COBB, Calif. — Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit announced that the Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest Calso Camp campground will be closed for the 2023 season.
State Forest staff will be focused on repairing winter storm damage to roads and facilities throughout the State Forests in the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit.
Day use will continue to be permitted from sunrise to sunset.
Seasonal road closures will also be lifted, allowing routine access to State Forest mapped and numbered roads only. Off-roading and off-highway vehicles are not permitted. Please observe posted road closures.
Firewood and rock gathering permits are on sale by appointment only. Permits are $20 for up to 3 cords and are valid for one year after the date of issue.
Forest staff asks the public to plan ahead by checking on forest conditions and weather before arriving.
State high school administrators don’t have to write on the blackboard 100 times, “I won’t break the law,” but the message delivered to them this week is clear: Obey the law.
With high school graduation ceremonies underway across California, some Native American students are once again facing additional unnecessary burdens: convincing school and district administrators to follow the law and allow the wearing of tribal regalia at commencements to celebrate their culture during one of the most important accomplishments in their young lives.
The message was delivered at a news briefing Wednesday after local cases of school districts seeking to set unnecessary conditions and limit or deny students the right to wear tribal regalia at their graduation observances.
Among those at the briefing was Lake County Supervisor Moke Simon, a member of Middletown Rancheria.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, California Native American Legislative Caucus Chairperson James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino), tribal leaders and advocates reaffirmed the legal and constitutional right of tribal students to wear cultural items during their commencements.
“In 2018, the state passed AB 1248, which stated in part, ‘A pupil may wear traditional tribal regalia or recognized objects of religious or cultural significance as an adornment at school graduation ceremonies.’ Since then, students and families continue to face obstacles in exercising this right,” Ramos said.
He added that following continuing complaints and lawsuits, he successfully authored AB 945 in 2021 — co-sponsored by the California Department of Education — to require the department to form a task force of tribes and appointees from the governor’s office, the state education department and tribes from around the state to work with schools to ensure the law is being followed and how best to set policies and practices around the issue.
“I was proud to co-sponsor AB 945 by Assembly Ramos; this legislation will help to develop policies that will address how to ensure our Native American students will be able to affirm their Native identity and connection to ancestry and culture by wearing traditional cultural adornments during graduation ceremonies,” Thurmond said.
“Every year, we see school administrators, teachers and staff attempting to stop Indigenous students from wearing tribal regalia at commencement, blatantly disregarding California law and the importance these items hold for Indigenous people,” said Tedde Simon (Diné), Indigenous justice advocate with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said. “We call on all schools in California to respect and honor students’ rights to wear tribal regalia during this monumental, once-in-a-lifetime celebration.”
“It’s incredibly important that we arm native students and their families with information about their rights under AB 1248,” said Heather Hostler (Hupa), CILS executive director. “This country has a long history of atrocities against tribal people and sought to dismantle cultures and assimilate them. Wearing tribal regalia at important milestones like commencements show that we are still here today, that we honor our ancestors who fought to preserve our culture before us and that we are committed to carrying on our traditions. CILS is here to protect and advance your right to wear regalia proudly at graduation.”
In speaking to a reporter, former chairwoman of the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu Indians Jessica Lopez voiced her frustration after she had to argue with her local school district officials about wearing regalia. Lopez spoke at Wednesday’s briefing.
Her son sought to wear a mortarboard beaded in a goose pattern with an eagle feather and ceremonial sash, but administrators pushed back and told Lopez not all mandatory pre-conditions had been met.
“The district says it’s open to reviewing the policy. That’s not good enough. Here we are having to tromp along the path of educating the educators. They need to know that they are in violation [of the law] if they do not protect the rights of these students,” Lopez said.
Ramos, the first California Native American elected to the Legislature, observed, “High school graduations are times of great celebration in our tribal communities. Eagle feathers and other symbols of Native American significance are often presented by a proud community to the student as a way to recognize personal achievement. It is a means for the tribe not only to honor the student but to share in and express pride in the graduate’s achievements.”
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on May 27, 2023, agreed in principle to a tentative deal that would raise the debt ceiling while capping some federal spending at current levels.
The accord, if approved by both houses of Congress, would avert an unprecedented default that threatens to derail the economy and put hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work. Negotiators agreed to lift the ceiling for two years – past the 2024 presidential election – while putting a temporary cap on most nondefense spending at 2023 levels. It would also reduce planned funding for the IRS, impose new work requirements on some people who receive benefits from the federal program known as SNAP and claw back billions of unspent funds from pandemic relief programs.
The Conversation has been covering the debt ceiling drama since January, when Republicans took over the House, raising fears that brinkmanship would lead to an economic catastrophe. Here are five articles from our archive to help you make sense of a couple key aspects of the tentative deal and provide context on the debt ceiling fight.
1. What is the debt ceiling
First some basics. The debt ceiling was established by the U.S. Congress in 1917. It limits the total national debt by setting out a maximum amount that the government can borrow.
Steven Pressman, an economist at The New School, explained the original aim was “to let then-President Woodrow Wilson spend the money he deemed necessary to fight World War I without waiting for often-absent lawmakers to act. Congress, however, did not want to write the president a blank check, so it limited borrowing to US$11.5 billion and required legislation for any increase.”
Since then, the debt ceiling has been increased dozens of times. It currently stands at $31.4 trillion – a figure reached in January. The Treasury has taken “extraordinary measures” to enable the government to keep borrowing without breaching the ceiling. Such measures, however, can only be temporary – meaning at one point Congress will have to act to lift the ceiling or default on its debt obligations, which is expected to happen by June 5, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, if the deal isn’t approved in time.
2. The trouble with work requirements
One of the biggest sticking points toward the end of negotiations was work requirements for recipients of government aid. The tentative deal would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54 years on able-bodied adults who have no children. This is less than what Republicans had earlier sought. There are exceptions for veterans and the homeless.
But if the goal is to help people find jobs and make more money, work requirements don’t actually do the job, wrote Kelsey Pukelis, a doctoral student in public policy at Harvard Kennedy School who has studied the issue. Rather, they make it much harder for people who need food aid to get it.
“Our findings do suggest that work requirements restrain federal spending by reducing the number of people getting SNAP benefits,” she explained. “But our work also indicates that in today’s context, these savings would be at the expense of already vulnerable people facing additional economic hardship at a time when a new recession could be around the corner.”
3. IRS funding takes a hit
The deal also takes aim at a big boost in spending Congress gave the Internal Revenue Service beginning in 2022 to crack down on tax cheats and upgrade its software. Democrats agreed to a Republican demand to cut the extra IRS funding from $80 billion to $70 billion.
Back in August 2022, Nirupama Rao, an economist at the University of Michigan, explained why Democrats included all that funding in their Inflation Reduction Act and how it would help the IRS collect more tax revenue, since the agency does not fully collect all the taxes that are owed.
“The main target of this spending is the so-called tax gap, which is currently estimated at about $600 billion a year,” she wrote. “While an $80 billion investment that returns $204 billion already sounds pretty impressive, it may be possible that it’s a conservative estimate.”
4. The hard road to compromise
It took a long time for Republicans and Democrats to get the current agreement.
Yellen warned in January that the government was about to hit the debt limit and would be unable to pay all its bills by May or June. McCarthy and House Republicans, who hold a razor-thin majority, appeared unwilling to raise the debt ceiling unless they could extract deep spending cuts. Meanwhile, Biden refused to negotiate, insisting on a clean debt ceiling bill. Both of those positions were dropped during negotiations.
Why did it take so long for them to reach a compromise?
Blame political trends that have been accelerating for decades, explained Laurel Harbridge-Yong, a specialist in partisan conflict and the lack of bipartisan agreement in American politics at Northwestern University. Many Republicans come from very safe districts, which means their primary against other conservatives is more important than the general election. This makes it more important to stand firm and fight until the bitter end.
“So you now have many Republicans who are more willing to fight quite hard against the Democrats because they don’t want to give a win to Biden,” she wrote. “Democrats are also resistant to compromising, both because they don’t want to gut programs that they put in place and also because they don’t want to make this look like a win for Republicans, who were able to play chicken and get what they wanted.”
5. Latest in a long line of fiscal crises
This was hardly the first fiscal crisis the U.S. government has faced. In fact, there have been many – including 22 government shutdowns since just 1976.
Raymond Scheppach, a professor of public policy at University of Virginia, offered a brief history of recent crises and the damage they’ve caused – and why a default would be far more consequential than past crises.
“While these were very disruptive and damaged the economy and employment, they pale in comparison to the potential effects of failing to lift the debt ceiling, which could be catastrophic,” he wrote. “It could bring down the entire international financial system. This in turn could devastate the world gross domestic product and create mass unemployment.”
Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. Portions of this article originally appeared in a previous article published on May 2, 2023.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has many dogs waiting to start the summer in new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American bulldog, Anatolian shepherd, Catahoula leopard dog, German shepherd, Labrador retriever, mastiff, pit bull, plott hound, pointer and wirehaired terrier.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Male pit bull
This 1-year-old male pit bull has a short tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 2, ID No. LCAC-A-5269.
Female German shepherd
This 1 and a half year old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-5296.
Female pit bull
This 2-year-old female pit bull has a short black and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 4, ID No. LCAC-A-5301.
Anatolian shepherd-mastiff mix
This 3-year-old male Anatolian shepherd-mastiff mix has a short fawn coat.
He is in kennel No. 5, ID No. LCAC-A-5276.
Male pit bull puppy
This 3-month-old male pit bull puppy has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 6, ID No. LCAC-A-5266.
Male pit bull terrier
This 3-month-old male pit bull terrier has a short brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 7, ID No. LCAC-A-5265.
‘Sky’
“Sky” is a 1 and a half year old female German shepherd with an all-white coat.
She is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-4297.
Male wirehaired terrier
This 1-year-old male wirehaired terrier has a brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-5261.
Female pit bull terrier-hound mix
This 2-year-old female pit bull terrier-hound mix has a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-5259.
Male pit bull
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 11, ID No. LCAC-A-5258.
Male Catahoula leopard dog puppy
This 2-month-old male Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short brindle coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 12b, ID No. LCAC-A-5245.
Female Catahoula leopard dog puppy
This 2-month-old female Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short brindle coat with white markings.
She is in kennel No. 12c, ID No. LCAC-A-5246.
Female pit bull-pointer mix
This 8-month-old female pit bull-pointer mix has a brown brindle and white coat.
She is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-5230.
Male Catahoula leopard dog puppy
This 2-month-old male Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short brown brindle coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 16a, ID No. LCAC-A-5244.
Male Catahoula leopard dog puppy
This 2-month-old male Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short white coat with black markings.
He is in kennel No. 16b, ID No. LCAC-A-5247.
Female Catahoula leopard dog puppy
This 2-month-old female Catahoula leopard dog puppy has a short white coat with black markings.
She is in kennel No. 16d, ID No. LCAC-A-5249.
Male plott hound
This 2-year-old male plott hound has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-5143.
Male American bulldog
This 4-year-old male American bulldog has a gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-5204.
Male pit bull terrier
This 3-year-old male pit bull terrier has a short black and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 21, ID No. LCAC-A-5076.
Male shepherd
This 2-year-old male shepherd has a tan and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-5223.
Male terrier
This 1-year-old male terrier mix has a short brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 23, ID No. LCAC-A-5110.
Male terrier
This 1-year-old male terrier has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 24, ID No. LCAC-A-5111.
Male shepherd
This 1-year-old male shepherd has a tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. LCAC-A-5303.
Male pit bull terrier
This 1-year-old male pit bull terrier has a black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-5203.
American bulldog
This 3-year-old female American bulldog has a short white coat.
She is in kennel No. 28, ID No. LCAC-A-5307.
Male German shepherd
This 3-year-old male German shepherd has a black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-5308.
Pit bull terrier-pointer mix
This 1 and a half year old female pit bull-pointer mix has a white coat.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-5231.
Female pit bull-shepherd puppy
This 5-month-old female pit bull-shepherd puppy has a short tricolor coat.
She is in kennel No. 32, ID No. LCAC-A-5072.
Senior male Labrador retriever
This 9-year-old male Labrador retriever has a black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-5306.
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.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — The owner of a massage business in Lakeport has been sentenced to jail and probation after being convicted of lewd conduct in his treatment of a customer.
Suzhen Wang, 61, owner of Footlogic massage in Lakeport, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of lewd conduct, said Deputy District Attorney Rich Watson.
Watson said the incident was reported to the Lakeport Police Department as having occurred on Dec. 26, 2021, at the Lakeport Footlogic location.
An 18-year-old female had requested a massage and was assigned a male masseur who said his name was Michael. Watson said that man later was determined to be Wang.
Watson said the female victim reported that during the massage Wang removed the sheet covering her breasts and touched and massaged her breasts.
The woman said she was in shock as she had received massages at the location on multiple prior occasions and had never experienced anything like that. This was the first time the female received a massage from Wang, Watson said.
On Monday, Judge J. David Markham sentenced Wang in accordance with a plea agreement between the District Attorney’s Office and Wang’s defense counsel to one year summary probation, 60 days in the county jail, a stay away order from the victim for the term of probation, Watson said.
Watson said Wang was also ordered to obey all laws and orders of the court.
Scientists used ground-based telescopes to get unprecedented views, thanks to the giant planet’s position in its long orbit around the Sun.
For the first time, NASA scientists have strong evidence of a polar cyclone on Uranus. By examining radio waves emitted from the ice giant, they detected the phenomenon at the planet’s north pole.
The findings confirm a broad truth about all planets with substantial atmospheres in our solar system: Whether the planets are composed mainly of rock or gas, their atmospheres show signs of a swirling vortex at the poles.
Scientists have long known that Uranus’ south pole has a swirling feature. NASA’s Voyager 2 imaging of methane cloud tops there showed winds at the polar center spinning faster than over the rest of the pole. Voyager’s infrared measurements observed no temperature changes, but the new findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters, do.
Using huge radio antenna dishes of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, they peered below the ice giant’s clouds, determining that the circulating air at the north pole seems to be warmer and drier – the hallmarks of a strong cyclone. Collected in 2015, 2021, and 2022, the observations went deeper into Uranus’ atmosphere than any before.
“These observations tell us a lot more about the story of Uranus. It’s a much more dynamic world than you might think,” said lead author Alex Akins of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “It isn’t just a plain blue ball of gas. There’s a lot happening under the hood.”
Uranus is showing off more these days, thanks to the planet’s position in orbit. It’s a long haul around the solar system for this outer planet, taking 84 years to complete a full lap, and for the last few decades the poles weren’t pointed toward Earth. Since about 2015, scientists have had a better view and have been able to look deeper into the polar atmosphere.
Ingredients for a cyclone
The cyclone on Uranus, compactly shaped with warm and dry air at its core, is much like those spotted by NASA’s Cassini at Saturn. With the new findings, cyclones (which rotate in the same direction their planet rotates) or anti-cyclones (which rotate in the opposite direction) have now been identified at the poles on every planet in our solar system except for Mercury, which has no substantial atmosphere.
But unlike hurricanes on Earth, cyclones on Uranus and Saturn aren’t formed over water (neither planet is known to have liquid water), and they don’t drift; they’re locked at the poles. Researchers will be watching closely to see how this newly discovered Uranus cyclone evolves in the coming years.
“Does the warm core we observed represent the same high-speed circulation seen by Voyager?” Akins asked. “Or are there stacked cyclones in Uranus’ atmosphere? The fact that we’re still finding out such simple things about how Uranus’ atmosphere works really gets me excited to find out more about this mysterious planet.”
The National Academies’ 2023 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey prioritized exploring Uranus. In preparation for such a mission, planetary scientists are focused on bolstering their knowledge about the mysterious ice giant’s system.
Smoke from more than 200 wildfires burning across Canada has been turning skies hazy in North American cities far from the flames. We asked Chris Migliaccio, a toxicologist at the University of Montana who studies the impact of wildfire smoke on human health, about the health risks people can face when smoke blows in from distant wildfires.
What’s in wildfire smoke that’s a problem?
When we talk about air quality, we often talk about PM2.5. That’s particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller – small enough that it can travel deep into the lungs.
Exposure to PM2.5 from smoke or other air pollution, such as vehicle emissions, can exacerbate health conditions like asthma and reduce lung function in ways that can worsen existing respiratory problems and even heart disease.
But the term PM2.5 only tells you about size, not composition – what is burning can make a significant difference in the chemistry.
In the northern Rockies, where I live, most fires are fueled by vegetation, but not all vegetation is the same. If the fire is in the wildland urban interface, manufactured fuels from homes and vehicles may also be burning, and that’s going to create its own toxic chemistry, as well. Chemists often talk about volatile organic compounds, (VOCs), carbon monoxide and PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced when biomass and other matter burns having the potential to harm human health.
How does inhaling wildfire smoke harm human health?
If you have ever been around a campfire and got a blast of smoke in your face, you probably had some irritation. With exposure to wildfire smoke, you might get some irritation in the nose and throat and maybe some inflammation. If you’re healthy, your body for the most part will be able to handle it.
As with a lot of things, the dose makes the poison – almost anything can be harmful at a certain dose.
Generally, cells in the lungs called alveolar macrophages will pick up the particulates and clear them out – at reasonable doses. It’s when the system gets overwhelmed that you can have a problem.
The stress of an inflammatory response can also exacerbate existing health problems. Being exposed to wood smoke won’t independently cause someone to have a heart attack, but if they have underlying risk factors, such as significant plaque buildup, the added stress can increase the risk.
When smoke blows over long distances, does its toxicity change?
We know that the chemistry of wildfire smoke changes. The longer it’s in the atmosphere, the more the chemistry will be altered by ultraviolet light, but we still have a lot to learn.
Researchers have found that there seems to be a higher level of oxidation, so oxidants and free radicals are being generated the longer smoke is in the air. The specific health effects aren’t yet clear, but there’s some indication that more exposure leads to greater health effects.
The supposition is that more free radicals are generated the longer smoke is exposed to UV light, so there’s a greater potential for health harm. A lot of that, again, comes down to dose.
Chances are, if you’re a healthy individual, going for a bike ride or a hike in light haze won’t be a big deal, and your body will be able to recover.
If you’re doing that every day for a month in wildfire smoke, however, that raises more concerns. I’ve worked on studies with residents at Seeley Lake in Montana who were exposed to hazardous levels of PM2.5 from wildfire smoke for 49 days in 2017. We found a decrease in lung function a year later. No one was on oxygen, but there was a significant drop.
This is a relatively new area of research, and there’s still a lot we’re learning, especially with the increase in wildfire activity as the planet warms.
What precautions can people take to reduce their risk from wildfire smoke?
If there is smoke in the air, you want to decrease your exposure.
Can you completely avoid the smoke? Not unless you’re in a hermetically sealed home. The PM levels aren’t much different indoors and out unless you have a really good HVAC system, such as those with MERV 15 or better filters. But going inside decreases your activity, so your breathing rate is slower and the amount of smoke you’re inhaling is likely lower.
We also tend to advise people that if you’re in a susceptible group, such as those with asthma, create a safe space at home and in the office with a high-level stand-alone air filtration system to create a space with cleaner air.
Some masks can help. It doesn’t hurt to have a high-quality N95 mask. Just wearing a cloth mask won’t do much, though.
Most states have air quality monitors that can give you a sense of how bad the air quality is, so check those sites and act accordingly.
This article was updated May 22, 2023, with the morning’s updated wildfire smoke map.
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
How can I make studying a daily habit? – Jesni P., age 15, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Studying – you know you need to do it, but you just can’t seem to make it a habit. Maybe you forget, become distracted or just don’t want to do it.
Understanding what a habit is, and how it forms, can help you figure out how to study on a daily basis.
Let’s say you have a habit of eating a snack after school. When school is about to end, you start to feel hungry. Dismissal is the cue to get your snack.
Eating the snack is the routine. The reward is that it tastes good and your hunger goes away, which reinforces the habit – and makes you want to repeat the loop again the next day.
Here are the things you need to make a studying loop:
A set time to study every day.
A cue to start studying.
An environment that helps you stick to your studying routine.
A reward for studying.
Setting a time
When you do things at the same time every day, it is easier to remember to do them.
That means if you’re in third grade, you would plan to spend about 30 minutes per day studying. This can include the time you spend practicing your reading. If you’re in eighth grade, you would spend 80 minutes per day – that is, one hour and 20 minutes – studying.
So choose a single block of time during the afternoon or evening when you will have the right amount of time to study every day.
There may be days when your assignments do not fill the full block of time that you have set. On those days, you should spend time reviewing material that you’ve already studied; regularly going back over information helps you remember it and think about how to integrate it with the new things you’re learning.
Studying at the same time every day is one cue, but you may need something more concrete when first forming your habit.
This can be a calendar reminder you set on your phone or laptop, or something as simple as a card with the word “study” printed on the front. You can leave the card where you hang up your coat or put down your bag when you get home from school – or on your television or computer screen.
On the back of the card, write the word “studying.” Then keep this side facing up and posted to the back of your computer, on your door, or above your desk while you work.
This will signal to others that they should not disturb you during this time. When you finish studying, return the card to its starting spot so that it’s ready to remind you to study the next day.
Your study environment
To help yourself study, you need a place set up for work and not for doing other things. Do not study on your bed – that’s for sleeping – or in front of the television, or anywhere it’s difficult to hold and use the materials you need. Best option: a table or desk with good lighting.
Your study place should limit distractions. That includes other people’s conversations and all media: TV, video games, social media, texts or music. Research repeatedly has shown the human brain cannot multitask well; people make more mistakes if they try to do two things at the same time, especially when one of those things requires concentration. Bouncing back and forth between two things also means it takes longer to complete the task.
Although you should put away electronic devices when studying, that may not be an option if you need them for homework. If that’s the case, set the “do not disturb” notification on your phone, silence incoming notifications and close all social media and gaming apps.
Gaming, social media and video apps are programmed to make you want to keep checking or playing them. That means you have to replace the bad habit of constantly using them with the good habit of studying for a designated block of time.
The reward
That said, after you finish studying, you can give yourself a little gaming or social media time as your reward.
With time, the studying itself will become its own reward. Improving your knowledge and skills will give you a sense of achievement and make you more confident and happier at school. But while forming your study habit, a really fun reward will help you stick with it.
This is especially true if the subject you’re studying is difficult for you. No one likes to do something they think they’re not very good at. However, it’s impossible to get better if you do not practice, and studying is just like practicing a sport, instrument or hobby.
How long it takes
The amount of time it takes to make studying a daily habit can be anywhere from 21 days to a few months, depending upon the person.
To help you stay with it, find a study buddy to form the habit along with you. Ask your family not to interrupt you during study time. And consider using apps to set goals and track your study time so you can watch your habit form and celebrate your progress. The good news: Daily studying gets easier the more you do it.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service said there is a chance of thunderstorms in Lake County on Sunday.
The forecast said low pressure is expected to bring widespread shower activity throughout the North Coast region on Sunday, along with possible short-lived thunderstorms.
The potential storms are expected on Sunday afternoon, the forecast said.
Conditions are expected to remain warm and mostly cloudy on Sunday evening before clearing the way for a sunny Memorial Day, with daytime highs in the mid 70s and nighttime conditions in the low 50s.
Light winds of up to 9 miles per hour also are in the forecast.
For much of the rest of the week, temperatures are expected to hover in the mid to high 70s, topping out just over 80 degrees by the weekend.
Nighttime conditions will remain in the low 50s, according to the forecast.
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 jellyfish galaxy JW39 hangs serenely in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
This galaxy lies over 900 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices and is one of several jellyfish galaxies Hubble has been studying over the past two years.
Despite this jellyfish galaxy’s serene appearance, it is adrift in a ferociously hostile environment: a galaxy cluster.
Compared to their more isolated counterparts, the galaxies in galaxy clusters are often distorted by the gravitational pull of larger neighbors, which can twist galaxies into a variety of shapes.
If that was not enough, the space between galaxies in a cluster is also pervaded with a searingly hot plasma known as the intracluster medium.
While this plasma is extremely tenuous, galaxies moving through it experience it almost like swimmers fighting against a current, and this interaction can strip galaxies of their star-forming gas.
This interaction between the intracluster medium and the galaxies is called ram-pressure stripping and is the process responsible for the trailing tendrils of this jellyfish galaxy.
As JW39 moved through the cluster, the pressure of the intracluster medium stripped away gas and dust into long trailing ribbons of star formation that now stretch away from the disk of the galaxy.
Astronomers using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 studied these trailing tendrils in detail, as they are a particularly extreme environment for star formation.
Surprisingly, they found that star formation in the ‘tentacles’ of jellyfish galaxies was not noticeably different from star formation in the galaxy disk.
For many, especially persons who live alone, companion animals — or pets — are like family, and for good reason.
The Animal Health Foundation lists eight important benefits people enjoy by having a companion animal, including more physical exercise, less stress and alleviation of depression.
Not surprisingly, people who are attached to their pets want them well cared if they can no longer do so themselves. A person’s estate planning can provide for the care of companion animals in the events of disability or death.
If a pet owner is disabled and unable to care for their pets, whether the pets remain at home varies depending on the duration and severity of the disability, the type of pet, the associated costs, the availability of at-home pet care, and other factors.
Naturally, keeping the pet’s companionship may be beneficial to the owner’s own recovery. Considering relevant goals and circumstances, a thoughtful plan can be devised and authorized (supported) in one’s estate planning.
A durable power of attorney and/or revocable living trust can authorize pet sitters, veterinary care, and boarding care.
Also, placing the pet with trusted family, friends or through a not-for-profit’s pet placement program can be authorized.
Depending on the pets involved, different nonprofit pet care organizations may be available, e.g., humane societies, animal shelters, animal rescue groups, sanctuary organizations and foster organizations.
Estate planning documents may authorize and direct desired approaches to be used and, perhaps, undesired approaches not to be used.
For example, consider the following: “In the event of my incapacity, I direct that my pets be cared for at my home, as long as possible, for the mutual benefit of my pets and myself. I authorize my Agent to arrange for all necessary pet care and, as needed, veterinary treatment and disposition of my pets. If needed, my Agent may also temporarily, or if necessary permanently, place my pets in a loving home, preferably with my family or friends. Otherwise, my Agent may use a non for profit pet care organization, e.g., the San Francisco SPCA Adoption Program, to place my pets permanently in a loving home. In no event shall any organization be used that euthanizes pets. I authorize my Agent to spend the necessary money to implement my wishes, including giving a reasonable sum of money to the family that accepts my pets.”
Similarly, at a pet owner’s death, the owner’s trust or will, as relevant, may say who receives the pet or how the pet is otherwise to be placed. It can also authorize a gift of money to assist with the pet’s placement.
Giving money to a family who accepts a pet can initially make the placement agreeable. Over time the money runs out, however, but the pet care expenses remain (and often increase).
Accordingly, depending on the pet care involved and the pet’s life expectancy, it may be desirable to put necessary assets into a so-called, “pet trust.” This is especially relevant to a pet with a long life expectancy, e.g., a horse or a parrot.
In California, a so-called “pet trust” can be established by a person for the care of their domestic or pet animal for its lifetime (section 15212 of the Probate Code).
For example, a person may leave suitable land (with a stable or barn) and financial assets in a pet trust to provide care for one or more horses that are alive at the owner’s death.
The trustee would do accountings, and the trust would be enforceable, such as by a person named in the trust, by a nonprofit charitable organization that cares for animals, or by a person appointed by the court.
The foregoing is a brief discussion of some issues considered in estate planning for pets. For legal guidance consult a qualified attorney.
Dennis A. Fordham, attorney, is a State Bar-Certified Specialist in estate planning, probate and trust law. His office is at 870 S. Main St., Lakeport, Calif. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and 707-263-3235.