many newspapers he read. Cooper gave a few local newspapers and Freeborn asked him if he believed them. Since then, Cooper said he has added a number of publications with state, national and international scope.
In addition to Freeborn believing newspapers were important, he also welcomed and supported newer media outlets. Freeborn also was an early and continued supporter of Lake County News, which his wife said he enjoyed reading daily.
Cooper said he, Freeborn and Cornelison would go to Pleasant Hill for Scout meetings and on their drives they would have long conversations in which they would solve all the problems of the world. “Nobody ever listened to us,” he said. “We had such a great time.”
Cornelison died in January 2015. Cooper said he’s missing the guidance and perspective of his two closest friends.
A community junkie
For those who hadn’t met Freeborn in court, they may have come to know him through the weekly Judge’s Breakfast.
Freeborn began the event for the community in 1993 after he read a biography of Benjamin Franklin. As Cooper tells it, Freeborn was struck by how Franklin had started a breakfast club in Philadelphia and, low and behold, there later was a new country.
Intrigued by the networking opportunities, Freeborn decided to start one for Clearlake to see what would happen.
Since then, it’s been an opportunity for residents and leaders to come together and talk about ideas. This reporter also took part on occasion at the Judge’s Breakfast, including as an invited speaker.
Several years ago, Freeborn sat Cooper down and asked him to take it over, which he did.
While Richard Freeborn has always been his hero, Cooper said more recently he’s come to see Kathy Freeborn as a hero in her care of her husband as his health declined.
In addition to wife Kathy and sons, Andrew of Las Vegas, Nevada, Matthew of Mountain House, California, and Jason of Walnut Creek, California, Richard Freeborn is survived by two granddaughters and two grandsons.
Kathy Freeborn said her husband wasn’t particularly religious. His big goal in life, she said, was “to serve the community, but he always enjoyed a good party.”
She said he wanted a party for his friends, which she said should happen after the start of the year. It will be an occasion of fun, with no crying.
In the meantime, donations in his memory are encouraged to the charities or programs of the donor’s choice.
“He’s going to be missed by the courts, the legal community and naturally, of course, his friends and family. I certainly will miss him,” Hedstrom said.
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.
Set for a November launch, the small satellite mission will use lasers to search for water ice inside the darkest craters at the Moon’s South Pole.
It’s known that water ice exists below the lunar regolith (broken rock and dust), but scientists don’t yet understand whether surface ice frost covers the floors inside these cold craters.
To find out, NASA is sending Lunar Flashlight, a small satellite (or SmallSat) no larger than a briefcase.
Swooping low over the lunar South Pole, it will use lasers to shed light on these dark craters — much like a prospector looking for hidden treasure by shining a flashlight into a cave. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-November.
“This launch will put the satellite on a trajectory that will take about three months to reach its science orbit,” said John Baker, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Then Lunar Flashlight will try to find water ice on the surface of the Moon in places that nobody else has been able to look.”
Fuel-efficient orbits
After launch, mission navigators will guide the spacecraft way past the Moon. It will then be slowly pulled back by gravity from Earth and the Sun before it settles into a wide, looping, science-gathering orbit.
This near-rectilinear halo orbit will take it 42,000 miles (70,000 kilometers) from the Moon at its most distant point and, at its closest approach, the satellite will graze the surface of the Moon, coming within 9 miles (15 kilometers) above the lunar South Pole.
SmallSats carry a limited amount of propellent, so fuel-intensive orbits aren’t possible. A near-rectilinear halo orbit requires far less fuel than traditional orbits, and Lunar Flashlight will be only the second NASA mission to use this type of trajectory. The first is NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment, or CAPSTONE, mission, which will arrive at its orbit on Nov. 13, making its closest pass over the Moon’s North Pole.
“The reason for this orbit is to be able to come in close enough that Lunar Flashlight can shine its lasers and get a good return from the surface, but to also have a stable orbit that consumes little fuel,” said Barbara Cohen, Lunar Flashlight principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
As a technology demonstration, Lunar Flashlight will be the first interplanetary spacecraft to use a new kind of “green” propellant that is safer to transport and store than the commonly used in-space propellants such as hydrazine.
This new propellant, developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory and tested on a previous NASA technology demonstration mission, burns via a catalyst, rather than requiring a separate oxidizer. That is why it’s called a monopropellant.
The satellite’s propulsion system was developed and built by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with integration support from Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta.
Lunar Flashlight will also be the first mission to use a four-laser reflectometer to look for water ice on the Moon. The reflectometer works by using near-infrared wavelengths that are readily absorbed by water to identify ice on the surface.
Should the lasers hit bare rock, their light will reflect back to the spacecraft, signaling a lack of ice. But if the light is absorbed, it would mean these dark pockets do indeed contain ice. The greater the absorption, the more ice may be at the surface.
Lunar water cycle
It’s thought that molecules of water come from comet and asteroid material impacting the lunar surface, and from solar wind interactions with the lunar regolith. Over time, the molecules may have accumulated as a layer of ice inside “cold traps”.
“We are going to make definitive surface water ice measurements in permanently shadowed regions for the first time,” said Cohen. “We will be able to correlate Lunar Flashlight’s observations with other lunar missions to understand how extensive that water is and whether it could be used as a resource by future explorers.”
Cohen and her science team hope that the data Lunar Flashlight gathers can be used to understand how volatile molecules, like water, cycle from location to location and where they may accumulate, forming a layer of ice in these cold traps.
“This is an exciting time for lunar exploration. The launch of Lunar Flashlight, along with the many small satellite missions aboard Artemis I, may form the foundations for science discoveries as well as support future missions to the Moon’s surface,” said Roger Hunter, Small Spacecraft Technology program manager at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley.
More about the mission
In October, Lunar Flashlight was fueled at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida between Nov. 9 and 15 with the Japanese Hakuto-R lander and United Arab Emirate’s Rashid 1 rover. The mission worked with Maverick Space Systems to provide launch integration services.
NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program funded component development from small businesses including Plasma Processes Inc. (Rubicon) for thruster development, Flight Works for pump development, and Beehive Aerospace (formerly Volunteer Aerospace) for specific 3D printed components. The Air Force Research Laboratory also contributed financially to the development of the Lunar Flashlight propulsion system.
Lunar Flashlight will be operated by Georgia Tech, including graduate and undergraduate students. The mission is funded by the Small Spacecraft Technology program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Estate planning by a married person can help to avoid unintended negative consequences to a surviving spouse and children.
This is particularly important when the married person is in a subsequent marriage and has separate property acquired prior to the current marriage.
Does a surviving spouse automatically inherit the deceased spouse’s house? Some married people believe that just by being married the surviving spouse alone automatically inherits the deceased spouse’s ownership interest in the family house. Learning otherwise can be a rude awakening to the surviving spouse.
The division of a deceased spouse’s estate without estate planning and the need for a probate may not be intended by the deceased spouse.
In California, without estate planning a decedent’s estate is divided amongst the decedent’s heirs under rules of Intestate Succession (i.e., “succession without a will”).
California is a community property state that recognizes both separate and community property interests. Separate property assets and community property assets are treated very differently.
Assets acquired while married and living together in California are presumed to be community property assets. Community property assets belong equally to both spouses during life and are divided equally at death or divorce. Such assets are often placed by the spouses into their joint living trust.
In the absence of a will or a trust by the deceased spouse to the contrary, the deceased spouse’s one-half share of a community property asset goes to the surviving spouse. No probate is needed.
Assets owned by either spouse as separate property remain separate property at death. In the absence of a will or a trust by the deceased spouse to the contrary, separate property assets are divided amongst the deceased spouse’s heirs. A surviving spouse is entitled to either one-half or (most often) one-third of the deceased spouse’s separate property assets, without a will.
Without the deceased spouse doing estate planning, the deceased spouse’s estate may be subject to probate if the deceased spouse had substantial separate property assets, like a residence.
Consider a deceased spouse who owned the family home as his own separate property from before the marriage. With separate property, California intestate law rules provide the surviving spouse with only a one-third interest and the remaining two-thirds is shared equally amongst the decedent’s surviving children.
Had the residence been a community property asset — whether acquired in the deceased spouse’s name alone or in both spouse’s name(s) — then the surviving husband does inherit the entire residence without the deceased spouse having a will in California.
How can the surviving spouse avoid becoming homeless? Fortunately, in California a surviving spouse may open a probate proceeding and petition the court for a probate homestead to allow the surviving spouse and any minor children to live in a residence for a period of time. This is true even if the deceased spouse died without a will or died with a will but either disinherited or omitted the surviving spouse as a beneficiary. The homestead can last for a period of years up to the surviving spouse’s lifetime.
However, a probate homestead is discretionary with the probate court. It must balance the interests of the surviving spouse with the competing interests of the decedent’s surviving children and any creditors with liens on the residence. Disagreement can result in litigation. The children and creditors may object.
Once created, a probate homestead is subject to the court’s supervision. A probate homestead can terminate sooner if the surviving spouse should remarry or fail to meet their obligations as a tenant.
A probate homestead is not as desirable as being life beneficiary of an ongoing trust created to hold title to the deceased spouse’s residence. The trust could even allow the trustee to sell the residence and buy a replacement if relocation was necessary.
The foregoing discussion shows how no estate planning leads to unintended consequences. It is not legal advice. If confronting the situation consult a probate attorney.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.