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Mendocino County Today: Monday, April 21, 2014

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GOING ELECTRONIC. The next couple of weeks are revolutionary for us. We are putting the paper together electronically beginning this week. We've never done it this way before. For years, we've typed it in, or simply formatted e-mailed stuff to our specs, printed it all out, and glued it onto the page, twelve pages most weeks.

HAVING GLUED the stories to the graph paper, we drove to Willits Printing with the flats. At Willits, a trusty crew headed up by the late John The Printer, photographed the flats and placed the resulting tin plates on a battered old web press and, after many whacks, thwacks and tweeks often delivered with a literal wrench to keep the old press going, in a couple of hours we'd have our paper.

WE ALWAYS ENJOYED working with the Willits people, and had hoped to continue for another two weeks but… But Willits ran out of newsprint two weeks sooner than they'd calculated, having tried to calibrate their last roll with our last print job with them. Mrs. John The Printer called to say they couldn't print the AVA because they didn't have the paper. Printers have to order huge rolls of newsprint a few times a year. They're very expensive, and the printers have to pay several thousand dollars up front per giant roll. And a small print shop with only a couple of web press customers can't afford to be too far off in their paper orders. Too little, they lose, too much they lose.

STRAINING to keep abreast of the techno-curve, and to save some production money, we're going electronic anyway but two weeks earlier than we expected. We'll gather up all our copy and shoot the whole show into cyber-space and it will instantly land about forty feet down the hall on the computer of the talented graphic artist, Torrey Douglas, without whom we would be in deep, deep despair, never having failed to produce a paper in 30 years the old fashioned way which, in our case, was the labor-intensive way.

MS. DOUGLAS will work her magic and the paper, same-same in every way but ten pages this week, will be electronically conveyed to Healdsburg Printing where it will be electronically conveyed to their web press, and we'll pick it up early Wednesday morning. By Wednesday afternoon the mighty AVA will be for sale in the Anderson Valley and Ukiah.

MORE DISTANT VENUES remain at the mercy of the US Postal Service but, as always, Jan The Mail Lady will do her part. She'll carry our entire postal dispatch to Cloverdale where a southbound truck will haul all the bags to Oakland. Jan The Mail Lady, without fail, gets the paper from Boonville to Cloverdale. But after Cloverdale it's a crap shoot, and our readers lose more than they win.

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PUBLIC GROUNDWATER MEETING
Mendocino Rec Center
Thursday Evening, April 24, 7:15 pm

Mendocino City Community Services District (MCCSD) wants all property owners to apply for a groundwater permit and put a meter on their well.

  • Do you want to be required to check a meter and report your water use each month to MCCSD?
  • Do you want to give MCCSD permission to enter your property without notice?
  • Do you want to have your water use restricted?
  • Do you want to pay for the meter, the inspections and the enforcement of these requirements and restrictions?

Help the MCCSD board of directors make the right decision and rescind the mandatory groundwater permit before you are fined $100 a day for noncompliance!

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MARIJUANA DAY. This year, April 20th coincides with Easter. On the Northcoast, undoubtedly, the two are celebrated as one. We wrote this assessment of last year's 4/20 festivities in Golden Gate Park on the assumption that this year's celebration of the love drug was bigger and crazier than last year's:

BIKED OVER TO HIPPIE HILL Sunday afternoon to watch the 4-20 festivities. From what I've only recently learned, April 20 at 4:20pm America's stoners all light up at once in mass celebration of the love drug. (See Steve Heilig's account on page one.) I expected something like a few hundred ancient flower children shaking their cadaverous booties with maybe lame-o Wavy Gravy gumming some peace and love platitudes, but what I found was, well, put it this way — the hippies of '67 look positively wholesome put alongside this crew. If it had been advertised as Thug Fest 2013 we would have had truth in advertising. Lots of gangstas and no hippies of the traditional tie-dyed doofi type, only acres of tough guys and women very unlike the ones who married dear old dad. The entire area between Hippie Hill and the Children's Playground was wall-to-wall criminal intent. A cloud of pot and grill smoke hung over the park. No cops anywhere. Every other person seemed to have an apparatus that boomed out the mayhem recommendations of rap. “You lost, Pops?” a kid asked me, and it belatedly occurred to me that in my khakis and button down blue shirt I was definitely odd man out. The scene was, for sure, more than mildly disconcerting, and when I saw a large white guy, maybe 40, shirtless, obviously a veteran of many hours on a prison weight pile, his skin festooned with jail tats and a big White Pride announcement, when I saw this guy wade into the multi-ethnic gang-banging mopes with a maniacal grin on his face, I knew bad things were about to happen in Golden Gate Park, our sylvan retreat, our urban respite of forest and meadow, our natural solace amidst the din and clamor of city life, and I made my way to my bike and pedaled home. Two days later, the Chron's comment line was mostly a lot of huffing and puffing about “hippies” having left The City with a huge clean-up bill for a trashed park, and it’s just like the hypocrites to talk about how much they love Mother Earth then leave tons of trash in the trampled park. But this thing was not a hippie event, and Marx himself never could have foreseen how many and how fearsome the lumpen have become.

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Q&A OF THE DAY

Q: What's the difference between a crackhead and a tweaker?

A: The crackhead will steal your stuff and run off — the tweaker will steal your stuff and then help you look for it.

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READER JIM UPDEGRAFF WRITES:

In regard to local banking, a good question by the candidate; however, the answer undoubtedly is more complex than a simplistic answer. The County I am sure needs much more in services than a place to park its money. Credit unions are not banks and do not provide the full range of services a bank provides. As for the local bank they may or may not be able to meet the banking needs of the county. However, the big joker is the legal requirement that public deposits except for the FDIC portion of $250,000 must be fully secured by eligible securities. Then the question becomes does the credit union and local bank even have sufficient free securities to pledge? To keep my comments short I will not discuss interest spreads, profitability of the transaction and liquidity requirements. The proper question is does the county periodically get competitive bids for its banking business? [… Two days later…] In reflecting on my comments of April 16th regarding the naive question about the Bank of America by Robin Sunbeam, I wonder if the public bank for Mendocino County promoters are still around. I assume they are sincere, but their comments about the Federal Reserve Bank system and their proposed bank remind me of Don Quixote tilting at the windmills. They are totally oblivious of the State of California Financial Code regarding the procedures for starting a bank. They like to refer to the Bank of North Dakota but it is quite clear its activities in no way have any relevance to what they have proposed for their bank. Further, I wonder why they would want a bank in a county with a small population and limited resources. Do they think the Board of Supervisors are a bunch of dodos that would buy in on their scheme?

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TWO FORMER MENDO PROSECUTORS, Jill Ravitch and Victoria Shanahan (nee Jenny) are engaged in a spirited campaign for Sonoma County District Attorney. According to a recent Press Democrat item about their latest campaign debate, Ms. Shanahan is running because she contends that Ravitch is not living up to campaign promises, particularly a promise to improve the way officer involved shootings are reviewed by the DA’s office. It’s been six months now since Sonoma County Deputy Gelhaus shot and killed Sonoma County teenager Andy Lopez because Gelhaus said he thought the kid’s air rifle was a dangerous assault weapon. Shanahan says it shouldn’t take six months and Sonoma County deserves prompt reviews of such things. Ravitch says she’s still waiting for the Santa Rosa Police Department’s “independent” review to be completed. But six months?

Shanahan
Shanahan

WE REMEMBER Victoria Jenny when she worked as a Mendocino County senior prosecutor under the late DA Norm Vroman. A native of Willits where her dad worked for Remco, Ms. Jenny married a cop named Shanahan, moved to Cloverdale, and went to work for Ravitch. Shanahan was among our Courthouse faves when she worked in Mendocino County while Ravitch seemed to consider most of Mendo as part of the criminal class and used Mendo to get her prosecutor’s ticket punched with a “chief prosecutor” title. We thought Ravitch, while certainly a skilled prosecutor, lacked what might be called “people skills” and we agree from this distance that Shanahan’s complaint about poor community relations is probably justified. We also objected to Ravitch's conveniently cozy relationship with then-Mendo DA Meredith Lintott who employed Ravitch knowing that Ravitch was in Mendo primarily to stay employed while she prepared to run for DA in Sonoma County. Lintott also funded Ravitch's round-trip commute back and forth to Ravitch’s home in West Sonoma County; she never lived in Mendocino County. Ravitch got a County car and free fuel, while Mendo got to be Ravitch's well-financed foster home for a couple of years.

Chesbro, Ravitch
Chesbro, Ravitch

ANOTHER NEGATIVE for Ravitch is her proud declaration on her re-election website that she is supported by Democrat Assemblyman Wes Chesbro. Even if your opinion of do-nothing Chesbro happened to be, for some crazy reason, positive, you’d still think that such craven politicization of a supposedly non-partisan office like District Attorney would be a very bad sign.

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ON APRIL 18, 2014 at about 11am Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area of Canyon Road, near the old refuse disposal site, regarding a kidnapping. Upon arrival MCSO personnel contacted a 28 year-old adult female from Willits who stated that she was at a business located at 19 West Valley (within the City of Willits) when she was approached by her ex-boyfriend Dameon Ziegler, 27 also of Willits, who was armed with a shotgun. Ziegler pointed the shotgun at her and forced her to leave the business against her will and to provide him a ride to the Little Darby recreational area. When arriving at the recreational area Ziegler forced the female victim to walk down a trail, while holding her at gunpoint. When they approached a small rest spot Ziegler pushed the female victim to the ground and told her that he intended to sexually assault her. He then told her that he intended to kill her and himself. Zeigler then started to pull the pants off of the female, at which time she started to struggle. The female was able to break loose and run away form Ziegler. The female victim told Sheriff’s personnel that she then heard a single shot as she was running away. Sheriff’s personnel, along with personnel from the Willits Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, conducted a search of the Little Darby Recreational area for Ziegler. During the search, Sheriff’s Office Canine Ruddick was deployed and picked up Zeigler's scent. Ruddick tracked Zeigler up a hiking trail, leading law enforcement personnel to where Zeigler was hiding. Upon locating Ziegler, law enforcement personnel ordered him to surrender. Zeigler turned his shotgun onto himself and fired a single round. Ziegler was pronounced dead at the scene due to the self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Kidnapping and Sexual Assault are currently being investigated by the Willits Police Department. Willits Police Department should be contacted if further details regarding the crime and investigation are desired. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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STOP ALL THE CLOCKS, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

— W. H. Auden

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

More than a word or two should be said about the movie from the book, “The Grapes of Wrath” directed by John Ford in 1940. It is nearly 80 years old and holds up even more so today. Darryl F. Zanuck, to his great credit, green lighted this picture and the entire cast, especially Henry Fonda, gave Oscar worthy performances. The entire budget was in the $800k range, in Black and White, and the film practically jumps off the screen. Toward the end, when Fonda/Tom Joad bid farewell to his Ma/Jane Darwell you feel like he is speaking for all of disenfranchised America, all of displaced humanity. Steinbeck's book is a one of a kind, and the movie is a masterpiece, the likes of which is rarely seen. They just don't make them that way anymore!

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LANDSCAPE AT THE ICEHOUSE. Inaugural Exhibition in two parts. Curated by Kathleen Hanna. Part 1: April 18-May 17. (Participating is Rebecca Johnson of Navarro.) Part 2: May 23-June 21. Opening reception Friday, May 23, 6-8pm. Icehouse Gallery, 405 East D St., Petaluma, CA 94952. Tuesday-Saturday, 11-5pm or appointment. Info@ichousegallery.org.

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AN EASTER MESSAGE FROM CRAIG STEHR

On the occasion of the Risen Christ, I wish everyone a blessed, happy Easter. I need immediate cooperation to leave New Orleans and return to California. My time of assisting Jamie "Bork" Loughner is over, and she has thanked me! Due to some unfortunate craziness on California's north coast, I no longer have food stamps. I am very low on money, and money owed to me ($290) has not as of yet been returned. I do not have a means to get back to California. I do not have a place to go to there yet. I have stuck my neck way out for radical environmental/peace & justice concerns For the last 40 years. I need postmodern America to get real with me for a change. Bork needs to continue eating, and I cannot become an economic burden here, since I am no longer able to contribute due to no longer having food stamps. Bork will be able to survive alone, and make it without me now that winter is over. I offer no apologies whatsoever to capitalism, nor to the "American experiment in Freedom and Democracy". I followed spirit, went where I needed to go, and did what I needed to do. If this does not meet with your approval, may I suggest that you take up your complaint with Jesus Christ? After all, it is not my fault that the United States of America is not a God-centered society. Besides, what else could I have done? I wish you a Happy Easter. Much love, Craig Louis Stehr Telephone messages: (504) 302-9951 Email: CraigStehr@pamho.net Snail mail: 333 Socrates Street, New Orleans, LA 70114

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HENDY WOODS VOLUNTEERS ENJOY THANK YOU LUNCH AND UPDATE

by Kathy Bailey

Volunteers who have been key in rejuvenating Hendy Woods State Park and ensuring that the park remains open came together with their families at River’s Bend Retreat Center on a beautiful spring Sunday, April 13, for a Thank You lunch sponsored by the Hendy Woods Community. Volunteers have been active stocking and staffing the visitor center and the entrance kiosk, leading interpretive walks and campfire talks, controlling invasive weeds like fennel, creating and updating the organization’s website, identifying and tallying birds, collecting photos of plants found at the park, raising funds, keeping the organization going, interacting with Park Department leaders and Save the Redwoods League staff, and creating and constructing the new “Welcome to Anderson Valley” signs that feature Hendy Woods. And more! Much of this activity is kept in motion by Volunteer Coordinator Shelly Englert.

After enjoying a delicious lunch put together by Boont Berry Farm, Lauren’s Restaurant, Janet Anderson and Deanna Apfel, Kathy Bailey updated the group about the current status of the park and projects underway. Although many people have gotten the idea that all is again well, Bailey emphasized that the state park crisis is not over, it is just in a quiet phase. While there is no current threat to close the park, staffing throughout the Mendocino District is stretched very thin. For instance, the rangers based at Hendy Woods, Dave Rodrigues and Natasha Morris, have to cover all the way south to Manchester, or up to Van Damme and sometimes even McKerricher, depending on the shift.

The July 2012 discovery that around $35 million dollars in park funds had been “hidden” by the Department of Parks and Recreation has led many to assume that funding is no longer an issue. However, of that money, the majority had been generated for Off Highway Vehicle parks and only about $22 million was available for parks like Hendy Woods. The Legislature took this one time only “found” money and earmarked it for special parks projects. But the underlying annual $20 million funding cut that provoked the park closure crisis in 2011 has never been completely restored. This year the Governor’s budget reinstated $14 million of that deficit. Sacramento seems to be waiting for the report of the Parks Forward Commission, created in 2012, to decide how, or whether, to move forward with adequate funding for our state parks.

Good news for Hendy Woods are the infrastructure upgrades being made at the park. One provision of the scandal money the Legislature set aside provides a pool of money to match donations from non-profits. The Hendy Woods Community and Save the Redwoods League each donated $40,000 cash for Hendy Woods, which is being matched from the scandal money. Additionally, volunteer hours during 2012 were monetized and matched from the fund for an additional $23,000 for the park.

Originally, this money was to be allocated for replacing the aging water delivery system. However, the high cost of that project led to the decision to fund it from another source specifically for “deferred maintenance.” Our donations and matched money are now being used for an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant day use area upgrade, that will include a better bathroom in a new less prominent location, two shade ramadas, new signage and new paths. Planning is far advanced and work will begin after the camping season.

Major preliminary engineering, such as surveying for the location of the new water lines, is already well under way and the Hendy Woods Community has a relatively high degree of confidence that the Department will honor its commitment to replace the water lines and other needed water system repair. Because we were so good at making noise and raising money, Hendy Woods is receiving large allocations from the scandal money. These actions are very encouraging, but because the overall funding for the Parks Department is so inadequate, we will have to be vigilant and ready to step forward at a moment’s notice.

Consider volunteering! All sorts of talents can be put to good used. It’s fun, personally rewarding, and vital. Contact Shelly Englert at HendyWoodsVolunteer@gmail.com or call the Hendy Woods Community at 895-3746. Come visit the park and get inspired! A good place to start during this wildflower-rich season might be to come along on the Saturday morning interpretive walk, which begins at 10:30 from the Day Use Area. This is an easy, family friendly way to connect with our incredibly lovely park, Hendy Woods.

HWCVolunteers
New owner of River’s Bend, Laurie Adams (right foreground), greets some of the HWC volunteers at the Thank You lunch on April 13. Left to right, Linda MacElwee, Deanna Thomas, Jeanine Pfeiffer, Peggy Dart, Steve Anderson, Janet Anderson, Lauren Keating, Laura Baynham. Other volunteers included Marco Heithaus, Cindy Wilder, Kate Catagnola, George Castagnola, Helen Papke, Bill Sterling, Valerie Hanelt, Niko Milojevich, Jairo Espinosa, Bev Elliot, Sheila Colombana, and family members.

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PHIL ISENBERG ON BOARD OF BECHTEL FOUNDATION-FUNDED PPIC

by Dan Bacher

Phil Isenberg, then Chair of the Delta Stewardship Council, on September 11, 2013 joined the Board of Directors of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), a self-described “nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank” that exerts considerable influence over public policy in the state.

Isenberg has served in leadership roles in both the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create so-called “marine protected areas” in California and planning processes promoting the construction of the peripheral tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

“Phil Isenberg has served since 2010 as chair of the Delta Stewardship Council, which was created by the state legislature to achieve the coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem,” according to a press release from the PPIC. “He was chair of the California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force and chairman of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, whose recommendations provided much of the structure for the major changes in water policy enacted in 2009.”

The Marine Life Protection Act Initiative, funded by the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, created a network of questionable “marine protected areas” that fail to protect the ocean from fracking, oil drilling, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military testing and and all human impacts other than fishing and gathering. From 2004 through 2006, Isenberg chaired the MLPA Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Central Coast, the first “study region” where the alleged “marine protected areas” were imposed.

The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force chaired by Isenberg from 2007 to 2008 cleared the path for the construction of the peripheral tunnels under the current Bay Delta Conservation Plan and the water bond/water policy legislation of 2009. The peripheral tunnels promoted by Isenberg will hasten the extinction of Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, as well as imperil steelhead and salmon on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

Previously, Isenberg served as a member of the Assembly, representing parts of Sacramento, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin Counties. He was also mayor of Sacramento and a Sacramento City Council member.

On the same day that Isenberg joined the PPIC Board, Donna Lucas, CEO and president of Lucas Public Affairs, was elected board chair and Patrick Murphy, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, joined PPIC as director of research and senior fellow. “The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) welcomed three distinguished Californians into key leadership roles today,” the press release claimed.

Isenberg is currently the Vice-Chair of the Delta Stewardship Council. Under his leadership, the Council last spring produced a Delta Plan and an Environmental Impact Report that were so terminally flawed that an array of parties, ranging from the Westlands Water District to fishing groups, were forced to file lawsuits contesting the documents.

On 17 June 2013, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, AquAlliance, Friends of the River, Center For Biological Diversity and Restore the Delta filed lawsuit against the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Plan and EIR. The lawsuit alleges numerous explicit violations of the statutory requirements of the Delta Reform Act, CEQA and Public Trust Doctrine.

“The Delta Plan violates CEQA in ten different ways,” said Michael Jackson, the Attorney for the five groups. “It fails to achieve the co-equal goals of Delta ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability established by the Act. The Delta Plan may be the most incomplete environmental document I’ve even seen.”

“The council ignored three critical documents they were obligated to use: a State Water Resources Control Board water flow recommendation; a Department of Fish and Wildlife report on biological objectives, and the Delta Protection Commission’s economic sustainability report. In all three cases, the documents were inconvenient to the approval of the tunnels,” Jackson concluded.

In addition to Isenberg, Lucas and Mark Baldassare, the PPIC president and CEO, the current PPIC board members are: Ruben Barrales, president and CEO of GROW Elect; María Blanco, vice president of civic engagement at the California Community Foundation; attorney Brigitte Bren; Walter B. Hewlett, chair of the board of directors at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; author and farmer David Mas Masumoto; Steven Merksamer, senior partner at Neilsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Gross & Leoni, LLP; Kim Polese, chairman of ClearStreet, Inc.; and Thomas Sutton, retired chairman and CEO of the Pacific Life Insurance Company.

PPIC reports, conference center funded by S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation

Opponents of the peripheral tunnels aren't surprised by Isenberg's appointment to the board of PPIC, since the PPIC has sponsored several S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation-funded studies promoting the construction of the Delta tunnels in recent years.

The PPIC's most recent report, “Paying for Water in California,” is supported with funding from the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation and the California Water Foundation, an initiative of the Resources Legacy Fund. (http://www.ppic.org/main/publication.asp?i=1086)

The relationship between the Bechtel Foundation and PPIC is so close that the PPIC's conference center is named the “Bechtel Conference Center.”

According to the PPIC website, “The Bechtel Conference Center is designed to serve as both a meeting place and a learning center for nonprofit organizations, highlighting the value that PPIC places on civic engagement, consensus-building, and respect for different perspectives. The center was made possible by a gift from the Stephen Bechtel Fund and opened in spring 2011. In its design and operation, the center reflects the values that PPIC and the Bechtel family place on environmental and technological innovation.” (http://www.ppic.org/main/confcenter.asp)

Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. is the son of Stephen David Bechtel, Sr. and grandson of Warren A. Bechtel who founded the Bechtel Corporation. His San Francisco-based foundation, the S.D. Bechtel Jr. Foundation, has as its overall mission, “to support well-managed non-profit organizations that provide quality programs and create significant sustained benefits in areas of special interest to the Founders and Directors.”

However, its real mission appears to be the greenwashing of one of the most environmentally destructive corporations on the planet. The Bechtel Corporation, one of the world’s largest engineering and construction firms that was instrumental in the “reconstruction” of Iraq, is a leading advocate throughout the world of the privatization of water systems. It was Bechtel that sued the country of Bolivia for canceling a contract there sponsored by the World Bank. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2008/07/22/bechtel-and-the-big-dig/)

A CorpWatch report, “Profiting from Destruction,” provides case studies from Bechtel’s history of operating in the water, nuclear, energy and public works sectors. These case studies reveal a legacy of unsustainable and destructive practices that have reaped permanent human, environmental and community devastation around the globe. Letters from “Bechtel affected communities” included in the report provide first-hand descriptions of these impacts, from Bolivia to Native American lands in Nevada.

The report reveals a 100-year history spent capitalizing on the most brutal technologies, reaping immense profits and ignoring the social and environmental costs. For more information, go to http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=6975

PPIC works in close partnership with Center for Watershed Sciences

The PPIC also works in close partnership with the U.C. Davis Center for Watershed Sciences (https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/about/partners), which received a “gift” of $10 million from the Bechtel Foundation in September 2013 “to expand its scientific research and public engagement capabilities on the state's increasingly difficult water problems.”

“The University of California, Davis, will build on its success as a center for problem-solving research on California's critical water issues thanks to a $10 million gift to the Center for Watershed Sciences,” according to a UC Davis news release. (http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10673)

Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi, who will be forever remembered as the “Pepper Spray Chancellor” for her role in suppressing Occupy protests at U.C. Davis in 2011 and 2012, claimed, “UC Davis has a long history of providing vital scientific and policy support for addressing water problems critical to the health and prosperity of Californians. This support will enable the university to expand this important work and further scientific discovery of this precious and limited resource.”

Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, and Jeffrey Mount, center co-founder and a PPIC senior fellow, are strong advocates for the construction of the peripheral tunnels. In an Associated Press interview on Dec. 9, 2013, Lund claimed the goal of the state's Bay Delta Conservation Plan is not to increase the amount of water being sent to cities and Central Valley farms, but to make the conveyance “less environmentally damaging.”

“This is really not about taking additional water from other water users ... it's just shifting the place of diversion,” Lund said. “You can never have no impact when doing (something like this), but you're changing the impacts and transforming them for something that's less bad for the native fish.” (https://watershed.ucdavis.edu/news/2013/12/11/lund-delta-tunnels-really-not-about-taking-more-water-others)

More information about the PPIC board is available at http://www.ppic.org

ABOUT PPIC: “PPIC is dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California through independent, objective, nonpartisan research on major economic, social, and political issues. The institute was established in 1994 with an endowment from William R. Hewlett. As a private operating foundation, PPIC does not take or support positions on any ballot measure or on any local, state, or federal legislation, nor does it endorse, support, or oppose any political parties or candidates for public office.”

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THE STATED MEETING of the Oceanview Eastern Star Chapter 111 was held on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief that tax season has ended. Our refreshment committee, Carol Brown and Barb Anderson, fed us a great mixed fruit bowl and cookies to celebrate. Our Deputy Grand Matron, Linda Fuentes, will be feted at a celebration on May 10 in Ukiah. The committee chairperson, May Beth Yu, attended our meeting to discuss this festivity. Also discussed is the official visit of the State Worthy Grand Matron’s official visit on June 18 in Clearlake. At that time all chapters will be filling ‘Ethan & Teyler Totes’ with items to be used by families who have a loved one at a hospital and the items will help to sustain their visits to the various medical facilities. Our own Nancy Meagher is hostessing a BBQ at her home, May 4, 1-5pm with each attendee bringing a potluck item of their choice. All members and guests are invited. Then, on May 6 the chapter in Sebastopol will have their Mexican dinner night, $5. Extra frozen or non-frozen enchiladas can be ordered for your own use. The local Masonic Lodge requested we present a dinner for them at their May meeting; we accepted doing such. Our Easter See’s Candy sale was a success; one of our fundraisers. It was noted that our ongoing Planet Green recycling has netted the chapter over $100 with the good efforts of our Treasurer, Jim Davis. Several of our members attended the Senior Center dinner and Cotton Auditorium concert on April 12. Both events were very enjoyable. Mark your calendars for all the above events!! Happy Easter, Mary Danchuk, WM. Order of Eastern Star Ocean View Chapter 111 Mendocino, CA Meeting monthly 3rd Tuesday, 6:30pm Dark October and December 10500 Lansing Street, Mendocino rillatoo@Yahoo.com

One Comment

  1. John Sakowicz April 22, 2014

    Good luck with the new electronic production of the AVA.

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