MCT: Wednesday, April 8, 2020

• Dry Days
• Sanders Out
• FB Foodbank
• Boon Moon
• Supes Notes
• Noyo Guard
• Surveillance Testing
• Yolla Bolly
• Pandemic Motel
• Harbor Span
• Tax Relief
• Ed Notes
• Ukiah 1905
• Mendocino Jam
• Feisty Seniors
• Bisson Apprehended
• Essential Defense
• Yesterday's Catch
• Ridiculous Figures
• Bottlehead
• Screw Everybody
• Wounded GI
• Lemon's Account
• Angry God
• Death Flood
• Cyclone Shrub
• Virus Vigilantes
• Guadalcanal R&R
• Psycho Killers
• Satchel Paige
• Zero Fish
• Safety Joe
• Found Object

DRY WEATHER is expected today through Thursday as a ridge aloft builds toward the West Coast. Above normal temperatures are expected in the interior. A shallow marine layer will keep temperatures much cooler for coastal areas through Thursday. (NWS)

JUST IN: Bernie Sanders QUITS Democratic presidential race admitting he 'cannot win' but says he is STAYING on the ballot to get more delegates to 'influence' Joe Biden's platform as he goes head-to-head with Donald Trump

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8200979/Bernie-Sanders-DROPS-Democratic-race-leaving-Joe-Biden-head-head-Donald-Trump.html

FORT BRAGG FOOD BANK STEPS UP

by Chris Calder

On Tuesday morning at Santa Rosa's Redwood Empire Food Bank, the North Coast's largest emergency food hub, soldiers from California's National Guard deployed, part of state government's rollout of emergency responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fort Bragg's Food Bank was bustling on Tuesday morning, too, though not on the scale of a military deployment. The busy, barebones but welcoming warehouse, offices and often — though not now — clearinghouse for used clothes, books and other necessaries, on North Franklin Street in Fort Bragg, is open five days a week these days instead of three.

Amanda Friscia, Executive Director of the Mendocino Food and Nutrition Program, the Food Bank's official name, said her team has adjusted on the fly in recent weeks, serving a reduced walk-in clientele, but also delivering curbside and taking meals to seniors' homes. The Fort Bragg operation, like all Food Banks, has lost a good portion of its volunteers to COVID-19 precautions, since Food Bank volunteer corps everywhere are mostly made up of seniors.

But a (younger) team of emergency hands has stepped up, Friscia said, and in Fort Bragg, emergency food distribution is going strong, if not 100% smoothly.

But, she said, "Right now if you're without a job, and you don't have that money, you can use the Food Bank."

There could well be hundreds of families on the Mendocino Coast right now who are looking at how to pay the grocery bill. Every one of them has a generous parcel of very high quality food waiting, thanks to the skills of veteran warehouse manager Jim DiMauro.

"For the weekly food, people can sign up over the phone," Friscia said, which is probably a better way to do it, now that social distancing is in effect. The Food Bank’s lobby, usually a chatty place, is limited to three occupants at a time now. But, Friscia said, because of being open the extra two days a week, plus curbside and home delivery, waits tend to be shorter now anyway.

Many of Food Bank's regular clients have been put in a terrible Catch-22 by COVID-19 and the response, Friscia said: "What happens when you are asked to shelter in place but you have no shelter?"

"We can only provide so much," she went on "But my main focus is that people have food, healthy food, and that they have a way to enjoy it."

To that end, the Food Bank makes “camping packages” for people who have to live without kitchens, and much of the Food Bank's regular fare is easy to carry and prepare.

The shock that COVID-19 delivered to all government and support systems is partly being relieved at the Food Bank by a federal emergency food relief package, material support from the state’s Food Bank network (750 boxes of food that Friscia said lasted about a week) and emergency grants from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County. The first round of all these forms of aid has arrived, Friscia said, and she expects the next round anytime. No doubt, she said, aid needs to keep coming for the forseeable future.

For the present, Friscia added, the larger emergency food distribution network seems to be holding its own. The Fort Bragg Food Bank's truck is making two trips a week to the Redwood Empire Food Bank in Santa Rosa instead of one.

Friscia said there's been no interruption in supply so far, maybe a few more substitutions than normal. She says she's confident that the region's elected represetatives get it and that Food Banks will be a priority and get what they need.

That doesn't mean everything's taken care of though. Aid is coming, but it's a nationwide effort and wheels on that scale turn slowly.

Regarding the food boxes from the state, of which more are promised though it's unclear when, Friscia said: "To be honest, we could have used a lot more, and I'm sure there are a lot of other Food Banks saying the same thing."

Friscia's said her approach is to focus on what's in front of her: Fort Bragg families — several hundred of them and their number is growing — who need to know where their and their kids' next meals are coming from.

She said community support is more vital than ever: "We're really benfiting from people asking to volunteer in various ways, from home deliveries to help in the warehouse."

She said they lost their longtime cook, Yuki, a senior who is sheltering at home, so getting food prepared for volunteers has been a challenge. She said they're also in need of sturdy cardboard boxes, especially wine boxes, and durable paper and plastic bags.

Friscia said her main message to coast communities now is just that the Food Bank is there, open Monday through Friday, at 910 N. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg. Seniors-only morning hours, for walk-in or curbside pickup, are 10 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. Hours for the general public are noon to 3 p.m. There is an extra pickup time on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 p.m. The Fort Bragg Food Bank's phone number to sign up, volunteer, contribute, or for general questions, is 707/964.9404.

SUPER PINK MOON OVER BOONVILLE

SUPES NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

Glenn McGourty, leading candidate to replace Carre Brown as 1st District supervisor, opened Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting by summarizing an obscure technical paper he stumbled across in Davis which claims that Ukiah Valley grape growers are “saving” some water. (He could have simply emailed the report link to the Board, but the candidate seemed to feel it necessary to reassure grape growers he's their guy.)

SUPES NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

Glenn McGourty, leading candidate to replace Carre Brown as 1st District supervisor, opened Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting by summarizing an obscure technical paper he stumbled across in Davis which claims that Ukiah Valley grape growers are “saving” some water. (He could have simply emailed the report link to the Board, but the candidate seemed to feel it necessary to reassure grape growers he's their guy.)

Looks like an all-mail-in election in November. Plans are being made

statewide, according to Elections Officer Katrina Bartolomie.

Clearly feeling pressure from Ukiah city officials and their Police Chief, Justin Wyatt, CEO Angelo fired a pre-emptive shot on the County’s homeless inaction. Without allowing comment, Angelo insisted (irrelevantly) that Health and Human Services has been providing ongoing homeless services with their contractors. They were also doing assessments to identify the “more fragile” (medical or age) of them and relocate the fragile homeless into hotel rooms. That, Angelo declared, was “successful.” And the county has an “Isolation and Quarantine Plan” that’s been approved by the state. Regarding the homeless camp on Hastings Drive that the City of Ukiah has asked for assistance in, uh, removing, Angelo said, “We are doing everything we can short of relocating this camp to assure that the camp has what it needs and gets assessed” and moving “those we can move,” and “providing sanitation.” Angelo added that Supervisor McCowen is working with the city and the campers to see what can be done. The isolation and quarantine “plan” will be enacted when an infected person is identified (i.e., no one so far), and then they will deal with moving the camp and campers somehow later.

Supervisor Ted Williams asked CEO Angelo for some details about the Ukiah Homeless camp because, Williams said, he’s heard complaints from the public. Angelo agreed several times that “there is an encampment,” and that it’s grown in spite of her team's leadership but that she’s working with the City of Ukiah which has been “very vocal” demanding that the County doing something about it. “We are at somewhat of an impasse,” concluded Angelo. “The City of Ukiah wants it moved to the Ukiah Fairgounds but I, as incident commander, have refused to do that and there are lots of reasons for that. We continue work together on other sites to move the homeless persons in that camp who prefer to stay in a camp-like setting and can stay in one with sanitary conditions. Those who cannot, we will coninue to move them as we can.” Supervisor McCowen has been looking at other sites, Angelo noted, continuing “We are in the planning stages. We are working with the city to serve those people in that camp.”

McCowen added that porta-potties and handwashing stands have been installed at the camp (aka “sanitation”). But it’s hard because of the size of the camp. “We are trying to keep them in the community and safe,” said McCowen, but breaking up the ever-larger mini-city and dispersing its inhabitants would be a bad idea. The Ukiah Fairgrounds option is a problem because “we can’t force them to go there.” McCowen said that some people [i.e., McCowen] believe they’d just come back to their “neighborhood” on Hastings anyway. The county is working on a “more appropriate location” and doing assessments of the remaining campers.

Public Health Officer Noemi Doohan said her staff is doing “surveillance testing” (See below presser) at Plowshares (the Ukiah homeless food kitchen) to make sure there are no virus cases “hiding” in the homeless population. She expected results any day now.

Ukiah City Councilwoman and leading candidate to replace retiring McCowen as Ukiah-area Supervisor, Maureen Mulheren, asked the Board to speed up the homeless work and the implementation of the Marbut recommendations. (Marbut suggested firm disposition.)

Several county officials, especially supervisor Carre Brown, took offense at even the mild skepticism of county plans for the homeless, saying that the county is doing a lot and meeting a lot and gosh if Ms. Mulheren just paid more attention she wouldn’t be asking such impertinent questions. In addition, the county is working on the homeless “strategic plan” which, McCowen insisted, will incorporate the Marbut report. (A claim he’s now saying at nearly every meeting — and which loses more credibility every time he repeats it.)

CEO Angelo also wanted to deal with questions about County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan: Where is she? Has she been fired? Etc.? Angelo said Dr. Doohan is still Health Officer. Dr. Doohan agreed to come on as “interim” HO in the weeks following the abrupt firing of Public Health Director Barbara Howe and the accompanying protest resignation of Dr. Gary Pace, now in Lake County. Doohan was hired in the wake of that mess to help with recruitment of a new permanent HO after Doohan had accepted a job in San Diego and had planned to stay in Mendo as interim HO only until March. Then COVID hit and she put her move to San Diego on hold. Dr. Doohan will continue for the duration, said Angelo. The county also has a deputy HO, Dr. Jim Flaherty which gives the County “a world of resources.”

HHSA Director Tammy Moss Chandler delivered a long monologue describing the broad range of services and benefits under these difficult conditions, laden, of course, with large dollops of the usual Helping Agency bureaucratese, although, again, with few particulars. Existing winter shelters in Fort Bragg and Ukiah have been extended and cities have participated and new procedures and protocols were commended, etc.

Moss Chandler said that HHSA has identified 80 homeless people over 65, or who are “vulnerable,” and homeless families and given them hotel vouchers. 73 adults and 7 children are now housed in hotels and motels who were previously homeless. The helping professionals are working on identifying people who may need disease isolation but so far nobody has been identified as such.

McCowen then managed to out-monologue Moss-Chandler, droning on about the long-delayed “strategic plan” for the homeless which is still under development (more than two years after the Marbut report and counting) which, he insisted, will at last implement Marbut's recommendations. (Marbut, incidentally, is now the Trump administration's point man for national homelessness.) McCowen asked Ms. Moss-Chandler for the schedule of when she and the county will have a finished plan, understanding that the virus crisis has provided yet another convenient excuse for its delay.

Moss-Chandler said the “plan” will be ready in late April to be presented to the Continuum of Care Committee (a homelessness Super-Agency of top officials from every possible organization paid to work on the homeless problem). She also said the county has applied for several hundred thousand worth of homelessness-related state funding which has not yet been received. The county is trying to “access that funding more quickly” and figure out how to work with the Board when they get it. Some $300k worth of other virus emergency funds are available now, she said, and they are working on figuring out how to spend it.

Dr. Doohan, speaking via video stream from her San Diego home, said she’s working twelve hours a day every day on-line for Mendo. She plans to return to Ukiah this Sunday, and stay for the duration of the virus crisis, after which she will “clarify” her role as HO with the Board.

She and her staff are also doing “contact investigations” to see if the homeless need testing or if isolation is required every day on every positive case. (Four confirmed cases so far.) And they will use this info to decide when to release or relax the shelter in place order based on CDC criteria. Three of the four have recovered as of Tuesday which, she said, combined with the low incidence so far, is a good sign that her team's efforts are working. “We are prepared and we hope to delay the virus,” said Doohan. She added that there may be a surge in the Bay Area in three or four weeks, and Sonoma County expects a follow-on surge in maybe eight weeks. “With our strong efforts we may not overwhelm our healthcare system,” Doohan said encouragingly. The current Shelter in Place order is open ended, she said, At the moment she is looking at extending the Shelter in Place to at least the end of May.

Supervisor Williams wanted to know how soon the strict sheltering rules might be relaxed.

Doohan said they need the results of some modeling that’s now underway and hope to have an updated forecast in ten days, which will be a smaller, later version of the Sonoma County model. “We can’t just stop,” said Doohan, “so any release of the order would be stepwise.” It’s still being discussed. They hope to “start” releasing parts of it on May 31. “But that depends on testing capacity,” cautioned Doohan. “We have to be able to assure ourselves of identification and containment.” They are encouraged by pending accelerated testing capacity increases. So they hope to start a release process along with the hoped-for increased testing. She also encouraged local businesses to focus as much as possible on curbside service and sales with less personal contact. She also noted that private test kits that have popped up lately have to be validated and determined to be reliable before they can be used to relax any restrictions.

Supervisor Williams asked about testing accuracy.

Doohan said that the positives are trustworthy. But there is something like a 15-20% false negative rate. So, she said, if you’re sick, stay home. They don’t know the exact false positive rate because they don’t have enough data to say so far.

After listening to a brief financial summary from budget staffer Darcie Antle, Supervisor Williams summarized the County’s financial situation as “Expenses are up and revenues are down.”

Supervisor Carre Brown added, “Very scary.”

Glenn McGourty, leading candidate to replace Carre Brown as 1st District supervisor, opened Tuesday’s Supervisors meeting by summarizing an obscure technical paper he stumbled across in Davis which claims that Ukiah Valley grape growers are “saving” some water. (He could have simply emailed the report link to the Board, but the candidate seemed to feel it necessary to reassure grape growers he's their guy.)

Looks like an all-mail-in election in November. Plans are being made
statewide, according to Elections Officer Katrina Bartolomie.

Clearly feeling pressure from Ukiah city officials and their Police Chief, Justin Wyatt, CEO Angelo fired a pre-emptive shot on the homeless County’s homeless inaction. Without allowing comment, Angelo insisted (irrelevantly) that Health and Human Services has been providing ongoing homeless services with their contractors. They were also doing assessments to identify the “more fragile” (medical or age) of them and relocate the fragile homeless into hotel rooms. That, Angelo declared, was “successful.” And the county has an “Isolation and Quarantine Plan” that’s been approved by the state. Regarding the homeless camp on Hastings drive that the City of Ukiah has asked for assistance in, uh, removing, Angelo said, “We are doing everything we can short of relocating this camp to assure that the camp has what it needs and gets assessed” and moving “those we can move,” and “providing sanitation.” Angelo added that Supervisor McCowen is working with the city and the campers to see what can be done. The isolation and quarantine “plan” will be enacted when an infected person is identified (i.e., no one so far), and then they will deal with moving the camp and campers somehow later.

Supervisor Ted Williams asked CEO Angelo for some details about the Ukiah Homeless camp because, Williams said, he’s heard complaints from the public. Angelo agreed several times that “there is an encampment,” and that it’s grown in spite of her team's leadership but that she’s working with the City of Ukiah which has been “very vocal” demanding that the County doing something about it. “We are at somewhat of an impasse,” concluded Angelo. “The City of Ukiah wants it moved to the Ukiah Fairgounds but I, as incident commander, have refused to do that and there are lots of reasons for that. We continue work together on other sites to move the homeless persons in that camp who prefer to stay in a camp-like setting and can stay in one with sanitary conditions. Those who cannot, we will coninue to move them as we can.” Supervisor McCowen has been looking at other sites, Angelo noted, continuing “We are in the planning stages. We are working with the city to serve those people in that camp.”

McCowen added that porta-potties and handwashing stands have been at the camp (aka “sanitation”). But it’s hard because of the size of the camp. “We are trying to keep them in the community and safe,” said McCowen, but breaking up the ever-larger mini-city and dispersing its inhabitants would be a bad idea. The Ukiah Fairgrounds option is a problem because “we can’t force them to go there.” McCowen said that some people [i.e., McCowen] believe they’d just come back to their “neighborhood” on Hastings anyway. The county is working on a “more appropriate location” and doing assessments of the remaining campers.

Public Health Officer Noemi Doohan said her staff is doing “surveillance testing” (See below presser) at Plowshares (the Ukiah homeless food kitchen) to make sure there are no virus cases “hiding” in the homeless population. She expected results any day now.

Ukiah City Councilwoman and leading candidate to replace retiring McCowen as Ukiah-area Supervisor, Maureen Mulheren, asked the Board to speed up the homeless work and the implementation of the Marbut recommendations. (Marbut suggested firm disposition.)

Several county officials, especially supervisor Carre Brown, took offense at even the mild skepticism of county plans for the homeless, that the county is doing a lot and meeting a lot and gosh if Ms. Mulheren just paid more attention she wouldn’t be asking such impertinent questions. In addition, the county is working on the homeless “strategic plan” which, McCowen insisted, will incorporate the Marbut report. (A claim he’s now saying at nearly every meeting — and which loses more credibility every time he repeats it.)

CEO Angelo also wanted to deal with questions about County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan: Where is she? Has she been fired? Etc.? Angelo said Dr. Doohan is still Health Officer. Dr. Doohan agreed to come on as “interim” HO in the weeks following the abrupt firing of Public Health Director Barbara Howe and the accompanying protest resignation of Dr. Gary Pace, now in Lake County. Doohan was hired in the wake of that mess to help with recruitment of a new permanent HO after Doohan had accepted a job in San Diego and had planned to stay in Mendo as interim HO only until March. Then COVID hit and she put her move to San Diego on hold. Dr. Doohan will continue for the duration, said Angelo. The county also has a deputy HO, Dr. Jim Flaherty which gives the County “a world of resources.”

HHSA Director Tammy Moss Chandler delivered a long monologue describing the broad range of services and benefits under these difficult conditions, laden, of course, with large dollops of the usual Helping Agency bureaucratese, although, again, with few particulars. Existing winter shelters in Fort Bragg and Ukiah have been extended and cities have participated and new procedures and protocols were commended, etc.

Moss Chandler said that HHSA has identified 80 homeless people over 65, or who are “vulnerable,” and homeless families and given them hotel vouchers. 73 adults and 7 children are now housed in hotels and motels who were previously homeless. The helping professionals are working on identifying people who may need disease isolation but so far nobody has been identified as such.

McCowen then managed to out-monologue Moss-Chandler, droning on about the long-delayed “strategic plan” for the homeless which is still under development (more than two years after the Marbut report and counting) which, he insisted, will at last implement Marbut's recommendations. (Marbut, incidentally, is now the Trump administration's point man for national homelessness.) McCowen asked Ms. Moss-Chandler for the schedule of when she and the county will have a finished plan, understanding that the virus crisis has provided yet another convenient excuse for its delay.

Moss-Chandler said the “plan” will be ready in late April to be presented to the Continuum of Care Committee (a homelessness Super-Agency of top officials from every possible organization paid to work on the homeless problem. She also said the county has applied for several hundred thousand worth of homelessness-related state funding which has not yet been received. The county is trying to “access that funding more quickly” and figure out how to work with the Board when they get it. Some $300k worth of other virus emergency funds are available now, she said, and they are working on figuring out how to spend it.

Dr. Doohan, speaking via video stream from her San Diego home, said she’s working twelve hours a day every day on-line for Mendo. She plans to return to Ukiah this Sunday, and stay for the duration of the virus crisis, after which she will “clarify” her role as HO with the Board.

She and her staff are also doing “contact investigations” to see if the homeless need testing or if isolation is required every day on every positive case. (Four confirmed cases so far.) And they will use this info to decide when to release or relax the shelter in place order based on CDC criteria. Three of the four have recovered as of Tuesday which, she said, combined with the incidence so far, is a good sign that her team's efforts are working. “We are prepared and we hope to delay the virus,” said Doohan. She added that there may be a surge in the Bay Area in three or four weeks, and Sonoma County expects a follow-on surge in maybe eight weeks. “With our strong efforts we may not overwhelm our healthcare system,” Doohan said encouragingly. The current Shelter in Place order is open ended, she said, At the moment she is looking at extending the Shelter in Place to at least the end of May.

Supervisor Williams wanted to know how soon the strict sheltering rules might be relaxed.

Doohan said they need the results of some modeling that’s now underway and hope to have an updated forecast in ten days, which will be a smaller, later version of the Sonoma County model. “We can’t just stop,” said Doohan, “so any release of the order would be stepwise.” It’s still being discussed. They hope to “start” releasing parts of it on May 31. “But that depends on testing capacity,” cautioned Doohan. “We have to be able to assure outselves of identification and containment.” They are encouraged by pending accelerated testing capacity increases. So they hope to start a release process along with the hoped-for increased testing. She also encouraged local businesses to focus as much as possible on curbside service and sales with less personal contact. She also noted that private test kits that have popped up lately have to be validated and determined to be reliable before they can be used to relax any restrictions.

Supervisor Williams asked about testing accuracy.

Doohan said that the positives are trustworthy. But there is something like a 15-20% false negative rate. So, she said, if you’re sick, stay home. They don’t know the exact false positive rate because they don’t have enough data to say so far.

After listening to a brief financial summary from budget staffer Darcie Antle, Supervisor Williams summarized the County’s financial situation as “Expenses are up and revenues are down.”

Supervisor Carre Brown added, “Very scary.”

MENDOCINO COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH, in partnership with Adventist Health Ukiah Valley, and with the Public Health Regional Lab in Sonoma County, will be conducting focused testing (formally known as ‘surveillance testing’) for COVID-19 in vulnerable populations. Surveillance testing is a tool used to look for asymptomatic people who may be infected with COVID-19 and to identify if undetected community spread is present in Mendocino County. The surveillance testing will focus on those who are experiencing homelessness, the frail elderly, and individuals who serve those populations as well as others.

“We want to ensure that COVID-19 is not silently circulating in our county,” said Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan. “Many of our county’s most vulnerable residents, who are at high-risk of developing serious complications if they get COVID-19, are currently living in congregate environments like shelters, or on the streets. Offering free testing to these groups can go a long way to evaluating the COVID-19 risk to our County now.”

“It’s important that we reach out to our homeless population and provide access to care, especially to the most vulnerable. We believe it’s part of living our mission and we’re happy to partner with Public Health in reaching out to the community wherever they need us,” explains Jason Wells, president of Adventist Health for Mendocino County.

The focused Covid19 sampling will occur at Plowshares Peace and Justice Center in Ukiah, because it’s an essential business that provides food, and other necessities for economically disadvantaged and vulnerable populations including those experiencing homeless, elderly and medically compromised.

Focused testing of vulnerable populations is an important step to understand if COVID-19 is circulating undetected in specific populations, and to respond by providing isolation and quarantine if any persons with COVID19 infection are identified.

All testing that has been done thus far in Mendocino County has been targeted to symptomatic people who had illness consistent with COVID-19 and were evaluated in the primary care clinics and hospitals and other clinical settings in the County. Of the 295 tests done, 4 patients tested for COVID-19 were positive.

NORTH YOLLA BOLLY HILLS

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

The Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center is grateful to report that through many conversations and agreements with Mendocino County staff, we have arranged to continue to provide shelter to those in our community who have no homes during the Shelter in Place orders. On March 31, individuals eligible for the Mendocino County Pandemic Motel Voucher program, by meeting the criteria below, were moved from the Hospitality House, Transitional Housing and the Coast Winter Shelter into individual rooms at a local motel. Currently there are 11 people who qualify. Our staff have continued to provide daily case management, check ins and delivered meals to those individuals.

The County Voucher criteria includes:

• People aged 65 years or older
• People suffering from chronic lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, or serious heart conditions
• People who are immunocompromised including cancer treatment
• People of any age with severe obesity or poorly controlled diabetes, renal failure or liver disease.
• Families with children who are experiencing street-level homelessness

In addition, the three-week extension of our Coast Winter Shelter in our church facilities is ending tomorrow morning, April 7. Starting tomorrow, we will be moving people from the winter shelter into motel rooms. MCHC will have staff on site 24 hours a day. MCHC will continue to provide meals, delivering them to the motel. Those who are staying at our Coast Shelter will be sheltering in place and will not be going to the Hospitality House for any services including meals.

After moving the ‘at risk’ Hospitality House guests to motel rooms, those guests who remain sheltering in place at our year-round shelter have been spread out to reduce the close quarters and leave the premises only for essential needs. On March 20, we erected an event tent in our HH courtyard to provide the outside meals in a COVID-19 safe environment and outside guests were no longer allowed to come inside the House. MCHC staff have been supplied with masks and gloves and everyone is practicing hygiene consistent with the COVID-19 protocols.

We are so thankful to our community, the City of Fort Bragg, Mendocino County and the state for recognizing the great need and vulnerability of those who have nowhere to shelter in place as we all try to do our best to stem the tide of this pandemic. We also want to recognize the efforts and resiliency of our amazing staff, for continuing to do this difficult work under even greater challenging and changing conditions. Their commitment is worth a commendation. Just as our front-line healthcare providers deserve.

NOYO HARBOR

COUNTIES CAN TOO: A READER WRITES

Property Taxes

Apparently counties CAN defer property tax payments contrary to what the powers that be in Amnesia County say on the issue. Yes, the due dates for the taxes are set by the state but there are work-arounds. Both San Mateo and San Francisco counties have extended the due date to May 4.

sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/San-Francisco-San-Mateo-counties-extend-15182594.php

The pertinent info-

Section 2619 says that if April 10 “falls on Saturday, Sunday or a legal holiday,” the due date is the next business day. It also says,

“If the board of supervisors, by adoption of an ordinance or resolution, closes the county’s offices for business prior to the time of delinquency on the ‘next business day’ or for that whole day, that day shall be considered a legal holiday for purposes of this section.”

San Mateo and San Francisco county supervisors adopted resolutions to close their tax collector’s offices so the payment deadlines could be extended until they reopen.

Mendocino simply needs to pass a resolution to close the tax collector's office and the property taxes won't be due until the office opens again.

ED NOTES

LOOKING for tips on interesting viewing all you shut-ins? Two that I found compelling appear on Netflix, one being the most talked about documentary in years, maybe ever, and that is ‘Tiger King,’ a low life saga featuring a gifted psycho who calls himself Joe Exotic. Talk about truth in advertising! This guy is exotic squared. He presides over an alleged tiger rescue operation, staffed by people so marginal that if they vaporized on screen it wouldn’t be any more startling than anything else that happens in this memorable film. My wife headed for her garden after a few minutes of it, but as something of a connoisseur of aberrant behavior, I watched on, riveted to the end. Tiger King is the kind of true life story that makes you think that Isis may have a point. If things have deteriorated to the point where people like this are not only possible but may now number in the millions, well, Sharia Law may be necessary to restore at least a semblance of order.

ANOTHER GIFTED PSYCHO is Ted Kaczysnki, the Unabomber, who isn’t really nuts but his attempt to unravel industrial civilization one bomb at a time was certainly quixotic unto insane. The Netflix doc on Kaczynski is called, Unabomber in His Own Words, which includes the only live interview with Dr. K (he’s a PhD in math) ever achieved, and it’s by a former editor of the EarthFirst! Journal, with whom Ted shares a philosophical affinity. The live interview is interesting but is only a small part of a straight bio-pic on K’s unusual life, including a segment on his being subjected to a sinister 50’s Harvard mind control experiment that practiced personality destruction techniques on under graduates. The precocious K was admitted to Harvard as a 16-year-old. Remarkably, the crackpot professor, apparently under contract to the newly formed CIA, didn’t shake K, who quite brilliantly argues back in a vigorous defense of himself and his youthful opinions. The professor’s destructive techniques were later applied to Taliban and other fundamentalist Muslim prisoners while the more recalcitrant were (and probably are) subjected to physical tortures including water boarding. The film speculates that K’s adult loathing for professors began with the Harvard mind control experiments he was subjected to.

HAD TO LAUGH when the lead FBI guy on the Unabomber Task Force — the bumbling feds would still be searching for him if K’s brother hadn’t told them where to look — said he agreed with a lot of K’s thesis as published in the Washington Post. Me too. Lots of people agree, and here comes the coronavirus to bring it to life, so to speak. K’s idea? Boiled way down it’s that industrial civilization is not only destroying the earth it’s driving, and has driven, most human beings absolutely bat shit. Despite his loathing for academics, K’s prose style is turgidly academic, but he makes his case. Where he lost me and most other people except green fascists who consider mankind a scourge and good riddance was his bomb placements, one of them on an airliner! Ted’s a ruthless bastard for sure, and I’m glad he’s locked up, but his poor family, two of whom, his brother and his sister-in-law, present their anguish in the film. Ted’s mom’s mortification, a word that couldn’t begin to cover her pain, can only be imagined. His father, fortunately, was already gone by the time of his son’s notoriety. One thing’s always puzzled me about Kaczynski — the complete set of Charles Dickens discovered in his Montana cabin. It doesn’t compute with K’s fanatic personality that he would love one of the most rollicking humanists ever and then go out and murder people.

MARSHALL NEWMAN ALERTS US TO….

An article about a new song titled “Mendocino.” Interestingly, he is NOT a Mendocino Fetzer (he is from Ohio).

nashvillescene.com/music/nashville-cream/article/21127247/jeremy-fetzer-teams-up-with-duane-eddy-on-mendocino-fresh-track

GETTING HEAVY IN THE BAY AREA

Editor,

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this story but find it interesting. Maybe your readers would too…

At 7:45 am today at a grocery store that opened at 8am for seniors only. A young man came from the parking lot and tried to cut in at the front of the line, but an old lady beat him back into the parking lot with her cane.

He returned and tried to cut in again but an old man punched him, then knocked him to the ground and thrashed him with his walker.

But then the guy came back again and approached the line a third time! This time the guy says, "Look, if you damned old codgers don't let me unlock the door, none of you will ever get in there!"

Rich Bolecek

San Rafael

SHOOTING IN COVELO; BISSON SOUGHT (AND ARRESTED)

On Sunday, April 5, 2020 at about 4:45 PM, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a call from Adventist Health Howard Memorial Hospital Willits regarding a 54 year-old male with an apparent gunshot wound.

Deputies responded to the hospital and spoke with the adult male who was being treated for his wounds. The adult male was subsequently transported to an out of county hospital for further treatment and was expected to survive.

Deputies later obtained information that the shooting incident occurred in the 71000 block of Hill Road in Covelo.

Deputies responded to a residence in that area in an attempt to contact the possible shooter identified as being Randolph Paul Bisson.

Deputies noticed visible physical evidence outside the residence and did not located Bisson at the location.

Sheriff's Office Detectives were contacted and began follow-up investigations.

Sometime thereafter, Bisson was seen nearby driving a vehicle. Deputies attempted a traffic enforcement stop but Bisson failed to stop and a vehicular pursuit ensued.

During the pursuit, Bisson was suspected of intentionally striking two Sheriff's Office patrol vehicles causing minor body damage. Bisson appeared to attempt to ram a third Deputy's patrol vehicle causing the Deputy to quickly maneuver out of the path of Bisson to prevent a collision.

Bisson continued northbound on Mina Road where he lost control of his vehicle and fled on foot about two miles up Mina Road from the Highway 162 intersection.

A search of the area was conducted and Bisson was not located. At this time his current whereabouts are unknown and he is considered to be armed and dangerous.

The Sheriff's Office is asking the public for information related to the whereabouts of Randolph Paul Bisson or information related to this investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Stephanie Garnica at the Mendocino Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086 or the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Tip-line at 707-234-2100 or the We-Tip anonymous crime reporting hot-line at 800-782-7463.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting incident is still under investigation by Sheriff's Office Detectives and no further information is available at this time.

---

UPDATE: Bisson appeared in the Booking Log Tuesday night:

WHEW!

Editor,

Whew! Local law enforcement officials are deciding that gun stores are essential to the safe operation of a home. Now I can pick up a couple of extra assault rifles to defend my toilet paper!

Stephen Hawkes

Healdsburg

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 7, 2020

ERIK BURGESS, Ukiah. Rape-victim incapable of giving consent.

EMMETT CURRIER, Willits. Domestic abuse.

SCOTT FRANKS, Ukiah. Domestic abuse, resisting.

PETER GRANT, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, robbery.

ADAM LAFLIN, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

JOSHUA MEDINA, Fort Bragg. Criminal threats, probation revocation.

ANGEL MILLER, Ukiah. Parole violation.

COLIN MOIR, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

6.6 MILLION INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS last week. That’s ten million over the last two weeks. As designed, the neoliberal system is barely capable of serving the un- & underemployed in a mild recession. It’s going to collapse under the weight of a cratering depression. Then what? Are we to suppose that Biden and Trump, two of the most ridiculous figures ever to rise to leadership positions in this country, are going to work it all out on the phone from their respective bunkers?

— Manuel Garcia Jr.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“I don’t get why some people seem to think that it won’t have severe repercussions. And all for what. It is unlikely to make more than a small dent in the ultimate death toll…”

Well – epidemiologists, immunologists, and other medical experts disagree with you. Social distancing, self-isolation, and the closing down of group activity are all identified as hugely influential in mitigating spread, misery, and death.

For the poor little rich kid Country Club Republicans to have to miss golf for a month or three – aw shucks – I’m all cut up about that.

And the US is the world’s poster-child for how a rich, spoilt, whingeing, whining people – who can’t tolerate a few sensible restrictions for a couple of months without freaking out – wind up with the world’s worse response to the pandemic, and the world’s worst stats.

The slogan of the country should be: “I’m an American. I’ll do what I want. Screw everybody else.”

RUSS EMAL REMEMBERS

Every day now for several weeks I have sat with Wendy, my wife, and talked about the many fun times we had in Anderson Valley. It is fun sharing them with you. It lets us be sort of together. As together as we can be during the virus. While I enjoy this we must stay focused on how to beat this virus.

Considering the size of California, we have by percentage, a rather low percent of the people infected by the virus. Northern California contributes to this low number. Perhaps it is due to a lower population. Perhaps more smart people live in Northern California. In Mendocino Country few have the virus, and here in Anderson Valley none so far. I know this valley rather well. We have both a small population and smart people living here. We need to stay smart so we remain safe.

We all have good air and most all of us drink good water. What most need to go out and get is food. That is where we are vulnerable. In the places we gather. We have two local markets. Both run by local people. We also have a number of local restaurants. Those too are run and I believe owned by local people. It is very hard to know what happens behind the scenes of any public market or restaurant. Yet we are so lucky to know our local food distribution points are run by our friends. They also know how important it is to keep their business safe because of the large group of people they serve. And if we get it, they get it.

These places have served us for years. They have always supported us and now they are here to supported us again. I remember going into Lemons for the first time. Connie was at the register. Connie Lemons. Connie was a Harding before marrying Tommy Lemons. She is Mouse and Janie’s daughter. I had never been in the store and had no idea the person about to take my money was a Lemons. This lady had just totaled my food when I realized I had no money. I felt rather stupid as I told her my situation. She said, “No problem we can add it to your account.” I said, “Thank you but I have no account.” Connie then said, “Lets start one.” And so I replied, I am new here and do not know anyone.” So Connie asked, “What is your name?” And I told her, “It's Russ Emal.” Connie said, “Great. Let’s start your new account under that name." Anderson Valley. Really just can't top it.

At that time I had no idea they offered this service to half of the valley. In total they must have carried on their books thousands of dollars. Not only that, I remember on pay day at the Philo Mill, and/or the Lath Mill, Lemon’s Market cashed the pay check of most every mill worker. A story similar to this can be told about many businesses in Anderson Valley.

I must say eventually I did close my account with Lemon's Market. Really I had to. It cost way too much money. I do not mean their price was high. My kids stopped there every day buying crap for themselves and their friends. Like twenty bucks a visit! They just went up to the register and said, "Put it on our account."

Stay informed. Stay home. Stay safe.

FROM COLLEEN FARRELL, Internal medicine resident, NYU Langone and Bellevue Hospital, New York

I started caring for coronavirus patients two days ago at Bellevue Hospital in NYC. If any place could tackle a new pandemic, it is Bellevue. The oldest public hospital in the country, it has tackled tuberculosis, the AIDS epidemic, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, and Ebola. Our most senior clinicians are saying what is obvious to anyone on the front lines right now: Covid-19 is unprecedented and dire. My first corona virus patient was in his 50s, some chronic but not major medical problems, feeling lousy for a few days. Then his oxygen levels started dropping. The fear in his eyes will be forever seared into me. Not long after he was admitted to the hospital, we had to move him to the ICU where he was intubated. I called his family to tell them. They were also coming down with symptoms. They will not be able to visit him. Only time will tell if they will ever see each other again.

He stood out to me because he was the first. But others just like him have been pouring through our hospital doors at ever increasing rates. I know our hospital leadership is brilliant, innovative, and dedicated to the most vulnerable patients in New York. They are rapidly deploying creative solutions. But time is not on our side. I feel grateful that I am able to put my training to public service. I don’t do well being cooped up at home. I became a doctor to do this work. But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I am calm and committed, but also deeply, deeply terrified.

Most people in today’s America don’t know what death looks like. Whats the difference between 10, 100, 1000 deaths? Numbers are so sterile and removed. Death itself is hidden in hospitals and nursing homes.

As doctors, we know what death looks like. During normal times, when family members fall into our arms over their lost loved ones, it pains us. We try to debrief each death. We spend time with each family. We call chaplains and palliative care doctors. We ask for bereavement services. We help families call funeral homes.

I am bracing myself for a flood of death that I cannot manage. Phone calls to family members who never got to say goodbye. Young people (60 is young in my book, for the record, and this is affecting people much younger than that too) living their lives and then snatched away. Bodies of patients I never got to know because they were one more case of Covid and it was too dangerous for me to go to their bedside, hold their hand, and learn about their life.

Never in my life have I experienced anything like this, at all. It feels like what I imagine war to be like. In a very real sense, my life is at risk. I work with doctors and nurses and other providers much older than myself with chronic medical problems whose lives are in real danger as they work tirelessly to save others.

(via the WSJ)

THE EMERGENCE OF SMALL TOWN 'VIRUS VIGILANTES'

MSP saw this interesting back & forth on the MCNlistserv:

"So, my neighbors have some people, who don’t live with them, over visiting today. I think they are breaking the law and increasing the risk of spread. Do I ignore it and mind my own business?"

And MSP saw this entry in the Fort bragg Police log Sunday:

"5:29 PM - MISC CRIME, 126 EAST LAUREL ST, REPORTS NEIGHBOR HAS GUESTS VISITING IN THEIR HOME , CONCERNED REGARDING SHELTER IN PLACE.// NEGATIVE PARTY & ADVISED OF ORDER.;

Here are a couple of comments to the post:

"We can make it thru this without turning into snitches at every transgression. Distancing is not a cure-all, and some slips will be made throughout the time. Talk to your neighbors, but leave the policing for the actual criminals."

---

"I feel compelled to respond. To be honest, I am a bit horrified by this thread. Are we really now going to start to call law enforcement on members of our community?

---

If this was a direct threat to you or to others then action on your part would be required. And the first action out of respect for your neighbors, would be to address them directly and give them a chance to rectify the destructive behavior.

If you were met with resistance you could then consider securing the aid of law enforcement.

However, this affects you not at all. Why would you even consider calling law enforcement?

Besides it being none of your business, you have zero knowledge of the circumstances. I am greatly confused and distressed by the impulse to tattle on your neighbors over behavior that you disapprove of.

Especially without first making sure that your assumptions are even valid.

I hope too, that you are cognizant of the danger to black and brown people when law enforcement becomes involved.

Please be aware that your petty actions can endanger someone else's life in a way that your privilege protects you from.

I'm really surprised to see this here, and quite disappointed.

It may not be long before Martial Law is enacted in this country. I hope not. But I sure as hell hope that I do not have to worry about the members of my community turning me in for some infraction should it ever come to that."

msn.com/en-us/news/us/pandemic-leads-to-shunning-and-shaming-in-small-towns/ar-BB12gccQ

(Via MendocinoSportsPlus)

MARINES AT GUADALCANAL, World War II

THIS WHITE HOUSE DOESN'T GIVE TWO SHITS ABOUT YOU

by Michael Moore

Trump and the profit motive are murdering our doctors and nurses and citizens. We’ve now been told that the National Stockpile of emergency equipment is there for the PRIVATE SECTOR to use to supply BUSINESS so that the PRIVATE SECTOR can SELL medical gear to hospitals for a PROFIT. That is what Pence and Jared Kushner and the Pentagon told the American people yesterday at the White House press conference. Are we going to put up with this? What are we going to do? This ignorant arrogant murdering bastard of a president must be removed from office — and we cannot wait until November. Every one of his enablers must be shut down too. We must rise up. We must be heard. I will help in any way I can. A nonviolent mass movement of millions can shut these people down, can force them to do what we tell them to do. Why wait until you’ve lost a loved one to act? This White House doesn’t give two shits about you. They told you this pandemic was a "hoax." Trump told you this virus was "like the flu," that it was nothing, that it would be gone just like that. Months after he could’ve acted, he sits there today refusing to send the full help that’s needed, refusing to set up a national coordinated effort, refusing to declare a national lockdown, refusing even to keep his own hands off his own face. Trump, through stupidity or design, is out to kill us. This sounds like it can’t be happening. It is. IT IS. We need to use our collective smarts to survive. And we have no time. FEMA has just ordered another 100,000 body bags! They need a MILLION! Or more. History is full of people who just stood by and did nothing. Sometimes because they were paralyzed by fear, sometimes because they just didn’t believe they could make a difference. This is one of those moments when you must not be frozen in place. We’ve been told to "shelter in place." But when that term is used in a school or mass shooting it means that once you shelter in place you must also immediately join with others to rush the shooter and take him down. If you just sit there or hide under your theater seat, he is going to go up and down the aisle and shoot you like the sitting duck you are. Trump is his own psychopath and he will not change so that you can live. Do you want to live? Do you want your parents and grandparents to live? What are you willing to do? Not with a gun, but with your brain and your guts and your ability to organize others. What is your idea? WHAT IS YOUR IDEA? Tell me! Tell us! Post it here. And then let’s organize and lead and ACT like our lives depended on it. Because they do.

PHIL MURPHY NOTES:

Chi (Fish) Council update from today

The Lake County Chi Council is bullshitting people with this statement that the creeks have been impassible, it has not been true during most of March and isn’t today, plus Scotts creek, Kelsey creek and Middle creek have at all times allowed passage. We have had years with less rain and lower flow rates, but apparently those have all gone down the memory hole.

Greetings friends — the Chi Council hopes that you are all staying safe and well in these very challenging times. Protecting ourselves, vulnerable family members, and the broader community has to be the number one priority for us all, and to that end we urge everyone to abide by all social distancing requirements and other recommendations.

That said, this has been a rough year for the hitch as well: extraordinarily dry conditions in January and February left Clear Lake tributaries too dry to support a spawning migration in March, and for the first time in the more than 15 years that the Chi Council has been in existence we have received ZERO reports of fish (any kind of fish) in the creeks. It is barely possible that the rains of the past few days will provide enough water to make fish passage possible.

If any of you have observed migrating hitch anywhere in the county this spring or are able to safely check out one or more observation points in the next week or so, please let us know by replying to this email, calling Peter at 707 349-3888, or sending him a text.

In person meetings have been suspended until further notice, but it’s possible we might schedule a video/phone conference on April 22: if so an announcement with connection information will be distributed to this list well in advance.

SAFETY JOE

Well, he never got too lonely
And he never got too sad
But he never got too happy
And that's what's just too bad

He never reached much further
Than his lonely arms would go
He wore a seatbelt around his heart
And they called him Safety Joe

Safety Joe, Safety Joe
(Safety Joe, Safety Joe)
What do you say? What do you know?
If you don't loosen up the buckle
On your heart and start to chuckle
You're gonna die of boredom, Safety Joe

Now, Joe he lived in Baltimore
'Cause New York was too darn fast
He sometimes went down to Washington
Just to view our nation's past

He never ate his vegetables
'Cause they were just too darn chewy
And he never climbed much higher
Than the arch in old St. Louis

Safety Joe, Safety Joe
(Safety Joe, Safety Joe)
What do you say? What do you know?
If you don't loosen up the buckle
On your heart and start to chuckle
Well, you're gonna die of boredom, Safety Joe

Where's that mandolin?
It's the chorus

Joe gradually grew meaner
By not changin' his demeanor
But he never did nothin'
Too much for too long

Therefore his life never got much richer
Than the day they took that picture
In his birthday suit
On the day that he was born

Safety Joe, Safety Joe
(Safety Joe, Safety Joe)
What do you say? What do you know?
If you don't loosen up the buckle
On your heart and start to chuckle
Well, you're gonna die of boredom, Safety Joe
Well, you're gonna die of boredom, Safety Joe

That's golden

— John Prine (Oct 10, 1946 - Apr 07, 2020)

FOUND OBJECT