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Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Sep. 14, 2017

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FORMER SUPERVISOR NORMAN DE VALL took the podium at the Board of Supervisors Chamber on Tuesday to tell the Board that vacation home rentals need to be reigned in and the Board needs to step up to the plate to help house local, non-wealthy Mendocino residents, especially on the Coast:

DE VALL: This is the same housing challenge that my board faced in the early 80s. As a resident of the Mendocino Coast for 55 years this is an ever growing issue that has not yet been resolved. Vacation home rentals in residential areas are basically businesses. These buildings are not occupied by residents who know how to conserve water, drive slowly, be careful and considerate and be respectful of their neighbors because they do not know the neighbors. We have a housing issue that is your responsibility, required by the MAP Act and required by the general plan and it is certainly embodied in your zoning codes to consider housing to be at least as important as recreational facilities. We are approaching an issue like you do in movie theaters and airplanes — there is an occupancy issue: how many people fit on the Mendocino Coast? How many vacation home rentals are converted sheds and converted studios that somehow are allowed in the code as second residential units that are sized and fit to each general plan parcel? How many vacation home rentals have building permits? How many have smoke alarms? How many have approved septic systems? These are the kinds of issues — are you creating more of a problem? Granted there are an endless number of people who want to come and stay on the Mendocino Coast. I spoke to two innkeepers this last week and I asked them, Why aren't you speaking to the supervisors to tell them what you provide with smoke alarms and proper safety provisions and building code compliance? If you are going to allow vacation home rentals please look to see if they are allowed in the general plan areas. You know that in the coastal zone they are not allowed. I talked to Chuck Bush at the Fort Bragg Senior Center and he says he has between six and 11 people every night living in their cars if they have a car or living on the street. We cannot house the people who live here and have lived here because this is the only place for them to go. They don't have another place to sleep. This is their home. They don't have a place to lie down and sleep because so many of these places have been turned into vacation home rentals. I hear from plenty of property owners who want that vacation home rental because our renters can be a tough crowd to work with and live with on the same property. People want their property to be able to use for family vacations and other things. So you have a major challenge in front of you. I just ask you to keep this question in front of you. Only you are responsible for providing housing. Only you have the authority to address it.

A READER WHO WAS WATCHING the meeting in the chambers writes as de Vall was speaking:

“Your Supervisor, Dan Hamburg, the champion of the underdog, upheld the right of well off property owners to do what they want with their property, no matter how many poor people are turned out onto the street. Former Supe de Vall told the Board that Chuck Bush from the Ft. Bragg Senior Center says they have up to 11 or 12 of their seniors sleeping in their cars (if they had one) every night. Hamburg was absorbed in his SmartPhone while de Vall was speaking.”

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DEAD ON THE COVELO ROAD

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office - Media Advisory/News Release

Written By: Lieutenant Shannon Barney

Incident Number: 2017-26990

Crime/Incident: 187 PC [Homicide}

Location: Mile Post Marker 24.98 on State Route 162 (Covelo Road), Covelo CA

Date of Incident: 09/13/2017

Time: 10:30 AM

Victim(s): John Doe, Hispanic male adult, approximately 25 to 35 years of age

Suspect(s): Unknown

Synopsis: On 9/13/2017 around 10:30 AM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a call regarding a deceased person near MPM 24.98 on Covelo Road in Covelo CA.  Cal Fire and Covelo Volunteer Fire responded to the scene and confirmed the person was deceased.

Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies and Detectives responded to the scene and initiated an investigation.  The male adult has yet to be identified.  The decedent appeared to be a Hispanic male, between 25 and 35 years of age and he was clearly the victim of a homicide.  The scene appeared to be an area where the body was dumped but did not appear to be the scene of the crime.  The investigation revealed the body was placed at the location during a very short period of time just prior to the call reporting the body had been found.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is requesting anyone who may have seen a vehicle or persons acting suspiciously anywhere on Highway 162 (Covelo Road), south of the town of Covelo to the Dos Rios area, or parked in any of the dirt pullouts along this route, between 9:45 AM and 12:00 PM to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Communications Center at 707-463-4086 or the Sheriff's Tip Line at 707-234-2100.

There are current post on some social media sites claiming a certain vehicle was seen and or that an arrest has been made in this case.  This information is not accurate.  The Sheriff's Office has not identified an involved vehicle and no arrest have been made in this case.  The Sheriff's Office is requesting assistance from any citizen who might have information about this case.

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THE MENDOCINO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION will hold two meetings in Anderson Valley this month, one next Wednesday, September 20 concerning the planned new arched bridge over the Navarro near Hendy Woods, the other concerning the Lambert Lane Bridge over Robinson Creek in Boonville which has suffered major damage in recent storms and currently stabilized by a temporary arrangement of riprap holding up the creek bank where the river turns sharply to the northwest.

According to the DOT press release concerning the Philo-Greenwood Bridge:

“The Mendocino County Department of Transportation is continuing the design of the bridge improvement project along Philo-Greenwood Road at the Navarro River crossing and would like to provide an update to the community. The purpose of the Navarro River Bridge Project is to improve safety and convenience for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists along Philo-Greenwood Road. The project proposes future construction for the widening & rehabilitation of this bridge over Navarro River (built in 1951 – called “River Rest Bridge”). The Project Area is located approximately 500 feet on each end of the Navarro River Bridge, about three quarters of a mile west of Highway 128. The County would like to discuss the project with its neighbors and community on Wednesday, September 20th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the AV Grange 669, 9800 Highway-128, Boonville, CA 95415. PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT MEETING! If you have any questions, or cannot make the meeting, please call Jason Wise (Project Manager) at (707) 234-2846.”

The DOT press release concerning the Robinson Creek Bridge reads:

“The Mendocino County Department of Transportation is beginning the design of the bridge improvement project on Lambert Lane at the Robinson Creek crossing in Boonville. The purpose of the Robinson Creek Bridge Project is to replace the Scour Critical Lambert Lane Bridge at Robinson Creek to improve public safety. A retaining wall was damaged during winter storms in 2015 which required emergency repairs. The Project Area is located approximately 100 feet on each end of the Robinson Creek Bridge, about 500 feet southwest of Highway 128. The County would like to discuss the project with its neighbors and community on: Wednesday, September 27th from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. at the AV Grange 669, 9800 Highway-128, Boonville, CA 95415 PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS IMPORTANT MEETING! If you have any questions, or cannot make the meeting, please call Jason Wise (Project Manager) at (707) 234-2846.”

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QUIZ TONIGHT! THURSDAY NIGHT!

Like the tasty yet stomach-churning corndogs, the betting on how many local high school girls run off with carnies, and how many high school boys will throw-up on The Zipper or Graviton at the Carnival, Sam Prather’s magnificent sheep in the livestock barn, the disconcertingly happy balloon lady, the inevitable miserable bastards running the Republican Party booth, the ornery sheep in the sheep dog trial, and the A.V. Fire Department’s ‘Best Food in Show’ Burgers, the Thursday Night General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz taking place at Lauren’s Restaurant tomorrow evening, September 14th at 7pm, is an equally important part of the Big Show…

Hope to see you there,

Cheers, Steve Sparks, The Quiz Master

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LIGHTNING-SPARKED WILDFIRES GROWING IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

by Nick Rahaim

Two wildfires sparked by lightning Tuesday in the Mendocino National Forest grew overnight to a combined 250 acres as fire officials struggled to find resources to fight the blazes.

The Skeleton fire, burning 6 miles east of Lake Pillsbury northwest of Ukiah, grew to 200 acres Wednesday, said Punky Moore, spokeswoman for the Forest Service, and no containment lines were in place.

Roughly 10 miles to the west, the Slides fire has burned nearly 50 acres. Fire crews have also not achieved any containment there, Moore said.

The Forest Service has requested smoke jumpers, an air tanker and helicopters to fight the fires, but those orders have not been filled, Moore said.

The are currently two fire crews fighting the Skeleton fire, she said.

Northern California and the Bay Area were hit by several waves of thunderstorms Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service counted more than 1,700 lightning strikes in the region early Wednesday.

Several other fires have been reported in Mendocino National Forest but details about their location and size were not available Wednesday.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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VISITORS are always welcome at the mighty ava, but the weekend of County Fair, held right here in Mendocino County's most happening community, we break out the Cheez Whiz, fresh Ritz Crackers and exactly two cans of Planter's Nuts with, of course, peanuts. We also offer free shots of JD and a case of Boonville's primo beer. Uh, on second thought, one free shot, one beer. Every day's a work day for us, and some of you people are sloppy drunks. Whatever, as the young people say, stop in for a quick argument or merely a hello. If you need directions ask yourself, Really? Lost in Boonville? (Hugs absolutely prohibited.)

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WE ENJOYED meeting Brenda Hodges at the Fine Arts Building on the Fairgrounds when we hauled our art entries in for display among this year's collection of intriguing creativity. Brenda seemed momentarily nonplussed at our replica pig, a four hundred pounder which, to even squeeze into the hall, required the removal of the center bar of the double doors. If nothing else, we expect a ribbon for largest exhibit. Our more proportional exhibits are the work of the Kalantarians, father Mike and daughter Annie. Mike wrought a fir-pole stand for two photo montages artfully arranged by Annie called "The Faces of Mendocino County." Last year's collection proved quite popular with Fairgoers, mesmerized by faces of friends and relatives no longer with us. The photos are drawn from the ava's archive.

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “The boss was practically clicking his heels today when he told me, ‘Guess what, LD? My geraniums will be in the Fair this year.’ Not being a bring-down kinda dog, I didn't want to yawn in his face, so I gave him a couple of totally insincere attaboy woofs and he went away happy. Simple souls, these people.”

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A LOCAL DEMANDED, "Why haven't you tried to find out who got slashed across the face with a machete and why at Rancho Navarro last month?"

I TRIED to find out. It apparently happened in connection with a dope raid, but the vic ran into the wild and hasn't been seen since. That's the version I got. The prob is, and here we veer off into No Comment land, but we're informed that the pot raiders operate apart from the Sheriff's Department because the DEA, which partially funds the Marijuana Price Support Unit, as it's been called, does not trust the SD. Persistent rumor has it that the Feds think that someone in the Sheriff's Department has, in the past, tipped off certain growers that they were on the hit list. Be that as it may or may not be, the pot raiders don't issue press releases, although they have said they are focusing on grows that do environmental damage, a target-rich environment, for sure.

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RETIRED SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE, David Nelson, a fanatic supporter of the eventual judge's only County Courthouse presently in the very beginnings of construction, called to say our figure of $240 million was over a hundred mil off. His Honor says that including the Perkins Street site, the new County Courthouse that nobody wants and most Mendo people don't know is in the works, will cost exactly $94.455 million. This fiscal precision, applied to any government project, is laughable. A ground-up project of this size will cost at least a third more, although we'll concede our figure for this boondoggle may be inflated.

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ANOTHER READER wanted to know, "Why is County CEO Angelo pushing track and trace?"

SHORT ANSWER: She apparently believes that Mendo Mellow, grown according to Mendo's still-not-adopted but already impossibly complicated rules, will be welcomed with a big sigh of relief by the crooks, er, proprietors, of medical marijuana "clinics" outside the County, even as they, as always, buy and sell lots and lots of product out their back doors.

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THE PHOENIX NEW TIMES reports that Motel 6 is tipping off US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to undocumented guests. According to the paper, between February and August, ICE agents have made at least 20 arrests at Motel 6 locations. Attorneys for several detainees—whose individual motel arrests the newspaper profiled—have publicly expressed their suspicion that their clients were turned in by Motel 6 employees. One Motel 6 clerk told the New Times: “We send a report every morning to ICE—all the names of everybody that comes in. Every morning at about 5 o’clock, we do the audit and we push a button and it sends it to ICE.”

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SANHEDRIN NURSERY in Willits is going out of business, which is bad news for North County gardeners of the non-marijuana type: "After 36 years, we are hanging up our trowels. Sanhedrin Nursery is having a ‘Going Out Of Business’ Sale. Everything in the store is 25%-40% off. Come in early for best selection and tell your friends. Fruit and Nut Trees 25% off.”

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WE FINALLY FOUND the latest CEO report in the County’s new and completely discombobulated and disorganized website mendocinocounty.org. We received a notice that the CEO report was available, but the link took us to some kind of jumbled calendar listing. We asked the county’s webmaster/sender to please send a correct link, no response. Finally, we found the CEO report under “news.” (But “news” is not an option on the CEO’s webpage; it’s elsewhere.) We challenge our readers to try to find the CEO report by starting with the county’s opening page. No longer can you simply go to the department of interest and see the available options. The new website is a craziest, most user-unfriendly and hard to figure out arrangement you can imagine. The County probably paid some expensive consultant to convert the clunky old co.mendocino.ca.us to this current mess. It’s not likely to improve, but the ordinary user will have great difficulty finding anything.

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WE’RE SORRY WE FOUND THE CEO REPORT

JUST WHEN WE THOUGHT that the pot rules couldn’t possibly get any more complicated and bogged down in painful minutia, we noticed the following item in County CEO Carmel Angelo’s latest CEO report:

Cannabis Update

On August 30, 2017, the Executive Office hosted the first phone call for the Cannabis Working Groups. The call included 30 participants (!) including key County staff members. During this call, participants discussed the proposed working groups as well as additional topics (!) to consider. The call resulted in the formation of the following eight (!) working groups:

  • Requirements for Building use
  • Track and Trace
  • Overlay Zones, Exemptions and/or Exclusion Zones
  • State License Requirements/Amendments to State Law
  • Cycles/Number of Inspections
  • Transferability
  • Non-Cultivation
  • Marketing

Following the call, Executive Office staff sent a “Doodle Poll” to participants seeking their availability to begin scheduling the individual working group meetings/calls. Participants were also sent a “Survey Monkey” requesting their feedback on the top four working groups by order of importance. Both polls closed on September 7, 2017, and Executive Office staff will meet to analyze the results and move forward with scheduling the working group meetings, with a target for the groups to begin meeting the week of September 11, 2017.

Following the call on August, 30, 2017, there has been continued interest by the public regarding the working groups and members continue to be added (!).

A list of the working groups and participants follows:

Mendocino County Cannabis Working Groups

Requirements for Building Use / Participants: Anna Purna, Corrine Powell, Freeda Burstad, Hanna Nelson, Jenn Procacci, Julia Carrera, Mo Marie, Patrick Sellers, Scott Ward

Track and Trace Participants: Genine Coleman, Ken Dickerson, Kevin Shi, Mo Marie, Patrick Sellers, Ron Edwards

Overlay Zones, Exemptions and/or Exclusion Zones Participants: Amanda Reiman, Aaron Niderost, Bob Taylor, Casey O’Neill, Chantal Shanit-Belle (Simon-pietri), Emi Taylor, Evan Johnson, Freeda Burstad, Gail Johnson, Genine Coleman, Hannah Nelson, Jenn Procacci, Jude Thilman, Julia Carrera, Karen Byars, Mo Marie, Nadine Boer, Patrick Sellers, Ron Edwards, Valerie Edwards, Will Carson

State License Requirements/Amendments to State Law Participants: Casey O’Neill, Chantal Shanit-Belle (Simon-pietri) Corrine Powell, Del Potter, Ellen Drell, Freeda Burstad, Hannah Nelson, Jude Thilman, Julia Carrera, Karen Byars, Kevin Shi

Cycles/Number of Inspections Participants: Casey O’Neill, Ron Edwards, Valerie Edwards

Transferability Participants:, Corrine Powell, Del Potter, Ellen Drell, Hannah Nelson, Jenn Procacci, Karen Byars, Kevin Shi, Mo Marie

Non-Cultivation Participants: Amanda Reiman Anna Purna, Del Potter Hannah Nelson Jude Thilman Kevin Shi , Patrick Sellers Valerie Edwards

Marketing Participants: Amanda Reiman Anna Purna , Del Potter Genine Coleman Kevin Shi, Patrick Sellers.

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TALK ABOUT A RECIPE FOR FAILURE! Did we they miss anyone? When are the pot brigades — or more specifically those trying to get legit — going to say enough is enough?!

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YES ON B

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LAYTONVILLE LEMON

On 09-08-2017 at approximately 5:50 P.M., Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were notified of a possible domestic violence incident that occurred at 44901 North Highway 101 in Laytonville. Laytonville Cahto Tribal Police had received information regarding the incident, and notified MCSO dispatch to request Deputies to respond and investigate. Cahto Tribal Police officers responded to the area and located the involved parties who were identified as Brandon Mitchell, 39, of Laytonville, and an adult female.

Deputies investigated and learned that Mitchell and the adult female have a dating relationship and had been involved in an argument. During the argument, Mitchell pushed the adult female to the ground causing a lasting injury to her face. The adult female had visible injuries to her face when contacted by Deputies during the investigation. Mitchell was subsequently placed under arrest for (Felony Domestic Violence Battery). Mitchell was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, September 13, 2017

Alford, Garcia-Montiel, Guevara, Heilig

DELBERT ALFORD, Ukiah. Controlled substance, concealed dirk-dagger, parole violation.

FRANCISCO GARCIA-MONTIEL, Hesperia/Ukiah. Failure to appear, illegal entry.

MIGUEL GUEVARA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

KALEN HEILIG, Willits. Pot cultivation.

Hernandez, Keech, Krueger

JOSE HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

FRANK KEECH, Ukiah. DUI.

DARCIE KRUEGER, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

Mendoza-Gonzalez, Paniagua-Hernandez, Rosas

TANIA MENDOZA-GONZALEZ, Talmage. DUI.

MIGUEL PANIAGUA-HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. DUI, smuggling drugs or booze into jail.

DINO ROSAS, Cave Junction/Calpella. Failure to appear.

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WHAT MAKES VIOLENCE, or more precisely the willingness to be violent, a useful tactic is that it isn’t necessary to kill anyone or break anything every time you want something. You don’t need actual violence to exert pressure against your enemy — you need the credible threat of violence. What makes that threat credible is the memory of a fairly recent act of actual violence. France and the U.S. both have nukes, for example. But only the U.S. has ever been crazy enough to use them. Which country scares other countries more?

Consider the countervailing example of the Unite The Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. There weren’t that many racist attendees — fewer than a thousand. But they showed up with weapons, including assault rifles. One murdered a woman with his car and injured others. That violence gives the next alt-right rally a credible threat of violence and guarantees that the event will be taken seriously by the authorities and thoroughly covered by the news media.

I am not suggesting that progressives show up to their next anti-Trump march toting AR-15s, or that leftists should kill or injure anyone. That’s not who we are or what we’re about. We oppose Trump and the capitalist system precisely because they are violent and we loathe violence.

My message is more subtle: march peacefully. But don’t follow the rules. Don’t apply for parade permits. Don’t stay on the sidewalks when the police tell you to. And don’t promise not to break anything.

Be wild.

Power never yields unless it’s scared.

— Ted Rall

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY UNO

It must be peaceful to be able to simply ignore devastations of the magnitude of these recent events by glibly stating that everything is fine, the problems are all over and everybody is simply getting on with their Wonderland lives once again. Those of us in positions of responsibility to help, aid, and work with victims of such tragedies would be well served to be able to swap the Happy, Happy All Ends Well people with the newly homeless, financial decimated, and desperate souls that are now digging and pumping themselves out of the wrecked lives that they are faced with. The units that I am involved with have been sending in aid and help in the form of personnel as well to Texas and are now gearing up to do the same for Florida. So many people are now completely lost and now face futures of almost no hope that a lot of the aid that we are sending are in the form of mental health assistance. Reality, what a concept. I have a feeling that when the tables are turned, and they will be, the happy people will become the crybabies de jour. Do us all a favor then please, and take care of your own problems rather than ask for help from any of us that are the ones bearing the brunt of the relief efforts now. After all everything is fine now, so it will always be fine for you too, whatever the changes may bring.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY DOS

As a graduate of Brooklyn College, I remember a variety of speakers who enlightened or distressed me (eg, Allen Ginsberg, Ayn Rand, Norman Mailer, Gregory Corso). Ayn Rand (who depressed me) was a proud patriot who wore the letters U and S overlapped to form the dollar sign. She was with her lover, Nathaniel Brandon. I told them I'd like to barf on them, but they declined what I thought was a generous offer.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY TRES

MARIJUANA: And thanks, dear growers, for facilitating the infrastructure by buying acres of potting soil, diesel pickups, BMW’s for the old lady, big houses in the forest, and wait, HOW did you support Humboldt? By not paying income taxes, by not paying employment taxes on your people, by not supporting schools, road building, hospital construction, by being fully entitled assholes sneering at regular society in which people work, obey common law, raise children who are educated, vaccinated, loved and supported?

Well, just get the water delivered, the potting soil trucked in, build another plastic sheeting greenhouse or diesel grow and produce more drugs to fuck up Americans.

Thank God for growers! You keep our country strong!

And give me a break! You are just pirates who survived. You don’t care about anything except money, and your own asses. You do nothing altruistic, and your products are good for nothing. You have wasted your lives doing something that no one needs. Hope it feels good!

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WRESTLING

Written by Manuel Vicent

Translated by Louis S. Bedrock

The threats exchanged by Donald Trump, Nicolás Maduro, and Kim Jong-un, form part of a parody of wrestling—a sport that is very popular in the United States and is on many TV channels every weekend.

Before the fight, the combatants, who weigh about 275 pounds, show off theatrically with their clothes, their hair, and their hairdos, and they behave very aggressively in front of the cameras, employing course language filled with violent threats against their opponents.

Some play the roles of good guys, others play the roles of villains. At times, outside the ropes, there are other fighters who intervene when the good guys are losing or when the bad guys are losing. But in the end, the good guys always win.

The same resonant vulgarity has now been established in North American politics as the living representation of the purist form of wrestling. Donald Trump enters into the international ring dressed with blue socks and a red tie that contrasts with his starched yellow toupee and shouts that he is going to attack with fire and fury.

In one corner Kim Jung-un awaits him, considerably overweight, the back of his head shorn, who responds with the threat that he will drop a fresh baked hydrogen bomb.

And from the other corner, comes the incontinent blather of Nicolás Maduro, who is wrapped in the Venezuelan flag and is spewing the familiar harangues.

The fight is rigged since Trump, after blows, falls, and being thrown out of the ring—all completely bogus, expects to give the final howl of victory.

It’s all theater to distract the public from other serious problems that affect the world. However the fighters are not exempt from an unplanned fall that could cause serious damage; or from the possibility that other fighters, Putin or Xi Jinping, who are observing the bout and the victory of the official good guy, also decide to jump into the ring and cause the show to end with a real and entertaining nuclear war.

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Burning Man 2017 #6

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CHERRY FEST

Sunday, September 17, 1-3 pm Ridgewood Ranch apple pressing, music, walk in old growth Redwood Grove, SAA farm & more

Songs, Stories and Celebration: A Day in the Orchard Sunday, September 17, 1-3 pm; Butler Community Orchard, Ridgewood Ranch; 16200 N. Hwy 101, 22.7 miles north of Ukiah

Program: unveiling gratitude mosaic wall & honoring volunteers & donors; apple pressing & acoustic music by Sue Nagle, Bob & Yoli until about 1:30; cherry stories from The Sweet Life book until about 2:00; cherry pie and walk through old growth Redwood Grove and SAA farm

See http://www.school-of-adaptive-agriculture.org/gallery/

Parking: Park at Golden Rule/La Vida parking lot; As there is no parking at the orchard there will be bus transport from the LA VIDA charter school and church parking lot beginning at 12:30 and every 15 minutes after that.

It’s supposed to be in the low 80s! This is a FREE event organized by La Vida Charter School & Landcestry; For questions call 459.6344/272.8305

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Photo: Clint Graves in Stinson Beach via MSP

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EVANGELICALS, THE NASHVILLE STATEMENT, AND GAY RIGHTS

Andrew Sullivan on the Nashville Statement by evangelicals:

...But their intransigence on this question is killing them. It’s particularly damning when so many of these leaders just endorsed, voted for, and threw their weight behind a man who has married several times, claimed that avoiding STDs was his own version of Vietnam, has humiliated successive wives, has bragged about sexual assault, who talks of his own daughter as a sexual object, and touted the size of his dick in a presidential debate. On all of this, most of these same Evangelicals looked the other way. But gay and transgender Christians? We are living rebukes to God’s natural order...

The reason so many minds have changed on this question is because we know more about our nature than we ever have before. You don’t have to junk all of Christianity to acknowledge that. Gay people, for example, will be the first to insist that male and female exist: It’s just that we are attracted to our own sex and not the other. Transgender people — by seeking to conform their outward appearance with what they feel is their true gender — are also indirectly paying a compliment to the male-female natural structure and want to fit into it.

For a few generations now, gays and lesbians and transgender people, by coming out, have been telling our stories, and those with open minds and big hearts have heard us. It is one of the great tragedies of many Evangelical and orthodox Christians that they are not interested in listening...

I believe that for an entire generation, this question is a litmus test for whether Christianity really is about love, and whether the Gospels (which have nothing to say about homosexuality) should even get a hearing. I can date my own niece’s and nephew’s rejection of Christianity to the day the priest urged them to oppose equal rights for their uncle. That’s why Evangelicalism is dying so quickly among the young.

The latest PRRI survey shows that only one in ten Evangelicals are now under 30. It is no accident that the generation that has come to know gay and transgender people as people also finds it hard to dehumanize us in the way the Nashville Statement does, and see a church leadership that still treats us in this fashion as inimical to their own, yes, Christian values...

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CHIEF SISK’S 300-MILE JOURNEY stops in Sacramento for Salmon and Survival

The prayerful #Run4Salmon journey of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe continues through Sacramento to highlight the necessity of saving their Salmon and culture from the brink of extinction.

Gary Mulcahy -Winnemem Wintu Government Liaison

The Winnemem Wintu tribe has an ancient prophecy, “when there are no more Salmon there will be no more Winnemem Wintu people.” For this reason the Tribe has embarked on their annual Run4Salmon journey, a 300-mile prayerful journey that traces the historical spawning path of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe’s winter-run Chinook salmon. Run4Salmon will stop in Sacramento on Sept. 12-15 for three days of ceremony, action and music to inspire people to protect our waters, salmon and indigenous lifeways.

Wednesday, Sept. 13, the Run4Salmon Sacramento Concert will be held from 7-11 p.m. at the Crest Theater, 1013 K St., with special performances from Nahko Bear. The evening will include a special screening of the documentary Salmon Will Run about last year’s Run4Salmon as well as musical performances by Raye Zaragona, Alice DiMicele, Stewie G, Audiopharmacy and Hawane Rios. There will also be a presentation by Winnemem Wintu Chief Caleen Sisk, who is leading the tribe’s groundbreaking efforts to bring home the McCloud River salmon that are currently thriving in New Zealand.

Tickets for the #Run4Salmon concert and more information about the efforts of the Winnemem Wintu tribe are available at Run4Salmon.org. Concert tickets are $15 presale and $20 at the door. There will be merchandise for sale.

The 2017 Run4Salmon began at the Ohlone village of Sogorea Te (Glen Cove) at the shores of the Bay Delta estuary that is currently being threatened by the proposal of the Delta Tunnels on Sept. 9 where the Winnemem Wintu and over 100 supporters began walking upstream towards the ancient spawning grounds of their Salmon on the McCloud River near Mount Shasta. The tribe and supporters will walk, bike, paddle, and ride horses 300 miles up the Sacramento River until the 22nd when they reach the McCloud River Bridge for a closing ceremony.

The salmon have been a sacred keystone species to the Winnemem Wintu and California’s ecosystems for thousands of years and are an integral component of the California tribe’s cultural and spiritual traditions. The tribe is advocating to build a swim-way to one day restore their wild chinook salmon runs that have drastically declined since the installation of the Shasta Dam. The winter run chinook salmon numbers have been dwindling in recent years due to dams, water diversions, climate change, and human interference in their traditional routes. Salmon have traditionally been a vital part of California rivers’ ecosystems by cleaning the rivers and providing a food source for animals throughout the watershed.

The Run4Salmon is meant to increase awareness about the mismanagement of water in California and to raise awareness and support for the Winnemem Wintu’s plan to return their wild salmon from New Zealand to the glacial waters above Shasta Dam by developing a swimway using natural creeks around the dam. Read more about the plan here: http://www.water.ca.gov/fishpassage/docs/shasta_winnemem.pdf

Follow @Run4Salmon on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for show announcement and updates about the journey.

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ON BEHALF OF CAROL MATTESSICH

Subject: [MCN-Discussion]- The Critic and the Clown

"We seem to have reached a new high, or low, in the academy’s free speech wars. Berkeley’s anthropology department has been compelled to reschedule a talk by Anna Tsing, a well-known and highly regarded anthropologist at UC Santa Cruz, in order to make space — a safe space, as it turns out — for Milo Yiannopoulos to speak there on the same day. Aside from getting us — rightly — infuriated, I hope this incident reminds us that the marketplace of ideas, like all markets, is a highly organized and structured market, privileging some ideas over others. Ideas don’t simply enter and exit a power-less space; speech doesn’t just happen. In any institution, there are gatekeepers who give a pass to some speech but not others, and who insist that the price of entry for some speakers is higher than others. Speech is a material practice: it requires resources (paying a speaker, setting up sound systems, reserving rooms, paying for security, and so on), and resources need to be distributed. In a system of scarcity, which is what an institution is (even in the academy, time and space are finite, as this Berkeley episode reveals), distribution will involve considerations of equity: some interests will be heeded, some will not; some voices will get heard, some will not. While we tend to think of speech as simply additive — I speak, you speak, we all speak — it can be a zero-sum game. This incident simply makes concrete, albeit in a fairly dramatic way, what all of us see all the time in the academy. Just to give you the easiest sense of that: most speakers in these fancy, and well-paying, circuits of exchange never come to Brooklyn College. We simply don’t have the money to pay them. Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, and Berkeley do. Free speech ain’t free. But this incident has an additional element of farce: the Berkeley administration has essentially decided that “the free exchange of ideas” requires a critic to make space for a clown. Clowns can sometimes be critics, but that isn’t the case here. Yiannopoulos is a fabulist and a fool. What we’re seeing here is a university administration deploying the rhetoric of high-minded academic ideals — free speech, deliberation, listening and giving answers to one’s critics — in the service of a hustle. Yiannopoulos’s hustle: pretending he has something to say that is of value. And the administration’s hustle: pretending that they are engaging in anything other than pathetic PR for an institution that is terrified of its critics. Just to be clear: though I make exceptions for someone like John Yoo, I tend to be extremely dubious of the no-platforming position, for reasons I don’t want to get into here. Nothing in this post should be construed as support for that position. But many of the flat-earth arguments in favor of free speech, particularly in contexts like these, tend to be fatuous in the extreme and deny the most elemental facts of what is going on.”

John Sakowicz

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THREE UPCOMING CONCERTS

Gabriela Lena Frank and her husband Jeremy moved to Anderson Valley last year. As you will see below, she is a very accomplished composer/musician and a wonderful add to our community. Please help spread the word on the upcoming concerts.

(Sheri Hansen)

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VIOLIN AND CELLO CONCERT

September 19 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Announcing a solo piano concert of classical music, classical-crossover music and original compositions by Gabriela Lena Frank at the Anderson Valley Grange in Philo. Tickets for this concert can be purchased at the door. All proceeds for this concert will support the AV Solar Grange and the AV Theater Guild.

Bueno Yabbelow 9-19-17

Announcing a musical event Tuesday, September 19th, at 7 pm at the AV Grange in Philo. featuring internationally known concert musicians, cellist, Joshua Roman, and violinist, Johnny Gandelsman.

Tuesday, September 19th, 7pm at the Anderson Valley Grange:

Our guests, Joshua Roman (cello) and Johnny Gandelsman (violin) from our class this past April are returning! They will be performing four world premieres of some of the composers I was mentoring in my new non profit academy (The Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music) plus other selections. There will be commentary and possibly a post-concert Q&A. :) Tickets are just $10 and this will be the inaugural concert of the Bueno Yabbelow Music Series, the in-house music series that my Academy will curate as guests visit my school over a season. ("Bueno Yabbelow" as a hybrid between Spanish and Boontling, 2 representative languages for our beautiful valley, that means "good chatter.") Minus a cut for the Grange's operational costs for their gracious hospitality, all remaining proceeds will go to scholarships for my emerging composers. We would love to see a good audience, even if small, to kick off what is hopefully a long endeavor of brilliant good music-making here in the Valley.

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Sunday, September 24th, 3PM at the Ukiah Community Concert Association:

Del Sol Quartet, the San Francisco-based string quartet that visited us in April, will be giving a concert with a program that features a bit of my work, Terry Riley (another northern Californian), Rzewski and Barber. Tickets range between $10-$30 for non-members.

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GABRIELA LENA FRANK COMPOSITIONS ON PIANO

October 7 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Saturday, October 7th, 7:30pm at the Anderson Valley Grange:

I'll be giving a solo piano concert ranging through a few centuries of classical music, topping it off with a few of my own compositions, complete with commentary. I believe tickets are just $10, and this will be the second Bueno Yabbelow Music Series concert.

Hope to see you at some of these events! Please bring friends to enjoy.

Warmest wishes to all,

Gabriela Lena Frank

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THANKS FOR THE ROCKS!

To the Editor:

....and to the Mendocino County community, Fowler Auto Center and the many other business sponsors and individuals: Family Medicine Education for Mendocino County (FMEMC) sends a huge THANK YOU for your generous support of the Rural Health Rocks 2017 concert, the proceeds of which will enable us to achieve our goal of meeting the $100,000 matching grant from Adventist Health for the development of a Family Medicine Residency Program in Ukiah. It also provided 4 scholarships (almost $23,000) for advanced training to graduates of Mendocino College's RN nursing program. Additionally from RHR 2017, FMEMC is setting aside $5000 as an annual savings fund for supplies and maintenance of a Street Medicine/Urgent Inclusive medical services program/van. We are enormously grateful for the funds raised and for the friends who are gathering in support of this crucial medical training program for our region.

Plans are already shaping up for Rural Health Rocks 2018 on April 14 and 15th of next year. You can find out developing details at www.ruralhealthrocks.com.

This week, FMEMC welcomes 2 UCDavis medical students to Ukiah. Navjot Dhammi and Wyatt Hanst will be in Mendocino and Lake counties from now until April doing training rotations in the hospital, various clinics and with the Street Medicine program. You may have a chance to meet these two enthusiastic, energetic physicians-in-training and help them feel welcome.

Thank you again for helping build our community's training program for local doctors.

Daphne Macneil President, FMEMC

707-463-2878

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SOME DAY, SOME WAY.....Broadband Alliance notes from Friday 9/8/17

Attached are the notes from the Alliance meeting on Friday. Thanks to Kathy Wylie for providing the bulk of the notes, and thanks to everyone who attended in person or on the phone. It was a good meeting.

And a few other items of interest while I'm here:

* There is an upcoming National Geographic film on Sept 26th about the digital divide.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhlQ_mhwQuo&sns=e

* The Ukiah library offers /free/ digital training/tech help every Saturday from 1-3, and other free but "registration required" events. Upcoming on 9/19 is an "Internet Protection and Privacy 101" event sponsored by the Friends of the Ukiah Library. Call 463-4490 to sign up, and check out their calendar of events as well. https://www.mendocinocounty.org/ €¦/locations/library-calendar <https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/library-/locations/library-calendar>

* Congressman Huffman wrote a draft letter to the FCC with his opposition to weakening Broadband Standards, which I posted on our Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/BroadbandAlliance> page. He is looking for other congressmembers to sign onto the letter, so if you are not in Huffman's district I encourage you to contact your congressperson and ask them to sign on as well.

Thanks! And as always please feel free to email me about issues, because all of you are the broadband eyes and ears on the ground...

Trish Steel<www.MendocinoBroadband.org>707-354-3224Find us on Facebook! <https://www.facebook.com/BroadbandAlliance>

AllianceNotes09-08-17

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YOU GET AN HOUR, ALBION

Informal round table discussion September 20th from 5:30 PM 6:30 PM at the Albion School

Hello folks,

I’ll be in the Albion-Salmon Creek area next Wednesday, September 20th while conducting field reviews on other Caltrans projects along the Mendocino coast. I have reserved the Albion School, 30400 Albion Ridge Road, Albion, from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM in hopes of meeting with some of you to get your input exploring the possibility of having one or two Albion and Salmon residents participate in the Supplemental Value Analysis study and Life cycle cost analysis scheduled for November 27 €“ December 1. A two hour informal public meeting is scheduled for October 17th to discuss this topic in more detail and to provide project updates. Next Wednesday’s meeting will be an informal round table discussion and we will only have one hour to meet as there is a Albion Fire Department meeting beginning at 7:00 PM that same evening.

Thank you, Frank Demling, PLSProject Manager, Caltrans, District 1 Project Management (707) 445-6554 Office (707) 616-4327 Cell

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GET IN THE LOOP, MENDO

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services (OES) will be conducting a county-wide emergency notification exercise as part of a regional Tsunami Warning Communications Test on October 18, 2017 between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm (noon). Community members who have not already registered for the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System are urged to do so before the October 18th test date to participate in the exercise. Community members can register for the Alert and Notification System at the OES website at: www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES and click on the registration link at the bottom of the page. Residents must register and opt-in to receive emergency notifications to their cell phones and other devices. Some land-line phone numbers are automatically imputed into the system, but to ensure emergency notifications are received all residents are urged to register. This is the primary system which is used to communicate with the public during times of emergency- it is vital residents register to ensure they get important time sensitive information. The October 18th Alert and Notification test will send a test notification to all registered community members county-wide via their preferred communication method (text message, voice phone call, or email) and to most land lines. This message will clearly state that the notification is only a test and not a real emergency. Community members are urged register for the Alert and Notification System prior to the October 18th test date to participate and ensure they can receive the county’s emergency notifications. Additionally, on October 18th between 11:00 am and 12:00 pm (noon) the National Weather Service (NWS) office in Eureka will be conducting a Tsunami Warning Communications Test in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. If you are listening to the radio, you may hear alerting tones followed by a voice announcing that the test is occurring. If you have a NOAA weather radio with the Public Alert feature, the radio will automatically turn on and you will hear the same message as broadcast on radios. In some areas, you may also hear the sounding of a tsunami siren, or an airplane testing its public address system. The tsunami sirens in Noyo Harbor, Pudding Creek, and Point Arena Cove are planned to be activated and will sound for approximately one to three minutes. To register or learn more about the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System, including a list of frequently asked questions, please visit: www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES

 

9 Comments

  1. mr. wendal September 14, 2017

    re: “Why is County CEO Angelo pushing track and trace?”

    It’s for consumer safety. After the Food Safety Modernization Act was passed, the FDA required food producers, regardless of size, to implement the same type of tracking program. Every ingredient is tracked from seed to processing to final product to store shelf. Small food producers have much lower profit margins than cannibis producers and they have been able to comply. It may be considered tedious by some, but if there is a potential health problem discovered then only the product in question would be recalled, and they would know where to find it, rather than the entire inventory. Why are cannibis producers against consumer safety that only requires a little spreadsheet work on their part? Did they not, as most people do before starting a new venture, investigate the requirements and their costs that legitimate similar businesses have to contend with before pushing to become legal?

  2. Lazarus September 14, 2017

    Just vote yes on B…?
    Absolutely no details on where, how, when and what… A lot of whys, which any student of the obvious could or can figure out.
    Just vote yes, give the money and trust whoever to do the right thing…where have I heard all this before…?
    As always,
    Laz

    • Bruce Anderson September 14, 2017

      All will be made clear, my son.

      • james marmon September 14, 2017

        We don’t even know how the current 23 million dollars in mental health funding is being spent. I question throwing more money down that hole. The county also plans on using marijuana tax money to bolster mental health services, where are we going to get all our clients? They’ll be coming after you Anderson, be careful of what to ask for.

        • james marmon September 14, 2017

          Good luck cleaning up the streets, those people are protected as they should be. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.

          The Lanterman–Petris–Short (LPS) Act (Cal. Welf & Inst. Code, sec. 5000 et seq.) concerns the involuntary civil commitment to a mental health institution in the State of California. The act set the precedent for modern mental health commitment procedures in the United States. The bi-partisan bill was co-authored by California State Assemblyman Frank D. Lanterman (R) and California State Senators Nicholas C. Petris (D) and Alan Short (D), and signed into law in 1967 by Governor Ronald Reagan. The Act went into full effect on July 1, 1972. It cited seven articles of intent:

          To end the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of mentally disordered persons, people with developmental disabilities, and persons impaired by chronic alcoholism, and to eliminate legal disabilities;
          To provide prompt evaluation and treatment of persons with serious mental disorders or impaired by chronic alcoholism;
          To guarantee and protect public safety;
          To safeguard individual rights through judicial review;
          To provide individualized treatment, supervision, and placement services by a conservatorship program for gravely disabled persons;
          To encourage the full use of all existing agencies, professional personnel and public funds to accomplish these objectives and to prevent duplication of services and unnecessary expenditures;
          To protect mentally disordered persons and developmentally disabled persons from criminal acts.

          The Act in effect ended all hospital commitments by the judiciary system, except in the case of criminal sentencing, e.g., convicted sexual offenders, and those who were “gravely disabled”, defined as unable to obtain food, clothing, or housing [Conservatorship of Susan T., 8 Cal. 4th 1005 (1994)]. It did not, however, impede the right of voluntary commitments. It expanded the evaluative power of psychiatrists and created provisions and criteria for holds.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanterman–Petris–Short_Act

          • james marmon September 14, 2017

            I was a LPS Conservatorship Case Manager, it isn’t that easy to “Legally” lock someone up.

            James Marmon MSW
            Former Mental Health Specialist
            Sacramento/Placer/Lake Counties

        • Bruce Anderson September 14, 2017

          Good point, Jimmy re the 23 mil. As for me, they’ll never take me sane!

  3. james marmon September 14, 2017

    With Plowshares and Hospitality House helping out, you will never get no more than a small percentage of the homeless off the streets and into Allman’s and Schraeder’s clutches.

    Mental Health · LPS Administrative Facility-Based Hearings

    Support System In The Community

    “Is the person homeless?
    If homeless, is the person able to maintain adequately on the streets?
    Does the person know how to get food and clothing?
    Does the person know how to utilize homeless shelters?”

    http://www.namiyolo.org/5150%205250%20Hearings%20and%20more.htm

    jus sayin

    James

  4. James Luther September 14, 2017

    Without any disrespect to Mr. Rall, I believe that scaring power makes it more dangerous.

    Before we can think
    Power has done what Power must do,
    Like jagged lightning.

    Jim Luther

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