News

Clearlake Animal Control: ‘Nemo’ and the dogs

“Nemo.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has more new dogs in the shelter this week in need of new homes.

The shelter has 40 adoptable dogs listed on its website.

This week’s dogs include “Nemo,” a male Chihuahua mix with a short white coat.

The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.

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.
Written by: Elizabeth Larson

Governor signs bill to require K-12 education to accurately reflect historical mistreatment of Native Americans

California students will learn about the impact on California Native Americans during the Spanish Colonization and Gold Rush Eras in California public schools after Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed AB 1821.

Assemblymember James C. Ramos (D-San Bernardino), the first and only California Native American elected to the Legislature, authored the bill.

It was one of seven tribal-related measures Newsom approved on Friday, which was California Native American Day.

“I am pleased that Gov. Newsom approved AB 1821; it is another step forward in the path toward writing a new chapter in the state’s relationship to California tribes,” Ramos said. “For far too long California’s First People and their history have been ignored or misrepresented. Classroom instruction about Spanish Colonization and Gold Rush periods fails to include the loss of life, enslavement, starvation, illness and violence inflicted upon California Native Americans.”

“We thank Assemblymember Ramos for authoring AB 1821 to ensure that a more complete and accurate history of our state is taught,” said Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians Chairman Isaiah Vivanco. “Any teaching of the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush eras should include the impact on California’s Native Americans. During those devastating periods, Native Americans endured great loss of life, enslavement, and other perils. Those truths are often absent from instruction about California’s history and the nation’s westward expansion. Omitting this history erases the truth of Native Americans’ presence on this land and through silence perpetuates the injustices of those eras. That is why AB 1821 is an important step in the telling of our state’s history and its First People.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who co-sponsored AB 1821, said he was proud to see the bill become law.

“This legislation will help ensure curriculum on California’s Spanish Mission and Gold Rush eras accurately captures the treatment and impact of Native Americans during these significant eras in state history. This initiative supports California’s diverse students to be seen, heard, and understood in their instructional materials, and to foster a deeper appreciation for our Native communities’ history and cultures,” Thurmond said.

“AB 1821 will create a more relevant and accurate curriculum when students learn about the Spanish colonization and Gold Rush periods in California’s history. We are thankful Governor Newsom has signed this bill into law so that California students can learn the true history and culture of tribes during those periods,” said Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

Late last year, a poll released by the Institute of Governmental Studies showed strong support to require California schools to incorporate teaching about Native American tribes’ history and culture. An overwhelming 80% of respondents were in support of a requirement such as AB 1821.

AB 1821 is cosponsored by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. A partial list of other supporters include California Teachers Association, California State PTA, California Tribal Business Alliance, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians and Tule River Tribe.

Other Ramos tribal bills signed included:

• AB 81 reinforces California protections for Native American families and the Indian Child Welfare Act
• AB 1284 encourages the Natural Resources Agency, and its departments, boards, conservancies, and commissions, to enter into cogovernance and comanagement agreements with federally recognized tribes
• AB 1863 requires California Highway Patrol (CHP) to state reasons for denying request for a Feather Alert, a public notification system used when Native Americans are missing and overseen by the CHP
• AB 2108 requires county social workers and others to immediately notify parents, guardians, legal counsel and other pertinent adults when a foster child is missing.
• AB 2348 revises and strengthens California’s Feather Alert, requiring law enforcement agencies to respond within 24 hours of a request, and also allowing for tribal governments to directly communicate with the State.
• AB 2695 requires specified entities reporting criminal record data to the Department of Justice to disaggregate the data based on whether incidents took place in Indian country.
Written by: Lake County News reports

Prepare your social media for the election − 3 tips to stay sane and connected without being overwhelmed

 

There’s a lot of information out there to sort through, so be prepared. Richard Drury/DigitalVision via Getty Images

As the presidential election approaches, the race is ramping up – including on social media. Although Meta reported in 2022 that only about 3% of the content on Facebook is political, Americans have already begun bracing themselves for a deluge of political news stories, ads, AI deepfakes and arguments on their feeds over the next few weeks.

Elections are stressful, and they tend to exacerbate Americans’ adverse mental health symptoms. For some people, social media can amplify political stressors.

Despite the tensions building on users’ digital feeds, an impending election doesn’t mean that people need to avoid social media altogether. When used wisely, social media can still be an important source for political information and an outlet to express opinions. I’ve studied how people navigate social media during elections, and I want to share three strategies to help you prepare your accounts for this election season so you can stay connected to what’s important without drowning in partisan back-and-forth.

1. Audit your feeds

While elections can be stressful, they also offer a chance to take ownership of the content that you consume online – or, as digital culture scholar Jessa Lingel says, “be your own algorithm.” Take the time to audit your social media ecosystem before November by considering the accounts that you follow and the settings that you have in place.

Social media platforms and their algorithms have inspired widespread concerns about their role in political polarization, because they enable people to isolate themselves in echo chambers that reinforce their own views. People with different political views can end up with substantially different material on their social media feeds.

While research suggests that echo chamber experiences are generally limited to highly partisan people, it is worthwhile to take a critical look at your feeds. Consider diversifying the content you see on social media, including following people whose life experiences differ from your own.

On the other side of the coin, take a breather before unfollowing people you disagree with during tense moments. While encountering political dissent online can be uncomfortable, studies demonstrate that deliberately blocking it out can contribute to polarization.

Research has shown that people who see more political news on social media can be more likely to get involved in politics offline.

Platforms are taking steps behind the scenes, however, to limit users’ exposure to political content. For example, Meta recently implemented features that limit the amount of political content that users see on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Since earlier this year, the setting has been turned on by default. Now is a great time to double-check that your accounts’ settings reflect the content and ad personalization preferences that work best for you. If you want, you can turn the political content back on using the “content preferences” settings available through Facebook and Instagram.

2. Stay skeptical and practice stepping away

Misinformation on social media remains a constant concern during elections. This year, AI-generated images pose a particular misinformation threat, especially when they’re shared by the presidential candidates themselves.

The News Literacy Project has established a 2024 election misinformation dashboard that has already compiled over 600 examples of inaccurate viral content related to this election, which include items such as misleading memes, altered photos and videos, and out-of-context quotes.

Platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram have also taken steps to ensure that AI-generated images are labeled on their sites. These methods, which identify AI by scanning image metadata and looking for hidden watermarks, are still new, and it’s unclear how well they work.

It’s not enough to hope the platforms’ systems protect users. You should approach information about the election with a skeptical eye, especially when it sparks an emotional response from you.

Research demonstrates that fake news tends to elicit more negative emotions, such as anger, sadness and disgust, than real news.

Upsetting news makes people want to take action.

One study found that people who had stronger emotional reactions to fake news headlines expressed greater intentions to comment, share or like items than those who were not emotionally moved to respond. Pay attention to your emotional reactions to the headlines and images you encounter on social media, and take time to step away, process and fact-check information using sources you know are reliable before sharing.

A computer, smartphone and mouse sit on a desk next to a lamp and some notepapers.
This is what your desk could look like if you took a break from being online. Image by Marie LaFauci/Moment via Getty Images

3. Build social media safe havens

Especially during elections, ideals of “good citizenship” put pressure on people to stay informed about the latest political news. Social media can provide endless election updates, but just because the information is widely available doesn’t mean you need to engage with it all the time. It’s possible to stay informed while also staying in touch with the enjoyable aspects of social media, even when the election rises to the top of everyone’s minds.

Different platforms can serve different political functions, which could include helping you to set boundaries around political information. Just as you might choose to take a break from intense circumstances by taking a walk or calling a friend, you can also designate some social media spaces primarily for decompressing, while still engaging with political information on others.

This might mean joining a new platform or creating an alternative account on a platform that you already use. While people tend to turn to X, Reddit, TikTok and Facebook for politics, you can choose to curate some accounts with less focus on political content for times when you need an escape.

Regardless of how you choose to prepare your social media feeds for the election, keep in mind that feelings of stress around election time are normal. Many aspects of elections can feel out of control, but taking control of your social media feeds allows you to manage your political information diet for the better.The Conversation

Chelsea Butkowski, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Written by: Chelsea Butkowski, American University School of Communication

Space News: Eight things to know about NASA’s mission to an ocean moon of Jupiter



NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft’s launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.

Data from previous NASA missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the moon. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon to gather data needed to determine whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that could support life.

Here are eight things to know about the mission:

1. Europa is one of the most promising places to look for currently habitable conditions beyond Earth.

There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life — water, the right chemistry, and energy — may exist at Europa right now. This mission will gather the information scientists need to find out for sure. The moon may hold an internal ocean with twice the water of Earth’s oceans combined, and it may also host organic compounds and energy sources under its surface. If the mission determines that Europa is habitable, it would mean there may be more habitable worlds in our solar system and beyond than we have imagined.

2. The spacecraft will fly through one of the most punishing radiation environments in our solar system — second only to the Sun’s.

Jupiter is surrounded by a gigantic magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s. As the field spins, it captures and accelerates charged particles, creating radiation that can damage spacecraft. Mission engineers designed a spacecraft vault to shield sensitive electronics from radiation, and they plotted orbits that will limit the time Europa Clipper spends in most radiation-heavy areas around Jupiter.

3. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter, studying Europa while flying by the moon dozens of times.

The spacecraft will make looping orbits around Jupiter that bring it close to Europa for 49 science-dedicated flybys. On each orbit, the spacecraft will spend less than a day in Jupiter’s dangerous radiation zone near Europa before zipping back out. Two to three weeks later, it will repeat the process, making another flyby.

4. Europa Clipper features the most sophisticated suite of science instruments NASA has ever sent to the Jupiter system.

To determine if Europa is habitable, Europa Clipper must assess the moon’s interior, composition, and geology. The spacecraft carries nine science instruments and a gravity experiment that uses the telecommunications system. In order to obtain the best science during each flyby, all the science instruments will operate simultaneously on every pass. Scientists will then layer the data together to paint a full picture of the moon.

5. With antennas and solar arrays fully deployed, Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.

The spacecraft extends 100 feet (30.5 meters) from one end to the other and about 58 feet (17.6 meters) across. That’s bigger than a basketball court, thanks in large part to the solar arrays, which need to be huge so they can collect enough sunlight while near Jupiter to power the instruments, electronics, and other subsystems.

6. It’s a long journey to Jupiter.

Jupiter is on average some 480 million miles (about 770 million kilometers) from Earth; both planets are in motion, and a spacecraft can carry only a limited amount of fuel. Mission planners are sending Europa Clipper past Mars and then Earth, using the planets’ gravity as a slingshot to add speed to the spacecraft’s trek. After journeying about 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) over 5½ years, the spacecraft will fire its engines to enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030.

7. Institutions across the U.S. and Europe have contributed to Europa Clipper.

Currently, about a thousand people work on the mission, including more than 220 scientists from both the U.S. and Europe. Since the mission was officially approved in 2015, more than 4,000 people have contributed to Europa Clipper, including teams who work for contractors and subcontractors.

8. More than 2.6 million of us are riding along with the spacecraft, bringing greetings from one water world to another.

As part of a mission campaign called “Message in a Bottle,” the spacecraft is carrying a poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, cosigned by millions of people from nearly every country in the world. Their names have been stenciled onto a microchip attached to a tantalum metal plate that seals the spacecraft’s electronics vault. The plate also features waveforms of people saying the word “water” in over 100 spoken languages.

More about Europa Clipper

Europa Clipper’s three main science objectives are to determine the thickness of the moon’s icy shell and its interactions with the ocean below, to investigate its composition, and to characterize its geology.

The mission’s detailed exploration of Europa will help scientists better understand the astrobiological potential for habitable worlds beyond our planet.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Planetary Missions Program Office at Marshall executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy.

Find more information about Europa here: https://europa.nasa.gov.
Written by: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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