LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is planning a special meeting this week in which its members will get an update on COVID-19 and consider possibly reducing in-person services to the public due to the continuing increase locally of coronavirus cases.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, and will be available to the public virtually only. The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
To participate in real-time, join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link at 9 a.m. The meeting ID is 929 8110 0592, password 270427. The meeting also can be accessed via on tap mobile at +16699006833,,92981100592#,,,,*270427# US (San Jose).
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and passcode information above. To submit a written comment on any agenda item please visit https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and click on the eComment feature linked to the meeting date. If a comment is submitted after the meeting begins, it may not be read during the meeting but will become a part of the record.
At 9:05 a.m, public comment is scheduled.
At 9:06 a.m., Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace will give the board a comprehensive situational update on COVID-19.
At 9:15 a.m., the board will consider the county’s response to worsening pandemic conditions and impacts on service delivery, and consider a resolution authorizing temporary reduction of in-person delivery of county services to the public.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson’s report to the board explains, “As your Board is well aware, pandemic conditions have worsened dramatically in recent weeks, with an increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases impacting the County workforce.”
On Jan. 5, the board created an ad hoc committee to work with department heads in the efforts to comply with the county’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency - Worksite Protection Protocol.
Since that time, Huchingson said the committee has met several times “to address the many complex issues departments are facing as they attempt to keep employees and the public safe while maintaining services to the greatest extent possible.”
She continued, “The focus of the committee’s discussions has been around how, during this critical time, we can pivot back to providing services to the public without (or with very minimal) in-person contact, as we did much earlier on in the pandemic, beginning in March to June 1, 2020. By doing all we possibly can do to keep our workforce safe and well, we are better able to keep services in place, until conditions improve and we are able to reopen fully.”
Huchingson also is presenting a draft resolution that, if approved by the board, would authorize temporary reduction of in-person service delivery due to COVID-19 pandemic conditions.
At 9:30 a.m., the board will discuss Friday county office closures to the public and possibly give updated direction to the staff.
Huchingson’s report notes that on Nov. 17 the board adopted a resolution directing the “soft opening” of county offices on Fridays, with departments to assign at least one staff person to provide basic customer service on Fridays beginning Jan. 8, with full reopening on Fridays to take effect in April.
She said she’s bringing the matter back to the board at the request of Board Chair Bruno Sabatier “in the event you desire to make any changes in your directive as a result of the worsening pandemic conditions.”
Other items include consideration of an amendment to the Lake County COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Worksite Protection Protocol, to be discussed at 9:45 a.m.
There also will be a closed session to discuss a threat to public services and facilities, with the board to consult with Huchingson, County Counsel Anita Grant and Sheriff Brian Martin.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will discuss department and council goals, get the latest on COVID-19 and consider updates to current contracts.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19.
The meeting will be by teleconference only. The city council chambers will not be open to the public.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799. The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the City Clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments prior to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that read to the council will be subject to the three minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council prior to the meeting.
On the agenda is an update from Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace, who has been making regular appearances at city council meetings to update them on the local COVID-19 situation.
During presentations, the council also will meet new Lakeport Police officer trainee Kaitlyn Morfin.
Under council business, City Manager Kevin Ingram will give the council an update on the 2020-21 departmental goals and discuss the prioritization of listed city council goals provided in the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget.
The council’s 13 goals, which Ingram said are held over from 2019-20, are public safety; road improvement; amending sidewalk and right-of-way improvement ordinance to reduce costs of improvements and ensure infrastructure is being constructed in high priority areas; enhancing the historic downtown and lakefront area through the adoption and consideration of amendments to the zoning ordinance expanding visitor and recreational use types, increasing visibility of local businesses on social media, and improving wayfinding signage downtown, transform the former B of A into a community center, pursuing agreement with LUSD on use of Natural High property, and strengthening the programs with Lakeport Main Street Association, such as Dickens Faire; downtown mural art project; continuing park improvements; pursuing full-time project manager; completing annexation; implementing records management software; succession planning; recruiting and maintaining staffing, equipment and special programs to accomplish community policing goals; continuing marketing efforts outlined in the hotel feasibility study to attract national brand lodging facility; and improving public relations and education.
Also on Tuesday, Community Development Director Jenni Byers will ask the council to approve the first contract amendment with Dude Solutions for SmartGov e-permitting.
Byers’ report said council approval would mean the total contract “not to exceed” amount would be increased from $55,929.25 to $67,641.25. Funding for the expenditure is coming through a grant.
Finance Director Nick Walker will seek the council’s authorization to execute a professional services agreement with BCA Architects for the completion of phase one of a recreation feasibility study.
The city will pay up to $20,000 for the study, contingent upon obtaining a cost-sharing agreement with Lake County and the city of Clearlake for equal shares of this study, based on Walker’s report.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; and minutes of the regular council meeting on Jan. 5.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has three felines ready to be adopted this week.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
“Scamp'' is a senior male domestic short hair cat in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14280. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Scamp’
“Scamp” is a senior male domestic short hair cat with gold eyes.
He has been neutered.
Scamp is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14280.
“Bam-Bam” is a male domestic medium hair kitten in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. 14233. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Bam-Bam’
“Bam-Bam” is a male domestic medium hair kitten with a gray tabby and black coat and green eyes.
He has been neutered.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. 14233.
“Gremlin” is a young male medium hair cat in cat room kennel No. 36, ID No. 14283. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Gremlin’
“Gremlin” is a young male domestic medium hair cat with a gray and torbie coat and green eyes.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 36, ID No. 14283.
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.
This palette of spices includes (from top left) Ethiopian berbere spice blend, cardamom, Chinese five spice blend, ground and stick cinnamon, ground and whole cloves, cumin, curry powder blend, ground mustard, nigella seeds, nutmeg, smoked paprika, fennel seeds and star anise. Photo by Esther Oertel. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s hard to believe that the stuff of spices – bits of bark, roots, and seeds – inspired war, but they did.
Such flavorings were the source of bloody battles fought hundreds of years ago by Europeans for control of the lands where they grew. Command of this lucrative trade went back and forth over the centuries.
Frank Herbert wrote in his novel Dune, “He who controls the spice controls the universe.” Perhaps he received inspiration from the spice wars of long ago.
One thing is certain – spices infuse passion into the foods we eat, propelling our taste buds into song, both strong and subtle.
In addition to enhancing flavor, numbers of spices are known to have health-boosting properties. For example, studies have shown that cinnamon lowers blood pressure, turmeric fights inflammation, ginger relieves nausea, garlic benefits the heart, and cayenne pepper eases pain.
But what makes an herb an herb and a spice a spice?
It depends on the part of the plant used.
Herbs are the edible leaves or stems of plants, and spices are their dried seeds, pods, buds, roots, fruits or bark.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia adds the phrase “vegetative substance” to their definition of spice, and truly spices are composed of a wide variety of plant components.
Let’s look at a few examples to prove this point.
Ginger is a rhizome and turmeric a root. Mustard, fennel, caraway, fenugreek and cumin are seeds.
Cloves are dried buds, chili peppers are fruits, and cardamom and star anise are seed pods. Cinnamon is bark, and nutmeg is the kernel of a fruit, with mace being its lacy covering.
Black pepper and pink peppercorns are both dried berries but are not related to each other.
I’m extremely grateful for the people long ago who decided to taste bark, roots, seeds and the like so that the generations of humankind who followed them could eat their meals with blissful flavor.
Some plants bless us with both herbs and spices.
For example, dill weed is an herb since it’s composed of the leaves of the dill plant, while dill seed used in pickling or to flavor some rye bread is a spice.
Cilantro (also known as coriander or Chinese parsley) is another example. When we use the leaves and stems, it’s considered an herb, while whole or ground coriander seeds are a spice.
Some spices, though not many, are known as being “hot” because of chemicals they contain. Capsaicin in chili peppers and piperine in black pepper berries irritate the tissues of our mouth, giving us the burning sensation that we refer to as “hot” or “spicy.”
It’s estimated that spices have been used to enhance foods since about 50,000 B.C., with local spice trading developing as early as 2,000 B.C.
In the Middle East, such trading was centered on cinnamon and pepper, and in East Asia, herbs and pepper. Ancient Egyptians used spices in embalming, and their need for them encouraged broad trade.
During the middle ages in Europe, spices were among the most expensive and sought-after products. While some spices of this era – grains of paradise, spikenard and galangal, for example – have gone out of fashion, others, like black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin and cloves, are still in popular use today.
Today our spice shelves are easily stocked. We have a wide variety of herbs and spices at our fingertips, and, with little effort, more exotic spices are available.
In recent months I ordered a berbere spice blend and nigella seeds online, and presto – I have ingredients for Ethiopian dishes.
I love broadening my spice horizons by going to specialty shops that carry little-known flavors from around the world. I get excited learning while I browse.
Sometimes it’s tough not to bring something home.
Past acquisitions include such things as mahlab from Turkey, used to add a sweet-sour, nutty taste to sweet breads and desserts; charnushka from India, tiny black seeds that top rye bread or flavor sausages; and ground Mediterranean sumac berries, popular as a tabletop condiment in that region, which add fruity sourness and a soft red color to foods.
Ground spices deteriorate far more quickly than those in whole form. About six months is the average “flavor life” of a ground spice, while whole spice holds its flavor for up to two years.
Whole spice may be ground just before use in a spice grinder or dedicated coffee grinder. For smaller batches, a fine grater may be used. (My favorite is a rasp-style zester, such as the one made by Microplane.)
An old school method of grinding spices is crushing them via a mortar and pestle. Since this method has come into vogue in recent years, a well-stocked kitchen store will have a few different styles of this ancient implement from which to choose.
Some spices, like nutmeg, don’t lend themselves to grinding whole and will always need to be grated; however, it goes quickly and is easily done.
Toasting whole spices in a dry skillet just before grinding intensifies their flavor and, as an added bonus, makes your kitchen smell absolutely heavenly.
As to storage, keep dried herbs and spices in tightly closed containers in a relatively cool, dark, dry place. Humidity, heat, and light are their flavor enemies.
Spice blends have evolved in different areas of the world depending on what was grown or traded there, giving each region its own unique flavor profile.
In the African counties of Ethiopia and Eritrea, for example, superhot spice blend berbere is used to flavor dishes. It can be a powder or a puree, and is a blend of fenugreek, cardamom, lots of hot cayenne pepper, and an array of optional ingredients. (To tone down the heat, paprika can be substituted for much of the cayenne.)
Ras el hanout is an exotic spice blend from Morocco. It’s sweet and spicy-hot, containing up to as many as 50 flavors, including some rare items not found at the local grocery. Floral notes can come from such ingredients as dried rosebuds and aniseed.
The Indian spice blend we’re most familiar with here is curry, despite the fact that premade curry powder is nonexistent in that country, being an invention of the west.
Instead, Indian cooks make their own blends for each recipe, grinding small batches frequently.
Garam masala, a standard Indian spice blend, is the inspiration for our curry powder; however, it’s made without the yellow color supplied by turmeric and nutty flavor from fenugreek in our versions of the blend.
It’s a somewhat sweet mixture containing coriander, ginger, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Other spices are blended in according to the cook’s taste and whim.
A favorite spice blend of mine is Chinese five spice, which contains star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and black pepper. It adds a sweet-spicy-savory note to dishes and is featured in today’s recipe, a couscous salad I created some years ago to demonstrate the use of Lake County ingredients at a local event.
The ingredients marry warm winter flavors with fresh elements that are reminiscent of summer.
I hope your new year is full of spice, both literal and figurative!
Easy Minted Couscous Salad with Lake County Pears and Walnuts
1 cup couscous 1 cup apple juice plus ¼ cup water ½ tsp Chinese Five Spice blend
To cook couscous, bring apple juice and water to a boil in a medium pot; add the Chinese Five Spice and blend in. Turn off heat and add couscous. Cover and allow to sit for five minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, prepare the following ingredients for the salad:
½ cup diced dried Lake County pears (use fresh pears if dried are unavailable; sweet apples may also be substituted) ½ cup coarsely chopped toasted Lake County walnuts ½ cup diced red bell pepper ½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves ½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley ¼ cup (or more, to taste) finely chopped scallions Juice of one fresh lemon (Meyer lemons are recommended) ¼ cup Lake County extra virgin olive oil (a light and fruity variety recommended)
Blend non-liquid ingredients with couscous in a large bowl and stir to blend. Squeeze in lemon juice and add olive oil. Stir to blend and taste. Since lemons have varying amounts of acidity, more olive oil many need to be added to round out the lemony taste.
This should make enough salad for a generous side dish for four. Enjoy!
Recipe by Esther Oertel.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The city of Lakeport will hold a meeting to receive input from the community in its effort to apply for grant funds to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Zoom.
The meeting can be accessed at https://zoom.us/j/91777629308 or accessed at +1 669 900 9128. The webinar ID is 917 7762 9308.
The city of Lakeport is eligible to apply for Community Development Block Grant, CDBG, for Coronavirus Round 2 and 3 funding.
The purpose of the funds is to provide assistance for persons of low and moderate income affected by COVID-19.
City officials said they are seeking input on the best use of these funds.
There are specific guidelines to apply, but the city said potential uses could include rental assistance, public improvements, business loans for local businesses and more.
The community is encouraged to participate and share its feedback.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a full kennel of many types of dogs ready for new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, dachshund, husky, mastiff, pit bull and shepherd.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
This female pit bull terrier puppy is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 14279. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull puppy
This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short white and tan coat and floppy ears.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 14279.
This young male Belgian Malinois is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14269. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Belgian Malinois
This young male Belgian Malinois has a medium-length red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14269.
“Daisy” is a senior female dachshund in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14270. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Daisy’
“Daisy” is a senior female dachshund with a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14270.
This male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14286. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull terrier-mastiff mix
This male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix has a short gray and brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14286.
This male pit bull-mastiff mix is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14287. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull-mastiff mix
This male pit bull-mastiff mix has a short chocolat coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14287.
“Amira” is a female husky mix in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14277. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Amira’
“Amira” is a female husky mix with a medium-length black and white coat and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14277.
This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 14271. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short gray coat.
He has been neutered.
He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 14271.
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.
Joshua M. Pearce, Michigan Technological University
Saved from the trash heap and ready for transformation. Nathan Shaiyen/Michigan Tech, CC BY
People will recycle if they can make money doing so. In places where cash is offered for cans and bottles, metal and glass recycling has been a great success. Sadly, the incentives have been weaker for recycling plastic. As of 2015, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled. The rest pollutes landfills or the environment.
But now, several technologies have matured that allow people to recycle waste plastic directly by 3D-printing it into valuable products, at a fraction of their normal cost. People are using their own recycled plastic to make decorations and gifts, home and garden products, accessories and shoes, toys and games, sporting goods and gadgets from millions of free designs. This approach is called distributed recycling and additive manufacturing, or DRAM for short.
As a professor of materials engineering at the forefront of this technology, I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do to take advantage of this trend.
How DRAM works
The DRAM method starts with plastic waste – everything from used packaging to broken products.
From trash to treasure – the DRAM flowchart.Joshua M. Pearce, CC BY
The first step is to sort and wash the plastic with soap and water or even run it through the dishwasher. Next, the plastic needs to be ground into particles. For small amounts, a cross-cut paper/CD shredder works fine. For larger amounts, open-source plans for an industrial waste plastic granulator are available online.
Filament made with a 3D-printable recyclebot is incredibly cheap, costing less than a nickel per pound as compared to commercial filament, which costs about US$10 per pound or more. With the pandemic interrupting global supply chains, making products at home from waste is even more appealing.
The second approach is newer: You can skip the step of making filament and use fused particle fabrication to directly 3D-print granulated waste plastic into products. This approach is most amenable to large products on larger printers, like the commercial open source GigabotX printer, but can also be used on desktop printers.
Granulated plastic waste can also be directly printed with a syringe printer, although this is less popular because print volume is limited by the need to reloading the syringe.
My research group, along with dozens of labs and companies throughout the world, has developed a wide array of open source products that enable DRAM, including shredders, recyclebots and both fused filament and fused particle 3D printers.
These devices have been shown to work not only with the two most popular 3D printing plastics, ABS and PLA, but also a long list of plastics you likely use every day, including PET water bottles. It is now possible to convert any plastic waste with a recycling symbol on it into valuable products.
Furthermore, an “ecoprinting” initiative in Australia has demonstrated DRAM can work in isolated communities with no recycling and no power by using solar-powered systems. This makes DRAM applicable anywhere humans live, waste plastic is abundant and the Sun shines – which is just about everywhere.
Individuals can also profit by 3D-printing for others. Thousands are offering their services in markets like Makexyz, 3D Hubs, Ponoko or Print a Thing.
The Gigabot X 3D printer makes larger items.Samantha Snabes/re:3D, CC BY
Small companies or fab labs can purchase industrial printers like the GigabotX and make high returns printing large sporting goods equipment like snowshoes, skateboard decks and kayak paddles from local waste.
Scaling up
Large companies that make plastic products already recycle their own waste. Now, with DRAM, households can too. If many people start recycling their own plastic, it will help prevent the negative impact that plastic is having on the environment. In this way DRAM may provide a path to a circular economy, but it will not be able to solve the plastic problem until it scales up with more users. Luckily we are already on our way.
3D printer filament is now listed in Amazon Basics along with other “everyday items,” which indicates plastic-based 3D printers are becoming mainstream. Most families still do not have an in-home 3D printer, let alone a reyclebot or GigabotX.
For DRAM to become a viable path to the circular economy, larger tools could be housed at neighborhood-level enterprises such as small local businesses, makerspaces, fabrication labs or even schools. France is already studying the creation of small businesses that would pick up plastic waste at schools to make 3D filament.
I remember saving box tops to help fund my grade school. Future students may bring leftover plastic from home (after making their own products) to help fund their schools using DRAM.
In this artist's concept of NASA's InSight lander on Mars, layers of the planet's subsurface can be seen below, and dust devils can be seen in the background. Credits: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter. The heat probe hasn’t been able to gain the friction it needs to dig, but the mission has been granted an extension to carry on with its other science.
The heat probe developed and built by the German Aerospace Center and deployed on Mars by NASA’s InSight lander has ended its portion of the mission.
Since Feb. 28, 2019, the probe, called the “mole,” has been attempting to burrow into the Martian surface to take the planet’s internal temperature, providing details about the interior heat engine that drives the Mars’ evolution and geology.
But the soil’s unexpected tendency to clump deprived the spike-like mole of the friction it needs to hammer itself to a sufficient depth.
After getting the top of the mole about 2 or 3 centimeters under the surface, the team tried one last time to use a scoop on InSight’s robotic arm to scrape soil onto the probe and tamp it down to provide added friction. After the probe conducted 500 additional hammer strokes on Saturday, Jan. 9, with no progress, the team called an end to their efforts.
Part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), the mole is a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) pile driver connected to the lander by a tether with embedded temperature sensors. These sensors are designed to measure heat flowing from the planet once the mole has dug at least 10 feet (3 meters) deep.
“We’ve given it everything we’ve got, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible,” said HP3’s principal investigator, Tilman Spohn of (DLR). “Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot that will benefit future missions that attempt to dig into the subsurface.”
While NASA’s Phoenix lander scraped the top layer of the Martian surface, no mission before InSight has tried to burrow into the soil. Doing so is important for a variety of reasons: Future astronauts may need to dig through soil to access water ice, while scientists want to study the subsurface’s potential to support microbial life.
“We are so proud of our team who worked hard to get InSight’s mole deeper into the planet. It was amazing to see them troubleshoot from millions of miles away,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This is why we take risks at NASA – we have to push the limits of technology to learn what works and what doesn’t. In that sense, we’ve been successful: We’ve learned a lot that will benefit future missions to Mars and elsewhere, and we thank our German partners from DLR for providing this instrument and for their collaboration.”
Hard-earned wisdom
The unexpected properties of the soil near the surface next to InSight will be puzzled over by scientists for years to come. The mole’s design was based on soil seen by previous Mars missions – soil that proved very different from what the mole encountered. For two years, the team worked to adapt the unique and innovative instrument to these new circumstances.
“The mole is a device with no heritage. What we attempted to do – to dig so deep with a device so small – is unprecedented,” said Troy Hudson, a scientist and engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who has led efforts to get the mole deeper into the Martian crust. “Having had the opportunity to take this all the way to the end is the greatest reward.”
Besides learning about the soil at this location, engineers have gained invaluable experience operating the robotic arm. In fact, they used the arm and scoop in ways they never intended to at the outset of the mission, including pressing against and down on the mole. Planning the moves and getting them just right with the commands they were sending up to InSight pushed the team to grow.
They’ll put their hard-earned wisdom to use in the future. The mission intends to employ the robotic arm in burying the tether that conveys data and power between the lander and InSight’s seismometer, which has recorded more than 480 marsquakes. Burying it will help reduce temperature changes that have created cracking and popping sounds in seismic data.
There’s much more science to come from InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport. NASA recently extended the mission for two more years, to Dec. 2022.
Along with hunting for quakes, the lander hosts a radio experiment that is collecting data to reveal whether the planet’s core is liquid or solid. And InSight’s weather sensors are capable of providing some of the most detailed meteorological data ever collected on Mars.
Together with weather instruments aboard NASA's Curiosity rover and its new Perseverance rover, which lands on Feb. 18, the three spacecraft will create the first meteorological network on another planet.
More about the mission
JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.
A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales, or CNES, and the German Aerospace Center, are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, or IPGP.
Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL.
DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología supplied the temperature and wind sensors.
Madeline Young, an Upper Lake High School sophomore, speaks to a crowd at the “Let Them Play” rally on Friday, January 15, 2021, in downtown Lakeport, California. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. LAKEPORT, Calif. – A large group of parents, students, coaches and other community members gathered in Lakeport Friday afternoon to rally for reopening school sports.
The “Let Them Play” rally, held at Courthouse Museum Park in downtown Lakeport, was one of dozens coordinated to take place across the state on Friday.
For nine months, school sports have been shut down due to COVID-19, and the rallies were meant to bring attention to what supporters say is the need for young people to be able to have sports available to them once again.
Most of Lake County’s schools remain closed to in-person learning due to being in the highest tier, purple, on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Under guidelines issued by the state and the California Interscholastic Federation, the only sport offered at local schools at this time of year that would be allowed is cross country.
A big crowd was on hand Friday afternoon, lining Main Street between Second and Third Streets.
Lake County News counted close to 120 people in the rally area, and Gerard Fowler, one of the event organizers, estimated there were more than 150 participants at the event’s peak.
“For such a short planning time frame I was pleasantly pleased with the turnout,” Fowler said.
Students and their supporters carried signs with messages including “Let us play,” “I love wrestling,” “Put me in, Coach,” “I love volleyball,” “I love softball” and “Science supports sports.”
A flatbed trailer was parked on the street as a stage, and passing motorists honked in support.
Madeline Young, a sophomore and honor roll student at Upper Lake High School, thanked people for coming.
Young said not having school sports is hurting students.
“Let us play,” she said.
Fowler said those participating came from areas including Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lower Lake, Middletown, Ukiah, Upper Lake and Willits, with all local school districts represented.
It was a peaceful rally with no political agendas, he said.
“It was nice to stand united for our children,” Fowler said.
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.
Students were among those lining Main Street with signs on Friday, January 15, 2021, in downtown Lakeport, California, as part of the “Let Them Play” rally, which called for the chance to return to sporting competitions. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.
Ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden, state leaders said this week they are taking measures to protect California’s critical infrastructure.
In Washington, DC, heightened security already is in place following last week’s attack on the U.S. Capitol Building.
In an interview with Lake County News on Thursday, Congressman Mike Thompson described how the U.S. Capitol Building is now surrounded by an 8-foot-tall fence topped with razor wire, with the National Mall closed.
“It’s a pretty heartbreaking situation,” Thompson said.
Earlier this week, the California Highway Patrol, the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the California National Guard said they want to assure Californians that their collective agencies are working together and remain vigilant to respond to potential threats that may occur anywhere in the state, including the State Capitol.
“Collectively, we maintain strong relationships with our security and intelligence partners at the local, state and federal levels and are continually monitoring and sharing information about possible emerging threats to the state,” the agencies reported in a joint statement.
“Together, our role is to safeguard lives and property and ensure that California remains a safe place for those who live, work, and travel within the state while ensuring the ability of individuals and groups to lawfully exercise their First Amendment rights,” the statement added.
Gov. Gavin Newsom followed up by announcing a series of actions to bolster security in advance of the presidential inauguration.
“In light of events in our nation’s capital last week, California is taking important steps to protect public safety at the State Capitol, and across the state,” said Newsom. “Our State Operations Center is actively working with federal, state and local law enforcement partners in assessing threats and sharing intelligence and information to ensure those disgraceful actions are not repeated here.”
Newsom on Thursday signed a general order authorizing the deployment of 1,000 California National Guard personnel to protect critical infrastructure, including the State Capitol.
To prepare for and respond to any credible threats, the State Operations Center will coordinate 24-hour operations and requests for mutual aid for the coming days, Newsom’s office said. The Law Enforcement Coordination Center will be activated to its highest level to orchestrate overall law enforcement and physical security needs.
Officials said the CHP and Department of General Services have installed a 6-foot chain link fence around the perimeter of the State Capitol to ensure the safety of the Capitol grounds.
Newsom’s office said the administration, through the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, California Highway Patrol and California National Guard, maintains strong relationships with security and intelligence partners around the country and is continually monitoring for possible emerging threats to the state.
“We are prepared to address any potential threats that may arise. The Administration is also preparing to provide additional law enforcement resources through the Mutual Aid System as needed,” Newsom’s office said.
The governor and his team are also coordinating closely with local, state and federal law enforcement as well as the private sector – including social media companies – to make sure that their platforms are not used by hate groups or domestic terrorists to organize or spread misinformation, disinformation or propaganda.
On Friday, the state took another step to heighten security, with CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray announcing the CHP would go on tactical alert ahead of the presidential inauguration.
Ray said the CHP is prepared to respond to any potential threats which may arise statewide. “The protection of California highways and state buildings, including the Capitol, are the primary responsibility and jurisdiction of the CHP.”
She added, “Due to the potential for civil unrest related to the 2021 Presidential Inauguration, I have placed uniformed CHP personnel on tactical alert for an indefinite period. This allows for the maximization of resources to protect public safety as well as state buildings and infrastructure. The CHP will continue to monitor the situation and plan our resources accordingly.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it has expanded its network of enhanced weather technology, including weather stations and high-definition fire-watch cameras in areas of elevated or extreme fire risk.
That network has helped reduce the size of each public safety power shutoff, or PSPS, event in 2020 on average by 55 percent, or more than 800,000 customers, PG&E spokesperson Deanna Contreras told Lake County News.
Last year, far fewer Lake County residents were involved in PSPS events when compared to late 2019; at one point during that time, the entire county was out for nearly a week.
In 2020, PG&E installed 400 new weather stations and 216 HD cameras as part of its Community Wildfire Safety Program.
These high-tech tools provide better situational awareness and more precise weather monitoring and forecasting that allow for more precision in determining where a PSPS is needed, the company reported.
As of the end of 2020, PG&E had 1,000 weather stations and 340 cameras in operation throughout Northern and Central California, providing more precise weather data to the company’s team of meteorologists and outside agencies, the company reported.
Contreras said more than 30 of those weather stations and seven cameras are in Lake County.
“We did expand our network in 2020 with several additions in Lake County,” Contreras said.
She said 12 weather stations were installed in 2020 in Lake County, with the last one being placed in October.
The stations allow PG&E to more accurately pinpoint conditions with microlocal forecasting. Contreras said they are able to use the data right away and eliminate an area from PSPS scope.
“As a real-time situational awareness tool, we’re able to use our high-density weather observation network at the start of a PSPS event to assess if forecasted critical fire weather conditions are materializing or not,” explainedAshley Helmetag, PG&E senior meteorologist. “In a PSPS event, if the conditions are not materializing above risk thresholds, then we’re able to use this data as a one of our decision-making support tools to significantly shrink or eliminate an area that was originally in scope for power shut off.”
In addition to PG&E’s in-house meteorology team, the expert staff in the company’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center rely on this real-time information, as well as outside agencies and first-responders as they make critical decisions during wildfire season.
PG&E has been adding to its network of weather stations and cameras since 2018, mostly in high fire-threat areas in Northern and Central California.
The program, which plans to install 1,300 weather stations by the end of 2021, is designed to create a density of roughly one weather station for every 20 miles of electric lines in high fire-threat areas.
By the end of 2022, PG&E plans to have nearly 600 cameras installed. When complete, PG&E expects to have the ability to see in real-time roughly 90 percent of the high fire-risk areas it serves.
The stations provide temperature, wind speed and humidity data that is monitored, tracked and evaluated by PG&E’s meteorology team and analysts in the WSOC.
The WSOC is the hub from which PG&E detects, evaluates and monitors wildfire threats across its service area. It’s also where the company instigates responses to those threats and a center for coordination with first responders and public safety officials.
Weather station observations are available to state and local agencies as well as the public, through PG&E’s website at www.pge.com/weather and through MesoWest.
The WSOC staff also use PG&E’s network of fire-watch cameras to monitor and respond to wildfires. These resources are also available to Cal Fire and other fire agencies, as needed.
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
We found that schools can reopen for in-person instruction without further spreading COVID-19 in nearby communities if the number of people with the disease is relatively low. But if there are more than 21 cases per 100,000 people, COVID-19 spread may increase.
To reach this conclusion, we used data from September through December 2020 in Michigan and Washington states – both of which allowed districts to decide whether or not to offer in-person schooling at that time – to analyze how these different instructional decisions affect COVID-19 case rates.
It’s hard to figure this out because other factors, such as social distancing and the use of masks, could be to blame. So it might appear that going to school in person makes COVID-19 spread, but really it is due to safety habits – or the lack thereof – especially if those same communities are more likely to send students back to school in person.
We tried to address this concern by including information in our statistical analyses on such practices as mask-wearing in a community and how a county voted in 2016. Political preference was an important factor to consider, because Republicans appear less likely than Democrats to comply with COVID-19 safety measures. Republicans are also more likely to encourage in-person instruction during the pandemic.
Despite our findings, coronavirus very likely does transmit in schools to some degree. But the spread of COVID-19 there may simply reflect what’s going on in the surrounding community.
Kids and educators may be just as safe in school buildings – or possibly even safer – than they would be elsewhere.
Why it matters
Most districts closed the doors of their school buildings in March and did not reopen them for the remainder of the school year, instead offering students remote instruction.
Given these challenges, many districts chose to offer in-person or hybrid instruction last fall. But as the number of COVID-19 cases rises, districts like Chicago’s and others are facing the difficult decision of whether to open schools – or to keep them open. To date there has been little data to guide them. Our study provides some of the first U.S.-based evidence to policymakers as they make these difficult choices.
What still isn’t known
While we provide specific estimates of when COVID-19 rates are high enough that the virus will likely spread as a result of opening schools, they should be treated with caution because statistical estimates are subject to error. The takeaway is not to focus on specific thresholds but rather to understand that levels exist at which in-person schooling contributes to community spread.
Moreover, how schools open and the safety measures they take are likely to play a role in terms of what happens with COVID-19 cases. Schools can, for example, bring back only some students, require masks and keep desks spaced several feet apart from one another. These practices probably reduce transmission of the disease.
However, we are not able to assess how much these steps might help because we do not have information on safety protocols in individual schools or whether schools are following those protocols.
What other research is being done
So far, while there are some studies on how COVID-19 has affected learning, especially how the pandemic may be disproportionately harming the education of low-income and minority students, there is not much research about how the disease is spreading in U.S. schools. One study found associations between school closures in the spring of 2020 and reductions in COVID-19 deaths. However, other social distancing policies were enacted at the same time, making the contribution of schools unclear.
A new study found results similar to ours when examining hospitalizations – that in-person instruction was associated with more nearby hospitalizations when existing COVID-19 rates were high, but that there was no such correlation when rates were low.
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