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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – On Saturday, April 18, Organic Home Lifestyle, a new eco-focused business located in Middletown, will host an Earth Day event for all ages.
“We’re offering an all-day Earth Day terrarium-building workshop to share a small token of environmental appreciation with people,” said Tara Somers, co-owner and founder. “We’re also going to give away some of our most popular organic and natural home products, and we’ll offer light snacks and refreshments for people as well.”
The event will take place from noon until 6 p.m. at the Organic Home Lifestyle flagship store, located at 21137 Calistoga Road.
“We’re excited to see how our community responds,” said Somers.
Terrarium making will be donation-based – whatever people want to give. All proceeds from the workshop will go directly to a couple of the store’s favorite local nonprofits, Middletown Art Center and the Clear Lake SPCA.
The main focus of the event is the “Organic Home Lifestyle Interactive Eco-Home Tour” that is designed to inform and inspire the community about limiting toxic exposures, conserving natural resources and implementing sustainable practices.
“Whether it’s making a deposit into the household compost or shaking up our natural, homemade cleaning concoction, we hope people will be inspired by the tour to incorporate eco-friendly processes more into their homes and lifestyles,” said Star Brumfield, Organic Home Lifestyle representative.
Offering guests mini-passports to check off while answering eco-immersive questions and taking real time actions will help guide them as they explore different areas of the home.
“We want to contribute as much as we can to the economic vitality of our extraordinary community, where nature abounds,” said Martha Somers, co-owner/founder. “We saw that the most effective way to do this was to create a thriving business that would promote stewardship of our local natural resources by raising awareness and giving back.”
Dedicated to helping families incorporate natural solutions for everyday household needs, Organic Home Lifestyle offers natural home products, workshops and classes that support healthy living, simple living and careful consumption of natural resources.
Learn more at www.OrganicHomeLifestyle.com , email
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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The 2014 Cache Creek Vineyard Rosé has received a gold medal at “The 2015 Rosé Competition” held at Simi Winery on March 25.
Wines were entered from various counties and 19 states.
Recognizing the importance of the growing Rosé category, this competition was judged by distinguished wine judges including Christopher Sawyer, Denise Gill, Debra Del Fiorentino, Sue Straight, Debra Parker Wong, Rick Fraga and Ray Johnson.
“As a category, Rosé is on fire and consumers can’t go wrong with the variety of styles that medaled in the competition,” said Judge Deborah Parker Wong.
The Cache Creek Vineyards 2014 Rosé will be officially released to celebrate Lake County Wine Adventure Weekend on May 16.
Start off your Wine Adventure at the Reggae and Rosé event featuring live Reggae bands, Jamaican jerk chicken with grilled pineapple paired up with the gold medal-winning 2014 Rosé.
Visit Cache Creek Vineyards online at https://www.cachecreekvineyards.com/ .
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Thursday, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, spoke at the Bay Planning Coalition’s 2015 Decision Makers Conference.
Garamendi's speech focused on America's pivotal opportunity to create thousands of American jobs by revitalizing America's shipbuilding industry.
“We're not building big ships in the United States except for the U.S. Navy. These are strategic national assets,” Congressman Garamendi said.
“What if we recognized that the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG), when and where deemed appropriate, provides us with a unique opportunity to rebuild the American shipbuilding industry and strengthen our Merchant Marine,” Garamendi said. “When we export LNG, we need to make sure that the export of this natural asset is being conducted by American sailors on American ships. In doing so, we will revitalize America's shipbuilding industry in a big way.
“We have an opportunity to make sure that a very significant part of the American economy has an opportunity to blossom and grow – not just the shipyards – but the entire supply chain: electronics, engines, and more,” he added. “Can it be done? Well, it turns out that a lot of shipyards are represented by my Republican friends.”
In his remarks, Garamendi also argued that we need to ensure that harbor maintenance funds are not siphoned off to projects unrelated to improving America's harbors. California is disproportionately harmed by this practice.
“Harbor maintenance fund money should be used for what is one of the principal economic opportunities this nation possesses: our ports,” he said.
Garamendi also argued that we need to:
· Preserve the Jones Act;
· Renew the Surface Transportation Act and ideally model it out of ideas of the President's GROW America Act, including its call for a robust and comprehensive freight management plan; and
· Do more to preserve the Merchant Marine.
“We're going to build in America and Make It In America one ship, two ships, one hundred ships at a time,” Garamendi concluded. “What I need from all of you is your interest and support in building the American shipbuilding industry. If any of you would like to join me in this effort, let me know.”
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Sen. Mike McGuire’s critical legislation regulating online vacation rental businesses is advancing and the highly anticipated bill will proceed to the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee later this month.
Senate Bill 593 (SB 593) was officially submitted for Senate Committee consideration this week. The premise of SB 593 is simple.
This bill reinforces local laws already on the books. Where vacation rentals are legal, the bill will assist local jurisdictions in their regulation and collection of Transient Occupancy Taxes (tourist taxes) as more than 430 cities and 55 counties impose a tourist tax.
Where vacation rentals are illegal by local ordinance, the bill will prohibit online vacation rental businesses (OVRB’s) from making a rental.
“This bill is simple – It makes online vacation rental businesses follow local laws, just like the rest of us. I have always supported the ability for folks to rent their home for short term vacation rentals and believe that the new ‘sharing economy’ has a lot of benefits. That said, the multibillion dollar corporations need to do their part, follow local laws, and share in the prosperity of local communities,” McGuire said.
SB 593 – the Thriving Communities and Sharing Economy Act – will empower local control by providing the data needed to gather desperately needed funding for parks, road improvements, fire and police services and promote safe neighborhoods.
Recently, large cities and counties have had to negotiate individually with corporations like Airbnb to work out deals in order to collect taxes that have been owed to them for years.
Even after a deal had been struck, in San Francisco for example, there is no enforcement mechanism in place, which is why the San Francisco Planning Department recently reported that their newly adopted ordinance isn’t working.
In the case of the city of Malibu, the city council even had to subpoena records from Airbnb just to kick-start negotiations, which ultimately led to a settlement this week requiring Airbnb to directly charge the tourist tax on behalf of the residents sharing their homes.
“Cities shouldn’t have to issue subpoenas to get companies to come to the table,” McGuire said. “It’s time for this statewide legislation to put the simple regulations in place that will benefit all of us.”
SB 593 reinforces local ordinances by requiring online vacation rental businesses to disclose information (address of host rental, amount of nights stayed, and amount paid by the visitor) to the cities and counties upon request (similar to the way hotels - and some law abiding rental owners – currently report their TOT). This information will allow cities and counties to ensure their local laws are being followed.
Right out of the gate, SB 593 has garnered broad support. California State Association of Counties Executive Director Matt Cate said, “The California State Association of Counties (CSAC) greatly appreciates Senator McGuire’s leadership in making sure local communities have the ability to regulate on-line hosting platforms. In particular, we support the Senator’s legislation to ensure cities and counties can collect transient occupancy taxes that fund critical services in our communities.”
Other supporters include California Police Chiefs Association, California Professional Firefighters, California State Association of Counties, California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, California Association of Code Enforcement Officers, California Hotel & Lodging Association, Neighbors for Overnight Oversight, California Association of Boutique and Breakfast Inns, Santa Cruz County Conference & Visitors Council.
McGuire (D-Healdsburg) represents the Second Senate District on California’s North Coast.
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