by The AVA
WITH AT LEAST another week of summer-like weather predicted for this very dry Northcoast winter, the Sonoma County Water Agency has formally declared the Russian River as “dry.” Prior to Wednesday the overdrawn and perennially embattled river’s winter flow had been considered “normal.” Declaring it “dry” means more water will be stored in Lake Mendocino [...]
by The AVA
THE MENDOCINO Coast Recreation and Parks District Board has voted to close the CV Starr Aquatic Center pending a special election to fund it. The spiffy indoor pool and exercise facility opened in 2009. “The district does not have sufficient capital to continue operating the swimming pool,” said the Center’s Executive Director Jim Hurst (who [...]
by Todd Walton
Marcia and I were walking on Big River Beach yester day, the wet sand firm underfoot—Big River swollen and muddy from the recent deluge, a light rain falling.
by The AVA
SHOULD THE WINEGRAPE and Wine Commission be disbanded? Absolutely. But a hearing sponsored by the California Department of Food and Agriculture began at 9am Wednesday (today) at the Ukiah Valley Conference Center at 200 South School Street will allegedly determine if the tax-subsidized industry promo outfit be continued. What will the inquiry find? What else [...]
by The AVA
THE USUALLY INVISIBLE State Senator, Noreen Evans of Santa Rosa, normally a kind of female Wes Chesbro, has her moments. Her alarmed letter over the looming privatization of state parks, a bunch of them here in Mendocino County, is right on the mark: “It’s like they’re offering our state parks up for sale to the [...]
by The AVA
THE UKIAH Police Department wants to buy a $30,000 robot, one of those things you send in to an armed tweeker’s lair, say, in lieu of an automaton, er, police officer. Some of the money for the robot would come from the Mendocino Public Safety Foundation, some from the Willits and the Fort Bragg police [...]
The following link is to the slides from a project I created for a class I am taking for my social work program. I could give you the back story but the images and short choice of words for each slide is meant to evoke responses and not specifically academic rhetoric. To put it in [...]
FOOTNOTE to the County’s elimination of the permit and fee portions of the 9.31 program under threats from US attorney’s office to County Counsel Jeanine Nadel. When members of the public asked what the rush was to scrap 9.31, County Counsel Nadel confirmed that the California Supreme Court had decided to review the “Pack” decision. [...]
PRESERVATION RANCH, the ghastly 1,769-acre forest-to-vineyard conversion proposed for Sonoma County in the Gualala-Annapolis area, has been put on hold, probably permanent hold. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers) has withdrawn its backing for the ill-conceived project. The Napa-based vineyard company promoting the project is led by William Hill who has gotten money for [...]
JAMAL ANDREWS, 30, was found shot to death late Tuesday night in front of his Road B Redwood Valley home. Billy Norbury, 33, has been arrested for shooting Andrews, who was hit twice, fatally in the head, and once in the shoulder. Sheriff’s Department investigators estimate that the murder weapon, a rifle, was discharged several [...]
