Submit comments and questions in writing for commission consideration by sending them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the Town Hall site and submit written comments there. Identify the subject you wish to comment on in your email’s subject line or in your Town Hall submission.
To give the planning commission adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit written comments prior to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22.
The meet will be broadcast live on the Youtube channels for the city of Clearlake or Lake County PEG TV.
Commissioners on Tuesday will consider election of the chair and vice chair.
Also on the agenda are public hearings, including one continued from the July and August meeting, as well as to consider adopting a resolution with amendments to the zoning map, and design review procedures and that implement the new zoning ordinance.
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 a new selection of dogs this week ranging from small to large.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American Bulldog, Belgian Malinois, border collie, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, husky, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, pug and terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
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”).
This male German Shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix has a medium-length black and brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. 14034.
Male Chihuahua
This male Chihuahua has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 6a, ID No. 14038.
Female Labrador Retriever
This female Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 13989.
Female pit bull terrier
This female pit bull terrier has a short gray and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. 13990.
‘SnowBall’
“SnowBall” is a male Chihuahua with a short white coat.
He has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 14019.
Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14023.
Belgian Malinois mix
This female Belgian Malinois mix has a short brindle coat.
She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14024.
Male border collie
This young male border collie has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. 14052.
Female German Shepherd
This female German Shepherd has a medium-length black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is in kennel No. 28, ID No. 13995.
‘Lilly’
“Lilly” is a female pit bull-husky mix with a short brown and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 29, ID No. 13991.
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.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Better weather conditions are helping firefighters as they try to slow the growth of the August Complex and protect structures across the fire area.
The Forest Service reported on Friday that the August Complex was up to 824,118 acres on all of its zones, a rollback of about 15,000 acres from the Thursday estimate, due to mapping. Containment remained at 30 percent.
The complex, burning in the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests, has destroyed 35 structures and is threatening approximately 1,395 more, officials said.
To date, it has resulted in one fatality of a firefighter – which was the result of a vehicle crash on Aug. 31 – and 11 injuries.
Officials said a cold front moving onshore is expected to bring higher humidity, more cloud cover and isolated showers to the area, although warmer conditions are forecast to return next week.
The Forest Service said structure defense remains a priority; indirect line construction, away from the fire’s edge; direct line construction and tactical firing operations, applying fire on the ground to remove vegetation and widen containment lines.
Officials said Friday that the fire has crossed north of Rattlesnake Ridge and firefighters are conducting structure protection efforts in the Forest Glen area. Crews were assessing the Trinity Pines/Post Mountain area for structure defense.
Structure defense continues in Ruth Valley and Hettenshaw Valley with structure preparation ongoing in Kettenpom Valley, officials said.
Tactical firing operations also continued on Horse Ridge, west toward Ruth Valley to check northerly progression of the fire. Direct and indirect control lines have been constructed from Zenia Road east of the East Fork of the Eel River to Mad River Ridge, the Forest Service said.
On the northeast perimeter in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, officials said good progress has been made and crews continue to reinforce the containment line along the 35 Road. Established containment lines in this area are being actively monitored.
In the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness along Wrights Ridge, the August Complex North and South Zones continue to merge, therefore it is not safe to put firefighters in the area, officials reported.
Better weather conditions – with higher humidity and cloud cover – are aiding firefighters good air quality is expected to the west of the complex with improving conditions expected south of the fire.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lakeport woman credits faith, training and focus with helping her to save the life of a 3-year-old boy found unresponsive in the pool at a local resort over Labor Day weekend.
Lydia Meraz, a 20-year employee of WorldMark Clear Lake Resort in Nice, resuscitated 3-year-old Darius Apar after the child was pulled from the swimming pool by his mother.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday Meraz will receive a commendation from the Lake County Board of Supervisors in recognition of her heroic actions.
The story has a happy ending, but as resort General Manager Greg Bennett pointed out, “It was very, very close.”
Bennett said there were moments when they didn’t think the child was going to make it. “It was quite a battle to get him to breathe again.”
Meraz, who serves as the resort’s guest services manager, was in her office taking care of invoicing and some other duties on Sunday, Sept. 6, when she said she heard a woman screaming for help.
Getting up from her desk, Meraz told her team members to call 911 while she set out to find out what was happening.
She said she didn’t know if someone was having a seizure or heart attack, or being stabbed. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
Meraz, along with team members Diana Starkey and Ali Staub, arrived at the pool to find a hysterical Adelia Apar, who told her that her son Darius wasn’t breathing.
Adelia Apar had been swimming laps when she turned around and found the child face down in the pool, Meraz said.
When Meraz arrived, the child was lying next to the pool. He was unconscious and blue. “I’ve never been exposed to anything like that.”
Meraz told everyone to stand back and then got down on her knees next to the child. She said she prayed, asking Jesus to help her save the boy’s life.
At that point, Meraz said it was like she was in a bubble. “It got really quiet around me.”
She began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Darius. At the second round of compressions, Meraz said she saw him starting to come back. On the third set of compressions, she prayed that he would pull through, and he started to cough.
Meraz quickly turned him over onto his side, he began throwing up water, opened his eyes and started to cry.
“I told him, ‘you’re going to be just fine,’” and then Meraz said she started to cry, too.
The child’s family immediately came to her side, calling her their guardian angel.
Bringing the child back “was an amazing feeling,” and it means a lot to her, Meraz said.
The rest of the WorldMark team set up roadblocks and guided the ambulance and first responders to the scene. Bennett said both Adelia Apar and her son were taken to the hospital for treatment.
The next day, the Apar family came back to see Meraz, bringing her flowers, and there were more hugs and tears. She said Darius gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Meraz said the Apars have told her she’s now an extended member of their family. Adelia Apar has even sent her Darius’ preschool picture.
Bennett said the day after the incident, Darius was back swimming, now with a brand new life jacket, and the whole family was able to have a good time. “That’s all you can ask for,” he said.
In a high-stress situation, how did Meraz remain calm?
Both Bennett and Meraz said the resort puts a strong emphasis on training for its staff. Bennett said CPR training is required for guest services, housekeeping, maintenance and management. “It paid off in this particular case, that’s for sure,” he said.
Meraz gave special credit to her trainer, Kimberly Miinch of Emergency Care Training and Supply in Middletown, for helping prepare her.
She said she remembered having told Miinch that she wasn’t sure she would be able to act to save someone if necessary. Meraz said Miinch reassured her that she could do it when the time came.
The day after she saved Darius, Meraz said Miinch called her. Miinch had heard scanner traffic about the incident and called to check in.
Meraz said she told Miinch that her training had made all of the difference.
Also important for Meraz is her faith in God, which she said was another key to saving the little boy.
“I give it all to the Lord,” she 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.
The Sun is stirring from its latest slumber. As sunspots and flares, signs of a new solar cycle, bubble from the Sun’s surface, scientists wonder what this next cycle will look like.
The short answer is, probably a lot like the last — that is, the past 11 years of the Sun’s life, since that’s the average length of any given cycle.
But the longer story involves a panel of experts that meets once a decade, a fleet of Sun-studying satellites, and dozens of complicated models — all revolving around efforts to understand the mystifying behavior of the star we live with.
NASA scientists study and model the Sun to better understand what it does and why. The Sun has its ups and downs and cycles between them regularly. Roughly every 11 years, at the height of this cycle, the Sun’s magnetic poles flip — on Earth, that’d be like if the North and South Poles swapped places every decade — and the Sun transitions from sluggish to active and stormy. At its quietest, the Sun is at solar minimum; during solar maximum, the Sun blazes with bright flares and solar eruptions.
Solar cycle predictions give a rough idea of what we can expect in terms of space weather, the conditions in space that change much like weather on Earth. Outbursts from the Sun can lead to a range of effects, from ethereal aurora to satellite orbital decay, and disruptions to radio communications or the power grid.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center is the U.S. government’s official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings, and alerts: With accurate predictions, we can prepare.
The work that researchers at NASA and around the world do to advance our solar activity models helps improve those forecasts. In turn, solar cycle forecasts give us a sense of how stormy the Sun will be over the next 11 years and how much radiation spacecraft and astronauts may face during heavy bouts of solar activity.
Modeling the Sun is a tricky business because scientists don’t fully understand the internal churning that causes this magnetic flip-flop. Computer models use equations to represent the Sun, but the star manages to elude them. If the Sun were a machine, it would have countless knobs and dials whose functions and sensitivities remain unknown.
“Over the last 40 years, we’ve come to observe the Sun in much greater detail,” said Lika Guhathakurta, program scientist of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It’s produced a wealth of information, but quantifying and modeling the solar cycle remains challenging. We’re working against how variable the Sun is, and the complexity of what happens inside the Sun.”
Without fully understanding how the magnetic field, which drives solar activity, moves inside the Sun, scientists have to make some assumptions. The plight of solar modelers could be likened to that of weather forecasters — if they tried to forecast the weather by looking at just the upper atmosphere, and not the critical layers below.
There are many approaches to modeling the Sun in order to develop solar cycle predictions. Some models use ground-based observations spanning hundreds of years; others may use satellite data, which has only been available for the past four decades or so.
In recent years, some researchers have incorporated machine-learning tactics. Models may focus on different precursors scientists have identified are linked to solar activity: Earth’s magnetic field, which responds to the Sun’s, and the strength of the magnetic field at the Sun’s poles are most common.
“Part of the scientific process is whittling these questions down, and working in parallel on the same problem in different ways,” said Maria Weber, an astrophysicist at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. Each model is one tool among many. “We might find there are different tools that can get us the same outcome, and then you could pick the type that best suits you.”
It’s the job of the Solar Cycle Prediction Panel — co-sponsored by NASA and NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — to evaluate all of these models and release an official prediction representing the scientific community’s best efforts.
Meeting every decade since 1989, the panel brings together experts from around the world, including Weber, who served on the panel for Solar Cycle 25. The discussions are known to occasionally get heated, a sign of the complex task at hand and the fervor each scientist has for their favorite models.
In the end, the scientists wrote their predictions on a little piece of paper, Weber said, and the debating began. “Ultimately, we all had to agree, whittling down and adjusting our estimates, so that people felt it best reflected everything we knew up to that point,” she said.
In March 2019, only the fourth time such a panel had convened, the 12 experts considered some 60 different models. In recent years, one seems to be especially successful: the polar magnetic field model. This uses measurements of the magnetic field at the Sun’s north and south poles. The idea is that the magnetic field at the Sun’s poles acts like a seed for the next cycle. If it’s strong during solar minimum, the next solar cycle will be strong; if it’s diminished, the next cycle should be too.
Together, they predicted dates for Cycle 25’s start and peak, and the peak sunspot number, an indicator of how strong the cycle will be. The more sunspots, the higher the sunspot number, and the more solar eruptions a cycle is expected to unleash.
Currently, the Sun’s poles are about as strong as they were at the same point in the last solar cycle, which scientists interpret as signs that Solar Cycle 25 will play out in similar fashion to Cycle 24. Solar Cycle 24 was a feeble cycle, peaking at 114 sunspots (the average is 179). Solar Cycle 25 is now underway and expected to peak with 115 sunspots in July 2025.
Lisa Upton, co-chair of the Solar Cycle 25 Prediction Panel and solar physicist at Space Systems Research Corporation in Westminster, Colorado, compared their task to hurricane forecasting. Meteorologists often consult several models, each spitting out its own possible path a hurricane could take.
“One of the lessons there is you don’t put too much faith in one model, but see what all of the models together can tell you and teach you,” Upton said. As a whole, a group of predictions is more likely to land on the right path.
Some have taken novel approaches to making these predictions. Scientists recently published a new way to survey the solar cycle: Instead of the traditional linear view of time, they used a mathematical technique to map the last 18 solar cycles onto a circle. What emerged was a more orderly pattern of behavior than expected from the Sun.
Their so-called solar clock is like a typical clock, where each roughly 11-year cycle can be described over 12 hours. Instead of the time of day, certain “times” correspond to high solar activity. Right now, the scientists say, it’s about 3 o’clock, near the first uptick in activity that comes at the beginning of each solar cycle. The scientists reported their findings in Geophysical Research Letters.
“The most active Sun — in terms of solar eruptions — happens between 5:30 and about 10:00, when there’s a sharp drop-off in activity as the Sun moves toward minimum,” said Robert Leamon, a solar scientist on the study, based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Once we know where we are on the solar clock and can calculate the speed of the cycle we’re in, we can make much more precise predictions about when the next cycle of solar activity will start and stop.”
According to their clock, the Sun’s next quiet period will begin around the first half of 2027.
If Solar Cycle 25 meets the panel’s predictions, it should be weaker than average. Cycle 25 is also expected to end a longer trend over the past four decades, in which the magnetic field at the Sun’s poles were gradually weakening.
As a result, the solar cycles have been steadily weaker too. If Solar Cycle 25 sees an end to this waning, it would quell speculations that the Sun might enter a grand solar minimum, a decades-to-centuries long stretch of little solar activity.
The last such minimum — known as the Maunder minimum — occurred in the middle of what’s known as the Little Ice Age from the 13th to 19th centuries, causing erroneous beliefs that another grand minimum could lead to global cooling.
“There is no indication that we are currently approaching a Maunder-type minimum in solar activity,” Upton said. But even if the Sun dropped into a grand minimum, there’s no reason to think Earth would undergo another Ice Age; not only do scientists theorize that the Little Ice Age occurred for other reasons, but in our contemporary world, greenhouse gases far surpass the Sun’s effects when it comes to changes in Earth’s climate.
Eventually, scientists would like to issue weekly forecasts for the Sun, just like meteorologists do for Earth. But solar cycle and space weather forecasting have far to go. There are still questions about the Sun’s interior to answer and important data to collect.
“One of the things that’s exciting about being a solar physicist is that we’re at the forefront of this — there’s still all these questions that have yet to be answered,” Upton said. “There are still a lot of rocks to unturn.”
Solar Cycle 25 will continue to unfold, and scientists will keep tinkering with their models and watching to see how close their predictions come. It will be another five to six years before they can say who was right — or wrong — all along.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After weeks of unhealthy air quality, conditions began to improve this week, with the Lake County Air Quality Management District reporting that the weather is helping clear the air.
During the past month, multiple fires – including the August Complex in the Mendocino National Forest, the North Complex Fire burning in the Plumas National Forest, the Red Salmon Complex burning in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and many other fires in Northern California and Oregon – created smoke impacts throughout Lake County and other parts of California.
Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart said particulate levels in Lake County are in the “good” range.
He said current winds are favorable for air quality, keeping smoke intrusions into the Lake County air basin to a minimum.
Gearhart said all areas of Lake County are forecast to have “good” to “moderate” air quality through Sunday but should be prepared for periods of “unhealthy” conditions should winds shift and smoke return.
The smoke plumes are remaining elevated and to the northeast of the air basin, Gearhart said.
For current air quality conditions visit the Purple Air map.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The US Forest Service said the massive wildland fire complex burning across three national forests is expected to be fully contained mid-November as firefighters continue to make more progress.
Officials said the August Complex reached 832,891 acres on Saturday, with containment edging up to 31 percent.
Burning on the Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests, the complex – which began Aug. 17 – is threatening 1,595 structures and has destroyed 35, officials reported.
The Forest Service said the complex is expected to be fully contained on Nov. 15.
Approximately 1,884 personnel are assigned, the Forest Service said.
Officials said crews continue to make good progress on the South Zone of the August Complex. The entire east side of the complex is now contained.
On Friday, crews constructed additional line to the west and northwest of Lake Pillsbury. Once completed, these lines will be used as both primary and alternate locations for containment of the fire, the Forest Service said.
Fire crews also initiated burning operations to the north of Pillsbury Ranch, removing vegetation between control lines and the main fire perimeter. Additional burning is planned to be completed during favorable weather and other conditions, officials said.
Once completed, officials said this work will provide a secure line and added protection for the residents of Lake Pillsbury and the surrounding community.
Structure protection measures have been implemented where property may be impacted by the fire, as well as throughout the Lake Pillsbury and surrounding areas, officials said.
Burning operations are being accomplished both by ground and air. The Forest Service said aerial ignitions are being completed utilizing a dispenser that launches small plastic spheres – like ping pong balls – through an opening in a helicopter.
The spheres are filled with a chemical that reacts and ignites after a short delay. The Forest Service said this type of ignition allows for burning or firing operations in terrain that may be difficult or unsafe for firefighters to reach by ground.
Officials said the planned ignitions are intended to burn in a more mosaic pattern and lower intensity than in an uncontrolled wildfire.
In the South Zone of the August Complex, the Forest Service said evacuation orders are in effect for Mendocino and Lake counties.
In Lake County, mandatory evacuations remain active for Pillsbury Ranch and the entire Lake Pillsbury basin.
The Forest Service said recent changes to evacuation orders include Mendocino County reducing four of the evacuation zones on the west side of the fire to an evacuation warning, while Glenn County lifted the evacuation order within the Mendocino National Forest on Friday.
Residents and property owners may return to their properties but should use extreme caution when entering the burn area, as hazards may be present, the Forest Service said. Individuals should have proof of property ownership or other documentation upon request while accessing the forest area. Contractors of private property owners should have documentation of the property being accessed and permission from the landowner.
On the complex’s West Zone, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported that Sheriff Matt Kendall is seeking assistance from the Governor's Office in obtaining California National Guard resources to assist with fire suppression efforts.
That’s in response to Cal Fire having a 53-percent decrease in its Type 1 hand crews that are staffed by inmates from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The California National Guard is trained to assist Cal Fire Type 1 hand crews in establishing and maintaining fire lines and will not be used for any law enforcement related purposes if deployed to Mendocino County as requested by Sheriff Kendall, officials said.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Fair Board has canceled its contract with the Northern California Racing Association for the Lakeport Speedway, a move that the fair’s CEO said is meant to allow the fair to pursue a new contract for the track’s operation.
Fair CEO Sheli Wright said the Fair Board of Directors took the action at its Sept. 8 meeting after reviewing the current contract with NCRA for operating the Lakeport Speedway.
Wright said that the fair board, taking into consideration NCRA’s ongoing complaints about the speedway contract, voted unanimously to cancel the contract “in the hopes of meeting changing times and current needs.”
Dan Camacho, NCRA’s president-elect who takes office on Jan. 1, said the fair gave NCRA a 30-day notice on Tuesday.
He said the contract between NCRA and the fair has had some issues that need to be resolved and that the fair is trying to figure out a way to work with the association.
The news of the contract’s cancellation has upset local racers and racing enthusiasts, including Mike Sullivan, the speedway’s 2020 modified champion, who on Facebook criticized the decision, noting the work he and others have put into the facility.
Sullivan said he, his employees and “a very dedicated group of NCRA members as well have all busted their butts to make everything so much better after it was left and such state disarray,” referring to change in track management that took place in 2019.
On the NCRA Facebook page on Friday, the association posted an update in response to community concerns, explaining that it had requested the fair extend the contract. However, “due to the way the contract was written and errors that were beyond our control unfortunately the best option for the fairgrounds was to null the contract and given [sic] us our 30 notice. At this time the fairgrounds is working with us to get the situation resolved. We appreciate everyone’s support right now! We will keep everyone posted as the situation changes.”
Wright emphasized that the Lakeport Speedway is not closing, noting that the fair board waited until after NCRA completed its race series before voting to give notice.
“The directors believe this is the first step in the process of acquiring a new contract that could be beneficial to both the fair and appealing to the local racers,” Wright said.
She said canceling the contract does not preclude NCRA getting another contract, it’s just a cancellation of this particular contract which was scheduled to end in December of this year.
Race season is usually through October. This year, however, NCRA gave notice that their last race of the season would be Sept. 12, Wright said.
The speedway’s season didn’t get underway until late May, when Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace let them go forward with “test and tune” practice sessions, as Lake County News has reported.
Camacho said that the speedway wasn’t allowed to have anyone in the stands this year, but instead live-streamed the races on Facebook.
Over the summer months of racing, Camacho said viewership grew until, by the last race, they had 3,600 viewers.
“It was actually a lot of fun,” Camacho said of the live-streamed races.
The challenges NCRA faced this year due to COVID-19 followed major changes in 2019, when the speedway underwent a change in promoters.
As for next steps, Wright told Lake County News that the fair board isn’t yet sure of what process it will follow.
Camacho also said he didn’t know when talks might open with the fair for a new speedway contract.
However, there appears to be plenty of time to work out a new contract between the fair and NCRA, whose season in 2021 is expected to start in April or May, Camacho said.
“I think we have a good relationship with the fairgrounds,” and there are just a few things that need to be worked out, Camacho said.
At this point, Camacho said NCRA isn’t getting indications from Public Health about whether they could once again have live audiences when the racing season opens in the spring.
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.
This latest image of Jupiter, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on Aug. 25 was captured when the planet was 653 million kilometers from Earth.
Hubble's sharp view is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet's turbulent atmosphere, including a remarkable new storm brewing, and a cousin of the Great Red Spot changing color – again. The new image also features Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
A unique and exciting detail of Hubble's new snapshot appears at mid-northern latitudes as a bright, white, stretched-out storm moving at 563 kilometers per hour. This single plume erupted on Aug. 18 and another has since appeared.
While it's common for storms to pop up in this region, often several at once, this particular disturbance appears to have more structure behind it than observed in previous storms. Trailing behind the plume are small, counterclockwise dark clumps also not witnessed in the past. Researchers speculate this may be the beginning of a longer-lasting northern hemisphere spot, perhaps to rival the legendary Great Red Spot that dominates the southern hemisphere.
Hubble shows that the Great Red Spot, rolling counterclockwise in the planet's southern hemisphere, is ploughing into the clouds ahead of it, forming a cascade of white and beige ribbons. The Great Red Spot is currently an exceptionally rich red color, with its core and outermost band appearing deeper red.
Researchers say the Great Red Spot now measures about 15 800 kilometers across, big enough to swallow the Earth. The super-storm is still shrinking, as noted in telescopic observations dating back to 1930, but its rate of shrinkage appears to have slowed. The reason for its dwindling size is a complete mystery.
Researchers are noticing that another feature has changed: the Oval BA, nicknamed by astronomers as Red Spot Jr., which appears just below the Great Red Spot in this image. For the past few years, Red Spot Jr. has been fading in color to its original shade of white after appearing red in 2006. However, now the core of this storm appears to be darkening to a reddish hue. This could hint that Red Spot Jr. is on its way to reverting to a color more similar to that of its cousin.
Hubble's image shows that Jupiter is clearing out its higher-altitude white clouds, especially along the planet's equator, which is enveloped in an orangish hydrocarbon smog.
Jupiter's icy moon Europa is visible to the left of the gas giant. Europa is already thought to harbor a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust, making this moon one of the main targets in the search for habitable worlds beyond Earth.
In 2013 it was announced that the Hubble Space Telescope discovered water vapor erupting from the frigid surface of Europa, in one or more localized plumes near its south pole. ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
Hubble also captured a new multiwavelength observation in ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared light of Jupiter on Aug. 25, which is giving researchers an entirely new view of the giant planet.
Hubble's near infrared imaging, combined with ultraviolet views, provides a unique panchromatic look that offers insights into the altitude and distribution of the planet's haze and particles. This complements Hubble's visible-light picture that shows the ever-changing cloud patterns.
One of nature’s epic events is underway: Monarch butterflies’ fall migration. Departing from all across the United States and Canada, the butterflies travel up to 2,500 miles to cluster at the same locations in Mexico or along the Pacific Coast where their great-grandparents spent the previous winter.
Human activities have an outsized impact on monarchs’ ability to migrate yearly to these specific sites. Development, agriculture and logging have reduced monarch habitat. Climate change, drought and pesticide use also reduce the number of butterflies that complete the journey.
Since 1993, the area of forest covered by monarchs at their overwintering sites in Mexico has fallen from a peak of 45 acres in 1996-1997 to as low as 1.66 acres in the winter of 2013-2014. A 2016 study warned that monarchs were dangerously close to a predicted “point of no return.” The 2019 count of monarchs in California was the lowest ever recorded for that group.
What was largely a bottom-up, citizen-powered effort to save the struggling monarch butterfly migration has shifted toward a top-down conversation between the federal government, private industry and large-tract landowners. As a biologist studying monarchs to understand the molecular and genetic aspects of migration, I believe this experiment has high stakes for monarchs and other imperiled species.
Millions of people care about monarchs
I will never forget the sights and sounds the first time I visited monarchs’ overwintering sites in Mexico. Our guide pointed in the distance to what looked like hanging branches covered with dead leaves. But then I saw the leaves flash orange every so often, revealing what were actually thousands of tightly packed butterflies. The monarchs made their most striking sounds in the Sun, when they burst from the trees in massive fluttering plumes or landed on the ground in the tussle of mating.
Decades of educational outreach by teachers, researchers and hobbyists has cultivated a generation of monarch admirers who want to help preserve this phenomenon. This global network has helped restore not only monarchs’ summer breeding habitat by planting milkweed, but also general pollinator habitat by planting nectaring flowers across North America.
Scientists have calculated that restoring the monarch population to a stable level of about 120 million butterflies will require planting 1.6 billion new milkweed stems. And they need them fast. This is too large a target to achieve through grassroots efforts alone. A new plan, announced in the spring of 2020, is designed to help fill the gap.
Pros and cons of regulation
The top-down strategy for saving monarchs gained energy in 2014, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing them as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A decision is expected in December 2020.
Listing a species as endangered or threatened triggers restrictions on “taking” (hunting, collecting or killing), transporting or selling it, and on activities that negatively affect its habitat. Listing monarchs would impose restrictions on landowners in areas where monarchs are found, over vast swaths of land in the U.S.
In my opinion, this is not a reason to avoid a listing. However, a “threatened” listing might inadvertently threaten one of the best conservation tools that we have: public education.
It would severely restrict common practices, such as rearing monarchs in classrooms and back yards, as well as scientific research. Anyone who wants to take monarchs and milkweed for these purposes would have to apply for special permits. But these efforts have had a multigenerational educational impact, and they should be protected. Few public campaigns have been more successful at raising awareness of conservation issues.
The rescue attempt
To preempt the need for this kind of regulation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a Nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement for Monarch Butterflies. Under this plan, “rights-of-way” landowners – energy and transportation companies and private owners – commit to restoring and creating millions of acres of pollinator habitat that have been decimated by land development and herbicide use in the past half-century.
The agreement was spearheaded by the Rights-of-Way Habitat Working Group, a collaboration between the University of Illinois Chicago’s Energy Resources Center, the Fish and Wildlife Service and over 40 organizations from the energy and transportation sectors. These sectors control “rights-of-way” corridors such as lands near power lines, oil pipelines, railroad tracks and interstates, all valuable to monarch habitat restoration.
Under the plan, partners voluntarily agree to commit a percentage of their land to host protected monarch habitat. In exchange, general operations on their land that might directly harm monarchs or destroy milkweed will not be subject to the enhanced regulation of the Endangered Species Act – protection that would last for 25 years if monarchs are listed as threatened. The agreement is expected to create up to 2.3 million acres of new protected habitat, which ideally would avoid the need for a “threatened” listing.
Many questions remain. Scientists are still learning about factors that cause monarch population decline, so it is likely that land management goals will need to change over the course of the agreement, and partner organizations will have to adjust to those changes.
Oversight of the plan will fall primarily to the University of Illinois, and ultimately to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But it’s not clear whether they will have the resources they need. And without effective oversight, the plan could allow parties to carry out destructive land management practices that would otherwise be barred under an Endangered Species Act listing.
A model for collaboration
This agreement could be one of the few specific interventions that is big enough to allow researchers to quantify its impact on the size of the monarch population. Even if the agreement produces only 20% of its 2.3 million acre goal, this would still yield nearly half a million acres of new protected habitat. This would provide a powerful test of the role of declining breeding and nectaring habitat compared to other challenges to monarchs, such as climate change or pollution.
Scientists hope that data from this agreement will be made publicly available, like projects in the Monarch Conservation Database, which has tracked smaller on-the-ground conservation efforts since 2014. With this information we can continue to develop powerful new models with better accuracy for determining how different habitat factors, such as the number of milkweed stems or nectaring flowers on a landscape scale, affect the monarch population.
North America’s monarch butterfly migration is one of the most awe-inspiring feats in the natural world. If this rescue plan succeeds, it could become a model for bridging different interests to achieve a common conservation goal.
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg paying a courtesy call on Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., left, and Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., in June 1993, before her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court. AP/Marcy Nighswander
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday, the Supreme Court announced.
Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement that “Our nation has lost a jurist of historic stature.”
Even before her appointment, she had reshaped American law. When he nominated Ginsburg to the Supreme Court, President Bill Clinton compared her legal work on behalf of women to the epochal work of Thurgood Marshall on behalf of African-Americans.
The comparison was entirely appropriate: As Marshall oversaw the legal strategy that culminated in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that outlawed segregated schools, Ginsburg coordinated a similar effort against sex discrimination.
Decades before she joined the court, Ginsburg’s work as an attorney in the 1970s fundamentally changed the Supreme Court’s approach to women’s rights, and the modern skepticism about sex-based policies stems in no small way from her lawyering. Ginsburg’s work helped to change the way we all think about women – and men, for that matter.
I’m a legal scholar who studies social reform movements and I served as a law clerk to Ginsburg when she was an appeals court judge. In my opinion – as remarkable as Marshall’s work on behalf of African-Americans was – in some ways Ginsburg faced more daunting prospects when she started.
Starting at zero
When Marshall began challenging segregation in the 1930s, the Supreme Court had rejected some forms of racial discrimination even though it had upheld segregation.
When Ginsburg started her work in the 1960s, the Supreme Court had never invalidated any type of sex-based rule. Worse, it had rejected every challenge to laws that treated women worse than men.
For instance, in 1873, the court allowed Illinois authorities to ban Myra Bradwell from becoming a lawyer because she was a woman. Justice Joseph P. Bradley, widely viewed as a progressive, wrote that women were too fragile to be lawyers: “The paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfil the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator.”
And in 1908, the court upheld an Oregon law that limited the number of hours that women – but not men – could work. The opinion relied heavily on a famous brief submitted by Louis Brandeis to support the notion that women needed protection to avoid harming their reproductive function.
As late as 1961, the court upheld a Florida law that for all practical purposes kept women from serving on juries because they were “the center of the home and family life” and therefore need not incur the burden of jury service.
Challenging paternalistic notions
Ginsburg followed Marshall’s approach to promote women’s rights – despite some important differences between segregation and gender discrimination.
Segregation rested on the racist notion that Black people were less than fully human and deserved to be treated like animals. Gender discrimination reflected paternalistic notions of female frailty. Those notions placed women on a pedestal – but also denied them opportunities.
Either way, though, Black Americans and women got the short end of the stick.
Ginsburg started with a seemingly inconsequential case. Reed v. Reed challenged an Idaho law requiring probate courts to appoint men to administer estates, even if there were a qualified woman who could perform that task.
Sally and Cecil Reed, the long-divorced parents of a teenage son who committed suicide while in his father’s custody, both applied to administer the boy’s tiny estate.
The probate judge appointed the father as required by state law. Sally Reed appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Ginsburg did not argue the case, but wrote the brief that persuaded a unanimous court in 1971 to invalidate the state’s preference for males. As the court’s decision stated, that preference was “the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”
Two years later, Ginsburg won in her first appearance before the Supreme Court. She appeared on behalf of Air Force Lt. Sharron Frontiero. Frontiero was required by federal law to prove that her husband, Joseph, was dependent on her for at least half his economic support in order to qualify for housing, medical and dental benefits.
If Joseph Frontiero had been the soldier, the couple would have automatically qualified for those benefits. Ginsburg argued that sex-based classifications such as the one Sharron Frontiero challenged should be treated the same as the now-discredited race-based policies.
By an 8–1 vote, the court in Frontiero v. Richardson agreed that this sex-based rule was unconstitutional. But the justices could not agree on the legal test to use for evaluating the constitutionality of sex-based policies.
Strategy: Represent men
In 1974, Ginsburg suffered her only loss in the Supreme Court, in a case that she entered at the last minute.
Mel Kahn, a Florida widower, asked for the property tax exemption that state law allowed only to widows. The Florida courts ruled against him.
Ginsburg, working with the national ACLU, stepped in after the local affiliate brought the case to the Supreme Court. But a closely divided court upheld the exemption as compensation for women who had suffered economic discrimination over the years.
Despite the unfavorable result, the Kahn case showed an important aspect of Ginsburg’s approach: her willingness to work on behalf of men challenging gender discrimination. She reasoned that rigid attitudes about sex roles could harm everyone and that the all-male Supreme Court might more easily get the point in cases involving male plaintiffs.
She turned out to be correct, just not in the Kahn case.
Ginsburg represented widower Stephen Wiesenfeld in challenging a Social Security Act provision that provided parental benefits only to widows with minor children.
Wiesenfeld’s wife had died in childbirth, so he was denied benefits even though he faced all of the challenges of single parenthood that a mother would have faced. The Supreme Court gave Wiesenfeld and Ginsburg a win in 1975, unanimously ruling that sex-based distinction unconstitutional.
And two years later, Ginsburg successfully represented Leon Goldfarb in his challenge to another sex-based provision of the Social Security Act: Widows automatically received survivor’s benefits on the death of their husbands. But widowers could receive such benefits only if the men could prove that they were financially dependent on their wives’ earnings.
Ginsburg also wrote an influential brief in Craig v. Boren, the 1976 case that established the current standard for evaluating the constitutionality of sex-based laws.
Like Wiesenfeld and Goldfarb, the challengers in the Craig case were men. Their claim seemed trivial: They objected to an Oklahoma law that allowed women to buy low-alcohol beer at age 18 but required men to be 21 to buy the same product.
But this deceptively simple case illustrated the vices of sex stereotypes: Aggressive men (and boys) drink and drive, women (and girls) are demure passengers. And those stereotypes affected everyone’s behavior, including the enforcement decisions of police officers.
Under the standard delineated by the justices in the Boren case, such a law can be justified only if it is substantially related to an important governmental interest.
Among the few laws that satisfied this test was a California law that punished sex with an underage female but not with an underage male as a way to reduce the risk of teen pregnancy.
These are only some of the Supreme Court cases in which Ginsburg played a prominent part as a lawyer. She handled many lower-court cases as well. She had plenty of help along the way, but everyone recognized her as the key strategist.
In the century before Ginsburg won the Reed case, the Supreme Court never met a gender classification that it didn’t like. Since then, sex-based policies usually have been struck down.
I believe President Clinton was absolutely right in comparing Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s efforts to those of Thurgood Marshall, and in appointing her to the Supreme Court.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s been just over a month since the two Northshore school districts began the new school year, becoming the first of Lake County’s districts to open the doors to in-person instruction after months of COVID-19-related closures and challenges.
After the first month in session, the superintendents of both districts – Mike Brown in Lucerne and Dr. Giovanni Annous in Upper Lake – say that, so far, so good, with parents happy to have their children back in class, teachers glad to be with their students and the children getting back into the traditional learning environment, with the benefits of interaction not just with teachers but with their classmates.
Reopening Lucerne Elementary School District and Upper Lake Unified was the work of months for staff and administrators.
There were necessary and expensive adaptations, including reducing class sizes, installing new hand sanitizer stations around school grounds, regular rounds of school playground disinfection, increasing the number of bus runs, shorter school days, plexiglass cubicles and teaching stations, masking, staggering lunch hours and, much to the delight of the children, more chances to move the learning environment outdoors.
In describing the return to school, “The adjective that I use is ‘amazing’,” said Upper Lake Elementary Principal Stephanie Wayment.
She said everyone is happy and joyful to be able to be on campus. “They’re celebrating each other’s successes,” she said, adding that the return to school has been really good for everyone’s social and emotional development.
Once the doors were open, there were still more challenges. In the midst of this first month back to school, there have been massive wildland fires in Lake County and around the region that caused classes to be canceled at Lucerne Elementary on Aug. 25 because of air quality.
In Upper Lake, where the schools have a new HVAC system, Annous said it was challenging but they lost no school days, instead recommending that everyone stay indoors on the days with the worst air quality ratings.
Also in August, the state issued a new COVID-19 blueprint for recovery which, for some counties, meant schools couldn’t reopen for in-person classes. However, locally, it had no impact on the schools because Lake County’s case numbers have remained comparatively low.
Both Brown and Annous said their efforts have gained them the attention of parents in other districts who want their students back on campus.
“We’ve got a lot of parents requesting interdistrict transfers,” said Brown.
However, both he and Annous said so far they’ve turned away bringing new students into the districts in order to keep class sizes small because of the need for social distancing.
Because of the limitations of the state reopening guidelines, neither of the districts have begun organized sporting activities again, the superintendents said.
As of this week, all four of the county’s other school districts – Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown – are still in distance learning mode but report actively working on how to transition back to having children and teachers in classrooms.
And on Thursday, Mendocino College said it is extending remote instruction for its students through Spring 2021.
‘A good start’ for Lucerne
Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified both started classes on Aug. 12, with the districts also offering a distance learning option for parents who wanted it.
“It was a good start. It was as magical as ever,” said Brown.
He said the little kids arrived in their brand new school clothes and waited in line as temperatures were taken, a process that got quicker every day.
Brown said people have been happy to see the school reopen.
In Lucerne, the changes they’ve implemented include serving lunch in the cafeteria at four different times so the children can be spaced apart for social distancing. “They’re talking and enjoying themselves,” Brown said.
For some of the younger classes, the school has small desks that can be taken outside and placed on the lawn. Brown said they’ve also moved a set of bleachers under the large and shady mulberry trees so classes can enjoy an outside learning area, and a lot of the teachers are taking advantage of the opportunity to go outside.
He said eating lunch and outdoor recreational activities are the only places the children can’t mask. “It’s a nice break for them to be able to get out and take that mask off.”
Brown said that the school started the year with about 85 of its students in the distance learning program and about 200 attending in person, which is close to last year’s enrollment numbers.
To keep classroom sizes small, Brown said they moved intervention teachers into the classrooms on regular teaching assignments and also hired a new teacher.
In the weeks since Lucerne Elementary started, Brown said they’ve made some adjustments to improve safety protocols.
He said they are expecting numerous students to return for in-person instruction early in October, at the end of the quarter. “Distance learning is not working out so well for some of them and others just want to return.”
If there was a wrench in the spokes, he said, it was the school’s bond construction project to build new classrooms, which had delays and required moving half a dozen teachers and their classrooms around the campus.
Brown said the cement for new sidewalks in key areas of the campus were poured the week before classes started. The project overall had been pushed back over the summer due to delays with moving key electrical equipment.
A new double kindergarten classroom with connecting bathrooms is supposed to be ready at about the start of November. Once that’s done, Brown said they will move other teachers so the next phase of the construction can take place, the removal of old modulars by Country Club Drive, which will be replaced with new classrooms.
He said the pandemic is illustrative of how important schools – especially teachers – are to the economy.
“I hope it’s not a lesson that’s soon forgotten,” he said.
‘100-percent dedication’
At Upper Lake Unified, Annous praised his staff for their efforts to work together and make changes that would keep students safe in an atmosphere where COVID-19 remains a major concern.
He credited them with having “full-on, 100-percent dedication” as well as resiliency.
Like Lucerne, Upper Lake is offering families the option of distance learning.
For the elementary school, 55 percent, or 188 children, are learning on-site, while another 154 children, the remaining 45 percent, are using the distance education option, he said.
At the middle school, Annous said it’s a 47 percent, or 88 children, on-campus versus 53 percent, or 100 children earning from home. The high school has roughly the same percentages, which equals 136 students in classrooms and 156 children distance learning.
“It’s going really well,” said Wayment. “Everybody is acclimating and working together collaboratively and maintaining all of their safety precautions.”
Wayment said she believes the return to school has been a success. “Everybody’s very happy to be back.”
She said all children and staff are wearing masks, and parents have all been very positive and patient, grateful for their students to have options to either be on campus or at home.
Class size reductions have been key to making it work because of the need for social distancing. Annous said before the pandemic, they had a districtwide class size average of between 22 to 32 students. Now, it’s between 12 and 15.
Another critical aspect is equipment. Annous said that they started the school year with 15,000 disposable masks, along with 2,000 face shields for staff, who get a new face shield every Monday.
Annous has personally spent his evenings and weekends in the high school shop fabricating custom, fit-to-order table dividers, shields and plexiglass teaching zones requested by staff.
The district also started the year equipped with 300 gallons of hand sanitizer which is distributed among classrooms, where 100 disposable masks also are kept at any one time, he said.
Annous said the district has 123 thermometers on hand for checking students’ temperatures when they get to school in the morning.
The district’s John Deere tractor, equipped with a fogger, sprays down picnic tables and playground equipment as many as three times a day, between breaks and events. Annous said the school district buses also get fogged with disinfectant.
Annous said they made a major change in the structure of school days, creating cohorts for students. Children now attend a 90-minute block for the first three periods of the school day while pushing the middle and high schools to a later start.
They now do two bus runs per route morning and evening to allow for fewer children – as few as eight with a maximum of 14 – on the bus at any one time, Annous said.
The district also is continuing its food delivery to students who remain at home distance learning, he said.
One minor adjustment the district made since opening school is to make every Wednesday a minimum day; previously, two Wednesdays a month had been minimum days. Annous said that extra time is used by staff to help support students on distance learning.
Annous said a teacher had told him how she had been concerned when first coming back, but as classes got underway she started to feel normalized and focused on the academics.
He emphasized the need for an emotional sense of safety for students and teachers.
Earlier this month, the district used Zoom and Facebook Live to host back to school nights for parents, with teachers getting the chance to talk about the transition back to the classroom.
Wayment said that at the end of the first grading period they are planning to introduce more changes, with additional students to return to campus.
Annous said they now have families who are on distance learning who are on a waiting list to transition back to campus.
However, Wayment said that because of social distancing requirements they may not immediately be able to accommodate all of the families interested in sending their children back to school.
Annous said he can’t put into words the gratitude he feels for his staff and their efforts. “Without that, we could never have been where we are today.”
While management can make decisions and leadership strategies, the staff, Annous said, “are the ones who take charge of it” and make sure it happens.
He added that the return to school – and meeting the challenges that went along with it – couldn't have been done without the “Upper Lake Strong” mindset, with everyone coming together.
Charter and Christian schools reopen doors; other districts make plans
In the weeks since Lucerne and Upper Lake reopened their doors, other districts have continued planning to do the same while also dealing with air quality issues and, in the south county, evacuations due to the LNU Lightning Complex.
Middletown Christian School reported that it went back to school for in-person instruction on Aug. 17.
On Sept. 2 Lake County International Charter School in Middletown reopened for in-person instruction, and on Monday began its full cohorts with 12 to 14 students per classroom, said Director Gwendolyn Maupin-Ahern.
“We are doing OK, but it is definitely a challenge doing a hybrid model where students are both online learning while others are also present in the classroom,” she said, adding, “We are working out the kinks. Our staff is amazing, creative and resilient.”
Konocti Christian Academy in Lakeport returned to in-person classes on Monday.
Meredith Wiser, KCA’s president and interim principal, said the school’s board of directors and staff worked together to develop a COVID-19 preparedness plan for safely instructing students this fall.
“Our goal is to provide an excellent Christ-centered education in a safe learning environment. KCA will continue to comply with local Public Health orders, governor’s orders and other laws,” she said.
Other districts around the county continue to hold classes virtually while continuing to evaluate transitioning back to the more traditional classroom model.
At Kelseyville Unified, Superintendent Dave McQueen said his district staff will determine on Friday whether it can meet the state guidelines to safely begin the hybrid learning model, a blend of in-person and distance learning.
If the district determines that it can meet those guidelines, the earliest Kelseyville Unified schools could be back to in-person instruction with a modified schedule would be Oct. 5. McQueen said he will make a public announcement once a decision has been made.
Middletown Unified School District began distancing learning classes on Sept. 3 after the LNU Lightning Complex and the related south county evacuations caused a necessary delay from its planned Aug. 24 start for school.
In a letter to parents, Superintendent Michael Cox reported that the district leadership team met on Tuesday morning to discuss and evaluate the reopening of schools. “I know it’s only been eight days, but we want to prepare for re-opening and creating a safe and secure learning environment where students can learn best, in our school. It is our goal to have a return to school in person as soon as it is safe and feasible to do so for all involved.”
Cox said the district’s leadership team will meet every two weeks to discuss and evaluate when students can return to school and will communicate their progress after each meeting.
“The leadership team has identified concerns and we are building a rubric that will be shared so you can see the progress we are making,” Cox said. “We will also be soliciting feedback from staff/families and community members using data to move forward in our re-opening efforts.”
He added, “This is a living document and process,” and it will change based on stakeholder input and guidelines from the California Department of Education and Lake County Public Health Department guidelines.
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.