Wednesday, 18 September 2024

News

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West will meet on Thursday, Oct. 13, for a membership social and organizational meeting.

The group meets at 5:30 p.m. for social time and 6 p.m. for the business meeting at Round Table Pizza, 821 11th St. in Lakeport.

If you were born in California and are over 16 you are a Native Californian eligible for membership in the Native Daughters of the Golden West organization.

The Native Daughters is a fraternal and patriotic organization founded in 1886 on the principles of:

– Love of home;
– Devotion to the flag;
– Veneration of the pioneers;
– Faith in the existence of God.

All Native Daughters are welcome to attend.

For more information contact Parlor Worthy President Carla Dore, 831-524-5588, or V.P. Dee Cuney, 707-235-2902, or visit the Native Daughters of the Golden West, Lupoyoma Parlor No. 329 Facebook page.

For information about Lake County Konocti No. 159 Chapter of the Native Sons of the Golden West contact Tony Braito at 707-245-7663.

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (Rated R)

A dozen years have passed since the forgettable sequel to “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” and a fair question might be why there is a need for a third installment titled “Bridget Jones’s Baby” if not for a payday?

There’s not a whole lot more to this latest chapter than a romantic guessing-game as to where the lovelorn Bridget, who has an unplanned pregnancy, will cast her future life plans.

Hugh Grant apparently opted out of a return engagement as the caddish Daniel Cleaver, and as a result he no longer has to compete with Colin Firth’s uptight barrister Mark Darcy for the affection of Bridget Jones.

His absence could be to the good, considering that his playboy character would more likely be drawn to exotic European models looking like partially-clothed centerfold candidates for the newly revamped Playboy magazine.

In fact, the filmmakers have some fun with Hugh Grant’s disappearing act, staging a funeral service for him after a plane crash in which no body was found. But many of the bodies attending the funeral could be members of the Swedish Bikini Team.

Fun fact: Emma Thompson, doing double duty as co-author of the screenplay and the role of Dr. Rawlings, is the sole artist thus far to have received an Academy Award for both acting and screenwriting.

Another fun fact: At age 47 and slipping comfortably, it may appear, into middle age, American actress Renee Zellweger, reprising her role as Bridget Jones, is no longer an ingénue by any measure, but still has a lot of spunk for a character celebrating a 43rd birthday.

Writing herself a good part as a snarky obstetrician, Emma Thompson is such an amusing delight for her limited screen time that one wishes she had more to do than lob some nicely timed barbs during prenatal exams with the expectant mother.

It’s left to Colin Firth’s bewigged lawyer to apply some dry wit to the proceedings, which may be the only thing he has going for himself in a competition with American tycoon Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey) for the renewed attention of the lovely Miss Jones.

Befitting any romantic comedy, there are some complications to the emerging love triangle. For one, Mark is now married but a divorce from a wife barely seen at all is in the offing.

Meanwhile, as the film opens, Bridget, a top producer of a TV news show, may be a lonely spinster who celebrates her birthday alone with a single candle on a cupcake, but at least she’s not reduced to the cliché of having a cat for a companion.

Bridget’s close friend at the studio is Miranda (Sarah Solemani), who encourages a weekend trip to a music festival with outdoor camping (a British Woodstock without the big name rock bands).

Getting stuck in a mud hole, Bridget is rescued by the gallant Jack Qwant, a billionaire developer of a dating Web site that applies an algorithm to determine the probability of a successful match.

Keep in mind that Jack is dashing, charming, funny and handsome, because after all he is Patrick Dempsey. Contrast him to the haughtiness of Mark, a brainy, clever person who comes across as prickly, and you get a sense there is no real competition between the two men.

In fact, Jack’s algorithm for love arrives at a likely conclusion that, at least from surface appearances, he and Bridget match up 97 percent, so they should be together, whereas Bridget and Mark match up only 8 percent.

Of course, love is not so easily reduced to mathematical equations, and the absence of empirical certainty of a match-up based on science goes a long way to explain how Bridget could have relations with both men during a short window of time.

As it turns out, if the film’s title is not enough of a clue, Bridget ends up pregnant after a tryst with the fun-loving Jack in a one-night stand at the music festival and then shortly thereafter a night of drunken revelry with Bridget winding up in bed with Mark.

You’d think the confusion would be cleared up quickly with a DNA test to determine the father, but this is a romantic comedy in which Bridget is not exactly forthcoming about her predicament, particularly to the two men and her doting parents (Gemma Jones and Jim Broadbent).

We’re treated instead to funny moments at the workplace where Bridget is coping with the annoying hipsters now running the network who insist on vapid news coverage reducing foreign affairs to an Instagram or something equally inane.

But again, some of the best moments belong to the deadpan delivery of Emma Thompson’s obstetrician who insists that Bridget is a “geriatric” mother who should pay more attention to resolving the paternity issue.

Without a doubt, “Bridget Jones’s Baby” is a chick-flick but it is not overbearing and annoying like some of the female-centric shows found on cable television. It actually turned out better and funnier than I initially thought possible.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

SACRAMENTO – A new law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will help California meet the growing demand for water supply reliability and healthy ecosystems.

The law, known as the Open and Transparent Water Data Act, was authored by Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and creates a transparent and universal platform for sharing water data across the state.

In the midst of the most devastating drought in California history, this law will help move California towards a more effective water management system.

"The drought has exposed the need for a modern water information system to address the state’s water supply,” said Dodd. “California does not suffer from a lack of water data, but from a lack of usable water data needed to make smart decisions. This bill will create instant and accessible water information that will better enable water managers to cope with future drought conditions.”

“As California rapidly approaches a population of 40 million, with the world’s sixth largest economy, and in an era of climate change, we need to do a better job of measuring and managing the water we use,” said Lester Snow, senior advisor with the Water Foundation. “Only with long-term policy changes like the Open and Transparent Water Data Act of 2016 can we guarantee enough water for California’s farms, cities and environment.”

California has a number of databases containing information on hydrology, biology, water quality, the physical environment, and water use.

Unfortunately, this information is not uniformly collected, easily accessible, or publicly shared. This has largely prevented water managers from making timely and science-based decisions to lead California into a more sustainable water future.

“This landmark legislation will be a game changer for managing California’s most precious resource for decades to come,” said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council. “California's current water transfer market is inefficient and Assemblymember Bill Dodd’s legislation will create a fair, efficient and functional water marketplace with the power to ease the impact of drought and reduce water waste.”

"I would like to acknowledge Assemblymember Dodd's leadership on this important aspect of water data collection and management. I also appreciate his willingness to continue working with the water community to refine and improve upon the proposal,” said Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency. “The value of creating a statewide clearinghouse is that it allows us to make informed decisions based on data that already exist but are currently out of reach.”

The act passed the legislature last month on a bipartisan vote, and was supported by leading environmental, business and water management groups.

The new law also requires the development of open-data protocols for data sharing, transparency, documentation, and quality control that will avoid misunderstandings, reduce disputes, and increase the effectiveness of management decisions.

Dodd represents the Fourth Assembly District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Yolo, Sonoma, Lake, Solano and Colusa counties. You can learn more about Dodd and the district at www.asm.ca.gov/dodd .

SACRAMENTO – With the Sonoma Developmental Center slated for closure, nearly 400 of the most medically fragile patients in the state system will be transitioning into the community system with no developmental center to fall back on if the placement fails.

In fact, across the state, over 1,000 developmental center residents will be moved out over the next five years.

Currently, there is no mandate to monitor and evaluate the transition of residents from developmental centers to the community and ensure our state follows through with its commitment to provide appropriate services to developmentally disabled Californians.

But on Saturday, this changed with Gov. Jerry Brown signing Sen. Mike McGuire’s legislation creating a quality of life tracking study for transitioning residents as they move from developmental center care to community care.

The study will track a minimum of 250 residents from the closing developmental centers for two consecutive years from the time they leave their developmental center.

“This new tracking study will hold the state accountable and bring needed transparency to the transition process. We’re at a defining moment for our state as major changes are made to the system of care for California’s developmentally disabled residents,” McGuire said. “We have to ensure that as developmental centers are slated for closure, we are closely monitoring the health and well-being of residents so that immediate steps can be taken during this transition if appropriate services and housing are not being provided.”

SB 982 will be an important tool for developmental center residents and their families by assuring the State is providing the services needed for residents to thrive in the community.

Specifically, this bill will track transitioning residents and their family’s satisfaction with the process, the adequacy of services they are receiving in the community along with their satisfaction of their new housing.

The legislation also requires the Department of Developmental Disability Services to report to the legislature annually on the outcomes of these mandated surveys.

Additionally, it will enable the state to learn from and correct any challenges that may arise from the transition in real time, and will provide transparency and accountability on the state’s investment and responsibility to the Developmentally Disabled community.

“Given the fact that there will no longer be any developmental centers to fall back on if residents have challenges in the community, a comprehensive study – focused on the well-being of developmental center residents – should be required and we are grateful that Gov. Brown agreed,” McGuire said.

The Legislative Analyst Office agrees that the state needs greater monitoring of those who are moving from developmental centers into the community. This bill is supported by the county of Sonoma, Disability Rights California, the Sonoma Parent Hospital Association, SEIU 100 among others.

The legislation also passed both the Senate and Assembly with no votes in opposition.

McGuire, who represents the region that includes the Sonoma Developmental Center, which is scheduled for closure, has spent the past two years working with state and local officials, families, residents, staff and providers to ensure a safe and seamless transition for the nearly 400 medically fragile residents who call the SDC home.

At SDC, the state is currently more than 50 percent behind in its goal of moving residents into the community.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Fair Board will meet on Monday, Sept. 26.

The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at the fairgrounds administration office, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

The board will select the 2017 fair theme and discuss this summer's event, along with the Blue Ribbon Dinner and appreciation dinner, and the Lake County Fair Foundation.

Other agenda items include consideration of refunding overpayments of entry fees and committee reports.

The fair board's membership include Janeane Bogner, Steven Brown, Marcia Chauvin, James Cochrane, Katherine McDowell, Annette Hopkins, Meyo Marrufo and Jerry McQueen.

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LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The students and staff of Carlé High School would like to thank all who were involved in the Clayton fire control and helping to get our neighborhood and schools back up on our feet.

We reached out to Sheriff Brian Martin and will work with his department to utilize our school-based enterprise to make plaques for every first responder, police agency, fire department, Red Cross and all other people, groups and agencies who have worked so hard to help us all out.

Many designs have been put together and we hope to begin producing the plaques this week.

Carlé would like to thank the wonderful Ms. Barbara Dye, a Konocti Unified district employee of the year a few years back, for 20 wonderful years of being our beloved secretary and “queen of Carlé.” We all wish her well in her new job at the district office. We love and will miss you Barbara.

Many students of the design class showered her with goodbye plaques and a mouse pad and mug to use in her new office. We wanted her to remember us and understand how much she meant to so many students and staff over these 20 years where she always stabilized our ship.

We would like to give a big warm welcome to Lilli Edson, our new counselor; Heather Koehler, our new principal; and Lance Christens, our new math and portfolio teacher.

Within the next few weeks this article will be speaking in depth about our new staff members including a new secretary not yet determined.

Carlé had our annual trip to Highlands Springs on Sept. 2. The entire school participated in spending the whole day doing fun activities and swimming.

Lower Lake High School’s Homecoming has come and gone but this year something new happened.  Carlé High School was invited to join the fun.

The floats this year were masterfully done. Carlé High School created a 3D Steam Boat Willie and we made a few signs such as: #LowerLakeStrong, Konocti Strong, Carlé High School and We Rise From The Ashes.

These students of Carlé work exceptionally hard on our float: Lloyd Bridges, Stacie Clemons, Alvaro Duran, Angle Fernandez, Emily Greig, Cece Hendern-Brown, Nicholas Kieffer, Ashton Legg, Brianna E. Legg, Riley Nielsen, Nicholas Phipps, Cyrus Pouladdezh, Candice Safreno, Jacob Walker and Cheyanne West.

We also would like to thank Sears for all the building blocks aka boxes, for a beautiful float. Thank you so much again. Our design class is currently working on a thank you to Sears. We also made a plaque for student’s Candice Safreno’s dad who did so much to make this a success.

Brianna E. Legg is a student at Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake.

Ultra-lights and fixed wing aircraft harassing wildlife

Question: We live around the Imperial Wildlife Area (Wister Unit) and over the past two years we’ve seen an influx of ultra-light air craft flying over the Imperial Wildlife Area, sometimes very low.

For example, on June 15 we saw three ultra-light crafts fly from a local airport and circle all of the wildlife area where there’s water, sometimes getting as low as 25 feet. This spooked all of the waterfowl and shore birds, and most of the shore birds were nesting and harassed by this.

I know there are harassment laws in place for this (Fish and Game Code, section 3003.5) as I contacted California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) wildlife officers, but all of us were uncertain how or if there are any height restrictions for aircraft flying over state wildlife areas.

This has also happened during waterfowl season where the ultra-lights were flying within feet of hunters’ spreads of 2,000 or more snow goose decoys.

Can you please help us determine whether there are any height restriction codes prohibiting such activities over state wildlife areas? I have Googled this and have only found Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) results for federal lands and know now that the FAA doesn’t have state wildlife areas listed. (Richard F.)

Answer: While there is no specific section in the Fish and Game Code regarding these low-flying aircraft, section 2009 may apply.

This section makes it a misdemeanor to willfully interfere with someone who is engaged in the sport of hunting. Given the circumstances you described, this section could be used to prevent these low-flying aircraft from interfering with hunters on state wildlife areas during the open season.

There are also two regulations that may apply to the actions you describe. “No person shall pursue, drive, herd or take any bird or mammal from any type of motor-driven air or land vehicles, motorboat, airboat, sailboat or snowmobile” (California Code of Regulations Title 14, section 251.1). Also, “No person shall harass, herd or drive any game or nongame bird or mammal or furbearing mammal. For the purposes of this section, harass is defined as an intentional act which disrupts an animal's normal behavior patterns, which includes, but is not limited to breeding, feeding or sheltering” (CCR Title 14, section 251). These regulations are punishable as misdemeanors.

Low-flying aircraft are regulated by FAA Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) and the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).

Generally, when flying over other than congested areas (i.e. cities, towns or settlements), they may be operated at an altitude not lower than 500 feet above the surface, except when over open water or sparsely populated areas where they may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure (FARs, CFR Title 14, section 91.119(c)).

Shipping sport-caught fish home

Question: We have chartered a sportfishing party boat for 25 of our out-of-town clients.

If they get their daily bag limits and want their fish shipped home via overnight carrier, would each person have to be present at the shipping office with their fish? If so, would each person need to show their fishing license to the clerk at the shipping office?

Would each person’s fishing license need to be packed inside the box with the fish being shipped out? Or could someone from our business have each person’s fishing license/ID and just ship everyone’s fish home for them? (Annette T.)

Answer: Each person would need to be present to check their fish into the shipping office because it is unlawful for someone to transport more than one limit of fish (FGC, section 2347). It’s also illegal for someone to ship more than one limit of fish (FGC, section 2346).

While each angler will need to be at the shipping office with their fish, they are not legally required to show their fishing license to the shipper, nor do they need to include a copy of their fishing license inside the box containing their fish (but it’s not a bad idea to do so). The carrier may have their own policy on this, but CDFW does not regulate it.

The outside of the package containing the fish must clearly and conspicuously indicate the name and address of the shipper, name and address of the consignee and the number and kind of fish inside the package (FGC, section 2348).

Making your own abalone irons

Question: I would like to make my own abalone irons. What are the specifications to do so legally? (Jim B., Oakdale)

Answer: Abalone irons must be less than 36 inches long, straight or with a curve having a radius of not less than 18 inches, and must not be less than 3/4 inch wide nor less than 1/16 inch thick. All edges must be rounded and free of sharp edges (CCR Title 14, section 29.15[e]).

Carrie Wilson is a marine environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. While she cannot personally answer everyone’s questions, she will select a few to answer each week in this column. Please contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

may2016elymarketplaceKELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Oct. 2 Fiddlers’ Jam at the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum welcomes the return of the Ely Stage Stop Marketplace.

This free, family friendly, fun-packed day can be enjoyed by all, young and old alike. The marketplace, just outside the Ely barn, will feature local handcrafted goods and will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. As usual, musicians will jam from noon to 2 p.m. inside the barn.

Admission is free and there will be fun for all ages. Enjoy music, refreshments, and the opportunity to browse and purchase the wares of local craftsmen and artists. Food will be available for purchase on site from the Cactus Grill in Clearlake.

Items available at the marketplace will include jewelry, beauty products, wood and metal products, local honey, books, and more.

The Lake County Model A Club plans to display several Ford Model A vehicles during the Marketplace. Approximately 5,000,000 were made and approximately 1,000,000 are still on the road today according to club member Dick Munger.

Beverages and tasty treats will be provided by the docents in the barn. Take a ride up to the house on the hay wagon where you can enjoy the newest displays of Mason and Ball canning jars and antique kitchen gadgets.

Donations made during the fiddling benefit both the Ely Stage Stop, helping to fund the blacksmith shop, and the Old Time Fiddlers Association, District 10, who uses it to partially fund their scholarship programs.

Lake County Historical Society’s Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum is located at 9921 State Highway 281 (Soda Bay Road) in Kelseyville, near Clear Lake Riviera, just north of Hwy 29-Kit's Corner.

Current hours of operation are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday. Fiddlers’ Jams occur the first Sunday of every month from noon until 2 p.m.

Come join the Lake County Historical Society and become a volunteer at Ely or our sister museum, the Gibson Museum & Cultural Center in Middletown. Applications will be available during the day. Join the fun!

Visit www.elystagestop.org or www.lakecountyhistory.org , check out the stage stop on Facebook at www.facebook.com/elystagestop or call the museum at 707-533-9990.

Upcoming Calendar

18Sep
09.18.2024 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
Free veterans dinner
19Sep
09.19.2024 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Clearlake City Council
19Sep
09.19.2024 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
Redbud Audubon Society
21Sep
09.21.2024 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Farmers' Market at the Mercantile
21Sep
09.21.2024 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Passion Play fundraiser
21Sep
09.21.2024 4:30 pm - 10:00 pm
Lake County Wine Auction
24Sep
09.24.2024 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Farmers' Market at Library Park
28Sep
09.28.2024 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Farmers' Market at the Mercantile
5Oct
10.05.2024 7:00 am - 11:00 am
Sponsoring Survivorship
5Oct
10.05.2024 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Farmers' Market at the Mercantile

Mini Calendar

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