Mendocino County Today: November 27, 2012

MENDOCINO COUNTY PRELIMINARY ELECTION RESULTS for federal and state offices. (Name, Party, vote total, percentage)

President:

Jill Stein Grn 471 2.61%

Thomas Hoefling AI 83 0.46%

Mitt Romney Rep 5129 28.38%

Gary Johnson Lib 203 1.12%

Roseanne Barr P&F 173 0.96%

Barack Obama Dem 11869 65.68%

Write-In Votes 142 0.79%

Senator:

Elizabeth Emken (R) 5441 30.53%

Dianne Feinstein (D) 12379 69.47%

Congress:

Jared Huffman (D) 11969 68.03%

Daniel W. Roberts (R) 5625 31.97%

Assembly:

Wesley Chesbro (D) 10781 64.80%

Tom Lynch (D) 5856 35.20%

(Based on 37% of registered voters counted so far. Still around 18k votes to count/report.)

NOTE: Feinstein and Huffman got more votes than Obama. But Chesbro got less votes than Obama.

A READER WRITES: "Hoping Ms. Audet finds a better path with a future. It was quite a surprise to see her. Thanksgiving afternoon we were at the Harvest Market in Fort Bragg.  The moment offered an actual celebrity spotting when we saw the infamous Ms. Audet, red faced and wearing well-worn clothes, walk by with a dog that looked vastly more healthy then she did. The pooch was a stout and well fed pit-bull and maybe mastiff mix. Nothing to mess with as far as dogs go. Later that evening she was observed walking towards the homeless encampment below the south end of the Noyo Bridge. We wish her well as she makes her way through life, in self-destruct mode or just a happy girl living the good life as the party continues.”

HUSBAND takes the wife to a disco. There's a guy on the dance floor giving it large — break dancing, moon-walking, back flips, the works. The wife turns to her husband and says: “See that guy? 25 years ago he proposed to me and I turned him down.” Husband says: “Looks like he's still celebrating!”

LOST DOG IN PHILO.

Female Pitt Bull/Beagle Cross.

Last seen Saturday, Nov 24.

Red with white markings, pink collar and tags.

Please call with any information 707-895-2543

REWARD!

HENRY COCKBURN was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2002 at the age of 20. Before that he was a heavy cannabis user. His father, Patrick Cockburn, The Independent's (England) award-winning foreign correspondent, has long wondered whether the two were linked and spent months speaking to the world's leading experts in the field. In a four-part series to be published in the Independent prompted by his son's condition, he will examine the medical evidence linking sustained cannabis use with schizophrenia, before going on to look at the way the mentally ill have been let down by the health service and stigmatized by public opinion, and concluding on Thursday with his manifesto for a more humane and effective system — accompanied each day by Henry's account of his journey from pyschosis to a normal life.

FROM COCKBURN'S INTRO: “For cannabis it is the ‘tobacco moment.’ The long-suspected link between consuming cannabis and developing schizophrenia has been repeatedly confirmed by recent studies. Observers say that for cannabis the present moment is similar to that half a century ago when scientific proof of a connection between smoking tobacco and cancer became so strong that no serious doctor or scientist could deny it…”

INTERNET COMMENT: “If anyone reading this is contemplating suicide, remember this: DEPRESSION LIES. It lies to you. It tells you that you are alone: you are not. It tells you that your life won't change: it will. It tells you that this is the only option: it isn't. DEPRESSION LIES. Don't believe it for a second.”

MICKEY MANTLE SIGNS AN AUTOGRAPH (from Jayne Leavy’s recent biography of Mickey Mantle, “The Last Boy”):

Mantle turned to Bill Brubaker [a retired Pittsburg Pirate infielder], who was gathering his belongings to leave. “You wanna autograph?”

“No, but my wife would probably like one.”

“What’s your wife’s name?”

“Freddi. F-r-e-d-d-i.”

“To Freddie,” Mantle wrote. “Mickey Mantle.”

“Thanks, but you misspelled my wife’s name.”

Mickey ripped the offending card in half and took another from the stack. “Well, how do you spell it?”

“F-r-e-d-d-i.”

Again, Mickey misspelled her name; again, Bill corrected him. “Here,” Mickey said, submitting a new inscription for Brubaker’s approval. “To Freddi, you have a hard name to spell, asshole.”

“Mickey, I can’t give that to my wife.”

“Gimme that.”

Mantle snatched the card, crossed out “asshole,” and scribbled “sweetheart” above the offending appellation. “To Freddi, you have a hard name to spell, asshole sweetheart.”

“PITY THE REPORTERS and editors of the ‘quality press’ and their NPR counterparts who must struggle to reinforce one of conventional wisdom’s more preposterous tenets: that Israel has to massacre Gazans every now and then to protect its citizens from “terrorist” rocket attacks. Pity them all the more if they actually believe what they write and say. Honest observers know better: stop the provocations and the rockets will stop, except perhaps for the occasional homemade missile. The only way to stop that would be to end the desperation that the siege and blockade of Gaza — the functional equivalent of Israel’s (only slightly less malign) occupation of the West Bank — makes rampant. Hamas alone cannot end that desperation and Israel will not end it as long as its leaders are satisfied with the status quo. For the time being, they are very satisfied. Why wouldn’t they be? They have imperial protection and, at the same time, carte blanche to do as they please. Because American material and diplomatic support is what makes Israel’s on-going colonization of Gaza and the West Bank possible, the United States could end Gaza’s desperation, and the inevitable resistance that follows from it, overnight. Were President Obama to withdraw or credibly threaten to withdraw just a fraction of the support the United States provides — were he even to demand that the Israeli government lessen the severity of its grip on the people of Gaza — Israel would have no choice but to comply. But, of course, he will not. From the White House on down, the American political class enables Israel’s depredations. It is an ingrained habit.” (—ANDREW LEVINE)

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OFF THE HOOK: Federal government ignores law requiring million salmon, by Dan Bacher

The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, a landmark federal law signed by President George H.W. Bush in the fall of 1992, set a goal of doubling the Bay-Delta watershed's Chinook salmon runs from 495,000 to 990,000 wild adult fish by 2002.

The legislation also mandated the doubling by 2002 of other anadromous fish species — fish ascending rivers from the sea to spawn — including Central Valley steelhead, white sturgeon, green sturgeon, striped bass and American shad.

The legislation also made fish and wildlife a purpose of the Central Valley Project for the first time. The CVPIA's Anadromous Fish Restoration Program was supposed to dedicate 800,000 acre-feet of CVP water every year to environmental protection.

Unfortunately, a decade after the law's deadline, the salmon fishery continues to struggle to rebound, largely due to ineffective enforcement by federal and state agencies and continued excessive pumping of fresh water from the Bay-Delta, primarily for corporate agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley.

According to a new salmon index released by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Golden Gate Salmon Association, the Central Valley Chinook salmon fishery has suffered a dramatic collapse over the past decade, now standing at only 13 percent of the population goal required by federal law.

The closest the government came to meeting the salmon doubling goal was in 2002, when the index peaked at 64.33 percent of doubling. Last year, in spite of favorable ocean forage conditions, the index was only about 13 percent of the salmon doubling goal.

The index was released following the closure of California's ocean salmon fishing season on Nov. 11, and the 20th anniversary of the CVPIA.

The NRDC and GGSA analysis, published in the Salmon Doubling Index, reveals a steady decline in Central Valley Chinook salmon from 2003 through 2010, at which point it reached a record low of 7 percent.

While the state and federal governments claimed that ocean conditions prompted the decline, fishing and environmental groups pointed to increased water diversions as a significant cause of this decline. Between 2000 and 2006, freshwater pumping from the Bay-Delta increased 20 percent in comparison to 1975-2000. The record water export year was 2005 until a new record was set in 2011 under the Brown and Obama administrations.

The annual export total via the state and federal Delta pumps was 6,520,000 acre-feet of water in 2011 — 217,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre-feet set in 2005.

Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the House author of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, strongly urged the federal government to comply with the law by restoring California salmon.

"Despite indefensible foot-dragging and countless lawsuits, salmon restoration has remained the linchpin of federal water policy in California for 20 years," said Rep. Miller. "California salmon support businesses and communities up and down the West coast, and it's long past time for the federal agencies to take their responsibility to our state's wild fisheries seriously. The federal government must restore California's iconic salmon runs to health: that's the law."

"Salmon are the canary in the coal mine for the Bay-Delta economy and ecosystem," said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst with NRDC's Water Program. "California salmon, the fishing industry and the Bay-Delta ecosystem all need adequate water flows to maintain their health over the long-term. The Department of the Interior and the State of California need to dramatically step-up efforts to protect the San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem and restore salmon populations."

In 2008, in response to a lawsuit brought by NRDC, Earthjustice and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, stronger federal court-ordered protections went into effect for salmon and other native fish, reducing Delta water pumping.

In 2011, there was a modest rebound of wild adult Chinook salmon, directly correlating to this reduction in pumping. Chinook salmon have a three-year life cycle.

As a result, the benefits of stronger protections in 2008 are reflected in the numbers of adult fish that returned to spawn in 2011, the groups said. Early federal agency projections predict stronger numbers for this year's salmon run, now currently underway. Nevertheless, the salmon index for 2012 will likely remain dramatically short of meeting state and federal goals.

Victor Gonella, president of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, emphasized, "Our salmon runs are essential to California's natural heritage, to fishing families and to an industry that reaches from the fishing dock to your dinner table. Restoring healthy salmon runs means healthy local food, healthy communities and a healthy economy."

Gonella said if current laws were enforced and the mandated restoration goal was achieved, the salmon fishing industry would provide a large contribution to the California economy. A fully restored California salmon industry would provide $5.6 billion in economic activity annually and tens of thousands of jobs from Santa Barbara to northern Oregon.

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UKIAH ANIMAL SHELTER Annual Canned Cat and Dog Food Drive.

The Ukiah Shelter is doing its annual canned cat and dog food drive. We have many kittens, puppies and adults with special health needs that require special food. There are great choices of high quality food available that will greatly help the pets in our care. This is a shopping experience where less of a high quality food is better then more of a low quality choice. If you need help in deciding what to buy please call Sage at 467-6453 or email her at mountais@co.mendocino.ca.us. Donations can be dropped off at the shelter, located at 298 Plant Rd., Ukiah, Tuesdays through Saturdays or in the bin at Rainbow Ag on Perkins Street, 7 days a week. Thank you! — Leatha Andersen, Administrative Secretary, Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency  (HHSA), Administration Support Unit, 747 S. State St., Ukiah, CA 95482. Phone (707) 463-7823. Fax (707) 472-2335. Email: andersenl@co.mendocino.ca.us