MCT: Friday, August 23, 2019

• Kit Leaving
• Ambulance Benefit
• AV Football
• School Enrollment
• Stoen Retires
• 1994 Mexico
• Flynn Writing
• Colored Fork
• Comptche Cooking
• Hospital Update
• B Agenda
• Book Box
• Pilot Rock
• Climate Plan
• Monkeeshades
• Housing Project
• Gunstock 1969
• Yesterday's Catch
• Art Quilt
• Madame Wong
• Flatten Settlement
• Older People
• Daphne Galizia
• Moral Superiority
• 4000 Miles
• Google Not
• Senatitus
• Donnie Green
• Uncle Jay-T
• Amazon Fire
• One Helicopter
• Antifa Mirrors
• Electric Biking

KATHERINE ELLIOTT ANNOUNCED AS NEVADA COUNTY’S COUNTY COUNSEL

by Nevada County Executive Office

Nevada County, CA August 22, 2019 – After a strong candidate recruitment with Ralph Andersen & Associates, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors has appointed Kit Elliott as Nevada County’s County Counsel effective November 1st, 2019.

“The Board is excited to announce Ms. Elliott as our next County Counsel,” said Board of Supervisors Chair and District V Supervisor Richard Anderson. “We had a successful interview process during our closed meeting earlier this month and believe she will be a great fit for the organization.”

County Counsel provides professional legal services and advice to the Board of Supervisors, the County Executive Office, County departments, special districts, and commissions on civil and administrative legal matters. The position serves a term appointment by the Board of Supervisors and works collaboratively with County Executive Officer, Alison Lehman.

“County Counsel plays an important role in local government as they are responsible for drafting and reviewing resolutions, ordinances and agreements,” said County Executive Officer Alison Lehman. “Ms. Elliot brings a skillset and experience that will serve our County and Board well as we continue to make progress on community priorities.”

While in Mendocino County, Ms. Elliott oversaw the adoption and implementation of the County’s cannabis ordinances including cultivation, dispensaries and taxes. In addition, she advised the County on the creation of protocols and resolutions in response to several wildfire events and managed a similar sized office.

“Coming from another rural California County, I’m looking forward to jumping right in on Board Priorities like wildfire and cannabis,” said Ms. Elliott. “My husband and I both enjoy working and being a part of rural communities like Nevada County, and are excited to start enjoying the arts, outdoor recreation and community Nevada County offers.”

County Counsel is an office that oversees 7 employees with approximately a $1.5 budget. Alison Barrett-Green is retiring effective November 1st, 2019, after 9 years of service in Nevada County.

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DEPARTMENT HEAD MATTERS: Director of Human Resources : Steven Rose 27. SR 19-0796 Resolution appointing Katharine Elliott as County Counsel, approving an employment agreement between the County of Nevada and Katharine Elliott, for County Counsel services, for the period November 1, 2019 through October 31, 2023, and authorizing the Chair of the Board of Supervisors to execute the Agreement.

(Nevada County Board of Supervisors agenda for Tuesday, August 27, 2019)

BARBECUE & AMBULANCE BENEFIT

Sunday, August 25th. Don't miss the big yearly bbq in the grove at the fairgrounds!

NORM CLOW WRITES: On football at AV (Valley People 8/14), the first ever team was fielded in the Fall of 1935, apparently for only one season, and based on the yearbooks we have at hand didn’t reappear until perhaps 1948.

I believe the school districts were consolidated around 1950, with the word “union” officially dropped from the high school name (although it appeared on the entrance for some time after). Too bad football has disappeared from so many small schools, and even some larger ones, in the area. The Fairgrounds announcing booth seems empty and far too quiet without the two of us up there rousing the rabble and annoying all the appropriate people.

PS. Here’s Ken Hurst’s 1958 football squad.

How’s he doing after the fire? The fellow top left, #39, Bob Talkington, became a very accomplished neurosurgeon.

PPS. I assume you’re aware of Shine & Beth Tuttle’s great-grandson Andrew, graduate of Maria Carrillo HS in Santa Rosa, drafted #3 in the nation by the White Sox this year out of Cal, tearing up A League ball in Winston-Salem? Considered one of the best power hitters in this year’s class. Get yer tickets now…

OUR NATION'S FUTURE, BOONVILLE BRANCH. ENROLLMENT, FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL:

Here are the enrollment figures for the first week of school, as well as last year's numbers. The decline of 21 students was not unexpected and was primarily due to the large graduating class and the small incoming Kindergarten group.

First Week Enrollment

8/19/2019, 8/27/2018 (Difference)

Kindergarten-6th: 239, 249 (-10)

7th-8th: 78, 89, (-11)

9th-12th: 134, 133 (+1)

Rancheria: 6, 7 (-1)

Total: 457, 478 (-21)

LAST DAY FOR LOCAL LAWYER LEGEND TIM STOEN…

MSP was made aware by a viewer today is Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen's last day serving Mendocino County. He may be the longest/oldest practicing Deputy DA in the state - 81 years old. If you happened to have had lunch at Noyo Harbor Inn Thursday from noon-1pm, you'd have witnessed a fond farewell to an incredible, humble and golden-hearted man. The consensus on the coast, and elsewhere, is Tim Stoen is a good person who has a deep commitment to trying to make the world a better place. He also is an author with a harrowing experience with the People's Temple — he lost a son in the mass suicide in Guyana. Here's a link for more on the book and his experience with the people's Temple: jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=67888

(via MSP)

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HELLO, HISTORY? GET ME RE-WRITE: Nothing personal against Tim Stoen. Always liked the guy on a personal level. But contrary to the rosy send-off above, much of his adult professional life was spent as consiglieri to pure evil. It's true that Stoen's son died at Jonestown, but the Stoens turned the boy over to the man they called "the greatest human being…" in the first place. Stoen stayed with the People’s Temple way too long, long after many other, far more rational members of Jones' deluded flock had fled. Give Stoen high marks for courage, though. He returned to the Mendo scene of the crime, the place Jones amassed his initial fortune by bilking the local, state and federal care systems and, with stolen money in the bank, moved on to San Francisco and greater things. (Mendo's always been a handy site to mount complicated crimes — cf the Bari Bombing.) Having settled in San Francisco where he quickly seduced Big Lib by helping them, among other things, rig a pivotal election, and lending his most fetching females to political big shots before relocating to the equator. Guess who was not only employed by the Frisco DA but, when that election fraud was challenged, spent many nights sleeping in the DA's office the better to “edit,” shall we say, the case files? (An excellent book detailing Jones-Stoen's adventures in election fraud is called “Season of the Witch” by David Talbot.) Then, after the carnage in Guyana, Stoen returned to Mendo to work for the Mendocino County DA's office, again establishing that in Mendocino County you are whatever you say you are, and history starts all over again every day. And Stoen's role as prosecutor in the Kenny Roger's case was, shall we say, not what anybody looking in might call ethically clean, that travesty getting a big boost from an idiot judge. Nor does Stoen's wholly dishonest book tell any of the truth about the Temple which, as an inside man, he knew. Well, what the hell. Nobody's perfect. I wish good things for the guy in the years he has left. Most anybody else with his experience would either have committed suicide or gone off to smoke opium in the Celebes.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Most people in the U.S. don’t realize how violent and tumultuous the year 1994 was for Mexico. And most people, including this person, doesn't know much at all about the big country on our south border. But the excellent Netflix documentary called 1994 after that pivotal year for Mexico, is an excellent crash course that helps us understand why and how Mexico lurched into near chaos. The leading party’s candidate for president, Colossio was assassinated in Tijuana, NAFTA was being protested by rebels in Chiapas, and the entire political system that had run the country for decades was thrown into crisis. Fascinating stuff.

FLYNN WASHBURNE CHECKS IN: What am I better at than nearly anybody? Relapsing! Fortunately, I'm also pretty good at climbing back on that poor old swaybacked horse. I'm also pretty lucky to have a parole officer who refuses to give up on me.

PS. I haven’t written anything since the library column two months ago that got me into trouble, but started a freshie last night at work.

BACK IN 2012, the State Water Board told the proliferating inland grape growers that they couldn't all pump at the same time from the dwindling Russian River on frost mornings to protect their grapes. The State said the grape people could even write their own frost protection plans, but the state had an obligation to protect the river for the sake of its remaining fish.

MOST PEOPLE thought the state was being more than reasonable, simply asking the grape growers to draft THEIR OWN plans so that they don’t dewater the Russian by simultaneous heavy pumping in the spring when flows decline anyway. But the inland Mendo grape growers bull-rushed Judge Ann Moorman's superior courtroom, whining that the state had no business in their affairs, that the river water belonged to them because they had legal riparian access to it and that they were already “self-regulating.” The Judge duly produced an opinion that satisfied the crybabies, but which was predictably overturned by the State Appellate Court sitting in San Francisco a year later.

WHICH IS WHY Sonoma County Farm Bureau President Tito Sasaki said at the time that Sonoma County grape growers had already begun work on the state-mandated frost water management plans when they were first required to be developed in 2011. That Sonoma County prep work was suspended in 2012 when Mendo Judge Ann Moorman issued a permanent injunction on the plan requirement at the request of the gaggle of self-aggrieved Mendo grape people who'd crowded her courtroom to demand relief from having to prepare THEIR OWN rules.

“COOPERATION” is not a word that Mendo growers are particularly fond of, otherwise they wouldn’t have paid for the expensive lawyers to file for the 2011 injunction from Moorman in the first place.

WE BRING THIS UP NOW after listening to last Tuesday’s discussion of yet another ridiculous rule that Mendo is imposing on pot growers. See, if in good faith you apply for a pot permit but then for some reason don’t grow any pot Mendo will still charge you several thousand dollars as a “minimum tax.” But after some griping from a few pot growers the Supes grudgingly agreed to an “appeal process” from the tax on your non-existent pot crop.

HENCE the “Proposed Cannabis Business Tax Appeal Procedures” that the Board discussed (again) on Tuesday:

1. The Board of Supervisors (the “Board”) designates the Chief Executive Officer, or his/her designee, Planning and Building Services Director, or his/her designee and Agricultural Commissioner, or his/her designee, as the Cannabis Business Tax Appellate Body (the “Appellate Body”) to consider appeals to the Cannabis Business Tax under Mendocino County Code section 6.32.
2. The Appellate Body will only address appeals of the Cannabis Business Tax at regularly agendized meetings.
3. Proper Notice will be established by the Appellate Body and the Clerk.
4. A Chair will be nominated by a member of the Appellate Body and appoint by a majority vote.
5. The Appellate Body will state if they anticipate continuation of any appeal to the Cannabis Business Tax.
6. The Chair of the Appellate Body will announce the hearing procedures and open the Public Hearing.
7. Staff will present a brief summary from the Cannabis Business Tax appeal and include any documentation to substantiate such appeal.
8. Appellate Body will hold additional questions and comments until all presentations are given (including Staff, Appellant, and public).
9. Appellant will present (20 minutes maximum); followed by Staff presentation (20 minutes maximum) and public comments.
10. Appellate Body and/or Clerk will note correspondence & telephone calls received.
11. Public Expression- if there is no Appellant, and public comments exceed 20 minutes, then each person speaking after the initial 20 minute public input shall be limited to a three (3) minute presentation.
12. Appellant will be allowed five (5) minutes for final remarks.
13. Staff will present final remarks and reminders.
14. Appellate Body may ask questions of Staff, Appellant, or public.
15. The Public Hearing is closed and the matter is now before the Appellate Body.
16. Appellate Body will vote on the appeal, a majority vote is required, and a final determination provided to the Appellant and Treasurer Tax Collector.

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This generic and criteria-free mystery process, because the “board” is three of Mendo’s most overpaid officials, would cost around $1300 which in some cases would be more than the tax being appealed.

So the Board discussed the process for almost two hours, debating whether they should charge for “a designee” instead of the top official, or if they should have tiers for minimum taxes and where those tiers should be, or if there should be a date after which, if you had a permit but didn’t grow, you wouldn’t get charged the minimum fee, and on and on and on. They also had to beat back Supervisor Ted Williams’s arguments that the entire process was a joke (although Williams never said the word “joke.”). Instead, at one point, Williams amusingly said the discussion was like if you had a fork in your eye and you were discussing what color of fork would be best.

They never even discussed what the “appelant” would have to prove to get his tax waived. (And never mind that this is far from a fair “board” of disinterested parties.)

After two hours, however, CEO Carmel Angelo said maybe they’d be better off with a hearing officer instead of a board. Everybody thought that was a decent idea, albeit way to late in the process, so they collective decided to abandon the original proposal and start over.

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK, and so forth.

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COMPARE THIS — and the rest of the ridiculous overkill that is the County’s pot permit program and associated rules with the wine growers flocking to courts at the prospect of a very modest rule that they prepare their own plans to prevent total dewatering of the Russian River.

WHY DO THE POT PEOPLE keep rolling over for this crap? Why don’t they take Mendo to court for unfair over-regulations compared to wine? Could Supervisors McCowen and Gjerde be right that some of them are simply outlaws and rather than arguing about over-regulation they’re just selling on the black market? Why do they put so much faith in Supervisor Williams carrying their water for them. At meeting after meeting the pot people who are trying to go legit whine about the over-regulation only to be ignored. It’s hard to have any sympathy for pot people who can’t organize themselves at least to the degree the wine industry does to either circulate a new pot permit measure or refuse to participate en masse or take the County to court.

SURE MENDO has completely screwed up the pot permit program. But why are the main targets of this collosal mess just sitting back and taking it?

PS. Also a few years ago you might recall that Mendo put forth its own pot permit regulation Measure as an alternative to the one the pot people put up. It was accompanied by an advisory companion measure that said the revenues derived from the pot permit program would go to roads, mental health, permit regulation and emergency services.

TROUBLE IS, there are no revenues. Never will be. The pot permit program is giant money pit.

(Mark Scaramella)

COAST HOSPITAL UPDATE

Dear Neighbors:

It is with deep concern, and a certain sadness, that I bring you an update on our very important local institution: The Mendocino Coast District Hospital. Many of us think it extremely important that we maintain our local hospital. How we go about maintaining our hospital is, unfortunately, once again open to question. Here is the latest news:

1-To merge or not to merge? The MCDH Board is split and there is infighting amongst them re either finding a "turn around CEO", to save the hospital, or, merging with Adventist hospital corporation.

2-The Board is split. McColley and Redding are working on hiring a "turn around CEO". Lunde, Grinberg and Arnold are working on merging with Adventist.

3-Separation of church and hospital? Many locals are concerned about the fact that Adventist is religion based and the religion is anti abortion and anti gay.

4-Board members conflicts of interest. Board members Grinberg and Arnold have been told by the California Fair Practices Commission that they must recuse themselves from discussion of the merger because they have conflicts of interest. Both of their places of employment do business with MCDH. Some locals believe that these conflicts, and their FPC compelled recusal, prevent Grinberg and Arnold from functioning as Board members and they should resign.

5-Board member a defendant in federal law suit. Board member Steve Lunde is a defendant in a federal law suit. This law suit also names former MCDH CEO Bob Edwards and former MCDH CFO, Wade Sturgeon. The law suit was initiated by former MCDH Director of Human Relations, Ellen Hardin. In addition to Edwards and Sturgeon bringing the hospital to the present brink of financial disaster, the federal law suit alleges they participated in numerous acts of employee harassment. Present MCDH Board member Lunde is named in the law suit because he was Board Chair at the time of the alleged incidents and it is claimed he abdicated his responsibility to protect the hospital employees.

6-Intra-Family Infighting. John Allison, representing the Hospital Foundation, who appears to favor the merger with Adventist, has called for the resignation of MCDH Board member Amy McColley. Allison claims that the residence, she, and her husband, local businessman, Jon McColley, own in Mendocino, is not her residence. Allison also wrote a letter complaining about Board member John Redding.

The bottom line is that the MCDH Board is severely compromised and it is quite possible that it will take a citizens volunteer council to insure that we have a local hospital. I think it is time for local activists to activate.

Wishing each of you excellent health,

Richard Louis Miller, M.A., Ph.D., Clinical Psychology

Fort Bragg

MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT ACT (Measure B) Citizen's Oversight Committee agenda for the August 28, 2019 meeting Agenda

3a) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Expenditure Report on Measure B Tax Funds

3b) Approval of Minutes of the July 24, 2019, Meeting

3c) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Update on Measure B Project Manager

3d) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Update on Purchase of Regional Behavioral Health Training Center/Sheriff Sub-station

3e) Acceptance of Suicide by Cop Update

3f) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Update on Status of the Architect RFQ and Related Feasibility Study

3g) Discussion and Possible Action Including Recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to Utilize Measure B Funds as a Match to Other Funding Streams

3h) Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Report from the Kemper Report Ad Hoc Committee

JOHN GOMEZ OF WILLITS ASKS: the county says this neighborhood amenity on Boy Scout Road, Willits, has got to go. Why? Ask Building And Planning.

ED NOTE: Might want to try asking the Department of Transportation rather than Buildling and Planning, since the notice is from a DOT engineer.

GRIM ANNIVERSARY NEXT TUESDAY

The Memorial at Pilot Rock. In 2001, while fighting the Bus Fire, two air tankers collided over the fire. The pilots, Lawrence L. Groff, 46, and Lars B. Stratte, 55, lost their lives. The Bus Fire was located near the area of the recent Moose Fire, McNab Ranch, Ukiah-near Hopland CA-Mendocino County. August 27, 2019 will be the 18-year anniversary for this tragic event.

ED NOTE: The men who allegedly started the fire, Frank Brady, 50, of Redwood City and Richard Mortensen, 43, of San Pablo, were soon arrested and booked on murder charges in connection with the pilots' deaths. The two men were manufacturing methamphetamine when, as I recall, their operation blew up, starting the fire. Both were subsequently convicted of second degree murder by Mendo DA Norm Vroman.

THE DNC is working overtime to sab Bernie Sanders, but the Bern soldiers on. Today, he announced a specific climate change-fighting plan that he says will cost $16 trillion, create 20 million new jobs and end unemployment. Bernie said he will declare a national emergency on climate change and take immediate, large-scale action to reverse its effects. “This is an existential threat and we will do whatever it takes to confront it,” he said, promising that his plan will pay for itself over 15 years as it makes the United States reliant on renewable energy for electricity and transportation.

“EXISTENTIAL THREAT” isn't exactly existential when sea rise is making areas of Miami uninhabitable and national average temperatures rise while the fires and destructive storms that come with climate change increase in destructive force, but it is an emergency and Bernie is right to address it so forcefully and so specifically.

LIVE NEXT DOOR

To The Editor,

A most interesting headline in today’s Ukiah Daily Journal that read “Housing Project proposed next to Homeless Shelter.” Well now, in my opinion, I think that is just a capital idea, providing that there are a couple of stipulations that need to be followed. First of all, I think that Camille Schrader and her husband who live on a big ranch in Potter Valley, far away from any homeless problem, I must add, and, who have made their fortune catering to the homeless in Ukiah, be required to reside in these proposed apartments. Secondly, I also think that all of the Ukiah City Council, as well as both city managers should also be required to live there. I think it would be a valuable lesson to those who profit from and those who protect the homeless to have to face them on a daily basis just as the rest of us who live in Ukiah have to do.

Thank you,

David Anderson

Ukiah

WOODSTOCK BUST

To the Editor,

The planned concert celebrating the Woodstock Festival's 50th anniversary (Aug. 16-18) was a Big Bust No Show, but who cares? The media hype focused entirely on Woodstock and failed to acknowledge a more significant music festival that also happened 50 years ago, 9000 miles away in Vietnam, attended by over 500,000 American troops, many wallowing in red gumbo, others grooving to the tunes of Woodstock performers via pirate broadcasts over modified field radios and rear area turntables and tape decks. The 1969 virtual Gunstock Festival was the pivotal moment in Vietnam when a majority of troops turned against the war, refused orders, and fragged superior officers. The brass had lost control of the grunts. Music played a major role in this insurrection, but the good hippy vibes from Woodstock didn't last long on the home front. After Altamont, the disillusioned Woodstock Nation, fragmented by greed and drugs, scattered to the outback to tune out, turn off, drop acid and grow pot. Flower Power faded into the Me Decade. An excellent book on the soundtrack of Vietnam is "We Gotta Get Out of This Place" by Doug Bradley and Craig Werner which was selected by Rolling Stone Magazine as its #1 Best Music Book of 2015.

So it Goes,

Don Morris

Ghost Town/ Willits

P.S. Regarding veteran pot warrior Pebbles Trippet's inspirational music, it was Chuck Berry, not Little Richard, who is credited as the sole songwriter of "My Ding-a-Ling" after he performed and recorded it at a Coventry, England concert in 1952. Previously, New Orleans songwriter Dave Bartholomew wrote and recorded the song in 1952 and Chuck Berry recorded a similar song "My Tambourine" in 1968. Berry also recorded a raunchy version of his big hit "Reelin' and a Rockn' " that pushed all the right buttons.

CATCH OF THE DAY, AUGUST 21, 2019

ERICA CERVANTES, Boonville. Stolen vehicle, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

FERNANDO MAGANA-PLANCARTE, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, suspended license (for DUI), probation revocation.

DARIC PARDO, Covelo. Vandalism, under influence, parole violation.

FRANKLIN PATTY, Red Bluff/Ukiah. Attempted petty theft, getting credit with someone else’s ID, probation revocation.

CALIFORNIA ART QUILT — Sunday at Grace Hudson — from the Summer of Love to the New Millennium

On Sunday, August 25, from 2 to 3 p.m., the Grace Hudson presents an illustrated talk on the California art quilt by Nancy Bavor, executive director of the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. Bavor will focus on the cultural forces that led to the emergence of art quilts, highlighting some pioneering California artists who blazed the trail for contemporary quilt makers. The event is free with Museum admission.

Nancy Bavor coauthored the 2018 book, “Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation,” and co-curated the accompanying exhibition, “Layered & Stitched: Fifty Years of Innovative Art,” that will have its West Coast premiere at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles from mid-April to mid-July, 2020. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from Northwestern University and a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln in the History of Textiles/Quilt Studies emphasis.

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 4:30 p.m. General admission is $4; $10 per family; $3 for students and seniors; free to all on the first Friday of the month; and always free to members. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or call (707) 467-2836.

ESTHER WONG, the unlikely "godmother of punk" who showcased such groups as Oingo Boingo at her Madame Wong's clubs in Chinatown and Santa Monica in the late 1970s and '80s, has died. She was 88.

At first slow to accept punk rock, new wave and other 1970s music, the colorful and sometimes controversial Wong came to be one its most ardent patrons in Los Angeles.

Her Madame Wong's restaurant on Sun Mun Way in Chinatown, which she opened in 1970 with her now-deceased first husband, George Wong, originally featured Polynesian bands. But when that music attracted smaller and smaller crowds, she was persuaded in 1978 to book rock musicians for one month.

The switch immediately increased her nightly crowd from as few as a dozen to about 350, and she declared the restaurant a stage for rock, punk and new wave bands.

"Before, I didn't think I'd ever like rock music," she told The Times in 1979. "Now I can turn it on, and it doesn't bother me."

At Madame Wong's, which closed in 1985, and Madame Wong's West in Santa Monica, which operated from 1978 to 1991, she proved a staunch supporter of new and local groups. Besides Oingo Boingo, her stages presented the Police, X, the Motels, 20/20, the Knack, the Know, the Textones, the Go-Gos, the Plimsouls, the Kats, the Nu Kats, the Bus Boys, Plane English, the Naughty Sweeties and others.

She opened the Santa Monica club, she once told The Times, because there were too many worthy groups seeking bookings for her Chinatown club alone to accommodate. And she closed each club as new wave and then other forms of rock lost popularity.

Wong chose the groups by listening to audition tapes - although she had to give up playing them in her car.

"I got a very bad temper," she told The Times in 1980. "When there's a bad tape, I throw it outside the window. One day I almost hit the Highway Patrol car that was right next to me."

A no-nonsense businesswoman, Wong was disparaged by some bands for her temper. She once stopped a show until two members of the Ramones cleaned up graffiti they had written on the bathroom walls.

She limited clientele to those over 21, eliminating the huge younger rock audience, to the distress of several bands. She all but banned female singers, calling them "no good, always trouble." And she regularly patrolled her establishment during performances, sniffing for marijuana smoke.

Wong could be jealous and vindictive - refusing to book or rebook any group that played at a rival Chinatown venue, the Hong Kong Cafe.

But she was also beloved by many of the bands as a favorite patron or godmother, not only for giving them a venue but for her payment policy. Each group split the entire admission fee.

"I like it because you get paid by your popularity," Gary Valentine of the Know told The Times in 1979. "That's the place we've made the most money in L.A."

Jeff Green, co-manager of the Naughty Sweeties, The Kats and Nu Kats, also praised Wong in the heyday of her clubs, telling The Times in 1980: "Quirky she is, but she offers the best opportunity in this city to groups who can attract paying fans. Sure, she's difficult at times, but a lot less difficult than other local club owners."

Born and educated in Shanghai, Wong grew up traveling the world with her importer father. She moved to Los Angeles in 1949 to escape the Communist regime and worked for two decades as a clerk and trainer of clerks for a shipping company before opening her restaurant.

Some Wong related tidbits:

"It could have happened anywhere, any time, any city. But it happened right here in Los Angeles. It was a good time to be here. Lots of good bands and plenty of good clubs where a band didn't have to 'pay' to play. In short, we had a 'scene'. … a chinatown club called Madame Wongs - a Chinese Restaurant by day, new wave zombie zoo by night run by an ageing tyrant called, you guessed it, Madame Wong." --Rick Gershon

"Chinatown was the hip place to hang out in 1977 when punk music made its way to L.A. entrepreneur Paul Greenstein talked Madame Wong's Chinese Restaurant into opening its doors to live music and the nearby Hong Kong restaurant did the same thing. All types of bands came to Chinatown to check out the New Wave acts like: the Police, the Knack, the B-52s, the Busboys, the Kats, the Motels and others. Business was so good that Esther Wong opened a second Madame Wong's in Santa Monica." --Arrow97

OUR ROCKSTAR ATTORNEY at it again… this story goes to show when law enforcement thinks they are above the law, things can get sticky quickly. Thanks Omar Figueroa for tirelessly working to make the world a better, safer, kinder place. You are a true advocate for the people (plant & planet!!) & a heroic PEACE&LOVE&CHANGE&AGENT

The City of Rohnert Park made the right decision in choosing to settle the federal civil rights lawsuit brought by Zeke Flatten. Mr. Flatten has been vindicated. Kudos to him for standing up for all of our rights!

THE BOOMERS get tied to the sixties because they are assumed to have created a culture of liberal permissiveness, and because they were utopians—political idealists, social activists, counterculturalists. In fact, it is almost impossible to name a single person born after 1945 who played any kind of role in the civil-rights movement, Students for a Democratic Society, the New Left, the antiwar movement, or the Black Panthers during the 1960s. Those movements were all started by older, usually much older, people.

— Louis Menand

THE PROTESTS by the radical left now sweeping America, as Aviva Chomsky points out, are too often little more than self-advertisements for moral purity. They are products of a social media culture in which each of us is the star of his or her own life movie. They are infected with the American belief in regeneration through violence and the cult of the gun. They represent a clash between the bankruptcy of identity politics, which produced, as Dr. West has said, a president who was “a black mascot for Wall Street,” and the bankruptcy of a white, Christianized fascism that produced Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.

“Rather than organizing for change, individuals seek to enact a statement about their own righteousness,” Chomsky writes in “How (Not) to Challenge Racist Violence.” “They may boycott certain products, refuse to eat certain foods, or they may show up to marches or rallies whose only purpose is to demonstrate the moral superiority of the participants. White people may loudly claim that they recognize their privilege or declare themselves allies of people of color or other marginalized groups. People may declare their communities ‘no place for hate.’ Or they may show up at counter-marches to ‘stand up’ to white nationalists or neo-Nazis. All of these types of ‘activism’ emphasize self-improvement or self-expression rather than seeking concrete change in society or policy. They are deeply, and deliberately, apolitical in the sense that they do not seek to address issues of power, resources, decision making, or how to bring about change.”

— Chris Hedges

4000 MILES…A POIGNANT COMIC DRAMA

The Mendocino Theatre Company's production of Amy Herzog's comic drama 4000 MILES, directed by Betty Abramson, continues this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:00 pm. A finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the play is a compassionate and funny examination of the love and loss, growing up and growing old, and the bonds of family. Featuring Ann Woodhead, Jimmy Betts, Heather Gealey, and Laurel Livezey, this production has garnered much praise from local audiences.

For tickets and information, phone 707-937-4477 or go to mendocinotheatre.org.

The actors talk about their characters in this YouTube video by Alice Williams: https://youtu.be/7YoD4KyHiyc

Read the review by Marylyn Motherbear Scott here: https://www.theava.com/archives/107160#13

JOE BIDEN’S NOSTALGIA for the villains of his political youth, and his belief that the institution can be restored to its bygone manners, is a symptom of a more profound disorder that you might call “Senatitis.” Senatitis is an irrational reverence for the folkways and culture of the upper legislative chamber. Those afflicted believe that the Senate gathers together 100 of the finest statesmen in American life, or at least transforms ordinary politicians into such giants through its mystical traditions. To the extent they see any problems with the operations of their beloved chamber, it can only be ascribed to the corrupting effects of non-senatorial politics, and the solution is always to make American politics more senatorial. If you hear somebody unironically use the phrase “world’s greatest deliberative body,” you have located an acute sufferer.

—New York Magazine

NFL BOSSES ARE ALREADY WEAPONIZING JAY-Z

by Dave Zirin

Kenny Stills hasn’t blinked once. The Miami Dolphins wide receiver, and two-time nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for his community service, has taken a knee during the national anthem to protest racism and police violence for two seasons. He has been outspoken both to the press and on social media about a variety of social issues. Just last week he made waves when he called out the hypocrisy of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross for being a Trump financial backer while also running a nonprofit called RISE with the stated cause of fighting racism.

Stills took it to another level when he criticized hip-hop artist, executive, and billionaire Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter’s new musical and social justice partnership with the NFL, which appears to be Carter’s entry point to someday owning an NFL team.

Sitting alongside NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, Carter suggested that his partnership signaled the end of Kaepernick-style protesting in the NFL, saying, “We’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items.” Carter went on to say that people should stop being “stuck on Colin not having a job.”

He was blessing the NFL as a born-again “woke” entity, but Kenny Stills, true to form, wasn’t having it. Speaking to the press, Stills criticized Carter for talking at length with the bosses, but not any of the protesting players before making this proclamation.

“Some of the ways he answered his questions, talking about we’re moving past kneeling, like he ever protested. He’s not a NFL player. He’s never been on a knee. Choosing to speak for the people like he had spoken to the people…. I wonder how many common people that he knows or has spoken to. I wonder if he’s read my Facebook comments or my Instagram comments or some of the things people say to me. To say we’re moving past something, it didn’t seem very informed.”

He went on, “I felt like [Carter] really discredited Colin and myself and the work that’s being done in our communities. What’s fueling everything now is division. I wish it was handled in a different way.” Stills not only criticized Jay-Z’s partnership with the league, but also how the owners as a whole have chosen to do business.

Now, Stills is feeling the backlash from his own team, in particular his coach Brian Flores. In a petty and passive-aggressive move, Flores began the first practice after Stills’s comments with a musical playlist that started with eight consecutive Jay-Z tracks. He dropped the playlist conspicuously during the first 30 minutes, when the media had access to the field. It was an apparent attempt to embarrass Stills in front of the team and the press, although the organization in damage-control mode made clear to reporters that this was all much ado about nothing.

It must be noted that Flores, one of only three black head coaches in the entire “woke” NFL, has been sharply critical of the way Stills has handled his disagreement with Stephen Ross’s Trump support. This shouldn’t be surprising. Flores is management. Ross is his boss. And Jay-Z is aspiring ownership. They know what side they are on. Kenny Stills knows what side he is on. The question is where the Dolphins players will fall.

Albert Wilson, like Stills a wide receiver, kneels during the anthem. Other than the two of them, the team has been silent. Yet playing Jay-Z is a signal from Flores that he rejects Kenny Stills’s using his NFL platform to protest injustice. We will find out if this causes Flores to lose the team by trying to humiliate a popular player or if it will “get them in line.” Either way, it says something remarkable about our times that the way he lays down the law is by playing Jay-Z. The Rap God has been weaponized as a tool of management. These are truly bewildering times.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

We were laughing in Laytonville about how scared everybody was getting over the National Guard helicopter. ONE helicopter. Ha Ha Ha! We remember well the days when CAMP had Three for Mendocino and Three to Five for Humboldt - all going the same day, every day of the week. That’s why I laugh at the permit people thinking that they will somehow pay enough eradication fees to stomp out the original market. I can only think they have no idea what they are up against?

HOW ANTIFA MIRRORS THE ALT-RIGHT

truthdig.com/articles/antifa-mirrors-alt-right/

SAVING THE PLANET, A DIALOGUE (1, 2, 3)

By now anyone of a certain age knows that higher quality of life means giving up things, not holding on to toxic assets.

But variety can be achieved by, for instance, substituting the occasional Lyft and an electric bicycle for the personal automobile.

I took a look at the new bike shop selection today. Interestingly the new bicycles are substantially bulkier than in the past.

Exponential growth in technology of the bike itself now (200?) years old, and the addition of batteries and motors, with much larger wheels, tires, and suspension systems makes a bike that is nearly indestructible and carries an American size person with ease.

Today’s bike shops measure your sit bones and make numerous adjustments to make the bike “fit” you like a shoe.

The helmets don’t just flash lights, they call 911.

With the motors able to accelerate to small motorcycle speeds, keeping up with urban traffic and hill climbing are a thing of the past.

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Again, dream on.

The average American is welded to the automobile. I would even guess that he/she is physically incapable of biking. Like everything else, CC wise, the problem is convincing the average Jill or Joe to give up their comfort. A great example of the reluctance is the millions of individual drivers in cars in traffic jams versus the car pool HoV lanes. Until the world runs out of fuel, people will not change and when they are forced to, it will not be pleasant.

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Yes, you’ll be on your bike, peddaling you ass off in 95°F heat, or thru torrential rain, making about 8 mph, saving the planet, and here comes, say, a top staffer at the Sierra Club, or a mid level DEP bureaucrat, pulling down a quarter million per year, zipping by in a new Beamer, cool and dry, hitting a puddle to deliberately splash you, giving you the finger, and shouting “Get the hell out of the way!”, thinking, what a goddam sucker. And you will be a sucker.