NICE – Come enjoy an Italian dinner and dance Friday, Feb. 26, at the Sons of Italy in Nice.

They are serving chicken, polenta, salad, French bread and dessert, at the Sons of Italy Club Hall, 2817 E. Highway 20.

The bar is open for socializing at 5 p.m. then dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.

Enjoy dancing to music of John Zimmerman right after the meal.

All tickets are $15 at the door. Everyone is welcome.

For information about this event or renting the hall for your own, call 707-263-1606.

UKIAH – The Girl Scouts to Europe 2011 Committee will host a family style corned beef and cabbage dinner on Saturday, March 13, to support sending local Girl Scouts to Europe.

The dinner will take place between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. at the Ukiah Veteran's Building, Seminary Drive.

Come on out and enjoy delicious corned beef, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, Irish soda bread, Caesar salad, beverage and dessert, all for just $12 for adults and $6 for kids ages 5 to 14.

The dinner also will feature 50-50 raffles.

Get your tickets now as seating is limited.

Tickets are on sale at Expressions Candy Shop, 111 S. School St., and Mendocino Book Co., 102 S. School St in Ukiah.

Tickets also will be available at the door – until they run out.

For more information call 707-206-6547, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.girlscoutsmendo.org/FB/ .

As you get ready to prepare your 2009 tax return, the Internal Revenue Service wants to make sure you have all the details about tax law changes that may impact your tax return.

Here are the top five changes that may show up on your 2009 return.

1. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

ARRA provides several tax provisions that affect tax year 2009 individual tax returns due April 15, 2010. The recovery law provides tax incentives for first-time homebuyers, people who purchased new cars, those that made their homes more energy efficient, parents and students paying for college, and people who received unemployment compensation.

2. IRA deduction expanded

You may be able to take an IRA deduction if you were covered by a retirement plan and your 2009 modified adjusted gross income is less than $65,000 or $109,000 if you are married filing a joint return.

3. Standard deduction increased for most taxpayers

The 2009 basic standard deductions all increased. They are:

• $11,400 for married couples filing a joint return and qualifying widows and widowers;

• $5,700 for singles and married individuals filing separate returns;

• $8,350 for heads of household.

Taxpayers can now claim an additional standard deduction based on the state or local sales or excise taxes paid on the purchase of most new motor vehicles purchased after Feb. 16, 2009.

You can also increase your standard deduction by the state or local real estate taxes paid during the year or net disaster losses suffered from a federally declared disaster.

4. 2009 standard mileage rates

The standard mileage rates changed for 2009. The standard mileage rates for business use of a vehicle is 55 cents per mile. The standard mileage rates for the cost of operating a vehicle for medical reasons or a deductible move is 24 cents per mile.

The standard mileage rate for using a car to provide services to charitable organizations remains at 14 cents per mile.

5. Kiddie tax change

The amount of taxable investment income a child can have without it being subject to tax at the parent's rate has increased to $1,900 for 2009.

For more information about these and other changes for tax year 2009, visit www.irs.gov .

The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. It will be held upstairs at the Lake County Bible Fellowship Hall (formerly First Baptist Church) at 755 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

Among the items on the agenda will be the St. Patrick's Day lunch that the flotilla will prepare for the U.S. Coast Guard personnel at Station Noyo River in Ft. Bragg on March 17.

The flotilla encourages anyone interested in joining this active organization to attend the meeting and find our how you, too, can become one of America's Volunteer Lifesavers.

For further information, please call the flotilla information line at 707-513-5122.

CLEARLAKE – The Lake County Democratic Central Committee will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 4, at the Redbud Library Community Room,14785 Burns Valley Road in the City of Clearlake.

This month's guests are candidate for Lake County Superintendent of Schools, Wally Holbrook and candidate for District 2 Board of Supervisors, Joyce Overton.

Meetings are open to the public and committee membership is open to all registered Democrats.

Contact the Democratic Party of Lake County at 707-277-0713 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Committee's Web site is www.lakecountydemocrats.org .

The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club recently honored Jo Douville with a Penny Pines Plantation. Photo by Linda Pyers.

LAKEPORT – Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club, through the Penny Pines Program, presented its 51st Penny Pines certificate in honor of Jo Douville.

Penny Pines Chair Ann Blue presented the award to Douville and shared with the membership some of her many contributions to the club.

Those contributions include acting as parliamentarian for two years, opportunity drawing for two years, youth chair, assistant to garden therapy chair, vice president, and co-chair for the new open space city parkland donated by Bob Millberry and named by him (Hanson-Linder-Dinsimore-Millberry Memorial Grove).

Douville also presented a soapmaking workshop for the North Lake Garden Club and is secretary for the Mendo-Lake District.

A big thank you to Jo for all her contributions to the club since becoming a member in 2004.

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club has been a participant in the U.S. Forest Service Penny Pines Program since February 1990.

Our club, along with the other garden clubs in California as well as many other service clubs, supports this program.

For a contribution of $69 we buy a plantation consisting of approximately one acre planted with 300 to 350 seedlings. In return the Forest Service provides us with a certificate in memory or in honor of the chosen person, in this case Jo Douville.

Each club chooses which California National Forest to send their funds to. Our club has chosen to send our funds to Mendocino National Forest, Grindstone Ranger District the Spanish Fire Area where around 5,000 acres were burned in 2002.

The funds received from Penny Pines contributions are held until conditions are right for planting and federal funds are available. When reforestation has been completed a standard forest sign will be erected near the site listing names of those honored.

The public is invited to participate in this program. For information contact Penny Pines Chair Ann Blue at 707-263-5854.

The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of the month at the Scotts Valley Women's Club House, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.

Members, guests and all interested are most welcome. President Jo Jameson, 707-263-4039, invites interested gardeners to join us.

Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of Mendo-Lake District, California Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

For more information see www.clttgc.org .