LAKEPORT, Calif. – Local legal and educational leaders met last week to begin laying the groundwork to introduce a new educational program to Lake County.

More than 30 community members – including judges, attorneys, educators and students – met on Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Lake County Courthouse, to discuss the new Mock Trial Program, which will make its debut in the 2012-13 school year.

The Lake County Superior Court and Lake County Office of Education are partnering to bring the Mock Trial Program to Lake County.

The Mock Trial Program is an educational exercise in which young people study court cases and argue them before real judges in real courtrooms as part of mock bench trials. Competitions take place on the county, state and national levels, much like the Academic Decathlon.

Participating students take on the roles of prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses, clerks, bailiffs, journalists and sketch artists.

Judge Richard Martin, who hosted the meeting, said the program’s success will hinge on the involvement of community members.

As part of the Nov. 10 meeting there was a presentation by Carolyn Brown, coordinator for the Mendocino County Mock Trial Program – in place for 24 years – and wife of Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ronald Brown, who made the trip to Lakeport with her.

Lake County Superintendent of Schools Wally Holbrook said he’s very excited about the program.

“All of our children are really going to benefit from this,” he said.

Holbrook said the goal – and the expectation – is that all five of the county’s high schools will participate.

Carolyn Brown explained how the program works in Mendocino County, and touched on its benefits for young people.

“We do truly believe there are so many wonderful outcomes for students participating in this program,” she said.

She said hundreds of Mendocino County students have grown and matured through the program, which teaches them about the intricacies of criminal trials.

Participation requires – and fosters – critical thinking skills, with students also gaining self-confidence and good sportsmanship, as well as the ability to stay cool as they’re under the scrutiny of judges and attorneys, she said.

Spectators are amazed at the participating students’ professionalism, Brown said, adding that the program crafts responsible young adults.

The Mendocino County Mock Trial Program competition will take place over two weekends early next year, Jan. 28 and Feb. 4, Brown said.

Brown said the Mock Trial Program and others like it “are more critical than ever.”

The group also heard from Laytonville High School science teacher Bruce Potter, who leads that school’s Mock Trial Program, and explained that the program is good for self-esteem and teaching students how to solve problems.

Mendocino County Assistant District Attorney Beth Norman, who is an attorney-coach, said, “There’s a place for everyone” in the program.

She said the program teaches skills that she believes open doors for young people, and shared how she had seen the teens she works with in Mendocino County come up with creative legal arguments that surprised and impressed her.

“It’s a blast,” she said. “I love doing it.”

Norman added, “I’m really excited that Lake County is thinking about doing this.”

Laytonville High School junior Colten Gover, one of Mendocino County’s Mock Trial Program stars, explained that the competition requires dedication, but teaches many skills.

There are other pluses as well, he said. “You make friends, and that's the biggest part I like.”

Another attorney-coach, Matt Finnegan, who for the last two years has worked with the team for the Redwood Academy of Ukiah and the Accelerated Achievement Academy, said at first he was reluctant to take part due to the time commitment.

However, he added, “For me, it’s well worth it,” and said he believes the adults who will take on the teaching and mentoring roles in Lake County also will find it rewarding.

Holbrook said a lot needs to be done in order to have the program’s setup complete by the end of this school year, in preparation for the first Lake County competition in the fall of 2012.

With the Academic Decathlon already well established in Lake County, Holbrook said he doesn’t want to see the two programs compete, and wants students to be able to compete in both.

He said he anticipates meeting with local school superintendents about the program on Monday, Nov. 14.

For more information, call the Lake County Office of Education, 707-262-4100.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

From left, United Veterans Council President Frank Parker, who received the Friend of the Veteran Award on behalf of Lake County Vet Connect, and Griff Ratterree, who received the Veteran of the Year Award at the Lake County Veterans Day ceremony at Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport, Calif., on Friday, November 11, 2011. Photo by Elizabeth Larson.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Despite the rain, hundreds of people turned out on Friday morning to mark Veterans Day and show their gratitude to the men and women who have donned the uniform in service to the nation.

The annual Lake County Veterans Day ceremony returned to Konocti Vista Casino in Lakeport, where community members packed the showroom.

Receiving special honors this year was Lake County Vet Connect, formed earlier this year to help veterans get a “hand up, not a hand out” with everything from medical care to housing assistance. The group received this year’s “Friend of the Veteran” award.

Griff Ratterree, past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2015 in Lakeport and a member of the United Veterans Council’s Military Funeral Honors Team, was honored with the “Veteran of the Year Award.”

“First time in my life I’ve been speechless,” Ratterree said after being handed the award by United Veterans Council President Frank Parker.

The turnout appeared to be even larger than last year. Parker noted that he could remember the first ceremony held in front of the Veterans Service Office in downtown Lakeport many years ago, when only a handful of people showed up.

Young McKenna Rose Enger sang the national anthem to start off the event, and Supervisor Jim Comstock, a Vietnam Navy veteran, noted that it was for people like her that veterans serve.

“It’s about America – what we love and defend fiercely,” he said.

Comstock read a letter from Congressman Mike Thompson, another Vietnam veteran, who thanked the county’s veterans for their service both in wars and in peacetime.

The day’s featured speaker was Ginny Craven, founder of Operation Tango Mike, which sends care packages to soldiers overseas. Craven is a previous Friend of the Veteran Award winner.

The daughter of a World War II veteran who died when she was still in high school, Craven described growing up in Lake County and meeting veterans whose service she knew nothing about until years later.

She said those men she met didn’t speak about their service; neither did her father. “Many vets don’t.”

While he may not have spoken about it, her father’s service was evidenced in other ways, including how shrapnel oozed from his body until the day he died.

In describing veterans, she quoted G.K. Chesterton, who wrote, “Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.”

Craven received a standing ovation from the crowd.

In presenting the Friend of the Veteran Award to Vet Connect, Comstock said the group’s goal is to make sure veterans in need aren’t forgotten.

Parker, who helped form the group and accepted the award on its behalf, said Vet Connect will mark its one-year anniversary this coming Jan. 6. Ten weeks after it formed, it began serving veterans, he said.

“We are vets helping vets,” he explained. “We are a hand up, not a hand out.”

Parker, in turn, presented the award to Ratterree, saying, “This is one award that is long overdue.”

Ratterree said of his award, “I feel it’s an honor to be a vet in this great nation.”

The Military Funeral Honors Team, which has given honors at the funerals of more than 800 veterans, helped close the ceremony with a rifle volley, followed by the playing of “Taps.”

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The initiative would require genetically engineered foods (also known as genetically modified organisms, or GMOs) and foods containing GMO ingredients to be clearly labeled, similar to current labels with other nutritional information.

Genetically engineered food is usually plant or meat product that has had its DNA artificially altered in a lab with genes from other plants, animals, viruses or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds in that food. This genetic alteration is experimental, and is not found in nature.

The risk of genetically engineered foods is unclear, and unlike the strict safety evaluations required for the approval of new drugs, the safety of genetically engineered foods for human consumption has not been adequately tested, the group said.

Recent studies show that genetically engineering food can create new, unintended toxic substances and increase allergies, cancer risks and other health problems, especially for children.

Experts agree that by labeling genetically engineered food, we can help identify foods that cause health problems, the committee said.

“Because the FDA has failed to require labeling of GMO food, this initiative closes a critical loophole in food labeling law. It will allow Californians to choose what they buy and eat and will allow health professionals to track any potential adverse health impacts of these foods,” says Andy Kimbrell, Director of the Center for Food Safety.

The two most common genetically engineered traits are the expression of an insecticide in the tissue of “Bt Corn” and the expression of a compound in “Roundup Ready Soy” which enables high doses of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer to be sprayed while the plant survives.

As much as 85 percent of corn in the U.S. is genetically engineered. BT Corn is currently regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an insecticide.

Robyn O’Brien, author and founder of the Allergy Kids Foundation says, “I support labeling genetically engineered foods because allergy-sensitive people can exercise caution with essential information to make informed decisions about what they eat.”

Fifty countries including the European Union and Japan have laws mandating that genetically engineered foods be labeled, but the United States does not have such a requirement.

Public opinion polls indicate that over 90 percent of California voters support the labeling of genetically engineered foods.

Efforts to enact labeling laws in Congress and the California legislature have been blocked by big food and chemical company lobbyists. This measure will take the issue directly to the people to decide whether genetically engineered foods should be labeled.

“These genetically engineered foods have been allowed into our food supply without warning, and they aren’t labeled,” said Pamm Larry, founder of the grassroots movement and the Committee For the Right to Know. “The bottom line is Californians have a right to know what’s in the food we eat and feed our children. It’s time to send a strong, direct message to those who govern us, whether they be agency or elected, that we want genetically engineered foods labeled.”

The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act was carefully and specifically written to avoid any unnecessary burden or cost to consumers or producers. California voters are expected to have the chance to vote on the initiative in November 2012.

The full text submitted to the attorney general can be read below.

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November 2011 - California Right to Know Initiative

These orange-fleshed garnet yams may be candied or mashed for Thanksgiving, but are not related to true yams, which are native to Africa. Rather, they're a colorful version of traditional sweet potatoes, with a moister texture. Photo by Esther Oertel.

A bit of a discrepancy exists surrounding the difference between sweet potatoes and yams. Many of us will serve sweet potatoes as an accompaniment to our Thanksgiving meals, perhaps candied or mashed, but will refer to them as yams.

And who can blame us? Orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are sold in stores as yams. Even promotional Web sites, such as the one which markets Louisiana sweet potatoes, contribute to the confusion with recipes such as yam bisque and a mascot named “Yamster the Hamster.”

The truth is that what we know as yams in North America is almost always a version of sweet potato. True yams, native to Africa and Asia, are another genus of plant, completely unrelated to sweet potatoes, which have their origins in South America.

So why does this overlap in names exist?

Several decades ago when orange fleshed sweet potatoes were introduced in the southern United States, producers and shippers dubbed them yams to distinguish them from the traditional lighter fleshed ones. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that the label "yam" always be accompanied by "sweet potato.”

True yams may be found in Latin or Caribbean grocery stores, and I’ll write about them separately in another column.

Not only are the sweet potato’s large, tuberous roots edible, but the young shoots and leaves are sometimes used as greens. Sweet potato blossoms reveal the plant’s membership in the morning glory family, as they bear a striking resemblance to that climbing garden flower.

The smooth skin of the long, tapered roots can be purple, red, brown, or beige, with flesh that ranges from beige through yellow, orange and purple.

They’re beloved around the world, where they hold a place in the cuisines of Africa and Asia, as well as in the Americas.

They’re a favorite street food in places such as Egypt and Japan, where vendors typically bake them.

Dried slices of sweet potato roots are a staple food in Uganda, and in West African counties, such as Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, the young leaves and vine tips are widely consumed as a vegetable.

In Asia, a variety of cuisines utilize the sweet potato, including in China, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Sweet potatoes are important in the typhoon-prone countries of the Pacific, as they’re not as affected by flooding as other staple crops.

Sweet potato soup flavored with ginger is made in China, Koreans use sweet potato starch to make cellophane noodles, and the Japanese use it in tempura and to make pastries, particularly the purple variety, which was developed there.

Multinational pizza chains in Korea use sweet potatoes as a topping.

There’s an interesting twist to the sweet potato story. While the center of origin and domestication of the sweet potato is thought to be in Central or South America, it was also grown in Polynesia before western exploration there.

Current thought holds that the sea-faring Polynesians brought the sweet potato back from travels to South America. From there it likely spread to Hawaii and New Zealand, where the Maori people also cultivated sweet potatoes before European contact.

I just experimented with making a sweet potato soup that turned out to be surprisingly delicious in its simplest form. I boiled three peeled, cubed orange-fleshed sweet potatoes (marketed as garnet yams) in a quart of vegetable broth until tender and pureed the mixture in batches in a blender.

It was perfect just as it was, rich and flavorful, even with no added seasonings. With a little less cooking broth, it would have made a nice side dish of pureed sweet potatoes.

When I attempted to develop it further by adding coconut milk, it took some time to balance the flavors with curry powder, peanut oil and lemon juice. I was happy with the end result; even so, it didn’t quite measure up to the soup in its purest evolution.

Sweet potatoes are versatile in that they may be cooked by many processes, including baking, steaming, boiling, deep-frying or pan frying, microwaving, and cooking in hot ash or coals.

To cook them in the ash or coals of a barbecue or fire pit, prick them several times and wrap in aluminum foil (use a double wrapping if they’ll be among coals) and place them among the coals or immersed in hot ash. (Use a double wrapping of foil if among coals). Check them for tenderness after about 20 minutes.

If desired, they may be rubbed with spices prior to cooking. Chef Jamie Oliver suggests a mixture of crushed chili peppers, cumin, and salt, and served with a squeeze of lime after they’re done.

Sweet potatoes are full of beta-carotene, which converts to vitamin A in our systems. They also contain good amounts of dietary fiber, vitamin B6 and vitamin C.

Sweet potatoes are beautiful when baked into a pie, and having one on your Thanksgiving dessert table may be a nice change from (or an addition to) the pumpkin pie that’s typically served. Maple syrup or bourbon are flavorful additions to sweet potato pies.

Today’s recipe is a unique one, a sweet potato “butter” that may be used as a dip or spread. It’s wonderful with corn bread or a nutty whole wheat loaf.

Sweet potato butter

2 garlic cloves

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

2 medium carrots, peeled and diced

1/2 to 3/4 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Put unpeeled garlic cloves on aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees F. for about 10 minutes, until soft.

Boil potatoes and carrots until tender; drain.

Put vegetables in a food processor and squeeze in the baked garlic. Add 1/2 cup broth and blend. With motor running, add oil and keep blending, adding more broth until puree is fairly smooth and full.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in optional chopped fresh herbs if using dip immediately. Otherwise, see below.

Dip can be made as long as a day in advance, covered and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature for serving and stir in the optional herbs right before serving with raw vegetables and bread sticks.

Makes six servings.

Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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The Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center was created by the U.S. Congress in 2000 to collect, preserve and make accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war.

“This project is a valuable history lesson for young people to hear firsthand what serving our nation during war time means,” said Thompson. “The recordings will serve as keepsakes for generations, allowing grandchildren and great grandchildren to learn about their family members who served on the battlefield so they could grow up free.”

The Veterans History Project program comprises individual audio- and video-recorded interviews, original photographs, letters and other historical documents from veterans of every war and conflict since World War I.

Students and veteran “coaches” will be paired with a combat veteran to record the interview. Students are encouraged to consider the Veterans History Project for their senior project and Scout troops are encouraged to include Veterans History Project on their path to Eagle Scout.

Veterans are encouraged to sign up to be interviewed and to be coach mentors and work with students and veterans throughout the project. Interested students, teachers and veterans may call Congressman Thompson’s district office in Napa County at 707-226-9898.

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Back in the 1970s, biologists were amazed to discover a form of life they never expected. Tiny microorganisms with ancient DNA were living in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park.

Instead of dissolving in the boiling waters, the microbes were thriving, ringing the springs with vibrant color.

Scientists coined the term extremophile, which means “extreme-loving, to describe the creatures – and the hunt was on for more. Soon, extremophiles were found living in deep Antarctic ice, the cores of nuclear reactors, and other unexpected places. Biology hasn't been the same since.

Could astronomy be on the verge of a similar transformation?

Researchers using a NASA space telescope named GALEX have discovered a new kind of extremophile: extreme-loving stars.

“We’re finding stars in extreme galactic environments where star formation isn't supposed to happen,” explained GALEX project scientist Susan Neff of the Goddard Space Flight Center. “This is a very surprising development.”

GALEX, which stands for “Galaxy Evolution Explorer,” is an ultraviolet space telescope with a special ability: It is super-sensitive to the kind of UV rays emitted by the youngest stars. This means the observatory can detect stars being born at very great distances from Earth, more than halfway across the Universe.

The observatory was launched in 2003 on a mission to study how galaxies change and evolve as new stars coalesce inside them.

GALEX accomplished that mission – and more.

“In some GALEX images, we see stars forming outside of galaxiesin places where we thought the gas density would be too low for star birth to occur,” said GALEX team member Don Neil of Caltech.

Stars are born when interstellar clouds of gas collapse and contract under the pull of their own gravity. If a cloud gets dense and hot enough as it collapses, nuclear fusion will kick in and – voila! – a star is born.

The spiral arms of the Milky Way are a “Goldilocks zone” for this process. “Here in the Milky Way we have plenty of gas. It’s a cozy place for stars to form,” said Neil.

But when GALEX looks at other more distant spiral galaxies, it sees stars forming far outside the gassy spiral disk.

“I was dumbfounded,” he said. “These stars are truly 'living on the edge.'”

Spirals aren’t the only galaxies with stellar extremophiles.

The observatory has also found stars being born in elliptical and irregular galaxies thought to be gas-poor, in the gaseous debris of colliding galaxies, in vast “comet-like” tails that trail behind some fast-moving galaxies, and in cold primordial gas clouds, which are small and barely massive enough to hang together.

So much for the Goldilocks Zone. According to GALEX, stellar extremophiles populate just about every nook and cranny of the cosmos where a wisp of gas can get together to make a new sun.

“This could be telling us something profound about the star-forming process,” said Neff. “There could be ways to make stars in extreme environments that we haven’t even thought of yet.”

Will extremophiles transform astronomy as they did biology? It’s too soon to say, insist the researchers. But GALEX has definitely given them something to think about.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Brian Miller, 27, was injured in the collision, which happened at 6:15 p.m. Thursday, according to a report from the California Highway Patrol's Clear Lake office.

The CHP report said Miller was riding a 2002 Yamaha Grizzly four-wheel ATV on private property when the collision occurred.

Miller was backing down a steep incline when the ATV overturned. The CHP report said Miller was thrown from the quad, which then landed on top of him.

The CHP said Miller – who was not wearing a helmet – sustained major injuries, including an open skull fracture and the loss of his left eye.

Alcohol and drugs are suspected to be factors in the crash, which is being investigated by CHP Officer Steve Curtis, according to the report.

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Net neutrality has survived another challenge.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate rejected a motion to proceed on its “resolution of disapproval” of the Federal Communications Commission’s Net Neutrality rules.

The resolution failed by a margin of 52-46.

The measure, introduced by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), was an effort to reverse the FCC’s December 2010 rules intended to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or discriminating against content and applications on the Web.

The SavetheInternet.com Coalition reported that calls and emails from citizens across the country led to the vote against the measure.

Craig Aaron, president and chief executive officer of the Free Press Action Fund, said the Senate sent a strong signal to would-be gatekeepers that the free and open Internet needs to stay that way.

“The American public doesn't want phone and cable companies undercutting competition, deciding which websites will work or censoring what people can do online,” Aaron said. “And this shows that the Senate, for today at least, is willing to stand up to extremists who would rather waste time with partisan measures than make good policy.”

He said the fight for real net neutrality continues.

“Now that this appalling legislative stunt is finished, I hope policymakers can return to the actual priority here: strengthening these rules to protect all Internet users, no matter if they connect from their home computer or a mobile phone,” he said. “Free Press will continue to push the FCC to make better rules and to actually enforce them. Today's vote is a major victory for the public, but the fight for the free and open Internet is far from over.”

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The Lake County Sanitation District and Preston Pipeline Inc. are constructing a new lift station and force main as part of improvements to the Southeast Regional Wastewater Collection System.

From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 14, and Tuesday, Nov. 15, Preston Pipeline will set up a traffic closure to install a force main sewer line across Old Highway 53.

The affected roadway area will include a portion of Old Highway 53 west of Highway 53. Specifically, the closure will extend from Cache Creek Way to Old Highway 53, the county and contractor reported.

Officials said the general public will be detoured north to Lakeshore Drive. The only through access will be granted to emergency response vehicles.

County officials said the project is meant to improve the Southeast Regional collection system’s capacity and reduce sewer spills, which have been an ongoing problem for the system, especially during heavy rain.

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Employees at Space Launch Complex 41 of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., keep watch as the payload fairing containing NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is lifted up the side of the Vertical Integration Facility on Nov. 3, 2011. Image credit: NASA.

NASA's most advanced mobile robotic laboratory, which will examine one of the most intriguing areas on Mars, is in final preparations for a launch from Florida's Space Coast at 7:25 a.m. PST on Friday, Nov. 25.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry Curiosity, a rover with more scientific capability than any ever sent to another planet.

The rover is now sitting atop an Atlas V rocket awaiting liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

“Preparations are on track for launching at our first opportunity,” said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science Laboratory project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “If weather or other factors prevent launching then, we have more opportunities through Dec. 18.”

Scheduled to land on the Red Planet in August 2012, the one-ton rover will examine Gale Crater during a nearly two-year prime mission.

Curiosity will land near the base of a layered mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) high inside the crater. The rover will investigate whether environmental conditions ever have been favorable for development of microbial life and preserved evidence of those conditions.

“Gale gives us a superb opportunity to test multiple potentially habitable environments and the context to understand a very long record of early environmental evolution of the planet,” said John Grotzinger, project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “The portion of the crater where Curiosity will land has an alluvial fan likely formed by water-carried sediments. Layers at the base of the mountain contain clays and sulfates, both known to form in water.”

Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as earlier Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. The rover will carry a set of 10 science instruments weighing 15 times as much as its predecessors' science payloads.

A mast extending to 7 feet (2.1 meters) above ground provides height for cameras and a laser-firing instrument to study targets from a distance. Instruments on a 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) arm will study targets up close.

Analytical instruments inside the rover will determine the composition of rock and soil samples acquired with the arm's powdering drill and scoop. Other instruments will characterize the environment, including the weather and natural radiation that will affect future human missions.

“Mars Science Laboratory builds upon the improved understanding about Mars gained from current and recent missions,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This mission advances technologies and science that will move us toward missions to return samples from, and eventually send humans to, Mars.”

The mission is challenging and risky. Because Curiosity is too heavy to use an air-bag cushioned touchdown, the mission will use a new landing method, with a rocket-powered descent stage lowering the rover on a tether like a kind of sky-crane.

This computer-generated view depicts part of Mars at the boundary between darkness and daylight, with an area including Gale Crater beginning to catch morning light. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The mission will pioneer precision landing methods during the spacecraft's crucial dive through Mars' atmosphere next August to place the rover onto a smaller landing target than any previously for a Mars mission.

The target inside Gale Crater is 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) by 15.5 miles (25 kilometers). Rough terrain just outside that area would have disqualified the landing site without the improved precision.

No mission to Mars since the Viking landers in the 1970s has sought a direct answer to the question of whether life has existed on Mars. Curiosity is not designed to answer that question by itself, but its investigations for evidence about prerequisites for life will steer potential future missions toward answers.

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Curiosity was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Space Network, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will provide space communications services for the rocket. NASA's international Deep Space Network will provide MSL spacecraft acquisition and communication throughout the mission.

For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl . You also can follow the mission on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

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This oblique view of Gale Crater shows the landing site and the mound of layered rocks that NASA's Mars Science Laboratory will investigate. The landing site is in the smooth area in front of the mound. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/UA.

If that CPI were already in use, military retirees, disabled veterans and social security recipients would be getting a 3.4 percent COLA in January rather than the planned 3.6 percent hike, government price data show.

Democrats and Republicans on the powerful 12-member Joint Select Committee on Debt Reduction offered separate partisan packages late last month toward trimming at least $1.2 trillion off projected budget deficits over the next decade. Republican members predictably stuck to their pledge not to accept new tax hikes, which Democrats demanded for “balance” of sacrifice.

A feature said to be in both packages is adoption of the chain-weighted or “chain” CPI for adjusting federal entitlements, a move estimated to save $200 billion over 10 years.

Many economists say the chain CPI is a more accurate index of inflation because it addresses “substitution bias” found in traditional consumer price indices run by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Many entitlements now are adjusted based on the CPI for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W. It track prices for a market basket of good and services, which are weighted based on spending patterns of American of mostly blue-collar workers.

Every two years BLS conducts a new survey to readjust how goods and services are weighted in the basket.

What CPI-W doesn’t do is change the mix of goods and services surveyed to reflect changes in spending behavior. For example, as the price of beef rises, consumers buy less beef and more chicken. Because CPI-W doesn’t take account of that, critics contend, it exaggerates inflation.

The chain CPI reflects not only changes in prices but in spending behavior, from more expensive items to less expensive substitutes.

But critics of this index argue it ignores the fact that consumers might prefer beef to chicken. So that over time the chain CPI will leave consumers feeling worse off because of what they can afford.

Recent debt-reduction reports, including the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform last December, have recommended adopting the chain CPI for Urban Consumers (C-CPI-U).

Since 2002, when BLS first established this index, it has measured inflation rising at a slower pace, almost three-tenths of a percentage point a year lower than the CPI-W.

Testifying Tuesday (Nov. 1) before the super committee, the co-chairs of the fiscal reform commission again endorsed shifting to the chain CPI.

“If we could do it government wide it would save billions,” said Alan Simpson, a Republican and former senator from Wyoming.

No criticism was offered.

Erskine Bowles, Simpson’s partner on the commission, included the chain CPI feature in a $3.9 billion possible debt reduction deal he outlined for super committee members, contending most elements were agreed to previously by Democrats and Republicans.

Bowles indicated the chain CPI was a feature he knows both sides of the super committee support.

TARGETING ‘PRIME’ RETIREES

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has advised the super committee to consider ending access to TRICARE Prime, the military’s popular managed care option, for working-age retirees and their families, to avoid spending cuts that would directly impact readiness.

Unless at least seven of 12 super committee members agree on a $1.5 billion, 10-year package to attack the national debt, the Budget Control Act signed in August will require automatic federal program cuts of $1.2 trillion, with roughly $450 billion from defense programs.

The cuts would be in addition to nearly $500 billion in defense spending curbs over 10 years already ordered by President Obama as part of an earlier deficit-reduction agreement.

Uniformed leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps testified Nov. 1 to the devastating impact these automatic cuts, called sequestration, would have on force levels and weapons modernization programs if the super committee can’t reach a deal by its Nov. 23 deadline.

Pulling the TRICARE Prime idea from a recent Congressional Budget Office report, McCain said forcing retirees under 65 to use TRICARE Standard, the fee-for-service option, or health insurance from civilian employers, or space-available care at base clinics or hospitals, could save DoD medical accounts up to $111 billion over the next decade.

McCain, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was once a champion for expanded TRICARE benefits to retirees. He was not available for an interview.

But a staff member explained the senator feels eliminating retiree TRICARE Prime is more acceptable than alternatives to cut equipment, training or key weapon programs needed by the current force.

“Faced with the possibility of sequester and its potential for an enormously harmful impact on national security,” he said, McCain wants the super committee to consider carefully options “that would not impose drastic negative impacts on the Defense Department, or the currently serving force and their families, while sustaining the TRICARE benefit.”

McCain also has embraced President Obama’s proposal to set a $200 a year enrollment fee for TRICARE for Life, the prized supplement to Medicare for military beneficiaries age 65 and older.

Retirees under 65 are another 40 percent of the TRICARE-eligible population. TRICARE Standard users face higher out-of-pockets costs, with annual deductibles and cost-sharing requirements but they can choose their own care providers. Beneficiary costs can’t exceed an annual catastrophic cap. But CBO suggests raising that cap of $3,000 a year per family to $7,500.

CBO said 71 percent of working-age military retirees currently use some form of TRICARE. That number would fall to 35 percent if access to Prime were denied.

Most of these beneficiaries would elect to use civilian employer health insurance, thus reversing a trend over the last few decades of military retirees leaving employer insurance plans to use TRICARE.

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