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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Soroptimist International of Clear Lake will hold a luncheon meeting on Thursday, Sept. 22.
The meeting will begin at 11:45 a.m. at Howard's Grotto, 14732 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake. The cost of lunch is $13 per person.
Following the lunch Samantha Strowbridge will give a presentation titled “Lake County Says … NO MORE.”
Samantha, 15, is very active in the community and also a candidate for Miss Lake County. She is the daughter of Ami Landrum, Soroptimist International of Clear Lake's recording secretary.
“No More” is a signature program of Soroptimist that aims to raise public awareness and engagement around ending domestic violence and sexual assault.
Launched in March 2013 by a coalition of leading advocacy groups, service providers, the U.S. Department of Justice, and major corporations, “No More” is supported by hundreds of national and local groups and by thousands of individuals, organizations, universities and communities that are using its signature blue symbol to increase visibility for domestic violence and sexual assault.
Membership in Soroptimist International of Clear Lake is open to anyone with the desire to help women and girls locally, nationally and internationally.
For more information about the luncheon or joining the group, contact Membership Chair Wanda Harris at 707-225-5800 or
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Luncheon Club's meeting this week will include a forum for the four candidates in this fall's Middletown Unified School District Board of Trustees race.
Lunch will be served at noon on Wednesday, Sept. 21, at the Middletown Senior Center, 21256 Washington St. The program will end promptly at 1 p.m.
For only $5 per person, enjoy chicken Parmesan, spinach salad and an orange wedge.
Nov. 8 is the general election. Not only will community members have the opportunity to vote for the next president of the United States, they also will be voting to fill two openings on the Middletown Unified School District's school board.
There are four candidates running for those positions and meeting attendees will get a chance to meet them and ask questions of them at the Wednesday meeting.
The candidates are Misha Grothe, Sean Millerick, Helena Welsh and incumbent Sandy Tucker, who has been on the board for more than 10 years.
Reservations are required as space is limited, especially at candidate forums. Don't count on showing up that day and being able to have lunch (though you can stay and listen).
If you make a reservation and then find you cannot attend, please call the senior center to cancel so someone else may attend in your place.
To make a reservation, call 707-987-3113 or email
For reservations or cancellations after Tuesday evening, please call the senior center directly at 707-987-3113.
SULLY (Rated PG-13)
The famous “Miracle on the Hudson” landing of disabled US Airways Flight 1549 on a cold day in January 2009 in the frigid waters of New York’s Hudson River dominated the news cycle for many days and to this day remains etched in the public memory.
An instant hero was created in Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the veteran airline captain who piloted the Airbus A320 after its engines had been taken out at the low altitude of 2,800 feet by a flock of geese.
Capt. Sullenberger, a self-effacing Everyman, thought of himself as a man just trying to do his job while keeping his wits about him to save the lives of the 155 passengers and crew members onboard the crippled aircraft.
The ordeal unfolded during a period of 208 seconds and the challenge for the movie “Sully” was to turn the events of a short, yet terrifying white-knuckle ride into a full length feature film with plenty of drama.
It’s difficult to imagine any current actor better suited to playing the role of the titular character than Tom Hanks, a modern-day Jimmy Stewart who can pull off the essential Everyman character that “Sully” demands.
For his part, Clint Eastwood as the director of “Sully” knows his way around searing real-life drama, something he proved most recently with “American Sniper,” a film that received six Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture.
The combination of Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood is the winning ticket for a high-flying adventure that soon comes down to Earth and requires plenty of personal, troubling reflections and great moments of tension to sustain the approximate 90-minute running time.
The fateful day begins uneventfully at New York’s LaGuardia airport, when the flight bound for Charlotte, North Carolina looks routine, even with three ecstatic late-arriving passengers excited to just barely get on the plane.
Speaking of the passengers, mostly ordinary folks traveling on business or to meet family, only a few are given just the slightest glimpse of any character, whether it’s a mother with an infant or some elderly ladies.
Nothing much is asked of the passengers except for the constant command to “brace for impact” and to keep heads down during the landing. That all passengers were saved meant, of course, that nobody was left behind or froze to death during the water rescue.
Capt. Sully was fortunate to have with him in the cockpit his co-pilot Jeff Skies (Aaron Eckhart), a looser, funnier guy who contrasted with Sully’s more reserved, quieter demeanor but was fully in agreement with the split-second decisions that had to be made.
In fact, later on during the hearings before the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it was First Officer Skiles who corrected the inquiry about how a plane ended up “in” the Hudson River when he replied “On the Hudson.”
Both Sullenberger and Skiles were in sync with the belief that the daring and unprecedented landing on the water was a “controlled landing” that offered only the best outcome given the limited options.
The fact that Capt. Sully and his co-pilot remained cool and collected during crisis was a testament to their professionalism, though Sully later tells his wife Lorrie (Laura Linney) in a phone call that “I want you to know that I did the best I could.”
Because the forced landing consumes only a matter of minutes, the tension has to be developed in other arenas, and a film like this could use a few “villains,” so to speak, to drive the narrative that the harrowing experience had repercussions.
This tension is explored by the adversarial NTSB hearings in which lead investigator Charles Porter (Mike O’Malley) and panel members Ben Edwards (Jamey Sheridan) and Elizabeth Davis (Anna Gunn) insist that Sully had other options for an emergency landing.
The bureaucrats, naturally, question Sully’s judgment during intense grilling and forcefully contend that flight simulators and computer analysis demonstrate that a landing could have been made at LaGuardia or even in New Jersey.
Holding their ground, Sullenberger and Skiles manage to poke large holes in the line of questioning. On a side note, the airline itself could not have been thrilled to lose an expensive aircraft to a watery grave.
Outside the hearing room, Sully has to cope with a number of predicaments, from self-doubt worries about whether he did the right thing to having nightmares about crash landing into Manhattan buildings in a vision reminiscent of the 9/11 horrors.
What we already know, that is now reaffirmed by Eastwood’s skillful direction, is that Sullenberger and Skiles executed a successful water landing that created a national hero in the airline’s captain and “Sully” celebrates the valor and courage.
Sure, we know the story, but “Sully” is a finely-tuned, nail-biting drama that shows that a good result can come from a bad situation, while also portraying the heroic efforts of first responders who accomplished the rescue of everyone within 24 minutes.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
“I love [basket weaving]. You create something that is alive. You put your heart and spirit into it, and it's alive. Whatever's in you, you put into the basket.”– Rochelle Marie O'Rourke, Tolowa/Yurok/Achumawi, from the book edited by Malcolm Margolin, “The Way We Lived”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The jobs that American Indians held for hundreds and thousands of years varied.
There were specialists in each group who were hunters, arrowhead makers, gatherers, fishermen, shamans and more.
Another vital job was that of basket weaver. As the renowned Pomo basketmaker, Elsie Allen (Sept. 22, 1899 – Dec. 31, 1990) said, it was “the supreme art.”
California and Lake County Indian basket weavers constructed containers for innumerable uses for hundreds and thousands of years.
There were ceremonial baskets, fish traps, food storage baskets, baskets for cooking acorn meal, winnowing baskets, burden baskets and many more.
One basket was unique among all others – the cradle basket for carrying babies.
The California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa recently held an exhibit of cradle baskets and childbirth traditions called “Precious Cargo.” There was a variety of shapes, decorations and materials used in cradle construction.
Like a car baby seat of today, the Indian cradle basket was vital in the hunter-gatherer times, for keeping babies safe.
Through the use of the cradle, the Indian women had their hands available for working at gathering food and a variety of other jobs.
Each region of our county and state, as we now know them, used a different type, however, the babies were always fastened into a cradle which had them lying on their back or seated straight up.
To build a basket, first the Indian women needed to spend time gathering the proper materials. This involved traversing down a creek or hillside to find willow.
The willow, white to gray tone was selected most often in the spring season, or sometimes during fall. Then, twigs were cut in accordance to the size of basket being made.
Now came the difficult job of preparing each switch for use, by cleaning, stripping and drying.
After the bark was removed the size or thickness was made uniform with a knife, since the willow is wider at the end.
Another necessary tool for basketry was the awl. In the early days it was a sharp tool made of bone, and later, a steel tip. The awl was used to ensure spaces between basketry pieces for ease of weaving.
Then, as now, having a baby was a big event in a family's life. Mortality rates were high then, so many cultural customs were followed.
Many times conceiving was difficult, so a “baby rock” was incorporated into a ritual using the special rock's dust.
The rock dust was taken from incising marks or grooves into the stone and sometimes layered onto the skin of the mother-to-be.
It was necessary for a mother of a newborn to keep from consuming salt or meat. The father of a newborn needed to refrain from hunting. Instead, he was encouraged to perform character-building feats like games or races.
When a Pomo Indian baby was born gifts were traded between the group's families. The Indian girls of various tribes learned vital mothering skills through the use of their own, “toy”-sized baby baskets.
Today, many vital components of native culture – including baby basket weaving skills – are passed on from the older generation to the younger members.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department arrested three people on Wednesday as part of a probation sweep at a city residence.
Sgt. Tim Hobbs said police officers responded to a residence in the 3500 block of Maple Street at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday to conduct a probation search and arrest warrant service on numerous occupants who live at the residence.
Hobbs said this was part of an ongoing community oriented policing project to address numerous issues brought forward from the public concerning the residence.
As a result of this probation search, Hobbs said the following people were arrested:
• Jayson Scott Tate, 47, was arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail for resisting arrest.
• William Lynn Rankin, 40, was arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail for possession of a controlled substance.
• Jennifer Marie Morse, 32, was arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail for being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Six vehicles that were unlawfully parked on Maple Street blocking the roadway and or had expired registration were towed.
Additionally, the residence was found to have numerous building code violations and determined to be unsafe to inhabit. Clearlake Code Enforcement officers responded to the location and red tagged the residence, Hobbs said.
Hobbs said anyone with ongoing problems in their neighborhood can contact the officers assigned to the community oriented policy beat in which they live. The Clearlake Police Department can be reached at 707-994-8251.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control once again has a wide variety of dogs needing new homes.
The available dogs this week include mixes of border collie, Chihuahua, Great Dane, hound, husky, Labrador Retriever, Rottweiler and pit bull.
There also are several strays picked up from the Clayton fire area that are being held for 30 days in order to reunite them with their families.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
Chihuahua mix
This female Chihuahua mix has a short white coat with tan ears.
She's in kennel No. 4, ID No. 6095.
Senior Labrador Retriever
This senior male Labrador Retriever mix is looking for a home where he can spend the rest of his days with love and comfort.
He's a very friendly fellow with a a short chocolate coat and some white markings.
He's in kennel No. 11, ID No. 6051.
Border collie mix
This female border collie mix puppy has a short black and white coat.
She's in kennel No. 14b, ID No. 6105.
Rottweiler mix
This female Rottweiler mix has a black coat with some brindle markings.
Shelter staff said she need some training and is manageable on a leash. They said she is a very nice dog and knows not to jump when excited. After proper introductions, she has gotten along with other dogs she has met, including off-leash play. She would do best in a home with no cats.
She's in kennel No. 25, ID No. 5947.
'Dakota'
“Dakota” is a female pit bull terrier mix with a short blue and white coat.
She's in kennel No. 27, ID No. 6142.
'Lucky'
“Lucky” is a male hound and Great Dane mix with a short black and white coat.
He's in kennel No. 30, ID No. 6026.
'Flor'
“Flor” is a female Labrador Retriever mix with a short black and white coat.
She already has been spayed, which should lower her adoption cost.
She is in kennel No. 30b, ID No. 6041.
Husky mix
This female husky mix has a medium-length all-white coat and brown eyes.
She already has been spayed, which should lower her adoption cost.
She's in kennel No. 31, ID No. 6058.
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at