SACRAMENTO – California’s iconic salmon fishery, and the thousands of families who depend on the fishery for their livelihood, are in crisis.

Due to an unprecedented collapse in California’s salmon population, last week Sen. Mike McGuire and Assemblymember Jim Wood sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown requesting he declare a statewide salmon fishery disaster.

“The California salmon fishery is one of our state’s oldest and is one of the most iconic in America. Golden State salmon fishermen, many of whom also experienced unprecedented hardship during the crab season disaster in 2015-16, are now faced with the reality that the 2017 salmon season is projected to be one of the worst in state history due to deplorable environmental conditions,” McGuire said. “We’re asking the Governor to declare a salmon season disaster and fishery failure – thousands of working families are in crisis and desperately need our help.”

The drought, poor ocean conditions and federal water management policies caused high mortality and very low survival of juvenile salmon resulting in low adult numbers and devastating closures for the 2017 salmon season.

The proposed closures and minimal open seasons will have significant negative impacts on thousands of California residents, and their livelihoods are now at risk. 

“Drought, disease, and stream diversions have decimated the north coast salmon population,” said Wood. “The hard working men and women who rely on these fish to support their families have been put in a terrible situation through no fault of their own. They deserve our support.”

Compounded by the terrible ocean conditions, the predicted adult salmon returns to the Klamath River are the lowest in history with 54,000 Klamath salmon predicted in the ocean down from 1.6 million in 2012.

As a result of the unprecedented collapse of Klamath River salmon stocks, there will be no commercial or recreational fishing in the Klamath Management Zone in 2017 and the Klamath and Trinity River recreational salmon fisheries will be closed.

In addition, this year’s salmon failure will have devastating impacts on North Coast tribes. Tribal allocations are at an all-time low of just over 800 salmon, or less than one fish per ten tribal members. There will be no tribal commercial fishery this year and too few salmon to meet tribal subsistence needs.

The California salmon fishery is our state’s oldest fishery and supports one of the most iconic commercial, recreational and tribal fisheries in the nation.

A decade ago, the fishery supported 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion in economic activity, while providing important trade and tourism business annually.

Landings by the commercial fleet dropped from 502,110 salmon in 2004 to 55,051 in 2016, an 89-percent decrease.

The 2017 season is predicted to be worse than last year.

Senator McGuire and Assemblymember Wood’s letter to Gov. Brown can be found here.

Dear Middletown Sewer District residents:

My name is Linda Diehl-Darms and I would like to bring your attention a recent survey sent out to all Middletown Sewer District residents. (Please note that this upgrade and expansion has nothing to do with the Anderson Springs sewer system.)

Before the survey came out, we received a letter stating that we would be receiving a survey to help establish the Middletown Sewer District area base income so that Lake County Special Districts could explore the funding options to fund an expansion and upgrade to our sewer system.

Like many of you, I am leery of any government-involved questions concerning personal income to seek funding for any project. (I remember before the fire being told at a Middletown Area Town Hall meeting that the sewer system had reached capacity and that funding options needed to be addressed. At that time, the plan was to send the letters of explanation and the surveys out in the fall. Then we had the fire and it was decided to put this on the back burner until we could get our feet back on the ground.) 

When I received the survey, I called Special Districts to receive more information. It was explained that funding is based on the average income of the area. If our base income is low, then we would be more likely to qualify for grants (which would not need to be paid back) or low interest loans and/or a combination of the two.

Currently, the income base for Middletown sewer residents is considered above average, according to the last Census. The only way to dispute this is to have a survey done by those who currently have hookups to the sewer system.

If we all do not send in the survey, then an average of those who did send them in can be used to determine the income base. The higher the base income the more out-of-pocket for each user.

The bottom line is the sewer system will be expanded and upgraded to meet governmental guidelines. There is no choice in that. We do have the opportunity to prove that our area has on average a low base income and thus save all of us high out-of-pocket increases to our sewer bills.

If you have thrown your survey away or you have additional questions, then contact Jean Thompson-Ibbeson, Rural Development Specialist – Environmental, RCAC at 916-207-8814. She is conducting the survey as a part of the county’s funding application process and it is required to have a third party conduct this survey.

Linda Diehl-Darms lives in Middletown, Calif.

Free Fire (Rated R)

If you have been waiting for a Quentin Tarantino-style action picture reminiscent of “Reservoir Dogs” or “Pulp Fiction,” but where plot and character development have been stripped down to the bare essentials, then “Free Fire” fits the bill.

Running at a crisp 90 minutes, “Free Fire” spends the minimum amount of time setting up the one prolonged shootout between criminal elements that occurs in an abandoned Boston warehouse during a nighttime rendezvous.

The story is all about a weapons deal to be consummated with a couple of trigger-happy Irish Republican Army members (Cillian Murphy and Michael Smiley) who seem intent on acquiring a certain type of automatic weapon for the struggles back home.

While it’s not easy, nor even necessary, to keep track of the criminal players, the chief weapons dealer appears to be a South African fixer (Sharlto Copley) who fancies himself to be a smooth operator concerned about personal appearance in his impeccable Seventies wardrobe.

Involved as intermediaries in the deal are the lone female negotiator Justine (Brie Larson) and the smug Ord (Armie Hammer), whose beard and tweed jacket make him look and act more like a college professor than a dapper arms dealer.

Inside the crumbling building, the parties stage an initial exchange of the terms of the deal, but then all hell breaks loose when the van driver for the buyers recognizes a hired gun on the other side as the deviate who sexually assaulted his cousin.

Gun fire is quickly exchanged and the respective parties take cover amidst the rubble in the warehouse for one extensive shootout where the hail of bullets far exceeds the capacity of any particular weapon, whether it’s a hand gun or machine gun.

As the bullets fly and various persons are wounded, insults are also exchanged in with machine gun speed. As if there is not enough gunplay, a couple of new players arrive on the scene shooting rifles like snipers picking off stray targets.

In a setting like this, where the exchange of bullets will not abate, “Free Fire” has only one possible conclusion. Given that gunshot wounds are inevitable, the only suspense is whether anyone is going to make it out of the shootout alive.

“Free Fire” is fueled by adrenaline and rapid-fire insults and trash talk, but mostly it’s about the exchange of gunfire that keeps the action rolling along at a nonstop clip.  

‘Great News’ on NBC Network

The good news about “Great News,” the new comedy television series on the NBC network, is not that Tina Fey of “30 Rock” fame is one of the many executive producers for a show struggling for newsroom relevance.

Rather, it is the simple fact that veteran comic actor Andrea Martin steals the show as the meddling mother who ends up being a 60-year-old intern at a New Jersey cable news program where her daughter works.

“Great News” is not just about a dysfunctional family dynamic between mother and daughter, but maybe even more so about the hiccups of staging a broadcast news program in a cutthroat competitive environment where the main players seem to be neither competent nor sufficiently talented.

Andrea Martin’s Carol has been out of the workplace for over three decades, and yet she’s never been too far removed from involvement in her daughter Katie Wendelson’s (Briga Heelan) personal life.

Complications set in when Carol decides to become an intern for Katie’s cable program called “The Breakdown,” where she’ll soon tame the wild newsroom beast that is veteran blowhard anchor Chuck Pierce (John Michael Higgins, perfectly suited for the role).

Of course, the 30-year-old Katie, who struggles for relevance to get a leading role in producing a news segment, has to contend with the anxious executive producer Greg (Adam Campbell), who seems oblivious to palpable talent right in front of him.

While Katie struggles for consequence at a job where her best workplace friend is laid back video editor Justin (Horatio Sanz), whose primary value rests in dealing out Zen-like advice, it’s up to smothering mom Carol to work the angles for her daughter’s significance.

Still, though the interactions between mother and daughter are fraught with often amusing, if predictable, outcomes, the developing relationship between Carol and the officious Chuck has the greatest comic potential.

Of the early episodes, probably the funniest set-piece is how Carol is pressed into service to help Chuck, temporarily blinded by cataract surgery on both eyes, to help the anchor fake his way through a broadcast while feeding him lines through an earpiece.

From a practical standpoint, “Great News” has the difficult task of trying to be topical while not having the advantage, such as afforded to a live show like “Saturday Night Live,” of tapping into the immediacy of breaking news.

Like the unfortunate circumstance of most TV comedies, “Great News” makes a valiant effort by letting loose a continuous barrage of jokes and one-liners that don’t always work.
  
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

Carlos “Carli” Elizabeth Tippett
Arrived: 04/11/1945
Departed: 05/04/2017

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Carli departed on May 4, 2017, at the age of 72.

Carli was a major supporter of small businesses and the idea of locally owned small town markets offering specific things which in turn would provide a working community which relies on each other.

Born in Washington D.C., she was known for her caring and loving person, who would give you the shirt off her back, a meal or a hug, if that is what you needed.

She was also very active in community groups, particularly the Grange of Lake County. She was well known in the Lake County area. She also was the owner of People Pleazin' Pantry and People Pleazin’ Preserves in Upperlake.

She is survived by two sons, Daniel Mohlé and Trevor Tippett; brother, Michael Dugan; sisters, Leigh Price of Port Orchard, Wash., and Alicia Anderson of Chico, Calif.

Save

NORTH COAST, Calif. – Applications are now being accepted for the 2017 Caltrans District 1 Partnered Scholarship, made possible by the California Transportation Foundation and the Caltrans Social Fund.

Caltrans District 1 is offering a $1,000 scholarship to a local student who plans to pursue a career in transportation.

For more information, including full application criteria and the PDF application file, visit our scholarship website: http://www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/scholarship.htm .

Applications must be postmarked by Friday, May 12.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The hilarious screwball comedy, “Bringing Up Baby,” starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, screens at the Soper Reese Theatre on Tuesday, May 9, at 1 and 6 p.m.

Entry to the film is by donation. 

Made in 1938 and directed by Howard Hawks, the film is fast, furious and very funny. Hepburn plays a scatterbrained heiress who keeps a leopard for a pet (the famous “Baby”) and develops a keen romantic interest in Grant who plays a hapless paleontologist whose only thought is how to piece together a dinosaur skeleton.

The script was written specifically for Hepburn, tailored to her personality by writers Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde.

The movie was over schedule and over budget due to filming delays caused by uncontrollable laughing fits between Hepburn and Grant.

Today “Bringing Up Baby” is considered one of the finest films ever made and ranks 88th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.

The movie is sponsored by Peggy Campbell, CPA. It’s not rated, in black and white, with run time of one hour 42 minutes.

The Soper Reese Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport, 707-263-0577, www.soperreesetheatre.com .

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FOX LAKE, Ill. – The Second (Indianhead) Division Association is searching for anyone who served in the Army's 2nd Infantry Division at any time.

This year the association will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the division, which was formed in France during World War I.

For information about the association and the group’s annual reunion in Arlington, Va., from Sept. 13 to 17, contact Secretary-Treasurer Bob Haynes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , call 224-225-1202 or visit www.2ida.org .

Leland Fletcher
Sept. 18, 1946 - April 17, 2017

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Leland passed away suddenly in Lakeport on April 17, 2017.

He was born in Cumberland, Maryland, and grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He graduated from the University of Minnesota.

Leland relocated to San Francisco in 1972 to further his art career. He was a world-renowned artist whose work spanned many genres including performance art, monumental sculpture, drawing, pastels and watercolor.

He had many interests in addition to art including skydiving, karate, long-distance running and bicycle and motorcycle racing. His most recent interest was virtual railroading.

Leland is survived by his wife of 38 years, Janice Traub. He leaves behind sons Nathan Fletcher and Joshua Traub; grandchildren Isabelle, Anna and Mason; a brother, Rodney Fletcher, and an aunt, Verna Malony.