Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, has introduced a resolution designating the week of Feb. 21 as Eating Disorder Awareness Week, bringing attention to a serious problem affecting 30 million Americans while underscoring the need for prevention.
“Eating disorders are serious conditions that are potentially life-threatening and have a great impact on our physical and emotional health,” Sen. Dodd said. “We must improve the public’s understanding of the causes, encourage early intervention and lay to rest the stigma of this pervasive affliction. As someone who’s had a loved one suffer from an eating disorder, I know how difficult it can be, but with support recovery is possible.”
Sen. Dodd’s resolution raises awareness of a range of disorders affecting men and women across all backgrounds. Conditions include anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorders.
This year’s theme, “Come as You Are: Hindsight is 20/20,” will focus on alerting the public to environmental and biological causes as well as empowering people to reduce personal risk factors for developing eating disorders.
California Treasurer Fiona Ma is a co-sponsor. Supporters include the National Eating Disorders Association, American Nurses Association-California, Cielo House and the Eating Disorders Resource Center.
“For too long the media has focused on women needing to be thin to be beautiful,” said Treasurer Fiona Ma. “I remember struggling in college and being forced to look inward to correct unhealthy eating habits. Eating disorders are the third most common chronic illness among adolescent women in the U.S., and 10 million men in the U.S. will suffer from one in their lifetime. De-stigmatizing this conversation and talking openly is the best way to take our power back, and I’m proud to work once again along with my longtime friend and colleague, Sen. Dodd, to make sure we do not let these disorders define us.”
Dodd, who formerly represented Lake County in the California Assembly, now represents the Third Senate District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Yolo, Sonoma, Solano, Sacramento and Contra Costa counties.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — On Tuesday, Feb. 22, Congressman Mike Thompson (CA-05) and Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry will hold a Zoom town hall.
The event will take place from 6 to 7 p.m.
All constituents of California’s Fifth Congressional District and California’s Fourth Assembly District are invited to attend.
To RSVP, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for a Zoom link or watch live on Rep. Thompson’s Facebook page.
Aguiar-Curry represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all of Lake and Napa Counties, parts of Colusa, Solano and Sonoma Counties, and all of Yolo County except West Sacramento.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has many different types of dogs waiting to be adopted.
The City of Clearlake Animal Association also is seeking fosters for the animals waiting to be adopted.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
The newest dogs are listed at the top of the following list.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Annie’
“Annie” is a female Labrador retriever mix with a short black coat.
She is dog No. 49409961.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48443153.
‘Bear No. 2’
“Bear No. 2” is a male American pit bull mix with a short tan coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48731556.
‘Bella’
“Bella” is a female American pit bull mix with a short gray brindle coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48448381.
‘Chai’
“Chai” is a female Alaskan husky mix with a gray and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49279552.
‘Claire’
“Claire” is a female border collie mix with a short black and white coat.
She has been spayed.
Claire is dog No. 49397880.
‘Ebenezer’
“Ebenezer” is a male American pit bull terrier mix with a short tan and white coat.
He is dog No. 49191651.
‘Edgar’
“Edgar” is a male terrier-American pit bull mix with a black and cream coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 48634546.
‘Fritz’
“Fritz” is a male Australian shepherd mix with a black and white coat.
He is dog No. 49278179.
‘Isabella’
“Isabella” is a female Chihuahua mix with a short tan coat.
She is dog No. 49292130.
‘Jaxx’
“Jaxx” is a male Doberman pinscher mix with a black and rust-colored coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49022184.
‘Nala’
“Nala” is a 1-year-old female German shepherd mix.
She has a medium-length black and tan coat.
She is dog No. 48289638.
‘Priscilla’
“Priscilla” is a female Brittany spaniel mix with a white and copper coat.
She is dog No. 49089138.
‘Sassy’
“Sassy” is a female American pit bull mix with a short black coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 48443128.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball” is a male American Staffordshire mix terrier with a white coat.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He is dog No. 48443693.
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 evolution of job growth and employment in the U.S. economy over the past four decades has been characterized by two important but seemingly contradictory facts: Young startup businesses have been a key driver of economic growth, yet more and more of the American workforce has become concentrated at older, more mature firms.
This window into the nation’s economic trends comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Business Dynamics Statistics, or BDS, which provide annual measures of establishment openings and closings, firm startups and shutdowns, and job creation and loss.
The BDS paints a portrait of the constantly evolving and dynamic U.S. economy over time and provides information on the contributions to employment changes across and within industries.
These measures are available for the entire economy and by industry (sector and 3-digit and 4-digit North American Industry Classification System or NAICS) and geography (state, county and metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas).
They’re also published by firm and establishment size and age. Statistics are available from 1978 to 2019.
In this story, we summarize recent findings using the publicly available statistics to describe the dynamics of the U.S. economy over the past 40 years. We specifically focus on the role firms of different ages and sizes played in the creation of jobs across various industries.
Age and size of firms
As prior research has shown, the age and size of a business are important characteristics that may reflect its potential to create jobs and economic growth.
The BDS allows us to distinguish between the age and size of an establishment (a physical place of work) and the age and size of the firm (the larger enterprise that owns and operates the establishment).
Firm age is defined as the age of the oldest establishment in the first year in which a firm has employees. We define a startup as any firm that employed its first worker in the current year.
New establishments created by new firms will have job creation patterns that resemble other startups. But new establishments created by long-existing firms will grow in ways that reflect the trends of mature firms.
In addition, an establishment that belongs to a larger parent company may act differently than an independent establishment.
For the purposes of this article, we focus on two age categories: young and old. Young firms are those with positive employment for five years or less, and old firms are those with positive employment for more than five years.
A firm’s size is based on the first quarter employment of a given year and includes all establishments associated with the firm at that time. We consider firms with 100 or more employees “large,” and those with fewer than 100 employees “small.”
Increasing share of employment in older firms
One of the major trends over the past three decades is that employment has become increasingly concentrated at older firms.
After falling in the 1980s, the share of employment at more mature firms rose steadily, representing approximately 90% of all employees by 2019 (Figure 1).
The patterns in a few notable industries mirror this national trend. By the mid-2000s, for example, the Manufacturing, Retail, and Health Care sectors all had over 90% of their employment at mature firms.
There were exceptions: Accommodation and Food Services and Information sectors.
Restaurants and hotels had a lower share of employment in older firms relative to other industries over the entire time series. This share dipped even lower in the late 1990s, then rose until the early 2010’s, and has been flat or slightly declining since.
The Information sector trended somewhat away from older firms through the tech crash in the early 2000’s but has risen since and is now nearly 95% concentrated in mature firms.
The large and increasing presence of employment at old firms appears to contradict the notion that young startups are the engine of economic growth. However, it is true that young firms are more dynamic and have much greater rates of net job creation.
The Net Job Creation Rate, or NJCR, indicates how many more jobs were created than were destroyed relative to overall employment in an industry.
The job creation rate is notably higher for young firms than for old ones — the NJCR has hovered around 15% to 20% for younger firms throughout the time series but was roughly 0% and often negative for more established firms.
The NJCR time series is more volatile for young firms than old ones, showing larger drops during business contractions and larger gains in expansions (Retail and Manufacturing during and after the Great Recession, for example). Despite these fluctuations, the rate is almost always higher for young firms.
The single exception is the Information sector in 2001, when the job creation rate for young firms fell to the same level as for old firms.
Therefore, it is simultaneously true that startups grow at faster rates but old firms account for an increasing share of employment.
Reconciling these facts requires noting that there are fewer startups over time and in turn fewer young firms over time (Figure 3). That is, the net growth rate differential between young and old has not changed much but there are fewer and fewer young firms over time.
Employment concentrated in larger firms
Mirroring the growing share of employment at older firms, the share of employment located at large firms with at least 100 employees also increased.
The national share of employment at these large firms has grown from 41% at the beginning of the time series in 1978 to 48% at the end of the series in 2019.
However, this steady rise in the national share masks considerable industry variation.
Manufacturing has notably defied this trend, becoming more concentrated in smaller firms, despite a slight reversal of this pattern in the last few years.
The Information and Accommodation and Food Services sectors have also moved away from larger firms since the mid-2000’s, despite moving towards them during other time periods.
Retail ‘Megafirms’
The increasing concentration of employment at large firms is most obvious in the Retail sector, which grew steadily from a 36% share in 1978 to 62% in 2019.
Retail’s status as an industry dominated by large players is well-known, with the familiar rise of so-called “megafirms” that have crowded out smaller firms during the last two decades.
Recent research using Census data suggests that the increasing presence of such firms helps explain the decline in the share of national income going to labor, as these firms tend to be capital intensive and highly efficient.
Does age or size influence job creation more?
The increased concentration of large firms in the economy appears to have a smaller impact on job creation than does the increase in older firms. This is because small firms have higher rates of job growth than large ones but not by nearly the same margin as between young and old firms.
During economic expansions, the net job creation rate of small firms exceeds that of large firms by a few percentage points. However, during contractions, the rates fall to nearly the same negative level as large firms.
This is especially apparent in the Information sector during the 2001 recession, where small firms destroyed jobs at a higher rate than large ones.
The NJCR in this sector remains lower today than in the 1990s but aside from the Great Recession, small firms have created more jobs on net than large ones since the mid-2000’s. The exception to this trend of stagnant job growth at large firms is Retail, where large firms have mostly out-performed small firms in net jobs created.
BDS data tables are available for further analysis. BDS data can also be accessed via the BDS Explorer application and guidance on how to use it is available in this webinar.
Christopher Goetz is an economist in the Center for Economic Studies, or CES, at the U.S. Census Bureau. Martha Stinson is a senior economist in CES.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs this week needing new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Anatolian shepherd, Australian cattle dog, border collie, Chihuahua, fox terrier, German shepherd, Great Pyrenees, husky, Labrador retriever, Rhodesian ridgeback, Shar-Pei, shepherd, pit bull, wirehaired terrier and Weimaraner.
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 website not listed are still “on hold”).
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Male Weimaraner
This 2-year-old male Weimaraner has a short gray coat.
He is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-2701.
Female German shepherd
This female German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-2598.
Female fox terrier
This 2-year-old female fox terrier has a short brown and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-2628.
Male fox terrier
This 5-year-old male fox terrier has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-2637.
Female husky-shepherd puppy
This female husky-shepherd puppy has a white coat.
She is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-2763.
‘Panda’
“Panda” is a 3-year-old male pit bull mix with a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-361.
‘Ruby’
“Ruby” is a 2-year-old female Shar-Pei-Rhodesian ridgeback mix with a short tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-2560.
Male pit bull
This 2-year-old male pit bull has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-2473.
Female Labrador retriever
This 4-year-old female Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-2694.
Male Labrador retriever
This 3-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-2745.
Anatolian shepherd mix
This 2-year-old female Anatolian shepherd mix has a short tan coat with black markings.
She is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-2535.
Female border collie mix
This 3-year-old female border collie mix has a tricolor coat and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-2641.
‘Turbo’
“Turbo” is a 2-year-old male wirehaired terrier with a cream-colored coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-2587.
‘Ginger’
“Ginger” is a 1-year-old female shepherd-Australian cattle dog mix with a cream and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-2534.
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.
Alongside California Attorney General Rob Bonta, legislators and local leaders, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a new gun safety legislation package to expand the state’s nation-leading protections against gun violence.
The package includes a measure the governor called for in December to help hold the gun industry accountable through private lawsuits, and a bill that would prohibit advertising of certain categories of weapons to children.
“California will continue to lead the fight to end gun violence with bold action to tackle the national crisis putting millions of Californians at risk,” said Gov. Newsom. “It’s time to go on the offensive with new measures that empower individuals to hold irresponsible and negligent gun industry actors to account, crack down on shameful advertising that targets our kids and more. This is not about attacking law-abiding gun owners — it’s about stopping the tragic violence ravaging communities across the country.”
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing Texas's ban on most abortion services to remain in place, Gov. Newsom directed his administration to work with the Legislature to propose a measure like the bill introduced by Sen. Robert Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) on Friday, modeled on the structure of Texas’s abortion law.
The bill would allow private citizens to sue anyone who manufactures, distributes, transports, imports into the state or sells assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles, ghost guns, or ghost gun kits.
"In a just world, a woman's right to choose would be sacrosanct, and California's people would be protected from ghost guns and assault weapons. Sadly, a misguided Supreme Court decision has turned common sense on its head. With this bill, we take advantage of the Court’s flawed logic to protect all Californians and save lives,” said Sen. Hertzberg.
Also included, AB 1594 by Assembly members Philip Ting (D-San Francisco), Mike Gipson (D-Carson) and Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) would allow individuals and the California Attorney General to sue manufacturers and sellers of firearms for the harm caused by their product.
In 2005, Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gun manufacturers and dealers from civil suits when crimes are committed using the guns they produce. AB 1594 utilizes an exemption to the federal statute that allows gun makers or sellers to be sued for violations of state laws concerning the sale or marketing of firearms.
“No industry should get a special exemption from protecting their customers, but especially not an industry responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans every year,” said Attorney General Bonta. “In 2005, the federal government stripped Americans of the right to hold gun manufacturers and distributors responsible for the damage their conduct causes when their products are used unlawfully – leaving only a narrow exception for such lawsuits. Today, using that exception, we begin the process of restoring these rights in California. AB 1594 requires the gun industry to take reasonable steps to make sure their products are not used unlawfully. If the gun industry ignores this responsibility – one that is common for companies in nearly every industry in the country – this bill gives victims and their families an additional legal pathway for holding the firearm industry financially responsible.”
“We must make our communities safer. Almost every industry in the United States can be held liable for what their products do, but the gun industry is not held to the same standard. Financial repercussions may finally push them to be more responsible by improving their practices and adhering to California’s strict gun laws,” said Assemblymember Ting.
"The U.S. has less than 5% of the world's population, yet we make up nearly a third of the world's mass shootings," said Assemblymember Ward. "This is a public health crisis that the federal government has continually failed to address. California must take action and hold irresponsible, reckless and negligent gun manufacturers, distributors and sellers accountable."
The administration also worked closely with the Legislature to introduce AB 2571 by Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda), which proposes to identify certain categories of weapons, for example, semi-automatic weapons or firearms of a certain caliber, that cannot be marketed to minors under any circumstances.
In addition, Gov. Newsom highlighted AB 1621 by Assemblymember Gipson to further restrict ghost guns in California by bringing the state into compliance with a proposed new federal rule that would cause many gun kits and “80 percent receivers'' to be regulated the same as fully functional firearms and finished receivers. Under the legislation, these couldn’t be sold without a serial number or without the buyer undergoing a background check.
“Gun manufacturers view our children as their next generation of customers, and target them with slick and manipulative advertising. The advertising for these weapons is shameless. Children in California are not allowed to buy or own a gun, yet they are advertised across all forms of media with cartoons, video games, and social media. I’m proud to stand with Gov. Newsom on these important reforms — enough is enough,” said Assembly member Bauer-Kahan.
“Even before the pandemic, stories from families of gun violence have kept me up at night. My own son and his fiancé were victims … and this issue has only gotten worse. In the community of Watts which I represent, there were 22 homicides from January through November of 2020, nearly double the number from the year before,” said Assemblymember Gipson. “For communities alike, gun violence is our wildfire that we work diligently trying to contain. And the casualties are our babies, sisters, brothers, friends and acquaintances — all deserving of life but were cut short of their potential. To say that this issue is personal to me is an understatement, and sending thoughts and prayers just isn’t enough.”
Gipson said AB 1621 seeks to eradicate ghost guns from our streets, “and this effort is nothing short of a lifesaving, common sense approach toward providing justice for families who have continued to bear the burden of losing a loved one through incidents that could have otherwise been prevented. We need the comprehensive reform which each bill in this package together aims to provide - this is wholeheartedly about saving lives, and nothing less.”
The governor’s proposed Real Public Safety Plan would create a new statewide gun buyback program to provide matching grants and safe-disposal opportunities to get guns off our streets, and includes additional funding for California’s gun violence research center at the University of California, Davis.
California pioneered statewide gun safety protections, approved by voters in Proposition 63, to ban possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines and require background checks to keep ammunition out of the hands of dangerous people.
Since assuming office, Gov. Newsom has signed multiple bills aimed at reducing gun violence, including strengthening gun violence restraining orders, regulating the sale of firearms and ammunition and accelerating the regulation of ghost guns.
The 2021 state budget invested $200 million in the CalVIP program, which supports initiatives designed to break the cycle of violence in disproportionately impacted communities.
The budget also provided $11 million to facilitate outreach, education and training efforts related to gun violence restraining orders and $10.3 million for local law enforcement agencies to support the seizure of firearms from individuals prohibited from possessing them.
Heather Bednarek, Saint Louis University and Ellen Barnidge, Saint Louis University
That’s almost 1 in 4 Americans, with 76.7 million insured through Medicaid and 6.9 million through CHIP. Both public health insurance programs are funded jointly by the federal and state governments. Medicaid provides health insurance for low-income people, most of whom are 64 or younger.
CHIP provides health coverage to kids and pregnant women whose families have low incomes but make too much to qualify for Medicaid.
Prior to the ACA, most states were more restrictive about who could enroll in Medicaid, a program launched following the enactment of landmark legislation President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1965. After the ACA, the federal government began to shoulder more of the program’s costs, footing at least 90% of the bill for new enrollees covered through the program’s expansion.
Today, all adults in Medicaid expansion states who are under 65 with annual incomes less than 138% of the federal poverty line are eligible for Medicaid. In 2022, that means someone who is single without dependents and has an income of $18,754 or less qualifies, as does a family of four earning up to $38,295.
Even when children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP, they may not be enrolled in the program due to their parents’ lack of awareness or their state’s lack of outreach.
Of the 28.6 million Americans who have enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP since the ACA was rolled out, about 60% obtained coverage prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Response to the COVID-19 pandemic
In March 2020, the federal government responded to what it correctly anticipated as the sharp growth of Medicaid and CHIP coverage.
At the time, an unemployment surge was stripping millions of workers of their economic stability, including health insurance coverage. Medicaid enrollments tend to rise during bad economic times, as people become eligible due to lower incomes. The pandemic was no different, particularly in 2020.
What’s different this time is that states, which administer Medicaid and CHIP, haven’t been allowed to kick anyone out of the program during this period – even if they would have lost eligibility due to higher earnings.
This restriction will continue as long as the federal government public health emergency declaration remains in effect. To help states with that increased financial burden, the federal government increased its share of Medicaid payments to states.
In January 2022, the Biden administration renewed the public health emergency for another three months. The emergency declaration is scheduled to expire on April 16.
Soon after this measure expires, millions who have been covered by Medicaid but now make too much money to qualify could lose their eligibility, particularly if they live in states that have not yet expanded Medicaid.
But it’s not clear whether the number of Americans enrolled in these programs will decline sharply. In part, that’s because more people are getting access to Medicaid for the first time due to their states’ participation in its expansion.
NASA has selected two science missions — the Multi-slit Solar Explorer, or MUSE, and HelioSwarm — to help improve our understanding of the dynamics of the Sun, the Sun-Earth connection, and the constantly changing space environment.
These missions will provide deeper insights into our universe and offer critical information to help protect astronauts, satellites, and communications signals such as GPS.
“MUSE and HelioSwarm will provide new and deeper insight into the solar atmosphere and space weather,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “These missions not only extend the science of our other heliophysics missions — they also provide a unique perspective and a novel approach to understanding the mysteries of our star.”
MUSE
The MUSE mission will help scientists understand the forces driving the heating of the Sun’s corona and the eruptions in that outermost region that are at the foundation of space weather.
The mission will offer deeper insight into the physics of the solar atmosphere by using a powerful instrument known as a multi-slit spectrometer to observe the Sun’s extreme ultraviolet radiation and obtain the highest resolution images ever captured of the solar transition region and the corona.
The mission will also provide complementary observations from heliophysics research such as the Extreme UltraViolet Spectroscopic Telescope and ground-based observatories.
“MUSE will help us fill crucial gaps in knowledge pertaining to the Sun-Earth connection,” said Nicola Fox, director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters. “It will provide more insight into space weather and complements a host of other missions within the heliophysics mission fleet.”
The primary goal of the MUSE mission is to investigate the causes of coronal heating and instability, such as flares and coronal mass ejections, and gain insight into the basic plasma properties of the corona. MUSE will obtain high-resolution images of the evolution of solar flare ribbons in a field of view focused on a large, active region on the Sun.
The principal investigator for the MUSE mission is Bart DePontieu of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center, or LMATC, of Palo Alto, California. This mission has a budget of $192 million. LMATC will provide project management.
HelioSwarm
The HelioSwarm mission is a constellation or “swarm” of nine spacecraft that will capture the first multiscale in-space measurements of fluctuations in the magnetic field and motions of the solar wind known as solar wind turbulence.
The Sun’s outermost atmospheric layer, the heliosphere, encompasses an enormous region of the solar system. Solar winds spread through the heliosphere, and their interactions with planetary magnetospheres and disruptions such as coronal mass ejections affect their turbulence.
Studying solar wind turbulence across large areas requires plasma measurements taken simultaneously from different points in space. HelioSwarm consists of one hub spacecraft and eight co-orbiting small satellites that range in distance from each other and the hub spacecraft. The hub spacecraft will maintain radio contact with each small satellite.
All radio contact between the swarm and Earth will be conducted through the hub spacecraft and the NASA Deep Space Network of spacecraft communication antennas.
“The technical innovation of HelioSwarm’s small satellites operating together as a constellation provides the unique ability to investigate turbulence and its evolution in the solar wind,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of the Heliophysics Division.
The HelioSwarm mission’s principal investigator is Harlan Spence from the University of New Hampshire. The mission’s budget is $250 million. NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, will provide project management.
Funding and management oversight for these missions is provided by the Heliophysics Explorers Program, managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Geological Survey and other U.S. government agencies project that the rise in ocean height in the next 30 years could equal the total rise seen over the past 100 years.
Coastal flooding will increase significantly over the next 30 years because of sea level rise, according to a new report by an interagency sea level rise task force that includes NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, and other federal agencies.
Titled Global and Regional Sea Level Rise Scenarios for the United States, the Feb. 15 report concludes that sea level along U.S. coastlines will rise between 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 centimeters) on average above today’s levels by 2050.
The report – an update to a 2017 report – forecasts sea level to the year 2150 and, for the first time, offers near-term projections for the next 30 years.
Agencies at the federal, state, and local levels use these reports to inform their plans on anticipating and coping with the effects of sea level rise.
“This report supports previous studies and confirms what we have long known: Sea levels are continuing to rise at an alarming rate, endangering communities around the world. Science is indisputable and urgent action is required to mitigate a climate crisis that is well underway,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA is steadfast in our commitment to protecting our home planet by expanding our monitoring capabilities and continuing to ensure our climate data is not only accessible but understandable.”
The task force developed their near-term sea level rise projections by drawing on an improved understanding of how the processes that contribute to rising seas – such as melting glaciers and ice sheets as well as complex interactions between ocean, land, and ice – will affect ocean height.
“That understanding has really advanced since the 2017 report, which gave us more certainty over how much sea level rise we’ll get in the coming decades,” said Ben Hamlington, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and one of the update’s lead authors.
NASA’s Sea Level Change Team, led by Hamlington, has also developed an online mapping tool to visualize the report’s state-of-the-art sea level rise projections on a localized level across the U.S.
“The hope is that the online tool will help make the information as widely accessible as possible,” Hamlington said.
The Interagency Sea Level Rise Task Force projects an uptick in the frequency and intensity of high-tide coastal flooding, otherwise known as nuisance flooding, because of higher sea level. It also notes that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, global temperatures will become even greater, leading to a greater likelihood that sea level rise by the end of the century will exceed the projections in the 2022 update.
“It takes a village to make climate predictions. When you combine NASA’s scenarios of global sea level rise with NOAA’s estimates of extreme water levels and the U.S. Geological Survey’s impact studies, you get a robust national estimate of the projected future that awaits American coastal communities and our economic infrastructure in 20, 30, or 100 years from now,” said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, who directs the NASA Sea Level Change Team at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
“This is a global wake-up call and gives Americans the information needed to act now to best position ourselves for the future,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. “As we build a Climate Ready Nation, these updated data can inform coastal communities and others about current and future vulnerabilities in the face of climate change and help them make smart decisions to keep people and property safe over the long run.”
Building on a research legacy
The Global and Regional Sea Level Rise report incorporates sea level projections from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment, released by the United Nations in August 2021.
The IPCC reports, issued every five to seven years, provide global evaluations of Earth’s climate and use analyses based on computer simulations, among other data.
A separate forthcoming report known as the Fifth National Climate Assessment, produced by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, is the latest in a series summarizing the impacts of climate change on the U.S., and it will in turn use the results from the Global and Regional Sea Level Rise report in its analysis. The Climate Assessment is slated to publish in 2023.
NASA sea level researchers have years of experience studying how Earth’s changing climate will affect the ocean. Their work includes research forecasting how much coastal flooding U.S. communities will experience in 10 years, helping to visualize IPCC data on global sea level rise using an online visualization tool, and launching satellites that contribute data to a decades-long record of global sea surface height.
Learn more about sea level and climate change here.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Two teams of talented high school students took to the courtroom this month to argue a hypothetical murder case as part of the annual Mock Trial competition.
The event took place on Friday, Feb. 11, on the fourth floor of the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport.
Now in its 10th year, the competition is run in partnership with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, the Lake County Superior Court and Lake County Office of Education.
Competing again this year were teams from Middletown and Upper Lake high schools, with Middletown coming away with the win.
Last year, due to COVID-19, the event was virtual and hosted by the Napa County courthouse.
This year, however, it was back to the courtroom in the Lake County Superior Court.
However, Dana Adams, the Mock Trial coordinator for the Lake County Office of Education, said COVID resulted in this year’s scrimmage being canceled, meaning the teams had a limited amount of practice, “but the teams did a stellar job,” Adams said.
Adams said the students — with the help of volunteer attorney coaches and teachers — prepared arguments, evidence and more for the county competition through Mock Trial classes at their schools.
The Middletown team was assisted by teacher coach Dawnmarie Schneider, and attorney coaches Jon Hopkins and Janina Hoskins.
For Upper Lake, teacher coaches Alex Stabiner and Anna Sabalone, along with attorney coach Judy Conard, worked with the students.
Over the years, all of the court’s judges have taken turns volunteering their time to judge the competition.
This time around, judges J. David Markham and Shanda Harry presided over the competition in the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively.
Middletown and Upper Lake argued the fictional case of People v. Cobey.
The case revolves around Jamie Cobey, a horticulturist living in the community of Burnsley, California, a semi rural town in the high desert.
Cobey is charged with killing landlord and next-door neighbor, Erik Smith, in the most unusual of ways — by placing a rattlesnake in Smith’s mailbox.
Based on the arguments and evidence presented, both Markham and Harry ruled that Cobey was not guilty on all counts.
“Reasonable doubt is a difficult standard to make,” Harry said.
Harry, who wrapped up the day with the students, congratulated them for their passion. “I was very impressed by everyone.”
One of the team members, in turn, thanked Harry and the other adults who helped make the competition possible.
“I had a great time,” Harry said. “This is a great experience for everyone.”
Individual recognition for outstanding students was given to the following students:
• Outstanding prosecuting attorney: Zoey Petrie, Upper Lake High School. • Outstanding defense attorney: Ellary Isherwood, Middletown High School. • Outstanding pretrial attorney: Olivia Gallagher, Middletown High School. • Outstanding defense witness: Brandon Blecman, Middletown High School. • Outstanding defense witness: Isabella Neylon, Middletown High School. • Outstanding prosecution witness: Gabriela Neylon, Middletown High School. • Outstanding prosecution witness: Kenneth Carter, Middletown High School. • Outstanding clerk/bailiff: Jacob Colecleaser, Upper Lake High School.
Middletown High School will now advance to the 41st annual state competition, which will be held virtually in March.
Two community groups are generously supporting the teams in the state competition, the Lake County Bar Association and Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, Adams said.
Adams said this year’s competition would not have been possible without the support of volunteer court organizers Melissa Perry and Luanne Hayes, Markham and Harry, and volunteer attorney scorers Nicholas Rotow, Megan Lankford, Mary Amodio and Edward Savin.
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. — Work is underway to increase recreation opportunities and, in so doing, to improve the health of Lake County residents.
During the midyear budget presentation at the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 8, Supervisor Jessica Pyska, announced actions to make healthier living more accessible in District 5.
Pyska is dedicating $25,000 in cannabis tax funds to the Friends of Boggs and Redwood Trail Alliance, kicking off a $100,000 “Bring Back Boggs” fundraising campaign to rebuild trails in Boggs forest.
“Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest has long been a premier mountain biking destination,” said Pyska. “Two big races in May will bring several thousand people, for the first time since before the Valley fire. Bringing Back Boggs means a healthier, more economically vibrant Lake County. My family and I are in Boggs every week hiking, biking and exploring.”
Debbie St. Cyr, executive director of Redwood Trails Alliance, appreciates Pyska’s work to motivate support that goes beyond financial contributions: “She has shown up with her family to get dirty and dig trails in our beloved forest.”
“Please join me in thanking Debbie, Redwood Trails Alliance and the Friends of Boggs Mountain for their commitment to the recovery of the trails,” said Pyska. “We wouldn’t be here without their hard work and dedication.”
“Greater access to trails is one facet of promoting this philosophy in all of Lake County,” said Pyska.
“People are more likely to get in the habit of exercising when activities and amenities are accessible in their own areas,” said Jamey Gill, executive director of the Blue Zones Project Lake County. “Positive social connections also build our capacity to make healthy choices, boosting our sense of well-being, and even lowering rates of chronic disease. Getting involved with initiatives like ‘Bring Back Boggs,’ and regularly staying active and engaged with others not only brings economic benefits and workplace productivity to communities, it can help you live longer, and enjoy greater quality of life.”
Promoting well-being by limiting wildfire risk
“In California,” said Pyska, “doing all we can to limit the risk of large-scale wildfire events is critical to our well-being. That is why I also plan to dedicate cannabis funding this fiscal year to support the Northshore Fire Fund. Chief Mike Ciancio and his team use proven vegetation and wildfire fuel management techniques to protect the communities they serve. We are currently in talks to partner to bring those fuels crews and practices to District 5, and hope to announce an agreement soon.”
With Lake County currently in the midst of another dry winter, being proactive to mitigate wildfire risk can mean fewer days of smoke-driven air quality concerns this summer and fall.
“My fellow board members and I want to see every Lake County resident have the opportunity to maximize their potential,” said Pyska. “Doing what we can to foster a healthy environment and access to amenities that promote more active lifestyle choices in every community is essential, and I am thrilled to be able to support these steps to realize that vision.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council on Thursday voted to extend a consulting agreement that it’s hoped will lead to the development of the city’s former airport property as a major commercial center.
City Manager Alan Flora asked the council to consider amending the consulting agreement between the city and Margetich/Sutter Equities in order to extend it through the end of April. The contract cost is $10,000 per month.
Flora’s written report said the agreement created a partnership that’s intended to lead to a master development agreement of the entire Pearce Field property, which includes about 40 acres along Highway 53.
This new partnership has been focusing on determining retail interests and coordinating project planning efforts, Flora explained in his report.
The city has long had a goal of developing a large shopping center at the site. At one point a decade ago the city was ready to move forward on a plan with a developer when it was stopped by a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club.
In the last few years, Flora said the city has been putting a lot of effort into developing the property.
He said the city has been working with Amar Cheema with Sutter Equities for awhile, and it was Cheema who then brought in other partners, including Greg Margetich of Margetich Development.
“They’ve been talking to us about possibly stepping in as master developer of this overall project,” said Flora.
They decided to move forward initially through a 60-day consulting contract to help integrate the development group into what the city has been working on and allow them to begin attracting additional possible tenants to the site, Flora said.
That work has been going on since January. Flora said he believes it’s going well and the partners are interested in continuing to move forward with the city.
He said the new agreement would be for another 60 days. He said the goal is to come back before the end of April with a purchase or option agreement in which it would be turned over to the company to complete the property’s development in partnership with the city.
Margetich and Cheema were on hand to answer questions.
Margetich told the council that other development partners include longtime Lake County business owner Bill Brunetti, and broker Steve Edwards, who specializes in retail.
Margetich said they are excited about the project and appreciate the opportunity.
“We feel like we’ve got a really good opportunity to see this to fruition,” he said, adding that he applauded the city for having the fortitude to move the project forward and commit investment dollars to it.
Councilman Russ Cremer asked Margetich about how he felt about the basic design work.
Margetich said they have spoken with the consulting firm the city hired to do the design.
“These things, they evolve and they change but you have to start somewhere,” he said.
He added, “It’s really a user-driven, tenant-driven project.”
Cremer asked if they would reveal who those users are. Flora said it wasn’t the appropriate forum to discuss it.
Margetich said he would ask, too. Cremer said he asks every week.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton asked to clarify if the company was looking for a purchase agreement.
“At this point, that’s the goal for both sides,” said Flora.
Cremer moved to amend the agreement, with Councilman Russ Perdock seconding and the council voting 5-0.
Also on Thursday, the council presented proclamations in honor of Black History Month and Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month; met Edgar, one of the city shelter’s adoptable dogs; approved the sale of a city-owned parcel at 3578 Redwood St.; and voted to oppose Voter Initiative No. 21-0042A1, the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act, which is expected to be harmful to local governments.
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.