Mendocino County Today: Saturday, April 23, 2022

Warming | Stornetta Rainbow | Pot Taxes | Hendy Hike | Tiny Homes | Lighthouse Event | Warm Dinner | Ma Nature | Small Farming | Help Wanted | Big River | Alice Uninvited | Ed Notes | Rolling Assault | Small Planet | Ukraine | Relief Benefit | Double Billing | Disrespecting People | Bookshop Events | Indoctrination | Project Sanctuary | SS Seafoam | Environmental Extremists | Silverman Again | Yesterday's Catch | Charade Over | Army Knives | Fake Cards | Typo Notice | Wacky-Ass Letters | Perilous Point | Moe Berg | Imported Pharmacists | Stewart's Point | Voter Registration | Lumber Dealer | Marco Radio | Proto Batgirl

WARM, DRY WEATHER will build in for the weekend with a weak marine layer along the coast and valley fog inland. Tuesday through late in the week there is a small chance for rain each day in the north, but overall the weather is expected to be dry and near seasonal normals. (NWS)

POT TAXES DROPPING LIKE A STONE(R)

by Mark Scaramella

Thanks to our colleagues at the Independent Coast Observer in Gualala, we were spared the annoying tedium of having to wade into Mendo’s “complicated” and stinky marijuana permit program discussion at last Tuesday's Supervisors meeting. ICO reporter Susan Wolbarst reported that the County is apparently owed approximately $6.8 million in unpaid marijuana taxes because “many people are just not participating in the system,” Acting County Treasurer/Tax collector Julie Forrester told the Board.

According to Ms. Wolbarst’s account, Mendo has issued 1100 to 1200 cannabis cultivation “permits,” which is a surprise to us because last we heard the number was in the 200s and the number of applicants was in the 1100 to 1200 range (and has been stuck in that range for years now. Forrester told the Supervisors that 551 of these “permit holders” did not pay taxes.

Left out of the ICO report was any mention of the enormous difficulties permit applicants have faced trying to get even provisional county permits. So it would be awkward, not to say surprising, to infer that applicants with applications pending may be reluctant to report sales and pay taxes if they don't have a provisional license because a cannabis program bureaucrat said they have not met all the application requirements and were thus selling without a permit.

It was also clear that Ms. Forrester has not been in contact with the County’s newly formed Cannabis Department because Ms. Forrester offered to provide a list of pot growers who are “delinquent” on their taxes to Cannabis Program Director Kristin Nevedal. Why this wasn’t done years ago remains an unanswered, if obvious, question.

Also complicating the pot permit tax question is the program’s ugly history where many permit applicants have given up on their applications and thus have either given up on cannabis cultivation and don't think they should pay even the minimum tax, or, desperate for any revenue, they are cultivating for what’s left of the black market and, obviously, won't be paying any taxes on that.

Surely, the County couldn’t be trying to collect taxes from someone who’s permit was withdrawn or abandoned — or could they?

As usual statements of the obvious were pronounced by County officials as if the program is workable, as if the pot market is not completely collapsed, as if such goofball statements from officials supposedly in charge of the program contribute anything to the discussion.

“There are people who are just not participating in the system,” said Tax Collector Forrester. “I think we need to work together to develop a procedure.” (That would be nice; after all it’s only been five years now.)

“I would support no tax at all on cannabis,” said Supervisor Ted Williams irrelevantly and non-sensically considering that his “austere” budget is highly dependent on those taxes, “but what I can't support is the payment of taxes is optional.” 

Very bold.

Supervisor John Haschak agreed, saying, “You shouldn't be able to renew your permit if you don't pay taxes.” Golly, what a brilliant concept! Is Haschak saying that tax delinquents have received renewed permits already despite not paying taxes on actual pot sales?

Apparently (we have our doubts about this) former Supervisor and Godfather of the current failed system John McCowen suggested that the county try to tax the growers who are selling in the black market. “The board needs to expand the universe of people they’re collecting from,” McCowen was quoted as saying. “The tax needs to be made to apply to people who are illegal because they haven't applied for permits.”

Hmmm. Let's see if we understand this. Almost half the people who have applied for permits are not paying taxes, yet former supervisor McCowen thinks that the people who haven't even applied for a permit should somehow be taxed? We suspect there's more to this than the quote provided by Ms. Wolbarst. If Mr. McCowen has a workable proposal to tax outlaw growers, we’d love to hear it.

A number of permitted pot growers called in to say that they are not growing marijuana because of the drought, or the high taxes, or the poor economy, or the collapsed pot market, or the lack of a permit — and these were the ones who are probably acting in good faith. Permitted non-growers want to be exempt from taxes — at present they are expected to pay thousands of dollars per gro in “minimum tax” whether they grow or not. 

County Counsel Christian Curtis was “directed” to draft an ordinance on “fallowing,” (i.e., non-growing). And if you don’t think that an “ordinance” addressing not growing pot sounds beyond ironic in Mendocino County, you’re smoking too much of that weed you’re not growing. 

Curtis is supposed to bring a draft of an ordinance about fallowing back to the board on May 3. It will be interesting to see how a “grower” will be required to prove they’re not growing when nearly half of the applicants are not paying taxes as it is.

Then there's the question of state permits. “The state has expressed concern with issuing or renewing provisional licenses to applications that are incomplete,” said Director Nevedal. She told the board that 102 of the 300 growers eligible for provisional licenses (now it’s 300? Oh wait, that’s “eligible”) had submitted the required corrections which she said were due on April 28th. If these numbers are not adding up to you, you are probably not the beleaguered Tax Collector.

Maybe things will become clearer in the future because “board members” requested a “detailed biweekly report” from Ms. Nevedal with numbers showing “the big picture including metrics” to measure progress. Historically, Mendo is allergic to “detailed biweekly reports” on anything, much less pot, and even more allergic to a report “with numbers showing the big picture including metrics.” But what the hell, might as well ask for it (again).

Not included in Ms. Wolbarst’s report was the following chart which was buried in the separate “preliminary budget report” presented earlier in the day showing that the county's anticipated pot tax revenues are way off, reflecting, albeit belatedly, the collapsed pot market and the failed pot permit program. 

Note that the column labeled “FY 2021/22” for this fiscal year is itself labeled “projected,” and may assume tax payments that are not going to be realized. And next year’s “budget” revenue is a complete wild guess and has no business being labeled “budget.”

Nobody seems worried about whether or not the newly created Cannabis Department will cover its costs next year with grants and depleted tax revenues or, more likely, become yet another financial liability to the already precarious General Fund.

In fact, nobody seems worried about much of anything, blithely carrying on as if the pot permit program is not self-destructing before our eyes.

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL AMENDS CODE TO ALLOW TINY HOMES

by Megan Wutzke

During the April 11 meeting, the city council added a section concerning tiny homes to the municipal code. Permanent tiny homes (homes between 150 and 400 feet without wheels) have always been allowed, as they are simply considered small houses.

This new section, however, concerns tiny homes with wheels. Tiny homes with wheels were considered RVs, which meant they were only allowed in designated trailer parks. This new section classifies them as “accessory dwelling units.”

As ADUs, parcels can have a max of two tiny homes on the property. This is to create more affordable housing in Fort Bragg, so these tiny homes aren’t to become short-term or vacation rentals. They will be allowed on any residentially zoned parcel or in mobile home parks.

There are some requirements to ensure the homes “maintain a residential appearance.” For example, there must be skirting to hide the undercarriage of the house. The homes also can’t have mechanics such as an air conditioner on the rooftop. The home also requires a paved foundation or a pad, and exterior materials such as wood or fiber cement.

The homes must be hooked up to the City’s water and sewer utility lines, but they can use on or off-grid electricity.

The homes also require a yearly inspection from the Fire Marshall, as well as other licensing fees.

This change will go into effect on May 25, 2022.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

WIND & WHALE CELEBRATION, Saturday, April 23, 2022 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Wind & Whale Celebration at PA Lighthouse returns! The Berkeley Kite Wranglers will be flying their amazing kites over the Light Station.

Free admission to the PA Lighthouse Indoor & Outdoor Museums & Gift Station. Scott & Tree Mercer of the Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study will be on hand to answer questions about the marine mammals that frequent our coast.

COMMUNITY MEAL AT PHILO’S COMPANY KITCHEN

We are excited to invite you to a sit down community meal which we are hosting at The Company Kitchen!

We will be serving our free farm-to-table meals at the restaurant and would love to offer you a warm dinner, made with produce from our farm and others.

Sunday, May 1, 5-6:30 pm, Company Kitchen, 8651 CA-128, Philo 

We will also prepare to-go meals if you have friends to deliver meals to.

Please RSVP to Caryn (510) 541-9430 or Arline (415) 308-3575

Thank you for letting us be of service.

For more information on Free Food Philo / Love to Table, check out: https://unconditionalfreedom.org/free-food/ or message me here! If you’d like to volunteer with us to prepare or serve the meals, please reach out as well.

A SMALL FARM SOUTH OF BOONVILLE…

Dear friends,

We’ve been busy prepping for the coming season. The recent rains have buoyed all spirits and given hope that there may be a coming season. The starts - cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, yakon, dill, jicama, sesame - are all doing well in two greenhouses. As soon as the weather settles and warmth arrives they will be transferred outdoors to harden off prior to planting. We aim for the so called last frost date of May 15th. No guarantees! Still to sow are okra, melons, squashes, and basil.

In the kitchen, Aaron and Trudy have been prepping the spring onions and beef and veggie broth for French Onion Soup. They’ve pressure canned several flats and the kitchen sure smells good. The spring onion scapes, the peduncles of the onion (or flower stalks) are canned separately as pickles. The greens go into veggie stock. Nothing is wasted.

The swallows returned and are checking out the house entryway nest. They’ll be sitting on eggs as soon as the weather warms a bit. For several days recently the giant Valley oak in our front yard was resonant with the tuneful (!) aak-aaking and flying about of the resident acorn woodpeckers. They were having a multi tribe squabble, we assume a yearly sorting out of new members and who mates with whom and they seem to have settled it for now. All the bird species are busy with choosing a location and building a nest for this year’s brood.

Our world looks exquisite right now with the new leaves scrubbed and sparkling with rain jewels and the ground wet and fecund. Such a relief given much of the rest of the world and we hope your world is doing as well.

Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Krieg

HELP WANTED, Agate Cove Inn Hiring

Agate Cove Inn in Mendocino is hiring for part-time housekeeping at $17.50 an hour. We are looking for someone dedicated, detail oriented and a team player. We are very small property and our staff works very closely together to make things run smoothly as possible. This position is going to be moving into full-time within the next couple of months, there is potential to move into a different department such as front desk as well. Please come by our office at 11201 Lansing St. between 11 AM and 6 PM any day to pick up an application!

AUTHOR ALICE WALKER UNINVITED IN BERKELEY

by Jonah Raskin

Alice Walker, who you recently read about in the pages of the AVA, is in trouble again, once again for something that she wrote. The powers-that-be at the Bay Area Book Festival, which will be held May 13-15, 2022, rescinded an invitation to her. According to the book festival, “Our decision to rescind our invitation had nothing to do with comments or positions she may have taken on Israel; nor did it have anything to do with her support of Palestine. We took this action due to her repeated endorsement, in The New York Times and elsewhere, of the work of David Icke, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist.” Icke has also argued that humans have been ruled since antiquity by an intergalactic race of reptilians. The New Yorker magazine accuses Icke of “crackpottery.” 

Fans of Walker and advocates of free speech are attacking the book festival and demanding that Walker be re-invited and reinstated. The brouhaha probably won’t damage Walker’s literary reputation. She won a Pulitzer for her lesbianish novel, The Color Purple. Also, the controversy won’t hurt the sales of her new book, Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965-2000, which was reviewed in the AVA. Walker’s publishers are promoting it as though it’s a work of genius that must be purchased and devoured instantly. 

Over the past 40 or so years, Walker, who has lived for years in Mendocino County, has been a tireless self-promoter. She has also repeatedly struck a nerve with the reading public. In 1994, two of her stories, “Roselily” and “Am I Blue?,” were removed from an exam for students administered by the California State Board of Education Learning Assessment System. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Book Review editor, Pat Holt, rushed to Walker’s defense. The stories, along with an excerpt from The Color Purple, were published in a slim volume, with an essay by Holt and with the word “Alice Walker Banned,” on the cover.

Ban a book and you arouse instant curiosity. Once upon a time, the words “Banned in Boston” practically guaranteed big sales for a novel. That happened with James M. Cain’s noir fiction The Postman Always Rings Twice, which recounts the steamy sex that takes place between a drifter and a woman, who also happens to have a husband. The lovers murder the husband and turn against one another. The film, which was inspired by the novel, starred Lana Turner and John Garfield. Banning the book didn’t hurt their careers or Cain’s, either. 

“I want a year of not being ‘Alice Walker,’” Walker wrote in an entry in her recently published journals. That’s not going to happen anytime soon. Alice Walker can’t not be Alice Walker. Also, she wrote in her journal, “Why do I keep trying to figure out what's wrong with me?”

Perhaps there’s nothing really wrong with Walker, except that she thinks that there’s something wrong with her. And maybe deep inside there is something about herself that she has never figured out, though she has tried again and again. That’s what her journals suggest. 

Whether Walker is an anti-Zionist, and a pro-Palestinian should not prevent readers, whether they’re Jews, Christians, Buddhists or Moslems, from talking a deep dive into Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965-2000, which is edited by Valerie Boyd and published by Simon & Schuster.

Disinviting Walker hasn’t helped the image of the book festival or Berkeley itself which has long been associated with freedom of speech. 

Rabbi Avi Shafrab recently noted in an opinion piece published in The Jewish News of Northern California, “As a former resident of Northern California, I wouldn’t have expected a Berkeley book fair to deny a platform to a celebrated human rights advocate just because she happens to be an anti-Semite.” 

The best reply to controversial speech is not to cancel it, but to open the gates to more speech and allow all points of view to be expressed. Every single person doesn’t have to speak, but it helps a community greatly if all perspectives are aired.

ED NOTES

We never hear the woman's end of it as we wonder at these shameless wusses who call in their sig others for a couple of slaps. Last week, shortly before 7pm, deputies were dispatched to Boonville to investigate a rolling domestic dispute. They soon found Ekaterina Alyabyeva, once a world class competitive swimmer and Olympic star for the Russian national team. The boyfriend allegedly had visible “injuries” to his face. Ms. Alyabyeva was booked into the County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

NOT QUITE SAFE to bring the flowering plants out of the greenhouse as April lives up to is rep as unpredictable, veering from an 80 degree day three weeks ago to light rain, winds and frigid overnights. But who's complaining? The rains, light as they were, got the streams up and burbling and sun out and shining just in time for Brewfest this weekend here in Boonville, Mendocino County's most happening community.

FOR A VIRTUALLY unknown office, the Mendocino County Office of Education generates a lot of heat, especially this election cycle as the insurgent candidate's surrogates take to clandestine cyber-sites to vilify the incumbent. 

THE ELECTION for superintendent has gotten ugly and won't get less ugly before the June vote, which is what happens when the insurgent candidate, Nicole Glentzer, has no real issues. 

MRS. GLENTZER has been endorsed by the Coast branch of the Democratic Club, a tiny membership that includes several edu-old boys, including Paul Tichinin, the man who famously denounced an adjective as a racial slur.

MAYBE one out of fifty Mendo residents knows what the County Office of Education does, and those few usually grasp the tail of the elephant but have no idea the size of a mostly invisible beast employing 186 persons, none of whom have come out against incumbent Hutchins. 

THE ENDORSEMENTS of a couple of tame employee unions garnered by Ms. Glentzer are endorsements by their leaders who claim they surveyed the bus drivers and custodians of their memberships to come up with an endorsement for Mrs. Glentzer, but who knows for sure, especially when one of those unions is led by a Potter Valley neighbor of Mrs. Glentzer's, the other by a Boonville woman named Nicole McClain who began her vague but unrelenting vendetta against Ms. Hutchins almost ten years ago when Ms. Hutchins was hired as principal at Boonville High School.

MRS. GLENTZER, in her sole substantive beef with incumbent Hutchins, writes, “When our districts needed support developing Covid safety plans to reopen the schools, the County Superintendent was unavailable for help.”

I'LL GIVE Mrs. G the benefit of a very large doubt here, assuming that she wasn't aware of the true facts of Superintendent Hutchins' efforts rather than say Mrs. G is straight-up lying. If she doesn't know the fact of such a basic matter she shouldn't be the candidate. If she's lying, that’s reason number two she shouldn't be the candidate.

HERE'S THE FACT. Hutchins was on the case from the get, as she explains: “During the first two months of the pandemic, I facilitated meetings between school personnel and the county public health office every day for the first two months. Afterwards, I facilitated a weekly meeting totaling 125 meetings in all. Additionally, the school superintendents who support my opponent wanted to exclude charter and private schools from these meetings. But I refused; every student needs to be represented, and every student needs to be safe.”

ROLLING DOMESTIC

On Sunday, April 17, 2022 at 6:54 P.M., Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a reported domestic violence incident in the 14000 block of Highway 128 in Boonville.

Deputies responded from the Ukiah area; however the involved parties left the area prior to their arrival. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center broadcasted a welfare check for the vehicle and its occupants to the surrounding counties.

A short time later Sheriff's Dispatch received a call from the involved adult male, 37, who reported he had pulled over in a rural area of Highway 128 due to the fact he had been physically assaulted while driving.

The Deputies responded to the area and contacted the adult male and Ekaterina Alyabyeva, 36, of Concord. The Deputies interviewed both individuals and learned they were in a dating relationship. The Deputies observed visible injuries to the adult male's body.

As the Deputies continued their investigation, they developed probable cause to believe Alyabyeva physically assaulted the adult male in the Boonville area and again at a separate location on Highway 128 while they were driving.

The Deputies arrested Alyabyeva for Felony Domestic Violence Battery. Alyabyeva was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where she was held in lieu of $25,000 bail.

UKRAINE FRIDAY

As Friday draws to a close in Kyiv and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day:

A top Russian military commander said Russia wants to take “, in addition to the Donbas region in the east, to “secure a land corridor to Crimea.” The statement by Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev, reported by Russian state-run media, marked the most explicit expression yet of long-term aims, though it was unclear if Minnekayev was spelling out official policy. His remarks also indicated goals of accessing neighboring Moldova through a disputed, separatist region and blocking Ukraine from access to the sea.

Another possible mass gravewith as many as 9,000 bodies was found near Mariupol.Satellite imagery revealed the site, which may be 20 times larger than the mass grave in Bucha, according to a Telegram post by the Mariupol City Council. Maxar Technologies, a provider of satellite imagery, said in a statement that the size of the grave has gradually expanded over the past month, as Russian forces continue to transport Ukrainian bodies out of Mariupol.

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukrainehas confirmed more than 5,000 civilian casualties — 2,345 killed and 2,919 injured. “Our work to date has detailed a horror story of violations perpetrated against civilians,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. This includes the “unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians” in Bucha, outside Kyiv. “We know the actual numbers are going to be much higher as the horrors inflicted in areas of intense fighting, such as Mariupol, come to light,” Bachelet said. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plans to visit Moscow next Tuesday, April 26.

In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin,European Council President Charles Michel “strongly urged” Russia to grant “humanitarian access and safe passage from Mariupol and other besieged cities” ahead of Orthodox Easter this weekend. Zelenskyy said Thursday night that Russia had rejected a proposal for an Easter truce. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that overall peace talks between his country and Ukraine have “stalled."

Russian authorities lodged criminal charges against prominent opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza for spreading “deliberately false information” about Russian troops operating in Ukraine. Kara-Murza is serving a 15-day prison sentence for allegedly evading police outside his home in Moscow. At the time, Kara-Murza had been giving interviews to U.S. media, criticizing Russia's invasion.

The British Embassy will reopen next week in Kyiv, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced. Spain, Italy and France have also declared intentions to reopen their embassies in Kyiv in the coming days. The U.S. has not yet decided if or when to reopen its Kyiv embassy.

— NPR

ADVENTIST'S DOUBLE BILLING

Has this also happened to you? I am considering talking to a lawyer about this, perhaps we need class action.

Dear Adventist Hospital,

I am very upset that I am constantly, repeatedly, being DOUBLE-BILLED.

All of my bills are already paid by Medicare and my supplemental insurance. None are past due. Yet I am receiving bill and/or robocalls about payments due.

I call to straighten this out, am put on hold for a half-hour, only to be told it is not paid on your records, and to send in documentation. This has happened each time I am billed. I can understand an occasional error, but this is system-wide and ongoing.

I am beginning to think you are engaging in an elder-fraud financial scam. If this continues, I will alert appropriate authorities.

Lily Jones, Mendocino

PS. As a footnote, I will kibitz that Joe Redding thinks he would be better in a supervisor position than this current dismal state of affairs as hospital head. What is next? Double billed property tax, sales tax, bed tax?

SPECIAL EVENTS AT GALLERY BOOKSHOP

Sunday, April 24th: In person at the Little River Inn: Ginny Rorby (Like Dust I Rise) and Norma Watkins (In Common)April 24th, 2:00 pm in the Abalone Room

Proof of Vaccination is required and masks are encouraged.

More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

Saturday, April 30th: Independent Bookstore Day w/ Special Guests Katy Tahja, Ginny Rorby, Norma Watkins, Jennifer Clark

Annual Bookstore Event with Prize Wheel Giveaways, IBD exclusives, Treats, New Catsby Merchandise, and Poetry on Demand

April 30th, starting at 10:30am to 6:00pm

More information at 707.937.2665 or gallerybookshop.com

GET INVOLVED WITH PROJECT SANCTUARY

To the Editor:

Project Sanctuary in Ukiah, began in the late 1970’s in response to the need for emergency shelter and support for women who were being abused by their partners. In the fall of 1980, a Rape Crisis Center was added to provide emergency response and counseling to survivors of sexual assault. In 1991, Project Sanctuary established an office in Fort Bragg, serving clients along the Mendocino Coast from Gualala to Westport.

Our services include a 24-Hour Crisis Line, Shelter, Counseling, Support Groups, Legal Advocacy and Education.

Project Sanctuary serves all genders. Over 2000 individuals are served each year by Project Sanctuary, often breaking the cycle of abuse through the support and services offered. Individuals have been able to achieve greater personal growth and independence.

A very important component of our services is the 24-Hour Crisis Line. Help is available around the clock for victims and their families. Project Sanctuary is in desperate need of Volunteers for the Crisis Line. Project Sanctuary welcomes individuals over 18 who are interested in becoming a certified volunteer crisis counselor. Training is provided free of charge, in exchange for a one-year commitment to serve on the crisis line two nights a month. The 80-hour training focuses on sexual assault and domestic violence topics.

State certification as a sexual assault/domestic violence crisis counselor is provided upon successful completion of the 80-hour training and clearance with the Department of Justice fingerprinting.

The next training will hopefully begin June 1, 2022, once a week, in the evening, via Zoom and online courses with completion in October. If you are interested in becoming a Volunteer or know someone, please contact the Ukiah office at 462-9196.

Mary Tindall, Project Sanctuary

Ukiah

SAVE WATER

To the Editor:

Answer to Scott Greacen’s Sunday April 3, 2022 Letter to the Editor on the Potter Valley Project.

Mr. Greacen and his so-called friends of the Eel River, are they actually friends of the Eel River or environmental extremists. Do they care anything about human habitat? There are at least five water districts in Mendocino County that get their water from Lake Mendocino. Without water from the Potter Valley Project, Lake Mendocino will never fill enough to meet the needs for human habitat needed in Mendocino County, not including Sonoma or Marin Counties needs for human habitat. Look at this year how low Lake Mendocino is. All because the environmental extremists would not allow PG&E to transfer water during November and December of 2021 when we were getting plenty of rain to transfer water to Lake Mendocino.

Next, what about this Two Basin Solution disaster that will fail. Ten years after the Cape Horn Dam was built it already had silted in. That’s why Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury was built. Lake Pillsbury has a bigger basin adequate for the water of every need including fire protection. Cape Horn Dam at Van Arsdale does not have a big enough basin for the needs of both the Eel River (fish) and the Russian River (human habitat) without the water from Lake Pillsbury. There are plenty of solutions to get fish past Lake Pillsbury without removing Scott Dam and destroying an asset like Lake Pillsbury. People need to watch the documentary “A Rivers Last Chance”.

In that documentary Lake Pillsbury only effects eight percent of the Eel River. The illegal dope grows effect one hundred percent of the Eel River. You will not hear any of that from these environmental extremists. If these environmental extremists truly cared about the Eel River they would go after these illegal dope grows that draft way too much water and release toxic polutants back in the Eel River to the point the fish cannot even navigate back to their spawning grounds. Lake Pillsbury has water to send downstream during droughts in the summer months to help fish habitat. Without Lake Pillsbury there is no guarantee there would be enough water for fish during these droughts that we are now going through. People of Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin Counties, do not let these environmental extremists from Humboldt County destroy our human habitat.

Why don’t these environmental extremists have Ruth Lake’s Dam removed in Humboldt County (water supply for Eureka), because the people in Eureka would run these environmental extremists out on a rail. Oh, by the way Mr. Scott Greacen, I AM NOT a farmer. I am a native of Mendocino County from a family who has been here over one hundred years and does not want my county destroyed by people who do not even live here.

John Almida

SILVERMAN AGAIN, AND AGAIN

For the past few weeks the Humboldt County Drug Task Force (HCDTF) has been conducting an investigation into Jacob Silverman AKA: High Five (46 years old from Ukiah) for trafficking fentanyl into Humboldt County and selling fentanyl out of Garberville area hotels. 

Agents had information that Silverman uses follow cars with co-conspirators to carry his drugs. Silverman had two active felony warrants for his arrest out of Mendocino County for 2800.2 VC (felony evading) and 12022 PC (armed with a firearm during commission of a felony). 

In the early morning hours of Friday April 22nd, 2022 HCDTF Agents observed Silverman drive into Humboldt County. Agents observed a second vehicle was following Silverman closely and it appeared to be working in tandem with him. Agents followed both vehicles until they stopped in the back driveway of a hotel in the 700 block of Redwood Dr. in Garberville.

Agents quickly identified Humboldt County resident Maxwell Elliot (26 years old from Rio Dell) in the follow car. Agents knew that Elliot had three active felony warrants in Humboldt County for possession of methamphetamine for sale, auto theft, and felony evading. Agents placed Elliot under arrest for his warrants without issue. Elliot was found to be in possession of 22 grams of methamphetamine. 

Elliot was transported to the Humboldt County Jail where he was booked for Possession of methamphetamine for sale and the three felony warrants

During the jail booking process jail staff located 31 grams of fentanyl hidden inside a body cavity on Elliot’s person. Agents added charges of possession of fentanyl for sale and bringing drugs into a jail. 

Agents attempted to arrest Silverman however he drove in reverse through the parking lot in an attempt to get away from the agents. Silverman ended up blocked in the parking lot of the hotel and he refused commands to show agents his hands. Silverman continually reached under his driver’s seat and would not follow commands. HCDTF Agents called for assistance and officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) arrived on scene. Agents gave commands to Silverman for approx. 10 minutes before he finally complied, exited the vehicle, and surrendered to arrest without issue. 

Silverman was transported to the Humboldt County Jail where he was booked on the two felony warrants and for Obstructing or resisting a police officer.

---

PREVIOUSLY…SILVERMAN IN MENDO COURT (2019): "Sparing Silverman"

CATCH OF THE DAY, April 22, 2022

JAMES BELDEN III, Ukiah. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

DAVID GARZA, Medford, Oregon. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, parole violation.

BRANDON HASELIP, Eureka/Ukiah. Robbery, burglary, witness intimidation, use of a firearm.

TONY MCELROY, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

ARTEMIO ORTEGA-REYES, Ukiah. Controlled substance, trespassing, resisting, probation revocation.

RICKY OWENS, Boonville. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

DEMETRIA PIKE, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting.

IAN REED, Redwood Valley. Domestic assault, assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

JACOB SILVERMAN, San Francisco/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

ANTONIO THOMAS, Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

PRESIDENT BIDEN, much like the former Obama administration, has been happy to pay lip service to global warming, claiming he is fully committed to fighting for the climate, publically committing to end oil and gas development on public lands by 2035. Yet in practice, it’s been a contrasting reality. Now, however, the charade is officially over, and Biden is openly pressuring drillers to make good on their plans to exploit our natural resources.

“The oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased … they could be drilling right now, yesterday, last week, last year,” Biden asserted in early March as Russia invaded Ukraine and gas prices shot up. “They are not using them for production now. That’s their decision.”

— Joshua Frank

FAKE VAXX CARDS, an on-line comment: 

Oh holy cripe. As someone who does work in the healthcare area, I raised the alarm about this Kicking and Screaming months ago. Advised them to have barcodes on the shot records and the little cards they were handing out. There were so many people with these fake cards at some events locally. In the Bay Area they were joking around that they could get these cards for $100 or $200 and then it didn’t matter and they could take their masks off. Several large CANNABIS events had hundreds of these fake card attendees. There was no cross-checking going on against the database, no security measures on the cards. Oh yeah, just hold that card up and you were good to go. Puff, puff, pass me some RONA. I raised the alarm and announced that this was going on. It was kind of overlooked, ignored. I’m quite pleased to see that something came of it. 100% surprised that it was never really exposed before this. Slimy people are everywhere no matter educational or economic status.

NOBODY’S PERFECT

Dear Editor,

A sad but predictable verdict of guilty was reached by a Ukiah jury recently in the trial of David Giusti of Fort Bragg. Giusti, 67 years old, was convicted of attempted murder and assault with great bodily injury for the senseless and brutal beating of William Barry, a fellow free range drunk who roamed the same streets as Giusti here in Ukiah.

On that fateful night Barry was beaten, he stumbled into Giusti in a homeless camp in Ukiah where Giusti beat Barry half to death with a wooden ax handle striking him, according to Dr. Colfax at the Ukiah medical center, more than 40 times. Barry was airlifted to Santa Rosa and shortly thereafter placed in a care facility where he remains to this day lingering in a vegetative state.

It took the Jury only one hour to find Giusti guilty of all charges. In the two years it took to get Giusti to trial he fired two attorneys which prolonged the trial for that long. Finally, he realized he could no longer hide from the trial he no doubt would eventually have to face.

Giusti, who has a long violent history in Mendocino County for various crimes, which include beating his own father to death in Fort Bragg in the early 1980s. He now faces 30 years to life on May 19 when District Attorney David Eyster finally flushes the toilet sending another Mendo turd into the sad but predictable footnotes of Ukiah’s sordid history.

Giusti, who spent his brief visits to Mendocino County from prison, would spend his days pushing a shopping cart full of empty cans and bottles and dirty clothes around Ukiah. He is only person in the history of Mendocino County to insist on wearing his soiled jail jumpsuit to a jury trial and refusing to wash his long stringy, greasy hair. When he walked into court, the only thing missing was a shopping cart.

As you all know, Giusti subjects all of us here in jail to several wacky-ass letters accusing D.A. Eyster, Ukiah Police Department and the jail of working in unison to frame him of a crime he was supposedly is innocent of. 

Of course, this was ridiculous and absurd considering Giusti was found at the scene covered in Barry’s blood. The jury, of course, took about as long deliberate as it takes to drink a cup of coffee.

Now having been found guilty, Mr. Giusti will no doubt subject us all to an onslaught of letters to the AVA accusing his attorney of framing him and doing a poor job of representing him.

I urge Mr. Giusti to once in his life take responsibility for his actions and stop assuming the role of wacky-ass victim who has been framed by society.

And to you, Mr. Eyster, “Keep flushing the toilet."

Thomas Hanover Sr.

Mendocino County Jail

Ukiah

PS. Having just read the April 13 edition of the AVA, my prediction is accurate. Giusti writes a letter in which he accuses the District Attorney of having zero evidence -- Giusti was completely covered in Barry's blood -- and of conspiracy where Eyster and the judge and his public defender “framed him.” All three of them have college degrees and jobs. Why would a judge and a District Attorney and a public defender risk losing their careers and incomes over a street bum shopping cart hobo like Giusti? There’s no market for such an absurd claim. Mr. Giusti, you are embarrassing yourself. It's over. At least go out with a semblance of pride and self-respect. You have been flushed down the toilet and there is no amount of Drano that can save you! Buh-bye!

JUST GLANCING at this morning’s Defense Post headlines: Russia Strikes Lviv; Pakistan strikes eastern Afghanistan; Turkey strikes northern Iraq; Kyiv’s allies moving new armor and weapons to Ukraine… The world is at a very perilous point, not even factoring in the global threat of climate change. 

— Jeff St. Clair

ON APRIL 21, 1934 – Moe Berg, Senators catcher (and later US spy), played an AL record 117th consecutive errorless game. Berg, a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School regularly read ten newspapers a day. His reputation as an intellectual was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information Please, in which he answered questions about the etymology of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences.

In 1934, five years before he retired as a player, Berg made a trip to Japan as part of a traveling major league All-Star team. One might wonder what the seldom-used catcher, a .251 hitter that season, was doing playing with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Berg, who spoke seven languages, including Japanese, (one teamate said, Berg can speak seven languages, and can't hit in any of them) made his way to the roof of one of the tallest builings he could gain entry into - a hospital - and took home movies of the Tokyo skyline that were used in the planning of Jimmy Doolittle and his Raiders 1942 bombing raids on the Japanese capital. The U.S. government wrote a letter to Berg, thanking him for the movies.

In 1943, Berg joined the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, and was well-regarded enough to have been chosen to carry out one of the O.S.S.' more ambitious endeavors - a plot to assassinate Werner Heisenberg, the head of Nazi Germany's atom-bomb project. Berg, who spoke German fluently, was sent in December 1944 to Zurich to attend a lecture by Heisenberg. Berg's assessment of the situation was that Germany was not close to having a nuclear bomb, and there was never an attempt to kill Heisenberg.

After being forced out of the spy business in the late forties, Berg didn't hold a regular job. A bachelor, he often freeloaded off friends and relatives, especially his brother Sam, who once sent Moe two eviction notices to get him out of his house. After living with Sam for 17 years, he moved in with his sister Ethel for the final eight years of his life. He passed in 1972 at age 70.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I have encountered many poor-quality Pharmacists lately, and, while Wal-Mart Pharmacy seems like a poor place for Pharmacists from India and China to work in the first place, backwards views about COVID vaccines among health-care workers and educated persons are still surprising to me…

Like my Brother, a career science-teacher at Kennedy High School in Sacramento, a man with a degree in Chemistry and a PhD in Religion, (couldn’t get into Med School so he went to Maranatha instead), an educated man who refuses to take his vaccine…

Incredible. Fake Vaccination Cards… What next?

Take away the license, next candidate getting fresh off the boat, about now… Pharmacists will be soon replaced by robots anyway, and the few leftovers will be in charge of paperwork, performance review and regulatory crap…

Adventist Health is the center of the poor-quality money-focused healthcare industry in Northern California, and if you see a “South-Asian” Pharmacist working in your facility, it is a good sign that you are in a facility that values cheap help over safety and sensibility…

If your employees won’t even comply with State and Federal Law, you can’t assure quality of care, so, it’s an Adventist Health Problem: Avoid like plague, Adventist Health!

AH has been having “Hiring Events” lately, but still has many openings in every facility…

Foreign candidates are pouring into the USA daily!

MCOE SUPPORTS YOUTH VOTER REGISTRATION PROJECT

The trustees of the board for the Mendocino County Office of Education (MCOE) voted to continue MCOE’s longstanding collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Mendocino County (LWVMC) by volunteering to compile 4,000 voter information packets for students ages 16 and older to promote civic engagement. The MCOE board decision came just days before California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced High School Voter Registration Weeks during the last two weeks in April.

This non-partisan project is intended to encourage students’ civic engagement, initially by increasing voter registration among high school seniors. It will not include support for any political campaigns or specific legislation.

The packet is a “gift” to celebrate new voters and build on civic education that occurs in schools by engaging young people in the electoral process—encouraging them to register to vote and teaching them to register their peers. Packets contain a student-designed button, a pocket U.S. Constitution, and a wallet card with relevant civic engagement links.

LWVMC Co-President Cindy Plank said, “We want to make voter registration a rite of passage for all students. Our hope is that it will be easy to keep this information handy and students will find themselves checking those sources often, and sharing information with their friends and family. The Mendocino County Board of Education’s commitment to expand and provide materials for students ages 16 and above is wonderful.”

Research indicates that the preparation many young people receive to become informed voters is inadequate, leading to significant variations in voting rates by race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and other socioeconomic and demographic factors. Voting pre-registration does not change the voting age, which is 18. Instead, it allows eligible Californians ages 16 or 17 to complete the online voter registration form, providing sufficient time and opportunity to get ready to vote.

County Superintendent of Schools Michelle Hutchins said, “California's youth voter registration rate reached a record 66.4% in the 2020 general election — still the lowest registration rate of any other age group. We want to reach as many students as possible and do what we can to mitigate the widespread disparities in youth voting.”

To learn more about this project, contact the League of Women Voters of Mendocino County at info@lwvmendo.org. For voting and registration information visit votersedge.org/ca.

MOTA: GOOD NIGHT RADIO LIVE FROM FRANKLIN ST. ALL NIGHT FRIDAY NIGHT!

Marco here. Deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is about 5:30pm. Or send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week.

Plus you can phone during the show and read your work in your own voice. I'll be in the clean, well-lighted back room of KNYO's storefront studio at 325 N. Franklin, where the number is 1-(707) 962-3022. If you swear like Sam Jackson, wait until after 10pm, so not to agitate the weasels.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as anywhere else via http://airtime.knyo.org:8040/128 (That's the regular link to listen to KNYO in real time.)

Any day or night you can go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night the recording of tonight's show will also be there.

Besides all that, there you'll find a disturbing mass of material to gingerly examine with your mental chopsticks until showtime, or anytime (they last for years), such as:

Rerun: robot praying machine prays robot-written prayers equally effective to human-invented prayers. And it never gets tired nor sodomizes choirboys.

https://laughingsquid.com/robotic-mouth-sings-ai-generated-prayers/

An orrery of conspiracy.

https://twitter.com/tribelaw/status/1516275230632775682

Now connect the dots and argue online about what shapes the dots are moving in. Get furious. Call people who disagree with you communist pedophile Hitler sheep idiots.

https://www.reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/pv836p/how_these_dots_align/

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