This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the 2015 Expenditures on Children by Families report, also known as “The Cost of Raising a Child.”

The report, developed by economists at USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, or CNPP, estimates that for a child born in 2015, a middle-income married-couple family will spend between $12,350 and $13,900 annually (in 2015 dollars) – or $233,610 from birth through age 17 – on child-rearing expenses.

For the purposes of this report, a middle-income family is defined as the middle third of the income distribution for a two-parent family with children.

Families with lower incomes are expected to spend $174,690 and families with higher incomes are expected to spend $372,210 from birth through age 17. Many state governments use this annual report, first issued in 1960, as a resource in determining child support and foster care guidelines.

“As the economy continues to improve, USDA is committed to supporting the nutrition and health of individuals and families through our research and programs,” said Kevin Concannon, under secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services. “This report, which we have produced for 55 years, gives families a greater awareness of the expenses they are likely to face, and serves as a valuable tool for financial planning and educational programs, as well as courts and state governments.”

“Understanding the costs of raising children and planning for anticipated and unexpected life events is an important part of securing financial health. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, among other Federal agencies, has a wealth of information and tools that can help Americans plan for their future. MyMoney.gov can help you make a budget, find assistance with child care costs and save for emergencies or big purchases like a home or college education,” said Louisa Quittman, director of the Office of Financial Security for the U.S. Department of the Treasury. “MyMoney.gov can also help you provide money management lessons for your children to help them be more prepared for their financial future.”

The report details spending by married-couple and single-parent households; for married-couple households, spending in various regions of the country are examined.

Housing (29 percent) and food (18 percent) account for the largest share of child-rearing expenses for middle-income, married-couple families, followed by childcare/education (16 percent), transportation (15 percent), and health care (9 percent).

Clothing was the smallest expense, at 6 percent, and other miscellaneous child-rearing necessities from birth to age 18 accounted for 7 percent. This report does not include costs related to pregnancy or college costs.

“When CNPP first issued this report in 1960, housing and food were the two highest expenses, just as they are today,” said CNPP Executive Director Angie Tagtow. “But while housing costs have increased over time, changes in American agriculture have resulted in lower food costs, and family food budgets now represent a lower percentage of household income. For families who wish to lower their food costs even more, we offer a variety of resources at ChooseMyPlate.gov/budget.”

Across the country, costs were highest in the urban Northeast, urban West, and urban South; while lowest in the urban Midwest and rural areas. Much of the regional variation in expenses was related to housing. Differences in child care and education expenses also contributed to regional variation.

Overall, child-rearing expenses in rural areas were 24 percent lower than those in the region with the highest expenses, the urban Northeast.

It is important to note that child-rearing costs vary greatly depending on the number and ages of children in a household. As family size increases, costs per child generally decrease. Report author and CNPP economist Mark Lino, PhD emphasized how significantly costs are impacted by the number of children in a household.

“There are significant economies of scale, with regards to children, sometimes referred to as the 'cheaper by the dozen effect.' As families increase in size, children may share a bedroom, clothing and toys can be reused, and food can be purchased in larger, more economical packages.” said Dr. Lino.

As a result, compared to a child in a two-child family, families with one child spend 27 percent more on the only child and families with three or more children spend 24 percent less on each child.

CNPP economists used data from the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey to present the most recent and comprehensive estimates.

The full report, Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015, is available on the Web at www.cnpp.usda.gov .

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Local authorities were involved in a search on Friday morning for two subjects who fled after a vehicle pursuit near Upper Lake, with the search called off a few hours later.

A Friday morning report from the Lake County Sheriff's Office and the California Highway said they were looking for one male and one female who fled on foot from the area of Old Lake County Road and Highway 20 near the Lake and Mendocino County line.

CHP Officer Kory Reynolds said the pursuit had begun in the Willits area and ended in Upper Lake. He did not have additional details Friday morning.

The only available description of the subjects are a male with long brown hair in a red jacket or dark-colored shirt and a female with shoulder length hair wearing all-black clothing.

The two subjects are possibly armed with a handgun and should be considered dangerous, the sheriff's office said.

Anyone who sees subjects matching these descriptions in this area should avoid contact and call 9-1-1 immediately, authorities said.

The search led to schools in the area being locked down.

Upper Lake Unified School District Superintendent Patrick Iaccino said he put the schools into lockdown as soon as he got an alert notice from the sheriff's office on Friday morning.

Students and teachers were kept inside and administrators were out monitoring the school campuses, Iaccino said.

Iaccino said they had tried to discourage parents from coming to pick up students due to not wanting activity out on the campus.

Rob Young of the Lake County Office of Education had been communicating with Iaccino about the situation to get him more information, Iaccino said.

With the search about five miles from the school, and with the suspects not believed to be headed in the school's direction, Iaccino planned to lift the lockdown and return school to normal operations at around 11 a.m.

Just as Iaccino was getting ready to lift the lockdown at 11 a.m., the sheriff's office said the search had been discontinued.

At that point, the two subjects – who were last seen on foot going towards Mendocino County – hadn't been located, officials said.

The Lake County Sheriff's Office said it did not have any further information to provide on the incident, as CHP in Mendocino County is the investigating agency.

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.

NASA scientists are crisscrossing the globe in 2017 – from a Hawaiian volcano to Colorado mountain tops and west Pacific islands – to investigate critical scientific questions about how our planet is changing and what impacts humans are having on it.

Field experiments are an important part of NASA’s Earth science research. Scientists worldwide use the agency’s field data, together with satellite observations and computer models, to tackle environmental challenges and advance our knowledge of how the Earth works as a complex, integrated system.

“At NASA we are always pushing the boundaries of what can be done from space to advance science and improve lives around the world,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “These field campaigns help us build better tools to address such issues as managing scarce water resources and alerting the public to natural disasters.”

New investigations

Three new field campaigns kick off this month.

Scientists preparing for a future Hyperspectral Infrared Imager (HyspIRI) mission will take to the skies above Hawaii to collect airborne data on coral reef health and volcanic emissions and eruptions.

This airborne experiment supports a potential HyspIRI satellite mission to study the world’s ecosystems and provide information on natural disasters.

Scientists working on a future satellite – the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission – set sail in January from Hawaii.

The month-long sea campaign across the Pacific on the research vessel Falkor will monitor the diversity of oceanic phytoplankton, microscopic plant-like organisms, and their impact on the marine carbon cycle.

Novel measurements will be compared to existing satellite observations and used in preparation for the PACE mission.

In February, the SnowEx airborne campaign begins flights over the snow-covered forests of Colorado for the first of a multiyear effort to determine how much water is stored in Earth’s terrestrial snow-covered regions. 

Continuing investigations

In addition to the new field campaigns, eight Earth science projects will continue this year.

The second deployment of NASA's Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission begins in January with a 28-day flight around the world. ATom will gather measurements of more than 200 different gases, as well as aerosols from the air near the ocean surface to approximately seven miles altitude.

The goal is to understand the sources, movement and transformation of short-lived greenhouse gases, such as ozone and methane, which are important contributors to climate change.

The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport – America (ACT-America) research team returns to the skies over the eastern half of the United States in January to continue tracking the movement of atmospheric carbon, the objective being to better understand the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases. Flights will originate from Louisiana, Nebraska and Virginia.

Three field campaigns are heading to the Arctic. In March, Oceans Melting Greenland (OMG) will conduct its second set of airborne surveys of glacier heights around the edge of Greenland and coastal ocean conditions. The mission is providing the first comprehensive look at how glaciers and oceans change year to year.

Operation IceBridge returns in March to the Arctic for the ninth straight year to measure changes in the elevation of the Greenland ice sheet and sea ice extent. In the fall, the team also will begin its yearly measurements of land and sea ice in Antarctica.

This summer, the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) will start the airborne component of its decade-long campaign that began last year to study the ecology of the fast-changing northern reaches of Alaska and Canada.

A diverse suite of instruments will be flown to investigate the region’s permafrost, carbon cycle, vegetation and water bodies and inform future satellite missions. Scientists will also go into the field to support the airborne measurements.

Two experiments head back to the Pacific Ocean this year.

In February, the Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory (CORAL) project team will continue its airborne and in-water investigations in the Hawaiian Islands to assess the condition of threatened coral-based ecosystems.

In the spring, CORAL will target the waters off Palau and Guam and the rest of the Mariana Islands. In October, NASA’s second Salinity Processes in the Upper Ocean Regional Study (SPURS-2) returns to the eastern tropical Pacific to recover instruments installed in September to investigate the oceanic and atmospheric processes that control changes in salinity.

On the other side of the world, two field campaigns are returning to the Atlantic Ocean. From its base in Namibia, the Observations of Clouds above Aerosols and their Interactions (ORACLES) study will use airborne instruments this fall to probe the impact on climate and rainfall of the interaction between clouds over the southeastern Atlantic Ocean and smoke from vegetation burning in southern Africa.

The North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) will take to the sea and air, for the third year, to study how the world’s largest plankton bloom gives rise to small organic particles that influence clouds and climate.

To follow all of NASA’s 2017 Earth science field campaigns, visit http://www.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions .

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Friday morning fire destroyed a Lakeport residence.

The fire at 2685 Beach Lane was first dispatched just before 11 a.m., according to Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison.

Hutchison said the fire initially was reported as flames and smoke seen in the area. When firefighters arrived, they found the back of the house was fully involved and the fire was spreading into the front of the structure.

Lakeport Fire's response included three engines, a ladder truck and Hutchison, Kelseyville Fire sent an engine and a chief, and Northshore Fire sent an engine, a battalion chief and its support team, Hutchison said.

He said they started to attack the fire with an engine and a ladder truck, but ran out of water before they could establish a line to the nearest hydrant, which was about 1,200 feet away.

It took time to lay hose all the way from the hydrant and get the hose charged, Hutchison said. During that time, the structure's roof was beginning to collapse, so firefighters backed off into defensive mode.

As of 1 p.m., the fire had been controlled. Hutchison said all of the home's roof had collapsed and the structure was a total loss.

No one was at home at the time of the fire, but the owner returned and firefighters have made contact with him, Hutchison said.

Early Friday afternoon, Hutchison said mop up was continuing at the scene. “We've got hours of work still to do.”

As for the cause, “We have no idea what started the fire,” Hutchison said.

Hutchison said that Beach Lane past Rainbow Road was remaining closed while firefighters were still on scene and involved with mop up.

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.

LUCERNE, Calif. – Firefighters rescued a driver whose car went off of Highway 20 and into Clear Lake late Thursday night.

Northshore Fire personnel, Lake County Sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers were first dispatched to the crash in the area of Highway 20 just west of Foothill Drive shortly before 10:30 p.m., according to radio reports.

At the scene they found a silver four-door sedan on its roof and mostly submerged – except for a rear portion of the car, including its back wheels – in Clear Lake.

CHP Officer Ryan Erickson said the report of the crash first came in as secondhand information from a passerby who had seen lights in the lake.

Late Thursday, Erickson said they didn't yet know much about what had occurred, with the investigation at that point in its early stages.

He said the silver sedan, which had been traveling eastbound on Highway 20, was the only vehicle involved.

Shortly before 11 p.m., firefighters were able to pull the female driver from the vehicle. Erickson said she was given CPR and had a pulse.

A Northshore Fire ambulance transported the woman from the scene a short time later. Erickson said she was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital.

At that time, Erickson said it was unknown if another person was in the vehicle, and they were waiting for a tow truck to pull the car from the lake.

Due to the rains, the water was murky and rough. The car's lights were still on and could be seen just below the surface of the dark water.

The vehicle was pulled from the water at around midnight, with units clearing the scene about 45 minutes later, according to reports from the scene.

Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos confirmed to Lake County News at 1 a.m. Friday that the driver had been the car's only occupant.

He said at that time he didn't have an update on the woman's condition.

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.