How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Opinion
- Details
- Written by: Tina Chiotti-Stewart
The newest edition of the Lake and Mendocino Counties Valley Yellow Pages, The BUY LOCAL phone book, is putting the local florist at risk.
According to them you have 10 choices of florists in Middletown, 1 in Hidden Valley Lake, 10 in Upper Lake, nine in Nice, four in Lower Lake and 13 in Kelseyville. This is outrageous!
I called every number. They are all answered by a recording saying, “It's a great day to send flowers.” You end up at a florist concierge out of Florida!
Just like 1-800, Just Flowers and all other gathering companies, they just take your order and your local dollars and then they call the “real” local florist and offer a small portion of your hard-earned money. They keep the rest.
Please educate the ones you love who send flowers. It's getting really hard to shop local with scams like this one!
I wrote the following story about three months ago and posted it to my Facebook page to help educate the consumer.
This is a true story; I can't make this stuff up.
A man sits at his desk on a Thursday and thinks: “My wedding anniversary is next Monday. I should get my wonderful wife flowers.”
What happens next? He goes online, thinking he'll save time and money.
He picked a Just Flowers, 1-800-Flowers, FTD, etc. ... He paid $95 for flowers and delivery, received confirmation and forgot about it. What happens next may surprise you.
On Monday at 4:45 p.m. I received a call from the online company. They placed an order with me for $45 including delivery. Yes, you read right, ONLY $45! They kept the other $50.
Online companies are not florists; they are just a gathering place. They don't care about the consumer but I do!
When I delivered the flowers that evening I could see the disappointment on the man's face. So I quietly asked him if this was what he ordered.
“Yes,” he said, “but I thought it would have been larger, given I paid almost $100 for it.”
I was as shocked as he was. I knew the online companies took a portion but more than half?
So it is my goal this year to help educate the consumers on just how important it is to support the local floral businesses. You will save time and money.
Tina Chiotti-Stewart owns Middletown Florist & Gifts in Middletown, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The dinner was a big success with over 90 Land Trust supporters attending.
Land Trust President Pete McGee wishes to express his appreciation to everyone involved with the event, as well as to those who attended to support the land trust’s projects in Lake County.
Thanks go to Marie Beery and her able staff for hosting and presenting the dinner. Marie has been hosting this fundraising dinner for the Land Trust for many years and it is greatly appreciated.
Sponsors of the event were Foods Etc. of Clearlake and Big Valley Properties, Kelseyville.
Delicious Lake County wines for the evening were donated by Six Sigma, Wildhurst Vineyards, Tulip Hill Winery, Steele Wines, Moore Family Winery, Brassfield Estate and Langtry Estate. Dessert was donated by Bruno's Shop Smart Store.
Many thanks also to Tom Nixon and Doug Kauffman who entertained during the social hour with excellent guitar playing and singing.
The Lake County Land Trust is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of important natural habitats in Lake County.
The trust owns and operates the Rodman Slough Preserve near Upper Lake, Rabbit Hill Park in Middletown, and is currently working on other projects throughout the County.
For more information, go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org.
Roberta Lyons is a member of the Lake County Land Trust Board of Directors. She lives in Lower Lake, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Jo Douville
Everyone appeared to have a good time and hopefully found a plant for their garden.
A big thank you to Tom Lincoln for the use of the parking lot. The central location is perfect.
Thank you to the Record-Bee, Clear Lake Observer-American, Middletown Times Star and Elizabeth Larson at www.lakeconews.com for all the publicity.
Proceeds from our sales are used in our scholarship fund and civic beautification projects.
Jo Douville is plant sale chair for the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club.
- Details
- Written by: Ed Calkins
Enhanced interrogation techniques (e.g., water boarding) has been an effective weapon in this war on terrorism. It has resulted in stopping specific attacks on the US and as we all have heard more than a few times provided key clues that led to Usama Bin Laden.
Sadly, it is no longer used by our side in this war. If we captured Usama Bin Laden or other high-value terrorists, we can no longer effectively interrogate them. And, one of your loved ones might be part of their next target.
My concern and question is why should Barack Obama and Eric Holder be allowed to determine that we cannot use one of our most effective weapons against terrorism?
If they ruled that we could no longer use airplanes to defend our country, we would be up in arms and we would not accept the ruling.
Other weapons that we have to defend our liberty such as tanks and aircraft carriers are not effective against terrorism by a suicide bomber.
Our most effective weapon in this war is intelligence and enhanced interrogation techniques when authorized in very special circumstances are a key tool to get critical intelligence in time to stop another 9/11.
Water boarding has only been used on three captives by the US and the results have been extraordinary.
So instead of standing by while our inexperienced president continues to try and bring legal action against the CIA for legally using these interrogation techniques, we should bring legal action against this non-qualified president for stopping our CIA and our military from using this weapon to defend our country and our citizens. It is not his right to put all of us in harm's way.
The “torture” argument is significant and means a lot to most of us. However techniques such as water boarding are not torture.
Water boarding is used on our military officers during training, we do not torture them. This is an enemy that follows no rules; they have publicly beheaded our citizens that they have captured. They continually target unarmed citizens.
We must not allow this administration to take this effective weapon away from us.
Ed Calkins lives in Kelseyville, Calif.