How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
Ten years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, researchers have released the first comprehensive analysis of direct and indirect human and economic costs of the war that followed.
According to the report, the war has killed at least 190,000 people, including men and women in uniform, contractors, and civilians and will cost the United States $2.2 trillion – a figure that far exceeds the initial 2002 estimates by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget of $50 to $60 billion.
The report was released by the Costs of War project, based at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.
Catherine Lutz, the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Family Professor of Anthropology and International Studies at Brown University, co-directs the project with Neta C. Crawford, professor of political science at Boston University.
Among the group’s main findings: More than 70 percent of those who died of direct war violence in Iraq have been civilians – an estimated 134,000. This number does not account for indirect deaths due to increased vulnerability to disease or injury as a result of war-degraded conditions. That number is estimated to be several times higher.
It’s estimated the Iraq War ultimately will cost U.S. taxpayers at least $2.2 trillion. Because the Iraq war appropriations were funded by borrowing, cumulative interest through 2053 could amount to more than $3.9 trillion.
The $2.2 trillion figure includes care for veterans who were injured in the war in Iraq, which will cost the United States almost $500 billion through 2053.
The total of U.S. service members killed in Iraq is 4,488. At least 3,400 U.S. contractors have died as well, a number often under-reported.
Terrorism in Iraq increased dramatically as a result of the invasion and tactics and fighters were exported to Syria and other neighboring countries.
The report also found Iraq’s health care infrastructure remains devastated from sanctions and war. More than half of Iraq’s medical doctors left the country during the 2000s, and tens of thousands of Iraqi patients are forced to seek health care outside the country.
The $60 billion spent on reconstruction for Iraq has not gone to rebuilding infrastructure such as roads, health care, and water treatment systems, but primarily to the military and police. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has found massive fraud, waste, and abuse of reconstruction funds.
In releasing the report, Lutz said, “The staggering number of deaths in Iraq is hard to fathom, but each of these individuals has to count and be counted.”
“Nearly every government that goes to war underestimates its duration, neglects to tally all the costs, and overestimates the political objectives that will be accomplished by war’s violence,” Crawford said.
The project also assesses claims made as part of the rationale for invading Iraq: increased U.S. security, enhanced democratic governance in Iraq, and improved conditions for Iraqi women.
Costs of War has released its findings online, at www.costsofwar.org , to spur public discussion about the Iraq war.
The Costs of War project involves 30 economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists from 15 universities, the United Nations, and other organizations.
In 2011 the group released figures for a range of human and economic costs associated with the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks.
It estimated the total combined costs of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan at $4 trillion and total direct war casualties at minimum oft 330,000 men, women, and children.
Costs of War is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, scholarly initiative that derives its purpose from President Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address, in which he warned of the “unwarranted influence” of the military-industrial complex and appealed for an “alert and knowledgeable citizenry” as the only force able to balance the often contrasting demands of security and liberty in a democratic state.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Dog breeds of all sizes, colors and shapes are available at shelters and rescue groups around the county.
Mixes of shepherd, heeler, retriever, hound, corgi, Doberman, border collie and more are eager to find new homes.
This week adoptable dogs from Lake County Animal Care and Control and the SPCA of Clear Lake are featured.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
SPCA OF CLEAR LAKE
‘Bruiser’
“Bruiser” is a pit bull/mastiff mix.
He is a very loving and affectionate guy who loves to play fetch and is ready to go home with you.
Bruiser is neutered, microchipped and current on all his vaccinations.
‘Simba’
“Simba” is a shepherd/corgi mix.
He walks great on a leash, loves to play, and is as sweet as he is unique.
He is neutered, microchipped and current on all his vaccinations.
Ramon and Ralph
“Ramon” and “Ralph” are heeler/lab mix puppies.
These boys are lovable goofballs. They have been at the SPCA a long time, and they are ready for a forever home.
They both are neutered, microchipped and current on all vaccinations.
LAKE COUNTY ANIMAL CARE AND CONTROL
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”).
‘Mary Jane’
“Mary Jane” is a 6-year-old pit bull terrier mix.
She has a short brown and white coat, weighs 57 pounds and has been spayed.
She’s in kennel No. 6, ID No. 34818.
Male retriever mix
This male retriever mix is 4 years old.
He has a short yellow coat and brown eyes, weighs 46 pounds and has been neutered.
Find him in kennel No. 16, ID No. 35734.
Hound-Doberman Pinscher mix
This male hound-Doberman Pinscher mix is 1 year old.
He has a short gold coat and brown eyes, and has been altered.
He’s in kennel No. 17, ID No. 35733.
Male border collie mix pup
This male border collie mix puppy is 11 weeks old.
He has blue eyes, a short black and white coat, weighs 10 pounds and has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 18a, ID No. 35704.
Female border collie mix pup
This female border collie mix puppy is 11 weeks old.
She has blue eyes, a short brown and white coat, and weighs 9 pounds.
Find her in kennel No. 18c, ID No. 35706.
Female border collie mix pup
This female border collie mix puppy is 11 weeks old.
She has blue eyes, a short brown and white coat, and weighs 9 pounds.
Find her in kennel No. 18d, ID No. 35707.
Male border collie mix pup
This male border collie mix puppy is 11 weeks old.
He has blue eyes, a short black and white coat, weighs 9 pounds and has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 18e, ID No. 35708.
Labrador Retriever-shepherd mix
This male Labrador Retriever-shepherd mix is 5 months old.
He weighs nearly 34 pounds, has a medium-length black and white coat, and has been neutered.
He’s in kennel No. 19, ID No. 35817.
Border collie-basset hound mix
This male border collie-basset hound mix is 1 year old.
He weighs nearly 40 pounds, has a medium-length black and white coat, and has not been altered.
Shelter staff said he’s good with other dogs – including little dogs – and is pretty mellow for his young age.
He’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 35836.
‘Suzzy’
“Suzzy” is a 3-year-old border collie mix.
She weighs 51 pounds, has a short black and white coat, and has been spayed.
Shelter staff said she’s great with other dogs her size but needs a home with no small dogs. She has lived with children.
She’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 34365.
Labrador Retriever mix
This male Labrador Retriever is 2 years old.
He weighs nearly 64 pounds, has a short yellow coat and has been neutered.
Shelter staff said he’s great with other dogs, and has a moderate energy level when he has routine exercise. He’s also good with children – preferably older children until he learns not to jump on them. He also loves to play ball.
Find him in kennel No. 29, ID No. 35691.
Pit bull terrier mix
This female pit bull terrier mix is 2 years old.
She weighs nearly 42 pounds, has a short white and brown brindle coat, and has been spayed.
Shelter staff said she’s a very sweet dog and is great with other dogs. She doesn't appear to have been given much attention but she loves a lap to crawl into, and has a low energy level.
She’s in kennel No. 33, ID No. 35823.
‘Chino’
“Chino” is a 4-year-old male cocker spaniel mix.
He has a long buff-colored coat and brown eyes, weighs 16 pounds and has been altered.
He’s in kennel No. 34, ID No. 35740.
Please note: Dogs listed at the county shelter's Web page that are said to be “on hold” are not yet cleared for adoption.
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, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 1 p.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
Using data from an aging NASA spacecraft, researchers have found signs of an energy source in the solar wind that has caught the attention of fusion researchers.
NASA will be able to test the theory later this decade when it sends a new probe into the sun for a closer look.
The discovery was made by a group of astronomers trying to solve a decades-old mystery: What heats and accelerates the solar wind?
The solar wind is a hot and fast flow of magnetized gas that streams away from the sun's upper atmosphere. It is made of hydrogen and helium ions with a sprinkling of heavier elements. Researchers liken it to the steam from a pot of water boiling on a stove; the sun is literally boiling itself away.
“But,” said Adam Szabo of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, “solar wind does something that steam in your kitchen never does. As steam rises from a pot, it slows and cools. As solar wind leaves the sun, it accelerates, tripling in speed as it passes through the corona. Furthermore, something inside the solar wind continues to add heat even as it blows into the cold of space.”
Finding that “something” has been a goal of researchers for decades. In the 1970s and 80s, observations by two German/US Helios spacecraft set the stage for early theories, which usually included some mixture of plasma instabilities, magnetohydrodynamic waves, and turbulent heating. Narrowing down the possibilities was a challenge.
The answer, it turns out, has been hiding in a dataset from one of NASA's oldest active spacecraft, a solar probe named Wind.
Launched in 1994, Wind is so old that it uses magnetic tapes similar to old-fashioned 8-track tapes to record and play back its data.
Equipped with heavy shielding and double-redundant systems to safeguard against failure, the spacecraft was built to last; at least one researcher at NASA calls it the “Battlestar Gallactica” of the heliophysics fleet. Wind has survived almost two complete solar cycles and innumerable solar flares.
“After all these years, Wind is still sending us excellent data,” said Szabo, the mission’s project scientist, “and it still has 60 years' worth of fuel left in its tanks.”
Using Wind to unravel the mystery was, to Justin Kasper of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a “no brainer.” He and his team processed the spacecraft's entire 19-year record of solar wind temperatures, magnetic field and energy readings and …
“I think we found it,” he said. “The source of the heating in the solar wind is ion cyclotron waves.”
Ion cyclotron waves are made of protons that circle in wavelike-rhythms around the sun's magnetic field.
According to a theory developed by Phil Isenberg (University of New Hampshire) and expanded by Vitaly Galinsky and Valentin Shevchenko (UC San Diego), ion cyclotron waves emanate from the sun; coursing through the solar wind, they heat the gas to millions of degrees and accelerate its flow to millions of miles per hour.
Kasper's findings confirm that ion cyclotron waves are indeed active, at least in the vicinity of Earth where the Wind probe operates.
Ion cyclotron waves can do much more than heat and accelerate the solar wind, noted Kasper. “They also account for some of the wind's very strange properties.”
The solar wind is not like wind on Earth. Here on Earth, atmospheric winds carry nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor along together; all species move with the same speed and they have the same temperature. The solar wind, however, is much stranger.
Chemical elements of the solar wind such as hydrogen, helium, and heavier ions, blow at different speeds; they have different temperatures; and, strangest of all, the temperatures change with direction.
“We have long wondered why heavier elements in the solar wind move faster and have higher temperatures than the lighter elements,” said Kasper. “This is completely counterintuitive.”
The ion cyclotron theory explains it: Heavy ions resonate well with ion cyclotron waves. Compared to their lighter counterparts, they gain more energy and heat as they surf.
The behavior of heavy ions in the solar wind is what intrigues fusion researchers.
Kasper explained: “When you look at fusion reactors on Earth, one of the big challenges is contamination. Heavy ions that sputter off the metal walls of the fusion chamber get into the plasma where the fusion takes place. Heavy ions radiate heat. This can cool the plasma so much that it shuts down the fusion reaction.”
Ion cyclotron waves of the type Kasper has found in the solar wind might provide a way to reverse this process. Theoretically, they could be used to heat and/or remove the heavy ions, restoring thermal balance to the fusing plasma.
“I have been invited to several fusion conferences to talk about our work with the solar wind,” he said.
The next step, agreed Kasper and Szabo, is to find out if ion cyclotron waves work the same way deep inside the sun's atmosphere where the solar wind begins its journey. To find out, NASA is planning to send a spacecraft into the sun itself.
Solar Probe Plus, scheduled for launch in 2018, will plunge so far into the sun's atmosphere that the sun will appear as much as 23 times wider than it does in the skies of Earth. At closest approach, about 7 million km from the sun's surface, Solar Probe Plus must withstand temperatures greater than 1,400 degrees C and survive blasts of radiation at levels not experienced by any previous spacecraft. The mission's goal is to sample the sun's plasma and magnetic field at the very source of the solar wind.
“With Solar Probe Plus we'll be able to conduct specific tests of the ion cyclotron theory using sensors far more advanced than the ones on the Wind spacecraft,” said Kasper. “This should give us a much deeper understanding of the solar wind's energy source.”
The research described in this story was published in the Physical Review Letters on Feb. 28: “Sensitive Test for Ion-Cyclotron Resonant Heating in the Solar Wind” by Justin Kasper et al.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A 12-year-old Cobb girl who was the focus of a search in the Cobb and Lakeport areas has been found safe.
Jenica Frederick was found at a relative’s home in Santa Rosa on Saturday, according to Capt. Chris Macedo of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
The girls had been last seen by her family on her way to school Thursday morning, but neither got on the school bus nor arrived at Cobb Mountain Elementary School.
Since then, agencies from around the region had joined the search for the girl, who had run away after being upset due to a disagreement with her parents.
After having searched the Cobb area near the girl’s home on Thursday and Friday, on Saturday the sheriff’s office reported that the search area had been expanded to Lakeport after officials on Friday received received unconfirmed information that Jenica may have possibly been headed to the Lakeport area.
As the search was continuing on Saturday Jenica’s parents were contacted by the relative in Santa Rosa, who told them the girl had arrived at his home, Macedo said.
Macedo said the girl’s parents were en route to Santa Rosa Saturday afternoon to be reunited with their daughter.
Agencies that were involved in the search included the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, Lake County Search and Rescue, Kelseyville Community Organization for Rescue and Public Service (K-CORPS), Lakeport Police Department, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino County Search and Rescue, Marin County Search and Rescue, Sonoma County Search and Rescue, Napa County Sheriff’s Office, Napa County Search and Rescue, Contra Costa County Search and Rescue, Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Alameda County Search and Rescue, Cal Fire, Bay Area Mountain Rescue, San Mateo County Search and Rescue, California Rescue Dog Association and the California Emergency Management Agency Explorer Search and Rescue.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office thanked all of the agencies that assisted in the effort, as well as the numerous businesses that donated food, drink and other necessary items in order sustain the search efforts, and the many community residents who volunteered to assist in any way possible.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Vet Connect was founded two years ago as a project of the United Veterans Council of Lake County and organized by veterans for the sole purpose of providing information, referral to services and assistance to veterans.
The effort was born from the real needs of veterans, who wanted to know what services and benefits were available to them, where to go, who to contact to apply for and receive those services, and how to go about doing it.
With an approximate population of 8,000 to 9,000 veterans residing in Lake County, there is no shortage of need for information, services, and assistance in finding and qualifying for those services.
During the second year of operation, March 2012 through February of this year, Lake County Vet Connect assisted 244 veterans by providing needed information, referrals to services and assistance in identifying which organizations offered the services most needed and in numerous situations assisting these veterans in the process.
Lake County Vet Connect operates two clinics, one in Clearlake, and one in Lakeport enabling them to serve veterans at both ends of the Lake.
Among the 244 veterans who walked through the clinic doors many enrolled in the VA Health Care System. Some of these veterans did not have and could not afford health care insurance and others were looking at the real possibility of their insurance coming to an end.
Still other veterans, upon referral to the Lake County Veterans Service Office, discovered they were eligible for veterans benefits.
A small number of veterans were eligible and qualified for services from local agencies – governmental, private and nonprofit – and 17 veterans were identified as homeless, and received the information and assistance necessary to begin the process of reentering the society they once proudly served.
Chris Taliaferro of the California Employment Development Department reported assisting the 81 veterans referred to his office in Lakeport.
As Lake County Vet Connect begins its third year of service to the veterans of Lake County, it will continue “bridging the gap between veterans and services” by providing information, referral to services and assistance helping veterans explore how to resolve their individual needs.
The two clinics Lake County Vet Connect operates and their schedules follow:
- Second Wednesday of each month, 9 a.m. to noon, American Legion Hall, 14770 Austin Road, Clearlake;
- Third Wednesday of each month, 9 a.m. to noon, Umpqua Bank, 805 11th St., Lakeport, upstairs.
For more information about Lake County Vet Connect call 707-274-9512.
Tom Benton served in the United States Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He cofounded Sonoma County Vet Connect, and is an advisor to, and participates with, Lake County Vet Connect.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The fifth annual Blue Lakes Trout Derby is scheduled for Saturday, April 27, and Sunday, April 28.
This family-oriented event awards trophies and other prizes in two categories, adults and children under the age of 16.
Prizes will be awarded for total weight, total weight each day, largest fish each day and largest fish both days.
The grand prize for the total weight of both days is $150, second prize is $75 and third prize is $50.
There is a fee of $8 for each adult participant and a fee of $4 for each child under the age of 16.
All entries received by mail must be postmarked by Wednesday, April 24. Entries made in person must be in by 9 p.m. Friday, April 26.
Each adult entry must have in their possession a valid California fishing license.
The derby will start each day with check-in at 7 a.m. Fishing will conclude Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m., ending each day with a weigh in of fish.
The limit is five fish per day. Fish must be caught by the entrants in Blue Lakes during derby hours.
All boats launching at Blue Lakes must have the current 2013 quagga mussel sticker.
The official check-in and weigh station is The Narrows Lodge Resort, 569 Blue Lakes Road, Upper Lake. The Narrows Lodge will waive day use and boat fees for derby entrants and will provide quagga inspections for the cost of $10.
This event is a fundraiser for the Blue Lakes Community Projects. The Upper Lake high School Booster’s Club will be selling food, soft drinks and snacks both days at the derby.
Registration forms will be available at the following Upper Lake merchants: The Narrows Resort, Pine Acres Blue Lake resort, Hi-Way Grocery and Judy’s Junction Restaurant.
For more information contact The Narrows Resort at 707-275-2718.