MCT: Monday, October 21, 2019

• Fire Weather
• Boonville News
• Record Collector
• Cemetery Rape
• Locomotive
• Writers Read
• Wildfire Payments
• Junk
• Pig Hunt
• AV Village
• Sunflower
• Ed Notes
• Halloween
• Ukiah Robbery
• County News
• Yesterday's Catch
• Bernie Rally
• Ask Mealymouth
• Chinese Internet
• Hempwood
• Underground Lines
• Brain Chatter
• World Series
• Election Special
• Fire Documentary
• Tennessee
• Li'l Hil
• Philbrick Hospitalized
• Help Us
• Adios Garberville
• Found Object

ASIDE FROM some areas of valley fog, expect sunny and warm weather much of this week with high pressure in control. Northerly winds offshore and along the immediate coast will increase through midweek. Offshore winds and dry air will result in fire weather concerns Wednesday into Thursday. (National Weather Service)

THE BOONVILLE FAIR BOARD has apparently decided not to participate in any perc testing of the Boonville Fairgrounds back lot for the possible distribution of processed wastewater. Although there is still some question about who has the final say about the possibility of using the County-owned Fair property, the Community Services District is reluctant to press the issue without the Fair board’s participation. Meanwhile, the County has imposed more stringent, more expensive water testing requirements on downtown commercial businesses many of which seem to be supporting the proposed Boonville water project. But there’s significant resistance to the wastewater project. The CSD Board members can’t understand the local resistance to a municipal sewer system for Boonville: They wonder how anybody could be against an upgrade that is funded by the state when there are known septic problems in downtown Boonville? Besides, they are convinced that the treated wastewater isn’t sewage and new processing technologies make the effluent nearly odor-free.

THE COMPLAINTS WE’VE HEARD so far include: not in my backyard; you didn’t talk to us first; we don’t care what the engineers say, it’s still sewage and it will stink; not my problem; too much government; and it’ll cost too much even with the state financing.

FOR NOW, the wastewater system proponents are still trying to find a likely site for distribution of the processed wastewater.

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FIRE CHIEF ANDRES AVILA told the Community Services District Board last week that ambulance services on Highway 101 corridor and in Anderson Valley are becoming more precarious by the month. Late October will see four Anderson Valley primary ambulance volunteer EMTs out of the Valley for various reasons, which presents a local staffing problem that the Chief and Ambulance Manager Clay Eubanks are working on. Avila also reported that there seems to be consensus at the County/Board of Supervisors for adding camping facilities to the Transient Occupancy Tax list, with most of the proceeds going to the County’s emergency services. But there’s no consensus on a possible sales tax increase for emergency services because the County’s three incorporated cities apparently have competing tax plans. In addition Chief Avila supports a tax increase that is limited to the unincorporated areas only. At the moment it looks like the Bed Tax campgrounds supplement proposal will be on the March 2020 ballot.

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THE CSD BOARD also authorized the Chief to acquire a smaller more mobile fire engine for Signal Ridge with funding provided by a combination of equipment reserves, a donation from the Volunteer fire-fighters association, strike team reimbursements, and fund-raising now underway by Signal Ridge residents. Signal Ridge volunteer firefighter Olie Erickson is working with Anne Fashauer on a gala BBQ/spaghetti dinner at the Fashauer Vineyard, 21600 Greenwood Road outside of Philo from 2-6pm on Saturday, October 26. Music, food, wine — the works. $20/person donation requested. To contribute directly on line go to: gofundme.com and search for “new fire truck anderson valley volunteer fd.” The tireless Erickson told the CSD Board last week that he had more fundraisers in the works for the future as well.

ANDERSON VALLEY VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT LAUNCHES GOFUNDME TO REPLACE TRUCK

A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help buy a new fire truck for the Greenwood Ridge Fire Department. According to the GoFundMe campaign, the department's current truck will need to be replaced with a total cost of $82,000.

To view the GoFundMe please visit: gf.me/v/c/4k5p/new-fire-truck-anderson-valley-volunteer-fd

Update: We have reached the $3,000 match! Thank you everyone!

We have been given a second match — if we raise $15,000, we will be given an additional $15,000. I know we can do this!

The Greenwood Ridge fire truck needs to be replaced. We're raising funds for that replacement - a total cost of $82,000.

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DRIVE-BY IN BOONVILLE? A preliminary hearing into the shooting in downtown Boonville on August 7th was scheduled for last Thursday, the 60th (legal deadline) day since the alleged shooters, Marshall Leland Stillday, 19, and Alfredo Asher Knight, 18, both of Hopland, and both suspected gang-bangers, were arraigned on charges of attempted murder. However, some last moment complaint from one of the defense lawyers, public defender Douglas Rhoades, caused the hearing to be postponed until Monday at 10:00 — well past deadline for our beloved weekly newssheet. The reason for the delay was discussed in Judge Keith Faulder's luxuriously appointed chambers, and the only explanation given after they came out was that the judge found "good cause" to reset the hearing date — a 60-day time waiver had been taken earlier during the process, to give the lawyers time to prepare, but some lawyers need more time than others.

WHAT WE ALREADY know from the Sheriff’s original presser is that the defendants, Stillday and Knight, followed the intended victim (un-named, so far) from the Boonville Pic’N’Pay to the last southbound street-light in Boonville — near the Pennyroyal Goat Farm — where the vic pulled over to let the tailgating silver Mustang pass. Rather than pass, the defendants allegedly pulled in behind the vic’s vehicle and fired a shot through the back window, barely missing the vic’s head, then sped away southbound on Highway 128. Video surveillance footage from the Pic’N’Pay was used to identify the defendants who were later, on the following Saturday, pulled over and arrested after a “routine” traffic stop. A handgun of the same caliber used in the shooting was found in the silver Mustang.

WE HOPE to provide more details next issue, after the prelim; unless, of course, the defendants elect to waive prelim and move directly to trial.

(Bruce McEwen)

SEXUAL ASSAULT AT THE BOONVILLE CEMETERY?

Editor,

Thank you for Marilyn Davin’s recent article about Project Sanctuary, the local support system for families experiencing domestic violance and those dealing with the trauma of being raped.

Safe houses, help obtaining restraining orders, free professional counseling and the support and guidance of trained staff and volunteers are available by calling them at 961-1507.

This article was especially timely as the Sheriff’s Department has been investigating a possible gang rape at Boonville Evergreen Cemetery in recent weeks.

Name Withheld

Anderson Valley

ED NOTE: From what we’ve heard, the rape allegation came from a local woman who said she witnessed some or all of the incident and reported it to the Sheriff’s Department. However, the victim has apparently not reported it, and the reporting witness did not have the necessary particulars for Sheriff’s investigators to work with. Anybody with first-hand knowledge of the episode is urged to call us at 895-3016. Anonymity guaranteed.

473 AT THE COLORADO TRAIL. 30th Annual Fall Photographer’s Special at the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge RR.

THEY WRITE, THEY READ, YOU LISTEN

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

I’ve become a semi-regular at “Writers Read” events at the Grace Hudson facility, and have been proven delightfully wrong about how bad I thought it would be. It’s not bad.

It’s good, often very. There are some talented writers around here and they poke their heads out of their holes monthly, usually Thursday evenings.

An unlikely highlight of the gatherings has been a poet named Mark McGovern. He’s approximately the last guy you’d pick out of a crowd if asked to find someone who looks like a poet or acts like one.

McGovern is a former grocery store clerk from Detroit, did time in the Mojave Desert and sometimes wears a hat. He looks exactly like what he is. He does not look like a Parisian poet under a beret sucking on an espresso while idly dreaming up a doozy for the New Yorker’s awful weekly poem blob.

He’s become the writer I most look forward to hearing read, in part because he’s a refreshing alternative to how most of us experience poetry in the 21st century: self-indulgent angry theatrics interspersed with maudlin ruminations.

Today’s world of poetry attracts tortured souls who believe they have been wounded by uncommon tragedies or that they are uniquely suited to conveying messages to the ignorant, if the dummies would only listen.

The result? Lots of poets bursting with truth, honesty, pain or other trite emotions obviously afflicting them far more than the rest of us. Some poets perceive everyday minutiae to be fraught with meaning and insight. A crumpled napkin, for instance, or looking out a window at a puddle. You get the idea. If not don’t worry; they’ll deliver it again in the next verse.

But Mark McGovern doesn’t go in much for self-analysis or stanza-based therapy. He’s working a different plot with a different hoe.

He’s examining the comical delusions we operate under, such as the one that makes us think if we scrimp and save and finally buy a gaudy Cadillac our lives will be enhanced.

Here’s the punchline: “It was only a matter of weeks / Before his Cadillac was just a car.”

His poems are matter-of-fact lines, fantasies on monsters under his childhood bed, wicked hangovers, a sad, joyous motorcycle ride half a century ago and his grandfather’s echo in his grandson’s song.

A regular segment in these writer get-togethers is a stand-and-deliver period where audience members read from notebooks, folded sheets of paper, or do memorized lines. Mark always reads and there’s drama every time.

He has some funny (not ha-ha) ailment he hauls around with him. He’s betrayed by trembling hands, uncertain steps and the need to lean, both hands flat on a table, as he reads his chosen verse. I don’t know. Never asked.

As he approaches the podium, slowly, I scan the audience. People hold their breath. It’s unclear how his three- or four-minute delivery will turn out, but he always prevails. Exhales and applause all around the room.

To call Mark McGovern a blue collar poet isn’t enough. He doesn’t walk these mean streets and he doesn’t sing them factory blues. He’s smaller than that, his poems more intimate, sometimes more frivolous, always entertaining and always worth reading.

His most recent book, When My Hat, is available online. It’s a small gem filled with quiet insights, some of which you already used to know. One of my favorites, reproduced (in part) here is “War of the Worlds.” I believe it addresses Mark’s malady.

I have this tremor

You may have noticed it

An unruly child

In need of attention

…I don’t think he’s mine

…maybe the child is not

of this earth.

Invaders from Planet X

Meant to weaken our

first lines of defense

…Weak old men who

Won’t put up much of

a fight

The next reading session is Friday, Oct. 25, at Grace Hudson on South Main. Starts at 7 p.m. Tell Mark McGovern that Tommy sent you.

(Tom Hine has done a few things in life, none of which involve poems; he’s been a newspaper reporter, private investigator and columnist under the TWK byline. It should also be noted that McGovern has an earlier volume, “Twenty” available.)

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

70,000 CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE VICTIMS MAY MISS OUT ON PAYMENTS

As many as 100,000 Californians are eligible to receive payments for the damages they suffered from a series of devastating wildfires over the last several years. But tens of thousands of them have not sought compensation.

apnews.com/fe26f8947275451683f0487a95597af0

Don Van Vliet "Chinese Fisherman"

PIG HUNT: 35MM screening, BALBOA THEATER, SF Sunday Oct 27 at 7:00PM

A homage to the Ukiah Drive-in and misspent youth in Boonville!

Award-winning, festival favorite, cult horror classic; “The action is no-holds barred muscular.” — Variety

Come squeal like a pig, drink and holler, because “there’s a lot of crazy shit in these woods!”

Rare 35mm screening.

A pre-Halloween treat.

Cameos by Les Claypool, Charlie Musselwhite, and a beheading of Robert Mailer Anderson!

Buy tickets here: https://ticketing.us.veezi.com/purchase/2507?siteToken=52wkfzmjpwjjfpz3ye7tz8wscg

Watch the preview here:

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE - WEEKLY UPDATE for 10/20/2019

https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events

Gustav Klimt-The Sunflower-1907

ED NOTES

A FRIEND sends along a NY Times insert called, "A Future Without the Front Page." Newspapers large and small and in-between are quite naturally mourning their deaths. Me, too, but most of them had and have it coming because of their own dereliction, their lack of relevance to the communities they "serve."

WITH the advent of Facebook, and the media domination of the internet generally, us paper-papers are just about finito, remnants of yesteryear. In our case, publishing a paper-paper for the dwindling minority of people undeterred by long columns of gray, and the lengthy reporting and opinion found in those long columns of grey, the paper-paper is fast becoming a weekly adjunct to our on-line edition, a daily publication containing every bit of Mendo-pertinent info we can uncover. It takes three of us to do it, and it's much more relevant to this area than, say, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in all versions of that newspaper.

MENDOCINOSPORTSPLUS is a Facebook newspaper produced by one guy, Paul McCarthy, who does a remarkable job all his waking hours posting darn near everything that's happening, often as it is happening, as does Kym Kemp to the north with her Redheaded Blackbelt website, and even farther north at the Lost Coast Outpost website. The immediacy of web papers beats hell out of traditional paper-papers. If some Hearstian-disposed capitalist paid the Northcoast's best newspaper writers and writer-writers to cyber-produce a round-the-clock, on-line newspaper, he or she would be riding future's wave, and maybe even make it pay.

MY HEARSTIAN AMBITIONS ended some years ago well before the internet kicked in. If I'd had the capital, I was going to do a weekly paper-paper based in Frisco. I was confident that I could out-compete the town's existing weeklies which were, and are, weak. We had a cadre of the best writers in the area, some of them the best in the country, but without the money it was fantasy talk. Instead, we managed to produce a popular news and opinion product from right here in Yunan that still enjoys an out-of-the-area circulation, albeit much smaller than it was in the peak years when paper-papers were still widely read.

FROM THE PD: “…There’s no way I would take my kids on the Joe Rodota Trail based on what I saw,” Murphy said. Murphy and two friends rode their bikes along the trail earlier this month and filmed their trip. The roughly 11 minutes of trail footage, titled “Wine Country Turning into Slum Country, and Citizens are Fleeing,” has been viewed more than 14,000 times since it was published Monday. Murphy said the video was intended to highlight conditions on the trail — including apparent instances of intravenous drug use — and spur a response from local, state and national officials…"

THE REFERENCED FILM is the usual depressing skein of linear homelessness strung out along what should be a convenient rural jaunt on foot or by bicycle linking Santa Rosa with Sebastopol.

WHAT'S MADDENING, or depressing if you're of a despairing temperament, is you know in your bones it's only going to get worse, that the political leadership has neither the will nor the ability to do the first thing about it — check that, the second and third things about it. The first things have been done but they're inadequate to the task.

AND THE TASK IS? A federal housing program that built truly affordable living units on a mass scale combined with a national hospital system to at least attempt the rehab of the drug and alcohol casualties. Won't happen. The mainstream libs, with no prompting from the fascisti, are already whining that Bernie and Liz "are too far to the left," that they're, gasp! socialists "bashing" the billionaire class. Even talking about obviously needed reforms is mooted by the social-political reality, which is that the catastrophes are moving faster than the means and will to address them.

APOLOGIES for pontification, but watching the "debate" the other night was enough to plunge Mary Poppins herself into hopelessness.

WALKING the mean streets of San Anselmo, "the gilded birdcage," as a friend describes the town, there are these synthetic cobwebs everywhere, some of them with giant spiders on them. I don't get the connection with Halloween spookery. Cobwebs and spiders scary?

CHRIS & TONY’S FAILED ESCAPE

On Tuesday, at about 1:30 a.m., the Ukiah Police Department dispatch center received a call from a 26-year-old man reporting he had been the victim of a robbery. The man was reportedly robbed of money and narcotics at gunpoint by two men. The man said he was following the suspects near the intersection of Oak Manor Drive and East Gobbi Street. Ukiah Police Department officers and a Mendocino County sheriff’s deputy responded to the area in an attempt to locate the reported suspects. A clothing description was provided by the man to assist in suspect identification. Based on the information provided, Ukiah Police officers began to search the creekbed east of US Highway 101 from Oak Manor Park while the sheriff’s deputy remained near the Kings Court business park in anticipation one or more of the suspects would appear near the creek bed or pedestrian overpass.

A short time later, a person later identified as Christopher Garcia, 38, of Ukiah was heard in the brush after appearing to cross a freeway guard rail and chain link fence north of Kings Court off of Hwy. 101. Law enforcement officers detained Garcia.

It was then determined the crime occurred in the sheriff’s office jurisdiction and was a residential robbery. Based on witness statements and evidence located along the suspected path of escape, Garcia was identified as being directly involved in the robbery.

Additionally, witness statements identified the second suspect as Anthony Rojas, 34, of Ukiah. Garcia was taken into custody on suspicion of the first-degree robbery of an inhabited dwelling and conspiracy to commit crimes and subsequently booked into the Mendocino County jail. A “be-on-the-lookout order” was issued for Rojas for his suspected participation in the robbery.

On Wednesday, Rojas was contacted by Ukiah Police officers near the 200 block of Ford Street in Ukiah. Rojas was taken into custody without incident and subsequently booked into the Mendocino County jail on suspicion of first-degree robbery of an inhabited dwelling and conspiracy to commit crimes.

Garcia and Rojas were held at the Mendocino County jail on $150,000 bail. Anyone with information concerning this incident is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office tip-line at 707-234-2100 or the WeTip Anonymous Crime Reporting Hotline at 800-782-7463.

COUNTY NEWS, OCTOBER 20 (from next Tuesday’s Supervisors Agenda Packet. Assembled and annotated by Mark Scaramella)

Big Pay & Benefit Increases For County Managers!

Selected excerpts from the County’s latest agreement with their “Management Association” — and if the fact that Mendo’s managers are their own “bargaining unit” strikes you as an oxymoron, you are not alone.

“In accordance with the County Salary Code, the County CEO may approve a starting salary which is more than the minimum salary for the classification to which the employee is appointed.

“Should any employee in a classification represented by the Management Association have a lower top step salary than a classification the employee directly supervises, the County and Management Association representatives shall meet, upon the request of the Management Association, to discuss the issue and potential solutions to address the problem.” (What could that “solution” possibly involve?)

“Effective with the ratification and approval by the Board of Supervisors Mendocino County employee whose regular assignment is in the coastal region including Fort Bragg, Mendocino, Point Arena; or in Covelo, shall receive a 5% assignment premium. This premium shall also apply to employees temporari ly assigned to these locations for one full pay period or a longer period of time. Employees temporarily assigned to these locations shall receive this premium only during the temporary assignment of one full pay period or more.”

“The County of Mendocino will offer medical, dental and vision coverage to domestic partners as "Domestic Partner" is defined by the State of California Family Statute, Code Section 297 (as amended).”

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“Employee Assistance Program (EAP) — Employees represented by the Management Association and their family members, who are covered by the County health plan, are eligible for participation in the County's Employee Assistance Program (EAP). To the extent permitted by law, the County shall insure the confidentia lity of any and all records regarding employees who use the Program. To the extent permitted by law, no disclosures of information obtained, other than to EAP staff, may be made without the written consent of the employee. The Employee Assistance Program is available for all County employees and their family members, who are covered by the County health plan, who may be experiencing problems in the workplace, or family crisis, chemical dependency, or other personal problems. Primary care physician referral is not necessary to access the EAP, and all services are strictly confidential. The first six (6) visits to the EAP are free to the employee and their family members. The benefit levels of the EAP Program are described in the Health Plan Summary document located on the HR Website. The Mental Health Section of the Plan contains procedures relating to Mental Health care after an employee has completed the number of visits available through the EAP.”

(Ed Note: This strikes us as an admission that being a county manager can lead to serious and disturbing personal problems which the CEO apparently thinks can be mitigated by sending troubled employees to expensive, secret and vague “assistance.”)

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“Management Association Leave — Management Association members are entitled to 48 hours of Management Leave per calendar year. This leave to be used at the di scretion of the department head.”

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“New Tier for New Employees — Management Association agrees the County has the right to implement a new, lower tier retirement formula for employees hired after the effective date of the new tier, subject to PEPRA. Prior to the County adopting a new lower tier retirement formula, the County and Management Association will meet and discuss what benefit level(s) the County is considering.”

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“Cost-of-Living Increase for Retired Employees [i.e., managers]

Effective April l of each year, the cost-of living increase for [management] retirees shall be limited to a maximum of three percent (3%).”

“For employees employed by the County effective July 1, 1984 benefits will be based on the average of three years' highest earnings” “Salary Year 1 -Effective in the first full pay period following ratification and Board approval, employees in this bargaining unit will receive a 3% COLA adj ustment. Additionally, bargaining unit employees shall receive market equity adjustments as fo llows: Bargaining unit employees who are mo re than 10% behind ma rket as specified by the current Koff study dated Ap r il 25, 20 19, w ill a lso receive a market adjustment to bring the classification and linked c lassifications to w ithin 40% o f 90% of the market.”

Salary Year 2 - Effective in the fi rst full pay period of October 2020 employees in this bargaining unit wi ll receive a 3% COLA adjustment. Additionally, bargaining unit employees shall receive market equity adjustments as follows: Bargaining unit employees who are more than I 0% behind market as specified by the current Koff study dated April 2 5, 201 9, will a lso rece ive a market adjustment to bring the class ification and linked c lass ifications an additiona l 30% towards 90% o [ the market. Salary Year 3 - Effective in the first full pay period of October 2021 employees in this bargaining unit wi ll receive a 3% COLA adjustment. Additionally, bargaining unit employees shall receive market equity adjustments as follows: Bargaining unit employees who are more than I 0% behind market as specified by the current Koff study dated April 25, 2019, will a lso receive a market adj ustment to bring the c lassification and linked c lassifications an additional 30% towards 90% of the market.

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From the Deputy Sheriff’s Association Agreement:

“Resident Deputy Post Pay Premium — A. An employee who has been permanently assigned to a resident post shall receive a resident post premium of approximately five percent (5%) on the County range table added to base pay. B. Employees that are serving at a Resident Deputy Post will receive $6,200 per calendar year, paid over 26 pay periods as a health care subsidy.”

ED NOTE: At no point in these latest announcements of large increases in salarly and benefit for managers and cops does the County mention the budgetary impact of these increases.

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WHY DOES THE MEASURE B COMMITTEE NEED A SPECIAL $35,000 WIRELESS SOUND SYSTEM?

You even need to ask?

Because they need to live stream from any location; they need simpler set up because a cheaper “wired” system would be “time/resource prohibitve” to set-up); the wireless system meets ADA requirements, and it accomodates up to 14 meeting attendees. “While the primary benefit is that this system will provide full control over audio levels for all board members (meaning that the technician can ensure the quieter board members are heard and the louder board members aren't peaking the microphone, there are other benefits. One is that the audio recording will be clearer, comparable to that of the Board of Supervisors chambers audio recordings, which will assist with the production of minutes and any clarifications needed from the meeting. This will also allow the County to utilize its Agenda Management System for all meeting (meeting administration would mirror that of the Board of Supervisors, with all meeting agenda, supporting documents, audio, video and minutes in one location). Another benefit is that having that much [better] control over the audio will create the possibility of live streaming Measure B meetings and any other offsite meetings as it would eliminate the need for any post production work on the audio. Additionally, using a wireless system would eliminate any trip hazard wires and avoid potential liability.”

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WHAT ARE THE [unmeasured] “GOALS” of Mendo’s newly established “Climate Action Committee”? (Besides grant writing, meeting attendance, admin, and public outreach which comprise 75% of their “goals”):

Establish the Program for the County at [the Resource Conservation District], including overarching vision, mission, goals, and organizational structure; Develop plan for establishing a current GHG [Greenhouse Gas] emissions and carbon storage assessment “baseline” for Mendocino County; Facilitate priority projects to lower GHG emissions and increase carbon storage based on the assessment; Set short-term and long-term targets for GHG emissions reduction and carbon storage; Develop and implement monitoring protocols; Support the County’s development of climate caused disaster preparedness plans; Estimate costs and talent needed to assess and implement the priority projects and tasks of the Program; Invite businesses, schools, agencies, Tribes, non-profits, communities, neighborhoods, and individuals to participate in the assessments, monitoring and review of project proposals and actions; Prepare reports and documentations as required by grants, regulations, [Resource Conservation District] and the County.”

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WHAT is the County doing to foster “wellness” among its employees?

“Walkober!: Making the most of this great season, the Fall Walktober Wellness Challenge takes participants on a virtual [sic] tour of autumn's most vibrant landscapes and inspires everyone to make walking a priority — in October and beyond! The Fall Walktober Wellness Challenge began on September 30, 2019, and will run to the end of the month. Participants who earn 10 leaves[?] throughout the challenge will also earn 40 wellness incentive points. (Ed Note: Are these people really this crazy?)

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WHAT IS OFFICIAL MENDO DOING in the aftermath of PG&E’s badly run “Public Safety Power Shutoff”?

The Executive Office, Disaster Recovery staff, will be coordinating an After Action Plan associated with the event with the Sheriff's Office and Office of Emergency Services. “We have outreached [sic] to all of our Operational Area Partners for their input into this report as well. We will be working with PG&E on collecting input from our citizens as well.” (Ed note: No schedule or completion date is mentioned.)

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WHAT’S THE STATUS of the County’s plans to hire an architect for the Measure B Committee?

“The Request for Proposals was issued on June 19; the submission deadline was August 16; the proposals are being evaluated,” and “Anticipated presentation of award recommendations to the Board in mid-November.” (Ed note: Note that this is the presentation to the Board of Supervisors, not an actual award which the CEO/County are carefully avoiding setting a date for.)

WHAT’S THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE DOING about monthy budget reporting?

“The Budget Team has begun FY 2019-20 monthly financial training sessions for departmental fiscal employees [sic]. Trainings include but are not limited to: MUNIS account inquiry, departmental year-to-date budget reports, Cobblestone training for contracts, etc.” (Ed note: No mention of when or if actual monthly budget reporting is being developed.)

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PS. It looks Mendo’s enormous staffing shortage in Social Services has gotten worse. Last month, out of 404 FUNDED positions they had 91 vacancies plus 8 “on leave.” They now report that they have 95 vacancies plus 13 “on leave.” As usual, nobody seems to care about the reasons for the drop, why recruiting efforts have failed, and the workload, overtime, extra help, backlog, wait times or other problems associated with such a large vacancy rate. And this after the big raises they agreed to in July that were supposed to bring these jobs up to close to “market rate” which, they said, was the main reason for the shortages.

CATCH OF THE DAY, OCTOBER 20, 2019

MICHAEL BERRY, Redwood Valley. DUI.

CORINA CARRIO, Covelo. Burglary, vandalism, conspiracy.

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

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

GILBERTO GALVEZ, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JEREMIAH HEILIG, Willits. Probation revocation.

FOX HOAGLIN, Covelo. Controlled substance, forged/altered prescription, county parole violation.

CHRISTOPHER HORTON, Kelseyville. Fugitive from justice.

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

ADAM LAFLIN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

JACOB LANDRY, Ukiah. Unspecified offense.

CITLALLI, LOPEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MARTIN PEREZ-VALDIVIAS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JERRY RODGERS, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-loitering, controlled substance, resisting.

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation. (Frequent Flyer)

KELLY STANTON, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ANDREA WRIGHT, Ukiah. Camping in Ukiah, probation revocation.

MORE THAN 25,000 PEOPLE Joined Bernie For A Rally In Queens On Saturday

ASK MEALYMOUTH

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg to weigh in on former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton suggesting that Russians are 'grooming' fellow 2020 candidate Tulsi Gabbard for a third-party run.

cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/10/20/tulsi-gabbard-hillary-clinton-pete-buttigieg-intv-sotu-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/

FACEBOOK has never been allowed into China, despite Mark Zuckerberg’s increasingly tragic attempts to suck up to the CCP: by prominently announcing that he was learning Mandarin, being photographed jogging in Beijing’s reeking, toxic smog, asking Xi Jinping to name his daughter (Xi declined) and – my favorite – making sure he has a copy of Xi’s arse-numbingly tedious The Governance of China on his desk when Chinese journalists visit Facebook. (“I’ve bought copies of this book for my colleagues as well,” Zuck says. “I want them to understand socialism with Chinese characteristics.”)

The biggest internet companies in China can be seen as knock-offs of American originals, though because China is so big, the Chinese versions are now in many cases larger than their US templates, and as they have grown they have added many distinctive features of their own. Baidu is Google, Alibaba is Amazon (they’re the ones behind “Singles’ Day”), Tencent is sort of Facebook plus Netflix. These three giants together are known as BAT, analogous to Silicon Valley’s FAANG of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Sina Weibo, usually referred to just as Weibo, is Twitter, which has been blocked in China since 2009. The story of the Chinese internet pivots around Weibo, because it was that company that came closest to embodying the opening up of information that internet advocates see as the main transformational point of the technology.

— John Lanchester (London Review of Books)

OAK IS OUT, HEMP IS IN - HEMPWOOD FACTORY OPENS IN KENTUCKY

HempWood is a reverse-engineered wood substitute with advantages over traditional oak hardwood, says Fibonacci, the company behind it. Those include a higher availability, a much quicker grow time of six months, and a 20 percent higher density. HempWood can be used in furniture, flooring, and other woodworking projects.

woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/oak-out-hemp-hempwood-factory-opens-kentucky

UNDERGROUND POWER LINES

Editor:

It is time to talk about burying power lines. Yes, that would be an expensive and lengthy project. Compare that expense to the liability of losses from fires, losses of human quality of life, losses of human life and losses from interruption of supply, and the expense pales. Granted we are not yet certain about the causes of recent fires, but that really does not change my point.

Wires on poles are cheap, easy, vulnerable and archaic. Electricity is no longer a new idea. It is time to improve reliability of supply and reduce risk. It is time to get started with burying power lines.

Marian McDonald

Sebastopol

A READER WRITES:

This Houston Astros team is very good, and will be favored to win the Series, but the Nationals remind me a little of those Giants teams that played above their weight when it counted most, almost as if they were charmed by the fates during the postseason. The Nationals will have been idle for a week by the time the Series starts. That could be a good thing (rested) or bad (flat). If they still have their mojo going it could make for an exciting match, if not, Houston may steamroll them.

THE OLYMPICS OF BANALITY (Frank Zappa)

NETFLIX DROPS TRAILER FOR ITS CAMP FIRE DOCUMENTARY AND IT LOOKS INCREDIBLE

We’re nearing the one-year anniversary of the Camp Fire, a wildfire that blazed through the town of Paradise to become the most deadly and devastating fire in California’s history. As the anniversary approaches, Netflix has dropped the trailer for its short documentary on the fire and it looks like it could be Oscar worthy.

activenorcal.com/netflix-drops-trailer-for-its-camp-fire-documentary-and-it-looks-incredible/

TENNESSEE

Cold iron shackles, ball and chain

Listen to the whistle of the evenin’ train

You know you bound to wind up dead

If you don’t head back to Tennessee Jed

Rich man step on my poor head

When you get back you better butter my bread

Well, do you know it’s like I said

You better head back to Tennessee Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be

Baby won’t you carry me back to Tennessee

Drink all day and rock all night

The law come to get you if you don’t walk right

Got a letter this morning, baby all it read

You better head back to Tennessee Jed

I dropped four flights and cracked my spine

Honey, come quick with the iodine

Catch a few winks, baby, under the bed

Then you head back to Tennessee Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be

Baby won’t you carry me back to Tennessee

I run into Charlie Fog

Blacked my eye and he kicked my dog

My doggie turned to me and he said

Let’s head back to Tennessee Jed

I woke up a feelin’ mean

Went down to play the slot machine

The wheels turned around, and the letters read

You better head back to Tennessee Jed

Tennessee, Tennessee, there ain’t no place I’d rather be

Baby won’t you carry me back to Tennessee

Songwriters: Jerome J. Garcia / Robert C. Hunter

GOOD JOB, PG&E!

Editor,

I'm in the emergency room at Coast Hospital. I came down with pneumonia. Never been treated so well in my life. Very professional and courteous and willing to help. Food is excellent. I almost wish I could get hurt again so I can come back. But maybe later. We need to keep Coast Hospital here in Fort Bragg. If it is scaled back or closed we will lose a lot of good people who work here. We need to keep this hospital. Anybody in this hospital district should vote yes to keep the hospital going.

Gavin Newsom has signed a law where people who own guns have to be aware that anybody can go to a policeman and say you have to take that guy’s gun away because he’s dangerous. Anybody's who mad at you can do that. Cops will come to your house and say, Let me have your firearm, then impound it and you have to hire a lawyer and maybe six weeks later get an appointment to see a judge and plead your case. Newsom is so drunk on political power that he doesn't know what to do next. He's nuts. In another six months he will go to San Francisco and get in a private jet with Nancy Pelosi that she has stashed at San Francisco Airport and they will leave the country because these Democrats have gone far enough. Newsom and Pelosi and all the rest of these destructive people will be out.

Last year Moonbeam Brown raised the gas tax 10¢. It was supposed to go for infrastructure to fix bridges, dams, highways. But he took 30% of that money and squandered it for a campus for criminals when they get out of jail so they can rehabilitate themselves. The criminals can hang out for a while and then go commit more crimes. Spasm Grabbin’ Gavin Gruesome Newsom is going to take some of our gas tax money and spend it on committees to study climate control. Climate control doesn't exist! Global warming doesn't exist! Al Gore got billions off of global warming and people believed it! The professors and scientists are now figuring out its a joke! Newsom is just scamming California people for more money that should go back into the country. He's a tyrannical communist anti-American dictator who is mad drunk on power.

For years we've talked about bad drug dealers coming over the border and so forth. But we have legal drug dealers in the United States right now: doctors and pharmacies.

I'm so proud of PG&E for the blackouts and Jerry Brown and Newsome blaming them for the fires. If you look around at California highways including the local ones, the dry grass is right up to the blacktop, higher than the roof of your car. If a fire started there, which it could and would, it would spread and get a good head start before anybody could do anything. Why aren't they addressing the fact that California highways are just waiting for a fire to start? They blame PG&E? Give me a break! Good job PG&E! Do it again!

God Bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

READY TO LEAVE GARBERVILLE

Spiritual Unification and Destroying the Materialistic Crazy Spectacle

Hello postmodern America: Spent today mindfully walking back & forth between Garberville and Redway California. Then I attended Catholic Mass at Our Lady of the Redwoods, conveniently located one block from the apartment I'm staying at. Returned to the apartment, and have been taking rest fingering my meditation beads, focused on Spiritual Unification. When can we take decisive action against the materialistic crazy spectacle? I want to leave Garberville and go seriously destroy the insane materialistic spectacle. I need solidarity! I need housing! I need food! I have some money! Particularly, I am interested in being in Washington, D.C., and also near the UN in New York City, and of course I'd like to take my complaint to the World Court at The Hague. I want cooperation from you! I am ready to leave Garberville as soon as possible. It's been nice here.

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

FOUND OBJECT