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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The roar of engines echoed across Clear Lake on Saturday as sprint boats came to Lake County to compete.

An estimated 1,000 spectators visited downtown Lakeport on Saturday for day one of the inaugural Lakeport Sprint Boat Grand Prix.

The competition’s classes include K Class, Unblown Flat Bottom, GPS – 100, Sportsmen Extreme, Formula Light Tunnel Boats and Vintage Race boats.

The video above features highlights of the action on Saturday, as well as interviews with racers and event Chairman Jack Long.

Action continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Tickets are available at the event or online at www.sprintboatgrandprix.com .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Turkey vultures are knocked for their vulgar habits which, let's face it, keep our roads and valleys neat and clean – even keeping disease at bay.

But these carrion-eating birds who excrete on themselves to keep cool, regurgitate and “dive” head first into their dead prey do possess bizarre table manners to say the least!

The vulture's scientific name, Cathartes aura, is derived from the Greek word “katharsis,” which means to wash or purge.

The adult turkey vulture's red, nearly naked head allows it to keep itself clean after it feeds on carrion. 

These impressive-looking birds are included in the few species of birds that possess a sense of smell.

Their highly developed sense of smell alerts them to decaying, dead animals, so they usually do not find it necessary to make a kill.

These scavengers do, at times consume the odd plant or insect.

Ornithologists have determined that the portion of the brain that processes smell in a turkey vulture is much larger when compared to birds of comparable size.

Scientists have also determined that as the turkey vultures soar, which they are able to do at quite low altitudes, they pick up odors of carrion. Conversely, these interesting birds may also soar at heights up to four miles.

When you see a number of vultures circling, that is called a “kettle,” as they appear to be boiling up out of the landscape.

These enormous birds often achieve a 6-foot wingspan, and are quite graceful when viewed soaring on the thermals – those layers of heated air above. 

Many birders refer to turkey vultures as TVs, and they are also called turkey buzzard or plain “buzzard.”

Since their silhouettes form a “V” while in flight they are easy to discern – “V” for vulture.

Turkey vultures have been noted to nest in burned-out or hollow tree stumps. Their breeding season here is in the summer months.

If you happen to note vultures hopping, you are witnessing their special courtship practice. Then, several birds will make a circle, and, wings partially extended, they will hop about the circle and begin to follow one another.

They may nest in one of many protected sites, such as a cave, crevice or even in understory, with nests of scant construction.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also formerly wrote for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College and the Konocti Unified School District have announced the award of the California State Chancellor's Office Middle College High School Grant to create and support the first middle college model in Lake County.

The dual college and high school enrollment program at the Konocti Education Center Medical Career Pathway Program will expand to increase the opportunity for high school students to take college courses that can be applied toward a high school diploma and toward a college degree or certificate.

Located adjacent to the Woodland Community College Lake County Campus, Konocti Education Center's Medical Career Pathway Program already requires students to take two college courses in order to receive their high school diploma.

This program will enable Konocti Education Center students, during their regular school day, to take a majority of the college credits necessary for them to obtain an associate's degree for transfer to a four-year university or specialized health training program by the end of their four years in high school.

This unique course delivery model will also provide Konocti Education Center students free access to their college units and textbooks, at an estimated total cost savings for families at approximately $6,000 per student.

Students will receive supplemental instruction, peer models and coaching, small class sizes, specialized counseling and curricula, academic support, monitoring of coursework throughout the process, and will follow the alignment of a medical pathway leading to a career in the field.

Because of the Konocti Education Center Medical Career Pathway Program's close proximity to the Woodland Community College Lake Campus, students will attend classes on both the high school and college campuses enabling them to integrate into the college campus environment.

The primary goals of this program are to offer a unique opportunity for students to earn college units, reduce absenteeism and high school dropout rates, and improve students' academic performance opportunities for college success. 

It offers a supportive and challenging academic environment that incorporates motivational techniques and learning behaviors with innovative curricula promoting the building of academic skills and career development.

By improving participating students’ academic and decision-making skills as well as their self-concept and self-esteem, the middle college high school model will be a launch board for success in college and career readiness.

“This is an exciting partnership for our school and for our community. The courses offered during the school day will extend our medical pathway opportunities and reduce the time and money it takes for our students to reach college and career goals,” says Konocti Education Center Principal Melissa Lambert.

“This partnership between KUSD and WCC will provide an educational and financial advantage to our students who are most vulnerable, with the ultimate goal of graduating high school seniors landing only a semester or two away from receiving their Associate's degree. Early studies indicate that this opportunity will help provide a successful transition to college and career for these students,” said Annette Lee, Woodland Community College's Lake County Campus executive dean.

Woodland Community College joins about a dozen other community colleges across the state involved in offering the middle college model, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Habitat for Humanity staff and volunteers celebrated the groundbreaking of its 26th house on Fourth Street in Clearlake on May 19.

Partner family Ricky and Debra Bronson have already been hard at work both on the property and in the office accumulating their sweat equity hours and are excited to take the next steps in the construction of their new home.
 
If you would like to contribute to getting house No. 26 completed, please contact the Habitat for Humanity office at 707-994-1100 to learn how you can help.

If you are a first-time homebuyer or a victim of the Rocky, Valley, or Clayton fires and think you might qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home, call the office at 707-994-1100, Extension 106, or stop by the office at 15312 Lakeshore Drive Clearlake for a preapplication.

The California Senate has approved a bill to increase access to school meals for children in need.

SB 138 – the “Feed the Kids Act” will address childhood hunger by removing a massive layer of bureaucratic red tape from the state school meal program enrollment process and by serving all students in very high poverty schools for free.

SB 138 was approved by the Senate on Thursday with unanimous, bipartisan support.

The bill was authored by State Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes Lake County, along with Senators Mitchell, Beall, Portantino and Hertzberg.

Should SB 138 be signed into law, there are 41 additional schools on the North Coast that would likely qualify for a 100-percent federal reimbursement for school meals for all of their students.

These include 13 small schools in Sonoma County, nine in Humboldt County, four in Marin County, eight in Lake County, two in Trinity County, one in Del Norte County and four in Mendocino County, McGuire’s office reported.

California has more children in poverty than any other state in the nation, with nearly one in four children going hungry each day.

In fact, there are more children in poverty here in the Golden State now than there were prior to the recession. As a result, McGuire said the time is right for California to broaden the reach of school meals.

Each year, millions of low-income California children who are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals miss out on them, also missing out on the academic and health benefits the meals provide.

“When a child goes to school hungry, their ability to learn, grow and thrive is compromised. School meals are extremely effective at fighting the devastating effects of child hunger and improving outcomes in our public schools, yet so many kids who need to eat, aren’t being provided free school meals – and it’s time that changes,” Sen. McGuire said.

Two years ago, Sen. McGuire made significant progress by cutting through bureaucratic red tape and enrolling more than 326,000 students on free lunches.

The process was made easier by streamlining the free lunch system and ensuring students who were on CalFresh were also being enrolled in the free lunch program at their school.

This was a 30-percent increase from the year before and was one of the largest enrollment increases the Golden State has seen in decades.

“California is the sixth largest economy in the world and we produce more food than any other state in America. We have to step up and declare war on childhood poverty and ensure California’s kids get the resources they need to thrive,” McGuire said.

SB 138 would more effectively identify low-income students and significantly increase access to school meals.

Currently, most districts do not use Medi-Cal data to automatically enroll students. This bill will automatically enroll income-eligible students who are on Medi-Cal onto the free and reduced lunch program at their school, therefore increasing the number of children receiving free and reduced lunch.

The California Department of Education believes an additional 500,000 elementary, middle school and high school students would start receiving school meals under this new and efficient certification process.

This bill is modeled after a successful pilot program where 14 school districts enrolled low-income students who receive Medi-Cal into a free school meal program.

Participating districts in the pilot program saw an increase of more than 60,000 students enrolled in their free and reduced lunch programs, which brought in over $33 million in additional federal meal reimbursements.

SB 138 also would allow for very high poverty schools to serve meals to all students for free because increased enrollment of low-income students in the free meal program will result in schools qualifying for a federal meal reimbursement program as well.  

SB 138 will now move to the State Assembly for approval.

Saturn's icy, ocean-bearing moon Enceladus may have tipped over in the distant past, according to recent research from NASA's Cassini mission.

Researchers with the mission found evidence that the moon's spin axis – the line through the north and south poles – has reoriented, possibly due to a collision with a smaller body, such as an asteroid.

Examining the moon's features, the team showed that Enceladus appears to have tipped away from its original axis by about 55 degrees – more than halfway toward rolling completely onto its side.

"We found a chain of low areas, or basins, that trace a belt across the moon's surface that we believe are the fossil remnants of an earlier, previous equator and poles," said Radwan Tajeddine, a Cassini imaging team associate at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and lead author of the paper.

The area around the icy moon's current south pole is a geologically active region where long, linear fractures referred to as tiger stripes slice across the surface.

Tajeddine and colleagues speculate that an asteroid may have struck the region in the past when it was closer to the equator.

"The geological activity in this terrain is unlikely to have been initiated by internal processes," he said. "We think that, in order to drive such a large reorientation of the moon, it's possible that an impact was behind the formation of this anomalous terrain."

In 2005, Cassini discovered that jets of water vapor and icy particles spray from the tiger stripe fractures – evidence that an underground ocean is venting directly into space from beneath the active south polar terrain.

Whether it was caused by an impact or some other process, Tajeddine and colleagues think the disruption and creation of the tiger-stripe terrain caused some of Enceladus' mass to be redistributed, making the moon's rotation unsteady and wobbly.

The rotation would have eventually stabilized, likely taking more than a million years. By the time the rotation settled down, the north-south axis would have reoriented to pass through different points on the surface – a mechanism researchers call "true polar wander."

The polar wander idea helps to explain why Enceladus' modern-day north and south poles appear quite different. The south is active and geologically young, while the north is covered in craters and appears much older.

The moon's original poles would have looked more alike before the event that caused Enceladus to tip over and relocate the disrupted tiger-stripe terrain to the moon's south polar region.

The results were published in the online edition of the journal Icarus on April 30.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

More information about Cassini can be found at https://www.nasa.gov/cassini or https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Preston Dyches works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.