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SCATTERED POST-FRONTAL SHOWERS will continue for Del Norte and northern Humboldt counties early this morning then ease through the day. Cool temperatures are expected through Monday, with warm temperatures returning midweek. Light rain is possible once again late this week and next weekend. (NWS)
YESTERDAY'S RAINFALL: Leggett 0.40" - Manchester 0.27" - Mendocino 0.18" - Laytonville 0.16" - Covelo 0.06" - Ukiah, 0.01"
MIKE BROCK
Michael Jonathan Brock was born in Greeley, Colorado on May 4, 1956. He grew up in Carmel Valley, CA and moved to Anderson Valley in 1978. Mike was blessed with two daughters, April and Maia in 1982 and 1983. He met his future wife, Vickie, in 1986 and they were married in 1992. Mike and Vickie welcomed Hannah in 1993 and Julia in 1999.
Mike loved simplicity, easy living, and picking food right out of the earth with his hands. He loved waking up and looking out at the farm – his dream – realized. He loved playing conga drums to the Eagles and Santana. Cooking and seasoning. Simple pleasures. Giant pumpkin weigh offs. Mixing compost. Farmers markets. Tractor riding. He loved it all.
We don’t believe the phrase, “I’ll never see him again.” It is not true. We can feel him in our hearts, our memories, nature, and in other people’s stories of him. He’s going to visit in dreams, songs, plants, and rays of sunlight.
Mike is survived by his five favorite women: Vickie, April, Maia, Hannah, and Julia; along with his three grandchildren, Kati, Jacob and Arlen, and his sisters Amy, and Becky.
We greatly appreciate the help of Mark Apfel and Judy Nelson in caring for Mike. Additionally, we would like to thank the community of Anderson Valley for their kindness, gifts, and sympathy.
LINDA PERKINS:
“CalTrees Report”, a list, posted every Saturday, of all the timber plan notices of the past week, shows that Little North Fork, Mitchell Creek and Boundary Creek timber plans have been withdrawn.
These were the three plans on Jackson that had been submitted, had gotten extensive public comment and were waiting approval! They are withdrawn, will never be approved!
Congratulations to all who were involved with the opposition to these plans! It took the coalition! From Chad who first brought these atrocities to our attention and worked tirelessly to stop them, to Coyote Valley Band of Pomo (yes!), to Mendocino Trail Stewards (!!), to Matt Simmons and EPIC who put comments in, ditto all the others (hundreds!) who commented, to direct action people who said “no!” with their bodies on the line, to our children, to all involved in Jackson efforts in whatever manner.
Whooopeeee!!!!!!!!!!!
Linda
UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK
Balto is on-the-go most of the time — he’s curious and wants to check out everything and everyone. Balto is playful with toys and friendly with everyone he meets. Balto was excited and eager to meet fellow shelter guest Dolly, and probably would have played with her. Balto needs basic training, and an experienced dog owner would be ideal.
If you can’t adopt, think about fostering. Our website has information about our Foster Program. And don’t forget our on-going Spring Dog And Cat Adoption Events at the Ukiah and Ft. Bragg Shelters. While you’re on our website, check out all of our guests, services, programs, events, and updates. Visit us on Facebook at: facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/
For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453.
AV VILLAGE EVENTS
AV Village Walking Group - all welcome
Tue 05 / 31 / 2022 at 9:30 AM
Where: Meet at the Community Park (near the AV Health Center)
Senior Center Lunch
Tue 05 / 31 / 2022 at 12:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Senior Center, 14470 Highway 128, Boonville
AV Library Open
Tue 05 / 31 / 2022 at 1:00 PM
Where: Mendocino County Fairgrounds, 14400 Highway 128, Boonville
Calendar: https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events
SHERIFF KENDALL: We would like to congratulate and welcome the newest members of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. This week Deputies Nelson and Rossich completed their 20-week basic law enforcement academy in Windsor (California) and were sworn in as Deputy Sheriff’s in the Field Services Division. Soon they will embark on an 18-week field training program before being eligible to perform the duties of a solo Deputy Sheriff.
UKIAH ROUTS PETALUMA TO CAPTURE PROGRAM’S FIRST SECTION TITLE
by Guy Morris
The dream season just keeps getting better for the Ukiah High baseball team.
Behind an early offensive barrage, the ninth-seeded Wildcats completed an underdog run for the ages, capturing their first section title in program history with a five-inning, 13-1 win at third-seeded Petaluma on Saturday in the championship game of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs.
The win caps an incredible playoff run for the Wildcats (20-9) as they defeated the No. 8, No. 1, No. 4 and No. 3 seeds to win the NCS title in their first section championship game appearance since 2007.
“Did I see this happening? I just knew that we hadn’t seen our best baseball yet,” said an emotional Aaron Ford, head coach of Ukiah. “A nine seed wins it. Pretty legit.”
Of the 13 runs for the Wildcats, 12 of them were scored with two outs and only four of them were earned, as the visitors took advantage of several uncharacteristic lapses from the Trojans (21-9), who were looking to capture their first title section title in baseball in 42 years.
In total, Petaluma committed a season-high seven errors in the contest.
Adding to the Trojans’ frustration was the performance of Ukiah starting pitcher Austin Ford, Aaron Ford’s son. The senior righty was dominant, striking out five with just three hits and an unearned run allowed on 70 pitches in a complete-game outing.
“We worked hard all season for this. This was the goal,” said Austin Ford. “We didn’t expect to come here and lose. We came out, swung it. Just feels good to be the first team to win one.”
Dozens of Ukiah fans made the 77-mile trip south and packed along the fences at Petaluma High School. Alumni, friends, family and everyone in between gave the away game a home game feel.
“This place was lined up. All of Ukiah,” said Aaron Ford. “I’m just honored to be a part of these kids’ experience. I don’t take this lightly. It’s a big thing in a small community.”
The trip was well worth it for the Ukiah faithful.
After advancing to the finals with three one-run wins, Saturday’s championship was much less dramatic.
Tied 1-1 after the first inning, Ukiah scored four runs in the second to leap out to a 5-1 lead. With two outs and the bases loaded, Caleb Ford made it 2-1 with an RBI single and Ethan Rinehart then drew a walk to score another run before Austin Ford scored two with a double.
The Wildcats weren’t even close to done. In the third, they made it 6-1 on an error, 7-1 on a passed ball and then 8-1 on another RBI single from Caleb Ford.
It was more of the same in the fourth. Canyon Loflin brought in a run on a throwing error before Hunter Schnitzius doubled to center field to bring home two more runs and make it 11-1.
The Trojans’ seventh and final error of the game scored the 12th run for Ukiah in the fifth and Jace Pullins followed with an RBI infield single to make it 13-1.
Schnitzius and Caleb Ford each went 3 for 4 with two RBIs to lead the offensive barrage. Austin Ford added a 2-for-4 day with two RBIs while Rinehart, Loflin and Pullins each had solo RBIs.
“Austin dealt, we hit the ball, played some defense, Canyon Loflin did a great job behind the dish,” said Aaron Ford. “Just really proud of everybody.”
In the aftermath of the awards presentation, as Ukiah fans celebrated with their team, reality still hadn’t quite set in for the coach even as held both the section plaque and banner in his hands.
“No, I’m still in the fifth thinking I got six more outs to go and I’m trying to figure out my rotation,” Ford said. “That’s where I’m at. It hasn’t sunk in. It probably won’t sink in for a while, and by then I’ll probably have a whole new group of dudes.”
For Ford, a Ukiah native and graduate of the school, the section title carries some added significance. He’s been involved with Ukiah athletics for decades and was there in 2007 when they came up just short in the section title game against Casa Grande.
“I’m just very appreciative of the love and support that we get from everyone,” he said. “I’m glad that they got to come down and I’m glad that our kids performed — that was the best baseball they played all year.”
The Wildcats will look to continue their magical postseason run in the inaugural CIF Northern California regional playoffs next week. They’ll find out their first-round matchup at the seeding meeting on Sunday.
“I think we can keep it rolling,” Schnitizius said. “I mean, we don’t know who we play yet, but I don’t think it’s gonna matter.”
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
CANNABIS FARMERS MARKET
Sunday June 5th, 11-4pm
8800 Highway 128, Philo (between the town of Philo and The Madrones)
Next weekend in conjunction with the Mendocino Film Festival, MCA and Mendocino Producers Guild we will be having our first Farmers Market at The Brambles in Philo.
21+ only!
Join us in the redwoods with 14 farms from the county that have their own brands, food trucks by Terped Out Kitchen and Dutch Girl Desserts, live music. No admission fee, consumption area.
Come on by!
SONOMA WATER PETITIONS STATE FOR CRITICAL WATER CONDITION FOR RUSSIAN RIVER As Severe Drought Enters Third Consecutive Year
Current Water Supply Conditions as of 5/25/22:
- Lake Mendocino: 56% of target water supply curve
- Lake Sonoma: 57% of water supply capacity
CURTAIL, CURTAILING, CURTAILED!
Curtailment suspensions continue Over the hill…
The Division of Water Rights continues to review hydrologic forecasts and real-time data in the Russian River Watershed. Based on current conditions and available forecasts, the Division is announcing that temporary curtailment suspensions will continue through June 15, 2022. The next update on curtailments will be issued under the authority of the revised emergency regulation adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board at their May 10th board meeting.
Right holders should continue to monitor the Russian River Drought Response webpage for announcements on the latest status and for updates on the emergency regulation. All future updates on curtailment statuses for both the Upper and Lower watersheds will be posted on this webpage and announced through Lyris email notifications.
If you received this notice in a forwarded message or are not otherwise subscribed to the Russian River Drought email list and would like to receive future emails related to this and similar efforts, please subscribe to the State Water Board’s “Russian River Drought” email subscription list under “Water Rights” at: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/.../swrcb_subscribe.html
If you have any questions, please contact the Division of Water Rights atRussianRiverDrought@waterboards.ca.gov or (916) 341-5318.
CATCH OF THE DAY, May 28, 2022
DAVID AVALOS, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.
CESAR DELCAMPO, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.
AMBER FRENCH, Ukiah. Under influence.
ESTEBAN GAETA, Fort Bragg. Ammo possession by prohibited person, probation revocation.
HENRY GONZALEZ, Willits. DUI.
DOROTHY GREEN, Willits. Controlled substance.
JAMES HENSON, Clearlake. Sex registrant removing or disabling GPS monitor, parole violation.
CAMEO LIMA, Hopland. Domestic battery, protective order violation.
LUIS LIMA, Ukiah. Protective order violation.
ORLANDO MUNOZ, Ukiah. Under influence, county parole violation.
DELANEY PING-MEDVIGY, Hopland. Proceedings (Felony).
AUGUST SCHINDEL, Willits. Battery, elder abuse.
ELISABETH SHOEMAKER, Ukiah. Battery on cohabitant, vandalism.
GREGORY THOMPKINS, Ukiah. Failure to appear.
RYAN WHITMAN JR., Albion. Battery on emergency responder, vandalism, controlled substance.
UKRAINE, SATURDAY, MAY 28
6:30 p.m.: Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was prevented from leaving Ukraine to take part in a meeting in Lithuania of a NATO consultive body, Reuters reported Saturday, citing a statement from his party's parliamentary faction.
Ukrainian media reported Poroshenko could not cross the border due to “technical problems” with a permit allowing him to leave the country.
In January, Poroshenko won a court ruling allowing him to remain at liberty while being investigated for treason in a probe he says was politically motivated.
Poroshenko is being investigated in connection with the financing of Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country through illegal coal sales in 2014-15.
5:10 p.m.: The U.S. won the latest round on Friday in a legal battle to seize a $325 million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, with the case now appearing headed for the Pacific nation's top court, The Associated Press reported.
Fiji's Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed an appeal by Feizal Haniff, who represents the company that legally owns the superyacht Amadea. Haniff had argued the U.S. had no jurisdiction under Fiji’s mutual assistance laws to seize the vessel, at least until a court sorted out who really owned the Amadea.
Haniff said he now plans to take the case to Fiji’s Supreme Court and will apply for a court order to stop U.S. agents sailing the Amadea from Fiji before the appeal is heard.
4:19 p.m.: French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a phone call Saturday asked Russia's Vladimir Putin to release the 2,500 Ukrainian fighters who were holed up inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol and who were taken prisoner by Russia.
They also urged Putin to accept a direct exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Elysee Palace said.
3:17 p.m.: Reuters reports that Russian forces appear close to capturing all of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, a Kremlin war goal after abandoning its plan to take Kyiv after encountering Ukrainian resistance.
2:43 p.m.: Russian forces are closing in on Severodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk in Lugansk province, two key cities still under Ukrainian control. Reuters reports there are conflicting reports about the extent of the Russian advance.” A Ukrainian official denies claims that Severodonetsk is surrounded by Russian troops.
1:56 p.m.: A senior pro-Russian official in Kherson, an occupied area of southern Ukraine, tells Reuters that fighting nearby could impact its formal petition to join Russia, which could happen “towards next year.” Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-backed Kherson Military-Civilian Administration, also said the process might involve a referendum, despite previous comments that a general vote of the electorate was unnecessary.
1:04 p.m.: Released Ukrainian POWs say Russian troops tortured them, according to reporting from “The Kyiv Independent,” which quoted Ukraine's top human rights official. Lyudmyla Denisova said the former prisoners of war reported being detained in basements and outbuildings before being transferred to a Donetsk detention center. “During the transfer, Ukrainian soldiers were blindfolded, wearing a sack over their heads, and their hands were tied with ropes. They were tortured, threatened with murder, beaten and humiliated in captivity,”
12:33 p.m.: Ukraine is accusing Russia of stealing metal from the port city of Mariupol, “The Kyiv Independent” reports. Ukraine's top human rights official, Lyudmyla Denisova, says Russia has started shipping the stolen metal, transporting 3,000 tons on the first ship to Rostov-on-Don, a port city in southern Russia. About 200,000 tons of metal and cast iron worth $170 million were housed at the port before Russia occupied the city, Denisova said, according to the English-language newspaper.
— VOA
AND THEN THERE WAS UVALDE!
Today our damaged hearts are breaking once more!
The excruciating pain is simply too much to ignore.
Who would've dreamed there was to be an encore?
Or that Sandy Hook was simply a tragic rehearsal.
Will we belatedly perform a heart surgery reversal?
Then next came Marjory Stoneman Douglas High,
Now the NRA's choke-hold time has drawn nigh!
Rather than losing re-election, many'd rather die!
Yet we still hoped, prayed remembered and cried,
As Congress delayed, made excuses and denied.
Surely after Marjory Stoneman and Sandy Hook,
Congress would now honor the oath which they took.
Keeping our nation safely sane, upon a second look.
“Let's all remember! And keep them in our prayers,”
We accept it with a wavering faith and blank stares!
Then! On May 24, 2022, Uvalde Texas hit the news!
An 18 year-old male, felt he had nothing left to lose,
Took an assault rifle and on the spot would choose,
To shoot his grandmother, then texted like a fool,
“Now, I'm going to go shoot an elementary school!”
Nineteen precious boys and girls were ripped apart,
And now our nation once again has a broken heart!
While the politicians refuse to even make a start,
To stop the slaughter and carnage dead in its track,
Wanting so badly to get their prestigious jobs back!
Now, Joy, Laughter, Promise, Innocence and Love,
Await their burial. But push has come to shove!
We can no longer plead for God to act from above,
We must put feet to our prayers and exercise our vote,
While recalling those precious faces by indelible rote!
With hearts that ache and tears that won't staunch.
We dare not stay in the harbor! It's time to launch!
— Don Claybrook, Sr. May 25, 2022
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
In the US today, childhood doesn’t have to end. Peter Pan came to ca. 1954 and we ran off with him to Neverland. We have become more infantilized with each generation since the end of WWII. Talking, dressing, acting like children. No responsibilities, no consequences, no thought for the future. All me all the time.
Neotony – reaching sexual maturity while still in the larval stage. That’s US. Not only have we been sold the lifestyle, as a bonus gift, we get free, unlimited chemical treatment (growth hormones, endocrine disrupters).
If we aren’t careful, we will become big-headed, small-bodied, gray humanoids hurtling to Earth in oversized pans of Jiffy Pop Popcorn to warn our ancestors: “Don’t become us!”
“THANK GOD FOR THOSE TOMATOES.”
Jim Meads lived next door to a de Havilland test pilot Bob Sowray who had mentioned to Jim that he was planning to fly an English Electric Lightning F1.
These planes are British fighter aircrafts that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, 70s and into the late 80s.
They are the only UK designed and built fighter capable of reaching Mach 2 and at the time they were top secret.
Jim had planned to go for a walk with his children that day and took his camera along so he could picture Bob landing the Lightning at the airfield.
Later that day Jim had found a good spot in a field next to the runway and waited patiently for the plane to return to land.
It turned out, however, that the pilot of the plane wasn't Bob and instead was another gentleman called George Aird - another test pilot working for de Havilland.
George had taken the plane for a demonstration flight along the south coast and, as he made his way back to Hertfordshire, he approached Hatfield from the north east so he could land.
Unfortunately, there was a serious problem with the plane that George soon realised.
There was a fire in the plane's reheat zone. Unburnt fuel in the rear fuselage had actually been ignited by a small crack in the jet pipe which weakened the tailplane actuator anchorage.
This meant the tailplane control system, which provides stability and control, had failed.
At this point George was only flying at around 100 feet when the plane suddenly and violent pitched itself upwards.
Soon realising the danger he was in, George made the brave decision to eject himself from the plane at this frighteningly low altitude.
Just before this, Jim, the photographer, witnessed this while a local tractor driver called Mick Sutterby, who was 23 at the time, had been telling him to move off the land he was on.
While they were talking they suddenly heard a loud bang as the pilot ejected and they saw the plane come down nose first giving Jim a split second to capture the photo.
Fortunately, George survived this crash and landed through the roof of a nearby greenhouse.
He landed feet first and broke both of his legs before he fell unconcious. It wasn't until the sprinklers in the green house for the tomatoes went off when he awoke to find out that he had survived.
Reportedly George said he first thought he was in heaven. However, he was back flying again in just six months and back on the Lightning a year afterwards.
The photo taken by Jim shows Mick Sutterby sat on his tractor turning around watching the plane come down.
George can also be seen ejecting out from the plane while it comes nose first down to the field just a short distance from where Jim and Mick are standing.
Following the crash, Jim's photo was reportedly restricted by the Air Ministry as the plane was a secret at that point.
Eventually the photo was released and Jim was able to take the photo to national newspapers so they could run the story.
He reportedly took it to the Daily Mail who believed the photo was fake before he then went to the Daily Mirror - HertsLive's sister paper.
The Daily Mirror paid Jim a large sum of money for the rights of the photo and they ran a centre double page spread on October 9, 1962.
A READER WRITES:
Heather Knight last December wrote an excellent, riveting, human detailed story on an addict Jessica and her mother Laurie; “She set out to save her daughter from fentanyl. She had no idea what she would face on the streets of San Francisco”. Worth reading. The addict stays on the street through the enabling actions of the City's “harm reduction” policies. She survives by shoplifting stores like Target, etc. She sells the goods on the street to pay for her drug addiction. She has overdosed more than 50 times but Narcan has kept her alive. Jessica's own words: “The city is way too easy for people with nothing to get by,” she said. “That’s why I’m still here nine years later. You get by with doing drugs and suffer no consequences. I like it here...It’s like a vortex,” she said. “I want to get out of here. But why the f— would I leave here if I have everything I need given to me?” That is the question that needs to be put to our City’s elected officials and why their policies on “harm reduction” are not working.
THE STAFF OF UVALDE’S LOCAL PAPER COVERED THE WORST DAY OF THEIR LIVES
The paper’s employees lost neighbors, acquaintences, and a daughter in a school shooting. Then they had to report the story.
by Rachel Monroe
The news, as it initially came over the police scanner in staticky bursts of information, was confusing. A shooting, a car crash, a man with a gun at Robb Elementary School. At the Uvalde Leader-News, the newspaper that has served this community in various forms since 1879, the first person headed to the scene was, as usual, the photographer and general manager, Pete Luna.
Luna, who is tall and solidly built and forty-five years old, grew up in Batesville, a tiny town twenty miles to the southeast, and graduated from Uvalde High School. He started working at the Leader-News in 2006. The paper has a full-time staff of ten and publishes twice a week. “I set up subscriptions, I build ads, I sell ads, I pitch ads, I do the layouts, I answer calls, I deliver papers—I do it all,” Luna said. “It’s not just me. We all do a lot.”
Luna dropped off his girlfriend, who is also the paper’s managing editor, Meghann Garcia, at her home, and headed to the scene with his digital camera and a handheld video camera. The day before, he had covered a serious house fire, in which, it was feared, someone had died. (A woman who lived there was unaccounted for, but, fortunately, she was not in the house when it burned.) Even as he drove toward Robb Elementary for what he guessed was some sort of domestic dispute, he was thinking of the fire as the big news of the week.
He parked his car a few blocks from the school, assuming that law enforcement would’ve set up a perimeter and he wouldn’t be able to get any closer. “Even though I’m the size that I am, I like to blend in,” he explained. “That means I’m not in the way, first of all. And No. 2, it lets you observe everything. They’re doing their job and I’m doing mine.”
When he saw a cluster of parents gathered closer to the school, he went to join them. It was around noon, half an hour after the first 911 call, and, although Luna didn’t know it, the shooter was still alive, barricaded in a fourth-grade classroom. “My idea still is, someone ran in there and he’s hiding,” he said. “I thought, They’re going to find him and lead him out the back in handcuffs. A perfect photo of him being caught and all the kids safe. That’s what I was waiting for.”
Someone pointed out the pickup that the suspect had driven into a drainage culvert across the street. Luna zoomed in with his telephoto lens and saw an unzipped black duffel bag and an AR-15-style rifle. A man told Luna that the suspect had scaled the six-foot fence and taken two other bags with him. As the seriousness of the situation dawned on him, Luna kept taking pictures: “I told myself that, no matter what happens, I will push that button.”
Craig Garnett, the owner and publisher of the Leader-News, grew up in a small town in southwest Oklahoma. As a teen-ager, he got hired to paint the local newspaper’s office. He went on to work for papers in Fort Worth and Kansas City, but he always longed to return to a small town like the one where he grew up. Forty years ago, he moved to Uvalde to become general manager of the Leader-News, which has a wall full of awards and a storied history. The Leader-News covered the careers of two local men who went on to powerful political careers: John Nance Garner, a Vice-President under Franklin Roosevelt, and Dolph Briscoe, the forty-first governor of Texas. “It’s a small town, but it has this feeling of—a bit of a sophisticated interest in a bigger world,” Garnett said. “And that appealed to me.”
Local news is an increasingly tough business. Twenty-one Texas counties now have no newspaper at all. When local papers fold, as happened in nearby Del Rio, the information void is often filled by Facebook groups of questionable reliability. At the Leader-News, circulation and ad sales have been dropping. Despite the mounting pressures, the Leader-News has continued to win awards, and to cover everything from homecoming to vehicle accidents to a World Gliding Championship. In 2019, the paper ran a series examining the town’s Ku Klux Klan chapter in the nineteen-twenties. Garnett made a point of nurturing local talent. When he noticed that the paper’s receptionist, Kimberly Rubio, usually had a book open in front of her, he suggested that she apply for a position as a reporter. “I said, ‘You know, if you love to read that much, you can write,’ ” Garnett said. “And, by gosh, she didn’t let us down.”
At Robb Elementary, Luna watched as police officers broke windows and pulled children out. He knew most of the first responders on scene. He’d taken pictures at field days, track meets, Little League games. “I’ve always photographed children running, trying to score. I never thought I would photograph a child running for their life,” he told me later, his voice breaking. More and more law-enforcement personnel kept showing up. “People with longer rifles—I can tell they’re snipers. People with headgear, full armor, tactical gear—I don’t even know what you call it. A lot of totes, a lot of cases.”
Luna stayed by the school as Border Patrol agents killed the gunman, as the surviving children were evacuated, as the buses and ambulances and emergency vehicles drove off. After all the sirens and the yelling, the midafternoon silence was eerie, jarring. Parents who hadn’t yet found their children waited helplessly, including some of Luna’s friends, whom he preferred not to name. “I didn’t keep track of time,” he said. “The crowd grew smaller and the law enforcement were standing around, probably processing everything they had seen or done. I don’t recall at what point I stopped taking the pictures. I just watched.”
On Wednesday, when I visited the Leader-News office, the staff had recently received confirmation that Kimberly Rubio’s daughter, Lexi, was among the dead. The newsroom atmosphere was stricken, and the office phone didn’t stop ringing; the paper was getting calls from media around the world, seeking comment, insight, images. The issue had to go to print in a few hours. “In the middle of it, I was thinking about the other news outlets being able to beat us in every way,” Garnett told me the next day. “They have resources. They don’t mind asking the hard questions, even if it offends you, and we did. Community journalism is a different animal.” But there were also things the Leader-News could provide in a way that no other outlet could: “Context. A source of understanding, and hand-holding, and healing.”
The small staff discussed how best to cover the tragedy. “I told my boss, I don’t want his picture in the paper,” Luna said, referring to the shooter. “That’s not my call, and I know we’re going to be seeing it forever. But my answer is no.” The other looming question was what would go on the front page. “I wanted to run a traditional front page—six-column picture, seventy-two-point headline,” Garnett told me. His staff had other ideas. Luna had been picturing a blank page—no photo, just empty space. Staff writer Melissa Federspill suggested blacking out the entire front page. The idea appealed to Luna and Garcia. “It’s how we feel right now,” Luna said. Garnett and Garcia sat in her office and talked it through. “I just finally sat down and said, ‘You know what? You’re right. They’re all right. That’s the way it should be,’ ” Garnett said. Black stood for grief, but also privacy—the things the community was holding back, keeping for itself. “You’ve got so many people knocking on your door, calling you. And I get that—that’s fine, they have a job to do,” Garnett said. “But they’ll be gone. We just thought, This is how we’re going to hold this.” The issue went to print with a front page that was entirely black, except for the date: May 24, 2022.
As reporters continued to pour into town, Leader-News staffers found themselves in the uneasy position of being on the other side of the camera. Luna told me that he found some of the more voyeuristic coverage off-putting. “I was going back through my pictures of that day, and I don’t believe I have a single picture of a parent’s face,” he said. “I saw it with my eyes, but I was not there to record that.” I asked him about the mounting critiques that law enforcement did not try hard enough to stop the shooter. “A lot of news stories are coming out,” he said. “From what I saw, our local law enforcement, Border Patrol, troopers, when it initially happened, everyone was running toward the building. That’s all I know.”
Leader-News staffers are gathering themselves for what they’ll have to cover next: more press conferences, funerals, and the long aftermath of what Luna called the worst day of his life. Garnett said that Rubio had texted earlier that day to ask if she could write her daughter’s obituary for the paper. “She said, ‘Can I have two pictures?’ And I said, ‘You can have a full page.’ ”
(The New Yorker)
TIRED ARE YOUR SPLENDID SOLDIERS, TIRED ARE THEY, HERE THEY GO.
Here's the recording of last night's (2022-05-27) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0490
Thanks to Hank Sims for all kinds of tech help over the years, as well as for his fine news site: https://LostCoastOutpost.com
And thanks go to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which provided about an hour of the above 8-hour show's most locally relevant material, as usual, without asking for anything in return. Just $25 a year for full access to all articles and features, and you can too. While you're rolling in the right direction, go to KNYO.org, click on the big red heart and give what you can. And email me your writing and I'll read it on the very next Memo of the Air.
Besides All That, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:
Ghost dogs.
https://theawesomer.com/ghost-dogs/668733/
Alev Lenz – Fall Into Me. (Haunting closing music of /Hated In the Nation/, Black Mirror, year 3, episode 6.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TKb8RCka70
And Persian demons. They lick your foot when you're Siamese twins trying to sleep. They have one very niche-market job.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2022/05/persian-demons.html
— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com
THERE’S PROBABLY A CORRELATION between the fact that the US is the only nation with a mass shooting epidemic and the fact that Americans are the most aggressively propagandized population on earth.
If you took any armed population and psychologically pummelled them from birth with narratives about how mass military slaughter is fine while turning them into underpaid, alienated gear-turners and giving them an artificial culture mass-produced in Los Angeles, you’d probably see some mass shootings.
There’s only so far you can warp the human psyche before it snaps. Bash hundreds of millions of people in the brain their entire lives with indoctrination programs telling them madness is sanity and sanity is madness, and eventually a few of them are going to wind up mass murderers.
IT’S SURELY NOT A COINCIDENCE that the nation which serves as the hub of a globe-spanning empire that’s held together by mass murder and war propaganda and mass-scale psychological manipulation is the only nation with a mass shooting epidemic. But this will never be studied.
It will never be studied because empire is invisible to mainstream science and social psychology, in the same way it’s invisible to mainstream media, mainstream politics, and mainstream academia. The empire is not even acknowledged to exist within the spheres of mainstream thought, and this is a deliberately engineered reality. The spheres of mainstream thought which prevent people from understanding that we are dominated by an unacknowledged empire which stretches across nations and influences our lives more than virtually anything else our attention is diverted to are actively influenced by that very empire.
We are all marinating in the US-centralized empire: its influence, its propaganda, its artificially manufactured culture, its ways of thinking. We’re so immersed in it we can’t see it. It’s like water for fish to us. So we won’t see any research into its influence on the collective psyche.
BREAKS MY HEART.MIKE WAS BY BEST FRIEND FOR MANY YEARS .WE WERE “PUNKIN”GROWING SOULMATES AND FARMERS MARKET BUDDIES. VICKI…YOU WERE A WONDERFUL WIFE ..A PERFECT MATCH WITH MIKE..MY SINCERE BEST TO YOU,HANNAH AND JULIA..REST IN PEACE,MIKE..I KNOW GOD WILL APPOINT YOU AS HEAD GARDENER AND “PUNKIN GROWER” IN HEAVEN.
It can take a long time to fully acknowledge an unwelcome fact.
WHEN GUNS ARE OUTLAWED
ONLY OUTLAWS WILL HAVE GUNS
It can take a long time to fully acknowledge you are out of whack. Mr. Kittle, you are unique in that your posts–the ones that are not vetted and trashed– are always inane and meritless. Please spare us.
chuck:
Can’t you make your case with something more substantial than mere insults?
A big second for Chuck. Inanely wrong about everything, George. Take your idiot views some place else.
Bruce:
So you’re gonna give up your gun(s)??
Is his real name George? Another fake-named cowardly troll? Makes sense. Just wondering…
I refer to him as George Kittle, Niners great tight end, because it annoys him.
The case has been made–so well and so often and so definitively–that there is no need for me to do so, Mr. Kittle. Your lame slogans do not warrant more than what I said. You are not after facts or civil discourse, that is abundantly clear.
Au contraire, Dunbar, Kittle is the most civil (he prides himself on it) of all the genocidal geniuses at large on the internet.
Lotsa different interpretations of this statement: maybe it would be best if only outlaws had guns. Then the cops could immediately identify and shoot them
I recall how, sometime way back in early adolescence, an awareness dawned that I and my cohorts and classmates had been sold a bill of goods. All through childhood, the encompassing myth of American Exceptionalism had been pounded into us, declaring that everything was right, good, and holy about simply being part of the Great Nation, founded on truth, liberty & justice, etc. But as lived experience began to demonstrate the gaping holes in that big promise, a certain cynicism took its place. Ike’s farewell speech confirmed the suspicion that all was not right in the land, and not too long afterwards, JFK got his head blown off on television. It’s been going steadily downhill since. Now we inhabit an open-air mad house.
(Eleven days ago, while castigating Putin,) ex-President George W. Bush blurted out the awful truth — publicly confessing to being one of history’s foulest war criminals:
“The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of the Ukraine, heh… [murmuring] Iraq too.”
American exceptionalism indeed. With the Soviet collapse, we squandered an unprecedented opportunity to promote good-will & ecological sustainability.
“Epitaph” (King Crimson):
The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Yes I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying
Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind I see
Is in the hands of fools…
LOCAL NEWS IN UVALDE
The piece on the local paper in Uvalde, and its staff, and their reactions and reporting on the child massacre at the school there–a moving piece that must have been sorely felt, intimate and very real to the AVA staff. Thank you for printing it.
If It Were Up to Me, Cheryl Wheeler
Maybe it’s the movies, maybe it’s the books
Maybe it’s the bullets, maybe it’s the real crooks
Maybe it’s the drugs, maybe it’s the parents
Maybe it’s the colors everybody’s wearin
Maybe it’s the President, maybe it’s the last one
Maybe it’s the one before that, what he done
Maybe it’s the high schools, maybe it’s the teachers
Maybe it’s the tattooed children in the bleachers
Maybe it’s the Bible, maybe it’s the lack
Maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s the crack
Maybe it’s the hairdos, maybe it’s the TV
Maybe it’s the cigarettes, maybe it’s the family
Maybe it’s the fast food, maybe it’s the news
Maybe it’s divorce, maybe it’s abuse
Maybe it’s the lawyers, maybe it’s the prisons
Maybe it’s the Senators, maybe it’s the system
Maybe it’s the fathers, maybe it’s the sons
Maybe it’s the sisters, maybe it’s the moms
Maybe it’s the radio, maybe it’s road rage
Maybe El Nino, or UV rays
Maybe it’s the army, maybe it’s the liquor
Maybe it’s the papers, maybe the militia
Maybe it’s the athletes, maybe it’s the ads
Maybe it’s the sports fans, maybe it’s a fad
Maybe it’s the magazines, maybe it’s the internet
Maybe it’s the lottery, maybe it’s the immigrants
Maybe it’s taxes, big business
Maybe it’s the KKK and the skinheads
Maybe it’s the communists, maybe it’s the Catholics
Maybe it’s the hippies, maybe it’s the addicts
Maybe it’s the art, maybe it’s the sex
Maybe it’s the homeless, maybe it’s the banks
Maybe it’s the clearcut, maybe it’s the ozone
Maybe it’s the chemicals, maybe it’s the car phones
Maybe it’s the fertilizer, maybe it’s the nose rings
Maybe it’s the end, but I know one thing
If it were up to me, I’d take away the guns
The documentary The Ariel Phenomenon was recently viewable as a rental and soon will be released directly to people and on streaming services also….a report I wrote after viewing:
A Report On “Ariel Phenomenon”, A Documentary Leaving Few Dry Eyes
This is a story with a genesis in the experience of a few dozen children who still relate as true events from nearly thirty years ago. The story could be presented as representing the “childhood’s end” of our species, as it awakens us to the existence of more aspects of the context of our place in the the universe.
It is a difficult story to take in and adapt to, but this documentary shows that process taking place over a nearly three decade period in the lives of the then child-witnesses and the people around them and in particular the teachers and school officials directly associated with the Ariel Elementary School students experiencing unusual sights and encounters during an outdoor recess on September 16 1994 in Ruwa, Zimbabwe.
This story has been retold many times in a wide variety of venues since the very first hours after the event. A BBC correspondent had been stationed in Ruwa just the year before, after many years as a correspondent working in various harrowing war zones throughout Africa. For this documentary, producer Randall Nickerson interviewed this tough correspondent Tim Leach before his death in 2011. (This should show how long ago Nickerson began developing the content for this finally released documentary.)
Leach was initially skeptical but also being overwhelmed in covering this story at the beginning, he reached out to a MUFON investigator and representative for Africa, Cynthia Hind, and a Harvard psychologist, John Mack, for help in fleshing out the story. Leach, as he appeared in this later interview, is seen (excerpted from interview) throughout the documentary, as are regularly a set of other individuals.
There are excerpts of interviews of the children from right after the time of the incident and then interviews Nickerson conducted two decades later of a fair number of the witnesses now as adults.
Those speaking as adults in this included the following describing what they saw, experienced, felt, and underwent in subsequent years from impact of the 1994 event.
Among those speaking as adults:
Lisil Field (in grade 4 at the time).
Robert Medcalf (grade 2).
Emily Trim (grade 3).
Lule Nel (grade 7).
Salma Siddick (grade 6).
Nathaniel Coxall (grade 7)
T. Shava (grade 3)
Claire Rixom (grade 4)
Natasha Chakaodza (grade 4)
Nashville Chakaodza (grade 4)
Emma Kristiansen (grade 6)
Dallyn Vico (grade 7)
The various interviewees contributing to the telling of this story alternate throughout the whole documentary with stock film from around the time of the 1994 event. (Including BBC and Nicole Carter of SABC.)
Also, there is a thread where Emily Trim is shown revisiting Ariel 21 years after the event and in those scenes she is shown staying with
the current headmistress, Judy Bates, who was assistant headmistress back in 1994.
The segments of hearing from the BBC correspondent Tim Leach are poignant, his pained and awestruck affect communicating as much as his words where he explained this story affected him more than the horrible trauma of reporting in the midst of combat.
Gunter Hofer was an on scene investigator assisting Cynthia Hind and is one of the living witnesses contributing his observations throughout this film. As the launch date approached for airing of this film, postings at the social media sites for this film noted his recording of signs of landing traces from the craft that the children had reported seeing.
A liberal use of stock film of Dr. John Mack interviewing the children, talking to the teachers in a group, conducting a large townhall gathering in Harare, and more at the end of the film where it was shown how some at Harvard initially tried to rein Mack in (later backing off from him), enabled a clear picture of his work gathering the impressions of the children and in assisting the adults in dealing with what the children were asserting.
Initially, most adults were very skeptical but over time they softened their attitudes, many coming to believe what was reported. Emily Trim’s parents were conventionally very religious but over time came to be supportive of their daughter, taking her in as she set out on the path of creating art amidst her feelings of loneliness and alienation.
Recent polling would suggest something similar is happening with general public attitudes regarding ufos overall over the past few years. In March 2021 CBS News released a poll that had 51% of Americans feeling some UFOs were ET craft, 39% saying not. This year, the conservative Gallup poll showed an 8% jump from their 2019 poll on that question (from 33% to 41%).
Still, the type of encounter the children experienced had features which were so strange or unusual, and which stirred a strong emotional charge, that cause many of us to dismiss and/or avoid this type of report. The beings appear to be the short greys that others worldwide have reported. The 2 to 3 beings that people reported were described as short, wearing a skin-tight one piece black outfit. Their eyes were black, large and almond shaped, the heads large in the cranium and narrow or pointed at the chin. The skin was very whitish.
The unusual feature having the most impact was the prolonged eye contact one of the beings had with a number of the children, and the distinct messaging and feelings that were perceived from that unnerving contact. This occurred at the logs that bordered the playground. Beyond was a wild field and a grove of trees where a landed craft was seen with at least one other being there apparent to most witnesses.
The children describe the messages they perceived during this intense eye-connection with the being as involving scenes of environmental degradation due to human misuse of technology. One girl put it as “we are bringing harm to the world”. Lisil Field, as a young child being interviewed on camera, described all the trees going down and dying animals. The messages seem conveyed via vivid images.
The movements of the being also were a shock. There was graceful gliding in slow motion as well as an unsettling sight of the being disappearing from one location and rapidly appearing elsewhere.
The documentary in a very last scene, injected briefly to interrupt unfolding film credits, exposes what should be our primary focus by showing the poignant scene of Dr. John Mack asking the young Lisil Field a couple of questions:
“Would you like to see him again?”
Yes, she says.
“And, if you do, what would you do?”
I will ask him some questions. What is he doing on earth and what does he want from us?
The time for engaging the task of us now uncovering the answers to those questions appears to have now arrived. May this film help spur that realization.
Thank you for a fascinating post, Mike.
We’ve entered a fascinating phase in the uncovering of all this! A subcommittee of the House intel cmt had hearings on May 17 with more to come there and in the Senate.
The militaries of nations are experiencing a big increase in encounters now.
Adam Schiff, Andre Carson and others there clearly feel there’s an alien presence here….that part has been interesting to see too.
Jameson: you are up in the night, my good anthro-apologist, if you believe that last bit about, “What would you do?”
Sure, there’d be an interrogation and then crucify, lynch or incarcerate the poor wight. I mean, look what they did to me!
Well, Obama recently noted what he thought the type of reactions might be:
Some would create new religions, basicly worshipping you…others would call for increased defense spending, presumably to nuke you…..otherwise we might find ourselves unifying.
Sounds about right, imo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/02/before-trump-defied-the-nra-ronald-reagan-took-on-the-gun-lobby/
What will bring about action on school shootings? If there’s a massacre at Groton, Deerfield, or Groton, or at Harvard or Yale, something may happen. Short of the ruling class suffering casualties, I see no hope of change, unfortunately.
RE: GUN CONTROL
“You won’t get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There’s only one way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up and if you don’t actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time… It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience.”
-Ronald Reagan
Marmon
Yesterday you commented that you would move to Canada if the Raiders hired Colin Kaepernick. Why would you move to Canada with its Socialist Medicare for all? I presume having been a head honcho in your Union you have a Union health care and pension benefit that will still be available abroad. They restrict guns in Canada, no AR-15s for target shooting. Are you sure you wouldn’t want to make your move to Hungary where you could worship Victor Urban the way you worship Trump? He even has Tucker’s and CPAC’s blessing. If you decide to go this route I would be glad to contribute to a GoFund for your expenses. Something to think about, maybe.
Marmon is all hat and no cattle. He is a man who acts like a blowhard and posts here because it is the only “audience” he can get. Sadly, he is not moving anywhere; such statements are just more of his BS. However, it would be nice if his comments never saw the light of day on this website.
Maybe letting him rant here helps keep him from “going postal” himself.
Just looking for a silver lining…
Unlike most, I prefer to not comment in echo chambers. I am involved in numerous platforms the latest being “Truth Social”. Singing to the choir doesn’t do anything for me.
GROUPTHINK EXISTS!
Do yourself a favor
-Think for yourself
-Ask Questions
-EVOLVE !!!
Marmon
THINK, THINK, THINK
Marmon
You’d know about “group think.” It is all you spout.
What is Devil’s Advocacy?
Decision making technique designed to combat groupthink. One or more people in the group takes the “devil’s advocate” role, and works to point out all the flaws and risks with an option under consideration.
Marmon
It’s a tough job here on the AVA, but somebody has to do it.
Marmon
Can you imagine Moron applying to emigrate to Canada and, when asked by the Canadian immigration official as to his reason, answering “because the Raiders signed Kaepernick”? I can.
“you can shoot yourself into more trouble than you can shoot your way out of.”
— Grandpa McEwen
Trump says ‘existence of evil’ is why law-abiding Americans need Second Amendment
Marmon
Glycon said that 734 years before Jesus H. Christ: Give the good guys guns and disarm the bad hats; to which Socrates replied, how can you tell the good egg from a dirty rotten scoundrel? The answer is Gyge’s ring — goggle it, dude, and may it serve you well…
Both the Uvalde and the Buffalo shooters were “law-abiding” citizens — until they got their homicidal hands on guns!
Stop normalizing violence as entertainment and we might be on to something.
Movies portray some horrid examples of humanness.
Video games glorify the violence.
Nobody gives a shit about that.
Living by example of what is seen.
No brainier really.
We only have OURSELVES AND OUR RIDICULOUS NUMB TOLERANCE FOR STUPIDITY AND VIOLENCE TO BLAME.
Gotta think of the roots to get to the truth.