LAKE COUNTY
Celebrate National Library Week at Lake County Library April 6 to 12, 2025
What draws people to the library? Everything! From books and digital resources to job assistance and creative programming, libraries are vital to thriving communities.
National Library Week, celebrated April 6 to 12, 2025, highlights the many ways libraries bring people together, spark imagination, and support lifelong learning.
At Lake County Library, we invite you to join the celebration! Whether you’re a longtime patron or haven’t visited in a while, now is the perfect time to explore all we have to offer. Our libraries provide story times for kids, books, eBooks, DVDs, audiobooks, crafting clubs, and even seed libraries to help you start a garden. No matter your interests, we offer resources that educate, inspire, and connect.
Libraries serve as hubs for learning and creativity. Whether you’re preparing for a career change, launching a business, raising a family, or embracing retirement, the library supports your journey. We offer public computers, free WiFi, and tech assistance every Tuesday during Tech Tuesday, along with a variety of online learning resources available on our website. Our Adult Literacy program can even help adults and families build their literacy skills, or learn English, with one-on-one sessions with a volunteer tutor.
This National Library Week, rediscover all that your library has to offer. Visit one of our four branches in Lakeport, Clearlake, Middletown, and Upper Lake, or stop by the bookmobile!
First celebrated in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the country.
For more information about resources and events at Lake County Library, visit https://library.lakecountyca.gov.
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LOWER LAKE
EMBODIED Children’s Dance Camp announced by RammDance
RammDance’s director Courtney Ramm, a performing choreographer and dance instructor across Northern California, announces EMBODIED Dance Camp for children ages 5 to 12 this July at the Lower Lake RammDance Retreat and Culture Center.
EMBODIED Camp will be a dance, music, and nature-immersive experience for education and fun, beginning on July 14 and culminating on Friday, July 18, with a showcase performance featuring each of the participants.
Over the course of a week, students will be able to experience dance from the traditions of modern, ballet, hip-hop, breakdance, and more. They will also have workshop sessions in choreography to create their own dances.
Spaces for children in EMBODIED Camp are limited, due to RammDance’s commitment to personal attention to each student. No prior dance experience is necessary to participate.
Parents and families may utilize the accommodation options at RammDance Retreat, or participate in EMBODIED as a day camp.
The RammDance Retreat Center is located among the dramatic landscapes and peaceful soundscapes of the northern wine country of Lake County, California.
Ramm credits the noteworthy dancer and musician, Adrienne Ramm, Courtney’s mother, with support for establishing RammDance Retreat and Culture Center. Adrienne links RammDance to direct dance pupils of Isadora Duncan.
To learn more and register for EMBODIED Dance Camp, visit www.rammdance.org/camp
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SACRAMENTO
Billionaires want to take away workers’ right to organize. AB 288 protects it.
Today, California lawmakers took the first step toward a state right to organize in direct defiance of the corporate attack on workers’ rights. While many of the wealthiest corporations in the world like Amazon, SpaceX, Starbucks and Trader Joes have challenged the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act, the Assembly Public Employment Relations Committee passed Assembly Bill 288 with bipartisan support and no opposition, to allow workers who are not able to get a timely remedy at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to seek justice from a state labor agency.
“This bill ensures that workers can enforce their right to organize and build a better life as federal labor law was intended to do,” said Lorena Gonzalez, President of the California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, sponsor of the legislation.
“This is not a time to sit quietly while the hard-fought rights of working Americans are being systematically taken away by this federal government and their billionaire oligarch friends. This is a time to stand up for workers that build, serve and inspire us all,” said Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), author of AB 288. “My AB 288 affirms California’s role as the standard bearer of worker rights with a simple premise: if this federal government won’t respect a worker’s right to join a union – California will.”
AB 288 protects workers who, previously covered by the NLRA, have that coverage repealed or narrowed to exclude them. It also gives remedy to workers who have been deprived of a timely response from the NLRB or legal challenges to its authority.
“This law will ensure that when California workers unionize, the state will be a backstop to protect our Constitutional rights. Never again should our hopes and dreams as working people be cut short by greedy companies like Amazon,” said Brian Weston, Amazon Teamster from San Francisco.
AB 288 gives California workers the right to petition PERB for recognition, to bargain a first contract, if they are terminated and have filed an unfair labor practice charge, or if they experience any other unfair labor practice should the NLRB fail to meet statutory deadlines for relief.
A recent report found corporations spend $340 million a year on union-busting firms who often engage in practices that interfere with workers trying to exercise protected rights. Amazon has several dozen cases, with hundreds of allegations, pending at the NLRB and the NLRB is hearing 62 separate cases where administrative law judges found that Starbucks had broken labor laws.
Delays due to understaffing at the National Labor Relations Board only embolden corporations to violate the law. California workers simply cannot afford to leave their ability to organize up to chance and the whims of billionaire union-busters.
AB 288 respects federal labor law but ensures that if the federal government is unable to act, the state is able to step in and ensure workers’ right to organize.
The California Federation of Labor Unions, AFL-CIO, the California Teamsters Public Affairs Council, and the Boilermakers Union are co-sponsors of AB 288 and the bill is supported by dozens of California unions representing workers in every sector.
