County 12-17

Congressmember Lois Capps and the House of Representatives voted this week to approve the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which will provide funding to several area programs: $13 million for the construction of a new, larger child development facility at Vandenberg Air Force Base; $500,000 for Marian Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; $2.5 million for the Watershed Education and Training Program; $500,000 to help implement the West Coast Governors’ Agreement on Ocean Health; and $300,000 for the California Seafloor Mapping Program.

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The U.S. Air Force 30th Space Wing, based at Vandenberg Air Force Base, announced the successful launch of a Delta II rocket on 12/14. The rocket carried NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite, which is designed to provide more detailed information about the origin of planets and stars than has been previously available by scanning the heavens with infrared technology.