Monday, 25 November 2024

Community

NICE – Come celebrate the new year with a dinner and dance at the Sons of Italy on Thursday, Dec. 31.


They will serve prime rib with all the trimmings, baked potato, vegetables, salad, rolls and a special midnight dessert buffet with a champagne toast at the Sons of Italy Club Hall, 2817 E. Highway 20 in Nice.


The bar is open for socializing at 5 p.m. then dinner will be served at 7 p.m.


Enjoy dancing to music of Ukiah's John Rizzo and the Grateful Dawgs, right after the meal.


All tickets are $30 at the door.


Everyone is welcome.


For information about this event or renting the hall for your own, call 707-274-9952.

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is sponsoring a video contest that challenges filmmakers and students to produce short, creative videos that highlight the “Three R’s” of individual consumption: reduce, reuse, recycle.


The EPA expects to award cash prizes up to $2,500 and will be accepting video submissions through February 16, 2010.


The competition “Our Planet, Our Stuff, Our Choice” calls for short, creative videos that examine consumption and recycling and offer community based solutions.


"What we buy, use, and throw away contributes over 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States," said Jeff Scott, the EPA’s director of the Waste Management Division for the Pacific Southwest Region. "We want to get the message out about how important it is for each of us to take personal action to help the environment."


Entries should be 30-60 seconds in length and promote steps individuals and organizations can take to minimize negative environmental impacts within their communities on the following topics: reducing and reusing; recycling; composting; consumption and its effect on environmental footprint.


The winning submissions will be announced in April 2010 in time for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.


Awards will be given to the top three videos in the following amounts, as well as a special “Student Winner” category exclusively for submissions by persons 13 to 18 years old at the time of entry: first place, $2,500; second place, $1,500; third place, $1,000; two student winners (13 to 18 years old), $500 each.


Quick facts:


  • In 2008, Americans produced and threw away 216.8 million tons of trash, much of which is recyclable, compostable or just not necessary.

  • Between 1960 and 2008 the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.5 pounds per day.

  • Recycling and reuse employs approximately 1.1 million people, generates an annual payroll of nearly $37 billion, and grosses over $236 billion in annual revenues.

  • Reducing consumption, recycling, and composting can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

  • 31 million tons of food waste ends up in landfills or incinerators each year. Instead this valuable material could be composted or anaerobically digested to create fertilizer or energy.


For more information on the “Our Planet, Our Stuff, Our Choice,” please visit http://bit.ly/5Vh1Gw .

CLEARLAKE – The Clearlake Christmas Light Parade on Saturday, Dec. 5, was a wonderful community event, featuring many parade floats of light and this years theme was Christmas in Paradise.


The following is a list of parade winners:

 

  • Best automobile theme winner: Lake County As.

  • Best float: Girl Scouts.

  • Best funniest group/ float: Clearlake Car Club.

  • Best costumes: Yuba College.

  • “Christmas in Paradise” theme: Orchard Park.

  • Best choir: Performance Mechanical.


fter the parade children and families visited with Santa and Mrs. Claus with the help of Davis Photography, Lakeshore Lions and Lioness provided cocoa and cookies, and a very special Christmas tree lighting by Lake County Hospice.


This year's event was taped by TV8 and Carle High School so you can enjoy this event several times throughout the month of December.


The city of Clearlake, Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce and Lake County Hospice collaborated to host this festive event, with many thanks to the following to make this event wonderful: Americorps, Carle High School, City of Clearlake's Public Works Department, Davis Photography, musician Dennis Chrisp, Judge and Mrs. Freeborn, Thomas Hewlett DDS, Jones & Lewis Chapel, Judy Thein, Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Leonard, Lakeshore Lions and Lioness of Clearlake, Lakeshore Fire, Lower Lake High School Jazz Bands and Choir, Mendo Mill, PEG Channel TV8, Russ Cremer and Family, Shore Line Realty and the many chamber members and volunteers.

LAKEPORT – The Lake County Area of Narcotics Anonymous is pleased to announce their annual New Year’s Eve dance.

This event will be held Thursday, Dec. 31, at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

Doors open at 6 p.m., and the event ends at 1 a.m.

The night will begin with dinner, potluck dessert and a speaker meeting, followed by a raffle and dance.

Tickets are $10 in advance of the event or $15 at the door.

Call Tony C. at 707-631-2182 for more information about ticket sales.

As always, no one will be turned away from this event for lack of ability to pay. After the dance, everyone is invited to attend the first NA meeting of the year.

Narcotics Anonymous is a nonprofit group of people who meet regularly to help each other stay clean. There are meetings held every day of the week all around the lake.

For more information about NA, please call the local helpline at 707-262-0132.

UKIAH – Run-to-Win campaign training is offered by Mendocino chapter of National Women’s Political Caucus (NWPC) Saturday, Jan. 9, 2010, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the SEIU Hall, 655 King Court, Ukiah.

“Women considering a first run for public office and political veterans should attend this valuable training to learn how to run to win without costly consultants and media budgets,” said CTA Women’s Leadership Trainer and NWPC-Mendocino President Val Muchowski of Philo.

Campaign skills training will be taught by NWPC certified trainers Ginger Pohlson of Willits, Estelle Clifton of Ukiah, and Susanne La Faver of Hidden Valley Lake, Lake County; and SEIU Labor Organizer Linda McClure of Ukiah.

Besides skills training, the day-long session includes campaign handbook, lunch with a panel of politically knowledgeable women, and a wine reception. Topics include why run, getting started, fund raising, campaign team, nuts and bolts, endorsements and online campaigning.

The luncheon panel of elected women, moderated by Estelle Clifton, includes Mendocino County Supervisor Carre Brown, Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott, and Ukiah City Councilmember Mari Rodin.

Training is geared for candidates with budgets of $25,000 or less and campaign teams of family, friends, community activists and political veterans.

Registration is $25. Cost for students, low-income women and SEIU members is $15.

For registration forms and more information, call Estelle Clifton at 707-462-6620.

Make check payable to NWPC-PAC and mail with registration form to National Women’s Political Caucus, PO Box 1140, Ukiah, CA., 95482.  Last day to register or cancel is Jan. 5, 2010.

The National Women’s Political Caucus is a nationwide multi-partisan organization working to build women’s participation in the political process and increasing the number of women in elected and appointed positions, by recruiting, training, and supporting women who seek those elected and appointed offices.

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released enforcement results for fiscal year 2009, and has developed a new Web-based tool and interactive map that allows the public to get detailed information by location about the enforcement actions taken at approximately 4,600 facilities.

 

In FY2009, EPA concluded enforcement actions requiring polluters to invest more than $5 billion on pollution controls, cleanup, and environmental projects.


Civil and criminal defendants committed to install controls and take other measures to reduce pollution by approximately 580 million pounds annually once all required controls are fully implemented.

 

The new mapping tool allows the public to view the locations of facilities that were the subject of those enforcement actions on interactive maps of the U.S. and territories.


The maps show facilities where civil enforcement actions were taken for environmental laws for air, water, and land pollution, and a separate map shows criminal enforcement actions.

 

To access the mapping tool visit www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/endofyear/eoy2009/2009-map-allactions.html .

 

Viewers can click on specific facilities to find historical information about specific enforcement actions, such as violations and monetary penalties. In addition, viewers can use the zoom function to find out which facilities are located near water bodies that are listed as "impaired” because they do not meet federal water quality standards.

 

EPA mapped the locations of more than 90 percent of the facilities that were the subject of enforcement actions last year. EPA did not map the locations of drinking water treatment plants due to potential security concerns.

 

For the past 10 years, EPA has described annual enforcement results by focusing primarily on two measures, the estimated pounds of pollutants reduced and estimated cost of commitments made by defendants to control or reduce pollution. These measures vary significantly from year to year and are dependent upon the number of large cases that settle in a given year.

 

While these large cases are a vital part of our work to protect public health and improve compliance, they do not reflect the totality of the annual environmental enforcement activities, and do not capture the number and variety of enforcement actions taken to help clean up local communities. The new mapping tool will help increase transparency, improve access to data, and provide the public with the bigger picture of enforcement activity occurring in communities around the country.

 

More information is available at www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/reports/endofyear/eoy2009/index.html .

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