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Mendocino County Today: Monday, Nov. 27, 2017

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BOB KIRKPATRICK, February 11, 1929 to November 16, 2017

Bob was born in Fort Bragg in 1929 and grew up in Healdsburg — "the buckle of the prune belt." His confidence, creativity and communicability opened doors for him as he made his way from the US Navy to Cal Berkeley and on to Stanford for his doctorate. Bob was selected for his first School Superintendency in Los Banos at age 32, becoming the youngest Superintendent in California. There he established Title 9 and Desegregation. Bob came to Willits in 1981 to lead the Willits Unified School District. In 1990, Bob was elected Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools.

After a storied career in administration, he had a second vocation as a Mendocino College professor teaching Raku ceramics in Ukiah for 13 years. Bob died at home on November 16. Bob's wife Kathleen, his children Rob (Ruth) and Kathy (Paul), his brother Don and sister Betty, and his grandchildren Sean and Mackenzie will miss him forever.

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MISSING GRANDFATHER FROM ARIZONA FOUND DEAD

Yesterday, Southern Humboldt searchers located the body of Keith Olsen, the grandfather on his way from Arizona to his granddaughter’s wedding whose car was located on Zenia Mountain Road. Diana Totten, Aurora Studebaker, Kristal Gray, and Casey Odisio discovered Olsen’s body not far from where his car had been abandoned.

Keith Olsen

Diana Totten said, “There was no evidence of foul play.” Totten has been working on the case since Tuesday when she was introduced to the family of Keith Olsen. Totten said her team met with the family to narrow down where the search should start and their investigation led them to believe that with Olsen beginning to have dementia issues, it was most likely that he had gotten lost rather than been the victim of a criminal act.

“Without any evidence of foul play, we narrowed our search area to where the car was located,” Totten explained. “We profile the person and you kind of get into their mind. We try to understand what they would do if things start going wrong.”

Totten said the family was very helpful in providing important details. “Having worked on many missing person cases, we have learned to build a profile of the missing person,” Totten explained. “We do this by talking to family members and others to try to understand how the person became lost and what they would do…In this case, the family was able to give great information such as his state of mind, his way of dealing with stress and his clothing and shoes, the fact he used a cane and had trouble walking, and many more indicators including his age and possibly some slight dementia.”

On Wednesday, the tracking team went to Covelo. “We checked a lot of video footage [from surveillance cameras at businesses] in the timeline that he might have come through the area,” she explained. “We felt pretty strongly working with the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office that he had come through the Covelo area.”

The team passed out missing person flyers in hopes some locals had seen him. Eventually, they decided their next step was to search again around the area Olsen’s car had been located.

On Saturday, the team arrived at the scene to look around. “We started to search for signs of him around where the car was located but had been towed last week,” Totten explained. “Also, twelve days had passed and several rain storms had gone through our area.”

While at the location Olsen’s car had been discovered, the profile the family had helped provide the searchers helped them narrow down the search area. Totten said, “Within about 500 feet south of where the car had been, there was a cattle guard across the road. They are hard to cross by foot even on a good day, so knowing Keith had trouble walking and sometimes used a walker and most often used a cane, and realizing it was dark and storming the night he got to this location, it was unlikely he would have been able to get across without some difficulty.”

The cattle guard provided “a bit of boundary on the search area for us,” Totten explained. “We were then able to locate his tracks and we then were able to find his body.”

Totten said while they will probably never know for sure what happened, her team was able to make some good guesses.

She believes that somehow Olsen had gotten off of his intended path up I-5 and ended up on the wrong route. She said that it was likely dark and rainy when Olsen headed out what she called the “long, lonely road” between Covelo and Kettenpom. For some reason, she says, he stopped not long after going over a cattle guard. “He left his vehicle, he walked a short distance..It appeared that [Olsen] was disoriented…He took a wilderness deer trail and went further into the woods. This is a very rugged and forested area.”

Soon after Olsen took the wrong path, he stumbled, Totten said. According to her, his tracks showed that “he had fallen down a little hill and into a dry wash. He kinda crawled along through there….He got to a place that was a little flatter and laid down.” He didn’t get up again.

Totten said, “There doesn’t appear to be any foul play. Trinity County Sheriff’s Office will be investigating further.”

Totten is proud of her team. “Wilderness man-tracking is a very intricate and detailed discipline,” she explained. “Every case is like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

Totten said her team works hard to stay up on their skills so that they are “able to bring closure to families.”

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com/Redheaded Black Belt)

Earlier Chapter: Grandfather Headed From Arizona to Washington State Disappears; Bullet Riddled Car Found in Zenia Area

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MARSHALL NEWMAN: "Miracle of miracles, the NOAA (National Weather Service) Boonville rain gauge began working again on November 24 and currently seems in general agreement with the Weather Underground Boonville rain readings. I doubt anyone will come forward to take credit for putting things right, as he or she likely is the same person who hadn’t noticed it stopped working roughly a month previous." (Don't be shy, Marshall. You got 'er done.)

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WHERE’S DR. JEANINE MILLER?

The last on-line reference to Dr. Miller we can find any mention of her is in the minutes to the September Behavioral Health Board meeting. We're wondering if she hasn't been non-personed like the famous Alan 'The Kid' Flora, Mendocino County's answer to Leon Trotsky.

APPARENTLY Dr. Miller remains Mendocino’s Mental Health Director. But you wouldn’t know it since her brief stint in the public eye in the aftermath of the Ortner Experience when she oversaw the transition from Ortner to Redwood Schrader Management Inc. or whatever they’re called now. Now you saw her, now you don't.

WE MENTION IT because it’s another indication of how little attention is paid to what Sheriff Allman rightly says is the County’s biggest public health problem. Ms. Miller has disappeared from the public eye because, as we’ve said many times before, nobody really cares about mental health, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary. The Board of Supervisors/County/State/Feds spend upwards of $30 million a year on it in Mendo alone, but nobody has the slightest interest in what it’s spent on, never asks about how things are going, require no status reports… And the visibly deranged seemed to increase every day, as a drive down State Street in Ukiah confirms.

TAKE THIS RANDOM QUOTE from those September minutes from the Supes:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=13773

“BHRS Director Miller reviewed some of the changes in how programs are being funded and where the funding is coming from. There was discussion on how dollars would be leveraged from other HHSA programs and MHSA. MHSA dollars will be sued as match for some Whole Person Care Grant Programs. The MHSA team is looking for how to fund Positive Parenting Program (PPP), it might be posible to fund thorugh reversion funds or leverage other funds.”

(Check the link yourself, there’s nothing in the entire meeting about clients, how they’re served or what the “funding” is spent on. At the end there’s even a mention of trying to determine who comes to their meetings, but not a word about the people they’re allegedly there to serve or monitor.)

SO THERE YOU GO! Proof positive of the primary mission of the entire Mental Health apparatus: Funding, and "leveraging" that funding to get more funding!

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FROM the Press Democrat accounts of the Pixar Perv:

"These included statements that Lasseter [the Pixar magnate] was known for ‘grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes’' in situations that were not always purely social, as at parties."

LIKE, otherwise women were fair game for the portly groper?

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THE GRASSY KNOLL, an update. I was about a third of the way through, "JFK and the Unspeakable — Why He Died and Why It Matters” by James W. Douglass when I recommended it. The book was recommended to me by Jeff Blankfort who got his recommendation on the book from Ray McGovern, former CIA man become lefty become author. I was sorry to have missed Blankfort’s KZYX interview with Douglass. I am now here to modify my recommendation, and without citing chapter and verse am also here to say I still recommend the book as consistently interesting, but I think a lot of Douglass’s assertions, that there was an earlier Chicago-based conspiracy to murder Kennedy for instance, are single sourced by people who don’t seem totally credible. I’m also not convinced that Kennedy was not a fully committed Cold Warrior, albeit a much more flexible one than the other crackpot realists then driving American foreign policy. If Oswald was, as he claimed before he was gunned down by the Mafia-affiliated Jack Ruby, simply a “patsy,” he had to have been the all-time naive patsy. “OK, Lee, we’re gonna get you a job at the Book Depository. Now that you’re there we want you up on the 6th Floor with your mail order rifle, the one with the scope on it, and when Kennedy’s motorcade comes around the corner you pretend to shoot at him while the two other guys shoot from the front. We’ll get you outta there, no prob.” Oswald may have been the patsy he said he was, but had he lived he would have had a lot of ’splaining to do to exempt himself from sole responsibility. I think he was definitely a shooter, if not the shooter, but I also think Douglass makes a strong case that there was some kind of conspiracy to kill Kennedy and that Oswald was employed by the American government at least as an FBI informant. How all the moving parts to the conspiracy moved, and at whose behest they moved is not known.

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DEBRA KEIPP WRITES:

"Saw this lately and had to comment on local pagans… Not Manson followers. Will the first Valleyite who wasn't friends with Treefrog Jones or Charles Eng when they invaded Valley, please stand up!?!?!”

WELL, I can certainly stand up and would claim to be among the majority of Valley people who were definitely not friends with either Tree Frog Johnson or Charles Ng, or any other of the world class maniacs who briefly made their murderous homes in the Anderson Valley. I did get ripped off by the Moonies when I bought about thirty elderly, non-laying hens from them. And, on still summer nights, everyone in Boonville could hear Moon's novitiates' hypnotic chanting as they deep-cycled on brain wash. Frog I would see riding through town with his captive child catamite on a too-small motorcycle. The hippies said he was a great babysitter, always ready and eager to spend quality time with the kids. A friend gave me an old step-van I quickly put up for sale because I had no use for it. Frog appeared with a friend to have a look but refused to acknowledge my presence. I remember being so irritated with his rudeness I wanted to give him a swift kick or two. The friend later explained, "He doesn't talk to straight people." In light of Frog developments and his capture in a step-van with a little girl that he and the catamite, by then an adolescent, had kidnapped, I was relieved that Frog's sordid chomos adventures hadn't occurred in my step-van. Ng I pegged as retarded. He had that look. I had no direct experience with him or his pal, Leonard Lake. I'd see them walking along 128 in camo gear, and I knew Lake worked at the Boonville Hotel as a dishwasher and served as a volunteer fireman. Another fireman told me, "Yeah, yeah, he was a psycho alright, but we didn't know that then. And you know what? He was our recording secretary. Had the best handwriting you'll ever see." Lake's wife, a teacher's aide at the Boonville Junior High tried to recruit girls, who happened to include my daughter, to Lake's hot tub so he could "photograph" them. I was among several parents who got her fired. No personal knowledge of Jim Jones other than meeting people close to him, and the Manson gang was gone by the time I arrived in the Anderson Valley. Kenneth Parnell lived way the hell out Mountain View Road where his kidnapped catamite, Steven Stayner, attended Point Arena schools. Parnell and Stayner also lived in Comptche. No Mendo school person, incidentally, ever inquired about Parnell's relationship with Stayner. The maniacs, it always has to be said, stuck close to the counter-culture, anything goes sectors of the Mendo community. "Straight people," then and now, pegged creeps as creeps.

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SHERIFF SHEA, as recalled by the PD: "His department was marked with greater controversy in later years, including a 1985 botched drug raid where deputies targeted the wrong house for a major marijuana smuggling operation, and a 1987 incident where a deputy used a youth as a human shield to fend off an angry mob. Shea retired after two terms, citing accomplishments such as a countywide narcotics task force and an anti-marijuana program “that’s the political envy of the state.”

THAT BOTCHED RAID made Point Arena's Billy Hay a millionaire. Not that the Hay family didn't earn it, what with being bullied, insulted, and physically mistreated for a number of hours until the macho masterminds figured out they were on the wrong property.

A DEPUTY fending off "an angry mob" with "a youth as a human shield" seems to have escaped our eagle-eyed vigilance, but has certainly piqued our interest. We're going to research that one and report back.

THE FOLLOWING is all we could find, but if an “angry mob” was involved that mob was not mentioned in any account we could find. (Mr. Dorner, Mr. George Dorner. White courtesy telephone, please.) We did find this paragraph from the AVA, of April 20, 2016:

SHERIFF'S DEPUTY CRAIG KEISER has died from a fast-moving cancer. Keiser enjoyed a long and unblemished career with the Mendocino County department save for a bizarre episode in Covelo when he was a rookie cop. He'd stopped two young men with whom he was soon engaged in a vicious, post-stop fight. Matt Dalson, then 17 years old, was arrested and charged with attempted murder because it was determined he'd knifed Keiser. Dalson was acquitted by a jury after it learned that the deputy was drunk when he encountered Dalson. Dalson had claimed self-defense. A Willits emergency room doctor testified that Dalson had suffered the worst injuries he'd seen from a beating. This all happened when Tim Shea was Sheriff and unwitting rookie deputies from SoCal were being assigned to Round Valley.

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LITTLE DOG SAYS, “This is their idea of a Christmas decoration! Unbelievable!”

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TROUGH FIRE

Bruce McEwen Writes: The outbuilding at the Trough was used to store left-over stuff from the parking lot yard sales that used to go on at the Trough. Many regulars would bring stuff to sell and set up tables in the Trough's big parking lot. When it was over, the stuff went in the storage shed. It was back in the southwest corner of the property, next to that old rundown place where your brother once lived when Robert Mailer was a kid, and there were some boards in the fence that could be taken out and a kid could get in and access a secluded little hidie-hole behind the shed -- to smoke meth and other things back there. It would be my considered opinion that this was the cause of the fire, as there would be no good reason to torch the place for insurance money or anything like that. And it was far enough away from any other buildings that the fire dept. could let it burn down w/out much danger of it spreading. The most significant loss would have been some long folding tables and chairs used for Roger's Famous Barbecues at the Trough in the Good Old Days. The wood pile for the fireplace inside the Trough was close to the shed, but all that cord wood would have been long gone by now, so only bark and wood-pile debris would have been left as fire hazards.

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NOYO PARK SOUTH

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

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RONNIE JAMES, the Mendo Coast's go-to animal lady, asked people for their fave recipes for keeping mice out of their car engines, a question I've asked myself after seeing the damage they did to a friend's truck, a truck often driven: "Thanks for all the anti-rodent suggestions," Ms. James writes, "here's the list: peppermint oil on cotton wads or spray, lavender, Bounce dryer sheets, moth balls, and something called Rodent Sheriff, FreshCab, sonic buzzers, and simply leaving the hood up. Peppermint oil was the most frequently mentioned..."

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CATCH OF THE DAY, November 26, 2017

Arnold, Bengston, Boissonnault, Decker

DWAYNE ARNOLD, Sacramento/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

BRET BENGSTON, Ukiah. Parole violation.

SCOTT BOISSONNAULT, Ukiah. DUI.

ROBERT DECKER, Willits. Contracting without a license.

Guevara, Koroma, Lopez

JOSHUA GUEVARA, Ukiah. Attempted burglary, burglary tools, probation revocation.

MICHAEL KOROMA JR., Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

PHILLIP LOPEZ JR., Ukiah. Parole violation.

Pate, Ward, Woodward

MICHAEL PATE, Tahoe Vista/Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

FREDERICK WARD, Ukiah. Petty theft.

ANTHONY WOODWARD, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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THE FOLLOWING appeared in Sunday's Press Democrat. SoCo fire victims are not receiving donated millions:

Aid Leaders Attempt To Clarify Picture On Donations Going To North Bay Fire Victims

by Eloísa Ruano-Gunzález

Tens of millions of dollars have been donated in recent weeks to assist residents affected by last month’s deadly North Bay wildfires, but the outpouring has left some survivors of the disaster seeking greater clarity about how the relief money will be distributed.

Jil Child reached out for assistance after the Tubbs fire destroyed her Fountaingrove home in the Vintage Woods development behind Sweet T’s restaurant. She said she got $1,000 from the North Bay Fire Relief fund, spearheaded by the Redwood Credit Union, state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, and The Press Democrat. While it was double the amount she received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Child, 54, said it far from covered the cost of replacing clothing, furniture and other necessities she lost in the fire, forcing her to further deplete her savings. Many friends have had to do the same after losing their homes.

“We’ve seen very little money that’s out there,” Child said. “$1,500 doesn’t even replace a computer.”

She attempted to seek additional donations after she heard about the $17 million raised through the Band Together Bay Area concert earlier this month at AT&T Park. She ultimately was referred back to the North Bay Fire Relief fund, which received some of the concert proceeds but doesn’t allow victims to apply for assistance more than once.

It’s frustrating not knowing where the larger pool donations for various different agencies and groups are going or how to access them, Child said.

“It just makes us sick when we hear another figure they’ve raised when we’ve seen very little,” she said.

Sonoma County Supervisor Susan Gorin said she’s heard similar frustrations from residents on social media. While there’s no gatekeeper overseeing all the donations, she said nonprofits and organizations are starting to come together to get a clearer picture of how much money is rolling in and how it’s been handed out.

“Accountability and transparency will be important,” said Gorin, who along with Supervisor Lynda Hopkins was assigned to work with the city of Santa Rosa to track the funds. “We want to make sure the folks who are entitled to the assistance and need the assistance receive the assistance.”

The Community Foundation Sonoma County will hold a meeting Tuesday with major fundraisers to talk about the donations received and strategies on how and when the money is distributed, said Elizabeth Brown, the organization’s president and CEO. They’ll also discuss future community needs.

Her foundation so far has raised $8 million for fire victims, but it’s planning to use the money to address more long-term needs rather than provide immediate cash relief. Brown said the money will be distributed to nonprofits who already are stretched thin serving fire victims. (emphasis added)

“We’re giving ourselves some time to listen and to learn and to leverage our fund so that we can maximize each charitable dollar,” she said.

The North Bay Fire Relief fund is considered the largest fund dedicated to the immediate assistance of fire victims. Nearly $14 million, or 60 percent of the $23 million raised, already has been committed to help thousands of fire victims in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake counties.

“It sounds like a lot of money until you break it up in four counties,” said Brett Martinez, Redwood Credit Union CEO and president.

He said the need is great. They’re still getting applications from people who lost homes, jobs and wages during the fires. In Sonoma County alone, the fires destroyed 5,100 homes and killed 23 people.

As applications begin to taper down, Martinez said they’ll look at whether they can go back and offer fire victims additional money.

So far, $7 million has gone in the form $1,000 checks to victims who lost their homes, regardless if they owned or rented. More than $1 million went to hundreds of children to replace their school supplies, books and clothing lost in the fires.

The North Bay Fire Relief fund also partnered with nonprofits, such as California Human Development, to provide more than $3 million to people who lost jobs or wages during the fires. Some of that money also went to UndocuFund, an effort launched by Graton Day Labor Center, North Bay Organizing Project and North Bay Jobs with Justice to provide financial assistance to undocumented families impacted by the fires.

“Our fund is helping a lot of people,” Martinez said. “Our goal is to get those dollars out (quickly).”

He said residents who haven’t already applied for relief have until Thursday to do so through the North Coast Opportunities and United Way of the Wine Country, which are handling the applications for the fund. Sonoma Valley residents have until Dec. 15 to apply through La Luz Center, while Napa residents have until Dec. 8 to apply through the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership.

The North Bay Fire Relief fund received $750,000 from the San Francisco-based Tipping Point Community’s emergency relief fund, the initial beneficiary of the Band Together concert. The grant-making organization raised a total of $23 million, including the concert proceeds, for low-income and vulnerable residents impacted by the fires. It won’t be handing out the money directly to victims, but will distribute it to groups already assisting survivors of the disaster. So far, it’s allocated a total of $2 million to eight organizations, including the Community Foundation Sonoma County, Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa.

“Tipping Point has been working for over a decade to find and fund the most effective groups fighting poverty in the Bay Area. We are drawing upon this experience to partner with North Bay organizations serving low-income communities hit hardest by the fires,” said Daniel Lurie, the nonprofit’s founder and CEO.

Jennielynn Holmes, Catholic Charities’ housing and shelter senior director, said the agency has seen about 1,000 people looking for housing and other assistance since the fire. Some lost rental homes in the fires, while others were pushed out of secondary units by landlords who lost their homes in the blazes. Many had never sought assistance before from Catholic Charities, which has relied on donations like the one from Tipping Point to assist these families, she said.

“As a nonprofit we had already penciled out and squeezed every penny,” Holmes said. “Without these additional dollars we would not be able to meet the new needs facing our community.”

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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THE FORT

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

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MARY ADELMAN, 89, FIXER OF BROKEN TYPEWRITERS, IS DEAD

nytimes.com/2017/11/24/obituaries/mary-adelman-89-fixer-of-broken-typewriters-is-dead.html

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MARKET RATE

Editor,

I am a retired professional woman who lives in low-cost senior housing. My neighbors and I will most likely face homelessness if the Republican tax plan now in the Senate passes.

Hidden behind rules for “simplification,” the plan revokes a tax credit for developers and property management companies to build properties like the one we call home and to provide low-cost rentals. A recent New York Times article said that the low-income housing tax credit, which developers get to build low-cost housing and offset low rents, would be discontinued under the tax bill. This would hit California seniors, disabled people and low-income families particularly hard because the market rate is out of reach for many of us.

In Santa Rosa alone, there are 33 apartment complexes built under the low-income housing tax credit. That could mean approximately 3,000 people. This represents about two-thirds of the low-income apartments in the city.

It also would affect communities like ours hit hard by the recent fires because there will be no incentive to rebuild low-cost housing. Based on a report published by state Treasurer John Chiang, I estimate there are more than 37,000 units like this in California.

Thea Hartman

Santa Rosa

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Classic fairy tales have some pretty messed-up sexual politics. When a man starts kissing a sleeping woman who has no idea what’s going on, that’s not creepy and messed up — it’s romantic! Here are some more:

– For a young girl, the lesson of Beauty and the Beast is that if she’s with a man who scares her, then it’s up to her to love him more and that will cure him. That’s excellent training for abusive relationships later in life.

– Cinderella is stuck with a crummy step-family who treat her like shit. But that’s okay, because fairies and a handsome prince will fix everything. You know, because of how likely that is. She neither has nor needs any agency of her own.

– Is Snow White about a polyamorous relationship between a young woman and seven dwarves? The true facts are lost to history.

Personally, I think Star Wars will replace the fairy tales of old. Things have been trending that way for a while.

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SHOUT-OUTS FROM LAKE CO.

To The Editor,

I just wanted to say thank you very much for hooking me and the rest of the Mendo boys over here in dirty ol’ Lake County Jail up with your awesome publication each week since this grimy turd receptacle they call a jail won’t provide any outside newspapers. We love and look forward to each week’s publication.

I also want to give a shout out to Jewel Dyer, Red, and any of my old [illegible] mates in Mendo. Ken DeWitt, if you are there: “STOP LYING!” Hopefuly all is well there.

And Jaime Barajas, I pray for you bro. I know you didn’t do nothin’.

Yours Truly,

Cameron ‘Scameron’ Hammond

Lakeport

PS. Is there any way you could keep these papers coming? I think my subscription is running out!

 

30 Comments

  1. james marmon November 27, 2017

    RE: BODY FOUND

    JEANINE MILLER screwed up last year by not putting out a RFP for their ASO project. BOS Chair McCowen was visibly embarrassed when the RQMC contract came to him to sign last June. He made a brief statement about making sure that this year the RFP will go out as required by law. He also commented that he was going ahead with the contract and he believed that the same reason for moving forward was the same as it was when Ortner escaped from the Mendocino Asylum leaving it in a state of emergency. That’s the legal requirement for not having to put services out to bid, an “emergency”. Check out the June video for yourself.

    Oh, he was also informed that services would end in a few days if he didn’t sign it, leaving thousands of Mendocino citizens without care.

    James Marmon MSW

    • james marmon November 27, 2017

      Ms. Miller also forgot to implement Laura’s Law and the Stepping up Initiative after both direction and funding were approved by the BOS. If those directions were followed the need for all the Allman/Schraeder facilities would have been mitigated. Especially after learning that the Sheriff fooled us all by not telling us that he had already received a five million dollar grant for his much needed mental health jail. The sheriff has been hit with several wrongful deaths over the past few years.

      Where’s the money Camille?

      • james marmon November 27, 2017

        That should be 25 million for the mental health jail, and 5 million for Schraeder’s crisis center. According to the video a couple of weeks ago, those at the top were confident that they would get the crisis center grant but for some reason waited until after election day to bring it to the BOS for approval. There wasn’t much time for public discussion because the application had to be signed and submitted by December 1, 2017. Like Laura’s law and the Stepping up Initiative, the new crisis center along with the mental health jail would have surely mitigated the need for Measure B.

        Where’s the money Camille?

  2. Betsy Cawn November 27, 2017

    “Alan ‘The Kid’ Flora, Mendocino County’s answer to Leon Trotsky.” True that! Consummate bureaucrat, greaser of skids, doer of done deals, keeper of twisted terms and conditions. MendoCo wooed him away from Lake with a hefty salary boost, taking with him barely known (by the chosen few) inner sanctum spending schemes using actuarial alchemy written in invisible ink. My guess is he was a tad too Machiavellian for Mendo’s emasculating management madames et fils. Either that or he jumped ahead in line once too often.

    As for the “mental health” reality concealed behind budgetary double dealing and lack of competent oversight, Mendo’s internecine contract con game — blamed on third and fourth party actors in public service systems — never sees the light of day, does it? In Lake County, records of the Mental Health Advisory Board from prior to 1998, 1999, and 2000, and up to 2015+, cannot be found. Records of the MHAB’s statutorily-required oversight of department practices (Welfare & Institutions Code §5604) are “unfindable” for any of those years except 1998-99.

    “Accountability” (for “evidence based” “results”) is rendered in the most minute registration of “activities” and “visits” to “resources” for delivery of our meager share of the Prop. 63 Mental Health Services Act funding; numbers related to population served and costs are visible only in the projected annual “budget” — which never gets reviewed against key performance measures. Most of the funding for services to assist the “severely mentally ill” (a.k.a., 5150/5152 qualified, extreme need individuals), is billed to MediCal; if you are not eligible for MediCal, you’re on your own.

    And Lake’s current Mental Health Advisory Board is a perfect recreation of the Mad Hatter’s teaparty; like Mendo, however, our board of supervisors seem to have forgotten its obligations to the paying public. Until the aftermath of our 2015 wildfire disasters (and ensuing catastrophes), the absence of mental health public services for traumatized and bereft community members went virtually unnoticed, while relying on “first responders” (law enforcement and medical services) to keep the guts and riffraff off the streets.

    If the paying public has a beef with this status quo, there is an “Issue Resolution Process” required by the Mental Health Services Act contractors,* but there is no procedure for implementing the “process” (http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Assets/Departments/Mental+Health_AODS/docs/MH/IssueResolution.pdf) — you’re not even invited to have some tea.

    [*Not to be confused with the legal grievance procedure for subjects of 5150/5152 “temporary holds,” for which there is a quarterly public meeting for mandatory bean-counting updates.]

    While the Mental Health Services Act requires the local “process,” the Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission requires the “exhaustion of administrative remedies” at the local level before it will deign to have a look at the “issue” reported. If the complaint involves the local board of supervisors’ oversight body (advisory committee) and/or the local board of supervisors responsibility for its appointed committee’s statutory compliance, the process begins inside the department and never sees the light of day.*

    [*Apparently; to date only one complainant has attempted to initiate the “Issue Resolution Process,” beginning in the middle of 2017; thus far, there has been no action taken by the Lake County Behavioral Health Department to respond, let alone address the “issue,” which is the missing MHAB oversight.]

    Meanwhile, we’re more than happy to be Mendocino’s debris dump, which will ease the chafing wounds of unreimbursed 2015/2016 disaster response expenses on this side of the Cow. Cheers.

    • Lazarus November 27, 2017

      And yet the gushing groupies opened the coffers again with Measure B. Over 2/3rds agreed to let the County have it’s way with their money.
      Either they know something I don’t, (which is totally possible) or this county’s collective intelligence is dumb as a box of rocks…
      As always,
      Laz

      • George Hollister November 27, 2017

        Laz you are right, but the county’s collective intelligence sees something needs to be done. Measure B is the only game in town. The collective intelligence is interfacing with the deranged living on our streets, under bridges, in parks, and along our waterways. Will Measure B fix this big problem? No. But at least some of us see Measure B as a first step.

        This won’t, and can’t work if the Measure B money is just turned over to the bureaucracy to implement. We all know that, by itself, the bureaucracy will fail, and the money will be wasted, and absolutely nothing good will come of it. Sheriff Allman will have to remain engaged to help guide the implementation, even after he retires. Every indication is, he is ready and capable.

        • BB Grace November 27, 2017

          re: “SO THERE YOU GO! Proof positive of the primary mission of the entire Mental Health apparatus: Funding, and “leveraging” that funding to get more funding!”

          Mendocino County, California, Mental Health Sales Tax, Measure B (November 2017)

          All revenue from this tax will be placed into a special fund to be used only for services, treatment and facilities for persons with mental health illness and addiction. For five (5) years a maximum of 75% of all revenue will be devoted to facilities, and not less than 25% will be dedicated to services and treatment; thereafter all revenue will be used for ongoing operations, services and treatment.

          Once adopted, this fund would be dedicated to the following: the necessary infrastructure to support and stabilize individuals suffering from mental health illness, including addiction and neurological disorders; psychiatric and other behavioral health facilities; and a regional health training facility to be used by behavioral health professionals and other first responders…..

          I would add with NO accountability. There’s nothing requiring accountability offered in any way shape or form in Measure B.

          There has been NO accountability. Grand Jury report only showed the Grand Jury holds no weight when it comes from the people. Kempler report was never followed. AVA reported a Mendocino County Behavioral Health Board meeting in Mendocino town stepping around a homeless man prone in the entrance. Not one person on the board did one thing to help a prone homeless man and we’re talking about over a dozen appointed people, city staff, well fed, well dressed, everyone getting compensation for their miles and not one of them had the human decency to help a man seriously in need, not even call 911.

          I have yet to see any compassion, genuine concern or programs that work for people in need of help, nor have I ever read one report, not one report, of anyone who received services and was able to emancipate themselves, get a job or start a business that enables them to own a trailer let alone a home.

          And now, after months of supporting Measure B, just 20 days later, the AVA tells us “SO THERE YOU GO! Proof positive of the primary mission of the entire Mental Health apparatus: Funding, and “leveraging” that funding to get more funding!”

          Is Measure B not part of the entire primary mission? Or is Measure B a secondary system? Is the secondary system to protect the primary system? Because there has been NO accountability being attempts were scoffed at.

          • George Hollister November 27, 2017

            There is a lack of accountability in government, period. it did not used to be this way. Why? Because the money comes from the state and our central government, and so do the programs. So why should we care? “It is not our money, don’t worry about it, and besides there is money to be made for everyone administering the programs.” There motivation to increase the size of the programs which means bringing more people in, and not putting people back on their feet. It used to be we paid, and when we paid, we paid attention to how the money was spent.

            Measuer B money is our money.

            • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

              Speaking of accountability, George, where’s your documentation to justify your slurs against the Canadian health system?

              • George Hollister November 27, 2017

                Harv, the documentation is me. Would you like me to site where I have reported this in the past? How about the people I have discussed this with in the past? Maybe I should start with my birth certificate? Or that I do have eyes and ears? Some of us do live our lives with our senses working and our brains engaged. I know you only accept what you want to believe that someone else has said you must believe. That’s OK. Just remember, there are times when lemmings do suicidal things.

                • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

                  George, I posted the response from Canada, which does NOT gibe with your story. I learned long ago never to trust a conservative (Trickle-down economics is a good reason).

                  • George Hollister November 27, 2017

                    Harv, you should speak to my doctor sister who was directly involved. Oh yeah, doctors learn very early on there is no time to speak with idiots. Too bad.

                • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

                  Nah, George, just the paperwork showing your supposed Canadian-resident relative (grandfather?) being refused a new generator for his pacemaker, and showing why it was refused would probably do just fine. I don’t really care when you were born. I mean was the guy even a legal resident of Canada? Or a citizen of Canada?

                  Also paperwork documenting the story of the two female relatives.

        • Lazarus November 27, 2017

          “Sheriff Allman will have to remain engaged to help guide the implementation, even after he retires. Every indication is, he is ready and capable.”

          I sincerely hope you’re correct but…The good Sheriff has his Jailhouse money, that 25/26mil…That will occupy his time for the foreseeable future.
          No, this will be left up to a carefully picked gaggle of insiders who have sworn to maintain the status quo. The money will eventually be caught up in “administrative fees”, that’s code for using the money for something besides what it’s meant for…
          As always,
          Laz

  3. Bill Pilgrim November 27, 2017

    RE: Online Comment Of The Day.

    Trigger alert! The protection zealots are already at work. I forget where I saw it, but I read online yesterday that some parents somewhere are protesting the showing of Sleeping Beauty because it promotes nonconsensual kissing.

    I guess the same people are alright with an old woman trying to cook and eat children.

    • james marmon November 27, 2017

      Old women kidnapping children and doing “only God knows what” to them is quite acceptable to RCS and Mendocino County Family and Children’s Services.

      Where’s the money Camille?

  4. Eric Sunswheat November 27, 2017

    RE: Rodents in engine compartment. # The 2012-2015 motor vehicles with tasty soy based insulation wiring seem particularly vulnerable. There are class action lawsuits against HONDA and Subaru.
    https://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/how-to-protect-your-car-from-rodents/
    … from Honda: rodent-deterrent tape, essentially an electrical tape treated with super-spicy capsaicin, which Honda describes as “the stuff that puts the fire in a bowl of five-alarm chili.” The tape (part number 4019-2317) is available through dealers for about $36 for a 20-meter roll, about 22 yards. You’ll also find it online.

  5. Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

    I read a lot of gasbagging here about accountability, especially after your last election, but generally all the time. He did this; she didn’t do that; they shoulda done it thisaway, or thataway; they keep hiring outsiders for department chiefs, and so forth and so on. And that’s just at the local and county levels, the levels where it’s easiest for voters to change the situation, supposedly.

    I suspect you actually are plenty satisfied with things as they are, since you don’t join together and replace the “baddies” at election time. At this last local election, about two-thirds of those registered didn’t vote, which tells me that most people didn’t have very strong feelings of opposition to Measure B or whatever it was; or else they would have gotten off their butts, and so voted… Similar reasoning goes for your county commissar (supervisor) elections. If people really wanted change, they could achieve it, and pretty easily it would seem to me at the county level.

    So, you tell me; what’s the problem anyway? And, don’t feel bad; it’s the same across the country. Well, maybe, feel at least a little bad. But then I’m just a dumbass outatowner.

  6. Bruce Anderson November 27, 2017

    If we traded your Wyoming reps straight across for ours there’d be no diff in functioning. In Mendo you have political domination by trust fund libs, non-prolfit libs, public bureaucracy libs who, by definition, resist all reform. In Wyoming all you have is Cheney and Annie Proulx. We don’t even have Cheney.

    • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

      I agree and thought I’d made that clear in my last paragraph. Our county commissars are called commissioners and are easily as bad or worse than your supervisors, yet they keep getting reelected, as do yours, while the people bitch and moan, as do yours.

      So, what’s the problem? People don’t have to be dominated by trust-fund pseudolibs (in California, they are more like reactionaries than they are liberals) as in California. Nor do they have to be dominated by wealthy welfare livestock farmers (who produce a pittance in terms of state domestic product and national meat production–WY was always mostly second- or third-rate range) and rich Jacksonites like the Cheneys, as they are here. As I stated in the original comment, I believe people, though they bitch and moan, are not really all that unhappy with the status-quo. If they were, they’d do something about it. But they don’t. And that troubles me and makes me glad that I am old and to be out it, rather sooner than later.

      • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

        Oops, forgot: Annie Proulx? She’s a novelist The Shipping News, e.g. I guess she still lives here, but that’s all I’ve heard about her since moving here in 2002. Last I heard, the locals, at least those who have even heard of her, don’t care much for her, per an old (10-years or so ago) article in one of the papers here.

        From Wikipedia, for what that’s worth, she apparently now lives in Seattle. This link, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/05/annie-proulx-ive-had-a-life-i-see-how-slippery-things-can-be seem to confirm the Wikipedia information.

      • Mark Scaramella November 27, 2017

        “People” don’t bitch and moan. Just a few individuals associated with this website (Speaking of Mendo, anyway). A certain percentage of people passively accept the status quo without giving it much thought. (It takes a lot of work to bitch and moan somewhat intelligently.) The rest don’t give a damn either way and don’t give it any thought. Why is that even worth noting? Are those few of us who don’t like the status quo for one reason or another supposed to just shut up or give up? It would certainly be easier. (Although that would mean we’d miss out on a lot of entertainment value.)

        • Mark Scaramella November 27, 2017

          Remember that old joke about the novitiate who wanted to be a monk? He went to the monastery and asked the Abbott what the rules were. The Abbott said they observed strict vows of silence, so much that members are allowed to say only two words every ten years. The novitiate wanted to be a monk so much that he reluctantly accepted membership. Ten years later he was given his next audience with the Abbott who said, “You may now say your two words, my son.” The novitiaate turned monk said, “Bed hard.” “Thank you,” replied the Abbott, “you may return to your prayers.” Ten more years passed. The now older monk got his next audience and after getting permission he said, “Food cold.” “Thank you very much for your comment,” replied the Abbott. Ten more years. Another audience. Another grant of permission to speak two words. “I quit.” grumbled the now much older monk. “I KNEW it!” replied the Abbott. “From the day you got here it’s been nothing but bitch, bitch, BITCH!”

        • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

          I’ve never lived where people didn’t bitch and moan about government–and then usually voted against their own self interests. But then I never did live in Mendocino County…and don’t suppose I ever will. The closest I got was about a mile south of the Sonoma city limits and that was a long time ago.

          Clearly I could never have been a monk. Fortunately, I never had any desire to be one.

    • George Hollister November 27, 2017

      Elected government only works when voters are engaged. When we spent our own money, and not Washington’s money, we had a reason to be engaged. Now, what difference does it make?

      Of course the argument is that we need to engage more nationally. Really? Unless you have serious campaign money to offer, forget it. Meanwhile, the national debt approaches $100,000 per person. The currency printing press in Washington allows the gov’ment to continue, until it doesn’t.

      • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

        George, people might be engaged, as you put it, if they lived under a democratic form of government–which has NEVER been the case in the U.S. The founder guys ensured that the country wouldn’t ever be democratic, or ever be run by any but people of their class, with that outdated document, called the Constitution, which we are all brainwashed into admiring and loving. It ensured minority rule for as long as the document lasted. Even to change it is NOT a democratic process, since a minority of 25 percent plus one of the states, not a majority of the population, can block amendments. Trashing the relic is long overdue.

        • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

          You silly conservatives always peddle the national debt lie. Divide it by the Gross national product, then take the to a comptetent economist and see how quickly you are told to take a hike, after the economist rolls on the floor laughing, that is.

          • Harvey Reading November 27, 2017

            “…take the RESULT to…”

  7. BB Grace November 27, 2017

    Navaho Code Talkers really make me proud of the Marines as it occurred to me while they were talking how when America lifts up, gives credit, esteem the indigenous we win. This is great: ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msDH2zgKmXo

    You will NOT BELIEVE what the Navajo Code Talkers just said about President Donald Trump

    Golden State Times
    just add a “h” to the ttps to watch.

  8. George Dorner November 27, 2017

    (Picks up white courtesy phone)

    Ah, yes, Deputy Keizer had one Native American boy down on the ground in Covelo and was waling on him when the boy’s brother stabbed the deputy’s protective vest with a pocket knife. Bro was trying to get Keizer off the kid on the ground.

    As I recall, testimony at the trial revealed that blood was found on the deputy’s portable radio and baton even though Keizer insisted it was strictly a mano a mano grapple.

    About a year later, Keizer pulled me over on a traffic stop on 101 near Uva Drive. I’ve been jacked up by southern cops before, but Keizer was the most frightening cop I have dealt with. He was a screaming maniac with a drawn pistol…for a traffic stop. For which he could not even ticket me. As near as I could figure, I was stopped for D.O.C.–Driving Old Car.

    Call again some time.

    (Hangs up phone.)

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