July 9, 2015 Page 3 Community Briefs Officer, Firefighter Honored For Service Officer Michael Murray (center) of the Hawthorne Police Dept., who was honored with the Officer of the Year Award from the Hawthorne/ LAX/Lennox Rotary Club. Photo courtesy of Douglas Krauss. The Hawthorne/LAX/Lennox Rotary Club and the Hawthorne Kiwanis Club hosted their annual “Guns and Hoses” luncheon recognizing the Police Officer and Firefighters of the Year. This year’s honoree from the Hawthorne Police Department is officer Michael Murray. Officer Murray has rapidly gained new responsibilities including becoming a member of the SWAT team. He also received the “Live Saving Award” at the South Bay Medal of Valor awards ceremony this year. The firefighter of the year is Sarah Cortez. Sarah is an eight-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Fire Department and works in Hawthorne, Lawndale and Gardena. Sarah is an Explorer Advisor for Battalion 18 and is well-known for giving her free time to help youth in the community. • Sarah Cortez (center) of the LA County Fire Dept., received the Firefighter of the Year Award from the Hawthorne/LAX/Lennox Rotary Club. Photo courtesy of Douglas Krauss. SOUTH BAY WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD ASSISTS JOB SEEKERS, EMPLOYERS AND YOUTH THROUGH GOVERNMENT-FUNDED PROGRAMS For more than 30 years, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board (SBWIB) has administered employment and training programs for LA County’s South Bay Area. Within the 11 cities serviced (Carson, El Segundo, Gardena, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lawndale, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Lomita and Torrance), the SBWIB accomplishes its goals through partnerships with local committees handling business and economic development, One-Stop locations, performance and evaluation, as well as a Youth Development Council. Through workforce investment funds, the SBWIB offers dislocated workers with free training programs and job-searching resources. Job-searching equipment, as well as seminars, workshops and job placement assistance are available at the four One-Stop Business & Career Centers (Gardena, Inglewood, Carson and Torrance – effective 7/14/15). The SBWIB assists businesses through an innovative Rapid Response Program geared towards layoff aversion. Parker Hannifin Corporation’s Carson facility is a recent success story. An initial meeting revealed that nearly 60 employees lacked sufficient English skills and were facing potential layoff. A layoff aversion plan was formulated that resulted in the SBWIB approaching a local adult school partner to assess the employees’ English skill levels and set up on-site training. Since September, the affected employees have been attending Business English classes three days a week with several of those individuals now being considered for promotions. Recruitment assistance, pre-screening of applicants, On-The-Job training and Transitional Subsidized Employment (TSE) are other programs available to local companies and small businesses. The SBWIB also prepares youth for entry into the workforce by emphasizing education and services that promote relevant workplace skills and experiences leading to industry-recognized credentials and career pathway employment, including apprenticeships. Special emphasis is aimed at the reengagement of disconnected youth through intervention and prevention services. The SBWIB is one of the highest performing Workforce Investment Boards (WIB) in the state and is often recognized by the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB) for its achievements. Continuous collaborations with business, economic development, education, government, labor and community organizations, helps the SBWIB provide a dynamic, efficient and effective workforce development system, ensuring a skilled workforce and vibrant economy in the South Bay Area. For more information please call: 310-970-7700. www.sbwib.org • www.southbay1stop.org Looking Up New Horizons Spacecraft Prepares for Encounter The Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. Credit: NASA Based on article from Astronomy Now magazine and release from Griffith Observatory, provided by Bob Eklund In a long series of images obtained by New Horizons’ telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) between May 29 and June 19, Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, appear to more than double in size. From this rapidly improving imagery, scientists on the New Horizons team have found that the “close approach hemisphere” on Pluto that New Horizons will fly over has the greatest variety of terrain types seen on the planet so far. They have also discovered that Charon has a “dark pole”—a mysterious dark region that forms a kind of anti-polar cap. “This system is just amazing,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator, from the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “The science team is just ecstatic with what we see on Pluto’s close approach hemisphere: Every terrain type we see on the planet—including both the brightest and darkest surface areas—are represented there, it’s a wonderland! “And about Charon—wow—I don’t think anyone expected Charon to reveal a mystery like dark terrains at its pole,” he continued. “Who ordered that?” “The unambiguous detection of bright and dark terrain units on both Pluto and Charon indicates a wide range of diverse landscapes across the pair,” said science team co-investigator and imaging lead Jeff Moore, of NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, California. “For example, the bright fringe we see on Pluto may represent frost deposited from an evaporating polar cap, which is now in summer sun.” Griffith Observatory to Celebrate First Encounter With Pluto On July 14, after a journey of 10 years and three billion miles, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will make the first-ever close encounter with Pluto. What can we expect from New Horizons as it ventures past the mysterious dwarf planet? A good way to find out is to come to Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory, which will host several activities to celebrate the New Horizons encounter with Pluto. All events are free and open to the public. Tuesday, July 14, 2015 – Live Pluto Flyby. Includes twenty-minute talks on Pluto and New Horizons, presented hourly (1:00 - 5:00 p.m. PDT); NASA-TV coverage of the New Horizons flyby with commentary by Griffith Observatory staff (5:00 - 7:00 p.m. PDT); signal from New Horizons confirms the spacecraft’s safe passage through the Pluto system (6:02 p.m. PDT); a presentation by Griffith Observatory staff about the New Horizons mission and recap of the evening’s events (7:30 - 8:30 p.m. PDT, streamed live on GriffithTV); and the Observatory and Griffith Park close as usual (10:00 p.m. PDT). Friday, July 17, 2015 – All Pluto Considered. Griffith Observatory Curator Dr. Laura Danly and Griffith Observatory Director Dr. E. C. Krupp show the latest images of Pluto from New Horizons and illustrate Pluto’s impact on culture from its discovery until now. (7:30 - 8:45 p.m. PDT ; streamed live on GriffithTV) The Griffith Observatory, Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater, is located at 2800 East Observatory Road, Los Angeles, California 90027. Seating is first-come, first-served, up to the capacity of the theater. For more information visit http://www.griffithobservatory. org or call (213) 473-0800. Select activities will be streamed live on GriffithObservatoryTV. For video, schedules, and downlink information visit http://new.livestream.com/ GriffithObservatoryTV or contact: Bonnie Winings, Friends of the Observatory, +1 (213) 473-0879, +1 (818) 621-2434, or bwinings@ friendsoftheobservatory.org. •
Haw_070915_FNL_lorez
To see the actual publication please follow the link above