LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several adult cats that it’s looking to place in new homes.

The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

Siamese cat

This Siamese cat of undetermined gender has a long coat and blue eyes.

It’s in kennel No. 16b, ID No. 11840.

Male domestic short hair

This male domestic short hair cat has a gray tabby and white coat, and green eyes.

He’s in kennel No. 73, ID No. 11916.

Female domestic short hair

This female domestic short hair cat has a gray coat.

She’s in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. 11827.

Female lilac point cat

This female lilac point cat has a short coat and blue eyes.

She’s in kennel No. 130, ID No. 11930.

Male domestic longhair

This male domestic longhair cat has a gray tabby and white coat and green eyes.

He’s in cat room kennel No. 138, ID No. 11877.

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

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

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

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

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The annual Redbud Audubon Heron Days event is returning this spring.

Redbud Audubon will continue to follow the format that was started last year with Heron Days taking place over two weekends at two different locations: Lakeside County Park on Saturday, April 27, and Sunday, April 28, and at Clear Lake Campground on Cache Creek in Clearlake on Saturday, May 4, and Sunday, May 5.

The Redbud Audubon Society has held this event for more than 20 years. It includes taking visitors on pontoon boats to different sites on Clear Lake to see nesting great blue herons, egrets and double-crested cormorants.

Often seen on the boat rides are numerous other wildfowl, most notably the Western and Clarkes Grebes that often put on grand displays of “dancing,” across the water as part of their courtship ritual.

Grebes too are often on their nests that are formed on tules along the shoreline in certain areas of the lake.

Boats are careful not to disturb wildlife and visitors are often treated to unexpected sightings such as otters, muskrats, and even bald eagles.

The 90-minute tours will leave between the hours of 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. The tour fee is $30.

Tours from Lakeside County Park follow the shoreline where numerous grebes, cormorants and other wildlife can be viewed as well as an active Great-blue Heron rookery, or nesting site.

The trip from Clear Lake Campground travels into Anderson Marsh and along Cache Creek, which is the location of another heron rookery and may be hosting nesting and mating Western and Clarks Grebes.

Well-behaved children over 8 are welcome but no pets, please.

Registration will open on March 20 and will be available on the Redbud Audubon Web site at www.redbudaudubon.org. You may also call 707-263-8030 for more information.

 

The first signs of a problem started to emerge around 2014: More young people said they felt overwhelmed and depressed. College counseling centers reported sharp increases in the number of students seeking treatment for mental health issues.

Even as studies were showing increases in symptoms of depression and in suicide among adolescents since 2010, some researchers called the concerns overblown and claimed there simply isn’t enough good data to reach that conclusion.

The idea that there’s an epidemic in anxiety or depression among youth “is simply a myth,” psychiatrist Richard Friedman wrote in The New York Times last year. Others suggested young people were simply more willing to get help when they needed it. Or perhaps counseling centers’ outreach efforts were becoming more effective.

But a new analysis of a large representative survey reinforces what I – and others – have been saying: The epidemic is all too real. In fact, the increase in mental health issues among teens and young adults is nothing short of staggering.

An epidemic of anguish

One of the best ways to find out if mental health issues have increased is to talk to a representative sample of the general population, not just those who seek help. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health, administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has done just that.

It surveyed over 600,000 Americans. Recent trends are startling.

From 2009 to 2017, major depression among 20- to 21-year-olds more than doubled, rising from 7 percent to 15 percent. Depression surged 69 percent among 16- to 17-year-olds. Serious psychological distress, which includes feelings of anxiety and hopelessness, jumped 71 percent among 18- to 25-year-olds from 2008 to 2017. Twice as many 22- to 23-year-olds attempted suicide in 2017 compared with 2008, and 55 percent more had suicidal thoughts. The increases were more pronounced among girls and young women. By 2017, one out of five 12- to 17-year-old girls had experienced major depression in the previous year.

Is it possible that young people simply became more willing to admit to mental health problems? My co-authors and I tried to address this possibility by analyzing data on actual suicide rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Suicide is a behavior, so changes in suicide rates can’t be caused by more willingness to admit to issues.

Tragically, suicide also jumped during the period. For example, the suicide rate among 18- to 19-year-olds climbed 56 percent from 2008 to 2017. Other behaviors related to depression have also increased, including emergency department admissions for self-harm, such as cutting, as well as hospital admissions for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.

The large increases in mental health issues in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health appeared almost exclusively among teens and young adults, with less change among Americans ages 26 and over. Even after statistically controlling for the influences of age and year, we found that depression, distress and suicidal thoughts were much higher among those born in the mid- to late-1990s, the generation I call iGen.

The mental health crisis seems to be a generational issue, not something that affects Americans of all ages. And that, more than anything else, might help researchers figure out why it’s happening.

The shift in social life

It’s always difficult to determine the causes behind trends, but some possibilities seem less likely than others.

A troubled economy and job loss, two typical culprits of mental stress, don’t appear to be to blame. That’s because U.S. economic growth was strong and the unemployment rate dropped significantly from 2011 to 2017, when mental health issues were rising the most.

It’s unlikely that academic pressure was the cause, as iGen teens spent less time on homework on average than teens did in the 1990s.

Although the increase in mental health issues occurred around the same time as the opioid epidemic, that crisis seemed to almost exclusively affect adults older than 25.

But there was one societal shift over the past decade that influenced the lives of today’s teens and young adults more than any other generation: the spread of smartphones and digital media like social media, texting and gaming.

While older people use these technologies as well, younger people adopted them more quickly and completely, and the impact on their social lives was more pronounced. In fact, it has drastically restructured their daily lives.

Compared with their predecessors, teens today spend less time with their friends in person and more time communicating electronically, which study after study has found is associated with mental health issues.

No matter the cause, the rise in mental health issues among teens and young adults deserves attention, not a dismissal as a “myth.” With more young people suffering – including more attempting suicide and more taking their own lives – the mental health crisis among American young people can no longer be ignored.

Jean Twenge, Professor of Psychology, San Diego State University

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

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a group of working breeds and smaller dogs available to join new families this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Akbash, Australian Shepherd, beagle, Chihuahua, cocker spaniel, German Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Jack Russell terrier, pit bull, Rhodesian Ridgeback, shepherd, Staffordshire bull terrier and terrier.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

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

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”).

Male Jack Russell terrier

This male Jack Russell terrier has a short black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 4a, ID No. 11900.

Terrier-cocker spaniel mix

This male terrier-cocker spaniel mix has a curly red coat.

He’s in kennel No. 4c, ID No. 11903.

‘Hopps’

“Hopps” is a male terrier-Chihuahua with a short black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 5a, ID No. 11904.

‘Buddy’

“Buddy” is a male beagle with a short brown and white coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 5c, ID No. 11906.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a short fawn coat.

He’s in kennel No. 7, ID No. 11870.

‘Rudy’

“Rudy” is a male Jack Russell terrier-Chihuahua mix.

He has a short tricolor coat.

He’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 11920.

‘Jaelyn’

“Jaelyn” is a female Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11861.

‘JessJess’

“JessJess” is a male Chihuahua with a short tan coat.

He’s already been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 11862.

‘Sarra’

“Sarra” is a female Akbash with a medium-length white coat and green eyes.

Shelter staff said she should go to a home with no cats, small dogs or livestock.

She’s in kennel No. 12, ID No. 11855.

‘Baylee’

“Baylee” is a female pit bull terrier has a short brindle and white coat.

Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, has lived with cats and chickens, and was raised with children.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 14, ID No. 11892.

‘Maebelle’

“Maebelle” is a female pit bull terrier with a short brindle and white coat.

Shelter staff said she is good with other dogs, has lived with cats and chickens, and was raised with a small child.

She’s in kennel No. 15, ID No. 11893.

Male shepherd

This male shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 11879.

‘Bobby Socks’

“Bobby Socks” is a female Staffordshire bull terrier-Rhodesian Ridgeback.

She has a short red coat and has already been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 21, ID No. 11911.

‘Little Foot’

“Little Foot” is a white male Great Pyrenees with a long white coat and gold eyes.

Shelter staff said the right home for him will not have cats, small dogs or livestock.

He’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 11854.

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

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

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

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

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

A NASA spacecraft that will return a sample of a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu to Earth in 2023 made the first-ever close-up observations of particle plumes erupting from an asteroid’s surface.

Bennu also revealed itself to be more rugged than expected, challenging the mission team to alter its flight and sample collection plans, due to the rough terrain.

Bennu is the target of NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission, which began orbiting the asteroid on Dec. 31.

Bennu, which is only slightly wider than the height of the Empire State Building, may contain unaltered material from the very beginning of our solar system.

“The discovery of plumes is one of the biggest surprises of my scientific career,” said Dante Lauretta, OSIRIS-REx principal investigator at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “And the rugged terrain went against all of our predictions. Bennu is already surprising us, and our exciting journey there is just getting started.”

Shortly after the discovery of the particle plumes on Jan. 6, the mission science team increased the frequency of observations, and subsequently detected additional particle plumes during the following two months.

Although many of the particles were ejected clear of Bennu, the team tracked some particles that orbited Bennu as satellites before returning to the asteroid’s surface.

The OSIRIS-REx team initially spotted the particle plumes in images while the spacecraft was orbiting Bennu at a distance of about one mile (1.61 kilometers).

Following a safety assessment, the mission team concluded the particles did not pose a risk to the spacecraft. The team continues to analyze the particle plumes and their possible causes.

“The first three months of OSIRIS-REx’s up-close investigation of Bennu have reminded us what discovery is all about – surprises, quick thinking, and flexibility,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We study asteroids like Bennu to learn about the origin of the solar system. OSIRIS-REx’s sample will help us answer some of the biggest questions about where we come from.”

OSIRIS-REx launched in 2016 to explore Bennu, which is the smallest body ever orbited by spacecraft. Studying Bennu will allow researchers to learn more about the origins of our solar system, the sources of water and organic molecules on Earth, the resources in near-Earth space, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

The OSIRIS-REx team also didn’t anticipate the number and size of boulders on Bennu’s surface. From Earth-based observations, the team expected a generally smooth surface with a few large boulders. Instead, it discovered Bennu’s entire surface is rough and dense with boulders.

The higher-than-expected density of boulders means that the mission’s plans for sample collection, also known as Touch-and-Go (TAG), need to be adjusted. The original mission design was based on a sample site that is hazard-free, with an 82-foot (25-meter) radius.

However, because of the unexpectedly rugged terrain, the team hasn’t been able to identify a site of that size on Bennu. Instead, it has begun to identify candidate sites that are much smaller in radius.

The smaller sample site footprint and the greater number of boulders will demand more accurate performance from the spacecraft during its descent to the surface than originally planned. The mission team is developing an updated approach, called Bullseye TAG, to accurately target smaller sample sites.

“Throughout OSIRIS-REx’s operations near Bennu, our spacecraft and operations team have demonstrated that we can achieve system performance that beats design requirements,” said Rich Burns, the project manager of OSIRIS-REx at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Bennu has issued us a challenge to deal with its rugged terrain, and we are confident that OSIRIS-REx is up to the task.”

The original, low-boulder estimate was derived both from Earth-based observations of Bennu’s thermal inertia – or its ability to conduct and store heat – and from radar measurements of its surface roughness.

Now that OSIRIS-REx has revealed Bennu’s surface up close, those expectations of a smoother surface have been proven wrong. This suggests the computer models used to interpret previous data do not adequately predict the nature of small, rocky, asteroid surfaces. The team is revising these models with the data from Bennu.

The OSIRIS-REx science team has made many other discoveries about Bennu in the three months since the spacecraft arrived at the asteroid, some of which were presented Tuesday at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Conference in Houston and in a special collection of papers issued by the journal Nature.

The team has directly observed a change in the spin rate of Bennu as a result of what is known as the Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack effect.

The uneven heating and cooling of Bennu as it rotates in sunlight is causing the asteroid to increase its rotation speed. As a result, Bennu's rotation period is decreasing by about one second every 100 years.

Separately, two of the spacecraft’s instruments, the MapCam color imager and the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer, have made detections of magnetite on Bennu’s surface, which bolsters earlier findings indicating the interaction of rock with liquid water on Bennu’s parent body.

Goddard provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and the safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, Tucson, is the principal investigator, and the University of Arizona also leads the science team and the mission’s science observation planning and data processing. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the spacecraft and is providing flight operations.

Goddard and KinetX Aerospace are responsible for navigating the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

To find out more about the OSIRIS-REx mission, visit https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Middletown on Friday to proclaim a state of emergency throughout California ahead of the coming fire season and to announce a series of projects and associated efforts to protect life and property.

Newsom gathered with members of the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Brian Martin, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry and state Sen. Mike McGuire, noting he had spoken to them about Lake County’s challenges in wildfire response and recovery since 2015.

“We’re here to celebrate the tenacity and commitment and resolve of this community, and we’re here to do more to support this community as well,” he said.

The governor added that the state wants to help with Lake County’s recovery and rebuilding, help invest in it, “and get this community back on its feet.”

Part of Newsom’s announcement involved expediting forest management projects that will protect 200 of California’s most wildfire-vulnerable communities, in response to a report Cal Fire released earlier this month that identified 35 priority fuel-reduction projects covering 94,000 acres that can be implemented immediately to help reduce the public safety risk for wildfire.

None of those listed projects are in Lake County; among the closest are two in Mendocino County, in Ukiah and Willits, and one in Elk Creek in Glenn County.

That and other parts of the plan are meant to be strategic in protecting 2.2 million homes in the wildland urban interface, he said.

Newsom said he chose to make the declaration “in advance of an emergency” as part of taking a new approach to the state’s fire-related challenges.

“Rather than reacting, we want to get ahead of this by moving forward in an efficient and effective manner to protect lives and protect property, before lives are lost and property is lost,” he said.

He said the action is controversial as some people want to maintain the state’s processes. However, Newsom said the state can choose to go through its usual advertising, procurement and environmental process “or we can actually get some stuff in real time.”

The bottom line, Newsom said, is that the state has to step up its game. “This fire season, it’s right around the corner.”

He added, “We cannot be once again flat-footed and just in a reactive and suppression mode. We’ve got to be much more proactive.”

Last year, 1.9 million acres burned across California, he said.

More than a quarter of that acreage total was burned in the Mendocino Complex, the largest fire in California history since fires began to be recorded, at 459,123 acres. It burned across Mendocino and Lake counties, and into Colusa and Glenn counties from late July into mid September.

The complex, made up of the Ranch and River fires, resulted in thousands of Lake County residents being evacuated, with nearly 300 structures destroyed.

Then in November, the Camp fire destroyed Paradise in Butte County, killing 85 people, and burning more than 18,800 structures and more than 153,000 acres. It was reported to be the deadliest fire in a century.

“We’ve got to do more, we’ve got to do better,” Newsom said.

Sheriff Brian Martin said Lake County has endured a lot. “Lake County really embodies being tough in California.”

He agreed with the governor that it’s important to be proactive. “It’s not a matter of if this is going to happen again, it’s a matter of what we do when it happens again.”

“There is no other county that has been impacted with wildland fire like Lake County,” said Sen. McGuire.

McGuire said 60 percent of Lake County’s land mass has burned since 2015.

Since that time, Lake County has only been able to rebuild 17 percent of its burned homes, with 35 percent still in the permitting process, McGuire said.

That’s compared to the Coffey Park area in Santa Rosa, burned in the October 2017 fire storm. McGuire said that area has seen 75 to 80 percent of its destroyed homes rebuilt or in the permit stage in less than a year and a half.

“This county needs the state’s help,” McGuire said.

Newsom’s plan includes time-saving waivers of administrative and regulatory requirements to protect public safety and allow for action to be taken in the next 12 months, which will begin to systematically address community vulnerability and wildfire fuel buildup through the rapid deployment of forest management resources.

He said that if the California Environmental Quality Act can be fast-tracked for arenas and football stadiums, “we certainly should be able to do so to save people’s lives.”

The governor also said he appreciated President Donald Trump’s visit to Butte County last year in the wake of the Camp fire. “It made a difference. I saw it in the face of the people when he came in.”

Newsom added, “This is not an area for politics. Emergency preparedness, recovery, is not an area for politics. We all have to rise above it.” The governor said he had reached out to the president privately to express those sentiments.

Other parts of the governor’s plan to be proactive include the following:

– The “Innovation Procurement Sprint” seeks to turn government contracting on its head by giving the best and brightest minds an opportunity to have their wildfire solutions tested and evaluated in the field. The governor ordered this “sprint” so that the best tools and technologies can be purchased under government contract while they are still cutting-edge, in an effort to save lives and properties.

– The $50 million California for All Emergency Preparedness Campaign, a joint initiative between Cal Volunteers and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, will augment the efforts of first responders by ensuring at least one million of the most vulnerable Californians are connected to culturally and linguistically competent support.

– The California Natural Resources Agency and the Department of Conservation have announced the award of $20 million in block grants for regional projects that improve forest health and increase fire resiliency. This Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program helps communities prioritize, develop and implement projects that strengthen fire resiliency.

– The administration is publishing Emergency Alert and Warning Guidelines. The guidelines, which were mandated as a result of SB 833 (McGuire), aim to help cities, counties and the state get on the same page when it comes to communicating with Californians in an emergency.

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.

3.22.19 Wildfire State of Emergency by LakeCoNews on Scribd