Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021

Light Rain | 61 Cases | Box TG | Crisis Response | Sunblind Accident | Unsafe Passer | Boonville Galette | Enchanted Logging | Nixon Ukiah | Wright Retires | Eel Preserve | Lunar Eclipse | Asha Story | Schraeder House | 50 Ways | Fawn Cafeteria | Black Chipmunk | Ed Notes | Park Arch | Power Grab | Dropped Bomb | Two Exonerated | Yesterday's Catch | Camera Buff | Vet Whoppers | Egrets | Punishing Workers | Plastic Breakdown | Russiagate Whitewash | Social Expert | Enabling | Annie Oakley | Water Rights | Subway Riders | PO Sabotage

LIGHT RAIN OR DRIZZLE will reach the coast by the afternoon, with gusty southerly winds and a more of a light to moderate rain expanding across northwest California Thursday evening. Shower activity will linger into Friday, followed by a dry and sunny weekend, with warm afternoons and crisp mornings through Monday. (NWS)

61 NEW COVID CASES (since Monday) reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

FREE COMMUNITY THANKSGIVING MEAL

For the 25th year, the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Bragg will again be serving up Thanksgiving to hundreds of North Coasters, from Westport to Albion, on Thursday, Nov. 25. In light of continuing COVID-19-related safeguards, this year’s no-cost meal will again be a “box lunch,” available for home delivery or curbside pickup at the church (367 S. Sanderson Way).

http://www.fortbraggpresbyterian.org/ctd

DRIVER WHO HIT BOYS IN FORT BRAGG CROSSWALK WAS BLINDED BY SUN

by Matt Pera

Two 11-year-old boys were hit by a pickup Tuesday morning while they were crossing a busy street on their way to school in Fort Bragg, police said.

The boys were "lawfully crossing the street in the crosswalk" when they were hit shortly after 8 a.m. at the intersection of Oak and Harold streets, Fort Bragg police said in a news release.

One of the boys was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries and the other was treated at the scene, police said.

The driver's vision was impaired by the sun when he hit the boys, according to Capt. Thomas O'Neal.

"This time of year we have this problem in Fort Bragg," O'Neal said. "Just the way the sun happens to position makes certain intersections dangerous."

The driver pulled over after the crash and cooperated with investigators, O'Neal said. He is not suspected of intoxicated driving.

Police found "no evidence of criminal negligence" by the driver, but are planning to charge him with an infraction for driving at an unsafe speed, O'Neal said.

"As the driver made the turn, he couldn't see, which, by law, means he shouldn't have been driving any speed," O'Neal said.

(The Press Democrat)

HEEDLESS DRIVER OF THE DAY (Wednesday)

This guy passed me and multiple cars on the double yellow and in dangerous places on 128 just now. He cut me off squeezing in front of me because a car was coming towards us and he was in their lane. He did this 2 more times while passing on the double yellow. We were stuck behind a car not going the speed limit in a long line of cars after sitting in road construction for too long.

I get the frustration, we all feel it here with tourists who drive too slow and don’t have the common sense to pull over. However, putting peoples lives in danger so you can go faster is ridiculous. I’m pretty sure this guy is a local. Older, in his 60’s or 70’s, driving like an ahole.

KRISSY & THE BOONVILLE BARN TEAM

I’m truly still in shock that 2 weekends ago, James Beard Award winning cookbook author Dorie Greenspan decided to use her monthly column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine to talk about Piment d’Ville and what we’re doing here in Boonville.

Dorie took the time to get to know me, understand what makes our farm special, and pair our story with an easy to make recipe to show folks what to do with Piment d’Ville. It feels like an incredible honor.

Dorie’s Sweet Potato Galette is a fun addition to your Thanksgiving, holiday or Friday night table! I’m highly averse to making dough (I do not consider myself a baker) but even I was able to make this pastry dough! The Piment d’Ville is mixed with cream cheese and spread on the cooked pastry dough as a thin layer of Pimento Cheese-like spread. Thin layers of apples and sweet potato are sliced and set atop the cheese. It all gets brushed with maple syrup and Piment d’Ville and becomes a truly sweet and savory.

HELP SAVE ENCHANTED MEADOW

by David Gurney

People are needed to help fill the van and make our presence known at the Superior Court in Ukiah Friday morning for a temporary restraining order to stop the destructive logging adjacent to Enchanted Meadows and the Albion River.

Mendocino Redwood Company's lawyer, David [James] King, is a himself former Mendocino County judge, and presumably knows and is friends with the deciding judge this case, Jeanine Nadel. Judge Nadel has now twice delayed a decision on this matter, allowing MRC logging to continue right up through today.

Don't let this obvious conflict of interest and corruption go unnoticed or unchallenged. If you need transportation to attend, Mendocino Insider Tours ( https://mendoinsidertours.com/ ) is offering transportation to and from the event for a mere $5.00.

This is history folks. Friends of Enchanted Meadow needs your support now! If you can drive and carpool do it, if you need a ride, you have the ultimate. Please call or email David Lipkind to ride his fantastic tour bus: 707-962-4131 -- email info@mendoinsidertours.com.

The time is now. Please come and support the trees, animals and birds of the Albion River watershed.

For more information - http://www.friendsofenchantedmeadow.org/

COAST CLINIC: This week, we bid a fond farewell to Dr. Brent Wright, our dedicated OB/GYN who has helped more than a thousand babies into the world - including many #mccbabies - during his long tenure on the Mendocino Coast. You can read more about Dr. Wright's distinguished career and retirement plans here.

WILL LEE: We are sorry to see Dr. Wright go, but we are glad that the same team who worked alongside with him for so many years is still here to serve our community. Nurse Practitioners and Certified Nurse Midwives Kei Velazquez and Jenna Breton continue to provide the #bestcareanywhere, including Pap tests, well woman care, and prenatal care. Kei and Jenna can care for you for nearly all of your pregnancy, from your first positive pregnancy test right up to your third trimester, when we will help you transition to the birthing location of your choice. After your baby is born, MCC is ready to care for both mother and baby, right here on the coast. Our midwives provide post-partum care and breastfeeding support, while our experienced pediatrics team cares for your baby.

We wish Dr. Wright all the best in his well-deserved retirement!

‘A SPECTACULAR LANDSCAPE’

California ranch of late finance giant Dean Witter to become park

by Kurtis Alexander

COVELO, Mendocino County - Three years ago, a 26,600-acre ranch in remote Northern California, with a 10-bedroom lodge, 16 miles of riverfront and two herds of Roosevelt elk was drawing attention in the nation’s luxury real estate market.

The family of the late investment giant and onetime ranch owner Dean Witter was ready to unload their unusually large property and seeking a wealthy buyer for the one-of-a-kind site.

As it turns out, the $25 million plot on the Eel River, which spans both Mendocino and Trinity counties, will go to a conservation group. The Wildlands Conservancy closed escrow on the tract Tuesday and plans to turn this mostly untamed stretch of mountains and valleys into a preserve open to the public.

“It’s just as scenic as anything in the national park system,” said Frazier Haney, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, during a recent helicopter tour of the property, which started in Ukiah about 40 minutes by air to the ranch.

The group expects to soon welcome people to the site for hiking, biking, kayaking, swimming and camping.

Eel River Canyon Preserve

The deal was years in the making. The Wildlands Conservancy has long wanted to showcase a part of California better known for private pot farms than public recreation, an area it calls the Grand Canyon of the Eel River.

The property is at the heart of this wild gorge and at the center of the organization’s long-term goal of protecting and providing access to much of the Eel River’s 196-mile run — from the Mendocino National Forest to the Humboldt County coast. The Witter plot, once known as Lone Pine Ranch and set to be renamed the Eel River Canyon Preserve, is the group’s fifth and largest acquisition along the river.

When the helicopter arrived at the southern edge of the property, it touched down on a sandy beach where the main fork of the Eel meets the north fork. Water gushed down the riverbed. Maple trees with fall hues of yellow and orange punctuated evergreen woodlands. Horse Ranch Peak loomed nearby at more than 4,000 feet.

“It has that feeling like you’re really off the beaten track,” said Peter Galvin, program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, who joined the tour and whose organization helped with the purchase.

Across the river was another selling point for the Wildlands Conservancy and its supporters: the out-of-service Northwestern Pacific Railroad. The ranch acquisition is expected to advance efforts to turn the lengthy rail line into a public path for hiking and biking. The project would be part of the Great Redwood Trail, a multi-use path in the works by a coalition of support groups and local lawmakers, running from from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay.

“We haven’t had access to the Eel River Canyon,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, one of the chief proponents of the Great Redwood Trail, who was on the tour surveying where the 320-mile route would go. “It’s a spectacular landscape.”

The helicopter proceeded down the canyon, and up and over the grounds of the 5,300 square-foot main lodge, an area slated to be the headquarters of the preserve. By car, the site is about five to six hours from the Bay Area, through the Mendocino County community of Covelo.

Within the next year, the lodge will be retrofitted for visitors while a ranger station and primitive campground will be built nearby. A trail network will evolve from the ranch’s existing roads and trails. Initially, the property will be accessible only by reservation, but in two years, once the new owners have more time to prepare, they hope to open to the public more broadly.

The helicopter’s final destination was a mountain meadow tucked deep in the forest, known as Rice Lake. Another campground is planned for south of here. Reports of Roosevelt elk, which roam the property, are common in this area. The lake is also popular with cattle, some of which will remain on the property as vestiges of the past.

Dean Witter, who founded the San Francisco investment house Dean Witter and Co., bought up a handful of parcels to create the ranch in the 1940s. He and his wife, Helen, would take a train from Marin County to a stop on the property along the Eel River to visit, about a seven-hour hour ride. Witter used the property as a retreat, timber operation and working cattle ranch.

After Witter’s death in 1969, the ranch was handed down for use by generations of family, who in recent years decided it was too much for them to handle.

“When we put the ranch on the market, I had the very earnest prayer that the place be passed on to an entity that would take as good of or better care than us,” Brooks Witter, Dean’s great grandson, told The Chronicle by phone from his home in Colorado.

In 2019 the Wildlands Conservancy bought the nearby 3,000-acre White Ranch on the Eel River from the Witter family, which gave the group a two-year option to buy the Lone Pine Ranch.

The organization, based in San Bernardino County, obtained the $25 million from a recent $10 million state budget appropriation, state grants, the Center for Biological Diversity and a Packard Foundation loan through the national nonprofit Conservation Fund. Fundraising efforts continue to repay the $8 million debt.

The property is among more than 20 preserves in California run by the Wildlands Conservancy. Most of the sites are open to the public free of charge.

(San Francisco Chronicle)

LUNAR ECLIPSE OVERNIGHT, 18th-19th

A lunar eclipse will occur tonight at the full moon. A partial eclipse, but nearly total one with 97% of the Moon's face dimmed at maximum phase,  just a thin sliver of the Moon will be in direct sunlight, the rest in rose glow. An unusually long partial eclipse, it will last six hours from start to finish — from 10pm until 4am tomorrow morning. Longer than usual because the moon will be close to apogee, its furthest point from Earth in its orbit, and so will take longer to pass through Earth's wider shadow.

During the eclipse, the Moon will move through the constellation of Taurus. The Pleiades star cluster will be above and the Hyades cluster ― including the bright star Aldebaran, eye of the bull ― will be below.

Here in California, we'll have a pretty ideal viewing spot with the max phase of the eclipse at 1am when the Moon is still high in the sky. Hopefully the clouds, forecast to come in tonight with light rain, will part and we’ll be able to see at least some of the show.

THE SF CHRONICLE’s Katie Dowd has written a useful recap of the Asha Kreimer missing person case. It was a competent report and people still hope that Asha Kreimer is alive somewhere, despite the likelihood that the very disturbed young woman jumped off the Mendo coast bluffs near the Rollerville Café outside of Point Arena back in December of 2015. 

BUT there was one claim in Ms. Dowd’s story which is incorrect and misleading which has a Mendo hook.

At one point reporter Dowd says, “Due to her erratic behavior, she was put under a psychiatric hold, known as a 5150 in California, for three hours before the hospital [our emphasis] released her back to the care of her companions.”

“The hospital” referred to is Coast Hospital’s emergency room and the “Access Center,” then being operated by Mendo’s then-private contractor Ortner Management Group whose staffer later told Asha’s mother that he later regretted it, despite Asha’s psychotic condition during which she refused to be admitted. 

When we reported on the case we pointed out that the unnamed Ortner Coast rep broke down in tears:

What is known is that her boyfriend, a dreadlocked young white man from Albion named Jamai Gayle, and a visiting friend of Asha’s from Australia named Sally (last name unknown), took Asha to the “Access Center” in Fort Bragg Sunday evening, September 20 where she was reported to be suffering from a mental health crisis stemming from what her mother said was a bipolar disorder — but as far as is known she had not suffered any such “crisis” before.

The Access Center at the time was run by Ortner Management Group, the private, for-profit mental health contractor given responsibility for Mendocino County's publicly-funded mental health services, that has since been terminated after a chorus of complaints from cops and local doctors.

Asha had been living in Albion with Jamai Gayle for three years. She was having trouble sleeping in the days leading up to her disappearance, and had been awake for four consecutive nights and shouting “incoherently” which precipitated the trip to the Hospital.

Asha’s behavior at the Hospital was described as so odd and potentially dangerous that the Hospital staff called the Fort Bragg police. Asha resisted being restrained and was then declared 5150 (danger to self or others) by a Fort Bragg police officer.

Asha’s mother, a practicing nurse in Australia, has since spoken to the Fort Bragg police sergeant who was on the scene at the Hospital and the mental health worker who arrived at the Hospital soon after Asha was brought in. The worker told Asha’s mother he couldn’t discuss details because of Health Privacy laws. But he broke down in tears while talking to Asha’s mother about the incident at the Emergency Room. “I think he felt responsible for a bad decision. I’ve heard about incompetence there.”

Somewhere toward the end of the “mess,” Asha was released by the Ortner contractor rep, the same man who had broken down in tears, and released back to boyfriend Jamai and her young Australian friend, “Sally.”

“They did no blood workup, they made no written observations, they took no vital signs, because they said Asha refused to allow it,” her mother reported.

But if she was 5150 she could have been held for up to 72 hours involuntarily which might have been enough time for the distraught girl to recover some of her senses.

One would like to think that Camille Schraeder’s subcontractor in Fort Bragg would be more professional if a similar situation arose now. But we’ll never know because all of this is kept secret — to protect the patient’s privacy, you see — and nobody involved in the handling of these cases is allowed to talk about them without the express written consent of the (probably now dead) victim.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Asha-Kreimer-still-missing-in-Mendocino-16610743.php

https://www.theava.com/archives/75266

SPEAKING OF MENTAL HEALTH, Mendo’s Mental Health Director Dr. Jenine Miller is very proud of the new $5 million-plus four-bedroom house on Orchard Lane next door to the Schraeder’s social services octopus headquarters which is almost ready for occupancy using Measure B money. Supervisor Glenn McGourty praised Ms. Miller and her staff for the acquisition (and non-use) of the old Jehovah’s Witness church as a training center along with the $5 million gift to Ms. Schraeder as proof that Mendo is spending the Measure B money oh-so effectively and not sitting idly by doing nothing like everybody else knows they are. (The only “work” that was done was the contractor who built the $1 million house for $5 million.) The project’s $5 million cost included $500k for the bare land (being paid for out of a state mental health facilities grant), $750k for “design and architecture,” $3.25 million for construction with contingency, and $500k worth of “soft costs” — a construction manager, “building commissioning,” materials testing, plan checks and permits, utility connection fees, and “contingency.”

If this simple and grossly overpriced project is an example of Mendo’s capabilities, we will never have the Psychiatric Health Facility that Measure B was supposed to finance. 

Dr. Miller spent almost half an hour describing the Schraeder’s new house, which is supposed to be able to house up to maybe eight mental health clients, and their big upcoming “Grand Opening” (which we’re sure they will issue a press release touting).

BUT when it was time to discuss the status of the Psychiatric Health Facility, all we got from Dr. Miller was: 

“We are in the process of finalizing the feasibility study, and, uh, um, they are doing really well on that. We are definitely looking at that study coming back, probably January, the second or third meeting in January for that feasibility study. We have been looking at Whitmore Lane and and if we had to purchase another vacant lot what that would look like to really give you that ability to evaluate whether Whitmore is the place and what those costs will look like. So it’s been going well and, um, so we are looking at that and looking at the study being available at the third meeting in January and you should have the feasibility of Whitmore Lane for you.”

REPETITIVE REPORTS have become Dr. Miller’s specialty. This repetitive report is essentially the same as the last time Ms. Miller reported it, albeit without the January meeting mention. It’s funny how Dr. Miller can recycle the same information time and again and call it an “update.” For months Dr. Miller has been issuing “updates” saying that they’ve hired one person for the crisis van and are trying to recuit or transfer another one — instead of simply saying, “Nothing to report,” or “No progress.” But then, Supervisor McGourty might not be so giddy and defensive about complaints that five years after Measure B was passed the only people who have been helped are the well-paid careerists being paid to slow-walk the process at the highest possible cost and the few dozen genuine crisis patients that the one crisis van has responded to.

AND THAT “FEASIBILITY STUDY” for the PHF? If it costs Mendo/Measure B $5 million to build a plain four-bedroom house to simple commercial standards, what do you think a 16 bed facility built to hospital standards will cost — if it’s ever built at all?

Link: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/mental-health-oversight-committee/projects

(Mark Scaramella)

MENDOCINO COUNTY HISTORY: (1948-1949) UKIAH FAWN CAFETERIA – GREYHOUND BUS DEPOT

by Jody Martinz

If you look closely at the circa 1949 nighttime photo below, used on a postcard, you might see a few diners at tables in the Fawn Cafeteria-Greyhound Bus Depot building, shortly after construction was completed. Work on the building (at Main and Perkins streets – the site where the Ukiah library is today) began in November, 1948.

* * *

(Friday, Nov. 12, 1948: Ukiah Dispatch-Democrat)

Work started on Greyhound Depot

Preliminary to erection of a Greyhound station at the corner of Main and Perkins streets, grading was begun Monday morning under the direction of Harry Mercer, the contractor.

This building will be built of Baselite blocks and will be one story with a 70-foot frontage on Main street and 28-foot frontage on Perkins street with parking room for the buses east of the depot. The fronts will be all of plate glass, and there will be two entrances on Main street and one on Perkins street.

Inside, the building will have the first cafeteria in Ukiah with table accommodations for 60 people, and will serve meals and provide fountain service. The remaining space will be used for a business office and waiting room and rest rooms.

The depot is being erected by Poulos brothers and is the second time they have undertaken to provide the public with the much-needed accommodation. Previously they spent much time and money on plans for a depot at State and Clay streets, but because of the great expense involved in the building required at that location the plans were abandoned.

Decision to build at Main and Perkins came only last week after long consideration, and while the station will not include many of the features planned for the State street building, the expense is still high and the Poulos boys deserve the thanks of the public for their enterprise.

Main street property will be enhanced in value by having the bus station at that point and traffic conditions at State and Perkins streets will be relieved of the jams that have occurred there at regular intervals when passengers were being loaded or unloaded.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

CHRIS SKYHAWK: “Did anyone else know chipmunks can be black? Well I didn't until today, I saw this one creeping along the edge of the fence, by the time I got back in my trailer I did not trust what I had just seen so I looked this up this. Black chipmunks are quite rare, especially in the United States. They're referred to as melanistic chipmunks and their black coat is caused by a genetic anomaly. Here's a closer look from a person who had one living in her backyard outside of Maine. More commonly seen (but still rare) are black squirrels.”

ED NOTES

A Politico/Morning Consult poll found 40% think Biden is in “good health” while 50% disagree; 46% think he's “mentally fit” and 48% said they think Joe is past it as he turns 79 this weekend. I'd say Biden is obviously unable to do the job, which his handlers have just as obviously pared down to token appearances before teleprompters. If there's anybody writing history in the wake of our sunken SS America it will be interesting to know who made the decision to foist the old guy off on US.

I AGREE with the Rittenhouse prosecutor that you logically can't create peril then claim self-defense inside the peril you created, but once Rittenhouse was in peril the films of the event show he acted in self-defense against people who clearly intended to hurt him, maybe even kill him since two of the attackers were armed. All-in-all, though, Rittenhouse doesn't strike me as a vicious type but more as a young, dumb, confused kid. His acquittal will be used as an excuse for burning and looting in the mild weather areas of the country by truly merciless opportunists a lot more vicious than Rittenhouse.

AHMAUD ARBERY'S killers aren't going to be acquitted. The three of them could just as well have called the cops rather than confront the kid with a shotgun. Both these cases, though have, by themselves, sped up The Great Unraveling.

ABERRANT BEHAVIOR, minor league division right here at home, we have a board of supervisors blithely signing off on whatever CEO Angelo shoves in front of them, apparently indifferent to the large sums of public money her irrational decisions are costing Mendo's taxpayers. 

TWO SUMMARY FIRINGS by the CEO have been shunted off to expensive outside attorneys because our nine in-house attorneys can't handle the simplest disputes, so the two disputed firings are costing us a ton as the outside, unsupervised legal pirates run up their billable hours, and then will cost us a ton more when we lose because the CEO can't control her temper.

CEO ANGELO also started the pointless (and losing) beef with Sheriff Kendall, another expensive Mommy Dearest move by Angelo she and her five enablers have also outsourced, this time to LA lawyers. (Had to laugh when the LA hustlers magnanimously stated that they'll only charge four hours travel.) 

BESIDES WHICH the Sheriff doesn't want to be represented by outside attorneys. He's already retained Duncan James of Ukiah. Complicating this absurd (and absurdly expensive) matter, Judge Moorman is taking forever to decide, basically, if Sheriff Kendall can choose his own lawyer. The supervisors say James is unacceptable because he's representing one of the administrators (Harinder Grewal) the CEO arbitrarily fired, and because he costs too much. (Like the LA mouthpieces are pro bono?)

AND THEN there's the eighty grand an old lady from Healdsburg is getting to write a “strategic plan” for the supervisors, and there's the assistant covid doctor who's pulling down over a hundred thou for doing absolutely nothing. And another new deputy CEO, and and and…

JADE TIPPETT WRITES: “Aside from the financial issues affecting the hospital itself, one of the primary issues is housing. A number of excellent health care providers have attempted to settle on the coast but had to abandon the attempt because they could not find adequate housing for their families. The primary cause of the housing crisis is the proliferation of investor-owned vacation rentals, taking long term residences off the housing market to be used as profit centers to extract money from the coastal economy. Contact your supervisor and ask for a moratorium on whole-house vacation rentals.”

EVEN THE WILDLIFE seems unpredictable these days. Beth Swehla's mini-farm at the high school was raided by a mountain lion, the first in-town such attack I can remember. Beth writes, “Hope you are on alert for mountain lions. We had two goats killed and had one injured at the school farm overnight (Tuesday). There have been lots of livestock attacks in the valley recently. Pay attention!”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT LAST WEEK…

Consolidation of the Assessor and Clerk-Recorder

Over two decades ago, the Board of Supervisors approved the consolidation of the offices of the Clerk-Recorder and the Assessor. At that time, the Clerk-Recorder was an incumbent with name recognition and the current Assessor had planned to retire. The Assistant Assessor at the time challenged the sitting incumbent, after a contentious election, the incumbent Clerk-Recorder was the successful candidate. The deterioration of the Assessor’s Office started immediately with extremely knowledgeable, long-standing employees vacating the office for other departments or other Counties. I witnessed the Assessor responsibilities take a backseat to everything else that was going on in the office, particularly elections. 

Beginning in about 2010 or so, the Assessor’s Office went an entire decade without the Assistant Assessor position being filled. This was a critical function and should have absolutely been filled. Again, in my opinion, this left appraisers to flail with very little instruction and oversight. I believe this substantially contributes to the Assessor’s Office having a lack of senior appraisers to this day. 

My goal is not to degrade the Assessor’s Office, but to tell you I have had a front row seat to witness a mass deterioration of a County office over the past two decades. All the tools to generate additional revenue for the County, such as finding unassessed properties, were severely hindered due to a lack of critical focus on functions of the Assessor. I know finding unassessed properties is very important to the current Board and I completely agree, losing out on this increased revenue source is a significant lost opportunity. 

To summarize, I am adamantly opposed to the creation of a Director of Finance position. The current structure has been successful for decades, it allows for critical functions to remain at the forefront and not minimalized by lack of time and focus. It also allows for the separation of duties that is absolutely vital for financial offices. Like with the consolidation of the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder, I fear if this consolidation takes place it will set the County on an extremely negative path going forward. We have learned a lot over the decades, one thing we know for sure, it is imperative that our financial offices remain stable. 

I would be happy to address any questions that any Board members may have.

Shari Shapmire, Tax Collector

---

ED NOTE: Another Another bad idea, as Ms. Schapmire points out, and was probably cooked up as a joint project of the CEO and DA Eyster, arising out of Eyster's pique that his office's travel reimbursements had been challenged by Ms. Cubbison of the Auditor-Controller's office. The CEO's solution to such impertinence? Combine the offices of Assessor and Auditor-Controller and place them under the authority of the CEO. Fortunately, the voters have to approve this particular power grab. 

2 MEN CONVICTED OF KILLING MALCOLM X WILL BE EXONERATED AFTER DECADES

The 1966 convictions of the two men are expected to be thrown out after a lengthy investigation, validating long-held doubts about who killed the civil rights leader.

nytimes.com/2021/11/17/nyregion/malcolm-x-killing-exonerated.html

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RECOMMEND WATCHING

"Who Killed Malcolm X?" a documentary miniseries which began streaming on Netflix on February 7, 2020.

The documentary follows the work of Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, a historian and tour guide in Washington, D.C., who for more than 30 years has been investigating the assassination of Malcolm X. The documentary investigates the allegations made in the 1977 Hayer affidavits. In the affidavits Talmadge Hayer, a convicted assassin of Malcolm X, stated that the two men convicted alongside him were innocent, and that his four co-conspirators were Benjamin Thomas, Leon Davis, William X, and a man by the name of Wilbur or Kinly, all from the Nation of Islam mosque in Newark.

Following the release of the miniseries, the Manhattan district attorney announced that the district attorney’s office will begin a preliminary review of the investigation into Malcolm X's murder in order to decide whether the case should be reopened. On November 17, 2021, Manhattan district attorney announced that convictions of Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, who both served 20 years in prison for the murder of Malcolm X, would be thrown out.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 17, 2021

JAMES BRAY JR., Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

ELIZABETH DOCKINS, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BRENT EDDY, Ukiah. DUI.

JACK FULLER, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

MATTHEW GIBSON, Fort Bragg. Brandishing, criminal threats.

SHELLY HOAGLIN, Covelo. Brandishing, controlled substance while armed with loaded firearm, felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person.

TRAVIS HUMPHREY, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

SANDRA IBARRA, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, domestic battery, child cruelty.

BARBARA IVY, Willits. Battery on person, injuring wireless device.

TYLER ROW, Willits. Domestic battery, kidnapping, animal abuse, county parole violation.

LUIS SANCHEZ-ORTEGA, Willits. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

LETTER TO EDITOR in last week’s SF Chonicle

On Veterans Day, we honored with gratitude all those who served in our country’s military. And rightfully so.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the first American troops sent to Vietnam, which turned into one of the most unpopular wars in U.S. history, sharply dividing the country. 

Those of us who served in that war did not come home to a grateful nation with the prestige accorded veterans today. We were ignored, shunned and even blamed for a war considered by many an unwinnable disaster, even though we were simply serving our country.

So this year, let us honor all veterans but especially those who served in Vietnam by saying what was not said at the time: Welcome home and thank you.

Ken Kashiwahara

Millbrae

---

Rob Anderson replies:

Kashiwahara provides a couple of whoppers here: that those who served in the US attack on/invasion of Vietnam were “shunned and even blamed” when they came home, a myth that's been thoroughly debunked.

And the notion that we should “honor” and thank Vietnam veterans in particular for their part in that historical atrocity/war crime committed by their own government.

Most US veterans were drafted and essentially victims, including more than 58,000 US troops killed during the war, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese killed by US forces, including air strikes on a peasant population that had no air force to defend itself.

(Rob Anderson, District5Diary)

SETTING THE STAGE

Editor,

Let me get this straight. For as long as workers have tried to organize, the ruling class has tried to prevent them from succeeding.

Crucially, in 1981 the federal government under President Ronald Reagan crushed the air traffic controllers union after it dared flex its muscles and go on strike. Corporate America followed that lead and, for four decades, has viciously broken unions, limited their power or prevented them from forming.

Now, in an expression of support for workers’ rights, federal agencies will withhold funds from public transit (“Marin transit services could face big federal funding cuts,” Nov. 14). This will do little to punish the transit officials who ignored the rights of their workers, but it will do a lot to make life harder for the working class in California.

Meanwhile, mainstream Democrats bemoan how faith in government has declined. They fear the return of Donald Trump or the rise of another like him, when what gives this reactionary movement its power is — in large part — government and corporate disdain for ordinary Americans.

By punishing workers for decisions made by transit officials, the federal government is further setting the stage for a future that will be ugly for everyone but the rich.

Dr. Will Meecham

Novato

THE RUSSIAGATE WHITEWASH ERA BEGINS

After the WMD mess, Judith Miller got the blame, while a long list of just-as-guilty media villains failed upward. Now, a nervous press is looking for Russiagate's fall guys

by Matt Taibbi

“There is an old saying in journalism: You’re only as good as your sources,” wrote Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, in a piece about the indictment of “Steele Dossier” source Igor Danchenko. The latter is being set up to take the rap as the dirty Russian rat who hoodwinked poor civic-minded Christopher Steele, the FBI, and the entire American press corps into propping up the biggest hoax since the WMD affair.

After America invaded Iraq and failed to turn up weapons of mass destruction, the press went into CYA mode. Pundits who’d panted for war now cooked up a new narrative, that the WMD “mistake” had been caused by a combination of faulty intelligence, over-confident officials in the George W. Bush White House, and one New York Times reporter named Judith Miller.

Everyone else who so forcefully screwed the pooch on that story, from the New Yorker’s David Remnick to New York Times’ Jonathan Chait to current Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, emerged either unscathed, or draped in awards and promoted.

Now, the Russiagate tale many of those same people hyped is falling apart, and the industry is again building battlements to protect careers from a cascade of humiliating revelations. This time, a combination of Danchenko, Buzzfeed editor Ben Smith, and perhaps a few organizations like McClatchy will be tossed out of the lifeboat. If you’re ever tempted to think there’s honor among thieves, check out this most recent flurry of Russiagate finger-pointing....

taibbi.substack.com/p/the-russiagate-whitewash-era-begins

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“The answer is simple,” she said. “Stop criminalizing [homeless] people.”

Yeah? Then these “homeless” people need to stop their criminal activities.

Very few of the homeless are actually interested in securing a home where they have to pay rent, keep it clean, and not fuck with the neighbors. Some aren’t capable of even doing the bare minimum but for most, paying rent interferes with their substance abuse budgets. Keeping a job is also something they’re not interested in. And don’t start waxing poetic about how a minimum wage job doesn’t cover rent… I’m well aware of that. HOWEVER… even if you subsidized rent to match income, most homeless STILL wouldn’t pay it.

People who have lost their homes because they’ve lost their jobs don’t stay two years in filthy homeless camps. Most wouldn’t even associate with the drug/alcohol addicted losers who live on the streets… such people are dangerous to decent people. People who are motivated to secure employment and housing are the folks we need to concentrate on… not tweeker zombies roaming our streets looking to exploit the rest of us.

* * *

I have eyes. And family members who prefer to live on the streets because hey, drugs cost money and employers expect them to be there every day, on time???

My brother in law is a prime example. He’s now disabled and receives an SSI check; years of alcohol and drug abuse finally caught up with him and it’s too much of an effort to maintain what health he has left. It infringes on his alcohol intake to take care of his diabetes. When social workers help him secure housing, it only works out for a month, maybe three, because again, if he pays rent then he can’t afford his daily alcohol and methamphetamine.

My husband and I have tried to help him but he treats our assistance like he deserves it. And he doesn’t. It’s been 20 years or more since he’s bothered to hold a job and yes, he’s been in and out of rehab for his addictions more times than I can remember. Last time he stayed with us after a three month hospitalization, he was well enough to hobble to the market to get his six pack everyday, but he’d rather piss all over my furniture than spend $20 for a week’s worth of incontinence diapers. Again… it’s those pesky priorities.

Every suggestion we offered to help him has been too much effort. Oh. And did I tell you about his street friends he brings to my home?

I come by my cynicism honestly. I deal with them at home and at work when I rotate to the ER. At some point, enough is enough. Especially when assistance simply enables.

SHARPSHOOTER ANNIE OAKLEY while touring with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in Italy, 1890 

Annie Oakley (born Phoebe Ann Mosey; August 13, 1860 – November 3, 1926) was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Her "amazing talent" first came to light when the then 15-year-old won a shooting match with traveling show marksman Frank E. Butler (whom she married). The couple joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West show a few years later. Oakley became a renowned international star, performing before royalty and heads of state.

Oakley's most famous trick was her ability to repeatedly split a playing card, edge-on, and put several more holes in it before it could touch the ground, while using a .22 caliber rifle, at 90 feet

Annie continued to set records into her sixties, and she also engaged in extensive, albeit quiet, philanthropy for women's rights and other causes, including the support of specific young women she knew. She embarked on a comeback and intended to star in a feature-length silent movie. In a 1922 shooting contest in Pinehurst, North Carolina, 62-year-old Oakley hit 100 clay targets in a row from 16 yards.

In late 1922, Oakley and Butler suffered a debilitating car accident that forced her to wear a steel brace on her right leg. Yet after a year and a half of recovery, she again performed and set records in 1924. 

Her health declined in 1925 and she died of pernicious anemia in Greenville, Ohio, at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926. Her body was cremated in Cincinnati two days later and the ashes buried at Brock Cemetery near Greenville, Ohio. Assuming their marriage had been in 1876, Oakley and Butler had been married just over 50 years.

Butler was so grieved by her death, according that he stopped eating and died 18 days later in Michigan. Biographer Shirl Kasper reported the death certificate said Butler died of "Senility". His body was buried next to Oakley's ashes, or, according to rumor, Oakley's ashes, placed in one of her prized trophies, were laid next to Butler's body in his coffin prior to burial. Both body and ashes were interred in the cemetery on Thanksgiving Day (November 25, 1926).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Oakley

ROOTED IN EXCLUSION, TOWNS FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO WATER

What’s happening among unincorporated communities like Lanare, Matheny Tract and Tooleville may portend darker days ahead.

https://capitalandmain.com/rooted-in-exclusion-california-towns-fight-for-the-right-to-water

NEW BOOK SHINES WAYS TO REBOUND OUR HISTORIC POSTAL SERVICE

by Ralph Nader

The preventable plight of the U.S. Postal Service, with its over 30,000 post offices, is an important issue for all Americans. When President Donald J. Trump’s donor and henchman Louis DeJoy became postmaster general in 2020, he started to dismantle the agency. Thousands of citizens responded by participating in demonstrations that revealed a deep civic commitment to preserving the people’s post office.

While DeJoy triggered a crisis that threatened the presidential election process, attacks on the Postal Service have been ongoing for decades. The anti-postal campaigns by corporate interests have remained a continuing source of frustration to those of us who have observed the Postal Service’s decline due to unimaginative management, a deck stacked to favor for-profit rivals such as FedEx and UPS, and unfair financial obligations and delivery prohibitions (for example, on wine and beer) imposed by Congress.

The Postal Service is facing a manufactured financial crisis that is primarily the result of a congressional mandate dating back to 2006 that required the agency to pre-fund the next seventy-five years of retiree health benefits in one decade. This pre-payment requirement is something that no other federal government agency or private corporation attempts to do—not to mention that there is no actuarial justification for such an accelerated payment schedule. The pre-funding requirement effectively forces the Postal Service to finance a $72 billion retiree health benefits fund for future employees who have not even been born yet. Despite these facts, Congress has refused to correct the host of problems resulting from its requirements.

The financial pressure resulting from the burdensome pre-payment schedule has led to negative impacts on service for all postal patrons. Postmaster General DeJoy’s ten-year plan proposes saving the agency money through cutting service and raising prices, which is a formula for sabotage. He already introduced service changes that have delayed the delivery of all first-class letters on a permanent basis. As a result, mail is now being delivered up to two days later than before.

Unlike DeJoy, our first postmaster general, Benjamin Franklin, was known for his can-do verve and his appreciation of efficiency and innovation. Franklin was eager to find ways to have the mail delivered more quickly. As a stand-alone structure, he never would have imagined that someday post offices would mutate into a counter or kiosk inside a Staples store—or some other big-box store or shopping mall—as recent postmasters general have urged and widely advertised.

The need for postal reform is not just a matter of endangered post offices, disappearing blue mailboxes, slow mail delivery, or the fight to maintain delivery on Saturday, important as these issues are. Instead of disabling and eventually dismantling the Postal Service, this is the moment to expand postal services. Congress especially must act to protect rural communities, small businesses, the elderly, and the disabled, among others, by reasserting its authority over the Postal Service and putting a stop to irresponsible cutbacks. These policies not only threaten the future of the Postal Service in the long term; in the short term, they harm the ability of small businesses to carry out their operations in a timely manner and inhibit the elderly’s ability to receive essential medications by mail. They also drive ever more consumers away from the Postal Service and toward commercial delivery corporations such as UPS and FedEx.

Post offices ought to offer an honest notary service (badly needed in an era of robo-signings), sales of fishing and hunting licenses, and an option to have gifts wrapped, among other new services. The Postal Service should accept wine and beer for delivery as FedEx and UPS do, and start delivering groceries as well. In addition, there is the widespread need for postal banking, given many millions of Americans are without bank accounts. This service actually existed until 1966 when the political lobbying of bankers terminated the successful and accessible program in communities throughout our country. The Postal Service recently started a pilot program to test check-cashing services in four select post offices on the East Coast. This program needs to be expanded to more post offices and be better publicized.

The future potential of the Postal Service is made clear in the just published book First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat (City Lights Books) by Christopher W. Shaw, which could not be more timely. Shaw investigates why this essential service is in danger, explains how to fight back against its dismantling, and explores what can be done to improve and expand our postal system and have more consumer representation on the Postal Service Board of Governors.

Ninety Members of Congress have called on the Postal Service Board of Governors to remove Postmaster General DeJoy. In addition to DeJoy’s ruinous USPS policies, he is under investigation by the FBI over illegal political fundraising tactics, and DeJoy’s family has financial ties with XPO Logistics, a company that in April the Postal Service awarded a multi-million-dollar contract. With the terms of two Postal Service Board of Governors expiring in one month, it’s time for President Biden to appoint new members who will not behave like rubber stamps for DeJoy and his destructive time in office.

The Postal Service is a fundamental institution that binds our country together. It can and should be updated and freed from the shackles of corporations. Showing up is half of democracy, so the question for citizens today is: “Are we going to show up for our post office?” Shaw’s book lights the path forward for all Americans.