How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
- Details
- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake Police Department said early Sunday that it is trying to locate a missing juvenile.
Willie Brown Jr., age 10, was last seen at the Lamplighter Motel in Clearlake at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, the agency reported.
The child left in an unknown direction, possibly on foot, police said.
Police said he may be wearing a black hoodie and shorts.
He has a history of medical issues and may not be wearing a medical bracelet.
If he’s found, please contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251.
- Details
- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Australian cattle dog, Catahoula leopard dog, German shepherd, Labrador retriever, mountain cur, pit bull and wire-haired terrier.
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.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.
Male Labrador retriever
This 1-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.
He is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-3437.
Male German shepherd mix
This 3-year-old male German shepherd mix has a short black and tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-3436.
‘Mako’
“Mako” is an American pit bull terrier with a short gray and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 16, ID No. LCAC-A-3387.
Chocolate lab mix
This young male chocolate Labrador, who is under a year old, has a short coat.
He is in kennel No. 17, ID No. LCAC-A-3385.
‘Willie’
“Willie” is a 1-year-old male pit bull terrier with a short brown and white coat.
He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-3301.
Female German shepherd puppy
This female German shepherd puppy has a short tan and black coat
She is in kennel No. 21a, ID No. LCAC-A-3211.
Male wire-haired terrier
This 2-year-old male wire-haired terrier has a cream-colored coat.
He is in kennel No. 22, ID No. LCAC-A-3399.
Male German shepherd mix puppy
This male German shepherd mix puppy has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25a, ID No. LCAC-A-3212.
Male German shepherd mix puppy
This male German shepherd mix puppy has a short tan coat.
He is in kennel No. 25b, ID No. LCAC-A-3214.
‘Dexter’
“Dexter’ is a 1-year-old male pit bull with a short black coat with white markings.
He is in kennel No. 27, ID No. LCAC-A-3290.
Male American Staffordshire terrier
This 3-year-old male American Staffordshire terrier has a short gray coat.
He is reported to be a very friendly dog with a great temperament, good with cats and already neutered.
He is in kennel No. 29, ID No. LCAC-A-3398.
Black lab mix
This 1-year-old male black Labrador Retriever has a short coat.
He is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3418.
‘Rooster’
“Rooster” is a 5-year-old male mountain cur with a brown brindle coat.
He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-3384.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: Erik Gordon, University of Michigan
U.S. President Joe Biden on May 18, 2022, announced he is invoking the Defense Production Act to help end the shortage of baby formula stressing out parents nationwide.
He said he will direct suppliers of baby formula ingredients to prioritize delivery to formula manufacturers and control their distribution as necessary.
You might well wonder what babies going without formula has to do with defense production, which calls to mind big warships and weapons systems. While using the Defense Production Act to force companies to make baby formula would certainly be a novel use of the act, it would hardly be the first time the postwar law has been used beyond its originally intended purpose to support national defense.
And in fact, the law is used a lot more frequently than you might think. But as a business professor who studies strategies to maximize efficient allocation of resources, I believe when presidents invoke the act it’s often more about political theater – showing the public you’re doing something – than addressing the problem in the most effective way.
Sweeping authority
The Defense Production Act was passed in 1950 and modeled on the War Powers acts of 1941 and 1942.
The War Powers acts gave the president sweeping authority to control domestic manufacturing. For example, it helped the U.S. increase production of warplanes from 2,500 a year to over 300,000 by the end of the war.
In 1950, America faced war in Korea, and Congress feared that growing postwar demand for consumer goods would crowd out defense production needed to face China and the Soviet Union, which both backed North Korea in the conflict. There were also concerns about inflation during that postwar period.
The Defense Production Act gave the president – who later delegated this authority to Cabinet officials like the secretary of defense – broad powers to force manufacturers to make goods and supply services to support the national defense, as well as to set wages and prices and even ration consumer goods.
“We cannot get all the military supplies we need now from expanded production alone,” President Harry Truman told Americans in a radio address after signing the act into law. “This expansion cannot take place fast enough. Therefore, to the extent necessary, workers and plants will have to stop making some civilian goods and begin turning out military equipment.”
The original law focused on “shaping U.S. military preparedness and capabilities,” which limited the scope of the president’s authority.
Routinely invoked
Although the Defense Production Act makes news only when the president dramatically invokes it, the government uses the law – or just the threat of using it – routinely to force private companies to prioritize government orders. The Department of Defense, for example, uses it to make an estimated 300,000 contracts with private companies a year.
Congress has to reauthorize the act every several years and has amended it frequently to expand or limit its scope. Over time, this has significantly broadened the definition of national defense to include supporting “domestic preparedness, response, and recovery from hazards, terrorist attacks, and other national emergencies.”
The Department of Homeland Security invoked it about 400 times in 2019, mostly to help prepare for and respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters, such as by providing resources to house and feed survivors. And Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, for example, both used it to divert electricity and natural gas to California during the 2000-2001 energy crisis.
The act has also been used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump used it to prioritize the allocation of medical resources, prevent hoarding of personal protective equipment and require General Motors to build ventilators. He also ordered beef, pork and poultry processing facilities to stay open during the lockdowns to ensure a supply of protein for the American population.
Biden, for his part, has also already used the act a number of times, mainly to fight the pandemic. For example, in March 2021, he invoked it to speed up vaccine production by ensuring extra facilities were up to snuff, as well as to expedite the production of critical materials, equipment, machinery and supplies. In March 2022, he issued a directive to increase the supply of materials for large-capacity batteries that are used mainly in civilian electric vehicles.
Biden’s use of the Defense Production Act to address the baby formula problem illustrates a limitation of it. It can be used to set priorities for ingredients and manufacturing capacity, but it’s not a magic wand. A president can’t by decree make capacity that doesn’t exist instantly appear. And it isn’t clear how much it will do to quickly end the formula shortage – given the main problem is manufacturing issues that closed production at a key plant, not just a shortage of ingredients.
The act is widely used and has been widely useful, but it is no substitute for advance planning and preparedness.
Erik Gordon, Professor of Business, University of Michigan
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
- Details
- Written by: NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Continuing the collaboration that produced the COVID-19 Earth Observing Dashboard in 2020, NASA and its international partners in Europe and Japan have combined the collective scientific power of their Earth-observing satellite data in expanding the online resource to document a broad array of planet-wide changes in the environment and human society.
The expanded dashboard from NASA, the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, includes six new focus areas — atmosphere, agriculture, biomass, water and ocean, cryosphere, and the economy — that allow users to drill down into data-driven stories and interactively explore relevant data sets.
“At NASA, accessibility to data is a top priority,” said Karen St. Germain, NASA Earth Science Division director. “With our partners at ESA and JAXA, this is another important step to getting the latest information to the public about our changing planet, in an accessible and convenient way, which can inform decisions and planning for communities around the world.”
The dashboard provides an easy-to-use resource for the public scientists, decision-makers, and people who may not be familiar with satellite or Earth observation data. It offers a precise, objective, and comprehensive view of our planet.
Using accurate remote sensing observations, the dashboard shows the changes occurring in Earth’s air, land, and water and their effects on human activities. Users can explore countries and regions around the world to see how the indicators in specific locations change over time.
The agencies collaborated to identify the most relevant satellite data streams and adapted existing computing infrastructure to share data from across the agencies and produce relevant indicators and stories.
“International collaboration between our space agencies is key,” said Simonetta Cheli, director of Earth Observation Programs at ESA. “Our advanced Earth-observing satellite data provided by ESA, NASA and JAXA are used every day to benefit society at large and advance our knowledge of our home planet. After the success of the Earth Observing Dashboard, I am delighted to see how our resources and technical knowledge can be expanded and used to further our understanding of global environmental changes and other societal challenges impacting our planet.”
The atmosphere focus area demonstrates ways in which air pollution and climate change contribute to the biggest environmental challenges of our time.
In the agriculture focus area, users can explore satellite data that provides insights into agricultural production, crop conditions, and food supply.
The biomass focus area features a story describing how trees and plants remove substantial amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere each year.
In the cryosphere focus area, a story on the effects of global temperature rise on the extent of sea ice allows the reader to interact with a geographic visualization of a JAXA sea ice data set.
The water and ocean area focuses on Earth’s largest natural resource and enables users to discover a view of the ocean that is as rich and complex as that of land.
The economy focus area provides access to data sets that show how Earth's social and economic systems are connected to the environment.
In addition to the curated stories and data set offered in each of the focus areas, the Earth Observing Dashboard provides direct access to a data set exploration tool, which allows users to interactively explore the different indicators in detail.
"Following the collaboration with NASA and ESA on COVID-19, we expanded this dashboard to widely provide the stories on global issues about the environment and climate change to the world in the trilateral collaboration,” said Koji Terada, JAXA vice president and director general for the Space Technology Directorate I. “From the perspective of contributing to the understanding of the Earth's environment and systems and enhancing the values of Earth observation data, we at JAXA will continue to work on updating this dashboard.”
Last year, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced a concept for NASA’s Earth Information Center, which is an opportunity for the agency to leverage its data and modeling capabilities to work with trusted government and community partners with long-standing engagement in communities most affected by climate change. The expanded Earth Observing Dashboard complements planning that is underway for the Earth Information Center.
NASA, ESA and JAXA will continue to enhance the dashboard as new data become available.
Visit the Earth Observing Dashboard at https://www.eodashboard.org.