Middletown's offense awaits the end of a timeout late in the game as the fog rolls over Bill Foltmer Field on Friday, Dec. 3, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – It was trench football. It was hit-to-hit, yard-to-yard, down-to-down good old-fashioned mud bath football.

In short, it was the kind of game the Middletown Mustangs – with their stalwart defense and nose-to the-grindstone offense – excel at.

And excel they did, knocking out the Healdsburg Greyhounds – the North Coast Section (NCS) Division IV tournament’s No. 1 seed – 10-0 Friday night in Middletown before a large, raucous crowd.

“It was a battle,” Mustangs Head Coach Bill Foltmer said after the game. “Every yard, every run, every play was hard-fought yards. Both sides took a beating; it was a very physical football game.”

Sure, it was yet another Mustang shutout, and those statistics – five of their last six games have been shutouts, and eight of 13 games this season – are impressive by themselves, but this shutout was different.

This was no cakewalk; this was a battle of wills. And that battle was lead by Middletown’s hard-hitting, aggressive running back and linebacker Jacob Davis.

After catching a Kyle Brown pass on third-and-16, David Pike made a 79-yard play, scored the only touchdown in the North Coast Section Division 4 semifinal game on Friday, Dec. 3, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

“Jake Davis is amazing,” Healdsburg Head Coach Tom Kirkpatrick said about the Middletown senior. “There were plays that looked like we were going to have some room to run, and he would just fly into the ball – an outstanding player.”

The action started early, on the Mustangs’ opening possession.

With Middletown trying to establish a running game and Healdsburg pushing back hard, David Pike caught a Kyle Brown screen pass on third and 16, broke a couple of tackles and streaked 79 yards downfield to score the game’s only touchdown.

Surefire kicker Danny Cardenas put the extra point through the uprights, the Mustangs took the lead 7-0, and the slog continued.

Healdsburg used most of the remaining first quarter to grind downfield, starting from their own 15 and needing two critical fourth-and-inches to make it down to Middletown’s 10-yard line, but on their second fourth-and-short and with their backs against the wall in the red zone, offensive lineman Luke Parker broke through the Healdsburg line and stopped the Greyhounds short.

“Our kids played hard tonight, and I’m so proud of them,” a jubilant Foltmer said after the game. “It was a great win against a great opponent.”

The game’s only other score came in the second quarter, when the Mustang’s needed 12 plays, a pass interference call and a horse-collar penalty before Cardenas kicked a 27-yard field goal to put Middletown ahead 10-0.

David Pike's 89 yards rushing led all groundgainers on a night of tough defense during the North Coast Section Division 4 semifinal game on Friday, Dec. 3, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

Of the Cardenas field goal, Foltmer said, “That was big, because now it’s a two-score game.”

Although the Greyhounds found some hard-earned forward progress in the second quarter, their attempts to even the score were twice thwarted by critical interceptions from cornerback Andres Fernandez, and the clock ran out with Healdsburg trailing 10-0.

“They did a good job of stopping us, and I thought we did a good job of stopping them,” Foltmer said about the game. “It was just a battle, you know?”

The second half was more of the same – a back-and-forth struggle in the trenches, fueled by the Middletown loud crowd, with both teams slogging downfield at times, only to see their efforts come up short.

Healdsburg’s fate was sealed with two and a half minutes left in the game, when Connor Chick intercepted a Max Opperman pass at Middletown’s 31-yard line, and the Mustangs ran out the clock to end the classic struggle.

“They played really hard, they played as hard as they could,” Kirkpatrick said about his Greyhounds, “and I told them, there was no problem with effort. This was not an effort game; this was an execution game.”

Jake Davis had 51 yards on 10 carries for Middletown in their 10-0 semifinal win over Healdsburg on Friday, Dec. 3, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

The Greyhounds successfully executed 12 out of 23 passes (with three interceptions) for 145 yards, while rushing 83 yards in 21 carries. The Mustangs logged 143 yards in the air on four of 10 passing, and 132 yards in 36 carries.

Having now secured a spot in the finals of the NCS tournament, Foltmer lamented, “People don’t understand: it’s not that easy to get there. My last time we were in the finals was 10 years ago.”

He added, “Normally, we tell the kids, ‘Hey, make the best of your year,’ and if it doesn’t work out this year for me, I’ve always got next year. But I’ve been telling this group that this might be my best shot at a section title with this group of kids.”

In a bit of irony, the Mustangs will end the season as they began it: by playing the Salesian Pride, who advanced to the NCS finals with a 76-28 trouncing of the Ferndale Wildcats Saturday in the tournament’s other semifinal game.

Healdsburg quarterback Max Opperman passed for 145 yards and ran for 49 more during the North Coast Section Division 4 semifinal game on Friday, Dec. 3, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

Middletown lost to Salesian 57-52 in that game – their season opener, and their only loss of the year – but powerhouse Jake Davis sat out the game with a broken jaw.

The Mustangs-Pride final will be held at Alhambra High School in Martinez on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 7 p.m.

“Yeah, we’ll go scout Salesian and Ferndale tomorrow,” Foltmer said Friday night about the other NCS semifinal game, “but we worked so hard this week, and with a big win like this, I just want to enjoy it.”

Healdsburg’s Kirkpatrick looked across the field to the Middletown side after the game and said with simple admiration, “That’s a great high school team right there.”

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The Middletown Mustangs will try to keep their heads on straight when they tackle Salesian High School of Richmond in the NCS division 4 title game. Salesian demolished Ferndale 76-28 in their semifinal match Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010. The championship game will take place at Alhambra High School in Martinez, Calif., starting at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11, 2010. Photo by Ed Oswalt.

The Tooth Travelers Mobile Dental Program, serving Central and Northern California, will be in Clearlake on Monday, Dec. 6, and Tuesday, Dec. 7.

They will provide free dental services to the residents of Clearlake Apartments, an affordable housing community located at 7145 Old Highway 53 No. 73 Clearlake, CA 95422, with sponsorship provided by Highland Property Development and Hearthstone Housing Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit.

The mobile dental program includes a fully-equipped mobile unit with two dental operatories, providing a wide range of both preventive and restorative services.

They work in partnership with community health care providers, governmental organizations, private businesses and community service organizations to bring quality dental health care to where it’s most needed.

The nonprofit's partners include community health centers, affordable housing groups, state and county children's programs, homeless collaboratives, veteran's groups, skilled nursing facilities, and other community service agencies and organizations.

The Tooth Travelers Mobile Dental Program is staffed with California licensed dentists, registered dental assistants, dental assistants and support staff with more than 80 years of cumulative experience in oral health.

Oral health and hygiene education, including proper brushing and flossing techniques; preventive services: teeth cleaning, fluoride varnish applications, sealants; treatment includes dental examinations, x-rays, fillings, extractions and selective endodontic procedures.

For more information, visit http://toothtravelers.org/Tooth_Travelers/HOME.html .

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Felisa Wolfe-Simon processing mud from Mono Lake to inoculate media to grow microbes on arsenic. Image Credit: Henry Bortman.

Researchers conducting tests in the harsh environment of Mono Lake in California have discovered the first known microorganism on Earth able to thrive and reproduce using the toxic chemical arsenic. The microorganism substitutes arsenic for phosphorus in its cell components.

“The definition of life has just expanded,” said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. “As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it.”

This finding of an alternative biochemistry makeup will alter biology textbooks and expand the scope of the search for life beyond Earth, according to a NASA report. The research is published in this week's edition of Science Express.

Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the six basic building blocks of all known forms of life on Earth.

Phosphorus is part of the chemical backbone of DNA and RNA, the structures that carry genetic instructions for life, and is considered an essential element for all living cells.

Phosphorus is a central component of the energy-carrying molecule in all cells (adenosine triphosphate) and also the phospholipids that form all cell membranes.

Arsenic, which is chemically similar to phosphorus, is poisonous for most life on Earth. Arsenic disrupts metabolic pathways because chemically it behaves similarly to phosphate.

“We know that some microbes can breathe arsenic, but what we've found is a microbe doing something new – building parts of itself out of arsenic,” said Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA astrobiology research fellow in residence at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif., and the research team's lead scientist. “If something here on Earth can do something so unexpected, what else can life do that we haven't seen yet?”

The newly discovered microbe, strain GFAJ-1, is a member of a common group of bacteria, the Gammaproteobacteria.

GFAJ-1 grown on arsenic. Image Credit: Jodi Switzer Blum

In the laboratory, the researchers successfully grew microbes from the lake on a diet that was very lean on phosphorus, but included generous helpings of arsenic.

When researchers removed the phosphorus and replaced it with arsenic the microbes continued to grow. Subsequent analyses indicated that the arsenic was being used to produce the building blocks of new GFAJ-1 cells.

The key issue the researchers investigated was when the microbe was grown on arsenic did the arsenic actually became incorporated into the organisms' vital biochemical machinery, such as DNA, proteins and the cell membranes. A variety of sophisticated laboratory techniques were used to determine where the arsenic was incorporated.

The team chose to explore Mono Lake because of its unusual chemistry, especially its high salinity, high alkalinity, and high levels of arsenic. This chemistry is in part a result of Mono Lake's isolation from its sources of fresh water for 50 years.

The results of this study will inform ongoing research in many areas, including the study of Earth's evolution, organic chemistry, biogeochemical cycles, disease mitigation and Earth system research. These findings also will open up new frontiers in microbiology and other areas of research.

“The idea of alternative biochemistries for life is common in science fiction,” said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the agency's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Until now a life form using arsenic as a building block was only theoretical, but now we know such life exists in Mono Lake.”

The research team included scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif., Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource in Menlo Park.

NASA's Astrobiology Program in Washington contributed funding for the research through its Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program and the NASA Astrobiology Institute. NASA's Astrobiology Program supports research into the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life on Earth.

Additional reports on the work can be found at http://astrobiology.nasa.gov .

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The Mono Lake research area. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Singers perform during the dress rehearsal for the Renaissance Pageant and Feast on Monday, Nov. 29, 2010, in Middletown, Calif. The event is being held at the Middletown Community United Methodist Church. Tickets are $35 and include a three-course feast; $20 of the ticket is a charitable donation. Purchase tickets by calling 707-987-2653. Performances continue next weekend. Photo by Esther Oertel.

The pageant, now in its 17th season, is festive Christmas entertainment, resplendent with madrigal singing, colorful period costumes and an original script that changes each year.

In addition, a medieval-style feast is served to the guests that function as members of the court of Greystone Castle (into which the Middletown Community United Methodist Church transforms for the yearly performances).

I enjoyed every aspect of the event nine years ago (as I have in the years since then), but the food especially piqued my interest.

Chicken flavored with cinnamon provided a savory entrée with a hint of sweetness. It was served on a round of flat bread that functioned as our dish, and eating it made our role as guests of Lord and Lady Greystone all the more plausible.

On Monday evening I was again a guest at the castle, this time for a dress rehearsal. The temporary trip back in time rekindled my interest in the cookery of that time, hence the subject of today’s column.

Candles are lit during

The Warm for the Winter program, led by Clearlake Vice Mayor Joyce Overton, is once again gathering warm clothes, food, blankets, tents and monetary donations.

Overton said that they will hand out the items at the Clearlake Rotary Christmas dinner at Burns Valley School on Saturday, Dec. 11.

She said that she is particularly looking for children's coats, as she has plenty for adults.

Overton said coats do not have to be new, but must be clean and in good shape.

She's also having a food drive, as food banks this year are short.

If someone cannot come to the giveaway, they can call Overton to arrange a dropoff.

For more information, call Overton at 707-350-2898.

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Spirit of the Season, a program of Catholic Charities, collects donations of toys and money to help give families in need a happy holiday.

Wish trees feature bells that represent the hopes and dreams of children from the area. Community members can take the bells and purchase the requested gifts for the children, who range in age from newborns to eighth graders.

All families that have approached SOS have great need of our help and support, according to the group, which has reviewed monthly income, checked that potential recipients live in the area, and verified ages and school grades of children.

But with the Dec. 8 deadline looming, many bells are still hanging on trees, the group reported Thursday.

Wish trees are located at Middletown Flower and Gifts, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Tri-Counties Bank and WestAmerica Bank in Middletown, as well as in Hidden Valley Lake at HVL Realty and Mulligan’s Bar. On Cobb, wish trees are located at Mountain High Coffee and Haute Spot Beauty Shop.

You can visit one of these sites, take a bell and shop to make a child’s wish come true. Please be sure to sign in when you take a bell and bring back to the site from which you took the bell originally by Dec. 8.

To date some 140 families have asked for assistance, but some of these represent only a desire for a food basket, the donations for which are inching up too slowly, the group reported.

So far, only $4,000 has been received. Hedy Montoya, Spirit of the Season coordinator, said it takes about $10,500 to provide food for 450 to 500 individuals.

The Christmas box dinners will be distributed from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18, at St. Joseph’s Church in Middletown and also from the Little Red School House on Cobb

Anyone needing a box of food needs to register immediately by calling Montoya at 707-987-8139. There will be no boxes given to anyone who has not pre-registered for Spirit of the Season. The Wish Tree portion of the program is now closed to new sign-ups.

Anyone wishing to donate is asked to send a tax-deductible donation to Spirit of the Season, P. O. Box 1468, Middletown, CA 95461.

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The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a special weather statement warning of moisture that will “continue to stream across the region for the remainder of the weekend.”

A weak storm front brought in moisture Saturday night, the agency reported.

A stronger low pressure system from the Eastern Pacific is expected to travel through Northern California throughout the day and into the night Sunday, bringing wind, moderate to heavy rain, and snow above 5,000 feet, the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters predict a 60 percent chance of rain Sunday, which will decrease early in the week. Precipitation is expected to return on Wednesday and possibly later in the week.

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The general rate case decision will allow the corporation to raise rates in its 24 California districts. That will add $25.44 million to annual gross revenues beginning Jan. 1, 2011, and an additional $8 million in rate relief that may be obtained after completion of certain capital projects, according to a statement from Cal Water.

The document included a settlement between Cal Water and the CPUC's Division of Ratepayer Advocates that also allows Cal Water to file for smaller increases in the second and third years of the three-year rate case cycle, 2012 and 2013, respectively.

“We believe the decision is balanced and will help ensure that we have adequate resources to continue to provide a reliable supply of high-quality water while providing a reasonable return to stockholders for capital they invest in our water systems,” said Cal Water President and Chief Executive Officer Peter C. Nelson.

Cal Water owns the water system in the Northshore town of Lucerne, which is included in the company's Redwood Valley District. The company previously reported it has 1,279 customers in Lucerne.

The proposed decision stated that Cal Water requested a revenue requirement increase of $683,000 or 54.9 percent for 2011, $135,000 or 7.0 percent for 2012, and $135,000 or 6.6 percent for 2013, for the Redwood Valley District.

The authorized increase for the district will be $516,600 or 41.6 percent for 2011, $39,600 or 2.2 percent for 2012 and $39,200 or 2.2 percent for 2013.

Residential customers with an average annual usage of 15 cubic fee per month can expect their bills to increase by 41.6 percent in 2011, according to the document.

As part of the settlement, Cal Water is allowed to make water main replacements.

Redwood Valley District Manager Gay Guidotti said Thursday that Cal Water had asked for permission for three water main replacement projects in Lucerne, and was approved for two.

One of those – on First Avenue – was just completed, she said.

The second, which is supposed to take place next year, will be on Country Club Drive, between 13^th and 17^th avenues, she said.

Guidotti said the third project – which it was agreed would be put off for a few years – would tie in the other end of Country Club Drive, crossing the creek and tying into Foothill Drive. She said that is part of finishing off a water main section on First Avenue.

The CPUC's Rate Case Plan requires utilities like Cal Water to file for a general rate case every three years.

The company reported that its next general rate case is scheduled to be filed in July of 2012, with rates effective in January 2014.

Nelson said the company recognizes that some of it customers are struggling in the tough economy, so they provide a range of conservation programs and a low-income rate assistance program. He said the company continues to focus on operational efficiencies in an effort to minimize rate increases.

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Gerald Stanley, 65, has been on San Quentin's death row since February 1984, sent there for the August 1980 murder of his wife, Cynthia Rogers, in Nice, as Lake County News has reported.

He previously had been convicted of killing his first wife, Kathleen Rhiley, in 1975. Another wife, Diana Lynn Ramel, went missing on Feb. 14, 1980. He has claimed she died of a drug overdose but has offered to give up information about the location of her body in exchange for an execution date.

In March 2008, federal court Judge Frank C. Damrell ruled that a new hearing was needed to determine whether or not Stanley had been mentally competent during his trial's death penalty phase, due to a finding that a female juror who had been a domestic violence victim hadn't disclosed that fact to the court.

Stanley told Lake County News in a March 2009 phone interview that he and his attorneys had been aware of the woman's experience but had wanted to keep her on the jury anyway.

Nevertheless, the matter of Stanley's competency is moving forward to a hearing later this month in Butte County Superior Court, where Stanley's trial was moved in 1983 due to media coverage.

His death penalty also is on stay while the proceedings take place, according to Lake County District Jon Hopkins.

Hopkins said at a Tuesday hearing in Butte County – in which Hopkins appeared by phone and Stanley by video conference – Stanley made a Marsden motion. A Marsden motion is when a defendant tries to discharge their lawyer on allegations of incompetence or inadequate representation.

Stanley has tried before to fire his court-appointed attorney in Butte County, Dennis Hoptowit, to no avail, and he got the same outcome Tuesday when that motion was denied by Judge Gerald Hermansen, Hopkins said.

Hopkins said Stanley then made a Faretta motion to represent himself. But before that matter was ruled on Stanley, Hopkins, Hoptowit and the judge began talking and Stanley postponed his motion in favor of going forward with the hearing on the feasibility of a new competency hearing.

That will take place starting at 9 a.m. Dec. 13, Hopkins said.

He said Stanley agreed that the hearing didn't have to take place at San Quentin, but can be held in Oroville.

“I've got two witnesses that are going to testify that it is feasible to hold a retrospective competency trial and Stanley will appear by video conference,” said Hopkins.

Hopkins' two witnesses are a psychiatrist and a psychologist. He said neither has worked with Stanley previously.

“The issue of his competency in 1983 at the time of his competency trial is assisted a great deal by having a transcript of the entire trial and the proceedings around the trial,” said Hopkins, noting the Butte County Superior Court was able to locate the original transcript.

It's possible that Hermansen could make a decision Dec. 13 or hold over the hearing, Hopkins said.

If a retrospective hearing is ordered, Hopkins said Stanley has been talking about wanting a court trial – which will be quicker – and having it moved back to Lake County, which Hopkins said the penal code would allow.

But with Hopkins' term as district attorney set to end this month, it's unclear about the future of the case.

Stanley's issues have been the source of countless hearings, which have been handled by Hopkins since his time as chief deputy district attorney under Gary Luck. Hopkins said he has worked with about four deputy attorneys general who were assigned to the case.

Hopkins said he hopes to be successful at the feasibility hearing, which would clear the way for a retrospective competency trial.

“Who will do that I don't know,” he said.

District Attorney-elect Don Anderson, who is working to close down his private practice before beginning his transition later this month, said Wednesday he isn't up on where the case is currently, and that he and Hopkins haven't yet discussed the case.

As for keeping Hopkins on in a part-time capacity to handle the Stanley case, Anderson said, “It's definitely an option.”

However, he added, that he wants to keep as much work as possible in house at the District Attorney's Office in order to save money.

Hopkins said if the feasibility hearing is successful, it will be up to Anderson to decide whether or not to go forward on the competency trial. If he doesn't, then the death penalty is off the table.

In a fall debate, Anderson made mention of his support for the death penalty.

If Hopkins loses the competency hearing, the death penalty would be set aside, but that would allow for the retrying of the death penalty phase of Stanley's trial.

Anderson “hasn't asked me for my recommendation,” said Hopkins.

However, Hopkins – who has tried five death penalty cases in his career, including the Charles Craft and Jeffrey Duvardo cases in Lake County – said he has been in touch with Rogers' family and others involved in the case.

“My belief is we should go forward, have him found to have been competent back then and have the death penalty reinstated and sent back to the federal court for them to approve it,” he said.

Hopkins alleged that Stanley killed three of his four wives, and possibly another woman, and called him an “extremely manipulative and very dangerous” man who deserves the death penalty.

Anderson, formerly a Lake County Sheriff's deputy, noted that he was on duty the day that Stanley shot Rogers at her father's resort. Stanley, a hunting guide, shot her through the heart at long distance with a high-powered rifle.

The search for Stanley became one of the county's largest manhunts, as Lake County News has reported.

Anderson recalled taking part in the search.

He said of the Stanley case, “It's just kind of strange that after all of these years, it's still coming up.”

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Permanent damage to the Salem New Jersey Nuclear Plant GSU Transformer caused by the March 13, 1989, geomagnetic storm. Photos courtesy of PSE&G.

Every hundred years or so, a solar storm comes along so potent it fills the skies of Earth with blood-red auroras, makes compass needles point in the wrong direction, and sends electric currents coursing through the planet's topsoil.

The most famous such storm, the Carrington Event of 1859, actually shocked telegraph operators and set some of their offices on fire.

A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences warns that if such a storm occurred today, we could experience widespread power blackouts with permanent damage to many key transformers.

What's a utility operator to do?

A new NASA project called "Solar Shield" could help keep the lights on.

“Solar Shield is a new and experimental forecasting system for the North American power grid,” said project leader Antti Pulkkinen, a Catholic University of America research associate working at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. “We believe we can zero in on specific transformers and predict which of them are going to be hit hardest by a space weather event.”

The troublemaker for power grids is the “GIC” – short for geomagnetically induced current.

When a coronal mass ejection (a billion-ton solar storm cloud) hits Earth's magnetic field, the impact causes the field to shake and quiver.

These magnetic vibrations induce currents almost everywhere, from Earth's upper atmosphere to the ground beneath our feet.

Powerful GICs can overload circuits, trip breakers, and in extreme cases melt the windings of heavy-duty transformers.

This actually happened in Quebec on March 13, 1989, when a geomagnetic storm much less severe than the Carrington Event knocked out power across the entire province for more than nine hours.

The storm damaged transformers in Quebec, New Jersey, and Great Britain, and caused more than 200 power anomalies across the USA from the eastern seaboard to the Pacific Northwest.

A similar series of “Halloween storms” in October 2003 triggered a regional blackout in southern Sweden and may have damaged transformers in South Africa.

While many utilities have taken steps to fortify their grids, the overall situation has only gotten worse.

A 2009 report by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) and the US Department of Energy concluded that modern power systems have a “significantly enhance[d] vulnerability and exposure to effects of a severe geomagnetic storm.”

Since the beginning of the Space Age the total length of high-voltage power lines crisscrossing North America has increased nearly 10 fold. This has turned power grids into giant antennas for geomagnetically induced currents.

With demand for power growing even faster than the grids themselves, modern networks are sprawling, interconnected, and stressed to the limit – a recipe for trouble, according to the National Academy of Sciences: “The scale and speed of problems that could occur on [these modern grids] have the potential to impact the power system in ways not previously experienced.”

A large-scale blackout could last a long time, mainly due to transformer damage. As the National Academy report notes, “these multi-ton apparatus cannot be repaired in the field, and if damaged in this manner they need to be replaced with new units which have lead times of 12 months or more.”

The underlying reason for the growth in the vulnerability and exposure of modern power systems to a severe geomagnetic storm may be seen at a glance in this plot, which shows the growth of the High Voltage Transmission Network and annual electric energy usage in the United States over the past 50 years. Credit: North American Electric Reliability Corporation and the US Dept. of Energy.

That is why a node-by-node forecast of geomagnetic currents is potentially so valuable. During extreme storms, engineers could safeguard the most endangered transformers by disconnecting them from the grid. That itself could cause a blackout, but only temporarily. Transformers protected in this way would be available again for normal operations when the storm is over.

The innovation of Solar Shield is its ability to deliver transformer-level predictions. Pulkkinen explains how it works: “Solar Shield springs into action when we see a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowing away from the sun. Images from SOHO and NASA's twin STEREO spacecraft show us the cloud from as many as three points of view, allowing us to make a 3D model of the CME, and predict when it will arrive.”

While the CME is crossing the sun-Earth divide, a trip that typically takes 24 to 48 hours, the Solar Shield team prepares to calculate ground currents.

“We work at Goddard's Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC),” said Pulkkinen.

The CCMC is a place where leading researchers from around the world have gathered their best physics-based computer programs for modeling space weather events.

The crucial moment comes about 30 minutes before impact when the cloud sweeps past ACE, a spacecraft stationed 1.5 million km upstream from Earth. Sensors onboard ACE make in situ measurements of the CME's speed, density, and magnetic field. These data are transmitted to Earth and the waiting Solar Shield team.

“We quickly feed the data into CCMC computers,” said Pulkkinen. “Our models predict fields and currents in Earth's upper atmosphere and propagate these currents down to the ground.”

With less than 30 minutes to go, Solar Shield can issue an alert to utilities with detailed information about GICs.

Pulkkinen stresses that Solar Shield is experimental and has never been field-tested during a severe geomagnetic storm. A small number of utility companies have installed current monitors at key locations in the power grid to help the team check their predictions.

So far, though, the sun has been mostly quiet with only a few relatively mild storms during the past year. The team needs more data.

“We'd like more power companies to join our research effort,” he added. “The more data we can collect from the field, the faster we can test and improve Solar Shield.”

Power companies work with the team through EPRI, the Electric Power Research Institute. Of course a few good storms would help test the system, too.

They're coming. The next solar maximum is expected around 2013, so it's only a matter of time.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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The IRS identified 249,185 fraudulent tax returns and prevented the issuance of $1.48 billion in fraudulent refunds during the 2010 Filing Season, a 50-percent increase over the number of fraudulent tax returns identified during the 2009 Filing Season, the report found.

Yet the report also found that the returns of those most likely to commit fraud are seldom screened by the IRS.

TIGTA’s analysis found that the majority of tax returns the IRS identifies as being filed by prisoners are not being screened to assess their fraud potential.

The review found that 253,929 (88 percent) of the 287,918 returns filed by prisoners as of March 24, 2010, were not selected for screening. Of those, 48,887 who claimed refunds totaling more than $130 million had no wage information reported to the IRS by employers.

While some of the potential fraud may have been caught by other IRS programs, the report concluded that giving the IRS expanded and expedited access to wage and withholding information during the filing season would significantly increase the IRS’s ability to more efficiently and effectively verify wage and withholding information reported on a tax return at the time a tax return is processed.

“While the IRS is identifying larger numbers of fraudulent returns, improvements must be made to its screening processes to ensure that returns filed by prisoners get adequate scrutiny,” said J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

“Unscrupulous individuals, including prisoners, continue to submit tax returns with false income documents to the IRS for the sole purpose of receiving a fraudulent refund,” he added. “Expanded and expedited access to wage and withholding information would significantly increase the IRS’s ability to verify information reported on a tax return when processed, and prevent fraud.”

The IRS uses data mining to identify potentially fraudulent tax returns using formulas based on specific characteristics of the tax return.

TIGTA assessed the IRS’s processes to identify potentially fraudulent tax returns for screening.

Existing law limits IRS access to wage information submitted by Federal agencies and State workforce agencies to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Only individuals claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit have their wage information submitted to the IRS. In addition, the IRS could benefit from expediting the use of wage and withholding information it receives from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

TIGTA made four recommendations to the IRS, including: seeking increased access to HHS data; verifying whether the 48,887 tax returns with tax refunds that were filed by prisoners with no reported wages were fraudulent; and identifying revisions that could be made to data mining criteria to better identify fraudulent tax returns filed by prisoners.

The IRS disagreed with the amount of potential savings from expanded and expedited access to SSA data and improving verification of prisoner tax returns.

TIGTA’s findings regarding prisoners are similar to its findings in a Sept. 28, 2005, audit, “The Internal Revenue Service Needs to Do More to Stop the Millions of Dollars in Fraudulent Refunds Paid to Prisoners.”

To view the report, including the scope, methodology, and full IRS response, go to: http://www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2010reports/201040129fr.pdf .

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Mendo Lake Credit Union is planning to open another full-service Lake County branch – similar to the one in Lakeport – in Clearlake in early April, according to Richard Cooper, the credit union's president and chief executive officer.

Cooper said the branch will be located in the Burns Valley Mall, in the storefront once occupied by a Rent-A-Center.

“We considered a lot of other places but we kept coming back to Burns Valley Mall,” Cooper said, noting the location is in close proximity to the senior center and apartment complexes.

The location also puts the new branch near a newly opened Dollar Store and Grocery Outlet, tenants that the credit union is excited about, Cooper said, noting the stores have gotten “substantially better than planned business” in the location.

When those businesses signed leases in the mall, Cooper said that was the final icing on the cake for the credit union, which has been looking at opening a Clearlake branch since 2008, the year he started there.

“We have really studied this one hard,” Cooper said.

Clearlake Building Inspector Scott Spivey said that on Sept. 10 he received the credit union's application and set of plans, which called for 90-percent interior remodeling and about 10-percent for the building's exterior. He said he was waiting for a new set of revised plans to review.

Cooper said they are planning to hire several new employees early next year.

“This has been a long time in coming,” Cooper said.

He credited credit union board member Cameron Reeves, also the retired county counsel for Lake County, with being a huge advocate for opening a Clearlake branch.

Cooper said the credit union has gotten a lot of encouragement from city officials and the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce.

Noting that part of the credit union's 51-year-old charter calls for it to serve people of more modest incomes, he said a location in Clearlake is “such a great match for us.”

In addition to being nearer to its 1,000 south county members, Cooper said the credit union hopes to encourage more people who don't use traditional financial service providers to use the institution's services.

No matter what a person's previous issues were with banks, they can come in and get a free basic checking account, he said, rather than depending on check cashing services. They'll also be offered direct access to low-cost consumer credit.

Many of Mendo Lake Credit Union's local members came to them through car loans with local car dealers, he said.

Cooper said the credit union is the No. 1 auto lender in both Lake and Mendocino counties, with $48 million in new and used auto loans. This year alone, they put out close to $30 million in new car loans, he said.

The credit union offers loans for older vehicles, offering loans for cars that go back before the current Kelly Blue Book, which is what most banks adhere to when making loans, he said. They'll loan on a car manufactured as early as 1985, with mileage restrictions.

“We've seen a huge decline in our new car volume,” Cooper said, explaining that they're seeing more cars from the late 1990s and the earlier part of this decade. “People are shopping for what they can afford.”

After a few tough years that began in 2008 – the credit union saw a lot of its low income customers get hit early in the recession – Cooper said they're seeing interesting economic changes among their members, which could be evidence of the signs of economic recovery.

For one, the average car loan balance in 2008 was $20,000, now it's $15,000. For another, they're seeing less loan delinquency.

The credit union also is getting back into the mortgage business after a hiatus from making loans during the recession. In July 2009 Mendo Lake Credit Union received $2 million in federal stimulus funds, which it planned to use to get back into making home loans, as Lake County News has reported.

Cooper said the institution current has $19 million in home and manufactured home loans in Lake and Mendocino counties. Their offerings include loans for mobile homes in parks, which are hard to find.

During the foreclosure crisis, the credit union had only one foreclosure, said Cooper. “We've done a lot to work with people.”

Cooper said Mendo Lake Credit Union is very “consumer focused” while some of the major money center banks are business focused. He thinks the credit union and Clearlake will be a good match as a result.

“We just really see lots of strong potential for Clearlake,” Cooper said.

The credit union can be found online at https://www.mlcu.org/site/ or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Mendo-Lake-Credit-Union/159996074976 .

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .