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Mendocino County Today: Saturday, May 21, 2022

Warming | Ocean Warning | Owens Fire | Rummage Sale | Outages | Ambulance Membership | Ag Whackers | Farm Report | Housing Needed | Firesafe Homebrew | Skunkaganda | Typewriter | Mo Report | Real Johns | Ukiah Fire | Comer Misdemeanor | Pinot Fest | Cloverdale Holdup | Ending Epidemics | County Notes | 120mph Hyundai | Urban Improvement | Lake Politics | Mill Burned | Save Dams | Coast Loggers | Vote Glentzer | Pullen Bros | Huffman Visit | Yesterday's Catch | Ukraine | National Concerns | Offshore Drilling | Horse Hauling | TicTok Shock | Teamster Strike | RussiaGate | Iraq/Ukraine | Marco Radio | Mandatory Vasectomies | Roger Angell | Hamm Ranch

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TEMPERATURES WILL BE ON THE INCREASE starting today as high pressure builds over the Northeast Pacific. No rain is expected through at least early Thursday. (NWS)

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OWENS FIRE, near Point Arena

Evacuation orders were lifted late Friday night after being ordered for an area just east of Point Arena due to a wildland fire being called the Owens Fire which broke out a little after 3pm Friday afternoon. Twelve engines, five tenders, two choppers, four hand crews and three dozers were dispatched and had achieved 5% containment by late Friday night as conditions quieted down some. 

fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/5/20/owens-fire/

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ELK RUMMAGE SALE

It’s back! The Greenwood Civic Club invites you to take part in the 33rd annual Elk Rummage Sale to be held Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Greenwood Community Center in downtown Elk. Discover antiques, collectibles, clothes, books, toys, housewares, furniture, tools, and more at bargain prices. Join the "Great Race" Sunday afternoon, stuffing all you can in a bag for $3.  While shopping, feast on baked goods, drinks and tempting lunch items. Credit Cards are accepted.  Proceeds from the annual event benefit community projects, the summer children’s program, and student scholarships. 

Note:  Masks will be required in all indoor areas and are highly recommended outdoors.

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CHRIS CALDER: 

Last week: guy cuts the wrong cable on a highway project, internet and phone/911 out for a day.

This week: wind blows, power goes out for 20,000 people.

A little hint from PG&E, AT&T and Mother Nature for our upcoming Summer o’fire-fun: in case of emergency, don't count on your phone.

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AV AMBULANCE MEMBERSHIPS for 2022-2023 are now available! Hard copies are going out to Anderson Valley addresses today, and on-line applications are available on our website. AVFD+AirMedCare or AVFD only - choose your household's coverage level. Memberships are one of the main sources of funding for our ambulance service. Your membership ensures the availability of this vital resource in AV. With an AVFD Ambulance Membership, any portion of bills for emergency transport not covered by other insurance is waived.

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BETH SWEHLA'S AG CLASS Helps Out A Neighbor In Need

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PETIT TETON MONTHLY FARM REPORT - APRIL 2022

It’s a gorgeous spring. The 4” of rain we received throughout the month has turned everything green and blooming. And though I’ve had 10 rose plants in the front yard for the past 15 years, never have they looked so beautiful or bloomed so prolifically. Roses were never my favorites because I thought they took too much care, but now I get it...the weather was too hot and dry. No wonder they grow so well in England! We have such an abundance that at the suggestion of a restaurateur in SF, we started making rose petal jam both with and without walnuts. It’s delicious and a big hit. We would never have thought of it!

For the past 4 months I’ve been sowing and tending our year’s crop babies. Up until today, the greenhouse was packed with six packs and 4” pots full of starts on heating pads. Two weeks ago we started moving some outdoors to tables in the breezeway (a covered area between the house and garage) so they could “harden off”. Today we finished planting all 500 tomatoes of nine different sorts (them’s a lot of tomatoes!) into their beds. After last year’s very poor production, we’re hoping at least some of them prosper. We then moved the peppers, around 300, and cucumbers also 300, from the greenhouse to the tables the tomatoes vacated. In a couple of days, if nighttime temps allow, they too will be planted out. The okra and the ghost peppers are all that’s left in the greenhouse...and the Espelette peppers which will all be planted in the greenhouse.

This is a very busy time of year, sowing, planting, weeding, watering, feeding and generally tending to what we hope will be a fruitful season. No guarantees — ever — but we feel lucky to be living in a relatively peaceful and still functioning part of a devolving world.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones and all other living beings to the best of your ability.

Nikki Auschnitt and Steve Kreig

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GIMMEE SHELTER

Urgent housing need

Urgent - my daughter must be off her long term property rental in Caspar by June 30.

Responsible & hard working young woman looking for a new place to call home. She was born and raised here, and now works at the local humane society helping save lives every day. She is kind, compassionate, and determined to help others. She is looking for a long term housing situation and is committed to our community. Her interests include animals, gardening, art, and community service.

Rustic living situation ok. Cabin, converted shed, property for trailer, all ideas are welcome. Nothing is too rustic. She currently resides in a trailer she owns. Ideally, she would find a non-trailer solution, but would gladly accept property to put her trailer on.

Please be dog friendly.

Kamala Lance <kamalalance@gmail.com>

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BRUCE BRODERICK:

One of the more interesting series to be on the boob tube in recent years is Yellowstone. It's a bit hammy but it's about the corporate takeover of a portion of Montana that involves Native Americans, ranchers and corporations. It's a bit of an extreme view as to what lengths the individuals involved on different sides of the equation will go to get what they want. It's about exerting power. It's about doing anything to get what you want. It's about corruption on all sides.

Yesterday, Thursday May 19, 2022 we saw corporate corruption coming to the surface in the form of a front page newspaper article in the Fort Bragg Advocate that takes opinions and states them as fact without any disclaimers in an infotainment piece called “Court of Appeal to consider Mendocino Railway’s request to overturn ruling”.

I'm referring to the front page batch of lies that are Robert Pinoli's opinions which are stated as fact. It doesn't matter what he is saying as much as how the Ukiah based Advocate newspaper portrays his words as facts without any regard for fact checking or true journalism.

It's pretty common knowledge that the Advocate hasn't spoken for our community since long before it moved its base of operations to Ukiah. That loss of community voice started to happen when the local paper was bought out by a large conglomerate back in the early 2000's. The Mendocino Beacon suffered the same fate. 

So here on the coast we are left with corporate propaganda presenting itself as news. Those on both the left and the right should be enraged enough to at least speak out, but that isn't going to happen is it. We are all just too self consumed to care anymore.


WHY THE SKUNK JUNK?

Editor,

I have to say that I am disappointed in the Mendocino Railway propaganda piece that appeared in the AVA website on Tuesday, then on facebook, and today on the front-page of the FB Advocate (as “Submitted” without attribution? see appended below). I could not access the Tuesday online to look for attribution without a password. Therefore, I could not see how it was attributed on your page. Perhaps I’ll find out in tomorrow’s snail mail if it is the print edition?

I observe that no local government agent is competent or capable within the AVA editorial policy, so whatever the City does will be wrong, but no reporting on the findings of the judge that is being appealed does not show much investigative rigor. Will we see as big a piece if the Appeals court finds in the favor of the judge? I suppose that the post-fairness doctrine press is subject to paid and/or “prewritten” submissions like TV “News” to reduce reporting expense. But if it wasn’t written by an agent of the Harts and was original AVA, somebody may be plagiarizing your work. 

Tell me it ain’t so Bruce!

Expectantly,

James Schoonover

Mendocino


ED REPLY: We try to be fair to both sides in the Skunk dispute, publishing info from both although we're partial to the Fort Bragg end of the argument. Publishing pressers doesn't mean we favor one side or the other on various issues in these restive, heated times.

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LARRY LIVERMORE: Who remembers typewriters? This idiot used to type his entire fanzine on one. Pic was taken at Ukiah Denny's in 1986 by RD Deines. A year later I decided to start a record label, still using that same damn typewriter.

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SUPERVISOR MULHEREN:

On Sunday I had the opportunity to cut a ribbon on the new section of the City View Trail with Mayor Jim Brown and Dr Allende AND THEN also cut it with our Interim CEO Darcie Antle and Dr Chan AND THEN be paparazzi for a bunch of other folks that came out to see the new trail. This is now about a five mile loop. The Ukiah Valley Trail Group does amazing work for our community! If you are looking for pictures they can be found on the UVTG Facebook (still looking for the pic of Darcie and I). 

So why should you care about trails? HEALTH. A healthy community is a productive and safe community. The more our youth are out doing physical activity in nature the better their mental and physical health will be, and it’s not just kids that need walks in nature it’s us grown ups too. 

I hope you’ll schedule in some time to get out and try the new trail. Thank you UVTG and volunteers! You rock!

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Several callers mentioned yesterday that Board Members should watch the movie Lady Buds. I bought it on Apple and Amazon when it first came out and I agree, I think that everyone in Mendo should watch it, especially if you don’t cultivate cannabis. The participants of the movie share their journey through cannabis regulations. It has not been easy. One of the online comments we received yesterday about fallowing and not pay tax during the year you aren’t growing felt it’s unfair for cannabis farmers to be able to take a year off. All types of farms have different regulations and businesses that’s why they chose that business, the difference is that cannabis regulations are not complete. Both the State and the County have continued to try and adjust to move legalization forward but as with most ballot initiatives and legislation there were unintended consequences. Counsel Curtis outlined the ordinance as only related to the tax, trying to keep it as simple as possible and not affecting the permit process so applicants can continue with licensing while fallowing. Although it’s not perfect there was an urgency amongst many cultivators to have an opportunity to save money this year (you’ve probably noticed the amount of soil that hasn’t been sold at garden stores) folks are not cultivating while waiting to move product and wait for the market to right itself. I absolutely understand the wheels of government turn slowly and small business owners need answers and changes for their current situation. And that our over 1,000 cannabis applicants represent a thousand unique combinations of strengths and challenges. I think we should all expect to continue to have cannabis on the agenda and adjust policy as necessary to keep as many people as legally possible in the regulated market and add whoever else wants to be. I’ve repeatedly asked that cannabis policy be decided by all five Board Members. We are all elected to serve not only our districts but the entire County and I have many cultivators that live in Ukiah and own or manage farms throughout Mendo. I’ll continue to advocate for small farmers that are trying to jump through the hoops of legalization for as many years as we need to. The cannabis department has heard the plea for communication and hosts weekly meetings where you can attend and ask questions and propose solutions. Please note there is always a reason why, sometimes legally Mendo Canna Dept isn’t able to initiate changes because of the laws or unintended consequences. Supervisor Williams has asked a few times now if we can just issue cannabis permits and move people to the State for licensing, there may be issues with that because of the way that the State and Mendo initially set up the ordinance. My personal opinion is that in an attempt to meet the needs of farmers and environmentalist Mendo tried to get out first with an ordinance that doesn’t translate to our on the ground scenarios. I don’t want to place the environmental and financial burden of State regulations on small farms that can barely afford the process as it is. The bottom line is that cannabis regulations are not complete and we should be able to ask questions back and forth, communicate with civility and understand that there are multiple layers on both sides of the fence that we need to move through. 

The [cannabis] industry has a platform at Board meetings to bring suggested changes. Specific ones. Supervisor Williams outline yesterday the process. If things are not being brought forward through the two ad hocs working on cannabis then the industry can ask a Board member to bring a specific policy forward. The MCD [cannabis department] and CoCo [County Counsel] work for the Board not the industry. I have no problem with advice or suggestions or whatever you want to call it, no one on County staff or the Board needs to be berated by industry stakeholders. I understand that emotions are high and people are under a lot of stress, I respect that. I also will continue to call for open and transparent conversations. You don’t get that with working groups, that’s exactly what people mean when they say it was decided in some back room with a few people that showed up for the meeting. If cannabis needs a special meeting outside of regular board days then the Chair has scheduled that.

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MENDO PEEPS - I’ll be sharing some tunes with my sweetie Jon and John McCallister tomorrow, Saturday May 21st at Boonville Road Wines in Philo. It’s Pinot Fest Weekend and it’s sure to be a great time. Come through for some great BBQ, great wine and a taste of The Real John’s! 

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THURSDAY NIGHT’S STRUCTURE FIRE IN UKIAH DECLARED ARSON

Ukiah Valley Fire Authority Battalion Chief Justin Buckingham told us investigators determined that the fire was an act of arson suspected to have been a transient’s cooking or warming fire.

mendofever.com/2022/05/20/investigators-determine-last-nights-structure-fire-in-ukiah-was-the-result-of-arson/

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GEORGE DORNER: 

As of this moment, 1343 hours, 20 May 2022, Bailey Isiah Comer is charged with a misdemeanor. This link to the booking log proves it: http://50.230.66.240/NewWorld.InmateInquiry/Mendocino?Name=Comer&SubjectNumber=&BookingNumber=&BookingFromDate=05%2F13%2F2022&BookingToDate=05%2F20%2F2022&Facility=

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YORKVILLE TEENS ATTEMPT ARMED ROBBERY

On Thursday, May 19, at about 9:39 PM, Cloverdale Police responded to the 600 block of N. Cloverdale Blvd on a report of an armed robbery. Upon arrival, officers contacted the store employee who told them that two male subjects entered the convenience store wearing ski masks, brandished a firearm, and demanded money. The employee told the officers he provided the suspects with an unknown amount of money and the suspects left on foot toward North St. While on scene officers contacted a witness who reported that he was driving on North St. and saw a silver Honda Accord parked on North St. He observed two subjects seated in the driver and passenger seats with their seats leaned back which he felt was suspicious. The witness reported that he looked up and saw two subjects walking toward the Quick Stop putting ski masks on over their heads. The witness reported that he began erratically honking his horn to alert the clerk. The witness reported that the driver of the Honda attempted to intervene by blocking him from driving further on the street. The witness reported that he saw the two subjects exit the store and as they began running toward the Honda, one of the subjects fired three rounds from an unknown type of firearm. The witness reported that he was not struck by the gunfire. The two subjects got into the Honda and the driver fled the scene heading toward Hwy 128. 

During the investigation, officers recovered the three shell casings from the crime scene. Officers learned that the silver Honda Accord, license number 4VZM327, described by the witness at the scene, matched a vehicle that was stopped earlier at 8:27 PM by Cloverdale Police. Through a records check, officers were able to identify the driver of the vehicle as being Angel Marron 18 with an address in 20,000 of Hwy 128 in Yorkville. 

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office responded to the address and located the silver Honda Accord parked at the residence. The vehicle matched the same make, model, color and license plate number of the vehicle observed leaving the Quick Stop moments after the robbery. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, maintained constant surveillance on the residence and the vehicle pending the authorization of a search warrant.

At approximately 5:55 AM Cloverdale Police and Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies executed the search warrant at the residence. Located inside the residence were Angel Marron and three juvenile males. 

During a search of the residence, Cloverdale officers located several items of evidence connecting the subjects to the crime. Based on the evidence seized, Cloverdale Police arrested Angel Marron and one juvenile for attempted murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm with no serial number, and assault with a deadly weapon. Officers arrested the other two juveniles for conspiracy to commit a crime. 

The Cloverdale Police Department would like to thank the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office for their assistance during this investigation.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is asked to contact the Cloverdale Police Department at 707-894-2150.

(Cloverdale PD Presser)


ARRESTS MADE DAY AFTER GOOD SAMARITAN TRIED TO ALERT STORE WORKER TO ARMED ROBBERY IN CLOVERDALE

by Alana Minkler

Four people linked to an armed robbery of a convenience store in Cloverdale were arrested Friday after police found evidence tying them to the robbery.

One of those arrested was identified as 18-year-old Angel Marron, according to a Cloverdale Police Department news release.

Three others, all males, were also arrested Friday morning on suspicion of armed robbery. Their names were not released because they are under the age of 18.

Around 9:40 p.m. Thursday, Cloverdale police responded to the Quik Stop on Cloverdale Boulevard.

A store employee told police that two people had entered the store wearing ski masks, brandishing a firearm and demanding money, according to the release. The employee gave them the cash and the pair left on foot toward North Street, police said.

A witness reported seeing two people in a silver Honda Accord parked on North Street acting “suspicious,” police said.

Seeing them pull on ski masks, he began honking erratically to alert the store employee. The driver of the Honda attempted to block him from getting closer to the store, he said. Two of the suspects came out and began shooting at him, he told police.

The gunfire missed him, he said, and police later found three shell casings at the scene.

Police were able to match the Honda’s license plate number, given to them by the witness, to a vehicle belonging to Marron that had been stopped about an hour earlier by Cloverdale Police for an unspecified reason, according to the release.

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office went to Marron’s address and found the same silver Honda Accord parked there.

Just before 6 a.m. Friday, Cloverdale Police and Mendocino Sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at that address, where they found Marron and three other males under the age of 18.

Officers found “several items of evidence connecting the subjects to the crime,” although the release didn’t specify what they were.

The Press Democrat called the Cloverdale Police Department for clarification, but police staff said no one would be able to answer questions until later in the day because officers were all on patrol.

The release says based on evidence seized, Cloverdale Police arrested Marron and one of the minors for attempted murder, armed robbery, possession of a firearm with no serial number, and assault with a deadly weapon. They also arrested the other two minors for conspiracy to commit a crime.

The release said the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is encouraged to call the police department at 707-894-2150.

(The Press Democrat)

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COUNTY NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

SUPERVISOR DAN GJERDE made a reasonable point at Tuesday's Board meeting about why the County's practice of “matching” 50% of the Transient Occupancy Revenues collected in the County and in cities should continue if the Board is “possibly” in a budget crunch. 

“I believe that in past practice the County has provided a 50% match for both the revenues collected by the transient occupancy tax and the business improvement District collected inside the cities and the county. We just went through a pretty extensive morning and discussion about the structural deficit, possibly, that's in the county budget, it's certainly very tight. I support the idea that for every dollar collected in the county, that the county would provide a fifty cent match to the Business Improvement District (BID). I think it's sort of inevitable that at some point and this could be the year that the county can't afford to provide a 50% match the BID collects inside the cities. So I would not want to see something in the report that we are accepting today that may possibly bind us for a budget deliberation that we have not had yet, next year's budget. I just want to make sure that we are not adopting some language that requires us to provide the 50% match for the revenues collected inside the cities next year since we have not adopted next year's budget.

Supervisor McGourty: I feel very very strongly that we cannot not honor our commitment. I get the part that it doesn't seem fair that if we are collecting transient occupancy taxes and the city portion and we rematch, so there should be discussion about that. We have to make sure they [the cities] honor it as well. I certainly want to support tourism because I can remember the days when, you know, everyone was saying, where is Mendocino? And we had all these wonderful things to share and we had a tourism industry that was terrifically underutilized, 50% occupancy year-round.

Supervisor Mulheren: When we were talking about the expansion of the great Redwood Trail my concern would be with the individual cities that we know that not all four of our cities have the same capacity of each other, Visit Ukiah. The Fort Bragg Visitor Center may be more successful at attracting tourists.

Supervisor Williams: Given that tourism it is one of our big economies I think it may be shortsighted and we may lose more than we save in the short term.

McGourty: $100k in taxes is probably a good weekend on the coast that we would give up. I don't want to see us cut off our nose to spite our face. So we save a little bit of money — the $100,000 — but we lose it in the long run.

Apparently, not including the cities in the calculation would result in reducing the county match by one third. Or approximately $200,000.

The Board voted 3-2, Gjerde and Haschak dissenting, to set up another ad hoc committee to look at the “matching” calculation. But meanwhile, almost $600,000 will be taken out of the “tight” General Fund to subsidize the tourist industry for at least another year.

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MENDO’S TWO SENIOR UNION PEOPLE, tried to provide some common budget sense to the Supervisors last Tuesday.

Patrick Hickey, SEIU Local 1021 Rep: “For the County administration and the board to be talking about cuts in county services at this time with the limited amount of information that has been provided makes absolutely no sense. The county is awash in money. Your task is to effectively allocate it for the highest possible benefit. The state is making a wide range of funding available. We need staff to apply for it and utilize it if we are to be successful. The administration has done too little to pursue uncollected funds. And blames it on staff shortages. We need to redouble our efforts and offer competitive salaries so that we can help help employees identify and find untaxed properties and transient occupancy taxes. The county has failed to fill hundreds of non-general fund positions which would bring in millions of dollars to circulate in our local economy, support our local business, and expand vital services. We have heard the county talk about the projected drop in cannabis tax revenues for the fiscal year. That certainly is a concern. But what they fail to mention is the county also secured a three-year $15.6 million local jurisdiction assistance grant to support the cannabis program. It seems to us that it would be worth mentioning that in this context. For every area of concern there is a sign of promise. What we need is a balanced assessment of our position, not a cherry picked gloom and doom report. We are looking to the board to invest in our communities, not to defund them. These times call for bold and optimistic leadership. No one can deny that the county faces many challenges. But if you support your staff and fill vacant positions and allow county employees to do their job the whole community wins.”

Julie Beardslee, President of SEIU Chapter 1021: “I am here to share our concerns about the current budget process, and the limited and selected information that is being shared with the Board. County administration has shared very little information in their third-quarter reports. If you now have year-to-date budget actuals for the departments, we asked that you share them. We are concerned that the county is flying blind trying to make consequential decisions with what might be inadequate or even misleading information. For example, the Chief Executive Office made the assertion that the county should hold in reserve three months of operating expenses, or about 25% of the general fund operating expenses. According to board policy 32, it calls for 6.35% of general fund operating expenses. While one might think that this 25% is an excess of caution, the county is not a household or small business. There are different budgeting practices and funding streams. Mendocino County currently has a 10% general fund reserve which is in line with our reserves from neighboring counties. Humboldt, Napa, San Francisco, Marin, Sacramento, and Yolo all have 10% reserves while Sonoma County has only an 8.3% reserve. I doubt there is a single county in California that holds three months worth of general fund reserves. We don't need a 25% reserve in general fund. A 10% reserve is fine. Rather than make drastic cuts that will put us in further in a hole and worsen the already strained county services, SEIU's position is to hire staff to collect the back and uncollected revenues. If there is a temporary shortfall, use the reserves to bring the county through the rough patch and then replenish the reserves with the collected revenues. We believe that transparency and fiscal reporting and an honest and open discussion of all the tools available to this board will help create a balanced budget and allow the county to continue its vital work for the community.”

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THE UNION REPS’ INPUT was ignored. 

Corinne Powell, a long pot permit applicant and close follower of the County’s pot permit program mess at least got a little response out of Supervisor Ted Williams on Tuesday when she declared: “There may be viable and plausible explanations for why so many applicants are having trouble working their way what has become a maze at the cannabis department. There are huge problems. People are not able to continuously have applications sent back because something new that is not in the ordinance, that has not been directed by the Board, that has been created for no apparent, but arbitrary reasoning from the Department — that is our biggest issue. The playing field changes. There is no way to predict what will be asked for next. We continue to hope that we can get some oversight to sort of rein in some of this autonomous and arbitrary regulating through the Department. if so, I think we'll all fare much better. I want the Board to keep that in mind. You should dig deeper and I believe an ad hoc committee needs to take oversight of the Cannabis department.

Williams thought he could dismiss Ms. Powell’s remarks by asking her to explain herself, expecting that she’d be unable to: “We do have an ad hoc committee, it's Supervisors Haschak and McGourty. Can you tell us specifically what are the regulations that have been added by staff that are not part of the ordinance?”

Powell: “Let's start with vegetation modification. From my own experience in the renewal process there were all kinds of things requested like where do you store your generator? Why is that a significant issue? When a description shows where the use and occasional use of generators is in my farming practices? Another request was, you have water storage to be included in your application in your site plan. I've put water storage of significance on my site plan. I use water cubes that hold approximately 275 gallons. They are plastic containers you see in the back of pickup trucks. I haul my own water from a commercial water facility. I am trying to save a little money. I told them that in my documents that these are mobile and occasionally I move them around the property. If I'm irrigating my orchard, if I'm irrigating young pine trees. They want to know exactly where they are placed. I have tried to help them understand that these are not real structures that I'm using it. It's that kind of thing.”

Williams, having failed at his gotcha attempt, then quickly told Ms. Powell to go away and talk to the people who have no idea what to do about the problem: “I realize we cannot get into detail and solve this here and you can work with the ad hoc supervisors.”

Powell: “I would be happy to work with them. But in the past some of the issues of concern to the applicants have been out of what they consider to be their so-called work.” 

Williams said Ms. Powell’s complaints are within their scope of work and Powell agreed to give it another try. Insincerity prevailed again.

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NUMEROUS VIOLATIONS

ON Monday, May 16, 2022, at approximately 10am, Luis Mendoza-Gonzaga was observed driving a Hyundai Santa Fe at excessive speed on US-101 S/B. 

Luis Mendoza-Gonzaga

Mendoza-Gonzaga was pulled over by a CHP patrol unit, who contacted Mendoza-Gonzaga through the open, right side, passenger window. Upon being informed the reason for the stop and requested license, registration, and proof of insurance, Mendoza-Gonzaga informed the Officer that he did not have a driver’s license. When the Officer asked for the ignition keys to the Hyundai, Mendoza-Gonzaga sped away from the traffic stop on US-101 S/B.

The CHP Officer initiated a pursuit with Mendoza-Gonzaga, which reached speeds of 120 MPH, Mendoza-Gonzaga traveled recklessly on US-101 S/B until reaching Perkins St. Mendoza-Gonzaga then exited the wrong way on the Perkins St. ramp at US-101, at which time the pursuit was canceled and enforcement vehicles from the CHP, Ukiah PD and the MCSO searched the area for the Mendoza-Gonzaga and the Hyundai.

With assistance from the public and Ukiah PD, the Hyundai was located abandoned in the south parking lot of Big Lots on S, Orchard Ave. The interior of the Hyundai contained loose ammunition and a baggy containing a white, crystalline substance. The Hyundai was determined to be a previously reported stolen vehicle. Mendoza-Gonzaga was located on Leslie St. and Gobbi St. after public assistance identified him. Mendoza-Gonzaga was subsequently arrested by the CHP and charged with numerous violations, including Felony Evading and Vehicle Theft.

(CHP Presser)

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LAKE POLITICS

Editor,

There are many issues in our world and community to be concerned with but there is one issue locally that stands out to me above the rest, and that is the potential loss of the less than 2% of the water from the Eel River that is diverted into the Russian River through the Potter Valley Project. I find it inconceivable to destroy this invaluable infrastructure. Yes, the Eel River has seen its share of manmade effects but blaming the Project as the sole culprit is extremely inaccurate. Beginning in the 1800’s clear cut logging and overfishing began the destruction of this beautiful and vast water shed. Massive flood events of the 1950’s and 1960’s left residual impacts. More currently drought, wildfires, the illegal water diversions for Cannabis and the Pike Minnow have added to its current poor state. The Project is a year round water source for both the Eel and Russian River fisheries. It is a resource, not a detriment. In addition, over 600,000 people in Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma, and Marin counties are dependent on the water. At this time when we are facing the constant threat of wildfires, why would we want to destroy our two sources of water, Lake Pillsbury and Lake Mendocino that we might need for fire suppression? Not even discussing the issues of the other counties, the communities of Lake Pillsbury, Potter Valley, Redwood Valley, Ukiah, Hopland and beyond are all affected whether it be water for drinking, agriculture, fire suppression, recreation or tourism. In the election coming up on June 7th I haven’t decided yet who I will be voting for, but this I know, I will not vote for our current congressman in the 2nd district because he is a complete advocate for the destruction of Van Arsdale and Scott dams. I am leaning toward voting for Chris Coulombe because he is being endorsed by the Mendocino County Farm Bureau. Whomever you vote for, please vote for someone who wants to help restore the fish in the Eel River, but also respects the humans of Mendocino County who are greatly dependent upon this water source.

Randy Dorn

Redwood Valley

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Burned Mendocino Mill, Big River, 1946

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SAVE THE LAKES

To the Editor:

A little common sense please.

Save Lake Pillsbury and Lake Mendocino.

Isn’t anybody going to bring a little common sense to the discussion about removing the 108 year old Potter Valley project? PG&E has stumbled, and the environmentalists and fishing groups see an opportunity and are all in for removing the Cape Horn and the Scott dams. These are the dams on the Eel River that hold back water during the winter. This provides year round continuous flows and a reliable source of water for the hydroelectric power project. The water is diverted through a tunnel to the power plant, which is in Potter Valley then released into the Russian River where it continues into Lake Mendocino. The goal of removing the dams is to restore fish migration past the dams into traditional spawning grounds. Evidently, fishermen are convinced this will improve fishing.

To me it makes sense to weigh the benefits of taking on a project of this size and with such far reaching consequences. Let’s take a look. If the dams and the power project are removed, what will the benefits be? One is improved fish habitat resulting in better fishing. Weekend warriors can run to Cabela’s buy $1000 worth of fishing gear and go kill fish. There will be more fish to kill. Second, the commercial fishing industry feels that ocean salmon catch will improve if our inland reservoirs are destroyed, but don’t seem to acknowledge that the more fish you take from the ocean, the less fish there are to run up the river to spawn.

If the dams are removed, what are the potential negative consequences? Keep in mind this water diversion has been in place for over 100 years and many people have come to rely on it. Lake Pillsbury, a favorite boating, camping and summer home one. Lake Pillsbury is also a valuable source of water for firefighting in the Mendocino National Forest during wildfire season. This firefighting asset will also be lost.

Potter Valley Irrigation District will lose its summer water supply drying up Potter Valley farms and ranches. Lake Mendocino would suffer even worse than it has already under recent flow reductions. The lake will no longer be a place to swim, boat and camp during summer months. Lake Mendocino is the only fresh water lake in Mendocino County providing these recreational activities.

Downstream flows in the Russian River during the summer will also suffer dramatically. Farmers from Redwood Valley to Jenner rely on the Russian River for summer irrigation. Farms, vineyards and wineries that have sprung up along the river over the past 100 years will have to find other sources of water. Municipal water districts including Redwood Valley, Millview, Rogina, Willow, City of Ukiah, Hopland, Sonoma County and Marin County will lose a valuable source of water they have relied on for over 100 years.

What will the water districts do? They will raise prices and force conservation. Everyone will be forced to take out their lawns and landscaping, turning our residential neighborhoods into fire hazard zones. It seems obvious to me that all these recent fires burning through neighborhoods like Coffey Park could be prevented with lush green landscaping.

The scale tips very heavily towards leaving the dams in place and restoring traditional flow levels into Lake Mendocino. From what I have read, there is a fish passage ladder in place on the Eel River, but “it clogs up with debris a couple times a year”. OK, here comes the common sense. Look for a solution that allows reliable fish passage while improving the dams. The cost of removing these dams will surely be much higher than improving them. Maybe the trout fishing groups can volunteer to clean the fish ladder a couple times a year.

Let’s face it, the entire Western United States would be a desert without the many very aggressive water projects completed years ago. Today we see uncontrolled immigration into the US and especially California placing more and more demand on our water supply. We are experiencing weather changes now and are warned about future global warming and the inevitable droughts and wildfires we are to expect.

If the predictions are accurate, developing more water storage capability is going to be critical as droughts become more frequent and last longer. The solution is not to destroy our 100 year old sources of water. We should be focused on managing our seasonal rains and preparing for the inevitable. We should improve our existing water infrastructure, raise dams like the Coyote Dam and look for safe sites to store more water. The bottom line is we need to manage our water it’s a resource that we cannot afford to waste.

If it’s the fish we are most concerned about, we should improve fish passage at the dams and curtail all fishing in the Russian River, the Eel River and the coastal waters where fish live that spawn in these rivers? They banned fishing in the North Fork of the Eel River following the 1977 drought. The result was a 600 percent increase in spawning fish in one year. Water is the lifeblood of our communities. We cannot allow it to be ignored and mismanaged by our government bureaucrats or taken over by special interest groups that only focus on one fishy part of the picture. These dams store and provide year round water for fire protection, clean renewable energy, municipal water supply, farm crop irrigation, recreation and home defense landscaping. Look for smart solutions to improve fish habitat, but don’t ignore or underestimate the North Bay dependence on this water diversion.

Andrew Nicoll, Sr. 

Ukiah

* * *

Loggers in the Coast Woods

* * *

POSITIVITY

To The Editor:

As a former school district superintendent, I understand that the primary responsibility of the county office of education is to support the county’s school districts. In order to fulfill this obligation, it is imperative that the County Superintendent lead with a spirit of empathy, cooperation and inclusion so that all districts feel supported.

I have worked with Nicole Glentzer over the last 8 years and have found that she possesses all of these traits. Under the shadow of the pandemic Nicole has been at the forefront of returning students and staffs to their campuses and to a safe environment. She has fostered positive and cooperative relationships focused on problem solving with her district’s employee representatives. She has demonstrated an openness to alternative points of view and solutions. She also possesses a contagious energy and positivity in dealing with even the toughest of issues.

I urge you to join me in voting for Nicole Glentzer. The county’s students and staff will reap the benefits.

Raymond Chadwick

Ukiah

* * *

Pullen Brothers, 1877, Mendocino Coast

* * *

RECEIVED AFTER THE EVENT

Press advisory for Huffman visit, Friday, May 20

Hi, AVA folks. Stephanie Gold here. I'm writing to let you know that Congressman Huffman will be meeting with us (the AVHA) at the Anderson Creek Apartments, on AV Way, to celebrate the Anderson Valley Affordable Housing Initiative Community Project funding they awarded us ($400,000), letting us make an offer on those apartments so as to preserve those units for affordable housing. Want to come this afternoon (4:15pm) to cover this happy event? (Sorry for the last-minute invitation--we weren't sure on the timing till just recently.) Cheers,

Stephanie Gold

707-895-9321

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CATCH OF THE DAY, May 20, 2022

Barchus, Deck, Delcampo

MICHAEL BARCHUS, Loleta/Ukiah. Controlled substance, paraphernalia. 

CHRISTINA DECK, Redwood Valley. Domestic battery.

CESAR DELCAMPO, Ukiah. Under influence.

Fontaine, Johnson, Marizette

ERIC FONTAINE, Fallbrook/Ukiah. DUI, stolen vehicle, stolen property, removing firearm from peace officer, resisting.

SHAWN JOHNSON, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

TEVIN MARIZETTE, Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI, no license, probation revocation.

McElroy, Miller, Palacios

TONY MCELROY, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JENNIFER MILLER, Albion. DUI-alcohol&drugs.

JOHN PALACIOS, Ukiah. Battery.

Powe, Willis, Woodward

MICHAEL POWE, Fort Bragg. DUI.

SCOTTY WILLIS. Ukiah. Trespassing, resisting. (Frequent flyer.)

CHRISTOPHER WOODWARD, Ukiah. Petty theft-merchandise, vandalism. 

* * *

UKRAINE, MAY 20

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

Russia said it completed its takeover of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, with the defense minister claiming that Russian forces seized the Azovstal steel plant, the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance. Ukraine's government didn't immediately comment. Meanwhile, fighting heated up in eastern Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's assault turned parts of the Donbas region into “hell.” The governor of Luhansk said Russian attacks killed a dozen residents in the key city of Severodonetsk, including three adults killed when Russia struck a school where civilians were taking shelter.

The Group of Seven wealthy economies will provide $19.8 billion in economic aid to Ukraine. The financial support is separate from weapons and humanitarian assistance, aiming to help the Ukrainian government maintain services for its population. The deal was struck by G7 finance leaders from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and Japan. By one key estimate, Ukraine's economy is expected to shrink by 35% because of the war.

 Finland's state-owned energy company Gasum said Russia will cut off its natural gas supply on Saturday morning. Finland is applying for NATO membership and has refused Russia's demand to pay for gas in rubles. Russia previously cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria, which also refused to pay in rubles. Gasum's CEO said Finland had been preparing for the cutoff and “there will be no disruptions to the gas transmission network.” Russia-supplied gas accounts for about 5% of Finland's energy consumption.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder stepped down as chair of Russia's Rosneft oil company. A long-time friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Schröder faced growing calls to shed his financial ties with Russia's state energy companies and the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany. On Thursday, German lawmakers stripped Schröder of numerous privileges afforded to the country's former leaders, and a European Parliament vote suggested he might face sanctions. Schröder, who served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005, is viewed as instrumental in increasing Germany's energy dependence on Russia.

— NPR

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* * *

LAWMAKERS KILL BAN ON DRILLING IN STATE-CONTROLLED WATERS

by Phil Willon

Facing fierce opposition from California’s powerful oil industry and trade unions, legislation to close down operations on three offshore oil rigs off the Orange County coast failed Thursday to win passage in a state Senate committee, seven months after a major spill fouled the beaches and wetlands around Huntington Beach. Senate Bill 953 would have allowed the State Lands Commission to terminate offshore oil leases by the end of 2024 if the agency was unable to negotiate voluntary buyouts with the petroleum companies operating the oil platforms. The legislation focused solely on the three oil leases in state waters adjacent to Orange County, not the 23 oil rigs in federal waters along the rest of California’s coastline.

The measure was introduced by state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine) after an October oil spill off Huntington Beach dumped an estimated 25,000 gallons into the ocean. Investigators suspect it was caused by a cargo ship anchor that snagged a 17-mile-long pipeline stretching from an oil platform that operates in federal waters to the Port of Long Beach.

Min called offshore oil production a serious threat to California’s $44-billion-a-year coastal economy, as the October spill proved. Not only were beaches closed, hurting local restaurants and other businesses, but the spill forced the cancelation of the final day of a popular air show.

Min’s bill died Wednesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, a gatekeeper panel that sifts through hundreds of bills and decides whether legislation with a fiscal cost to the state will advance to the full Senate. Min’s bill did not come up for a vote which, in effect, killed the measure the day before the deadline by which bills must move forward. Afterward, Min said that he was “disappointed” with the outcome but will not give up.

“I will continue to explore all mechanisms and pathways to try to remove oil rigs off the coast of California,” Min said in a statement. “The aging infrastructure of these offshore platforms means they are ticking time bombs. Another oil spill — and all of the associated environmental and economic damage — is inevitable unless we act now.”

Min knew the bill faced serious perils, even in a Legislature dominated by Democrats and at a time with California as a national leader in pushing for a transition to a renewable energy-based economy and reducing the reliance on oil and gas.

A number of Senate Democrats earlier expressed concern about the potential financial liability the state faced if the oil leases were terminated, a price tag that could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Ending those leases also would likely be considered in the courts as a “taking” by the state, since the oil leases in question were legally obtained, and the matter could turn into an expensive battle in court.

State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton) voted for the bill when it came before the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee in April but at the time warned she might rescind her support if those issues were not resolved. She also balked at handing the task to the State Lands Commission, saying in her experience that “big bureaucracies don’t solve our problems.”

Environmental advocates said they will continue their efforts to eradicate offshore oil production from California’s coastline.

“Ending oil and gas lease sales is complicated but necessary,” said Victoria Rome, director of California government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The current budget surplus gives us an opportunity to address this issue now while holding the polluters accountable. NRDC will continue to work to protect our coastline and marine ecosystems.”

(LA Times)

* * *

Hauling Lumber with Horses, 1910

* * *

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY: If your kids have to hide their phone use from you. Duck out. Shut the phone off every time you come in the room. Have a passcode on there there’s a little too much inappropriate things going on. Responsible monitoring of social media is a new parenting requirement that we have sadly been neglecting. Neglecting that is one of the worst neglects of all it’s a level of child abuse because we aren’t protecting our kids from predators, or becoming one themselves. TicTok is the worst 9 year olds shaking their butts and dancing provocatively to WAY WAY WAY inappropriate songs. The pedophiles gobble that stuff up! Parents oh TicTok is cute!!! Yeah okay.

* * *

STRIKE!

On this day, 16 May 1934, Minneapolis truck drivers in the Teamsters union went on strike, shutting down almost all commercial transport in the city. The dispute lasted over three months, ending with most of the workers’ demands being met and opening the way for more workers’ organisation in Minneapolis. With its months of fierce battles between striking workers on one side, and scabs, protected by police and private guards, on the other, it also became one of American labour history’s most iconic events of the 20th Century. Read the history of the strike in this book: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/strike-jeremy-brecher

* * *

THEORIES EXIST TO BE PROVEN

by James Kunstler

So, in 2016, schlubby lawyer Michael Sussmann from Perkins Coie, the DC law firm representing the Hillary Clinton Campaign, asks for a meeting with his old DOJ colleague, Jim Baker, now General Counsel (top lawyer) for the FBI….

Time, they say, is nature’s way of making sure that everything doesn’t happen at once. Then why does everything seem to be happening at once? These must be unnaturally strange times. Here comes Ukraine… there goes Ukraine… our money is worthless… no water for Las Vegas… buh-bye Roe v Wade…financial markets wobbling… vaccine injuries everywhere… diesel prices killing truckers… food shortages… UFOs… World War Three… white supremacists… no baby formula… whoa… duck-and-cover, here comes monkeypox!

So it goes with criticality in hyper-complex systems, the passing of thresholds into breakdown, all at the same time, failures mutually ramifying other failures seemingly unconnected, and weird things popping up in the dust and rubble like monsters in a bad dream. I know it’s disconcerting to see the world fly apart. Forgive me then, while you fret about the future of your loved ones and your retirement account, if I focus in on just one thing for the moment: the doings of federal attorney John Durham, the special counsel looking into matters pertaining to RussiaGate, the first step in America’s attempted suicide.

Mr. Durham is currently prosecuting a small fish, a sardine among the Lawfare sharks and killer whales of K Street, Michael Sussmann, for telling one measly lie to the FBI. Mr. Durham has been at this task for two years plus. That’s a long time to spend on a simple crime based on a few easy-to-get bits of evidence: a cell phone text, some emails, the testimony of one principal witness — and a pretext that no one ever took seriously in the first place: the punk-ass Alfa Bank conduit-to-Russia story.

So, in 2016, schlubby lawyer Michael Sussmann from Perkins Coie, the DC law firm representing the Hillary Clinton Campaign, asks for a meeting with his old DOJ colleague, Jim Baker, now General Counsel (top lawyer) for the FBI. He has some sensitive information that the Bureau might find interesting. He says he does not represent any particular client in the matter, he’s just stepping forward as a patriotic citizen. He emphasizes this point more than once, including a text, recorded in the digital cloud (uh-oh), the night before the meeting. He comes in out of the swampy Potomac heat to Mr. Baker’s air-conditioned lair at 935 Pennsylvania Avenue and spins a tale about a Russian-owned outfit called Alfa-Bank with computer servers located in the vicinity of Trump Tower in New York City, which, he alleges, are being used by candidate Donald Trump to communicate with bad guys in Russia.

The story goes nowhere fast. The FBI discounts it. Turns out that Mr. Sussmann billed the hours spent on this folderol to Hillary for America, which, prima facie, indicates he was working for her campaign at the time. Six years later, he’s indicted. Anyway, perhaps unbeknownst to Mr. Sussmann, the FBI, in July 2016, had already ramped up an investigation into the Trump campaign with the sexy name “Crossfire Hurricane” — a lyric bit from the ancient Rolling Stones’ hit “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” — so anointed by FBI sexy super-agent Peter Strzok, who was at the time jumpin’ in-and-out of bed with colleague Lisa Page, legal counsel to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

“Crossfire Hurricane” was predicated (depending on who you believe, and as yet to be actually determined) on various cockamamie stories featuring sketchy characters such as “Maltese Professor” (that is, CIA informant-and-operator) Joseph Mifsud, Australian diplomat and International-Man-of-Mystery Alexander Downer, Cambridge visiting professor (Ha! You mean DOD errand boy) Stefan Halper, and quite a few other slippery players all revolving around the previous FBI investigation, “Midterm Exam,” into emails “stolen” off of Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized private server located at her home in Chappaqua, New York. The case had been summarily dropped by FBI Director James Comey — who, incidentally, had no authority to decide whether the “matter” ought to be prosecuted or not (that was up to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, an old crony of Hillary Clinton’s). But this began the FBI and DOJ “coup” or “witch hunt” that ran several years, involved scores of active participants, and climaxed in the malicious and fruitless escapades of the Mueller Investigation.

All of which brings us back to schlubby Mr. Sussmann, the sardine among sharks and whales — and to my theory of the case. Special Counsel Durham was appointed by AG William Barr to determine the origins of the giant hairball called RussiaGate. As you can see, the Sussmann matter amounts to an almost insignificant little thread of the greater scandal. Did Mr. Durham spend two-plus years on it, to the exclusion of a stupendous mass of seditious lying, deception, and roguery by scores of government officials? I don’t think so.

Now, Mr. Durham has brought the case into the DC federal district courtroom of Judge Christopher Cooper, appointed by Barack Obama. Judge Cooper’s wife, Amy Jeffress, is the attorney for the same Lisa Page of Jumpin’ Jack Flash fame. Meanwhile, several jurors seated in the trial revealed that they were donors to the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign — something one might expect in a city that voted over 90 percent for Mrs. Clinton in that election. Mr. Durham must have known that prosecuting the case under those circumstances would be a slog.

Win or lose on Sussmann, I think Mr. Durham is using the case to test certain evidentiary parameters. I think he will turn around in the weeks ahead, perhaps during the summer, and bring indictments against many higher-up figures in the DOJ, FBI, and elsewhere in government on much graver charges bundled into a RICO rap, for the simple reason that RussiaGate was obviously a seditious conspiracy. Therefore, this is a conspiracy theory. Theories exist to be proven. Federal cases are brought to furnish proof. If I’m wrong about this, then the long Durham investigation has been a joke. Personally, I don’t think Mr. Durham intends to go down in history as a joker.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting is Patreon Page.)

* * *

W’S FREUDIAN SLIP (NOT FUNNY)

(He probably got hundreds of thousands of dollars for this “speech.”)

(Note that W’s podium has an oxymoronic label.)

* * *

MEMO OF THE AIR/ 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 PST. Or send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week.

I expect that Lawrence Bullock might come in tonight and play a full set of music on the various accoutrements he's facile with, not to mention the old vocal soft-shoe, so there's that too.

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 bunch of shiny objects to spin around and flick at to keep your fingers from going crazy until showtime, or anytime, such as:

Charles Berthoud's latest showoff bass stunt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXnse1iniNk

Makeup tips and tricks for that important job interview.

https://theawesomer.com/insane-makeup-illusions/668163/

And Alexander in the bathysphere. (Scroll down for copious illustrations.)

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-bathysphere

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

* * *

* * *

ROGER ANGELL, the elegant and thoughtful baseball writer who was widely considered among the best America has produced, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 101.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his wife, Margaret Moorman, said.

Mr. Angell’s voice was original because he wrote more like a fan than a sports journalist, loading his articles with inventive imagery.

The Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk came out of his crouch, Mr. Angell wrote, like “an aluminum extension ladder stretching for the house eaves.” The Baltimore Oriole relief pitcher Dick Hall pitched “with an awkward, sidewise motion that suggests a man feeling under his bed for a lost collar stud.” Mr. Angell (pronounced angel) described Willie Mays chasing down a ball hit to deep center field as “running so hard and so far that the ball itself seems to stop in the air and wait for him.”

The baseball season didn’t seem complete until, as he did late each fall, Mr. Angell wrapped up its multiple meanings in a long New Yorker article. Many of his pieces were collected in books, among them “Late Innings” (1982) and “Once More Around the Park” (1991).

But he wrote not just about teams and the games they played. He also considered what it meant to be a fan.

“It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team,” he wrote in his book “Five Seasons” (1977). “What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring — caring deeply and passionately, really caring — which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives.”

For Mr. Angell, The New Yorker was, to some degree, the family shop. His mother, Katharine Sergeant Angell White, was among the magazine’s first editors hired by Harold Ross in 1925. His stepfather, the essayist E.B. White, was a frequent contributor. Mr. Angell published his first piece in the magazine, a short story, in 1944 and went to work there in 1956.

Like his mother, Mr. Angell became a New Yorker fiction editor, discovering and nurturing writers, including Ann Beattie, Bobbie Ann Mason and Garrison Keillor. For a while he occupied his mother’s old office — an experience, he told an interviewer, that was “the weirdest thing in the world.” He also worked closely with writers like Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, Donald Barthelme, Ruth Jhabvala and V.S. Pritchett.…

nytimes.com/2022/05/20/sports/roger-angell-dead.html

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Hamm Ranch Afternoon, Albion, 1970

3 Comments

  1. Craig Stehr May 21, 2022

    Sitting here quietly at Building Bridges homeless shelter in Ukiah, CA. I’ve got the necessary dental appointments; hopefully all will work out in this lifetime…everything is happening that needs to happen…it has been a very long strange trip since returning to the mainland from Hawaii. Hangin’ out at the Ukiah Public Library rereading books on yoga and the Sanatana Dharma, walking around the county seat chanting Om Namah Shivaya…waking up in the morning with the mind repeating Catholic Hail Mary prayers…I am not the body I am not the mind Immortal Self I am!! Recently paid $25 for another year of the AVA. OM OM OM

  2. chuck dunbar May 21, 2022

    Like a sleepy-headed old man, I first posted this comment in yesterday’s edition. Just now noticed this error. So, more properly, here it is on the right day, following on the AVA’s printing of an excerpt from his obituary in the New York Times.

    Roger Angell, dead at 101. I’d read anything he wrote about, baseball and otherwise. Even after I’d stopped keeping up with baseball, I’d read his pieces in The New Yorker, not knowing the players but entranced by his story-telling. He’d bring the players and the games alive on the page in his vivid, sharp, incisive writing. A quote from the New York Times: “Mr. Angell makes baseball sound like an art form. He demonstrates that writing about it is an art form, too.”

    In his later years he wrote a touching, poignant piece on aging that I shared with friends. Look it up if you haven’t read it, it’s just marvelous: “This Old Man: Life in the Nineties,” The New Yorker, Feb. 17&24, 2014.

    Roger Angell was a gift to America.

  3. Eric Sunswheat May 21, 2022

    RE: LAKE POLITICS, SAVE THE LAKES

    ->. Scott Dam at Lake Pillsbury was built with an internal dam key way, that did not rest on a solid foundation of bedrock, which is necessary for a secure large lake.

    More recently it was discovered, that there is an active earthquake fault zone at the location. The cost to rebuild the dam, to comply with seismic standards, and to give more than lip service support to the fisheries, as an indicator species may be in excess of $480 million.

    Local governments and entities, have balked at the opportunity to participate with the federal government, in a cost share agreement to further define how to proceed.

    The Ukiah Valley Water Basin Study has shown that the valley has ample groundwater for the City of Ukiah and it’s sphere of influence that is not overused, recharges from annual rainfall, and is not hydrologically connected to the Russian River.

    The Sonoma County Water Agency, (SCWA), who controls non flood bank release from Coyote Dam at Lake Mendocino, has learned through collaboration with the US Army Corps of Engineers in a Biological Opinion.

    Significant downstream discharges during dry seasons, may significantly adversely impact the viability of threatened and endangered salmonid year classes.

    The SCWA has moved to a program of recharging Santa Rosa Plain aquifers with surplus abundant Russian River flows during rainfall events, along with strategy of conservation, and reuse.

    The Water Agency would seemingly have first right of refusal to pay for a commensurate amount of increased water storage at Lake Mendocino, even without funding initial planning documents, but whether there would be a net benefit is unclear. An earthquake fault zone has been located at Coyote Dam.

    The Potter Valley Irrigation District has moved to a program of requiring most irrigators to secure off canal water storage on their acreage. Often pond liners are used as the valley basin is fragmented strata.

    Potter Valley was known for dry farmed alfalfa that a horse could get lost in, before irrigation raised the water table. Often there are no easy answers, as we learn more about our impact on the land and climate.

    The PG&E Potter Valley hydroelectric battery bank is non operational, would cost millions and a few years to repair, and coupled with Dam repair, is not economically viable at todays market rates, as home owner fire risks soar.

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