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DRY WEATHER with warmer interior daytime temperatures are expected today and Sunday. Onshore breezes will keep coastal areas much cooler. A weak front will bring a chance of light rain Monday through Monday night, primarily for Del Norte and northern Humboldt Counties. (NWS)
2 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.
BBQ AND MUSIC TODAY AT THE YORKVILLE MARKET
Just a reminder that today The Highrollers will be playing live music while we are BBQing a delicious Mediterranean feast. Food and music will be happening from 12:30ish to 4:30ish, and the meal is $15.00 per plate.
Also, Chef B has whipped up delicious batches of chili, a hearty meaty version as well as a vegan black bean green chili.
See you soon!
Best,
Lisa
A WILDLAND/VEGETATION FIRE broke out in rugged slash and timber in steep terrain off Tomki Road southest of Willits around 10am Friday morning.
As of Friday evening the “Tomki fire” lines were holding at around 20 acres with an estimated 20% containment. Winds were high but fortunately the terrain, wind direction and relative humidity in the area helped keep the fire from spreading fast. No structures were threatened or burned. An air attack plane from Redding was dispatched to add to several helicopters, water tenders anad local engines. Cal Fire expected to remain on the scene for two or three more days to mop up.
NAVARRO RIVER FLOWS GETS WORSE
As of this morning, (5/21), Navarro River flow is 43% of the 69-year MINIMUM recorded for this date, which happened in 1977.
The river flow also is less than 10% of the median flow for this date.
— Marshall Newman
RED BEARD/OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING UPDATE
Updated Press Release 05-21-2021:
Throughout the day on Tuesday, May 19, 2021, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office along with multiple allied law enforcement agencies conducted a large scale search of the remote area of Elk near Cameron Road in an attempt to locate the suspect in this investigation. The suspect was not located and remains wanted by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office is asking residents living along the South Coast of Mendocino County, Anderson Valley, Comptche and the western Ukiah hills to be aware of your surroundings when out in forested land.
We ask the public if there are any sightings of the suspect, immediately contact law enforcement. We are also asking any property owners who have remote cabins or property to be aware of the potential for a burglary at your location. The suspect has been captured on additional surveillance footage from February in which he is seen stealing a rifle from the location.
If you come upon a burglary of your property, please do not approach or enter the residence, contact 911 and law enforcement will respond to investigate. The suspect is believed to still be armed with at least one firearm and is known to steal firearms from dwellings. Be cognizant of where you step as we attempt to identify items of evidence which will help us in determining if any burglaries of structures are related.
The Sheriff's Office has been made aware of the resemblance to Missing Person Dane Elkins from Santa Cruz County. However, in speaking to the family, they have confirmed Dane Elkins does not match the suspect in our investigation.
Anyone with information regarding the suspect’s identity, recent or past unreported burglaries or the whereabouts of this suspect is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at 707-463-4086 or the Sheriff's Office Tip-Line at 707-234-2100.
Original Press Release:
On 05-12-2021 at 9:34 PM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a report of a burglary occurring at a residence located in the 3000 block of Cameron Road in Elk, California.
The homeowner was away from the residence and noticed the presence of an unknown adult male inside the residence based upon live-time footage from a security camera (see attached black/white photographs).
Sheriff's Deputies were responding to the residence when the homeowner reported the adult male had exited the residence. The Deputies arrived approximately 22 minutes after the homeowner first reported the in-progress burglary.
Sheriff's Deputies encountered the adult male outside of the residence and a short foot pursuit ensued until the adult male discharged a firearm multiple times at one of the pursuing Sheriff's Deputies.
The Sheriff's Deputy returned fire and no one was injured as a result of the exchange of gunfire.
Several local law enforcement agencies responded to the "shots fired" radio call and assisted the Sheriff's Office in a search of the area for several hours.
The search was unsuccessful in locating the adult male.
The local law enforcement agencies consisted of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, California State Parks, California Highway Patrol, Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force, County of Mendocino Marijuana Enforcement Team, Mendocino County Multi-Agency SWAT team, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Patrol Division, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Investigative Bureau and the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office.
Mendocino County District Attorney's Office Investigators are conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the Officer Involved Shooting while the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is investigating the reported burglary.
An active search in Elk is continuing on 05-13-2021, as it is believed the adult male is traveling by foot and is still considered to be armed and dangerous.
Sheriff's Office investigators believe the adult male is the same person depicted in the color photograph (see attached) taken in early February 2021 in connection with several vandalism/burglaries of cabins in the area of Pine Ridge Road and Low Gap Road in Ukiah, California.
The adult male is also suspected of committing an eye-witnessed burglary of a residence in 4000 block of Cameron Road in Elk on 04-24-2021.
The adult male is believed to be white, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing approximately 165-180 pounds and having a red beard.
Anyone who knows the identity or whereabouts of the person depicted in the photographs are urged to contact the Sheriff's Office by calling 911 (emergency) or 707-463-4086 (non-emergency).
BOONVILLE FARMERS MARKET, NOW EVERY FRIDAY, 4-6PM at AV Brewing, Corner 128/253, Boonville.
THE FRIENDS OF THE MENDOCINO COLLEGE Coastal Field Station and Natural Sciences, an affiliate of the Mendocino College Foundation, is pleased to announce the awarding of three scholarships to worthy Mendocino College natural science students. The Mary Lou Koeninger Memorial Scholarship in Earth Science will be awarded to Ana Delgado Mendoza this year. Two scholarships sponsored by the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society will also be awarded: Missael Barosa has been nominated for the 2021 Brandon Pill Memorial Scholarship, and Erin Orth will receive the Greg Grantham Memorial Scholarship.
* * *
Missael Barosa was raised in the small town of Philo. “Since I was small I have always loved wildlife and enjoyed being outside,” he says. He has done field work in the local agriculture industry, including testing grape vines for harmful pests. Although the COVID-19 mitigation over the last year slowed his academic progress, Missa plans to graduate from Mendocino College with a degree in Natural Resources by next year. He hopes to transfer to Sonoma State University or Chico State University to complete his Bachelor of Science in Education. “I spent a great deal of time walking around exploring the outside nature, instead of being inside.” Missa’s goal is to ultimately become a ranger or a lab assistant/scientist that spends a lot of the time outside the lab. The Brandon Pill Memorial Scholarship is an annual award presented by the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society.
(Excerpt from Mendocino College Press Release)
HERE COMES THE PHF
by Mark Scaramella
It might seem like Monday’s giant joint meeting of the Measure B Committee, the Behavioral Health Advisory Committee and the Board of Supervisors is just tripling down on years of inaction regarding the original intent of Measure B.
After all, for going on four years now they haven’t produced much, and putting them all on the same zoom screen doesn’t sound like a formula for progress.
But a look at the materials accompanying Monday’s Measure B meeting agenda item tells a different story.
In an attachment called “Mendocino County Psychiatric Health Facility,” Dr. Jenine Miller, Mendo’s Behavioral Health Director (among other titles), and Mendo’s relatively recent Measure B point person, writes: “While there are multiple services that could be provided at Whitmore; this location is a potential suitable site, pending feasibility study, for a PHF in Mendocino County. Should the Board of Supervisors decide to move forward with the development of a PHF, it is recommended that Whitmore be considered the site for a PHF. The property is owned by the county, was not purchased with general funds dollars, and had some initial review regarding the viability of the site for services. While Whitmore has been review[ed] and considered for a variety of services, it is believed that the development of a PHF is the highest service need for our community.”
“The site…”?
Dr. Miller adds, “Whitmore Lane was previously licensed at an OSHPD [Hospital construction standards] level 2 facility, the required level for a Skilled Nursing Facility. In order to use Whitmore Lane as a PHF, the facility would need to meet the current level 5 OSHPD requirements. Based on the age of the facility and changes in OSHPD regulations, a partial demolition of the facility and rebuild would allow the facility to be brought into compliance with OSHPD standards for a PHF.”
(A similar thing could have been said about the Old Howard Hospital before it was sold to a private party before the County or the Measure B people could get their act together.)
Taken in conjunction with the lack of mention of any other option, this Whitmore Lane idea looks like a long-delayed way to take advantage of the county’s covid-driven purchase of the roofless Whitmore Lane building as the path of least resistance to satisfy the pent-up demand for movement on a PHF. Monday’s joint meeting will thus become little more than window dressing for Dr. Miller’s (and CEO Angelo’s) pre-arranged, pre-packaged decision.
Is the conversion of Whitmore Lane into a PHF a good idea? A bad idea? Will the Sheriff respond to the inevitable requests for assistance that these facilities always need? (The property is outside the Ukiah City Limits.) We don’t know. But the whole thing feels rushed under the pressure to get someting — anything — done on the long delayed PHF.
Along with this apparent Whitmore Lane-PHF done deal, we also see in the Monday meeting packet an announcement from Dr. Miller that the County has already hired the PHF operator and — surprise! — it’s NOT Camille Schraeder and Co.
Dr. Miller again: “Behavioral Health and Recovery Services released a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Operation Services for Mendocino County Psychiatric Health Facility (PHF), Psychiatric Hospital, and/or Psychiatric Unit on September 1, 2020. The RFQ closed on November 30, 2020. A conditional award letter was sent to Telecare Corporation (Telecare) for the operation of a PHF in Mendocino County.”
Dr. Miller goes on to say that Telecare is an Alameda based outfit which has received some of Mendo’s exiled 5150s in the past and by golly there’s no reason they can’t do more of the same on Whitemore Lane.
Telecare is described as “the largest provider of county contracted PHF services in California, with 122 licensed beds. Two additional Telecare PHFs are in development: one in San Joaquin County and one in Kern County [presumably those models of mental health centers in Fresno and Bakersfield]. Telecare also operates nine acute inpatient programs licensed in the State of Washington as Evaluation and Treatment Centers (the equivalent of a PHF).”
Dr. Miller does not say how many bidders responded to her RFQ nor how many bidders there were. Did Camille Schraeder bid? If not, why not? Does Ms. Schraeder know something the County doesn't know about the difficulties of operating a 16-bed PHF on Whitmore Lane?
We do know that Dr. Miller steadfastly refused to allow any Measure B Committee members to participate in the PHF service contract selection. In fact, we have no idea who reviewed the bids, or who selected Telecare, or why they were awarded the contract.
Taken together, the entire presentation on Monday smells like another classic CEO Angelo take it or leave it proposition, with the added weight of the long PHF delay putting anyone involved who may have lingering financial questions or service doubts about the Whitemore/TeleCare deal in the position of looking like negative-thinking obstructionists.
The next step will probably be to ask the County’s expensive Sacramento architectural consultants to design an overpriced, gold-plated (OSHPD) remodel of Whitmore Lane, along the lines of the overpriced, gold-plated Crisis Residential four-bedroom house on Orchard Avenue. (We need spare no remodel expense because, as CEO Angelo frequently points out, the building “was not purchased with general funds dollars.”) And if the price tag turns out to be millions and millions more than anyone expected… Too late, too bad — we’re stuck with Whitmore Lane now and everybody is signed on.
SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS
Mendocino County BoS - Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - item 6d
Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of Presentation by South Coast Organizing for Radical Equity Encouraging Independent Performance and Fiscal Audit of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Including Jail
(Sponsor: Supervisor Williams)
Recommended Action/Motion:
Accept presentation by South Coast Organizing for Radical Equity, encouraging independent performance and fiscal audit of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office including jail; and direct staff to prepare independent performance and fiscal audits of Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, including jail.
Summary Of Request:
South Coast Organizing for Radical Equity's (SCORE) mission is to build greater equity, safety, and wellbeing in Mendocino County, especially on the South Coast, by leading and supporting community-driven projects. SCORE has requested an opportunity to present a request for Performance and Fiscal Audit of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office including Jail.
Audits are part of good government and can highlight opportunity for prove services and use of public funds. An audit is appropriate even when a department is deemed to be performing well.
COMMENT BY CHARLES SARGENTI:
I agree. Audits are good. Let's start with the CEO.
COMMENT BY JOHN MCCOWEN:
Good call! For starters, using (abusing?) her authority as Purchasing Agent, how many contracts, to who, and for what amounts did the CEO unilaterally issue? The not to exceed limit for the Purchasing Agent is $50,000 per contract. Anything more must go to the Board for approval. The way around that is to initiate a contract for $50,000 knowing it won't be enough then go back to the Board and ask for another fifty grand. Or more. If Angelo had any respect for the Board (or fiscal transparency) she would ask for the entire anticipated amount upfront.
MENDOCINO COUNTY CODE ENFORCEMENT BEGINS RELEASING WEEKLY LIST OF ACTIONS AGAINST NON-COMPLIANT CANNABIS GROWERS
In the last two weeks, Mendocino County’s Code Enforcement Department has released two public notices describing efforts to enforce cannabis compliance. Code Enforcement Officer Trent Taylor told us the publicity of the department’s labors comes in the wake of the county-wide discussion of the future of cannabis cultivation and the characterization that compliance efforts were slim-to-none.
ED NOTES
WE GOT ANOTHER pre-dawn blast from Anderson Valley's frost fans this morning, the diff being that this morning the Lords of the Grape could at least claim a light frost.
Thursday morning there was no frost to justify the din which, by my count, now stands at 35 nights, some thousand residents of formerly bucolic Anderson Valley have suffered disrupted sleep from one end of the Valley to the other. It's a relatively mild lesson in colonialism, I guess, where a handful of mostly outside investors, wholly dependent on immigrant labor they take little or no social responsibility for, take over a large area of Mendocino County, sucking up finite sources of water, poisoning the land, dominating the public bureaucracies, reducing the property values of their neighbors, and blasting those neighbors out of their beds more than a month of mornings every year.
THE MAN in the above photo with the eminently punchable face runs Alden Global Capital
THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE printing and distribution center in Chicago is being sold to a hedge fund, along with The Baltimore Sun, The New York Daily News and others. The Hedge Fund is called Alden Global Capital, based in New York City and operated by a young bullethead named Freeman. They also own what's left of the Ukiah Daily Journal; The Willits News; The Fort Bragg Advocate/Beacon.
When these vultures — vulture capitalists is a description they seem proud of — took over the Northcoast papers that they bought up at fire sale prices, they sold the real estate housing the papers then laid off most of the staffs, leaving the skeleton crews woman-ing the Mendo papers today. Alden is still able to squeeze some money out of Mendo via what's left of their advertising and their legal ads. Mendo, unlike many areas of the country which have no newspapers — still boasts three privately owned local newspapers — the Mendocino County Observer operated by Jim Shields and his daughter, Jayma; the Independent Coast Observer owned by the intrepid Steve McLaughlin; and the proudly independent Anderson Valley Advertiser, Bruce Anderson, prop.
TRUMPIAN TOUGH TALKER, Ted Cruz, who never served, said the military is being turned into “pansies” by “woke” policies. Cruz was criticized by veterans after he compared American and Russian Army recruitment videos. In an interview with Fox News on Friday the portly chicken hawk declared, “American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were the most ferocious fighting force on the planet. The job of the military is to kill the bad guys. And it is to strike fear in the enemies of America,” he said. “People sign up to join the military because they want to keep us safe, they don't want to sit around a circle, emoting and passing daisies back and forth.”
WELL, the texas chickenhawk has a point. I read a story the other day about a couple of women who completed Marine boot camp. Nothing against these ladies, but no way they would have made it through in '57 when boot camp was 15 weeks of unrelenting verbal and physical violence of recruits. Which I, for one, thought was counter-productive then and still think it was. I left boot camp wanting to kill drill instructors, not abstract “enemies of America.” But, no, I don't think women have any business in the combat branches of the military.
THE INLAND MENDOCINO DEMOCRATIC CLUB is hosting a Zoom Cannabis Land Use Forum June 10.
Our Board of Supervisors has proposed a land use for cannabis cultivation - Phase 3.
There have been many years of permitting regulations and detailed meeting testimony. Our eyes glaze over.
The Inland Mendocino Democratic Club is hosting a Cannabis Land Use Forum, June 10.
Scientists from UC Berkeley's Cannabis Center will talk about the effects of Cannabis cultivation on water, wildlife and the environment.
Viewpoints from the big growers, small growers and environmentalists will be represented.
The Planning Commission and majority of Supervisors are moving forward quickly with adoption of Phase 3, thus avoiding the State mandated EIR, which becomes effective June 30.
What is the rush? Environmental Impact is what we care about! Right?
Tune in for an hour of straight talk about the potential changes in our immediate Cannabis Land Use future.
June 10, 2021. 6:30-7:30 pm
Zoom link is posted -- www.inlandmendodems.org
ANDERSON VALLEY 4-WEEK FITNESS CHALLENGE - May 16th - June 13th
Hello The AV Community,
Join us for the Anderson Valley 4-Week Fitness Challenge - May 16th – June 13th - on our events calendar: https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events
Join your community for FREE FITNESS CLASSES & ACTIVITIES to KEEP YOU HEALTHY & MOVING! Choose from a wide variety of group options or just get up and MOVE on your own! WALK, RUN, BIKE, HIKE, DANCE or PLAY SPORTS at least 30-MINUTES EVERY DAY and FEEL THE DIFFERENCE!
All participants will be entered into a RAFFLE to WIN PRIZES! You can join the challenge anytime!
Brought to you by the Anderson Valley Health Center and the AV Wellness Coalition.
For more information, contact Donna 707-684-0325.
FOUR IN THE MORNING AND HERE COMES ROGELIO & JUAN
On Wednesday, May 20, 2021 at about 4:06 A.M, a Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy conducted a traffic stop on a pick-up truck on Highway 20 near Road 144 in Ukiah.
The Deputy contacted the driver, Juan Granados, 36, of Winton, and passenger, Rogelio Avalos, 35, also of Winton. While speaking with the subjects, the Deputy saw a clear plastic box sitting on the floorboard of the truck. Within the box, the Deputy saw what he recognized as a glass methamphetamine smoking pipe.
The Deputy requested Avalos exit the truck so the Deputy could further investigate the presence of unlawful drugs and drug paraphernalia. Avalos refused and began reaching towards the center console area.
Avalos was asked to exit the truck and was controlled by the Deputy's firm grasp on his arm. Avalos exited the truck but continued to resist, attempting to free himself from the Deputy's grasp.
During a pat search for weapons, the Deputy felt what he recognized to be a handgun magazine in Avalos' pants pocket.
A second Deputy had arrived on scene and maintained security on the truck and Granados, who was still seated in the driver seat.
That Deputy saw a handgun on the floorboard beneath the front passenger seat Avalos was seated in. Avalos was detained in a patrol vehicle.
Granados was ordered out of the vehicle and he complied. Granados was detained in a patrol vehicle as well and a search of the truck was conducted.
Ukiah, California
The handgun located beneath the front passenger seat, a .45 caliber semi-auto, was discovered loaded, with a live round located in the chamber and the hammer cocked (ready to be fired).
A second handgun, a loaded .40 caliber semi-auto, was discovered beneath the driver seat, immediately accessible to Granados.
Neither handgun was legally registered, nor did Granados or Avalos possess a valid concealed carry permit. Avalos was later determined to be a previously convicted felon, prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition.
While preparing Avalos for transport to jail, it was discovered he had discarded a suspected controlled substance in the prisoner compartment of the Deputy's patrol vehicle. While preparing Granados for transport to jail, he was found to also be in possession of a suspected controlled substance.
Both subjects were arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for:
Avalos: Convicted Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Possession of Ammunition by a Prohibited Person, Carry a Loaded, Unregistered Firearm, Possess a Controlled Substance while Armed with a Handgun, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Controlled Substance Paraphernalia, Resist/Obstruct/Delay a Peace Officer in Performance of his Duty.
Granados: Carry a Loaded, Unregistered Firearm, Carry a Concealed Firearm within a Vehicle, Possess a Controlled Substance while Armed with a Handgun, Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Controlled Substance Paraphernalia.
Avalos was released after posting $25,000 bail, to appear in Mendocino County Superior Court at a later date.
Granados was released on zero bail after the booking process in accordance with the COVID-19 bail schedule set forth by the State of California Judicial Council.
UKIAH STREETSCAPE PROJECT CONSTRUCTION UPDATE - MAY 21
Myth busting Part 3: Instead of the road diet on State, State should be a one-way street with the opposite direction on Main or Oak. FALSE. When the community complained that State Street was dangerous and a barrier to the economic success of the downtown, experts were hired to explore all possible solutions, including the “one-way couplet” concept using Main or Oak. After extensive studies of the area and eliminating concepts that were infeasible, the road diet was determined to be the most efficient and effective solution.
Construction Overview, Week of May 24
(Henry – Mill): Continued work on the west side of State Street between Clay and Perkins Streets, including excavating, forming and pouring new curbs, gutters, bioretention facilities, placing decorative brick, preparing landscaping areas, and pouring new sidewalks. Additionally, next week may see the installation of additional light fixtures and benches.
Important note: We are doing our best to accommodate business hours. However, many of the areas we're working in now have businesses with only one entrance/exit. When new sidewalks are poured, access may be completely restricted for that day. The sidewalk will be reopened early the next morning. We apologize for any business disruption this may cause.
Monday-Friday: Crews will continue forming and pouring curb and gutter and sidewalk between Clay and Perkins Streets. Brick work will continue between Mill and Clay.
Tuesday: New sidewalk and curb ramp will be poured at Perkins and State and in front of the Brewery.
(Church Street between State and School Streets): Crews will also be working on the north side of the 100 block of West Church this week, including forming and pouring new curbs and gutters. The sidewalk will not be poured this week; instead, a temporary gravel sidewalk will remain in place temporarily. Access to all residences and businesses will be preserved.
Additionally, there may be some additional construction to complete on the 100 block of West Perkins early in the week.
The 100 block of West Perkins may be closed to traffic in the beginning of this week due to complete construction in this area. West Church will remain closed during this phase due to grade changes.
Construction hours: 6am – 6pm – Crews will work extended hours this week to complete construction on the 100 blocks of West Perkins and West Church.
Looking forward:
Week of June 1: Sidewalk construction on the south side of W. Church to School Street.
Week of June 7: Sidewalk construction on the north side of W. Standley to School Street.
Lots happening! Thanks, everyone, for your continued patience with this once-in-a-lifetime project. And please--support your downtown businesses in the construction zones!
Have a great weekend--
Shannon Riley, Deputy City Manager, City of Ukiah
ATTA GIRL, ROBIN. HANG ON.
From The Fort Bragg Advocate Editor - The Papers Survive, The Office Will Not
by Robin Epley, repley@advocate-news.com
The rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated.
Yes, there is a great big “For Lease” sign on the long-time home of the Advocate-News and Beacon on S. Main Street in Fort Bragg. And yes, the newsstands outside the front doors have been removed. And yes again, the inside is nearly empty and looks deserted.
But anyone who’s come by the office in the last year will know why: We haven’t worked in that building since March 13, 2020.
However, the papers are not going anywhere. (At least, not as far as I’ve heard, and I suspect I’d be one of the first to know.)
But yes, the office is closing. Frankly, that shouldn’t be unexpected. Even the Wall Street Journal is working from home these days, so the staff of the Advocate-News and Beacon doesn’t exactly need an office front either.
With such limited resources, wouldn’t you rather have the funds spent on keeping the focus on local news and employees rather than on the expense of keeping an office?
If you need to get ahold of us, you can still call or mail a letter or — preferably — send an email.
Our office manager is Audrey Taylor, who can be reached at legals@willitsnews.com or at (707) 841-2121. Audrey also handles the Classifieds, Legals and Obituaries. If you can’t get ahold of Audrey, you can also try Sue Fullbright at sfullbright@ukiahdj.com or call (707) 380-1152.
For circulation issues or questions, email our Circulation Manager, Lena Paiva, at lpaiva@ukiahdj.com.
If you need to get ahold of me, email me at editor@advocate-news.com or repley@advocate-news.com. My direct number is (707) 405-0204.
You’ll probably notice some of those emails are attached to the Ukiah Daily Journal and the Willits News. That’s because those outlets are our sister papers, and the company has consolidated those jobs to people already doing them in those places. It’s all in the family, though, not to worry. I’m still here on the coast, as is Debbie Holmer, our news clerk, along with most of our columnists and writers.
If you absolutely have to mail something — and again, email is so much more preferable — you can send it to the Ukiah Daily Journal’s office at 617 S. School St., in Ukiah.
I know it’s scary and new, and frankly, I’m not 100 percent happy about it either, but this shift has a lot to do with the Coronavirus. It’s led to a difference in how we all work, not just with journalists and journalism.
If the paper can get done from home, (and it has been since the March 19, 2020 issue) then there’s no reason to spend our meager budget on an office space that isn’t being used.
If you’re used to getting your papers from the stands outside the office, the next nearest newsstand is approximately 0.1 miles to the north, outside the Safeway, just next door to our old office. Every other newsstand in town will continue to be filled as well.
There is also some good news, though. I think you’ll be glad to hear though that all of our archives of the Advocate-News and The Beacon have gone to good homes. The Advocates have been given to the Mendocino County Historical Society, where they will soon be made available for public viewing and research.
I personally helped load more than 128 years’ worth of papers into the van of Historical Society Executive Director, Tim Buckner, on Saturday. I’m glad to see them going to a place that will take care of them, rather than having them sit on dusty shelves in a back office room.
The Beacons have gone to a local historian, Phil Carnahan, for digitizing. And then they, too, will be handed over to the County Historical Society for safekeeping.
Buckner thanked me for the donation on Saturday, after we were done loading up, but I’ll tell you the same thing I said to him: It’s not a gift I’ve given to the Historical Society, it’s a privilege I’m passing on to him.
That history belongs to the coast community, and like a lightkeeper, I’m just one in a long line of many before and the many to come.
And also like a lighthouse, we’re still keeping the lights on. That light just happens to be the one above my kitchen table, now.
Contact reporter Robin Epley at 707.969.6091.
(Courtesy, the Fort Bragg Advocate)
CATCH OF THE DAY, May 21, 2021
MARGARET ARTLIP, Willits. Domestic battery, probation revocation.
DAVID BROWN, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.
CARLOS OGAWA, Ukiah. Vehicle theft, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, loaded handgun-not registered owner.
RHONDA SANDERS, Willits. Disobeying court order. (Frequent flyer.)
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
Good News! The Trans Parade, cancelled last year because of Covid, is on!
It’s part of Pride Week. Local TV stations give the event comprehensive, all day coverage. The main attraction in the parade are outrageous 300 lbs. men on floats, dressed up like divas, with big bouffant hair, heavy makeup, black fishnet stockings, glittery dresses and flashy jewelry, gyrating to Alicia Bridges “I Love the Nightlife”, broadcast at 120 decibels. I caught some of it from a boat on the Connecticut River a few years ago. It's billed as a family event. I suppose it's harmless enough.
Supposed to be a warm weekend, the first of the spring, which usually signals the start of Shooting Season in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport. The 2021 season is predicted to be epic.
TRAVELS IN MEXICO
by Paul Theroux
The Day of the Dead — Each evening on the days from before Halloween through All Saint's Day (also called Dia de los Angelitos, Day of the Dead Children) on November first and the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) on the second, Oaxaca was transformed. The comparsas -- troops of masked marchers and musicians -- subverted the order of the city, asserted their marching multitudes, pushed forward along the cobbles and sprawled, taking over the streets, thrusting everyone else aside, turning them into spectators. Then the city belonged to the processions of skull faced children and ghouls and drummers and trumpeters and the Angel of Death.
The masked adults and children and the musicians assembled in the plaza in front of the Santo Domingo Church before starting slowly down the Oaxaca Main Street, Calle Porfirio Diaz. In the beginning, these were the Halloween celebrants, preparing to overlap with the Day of the Dead festivities. As the processions grew larger, more people, more banners, so did the images they carried -- a queen, a clown -- much taller, the costumes becoming fancier, the masks more elaborate, the music louder, until (as local parades often do) they took over the whole street, filling it all the way to the Zocalo, creating a spectacle. When there had been pop music and karaoke issuing from balconies and bars, now there was the blare of a brass band.
Heading down Avenido Juarez to language class on one of those days, passing the newspaper kiosks, I saw a headline: Sicarios Descansan En La Fiesta.
The fact that “Hitmen Rested on the Holiday” was good news and an explanation for apparently fewer crimes and more confidence and safer neighborhoods and parades uninterrupted by gunfire or mutilated corpses.
John Pedro Schwartz had appeared at an opportune moment. He said, “This must happen to you all over the world,” but I told him truthfully that I could not think of another time in my travels -- 50 years of wandering -- when a stranger had confronted me, recognized me, and offered to help me on my way. John Pedro became a friend and a guide, giving advice and steering me to the significant events that took place in the weeklong fiesta that goes under the name the Days of the Dead.
In the transformation of the cities on these days, small altars and shrines – ofrendas -- sprang up, all of them improvised, bright with a blanket of marigolds, strewn with ribbons, flanked by flickering candles in jars, lovely until you saw at the center the skull and the bony arms and legs of the fiesta’s memento mori. But the fixed grin on the skull made it an ambiguous comedy in a festival that was often satirical.
Halloween means dressing up, a sort of rehearsal, but also a time for visiting graveyards. Outside the Panteon San Miguel, Oaxaca’s walled in cemetery, there was a carnival -- food, games, rides, beer -- and the niches on the high interior walls where bodies were filed away and labeled were lighted by candles. At each tombstone inside, at the crypts, vaults and tombs that were like villas -- with roofs and columns -- a family was gathered, drinking and eating. I was welcome: “Have a drink?” “Are you hungry?”
The parades in daylight were jovial with prancing monsters and the effigies of ghouls and beauties. But when night fell on All Saints Day -- November 1 -- the vigils began and I went to the old cemetery in Santa Cruz Xoxocotlan, a center of Day of the Dead activity, where I saw that a vigil was a drinking party or a family picnic or, for some, a solemn, prayerful veneration. The drinking and chatting in a cluster of hearty masked celebrants is so odd you take it to be transgressive, but it is fitting because the Day of the Dead embodies elements of insult and protest in the cause of grieving and satire which is a form of grievng -- as well as binge eating.
On the Day of the Dead itself, November 2, I traveled to the village of Soledad Etla for the music, the food, the death watch parties at gravesites. Soledad Etla was eerily lit and noisy with contending bands of musicians, as well as a DJ playing loud Mexican rock songs. The tables of food were laden with garnaches: tlayudos, tacos, crepes, popcorn and sausages, fizzing and bursting into bubbling puddes of fat. It was a party and a masked ball at Etla -- a fat man in a Donald Trump mask; a man dressed as El Chapo, dancing and waving a shovel to symbolize his traveling to freedom; and a small girl, a diminutive coquette, made diabolical with mascara and fangs in a velvet costume.
“Hola Don Pablo!”
It was Carlos, the owner of my posada, watching a procession of comparsas. He said Soledad Etla was the place to be although I should visit San Jose Mogote for its music. He offered me a beer and in his companionable way narrated the parade and identified some of the masks and costumes -- skeletons, turtles, platinum blondes with painted faces, angels, monsters, monks, children as gauchos, men dressed as women, many ghoulish brides in weird wedding gowns.
“They fight,” Carlos said. “They mock life. They mock death.”
This protest, the rebellion, was a tonic. In the parades, using the freedom of pandemonium, many of the masked and costumed marchers chanted against the government, against Trump, or carried signs boldly lettered: Muera a Malgobierno!
This excitation -- Death to Bad Government! -- part of the Cry of Delores, has old roots in Mexico, dating from 1810 when Father Hidalgo, a Catholic priest (in Dolores, near Guanajuato, where I had had lunch one day on my way south), shouted it, and much else to denounce the Spanish and rouse the Mexicans to revolt. This cry is regarded as the commencement of the Mexican War of Independence. But it has been raised as well to many successive Mexican governments.
The images of death, of Santa Maria, of bony La Catarina, are not mournful, because the mood is festive with a subtext of anarchy. The celebrants are people who work and live humbly all year then seize this chance to make noise, to protest, to drink themselves silly.
San Jose Mogote was not far away. The village market was a mob scene but a mob scene with music -- the costumed villagers dancing to three brass bands, vying for attention, the music deafening, the dancers ecstatic and shrieking.
CALIFORNIA’S MISGUIDED WILDFIRE BUDGET
by George Wuerthner
Recently California Governor Newsom came out with a proposed fire budget of over a billon dollars. Unfortunately, like so many politicians, his budget emphasizes “active forest management” which includes thinning and prescribe fire to reduce the presumed “excess fuels” on public lands.
One can forgive Governor Newsom for his budget emphasis as he is likely depending on CAL Fire and the US Forest Service for his fire information. These bureaucracies see firefighting and fire “prevention” as a way to justify their existence and grow their budgets.
A consistent theme of thinning and prescribed fire advocates is that such “active forest management” will preclude wildfires that are threatening communities. Active forest management including thinning and prescribed burns may make people feel good, but it is largely ineffective in protecting communities.
What drives all large blazes are specific weather conditions that include drought, high temperatures, low humidity, and most importantly, wind. If you do not have such extreme fire weather conditions, you will not get a large fire. Indeed, most of all, wildfires self-extinguish because the weather conditions are not conducive to spread.
That is an important qualifier. The majority of all fires never grow large, no matter how much fuel may be found on the site if the weather conditions are not conducive for fire spread. There is ample evidence that most fires remain small whether they are “suppressed” or not.
Of 235 backcountry blazes in Yellowstone between 1972 and 1987, all went out without suppression. Photo George Wuerthner.
A study in Yellowstone National Park between 1972 and 1987 allowed 235 backcountry fires to burn without suppression. Of these blazes, 222 never got larger than 5 acres, and most were an acre or less. And all 235 self-extinguished without any suppression efforts.
Another review of wildfire in the Rocky Mountains found that between 1980-2003, a total of 56,320 fires burned over 9 million acres. About 98% of these fires (55,220) burned less than 500 acres and accounted for 4% of the total area burned. By contrast, 2% of all fires accounted for 96% of the acreage burned. And 0.1% (50) of blazes were responsible for half of the acres charred.
The 280,000 acre Thomas Fire by Santa Barbara is typical of many blazes in California in that it burned primarily in chaparral which “active forest management” won’t influence. Photo George Wuerthner.
Even in a major fire year such as 2020, where more than 4 million acres burned in California alone, the majority of all acreage charred was due to a few blazes. Only five fire complexes out of over 9,600 fires across California (approximately 0.05%) accounted for nearly 82% of the structures destroyed or damaged across the state that year. Furthermore, about 0.2% of all fires in California last year accounted for about 84% of the total burned acreage in the state.
Such statistics point out the critical point that nearly all wildfires are insignificant. They don’t “destroy” forests or homes. They remain small because without the proper fire weather conditions, ignitions will not spread, and the majority sputter out.
These statistics also demonstrate that thinning/logging is ineffective in controlling the very fires threatening human communities. Moreover, in California, about half of the blazes were in chaparral, savanna woodlands, or grasslands, not in forests where thinning is advocated.
Even in forested stands, the percentage of fires that occurred in forests, blazes in conifer stands accounted for 35% of all acreage.
The 2020 North Fire Complex, California’s largest blaze in 2020, burned 318,000 acres, mainly in a mixed-conifer forest in the northern Sierra. Much of the area was commercial timberland that had been clearcut within the last couple of decades. The rest of the acreage charred was on USFS land in the Plumas National Forest.
The North Fire burned through large areas that had been commercially and non-commercially thinned, burned, or otherwise managed. It also burned through some extensive regions that had experienced fire back in 2008.
California’s largest fires in recent years—including the Creek Fire and August Complex in 2020 and the Camp Fire in 2018—burned through large vegetation management project areas in national forests and on private or state lands.
None of these “fuel reductions” stopped the blazes. And worse for communities, a number of studies have found that “treated” lands burn with higher severity than natural landscapes.
All of this suggests that the emphasis on “active forest management,” whether prescribed burns or thinning, does not work on the very fires we hope to contain. Indeed, there is evidence that logging/thinning can enhance fire spread by opening up the forest to greater drying and wind penetration.
California Governor Newsom’s billion-dollar fire budget priorities are backward. It provides less than 4% of those funds for “community hardening.” An effective fire strategy would include a massive reduction in logging/thinning and a much greater emphasis on creating homes and communities that can survive a fire.
(George Wuerthner has published 36 books including Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy. He serves on the board of the Western Watersheds Project.)
(Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)
“Does everybody remember how eating works?”
LURKING IN THE WOODWORK
by James Kunstler
As is always the case, history the trickster is taking us to a place we didn’t expect to go. Personally, I don’t lose a lot of sleep over Klaus Schwab, the James Bond villain who runs the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is behind the widely touted Great Reset campaign. The Great Reset proposes to reorganize all human endeavor going forward from the top town, directed by an elite cohort of technocrat commissars, to produce a “green” utopia — mainly for their own benefit.
It’s an elaborate joke, really. The human project is surely going somewhere. The direction is determined not by technocrat megalomaniacs but by the process called emergence, which means a self-organizing reality of more dynamic forces than any coterie of megalomaniacs could hope to control. These dynamic forces are not necessarily hidden; many are working in plain sight and you can make pretty good guesses as to what’s up with them. But they control the gameboard, not Klaus and his legion of economist-engineer nerds.
One of the forces at work is our old friend from physics class: entropy, the god of disorder, randomness, and uncertainty. He is very active lately in American affairs especially, to the degree that we have no workable consensus for running this society, so that all our standards and institutions are crumbling. It’s gotten so bad that we don’t even get the news about the crumbling because The News is one of the institutions that has fallen apart. Instead of events relayed in packets that comport with reality, we get “narratives” uniformly concocted in bad faith, that are knowingly in non-compliance with reality — which is as opposite as can possibly be from what The News once aimed to do.
The worst thing about the Trump years was that he enabled his adversaries to get away with turning bad faith into the greatest virtue of all. That’s what you got in the connivance of the anti-Trump Deep Staters and The News bringing you three years of RussiaGate, Robert Mueller’s coverup operation for RussiaGate, and Rep. Adam Schiff lying his ass off without any penalty. And now you’re getting more of it courtesy of Attorney General Merrick Garland allowing political adventurers like Deputy AG Lisa Monaco to go fishing for charges against Rudy Giuliani for the express purpose of burying him in “the process” and leaving him bankrupt. The Justice Department is a broken institution now, and there isn’t enough good will or good faith around these days to put it back together.
The Woke hysteria, on the other hand, is lately revealed to be a patent hustle, and is finally inviting pushback in the schools as parents begin to loudly object to “white privilege” struggle sessions for eight-year-olds and workshopping sexual confusion with children who are not ready for any version of sex, real or fake. The Great Reset’s connection to Wokery can be seen in the efforts of George Soros to finance the elections of district attorneys around the country, and that game is unwinding as their blatant incompetence is revealed. Kim Gardner, installed in St. Louis, now faces losing her law license for the malicious prosecution of former Governor Eric Greitens. The Missouri Supreme Court is conducting the investigation. A recall effort is underway to recall Soros-backed LA DA George Gascon, who doesn’t believe in prosecuting criminals. And the DA-equivalent, State’s Attorney, in Chicago (Cook County), Kim Foxx, another Soros installation, is on the rocks not just for covering up the Jussie Smollett hoax, but for allowing the county to become a free fire zone. What was Mr. Soros thinking?
Whoever thought a year ago that the fumbling old hack Joe Biden would be sitting in the oval office, fronting for his old boss, Barack Obama? Don’t you wonder how much Mr. Obama has in some fashion been behind all the culturally-destructive shenanigans since he “retired” across town to his Kalorama stronghold? Do you wonder how much of the shadowy activity in the DOJ has simply been an effort to protect Mr. Obama? The former president has done a good job of seeming to disappear into the woodwork. I think before long we’ll understand the role he continues to play in the country’s affairs, and it’s going to be an unappetizing discovery. It might provoke a whole different kind of reset.
(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)
POINT ARENA CITY COUNCIL
Mayor Scott Ignacio ~ Vice Mayor Barbara Burkey ~ Anna Dobbins ~ Olivia Ford ~ Eric Dahlhoff
Agenda - May 25, 2021
6:00 pm ~ VIA TELECONFERENCE
I. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL
II. READING – Councilmember Ford
III. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
IV. MAYOR’S REPORTS/ANNOUNCEMENTS
A) Mendocino County Sheriff Update
V. COUNCIL REPORTS – Items in this agenda section are informational or scheduling purposes only.
A) City-Related Meetings
B) Council Committee and Commission Reports
VI. PRIVILEGE OF THE FLOOR (Public Comment Period)
This is the time for members of the public who wish to be heard on matters that do not appear on the Agenda. City Council policy is to limit each speaker to three (3) minutes. Pursuant to the Brown Act Section 54954.3, the City Council may not take action on an item that does not appear on the Agenda. The public will be allowed to speak concurrently with the calling of an agenda item following the staff presentation of that item.
VII. CONSENT CALENDAR
Notice to the Public: All matters listed under this category are considered to be routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion. If a member of the public would like an item on the Consent Calendar pulled and discussed separately, the request shall be made to a Councilmember prior to the meeting. Unless a specific request is made by a Councilmember, the Consent Calendar will not be read. There will be no separate discussion of these items
A) Approval of City Council Meeting Minutes of April 27, 2021
B) Treasurer’s Report – March & April 2021
C) Wastewater Report – April 2021
VIII. PRESENTATION
A) Arena Cove Parking Lot Rehabilitation
Recommended Action: Receive presentation
IX. PUBLIC HEARINGS – Public hearings are generally scheduled for a time certain of 6:00 p.m. or soon thereafter, unless noticed otherwise.
A) Resolution 2021-12 Adopting Master Fee Schedule
Recommended Action: Discuss and adopt Resolution 2021-12
X. ORDINANCES & RESOLUTIONS – All items under this section are for discussion and possible action.
A) Second Reading of Ordinance 240, Adding Chapter 8.35 to Title 8 Health and Safety of the Point Arena Municipal Code Restricting Camping on Public and Private Property
Recommended Action:
1) Publicly read the title of the ordinance (second reading) and adopt the ordinance.
2) Adopt Resolution 2021-10 Establishing Camping Ordinance Procedures
3) Direct the City Clerk to prepare, publish and post a summary of the ordinance with the vote of each council member indicated within 15 days as required by the Government Code.
B) Review of Ordinance 238, Closure of Arena Cove Parking Lot and Pier
Recommended Action: Receive report, discuss and direct staff
XI. REPORTS/ACTION ITEMS – All items under this section are for discussion and possible action.
A) Submissions for Per Capita Parks Grant Funding
Recommended Action: Approve submission of grant applications
B) Use of Veteran’s Hall for PG&E Community Resource Center During PSPS Events
Recommended Action: Receive report and direct staff
XII. CITY MANAGER/CITY ATTORNEY REPORTS
XIII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS (next 45 days)
A) Next Meeting: June 22, 2021
B) Award of Bid for Arena Cove Parking Lot Repair
C) Wastewater Rate Study
XIV. ADJOURNMENT
If open session items cannot be completed by 9:00 p.m., the meeting may be adjourned to the next regular meeting or Council may vote to extend the meeting.
Dated: May 21, 2021
NOTICE
In accordance with Governor’s Executive Orders N-25-20 and N-29-20, City Council meetings will be held virtually. Public comment will be solicited during the meeting. Those wishing to comment on agenda item in advance of the meeting should submit comments via email by 10am the day of the meeting to: meeting@pointarena.ca.gov.
ACCESSING THE MEETING THROUGH ZOOM
By Computer, Pad or Smartphone:
(Please use Raise Hand to address the Council)
By Phone: (669) 900-9128 (San Jose)
Webinar ID: 929 2452 3393
(Please press *9 to raise hand and *6 to unmute when called upon)
It would be my guess that RED BEARD is traveling on foot, out of view, primarily on private logging roads. If I am right, this suggests RED BEARD is local. MRC security people should be checking their surveillance cameras.
Watch out for the pot… err.. opium plantations playlist. Could be hauling water.
What about a bike at night? Or a hike? Trail camera hidden along Philo-Greenwood Rd might tell the tale.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/05/21/absolute-nightmare-video-shows-tennessee-officers-taunted-hogtied-man-he-died
The Ukiah Daily Journal is no longer located on South School Street. The sale of that facility was another victim of Alden Global Capital. Their current address is: 617 S State St, Ukiah, CA 95482
Re Avalos & Granados: I followed up my comment on May 19 about the 32yo woman who punched a cop and 2 women and stole $161 in merchandise from Walmart by linking Kym Kemp’s article about this incident. Still waiting for a response from the DA about the enormous bail discrepancy between her and these two dangerous felons. I know you read the AVA Mr. Eyster. I’m sure I’m not the only one scratching his head about this.
“I hate Israel.” Enlightened Mendo-progressive.
“I’m Louis Farrakhan, and I agree with this message.”
“I’m David Duke, and I agree with this message.”
Who said that? Names!
Look under your tailer. You may not know it yet, but one may be hiding there. Freud tried to tell us, the hardest person to know is yourself.
Freud also said, “If fantasies become over over-luxuriant and over-powerful, the conditions are laid for the onset of neurosis or psychosis.” You crossed over years ago, Colonel Von Umlaut.
He was writing about narcisissm and people who attempt to demean others with derogatives when their ability to reason or submit balanced points of view fail. Check under your trailer again, Bruce Anderson.
That diagnoses fits you, Mr. Koepf, to the proverbial “T”.
Hey, I’ve got an idea, Mr. Anderson, Let’s debate the Ideali-Palistinain issue publicly. KZYX would love it, and they would be 90% on your side. You can’t loose.
lose might be the word you want
I avoid arguing the Israeli-Palestinian issue, under any circumstances, pubic or private. Same can be said for any dispute in the Middle East. Life is way too short, and there are productive things I can do with my life.
Which is to say, you support the zionist fascists.
The Main Street, Fort Bragg, building Ms. Epley described is/was not the “long time” home of the Advocate-News or the Beacon. Readers can draw their own further conclusions about the statement.
I hope Craig weighs in on the activism question, identifying the dynamic of karma yoga as action without the sense of self-conscious doership by an entity that is conceptualized fiction.
Krishnamurti to social worker Laura Huxley ((Aldous’ wife): “Those people who go around helping people are a curse!”
27 years ago I obtained a permit for a demonstration at the White House and I am somewhat pleased with how that turned out, especially since the NY times, CNN, and many other news orgs have been showing images of our group frequently over the last 3 and 1/2 years:
https://youtu.be/8aB5IsOmzsA
(That’s me at the front of the long cloth banner.)
I was also pleased the ego factor didn’t screw things up. But, that may be we were a unique group of wack jobs.
Now there is a group of professional political consultants, including 2 Dems and 1 Republican, forming a UFO PAC.
And Danny Sheehan appears to becoming a major spear point again.
“Radical equity” may blossom more in the growing light shed on our place in this cosmos.
Are you ready? That’s the national conversation starting up.
Krishnamurti to the Woke Mendo Dems: “There’s a difference between wakefulness and wacky; just as there’s a diff ‘tween tactful and tacky.”
I loved the Yippies especially given the dour seriousness of politicos engaged on the streets.
Justice for Pegasus, their Presidential candidate who the piggishly behaving officers kidnapped, cooked, and ate!
Note:. I did not objectify the temporarily insane-by-fascist-tendencies police officers by calling them pigs.
Well researched piece on wildfire patterns by George Wuerther. Can CalFire possibly update their methods in light of this “New Information “? Cutting the biggest trees in the forest is definitely the wrong approach for a number of reasons, Fire resilience being one of them, as pointed out in the article. The opportunities are here to change course in the management of JDSF and other forest lands.
Tim McClure
Inglenook