Off the Record (September 22, 2021)

MENDO OPPOSED THE NEWSOM RECALL BY 70% in early election results. Statewide results show the Newsom recall going down by almost 2-1. Of the also-rans Larry Elder got the most Mendo votes with Bernie Bro Joel Ventresca beating Republican John Cox and the other Republicans.

A READER WONDERS: "I was screwing around on the Internet looking for story ideas when something piqued my interest. In 2017 (couldn't find a more recent reference) Little River apparently had the lowest per capita income of any USCensus-designated town of its size. So who are these impoverished people and where do they live? Real estate listings in Little River show two options: The Woods, a senior manufactured-home community where the HOA is a grand a month, and cliff-hanging mansions in the 3-5 million $ range. I found a couple references to a downtown of sorts but not a single photo of such a place. The homeless don't make it into the census so I'm flummoxed by this. Wassup?" 

STILL SCAMMING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

Please help the starving Bari Cult with expenses incurred at their looming Mendocino County-sponsored be-in. (Searchable on Facebook)

RE THE FORTHCOMING BARI CULT EVENTS, a reader writes: “I think what bothers me as much as anything is that they are using the Mendocino County Museum as their stage. The museum may not be the innovative place it once was but it is largely responsible and reliable, I think. This event is a big circle jerk. It is not an honest examination of the time, and what might have happened. No Susan Faludi. No nothing. Pathetic. The GoFundMe is outrageous given the $4 million payout to these people. Going to pick up the tab for Dennis Cunningham, who raked in hundreds of thousands from this? Truly, disgusting.”

THE BARI CULT has always been absolutely shameless and mercenary, as was Bari herself in many ways. She was an ace fundraiser, and many funds were raised under false pretenses, such as the fundraising for the federal lawsuit she wrote for her front man lawyer, Cunningham. The suit was co-edited with the feds to exclude any and all witnesses who might suggest that the ex-husband did it. The fed suit fundraising pitch, which went out to the unwitting around the country, promised to plant lots of trees if Bari-Cherney won the suit. They won, but nary a tree was ever planted. Instead, the money went to Bari's already wealthy daughters and to Cherney, who bought a dope farm near Garberville with his end of the proceeds. And, natch, the “movement” lawyers took a big hunk for their “work.” For all their grand talk about “speaking truth to power,” these people are cowards, never appearing anywhere to publicly argue the bombing case, and never appearing anywhere at all unless in a giggling, look-at-us group. Worse than the County sponsoring these scammers, we'll soon get hours of recordings of the events on pseudo-public radio KZYX where Alicia Bales, one of the primary cult members, is “program manager.” No mention, of course, of the dissenting views on the Bari bombing can be mentioned on our local “free speech” radio station. If you've ever wondered what Stalinism looked and felt like, take a look at these people coming up at the County Museum in Willits.

PS. You may recall that Bari, after firing Susan B. Jordan for the thought crime of asking, “How about the ex-husband here?” in came the infinitely pliable, slo mo Cunningham. Susan B. also at Bari's request, applied to the FBI for limited immunity from prosecution, which the FBI denied.  Odd request from an innocent person, no? And no member of Bari's family has ever publicly demanded that the bomber be found and prosecuted.

SIGNS OF THE APOCALYPSE. Monday, there was an unedifying news clip of thousands of people marching across the Brooklyn Bridge chanting “Fuck Joe Biden,” coming to rest at City Hall to protest vaccine mandates on Monday as Mayor Bill de Blasio's policy requiring venues to demand proof of the shot went into effect. Worse, the demonstration was organized by a teachers group opposed to New York City's requirement that they be vaccinated against COVID-19. The city has also mandated that teachers and staff in the public schools are required to get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by September 27. There is no test-out option, nor are there exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Those teachers who refuse to get vaccinated would be laid off. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT), which represents the city's educators, has said it is seeking arbitration to fight the order.

WHY AM I not surprised? The County of Mendo employs about 1200 people, 30 percent of whom aren't vaccinated. That's about 360 people who are indifferent to the welfare of their workmates, themselves and their own families.

FROM THE DA’S OFFICE:

Defendant Heather Allison Marsh-Haas, age 31, generally of the Willits and Potter Valley areas, was convicted by plea today of killing her newborn daughter in December 2020.

Marsh-Haas entered a guilty plea Tuesday afternoon to Voluntary Manslaughter, a felony. To resolve her case, the defendant was also required to stipulate to the presumptive state prison sentence of 72 months.

A form of unlawful homicide, voluntary manslaughter requires the same lethal intent as murder. However, the culpability of the offender is deemed reduced or “mitigated” under the law by other negating factors…. As background, Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies were called to the emergency department at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley last December following unsuccessful attempts by medical staff to resuscitate a 30-day old newborn who had been brought to the hospital. 

As part of their efforts to try and save the child, hospital medical staff obtained a blood sample from the child’s mother to analyze to look for clues. Subsequent toxicology tests of that sample revealed the presence of methamphetamine in the defendant's drawn blood.

The deceased was later forensically examined by the county’s pathologist, Dr. Bennet Omalu, in an effort to attempt to determine a cause of death. With the help of toxicology tests, Dr. Omalu conclusively determined that the little girl died as a result of methamphetamine toxicity. 

The joint law enforcement and medical investigations determined that the lethal source of the child’s methamphetamine was from the mother having recently ingested drugs that she then passed through to the child in her breast milk. 

The local law enforcement agency that developed the evidence to convict defendant Marsh-Haas was the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. 

The attorney who worked with the investigators, charged the defendant, and will continue to handle this case through formal sentencing is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg. 

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Carly Dolan accepted the defendant’s guilty plea Tuesday afternoon and will impose the stipulated prison sentence at a sentencing hearing that has been set for October 8, 2021 at 9 o’clock in the morning in Department H in the Ukiah courthouse.

ED NOTE: Can there be a sadder case? I think 72 months is wayyyyy too much time given the circumstances, not that I know them, but surmising here nevertheless, a young woman with no resources, no functioning family, father of the dead baby not mentioned and probably long gone....so this young woman reaches for that fatal pick-me-up and, as a graduate from a high school where only the "smart kids" took elementary biology, she has no knowledge of how her body — any body — functions and is as surprised as the doctors when her infant daughter dies from methamphetamine poisoning. Judging from her booking photo, the young woman is in shock, still is, from the loss she'll suffer over and over and over again all her days, and the local Taliban piles on with six years in prison, the sentence meted out by a judge who ran as a feminist.

JOHN DARCY will be remembered in an exhibit of his art beginning Friday, September 24th at the Company Store, Fort Bragg.

L ‘ART DANS MA VIE: A Life in Pictures Art exhibition by John Darcy. A posthumous art retrospective to honor the life’s work of our dear friend, including a silent action to supplement the cost of end of life services. Opening reception- Friday, September 24th, 5-8 Silent auction through Saturday 25th Art pickup Saturday 25th, 6-8 Company Store- 400 S Main St, Fort Bragg Please wear a mask for more info johndarcyartexhibit@gmail.com or Naomi 707.813.4130

I ALWAYS ENJOYED seeing John on trips out to the Mendocino Coast. My most memorable visit with the artist was at his home in Albion. Greeted at the door by John and Penny, I could see sandwiches on a table inside, and had just taken a step inside when Penny screamed and John yelled, “Goddam! The birds are out!” as both of them ran past me and disappeared into the wilds of Salmon Creek. I sat down at the table and waited for them to return, with or without the birds. And waited. And went on waiting. I ate a sandwich on the presumption it was intended for me. And waited some more. I walked outside. Silence. And I waited. Some kind of equatorial winged creature flew past and lighted on John and Penny's porch. Then another appeared. The three of us waited. I introduced myself. “Hi, birds. Do you think John and Penny are coming back? They invited me for lunch.” The birds looked back at me but were non-responsive. I told them about a hornbill I 'd known in Borneo. “Wherever this Dyak went, so did the hornbill.” They didn't seem interested. “Well,” I said, “it was nice chatting with you but I've got to be moving along. My best to John and Penny.”

I CALLED the County Museum Thursday afternoon not, repeat not, to complain about the forthcoming month of Bari Bombing events, events which of course exclude any and all mention of the perp, Madam Bari's ex-husband, Mike Sweeney who, if you came in late, post-bombing also created a lush position for himself as Mendocino County's trash bureaucrat, sponsored by Westside Ukiah, especially then-supervisor Richard Shoemaker and supervisor-to-be, John McCowen. Where were we? O yes. My call to the County Museum, the reason for which was to ask if the Museum was aware that Boonville's beloved weekly was home to a large archive of material regarded as virtual kryptonite by the cult brains and scammers the Museum is sponsoring for the next six weeks. Ms. Mattson of the Museum was very gracious. “Yes, I've read a lot of your writing about that period, and I will certainly refer people to it.” Which I thought was kind of Ms. Mattson. Then, thinking about our chat, I silently hoped Ms. M. would not be subjected to the extreme nastiness of the Bari Cult toward anybody who they so much as suspect is open to the non-Cult perspectives.

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to unseat Democrats in most areas of California except north and east of I-5. Of course Newsom overwhelmed the wackos everywhere in the state except in isolated pockets of cowboys, a concentration of which populates the northeast corner of the state of Jefferson. Ditto for Ravitch in SoCo. Mendo, as the rest of the Northcoast, is a forever lock for middle-of-the-road extremists of the Huffman, McGuire, Wood, Pelosi type. Both the first and second congressional districts were gerrymandered for Democrats years ago when Willie Brown ran the California party, not that the area needed much juggling since it was already lib-heavy. But, given the recent Bernie vote on the Northcoast, a left Democrat could, conceivably, some glorious day, unseat a Democrat of the degraded type presently rooted in elected office from San Jose to Crescent City. Anyway, given the bitter chasm between Americanos these days, the Northcoast is already a kind of sanctuary for Nice People of the lib-lab type, and will seem even more of a sanctuary in the days to come as it gets rougher and rougher out there unto, if present trends continue, our Second Civil War when I'll be too old to function as anything more useful than maybe a sandbag on the barricades.

OF THE COUNTY'S DEPARTMENTS, the least vaccinated seem to be the cops. Que pasa? Because most cops view us libs as sponsors of the aberrant behavior cops deal with every day. In cop-think, since libs are vaxxed, there's probably something fishy about vaccination. The one cop I ran my theory by laughed and said, “I think you're on to something there.”

IF THE GENERALS mooted the Orange Monster to the point of calling up the Chinese to assure them that America would not attack them, well… either the generals committed treason or Trump was a lot crazier than anybody thought. Trump is ignorant and as impulsive as a child, but likely to nuke the Chinese on his way out the door? No. Trump lead a Maga coup? Too dumb and lazy. But functional figurehead for Magas who aren't dumb and lazy? There he is.

GENERAL MILLEY, to me, to me, is reminiscent of General Buck Turgidson from Dr. Strangelove. He seems a little out there, but certainly not as wacky as Trump. But like Trump, he isn't particularly competent, as demonstrated by recent events in Afghanistan.

AND WHAT'S with Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs with their chests full of medals, including good conduct medals? Jeez, even I got that one, as did my colleague Major Scaramella, USAF ret. The Major also got a medal for his clean-up work after Hurricane Camille, and several Air Force Commendations, two with oak leaf clusters for whatever. You'd never catch the real generals of yesteryear looking like the old Russian nobility. Can you even imagine U.S. Grant looking like that? Omar Bradley? Ike?

POOR OLD JOE was shuffled out last week for a photo op with General Milley, after the medal-bedecked military man admitted on Wednesday that he did speak to Chinese officials before the 2020 election and again in January. Milley was responding to a startling report that he phoned his Chinese counterpart without Trump's knowledge to assuage Chinese fears that Trump would take rogue action to stay in office. Not trusting Poor Old Joe to speak for himself, his glib frontperson, Jen Psaki, announced, “The president knows General Milley. They have worked side by side through a range of international events. The president has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism and his fidelity to our Constitution.” Psaki then got out the Demo Party line re Trump: “The outgoing president of the United States, during this time, fomented unrest, leading to an insurrection and an attack on our nation's Capitol on January 6th, one of the darkest days in our nation's history.” Milley himself said his calls to the Chinese were “vital to avoiding unintended consequences,” but he seemed to dispute that the calls were done in secret.

JOHN MCCOWEN on Tuesday’s Board decision to rescind the new cannabis ordinance: 

Chapter 10A.17, the current (and still the only) cultivation ordinance was written entirely for the small legacy grower. It was limited to 10,000 square feet; only those who could show proof of prior local cultivation could apply; and to this day no one else is allowed to apply.

Chapter 22.18, which provided for limited expansion for those who had an appropriate site and were able to comply with more stringent environmental, neighborhood and community protections, would have done nothing to harm the interest of legacy growers. In fact, it would have helped them by also allowing them the opportunity for modest expansion and an alternative path to State Annual Licenses.

Ironically, legacy growers helped lead the charge to demonize cannabis cultivation and turn the general public against a functional ordinance. Yes, the BOS could and should have read the tea leaves in time to amend the ordinance to eliminate the 10% of parcel size provision prior to adoption but if they reneged on their June 22 pledge to do so that could have been the subject of a subsequent ballot measure, as well as a recall.

Now that the BOS has repealed 22.18 [Phase 3], the likely result is that many current applicants will fail for economic reasons no matter if they are able to get a State License or not.

MIKEY'S THRILLED (ME TOO)

State Senator Mike McGuire is thrilled to announce that the State of California has appropriated $10 million dollars to complete the acquisition of the iconic Lone Pine Ranch, in the beautiful Eel River Canyon.

“The Eel River Canyon is like no other place in the west, and it will be the crown jewel of the Great Redwood Trail,” Senator Mike McGuire said. “I’m thrilled that we were able to secure these funds which will allow The Wildlands Conservancy to acquire and open the Lone Pine Ranch to the public. This amazing piece of Earth will feature a breathtaking twelve miles of Trail along the Eel River with a total of 18 miles of riverfront. We couldn’t be more thrilled!”

The ranch was owned for decades by Dean Witter, an investment banker and stockbroker originally based in San Francisco who purchased the land in the early 1940s and died in 1969. 

The Wildlands Conservancy has been working on this acquisition for several years. The Conservancy previously spent $3.9 million of its own funds to purchase a 3,000-acre portion of the Ranch straddling Humboldt and Trinity counties. That deal gave the nonprofit organization a two-year option to purchase the remaining 27,000 acres for $25 million. The $10 million from the State is the final piece of the puzzle to ensure a successful purchase of the property. Additional funds had been previously secured via private donors and grant funding.

“I am so impressed with The Wildlands Conservancy. Their vision for this spectacular landscape, ability to raise the funds to help purchase this property and their track record of working with the neighbors and the public is unmatched,” said McGuire. “We can’t wait to move the property’s master plan forward and eventually get folks onto the land and hiking the Trail. We’re grateful for the Conservancy’s partnership.”

The Wildlands Conservancy owns and operates California’s largest nonprofit nature preserve system. All of their properties are open to the public and are free of charge for hiking and camping.

“The Wildlands Conservancy applauds Senator McGuire’s effort to secure critical funds to protect 18 miles of the scenic Grand Canyon of the Eel River and catalyze progress on the Great Redwood Trail. The Wildlife Conservation Board’s support for acquisition of the Lone Pine Ranch is the key to protecting wildlife, vibrant forests, and rich wetlands, which significantly advances the State’s vision to protect 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. The Wildlands Conservancy is proud to add this nationally significant landscape into its Preserve system for permanent stewardship and development of free public access,” said David Myers, President of The Wildland Conservancy Board of Directors. 

Myers called acquisition of the Witter Ranch “a rare opportunity to preserve some of the most breathtaking landscapes in the country.”

(McGuire presser)

ED NOTE: Witter was a stocks and bonds tycoon whose primary residence was in Ross. He also had a private rail car attached to the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad for weekends at his ranch (described above) in the Eel River Canyon. Witter ad his own ranch rail siding. The northbound train would drop him off, the southbound train would pick him up.

JUST IN from Enchanted Meadow:

Mendocino Redwood Company security at Enchanted Meadow "Below McDonald" THP (yes, Malcolm's place), protecting loggers from possible protestors of old redwood logging along Albion River, 9/15/2021.

The security company is Lear Asset Management: learasset.com/security.html

Notice the keffiyeh, traditional Arab head dress, appropriated and worn by Lear Asset goons.

A READER WONDERS: "Sherwood Oaks Health Center in Fort Bragg houses some of the most vulnerable of us who must, by circumstance, live out their days warehoused. Now a resident has tested positive, after three staff in the last two weeks have brought it into the house. And apparently No Mandate for vaccination?? And all the stringent precautions they have been careful to take for the last 19 months? As one who cares deeply for this population, I am worried and not a little angry. I'm told that to ask if one has been immunized is Not OK. Huh? This is after the deaths from an earlier outbreak.? Excuse me for being a little confused. Does ANYONE really care about our frail elders and the others who must reside in that environment? IS ANYBODY WATCHING?"

KEEPING UP WITH MR. STONE, the Black Bart Trail Burglar. Joan Vivaldo reports: “The Preliminary Examination for Douglas Stone had been set for 9/15/2021 at 10am for several months. The 9/14/2021 online calendar confirmed the setting. I drove to Ukiah from San Francisco, arriving at Courtroom H at 9:55 am. Not seeing the prosecutor Ms. Larsen, or Mr. Stone or his attorney, Mr. Runfola, I suspected there had been a change. Indeed, at 10:06, the matter came up. Mr. Stone and Mr. Runfola attended by ZOOM, which provided voice but not picture until the last 30 seconds. The People, via Ms. Larsen, had filed a Motion to Continue until 10/12/2021 at 10am so all witnesses could be present. The continuance was granted. The witnesses consist of many police officers, all of whom can attend on 10/12/2021. It is expected to be an all-day affair, and Mr. Runfola expects it to spill over to the next day. Mr. Stone appears much older than he did in his booking photo, and is now living in Arizona."

Background: The Unlikely Burglar of Black Bart Trail

COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT of Schools, Michelle Hutchins, called to flesh out Tommy Wayne Kramer's vivid criticism of a MCOE-sponsored weekend at the Little River Inn. Kramer wrote:

"SERVING THE PUBLIC: Among the many places that are too expensive for you to visit, let alone spend several days eating and sleeping and loafing around, is the Little River Inn over on the coast. Luckily you can do the next best thing, and foot the bill for some of the wealthiest people in the county and state to visit there to eat, sleep and go to seminars and conferences. And that’s just what the Mendocino County Office of Education recently did, and then bragged about in a press release the Daily Journal ran a week or so back. These administrative parasites that have burrowed into the public education system get phenomenal salaries, retirement packages that would bring many tears to your eyes, and then flaunt their expense accounts on what Michelle Hutchins, Superintendent of Mendocino Schools, called a ‘high quality experience with comfortable accommodations and excellent service.’ Why can’t desk bound administrators Zoom a conference, like they made our kids take classes all year?” 

OUCH!

SUPERINTENDENT HUTCHINS called to say that the gathering includes school administrators from all over NorCal supplemented with guests from urban districts. The event was started by Paul Tichinin during his long reign as county schools chief. Ms. Hutchins pointed out that food was purchased at a variety of Coast restaurants and that all-in-all, apart from the educational benefits of information exchanges with area administrators in a difficult time, the conclave was of clear benefit to Coast businesses, with many attendees returning to the Coast for private vacations.

WILLIAM EVERS, AKA RED BEARD, our famous fugitive, has been in the County at least since December of 2020 when he burglarized retired judge Dave Nelson's cabin five miles west of Ukiah. Judge Nelson said Red Beard had apparently been squatting at a property within view of Nelson's place for some time prior to “trashing my cabin,” as the judge described Red Beard's burglary. “He took all the liquor and even cooking condiments and left a terrible mess,” Nelson said. “A group of property owners was able to confront him one day but he outran everyone. That first photo of him was taken near my property.”

AFTER that initial sighting five miles west of Ukiah, Red Beard next turned up on some surveillance footage, in February, carrying a rifle stolen from a Philo home.

• 

• 

• 

IN MAY he was spotted on Cameron Road near Elk, meaning he was by then somewhere in the densely forested, precipitously steep hillsides between Greenwood Road and the Navarro River. On an encounter with deputies on Cameron Road, Red Beard shot at his pursuers who shot back at him, both sides of the gunfire unsuccessful.

HE HAS RETURNED a couple of times to Cameron Road to burglarize homes and, two weeks ago, was nearly caught by deputies as he rifled a house on Navarro Ridge Road, meaning he was now, or was then, on the north side of the Navarro in the Salmon Creek Drainage, which includes the area from Navarro Ridge Road through heavily populated Albion.

UNTIL LIBERALS UNDERSTAND that vaccination politics has an economic as well as political dimension, we’ll never bring the pandemic under control, assuming it can be brought under control. As hard as it may be to believe most of the unvaccinated don’t listen to Tucker Carlson’s nightly exploitations of COVID for political advantage and ratings. Most of the unvaccinated are the working poor, who have little experience in dealing with the American medico-pharma-insurance complex and the encounters they’ve had have been miserable, expensive and unsatisfying. Covid should have propelled National Health Care to the forefront of the political agenda. Instead, the Biden administration has chosen to empower the very system that has failed to provide basic health care to Americans for the past century. No wonder the poor are skeptical. It’s convenient to blame Murdoch, Trump, and the GOP for these failings, but the rot goes much deeper and closer to home than that. Take the profit out of human misery and you’ll get much closer to “healing” the country. 

— Jeffrey St. Clair

REMEMBERING JACK HIRSCHMAN

Jack Hirschman Memorial

What: A celebration of life of San Francisco Poet Laureate Emeritus Jack Hirschman (1937-2021), a long-time resident of North Beach brought many international poets to the City and became one of the most beloved poets of our times. The celebration will start at Spec’s. In the New Orleans tradition of the Second Line, a procession will wind its way from Columbus and Broadway, up Grant Avenue, stopping at Caffe Trieste before heading to Washington Square Park for an international line-up of poets and musicians from 2-4PM.

Where: In North Beach, starting at Spec’s 12 Alder/William Saroyan Place, proceeding to Caffe Trieste, Vallejo and Grant Avenue, then Live Worms Gallery 1345 Grant Avenue, and ending up at Washington Square Park (Columbus and Filbert) for the program

When: Saturday October 2, 2021. 12-4pm.

Why: Jack Hirschman lived the better part of his productive life as a poet, painter, translator and organizer in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, functioning as the poetic engine of the City, and supporting poets from the novice to the celebrated, from the local to the internationally known. He was admired in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His three-volume major work, The Arcanes, constitute the most prolific output by an American poet since Pablo Neruda. He served as the Fourth San Francisco Poet Laureate and was the creator of the International Poetry Festival, bringing poets from around the world and helping to make San Francisco the City of Poets.

Admission: The event is free and open to the public. People are invited to contribute items to an altar at Spec’s, and to join the Second Line to the Caffe Trieste, and finish at the stage in Washington Square Park, on Filbert Avenue and Columbus Avenue.

SHOEMAKER'S PARKING LOT PROJECT WILL PROCEED (DESPITE NEARLY UNANIMOUS OPPOSITION)

Arena Cove Parking Lot Rehabilitation Project Week Of September 20th

The Arena Cove Parking Lot Rehabilitation Project is set to fully kick-off next week beginning Monday, September 20th. Granite Construction will be mobilizing and beginning the digout of the sidewalk in preparation for the installation of footings on the south side of the parking lot. Portions of the Cove parking lot will be closed.

The City will update residents and businesses regularly for the duration of the Project. These updates will inform you of construction scheduling and any impacts to Arena Cove activities during heavier construction periods.

Notices will be posted at City Hall, businesses in the Cove, the Pier, and the Post Office.

For more information about the Arena Cove Parking Lot Rehabilitation Project please contact Richard Shoemaker, Special Projects Manager, at 707-882-2122 or by email, admin@pointarena.ca.gov .

SHOEMAKER IGNORES PUBLIC INPUT

Editor:

I am writing to voice my disappointment regarding the Point Arena City Council’s approval of the cove’s FEMA repair plan. Public input was blatantly ignored!

At the city's meeting, the community was not allocated much time compared to the city's Spokesperson who spoke for at least two hours! Many never got a chance to speak. Out of the ones who did speak, none wanted this plan. The meeting felt rushed and orchestrated. It is apparent that the "zoom" format used is not best for public hearings!

In the week prior to this meeting there was a “real" public meeting at the cove where everyone talked in person. Mr. Billy Arana showed us possible revisions based on what the community wanted such as 1. No 2 foot wall around the parking lot. 2. No huge boulders blocking access to the beach. 3. A “retreat” of the parking lot giving adequate space for the creek to flow. 4. The same amount of parking even with the “retreat” area. 5. Included possible grants for money.

Why can't we have a community-based plan with some of these suggestions?

“Fear” was the reason I heard: fear of losing time and money (especially the money already spent); fear of being sued if the city doesn't repair what was approved.

I have always felt it wise to never base an important decision on fear. It never turns out for the best. Plus, it's not right!

I say let the fear go.

Do what’s best for our community by doing what it wants even if it means scrapping the FEMA plan and its money. I much prefer the way the cove is now than what is planned by the city. Why spend so much money on something no one wants?

Pam Chapman

Point Arena

FROM Saturday morning's story in the UDJ on the coal train scare by Justine Fredericksen: “We’re the first official segment of the Great Redwood Trail, which we’re kind of proud of,” Deputy City Manager Shannon Riley told the City Council during its Sept. 15 meeting, referring to State Sen. Mike McGuire’s plan to turn the railroad tracks into a multi-use trail that stretches from the San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay."

UKIAH'S STRETCH of the Great Redwood Trail is three miles of pavement through the town's industrial wasteland, hardly the wholesome vision conjured by state senator McGuire's fantasy trail. But fantasies and straight-up scamming are long-time specialties of the Northcoast's Democrat insiders. The coal train scare seems to be both fantasy and scam, although the scam part remains obscure but will have something to do, we're certain, with converting the old Northwestern Pacific right of way to cash-money for former Congressman Doug Bosco and Friends.

LOCAL DEMOCRATS, dominant on every elected board in the county, slavishly promote party fantasies, as does Ms. Riley in her promotion of the Great Redwood Trail chimera and, of course, although she's no dummy, she presumes the specter of a coal train chugging through Ukiah and on north through the Eel River Canyon is a real possibility. (Mental health tip for Ms. Riley and the inner cadre of local Democrats: Possibilities are not probabilities. Paranoids think in terms of the former, the sane the latter. You're welcome. No charge.)

IF THE CAREER OFFICEHOLDERS of the Huffman, McGuire, Wood type announced that Nancy Pelosi and Gavin Newsom had agreed to sponsor surgical air strikes to expedite the removal of the abandoned Palace Hotel, the City of Ukiah and its phantom city manager, Sage Big Salary, via Ms. Riley, would announce, “Attention Ukiah residents. Please drive carefully through downtown Ukiah this Saturday when the United States Air Force will aerially remove the old Palace Hotel, a troublesome, long-abandoned downtown structure whose space the city requires as a parking lot to complete its State Street beautification project. Please be aware that surgical air strikes have been known to be imprecise, and the City of Ukiah cannot be responsible for collateral damage to you or your loved ones. The Ukiah City Council again expresses its gratitude to the Democratic Party of the Northcoast for yet another public service…”

MS. FREDERIKSEN, a master of deadpan humor, goes on to report that Ukiah’s Public Works Director Tim Eriksen said the fourth phase of the Ukiah segment of “Great Redwood Trail” will be paid by an Natural Resources Agency “Urban Greening Grant” and will continue the trail “all the way down to the former pear sheds which is now C&S Waste Solutions.” 

NOSTALGIA FOR 16TH AND BRYANT, a reader writes: “I grew up walking distance to Seals Stadium and went to many many games there with my dad who kept the statistics for every inning, writing in the playbook in ink. I had a crush on Roy Nicely. And I join you in being someone who has gone to games at all three stadia mentioned. One night game my mother found a woman’s purse in the stands and the next day when we returned it the lady gave us box seat tickets to the SF Opera which is the story of how I went to my first opera at age 9…”

ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK

[1] I went the way of Zen Buddhism, lived in Japan for awhile, moved on to Guru Maharaji ji, (had an experience while meditating that sent me straight into the arms of Judaism), where a rabbi convinced me to go back to the Catholicism of my youth.

Thanks Wolpe!

It’s different now. We confess sins against the 10 commandments.

Sometimes after taking the eucharist, I have peace for hours if not days.

[2] JUSTICE BARRETT, an on-line comment: I personally don't think that Amy was put there specifically to overturn Roe V Wade... I think Amy is a stealth weapon, the facade of which is designed to end Roe V. Wade, but like Brett Cavanaugh, Amy has a long and distinguished career pandering to Corporations and Big Money interests, as well as pushing a Conservative Catholic agenda that would effectively erase every social rights gain manifested since the Civil War. Her long and committed position to overturn Roe V Wade, is a bait and switch for the Religious Right, who keep voting for their own extermination (and everyone else's too, just as an aside.)

This is the slow steady march toward something more resembling a corporate state.

[3] COVELO, 4 ON-LINE COMMENTS:

• Much of this Mendocino/Humboldt area is going to get worse with the crash. Secure what you have and have a neighborhood watch. The desperate thieves will be arriving soon. Expect bad behavior from all sides as desperation sets in…many of the later arrivals have their equity completely tied up in mortgages they will not be able to keep up with. And their get-rich greenrusher dreams are broken…

• Only going to get worse with the crash of the cannabis market. Stay out of Covelo.

• It is called poverty. Poverty and crime go hand in hand.

• The level of ridiculous goes on and on and on never ending in Covelo. Why? Why? Why? County spent so much time n money in Mendocino redoing a cute little Sheriff’s Office. There needs to be a permanent option in Covelo. Hmmm… share the fire station whatever you guys can figure out start doing something a little more in function instead of TALK. Tribal Police get your asses out there to increase your numbers by tenfold. Take a lot of the money that you’re getting for these fundings and grants and start doing more stuff of educating the kids of how screwed up these situations are. The criminality of these situations going on and on and on and no care or proactive action nothing. No cares or doing anything about these tragedies. Stay tuned next week for the next episode to see who the hell else falls. My goodness then all the overdoses too…CRIPE. WHIPPITS!!!

[4] About “short staffing” as the perennial handicap that both Lake and Mendocino Counties proudly bear, the upper echelons have benefited from the recent years’ compensation that was claimed to be necessary, while keeping the front line workers’ pay at the minimum and therefore justifying the aggrandizement of the chiefs. The 80’s era cutthroat business models perpetuating management by fear and intimidation seem to have become embedded in our two counties’ attitudes toward public services — and their deeply resented “White Man’s Burden” of public health and safety, as we are told repeatedly (in Lake County, anyway) that the emergency management agencies will provide only a limited level of public information and it is up to each of us to have the capacities to scramble for survival because they will all be too busy responding to the core crisis.

We are always grateful, and humbled, by the extraordinary efforts of our fire and medical care first responders, and equally offended by the arrogance and tone-deafness of our law enforcement leadership, and those laudable but mistaken fans whose comprehension of life without technology renders them insensitive and uncaring at best toward the lame and the halt. Meanwhile, the administrations of both counties have constructed socially impregnable kingdoms of self-serving programs with barely any acknowledgement of the disadvantaged serfs whose pennies and nickels add up to the recently announced bounty of Lake County’s bloated annual budget — replete with millions of dollars coming from the so-called commercial cannabis industry.

Safe evacuation routes, protected water supplies, sanitation, health care, emergency preparedness, environmental brownfields all fall beyond the myopic attention of elected officials, who seem to think they’re doing us a huge favor by adding 7 whole new jobs in the Sheriff’s Office — while our Office of Emergency Services is down to one soon-to-retire functionary, and the Sheriff notified everyone that his budget for Nixle alerts is close to exceeding the available funding, so even further limitations to the provision of public information will be necessary.

[5] I run a small auto glass replacement shop, and the prices of parts and materials have been trending skyward, if you can get stuff at all. Our main sealant, urethane, has gone up nearly 20% in price in the last month, after being at a stable price for years. Parts? Sorry, that’s on backorder ’til whenever. Trash pickup has doubled in the last five years, and the service is getting unreliable, because the trash service is short of help, and they can’t keep their trucks running for lack of parts. I just got a notice from AmerenMO that our utility bill is going to be raised anywhere from 8% to 13% next year. I could go on, and on…

[6] Plan of Action

Peaceful Resistance

Ditch your tracking devices

General strike

Crawl out of your holes and sit in the roads

Do not feed the beast

Big anything is no

Credit Unions

Farmers markets

Sally Annes

Weave cotton, peel apples, make salt

Go fishing hunting gathering

Pick up a leaf and let it tell you what is right

Let the moon and the stars and the rain lead the way

The world is on our side

Nature has been spiked and will respond

This is not the end of the world

This is the purification

Let the sun guide you

Let the Son show you the way

Pray

[7] Maybe if, fifty or more years ago, more people had just tossed their seeds into vacant lots, along streams, or by the side of the road, after they got done cleaning their lids. Eventually the plants would have proliferated to the point that there’d be pot plants all over the place. Of course, it wouldn’t be like the stuff they got now, with cutesy designer names that taste like chocolate chip cookies and stuff, but it would just be all over the place, and no more worth the efforts of law enforcement to eradicate than crab grass is. I myself gave up the habit nearly twenty years ago, so none of these stories that run on virtually every edition of this daily news site merit much relevance to my life either way. Except that the environmental impact that I read about gives me some cause for alarm.