Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021

Warm & Dry | 19 New Cases | Shirley Schield | Power Trio | Time Change | Montgomery Woods | Geniella Farewella | Budget Fudget | Young Safeway | Ed Notes | Parcel Tax | Massacre College | Spider Chart | Hopkins Disaster | Shasta Bioregion | One Storm | Moon Mountain | Dry Wells | Jacket Scuffle | Suspect Substances | Yesterday's Catch | Amish Lineup | Moldy Containers | Pirate Counsel | Palestinian NGOs | Jim Harrison | Stealing Home | Math Test | Teddy Roosevelt | Revolutionary Letters | Waterway Trespass | Kamp King | Grandfather Gruden | Mendo High

WARM AND DRY conditions are expected across the area today. Showers will spread into the area from the north late tonight and Friday with a few thunderstorms across the interior Friday afternoon into Saturday morning. Thereafter, a series of frontal systems are forecast to impact the area Monday and again Wednesday, bringing more light to moderate rain. (NWS)

19 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

MISSING LAKE COUNTY WOMAN FOUND DEAD NEAR HOME

by Colin Atagi

Lake County sheriff’s investigators found the body of a Lakeport woman who’d been missing since early Monday.

Shirley Schield, 75, was discovered about 11:20 a.m. Wednesday in a brushy area about a quarter-mile from her home, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Though foul play is not suspected, authorities said an autopsy will be scheduled to determine Schield’s exact cause of death.

She was last seen about 3 a.m. Monday in the area of North Lakeport, a community along the northwest shore of Clear Lake.

Schield, who suffered from dementia, was walking south on Lakeshore Boulevard toward Lakeport.

The Sheriff’s Office asked anyone with surveillance cameras in that area to check if they captured footage of Schield between Monday and Wednesday morning.

At the time of her disappearance, she wore a light blue or pink long-sleeved shirt with jeans.

Multiple agencies took part in the search for her, including the Marin County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team and the California Rescue Dog Association.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

THIRTY AUT SICKS

After twenty harrowing years of punk rock drought in Anderson Valley, the gods summoned local drum legend Johnny G to discover new members to help form the pre-ordained power trio known as the Thirty Aut Sicks

Johnny G, who beats his drums like the wild ocean pounding the sand and rocks, in an upheaving mass of vomit, was heaved out of the frigid, rough waters and tossed upon the land. He was told that he would encounter two musical gods and they would be known as a power trio of ferocity.

At that moment, a red-headed goddess known as Daisy Mayhem with an electric guitar slung across her shoulder, on the back of a nightmarish hellcat, came ripping through the magnificent redwoods like a chainsaw. Renowned for shredding guitars until blood splatters feverishly on the strings and on anyone fortunate enough to be in her presence, Daisy Mayhem joined forces with Johnny G.

The two made their way to the tip of Peachwood Keyborp Mountain in Jeepus Maximus, where out of the heavens, the gods shot down in great power the notorious Thunderstruck, a massive giant holding a bass guitar fingers so fast, lightning was shooting, illuminating the midnight sky.

The three shared a bottle of the Son of James, and the power trio known as Thirty Aut Sicks was forged and came alive with all the force of the universe, the heavens, and beyond. 

See you in the pit.

— Guy Kephart, Boonville

TESTING TIME CHANGE

The time for Covid testing in Point Arena has changed. They will now be in Point Arena Thursdays from 2pm to 5pm at City Hall. Their van will be parked near the entrance to the parking lot. Hosted by OptumServe. Walk-ins welcome. You can pre-register at https://lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. For more information, call City Hall at 882-2122.

MONTGOMERY WOODS is always good for a fresh perspective! 

You’ll find a world rich in solitude, silence, and remarkable groves of coast redwoods. A 367.5-foot redwood at Montgomery Woods was once thought to be the tallest tree in the world. Taller trees have since been found in Humboldt Redwoods State Park and Redwoods National Park, but Montgomery Woods is still noted for its lofty giants. A two-mile-long loop trail leads, steeply at first, on a rewarding tour. A nine-acre donation by Robert Orr in 1945 started the reserve, which has been enlarged to 2,743 acres by purchases and donations from Save the Redwoods League.

(VisitMendocino)

MIKE GENIELLA: “The word is out that I am stepping down at the end of the week from my role as PIO for the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office. I want to thank each of you for sharing the journey over the last 11 years. Journalism as we know it has been savaged by economic disruption but new ways are developing, and the craft remains critical to an informed public. I would suggest that in face of 'fake news' hostility, solid, honest reporting is more valuable than ever. Keep up the good work. It is important. Thanks.”

NEAR FORT BRAGG

ANOTHER FAILED ATTEMPT AT BUDGET REPORTING

by Mark Scaramella

CEO Carmel Angelo’s crack fiscal team took another shot at providing a monthly budget to actual report in this week’s CEO report. In her intro to the budget discussion CEO Angelo reports that:

“The month of September and the first part of October have been busy for all departments ensuring activities related to Fiscal Year 20-21 and year-to-date activities for Fiscal Year 21-22, have been entered into Munis [the County’s consolidated on-line budget database].”

Angelo then launched into an irrelevant date barrage that is nearly impossible to comprehend:

“The Auditor-Controller closed Fiscal Year 20-21 on September 27th, closed July 2021 on October 8th, closed August 2021 on October 12th, and closed September 2021 on October 15th.”

Maybe CEO Angelo was trying to throw shade on the independent Auditor’s office, or blame the Auditor for her own inexcusable budget info delays.

“The Fiscal Team along with the Auditor-Controller will be meeting the last week of October to review 1st Quarter results for Fiscal Year 21-22,” continued Angelo. “The 1st Quarter results will be presented to the Board during the November 16th Board of Supervisor's Meeting. The Fiscal Year 21-22 year-to-date activity through August is presented below.”

The accompanying “activity” report is another useless list of raw data by department, with no comments or explanations for variations from expected budgets.

“The recap describes, by department, the total net appropriations, total net county cost (NCC), the percentage of NCC compared to the total net appropriations, year-to-date actuals, the total net appropriations remaining, and the percentage of total net appropriations that have been used.”

As if that helps in any way.

Then CEO Angelo admits, albeit crudely, that the raw info is pretty much useless.

“Please note this does not represent a complete picture as there is a lag time, for inter-departmental billing/collections, and excludes revenue due to revenues typically being down annually or quarterly. Additionally, the recap does not present each department's projected outcome, as this is only captured during 1st Quarter, mid-year, and 3rd Quarter presentations.”

And so concluded this latest failed attempt to provide a meaningful monthly budget vs. actual report. (PS. They could at least present the percentages of actuals as compared to last year, but even that seems beyond them.)

* * *

IT TURNS out that Human Resources Director William Schurtz is not quitting, has not been fired, and is not in trash bags under CEO Angelo’s desk. On Tuesday, Mr. Schurtz, age 62, said he was “semi-retiring,” and looked forward to “transitioning” to full retirement. No formal semi-retirement date(s) was/were given. The Supervisors thanked Mr. Schurtz, a resident of Petaluma, for doing whatever he did while he was Mendo’s HR Director. Mr. Schurtz replaced Heidi Dunham as HR Director a couple of years ago when Ms. Dunham supposedly “retired” from the same job at the relatively young age of 57. We’re in no position to say if these two premature retirements represent any kind of pattern with this position or with other top officials who have left County employ during CEO Angelo’s long tenure. Supervisors Haschak and McGourty volunteered for the special ad hoc committee that will attempt to recruit a replacement Human Resources Director. There was no mention of an interim Director, or hiring from the ranks of the HR department or having the CEO conduct the recruitment.

During his brief report Mr. Schurtz noted that the County has had to allocate $100k for the next six months worth of covid test kits because several hundred county employees continue to refuse to be vaccinated. More will have to be allocated in six months if the situation doesn’t improve. There’s an additional unquantified cost for the County time that the employees/refuseniks have to spend on testing. There was no discussion of Supervisor Williams’ earlier idea of charging the refuseniks for their own tests.

ED NOTES

FORMER MENDO COP Trent James is offering a weekly YouTube commentary on his experience. He has floated lots of hearsay short, way short, on specifics, but he’s always interesting because gossip is often interesting. Much of what James passes along happened long before he became a peace officer. This week, though, he performed a true public service as he answered questions from his viewers. The questions tended heavily to the mis and uninformed, sprinkled with the usual cop bashing from the defendant community and a threat aimed at James, which he dismissed as the woofing of “keyboard warriors.” To this viewer James comes off as an appealing character who was undoubtedly a conscientious cop. I think Mendo lost a good one when he decided to move on.

ONE QUESTION put to James particularly caught my ear. “Was Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy Bob Davis killed by friendly fire on April 14, 1995? I never believed that Lincoln did it. My theory is that Tony Craver’s brother Jason Craver was the one who shot Bob Davis. Jason was backing up deputies Dennis Miller and Davis when deputies opened fire on Bear Lincoln and Leonard Peters.” 

TRENT JAMES: “I don't know. That was way before my time. I was eight years old. For those of you who don't know, Bob Davis was a Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputy who worked the Covelo area back in the day, back in the 90s. That was much of the area that I worked in. He was shot and killed. A lot of stuff led up to that incident during that time. It was a crazy, tragic, horribly sad story. Not just for Bob Davis, obviously, but for the other people who died that day as well. That story is online. You can google it. It was a whole, huge, giant thing that occurred over a number of years and fostered a lot of disdain and hatred on behalf of Covelo people for law enforcement just because of the events that transpired after the incident. But to answer your question, I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. I know stuff that I've heard. I do know Bear Lincoln, the one who supposedly shot and killed Bob Davis. That was a rumor. And there was the rumor that you just told me. I do know Bear Lincoln personally. I have interacted with him numerous times while I was in Covelo. All I know is, like I stated, it was a horrible, sad, tragic event. And I truly don't know what happened. The only people who know for sure are the people who were there. And that's it.” 

THE QUESTION is way off. Jason Craver is not Craver’s brother, for openers. He is Craver’s son and had nothing to do with the event, although he was probably on-scene of the general police hysteria when it was over. It could not be determined from whose weapon the shots that killed deputy Davis were fired. Lincoln testified that he’d fired 12 of the 13 shots in his magazine during the first exchange with deputies Davis and Miller, and fired his remaining shot during the second exchange of fire between him and deputies Davis and Miller. Having visited the site of where all this happened, I think it was probably a lethal case of mistaken identity. Lincoln and Leonard Peters were walking up hill from the Lincoln property at the foot of the hill. As they rounded a bend in the road near the top of the fairly steep grade, Lincoln and Peters, assuming they were being ambushed from an invisible set of non-law enforcement enemies above them, were met with fire from the deputies. Lincoln said the deputies did not identify themselves; deputy Miller testified the deputies did indeed identify themselves and ordered Peters and Lincoln to drop their guns. There was no tactical reason for the two deputies to be posted at that location. Then again, the deputies may have assumed Arylis Peters whom they were on the lookout for would try to hide in the Lincoln home at the bottom of the hill and assumed he’d be driving past them at some point.

LEONARD PETERS was killed instantly when the deputies fired. Lincoln testified that in return fire he expended 12 of the 13 rounds blindly in the direction the first barrage of fire from Davis and Miller had come. (Miller was armed with a fully automatic M-16.) Lincoln said he fired his last round during which Davis was hit and killed five or six minutes later when he cautiously made his way back up the hill to check on his fallen friend. The bad feeling in Covelo after this awful event arose when deputies, reinforced by outside agencies, roughly handled random Native American residents of Covelo on the pretext of searching for Bear Lincoln. One group of militarized clowns even rappelled into town from a helicopter! I would add that police discipline that night seemed comprehensively poor, a small army of whom fired innumerable blind shots down the hill at the Lincoln home from where Leonard Peters lay, and one oafish CHP officer distinguished himself by pressing Bear Lincoln’s mother’s face in the mud of the road as she tried to get up the hill and away from the sad chaos of that awful night. (Adding to the confusion, it was a rainy night with a full moon only sporadically making the landscape visible.) I’ve always heard that Bear Lincoln escaped the scene on horseback, riding north and east where he was harbored by “hippies” until he appeared with Tony Serra in San Francisco four months later to surrender. Lincoln was subsequently found not guilty of murder. Much of the case against Lincoln depended on whether or not he knew he was battling the police. There remains much unknown about that night. 

FROM MARK HEIMANN’S report from the trial at the time: “Lincoln said that when he came back up the hill after the shooting of Acorn Peters he was fired on by someone up the road. Lincoln said he returned fire, shooting from the hip, but after one shot his gun was empty. Miller has testified that he felt rocks hit him in the leg, kicked up by a bullet strike, so it's unlikely that that was the bullet that killed Deputy Davis. From where Lincoln said he was firing, only one .223 shell casing was found and it was not attributable to Deputy Miller's M-16. Miller has testified that before that moment Deputy Davis was alive, so his death remains a mystery.”

* * *

I READ SOMEWHERE that if you got your covid booster shot or your flu shot at Safeway you got a $25 chit to spend in the store. I immediately formed a larcenous plan to get my booster at Ukiah Safeway, my flu shot at the Healdsburg Safeway. Fifty bucks! Think of it! So off I go to Safeway Ukiah where I’m handed an exhaustively, unnecessarily long questionairre designed by jive teams of lawyers and hack doctors. Can I get my shot after I fill it out, Miss? Yes, she said. I filled it out, as did another gaffer, both of us balancing our forms on the negative food value items stacked opposite Safeway’s medical kiosk. I handed my form over to the young woman I’d gotten it from just as a frumpish battleaxe in a white coat appeared to say, “No, no. You have to make an appointment on-line.” The other old guy muttered, “What bullshit,” and shuffled off. I silently repeated the Jesus Prayer, my preferred frustration-fighter. And shuffled off.

BACK in the warm embrace of Boonville, I called the Anderson Valley Health Center to ask if I could get my booster shot at our convenient, hometown mini-hospital. And was put on hold for forty minutes! Only a fool would stay on the line that long, but here I am. After about five minutes I put my phone on speaker and resumed working to inform an indifferent population of vanishing newspaper readers of The True Facts. Every thirty seconds I was informed of my place in line. “You are now number five.” Thirty seconds later, “You are now number two.” Another thirty seconds, “You are now number one. Thank you for your patience.” Then it was back to number five. It was beginning to be fun. How long would I be bounced up and down call waiting? I made plans to leave my phone on all night if necessary. All the while some vaguely Latin elevator music clamored out of my telephone. Finally, a lady with a kind voice came on to ask how she could help me. I’d forgotten why I called. A human voice suddenly talking to me after all this time was startling. “Uh, I’ve been on hold for forty minutes,” I said, while I tried to recall who I might be talking to. “I’m sorry,” she said. I regretted whining about the long wait time. Hell, we’re all prisoners of remote forces and processes, aren’t we? I asked if I could make an appointment to get my booster shot right here in rural, sparsely populated Anderson Valley. “You can get a booster shot at our drive-though at the high school Wednesday afternoon from 3-5,” the health center lady said. At three Wednesday, I drove north towards Boonville Unified. The cars in line for this event stretched all the way down Highway 128 nearly to the Anderson Valley Way turnoff! On hold in Boonville! Long lines in Boonville! Telephone menus in Boonville! No escape!

AS REPORTED INNUMERABLE TIMES IN THE AVA OVER THE PAST FIFTY YEARS…

A Reader writes: Did you catch this? nytimes.com/2021/10/27/us/hastings-college-law-native-massacre.html

He Unleashed a California Massacre. Should This School Be Named for Him?

The founder of the Hastings College of the Law masterminded the killings of hundreds of Native Americans. The school, tribal members and alumni disagree about what should be done now.

By Thomas Fuller

Oct. 27, 2021; New York Times

ROUND VALLEY RESERVATION, Calif. — They said they were chasing down horse and cattle thieves, an armed pursuit through fertile valleys and evergreen forests north of San Francisco. But under questioning in 1860 a cattle rancher let slip a more gruesome picture, one of indiscriminate killings of Yuki Indians. “A 10-year-old girl killed for ‘stubbornness’.…” 

U.S. SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION APPROVES DISASTER DECLARATION FOR RESIDENTS IMPACTED BY THE 2021 HOPKINS FIRE

The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved the request by the County of Mendocino for a disaster declaration due to the 2021 Hopkins Fire. The declaration will allow residents impacted by the Hopkins Fire to apply for low interest disaster loans.

Physical Loan Application Deadline Date: 12/27/2021. 

Economic Injury (EIDL) Loan Application Deadline Date: 07/26/2022.

ADDRESS: Submit completed loan applications to: 

U.S. Small Business Administration 

Processing and Disbursement Center

14925 Kingsport Road 

Fort Worth, TX 76155

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: A. Escobar, Office of Disaster Assistance, U.S. Small Business Administration, 409 3rd Street, SW., Suite 6050, Washington, DC 20416, (202) 205-6734. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Notice is hereby given that as a result of the Administrator's disaster declaration, applications for disaster loans may be filed at the address listed above or other locally announced locations. 

The number assigned to this disaster for physical damage is 17242 5 and for economic injury is 17243 0.

Apply online at https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov or Contact virtual center staff at FOCWAssistance@sba.gov or (800) 659-2955

For more information, please contact the Disaster Recovery Team at (707) 234-6303 or disasterrecovery@mendocinocounty.org.

(County Presser)

SHASTA THE MOUNTAIN

Bioregions are distinct geographic areas with interconnected plant and animal communities, often defined as a watershed. They are separate living parts of the unified planetary biosphere. The Shasta Bioregion is bounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Sierra Nevada, the Klamath-Siskiyous, south to at least San Francisco Bay and perhaps as far as the Tehachapi Mountains. 

In the north, Mount Shasta rises as the sacred symbol of the bioregion, a place of pure waters and new visions.

WE ASKED CALIFORNIA'S DROUGHT MANAGER ABOUT THE IMPACT OF THE BIG STORM 

by Amy Graff

A moisture-packed atmospheric river barreled across California Sunday into Monday, delivering a much-needed soaking to a water-starved state.

A storm of this size is unusual in October, the start of the state's rainy season, and there's hope the torrents of rain eased the drought. But did it? To answer that question and discuss the storm's impact, we checked in with the California Department of Water Resource's drought manager Jeanine Jones.

SFGATE: It's the big questions Californians have: Is the drought over?

Jeanine Jones: Clearly, obviously not. We’ve had one storm. 

Two unusual things about this storm were it was very wet, and it was a very wet storm for so early in the new water year [a water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30]. Usually, most of our storm activity doesn’t start until the latter part of November. That’s why if you were to look at precipitation statistics at various locations — there's been a lot of chatter about that on the internet already — you can see any number of stations that are several hundred percent of average for the water year to date already for precipitation.

But today is only Oct. 26, so if your normal average precipitation for Oct. 26 for a particular community is only two-tenths of an inch and they got 2 inches, well, clearly that's a very large percent of average. But essentially, it’s not statistically significant in the long term. 

SFGATE: Did the storm end the drought in any locations that saw especially high rainfall?

Jones: No. It was nice, but it was one storm following a very dry season. And things are really depleted. So this is not ending the drought by any means, anywhere. If we continue to get more of these during winter, that would be very helpful, but that's not something we can count on.

SFGATE: In what ways did the storm help with the drought?

Jones: The most obvious thing for those areas that got significant amounts of rain — and clearly we have to emphasize that one storm doesn’t cover the entire state, though this one did cover much of it — is the reduction in the wildfire risk. It gave things a good soaking.

The other practical implication is that the State Water Resources Control Board temporarily relaxed some of its curtailments on some watersheds. Why does the water board issue a curtailment notice? They issue a curtailment notice because the flow that is physically available in the water source at some particular point in time isn't enough to support the water rights requirements. Clearly, in the summer months in a dry year, that can persist for months at a time. But as the wet season arrives and people are diverting less water, say for irrigation, because irrigation is over for many crops, therefore less water is being diverted from the river.

When Mother Nature provides a big storm such as this, temporarily there’s a lot more water in the river and therefore it’s not necessary to have a curtailment order in place if there's enough water in the river to meet the water rights requirements.

SFGATE: What's the storm's impact on reservoirs that have been shrinking in recent years and desperately need a recharge?

Jones: Keep in mind reservoirs were very low, so even if a reservoir level temporarily goes up for a little bit, in the long run, compared to how far down the reservoirs are, that's really not significant. One storm is a very short-term thing.

If you think of really small reservoirs, like some of the small ones in Marin County, for example, they are very small, so you might see a response more obviously there if you have a really wet storm sitting over that watershed. Whereas if you have a large reservoir with a large watershed like Shasta, you won’t see the change that quickly. The change you simply won't really see. 

That’s why we’re talking about this is only one storm. It’s the first one of the season. And if you have a first storm of the season and it’s quick moving, as this one was, a lot that water will be absorbed into very dry soils, but a lot of that water will just run off rather quickly.

From a water supply perspective, two weeks of continuous drizzle is better than a flashy event that lasts six hours. There's more time for the water to sink in and infiltrate as opposed to just running off into the storm drainage system and not into a place where you can capture it. 

SFGATE: Did the big storm set California up for some issues this winter, in terms of flooding and overwhelming water systems?

Jones: That’s a very hypothetical question because it really depends on what continues to happen. It’s nice to have a healthy early season storm because you start to replenish some of the soil moisture, but on the other hand if it doesn't rain significantly over the next two months, that makes less of a difference. As I said, it's a lot about the storm intensity and duration. A nice steady rain that persists for a long period of time is more helpful from a water supply standpoint and less damaging than getting a really big flashy event to come and dump a lot of water and leave.

A storm like we had this weekend, you see a lot of impacts on urban stormwater issues, parking lots flooded, because those weren’t designed for that kind of volume or rate of rainfall. But that’s more like nuisance flooding.

One good example of conditions flipping back and forth, think about the Russian River Basin. That basin, particularly in parts of the lower basin, is an area that's very much challenged by drought and flood. That's a combination of the fact that it’s located in an area that has favorable watershed orientation for big atmospheric river storms. It can go quickly from drought to flood and back again. It’s quite possible to have a flood in a drought year just from one storm.

SFGATE: You said it was unusual to get a storm of this severity in California in November. Is climate change causing these more extreme events?

Jones: To do scientific analysis on any particular storm event, and say this part of that event was caused by climate change, is technically difficult and challenging. Frankly, it's not really necessary to do. The common aphorism that has been used is “extremes become more extreme.” You may get fewer storms but an occasional big, large, wetter one, which isn't good from a flooding standpoint. But overall, the effect of temperature on many smaller events is to push us in the direction of more aridity in the long term.

(Courtesy, SFGate.com)

MOUNT SHASTA TUESDAY EVENING

FRANCOIS CHRISTIAN WRITES:

Household Water Supply Shortage Reporting System

https://mydrywell.water.ca.gov/report/

GIMME THAT JACKET

On Saturday, October 9, 2021 at about 11:47 AM, Ukiah PD Officers were dispatched to the Jack-in-the-Box parking lot, located at 1105 Airport Park Blvd., due to the report of a physical fight that was occurring there. The 911 caller indicated two adult males were fighting. Upon arrival, Officers located the two involved males and began an investigation. The male suspect, who was identified as David M. Calvo, 37, of Ukiah, was contacted a short distance away from the victim. 

Calvo was found to be in possession of a fixed blade knife, which was concealed on his person. Calvo was detained without incident. The male victim had visible injuries on his head and face and advised an acquaintance of his (Calvo) was walking with him and Calvo accused him of taking Calvo’s jacket. The victim denied this and an argument ensued. Calvo punched the victim in the face, pushed him onto the ground, attempted to pull the jacket off him and then kicked him on the head. A witness/bystander yelled at Calvo to stop and Calvo walked away. Officers reviewed surveillance footage, and spoke to witnesses which verified the victim’s account of what occurred. The victim desired prosecution of Calvo for the incident. 

Calvo was also found to be in possession of a glass pipe that is commonly used to smoke methamphetamine. He also had an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for his arrest. Calvo was placed under arrest, without incident, for the aforementioned violations. He was transported to the MCSO Jail where he was held on $62,500 bail. The victim was evaluated by EMS and released at the scene. 

(Ukiah Police Presser)

NO FENTANYL

On Thursday, October 21, 2021 at about 5:24 PM, a Ukiah PD Officer was on patrol and observed a vehicle that had an equipment violation. The Officer performed an enforcement stop and contacted the three occupants of the vehicle. The male driver was later identified as Jesse L. Lucas, 37, of Ukiah.

The female passenger was identified as Nicole Sanderson. 

The third passenger was also identified, but had no other involvement in this incident. Lucas provided a false name to the Officer, but his true identity was determined and he was found to have three Misdemeanor warrants for his arrest. Lucas was detained without incident and was found to be in possession of suspected Fentanyl on his person. A subsequent search of the vehicle resulted in the Officer locating approximately 131 grams of suspected methamphetamine and Fentanyl. These substances were packaged in such a way that lead Officers to believe they were possessed by Lucas for sale. Lucas admitted these substances belonged to him. 

Also, during the search of the vehicle a glass pipe used for smoking methamphetamine was located and Sanderson claimed ownership of the pipe. Sanderson was issued a citation to appear in court for the possession violation. She was released at the scene. 

Lucas was arrested for the aforementioned violations and was transported to the MCSO Jail. He was held on $22,000 bail. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 27, 2021

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MICHAEL CRANE, Manteca/Ukiah. DUI.

ANTHONY FRANSEN, Willits. Domestic battery.

MAXIMIANO JUAREZ-NAJERA, Santa Rosa/Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

SHAUN LELL, Ukiah. Failure to register, paraphernalia, concealed dirk-dagger, resisting, assault on peace officer.

DIEGO MEJIA, Brooklyn, New York/Ukiah. DUI.

ERIK MONAN, Redway/Laytonville. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run.

HUMBERTO RAMIREZ-OLIVERA, Willits. Marijuana cultivation with Fish & Wildlife violations.

JESSICA SILVA, Cornelius, Oregon/Ukiah. Possession/transportation of controlled substance, conspiracy.

JUSTIN SWINNEY, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

EDGAR VAZQUEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

TOBIAS WOOD, Ukiah. Loaded firearm in public, felon-addict with firearm. 

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Something like 30% of the goods on the hundreds of container ships dozing off the western coast of the US are moldy (and thus now useless). Many of the rest of the goods on those ships are meant for holidays that will be long over by the time they are unpacked and shipped around the country. 

I don’t necessarily view this as a negative. The US needs to rebuild some kind of manufacturing sector, if that means actual necessary things. Think medical supplies. 

The Brazilification of the US may be inevitable. It sure seems like it. However, the creation of local means of production of goods and services is a real way to abrogate this larger trend. To a degree it is happening, at least in the middle of the country. If you travel to many areas in the Midwest, you see many more breweries & small scale food & clothing producers, then you used to. People are using raw materials from closer to home again. This trend seems to be a natural reaction to the last 25 or so years of economic change. I’d love to see more of it. I definitely use my dollars locally.

SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY

by Jeremy Harding

One reliable – and sobering – measure of a country’s political health is the number of international NGOs and agencies working on the ground in relief, development, nutrition, water, education, humanitarian assistance and legal rights. In the Palestinian territories there are roughly eighty. Since the Oslo Accords in 1993, the INGO footprint has got no lighter: evidence, in case it was needed, that the Palestinian Authority – created by the Oslo process – is incapable of running what remains of the Palestinian West Bank or provide for its citizens: it is a barely sovereign local power, obliged to co-ordinate with Israel on security issues and guilty of human rights violations against its critics. INGOs come into their own in places where there is no effective government, no fair access to property, food, water and land, and no consent to rule of law as the authorities interpret it.

But there are also the Palestinian NGOs, with their intellectual and activist origins in nearly 75 years of dispossession and resistance. Many were founded before the charitable internationals in Palestine became permanent fixtures. And their numbers have grown: by 2020 there were more than a hundred Palestinian NGOs operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. Some have stepped in for years to fill the gaping holes in “civil society” opened by a series of disasters: eviction in 1948, military occupation after 1967 and – post-Oslo – life under a zombie administration.

Israel is obliged, for the moment, to weigh its dislike of the UN agencies and the INGOs – human rights groups especially – against the opprobrium it would face if it began throwing foreign “humanitarians” out of Palestine and destroying their offices. (The PA would also be pleased to be rid of them if it weren’t for the jobs and foreign exchange that arrive in their wake.)

Palestinian NGOs, however, remain vulnerable to Israeli diktat. In February the Israeli authorities outlawed Samidoun, an advocacy group for the release of Palestinian detainees, on the grounds that it had links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist faction of the PLO that was once in the vanguard of the national movement but has not been “popular” for thirty years or more. Samidoun was identified as a terrorist group and accused of recycling funding to the PFLP.

Last week the Israeli defense minister, Benny Gantz, signed an executive order designating another six Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist” organizations. One was Defence for Children International – Palestine, whose offices had been raided in July. Others included the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Union of Agricultural Workers’ Committees.

The most distinguished “terrorist” organization under Gantz’s executive order is Al-Haq, a human rights NGO founded in the late 1970s, which focuses on legal issues in the Occupied Territories. Al-Haq’s primary purpose is to defend the rights of Palestinians under occupation. It has won several international awards, including the Prix des droits de l’homme de la République française.

Al-Haq rose to prominence during the first Intifada; it has spent decades opening legal pathways through the byzantine complexities of Israeli military and colonial law – often at variance with statutory international law – for colonized plaintiffs to challenge the confiscation of their property, the detention of their relatives, the destruction of their horticulture and the violation of their rights.

Typical of its research work is The West Bank and the Rule of Law (1981), published in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists. 

In the words of the writer and lawyer Raja Shehadeh, one of the founders of Al-Haq, “the book examined a raft of secret Israeli legislation that amended local law by military orders which were never published, making it possible for settlers to acquire land for illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories.” 

Shehadeh adds that “more recently the organization has been active in providing evidence for the International Criminal Court at The Hague to build its case to investigate war crimes committed by Israeli officials.’

The order against Al-Haq and the other organizations is consistent with Israel’s broad characterization of civil disobedience and non-violent activism, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, as “antisemitic” or “terrorist.” For Palestinians, as of last Friday, seeking due process has become a subversive activity. A statement from former staffers at Al-Haq – including signatories in Arab-majority states, Latin America, Europe, the US and the UK – can be downloaded here.

(London Review of Books)

TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS on the Loves (and Appetites) of the Great Jim Harrison

In 1945, Jim Harrison lost the use of his left eye. He was eight years old. In an interview he said, “I probably wouldn’t have been a poet if I hadn’t lost my left eye when I was a boy. A neighbor girl shoved a broken bottle in my face during a quarrel. Afterward, I retreated to the natural world and never really came back.”

lithub.com/terry-tempest-williams-on-the-loves-and-appetites-of-the-great-jim-harrison/

STEALING HOME, Jayne Thomas writes:

Rays' Randy Arozarena steals home vs. Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Division Series

Question: When’s the last time anybody stole home?

Answer: Oh, about three weeks ago. 

Stealing home is still happening. I remember seeing (tv) Jacoby Ellsbury in April 2009. 

Here’s an article on steals of this century but it was written in 2016 by Shane Touertellotte (great name for a journalist).

https://tht.fangraphs.com/steals-of-home-the-millennium-so-far/

It's The 20th Time A Player's Stole Home In Playoff History.

Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena successfully had a straight steal of home in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Red Sox. 

The play happened in the bottom of the seventh as the Rays held a 4-0 lead with Arozarena at third and Wilmer Franco at second. With lefty Josh Taylor pitching to Brandon Lowe, Arozarena took advantage of Taylor having his back turned to third base. When Taylor took a couple of seconds to get into set, Arozarena dashed toward home. Taylor’s throw to catcher Christian Vázquez was late, and the Rays extended their lead to 5-0. 

The steal of home by Arozarena nearly didn’t happen. In the at-bat prior, Arozarena advanced to third on a double from Franco. Arozarena looked like he was going to round third and head home on the play. But Rays third base coach Rodney Linares gave him the stop sign. As Arozarena dove back to third, the throw from left fielder Alex Verdugo came into shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who applied a tag on Arozarena a few moments late. 

Arozarena’s steal of home is the 20th time it’s happened in playoff history. The last time it happened was in 2016, when then-Cubs infielder Javier Baez stole home in Game 1 of the NLCS against the Dodgers. It’s only the third time a steal of home has happened in the playoffs since 2010. 

Some notable players to steal home in postseason history include Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, and Reggie Jackson. 

Outside of the steal, Arozarena’s had a pretty good Game 1. In the fifth inning, he drilled a 397-foot homer to left. He also drew two walks in two of his other plate appearances.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT

On October 27, 1858, President Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York City. As a child, Roosevelt was sickly and suffered from frequent and debilitating bouts of asthma. As Roosevelt grew up, he devoted himself to working out tenaciously, and he quickly developed a reputation as an energetic and dynamic man. Roosevelt served in numerous political positions in New York throughout the 1880s and 90s before being appointed Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy in 1897. Around this time, relations with Spain deteriorated and Roosevelt became one of the loudest voices advocating war. When war was finally declared after the bombing of the U.S.S. Maine in Cuba in 1898, Roosevelt organized a volunteer cavalry unit known as the “Rough Riders.” He, along with these men, served at the Battle of San Juan Hill, where they were crucial to the American victory there. 

After the war, Teddy’s fame from the Spanish-American War catapulted him into the Vice-Presidency. He served as Vice President until the assassination of President William McKinley, at which point Roosevelt was sworn in as President. During his two terms as President, Teddy oversaw a new policy of expansionism and protection of U.S. interests. He also oversaw the construction of a stronger Navy, the construction of the Panama Canal, the destruction of trusts and monopolies, and the creation of National Parks and Monuments. 

Roosevelt would later run for a third term as President, but he lost to challenger William Howard Taft. In addition to his political career, Roosevelt was an avid student of history and even authored a well-regarded book on the naval campaigns of the War of 1812. Roosevelt also cared deeply for the natural world. He was a huge proponent of conservation as well as an accomplished hunter. In his later years, Teddy became a vocal supporter of American entrance into World War I, even going so far as to request a commission as a General to command U.S. troops in Europe. However, this was not granted to him, and he died soon after the end of the war on January 6, 1919. 

(LearnOurHistory.com)

TRESPASS TIPS, an on-line comment: 

I’ve trespassed MANY times in Sonoma and Mendo, including along Highway 162 and the tracks following Outlet Creek. Never been shot, only been admonished a handful of times. Remember, blue line waterways are PUBLIC RIGHT-OF-WAY, and can be used for travel AND recreation, regardless of who owns the land around it.

NOT OK

Editor,

According to Brian Jackson, I should get a free pass in regard to bigotry, misogyny and homophobia simply because I am a man (“Benefield’s words,” Press Democrat, Letters, Oct. 22). Had I known I had such a powerful get-out-of-jail card my life would have been so much easier. No moral dilemmas, no need to be decent, accepting, considerate or kind. No apology needed for hurting someone, because, hey, I’m a man. Dang! I could have had 70 years of being a complete jerk and never lost a night of sleep.

Jackson’s assertion that since Jon Gruden’s words are grandfathered into our vernacular, it is OK to continue using them speaks volumes about the progress that still needs to be made.

Steven Paul

Fort Bragg