LAKE COUNTY – Lake County Poet Laureate Mary McMillan, with the support of the Lake County Arts Council, has been awarded a third grant to fund her work as leader of the Writers Circle.

The Writers Circle will be supported by Poets and Writers Inc., through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

The new grant funds the Circle beginning in December, and lasts for five months.

The Writers Circle is a public writing workshop held at the Main Street Gallery at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

Traditionally, the current Poet Laureate leads the group, stimulating constructive feedback.

This year, the group has attracted many new writers. Some people come only a few times, and others show up every month. Many have been sharing parts of books and other long works they've been writing; others write short stories, essays or poems.

The writers are between 16 and 80 years old, and come from all over the county.

LAKEPORT – Ever want to take a break from your life even if just for two hours? Now you can!

Mendocino College in Lakeport has a new class called “Freedom” that is a theater and acting class.

Hurry to sign up by this Friday, Jan. 29.

To sign up, go to the Mendocino College Lake Center, 1005 Parallel Drive, Lakeport, or sign up online at www.mendocino.edu .

CLEARLAKE – Second Sunday Cinema will feature “The Corporation” as its free film for February.

The movie will be shown Feb. 14 at Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave. near Mullen in Clearlake.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for snacks and socializing; the film starts at 6 p.m.

The group previously had scheduled “Anthrax War” for the Feb. 14 showing.

However, that was changed in light of a US Supreme Court decision that was delivered Jan. 21.

In that 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations can give candidates just as much money as they want in the name of First Amendment rights of free speech.

This means that major corporations can now give millions of dollars compared to the small political donations the average citizens can afford.

In other words. corporations can afford a lot more "free speech" than can you or I.

Due to this alarming development, SSC is showing "The Corporation," a widely-respected documentary examining corporations in the US: what they are and how they have come to be so prominent in this country, for good and ill.

"Anthrax War" will be shown very soon.