MCT: Sunday, January 19, 2020

• High Pressure
• Where's Marie
• Fire Fundraiser
• Pet Dos
• BOS Items
• Terence Hallinan
• Willits Weekly
• Humco Pwogs
• More Biden
• Streetball
• SLO Bros
• Yesterday's Catch
• Bern Power
• Google Hiring
• Courage Score
• Media Complicity
• Chomsky Optimism
• Trade Unions
• RQMC/RCS Questions
• Farmers Convergence
• Winter Abundance
• Composting Techniques
• Mama Said
• MLK Retrospectives
• Found Object

HIGH PRESSURE will allow for dry weather today, with even some filtered sun through high clouds. A cold front will bring widespread rain and high elevation snow Monday night into Tuesday, with additional episodes of showery weather possible the rest of the week. (NWS)

WHERE’S MARIE?

My niece is missing from Ukiah. If you know where she is or who she is with please contact 911. She just turned 15. We are very concerned for her safety. The last time she was seen by her mother was 01/08/2020. She was officially reported as a missing person at around 6:00pm on Friday 01/17/2020. She had not been seen or heard from until Tonight, 01/17/2020, after my sister posted Marie's missing person info.

My sister received a call, 01/17/2029, from a blocked number, from Marie stating that she was “fine” but refused to give her location or say who she was with. The sheriff’s office also got the same call from Marie. She is considered an at risk missing person. She may be with adult males involved in drug activities. She is possibly in the Bay Area or Ukiah or in between. Her phone is turned off. Please help locate her so that she does not become a victim of trafficking or worse.

Marie, if you’re reading this know that I love you so so much and am so worried about you. Please please please know that Papa and all of us love you. I know the danger you’re in and I am so afraid for you. Please know that we love you unconditionally. We won’t stop until we find you and know you’re safe. I love you Marie!!

(Sarah Fernandez)

coldcasemendocino.wordpress.com/2020/01/18/15-year-old-girl-missing-out-of-ukiah-mother-files-missing-persons-report/

A BOONVILLE FIRE VICTIMS FUNDRAISER performance by the award-winning Del Sol String Quartet featuring special guest composer fellows from the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in Boonville is set for Friday, January 24 from 7- 8:30 PM at the Anderson Valley High School cafeteria. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $10 at the door. AV High School students and all those 18 and under are free. For more information visit www.glfcam.com.

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Lovley Dos is a playful dog filled with joi de vivre! When she met a neutered male dog, she made it clear she wanted to play. And… she's a big fan of squeaky toys! Dos lived with another dog in her former home. If you are an active person looking for a companion who can keep up, Dos may be a perfect match. This beautiful girl is a year old, spayed, and weighs a svelte 42 pounds.

The Ukiah Animal Shelter is located at 298 Plant Road in Ukiah, and adoption hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Visit our website for information about our canine and feline guests, services, programs and events: For more information about adoptions please call 707-467-6453.

FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

BoS - January 21, 2020 - item 6c - Ambulance

Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Formal Request for a Subsidy Price Estimate from Mendocino Coast Healthcare District (MCHD), Transferable to Adventist Health, for One Advanced Life Support (ALS) Ambulance To Be Used Primarily for the 101 Corridor in Collaboration with Coastal Valleys EMS Agency, for 911 Responses and Inter-Facility Transfers, as Appropriate

(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action/Motion:

Direct Executive Office to formally request a subsidy price estimate from Mendocino Coast Healthcare District (MCHD), transferable to Adventist Health to the extent it assumes MCHD ambulance operation, for one Advanced Life Support ambulance, staffed full-time, positioned primarily for response to the 101 corridor, location to be determined dynamically by Howard Forest dispatch in collaboration with Coastal Valleys EMS Agency, for 911 response and inter-facility transfers as appropriate.

Previous Board/Board Committee Actions:

None.

Summary of Request:

Ambulance coverage is dangerously low, subjecting residents to pain, death and preventable bodily damage. Private ambulance companies struggle to operate with stability and at adequate staffing levels, in great part because of inadequate reimbursement rates from insurance, including government sponsored programs. One additional Advanced Life Support ambulance, positioned based on greatest need, will progress us towards greater coverage while proving a model for future extension. Mendocino Coast Healthcare District operates a public ambulance with a track record of stability, employee satisfaction, safety and patient approval. MCHD owns adequate ambulance apparatus and can use a pool of resources for staffing a pilot program. On the coast, the service operates at slightly better than break even.

Projecting exact profit or loss in a new area will not be feasible, because financials depend greatly on unknowns including patient volume, insurance mix, transport distances and participation by other minimally regulated providers. By using County General fund to cover potential losses for Emergency Medical Services, a statutory responsibility of the county, we’ll enable a pilot program which has potential to improve ambulance stability county-wide.

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BoS - January 21, 2020 - item 6d

Discussion and Possible Action Including Direction to County Counsel to Author Ordinance Amendment to Raise County Code Section 15.28.010 Vehicle Abandonment to a Misdemeanor Offense

(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)

Recommended Action/Motion:

Direct County Counsel to author Ordinance amendment to raise County Code section 15.28.010 Vehicle Abandonment to a misdemeanor offense.

Previous Board/Board Committee Actions:

Ordinance No. 3770 created Sec. 15.28.010 Vehicle Abandonment Prohibited.

Summary Of Request:

Unwanted vehicles are frequently disposed on public right of way shoulders and private property without authorization. County funds are used to abate through clean-up and hauling. Even where a Vehicle Identification Number can identify the owner of record, our District Attorney is unable to adequately punish the party responsible for the dumping. We should not tolerate scrap vehicle litter. The existing violation is only an infraction and has proven to be an insufficient deterrent. Maximum penalty should be six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

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“A vehicle was lost in the Navarro River last night near mile post 0.90 just east of the Highway 1 bridge. The driver swam to shore and declined medical care (I happened to be returning home via 128 minutes after the incident and was relieved by the non-injury). Albion Fire continued searching for the vehicle today and Mendocino might join for further searching before dark. If anyone spots a submerged red vehicle, please report to 911. Please don't attempt to approach it, because currents passing submerged vehicles can be dangerous.”

FORMER SAN FRANCISCO DA AND SUPERVISOR TERENCE HALLINAN DIES AT 83

Terence Hallinan, a onetime teenage brawler who became a fighter for civil rights and then an against-the-grain politician, serving as a San Francisco supervisor and the city’s district attorney, died Friday. He was 83.

“He passed away this morning, in his sleep, peacefully,” his son, Brendan Hallinan said.

Hallinan gained the nickname “Kayo” from his prowess as a boxer — he was on the boxing team at UC Berkeley and nearly made the U.S. Olympic team in 1960 — and from his pugilistic tendencies that led to a criminal record and almost cost him his legal career. It took a state Supreme Court ruling in 1966 to overturn the State Bar’s decision that the 30-year-old was morally unfit to practice law.

Hallinan went on to become a San Francisco supervisor and then the San Francisco District Attorney.

Hallinan was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1988 and was elected District Attorney in 1995 and 1999.

But in 2003 he was defeated by a 12-point margin by Kamala Harris, who later was elected California Attorney General and is now a U.S. Senator.

Harris said in a statement on Friday, "California has suffered a terrible loss with the passing of Terence Hallinan. He was a fighter who dedicated his life to pursuing justice and serving the people of San Francisco."

Harris said, "He will be greatly missed. My condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time."

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, "I am saddened to hear of the passing of Terence Hallinan. His storied legal career was intertwined with so much of our great city's history, and he was a dedicated public servant, both as a member of the Board of Supervisors and as District Attorney."

Breed said, "He was outspoken and fierce in his pursuit of justice, his defense of those in need, and his love for this City. Terence was, simply put, a true San Francisco legend. My thoughts and sympathies are with his family and loved ones."

Newly-elected District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who, like Hallinan, was a defense lawyer before becoming the city's top prosecutor, said, "Today, the San Francisco District Attorney's Office mourns the loss of Terence Hallinan, who led the office from 1996 until 2003."

Boudin said, "I was saddened to learn of Terence Hallinan's passing this morning, and my heart goes out to his family. He was a fighter."

Former San Francisco sheriff and supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who was Hallinan's legislative aide in City Hall and directed campaigns for district attorney in 1995 and 1999, said, "Terence Hallinan was an original and was a champion of the underdog and was never shy about taking on institutional resistance to progressive change in City Hall and in the criminal justice system".

Mirkarimi said Hallinan "was the only district attorney in California to support Proposition 215 to legalize medical marijuana in 1996 and he worked to curtail the injustices of the Three Strikes Law and the death penalty."

Mirkarimi, who worked for Hallinan in the district attorney's office until he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2004, said Hallinan's administration "innovated a number of victim-rights and re-entry programs that resonate today as mainstream criminal justice reform."

California Bar Association records indicate that at the time of his death Hallinan was suspended from practicing law because he failed to pass a professional responsibility exam.

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TERENCE HALLINAN (1936-2020): FIGHTER FOR THE PEOPLE AND FOR THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

by Jonah Raskin

Terence Hallinan is dead at 83, but his spirit goes marching on in San Francisco and way beyond the city where he practiced law and served as district attorney for seven years. As the son of Reds during the Cold War and McCarthy years, I felt a natural affinity with Terence and also a sense of camaraderie. He leaves behind a big legacy, certainly bigger than mine, and many others of his generation who made names for themselves in the civil rights and anti-war movements. Marijuana is a big part of Terence’s big story that in some ways began before he was born, as the son of notorious lefties, Vincent and Vivian Hallinan. Not long ago, I interviewed Terence at his home in Petaluma. Here are some of the highlights from his comments.

I love San Francisco, but it is the greatest NIMBY city. Take marijuana, for example. People say it will bring crime to their neighborhood and lower property values. Not true.

My dad, Vincent, was, as you know, a lawyer, and didn’t smoke anything, but he said if people want to use marijuana they should be able to do so. He was in federal prison in 1948 and helped to segregate it. He served six months for contempt for defending union organizer, Harry Bridges. He was also indicted for income tax evasion. The government wanted to put him away.

He was quite a character! So was Denis Peron. He and I were largely responsible for medical marijuana in San Francisco. I once ran against Denis for supervisor and still we remained friends. Harvey Milk won the seat we both sought. Marijuana really came into the city because of all the people who were suffering from AIDS, HIV and cancer. We are all benefiting from them. Years ago, Denis put something on the ballot to make enforcement of the marijuana laws the lowest possible priority. We held a hearing and it was mind blowing. Doctors, scientists and hemophiliacs came and testified and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

A committee recommended to the full board of supervisors that arrests for marijuana should become the lowest priority for law enforcement. There was almost no opposition to it. The board of supervisors passed a resolution recommending that the police do so and so. For a time, I used to go to Denis’s place on Church Street. It was a humanitarian place. A lot of people would have died alone, but there on Church Street they could have food and smoke marijuana. Then, I was elected supervisor and I got nervous about going to his club and didn’t.

Back in the day, my dad, Vincent, had clients who were arrested for marijuana. It had already been around by the time he practiced law, and I smoked it in the 1950s. I knew a kid who had access to it. The pot was from Mexico, I imagine. It was also around when I was in law school. I graduated in 1964 and then I was refused admittance to the California bar because I was arrested in civil rights and anti-war protests. Finally, I was admitted to the bar in December 1966 and started to practice law in January 1967.

My dad swore me in. I was admitted by virtue of a court decision, Hallinan vs. Bar Examiner. It was an important decision for law students arrested in civil rights and anti-war activities. My dad had tried to keep me in some restraint, but that was difficult. Protest ran in the family. My parents felt very felt strongly about civil rights. My mother, Vivian, was a grand peacenik and good friends of Decca’s. [Jessica Mitford]

I was arrested 14 times in California and in Mississippi, though I have no idea how many total number of times I have been arrested. I was never arrested for marijuana. As a kid, I became a sports maniac and then did no drugs at all when I was an athlete. I loved sports and got into clean living.

I was San Francisco district attorney from 1996 to 2003. I never sent anyone to prison because of marijuana. In fact, I promoted medical marijuana and tried to facilitate the establishment of marijuana clubs. There were robberies of those places and I slammed those guys! Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve learned that the Law changes very slowly and so does some thinking.

Many people have a hard time thinking marijuana is not a deadly drug, though I have no doubt of its medicinal value. I remember I did a marijuana case on the grounds that it was part of a man’s religion. Frank Werber was a Jewish guy. You know, cannabis has a long history that goes back to Hannibal and the Zoroastrians. People have used it for thousands of years to communicate with God. It’s a personal decision to come out of the marijuana closet or not. Over my lifetime it has become more and more acceptable.

A San Francisco police officer smoked it publicly. He was known as “Officer Sunshine.” Richard Burgess was his real name — he smoked on steps of Hall of Justice and was busted. A lot of cannabis cases raise Constitutional issues the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth amendments: search and seizure, due process and self-incrimination. Hail, hail the Bill of Rights!

WILLITS WEEKLY: We're back! … at least for now! As we added one extra week off to our regular two-week break over Christmas, cancelling our January 9 edition due to AB5, we're doing our best to get back on track for 2020, bringing local news by local people about local people through the pages of Willits Weekly!

So many of you have stopped us to offer support, suggestions and hopes for overcoming this (insert your own adjective here) law, and we are doing our best to navigate this frustrating times.

Please, read about AB5, how it negatively affects us, and so many, many, many others in the state by checking out the story on the front page of this week's edition.

We look forward for many more editions to come - fingers crossed!

(Oh, and btw: this week's paper also includes our Real Estate section, and the 2020 Soroptimist International of Willits Community Telephone Directory! Get a copy while they last - they were gone QUICK yesterday!)

HUMCO PWOGS ENDORSE (Mendo?)

Press release from the Humboldt Progressive Democrats:

At its first meeting of the New Year, the Humboldt Progressive Democrats Club endorsed candidates for both local races and for President of the United States.

In a unanimous vote, Senator Bernie Sanders was endorsed as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. Before the vote, club members shared why Senator Sanders earned their support including his key positions and plans to address the climate crisis, human rights, and health care, as well as his consistent record over decades fighting for the working class and poor. Lesley Ester from the California Nurses Association, supports Bernie because “the world is dying – no other single candidate is trustworthy enough to mount an all out response.”

Also noted by Vice-Chair Michele Walford, “Bernie is the only candidate who calls for the elimination of the medical insurance industry in our current healthcare model. Medical insurance adds no value and serves only to delay or deny necessary treatment. It adds approximately 30% to our healthcare costs while hurting actual health care. Medical insurance is a billion-dollar industry that serves corporate boards and shareholders above all else. It is an unnecessary factor in healthcare costs and an impediment to saving lives. No other candidate addresses this directly or even indirectly which I find telling.”

Congratulations also to our endorsed local candidates:

District 1 Supervisor – Cliff Berkowitz

District 4 Democratic Central Committee – G. Mario Fernandez, Kathryn Sobilo, Christopher Musgrave, Richard Marks.

Progressive Democrats are encouraged to join us in working for the political revolution. Meetings are held the third Wednesday of every month at 6 pm – location is the Democratic Headquarters, 527 4th Street in Eureka. Visitors and new members welcome!

WHY NO BIDEN ARTICLES?

To the AVA:

I really like the AVA for local news. It seems unbiased enough. But when it comes to national news I listen to NPR, the only radio I get from my home. I also get Time Magazine which did a nice piece on the Iran hit. What I've been waiting for and not getting is an in-depth article about the Bidens’ involvement in the Ukraine. Some of the questions I would like to be answered are:

Does the United States send welfare checks to every country in the world or just favorites? Who are they? And how much?

What was Biden's son doing with the job that paid $80,000 a month yet he knows nothing about the Ukrainian oil company and stays in the United States most of the time and doesn't even speak the language?

Is this just the tip of a very corrupt government iceberg?

The subject seems to be taboo among most of the media.

I want to hear about it, talk about it and explore it. But the facts are hidden as the most useless people gravitate to the top of government especially in California where the most elite position candidates are selected from a group of interconnected and related people just like a third world country.

A new far-reaching Proposition 13 would be nice to keep our money out of their hands.

Tom Madden

Ukiah

THE END IS NEAR

Editor,

When John Kennedy was shot you were at San Luis Obispo junior high school and I was a senior at San Luis Obispo high school nearby.

That must be the connection I've always felt toward you, or is it your anarchist syndicalist views?

I well remember the old baseball field at Cal Poly by the railroad tracks. I grew up there. Since then you have accomplished and experienced so much more than I have. Me? I hopped a few freight trains!

Every day I am grateful to be alive and every week I am equally as grateful when your paper arrives. I am well aware that it is all going to end soon – you and I, I mean.

People like us will be gone soon but everything will go on without us. What a concept.

One of your many connections,

Dale Carey

Oakland

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 18, 2020

JOHN DOYLE, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

CHADLEY GOTTSIMMONS, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

MARTIN JOHNSTON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, criminal threats.

JESSE LIDDLE, Redwood Valley. Elder abuse, domestic abuse.

JARRETT NELSON, Ukiah. DUI, hit&run with property damage, evasion, resisting, probation revocation.

GEORGE PAYNE, Browns Valley/Willits. Touching intimate parts of antoher against their will, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, criminal threats, disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ENRIQUE RAMIREZ, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, domestic abuse.

DANIEL SHELDON, Arata/Hopland. DUI with prior.

TIFFANY WASHBURN, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, failure to appear.

JESSE WATERS, Willits. Domestic battery.

KENNETH WHIPPLE, Covelo. False imprisonment.

I THINK I'M THE STRONGEST CANDIDATE to beat Trump. There is a hard-core support for Trump, which I'm not going to be able to get through. It is racist. It is sexist. I run into that. It's hard to believe the attitude toward women in some parts of the country. You really would have a hard time to believe it. We're back into the 18th century in some of these places. It is homophobic. It is anti-immigrant. Do I think I'm going to win those people over? Nah, no way. But do I think we can get a sliver? I can't tell you how much, 3%, 5%, 8%, of people who voted for Trump because he said, “I am a different type of Republican. I'm not going to cut Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. I'm going to have trade policies that work for workers. We're not going to be shutting down plants in America.” Do I think we can win some of those people? Yeah, I do. And I think we're going to win because we are going to run a campaign of energy and excitement, which speaks to truths in people's lives, which the political establishment does not often talk about.

— Bernie Sanders

A VERY LOW BAR (AND THE 5%?)

In 2018, voters made California a one-party state with a legislative super-duper majority (70%), confident that Democrats would find progressive solutions for skyrocketing housing costs, a failing health care system, and chronically underfunded schools, among other urgent challenges in the Golden State.

But even though Democrats hold this super-duper majority, the work is far from over -- there are legislators, including many Democrats, determined to support corporate interests over the will of the people.

We're proud to announce the release of Courage California's 2020 Courage Score Report Card -- our fifth annual analysis. It's THE critical tool for holding California's state legislators accountable to their constituents. We're the only progressive organization in the state tracking and rating legislators on their actions across a broad range of issues -- and we're passing those scores on to the people.

Courage California, in partnership with Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action and Indivisible CA: StateStrong, has meticulously scored every state legislator on their votes on issues from gun violence prevention to racial justice to environmental protection.

We analyzed the votes of more than 60 bills after surveying 105 progressive ally organizations and gave each representative a numerical score and an A-F grade. We then rated every district's progressiveness based on eight years of statewide ballot measure results. If a representative had a D or an F and represented a district that clearly supported a more progressive agenda, we put them in our Hall of Shame. If they received an A with a score of 97-100, they landed on our All-Star team. Courage Score represents hundreds of hours of work by our small staff, but it's worth it to keep Californians informed on how their legislators are -- or aren't -- working for them.

There's a lot of good news in the Courage Score Report Card. We have 39 Democrat assembly members and senators who received As for stellar work on progressive bills like AB 1482, which capped outrageous rent hikes and required just cause for evictions.

But 12 Democrats ended up in our Hall of Shame. These representatives voted with corporate lobbyists and campaign contributors rather than working families. They've managed to block bills to improve our health care system and our schools, and they've sold out people living with dirty air and dirty water to industry polluters.

We're going to confront these legislators with their failing report cards and use our vast network to let their constituents know just how they were betrayed -- with hard data and facts that these reps can't refute.

Courage Score is an essential project to our democracy and a progressive future for California, which is why it's been endorsed by organizations including Color of Change, Communities for a New California, and Roots Action. We couldn't have done it without you, our supporters.

How did your representative fare? Click here to find their Courage Score right now!

couragescore.org/courage-scores-legislators/

—Mary, along with Angela, Annie, Brian, Caitlin, Deepthi, Eddie, Gabby, Jay, Lindsay, Molly, Scottie, and Tai (the Courage California team)

Courage California (formerly Courage Campaign) makes sure our democracy works for ALL of us by fighting corruption in California politics. We believe the solution lies in exposing and solving systemic problems through strategic organizing, enhancing coordination between progressive organizations, and mobilizing civic engagement from our communities, particularly voters of color, young voters, and self-identified progressives.

TRUMP IS PRESIDENT, THANKS TO COMEY.

The Comey Coverup Unravels

The FBI, the CIA and the press all have much to be embarrassed about.

by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

In a curious report on Thursday evening, the New York Times carefully averts its eyes from everything that’s interesting. Even Adam Schiff has acknowledged that James Comey’s actions in 2016 may represent the most important and significant Russian influence on the election. (Hoist your shot glass. This will be the umpteenth time I’ve quoted Mr. Schiff on this matter in this column.)

Surely one of the most consequential pieces of intelligence ever received by U.S. agencies was, as we now learn, received in early 2016 from a Dutch counterpart. This is the dubious Russian intelligence that set off Mr. Comey’s multiple interventions in the last presidential race, culminating in an improper act that may have inadvertently elected Donald Trump. Even at the time Mr. Comey’s FBI colleagues considered the intelligence, which indicated questionable actions by the Justice Department to fix the Hillary email investigation, to be false, possibly a Russian plant.

The Times adds the unsurprising revelation that Mr. Comey himself is suspected in the illegal leak that, in early 2017, alerted the media to this untold aspect of his 2016 actions, before the matter disappeared again behind a veil of official secrecy. Yet bizarrely, the paper plays down its scoop, suggesting that any inquiry into a “years-old” leak now can only be a political hit job by an “ambitious” Justice Department attorney seeking to please President Trump.

First of all, I doubt this subject pleases Mr. Trump—it re-raises the question of whether his election was an accident caused by Mr. Comey. Second, the information is obviously important. The scandal hiding in plain sight is our intelligence establishment’s misuse of its authority to muck around in the 2016 election.

As a bonus, I’m going to suggest the FBI’s own pursuit of the collusion will-o’-the-wisp may have been occasioned by its hope of finding that the same fabricated Russian intelligence was in the hands of the Trump campaign, providing an ex post justification for Mr. Comey’s actions that he desperately would have wanted once fingers began pointing at him for Mrs. Clinton’s defeat. (I guess we can at least be glad he didn’t plant the information on Carter Page. )

Let’s call a spade a spade. The media is a big part of the coverup. When the Justice Department inspector general issued his damning report on Mr. Comey, not one media outlet in the Factiva database told its readers about the existence of its classified appendix except this column and Britain’s Daily Mail tabloid.

Mr. Comey himself, after allegedly leaking the secret information to the press, penned a sententious memoir suggesting the same info should remain hidden from the American people “decades from now.”

And while flogging fake revelations from the nonexistent Trump-Russia conspiracy, the mainstream press ignored a public plea, uttered before Congress, by the Justice Department’s own inspector general that the secret Comey information be declassified so the people and their representatives can know the truth about 2016.

On Thursday night, former Rep. Trey Gowdy reported that the information Mr. Comey is suspected of leaking to the media he refused to share even with Congress in a classified briefing, saying it was too top secret.

The mainstream media has been uncharacteristically silent about all this for too long—and you’re about to find out why. Whether from design or myopia, it allowed itself to be instrumental in suppressing real news in favor of a fairy tale about Mr. Trump and the Russians. That’s the deeper message of the Times’s weirdly conflicted handling of its scoop about Mr. Comey.

Leaking secret intelligence, if that’s what Mr. Comey did, is a crime. But even more palpable is something else: The information remains officially classified not to protect national security but to protect the national-security establishment from embarrassment.

The story here truly contains something for everybody. If you think Mr. Trump never should have been president, blame Mr. Comey. If you think the “deep state” is running amok, here’s your evidence. If you think the intelligence establishment is incompetent and needs a Trumpian kick in the derriere, even more so.

Alas, every revelation about this matter turns out to be a revelation also about the deviousness and expediency of Mr. Comey, the nation’s former FBI director. What should happen now? More than ever, Attorney General William Barr should act on the authority Mr. Trump has given him and declassify the inspector general’s report as well any material describing the role of other agencies (e.g., the CIA) in Mr. Comey’s election-meddling escapades.

CHOMSKY OPTIMISM

Robert Scheer: Well, Noam Chomsky, it’s really refreshing and exciting for me to find you to be a source of optimism. I’m looking for sources of optimism, and I’m not going to play.

Noam Chomsky: Well, that’s easy to find. Take the Green New Deal. Something like a Green New Deal is essential for survival. Five years ago, nobody’d heard of it. Now it’s on the legislative agenda. Why? A bunch of young kids in the Sunrise Movement made a big difference. They didn’t come out of nowhere. The background of that is the Sanders campaign, and other agitation, and so on. That’s how things change.

RS: The Sanders campaign is a miracle of American politics. I thought he would get one or 2% of the vote, and then I saw my students, their laptops open, and I never saw a Hillary sticker. And I teach at the University of Southern California, which can be pretty conservative. But I was educated by my students about Sanders, no question about it. And the real issue [is] you talk about these institutions or organizations, but your work is about co-option, about manipulation and corruption. What we had—and it runs through your books. There was a time in our youth where you had, the unions really were a great hope. That’s the only thing that came out of—maybe in the black community was the church at some point, and so forth. But there really were not counter institutions until the development of industrial unions and so forth. And what we have now is a total fragmentation of people.

NC: Take a look at a little history. In the 1920s, the labor movement was totally crushed. There was nothing left. In the 1930s it revived, spearheaded the social democratic innovations which changed life. It can happen again.

RS: And let me just say as a footnote, when he says it can happen again, he’s not talking about the Holocaust. You’re talking about a mass movement—and I will hand you that other old codger; Bernie Sanders has certainly set a sterling example.

(truthdig.com)

PLEASE PULL IT

Dear Supervisor Brown:

Please pull Agenda Item 4-m of the Consent Calendar for Tuesday's BOS meeting. See below.

Specifically, my concerns relate to the ownership -- and history of ownership -- of the property located at 631 South Orchard Avenue. Are there any conflicts of interest?

As you know, Supervisor Brown, the courts have construed a gift of public funds to include more than just the act of giving money, property, or thing of value; it includes the act of giving a benefit. The prohibitions created by the law are broad.

So my question is this: Will the proposed Crisis Residential Treatment Program located at 631 South Orchard Street in Ukiah pass the "Public Scrutiny Test"?

Is RQMC in any way benefiting from an "insider" or "favored" status at this location? In the past, has RQMC benefited in any way from such status at this location?

Thank you.

Your 1st District constituent,

John Sakowicz

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HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES AGENCY

4m) Adoption of Resolution to Develop a Crisis Residential Treatment Program on the Property Designated in the Existing California Health Facilities Financing Authority Resolution at 631 South Orchard Avenue, Ukiah, California 95482, and in Accordance with Grant Funding Issued Under the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Grant Program

Recommended Action:

Adopt Resolution to develop a Crisis Residential Treatment Program on the property designated in the existing California Health Facilities Financing Authority Resolution at 631 South Orchard Avenue, Ukiah, California 95482, and in accordance with grant funding issued under the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Grant Program; and authorize Chair to sign same.

Resolution CHFFA Grant Agreement, Third and Final Amendment

PS. Supervisor Brown:

Earlier today, i n asking you to pull Agenda Item 4-m from the Consent Calendar at next Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting, I referenced only RQMC as having a possible conflict of interest with the County.

Specifically, I asked: "Is RQMC in any way benefiting from an 'insider' or 'favored' status at the 631 South Orchard Avenue, Ukiah location? And, in the past, has RQMC benefited in any way from such status at this location?"

I neglected to include RCS in a possible conflict of interest scenario.

The Board of Supervisors must differentiate RQMC from RCS. This is a very difficult thing to do. I expect to be told, "no, as to RQMC benefiting from political cronyism, but the truth is, RCS will be benefiting.

I quote the following from the Anderson Valley Advertiser's daily blog, "Mendocino County Today":

MCT: September 4, 2014

"AN HHSA (Health & Human Services Agency) insider offers another perspective: The real conflict was in favor of Redwood Children's Services (RCS), which has successfully contracted for children's mental health services for at least a dozen years.

"RCS is run by Camille Schrader who went through the foster child system herself. Despite her success with RCS, she was reluctant to bid on the adult mental health services, so she brought in Ortner to make a joint bid. So the way the bid was structured wasn't a choice between Ortner and Optum (the other bidder), but between Ortner + RCS and Optum. There was no way to pick RCS without picking Ortner.

"And there was no way all the county's contracted 'caring professionals', most of them fastened to the foster children like leeches, were going to stand by and let RCS go down the tubes."

Also from MCT:

"REMEMBER MENDO FUTURES? All the local poverty pimps met for months under the guidance of Carol Mordhorst to draft a response to the RFP before the RFP ever came out. All the usual suspects were at the table and all were heavily invested in hanging onto their individual slices of the poverty pimp pie.

"RCS and Ortner were assuring everyone that they would continue to subcontract with them once they won the contract. There was no such assurance with Optum. The real conflict wasn't HHSA's Tom Pinizzotto and his former employer, Ortner, but the cadre of local poverty pimps rallying around RCS. Anyone on the interview panel who voted to dump RCS and go with Optum would have been run out of town.”

www.theava.com/archives/34713

Finally, Supervisor Brown, please read page 4 of 10 of the County Grand Jury report cited below: "AN APPEARANCE OF A CONFLICT OF INTEREST in the Adoption of the Mental Health Privatization Contract, June 09, 204".

mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=3764

It doesn't appear that RQMC existed at the time the ASO providers were chosen. RCS was the bidder according to the Grand Jury. Everyone gets confused, that's the shell game.

Thank you.

John Sakowicz

Candidate, 1st District Supervisor

8TH ANNUAL NORTH COAST FARMERS' CONVERGENCE

The North Coast Farmers' Convergence is coming to Ridgewood Ranch for its 8th year on Sunday, February 16th and Monday, February 17th. The North Coast Farmers Convergence is a celebration of growing a resilient local food system and the vital profession of farming in Northern California.

In previous years, the Farmers Convergence has brought together over 150 local farmers, ranchers, retailers and advocates from Mendocino, Lake, Humboldt and Sonoma Counties for networking, education and inspiration.

This years Farmers' Convergence is an opportunity for our community to gain access to resources, people, and programs they may not have known existed. Ideally, attendees will leave the event inspired and prepared for the growing season ahead. According to participants, successful outcomes of the day included forging successful connections that enhance our local economy, linking farmers with needed resources and new or renewed buyer contracts for food producers.

The 8th Annual Farmers' Convergence promises to build on the successes of the previous years with new workshops, speakers and additional intensive educational sessions. We have an amazing lineup stay tuned!

Sunday, February 16th, 2019

• 8:00am - Check in opens
• 8:30am - Welcome & Kick Off
• 9:00am - Keynote
• 10:45am - Morning Workshops
• 12:00pm - Lunch
• 1:30pm - Session I Workshops
• 3:00pm - Session II Workshops
• 5:00pm - Mixer

Monday, February 17th, 2019

Theme for the day - farming for the wholesale market - sponsored by the MendoLake Food Hub

• 8:00am - Check in opens
• 8:15am - Welcome & Kick Off
• 8:45am - Morning Workshops
• 12:20pm - Lunch
• 1:30pm - Afternoon Workshops

What Past Participants Have to Say…

"I love getting all the ideas, and those little nuggets help launch me into the new ideas for the next season", said Laytonville farmer Irene Engber of Irenes Garden (of last years event).

"I've referred to talks I heard at the last convergence multiple times throughout the year", said Caroline Radice of New Agrarian Collective. "It was worth every minute that I attended, and I cant wait to go again this year."

"Growing our local food system benefits not only farmers and local food producers, it benefits schools, restaurants, support organizations, and the overall local economy", said Kelly Hansen of the MendoLake Food Hub. "The North Coast Farmers' Convergence is an excellent opportunity for attendees to learn from one another and gain access to resources, programs, and people they may not have known about. Our intent is to have everyone leave the event inspired and prepared for the upcoming growing season."

THE RIGHT COMPOST CAN HEAL THE SOIL AND REVERSE CLIMATE CHANGE!

Wed. February 5, 9-2 (raindate: Wed. Feb. 12), Floodgate Farm, Redwood Valley.

The Johnson-Su No Turn Composting Bioreactor makes a fungal dominant compost which is superior to windrow/turned compost in fostering soil life, hence plant growth and carbon sequestration in soil. Soil carbon increases resulting from field application of this compost, along with the adoption of a biologically enhanced agriculture management approach have far exceeded the soil carbon sequestration results the Marin Carbon Project generated while using only 400 to 500 lbs per acre (or even just a pound per acre when used as a seed inoculant), instead of tens of tons per acre. The following has links to a how-to video plus a talk about the benefits: http://www.regenerationinternational.org/bioreactor/

Biochar is a soil-enhancing substance which provides architecture for microbiology to live in, greatly enhancing the health and productivity of plants. We will be doing a biochar burn to demonstrate a low-tech way to make this valuable soil enhancing substance. We built two reactors in 2018 and will be harvesting the finished compost and rebuilding one using uncomposted portions and material largely from our site (Azola, cattail, leaves, and some horse manure).

Biochar burn 9-10:30 AM Bioreactor building workshop 10:30-2 PM (or later if interested in staying for completion), those interested can also examine finished compost under a microscope.

To register, please email edibleland@earthlink.net, or call 707-272-1688. Workshop is by donation; $20-$50 sliding scale

Bill Taylor and Jaye Alison Moscariello 707-272-1688

THAT'S THE WAY

I don't know how I'm going to tell you
I can't play with you no more
I don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me
My friend, the boy next door

I can't believe what people saying
You're gonna let your hair hang down
I'm satisfied to sit here working all day long
You're in the darker side of town

And when I'm out I see you walking
Why don't your eyes see me
Could it be you've found another game to play
What did mama say to me?

That's the way, oh
That's the way it ought to be
Yeah, yeah, mama say
That's the way it ought to stay

And yesterday I saw you standing by the river
And weren't those tears that filled your eyes
And all the fish that lay in dirty water dying
Had they got you hypnotized?

And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers
But all that lives is born to die
And so I say to you that nothing really matters
And all you do is stand and cry

I don't know what to say about it
When all your ears have turned away
But now's the time to look and look again at what you see
Is that the way it ought to stay?

That's the way
That's the way it ought to be
Oh don't you know now, mama said
That's the way it's going to stay

—Jimmy Page, Robert Plant

MARTIN LUTHER KING (from the archive)

Jan 1998—

SO THE SCHOOLS take a day off to celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday, the in-school discussion about King emphasizing his commitment to non-violence as a tactic to achieve full citizenship for Black Americans. Memorial editorials on television and in the corporate newspapers and, certainly the schools, leave out most of the King story having to do with how grateful the white liberal political establishment was for King’s commitment to non-violence as opposed to the aggressive self-defense recommended by Robert Williams, Malcolm X and, basically, the Black guy in the street. There’s never any mention of all the brave work King did before he became a famous person as he led drives for integration and economic fair play all over the South and the Midwest. King, routinely denounced in the mainstream media before his martyrdom as a Com-dupe, was murdered just as he became outspokenly critical of the War on Vietnam, American imperialism generally and the multi-ethnic, color-blind class structure of poverty. The way King is remembered these days is as the guy who made corporate bag men like Ron Brown and Colin Powell possible, as if an apologist for Duvalier’s Haiti and a career military man who helped cover up the My Lai massacre represent inspirational ethnic uplift tales.

WHERE IT ALL becomes sinister is in the schools because not only are the lives of pivotal figures sanitized for political reasons — the typical Mendoland teacher does not participate in the political life of his community or even, from what I can see, take any interest in it — young people are discouraged in many ways from even attempting to emulate the great figures.

January 1999—

I CELEBRATED Martin Luther King’s birthday by paying HBO $46 Saturday night to watch Mike Tyson knock out Francois Botha. I’d better say here that I think it’s way past time to either ban boxing or require that the pros wear protective head gear like the amateurs are required to do. Anyone who can look at what boxing did to great athletes like Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson, not to mention the hundreds of lesser known pugs like the tragic Jerry Quarry and Tommy “Hurricane” Jackson and defend boxing as a sport would seem to be deficient in the humanity department. But the Tyson-Botha undercard was pretty good, too.

MIKE TYSON is probably a better gage of the state of race relations in the country than the innumerable MLK memorials underway across the country. The local remembrances seem to me to miss most of what the man stood for, consisting of a lot of weepy declarations of brotherhood — not that they can hurt — and Family of Man-quality rhetoric. Now that all white people are liberals on race — even Strom Thurmond — at least in public, there’s a widespread tendency to ignore the ongoing class and economic realities of the country, a basic fact of American life Martin Luther King seldom failed to point out and probably gave up his life for saying because he persisted in demanding that wealth be fairly apportioned among all citizens. He emphasized that a country as rich as this one should not tolerate deprivation whatever the color of the people going without. The primacy of economics in King’s vision of a color blind society is left out of the rote celebrations of his remarkable life.

IT ISN’T HARD to imagine what King would have thought and said about Bill Clinton’s economic and social policies, but here we have famous black people like Maya Angelou claiming on national television that Clinton, a surrogate black person, is being lynched! Lynched? I don’t think that’s the word we want here, Ms. Angelou.

CLINTON is a much more effective enemy of black people than Bull Connor ever was, and working people of the racial rainbow haven’t had a more relentless adversary in the White House since Calvin Coolidge. But what we get in the Martin Luther King memorials is a lot of slobbery rhetoric of the Love-One-Another-Or-Die variety and nutso defenses of Clinton’s psycho-sexual pathology which have caused him to be “lynched.”

MOST OF US would settle for simple ethnic tolerance without the appended admonition to love one another. And some of us are also aware from bitter personal experience that the bigoted personality type is as plentiful among liberals as it is among conservatives. Race relations are the one area of American life where progress is a matter of verifiable, objective fact. Race relations are a lot better — a lot better — in America these days and getting better all the time, not that you’d know it from the rhetoric of the professional racialists.

SO THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS and government take another paid day off, which is about all Martin Luther King’s life means these days as a solid 25% of the population slides into a kind of permanent hopelessness. Now that black heros like King have been co-opted into the great consensus, the media offer us Mike Tyson and Dennis Rodman as race hate objects. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s editorial lab rats waddle into editorial print every few weeks with a denunciation of a black sports figure; Tyson and Rodman are regularly denounced for their perceived deleterious effect on the nation’s youth, with Mexican gang bangers coming on strong as ultra-menace, civic division. Read a biography of Babe Ruth or Ty Cobb some time for a lesson in the silliness of making athletes into role models. Cobb was a lot crazier than Tyson and Ruth managed somehow to emerge into adulthood untouched and unaffected by modern civilization. (Another example of flagrant prose racism, albeit on a much higher level than the Press Democrat’s, is Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel, “A Man In Full Season.” It’s right up there with the film version of The Color Purple.)

IT’S SURPRISING that given all the attention Tyson gets nobody has offered up an academic paper called something like, The Black Athlete and His Psychic Search for Family — A Psycho-History of Mike Tyson. After he dispatched Botha in the 5th round Saturday night, Tyson gave a big hello to a Brooklyn gang, apparently his stand-in relatives these days. What’s interesting about Tyson is that he’s intelligent and, in lots of ways, has a clear understanding of his unique experience.

January 2000—

REWRITING HISTORY: It’s 7pm on Martin Luther King’s birthday and I still haven’t heard a true word about the guy, the last truly progressive national figure our odd country has produced. The waves of pure mawk coming at me from the television set and (of course) pseudo-public radio KZYX reminds me that no one voted for Nixon, everyone was for the civil rights movement of the 1960s, no one supported the war on Vietnam, and Martin Luther King wanted people of different races to be nice to each other. In fact, by the time King was murdered in Nashville Memphis, the mass media had turned against him big time and had never been too keen on him in the first place because he was connecting too many dots for too many people. He was aggressively opposed to the war on Vietnam, pointing out it was the latest chapter in a long history of imperial murder of non-white peoples and he was for democratic socialism and had even gone so far as to speak the forbidden S-word on national television. So long as he stuck to preaching racial harmony even the closet Klan types of the rightwing of the Republican Party couldn’t denounce King who, after all, was certainly preferable to the scowling leather lugs in dark glasses who were thrilling the white suburbs with a lot of wild talk about how, with a few photogenic bad boys out front, 12% of the population was going to off the national pig. As great waves of pure bullshit rolled over America in 1968, Martin Luther King was calmly pointing out that a few fundamental social guarantees would make America a much less violent place and a far more ethnically harmonious country. If people were guaranteed food, shelter, work, health care, and education they would be less inclined to harm other persons. Once achieved, social and economic justice would cool everyone out. It would, too, and Martin Luther King was murdered for preaching it, not that much of anybody seems to remember the most important two-thirds of King’s message.

YOU’LL never hear it said by the kind of weepy liberals who dominate the national and local media but it was Jock World and the Armed Services where the greatest advances in race relations were made in this country. It was at the ball game and in boot camp where lasting and loyal cross-ethnic friendships were first made in this country. Since, as a trip to any downtown area in any town in America makes obvious, millions of Americans of all races enjoy loyal and affectionate relations where virtually none existed in 1950.

RACE RELATIONS aren’t bad at all considering that we’ve moved in less than 80 years from wholesale lynchings and a nearly South African-quality apartheid to unharassed inter-marriage and generally non-lethal relations among America’s rainbow family. What isn’t better is economic relations, not that you’d know it from most of the media. Average income folks find it harder and harder to get by in what is universally billed as capitalism’s finest hour, with magic money everywhere except where much of the real work gets done. And “liberals” of the Clinton-Democratic Party type have managed to exacerbate race relations by defining people as “oppressed” whose grievances hardly amount to oppression in any historical sense of the term. It’s now four o’clock the afternoon on Martin Luther King’s birthday and I’ve just read in the Ukiah Daily Journal about a Ukiah event celebrating his life featuring illiberal white people giving other illiberal white people awards, all of it occurring in an illiberal town in an illiberal county whose illiberal public policies the illiberal people giving each other awards in illiberal Ukiah support with all their illiberal hearts.

FOUND OBJECT