MCT: Tuesday, January 7, 2020

• Rain Showers
• Gene Walker
• Sterling Service
• Fire Safety
• Sienna Safe
• Bean Charge
• Bostrodamus
• Knitters
• Ambulance Deficit
• Coast OB
• Boonquiz
• Wheat Harvest
• Holmes Intrigue
• Sandbar Watch
• Mandatory Marbut
• Martin Greb
• Dangerous Place
• Registrar Shuffle
• Dog Park
• Help Julia
• Foundering
• Accurate Reporting
• Lengua Tacos
• Freelance Ruling
• Yesterday's Catch
• Come Thistle
• Bern Phenomenon
• Oil Follies
• Salmon Count
• Fake Attorney
• Voter Reg
• Profit Insurance
• Comments
• Thousand Lives
• Overpopulation
• Go Go
• Warmongers
• Spanish Classes
• CRC Gratitude
• Found Object

RAIN will spread east across the region this evening, with showers persisting through Thursday morning. A brief period of dry weather is then expected Thursday afternoon into Friday morning, followed by additional showers Friday afternoon through early next week. (NWS)

GENE WALKER HAS DIED. A long-time resident of Boonville, Mr. Walker’s death will be keenly felt among Anderson Valley’s old timers. A celebration of life is scheduled for Saturday, January 25th, and a full obituary is being prepared.

BILL STERLING. Please join family and friends to celebrate and recognize the life of William Wallace Sterling who passed away December 1, 2019. Memorial Service will be held on January 19, 2020 at The Anderson Valley Grange: 9800 Hwy 128 Boonville, 95415. Service will start at 2pm. Light fare and refreshment will be provided.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Wings for Learning/Alas Para Volar, at Wings for Learning, PO Box 835, Boonville, CA 95415, or to The Callipeplon Society, P.O. Box 678, Philo, CA 95466. For more information, or concerning Bill’s memorial, please send an email to billsterlingmemorial@gmail.com, and one of the family will respond.

AV FIRE DEPARTMENT emphasizes that we have no reason to suspect arson in connection to the multiple recent structure fires in Anderson Valley, Chief Avila said last week. This is a time of grief and hardship for several local families. Please avoid harmful speculation. There are many factors that can increase the risk of fires. If your home's electrical system or heat-producing appliances are not recently installed, consider professional evaluations or upgrades. Here's to increased fire safety and awareness in the new year. (AV Fire Department)

MSP REPORTS: HAPPY WE CAN POST THIS…

Sienna Carter’s aunt posted Sunday night, “So happy my niece is safe. Thank you everyone for the prayers and love , and sharing her information. Couldn't have done it with all of you guys. I know there is so many questions but we gonna hold off on those, and just be thankful she’s safe.”

A STATEMENT FROM MENDOCINO COUNTY SHERIFF OFFICE ABOUT SIENNA BEING FOUND:

“I just received notification that Sienna has been located and recovered by the UCSF Police Department in the San Francisco area. They are taking lead on the investigation now since the situation happened in their jurisdiction.”

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NBC Bay Area:

A 13-year-old Mendocino County girl who went missing in San Francisco Friday was found safe Sunday on San Francisco's Embarcadero, according to the girl's grandmother Jamie Buckner.

Buckner said that a man who was found with the girl, Sienna Carter, is now in custody.

Carter was with her family at UCSF's Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes Friday when she left the facility to "get some air" and never returned.

According to Cold Case Mendocino, a group of citizen investigators who has been working the family, Carter was seen two miles away from the clinic and was witnessed walking away with a man in the Tenderloin District.

Before walking away with the man, Carter was seen "shivering in the alley" by a restaurant server in the area.

The server, Jaclyn Davis, was concerned about Carter being alone in the city and invited her inside the restaurant. Cold Case Mendocino reported that Carter left the restaurant, "walked quickly and met a man, they embraced and walked off on foot."

Buckner could not say any more about the circumstances surrounding her discovery, except that UCSF police are currently interviewing Carter and going over evidence that includes her phone.

Buckner believes that fliers along the panhandle and Van Ness Avenue with the girl's picture helped.

A READER WRITES: I just noticed that DA Eyster has decided to charge Gina Bean, the woman who somehow hit and killed pedestrian Calum Hunnicutt in Mendocino last year not with vehicular manslaughter as recommended by the CHP but that Ms. Bean "…did willfully, unlawfully, and knowingly, being a driver of a vehicle involved in an accident resulting in death to a person other than herself, fail, refuse, and neglect to give to the injured person and to a traffic and police officer at the scene of the accident her name and address…to render reasonable assistance to the injured person; and perform the duties specified in Vehicle Code Sections 23002 and 20004."

In other words, vehicle code violations for fleeing the scene, not the penal code violation (PC 192) for vehicular manslaughter.

I am not an attorney and I don’t know all the particulars of what happened that fatal night when Ms. Bean (allegedly) ran over Mr. Hunnicutt. But after a little on-line research I see where a prosecutor has to prove some level of reasonable negligence to justify a vehicular manslaughter charge and that one of the main defenses against a vehicular manslaughter charge is to essentially blame the victim for causing his own death by acting negligently himself.

So I’m guessing that the CHP report may not provide enough information to prove negligence on Ms. Bean’s part, and, knowing a little about the dangers of skateboarding or walking across the intersection where the incident occurred, that the DA may have calculated that the best course is the no-brainer fleeing the scene charge. This way he’s more likely to get a guilty plea and/or verdict and he can avoid the awkward defense tactic of having to publicly point out whatever the late Mr. Hunnicutt may have done to contribute to his own death. (Going too fast? Drugs? Hot dogging? Poor conditions at the intersection, etc.?)

Nevertheless, I think dropping the CHP’s vehicular manslaughter charge this early in the case is premature and unjustified and shouldn’t have been done until after the case was well down the road and at least not sooner than the preliminary hearing.

So far I have not seen any outrage on the part of Mr. Hunnicutt’s friends and family concerning the dropping of the vehicular manslaughter charge though. Maybe they know something I don’t know.

NO REGRETS

Editor,

Ralph Nader listens to Thom Hartmann and Hartman listens to Ralph Nader on Saturday. Ralph Nader said, "Hartman is the most erudite person on radio."

There are a few lefties left who would listen if the program was on at a better time. "Political Breakdown" on Saturday is a pretty good program. They are doing interviews with Jerry Brown now.

It looks like another dud is managing KZYX now. If she would spend less time bleating for money and more time trying to improve the content they might raise more money. But if they get enough money at pledge time to pay their salaries, why should they try to improve the station?

Like much of the “media-ocity,” NPR has deteriorated during the last few years. Who decides what is broadcast and what is withheld? The general secretary of the Women's Christian Temperance Union? Madame Diem? Anne Coulter? I have counted as many as 15 advertisements during a one-hour news hour. A good project for your AVA interns would be to check to see what news stories are in the PD but not on NPR which should be. And then report back!

I still think the PD (a little expensive now) is the best newspaper in the state outside the big cities. The letters to the editor in the AVA have been pretty punk lately even those you reprint from other papers.

I will be voting for Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren on March 3. Over in Willits I don't see much enthusiasm for them. It's Biden, the best candidate to beat Trump. Biden is very well-qualified as was Hillary. Do we have to wait for you on your deathbed to apologize for all of your bashing of Bill and Hillary Clinton? Do you really think you influenced anyone? Philbrick probably has a better record.

David McCullough has a new book out -- "the Pioneers." Both McCullough and Doris K. Goodwin do such an excellent job of research that it seems like they were actually there at the time they write about.

I believe and I have evidence that 25% of the claims to Medicare in Mendocino County consist of Medicare fraud. Doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. Who the hell cares? Cheating is a way of life except in Boonville of course. Put a little black shoe polish in that gray ink you are using. I think all of the newspapers in the county are resisting any effort to place a gun-control initiative on the ballot.

Ralph Bostrom

Willits

THE COUNTYWIDE AMBULANCE DEFICIT should be a top priority with the Supervisors, especially given the recent horror stories caused by a shortage of them. An on-line comment sums up the problem: “I just witnessed someone having a diabetic emergency wait close to half an hour for medical transport in Ukiah because there were no ambulances available. The fire department ended up having to transport. It's a scary problem for which I don't know the solution.”

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SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS is on the case!

“Ambulance coverage remains a serious concern county-wide. Late last night (Friday night, Jan 3), we were at “level zero” availability again on the 101 corridor (meaning units allocated, next call potentially queued with delay). As I look for places to trim, it’s with the intention of subsidizing ambulance services without another tax. Our priorities need to better reflect public safety. Ensuring 911 emergency medical response is the responsibility of the County, not fire districts or hospitals. When I hear our County finances are in good shape, I immediately flash on the services we're failing to provide. It'll take public demand to address the ambulance situation. To reach a minimum acceptable level of service without another tax, it'll take difficult decisions about priorities. I've seen ‘level zero staffing’ 9 times since Dec 23.”

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MENDO AMBULANCE SERVICES: “SCARY”

Little Lake/Willits Fire Chief Details ‘Scary’ State Of EMS Services

by Joanne Moore

The December 10 meeting of the Little Lake Fire District Board of Directors was almost all about the state of ambulance service in the county’s inland corridor – Hopland to Laytonville.

It’s bad.

There was also good news on new firehouse construction, updates on a “nexus study” and safety inspections, a farewell to a long-time volunteer, and a harrowing, but successful, extrication story.

First, the ambulance situation – commonly referred to as EMS (emergency medical services).

Read on to learn how you and your loved ones are currently not protected very well, and what your fire chief would like you to do about it.

To begin with, a bit of history, to provide context.

In the beginning, in 1937, there was Ukiah Ambulance.

In 2013, a not-for-profit public charity purchased Ukiah Ambulance, and it became Medstar.

Then Sonoma-based Verihealth Ambulance started operations.

Then Verihealth was bought by multinational ambulance corporation, Falck.

“When Falck/Verihealth came in here, they came in with a ton of ambulances, and basically forced Medstar out of Willits,” said Fire Chief Chris Wilkes. “They came with all these resources and flooded the county.

“Everything was happy-go-lucky. We had ambulances everywhere, and it was really nice,” he said. “Then they said ‘oops, we’re not making any money,’ so they started pulling back, pulling back, pulling back.

“The resources are gone that used to be here,” Wilkes continued. “Things started looking uglier and uglier and uglier.

“We had to put a [systems status management] plan in place for how ambulance service was going to be provided, because Falck kept pulling their ambulance staffing back to a level that was unacceptable.”

Then, about three weeks ago, Falck pulled out entirely.

So what we have now….

“There’s a lot to it. It’s complicated, and it’s scary all at the same time,” said Wilkes

“Right now, as of December 1, there’s one third-party ambulance company providing ambulance service in the central corridor, and that’s Medstar,” he said.

They are “running four ambulances now, and working their tails off to make it work … doing their best,” he said. “But it’s hard to buy ambulances and find paramedics.”

Those four ambulances perform two important functions – 911 calls and interfacility transfers.

We all know 911.

The other function, interfacility transfers, involves moving patients from hospital to hospital for a variety of reasons, most of them not life-threatening. And the hospitals are often a long ways away from each other.

“On a normal day,” said Wilkes, Medstar’s four ambulances are posted as follows; one in Willits, one in Redwood Valley, and two in Ukiah.

And how many of them at any given time are not in use dictates what the current “drawdown level” is.

If all four are available, “we’re at level four,” he said. “Take one out of picture, level three. Take two out, level two.”

Level two is a “big trigger point. When you get down to level two, you can’t take transfers anymore … unless it’s a stat (emergency) transfer … [which means it] has to happen immediately.

“When you get to level one – only one ambulance available – they’ll take that one ambulance, [wherever it is], and move it to Redwood Valley, and it covers Hopland to Willits.”

Then there’s level zero … which “happens every single day at some point,” said Wilkes.

At level zero, the Ukiah Valley Fire District and the Laytonville Fire Department ambulance join the scenario.

Ukiah Fire has two engine companies with paramedic staff and an unstaffed ambulance. At level zero “they’ll take one of their engine companies and put it on this ambulance to start running calls in Ukiah,” said Wilkes.

“For us [in Willits], when at level zero … Laytonville moves their ambulance down to Longvale.”

Which is no small sacrifice. Unlike most of the county, Laytonville taxpayers fund their own ambulance service.

“They don’t complain. They love to help. Sue [Carberry, Laytonville fire chief] is a wonderful chief. They want to be part of the solution,” said Wilkes. “But … their public is paying for their ambulance to be located in Laytonville. And because we can’t get it together down here, they’re now moving their ambulance to Longvale to support other communities.

“They can’t deny [providing the service], and they’re not trying to deny it,” he said. “But it’s not good for them to be a part of [the system] because they’re not providing directly to the people who are paying the bills.

Taxpayers in Laytonville fund and love their ambulance…. They only have one, and to pull it out of the tax base … it’s a hard thing to do,” he said.

By way of illustration, and in some detail, Wilkes described two recent ambulance drawdown scenarios … to illustrate the importance of the need to deal with the problem now, and why, in his opinion, the use of ambulances for transfers “dictates 911.”

“I want to explain a couple of situations that happened recently so you understand how delicate our system is,” he began.

Situation one.

The Redwood Valley ambulance and one Ukiah ambulance are transferring patients from hospital to hospital.

So there’s two ambulances left, and, remember, when there’s only two, transfers are not allowed.

But there’s a transfer needed and waiting.

One of the two ambulances doing transfers gets back and hits the county line, so now there are three ambulances available, and the waiting transfer takes off.

Then there’s a 911 call.

So two ambulances are transferring and one is on a 911 call.

That means it’s level one, and so the remaining ambulance is moved to Redwood Valley from wherever it is.

And that ambulance is now “serving 60,000 people,” said Wilkes.

Situation two.

It’s already at level one, and so the only available ambulance has gone to Redwood Valley.

Willits gets a call and the Redwood Valley ambulance, which is “15 to 20 minutes away,” heads north.

Now it’s level zero.

Willits gets another call, so Laytonville’s ambulance has to join the mix.

Meanwhile, Ukiah Fire, the other backup for level zero, is on a call in Ukiah.

“So technically,” said Wilkes, “we’re at level negative two that day. At that point there was nothing left.”

Wondering how it got to level one in the first place, he called [dispatch and said] “what the heck happened?”

Turns out, transfers took two of the four available ambulances and then an emergency transfer took the third.

“Ambulance companies are quick to say that transfers are not a problem in the county. It’s the 911s that end up” bringing the drawdown level down, said Wilkes. “I’m saying different.

“It’s a 911 system that’s working with four ambulances that’s been completely dictated by out-of-county transfers.”

Moving on to solutions, Wilkes was quick to point out that he was “not tying to beat up on transfers.

“The point is, the hospitals have a need. They have to move patients … open up beds for 911s to come in,” he said.

But, “in the field we have to have 911 ambulance. We have to get people from no care to definitive care. That’s our job, and that’s our goal.”

To find a solution, Wilkes said: “We have to come to an agreement. We have to recognize the problem. We all have a common goal…. We all have to work together … the hospitals and the fire folks and the EMS providers … to find a common ground to make this work for everybody. I think that we’re moving in that direction, but it’s a long road to get there.

“The reality is, there’s no money, and there’s no way to fund and subsidize ambulance service,” Wilkes said. “I’m not a huge fan of big government, but I think our ambulance service should be taxpayer-based.”

“I don’t know that we’ve been this critical in the past,” he continued. “The responsibility is falling on the county now, and they’re being pushed into a corner.”

When he tries to communicate with the county about the issue, though, “we hear nothing out of the CEO’s office,” he said.

“Zero. They say nothing to us. They don’t give us information. They don’t respond to emails. They don’t put anything out. I don’t know where they stand. I wish I could tell you. I have no idea.”

Something that is under discussion at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, however, is a half-cent sales tax to fund ambulance services.

On this, Wilkes is not necessarily in favor.

“I’m not in support of just throwing money at this problem that doesn’t fix it without a plan,” he said. “We need a real solid true plan.”

The “hypothetical” plan that he would support?

“In my opinion, interfacility transfers should be a contracted service with hospitals, and 911 ambulance should be subsidized with money from the county,” he said. “That’s the kind of plan I could stand behind.”

And how that might come to be?

“The fire chiefs … we’ve been swinging … we’ve been fighting as hard as we can for a long time,” said Wilkes.

“But the power is in the people. It comes from the folks in the public to come to the city council meetings, to read the articles that are put out, to go down to the supervisors meetings and pressure the CEO’s office and make something happen at the county,” he said.

Apropos of that, Wilkes then briefly addressed a recent local ambulance availability failure that has been in the news and heightened local awareness with respect to the sorry state of ambulance service.

“It wasn’t our call, and I don’t want to get involved with what happened because I don’t know,” he said. “But if there’s anything good to come out of that situation … the folks that it happened to … all they want is for that to not happen to somebody else.

“If they could do anything, almost in honor of Paul’s mother, it would be to fix it so it didn’t happen to anybody else,” he said. “I think they’re going to put their foot on the gas until something happens. I don’t think they’re going to let it go.”

And that is what your fire chief would like you to do. too.

In other news, Wilkes announced that a “full set of plans with a new application” for the new firehouse had finally been filed with the city, which means “early February … we’ll get our request for proposals out there.”

He also informed the board that the district’s “nexus study,” which will provide the information needed to determine development fees, was “well under way,” but that some development was “coming quicker than the study, [and] could affect the fire department pretty drastically.”

In that case, he said, a “number” will be set as a condition with respect to the project nonetheless.

Annual state-mandated fire inspections of schools, hotels, motels, and apartment complexes, he reported, were ongoing, with schools, which “take hours,” to be finished first.

“We’re working on it … doing our best,” he said.

And tribute was made to 21-year volunteer, Danny Mendoza, whose career with the post office is moving him to Texas.

“It pains me,” said Wilkes, who read Mendoza’s letter of resignation to the board, a letter that made clear it pained Mendoza as well.

“He was a good firefighter, good captain,” said Wilkes. “It’s hard to replace 20-year guys…. The range now is about eight years.”

Finally, the tale of the harrowing extrication with a happy ending.

It was snowing.

On Highway 162, “just past the bridge, [a vehicle] hit a tree with the top of the cab and was over the bank.”

The driver was “in the driver’s seat under the dash in the snow,” said Wilkes. “The [district’s new hydraulic] tools were awesome … cut the vehicle off the gentleman.”

“You train,” said Little Lake training chief Eric Alvarez. “You just start cutting … don’t know where the patient’s at … don’t know what the car’s going to do.”

“Eric did a wonderful job,” said Wilkes.

Chief Wilkes fired up and showed off at December’s board meeting the department’s “like-new custom-built mobile 60 kW power substation.” The substation was bought at a great price from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and Willits Power and Hardware owner Mike Garrity, who “could have sold it for a lot more … picked it up on his own,” said a very appreciative Chief Wilkes.

(Courtesy, the Willits Weekly)

ALSO FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: (From a recent presentation at Coast Hospital) “Where Coast Moms are Delivering, 2015-2018: 65% of Fort Bragg pregnancies delivered at Coast Hospital; 36% of pregnancies from women living in Caspar, Mendocino, Little River and Elk delivered at Coast Hospital.”

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AS DOCTOR GLUSKER has pointed out, without delivery, there’s really not much point in a local hospital. The subject arose because elimination of ob services at Coast Hospital has been suggested as a cost-saver.

THE FIRST BOONVILLE QUIZ of 2020 will be Thursday, January 9, 2020. Hope to see you there. Wishing you a Happy, Healthy, and Brain Exercising 2020. Cheers, Steve Sparks, Quiz Master

SOME BAD FEELING at the upper reaches of the Holmes Ranch, Philo, where long-time resident Tom Jones has been repeatedly reported by a neighbor for allegedly neglecting a horse on his place. Jones has just as repeatedly been found to be providing excellent care for the animal. Jones' unhappy neighbor is Tish McLeran, from whose property Gordon Cameron Hettrick, 57, went missing in March of 2007. Hettrick's remains were finally found in January of 2008 in an area which had been thoroughly searched several times over the months following his disappearance. A hole in Hettrick's skull, and the suspicious discovery of his remains where several searches had been carried out, prompted many locals to suspect that Hettrick had been murdered. The Sheriff's investigation, however, determined that Hettrick had died from a combination of exposure and the AIDS he was ill from.

BUT HETTRICK'S SISTER, Mrs. Ellis, emphatically declared at the time Hettrick's remains were found that “Gordon disappeared from my cousin's house, not a care home. He did not die from exposure or HIV. He was murdered. He died from high velocity blunt force trauma to his head. I am his sister and the person who caused this for financial gain is walking free. Read the coroner's report and the police reports and interviews including the search reports. His name was Gordon Cameron Hettrick not George. Thank you.”

THE SANDBAR at the mouth of the Navarro breached Saturday afternoon a little after 4pm. The Navarro River sandbar had re-formed, as it does before big rains, but the additional light rainfall of Thursday and Friday was enough to pry it open for now. But we still haven’t had the big rains that keep the winter Navarro full and barreling west to the Pacific.

REMEMBER MARBUT? The guy Mendo County paid to assess and alleviate the County’s homeless prob? He’s been appointed as director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, a position that collaborates on homelessness policy with 19 key agencies. Marbut’s appointment was quickly condemned by housing advocates, including the national nonprofit Invisible People, which described Marbut’s past work as a “real life horror,” ignoring his real life success in El Paso as an elected official, and his common sense recommendations (ignored of course after being paid $50,000 tax dollars) here in Mendo that terrified the several hundred Mendo persons living off the homeless and poverty generally. Marbut scares the entrenched homeless advocates because he recommends mandatory strategies, and mandatory, to these self-interested, translates as “cruelty.”

MSP: “We heard from a viewer Friday morning who wrote, ‘I discovered the body that was found on Caspar Headlands on New Year's Day. You were the only one who reported - but nothing since? Unsettling for all of us who live here. The person was well dressed, not a transient, and was in an odd location. Any updates would be appreciated. It did not appear responders were interested in anything but removing the body. It seemed ‘suspicious’ to me. Thanks for being the only one reporting! Disturbing that there was no other mention of incident.”

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MSP has e-mailed the Sheriff for clarification, and so have we, discovering that the poor guy, Martin Greb, 74, suffered from stage 4 cancer. He shot himself with a handgun, leaving a letter explaining his exit.

A READER WRITES: “I do think there is a lot of well-deserved bad juju heading the United States' way soon. I just hope a great bulk of the impact somehow lands on the more-responsible bad actors, rather than the average citizen. It's past time to throw this rotten arrangement overboard. The most pleasant path forward, that I can imagine, would start with Bernie steamrolling through the early primaries. The propaganda industry has done all they can to prevent that from happening, so it will appear as a shock and surprise when the actual tone of the people comes through.”

THE SAGE of Boonville responds: “Bernie is the only for sure peace candidate among the unappealing people who've nominated themselves for president among the Democrats. Overall, the big picture looks grim as the globe waits for Iran's retaliation for the assassination of their lead thug. However they retaliate and, as the Chuckle Buddies at CNN and MSNBC put it over and over again, “the world will be a much more dangerous place.”

VIETNAM busted faith in government for millions, and the deluge of lies since from government bring US to where we are, a fragged and isolated people with a lunatic at the controls. I always think of a shirttail relative of mine, a B-25 pilot in World War Two, a solid guy who wouldn't allow me and my sibs in his house because we opposed the war on Vietnam too far ahead of the curve. But he did a 180 on Vietnam with Nixon, and Watergate and the Pentagon Papers "You guys were right," he said. "I was wrong." Millions of people felt like the old man. And the lies kept on coming with Bush's invasion of Iraq based on a transparently false pretext (which I'm proud to say the AVA accurately forecast at the time), igniting the entire Middle East, and here we are with the fates of millions in the sieve-like hands of the worst possible people.

SOME PEOPLE will remember when a very capable woman named Maria Valdez was shuffled out of Lake County's Registrar of Voter's office on the laughably false pretext that Ms. Valdez didn't have a degree in political science, the academic equivalent of mumbly peg without the hand-eye coordination peg requires. Ms. Valdez, 17 years on the Lake job, was immediately hired by Mendo, but is now back in Lake as Lake County's permanent ROV. Which is as it should be, but seldom is at the upper reaches of Northcoast public employment.

FRANK GRASSE DOG PARK (WILLITS)

RECENT AV HIGH GRAD JULIA BROCK WRITES:

Many of you know me from doing various video-editing jobs around the valley during my teen years. Well now I'm a senior in film college in Los Angeles! I'm so thankful to all the community members who hired me and gave me little film projects around the town; this definitely prepared me for where I am now in my career.

For my thesis film project, I am directing a 15-minute short film that focuses on sexual harassment & assault; but parallels it in a new & interesting way to inform people about how much extra time, thought & energy women put into being safe (especially living in the city). For this, my crew & I are raising $6,000 to cover the cost of production so that we can make this the best it could possibly be.

This is the biggest project I've ever taken on, and it will not only establish my style, but kickstart my career and show what my crew and I are capable of.

I'd be so extremely grateful if you guys would check out our fundraising page. We've got 11 days left in the campaign & are just below halfway of our goal! If I've ever done a video for you, or helped you out in some area of film, please consider helping us out. It's not just a donation, you get super cool rewards in return, depending on the donation amount. Every dollar counts for us, and even if you can't donate, you can share the link to our page, which is extremely helpful!

http://igg.me/at/worstcasescenario

Thank you so much, feel free to visit Worst Case Scenario Film to learn more about this project or ask me any questions you have! Thank you guys!

NOT NOW NOR HAVE I EVER BEEN…

Dear Mr. Anderson:

Like the old Chinese custom I try to pay off all debts from the preceding year so I can start anew not burdened by my past failures. It is not only the financial arrangements I try to put in order but also my personal debts of gratitude that I owe. My failure to acknowledge these personal debts are bordering on the legendary. With this in mind, I wish to thank you for the publication last year of my work. After a 20 year hiatus from publishing it was enjoyable to be back in print at age 78.

I also want to express gratitude to your reporters. Most modern journalism is about the reporter and not a report on the issues happening in front of them. You need a tough ass, a Geiger counter hearing, and a bullshit alarm detector, a cast-iron stomach, a nose for bribery and corruption, a realization that all bribery starts locally.

I am grateful for your staff’s endurance. I am enclosing a check for the burn victims of Boonville and leave it to your discretion where or to whom it goes.

In regards to Norm Wallen's letter on December 11 about my failure to understand the circumstances or reasons leading up to the faculty strike of 1968 1969 that I wrote about in “A Year of Riotous Living,” I can truthfully respond by stating that I am not now nor have I ever been or intend to become an historian. I will leave that to those inclined to gather a sea of conflicting facts to drown in.

The essay concerns itself not with the causes but the effects of those causes and conditions it produced in the future. It would be well for Mr. Wallen to refer to a November 30, 2019 article San Francisco Chronicle, "Peacemaker in charge at long fractured SF State."

Fifty years down the road and nothing has changed except the cost of a college education. Identity politics still exists. The use of public education as a political incubator is still seen as a useful tool for social change.

I am the son of two labor organizers: my mother for the Office Workers Union, Teamsters, and my father for the building trades, AFL-CIO. Both were activists in the Democratic Party. I started licking stamps at age 10 and stuffing envelopes at age 11, driving voters to the polls at 16. I know knew early on how the vote works, what deals were cut, with whom and why. Our weekend dinner table was filled with Democrats, communists, socialists and wobblies/IWW members who I liked the best. They always sang together when they got drunk and had the best protest songs.

My father was the office manager of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) while Cesar Chavez was still picking grapes in Delano. So you can hardly complain that I am politically naive. Please look at the ocean and not the waves. I stand by what I wrote and I do appreciate your compliment on "accurate reporting." Whatever the causes were, we are living with the effects now.

Dave McCain

Richmond

COME AND ENJOY THIS DELICIOUS LENGUA TACOS at the Redwood drive in! Our new special — at Redwood Drive-In.

FEDERAL JUDGE HOLDS FREELANCERS TO NEW CALIFORNIA LABOR LAW

A federal judge will not temporarily exempt freelance journalists and photographers from a broad new California labor law, saying they waited too long to challenge restrictions that they fear could put some of them out of business.

kcra.com/article/federal-judge-holds-freelancers-new-california-labor-law/30421195

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 6, 2020

MARGARET ARTLIP, Ukiah. Unauthorized entry into dwelling without owner consent.

MAURICIO DELGADO-GARCIA, Fort Bragg. Disobeying court order.

JOSEPH HIPES, Willits. Community supervision violation.

JOSHUA HUNT, Ukiah. DUI.

BRYAN LOCKWOOD, Ukiah. DUI w/priors, suspended license, stop sign, failure to appear.

LOREN POWERS JR., Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

STEVEN REKENTHALER, Eureka/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

THE THISTLE WARS, LOCAL FRONT

Navarro Point thistle removing this Thursday January 9th, from 10am til noon. This morning's weather forecast for Thursday is for a light rain the night before, but the chance of rain at 10am Thursday is down to 7% and with the sun expected to burn thru soon thereafter. Navarro Point Preserve is located on Highway 1 about a half mile south of the Navarro Ridge Road. Meet there in the little parking lot on the left/west of Hwy 1. Hoping you will join us in eliminating the final 5% of this European invasive plant,

Tom Wodetzki tw@mcn.org

SOME OTHER PEOPLE DO SOME OTHER THINGS

by James Kunstler

An almighty bafflement befogs the nation as the first full business week of 2020 commences and events pile up like smashed vehicles on a weather-blinded highway. Before we even smoked that Iranian bird on the Baghdad airport tarmac, something ominous was tingling away in the financial markets, in fact, has been since way back in September. Perhaps one-in-100,000 Americans has the dimmest clue as to what the repo mechanism stands for in banking circles, but it has been flashing red for months, with klaxons blaring for those who maybe missed the red flashes.

The repo market represents trillions of dollars in overnight lending in which bonds (or other “assets”) are used as collateral for ultra-short-term loans between large banks. Theoretically, this flow of supposedly secured lending acts as mere background lubricant for the engine of finance, like the motor oil circulating in your Ford F-150. You don’t notice it until it’s not there, and then all of a sudden you’re throwing rods and sucking valves, and the darn vehicle is a smoldering goner in the breakdown lane.

The strange action on the repo scene suggests that some big banks are in big trouble, and probably because the “innovative investments” they’ve engineered — as a substitute for the true purposes of capital, such as enabling production of real goods at a profit — are proving once again to be little more than swindles and frauds, like last time. Things like interest rate swaps and credit default “insurance.” Have your eyes glazed over yet? The bottom line is an impressive potential for losses to go critical, multiply daisy-chain style, cascade wildly, and then start wrecking real things — like the supply lines to your supermarket.

When you cut through all the esoteric crap, what’s likely behind all that is the dynamic of a failing affordable global energy supply. Yes, really. It’s not working to run the global economy anymore, so we resort to swindles and frauds instead. That must seem crazy to Americans especially, who look at our all-time record oil production of nearly 13 million barrels-a-day now and behold the blue sky of “energy independence” as far as the eye can see. The trouble is, it’s a hologram of a mirage of a Ponzi scheme. Suffice it to say that shale oil just doesn’t make any money and all the other regular oil around the world is harder and harder to get to. A lot of that other oil is in the Middle East.

So, a lot depends on what happens in the Middle East, easily the most politically mixed-up and confused region in the world — though central Africa may have it beat for sheer horrifying chaos. In general, we tolerate all that confusion as long as the oil keeps flowing to world markets, enabling the flows of everything else. But any hint of an interruption sends humanity and all its signaling systems — such as financial markets — into a psychotic fugue. Which is what we’re approaching now.

The financial markets know that a lot less new investment will flow into shale oil from now on, since it was a lousy investment the past ten years, despite all the admirable techno-virtuosity behind it, and that before long the mighty shale oil bell curve will turn down, and everything economic with it. Folks who make foreign policy and military plans may sense this too, perhaps dimly. But then they confront the additional mystifying calculus of all those moiling parties in the Middle East jockeying for position and advantage as the oil-hungry big dogs of the world desperately try to figure how to keep those oil flows going their way.

Eventually — and sooner rather than later — the mighty flows of everything in the global economy have to neck down, and the process will probably consist of sharp political and economic shocks rather than simple deceleration. Just such a shock was the assassination of General Qassim Suleimani. His multifarious activities all around the Middle East were in themselves a symptom of the instability dogging Iran as its economy wobbles. Much of that is due to the squeeze that the USA put on Iran in the way of trade sanctions and currency movements. And much of that stems from events over forty years ago when the mullahs ran the shah out of town and took the American embassy staff hostage for well over a year. The enmity on both sides runs wide and deep.

Iran’s neighbor, Iraq, is quite a prize oil-wise, and Iran has made significant inroads attempting to gain control of that broken country, even while the USA retains its garrisons there. The region of Iraq closest to Iran, Basra, is overwhelmingly Shia, like Iran, and produces a lot of Iraq’s oil. Baghdad is not so hot to give it up. Remember, the two countries slugged it out through the entire 1980s. About a quarter-million people died in that war. It is surely a high priority for the USA to not let that Iraqi oil slip into Iran’s hands. It’s a zero-sum game, of course, because even Iraq’s copious oil reserves will not save the global economy’s ass, let alone Iran’s economy.

Nobody knows what happens next. The Iranians are pissed off to beat the band. They’ve pulled many a prank the past couple of years, like attacking a major Saudi Arabian oil terminal, capturing American sailors, shooting down American drones, seizing tankers in the Persian Gulf and suchlike capers — all with no response from their foes, including us, until last week. And, of course, there is the question of all the other monkey business they’ve engaged in around Syria, Lebanon and even faraway Libya, which is where General Suleimani came in.

Serious people wonder: is Iran crazy enough now to try to shut down the Straits of Hormuz? Or attack the Ras Tanura complex?

For the moment, impeachment is on the back burner. We’re in for a double-feature this first month of the rollicking 20s: financial carnage and something that looks like war. It will make for quite the attitude-adjustment here.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

FISH STATS

Shasta and Scott River Salmon Spawner count

A message from Felice Pace, Water Chair, North Group Redwood Chapter Sierra Club:

The DFW salmon counting weirs on the Shasta and Scott Rivers were removed on December 31st. The preliminary counts (see attached spreadsheet) are:

• Scott River: 1505 Chinook and 334 Coho
• Shasta River: 5867 Chinook and 61 Coho

These counts do not bode well for Coho salmon in these major Klamath River tributary basins. Salmon biologists tell us that a minimum of 500 spawners is needed to maintain the genetic strength of a population segment or, as we say in the fisheries world, a salmon stock. When there are fewer than 500 spawners, the genetic diversity of the stock narrows and that in turn makes the stock more susceptible to extinction/extirpation via random events.

The Scott River was once the preeminent Coho Salmon stronghold within the Klamath River Basin and it could be that stronghold now. In the Scott River Valley existing habitat for Coho salmon has been protected and enhanced. Yet inadequate stream flows and disease epidemics related to flow and water quality limit juvenile survival. As reflected in the DFW counts, Coho salmon remain in deep trouble in the Scott and basin-wide. They could be wiped out if we once again have a series of years in which most juvenile salmon die before they can reach the Pacific.

In the Scott River Basin, thousands of Chinook and Coho juveniles die every year when irrigators turn on their diversions during springtime in a manner that dewaters the streams below the diversions. Dewatering fish habitat by diversion is illegal under California law. That law however, Fish & Game Code 5937, is intentionally not enforced.

To make matters worse, the Siskiyou County Superior Court recently irresponsibly granted a petition from Scott River Irrigators to end watermaster service. As a result, irrigation districts like the Farmer's Ditch, which has a documented history of excessive diversion outside the legal irrigation season, is free to violate the conditions of its water right at will. The result is even longer periods when more of Scott River is dewatered. This will inevitably push Scott River Coho closer to extirpation/extinction:

Every year since 2014, I have petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to end the widespread practice of irrigation, especially of cattle pastures, outside the legal irrigation season. So far, however, State Water Board staff have not taken effective action to end the illegal water use and the resulting degradation of Scott River stream ecosystems, including "take" of Coho and Chinook salmon.

So far the tribes and fishing groups that have sued the US Bureau of Reclamation to get more flows into the Klamath River have not taken legal action to address the dewatering of Scott River and the resulting destruction of the Scott's salmon stocks even as matters have become more dire with the end of watermaster service. The lack of effective action on behalf of Scott River Coho and Chinook salmon is, in my view, disgraceful.

I write these things as a plea to those receiving this message to do something to help. If you are a reporter or editor, please report on this situation. If you are a private citizen, fisherman, state employee or agency staffer please urge the State Water Resources Control Board to take meaningful action to end the illegal use of water in the Scott River Basin.

The main contact in this regard at the State Board is:

Erik Ekdahl, Deputy Director,
Division of Water Rights
State Water Resources Control Board
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 341-5316
Erik.Ekdahl@waterboards.ca.gov

HOW COULD ANYBODY TELL THE DIFF?

Illinois Woman Sentenced For Posing As Attorney In Public Defender’s Office

truecrimedaily.com/2020/01/05/illinois-woman-sentenced-for-posing-as-attorney-in-public-defenders-office/

LAST DAY TO REGISTER IS FEB. 18

According to Katrina Bartolomie, Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters the last day to register to vote in the March 3, 2020 Presidential Primary Election is February 18, 2020. If you miss the deadline, you will be able to update your registration or register to vote a ballot that is available at a polling place within Mendocino County or at the Elections Office at 501 Low Gap Rd, Ukiah. This is known as Conditional Voter Registration.

On Election Day, if you go to a Polling Place within Mendocino County, the ballot you will be given might not be the exact ballot that you are entitled to vote, it may have different candidates and / or different ballot measures that you are not eligible to vote on – depending on where you live.

Once it is determined that you are eligible to register to vote, our office will count only the votes for the candidates and measure that you are entitled to vote on.

If you come to the Elections Office at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah – you will be given a ballot that will include all the candidates and ballot measures you are eligible to vote for.

We encourage potential voters to register by February 18, 2020, allowing plenty of time to receive the correct ballot, or to be on the correct polling place roster. This will allow for a smoother Election Day process.

A Presidential Primary Reminder - Only three of the major parties in California (The Democratic Party, American Independent Party and the Libertarian Party) are allowing California’s No Party Preference (NPP) voters the option to vote their party ballots if the voter chooses to do so for the Primary Election.

We mailed out postcards to all “Vote By Mail” voters registered as No Party Preference (Decline to State or Non-Partisan) in early December asking voters to return the postcard with one of the allowed party choices marked by December 27, 2019. We have received many of the completed postcards back. If you haven’t had a chance to return the postcard yet, please do so at your earliest convenience and return it to our office, or you may call our office in lieu of returning the postcard. When you call, we will ask you to verify specific information related to your voter registration and will be able to get you one of the three party ballots. The Republican Party, The Green Party and Peace & Freedom Party did not choose to allow NPP voters this option. We do not know why these parties did not allow this. If NPP voters would like to vote one of these ballots, they need to re-register with that party.

For additional information, questions, or to reply to the postcard please contact the Election / County Clerk’s Office by calling 707 234-6819.

THIS IS WHY we can't have Medicare for all.

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] I just drove coast to coast across America and did I see the sites!

Gas was on average a dollar cheaper everywhere outside of Kommiefornia.

New cars everywhere and the Starbucks were universally packed!

Texas is covered in windmills for power generation.

It was weird driving at night with all the blinking red lights, blinking in unison like some huge alien ship was taking over.

Tennessee had the worst drivers I have ever seen anywhere.

Virginia the state I visited for a week is a buzz with Gun rights advocates standing up militias and my son in Law was open carrying everywhere we went.

Dead squished Deer in every state, all over the roads and a black bear in Virginia, no one drives the speed limit anywhere in America and doing so got you tail gated and cursed at.

Driving was a white knuckle experience which left my poor wife with ptsd.

It was freezing everywhere thank god for my heated seats!

The one standard thing I noticed was everywhere was busy and looked like life was pretty good except Mississippi and El Paso —God what shit holes.

[2] I manage acreage burned by the 2015 Valley fire. The broom is a huge problem. It is invasive and chokes out everything including tree seedlings. Grazers won't eradicate it. In my experience, hand removal (cutting or pulling depending on season) and judicious use of an herbicide are the cheapest, easiest ways to eradicate it. Broom is really bad news and crazy flammable -- we hoard cut broom and stuff it in burn piles to get the fire going.

A READER LIVES A THOUSAND LIVES before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.

TOO MANY PEEPS

Editor:

While our global warming crisis is very real, it is only a symptom of the pervasive effects of population growth. It ought to be obvious, for example, that our so-called housing shortage is actually a population overage, and that the housing developments being readied as resolution will exacerbate climate degradation.

Our flawed society, interpreting us as superior to nature and fabricating an economic system based on perpetual growth, can only leave us confused and unable to fully grasp our dire circumstances.

The truth that we have historically clung to was never real, and those chickens are now home to roost. While global warming resolutions can be relatively straightforward, those associated with population growth will be severe, worse perhaps than the sacrifices we endured during the World War II years. Our fundamental mandate will be to adopt a full sustainability, which will demand a reformed society that not only sees an end to growth but a reduction in overall numbers.

Our continued indulgence in procrastination will only postpone the inevitable. If we cannot begin immediate, sweeping and effective reform, there can be no hope for us. We will deserve what we get.

Robert Beauchamp

Sebastopol

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS A CHEERLEADER FOR WAR WITH IRAN

When it comes to war, we shouldn't expect balance from mainstream news outlets: the corporate media has never met a war it didn't like.

jacobinmag.com/2020/01/war-iran-qassem-soleimani-drone-strike-death-mainstream-media

CONVERSATIONAL SPANISH CLASSES

Anderson Valley Adult School/ Escuela de Adultos de…

This winter we are offering:

Spanish 1 (formerly Beginner's Spanish):

Appropriate for beginners or those who speak little Spanish and wish to improve listening, speaking, vocabulary, and practice in a supportive setting.

Tuesday evenings from 5:45-7:30 pm.

February 11-April 28 (12 weeks)

Instructor: Nora Jimenez

Spanish 2 (formerly Intermediate Spanish):

Appropriate for people who speak and understand some Spanish, feel comfortable speaking in the present tense, have familiarity with past tenses and wish to improve their speaking, comprehension, and grammar through conversational practice.

Monday evenings from 5:30-7:15 p.m.

February 3- April 27th (12 weeks)

Instructor: Maggie Von Vogt

Not sure what level you are? Contact us to talk more.

Cost for either class: $150* (Cost goes down if more than ten people enroll, SCHOLARSHIP INFO BELOW)

Optional workbook is available for $56 (highly recommended for Spanish 1)

*Scholarships are available as well as payment plans. Please email adultschool@avpanthers.org for more info.

*Free childcare available during class hours.

To register:

-Email adultschool@avpanthers.org or call 895-2953 by January 27, 2020.

Please spread the word!

END OF YEAR GRATITUDE FROM THE CANCER RESOURCE CENTERS

Welcome to a Brand New Year

My deepest thanks to everyone who made the work of the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County possible in 2019. CRC provided assistance to over 500 clients in 2019, absolutely free of charge: help made possible by our donors, supporters, volunteers and staff.

My hope for the new year is that every single person who is diagnosed with cancer in Mendocino County will receive the help and guidance they need to face cancer with courage, love and support. If you have already made a donation to CRC, thank you! If you have not, the year is young! It is the compassion of our wonderful community that keeps our doors open.

Karen Oslund Executive Director - http://cts.vresp.com/c/?CancerResourceCenter/22bb8eeb12/c8bebd9577/52e5b5ef67

Or, call our office at 707-937-3833 to donate by phone. Or, mail check to: 510 Cypress St. B-200, Fort Bragg, CA 95437. Coastal Women's Cancer Support Group Re-Starts January 21

After a hiatus, the Coastal Women's Cancer Support Group will restart on January 21. The regular meeting time will be the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 4:30 p.m. at the Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County's Fort Bragg office: 510 Cypress St., B-200. The support group is open to any woman who has faced cancer, whether newly diagnosed or long in remission.

Facilitator Lynne BornHeim, LCSW, is a behavioral health therapist and breast cancer survivor. For more information call (707)937-3833. Cancer Support Group Schedule

Coastal Women's Cancer Support Group: 1st and 3rd Tuesdays, 4:30 p.m. at CRC Fort Bragg Office, 510 Cypress St., B-200. Facilitated by Lynne BornHeim.

Inland Women's Cancer Support Group: 1st and 3rd Mondays at noon, CRC Ukiah office, 590 S. Dora St. Facilitated by Nancy Johnson. Coastal Men's Cancer Support Group: 2nd Wednesday at 10 a.m., facilitated by Glenn Rude, LMFT. Meets at Redwood Coast Senior Center, 490 N. Harold St, Fort Bragg.

Inland Men's Cancer Support Group: Meets the 1st and 3rd Tuesday at 5 p.m. at CRC Ukiah office, 590 S. Dora, Ukiah. Facilitated by Paul Otto, PhD. NEW! Durable Medical Equipment (DME) Storage and Lending on the Coast

Thanks to a generous supporter, the Cancer Resource Center now has storage space for durable medical equipment on the Coast. We have lots of space to store items and a limited number of items available to lend at this time, such as shower chairs, wheel chairs and walkers. DME is available to lend to anyone in need, not just those facing cancer. If you need to borrow an item or if you have items you would like to donate, please call our Fort Bragg office at (707) 937-3833 for more information.

FOUND OBJECT