Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Changeable Weather | 3 New Cases | Vaccine Passports | River Trickle | Turnout Fire | Mooncycle | Nude Mether | Apple Blossoms | Since Joe | Mulheren Report | Hiram Willits | Cannabis Program | Old PA | Animal Control | Animal Behavior | Supes Surprises | OCD Nightmare | Ed Notes | Forest Light | Cutting Jackson | Yesterday's Catch | Weed Life | Class 1928 | Hippie History | Unthinkable | Indecline | Uncommon Culture | Taco Tuesday | Bourdain Guide | BLM True | Social Security | Mega Corrupters | Grandma | Bigfoot | Boxer | Story Suggestions | Economically Insecure

DRY AND MILD weather is forecast to occur across the interior through Friday, while cool and blustery weather is expected near the coast. After Friday, cooler conditions and widespread rain appears likely Saturday through Monday. (NWS)

3 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

VACCINE PASSPORTS AS A MEANS OF REOPENING OUR ECONOMY

by William Miller, MD; Chief of Staff at Adventist Health – Mendocino Coast Hospital

As countries around the world struggle to reopen their economies in the face of this pandemic, proof of vaccination is being looked at as a way of doing that safely. The idea is that once a person is fully vaccinated against COVID, they would be given a certificate, some people are calling it a passport, proving that they have been vaccinated. This could be a paper certificate, but more likely would be a digital one with a scannable code that is downloaded onto your smart phone. For those without a smart phone, a paper print out with the scannable code could be used. This is like how boarding passes at airports and tickets for entertainment events now work; most of us simply present our phone at the entrance for scanning or print out a copy of our ticket with the code.

Businesses could require such proof before allowing a person entry, thereby allowing them to increase their legal capacity if they are only open to vaccinated persons. It might even boost business, at least from those customers who would feel safer to patronize a location where everyone else is also vaccinated. Obviously, the opposite, negative effect would be barring those who have not been vaccinated.

The travel industry is looking at this, in particular airlines and cruise ships, as a means of resuming normal operations. Opening boarders to international travel is another significant benefit. This might help large entertainment venues such as movie theaters and sports events to reopen at larger capacity seating. Universities are considering requiring students to show proof of vaccination before returning to in person learning or living in a dormitory. Employers may also expect it, such as in healthcare settings and restaurants. 

The concept of requiring documentation of vaccination is not new. Last year, the University of California system required all students and staff to demonstrate that they had the flu shot. Most states, including California, require hospital workers to show proof of a whole host of vaccinations, including the flu shot. 

Several countries are in the process of setting up a COVID vaccine passport system. Israel, which has the highest COVID vaccination rate in the world, started such a passport system in February. The European Union is planning to have one in place by this summer for its 27 member countries. The UK is considering it as well. California recently published new guidelines for some businesses that would allow higher caps on patrons if access is limited to only those who are vaccinated. For example, a theater in an orange-tier county would be capped at 15% indoor capacity, but if the operator of the theater required proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test, then the allowed capacity would more than double to 35%. Such considerations could mean the difference between a business being able to generate enough volume to reopen versus staying closed and risking going out of business.

However, there are many challenges to such a passport system. First, it would likely need to be digital so that confirmation of vaccination would come directly from a government health organization and thus avoid the chance of forgeries such as with the current vaccine ID card being issued now. Setting up a digital authentication system that communicates across multiple platforms is challenging. It will also have to protect a person’s privacy. A concern is how requiring vaccination for something like travel could end up discriminating against people who cannot yet get the vaccine or who choose not to. Worries are also raised that this will open a pandoras box where government could extend this to more than just COVID.

In America, where we are fiercely independent, such considerations are already becoming politicized. Texas and Florida, with Republican held state leadership, are taking steps to ban any requirement for proof of vaccination by businesses in their states. Meanwhile, New York and California, with a leadership majority that is Democrat, are heading in the other direction and considering requiring it. Unfortunately, this may become as divisive as mask wearing mandates with the end result being more confusion, frustration and anxiety instead of what is really needed which is a unified approach to this pandemic.

Despite the issues on both sides around requiring proof of vaccination, we should not lose sight of the fact that these vaccines are the most important development in fighting the pandemic in a way that also preserves our economy; something that stay at home lockdowns and restrictions on businesses do not do. 

“What a miracle for us to live in a time when we can see a vaccine against an epidemic be developed so quickly and to be so effective,” said Sue Symonds, microbiologist at AHMC. “This is amazing, the vaccine is our real chance of getting ahead of this. Without it, the pandemic would probably kill two or three times more people before it is over.”

(The views shared in this weekly column are those of the author, Dr. William Miller, and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher or of Adventist Health.)

HORRIFYING NAVARRO RIVER FLOW DATA

Current flow is 20 percent LESS than the minimum flow recorded in 2015. Yikes!

(Marshall Newman)

TURNOUT FIRE 25% CONTAINED

by Ethan Varian

Firefighters continued battling the 200-acre Turnout fire outside of Boonville in Mendocino County Tuesday, slightly increasing containment of the blaze to 25%, Cal Fire reported.

The fire, which ignited late Sunday afternoon amid hot, breezy and dry conditions, is not threatening homes or structures.

Cooler temperatures Monday night helped firefighters make progress establishing a perimeter around the blaze to prevent it from growing overnight across the steep, rugged terrain near Highway 253 and Boonville Road. [Wrong. About 9 miles up 253 near the Hammond Ranch.] At that time, the fire was at 200 acres and 20% contained.

“The weather has assisted us,” Cal Fire Mendocino spokeswoman Tricia Austin said. “We had the marine layer come in, and that gave us cooler temperatures and more moisture overnight.”

On Tuesday evening, Austin said the fire has burned 200 acres and is 25% contained.

“Firefighters made progress on extinguishing interior hot spots and strengthening the depth of containment lines and removing hazard trees in very rugged terrain,” Austin said.

On Monday, wind gusts blew the fire back on itself, largely keeping the flames from spreading.

About 80 firefighters continue battling the blaze with five engines, four hand crews, a dozer, a water tanker and a helicopter.

Meanwhile, in Sonoma County, firefighters quickly contained a 2-acre brush fire early Tuesday morning just north of Jenner, according to Cal Fire.

The blaze ignited around 12:45 a.m. near Highway 1 and Muniz Ranch Road and did not reach any homes or other structures. Cal Fire could not immediately say what caused the fire.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

RUSSELL DE-ESCALATED IN FORT BRAGG

On Friday, April 16, 2021, at approximately 12:53 p.m., Fort Bragg Police Officers were dispatched to the 500 block of S. Main Street for a report of a naked white male adult standing on the sidewalk in front of 544 S. Main Street. Officers subsequently responded and contacted the subject in front of Rantala Sheet Metal and Heating. 

Upon contact with the subject, he displayed objective symptoms of being under the influence of a controlled substance and displayed erratic behavior. He charged at Officers multiple times and made statements indicating that he did not believe Officers were actual Law Enforcement. The male subject was later identified as Matthew Russell, 39, a transient of no fixed address. 

Officers attempted to verbally de-escalate the situation with Russell and have him remain on the sidewalk for his safety while awaiting medical staff. Russell subsequently fled northbound through private property and Officers requested additional law enforcement assistance from neighboring agencies. 

While searching for Russell, Officers heard shouting in the alleyway to the east near Rantala Sheet Metal and Heating. Upon arriving in the area, Russell was observed inside the driver’s seat of a business’s van being confronted by two employees. Russell was observed with a facial injuries and immediately closed the car door upon Officer’s arrival. Officer’s continued to try to verbally deescalate the situation and have Russell exit the vehicle as he began driving the vehicle southbound through the alleyway. 

Officers pursued Russell on foot as he drove southbound through the alley approaching Walnut Street. Concerned that Russell was entering the pedestrian-heavy areas of Safeway or Starbucks, Officers escalated their approach by smashing the driver side window of the vehicle and extracting Russell at Taser point. Russell was safely taken into custody with minimal force and his injuries were determined to have occurred when he was confronted by the van’s owners. 

Russell was medically cleared due to his elevated state and the facial injuries he received while attempting to steal the van. During the medical clearance process Russell admitted to the recent use of methamphetamine and he was transported to County Jail where he is still being held. 

The Police Department would like to thank the initial witness who reported this intoxicated subject to law enforcement, as well as the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol for their assistance in safely concluding this incident. The Fort Bragg Police Department hopes the public recognizes that these types of calls for service involving individuals with mental health issues and controlled substance abuse have the ability to quickly escalate causing immediate and unanticipated danger to the public. Our Department would also like to recognize the responding Officers, Officer Zavala and Officer McHugh, for their ability to safely de-escalate this potentially deadly situation with no injury to the public and minimal property damage. 

Questions regarding this press release may be directed to Captain O’Neal at (707) 961-2800 ext. 120 or at toneal@fortbragg.com. 

BILL KIMBERLIN: There is a remnant of an old apple orchard on my place in Boonville. At this time of year the apple blossoms gently slap us awake to the change of seasons that even Californians can't quite ignore. 

I remember one evening before I rediscovered Boonville and Anderson Valley, when my lady friend and I stayed in a single rental at the Reilly Heights home which is a landmark in the Valley. About midnight I woke and noticed an unusually bright moonlight. Let us explore I said to a sleepy partner.

Behind the Reilly Heights house was a large apple orchard that on this special night was lit by moonlight. Every white apple blossom was afire with reflected moonlight. Neither of us can forget that evening stroll through that orchard. 

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN:

Well Monday was a long and interesting meeting. The item for Phase 3 cultivation transitioning to a new ordinance CCAO was continued to 4/27 with some direction provided to staff. The BOS heard comment from the public and then deliberated on Supervisor McGourtys memo. I’ve attached it here. I posted the table that we were reviewing over the weekend. An ordinance like this has many pieces and some I was in agreement with the BOS and some not in agreement. 

We started to get in to the Planning Commission recommendations but decided that since it was such a long day and staff needed to be back early the next day (thank you staff!) that the item would be continued. I believe we are all in agreement that we need to give Phase 1 applicants a path forward to legalization (60 day window to get applications in from late April so please be prepared) my concern still remains the 8,000 (? Or so) people that cultivate in our community that did not enter Phase 1 and instead took a wait and see approach. I was surprised when McGourty declared he wanted to remove any indoor or mixed light businesses from the table. I love sun grown cannabis and think it’s beautiful but I also know that there are businesses that are doing mixed light and being environmentally efficient and I don’t think we should automatically remove those people from the market. 

My goal has been and will remain trying to find a way to help those that want to be successful in the cannabis business the opportunity to do so. For those of you wondering the Board did vote to allow expansion up to 10% per parcel over 10 acres in Rangeland and Ag-land but not upland residential. I don’t have the language in front of me but the rangeland conversation revolves around only land that was in crop production or tilled (essentially Rangeland being used as Ag, ie most of Hopland is vineyard in Rangeland) before 2015 to prevent someone from tilling up Rangeland and applying for a permit two years from now. We know the Proof of Prior headache from Phase 1 so I hope this idea is able to be implemented fairly easy for the businesses that want to apply. The Board deliberations did conclude that most of us (excluding Haschak) believe that the Major Use Permit process and State licensing will be a pathway that protects the environment and allows for the businesses here to expand if they are on land that meets the environmental requirements. 

We did also direct that anyone drilling a test well also needs to do a hydrological study to determine that they will not be affecting neighboring properties. Right now if your neighbor drills a well that affects your water you can sue them but this would get the data up front before the well is drilled. Also a reminder that direction was given to make enforcement of illegal grows a priority and there will be more information coming forward on the “Humboldt model” satellite imagery and costs at a future meeting. I know people think it’s like Big Brother but paying for a professional computer program will enable the County to have near real time images to remove illegal and environmentally damaging operators. This will be the most helpful for very rural areas like Covelo which have had the most issues with illegal operators. And will help with light from legal greenhouses that are not correctly covered at night.

Staff will be working on options for a table without mixed light or indoor for 4/27 and that agenda item will be out on Thursday I’ll post it here.

We didn’t get to the facilities ordinance so it was continued to 4/27 as well, this is where some of the very small mom and pops have opportunity to get in to the market so stay engaged. Future applicants will not be able to use generators or trucked in water except for in an emergency and what qualifies as an emergency is still out for consideration. At the end of the day the Board wants to do what’s best for Mendocino County and your voices were heard and a compromise was met between the industry and the community. There is more work to do.

MCP INFORMATION SESSION 4/29/21

The County of Mendocino Cannabis Program (MCP) will be holding an informational session for the public on April 29, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. We will be covering the following topics: 

Communications with MCP

Application Resubmittals

Appendix G Checklist

Sensitive Species Habitat Review & Contiguous Expansion Affidavit

Compliance & Correction Notices. 

If you have questions related to the topics listed, please email them to cannabisprogram@mendocinocounty.org by 5:00 p.m. on April 27, 2021.

(County Presser)

DEB SILVA sends along three photos of old Point Arena

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Mark Scaramella adds: Seeing that old Point Arena Schooner photo reminded me of what my late uncle said about the schooners in early Point Arena:

JOE SCARAMELLA: “In the early 1900s there were all kinds of schooners that plied the coast mostly in lumber. They also carried some passengers. … Business in Point Arena was highly competitive in those days. People who had business rivalries got quite intense. So there was a hotel that has since burned down up here run by a man by the name of Gaines. Then there was the old Point Arena Hotel run by a man named Davison. They both had a team and they knew when the Schooner was scheduled to arrive. So whenever a load of passengers arrived and the whistle blew they took off in their teams to see who could get to the wharf first to get those passengers. That was the rivalry, to see who could get there first and get those paying customers.” 

PETIT TETON MONTHLY FARM REPORT - March 2021

Hi again friends,

Wow, it’s been almost 17 years that we’ve lived in the wilds of Anderson Valley on the farm we created and we have certainly learned a lot. Farming isn’t for the slow and lazy! Much of what we’ve learned has come from observing our animals. It’s not remarkable I suppose that there are a lot of English expressions that come from animals since humans have been farming nearly forever, but watching the critters act out the expressions is revealing and priceless. Their society and habits are different from ours, but in the end we’re all animals together.

Watching our most recent acquisition of six Runner Ducks (aka bowling pin ducks or penguin ducks) revealed the genesis of “getting one’s ducks in order” or “ducks in a row”. Anywhere they go, they do it in line although we’ve never noticed if there’s a “pecking order” to the line of waddling ducks. That’s a chicken expression which we humans have coopted. It’s a fairly innocuous way of saying who or what is on top or on bottom. In a chicken’s world it’s vicious; the pecking is real and painful. The same is true if you’re a “henpecked” chicken. And there’s the difference between chickens and humans: beaks vs. words, both of which are very painful. As in our society, so it is in chicken society - there is always a time when any one of us is the “dumb cluck”. Of course we had to learn the hard way “not to put all your eggs in one basket” because one day you’ll surely trip and… yuck. Hens go “broody” which means they stop laying and often eating, and sit on all the eggs laid that day in an attempt to hatch them. There are only some breeds that make consistent brooders; most are too inconsistent to count on which is one reason why we don’t breed chickens. The way chickens brood over their babies, we humans brood over a problem often created by our kids. I was looking up chicken diseases once and found a two page list of them with the last explaining that “chicken pox is not a chicken disease”. Funny. A hard lesson for humanity is in the expression “birds of a feather stick together”. I peered into the box of baby chicks last week and all the white ones were sleeping piled together and the blacks and browns were mixed elsewhere. We have noticed before that like types often do hang together. What does it mean??

Roosters are another subject entirely and bring up the huge difference between the sexes both in chickens and humans. “Crowing like a rooster” is to brag over every imagined or real accomplishment and to express power and aggression. Chickens don’t crow. Both sexes will “get their hackles up” by puffing out their chests and raising their head and neck feathers, but a chicken does it most often in an argument with another chicken, rarely against a rooster. Roosters on the other hand, do it when asking for or responding to a fight with another rooster. And mean roosters who attack us, their caretakers, are another problem and very reminiscent of human behavior. More often than not they’ll chase a male person (how do they know?) and threaten one with hackles up, run at one, then leap up to use their very dangerous spurs and feet. Does it sound familiar? Those roosters are quickly processed for the freezer and make wonderful soup.

There are many other animal inspired expressions whose derivation we now understand in a deeper and often visual way. “Dog days” carries a picture of our two shepherds collapsed in the shade on the cement pad panting and drowsing. They never seem to mind being "in the doghouse", but definitely express remorse after being scolded. “Lurking like a vulture” evokes the picture of a gang of turkey vultures peering down from a fence wire at the carcass of a dead animal. “To eat like a pig” is very apt with some folks but “living in a pigsty” is reversed in my view. Pigs are fairly clean and orderly in their mess whereas one of my sons definitely lived in a human sty when he was young, a room our pigs would be ashamed of.

Hey, it’s 4/20 — if you're into it, smoke a bowl — cause what’s coming down in this world definitely needs mellowing.

Bow wow meow moo quack cluck cockadoodledoo to you all.

—Nikki Auschnitt & Steve Kreig

PS. The enclosed photo is of a pack rat, adorable and busy creatures about whom we have little to say except that their homes remind us of some human habitations we've seen.

Petit Teton Farmer <farmer@petitteton.com>

SUPES SURPRISES!

by Mark Scaramella

SURPRISE! #1 After months of silence about an operator for the $5 million Crisis Residential Treatment Facility — a $1 million four-bedroom house next door to the Schraeder’s admin facility — Mental Health Director Dr. Jenine Miller notified the Supervisors Tuesday that she had picked Camille Schraeder’s Redwood Community Services as the “only qualified bidder.” (Was there an unqualified bidder?)

SURPRISE! #2: After refusing to do it last week, the Board declared a drought emergency at the urging of CEO Carmel Angelo who is obviously trying to position the County for relief money. The Supes also decided to make the existing drought ad hoc committee of Supervisors John Haschak and Glenn McGourty official, although exactly what they’re going to do besides pray for rain remains vague.

THE CEO said Calfire might be able to wheedle some additional “resources” from the State of California once a local drought is declared. There’s some talk about upgrading and staffing the County’s long-dormant “Water Agency” — which CEO Angelo said has been pawned off on Transportation Director Howard Deshield because of “the loss of some of the deputies in the Exec office.” But not a word about conservation planning or implementation of drought restrictions.

THE VOTE was 4-1, with Supervisor Maureen Mulheren dissenting, saying she was worried about “unintended consequences.” CEO Angelo reminded the Board that in 2014 the county set up a “drought task force” but as far as we know did nothing until the 2015 rains arrived when the task force, um, dissolved. (Which reminds me of my favorite drought joke: Question: What is the secret to a successful rain dance? Answer: Timing.)

WE SHOULD HAVE NOTED LAST WEEK that the Supervisors did indeed get some info about “crisis intervention training” which they discussed in the wake of the spectacular arrest of Ukiah resident Gerardo Magdaleno. Mental Health Director Jenine Miller told the Board that they had held three CIT “trainings” in 2019 and 2020 which were “paid for by the agency.” She said that 149 people, including law enforcement, first responders and a few community members took the three day course. Total training cost was $38k-plus. Miller added that 101 deputies and Correctional Officers attended the three-day training sesssions and 32 new staff members are “looking to train” by end of 2021. Supervisor Mulheren correctly pointed out that the training should include how it relates to the Crisis Van program that the Mental Health staff is currently slow-walking through the mental health bureaucracy. 

LOOKING BACK at paras I wrote in August of 1997, I note that I’ve been saying pretty much the same thing for almost three decades to no effect whatsoever. 

“THE SUPES annual budget workshops need to be revamped. I’ve pointed out before that ordinary staff management practices in government and business call for at least quarterly, if not monthly, reviews of the major departments. Quarterly reviews would involve preparation of standard reports and charts by each department, in plain English, summarizing budget (and off-budget) status, staffing (by grade and sub-department), a departmental schedule of major projects underway or upcoming, important relationships with other departments, the status of complaints or requests from the public or the Supes, special problems or unresolved issues, and any requests for policy guidance. The review packages would be prepared and presented to the public and the Supes the week before their presentation to the Board, and would NOT involve the department heads reading from their own reports the way they now drone on, thus saving time rather than creating more work. (This is NOT micro-management as some critics of this approach suggest. It is normal due diligence. It also gives department heads a forum for notification, so that the Supes can’t easily dodge decision-mkaing responsibility or claim ignorance when things go awry.) More frequent reviews would spare us all the dumb questions and semi-surprises that the Supes and department heads now suffer through at the annual budget hearings. By maintaining a simple chronological staff book of these presentations by department (including a log of new questions and promises made), new supes, staffers or concerned members of the public would also get an easy introduction to County operations. The format of such presentations is well-documented in conventional managment books and would be easy to adapt to Mendo’s public bureaucracies. I’ve made this suggestion several times in the past and it always goes nowhere, drawing ho-hums and yawns from County staff as well as those few members of the public who follow the Supes. I naively repeat the suggestion every year or two, but one of these days I’ll realize that this is Mendo County, and there’s simply no interest in suggestions involving more efficient, open management of the public’s business. And, you can be sure, such mundane topics will never come up in the Supervisorial campaigns.”

ED NOTES

IT LOOKED like the entire NorCal CalFire cohort was assembled up on the Ukiah Road this morning (Tuesday) about 9. At least 50 trucks of various sizes, and a lot of uniformed people standing around. There is, however, a stubborn wildlands blaze just down off the pavement in the canyon between the Hammond place and the Mission-style stucco home a little to the east, but that one is under control and now being pounded into extinction by an inmate crew. By 10am the CalFire fleet had dispersed. 

IF ANYONE has ever earned retirement more than Lauren Keating of Lauren's Restaurant no names spring to mind. The remarkable Ms. K was the very heart of the Anderson Valley for better than three decades, not only serving up good food at reasonable prices, but also functioning as the community's after hours social center, dance floor, concert venue, and go-to site for events of all sorts. And our hostess with the mostess made it all look easy.

BUMPERSTICKER I LIKE: “Make Orwell Fiction Again.” 

WHAT will the owner of the venerable property do with it post-Lauren? Eddie? Eddie Carsey? White courtesy telephone please.

PRIOR TO LAUREN'S RESTAURANT… I remember the Smiling Deer, the Mexican Bar (as it was called under Mary Jane Cardin) and, Jennifer Schmitt’s short-lived “Soundbite,” and, and…

THE LATEST EDITION of the Anderson Valley Community Bulletin is out and available lots of places around The Valley, including the post offices. The invaluable guide to local institutions and businesses is the work of Steve Sparks, shadow mayor of the Anderson Valley, whose handy guide is a much more comprehensive version of a local phone book.

THE HISTORICALLY low rainfall of the past two winters has Marin County on the brink of imposing mandatory water use restrictions on all its customers, a sure sign drought is upon us. Mendo won't be far behind, and some jurisdictions probably won't impose rationing until tap water runs brown.

SEEMS FROM HERE that the Democrat leadership, such as it is, is playing a dangerous game by pronouncing on pending cases involving white cops and black vics. Biden's out of it, of course, but his handlers should know better than to shove him out there in front of the teleprompters to torque upwards racial tensions, which never need much torqueing in this country. Multi-millionaire Democrats, with their fortified homes and phalanxes of armed muscle boys, are never in any danger from street violence, but millions of their constituents live with the distinct likelihood every day. 

CHAUVIN's is an egregious case, but having been found guilty on all three charges of murdering George Floyd, he'll get not enough time to satisfy the national riot-lust deliberately stirred up by the Democrats, and the country will suffer a long summer of arson and looting. Chauvin will do maybe 15 years before retiring to Idaho.

SPEAK MEMORY! In August of 1997, I wrote: 

"Veteran enviros say CDF doesn’t seem to know what to do about protests underway at Jackson State Forest. The agency used to stonewall its critics until the critics gave up and went away. The current crop of protesters seems to have staying power and say forthrightly that what they want is nothing less than new ways of managing the Forest that includes meaningful citizen participation in agency decisions. CDF’s director, Richard Wilson of Covelo, “started out being responsive but has been remote lately,” as one enviro involved in the action put it last week after the lively demo at Mushroom Corners where CDF is logging a section of what was once Mendocino Woodlands. CDF’s new man on the spot, Jamison, “is a lot more conciliatory than ol’ Slack ever was,” the veteran protester said in reference to Jamison’s predecessor, “but Jamison still seems to relate better to trees than he does to people.” (Jamison is trained as a forester; CDF is dominated by its fire-fighting branch.) At the Mushroom Corners demo last week a lot of CDF rangers were striding around with guns on their hips, but the only arrest they made was of an unleashed dog, quickly OR’d to its master. The demonstrations at Jackson State have won a few concessions from CDF, including an expansion of the buffer zone at the Mushroom Corners logging site, but the overall goal remains agency management that puts the public ahead of timber companies. “The idea that CDF can put 7 million dollars to assign inspectors to monitor corporate THPs on public lands when the money used to go to improving smallholder’s timber stands, is the kind of priority we want to reverse,” a clear-thinking enviro declared Friday.”

ADDING, “CDF’S current policy confusion may be at least partly attributed to the agency’s apparently traumatic interfaces with the inimitable Beth Bosk, the editor of New Settler magazine. Bosk has threatened a demonstration against CDF’s proposed use of the herbicide Garlon at Jackson State consisting entirely of women who have had mastectomies, a demo which would be unique in environmental activism. The inimitable Bosk has also mentioned an invasion of Jackson State Forest by ‘grandmothers and their warrior sons.’ CDF could handle the warrior sons without much trouble but militant grannies always present special problems for paramilitary bureaucracies like CDF.”

JACKSON DEMONSTRATION STATE FOREST (JDSF) is Public land. The Proposed Timber Harvest Plans are set to cut now and into the next 5-7 years are of the old 2nd growth redwoods. 2nd growth redwood are crucial carbon sink. Cutting these trees will worse the effects of climate change. Jackson Demonstration State Forest, our public land, needs to comply with Governor Newson's Executive Order requiring the State to protect 30% of our lands and waters by year 2030.

Gov Newsom: https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40 mail 916-445-2841

Sen McGuire: senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov 916-651-4002

Jim Wood: https://lcmspubcontact.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.php?district=AD02

Willits Redwood: 707-459-4549

Anderson Logging: 707-964-2779

Mike Powers (Manager of Jackson Demonstration State Forest: 707-964-5674

Remember to be kind to the people you speak to, as minds are not changed with anger, and they may be someone who has no say in this matter (i.e. a receptionist)

Let your voice be heard!

mlemos@mcn.org

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 20, 2021

DEREK BUCHKOSKI, Arcata/Ukiah. Controlled substance, narcotics for sale, conspiracy, probation revocation.

BRIDGETTE FRANK, Covelo. Failure to appear.

LUIS GONZALEZ JR., Covelo. DUI. 

ROGER HENRY JR., Willits. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, special allegation with priors, probation revocation.

DAVIS HIGHTOWER, Fort Bragg. DUI, suspended license. 

STEVEN RAMIER, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JASON RAY, Fort Bragg. False ID, probation revocation.

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Vandalism, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

BIANCA WELTON, Eureka/Ukiah. Controlled substance, narcotics for sale, false personation of another, conspiracy, county parole violation.

MY LIFE IN WEED: from hippies and Swat teams to boardrooms and trade mags

Tuesday is 420, the day to celebrate cannabis and its culture. Growing up in Oregon it was part of our lifestyle. Now the suits have taken over but it’s not all bad

by Felisa Rogers

In the beginning, there was weed. My dad and I would walk down the gravel road and up a path through the woods to his patch, where the plants were partially hidden by a canopy of maples. It wasn’t an ideal spot for sunlight, but it was an ideal spot for hiding. My dad would carry bags of fertilizer on foot for a mile so that our truck was never spotted in the vicinity.

In the fall my parents would harvest, and my mom would hang flat baskets in our living room to dry the pungent branches. Our house suffused with the smell of cannabis, and we’d sit in front of our little black-and-white television and snip the branches into salable pounds.

At age four, I had my own tiny pair of scissors for trimming. I doubt I was much help, but I felt very important.

We lived in the Oregon Coast Range, in a wooded valley known for weed. Like most of our hippy neighbors, my parents were craftspeople who grew a crop to keep their small business afloat. Our community produced candles, wooden puzzles, goat cheese, tie-dye, woven ponchos, silver jewelry and Acapulco Gold. No one was getting rich, but growing enabled a way of life not built around the 9 to 5.

We all paid a harsh price for that freedom. Driving the product out of state for sale was a mission fraught with danger, and at home we lived in fear of police raids; daily life buzzed with a low-level paranoia that ramped up if we heard a helicopter overhead. Us kids were raised to believe that Nancy Reagan was wrong, our parents were right, weed wasn’t bad and cops were the enemy.

That latter point was hammered home at a family barbecue in 1984. My dad was grilling chicken and chatting with my grandmother while my cousins and I played tag in the yard. I was the first to spot the Swat team – uniformed men with big guns advancing up our driveway. Everything happened very quickly: they held the adults at gunpoint and ransacked the house. As they handcuffed my dad, my cousin Jose started screaming hysterically because he thought they were actually cutting off Steve’s hands.

After that, my fear of the police metastasized and I didn’t have any desire to be involved in the illicit industry. I resisted the lure of “easy money” until 2008, when the economy tanked. My husband was laid off, and I simultaneously lost a lucrative writing job. When a friend offered us temporary work at his cannabis farm in Humboldt county, we packed our battered Honda and headed south.

I landed in the Emerald Triangle at the apex of the green rush. The vague wording of California’s 1996 medical cannabis law had given growers a measure of protection from the police, and the later passage of the cheekily named Senate Bill 420, which lowered the penalty for selling weed from a felony to a misdemeanor, encouraged further expansion. Once a haven of old hippies, Humboldt began attracting another breed of growers who were in it to go big and get rich. Rural communities grew into boom towns, the big illegal grows sucked streams dry, and fertilizer runoff caused algae blooms in the Eel River.

From the get-go, the place was a shock to me. My childhood among family-oriented Oregon growers did nothing to prepare me for the flagrant lawlessness of Humboldt. I wasn’t prepared for the garbage bags of money, the pot plants the size of sheds – or the guns.

The night we arrived it was pouring buckets, turning the rutted mountain roads into slicks of red mud. Outdoor growers live in fear of the freak rainstorms that can destroy the crop before it matures, and my friend was in a frenzy. We worked on treacherous hillsides until we were soaked to the bone, hauling and hanging plants the size of trees.

After we cut down the plants, it was our job to process the dried branches. A lot of people thought it was cool to be surrounded by so much weed, but I didn’t. I didn’t find weed romantic and I hated trimming. Resin gummed up my scissors and burnt my eyes. We couldn’t sit outside because of helicopter surveillance, so we worked in a filthy shack, 14-hour days, seven days a week. I developed carpal tunnel syndrome and an allergy that puffed up my face and impaired my vision.

We were off the grid and out of cell range. Hundreds of pounds piled up around us. It wasn’t mine, but I had no way of proving that. I had a residual fear of police raids and spent a lot of time planning escape routes. I kept my purse on me at all times in case I had to run for it.

The work was boring, but we had company – a trio of Australian DJs, a brilliant photographer, a pretentious bartender, a friend who was financing her ecotourism business. Like my parents, people were working to support some other dream. (The Pacific north-west is rich with niche restaurants, galleries and esoteric bars that wouldn’t exist without the pipeline of money that came out of the illicit cannabis market in the 1990s and 2000s.)

In its heyday, Humboldt represented the flip sides of anarchy. On one hand you had gun-toting “grow-bros” who were destroying the local ecology in the name of the bottom line, and on the other hand you had your old hippies in precious knit caps rambling about their cannabis genetics, their commitment to solar power and their vision for a self-sufficient society.

But the old hippies weren’t totally full of shit: prohibition created an outlaw world with its own systems of governance. In rural communities bereft of tax dollars, the legacy growers maintained their own roads, supported local schools and community centers, and ran their own radio station, the legendary KMUD, which broadcast reports of police activity so everyone could prepare for possible raids.

The Humboldt of my youth was a society created by the imposed condition of prohibition and embodied both the joy and the darkness of life outside the law. On a good day, those mountains could feel like Utopia. Weed wasn’t the only thing that grew well. The gardens yielded giant tomatoes, skeins of nasturtium, sunflowers waving at blue California skies. On Sundays, we’d ride ATVs over to a hidden valley where work crews congregated to play twilight volleyball and pass the world’s finest joints. Everyone was a self-proclaimed artist, and the culture had an air of creative largesse.

In California, growers feared legalization more than they feared the cops. They said if weed went legal, everyone would be smoking Philip Morris joints they bought at 7-11 and we’d all be out of a job. Their fears were founded.

California voters finally bit the bullet and legalized cannabis in 2016. I was one of the lucky ones. Weed money had bought me time to build my writing career. When trimming was no longer lucrative, I could afford to put down my scissors for good. My days of cold sweats and paranoia were behind me.

I thought my weed days were over too, but a seemingly innocent assignment for a grow magazine led to another, and one day I woke up a cannabis writer. Today I’m the editor of MJ Brand Insights, “a news and intel site for cannabis industry professionals”. I have healthcare, I spend my day in Zoom meetings and my salary exceeds what I made in the illicit market.

As I study corporate acquisitions and write about cannabis-infused seltzer, I’ve learned that the old growers were right about a number of things: Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, has indeed invested in cannabis. And the exacting permitting process made it impossible for most of the original growers to adapt their farms to the legal market. The people who developed the genetics that made north-western weed the best on earth were cut out of the business – as were the communities of color that had been hardest hit by the war on drugs.

Despite these very serious flaws, I don’t mourn the old days. The illicit industry may have had an outlaw romance, but a lot of people were just in it for the money at any cost. I appreciate the protection of labor and environmental laws. I no longer have to worry about dealing with pesticide-covered weed or working until my hands feel like they’re going to fall off. Or Swat teams.

When I accepted my current job, I worried that I’d spend my days interviewing corporate schmucks. But I was surprised to discover that the legal industry is more interesting than the illicit industry. For every corporate bro, there’s five people who are here because they’re civil liberties warriors or true believers in the medicinal power of cannabis. They’re here because they have a passion for it.

I may write about strawberry-flavored joints, but I also get to write about the people who are creating legislation that will make the industry more inclusive and expunge the records of people like my dad.

He died in 1999 and sometimes I wonder what he’d think if he could see me now.

In his honor, I grow a couple of plants every year – flagrantly out in the open in the garden of our family homestead. Last fall I was late to a virtual meeting about an upcoming trade show because I’d been busy rescuing the crop, which had been hit hard by an early rain. I explained this to my boss, who was totally understanding. And I got a shot of sheer delight at how the world is changing.

A HIPPIE is a member of a liberal counterculture, originally a youth movement that started in the United States and the United Kingdom during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The word hippie came from hipster and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into New York City's Greenwich Village and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district. The term hippie was first popularized in San Francisco by Herb Caen, who was a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. The origins of the terms hip and hep are uncertain, although by the 1940s both had become part of African American jive slang and meant "sophisticated; currently fashionable; fully up-to-date”. The Beats adopted the term hip, and early hippies inherited the language and countercultural values of the Beat Generation. Hippies created their own communities, listened to psychedelic music, embraced the sexual revolution, and used drugs such as cannabis, LSD, peyote and psilocybin mushrooms to explore altered states of consciousness. In January 1967, the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco popularized hippie culture, leading to the Summer of Love on the West Coast of the United States, and the 1969 Woodstock Festival on the East Coast. Hippies in Mexico, known as jipitecas, formed La Onda and gathered at Avándaro, while in New Zealand, nomadic housetruckers practiced alternative lifestyles and promoted sustainable energy at Nambassa. In the United Kingdom in 1970, many gathered at the gigantic Isle of Wight Festival with a crowd of around 400,000 people. I was there! In later years, mobile "peace convoys" of New Age travelers made summer pilgrimages to free music festivals at Stonehenge and elsewhere. In Australia, hippies gathered at Nimbin for the 1973 Aquarius Festival and the annual Cannabis Law Reform Rally or MardiGrass. "Piedra Roja Festival", a major hippie event in Chile, was held in 1970. Hippie fashion and values had a major effect on culture, influencing popular music, television, film, literature, and the arts. Since the 1960s, many aspects of hippie culture have been assimilated by mainstream society.

During the past few years, attempts to put on exhibits to expound on the Hippies or Summer of Love or the upcoming anniversary of Woodstock was and is well meant, but somewhat futile as is like trying to capture lighting in a bottle….. Nice try, but (IMHO) …no cigar. The philosophies of the true Hippie does still live on but these days to run across a true Hippie is a lot harder than you may think. Alas…..keep your eyes open, they’re still out there just the same, but not always where you may think them to be.

Still lett'in MY Freak Flag Fly!

— Professor Poster 

LET US THINK THE UNTHINKABLE, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.

— Douglas Adams, 1987; from "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency"

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

One thing about us human beings. We are obsessed with our own self-interest. If we feel something will pay off for us, we’re all over it. If not – we seek something else and fast.

Whether members of any race in America want to join in to a common culture will depend – as always – on whether they can get what they want out of it. Which leads to the next question: What does anyone want today? 

That’s a tough one. Nobody seems to want the same things, except for more magic conjured digits to mystically appear in our empty bank accounts, to not have to go in to the office any more, to not get along with others, to promote our grievances, and to waste much of our lives on needless drama to no good end. Hey, that’s it! THAT’s now our common culture. And good luck building a future on THAT.

And, let’s go back to the beginning. Were Native Americans given an opportunity to join with other ethnic groups in a common American culture? Or… were they the first victims of the Cancel Culture that seeks to erase all things that differ from one’s own chosen elevated group of people or ways of thinking? And if the Natives did want to join such a culture — what would they get out of it? Or if they preferred to keep their own culture and live with a respectful coexistence… would they have been allowed to? I think we know the answer to that one.

Americans en masse seem to have collectively rejected the idea of a Common American Culture for our future. Conflict is encouraged instead of cooperation. Getting Over and Getting Yours seems to be the default operating system of our times. Ethics and morals are seen as silly notions from the Leave It To Beaver era. Get with the times, man. Old is bad. Different is good. Common culture? What do I get out of THAT? Sucka!

What a sad ending to an American story that began with wide open spaces and big dreams. Nowadays, we are packed in together seething with frustration with others just as testy and our collective dream is to get through another day.

‘WORLD TRAVEL: AN IRREVERENT GUIDE’ by Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

Anthony Bourdain’s appetite was a gift to the world.

During his life, the beloved writer and television host focused prominently on place as an extension of one’s stomach. He also emphasized the importance of taking the time to really understand lands both unknown and familiar. For Bourdain, trying a new dish was an invitation to learn more about his current location and the people who called it home.

It is fitting then that the late chef intended, with the help of his longtime assistant and co-author Laurie Woolever, to compile his experiences into a travel guide.

As Woolever writes in her introduction to “World Travel: An Irreverent Guide” ($35, Ecco, April 20), the two held a one-hour meeting to discuss an outline for the book in 2018. Later that year, Bourdain, 61, took his own life.

The result of this tragedy is the posthumous publication of a refreshingly unique travel guide that thoughtfully fleshes out Bourdain’s desired intentions with supplementary essays from his peers and loved ones.

Organized alphabetically, “World Travel” features sections on more than 40 countries. (Somewhat surprisingly, the Bay Area is not among the cities highlighted here, though Bourdain’s love for Mr. Bing’s will eternally endure.)

While basic information on transportation, amenities and customs are included, each chapter also features carefully culled passages from Bourdain’s previous writing and television appearances, including “Parts Unknown,” “No Reservations,” and “A Cook’s Tour.” Stylized in bold, blue font, the book makes it abundantly clear when we’re reading Bourdain’s voice — a thoughtful distinction but perhaps a redundant one as well.

That’s because only Bourdain — witty, adventurous and forever singing the praises of pork — could compliment a particularly spicy Sichuan meal in Melbourne by calling it “the flavor equivalent of a weekend at Caligula’s house.”

While we often credit Bourdain for his ability to translate the intangible allures of food to the page, this new, geographically oriented compendium also cherry-picks some of his favorite non-gastronomical sites and occasions.

In the section on Austria, for instance, Bourdain gleefully endorses Krampus Day (“a day where people dress up in furs and demon outfits to honor Saint Nick’s evil counterpart”) while his introduction to Cambodia finds him striking a somber tone while ruminating on the crimes of Pol Pot.

In addition to a generous serving of Bourdain’s own words, there are the essays, including by Toronto chef Jen Agg, who shares a story about bone luges, and Bourdain’s brother, Christopher, who contributes a pair of moving pieces set in Paris and New Jersey, respectively.

Collectively, these brief interludes are a joyous yet painful reminder of what Bourdain gave the world: an infectious hunger to learn more and eat well.

“World Travel: An Irreverent Guide”

By Anthony Bourdain and Laurie Woolever

(Ecco; 480 pages; $35)

(Zack Ruskin)

WELL WHAT DO YOU KNOW?

After all is said and done

Black lives do matter

— Jim Luther, Mendocino

DOZEN MEGADONORS GAVE $3.4 BILLION, ONE IN EVERY 13 DOLLARS, SINCE 2009

A new study shows the role of the super rich in politics since the Supreme Court loosened restrictions on political spending more than a decade ago.

nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/politics/megadonors-political-spending.html

GRANDMOTHER: Vincent van Gogh and My Dutch Family

by Nadya Williams

Here is a long, but fascinating article in the New York Times just sent to me by my cousin Fred Krimgold: nytimes.com/2021/04/14/magazine/jo-van-gogh-bonger.html

Our Grandmother, Artist Williemina Muller (forever 'Grandma' to us) told us about visiting her school teacher sister - Everdine? - who lived in Johanna Bonger van Gogh’s boarding house in Bussum, Holland. At this time Johanna was the widow of Vincent's brother Theo. Grandma saw "The Potato Eaters" over the mantel piece, and heard Johanna say "The attic is full of paintings. If we could only sell some!" Johanna had inherited 200 of Vincent's paintings, left in her husband's apartment in Paris. She had been married only 2 years to Theo, and instead of 'disposing' of the paintings, as others recommended, she moved them all to the boarding house that she opened in Bussum, just north of Utrecht, where she had lived with Theo. She was left with a 1-year-old son Vincent Willem. Grandma, who was born in 1881, was in art school in Amsterdam at the time of her visit, which must have been around 1900 (?) (when she was 19) - I have 2 places to check: her English-language diary summary, and her Dutch diary, which was briefly summarized and translated by my Aunt Eveline, Grandma's second daughter (my mother was her first child and eldest daughter). 

One last piece of information, Grandma also saw one of Vincent's self-portraits at Johanna's boarding house, and when she returned to art school (25 km away in Amsterdam) she told one of her female teachers that she had seen a painting of a man with a red beard. "Quel affreuse!" the teacher replied in French ('how awful!") ...which shows you the state of artistic 'standards' at the time, and the tremendous obstacles Vincent's sister-in-law had to overcome to gain recognition for his life's work. She was a remarkable woman, who, by the way, helped to found a women's socialist movement in Holland. 

IS BIGFOOT A WILD POT FARMER MYTH — or a ‘Sasquatch’ serial killer?

nypost.com/2021/04/19/is-bigfoot-a-ridiculous-myth-or-a-cold-hearted-murderer/

ALL THE TIME you're getting ready for a fight, working hard, but relaxed, always surrounded by people, never alone. And then suddenly it's time and you go out there, you and the other guy, and you're all alone out there in front of all those people and you have to take what you've learned and use it without making any bad mistakes, because one slip and it might be all over and there might not be another chance.

You don't think of the money, although that's what you're in there for. You don't think of the crowd, although you sometimes hear them. You're trying to concentrate. You have your pride. All you want to do is win. And it's just you and him and only one of you can win.

— Rocky Marciano

REPORTERS ALERT: PART IV

by Ralph Nader

Reporters at major newspapers and magazines are hard to reach by telephone. Today it is increasingly hard to converse with them about timely scoops, leads, gaps in coverage, and corrections to published articles.

We started an online webpage: Reporter’s Alert. From time to time, we will use Reporter’s Alert to present suggestions for important reporting on topics that are either not covered or not covered thoroughly. Reporting that just nibbles on the periphery won’t attract much public attention or be noticed by decision-makers. Here is the fourth installment of suggestions:

1. Among the many reports on the defeat of workers trying to form a union in Bessemer, Alabama’s Amazon warehouse, there was little inquiry into why labor – after a strenuous effort by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) – lost by about a two to one margin with about half the workers not voting. A postmortem would be fascinating regarding:

a. the reasons why workers did not vote;

b. why the labor strategies and tactics didn’t work, in spite of very positive media coverage and endorsements by prominent politicians and celebrities; and

c. what different strategies or alternative approaches, in retrospect, might have worked better.

2. After the November elections, there were rumors that the Trumpsters were going to destroy documents, correspondence, and emails that could be incriminating. You will recall the noise Trump made from 2016 on about Hillary’s “missing” emails. Have you read any reporting about what the incoming Democrats, agency by agency, department by department, have discovered about the shredding of digital and paper records? Given Trump’s habit of lawlessness, the dismantling of regulatory programs by and for his cronies, and the sheer corruption of the Trump regime year after year, the soil was fertile for the wholesale destruction of evidence. Looking for emails by government lawyers – e.g., Office of Special Counsel – advising Trump not to have political campaign events on federal property and not to give campaign-enhancing orders to federal employees, in clear violation of The Hatch Act, should be an inviting reporting initiative.

3. Some in New York State claim that higher state taxes on the super-rich will encourage wealthy people to make Florida their residence, because Florida, like some other southern states, has lower taxes. Curious reporters may sense a story here. What price do Floridians specifically pay because the state collects less revenue – lesser social welfare and other public services, poorer infrastructure, less health care for the indignant, poorer schools and colleges in the public sphere, etc.? We often read about how southerners pay lower taxes, especially business taxes, but there are societal costs to the vast majority of the people that need to be revealed in a comprehensive manner.

4. A more general suggestion: Great stories have exposed problems, followed by the promises of reform by government officials or companies. Where is the follow-up to see if the announced investigation or corrective action ever resulted in any change? Over the decades, for example, the New York press would expose “sewer service,” a terrible assault on the poor who are sued by creditors. “Sewer service” happens when the party suing intentionally fails to provide service of process to a party in a lawsuit to prevent the party from having a chance to respond or even know about the lawsuit. Sometime later, these assaults would quietly resume after the investigations and/or the news coverage. Such reprehensible practices often resume when the headlines fade. Some recidivist habits or promises need the rays of the sun, as Justice Louis Brandeis once wrote, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants”. Reviewing a list of past “investigations” to see, what if anything, was truly resolved by these declared investigations may produce worthy news. FOIAs may be especially useful here.

5. There is much talk these days among the high officials in Washington about restoring or strengthening “international order.” Historically, treaties have been a major way of securing international order. Why then, regardless of which party has been in power, are there so many treaties signed onto by almost every country in the world, yet not ratified by the Senate nor even signed by the President, and sent to the Senate for approval?

It is easy to see a list of treaties and other international agreements on the State Department website: state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/TIF-2020-Full-website-view.pdf.

Some of the international agreements that have, inexplicably, been opposed or ignored by the U.S. include the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the International Criminal Court, the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Why?

One of the reasons for such American “exceptionalism” is that the world’s most powerful Empire wishes not to be so restricted by the rule of law because it can exert the “Rule of Power.” Hardworking civic organizations are frustrated with the lack of media coverage of the many variables involving foreign, military, and corporate policies on a global scale. Prolonged official “inaction” often dulls the media’s sense of newsworthiness. Reporters, with few exceptions, need to wake up and report on the ongoing consequences of such disengagement, immunities, and lawlessness.