News

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Gov. Jerry Brown made a surprise visit to Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and to the Elem Indian Colony on Friday evening.

Brown was accompanied by Christina Snider, tribal advisor and executive secretary for the Native American Heritage Commission.

They were invited by Dino Beltran, Koi tribal executive officer, and were met at the park by Beltran and archaeologist Dr. John Parker.

Just as Brown’s car was arriving, a bald eagle flew over the park entrance from a tree somewhere along Seigler Creek, Parker reported.

The group discussed what could be done to address the staffing and security needs of the park.

The governor expressed dismay that the park gate was locked and not open to the public except on weekends.

He expressed support for the preservation of the cultural sites at the park and his personal interest in maintaining the wildlife diversity of the area.

Following the brief meeting, Gov. Brown and his staff followed Beltran to the Elem Indian Colony to dine with the tribe and participate in a traditional round-house ceremony.

“This is a huge event, it is a first,” said Parker. “As far as I know, no governor has ever attended a traditional round-house ceremony on any reservation in the state.”

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Racers from all over the country will return to Library Park for the second annual Lakeport Sprint Boat Grand Prix on Saturday, June 2, and Sunday, June 3.

The races will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days.

The two-day event will feature five race classes and vintage boat exhibitions. Race classes include Sportsman Extreme Runabout, GPS-100, Unblown Flat, K Racing Runabout and Grand National. The fastest of the competing boats are rated at up to 140 miles per hour.

The race will be sanctioned by the Southern California Speedboat Club.

“We are excited by the public’s interest in bringing the sprint boat races back to Lakeport for the 2nd year,” said racing promoter, Jack Long. “The city and county have approved the permits for the event, so all hands are on deck. It is a wonderful community event and great for Lake County.”

The event will feature a beer and wine garden, food vendors, craft and retail vendors, free face painting for kids and more.

Tickets can be purchased online at www.sprintboatgrandprix.com or locally at Twin Pine Casino & Hotel Gift Shop, Steele Winery Tasting Room or the Lake County Fairground Office at 401 Martin St. in Lakeport.

Those planning to attend are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance to avoid long ticket lines at the gate.

“We encourage you to bring your chairs and blankets to enjoy the races. There will be limited grandstand seating. Pop-up tents are allowed in select areas of the park. Be sure to come early to get a good spot,” said Long.

Volunteers are needed to work in two areas. Those with a boat or personal watercraft can volunteer to be part of the Water Brigade Team to help secure the perimeter of the race course.

Individuals who would like to take part in the race management team will assist with monitoring the gates, scanning tickets and general support.

Volunteers will receive a free event t-shirt, lunch and a complimentary general admission ticket for each day they work.

Go to www.sprintboatgrandprix.com and click on the volunteer link at the bottom of the page to apply.

The second annual Lakeport Sprint Boat Grand Prix is sponsored by Twin Pine Casino & Hotel, Steele Wines, Black Mountain Properties LLC, Ruzicka Associates, Valley Oaks, Eagle Distributing, Hillside Powersports & Marine and the Lake County Fair.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Ricky and Debra Bronson have been welcomed into their new Clearlake home thanks to the efforts of Habitat for Humanity Lake County.

Despite the delays of last year’s Sulphur Fire in the vicinity, construction went forward and was finally completed, Habitat for Humanity reported.

“We’re at a point in our lives where we just want to stop, to have a place that’s ours where we don’t have to worry about the future,” said Ricky Bronson. “Habitat came into our lives at the right time, and we’re glad for the opportunity we’ve been given.”

If you are a low-income first-time homebuyer interested in the prospect of homeownership, or if you lost your residence in one of Lake County’s wildfires, please contact Habitat for Humanity at 707-994-1100, Extension 106, or come by the office at 15312 Lakeshore Drive, Clearlake for a pre-application and discuss if you too might qualify.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – California agencies combating the spread of invasive quagga and zebra mussels remind boaters to remain cautious over Memorial Day weekend.

Quagga and zebra mussels are invasive freshwater mussels native to Eurasia. They multiply quickly, encrust watercraft and infrastructure, alter water quality and the aquatic food web and ultimately impact native and sport fish communities. These mussels spread from one waterbody to another by attaching to watercraft, equipment and nearly anything that has been in an infested waterbody.

Invisible to the naked eye, microscopic juveniles are spread from infested waterbodies by water that is entrapped in boat engines, bilges, live-wells and buckets. Quagga mussels have infested 33 waterways in Southern California and zebra mussels have infested two waterways in San Benito County.

To prevent the spread of these mussels and other aquatic invasive species, people launching vessels at any waterbody are subject to watercraft inspections and are strongly encouraged to clean, drain and dry their motorized and nonmotorized boats, including personal watercraft, and any equipment that contacts the water before and after use.

"Quagga mussels pose a serious threat to California's aquatic resources," California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Habitat Conservation Planning Branch Chief Rick Macedo said. "As the boating season begins, the public is encouraged to Clean, Drain and Dry their watercraft and equipment after every use to prevent the movement of invasive species throughout the state."

Take the following steps both before traveling to and before leaving a waterbody to prevent spreading invasive mussels, improve the efficiency of your inspection experience and safeguard California waterways:

– CLEAN: Inspect exposed surfaces and remove all plants and organisms;
– DRAIN: All water, including water contained in lower outboard units, livewells and bait buckets; and
– DRY: Allow the watercraft to thoroughly dry between launches. Watercraft should be kept dry for at least five days in warm weather and up to 30 days in cool weather.

CDFW has developed a brief video demonstrating the ease of implementing the clean, drain and dry prevention method. In addition, a detailed guide to cleaning vessels of invasive mussels is available on the CDFW's webpage. Additional information is available on the Division of Boating and Waterways Web site.

Travelers are also advised to be prepared for inspections at California Department of Food and Agriculture Border Protection Stations.

Over the past nine years, more than 1 million watercraft entering California have been inspected at the Border Protection Stations.

Inspections, which can also be conducted by CDFW and California State Parks, include a check of boats and personal watercraft, as well as trailers and all onboard items. Contaminated vessels and equipment are subject to decontamination, rejection, quarantine or impoundment.

Quagga and zebra mussels can attach to and damage virtually any submerged surface.

They can:

– Ruin a boat engine by blocking the cooling system and causing it to overheat;
– Jam a boat's steering equipment, putting occupants and others at risk;
– Require frequent scraping and repainting of boat hulls;
– Colonize all underwater substrates such as boat ramps, docks, lines and other underwater surfaces, causing them to require constant cleaning;
– Impose large expenses to owners.

A multi-agency effort that includes CDFW, DBW, CDFA and the California Department of Water Resources has been leading an outreach campaign to alert the public to the quagga and zebra mussel threats.

A toll-free hotline, 866-440-9530, is available for those seeking information on quagga or zebra mussels.

NASA's InSight lander has made its first course correction toward Mars.

InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first mission dedicated to exploring the deep interior of Mars.

The lander is currently encapsulated in a protective aeroshell, which launched on top of an Atlas V 401 rocket on May 5 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California.

On Tuesday, the spacecraft fired its thrusters for the first time to change its flight path. This activity, called a trajectory correction maneuver, will happen a maximum of six times to guide the lander to Mars.

Every launch starts with a rocket. That's necessary to get a spacecraft out past Earth's gravity – but rockets don't complete the journey to other planets.

Before launch, every piece of hardware headed to Mars is cleaned, limiting the number of Earth microbes that might travel on the spacecraft.

However, the rocket and its upper stage, called a Centaur, don’t get the same special treatment.

As a result, Mars launches involve aiming the rocket just off-target so that it flies off into space.

Separately, the spacecraft performs a series of trajectory correction maneuvers guiding it to the Red Planet. This makes sure that only the clean spacecraft lands on the planet, while the upper stage does not come close.

Precise calculations are required for InSight to arrive at exactly the right spot in Mars' atmosphere at exactly the right time, resulting in a landing on Nov. 26.

Every step of the way, a team of navigators estimates the position and velocity of the spacecraft. Then they design maneuvers to deliver it to an entry point at Mars. That navigation team is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which leads the InSight mission.

"This first maneuver is the largest we'll conduct," said Fernando Abilleira of JPL, InSight's deputy mission design and navigation manager. "The thrusters will fire for about 40 seconds to impart a velocity change of 3.8 meters per second [8.5 mph] to the spacecraft. That will put us in the right ballpark as we aim for Mars."

Especially at the beginning of that cruise, navigators rely on NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) to track the spacecraft. The DSN is a system of antennas located at three sites around the Earth. As the planet rotates, each of these sites comes into range of NASA's spacecraft, pinging them with radio signals to track their positions. The antennas also send and receive data this way.

The DSN can give very accurate measurements about spacecraft position and velocity. But predicting where InSight will be after it fires its thrusters requires lots of modeling, Abilleira said.

As the cruise to Mars progresses, navigators have more information about the forces acting on a spacecraft. That lets them further refine their models. Combined with DSN tracking measurements, these models allow them to precisely drive the spacecraft to the desired entry point.

"Navigation is all about statistics, probability and uncertainty," Abilleira said. "As we gather more information on the forces acting on the spacecraft, we can better predict how it's moving and how future maneuvers will affect its path."

Yesterday's 40-second burn relies on four of eight thrusters on the spacecraft. A separate group of four is autonomously fired on a daily basis to keep the spacecraft's solar panels trained on the Sun and its antennas pointed at Earth.

While necessary to maintain orientation, these small, daily firings also introduce errors that navigators have to account for and counterbalance.

"Everyone has been working hard since launch to assess what these small forces have done to the trajectory," said Allen Halsell of JPL, InSight's navigation team chief. "People have worked lots of hours to look at that. For engineers, it's a very interesting problem, and fun to try to figure out."

When the spacecraft is just a few hours from Mars, the planet's gravitational pull, or gravity well, will begin to reel the spacecraft in.

At that point, InSight's team will prepare for the next milestone after cruise: entering Mars' atmosphere, descending to the surface and sticking InSight's landing.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The InSight spacecraft, including cruise stage and lander, was built and tested by Lockheed Martin Space in Denver.

Find more information about InSight at https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/. Follow InSight's path to Mars by visiting NASA's Eyes on the Solar System, https://go.nasa.gov/2FSWReg.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s the season of “Pomp and Circumstance” as high school and community college graduations begin around Lake County on Friday.

Hundreds of students will be accepting their high school and college degrees in ceremonies that continue through June 15.

The following is a chronological listing of graduation events. Thanks to the high schools, districts and the Lake County Office of Education for assistance in compiling the information.

FRIDAY, MAY 25

Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College

The Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College will hold commencement ceremonies on its campus lawn at 15880 Dam Road Extension in Clearlake.

At 1 p.m. students who have earned certificates of achievement will be recognized. Clearlake Oaks resident Richard Nutting is the student speaker.

At 6 p.m., students who have earned an associate in arts or associate in science degree will be recognized for their accomplishments at the graduation ceremony hosted by Executive Dean Annette Lee. Yuba Community College District Board of Trustees Vice President Richard (Doc) Savarese will confer the degrees. The student speaker will be Lena Murphy of Cobb.

Mendocino College

Commencement ceremonies at Mendocino College will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m. on the stadium field at the Ukiah campus, 1000 Hensley Creek Road.

Rebecca "Maggie" Magdalena Escobedo-Steele, the founder of Seventh Generation Warriors for Peace, will deliver the commencement keynote address to the Mendocino College Class of 2018.

Upper Lake High School

The Upper Lake High School graduation ceremony will be held this Friday, May 25, at 7 p.m. on the school’s football field, 675 Clover Valley Road.

Th Upper Lake High class of 2018 has 62 students.

This year there are five valedictorians: Nicholas Warner, Anisha Kalan, Delaney Love, Daniela Estrada-Flores and Elizabeth Rosas-Moreno.

Clear Lake High School

Clear Lake High School’s graduation will take place beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Don Owens Stadium, 350 Lange St.

The class of 2018 includes 102 members, 101 of whom are walking in Friday’s ceremony.

This year’s valedictorian is Michael Camacho. Alexis Burke is salutatorian.

TUESDAY, MAY 29

Loconoma Continuation High School

Loconoma Continuation High School’s graduation will take place at 7 p.m. at the Middletown High School’s Bill Foltmer Field, 20802 Big Canyon Road.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30

Richard Lewis School

Richard Lewis School’s graduation will be held at 2 p.m. at the Konocti Education Center, 15850 Dam Road Extension A, Clearlake.

Carlé Continuation High School

Carlé Continuation High School’s class of 2018 will graduation at 6 p.m. at the school’s gym, 9345 Winchester St., Lower Lake.

FRIDAY, JUNE 1

Konocti Education Center

Konocti Education Center’s graduation will take place beginning at 2 p.m. at the Cornelison Event Center, 15850 A Dam Road Extension.

Middletown High School

Middletown High School’s graduation ceremony will begin at 6:45 p.m. on Bill Foltmer Field, 20802 Big Canyon Road.

School officials said 103 students are graduating.

This year there are four valedictorians: Treeanna Brownfield, Amy Herrmann, Kyle Pryor-Landman and Amida Verhey. Derrick Frassi is salutatorian.

Lower Lake High School

The Lower Lake High School graduation ceremony will take place beginning at 7:30 p.m. on the football field, 9430 Lake St.

School Registrar Sue Steiner said that, with senior finals still taking place this week, the number of graduates hasn’t been confirmed.

The class valedictorian is Elizabeth Wetmore. Steiner said the salutatorian hasn’t yet been determined.

MONDAY, JUNE 11

Donaldson Alternative Education

Donaldson Alternative Education’s graduation will take place beginning at 6 p.m. at the Kelseyville High School Student Center, 5480 Main St.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15

Kelseyville High School

Kelseyville High’s class of 2018 will graduate in a ceremony beginning at 8 p.m. on the school’s football field, 5480 Main St.

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.