LAKE COUNTY
LAKEPORT
Kiwanis Annual Halloween Kids Fair is happening again this year! This FREE community event is open to all children and families. We will have games, treats, pumpkin weight guessing and costume contest with prizes. Come enjoy our spook-tacular family event at the MAC Auditorium on the Lakeport School District Campus (350 Lange Street, Lakeport) on Wednesday, Oct. 31 from 6:30 to 8:30pm. The costume contest will be held at 7:15 pm.
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CLEARLAKE
The annual retiring of the flag flying over Austin Park is scheduled to be held on Tues., Nov. 13 at 11 am in honor of Veteran’s Day. The Lake County Military Honors Team, Park Study Club members, local students and Ed Fuchs will be the veteran guest speaker for this occasion. The ceremony is open to the general public.
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REGION
HOPLAND
Fire Recovery Fundraiser
The Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) invites one and all to their Harvest Celebration on Nov. 10. This fundraiser will support the Center’s fire recovery efforts as well as research and educational programs. More than 3,000 acres of the property is still blackened this fall, following the River Fire which swept across the Center on July 27.
The event coincides with the 7th annual Hopland Sheepdog Trials on the site. Guests are encouraged to join the celebration at 10 a.m. to enjoy watching these incredible dogs at work before lunch and entertainment at the Rod Shippey Hall.
For those luncheon attendees who would like to work up an appetite, HREC Interim Director John Bailey will be guiding a hike at 11am from the Sheepdog Trial grounds up to Shippey Hall through one of the Center’s Biological Reserve areas.
The three-course luncheon runs from 12 to 3 p.m. and includes presentations from various speakers. HREC staff will also be on hand at the tables for conversation and questions.
Funds raised will be used to support fire recovery on the site and to encourage research and educational programs on the post-fire landscape.
Tickets cost $70 for adults and $15 for children. A table for eight can be purchased for $504 (a 10 percent discount). Register online by visiting the event website http://bit.ly/HRECHarvest or by calling Hannah Bird at (707) 744-1424, Ext. 105. The registration deadline is Nov. 5. The event will be at the Rod Shippey Hall, 4070 University Road, Hopland. No dogs allowed.
—Submitted
STATE
Bankruptcy fallout: 1,211 jobs gone at Sears, Kmart in California
Here’s one of the first tangible measurements of the bankruptcy impact of the once-proud Sears retail empire: 1,211 jobs in California gone.
Sears Holdings, which owns the Sears and Kmart department stores, filed for bankruptcy protection Oct. 14 as a last-ditch effort to rescue two dying retail concepts. At the time the company said it was closing 142 stores nationwide — including 16 in California.
The company has since filed legal notices with the state showing 1,211 layoffs statewide at 15 stores by year’s end. These so-called “WARN” (worker adjustment and retraining) notices serve as mandated protection for workers covered by the law and do not always detail all job losses involved in a layoff, or permanent shutdowns as in this case.
The filings show eight Sears closing with 727 workers notified and seven Kmarts with 484 workers.
The Bay Area Sears closures, with an effective date of Dec. 31, 2018, are in Pleasanton and Santa Rosa.
The Kmarts: Pinole. There was no WARN filing for a Sears in Santa Rosa, listed as a planned closure in the bankruptcy filing.
—Jonathan Lasner, Southern California News Group
