MCT: Wednesday, September 9, 2020

• Winds Diminish
• Satellite Views
• Oak Fire
• Animal Care
• Ruddy Ukiah
• Evacuee Quarantine
• 777 Cases
• Purple SIP
• Remembering Miguel
• Landmark Damaged
• Air Quality
• August Complex
• PA Fatality
• Philo Incident
• Yorkville Fundraiser
• Ed Notes
• Courthouse Thoughts
• Woodshed
• $100 Bills
• Yesterday's Catch
• 1619 Project
• Socialism/Capitalism
• MRC Deadzones
• Covid Deaths
• His Base
• Paint Out
• Forest Closures
• Vote Mari
• Edu Choices
• Ceres Courier
• Birthday 82
• Found Object

OFFSHORE WINDS will diminish today, but warm and dry conditions are expected to continue across the interior through the weekend. Along the coast, coastal low clouds will increase through the week along with more seasonable temperatures. (NWS)

[NOTE: onshore wind blows from ocean to shore, offshore wind blows from land to sea.]

YESTERDAY'S PROGRESSION

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OAK FIRE UPDATE (CALFIRE): 7pm Tuesday night Oak Fire status: The fire has not grown much in size at 863 acres with 10% containment. Lower than expected temps and light winds allowed crews working in rough terrain to hold some fire lines and begin containment. Evacuation orders remain in effect for Brooktrails, Spring Creek, Schow Rd/Rayan Creek Rd and Sleepy Hollow areas. Almost 400 firefighters, 35 engines, 2 helicopters, 4 hand crews and 25 dozers are working the fire. Air tanker operations were hindered by poor visibility caused by widespread smoke.

To view the interactive map of the Oak Fire area with evacuation zones visit: https://tinyurl.com/MendoEvac.

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OAK FIRE PHOTOS

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JUST IN FROM ANDY HILKEY (7am, 9/9/2020):

"Oak Fire" report. The inversion layer remains over much of the fire. Which has reduced fire activity. The Smoke in the Willits Area is significantly thicker. Due to the smoke drifting from the "August Complex" Fire's near Covelo. Which has experienced a significant increase in fire activity. However firefighters remain actively constructing and reinforcing fire containment line's. Last evening's CALFIRE report was 10% containment. The containment #'s may not significantly increase today. Due to the rugged terrain in significant areas of the fire's perimeter. However containment line's continue to be constructed in the accessible area's. Monitoring and patrol of the perimeter is a proactive measure to identify new flare up's or hot spots.

Such as those along the west side of hwy 101. Where burning or damaged tree's remain a concern. However in an effort to provide safety for first responders. Including Caltrans maintenance crews. Tree fallers are falling those trees that pose a safety hazard. Which also may allow hwy 101 to reopen in the coming day's. Brooktrails Subdivision remains under evacuation Orders and that most likely will not change. However when the evacuation orders are lifted. The message systems that announced the evacuations will also be used to announce that the evacuation orders have been lifted. I don't anticipate that happening today. The good news is that the fire's perimeter is not expanding. Spot fire's remain a concern as the weather may change. When the smoke layer lifts over the fire. Firefighting Aircraft will once again join the fight. We are all a bit frustrated by the evacuations and Anxious about this fire in general. However please consider that as of last evening the fire report had confirmed 2 structures lost. I anticipate that # to increase. Brooktrails Subdivision remains outside the fire's perimeter. Which I truly believe will remain untouched by the fire. 

Please Stay Safe. Allow First Responders and Work Crews to focus on their work and stay positive. We will certainly get through this together.

EVACUEE ANIMAL CARE (Sheriff’s Press Release Tuesday afternoon)

Community resources have been established for domestic animals from the evacuation areas related to the Oak Fire which started on 09-07-2020 in Brooktrails, California.

Mendocino County Animal Care has established a site on the south side of the Willits High School for domestic animals. Utilizing the disaster preparedness trailer donated by the Savings Bank of Mendocino County, Animal Care has the capacity to lodge approximately 100 domestic dogs and cats.

Animal Care has resources for larger domestic animals, horses, and livestock at the Willits Junior Horseman's Association. Larger livestock can be delivered to 901 East Commercial Street in Willits for lodging.

The entrance to the Animal Care disaster rescue station is marked with signs on North Main Street in Willits, just south of the entrance to the Willits High School.

Smaller domestic animals can be taken to the south end of the Willits High School or can be coordinated through Animal Care to meet with citizens who have domestic animals from the evacuation area. To coordinate a pickup of a domestic animal with Animal Care, please contact the Call Center at 707-234-6052.

Animal Care is also requesting donations of blankets, towels, and sheets for the disaster rescue station. These items can be donated at the Willits High School Agriculture Building. Other monetary donations for animal food can be made at JD Redhouse at 212 S. Main Street in Willits, California.

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank the employees and personnel from Animal Care for coordinating this resource for citizens in the evacuation area. Any questions regarding the Domestic Animal Resources being offered for the Oak Fire can be directed to the Call Center at 707-234-6052.

A UKIAH READER WRITES: 

The view from my window, Ukiah, 2:30pm Tuesday:

SHELTER OPEN TO WILLITS AREA OAK FIRE EVACUEES Under COVID-19 Quarantine or Isolation Orders

If you live in the evacuation zone surrounding the Oak Fire north of Willits, and are currently under COVID-19 Isolation or Quarantine Orders from Mendocino County Public Health, please contact the Department Operations Center COVID-19 Shelter Hotline at (707) 472-2676 for further information and direction regarding this shelter. We have acquired emergency housing specifically for this purpose, provided to those under isolation and quarantine orders at no cost. We urge you to evacuate safely, and maintain isolation and quarantine until you arrive at a safe location, such as the shelter. 

SEVEN MORE COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County. Total now at 777, with 89 active cases in isolation, hospital or ICU. 17 deaths reported.

UPDATED STAGE 3 HEALTH OFFICER ORDER SHELTER-IN-PLACE PURPLE TIER ORDER EFFECTIVE SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

Post Date: 09/08/2020 4:02 PM

Summary of Changes: 

The most recent Health Officer Shelter in Place (SIP) Order effective upon release on September 8, 2020, continues the requirements for the new State tiered system, including the Widespread risk category (purple), Tier for Mendocino County, and modifies some local restrictions specific to transient lodging and certain State-permitted outdoor gatherings. 

On August 28, 2020, the State California Department of Public Health, issued a new Statewide Public Health Officer Order, which became effective on Monday, August 31, 2020, (https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/CDPH Document Library/COVID-19/8-28-20_Order-Plan-Reducing-COVID19-Adjusting-Permitted-Sectors-Signed.pdf ), creating a new framework for reopening, known as California’s Plan for Reducing COVID-19 and Adjusting Permitted Sector Activities to Keep Californians Health and Safe, (aka Blueprint for a Safer Economy), which relies on a set of risk-based Tiers associated with case rates per capita per day and a percent of positive covid-19 tests. Pursuant to this framework, all Counties may reopen specified sectors according to their county’s Tier. Mendocino County began last week in the Widespread risk (purple) Tier, and continues this week in that category. 

The first round of changes went into effect on August 31, 2020, in accordance with this tiered system and maintained the ongoing restrictions of the County Monitoring List with the following additions: 

• Hair Salons and barbershops were permitted to re-open indoors

• Retail establishments (which had already been open), require capacity restrictions of 25%, while Grocery stores have a capacity restriction of 50%

• Indoor malls were reopened (except for common areas and food courts) to a maximum capacity of 25%

Additionally, the August 31, 2020, Order modified the local Childcare Unit and Children’s Extracurricular Activity Units based on the new Statewide Small Cohort Guidance (https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/small-groups-child-youth.aspx) which allows for small stable groups of no more than 14 children or youth and no more than 2 supervising adults.

SIP Changes Effective September 8, 2020

Effective September 8, 2020, the Health Officer has modified the local restrictions specific to the local tourism industry, by removing the 24 hour vacancy restriction between reservations for all such transient lodging and campground establishments.

The Health Officer has also removed the specific capacity number (previously 50) on all permissible outdoor gatherings, i.e., places of worship and providers of religious services and cultural ceremonies, funerals and memorials, and protests. Instead, in line with revised state criteria, those outdoor gatherings which are allowed by the State, are limited to the number of attendees which can be accommodated in the outdoor location with strict adherence to a minimum of six feet social distancing between attendees from different households or living units. Additionally, the Health Officer removed the prohibition on the use of commercial wedding venues, commercial event centers and conference centers for outdoor religious and cultural ceremonies. While such religious and cultural ceremonies are still limited to the ceremony only (no parties, celebrations or receptions), they may occur outdoors at any such commercial venue whether religious or secular, and in accordance with the statewide guidance for Places of Worship and Providers of Religious Services and Cultural Ceremonies (https://covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-places-of-worship.pdf). Finally, the Health Officer instituted a requirement that Places of Worship and Providers of Religious and Cultural Ceremonies, maintain a sign-in sheet for attendees of such services/ceremonies (including name and contact information) for at least 14 days after each such event, which it should share with public health officials (only upon request) for the limited purpose of COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing connected to the event. 

REMEMBERING MIGUEL RIDOLFI

To honor Miguel Ridolfi’s dedication to the people of Anderson Valley and to honor his bright hummingbird spirit, please send any donations made in his honor to: Anderson Valley Ambulance Services, PO Box 398, Boonville, 95415.

UKIAH LANDMARK REDWOOD TREE SERVICE STATION DAMAGED SIGNIFICANTLY IN EARLY MORNING FIRE

Ukiah Valley Fire Authority’s Fire Chief Doug Hutchison said fire personnel “were dispatched at 04:48 hours for a commercial fire at 859 North State Street,” the address of Ukiah’s Redwood Tree Service Station. Ukiah Police Department’s Public Information Officer Cedric Crook told us the fire caused “significant damage”.

mendofever.com/2020/09/08/ukiah-landmark-redwood-tree-service-station-damaged-significantly-in-early-morning-fire/

WE DON'T NEED A MAP to tell us it's smokey out there, but here's a link to the US Air Quality Index fire and smoke map if you want the big picture: https://fire.airnow.gov/?lat=39.0135808&lng=-123.3584128&zoom=10#

Notice the size of the Oak Fire in Brooktrails is small compared to the Mendocino Complex, which seems to be the source of most of the smoke we're seeing. 

Here's the smoke forecast: https://fires.airfire.org/outlooks/NorthCentralCoast#Ukiah

Stay indoors and avoid physical activity if you can.

(Anderson Valley Fire on-line post)

AUGUST COMPLEX FIRES (click to enlarge)

ON MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7 at about 10pm Daniel Egger, 28, driver, of Manchester, and passengers Dominic Sahl, 22, of Point Arena, Holly Egger, 30, of Manchester, and Taylor Reynolds, 25, of Manchester were traveling east on a private road at Piper Ranch in Point Arena at an unknown speed. For unknown reasons Egger lost control of his 2001 Dodge 1500 truck and traveled southbound off the roadway edge, rolled down a dirt embankment and collided with a tree. Mr. Egger was ejected from the vehicle and sustained major injuries; Sahl susained moderate injuries; Holly Egger was ejected from the vehicle and sustained minor injuries. Taylor Reynolds sustained fatal injuries. Alcohol is suspected to be a contributing factor in this collision. Daniel Egger was arrested at the scene, but transported with Salh and Holly Egger to Santa Rosa Memorial. 

(CHP Presser)

AV AMBULANCE WAS STAGED NEAR LEMONS MARKET, PHILO, Tuesday morning. We didn't hear the original dispatch to this incident, but at 6:57 am we heard over the scanner that the medical response to an incident near Lemons Market, (8651 Highway 128, Philo) was cleared to enter the scene from where it was "staged" nearby. A minute or so later we heard from AV Fire Department ambulance #7420 a patient was unconscious with "multiple wounds." Responding law enforcement was told they could reduce their response to "Code 2" (no lights/sirens). Air ambulance CalStar 4 was dispatched to Boonville Airport @ 7:04 am and will be there in 17 minutes.

(Via MSP)

YORKVILLE ICE CREAM SOCIAL ALTERNATIVE

Hello, Yorkvillians and Beyond!

Without a 2020 Ice Cream Social, the Farm Stand is offering food and items that you can order for pick up. This is a great opportunity to sample some specialties made by the Yorkville community!

All proceeds go to the Yorkville Fire Station.

To access the form, please go to the YCBA website, www.theycba.org, go to last item on left menu, where you will find an order form. Either scan and email a copy back to Adrian Card or Peter Brodigan, or let them know by email or phone what you’d like.

• adriancard@gmail.com
• brodigan@sonic.net
• 707-894-9210

Please submit your order by Monday, September 14.

To deliver your items, we’ll schedule days and times during the week of September 21 when you can pick them up at the YCBA/Post Office. We’ll be back in touch with those specific dates and times.

No need to pay now – we’ll handle that when you pick up. Credit card, cash, and check are all okay.

Last year, the Farm Stand made over $1,200 for the Fire Station. It would be fantastic to top that this year!

Many thanks to all our wonderful cooks and participants!

Please feel free to forward on the order form to anyone who might like a copy.

Thanks,

Peter and Adrian

ED NOTES

SHERIFF MATT KENDALL'S prompt evacuation order was crucial in keeping the Oak Fire chaos to a minimum, giving sensible residents of the imperiled and heavily populated Brooktrails-Sherwood Road subdivisions plenty of time and daylight to get out, thus averting what could have been ugly panic on the sole road out — Sherwood Road — when the fire moved ominously towards Brooktrails. The insensible people, including one described as a 47-year-old woman, stayed, but some 3,000-4,000 residents of the area heeded the Sheriff's warning and got out.

KENDALL ADDED TUESDAY AFTERNOON, that he didn’t want to see anything like the Paradise fire two years ago when they waited too long to issue the evacuation order and people had less than an hour to escape wind-driven flames rushing to destroy the town.

SMOKE in the Anderson Valley Tuesday afternoon was so thick it obscured the east hills, the overall effect so dark that at 2pm it was like the last minutes of an orange twilight in dense fog, the sun invisible as during an eclipse. Traffic through Boonville had their headlights on.

A BOONVILLE READER WRITES at 3:30pm:

LAZ OF WILLITS WROTE: "I have no idea what the rest of the County is like but, Willits is dark. The sky is an orange mixed with dark reds. Very quiet, very creepy. To do anything you need a light, inside, or outside. I’ve never seen anything quite like it."

OUTSIDE AVA HQ Tuesday afternoon:

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HIGHWAY 101 remained closed in both directions all of Tuesday. Re-routed southbound traffic through Boonville on Monday night was, at times, bumper-to-bumper.

CHP Spokesperson Olegario Marin announced Tuesday morning that there are no simple detours in the area, and that drivers will need to take I-5 or Highway 1 to get around the wildfire. “There’s no estimated time for reopening,” Marin said. “They’re hoping for [a reopening] this afternoon. Some burned trees have fallen onto the highway and [firefighters] will have to clear the roadway and secure other trees before traffic can re-enter.” 

THE FIGHT BACK TABLE is a coalition of left groups organizing for what they envision as a post-Election Day political apocalypse scenario pegged to “mass public unrest.” The assumption is that Trump won't leave office if he either loses or the election result is close, igniting fighting between his supporters and the rest of us. As this calamitous year proceeds, events that would have seemed preposterous in March are now common, including unprecedentedly intense wildfires, bizarre weather changes such as Denver's that went from 100 degree heat Monday to freezing and snow on Tuesday, and national clashes between Trumpers and BLM protesters that presage more violent clashes in more areas in the days to come.

PERTH-BASED researchers used the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope in the Western Australian outback to verify that we are truly alone in our obscure speck of our obscure universe. The Aussies found no technological signs of alien life in a study of more than 10 million star systems.

A PHILO MAN told us Tuesday that when he went to his post office box to deposit his Netflix consignment for its return trip, he discovered a pile of looted mail taken from Gwschend Road mail boxes. Then, as he drove to the Philo P.O. to turn in the Gschwend Road mail he spotted another pile of stolen mail near Art's Apples, that second batch addressed to Holmes Ranch residents.

PG&E began cutting power Monday night to customers in 22 counties — including Napa and Sonoma — in response to forecasts of strong, dry winds. Mendocino County seems to have been spared, subject to change.

As many as 172,000 customers across the state will lose power, including more than 17,000 in Sonoma County, and more than 5,000 in Napa County. The utility anticipated shut-offs starting between 9 p.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, with the power restored on Wednesday evening, according to the utility's website.

CANDIDATE McGOURTY on the new County Courthouse:

The proposed new courthouse has a nearly $100 million budget and would be the most expensive single building project in Mendocino County history. It would only house the court rooms and judicial chambers. The building would be funded by the California Judicial Council which at this point doesn’t appear to be concerned with local community needs or input. Presently, the Mendocino County Courthouse is a place where the judges, the district attorney’s office and other ancillary offices are housed together. Being in the same building has many advantages. Court dates and schedules are not exact, since cases are put on a docket in a sequential order with no absolute timed schedule. Therefore the lawyers need to be nearby when their cases come before the court. The DA’s office is presently conveniently located in the building so that they are literally steps away and can very efficiently step into court with their multiple paper files just in time. Many lawyers who represent clients have offices very closely located to court house in the down town and can also quickly walk into court when their client’s cases are being heard. The proposed new site is almost half a mile from the present courthouse and would make it much less efficient for these closely timed meetings. 

I visited the proposed site situated in a fairly large vacant area behind the old Ukiah Train Depot and tracks, which would remain on the site of the proposed new courthouse. While the present courthouse has multiple north, south and east west street access with good traffic flow, the new proposed site is in the Perkins Street corridor, an area that is already somewhat congested during peak traffic flow times. The main entrance would be on Hospital Drive. East Clay and Leslie Streets would be the other access points to the site. Parking would be difficult as there just isn’t that much space on site. There is also a small seasonal creek along Perkins Street that would have to be protected. 

Since the proposed courthouse would only house judicial staff, the DA and other county court services would most likely be housed in offices built by the private sector if the present courthouse was decommissioned. There are some older industrial and commercial properties on East Clay that could be removed and replaced with office buildings for the DA and other county court services. There is interest in the commercial real estate sector to do that if Mendocino County would become long term tenants. Regardless, that would represent a new expense to the County which presently is covered in the existing courthouse. 

If the new courthouse were built, Mendocino County would be left with yet another potentially unused space in the down town. The present courthouse anchors the down town and is critically important to the many restaurants and shops that are conveniently located for people who either work or have court business to conduct. If the courthouse were to be closed, there would be a serious negative impact on those businesses.

I don’t know how much thought has been put into redesigning and repurposing the existing courthouse. It certainly is not a graceful or well-designed building. Evidently it doesn’t meet all the needs of the users, and there is plenty that is awkward about it. But it also does have the attributes of housing many court offices and services together. The old Mendocino County Hospital on North Bush Street and Low Gap was repurposed to become part of the County Administrative Center. This has worked fairly well in bringing many county offices to one place. Before that, county offices were scattered around town in rented space. I like taking old spaces and repurposing them, as I live in a house that we reconstructed from a farmhouse built in 1899.

I hope that more time and energy will go into planning a space that will be a legacy building for many years to come. I also would like to see public funds invested wisely into a well-designed space that works well for the people needing to use it. I am not sure that the proposed new courthouse accomplishes that task. If elected supervisor, I would support a more thorough design process that considers our community’s needs as an important consideration. 

THE WOODSHED

A LOCAL STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING

Five SOBs, members of the Fort Bragg Seniors on Bikes, were cycling up Sherwood Road this past Sunday, September 6, around 10 a.m., heading for the mud pots at Glen Blair. Susan, in the lead, suddenly hung a U-turn in the middle of the street, backtracked, jumped off her bike, and triumphantly held up a crisp new $100 bill she’d spotted on the side of the road. With some chagrin that the rest of us had missed this find, we graciously congratulated her on her good luck and continued our ride. 

A few moments later and not more than 200 yards further on, around a turn, we stopped, awestruck by the sight of $100 bills everywhere! Maybe we were all lucky.

We scampered around gathering up the bills from the blacktop and the surrounding ditches. A wallet was found, and with it an assortment of bank cards, insurance cards and a driver's license. Could it be drug money? Who else carried so much cash? How in the world did it end up scattered on the road? 

We pondered the mystery and our possible (literal) windfall and continued on. We trusted Susan to carry the loot. When we got to the mud volcanoes she dumped the money out on the ground and counted — 40 new $100 bills and a few old singles.

$4,000 split five ways? A $100 bill to each of us as a finder’s fee? Take the wallet and the money, or just the wallet, to the police station? We each pondered these questions individually as we strolled among the mini mud volcanos of Glen Blair after deciding to discuss and vote on the matter later.

Stopping at Susan’s house for a shared lunch after the ride, we examined the found wallet more closely. The ID address said Eureka. The receipts came from stores in Eureka from just a day earlier. Seemed suspiciously like a drug dealer briefly visiting in Fort Bragg for a sale. We decided to play detective and researched this possible felonious character online. We found lots of info on the young man and then Pam discovered he and she had a Facebook friend in common. Pam texted her friend and learned the young man, 26 years old, was a working stiff and not a drug dealer at all. Obtaining a phone number from this intermediary friend, Joy called him. Turns out he had had the cash in hand to buy a trailer to live in while he worked construction in Chico.

Finding the young man through Facebook and actually connecting with him within a half hour, was as almost as astonishing as finding the money on the road in the first place. Within a couple hours he was back in Fort Bragg, and at Susan’s house to collect his loot and his wallet. 

To say he was relieved, happy, and grateful is an understatement. He was almost shaking at his reversal of fortune and the kindness of strangers. He said he had left his wallet on the back of his flatbed truck when he got gas but didn’t realize he had lost it until a couple hours later when he was in Ukiah. We must have ridden by just a few minutes after his wallet went flying into the road and the wind scattered its contents.

At Susan’s house, she and he talked very briefly; he gave her a hug, and said goodbye. Then as he walked toward his truck, he turned back and said, “Bless you.” A lovely and fitting end to a very unusual day. 

— Philip Zwerling, Ph.D. 

http://www.philipzwerling.com

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 8, 2020

RILEY ANDERSON, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

FRANCISCO ESTRADA, Cotati/Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.

MARIA JUAREZ-FLORES, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent.

JORDAN LUNA, Ukiah. Probation violation.

JUSTIN OVERHOLT, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TINY WHIPPLE, Covelo. Probation revocation.

1776 is a considerably more important year for Americans, who wouldn't exist as Americans free from British colonial rule without the events that happened that year. That's why the annual July 4 celebrations are always celebrated so fiercely and proudly by Americans. For the vast majority of Americans, it signifies the greatest day in the country's history. But what's happening in America right now is a concerted effort to rewrite the country's history, led by the New York Times. Last year, the paper began the “1619 Project” which it said, “aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of (The United States) national narrative.” The interactive ongoing Project was timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves to Virginia in 1619 - and suggests that this date represents the “nation's birth year.” It also stated that the reason for the War of Independence was not a desire to be free of British rule but a desire for slavery to be continued. But this extraordinary claim has been hotly disputed by many leading US historians. As with everything right now, the debate has swiftly turned toxic and viciously partisan. On this issue, I find myself siding with Trump. To reframe the dismantling of British rule as a battle to maintain slavery in the way the NYT has done is not just misguided, it's disgraceful. It also, like so much of the culture war stuff that has exploded since George Floyd was so despicably killed, plays right into Trump's hands. If he can make it about liberals trying to make Americans ashamed of their history, it will be a vote-winner for him. Yet liberals seem totally oblivious to this. History will not be kind on the Democrats if they let Trump win again through their own stupidity - even if they try and rewrite it themselves. 

— Piers Morgan

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

When the dogwoods lose their leaves in July, and the Oaks start turning brown in August, you know there is something very serious going on with our local climate. All you gotta do is watch mother nature. The local hills are drying out faster due to a thinner ozone layer which increase UV and Solar radiation thereby drying out the ground moisture earlier in the year. Not to mention our forests are no longer hundreds of feet tall with old growth that acts as insulation from the beating down rays of the sun. Old Growth trees like Redwoods and Firs dont crown out during a forest fire either, the fire burns the chaparral under the trees and rarely crowns out in the tree. These fires are fueled by 120 years of brush growth since California Department of Forestry refused to let fuel loads burn for the last century. The regular “fire pattern” in this area is much smaller fires every 7-25 years. We better just hope these fires dont end up in all that Herbicide Sprayed Tanoaks on Mendocino Redwood Company lands West of this fire. There are literally millions of dead trees which were left standing after Mendo Redwood Company (Gap-Old Navy-Fisher Family) sprayed and left standing as dead dry hillsides. Shame on Mendocino Redwood Company, they also REFUSE to stop burning wood pellets in Redwood Valley during these fires despite the air quality being at the very worst possible with smoke and ash falling: Mendocino Redwood Company are bad neighbors who do not care for our communities. Money is their bottom line $$$

A READER WRITES: The significance of the point about co-morbidities is that 94% of the deaths attributed to covid would very possibly have not occurred in the short term if it were not for the pre-existing condition.

If I have a severe medical condition, say I am 84 years old and have an age-related cancer. I am weak and within a year of death.

I get covid or some other flu. It finishes me off. So I have died around July 4th instead of around Christmas.

The vast majority of covid deaths are of this type. Society is not losing bonny babies, energetic teens, young adults, the middle-aged or even the recently retired. Those who are dying are decrepit and on their last legs.

Societies have not responded this way to other such chronic and at least annualizable social problems. The opioid epidemic kills 60,000 of the young in the US, year in year out. If you want to consider the matter in terms of life years, in opioid deaths, the USA is losing, say, 60,000 × 50 years every single year.

To date, covid may have taken – at most, given all of the fraudulent counting – 150,000 × 1 or 2 years or even just six months.

So 12 trillion (how much the fed will print to cover this farce) divided by (generously) 300,000 man-life years = $40 million per death if each victim has died two years ahead of schedule. And note that the person in question was not saved to live another healthy 50 years. He or she simply lay gasping for breath in a nursing home.

I don’t see why all of this requires the USA to put 50 million people out of work, let millions have their homes go into foreclosure, use all of their savings, close all schools, churches, social events, suspend international travel, implement a swathe of civil liberties and draconian policing actions including totalitarian surveillance, declare a national quarantine of the healthy and spend what will eventually amount to, as I have said, around $12 trillion.

What, in the name of sanity, is the justification?

MENDOCINO ART CENTER PRESENTS:

MENDOCINO OPEN PAINT OUT RETROSPECTIVE ONLINE EXHIBIT

September 8 – October 5, 2020

The Mendocino Art Center's Mendocino Open Paint Out (MOPO) Retrospective Online Exhibit spotlights the top award-winning paintings – Best in Show, Overall Consistency and Featured Artwork – from the first seven years of the annual plein air festival. In all, eleven artists’ MOPO paintings are featured in this free showing with many also exhibiting new paintings. Artists include Rolando Barrero, Wendy Brayton, Jody Bryan, Rick J. Delanty, Susan Elwart Hall, Ryan Jensen, Carolyn Lord, Alison Leigh Menke, Macario Pascual, Paul Rickard and Dennis Simpson. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mendocino Art Center has decided not to host the in-person Mendocino Open Paint Out event in 2020. A free live reception will be held on the Mendocino Art Center’s Facebook page, Saturday, September 19, at 5:00 p.m. More details to come. The Mendocino Art Center remains open online for art classes, monthly exhibitions, events and the gallery store, but will be closed to in-person experiences through the end of the calendar year. 

View the exhibit: mendocinoartcenter.org/mopo.html

MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST TEMPORARILY CLOSES RECREATION SITES, ADDS FIRE RESTRICTIONS

WILLOWS, Calif. – Sept. 8, 2020 – Due to unprecedented and dangerous fire conditions with a combination of extreme heat, significant wind events, low humidity and firefighting resources that are stretched to the limit, Mendocino National Forest developed campgrounds, picnic areas and day use areas are closed effective Monday, Sept. 7, 2020 per Regional Order 20-08 (recreation sites). In addition, campfires and stoves are prohibited within the Mendocino National Forest per Regional Order 20-06 (fire restrictions).

The USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region issued these orders to provide for public safety and reduce the potential for human-caused fire starts.

Notifications to those who reserved recreation sites through recreation.gov will be made as soon as possible and refunds will be processed. A full list of current closures follows: 

Upper Lake Ranger District

• Bear Creek Campground
• Deer Valley Campground
• Lower Nye Campground
• Middle Creek Campground
• Navy Camp Campground
• Oak Flat Campground
• Penny Pines Campground
• Pine Mountain Lookout
• Pogie Point Campground
• Sunset Campground

Covelo Ranger District

• Atchison Campground
• Eel River Campground
• Green Springs Campground
• Grizzly Flat Dispersed Campground
• Hammerhorn Campground
• Howard Lake Campground
• Howard Meadows Campground
• Little Doe Campground

Grindstone Ranger District

• Big Springs Picnic Area
• Cedar Camp Campground
• Davis Flat Campground
• Dixie Glade Campground
• Fouts Campground
• Fuller Grove Campground
• Fuller Grove Group Campground
• Gray Pine Group Campground
• Green Springs Campground
• Kingsley Glade Campground
• Letts Lake Campground
• Little Stony Campground
• Masterson Group Campground
• Mill Creek Campground
• Mill Valley Campground
• North Fork Campground
• Old Mill Campground
• Camp Discovery Group Campground
• Plaskett Meadows Campground
• Plaskett Meadows Picnic
• Rattlesnake Memorial
• Red Bluff Recreation Area
• Red Bluff Boat Launch
• South Fork Campground
• Sugar Spring Campground
• Sugarfoot Glade Campground
• Sycamore Grove Campground
• Sycamore Grove Picnic
• Three Prong Campground
• Wells Cabin Campground
• Whitlock Campground 
• Wolf Creek Visitor Station

Customers needing information, passes and maps are encouraged to call the Mendocino National Forest Supervisor’s Office at (530) 934-3316 Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., visit the forest website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino/, and check for updates on Facebook or Twitter.

THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL, VOTE MARI

Editor,

While the Second District has its own particular issues to consider in the upcoming election, the State of California, our nation, and the whole world face many of the same challenges that are also of urgent and critical importance right here in Mendocino County. The constant threat of natural disaster aggravated by climate change, the public health and economic impacts of the pandemic, and the need for a seismic shift in the way we produce, distribute, and use energy are all both global and local issues. It’s imperative that we begin implementing major structural changes now that will allow us to better adapt to a rapidly changing future. We need to utilize not only our own best local resources, but also to look beyond the county line for inspiration and solutions and elect leaders who understand that. 

I’ve known Mari for a long time, and I believe she does understand that, and I believe that she is the best choice to serve as the next Second District Supervisor. She not only has 11 years of experience as a Ukiah city council member—two as mayor—and has sat on numerous boards, but her grant writing business has brought over $100 million dollars into the county for non-profits and public agencies ranging from disaster recovery planning, youth violence prevention, school enrichment programs, and segments of the Great Redwood Trail through Ukiah. 

We need more than a cheerleader for our town—we need a supervisor with a clear vision that goes beyond the city and county limits. I urge you to review Mari’s detailed positions on the issues by https://www.marirodin.com/issues. Think global, act local, and vote Mari Rodin for Second District Supervisor!

Alex de Grassi

Ukiah 

CHOOSE AN EDUCATION MODEL THAT WORKS FOR YOU

by Michelle Hutchins, County Superintendent of Schools

With the start of school, many parents are dealing with yet another pandemic-related stress—how to keep kids safe, healthy, and productive via remote learning. As parents try to balance personal and professional responsibilities, it’s easy to understand how tempers can flare and frustrations can make us do and say things we usually wouldn’t.

As someone who leads a large governmental organization, this feels like an important time to remind everyone that bureaucracies are made up of human beings who, like you, are also under a lot of stress and doing their absolute best under difficult circumstances. Many of them are simply doing what is required by law.

I always recommend being polite and understanding, but in these difficult times, I think it is particularly important for people to consider who made the decision causing them angst and who has the power to change things. Typically, it isn’t the school secretary or the office receptionist on the receiving end of the tirade.

In normal times, school districts have a lot of independence to make decisions. As long as they comply with state education code, they and their school boards can define local educational priorities via strategic planning, budgeting, and policy. In accordance with labor unions, they can determine work schedules and conditions. Districts also coordinate transportation and food service, student intervention programs, and capital projects, and they determine when and how to open or close schools.

In a health crisis, things change. School district decisions must consider new State- and county-level statutes to address people’s health and safety. During this pandemic, school districts have been asked to comply with numerous new requirements that can be complex, difficult to implement, and sometimes underfunded.

Distance Learning

For example, as schools shift their platforms from in-class to online to provide a safe yet robust learning experience, the State has enacted requirements that sometimes work better in bigger metropolitan areas. For example, in parts of our rural county, we cannot depend on high-speed access to the internet.

Regardless of where schools are in California, teachers must take daily attendance via a verbal check-in, and ideally provide live, sustained instruction that includes interaction with peers. This is done through a predetermined class schedule where the curriculum is developed and presented by the teacher. So, if your student has internet connectivity problems, please work with your school to see what services and supports can be offered. If students cannot adhere to the schedules determined by their schools, there may be other options.

Independent Study

Some schools offer independent study. In this model, the certificated teacher, parents, and student collaborate on the lesson plans and then the parents are responsible for helping students complete the self-paced lessons in whatever location and schedule is agreed upon with the teacher. During COVID-19 restrictions, the school must take daily attendance via a verbal check-in, even for independent study students, but apart from that, things are more flexible. Independent study may not be available in every district, so check with yours if this sounds like a good model for you.

Private Schooling

Private schools can offer educational options with some flexibility not afforded to public schools because they are not bound by the same statutes. For schools serving K-12, both public and private school curriculum must prepare students for college and career entrance requirements, but private schools do not have to use state-approved curriculum or follow state-approved scope and sequence of courses. Although educational standards may differ, private schools are following all public health statutes.

Homeschooling

If you want to determine your student’s curriculum without input from a certificated teacher, you might consider homeschooling. This requires you to determine everything about your child’s educational journey--the lessons, the instructional materials, the subject matter. It’s all up to you. Many people who toyed with the idea of homeschooling before the pandemic have since decided against it. Serving as curriculum designer, teacher and parent all at once is time consuming and can be challenging, but it can be done. Another thing to consider is that homeschooling may not allow your student to reintegrate into public school easily, should they choose to do so, because of a lack of alignment with public school curriculum. Whereas, independent study aligns with public school curriculum and still provides flexibility that some distance learning options do not. 

If you choose this route, it is important to submit an affidavit with the state certifying your homeschool. This will allow your student to attend college someday, should they choose to.

Whichever option you choose, please remember that we’re all in this together. Those of us in education want to provide your students with the best possible experience. Please reach out to teachers by asking questions rather than assuming the worst. As educators, we are used to managing challenging situations, but the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched many of us further than we could have imagined.

CERES COURIER

Editor,

As a widely published writer and alumnus of CSU Stanislaus, it has recently come to my attention that Stanislaus County is harboring the most reprehensibly racist newspaper in the state of California - the Ceres Courier. What a disgrace! The Ceres Courier is truly atrocious, not to mention seriously stupid and bigoted beyond belief. 

California’s most ridiculously racist newspaper editor’s name is Jeff Benziger who can be reached at (209) 633-3583 or online at jbenziger@cerescourier.com. 

Creepy conservative QAnon crackpot Jeff Benziger should resign immediately, but he won’t because Benziger’s only employment option would then be to continue publishing his despicably divisive dimwitted drivel under the auspices of The Crusader - the official newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan, which of course endorsed racist Donald Trump who is Jeff Benziger’s hateful personal hero. 

Contact bigoted Benziger’s publisher Hank Vander Veen at (209) 249-3503 or hvanderveen@morrismultimedia.com. Let Hank Vander Veen know Ceres Courier Editor Jeff Benziger the bigot has got to go! 

Sincerely,

Jake Pickering

Arcata

PS. Hank Vander Veen is also the publisher of these other California newspapers: Turlock Journal, Manteca Bulletin, Oakdale Leader, Riverbank News and Escalon Times. 

MY BIRTHDAY…

…was yesterday. I’m 82, b. Baltimore, Sep 7, 1938. Germany will invade Poland to start World War Two a year from now. The Depression is still on but loosening its grip. My sisters Sandra (the first “a” like the one in “wander”) and Judy, are four and three. My father will build a factory for “sheet-metal fabricating” that will be madly busy during WW2. (That’s a story!) There were three of us Clogg kids during Pearl Harbor, so Daddy was ineligible to serve. So he made war stuff, not a single piece of which looked like a gun or an airplane propeller to Little Mitchie. Probably steel hatch covers and things like that.

I’ve said this next bit here before, so, if you remember, just talk amongst yourselves.

For mountaineers who attempt the world’s highest mountains, elevations over twenty-six-thousand feet are called the Death Zone. You can go in there, but you can’t stay. You’ll die. Not enough air in the air at twenty-six thou, not to mention the crazy cold. Make that summit, if you’re strong enough, and then get the hell out of there. Your body’s dying. Around Everest’s peak, Wikipedia lists 306 corpses, going back to the 1920s. Most are ages 20s and 30s. You must get pretty good at mountain climbing in your 70s and 80s, There are no dead bodies recorded up there in that age range. 

California’s most spectacular mountain is Mt. Shasta, not quite our tallest but surely our regalest, a live volcano at the top of the Central Valley, half the height of Everest. I’ve climbed her five or six times. It’s a hard day’s work, and people die there with some frequency.

My first or second time, I looked downslope and saw a couple guys climbing with a rolled-up hang glider, a thing I recognized because friends and I once owned one. 

Jesus! The acoustics of the south slope of Shasta are startling. It’s a giant band shell, and voices carry readily. I called down to the hang gliders: “You’re either going to have a hell of a ride or you’re going to kill yourselves!” 

It’s usually windy on Mt. Shasta. When they got to their chosen spot, they set up the hang glider, and the chosen one strapped in. There’s a much-smaller volcano named Shastina, connected by a saggy ridge to Shasta. He launched his glider in that air chute, the wind got under him and lifted him high over that ridge to the shadowed, blue, way-less-traveled north side and slammed him down dead or doomed. Hang gliders are big things, their fabric painted like hot-air balloons, gaudy and gorgeous. Even so, the planes and choppers and people took ten days to find him. That's how big that mountain is. They were from Berkeley, those two. I regretted what I said to them.

Most of the deaths are more ordinary than that. I was up there once in a snow shower. It was like being in a blizzard. Barely see your own feet. I walked along a path near the summit that drops off into nothing if you don’t look out. I walked very slow, bending close to the ground so I could drop and cling if the wind got stronger. The snow-shower whiteout passed.

Up high, there are living bugs in the snow, swept high up by the winds. Their dark shells absorb sunlight and melt the snow next to them, so they form little wells, themselves at the center. The only animals you see up there besides bugs-in-wells is birds that eat bugsickles and can fly in thin air. Last time I was up, I was over sixty. I wrote an article about the experience, titled like a famous Everest book, called “Into Thin Air.” My title was “Into Thin Hair.” It told about my several harrowing times on Shasta. Nobody bought it.

Here’s an interesting thing: A short way from the hill of rocks that forms the summit, the ground is warm—volcano, remember? It hasn’t erupted in living memory. Not enough people living around the base in Shasta City and environs, I guess. If you only do a thing every few thousand years, you wanna make it as big a deal as possible.

So this warm place where the seismic radiator warms the ground had some great bathtub-deep puddles, the snow melted and warmed. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t ride out a blizzard, lounging in that warm, muddy water, like partying in a Marin hot tub in winter. Makes a hilarious mental image, me nekkid and howling back at the storm in the freezing night in my warm mud puddle at the summit of Mount Shasta.

So. Anyway. Death Zone: at 82, I’m in it; at my expiration date, lurching past it. So last night, one joint down, elevenish, I decide I need to get busy to forestall death. I’ve had this bunch of exercise equipment I’ve scrounged over the years—rowing machines, treadmills, bicyclish things, resistance things—all kinds of apparatuses, standing around disapprovingly, silently admonishing me, gathering way more dust than sweat, but I figure it’s do or die, so I, a little stiff and tired, as usual, these days, climb on.

Holy bleep! I’m a MESS! EVERYTHING feels impossible! Almost immediately, I’m grinning. Let’s see if I can explain.

For stuff that shouldn’t be hard to be hard means I’ve really let things go, which means I can really improve, which means I can likely feel way less zombie all the time (maybe), which is fabulous news, maybe, and stay tuned...

Thank you for the birthday wishes. My daughter Molly stood Ellie & me to dinner, the evening before, and it was pure magic. At a temperature of some unheard-of 75 or so, we dined at a table on the restaurant’s back lawn, overlooking the Albion River, 150 feet below us, where it empties into the Pacific, us and, maybe, twenty other super-lucky, super-spoiled people. In the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of America’s most brutal regime, sending out waves of brutality to the entire world, in the middle of a Cecil-B.-DeMille wildfire season, record heat, craziness and despair everywhere—in the middle of all this, we have a squad of servers—hip, smart, fun young people—tending to us in the soft, quiet, sea-scented air, food to hum over.

Thank you, Molly! Thank you, Ellie, for taking my jubilation so patiently. I was too cute for words. I just couldn’t believe our luck. Everybody needs a taste, now and then.

And now to my machines.

(Mitch Clogg)

FOUND OBJECT