A semi truck overturned on Highway 20 in Lucerne, Calif., on Monday, January 2, 2012, spilling a load of corrugated metal that hit and broke a nearby power pole, leading to outages and many hour of repairs. Photo by John Jensen.

LUCERNE, Calif. – The cause of an early Monday afternoon semi crash on Highway 20 in Lucerne that led to traffic detours and power outages is still under investigation.

Driver William Soito III, 56, of Sacramento was traveling to Eureka, driving westbound in a 2002 Sterling semi pulling a trailerload of corrugated steel, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP report from Officer Kevin Domby said Soito entered a lefthand curve near Sixth Avenue and the trailer overturned to the right, resulting in the load of steel hitting the power pole and street sign at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Highway 20.

The truck tractor and trailer both came to rest on their right sides, facing west, and partially blocking Highway 20’s westbound lane, Domby said.

Domby said the crash’s cause remains under investigation.

The crash resulted in major damage to the power pole, which Domby said led to an extended power outage in the immediate area.

Northshore Fire treated Soito at the scene for a minor cut to the top of his head, Domby reported.

Domby said Northshore Fire Protection District responded to the scene and set up a traffic detour with the assistance of a passing California Fish and Game warden.

Power in some areas was restored following the initial outage, although at about 1:15 p.m. Pacific Gas & Electric took the power offline from Seventh Avenue east to Bell Ray Avenue for several hours while the damaged pole was replaced by a PG&E crew from Ukiah. An AT&T crew also was on scene.

Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol were on scene throughout the day to assist with traffic control, due to a long-term closure of Highway 20. They kept traffic moving by routing vehicles around the crash site, moving them down Country Club Drive and back to the highway.

Northshore Fire Protection District personnel also were present throughout the day to help with managing the incident.

Deputy Chief Pat Brown was planning for potential issues due to the power outage, including arranging for enough backup oxygen for local residents.

When power outages occur, people who need to use oxygen tanks must rely on the fire department for assistance in getting replacement bottles, he said.

There were two people who needed backup oxygen, and Brown had arranged with Sutter Lakeside Hospital to bring in an additional supply if needed.

“We’ve got all of our backup supply out,” he said later in the evening, adding that Lakeport Fire also had given Northshore Fire some oxygen to keep them stocked up.

Following the crash, Soito’s little dog Eddie – a Chihuahua/Shih Tzu mix – had escaped from the truck and disappeared for several hours.

Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said fire staff spent about an hour looking for the little dog and notifying residents in the area that he was missing.

Later in the day, a woman who lives on Sixth Avenue came home and found the little dog outside of her house. She brought him down to the crash scene and dropped him off, receiving an ovation from the crowd who was gathered there.

The semi had to be moved in order for PG&E to replace the pole. Willits Towing responded with a large semi tow truck which it used to upright Soito’s truck shortly before 8 p.m.

Brown said forklifts and a flatbed truck were brought in to remove the metal construction materials.

Late Monday officials at the scene reported that the highway would remain closed through most of the night. PG&E was to bring in their own staff to conduct traffic control as work continued to repair and replace equipment.

There were reports from some community members of the power coming back on just after 9 p.m. PG&E said that all customers were expected to have their power restored by 2 a.m.

John Jensen contributed to this report.

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Semi truck driver Bill Soito of Sacramento, Calif., cuddles his little dog, Eddie, who was reunited with him several hours after Soito

An overturned semi is resulting in a lengthy closure on Highway 20 in Lucerne, Calif., on Monday, January 2, 2012. Photo by Laurie Ann Jarrett.

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH INFORMATION ABOUT A POWER OUTAGE.

LUCERNE, Calif. – A semi passing through the Northshore town of Lucerne early Monday afternoon overturned and hit a power pole, an incident that is resulting in an hours-long closure of the highway and a temporary power shutdown.

The California Highway Patrol reported that the single-vehicle crash occurred just after 12 p.m. on Highway 20 at Sixth Avenue near the Lake County Sheriff’s substation.

According to initial reports the semi’s driver was not speeding, but as he drove through a slight curve in the road his heavy load of metal materials shifted, leading to the truck overturning.

A Lake County News reporter at the scene said the truck rolled into a power pole, snapping the pole and causing the power lines to fall into nearby trees.

Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the driver suffered minor injuries – a cut on his head and scrapes – and refused medical transport at the scene.

Along with Northshore Fire, CHP, Caltrans, AT&T and PG&E responded to the crash site on Monday afternoon.

Pacific Gas & Electric was to bring in their own traffic control later in the afternoon and will begin repairing the pole, officials reported.

Brown said they are bringing in a loader to move the truck’s load in order to let PG&E access the damaged pole.

Shortly before 2 p.m., Brown estimated that Highway 20 would be closed for up to five hours as repairs are made. Traffic will be routed around the crash site and onto Country Club Drive.

Power in a portion of Lucerne also is off to allow PG&E to conduct repairs.

Kyle Woodard, a lineman for PG&E, said they were able to isolate the outage area.

While originally it had been estimated that an outage would extend from Ceago to Glenhaven, Woodard said the power was taken offline from Seventh Avenue east along Highway 20 to Bell Ray Avenue.

Lucerne residents in that area should be prepared for a long outage; Woodward said power is expected to be restored on Tuesday.

Willits Towing arrived with two tow trucks, including a heavy duty semi tow truck that is the biggest truck of its kind north of Santa Rosa, according to company owner Mason Cook.

“We’re ready to pull it over just as soon as they give us the word,” he said of the overturned truck.

Lake County News will continue to update the story and post Facebook and Twitter updates as information becomes available.

John Jensen contributed to this report.

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The semi rolled into a power pole, breaking the pole and knocking wires down. Photo by Laurie Ann Jarrett.

The overturned semi will be disconnected from its trailer in order to be moved from the crash scene. Photo by John Jensen.

A Willits Towing semi tow truck, along with a second smaller truck, responded to the scene to help remove the overturned semi. Photo by John Jensen.

Lakeport and Kelseyville firefighters work to put out a fire at the Burger King in Lakeport, Calif., on Sunday, January 1, 2012. The fire had begun in the restaurant's hood system and spread to the attic, but Lakeport Fire Capt. Bob Ray said the building did not sustain major structural damage. Photo by Becky Hirscher.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A hood fire has been ruled the cause of a fire on New Year’s morning at the Burger King in Lakeport.

Firefighters were dispatched to the fast food restaurant, located at 1142 Lakeport Blvd., at 10:50 a.m. Sunday, according to Lakeport Fire Capt. Bob Ray.

Lakeport Fire responded with a ladder truck and an engine, with Kelseyville Fire sending two engines on mutual aid, Ray said.

By the time firefighters arrived everyone was out of the restaurant, so Ray did not know how many employees or customers may have been in the building at the time the fire broke out.

“It originated in the hood system above the deep fat fryer,” he said of the fire’s cause.

“Their hood extinguishing system did activate and it controlled the fire. It didn’t totally put it out,” Ray added.

He said the grease fire burned hot enough and long enough that the heat radiated out from the metal hood system and into the surrounding wood framing, allowing the fire to get into the attic.

Ray said firefighters had to cut a hole in the roof around the duct system in order to access all of the fire. They also pulled down ceiling tiles from below in the kitchen.

The fire was confined to that area around the hood, with a 7 foot by 7 foot hole cut in the ceiling and roof, Ray said.

While Lakeport Fire was committed to the Burger King incident, Ray said two medical aids were reported in the city. He said the second Kelseyville engine and a Northshore Fire unit from Nice assisted with responding to those calls.

Lakeport Fire remained on scene at Burger King until approximately 11:59 a.m., Ray said.

The fire has been ruled accidental, he said.

Ray had no available estimate of damage, although he said that it would be in the thousands to make the repairs.

The fire did not damage the building’s main structure, but Ray said the hood system will have to be replaced, necessitating the restaurant’s closure for what he estimated would be more than a few days.

“There’s quite a bit to do to get it back in service,” Ray said.

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Firefighters had to cut a hole in the roof of the Burger King in Lakeport, Calif., on Sunday, January 1, 2012, in order to access a fire that spread from the hood system into the attic and roof. Photo by Becky Hirscher.

A firefighter works to put out a fire that spread from the hood system into the attic of the Burger King in Lakeport, Calif., on Sunday, January 1, 2012. Firefighters had to pull down ceiling tiles and cut a hole in the roof to put it the fire out. Photo by Becky Hirscher.

The incident was reported shortly before 6 p.m. at 3825 Manzanita Ave. in Nice.

The victim and his girlfriend were driving through the area when four subjects – a male and three females – allegedly yelled at them to leave because it was their “territory,” according to reports from the scene.

The man pulled over and confronted them, and was allegedly hit several times in the head with a metal baseball bat by the male in the group, the reports indicated.

The woman in the vehicle honked the horn and yelled at the suspects that she was calling police, and the group ran off, according to the radio reports.

Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the man sustained serious head injuries.

Brown said Northshore Fire Protection District paramedics transported the man via ground ambulance to a landing zone at Sentry Market, where a REACH air ambulance picked him up.

The helicopter lifted off for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital shortly before 6:30 p.m., radio reports stated.

Further information about the male victim was not available Monday night.

A man matching the physical description of the male suspect implicated in the beating was arrested in Nice for assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, but jail officials would not confirm whether that arrest was for the assault involving the baseball bat.

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 Google+, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

In a decision announced Dec. 15, the CPUC levied a $1 million fine on San Dimas-based Golden State Water Co. for not informing the commission of the company’s internal control failures and the impact of those failures on its rates.

The fine is to be paid by Golden State Water shareholders to the state’s general fund, the CPUC reported.

The CPUC also ordered Golden State Water to refund $9.5 million in refunds to customers in its Clear Lake service area along with customers in Arden Cordova, Bay Point, Los Osos, Ojai, Santa Maria and Simi Valley over the next three years.

According to the 16-page agreement, Golden State Water’s 2,200 Clearlake customers are to see refunds totaling $1,437,211 over the next one to three years.

In addition, the commission is requiring Golden State Water to reduce its plant costs by $2.5 million, which it said will result in lower future rates and reduce other amounts owed by certain customers by $500,000.

CPUC President Michael R. Peevey said the settlement followed “a robust investigation into allegations that Golden State Water did not exercise reasonable management oversight and failed to apply adequate internal controls over its procurement for plant improvements."

Golden State Water released a statement in which it said the agreement it reached with the CPUC settled an eight-year-old contracting matter which began after two Northern California-based Golden State Water executives violated internal bidding procedures for work – much of it dating back to the 1990s – involving one contractor.

The company said in its statement that it disputed many of the conclusions reached by commission staff but that it agreed to settle the case “to avoid the uncertainty of a costly legal battle.”

Golden State Water “had long ago put in place safeguards to ensure that such a problem would not happen again,” said Robert Sprowls, chief executive officer and president of American States Water Co. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Golden State Water Co.

“I am pleased that we were able to reach an agreement that is good for all parties,” Sprowls said. “The settlement reflects our commitment to our customers, who will be the greatest beneficiaries of this agreement, and our recognition of the importance of maintaining positive relations with the CPUC.”

Golden State Water said that when the contracting problem surfaced in 2003, it launched a thorough investigation which led to the firing of the two executives alleged to be responsible for the violations.

The company also said it severed all ties with the contractor that it found to be at fault, and hired independent experts to evaluate both the financial issues and the quality of the work.

Golden State Water said it conducted a top to bottom review of its policies and procedures, putting in place additional safeguards – among them, a more rigorous employee code of conduct, ethics training, a confidential employee hotline and an anti-fraud committee reporting directly to the board of directors – in order to prevent similar problems from happening again.

The CPUC said it will conduct three additional independent audits and require Golden State Water's management to report on internal controls related to the company's procurement practices over the next 10 years.

Those audits will coincide with Golden State Water’s next two general rate cases, the first of which is anticipated to be filed for 2016, to seek rate increases, according to the agreement.

Golden State Water reported that it has agreed to participate in the audits.

“The commission directed Golden State to view the settlement as a fresh start to vigorously enforce strong and effective internal controls; we understand this direction and will comply,” said Sprowls.

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121511 CPUC and Golden State Water Co. Agreement

Black-eyed peas are a favorite in the southern U.S., especially on New Year's Day, when they're believed to bring good luck. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Happy New Year and pass the black-eyed peas, please!

These happy little bi-colored legumes, also called cowpeas, field peas, crowder peas or Southern peas, are said to bring good luck in the New Year.

When combined with leafy vegetables such as collards or kale, which represent the green of money, then a financial boon is said to be in store.

Black-eyed peas are actually one of four recognized cultivated subspecies of the cowpea, a crop prevalent in Africa.

Ancient ancestors were inconspicuous, low-lying plants that grew among dusty rocks in the Sahel of north central Africa, a transitional region that lies between the Sahara desert to the north and savannahs to the south.

Cowpeas have been cultivated throughout the African continent for thousands of years and are an important resource there, both as a staple food and a source of revenue for countless people that work small farms.

Two hundred million men, women and children in Africa consume cowpeas often, even daily when they’re available. Africa’s hot, arid climate is a perfect environment for this crop, which thrives in such conditions.

Cowpeas, black-eyed peas and the like are the dried seeds of long, slender green pods that look much like one of their relatives, Asian yardlong beans. The seeds are pea-like, on the small side when compared to other dried beans. This, along with the characteristic black spot on the center of each bean, provides the source of their moniker.

After centuries of cultivation in Africa, cowpeas became popular in many regions of Asia. They were brought across the Atlantic to the Caribbean basin in the holds of slave ships in the 17th century. There are records of their use in Jamaica as early as 1675, in Florida by 1700, and in North Carolina by 1714.

These plants were long considered “poor man’s food” and looked upon as cattle fodder by those with land throughout the Eastern seaboard, who preferred the English pea. George Washington, for example, imported 40 bushels of seed from Jamaica to plant for his livestock in 1797.

Farmers in the southern U.S., however, embraced the black-eyed pea as a food source. It grew well in the heat of the south, unlike the cool weather English pea.

Many varieties were developed, some known only within a particular region. One such variety was the Clay pea carried by Confederate soldiers as a source of protein. Many who reenact the history of the Civil War grow the Clay pea to provide an authentic field provision.

Hoppin’ John, a favorite southern dish made with black-eyed peas and greens (often collards), is traditionally served there on New Year’s Day as a harbinger of luck and prosperity. Southerners are not the only ones who see black-eyed peas as being lucky, however.

They’re eaten by Sephardic and Israeli Jews on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, as a good luck tradition. This practice is recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, compiled in 500 A.D., which says, "… now that you have established that good-luck symbols avail, you should make it a habit to see qara (bottle gourd), rubiya (black-eyed peas), kartei (leeks), silka (either beets or spinach), and tamrei (dates) on your table on the New Year."

Sephardic Jews immigrated to Georgia in the 1730s and have lived there continuously since. Some say their custom of eating black-eyed peas at the New Year was adopted by non-Jews in the South. Others point to the Civil War, when the town of Vicksburg, Mississippi ran out of food. A store of black-eyed peas was found, and they’ve been considered lucky ever since.

A variety of dishes around the world are made with black-eyed peas, including Texas caviar, which is made by marinating them for a relish-like salad.

Fritters are made from them in Colombia; they’re mashed and fried to make akkra in West Africa and the Caribbean; in Indonesia they’re used for curry dishes; they’re made into a stew called daal in northern India and Pakistan; in Vietnam they’re used in a dessert with sticky rice and coconut milk; and in Portugal, they’re served as a side dish with boiled cod and potatoes, just to name a few uses in world cuisine.

The tender leaves of the plant are nutritious as well; they contain high stores of good quality protein. In fact, NASA is so impressed with the nutritional potential of the leaves that they’ve considered growing cowpeas in future space stations as food for astronauts.

In some areas of Africa, cowpeas are cooked as green pods, and the swollen beans consumed. These fresh cowpea pods, together with fresh green leaves, are the earliest foods available to harvest, another reason they’re a live-saving crop there.

When planted, the cowpea family gives copious amounts of nitrogen to the soil, which makes them a wonderful crop to plant in advance of vegetables that use much of it, such as corn.

These small beans are amazingly nutritious, with 25 percent of calories in the form of protein. They’re also rich in digestible carbohydrate. When combined with grain, a meal with balanced protein is achieved, which makes the southern tradition of serving them with cornbread all the more appealing.

Today’s recipe is – of course! – my version of Hoppin’ John. Be sure to serve it with plenty of cornbread.

If you don’t have time to soak the beans overnight, put them in a pot with the water, bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat and let the beans sit for an hour. Drain the water and cook as directed below. You can also substitute frozen or canned peas.

If desired, add a ham hock to the pot with the beans as you cook them.

Enjoy! And best wishes for a happy, healthy 2012.

Hoppin’ John

2 cups dried black-eyed peas

6 cups water

1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped

Several sprigs fresh thyme (tied with kitchen string for use as a bouquet garni or the chopped leaves of the sprigs)

2 bay leaves

1 medium green or red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

1 large bunch kale, stems removed and chopped

1 cup long-grain rice

2 medium cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

Leaves from 3 or 4 sprigs thyme leaves (1 tablespoon; may substitute 1 teaspoon dried thyme)

Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Tabasco sauce (optional)

Rinse black-eyed peas and soak in water to cover for six hours or overnight. Drain peas and transfer to a large soup pot.

Add water, onions, kale, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves. Simmer until beans are tender but still whole, about 45 minutes.

Add rice, green or red pepper, paprika, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.

If desired, season with Tabasco sauce. Remove thyme (if in bouquet garni) and bay leaves before serving. Ladle into bowls and enjoy with cornbread.

Makes four servings.

Recipe by Esther Oertel.

Esther Oertel, a freelance writer, cooking teacher, and speaker, is passionate about local produce and all foods in the vegetable kingdom. She welcomes your questions and comments and may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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The fire was first reported just after 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, at the Country Club Mobile Home Park, located at 3630 Country Club Drive in Lucerne, according to Northshore Fire Protection District.

Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said the fire was traced to the trailer's water heater closet.

He said half of the singlewide mobile home was destroyed by fire, while the other half was severely damaged by smoke.

The woman who owns the trailer will be able to salvage some of her personal possessions from it, Beristianos said.

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The effort is part of the Mendocino National Forest Grow-site Reclamation Project, which is supported, in part, by county funding granted at the recommendation of the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee and in cooperation with the High Sierra Volunteer Trail Crew.

Abandoned illegal marijuana grow sites on public lands have caused major devastation to the environment. When a grow site is discovered by law enforcement, they remove the marijuana and any weapons, but the sites are left primarily intact because of a lack of manpower to do a full cleanup.

These sites often include miles of irrigation tubing, pesticides, piles of trash, water diversions, temporary living quarters and erosion.

The sites also can be a major impediment in developing safe trails and the public's unrestricted use of natural resources and public lands, according to the Konocti Regional Trail Team.

In order to fill this void and help restore public lands back to their natural state, the Mendocino National Forest Grow-site Reclamation Project, coordinated by Bruce Hilbach, has been organizing cleanups in Mendocino County.

The group recently announced planned operation dates for cleaning up marijuana grow sites in the Upper Lake District of the Mendocino National Forest.

All volunteer groups are escorted and assisted by at least one law enforcement official at all times. Volunteer safety is of the highest priority.

Volunteers will cleanup and bag trash and debris from the grow sites and leave it onsite. The Mendocino National Forest Rangers will coordinate pickup of the bags at a later time, often by helicopter.

Weather permitting, work will begin on Thursday, Jan. 5, with most of the action taking place from Friday, Jan. 6, through Sunday, Jan. 8. If necessary, mopup will take place on Monday, Jan. 9, Konocti Regional Trails reported.

Interested volunteers should know that some hiking off of main roads may be required, but volunteers of varied physical strength and ability are encouraged.

If you can spend some time, please contact coordinator Bruce Hilbach as soon as possible to indicate availability for any or all of those dates.

Hilbach can be reached at 707-983-6169 or send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., including your phone number so he can contact you with further details.

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The solo-vehicle crash was reported shortly before 1 a.m. in the 2800 block of Merced Street at Floyd Way in Nice, according to radio reports.

Responding to the crash were Northshore Fire Protection District firefighters and the California Highway Patrol.

Firefighters arriving at the scene reported that a 23-year-old male had gone over an embankment, finding him about 30 feet down the side.

The male crash victim was said to be bleeding from his leg. The incident commander reported from the scene that the man had suffered a moderate injury due to the crash, while the CHP reported his injuries as minor.

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THIS QUAKE'S MAGNITUDE HAS BEEN ADJUSTED FROM 3.0 DOWN TO 2.9 BY THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.

COBB, Calif. – The US Geological Survey reported that a 2.9-magnitude earthquake took place near The Geysers geothermal steamfield Monday morning.

The initial report on the quake, which could later be adjusted for magnitude, indicated that it occurred at 7:54 a.m. two miles north of The Geysers, four miles west of Cobb and seven miles northwest of Anderson Springs.

Its depth was recorded at 1.5 miles, the survey reported.

Seven shake reports were submitted from the same number of zip codes – Middletown, Kelseyville, Calistoga, San Ramon, Berkeley, Sausalito and San Jose.

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Artist concept of GRAIL-B performing its lunar orbit insertion burn. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

The second of NASA's two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft has successfully completed its planned main engine burn and is now in lunar orbit.

Working together, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B will study the moon as never before.

"NASA greets the new year with a new mission of exploration," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "The twin GRAIL spacecraft will vastly expand our knowledge of our moon and the evolution of our own planet. We begin this year reminding people around the world that NASA does big, bold things in order to reach for new heights and reveal the unknown."

GRAIL-B achieved lunar orbit at 2:43 p.m. Pacific Time on Sunday. GRAIL-A successfully completed its burn yesterday at 2 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, NASA reported.

The insertion maneuvers placed the spacecraft into a near-polar, elliptical orbit with an orbital period of approximately 11.5 hours.

Over the coming weeks, the GRAIL team will execute a series of burns with each spacecraft to reduce their orbital period to just under two hours.

At the start of the science phase in March, the two GRAILs will be in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an altitude of about 34 miles.

During GRAIL's science mission, the two spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them.

As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity caused by visible features such as mountains and craters, and masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, the distance between the two spacecraft will change slightly.

Scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. The data will allow scientists to understand what goes on below the lunar surface.

This information will increase knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today.

Each spacecraft carries a small camera called GRAIL MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) with the sole purpose of education and public outreach.

The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego.

GRAIL MoonKAM will engage middle schools across the country in the GRAIL mission and lunar exploration.

Thousands of fifth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego. Photos of the target areas will be sent back by the GRAIL satellites for students to study.

A student contest that began in October 2011 also will choose new names for the spacecraft. The new names are scheduled to be announced this month.

Ride and Maria Zuber, the mission's principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, chaired the final round of judging.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

For more information about GRAIL, visit www.nasa.gov/grail. Information about MoonKAM is available online at http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/grail/education.cfm.

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Sarah Riccio, 11, of Hidden Valley Lake, Calif., is visited by UPS driver Paul Murray and another UPS employee before Christmas. Murray and fellow UPS employees purchased items for Sarah and her siblings, and food for a Christmas dinner for her entire family in December 2011. Courtesy photo.

HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – A young girl who had heart surgery the day before Thanksgiving is on the mend and celebrated Christmas at home with her family.

Sarah Riccio, 11, got the best gift of the year when she was able to return home 24 days after open-heart surgery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, according to family friend Carol Luis.

“This surgery saved her life and has given her another 10 years before more will need to be done,” said her mother, Suzanne Riccio. "We are extremely grateful for that."

Sarah was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which means her left ventricle is severely underdeveloped. It’s a rare congenital heart defect that led to her having her first open-heart surgery when she was two days old, with three other surgeries occurring in her first month of life, as Lake County News has reported.

Doctors reportedly told Sarah’s parents that the November surgery was high risk because the child’s right lung no longer works. They also were told to expect her to be in the hospital at least 30 days. A previous surgery had resulted in a three-month stay.

But Sarah improved ahead of schedule and got to go home to spend Christmas with her parents and two siblings, Luis said.

The Riccio family said it has been overwhelmed by the show of support from their community, friends, family and total strangers.

They offered thanks to everyone who kept Sarah in their thoughts and prayers when she needed it most.

They’re also grateful for the donations made on their daughter’s behalf.

Donations are continuing to be taken to help cover Sarah’s very expensive medical costs. Funds can be donated online at www.everribbon.com/r/sarahsfund.

The Web site said that, as of Dec. 31, $5,941.11 had been raised. The goal is $7,500.

Luis said UPS made Sarah's day when they delivered several gifts to her and her family.

UPS driver Paul Murray and several of his coworkers generously purchased items for Sarah, her siblings and food for a delicious Christmas dinner for the entire family, Luis said.

Murray, along with a fellow UPS employee, took time out of their hectic delivery day to personally deliver these gifts to Sarah and visit with the family, according to Luis.

“Helping the Riccio family has been such an amazing experience,” said Luis. “The tremendous response from our community truly made me believe that people are genuinely good."

She said that every time she received a phone call, an email or someone came to her door asking how they could help she was overwhelmed.

“I am truly grateful to everyone that helped with raising money and awareness for Sarah and her ordeal,” said Luis. “Sarah getting to be home for Christmas is the best gift ever!"

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