MCT: Monday, May 4, 2020

• Warming Week
• 128 Open
• Canoe Views
• Shrum Murder
• Young Buck
• Tower Cessation
• Covid Generation
• Missing Asha
• Doohan Kisses
• Bosco Verticale
• Beyond Bailout
• Oasis Aboukir
• Handley Takeout
• Iris Cross
• Domestic Violence
• Moral Busybodies
• Rent Control
• Blue Moon
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Maianthemum
• Two Years
• Irises
• Virus Riddle
• Plant Flowers
• Weekly Tally
• Turkey Vulture
• American Innocence
• Capitalist Pyramid
• Antibiotic Fools
• Curvaceous Tyranny
• Strongman Hafthor
• Thank You
• Mystery House
• Joe Dementia
• Kent State

A GRADUAL WARMING TREND is expected over the course of the week, with well above normal temperatures expected for interior areas Thursday through the weekend. Mostly dry conditions are also expected, the only exception being potentially some very light showers along the Del Norte and Humboldt coasts this evening and Wednesday. (NWS)

UPDATE: Highway 128 Open In Both Directions

— Ukiah CHP

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JUST IN: Highway 128 Closed From Mile Marker 30 To Mm48.45 Due To An Overturned Logging Truck. Unknown Eta For The Road To Be Reopened. 

— Ukiah CHP

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THE SHRUM MURDER MYSTERY - PART ONE

by Malcolm Macdonald

White men first set eyes on Round Valley on an April day. Promptly they killed a couple score of the people who had been living there for who knows how long. Round Valley, where grass can grow so high this time of year, a man can fairly hide in it standing up. At least that what was said of it in the late 1870s. Round Valley, where the middle fork of the Eel River flows through it so thoroughly it almost resembles a serpent encircling its prey.

On the evening of July 11, 1878, Andrew Jackson (A.J.) Shrum stood on the porch of his home on the east side of Round Valley. Supper concluded, Shrum and his wife, Lizzie, along with neighbor Albert Smith, had moved outdoors to enjoy a chat in the twilight. The Shrums' six and seven year old daughter and son remained inside. Darkness swallowed more dusk as the minute hand on the clock edged upward from 8:30 toward nine. Mr. Shrum noticed an unfamiliar horse at some distance in his field. Loose stock gaining entrance to the property had been a problem for quite some time. 

He strode from the porch and out into the darkening field perhaps two hundred fifty yards. A single shot rang out. The horse galloped away. Lizzie Shrum ran to her husband's side with Mr. Smith not far behind. A bullet had penetrated A.J. Shrum's clothing at the waist.

Within minutes, neighbors responded to the gun shot and shouts for help. A doctor arrived in relatively short order, finding the thirty-eight-year-old Mr. Shrum fully conscience, but entirely unable to move. The bullet had passed through, splintering his backbone before making an exit. The victim spoke; however, he offered no identification about his assailant; it having been too dark to make out just who he might be. Internal hemorrhaging killed Shrum before the next dawn. 

The following day, Captain George, along with two other Indians and a number of white men, attempted to track the horse that ran off from Shrum's field. Almost immediately beyond that field the trace of a hoof print was lost. Somewhat farther along a dim trail led to the barn of the Anthony family. 

Eighteen-year-old Jesse Anthony was taken into custody, but soon released after several witnesses placed him in the town of Covelo at eight-thirty and his sister stated he returned home a few minutes before nine, heading straight to bed. 

Elizabeth, “Lizzie” Helm Shrum was thirteen years younger than her husband and six months pregnant at the time of his murder. Her father, a Baptist minister, Shelby Weeden Helm, arrived on the scene to comfort her. The local citizenry gathered $1,500 as a bounty for the arrest and conviction of the murderer. The governor's office added another $500 for the apprehension of the culprit.

A newspaper of the time described Mrs. Shrum as rather prepossessing in appearance and quite intelligent. Another recounted her marriage, at age seventeen, when she and her family lived near Guerneville. That paper stating she “bore a good reputation among those who knew her.”

Supposedly, an attachment had grown between her and James Anthony, the twenty-one-year-old brother of Jesse Anthony. A fondness so strong that Mrs. Shrum and both Anthony brothers conspired to remove Mr. Shrum permanently. So the county district attorney determined and in mid November, with Lizzie Shrum having given birth to her third child, a daughter, three weeks prior, a county judge held her and the Anthony brothers over on a murder charge.

The prosecution's theory held that Jesse Anthony had done the shooting so his brother and Lizzie Held Shrum could be together. Thus, Jesse went on trial first in mid-April of 1879. One newspaper, the Petaluma Weekly Argus, reported that the trial had “nearly depopulated the surrounding country and is the all-engrossing topic of conversation.”

Mendocino County's Board of Supervisors employed Barclay Henley (for $500), former Assemblyman and past district attorney of Sonoma County, to assist twenty-nine-year-old Augustus L. Hart (he would become California's Attorney General the following year), in prosecuting the case. More than a hundred witnesses, almost equally divided between prosecution and defense, were summoned. The jury deliberated forty-two hours before announcing they could not reach a unanimous verdict. Ten favored conviction, but two voted to acquit. 

Almost immediately thereafter, James Anthony went on trial. The Ukiah City Press reported, “Only six men are left in Round Valley. The Anthony cases have called the whole population to the number of 149, [ten] women included, to the county seat

The case proceeded along similar evidentiary lines. The prosecution rested largely on the testimony of William Brown, a neighbor, to whom James Anthony supposedly confessed while expressing a desire that the crime be pinned on Albert Smith. According to Mr. Brown, James Anthony said, “If we could convict anybody, it would do away with the damned noise, and me and Jesse would be just as much thought of as we were before we did it.”

At ten in the morning, May 2^nd, the twelve jurors returned to the courtroom. “We, the jury, find the defendant, James Anthony, guilty of murder in the first degree, and recommend that he be punished by imprisonment for life.”

The Ukiah City Press opined, “The same evidence is adduced, with some slight exceptions, as was had on the first trial, and though he [James Anthony] proves an undoubted alibi [City Press emphasis], he is found guilty of murder in the first degree.”

That alibi came in the form of testimony of the proprietor of the Scott Valley House. Said proprietor making clear that James Anthony arrived at the establishment around five in the afternoon on the day of Mr. Shrum's murder and stayed at Scott Valley House until the next morning.

The same day as the verdict in the James Anthony case, Lizzie Shrum filed a new bond in the amount of $3,000 to remain free until her trial. Jesse Anthony's bond for purposes of a second trial was set at $8,000. 

James Anthony's request for a retrial was denied, but his appeal proceeded rather quickly to the state supreme court. By November, the largest transcript to that date, nearly 600 pages of testimony, made its way to Sacramento.

As the appeal moved along, James Anthony continued to be housed in Mendocino County's jail in Ukiah. In the cell next to him was John Fleming Wheeler, recently arrested in Mendocino on a charge of murder for his role in a crime that led to the fatal ambush of two posse men a few miles east of the coastal town. Anthony later claimed to have made a babbit key from zinc with two bricks, but it is more likely that Wheeler, a practicing dentist, who held a patent for a new type of luggage latch, fashioned the key that unlocked their jail cell doors just after dark on the first Friday in November, 1879. Another possibility: Wheeler taught Anthony the process. Dr. Wheeler earned his patent, and practiced dentistry, while serving eight years in San Quentin, 1869-1877. He'd gained parole two years early on a ten year term affixed for a conviction on a charge of robbing the U.S. Mail from a stagecoach in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.

Either two saddled horses waited for them in the Briggs stable near the Ukiah jail or Wheeler and Anthony commandeered the mounts quickly. Other than nearly dashing over 26-year-old musician Nancy “Noonie” Boulon, the pair made their way north, into the dark, undetected. 

(Next time: The fates of the Anthonys and Lizzie Shrum)

CELL TOWER CESSATION

Editor,

Julia Acker Krog, chief planner Mendocino County Building & Planning Services Department, notified AT&T that all construction in preparation for the wireless communications facility at the Lord’s Land on Navarro Ridge Road in Albion must cease.

There will be a full coastal permit development process which will take 6-8 months. It’s an “after the fact” discretionary permit, meaning that both the County and the CA. Coastal Commission will review it and make changes as needed with the CA. Coastal Commission having the final say.

A total of 50 wooden poles that were placed on both sides of Navarro Ridge Road leading up to the site (3 miles from Hwy 1) and the cables strung from pole to pole can’t be removed just yet since they are evidence of the construction.

There will be a public hearing and all residents who live in close proximity to these poles on Navarro Ridge Road will be notified by mail.

There is no exemption from coastal zone regulations for this new construction which violates the protection of the highly scenic area, and must follow the Local Coastal Plan (LCP) approved by the CA. Coastal Commission.

The County’s Building & Planning Services Department has also contacted the Coastal Commission.

Annemarie Weibel

Albion

COVID GENERATION

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASHA KREIMER: One Of Mendocino County’s Most Enduring Cold Cases

The day after her 31st birthday, Cold Case Mendocino provides the most thorough examination to date of one of Mendocino County’s most perplexing and chilling cold cases, the disappearance of Asha Kreimer.

coldcasemendocino.wordpress.com/2020/05/03/the-disappearance-of-asha-kreimer-one-of-mendocino-countys-most-enduring-cold-cases/

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THE ASHA KREIMER case is a perfect argument for Measure B. She was the young Australian woman living in Albion who disappeared in the fall of 2015. When she was clearly losing her way, her boyfriend took her to Coast Hospital where she resisted all care and treatment and, at breakfast near Point Arena, sprinted off and forever away. The details can be found in the excellent account on Cold Case Mendocino. At Coast's emergency room, Asha, obviously suicidal, had had to be physically restrained, but there being no facility in the county capable of holding her for the time necessary to restore her mental balance, "On September 21, 2015, [boyfriend] Jamai and Sally Scales, the childhood friend, thought it beneficial to get Asha out of the house, sight-see, and eat a meal at a local restaurant. The trio went to Point Arena’s Rollerville Cafe for breakfast. Asha did not touch her plate, engaged little in conversation, and told Gayle she was going to use the restroom. This would be the last confirmed sighting of Asha. Her disappearance would become one of Mendocino County’s most notorious cold cases spawning YouTube videos, podcasts, and documentaries. Five years later, Asha Kreimer’s fate remains a mystery to loved ones and law enforcement…" Measure B, if the money miraculously reaches its intended destination, would build an in-county psych unit that might have saved Asha.

PAGING DR. DOOHAN

We all heard the news and we all feared the worst last week when several new cases were reported among our COVIDiot friends up in Covelo. Was it the work of the Mad Chino State Prisoner released into our midst? Had he visited a casino? Was it spreading?

As we anxiously awaited information and, hopefully reassurances, Health Officer Dr. Mimi Doohan was carefully composing a press release to address the biggest and most serious outbreak yet in Mendocino County’s COVID crisis.

This was her response:

“I am grateful for the opportunity to collaboratively work with the Round Valley Indian Tribes and the Round Valley Health Center and applaud the clinic staff for the exemplary manner in which these cases were cared for.

“Thank you to Congressman Jared Huffman, Senator Mike McGuire, Assemblyman Jim Wood and California Department of Public Health Director Dr. Donia Angell for their rapid response and assistance in mobilizing addition resources. I deeply care about our tribal communities and we are here to respond and provide support to contain the spread of COVID-19.”

Translation: At a time when the county is experiencing its most frightening surge in Coronavirus cases, Dr. Doohan uses the opportunity to plant large, moist lipstick prints on the butts of every powerful state and federal official she could think of.

Because an aspiring job-seeker never can tell when fawning, obsequious flattery might someday be remembered by politicians when she applies for her next taxpayer-funded position.

— Tommy Wayne Kramer, UDJ

FORT BRAGG RESIDENT ANDREA LUNA commenting on the Fifth District’s Facebook page Sunday morning:

Re “How to help local businesses survive” being discussed: Maybe there’s another important issue: What kind of businesses support a sustainable community economy and the well being of residents? The tourist economy is unstable and dependent on many very low paying jobs while exploiting local housing stock conversions to visitor serving. Transient tourists use local services that we pay for but the benefits of tourism are not really shared equitably by all residents. Many locals can’t even afford the goods and services geared to tourists. Businesses unfortunately will close in this economic crash, as in the 2008 crash (Ft Bragg still has stores empty since then). How can we produce more goods to meet our needs in a post-petroleum economy? How important are goods produced cheaply in China and shipped here ? Long term? How can local food production and marketing of Coastal branded goods be supported? What is the new vision, the paradigm to replace the flawed “tourist” economy? We are facing a painful transition period, it’s an opportunity to think beyond simply a “bail out”.

COQ AU VIN TO-GO THIS WEEK AT HANDLEY CELLARS!

Chef Marie is cooking To-Go again this week! Package includes Coq Au Vin, Salade, and sweets for 2 plus a bottle of 2017 Handley Yorkville Highlands Pinot—a new release! Spicy fruit, robust enough to hold a candle to Marie’s sumptuous food. $88 + tax. 

Order this weekend by calling 707-895-3876 and leaving a message—just stay on the line. We’ll call you back Monday to confirm and take payment. Pickup Thursday 4-5:30pm. Club discount applies to wine. Offering curbside pickup on all wine any day M-F.

Thank you for supporting us.

— Lulu McClellan

IRIS CROSS

ANOTHER WILLITS WOMAN-BEATER

On May 2, 2020 at about 11:43 AM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report of a disturbance and possible domestic violence incident in the 2500 block of Cobb Drive in Willits. Deputies arrived at about 11:52 am, and contacted several people outside of the residence who stated that there was an adult female inside who was a victim of domestic violence. Deputies were told a domestic violence incident occurred on 04-28-2020 and that the adult female was afraid to report the incident to law enforcement. Deputies contacted the adult female and noticed an injury to her right eye and left arm. Deputies learned that the 39-year old adult female and Assoon Cordell, 36, of Willits had been cohabitating while having a romantic dating relationship for the past couple of years. 

This incident was reportedly not the only occurrence of domestic violence during the couple's relationship. Deputies learned that on 04-28-2020 the adult female and Cordell were involved in a verbal argument which became physical. During the argument the adult female was struck on the right side of her face and grabbed by the arm as she attempted to walk away from the argument. The adult female was able to eventually get away and then left the residence by running to a neighbor’s residence. The adult female was fearful for her safety if she were to report the incident and thus did not contact law enforcement. Cordell was contacted at the residence and arrested for domestic violence battery and was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $25,000 bail. An Emergency Protective Order was granted by a Mendocino County Superior Court Judge and served on Cordell Assoon. 

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ED NOTE: Booking records show Assoon was released a little after midnight Sunday morning after bail was reduced to $0.

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CORRECTION FROM DA: fyi, our office checked this possible zero bail release, and we were told the suspect was released on $25,000 bail.

IN THE MIDST of a deepening health and economic crisis, what would you expect Ukiah’s top realtor to be writing about? Showing houses with social distancing impositions? Market contraction? Declining property assessments? Sales activity? Finding a remodeling contractor? County planning and permit processing? Financing and mortgage rates under new banking restrictions? Housing shortages and prices? Infrastructure limitations in Mendocino County? The many failures in the County’s “housing element” of the General Plan? Second unit permit problems? Escrow requirements? The endless “studies” that developers must conduct before their permit applications will even be accepted…?

No, Ukiah uber-realtor Richard Selzer went to great pains last week to whine about what he called “rent control” laws.

According to Selzer’s own summary of the recent “rent control” legislation:

“Assembly Bill 1482 or the ‘Tenant Protection Act of 2019’ went into effect January 1. It prevents residential landlords from raising rent more than 5%, plus the local rate of inflation, in a single year. State Senate Bill 329 prevents landlords from considering the source of a tenant’s income; specifically, landlords cannot discriminate against renters who use Section 8 housing vouchers. Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent extension of Penal Code Section 396, the anti-gouging rule that went into effect after wildfires ravaged the state. Section 396 prevents landlords from raising the rent on all housing types, including vacant units, more than 10 percent above pre-emergency levels.”

This so-called “rent control” allows landlords to charge anything they want for new rentals or when new tenants move in.

In effect, these faux restrictions limit rent increases for existing tenants to not more than 10% per year and even then only if the tenant objects and goes to court over it since there’s no effective enforcement mechanism. What kind of greedy landlord would even want more than that per year? 

But Richard Selzer says these laws, even including the anti-gouging law, are bad because…?

Selzer: “Is there anything in these laws that makes developers want to build more homes? No. Given the reduced [sic] income, do you think these laws could dissuade people from building and/or investing in rental properties? Yes. Basically, rent control removes the impetus for developers to build new houses, which makes our housing shortage worse, not better.”

“These laws” may not contain anything that “makes developers want to build more homes” (and why should they?), but California’s current budget includes almost $2 billion in new housing subsidies:

• $500 million in one-time cash for local governments to combat homelessness—of that $300 million will go towards regional planning, and $200 million as awards for cities that build new shelters or permanent supportive housing.

• A quintupling of ongoing cash (from $80 million to $500 million) for the state’s most important low-income housing financing tool, the low-income housing tax credit.

• $500 million in one-time cash for “moderate-income” housing production, or the so-called “missing middle” of housing for California’s middle class.

• $25 million to get more homeless Californians on federal disability programs.

That’s not all, of course, because these latest handouts are on top of what was already in place at the state level and what cities and counties are already doing.

Selzer insists that the mythical “free market” is the only way to get more housing built. But the “free market” in housing, similar every other modern industrial sector — is a myth in the first place since the entire housing market is dependent on “socialized” government-funded streets, sewers, water, schools, fire services, law enforcement, etc.) 

To realtors like Selzer and his many acolytes in Mendocino County who take a sizable whack out every transaction based on its “market value,” (which, Selzer fails to note, raises the cost of housing) unless the rent “control” laws themselves include “incentives” to landlords and developers, these nearly non-existent controls will only make the housing problem worse. 

(Mark Scaramella)

MAY DAY MOON

ED NOTES

THE INNOCENCE FILES is a fascinating documentary currently packing 'em in on Netflicks that ought to be required viewing by law enforcement (and everyone else) because, among other lessons taught, it demonstrates that the forensic "sciences," especially forensic odontology, are frequently wrong. One bite marks expert and ubiquitous prosecution expert is a spectacularly incompetent Mississippi forensics dentist whose nutball testimony sent a slew of innocent people to prison and a few to death row. The series is broken into three sections, according to the three predominant causes of wrongful incarceration: misuse of forensic evidence (or, more simply: junk science), false eyewitness testimony and prosecutorial misconduct. Since 1989, there have been 2,578 exonerations in the US. “By and large, we have an adversarial legal system where the whole idea is to win, and each side stepping up to the plate against each other,” said Alex Gibney, an executive producer who directed an episode on prosecutorial misconduct. “The problem is that it becomes all about winning rather than finding the truth or real justice.” 

ONE more quick opinion re Annie Proulx: She knows what she's talking about because she didn't come from the prose death camps of writer's workshops or university English departments. She's been married and divorced three times and raised three boys by herself. She's worked as a waitress, a postal worker and, before she tried fiction, a freelancer on all sorts of subjects. In other words, the wolf has been at her door. 

THE REVOLT of the Camo Buddies. Anti-lockdown protesters have swarmed New York City — the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. — demanding an end to stay-at-home orders put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic. There were also dozens of other anti-lockdown rallies among the Limbaugh demographic that took place across the country Friday. More than a million Americans have now tested positive for COVID-19, and over 63,000 have died. Not keeping one's distance is risking the lives of Gramps and Grams and, given the preponderance of fatso-watsos in these demos, each other. 

GEEZ. I know literacy standards have slipped, but some of the facebook comments about Sheriff Kendall's commonsense statement last week don't correlate with the statement he made. I found no room for interpretation, and certainly did not see, implied or stated, a threat to lock people up who don't comply with our Health Officer's directives which, of course, anyway mostly come from the Governor's office. The ongoing prob among the more hysterical sectors of Mendolib is Blue Meanie Syndrome, the assumption that the cops are just itching to arrest people. As if. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 3, 2020

CORDELL ASSOON, Willits. Domestic abuse.

WILLIAM GAUNTT, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

NINA GIACOMINI, Ukiah. Domestic abuse. 

JEREMY SKINNER, Ukiah. Controlled substance, resisting, probation revocation.

STEVEN TEMPLE SR., Ukiah. Domestic battery, fighting in public, suspended license, probation revocation.

MAIANTHEMUM

NEW REPORT says coronavirus pandemic could last up to two years — The report from the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota says based on the most recent flu pandemics, the highly transmissible coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will likely keep spreading for as long as two years, and will likely not stop spreading until 60 to 70 percent of the population is immune.

thehill.com/changing-america/resilience/natural-disasters/495635-coronavirus-pandemic-could-last-up-to-two-years

THE COVID-19 RIDDLE: Why does the virus wallop some places and spare others?

The coronavirus has killed so many people in Iran that the country has resorted to mass burials, but in neighboring Iraq, the body count is fewer than 100.

sfgate.com/news/article/The-COVID-19-Riddle-Why-Does-the-Virus-Wallop-15243670.php

TOTAL U.S. CORONAVIRUS TALLY AT THE END OF EACH FRIDAY. 

• Jan 17 — 0

• Jan 24 — 2

• Jan 31 — 7

• Feb 7 — 12

• Feb 14 — 15

• Feb 21 — 30

• Feb 28 — 65

• Mar 6 — 310

• Mar 13 — 2,224

• Mar 20 — 17,962

• Mar 27 — 102,636

• April 3 — 275,000

• April 10 — 504,000

• April 17 — 707,000

• April 24 – 923,470

• May 1 –  1,130,786 and counting…

COAST VULTURE

"LET US CONSIDER the American way. The American way is innocence," Reinhardt announced. "In all situations we must and shall display an innocence so vast and awesome that the entire world will be reduced by it. American innocence shall rise in mighty clouds of vapor to the scent of heaven and confound the nation! Our legions, patriots, are not like those of the other fellow. We are not perverts with rotten brains as the English is. We are not a sordid little turd like the French. We are not nuts like the Kraut. We are not strutting maniacs like the gibroney and the greaseball! When your American soldier fighting today drops a napalm bomb on a cluster of gibbering chinks, it's a bomb with a heart. In the heart of that bomb, mysteriously but truly present, is a fat old lady on her way to see the world's fair. This lady is as innocent as she is fat and motherly. This lady is our nation's strength. This lady's innocence if fully unleashed could defoliate every forest in the torrid zone. In her mind there is but a single thought, and it is this: Iowa is never so pretty as it is in May."

— Robert Stone

GAUNTLETS FOR EVERYONE!

Editor,

What gives that idiot Newsom the right to close all the parks and beaches down? Or the right to spend our tax money so foolishly on Communist China and illegal aliens and not helping the infrastructure one bit? How does he get away with it? Because he's a dictator! Nobody can do a thing about it unless Californians get pissed off enough to rush the capitol and throw them people right on their asses. That needs to happen. 

By now everyone's heard about Joe Biden being accused of sexual molestation. How does it feel you left-wing antibiotic democratic fools? You are getting a taste of your own medicine like what they did to poor Brett Kavanagh when he was nominated for the Supreme Court? That cost $30 million for nothing. How do you like it, liberals? I hope they make Joe Biden go through the same horrible treatment Kavanagh had to go through. I love it. Run him through the gauntlet. Makes me happy. 

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche

MENDO’S CURVE IS FLAT

To the Editor:

Residents of Mendocino County: Wake up and tell your county health department that there is no curve to flatten.

We had been told before this shelter in place order went into effect that we needed to ‘flatten the curve’ so our hospitals would not be overwhelmed with Coved-19 cases. I read in our local newspaper that not only has that not happened, but it is unlikely that it will happen here. So where is this curve we wanted to flatten and why are we not working at our businesses and enjoying our local parks? Remember, these shelter in place orders were not necessarily implemented to keep anyone from getting Coved-19, but rather to stagger the people getting sick so hospitals would not be overwhelmed. Not only are the hospitals not overwhelmed, but many in the healthcare industry have been laid off or furloughed. We have no medical crisis in Mendocino County and yet our constitutional rights to assemble peacefully, work at our businesses, and even leave our homes have been disregarded in the interest of ‘saving lives’. Could it be that our local and state government officials are testing us to see how many of their draconian orders we will put up with? A bad precedent is being set and must be stopped if we want any semblance of freedom for our future. This is just another assault on our liberty by people who want total control over everything we do. Our founders were willing to fight and die for freedom rather than live under tyranny. Have we come to that place again in America?

Duane Grilli

Ukiah

STRONGMAN HAFTHOR BJORNSSON (Iceland)

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THANKS TO EVERYONE INVOLVED

To the Editor:

A big shout out and appreciation to our public health officers Drs Doohan and Flaherty for all their hard work preventing the spread of Covid-19 in our community, even to those who lack the understanding and/or patience to be properly grateful. Our public health department intervened early and skillfully, and we are so fortunate that as of today we have zero community spread of the virus, unlike our neighboring counties of Humboldt and Sonoma. I also appreciate all of you who are faithfully practicing the guidelines, maintaining social distance, postponing visits with family and friends, dealing with loss of work, kids out of school, financial stress. Thank you all, the life you save may be your own or someone you love. And thank you to all health care workers, first responders, essential workers for staying on the job in spite of the risks you are taking on.

Judy Luria RN

Ukiah

WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Joe do you remember yesterday is the better question I suspect he remembers 1993 better than he does the last ten minutes.

That’s the crazy thing about dementia.

My mother in law got the dementia actually Alzheimer’s we did the best we could to take care of her ourselves after her husband died of a heart attack in my couch.

We paid out of pocket for a nice lady to come take care of her while we were at work and this went on for months. Her mood steadily soured she became suspicious and angry even combative. The dementia took her sweet quiet demeaner and replaced it with a dark brooding person who wanted to know where her husband was.

Then one day she became angry and actually took a swing at the nice lady we hired to essentially baby sit her and took to crapping on the floor next to the toilet.

We then had to concede defeat and found a home for her. In that home were a bunch of other ladies with worse cases of dementia. Some so bad they were literal lumps of breathing flesh and nothing but occasional grunts and farts to express they were even alive.

Dementia sucks I feel bad for Joe and anyone else who has it or gets it it robs their loved ones of the person they love and eventually leaves an empty shell were a human once sat, loved and lived.

FIFTY YEARS AGO TODAY

"All I can tell you is that it completely and utterly changed my life. I was a white hippie boy and then I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. Two of the four people who were killed, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were my friends. We were all running our asses off from these motherfuckers. It was total, utter bullshit. Live ammunition and gasmasks - none of us knew, none of us could have imagined… They shot into a crowd that was running away from them! I stopped being a hippie and I started to develop the idea of devolution. I got real, real pissed off."

—Gerald Casale, co-founder of Devo

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"Robert Stamps at Kent State" by John Wester

"Remembering Kent State" by Steve Duin