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Mendocino County Today: Saturday, April 19, 2014

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IN THE DELUGE of drought stories, it's easy to miss the basic bad news, the real bad news. Which is that state and federal government is making policy as the drought deepens, having missed opportunities to make solid plans a year ago when it was clear there was going to be trouble. Only a couple of weeks ago Senator Feinstein used her massive influence to get more water diverted to corporate farm interests than is necessary to ensure the survival of fish. But the problem now isn't the proportions of water diverted where, the problem is the lack of rain and foresight.

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YOU KNOW IT’S SPRING when gas prices begin to shoot upwards. As soon as the sun is regularly shining, and the fat guys are in their body shirts, Americans hit the road to do summer things, and the oil monopolies raise gas prices. They're already going up fast in Cloverdale where I buy most of my fuel, and going up faster in San Francisco.

THE MEDIA, as always, dutifully reports the propaganda put out by the oil monopolies — there are problems at the refineries, there's political turmoil in Nigeria, there are mysterious pipeline glitches, and you people just don't understand how hard we work to keep you on the road.

AT CLOVERDALE, prices have risen about 50¢ a gallon over the past two weeks to a little over $4.30 a gallon for regular unleaded. But I haven't seen any stories about supply problems or turmoil abroad. Maybe this year the oil companies have decided to straight-up gouge us. What's to stop them?

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SIX CALIFORNIAS? The horror, the horror! But Tim Draper, yet another Gatsby-like “venture capitalist” out of the Silicon Valley, has the dough to qualify the proposed scheme for either the November ballot or two years hence, probably the latter.

SixCAsDRAPER'S SIX CALIFORNIAS would keep the present-day 58 counties but combine them into six new states. Everything north of Sonoma County would be called Jefferson after, it seems, the attempt by rightwing secessionists to form their own county back in the 1940s.

DRAPER HIMSELF, like a lot of the Silicon boys, is a conservative libertarian. A young guy who made a lot of money when he was very young and, probably, like all of them, got a nice beginning hunk of capital from Mom and Pop. He also probably got into Ayn Rand before he had any intellectual defense mechanisms in place, and now thinks supermen like himself ought to be running the whole show.

THIS GUY put $20 million into the failed school voucher initiative of 2000 but, having endless cash, here he is with the Six Californias idea. Stand by for a gratuitous insult: Quote back to me a single interesting and/or witty remark you've ever heard from one of these people? We used to have much more interesting capitalists. Wasn't it J.P. Morgan or Jay Gould who said he could, if it came to it, hire half the working class to kill the other half? The old bandits didn't even pretend to be Nice People which, of course, is preferable to the Draper types who think the privatization of the schools and busting up the state into techno-fiefdoms run by people like themselves is a good idea. They already run things.

A NEW STATE of Northern California would be a lot of fun, though. Imagine the howls from the Mendo Muffins that they might be outvoted by a bunch of crackpot cowboys! I'd vote for Jefferson simply for the opportunity to perhaps get the cold, dead hand of Clintonism removed from my throat. Unfortunately, however, the coastal areas all the way to the Oregon border are heavy on the kind of passive authoritarians of the Democrat type. Wes Chesbro rules! Mendocino County's Obama-Clintonites have about a 60-40 majority among people who actually vote. Call me romantic, but if everyone voted who was eligible to vote, and voted in a magical context of full information, things would swing abruptly to the left. Hmmm. Preliminarily, I'm for the state of Jefferson, if not Draper.

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A GIRL

The tree has entered my hands,

The sap has ascended my arms,

The tree has grown in my breast -

Downward,

The branches grow out of me, like arms.

Tree you are, 
Moss you are,

You are violets with wind above them.

A child - so high - you are,

And all this is folly to the world.

— Ezra Pound

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WANT TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL? Interactive map shows the staggering 47% of the US where NOBODY lives.

Unoccupied
Map created by blogger Mapsbynik using information from 2010 census, which breaks the nation down into blocks.

As of the 2010 census, the United States consists of 11.1 million census blocks, more than 4.8 million of the blocks had no one living inside them. Despite having a population of more than 310 million people, 47% of the country remains unoccupied.

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BOONVILLE FARMERS’ MARKET 2014 OPENING DAY

Saturday, May 3rd, is the opening day and spring plant sale at the Boonville Farmers’ Market. Come to the Boonville Hotel parking lot from 10-12:30 to get your healthy spring and summer veggie starts plus vibrant fresh kale, cabbage, carrots, parsley, radishes, Swiss chard, chicken, eggs, and meat for your home-cooked meals.

The market will be open every Saturday from May through October. Committed vendors this season are Anderson Valley Community Farm, Brock Farm, Erwin, Highland Organic Farm, Lone Oaks, Philo Hill, and Yorkville Olive Oil.

The line up of musicians is almost complete for the season with Leslie and Michael Hubbert doing the honors of opening the market. The McEwen's will debut their ollalieberry jams, jellies, and other preserves. T shirts, BFM shopping bags, and Secrets of Salsa cookbooks will be available.

We hope you will come join us to support our local farmers, gather plant starts for your own garden, talk with your friends and neighbors, enjoy the music and choose some freshly picked produce.

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WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT RAINWATER CATCHMENT in and around the home? Please join us Saturday April 19th from 9am until noon at Mendocino College Little Theater. The event is Free. — Anna Birkas

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STATEMENT OF THE DAY

“The honest truth is no one has ever seen anything like this. Not even during the Great Depression in the Thirties has monetary policy been this loose. And if you look at the details of what these central banks are doing, it’s all very experimental. They are making it up as they go along. I am very worried about any kind of policies that have that nature…

Today, the Fed still acts as if it was in crisis management. But we’re six years past that. They are essentially doing more than what they did right in the beginning. There is something fundamentally wrong with that. Plus, the Fed has moved to a completely different motivation. From the attempt to get the markets going again, they suddenly and explicitly started to inflate asset prices again. The aim is to make people feel richer, make them spend more, and have it all trickle down to get the economy going again. Frankly, I don’t think it works, and I think this is extremely dangerous…

The fundamental problem we are still facing is excessive debt. Not excessive public debt, mind you, but excessive debt in the private and public sectors. To resolve that, you need restructurings and write-offs. That’s government policy, not central bank policy. Central banks can’t rescue insolvent institutions. All around the western world, and I include Japan, governments have resolutely failed to see that they bear the responsibility to deal with the underlying problems. With the ultraloose monetary policy, governments have no incentive to act. But if we don’t deal with this now, we will be in worse shape than before…”

(William White is the former chief economist of the Bank for International Settlements, which is considered the central bank of central banks.)

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IT COULD HAPPEN HERE!

Shropshire (UK) criminals “are using unmanned drones and infrared cameras to find illegal cannabis farms” – and then stealing from the growers!

Criminals in Shropshire have reportedly started using unmanned drones fitted with heat-seeking cameras to steal from and extort illegal cannabis farms.

Apparently taking a leaf out of the book of the police themselves, violent robbers said that the growers make perfect targets because the victims will not report incidents to the authorities.

According to a local newspaper, there has been a huge surge in the number of hidden cannabis farms across Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury, towns on the outskirts of rural Shropshire some seven miles from Birmingham in Central England.

They require hydroponic lights for the marijuana plants to grow — and the huge amounts of excess heat given off make them easily spottable for a would-be criminal in the know.

One such man, an unnamed 33-year-old, told the Halesowen News that after finding a property with a cannabis farm he and his crew either burgle or “tax” the victim.

“They are fair game,” he said. “It is not like I'm using my drone to see if people have nice televisions. I am just after drugs to steal and sell, if you break the law then you enter me and my drone's world.

“Half the time we don’t even need to use violence to get the crop. Growing cannabis has gone mainstream and the people growing it are not gangsters, especially in places like Halesowen, Cradley Heath and Oldbury.”

The man added that he had started out with the practice in the more built-up area of Handsworth where “you never know who you are messing with,” but came out to leafier suburbs because its “safer and easier to fly.”

Tom Watson, the local MP for West Bromwich East and the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on drones, told the newspaper that the story shows “the proliferation of drone technology which can be used for both good and bad.”

He said: “It is no surprise enterprising criminals would want to get the upper hand in the criminal underworld by using drones. As a society we will be dealing with the impact of drones on our laws and regulations for years to come.

“And it is time the Government started listening about privacy concerns about the misuse of drones.”

In 2012 the Association of Chief Police Officers reported that 21 cannabis farms were found every day by police in Britain, and that the number of farms had doubled since 2008.

It said the UK is at “significant risk” from criminal gangs who cultivate cannabis on a commercial scale, and that there was also growing evidence of the “taxing” and stealing of crops as well as the use of “debt bondage” to control cultivators.

(Courtesy, the London Independent.)

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BOSTON & BAGHDAD

by Ralph Nader

Greater Boston and its citizens are the focus of media attention in recognition of the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings that took three innocent lives and injured over 264 people, some of them severely. City leaders praised the heroism of the first responders and the deepened community spirit (“Boston Strong”). Addressing 2,500 invited Bostonians, including the bereaved families, Vice President Biden said “You have become the face of America’s resolve, not unlike what happened in 9/11…for the whole world to see. People know all about you. They know your pride, they know your courage, they know your resolve, they know who you are.”

There followed a procession down Boylston Street with bagpipers playing.

Meanwhile six thousand miles away in Iraq, there are terror bombings of innocent civilians almost every day. A sample:

On April 9, 2014, the New York Times reported that “The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, experienced a series of violent attacks on Wednesday when eight car bombs and two mortar shells killed as many as 25 people.”

On March 27, 2014, the Times reported that “A series of bombings in Baghdad killed at least 33 people and wounded dozens.” A 7 year old boy told his dad that he “had heard so many explosions that he could distinguish the different kinds of bombs.”

On March 9, 2014, the Times reported that a suicide bomber killed at least 45 people and wounded more than 100. A college student in the hospital remarked “my legs were no longer there.”

On March 6, 2014, the Times reported on bombings taking the lives of at least 30 shoppers and workers at public markets.

Such civilian deaths totaled 9,571 last year, according to the reliable group Iraq Body Count.

All this carnage, following the destruction of Iraq by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and the aftermath, is occurring in a country less than one twenty-third the size of the United States with less than one ninth the population, and far fewer emergency and hospital facilities.

And this bloodshed is happening almost every day over much of their torn apart country. Iraqis know this will continue to happen in the coming days and weeks with no foreseeable end. There is no annual commemoration to mark their losses. Their memories of loved ones are blurred by constant fear of what was and what comes, day after day due to violence, hunger, poverty, disease-bearing contaminated water, the collapse of critical public services from electricity to health care to safety. This has resulted in the flight of more desperate people out of Iraq.

Flash back to March 2003, when the fabrications, secret cover-ups and propaganda of the Bush/Cheney regime led to the illegal, unconstitutional invasion of Iraq. Under the tottering dictatorship of Washington’s former ally, Saddam Hussein, who presided over a poorly equipped army, unwilling and unable to fight, and was surrounded by three far more powerful neighbors should Hussein have made a menacing regional move. Iraq was no threat to the U.S., had no weapons of mass destruction, and was the mortal enemy of al-Qaeda.

Nonetheless, George W. Bush – of the self-styled “kick-ass” Bush clan – dispatched “shock and awe” against a defenseless population and replaced the dictator, Hussein, with brutal warfare, death squads and sectarian conflict, which has resulted in over a million lives lost, and millions of refugees (many of them children), amounting to a sociocide in that ancient land.

When President Bush’s chief anti-terrorism adviser, Richard Clarke, left the White House in 2003, he wrote in his memoirs that Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted to happen. Al-Qaeda did not have any presence in Iraq before the invasion, but the group is now wreaking havoc there, along with other affiliates in other countries due to Bush’s blundering. The U.S.’s empire-building both attacks and alienates local civilian populations, produces U.S. and foreign casualties and drains immense U.S. tax dollars needed here to rebuild our country.

History is cause and effect. Continuation of an Empire’s proclivity to wage war and regularly use force as a foreign policy will produce more far-reaching blowbacks. Waging peace, preventing conflict through diplomacy driven by justice – that great instrument of peace – has become an afterthought in Washington, D.C.

“Boston Strong” can be more than looking back on a tragedy with a stiff upper lip. It can nourish, from the cradle of the American Revolution, a rising sensitivity that tyranny abroad is a Washington export that defies our constitution and the better instincts of the people who stand against foreign wars for oil and an aggressive Empire unrelated to legitimate national defense.

Our collective compassion is helped by the development of fact-based empathy. That horrible tragedy at the Boston Marathon last year can lead to a constructive rapport with the Iraqi people who have suffered at the hands of the Bush/Cheney government and the lethal forces which the vicious invasion put in motion.

(Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, published by AK Press. Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition.)

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APPEALS COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF DELTA SMELT

by Dan Bacher

Fish advocates scored a legal victory on April 16 when a federal court threw out earlier rulings that failed to consider endangered Delta smelt, an indicator species found only in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

An eleven-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the federal Bureau of Reclamation was required to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding long-term California water contracts that would impact the endangered Delta smelt.

The court concluded that the Bureau’s renewal of several dozen water supply contracts that divert large quantities of water from the Bay-Delta violated the Endangered Species Act, according to a statement from Earthjustice.

"The federal Bureau of Reclamation was required to engage in ... consultation because, in renewing the challenged contracts, it retained 'some discretion' to act in a manner that would benefit the delta smelt," Judge Milan Smith wrote for the panel.

The court sided with Earthjustice and its clients California Trout, San Francisco Baykeeper, Friends of the River, The Bay Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Trent Orr, Earthjustice staff attorney, said, “Today’s decision strongly reinforces the requirement of the Endangered Species Act that if, the Bureau of Reclamation has any discretion in negotiating long-term water contracts to benefit a listed species, the agency must exercise that discretion to ensure that the contracts do not harm the species. The court found that the Bureau does have such discretion."

"This ruling provides an opportunity to revisit these 25- and 40-year contracts and include provisions that encourage water conservation and make realistic allotments of water to protect adequate in-stream flows to restore the health of the entire Delta ecosystem," he concluded.

Damien M. Schiff, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, said the Foundation had filed an amicus brief arguing that the Bureau did not retain sufficient discretion to trigger the obligation to consult with the Fish & Wildlife Service on the impacts to the Delta smelt of the water contract renewals.

"The Court reasoned that the Bureau still has discretion to dictate price and timing, factors which could be used to help the smelt, e.g., pricier water means less will be used means more for the smelt, or water made available only at certain times of the year when the smelt’s needs are less pressing," said Schiff. "Bottom line is that this decision will simply spread the pain of Delta smelt mitigation to more farmers and others dependent on Central Valley Project water."

To read the decision, go to: http://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/water_contracts_delta_smelt_4_16_14.pdf

Background: In 2005, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit challenging a George W. Bush-era biological opinion that stated the operations of the federal and state water projects in California would have no effect on the delta smelt. At that time, the Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Central Valley Project, was in the process of renewing long-term water contracts, based on the challenged biological opinion’s conclusion that the water projects posed no harm to the delta smelt.

A United States District Judge invalidated that biological opinion as legally flawed and scientifically unsound. A new biological opinion on the delta smelt was approved in 2008 that found that the operations of the federal and state water project would harm the imperiled smelt and the Delta ecosystem it relies upon and required that the projects’ operations be modified to avoid that harm.

In 2008, Earthjustice challenged the largest water contracts that were renewed based on the invalidated biological opinion. The challenged contracts account for over 85% of the total amount of water allocated by the renewed long-term contracts. The federal district court ruled that the Bureau had no duty to comply with the Endangered Species Act in renewing those contracts, but today the 9th Circuit overturned that ruling.

"The ruling will not alter operations of the Central Valley Project or State Water Project this year, but it will provide a sorely needed reopening of the contracts to revisit their terms and make sure that they are amended as necessary to make sure that they do not jeopardize the survival and recovery of the delta smelt," according to Earthjustice.

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CIVIL RIGHTS: HOW FAR WE’VE COME

by Nicholas Von Hoffman

Lyndon Johnson was the first President of either party since the turn-of-the-century Republicans gave up trying to suppress racial barbarism to take crimes committed against African-Americans in the South as a serious Federal matter. As long as John Kennedy was alive, it was impossible to get the FBI or anybody else from Washington to do much more than stand around and watch as blacks were burnt out and beaten down.

Civil rights organizations in the South of that period used to crack jokes about people being arrested by the local constabulary for resisting assault. Everybody involved in the upheaval for equality, whether participants or reporters, had their own pet story of a racial outrage being committed while FBI agents looked on quietly from a distance, great enough to make it clear that they were not present to protect either life or property. White reporters who got into pickles would sometimes get help from the FBI.

On one occasion, this white reporter, along with his white photographer colleague, found himself in a motel outside of Natchez, Mississippi, treed and trapped by the local posse comitatus, whose members laid siege to our establishment. After pulling the mattresses off our beds and laying them against the plate-glass windows looking out on the walkway on the other side of our motel room door, we could see these bad old boys sporting their shotguns and patrolling our perimeter with police dogs.

We were scared that one of these Southern justice stereotypes was going to run by our room, smash a window and toss in a Molotov cocktail or perhaps a tear gas bomb, which would force us outside onto the walkway, where they could lay hands on us. To our surprise, however, we were able to use the telephone, so we called our boss, the executive editor of the Chicago Daily News, who called Pete Lisagor, the paper’s Washington bureau chief, and Pete, being Pete, the best-connected reporter of his time, dialed J. Edgar Hoover’s secret home phone number.

An hour or so later there was a knock on the door and a chicken-fried voice asked us, “Y’all in there?”

It was a local FBI agent who worked out of his home nearby.

“Yeah, we all are in here and scared shitless. We all are surrounded.”

“Nah, y’r not. Those boys are p’lice auxiliary boys out fer their maneuvers. They jus’ dropped by for a coffee break.”

“The big, toothy dogs, do they take theirs with sugar and cream?”

“S’ppose so. They were funnin’ ya.”

They were not funnin’ the three civil rights workers who disappeared forever in the summer of 1964 in Meshoba County, Mississippi, and in those days the FBI took such matters so lightly the agency did not have an office in the state. The murderers, several of whom were indeed law enforcement officers, were sitting around the courthouse in Philadelphia, the county seat, chewing Red Man tobacco and acting like fugitives from a Faulkner novel.

Churches were going up in flames all over. Several of us made our frightened way to one of them, a poor ruin in the scrub pine hills several miles outside of Philadelphia. The incendiaries had gotten it a few days after the murders. The ashes had almost cooled and there was one black man, a deacon, contemplating what was left. There were no firefighters, no law enforcement and no President.

It was at that point that Lyndon Johnson inserted a hot poker up J. Edgar Hoover’s yin-yang and told Mister Top Cop to get his very same self-celebrated self, and not no deputy, to Jackson, where his organization was to open up an office and solve the murders. Very soon thereafter, a pickle-pussed Hoover alighted from a Lear jet in Jackson and was immediately driven off to the state capital, there to cast respectful eyes on paintings of Mississippi’s most distinguished segregationists of the past. Men like Theodore Bilbo and James Vardaman, names that still make very old people who remember shake their heads and cluck.

Hoover did as he was ordered to do. The murders were solved and some semblance of equal protection came to Mississippi. Nowadays there are still church incendiaries doing their dirty business and, somewhat strangely, the burning of churches is being laid on the doorsteps of other churches. It is being said that the Christian right is directly or indirectly responsible for these burnings. The notion that arsonism is able to recruit from the ranks of regular churchgoers is implausible.

30 years ago, when I was covering civil rights in the South, every Sunday I was able to, I attended services at the biggest Baptist church in whatever little town I was in. Then I would go back to my motel, sit on the bed and wait for the phone to ring. It always would, at least once and many times more than once. The callers were members of the congregation inviting me to Sunday dinner. I always accepted, and often after dinner the father or the mother or both would draw me off into a room where the children could not hear and pour out their anguished and guilty hearts over the wrongs their community was doing to black people.

They spoke in secret out of fear of retaliation. There were many of them, but they were disorganized. They did not know how to find each other or come together, but they were present in these xenophobic little communities and they were numerous.

Time was when certain elements in the fundamentalist churches would don bed sheets to go romp with firebrands in the cotton patch, but that kind of thing belongs to another era. Let it also be remembered that abolitionism itself came out of low church revivalism, not mainline respectability. The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s arose primarily out of low church and chapel, that is, out of the African-American fundamentalism of King, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy and the other preachers who, in doctrine and religious culture, are closer to Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition than they are to the National Council of Churches, the Ford Foundation or The New York Times.

Men, women and children of faith remade the American South a generation ago and then helped to remake America. Modern arsonism will be extinguished by all the people of the book, as the Muslims say of the three great religions of the West, and I have to believe it will be replaced by a purer and brighter flame.

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POLICE REPORTS FOR APRIL 18

Willits Police Department

April 8

David Otis Perrine, 71, of Ukiah, was arrested on suspicion of failing to register.

April 11

Kevin Lee Betts, 51, of Willits was arrested on an outstanding warrant and on suspicion of violating probation.

Enrique Mario Ramirez, 29, of Willits, was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault committing corporal injury and violating probation.

Mendocino County Sheriffs Office

April 7

William Cody Lewis, 19, of Willits, was arrested in Brooktrails on the 24000 block of Birch Street, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and issuing terrorist threats. According to reports, At around 5:30 p.m. Lewis allegedly took two folding knives and lunged at his father, Scott Lewis, 44, during a family argument and physical altercation. The father told police he feared for his safety and believed his son was going to try and kill him.

Lawrence Anthony Marsh, 40, of Covelo, was arrested on suspicion of failing to provide fundamental food, clothing and shelter of a child.

April 9

Robert Bruce Campbell, 22, of Ukiah, was arrested on suspicion of violating parole. Campbell was arrested on March 22 by the Willits Police on the same charge.

William Stuart Jackson, 28, of Anacortes, Washington, was arrested in the Willits area on suspicion of providing false identification to a peace officer and obstructing a peace officer.

April 10

Victoria Ann Fallis, 47, of Covelo, was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.

Sammy McKayo Ilar, 38, of Willits, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

April 12

Tyler Lee Elza, 31, of Willits, was arrested on suspicion of domestic assault inflicting corporal injury, issuing a terrorist threat and possession of methamphetamine.

Salina Rosa Garica, 32, of Covelo, was arrested on suspicion of issuing a terrorist threat.

Vick Lynn Sandage, 58, of Willits, was arrested in Redwood Valley on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.

Brian Keith Schuster, 32, of Fort Bragg, was arrested on suspicion of driving with a suspended license and possession of methamphetamine.

Matthias Alexander Wilberger, 27, of Leggett, was arrested on suspicion of prowling on private property.

Mendocino County Probation Office

April 9

Rickie Donavon Harlan, 52, of Willits, was arrested on suspicion of violating felony probation.

California Highway Patrol

April 7

Eric Leonid Olynyk, 37, of San Diego, was arrested near Leggett, on suspicion of driving with a suspended license and drunk driving.

April 8

Lois Kayleen Erich, 22, of Covelo, was arrested on outstanding warrants.

Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force

April 10

Arnold Maduena Gamboa, 36; and Juan Manuel Magallon, 35, both of Ukiah; and Alejandro Aguilar Polvos, 29; and Raymondo Mendez Rodriguez, 32; both of San Jose, were arrested in Potter Valley on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale.

Brandon Paul King, 34, of Potter Valley, was arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, committing offenses while on bail and violating probation.

CalFire

April 7 - Clayton James Tuttle, 38, of Covelo, was arrested on an undisclosed charge.

Ukiah Police

Truck Blocking Driveway — Caller in the 500 block of Empire Drive reported at 7:41 a.m. Friday that a flat bed truck was parked in front of the caller's house that was making it difficult for her to get out of her driveway. An officer responded and determined there was no hazard.

Fight — An officer responded to a report of a fight between two boys at Ukiah High School at 8:09 a.m. Friday. Both students were cited and released to their parents.

Death — An officer responded to the 600 block of North State Street at 10:52 a.m. Friday and took a report for a death.

Parents Smoking Marijuana — Caller in the 1200 block of North State Street at 1:32 p.m. Friday that a couple with a baby in a stroller was smoking marijuana. An officer checked the area but they were gone.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Kohl's on North Orchard Avenue at 1:44 p.m. Friday and arrested a 48-year-old Willits woman for theft. She was cited and released.

Burglary — Caller in the 400 block of Cochrane Avenue reported at 5:44 p.m. Friday that someone kicked in his front door. An officer responded and took a report.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Kohl's on North Orchard Avenue at 6:44 p.m. Friday and arrested a Ukiah woman for theft. She was cited and released.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Walmart on Airport Park Boulevard at 6:57 p.m. Friday and arrested Justin Thornhill, 30, of Ukiah, on suspicion of burglary. He was cited and released.

Neighbor Revving Engines — Caller in the 1900 block of Elm Street reported at 7:27 p.m. Friday that a neighbor with racecars was purposely revving engines to disturb the neighborhood.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Kohl's on North Orchard Avenue at 1:59 p.m. Saturday and arrested Kyrie P. Ketcher, 52, of Ukiah, on suspicion of burglary. He was booked into county jail.

Dead Fox — Caller in the 1300 block of West Clay Street reported at 4:33 p.m. Saturday that a dead fox was in a driveway. An officer responded and took the animal to the shelter.

Car Broken Into — Caller at Ukiah High School reported at 7:20 p.m. Saturday that her car was broken into and a purse was stolen. An officer took a report of theft.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Safeway on South State Street at 8:35 p.m. Saturday and arrested a 34-year-old Irvine resident for theft. The person was cited and released.

Shoplifter — An officer responded to Kohl's on North Orchard Avenue at 8:40 p.m. Saturday and arrested a juvenile for shoplifting. The suspect was cited and released.

Sheriff's Reports

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office:

DUI — Sammy McKayo, 38, of Willits, was arrested at 10:25 a.m. April 10 on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked at the county jail under $150,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

DUI — Cameron L. Lenhart, 25, of Ukiah, was arrested at 1:11 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked at the county jail. The MCSO arrested him.

Grand Theft — Johnny R. Harding, 38, of Philo, was arrested at 2:45 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of grand theft and booked at the county jail under $15,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

Marijuana Sales — Brandon P. King, 34, of Potter Valley, was arrested at 3 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, committing offenses while released on bail and violating his probation terms, and booked at the county jail. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force arrested him.

Marijuana Sales — Alejandro Aguilar Polvos, 29, of San Jose, was arrested at 3 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MMCTF arrested him.

DUI — Victoria A. Fallis, 47, of Covelo, was arrested at 4:32 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit, and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The MCSO arrested her.

Marijuana Sales — John V. Cook, 51, of Potter Valley, was arrested at 5 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, cultivating marijuana, possessing an assault weapon and being armed with a gun, and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MMCTF arrested him.

Marijuana Sales — Arnold Maduena Gamboa, 36, of Ukiah, was arrested at 6 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MMCTF arrested him.

Marijuana Sales — Juan M. Magallon, 35, of Ukiah, was arrested at 6 p.m. April 10 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MMCTF arrested him.

Domestic Violence — Enrique M. Ramirez, 29, of Willits, was arrested at 11:29 a.m. April 11 on suspicion of domestic assault and violating his probation, and booked at the county jail. The Willits Police Department arrested him.

Domestic Violence — Tyler L. Elza, 31, of Willits, was arrested at 2:35 p.m. April 11 on suspicion of domestic assault, making threats and possessing methamphetamine, and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

Marijuana Sales — Raymondo Mendez Rodriguez, 31, of San Jose, was arrested at 8:37 p.m. April 11 on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The MMCTF arrested him.

CHP Reports

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the California Highway Patrol:

DUI Arrest — Danny P. Slater, 51, of Oak Harbor, was stopped in the 20200 block of Highway 101 at 5:20 p.m. Saturday and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.

DUI, Hit-And-Run Arrest — Moises Villegas, 27, of Ukiah, was stopped in the 100 block of Laws Avenue at 11:13 p.m. Sunday and arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence and hit-and-run.

 

POLICE CALLS AS OF SATURDAY MORNING

MAN BEING CHASED BY DRUNK -- Caller in the 900 block of North State Street reported at 12:45 a.m. Sunday that a drunk man was chasing him. An officer responded and arrested a 21-year-old Ukiah man for being drunk in public.

NEIGHBOR WASHING CAR -- Caller in the 1500 block of Lockwood Drive reported at 3:58 p.m. Sunday that a neighbor was washing a car and he was concerned about the use of water. He was informed that there was no violation.

MAN FALLING -- Callers on Mill Street and in the 500 block of South State Street reported at 4:11 p.m. Monday that a man had fallen into the bushes several times. Firefighters responded and transported him. At 6:04 p.m., a caller in the 200 block of East Perkins Street reported that the same man had stumbled and fallen in the street several times. At 6:23 p.m., a caller in the 300 block of South Main Street reported that the same man was falling down. At 6:30 p.m., it was reported that the same man was stumbling and falling near the Sun House on South Main Street. The information was taken for patrol.

TRANSIENTS CAMPING -- Caller in the 300 block of East Perkins Street reported at 6:58 a.m. Monday that a group of transients was camping in the creek between the pocket park and the train depot. An officer responded and the group left upon request.

FAKE BILL -- Caller in the 1200 block of North State Street reported at 8:36 a.m. Monday receiving a fake $100 bill.

BURGLARY -- Caller in the 200 block of South Hortense Street reported at 11:27 a.m. Monday seeing a man in her back yard and things missing from the residence. An officer responded and took a report.

HUSBAND HIDING GUN -- Caller on Apple Avenue reported at 4:22 p.m. Monday that she was trying to move out and her husband was hiding her gun, and requested an officer's assistance in obtaining the gun. She later called back to say she had gotten the gun.

CAR BROKEN INTO -- Caller in the 100 block of North Main Street reported at 4:27 p.m. Monday that her car was broken into. An officer took a report.

BOUGHT ITEMS THAT DON'T WORK -- Caller on Burlington Drive reported at 5:35 p.m. Monday that she bought items online from a local man that don't work and he is refusing to refund her money and is posting negative things about her online. She was counseled and advised.

WOMAN AND CART IN ROAD -- Caller in the 200 block of North Orchard Avenue reported at 2:47 a.m. Tuesday that a woman was lying in the road with an overturned shopping cart. An office responded and she was transported to Ukiah Valley Medical Center.

CAR WINDOW BROKEN -- Caller in the 1800 block of Elm Street reported at 9:06 a.m. Tuesday that a car's window had been broken.

 

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Ukiah Police Department regarding calls handled by the Fort Bragg Police Department.

DING DONG DITCH -- Caller in the 400 block of Wall Street reported at 5:02 p.m. Monday that kids rang her doorbell and ran off, causing damage to her door. She was advised it was not a criminal matter.

 

SHERIFF'S REPORTS

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office:

MARIJUANA TRANSPORT -- Stephen A. Thomas, 36, of Redwood Valley, was arrested at 7:35 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale, driving with a suspended license and violating his probation terms, and booked at the county jail. The MCSO arrested him.

MARIJUANA TRANSPORT -- Jeremy J. Jensen, 27, of Willits, was arrested at 2:16 p.m. Sunday on suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale, burglary, receiving stolen property and failing to appear in court, and booked at the county jail. The Ukiah Police Department arrested him.

DUI -- Raymond L. Wolsko, 53, of Ukiah, was arrested at 10:41 p.m. Sunday on suspicion of driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit and public intoxication, and booked at the county jail. The UPD arrested him.

DUI -- Kristoff E. Suba, 34, of Laytonville, was arrested at 1:53 p.m. Monday on suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit, and booked at the county jail under $15,000 bail. The California Highway Patrol arrested him.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -- Anderson Begay, 29, of Ukiah, was arrested at 11:14 p.m. Monday on suspicion of domestic assault, domestic battery and possessing drug paraphernalia, and booked at the county jail under $30,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -- Lewis E. Bullock, 63, of Fort Bragg, was arrested at 9:55 a.m. Tuesday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism, and booked at the county jail under $30,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

ASSAULT -- Justin N. Gadd, 35, of Willits, was arrested at 10:10 a.m. Tuesday on suspicion of assault, battery and resisting an officer, and booked at the county jail under $20,000 bail. The Willits Police Department arrested him.

INDECENT EXPOSURE -- Jean F. Maik, 22, of Calpella, was arrested at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday on suspicion of indecent exposure, giving false identification to a peace officer, resisting an officer and violating his probation, and booked at the county jail. The UPD arrested him.

METH SALES -- Charles W. Gibson, 49, of Fort Bragg, was arrested at 10:55 a.m. Wednesday on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine for sale and possessing methamphetamine, and booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force arrested him.

DUI -- Chaminda S. Wijayaraina, 34, of Venice, was arrested at 12:28 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and booked at the county jail. The CHP arrested him.

DUI -- Kimberly A. McQueen, 52, of Clearlake, was arrested at 7:30 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and booked at the county jail under $2,500 bail. The CHP arrested her.

DUI -- Kelly D. Hunt, 48, of Ukiah, was arrested at 8:01 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence, driving with a license suspended for DUI and violating his probation terms, and booked at the county jail under $55,000 bail. The CHP arrested him.

DUI -- Kelly C. Hatcher, 36, of Boulder, Colo., was arrested at 8:09 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit, and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The CHP arrested her.

3 Comments

  1. Rick Weddle April 19, 2014

    re: Morgan, Gould, old bandits…William Jennings Bryan ran against McKinley for prexy in the 1896 go ’round and someone asked Mark Hanna what he thought of Bryan’s candidacy. Hanna was a Republican ‘fundraiser,’ a senator (from Ohio, I think) and a steamroller powerbroker backing big Mac. Hanna’s response was, “You don’t think we’d let that fool in the White House do you? You know you can hire half the people in this country to kill the other half…and we’ve got the money to hire them.” Hanna and McKinley were both deep in the pocket of Henry Havemeyer and his Sugar Trust. Mr. Hanna’s unflattering evaluation of America’s population then was typical of the mercenary cynicism making the rounds of the ruling class, and until today has burgeoned into the ubiquitous military/industrial cult. Hanna spoke those words about 30 years after the Civil War — about the same span as from the Viet Nam Mistake till now — and is probably one of the most important utterances made in public, ever. It was soon followed by McKinley saying, after he was ‘elected,’ “I should probably have gone to the penitentiary than to the White House.” That sinister turn of events (the Most Revolting Revolution) was clear, precise verification of the prediction made in 1865 by Abe Lincoln, days before he was murdered by a ‘lone gunman:’
    “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…because of the War, corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” What did in fact follow was obscenely profitable for the Sugar Trust and calamitous for the People of places like Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, Central and South America, and Hawai’i, among others. This is not just ‘History;’ this is the name and description of what is happening in our Country and around the world today. Running out of breathable air? Too hot to grow a garden, or even go outside? Thank the remote-controlling vampires that stole our democratic Republic back then…and their unhumanized dogs of ‘heirs.’

  2. Harvey Reading April 19, 2014

    “THE MEDIA, as always, dutifully reports the propaganda put out by the oil monopolies — there are problems at the refineries, there’s political turmoil in Nigeria, there are mysterious pipeline glitches, and you people just don’t understand how hard we work to keep you on the road.”

    Not to mention their blather about (supposed) “market forces” of kaputalism in action, courtesy of (misinterpretaions of) Adam Smith, the god of the rich. Trouble is people have become so conditioned to this pack of lies that they do nothing … except vote for right wingers who smile as they offer their thanks by stabbing the gullible voters in the back.

    On the other hand, gas prices are pretty close to what they were in the 60s in real dollars. Then, it cost around 35 cents, in those dollars, a gallon in rural areas, which isn’t that much different than now.

  3. Harvey Reading April 19, 2014

    “DRAPER HIMSELF, like a lot of the Silicon boys, is a conservative libertarian. A young guy who made a lot of money when he was very young and, probably, like all of them, got a nice beginning hunk of capital from Mom and Pop. He also probably got into Ayn Rand before he had any intellectual defense mechanisms in place, and now thinks supermen like himself ought to be running the whole show.”

    1) Libertarians (authoritarians really, who manage to slip liberty into their self description, when they are anything but for liberty, except for themselves) are conservative by definition.

    2) I read Ms. Rand while still in grammar school. The Fountainhead was OK, and I could easily then, and now, sympathize with Roark’s position. But, Atlas Shrugged didn’t make sense even then. All the rich guys did by going on strike, had it been something that really happened, was to open bunches of new opportunities for others. In other words, it was apparent the lady was off her rocker. So, one doesn’t need “intellectual defense mechanisms” in place to deal with the nut cases.

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