Harvey Fisher
April 14, 1929 – Nov. 24, 2016

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Harvey was a World War II veteran serving in the Marine Corps and a Lake County Shriner.

He is survived by his son, Randy (Theresa) Fisher; two sisters-in-law, Peggy Bronson of Illinois and Linda Barnes of New Jersey; and many nieces and nephews.

He is predeceased by his wife, Shirley.

For further information please contact Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary at 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Sons of Norway Vikings of Lake Lodge No. 6-166 will hold its annual Christmas open house and Santa Lucia pageant on Saturday, Dec. 10.

The event will take place from noon to 3 p.m. at Galilee Lutheran Church Fellowship Hall, 8860 Soda Bay Road in Kelseyville.

Admission is free.

There will be Scandinavian Christmas décor and assorted traditional delicacies to enjoy including Danish Æbleskiver, krumkake, rommegrot, lefse vaffler and open-faced sandwiches.

At 1 p.m. the children will perform in the Swedish Santa Lucia pageant, with carols around the Christmas tree at 1:30 p.m.

There also will be a raffle for a beautiful basket filled with goodies including handmade ceramic pieces and jellies, with proceeds to benefit the group's Adopt-a-School Community service project for Lower Lake Elementary School.

Scandinavian cookies and 2017 Norwegian, Swedish and Danish calendars will be available for purchase.

For more information call Jo at 707-279-4698.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – While we enjoy family, friends and holiday meals, many are far from all of those and in harm’s way.

America’s troops serve and sacrifice every day, but feel the separation from home even more during the holidays.

Operation Tango Mike ships care packages to deployed service members every month. Requests for care packages increase during the holiday season as buddies ask to add friends to the list and self-referrals rise as troops make personal requests for support.

Monthly shipping fees average more than $1,000 and the cost to fill care packages is even more.

You can support the troops on Sunday, Dec. 4, at a special event, Pictures with Santa.

Operation Tango Mike will host the festivities at AAA Welding, 637 Bevins St. in Lakeport.

Children, adults and pets are welcome for the photo session from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. All dogs must be leashed, current on vaccinations, socialized and well-mannered. Please do not bring an aggressive animal to this event.

A professional will photographer using digital backgrounds will provide holiday cheer to every photo. Visitors will leave with prints in hand. A $15 donation is suggested.

Get in the holiday spirit with warm apple cider, candy canes and of course, Santa Claus.

Craft items will be available and donations of items for troop care packages will gladly be accepted.

For more information please call 707-349-2838 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Also, visit Operation Tango Mike at www.operationtangomike.org or on Facebook.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A local group will hold a event to support the Standing Rock protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline on Sunday, Dec. 4, in Clearlake.

The demonstration will take place from noon to 6 p.m. in front of the Wells Fargo Bank, 14918 Olympic Drive in Clearlake.

Organizer Aimé Graves said one of the event's goals is to encourage Wells Fargo to divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline project or else to encourage people to close their accounts in solidarity, and to time it with the arrival of veterans for Standing Rock.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – An approximately 50-mile portion of the commercial Dungeness crab fishery between Point Reyes, Marin County and near Salt Point, Sonoma County that has been closed due to elevated domoic acid levels will open on Dec. 3 at the recommendation of state health agencies, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced Thursday.

However, the fishery will remain closed north of Salt Point to the Humboldt Bay entrance. The closed portions of the coast may open once testing by state agencies shows that the area is safe with regard to domoic acid levels.

On Dec. 3 at 12:01 a.m., the commercial Dungeness crab season will open from Point Reyes (38° 00' N. lat.) to near Salt Point (38° 34.5'N. Lat.).

The opener will be preceded by an 18-hour pre-soak period commencing at 6 a.m. on Dec. 2.  The area between Salt Point and the north jetty at the Humboldt Bay entrance south will remain closed until the CDFW director receives a recommendation from the state health agencies that levels of domoic acid - a naturally occurring toxin – do not pose a public health risk.

Last fall and winter, domoic acid along the West Coast interrupted Dungeness and rock crab fisheries from Santa Barbara to the Oregon state line.

At the recommendation of the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham submitted to the Office of Administrative Law an emergency rulemaking to keep the commercial Dungeness crab fishery closed north of Point Reyes (38° 00' N. lat.) and to close the commercial rock crab fishery north of Pigeon Point (37° 11' N. lat.).

State and federal laws prohibit the commercial distribution of seafood products that contain domoic acid levels above the federal action level of 30 parts per million in the viscera, or guts.

Because of this, on Nov. 8, OEHHA in consultation with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recommended to CDFW to close or delay the start of the commercial Dungeness crab season north of Point Reyes and close the commercial rock crab fishery north of Pigeon Point.

On Nov. 23, OEHHA, in consultation with CDPH, recommended that CDFW open the commercial fishery from the north jetty at the Humboldt Bay entrance to the California/Oregon state line at its normal opening date of Dec. 1, and is now recommending the commercial fishery be opened from Point Reyes to near Salt Point.

The recreational season for Dungeness crab opened on Nov. 5 and remains open with a warning from CDPH to recreational anglers to avoid consuming the internal organs of Dungeness crab caught between Salt Point and the north jetty at the Humboldt Bay entrance.

Closure of the above-referenced commercial fisheries shall remain in effect until the Director of OEHHA, in consultation with the Director of CDPH, determines that domoic acid levels no longer pose a significant risk to public health and recommends the fisheries be open, and the director of CDFW provides notification to the commercial fisheries. Recreational fisheries will remain open under a warning to anglers not to eat the guts of crab caught in the affected areas.

CDFW will continue to coordinate with CDPH and OEHHA to test domoic acid levels in crab along the coast to determine when the fisheries can safely be opened. CDPH, in conjunction with CDFW, has been actively testing crabs since early September and results from the most recent tests showed that select crabs from the closed areas had elevated levels of domoic acid in their viscera.

Domoic acid is a potent neurotoxin that can accumulate in shellfish, other invertebrates and sometimes fish. It causes illness and sometimes death in a variety of birds and marine mammals that consume affected organisms.

At low levels, domoic acid exposure can cause nausea, diarrhea and dizziness in humans. At higher levels, it can cause persistent short-term memory loss, seizures and can in some cases be fatal.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Public Service Department announced that the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport and the Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake will be closed Saturday, Dec. 24, and Sunday, Dec. 25, for the Christmas holiday.
 
Both Museum will reopen on Wednesday, Dec. 28.
          
Normal operating hours at the Courthouse Museum in Lakeport are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower is normally open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday though Saturday and closed on Sundays.

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please call the Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport at 707-263-4555 or the Historic Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake at 707-995-3565.

I read a recent article on the goals of some Californians to secede from the Union with some interest but more pity.

Apparently, these citizens not only have no understanding that the Electoral College prevents about five cities from running roughshod over the rest of the country, but also have no historical knowledge of the ramifications of the Civil War.

That tragic clash between the north and south not only ended slavery but established that the union is indivisible, something noted in the pledge of allegiance.

Perhaps some protesters are not very familiar with “… One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

When the confederacy decided to leave the union, the federal government did not wish them bon voyage. It launched a full scale war; and upon winning the war, the principle that the union could not be dissolved was enshrined.

As one of the states with the most aversion to guns and the strictest gun and ammunition control laws, California could not be in a worse position to fight the full force of the United States military should they somehow succeed in the quixotic quest to start a second civil war.

Those wishing to secede will have discovered too late that the purpose of the second amendment was to be able to resist a government which had become oppressive to them; it was never about shooting squirrels and deer.

Therefore, my suggestion is to understand that the USA is a republic not a democracy, a republic with an electoral process designed to prevent the tyranny of a simple majority over a minority.

So, any citizens melting down over having the election go another way than their preference need to simply get over it as and accept the process that has served us for 240 years.

As Americans we are a nation of laws, and every four years we get another go at getting our candidate elected.

Meredith Lahmann lives in Lakeport, Calif.

LOWER LAKE, Calif. –  Imagine it is 1946. You, like everyone else, is an avid radio listener, spending hours enjoying the variety of entertainment offered all along the dial.

Now you’ve just been given tickets to attend a live radio broadcast in a New York City studio on Christmas Eve. You’re thrilled because you’ll see some of your favorite radio stars in person, watch live sound effects being made, and be a part of a national radio audience.

It’s not really 1946, but it might as well be when you share in the magic of the Lake Country Theatre Co.'s production of “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” which opens on Dec. 10.

You’ll see crew as well as actors in 1940s attire (you can dress up too, if you like), and old-fashioned holiday decorations give the theater a festive air.

Even the concessions reflect the era, with Cokes in “original” bottles and homemade cookies and other goodies.

On stage, five actors perform in front of old-style mikes, voicing all the characters in the familiar story, from idealistic George Bailey, who gives up his dreams in order to help others and now faces a life crisis, to Clarence, his guardian angel, who just wants to earn his wings.
 
On one side of the stage, the foley artist, a “must-have” in live radio, uses all manner of objects and materials to produce the many sound effects needed in the show.

And don’t forget the commercials, with their advertising jingles sung by the cast, just as they would be in days gone by.

Best of all, you will be a part of the studio audience, encouraged to applaud, laugh, or cry as the spirit moves you.

Starring in this production are Nick Powell, Cindy Sobel, Charles Berry, Kathleen Escudé and Larry Richardson, with Bert Hutt as the foley artist. Susan Van Wyk provides musical accompaniment.

“It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play” will be performed at the Schoolhouse Museum in Lower Lake on Dec. 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18. Friday and Saturday performances are at 7 p.m.; Sunday performances, at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $12 ($15 for first two rows), with a $2 discount for students, seniors and LCTC members.

Tickets are available at the Soap Shack in Lakeport, the Game Hub in Lower Lake and online at www.lctc.us .

For more information, contact director Linda Guebert at 707-279-4272.