LAKEPORT, Calif. – Sutter Lakeside Hospital proudly partnered with 4H and Stokes Ladders, to purchase a steer at the Lake County Fair and donate the meat to the Lakeport Senior Center and North Coast Opportunities.

Sutter Lakeside purchased half of the steer in collaboration with Stokes Ladders from 4H participant Cameron Graham.

“This is my fourth year in 4H and my first year raising a market steer,” said 13-year-old Cameron. “I’ve raised market hogs in the past, and won Reserve Supreme Grand Champion in 2012 and 2014. I spent over 100 hours on my fair project; I walked the steer over a mile a day as well as groomed and bathed him.”

Cameron used his auction profits from the last four years to purchase a truck, but his favorite part of 4H is the camaraderie.

“I love going to the fair and seeing all of my fair friends,” he said. “I already have money in the bank for next year’s project. I can’t thank Sutter Lakeside and Stokes Ladders enough for purchasing my steer.”

“This is the second year Sutter Lakeside has donated meat from the livestock auction,” said Jonathan Crooks, executive director of the Lakeport Senior Center. “Last year was lamb. This year we’ll use the meat for a volunteer appreciation meal and to feed our seniors. We feed about 300 seniors a day.”

Crooks has worked for the senior center for eight years and has been the executive director for five.

“I started volunteering as a driver for Meals on Wheels and fell in love with the people and the place. I love helping this community and feeding seniors,” said Crooks.

North Coast Opportunities, a community action organization focused on meeting the needs of low-income residents of Lake County, offers a food pantry on Wednesdays.

“NCO offers a full choice pantry with healthy options for our clients. It’s such a treat to offer fresh, local meat that was raised locally and benefits our community. We are all so thankful,” said Tammy Alakszay, community action coordinator for North Coast Opportunities. “We’ll distribute Sutter Lakeside’s meat donation over the next two weeks to make sure all of our clients get a chance to get some.”

“We’re proud to partner with our community to support the hard working kids of 4H and the organizations that are making a difference in our county, like the Lakeport Senior Center and North Coast Opportunities,” said Siri Nelson, chief administrative officer of Sutter Lakeside Hospital. “It’s great to see collaboration in action.”

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA –  In response to the wildfires in California, Wells Fargo donated $100,000 to fund American Red Cross Disaster Relief last month and offered its customers the opportunity to donate to support the American Red Cross California Wildfires through its network of 3,396 California ATMs – 100 percent of the donations going directly to the nonprofit during the three week ATM fundraising campaign.

This week officials announced that the campaign was successful in raising more than $300,000 for the American Red Cross with an average donation of approximately $30.

This fundraising campaign set the Wells Fargo record for raising more money than any other Wells Fargo ATM fundraising campaign at a regional level.

Only three Wells Fargo ATM fundraising campaigns have raised more money, but those were national fundraising campaigns with the reach of 12,800 ATMs.

The donation will help provide food, shelter, basic health services, mental health support and relief and clean up supplies to those impacted by the growing wildfires and countless other disasters big and small.
 
"Wells Fargo is a longtime supporter of the American Red Cross, and we are so grateful for its ongoing support of our disaster relief operations," said Trevor Riggen, CEO, American Red Cross Northern California Coastal Region. "On this occasion, I want to say ‘thank you’ to Wells Fargo customers who responded to the call to action to help people impacted by the devastating wildfires. This wildfire season – particularly the latest fast-moving, all-consuming fires in California this past month – required an immediate response by the Red Cross and the community and will necessitate an ongoing delivery of humanitarian services; we simply couldn't do this work without the support of donors like Wells Fargo and its generous customers."
 
“The response to our California ATM campaign was nothing short of amazing and we cannot thank our customers and communities enough,” said David Galasso, lead regional president of the Northern and Central California region for Wells Fargo. “Being able to partner with our team members, customers and neighbors to contribute $400,000 to the American Red Cross will help play a very important role in supporting the victims of these wildfires with recovery and rebuilding efforts.”
 
“At Wells Fargo, we take pride in being a community bank. A community bank is one that helps individuals achieve their financial dreams, and as importantly strengthens communities through various forms of support—especially when times are challenging,” said Greg Morgan, executive vice president and president of the San Francisco Bay market for Wells Fargo. “I am proud that our company contributed to wildfire relief efforts, and I am even more impressed by the generosity of our customers who overwhelmingly responded to help our communities impacted by the wildfires and countless other crises big and small.”
 
The American Red Cross and many community partners and agencies continue to deliver humanitarian assistance to families in Calaveras, Amador and Lake counties one month after two of the most destructive wildfires in California’s history sparked. 

The Butte and Valley fires burned more than 150,000 square acres and destroyed more than 1,700 homes, displacing thousands of families.

Red Cross and community volunteers began helping within the first minutes of the fires, providing shelter, food, water, basic necessities, mental health, and basic health services for thousands of people in the path of the wildfires.
 
As evacuation orders were lifted, Red Cross volunteers, working together with many community members, distributed drinking water, hot meals, and clean-up and relief supplies to impacted neighborhoods, supporting people as they returned to their properties. 

Red Cross caseworkers are meeting one-on-one with each family affected by the wildfires to understand each unique situation and help them on the road to recovery with the information, assistance, and access to resources from numerous partner agencies.
 
California Wildfires Response by the Numbers:

– More than 120,000 meals and snacks served by Salvation Army, Southern Baptist, community groups, local restaurants and the Red Cross;
– More than 58,000 relief items water, snacks, hot meals, non-perishable meals, and clean-up items such as work gloves, buckets, trash bags, sifters, and dust masks;
– More than 11,000 overnight stays in 12 community or Red Cross shelters;
– More than 9,900 health and mental health contacts;
– More than 1,500 cases opened by Red Cross caseworkers to provide individualized recovery support.
 
Donations to Disaster Relief will be used to prepare for, respond to and help people recover from disasters big and small.

The Red Cross responds to nearly 70,000 other disasters every year, from wildfires to home fires and more.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Democratic Central Committee will hold its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5.

The committee will meet at the Lower Lake Methodist Church Community Meeting Room at 16255 Second St. at 6:30 p.m.: http://goo.gl/maps/A8oiW .
 
The guest speakers for the committee's meeting will be Ed Robey and Victoria Brandon.

They will speak about the proposed expansion of the Clearlake Walmart into a super Walmart and its impact on the community.
 
The agenda for the Nov. 5 meeting includes reports from representatives for Congressmen Mike Thompson and John Garamendi, Assemblyman Bill Dodd and state Sen. Mike McGuire, as well as reports from the representatives from the Stonewall Democratic Club Chair and the Lake County Democratic Club.
 
Meetings are open to the public and committee membership is open to all registered Democrats.
 
The Lake County Democratic Central Committee is the official governing body of the Democratic Party in Lake County.
 
For more information about the Democratic Party in Lake County visit www.lakecountydemocrats.org or www.facebook.com/LakeCountyDemocrats .
 
Contact the Democratic Party of Lake County at 707-533-4885 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

SACRAMENTO – The California Employment Development Department (EDD) is alerting workers and self-employed individuals who suffered work losses because of the Valley Fire in Lake County or the Butte Fire in Calaveras County that the deadline for filing claims for Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) is Oct. 26.

DUA provides temporary unemployment benefits to a wide range of people who lost their jobs or had work hours cut as a direct result of the fires but are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.

DUA applies to losses beginning the week of Sept. 6, 2015.

Eligible workers can receive benefits of as much as $450 a week for up to 28 weeks.

Workers eligible for DUA include:

– The self-employed and business owners who cannot operate their businesses.
– Workers who have exhausted their regular UI benefits.
– People who cannot reach work because of the fire.
– People who cannot work because they suffered a fire-related injury.
– Workers whose worksite was damaged or destroyed.
– Employees of a business that received most of its revenue from another entity that was damaged or destroyed in the disaster.
– Newly hired workers who were prevented from beginning work.
– People who became the head of their households because of a death caused by the disaster.
– Workers who did not earn enough money to qualify for regular benefits.
– People who were unable to qualify for a regular state funded unemployment claim.

President Obama’s federal disaster declaration of Sept. 22 opened the way for DUA.

Self-employed individuals filing DUA claims must provide evidence of self-employment, such as tax returns and business records that can be obtained from banks or government entities, or affidavits from individuals having knowledge of their business.

The fastest and easiest way for people to apply for DUA is to use EDD’s online application, “eApply4UI,” at https://eapply4ui.edd.ca.gov/ .

The application is available in both English and Spanish.

Claimants can also file for DUA by phone between 8 a.m. and 12 noon, Monday through Friday:

– English: 1-800-300-5616;
– Spanish: 1-800-326-8937;
– Chinese (Cantonese): 1-800-547-3506;
– Chinese (Mandarin): 1-866-303-0706;
– Vietnamese: 1-800-547-2058.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA) will host a telephone town hall on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

The telephone town hall will begin at 6:35 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

Garamendi will discuss the risk of a government shutdown, the need to raise the federal debt limit, the importance of a long term transportation infrastructure bill, and issues brought up by constituents during the conversation.

He is reaching out to 40,000 constituents, and the telephone town hall will be live streamed at https://vekeo.com/event/repgaramendi-20177/ as well.

Constituents can ask questions through the live stream or over the phone.

Constituents who want to participate in all of the Congressman’s future tele town halls can sign up at http://www.vekeo.com/repgaramendi or text “repgaramendi” to 828282.

 

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Law Library Board of Directors will hold a regular meeting on on Thursday, Oct. 22.

The board will meet at noon at the Law Library, 175 Third St. in Lakeport.

Agenda items include the Sept. 17 meeting minutes, financial report ending Sept. 30, the law librarian's log, insurance, subscription renewal for CEB OnLAW and internet/network user accounts for extra-help staff.

The board also will discuss SB 711, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, which allows the state's law libraries to charge for their full range of services; and the Law Library's draft 2014-15 annual report.

Board trustees include President Mike Ewing, Secretary Dennis Fordham, Judge Andrew S. Blum, Judge Michael S. Lunas, Shanda Harry and Mary Heare Amodio.

The Law Library Board's next meeting is Nov. 19.

Visit the Law Library online at www.lakecountyca.gov/law .