MCT: Friday, August 16, 2019

• Jane Vartanian
• Sweltering
• Westport Fundraiser
• Fire Costs
• FB Images
• Tentative Agreement
• Ukiah Trail
• Abbey Lane
• Boonville Repave
• Emiliano Zapata
• Yorkville Social
• Seasoning
• Bostrodamus
• Butterfly Effect
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• United Suicide
• Ominous Signs
• Sunk Cost
• Birdsong
• Republican Scams
• Offensive Ads
• Coal Miner
• Cannabombs
• Finishing
• Decimated Unions
• Peacetime President
• County Vacancies
• Lost Comix
• Art BBQ
• Roast Chicken
• Better Hurry
• Labor BBQ
• Found Object

JANE VARTANIAN

Please attend Jane's funeral. She gave her all for us for many years.

From Jane's daughter Rose-

The obituary will not be in the paper till after the funeral so if you could pass this info on I’d appreciate it : She requested a Catholic funeral, it's August 21 at 10am at Our Lady of Good Council Church in Fort Bragg. It will just be a mass, no gathering after planned and a private burial. In lieu of flowers she would’ve wanted you to give to your favorite charity. Thank you so much, Rose Vartanian

IT GOT UP TO A SWELTERING 110 IN THE SHADE in Boonville Thursday afternoon at our official high-tech mini-weather station (okay, an old thermometer hanging on our deck), maybe a few degrees lower in Philo. Official reports had it as high as 105 in Ukiah, but we suspect it was higher than that. The heat is supposed to continue on Friday, although not quite as hot. Then a few days “only” in the 90s. The coast barely broke 70 Thursday afternoon.

WE ASKED AV FIRE CHIEF ANDRES AVILA how big a hit the AV Fire Department’s budget would take if a major fire hit Anderson Valley at Wednesday’s budget committee meeting. Avila said it first depended on how many days it would take to contain it. Next would be whether Calfire’s ground crews were in the Valley or not. If they were out of the Valley on other fires, as they likely would be, then AV would have to fight the ground part of a fire with local resources for several days and the department would be out of pocket for that — but would be eligible for reimbursement from CalFire for doing that work. Avila recalled the 2008 Lightning Complex fire when AVFD had to respond for several days before CalFire could get mobilized, but CalFire eventually did reimburse the department for most of the initial response work.

STARR CENTER WITH MOON AND LOG TRUCK

(Photos by Dick Whetstone)

LOOKS LIKE THE COUNTY HAS A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT with their biggest employee barganing unit, the Services Employees International Union (SEIU). To our preliminary eye it looks like the employees are getting a pretty good deal, pay and salary-wise: An immediate 3% pay raise, plus employees who are “more than 10%” below market rate (according to the consultant’s analysis) will get raises bringing them “within 40% of 90% of the market.” Employees who are more than 5% below market will get raises to bring them to “within 40% of 95% of the market.” Then more comparable raises in Year 2 and Year 3 with some adjustments to the various percentages.

HOWEVER, THERE’S NOTHING in next week’s Board packet about how much this will cost or how much of the previously budgeted/allocated $5 mil this represents.

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THE BOARD OF SUPES has prepared a response to the Grand Jury report concerning the CEO and the Board’s overall management of the County. We’ll have more on the report later in the week.

BUT RIGHT OFF we noticed that the Board’s response conspicuously omits key responses to the Grand Jury’s items about management reporting. In the Supes’ list of proposed responses the numbering skips from Finding 3 to Finding 5 without mention of Finding 4 without explanation.

Finding 4, you might recall was: “F4. The CEO Report does not include substantive department updates, e.g. new jail addition, Sheriff overtime, BOS directive status, departmental statistics and major road project status.”

And the Board response to the Grand Jury’s “recommendations” skips from Recommendation 2 to Recommendation 4, skipping over Recommendation 3 which was: “R3. determine whether an Assistant CEO position is necessary. If the position is not going to be filled, it should be unfunded.” The BoS response also skips from Recommendation 6 to Recommendation 8, ignoring Recommendation7 which was: “R7. improve the CEO Report to include information on current major projects, tracking, expenditures and strategic goals.”

IS THIS A MISTAKE, an oversight, or are they intentionally refusing to even respond to the Grand Jury’s observations and recommendations on reports and reporting? We hope that someone on the Board brings up these gaps in the proposed response because the other responses to the Grand Jury, at first glance anyway, seem to indicate that the Board is willing to make some improvements in some of the areas that the Grand Jury mentioned, albeit promises that may or may not be kept.

JUSTINE FREDERICKSEN of the Ukiah Daily Journal reported Thursday that the City of Ukiah awarded a contract of about $1.4 million to a Cloverdale construction outfit for “the final planned stretch [Phase 3] of the Ukiah Rail Trail, a paved walking path that runs north to south along the railroad tracks.” Phase 2, about a quarter mile of trail, previously cost about $1.5 million. We have not been able to find the official total length of the finished trail, but it is was previously described as “in the center of Ukiah.” This latest “final” phase supposedly “runs north from Mason Street to nearly Brush Street” along the railroad right of way, which looks on the map to be about 1500 feet. So let’s assume that the total length of the Ukiah Rail-Trail is less than a mile at over $1.5 million per quarter mile, or at least $5 million for a mile of finished paved trail. The money is coming from a Caltrans grant.

THE ONLY summary description of the project we could find was on the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) website (the artifical intermediary joint powers authority that handles transportation project planning for the County), “This project [is] a multi-use bicycle and pedestrian paved trail, within the Northwestern Pacific Railroad right-of-way in the City of Ukiah, including a pre-engineered flatbed rail car bridge, trail fencing, lighting, and safety enhanced crosswalks.

LET’S NEXT ASSUME that this is the kind of hiking/biking trail that Senator Mike McGuire envisions for the North Coast Railroad Authority right of way — his “Great Redwood Trail.” McGuire says the Great Redwood Trail would run along the total length of the railroad right of way which is about 300 miles. So — and this is a big if piled on top of a big assumption, admittedly —the math works out to over $5,000,000 x 300 or — and we can’t even imagine this number: $1,500,000,000. Or, $1.5 billion. The cost per mile will be less in some areas, but will probably be substantially more in the Eel River Canyon.

I CAN THINK of several other ways to spend $1.5 BILLION DOLLARS than on a lightly used — at best — paved trail for bikers and hikers. (Not to mention the logistics and legal issues involved.)

SPEAKING to a Humboldt crowd about the project last May, McGuire said the project “will take many years to complete,” adding, “We’ve always known that creating the Great Redwood Trail is not gonna by quick and it’s not gonna be easy. It has to be done carefully, not fast. It has to be done right.”

TRANSLATION: Never gonna happen.

PS. The Ukiah Rail-Trail is the pet project of Ukiah City Councilwoman Maureen ‘Mo’ Mulhern who apparently is planning to run against Second District Supervisor John McCowen for his Supes seat. McCowen has been a big apologist for the North Coast Rail Authority scam over the years which never ran any real railroad traffic. So if “Mo” can somehow replace him, she will probably become the Great Proponent of the Great Redwood Trail which will replace the North Coast Railroad as the North Coast’s Greatest Waste of Money. And her mantra as regards the Great Redwood Trail could become: "Mo Money."

(Mark Scaramella)

CALTRANS is planning to repave a four-mile stretch of Highway 128 in the downtown Boonville area this month, and it expects some traffic delays the giant transportation agency announced last week. The $1.5 million construction project will be 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and is expected to last until the end of August. The work will be done from Con Creek to Robinson Creek, and traffic delays of up to 10 minutes are possible. Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie Jr. said the work is “normal preventive maintenance.” A few spots in the road are “experiencing minor failure” and will require grinding work before the paving, he said. The Boonville section project is in addition to pavement repairs being done on a 10-mile stretch of Highway 128 to the west toward the coast and on another stretch in the Yorkville area.

THE BEST YORKVILLE PARTY EVER: THE ICE CREAM SOCIAL

Every year on Labor Day Monday the Yorkville Community Benefits Association hosts a huge neighborhood party and fundraising event- The Ice Cream Social. This year we will be celebrating our 29th year. The Social is a fun-filled day of food, games, book browsing & buying, more food, a wonderful produce stand, socializing, educational stuff for the kids, more food, silent auction, raffle for amazing prizes, Cake Walk, face painting and, of course, Ice Cream!

This year will not be an exception! A new addition this year we will be a HUGE second hand sale that we affectionately call “Vintage Values”. We are looking for donations for this super sale. If you have anything gently used to donate (if it takes two people to carry it we don’t want it and no electronics please) please contact us at theYCBA@gmail.com or drop it off on August 24th between 10 and 12 at the Yorkville Community Room.

The Ice Cream Social is a great place to catch up on local news and happenings or to meet new friends. It is also the YCBA’s largest fundraiser. This year we are focusing our fundraising on a new building to house a water tender and other fire fighting apparatus. We are very close to meeting our financial goal. Your participation could help push us over the top. We are looking for donations of cakes, cookies and pies for the Bake Sale, salads for the Lunch Counter, fruits, veggies, jams, olives, flowers and herbs for the Produce Stand, we need many, many cakes for the Cake Walk, and we’ve already started collecting books for the epic Book Sale but need a whole lot more (drop them in the box in front of the Yorkville Post Office). Our Silent Auction is truly awesome, we need unique Anderson Valley items, gift certificates, art, wine and experiences for this exciting event. Contact Diane, 707-489-1957 if you have anything to donate or if you’d like to participate or volunteer in any way.

GOODBYE CARMEL

Hello Carmel,

You have reached Holy Mackerel Convent of the Yukon. Here are your assignments for the next three months.

Mop and bucket 12 toilets and garbage cans and do some laundry. Required reading: The Fountainhead, and "the Best of Philbrick."

Over 100 small towns in Mexico have the exact same problems as Boonville and Philo but "without the kvetching." Cars on a busy highway pass through town at excessive speeds. Mexicans know how to deal with these problems while gringos will find reasons why nothing can possibly be done but continued to kvetch.

Mexicans will erect a giant tope (speedbump) in the center of town where a motorist has to come to a complete stop before climbing over. This attracts Red Cross, Boy Scouts, firemen, all asking for donations not to mention vendors selling candy, fruit, corn on the cob and religious trinkets. I have seen troops of boys about six years old dressed in white costumes, white cowboy hat and a bright red neckerchiefs spaced at intervals holding signs reading "despacito" or "slow the [bleep] down." If this was proposed in Boonville we would have Scaramella writing 750 words, CHP permits, safety concerns, insurance, and child labor laws. In Mexico children dressed in white are given a baton and direct traffic at tourist venues without porta-potties. That stinks of socialism.

When John "Deep Doo-doo" Hat-Check arrived at the county seat it was obvious to the Third District supervisor that no one in county government had the least idea what to do about issues that voters were concerned about. Hat-Check thought that if adults couldn't handle the job we might as well ask schoolchildren to try to solve problems.

Which school? High school students have been disqualified because they are so obsessed with sex that they have difficulty concentrating on other subjects. We want a bourgeois community with patriotic and God-fearing students — that would be the eighth grade class in the town of Laytonville presided over by Jim Shields, OBE.

Ginger, daughter of the town drunk, and Jean-Claude, the son and grandson of the European royalty, were co-chairmen of the first inquiry: What is being done to prepare for the next big fire and earthquake?

Earthquake? Yes, it's coming any day now. Didn't you read the piece in the New Yorker by that Schultz woman?

The AVA bunker found itself lying in the dining area of the Redwood Drive In (or vice versa). The answer: Mendo que nada! The War Department (now called the Department of Defense) has ships, planes, tanks and guns waiting for the next war.

The second Congressional District should have the country's largest RV park located on a large ranch near Laytonville to provide housing for victims of the coming fires and earthquakes. For every $10,000 spent by the military, $1 should be allocated to the north coast. Problem solved before you can say "Jack Robinson."

The next matter undertaken by the eighth-grade class was the lack of affordable housing in the Third District. Hat-Check as overseer.

First of all, owners of property that is suitable for housing were invited to list them on a public statement. A map was provided so that tour could be made for prospective buyers. Next, a woman on Willits’s A-list, Margie Handley, made an arrangement for two students, Beatrice Birdnut and Richard Woof to meet with the owners of the firm "Short Time Investments" in New York. Short Time was formerly a textile manufacturing outfit specializing in towels and washcloths. Short Time said they would be happy to finance a large housing project in the Third District as long as they could get a fast return on their money. (And as we will see, the return was much faster than they ever dreamed of.) Hat-Check’s affordable housing expositions was proposed on a nicely landscaped area on a large ranch near Laytonville. A total of 21 affordable housing units were displayed, presented by many of the world's most famous architects, builders and a few weirdos. Total costs were one half the prices in Santa Rosa and the Bay Area. When word got out, thousands of people arrived in Laytonville to see the exposition and overnight all of the suitable building sites were sold and there was no land available for some of the best examples of affordable housing in the world. When it came to economic stimulation, students noted that what works for dogs and cats will work as well for attracting people to Laytonville which could become the number one food destination in Northern California, overtaking Chez Panisse. A four level parking garage would be needed and a bypass.

Jeff Bezos would offer $2 million cash for the local newspaper. Jim Shields could replace the retiring David Brooks of the New York Times and KUGH would be the major TV outlet and attract such luminaries as Rachel Maddow, Ralph Nader and the person Mendocino County has fallen in love with, Tom Allman. The university could compete with Cal, Stanford, Harvard and Yale for the cream of the crop.

While Laytonville could never surpass the Friends of the Willits Library Book Sale, it could become home of the richest person in America.

Switch from gray to black ink and the AVA circulation would increase by 25% if it also becomes the first newspaper in the US to compile and print a list of residents of Mendocino County who support the assault weapons ban.

Watch for a 60-year subscriber’s report on ten needed changes at the New Yorker.

Ralph Bostrom

North Brook Nursing Home

Willits

ED NOTES

RECOMMENDED READING: "Lucky Country, Confessions of a Vagabond Cellerhand" by Darren Delmore. For a young man, the guy has been around, having been a competitive surfer and an editor at Surfer Magazine, he is presently national sales manager for the Hass family's Tabla Rasa wines. A former resident of the Anderson Valley where he worked for Goldeneye, this is the third in his series of rollicking books based on the hard facts of the wine industry thinly disguised as fiction. Mr. D is a very funny writer about an industry, at least at its heights, that takes itself very, very seriously. The author manages to both take it seriously and have fun relaying what it's like inside the hierarchy. These accounts are instructive without ever becoming stuffy, and they move right along. The guy knows vino, and you will too after a read that's so much fun you don't want it to end, this one ending after some highly amusing adventures in Australia, also now something of a wine power.

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NOT RECOMMENDED READING but, since it appeared in The New Yorker, and kicks off at, of all places Fort Bragg's Glass Beach, the piece Not Recommended is by Cyrus Grace Dunham, and is called, "A Year Without A Name — Was the problem gender, or me." I'd guess you, but I didn't get past the first coupla paras of a long account of a person trying to figure out if he's a she or a he, a search I doubt is of much interest to most people, but The New Yorker is nothing if not trendy. (Since the setting of the account is Glass Beach, it occurred to me that Cyrus Grace might consult with Dr. Rohr at Coast Hospital who made the transition from Dr. William Rohr to Dr. Kathryn Rohr without losing Mrs. Rohr.)

THE ENTIRE edition of the mag was trendier than hell, kicking off with a Talk of the Town by editor David Remnick about how nice Toni Morrison and Barack Obama were and are and how vile Trump is. Duh. And there's a long, confused piece called "The Color of Injustice — Fighting racism by redefining it" by a black academic called Kelefa Sanneh. Which I read to see if I was a racist in the professor's view and came away not knowing if I qualified or not, but all-in-all I'd say, based on my record, I'm not, although the standard seems to be ever higher. Then came a boring profile of mainline Democrat, Stacey Abrams. As an example of how sonorous the profile is, the editors give us this snoozer as a pull quote: "I have the right to do the things I think I should do," Abrams said. "My gender and my race should not be limitations." Double duh. There's a long article about "the transformations of a battered women's shelter, from radical feminism to the Why I Stayed era," which, of course, was depressing as all hell and even more boring than the Abrams bio. Battered women were followed by an over-long, failed poem with the usual pretentious bullshit New Yorker title, this one "Claude Monet: 'The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil, 1880," then the usual unreadable fiction, this one illustrated by an elderly, naked hippie as visual confirmation you won't want to read it anyway, then a book review convincing me not to read the book, a couple of gutless movie reviews by nambo pambo Anthony Lane (somewhere Pauline Kael is weeping), who-cares stuff about dance, theater and television, and not a single amusing cartoon!

HEY! The AVA has its off weeks, but never in forty years has the whole paper been utterly without interest!

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CONTINUING OUR THEME of unrelieved negativity, a white professor at the New School in New York City is being investigated by the university for using the n-word while quoting black novelist James Baldwin. New School professor Laurie Sheck, who is also a Pulitzer-nominated poet, said the n-word during a graduate course this spring on “radical questioning” in writing. She reflected on the title of the 2016 documentary about Baldwin entitled “I Am Not Your Negro” and asked her students why the title altered Baldwin's original statement where he used the n-word in place of “negro.” An illiterate student immediately complained to the school's administration which duly convened a meeting with Professor Sheck to discuss the "appropriateness" of her use of the n-word in place of the word “negro.”

NEVERMIND that Baldwin himself deliberately deployed the n-word in the title of his famous essay and that replacing it with “negro” insults not only his intent but his memory as the wonderful writer he was.

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ERNIE BRANSCOMB is a Northcoast old timer and go-to guy for all manner of local information of the historical type. Here, in an on-line comment about the mud springs west of Laytonville, he says: "They probably call it the Mud fire because it is in the general location of the mud springs that are located on the South-East slope of Cahto Mountain. The mud springs are rather unique in that very soft and runny, clay-like mud bubbles up out of the ground at high tide and recedes during low tide. They are not connected to the ocean because they are located at about 1,700 feet above sea level. The springs form cones, shaped like small volcanoes, in the summer as the mud dries in the sun. The mud washes away down Mud Creek in the winter. A local curiosity. Been there, done that."

CATCH OF THE DAY, AUGUST 15, 2019

IVY BODWIN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CARRIE CORDOVA-DALSON, Covelo. Petty theft, failure to appear.

BRADLEY DANAHY, Willits. Refuse disposal in state waters, parole violation.

JAIME GONZALEZ JR., Ukiah. Controlled substance, stolen vehicle.

JEFFREY KOSTICK, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent Flyer)

RAMON MACIEL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting, probation revocation.

JOHNATHIN ROSS, Ukiah. Great bodily injury to animal left unattended in vehicle.

JUAN SANCHEZ-MONTIEL, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

RONALD VALENTINE JR., Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

ORLANDO VILLAPANDO, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

SO, WE CAN ADD to the external costs of the offshoring of American jobs the ecological damage from the go ahead government is giving to mining ecological fragile lands in an effort to replace some of the offshored jobs. People will blame Trump for destroying salmon and the ecosystem dependent on salmon, and Trump is in part responsible. But the real responsibility rests on the global corporations who moved their production for US markets abroad and on Wall Street that drove the process. All capitalism has left to loot in America are the national monuments and forests and protected ecological areas. The offshoring of US jobs was an act of suicide by the United States."

— Paul Craig Roberts

OMINOUS SIGNS FROM THE HINTERLANDS

by George Ochenski

It’s fair to say many people judge the state of the nation’s economy and well-being by the performance of the stock market — even though only a small majority of Americans actually have a stake in the stock marker. It’s also fair to say many Americans think of Montana as a hinterland “somewhere up by Canada.” But there are ominous signals from our hinterland right now and like the canary in the coal mine, they are worth our sincere attention.

As most people know, canaries were not kept in coal mines because the miners liked to hear them sing. Quite the opposite. If the levels of toxic gasses sometimes released by mining rose to dangerous levels, the little birds would topple over first — hopefully giving miners the time to get out before they, too, succumbed.

The “canaries” appearing in Montana right now are likewise warning of serious ongoing impacts and are directly connected to President Trump’s escalating trade war with China.

Those who have lived in Montana will well remember the hot controversy over the miles and miles of sidelined rail cars that appeared during the Great Recession a decade ago. They were stored by the thousands along unused rural tracks. It was so bad they drew a harsh rebuke from the public and elected officials when the ugly yellow cars adorned with urban gang graffiti were moved to the banks of the blue-ribbon section of Montana’s world famous Missouri River downstream from Wolf Creek. To say they were incongruous with Montana’s natural beauty would be a huge understatement and, once enough pressure was applied, they were moved to other areas.

Well, the flatbed cars used to transport the enormous number of containers that come in from China are once again appearing on miles and miles of Montana’s railroad sidetracks. If this canary could talk, it would tell you it’s because the imports from China have fallen so significantly that the railroads now have an oversupply of flatbed cars and have once again taken to storing them in the hinterlands of Montana.

Unfortunately, the news from the canary gets worse. As reported in the Washington Post last week, Montana’s family farm bankruptcies were 50% or higher in 2018 than in 2017. Montana is joined in the flood of family farm bankruptcies by Idaho, North Dakota, Utah, Minnesota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Michigan, Illinois, Alabama, South Caroline, North Carolina, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Given that agriculture has long been touted as the leading industry in Montana, that statistic should shiver the timbers of citizens and politicians alike.

In response to Trump’s move to slap on even more tariffs, the Chinese government announced it will now cease to buy American agricultural products. Mind you, that’s not “cut back” on purchases from U.S. farmers and ranchers, it’s “cease.”

The sidelined rail cars and family farm bankruptcies are impossible to see from penthouses atop Manhattan’s skyscrapers or down on the Wall Street where the traders play high-stakes poker with other peoples’ money — but they are certainly visible here in the hinterlands where the canaries are tipping over.

Trump told Americans “trade wars are easy to win.” But that’s coming from a guy who thinks a “trade war” means stiffing the contractors at his failed casinos — not fighting with the most populous nation on the planet and its enormous economy. The signals from the hinterland clearly show we are not winning. It’s past time to get rid of the “fool on the hill” and put our nation back on a sustainable path to a more sane future.

(George Ochenski is a columnist for the Missoulian, where this essay originally appeared. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD

Editor,

The Sunk Cost Fallacy — The grim report on the financial stability of the SMART train should be the final nail in the coffin. The definition of the sunk cost fallacy is that you continue throwing good money after bad.

The reality is that we could have restored all of the crumbling roads in Sonoma County with the money that was spent on this white elephant.

Please don’t return to the taxpayers with a hand out for more money. Let’s spend the already too high taxes that we pay restoring the roads that have been sadly neglected.

Carole Galeazzi

Santa Rosa

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I suppose it’s better to let the illegals get sick as dogs as they wash our dishes, cook our food, watch our kids, clean our houses and work in our nursing homes? Is that what you prefer? How about all the money the illegals pour into social security (upwards of $13 Billion per year) with ZERO benefits and sales taxes. What about all the “stuff” they buy from American companies.

If the republicans core constituency, the wealthy and corporate America, wanted illegal immigration stopped, it would have been stopped decades ago. Face it, the Right is simply playing the “base” for fools. They have been talking this “immigration is bad” hog wash for decades now, but SOMEHOW, they can’t seem to get it done, even when they control all the levers of government as in GGG’s first two years.

I might also note, as an aside, that they sing the same tune about the federal debt, since Reagan’s time, and… well you know the scam there. We hate the debt, but, BUT somehow when the Repubs are in power, it only grows astronomically. I know, strange, but true…

We really, REALLY want to stop illegal immigration AND reduce the debt, but funny how it only gets worse. Go figure? No. don’t figure! Stop being such complete suckers, as you’ve been had! Besides, the immigration and debt horses left the barn a long time ago. Stop all of the immigration, legal or otherwise, and it is still not going to be a majority white country in a few short years, nor is the debt EVER going to be repaid. GET OVER IT, for your own and try to wise up.

RELEVANT QUESTION of the morning: "Anybody besides me offended by some TV ads for medical items? I don't like watching guys talk about their catheters, or people talking about the bags attached to their bodies. Isn't ANYTHING private any more? Would you believe … the UK does not ALLOW medical appliances or ANY drugs, even aspirin, to be advertised on TV. I wish WE would install such rules. Too many things are offensive" (Ellie Green).

AN 8 YEAR-OLD COAL MINER in Utah or Colorado, USA, in the early 1900's.

THE $4 BILLION TIME BOMB TICKING AWAY INSIDE THE BIGGEST MARIJUANA COMPANIES

(Warning this article is barely readable and buries the lead so far down in the story that we couldn’t even find it.)

barrons.com/articles/marijuana-companies-acquisitions-writedowns-51565841626

“I’M COMMITTED TO FINISHING THIS. I’m on page 83 right now.

I haven’t finished anything in a long time. So even if I only read ten pages a day, I’m going to finish. I just need to prove to myself that I can. After graduation I moved back to my hometown. I just wanted to recharge. But I’d been away for so long that I didn’t know who I was anymore. My bedroom was exactly the same. My NYU acceptance letter was still hanging on the wall. My varsity letter jacket was in the closet. I had this wooden peg with like twenty academic medals on it. I’d always been the smart one in our family. Everyone thought I was going to do so much. But somehow I’d lost my way. I’d gone to this big city, and gotten this big education, and I’d wasted it all. I have no idea what to do with my life. Even my laugh has changed. It used to be my favorite thing about myself. But now it sounds hollow. Like I’m faking it. Or just mimicking other people. I feel like I’m not a whole person. I used to read so much as a kid. I finished War and Peace when I was thirteen. So I just need to prove to myself that I can finish this. Maybe if I can finish one thing, it’ll open me up to that girl again. The one who knew everything and what she wanted to be.”

AMERICAN UNIONS HAVE BEEN DECIMATED. No wonder inequality is booming.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/15/valuing-corporations-over-workers-has-led-to-americas-income-inequality-problem

ALMOST ONE PER CITIZEN

County Vacancies

The Board of Supervisors is actively seeking candidates to fill the following vacancies. Please consult with the Executive Office or visit http://www.mendocinocounty.org for information on specific categorical areas and District vacancies.

(a) Air Quality Management District Hearing Board (Various) (5)

(b) Animal Care and Control Appeals and Advisory Board (Various) (5)

(c) Archaeological Commission of Mendocino County (Various) (2)

(d) Assessment Appeals Board (Various) (3)

(e) Child Care Planning Council (Various) (7)

(f) Community Development Commission (Various) (6)

(g) Covelo Public Cemetery District (Trustee) (1)

(h) Emergency Medical Care Committee (Various) (13)

(i) First 5 Mendocino (Various) (2)

(j) Fish Rock Cemetary District (Trustee) (1)

(k) Gualala Municipal Advisory Council (GMAC) (Member) (2)

(l) Health and Human Services Agency Advisory Board (HHSA) (Various) (8)

(m) Hopland Cemetery District (Trustee) (3)

(n) In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Advisory Committee (Various) (6)

(o) Law Library Board of Trustees (Trustee) (1)

(p) Laytonville Muincipal Advisory Council (Member) (1)

(q) Little River Airport Advisory Committee (Various) (10)

(r) Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) (Alternate Mendocino County BOS Representative) (1)

(s) Mendocino County Business Improvement District (Inland Area Representative) (1)

(t) Mendocino County Climate Action Advisory Committee (Various) (13)

(u) Mendocino County Resource Conservation District (Long-Term Director) (2)

(v) Mendocino County Tourism Commission (Various) (2)

(w) Mendocino Historical Review Board (Member) (1)

(x) Museum Advisory Board (Various) (2)

(y) North Coast Resource Partnership (Alternate Mendocino Rep to the Tech Review Comm.) (1)

(z) Policy Council on Children and Youth (PCCY) (Various) (12)

(aa) Potter Valley Cemetery District (Trustee) (1)

(ab) Round Valley Municipal Advisory Council (Various) (10)

(ac) Sonoma Mendocino Economic Development District (Director) (1)

(ad) Westport Municipal Advisory Council (Member) (1)

(ae) Westport-Ten Mile Cemetery District (Trustee) (1)

ANYBODY?

Mendocino County Comix

Does anyone know if Scot Steele, Lennie Anderson or Tim Estrada are still in the area? They were illustrators for Mendocino County Comix.

Thanks!

Anne Maureen McKeating annemaureen.mckeating@gmail.com


VISUAL ART PRESENTATION AND BARBECUE

Thursday, August 22, 5:30pm (doors open at 5pm)

Free admission

Two Mendocino Art Center visiting instructors, Vince Pitelka and Harold O’Connor, will give visual presentations of their work, followed by a potluck barbecue. Bring an item for the grill, a beverage and a side dish to share.

Vince Pitelka has become a prominent figure in the ceramics field over the 50 years he has been working in clay. His work has been through many phases as he grew from a studio potter to ceramic artist and educator. He will talk about his work, how it’s changed, what has influenced these changes, and what has sustained him through a long career as an artist.

Harold O’Connor has been a master metalsmith for 56 years, receiving his training in Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, the US and Mexico. He is the author of several books including The Jeweler's Bench Reference, and has lectured and conducted workshops in 19 countries. Harold’s works are in private and public collections worldwide including Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., The Metropolitan Museum in New York City, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, Canada.

Limited space is available for both classes:

Vince Pitelka, Handbuilding: Tricks of the Trade, August 19-23

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer19/Pitelka.html

Harold O’Connor, “Coloring” Metals, August 21-24

http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer19/OConnor.html

Mendocino Art Center 45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino 707.937.5818

http://www.MendocinoArtCenter.org

No Dogs

EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW how to roast a chicken. It's a life skill that should be taught to small children at school. The ability to properly prepare a moist yet thoroughly cooked bird, with nicely crisp skin, should be a hallmark of good citizenry — an obligation to your fellow man. Everyone walking down the street should be reasonably confident that the random person next to them is prepared, if called upon, to roast a chicken.

— Anthony Bourdain, 2016; from "Appetites, A Cookbook"

(Mark Scaramella’s comment: “My mother’s “secret” to roasting any kind of poultry: Mayonaisse, plenty of it.)

CORRECTED PSA Annual Democratic United with Labor BBQ, September 2 in Todd Grove Park

Democrats of Mendocino County and the Inland Mendocino Democratic Club present:

UNITED WITH LABOR BBQ

Democrats TURN OUT 2020

Todd Grove Park

Monday, September 2, 2019

11-3 pm

BBQ burgers, dogs, bean burgers and chicken - grass fed / organic

Donation at the door

Zero waste event- bring plate, cup, utensils for yourself

Pot luck salads and desserts

Speakers include Senator Mike McGuire, Assemblyman Jim Wood, and various candidates running for local office.

Entertainment by Paula Samonte, the Raging Grannies, and others.

Beer and wine for sale.

Water is free. (No plastic bottles- bring a cup)

Sponsored by the SEIU local 2015, SEIU local 1021, AFL-CIO Northbay Labor Council, Teamsters Local 665, and Union of Operating Engineers.

Booth space & volunteering - call Helen 367-0250

FOUND OBJECT