MCT: Wednesday, October 7, 2020

• Storms Systems
• 1021 Cases
• Barn Sale
• Fire Updates
• Hear Something
• Supes Headlines
• Vintage Mendocino
• Ed Notes
• Giauque Reward
• Grease Drive-in
• Ballot Challenge
• Bench Boys
• Smith Plea
• Yesterday's Catch
• Village Zoom
• Oliver Plows
• Pumpkin Not
• Tourist Garage
• Cannabis Grant
• Possibly Alcazar
• Spotter Training
• Fire Science
• Deep Strings
• Water Future
• Funeral Notice
• Political Mail
• Cuckoo's Nest
• Brain Death
• Catchy Tune
• Lying Comfortably
• Gun Industry
• Found Object

AN UPPER RIDGE currently located over the western United States is forecast to break down during the second half of the week as upper troughing occurs over the northeastern Pacific Ocean. A series of storms systems will then impact the West Coast, which will favor cooler and more humid conditions, as well as periods of rain Friday and Saturday. (NWS)

ELEVEN MORE COVID CASES reported in Mendo on Tuesday. Total now 1021. Another death.

"About 150,000 of the 210,000 confirmed U.S. virus deaths have occurred among people 65 or older." (New York Times)

BARN SALE OPENING, Oct. 17, 10 am to 3 pm and Oct. 18, noon to 3 pm. 

Halloween costumes, furniture, clothing, household goods, DVDs, CDs, linens, art, and more. Social distancing and masks. 12761 Anderson Valley Way, Boonville, CA

FIRE UPDATES

Glass Fire: 67,200 acres; 58% contained

Crews experienced minimal fire behavior throughout the night. These conditions consisted of creeping and smoldering within the current fire perimeter. Aggressive mop-up and tactical patrol continue in areas where the fire’s forward progress has stopped. As people start returning home, be vigilant that emergency crews are still working in the area.

fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/9/27/glass-fire/

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August Complex: 1,011,493 acres; 60% contained

Evacuation orders reduced to evacuation warnings near Elk Creek and Big Signal Peak in Mendocino County

fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/8/16/august-complex-includes-doe-fire/

SUPES HEADLINES

(More to come on these items later this week.)

Apparently nobody wants the highly-touted training center in Redwood Valley that was called for in Measure B and purchased with Measure B funding. The County’s mental health staff and contractors have no idea what to do with it. And the current Sheriff is neutral on even using it as a substation. Supervisors Ted Williams and John Haschak thought it might be nice if there was a “business plan” for the Training Center.

The Sheriff’s request for about $2.2 million in additional funding for pot-related law enforcement devolved into a discussion of the failed pot permit program and then drifted into asking the state’s bloated and torpid pot permit bureaucracy for more enforcement money. No new County money was discussed or suggested. Translation/Prediction: Nothing will change.

Sheriff’s overtime over-run: Budget officer Darcie Antle said that the Sheriff is now on target to use about as much overtime as last year, i.e., $1.6 million, about $900k over the token overtime budget of about $750k. This was in spite of the increase in emergencies and crimes compared to the same period last year and the likelihood of more before Christmas, so $1.6 sounds like a low-ball guess. Ms. Antle added that the budget situation will be discussed further at the Board’s October 20 First Quarter budget meeting. Ms. Antle had no other budget numbers to present, choosing instead to talk about comp time limits legalities and other covid related activities.

PS. Measure B Project Manager Alyson Bailey successfully avoided any mention of their having forgot to video their September meeting.

(Mark Scaramella)

VINTAGE MENDOCINO

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ED NOTES

THE TRUMP COLOSSUS strode the globe Tuesday as it does every day, today inspiring a panicked stock market sell-off when he tweeted that he would not allow talks on a stimulus bill to go on before the November election. In other words, no help for the millions until you re-elect me. If you don't re-elect me, good luck with Nancy and Chuck when you're freezing in the dark in December. "Immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” and the Dow Jones dove down 300 points in minutes.

THEREUPON commenced some truly hilarious speculation that Trump was suffering 'Roid Rage, the sudden mood swings, aggression and confusion that can accompany steroid treatments like he's getting for Covid. 

TRUMP again compared Covid to the flu, urging his trapped citizens to get their flu shots this year although the COVID fatality rate is much higher, advising us wimps that "Flu season is coming up! Many people die every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!"

DEAR LEADER proceeded to rip Joe Biden as a baby killer. "Biden and Democrats just clarified the fact that they are fully in favor of (very) LATE TERM ABORTION, right up until the time of birth, and beyond - which would be execution." He closes with, all in caps, and a blizzard of exclamation points, "GET OUT & VOTE!!!" He might have added, "It's for the kids." 

EXPERTISE is discounted these days, but there's no denying, although millions do, that the climate has changed, growing hotter and drier in the warm and dry West, hotter and wetter in the more tropical areas of the country. Reputable scientists say it's too late, that the coastal cities of the world will fairly soon become uninhabitable and the West will burn annually. So this guy says to me the other day, "Well, if the government told you to junk your car, would you?" Yes, but the very instant I learned that our Supervisors had funded Mendocino County's very own Climate Advisory Committee, and that the Supes themselves had declared a climate emergency, I knew in my bones that we were cooked and drowned.

THE LATE HARRY BISTRIN was an absolutely fanatical Democrat. I called him their Willy Loman. Always liked the guy. He'd stop by from time to time to urge me to support this or that uninspiring candidate that the Northcoast's secret society-like Demos happened to be foisting off on the captive voters north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Since Harry shuffled off to the mass lib-lab jamboree in the sky, his place has been taken by Joe Wildman, more accurately called Joe Tame Man, but an even more fanatical middle of the road extremist than old Harry. Tame Man and his equivalently fanatical doppelganger, Val Muchowski, keep a close eye on every elected office in the county, from school board to Supervisor and, off stage, get the word out on who the secret society Democrats want to see on, say, the Ukiah City Council and, say, the Coast's Park and Rec board. Gotta admire their commitment, but also ask, Why? It's like going to the wall over an argument between vanilla pudding and cherry jello. If anyone's left to write a history of this area, the anemic liberal politics of the area will be one of the major factors in The Great Slide.

MARSHALL NEWMAN: "According to USGS, The the current Navarro River flow at the gauge is 0.16 cubic feet per second, well below the minimum of 0.22 for this date set in 2015. For perspective, median flow for this date over 69 years is 9.6 cubic feet per second."

"MURDER MOUNTAIN" is the riveting Netflix documentary focused on the Alderpoint area of Southern Humboldt County and, as the title implies, a macbre tale of murdered and missing persons last seen in the northeastern quadrant of the infamous Emerald Triangle of northern Mendo, southern HumCo and northwestern Trinity counties, a rugged vastness peopled by an unusually large number of reverse Rotarians, you might say. On the evening of Saturday August 9, 2003, Chris Giauque went to the Spyrock region of Mendocino County where he had property to meet with a business partner and was never seen again, one more person murdered on Murder Mountain. His remains have never been found. Chris's family has doggedly pursued all leads and continues to doggedly pursue all leads. If you know anything that might be helpful to resolution of the mystery of Chris Giauque's disappearance, please contact his father.

FATHER SEEKS SON’S REMAINS AND DOUBLES REWARD TO $400,000

From: "Bob Giauque" <bob@chrisreward.org>

Below is information that may be of interest to your audience. The information is in regards to the cold case of missing medical marijuana advocate Chris Giauque. Chris disappeared 17 years ago in the Spyrock region of Mendocino County. The reward fund for information regarding the case has been increased to $400,000.

Bob Giauque (father of Chris Giauque)

Contact information: Telephone number: 707-865-0933 and email: bob@chrisreward.org

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Press Release

Father Offers $200,000 for Locating Son’s Remains, Doubling Total Reward to $400,000.

On the evening of Saturday August 9, 2003, Chris Giauque went to the Spyrock region of Mendocino County to meet with a business partner. 

This area is north of Laytonville, CA. Chris lived in the Salmon Creek area of Humboldt County. Two days after Chris disappeared he was reported missing by his wife of two weeks. She was accompanied by a lawyer and Chris’ business partner. After 7 years, Chris was declared dead by the court. His death certificate was purged by his wife’s civil lawyer and kept confidential. In 2012, Chris’ father established a reward fund of $200,000 for information regarding the case. Although a vast amount of information has been received and a number of leads have been provided, Chris’ remains have not been located. In October 2020, the reward fund was doubled to $400,000. Chris Giauque deserves a proper family burial. The sum of $200,000 is offered for information that leads to the recovery of Chris’ remains. An additional sum of $200,000 is offered for information that leads to the arrest and subsequent conviction of the individuals responsible for the disappearance of Chris Giauque. 

Contact Chris’ father, Bob Giauque at 707-865-0933 or Private Investigator, Dawn King at 707-287-7603. Sources can remain confidential. More information regarding this case can be found at chrisreward.org

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What Happened To Chris Giauque?

by Daniel Mintz, February 15, 2012

Having been awarded $200,000 from his presumed murdered son Chris’s estate, Bob Giauque says he can think of no better way to spend it than to post a reward to find out who the killer is.

Missing since the night of Aug. 9, 2003, when he arranged to meet a partner to receive a money drop-off related to a Mendocino County marijuana-growing venture, it is assumed Chris Giauque was murdered. Although there’s been an investigation of multiple suspects and persons of interest, police haven’t been able to pin the crime on anyone.

Members of his family have sought information on their own and the newest effort is Bob Giauque’s offer of $150,000 for information leading an arrest and conviction and an additional $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of his son’s remains.

He’s sent letters to over 1,400 post office box recipients in Laytonville detailing aspects of the crime and offering the reward. The return address on the envelopes asks the question, “Do you know who murdered me?” and the second line reads “$200,000 reward” in red letters.

Giauque has also set up a website, Chrisreward.org, to describe the circumstances of his son’s apparent murder and list contact information for tips. “I’m getting a number of phone calls from Garberville, Willits and Laytonville and I’m trying to piece things together,” he said.

He added that more than one caller has relayed secondhand information indicating that Chris’ body was “severely mutilated.” Giauque said the unresolved disappearance continues to unnerve people who apparently know of it.

“The people I’m talking to are scared shitless,” he said. He will arrange meetings, he continued, but only when accompanied by the private investigator he’s hired. “I’m not going to be picked off alone,” said Giauque.

The reward money’s been placed in an account with second and third trustees who are “very knowledgeable” about the case, so “silencing me won’t stop things,” he continued.

Since the day he learned of his son’s disappearance, Giauque has been convinced that a robbery and homicide occurred. “From day one, I considered him dead,” he said.

He knew of his son’s marijuana-growing ventures on multiple properties in Humboldt and Mendocino counties and once visited one of his grow sites in Salmon Creek. Giauque said he’s never tried marijuana himself — except maybe the contact high he got when he accompanied Chris to a Grateful Dead concert in Oakland — but believes it should be legalized and wasn’t judgmental about Chris’ lifestyle.

He described Chris as a loving son who was particularly close to his mother. Giauque said Chris’ thoughtfulness was shown at Christmastime and one of the more memorable gifts he got from his son was a finely-crafted axe made in Sweden — one he needed to chop the wood that’s his only source of heat at his remote Sonoma County home.

There were aspects of Chris’ childhood that set the pace for the rest of his life. He had heart surgery when he was four years old and again, to fix valve leakage, when he was 16. “Chris had a question about how long he’d live and that made him open to taking more risks,” Giauque said.

One of them was arranging to meet his partner in the Spy Rock area of Mendocino County on the night of his disappearance to pick up $150,000 that was owed to him. Giauque believes numerous people became aware of the meeting and that his son went there alone.

He said he’s gotten a “very good response” to his mailings and website so far. “A number of people they said wanted to contact me in the past and were told not to do so,” Giauque said. “Some of these people feel very badly about what Chris’ family has gone through and it has bothered their consciences for many years.”

And after many years, Giauque is committed to working to find his son’s killer. “I am driven and even my private investigator tells me he would hate to have me going after him,” he said.

To provide information on the disappearance of Chris Giauque, call Bob Giauque at 707-865-0933, e-mail him at bob@chrisreward.org or send him mail at P.O. Box 609, Monte Rio, CA 95462.

Giauque’s private investigator, Doug Newton can be reached by phone at 707-473-9119, by e-mail at newtonslaw@aol.com or by mail at 401 Center St. #19, Healdsburg, CA 95448.

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FROM CHRISREWARD.ORG:

On the evening of Saturday August 9, 2003, Chris Giauque went to the Spy Rock area and met with a business partner, Ben Lomax, near the Iron Peak lookout point. This area is north of Laytonville in Mendocino County. Chris was on probation for cultivation of marijuana and reportedly left his vehicle, a 1994 blue Toyota extracab pickup truck, at this location as he did not want to be seen in his truck on the property that he, Ben Lomax, and Adrian Vasquez owned at 8500 Simmerly Road, Covelo. Reportedly, Ben Lomax gave Chris a ride into and out of the property. Chris was reported as last seen in this area around 9pm. It is presumed that he became a robbery-homicide victim. Chris had made this trip to pick up a substantial amount of cash from Ben Lomax. Ben had apparently let a number of people in the area know of the pending business transaction.

In an apparent attempt to steer the initial investigation away from Mendocino County, Chris’ vehicle was dropped off the following day in Humboldt County approximately 50 miles north of Spy Rock Road and two miles south of Myers Flat on the Avenue of the Giants near Elk Creek Road. This is north of the Salmon Creek area where Chris had his home. Most likely his vehicle traveled along Bell Springs Road to the site where it was dropped off. Another vehicle driven by a second person followed Chris’ Toyota extracab pickup truck and after Chris’ vehicle was abandoned, the driver was picked up by the person following the Toyota.

Among the individuals of interest in this case are Ben Lomax and Scott McKinney. Scott also owned a property on Simmerly Road. On Sunday, August 10, 2003, Scott was seen with one of his upper arms heavily bandaged and apparently he had sought medical attention late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. When Scott was seen on Saturday afternoon, the day Chris went up to the property, Scott’s arm was not bandaged. Unfortunately, Chris went to the Spy Rock area alone and did not take his dog or anyone with him. However, Chris always carried a knife in his fanny pack. It is possible that Chris used his knife to defend himself.

During the afternoon of Monday, August 11, 2003 Chris was reported missing by Rebecca Smiley Giauque, his wife of two weeks. Rebecca was accompanied by Ben Lomax and Ron Sinoway, a southern Humboldt County lawyer. The report was taken at the Humboldt County Garberville Sheriffs’ substation. Needless to say, it is rather unusual that a spouse reports her husband missing while being accompanied by a lawyer and the last person who admits to seeing Chris before his disappearance.

Bob Giauque, Chris’ father, was notified of Chris’ disappearance the evening of August 11, 2003. When Bob made contact with Rebecca, her first comment was that she was considered a suspect in Chris’ disappearance. The following day when Bob again made contact with Rebecca, he was told that she was advised by her lawyer not to have any further communication with him. Less than a month after Chris was reported missing, Rebecca, with the assistance of Humboldt County civil lawyer, Kelly Walsh, filed papers in Humboldt County Superior Court to request that she be given control of Chris’ assets and be named the conservator of Chris’ estate. Although Bob Giauque contested this action, the court awarded the conservatorship to Rebecca because a spouse is usually given precedence. On September 9, 2010 an order that established the fact of death for Chris was signed in Humboldt County Superior Court. This order was kept confidential.

It is extremely sad to lose a family member to a robbery-homicide. To this date, Chris’ body has not been located. What happened to Chris can also happen to other individuals who grow and process marijuana in the Spy Rock area. A life is worth substantially more than whatever money is gained.

Chris was a Caucasian, six-feet tall, weighing 145 lbs with blue eyes. He had a full beard and sandy blond hair in dreadlocks, which were four-feet long. Chris was a very high profile individual. A number of people are aware of the events and the circumstances that led up to his disappearance. The perpetrators of this crime should not be allowed to go on with their lives as though nothing happened.

Bob Giauque, the father of Chris Giauque, is offering a $150,000 reward [in 2012] for information leading to the arrest and subsequent conviction of the individuals responsible for this homicide. An additional sum of $50,000 is being offered for information that leads to the recovery of Chris’ remains. A trust account with these funds has been established at Luther Burbank Savings in Santa Rosa. If anything should ever happen to Bob Giauque, the reward funds will remain available until 2018 from the person responsible for handling Bob’s estate.

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https://mendocinosheriff.com/project/chris-robert-giauque/

HERE THEY COME!

Voting by Mail

We begin receiving our ballots for the November 3 election this week.

If you have questions about whether your mail-in ballot was received or whether it was challenged for any reason, go to this site: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/assessor-county-clerk-recorder-elections/elections/vote-by-mail-absentee-status

If your ballot was challenged it will show up here. If there is *no challenge code,* your ballot was accepted and counted.

— Norma Watkins <watkins.norma@gmail.com>

MURALIST LAUREN SINNOTT WRITES: I love it that people recognize all the Raccoon Lodge Bench Boys in this scene in my mural in downtown Ukiah! The photo shoot was fun. 

See the whole thing here: www.goddess.graphics

SMITH PLEAS TO ANIMAL ABUSE

Rather than go forward with her demand for a jury trial that was scheduled to begin on Tuesday, October 6th, defendant Katie Rhiannon Smith, age 34, of Caspar, instead entered an open plea of no contest Monday morning to having committed felony animal abuse in December 2019 against a dog now widely-known as ‘Thunder the Wonder Dog: the Cone Dog from the Woods.’

As charged by the District Attorney, the felony conduct that the defendant admitted having committed was that she maliciously and intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, or wounded a living animal, to wit, Thunder.

By statute, the maximum sentence that the sentencing judge may impose in this matter is a prison sentence of up to 36 months in the Realignment local prison (Low Gap) and a fine of up to $20,000.

The defendant was ordered to return to the Fort Bragg courtroom on December 2, 2020 at 9 o’clock in the morning for the formal sentencing hearing.

As used herein, an “open” plea means no promises were made by the prosecution as to what sentence the defendant will ultimately receive as her sanction.

As used herein, a “no contest” plea to a felony is the same as a guilty plea for all purposes.

‘Thunder the Wonder Dog: the Cone Dog from the Woods’ was an injured and abused canine found wandering in a Mendocino coastal forest in December 2019 and rescued by concerned citizens. See, https://www.pressdemocrat.com/…/wonder-dog-found…/… .

It was later determined by the veterinarian that Thunder was suffering from gunshot wounds, dehydration and malnutrition.

Any interested member of the community who would like to weigh in on this matter, make respectful comment, and/or urge a particular outcome may send a letter no later than November 18th to:

Mendocino County Adult Probation Department
Re: Thunder The Wonder Dog
700 S. Franklin, Rm 107,
Fort Bragg, CA 95437

Likewise, any community member interested in the outcome of this case is welcome to attend the sentencing hearing on December 2nd at the courthouse at 700 S. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg.

Facial coverings and social distancing will be required for all attending the December 2nd sentencing hearing.

The law enforcement agencies that investigated this crime were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino County Animal Control, and the District Attorney’s own investigators.

Great care and assistance was provided by the Mendocino Coast Humane Society and their medical staff, particularly Dr. Bartholomew.

This case was originally reviewed and charged by District Attorney Eyster. The assigned prosecutor is Deputy District Attorney Josh Rosenfeld.

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 6, 2020

ILEANA AMRULL, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SAMANTHA ARRIGONI, Fairfax/Ukiah. Resisting. 

JORDAN BOWYER, Nice/Ukiah. Petty theft by felon.

GEORGE CORSETTI, Eureka/Ukiah. Aggravated arson. 

CHRISTOPHER DICK, Redwood Valley. Grossly negligent discharge of firearm, child endangerment, ammo possession by prohibited person, possession of firearm after being prohibited by court order, disobeying court order.

BENJAMIN GAYSKI, Willits. Domestic battery, protective order violation, probation revocation.

JACKIE MONTIETH, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

MARK NEWELL, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear, probation revocation.

GRANADOS RODRIGUEZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

GINA ST.CHARLES, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

LEONEL VALENZUELA II, Ukiah. Domestic battery, false imprisonment, possession of assault weapon, manufacture or import or short-barreled rifle, felon-addict with firearm, probation revocation.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, controlled substance, probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS, Mendocino. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, controlled substance.

CECILIA YOUNG, Willits. Domestic battery.

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY ZOOM GATHERING: Understanding CA Ballot Measures

Sunday October 11th, 4 to 5 PM

We will cover the ballot measures, pros, cons and possible positions, of the upcoming November 2020 election. Check here for more a detailed description of the CA Propositions: https://lao.ca.gov/BallotAnalysis/Propositions

Zoom link will be emailed to our mailing list at least the week before, please RSVP with the coordinator so we can get an idea of attendance, thank you.

Participants will be muted but can submit questions through the chat feature or ahead of time by email (andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com).

Looking forward to seeing you soon! BYOB for a more enjoyable event!

Anderson Valley is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: AV Village Monthly Zoom Gathering: Understanding CA Ballot Measures

Time: Oct 11, 2020 04:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4343376734?pwd=WTV0L0ZNemh2MS8wdmYvYTQ2NXNxUT09#success

Meeting ID: 434 337 6734

Passcode: avv

Dial in: +1 669 900 9128 US

Anica Williams
Anderson Valley Village Coordinator
Cell: 707-684-9829
Email: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

NO PUMPKIN STROLL

To the Editor:

Over 30 years, the Enchanted Pumpkin Path has grown into a beloved community tradition – offering young children in our community a safe, fun alternative to trick-or-treating on Halloween. Adults too often enjoy watching familiar stories come to life and mingling with friends and neighbors in the Smoky Cauldron Café or playing games.

This year the Waldorf School of Mendocino County is sad to announce that current Mendocino County Shelter In Place guidelines preclude all possibility of safely hosting any version of this magical event. We wish families in our county good health and look forward to next autumn when we can once again welcome the larger community to share the experience of the Enchanted Pumpkin Path.

Emily Rose Smith,

The Waldorf School of Mendocino County

LAKE COUNTY AND THE LOVE DRUG

The County of Lake has decided to apply for almost a million dollars from the “Proposition 64 Health and Safety Grant Program funded through the California State and Local Government Enforcement Account and administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections (hereafter referred to as the BSCC)." The proposed application will be presented to our Board of Supervisors on October 6, 2020, for the primary purposes of reducing youth consumption of cannabis products and adding code enforcement staff to prosecute illegal producers/growers here.

https://countyoflake.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8818004&GUID=6D189EF2-966F-473B-822C-030415A1DAC2

Section 1-1 of the 8-page Proposal Narrative (Page 20) offers “some historical perspective into how pervasive the cannabis industry has been in the County. Although records specifically addressing cannabis can sometimes be difficult to identify, a review of records produced by the Campaign Against Marijuana Task Force (CAMP) can offer insight here. In a review of two different time periods, 1984-1995 & 2004-2009, Lake County was consistently in the top 10 counties for the average number of plants eradicated. In fact, by the 2004-2009 period, Lake County was #1 on this list, with is share of plants eradicated by law enforcement being higher than Humboldt County and Mendocino County combined.

“Now, with cannabis legalized for adults to purchase and possess, the County is faced with the new needs. Education and services targeted at youth must include cannabis use as part of their outreach, much in the same way that other regulated substances such as alcohol and tobacco already have been. Large fields of cannabis are now visible throughout the County where they previously were hidden, raising the profile of cannabis to our youth in a way that previously was not possible. These operations raise concerns on the other end of the spectrum as well, with the County now contending with large numbers of cultivation sites that are not following the State and local regulations. These unpermitted sites are not subject [to] any of the health and safety procedures in place to protect the public, and serve a black market that frustrates regulators and licensed cultivators alike.”

Section 1.2a goes on to state: “In 2017, according to data aggregated by the Lucille Packard Foundation in coordination with the California Healthy Kids Survey, Lake County students from 7th - 11th grade responded with higher levels of drug and alcohol use than the state average. When the question involved cannabis use specifically within the prior month, the percentage of use was 74% - 400% higher than the state average.

An intense program of “Family WRAP services will be given to the family for no less than 90 days,” including a team comprised of “a team lead facilitator, a youth partner, a parent partner, rehab specialist and a member from juvenile probation and behavior [sic] health.”

A total of “10 students and their families will be managed by the Family WRAP team.” This for an apparent epidemic of substance abuse spread throughout the entire school system.

In the area of Code Enforcement, “already approximately 250 cases [of unlawful cultivation] have been initiated and an overwhelming amount of territory to cover is the primary obstacle to making further progress” . . . “[w]ith only one Code Enforcement officer working [these] cases.”

“For Code Enforcement, there are the objective statistics that hopefully will reflect an increased ability to engage in enforcement operations, such as the number of citations issued, fines assessed, cases closed, etc. Then there may be more subjective indicators, such as increased cooperation with regulatory mechanisms, fewer complaints, greater ability to investigate more remove areas, etc. The County has also been investigating the use of satellite imagery for identifying cannabis cultivation, which may be able to offer a historical perspective of before and after the program, hopefully indicating a reduction in unlawful cultivation rather than a continued proliferation.”

The author of this prose also claims that “[t]here has consistently been concern expressed by the County’s populace, elected officials, and government offices regarding both topics of concern in this proposal. During the crafting of the County’s own cannabis tax measure these areas (Law Enforcement; Educational Programs on Youth Drug & Alcohol Abuse) were specifically included as priorities by the electorate.” 

Presumably, the alleged expressions of concern emerge from the same “populace” that offered their heart-felt contributions to the County’s “Vision 2028” — a confabulation assembled by the Administration to which the County’s Board of Supervisors “swore allegiance” in a public hearing. Boffo. http://www.lakecountyca.gov/Government/Directory/Administration/Visioning/Vision2028.htm

Simultaneously, the County’s insouciance to known disaster preparedness responsibilities (in compliance with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000) has rendered our archaic communication systems nearly obsolete — when we have them (for example, the National Weather Services does not have a local broadcast repeater in this county; those of us who live in the northwestern quadrant may or may not get the direct signal from Mendocino’s Laughlin Ridge — and all the agencies now seem to rely on social media for “public education").

Serious delays in abating blighted parcels with tax default status (some of them on the books since 1981, a year after the formation of the City of Clearlake), frivolous investments in unmanageable (and unsellable) properties such as the Holiday Harbor in Nice and the old hotel in Lucerne being the most noticeable among the albatrosses draining our anemic property tax revenues (Lake County Grand Jury report of 2016-2017, http://www.lakecountyca.gov/Assets/County+Site/Grand+Jury/Final+Reports/2016-2017+Final+Report.pdf?method=1), and marginally effective drum-beating for “economic development” and “tourism” have contributed significantly to the Horse Latitudes in which our ship of state is becalmed.

No one can question or break through the facade of California’s febrile education system, and the future faced by our deeply “disadvantaged” communities is enough to drive anyone to drink. Think all this will reduce crime? Not when the state’s law enforcement agencies are hamstrung and the raucous outcry for protection of private citizens’ “Constitutional rights” (to not use Personal Protective Equipment and refrain from “social gatherings”) captures the attention of Farcebook hysteria of the moment — when there is no imminent threat of megafires on the near horizon.

Roll another one . . . 

SKY STUDIES, a reader writes:

Our NWS Eureka guy, Ryan Aylward, said there are up to 150 slots in the webinar capacity, the classes are open to EVERYONE and the public is invited. Have forwarded to our LCOE coordinators who may decide to offer it to the “distance learning” parents and students — some of whom may want to become official SPOTTERS and participate in the public education and outreach activities. 

Ryan also said he discovered that the Point Arena NWS repeater actually reaches a goodly chunk of Lake County; one of the many communication processes we need to upgrade here — Lake County has no NWS repeaters installed locally, biggest gap is South County, because at least on the western lake side, we can pick up whatever comes off Laughlin Ridge — when the wind doesn’t toss them into the ether. 

Two hours, free, learn about your local skies and storm formation.

THE WEST’S INFERNOS ARE MELTING OUR SENSE OF HOW FIRE WORKS

42,000-foot plumes of ash. 143-mph firenadoes. 1,500-degree heat. These wildfires are a new kind of hell on earth, and scientists are racing to learn its rules.

wired.com/story/west-coast-california-wildfire-infernos/

UKIAH COMMUNITY CONCERT ASSOCIATION PRESENTS DEEP STRINGS VIRTUAL RECITAL

“… a riotous, touching, gentle or painful, softly grooving or nervously driving sounding out of tonal and rhythmic possibilities.” – Starnberger Merkur 

Ukiah, October 5 – Two cellists, Stephan Braun and Anne-Christin Schwarz are impressive with their brilliant timing and new perceptual playing technique. Ms. Schwarz also adds vocals, bringing yet another dimension. The two Berliners who have created their very own sound since 2000 reveal unique ways of dealing with rhythm, melody and language - a mixture of lyrical pop melodies, jazz improvisations and virtuoso classical cello.

The recital was created specifically for the Mendocino County audience and will be released via Zoom for 2020-21 season subscribers and anyone purchasing a single event ticket via Brown Paper Tickets. The program will include conversation between the artists about their music and how they work which will be live-hosted by several of the UCCA Board members.

Recital viewers need only a computer (desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, Android, or tablet), a reliably strong internet connection, and an email address to which UCCA can send the Zoom link. After the October 18 release, the entire program will be loaded onto UCCA’s YouTube channel and be available to subscribers and single-event ticket buyers for 30 days.

Deep Strings were awarded first prize at the Jazz & Blues Award Berlin and have made guest appearances at well-known festivals such as the Baltic Sea Jazz Festival, the Thuringian Jazz Mile, the Düsseldorf Jazz Rally and the Leipzig Bach Festival. Since April 2013 Anne-Christin has been a lecturer for chamber string music at the "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" University of Music and Theater in Leipzig. Stephan Braun toured personally with Melody Gardot, the Kristjan Randalu Quartet, and the Klezmer clarinetist Giora Feidman. He teaches at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover.

Tickets for the recital are $30 available through Brown Paper Tickets at https://deepstrings.bpt.me. Free access will be available to Mendocino College students who request tickets in advance as part of our continuing educational outreach program. For more information, please call 707-463-2738, or send an email through www.ukiahconcerts.org. Please visit us and Like us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The Ukiah Community Concert Association has been presenting internationally acclaimed talent since 1947. This all-volunteer nonprofit’s mission is to build and maintain an enthusiastic concert audience by presenting stellar and enticing live performances. It is also their goal to encourage and develop music appreciation in the schools because Live Music makes Life Better! 

UCCA thanks our members for their continued support as well as our sponsors Schat’s Bakery, Black Oak Coffee, and Rivino Winery and W/E Flowers. Special thanks to the Mendocino Arts Club and Mendocino College Recording Arts & Technology club for their ongoing support and collaboration.

THE FUTURE OF WATER TOWNHALL

From: Glenn McGourty <mcgourtyfor1st@gmail.com>

 Join The Interactive Townhall Tomorrow

When: Wednesday, October 7th - 5:30-6:30 PM

What: Potter Valley Project Relicensing, Raising Coyote Dam, How Rainfall is Changing In The Western United States

Speakers: Janet Pauli, Dr. Sam Sandoval, & Dr. Gregory V. Jones

We're looking forward to tomorrow's meeting, sharing vital information, and hearing your thoughts about the future of water in Mendocino County. 

You can join us online starting at 5:30 pm by following this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83746552028

or call in by phone: +1 669 900 6833 US

Meeting ID: 837 4655 2028

Looking forward to seeing you and hearing your thoughts and concerns,

- Glenn

DOUBLE DELIVERY FOR MENDO?

From: J T Arnold via Breathe <breathe@lists.mcn.org>

Subject: Mendo P.O. and Garbage

Date: October 6, 2020 at 5:08:57 PM PDT

I just spoke to Robin, who was redelivering political mail that had been left on the table by the front door of the post office. The post office has received a new directive requiring them to make sure all political mail makes it home with the addressee, to avoid any question of postal employees diverting or tossing mail. To reduce the volume of mail they have to redeliver (and the overtime they have to work!), they have removed the garbage cans from the lobby, at least until the election is over. 

My observation is that postal employees are under a great deal of stress, dealing with long lines, having to wear masks all day, customers with their own problems -- and some not being as nice as they might otherwise be. 

Please be kind to the postal workers by taking your garbage and political mail (some of which may fail into both categories) home with you. 

Thank you,

Jean

ANOTHER CAPITALIST MARKET BRAND: BRAIN DEATH

by Frank Scott

America and the world are suffering a crisis of capitalism like no other in recent history. With an economy teetering on a mountain of incredible debt without which it could not continue, and a virus threatening the globe but with the highest death toll in America and even a president leading in gross ignorance about it testing positive, stresses and strains are created that, while showing positive awakening among some to systemic rather than personal problems, also creates negative descents into fantasy among others that make immaterial religious mythology seem like critical examinations of material reality. 

Approaching a national election which will, as usual, have nothing to do with criticizing the system but only that it be run in more or less polite if continued murderous fashion, the American minority which will elect the captain of the Titanic long after it has hit the iceberg is torn apart over which side of the coin should win when we need an entirely new currency based on the value of humanity and not the market forces of private profit.

An historically honest president, if more blatantly arrogant, egotistical and pinheaded than usual occupants of the subsidized housing at 1600 Pennsylvania avenue, was found intolerable by ruling power and a sign of them losing some of their control was his election to run capital headquarters in the USA.  Constantly called a liar by mind managers whose employers are freaked by his obvious display of what this country is - obnoxious, menacing, rich and dumb - his open honesty is intolerable in a government atmosphere which not only demands insistence that this is a special, wonderful, faultless nation, but rhetorical behavior that is able to call mass murder democracy and the reduction of more of the population to near and real poverty the expression of magical market forces.

The new virus, a product of market dominated nature, is still poorly understood among a medical scientific community in America devoted, as is every other aspect of the economy, to creating private profit before rather than after, if ever, public good. But critics of the severe reactions on the part of some authority sincerely working in the dark but trying to cope with something never encountered before, has led to accepting tales of the innocently bemused and confused, along with more serious and problematic claims from allegedly sophisticated but often bordering on psychotic types, about all manner of lies, plots, conspiracies and manipulations of public consciousness previously unknown to those who’ve been napping for more than this century and have missed the distortions, misinformation, mind management and consciousness control exercised by market controllers of news, and other aspects of what are called democracy at the universal mall. 

Thus, the virus is a plot organized by the elders of Zion in league with Google, or an American disease created in a lab in China, while the Chinese were all out eating fried rice, taking naps or shopping for wind chimes, or, a pharmaceutical arrangement to make money – in stark and shocking contrast to any and every other capitalist endeavor in history! - or just regular madness. This, while Russia and China are allegedly interfering online with American’s messages about their lunch, dogs, gossip, elections and other stuff on anti-social Internet sites like bankbook, insta-brain-mash and flip-flop. They are sending subtle political ads that favor one or the other major party candidates in an attempt to subvert a cherished national democracy which has never existed for a microsecond let alone elected a majority president in the nation’s history. 

And these mental, physical and even spiritual fantasies come from sources deemed left, right, neo-liberal, neo-conservative, intelligent, thoughtful, deranged, clinically insane, formally educated on the internet by YouTube, or informally educated at colleges and universities. Spreading the fears of capitalist fascism- while excluding the capitalist part - and socialist marxism while understanding neither, has become the alienating job of a tiny minority whose only definition of either menace is that it is bad and they don’t like it because authority told them it was bad and they shouldn’t like it. This form of voter education has worked in the past to bring us the present crowning achievement of lesser evil politics providing a choice between cancer and polio which assures the disease continues, and that, as always, lots of people profit from it but even more will not. They will become critically ill, die or be driven to extreme actions for survival the longer ruling power of a wealth-beyond-belief minority is allowed to remain enthroned while we are reduced to arguing over whether transsexuals of color or disabled agnostics or Hispanic atheists of no color should be part of the crew of our sinking ship.

The spectacle of an alleged debate between the candidates of the capitalist party with two caucuses which would have made Beavis and Butthead blush may have convinced more people of the problems we face which cannot be dealt with by its creators. The fact that an overwhelming majority of Americans did not view the ugly farce is a credit to the consciousness of the truly silent majority, as a near deranged minority of fake left and phony right mobs follow the lead of their minority mind managers and shriek in horror about a fascist attack from white supremacists or a socialist marxist subversion into mass murder which is likely to result if one or the other lesser evil is not led, carried or wheeled into the oval office. The serious language molestation has led to use and abuse of words like fascist, genocide and white supremacist but they join the criminal use of words like democracy, equality and humanity to cover the direct opposite of those when we rely on vicious combat among individuals in order to put food on the table, roofs over our heads and clothing on our backs. Nothing is free at the temple of the free market.

 As this is written the incumbent has tested positive for what he, in his infinite ignorance, calls the China virus. He has his own radically mad interpretations of reality and has not heard the incredibly brilliant notion that the U.S. created the virus but did so in chinese labs, un-noticed by any of the one billion four hundred million chinese, especially their allegedly total authoritarian ruling power that controls everything they say or do. Or believe, if you’re an American who, under24-7 brain molesting by major and minor anti-social media is worried about foreign intervention in our sacred electoral hypocrisy. According to polls, this is the belief of an overwhelming majority of innocents answering to the name “democrats”. 

Creeping crackpotism is no longer confined to wacko legions of a pseudo right, which is mostly composed of abused citizens with no place else to go. Presently liberal legions are swept up in fanatic beliefs that make some right wing fantasies almost seem thoughtful. The hope for the future is that the overwhelming majority of Americans who are totally unrepresented by what passes for a supposed left and right will eventually, after not voting for either of the servants of Wall Street, the Pentagon or Israel, demand and take part in the creation of a new party to represent, for the first time, a majority of American people. We need to hurry that process before the tiny ruling minority bring on more friction and unbridled hatred among their larger minority of those most susceptible to derangement because of the deranged mental state inflicted by ruling mind managers and consciousness controllers. 

A nation fairly obsessed with mental problems of a trivial nature, all dealt with by a psycho-neurotic marketplace in which some cannot decide what to eat for lunch until they’ve spoken to a therapist, needs to become far more concerned about physical breakdowns occurring with increasing frequency, but we also need to take much better care of our collective mental state, which, under increasing and more irrational by the minute conditions now comes close to reducing the nation to a mental health crisis center.

Whatever the outcome of the November national election, the best news will be that a majority of the electorate, as always, will be sound enough of mind to not vote for the winner or loser, and that soon after, because earth as well as the USA is running out of time, a transformation to a new order will take up more speed and bring about real democracy and a new nation as part of a new world that offers a future for all and not just some of humanity. Remembering, or learning for the first time, that we are all members of the one human race will help us move in the direction of acting as such. Not only our mental health will improve but more importantly the physical foundation on which it depends. That was obvious to our primitive communist ancestors and we need to learn to emulate their cooperative means of survival in modern democratic form. Fast.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Half full or half empty, it’s time for a refill. It’s a new, catchy tune to me.

“If lust and hate is the candy, if blood and love tastes so sweet…”

“Then we give ’em what they want”. 

Sinuous, lovely lines that one likes to dwell on. I wonder what’s behind the wall of beautiful bougainvillea. Maybe I could take one as a boutonniere or you could put one in your hair.

IN AMERICA’S BLOOD

by Deborah Friedell

Twenty years ago, the National Rifle Association didn’t know what to do after a mass shooting. But it now has the protocol down: it’s had, after all, plenty of practice. First: keep quiet. Cancel events and interviews, stop updating Twitter and Facebook. If cornered, say: “This is a time to mourn, not to play politics.” Or: “The anti-gun zealots are exploiting a tragedy to advance their anti-freedom agenda.” Meanwhile, NRA fundraisers will be trying to reach all their five million members to let them know that this time it’s serious, the liberals are coming for their guns, and they need to dig deep and donate whatever can be spared to “freedom’s safest place,” the NRA. 

On their own, the members will have already started calling politicians to demand that they not back down on gun freedom: 60% of Americans, when surveyed, are in favor of stricter gun control laws, but you wouldn’t know it from a congressman’s call log. On its website, the NRA advises members not to threaten the politicians they telephone, and to be careful about identifying themselves as members of the NRA, since “unfortunately, many anti-gun politicians are under the misguided impression that NRA members only say what NRA tells them to say.”

What the NRA no longer does after a mass shooting is grovel before Congress, as its flustered head did after Columbine in 1999, when – was that shame? – he testified that anyone who buys a gun should have to pass a background check (he took that back a few years later), and agreed that guns shouldn’t be allowed in schools (he took that back too). 

With reporters, silence and deflection tend to work well enough, but if a particular mass shooting seems to be getting more attention than usual, or if even Republican allies start suggesting that maybe they’re not completely unsympathetic to “some common-sense gun laws,” then the NRA takes to the airwaves, ideally with an attractive young mother as its spokeswoman. She’ll say: gun control doesn’t work, it just keeps law-abiding folks from protecting their children, since criminals will always find a way to get guns. In Chicago they have some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, and how’s that working out for them? More than one hundred Americans are killed every day by cars – will you outlaw cars too? Will you force women to defend themselves against murderers and rapists with knives? And she’ll quote Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s leader, who likes to say that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” In 2012, after 26 people (twenty of them six and seven-year-olds) were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he suggested that every school in America should have “an extraordinary corps” of armed citizens patrolling the halls. After all, Obama’s daughters were protected with guns: “Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” an NRA ad asked. In 2018, after 17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, LaPierre said the solution was to arm teachers. News stations followed by holding debates on whether teachers should pack heat, with federal funds allocated to shooting lessons. Never mind gun control. The next month, the NRA broke a 15-year fundraising record.

LaPierre likes to say that shooting is in America’s blood: it’s what Americans have always done, with the right to own guns “granted by God to all Americans as our American birthright.” But as Frank Smyth points out in his new history of the NRA, the organization was actually founded because a group of Union Army veterans were dismayed by how few Americans actually knew how to shoot, particularly compared with Europeans. According to one of its founders, George Wingate of the New York National Guard, “the Civil War had demonstrated with bloody clarity that soldiers who could not shoot straight were of little value. This situation, and the general ignorance concerning marksmanship which I found among our soldiers during the Civil War, appalled me.” He assumed that Americans would eventually be drawn into a European war in which they would be outmatched, particularly against the Prussians with their superior rear-loading rifles.

Among Democrats, if only in the most left-leaning districts, being bashed by the NRA can be useful – it confers cred. And although some Republicans are occasionally wary of the NRA’s support (George W. Bush worried that it would hurt him among suburban women), that doesn’t mean they want the NRA to endorse some more freedom-loving Republican in the next primary. When the NRA donates directly to politicians, the amounts are usually on the small side, often less than $10,000 to congressmen, a bit more to senators. But where the NRA gives, its members follow. They’re dotted all over the country, but tend to be white rural men – a reliable Republican block, but only when they turn up. The NRA prides itself on getting its members registered to vote, which it does at gun shows and conventions, and – through TV ads, mailers, calls and ceaseless emails – delivering them to the polls. They’ve long been able to persuade a certain kind of American man that the NRA represents him and his values, even if he’s personally indifferent to guns. For years, Charlton Heston was re-elected to the NRA presidency because – despite living on an estate in Beverly Hills – when he faced the press, he was able to deliver such lines as:

“Heaven help the God-fearing, law-abiding, Caucasian, middle-class, Protestant or, even worse, Evangelical Christian, Midwest or Southern or, even worse, rural, apparently straight or, even worse, admitted heterosexual, gun-owning or, even worse, NRA-card-carrying, average working stiff, or even, worst of all, a male working stiff, because then, not only don’t you count, you’re a downright menace, an obstacle to social progress, pal.”

Long after his death, NRA members still repeat his catchphrase, “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands” – but no one says it like he could, Moses with a tinge of Ben-Hur. 

As for Black gun owners, well. After the police killed Philando Castile – during a routine traffic stop he disclosed that he had a legally registered firearm in his car, but didn’t take it out – the NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said that he shouldn’t have moved his hands to get out his driver’s license. “I’ve been pulled over while carrying and I had out my permit before the officer got to the car,” she tweeted. “There is a reason they teach this in classes.” 

When the police killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy who was playing with a toy gun, she said that Rice shouldn’t have shown such a “general disrespect for law enforcement.”

In 2015, Obama acknowledged that there were more guns in the US than there had been at the beginning of his presidency, and argued that gun control activists wouldn’t get anywhere until more of their supporters became “single issue voters,” as uncompromising as the other side. 

The next year, the NRA spent $30 million to help Trump get elected, by far the most they’d ever spent on a single race. Only once did Trump seem to disappoint them, when – a few mass shootings into his presidency – he announced that he wanted Democrats and Republicans to “come together and get strong background checks.” LaPierre then tweeted that he’d spoken to the president, and all was well again: “We discussed the best ways to prevent these types of tragedies.” Trump now says that existing checks are actually “very, very strong.”

Trump admits that he’s been bought – “a lot of the people who put me where I am are strong supporters of the Second Amendment” – and says that the best way to prevent gun violence is to build mental institutions (since “mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun”). 

But financially, Trump’s victory was a disaster for the NRA: members became complacent with an ally in the White House, and dues dropped by $35 million. (“We have an unusual business model,” one board member told the New York Times. “The more successful we are, the less money we make.”) 

In the midterm elections, for the first time, the NRA was outspent by gun control advocacy groups, and they’ve had layoffs. All this has made them increasingly dependent on large donations from gun manufacturers, sometimes estimated to be at least 60% of their income. It’s not just American money: a quarter of the guns in the US were made in Europe, and Austrians (Glock), Germans (SIG Sauer) and Italians (Beretta) have donated millions of dollars to the NRA in order to protect their biggest market. The interests of gun sellers and gun buyers often overlap, but not always. I used to wonder why the NRA seemed to value the right to carry a concealed gun over an openly carried one, until it was pointed out to me (in Tom Diaz’s excellent book The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans and What It Will Take to Stop It) that gun manufacturers often make more money from accessories – waistband holsters, ankle holsters, jackets with special pockets, vegan leather handbags with gun compartments – than from the guns themselves.

FOUND OBJECT