MCT: Thursday, July 23, 2020

• Warm Interior
• Yorkville Death
• Arson Investigation
• 227 Cases
• Coren Hired
• Miners Sluice
• Watchlist Imminent
• PSPS Prep
• Philo Produce
• B3
• Wildlife Services
• Caspar Mill
• Williams Problem
• Pushups
• Marrufo Dogged
• Longvale Gone
• Ed Notes
• Yesterday's Catch
• Three Heroines
• Wrong Way
• Prison Conditions
• Enter Donald
• Crazy Uncle
• Utterly Transactional
• CAMP Campaign
• Fire Cloud
• Troubled Times
• Hurricane Douglas
• Awful Things
• Found Object

WARM AND DRY interior conditions are expected for the foreseeable future, with cool and mostly cloudy conditions along the coast. A very small chance of thunderstorms exists across interior areas early next week. (NWS)

DEATH IN YORKVILLE

“CPR In Progress” Hwy 128, Yorkville

The scanner said (12:50 pm) The Anderson Valley Fire Department & ambulance #7420, an ALS ambulance from Ukiah, CalFire, and air ambulance CalStar 4 were dispatched to a residential address (we're withholding) for the report of "60-year-old male, cardiac arrest - CPR in progress.” The air ambulance was being directed to the Yorkville fire station landing zone.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, at 1:40 pm. the patient was declared "11-44" (deceased). The Mendocino County Sheriff/Coroner was dispatched to the address

(via MendocinoSportsPlus)

COVELO FIRE: IT WAS ARSON

On Saturday, July 18, 2020, at about 8:00 am, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to the 76000 block of Highway 162, Covelo, in response to a commercial and residential fire which occurred in that area. Multiple business — the Round Valley Art Center, the North Fork Café, and the Western Auto stoe were destroyed or badly damaged during the reported fire which began at about 4:00 am on the morning of July 18th, 2020. Fire authorities requested law enforcement response based on the unknown nature of the fire. MCSO Investigations Bureau detectives and Arson Investigators with Cal Fire and the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority responded to assist with the investigation.

Arson Investigators determined the fire began on the exterior of the Western Auto Inc building and was located at the rear of the property. Based on their investigation, the fire was determined to be arson. A suspect or suspects is unknown at this time.

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office detectives continue to comb through surveillance footage from the area and have identified multiple persons of interest. We are asking anyone with information related to this investigation to come forward and contact us at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at (707) 463-4086 or are tip line at (707) 234-2100. Peoples wishing to remain anonymous are asked to contact the We-Tip Anonymous Crime Reporting Hotline at (800) 782-7463, giving as much detail as possible.

Additionally, anyone with surveillance equipment located along Highway 162 or downtown Covelo contact detectives for possible access to your recording system. We also ask anyone who was present just prior to or during the early stages of the fire contact detectives and potentially provide digital evidence taken at that time which will assist in identifying the person or persons involved in this incident.

MENDO COVID, JULY 22

UKIAH FAMILY DOCTOR HIRED AS PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICER FOR MENDOCINO COUNTY

by Ethan Varian

A Ukiah family doctor is set to take over as public health officer for Mendocino County, replacing Dr. Noemi Doohan, whose departure for another health care job in San Diego County had been planned before the coronavirus pandemic.

After a monthslong search, Mendocino County supervisors agreed in closed session Tuesday to offer the job to Dr. Howard Andrew “Andy” Coren, a physician with Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Office for Family Practice. Coren has accepted the position, county officials confirmed Wednesday.

There is no firm date for Coren to begin work as full-time public health officer, though local officials expect him to start within a few weeks. Doohan will remain in the position part-time until Coren assumes the role.

Coren’s annual salary has not been finalized, county officials said. According to the job posting for the public health officer position, Coren’s pay will be between $169,478.40 and $206,003.20 a year.

Doohan and Coren both declined to comment on Wednesday.

John Haschak, chairman of the Mendocino County supervisors, said he doesn’t anticipate Coren to significantly diverge from Doohan’s approach to issuing emergency public health directives, managing hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients or other pandemic responses.

“I don’t want to see a change in direction,” Haschak said. “We’ve been doing well so far. And certainly our numbers are surging, so we need to stay the course.”

Last week, Doohan issued an updated public health order in anticipation of the state adding Mendocino County to its coronavirus watchlist for counties, including Sonoma, struggling most to contain the spread of the virus. Effective late Friday night, the county will close gyms, barbershops, nail salons, indoor malls, nonessential offices and places of worship, unless they can operate outdoors.

Doohan started as interim public health officer in August 2019 after working as a residency director at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Hospital. She had planned to step down as health officer in March to take a job as an assistant residency director at a Chula Vista medical center. Then the pandemic emerged and Doohan delayed her departure. The county supervisors agreed to extend her employment contract through at least the end of 2020.

In an interview in May, Doohan said she had accepted the job in Chula Vista before taking over as Mendocino County’s interim health officer.

“While I was only planning to be the health officer as a bridge to (the county) finding a permanent health officer, I couldn’t in good conscience leave when the pandemic hit,” Doohan said two months ago.

For the past three months, the county supervisors have agreed to allow Doohan to work mostly remotely from San Diego County. In July, Doohan scaled back her public health officer duties for Mendocino County to part-time since she began her new job in Chula Vista, said Sarah Dukett, the deputy chief executive of Mendocino County.

The county is paying Doohan $125 an hour for 15 hours of work a week. The federal government will reimburse the county for 75% of the cost of her extended contract under President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration for the coronavirus pandemic, Dukett said. Coren’s salary will not be reimbursed.

In May, the Mendocino County supervisors said they would appoint Dr. Joseph Iser, a former chief health officer for the Southern Nevada Health District, as public health officer. But supervisors quickly rescinded the offer to Iser after news stories surfaced about Isler’s frequent absences as health officer led to his departure from the Nevada health district.

Supervisor Ted Williams said Wednesday that while the search for a full-time county public health officer has taken longer than he expected, he’s happy with the choice of Coren. He pointed to Coren’s familiarity with the local community in Mendocino County and that he’s bilingual as reasons why he expects the doctor will be an effective public health officer.

“He speaks Spanish fluently, and that’s been an area of weakness for us,” Williams said. “... Seeing the disparity of (COVID-19 infections) in the Latino community, I think he’ll take an active role.”

As of Wednesday, Mendocino County reported 217 residents have tested positive for the coronavirus, nearly 60% of them Latino. Also, the county has reported three deaths and nine hospitalizations, including one person in intensive care.

(courtesy The Press Democrat)

GOLD RUSH DAGUERROTYPES

FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

State watch list lag, but numbers there.

Criteria the State uses for the monitoring list: cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/COVID19CountyDataTable.aspx

It looks like hitting any one of those criteria (except testing rate) is sufficient to put a county on the monitoring list. Explanation of the data categories is available at: cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/CountyMonitoringDataStep1.aspx

We are well above the 100 new cases in 14 days per 100K population with no sign at this time that these numbers are slowing down at all (we have about 10 new cases on average every day now). We had 119 cases in last 14 days. Our data will be in the state system any time now. The attestation allowed us to be a variance County and open up certain sectors sooner. The watchlist is a separate process and is used to direct us to go backwards.

MILLER REPORT #2

by Fort Bragg City Manager Tabatha Miller:

PSPS in the Time of COVID-19

Over the last couple of weeks, we have watched as Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) moved large generators and other equipment onto and around the Fort Bragg substation on Walnut Street.

The generators are expected to provide temporary power generation during a Public Safety Power Shutdown (PSPS). We have been told that the temporary power generation should be capable of powering the whole substation which extends from north of Westport to just north of Caspar here on the coast.

There are caveats to full service that include the existence of a High Fire Threat that may reduce the area served and the available supply of temporary generation that could still leave us without power during a PSPS.

Over the last several months, PG&E has hosted a number of events for local government partners updating us on the additional preparations that the company has undertaken this last year to be better prepared for and possibly to prevent or shorten the length of PSPS events.

These efforts include sectionalizing devices that allow PG&E to redirect power to avoid the large scale events we lived through last year. PG&E has increased the field crews, helicopters, airplanes and equipment used to inspect the lines prior to regenerating the transmission lines in order to restore power faster. They have also increased the tools for monitoring and predicting weather, updated their website capacity, and improved their customer alerts.

Despite all this effort at improvement and temporary power generation, none of us should assume we do not need to plan for PSPS this fire season.

The point is, that as thankful as I am for the additional preparations and improvements by PG&E and the temporary power generation, that doesn’t eliminate the need for the City of Fort Bragg to prepare for the next PSPS event.

It also doesn’t eliminate the need for each of us individually, as families or as businesses, to prepare. I certainly haven’t forgotten the five days last October that we lived without power. But times have changed. Our response last year was to open up the lobby of City Hall and the Police Department to allow folks to crowd in to charge devices.

That won’t work the same way with social distancing.

The same is true of the Community Resource Centers (CRCs) set up by PG&E to help communities. This will likely happen outside with social distancing and mandatory facial coverings.

I hate to nag during a pandemic but if you want a diversion from our current emergency, put together your plan for PSPS and consider the supplies you need to stockpile now.

First, are you signed up for alerts and notifications? Do you have a safety plan? What is your plan for charging your phone and other devices if the power goes out? Do you have emergency lighting and backup batteries? Have you checked your batteries lately? Can you get in and out of your garage without power? Are you keeping your vehicle’s gas tank full? What about propane for your home? Do you have sufficient medication, oxygen and nonperishable food?

What is your plan to check on neighbors, friends and family in the event of a PSPS event during the COVID pandemic?

Here at the City, we have focused on redundancy in internet connectivity, backup generators for our communication systems, updates to our obsolete radios and other communication systems and tools, and better communications with PG&E, Mendocino County and our residents.

A few other things to remember:

If you get your water/sewer bill from the City of Fort Bragg, these services will continue even in a power outage.

Waste Management will also continue with basic solid waste pickup.

When the battery power for the traffic lights goes off, treat traffic lights like four-way stops; and keep your refrigerator and freezer closed as much as possible.

The City will post updates on the City of Fort Bragg Facebook page, the Police Department Facebook page, our website, in print in the windows at Town Hall, City Hall and the kiosks, and through regular communication to our local radio stations.

THIS WEEK AT BLUE MEADOW FARM

Summer has arrived!

• Cherry, Early Girl & Heirloom Tomatoes
• Jalapenos, Padrones & first Sweet Peppers & Eggplant,
• Walla Walla Onions, Zucchini & Patty Pan Squash,
• Santa Rosa Plums, Strawberries, Cucumbers & Basil,
• Sunflowers & Zinnias

Blue Meadow Farm
Holmes Ranch Road &128
(707) 895-2071

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

MEASURE B Mental Health Treatment Act is approaching a three year anniversary of passage. Would it pass today?

WILDLIFE KILLING SERVICES

Editor,

On July 14th, Mendocino County Supervisors McCowen, Gjerde and Brown, voted to authorize a cooperative service agreement with the federal USDA Wildlife Service agency to implement their lethal wildlife management program in our County. During that meeting, Wildlife Services made the unsubstantiated claim that the vast majority of their service calls result in technical advice on how property owners can take non-lethal actions to co-exist with wildlife.

Here are the facts: Wildlife Services generally divides their service work into technical and operational. Technical includes all phone consults, emails and providing brochures on options for addressing a conflict, and that is largely what they attribute to non-lethal. Operational is basically direct control, when a trapper actually goes out into the field to do a site visit, and that is generally for control/killing. As acknowledged by the Wildlife Services representative: when they trap a predator, the animal is killed 90 to 95% of the time. So this is how they likely make this claim that such a high percentage is non-lethal.

Below is the Wildlife Services operational data derived from WS trapper “incident reports” for Mendocino County from 1997 to 2017:

• Mountain lion 181 killed, 2 freed
• Black bear 261 killed, 8 freed
• Coyote 4119 killed, 4 freed
• Bobcat 112 killed, 22 freed
• Gray fox 235 killed, 37 freed
• Opossum 233 killed, 33 freed
• Raccoon 868 killed, 47 freed
• Spotted skunks 22 killed, 2 freed
• Striped skunks 1,287 killed, 9 freed
• Squirrels (various) 65 killed, 0 freed

(From Table 3-7, pgs 139 - 140, DEIR)

As can clearly be seen from this data, lethal methods are used well over 90% of the time that a Wildlife Services trapper goes out in the field to deal with a human/wildlife conflict.

The Mendocino Non-lethal Wildlife Alliance (MNWA) is dedicated to non-lethal solutions to human/wild conflicts. Instead of sending a trapper out to kill the offending animal, a highly trained “exclusion technician” would go out on call, assess the problem and assist property owners in resolving the problem using deterrents and exclusion programs to protect property and livestock. Such non-lethal wildlife exclusion programs have proven more effective than senseless killing by Wildlife Services.

Killing of wildlife should be a last resort used only to protect human safety, euthanize rabid animals, or, when all other appropriate non-lethal methods of wildlife exclusion have been exhausted.

Sincerely,

MNWA Steering Committee

Rosebud Ireland, Carol Lillis, Don Lipmanson, Carol Misseldine, Jon Spitz

CASPAR MILL

WE MENTIONED a few days ago that the Supes had actually created an ad hoc committee to prepare “Policies and procedures for placing items on BOS Agenda.” The obvious reason for such a committee was in reaction to Supervisor Williams who tries to put real issues on the agenda as if he was a Supervisor or something. CEO Angelo is assumed to be behind this poorly concealed attempt regain control of HER agenda by trying to force board members to go through some silly rigmarole before they can even bring anything up. As we noted previously, there should be no restrictions on Board members’ placing items on an agenda. If an agenda item is a problem for one reason or another they can simply continue it to a later date, or vote to not discuss it as they do now or (highly unlikely) County Counsel can simply point out any legal angle.

OBVIOUSLY, that particular ad hoc committee, like most of the other ad hoc committees, hasn’t produced anything. So on Tuesday, Board Chair John Haschak re-introduced the “Williams problem” discussion in a different form: Limit the number of hours that County staff can expend responding to Board questions. Apparently, County staff, especially those working on the Covid response, don’t like having their labors interrupted by upstart questions from Supervisors, especially Williams. It’s such a problem — according to Haschak anyway — that staff can’t even manage an occasional “I’m busy at the moment, I’ll get back to you later.” It’s also insulting to Supervisors — who already bend over backward to avoid over-taxing the poor overworked top staff — who, Haschak assumes, are too dumb to realize that some of their questions might require staff time to respond to and therefore make impossible demands on staff. When Williams simply asked to hear from staff about whether they thought there was a problem, CEO Angelo piped up and said she’d settle for limiting Supervisors to one hour of staff time a week each, especially staff involved in Covid response. Nobody bothered to notice that the half-hour wasted on this entirely pointless discussion used up several staff hours itself. In the end, Haschak proclaimed that it was “the general consensus of the Board” to do as Angelo requested. The upshot: Angelo now has yet another arrow in her quiver to help contain Williams: “I’m sorry Supervisor, but you’ve used up your staff time quota for the week. Maybe next week if I feel like it.”

PS. Haschak never mentioned the thousands of staff hours that dozens of staffers spend sitting idle in meetings mostly just waiting to be asked to comment or listen to CEO Angelo, not doing any “work” at all, much less covid work. At last count a couple of weeks ago, the County said they had held nearly 3800 virtual meetings taking up almost 11,000 hours of meeting time with a total of about 20,000 “participants” — about 350 people averaging 57 participants per meeting (208 of the 350 were “active users”). This enormous waste of staff time is ok, but Williams or some other supervisor asking for a little staff time after obviously considering their questions in advance is a problem?

MARRUFO GETS TAKOD-ED

On Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at approximately 1:54 P.M., Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to multiple radio calls for service involving an intoxicated subject in the 39000 block of South Highway 1 in Gualala.

When the initial responding deputy arrived on scene, he spoke to numerous witnesses who identified Nathan Marrufo, 45, of Stewart’s Point as being present in the area causing a disturbance. 

Marrufo’s behavior was described as suspicious and he had been observed striking various business windows, and it was learned he had entered the Surf Supermarket and stole perishable goods with a value less than $10.

The deputy located Marrufo seated in the parking lot of the Gualala Supermarket, located in the same general area. When the deputy attempted to contact Marrufo, Marrufo stood up and began walking away from the deputy. The deputy told Marrufo multiple times to stop, without any cooperation from Marrufo. Unable to gain Marrufo’s voluntary compliance, the deputy took physical control of Marrufo’s arm in order to stop him.

Marrufo immediately pulled away from the deputy and assumed a fighting stance. The deputy informed Marrufo several times to stop resisting and informed Marrufo if he continued to resist, the deputy would deploy his canine partner “Takoda.” Marrufo then struck the deputy in the face with a closed fist. The deputy immediately placed Marrufo on the ground in order to stop the physical assault. K9 Takoda was deployed from the patrol vehicle and immediately assisted in stopping Marrufo's assaultive actions toward the deputy. After a short time, Marrufo was handcuffed and K9 Takoda was placed back into the patrol vehicle. While handcuffed and prior to being placed into the patrol vehicle, Marrufo continued to kick at the deputy.

Marrufo was transported to Ukiah Valley Medical Center to be medically cleared prior to being booked into Mendocino County Jail for Resisting Law Enforcement Officer with Force or Violence, Disorderly Conduct - Intoxicated in Public, and Shoplifting. Marrufo was held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

THE LONG GONE TOWN OF LONGVALE

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ED NOTES

THE SIERRA CLUB, the soft enviro adjunct to the even softer Democratic Party, has said it is moving to tear down "monuments" to its founder John Muir over his racist remarks and friendships, and apologized for the conservation group's "substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy." Muir, who died in 1914, was a native of Scotland who emigrated to America and played a key role in preserving the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. He co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892. In his writings from the late 19th and early 20th century, he was also known to make racially disparaging remarks. In one memoir, he described black people as "well trained" but "making a great deal of noise and doing little work. One energetic white man, working with a will, would easily pick as much cotton as half a dozen Sambos and Sallies."

AN AWFUL REMARK if spoken even worse if written down and preserved. But the bulk of his work helped save areas of the country worth saving, and the Sierra Club hasn't done much of anything since the day they kicked David Brower out, the last true environmentalist to be affiliated with them.

CONGRESSMAN TED YOHO is the yobbo who called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "a fucking bitch" when he encountered her in public. Yoho apologized for the name-calling but, in the same speech to his colleagues, said , "I cannot apologize for my passion." I'm sure millions of yobbos are pleased with the Congressman's "passion," but what does it say about the people who approve of him?

IT'S NOT SURPRISING that Ocasio-Cortez arouses such intense hatred among the bozos and bozettes of the political right; after all she's very smart and she's very beautiful, a combination certain to inspire fear, especially in stupid men. But if the stupeedos listened to what she has to say, millions of them, the redeemable ones anyway, might realize she's one of the few elected officeholders we have who represents the kind of reform that would specifically make their specifically doomed lives a little better. What's to fear from Medicare for All, free colleges and universities, the millions of jobs possible with a Green New Deal, a decent, orderly immigration policy, and so on?

ARCHEOLOGISTS are in the news saying that the first humans may have reached the Americas 15,000 years earlier than previously thought. The speculation is always interesting, but for all anyone really knows God kick-started the old whirlygig. Seriously, didn't you suspect the old land bridge-from-Alaska was unlikely? Footing it from Asia and on down to Tierra del Fuego? Not likely. Of course some scholars think groups of sturdy immigrants may have sailed to the Americas, but in the same study will point to arrowheads and grinding stones as they insist these cultures were "primitive." Sailing here from another continent wasn't a primitive exercise. Besides, just a glance at Mendocino County in, say, 1910, and a whole bunch of little towns have since disappeared, leaving no trace. Hop Flat on the Navarro, for instance: Hotel, telephone exchange, post office, and even a rail extension. Less than a hundred years later, gone. Thirty thousand years ago? Who can know?

CATCH OF THE DAY, July 22, 2020

SEAN FLINTON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

GILBERTO GALVEZ, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. 

SALVADOR GOMEZ, Ukiah. DUI with priors, disobeying court order.

ERIC KOTILA, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

ZACHARY LAWSON, Ukiah. DUI.

JEREMIAH MCOSKER, Ukiah. Smuggling controlled substance or liquor into jail, probation violation.

WILL RODGERS JR., Ukiah. Domestic battery.

RHONDA SANDERS, Willits. Under influence, controlled substance, trespassing, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.) 

ROBERT VARGAS, Fort Bragg. Protective order violation.

THREE HEROINES WHO OVERCAME THEIR BEAUTY

by Manuel Vicent. 

Translated by Louis S. Bedrock. 

(for Betsy Cawn)

Dorothy, Hedy, and Lee are three women whom I would have given anything to meet. 

Dorothy Parker would say, 

I like to have a martini, 

Two at the most; 

After the third, I'm under the table, 

After the fourth, I'm under the host.

On my first trip to New York, she had just died of a heart attack. She was alone with her dog Troy. This happened on Wednesday, June 7, 1967. However, her verses were still alive and in the air, 

Drink and dance, 

Laugh and lie, 

Love the tumultuous night, 

Because tomorrow we will die.

She had attempted suicide twice: once with her husband's razor blade, another time with Veronal. In her moments of glory, a world which most people could only dream about swirled around this woman: Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Hollywood at the end of the silent film era, the golden age of Montparnasse, vacations along the Riviera. She was always invited to events by her rich friends, who needed her caustic wit to enliven after dinner conversations or cocktail parties in white garden chairs to make them feel wonderful and wicked and evanescent. 

She seemed frivolous with a Pomeranian dog always in her arms, but she never ceased to be a radical, a point of reference among the writers at The New Yorker, divine specimens who had established their tertulia* at the round table of the Algonquin Hotel at 59 West 44 Street, where there was even a suite through which her lovers could come and go, as if it were a post office. 

One day she got down on her knees and prayed, "Dear God, make me stop writing like a woman." 

How does that prayer sound today? 

* a type of Spanish literary salon that was popular in Spain from at least the 17th century and that eventually replaced the more formal academies. Tertulias were held in private homes at first, but from the early 19th century they met in clubs and cafés. 

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Lee Miller was a model, a photographer, a muse of artists, whose splendid beauty never stopped being devoured by some of the privileged wolves of her time. 

As a war correspondent, she covered the Normandy landings with a fearlessness that was almost suicidal. This was probably due to her past: since she had been a little girl, her body had been her primary battleground. She had been raped several times and her father, who was also a photographer, had gone to the border of incest with her. 

She was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907 and at the age of 18, in all her youthful splendor, she realized her first discovery of Paris where she hit the ground like an explosive device in the middle of the time of the golden Bohemia of Montparnasse. The photographer, Man Ray, captured this wild creature and made her his in exchange for teaching her all the latest secrets of photography. 

The body of Lee Miller became an object of inspiration for the camera of Man Ray. The artist dissected her body into diverse parts and each one of these parts became an icon: the lips of Lee Miller, her legs, her neck, and her face. Jean Cocteau, who adored her but did not desire her, made her into a statue; and Picasso immortalized her in his paintings. 

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Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, known as Hedy Lamarr, was regarded in her time as the most beautiful woman in the world and has gone down in cinematic history as the first actress to be shown completely nude on the screen and the first to interpret an orgasm—with a closeup of her face. The movie was called Ecstasy. It was shot in Prague by director Gustav Machaty in 1932. 

Her extraordinary beauty soon began to produce more problems than advantages. She couldn't understand why she stirred only basic desires in men and no admiration for her talents, which undoubtedly went far beyond her body. Although she hated him all her life, Hedy Lemarr always remembered that Hitler was almost the only man who delicately kissed the tips of her fingers in the salons through which this brooding Jewess moved in the 1930s. 

The magnate Fritz Mandl, proprietor of a steel mill that manufactured munitions—comparable to the steel mills Krupp, was captured by her beauty and began to court her. Actually, he bought her with an erotic volley of jewels and solid gold. Once he had captured her, he was consumed by jealousy and imprisoned her in the house under lock and key. He took her to social gatherings where he exhibited her as if she were a hunting trophy and later tied her to the foot of the bed like a dog. 

One day, she escaped and, pursued by her husband, didn't stop running until she reached Hollywood. 

During the two years that her abduction had lasted, Hedwig Eva Maria had time to resume her studies in engineering. Since she attended, with her husband, meetings, dinners, and business trips which were connected with new technologies in the field of armaments, she was able to develop a formula on her own, the so called "spread spectrum", a technique for switching frequencies, which was later used to protect the course of missiles. This invention by Hedy Lamarr was patented in 1940 and is still used today. It made possible, for the first time, the transmission of secret signals that couldn't be intercepted and which were used in Vietnam and also during the Cuban missile crisis. 

Are there three women like this in the world today? Or are they simply the reflection of a golden age? 

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This article is a compendium of three articles previously written by Mr. Vicent and which appeared in the AVA:

• https://www.theava.com/archives/68579#16
• https://www.theava.com/archives/70748
• https://www.theava.com/archives/107780 

COVID AT QUENTIN

Editor,

Tensions are rising here at San Quentin. 

When I last wrote in early June San Quentin had just been closed to inmates carrying the Covid-19 virus. No one knows who went against Governor Newsom's order to not move prisoners from prison to prison to prevent the spread of the virus. However, that ship has now sailed. After just three weeks the virus has infected over 2500 of the population of 3700, not counting over 250 staff members. There have been 11 deaths and unknown numbers of men sent to local hospitals. The administration is scrambling to get things under control but it's too little too late. 

The problem all along had been forcing two men to live in 9 x 4 cells built for one person making them primary areas for virus transmission. Last week the prison industries furniture factory warehouse was converted to a 200-man hospital unit. That unit is already filled with sick men.

There were 6-10-man tents set up in the baseball field also with outside showers and bathroom. Those tents were also filled. However, today all those men housed there were brought back to West Block so three large 100-man structures could be built in the next three or four days by the National Guard.

Here in West Block we are still double celled for the most part although rumor has it that the building will be brought back to as-built single cell occupancy for the first time in 40 years soon.

For now we are not allowed out of our cells except to shower two times a week. No healthcare or dental is being done except for life-threatening emergencies. An outside vendor is now supplying meals and the correctional officers are bringing meals to the cells. Testing is done weekly and medical staff checks oxygen and temperatures twice per day.

Things are getting better however. Bottom line there are just too many men in the California prison system. Although the governor plans to release 8,000 men by the end of August, there needs to be much more done by Governor by either commuting sentences and/or re-sentencing under PC1170(d)1 for men who qualify. Things must change before the fall when the rain comes and the virus is expected to grow.

Prayer really helps. District attorneys in our state must support the governor and release men who don't pose a risk to the public especially those with secure housing outside with support from their families. Those of us who qualify will gladly support any terms the courts see fit to impose to save our lives from Covid 19 exposure.

God's plan includes everyone doing their part to safely beat this outbreak. Our lives depend on your voices being heard. Please help save our lives. Thanks once again for not forgetting about us.

God bless,

Kenny Rogers

San Quentin

PS. Covid-19 has changed the world we now live in. The judgments and sentences of the past need to be revisited in today's light, not in yesterday's darkness.

A CHILL PILL, JER

AVA,

I actually get anxiety and my stomach tightens up when I see Mr. Jerry Philbrick's hate filled toxic rants each and every week in your publication!

I mean, seriously, it's almost as if he has become the crazy uncle most families have who comes to visit weekly and sits around the house mumbling about how much he hates the world. Everyone just kind of cringes and tolerates it because we have no choice. If I can please allow me to say the following to you, Uncle Jerry:

First, let me give you a great big liberal hug and an even bigger Democratic slap on your ass! I give you both with the utmost love and respect.

Please my friend, breathe. Take a big chill pill and relax. Trust me, it isn't that serious! By all accounts you have had a long successful life. I do not believe the Liberals are impeding on your life or keeping you from enjoying liberties our country continues to provide you.

Please go and get laid, drink a beer and count your blessings. And my God, turn off your TV.

I do not know you. But I love you brother, and just want you to stop being the crazy uncle I so desperately do not need!

Alan Crow

Lake County Jail

TRUMP: THIS WILL NOT END WELL

"It's as if he keeps saying 'I'm going to show you how stupid I know you are. I'll give you crude and gross imagery and you'll love it because you're crude and gross people.' And some would indeed love it. But not most. He is proud of his billionaire friends and thinks they love him. They don't. Their support is utterly transactional. They are embarrassed by him. When they begin to think he won't be re-elected they will turn, and it will be bloody and on a dime. This will not end well. He should give an Oval Office address announcing he's leaving: ‘America, you don't deserve me.’ Truer words have never been spoken in that old place." 

— Peggy Noonan, Reagan's favorite staffer and speechwriter and Pulitzer-winning Wall St. Journal columnist.

WHEN CALIFORNIA DECLARED WAR ON CANNABIS GROWERS & CALLED IN THE ARMY

by Bill Van Niekerken

Driving through Humboldt County last winter, I heard radio ads for help harvesting and selling cannabis crops, as well as for products geared toward commercial cultivation. But less than 40 years ago, the same area was one of the main battlefields of California’s war on pot growers.

By the late 1960s, the three counties of the Emerald Triangle had developed a reputation for growing a high-quality product. Demand grew rapidly, and prices skyrocketed, fueling greater production. In 1983, after several unsuccessful attempts to cut down production, the state started the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP.

A search in the Chronicle archive shows decades-old photos of raids in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, backlash from local communities and more recent coverage on why CAMP is still operating today.

On July 21, 1983, Attorney General John Van de Kamp announced a coordinated campaign using federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to raid marijuana grows in more than a dozen California counties.

“We’re not here today to make great sweeping promises that all marijuana planting will be eradicated in Northern California this year,” Van de Kamp said.

“But this is a serious effort,” he added, explaining the federal Drug Enforcement Administration would use spy planes to map forested, remote regions to target the raids.

After the first 10-week effort, Van de Kamp reported 65,000 plants, or about 215,000 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street-value of more than $130 million, had been rounded up and destroyed.

Van de Kamp had to admit that there was no reliable way to measure how much of the state’s crop had been destroyed.

“They haven’t even scratched the surface,” one North Coast grower told reporter Steve Wiegand. “There are gardens so far back that even the growers have trouble getting to them.”

But CAMP continued.

(Courtesy, SFgate.com)

MASSIVE 'FIRE CLOUD' GENERATES ITS OWN WEATHER OVER HOG FIRE IN LASSEN COUNTY

by Amy Graff

A massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, or fire cloud, formed over the Hog fire in far northeastern California Monday, generating its own weather with a wild mix of thunderstorms, rain and fire whirls, according to officials.

Thunderstorms passing over the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range kicked up high winds that fanned flames in the late afternoon and spread the blaze in remote Lassen County. The intense heat in the vigorous updraft created a foreboding weather cloud of smoke and ash, reaching 30,000 to 35,000 feet in height, said Scott McGuire, a forecaster with the National Weather Service office in Reno.

"It obviously has happened before, but it's not something that commonly happens," said McGuire.

The NWS detected rain by radar and lightning that developed in the clouds. Few strikes reached the ground.

Wildfire photographer Josh Edelson was on the ground capturing images of the blaze and said the fire "blew up" at the end of the day before the thunderstorms started and rain fell.

"The fire rained down on itself, so it was actually raining as the fire was raging through the forest," said Edelson, who has photographed more than 30 wildfires in the last decade. "It felt like I was on another planet. It was the weirdest thing as far as fires go. I've seen fires generate thunderstorms, but never rain."

Edelson also observed what's known as a firenado, or fire whirl, that occurs when ground-level winds come into contact with a fire and whip it into the air, creating a tornado-shaped spiral of flames.

"When I see those things pop up I never really know how big it's going to get," Edelson said. "I've never seen one go that high. Usually they're 10 or 15 feet high, but this one went a hundred feet high. It was thin, but very substantial. When it gets that big, the wind that's generated at the base of that tornado...it's whipping fast."

The Hog fire ignited on Saturday west of Susanville near the Hog Flat Reservoir. As of Tuesday afternoon it had burned 8,000 acres and was 5% contained.

The National Weather Service has a Red Flag Warning in effect through Wednesday night and more high winds and thunderstorms are expected Tuesday afternoon and night, and again on Wednesday.

Evacuations are in effect in the community of Lake Forest Estates and on the north and south side of Highway 36 from A-1 to Willard Creek Road. Road closures include Highway 44 from the Highway 36 and 44 juncture to A-21; Highway 36 from Highway 44 and 36 juncture to Westwood; and County Road A-1 is closed from Gallatin Road Highway 36.

No injuries have been reported. Nearly 200 structures are threatened.

Visit the Cal Fire website for the latest updates on the blaze.

(Courtesy, SFgate.com)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“Do you suppose that voters have had a good look at these scenes and concluded that the Democratic Party is perhaps uninterested in civil order?”

This is 1968 all over again. All those ‘60s riots and things in the streets openly going to hell. The Great Silent Majority was watching back then and so they elected an insecure paranoid fellow who once said I Am Not A Crook who promised Law and Order in response to seeing all the mayhem. The silly public bought the joke and had law and order until Mr Not Crook was caught obstructing justice. Will the same fear response by the public happen again in 2020? Or, has the current occupant of The Big Chair tweeted once too many times, thrown one too many insults, displayed a bit too much Pure Ego to fit the taste of the Vast Uncounted Souls out in the sticks beyond the Beltway? In 2020, the victor will either be The Big Ego Man or the Who The-Hell-Am-I Man? Somehow this all seems to fit the spirit of the times just right. Either way, America loses.

“Is there anything about this republic that you think is worth defending?

Just having to pose this question just about answers it fully. Too many deep wrongs committed over too many years by too many people and too many mortal wounds left unhealed does not lead to a healthy body politic. And all the doctors are missing, too. Is that a warning siren we are hearing, or a funeral dirge? Maybe both.

STEHR BOUND?

Hurricane Douglas has rapidly intensified into a Category 3 hurricane on Thursday with wind speeds of 120 mph. The storm is over 1,000 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, but is moving west-northwest toward the island chain.   

cnn.com/2020/07/23/weather/hurricane-douglas-forecast-hawaii-rapid-intensification/index.html

WE FACE UP TO AWFUL THINGS because we can’t go around them or forget them. The sooner you get it over with, the sooner you say, “Yes, it happened, and there’s nothing I can do about it,” the sooner you can get on with your own life. You’ve got children to bring up. So you’ve got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things.

— Annie Proulx

FOUND OBJECT