Mendocino County Today: Friday, Jan. 21, 2022

Dry Easterlies | 160 New Cases | 2 More Deaths | Albion 1905 | Omicron Impact | Wise Doctor | Pond Refuge | Native Garden | Releasing Water | Waxy Cap | Redding 5th | 30s Farmhouse | Unsightly Ukiah | Cignition | Succulent Smuggler | Mendocino Woodlands | Crab Feed | Cookhouse Gang | Alyssa Sawdey | Dub Fans | Look Book | 1972 Albums | Ed Notes | Police Reports | Sawmill Windmill | Skunk On | Yesterday's Catch | Conservation Penalties | Pavlov's Cat | Human Stupidity | Sarcasm 101 | Bacon Exhibit | Navarro Hotel | Secret Meetings | Reality Outlawed | Four Aces | Racing Rats | Class War | Biden's Year | Love Duel

OFFSHORE EASTERLY WINDS will promote dry and mainly clear conditions today through most of the weekend. In addition, gusty winds will be probable across exposed ridges during the next two days. Otherwise, rain will not be likely across the region during the next seven days. (NWS)

160 NEW COVID CASES and two more deaths reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

TWO MORE DEATHS

Two Mendocino County residents recently passed away with COVID-19. Our thoughts are with their families and friends.

Death #110: 89 year-old man from the South Coast area; unvaccinated. 

Death #111: 45 year-old man from the North County area; vaccinated.

Public Health asks all Mendocino County residents to consider the best ways to protect themselves and their families from COVID-19. When in doubt, consult with and follow all CDC and CDPH guidance. Vaccination, masking, and social distancing remain the best tools for combating COVID-19.

Fully vaccinated people should strongly consider getting a COVID-19 booster to improve immunity. Boosters are available for everyone age 12 and older. If you have questions about boosters or vaccines in general, speak with your doctor, or call Public Health at 707-472-2759. To find the nearest vaccine clinic in your area, please visit the Public Health website at: www.mendocinocounty.org/covidvaccine

OMICRON’S ENORMOUS IMPACT

Mendocino County continues to feel the enormous impact of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 Omicron variant as more than 527 new cases have been reported in the county since January 14. 

This week, our hospitals and clinics are experiencing this surge firsthand. Emergency rooms, inpatient units and clinics are impacted. Additionally, like most other local organizations, we too have been experiencing a reduced workforce as a result of this surge. COVID-19 positivity rates have been spreading through schools, churches and dozens of businesses where we all interact. The good news is that many of our staff are completing their isolation process are doing well and have started returning to work. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding as it may take us a bit longer to answer the phones or process your outpatient needs. Your health remains our top priority. 

You can help lessen the spread of COVID-19 by wearing surgical grade masks, rather than cloth masks. These are available through local pharmacies, Amazon, Costco and other retail locations. KN95 or N95 masks provide the greatest protection for yourself and others. Additionally, frequent hand washing with soap and utilizing hand sanitizers are also effective in helping stop the spread. 

COVID-19 vaccines are working well to prevent severe illness. However, over time and with this aggressive variant, the CDC recommends getting a booster shot for additional protection. Booster shots are available through most local pharmacies and clinics. 

Continuing to avoid mass gatherings is helpful in mitigating the spread in our community as this variant appears to travel through the air and is significantly more contagious than the Delta variant. 

Together we have navigated adversity through the persistence of this pandemic. Your actions are saving lives. We thank you for your work in helping stop the spread of this virus and your patience as we continue to serve our community.

(Adventist Health Presser)

FROM A FARM SOUTH OF BOONVILLE

Petit Teton Farm Report - December 2021 

The rains have taken a break and spring has come to the valley. It is a false spring we’re sure, but the plants and animals don’t remember prior years and are doing their spring thing - roses flowering, seeds sprouting, birds flirting, ducks boffing, chickens laying. There will be general shock when the next frost hits...we know it’s coming. We’re not as sure about the next rains though. At near 27 inches we aren’t half way to “normal” yet. There’s a word for you… NORMAL! Sorry, normal doesn’t exist and never has. It’s time to accept change and prepare for what will be (and has been already for several years) a certainly uncertain future...be ready to bail or hide and do without.

At least the rains have been enough to nearly fill our new 1.5 million gallon pond. It’s up the hill from the farm on a mostly flat clay soil grassland area of the 501 property. The pond was constructed up against a hill so the clay from the digging is now the berm that holds in the water on half of it. The closest trees are at a great distance so we’ve determined that this will be our meeting and shelter area when the fire comes. 

On the rise above the pond will be a water tank filled from it and hoses for spraying. We could even jump in the pond. In the middle of the night recently it came to me that exiting it would be a challenge since the sides are steep, clay is slippery, and the fill line is several feet down. I dreamed of a rope ladder affixed to T-posts set in the berm which we will start constructing soon.

Our escape options are limited when it comes to a valley fire. The road through is very narrow, twisting, and long with only two lanes going either south 20 miles to Cloverdale and a freeway or west 33 miles to the coast Highway 1. 

There are a lot of people living both in the valley and in the surrounding hills. The farm is located on the sunny, open rangeland north side of the road and the trees are not the redwoods and tan oaks of the forest opposite. On the property are many seasonal creeks that run down the mountains and under Hwy 128 to Rancheria Creek. They are banked by bands of oaks, madrone, toyon, pepperwood and buckeye. There are few actual “woods”.

Over lunch, which is shared by everyone working on any given day, nine of whom live on the farm, we have had many discussions about which way to go when the fire comes and have debated all scenarios...where the fire started, wind direction, and numbers of families evacuating. Choices are limited to either the main road or the two mostly dirt roads branching off 128 that climb southwest through dense woods and over the mountains to the coast. We speculated that the roads would be clogged with panicked residents and the inevitable breakdowns. In the past, conclusions have been various and unsatisfactory, but now that the pond is functional consensus reigns that it’s probably the safest choice. Meantime, we’ve been clearing all the slash and brush from under any trees close to all buildings. The place is taking on the look of a park.

Have a happy spring and be well.

Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Krieg

SOMETHING VERY FISHY IS GOING ON AT LAKE MENDOCINO

According to State Water Board release data, the release from Lake Mendocino has ramped up dramatically over the last few days, from Monday, January 10 at 35 cubic feet per second to a whopping 125 feet per second on Thursday, January 20. 

Residents in the area of the Coyote Dam reported Thursday that they can hear the water gushing out into the Russian River below the Coyote Dam, these huge releases occurring when the Lake is still very low and nowhere near having recovered its average level. It was listed as being at only 2/3 of its target supply curve as of January 18. And this as the Northcoast’s worrisome dry pattern has returned with no rain in the forecast.

IS THIS SUDDEN outflow for the benefit of downstream grape growers whose ponds emptied out in 2021 and are probably worried about having enough frost protection water for their grapes during bud break in early spring? We’ve never been able to tell for sure who’s in charge of determining the releases from Lake Mendocino. We thought it was the Army Corps of Engineers, but there are lots of other players, the most significant of which is the Sonoma County Water Agency, which profits mightily off the Mendo water they own 80% of by selling it to Sonoma County water districts and to Marin County. 

THERE'S ALSO PG&E, the Russian River Flood Control District, Department of Fish & Wildlife, the City of Ukiah, and lesser players in the loop too. 

A FEW WEEKS ago the State Water Board removed diversion restrictions imposed on Russian River riparian pumpers during the 2021 drought. So somebody seems to have decided to take full advantage of what little water flowed into the Lake in December. 

(Mark Scaramella)

A COAST PERSON tells the AVA that John Redding, the outspoken member of the Coast Hospital District board, has taken out papers to run against Ted Williams in the June 2022 Fifth District Supervisorial primary election. We like his truculence but Redding's many detractors find him less amusing. 

Given his politics and his provocative statements over the last few months as a member of the Hospital District Board we doubt he has much of a chance to unseat Williams, who has been a disappointment to the few people who pay attention to the Supervisors for his auto-Yes votes on whatever CEO Angelo puts in front of him. Williams also talks and writes more and more like R2D2, with cryptic, unilluminating Facebook posts on this and that. But Williams his own auto-support from lockstep Coastlib, as does his “liberal” colleague, Silent Dan Gjerde, the Fort Bragg sphinx. We can't recall Redding ever weighing in on County matters, but given the ever larger number of cyber-venues in fragged Mendoland his opinion may have eluded our vigilance. 

(Mark Scaramella)

FIXER UPPERS WITH NO FIXERS

To the Editor:

I am wondering why no one has done anything about the following unsightly properties, some for many, many years.

1. The old A&W drive-in. Very trashy for several years, obviously someone is living there.

2. The Smoke shop at the north end of town, that burned long ago.

3. Carl’s Jr.

4. Blue Drug and his adjacent personal home.

5. Building corner of S. State and Wabash. Burned some years ago.

6. Steve’s Auto, in the middle of the new “Streetscape.” Needed paint for 20 plus years.

7. Last but not least, The Palace Hotel

I have previously contacted the City of Ukiah, but nothing changes.

Kathy Vinson

Ukiah

NORTH COAST DUDLEYA SMUGGLER SENTENCED IN FEDERAL COURT 

(The succulent) Dudleya farinosa has become the latest target for poachers who can sell the small, native-grown succulent for much more money than those grown in green houses. 

by Colin Atagi

A South Korean national was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison for attempting to illegally export Dudleya succulent plants to Asia.

Byungsu Kim, 46, pleaded guilty in September to one count of attempting to export plants taken in violation of state law, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Kim must also pay $3,985 in restitution for expenses related to replanting the stolen plants, which came from remote Northern California state parks and are worth at least $150,000.

In recent years, Dudleya plants have been torn illegally from bluffs along the Northern California coast and sold on the Asian black market.

Kim and two co-defendents drove from Los Angeles International Airport to Crescent City in October 2018. They harvested Dudleya plants from DeMartin State Beach in Klamath, Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park and Russian Gulch State Park in Mendocino County.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Kim told an agricultural official that the plants came from San Diego and used false documentation to ship them from a Compton cargo shipping company to South Korea.

(pressdemocrat.com)

LAST CHANCE: FORT BRAGG CRAB FEED SATURDAY

Less than 40 tickets remain for this Saturday’s Drive Thru Crab Feed fundraiser. This fundraiser supports both the Fort Bragg Rotary Club and the Mendocino Coast Sports Foundation! Both of which put their time and these funds back into our local community, our schools and our youth. 

You definitely don’t want to miss this! Who still needs a ticket?

Tickets for the Crab Feed and/or the Raffle can be purchased from any Rotary Club member or from Sport Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram by stopping by or calling 964-5915 and asking for Mindy. Purchase tickets by 5:00pm Friday.

Mindy Slaughter, Fort Bragg

ALYSSA MAE SAWDEY, the 22-year-old Ukiah woman whose death was ruled ‘suspicious,’ remembered as ‘strong-willed’ and genuine and loved to help others, according to a close family friend. 

by Alana Minkler

Alyssa Mae Sawdey was a strong-willed young woman who didn’t know her self-worth, friends and family members said. 

The 22-year-old’s body was found Jan. 11, near Highway 101 north of Ukiah, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. 

She was identified last Friday. Her autopsy results were pending as of Wednesday. Authorities say Sawdey’s death is “suspicious in nature” and the cause is under investigation. 

Sawdey graduated from Ukiah High School in 2018 and had been providing in-home care to the elderly, according to Sabrina Porter. 

She dreamed of getting her nursing degree one day and loved to take care of people, but sometimes that love for others did not extend to herself, Porter said. 

Porter would know. As Alyssa’s mother, she watched her daughter battle with that self-doubt.

“She struggled very hard, and she always felt like she wasn’t good enough,” Porter said. “She always wanted to help everyone else, but she was always very hard on herself.”

She became friends with the wrong people, who hurt and abused her, her mother said. She eventually fell into a dark place which she desperately wanted to get out of, said Porter.

Sawdey wanted to get cleaned up and get off drugs permanently, Porter said. “But we live here in California where it’s so hard to get help.”

Porter didn’t receive a call back from the rehab clinic until last week, when it was too late.

“I said ‘No. She’s not okay. She’s dead,’” Porter said.

“Ever since she was a little kid, she loved people. She would talk to everyone in the room and she was very trusting of others,” Porter said.

She was a cheerleader, a basketball player and a natural-born artist.

“But Alyssa put her trust in the wrong hands,” Porter said. “And people take advantage of that.”

“It’s hard as a mom, very hard,” Porter said. “And you always hope that maybe it’s just a phase and she’ll grow out of that.”

“We were trying,” Porter said. “But it’s an every day battle.”

Jannea Thomsen, 32, of Lakeport, a close family friend said Sawdey loved cheeseburgers and peanut M&M’S, but more than anything, she loved her 14-year-old sister, Brook.

Porter said Sawdey would come to the house all the time, just to cuddle and hangout with her little sister. They would talk on the phone constantly, and Sawdey took Brook to school just a few days before she died.

Jamarr Porter, her stepfather from birth said Sawdey was incredibly artistic. He remembered one day when she was little and she wrote a song and sang it to him behind the house.

Alyssa Mae Sawdey was genuine and loved to help others, according to a close family friend. She was lovely, genuine, and “a bit extra sometimes,” he said.

“My daughter was great,” he said. “She knew people in my family I hadn’t even met.”

“Naturally, she will always, always be missed,” he added, tearing up.

Melissa Nelson is a close family friend. She said Sawdey had a smile that could light up a room.

She would just giggle and giggle, Nelson said. And she gave “the warmest hugs.

“She was “a bright light,” Nelson said.

“The world can extinguish bright lights, and that’s what it did.”

A memorial service will be held on Jan. 29 in Clearlake. Sawdey’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to help cover costs and related expenses.

The Sheriff’s Office urged anyone with information to call detectives at 707-234-2100.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

RENEE AT THE SENIOR CENTER: Where my Dub fans at? Last week to buy tickets. I will be at AV Brewing Company on Friday if you want to catch up with me and get tickets.

KELLEY HOUSE ANNOUNCES NEW LOOK TIN ELI BOOK

The Kelley House Museum in Mendocino is pleased to announce the publication of its latest book, "Look Tin Eli – The Mendocino-Born Visionary Who Helped Shape the Chinese-American Experience."

With almost fifty historic images, the 114-page publication is the first to present a comprehensive life history of the innovative Look Tin Eli (LTE). Bringing together Look family memorabilia, government documents and extensive research, authors Jane Tillis and Robert Becker have told a remarkable story.

As a teenager returning home from China in 1884, LTE’s illegal detention instigated a court battle that set the precedent for birthright citizenship being written into the U. S. constitution during a later immigration battle. After the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, he was instrumental in establishing Chinatown as a business center and tourist destination. He founded the first Chinese-owned bank, the Canton Bank of San Francisco, and he started the China Mail steamship company. 

The creation of this book has its own story that began more than four years ago when a member of the Look family contacted the Kelley House to arrange a group visit to Mendocino. Approximately thirty descendants of LTE arrived to see where their notable great-grandfather was born. Widely dispersed family members had traveled from Hong Kong, Colorado, the San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore, and Australia. 

Led by the Museum’s head docent, Jane Tillis, the group toured the area where Mendocino’s Chinatown had existed for many decades, pointed out where LTE was born, and saw where the family grocery store had prospered. At the Temple of Kwan Tai, Jane was enthralled as Mona Look-Mazza spoke eloquently of LTE’s life and decided at that moment that his was a significant life that deserved wider visibility.

Jane began learning everything she could about this man and was fortunate to receive the support and encouragement of brothers Guy Look and Michael Look, who offered essential information and intriguing family photos. 

She was assisted in her research by many talented people, including San Francisco–based media producer Carol Liu who served as cultural consultant, and Lorraine Hee-Chorley from the Temple of Kwan Tai in Mendocino. Former Museum Director-Curator Anne Cooper directed the initial research and later provided editing, while volunteer archivist Carolyn Zeitler and the late Kelley House volunteer Bette Duke did much of the early research on his immigration battle. With the help of Cornelia Reynolds, the Museum received a grant from the State of California that funded a 2019 exhibit that included LTE’s story. 

With the research completed, Jane then asked Kelley House tour docent, history buff, and online writer, Robert Becker, to compose a narrative that incorporated all the material. Robert’s background in California history and American literature, plus years of online writing on politics and culture, allowed him to frame LTE’s exceptional life amidst larger historical patterns. 

As the manuscript came together, he called on Robert Eric Barde, a UC Berkeley immigration scholar, and Gary Kamiya, author of the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Portals of the Past,” to provide critical feedback on documentation, interpretation, and language. Other writers that provided support and feedback included Professor Clay Reynolds, and wife and author Katy Pye.

When Robert was done, Museum Board member Sarah Nathe stepped in to edit the final manuscript, and long-time Kelley House supporter and professional editor Annette Jarvie proofed the final copy. Finally, talented graphic designer Michelle Noe transformed words and images into a beautiful, printed book that we are proud to add to our bookshelf.

The Kelley House Museum is deeply grateful to all who dedicated their talents and time to create this publication, especially volunteers Robert Becker and Jane Tillis, who inspired everyone with her conviction and enthusiasm.

You can purchase the new book at local bookstores or at the Kelley House on-line store: kelleyhousemuseum.org/store/

ED NOTES

THE FOLLOWING NOTICE appeared in a UDJ presser about Ukiah-area youth sports: “Registration Fee: $75/player w/ $5 sibling discount. Scholarships are available.”

A $75 registration fee means Ukiah will be doling out plenty of scholarships because 75 bucks per kid is beyond the means of most Ukiah parents, but it's good to see that the city is sponsoring baseball and soccer for pre-teens, which is as it should be because the young ones enjoy the heck out of a whole range of youth sports. And, an early interest in wholesome activity in the world's most unwholesome country, may fortify the kid against the minefield of adolescence, especially children lacking attentive parents.

MY OWN grandchildren, residents of the child-centered County of Marin, have been enjoying organized sports from the age of 5 (!) beginning with t-ball, soccer, basketball, and volleyball. And they both now belong to traveling teams, the girl child with a softball team that plays in tournaments all over the Bay Area and, on the side, she plays instructional volleyball. The boy child is totally into basketball and competes with a kind of Marin all-star team that hoops year-round, traveling as far as LA to play in tournaments for 9 and 10-year-olds. But, but, but… But is all this competition good for a child? They love it, and from my observations the coaches not only know what they're doing, they're very good with little kids, meaning they are kindly and age-sensitive, unlike the usual one or two psycho parents who confuse junior basketball with the NBA.

A READER COMMENTS: “Ukiah. It is depressing. Lived here my entire life, it is the worse I’ve ever seen. Graffiti everywhere. On city utility boxes (right in front of the courthouse on State no less), back of traffic signs within neighborhoods, and even their building in the utility yard by the airport, for months now. Why aren’t these things kept up? The old A&W property, right down town State St. by Wells Fargo Bank, look at it the next time you go by. Why is this allowed? The building behind Mountain Mike Pizza, why? Aren’t there ordinances for this kind of demise? If so, why is nothing enforced? I just don’t understand :-( And yes, I know it is everywhere, but why do we allow it?”

I THINK the above is a consensus Ukiah opinion, but the town's obvious civic dysfunction is the consequence of years of feckless leadership. Through the 1970s there was a cadre of older Ukiahans who regularly lamented Ukiah's deterioration, but one factor also has to be that people under the age of sixty have grown up amidst architectural ugliness and all its related aesthetic squalor, sooooooo a lot of people out there are genuinely puzzled when us geezers complain about appearances. “If you don't like it, stay the hell over the hill in Boonville,” a guy once said to me. “Boonville isn't exactly downtown Paris.”

IF, AS MATT TAIBBI points out, the Democrats clearly stood for specific programs that a majority of Americans obviously want they'd never lose and there would be some enthusiasm for them. Taibbi: “Single-payer health care, bulk negotiation of drug prices, antitrust action against Too Big To Fail banks or Silicon Valley’s surveillance monopolists — really anything that demonstrates a willingness to prioritize voters over the takeover artists and CEOs who fund the party would have given them enduring credibility. Do that, while retaining at least a sliver of the reputation for fighting for civil rights won in the sixties, and how can you lose, ever? The numbers say you can’t, and it’s early still, but they wouldn’t be the first aristocrats to wait too long to peek out of the bubble.”

“OUR DEMOCRACY.” Quick! Tell me how our local state and federal reps are chosen? Are you, as a Demo party member, invited to participate in the selection process?

STOP the next dozen Mendo citizens in the street and ask them to name their reps. Or name the members of their local school board; or their county supervisor. 

‘SUPERFICIAL’ THROAT CUTS

On Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at about 9:13 AM, UPD Officers were dispatched to 150 Luce Ave. for a report of a female that had just cut a male victim’s throat. Dispatch advised that the suspect, later identified as Tatiana Franco Cortez, had left on foot and was still in possession of the knife. 

A responding Officer located Franco Cortez walking away in the area of S. State St. and Observatory Ave. Additional Officers arrived and, based on the nature of the call and suspected possession of a weapon, Franco Cortez was taken into custody at gunpoint. 

Officers and Medical personnel responded to 150 Luce Ave. where the victim was located. It was learned that the victim in fact had lacerations to his throat but the wounds were superficial. It was learned that the victim had been eating breakfast in a common room of the facility prior to the assault. The victim and witnesses present stated that Franco Cortez attacked the victim without provocation. Franco Cortez became angry with the victim and began shouting at him for an unknown reason. Franco Cortez withdrew a knife and placed it against his throat, causing the cuts to his neck. Franco Cortez then fled the location on foot as bystanders contacted Police. 

Franco Cortez was in possession of a folding knife in a locked open position concealed on her person when she was located. The victim in this case desired prosecution of Franco Cortez for the assault. Franco Cortez was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was booked for the listed violations. 

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OBEY ALL LAWS, NELSON, INCLUDING THE ONE ABOUT WORKING BIKE LIGHTS

On Sunday, January 16, 2022 at approximately 9:34 P.M., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were patrolling the area of South State Street (Ukiah) when they observed a person, subsequently identified as Paul Nelson, 27, of Ukiah, riding a bicycle.

The bicycle was not equipped with a forward facing light or reflectors on the rear of the bicycle. The Deputies activated their overhead lighting in an attempt to stop Nelson. Nelson refused to stop and continued to gain speed.

Nelson pulled off of the road and continued his attempt to evade the Deputies. Nelson traversed a trail to the Mulberry Street area where California Highway Patrol Officers were waiting for him.

Nelson was detained and a records check revealed that there was an outstanding Mendocino County felony warrant for his arrest. The Deputies also learned Nelson was on formal probation with terms to include "Obey all laws". Due to the fact that Nelson attempted to intentionally evade the Deputies, he violated the terms of his probation.

Nelson was arrested for the Mendocino County Felony Arrest Warrant, (Felony Violation of Probation) and Misdemeanor Resisting, Delaying or Obstructing a Public Officer.

Nelson was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held on a No Bail status.

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THE MOB THAT HADN'T HEARD THE MARIJUANA MARKET HAD COLLAPSED

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022 at approximately 2:45 p.m., the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a 9-1-1 call from a person who reported they were a victim of a physical assault and were currently at a residence in the 45000 block of Seaside School Road in Gualala.

The reported victim described multiple subjects that were currently on his property armed with firearms, one of which firearms was identified as an AR-15 rifle. The reported victim identified “Yuri” as a subject who was trying to kill him.

Law enforcement officers with the California Highway Patrol and California State Parks responded following a request for assistance from responding Deputies. A reverse 9-1-1 was issued to alert nearby residents to shelter in place.

While responding, Deputies received updated information that the reported victim escaped and was now in the 38000 block of Old Stage Road in Gualala.

It was reported a friend to the reported victim was still inside the residence with the armed subjects, and the current state of his welfare was unknown.

At approximately 4:07 p.m., Deputies and an officer with the California Highway Patrol arrived on scene (Seaside School Road) and began to approach the residence on foot.

During that approach and from a distance, Deputies observed a male subject wearing white pants and a black hooded sweatshirt running away from the residence towards Old Stage Road. As Deputies further approached the residence they observed another male subject who was compliant with Deputies and he was detained.

As additional law enforcement arrived on scene, a perimeter was established to secure the scene and law enforcement entry was made inside the residence to search for any possible victim(s). No other persons were located and Deputies initiated an investigation into the reported incident.

During the course of the investigation, Deputies determined the location was being utilized for unlawful/non-permitted cannabis cultivation which was an apparent factor to the reported physical assault and persons reported to be present on the property.

Deputies sought and served a search warrant at the location for any evidence having a nexus to the reported assault and the cannabis cultivation.

During the service of that warrant, Deputies located and seized approximately 1,900-pounds of processed cannabis.

Deputies and California State Parks Law Enforcement personnel continued a search of the area throughout the night for any other involved parties without success.

Deputies identified a person named Yuri Andrade as a person of interest.

No arrests were made and this investigation is ongoing. No further details are available for public release at the present time.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office would request that anyone that has information concerning this incident and/or knows the identity of those involved, to call 707-961-2421 and reference case number 2022-01419.

ED NOTE: Booking records show that Yuri Andrade was arrested in Gualala and booked into the County Jail in October of 2016 for pot cultivation and sale.

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CUSTER’S LAST STAND?

On 1/17/22 at approximately 0611 hours, UPD Officers were dispatched to the apartments at the 100 block of Observatory Ave. regarding a male brandishing a knife. The male was described as a white male wearing all brown clothing. While in route to the call, UPD Dispatch told officers the suspect was now trying to break through an apartment window. 

Upon arrival, a UPD officer contacted the suspect later identified as Andrew Custer, 50, of Ukiah on the lawn of the apartment complex. 

Custer was quickly advancing toward the officer and mumbling incoherently. Custer was also carrying what appeared to be a 4-foot-long broomstick. The officer noticed there was a knife with a blade approximately 6.5 inches long that was tied to the end of the broomstick. Custer was using the weapon as a spear and was thrusting forward in a stabbing motion as he was advancing toward the officer. 

The officer immediately pointed his department-issued sidearm at Custer and began giving orders to drop the weapon and stop advancing. Custer ignored the orders and continued to advance. The officer recognized Custer from numerous prior law enforcement contacts and knew Custer had severe mental health disorders. 

The officer retreated backward and behind his vehicle while Custer continued to advance. At one point, Custer was approximately 8-10 feet from the officer. The officer retreated backwards and circled his entire patrol car approximately 1.5 times trying to put distance between him and Custer. At that point, a second UPD officer arrived at the scene and was able to deploy his Taser. The Taser darts effectively contacted Custer in the back, causing Custer to immediately fall to the ground. UPD officers immediately placed Custer in handcuffs with his hands behind his back without further incident. 

During the investigation officers learned that Custer forced his way into an apartment and began stabbing at the occupants with his homemade spear. The occupants were able to force Custer out of their apartment and close the door on him. Custer then tried to gain access back into the apartment through a window. During the attack, a jacket one of the occupants was wearing was cut by the spear. There were no injuries to the occupants and there appears to be no motive for the attack. 

Custer was arrested and booked at the Mendocino County Jail for Burglary, Assault with a Deadly Weapon on a Peace Officer and Attempted Murder. 

GET ON BOARD

Editor,

I was fortunate in returning to Fort Bragg for a visit in early December, Volume 1, issue 1 of “The Little Stinker” was given to me and read with interest; the story of the mill site plans in particular. All, however, was not well in regard to Ft. Bragg officials, Mayor, and others. Monday, Dec. 6 my host and I set off to interview various citizens’ views of the purchase of the mill site by Mendocino Railway aka The Skunk Train.

All held various opinions, yet all related that Ft. Bragg had avoided, neglected, or ignored efforts to purchase the property for 20 years. Yet those leaders have expressed only anger and bitterness at Skunk Train for allegedly stealing the property. Lawsuits are pending, cease & desist, and obstacles put forth in legal terms, etc, etc.

Such reminds one of the spoiled children that did not get their way and now cries most loudly. An adult reaction should be one of co-operation to work together for the benefit of the greater community. This, in spite of the fact city officials, did not win — so to speak.

The Skunk Train Complex is set to become the area’s largest economic driver since the mill closed in 2002! Fort Bragg will greatly benefit from this development; jobs, tourism, and commerce bringing added revenue to the city, residents, and businesses.

Ft. Bragg officials need to get on board the Skunk, such would be a most progressive response.

Mark Besser

Fort Bragg

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 20, 2022

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

SHANKARA CASEY, Redwood Valley. Probation revocation.

PAUL CAUDLE, Willits. Felon-addict with firearm, ammo possession by prohibited person, probation revocation.

ANDY CUSTER, Ukiah. Attempted murder, burglary, assault on police officer.

JOSE ESTRADA-WIRT, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, exhibiting a firearm in police presence. 

JACK FULLER, Willits. Robbery, vandalism, disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

ALIA KHAY-RULLINA, Trinidad/Ukiah. DUI causing bodily injury, special allegation three victims over 70 years old, multiple victims with bodily injury or death, no license.

ROBERT NELSON, Covelo. Domestic battery, resisting.

JEAN RATHER, Upper Lake/Ukiah. DUI.

JACK RICHTER, Redding/Ukiah. DUI.

SEAN SHANNON, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

FRANK WONG, San Mateo/Ukiah. Protectiver orders violation.

PENALTIES FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING?

Editor,

For years we have been encouraged to use less electricity and gas. Turn down your thermostat, turn off the lights when you leave the room, use more efficient light bulbs, buy more efficient appliances, shut off power cords at night, and the biggies — weatherstripping, double-pane windows, insulation. Most of us have done at least some of these things. But perhaps the most effective way to use less power from the grid is to install solar panels, and many have done just that; some even put power back onto the grid.

Now we’re hearing that those who have solar panels “owe” the utility company something because they’re using less power. Wow! What’s next? A fee when you buy an efficient washer, dryer or dishwasher? An extra charge for replacing single-pane windows or adding insulation? How about a big fee for a single-person household where the occupant is gone all day and leaves the heat off?

We’re all in this together, and we should appreciate anything that anyone does to avoid building more power plants.

Barbara Vaughan

Santa Rosa

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The world has gone mad. First, I don’t think there’s any global WEF plot to decimate world population. To me, that’s a paranoid delusion. Yeah, population may be lowered, but not because some group wants it to happen. What’s the point? Also, intentional population lowering is extremely dangerous. We could do it via nuclear war, but we would probably ruin the world. Who would want to spend their lives in a protected silo of some sort?

Creating a deadly virus is too unpredictable because viruses mutate. Being inoculated against the original version would offer immunity, but a mutated version could kill everyone, including the so-called elites. Look what’s happening with covid. It’s not a civilization-killer, but if it was intentionally created for gain of function purposes against a specific political group, the elites have failed miserably. There’s a lot of evidence that every jabbed person will not die by the end of winter, as several people here have stated.

No, I believe human stupidity has caused our problems, not a plot. We’ve reproduced like there’s no tomorrow – in effect a self-fulfilling prophecy of potential doom; we’re destroying our environment; and we’ve made a slew of selfish and wrong decisions. Our situation today is a result of our own lack of responsibility (a la Don’t Look Up) not because of a relative handful of elites.

BORDER COMMUNITIES AND THEIR SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS Focus Of New Exhibition At San Francisco Main Library

For photographer David Bacon, the border region between the United States and Mexico is a land marked by life and death. Each year, at least 300-400 people die trying to cross into the U.S. in search of a better future for themselves and their families. The border is also bustling with life. The once-small towns of Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana are now home to millions of people, many of whom make up the industrial workforce of Southern California, South Texas and New Mexico. Taken over a period of 30 years, Bacon's photographs and accompanying text panels, which are presented in English and Spanish, in San Francisco Public Library's exhibition More Than a Wall explore all aspects of the border region and its vibrant social history.

davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2022/01/border-communities-and-their-social.html

IN THE DAYS BEFORE THE CAPITOL RIOT, then-President Donald Trump held off-the-books meetings in the White House with mystery participants, according to his former press secretary Stephanie Grisham. The Guardian reports that Grisham made the intriguing disclosure during an early January interview with the select committee investigating the Capitol attack. Grisham reportedly told the panel that only a small number of aides were made aware of the secret meetings and she saw the former White House chief usher, Timothy Harleth, directing participants upstairs. She reportedly said she wasn’t sure who attended the meetings, but told the panel that Harleth and other Trump aides would know their identities. A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment on The Guardian’s report, and Harleth didn’t respond to questions. 

— Daily Beast

MEANDERINGS OF A MONKEY MIND by Herb Caen (1976)

You can feel reasonably secure as a San Franciscan when a tourist stops you on Powell Street to ask directions, you know that it's 4:30 PM when the Ferry siren blows and 5 PM when the Presidio cannon barks, you don't even know what the "other" room at Trader Vic's looks like, you have never sat inside on a Powell cable, you walk up to your favorite bar and your favorite drink is already waiting for you, and the sidewalk photographer no longer bothers to take your picture … On the other hand, suggests Dean Webber, you're in trouble when you go into a strange restaurant and order ham and eggs and the waitress sets a bottle of catsup in front of you. While you are talking, the guy you're talking to wanders away and turns on the TV. The phone wakes you up and it’s your wife. After studying the wine list for some time you make your choice and the waiter captain winces. At a party, you wink at a sweet young thing and your eye stays shut. Your wife comes home drunk with one of her old Army buddies. The day after you told your best friend what a jerk you think his estranged wife is, you find out they reconciled. Ah well. The only way to face life is as Mark Twain recommended: "With the serene confidence that a Christian feels with four aces and the composure of the man said to his wife, ‘if one of us dies I shall move to Paris’.

AMERICA’S NEW CLASS WAR

Organized workers, often defying their timid union leadership, are on the march across the United States.

by Chris Hedges

There is one last hope for the United States. It does not lie in the ballot box. It lies in the union organizing and strikes by workers at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber, Lyft, John Deere, Kellogg, the Special Metals plant in Huntington, West Virginia, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the Northwest Carpenters Union, Kroger, teachers in Chicago, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Arizona, fast-food workers, hundreds of nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, and the members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Organized workers, often defying their timid union leadership, are on the march across the United States. Over four million workers, about 3% of the work force, mostly from accommodation and food services, healthcare and social assistance, transportation, housing, and utilities have walked away from jobs, rejecting poor pay along with punishing and risky working conditions. There is a growing consensus – 68% in a recent Gallup poll with that number climbing to 77% of those between the ages of 18 and 34 – that the only way left to alter the balance of power and force concessions from the ruling capitalist class is to mobilize and strike, although only 9% of the U.S. work force is unionized. Forget the woke Democrats. This is a class war....

scheerpost.com/2022/01/18/hedges-americas-new-class-war/

JOE BIDEN’S AWESOME FIRST YEAR

To win an exhausted nation's admiration, all Joe Biden had to do was nothing. Instead, he's burning future votes like kindling

by Matt Taibbi

The Gallup agency released a picture of the comet that is the Joe Biden presidency on its first anniversary. This is what a one-year, 14-point party affiliation swing looks like:

The pollsters put the numbers in context:

“Both the nine-point Democratic advantage in the first quarter and the five-point Republican edge in the fourth quarter are among the largest Gallup has measured for each party in any quarter since it began regularly measuring party identification and leaning in 1991.”

How great was life for Joe Biden a year ago? MSNBC’s John Heilemann compared him to Lincoln; PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor said the return of the Democrats “felt like we are being rescued from the craziness and now here are the superheroes to come and save us all”; Rachel Maddow went through “half a box of Kleenex” in joy; even Chris Wallace on Fox said Biden’s half-coherent inauguration speech was “the best inaugural address I ever heard,” JFK’s iconic “Ask Not” included. 

Biden looks bad. During the campaign, when he was challenging strangers to pushup contests and doing sternum-pokes in crowds while nervous aides bit their lips, you could make the argument he was merely in steep mental decline, which was okay. Against Trump the standard of “technically alive” worked for a lot of voters. Biden now looks like a man deep into the peeing-on-houseplants stage, and every appearance is an adventure.

He might say, “Even Dr. King’s assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyd’s death did,” or repeat his evolving fantasy about getting arrested with Nelson Mandela (who according to the president also later came to Washington to say, “You got arrested trying to see me!”), or let it slip that aides are shielding him from all news (a logical takeaway from his “Let’s Go Brandon, I agree” Christmas moment). Or, he might just collapse into syllable-piles before casting around in fright.

It’s reached the point where MSNBC is permitting guests like Donny Deutsch to say things like, “He seems old.” In a panic, Party spokestool Paul Begala went on the network this week to deliver a real-life version of the old Mel Brooks “the peasants are revolting” joke, saying “the problem for the Democrats… is not that they have bad leaders. They have bad followers.”

Biden has always been an easy punchline. A tumescent yeller with hair plugs is a magnet for comics, and the only reason he didn’t make more standup careers is Barack Obama wisely dispatched him to eight years of meetings about faraway disease outbreaks (“When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft,” he declared about H1N1, after consulting with John Brennan, in the last crisis he would be allowed to comment on for a while) or to battle zones like Afghanistan (where he had more imaginary experiences, dreaming up what the Washington Postwould later call a “moving but false war story” about pinning a medal on a soldier), or to the always-effective “trips to discuss bilateral and regional issues” across Africa (one can imagine a pajama-clad Obama at bedtime greedily demanding the freshest tape of Biden trying to pronounce names like “Mwai Kibaki” or “Raila Odinga”). As we’re now learning, the Biden world tour was a win-win for everyone, since it allowed the future president to cross paths with all sorts of foreigners of means with whom his wayward pistol-packing son could later share business ideas. 

When Biden returned to electoral politics, he found his former boss’s success had changed the game. Getting elected as a Democrat had once been simple: you attended Jefferson-Jackson dinners, talked about being pro-choice at suburban town halls, and stayed in the game with silent majority voters by muttering about “personal responsibility” or executing the occasional mentally ill black person. In Biden’s case, he bragged about the crime bill and demanded that law enforcement officials “find a rationale” to bulldoze raves and crackhouses.

Obama’s 2008 election convinced party apparatchiks this old “triangulation” strategy was dead. Here’s how current Biden adviser Neera Tanden’s Center for American Progress summed things up in 2010:

Heavily Democratic minority voters (80 percent for Obama) increased their share of votes in U.S. presidential elections by 11 percentage points between 1988 and 2008, while the share of increasingly Democratic white college graduate voters rose 4 points. But the share of white working-class (not college-educated) voters, who have remained conservative in their orientation, has plummeted by 15 points.

Those exciting numbers were what convinced the Pantsuit-Buchanan version of Hillary Clinton I covered in 2008 to transform into woke Hillary eight years later. The new act didn’t work, but the party Brahmins still went into 2020 convinced the winning formula depended on replicating “Obama’s map,” a strategy based on youth and minority turnout.

Joe Biden, therefore, had to make the same transformation, and in 2019-2020 we saw regular examples of a Beltway aide’s idea of “youth appeal” expressed in New Joe’s prepared statements. For instance, Mr. “Find a Rationale” decided he was shocked his pal Bernie Sanders would accept an endorsement from a man, Joe Rogan, who said of MMA fighter Fallon Fox: “If you had a dick at one point in time, you also have all the bone structure that comes with having a dick,” and “she wants to be able to fight women in MMA. I say no fucking way.”

New Biden wasn’t having this! “Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time,” he tweeted. “There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights.

Here’s Joe Biden shaking Henry Kissinger’s hand in 2016. Don’t think I’m posting it out of spite: the real reason is there’s no available picture of that other time Biden toasted Kissinger in Munich:

The irony was the closest relative to Obama’s 2008 candidacy that year was Sanders — remember Obama ran as an antiwar populist the first time — but since delivering actual change was alien to the party’s nature, they spent two years of a primary season searching for the appearance of it instead. 

Party hacks first tried to push Kamala Harris on reporters, then it was “Kennedyesque” Beto O’Rourke (whose schtick was looking really sad about immigration), then it was Mayor Pete (perfect, except for the whole no-black-supporters thing), then Kamala again (in a preview of the “bad followers” problem, voters stubbornly refused to respond to her, despite multiple intense marketing campaigns). Finally, in a surrender of sorts, there was a late mad dash to back “hilarious” Amy Klobuchar, who would at least be a “first” something (the New York Times hedged its bets there, endorsing both Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, saying, “May the best woman win”). The irony, of course, is the party ended by making the panic move we should have seen coming all along, returning to Obama’s 2008 idea of just trotting out Joe Biden.

Biden did his job and got elected, and to be charitable, he hasn’t been a total disaster. He managed to pull out of Afghanistan — at least a decade late, but still. On the other hand, building a party whose electoral strategy relies on minority votes while being totally cut off from the working class where a lot of those voters live has put the party in a suicide pattern. The younger Biden was a feisty, unscrupulous hawk who affected to be a champion of the little guy while selling them out to the credit industry. The current version is an enfeebled old man who’s let every half-cocked pseudo-intellectual in Washington occupy his White House, their dumbass fixations achieving what was previously thought to be impossible, driving loyal minority voters in droves into the arms of Donald Trump (instantly rendering them “bad followers,” of course).

Democrats are now in their second straight year of losing significant ground with all minority groups. There are major defections among Asian and Hispanic voters, and even Trump’s six-point gain among black men last year is beginning to look like a thing (Biden’s approval rating with black voters has dropped from 78% to 57%). It’s so bad Tucker Carlson looked at threat to die of amusement this week, cackling that Biden’s base had been whittled to two constituencies: “Anxious upper-income women with multiple college degrees and barren personal lives, and members of the national news media,” with the media already starting to run for the exits. Another Carlson segment gleefully noting that NPR’s audience was now whiter than Fox’s despite years of “Your Bookshelf May Be Part of the Problem” and “The Stories Marginalized Writers Tell When They Don't Center Trauma”-type features cut closer to home. NPR despite its impressive commitment to self-flagellation as core editorial policy has become a machine for repelling working-class and nonwhite audiences, in much the same way Biden Democrats are starting to drive away the party’s most faithful supporters. 

It’s tempting to blame demographic defections on culture-war stupidity like the insistent use of loathed words like “Latinx,” but that’s just a symptom of the real problem: Democrats under Biden have become the party of the nomenklatura. Their base is the slice of hyper-educated, jargon-spouting bureaucrats whose ranks are growing thanks to their skill at siphoning resources to themselves before they have a chance to reach a wider base of regular people:

Matt Stoler:

“There are plenty of workers in America, it's just that many are occupied at Soviet style bureaucratic nonsense, like health insurance, management consulting, university administration, hospital billing, etc. Private equity has 100k workers earning large salaries doing arson.”

These new commissars are the most hated people in the country, and they’re the Democrats’ main constituency. Even species of viper and corporate parasite is swimming in riches now, from tax-evading private equity titans to the oil & gas CEOs who are right now gouging everyone, to old pals in the banking sector (Goldman’s just-announced special 1% bonus celebrating last year’s record $27 billion profit was a nice touch), all thriving but lionized so long as they mask appropriately and genuflect to “norms.” Meanwhile, the party increasingly demonizes every species of complaining underclass person as a right-wing enemy, even the minorities.

Biden officials initially seemed sure the formula for keeping black or Hispanic voters involved deploying the most leaden possible hyperbole (think Biden’s “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle” line, or Harris comparing border agents to slaveholders), signing one executive order after another about the historical oppression of each group (including an “ambitious whole-of-government equity agenda” on day 1), and pushing legislation like the Voter Rights bill that would provide ample opportunities for contrasts with the hated Republicans on race issues.

There was zero understanding that messaging about “systemic barriers” might contrast with how the huge influx of Asian, Hispanic, and African immigrants view the American experience, bafflement that minority voters apparently didn’t all see the Voting Rights bill as an existential necessity, and resistance to even considering the complaints of, say, Hispanic immigrants who were more adversely affected by lockdowns than upscale zoomer intellectuals (whose latest fetish, as Freddie deBoer’s recent columnhumorously notes, is denouncing calls to return to work as “eugenics” that “privilege a deeply violent normalcy”). Asian-Americans got their own executive order and even some sexy new taxonomy — who wouldn’t be stoked to be one of the “AA and NHPI”? — but they spent much of the last year being told their anger over lowered academic standards in particular was right-wing myth. How could these voters not know the gifted and talented programs they care about are also a “modern day eugenics project,” as one NYU researcher put it? But at least everyone got an official State Department Tweet on International Pronouns Day.

Of course, the issue that has cost Biden the most is the pandemic. The best word for his Covid policy is weird. As a candidate, he blasted Trump for the “lie” that “every American who wanted a test could get one,” then for no clear reason waited a year to start shipping free tests to people. There were similar delays with releasing 400 million N95 masks from federal stockpiles, despite the administration’s ostentatious messaging about mask use (even wearing them alone or outside in all-vax groups). To be fair, Biden has to be as confused as the rest of us as to what is supposed to be correct policy.

When his CDC reduced its isolation recommendation from 10 days to 5, health experts and comics alike shrieked with outrage (one tweeter compared the idea to re-opening Jurassic Park). When his education secretary said “The goal is to keep our children in school,” MSNBC responded with an editorialcalling the sentiment… you guessed it… “eugenics.”

Biden is too old to deal with these lunatics and too out of touch to see, for instance, the politics of school closures as they might look to people who can’t afford nannies or private schools. Surrounded by panic addicts, he hasn’t been able to articulate a Covid plan that doesn’t come off as cultish class shaming. The main problem, though, is his own infirmity has added to the impression that America’s Covid-19 policy is a Nosferatu ghost ship floating to nowhere, which heightens everyone’s fear level.

The sad thing is, the demographic picture CAP quoted in 2010 was real. If Democrats had just figured a way to deliver a few things for ordinary people over the years, they would never have lost again. I’m giving the party more credit than it deserves for actually wanting to remain in power, but if that were its real goal, the formula was obvious. Single-payer health care, bulk negotiation of drug prices, antitrust action against Too Big To Fail banks or Silicon Valley’s surveillance monopolists — really anything that demonstrates a willingness to prioritize voters over the takeover artists and CEOs who fund the party would have given them enduring credibility. Do that, while retaining at least a sliver of the reputation for fighting for civil rights won in the sixties, and how can you lose, ever? The numbers say you can’t, and it’s early still, but they wouldn’t be the first aristocrats to wait too long to peek out of the bubble.