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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's daring plan to visit the sun took a giant leap forward on Thursday with the selection of five key science investigations for the Solar Probe+ spacecraft.
Slated to launch no later than 2018, the smart car-sized spacecraft will plunge directly into the atmosphere of the sun, aiming to solve some of the biggest mysteries of solar physics.
Thursday's announcement means that researchers can begin building sensors for unprecedented in situ measurements of the solar system's innermost frontier.
“Solar Probe+ is going where no spacecraft has gone before,” said Lika Guhathakurta, Solar Probe+ program scientist at NASA headquarters. “For the first time, we'll be able to 'touch, taste and smell' the sun.”
Last year, NASA invited top researchers around the world to submit proposals detailing possible science investigations for the pioneering spacecraft.
Thirteen proposals were received and five have been selected:
– The Solar Wind Electrons Alphas and Protons Investigation (SWEAP): The most abundant particles in the solar wind are electrons, protons and helium ions. SWEAP will count these particles and measure their properties, even "sweeping up" some of them in a special Solar Probe Cup for direct analysis. The principal investigator is Justin C. Kasper of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass.
– The Wide-field Imager for Solar Probe Plus (WISPR): WISPR is a telescope that will make 3D images of the sun's atmosphere similar to medical CAT scans. WISPR can actually see the solar wind, allowing it to image clouds and shock waves as they approach and pass the spacecraft. This telescope is an important complement to the spacecraft's in situ instruments, which sample the plasmas that WISPR images. The principal investigator is Russell Howard of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
– The Fields Investigation for Solar Probe Plus (FIELDS): This instrument will make direct measurements of electric and magnetic fields, radio emissions, and shock waves which course through the sun's atmospheric plasma. FIELDS also turns Solar Probe Plus into a giant dust detector, registering voltage signatures when specks of space dust hit the spacecraft’s antenna. The principal investigator is Stuart Bale of the University of California in Berkeley.
– Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun (ISIS): The ISIS EPI-Hi and EPI-Lo instruments will monitor electrons, protons and ions which are accelerated to high energies by shock waves in the sun's atmosphere. These are the very same particles that pose a threat to astronauts in space, disable satellites, and ionize Earth's upper atmosphere.
– Solar Probe+ Observatory Scientist: This was a proposal not for an instrument, but for a person. The principal investigator, Marco Velli, becomes the mission's observatory scientist. In the years ahead, he will become deeply familiar with the spacecraft and its construction, helping to ensure that adjacent in situ instruments do not interfere with one another as they sample the solar environment. He will also guide the mission's "big picture" science investigations after Solar Probe+ enters the sun's atmosphere.
“The sensors we've selected to ride aboard Solar Probe+ are designed to solve some of the biggest mysteries of solar physics,” said Dick Fisher, head of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington DC.
Why is the sun's atmosphere is so much hotter than its surface? And what propels the solar wind?
“We've been struggling with these questions for decades,” said Fisher. “Solar Probe+ should finally provide some answers.”
Solar Probe+ will likely discover new mysteries, too, in a realm that no other spacecraft has dared enter.
At closest approach, Solar Probe+ will be 7 million km or 9 solar radii from the sun. There, the spacecraft's carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures as high as 2000 degrees C and survive blasts of radiation that would quickly disable other missions.
From these near distances inside the sun’s atmosphere, the solar disk will loom 23 times wider than it does in the skies of Earth.
“What will we find there?” wondered Guhathakurta. “This is truly unexplored territory.”
By design, Solar Probe's winning instruments are sufficiently versatile to investigate many different kinds of phenomena. Whatever comes along – be it electric or magnetic, high- or low-energy, wavy or turbulent – they should be able to measure it.
“The possibilities for discovery,” she said, “are off the charts.”
The Solar Probe Plus mission is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program is designed to understand the aspects of the sun and the Earth's space environment that affect life and society.
The program is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., with oversight from NASA's Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is the prime contractor for the spacecraft.
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The awards event will be held at Six Sigma Ranch & Winery located at 13372 Spruce Grove Road in Lower Lake.
Kaj Ahlman, chairman of the Lake County Winery Association, described last year’s People’s Choice Wine Awards as an event where “consumers were able to experience first hand the depth and breadth of the quality wines being produced from Lake County fruit and by Lake County wineries.”
Great wines, music, and delectable food bites will be offered, and attendees will have the opportunity to meet and chat with many Lake County winemakers.
Attendees will have the opportunity to taste and vote on their favorite wines with results tallied and announced at the conclusion of the event.
Admission to the event is $25 per person in advance, $35 per person at the door. Please visit www.lakecountywineries.org or call 707-274-9373, ext. 100, for more information.
Lake County is part of the North Coast AVA, which also encompasses Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino counties. Within Lake County, five other AVAs exist – Clear Lake AVA, Benmore Valley AVA, Guenoc AVA, Red Hills AVA and High Valley AVA.
For visitor information, contact the Lake County Visitor Information Center at 800-525-3743 or www.lakecounty.com.
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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Sheriff's officials are investigating a pharmacy break-in reported last week that resulted in the theft of prescription drugs.
Middletown Pharmacy, located at 21373 Highway 175, was broken into sometime between the evening of Aug. 21 and the morning of Aug. 23, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Bauman said a sheriff's deputy responded to the pharmacy shortly before 9 a.m. Aug. 23, when the owner of the neighboring business, T&J Automotive, called to report the phone lines to the business had been cut and the front door to the pharmacy appeared to be open.
The last time the pharmacy had been open was 5 p.m. Aug. 21, Bauman said.
He said all phone and cable lines to the pharmacy had been cut at the junction box, presumably rendering the alarm system useless.
The suspects had pried open the pharmacy's front door and inside had kicked in the inner door separating the customer area from the location where the medications were kept, Bauman said.
Bauman said that in the pharmacy's secure area, drawers and cabinets were found opened and a locked cabinet securing all the controlled substances had been pried open.
He said an unknown amount of controlled substances, other medications and a money bag were taken from the secure area. Among the medications taken were unknown amounts of Oxycodone, Norco, Vicodin, Percocet and other substances.
The case is pending further investigation, said Bauman.
The pharmacy had previously been hit by an attempted armed robbery in August of 2006, when Middletown resident Roy Johns came in demanding Oxycontin and pulled a handgun on a store employee before staff was able to close themselves in a back room. He later was captured, tried and sentenced to 12 years in prison, as Lake County News has reported.
Ralph Larssen, pharmacist and owner of Middletown Pharmacy, said it's difficult to say if the recent incident was random or not. However, he suspected it was “somebody familiar with our setup here.”
He added, “They did a lot of damage to the building so it had to be repaired before we could do much,” with it taking them until middle of the afternoon on Aug. 23 to get ready to reopen for business.
Larssen said it also took a few days to get their stock restored.
He said the federal government has established more stringent laws for the prescription drug industry, with the Drug Enforcement Administration trying to make it harder for people to get the kinds of controlled substances stolen from his pharmacy.
“In a way that kind of drives them to this type of activity because they're less likely to get the prescriptions that they were getting,” he said.
Larssen said it seems like there is an ongoing trend of hitting pharmacies.
In late February, a man armed with a kitchen knife demanded OxyContin at Kelseyville Pharmacy before allegedly escaping with several bottles of the prescription painkiller, as Lake County News has reported.
Also earlier this year the national media reported on a theft of $75 million in prescription drugs from an Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse in Connecticut, with pharmaceutical thefts reportedly on the rise around the country over the last decade. A Newsweek article said the drugs often are shipped to black markets in the United States and abroad.
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the nonmedical use or abuse of prescription drugs is the fastest-growing drug problem in the United States. Prescription drugs also are said to be the second most commonly abused category of drugs, behind marijuana and ahead of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other drugs.
Larssen said he's taken what measures he can to prevent thefts, including having less stock on hand. He said his regular customers know they usually have to wait a day or two to get some prescriptions.
With times being hard, Larssen said the stolen drugs are likely being used as an income source by somebody.
“It just goes with the territory,” Larssen said. “It's something we have to deal with.”
He added, “It's good that people are aware of what's happening so they can be a little more watchful.”
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The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has released details of the GI Bill reform package it approved last month. It includes almost every change sought by veterans’ service organizations, institutes of higher learning, trade unions, vocational schools and VA administrators.
The only two key elements missing are an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office on what these reforms will cost, and a plan to pay for them as worries over deficit spending mounts in Washington D.C.
The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Improvements Act of 2010 (S 3447) would expand education options beyond the pursuit of a college degree and into almost any type of training a veteran might want.
At the same time, S 3447 would enhance and simplify the payment formula, ease confusion for students and pare administrative headaches for schools.
The new GI Bill also would be opened to at least 80,000 National Guard members mobilized since 9-11 who previously were denied coverage. And its monthly living allowance would be used in a special way to support enrollment in apprenticeships and on-the-job training programs.
These are just some of the highlights. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), committee chairman, is leading the reform effort and drawing bipartisan support. The CBO cost estimate should be known before Congress returns in September when attention will turn to finding ways to pay for the bill.
Rep. Walter Minnick (D-Idaho) has introduced a near identical bill in the House (HR 5933). Among its early co-sponsors is Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. His committee plans its own hearing on GI Bill reform Sept. 16, a move that raises hope among veterans’ groups and educators that a final bill could be passed this year, even with elections in November and a lameduck Congress thereafter.
At the Senate’s GI Bill reform hearing in July, senior officials with the departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense expressed support for most changes in Akaka’s bill. But at the urging of VA officials most provisions wouldn’t take effect until Aug. 1, 2011, to allow sufficient time to implement.
Sen. Richard Burr (N.C.), ranking Republican on the committee, made clear in July he was miffed at Akaka for introducing S 3447 alone, in May, after calling in April for bipartisan cooperation on GI Bill reform. At the markup hearing Aug. 5, however, Burr praised the bill and the many changes Akaka accepted on feedback from veteran groups, educators and colleagues.
The bill, Burr said, “would help create a program that will be fair and generous, no matter where a veteran lives or chooses to go to school.” By covering vocational training, it “would allow more veterans and their families to pursue educational programs that best meet their needs.”
Akaka’s original bill “was good,” said Eric Hilleman, national legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. “The one he’s put out [of committee] is outstanding. We’re super-excited about it.”
Here are more details:
– The revised GI bill would fully cover tuition and fees for all in-state degree programs including doctorates or graduate degrees. Removed would be a cap tied to the most costly in-state under graduate degree program.
– Payments to private or non-state colleges would be simplified using an identical $20,000 cap across all states. Private college payments no longer would capped at the highest priced in-state school. This would raise veterans’ assistance in 45 states and clarify for private colleges the point at which standard GI Bill coverage stops and the new for additional assistance using the Yellow-Ribbon feature starts. The $20,000 ceiling would be adjusted every Aug. 1 to reflect changes in education costs nationwide.
– Veterans who take enough online classes to exceed “half-time” student status could receive 50 percent of the GI Bill’s monthly living allowance. Currently they don’t qualify for any of this payment which is based on local military housing allowance rates for married E-5s.
– Post-9/11 students on active duty, or their enrolled spouses, would qualify for the $1,000 annual book allowance.
– Any guard member called to active duty since 9/11 by the president or secretary of defense under Title 32, used often for domestic emergencies or homeland security missions, or to serve full-time under the Active Guard and Reserve program, would be eligible for the Post-9/11 GI Bill.
– Veterans enrolled in a qualified on-the-job or apprenticeship training would be paid 100 percent of the applicable living allowance for the first six months, 80 percent for the second six months, 60 percent for the third, 40 percent for the fourth, and 20 percent for any subsequent periods of training. This would be in addition to their GI Bill benefit, to be set for vocational training at the lesser of $20,000 a year or actual tuition and fees.
Hilleman said VFW and other veterans groups lobbied hard to correct the eligibility inequity for Guard members and to extend coverage to OJT and vocational training, a “huge benefit for many veterans.”
Tim Embree with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America agreed, saying, “These are the folks starting small businesses back in their home towns. It’s so vital to get them included.”
The big hurdle to passage would seem to be the cost. But Embree said he is confident that won’t derail the effort.
“We’ve been working very closely with Congress on identifying ways to pay for these reforms,” he said. And “the GI Bill, more than any other, ends up paying for itself” as shown following World War II. “We’re just finishing the job on the Post-9/11 GI bill. And this will prove to be the shrewdest investment made in this generation of veterans.”
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The meeting will focus on work of the group’s subcommittees.
The Lake County Respect For All Task Force, a group of local individuals, is striving to increase awareness about safe and inclusive learning environments.
The group is working to identify possible actions to help the Lake County community. Subcommittees are working on outreach projects, gathering information for a list of community resources, providing training and awareness for school personnel and administrators, strengthening policies and procedures for use in the schools, and helping campuses with their efforts for student activities, including upcoming Challenge Days at two Lake County high schools.
The Respect For All Project is a program of GroundSpark. More information about the project is available on the GroundSpark Web site, www.groundspark.org.
A proposal for the Lake County project explains that GroundSpark, The Respect for All Project “is a non-profit organization that seeks to create safe, hate-free schools and communities by providing youth and the adults who guide their development the tools they need to talk openly about diversity in all of its forms.”
As part of its work toward safe and inclusive learning environments, task force members identified a list of goals and split up responsibilities. The goals include identifying community resources, networking and expanding the task force, pursuing support for gay/straight alliances, developing and fundraising for Challenge Day events at schools, and reviewing policies and implementation strategies.
Challenge Days are planned at both Lower Lake High School and Clear Lake High School (Lakeport).
The task force supports the goal of the presentations to eliminate bullying, violence and other forms of oppression. According to the Challenge Day website (www.challengeday.org), the mission of Challenge Day is “to provide youth and their communities with experiential programs that demonstrate the possibility of love and connection through the celebration of diversity, truth, and full expression.”
Clear Lake High School’s Challenge Day event is scheduled for Sept. 20 and 21; Lower Lake will hold its event Sept. 22 and 23.
The Lake County Respect For All Task Force welcomes participation by new members. Individuals interested in helping the task force in its efforts to assist youth and their families in assuring safe and inclusive learning environments are invited to attend the meetings.
In Lake County, the Respect For All Project, in cooperation with Lake County Healthy Start and Lake County Family Resource Center, is collaborating with local educators, high school students, community leaders, and representatives from a variety of organizations.
Lake County was chosen as one of three California counties for the pilot project through GroundSpark. The task force has been meeting periodically over the last 18 months.
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Generally, adopted children are treated like natural born children. Issues can arise, however, regarding whether an adoptive may inherit from the estate of the natural (blood) parents, whose relationship was severed by the adoption; and also in regards whether the child may inherit (through the adoptive parent) from the adoptive parent’s own family (such as inheriting from the parents of a deceased adoptive parent).
Usually, adoption severs the rights of the adopted child from the natural born parents (i.e., the adopted out family). There are important exceptions.
First, if the adopted child both lived with the natural parent and he or she either was adopted by a spouse of either natural parent or was adopted after the death of either natural parent, it follows that the adopted child still inherits from the natural parent.
For example, consider a child whose parents get divorced, remarry, and who is then adopted by the stepparent. That child can still inherit from his natural parent’s estate provided the child lived with that natural parent.
Likewise, if a natural parent dies before the child was born and the child is later adopted by a spouse of either natural parent, the child can still inherit.
Whether an adopted child may inherit through his or her adopted parents and receive an inheritance from the adoptive parent’s own family is contentious.
For example, if the adoptee was adopted as an adult and did not live in his adoptive parent’s household as a minor, then it is very unlikely that the adopted child would be treated as a child for purposes of inheriting under the trust or will of the “adoptive” grandparents. Likewise, if the grandparent’s trust or will was signed after the adoption by their child, then the adoptive child is unlikely to be treated as a child.
Next, generally, unlike an adopted child, a stepchild and a foster child are not treated as children unless the relationship began while the child was a minor (i.e., growing up); continued throughout the lifetimes of parent and child; and there is clear and convincing evidence to show that the parent figure would have adopted the child except for a legal impediment that existed until the non-biological parent died. The objection of the natural parent to an adoption is an example of such a legal impediment, but only until the child becomes an adult at age 18.
In limited cases, a stepchild or foster child who is unable to meet the foregoing standard may still inherit under a theory of equitable adoption. That is, if there was an adoption agreement between the stepparent or foster parent and the child and the parties both faithfully observed the agreement, the child may be entitled to inherit a share of the parent’s estate.
Lastly, the foregoing discussion is not relevant where the deceased person’s estate planning documents expressly deals with the issue of whether or not the adopted child, step child or foster child inherits. That is, if the trust or will expressly disinherits an adopted child, or expressly defines the terms “child” or “issue” not to include step children or foster children, then the legal document controls.
Editor’s Note: Attorney Dennis A. Fordham is a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust and Probate Law. Fordham concentrates his practice in the areas of estate planning and various aspects of elder law, including Medi-Cal benefits. Mr. Fordham was qualified as a Certified Specialist in 2009 by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization, and is licensed to practice law in California and New York. He earned his BA at Columbia University, his JD at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his LLM in Taxation at New York University. His office is located on the 2nd Floor at 55 First Street, Lakeport, California and he can be reached by calling 707-263-3235 or e-mail at
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