LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Book to Action has come to a close in Lake County, after successfully putting a book into “action” throughout the course of April.
In partnership with Blue Zones Project Lake County, the Lake County Library hosted several discussions, cooking classes, and walking groups all designed to help patrons apply the principles of “The Blue Zones of Happiness: Lessons From the World's Happiest People” by Dan Buettner.
All events were free to the public, and free copies of the book were made available to the public.
The library clubs (Book Cubs, Cookbook Club and Garden Book Club) also participated. The monthly book club welcomed new members and had a lively discussion, in which patrons shared their thoughts on the contents of the book.
Several found that the principles resonated with their own experience, including the importance of community and staying connected throughout the pandemic.
Another patron praised the beauty of the Middletown hike on April 27. “I want to keep the weekly walking moai going,” said Amy, the event coordinator at the Lakeport library.
A moai is a small group of friends who encourage each other through life, and a walking moai walks together while they talk. “The Lakeport moai is going to be Thursdays at 8:30 a.m. and Middletown’s is Saturdays at 10 a.m.,” she said.
Lakeport and Middletown patrons also enjoyed a cooking class, in which they made a Tex-Mex bowl with avocado and chunky salsa, a strawberry mango salsa, and black bean seviche tostadas. Pictures from the class are available on the “Blue Zones Project — Lake County” Facebook page.
This project was made possible in part by the Institute of museum and library services.
The Lake County Department of Public Services Parks Division and Lake County Department of Public Health CalFresh Program will also be providing speakers, materials and more for the program.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A project that’s aiming to improve the health of Lake County residents is set to officially launch this weekend.
The Blue Zones Project Community Kickoff and inaugural Hope4Health Festival/Hope in the Park Concert will take place on Saturday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Austin Park in Clearlake.
Jamey Gill, executive director of Blue Zones Project Lake County, said the project is partnering with its sponsor organization, Adventist Health Clear Lake, to present the event.
Gill said the Blue Zones Experience aspect of the event will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and will feature food, information booths, health services including free vaccines, and children’s activities including a petting zoo and bicycle safety.
Other offerings will include dog adoptions, a kayak giveaway and a daylong pickleball demonstration by the Lake County Tennis Club.
At noon there will be a talk by Nick Buettner, vice president of community engagement and producer of Blue Zones Expeditions. He is the brother of Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones” and “The Blue Zones Solution.”
That will be followed by the inaugural Hope in the Park Concert featuring the music of Unity Voices, which will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. at the park’s band stage.
Gill said the event is meant to introduce the Blue Zones to Lake County. The goal is that visitors to the festival leave with the feeling that “the healthy choice can be the easy choice.”
“We have been in our foundation and planning phase for Blue Zones since October when the team came on board,” said Gill.
She said the steering committee and leadership team have almost completed their blueprint, or strategic plan, which will direct the project’s first year of activity. “We’re very much still in an exploration stage.”
The group also is working to decide on its marquee project, which will be unveiled early in the four-year initial project.
“This is a huge undertaking,” said Gill.
Part of the work involves studying what work is already being done to improve Lake County’s health outcomes — some of the worst in the state — and offer support to elevate those efforts, Gill said.
Gill said the strategic plan has goals and objectives that will be signed off on the steering committee on things we will focus on for the next four years. “Obviously, we can’t focus on everything,” she said, noting the many great ideas coming their way.
“The goal is at the end of four years, we will become a certified Blue Zone Project Community,” Gill said.
They will have to meet certain goals to do that, one of which is encouraging organizations, worksites and schools to register with them if they want to become Blue Zones approved.
So far, they have more than 10 such organizations, including Foods, Etc. in Clearlake, which has signed up to be the first Blue Zones approved grocery store in Lake County.
Another early adopter is the Lake County Library, which set up a walking moai, a group of friends that walks and talks together, Gill said. Moais gather in Lakeport at 8:30 a.m. on Thursdays and 10 a.m. on Saturdays in Middletown.
Gill said another group that also is actively participating is the Kelseyville Sunrise Rotary, which is working stretching and other healthy practices into its meetings.
Blue Zones can be tailored to meet the needs of the community, Gill said.
She said the Blue Zones format offers a model, and there are 70 such projects now at work across the nation. There are six within Adventist Health’s footprint. Gill said a community comparable to Lake County is Corry, Pennsylvania, a rural area in the northwestern part of that state.
“We do have so many great things happening in our community,” she added.
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. — With the city of Lakeport needing a way to address millions of dollars’ worth of water infrastructure projects, the City Council last week voted to pursue private financing to do the work.
The council unanimously approved the proposal to seek funding from a bank at its May 3 meeting.
Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Nick Walker presented the council with options to finance $5.845 million in proposed water system capital improvement projects.
That’s the amount an August 2021 rate study identified as needing to be completed over the next 10 years, Walker wrote in a written report for the meeting.
City Manager Kevin Ingram noted during the meeting that the projects — part of the capital improvement plan for the coming decade — aren’t the only ones that will need to be done, and that the city may have to explore additional funding options to complete more work in the future.
Walker told the council that staff developed a finance plan that achieves multiple goals.
The projects on the city’s capital improvement projects to-do list are as follows:
• Replace Scotts Creek well: $900,000. • Main replacement on Second Street (Russell to Main), 2,500 feet: $1,250,000. • Main replacement on Armstrong (Berry to Smith), 1,200 feet: $380,000. • Main replacement on Lakeshore (Lange to Ashe), 800 feet: $425,000. • Main replacement on Lakeport Boulevard, 1,700 feet: $870,000. • Main replacement on N. High Street (Fifth to Clear Lake Avenue), 1,900 feet: $950,000. • Main replacement on Fairway (Green to Hillcrest), 1,600 feet: $800,000. • Replace clear well: $160,000. • Ozone generators: $110,000.
Walker said the city is working to complete the entire list of projects sooner rather than later.
Leslie Bloom of NHA Advisors was on hand to help Walker go over the options.
NHA Advisors also has been assisting the city of Clearlake with a plan to seek financing through a bank to do millions of dollars of roadwork, leveraging its Measure V road sale revenues. The Clearlake City Council approved its plan in April.
Bloom described a volatile market for interest rates in the municipal market over the last few months. Since Jan. 1, tax-exempt rates have increased 1.54% to 1.98% across the entire yield curve.
However, from a historical perspective, “Rates are still very low,” Bloom said.
City staff recommended the financing plan that allows the city to complete all $5.845 million projects sooner than planned, as it hedges against inflationary pressure. The council also was urged to quickly take action to pursue private market placement due to upward trends in interest rates.
Based on the numbers presented at the meeting, the council was looking at loan terms ranging from 20 years, at 3.75%, up to 38 years, with a 2.6% interest rate.
The timeline presented to the council started with its members providing a direction at the meeting, followed by bank rate negotiation in early May and locking in interest rates with private placement later in the month. The council would then be on track to approve the financing documents at its June 7 meeting and to close the process in late June.
Councilman Michael Green moved to provide staff with direction to pursue private financing. Mayor Pro Tem Mireya Turner seconded and the council approved it 5-0.
Also on May 3, the council approved a memorandum of understanding presented by Police Chief Brad Rasmussen between the Lakeport Police Department and the Lakeport Unified School District for a school resource officer for fiscal years 2022-23 and 2023-24. The agreement costs the city $25,000 a year.
In other business, the council voted to make a determination that public convenience or necessity would be served by the issuance of a Type-42 Off Sales Beer and Wine Liquor sales license to Andre’s Jazz & Blues Lounge, located at 150 N. Main St.
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.
Rising competition for many of the world’s important crops is sending increasing amounts toward uses other than directly feeding people. These competing uses include making biofuels; converting crops into processing ingredients, such as livestock meal, hydrogenated oils and starches; and selling them on global markets to countries that can afford to pay for them.
In a newly published study, my co-authors and I estimate that in 2030, only 29% of the global harvests of 10 major crops may be directly consumed as food in the countries where they were produced, down from about 51% in the 1960s. We also project that, because of this trend, the world is unlikely to achieve a top sustainable development goal: ending hunger by 2030.
Another 16% of harvests of these crops in 2030 will be used as feed for livestock, along with significant portions of the crops that go to processing. This ultimately produces eggs, meat and milk – products that typically are eaten by middle- and upper-income people, rather than those who are undernourished. Diets in poor countries rely on staple foods like rice, corn, bread and vegetable oils.
The crops that we studied – barley, cassava, maize (corn), oil palm, rapeseed (canola), rice, sorghum, soybean, sugar cane and wheat – together account for more than 80% of all calories from harvested crops. Our study shows that calorie production in these crops increased by more than 200% between the 1960s and the 2010s.
Today, however, harvests of crops for processing, exports and industrial uses are booming. By 2030, we estimate that processing, export and industrial-use crops will likely account for 50% of harvested calories worldwide. When we add the calories locked in crops used as animal feed, we calculate that by 2030, roughly 70% of all harvested calories of these top 10 crops will go to uses other than directly feeding hungry people.
Serving the affluent, not the poor
These profound changes show how and where agriculture and agribusiness are responding to the growth of the global middle class. As incomes rise, people demand more animal products and convenient processed foods. They also use more industrial products that contain plant-based ingredients, such as biofuels, bioplastics and pharmaceuticals.
Many crops grown for export, processing and industrial uses are specially bred varieties of the 10 major crops that we analyzed. For example, only about 1% of corn grown is the U.S. is sweet corn, the type that people eat fresh, frozen or canned. The rest is mostly field corn, which is used to make biofuels, animal feed and food additives.
Crops grown for these uses produce more calories per unit of land than those harvested for direct food use, and that gap is widening. In our study we calculated that industrial-use crops already yield twice as many calories as those harvested for direct food consumption, and their yield is increasing 2.5 times faster.
The amount of protein per unit of land from processing crops is twice that of food crops, and is increasing at 1.8 times the rate of food crops. Crops harvested for direct food consumption have had the lowest yields across all metrics of measurement and lowest rates of improvement.
Grow more foods that feed the hungry
What does this mean for reducing hunger? We estimate that by 2030, the world will be harvesting enough calories to feed its projected population – but it won’t be using most of those crops for direct food consumption.
According to our analysis, 48 countries will not produce enough calories within their borders to feed their populations. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa, but they also include Asian nations such as Afghanistan and Pakistan and Caribbean countries such as Haiti.
Scientists and agricultural experts have worked to increase the productivity of food crops in countries where many people are undernourished, but the gains so far have not been enough. There may be ways to persuade wealthier nations to raise more food crops and divert that extra output to undernourished countries, but this would be a short-term solution.
My colleagues and I believe the broader goal should be raising more crops in food-insecure countries that are used directly as food, and increasing their yields. Ending poverty, the U.N.‘s top sustainable development goal, will also enable countries that can’t produce enough food to meet their domestic needs to import it from other suppliers. Without more focus on the needs of the world’s undernourished people, eliminating hunger will remain a distant goal.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Federal officials are moving through the process to approve a fuel reduction and forest restoration project in the 2018 Ranch fire footprint.
Acting Mendocino National Forest Supervisor Kristen Sexton has issued a draft decision notice with a finding of no significant impact for the North Shore restoration project’s environmental assessment.
The purpose of the project is to improve community wildfire safety by reducing fuels within the wildland urban interface while also restoring and reforesting burned areas from the 2018 Ranch fire.
The project area is located in Lake County, about 11 miles southeast of Upper Lake, near communities on the north and northeast shores of Clear Lake.
Sexton has selected Alternative 6 — or the modified Alternative 3.
The decision would allow for reforestation on just over 2,600 acres located on the Upper Lake Ranger District in areas that experienced high levels of tree mortality during the 2018 Ranch fire.
The project includes fuels reduction treatments on approximately 40,000 acres. Those treatments could include prescribed burning, pile burning, hand thinning and mechanical treatment on areas with slopes less than 35%.
Alternative 6 also recognizes that salvage sales are not economically feasible and herbicide use will be limited to research plots only.
Forest officials issued a legal notice in the Chico Enterprise Record announcing the opportunity to file an objection to the decision within 45 days.
Hinda Darner, fuels officer for the Covelo and Upper Lake ranger districts, said that if the forest doesn’t receive an objection to the project, they can sign the final decision after the 45-day objection period concludes and start working immediately.
“We do have funding and partnerships in place that can be used towards this project,” Darner said.
Darner said they have California Climate Investments grants in partnership with the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center and grant funds with Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance, a multi-tribal hand crew.
“So the timeline depends on funding, resource availability, and how much our partners can take on, but there will likely be years of work under the project,” Darner said.
She added that the project also includes maintenance work, so there will be periodic National Environmental Policy Act reviews, as necessary.
Objections can be filed by mail, fax or email to the reviewing officer: USDA Forest Service, Jennifer Eberlien, Regional Forester, 1323 Club Drive, Vallejo, CA 94592, Attn: North Shore Restoration Project; fax, 707-562-9229; or email toThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with subject: North Shore Restoration Project.
Formats that will be accepted for electronically submitted comments are: .doc, .pdf, .rtf, or .txt. The objection period ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday, June 27, 2022.
Additional instructions for submitting objections can be found in the legal notice and on the project website.
The environmental assessment, finding of no significant impact, draft decision notice and supporting documentation are available online at: http://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=55716.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The latest report from the Lake County Association of Realtors shows that home sales were up in March and that it’s a sellers’ market.
In March, 117 total homes sold through the multiple listing service last month, compared to 68 in February. These include traditionally built “stick-built” houses as well as manufactured homes on land.
There were seven sales of mobile homes in parks in March, unchanged from February, and 31 bare land (lots and acreage) sales, compared with 60 in February.
Homes bought for all cash totaled 36%, compared to 28% in February, while 32% were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (“conventional loans”) compared to 41% in February. Twenty percent were financed by FHA, compared to 13% the previous month.
At the end of April there were 281 homes on the market, compared to 197 in March. If the rate of sales stays the same at 117 homes sold per month, there are currently 2.4 months of inventory on the market at the moment.
That means that if no new homes are brought to the market for sale, in 2.4 months all of these homes would be sold and there would be none available.
Less than six months of inventory is generally considered to be a “sellers’ market” while more than six months of inventory is often called a “buyers’ market.”
Most homes were selling very close to the asking price, at 98% of the asking price. This is in contrast to other areas, where homes sell for more than the asking price.
The median time on the market in March was 14 days, very similar to last year.
The median price of a single family home in Lake County at the end of April was $330,500, the association reported.
A person may have multiple trusts. A married person may establish a joint trust with their spouse, to control the couple’s community property assets acquired while married, but also establish a separate property trust to control their separate property assets.
Generally speaking, however, most married couples use a single joint trust. The joint trust consists either entirely of community property assets or a mixture of the couple’s community property and separate property assets.
Sometimes, when there are little community property assets, such as with later in life marriages, each spouse may want full independent control over their own assets and to keep their own assets separate.
A joint bank account can be used to receive any marital income and to pay any joint living expenses. Either spouse can still use their separate property assets for the couple’s joint benefit.
Using a separate property trust in addition to a joint community property trust occurs when a married person owns substantial separate assets, such as large inheritances and/or assets acquired from before marriage. It is often seen in second marriages where one spouse wants to protect their separate property assets for inheritance by their own children.
Often the two trusts have different distribution schemes at the death of the settlor (trust owner); typically the separate property trust is more beneficial to the deceased settlor’s children.
Having assets in a separate property trust allows the settlor (owner) to control their assets independently of their spouse.
A person who establishes a separate property trust has sole control, while they are alive and competent, over their assets inside the trust. That is, the sole settlor has complete control over the management, the use and the final distribution of their separate assets.
Such control may be important to a married person who wants to protect their separate property assets in a second marriage.
With a joint trust, both spouses as co-trustees and co-settlors have joint control (management) over the combined assets as provided under the terms of the trust. Typically, either spouse acting alone as trustee can manage the trust’s community property assets. Both spouses acting together would be required to amend the trust, unless otherwise provided in the trust.
In California, a spouse’s management and control of community property is subject to a fiduciary duty that each spouse owes the other to act in the “highest good faith and fair dealing.”
A spouse who takes any unfair advantage of the other spouse has breached the fiduciary duty and can be held accountable.
Both spouse’s acting together say who inherits the community property assets in the joint trust when the first spouse and then the second spouse dies. Each spouse controls who inherits their own separate property assets at their own death.
When a married person with a separate property trust dies, their surviving spouse may, or may not, have any beneficial rights in the deceased spouse’s separate property trust. The surviving spouse only receives whatever benefits the deceased spouse left for the surviving in that trust.
The surviving spouse, as an heir, however, is still entitled to request a copy of the deceased spouse’s separate property trust.
The deceased spouse’s separate property trust is liable to pay for the separate property debts of the deceased spouse, for debts associated with the last illness, and for any expenses of administration associated with the decedent’s estate. Otherwise such debts are payable from the decedent’s community property trust.
Any payments of the deceased spouse’s debts and expenses by the decedent’s separate property trust may provide relief to the surviving spouse.
The surviving spouse often benefits more from the joint community property trust than from the deceased spouse’s separate property trust.
Often, however, the largest unpaid debts of the deceased spouse are community property debts, i.e., debts acquired while married, and as such are chargeable against the community assets in the couple’s joint trust.
The foregoing brief discussion of a complex and broad subject is not legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney for legal guidance.
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.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has nine friendly dogs it’s looking for homes for this week.
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 following dogs are available for adoption.
‘Chai’
“Chai” is a female Alaskan husky mix with a gray and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 49279552.
‘Captain’
“Captain” is a male border collie mix with a black, white and blue coat.
He is dog No. 49623709.
‘Big Phil’
“Big Phil” is a 13-year-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a blue coat.
He is dog No. 49951647.
‘Andy’
“Andy” is a male American pit bull mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 48995415.
‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male Labrador retriever-American pit bull mix with a short charcoal and fawn coat.
He has been neutered.
‘Colt’
“Colt” is a male Rhodesian Ridgeback mix with a short rust and black coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49812106.
‘Fritz’
“Fritz” is a male Australian shepherd mix with a black and white coat.
He is dog No. 49278179.
‘Snowball’
“Snowball” is a male American Staffordshire mix terrier with a white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 49159168.
‘Terry’
“Terry” is a handsome male shepherd mix with a short brindle coat.
He gets along with other dogs, including small ones, and is discovering that he enjoys toys. He also likes water, playing fetch and keep away.
Staff said he is now getting some training to help him build confidence.
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.
As the U.S. Supreme Court appears prepared to overturn Roe v. Wade and states throughout the country pass laws to restrict access to reproductive health care and ban abortions, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced a reproductive health package to expand access to services and welcome companies from anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ states.
Newsom’s office said his administration is continuing its efforts to maintain and improve availability of safe and accessible reproductive health care services and prepare for a potential influx of people from other states seeking reproductive health care and abortion services.
“California will not stand idly by as extremists roll back our basic constitutional rights; we’re going to fight like hell, making sure that all women — not just those in California — know that this state continues to recognize and protect their fundamental rights,” said Newsom. “We’re expanding access to these critical services, welcoming businesses and their employees fleeing anti-abortion states, and reaffirming our commitment to continuing to work closely with the Legislature and reproductive rights stakeholders to further solidify California’s leadership on abortion rights.”
Newsom’s reproductive health package includes $125 million to further bolster California’s health care infrastructure, expand access to services for patients and help prepare for the influx of people seeking reproductive health care from other states.
The package, which would add $57 million to January's $68 million proposal, includes the following:
• Cover uncompensated care for peoples uninsured for abortion services: $40 million for grants to reproductive health care providers to offset the cost of providing care to low- and moderate-income individuals who do not have health care coverage for abortion care services.
• California Reproductive Justice & Freedom Fund: $15 million for grants to community-based reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations to conduct medically accurate and culturally competent outreach and education on sexual health and reproductive health issues.
• Comprehensive reproductive rights website: $1 million to develop and maintain a website that provides accurate and updated information to the public on the right to abortion under state law, information about reproductive health care providers, and options for coverage for reproductive health services, including state-funded coverage and programs.
• Research on the unmet needs for reproductive health care services. $1 million for research regarding the unmet needs for access to reproductive health care services.
These new proposed investments build off of Governor Newsom’s California Blueprint in January, a $68 million package to:
• Invest in reproductive health clinical infrastructure: To support California’s clinical infrastructure of reproductive health care services, the blueprint included $20 million to provide scholarships and loan repayments to health care providers that commit to providing reproductive health care services.
• Capital infrastructure, improved security: The blueprint included $20 million to assist reproductive health care facilities in securing their physical and information technology infrastructure and to enhance facility security.
• Make reproductive health care more affordable: The blueprint included $20 million to subsidize the cost of abortion care for Covered California consumers due to federal payment limitations for abortion coverage.
• Remove barriers for reproductive health: To make it easier to get the medical care needed for family planning and reproductive health, the Blueprint removed Medi-Cal requirements for in-person follow-up visits and ultrasounds if not medically necessary.
• Family Planning, Access, Care and Treatment (PACT) HPV Vaccine Coverage: The blueprint included $8 million to add the human papillomavirus vaccine as a covered benefit under the Family PACT program, effective July 1, 2022.
Newsom also is proposing incentive opportunities for businesses to relocate to California or grow jobs and their economic footprint here from states with anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
He plans to update existing business incentive programs to provide additional consideration for companies leaving states that have enacted restrictions on reproductive rights and anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Newsom’s office said he is “welcoming companies that share California’s values and doubling down on the diversity that makes our economy a global leader.”
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth, and Moon align so that the Moon passes into Earth’s shadow. In a total lunar eclipse, the entire Moon falls within the darkest part of Earth’s shadow, called the umbra. When the Moon is within the umbra, it will turn a reddish hue. Lunar eclipses are sometimes called “Blood Moons” because of this phenomenon.
How can I observe the eclipse?
You don’t need any special equipment to observe a lunar eclipse, although binoculars or a telescope will enhance the view and the red color. A dark environment away from bright lights makes for the best viewing conditions.
The eastern half of the United States and all of South America will have the opportunity to see every stage of the lunar eclipse. Totality will be visible in much of Africa, western Europe, Central and South America, and most of North America.
What if it’s cloudy or I’m not in the viewing region?
NASA will feature livestreams of the eclipse from locations across the globe! We’ll also host an episode of NASA Science Live, from 11 p.m. – 12 a.m. ET. Watch at one of the following locations and ask your lunar eclipse questions using #AskNASA on social media.
What can I expect to observe (Pacific Time)?
8:29 p.m.: Totality begins. The entire Moon is now in the Earth’s umbra. The Moon will turn a coppery-red. Try binoculars or a telescope for a better view. If you want to take a photo, use a camera on a tripod with exposures of at least several seconds.
9:53 p.m.: Totality ends. As the Moon exits Earth’s umbra, the red color fades. It will look as if a bite is being taken out of the opposite side of the lunar disk as before.
10:55 p.m.: Partial eclipse ends. The whole Moon is in Earth’s penumbra, but again, the dimming is subtle.
11:50 p.m.: Penumbral eclipse ends. The eclipse is over.
Why does the Moon turn red during a lunar eclipse?
The same phenomenon that makes our sky blue and our sunsets red causes the Moon to turn red during a lunar eclipse. It’s called Rayleigh scattering. Light travels in waves, and different colors of light have different physical properties. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and is scattered more easily by particles in Earth’s atmosphere than red light, which has a longer wavelength.
Red light, on the other hand, travels more directly through the atmosphere. When the Sun is overhead, we see blue light throughout the sky. But when the Sun is setting, sunlight must pass through more atmosphere and travel farther before reaching our eyes. The blue light from the Sun scatters away, and longer-wavelength red, orange, and yellow light pass through.
During a lunar eclipse, the Moon turns red because the only sunlight reaching the Moon passes through Earth’s atmosphere. The more dust or clouds in Earth’s atmosphere during the eclipse, the redder the Moon will appear. It’s as if all the world’s sunrises and sunsets are projected onto the Moon.
Will any NASA spacecraft observe the eclipse?
NASA’s mission team for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, NASA’s spacecraft in orbit around the Moon, will turn the instruments off during the eclipse. The spacecraft is solar-powered, so LRO will power down to preserve its battery while the Moon is in shadow.
The Lucy spacecraft, currently on its journey to study Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, will turn its gaze toward its home planet to observe a portion of the five-hour long eclipse – from just before the penumbral eclipse to just before the end of totality.
The mission team plans to capture a view of both the Earth and the Moon with the high-resolution imager, L’LORRI. Since the spacecraft will be 64 million miles away and uses the Deep Space Network, it will likely take a few weeks to download and process the images. Follow @NASASolarSystem for updates on the Lucy mission.
As people throughout the country face increasing costs due to global inflation, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced an $18.1 billion inflation relief package to get money into the pockets of Californians.
“We enacted the most comprehensive economic stimulus program in the nation last year, getting billions in immediate relief to millions of Californians. But many folks are still struggling, especially with high costs due to inflation, so we’re leveraging this historic surplus to get money back into the pockets of Californians,” said Gov. Newsom. “This inflation relief package will help offset the higher costs that Californians are facing right now and provide support to those still recovering from the pandemic.”
Gov. Newsom’s inflation relief package includes:
• $11.5 billion for tax refunds to help address inflation. As the entire country faces increasing costs due to inflation, Governor Newsom proposed getting $400 checks to every eligible registered vehicle owner, capped at two checks per individual.
• $2.7 billion for emergency rental assistance. Gov. Newsom is proposing significant state funds for qualified low-income tenants who requested rental assistance before March 31, helping these Californians get the support they need.
• $1.4 billion to help Californians pay past-due utility bills. As Californians continue to face difficulties in paying for utility bills, this investment expands upon last year’s utility relief program to continue this vital support — $1.2 billion for electricity bills and $200 million for water bills.
• $933 million for hospital and nursing home staff. Providing up to $1,500 to hospital and skilled nursing facility workers who have been delivering care to the most acute patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and saved thousands of lives.
• $750 million for free public transit. Gov. Newsom is proposing incentive grants to provide three months of free public transportation for communities throughout the state.
• $304 million to make health coverage more affordable for middle-class families. This extends health insurance premium assistance under Covered California for families of four earning up to $166,500 annually, upwards of 700,000 Californians.
• $439 million to pause the diesel sales tax. Bringing relief to the commercial sector and drivers, Gov. Newsom is proposing a 12-month pause in the sales tax rate for diesel fuel that would provide upwards of $439 million in relief.
• $157 million to waive child care fees for low-income families. Making state-subsidized preschool and child care more affordable, benefitting 40,000 low-income California families with savings of up to $595 per month.
Additionally, California’s minimum wage is projected to increase to $15.50 per hour for all workers on Jan. 1, 2023. The accelerated increase is required by a provision in the state’s existing minimum wage law when inflation exceeds 7%.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in persistent supply chain disruptions and labor market frictions have driven inflation to its highest rate in 40 years. These conditions have further been exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The wage increase will benefit millions of California households that are struggling to keep pace with the highest rate of inflation in decades. For years, the state minimum wage has increased steadily while inflation numbers remained modest.
This inflation relief package builds off of Newsom’s stimulus package last year, which his office credited with helping to accelerate California’s economic recovery and support those hit hardest by the pandemic.
That package included stimulus checks for two out of every three Californians, the largest statewide renter and utility assistance program in the country and the largest small businesses relief program in the nation.
Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in nonmedical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl.
Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded. In 2016, my colleagues and I found that patients who came to the emergency department reporting a heroin overdose often only had fentanyl present in their drug test results.
As the Chief of Medical Toxicology at UMass Chan Medical School, I have studied fentanyl and its analogs for years. As fentanyl has become ubiquitous across the U.S., it has transformed the illicit drug market and raised the risk of overdose.
Fentanyl and its analogs
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that was originally developed as an analgesic – or painkiller – for surgery. It has a specific chemical structure with multiple areas that can be modified, often illicitly, to form related compounds with marked differences in potency.
For example, carfentanil, a fentanyl analog formed by substituting one chemical group for another, is 100 times more potent than its parent structure. Another analog, acetylfentanyl, is approximately three times less potent than fentanyl, but has still led to clusters of overdoses in several states.
Drug dealers have used fentanyl analogs as an adulterant in illicit drug supplies since 1979, with fentanyl-related overdoses clustered in individual cities.
The modern epidemic of fentanyl adulteration is far broader in its geographic distribution, production and number of deaths. Overdose deaths roughly quadrupled, going from 8,050 in 1999 to 33,091 in 2015. From May 2020 to April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, with over 64% of these deaths due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogs.
Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is internationally synthesized in China, Mexico and India, then exported to the United States as powder or pressed pills. Additionally, the emergence of the dark web, an encrypted and anonymous corner of the internet that’s a haven for criminal activity, has facilitated the sale of fentanyl and other opioids shipped through traditional delivery services, including the U.S. Postal Service.
Fentanyl is both sold alone and often used as an adulterant because its high potency allows dealers to traffic smaller quantities but maintain the drug effects buyers expect. Manufacturers may also add bulking agents, like flour or baking soda, to fentanyl to increase supply without adding costs. As a result, it is much more profitable to cut a kilogram of fentanyl compared to a kilogram of heroin.
Unfortunately, fentanyl’s high potency also means that even just a small amount can prove deadly. If the end user isn’t aware that the drug they bought has been adulterated, this could easily lead to an overdose.
Preventing fentanyl deaths
As an emergency physician, I give fentanyl as an analgesic, or painkiller, to relieve severe pain in an acute care setting. My colleagues and I choose fentanyl when patients need immediate pain relief or sedation, such as anesthesia for surgery.
But even in the controlled conditions of a hospital, there is still a risk that using fentanyl can reduce breathing rates to dangerously low levels, the main cause of opioid overdose deaths. For those taking fentanyl in nonmedical settings, there is no medical team available to monitor someone’s breathing rate in real time to ensure their safety.
One measure to prevent fentanyl overdose is distributing naloxone to bystanders. Naloxone can reverse an overdose as it occurs by blocking the effects of opioids.
Another measure is increasing the availability of opioid agonists like methadone and buprenorphine that reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms and cravings, helping people stay in treatment and decrease illicit drug use. Despite the lifesaving track records of these medications, their availability is limited by restrictions on where and how they can be used and inadequate numbers of prescribers.
Despite the evidence supporting these measures, however, local politics and funding priorities often limit whether communities are able to give them a try. Bold strategies are needed to interrupt the ever-increasing number of fentanyl-related deaths.