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MCT: Wednesday, July 24, 2019

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ATTENTION ANDERSON VALLEY: This just in. The previously announced August 12 meeting of the Boonville Fair Board to consider plans to use the Fairgrounds for the proposed septic system processing facility and leach field has been CANCELLED due to recent jurisdictional clarifications. After some reconsideration a public meeting on the use of the fairgrounds for this part of the downtown Boonville water/sewer system will be rescheduled at a later date.

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DR. BURNS FROM MENDOCINO ANIMAL HOSPITAL will be at the Anderson Valley Farm Supply seeing patients on Thursday, August 8th. She's there between 2:00 and 4:00 pm. People can always check our Facebook page in the events section for more information - it's always posted when we're going to be there.

Michelle Fetzer

Mendocino Animal Hospital

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AV SENIOR CENTER BARBECUE

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TRIBES SAY THEY’VE BEEN LEFT OUT of the Process on Potter Valley Project, but Congressman Huffman Begs to Differ

by Ryan Burns

A group of Eel River-adjacent Native American tribes issued a press release Friday saying they’ve been denied a seat at the table as regional stakeholders navigate a deal to take over the hydroelectric dams on the upper Eel.

The press release, which was sent via the True North Organizing Network, says members of the Wiyot and Round Valley Indian Tribes walked out of a June 17 ad hoc committee meeting in solidarity with the Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria. The latter tribe had been asked to leave the meeting by Congressman Jared Huffman’s staff, the release says.

But Huffman told the Outpost that the whole kerfuffle was simply an awkward situation caused by a communications breakdown.

“It was very unfortunate; I feel terrible about it,” Huffman said. “But the chair of the Bear River Tribe showed up without reaching out and talking to us about it.”

With PG&E abandoning the 110-year-old Potter Valley Project, a two-dam hydroelectric facility that diverts water from the Eel to the Russian River, Huffman has assembled an ad hoc group of stakeholders working toward what he calls a two-basin solution — that is, something that will improve fish passage and habitat on the Eel while minimizing the adverse impacts to water interests on the Russian.

Humboldt County recently joined with the Mendocino Inland Water and Power Commission, the Sonoma County Water Agency and California Trout to submit a notice of intent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). These agencies hope to take over the FERC license for Potter Valley Project, which includes Scott Dam, Cape Horn Dam, a water diversion channel and a power plant.

The ad hoc committee, which plays an advisory role in these dealings, includes representatives from more than 20 entities, including Humboldt, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties along with environmental groups and tribes. Some of these entities have been at odds for decades — and remain so. The politics can be touchy.

“Maintaining good faith and balance among the stakeholders is really important,” Huffman said, adding that his staff has also had to turn away people from the Russian River basin on several occasions. “But it’s also important to make sure our tribal representatives have a chance to make sure their voices are heard.”

Huffman said that he spoke with the chair of the Bear River Tribe “for quite some time” the day after the ad hoc meeting and committed to work with him toward getting the tribe a seat at the table.

He also said that the Wiyot and Round Valley tribes did not walk out, as the press release states. They participated in the meeting, and he spoke with them afterwards about ways that the Bear River Tribe — and any other tribe with a valid interest in the proceedings — can participate in the group.

“I’m frankly at a loss to understand that press release,” Huffman said. He recalled a conference call he had with tribal representatives subsequent to the meeting and said he’s been working toward broadening the ad hoc committee to include representatives from what he called the Wiyot tribes, plural, and, on the Russian River side, the Pomo tribes, plural. He coined these umbrella terms to include tribes from each basin.

“The only thing I ask of everybody on the ad hoc committee is that they agree to the two-basin principles,” Huffman said.

Even this seemingly simple goal was recently complicated when the Lake County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution categorically opposing the removal of Scott Dam in hopes of preserving Lake Pillsbury.

Huffman said that stance is “absolutely inconsistent” with the two-basin principles. “We’ll have to have a conversation about that,” he said.

The Outpost attempted to contact both Edwin Smith, chair of the Bear River Band of Rohnerville Rancheria, and Ted Hernandez, chair of the Wiyot Tribe, for clarification about the apparent misunderstanding with Huffman, but by the time this post went up neither had responded to voicemails.

(Courtesy, Lost Coast Outpost)

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PG&E INSTALLING WEATHER STATIONS, CAMERAS TO DEFEND AGAINST WILDFIRES

Pacific Gas and Electric communication technicians Andrew Maffei, top, and Mike Fortin install a wireless and solar powered weather monitoring station on a transmission tower above Pine Flat Road in the Mayacamas Mountains of eastern Sonoma County, Tuesday, July 23, 2019. The area has been burned by wildfire several times. (Kent Porter / The Press Democrat)

pressdemocrat.com/news/9822982-181/pge-installing-weather-stations-cameras

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ED NOTES

A CALLER was curious about the placement of charging stations north of Laytonville, soooooo… I asked the man who would know, Jim Shields of the doggedly excellent Mendocino County Observer: "I have no idea," Jim began, "other than Tesla contacted the property owner, Erik Larson, who also owns the rest of the property the charging station is on, the Boomer's Bar Building Complex, where by the way the Water District office is also located, and they came to an agreement, the details of which I have no knowledge. I personally support the business because it snags some wayfarers off Hwy 101 and they spend money in the nearby commercial establishments. It's the type of biz I think is good for Laytonville because it fits with our, i.e., Water District, plans to diversify our largely mono-stream economy."


SPEAKING of the North County's mono-stream economy, residents of Spy Rock Road are real unhappy about the raids on their neighborhoods last week. A resident complained to me, "They landed on my place without permission and left without so much as a thank you, and I'm not in the marijuana business." Apparently, this guy's property was used as a staging area for the raids on his neighbors, and not exactly the best way to maintain neighborly relations.


IT'S STILL mildly surprising to us 5th District voters to have a soundly capable, truly responsive supervisor after a quarter century of incompetents and crazy boys occupying the chair. Better yet, and unlike his colleagues, Williams isn't afraid to challenge management or of being on the losing end of a vote, as he was Tuesday during the discussion of the Schraeders $19-annual-million-dollar tax-funded mental health contract. Williams rightly thinks there should be an alternative, that the odd arrangement with the Schraeders amounts to a monopoly. Which it is. Williams said he'd like to see alternatives rather than the all-or-nothing item they voted to approve (Williams dissenting) on Tuesday.

SO WOULD WE. What if the presented figure next year is $30 million or $25 or $10? Had to laugh when Mrs. Schraeder bluntly, essentially challenged, "You want it? Take it." She's right. The county is in a take it or leave it situation. There being no alternative, the county takes the Schraeders. Their privatized predecessor, Mr. Ortner of Yuba City, took the money and provided virtually no services. The Schraeders at least shuffle the mentally disturbed to this or that alleged therapeutic setting and, the cops say, they're a lot faster to evaluate the mentally ill brought to hospital emergency rooms than Ortner's staff was. The point, though, is the arrangement with the Schraeders is implausibly loosey-goosey. $19 mil is a lot of money for our lightly populated jurisdiction, but we have no idea of what we're getting for our money, and no idea at all how effective the services rendered are.


IT SEEMS CLEAR that Maureen Mulheren will challenge incumbent Ukiah-area supervisor McCowen in the next election. Ms. M spoke twice at Tuesday’s meeting of the Supervisors, and why bother if you're not a candidate? You might as well go out into your backyard and have a talk with your peach tree because whatever you're saying will be ignored by at least 3 of the 5 people's tribunes. Mulheren's prob, at least what it looks like from Boonville, is Ukiah. We're not talking a Swiss watch level of civic functioning, are we? The town's a mess every which way, with a government twice the size of what a town of a mere 16,000 should require. And Ms. M is mayor! For example, I just noticed that Ukiah employs an "assistant city attorney." We already know that the city manager, the wildly overpaid Sage Sangiacomo, also has an assistant. Which is what happens when irresponsible people get elected to oversee government. Ms. M. can't plausibly run on her record given the state of our county seat. McCowen has one thing going for him — he spends much of his off-time picking up after the Ukiah Valley's homeless, many of whom are hopelessly nuts, drug-addicted or alcoholic. But it's a relatively small population of walking wounded, and why are they out there if millions are being spent to house them, to make them more or less functional again?


WE ARE OCCASIONALLY BEMUSED by Supervisor Haschak — a long time elementary school Spanish teacher from Willits — and his oh-so earnest attempts at being what he thinks a Supervisor should be. For example, during Haschak’s “Supervisors Report” on Tuesday he reported that he’d been to some County Supervisor training in Sacramento last week and that he learned how to conduct an efficient meeting (not a subject for implementation in Mendo) and “negotiations” which presumably has something to do with labor relations which the Board keeps its hands off, and “resiliancy in dealing with disasters” and “media relations.” (We have not yet seen a press release from Supervisor Haschack, so maybe now one will be forthcoming!) Haschack said that the training was “very useful” and “a valuable asset to my professional growth.”

RIGHT, SUPERVISOR. So we now have “professional Supervisors”? Being a supervisor is now a “career path”? What’s next? Only Board Certified, trained and qualified politicians can run for Supervisor? And, therefore they should be paid like doctors or engineers? How about a class on “When to Pound the Gavel”? Or, “Responding to Constituents — Best Practices: Why a sincere sounding ‘Thank you’ is the preferred response.”


THE SUPES SPENT ABOUT HALF AN HOUR discussing how they plan to respond to the Grand Jury’s June report entitled “Who Runs Mendocino County?” on Tuesday. CEO Angelo has submitted her own report which we are in the process of reviewing. Supervisors Williams and Haschak were in favor of hashing their response out in open session, but Supervisor McCowen liked their old way of having each supervisor send a draft response to County Counsel to combine. In the end they set up another “ad hoc” committee of Williams Haschak and McCowen to work with County Counsel to assemble their response and then bring back some kind of final draft to the board for final discussion in September.

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SMART TRAIN TO HEALDSBURG?

Doug Kerr of Healdsburg wonders when the SMART rail service will reach his city.

A mainstay at Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board meetings, the self-described rail advocate began questioning early this year the 12-member board about the timeline. However, board members have been unable to offer a satisfactory response, saying they still don’t have a target date.

Kerr, 68, fears the North Bay commuter rail agency’s continued inability to identify one could cost SMART a potential sales-tax extension it seeks in March.

“The 2008 sales tax that funded SMART was advertised to build a 70-mile system, which would include where I live in Healdsburg,” the retired electrical engineer told the board last week. “If you want north county to approve an extension of the sales tax, you’ve got to tell us when it’s going to get to Healdsburg and Cloverdale. Otherwise, it’s going to look like false advertising again.”

SMART staff continues to work on a long-term spending plan so when it comes time this fall for the board to make a decision on the ballot measure, the agency can justify the extension to voters in Marin and Sonoma counties, who passed the current 20-year quarter-cent sales tax, Measure Q, with 70% approval.

SMART expects to open the Larkspur station by the end of the year, completing the system’s southern terminus and adding another 2 miles to its existing 43-mile passenger rail line, which launched in August 2017. The $55 million needed to extend the line about 3 miles north from the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport station to Windsor by the end of 2021 also has been identified through state grants and new bridge toll revenues.

To date, SMART has secured more than $300 million in state and federal grant money to build out its stations and track.

But how the agency intends to come up with the $364 million needed to extend the line an additional 22 miles north to Cloverdale — and the $11 million needed to construct a long-promised second Petaluma station on the city’s east side — remains unknown.

“The expenditure plan that we’re putting out there needs to be real dollars. It needs to actually get the signoff from the public and have the public feel like they can trust that what we’re promising we’re going to deliver,” said Santa Rosa Vice Mayor Chris Rogers, a member of the SMART board. “Otherwise, I don’t see this passing.”

Gary Phillips, SMART’s board chairman, acknowledged the agency’s predicament moving forward with an extension without pinpointing dates for the Healdsburg and Cloverdale stations. Without a timeline, he understands it will be a challenge for SMART to get the two-thirds voter approval for the sales tax extension.

“I’m not sure we’re going to be able to do that,” said Phillips, who serves as mayor of San Rafael. “The sales-tax extension is not going to provide for additional construction funding, so therefore, we have to rely upon outside funding.

“That’s the challenge that’s going to be before us, because if we don’t anticipate that, we’re not going to Cloverdale, quite frankly, from my view,” he added. “We’re going to have to make some hard decisions, and I guarantee it’s going to be very difficult.”

Some debate looms among board members over what led to their decision to build the railroad in phases after early tax revenues fell far short of expectations.

Measure Q generated $289 million in its first decade. In contrast, the agency initially projected it would have received $445 million by now and a total of $890 million over the life of the 20-year tax.

SMART blames the shortfall on the Great Recession, which sent the economy into a tailspin in 2008. The price tag of the 70-mile system, including an adjacent multi-use pathway, was originally set at $541 million.

However, with the estimated $194 million now needed to extend the line 5 miles north from Windsor to Healdsburg and the $170 million needed to go an additional 17 miles to Cloverdale, the cost for full build-out is now projected at $944 million.

That doesn’t include the cost to complete the bike path. About 20 miles of the path have been built so far.

In April, Sonoma County Supervisors Shirlee Zane and David Rabbitt, who sit on the board, said they suspected the sales tax was never going to generate enough money to complete the rail system and that SMART should have instead pursued a half-cent tax.

“Many sales-tax measures that needed a half-cent don’t poll high enough to pull in a half-cent, so you go for a quarter and you make do. The investment is what it is and we need to continue to go forward,” Rabbitt told his fellow board members. “There’s really no alternative but to go back to the voters for a sales-tax extension.”

Deb Fudge, Windsor’s vice mayor and one of the SMART board’s longest-tenured members, has repeatedly rejected the suggestion that the board knew it needed a half-cent sales tax.

“I was here then, and we all did not know that because I would not have moved forward if I had known,” she said, referring to Measure Q. “And it sounded like we were deceiving the public, and we weren’t.”

(Kevin Fixler, Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

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CATCH OF THE DAY, JULY 23, 2019

Duval, Galindo, Johnson

BARBARA DUVAL, Ukiah. DUI.

THOMAS GALINDO JR., Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

HALLEY JOHNSON, DUI.

Petty, Reynolds, Slentz, Yonkers

SHERRIE PETTY, Berkeley/Ukiah. Parole violation.

LINDA REYNOLDS, Calpella. Failure to appear.

SEQUOIA SLENTZ, Point Arena. DUI, resisting.

JACOB WARD, Little River. DUI-drugs, stolen vehicle, interfering with police communications, failure to obey lawful peace officer order. (Photo not yet available from booking three days ago.)

JENNIFER YONKERS, Fort Bragg. Contempt of court, failure to appear.

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THE BORDER CROSSING, 1981-82

by Alan Freberg

I met Ed Brooks at the Vesuvio Cafe in San Francisco shortly after moving there in late 1978. During the day Vesuvio was a hangout for game players. He was a casual chess player who usually watched more than he played. Ed was a tall man of Black, White and Native American descent. He had a courtly manner and spoke with precise enunciation. He was a keen observer of the people around him. He was a professional photographer known for the excellence of his portraits of people. His portraits of the Vesuvio gin players are still on the wall there on your right above the window as you walk in. His portrait of Kent McCarthy is above the third table at Specs. We met through our mutual interest in chess and marijuana. The chess players took regular smoke breaks in the alley outside of the studio.

Sometime near the end of 1981 Ed and I were smoking in the alley outside the bar. He was telling me about his plans to drive his station wagon to Belize where he had family. Being footloose and free I proposed that I could maybe come along with him and split the expenses. He accepted the offer and we made plans to leave immediately after the new year was over. I was seeing a French woman named Therese at the time. As her visa was about to expire she needed to leave the country in a few weeks. She became our third companion.

Ed and Therese both had better skills at speaking Spanish than I did. Ed would have us do regular practice sessions during idle moments. He would regularly hone his skills with people we met even when speaking English might have been easier for both sides.

We spent six weeks driving through Mexico to the Belize border crossing at Chetumal.

All this time Ed had stressed the importance of keeping our passports and other IDs on our persons at all times. We could be put in jail if the authorities asked for them and we couldn't produce them.

We got to Chetumal on a Saturday and made plans to cross over to Belize on Sunday afternoon when the border crossing would probably be at its slowest.

We went to the crossing where Therese and I both had our passports ready. Ed had lost his. We went back to the hotel to look for his papers. They were gone. There was nothing to do for it but go to the crossing and make our case. Ed spoke with the guard at the desk in his broken Spanish and explained the situation. The guard made it easier and spoke in English. He told Ed there was no problem. Just go to the Imagracion office in the morning and they would take care of the matter.

The next morning we were the Imagracion office shortly after it opened. When we got upstairs into the office we saw a bulldog of a Mexican official — he looked just like a Ed Asner — circling a young man sitting on a chair. The official had his arms akimbo, head down, and was shaking his head "No." The young man was saying to him in English, "Why can't you? It’s your job. You are supposed to do it." He repeated his plea a few times. It seemed clear to me that whatever it was he wanted, the answer was, "No."

We watched this for a couple of minutes when Ed asked us to go outside and get the kid’s story. He wanted to know what the scene was about before he spoke with the official. When the guy came outside we asked him what had happened.

The kid was an Israeli college student who had crossed over Belize a couple of days before and wanted to return. Like Ed, he had lost his papers and needed to get replacements for them. The bulldog official told him to take his story to Imagracion in Mexico City to see what they could do for him. That would be a 1200 mile trip for our student. We went back upstairs and told Ed the story. He asked us to wait outside for him.

We waited on a bench for about 10 minutes before Ed came out. He had his papers. The kid was right — it was the official’s job to give him his papers. But it's bad form to go into an office in a foreign country and tell them their jobs in a foreign language.

I never did hear what passed between Ed and the official. My guess is that they started by saying, "Por favor…"

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CLOUDY SUNSET SOUTH OF TOWN

(Photo by Harvey Reading)

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INTERVIEW WITH LONGTIME BASSIST FROM THE BAND WAR, BB DICKERSON

by Bassam Habal

"All my friends know the lowrider". Who could forget that opening lyric to War's timeless classic "Lowrider" propelled with its infectious bass line and groove. Formed in the late 60s, War had a rich musical life from their early beginnings backing up Eric Burdon on hits like "Spill the Wine" to gems like "Why Can't We Be Friends" and "Cisco Kid." We had a chance to speak with the bassist on all those hits and others in Long Beach, BB Dickerson. Unfortunately BB was forced off the road with his group the Lowrider band following a stroke in 2014. He gave a tremendous effort to tell us what he could.

BH: What made you wanna play bass?

BB: My father. In 1965 He bought me a Gibson Jazz Bass. He brought it home and my mother stashed it in the closet for 2 weeks. After 2 weeks he went and got it. He asked me,"Could I do it?" and I said,"Yes." He played harmonica.

BH: Did you ever get to jam with your father?

BB: No

BH: Who were some of the people who inspired you when you were starting out?

BB: Steve Gillary, Jesse Johnson, Little Junior Parker, Little Willie John, James Brown, Joe Pass

BH: Tell us about the band the Creators (his pre-War band)

BB: The Creators included my uncle Howard Scott on guitar and drummer Harold Brown (both original members of War)

BH: How did the Creators become War?

BB: We just got together and on June 14th, 1969 we became War.

BH: How did you hookup with Lee Oskar (War's harmonica player)?

BB: He was just there. He couldn't play. He was always quiet all the time. A friend helped him become Lee Oskar.

BH: How did you end up hooking up with Eric Burdon?

BB: He was around. I didn't know it at the time but it was Berry Gordy. Berry Gordy produced Eric Burdon. (Starts singing House of the Rising son) He produced that album and Harold Brown Lee Oskar were together with Jerry Goldstein and Eric Burdon. They brought me from Hawaii. They had another bass player. His name was Peter Wilson. He started smack.

BH: So he had to go?

BB: Yes. I didn't do that stuff

BH: Any funny stories you can recant working with Eric?

BB: Yes. Eric showed us how to pour wine on our foreheads and run down into our mouths.

BH: Was that the inspiration for the song (Spill the Wine)?

BB: I don't know. He showed us how to do it after the song.

BH: I was told you were playing with your thumb on Spill the Wine and shortly after you started playing fingerstyle?

BB: Yes

BH: Did you ever play with a pick?

BB: No. Never

BH: What do you remember about the creation of the song, "World is a ghetto"?

BB: Papa Dee Allen (War's percussionist) wrote it on 21st and Lemon (in Long Beach)

BH: I heard that "Why Can't we be friends?" was broadcast into space to the Russian and Us Cosmonauts in 1975

BB: Yes. First music ever sent out into outer space.

BH: What do you recall about one of my all time favorites, the song "Four Cornered Room" (from the album "World is a Ghetto")?

BB: It was the first time Howard and I got loaded on hash. We were at my grandmother’s house and we were looking at the curtains and the curtains started moving. It was like a still life of a lake. We were high and we started writing songs. Howard had just come home from the service.

BH: Is it true you guys jammed with Hendrix before he died?

BB: Yes. The night before he died. It was a Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London.

BH: What do you remember about that?

BB: Everything.

BH: Such as?

BB: I can't say it cause I can't talk like I want to.

BH: War was an incredible band with a unique sound

BB: We had horns and harmonica which was unique about it. And the conga drums. Papa Dee played with two hands. He showed me how to play with two hands. He played with 9 hands.

BH: Did Papa Dee die on stage while you were playing Gypsy Man?

BB: I don't know. I was out of the band at that time. (Papa Dee died in the 80s)

BH: And finally what would be your favorite song to play from the War catalogue?

BB: Gypsy Man

BH: Thank you for your time and letting us into your home.

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AMERICAN CHAUVINIST

Editor:

When it comes to sports, I am a dyed-in-the-wool American chauvinist. Although I’m happy the American women won a soccer championship, I didn’t watch any of their matches outside of a few news clips. I don’t understand a game in which the players bust their butts for 90 minutes, only to have the game decided by a one-on-one kick. It has nothing to do with team participation.

I lived in London for a year. I tried hard to learn cricket. I failed. This is a game where a batter takes a swing at a wooden ball, misses and the score jumps to 345-146.

Then there is tennis. The Wimbledon women’s match lasted less than an hour and was watchable, although boring. I couldn’t watch the men’s match, which lasted five-plus hours. If I had, I am confident that I would have wound up wearing a neck brace.

Baseball, football, basketball and hockey are real sports. It is clear who wins and who loses. Peanuts, Crackerjack and rooting for the home team are my watchwords.

I defy anyone to find anything in sports that compare with a successful Hail Mary pass, a monster home run, a half-court three-pointer, a hat trick or a no-hitter.

Michael Burwen

Petaluma

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PANCAKES WHITESBORO GRANGE SUNDAY

A traditional pancake breakfast will be served at the Whitesboro Grange on Sunday, July 28th. Breakfast includes orange juice, pancakes with maple and homemade berry syrups, ham, eggs your way, and coffee, tea or hot cocoa. The public and visitors are invited to join neighbors and community for a hearty pancake breakfast. Adults $8, ages 6-12 half price, children under 6 eat FREE. Breakfast is served from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Whitesboro Grange is located 1.5 miles east on Navarro Ridge Road. Watch for signs south of the Albion Bridge.

Ronnie James ronnie@mcn.org

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WILD ABOUT ELEPHANTS!

On Saturday, August 24th, join us for Wild About Elephants! We’ll read stories featuring these mammoth beauties, do a craft kids can take home and we’ll be screening the haunting PBS Nature documentary, Soul of the Elephant, for adults and teens.

Elephant Story Time — 10:30 -11:00am

Elephant Kids Craft — 11:00am -12:00pm

Soul of the Elephant screening — 2:00-3:00pm. “Starting from a pile of bones, thisdocumentary shows what one old elephant may have witnessed during the course of itslong life.”

For more information, please contact the Fort Bragg Library, by phone at 707-964-2020 or via email at hessd@mendocinocounty.org.

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IT'S FITTING that the first mention of something like Universal Basic Income comes in Thomas Moore's “Utopia” of 1516. Let's stop hanging thieves, one of Moore's characters argues: "Instead of inflicting these horrible punishments, it would be far more to the point to provide everyone with some means of livelihood, so that nobody is under the frightful necessity of becoming first a thief and then a corpse." So Universal Basic Income is a fever dream of the anarcho-utopian post-Marxist post-Fordist left? Well, no. The odd thing is that recent interest in the Universal Basic Income began on the economic right, with none other than Friedrich Hayek arguing for a "certain minimum income for everyone, a floor below which nobody need fall even when he is unable to provide for himself." Milton Friedman took on this idea in the form of a Negative Income Tax (NIT), one of the many subspecies of Universal Basic Income. The government sets a minimum income figure: over that number you pay taxes to the state; below it, the state tops up your income, gradually tapering the subsidy until you hit the number. It is a policy that targets people in poorly paid work and indeed encourages them into work and as such it accepts an implicit distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor. Still, it is a progressive policy which attracted a 1968 petition signed by 1200 American economists.

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PARTY FOR BERNIE

A benefit for Mendocino Coast for Bernie Sanders

August 3, 2019, 6-10pm

Caspar Community Center

On the Mendocino Coast, mid-way between the town of Mendocino and Fort Bragg

The best kind of political party! Dance to the music of Highway One and Shakin’ Not Stirred, listen to the exceptional guitar stylings of Aaron Ford and Christopher Cisper, learn more about Bernie Sanders and his campaign, eat, drink, and be merry.

More info: contact Garth Hagerman by email at mistergarth@gmail.com or phone (707) 937-1987

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FOUND OBJECT

13 Comments

  1. Ted Williams July 24, 2019

    Correction: Grand Jury response ad-hoc was McCowan & Haschak in a 4-1 (Williams opposed)

  2. Lazarus July 24, 2019

    Mueller hearing…
    An old man who does not know most of what’s in the report his name is on. Perhaps it’s a staff driven report and Mueller was just the figurehead that lent his apparent former credibility to the report in name only. This mornings hearing is a disaster for Democrats and most sadly Mueller…In essence, they never should have done it.
    As always,
    Laz

    • Bruce Anderson July 24, 2019

      Totally agree, Laz. Mueller is pathetic, the Democrats have only managed to make it clear that Hillary and the DNC kicked off the Russian gambit in the first place. Only an elected Democrat could lose an argument to a Republican.

      • Lazarus July 24, 2019

        Part two of the Mueller hearing is no better than the first. The poor man is clearly ill-prepared, not up to it mentally or both.
        Even super left CNN and MSNBC have conceded the event is a bust for the Democrats.
        Clearly, the advertised Mr. Mueller has left the building…
        As always,
        Laz

        • Bruce Anderson July 24, 2019

          Super left? Please, Laz.

          • George Hollister July 24, 2019

            Super left, and partisan are not necessarily synonymous.

            • Lazarus July 24, 2019

              Every bit as lefty as Fox News is a righty. In my opinion there all f**ked…
              As always,
              Laz

  3. James Marmon July 24, 2019

    “You want it? Take it.”

    -Camille Shraeder

    This is the third year in a row that Camille threatens to walk out on the County if they don’t pay up. Angelo’s mental health privatization scheme is a complete disaster, and now they throw Measure B money into the mix.

    James Marmon MSW

  4. chuck dunbar July 24, 2019

    Many things could be said regarding Trump’s brutal, stupid Afghanistan war comments this week, saying that he could win the war in one week by “wip(ing) the country off the face of the earth.” He also avowed, respected statesman and world leader that he is, that he “did not want to kill ten million people” to do so.

    But perhaps this retort, short and to the point, by an Afghan shoemaker is just right:

    “This is in no way possible. Trump has a kind of madness.”

  5. Harvey Reading July 24, 2019

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/this-london-firm-helps-the-wealthy-hide-assets-or-steal-them-luckily-we-have-15-years-of-their-client-communications/

    This is effen great!

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/democratic-party-dilemmas/

    Blindly, the land ‘o exceptionals stumbles along.

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/russiagate-the-cherry-on-top/

    Aint we grand!

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/07/24/the-parable-of-the-flax-seed/

    “The Parable of the Flax Seed

    Slick, black flax seed
    In your teeth — get your toothpick
    pick it free
    And stick it in a small, wet hole —
    In deep black loam to bloom
    and grow
    In purple flowered fields of flax
    And strip and weave these into slacks —
    For linen’s coolest these long days
    of amber waves of heat
    To wear along the melting street and
    Heatwaves come from heat bombs: cars
    And jets, and tanks,
    and abattoirs,
    And millionaires
    With all their wars
    Against the trees, and seas, and birds,
    Against the worms,
    Against the poor
    And that which they haven’t exploited
    And wrecked yet
    And don’t forget that all our debt
    Is also a source of great power:
    If none repaid the usurers
    They’d all disappear
    In under a year”

    –Elliot Sperber

  6. Craig Stehr July 24, 2019

    Am still at Earth First!er Andy Caffrey’s in Garberville, being supportive as he continues to prepare for a cross country climate justice road show to Washington, D.C., interviewing Earth First! musicians from the 1980s and 1990s summer Round River Rendezvous gatherings along the way. Then, he meets with Green New Deal proponents on Capitol Hill and also Senator Bernie Sanders if possible. This is positive in these ridiculous times! Seriously, contribute some dough to: paypal.me/AndyCaffrey and telephone him at (707) 923-2114. And send an encouraging note to: P.O. Box 324, Redway, CA 95560. P.S. I will spare you the details of my ongoing spiritual sadhana to neutralize the bogus atmosphere on the planet earth. ;-)

    • Bruce McEwen July 24, 2019

      The great huge enormous fat Buddha, having grown so enormous was asked one day by a starveling acolyte how He got so fat?

      Koan: The great huge enormous overstuffed hog, rippling in oceans of fat, the Ocean of Cholesterol Buddha answered that he subsisted, religiously, on one cannabis seed a day; and if you’ll believe that, my silly hare-brain-soused friend, how can you doubt the Prophet Daniel spent a night in a den of starving lions, or that Me First!er Andy Caffrey parted the Red Sea?

      • Craig Stehr July 24, 2019

        Great response, which needs to be acknowledged. Thank you! P.S. Following an evening of beer at Garberville’s Stone Junction, and then on to the Calico Restaurant for more beer, shots of Powers’ Irish Whiskey, a loaded nachos platter, Italian sausage sandwich and a teriyaki swiss burger, plus onion rings, Andy has fallen out altogether back at the apartment. I am still awake, due to a walk in the coastal evening cool air to Ray’s supermarket for more Tillamook ice cream. ~Hare Krishna~

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