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PETALUMA, Calif. – Cowbells competed with the clucking of chickens on Saturday, April 23, when the Five Springs Ranch in Petaluma opened their gates once again to host the NorCal Cycling League race.

Boasting the largest turnout of spectators to date, the race drew nearly 1,000 competitors.

The course itself was a 6.5 mile fast track through poppy and wildflower strewn grasslands. With an 850 foot elevation gain each lap; riders completed two to four laps – 13 to 26 miles – depending on category placement.

Absent are rocks and tree roots; the technical aspect was climbing and speed. Last year, some of the turns were loose and crashes were common. That problem was solved with newly burmed turns and the rains just the day before, helped to provide ideal trail conditions.

Top local finisher of the day was Rainey Vanoven (CLHS Frosh)) with a fourth place out of 26 freshman girls.

“I really liked the course,” she stated. “It wasn’t super technical and I was able to go faster. It was hard on the last lap because I was getting tired and I was completely shocked when I came in fourth.”

“This was only Rainey’s second race and she rocked it,” stated Coach Tami Cramer. “Rainey’s a natural born competitor and I’m happy for her.”

Unfortunately the planets didn’t align for more Lake County podiums.

Kia Kohler (KHS JV) finished 12th of 27, but was really hoping for a top five since she had done well at Petaluma the year before.

“Mark” Jeffrey Morton (CLHS Varsity) stated, “I just needed another lap.”

Morton, finishing 8th or 29, was making ground in his last lap and could have benefited from a fifth time around.

By the afternoon, JV and Varsity riders had the high winds to contend with that early starters did not. Christian Lindsey, who had suffered from mechanical problems at the last two races, had no issues placing 10th out of 56; however, Justin Perez (KHS Frosh), suffered a setback from his shifter lever coming undone, placing 17th. 

Other local racers of the day included Solano Dominguez (CLHS), Michael Murphy (MHS) and Gabe Wind (CLHS) who finished in the top middle of the JV d. 2 pack. Other finishers of the day included: Zoë Cramer (CLHS Soph), Seth Spitzer (Indep. Frosh) and Jacob Young (MHS Soph).

The season is winding down with Race No. 5, the NorCal Championship, slated to take place this Sunday, May 8th at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey and the State Championships a short two weeks behind that in Los Olivos.

To find out more about the local teams, like them on Facebook at Lake County High School Mountain Bike Teams.

For further information about the NorCal Cycling League, visit www.norcalmtb.org .

The typical lament of an attendee at the TCM Classic Film Festival, now in its seventh glorious year of cinematic heaven in the heart of Hollywood, is the absolute infeasibility of catching every film of one’s desire.

The definition of a “classic film” seems to be somewhat elastic, fitting for the subjective nature of attaching that moniker to a celluloid product, when it could be something as grand as “The King and I” or an obscure film noir that fell out of circulation long ago.

The classic encounter might be totally unexpected on many fronts. Have you heard of “Smell-O-Vision?” Neither had I until the allure of the Michael Todd, Jr. olfactory experience of “Scent of Mystery” was revived to the extent possible more than a half-century later.

The Todd film was lost for 50 years, until elements were discovered that allowed a reconstruction from the original negatives to produce what is now titled “Holiday in Spain,” starring Denholm Elliott as a mystery buff with a trusty sidekick in Peter Lorre’s chauffeur.

The screening of “Holiday in Spain,” complete with overtures and intermission, was an interactive viewing requiring audience participation to spray various scents during the movie, ranging from cheap perfume and talcum powder to pipe tobacco and yellow roses.

Hence, the audience recreated “Smell-O-Vision,” an indeed unique and rare occurrence, and came away with a souvenir program and a Chinese collapsible fan.

The film itself proved to be a delightful mystery involving a plot to kill a young American heiress (Beverly Bentley, who made an appearance to introduce the film).

It should go without saying that the great fun of the TCM Festival is to discover films you’ve never knew existed or may not have been seen since their original release. One such great joy was the discovery of “Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back” from 1934.

Ronald Colman’s amateur sleuth Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond has returned to England for his friend Algy’s wedding when he stumbles across a damsel in distress (Loretta Young) and a body that keeps going missing.

The film is light-hearted, poking fun at itself with self-aware dialogue and absurd plot twists. Drummond exhausts the patience of Scotland Yard’s Captain Nielsen (C. Aubrey Smith) with false starts and runs afoul of some nasty sorts working for a crooked prince.

Film archivist Michael Schlesinger introduced the film by noting that it is “the greatest movie you’ve never seen.” I think he has a valid point. He also stated that the Hayes Office had strongly discouraged any suggestion that actor Charles Butterworth was a Casanova.

Now comes the funny part, because Butterworth’s Algy is so far removed from being any kind of sex symbol that his pretty bride (Una Merkel) becomes exasperated that their wedding night is constantly interrupted by Drummond’s urgent requests for help.

Another lost treasure of independent filmmaking was the 1960 film noir “Private Property,” a gritty tale of lust, seduction and murder that involves a beautiful blonde (Kate Manx) and a pair of criminals drifting through Los Angeles.

TV character actor Warren Oates made his film debut as the criminal drifter Boots, while Corey Allen, who played Boots’ partner in crime, went on to have a long career devoted mostly to television, primarily directing TV episodes.

“Private Property” is filled with tension as the two young thugs hungry with desire force a passing motorist to pursue a Corvette driven by the blonde, who turns out to be the lustful wife of an insurance executive who has some desires of her own not being met by her husband.

Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, still beautiful and glamorous, appeared to introduce her 1968 comedy “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” a story of deception involving three American soldiers from World War II, all of them thinking they are the father of her daughter.

During a 20 year post-war reunion at the Italian village, the wartime lovers (Peter Lawford, Phil Silvers and Telly Savalas) return with wives and family, each hoping to see the daughter they think is theirs.

Lollobrigida, also accomplished as a photographer and sculptor, revealed that she didn’t have a desire to be an actress and thought by asking for one million Lira she wouldn’t get the part in a film. The rest, as they say, is history.

TCM has a great nighttime tradition of having poolside screenings at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. The first night offered a great way to see one of Harold Lloyd’s most popular silent comedies, “The Freshman” from 1925, accompanied by a contemporary musical score.

Starring in the title role, Lloyd mined football for laughs as he proved to be so eager to be popular on the college team that he was unaware that he was being made a fool of by everyone except his landlady’s daughter.

The second night at poolside allowed for stars Adam West and Lee Meriwether to recount stories of “Batman: The Movie,” the film spinoff of the high camp style of the 1960s television series.

The “Batman” film budget allowed for four great villains, the Joker, the Penguin and the Riddler, in addition to Meriwether’s Catwoman. Hilariously, the budget didn’t take special effects into account to see that the shark attacking Batman was not obviously made of rubber.

To close out my TCM Classic Film Festival experience I could not resist seeing the Four Marx Brothers in the madcap hilarity of “Horse Feathers.” TCM Festival will return next year, and I urge film lovers to make plans.
 
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Acorn woodpeckers are often referred to as “the clowns of the forest” for their raucous calls, bright faces and tree-top antics, but they’re actually quite complex little birds that dictate how some aspects of the environment grows up around them.

You’ve no doubt seen these guys. Their black, white and red coloring, and bright yellow-white eyes make them unmistakable.

The males and females are patterned similarly, but you can tell the difference by looking at the head. On the males, the red cap starts right after the white forehead; on the female, the red cap is pushed back a little bit and there’s a black band between the white forehead and the red cap.

These birds form social groups that are something akin to blended families consisting of a minimum of three males and two females that all breed cooperatively.

Although females will sometimes pillage other female’s eggs early on in the breeding season, once all of the females in a group start laying, the pillaging stops, and they all share the same nest and take part in the incubation duties.

Acorn woodpeckers nest in cavities in trees that they drill out for themselves and often reuse from season to season.

Inside the cavity, the wood shavings left over from the drilling process act as the woodpecker’s only form of nesting material; the birds don’t gather grasses or twigs for their nests. If the nest is an old one, the woodpeckers will scrape the walls inside of the cavity to build up more, fresher wood chips for the babies.

Young acorn woodpeckers are waited on by all of the adults in the group, both males and females, until they fledge. Fledglings will often stay with their family group for several years before heading off to form new groups or joining an existing group that is short of members.

Groups of acorn woodpeckers are highly territorial, often commanding about 15 acres of the landscape around their nesting and “granaries” –dead tree limbs perforated with thousands of holes.

The woodpeckers drill holes of varying sizes into the wood and then fill them with acorns, other nuts and sometimes even insects. I saw one acorn woodpecker cram the chrysalis of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly into one of the holes of his granary tree.

The birds usually only drill new holes in the trees in the winter, and they only drill in limbs that are already dead or dying, so they do no harm to the living parts of the tree.

If useful trees aren’t available, these woodpeckers will use whatever is locally available to them including wooden fence posts and derelict vehicles.

There was a report from Arizona that documented a large family of acorn woodpeckers filling up a wooden water tank with acorns over a period of several years until the contents weighed almost 500 pounds!

The granary trees and their food caches – which are staunchly protected by the family group from interlopers like starlings, scrub jays, and squirrels – sustain the woodpeckers during the winter when their favorite food, flying insects, is in short supply.

Acorn woodpeckers also like to eat sap, the catkins and pollen from oak trees, and even lizards on occasion.

It’s their granaries that makes acorn woodpeckers a “focal species” as described by the U.S. Forest Service. Focal species are those that are “chosen for special attention ... to be used to guide components of conservation planning such as selection and design of habitat reserves, habitat restoration and management, and population monitoring.”

These woodpeckers are also considered a “keystone species” in the oak woodlands they inhabit because other crevice-nesting birds like tree swallows and house wrens who can’t excavate their own nesting holes depend on the woodpeckers to do that for them.

So, you see: Acorn woodpeckers aren’t just the “clowns” of the forest, they’re also the social and focal species of the forest that helps to define their environment.

Tuleyome is a501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland, Calif. For more information, visit www.tuleyome.org . Mary K. Hanson is a Certified California Naturalist and author of the “Cool Stuff Along the American River” series of nature guides available at www.lulu.com .

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – Refinancing of school district bonds completed last month is expected to give a break to the taxpayers in the Konocti Unified School District.

The district reported that it refinanced $5.675 million in general obligation bonds in April, an action which will save district property owners more than $970,000 in taxes.

District officials said they took advantage of very low interest rates to refinance its election of 2004 Series B and Series C Bonds.

The Series B Bonds were originally sold in December 2006 in the amount of $4.5 million and the Series C Bonds were sold in September 2007 for $3.4 million.

The Series B and Series C Bonds were authorized by more than 71 percent of Konocti Unified School District voters at an election held on Nov. 2, 2004, and were used to build new libraries, replace and repair classrooms and other school buildings, and build a new gym. 

Interest rates on the refinanced bonds ranged between 4 percent and 4.20 percent. The borrowing cost for the new bonds is 2.40 percent, a difference that will save property taxpayers approximately $970,052.59 for the refinancing, the district reported.

“With interest rates near historic lows, we felt it was the right thing to do to save our community money,” said Superintendent Donna Becnel.

Laurie Desimone, chief business official, added, “Part of my job as CBO is to keep an eye on our bonded debt obligations and seek opportunities to reduce property taxes.”

The refinancing of the bonds was unanimously approved by the district board of trustees on March 16. 

“We know that our community supports our schools, and as stewards of taxpayer dollars, we felt this bond refinancing was the right thing to do,” said Board President Sue Burton.

Property owners in the district will see a reduced property tax rate on future tax bills.

Konocti Unified's successful refinancing of its bonds follows similar efforts by other local educational districts, as Lake County News has reported.

In 2015, the Yuba Community College District restructured its Measure J bonds for a total savings of $14.2 million for taxpayers.

Measure J, passed in 2006, authorized up to $190 million in bond sales to fund improvements across the district's campuses and facilities. The bond sales funded numerous improvements, including new buildings, at the campus in Clearlake.

In late 2013 the Lakeport Unified School District refinanced bonds for a total savings of more than $52,000. In November 2001 Lakeport Unified approved a bond measure for up to $7.5 million in bond sales to fund improvements to classrooms as well as the construction of the Marge Alakszay Center multipurpose building.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Legislation to help businesses financially recover from disasters unanimously passed the Assembly Floor this week.

The bill, authored by Assemblyman Bill Dodd (D-Napa) and Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), will provide tax relief by allowing impacted businesses to defer tax payments without additional costs.

The idea for the bill was brought forward by Board of Equalization Chairwoman Fiona Ma in the aftermath of the Valley fire in Lake County.

“When residents and businesses are impacted by disasters, the state needs to step up to help them recover. Giving these businesses additional time and flexibility in their tax deadlines, without fear of additional fees or penalties, is a common sense approach that can help ease the recovery process,” said Dodd. “I’m proud to help lead these efforts with Sen. Mike McGuire and Chairwoman Fiona Ma, who are equally dedicated to supporting victims of natural disasters.”

“The Valley fire was devastating to Lake County, and small businesses continue to struggle in its aftermath. We’re grateful to partner with Assemblymember Dodd and Member Ma to ensure local business owners have some peace of mind and needed tax relief during this ongoing recovery period,” McGuire said.

The 2015 wildfire season was one of the most devastating in California’s history. Assemblymember Dodd’s Fourth Assembly District was particularly impacted by the wildfires of 2015, containing nearly 58 percent of the total extinguished acreage by Cal Fire across the entire state.

In Lake County alone, the Valley fire destroyed nearly two thousand structures over a 23-day period, ultimately becoming the third-most destructive fire in California history.

“The 2015 fire season was a devastating tragedy for so many communities, especially those affected by the Butte and Valley fires, and AB 1559 by Assemblymember Dodd will help us to rebuild by providing relief for businesses affected by these disasters,” said State Board of Equalization Member Fiona Ma, CPA. “I am eager to work with Assemblymember Dodd on passing this legislation and helping these communities rebuild and recover.”

If passed into law, the bill, AB 1559, will take immediate effect statewide.

Under this legislation, future natural and economic disasters would be eligible for filing extensions three times greater than what is allowable under current law.

Sen. McGuire and Assemblyman Dodd also are working with Gov. Jerry Brown’s office to provide additional relief for Valley fire victims through the state budget and administrative action.

Last year Gov. Brown signed legislation co-authored by Dodd to provide income tax relief to other taxpayers impacted by natural disasters.

Solar Scientists are accustomed to seeing spots on the sun – irregular islands of magnetism that sometimes erupt, producing strong solar flares.

On May 9, 2016, they will see a spot of a very different kind – a dark circle moving across the solar disk.

This spot is no ordinary sunspot. It's the planet Mercury, making a rare transit of the sun.

Mercury passes directly between the sun and Earth about 13 times every century. The last time it happened was 10 years ago in 2006, and the next time will be Nov. 11, 2019.

This year’s transit will be widely visible from most of Earth, including the Americas, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Europe, Africa and much of Asia.

In the USA it begins on the morning of Monday, May 9, around 4:15 a.m. Pacific Time. This means it begins before sunrise on the West Coast, but that’s no problem.

The transit lasts for more than seven hours, so Mercury will still be gliding across the solar disk when the sun comes up over places like California and Alaska. Everyone in the USA can experience the event.

Caution: Take care when viewing the transit. Mercury's tiny disk – jet black and perfectly round – covers only a tiny fraction of the sun’s blinding surface. Looking at the sun with unprotected eyes on May 9 is as dangerous as ever.

With a proper filter, however, viewing the transit of Mercury can be a marvelous experience. A telescope with a safe solar filter will be required to see the tiny disk of Mercury crawling across the face of the sun. Mercury is too small to be seen without magnification.

You may wish to call your local astronomy club and ask if they have a solar telescope. Amateur astronomers love to show off the heavens. The event will provide volunteers the opportunity to bring their 'scopes to classrooms for the transit.

If you can't find access to a good telescope, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory will also witness the entire transit and make it available in real time on its website.

NASA scientist Rosemary Killen and colleagues plan to use the transit to study Mercury’s ultra-thin atmosphere or exosphere.

The atoms in Mercury’s exosphere come from the surface of Mercury itself. They are blasted into space by solar radiation, solar wind bombardment and meteoroids. This gives Mercury a comet-like tail stretched out as long as 1.2 million miles. You cannot see this tail during the transit, however.

Killen said, “When Mercury is in front of the sun, we can study the exosphere close to the planet. Sodium in the exosphere absorbs and re-emits a yellow-orange color from sunlight, and by measuring that absorption we can learn about the density of gas there.”

She added, “We will be observing the transit from the National Solar Observatory, or NSO, in Sunspot, New Mexico.”

Killen, Carl Schmidt of LATMOS at the French National Research Agency and Kevin Reardon of the NSO will be on site making observations.

The Transit of Mercury offers something to professional astronomers and backyard sky watchers alike—from scientific discovery to simple wonder. Mark your calendar for May 9 and enjoy the show.

For more news about rare events in the heavens, stay tuned to http://science.nasa.gov .

See more coverage of the 2016 transit of Mercury at http://mercurytransit.gsfc.nasa.gov .