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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake VA Clinic will host its sixth annual VA2K Walk and Roll on Wednesday, May 18, at noon in back of the clinic, located at 15145 Lakeshore Drive.
Preregistration is not required. Anyone interested in participating should arrive by 11:40 a.m.
The VA2K Walk and Roll is dedicated to supporting homeless veterans and encouraging healthy activity. It is free and open to the community, veterans, and VA staff.
Participants are encouraged (though not required) to bring new socks or canned goods to the event to be donated to local homeless veterans.
“Healthy employees are happy workers,” says Kirk Andrus, MD, clinic medical director. “VA2K is a great way for our staff to take a few minutes out of their day to improve their personal health, get some exercise and help support homeless veterans.”
The Clearlake VA clinic is proud to participate in this event, joining with 200 other VA medical centers and VA clinics across the country.
Last year, more than $325,000 in clothing was collected nationwide for homeless veterans.
After the walk, there will be a “meet and greet” at the clinic.
For more information about this event, contact local VA2K coordinator Fred Berdan at 707-995-7252 or
With runoff from spring storms boosting reservoir levels, the California Department of Water Resources on Thursday increased its water delivery estimate for most recipients to 60 percent of requests for the calendar year.
DWR’s initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation, announced in December, was 10 percent of requests.
As storms developed, the allocation was increased to 15 percent on January 26, then to 30 percent on February 24 and 45 percent on March 17.
Thursday's boost to a 60-percent allocation is mostly due to March storms that soaked Northern California after a mostly dry February.
Still, the state’s historic drought is far from over.
The storms that have nearly filled key northern reservoirs, including Shasta, Oroville and Folsom, largely skipped the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California where reservoir storage remains low and some communities have seen their wells go dry.
It normally takes more than one wet year to erase the impacts of multi-year droughts, and decades to replenish groundwater levels.
Accurately predicting whether water year 2017 will be wet, dry, or average is beyond the skill of climate forecasters, so California must be prepared for the possibility that next year will be dry.
“Conservation is the surest and easiest way to stretch supplies,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin. “We all need to make the sparing, wise use of water a daily habit.”
The 29 public agencies that receive SWP water (State Water Project Contractors) requested 4,172,786 acre-feet of water for 2016. With Thursday’s allocation increase, they will receive 2,527,629 acre-feet.
Collectively, the SWP Contractors serve approximately 25 million Californians and just under a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The SWP provides the same allocation percentages to cities and farms.
Through the drought that began in 2012, agriculture and many communities have felt the pain of low allocations from the SWP and federal Central Valley Project (CVP), with vast tracts of farmland fallowed and drinking water systems failing in some communities.
It is important to note that nearly all areas served by the SWP also have other sources of water, among them streams, groundwater and local reservoirs.
Key reservoirs are rising from winter storms, but some remain below average for the date.
Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal reservoir, early this morning was holding 3,314,718 acre-feet, 94 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity and 118 percent of its historical average for the date.
Shasta Lake north of Redding, California’s and the CVP’s largest reservoir, was holding 4,184,298 acre-feet, 92 percent of its 4.5 million acre-foot capacity and 109 percent of its historical average.
But San Luis Reservoir, a critical south-of-Delta pool for both the SWP and CVP, was holding 1,013,003 acre-feet, only 50 percent of its 2 million acre-foot capacity and 55 percent of its historical average for the date.
Low San Luis Reservoir levels reflect restrictions on SWP and CVP pumping plants in the Delta in order to protect threatened and endangered fish.
Folsom Lake, a CVP reservoir near Sacramento, has risen to 82 percent of its 977,000 acre-foot capacity, 115 percent of historical average for the date.
Under federal rules, Shasta, Oroville and Folsom have had to make flood control releases to retain storage space for heavy inflow.
Groundwater aquifers recharge much more slowly than surface reservoirs, and many in the Central Valley have fallen to record levels in this drought.
Last year’s (2015) 20 percent SWP allocation was the second lowest since 1991, when agricultural customers of the SWP got a zero allocation and municipal customers received 30 percent of requests. In 2014, SWP deliveries were five percent of requested amounts for all customers.
The last 100 percent allocation was in 2006. SWP allocations in recent years:
– 2015: 20 percent;
– 2014: 5 percent;
– 2013: 35 percent;
– 2012 – 65 percent;
– 2011 – 80 percent;
– 2010 – 50 percent;
– 2009 – 40 percent;
– 2008 – 35 percent;
– 2007 – 60 percent;
– 2006 – 100 percent.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The May 1 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.
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, butcher blocks, pencil art, and bath and beauty products. There will be fantasy art, yard art, organic veggies, and honey and bee products. The Lake County Rockhounds will offer gold panning for children.
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 and learn about antique cookware.
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.
On Saturday, May 21, the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum will be hosting Lake County Fire Recovery Blues Benefit No. 2 for Hope Crisis Response Network to rebuild homes lost in the Valley Fire. Gates open at 2 pm, with blues music from local and Bay Area bands from 3 to 7 pm.
For more information visit Lake County Fire Recovery Blues Benefits on Facebook or call Spotlight On Productions at 707-278-7126.
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. Living History events are held on the fourth Saturday of each month, again, from noon until 2 p.m.
Come join the Lake County Historical Society and become a volunteer at Ely or its 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.
SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Mike McGuire has been appointed by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León to the influential and powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I was honored to be chosen by Pro Tem de León to serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee,” Senator McGuire (D-Healdsburg) said. “I look forward to the new challenges and opportunities this assignment will bring and I’ll always work hard to ensure the North Coast is at the top of the priority list.”
The seven-member Appropriations Committee decides the fate of hundreds of bills prior to making it to the Senate floor.
The committee is chaired by Senator Ricardo Lara.
Sen. McGuire also serves as chairman of the Senate Human Services Committee and the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture.
He is a member of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee and the Governmental Organization Committee.
U.S. Reps. Mike Thompson (CA-5), chair of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), vice-chair of the Task Force, and Peter King (R-NY) on Thursday led more than 110 of their bipartisan colleagues in calling on Speaker Paul Ryan and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to reject legislative language – or “riders” – that would block efforts to reduce and prevent gun violence in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 appropriations bills.
“These riders are nothing more than legislative tactics designed to circumvent an open debate on gun violence prevention in the House and sneak provisions into must-pass spending bills that undermine efforts to help keep guns out of dangerous hands,” said Thompson and Esty. “There is no justification for preventing scientific research into the causes of gun violence, or for restricting our ability to track and combat the spread of illegal guns. We ask our colleagues to bring forward clean, responsible spending bills, free from dangerous riders that handcuff law enforcement’s ability to reduce gun violence.”
In previous appropriations bills, gun-related riders have been added without open debate and have acted as roadblocks to reducing and preventing gun violence.
These riders have prevented law enforcement from requiring federally licensed firearm dealers to keep an inventory of their firearms, prevented law enforcement and academic institutions from using gun trace data to better understand the pattern of criminal gun transfers, and stifled scientific research into the causes of gun violence.
Thompson’s task force recommended that Congress should act to repeal these riders and restore funding for public safety and law enforcement initiatives aimed at reducing gun violence.
The task force urged Congress to fund law enforcement’s efforts to reduce gun violence, while supporting federal research into the causes of gun violence.
The full text of the letter is below:
Dear Speaker Ryan and Leader Pelosi:
As the House Committee on Appropriations develops each of the twelve Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations bills, we urge that you ensure the Committee’s legislation not include harmful legislative language, or “riders,” that impact the enforcement of gun laws, the operations of Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL), or research into the causes of gun violence and how to prevent it. Gun violence reduction and prevention is an important and sensitive issue. Given the renewed national focus on gun violence prevention, now is not the time to include controversial appropriations riders that negatively impact gun laws.
Instead, such changes to gun policy must be seriously and properly considered by Congress through the regular order. This must be done in an open and transparent process where a full range of options can be frankly discussed and debated by the proper committees of authorizing jurisdiction and the entire House of the Representatives. Over the past several years, various appropriations riders related to gun policy have had unintended consequences that could have been prevented had these issues been properly and more thoroughly debated in Congress.
For example, the Tiahrt and Rehberg amendments, among others, have prevented law enforcement from requiring FFLs to keep an inventory of their firearms, prevented law enforcement and academic institutions from using gun trace data to better understand the pattern of crime gun transfers, and chilled unbiased scientific research into the causes of gun violence and the means of preventing it.
As the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations process begins through the respective subcommittees, we urge you to support the development of legislation that is free of harmful gun-related riders. Thank you for your consideration of this matter.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Eunice Audrey (Booth) Norton passed away on Friday, April 8, 2016, at the age of 94 in Lakeport.
She was born Nov. 23, 1921, in Mill Valley, Calif., to Chester and Marguerite (Bornson) Booth.
She was predeceased by her husband, Howard Denio Norton, who she married in 1938. They shared 69 years of marriage, making their home on Third Street in Kelseyville where they raised their family.
Eunice enjoyed a long and full life. She loved her family, friends and community where she was active in many activities including the PTA, The Woman’s Club, Girl Scouts, Upper Lake TOPS and KOPS, a painting group and an organ group.
A very talented woman she could sing, play melody after melody by ear on her Clavinova, paint, knit, garden, and even decorate wedding cakes! She was Mom … she could do everything.
Many may remember her as an Avon Lady, or in her career as a clerk at the Kelseyville Post Office.
She is survived by her children, Lynn Elder of Nyack, New York, Lois Jordan (Michael) of Kelseyville, and Terry Norton of Lakeport.
Also surviving are grandchildren, Julie Havrilla (Gary), David Jordan (Lynn), Bonnie Yassky (Steven) and Taryn Dingwall (Courtney). She was blessed with eight great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren. She also leaves a brother, Chet Booth (Donna), a brother-in-law, Russell Norton (Jan) and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at a later date with inurnment at Kelseyville District Cemetery in Kelseyville.