Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021

Dry Day | FB Sunset | New Wave | Kids Clinic | Annexation Hearing | Open Studios | Revenue Source | Cameron Light | Vax Signs | Backdoor View | Sheriff v Supes | Wildlife Museum | Trailebrations | LR Cove | Yosemite 1872 | Ed Notes | Pet Roger | Cabin Survey | Yesterday's Catch | Paleface Logic | Newspaper Parasites | Keep Up | Wish | Old Vegas | Food Class | Profit First | Old Joe | Short Film | Declawing | Marco Radio | Bad News | Staff Reports | Finch Off | Glasgow Protest

CLEAR, DRIER, AND WARMER weather is expected today and early Monday. Another front is expected to move in Monday afternoon and evening. This will bring strong winds along the coast along with widespread moderate rain and snow to high elevation areas. Clearer and warmer weather is expected later in the week. (NWS)

MENDO’S COVID RATE GOING BACK UP

TO: Board of Supervisors, Mendocino County 

FROM: H. Andrew Coren, MD, Health Officer 

SUBJECT: COVID-19 Update – data edited 11/03/21 

DATE: 11-03-2021

Mendocino County’s testing positivity rate has increased to 6.3%, with testing rates at 387/100,000/day.

New daily case average is 50% higher than 2 weeks ago: 20.5 day/100,000. There are currently 8 Mendocino residents in Mendocino hospitals. One more is from out-of-County. Two Mendocino residents are in out-of- county hospitals for a higher level of care. We have 3 COVID patients in our County Intensive Care Units, but only 1 staffed ICU bed available today (11/3/21).

Total COVID cases are now 7,724; of these 2,856 are Hispanic (disproportionately high)

89 Mendocino residents have passed away, 3 more than 3 wks ago.

Testing is ongoing but we would be in better shape with more testing to contain this pandemic.

Drop boxes are set up at the Public Health offices in Ft Bragg, Willits, and Ukiah for PCR tests to be sent to state lab. This saves time and money for the schools and clinics.

Monoclonal antibodies in Mendocino are being administered at AHUV, AHMC and Round Valley Indian Health Center, at a rate of about 12 per week total for the whole county. These must be administered to mildly symptomatic people with increased risk within 10 (preferably 7) days of symptom onset.

Outbreaks are resolving; in one Skilled Nursing Home (Redwood Cove), and one Hospital (AHUV) and Round Valley numbers are much lower, with days of no new cases. Sherwood Oaks outbreak is resolved.

Vaccines: Moderna and J&J boosters have been approved in addition to Pfizer. We are giving or confirming vaccination plans for our SNFs, Long Term Care and smaller residential facilities The uptake of 3rd doses and Boosters in Mendocino and the State has been less than expected.

Vaccines for 5-11 year olds should be approved by CDPH by 11/5/21. We have received some of the doses (a smaller dose than adults receive). Children under 12 can receive vaccinations from their regular health care provider, FQHClinics, and pharmacies. In addition, Public Health is organizing clinics at some elementary schools upon a school district’s request.

As of November 3, 2021 116,637 total doses have been administered to 81.6% of those over 12 years: This is 72.5% of eligible (over 12 years old) are fully vaccinated. This number will decrease (by about 7%) after 11/10/21 as those from 5-11 years old are added to the denominator. From an Equity perspective, our least resourced, Quartile 1 have 80.8% fully vaccinated. In Quartile 2 only 68.7% % are fully vaccinated. Hispanic vaccination rates is 60.2% fully vaccinated and the non-Hispanic white population is 68.6%. This disparity between Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites is decreasing. The uptake in all age groups is increasing-but very slowly. Those between 18-49 years old less vaccinated than the state, while vaccination rates of those over 50 years old exceed the state averages. Our regular vaccine events at the Fairgrounds in Ukiah and at Public Health in Willits and Ft Bragg are going well. We are making flu vaccines available at these sites. Vaccines are also available through the FQHCs, Rural and Hospital clinics and pharmacies.

In summary, after the decline of Delta, we are seeing a new wave. To prevent a surge, we must encourage more vaccines, including primary series, third doses, boosters and now for children (5-11 years old). 

UKIAH VALLEY FIRE DISTRICT - PROTEST HEARING SET FOR MONDAY

Annexation would increase city parcel taxes $120 a year for single family homes

by Justine Frederiksen

The Mendocino Local Agency Formation Commission has scheduled a Protest Hearing to receive written protests to the Ukiah Valley Fire District’s annexation of the city of Ukiah, which was approved by the commission last month.

According to the commission, the “reasons for the annexation include: Further strengthen the operating relationship between the fire district and the city of Ukiah; establish a fair and equitable funding resource for fire and emergency medical response services for all Ukiah Valley residents, and ensure fiscal stability of fire and emergency medical response services for the long-term benefit of Ukiah Valley residents served by the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority,” which combined the firefighting/EMS crews of the city of Ukiah and the Ukiah Valley Fire District.

Given that the approved annexation means that “landowners within the city of Ukiah incorporated area would be subject to UVFD parcel taxes … landowners and registered voters residing within the city of Ukiah may file a protest against the annexation.” A written protest may be mailed or “delivered in person at the LAFCo office prior to the close of the Protest Hearing,” which is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 8. The LAFCo office is located in the Ukiah Valley Conference Center at 100 S. School St., and the phone number is 707-463-4470.

In a letter mailed to city residents, Leonard Winter, president and chief executive officer of Medstar Ambulance of Mendocino County, described the annexation as “forcing (Ukiah residents) to pay an estimated $850,000 to $1 million annually to the Fire District, (and that) there has been no explanation as to what this $1 million in new taxes will go toward.”

According to the city of Ukiah, the Ukiah Valley Fire District and the city of Ukiah fire department provide services to the approximately 33,000 residents of the Ukiah Valley as a merged entity called the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, but residents within the city limits currently do not pay the “same fire specific property taxes that residents outside the city do. (The annexation would create) equal application of the fire-specific property taxes to all those served by the Fire Authority.”

For people owning property within the city limits, the “average cost would be about $120 a year for a single-family residence,” and for commercial properties, the “costs may range from $180 for a small ‘mom and pop’ style business to $900 for a larger, big-box type business.”

The city also notes that “despite industry and government standards that call for at least 33 firefighters to serve a population of Ukiah’s size, our Fire Authority only has 19 authorized full-time firefighters, along with a small contingent of dedicated volunteers. Additional revenue … would allow additional hiring to improve staffing levels … and would also enable the Fire Authority to purse more modern equipment to be best prepared for increasingly dangerous fire seasons.”

Winter notes that “if at least 25% of landowners or registered voters in the city of Ukiah return a signed, official protest form, this annexation decision to extend the UVFD’s parcel tax to the city of Ukiah will be subject to a vote of the people. If at least 50-percent of the landowners or registered voters sign the official protest form, LAFCo’s decision is nullified and the tax extension goes away.”

City Attorney David Rapport said his understanding is that the protest threshold needed to be met is “owners of 25-percent and 50-percent of the assessed value of real property in the city.”

A representative of LAFCo could not be reached for verification of the protest threshold that would trigger a change in the annexation proceedings.

A livestream of the Nov. 8 meeting may be watched at the county’s YouTube channel.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

UKIAH SHOULD LIVE WITHIN ITS MEANS

To the Editor:

I’m in favor of the annexation of Ukiah with the Ukiah Valley Fire District in general. A consolidation of the UVFD and the UFD should improve response times, improve fire fighting capability, and save cost by eliminating some duplicate functions. However, since residents of the City are already paying for the UFD through sales tax, I am opposed to paying an additional parcel tax. I am in total agreement that City residents and businesses should pay the same as those outside city limits. To get my support, the City should either a) pay the equivalent of the parcel taxes on behalf of the city residents and businesses with the sales tax, OR b) reduce the sales tax to offset what will be paid in parcel taxes by property owners. It is not right for the City to enjoy a revenue windfall at the expense of the taxpayer. 

When Measures P (Police) and S (Fire) passed, City employees got significant raises. I have nothing against City employees, but the City does need to live within its means, just like all of us do. 

The Q&A from the City says renters will not have to pay the parcel taxes, but landlords will have to pass the cost onto their tenants in the form of higher rent. Businesses will have to pass the cost onto its customers in the form of higher prices. Those of us on fixed incomes or in the lower economic classes are already feeling the brunt of inflation. If the additional cost is a concern to you, please submit a protest form to LAFCO and attend the hearing on Nov. 8, if you can.

D. E. Johnson

Ukiah

MANY UKIAH BUSINESSES NOT POSTING SIGNS DECLARING THEIR COVID-19 VACCINE POLICIES

Less than 50% compliance in random sampling

by Justine Frederiksen

A random sampling of businesses in Ukiah conducted around noon Thursday revealed that less than half of the 16 establishments visited had posted signs at their entrances to alert customers of their vaccine policy, despite a Mendocino County Public Health Order requiring such action that took effect Monday.

Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren had described the signs as providing “consumer choice and protection,” with a green sign declaring that “All employees are vaccinated or tested weekly. Vaccinated patrons welcome inside. All must wear masks inside except when actively eating/drinking. Patrons who are not vaccinated may only be seated outside or take out.”

None of the 16 businesses visited Thursday, most of which were in the downtown core on Standley, State and Perkins streets, had a green sign.

Three of the businesses had a yellow sign, declaring that “All employees are vaccinated or tested weekly. All patrons may be seated inside. All must wear masks inside, except while actively eating/drinking.”

One of the businesses with a yellow sign was Black Oak Coffee Roasters on North State Street, and owner Jon Frech said since one employee could not be vaccinated due to medical issues, he could not attest to the first requirement of “green status.”

“However, even if we did have all employees vaccinated, I don’t think we would have tried for green status,” said Frech, describing it as extremely difficult, both practically and philosophically, for business owners to be expected to screen and turn away customers.

“It’s already been so brutal this year trying to comply with Public Health orders,” Frech said. “I support there being a vaccine mandate, but not leaving it up to each individual business to choose and enforce their own policy, and then have to choose not to let people patronize their business. That should be Public Health’s job.”

And Frech said it is already a daily struggle to enforce the indoor masking requirement, explaining that at least a couple of customers a day need to be asked to put one on, some that become hostile, and that having masks at the ready for those who need one has “become just another cost of doing business.”

Frech said he finds it disheartening that safeguarding the public’s health is being perceived by some as denying their freedom, “but we’ve never had the freedom to harm others.”

Three businesses Thursday had red signs stating: “Employees are not required to vaccinate. Patrons are not required to vaccinate to eat inside. All must wear masks inside except when actively eating/drinking.”

Two of those businesses, Star’s Restaurant and Left Coast Seafood, had words alongside the standard county verbiage that said: “We do not discriminate against any customer based on sex, gender, race, creed, age, vaccinated, unvaccinated, masked or unmasked. All customers who wish to patronize are welcome in our establishment.” Calls to those businesses seeking comment were not returned.

Also, Mendocino County Public Health staff did not respond to an email inquiring whether or not county staff were inspecting businesses to see if the required signs had been posted, whether or not they will respond to a business if someone complains about a lack of a sign, or what, if any, are the consequences for a business that does not have a sign posted.

Ten of the 16 businesses visited Thursday did not have a sign declaring their vaccine policy, including Schat’s bakery. Owner Zach Schat declined to comment for this story.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

SHERIFF v. SUPERVISORS, Part 2

AVA News Service

DURING RECENT BUDGET HEARINGS the Executive Office cited a previously ignored State law that allows the County to hold Department Heads personally responsible for budget overruns. Supervisors Williams and Gjerde (with the blessing of County Counsel Curtis) enthusiastically embraced this concept but only as it applies to the Sheriff. The Board then approved a budget for the Sheriff's Office that was underfunded to the tune of $1 million or more, based largely on underfunding overtime and vehicle replacement. 

THE SHERIFF, in response to the implied threat that he would be billed $1 million plus for going over budget for legitimate law enforcement expenses, realized he needed legal representation. County Counsel Christian Curtis advised the Board there was a conflict and the Sheriff was entitled to an outside lawyer. But not Duncan James of Ukiah, the Sheriff's choice. 

DURING NUMEROUS COURT HEARINGS and filings this “conflict” issue has been hashed and re-hashed with County Counsel Curtis variously denying and acknowledging that a conflict exists. Toward the end of the latest ex parte hearing in September, Judge Moorman tipped her hand, telling the lawyers:

“There is a conflict of interest facing the office of County Counsel on the issue of whether and to what extent the Board of Supervisors can lawfully consolidate the Sheriff's information and technology systems department within the broader county information services department, including but not limited to data access, collection, preservation and sharing, and email. This conflict of interest includes advising the Sheriff regarding the law and possible avenues of recourse to resist such efforts and/or insist upon an independent system with adequate staffing and financing in light of statutory and constitutional mandates. That is the conflict of interest I'm finding that I'm going to say pertains to the IT issue. The budget issue, I'm going to find a conflict of interest on. But I want to think a little bit more about what, precisely, it is. And I’ll set a future hearing if I think I need one. Otherwise, you'll get a written ruling from me in pretty short order.”

MAJOR SCARAMELLA recently noted: "It’s now more than six weeks later and no written ruling has been issued. But even when it is, nothing much will have been accomplished. The Supervisors will continue letting the CEO squeeze the Sheriff, no mechanism for keeping track of overtime will be set up, the Sheriff will probably keep asking for pricy advice from Duncan James, the County Counsel will respond with a muddled opinion, presumably sort of agreeing with the Sheriff, and the issue that Williams, Gjerde and the Board stupidly provoked with the Sheriff will be right back where they started… Well, not quite where they started: several hundred thousand dollars in lawyers and court costs and lots of staff time will have been frittered away with more to come."

FORMER SUPERVISOR JOHN MCCOWEN added the following online comment: "The fight between the Sheriff and BOS is a travesty. It is the result of very bad advice given to the Supervisors by County Counsel Christian Curtis who is not only incompetent but has no ethical standards. This case is a total waste of time and money and could easily have been avoided if Curtis was capable of understanding and following the law. The State Constitution says the Board of Supervisors ‘may not obstruct the investigatory function of the Sheriff.’ Underfunding the Sheriff and threatening to bill him for the inevitable cost overruns is a violation of the State Constitution. Do we really want the Sheriff to worry about getting a bill when he’s allocating resources to investigate murders or other serious crimes? The BOS can underfund the Sheriff. But they can’t bill him for the resulting cost overrun." (Or, according to Judge Moorman, take over the Sheriff's IT function.)

FOLLOWING RED BEARD'S capture, McCowen added: "Good job by MCSO. This was a very labor intensive and difficult pursuit of a wily criminal with excellent survival skills operating in rough territory. It's an example of why you don't want the Sheriff worrying if he'll be billed for budget overruns. Especially when it's clear the budget is underfunded to begin with. The Sheriff needs to be able to allocate resources to investigate serious crimes and apprehend dangerous criminals without worrying if he'll have to sell his house to pay for a budget overrun."

THE Supervisors, ineptly advised by County Counsel, have made faltering efforts to show that no conflict exists between them and the Sheriff since that initial provocation, but so far Judge Moorman isn't buying it. Her ruling, once it's received, will definitely settle the conflict issue and presumably determine whether the Sheriff is entitled to the lawyer of his choice. Then, the cascade of billable hours will really begin. That is, unless the Board finds a face saving way to get themselves out of the pointless and expensive jam they've gotten themselves into.

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN: "On Saturday, we continued our annual Witches and Wheels tradition on the Great Redwood Trail in Ukiah. This year we were joined by the stroller gang, a group of young moms that use the trail to take walks with their babies in addition to my “regulars” who just love dressing up with me. It felt great to get outdoors with community and celebrate being together. So happy to go back to some events! After Witches and Wheels I ran down to the Great Redwood Trail opening of the Foss Creek section in Healdsburg. This is part of the big picture so we can get the trail from Marin to Humboldt a piece at a time! Congratulations Healdsburg!"

EARLY IN A LONG, CREATIVE CAREER distinguished by landmark studies of animal and human motion, Eadweard J. Muybridge created a remarkable group of photographs of Yosemite Valley in California. During his second journey there, lasting from June through November 1872, he made his most significant and extensive body of landscape photographs, many taken with mammoth glass plate negatives measuring 20 x 24 inches. This image of the valley from Rocky Ford is one of his most luminous and sublime views. Taken in early morning light, this carefully framed and dramatically lit photograph reveals Muybridge's interest in atmospheric conditions, shimmering reflections, and the movement of water. (Cleveland Museum of Art)

ED NOTES

TWO SUPERVISORS are up for re-election next June, John Haschak in the Third District and Ted Williams in the Fifth.

Unless an as-yet unannounced candidate appears, both will probably be re-elected.

In the weeks and months following his retirement, there were rumors that former Sheriff Tom Allman was considering a run against Haschak, but that speculation has since withered.

Haschak’s only noteworthy act as a Supervisor was to oppose the proposed pot permit expansion which his colleagues had supported. After the opposition, most of which came from Haschak’s district, got enough signatures to qualify for next June’s ballot, the Board capitulated and withdrew their expanded permit program, leaving the County with the status quo ante, a broken program that will probably remain broken, despite millions of dollars worth of administrative assistance that California is providing to Mendo on the mistaken assumption that Mendo has a workable program.

Otherwise, Haschak has been a reliable auto-vote for whatever the CEO and her staff propose. At times, he seems to mean well, vaguely hoping that his support of the CEO will somehow work out ok for the public he allegedly serves. But he expresses very little interest in the matters before him. Some politicians actively avoid taking positions on issues as a strategy to get re-elected by not pissing off anybody. But Hashak doesn’t do that; he seems naturally resistant to taking a firm stand.

Haschak’s occasional Supervisor Reports are party-line all the way. With the conspicuous exception of John Pinches, however, the Third District has a long history of weak to present-but-absent supervisors, with such forgettable rubberstamps in recent years as Georgeanne Crosky, Tom Woodhouse, Hal Wagenet and Tom Lucier.

WHEN TED WILLIAMS was first elected he started out aggressively, using social media to engage with and communicate to his constituents like no Supervisor we’d ever seen. His performance during the PG&E power shut off was very good. His early attempts to improve mental health and budget reporting were refreshing, his digging into the weaknesses of the pot permit program were long-overdue, and he impressed his constituents with his smarts and knowledge of County issues.

But the bow-tied young whippersnapper, after being stonewalled time and again with continued lack of meaningful mental health reporting, Williams seems to have given up, saying at one point that he had “capitulated” on trying to get better outcome reports. And, from here it seemed that he had capitulated on most other subjects as well, perhaps sensing that he might have more success as an insider, than as a critic.

Then he lost us again when he picked a completely unnecessary fight with Sheriff Kendall by supporting a misconceived call for some kind of “audit” of the Sheriff’s Department, then leading the charge to enforce the silly policy of charging the Sheriff (primarily) and other department heads for overrunning their budgets, although the problem was and is with the Board’s own lack of budget oversight and management.

Williams also disappointed many of his constituents when, after championing Measure V which would have declared Mendocino Redwood Company’s dangerous hack-and-squirt policies a “nuisance,” he backed away from the Measure even after County Counsel had provided the Board with a strong legal analysis showing that Measure V could be enforced and would easily withstand MRC’s lame attempts to pretend they were exempt.

Williams is an improvement over his recent predecessors but that’s a very low standard. In recent months he’s been a disappointment, especially when compared with his first year of energy and skepticism. His capitulation on the mental health front signalled an across the board failure to follow-through on his own proposals and now, with his support for such wasteful ideas as the Strategic Plan, endless out-of-county legal costs, and the CEO’s bloated Executive Office, he’s basically become just a smarter version of Haschak.

FOR YOUR END TIMES NOTEBOOK: Eight people are dead and “hundreds” more injured after a crush and stampede at famed rapper Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival in Texas. The rest of the festival has now been scrapped after revelers surged towards the stage on Friday just after 9pm while Travis Scott was performing at Houston's NRG Park. Disturbing video from the concert showed people lying unconscious in the middle of the crowd as officers and emergency personnel performed CPR while others were seen begging concert staff for help. Scott's pregnant girlfriend Kylie Jenner was trying to make her way through the crowd. Seventeen people were taken to hospitals, with 11 of those in cardiac arrest, out of a crowd of 50,000. The two-day event was sold out after being cancelled last year due to Covid. Hours before the deadly crush, at 2pm, hundreds of revelers — who did not appear to have tickets — stormed the event's VIP entrance yet the stampede did not appear to be related to the surge.

A READER WRITES: Re: Graham Greene’s ‘The Power and the Glory’ — I had a bit of a hard time with it on my first reading (I had no idea of the Catholic persecution in Catholic Mexico!). Also I am a recovering Catholic and I am generally sympathetic to the nasty states that so often come after the revolution. On your suggestion I gave it another try. Without the confusion of characters that the story begins with (intentionally, I'm sure), I could sooner and better appreciate the wisdom and witticisms that fill the book. It is Greene, of course, but a bit different than the sharp tongued, comedic satirical tone of his later books that you might (I was) expect(ing). The whiskey priest fighting a crippled dog over a rotten bone and taking a lump of sugar from a dead child's mouth are very vivid scenes (bordering on the surreal?). It was so enjoyable on my second read that I may read it again. (I also read ‘Lawless Roads’: a very rough trip and the author came away hating everything Mexican.) Anyway, thanks again.

GREENE was unwittingly honored by the State Department when he was denied entry to the U.S. in the early 1950s on the grounds that he was a communist, which he had been for a month as a kind of prank when he was 19. By being banned for a time from the U.S. he joined other literary greats including Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Pablo Neruda, Dario Fo and Carlos Fuentes who were later denied visas. There's a fascinating book by Greene that's hard to find about the walking trip he and a female cousin made across Liberia in the 1930's which he almost didn't survive. His prescient novel, ‘The Quiet American,’ pegged to America's insane invasion of Vietnam, is a must read, especially for people who flesh out their non-fiction information on the world from really good fiction. Greene's a reliable guide to the social-political realities of many countries he lived in, including Haiti captured in ‘The Comedians’ and the Congo in ‘A Burnt-Out Case,’ the latter another Catholic-inspired novel, and several novels set in Central and Latin America.

ACCORDING to friends who attended, there were no pickets at the Dave Chappelle show Thursday night in San Francisco. A sold out crowd of 18,000 packed the Chase Center for the show, which Chappelle kicked off by commenting on SF, “What the hell happened here? It looks like Game of Thrones out there.” (Minus the needles and sidewalk defecation.)

Chappelle, 48, also defended his NetFlix special: “Don't blame the LGBTQ community for any of this shit. That has nothing to do with this. It's about corporate interest and what I can say and I cannot say.” In other words, the controversy over his show was manufactured by the media reacting to faux indignation from professional indignation specialists.

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK 

Roger is a very happy, energetic, young dog. He’s playful with toys and friendly with everyone he meets. Roger was excited and eager to meet fellow shelter guest Jack, and probably would have played with him. He did, however, show some food guarding. Roger’s had some training and knows sit, but will need a brush-up on the basics, along with daily exercise. Mr. Handsome is 2 years old and 83 pounds. He’s neutered and ready to jump into your vehicle and roll on home with you.

For more about Roger, visit mendoanimalshelter.com While you’re there, check out all of our canine and feline guests, our services, programs, events, and updates. Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/ For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453.

ATTENTION RESIDENTS OF PILLSBURY: 

Cabin Economic Benefit - National Forest Homeowners 

From this Facebook post, found today:

https://www.nationalforesthomeowners.org/page/NFHEconomicBenefitSurvey?fbclid=IwAR0qrKuZhB4dD1P6gVs9KsEQ2xcKhpGoOEakRV4KQSNDA3zgdIQdp8I9QKQ

Sending because the website is quite densely populated with informational content, and the USFS is one of the key “partners” in our regional long-term recovery -- including the preservation of the area around Lake Pillsbury and most of the “Northshore” communities in the unincorporated area of the Lake County.

Betsy Cawn <epi-center@sbcglobal.net> 

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 6, 2021

JENNIFER BAIR, Gering, Nebraska/Mendocino. Petty theft, reckless evasion, resisting, and two other unspecified charges by State Parks.

JOSE BRETADO-PEREZ, Bakersfield/Ukiah. DUI, suspended license for DUI, probation revocation.

AUDREY CARD, Covelo. Under influence, controlled substance, evasion.

DANIEL COOK, Laytonville. Fugitive from justice.

JORGE CRUZ-MEJIA, Escondido/Ukiah. Reckless driving, brandishing.

CECIL DIXON, Fort Bragg. DUI, resisting, probation revocation.

FOREST NICHOLSON, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

AARON ORESCO, Redwood Valley. Grand theft-firearm, grand theft-money/property, suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.

JAIREN SYLVESTER, Pittsburg, California/Ukiah. Marijuana for sale/transportation, suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.

WALTER VANSANT, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

CHRIS CALDER:

This is a story about my old boss, Alden Global Capital, still owners of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and Mendocino Beacon, which are now “covering” their old home towns from 50 miles away. 

For 140+ years, the Advocate and the Beacon served their communities. Now everything is gone. No reporters, no editor, no office. Nothing. One person in Ukiah busts his ass to somehow get the papers produced. 

Therefore, no coverage of the drying up of local water supplies last summer, next to no coverage of local government and front page puff pieces written by the local hospital chain's PR department about what a wonderful job it's doing — while social media fills up with complaints from people wondering where they can go for a doctor's appointment without waiting weeks or months. 

Sacramento Bee readers: different hedge fund, same story. Except the government not getting covered works out of the State Capitol. 

Here's what it looks like from the inside, and why your local paper (still profitable BTW - the Advocate and Beacon never lost money, ever) has turned into a ghost: 

“In May, the Chicago Tribune was acquired by Alden Global Capital, a secretive hedge fund that has quickly, and with remarkable ease, become one of the largest newspaper operators in the country. The new owners did not fly to Chicago to address the staff, nor did they bother with paeans to the vital civic role of journalism. Instead, they gutted the place... 

“To find the paper’s current headquarters one afternoon in late June, I took a cab across town to an industrial block west of the river. After a long walk down a windowless hallway lined with cinder-block walls, I got in an elevator, which deposited me near a modest bank of desks near the printing press. The scene was somehow even grimmer than I’d imagined. Here was one of America’s most storied newspapers — a publication that had endorsed Abraham Lincoln and scooped the Treaty of Versailles, that had toppled political bosses and tangled with crooked mayors and collected dozens of Pulitzer Prizes — reduced to a newsroom the size of a Chipotle. 

“Spend some time around the shell-shocked journalists at the Tribune these days, and you’ll hear the same question over and over: How did it come to this?” 

The less real, human-generated, on-the-ground information you get about the world around you, the more powerless you feel. The more powerless you are. 

Don't worry about us out-of-work reporters. We're ornery and resourceful. We'll find alternatives. 

You won't. 

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

We ARE Pink Floyd? Irony from 46 years in arrears. Sure wish I would have been that smart all those years ago.

So, so you think you can tell
Heaven from hell?
Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?

Did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We're just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here

FOOD FOR LIFE COOKING CLASSES 

Starting 11/18 

The Power of Food to Fight Cancer

Food for Life Classes at Adventist Health Howard Memorial

Food for Life is an award-winning nutrition education and cooking class program that provides an innovative approach to diet-related chronic diseases. Since 2001, Food for Life has been a pioneer in delivering hands-on information about the direct role of plant-based nutrition in health and disease prevention to communities around the world.

Join us this fall to learn how food choices can reduce cancer risk. We now know that the root of many cancer diagnoses is lifestyle related, and we can make changes to live a longer, healthier life. In this class series, we’ll translate scientific findings into simple, practical steps you can take in your kitchen and at the grocery store. The benefits reaped from a diet change can not only help your body fight cancer, but also lower cholesterol, improve diabetes, and promote a healthy weight. If you’re ready for a healthy change, this class is for you!

Each class will include group discussion, engaging video lectures, quizzes, a cooking demonstration of 3 recipes as well as resources to keep you motivated at home.

When: We will meet Thursdays and Tuesdays starting November 18th from 4-6:15 pm. The class will run through Tuesday December 21st.

Where: Class will be held in the Seabiscuit Conference Room of Howard Memorial Hospital or online using Zoom.

Format: To comply with social distancing guidelines, in-person participants will be limited to 5 people. There will be room for 20 additional participants to take the class online. Online participants will be able to engage in class lectures, discussion and observe cooking demonstrations but will not be provided with food samples. In person attendees will be required to wear masks.

Cost: In person-participation will require a deposit of $50, while online participation will require a deposit of $30. The deposit will be returned to those who attend 7 out of the 9 sessions. Note: the Eventbrite fee is non-refundable.

Sign up at: https://gmail.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cea1e601922fa82e47579cc80&id=ef7f49a6eb&e=358077c1c9

Questions? Call the nutrition office at 456-3132 or email anna.herby@ah.org 

FAR FROM REUNITING THE COUNTRY, Biden turns out to be no less polarizing a President than Trump. And far from delivering normalcy, he has delivered vacancy.

If Biden had secured the Democratic nomination in 2016, I think he could possibly have beaten Trump and made a passable if ineffectual President. But the melancholy realization for millions of Americans and for the rest of the world is that the top job came to Biden too late.

I have met him several times over the years, and the decline that has set in since his election victory has been painful to watch.

Turning 79 in two weeks, “Sleepy Joe” (Trump's epithets rarely miss the target) should be golfing and dozing in a deck chair in the Florida sun, not trying to run the most powerful government on the planet.

Of course, we've had “past-it” Presidents before, but in Reagan's last years, for example, expectations were kept low. By contrast, the biggest mistake Biden's advisers and handlers made was to talk him up as a “transformative” President on a par with Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson.

The harsh political reality is that Biden has nothing like their congressional majorities. The Democrats had 68 Senate seats and 295 House seats after LBJ's landslide in 1964. Today they have 50 and 221. 

— Niall Ferguson

A SHORT FILM SHOT ON THE MENDOCINO COAST

‘North Coast’ - a short local film - running time: 04:49

We are so fortunate to live in such a magnificent place. This short film pays tribute to the beauty of the North Coast from Elk to 10 Mile River.

Special thanks to plein air painter, Carmen Goodyear and to Liz Helenchild, Annie Lee, Gina O’Feral and Papi O’Feral who assisted with their coastal rain dance one day before our first big storm. Additional thank you to Grant Miller and Barbara Rice who cycled the bluffs in Fort Bragg. :)

Here’s the link: https://vimeo.com/635723202

Enjoy!

Laurie York <ttfarm@mcn.org> 

REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT…

”Stop making new flavors of Coca Cola. Either put the cocaine back or leave it alone.”

The recording of last night's (2021-11-05) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) is right here: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0461

Email me your writing on any subject and I'll read it on the radio next week. That's what I'm here for. If it's more than plain text, please provide a link to the media you want me to see or hear, rather than attach it.

BESIDES ALL THAT, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering that show together. Such as, for instance:

The devil’s ball. (1933, 35 min.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZbShVaftSQ

A great question, Konnor.

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/index.php?date=103121

The way I remember it, it goes, “If cows had a god, god would be a big cow.” I looked up /if cows had a god/ and it turns out to be Xenophanes (say zeh-NOFF-uh-nees) who said, “If oxen and lions had hands and could paint with their hands and produce works of art, as men do, horses would paint the forms of the gods like horses and oxen like oxen. Each would represent them with bodies according to the bodies of each. So the Ethiops make their gods black and snub-nosed; the Thracians give theirs red hair and blue eyes.” He also said (2,500 years ago), “The sea is the source of water and the source of wind; for neither would blasts of wind arise in the clouds and blow out from within them, except for the great sea, nor would the streams of rivers nor the rain-water in the sky exist but for the sea; but the great sea is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers.” Shmot fella, that Xenophanes. Shmot.

https://boingboing.net/2021/11/03/god-man-in-injustice-avenged.html

In Istanbul, not Constantinople, this big dog rides public transport --buses, trains, ferries-- and goes wherever he may please. The whole town knows him; they pet him and play with him and give him food. The place is crawling with stray dogs, but this one is the king of all of them. He isn't even especially nice; the İstanbullu (that's the word for people of Istanbul) just decided by a hive-mind process that he's the one.

https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2021/10/travel/dog-istanbul-boji-cnnphotos/

Similarly, ladies and gentlemen, capitalism has a winner!

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/1/2060988/-Cartoon-The-one-rich-guy

— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

STAFF REPORTS!

Dear Interested Parties,

The Staff Report(s) and Agenda for November 18, 2021 is posted on the department website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/meeting-agendas/planning-commission

Please contact staff with any questions.

James F.Feenan

Commission Services Supervisor

Mendocino County Planning & Building Services

My Direct Line: (707) 234-6664

feenanj@mendocinocounty.org

COP26: PARTY ATMOSPHERE AT A PROTEST THAT DARES TO HOPE

by Alexander Brown

Organisers invited protesters to arrive from 10am, but the march did not start for hours after that, meaning those in a rush to save the world and arrived early got to stand around for hours in the pouring Glasgow rain.

And what rain it was, the kind of miserable weather that makes American pundits debase themselves by saying climate change isn’t real.

It was the sort of day you’d look at and go back to bed, cancelling plans in favour of coffee and the quilt.

A day greyer than parodies of Scottish weather, the kind that sees you wear a mask outside not be Covid compliant but to stave off the cold.

Yet they still came, despite it appearing at least superficially that they do not need to.

COP26 is literally happening, world leaders are meeting to try to save the world, but having met 25 times previously, perhaps this is a cause to not stop shouting about.

And people have not. There have been protests throughout COP26, with around 30,000 people marching on Friday, but the weekend numbers blew it out the water.

An estimated 100,000 marched in Glasgow because a climate emergency is not just for Christmas, it’s forever, which isn’t very long if we carry on like this.

And it was a party atmosphere. The world is burning, and these people were here to have a good time trying to save it.

The day combined all the best bits of similar protests with none of the conflict, featuring an atmosphere so infectious even the weather showed solidarity, sprinkling sunshine across the afternoon.

Communists marched alongside socialists, trade unionists stood with environmental groups, and absolutely everyone was smiling.

There was drumming and dancing, jazz musicians, and inexplicably some wonderful Bristolians dressed up as Ghostbusters.

It was hard not to dance walking past each section, or find yourself warmed by the pure joy radiating from those waving flags.

So often protests can descend into violence, or have an edge of nastiness under the surface.

And while there were a few slightly unsavoury signs, it was all done with a warmth and humour from people brimming with enthusiasm, despite everything.

It was also, and I cannot stress this enough, not just vegans and hippies. 

This is a diverse and representative block of the population who have given up their day in a week where everyone has been talking about climate change to make it clear urgent action is needed now.

They were informed, satirical, and well aware of exactly what they wanted from those that govern us.

It’s easy to dismiss these things as pointless protest to world leaders disinclined to listen, but that’s not really fair.

Nations are negotiating and discussing the issues right now, and all next week. Glasgow and the rest of the world have made it clear that the public are watching.

What’s more, they’ve had a lovely time doing it, which is probably what’s required if the world is going to end after all.

(The Scotsman)