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LAKEPORT, Calif. – Do you love your local library? If so, why not volunteer?

Volunteers are an important part of the Lake County Library team, recording more than 270 hours of work per month at all four branches of the Library system.

Between 20 and 25 volunteers assist library staff at all branches and about eighty volunteer literacy tutors teach other adults to read.

Volunteers help the library in a variety of ways and are an integral part of providing quality library service to the public. The library is currently recruiting volunteers for specific positions at all four libraries.

The Lakeport Library is looking for a library aide who could come once a week to help shelve books and put library materials away.

The Redbud Library in Clearlake is looking for two volunteers. The library needs a library aide who could come in once a week to help shelve library materials. They are also looking for someone with experience reading to children to help present library storytime to grade school children in the afternoon on Thursday, as a complement to the toddler storytime.

Middletown Library is looking for a volunteer who can come in once a week to help sort through incoming donations.

Upper Lake Library is looking for a volunteer who could work weekly on Thursday afternoon to help cover the circulation desk during library storytime.

As a volunteer you will gain skills and knowledge that can help you in your career or your personal life. Students and others can gain community service credit while helping connect the community to books and learning. Anyone over the age of 15 can volunteer at the library.

Volunteers search for books that are requested or missing, and search for books that need to be cleaned, repaired or discarded, while other volunteers shelve books or straighten and organize shelves. Volunteers check in requested items, sort donated books, prepare craft kits for storytimes and inventory the shelves. Some volunteers learn to work at the circulation desk and sort book deliveries.

Besides these specific jobs, the library has many different tasks and welcomes volunteers with a variety of different skills, interests, and abilities. Potential volunteers can fill out a short application in person or online. Previous library work experience isn’t required to be a volunteer.

Be sure to check out the library’s Web site and online application at http://library.lakecountyca.gov by clicking “About” and choosing “Volunteer at the Library.”

You can also visit your local branch, or call the main library in Lakeport at 707-263-8817 for more information.

Jan Cook is a technician at the Lake County Library.

“The only thing to do was keep swinging,” Henry Aaron once said, “My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field.”

That was Henry “Hank” Aaron’s approach to life on and off the baseball diamond.

In the early 1970s when Hammerin’ Hank was getting closer to overtaking Babe Ruth as baseball’s all-time home-run champion, Aaron needed to remember that mantra more than ever.

He wasn’t worried about nerves making his bat unsteady, or eye unfocused – he was a consummate athlete after all. But as he grew closer to that 715 mark, the hate mail began to arrive in greater numbers than ever before.

This week in history marks several important anniversaries in the march towards equality.

On April 8, 1975, Frank Robinson of the Cleveland Indians, made his debut as the first black manager of a major league baseball team.

On April 11, 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black major league baseball player when he played an exhibition game as a Brooklyn Dodger.

Among these momentous occasions is Hank Aaron’s story of perseverance in the face of hate.

One year to the day before Frank Robinson broke the color barrier as a manager of a baseball team, Hank Aaron became the world’s leading home-run champion.

Looking back at it as a single event, as a “day in history,” does not do service to the accomplishment.

Aaron’s struggle to that moment on April 8, 1974, was as much an accomplishment as that record-breaking home run itself.

At the time, people were still marching for freedom, advocating for black rights. Battles had been won, but the war was just beginning.

Only a decade had elapsed since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Such deep-seated prejudice and hatred usually takes generations to breed out of society. And here was Aaron, a black man, looking to overtake the record of white baseball’s beloved icon, in the face of the same bigots who hosed peaceful protesters and firebombed black churches.

Hank Aaron had played in the big leagues since 1952. He was a veteran, of both baseball and the racism directed at black athletes. And yet, the nearly 3,000 letters he received each day starting in the summer of 1973 overwhelmed even him.

Years later, when he was asked about the hate mail, Aaron quietly remarked, “this changed me.” He received so many letters each day that he had to hire a secretary to sift through them. Not all were full of hate, but enough were.

“You’re black so you have no business here.”

“I’D LIKE TO KILL YOU!! BANG BANG YOUR DEAD. P.S. it mite happen.”

"Dear Nigger Henry, You are (not) going to break this record established by the great Babe Ruth if I can help it. ... Whites are far more superior than jungle bunnies. . My gun is watching your every black move."

They go on and on. Life mantras were made for times like these. With the aid of his own, Aaron slipped into the sort of calm and quiet efficiency that he had maintained his entire career in the big leagues.

So when he stepped up to bat in the 4th inning on April 8, 1974 in Atlanta, he knew what he had to do. Just keep swinging.

He did more than that; he clobbered the ball, sending it rocketing over the left centerfield wall and propelling his name into history.

As he rounded the bases, the Braves fans went wild, two college students jumping onto the field and running alongside him until security escorted them off the field. The new homerun king was mobbed at home plate by his teammates.

More than 30 years later, Hank Aaron still had his record, only losing it in 2007 when another black baseball player hit his 756th home run.

Even now, Aaron still keeps some of those hate letters. When asked why, he responds, "I read the letters, because they remind me not to be surprised or hurt. They remind me what people are really like."

He wasn’t terribly surprised, then, when he faced the same hatred once more, this time 40 years later.

In April of 2014, following an interview in which he remarked on the challenges then-President Barack Obama faced, Aaron received dozens of racist letters.

They contained the same vitriol, the same spelling errors and the same lack of human decency as the hate mail he had been carrying for decades. The irony was, the letters he received actually seemed to prove the very comments he made in the interview that sparked the outrage in the first place.

“Sure, this country has a black president,” Aaron had said to the reporter, “We have moved in the right direction, and there have been improvements, but we still have a long ways to go in the country. The bigger difference is that back then they had hoods. Now they have neckties and starched shirts.”

Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – With the six-month anniversary of the North Bay fire storm arriving on Sunday, new legislation setting statewide emergency alert protocols is heading to its first official Senate committee hearing on Tuesday.

“The size and scope of wildland fire events in California are only getting worse. It’s clear there are significant shortcomings in our emergency alert system and residents deserve timely notifications and up-to-date information,” said State Sen. Mike McGuire. “Lives depend on the Legislature and governor taking swift action to ensure statewide emergency alert standards are adopted, training is implemented, and funding is secured to ensure communities big and small have reliable alert systems deployed.”

SB 833 was introduced by Sen. McGuire, along with joint authors Senators Bill Dodd and Jerry Hill, and principal co-authors Assemblymembers Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Marc Levine and Jim Wood.

The bill will create statewide emergency alert protocols for the first time in California history.

There are several different emergency warning systems available to counties that alert residents through cell phone calls, text messages, and landline recordings.

Some systems require residents to “opt-in” to the alert notifications, and others have limitations on how they can be targeted in specific areas.

SB 833 will require every county in California to adopt the up-to-date wireless emergency alert system with trained operators who can implement an evacuation order using the alert system (or a state sanctioned equivalent system).

The legislation also will set out standards for when counties should use the system, mandate annual training for emergency managers on how to best utilize the system, require that alerts be sent out via landline telephones and mobile phones along with other communication mediums including radio, television and electronic highway billboards, facilitate communication between counties and the state at the start of a disaster, and create guidelines and protocols for when and how the alerts should be sent.

The legislation will also mandate that all emergency alert systems be opt-out, no longer opt-in.

During the October 2017 Firestorm, thousands of residents in the path of the fires didn’t receive any notifications or emergency alerts.

The fires destroyed more than 6,000 homes, scorched more than 170,000 acres, caused billions in damage, and resulted in the death of more than 40 residents.

Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner will testify in support of SB 833 Tuesday, which will be heard in the Senate Governmental Organization Committee beginning at 9:30 a.m.

Supporting SB 833 are the California Fire Chiefs Association; California Professional Firefighters; Fire Districts Association of California; California Ambulance Association; League of California Cities; Rural County Representatives of California; City of Santa Rosa; County of Napa; County of Sonoma; Marin County Council of Mayors and Councilmembers; and the Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council, among many other groups.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This week Lake County Animal Care and Control has a shelter filled with big dogs – and a few puppies – ready to enjoy spring with new families.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of German Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, Labrador Retriever, pit bull, shepherd and Siberian Husky.

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”).

Female shepherd mix puppy

This female shepherd mix puppy has a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 2a, ID No. 9732.

Female shepherd mix puppy

This female shepherd mix puppy has a short tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 2b, ID No. 9733.

Pit bull terrier

This female pit bull terrier has a short brown and blue coat.

She’s in kennel No. 7, ID No. 9588.

Pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix

This male pit bull-Labrador Retriever mix has a short black coat.

He already has been neutered.

He’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 9591.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

She's a sweet and friendly girl who walks nicely on a leash and appears to know basic commands.

She is in kennel No. 12, ID No. 9657.

‘Samson’

“Samson” is a male Siberian Husky mix.

He has a long gray and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 17, ID No. 9727.

‘Camilia’

“Camilia” is a female German Shepherd mix with a long black and brown coat.

She’s in kennel No. 20, ID No. 9694.

‘Onyx’

“Onyx” is a female shepherd mix.

She has a medium-length black coat with white markings, and already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 4174.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a medium-length tan and black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 25, ID No. 9708.

‘Atlas’

“Atlas” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 26, ID No. 9712.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a medium-length tan and black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 27, ID No. 9706.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a medium-length tan and black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 9710.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

She’s in kennel No. 29, ID No. 9709.

‘Oso’

“Oso” is a male Labrador Retriever-Great Pyrenees mix.

He has a medium-length black coat.

He’s in kennel No. 31, ID No. 9798.

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.

BERKELEY, Calif. – Thanks to a rare cosmic alignment, astronomers have captured the most distant normal star ever observed, some 9 billion light years from Earth.

While astronomers routinely study galaxies much farther away, they’re visible only because they glow with the brightness of billions of stars. And a supernova, often brighter than the galaxy in which it sits, also can be visible across the entire universe. Beyond a distance of about 100 million light years, however, the stars in these galaxies are impossible to make out individually.

But a phenomenon called gravitational lensing – the bending of light by massive galaxy clusters in the line of sight – can magnify the distant universe and make dim, far away objects visible.

Typically, lensing magnifies galaxies by up to 50 times, but in this case, the star was magnified more than 2,000 times. It was discovered in NASA Hubble Space Telescope images taken in late April of 2016 and as recently as April 2017.

“You can see individual galaxies out there, but this star is at least 100 times farther away than the next individual star we can study, except for supernova explosions,” said former UC Berkeley postdoctoral scholar Patrick Kelly, now on the faculty at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Kelly is first author of a paper about the discovery appearing online this week in advance of publication in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The discovery of the star, which astronomers often refer to as Icarus rather than by its formal name, MACS J1149 Lensed Star 1 (LS1), kicks off a new technique for astronomers to study individual stars in galaxies formed during the earliest days of the universe. These observations can provide a rare look at how stars evolve, especially the most luminous ones.

“For the first time ever we’re seeing an individual normal star – not a supernova, not a gamma ray burst, but a single stable star – at a distance of nine billion light years,” said Alex Filippenko, a professor of astronomy at UC Berkeley and one of many co-authors of the report. “These lenses are amazing cosmic telescopes.”

The astronomy team also used Icarus to test and reject one theory of dark matter – that it consists of numerous primordial black holes lurking inside galaxy clusters – and to probe the make-up of normal matter and dark matter in the galaxy cluster.

Einstein ring

Kelly noticed the star while monitoring a supernova he had discovered in 2014 while using Hubble to peer through a gravitational lens in the constellation Leo.

That supernova, dubbed SN Refsdal in honor of the late Norwegian astrophysicist Sjur Refsdal, a pioneer of gravitational lensing studies, was split into four images by the lens, a massive galaxy cluster called MACS J1149+2223, located about 5 billion light years from Earth.

Suspecting that Icarus might be more highly magnified than SN Refsdal, Kelly and his team analyzed the colors of the light coming from it and discovered it was a single star, a blue supergiant.

This B-type star is much larger, more massive, hotter and possibly hundreds of thousands of times intrinsically brighter than our Sun, though still much too far away to see without the amplification of gravitational lensing.

By modeling the lens, they concluded that the tremendous apparent brightening of Icarus was probably caused by a unique effect of gravitational lensing. While an extended lens, like a galaxy cluster, can only magnify a background object up to 50 times, smaller objects can magnify much more.

A single star in a foreground lens, if precisely aligned with a background star, can magnify the background star thousands of times. In this case, a star about the size of our sun briefly passed directly through the line of sight between the distant star Icarus and Hubble, boosting its brightness more than 2,000 times.

In fact, if the alignment was perfect, that single star within the cluster turned the light from the distant star into an “Einstein ring”: a halo of light created when light from the distant star bends around all sides of the lensing star. The ring is too small to discern from this distance, but the effect made the star easily visible by magnifying its apparent brightness.

Kelly saw a second star in the Hubble image, which could either be a mirror image of Icarus, or a different star being gravitationally lensed.

“There are alignments like this all over the place as background stars or stars in lensing galaxies move around, offering the possibility of studying very distant stars dating from the early universe, just as we have been using gravitational lensing to study distant galaxies,” Filippenko said. “For this type of research, nature has provided us with a larger telescope than we can possibly build!”

As for Icarus, the astronomers predict that it will be magnified many times over the next decade as cluster stars move around, perhaps increasing its brightness as much as 10,000 times.

The research by Kelly and Filippenko was supported by funds from NASA, the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, TABASGO Foundation and Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at UC Berkeley.

Robert Sanders writes for the UC Berkeley News Center.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that a body has been recovered near the site of the vehicle crash that last week killed members of a Washington family, three of whose children have remained missing.

Lt. Shannon Barney said the body of a black female was found in the surf of the Pacific Ocean at Juan Creek and Highway 1 in Westport on Saturday afternoon.

Barney said that location is in the immediate vicinity where, on March 26, the bodies of Jennifer Jean Hart and Sarah Margaret Hart, both age 38, and three of their children, Markis Hart, 19, Jeremiah Hart, 14, and Abigail Hart, 14, all of Woodland, Wash., were found along with their GMC Yukon SUV at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff at the edge of a dirt turnout along Highway 1, as Lake County News has reported.

The bodies of the two women were inside the SUV while the three children were found nearby, two of them on the rocky shoreline and one in the water, authorities said.

None of the family members were belted in and there were no signs of brake or skidmarks, leading authorities to suspect that the crash may have been intentional.

When the wreck was discovered, there was no sign of the family’s three other children – Devonte Hart, 15, Hannah Hart, 16, and Sierra Hart, 12 – who were believed to have been on the trip.

Searches for the children have continued along the coastline up through Friday, but they were called off temporarily for the weekend due to the storms which have brought heavy rains and winds to the Mendocino Coast over the past few days, according to Mendocino County Sheriff’s Capt. Greg Van Patten.

Then, just before 2 p.m. on Saturday, Barney said the California Highway Patrol received a call regarding the discovery of the body in the surf.

Barney said the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office responded to the location to conduct a coroner's investigation and learned that a couple, vacationing along the coast, observed a possible body floating in the surf near Juan Creek.

The Westport Fire Department had patrolled the area an hour prior but did not see anything, Barney said.

However, Barney said the body was pulled from the surf, onto the beach, by a third bystander where it was later recovered by Westport Fire.

The recovered body appears to be that of a black female but the age and a positive identity could not be determined, Barney said.

That raises the possibility that the body could be one of the missing Hart children, all of whom were black. The couple, who were white, had reportedly adopted all six children.

Barney said there were no signs of the other missing Hart children.

An autopsy will be conducted on Tuesday and the cause of death is unknown, Barney said.

Barney said the sheriff's office is investigating the possibility that the body may be one of the two missing Hart girls but identification will most likely be done through DNA analysis, a process that can take several weeks.

It is not uncommon after a significant storm, such as the one passing through the North State currently, to bring items to the surface or wash onto the beach, Barney said.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is monitoring the ocean conditions to see when further searches might be safely conducted. Barney said this evaluation includes the possible use of divers if conditions permit.

Authorities are continuing to gather information about the family’s whereabouts in the days before the fatal wreck.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the CHP’s Ukiah Area office at 707-467-4000 or the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at 707-234-2100 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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.

040518 Hart children missing persons flier by LakeCoNews on Scribd