MCT: Thursday, June 18, 2020

• Hot Interior
• Fiddlehead Fined
• Sparrow
• 53 Cases
• Help Bill
• Coast Inlet
• Skyhawk Update
• Wendling Mill
• No Parade
• Burn Ban
• Perv Loose
• Ambulance Down
• Bandit Rock
• Nameless CA
• Navarro Bridge
• Fort Anything
• Christo Columbo
• Ed Notes
• Downtown Ukiah
• Streetscape Comments
• Carlo Affinito
• Early MTA
• 51% Guilty
• Yesterday's Catch
• Trump Rally
• Elkhorn Hotel
• Managing Covid
• Covelo High
• Defund Everything
• Black Phoebe
• Awakenings
• Virus Trending
• Controller Wanted
• Inside CHAZ
• Flying Cars
• Dispensary Looting
• Found Object

DRY, HOT AND SUNNY weather will persist into next week across interior northwest California. Coastal areas will be sunny and breezy today, followed by expanding areas of low clouds and fog heading into the weekend. (NWS)

MENDOCINO COUNTY FINES CAFE OWNER $10,000 FOR DEFYING LOCAL HEALTH ORDER

by Mary Callahan

Mendocino County officials have issued a $10,000 citation against the owner of a coastal restaurant for his persistent defiance of a countywide health order intended to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Fiddleheads Cafe owner Chris Castleman on Wednesday took steps to come into the compliance, but it’s clear he’s not prepared to do everything needed to comply with county standards for operating his Mendocino restaurant during the pandemic.

He said he still has no intention of requiring his workers to wear facial coverings, even though people who prepare, handle or serve food for sale are specifically called out in the county order requiring use of masks by anyone who enters an enclosed space with others from outside their household or social bubble.

“I’m not going to tell my employees to do anything,” Castleman said Wednesday. “That’s between them and the county. In general, the stance I have on all this is it’s about personal responsibility and personal choice. It’s not about me being a police officer.”

Public authorities strongly disagree.

The facial covers, social distancing and other simple measures required of business operators and others are a necessary tool in the fight against a highly contagious virus known to have infected 53 people in Mendocino County so far, Supervisor Ted Williams said.

“None of us want to see enforcement against local business owners,” said Williams, whose district includes Mendocino. “However, out of life and death concern for our vulnerable population, and in fairness to the other businesses we represent, compliance is not optional.”

Castleman has owned the tiny cafe for two years. He employs seven people, including a cook who would find a mask unbearable in the steaming hot kitchen, he said, and another employee with a history of domestic violence and claustrophobia who finds them unbearable.

He’s made his disdain for local health measures clear through signs posted out front of his Lansing Street business, stating in part, “Our freedom doesn’t end where your fear begins.” A newer version takes a slightly softer approach.

He said he has remained open, serving takeout food, since shelter-in-place orders went into effect in California in March and understood early versions of the county health order to give business owners and their workers the choice about wearing masks until a revised order issued May 28 spelled out the requirement for restaurant personnel.

In the meantime, when he was told that shared condiment, cream and sugar containers had to go, he complied. But he said his small business hardly allows a 6-foot separation, and he advised people afraid to be close to other people not to patronize his cafe.

This week after he was fined, Castleman completed a self-certification form required by the county of businesses operating while the coronavirus is still circulating. His earlier refusal to do so was a key violation for which he was cited.

Williams, the county supervisor, and Interim Code Enforcement Manager Trent Taylor said Castleman was rare for his refusal to comply voluntarily with the orders once educated by county personnel.

His citation was the first that Taylor was aware of under an urgency ordinance passed by the board March 4 establishing civil penalties for violations of coronavirus pandemic-related orders.

It established a $500 cap on fines for violations unrelated to commercial activity and allows for fines up to $10,000 for violations involving commercial activity.

A 24-hour notice of violation is required before its imposition. One was provided to Castleman on Monday.

The citation and maximum fine was imposed Tuesday. 

Later that afternoon, supervisors voted unanimously in closed session to initiate litigation against Castleman and Fiddleheads if “other remedies are unsuccessful or insufficient to get a business to comply with the public health order.”

(courtesy The Press Democrat)

WHITE CROWNED SPARROW

HEALTH OFFICER ANNOUNCES 6 NEW COVID-19 CASES IN UKIAH AREA

End of School Year Gatherings Major Contributor to Rise in Ukiah Area Cases

Post Date: 06/17/2020 6:02 PM

Today Mendocino County Health Officer Dr. Noemi Doohan confirmed 6 new COVID-19 cases in the Ukiah Valley region.  Four of the 6 cases are teenagers. Eight of the new cases have been traced back to two end of school year/graduation related gatherings in Ukiah.  The new cases today brings Mendocino County’s case count to 53 (19 isolated, 1 hospitalized in the ICU; 33 recovered). In addition, 4 cases over the past week have been linked to in-person church services in the Ukiah area.  

In response to this spike in positive cases, Mendocino County Public Health will be doing outbreak testing at the Public Health Building, 1120 South Dora Street in Ukiah today, Wednesday, June 17, from 4:30pm – 7:00pm and tomorrow, Thursday, June 18, from 7:00am – 10:00am.  If you have been notified by Public Health that you have been exposed to COVID-19 or have been to a graduation/end of school year gathering or in-person church service in the Ukiah area in the past 10 days please stop by and get tested.  

Mendocino County is experiencing a spike in cases for individuals under the age of 35, which now makes up 43% of cases.  In addition, the case that was recently in the ICU was in the 19-35 age group. The end of the school year, graduation and the start of summer is often a time to celebrate and hold large gatherings.  All gatherings including those in homes, parks and community spaces are not allowed and are high-risk for the spread of COVID-19.  Group activities are limited to members of the same household or a Social Bubble which means a stable group of 12 individuals who form either a Household Support Unit, a Childcare Unit, or a Children’s Extracurricular Activity Unit (Please refer to Mendocino County’s infographic for social bubbles: mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=35704). 

To help our community stay safe, slow the spread of COVID-19 and continue reopening, everyone, including teens and young adults, should avoid the three C’s: 

• Confined spaces – especially with poor ventilation. Outdoors in better than indoors. 
• Crowds and gatherings – the more people the higher the risk.
• Close contact – staying further apart is safer than being close together. 

Every resident can take simple steps to reduce their risk of COVID-19 by washing hands often, wearing a cloth face covering around others, avoid touching your face, avoid sharing food, drinks, toys, sports equipment, keep interactions with others outside of your home or social bubble short and give yourself space from others (6ft).  

As a reminder to parents, Mendocino County and the cities of Fort Bragg and Ukiah have Social Host Ordinances which state parents or guardians are responsible for parties at their homes even if the parents/guardians are absent during the event.  Parents/guardians are liable for what transpires at the party in their absence. 

Public Health recommends individuals who have recently been to a large gatherings, in-person church service or protest to schedule an appointment for surveillance testing at OptumServe in Ukiah. To make an appointment go online to lhi.care/covidtesting or call 888-634-1123. Our local testing location is at the Empire Fairgrounds in Ukiah and is open Tuesday – Saturday from 7am – 7pm. OptumServe is for those without symptoms.  If you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms please contact your primary care physician at your local clinic or hospital for testing. 

For more on COVID-19: www.mendocinocounty.org

Call Center: (707) 234-6052 or email callcenter@mendocinocounty.org

The call center is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

FUNDRAISER FOR BILL BRADD

To the Editor

This letter is to alert the many friends, fans & kindred souls of : Renegade Gardener Writer-Poet Bill Bradd to his recent diagnosis & battle with cancer. Bill will have to live five days a week in Ukiah for radiation therapy and returning home to the Coast on the weekends. Bill will need up to three months weekly lodging and can really use both your optimistic, supportive letters as well as dollars to pay his motel and meals while in Ukiah.

Please make & send any contributions to:

Bill Bradd
PO Box 913
Mendocino, CA 95460

You may also send your emails to: billracehorsebradd@gmail.com

Thank you & good health upon you all!

Don Shanley

Philo

STROKE RECOVERY UPDATE

Well, June 26 will mark the two-year “anniversary” of my stroke. I was recently discharged from OT and PT. The insurance company says after two years you don’t get enough benefit for the expense. Ok, so I still need a cane or walking stick on uneven ground. Otherwise I leave the props behind a lot now. My left hand is still not working, but I have lots of support and plenty of witchy friends. I still think I’m gonna prove the medical profession wrong with a great big “fuck you!” Many of you know I have been living at The Woods manufactured home community since mid February when Samantha and I decided to separate. That has been painful. Every night since my daughters were infants we slept under the same roof. And yet, they are coming along right on schedule, about to become 12 year olds, complete with moodiness, attitudes they are supposed to have.. hah! Ex. A few years back they always begged me to tell them stories, until I got so tired of it I would beg out of it. “Oh please Papa. just one more?” And now if I tell a story they just roll their eyes. “Oh papa, you are always telling stories, we are tired of your stories.” Well, there you go.

So overall, I am doing great. I work my recovery programs both physical and emotional hard, and daily. The stroke has filled me with a strange joy.

Almost dying has been a very good experience. Before at an intellectual level I knew life was a gift. Almost dying has deepened that appreciation on a cellular level. Everything is a gift, even the tragedies that stalk us all. Please keep sending those prayers. Visualize me playing guitar and running with my children, thank you.

Chris Skyhawk, Albion

WENDLING MILL

NO PARADE THIS YEAR

In light of the current State and County health orders, the Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce board of directors have decided to cancel the Mendocino 4th of July Parade. While this decision was a difficult one, we feel that it is important to be cautious and proactive in order to protect the health of our community.

Coast Chamber of Commerce

CALFIRE SUSPENDS ALL BURN PERMITS 

From CalFire: "The increasing fire danger posed by dead grass and hotter, drier conditions in the region is prompting CalFire to suspend all burn permits for outdoor residential burning within the State Responsibility Areas of Mendocino County. This suspension takes effect at 12:00 a.m. on Monday, June 15, 2020 and bans all residential outdoor burning of landscape debris such as branches and leaves. The suspension of burn permits for residential landscape debris does not apply to campfires within organized campgrounds or on private property. Campfires may be permitted if the campfire is maintained in such a manner as to prevent its spread to the wildland. A campfire permit can be obtained at local fire stations or online at PreventWildfireCA.org."

WILLITS MEGA-PERV ON THE RUN

Convicted Sex Offender Living In Willits.

Allegedly beat wife with maglite, fled, not seen since.

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kymkemp.com/2020/06/15/convicted-sex-offender-living-in-willits-allegedly-beat-his-wife-with-a-maglite-fled-and-has-not-been-seen-since/

AV FIRE CHIEF Andres Avila told the Community Services District Board about the luck of getting a new ambulance just in time on Wednesday night: “Four days after new Ambulance 7420 went into service, old ambulance 7421 went out of service for mechanical issues. [they found a pool of oil underneath where it was parked.] The ambulance has a 2006 Ford Power Stroke Diesel which is infamous for its many issues unless bullet proofed. The Ford dealership has given us several options ranging from full engine replacement ($19k), bullet proofing [replacing and relocating several components which are ill-located in the engine design] the existing engine ($13k), or trying to fix a single symptom now with an uncertainty that it will be entirely fixed. Clay [Eubanks, Ambulance Manager] and I will be discussing this with Angus [Loop, mechanic] tomorrow morning. If we decide to proceed with a large expense project, I will need to get Board approval prior to committing funds over my spending threshold which will cause delays in the repair.” 

THE CSD BOARD DECIDED to hold off on any decision until more info about the options is gathered and considered. Meanwhile Anderson Valley’s new ambulance is working well and is greatly appreciated by local ambulance volunteers. (Mark Scaramella)

BLACK BART ROCK

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I've Got the Name!

I think I have the ultimate solution for our proposed name change. Going north toward Cleone, there's a street called Nameless Street....I've always loved it and admired the person who proposed it! In order to make everybody happy, we could just change our name from Fort Bragg to Nameless or Nameless Bay or some such. Nameless California USA. Has a nice ring to it, right. And should offend nobody! Like say, uh, oh, I don't know, maybe BO California or Armpit! Or if we really wanted to capture a mood, we could simply rename it. Ashamed.

NAVARRO RIVER BRIDGE

RENAME FORT BRAGG

Editor,

The Northern California town of Fort Bragg is in desperate need of a name change ASAP! Sure, there will be some relatively minor expenses for residents from the municipal name change, but the cost of keeping the town’s current obnoxiously racist name will be far greater. 

First of all, no self-respecting Californian could ever possibly justify or countenance any town or city in the Golden State being named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, who was not only a traitor and a slaveowner, but an especially intemperate and incompetent military commander as well. That name is nothing to brag about, Fort Bragg. 

Secondly, why would any patriotic American want to set foot in a town named after an anti-American racist traitor to the republic, like Braxton Bragg? Thankfully, Mendocino County has other equally picturesque communities to visit and spend our money in as tourists. 

Too bad, Fort Bragg, but you’re not getting another dime from me until you change your town’s name! Here are some non-Confederate, pro-American options for you. Please feel free to choose any one of these as your town’s new name: 

• Fort Lincoln
• Fort Grant
• Fort Sherman
• Fort Roosevelt
• Fort Eisenhower
• Fort Patton
• Fort Marshall
• Fort Bradley
• Fort Kennedy
• Fort Powell

Sincerely,

Jake Pickering

Arcata

COLUMBUS OR COLUMBO?

ED NOTES

THAT TASK FORCE assembled in the parking lot of the Boonville Fairgrounds early Tuesday morning moved on to Philo to serve a warrant on a presumably dangerous hombre. Kinda refreshing that placid AV still has a few. Used to be, when the place was a lot livelier, we had a bunch.

WILL THE GUY on the Cream of Wheat box be next? The Aunt Jemima brand of syrup and pancake mix will get a name and image change, according to Quaker Oats, whose pr firm felt it necessary to explain, "The character is based on a racial stereotype.” For many years a caricature of a Black woman called Aunt Jemima illustrated the box, although Quaker Oats, always lagging behind the zeitgeist, removed the kerchief and presented the old girl as a more contemporary woman. The company, in a cash mea culpa, also said it will pony up at least $5 million over the next five years “to create meaningful, ongoing support and engagement in the Black community.”

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MARIJUANA PRICES are back up, and backyard farmers who'd gone dark for a couple of years are back out there. We're informed that the money for local dope is outta here, and if you can't get your product outta state, you'll get four or five hundred a pound, if that, from connected exporters.

LEAH GOLD, now the former mayor of Healdsburg, succumbed to a torrent of undeserved abuse of the familiar Aza genre: “Just being a person of color and hearing what our mayor, Leah Gold, had to say — or not say — about the situation was completely distressing to me, …To just use your white privilege to look (past) the situation is disgusting to me. …(You) showed no willingness to learn, be curious or to understand my lived-in experience as a queer, Latinx community leader and business owner here on the Healdsburg Plaza." Another dwarf bully chipped in with, “I will also remind you all that the public perception of our community right now is not good, and it is bad for business.” Ms. Gold, a person of liberal opinion presiding over the most pleasantly placid town in Sonoma County, resigned rather than endure endless abuse of this one-way type, and who can blame her?

ALL THIS has got me thinking about my white skin privilege, which has never seemed highly valued among my fellow pale faces but, of course, in the ethnic hierarchy of our doomed land I know I get a free pass where darker citizens don't. Looking back at my formative years through a BLM lens, my overwhelmed parents — five kids, not enough money — didn't relay much in the way of political opinions on any subject. The only comments I can remember on race was my mother saying something like, "Nice people don't use the n-word." To her, bad language of any kind was a class-indicator. Respectable people were never vulgar. My parents voted, though, and I think my father was registered Republican, my mother Democrat, only one small difference in the chasm of their relationship, she being a literal coal miner's daughter, he the son of an Hawaiian mini-mogul. I remember one argument between them over Nixon. "I just don't like his jowls," my mother insisted. "Now Ruth," my father argued, "jowls have nothing to do with it." I think me and my sibs, though, got the correct idea early that the ethnic divisions we grew up in were cruel and unfair. By my early-early twenties I began to put theory into practice, as did my youngest brother, prepping ourselves via what my father described as "crank pamphlets," aka the gamut of left-lib opinion as found in The Nation, The New Republic (way before it went right), I.F. Stone's Newsletter. M.S. Arnoni's The Minority of One, The Realist (my fave). And books, lots of books. I think now that background is what makes so much of contemporary rhetoric so annoying — the trite repetition, the utter lack of humor (I know, it isn't funny), the tediousness of so much of it. If anybody had gotten up in the early sixties and introduced him or herself at a civil rights or Vietnam protest in the early sixties as a "binary victim of sexual oppression" or a "queer Latinx community leader" there would have been a stunned silence followed by laughter.

AN MCN COMMENT deserves a reply, and by golly I'm at the ready: "According to Ted and Davy’s excellent and clear questions and answers, it appears that there is no oversight authority for the sheriff’s office, other than elections. Can this be correct? Who then deals with complaints (use of force, overzealous plant-pulling, etc)? If there is no oversight, then the Board of Supes’ budgeting authority would be the only regulatory mechanism at our disposal. In this instance, the Sheriff’s stated refusal to deal with noncompliance with public health measures. There’s a big national debate going on about defunding the police. This actually refers to the idea of re-directing funds from police/sheriffs departments to social services, mental health, education, daycare, food support, elder support, the list goes on — leaving law enforcement to deal with the much narrower subset of actual crime. Thoughts?"

WHY, YES, and thank you for throwing the subject out there to any old body. In fact, as you suggest, the Supervisors control the Sheriff's budget, a major control one would think. Second, the Sheriff is elected and can be un-elected, although that hasn't happened recently. And there's the Grand Jury made up of your friends and neighbors. Finally, there's, ahem, the ava, friend of the friendless and the abused. I'd say there's plenty of oversight for a small population of people and its reputably managed police departments.

UKIAH, STATE & STANDLEY, 1960s

UKIAH STREETSCAPE COMMENTS 

[1] And the great city is forgoing cola raises for employees. Possible furloughs. Hiring freeze. Possible layoffs. And budget cuts to needed from entities within the city. Just like the homeless highway built along the dilapidated railroad. Which is now a great spot for litter graffiti old needles and vandalism. Just another project underway.

[2] There will be a brand new road, and a brand new sidewalk for the decomposing Palace Hotel to come crashing down upon. Then, there will be all sorts of heavy equipment and vehicles that will proceed to tear up this new project to demolish the Palace and haul it away. I swear, some of our officials try to put their shoes on first, and then their socks. And, I wonder what budget the funding will come from in order to do all the necessary repair work that will be needed? Maybe it should come from some of our local official’s exorbitant salaries. And will we end up with a new street, but no businesses left to shop in? Probably. State street will end up being a row of pot dispensaries, massage parlors, and tattoo businesses. Just what we need. That’s progress for you. One step forwards. Two steps back. Do the holy poky and spin yourself around.

 [3] Ahhh, how correct. The Rail Trail. Come visit Ukiah and visit the Rail Trail.

Play pick up the needles with your kids. See who can find the most without getting pricked. If you get pricked, then you lose,….bigtime.

And…

“The entire project is expected to be complete next spring/summer, depending on weather.”

It really should say “whether,” not “weather.”

This is whether or not any businesses are still in business.

Whether or not the project unearths some additional huge expense that will cost zillions more, and delay the project.

And then, with all due respect to my good friend John, (huge respect)…his comment…

But first they have to “survive the construction phase”.

Survive? Please define survive. And until next spring or summer?

One can survive on bread and water. But, will local businesses be able to live on bread and water until next spring or summer?

And did you open your business to just survive or to prosper?

What attempts are being made to help you prosper,….and not just hold on to a life raft, treading water?

And let me ask you this. Are the correct decisions being made in order to help your business prosper?

Yes, maybe down the pike in a year or two, you will be in a better position to prosper.

Question: Will you be out of business with a “for rent” sign in front?

How long did it take to rent out the “Dig Music” location?

(I miss Dig and Mike and his wonderful wife)

And this was pre-virus. The city needs to get off of pot, and view the larger scope of things, or it will lose more and more of everything good. Or is it too late?

I can see the future. Can you? Do you like what you see? What will you do about it? Well?

Johnny Keyes, Ukiah

CARLO AFFINITO

1929 - 2020

Resident of Antioch, CA.

Carlo Affinito, Age 91, passed away peacefully on Friday, June 12th, 2020. Born terminally ill in Italy, his parents were forced to leave him behind with his Aunt and Uncle, as they were unable to bring him to the US. Unexpectedly, Carlo recovered, and grew up during WWII. An American soldier brought him to Ellis Island where he began his journey to become a US Citizen and be reunited with his family.

In his active years, Carlo was seen playing golf, betting on horses, and was a notorious card player. A great winner, but a horrible loser. Should you beat him, the cards may end up in the frying pan!

Towards the end, Carlo loved spending time with his beloved friends in the coffee shop, laughing and talking about the good old days.

Carlo loved being with his family. When you were saying goodbye, he was already asking when you were coming back. He was always seen laughing with everyone and telling jokes. He truly loved getting people together. Married to the beautiful angel Joan Affinito for almost 60 years, he is survived by 4 children, 10 grandchildren, and 12 great grandchildren, a loving brother, sister-in-law and all of their family. 

Family and friends are invited to a limited visitation on Friday, June 19 from 9-11am at Holy Cross Cemetery, 2200 E. 18th St. Antioch, with a committal to follow.

GREENWOOD-CLOVERDALE STAGES, NAVARRO STORE

THEY WON’T SUBROGATE YOU, MISS YOUNG — VEHICLE MEMORIES

by Bruce Anderson 

Many years ago, my father and I were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge when the hood of his old Studebaker flew off and sailed over the side. “Jesus Christ!,” he exclaimed, “did you see that?”

Like how could have missed it? The next day I searched the Chronicle for a report of the freak death of a Honolulu-bound shuffleboard player, killed in mid-shuffle on the deck of the Lurline as it passed through the Golden Gate.

The old man, always broke, was always buying junkers, the only transportation he could afford. He’d drive the thing until it “conked out,” as he described their inevitable failure, then abandon them wherever they died, and walk off to find another $200-to-$400 bargain.

The best buy he ever made — purely by happenstance — was a 1947 Desoto former yellow cab painted puke green. Pop bought it off a downtown used car lot for $150. Its transmission was so worn you could shift gears without the clutch but, as a relic of a more graceful time, it was beautiful inside, complete with leather-sheathed jump seats. All seven of us liked to sit in it and pretend we were going places. 

The patriarch’s attitude towards cars — that they were merely devices for getting from point A to point B — seems to have been passed genetically on, at least to me. He was only interested in transportation, and I’ve never been interested in cars beyond their basic function either. 

A few years ago, I bought a four-cylinder Plymouth van. I thought it felt sluggish as we drove along 128 towards Boonville, but I didn’t know it only had four cylinders until Navarro’s Mike Montana, the best mechanic I’ve known, diplomatically asked me why I’d gone for only four cylinders. “I wasn’t paying attention,” I explained, sparing him the incriminating explanation that I wasn’t paying attention because I don’t care so long as the thing gets me where I need to go. 

Mike then looked under the hood, because all the way back from The City where we’d made the purchase, there had been a rather ominous rumble coming from the engine area. “Well,” Mike said, “I’ve never seen this before.” 

“This” was the power steering device left sitting unconnected on top of the engine block. Somehow we’d driven all the way from Daly City to Boonville, then on to Navarro the next day, to ask Mike to find the source of the rumble, driven all those miles without dislodging the three-pound gizmo from its unsecured perch. How it had gotten off the lot like that is a mystery. How it had gotten to the lot and sold to me like that is perhaps a larger mystery. And, biggest mystery of all, how had it gotten all the way to Boonville without falling out on the road?

The Plymouth has turned out to be a mystery in many ways, but reliable through two night-crawler sabotages by local liberals working overtime to make the world a better place, who twice poured metal filings into the crankcase on separate occasions, forcing us to buy two new engines, the third of which hums, haws, yaws, and coughs on cold mornings like reveille in a TB ward. But it keeps on running. I’ve come to be fond of the thing, now in its seventh year, chugging faithfully along on all four cylinders. 

But a couple of Thursdays ago, El Niño, 1998’s designee for all catastrophes great and small, reached right up over the Mendocino bluffs and tapped me and my van. 

It was about one in the afternoon. I was headed south back towards Boonville on Highway One. Frank “AK” Lewis was in the passenger seat. We’d spent a productive morning in Fort Bragg scanning the police files on the infamous Fort Bragg Fires of 1987. A heavy rain washed us on down the coast.

At Mendocino, where southbound travelers leave the Village’s mercantile cluster of thousand dollar seascapes and low-cal lattes to escape down Highway One, and still from a distance, I saw four cars stopped smack in the middle of the road. I hit my brakes, which treacherously and immediately locked. (And after all my devoted years to the jinxed Plymouth!) I slid and slid and slid, at 40 miles an hour, finally crunching into the rear end of a Toyota pick-up. I was the fifth of five vehicles stacked up on the highway.

My first accident ever. The front end of my van crumpled, cracked and fell into the street, its plastic parts and frameless bulk fracturing like an abandoned accordion. Post-impact, my driver’s side door was off kilter but still able to emit me. I walked briskly to the driver’s side of the truck I’d run into, where a very young, eerily composed young woman sat reading “Main Street” as if she were in a deserted library and not behind the wheel of a vehicle which had just been rear-ended. Her name was Christina Young. She said she was a student at College of the Redwoods and was on her way home to Elk. Miss Young cheerfully answered all my inquiries and returned to Sinclair Lewis. 

A middleaged woman from Napa had timidly pulled out from Mendocino, and then, for no reason she could specify, stopped on Highway One. An alert young man behind her stopped just short of rear-ending her, but Burton Clark, a long time friend of mine as it happened, plowed into the young man stopped behind the confused woman, severely damaging his and the young man’s car. Miss Young, the book reader, had stopped short of plowing into Mr. Clark’s car, but I skidded helplessly into Miss Young, managing only to dislocate her bumper. I was dumbstruck at her serenity. I wondered if she’d packed in a paragraph of “Main Street” in the long interval it took me to skid into her.

The lady who’d caused the pile-up seemed mystified by the chain of events and denied that she’d stopped in the middle of the road where she was still parked. We all stood around chatting for nearly an hour waiting for the CHP. Miss Young went on reading.

I finally announced that I had to leave even if the police hadn’t arrived, assuming that I’d be blamed for all the damage in the five-car stack whether or not I was present when the investigation began. All it would take was the officer’s inevitable linking of me and my newspaper. 

Three days later I received a letter from a claims adjustor. He said my collision with Miss Nerves-Of-Steel was regarded as a separate incident from the collision in front of me, and that I was responsible for both the significant damage to my beloved four cylinder chariot and Miss Young’s bent bumper. 

“After careful consideration,” the letter said, “of all the facts, we have determined that BRUCE ANDERSON” [in bold black caps and underlined, just like this] “was found to be at least 51% at fault for this accident. We have assessed less than 51% fault to the other party(s), if any. Reason(s) for fault: Failure to stop safely behind the vehicle in front of you. Due to the facts of the accident, we will not be seeking subrogation against the other party for any damages you may have incurred.”

Fine with me. Under no circumstances should a person who can read a book in the middle of an accident be subrogated. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 17, 2020

SEAN BURKE, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Under influence, concealed weapon, county parole violation, probation revocation.

MAURICIO DELGADO-GARCIA, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

ROYCE FULTON, Fort Bragg/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, camping in Ukiah. 

AMBER KING, Gualala. Battery with serious injury, serious felony, vandalism, probation revocation.

REMO MCOSKER, Ukiah. Parole violation, failure to appear. (Frequent flyer.)

MICHAEL MERRILL, Rockland/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ALEX MORA-WHITEHURST, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. 

DENA MORRIS, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

ANNA MURRAY, Ukiah. DUI-alcohol & drugs, controlled substance, under influence, paraphernalia. 

'OF COURSE NOT': Fauci says he personally wouldn't attend Trump's Tulsa rally, citing coronavirus

Days before he is scheduled to take the stage in Tulsa at the first "Keep America Great" rally since the novel coronavirus pandemic altered everyday life, President Trump and his campaign are already expecting a roughly 19,000-seat arena to be packed with supporters. But one notable public figure won't be in attendance on Saturday: Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert.

sfgate.com/news/article/Of-course-not-Fauci-says-he-personally-15346201.php

ELKHORN HOTEL at EAST PERKINS, UKIAH

THE CORONAVIRUS began to ravage Europe weeks before the United States. At the peak, in early April, more than 3,000 people in Italy, Spain and the rest of Western Europe were dying each day — a substantially higher toll than in the U.S.

Over the past two months, however, Europe has succeeded at crushing the virus, and the U.S. has not. Just look at this chart (which compares the U.S. to a contiguous 16-country region of Western Europe with a nearly identical population):

European countries have used a combination of lockdowns, public health guidance, tests and contact tracing to beat back the virus. Large parts of Europe have begun reopening, including schools, so far without sparking major new outbreaks.

The U.S. response has been more scattered and less successful. “Government efforts to inform the public about the pandemic have been a colossal failure, which means that most people are hearing mixed and muffled messages about what to do,” Jonathan Bernstein, a political scientist and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, wrote this week. “It’s not surprising that a lot of folks are believing misinformation as a result, and others are just throwing up their hands.”

Donald McNeil, who covers infectious diseases for The Times, points out that the U.S. states hit hardest and earliest by the virus, like New York and New Jersey, have followed a path similar to Europe’s: a terrible peak, followed by an aggressive response and falling caseloads.

“But I think a lot of states reopened pretty willy-nilly after pressure from small businesses and citizens who were out of work and frustrated by lockdown and who had not seen the virus hit anyone they knew yet,” Donald told us. “A lot of those states — Texas, Florida, Arizona, North and South Carolina, etc. — are now seeing cases and hospitalizations rise.”

On Tuesday, Arizona, Florida and Texas all reported their largest one-day increases in new cases.

The combined death count in those 16 European countries (about 121,000) remains higher than in the U.S. (about 117,000). But at the current pace, the U.S. toll will be higher by next week.

— NYT Daily Briefing Wed Jun 17th

COVELO HIGH SCHOOL, 1920

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

Regarding the police, perhaps there is another way of looking at what’s happening. With so many out of work and so much of the economy limping along or outright demolished, tax revenues will be sure to drop dramatically. Will there be sufficient funds to even employ the police at the current level? In a parallel way, look what’s happened in the healthcare business. Although seemingly counter-intuitive, many healthcare workers are being laid off! There is insufficient revenue to pay them. I often wonder if this “let’s defund the police gambit” is just a great cover story for the truth, which is that the money just won’t be there. And that will apply to many other areas of the economy, both private and public.

BLACK PHOEBE

SNAPSHOTS ON AWAKENING

by Susan Parker

I was visiting my best friend one day when her new neighbor moved in with a daughter about eight years old. That put a smile on my face. Somebody our age just two doors down and across the street. Now I had two friends named Alice.

Remembering the details of our play escapes me, but I had a good time. A few months later I found out they were moving away. I ran to this new friend’s mother and found her at her back door.

“Please don’t move. I want you to stay. Why are you moving?”

She looked at me with controlled sadness in her eyes. She didn’t say a word, turned and went back into the house. I kept wondering why. Did I tell you their skin was dark brown?

---

I just lived my young life in an unrecognized bubble of whiteness. Taking the train into New York City would only provide me with glimpses of different skin colors. Those observances didn’t conjure up any emotions one way or the other. It was just interesting like seeing clips in a documentary of life in a far off land.

---

I find it a mystery to this day that I was given a standard baby doll I could bottle feed when I was three. I was never much into dolls preferring animals and trucks but I liked the doll well enough for a while. It was brown skinned. Every other girl I knew had a pink one.

---

When I was twelve, my father decided he had had enough of cold, slushy Connecticut winters and decided to go to Florida for a month. We packed up the car and drove south. It would take three days to get to Siesta Key near Tampa. I loved reading road maps and became the navigator from then on. Father always wanted to get to the destination while my mother loved to follow the unexpected and explore. No side trips on this fleeing the winter blahs journey.

On the second day we stopped for gas and a restroom break in North Carolina. On the side of the building I found water fountains labeled for whites only and for colored only. Also the restrooms had the same designations. The colored area was unkempt, dirty even. A stark contrast with the white side. 

I felt like I had been punched in the heart. What is this? How can this be? 

The explanation given to my growing outrage didn’t help much. 

“That’s the way it is here in the south,” my father uttered with sad resignation and suggested I drop the subject.

---

My parents grew up in St. Louis. My mother told me that her father in the early 20th century purposely rode in the back of the bus. That wasn’t as difficult as Rosa Parks sitting in the front of the bus a couple of decades later but she was very proud of him. 

---

In the movies of the late 40’s and early 50’s, I remember hearing in response to thwarted human activities, “I’m free, white and twenty-one.” The weight of those utterances flew right over my head at the time as a grade schooler. Now, that sticks out like a gnarly thumb growing out of my ear.

---

My younger brother started collecting 8mm and 16mm films in elementary school. By the time he was fourteen, he had a large enough collection to have a blossoming film rental business and was asked to be a film rep for Carling Black Label. Discovering his age, they withdrew the offer. 

He also began to have an extensive array of black films, mostly from the 30’s and 40’s. I saw quite a few of them and learned they were rarely seen by whites. Standard Hollywood films cut scenes in order to play the south. Lena Horne’s “Stormy Weather” disappeared in the bible belt along with many other talented artists.

With his seeming pride in this film collection, I found it confusing and disturbing that my brother would tell racist jokes.

---

On November 22, 1963, I was working at my first real job in Monterey as a telephone operator. This was two years before direct dial. I sat at a board placing retractable dull red cords with plugs on the end into many round holes in front of me. I wore a headset with a microphone suspended in front of my mouth.

Late that morning, a woman called in and promptly put her phone up to her TV. I could hear the announcer shakily sharing the news that JFK had been shot. This woman needed to share this with someone, anyone. I immediately told my supervisor. In anticipation of a possible onslaught of calls, she told us to take a 10 minute break. Most of us headed to the restroom.

Above the chatter, the supervisor exclaimed, “It must have been some goddamn n****r.” 

As soon as I could get my jaw off the floor, I loudly proclaimed, “That is an awful thing to say. You don’t know anything about it.” The supervisor stayed mum on the subject after that.

We went back to our seats and waited for the wave of calls to hit. Instead, it got very quiet. The shock was palpable. 

---

Then Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. The Watts riots made the headlines. Black performers were beginning to appear on TV. Little by little more was being revealed about all aspects of life on this planet. And then with the internet and smart phones the world was opening to an even broader spectrum of information and images. 

---

Now, fast forward to June 4, 2020. George Floyd has been killed or should I say lynched by an officer of the law in Minneapolis on May 25^th. Here in Fort Bragg, CA, there had been a student led protest on June 2^nd, which I was unable to attend. This second demonstration was smaller but no less outraged. All wore facemasks and tried to keep a suitable distance from each other during this covid19 pandemic.

I held a sign I designed with “Black Lives Matter” on one side and “Love Your Neighbor, No Exceptions” on the other. The Hawaiian speaker with a black husband and children passionately spewed a lifetime of pain and anger from the tips of her toes, begging for this to be THE turning point for justice and equality.

Next a young black woman spoke from a prepared speech until she admitted she was too tired to go on.

We were asked to kneel for the 8 minutes and 46 seconds and listen to the actual sound of the event. I asked the young man next to me, “If I kneel, will you help me get up?” He smiled and said, “Yes.”

The rough surface of the sidewalk, which was full of chalk outlines of bodies and the names of those who had been killed at the hands of police, was more painful than I imagined. One knee. Two knees. Added both hands. Then rolling to my right hip. I was so pleased our chief of police kneeled with us.

Through it all, I was moved to the point of tears, hoping that somehow things were finally going be different. I think of the t-shirt I once saw, “Humankind; Be Both.” 

NOW HIRING PART-TIME CONTROLLER

Join our team! Join our team! Hiring Part-time Controller June 17, 2020 We are looking for a part-time controller to join our team! The Community Foundation of Mendocino County is a non-profit organization that serves donors and local communities by establishing long-term philanthropic funds for the benefit of non-profit organizations and scholarship recipients in the county. The Foundation has over 130 component funds, each with its own set of investment/grant-making guidelines and objectives. The Foundation has assets of approximately 35 million dollars and an annual grant-making budget of one to two million. Strong fiduciary practices are paramount to the Foundation’s mission and operations. We are seeking a Controller who will define the processes and implement the infrastructure/systems needed to support the ongoing growth of the Foundation. S/he will continue to build and manage effective and streamlined administrative/financial systems, including financial, accounting, legal, information technology (IT), human resources (HR), and physical infrastructure. The Community Foundation uses Foundant Technologies Community Suite which integrates general ledger, accounts payable, grant-making and gift management for all component funds. 

To read the complete job description: Part-Time Controller Job Description To apply by June 30 send resume, salary requirements, and cover letter to: 

Megan Barber Allende, CEO 
megan@communityfound.org 
204 South Oak Street, Ukiah, CA 95482

INSIDE CHAZ: An “Autonomous” Three Block Long Seattle Street Threatens America, What?

by Nick Licata

President Donald Trump from his New Jersey private golf club tweeted this past Friday morning June 12, that “The terrorists burn and pillage our cities.” He was referring to demonstrators occupying three blocks along a single street, in Seattle’s most culturally active neighborhood. Trump demanded that the mayor and governor, “Must end this Seattle takeover now!” Or else he would call in the army.

What was he talking about?

This national threat began on Sunday June 7, when a small section of the Capitol Hill’s business district (known as the Pike-Pine Corridor) saw demonstrations outside one of Seattle’s five precinct stations. Like other demonstrations held around the nation for over a week, people of all ages and races were in the streets supporting Black Lives Matter’s demand to erase racist policing, opening up the move to either defund or reduce police departments’ budgets.

That Sunday the police said on Twitter that some people had thrown projectiles and fireworks at officers, although they did not provide any evidence beyond one what appeared to be a single candle. Accordingly, they responded with pepper spray, blast balls and tear gas, which the mayor had previously promised to not use for the next 30 days. But protecting themselves from thrown projectiles triggered an exclusion to that prohibition.

Councilmembers who had attended as witnesses told me that there did not appear to be any threat to the police officers’ safety and the police over-reacted to the chants from the crowd, who did not wish to be pushed away from the East Precinct police station.

The only terror activity that occurred was when a civilian driver headed his car into the demonstrators. An unarmed twenty-seven-year-old Black man reached into the open window of the car as it was passing, grabbed the steering wheel and halted it from hitting people. The driver pulled out a gun, shot and wounded the man as the car came to a stop. The driver then left the car with gun in hand, walked over to a line of police standing nearby, surrendered himself and was arrested.

The next day, on Monday June 8, the police emptied the police station of guns, files and critical equipment as they prepared to no longer defend the building. They apparently thought it would be destroyed by the demonstrators, who were mostly residents of the East Precinct, some of whom live in multi-million-dollar mansions as well as in low-income social housing projects. The precinct also has the highest concentration of apartments and small independent retail businesses in Seattle. Historically it has been the city’s most liberal council district; and since 2013 has repeatedly elected a Socialist Alternative Party member to the City Council, over the opposition of much better funded business-community candidates.

By Tuesday June 9, a loose conglomeration of demonstrators came together to use the former police street barricades to close off Pine street for a length of three blocks. Although Trump tweeted: “These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city,” it is not even part of downtown. It is a two-lane road lined with small neighborhood businesses and a park. The area came to be called by the occupants as CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, and they put up a website.

However, the local conservative radio host Jason Rantz, interviewed by Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson on Thursday June 11, said it was a violent place. And that similar occupations to the one taking place in Seattle could happen in cities across the U.S. if the authorities allow it.

Although Carlson began the interview saying that Rantz was one of the few people he knew who had visited CHAZ, Rantz basically admitted that he had not been inside when he replied to Carlson’s question of what he saw inside CHAZ, he said, “Right now, it’s too violent for us to go in.” He provided no examples of what kind of violence he was referring to.

The next day, Friday June 12, having been a prior resident for decades in that neighborhood, I went to see what dangers lurked in a community without police patrols.

I casually walked pass by the CHAZ street barrier and the three community sentries, who sat off a way behind it, talking to each other. No conversation or ID needed. It was a wide-open passage, where I discovered that CHAZ had become a bit of a tourist destination for curious Seattle residents taking photos of all the posters, graffiti and the one-block colorful mural painted on Pine Street spelling out BLACK LIVES MATTER.

The businesses on the street were still open as was the park when I visited. There was no sign of smashed windows or burnt buildings. There had been no looting and there was no violence of any sort occurring.

There was a “No Cop Co-Op” covered stand offering free fruit, vegetables, snacks, umbrellas, hand sanitizer and water set up in the middle of their occupied territory. There was also a covered truck converted into a People’s Community Clinic with its own emergency medical team. There were many memorials to victims of police violence, along with were other little touches of an emerging community; an open-air conversation café with sofas, a small basketball court, an improvised smoking corner, and a private food stall, the Dirty Dog hotdog stand, among other things.

One of the most ambitious undertakings was begun by Marcus Henderson, who helped create the community gardens that occupy part of the adjacent Cal Anderson Park. Henderson is typical of educated citizens who understand that disruptive moments like CHAZ offer a positive opportunity. He had the knowledge for sustainable gardening from obtaining an Energy Resources Engineering degree from Stanford University and a master’s degree in Sustainability in the Urban Environment.

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan visited the gardens and met with Henderson the day after Trump had tweeted “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will.” In response, Durkan accused Trump of purposefully distorting the activities in CHAZ to fit his tough law and order mantra.

Trump may have also been watching Fox News, which was engaged in the same practice. Thanks to an article by Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner, it came to light that Fox ran digitally altered images in coverage of CHAZ. Three separate photos were photo-shopped to create an image of a heavily armed man guarding the entrance to the zone. Another image, with a caption of CRAZY TOWN blazoned over a portion of it, showed huge flames pouring out of a building with a demonstrator running away. But it was not Seattle, the photo was from a May 30 protest in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Fox and other outlets also jumped on a comment by a Seattle police commander suggesting protesters were extorting payments from businesses within CHAZ. Seattle police Chief Carmen Best had to refute that statement, saying that it was based on rumor and social media. “We haven’t had any formal reports of this occurring,” she said.

Best also said that she did not want to abandon the precinct station but had to because of pressure. However, she did not say the order came from Mayor Durkan, who did not say she made the decision. I got the impression that internal pressure came from the police union’s members to leave the precinct. This was particularly true when some councilmembers asked that the hard surface street barriers be removed that the police had set up to separate the demonstrators from standing on the street next to their police station.

The police attitude that their station might be torched and that chaos and disorder would follow in the neighborhood by allowing protestors to peacefully demonstrate so close to them, was bolstered not only by the unsubstantiated comment from the police commander but also from comments made by a local police officer and the union’s president.

A resident of one of the nearby apartment buildings, whom I know very well, told me of her interactions with a police officer. She was standing in front of her building on Monday June 8 at noon asking people what was going on. A police officer came by and announced, “We are all pulling out, and you’re all going to be on your own. We are not coming back in and you are not going to get help and bad elements will come in.” Then he added, “And who would want to work in Seattle [as police]?”

On the same day, June 12, that I visited CHAZ, Michael Solan, president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, told Fox News “This is the closest I’ve ever seen our country, let alone the city here, to becoming a lawless state.” It would lead one to believe that the police union had lost faith in receiving political cover for their use of excessive force, if the city council and mayor were to allow protestors so close to their precinct station.

Police officers in Seattle are not allowed to strike, but they may have actually adopted an old fashion factory “walk-out” by letting the police chief know that they could no longer execute their usual police practices if they remained there.

The most recent turn of events came in an interview on Saturday, June 13, when a person who represented the Seattle Black Lives Matter group said that the area popularized by the title CHAZ was not what their group was using to describe the street space that has been controlled by demonstrators since the police left their precinct station.

The Seattle BLM did not know who came up with that name and had not meet anyone representing them. That unknown group declared the name CHAZ and then spray painted the CHAZ slogans all around the area. Instead BLM is calling this zone CHOP — Capitol Hill Organizing Project. They posted a tweet: Black Lives Matter @djbsqrd “WE ARE #CHOP not #CHAZ stop spilling lies and spreading this narrative of being autonomous.”

The future of this urban resistance project, initiated by the Black Lives Matter movement, still has to be played out. Organizers continue to push for their objectives, which are posted on the CHAZ website. Talks and open-mike discussions occur regularly in large outside public forums on the purpose of this unique effort.

Overall, observers and participants will need to continue thinking about how claiming a portion of public space for an underserved and discriminated community can initiate effective social and political change, and not perpetuate the status quo or ignite a right-wing backlash that pursues further repressive policies.

(Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

WHY WERE DOZENS OF BAY AREA CANNABIS DISPENSARIES RECENTLY ROBBED?

What happened at Oakland's Magnolia Wellness during the final weekend of May was not the result of a protest run amok.

Yes, many businesses near the heart of the action suffered broken windows and fell prey to looters as fury over the police killing of George Floyd reached a boiling point. However, the crime spree that's now touched seemingly every Bay Area dispensary was not the inadvertent result of a riot or a small-scale effort to make off with a souvenir.

Instead, according to Magnolia Wellness executive director Debby Goldsberry, 20 men armed with guns paid her store an after-hours visit on Saturday, May 30, and left with everything they could take.

sfgate.com/cannabis/slideshow/Cannabis-is-legal-so-why-were-dozens-of-Bay-Area-203926.php

FOUND OBJECT