Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022

Gradual Warming | 66 New Cases | Covid Monthly | Caspar Cabins | Boys Positive | Reservoir Conditions | Omicron Wave | AV Views | Unsustainable BOS | Throwback 1937 | Open Positions | Ed Notes | Dam Building | Shields-o-Gram | Maurice Fraga | Mo Report | SS Irene | Mayor Reflects | Chute Rider | AV Village | DeHaven Mill | Fort Braggers | 1927 Baseballers | Sweetheart Sunday | Yesterday's Catch | Triscuit Hunt | Song | NFL Discrimination | Mendosa's | 4-H Presentation | Albion Fruitstand | PG$E | Rough Sea | Politicized Fact-Checking | Truckless | Modern Propaganda | Gluten Free | Moving On | Swedish Immigrant | Homeless Courts | Hazeltine's | Sirhan Show | Public Theater

NORTHERLY WINDS will continue to gradually ease through the end of the week, but will remain brisk in some areas this afternoon. Otherwise, expect a gradual moderation in temperatures, with noticeably warmer days this weekend into early next week, along with continued dry weather. (NWS)

66 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

COVID MONTHLY CASES/DEATHS (Mendocino County)

2020
229 / 9 (Jul)
392 / 8 (Aug)
260 / 2 (Sep)
210 / 2 (Oct)
420 / 2 (Nov)
964 / 4 (Dec)

2021
876 / 11 (Jan)
382 / 5 (Feb)
131 / 3 (Mar)
82 / 2 (Apr)
194 / 1 (May)
164 / 1 (Jun)
323 / 2 (Jul)
1365 / 12 (Aug)
1107 / 20 (Sep)
519 / 5 (Oct)
518 / 10 (Nov)
400 / 6 (Dec)

2022
3429 / 12 (Jan)

VARSITY BASKETBALL ON HOLD; OTHER TEAMS PLAY

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

We received two positive pools at the elementary site from the Monday’s pooled samples. These students were tested yesterday with rapid kits due to a symptomatic positive, and tested again today just to be sure everyone was negative.

We received a positive in the high school from the Wednesday pool, as well as multiple rapid test positives on the Varsity Boys basketball team. I regret that the Varsity Boys Basketball team will be on a pause for the next seven days. Athletic Director Mr. Folz will work with opposing coaches to see if rescheduling games is feasible. The other teams will remain playing.

I know this is very disappointing for the students, coaches, and families, but we have an obligation not only to our students’ health, but also the visiting teams and their health.

If you have any questions, please contact me at lsimson@avpanthers.org.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

DR. COLFAX: ‘THE WAVE HAS CRASHED, BUT WE ARE STILL WAIST-DEEP IN COVID’

ER physician says life might move ‘toward normal by the spring’

by Justine Frederiksen

Ukiah emergency room physician Drew Colfax said Tuesday that the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus appears to be easing its grip on Mendocino County after a tense January, and that by spring our daily lives might be nearing a pre-pandemic normalcy.

“It was a long, long Omicron month,” said Colfax, who works in the ER at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley, during his latest Local Coronavirus Update with Alicia Bales, which was broadcast Feb. 1 on KZYX&Z. “But we are getting better. The numbers show it, both locally and statewide, and it feels better in the ER. I was just there until the early hours (Tuesday) morning, and we had beds.

“There aren’t a lot of regional beds, beds are still quite tight in the state of California, but we have not lost capacity (here), during the entire month of the surge,” Colfax continued. “Though it was close. There were about a half dozen days perhaps when I was afraid that my prediction was unduly optimistic. But (the surge) is easing quite a bit.

“However, the numbers of cases are still quite high,” he said. “The wave has crashed upon us, but we are still waist-deep in Covid, if you will. We’re still seeing about 150 new cases a day in this county, and the rate of transmission is still very high in the county.

“But I think we’re going to see a very sharp drop over the course of the next week,” he said. However, since “Mendocino County, for whatever reason, has proven to be rather resilient in harboring Covid, we might not see the kind of drop-off they’ve seen in other areas, such as the East Coast, but I think we’re going to see a substantial improvement, in a very sort of tangible way by the end of February. I also think that’s the point where we’re going to start to see this as an endemic illness rather than a pandemic, and things might actually start going toward normal by the spring.”

When a caller asked how accurate the county’s case numbers could be when many people such as him were taking antigen tests at home and not reporting their positive results, Colfax said the reported case numbers were indeed a “gross under count. I think we can multiply the county numbers by two or three at least, in terms of people who had mild symptoms and tested themselves. And then multiply that number by at least two in terms of the people who were asymptomatic and never even knew they had Covid. So we’re probably looking at 1,000 cases, I would estimate, in this county, per day in the Omicron surge.”

When asked if people could really rely on a rapid antigen test to give them an accurate picture of their potential contagiousness, Colfax said that “a negative test is a snapshot, and mitigates a risk, but doesn’t tell you 100 percent that you don’t have the virus. The rapid test is quite good, and in general, if you have a well-administered test at home and it comes back negative, I think, for the vast majority of us, that is sufficiently reliable to presume that you’re not shedding that virus during that day. But it doesn’t really translate to the next day. But during that one day, I think that’s a good enough window in terms of your own Covid health. It’s not 100 percent, but given where we are in this pandemic, I think that risk level is tolerable for almost all of us.”

After discussing again whether young children should be vaccinated against Covid-19 with a frequent caller, Colfax cut the man off, and a woman later called in to say she did not “think it was really OK for you to self-censor people, when there’s people out here in this county who want to hear what everybody has to say, whether or not it goes against what you, personally, believe.”

“I will say that in general, we do not cut people off, but that particular caller has called in multiple times and more or less made the same point many times,” Colfax responded. “And this is my show, and I am quite happy to cut people off when I feel like we have visited, and revisited … a point that’s been made multiple times, and if it’s one that is based on faulty information that some people are holding on to for reasons that we’ve gone into multiple times on this show.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

ANDERSON VALLEY VIEWS

STORY: "AV Tennis Courts Open Today" by Clive Silverman (August 28, 2012)

UNSUPERVISORIAL, UNSUSTAINABLE

Editor,

Tuesday’s BOS meeting was the worst meeting I have ever witnessed and I’ve seen many. What an absolute waste of time. It’s fairly evident that without mama bear steering the ship these clowns don’t know what to do, say or even how to respond. Its also obvious they are over the cannabis discussion and possibly coming up with any solutions for staff, operators or applicants. I thought one of the rolls of a super was to be a leader and work for the betterment of the County on economic levels (economic development), social issues (pandemic crisis), environmental issues (drought), interdepartmental training (merging of depts.), housing (there is none) and homelessness (there’s a zombie land at the south end of Ukiah) just to name a few.

Wow, what a joke, the smartest man in the room is now chair and delegates anything he doesn’t want to deal with to one of the other talking heads. Just this simple task takes convincing as the English teacher from Willits declined to be the Ad Hoc one-man useless crew attempting to solve any problems with the cannabis program yesterday. What? Work on a solution? No way Jose. By George district 1 super isn’t qualified by self-proclaiming that all he knows about is grapes and water issues. The social media junior high cheerleader doesn’t say anything as it’s easier to remain silent and thought of a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

My god, it’s truly an embarrassment to the people of Mendocino County to be so called represented by this. What are the parameters of a recall? Should we consult with Willits Environmental Center?

Please make a decision, even if it’s incorrect. We beg you! Do something.

If it wasn’t for the PG&E money from the fires and King Newsom’s cannabis FU money this County would be broke without a clue.

This is not sustainable.

Luis Alvarez

Ukiah

PS. I know this is useless as they don’t read or listen to anything outside their echo chamber filled with confirmation bias.

MENDO THROWBACK: 2.3.1937 — Big Bro Saves Little Bro from Drowning in Willits Lake After Ice Gives Way 

by Matt LaFever

12-year-old Gordon Gunderson, along with a group of friends, threw care to the wind and slid across the ice that covered the lake at Willits’s Cavagnaro Ranch located a mile north of town on the east side of Sherwood Road. 

Disaster struck when the ice gave way pulling little Gordie into the frigid waters. Without missing a beat, his brother answered the call, Macgyvered a solution, and pulled his little bro from the lake before he drowned.

A brief article in the February 3, 1938 edition of the Ukiah Republican Press details the account of childhood naivete meets heroism. 

Little Gordie and his buddies were reportedly “sliding” on the ice, being “venturesome,” when his hubris took hold and he was drawn to the middle of the lake. 

Standing atop the thin ice, Little Gordie suddenly broke through and supposedly “went to the bottom which is quite deep at that place.” Conscious enough to return to the surface, Little Gordie ascended and held onto the edge, gripping the ice, hoping for help.

Never fear, ingenious big brother is here. Seeing his little bro in need, big bro “got a long pole which he pushed out far enough for Gordon to grab hold of and he then was pulled over the ice.” 

You might think the young man might catch a cold in the aftermath of his ice bath, but after returning to stable footing, Little Gordie and company reportedly ran back to town and this exercise “kept Gordon from catching a cold and he is now none the worse for his ice bath.”

ED NOTES

EVERY WEEK we get County Health notices like this one: “Death #115: 92 year-old man from the Ukiah area; vaccinated with comorbidities.” Being 92 is a basic ”comorbidity” one would think. It’s not clear what carried the old boy off, or all the other elderly people routinely listed on the Covid Death Watch unless they specifically died from covid.

A LOCAL ASKS, “If Boonville could have any 3 new businesses, what do you think would benefit the community, be able to sustain itself financially and be a service to the tourism that inevitably will continue to drive commerce in town? Thanks for your input! Please swing by Bee Hunter Wine for some tea if you wish to discuss further!”

LOTS OF RESPONSES: Bring back Leslie’s marvelous ‘All That Good Stuff’ shop; dining with live music in a place open late at night; a taco truck; Pic ‘N Pay; mini golf; launderette; gift shop; arcade; community pool; the Fish Rock Farm Girls Antiques.

ME? Nothing financially sustaining, but downtown Boonville needs trees, flowers, conversion of the Fairgrounds to a public park, lights on the outdoor basketball court at the high school, benches in the downtown area, public bathrooms, dress code like San Francisco’s in 1947 when women never went downtown without hats and gloves, men in suits, ties, fedoras. (On the last one, I’d better say I’m funnin’ you.)

WE ALMOST had a community swimming pool back in the early 1970s. Instead we got the big water tank with the cowboy painted on it at the south end of the Fairgrounds. The state had ordered the Fairgrounds to install year-round water storage sufficient to preserve its buildings in case of a big blaze. A committee of hippie bashers circulated a petition against a community pool as water storage (like the community pool/water storage at the Cloverdale fairgrounds) because hippies would swim in it and all the hippies would die from std’s and/or a variety of other communicable diseases known to be circulated by the long hairs. And that was that for a community pool. Public benches? “Then we’d have bums all over the place,” as a guy argued last time I mentioned it. Since Boonville only has one bum, and he’s pretty much nocturnal…

PERSONNEL. Sorry to see Cindy Wilder moving on from Boonville to Windsor. A community-minded person, Cindy did lots and lots around here. We’ll all miss her.

A READER ASKS, “Please do an article about Bruce McEwen’s life at present.” He’s another person we miss. For a long stretch Bruce produced weekly court reporting for the Boonville weekly of a high quality before he suddenly set sail on the Sea of Love with another high quality ava writer, Ms. Davin. The couple is happy at home in Walnut Creek.

AN NPR SEGMENT talked about SF Mayor Breed’s feeble efforts to, as Breed famously put it, “stop the bullshit in the city we all love.” According to the random functioning people interviewed, large numbers of dopers, mopers and mentally ill still make their homes on Frisco’s downtown streets. A city official commented, “Well, we can’t force them…” Why can’t you force a person unable or unwilling to care for himself into treatment? Of course San Francisco, like Mendocino County, has a huge apparatus of highly paid helping professionals who resist even the hint of compulsion, settling instead for phony statements of their own cash and carry virtue in resisting any and all effective strategies for dealing with the outdoors population.

EARLY TUESDAY MORNING, on South State Street I watched an obviously unhinged woman, barefoot and in thin pajamas, walking past Safeway. It was about 45 degrees out. Can the Mendo consensus really be that a person in this condition not be compelled into care? 

JUST WONDERING, but is the Ukiah Safeway a drug spot? There always seem to be white powder people hanging around there. Which reminds me of the SF police official who blurted, “We can’t arrest people just for being undesirable!” It’s the non-functioning undesirables, officer, who should be indoors getting themselves sorted out by Mendocino County’s 31-agency-strong “Continuum of Care,” not the merely undesirables. Jeez, by the desirability standard most of us would be locked up.

GOV. NEWSOM GREEN LIGHTS PG&E’S “LICENSE TO BURN”

by Jim Shields

Quick Water & Weather Report

Why did flows increase out of Lake Mendocino this month? 

According to this press release from the Sonoma Water Agency, (and believe it or not) “Lake Mendocino’s watershed is in a “normal” water supply condition and hence we have to meet increased minimum flow requirements in the Russian River – that means we have to increase flows out of Lake Mendocino. We beg to differ with our water rights permits, and thus in mid-November petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to change that so we can save water in Lake Mendocino during this continuing drought. The State Water Board approved our petition and beginning on February 1, the water supply condition will almost certainly change to “dry” unless a big storm comes our way before then – which is not forecasted to happen. So, long story short, Sonoma Water acted proactively late last year to save water in Lake Mendocino based on our water rights permits and we will continue to proactively work with our regulatory colleagues to save the water for our community in our reservoirs!”

Currently, Lake Mendocino has 43,232 acre feet behind the dam with an overall capacity of 118,000 acre feet, which means it’s about 37% “full.”

It appears the next possibility of rain is mid-February when it might snow also.

Our current rainfall for the year is 36.90 inches compared to the historical average of 38.60 inches this time of year. The historical, annual precipitation for Laytonville is 67 inches. On this date last year during the historic drought, we had 19.55 inches of precipitation, and ended up with a total rainfall of just 29 inches, the lowest on record. Previously we knew that our aquifer would recharge if we received half, or approximately 32 inches to 33 inches, of our historical average of 67 inches of precipitation. Last year it recharged at 29 inches, which is new data and also good news because we already have nearly 37 inches.

Bookworm Tax Proposal

I recently reported that Mendocino County library supporters informed me of their intention to circulate petitions to place a tax measure on the November 2022 ballot that would add a one-quarter cent (0.25%) sales tax to fund libraries in Mendocino County. Nearly every town in this county has a “Friends of the Library” group that work, organize and fund-raise to establish brick-and-mortar libraries throughout the county. My daughter is a founding member of the Laytonville library group.

Two weeks ago that item caused a number of readers to respond expressing their concerns about the proposed voter initiative.

Last week after a follow report on the library issue, more comments came in, including one from Linda Bailey who originally opposed the tax proposal but now supports it.

As I’ve pointed out the proposed measure has a lockbox provision that specifies:

• The imposition of a permanent one-quarter cent (0.25%) sales tax for the specific purpose of maintaining and improving library services in Mendocino County; and 

• The creation of a special fund for these tax proceeds to be used exclusively for maintaining and improving library services. At least forty percent (40%) are reserved for capital investments, such as building improvements. 

Here’s the new responses.

Linda Bailey Jan. 24, 2022: I was an activist for increased tax support for the County Library, both the failed parcel tax and successful Measure A. However, I will not support this tax proposal unless and until the library is structured in accordance with the governing statute for County Free Libraries. It currently is treated as a County department for command and control by the CEO and as a special district, which it legally is, for the financial accounting.. This hybrid model deprives the County Librarian of the ability to purchase equipment according to his/her professional judgment; for example, three designs for the new circulation desk in Ukiah were submitted before the CEO gave her approval. Importantly, this arrangement also empowers the CEO to siphon off library funds for county personnel through A87 charges–check out the last budget. Requiring equipment purchases to be made through GSA (in the CEO’s office) not only prevents the librarian from possible economies but also enables charging the library for any time that any county employee spends processing the purchase.

Linda Bailey January 29, 2022: RETRACTION: Contrary to my previous comments, I will support and promote a permanent 1/2% sales tax for the county library.

Happily, I woke up this morning saner. The sales tax is ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for the survival of our county libraries. The dedicated property tax is simply not enough to keep the doors open.

An institution with some bureaucratic warts is way better than no institution at all. We would have to wait a long time for perfection. Shutting our libraries would be a grievous loss for all county residents.

I urge all to support this sales tax.

* * *

Tom Hine (AKA Tommy Wayne Kramer:) Teenagers have more information in their phone than all the libraries and librarians in Mendocino County put together, times 1000. There is no more pressing need for libraries today than for Sears & Roebuck outlets, Beta Max videos or Newsweek Magazine. All died of natural causes. 

To keep the local library system on life support prolongs the inevitable with tax dollars better off in our own bank accounts. We could spend the money on vacations to Cleveland, tires for the car and lots of new books on Kindle. 

A Kindle has more to read at the click of a button than you’ve ever read in your life, and more inside a 5 x 7 slab than all the books County libraries have ever handled. The collected works of Edgar Allan Poe for a penny, everything by Shakespeare, 99 cents. Bestsellers at a discount. Lots of books free or under a dollar, and anybody who self-publishes can sell it on Amazon Books. 

* * *

George Dorner: I dislike opposing fellow library lovers, but I maintain my position. Dedicated funding that does not make it to the library is exactly as useful to the library as no funding whatsoever. And, given past history, there is little likelihood any increased funding won’t be used on cannabis control, or outsourced legal opinions, or whatever. I say whatever, because no one is about to confide where the funds actually go in such a case.

* * *

Lazarus: Another add-on tax, all one has to do is look to the Measure B squander. Millions got blown on a five mil house, which is worth maybe one mil. Now 20 mil+ on a Psychiatric Health Facility in the sky. The problem with these tax measures is the people spending the money are not money people. Most are institutionalized long-time government employees. That will make more in retirement than they currently do. With that coming in their future, who cares what stuff costs. Its only money is the philosophy and it cost what it cost. Libraries were once a much-needed facility. But in today’s internet-crazed world, libraries are the dinosaurs of knowledge. As long as the internet exists, there is no need for the masses. Granted for the poor, in developing third world type places, the need is there. But in today’s modern society, not so much. Keep them open, but do it another way. Remove a few bucks from the overpaid government do-gooders and others who would rather spend/squander your money than theirs. Until it’s proven government has earned my trust to spend wisely, I’m voting NO on all so-called Tax Measures. Thank you, Measure B, for the painful education. 

* * *

John McCowen: “The Grand Jury report mentioned here is from 2015. After it was issued Supervisor Gjerde and I were appointed to an ad hoc committee to investigate and make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. We determined that the Grand Jury was correct and that A-87 costs were mistakenly being applied to Library fixed assets that were funded by grants, donations or dedicated library funds. The charges that were mistakenly applied amounted to about $100,000 over several years and were repaid in full and with interest. The small amount of property tax increment dedicated to the library is not enough to fund the current level of operations. Renewing the current 1/8 cent sales tax (and ideally increasing it by 1/8 cent) is essential if we want our libraries to be centers for community education and involvement. The proposed 1/8 cent increase will be more than offset when the Measure B sales tax reduces from 1/2 cent to 1/8 of a cent early next year. The library tax is a Special Tax, requiring a 2/3rds vote and by law can only be spent for library services and operations. “

Gov. Newsom Green Lights PG&E’s “License To Burn”

Shortly after my column appeared last week on PG&E’s 5-year probation coming to an end, I received an email report from Pete Woiwode, of Reclaim Our Power, a grass roots organization that is working to restructure California’s energy system so that it can actually better serve ratepayers, something that the California Public Utilities Commission has failed to do for the past three decades.

Here’s Woiwode’s report, it’s very informative and I thank him for sending it my way.

On Jan. 31, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration issued utility giant PG&E’s “safety certificate,” which fire survivors and advocates are calling a “license to burn.” Granting the safety certificate means PG&E customers, including PG&E fire survivors, are on the hook to bail out the utility financially if it causes further wildfires. Today wildfire survivors, energy experts and environmental justice leaders publicly urged the governor to deny PG&E’s request for the “license to burn,” but learned during their press event from journalists that the Governor had granted the certificate hours before. 

“It’s no coincidence that hours before we were going public with our demands, days before meeting with the people who have been terrorized by PG&E, the Newsom administration quietly handed a License to Burn back to the most murderous corporation in history,” said Mari Rose Taruc, coordinator of the Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign. “This process has been opaque from the beginning, and Newsom’s decision today continues the legacy of protecting shareholder profits while our communities pay the price.” 

“We’ve demanded transparency and leadership for years- and today was the opposite.” Taruc continued “He still has the chance to intervene in PG&E’s deadly ways. Today’s decision was a staggering failure by the Newsom administration - but these failures have deadly consequences. The people of California can’t afford any more.” 

“What a colossal failure of leadership. Today’s decision is a doubling down on the energy system that got us in this mess- not the 21st century utility that we were promised. What we need is a safe, reliable, renewable energy system, controlled by the workers and communities that need power to live. Fire survivors, not corporate executives, should decide our energy future.” said Gabriela Orantes, from the North Bay Organizing Project. “Our vision for a future is possible, and we’re building it every day- but it is incompatible with PG&E and their License to Burn. Governor Newsom, we need you to lead, or step out of the way.” 

“Governor Gavin Newsom is guilty of aiding and abetting a convicted serial killer by granting them a License to Burn. This means more lives lost and destruction to communities throughout California and higher utility bills with every bailout we’re forced to pay,” said Jessica Tovar, Local Clean Energy Alliance. “We’re done with PG&E, and Governor Newsom should be too.”

“Now that Newsom’s given PG&E a License to Burn, who’s going to pay for PG&E’s murderous failures?” asked Mary Kay Beson, fire survivor advocate and Butte county resident. “People in Butte county who live every day knowing the fires will come back, people with disabilities who know that a corporation who’s willing to shut off their breathing machines to make a profit, people who have to choose between paying rent, feeding their kids, or keeping the power on because their PG&E bill is going up to cover executive salaries. Does that seem “safe” to you, Governor Newsom?”

PG&E fire survivors and environmental justice leaders call the “safety certificate” a license to burn because with a new safety certificate in hand, the utility will be eligible to tap into a $21 billion “wildfire fund” to pay itself back for the damages it causes if it sparks yet another fire. Incredibly, the state wildfire fund is funded by utility customers through monthly utility bill surcharges and ratepayer revenues. 

Fire survivors, people with disabilities, environmental justice groups and energy experts from the Reclaim Our Power Utility Justice Campaign were scheduled to meet with Governor Newsom next week to discuss the safety certificate. They demand that PG&E - not fire survivors and ratepayers - be financially responsible for PG&E’s fires, and the Newsom administration works to take the energy of California out of the hands of Wall St., and put it in the hands of the people. 

 “Governor Newsom needs to trust us - the people of California, the people closest to the ground, the people who have suffered from PG&E’s reign of terror,” said Margarita Garcia, a lead organizer in Sonoma County working with farm workers and fire survivors. “In the farm fields, in our homes, in our communities - our lives, lungs and livelihoods have been sacrificed for PG&E’s profits. We’re fighting for control of our future, and we need Governor Newsom on our side.” Garcia is a leader of North Bay Jobs with Justice working for environmental, language, health and safety justice in the wine fields. 

California’s “wildfire fund” was established in 2019 via the Newsom administration-drafted AB 1054. The law, which was pushed through the legislature in just five days, allows PG&E and the state’s other investor-owned utilities, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., and Southern California Edison, to tap into a $21 billion “wildfire fund” when they cause destructive and deadly fires. The fund is paid for by utility customers via surcharges on utility bills, plus utility revenues created by ratepayers. To qualify for access to the fund, utilities must acquire a yearly “safety certificate” from the state’s Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety.

Advocates and ratepayers aren’t the only ones sounding the alarm against PG&E. Recently, U.S. District Judge Willam Alsup, who oversaw the company’s probation over the past five years, called the utility a “menace to California.” He added “PG&E has gone on a crime spree” during its probation period noting that “while on probation, PG&E has set at least 31 wildfires, burned nearly one and one-half million acres, burned 23,956 structures, and killed 113 Californians.” 

Investigators confirm the utility giant is responsible for several of the most devastating fires in California’s history including the 2021 Dixie Fire, the 2020 Zogg Fire, the 2019 Kincade Fire, and the 2018 Camp Fire. In addition, PG&E was convicted of multiple safety violations stemming from the 2010 deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion. And, a Nevada jury found PG&E guilty of 739 counts of criminal negligence for starting the 1994 Sierra Blaze for failing to trim trees near its power lines.

In order to secure a “safety certificate” from Gov. Newsom, PG&E does not have to stop leveling communities nor does it have to provide reliable or safe electricity. The company doesn’t even have to stop killing people with fires. All PG&E has to do to earn its new “safety certificate” is create and get a rubber stamp on a “wildfire mitigation plan,” agree to implement the findings of a safety assessment, establish a safety committee made up of PG&E’s own board members and say that the company is tying executive compensation to safety. 

 “Thirty-percent of Butte County’s homeless are wildfire survivors, many of whom have not received one penny from PG&E’s settlement for the Camp Fire survivors. Why should PG&E be paid before fire survivors?” said Mary Kay Benson, advocate for fire survivors and Butte County homeless organizer. 

PG&E fire survivors and environmental justice leaders see a better path forward for Californians. A safe, efficient, equitable, clean energy future for California would include smaller, locally-based, independent and self-sufficient, clean power systems made up of a combination of solar panels, wind turbines, combined heat & power, batteries as well as public utilities that answer to the people who live in California. Microgrids powered by safe, clean energy plus storage are a reality today - they keep the power on when PG&E’s grid fails or when the utility shuts it down. Examples include UC San Diego’s microgrid, Sonoma County’s Stone Edge Farm, multiple fire stations in the City of Fremont, residential neighborhoods, and small business complexes.

“PG&E’s negligence is unprecedented, our response needs to be transformative,” said Taruc. “Governor Newsom is putting PG&E profits before our lives.”

Proposed Law To Fix Congested Ports, Crippling The Supply Chain

California farmers lost an estimated $2.1 billion in export sales between May and September last year due to port congestions, according to a study by the University of California, Davis. Farmers across the state are experiencing fallout from congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, threatening the state’s economic viability.

California’s agricultural production and processing industries generate nearly $50 billion for the state’s economy, ranked 5th in the world. This vital part of the economy may be in jeopardy.

Assembly Bill 1679 proposes to attempt to fix this problem

Assembly Bill 1679 creates a high-level advisor to advocate, expedite and swiftly remove hurdles in the supply chain to ensure efficiency and address choke points. This individual will be tasked to make sure that long term solutions are implemented. The fact that there is not a supply chain advisor with expertise has allowed supply chain problems to intensify and worsen.

According to the bill’s sponsors, the deteriorating infrastructure and dated technology, the ports and the connecting entities of the supply chain cannot handle the increased demand of their services, and without additional investment and regulatory changes, farmers will lose businesses resulting in lost jobs for residents.

Growers have not been able to ship their products overseas as they have in the past.

Over 400,000 Californians are employed by agriculture, and the agriculture value chain accounts for nearly three million jobs in the state. The state’s production of fruits, vegetables, dairy and every product in between are not being exported at their typical rate. In fact, California farmers are seeing an estimated 20% reduction in their export opportunities due to a lack of reliability of ships and bottleneck traffic at the ports.

Since the bill has just been intorduced, I want to study it a bit more, but on its face it appears to be a potential solution to this huge problem. 

I’ll get back to you on it.

Winegrape Glut

The California Farm Bureau is reporting that new vineyard planting is leveling off after winegrape market glut.

California winegrape growers are expected to plant 15,000 to 18,000 acres of new vineyards in 2022. That number is about the same as what is expected to be removed from the state’s more than 500,000 acres of winegrapes. California produced more than 4 million tons of winegrapes a year between 2016 and 2019. That caused a glut in the market. Now Allied Grape Growers president Jeff Bitter characterizes the market as “stable with a chance of oversupply.” 

SUPERVISOR MULHEREN:

The Behavioral Health Advisory Board met and discussed updates from the Behavioral Health Director and service providers. This citizen advisory committee is imperative to making sure that there is transparency and achievable outcomes. Have you considered joining a Board or Commission? I have a vacancy in District 2 if you are interested in learning more here is a link to the website so you can see what they work on: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/health-and-human-services-agency/mental-health-services/mental-health-board

* * *

I attended a webinar called “Trail Ambassador Program Tricks and Tips for Best Practices”, I think our community does have valid concerns about the Great Redwood Trail and how that is managed so learning from other communities might provide some helpful insights before its even built.

* * *

Friday afternoon I went to the Greater Ukiah Business and Tourism Alliance Cannabis 21+ Ribbon Cutting. The more that we can normalize dispensaries as businesses in our community the better! If you haven’t been to a dispensary check it out.

https://www.maureenmulheren.com/apps/blog

* * *

5a) Discussion and Possible Action Including Acceptance of Update Regarding the Strategic Planning Process (Sponsor: Strategic Plan Ad Hoc of Supervisors McGourty and Haschak) Recommended Action: Accept update and provide input regarding the Strategic Planning document, strategic priorities, and goals. Mendo Cnty Strat Plan Draft objectives.1.23.22 Mendo Strat Plan 2.1.22 BOS update Public input_TH&FG_MS_01.06.2022 01-31-22 Tippett Correspondence 01-31-22 Turner Correspondence 01-31-22 Aronow Correspondence Attachments:

Presents a clear and organized path forward, implementation through Department Heads and the Board and partnering agencies, a “coalition of the willing”, committee and ad hoc will narrow the Draft Priorities, Goals and Objectives and bring back assigned tasks and more achievable and potential funding sources

NEW YEAR REFLECTIONS from Fort Bragg Mayor Bernie Norvell 

As a new year begins, and we think back on 2021, I feel fortunate to know Fort Bragg as home. 2021 was a challenging year, filled with overlapping and sometimes competing emergencies. And despite all the difficulties, the commitment and diligence of City staff and community members gives us many causes to celebrate. I want to share some of these successes and express gratitude for your contributions. Wishing you and your family health and happiness in 2022. 

Water 

California is not a stranger to drought, and this year required everybody to double their efforts. Many thanks to residents for supporting our new water conservation program, which reduced the City’s water consumption by 30% in the summer and fall. Together, we responded quickly not only as a city, but also as a region. We partnered with Mendocino County to supply safe drinking water to coastal residents and businesses, and the State of California provided funding to purchase and install a desalination-reverse osmosis treatment system, which can produce upwards of 288,000 gallons per day, when high tide and low flow events offer brackish water. The City also applied for and secured emergency funding and grants for our Raw Water Line Project ($8.8 million), as well as an upcoming project to provide future use of ground wells. In fact, if we Portable Desal Unit were to combine 2021 and 2022, we’re looking at $20.4 million in water resiliency and sewer upgrade projects. A heartfelt thanks to our many state and regional partners, and our entire community and staff who contribute to this success. 

Economic Development 

The City is taking the lead to generate a regional conversation and explore how a strategic approach to opportunities within the “Blue Economy” could drive our local economy; improving livelihoods and wages, while also nurturing healthy marine ecosystems. Regular meetings are taking place between the City, Noyo Harbor District, Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo, Mendocino County, Mendocino Community College, West Business Development Center and Noyo Center for Marine Science at the table. Together we are planning a citywide community-oriented event the third week of May. Be sure to reserve May 21 and 22, 2022 and join this exciting conversation. 

Housing 

The City continues to prioritize housing and our efforts are yielding results. After five years of partnering with the affordable housing developer, Danco, to help secure planning entitlements, financing, and building permits – the project broke ground in 2021 and is scheduled for completion in 2022. This project brings twenty-three senior cottages, twenty-five workforce duplex/triplex, twenty Permanently Supportive Units for homeless, three shared community buildings and a manager unit. The City assisted with $3 million in Homeless Emergency Aid Program funding, over $3 million in Infill Infrastructure Grant funds, as well as $250,000 from the City’s Housing Trust Fund; and we are currently awaiting response for additional grant funds to bolster programmatic support to ensure the success of residents and the project broadly. 

Another exciting housing project in the works is Housing Mendocino Coast - a community land trust incubated by the City for the purpose of providing home ownership and rental opportunities for our workforce. City Council understands that land is a finite community asset, and we want to assure some land is preserved for the purpose of housing folks earning up to 120% of the area median income (AMI). In 2021, the necessary paperwork was filed to establish a charitable 501(c)(3) organization for this goal. In Spring 2022, staff will present a strategic plan outlining approaches for moving this project forward. 

Finally, in 2021, the construction plans for the City’s Preapproved Accessory Dwelling Unit Program were updated to include a one-bedroom and two-bedroom unit designed in the Craftsman style. These plans were shared with the cities of Point Arena and Crescent City to facilitate the development of much needed housing. 

Public Safety 

The men and woman serving our community as emergency responders run toward danger every day to protect us. It’s a collective effort and all involved are actively doing their part to strengthen programs and build resiliency. For example, the Police Department has focused on developing a cohesive, long-term and stable team by promoting from within, recruiting locally, sending cadets through the academy and offering continued educational opportunities; our volunteer Fire Department received Community Development Block Grant funding to plan improvements to their station on Main Street; and the City contributed new Emergency Evacuation Maps intended for visitors at lodging sites to navigate the City in an emergency event. 

I am particularly proud of the collaboration between the City of Fort Bragg, Adventist Health, Redwood Community Services, and the County of Mendocino to utilize $1 million of Measure B funding to provide a four bed crisis respite location on the coast. In addition, the Police Department applied for CA Department of Justice funding to create a crisis worker position within the Police Department. These efforts will help us provide assistance in the diagnosis, treatment and recovery from mental health illnesses, rather than compound issues with criminal proceedings and jail. 

Quality of Life 

I’m certain that many important accomplishments have been excluded from my list of highlights, as this letter of reflection would otherwise become a novel. An entire book could be written on any item mentioned, including the many that weren’t. Did you know that 18 community members spent over 60 volunteer hours to tackle the complex issues surrounding the name of Fort Bragg? Or about the numerous merchants and property owners engaged in downtown revitalization efforts to support a vibrant and prosperous Central Business District? The strength and character of our community is impressive, and I am honored to serve as Mayor. I, alongside my fellow Councilmembers and staff will continue to make decisions in the best interest of the community, to view public resources with respect, and keep our gaze on the horizon to ensure long term success. Thank you for placing your trust with us. 

AV VILLAGE ITEMS & EVENTS

An Afternoon at our Historical Museum!

Sunday, February 13th

3 to 5 PM — Note earlier start time!

Anderson Valley Historical Museum, inside and out Our event for February is to be a gathering at our own Anderson Valley Museum, the “Little Red Schoolhouse,” located at 12340 Highway 128, across from the Elementary School in Boonville. There will be Docents on hand to conduct tours at both the main museum as well as our other buildings. Refreshments will be served. Please join us, you will be glad you did and you might learn something about the valley you did not know! Please RSVP with the coordinator – thank you!

Tech Support Event

Monday, February 7th

10:45 to 11:45 AM

AV Senior Center

Bring your smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc. and volunteer AV High School students (vaccinated and masked) will be available to help with tech support. Please Note: Our gatherings are open to everyone, but COVID Vaccinations are now REQUIRED (please bring your vaccination card (one time) as proof) and Masks are required inside.

Coffee with the Coordinator

Thursday, February 3rd

10 to 11 am

The Mosswood Market

Come down for an informal chat with Anica (the AV Village coordinator) and other AV Village members, volunteers and supporters. Ask questions, share concerns, share ideas for improving our Village/ community, visit with your neighbors, etc. I plan on holding these the 1st Thursday of the month for a few months.

Anica Williams Cell: 707-684-9829 Email: andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

FORT BRAGGERS

Editor,

I was born and raised in Fort Bragg (a.k.a. Mendoza Beach) in 1954. We had a sports cheerleading fight song that went: “We’re from Fort Bragg and no one could be prouder, and if you don’t believe us we’ll yell a little louder.” Cheers like that spurred our sports teams to many victories. As a Christian I try now to take pride out of my vocabulary. The Bible clearly states “pride is of the devil.” This story concerns at some points betrayal. The first sin centered on pride, betrayal and falsehood. So us Fort Braggers can say we are happier than most to be from Fort Bragg. I remember one of my favorite cousins I grew up with told me many years ago, “David, we don’t know how fortunate we are to grow up here.” That’s a direct quote from Anthony Carini, a star athlete in his day too. Remember the football “Carini play”?

Another reason this story evolved is a lot of people are allegedly attempting to change the name of our town. I’ve already thrown in about my four cents worth and have finally settled on the name of Mendoza Beach. Some of my Fort Bragg brethren might not agree, which is cool. Fort Bragg people have always enjoyed competition. But before the name change happens (maybe in 10 years?) outside people need to learn about us real, honest Fort Braggers. Myself, I’m from Fort Bragg, Northern California, County of Mendoza! How can anyone change that for me? Ha ha!, you can’t! So here goes as an elder statesman, my list of what us Fort Bragg people despise most:

1) Backshooters (fairly self-explanatory -- attempting to murder from behind), 2) rapists, the uncontrolled violent forcible type. (One ex Fort Bragger knows who he is.) 3) Chomos -- little kid screwers. 4) Woman beaters, self explanatory. 5) sneak thieves who prey on elderly women etc. and sleeping homeless or hobos. 6) Sunday punchers who assault a person without warning out of the blue usually without provocation, done from or front or behind. 7) One Fort Bragger informing to police on another especially for greedy gain and corrupt government officials who usually take bribes.

There you have it, Fort Bragg’s seven deadly sins. If a person wants to stay in Fort Bragg can’t abide by the rules, keep on trucking out of town. And you better make it quick because unless you have a boat on a calm ocean day there are only three directions out of our little coastal town, just in case you haven’t noticed. Of course a lot of us aren’t really coldhearted. Most of us believe in second chances, everybody makes mistakes. But now at my age of 67 I draw a thin line. For example: anyone who hunts one of my daughters: no second chance! That goes for my family and most of my Fort Bragg pals also.

We don’t despise much bank robbers, of course we don’t celebrate them either. They want low profiles anyway. Some Fort Braggers know more about this: a lot of famous outlaws have hidden even come from Fort Bragg. Two off the top of my head were uncle Outla Harry Brown (actually born in Quebec) and Albert ‘Ab’ Saunders who was born in the little house that now houses with Congressman Jared Huffman’s coast staff on North Franklin Street. Uncle Albert was the top Northern California bootlegger in the 1920s and a “consultant” and purple ganger. That’s where our school colors purple and white come from. Old Ab Saunders was shot twice and run over once by a Model T in an attempted assassination but recovered to hold his turf and die a millionaire. His last saloon was located on Main Street kitty corner to Fort Bragg’s Coast to Coast hardware. The Congressman’s office, the “fort building” was originally where Coast to Coast stands now. In between it was the Windsor Hotel and restaurant run by my Aunt Manie Weller before it burned to the ground in the 1970s.

Other outlaws hid out here like John Dillinger who stayed out on Pudding Creek Road, and members of the James, Younger and Dalton gangs who hung out mostly on Willits Road (Highway 20). In fact I am distantly related to Cole Younger (a.k.a. Youngcault) who was born in Missouri when my great grandmother rode the Missouri River there around 1840 with canoes full of beaver pelts, buffalo and bear rugs. She eventually settled at Cuffey’s Cove about the same time (1855) as the Anderson Valley Okies in Brad Wiley’s Chipmunk Glover story. I didn’t recognize many of these pioneers. That just shows you how tightknit Fort Bragg, Navarro, Greenwood and Boonville is. The only people I really recognize from Boonville are the Waggoners, Pardinis, Pronolinos (a.k.a. Giusti) and Ornbauns. Of course Jerry Philbrick and the Ciros and Shandels from Comptche. Does anyone remember the Hervilla clan from Little River or Buxtons from Albion? One of my jail highlights was meeting Bruce ‘Jack London’ Anderson right here many moons ago.

I have said before I was a minor league historian. I started out writing about betrayal and ended up lost in Coast history. I hope the Boonlingers enjoy my pages of the past. I have felt betrayed at times here in Ukiah when I sit in solitary confinement for over 22 months while woman beaters, rapists and “deadly officials” run free. Can I please get a fair trial someday soon?

Sincerely,

Detective David Youngcault Giusti, journalist and historian

Mendocino County Jail, Ukiah

PS. My latest highlight here in jail: I’ve met old Redbeard and can say he’s a real nice and happy fellow. His case was followed very closely in the Advertiser. You can’t really call him a sneak thief. My deduction is most of his crimes were done out of starvation and cold. At least he didn’t turn cannibal. I’m from the Crow tribe and I enjoyed dog meat and I could have feasted on a County K-9! Of course they’ll try to throw the book at Redbeard because he made the cop patrol and canine units look like the bunglers they are. This county and Ukiah wants to hire city slickers? They get what they pay for. 90% of law enforcement here nowadays can’t survive in the wilderness like me and Redbeard. I’m done. Sayonara! Save the bears and write in Jay McMartin for County supervisor.

MENDOCINO ART CENTER’S SWEETHEART SUNDAY

February 6, 11am-3pm

Outdoors on the Mendocino Art Center’s Avery Deck

Stop by the Mendocino Art Center and make your own brass heart-shaped, hand-stamped charm or keychain for you, your fuzzy friend, or someone you love!

Choose from precut hearts made by the jewelry studio elves, or take an hour and learn how to cut, file, sand and stamp your very own shape from start to finish. All proceeds to benefit the Mendocino Art Center jewelry studio in replacing the burnout kiln.

Weather permitting and while supplies last!

Pay at the door

$25: Learn and do it yourself

$35: Pick a premade and stamp your message

More information: mendocinoartcenter.org/events/sweetheart-sunday

Mendocino Art Center 45200 Little Lake Street at Kasten Street, Mendocino 707.937.5818, mendocinoartcenter.org

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 2, 2022

CHRISTOPHER ABSHIRE, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

KAYDEN BLAIR, Whitehorn. DUI.

BAILEY BLUNT, Fort Bragg. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, stolen property, controlled substance, paraphernalia, county parole violation, failure to appear.

AMBER BORDELON, Willits. DUI, no license, probation revocation.

DANNY DOMINGUEZ-BARRERA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

EDUARDO FELIX-TREJO, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, criminal street gang, probation revocation.

LAXA GUERRERO, Willits. Failure to appear.

CHRISOTPHER KEYES, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

JONATHON THOMPSON, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, no license, probation revocation.

ERIKA WILLIAMS, Hopland. Assault weapon.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The death of Amerika? Too many choices in a resource-starved world.

Went to the grocery to buy original Triscuits, the kind I grew up with long ago. Instead found:

• Triscuit Cheddar
• Tzatziki
• 4 Cheese and Herb
• Smoked Gouda
• Garden Herb
• Dill, Sea Salt and Olive Oil
• Hint of Sea Salt
• Avocado, Cilantro and Lime
• Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil
• Balsamic Vinegar and Basil
• Fireroasted Tomato and Olive Oil

Finally found the “original” Triscuits after a 5 minute search in what should have been a 10 sec purchase.

“A SONG AIN’T NOTHING but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it. And it’s this repeating the idea over and over that makes it take ahold. If the conversation is about good crops or bad, good politics or bad, good news or bad, good anything else or bad, the best way to circulate it amongst the people is by way of singing it.”

— Woody Guthrie

BRIAN FLORES LEVELS A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE NFL FOR DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES

by Dave Zirin

Inside the owners’ boxes of the National Football League, the emperors have been walking around naked for decades. And Brian Flores is done pretending they’re wearing clothes. The former Miami Dolphins head coach has issued a thunderclap of a lawsuit, on the first day of Black History Month, accusing the National Football League of systemic racism in the hiring of coaches and executives. He also calls out the Rooney Rule, the league directive by which NFL owners are compelled to sit down with one “minority” candidate per hiring cycle, as a performative sham that has produced nothing except unconvincing window dressing.

Flores has recently been on the losing end of the lie that the NFL cares about diversity. He just completed his second consecutive winning season in Miami. It marked the first time that the hapless Dolphins have had consecutive winning seasons in almost 20 years. Flores even brought the team back from a 1-7 start to a winning record, the first NFL coach to accomplish that feat. And yet, he was fired. On his way out, “unnamed sources” trashed Flores’s reputation—characterizations that many meek reporters, ever dutiful to the NFL, thought nothing of publishing. That ham-handed slandering brought Flores to the brink.

What, based upon his lawsuit and the chronology of events, may have finally pushed him over was a bogus Rooney Rule interview with the New York Giants, an organization that, like 7 of the 32 NFL teams, has never hired a Black head coach. Flores found out when his former mentor Bill Belichick contacted him by accident. Belichick apparently tried to congratulate Brian Daboll for landing the Giants job but texted the wrong Brian. The Giants had seemingly decided to hire a white coach with a thin résumé before Flores was even interviewed. Flores has also had enough of a league that has only one Black head coach when 70 percent of players are Black. He also knows that by issuing his lawsuit, his time in the league has almost certainly come to an end. The owners don’t take kindly to whistleblowers or people pointing out how grotesque they can look when the lights are on bright.

In his statement, Flores said:

God has gifted me with a special talent to coach the game of football, but the need for change is bigger than my personal goals. In making the decision to file the class action complaint today, I understand that I may be risking coaching the game that I love and that has done so much for my family and me. My sincere hope is that by standing up against systemic racism in the NFL, others will join me to ensure that positive change is made for generations to come.

You might think the NFL would respond to this lawsuit with some humility. Perhaps they would announce their own internal investigation to see if Black coaches are being unfairly excluded from the top jobs. But this is the NFL we’re talking about: plutocratic and right-wing to its core, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to be told by the help whom they can or cannot hire. Their response, before any serious examination of Flores’s charges, is that the case is “without merit.” If you feel a spray on your cheeks, that’s 31 billionaires spitting in your face and telling you it’s raining.

I keep thinking about a tweet three weeks ago by longtime Sports Illustrated and nfl.comreporter Michael Silver: “There is systemic racism in the NFL, and there are actual racists in some positions of power. I’m done dancing around the latter.”

Clearly, so is Flores. The next step is seeing who in the NFL is done dancing and will stand with him and finally air out the racism in the building. Flores comes from the New England Patriots coaching tree. Will Belichick and the rest of his protégés hold a press conference in support of Flores and his character? Will the NFL’s so-called “social justice committee” stand with Flores? Will players who spoke out against racism outside the NFL point their finger inside the tent? This is a moment when silences will speak volumes.

Here’s hoping they’ve learned the lesson of Colin Kaepernick: Unless you are a crypto-rightist anti-vaxxer white quarterback, speaking out is not allowed, especially about the racialized labor discipline of the NFL, which demands that everyone just accept that this will be a league of Black talent controlled by white authority. The Kaepernick lesson is that they will disappear you unless you respond with solidarity and support inside the league itself. This could be the most significant fork in the road for the NFL’s racial practices since the league integrated 75 years ago—or the league will fall back into its racist sloth. To prevent that, players, coaches, and everyone in the NFL world needs to find within themselves the courage being exhibited by Brian Flores.

UC 4-H YOUTH PRESENT THEIR PASSION

Young people from across Mendocino County will gather together to share their passion at the annual 4-H Presentation Day this Saturday, February 5. The event has been moved to an online format due to COVID.

The 4-H youth development program is structured around a “youth led” approach, allowing participants to build knowledge and experiences considering the topics they care about. The annual presentation day allows these young people to share their passion and to practice their public speaking skills. 4-H alumni will often mention that they learned how to speak more effectively through their participation in the 4-H presentation program.

A variety of presentation formats are encouraged, from an educational display and talk to skits and cultural arts. This year presentation topics are set to include everything from Baa-bysitting 101 (raising an orphaned lamb) to The Key to Hieroglyphics (the Rosetta Stone).

Participants will be judged on timekeeping, following the guidelines, presentation technique and how effectively the information and ideas were presented.

“This is a great experience for our young community members to practice a skill that can be of great value to them throughout their lives and careers, whichever avenue they wish to pursue”, commented Gina Weaver, Ukiah Shamrock 4-H Community Leader.

I’D GLADLY PAY

Editor,

I’ve been giving Pacific Gas and Electric Co. about $10 a month, for many years, to remain connected to the grid. I don’t need to pay them anything more because, at great expense, I installed solar panels on my roof.

I send PG&E the energy I don’t use. In fact, it has been doing rather nicely with the extra energy I send them. PG&E pays me a very small amount for it, then sells it for much more to those who don’t have solar. The company has yet to thank me.

But I didn’t install solar for the cost savings. Barring any drastic, inexplicable rate hikes, my rooftop solar will pay for itself in about 10 years. I’m not rich. I could have continued getting energy from PG&E, invested what I paid for solar and watched my money grow. Though I have no children of my own, I installed solar because other people’s children will almost certainly need a planet on which to live when I’m gone. I don’t know of another habitable one within commuting distance.

Sometime in the near future, the California Public Utilities Commission might consider allowing PG&E to ask for six times what I’ve been giving them, for the same service. I want to know what company officials plan to do with that money. I suspect they’ll give it to their shareholders and continue to endanger everyone — shareholders included — with their felonious practices.

Not only will very few benefit from the money they may ask for, but every one of us alive (and every one yet to be born) will suffer from their willful refusal to take seriously the effects of global warming — shareholders, too. For the record, I’d gladly pay $57 a month if I knew that money would go to providing solar panels for everyone in the state.

Jeff Deitchman

Point Reyes Station

THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL STORY THAT EXPOSED POLITICIZED “FACT-CHECKING”

The fact-checkers who flagged Paul Thacker’s British Medical Journal article about a Pfizer subcontractor for Facebook admitted they police narrative, not fact

by Matt Taibbi

In February of 2010, the New York Times released a front-page story entitled, “Research Ties Diabetes Drug to Heart Woes.” The lede read:

Hundreds of people taking Avandia, a controversial diabetes medicine, needlessly suffer heart attacks and heart failure each month, according to confidential government reports that recommend the drug be removed from the market.

The Times piece quoted an internal F.D.A. report that said the GlaxoSmithKline diabetes drug Avandia, also known as Rosiglitazone, was “linked” to 304 deaths in 2009, adding the conclusion of the two doctors who authored the report: “Rosiglitazone should be removed from the market.” The story was released in advance of a Senate Finance Committee study that produced a series of damning internal documents, including one in which an FDA safety officer expressed concern that Avandia presented such serious cardiovascular risks that “the safety of the study itself cannot be assured, and is not acceptable.”

One of the chief investigators on that study was Paul Thacker, at the time a committee aide under Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley. Multi-year document hauls like the Avandia report were Thacker’s stock in trade. I first met him around then because his committee frequently dealt with financial crisis issues I covered. Thacker, who went on to work at ProPublica and contribute to a number of commercial and academic journals, was trained in a tradition of bipartisan committee reporting that relies heavily on documents and on-the-record testimony, i.e. the indisputable stuff both sides are comfortable backing.

Thacker has an in-your-face style and a dark sense of humor, and talking to him can feel like being lost in a Bill Hicks routine, but his information is good. Both in his years in the Senate and in his time with ProPublica, his job was publicizing damaging information about the world’s most litigious companies. Certain Washington jobs require a healthy fear of the $1000-an-hour lawyers that every Fortune 500 company has on speed dial, and Thacker has always retained the Beltway investigator’s usefully paranoid approach to publishing.

“I know how to do these things,” he says. “I know how to work with whistleblowers.”

It was more than a little surprising, then, when Thacker’s name appeared in the middle of a bizarre international fact-checking controversy. In an article for one of the world’s oldest academic outlets, the British Medical Journal, Thacker wrote a piece entitled, “Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial.” He did what he’d done countless times, shepherding into print the tale of an apparent whistleblower with an unsettling story. Brook Jackson worked for a Texas firm called Ventavia that conducted a portion of the research trials for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. This is the same vaccine that Thacker himself, who now lives in Spain and is married to a physician, had taken.

After going through both legal and peer review, but without contacting Ventavia — apparently, they feared an injunction — the BMJ published Thacker’s piece on November 2nd, 2021. The money passage read:

A regional director who was employed at the research organization Ventavia Research Group has told The BMJ that the company falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer’s pivotal phase III trial.

Beginning on November 10th, 2021, the editors began receiving complaints from readers, who said they were having difficulty sharing it. As editors Fiona Godlee and Kamran Abbassi later wrote in an open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

Some reported being unable to share it. Many others reported having their posts flagged with a warning about “Missing context ... Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people.” Those trying to post the article were informed by Facebook that people who repeatedly share “false information” might have their posts moved lower in Facebook’s News Feed. Group administrators where the article was shared received messages from Facebook informing them that such posts were “partly false.”

Facebook has yet to to queries about this piece. Meanwhile, the site that conducted Facebook’s “fact check,” Lead Stories, ran a piece dated November 10th whose URL used the term “hoax alert” (Lead Stories denies they called the BMJ piece a hoax). Moreover, they deployed a rhetorical device that such “checking” sites now use with regularity, repeatedly correcting assertions Thacker and the British Medical Journal never made. This began with the title: “The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials.”

The British Medical Journal never said Jackson’s story revealed “disqualifying flaws” in the vaccine. Nor did it claim the negative information “calls into question the results of the Pfizer clinical trial.” It also didn’t claim that the story is “serious enough to discredit data from the clinical trials.” The BMJ’s actual language said Jackson’s story could “raise questions about data integrity and regulatory oversight,” which is true.

The real issue with Thacker’s piece is that it went viral and was retweeted by the wrong people. As Lead Stories noted with marked disapproval, some of those sharers included the likes of Dr. Robert Malone and Robert F. Kennedy. To them, this clearly showed that the article was bad somehow, but the problem was, there was nothing to say the story was untrue.

In a remarkable correspondence with BMJ editors, Lead Stories editor Alan Duke explained that the term “missing context” was invented by Facebook:

To deal with content that could mislead without additional context but which was otherwise true or real… Sometimes Facebook’s messaging about the fact checking labels can sound overly aggressive and scary. If you have an issue with their messaging you should indeed take it up with them as we are unable to change any of it.

“Missing context” has become a term to disparage reporting that is true but inconvenient. As Thacker notes in the Q&A below, “They’re checking narrative, not fact.”

The significance of the British Medical Journal story is that it showed how easily reporting that is true can be made to look untrue or conspiratorial. The growing bureaucracy of “fact-checking” sites that help platforms like Facebook decide what to flag is now taking into account issues like: the political beliefs of your sources, the presence of people of ill repute among your readers, and the tendency of audiences to draw unwanted inferences from the reported facts. All of this can now become part of how authorities do or do not define reporting as factual.

“But that’s not a fact check,” says Thacker. “You just don’t like the story.”

The BMJ story is about a woman, Jackson, who was fired shortly after complaining of sloppy practices to the F.D.A. and also to Pfizer. Ventavia claims her firing was unconnected to her official complaint — “Ventavia was not aware of a complaint made to the FDA until we saw it on Twitter in early November of 2021,” they told me. They also contest other aspects of her story:

These same accusations were made a year ago, at which time Ventavia notified the appropriate parties. The allegations were investigated and determined to be unsubstantiated. 

I asked Ventavia who these “appropriate parties” were, and who conducted the investigation. At this, they brought in an outside PR consultant who asked for more time to answer, but ultimately decided not to answer further.

It’s not easy to see how the firm can claim the allegations were “unsubstantiated,” since Jackson supplied the BMJ with documents, photos, and recordings. Also, a number of the article’s claims were backed up, directly or indirectly, by other former employees. One, admittedly unnamed, told Thacker about the Pfizer trial, “I don’t think it was good clean data… It’s a crazy mess.”

The British Medical Journal didn’t publish all of the potentially damaging information. In one recorded meeting, to which I was allowed to listen, a senior Ventavia executive tells Jackson he knows the trial situation is a “cleanup on aisle five. And we know that it’s significant.”

In that same meeting, in which Jackson seems to be quizzed by two of the company’s top executives about whether or not she might have shared her concerns outside the company (“What have you done?” she’s asked), there’s another bizarre exchange.

“We haven’t even finished quantifying the number of errors, and categorizing the types of errors that we’re seeing. In my mind, it looks like it’s something new every day,” one of the executives says to her.

Obviously, Jackson’s story by itself doesn’t suggest the Pfizer vaccine didn’t work, or contain proof of damaging side effects. However, her story does suggest that the subcontractors hired by Pfizer to conduct its trials were and are, at best, incautious. In one meeting, an executive talks about seeing “exposed, used needles thrown into biohazard bags” instead of sharps containers as required. There is also information about breaking protocol on blinding, failing to follow up properly with subjects experiencing adverse reactions, mislabeling specimens, and other problems.

Whether about maintenance issues at American Airlines or a bank employee’s reports about the pooling and marketing of defective mortgages, such “bad practices” reporting has long been a staple of investigative journalism. Previously, the idea of spiking or flagging such reports on the grounds that they might have convinced some people not to fly or use banks would have been laughable. Having done many of these stories myself, I’m familiar with demands for “missing context,” but always from a corporate defense lawyer or a political spokesperson. That it’s coming from media gatekeepers now is crazy.

Lead Stories eventually wrote a second piece entitled, “Why Lead Stories Fact Checked the BMJ,” which complained that a variety of sites ranging from the Conservative Beaver to Natural News to The Free Thought Project had written fake or misleading stories based upon the BMJ piece. This second article also complained Robert F. Kennedy’s site, The Defender, republished the piece.

Worse, they wrote, Kennedy had republished three other Thacker stories, with titles like “New WHO Group to Look Into Pandemic Origins Dogged by Alleged Conflicts of Interest” and “The covid-19 lab leak hypothesis: did the media fall victim to a misinformation campaign?” This is how Lead Stories phrased their complaint:

This was not the first BMJ piece from Thacker copied by the Defender this way. The site has an entire author profile page for him with the oldest article listed dating back to July 2021.

Were there factual issues with any of those other pieces? If so, Lead Stories didn’t indicate any. The mere fact that Robert F. Kennedy liked previous Thacker stories was the apparent issue. Lead Stories also took issue with the fact that Thacker thanked Dr. Robert Malone on Twitter for highlighting the BMJ response to their fact check. You can’t see the whole exchange, because of course Twitter has since zapped Malone’s account:

December 25th 2021

I asked Duke if he believes who reads or retweets an article bears upon its factuality. “Who does or does not retweet or read something has no bearing on the factuality,” he conceded. “But it can reveal important clues about how it is received or understood.” 

Another apparent source of “clues” about a piece of factual reporting? The political views of the sources. These passages are from the first Lead Stories “fact check”:

“On Twitter, Jackson does not express unreserved support for COVID vaccines…”

Elsewhere on Twitter, the Brook Jackson account wrote that vaccination makes sense if a person is in a high-risk category and called a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandates “HUGE!”

I asked Duke if Jackson’s failure to express “unreserved support” for vaccines, or if her agreement with the roughly half of Americans who opposed Biden’s mandate plan, had bearing on the factuality of the story. If they didn’t, why was this information in the piece? Was the suggestion that she fabricated documents and photographs because she doesn’t like mandates? Lead Stories has not yet responded, but I’ll update the piece as they do.

It goes without saying that in this environment, any negative information about Pfizer, or any report of issues with the company’s trials, is likely to be upheld as meaningful by people suspicious of the vaccine. That does not mean one gets to exonerate companies based upon audience reaction. Are we now saying that anything Robert Kennedy Jr. or Robert Malone finds newsworthy is suspect? By this method, we’re taking stories that aren’t “anti-vax” by any rational standard, and making them anti-vax by association.

This new “fact-checking” standard bastardizes the whole idea of reporting. It’s also highly convenient for corporations like Pfizer, which incidentally have extensive records of regulatory violations. As Thacker details below, firms have successfully manipulated reporters and Internet platforms into seeing a binary reality in which all critics are conspiracy theorists.

“We don’t have main and minor [points of view] anymore,” he says. “What we have is truth, and conspiracy.”

After the BMJ episode, a “Missing context” flag should be understood for what it is: an intellectual warning label for true but politically troublesome information.

Thacker has written for, and been a source for, both conservative and mainstream outlets. A year ago he was writing an article in The Daily Beastthat was widely shared by center-left audiences because it suggested Pharma companies had undue influence on Donald Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed.” He now has his own site on Substack, the Disinformation Chronicle, that continues his career-long focus on malfeasance involving companies that produce pharmaceuticals, genetically modified food, and other products. I talked to him about the BMJ mess:

Matt Taibbi: How much experience with this type of story do you have?

Paul Thacker: I’ve done investigations for about 15 years involving corruption in science. I did investigations of the pharmaceutical industry for about three years in the Senate Finance Committee. These were big investigations. Avandia was the best-selling drug for diabetes on the planet then, a $3 billion a year product. When the final report came out, the Swiss bank UBS said GlaxoSmithKline faced $6 billion in litigation exposure. So, I know how to do these things, and I know how to work with whistleblowers.

Taibbi: Is part of the story about how easy it is to get into the business of doing clinical trials, and how little oversight there is in this world?

Thacker: There’s a lot of money in this type of research. If you can get a doctor to sign on and say that he’s going to be the physician for your research company, you can basically start one of these research groups in America. That’s how it works.

Jackson realizes the place is just kind of a mess. She thinks, “I’m going to fix this.” But then she realizes also, you’re not supposed to say there are problems. But their own internal emails speak to this.

One internal email that went out essentially said, “We can’t keep up.” She started taking pictures. One of the things she found was that they were putting sharps in a plastic bag. You’re supposed to put them in what’s called a sharps container.

What the fact-checker sites came back with was, “Well that doesn’t mean anything about data.” Which is true. But it tells you something. I worked in a lab before I went into journalism, doing research at Emory University, and I knew how to handle sharps. I looked at it sort of like that old trick that restaurant reviewers will use, checking out the bathroom. If the bathroom is fucking dirty, what do you think the kitchen is like?

She got scared and started making recordings. In one, they brought her into a room to counsel her for doing her job and finding problems. In this conversation, one of the guys, he says in the interview, “Look, we know it’s a cleanup on aisle five. And we know it’s significant.” He called it a cleanup on aisle five! Fucking ridiculous. They didn’t put that in the BMJ because that’s an American saying. So I had it in the story but they took out the idiom because it’s a very American thing.

Taibbi: How unusual would a lack of a response from the FDA be, and did that happen here? [Note: the FDA has not responded to queries]

Thacker: She realizes, “No one’s listening to me.” So she files a complaint with the FDA, lays out like 12 different problems she’s encountered there. Later that afternoon Ventavia calls her up and fires her, and says that it’s not a good fit. She notified Pfizer, so Pfizer knew. Pfizer turns back around, and if you look them up, they hired Ventavia to do other clinical trials for them. The FDA never goes and inspects.

Now, there’s no regulatory response, but the company was expecting one. I’ll read from an email that Ventavia sent out about a week before she was fired. It says:

I’ll say it again here, it’s not a matter of IF the FDA is coming, it’s a matter of when the FDA is coming. And they are coming soon. This is the biggest clinical trial in the entire world and we are a top enroller.

And then here it’s like all bold, underlines, all caps.

THE FDA IS COMING SOON, in a matter of days, if I had to make a guess.

They were in a fucking panic, man. [The original documents are on Thacker’s Disinformation Chroniclesite].

Taibbi: When did you first hear about a potential problem with the “fact check”?

Thacker: I was ignoring it at first. I thought, “How are they going to fact check this?” I’ve dealt with this before. The smartest people in terms of finding error are the fucking lawyers working for the drug companies. There’s an army of those people who will go through and find anything that’s out of order and throw it up in the air. And they couldn’t find anything here. So what issue could there possibly be?

Then I went to the “fact check,” and it was just insane. It looked like it’d been written by high school students. It describes the British Medical Journal as a “blog.” I was joking with my editors about how they work. They pick some proposition out of the blue and then they debunk it, and it’s like, “Aha, win!” Bullshit. It’s like, “Did the BMJ prove that the vaccine kills Martians? No! Fact check: wrong.” And you’re thinking, “Wait, what?”

Here’s what they do. They’re not fact checking facts. What they’re doing is checking narratives. They can’t say that your facts are wrong, so it’s like, “Aha, there’s no context.” Or, “It’s misleading.” But that’s not a fact check. You just don’t like the story.

Taibbi: How new is this phenomenon? If there was one, when did the change happen?

Thacker: Here’s what always happened in America previously. You got a big, broad look. In science and in the media, we would always have a main narrative or a main theory. And then around that, within science, there would be other minor theories, other alternative viewpoints. The New York Times would have something. On the left, the New Republic had a view, and on the right you’d get the National Review. They’re reexamining it, but they don’t change the facts.

Well, we don’t have main and minor anymore. What we have is truth, and conspiracy. Or vax, and anti-vax. There are only two possibilities you can go through. Do you know where you find that kind of black-white thinking? In people who have major personality disorders. And psychopaths. Psychopaths and people with narcissistic personality disorder engage in black-white thinking. America right now is in this weird situation in which it’s a country that to the outside looks psychopathic or disordered.

Taibbi: Have you seen this phenomenon in other big news stories?

Thacker: What’s happened with this pandemic is the same shit that happened with the 2008 meltdown. People were like, “Well, how the fuck did this happen? We didn’t see it coming.” And then you find out later: maybe it’s because all these fucking reporters are in bed with these guys in Wall Street and see them as the masters of the universe, and don’t cover them very effectively, because they think they’re fucking awesome.

Taibbi: It’s similar also in the respect that the safety and compliance procedures are flawed inside these companies, yet the reporters don’t want to go near those stories, because they’re afraid of upsetting sources.

Thacker: The people we have, I don’t call reporters. I call them science writers. The people who write for Science, Nature, Scientific American, these are people who write for science, not on science. They see their job as telling you how fucking awesome science is. That’s what they do for a living.

That’s in part what’s going on with this story about Pfizer. It’s the same shit that has been going on with these goddamn vaccines. Because if you watch and see what happened when these vaccines rolled out, you would see there’d be a story in The New York Times about, “Pfizer announces,” or “Pfizer Expected To Ask for Authorization,” blah, blah, blah. And then about four or five paragraphs, you go down and you realize: “Wait, this is just a Pfizer press release.” This isn’t a study or anything. This is a Pfizer press release. You just reported a fucking press release as a news story.

They do press release journalism. You can argue that’s good or bad, but what that does — and no one talks about this — is it creates all this social pressure on the FDA for approval. It creates all this expectancy amongst the public that the product is coming. So, by the time you go in front of an FDA panel for authorization, it’s already been churned up in the media, they’ve got a month of positive press.

They’ve been running this game from the beginning. They’re just much better at it now.

THE LAB LEAK “CONSPIRACY THEORY”

“Not man made or genetically modified,” they cried in unison, until they didn’t, as Matt Orfalea’s latest trip back in time shows

by Matt Taibbi

After Covid-19 hit America’s shores, a question naturally arose: how did this happen? Most of us assumed the mystery would soon be unraveled, that the society of epidemiological detectives who found everything from the rat that transmitted Lassa Fever to the leak that caused viral outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt would nail down the origin of the pandemic.

It didn’t happen. We were initially told something about bats, a weird animal called a pangolin, and a Chinese “wet market,” but never heard the full story. A combination of the virus originating in an authoritarian state and a sudden seizure of incuriosity among the international press corps led to a strange coverage détente, in which we weren’t told exactly what happened, but we were told all sensible people were sure of what didn’t happen. 27 scientists in The Lancet put it this way in mid-2020: “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”

As TK contributor Matt Orfalea pieces together in his latest hilariously disturbing trip to our recent past, the notion that Covid-19 did not originate in a lab became a mandatory talking point. This might have made sense, if epidemiologists had definitively identified the source of the disease. But they hadn’t, making the intensity of the press reaction both comical and suspicious.

A common explanation for the propaganda is that once Donald Trump suggested the disease might have had a laboratory origin, it became mandatory to denounce the idea for political reasons. The Trump-said-it-so-it-must-be-wrong angle was also ubiquitous, as Orfalea shows here:

In the main mashup, in a series of revealing montages, press figures are also shown wasting no time embracing the word-for-word conclusion of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) that the disease was “not manmade or genetically modified.” The sections involving denunciations of Senator Tom Cotton are particularly interesting because Cotton was accused of “fanning the embers of a coronavirus conspiracy theory” just for including lab origin among the possible causes, even as he said natural origin was “most likely.” This showed that even considering a lab-origin hypothesis was, to press critics, now the same as advancing or embracing an idea they considered “debunked.”

The idea that the disease may have originated in a lab suddenly became acceptable again last spring, when the likes of Dr. Anthony Fauci began entertaining the idea in public. Fact-checkers who’d issued fierce declarations about “conspiracy theories” backtracked. Internet platforms like Facebook that had been banning such assertions announced, “We will no longer remove the claim that Covid-19 is man-made or manufactured from our apps.”

We still don’t know what caused the pandemic, but that’s not the issue here. The concept of telling the public you’re this certain of something when you quite obviously are not is at least somewhat new, both in politics and in media. The crucial problem shown in this reel is the complete absence of humility about the possibility of error. The most well-meaning scientists make mistakes — even the famous tale of the discovery of HIV’s “Patient Zero” later fell into question thanks to genetic analysis — and there was a time not long ago when no responsible press outlet would have declared any hypothesis off-limits before the mystery had been solved.

Orfalea does a great job here using everything from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure to Fahrenheit 451 to show the dangerously moronic certainty of modern propaganda. The origins of Covid-19 remain a mystery, but another Whodunit is why curiosity and the spirit of free inquiry have been made taboo in a business where those qualities were once prerequisites.

ON THE ROAD

Watching the Eel River Flow~

The Kena Upanishad spells out that the individual is Brahman (Divine Absolute), which exists prior to consciousness. All suffering results from misidentifying with the body and the mind. In fact, the real you is not affected by anything at all, and beyond this realization, there is nothing for the individual to further achieve. 

After leaving Honolulu and returning to California, because the politicians shut down the Hawaiian tourist economy in response to COVID-19, I was subsequently asked to leave my residence in Mendocino county, because the cannabis trimmers living there did not want to live in an intentional community environment with me. Therefore I moved out, and moved into a motel in Ukiah briefly. From there I went to Southern Humboldt county, and using my saved money, helped with the project to digitize the Earth First! video archive and store it in the cloud. This was very important because Earth First! is an origin of the contemporary radical environmental movement, and the historical video footage needed to be preserved. The past two months have been an excellent use of both my time and money. 

I need to leave Garberville, CA because the project is finished, my friend who performed the technical work would like to have his apartment back, and I presently have nowhere to go. I suppose that I could make all kinds of disparaging remarks about the state of American postmodernism, but why bother? You already understand that this experimental society is spiritually directionless and bankrupt...otherwise, why else would I be in a situation like this? I am asking you for your cooperation to move on and go forward to my next highest good on earth. Thank you very much.

Yours for Self Realization, 

Craig Louis Stehr

Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

HOMELESS COURTS

California Homeless courts are special court sessions held in a local shelter or other community site designed for homeless citizens to resolve outstanding misdemeanor criminal warrants (principally “quality-of-life” infractions such as unauthorized removal of a shopping cart, disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, and sleeping on a sidewalk or on the beach).

Resolution of outstanding warrants not only meets a fundamental need of homeless people but also eases court case-processing backlogs and reduces vagrancy. Homeless people tend to be fearful of attending court, yet their outstanding warrants limit their reintegration into society, deterring them from using social services and impeding their access to employment. They are effectively blocked from obtaining driver’s licenses, job applications, and rental agreements.

In 1989 the first homeless court was established as an outgrowth of San Diego’s Veterans’ Stand-Down Program. That program annually offers services to the homeless, the majority of whom are veterans. The San Diego Homeless Court meets monthly, alternately at Saint Vincent de Paul (San Diego’s largest homeless shelter) and the Veterans Village of San Diego.

Los Angeles started its homeless court in November 2000. This court is designed on a model similar to the court in San Diego, with court sessions held at community facilities that serve the homeless, such as the Salvation Army. The court addresses quality-of-life offenses that have gone to warrant and provides sentencing, involving participation in treatment and community service, that can clear the offense. Courts in Alameda and Ventura Counties have also begun holding homeless court sessions. The Ventura Court’s work was presented at the 2002 National Association for Court Management Conference.

Special court sessions held in the community by the Ventura court address outstanding cases and unique problems of criminally accused homeless individuals. This approach reduces the need for numerous hearings, saving court time and costs. These courts combine plea bargaining with alternative sentencing that substitutes counseling, volunteer work, and participation in agency programs for the traditional fines, public work service, and custody. Defendants are given credit for having entered a shelter, done volunteer work, or enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous or other self-help and education programs.

The San Diego Homeless Court received initial federal funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) conducted an evaluation that noted over 700 cases (for 266 participants) were resolved between October 1999 and February 2001.

Data collected from participant surveys suggest that individuals’ participation in the homeless court program improved their attitudes toward law enforcement and increased their satisfaction with court processes, court staff, and the court system as a whole. View the SANDAG 2001 report, San Diego Homeless Court Program: A Process and Impact Evaluation.

Reaching Out to Homeless Courts

The Collaborative Justice Courts Project started the Homeless Court Outreach Initiative with collaborative justice courts to enable similar courts to benefit from the experiences of their peers. The initiative gathered like-minded practitioners at a 2003 forum to share their programs and case processing strategies.

(https://www.courts.ca.gov/5976.htm)

NEWSOM REJECTED PAROLE FOR SIRHAN SIRHAN ON RFK ASSASSINATION: WHY?

Heroes and Patriots Radio returns to KMUD, Thursday, February 3, at 9 am, Pacific Time, with guests, Lisa Pease and Denise F. Bohdan, and cohosts, John Sakowicz and Mary Massey. 

We'll talk about the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. 

Last month, California Governor Gavin Newsom denied parole for Sirhan Sirhan, who was convicted of the killing of Kennedy. 

A parole board had recommended Sirhan’s discharge. The board was joined by some members of the Kennedy family who think Sirhan was framed. 

Lisa Pease 

Pease has researched the RFK assassination for decades and has put forward a theory of the assassination that challenges the official version of what happened. She is the author of A Lie Too Big to Fail: The Real History of the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which was published in 2018. See a talk by her the following year televised by C-SPAN. The Washington Post covered some of Pease’s work: “The CIA may have used the contractor who inspired ‘Mission: Impossible’ to kill RFK, a new book alleges.” She is featured in Oliver Stone’s recently released documentary film “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.” 

Denise F. Bohdan 

Bohdan is a lawyer and filmmaker and the daughter of Fernando Faura, one the first investigative journalists to examine RFK’s killing. She has continued much of her father’s work and has helped set up the website JusticeForRFK.com which has a detailed breakdown of different aspects of the case. She just co-wrote the piece “A Response to Kerry and Chris Kennedy’s Statements About Sirhan Sirhan’s Parole Recommendation.” 

Pease said recently: “The only witnesses who could clearly identify both RFK and Sirhan at the time of the shooting put them about three feet apart and facing each other, yet Kennedy was shot behind his right ear at a distance of not more than an inch, and the other shots were from not more than six inches away. Sirhan never got that close and was never behind RFK. 

“The prosecution even told Grant Cooper, Sirhan’s volunteer lead attorney, that they could not prove the chain of possession on the bullets. … 

“The LAPD hid, destroyed and lied about evidence over the years to maintain the fiction that Sirhan had killed RFK. They burned the door frames that had bullet holes in them, according to the FBI and video filmed that night in the pantry. They burned more than 2,000 photos from the crime scene under strict guard at a hospital incinerator. … 

“Sirhan was hypnotized to believe he was back at the target range where he has spent an earlier portion of the day. … I believe what Dan Brown, one of the foremost experts on hypnosis in the nation, uncovered after 60 hours with Sirhan: he was in a grip of an illusion that he was back at the range. That’s why he pulled out his gun and fired. It had nothing to do with Robert Kennedy.” See Washington Post piece “The assassination of Bobby Kennedy: Was Sirhan Sirhan hypnotized to be the fall guy? “ 

KMUD 

KMUD simulcasts its programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California. 

We also stream live from the web to a national audience at https://kmud.org. 

Speak with our guests live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911 

Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of kind, loving, informed, progressive people. 

Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter.