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MCT: Monday, October 7, 2019

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PG&E MULLS MASSIVE POWER CUT TO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL CALIFORNIA AMID MIDWEEK FIRE WEATHER

PG&E’s largest planned power outage yet could coincide with the two-year anniversary of the North Bay fires, a fall forecast combining three factors — strong winds, low humidity and dry woodlands — reminiscent of the October 2017 firestorm prompting utility officials to consider shutting off electricity Wednesday and Thursday in about 30 Northern and Central California counties. The unprecedented advisory, affecting millions of residents, includes the North Bay and appears to exempt only two counties in PG&E’s service territory, Marin and San Francisco.

pressdemocrat.com/news/10147553-181/pge-mulls-massive-power-to

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SAVE THE LOCAL GRAIN PROJECT

The Mendocino Grain Project has been a successful and impressive effort to grow and process local grains into flour for baking and cooking here in our county. Its founder Doug Mosel now needs to move the project to a new home. Lake County grain farmer John LaBoyteaux, in a letter sent to fellow food producers, discussed the large storage space Mosel rents north of Ukiah to house his grains, as well as the cleaning and milling equipment needed to process them.

According to LaBoyteaux, “Right now it provides the only fully equipped, commercially viable, grain-cleaning facility anywhere on the North Coast, (currently processing) grain from Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt counties.”

It would be a real shame to lose that capability locally.

Mosel and LaBoyteaux are proposing the creation of what they are calling the North Coast Grain Institute, which they envision as an agricultural research station dedicated to grains, but including other organic crops, which would also house and operate the cleaning equipment and other grain infrastructure, as well as serving as a place to train younger farmers.

A location for a new home has been found on a 25-acre site in Upper Lake. It’s a certified organic walnut orchard which is described as having the industrial structures needed to clean and store grain, and provide research and educational facilities. The walnut operation would be continued to support the Institute, but non-productive sections wold be removed to devote to grains and other crop research.

To create the institute, the farmers are looking for “a person or persons who can front the money, at least in the short-term, to acquire the property and continue cleaning grain while pursuing public benefit grants and matching fund options. The ranch does have continued income from the walnuts to cover the property taxes and other expenses. However, in the short-term we need benefactors who have the cash, understand the importance of the project for North Coast grains, and are willing to work with us to make this happen and put the institute on a sound financial footing.”

We hope that person is out there. Anyone interested in helping get the Institute up and running can contact contact Mosel at 707-621-0972 or LaBoyteaux at 707-496-3270.

(K.C. Meadows, Editor, Ukiah Daily Journal. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

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PLOWSHARES FUNDRAISER DINNER, October 5

Text & Photos by Marilyn Davin

Conspicuously absent from The Plowshares annual fundraiser Saturday night at Barra Winery were public officials, county leadership (including front runners for the Ukiah supervisorial district John McCowen and Mo Mulheren), members of city or county leadership or key helping professionals who wax poetic singing praises for the Meals on Wheels program at every public opportunity…Where were they? Nevertheless the 120 attendees delighted in the BBQ, or, if not, at least luxuriated in a variety of donated local wines, which were also raffled off, or rocked to the 80s-themed disco band The Funky Dozen, complete with dry ice and colored lights.

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A SAN FRANCISCO READER WRITES: To Whom It May Concern, I'm requesting a 1-year subscription and will send a check tomorrow, Mon. Oct. 7. I had a subscription previously but let it lapse due to the fact that my landlord was pursuing a fraudulent eviction against me and I was uncertain how much longer I would be residing at that address. I have defeated him, and so would like to resume receiving the AVA. Thank you.

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THE ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE

The AV Village’s long calendar of local events for moms and pops and other age-challenged valley-ites (and others, of course) can be seen at: andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events

Or by contacting coordinator Anica Williams at: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com or 707-684-9829

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BAD IDEAS

To the Editor:

I see once again Ukiah’s fearless City leaders are going down the wrong road again literally with the State Street strangulation project. They have paid a consultant to tell them what to do and they will now throw good money after bad money. The poor fools who voted for the sales tax hike for street repairs have been duped and are going to be duped again. When you decrease the number of lanes in any direction you increase congestion, it’s that simple. Less is not more, it never is.

I guess we could install K-rail barriers up and down State Street and direct everyone to enter the downtown area and only let them out if they purchased something — that might work, forced entry. Maybe close the highway from 8am to 6pm and have all traffic run through our beautiful downtown. Give free tours of the old post office, the Palace Hotel and soon to be closed court house. We can advertise it as, “See it while you can because it will be really bad in a few more years.” Charge $5 to exit or show a receipt for same amount of purchases, no one escapes for free.

I have figured out why we are no longer repairing our streets, a consultant has told them don’t spent another dime on the streets as it will be cheaper to outfit every car in Ukiah with new tires and shocks. With the money you save you can all have raises and hire more consultants to tell us what to do with all our money. I can’t wait for my new tires.

Bob Morgan

Ukiah

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THE WORLD'S BEST DONUTS, REDWOOD DRIVE-IN, BOONVILLE

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THE GRESSETT REPORT

by Rex Gressett

It’s a strange new world when the Mayor of Fort Bragg takes a page from the Trump playbook. The Press Is The Enemy Of The People blasts Mayor Will Lee. Not all the press — only the part that disagrees with him. The Donald Tweets; Will Lee posts. I’ve been snubbed before, but to hear the mayor tell it I am… well… a public enemy. I don’t live in the city, I don’t have the facts. I don’t understand his sophisticated governance — and I say mean stuff. I am screwing up everything.

It seems a little over the top and it hasn’t always been this way.

The last time Will Lee and I had coffee he told me we should do it more often. Then I asked that awkward question. What happens to the 70% of the mill site that the Coastal Commission has required remain open space? GP can’t sell open space. GP will own it. Nothing requires them to clean it up.

A permanently fenced off mill site (70%) dotted intermittently with light industrial shops and a big supermarket next to the highway turns out to be the best plan they can come up with. It's kind of weird that after the millions of dollars consumed by Fort Bragg city hall in the two decades of mill site planning — no planning at all would have exactly the same effect. Why is the City Council supporting a plan that leaves two-thirds of the mill site fenced off for another generation or two and why oh why does the Mayor feels he needs to defend the plan so ferociously? It’s objectively a bad plan.

Is citizen journalism as dark and dangerous a force as Will Lee claims it is? Or is there more to it than meets the eye? When I raised the issue, councilman and former Mayor Lindy Peters, current Mayor Will Lee, and (possibly coincidently Dan Gjerde) instantly cut off all communication. No more questions, no more interviews.

"Bye Bye," said Lindy Peters in his admirably terse last email.

Will Lee has been outspoken damning me to hell. It’s a total communications blackout. Maybe I’m as bad as the Mayor says. Maybe the Mayor is stuck between a rock and Georgia Pacific. Maybe the whole story has NOT been told.

A crack in the stonewall may have taken place in a quiet development committee meeting one weekday afternoon two years ago in Fort Bragg - August 24, 2017 to be exact.

At that time, the City Council was under intense pressure after the big public meeting in which the DTSC (the State Department of Toxic Substance Control) had announced the termination of the mill site toxic clean up, explaining to the people of the city that they were leaving Fort Bragg in possession of a mill pond that DTSC had to admit remained unsafe for human beings. DTSC told Fort Bragg that if people did not walk past the pond more than (I think it was) two times a week they probably would not get cancer. It looked bad for a City Council that had provided no pushback on the DTSC.

In committee, they reacted to public pressure with a proposed resolution. Bravely titled “For the Benefit of the Citizens of the North Coast, The Environment and our Economic Future.”

The proposed resolution demanded that “Be it resolved that the restorations of all the wetland areas on the mill site be given a strong and renewed priority by decision-makers, and be it Further Resolved that the preferred remediation of the mill pond is that it be dismantled and thoroughly cleaned of toxic contamination."

It was what the people of the city were demanding. The dirty little secret was that the brave little resolution was also a double-cross of a deal between the city and GP. Georgia Pacific wasted no time in reacting. Now we can finally tell the story.

In an undisclosed letter to then-Mayor Lindy Peters, Georgia Pacific blew the whistle:

"We are aware that the City Council is prepared to consider the October 24, 2017 Council Committee Item Summary Report to ‘Receive Report and Provide Direction Regarding Resolution Regarding Clean-up of the GP Mill Pond’ and possibly take affirmative steps to endorse a resolution calling on DTSC to require active remediation of Pond 8, also known as the log pond, on the Georgia-Pacific site. We want to remind you and the City Council that the City, in order to settle claims between the City and Georgia-Pacific in the recent cost recovery litigation, agreed to certain terms and Georgia-Pacific accepted the City's settlement proposal and dismissed our claims. Should the City proceed with consideration of the Pond 8 resolution, we would view the City to be in breach of our agreement and would take such action as would be appropriate…should we be forced to undertake active remediation, we will require that the City fund its fair share of that remediation.”

Prior to this report, no disclosure of ANY deal obligating the city for a share of cleanup costs has ever been released by the city, discussed at a Council meeting, or reported to the people.

The city did not release the information easily when I requested the letter from GP — City Clerk June Lemos sent me an email stating that:

“This document is privileged and will not be disclosed pursuant to Gov. Code 6254(k) and Evid. Code Section 1119. This determination was made by the City Attorney in conjunction with the City Manager.”

It was not until we credibly threatened to take them to court. the city caved. Now we know.

Maybe the 70% of the mill site that Will Lee is fighting to keep fenced off forever is not such a mystery after all.

Fort Bragg's finances are extremely fragile. They can't build a staircase at Glass Beach. Fort Bragg paying for half of the clean up of the Mill site is not on the table.

Maybe Lindy Peters's shutdown of communications makes more sense than it seemed to. Maybe Will Lee and Peters are caught, as I said, between a rock and Georgia Pacific.

Maybe it's not the press that is the enemy of the people.

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UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Zeus is a mellow fellow, calm and easy going. During a recent Pajama Party, Zeus was a good boy and got along with the dog and cat in the home. He can be a little shy of new people, but once he gets to know someone, he loves spending time with them. Zeus is a 10 year old neutered male Shar Pei mix who currently weighs 47 pounds. Zeus is eligible for the shelter’s Senior Dog Discount.

There's lots more about Zeus on his webpage: mendoanimalshelter.com/dogblog/zeus

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah. Our dog and cat kennel hours have changed. Please visit our website for the new hours, and information about our guests, services, programs and events: mendoanimalshelter.com

For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

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IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE, animals are using humans for experimentation and cosmetics testing.

WELLNER, Wilhelm Anton (1859-1939). ‘Die Vivisection des Menschen’ (The Vivisection of Man), Lustige Blätter, #1, 1899.

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THE DEADLINE for the Mendocino County Cannabis Cultivation Phase One was Friday at 5pm. All Phase I (sort of a grandfathering phase) applications for cultivation were to have been submitted via drop box at the Department of Planning and Building Services before 5pm. Beyond all rational consideration, the County hopes that “Phase 2” will be more lucrative than Phase 1 for everybody.

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ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND INGRID BERGMAN at Jack’s Restaurant, SF, 1941

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BY SOME MYSTERIOUS internet quirk the Ukiah Daily Journal re-posted former Ukiah Daily Journal reporter Tiffany Revelle’s 2013 account of the filming of the final scene of an awful car-chase movie called “Need for Speed” in Sunday’s on-line edition of the Journal. Which is as good an excuse as any for us to repost our own coverage/review of the movie after it came out in 2015.


NEED FOR SPEED. A reel short review of a real bad movie — If you like dumb dudes and brainless babes decorating endless car chases you'll love 'Need For Speed,' filmed partially in Mendocino County in 2013. AVA readers may recall the predictions made during the March of 2013 pre-filming meeting at the Boonville Fairgrounds, a community meeting called by the PR lady for the film after the County had quietly approved the permit for it without notice or a public hearing.

WHILE FILMING was underway, local roads were blockaded here and there off-and-on in Anderson Valley and on the Coast for two weeks while car-chase scenes were rehearsed and filmed, inconveniencing many Fifth District constituents of Supervisor Dan Hamburg. Hamburg, of course, denounced critics of the County's slight-of-hand permit process and even more fervently denounced people who said the movie was another filmic invitation to bad driving.

THE “PLOT” in a nutshell: An extended fast-car commercial with flaming, rolling expensive car crashes interlaced with occasional shots of dudes talking about babes while the babes caress the vehicles.

THE MOVIE BEGINS with a car chase in Detroit, perhaps to alert the cretins who've paid their way in to the theater that they haven't accidentally walked into an art house. After a couple of chases during which a homeless man crossing the street is run over and a car-driving moron dies in a crash, another of the high speed morons goes to prison, emerging to denounce the other morons as "bitches," ancient prison lingo from the middle 1960s. Toward the end of the movie we get glimpses of Highway 253 and Highway 128 in the final car-crash/race where there's a near miss with a school bus, the Navarro Bridge, the Point Arena Lighthouse, all the while we wondered why the masterminds funding this grotesque epic bothered coming all the way up here from LA when they could have recorded the crashes in any scenic area anywhere. You wouldn’t recognize Mendo as Mendo unless you’re from Mendo.

WE'LL CONCEDE the project brought some money into Mendocino County. So do the people who sell speed in powder form. So do the grape growers. But the money wasn't much because the film company set up their own little self-contained village at the Boonville Fairgrounds complete with their own restaurant.

THE MOST RIDICULOUS claim by company rep Mandy Dillon at that March 2013 meeting in Boonville was her repeated insistence that the production would be “green” because they recycled some of the wreckage and used biodiesel generators and vehicles “where possible.”

SUPERVISOR HAMBURG'S prediction that “Highway 253 is one of the most beautiful roads in the state and moviegoers will see the beauty,” and, “The movie will be a postcard about the beauty of Mendocino County,” was, uh, er, not realized anywhere in the movie.

MS. DEBRA DeGRAW of the one-person Mendocino County Film Commission had said that Mendocino County would get positive marketing exposure, but when asked for specifics she said, “I’m working on that.” Her work clearly didn’t pay off. There's not one mention of Mendocino County in the movie.

HOWEVER, as the end-credits for the thing scrolled endlessly on — including a roster of about 140 (!) stunt drivers — one of the location crew lists was entitled “Mendocino/San Francisco.” Then, much further down in tiny print after the caterers, accountants, production assistants, miscellaneous flunkies and vehicle wranglers, in very small print, was, “Thanks to Mendocino County, the Mendocino County Department of Transportation and the Mendocino County Film Commission,” followed by the obligatory, “Motor vehicle scenes depicted in this film are dangerous and performed by professional drivers on closed roads. Do not attempt to duplicate the action in this film.”

AT THE MARCH 2013 Need For Speed meeting, Grace Minton of Boonville had pointed out that everyone in the Valley knows speeding on local roads is a vehicular form of roulette, just as many of us also know someone or know of someone who has been killed in a speed-related auto accident. Ms. Minton reminded the group that back in March of 2004 four young vineyard workers were killed speeding through Philo on Easter Sunday morning. “How can you justify this?” Ms. Minton asked, receiving a round of applause from a number of attendees.

DREAMWORKS/DISNEY rep Ms. Dillon replied, “It is not intended to glorify speeding, and the characters will have real-life consequences.”

AFTER the final car chase, the lead character, played rather crudely by ‘Breaking Bad's’ Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman in ‘Breaking Bad’), is the only driver whose car isn't wrecked. He triumphantly drives down the short road to the Point Arena Lighthouse where some sparklers go off and he's told that he’s won a $2 million (!) Lamborghini. He's arrested at gunpoint, put in jail for another 180 days (about 30 seconds in the film) after which he gets out of prison and is picked up by the lead babe in, of course, another new Mustang. (Ford Motor Company put up most of the money for the production of the movie.) And the two imbeciles drive off to mate, producing another generation of learning-disabled worshippers of the internal combustion engine. So much for “consequences.”

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YOU HAVE TO ADMIT - UKIAH POLICE HAVE SENSE OF HUMOR

(via MendocinoSportsPlus)

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ED NOTES

ALTHOUGH the filing deadline for the March 3rd election for Supervisor isn't until December 6th, that doesn't deter us (plural) at the ava bunker from a few, probably unsound opinions about the candidates, insofar as their views have so far hoved into public view.

THE FIRST DISTRICT runs sorta north and kinda east of Ukiah, through Redwood Valley and on into Potter Valley with a few lost cannabis canyons in between. The First District seat has been dominated for years by Potter Valley people wed heart and soul to the retro opinions of the Farm Bureau. Candidates for the First District seat must also vow to defend the Potter Valley Diversion as it is, which means laughably cheap water rates not only for Potter Valley's sons of the soil, but also for grape growers the length of the Russian River. Their life draw on that cheap water is considered God-granted by most residents of Potter Valley and all the grape growers downstream.

FOR THE PAST coupla decades, Inland Lib, as overseen by Joe Louis Hoffman, has tried to wrest the seat from the cow pokes and cow girls. Joe Louis himself, lib herd bull, even ran for the seat himself only to be soundly thrashed by cow girl, Carre Brown, a kindly ol' farm gal who goes instantly feral at even the mention of any tampering with present-day water rights.

ALTHOUGH the Supe's job is supposed to be a non-partisan position, Mendolib always supports the perceived liberal which, evaluating the liberal contribution to the position over the past 50 years, has been one of certifiable insanity, gross incompetence and, until recently, petty criminality. Lately, however, the board functions more like it should — independent of the CEO and county department heads with the elections of John Haschak and Ted Williams, especially Williams.

FOURTH DISTRICT Supervisor Dan Gjerde has been invisible in office, and an automatic yes vote for whatever the CEO shoves in front of him. Gjerde is supported in lockstep by Coastlib, and a word about them, please. They've been unerring over fifty years in their support for incompetents all the way back to Patti Campbell, which is not to mention the sad collection of self-servers holding down the 5th District seat. In the 4th, with the exception of Liz Henry, who was repeatedly backstabbed throughout the one term she served by the libs who got her elected even though she was the only truly capable person Coastlib had elected before or since, Gjerde being capable certainly, but among the missing as a Supervisor.

GJERDE is opposed for re-election by popular Fort Bragg mayor, Lindy Peters, who, count on it, will be vilified, surreptitiously of course, as a Trumpian rightwinger by Coastlib, few of whom pay any attention to Supervisor politics. Lindy, like Gjerde, is a mainstream lib with a strong interest in sport, hence his rep as a rightwinger. Gjerde, despite two terms as a Supervisor, has no record to run on, and Lindy's views on County issues are as yet unknown. Aware that he has a formidable opponent in Peters, Gjerde is suddenly visible after years of invisibility. This one will be close.

THE FIRST DISTRICT also features candidates for Supervisor heretofore unheard from on local issues. Or any issues, except one candidate, the irrepressible and highly controversial John 'Sako' Sakowicz, whose opinions on the issues are clearly lib-pwog. Jon Kennedy has served as a supervisor in Plumas County. He has lived in Mendo County prior to Plumas where he probably would have been re-elected to office if his family hadn't preferred a return to the Ukiah area, at least that's the implication of the one story on Kennedy in Plumas we could find.

KENNEDY told the Plumas paper he was lured back to Mendocino County by a lucrative job offer. Mrs. Kennedy, in the same article, expressed her unhappiness with the "vitriol" of public life, which is can't miss these bifurcated days, and here comes hubby running for office again! We kinda liked what we could glean of the guy; he's been a volunteer fireman in Graton and, as a Plumas supervisor, didn't shrink from making decisions unpopular with key interest groups.

JAMES GREEN, the third candidate, has appeared at a couple of Supe's meetings to make comments of the rah-rah type, and always a big hit with the "positive-thinking" feebs so prevalent these days. Green's a member of the Farm Bureau, favors the Diversion as is, belongs to the Ukiah Chamber of Commerce and the Rotary Club — a cv that fairly screams, "You can count on me, cow pokes and wine people!"

THE ONLY QUESTION in the 2nd District, which is basically Ukiah, is John McCowen, whose family goes all the way back to the Indian Killers. Will he run for re-election? Or will the energetic Maureen 'Mo' Mulheren, mayor of Ukiah, assume the seat by default? We don't expect McCowen to run for a fourth term. He's been good on some issues, terrible on too many others, including his almost singlehanded but unwitting sabotage of what shoulda been a sensible marijuana licensing program. McCowen lost us when he tried to wire a highly paid position on a do nothing Climate Change advisory committee he'd created for palsy-walsy purposes. Overall, the guy adds to the confusion. It seems time for him to devote himself to the truly good thing he does — preventing the slobbification of the Ukiah Valley by the "homeless."

THE PROB we have with Ms. Mulheren (so far) is Ukiah. Anybody who runs for higher office from the Ukiah City Council has a lot of 'splainin' to do. Our county seat is a mess every which way, from its roads to its pointless water and sewage war, which has just now doubled the rates of its citizens. And the spectacularly destructive new County Courthouse that no one except our over-large posse of judges wants keeps on sliming into reality three long blocks east of the present and perfectly, well, ok, imperfectly serviceable, County Courthouse. That proposal would destroy what's left of old Ukiah and the mom and pop commerce that goes with it.

A UKIAH REALTOR named Joel Soinila has also signed up to run for the 2nd District seat but is otherwise unheard from.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019

Aguirre-Hernandez, Betts, Bevan

FRANCISCO AGUIRRE-HERNANDEZ, Fort Bragg. DUI.

WILLIAM BETTS JR., Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

MARK BEVAN, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance, trespass (digging, taking or carrying away earth, soil, stone from any lot without consent of owner).

Brockway, Chan-Sosa, Cleaver

CHRISTOPHER BROCKWAY, Albion. Controlled substance without prescription, community supervision violation, resisting, probation revocation.

SERGIO CHAN-SOSA, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, substance similar to toluene.

AARON CLEAVER, Ukiah. Evasion/reckless driving.

Collins, Dreher, Duman

PETER COLLINS, Ukiah. DUI, child endangerment.

RICHARD DREHER, Ukiah. DUI.

MARCUS DUMAN, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, probation revocation. (Frequent Flyer)

Flinton, Foster, Galindo

SEAN FLINTON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

TRENT FOSTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

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

Garibay, Infante-Medina, Ledbetter

JAVIER GARIBAY, Lancaster/Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

ISIDRO INFANTE-MEDINA, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.

MARK LEDBETTER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

Leigh, Malugani, Maxfield

JAZPUR LEIGH, Fort Bragg. DUI-drugs&alcohol, probation revocation.

JUSTIN MALUGANI, Ukiah. Battery, resisting.

BRADLEY MAXFIELD, Willits. Trespassing/refusing to leave, controlled substance, disobeying court order. (Frequent flyer)

Miller, Schlapkohl, Shaw

KELLY MILLER, Willits. Domestic abuse, false imprisonment, witness intimidation.

CHARLES SCHLAPKOHL, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, cellphone damage, child endangerment.

KEVIN SHAW, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

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ZAPPA

"Playboy: Is there rhyme or reason behind the subjects you choose to attack?

Frank Zappa: Whatever I'm mad at at the time. I like things that work. If something doesn't, the first question you have to ask is, Why? if it's not working and you know why, then you have to ask, "Why isn't somebody doing something about it?" The government, for starters. Most institutions. The nation's education system is completely fucked up.

Playboy: Fucked up how?

Frank Zappa: The schools are worthless because the books are worthless. They still are on the level of George Washington and the cherry tree and "I cannot tell a lie." The books have all been bowdlerized by committees responding to pressure from right-wing groups to make every aspect of the history books consistent with the cryptofascist view-point. When you send your kids to school, that's what they're dealing with. Your children are being presented with these documents, part of a multibillion-dollar industry, which are absolutely fraudulent. Kids' heads are crammed with so many nonfacts that when they get out of school they're totally unprepared to do anything. They can't read, they can't write, they can't think. Talk about child abuse. The U.S. school system as a whole qualifies."

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“FINANCIER, COMPLETE WITH WIFE," said [the Manager] as an immense Scotsman, holding her violet pressed-leather jewel-case, helped out of the car his tiny little wife draped tight in black satin --- and then dined. He told me his family has been on their estate since the eleventh century. After dinner he stood up and said, "I'd like to reward the waitress," who was not forthcoming, so he put down on the table a pile of three or four coppers. 'Blast his Scotch carefulness,' I thought, but somehow I couldn't dislike their kindness in other ways, so I took them out and having shown them how to get to the gardens I ran back and, being ashamed before [the waitress] took half a crown out of my pocket to exchange with the pile of coppers, but when lifting them up I found two half-crowns below. 'Eleventh-century un-ostentation,' I thought, but afterwards I wondered why he'd done so. Was he afraid of the little wife's seeing his generosity to the girl, or did he think I'd snap it up myself if it looked worth while? But I decided in terms of the eleventh century.

--John Fothergill, 1931; from "An Innkeeper's Diary"

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Fall Song
by Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time's measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay - how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

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YOU TALKIN' TO ME? ME?

Editor,

Robert DeNiro, you punch drunk liberal asshole. One of these days you will meet up with President Trump face-to-face. He will drop you like a hot rock. You are a disgrace to the community. You're sick. Keep it up, mister. Your time is coming! You are a big mouth. Why don’t you go one-on-one with President Trump and give him a chance to defend himself? You are chickenshit. How about a match between you and me in Las Vegas? I'm probably 10 years older than you but I could knock you out with one punch. It would be the big bout between the Trump lover and the Trump hater. You'll go from the Raging Bull to the Crying Cow. Come on mister! Let's make it a big fight. Let's see how brave you are, you anti-American liberal son of a bitch. I will fly the American flag in my corner and you can fly a yellow flag in your corner and it will be a UFC fight. I will get you down on your back on the canvas and beat your face to a pulp and then I will run Gavin Newsom in there and do the same thing to him. Huh? How do you like that?

How dare Pelosi and Schumer stand in front of the American flag when they’re talking? How dare they wear an American flag pin? You are not Americans, you are scumbag liberal anti-Americans and all you've done for the last four years is try to screw the president up as well as the American people. Adam Schiff better not stand anywhere near an American flag either. He is a rotten scumbag liar. The rest of the Liberal Democrats who have had anything to do with the things going on in the last three years are just absolute rotten people, rotten to the core and corrupt and rotten. I don't want to see any of you around the American flag at all.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

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HAPPY 130TH BIRTHDAY, FORT BRAGG. AFTER THESE MESSAGES.

"Enough of the prologue, now on with the play! The Pageant of Bergen County Women is underway!"

The recording of Friday night's (2019-10-04) Happy Birthday Fort Bragg Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KMEC-LP Ukiah is available by one or two clicks, depending on whether you want to listen to it now or download it and keep it for later and, speaking of which, it's right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0353

Thomas stopped in, his mind seemingly racing, to tell about his several new websites and a fresh plan for ultimate riches and world domination. We'll see what happens as he carries it out. Maybe the saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely will turn out to be wrong in his case, and wouldn’t that be nice. Al Nunez, jack of all trades, visited for a good half an hour. You might know him from his writing in the MCN Announce email listserv, chronicling personal triumphs and setbacks and hopes regarding health and living conditions, fluctuating levels of equanimity and life satisfaction, and lately progress on restoring his work truck. He's a gentle, shy man who required a little prompting at first but soon began to spill the beans, as they say, on various subjects mechanical and painterly and welding-related in a pleasing comic New Jerseyish accent, though he was born and raised not at all in New Jersey but in San Francisco. See, he ran away from home at fifteen, and… he tells it fine; I'll let him tell it.

This show also features Scott M. Peterson’s new story Mendocino Messiahs. Scott explains how to multiply good telecommuting jobs in our area like loaves and fishes or, more realistically, like rabbits. The story also relates some of the history of Jim Jones' mass-murder/suicide Jesus cult that I somehow missed in reading on the subject all these years. For example, the explanation of exactly how Jones persuaded everyone to all drink the poison at the same time. It wasn't just religious zeal. Well, it was that, but it was also a clever awful trick, very like Lucy pulling away the football but then finally not, where the football in my analogy is a poison bomb.

Details: Scott's story begins three hours and twenty minutes in.

Besides all that, at http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you can find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile educational items I set aside for you while gathering the show together.

Such as:

In fact how it works: http://marriedtothesea.com/092919

I'm confident we can get to a yes on this. https://laughingsquid.com/science-of-persuasion/

And how we get speakers. It interests me how much is still done by hand, at least in this particular factory. It reminds me of when I bought a couple of electromechanical reverb-spring tanks to build into a mixing board in, uh, 1985. They were the same kind that you see in very old tube-type guitar amplifiers. On each one was a little sticker that said in tiny type, "This equipment was assembled by beautiful women in controlled atmospheric conditions." https://theawesomer.com/how-speakers-are-made/542106/

—Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

* * *

INTERESTING LITTLE FILM ON MSM'S TREATMENT OF CANDIDATE SANDERS

* * *

BOLT!

Editor,

Since several local north bay magazines have become a vehicle for advertising masquerading as news (for Budweiser beer of all things!), I’d like to contirbute an advertisement for a product I love:

I don’t know why everyone isn’t driving this car. It’s all electric and gets 250 miles to a charge. Ok if you’re a long distance commuter without a place to plug it in, perhaps this isn’t the car for you. But for everyone else this car rocks!

Every time I drive my safety green Bolt I feel smug and self-rightous about not contirbutonig to greenhouse gases and global warming. I know that our individual choices will not by themselves change the world, but they might make a dent.

You never have to breathe exhaust fumes or go to a gas station again! And it has lots of pep. We leased our Bolt from the local Chevy dealer with a rebate from Sonoma Clean Power.

I don’t often watch TV, but when I do the car ads are still promoting big gas guzzling trucks to macho men. WTF! Guys, you can still feel powerful driving the Bolt even if your penis is small.

Powerful, smug and self-rightious,

Molly Martin

Petaluma

* * *

FOUND OBJECT

35 Comments

  1. Joanie Stevens October 7, 2019

    If I’m not mistaken’ Joel Sonila is running in the 2nd district not the 1st

    • Bruce Anderson October 7, 2019

      Good catch! Thank you, Ms. Stevens.

  2. Craig Stehr October 7, 2019

    The mind-body complex is spending its days walking from Garberville, CA to Redway, CA and back daily with trash bags, voluntarily picking up litter and recyclables.  30 passes or so of doing this has resulted in a very neat and tidy 2 mile connector road.  Even the sheriff’s department and many truck drivers are waving to me and saying “thanks” with wide smiles.  Along with this is the inner condition, reflecting that the mind-body complex is the instrument for a higher will to work through.  Non-interference is the way.  In Chinese philosophy it is termed “wu-wei”.  
           Meanwhile, increased social security benefits plus retroactive reimbursement payments to cover the Medicare part B are going into my checking account in Hawaii.  Dramatically I have gone in a very short time from near destitution with $159 in the bank, to  financial stability which will continue indefinitely.  I continue to be on the couch at the Earth First! Media Center in Garberville, CA.  The SSI interviewer informed me that it is perfectly legal for me to go outside of Southern Humboldt county in search of whatever I need, that my benefits would continue uninterrupted, that I may use my Food Stamps outside of the county, and that at age 70 I am encouraged to do whatever is best insofar as obtaining housing and anything else that is sustaining.  I am legally obligated to report a permanent move outside of the county, and also if I receive additional income.  I have been wished the very best by Adult Protective Services.  The Department of Mental Health said that I do not appear to require their services, acknowledging that drinking an occasional cold beer with a warm shot of scotch does not constitute alcoholism, and that with no history of opiate usage and I don’t smoke tobacco, that they do not feel that my meeting with them is appropriate.  Lastly, I now have Medical to go along with the Medicare and Kaiser Permanente health coverage. >>>>I am now only “following spirit” and enjoying creative writing.  If you wish to do anything amazing in this world in association with myself, contact me with the details.  Otherwise good luck, it has been unique and mostly rewarding being on the earth plane with you, and I will understand if you leave this world at your earliest convenience taking nothing here with you.  
    Craig Louis Stehr October 7, 2019 Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com Facebook: Craig Louis Stehr

  3. Lee Edmundson October 7, 2019

    Dear Mr. Philbrick,

    Meds, Jerry. Meds! Raging in print against the Raging Bull? You may as well be yelling in your back yard at the apple tree.

    I do the same, occasionally, in the comfort of my study. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

    Jerry, in all honesty, we’re ALL good Americans. You, Me, DeNiro. Even the Donald — somewhere in his weather beaten military school cadet soul — believes he is a good (I take that back) a great (No, The Greatest!) American.

    Insanity, it’s been said, is not believing you’re God. It’s believing that you’re God and no one else is.

    Meds, Jerry. Hit “save” instead of “send”.

    And metamucil. And Meditation.

    And, please, enough with the fisticuffs imagery, Jerry. If you absolutely must, just go over and punch out that apple tree a time or two. Maybe that will get the violence out of your system.

    And breathe, Jerry. Lots of deep breathing.

    And remember, many fervent prayers go, “Dumpster the Trumpster 2020”.

    Yours in Peace.

    • Michael Koepf October 7, 2019

      Passive aggressive lib, meets an honest, aggressive American, sick and tired of what’s going on. I’ll buy the second a guy the drink.
      God Bless Jerry Philbrick

      • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

        Raving of a reactionary conservative zionist.

        • Michael Koepf October 7, 2019

          Harv, tomorrow is Yom Kipper, day of atonement. Time for you to reflect on your wrath as you live the life of a lone prairie dog in the wastes of Wyoming. Wednesday, go to town. Try to find a girlfriend.

          • James Marmon October 7, 2019

            Harvey Reading (aka Ted Kaczynski) loves his solitude, leave him alone.

            James

            • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

              I see you’re mamonizing again.

          • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

            So, now you’re a psychologist, too, huh Mikey? Figures. A semi-“profession” that gets most everything wrong.

            Prairie dogs live in towns by the way.

            I don’t envy you if you live in the wastes of the Clearcut Triangle. But, I’m sure you consider it heaven on earth.

            Toodles, cutie!

        • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

          People like Koepf learned history from MY FIRST GOLDEN BOOK OF AMERICAN HISTORY and “The Readers Digest”.

          1. “It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country’s most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

          “I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

          “I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.

          “During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

          —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

          2. https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list

          The United States is a brutal empire—as brutal as the Roman, Spanish, and British empires. The only people who should thank soldiers for their service are bankers and CEOs of corporations.

          • Michael Koepf October 7, 2019

            When a man turns agains his country, he turns against himself, searching endlessly for something that isn’t there.

            I guess you could take your ample, ill-gotten (in your mind) military pension and move to a more noble country. Panama is cheap, and the Chi-Coms are gradually taking control.

            • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

              “There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that, “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

              Isaac Asimov

              —Does this quote describe anyone you know?

              • Michael Koepf October 7, 2019

                Asimov was a science fiction writer. Louie, since you believe Americans are Romans, as Asimov believed that martians were real, I submit the above could easily define you.

              • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

                Koepf’s understanding of the universe is science fiction.

              • Bruce McEwen October 7, 2019

                The quote perfectly describes someone we all know: The misnamed Harvey Reading.

                • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

                  Ah, we’ve heard from the intrepid court report, the young 65 year old writer who has never written anything but elegant insults adorned with big words McUrine finds in the thesaurus.

                  McUrine tries to disguise his essential vulgarity with a nano particle thin layer of erudition. However, a close look reveals an ignorant redneck from the woods of Montana who chose the Marine Corp over the university.

                  Unlike Smedley Butler, McUrine never learned the truth about the marines, Santa Claus, or God.

                  • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

                    Semper fi.

                • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

                  Well, hi, Sad Sack. Takin’ a break from your hangover, are ya? Your writing seems up to your usual low standards, and your jealousy seems to be little out-of-control, even for a loser like you.

        • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

          I don’t celebrate Yom Kippur nor any other religious holiday.

          If i did observe the Yom Kippur tradition—and if I were rich— I’d light candles not for my deceased parents, but for every Palestinian murdered by the IDF in the past year.

  4. Alma de Paredes October 7, 2019

    Thank the good Lord, that Mr. Philbrick is not the final arbiter of who is who is not an American. If he had his way, I am afraid he would be the last man standing. LOL.

    • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

      More likely, the first to fall…

    • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

      Señora de Paredes,

      El Señor Philbrick es un idiota.
      Un sinvergüenza sin remedio.
      No le haga caso.

  5. Lazarus October 7, 2019

    FOUND OBJECT

    “We’re just waiting for the Botox to wear off.”

    As always,
    Laz

  6. Michael Koepf October 7, 2019

    “…and if I was rich…” Oh, Louie, I get it. “Rich,” rich jews. How revealing. All jews are rich. Got it. Anti Semitic code word.

    Do you light a candle for the six million jews wiped out in the holocaust? How about the 600 to 900 jews beheaded on Muhammad’s orders in the Quran? The trench, sura: Al-Ahzab.

    • Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

      Let’s add the poor slobs murdered by Moses for worshipping the golden calf.
      I would have joined them.
      Golden calves probably have more compassion than the brutal Hebrew god Yahweh. And a higher IQ than you.

  7. Louis Bedrock October 7, 2019

    People like Philbrick, Koepf, and McEwen are unable to forge a coherent counterargument to Dawkins’ description of an uncaring universe, Smedley Butler’s confession about the war crimes of the Marine Corp., or Bill Blum’s list of foreign countries invaded by the American Empire. So they resort to ad-hominem attacks.

  8. John Sakowicz October 7, 2019

    To the Editor:

    I learned a new word today, “pwog”.

    Meaning: “A derisive term for a political progressive. First appeared in the 1960s as a term for old guard leftists of Jewish background. Derived from the tendency of Jews of Eastern European heritage to pronounce ‘R’ as ‘W’, in keeping with Yiddish pronunciation.”

    Use in a sentence: “The Vermont pwogs can feel a virtuous glow that they have ‘our Bernie in Congress’, even though Bernie is accountable to no one and represents the antithesis of what the Progressive Coalition was intended to achieve — the establishment of a third party in Vermont.”

    I’m not sure I would describe myself as a “clearly lib-pwog”, as I was in today’s Mendocino County Today, October 7.

    I don’t think of myself as “lib” or “not lib”.

    “Pwog” or “not pwog”.

    I do, however, think of myself as fiscally responsible. And I think of myself as devoted to the health and well being of Mendocino County’s people.

    My campaign slogan? “Leaders should lead.” We’ve had too little leadership. Things are changing with Supervisors Williams and Haschack.

    My hot button issues in the upcoming campaign?

    1. Mendocino County is headed toward a deficit budget in 2020-2012. Payroll will rise in the coming years, and the number of county employees will fall, and services, like roads, will continue to deteriorate.

    2. Currently, county cash reserves are only about two weeks of operating budget. This is shocking…and recklessly irresponsible.

    3. The de facto “hidden subsidy” in the county budget is its high job vacancy rate. The Board of Supervisors needs to review the county job chart.

    4. Monthly financial reporting and performance metrics to the Board of Supervisors should required of all county departments.

    5. The “wealth gap” among county employees is shocking. County executives and department heads get pay packages, including benefits, of upwards of $300,000–$350,000 a year. See CEO Angelo’s four-year contract. Meanwhile, home health workers get minimum wage, $12 hour, and no benefits.

    6. MCERA has a negative cash flow of more than $1 million a month, and an unfunded pension liability of more than $200 million. Although, by law, pensions must be paid before any other contractual obligation, the distinct possibility exists that the county could void those contracts in a bankruptcy proceeding. We must act to ensure that “promises are kept” and our retirement system remains solvent.

    7. County cannabis farmers need an alternative to corporate cannabis. The owners of Flow Kana (FK) are outsiders, not local people. Most of its funding, $175 million, comes from Wall Street vulture capitalist, Jason Adler, who has investments in GMO cannabis (Trait Bioscience and Pebble Labs) and who sits on the board at the Cronos Group with Big Tobacco (Phillip Morris Companies). Many people fear that FK’s plan is to make sharecropper/tenant farmers out of our small, independent, family farmers. There is an alternative. With economic development help from the county, cannabis farmers can collectively own and operate its own “supply-chain”, and sell direct to consumers.

    8. “Water equity” should be ensured by the new Potter Valley Dam Project. Cannabis farmers should be encouraged to join the Farm Bureau and take their seat at the table as water rights are discussed and negotiated.

    9. The Board of Supervisors should re-evaluate the CEO vs. CAO management models. Our current CEO has too much power, particularly over the budget process.

    10. Measure B monies, currently $9 million, should be spent on its intended purpose — a PHF. Meanwhile, the county should audit the finances and performance of both Redwood Community Health (RCS) and the county’s own Behavioral Health Services (BHS).

    These are my positions on just ten important issues.

    It is my hope and prayer that the 1st District election season will focus on issues, not personalities.

    Negative campaigning is toxic. We have too much of it in national politics. We can do better as a county.

    Leaders should lead!

    John Sakowicz, Candidate, 1st District Supervisor

    • Harvey Reading October 7, 2019

      “We can do better as a county.”

      I’ll believe it when I read some evidence of it. Your county has been heading downhill for at least the last three decades, much like the country, and no one really seems to give a damn about either, other than shouting in-your-face “patriotic” or nativist/racist vitriol and cheering when the murder machines fly over.

      • Pat Kittle October 8, 2019

        Is calling for SUSTAINABLE immigration levels your idea of “shouting in-your-face ‘patriotic’ or nativist/racist vitriol”?

        Seriously, is it?

  9. Stephen Rosenthal October 7, 2019

    Re Interesting Little Film On MSM’s Treatment of Candidate Sanders: Donald Trump is correct. The MSM is the enemy of the people.

  10. Eric Sunswheat October 7, 2019

    RE: 8. “Water equity” should be ensured by the new Potter Valley Dam Project. Cannabis farmers should be encouraged to join the Farm Bureau and take their seat at the table as water rights are discussed and negotiated.

    ———->. Sako postures, capitulates, as a Farm Bureau candidate, irrespective, of the collapse of the grape harvest wine industry and the realities of diversified crop conversion, now underway.

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