Mendocino County Today: Sunday, June 5, 2022

By AVA News Service on June 5, 2022

SHOWERS WILL DECREASE in coverage and intensity today, with warmer weather expected during the coming week. Mostly dry weather is anticipated, but showers are possible north of Cape Mendocino late Tuesday and again late in the week. (NWS)

LAST NIGHT'S RAINFALL: Leggett 1.60" - Willits 1.35" - Laytonville 1.23" - Mendocino 1.22" - Fort Bragg 1.15" - Hopland 0.66" - Covelo 0.63" - Yorkville 0.60" - Ukiah 0.46" - Boonville 0.38"

UNITY CLUB OFFICERS 2022-2023

President Mary Ann Grzenda, and new officers Ellen Fontaine and Jean Condon. Thanks to returning Vice Presidents Valerie Jean Muchowski and Grace Espinoza.

AV VILLAGE EVENTS

Barn Sale
Sun 06 / 05 / 2022 at 10:00 AM
Where: 12761 Anderson Valley Way, Boonville

Anderson Valley Historical Society Annual Meeting and Party
Sun 06 / 05 / 2022 at 1:00 PM
Where: Anderson Valley Historical Museum , 12340 Highway 128, Boonville

More: andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events/index_list

BRAVO ANDERSON VALLEY

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

Broadway came to Ms. Triplett's Anderson Creek stage Friday with a well done and entertaining performance of "The Trial Of Goldilocks: A Fairy Tale Fantasy". The student actors were superb; and the audience, composed of family and fellow school classmates, was entertained by their well rehearsed endeavors. Students had their lines fully memorized, characters developed, blocking and action complete, and a full-fledged and convincing performance was given by ALL! Bravo!

Another shout out to Ms. B.'s art class members who displayed some lovely artwork in the high school hallway on the new bulletin boards. Lovely!

A big thank you to Jim Snyder and members of the high school staff who volunteered to accompany the senior class for an overnight trip to Six Flags yesterday and a day trip through San Francisco. Look how happy everyone is. We appreciate Jim and the staff members going the extra mile to make that happen!

Please remember to return your Measure M ballot in the mail by Tuesday or drop it off at the fairgrounds.

Happy Weekend! Good stuff!

Take care,

Louise Simson, Superintendent, AV Unified

SALMON GIRL: A little bit of rain in June doesn’t mean there isn't a severe drought. The Eel river is already way too low. The county is currently forcing rural residents with composting toilets to install water guzzling septic systems, including legal pot farms off grid.

The county should also change its codes to accommodate and allow, and simplify regulations regarding composting toilets in rural areas of the county. Neighboring states, Oregon, Washington, and numerous other states now consider kitchen sink water as gray water that can be used on non edible landscaping. Ca, and Humboldt county regulations are stupid and backwards regarding water.

PET OF THE WEEK

April is a very sweet, but kinda shy, dog. This beautiful girl needs to gain a bit more confidence, and we’re sure she will once she becomes comfortable in her new home. April appears to be okay with other dogs, but also a little unsure. A friendly dog who can help April with social skills would be a wonderful bonus in her new home. April is spayed, and ready to trot out the shelter door and into your life.

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:

http://www.mendoanimalshelter.com/

Visit us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/mendoanimalshelter/

For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453.

ED NOTES

CRUCIAL PARA FROM LINDA BAILEY: “But, Water? Potter Valley/Eel River Diversion came up a lot. This is not a new problem; it has been many years in the making. The Mendocino County Water Conservation Flood Control Russian River Improvement District (popularly known as Russian River Flood Control) holds and administers Mendocino County’s water right to Coyote Dam waters. For at least the first 30 years after the dam was completed it GAVE AWAY that water to anyone who wanted to pump it. Their rationale was that the property owners paid for the bond so they should get to use it for free. Sonoma County Water Agency charged their users; look at the different results."

NOW THAT diverted water's push has come to diverted water's shove, the Potter Valley cheap/free water forever gang is in quite a dither, such a dither that they are planning to place a straight-up welfare plea on the ballot, asking that the rest of us chip in to keep the diversion flowing so they can have radically discounted water forever, their birthright they seem to assume. Uh, tell it to the rest of the county whose incorporated residents pay mightily for water, and hundreds of others in the deep outback see their globally warmed streams and springs dry up. But all of this, assuming a deal can be worked out to maintain a reduced diverted flow, might be an opportunity to re-negotiate the howlingly one-sided deal with the Sonoma County Water Agency who owns most of the diverted water piled up behind Coyote Dam northeast of Ukiah. And sells it downstream for annual millions, stiffing Mendo! This is what happens when a modest early 20th century diversion project at Potter Valley via a mile-long tunnel hand dug by Chinese labor to electrify the fledgling little town of Ukiah via a portion of diverted Eel River becomes a literal 21st century life line for millions of people from Cloverdale to Sausalito. Not sustainable. (The next big quake, there goes the tunnel.)

TRENT JAMES shouldn't whine about being misquoted by Matt Lefever, and cops shouldn't whine period. It's unseemly. The interview all rang true. LeFever is a scrupulous reporter, and a valuable addition to the Northcoast's media. What often happens is, in our vast experience — a little irony for you there literal ones — is that people are shocked by what they actually said when they see it in print. “I didn't say that!” Yes you did, and here you are on tape saying it. “Uh, oh.”

HAD TO LAUGH at the Warrior fans claiming Nancy Pelosi put the hex on the Warriors in their loss to the Celtics in Game One of the NBA championships. Back in the Seventies, when pro sports were still affordable by us ordinary shulbs, my late friend Roger Tolman and I would grab two or three of our kids and drive down to the Coliseum to watch the Al Attles-Rick Barry Warriors, down and back, tickets and fuel, about a hundred bucks for the outing. We were there one night when Joe Alioto was introduced, eliciting a chorus of boos, and even fans standing up to shake their fists at the smiling, unperturbed politico. And over at Candlestick, the Giants had to discontinue their infantile mascot, Krazy Krab, because even little kids were throwing stuff at it. You gotta love Bay Area sports fans.

THIS HED in today's Daily Beast: "Oil Execs Cash Out Like Crazy While Gas Prices Soar." First, that story about the Schaflers gas prices in Mendocino has been recycled for a year now, this time around going international. Kinda pisses me off to see a hard-working local family globally pilloried in a price context they didn't create. Europeans have to buy gas in liters, and drive little tiny cars if they own cars at all because they also enjoy effective systems of mass transit. Europeans pay the true cost of what's left of dinosaur juice. We don't. We drive around in road combat-size tank-vehicles that consume preposterous amounts of fuel while we blindly bitch about fuel costs to haul our fat asses around in beast mobiles. Meanwhile, the oil combines rake off huge windfall profits. Biden could freeze fuel prices today, rolling them back at the same time, while smacking the oil dictatorships with huge and painful windfall taxes. But, natch, he won’t, and we’ll all soon be paying ten bucks a gallon, at least, as the whole indulgent show grinds to a halt.

M. A. Byrne Hotel and Noyo Bridge (photograph taken by M.M. Hazeltine, circa 1868)

From today’s PD…pure fantasy, aided and abetted by The Press Democrat and scammer McGuire (er, not all fantasy but part of McGuire's larger fantasy of The Great Redwood Trail)…

COAL TRAIN RAIL FIGHT HEATS UP / Competing bids from Skunk Train, coal export company for right of way

by Andrew Graham

A mysterious Wyoming-based firm believed to be pushing a controversial coal-by-rail export proposal along the Northern California coast has made a new filing with a powerful federal board to advance its bid to seize control over the defunct lines running between Willits and Eureka.

The June 1 filing indicated the so-named North Coast Railroad Company, which wants to ship Rocky Mountain coal out of the port at Humboldt Bay, had at least $15 million in the bank — enough to clear an initial federal hurdle in which a company must prove it can cover the cost of a line’s scrap steel and two years of maintenance.

But that company is not the only entity vying for control of abandoned track running through Mendocino and Humboldt counties — along a right of way state lawmakers hope will one day welcome a 320-mile multiuse trail stretching south to San Francisco Bay.

In an unrelated venture, Mendocino Railway, owners of the tourist excursion Skunk Train, are petitioning the federal rail board to restore 11 miles of track north of Willits to run loads of gravel. Mendocino Railway also filed with the board indicating it had the resources to take on that project.

Either bid could complicate the more broadly supported venture: the proposed Great Redwood Trail, a recreational route planned from Eureka in the north to Larkspur in Marin County on the south. A state agency has already begun planning the conversion of abandoned segments of the rail line in Mendocino and Humboldt counties for the trail.

The three competing ventures must now vie for the endorsement of the U.S. Transportation Board, a body that aims to preserve the nation’s rail corridors but has proven amenable to allowing recreational trails along disused rights of way.

The two commercial ventures made their filings after the federal board last month rejected attempts by Rep. Jared Huffman, state Sen. Mike McGuire and local elected officials up and down the rail line to convince the board to block the coal company’s takeover bid entirely and reserve the rail line for the trail project.

Huffman, D-San Rafael, noted the coal company’s filing came two days after a federal deadline.

“Their late application should disqualify them for further consideration. If not, the coalition of community opposition and their lack of transparency certainly will,” Huffman said Thursday.

Great Redwood Trail advocates would ask the board to disqualify the company’s application because it was late, McGuire said in a Friday interview.

City councils and county boards of supervisors along the North Coast have passed resolutions opposing any coal shipments and supporting the Great Redwood Trail. North Coast Railroad Company’s filing did not shed any more light on its plans were it to gain control of the line. But early filings with the federal board and connections to a Utah government agency and the coal-rich Crow Tribe in Eastern Montana indicated the company hopes to ship coal from the Powder River Basin in Montana and Wyoming for export out of Humboldt Bay.

Still, the company’s reported bank balance is far short of the more than $2 billion officials estimate is necessary to restore abandoned sections of track in Mendocino and Humboldt counties.

The company at this stage is only required to prove it has financial resources equivalent to the scrap price of the steel along the line and maintenance costs using a federal formula of $4,000 per mile of railroad per year, according to its filing.

In its filing, an attorney representing the company stated North Coast Railroad Company intends to take over around 176 miles of railroad line between Willits and Eureka. The total initial financial burden the company must carry therefore comes to $8.8 million, according to the filing.

The company attached a bank statement from a North Carolina branch of the federal credit union Self-Help indicating an account balance of $15.7 million.

Little is known about who is behind the coal-shipping proposal other than that it was pushed in the Eureka area by a consultant named Justin Wight.

Neither Wight nor the company’s Chicago-based attorney, Robert Wimbish, has spoken publicly about North Coast Railroad Company’s intentions. Wimbish did not respond to a voicemail on Wednesday Wyoming is known for loose requirements on business filings and is often used to register corporations with hidden ownership. Documents obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah indicated there was at least initial interest by Utah state officials and leaders of the Crow Tribe, whose Montana reservation is home to large deposits of Powder River Basin coal. In those records, a Utah official stated that Wight was pursuing a $1 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

But after news of the coal proposal broke, organizations and some officials that appeared to offer at least initial support distanced themselves, including the Utah Port Authority.

The Mendocino Railway’s bid, meanwhile, comes as the company best known for whisking tourists through coast redwood forests expands its footprint. Over vehement local opposition, it recently acquired the sprawling former Georgia-Pacific lumber mill site that dominates Fort Bragg’s coastline.

Mendocino Railway has also applied for a $21.5 million federal transportation loan to restore a different set of track, running from its western depot at Fort Bragg to Willits, along the Highway 101 corridor and main north-south rail line. The loan would allow work on 27 bridges, refurbishing a tunnel and replacing ties and rails to allow for both passenger and freight service along the east-west branch.

In an interview, Mendocino Railway president Robert Pinoli said the bid with the surface transportation board was its own venture, designed to provide freight service to a single gravel company that today ships its product via trucks. Each rail car can handle the freight of four truck loads, Pinoli said, creating the opportunity for train lengths of cars to take a large number of trucks off Highway 101.

Pinoli believes his company’s short freight line and the Great Redwood Trail can run alongside each other, he said.

“We have no intention of derailing the plan to have a trail,” Pinoli said.

Coal company officials have never contacted him and have made no serious outreach to his company, Pinoli said.

“I’ve been railroading for 30 years and I don’t know who these people are,” he said.

Pinoli believes a cooperative effort between McGuire, who has championed the trail in Sacramento and his North Coast district, and the Mendocino Railway could aid efforts to stop the coal train.

McGuire, a Healdsburg Democrat and the Senate majority leader, has not been receptive, he said.

“He hasn’t taken (outreach) seriously,” Pinoli said, and “doesn’t want to engage with us in that sort of a partnership, but I think we’ll get there.”

McGuire said he and his staff members will continue to meet with Pinoli about the railroad project but he expressed skepticism that Mendocino Railway had the resources to repair the track.

“For 25 years freight operators had the opportunity to run on this line and literally not one freight train operator stepped up to do so,” he said.

Converting a rail bed to a dirt or gravel bicycle and hiking trail is also significantly cheaper than “rail with trail,” the senator said. Trail proponents estimate that converting the existing rail bed to trail would cost between $12,000 and $15,000 per mile on that stretch. Grading a new trail alongside a working railroad could cost 30% to 50% more, McGuire said.

SCATTERED SEAMS

Hey AVA,

Many years ago I spoke with my father regarding the coal in Covelo asking why it hadn’t been used or mined.

When we were kids chunks of coal were littered throughout the creek beds. I’m certain they still are. There was a small cave on Grist Creek in which we could see a seam of coal for those brave enough to enter.

Dad said after he and mom had moved from Point Arena and he first started working for CDF in the early to mid-70s there was a geologist hired by the federal government who was working in the Covelo area. I don’t know why he was there or what work he was completing. Perhaps the government was still looking at building a dam on the Eel. Nevertheless this man had set up residence in the CDF barracks while working in the area.

My father said he spoke with him regarding the coal deposits around Covelo.

According to my father this man told him the geology around Covelo was not conducive to any real mining efforts of anything except gravel. He explained due to what appeared to him to be a lot of seismic activity over the years any seams of coal, gold, etc. were simply to hard to follow. The seam could run for 12 feet or 1200 feet, however they simply sheered off and often could not be found again.

He told my father the geology in the Round Valley area looked like someone had taken a scoop for land from every corner of the county, placed it in a box, shook it up then dumped it out.

Dad believed it was for this reason coal was never mined in any real fashion in that area. Honestly I believe that’s probably a good thing.

So that is what I was told, not saying it’s the gospel, but it does make sense to a guy who knows as much about geology as what I know about being an astronaut.

Thanks.

Matt Kendall

Ukiah

BUDGET NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

Cannabis Department Budget Fantasies

(Narrative from Budget Book for 2022-2023 (July 2022-June 2023)

“The budget projections made by the Department for the 2022‐2023 Fiscal Year estimate $1.2 million in revenue. This is based upon continued growth of the department in staffing positions that generate revenue by serving the community of cultivators locally. Additionally, the Department believes that it could realize more funding through service as we are also transitioning the licensure of Cannabis Facility Business Licenses (CFBL’s) into the Department’s purview. Beginning in 2022, and continuing into Fiscal Year 2022‐2023 the department is also collecting the fees associated with the processing of the County’s Section 15168 Environmental Checklist, commonly known as Appendix G.

“Cannabis Program staff has been working diligently to develop a fee schedule for the new Department, and plans to present to the Board of Supervisors. Staff are confident that once the fees are finalized and implemented a fee schedule for the new department will be able to more accurately reflect both revenues and expenses associated with the Cannabis Department operations.”

(Over the last three years cannabis department costs have gone from about $400k to almost $2.8 million. Yet applications haven’t gone up significantly for more than two years.)

* * *

Water Hauling Budget for fiscal year: $2 million.

* * *

Mendo Fights Climate Change (with almost $2 mil): “Provide free public EV charging at Mendocino County's Admin Center” for $1.6 million, plus $320k local match.

* * *

Sheriff’s Office

“To help decrease expenses in the FY 21‐22 generally funded budget, the Sheriff’s Office requested and utilized alternate funding (PG&E funds) for critical operating expenses such as replacement of patrol vehicles and technology infrastructure. The Sheriff’s vehicle fleet is aging rapidly, with many of its patrol vehicles operating with high mileage. Delayed purchase, delivery and upfitting of new patrol vehicles over the past several years has contributed to vehicle replacement being prioritized in the budget again in FY 2022‐23.

Over the past several fiscal years, the Sheriff’s Office has worked extremely hard to evaluate and reduce operational expenses. Examples include hiring new Field and Corrections Deputies to help reduce overtime expenses, recruiting already employed Corrections Deputies to transition to field assignment positions, and switching basic academy training from College of the Redwoods to Santa Rosa Junior College. Implemented efficiencies will in turn have a positive outcome on budget expenditures.

New hiring incentives were recently pursued so that the Sheriff’s Office can increase available personnel and better serve the public. To further help reduce overtime and training costs, the Sheriff’s Office continues to pursue local training courses certified by Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) whenever possible. This change will help reduce travel related cost for this legislatively mandated training. Despite these training efficiencies, the proposed training budget for FY 2022‐23 is reflecting an increase from the previous fiscal year. This is because in FY 2021‐22, many mandated trainings were decreased, not offered, or not able to be attended due to the pandemic.

Employee contract increases over the past few years have significantly improved the Sheriff Office’s ability to retain quality personnel and recruit personnel for vacant positions. These increased MOU costs continue to have a domino effect on salary‐related expenses in the FY 2022‐23 budget, as well as the costs associated with providing emergency services for Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPSs), the COVID‐19 pandemic, and wildfires.

Each fiscal year during budget preparation, the Sheriff’s Office performs a comprehensive inventory of all contractual services. The FY 2022‐23 reflects a lean budget in this area. Realizing savings in the budget this year has been exceptionally challenging given the current economic climate where the impact of inflation is being felt Countywide.”

(Note: The CEO has budgeted $2 million for Sheriff’s Department overtime for 2022-23. Overtime was $1.65 million in in 2019-20, $2.1 million in 2020-21, down to $1.15 million in 2021-22. Healthcare and Dental costs at the jail are up to $4.6 million, more even than base jail staffing cost of $4.1 million.)

Loggers with Rigging Sled, Perkins Camp, Big River, 1900

SALES TAX OPTIONS

by County Counsel Christian Curtis

I. Background

On May 17, 2022, this Board gave direction to staff to begin work on a possible sales tax for submission to the voters. The Board roughly discussed the possibility of a tax dedicated to provide fire protection and/or the provision of water. It was determined that staff would return with more specific questions on key decision points on June 8.

II. DISCUSSION

In order to craft an ordinance that meets the Board’s need, counsel has identified a number of specific decision points on which more guidance is needed. Counsel can craft or refine appropriate language once the Board provides direction on these policy decisions.

A. Amount of Tax

If the Board chooses to put a proposed tax to the voters, it will need to decide what the rate of the tax will be. Later this year, the tax imposed by Measure B will be reduced from one-half cent (0.5%), to one-eighth cent (0.125%), meaning that a new tax of three-eighths of a cent (0.375%) would present as no change to the consumer. The Board, however, can choose to propose an alternative amount to the voters in multiples of one-eighth cent (0.125%).

B. General or SpecificTax

The Board will need to determine whether it wants to formally commit to keep the use of funds limited to a specific purpose or allow for general governmental purposes. A general tax only needs approval by a majority of the voters while a special tax needs approval by 2/3. At the prior meeting, the Board seemed to want a special tax, but staff would like to confirm that direction.

C. Geographic Area Taxed

The Board of Supervisors will need to direct whether the proposed tax will include transactions inside the cities or be limited to the unincorporated area of the County. Rev. & Tax Code §§ 7285, 7285.5.

D. Specific Purpose

If the Board chooses to enact a special tax, it will need to decide how that purpose is defined. Please note that this language will limit the use of the funds for the life of the ordinance and may not be change without additional voter approval. As such, it is generally advised that the limitations be specific enough to capture the intended use but not so specific as to dedicate funds to particular uses or allocations that may become moot.

There are a range of possibilities here, and County Counsel can prepare and/or refine language to suit the Board’s intent. There are, however, a few policy level decisions on which counsel needs direction.

For fire protection, counsel needs to know how broadly these services are intended to be. Possibilities include:

The full range of functions a fire protection district can perform under state statutes. If the intent is to transfer funds to the fire districts, this option would minimize the amount of administrative work in any transfer. Agreements could mirror current transfer mechanisms for TOT funds.1 Agencies not bound by relevant state laws (e.g. private fire agencies) would be contractually committed to use the funds for the same purpose.

Provision of one or more specific services. The powers of fire agencies extend to EMS, ambulance services, hazardous material emergency response, etc. The Board could choose a more limited range of services if it wants the funds dedicated to a more fire specific purpose.

Provision of a broader range of fire related services within the County’s powers. It is possible that there may be fire or fire prevention related projects (e.g. emergency access routes) that might utilize powers held by the County but not fire protection districts. If the Board desires, the special purpose could be more broadly framed to encompass such uses.

For water, counsel needs similar guidance on the intended specific purposes. Possibilities include:

Any use within the statutorily defined powers of the Mendocino County Water Agency.

A defined list of specific uses. Counsel would need some more guidance as to what this would look like and what the intent of the fund is. A few examples:

o Capital projects for water storage

o Other projects or activities to provide water for human consumption (e.g., water hauling to the coast during drought)

o Projects or activities to provide water for agricultural or commercial purposes

Current agreements reference the powers of the district under Health and Safety Code section 13862. That section reads:

A district shall have the power to provide the following services:

(a) Fire protection services.

(b) Rescue services.

(d) Hazardous material emergency response services.

(e) Ambulance services, pursuant to Division 2.5 (commencing with Section 1797). (f) Any other services relating to the protection of lives and property.

o Indirect costs associated with increasing or preserving existing water supply (e.g., scientific studies and legal expenses related to the Potter Valley Project, raising Coyote Valley Dam, etc.)

A broader statement of purpose that includes all uses related to the provision, preservation, or expansion of water supply within Mendocino County.

In addition to the above, counsel would like direction on any language about whether indirect costs (e.g. A87) may be covered. This may be relevant both to address relevant County administrative costs (e.g., auditor/tax collector expenses, if any) as well as administrative costs for any districts, JPAs or other entities receiving funds.

E. Allocation of Funds/Number of Ordinances

As multiple possible uses are suggested here, the Board will also need to decide whether and how tax revenues will be split between these purposes. Indeed, after review of the May 17, 2022, Board meeting, counsel is unclear as to whether the Board intends to propose two separate taxes for fire and water or a single tax that can be used for both. Counsel needs further direction before proceeding. Key issues include:

Whether the Board wants one or two tax ordinances and ballot measures.

If the Board chooses two tax measures, it must decide the amount of each tax in eighth-cent increments (0.125%). This means that it would be impossible to have a 50/50 split between fire and water should the Board desire a total tax amount matching the three-eighths cent (0.375%) set to expire under Measure B.

If the Board chooses a single tax measure, whether and how to split the funds between fire and water. Should the Board desire, this allocation can be less than 100%. For example, the Board could allocate 40% to fire, 40% to water, and the remaining 20% to either fire or water based on the Board’s discretion in any particular budget year.

Whether a portion of funds within one use will be further restricted or subdivided. (e.g., 80% direct services and 20% indirect or 70% fire protection and 30% EMS.) Please note that restrictions on this level are likely to increase administrative costs.

Whether to include limits on expenditures or allocation to particular agencies and/or regions. Counsel generally advises against this approach because of the possibility of increased administrative costs and unintended consequences.

F. Additional Provisions / Requirements

In addition to the above, counsel would also like direction on any additional requirements or restrictions that the Board would like to incorporate into the ordinance. In particular, it is clear that the Board is interested in some sort of mechanism to ensure that funds are used in a manner that fairly addresses the needs of the entire County rather than letting all revenues go to a few, limited geographical areas. Discussions have included the possibility of an equal distribution between fire districts or minimum expenditures of water funds in certain supervisorial districts.

Counsel generally recommends against spending restrictions that are overly specific because of the strong possibility of unintended consequences. For example, a specific allocation formula among fire districts may become complicated by the creation, dissolution, or merger of districts within the County. Additionally, populations, needs and district boundaries are not static, and a formula that is equitable in 2022 might look very different in 2032. Moreover, there remains the possibility that unforeseen changes to state law might alter underlying laws or boundaries in a way that render such formulas nonsensical or ill-advised.

There are a number of options as to how an ordinance might choose to include protections for equitable distribution of funds while minimizing the potential for unforeseen consequences as laws and circumstances change. The Board’s choice of such mechanism will need to weigh the risks of strong restrictions against the political and structural benefits they include. Examples include:

The creation of a citizens oversight body to review expenditures and opine as to the appropriateness of expenditures and how funds are used.

The creation of one or more advisory bodies to provide a recommended allocation formula for each fiscal year. To avoid mission creep or delays, the Board could include language requiring specific elements of any recommendation and a deadline for submission sufficient in advance of the County’s annual budget hearings.

A process for individual fire districts or other fund recipients to submit proposals to the Board in advance of the County’s annual budget hearings.

A specific fund allocation formula with an ordinance provision authorizing future Boards to make amendments or other changes.”

SAKO TO TRENT JAMES

Trent,

Tom just unfriended me from his social media. I guess it's true...Tom has retired to Silvia NC. Because it originated from out-of-state, Tom's letter of endorsement for Matt Kendall must have been a sign of Kendall's desperation.

Btw, if I had to rank skip tracing software, I would put LexisNexis at the top. Also, Tracers does a lot of big data collection and data mining. Tracers has 42 billion points of data, and everything is hyperlinked.

That said, tracking someone through the cloud is considerably more difficult. I would recommend IBM's Cloud Consulting Services.

I'm sort of interested in this stuff. I have a radio show on national security and intelligence. The next step in skip tracing will be AI-assisted skip tracing in the cloud. In that regard, Google filed 21 patents for cloud-based skipping application.

Google's method includes providing a cloud-based service enabling data interchange with a plurality of vendors providing skip tracing services and receiving at the cloud-based service and from a user a file of records for skip tracing.

The method further includes applying a waterfall process to the records using the computing device wherein the waterfall process includes at least a subset of the plurality of vendors and returning to the user a results file containing skip tracing results corresponding to the records.

The method may further include generating a waterfall score card and sending the waterfall score card to the user, the waterfall score card summarizing performance of the subset of the plurality of vendor.

I mention all of this Trent because it may help you with your PI work.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

ED NOTE: Gee, I wonder why Allman would unfriend a guy like you, a guy who has unrelentingly vilified him and his friends for the past two years, spreading unfounded accusations of corruption and ancient gossip.

Edward P. Freathy, scaler and grader for the Caspar Lumber Company, standing next to a giant redwood log with a measuring tool (c.1920). Freathy began working for the Caspar Lumber Company in 1864, working his way up to foreman. He went by the name "Capt. White" and was known to woodsmen far and wide by this name. He worked for the company until he was 83 years old. (Kelley House Museum)

AUTUMN FABER, SHE OF THE WINTRY HEART, WRITING ON THE MCN CHATLINE:

“To clarify: I am not ‘Swooning’ over Trent James. I am actually of the mind that the police should be abolished. They are a remnant of colonization and originated from white supremacy. I would prefer to defund the police and refund our communities with necessary mental health safety nets and social services such as medical care and housing.
I am not looking for people's responses to this belief, I am just clarifying since Merrie felt the need to define my experience as ‘swooning.’
Does Trent James take a pro gun position? Probably. He is from law enforcement after all. He IS a cop. I don't know about his stance on masks other than that he said he would not enforce mask mandates and infringe on people's rights. He said a few other things that are red flags for me as well.
The reality is we have 2 choices: Trent James or Matt Kendall. Matt Kendall has a very similar stance to Trent James on the two issues mentioned above. But Matt Kendall also has been heading a department that is full of nepotism, corruption, and misconduct while Trent James has been calling these things out.
I will never forget or forgive Matt Kendall for submitting a picture of a hog-tied black man in his request for a budget increase right after George Floyd's murder by law enforcement. Out of hundreds of photos that he could have submitted (or none at all), he chose this photo to represent what law enforcement does in this predominantly white county. The man is tone deaf and is entrenched in the “old boy” network, he was not elected and he does not represent this community in my opinion.
I simply think Trent is the better candidate.
I don't think he is perfect, I am not ‘swooning’ over him.
I dislike Matt Kendall. I like Trent James better.”

ED NOTE: Ms. Faber doesn’t seem to be influenced by new information, but as incurious, intolerant, and under-informed as she and her echo chamber bipoc comrades are, she still might consider adjusting her “facts” to include the facts about the “racist” incident she ignorantly attributes to Sheriff Kendall. The black guy trussed up for the cops by a Laytonville dope farm crew, was part of a multi-ethnic — white, black, hispanic crew out of San Jose, all of them career crooks. (Celebrate diversity, Autumn!) We often point out if all the bodies buried in the hills of the Mendo outback were to rise and march south down 101, beginning with and led by the Northcoast’s mass-murdered Native Americans, supplemented by the numerous disappeared and the summarily executed at remote dope grows, the march would stretch from Eureka to the Golden Gate Bridge. For the record this particular home invader happened to be black, and he was lucky not to have joined the thousands of disappeared. Sheriff Kendall pointed out that the trussers, rather than plant the guy where he’d never be found, did the right thing by holding him for deputies.

Further background: "Too Much About Nothing" by Jim Shields

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 4, 2022

WILLIAM AADLAND-BREEN, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear, probation revocation.

EDGAR CONTRERAS, Windsor/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, proceedings.

TREVOR CRAWFORD, Potter Valley. DUI.

THOMAS CROWLEY-CALVERY, Willits. DUI.

JIMMY HENDRY, Willits. Failure to appear, resisting.

MATTHEW HOLBERG, Ukiah. Criminal threats.

DAVID JOAQUIN, Covelo. Proceedings.

THERESA KLARR, Laytonville. DUI.

MARCIE MANNING, Eureka/Ukiah. Unlawful use of tear gas-ex felon.

COURTNEY MILLER, Gualala. Domestic battery.

OSCAR SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Domestic abuse.

JOSE SANTIAGO, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Domestic battery, assault with deadly weapon not a gun, battery with serious injury.

CODY VALDEZ, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery.

ARON VANCUREN, Laytonville. DUI.

UKRAINE, SATURDAY, JUNE 4

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

It's the 100th day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with no end in sight to the war. The fighting has killed thousands, forced millions to flee the country and left Ukrainian cities in ruins. Both Russia and Ukraine have claimed some successes and losses. In recent weeks, Russia has focused its efforts in the east and south, now controlling one-fifth of Ukraine. In the eastern Donbas region, Russian troops are making gains in a grinding artillery battle as Ukraine awaits new shipments of longer-range and heavier weaponry from the West. The war has had global ripple effects, and cease-fire negotiations have stalled.

More than 2 million Ukrainians have crossed back into the country since the heaviest violence shifted away from the capital, Kyiv, and other population centers. The European Union's border agency, Frontex, said now more people have started going back to Ukraine than are leaving. But the United Nations refugee agency still says Ukrainians are experiencing "the largest human displacement crisis in the world today," with 7.1 million people displaced within Ukraine and more than 6.5 million refugees.

Russian troops occupying the Ukrainian city of Mariupol are still detaining civilian men and sending them to overcrowded camps in the area, according to the city's Mayor Vadym Boichenko. He told reporters in Kyiv that 100,000 residents remain in his devastated port city, now under full Russian control. Boichenko, who fled before Russian forces captured Mariupol, says food and drinking water are scarce and there's no electrical power or cellphone service. Thousands of bodies are buried in shallow, makeshift graves.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of "shifting the responsibility" on Russia for a looming global food crisis. Russian forces have occupied much of Ukraine's coastline, but the Kremlin blames the blockages of food shipments on Western sanctions and on Ukraine's defensive mining of Black Sea ports. After a meeting with Putin, Senegal's President Macky Sall, who leads the African Union, tweeted that Russia's leader "expressed readiness to facilitate" wheat exports. Speaking to state TV, Putin said Russia wouldn't attack grain shipments if Ukraine demined the waters, or that exports could go through Belarus, which would require lifting of sanctions on that country.

The European Union stepped up sanctions on Russia, including against Russian military commanders the bloc describes as the "butchers" of Bucha and Mariupol, cities where Ukraine blames Russian forces for atrocities. The new blacklist also includes former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, described as "closely associated" with Putin; the adult children of Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov; and Arkady Volozh, who immediately stepped down as CEO of Russian tech giant Yandex. All this came a day after the U.S. rolled out new sanctions on Russian officials and oligarchs.

(NPR)

SWAMP GAS

by James Kunstler

On Monday, Michael Sussmann, Esq., was released like an undersized crawdad back into the fetid waters of the DC swamp by a jury of his peers — meaning fellow DNC contributors — despite compelling evidence of his guilt. Special Counsel John Durham took the loss with stoical equanimity, leading some to suspect that he was in on yet another ritual humiliation for the out-group of Americans who might call themselves We-the-Not Insane.

The outcome of the trial raises a passel of questions about Mr. Durham’s mission, his integrity, the fitness of the federal courts, and our country’s relations with some rather important principles such as truth and justice. Why? Because the RussiaGate affair at issue evinced a gangrenous rot that is remorselessly killing America in body and soul — if you care about such things.

It’s pretty obvious that Mr. Durham knew all along that the Sussmann trial would be a low percentage play in terms of getting a conviction. The law stipulates that federal crimes must be tried in the district where they were committed, and the DC federal district court is effectively a praetorian guard for the ruling officialdom. Enemies of the so-called Deep State, such as General Flynn, get cruelly punished and ruined by procedural artifice; Deep State errand boys like Kevin Clinesmith and Michael Sussmann just flash their Get-Out-of-Jail-Free cards and go back to The Life. Yet, Mr. Durham did bother to bring the case, so… why?

Some might say, he had to do something to justify the years he’s spent investigating the origins of RussiaGate. Meanwhile, many books have been written setting forth the very precise fact-patterns of criminality among a huge cast of characters throughout our government. What happened in the years-long campaign of RussiaGate left a matrix of slime-trails from the White House to the FISA courts, to the seventh floor of the FBI building, to the CIA, the DoD, the State Department, Congress, and to swamp outposts in foreign lands where chimerical creatures like Josef Mifsud and Stefan Halper scurried about in mud and darkness on shifty assignments. All these big and little fish to hook, and all he could come up with was Clinesmith and Sussmann, two guppies?

Let’s assume that John Durham actually cares about his self-respect and his reputation. Let’s go a little further and suppose that he cares about what has happened to our country lately — an ignoble surrender to lawlessness and to collective insanity generated by official disrespect for truth — which is to say, reality. What’s his game? Does he have a game? Some astute observers insist that all long Mr. Durham was no less of a tool than all the other characters in this vast opera of historic villainy. Maybe so.

Among the many obstacles he faced bringing to justice the actual perpetrators of RussiaGate was that the statute of limitations had run out on some of their alleged crimes, such as FBI higher-ups James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and Rod Rosenstein lying to Congress. The statute of limitation is a lot less clear concerning charges of seditious conspiracy, that is, to “overthrow the government… and to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States”… etc. One could argue that RussiaGate was exactly about overthrowing the head of the executive branch and subsequently trying to cover it up.

One thing is certain: a substantial part of the American public is unsatisfied that the figures involved in all these misdeeds still have not been subject to any formal examination of their acts, trials in federal court being the most decisive kind of test. Yet Mr. Durham plugs on, with the upcoming trial of another seemingly small fish, Igor Danchenko, a.k.a. the “sub-source” for Christopher Steele’s notorious dossier that was used to justify the legal harassment of Mr. Trump from the midst of his 2016 campaign for president to April 2019, when Robert Mueller released his report empty of charges.

Does it just end with Danchenko then? Consider that, if nothing else, John Durham knows a lot more about all this business, and that might include some things that we don’t know. Is he constrained by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s obviously hostile DOJ? Can he or will he carry on despite that? If he can’t bring any more cases to court because of the scoping limits placed on his original assignment by former AG Barr, will he issue a report at least laying out the cases that he is prevented from bringing to court? All this gets back to John Durham’s self-respect and care for his country.

As reported by Margot Cleveland at The Federalist, the primary target of RussiaGate, Mr. Trump, has filed a civil suit in the state of Florida against Hillary Clinton, the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, the Perkins Coie law firm, and lawyers Marc Elias and Mr. Sussmann under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as “RICO.” (Congress passed a law allowing those harmed by violations of RICO to sue for civil damages.) Those issues, too, are subject to a four-year statute of limitations based on exactly when the plaintiff (Mr. Trump) must have known of his injury, which was at the latest in 2018 when then-Congressman Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intel Committee, released a memo detailing the Clinton campaign’s role in the Steele Dossier nonsense. Therefore, the suit may be an expensive waste of time and effort, so why is he bringing it?

All of this pales beside the exorbitant sense of futility that We-the-Not-Insane have been subjected to in an additional cavalcade of abuse from our government since RussiaGate, namely, the colossal insults and mind-fuckeries of the Covid-19 operation. And now we’re forced to stand by and witness the deliberate demolition of America’s economy by an obviously incompetent and suspiciously installed regime behind the figurehead known as “President Joe Biden.” This is sure to end worse than not well.

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

JOHNNY DEPP JUST DESTROYED HIS REPUTATION TO WIN A VERDICT — But Man, Was It A Show

by Maureen Callahan

As Johnny Depp once said to Amber Heard, “You want to see crazy?”

Turns out we all did, in a big way. Like 3-D, IMAX, “Game of Thrones”-The-Wall big.

And man, did we get it.

Name me a wilder, more original, compelling, can’t-look-away, tragicomic serial viewing experience than “Depp v. Heard.”

It’s enough to make you forget about the Oscars. Will Smith slapped whom?

“Depp v. Heard,” thank you. This was the perfect “Are we post-pandemic but hurtling into full recession and maybe World War III?” distraction, the ids of two spoiled celebrities unleashed, macabre and hilarious, replete with human feces, a severed appendage, literal blood on the walls and blasé testimony from Lady Gaga’s ex-fiancé and supermodel Kate Moss.

What on earth will we do without it?

At the same moment that Tom Cruise has successfully rebranded himself from batshit crazy couch-jumping Scientologist to the world’s biggest, most reliable movie star — oh, the reassuring pleasures of “Top Gun: Maverick,” not least of which is a major theatrical release — Johnny Depp has performed the opposite feat.

A movie star beloved by Gen X peers and little kids was revealed to be an alcoholic, drug-addicted mess whose alter ego was “The Monster,” a man declared by a UK court to be a wife-beater.

He did it to himself. He didn’t have to bring this suit. But because he clearly avoided good advice from expensive people, Johnny Depp determined that this was the only way to salvage his reputation.

In he came every morning, in a flashy suit and chauffeured SUV, blasting Bob Marley, waving to his fans regally, the Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia just another red carpet. Johnny Depp, in a different universe.

Oh, the laughs Johnny had! In between munching on gummy bears, smirking with his lawyers, doodling and coloring, Johnny found nothing shocking.

Not the shit on the bed. “On my side of the bed, um, was human fecal matter,” he testified.

Could it have been the dogs in gastrointestinal distress?

“The dogs weigh — they’re teacup Yorkies,” Depp said, his deadpan impeccable. “They weigh about 4 pounds each.”

Relatedly, Snopes tried to confirm whether Depp’s friend Gina Deuters farted on the stand. Their findings were inconclusive.

Johnny’s doorman, deposed in his car, frantically vaping and driving away in an attempt to escape this entire mishegoss: Chef’s kiss!

The texts between Heard and talent agent Christian Carino — so brutal! So refreshing! As Heard moans about losing billionaire space colonizer Elon Musk, Carino responded like the bitchiest Real Housewife of Hollywood.

“Dealing with breakup,” Heard texted. “Hate when things go public. See I’m so sad.”

“Sounds like a press release,” Carino shot back. “You weren’t in love with him and you told me a thousand times you were just filling space.”

Carino told her to get real. “You could avoid all this if you stop dating über-famous people,” he wrote.

Yes!

That said, I think Heard’s testimony was persuasive. Clearly, they had a damaging marriage, but Johnny Depp is still regarded as a rapscallion, a charming bad boy (ugh), while Heard is considered vile, a c–t, any number of vicious appellations the incel online hive mind has thrown at her.

Women still have to be perfect victims. Men, as this trial has shown, do not.

As for Johnny: He may own a private island, but we learned he lives in a shack. Who else pictured a glass-walled compound to match that $27 million yacht — you know, the one he was forced to sell to J.K. Rowling?

We heard how embittered he was about that, as well as how his security team felt about “Boss,” as they call him, drinking and drugging. Working for late-stage Elvis sounded more fun.

“I’m going to stay with this fucking idiot in case he gets sick,” said one bodyguard.

Asked of another: “Mr. Depp was trying to urinate in the foyer, wasn’t he?”

(A photo of Depp’s bandaged finger presented as evidence in the trial. Johnny Depp Legal Team/Handout via REUTERS)

We got Depp’s delicate parsing of the finger incident. The he-said-she-said paled in comparison to the photos — the damage he did, the bloody stump itself, a zonked-out Johnny on an ER stretcher, sunglasses still on.

“I recall painting on a lampshade, on a wall, on a mirror,” Depp said. A regular Marcel Duchamp. “I remember dunking my finger into paint thinner and using it to paint when I had run out of blood to paint with.”

The trial’s coda gifted a plot twist none of us saw coming — the possible rekindling of ’90s It Couple Depp and Moss.

So chic. So messy. Better than Brad and Jen.

As for the verdict: Depp won, but he also lost. Disney will never hire him again. It’s hard to think of a major studio or streamer that ever would. He’s pushing 60, seems a hopeless addict, and will never outrun what he wanted more than anything: a celebrity show trial for the internet age.

Memories fade. Memes are forever.

(New York Post)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Tommy Wayne Kramer is obviously new to the South. When I first moved to rural Louisiana I too was struck by the affability of race relations. Mixed groups of employees enjoying lunch together, cordial greetings, friendly inquiries about the family etc. Quite a difference from California, with its broad geographic segregation. So it took some time for me to gradually recognize the vile background racism that permeated the community. The same local surnames shared by both races, but one group prosperous, the other still living in the kind of rural poverty that shocked Robert Kennedy 60 years ago. The same segregated institutions, particularly the churches. And all of it rooted in 19th century quasi-biological notions of racial superiority / inferiority that were widely assumed. I worked in a hospital, and as I became a familiar figure, white people began freely sharing their startling racial theories and metaphors, all of which, of course, served to explain the deep socio-economic disparities. I’ll shock you with one example, an elderly gentleman explained to me why racial integration could never work ” If you mix vanilla ice cream with shit, it’s all gonna taste like shit.” Racial prejudice in the South is like the weather, it’s everywhere, all the time. I can tell you the exact moment I decided to move away. We had our three year old in pre-school (100% white) and began to notice little odd things he would say. One day I took him to the public library. An African-American teenager was sitting on the steps reading a book. My son looked up at me and asked: “Dad, why is that man bad?”

— Michael Turner, MD

The Piccolotti Children, c.1930. Left to right: Fred, Ida, Albert, Louis, George, Henry and Emil. (Kelley House Museum)

UPROOT MONTH!

The ninth annual California Invasive Species Action Week (CISAW) runs from Saturday, June 4 through Sunday, June 12, 2022. Sponsored by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), this week provides an opportunity for Californians to learn about the hundreds of harmful non-native plants and animals that threaten our state’s natural resources, ecology and economy.

Historically, agencies, non-profits and volunteer organizations across the state have teamed up to host events for CISAW. As the COVID-19 pandemic subsides, the format now includes both in-person and virtual events such as webinars and videos. Volunteer opportunities can be found in all parts of the state, such as:

Attend a habitat restoration event at Trinidad State Beach near Humboldt where volunteers will pitch in to pull up ivy and other invasive non-native species.

Join Friends of Five Creeks in Berkeley in their efforts to eradicate invasive foxtails from near Codornices Creek.

Protect the American River Parkway in Sacramento by removing broom with the American River Parkway Foundation.

Help protect and restore coastal dune and bluff scrub habitats at Half Moon Bay State Beach by assisting with the removal of invasive cape ivy, mustard, thistles and hemlock from coastal scrub areas.

Be a “Weed Warrior” at Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, by assisting with efforts to remove non-native grasses and other invasive plants from the landscape.

Get details for these events and find many more by visiting the CISAW schedule on CDFW’s website.

You can also watch webinars and learn about how you can stop the spread of invasive species by taking small, everyday actions, such as landscaping with native plants, not releasing unwanted pets into the wild, reporting invasive species findings, and cleaning, draining and drying gear when recreating in bodies of water. The CISAW website lists simple actions Californians can take all year long while visiting natural areas, boating or fishing, or at home. Join our Digital Scavenger Hunt and track invasive species in your local neighborhood or park!

On Friday, June 10, CDFW will announce the winners of the annual California Invasive Species Youth Art Contest on social media. This year’s theme was “Unite to Fight Invasive Species!”

The mission of CDFW’s Invasive Species Program is to reduce the impacts of invasive species on the wildlands and waterways of California. The program is involved in efforts to prevent the introduction of these species into the state, detect and respond to introductions when they occur and prevent the spread of those species that have established. For questions or more information about CISAW, please contact invasives@wildlife.ca.gov.

THE GREAT DELUSION THEORY

Editor:

From 1769 until 1823, Spanish soldiers and missionaries built 21 missions from San Diego to Sonoma. Father Juniper Sera converted many American Indians to Christianity. By 1846, 75,000 Mexicans were living north of the Rio Grande. The United States bought California and much of the Northwest from Mexico for $15 million in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. What’s your replacement theory?

Timothy Long

Petaluma

IN 1927, HENRY FORD began work on ‘Fordlandia’, a massive rubber plantation in the jungles along Brazil’s Tapajós River. The automotive magnate needed the town as a steady source of rubber for his car tires and hoses, but he also saw the venture as a chance to bring small town American values to the Amazon. Having already left his mark on cities like Dearborn, Michigan, he designed a company town complete with swimming pools, a golf course, suburban-style bungalows and weekly square dancing sessions. Unfortunately for Ford, his experiment was doomed almost from the start. Fordlandia’s rubber trees fell victim to leaf fungus, and its employees chafed under the town’s strict regulations, which included a ban on alcohol. Clashes between Brazilian laborers and American managers soon became a common occurrence. During one riot over cafeteria rules, Fordlandia’s employees destroyed most of their mess hall with machetes and pushed the town’s trucks into the river.

Henry Ford eventually sank $20 million into his would-be workers’ paradise, but the town failed to produce any latex for his automobiles. Having never visited the city himself, he finally sold it to the Brazilian government in 1945 for pennies on the dollar. The wilderness has reclaimed large portions of Fordlandia’s campus in the years since, but many of its buildings are still standing, and the town has become a minor tourist destination for backpackers and curiosity seekers.

(History.com)

MY WIFE has been in a bit of a frenzy all day because she is hosting her book club tonight and because she has been simultaneously cooking a wonderful meatballs and spaghetti sauce for our family dinner tonight.

Due to the timing of everything, dinner had to be pushed forward a half hour before the usual. And so, Bo called Peter and to her amazement he answered his phone. This is unusual in the extreme because he is almost always asleep (he sleeps more than a cat, and I am not exaggerating), his phone is not charged, his phone is in the other room, he has accidentally turned the volume to zero or (fill in the blank as to why Peter rarely answers his phone).

So anyway, Peter answered and Bo told him to come down for dinner. By the time he arrived she had set the table and had started boiling the spaghetti and then continued her book club preparations elsewhere in the house.

When she returned to the kitchen, there was Peter in his usual chair at the table eating a small bowl of ice cream. Rather than explode in anger she figured what-the-hell it’s ONLY a small bowl. She again left the kitchen and returned minutes later to see Peter with a very large bowl in front of him containing the entire remains of the ice cream carton.

She exploded on him. “How can you eat all that ice cream when you know we are going to have dinner in two minutes?” He gets up, goes to the living room, sits on the couch and appears to be nearly asleep as I come down from my man-cave on the way to the kitchen.

Bo is furious and tells me about Peter and all the ice cream he has just eaten. I suggest to her that when she doles out the spaghetti and sauce she should only put two strands on his plate with a teaspoon of sauce. She didn’t go this extreme but she did give him a ridiculously small portion and asked him “is this enough?” He said “yes” and further “if I take more will you stop making a big deal about it?”

As I have mentioned before, Peter has no routine in his life. He does not live by the clock. He does not do things in some order considered normal by others. He is driven by his latest whim.

(Anonymous)

CHRIS SKYHAWK: Just for fun- this is the last song i wrote b 4 running for supervisor, then stroke, etc. etc. etc- just found it in an old file- turns out to be quite prescient.. doncha think??

Wake up in the morning pour the coffee in the cup

Alarm clock went too early you do not want to be up

Next thing in life is a traffic jam so long

Waiting for a message from the great beyond

Turning on the TV all you get to see is war

They only show us conflict, they cannot teach us more

Preaching their violence like a siren song

Waiting for a message from the great beyond

Sometimes it is hard to know exactly what to feel

Difficult to discern what is fake and what is real

Our heads are all ringing like a dinging gong

Waiting for a message from the Great Beyond

Sometimes you have a moment that is peaceful and is clear

Feel the power of great spirit coming to you near

Filled with a powerful quiet calm

That’s when you get a message from the Great Beyond

DEFIANT POETRY FOR OUR ERA OF CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY

by Jonah Raskin

It’s not clear, at least not to me, why Christopher Bernard, a San Francisco poet and novelist—and a founder and co-editor of the online magazine, “Caveat Lector”— has titled his new, exhilarating book of poetry, The Socialist’s Garden of Verses (Regent Press, $19.95). It’s an award-winning book that deserves to be widely known. Perhaps in the title, Bernard means to honor the political and the poetical sides of himself. Notice, too, that he means his book to speak to and for socialists, and not merely to reflect his own idiosyncrasies. The title, The Socialist’s Garden of Verses, made me think of the classic, A Child’s Book of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, who like Bernard uses the poetic words “verses” and “garden.”

Socialism and socialists don’t show up explicitly in any of the nearly 100 poems, some longer than others, some only a few lines long, while a couple of them go on for dozens of pages. Some have rhymes and some don’t. In some, the words are scattered across the page, others are much more box-like, with variations in matters of capitalization and punctuation.

Bernard doesn’t wave his political affiliations like a flag on the barricades, though he’s not hiding them either. Reading through this volume, one might conclude that the author is a twenty-first century socialist at a dire moment when some form of democratic socialism seems to be more needed than ever before, with capitalism as ravenous as ever.

Rooted in the crises of our day and age, The Socialist’s Garden of Verses speaks to the needs and wants of anxious readers and depressed citizens looking for answers, or at least want to know what questions to ask.

There’s an opening well-known quotation at the front of this volume by the Italian communist Antonio Gramsci: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” That quotation seems to reflect Bernard’s own feelings. The poem “Revolution,” which appears about half-way through the book—and that starts with the invigorating lines, “I began my life with a revolution/I will end it with another”—offers a sense of despair in the line, “mankind’s suicide and the holocaust of spies.” There’s nothing more revolutionary, Bernard seems to be saying, than the birth and death of individuals and societies.

The poem, “Revolution,” ends on a note of joy: “the future is ours/…we are newborn.” A sense of rebirth is at the heart of this volume, which is divided into six sections and was written during the pandemic and the plague of Trump. The first section is titled “Prelude in Hell,” the last “Miracle.” At this late date in the history of humankind, socialism would indeed be a miracle of sorts.

The poems at the start of the volume directly address the horrific arrival of Trump and his cronies, including the onerous Mitch McConnell. Bernard spares them no bile or wrath. The eleven “Trump Poems,” if one can call them that, pay homage to Genesis, the Iliad, Chaucer and Basho, and especially to T. S. Eliot, that arch-conservative as well an experimental poet, most notably in The Waste Land. Bernard offers parodies, both serious and playful, of several Eliot classics including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” that includes the memorable phrase, “There will be time to murder and create.”

“My Father’s Rake” is also serious and playful, personal and “political” in the broadest sense of the word. It’s a kind of meditation on ownership and private property. It ends “Everything we possess, everything we are—/body and mind and soul and spirit—/is held between the past and the present and the future/ with outstretched hands forever.” If Bernard is indeed a socialist, it’s of the spiritual and aesthetic persuasion. He wants roses as well as bread, beauty as well as equality. Increasingly, he tells me, he has thought of himself as an eco-socialist. The author’s world vision is informed by his reading in Christian texts. The poem, “A Child on Calvary” rightly points out Jesus’s threat to the Roman Empire in the line, “This Messiah king must be rubbed out.” Still, despite his talk of calvary and the Messiah, Bernard is no Christian socialist.

Many of the poems explore the city of San Francisco, where Bernard lives, works and writes. In “The Coyote of North Beach” he communicates with a coyote who wanders across an urban wilderness, and in “I Am a Squirrel ” he takes time to portray a furtive critter who gathers acorns and builds a home in an oak tree. No beast is too small or insignificant in Bernard’s socialist world. In “Faust Leaves his Heart in San Francisco,” the island of Alcatraz, once home to a notorious federal prison, “rises in the background” as though to say that the city on the bay isn’t all flowers, marijuana, fun and games. Faust is a major character here.

If Marx could rise from the grave, or look down from his secular heaven, he might describe Bernard’s poems as “utopian” rather than scientific. Then again, he might get into the spirit of these verses. After all, Marx loved Heinrich Heine’s romantic poetry and lived part of the time as a kind of “bohemian.” That’s the very word the German secret police who spied on him used to describe him in their reports on his domestic life with wife, Jenny, and their children.

Marx also might want to describe Bernard’s socialism as one that’s tinged with Christianity, though the poet himself points out that he’s “not in sympathy with Christian morality” and that he has “profound reservations about the Christian religion.” Still, in the next-to-the-last poem in the volume, “The Night of the Star,” he evokes the Christian myth of “The Second Coming,” retells the story of Jesus’s birth in a manger and the arrival of the three wise men. A derelict garage takes the place of the manger and the mother, father and baby are recast as American blacks. On the night of the birth, a “clutch of teens” pass a joint and back and forth. One of them who is surely stoned says, “Man, that stuff is strong.” Bernard has an ear for the language of the street.

In an online interview, he recently said that his socialism “is of the soft kind.” Maybe so. Still, there’s nothing soft or mushy about The Socialist’s Garden of Verses. The language is consistently precise, and yet expansive, and the imagery avoids cliches. Then, too, there’s enough humor here to entertain and enliven an optimistic pessimist like Antonio Gramsci.

“Our work is just beginning, Bernard writes on the last page. “The earth and the sky are waiting.” He adds, “Take my singing with you out into the day.”

Walt Whitman, the preeminent bard of American democracy, couldn’t have said it better.

SALLY KELLERMAN, on coming to the role of Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan in "M*A*S*H" (1970):

"Soon after 'The April Fools' (1969), my agent called me about an audition. I didn't know anything about the director or who, if anyone, had already been cast. The only thing my agent said was that I was reading for the part of Lt. Dish (later played by Jo Ann Pflug), so I thought that I had better put on some red lipstick to look more 'dish-y.'The audition room was full of men, scattered about, none of whom I recognized. I didn't even know which one was the director. I guess I did well because, all of a sudden, one of the men--he had the longest fingers I've ever seen, like birds about to take flight--said, 'I'll give you the best role in the picture: Hot Lips.' 'Really?' I said. I was so excited. Finally! The best role in something. I thanked the long-fingered man, took the script, and rushed outside. I didn't even want to get home before I cracked open the script to get a better look at this 'best' role in the picture. Leaning against the building, I began thumbing through the pages looking for my part. And looking. And still looking. Nothing. On page forty, maybe I found a single line. Later I found a few more. Fourteen years in Hollywood and my 'best role' is the nine-line part of a solider named Hot Lips? I staggered home, angry and bitter, and I called my agent, indignant. 'There's nothing to this part!' I told him. 'This guy is supposed to be really talented,' he said, trying to calm me down. 'I really think you should do it.' I later learned that fifteen directors had said no to this film before Robert Altman had said yes. So I read the script again and then agreed to take another meeting with Altman, it was just the two of us this time, and I arrived in a huff. I didn't know him from Adam, but I hated him for thinking he could fool me. Hot Lips was a memory before the script was even halfway over. But as long I had come this far, I was going to tell him what I thought. 'Why does she have to leave in the middle of the film?' I began. I had spent years playing roles on TV. I was already thirty-one years old. I didn't want a career playing hard-bitten drunks in Chanel suits who get slapped by their husbands. This movie was supposed to be a comedy. Hell. I'd done two episodes of 'Bonanza' just to prove I could be funny. I was capable of so much more than a few lines. I was capable of a 'best' role--and so was my character. 'I'm not just some WAC--I'm a woman! So why can't she do this? And why can't she do that?' I shouted at Altman. I was ranting. When I finally came up for air, Bob just casually leaned back in his chair. He said, simply, 'Why couldn't she? You could end up with something or nothing. Why not take a chance?'. The minute he said that, something in my shifted. Here I was having a tantrum in his office, and there he was leaning back in his chair, smiling. Everything about him was comfortable and relaxed. So sure. So it was settled. The role of Hot Lips O'Houlihan was mine." (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Sally Kellerman!

PARABLE OF THE ANT AND THE LOBSTER..

Here's the recording of last night's (2022-06-03) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0491

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.

An extended science-fiction book review by David Herstle Jones of ThinkInTheMorning.com. Andrew Scully called to read his take on the race for Mendocino County sheriff. The latest installment of Kent Wallace’s adventures teaching New Jersey-accent English to beach-town Vietnamese children. Poetry both neurotypical and neuro-atypical. A discussion of the problems of a religious organization running a modern hospital according to an interpretation of the Old Testament no more and no less bizarre than anyone else’s, with x-rays and labs and needles and sterile stainless-steel scalpels and things but messaging and records services apparently provided by a sort of clockwork landline Chinese whispers technology. In short: science, superstition, variously angry and goofy asides on Our Horrible World, our percussive, cordite-scented, ketchup-splashed world. And so on and so forth, until: Scott Peterson in his own voice on the subject of razing Mendocino, including campaign literature pronoun-count analysis, over a bed of slide guitar faint and tinny in the background, as if from a transistor radio in the garage next door, adding a certain je ne sais quoi… au moins pour moi. Je n’ai pas beaucoup de vocabulaire, pour vous dire la vérité.

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:

Happy Vivaldian marimbists. So happy. You need this.

https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2022/05/tweet-of-day_0824423976.html

Explore abandoned America. (via BoingBoing.net)

https://www.abandonedamerica.us/

The famous cigaret kiss stunt. Hooray, but bleagh!

https://www.vintag.es/2022/06/gene-kellys-cigarette-kiss-scene.html

And the parable of the ant men and the lobster men.

https://thenib.com/an-interview-with-professor-jordan-peterson/

— Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org

Two men using jackscrews on a large redwood log at Perkins Camp on Big River, 1896. (Kelley House Museum)

FIRST PROBABLE CASE OF MONKEYPOX IDENTIFIED IN SF RESIDENT

The San Francisco Department of Public Health on Friday announced the first probable case of monkeypox has been identified in a San Francisco resident. The case was identified through testing at a California Department of Public Health laboratory.

The individual traveled to a location with an outbreak in cases, is in isolation and is in good condition, health officials said. The individual reported no close contacts in San Francisco during the time period when they could have spread the infection to others. The San Francisco Department of Public Health is awaiting confirmation from initial testing completed on Friday.

The risk to the general population from monkeypox is believed to be low. The known cause of spread of monkeypox is prolonged contact and bodily fluids, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Having close physical contact, including sex, with multiple people, can put a person at higher risk for monkeypox, health officials said.

(sfgate.com)

Reynard the Fox feigns death, engraving by Allart van Everdingen

NEW YORK’S WEED RUSH IS HERE

by Jaime Lowe

S. was 30 and C. was 22 when they first met — at a focus group for public transportation in Tampa, Fla., in 2012. The age difference between them was a problem for her at first. “I was like, immediately, ‘No,’” S. says. She had already spent a decade trying to figure out her life. There were years spent working on behalf of tomato-farm laborers in Florida, followed by a stint as a union rep for janitors and security guards at Harvard, in Massachusetts, then jobs as a pastry chef in Boston and in Austin, Texas. By 2016, she was back in Tampa, her hometown, working in kitchens, still making pastries. She was, in C.’s words, “this beautiful, smart woman who’s about this community life.” A few months after the focus group — where, as it happened, they were the only two participants who actually used public transportation — she messaged him on Facebook: “Hey, question, you know anyone I could cop some weed from?”

She wanted to make some edibles; he seemed like someone who might be able to provide the key ingredient. Though he was abstaining at the time, worried about the drug testing at his job at a mental health organization, he had used and dealt cannabis since high school. He had some connections. “Luckily, where I was hanging out at, my neighbor was an old head, like, 70 years or 75 years old,” C. says. “He was selling hella weed.”

A few weeks later, he sampled one of S.’s first batches of edibles: green-tea madeleines. They were the perfect balance of sweet and earthy, spongy in texture. “They did a number on me,” C. says. S. made more desserts, like gummies and dulce de leche cookies. By now, he was no longer worrying about the drug testing at work; he was focused on supplying her cannabis. “I’m trying to hang out with her,” he says. “So, I started selling them to people in my neighborhood and really putting some effort in.”

A partnership — in romance, in business — took shape. They sold their goods at the kitchens where she worked and at barbershops too. “We’d bring Rice Krispies treats, but more gourmet — they were shaped in a doughnut with white-chocolate drizzle, just next-level stuff. Sometimes it’d be, like, flan or tres leches. We’d have drinks like guanabana, or soursop, and, like, passion fruit,” he says, describing some of their cannabis-infused products. “It’s Tampa, so there are a lot of people from the islands or the Caribbean.”

Business flourished. By 2020, they had eight employees and hundreds of customers; they organized cannabis events where they sold edibles, CBD products and “flower” (the smokable parts of the plant). When the pandemic hit, they remained committed to their deliveries: Some of their customers were elderly, in pain and looking for alternative therapies. “We were like Uber Eats, sliding around the streets after the curfews,” he says. They considered themselves — and their customers considered them — essential workers. But despite the fact that there was a nearly 50 percent increase in the demand for legal cannabis nationwide during the first year of the pandemic, they were not, legally speaking, essential workers. And in Florida, though medical cannabis was legal, recreational was not. Their ventures in the gray areas of the recreational weed industry are why they are only willing to be identified by their middle initials, C. and S., and do not want the name of their business to be made public.

Just as they were getting into a pandemic rhythm of deliveries and drop-offs, the George Floyd protests took over Tampa’s streets. Every time C. and S. were driving after curfew, they felt as if they might be targeted by police, who were out in greater numbers. During one cannabis delivery, C. noticed a car following him, and he worried it was driven by undercover police officers — either that or counterprotesters; he couldn’t tell. After the unmarked car was joined by five marked police vehicles, he told S., who was in the passenger seat with their delivery of edibles and flower, to throw everything out the window, call their lawyer, call their neighbor. The neighbor told him there were vehicles that looked like unmarked police cars in front of their house.

Concerned about raids and arrests, they decided they had to leave town. For nearly a month, they stayed with friends, afraid to go home, and debated where they might go next. He wanted to move to the West Coast, someplace where the green rush was flush and legal. He had Los Angeles in mind. But she lobbied hard for New York. They both had relatives there, and a cannabis market was emerging in the city. When S. lived in Boston, she used to take the Chinatown bus on the weekends to visit cousins or friends in New York. “I can be entertained by walking most of my day, having a coffee and just hanging out in a park,” she says. “Those are the things that I really enjoy doing, and this is a city that’s great for that.” By July 2020, the couple arrived in New York, after finding an Airbnb in, as C. puts it, “this awesome Islands neighborhood.” Everybody was barbecuing outside, listening to music, having the best time. New York was, he says, “a breath of fresh air.”…

nytimes.com/2022/06/01/magazine/new-york-cannabis-business.html

27 Comments

Ryan Webb June 5, 2022

Come one, come all, step right up to the register and pay your share of Potter Valley Irrigation District’s new water welfare tax. The wine industry and farm bureau can’t wait to have all the residents of this county paying to maintain their water supply. It’s win win! You get dry wells, depleted aquifer’s and high prices for municipal water and they get all the surface water and also get to write the GSPs ensuring they get all the ground water as well. What a deal!

Reply
- George Hollister June 5, 2022
  
  Those heavily dependent on Potter Valley project water are people from Healdsburg to Potter Valley, including Redwood Valley, and Ukiah. People who use Potter Valley project water, but also get water from other sources as well, are from Novato, to Windsor. Anyone, and fish who depend on Russian River Summer flows from Coyote Dam to Jenner, get their water from the Potter Valley project. The primary difference between farmers, and everyone else is farmers know where their water comes from, other than the end of a pipe.
  
  Those who use should pay is a valid one, but inconsistent with everything else we do with hundreds of millions of dollars of government grant funding that get handed out to the well connected. Seems like water, particularly during a historic drought should take priority. But this is California..
  
  Reply
  - Harvey Reading June 5, 2022
    
    What a pile of BS you are peddling. I’m sure the welfare wine farmers will be eternally grateful to you.
    
    Reply
- Rye N Flint June 5, 2022
  
  Connecting watersheds and diverting water is and will always be a bad idea. California never got the memo…
  
  Reply
  - George Hollister June 5, 2022
    
    Bad idea? Other than facilitating unparalleled economic growth, and the single largest farm economy in the world? We have better go back and tell the Moche, Egyptians, Persians, and Mesopotamians.
    
    Reply
    - Kirk Vodopals June 5, 2022
      
      Even many of the the central valley farmers see the writing on the wall by swapping out almonds for agave. The justification for diverting Eel River water to support unending sprawl in Sonoma is thin at best. Same goes for unlined irrigation ditches in Potter Valley when it’s 110 degrees outside. The unspoken tale of the North Coast (including the Russian River I guess) is that the dammed and diverted river systems of the Central Valley destroyed the anadromous fisheries, so the government doles out grant dollars to protect and sustain the undammed systems where fisheries have a fighting chance. The Eel, like the Trinity and Klamath, straddle both those worlds, but the agriculturalists and developers tend to be losing ground.
      
      Reply
      - George Hollister June 5, 2022
        
        In our society today it is hard to draw a line between real problems, and problems that exist in our imaginations. Or maybe it’s just the “everyone can create their own reality” mindset. So when the water runs out, like we are beginning to see. then what is the reality? Climate change? Greed? Overpopulation? Etc.
        
        It is my observation that we are paying a price from the luxury of being opulently disconnected from the land, where our food, fiber, water, power, and metals come from. It’s like all these basics of civilization, and human survival come out of thin air. I am wondering about where the price of rice, and potatoes will be this Fall, on top of the price of everything else. That’s right, I forgot, it’s Putin’s fault.
        
        Reply
        
        Harvey Reading June 5, 2022
        
        Your cup of BS continues to overflow…
        
        Reply
        
        Kirk Vodopals June 5, 2022
        
        Exactly, we are definitely disconnected from the land when our water has to run through a mountain to irrigate our lawns
        
        Reply
        
        George Hollister June 5, 2022
        
        —– and we don’t know it, and don’t care. The government will take care of us. The idea that environmental ideologues in government would take that water away, and leave us high and dry is not even a possibility. Right?
        
        Reply
        
        Kirk Vodopals June 5, 2022
        
        Only the government could continue operating the diversion as is. Do either way you gotta deal with da gubmint
        
        Reply
    - Rye N Flint June 5, 2022
      
      How did desertification and salting out the land work out for those civilizations? I guess you never read “Collapse” by Jared Diamond. Maybe just Guns, germs, and steel?
      
      ‘Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.’ -Edward Abbey
      
      Reply
George Hollister June 5, 2022

Michael Turner, MD, on the South:

I did second grade in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1960. I went to a good school, with a good teacher. There was a Bible lesson, and prayer at the beginning of every day. the Bible lesson was interesting. The racism that was there didn’t come from my school, it came from particular white families we interacted with. Bigotry is a better description than racism is. There was prejudice against Catholics, Jews, and Yankees. No one who was an atheist would admit it, and likely attended church. Prohibition was still in effect locally, so there was bootlegging, too. But my family’s perspective was a white Yankee one.

My MD sister lives in Shreveport, LA. She and her Swiss husband have a broader perspective on the South, and race than we had in Knoxville. Inside the. black community there are classes, with their own prejudices. And the white community has the same. There is “poor white trash”, along with middle class, and upper class whites. And there are Mexicans, American Indians, and Indians from India, along with people like my sister who have come from other parts of the country. All of these people have their prejudices, just like we do. And as TWK points out, they all interact, certainly more so than what we see in Mendocino County where we make a big deal about racial prejudice, and they don’t.

Reply
Kirk Vodopals June 5, 2022

$15 million in the bank for the purported coal train through the Eel River? That would cover the cost of about three miles of track over a deep-seated landslide area. Car loads full of gold and iPhones couldn’t justify the cost of repairing the rail line through that region, even if some fantasy warlock abolished the permitting process.
Tis true about America: most god-fearing patriots drive vehicles more fit for tank warfare than personal commuting. But the “everyone drive Teslas” fantasy is just as ludicrous. Particularly in a region that is wholly reliant on very distant grid power. Guess I need to find a harness for my goats.

Reply
- Mike Williams June 5, 2022
  
  The extensive damage to the rail line in the Eel River canyon is so widespread that they would virtually be starting over to bring it back into service. The unstable geology would bring about regular shutdowns for repairs. The already degraded Eel River would suffer further degradation. The damage does not begin along the Eel, there is a long burned out and collapsed tunnel north of Cloverdale, and many bridges that would have to be rebuilt. All this for what, to run coal to Humboldt Bay to ship to China?
  
  Reply
  - Eric Sunswheat June 5, 2022
    
    Most recently yesterday, I’ve heard predictive modeling suggesting air temperature events of 140F, as recently occurred in India, regularly occurring globally as soon as 2026.
    
    Clearly the California legislature put the cart before the horse, without abandonment of rail line before moving forward with trail conversion. All bets are off with China belt and road initiatives, abet parlaying private and government incentives.
    
    When gasoline goes to $25 gallon, electric car rentals from railway station nodes might seem viable, as humans seek higher ground from rising seas and climatic blow back.
    
    Reply
- Rye N Flint June 5, 2022
  
  Ponies work better than goats, and just as hardy. There’s a bunch of free ones out on Low Gap Road as it swings south towards Robinson creek. Maybe start the old stagecoach routes up again to the coast. That sounds pretty sustainable especially since the ponies trim up all the dead fire hazard vegetation. too
  
  Or we could all put solar on our houses (Looking at you landlords or Mendo County), drive mid-range EVs with LFP batteries! Or better yet, walk to work! Why does that sound crazier than the ponies?
  
  Reply
Eric Sunswheat June 5, 2022

RE: ED NOTE: Gee, I wonder why Allman would unfriend a guy like you, a guy who has unrelentingly vilified him and his friends for the past two years, spreading unfounded accusations of corruption and ancient gossip.

->. Tom just unfriended me from his social media. I guess it’s true…Tom has retired to Silvia NC. Because it originated from out-of-state, Tom’s letter of endorsement for Matt Kendall must have been a sign of Kendall’s desperation. (John Sakowicz)

Reply
- Kathy Janes June 5, 2022
  
  Could this refer to Tom Hine, not Tom Allman?
  
  Reply
izzy June 5, 2022

The dream of a railroad lives on.
Though an actual train has not run on the unused tracks in several decades, busses and other vehicles regularly come to a complete stop before crossing. No doubt another senseless legal requirement. Safety first!

Reply
Cotdbigun June 5, 2022

Sunday funnies, Biden could do something useful, roflol. Freeze fuel prices,open the keystone pipeline, stop printing money (I know it has nothing to do with inflation, I saw him read it in his WH studio)do something about our border instead of the ones on the other side of the world.
He did stop millions of acres of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska because ahh, it’s good if we can’t afford to drive, not sure why spending $ 1500.- to fill up a big rig is good, but it’s just really grand. A full tanker ship consumes roughly 80, 000 gallons of fuel per day to bring us what we need so we can save the environment on this side of the planet, screw the other side I guess.

That Putin should be made to listen to kamala cackle 24/7 as punishment for causing all these problems!

Reply
Rye N Flint June 5, 2022

RE: Fake news and talking poo

“The county is currently forcing rural residents with composting toilets to install water guzzling septic systems, including legal pot farms off grid. The county should also change its codes to accommodate and allow, and simplify regulations regarding composting toilets in rural areas of the county. Neighboring states, Oregon, Washington, and numerous other states now consider kitchen sink water as gray water that can be used on non edible landscaping. Ca, and Humboldt county regulations are stupid and backwards regarding water.” -Salmon Girl

Well, the county isn’t “Forcing” people to have septic systems. Hard for a department to enforce anything, with Zero septic inspectors in the inland Ukiah office. But they have 2 on the coast still! I guess they are willing to put up with the low pay for the awesome location. There is some truth to the water guzzling septic requirements and kitchen sink water being called stupid but not backwards. Let me mansplain the further intricacies of what happens to our wastewater.

My partner fought long and hard to make compost toilets legal in this county. She went to stakeholder meeting with EH land use division for years (before the pandemic) to work out the details. You can now enter your compost toilet and greywater system into the “Non-standard” wastewater treatment program for a fee of $150 every 3 years, the very same program I mentioned in my reply to Mo, that isn’t being enforced or checked. The program is in place because any specialized system with filters and/or pumps that could malfunction, needs a monitoring program. Why? Because people in our society are STUPID and completely reliant on the Mommy-Daddy State to take care of all their basic needs. That’s why we have sewer systems, septic tanks, and garbage disposal systems… because if you leave it up to off grid pot farmers to make the rules, you end up with garbage heaps in the creek. Yes, that is literally one of my cleanup projects at work. People in Murica have been told that “trash” goes “away”, end of story. And if you think we should just trust everyone to automatically do the right thing, we wouldn’t have Environmental Health Departments and Drivers’ licenses, now would we? Ever heard of the old “cesspool” systems? I mean… greywater disposal…
https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/health-and-human-services-agency/envirnomental-health-eh/land-use/

Here’s how the septic system works. It is a system that is supposed to send our waste out of sight out of mind. Our poo and pee water, that is. Of course by sending it to a septic system, you are sending it to a settling tank, so that your leach field doesn’t get clogged with solids and particles, but it is essentially sending it under ground and “away”. Unfortunately away better be more than 100 feet from your well, or you will be drinking recycled poo water. And that’s just the state minimum mandate. If the active microbes that break down the nutrients and recycle all of the other animals poo are located in the top 16 inches of soil, why are we sending it below that into the groundwater? Away… is the answer. It’s easy and automatic and works for about 50 to 100 years, before you have to change leach field locations. Hmmm… I hope you have enough land to meet all the setback requirements.

Now, what are the alternatives? We can separate out our bathroom water and laundry, and send it to our water loving plants, aka greywater… but as Salmon Girl pointed out, sink water is counted as “blackwater” along with what goes down your toilet, because of the soap and vegetable-meat bits going down the drain creates composting issues. What happens if you need to repair the greywater system? The county says that you need a large enough septic system to handle ALL of the wastewater that could come through your system, so you do have to have a septic system, even if you also have greywater and a compost toilet. Unless… someone had a compost toilet that could also handle kitchen sink water…

Hence the need of a composting toilet. Compost toilets, allowed in Mendocino, are as simple as pooping in a 5 gallon bucket, and dumping it into a covered enclosed compost pile. Just as nature intended. But does the County trust “off grid pot farmers” not to poop in the creek? Not yet…

Maybe we need to have “Septic system” operator licenses, to prove we can handle the adulting of dealing with our own waste on the settled lands of Mendolandia.

-Rye N Flint

Reply
John Sakowicz June 5, 2022

To the Editor:

I am not interested in “relentlessly vilifying” retired Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman or anyone else at the MCSO, as the Anderson Valley Advertiser said in the June 5 edition of “Mendocino County Today”.

What I am interested in are asset searches for retired commander-level personnel at the MCSO. Why? Because I try to match up what may be their true asset portfolios with their known net worth — in other words, assets hidden in the names of relatives or straw men. Also, assets hidden in LLCs and LLPs. Also, cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And offshore accounts, and the like.

Conducting complex hidden asset investigations is the key to making the case for public corruption. In the case of the MCSO, I suspect that corruption took the form of shaking down cannabis farmers for the last 50 years in protection rackets, or stealing confiscated cannabis before it ever got to the evidence room, then brokering it on the side.

And once the dirty cops retire, they quickly move out of state and hope nobody remembers them.

I’ve always found it odd that Tony Craver retired to Idaho within weeks of retirement, actually within months of the lawsuit I brought against Norm Vroman and weeks within Vroman’s death:

extras.ukiahdailyjournal.com/extras/04_apr_2006/042706_UDJ_lowres.pdf

I also find it interesting that Shannon Barney took off quickly. Real quick. He was perhaps the sleaziest cop who ever wore a badge in our county. (Why was Barney protected after Jason Cox’s lawsuit?)

In both cases — Craver and Barney — do their true assets match their known net worth?

To Tom Allman I would say the following: We have public corruption in Mendocino County, Tom. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. It’s the worst kept secret in Mendocino County. We have a billion-dollar, black market, cash economy in the Emerald Triangle. For the last 50 years, all that cash and all that cannabis have been too tempting for dirty cops to ignore.

Something else you should know, Tom: Dirty cops can’t hide anymore, not even in the cloud. Skip tracing software is too sophisticated now. The next step in skip tracing will be AI-assisted skip tracing in the cloud. In that regard, Google filed 21 patents for cloud-based skipping applications.

Google’s method includes providing a cloud-based service enabling data interchange with a plurality of big data and data mining vendors.

The method further includes applying a waterfall process to the records using the computing device wherein the waterfall process includes at least a subset of the plurality of vendors and returning to the user a results file containing skip tracing results corresponding to the records.

The method may further include generating a waterfall score card and sending the waterfall score card to the user, the waterfall score card summarizing performance of the subset of the plurality of vendors.

Something you should also know, Tom: When I worked in Ad-Seg as a corrections deputy, Frank Brady was in my custody from August 2001 to March 2003. During that time, I got to know Frank. Besides being the sergeant-at-arms for the Sonoma County chapter of the Hells Angels, Frank had also been the caretaker at a Waldorf School. He was an outlaw. But he was a righteous outlaw.

I got to know Frank, and I helped him file grievances for better medical care; Frank was slowly dying of hepatitis and the jail was limiting his care. Hepatitis is expensive to treat. He got that care. Frank was interested in applying to get on the list for a liver transplant. We even got milk thistle supplements for Frank.

Years later, weeks before his death, Frank rewarded me for what he said was me “just doing my job.” He said corrections officers often forget that “care is part of care, custody, and control.”

Frank spoke with me. And more.

I met with Frank in my car outside the Hillside Clinic. He died soon after. You might call it a “deathbed conversation”. Frank was in the upper ranks of the Hells Angels, but dirty cops also tried to recruit Frank as a broker, and later, as a bag man for cash pick ups.

It was a terrible truth.

And now the Borges-Gurr-Knight lawsuit will also dig deep and discover more terrible truths.

And that’s the thing, Tom: some secrets can’t be secret forever.

Until the DOJ brings a case of public corruption, if anything ever happens to me, my wife and my attorney both have a key to my safe deposit box. I’m sure Will Knight, Chris Gurr, and Ann Marie Borges are taking the same precautions.

John Sakowicz
Ukiah

Reply
- Bruce Anderson June 5, 2022
  
  Totally off and stuffed with so many libels I’m tempted to off it, but instead I’ll say, Give us a single piece of evidence that Mendo law enforcement is an ongoing criminal conspiracy. The only dope robbers who have been nailed as operating out of Mendo were two rogue Rohnert Park cops operating, occasionally, out of the Frog Woman Rock (formerly Squaw Rock) area on 101.
  
  Reply
Thomas Allman June 5, 2022

Ed-I rarely respond to rumors, but let’s make sure that this fact is know. In 2007, during my first term as sheriff, rumors of misdeeds involving the command staff (including me) were loud and boisterous. I contacted the “Government Corruption Unit” of the FBI and assured them that they had Carte Blanche to access any personal or business accounts I had. I ordered (face to face) all MCSO command staff members to report any misdeeds to the FBI. I gave the FBI agent’s business card to every command staff member and I advised all command staff members that any information given to the FBI should not be reported to me, as the sheriff. This direct order was issued with punitive action promised if anyone had factual information to report and failed to report it to the FBI.

So while others are dissatisfied that their personal conspiracy theories are not being investigated, I concur with the editor that facts should be reported to the appropriate agencies immediately.

In other words, put up or shut up.

Reply
Aaron Sawyer June 5, 2022

There were a couple of really interesting articles that Kym Kemp ran under the Odd News, Old News series from last year that related some of the history of coal mining in the Covelo area. There are at least three articles and all are worth a read for anyone interested. In short, there is enough coal up there that outside business interests were trading the mining rights for a few decades in the late 19th century, but the quality wasn’t good enough for serious development.

Reply
John Sakowicz June 5, 2022

To Tom Allman’s comments, all it takes is for one of those two Rohnert Park cops — Tatum and Huffaker — to flip.

And they will flip.

There’s no way that Tatum and Huffaker could have been operating in Mendocino County without being part of a larger conspiracy involving local law enforcement.

If they flip, U.S. District Court Judge Sallie Kim may accept a deal at sentencing. Tatum faces a maximum of 45 years in federal prison. Huffaker could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

She may. Or she may not.

The other question is whether Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of California Stephanie M. Hinds will even offer them a deal.

She may. Or she may not.

The victim, Zeke Flatten, unleashed a flurry of similar claims from others. The FBI is investigating.

Anyone looking to file a complaint should contact FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair, and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Daniels.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cynthia Frey is prosecuting the case.

Me? I’ll never forget how Frank Brady cleared his conscience. He was an outlaw, but he was a righteous outlaw. And he hated cops who pretended to be better than he.

Hypocrisy is the worse crime.

John Sakowicz

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Mendocino County Today: Sunday, June 5, 2022

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