“... and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” – Vincent van Gogh

COBB, Calif. – Although southern Lake County's Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is still closed to the public because of the Valley fire, there is a small and wondrous portion – about 50 acres – that was relatively unscathed, and is open to the public.

This little corner is located behind Cobb Mountain Elementary School, 15895 Highway 175.

There are two trail loops, between a quarter- and a half-mile long, which give hikers time to refresh and reboot their minds while soaking up the sights and fresh scents of a forest.

"Friends of Boggs Mountain" volunteers have been busy with trail work and replacement of interpretive signs on the paths.

Lake County and, hence, Boggs Forest is considered to be a Mediterranean climate zone, with hot and dry summers and warm, wet winters.

The temperature ranges from 100 degrees F in the summer down to 13 degrees F in winter at Boggs, with an average annual rainfall of 71 inches in typical years.

Due to Boggs' elevation of 3,720 feet the forest can experience light snowfall several times a year. 

A grand feature of the little forest is the geology. Boggs is considered to be complex in geologic terms, as it is assembled on a large lava cap with slopes and rock outcrops.

Evidence of rock which is volcanic in nature can be seen throughout the forest, with igneous rock such as andesite and basalt.

Details in the report from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection state that the sedimentary rock seen in the soils are sandstones and mudstones.

For more information see the Friends of Boggs Mountain Web site at www.boggsmountain.net .

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Many Californians are looking forward to a three-day weekend this year to enjoy Independence Day, as is the case with all major holidays, and the California Highway Patrol is urging motorists to slow down and enjoy it responsibly.

Over this holiday weekend, the CHP will observe a maximum enforcement period, or MEP, focused on speed enforcement.

The MEP began at 6:01 p.m. Friday and will continue through 11:59 p.m. Monday.

To keep the roadways safe for everyone, all available officers will be watching for motorists who are speeding, distracted, or driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs.  

“Saving lives is always the first concern for our officers,” CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. “Motorists will help make everyone’s holiday safer by driving sober, fastening their seat belts, and obeying the speed limits.”

During the 2015 Independence Day MEP, 26 people were killed on California roadways. Two of those fatalities occurred due to unsafe speed. In addition, another 339 individuals were injured during the MEP due to unsafe speed.

Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes. Of those who died in CHP jurisdiction in 2015, 38 percent were not wearing seat belts.

“Our officers would rather provide education and other aid to motorists than write tickets,” Commissioner Farrow said. “However, they will be looking for anyone who is driving impaired and posing a danger on the roadways.”

During last year’s Independence Day weekend, the CHP made 930 DUI arrests within a 54-hour period.

To assist officers in keeping the roadways safe, motorists are also encouraged to report suspected drunk drivers by calling 911. Be prepared to provide a description of the vehicle, location, and direction of travel.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control's dogs for adoption this week primarily come from the active working breeds, which are noted for being great companions for families.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Alaskan Malamute, border collie, Corgi, German Shepherd, Labrador Retriever and pit bull.

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.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Female shepherd mix

This female shepherd mix has a short tan, black and white coat.

She's in kennel No. 2, ID No. 5228.

'Kush'

“Kush” is a female adult pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short tan coat.

She's in kennel No. 6, ID No. 5249.

'Max'

“Max” is a male Labrador Retriever mix.

He has a short black coat with white markings.

He's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 5176.

'Brandy'

“Brandy” is a female Alaskan Malamute-retriever mix.

She's got a short tan coat with black markings.

She's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 5245.

German Shepherd

This male German Shepherd has a tan coat with black markings.

He's in kennel No. 17, ID No. 5248.

'Badger'

“Badger” is an adult male border collie mix.

He has a short black and white coat.

He's in kennel No. 18, ID No. 5075.

Pit bull terrier mix

This male pit bull terrier mix is in urgent need of a new home. He's been available for adoption since May 11.

He has a short brown coat.

Shelter staff said he does not jump and is very friendly, walking well on a leash, showing no food aggression, and allowing handling of his mouth, ears, paws and tail with no problems. He also enjoys a good tummy rub.

He would do great in a home with no cats.

He's in kennel No. 28, ID No. 4850.

'Sammy'

'Sammy' is a female pit bull terrier mix.

She has a short brown coat with white markings.

She's in kennel No. 30, ID No. 5214.

Labrador Retriever mix

This male Labrador Retriever mix has a short all-black coat.

He's in kennel No. 32, ID No. 5158.

'George'

“George” is a male Corgi-shepherd mix has a short tan coat with white and black markings.

He's currently in foster, ID No. 5166.

To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport man has been sentenced to jail time for driving on a suspended license twice – including during a 2013 wreck that claimed a man's life – but the vehicular manslaughter case against him for that fatal crash has been dropped after a jury deadlocked at trial in May.

On Friday Wayne Leroy Caldwell, 42, was sentenced to two years in the Lake County Jail after having pleaded guilty to two counts of driving on a suspended license, according to Deputy District Attorney John DeChaine.

In May, shortly after he'd entered those pleas, Caldwell had gone on trial for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for the crash that killed 26-year-old Brandon Helmer of Kelseyville on Dec. 7, 2013. However, the result was a hung jury.

A few weeks after the jury's deadlock, DeChaine announced that the District Attorney's Office would not refile the vehicular manslaughter case against Caldwell.

“We had presented the evidence that was legally admissible, but it wasn't sufficient to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” DeChaine told Lake County News.

Caldwell, who was driving on a suspended license at the time of the crash, was not impaired by any substances at the time of the wreck, according to the California Highway Patrol's report on the crash.

However, DeChaine said Caldwell had admitted to investigators that at the time of the crash he was tired.

DeChaine said the evidence suggested that Caldwell fell asleep, which caused his 1994 Dodge Ram pickup to cross double-yellow lines on Highway 29 south of Cruickshank Road outside of Kelseyville.

His pickup drifted into the path of Helmer's 1992 Acura Integra, causing a head-on collision that killed Helmer, a young husband and father of three little girls, with his wife later giving birth to their fourth daughter.

Andrea Sullivan, Caldwell's defense attorney, said on the day of the crash he had driven from Willits – where he was living at the time – to Clearlake, stopped, visited with friends and ate, and at about 4:40 p.m. began the return trip to Willits.

She said the CHP estimated Caldwell had only been driving around 20 minutes when the crash occurred.

The prosecution alleged that Caldwell was negligent in not getting off the roadway after he realized he was tired. DeChaine said Caldwell had told investigators that, because he was tired, he had planned to pull over.

By not getting off the road at that point, DeChaine said Caldwell put the public at risk. “For us, that was the demonstration of negligence,” and the basis for the vehicular manslaughter case, he said.

With Caldwell not having been impaired by drugs or alcohol, and the fact that he was reported to have had adequate sleep the night before, Sullivan said she advised him to be checked out by a doctor.

She said Caldwell subsequently took part in a sleep study which determined he had moderate to severe sleep apnea, a condition that can cause people to be tired or fall asleep unexpectedly.

Before the trial started, DeChaine said Caldwell pleaded guilty to two of the counts against him – driving on a suspended license on the day of the crash that killed Helmer and again on Jan. 31, 2014 – which took those out of the jury's purview.

“They were all in the same case but we had him plead before the trial began to the driving on a suspended license,” Sullivan said.

Caldwell went on trial on May 18, with six full days of testimony, Sullivan said.

At trial, she presented evidence of Caldwell's sleep apnea, with Dr. James Steele – who runs four sleep centers in Lake, Humboldt, Mendocino and Sonoma counties – giving testimony on the sleep disorder. Sullivan said Steele was not the doctor who did Caldwell's sleep study.

Sullivan argued that Caldwell was overcome by a medical condition and therefore was not negligent or guilty of manslaughter.

Caldwell did not testify in the case, DeChaine said.

DeChaine said the case had challenges, including that witnesses had not seen any behavior or driving pattern that caused them concern before Caldwell drifted into oncoming traffic and hit Helmer.

“From my perspective, that doesn't matter,” said DeChaine, adding that the average person knows when they are too tired to be behind the wheel.

However, at the end of May, the jury deadlocked and announced it couldn't reach a verdict. The split was 7-5, with the majority of the jurors in favor of a not guilty verdict, “which I think is pretty significant,” said Sullivan.

“From my perspective, the hung jury was obviously a disappointment but the case did have its challenges,” said DeChaine.

At a followup court appearance on June 20, DeChaine told the court the vehicular manslaughter case against Caldwell was being dropped.

Although DeChaine did not elaborate on the reason in court, he told Lake County News on Friday – after Caldwell's sentencing – that despite a strong investigation by the CHP, “One of the challenges is that we couldn't definitively demonstrate when he started to fall asleep.”

DeChaine said that because of evidence code limits, the prosecution also couldn't raise the issue during trial of Caldwell's five prior convictions for driving on a suspended license.

After the vehicular manslaughter portion of the case was dropped, Caldwell still faced sentencing for the December 2013 and January 2014 driving on a suspended license charges, with the prosecution arguing that, because of his long history of prior convictions, probation wasn't appropriate.

Retired Judge Arthur Mann – who presided over the case – agreed, and on Friday imposed the maximum sentence allowed for misdemeanor charges, one year in the county jail for each count. DeChaine said the counts will run consecutively, for a total of two years.

“I was pleased with the stiff sentence that Judge Mann handed down,” DeChaine said.

Just how much of that two years Caldwell will serve is unclear, as he could be entitled to credits of up to 50 percent, said DeChaine.

Even had Caldwell been convicted of vehicular manslaughter, DeChaine said he was unlikely to serve more time in jail than he received on Friday because of the statutory limits on misdemeanor sentencing.

While he would have liked to have the manslaughter conviction in the case, DeChaine said, “Nothing can bring Brandon Helmer back. No conviction can turn back the events that led to his death.”

DeChaine said Caldwell must report on Aug. 10 to begin serving his sentence in the Lake County Jail.

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.

On the Fourth of July, Paul Steffes will stare into the Pasadena, California, evening sky. He will not look for fireworks. Instead, his gaze will focus on the heavens while his ears brace for a beep generated 520 million miles away. It will be an American achievement he’s waited on for 11 years.

Steffes, a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is a member of the Juno Science Team.

He’ll be in California with fellow team members on Independence Day as the spacecraft reaches its destination: Jupiter. The mission will improve our understanding of the birth of the solar system and the mysteries of its largest planet.

It arrives in Jupiter’s orbit five years after it was launched by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and 11 years after Juno was created with Steffes as an original member of the team.

Peering under the clouds to find a recipe

Officially, the spacecraft is the Jupiter Near-polar Orbiter. It’s called Juno because of the tales of Greek and Roman mythology.

Juno was the wife of Jupiter, the king of the gods who visited other worlds and used clouds to hide his mischief.

But Juno was able to look through them to see what Jupiter was up to. That’s what the spacecraft will do as it orbits the giant planet from as low as 3,000 miles above the clouds.

“When you see a picture of Jupiter, you’re seeing cloud tops that form the outer reaches of the atmosphere,” said Steffes. “It’s like seeing a veneer. You’re not seeing deep down.”

To sense what’s below those clouds, Steffes and his peers will utilize Juno’s microwave radiometer (MWR) instrument. It will measure radio waves from Jupiter’s deep atmosphere, providing a first-ever glimpse of what the planet is made of.

Steffes said microwave radio waves are similar to cellphone signals, which are constantly modified by clouds, rain, and gases.

“If you look at the bars on your phone as you walk next to a fish tank, you’ll notice you’ll have fewer bars. The water absorbs the radio energy from the cell tower to your phone,” he said. “Just like the cellphone idea, we’re going to measure the microwave radiation – the signals coming out of the atmosphere. Based on how they’re affected by the clouds and gases, we’ll know what’s down there.”

While revealing levels of hydrogen, ammonia, and other atmospheric components, Juno will discover the depths of Jupiter’s bands and clouds that are scattered high in the atmosphere. This includes the famous Great Red Spot, which has swirled on the planet for more than 300 years and is two to three times as large as Earth.

Matching 6,000 lab recipes

Steffes and his graduate student, Amadeo Bellotti, will both be in Pasadena for Juno’s July 4 orbital insert. They’ll standby as Jupiter’s massive gravity pulls in the basketball court-sized spacecraft at a speed of more than 40 miles per second.

Juno will counteract that force by using its engines to place itself into a polar orbit around the planet. It takes about 47 minutes for the machine to communicate with Earth, meaning the Georgia Tech scientists will have to hold their breath as they wait for conformational beeps that Juno was successful in its tug-of-war maneuver.

Once Juno finds its orbit, the professor and student will wait until late August for the first MWR data. Then they’ll begin to decipher Juno’s information based on years of work atop Georgia Tech’s Van Leer Building.

Steffes’ research group has performed more than 6,000 microwave measurements to simulate the Jupiter atmosphere in their pressure vessel, which is located inside an oven on the roof of the building. Once they receive the planetary data, they’ll match it with their lab simulations.

“Our measurements cover a variety of pressures, temperatures, and compounds that Juno will likely find during its 20 months in orbit,” said Bellotti. “This portfolio of possible signatures will, at first look, give us a sense of the elements and compounds that form Jupiter’s atmosphere. Over a period of years, we’ll discover the actual mixture of different constituents in the atmosphere.”

The MWR is just one of Juno’s nine instruments. The others, which Georgia Tech is not associated with, will help determine the core of the planet; map magnetic and gravity fields; explore the planet’s poles, auroras, and magnetosphere; and take pictures from never-before-seen vantage points.

Jupiter contains more material than every other planet, comet, and asteroid in the solar system, combined. It was the first planet to form, and scientists believe it can unlock countless mysteries of the solar system’s formation.

“I think we’re going to be surprised by what we find,” said Steffes. “I think we may discover that conditions vary from location to location. For example, conditions under the Great Red Spot could be totally different from the rest of the planet. It will be very interesting and exciting.”

Jason Maderer writes for the Georgia Tech News Center.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris on Friday announced the release of four annual crime reports, which provide law enforcement agencies and the public with statewide data on crime statistics in their communities.

The reports released include:

– Crime in California;
– Hate Crime in California;
– Homicide in California;
– Juvenile Justice in California.

A complete copy of the reports can be found at http://openjustice.doj.ca.gov/publications .

The Attorney General Office also is making raw data from the Crime in California report easily and widely available in an effort to promote transparency and encourage researchers, academics and interested parties to further analyze the data.

The information can be accessed via the Attorney General’s OpenJustice Web site, which shares key findings in its data stories and publishes raw data on its data portal from the California Department of Justice’s statewide repository of criminal justice datasets.   

This March, Attorney General Harris and Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin introduced Assembly Bill 2524, which would convert Crime in California and other criminal justice annual reports published by the California Department of Justice into a set of key findings, data visualizations, and downloadable digital datasets that will be updated quarterly on the Attorney General’s OpenJustice Web portal.

Crime in California 2015 presents statewide statistics for reported crimes, arrests, dispositions of adult felony arrests, adults placed on probation, full-time criminal justice personnel, citizens’ complaints against peace officers, domestic violence related calls for assistance, and law enforcement officers killed or assaulted.

Highlights for 2015:

– The violent and property crime rates per 100,000 population increased from 2014 to 2015; the 2015 rates are 2.9 percent and 0.4 percent lower than 2010 (respectively).

– From 2010 to 2015, the robbery and aggravated assault rates decreased 13.2 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.

– The arrest rate decreased by 4.5 percent from 2014 to 2015; a total of 1,158,812 arrests in the state in 2015; the lowest since 1969 (1,212,845 arrests in 2014).

– Misdemeanor driving under the influence arrests decreased for the fifth year in a row.

– Adult felony arrest rates decreased by approximately 29 percent (predominantly burglary and drug offenses) and adult misdemeanor rates increased by 10 percent (also predominantly burglary and drug offenses) most likely due to the reclassification of Proposition 47 crimes.

– There was an 8.1-percent increase in all aggravated assaults and 15.7-percent increase in aggravated assaults with a firearm from 2014 to 2015.

– Assaults on peace officers increased by 10 percent from 2014 to 2015

Homicides in California 2015 contains information related to homicide, including demographic data on victims, persons arrested for homicide, persons sentenced to death, peace officers feloniously killed in the line of duty, and justifiable homicides.

Highlights from 2015:

– The homicide rate increased in 2015 (from 4.4 to 4.8 per 100,000); a total of 1,861 homicides in the state

– Over the past decade the homicide rate ranged from a high of 6.9 percent in 2006 to last year’s low of 4.4 percent.

– In 2015, 82.8 percent of homicide victims were male and 17.2 percent were female.

– The largest proportion of victims has consistently been Hispanic.

– There were 163 justifiable homicides reported in 2015, with 130 committed by a peace officer and 33 committed by a private citizen.

– Firearms are used in over 70 percent of homicides in 2015; there was a 9.2 percent increase in the number of homicides with a firearm compared to 2014.

Hate Crime in California 2015 reports statistics on hate crimes that occurred in California during 2015.

Highlights from 2015:

– Hate crime events increased 10.4 percent from 758 in 2014 to 837 in 2015; the vast majority of this increase is attributed to an uptick in events involving religious bias.

– Hate crime events involving a religious bias increased 49.6% from 127 in 2014 to 190 in 2015.

– Hate crime events with a sexual orientation bias are the second most common type of hate crime over the past 10 years (2006 – 2015).

– The total number of hate crime events has decreased 35.9 percent from 1,306 in 2006 to 837 in 2015.

– Anti-Islamic (Muslim) bias events increased from 18 in 2014 to 40 in 2015; anti-Jewish bias events rose from 80 in 2014 to 97 in 2015.

– Hate crime events targeting Hispanics increased 35 percent from 60 in 2014 to 81 in 2015.

– Anti-black motivation hate crimes continue to the most common hate crime, accounting for 31.9 percent (3,443) of all hate crime events since 2006.

Juvenile Justice in California 2015 provides insight into the juvenile justice process by reporting the number of arrests, referrals to probation departments, petitions filed, and dispositions for juveniles tried in juvenile and adult courts.

Highlights from 2015:

– Juvenile arrests decreased for the seventh year in a row and are at the lowest levels ever.

–  There were 71,923 juvenile arrests reported by law enforcement agencies in 2015, down 17 percent from 2014.

– In 2015 more than half of the juvenile (58.2 percent) arrests were for a misdemeanor offense and nearly a third (29.7 percent) were arrested for a felony offense.

– Among those arrested in 2015, 53 percent were Hispanic/Latino, 22 percent were white, and 19 percent were black.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Lake County man who spent 20 years behind bars for a crime he didn't commit will now receive compensation from the state, a process sped up by a bill signed by the governor on Friday.

Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblyman Bill Dodd announced that the state of California – through the California Victim Compensation Board – will provide $936,880 to Luther Ed Jones Jr., who was released from prison in February.

Dodd and McGuire worked together to have the compensation for Jones included in SB 1186, a larger victim compensation bill authored by state Sen. Ricardo Lara, who agreed to add the provision to his bill last month.

The payment was approved by the State Legislature this week and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday.

“These funds won’t right the wrong of Mr. Jones’ time in prison, far from it, but we hope these dollars will help him and his family rebuild their lives,” McGuire said.

“I’m thankful that our colleagues and Gov. Brown helped Sen. McGuire and I get Mr. Jones the compensation he’s entitled to,” said Dodd.

Jones was convicted in 1998 of molesting his then-girlfriend's older daughter, and sentenced to 27 years in prison. The conviction came at the end of the second trial in the case, after the jury in his first trial deadlocked.

Altogether, he spent about two years in jail awaiting trial and another 18 years in the state prison system, spending time in different prison hospital facilities due to a variety of serious health problems.

In February, the young woman who had been the alleged child victim contacted the Lake County District Attorney's Office to say that she had been coerced by her mother – who was involved in a custody fight with Jones over a young daughter they had – to lie about Jones molesting her.

District Attorney Don Anderson and his staff immediately investigated the matter and concluded that Jones was innocent, filing a writ of habeas corpus to have him set free.

On Feb. 16, exactly one week after the young woman had first spoken with District Attorney's Office staff about her recantation, Judge Andrew Blum signed the writ of habeas corpus, ordering that Jones be released immediately and bypassing any further hearing process.

Attorney Angela Carter, who heads the county's public defender contract, subsequently began to represent Jones and coordinated with the Northern California Innocence Project at Santa Cruz University School of Law to help Jones file suit to claim compensation for his time in prison.

The compensation claim is tallied at a rate of $140 per day for 6,692 days of incarceration, the Northern California Innocence Project reported.

In May the settlement was granted by the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board – which formally became the California Victim Compensation Board on Friday – but the process requires the Legislature and governor to appropriate the funds.

The Northern California Innocence Project – which has experience crafting legislation to improve and streamline the claims process for those wrongly incarcerated – worked with McGuire and Dodd to include Mr. Jones’ allocation in SB 1186.

“We were able to include the $900,000 into the larger bill so it worked out really well. We are so grateful,” McGuire said.

He added, “What we were really encouraged about was this had bipartisan support.”

Jones' son, Ko'Fawn Jones, offered particular thanks to Northern California Innocence Project Board member Rick Walker and Lucy Carter, the organization's policy director, for helping make the legislation happen.

But he added that he won't be excited until his father actually receives the money from the state.

Since his February release, Luther Jones, now 71, and his family have struggled with transitioning him back to home. In particular, his deteriorating health has required his son to quit his job in order to be his father's full-time caregiver, which has made it challenging to make ends meet.

Luther Jones' significant medical issues – including liver and kidney disease – have left him bedridden, and made the issue of his compensation more urgent. “It's been a nightmare,” Ko'Fawn Jones said, adding that things have “gotten to the breaking point.”

Over the past month, Luther Jones has been hospitalized. “He's just coming out of a coma and not able to talk,” his son explained.

McGuire told Lake County News that the legislation takes effect immediately, with the funds to be disbursed likely within a week.

Ko'Fawn Jones said the funds will help him take better care of his father, although his health prognosis is not good.

“They just said there's nothing else that can be done,” Ko'Fawn Jones said of the doctors' conclusion. “He won't get better.”

Carter called the bill signing “wonderful news,” explaining that Jones originally had been told that he may not receive compensation until late summer.

Still, she pointed out that it doesn't change the fact that he's been in and out of the hospital since his release, or erase the time he spent in prison or change the fact that someone manipulated a child in order to have him incarcerated.

“No amount of money makes up for that kind of loss of liberty. It is a serious, significant failing of our justice system and it makes me sad,” she said.

Added McGuire, “I cannot imagine what the last two decades have been like for Mr. Jones.”

As for Jones finally getting the help to which he's entitled from the system, McGuire said, “It's about time.”

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.

Astronomers are using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras – stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere – on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter.

This observation program is supported by measurements made by NASA's Juno spacecraft, currently on its way to Jupiter.

Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is best known for its colorful storms, the most famous being the Great Red Spot.

Now astronomers have focused on another beautiful feature of the planet, using Hubble's ultraviolet capabilities.

The extraordinary vivid glows shown in the new observations are known as auroras. They are created when high-energy particles enter a planet's atmosphere near its magnetic poles and collide with atoms of gas.

As well as producing beautiful images, this program aims to determine how various components of Jupiter's auroras respond to different conditions in the solar wind, a stream of charged particles ejected from the sun.

This observation program is perfectly timed as NASA's Juno spacecraft is currently in the solar wind near Jupiter and will enter the orbit of the planet in early July 2016.

While Hubble is observing and measuring the auroras on Jupiter, Juno is measuring the properties of the solar wind itself; a perfect collaboration between a telescope and a space probe.

"These auroras are very dramatic and among the most active I have ever seen,” said Jonathan Nichols from the University of Leicester, U.K., and principal investigator of the study. "It almost seems as if Jupiter is throwing a firework party for the imminent arrival of Juno."

To highlight changes in the auroras Hubble is observing Jupiter almost daily for several months. Using this series of far-ultraviolet images from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, it is possible for scientists to create videos that demonstrate the movement of the vivid auroras, which cover areas bigger than Earth.

Not only are the auroras huge in size, they are also hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth. And, unlike those on Earth, they never cease.

While on Earth the most intense auroras are caused by solar storms – when charged particles rain down on the upper atmosphere, excite gases and cause them to glow red, green and purple – Jupiter has an additional source for its auroras.

The strong magnetic field of the gas giant grabs charged particles from its surroundings. This includes not only the charged particles within the solar wind but also the particles thrown into space by its orbiting moon Io, known for its numerous and large volcanoes.

The new observations and measurements made with Hubble and Juno will help to better understand how the sun and other sources influence auroras.

While the observations with Hubble are still ongoing and the analysis of the data will take several more months, the first images and videos are already available and show the auroras on Jupiter's north pole in their full beauty.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Juno mission for Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.