LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – March 2020 marks a milestone for Community Care’s Senior Information & Assistance Program.
In 2006 the program expanded its service area to include older adults in all of Mendocino and Lake counties.
Each year it has responded to the questions of an average of 384 individuals, and approximately 293 of those annual inquirers have been first-time callers.
Now in its 14th year of speaking with older adults and their loved ones from Point Arena to Clearlake Oaks, Senior Information & Assistance is pleased to report that it has served over 4,000 unique individuals.
Funded through the Area Agency on Aging of Lake & Mendocino Counties, and with the longtime support of the T.R. Eriksen Foundation, Senior Information & Assistance not only offers referrals to callers about available programs and services for older adults, it also checks back with them to see if they were able to make a connection to those supports.
This followup component is one of the things that brings callers back to Community Care months and years later as new needs and questions arise.
To learn more about area resources for adults ages 60 and older, contact Senior Information & Assistance Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. by calling 707-468-5132 or 1-800-510-2020, or visit www.SeniorResourceDirectory.org .
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – During a special virtual meeting on Friday afternoon, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an ad hoc committee’s recommendations regarding which county workers can be considered nonessential and allowed to work from home or take leave during the COVID-19 shelter in place order.
The board met online for just over an hour on Friday to take up the recommendations as well as to consider approval of an agreement for an alternate health officer.
Regarding the workers’ definitions, board members reported receiving calls and emails from community members who were concerned that the board was laying out rules for all county workers, including those employed by private businesses.
However, the supervisors emphasized that wasn’t the case, that they were looking specifically at the employees of the county of Lake.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson told the board that an ad hoc committee that the board assigned to look at the nonessential workers’ definition met and came up with the recommendations.
The committee consists of Huchingson, Board Chair Moke Simon, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and County Counsel Anita Grant.
She said the ad hoc committee focused on two key goals that guided their decision-making: safety of employees and compliance with the countywide shelter in place order.
“This is an extraordinary time when we are in crisis,” she said.
Huchingson also emphasized that the term “nonessential” wasn’t a correlation whatsoever to specific workers’ value in the county workforce. Rather, it’s a term being used during the shelter in place order.
She said the committee found that, because of the shelter in place order, the county government must focus on critical duties essential to continuing operations or maintaining critical infrastructure.
General office workers who conduct clerical and support work have been determined to be nonessential during the disaster and should shelter in place. Huchingson said they will be able to work remotely when possible, and where it’s not feasible, they’re to be offered the chance to work as disaster service workers at the county emergency operations center or to shelter in place at home and wait to resume their duties.
The committee recommended the board give department heads flexibility in determining nonessential workers, Huchingson said.
She said the committee also recommended the board direct department heads to immediately send workers they have determined to be nonessential home to shelter in place, and authorize them to periodically adjust their determinations of nonessential workers as the situation warrants.
Department heads also are being told to provide remote work assignments to nonessential workers when feasible, offer disaster service work or approve such employees’ use of accruals and other leave benefits while sheltering in place and not working, Huchingson said.
The recommendations included having the ad hoc committee continue to be available to work with county department heads on any issues and return to the board after meeting again no later than April 14, she said.
In response to a question submitted by Lake County News about whether or not the county had a total number or percentage of how many employees are considered nonessential under the new guidelines, Huchingson said they didn’t have that information yet, as it varies by department. She said the situation is fluid and changing as the disaster continues.
Sheriff Brian Martin, who also was present online, said 7 percent of his department has been determined to be nonessential, and half of them will be working remotely.
“It’s not going to be a mass exodus of employees,” he said of his department.
The board approved the recommendations unanimously.
They also voted to amend their previously approved resolution relating to workplace safety, employee leave and remote work in response to COVID-19.
Huchingson recommended removing Section No. 3 of the earlier version of the ordinance, which states, “In order to protect members of the public, staff and the broader community, if any individual appears at a County facility presenting symptoms of COVID-19, County staff shall require they do not enter the facility, provided staff can deliver services through alternative procedures, such as via telephone and/or web-based means.”
She said that in light of the new determinations made about nonessential workers needing to shelter in place and not come to the county offices, the original resolution no longer applies and may be confusing.
The board also took separate action to direct all department heads to immediately cease business practices which involve bringing the public into the Lake County Courthouse unless they have made special arrangements, subject to Huchingson’s approval, to ensure employee and workplace safety.
In other business, Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy asked for the board’s approval of appointing Dr. Charlie Evans as the county’s designated alternate Public Health officer and to approve a professional services agreement with him.
The agreement’s term is from March 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. It calls for paying Evans for services on a monthly basis, not to exceed $10,000 for the agreement’s term.
Pomeroy said she had been working on the proposal with Dr. Evans for the last few months.
Her written report to the board explained that Evans graduated with honors from University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine in 1982 and has more than 38 years of medical experience, including work in emergency medicine, family medicine and public health, specializing in tuberculosis control.
She said Evans has worked previously with Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace.
Pomeroy had asked for the matter to be expedited because “it’s going to be a long haul.” Her written report said Pace had been working 12 hours days, seven days a week, and the goal was to have backup and assistance available for Pace, as well as allow him to take a day off.
She also pointed out that the Marin County Public Health officer has come down with COVID-19, and larger counties have deputy health officers available to step in as backup.
Pomeroy said it’s important to have backup for Pace, as the COVID-19 situation could last several months.
The board unanimously approved Pomeroy’s requests to appoint Evans as the designated alternate Public Health officer and approved the contract with him.
Board Chair Moke Simon noted during the meeting, “This is going to be a long-term battle,” adding, “This is probably just the beginning.”
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.
One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time.
Here are some tips for all who find yourself in a similar scenario.
Nearly 20 years successfully living on the International Space Station and more than 50 flying in space did not happen by accident. NASA astronauts and psychologists have examined what human behaviors create a healthy culture for living and working remotely in small groups.
They narrowed it to five general skills and defined the associated behaviors for each skill. NASA astronauts call it “Expeditionary Behavior,” and they are part of everything we do.
When it goes well, it's called “good EB.”
Here are the five good expeditionary behavior skills.
Skill 1: Communication
Definition: Communication means to talk so you are clearly understood. To listen, and question to understand. Actively listen, pick up on non-verbal cues. Identify, discuss, then work to resolve conflict.
To practice good Communication EB, share information and feelings freely. Talk about your intentions before taking action. Use proper terminology. Discuss when your or others’ actions were not as expected. Take time to debrief after success or conflict. Listen, then restate messages to ensure they are understood. Admit when you are wrong.
Skill 2: Leadership/Followership
Definition: How well a team adapts to changed situations. A leader enhances the group's ability to execute its purpose through positive influence. A follower (aka a subordinate leader) actively contributes to the leader’s direction. Establish an environment of trust.
To practice good Leadership/Followership EB, accept responsibility. Adjust your style to your environment. Assign tasks and set goals. Lead by example. Give direction, information, feedback, coaching and encouragement. Ensure your teammates have resources. Talk when something isn’t right. Ask questions. Offer solutions, not just problems.
Skill 3: Self-Care
Definition: Self-Care means keeping track of how healthy you are on psychological and physical levels. It includes hygiene, managing your time and your stuff, getting sleep, and maintaining your mood. Through self-care, you demonstrate your ability to be proactive to stay healthy.
To practice good Self-Care EB, realistically assess your own strengths and weaknesses, and their influence on the group. Learn from mistakes. Identify personal tendencies and their influence on your success or failure. Be open about your weaknesses and feelings. Take action to mitigate your own stress or negativity (don't pass it on to the group). Be social. Seek feedback. Balance work, rest, and personal time. Be organized.
Skill 4: Team Care
Definition: Team Care is how healthy the group is on psychological, physical and logistical levels. Recognize that this can be influenced by stress, fatigue, sickness, supplies, resources, workload, etc. Nurture optimal team performance despite challenges.
To practice good Team Care EB, demonstrate patience and respect. Encourage others. Monitor your team for signs of stress or fatigue. Encourage participation in team activities. Develop positive relationships. Volunteer for the unpleasant tasks. Offer and accept help. Share credit; take the blame.
Skill 5: Group Living
Definition: Group Living skills are how people cooperate and become a team to achieve a goal. Identify and manage different opinions, cultures, perceptions, skills and personalities. Demonstrate resilience in the face of difficulty.
To practice good Group Living EB, cooperate rather than compete. Actively cultivate group culture (use each individual's culture to build the whole). Respect roles, responsibilities and workload. Take accountability; give praise freely. Then work to ensure a positive team attitude. Keep calm in conflict.
You can be successful in confinement if you are intentional about your actions and deliberate about caring for your team. When we work together, we will continue to be #EarthStrong.
This was adapted from a Twitter thread by Anne McClain.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library’s grant-funded Zip Books program that delivers books, large print books and audiobooks to library patrons at home continues to operate during the COVID19 shelter-in-place order.
You must have a Lake County Library card and a Lake County mailing address to order a Zip Book through the Lake County Library.
With your Lake County Library card you can submit Zip Book requests through the Zip Book order form on the library’s website, http://library.lakecountyca.gov , under the “Books and More” tab.
If you don’t have a Lake County Library card, you can apply for a temporary library card number and PIN on the library’s website.
If you have any questions about Zip Books call 707-263-8817 and leave a message or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . An employee will respond to your message.
The library orders the book from Amazon and the book is delivered to your mailing address. During the COVID19 emergency, Amazon deliveries may take a little longer than normal, so have patience.
The Zip Book is also checked out on your library card. When you finish reading your book, please hold it until the library reopens.
Hand-deliver your Zip Book to a library employee, along with any Amazon paperwork that comes with it. Library due dates have been extended and any fines accrued during the shelter in place order will be waived.
Zip Books patrons can request a maximum of five books per month. At present, the Zip Books policy that prevents libraries from ordering books that they already own has been temporarily suspended.
Zip Books is a statewide project of the NorthNet Library System, funded by the California State Library. The Lake County Library has participated in Zip Books since 2015.
Jan Cook is a library technician for the Lake County Library.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In an effort to help the county’s schoolchildren during the extended school closure related to COVID-19, the Lake County Office of Education has announced a partnership that will offer students new resources.
“When children aren’t in school for extended periods of time, they’re at risk of losing academic gains,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
“We are proud to announce that the Lake County Office of Education has partnered with Age of Learning to provide free home access to ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, and ReadingIQ to all Lake County families because of school dismissals due to the coronavirus outbreak,” Falkenberg said.
Lake County families can have access to these home education resources by going to www.lakecoe.org/COVID-19 and clicking on “Educational Resources.”
“Interruptions in learning due to unanticipated events such as school dismissals can have adverse impacts on children’s academic growth and development, as well as on their need for stability and consistency,” explained Falkenberg.
“When in-school learning isn’t possible, using research-based digital education programs at home can help children stay engaged, provide them with valuable learning experiences, and allow them to maintain some continuity in their lives,” he said.
Age of Learning is providing free home access to Lake County families to ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, and ReadingIQ.
ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a comprehensive, research-validated, award-winning curriculum for preschool through second grade, available on all major digital platforms and used by tens of millions of children to date.
Adventure Academy, the first-of-its-kind educational massively multiplayer online game, serves elementary- and middle-school-aged children with thousands of literacy, math, science, and social studies learning activities in a fun and safe virtual world.
ReadingIQ is an award-winning digital library and literacy platform for children 12 and under-designed by reading experts to improve literacy skills, with many thousands of expert-curated books from leading publishers.
Falkenberg encourages all Lake County families with children to go to visit www.lakecoe.org/COVID-19 and sign up to make the most of these valuable, free resources from our partner, Age of Learning.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Due to the rapidly-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Lake County Board of Supervisors will hold an emergency meeting at 3 p.m. Friday, March 27, to discuss issues including defining nonessential workers and hiring an alternate Public Health officer.
The board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse will be closed, so members of the public who want to provide real-time input during any upcoming board meeting should write the clerk to the Board of Supervisors at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Input on any board item can likewise be shared via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and will be included in the public record. Please include the agenda Item and the first and last names of the author.
In response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order 33-20, the state Public Health officer recently designated a list of “essential critical infrastructure workers,” those who must continue working despite the statewide order to shelter-in-place.
The governor’s order defines essential critical infrastructure workers by sector including health care and public health, emergency services sector, food and agriculture, energy, water and wastewater, transportation and logistics, communications and information technology, critical manufacturing, hazardous materials, financial services, chemical and defense industrial base, according to a report to the board from County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson.
The Board of Supervisors was additionally given authority to define, “Critical government workers.”
At its Tuesday meeting, the board began discussing the workers’ definitions and assigned an ad hoc committee consisting of Huchingson, Board Chair Moke Simon, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier and County Counsel Anita Grant to work with department heads toward final recommendations, which will be presented during Friday’s emergency meeting.
Huchingson said the committee’s goals were the safety of county employees and compliance with shelter in place order and as many employees as possible working productively from home.
During the COVID-19 shelter in place order, the committee concluded that the county “must be focused on critical duties that cannot wait because they are essential to the County’s continuity of operations and/or on critical infrastructure work (as defined above in the 12 specific sectors) to support disaster response efforts,” Huchingson said.
“The committee found, and department heads concurred, that general office workers who are responsible to provide support work, such as reception, clerical, and other internal and/or routine functions are not essential workers during the disaster and such workers should shelter in place,” Huchingson wrote. “The committee found that such non-essential workers, when feasible to do so, should be allowed to work remotely. For those situations where it is not feasible to work remotely, non-essential employees should be offered work as Disaster Service Workers, subject to assignment by the Lake County Emergency Operations Center.”
She said that the committee also found that department heads are best equipped to serve as decision-makers with respect to the nonessential workforce “and should be afforded flexibility to make changes in their determinations due to the fluid nature of the crisis.”
The ad hoc committee suggests directing department heads to immediately send workers they have determined to be nonessential to shelter in place during the COVID-19 disaster; that the board should authorize department heads to periodically adjust their determinations of nonessential workers due to the fluid nature of the disaster; department heads should provide remote work assignments to nonessential workers when feasible, offer disaster service work or approve such employees the use of accruals and other leave benefits while sheltering in place and not working; and direct the ad hoc committee to continue to be available to department heads to assist with resolution of issues that arise and return to the Board no later than April 14.
Once those determinations are made, the board will consider a resolution amending its previously approved Resolution No. 2020-32 relating to workplace safety, employee leave and remote work in response to COVID-19.
In other business, Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy will ask the board to consider appointing Dr. Charlie Evans as the county’s designated alternate Public Health officer and approve a professional services agreement with him.
Pomeroy said that Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace has been working 12-hour days, seven days a week.
“This Agreement would allow Dr. Pace to receive assistance when needed and take a day off if necessary. Dr. Pace has worked with Dr. Evans over the last several years and recommends him as Designated Alternate Health Officer,” Pomeroy wrote.
Pomeroy said the agreement states that Dr. Evans may only act as alternate health officer when mutually agreed upon in writing by her or Dr. Pace.
Evans graduated with honors from University Of California, San Francisco School of Medicine in 1982 and has more than 38 years of medical experience, including work in emergency medicine, family medicine and public health, specializing in tuberculosis control.
He has served as the communicable disease health officer at the Mendocino County Health Department for 18 years, works as an emergency medicine specialist in Ukiah and has affiliations with several regional hospitals.
As the author of threebooksabout essayist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, I highly recommend “Walden,” Thoreau’s 1854 account of his time living “alone” in the woods outside Concord, Massachusetts. I qualify “alone” because Thoreau had more company at Walden than in town, and hoed a bean field daily as social theater in full view of passersby on the road.
Published in over 1,000 editions and translated into scores of languages, “Walden” is the scriptural fountainhead of the modern environmental movement, a philosophical treatise on self-reliance and a salient volume of the American literary canon. In his introduction to the Princeton edition, John Updike claims that Thoreau’s masterpiece “contributed most to America’s present sense of itself” during the cultural renaissance of the mid-19th century, yet “risks being as revered and unread as the Bible.”
Another reason to read or reread “Walden” during trying times is that it gushes with sorely needed optimism and is laced with wit. And Thoreau befriends you by writing in the first person.
Reality lies within us
As governments mandate social distancing to protect public health, many readers may be coming to grips with solitude. Thoreau devotes a chapter to it, extolling the virtue of getting to know yourself really well.
“Why should I feel lonely?” he asks, “is not our planet in the Milky Way?” Elsewhere he clarifies the difference between what we need and what we think we need, writing, “My greatest skill has been to want but little.”
“Walden” doesn’t have to be read straight through like a novel. For readers who have previously given up on it, I suggest rebooting in the middle with “The Ponds,” which opens thus: “Sometimes, having had a surfeit of human society and gossip, and worn out all my village friends, I rambled still farther westward than I habitually dwell…” Thoreau then retreats away from the mindless distractions of community life toward an immersion into Nature, with water at its spiritual center.
Next, flip back to the earlier chapter “Where I Lived and What I Lived For.” Here Thoreau invites readers on a downward journey, from the fleeting shallows of their social lives to the solid depths of their individual lives:
“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe, through Paris and London, through New York and Boston and Concord, through Church and State, through poetry and philosophy and religion, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks in place, which we can call reality…”
Our brains build that reality – yours, mine, everyone’s – by integrating external sensory signals with internal memories. Thoreau’s point – which is supported by 21st-century cognitive and neuroscience research – is that the real you precedes the social you. Your world is built from the inside of your skull outward, not vice versa.
The elusive simple life
Thoreau’s retreat to Walden Pond is often mistaken for a hermit’s flight deep into the woods. Actually, Thoreau put some distance between himself and his home and village so that he could understand himself and society better. When not in town, he swapped human companionship for the “beneficent society” of Nature for long enough to make “the fancied advantages of human neighborhood insignificant.”
Today mandatory social distancing is wrecking the global economy, based on traditional metrics like gross domestic product and stock prices. Viewed through “Walden,” this wreckage may look like a long-overdue correction for an unsustainable system.
Thoreau feared that the economy he saw was headed in the wrong direction. His opening chapter, “Economy,” is an extended rant against what he viewed as a capitalistic, urbanizing, consumption-driven, fashion-conscious 19th-century New England.
Of his neighbors, Thoreau wrote, “By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book” – meaning the Christian Bible – “laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.”
In contrast, his recipe for a good economy is one of “Walden”‘s most famous quotes: “Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand.”
That was easier said than done, even for Thoreau. When he conceived “Walden,” he was an unemployed, landless idealist. By the time it was published, he lived in a big house that was heated with Appalachian coal, earning income by manufacturing pulverized graphite and surveying for land developers.
Since then, the world’s population has more than quintupled and developed nations have built a global economy approaching US$100 trillion per year. Human impacts on the planet have become so powerful that scientists have coined the term Anthropocene to describe our current epoch.
Finding perspective in solitude
Some Americans have tried at least halfheartedly to follow “Walden”’s idealistic advice by living deliberately, being more self-reliant and shrinking their planetary footprints. Personally, although I’ve downsized my house, walk to work, fly only for funerals and cook virtually every meal from scratch, in my heart I know I’ve also contributed to the world’s swelling population, burn fracked natural gas and am hopelessly embedded in a consumer economy.
Nevertheless, after several weeks of social distancing, I’m rediscovering the value of two of Thoreau’s key points: Solitude is helping me recalibrate what matters most, and the current economic slowdown offers short-term gains and a long-term message for the planet.
These benefits don’t compensate for the incalculable personal losses and grief that COVID-19 is inflicting worldwide. But they are consolation prizes until things stabilize in the new normal. On my daily solitary walk in the woods, I am mindful of Thoreau’s words: “Next to us is not the workman whom we have hired, with whom we love so well to talk, but the workman whose work we are.”
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office continues its COVID-19 preparedness efforts at the Lake County Jail facility.
So far, there are no suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Lake County Jail and none in the county at large, officials said.
As of Friday, March 27, and continuing until further notice, the sheriff’s office said the public will not be admitted into the jail reception area to drop off money orders for inmates. The money orders will need to be sent by mail.
The commissary program will continue as normal. The money orders sent by mail will be credited to the inmate’s books. Only money orders will be accepted; cash will not be accepted, officials said.
The sheriff’s office said money orders must be filled out as follows: the inmate’s legal name must be written on the recipient line, the sender’s name and address must be written on the purchaser line and they must be signed by the sender on the front.
The mailing address for the Lake County Jail is 4913 Helbush Drive, Lakeport, CA 95453.
“We look forward to resuming normal operations as soon as it can be done safely. Staff at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office continue their efforts to ensure the safety and security of the people who live and work in our jail,” Lt. Corey Paulich said in an update on the jail situation.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Library is currently closed to the public due to the shelter in place order and to assist community efforts in limiting the spread of COVID-19.
All due dates and library holds expiration dates have been extended. Please keep your library materials with you at home until the library reopens.
County librarian Christopher Veach said, “We are taking this step to comply with guidelines set forth by the state of California and in coordination with local health officials regarding social distancing and slowing the spread of the virus. Thank you for your continued support as we all work together to keep our community healthy and safe.”
Online library services will continue while the physical branches of the Lake County Library are closed. The public can call the library or go online to access those services.
Lakeport Library’s phone number is 707-263-8817, Redbud Library in Clearlake can be reached at 707-994-5115, Middletown Library’s number is 707-987-3674, and Upper Lake Library’s number is 707-274-2049.
If you need a library card, you can call your local branch or use the online library card application form on the library website. Library employees will make cards and give patrons their card information.
With a library card, patrons can access the library’s digital collections for children, teens, and adults online without the need to visit a local branch.
You can click on the “Digital Content” button on the library’s website to access eBooks, audiobooks, movies, music, magazines, and craft classes from any location.
Library staff will be available by phone during normal operating hours to assist with the digital resources.
For children and teens the library offers ABCmouse, Britannica, and TeachingBooks. ABCmouse.com is the leading and most comprehensive fun digital learning resource for children ages 2 through 8. Britannica School and Britannica Escolar are both educational sites for students to use for homework help, projects, or learning at home or at the library.
TeachingBooks.net is a multimedia website that generates enthusiasm for books and reading with engaging author programs and K-12 book resources for children and teens.
The library’s digital periodicals collection includes free access to the New York Times online and to digital magazines.
RBdigital Magazines, the world's largest newsstand, offers full-color digital magazines for anytime, anywhere reading on desktops, mobile devices, and apps.
Your library's collection of popular digital magazines includes both new and backlist titles with no holds, no checkout periods, and no limits
Libby by OverDrive is a free library service that lets you borrow eBooks, Kindle Books, and audiobooks anytime, anywhere through a browser, smartphone, or tablet. Access eBooks on your computer straight from Enki Library, a shared open source eBook Network that allows California libraries to own and store eBooks for access by library patrons.
Hoopla is an app and website which lets you borrow eBooks, audiobooks, comics, movies, television shows, documentaries, and music via a browser, smartphone or tablet immediately with no waiting.
Library users also have access to online art video classes with Creativebug, the number one inspirational resource for DIY, crafters, and makers. Creativebug offers over 1,000 art and craft video classes alongside downloadable patterns, templates, and recipes.
If you have any questions about digital services, library cards, or other library matters, call your local branch library.
Jan Cook is a library technician for the Lake County Library.
Eight and a half years into its grand tour of the solar system, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft was ready for another encounter.
It was Jan. 24, 1986, and soon it would meet the mysterious seventh planet, icy-cold Uranus.
Over the next few hours, Voyager 2 flew within 50,600 miles (81,433 kilometers) of Uranus’ cloud tops, collecting data that revealed two new rings, 11 new moons and temperatures below minus 353 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 214 degrees Celsius). The dataset is still the only up-close measurements we have ever made of the planet.
Three decades later, scientists reinspecting that data found one more secret.
Unbeknownst to the entire space physics community, 34 years ago Voyager 2 flew through a plasmoid, a giant magnetic bubble that may have been whisking Uranus’s atmosphere out to space. The finding, reported in Geophysical Research Letters, raises new questions about the planet’s one-of-a-kind magnetic environment.
A wobbly magnetic oddball
Planetary atmospheres all over the solar system are leaking into space. Hydrogen springs from Venus to join the solar wind, the continuous stream of particles escaping the Sun. Jupiter and Saturn eject globs of their electrically-charged air. Even Earth’s atmosphere leaks. (Don’t worry, it will stick around for another billion years or so.)
The effects are tiny on human timescales, but given long enough, atmospheric escape can fundamentally alter a planet’s fate. For a case in point, look at Mars.
“Mars used to be a wet planet with a thick atmosphere,” said Gina DiBraccio, space physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and project scientist for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN mission. “It evolved over time” — 4 billion years of leakage to space — “to become the dry planet we see today.”
Atmospheric escape is driven by a planet’s magnetic field, which can both help and hinder the process. Scientists believe magnetic fields can protect a planet, fending off the atmosphere-stripping blasts of the solar wind. But they can also create opportunities for escape, like the giant globs cut loose from Saturn and Jupiter when magnetic field lines become tangled. Either way, to understand how atmospheres change, scientists pay close attention to magnetism.
That’s one more reason Uranus is such a mystery. Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby revealed just how magnetically weird the planet is.
“The structure, the way that it moves … ,” DiBraccio said, “Uranus is really on its own.”
Unlike any other planet in our solar system, Uranus spins almost perfectly on its side — like a pig on a spit roast — completing a barrel roll once every 17 hours. Its magnetic field axis points 60 degrees away from that spin axis, so as the planet spins, its magnetosphere — the space carved out by its magnetic field — wobbles like a poorly-thrown football. Scientists still don’t know how to model it.
This oddity drew DiBraccio and her coauthor Dan Gershman, a fellow Goddard space physicist, to the project. Both were part of a team working out plans for a new mission to the 'ice giants' Uranus and Neptune, and they were looking for mysteries to solve. Uranus’ strange magnetic field, last measured more than 30 years ago, seemed like a good place to start.
So they downloaded Voyager 2’s magnetometer readings, which monitored the strength and direction of the magnetic fields near Uranus as the spacecraft flew by. With no idea what they’d find, they zoomed in closer than previous studies, plotting a new datapoint every 1.92 seconds. Smooth lines gave way to jagged spikes and dips. And that’s when they saw it: a tiny zigzag with a big story.
“Do you think that could be … a plasmoid?” Gershman asked DiBraccio, catching sight of the squiggle.
Little known at the time of Voyager 2’s flyby, plasmoids have since become recognized as an important way planets lose mass. These giant bubbles of plasma, or electrified gas, pinch off from the end of a planet’s magnetotail — the part of its magnetic field blown back by the Sun like a windsock. With enough time, escaping plasmoids can drain the ions from a planet’s atmosphere, fundamentally changing its composition. They had been observed at Earth and other planets, but no one had detected plasmoids at Uranus — yet.
DiBraccio ran the data through her processing pipeline and the results came back clean. “I think it definitely is,” she said.
The bubble escapes
The plasmoid DiBraccio and Gershman found occupied a mere 60 seconds of Voyager 2’s 45-hour-long flight by Uranus. It appeared as a quick up-down blip in the magnetometer data. “But if you plotted it in 3D, it would look like a cylinder,” Gershman said.
Comparing their results to plasmoids observed at Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury, they estimated a cylindrical shape at least 127,000 miles (204,000 kilometers) long, and up to roughly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) across. Like all planetary plasmoids, it was full of charged particles — mostly ionized hydrogen, the authors believe.
Readings from inside the plasmoid — as Voyager 2 flew through it — hinted at its origins. Whereas some plasmoids have a twisted internal magnetic field, DiBraccio and Gershman observed smooth, closed magnetic loops. Such loop-like plasmoids are typically formed as a spinning planet flings bits of its atmosphere to space.
“Centrifugal forces take over, and the plasmoid pinches off,” Gershman said. According to their estimates, plasmoids like that one could account for between 15 and 55% of atmospheric mass loss at Uranus, a greater proportion than either Jupiter or Saturn. It may well be the dominant way Uranus sheds its atmosphere to space.
How has plasmoid escape changed Uranus over time? With only one set of observations, it’s hard to say.
“Imagine if one spacecraft just flew through this room and tried to characterize the entire Earth,” DiBraccio said. “Obviously it’s not going to show you anything about what the Sahara or Antarctica is like.”
But the findings help focus new questions about the planet. The remaining mystery is part of the draw. “It’s why I love planetary science,” DiBraccio said. “You’re always going somewhere you don’t really know.”
Miles Hatfield works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Coho salmon are getting a boost from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife strategic plan to prioritize salmon restoration and habitat improvement projects in coastal watersheds from Santa Cruz to Mendocino counties.
In most of these watersheds, coho salmon are in severe decline or locally extinct due to human alterations to land and water resources.
The Priority Action Coho Team, or PACT, is designed to focus much-needed restoration to help maintain, stabilize and increase localized coho salmon populations.
The approach of the PACT initiative is to identify and implement specific short-term actions, drawing from existing state and federal coho salmon recovery plans, to bring immediate benefits.
"PACT employs six strategies emphasizing planning actions and collaboration to accelerate coho salmon recovery from Santa Cruz to Mendocino counties," said Kevin Shaffer, CDFW Branch chief. "We look forward to working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) and our many partners on collaborating to recover this amazing fish."
Watersheds where PACT restoration projects are being implemented include Scott Creek in Santa Cruz County and the Russian River in Sonoma County, where a range of projects to restore and improve stream and estuarine habitat have been carried out.
These initiatives include recovery actions such as stream habitat restoration, water conservation, captive rearing and fish rescue, together with improvements to permitting, regulatory and enforcement processes.
PACT was developed jointly by CDFW and NOAA Fisheries, and is part of several initiatives to accelerate the implementation of ecological restoration and stewardship projects in California.
Complimentary efforts include the Cutting the Green Tape initiative recently launched by the California Natural Resources Agency, other state agencies and the North Coast Salmon Project.
More information about the PACT process, as well as the link to the report, can be found on the CDFW website.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Clearlake Animal Control is continuing to offer dogs for adoption during the countywide shelter in place order.
The agency said people can make appointments to come in and foster or adopt dogs.
The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.
‘Buddy’
“Buddy” is a male spaniel mix with a black and white coat.
He is dog No. 3667.
‘Cha-Chi’
“Cha-Chi” is a male Chihuahua with a short gold and white coat.
He is dog No. 3661.
‘Duchess’
“Duchess” is a female Chihuahua puppy with a short tan coat.
She is dog No. 3618.
‘Fable’
“Fable” is a female husky with a smooth brown and buff coat.
She is dog No. 3044.
‘Freckles’
“Freckles” is a female Australian Cattle Dog mix with a short red and white coat.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 3668.
‘Lucious’
“Lucious” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier mix with a short gray and white coat.
He is dog No. 3690.
‘Phoebe’
“Phoebe” is a female American Pit Bull Terrier mix with a short black and white coat.
She is dog No. 3483.
‘Princess’
“Princess” is a female German Shepherd with a black and tan coat.
She has been spayed.
Princess is young and energetic. She previously lived around a smaller dog and has been around the office cat. She will benefit from training and attention.
She is dog No. 3669.
‘Tucker’
“Tucker” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier puppy with a short white and gray coat.
He is dog No. 3717.
‘Tyson’
“Tyson” is a male American Staffordshire Terrier with a short gray and white coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 1863.
‘Woodrow’
“Woodrow” is a male Staffordshire Bull Terrier with a black and white coat.
He is dog No. 3281.
Clearlake Animal Control’s shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53, off Airport Road.
Hours of operation are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The shelter is closed Sundays, Mondays and major holidays; the shelter offers appointments on the days it’s closed to accommodate people.
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.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or at the city’s website.
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.