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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has mixes of various working dog breeds needing new homes this week.
This week's available dogs include mixes of Beagle, cattle dog, dachshund, Doberman Pinscher, pit bull, Shar Pei, shepherd, terrier and Viszla.
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”).
Doberman Pinscher-shepherd mix
This male Doberman Pinscher-shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat with white markings.
He is of medium size, has a docked tail and erect ears.
He's in kennel No. 7, ID No. 6634.
'Rebel'
“Rebel” is a young male shepherd-pit bull terrier mix with a short red coat.
He's in kennel No. 8, ID No. 6653.
Shepherd-beagle mix
This female shepherd-beagle mix has a short tricolor coat.
She's in kennel No. 9, ID No. 6517.
Terrier mix
This male terrier mix has a short black coat with white markings and floppy ears.
He's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 6505.
Pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short white coat with blue markings.
He's in kennel No. 12, ID No. 6628.
Pit bull terrier
This large young male pit bull terrier has a short brown brindle coat with white markings.
He's in kennel No. 20, ID No. 6618.
Vizsla mix
This female Vizsla mix has a short black and brown coat.
She's in kennel No. 6537, ID No. 22a.
Vizsla mix
This male Vizsla mix has a short black coat with white markings.
He's in kennel No. 22b, ID No. 6538.
Cattle dog mix
This female cattle dog mix has a short black and brown coat.
Staff said she is very scared in the shelter and needs some tender loving care.
She's in kennel No. 24, ID No. 6506.
Shar Pei-pit bull mix
This male Shar Pei-pit bull mix has a short black and white coat.
Shelter staff said he already has been neutered, and would do well in a home with no livestock.
He's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 6629.
Pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short white coat with black markings.
He's in kennel No. 34, ID No. 6612.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
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
Former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn died Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus.
Glenn, who served four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio, was one of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts. His flight on Friendship 7 on Feb. 20, 1962, showed the world that America was a serious contender in the space race with the Soviet Union. It also made Glenn an instant hero.
“When John Glenn blasted off from Cape Canaveral atop an Atlas rocket in 1962, he lifted the hopes of a nation. And when his Friendship 7 spacecraft splashed down a few hours later, the first American to orbit the Earth reminded us that with courage and a spirit of discovery there's no limit to the heights we can reach together,” President Barack Obama said of Glenn's passing.
“With John's passing, our nation has lost an icon and Michelle and I have lost a friend. John spent his life breaking barriers, from defending our freedom as a decorated Marine Corps fighter pilot in World War II and Korea, to setting a transcontinental speed record, to becoming, at age 77, the oldest human to touch the stars. John always had the right stuff, inspiring generations of scientists, engineers and astronauts who will take us to Mars and beyond – not just to visit, but to stay,” Obama added.
His mission of almost nine days on the space shuttle orbiter Discovery, launched Oct. 29, 1998, when he was 77, made him the oldest human to venture into space. On Discovery he participated in a series of tests on the aging process. The aging population was one focus of his work as a U.S. senator.
Glenn was described as "humble, funny, and generous" by Trevor Brown, dean of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at Ohio State University, in a statement joined by the Glenn family. "Even after leaving public life, he loved to meet with citizens, school children in particular. He thrilled to music and had a weakness for chocolate."
Glenn will always be remembered as the first American to orbit the Earth during those tentative, challenging, daring days when humans were just beginning to venture beyond the atmosphere that had nurtured them since the species began.
While Glenn's flight on Friendship 7 was a glorious national triumph, problems arose that could have spelled disaster. The first was a failure of the automatic control system.
A scheduled 30-minute test to determine whether Glenn could fly the capsule manually became a matter of life and death when the automatic system went out at the end of the first orbit.
"I went to manual control and continued in that mode during the second and third orbits, and during re-entry," Glenn recalled later. He had been confident he could do it.
"The malfunction just forced me to prove very rapidly what had been planned over a longer period of time."
Another problem seemed even more serious -- telemetry indicated the spacecraft's heat shield was loose. It seemed possible that Glenn and the spacecraft would be incinerated on re-entry. Much of the world held its breath.
Glenn left the retrorocket pack in place to steady the heat shield during re-entry. "It made for a very spectacular re-entry from where I was sitting," he said. Big chunks of the burning material came flying by the window.
He wasn't sure whether the flaming debris was the rocket pack or the heat shield breaking up. "Fortunately," he told an interviewer," it was the rocket pack -- or I wouldn't be answering these questions."
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said Glenn's legacy “is one of risk and accomplishment, of history created and duty to country carried out under great pressure with the whole world watching.”
Bolden added, “Glenn's extraordinary courage, intellect, patriotism and humanity were the hallmarks of a life of greatness. His missions have helped make possible everything our space program has since achieved and the human missions to an asteroid and Mars that we are striving toward now.
Glenn also was always focused on today's young people, who are tomorrow's leaders. He emphasized the importance of inspiring young people and advancing science, math and technology education, Bolden said.
“To me, there is no greater calling … If I can inspire young people to dedicate themselves to the good of mankind, I've accomplished something,” Glenn said.
From Ohio to orbit
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was born July 18, 1921, in Cambridge, Ohio. He attended primary and secondary schools in New Concord, Ohio. He received a bachelor of science degree in engineering from Muskingum College in New Concord.
Muskingum College is among nine colleges or universities that subsequently awarded him honorary doctoral degrees.
Glenn entered the Naval Aviation Cadet Program in March 1942. He graduated and was commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1943. After advanced training, he joined Marine Fighter Squadron 155 and spent a year flying F-4U fighters in the Marshall Islands. He flew 59 combat missions during World War II.
After the war, he was a member of Marine Fighter Squadron 218 on the North China patrol and served on Guam. From June 1948 to December 1950 he served as an instructor in advanced flight training at Corpus Christi, Texas. He then attended Amphibious Warfare Training at Quantico, Va.
In Korea he flew 63 missions with Marine Fighter Squadron 311. As an exchange pilot with the Air Force Glenn flew 27 missions in the F-86 Sabre. In the last nine days of fighting in Korea, Glenn shot down three MiGs in combat along the Yalu River.
Glenn attended Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Md. After graduation, he was project officer on a number of aircraft. He was assigned to the Fighter Design Branch of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics (now Bureau of Naval Weapons) in Washington from November 1956 to April 1959. During that time he also attended the University of Maryland.
In July 1957, while he was project officer of the F-8U Crusader, he set a transcontinental speed record from Los Angeles to New York -- 3 hours and 23 minutes. It was the first transcontinental flight to average supersonic speed.
Glenn accumulated nearly 9,000 hours of flying time, about 3,000 of it in jets.
After his selection as a Mercury astronaut, Glenn was assigned to the NASA Space Task Group at Langley, Va., in April 1959. The Space Task Group was moved to Houston and became part of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center in Houston) in 1962. Before his 4-hour, 55-minute flight in the Friendship 7 capsule, Glenn had served as backup pilot for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space who flew on May 5, 1961, and to Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who followed Shepard on a suborbital flight of his own.
When astronauts were assigned to provide pilot input for the design and development of spacecraft, Glenn specialized in cockpit layout and control functioning, including some of the early designs for the Apollo Project.
Glenn was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on six occasions, and holds the Air Medal with 18 Clusters for his service during World War II and Korea. Glenn also received the Navy Unit Commendation for service in Korea, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, the Korean Presidential Unit Citation, the Navy's astronaut Wings, the Marine Corps' Astronaut Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
Glenn resigned as an astronaut on Jan. 16, 1964. He was promoted to colonel in October 1964 and retired from the Marine Corps on Jan. 1, 1965.
He became an executive with Royal Crown International, but took an active part in Ohio politics and environmental protection efforts. He won his Senate seat in 1974, carrying all 88 counties of Ohio. He was re-elected in 1980 with the largest margin in Ohio history.
Ohio returned him to the Senate for a third term in 1986, again with a substantial majority. In 1992 he was elected again, becoming the first popularly elected senator from his state to win four consecutive terms.
During his last term he was the ranking member of both the Governmental Affairs Committee and the Subcommittee on Air/Land Forces in the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also served on the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Special Committee on Aging.
He was considered one of the Senate's leading experts on technical and scientific matters, and won wide respect for his work to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. He took pride in using his position on the Governmental Affairs Committee to root out waste in government and to clean up the nation's nuclear materials production plants.
In 1998, Glenn flew on the STS-95 Discovery shuttle flight, a 9-day mission during which the crew supported a variety of research payloads including deployment of the Spartan solar-observing spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope Orbital Systems Test Platform, and Glenn's investigations on space flight and the aging process.
“The last of America's first astronauts has left us, but propelled by their example we know that our future here on Earth compels us to keep reaching for the heavens. On behalf of a grateful nation, Godspeed, John Glenn,” President Obama said.
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Off highway vehicle, or OHV, wet weather closures went into effect on the Mendocino National Forest’s Upper Lake and Grindstone Ranger Districts at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Forest spokeswoman Punky Moore said the closures went into effect at 9 a.m. Saturday after 2 inches of rain fell across forest lands within 24 hours.
The closures will be rescinded when no measurable precipitation is recorded within 48 consecutive hours, Moore said.
Moore said these periodic orders restrict the use of OHV trails when conditions are too wet to sustain use without causing soil loss, impacts to water quality, damage to trail tread and threats to public safety.
She said the orders also allow for drying time following precipitation events to further ensure the integrity of the resource and the safety of the user.
The orders prohibit the use of motor vehicles on National Forest System trails within the Upper Lake and Grindstone ranger districts on the Mendocino National Forest pursuant to 36 CFR 261.55(b).
When closures go into effect, notices also are posted on the Forest Web site, Facebook and Twitter. Trail users are advised to check these information sources before traveling to the forest.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The United Methodist Youth Choir will present two performances of “Shepherds, Sheep and a Savior” on Sunday, Dec. 11.
The first will be at Clearlake Community United Methodist Church at 9:30 a.m., with the second performance at Middletown Community United Methodist Church at 11:30 a.m.
On a hill just outside of Bethlehem, lowly shepherds were tending their sheep at night.
They didn't get much company out there. People had been passing through for several days as the census was underway, but they hardly spoke at all as they walked by on their way to Bethlehem.
Nobody really wanted to talk to the shepherds. But that all changed when an angel spoke to them.
They may have been at the bottom of the social ladder in Bethlehem, but when an angel speaks you listen, and when you get amazing news, you go and tell.
This is their story – what they heard and what they saw that marvelous night when a baby was born who would change the world.
“Shepherds, Sheep and a Savior” is a Christmas musical that will help you celebrate the reason for the season. It is fun for the whole family and there is no charge. All are welcome.
Clearlake Community United Methodist Church is located at 14521 Pearl St. Middletown Community United Methodist Church is located at 15833 Armstrong St.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Grace Church will host “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” on Sunday, Dec. 11.
There will be two performances, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The church is located at 6716 Live Oak Drive, Kelseyville.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Innovation, together with the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Social Innovation Fund, awarded the Veterans Employment Pay for Success (VEPFS) Program grant to the social investment firm, Social Finance Inc.
As awarded, the $3 million employment, labor and training grant will support the employment rehabilitation of approximately 500 veterans over a five-year period.
By using the Pay for Success model, VA will be better able to ensure the measurable successes of veterans seeking vocational rehabilitation and employment based on their skills and abilities, particularly those living with service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTSD can be a significant barrier to veterans’ chances of finding and maintaining meaningful employment. This program will specifically address this challenge facing many of our nation’s Veterans.
“The Veterans Employment Pay for Success Program is a unique opportunity for VA to harness private sector capital and initiative in advancing our ability to improve the employment status of veterans who are faced with the challenges of PTSD. This fusion of public and private efforts create a truly transformative model for public good,” said Patrick Littlefield, director of the VA Center for Innovation.
The VEPFS program was developed over a 14-month period and began accepting applications in August.
Grant applicants were required to submit a project plan outlining key milestones for assessing Veterans’ progress toward sustained employment.
Overall improved employment outcomes will also be evaluated on successful employment that aligns with the interests, skills, goals, and abilities of individual veterans.
Importantly, this project will ensure consistent and tailored mental health support for participating veterans to foster not only great employment outcomes but also positive wellness outcomes.
For more information on the VEPFS program please visit https://medium.com/vainnovation/pay-for-success-incentivizing-sustainable-veteran-employment-3611e4bc0dda#.oqlaob9nx .
For more information about the VA Center for Innovation please visit http://www.innovation.va.gov/about.html .