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- Written by: Suzette Cook-Mankins
There is a folder on this photographer's home computer desktop named BACKUP. Inside of that folder are a dozen folders named after various topics such as travel, action, Mendocino, school, etc. The one folder that gets opened the most lately is filed under PERSONAL and is titled: MOM PICS. In this MOM PICS folder are the results of a half hour shoot that took place in my studio two summers ago.
My mother was here visiting from Florida and we decided to have some fun in the studio. We matched outfits, fixed our hair and had a blast. We posed together, and we posed separately. My mom was such a sport. She wore boxing gloves, cowboy boots, sat in a movie star chair, and even decided to get out her favorite antique ring and show it off. Some of these photos are too serious, some are too silly and some are just right. We sat in front of a white background with two studio lights facing us at 45 degree angles.
We both looked at the camera, posed cheek to cheek, hugged and laughed. It is probably the only time we have actually sat still and focused on each other and us as mother and daughter.
My favorite image is of mom alone looking off camera with a soft side light. She had just declared, "I am the family matriarch." The look in her eye is one of pride and strength. As a widow who took care of my Dad through his battle with cancer, and now the single parent of three grown daughters she is the head and heart of our family. I will always be honored to pose in a photo with her.
On this Mother's Day or any day real soon, I urge you to either schedule a formal sitting with your mom at a local studio, or at least get out your own camera gear and choose a location that has a simple but complementary background.
You can borrow a family member who has decent photography skills and ask them to try to capture a portrait of you and your mom. Make sure you shoot solo photos of mom to study later and please, let her be herself. You might capture some digital movie of her as well.
If your mom is the shy type and says she doesn't want to be photographed, just remind her how beautiful she is and tell her what she means to you and how these photos are as much for you as they are for her. Then quick take the photo before she wells up with tears.
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- Written by: Patricia England
Terrace Middle School students recently went all out for “Paint Our Town Purple Day.”
Students decorated the trees in front of the school with purple ribbons, wore purple clothes and some had purple hair or faces. The effort is to raise funds and support for the upcoming Relay for Life.
The whole school had a "Purpleist" contest with each grade level chosing the "purpleist" class whose students were treated to purple doughnuts. A student from each winning class was chosen to compete for the "purpleist" student in the school and the winner, Jessica Henson, received special gifts.
There is a money jar in the office to support American Cancer Society Relay For Life. The students who donate money can put a name on a purple paper heart to go on a large banner on the window. The theme is The Power Of Purple. The students have donated more than $240 so far.
The Lake County Relay For Life will be held from 10 a.m. Saturday May 19, to 10 a.m. Sunday May 20, at Clear Lake High School's Don Owens Stadium. Everyone is invited to attend.
There will be entertainment the full 24 hours and special ceremonies to honor cancer survivors and to remember those lost to cancer.
The Relay For Life committees extend special thanks to the students, teachers and staff of Terrace Middle School for supporting Paint Our Town Purple Day.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
On Thursday night, the House of Representatives passed an emergency spending bill that would provide much-needed funding for rural schools, the Pacific salmon fisheries disaster, agricultural disaster relief and wildfire emergencies.
HR 2207 passed with a strong bipartisan vote of 302-120, according to Congressman Mike Thompson's office.
The bill would provide $425 million for a one-year extension of the county payments law, known officially as the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, Thompson reported.
Lake County receives funds from that bill, which allocates money for rural schools and roads based on historic timber receipts. The county's most recent payment was about $1 million, according to local school and county officials.
The county payments law ran out last year, and the 109th Congress failed to pass a renewal bill, as Lake County News previously reported.
Provisions to extend the bill were then included in a recent Iraq War supplemental bill, which President Bush vetoed earlier this month because, among other things, it included timelines for troop withdrawal from Iraq.
The bill also includes $60.4 million for California and Oregon's commercial salmon fishing industry, a provision introduced by Thompson. The relief is needed for fishermen, tribes and businesses impacted by the commercial fishery failure of 2006, which Thompson's statement attributed to irresponsible Bush Administration water policies.
"The emergency relief for our salmon industry is long overdue," said Thompson. "Last year's commercial salmon fishing closure was the largest in U.S. history. The affected families and businesses need aid right away, and the president's claim that they should take out loans is illustrative of his disconnect from the real needs of working Americans."
"Due to the fishing closure last year, my business lost $50,000," said Deniel Caouette, owner of Deniel's Place Café in Klamath. "That may not seem like much to the president, but we're holding on by a thread and his suggestion that we just 'borrow' the money reveals how out of touch he is with plight of working people on the Klamath River."
In addition, the bill includes $500 million for wildland firefighting, and money for agriculture disaster relief.
A Bush statement of administration policy, issued May 10, said if presented with the bill, the president would veto it, calling the $7 billion included in the bill “unrequested spending that is unjustified and not appropriate for an emergency spending bill.”
In addition, the administration said the bill circumvents the new House “pay-as-you-go” rule and stretches the definition of “emergency.” The statement called the $500 million in wildfire suppression activities the bill proposes as “unnecessary, saying this year Congress has appropriated enough funding for such emergencies.
Regarding the county payments law provisions, the statement noted that the administration has “serious concerns” with the bill's provisions, and that the president has proposed his own “responsible” extension for the law that includes funding for a more sustainable level of timber harvest, with phase-out provisions.
"This president says he wants to leave no child behind while simultaneously keeping funding out of our schools," continued Thompson. "This veto signals that he doesn't care about getting rural students a good education."
Oregon Congressman Greg Walden also took issue with the administration statement. “To say that the closing of jails, schools and libraries as is occurring right now in my district and in others is not somehow an emergency is to simply ignore reality of what's happening in the rural west. It is outrageous.”
Walden said the federal government has failed to properly fund wildfire suppression, with 10 million acres of federal land burning last year at a cost of $1.5 billion to taxpayers to extinguish those fires. He said the government also has failed to replant those forestlands.
"Without funding, our county schools are at severe risk," said Jan Moorehouse, Superintendent of Del Norte County Unified School District. "These funds should have been secured last year and the president's callous disregard demonstrates he is ignorant to the needs of rural communities in the West."
The spending bill, entitled the Agriculture Disaster Assistance and Western States Emergency Unfinished Business Appropriations Act of 2007, now goes to a vote in the Senate.
Thompson's office reports there is enough support in the House to override the president's veto.
To view Rep. Thompson's floor speech click here: http://recap.fednet.net/archive/Buildasx.asp?sProxy=80_hflr051007_140.wmv&sTime=00:00:51.0&eTime=00:03:25&duration=00:02:33.0&UserName.
To see the White House statement of administration policy, visit www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/110-1/hr2207sap-h.pdf.
To learn more about the bill, visit www.thomas.gov and search for HR 2207.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
SACRAMENTO – With state officials concerned about the spread of the light brown apple moth, a bill is now in the state legislature that proposes to form an advisory task force to address the pest issue.
North Coast Sen. Patricia Wiggins on Friday said she introduced urgency legislation, SB 556, to form a light brown apple moth advisory task force.
Appointments to the task force would be made by the California Department of Food & Agriculture secretary – currently A.G. Kawamura – with task force members required to issue a report on the pest to the secretary no later than Sept. 1, Wiggins' office reported.
The Department of Food & Agriculture reported that the light brown apple moth was discovered in the Bay area in February.
Since then, it has reached a total of eight California counties – Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Cruz.
A total of 1,979 moths have been found according to the most recent Food & Agriculture situation report, released May 8. Most of the moths have been found in Santa Cruz County, which officials believe may be the original infestation point.
Trapping is taking place in 40 counties, with more than 17,000 traps put into urban and rural areas, according to the Department of Food & Agriculture.
No traps have been put out in Lake County, according to the Department of Food & Agriculture. Traps have been placed in the neighboring counties of Sonoma, Mendocino and Yolo, but so far those traps have yielded no moth finds.
The presence of the moth has been confirmed in as many as 250 kinds of plants and trees, according to the Department of Food & Agriculture.
In particular, the moth has been known to damage pears and grapes, important North Coast crops.
The moth, originally from Australia, has since become established in New Zealand, New Caledonia, Hawaii and the British Isles, the Department of Food & Agriculture reported.
Moth infestations led the state Department of Food & Agriculture to announce April 20 that it was establishing quarantines in the affected counties. On May 2, federal agriculture department officials implemented a federal order restricting the interstate movement of various agricultural products originating from the same counties listed above, as well as Hawaii.
“California stands as the nation’s leader in agricultural exports, shipping more than $7.2 billion in food and agricultural commodities around the world in 2003 alone,” Wiggins said. “The light brown apple moth has the potential to cause significant economic damage due to increased production costs and the possible loss of international and domestic markets.”
SB 556 has been scheduled for its first legislative hearing on May 15 before the Senate Committee on Agriculture at the State Capitol.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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