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Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022

Coast Cloudy | Fashauer Service | Boonquiz | Aaron Vossler | Loggers | Candidate Forum | Grange Flapjacks | Hendy Campout | Pest Patterson | Log Stack | Wildlife Exclusion | Redwood Log | Property Clearing | Halved | FAFSA Workshop | Debarker | Ed Notes | Milling | Ian Recovery | Flood Resident | Hastings Lawsuit | Millworker | F&G Grants | Albion Bluffs | Recycling Centers | Yesterday's Catch | Rural Poverty | Social Obligations | Vegan Protein | Dry Wells | Brain Damage | Glorious Sunset | Marlene Dietrich | CEO Greed | Mind Hum | Clean Water | Fox Chicks | Nuke On | Fake It | Ukraine | Lincoln Notes | Big Loser | Bacon Book

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WARM AND DRY weather will carry through the extended forecast under a building ridge of high pressure. Low clouds and periods of fog will remain persistent closer to the coast. (NWS)

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A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR ALICE FASHAUER will be held this Sunday at the Ukiah Seventh-day Adventist Church at 11:00 AM and a pot luck BBQ afterward at the Fashauer vineyard at around 2:00 PM. 

21600 Philo-Greenwood Road, Philo. (People don't have feel like they have to go to both.)

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COME ON DOWN TO THE BOONVILLE QUIZ ON THURSDAY

Yes, folks, this week sees the 1st Thursday of the month so on October 6th The General Knowledge and Trivia Quiz will take place at Lauren’s at The Buckhorn, kicking off at 7pm…

Dinner and refreshing drinks of all sorts are available, and your grey matter will be exercised in a warm and fuzzy way.

Hope to see you there.

Cheers,

Steve Sparks, The Quizmaster

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MURDER MOST FOUL

On Thursday, September 29, 2022 Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies assigned to the North Sector were dispatched to contact a resident of Laytonville regarding a missing person's report.

The reporting person reported Aaron Vossler, 18, of Laytonville had been traveling with a friend known only by a nickname.

The pair left Laytonville on Monday, September 26, 2022 in a black Toyota Prius and they were supposed to be traveling to a known address in the City of Ukiah. Vossler did not return home and the reporting person contacted his friends in an attempt to locate him.

Aaron Vossler (facebook post)

The reporting person learned from one of Vossler's friends that he never arrived at the reported destination in Ukiah and Vossler had not made any recent social media posts which was unusual.

A missing person's report was taken at that time with the Deputies conducting follow up investigation in an attempt to locate Vossler. Deputies started to hear rumors that Vossler had possibly been the victim of foul play, however they had a difficult time substantiating any of the information.

Sheriff's Detectives began to assist the Patrol Deputies throughout the weekend and on Monday, October 3, 2022, they were able to contact someone who possibly had seen Vossler just prior to his disappearance.

This person was identified as Christopher Franklin Hill, 20, of Ukiah, and he was contacted at a family member's residence in the 8200 block of East Side Road in Potter Valley.

While at the location, Sheriff's Detectives along with a Patrol Sergeant interviewed Hill and they were able to observe evidence of a possible violent crime in and about Hill's vehicle. A search warrant was obtained for the residence and Hill's vehicle.

During the search warrant service on October 3, 2022, human remains were located in a shallow grave on the property.

Hill was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail on the charge of murder as a result.

The scene was maintained by Sheriff's Office personnel throughout the night until the morning of Tuesday, October 4-2022.

Crime Scene specialists from the California Department of Justice assisted the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, Mendocino County Major Crimes Task Force and Investigators from the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office in processing the crime scene, which included exhuming the human remains from the grave.

Once exhumed, the remains were identified as being Vossler.

This investigation is ongoing, and any persons who may have information about this incident are encouraged to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Investigative Services Unit by calling the Sheriff's Office Tip line at (707) 234-2100 or the WeTip anonymous crime reporting hotline at 1-800-782-7463.

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Loggers, Willits Woods

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GET OUT YOUR 3X5 CARDS

League Of Women Voters Candidate Forum For Fort Bragg City Council 

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County will present forum for Fort Bragg City Council candidates. The forum will be held at Town Hall, on Friday, October 14, from 6-8:30 pm, and will be moderated by a League member. Due to the number of candidates (11), this forum poses challenges. After much discussion, the League board decided to hold one forum with all candidates participating. To cover a few important topics and give all candidates an opportunity to present their views, the following format was devised.

All candidates will have 2 minutes to present an opening statement.

Then, three questions will be proposed; each candidate will be asked to answer all three.

1. Give your thoughts on the ongoing drought and the city's water supply. (2 minutes) 2. How would you address the lack of available housing? Please be specific. (2 minutes) 3. What is your position on the competing lawsuits involving the former GP millsite? Have you taken campaign contributions from Sierra Railroad, or any of its affiliates or principals? (1 minute)

While these questions are being answered, audience members will have the opportunity to submit written questions; League members will gather these and organize them into a few topics. The topics will be posted and read, and each candidate may address any one or more, within a 2 minute time limit.

Finally, each candidate will have 2 minutes to present a closing statement.

The public is cordially invited to attend.

Pat Dunbar, Publicity, pdunbar@mcn.org

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THERE WILL BE FLAPJACKS flipping at the Grange this coming Sunday Oct. 9th! That's right it's the 2nd Sun. of the month and most of us have recovered from the Fair.

The Grange did well this time taking a First Place with our booth titled “Lettuce Turnip the Beet.” Every year we have to come up with at least 75 different varieties of fruits and vegetables. Even with a sketchy gardening season folks showed up with 135 different fruits and veggies. Many thanks to all of you for helping out, the booth looked really good this time around.

Continuing the Lettuce Turnip the Beet theme we jumped into the parade with the drum float packed with drummers followed by a bunch of dancing produce, aieeee, and we ended up with another blue ribbon.

However, we are not too tired to make a mess of pancakes for you all, so come on down this Sunday, it's from 8:30 to 11:00. See you there!

P.S. The Deep End Woogies are on tour this weekend, we will miss them, but they will be back.

Captain Rainbow

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WEEKEND CAMPOUT

Hi everyone -- Just want to report back that the Service Learning Team's overnight camping trip to Hendy Woods this weekend was great! All went smoothly, and it was so much fun. It was amazing to see the students relax and enjoy the experience with each other -- across routine friendship boundaries -- and truly work together as a team through making meals, setting up camp, playing games (many, many games) and solving problems like making a friction fire and fixing a broken cook stove. A successful team building mission!

Thanks so much to all of the teachers who accommodated students that missed 7th period on Friday to attend. 

— Noor Dawood, Anderson Valley Adult School, office: 707-895-2953

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CITY OF FORT BRAGG: HUNDREDS OF PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS FROM 1 PERSON: JACOB PATTERSON

by Will Lee

One individual has filed hundreds of public records requests from the City of Fort Bragg since his return home to Fort Bragg. Wonder what the City Hall employees are producing when not working for you every day? They are compiling THOUSANDS of pages of documents for Mr. Patterson. 

City Staff must comply within the legal timeframes established in California to produce requested documents and they have done this while he continually emails and calls City Hall for one request after another. 

Why has he demanded all these documents? We all wonder the same thing! Are these projects he’s working on to benefit the people of Fort Bragg? Is he compiling an exhaustive research project to help make Fort Bragg the most efficient metropolis in the entire State of California? NO! He does these requests to harass and intimidate public officials and city workers. He has a vendetta against certain employees at City Hall and they’re mostly females. 

Mr. Patterson interviewed for the position of City Attorney in 2017 and was passed over for candidates with far more experience and expertise. Ever since then, he has made it his daily work to demand work products from the City.

The City Council recently adopted an anti-bullying policy mostly aimed at this one individual so that city staff have a process to document any work place harassment or a hostile work environment. This policy also covers members of the public and elected officials. 

The people of the Mendocino Coast need to know about these many, many public records requests. 

I also made a public records request of his public records requests and you can see for yourself (once there, click "Documents" for the full listing):  https://cityoffortbraggca.nextrequest.com/requests/22-164

And here are a few zingers from just April-May 2022:

• Any communications between Nancy Rogers or Sharon Davis and Bernie Norvell concerning any topic related to the City of Fort Bragg from January 1, 2022 to the present. Communications include but are not limited to email messages, text messages, letters, cards, notes, voicemail messages, or other forms of written or recorded oral communication.

• We would like to review the following records concerning two current staff members, John Smith, Public Works Director; and Chantell O’Neal, Assistant Director [of the Public Works Department] – Engineering Division: A) The job descriptions for their current positions and past positions. B) All employment applications for the first position they were hired by the City of Fort Bragg to perform, and all subsequent employment applications or functionally-equivalent paperwork associated with promotions or transfers to other positions within the City organization. C) All versions of their resumes, CVs, or functionally-equivalent documents that show their employment qualifications for their various positions with the City. D) All records referencing, concerning, or relating to attempts to obtain or pass, whether successful or not, the qualifying exams/applications for California Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists (PELS) Engineering-in-Training certification, Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE), or the California Civil exams for civil engineering or other engineering focus areas. E) All records showing their certifications or degrees that are relevant to their employment by the City for their current or prior positions (e.g., college/university degrees, or engineering certifications or licenses) to the extent those qualifications are not already identified on the employment applications or resumes/CVs. For example, degrees or licenses obtained after the initial date of employment and thus not included in their original application or employment documentation.

• Any records that mention or otherwise relate to the Noyo Ocean Collective (NOC), including but not limited to social media or website posts or pages on any City of Fort Bragg controlled social media account or website (e.g., the Visit Fort Bragg website) as well as all text, email, and other messaging programs from the first date that that NOC was formed or organized to include City of Fort Bragg participation in NOC to the present. NOC is described as the following on visitfortbraggca.com/blue-economy/ “Noyo Ocean Collective, a unique partnership uniting the City of Fort Bragg, Noyo Harbor District, Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo, Mendocino College, West Business Development Center and Noyo Center for Marine Science.”

• All of the following records from January 1, 2021 to the present concerning or related to the Blue Economy Symposium originally scheduled for 2021 and now planned to occur in May 2022, including but not limited to planning and organizing the event: a) All communications to or from Sarah McCormick. b) All other records authored, edited or compiled by Sarah McCormick or otherwise in her possession. c) All records concerning expenses and/or budget for the symposium. Updated by requester on 6/9/2022: We would like to update this request to include records to the present rather than simply through the date of the original request. MACFAGO is particularly interested in reviewing the attendee lists and the sign in sheets used for the portion of the Symposium that took place at Town Hall, which did not exist as of the date we originally submitted this request.

• Analytical reports and studies prepared by or on behalf of the City for the cannabis cultivation ordinance project (predecessor to the current City-initiated cannabis ordinance currently under review) and/or the associated intended development of a cannabis business park off of Airport Road. These studies were prepared when the cannabis ordinance updates was an applicant-funded project and assigned to Scott Perkins prior to the City Council deciding to proceed with the ordinance development as a City-initiated and funded project. Specifically, there were several studies prepared, including one on the projected water use associated with permitting cannabis cultivation on industrially-zoned properties throughout the City (or at least within the Inland Zone of the City). Other reports involved analysis of the capacity and water pressure in the City's water infrastructure north of Pudding Creek as well as projected infrastructure needs associated with contemplated hotel development (e.g., the Avalon) and the cannabis business park.

• The two responses to the City of Fort Bragg's RFP for the S. Franklin Street Grocery Outlet Project that are not being recommended for award of contract as part of Item # 8B on the April 25, 2022 City Council meeting (i.e., other than the proposal received from De Novo Planning Group).All communications (e.g., letters, emails, texts) between Heather Gurewitz and/or Chantell O'Neal and any applicant for a planning permit or entitlement from January 1, 2022 to the present. All work-related text messages sent or received by Dave Spaur, Sarah McCormick, John Smith, Chantell O'Neal, or Heather Gurewitz from January 1, 2022 to the present.

• I would like to review all records concerning or otherwise relating to the City's use of Regional Government Services (RGS) for various consulting and professional services since January 3, 2022. This includes but is not limited to any contracts, agreements, or similar records for particular matters that were awarded or assigned to RGS as well as all invoices and payment records for transactions between the City and RGS. It also includes but is not limited to all email communications from any City staff member who has worked with anyone from RGS on or after January 3, 2022 that concern or otherwise relate to the projects and work being performed by RGS (including internal communications not involving anyone from RGS or formerly affiliated with RGS). I would also like to review the FPPC Form 700s for Interim City Manager Dave Spaur and Assistant to the City Manager, Sarah McCormick. 

• We would like to review all text messages or email messages concerning or relating to City business sent or received by the City councilmembers or the following staff during the 3/28/22 City Council meeting from 6:00 PM through the time adjournment following the closed session: Heather Gurewitz, June Lemos, Sarah McCormick, Chantell O'Neal, John Smith, or Dave Spaur.

— Will Lee, Former Fort Bragg City Council Member and Mayor

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Willits Lumber Company

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STILL ‘TRYING’ TO ‘WORK ON’ A WILDLIFE EXCLUSION PROGRAM

by Mark Scaramella

Back in June at the Board of Supervisors budget review Interim CEO Darcie Antle told the Board that she “thought” Animal Care was doing something regarding a wildlife exclusion services Request for Proposals. 

County Counsel Christian Curtis said he didn't know much beyond the fact that an RFP had been put out.

Supervisor Haschak said he was “still working on it” (failing to mention what was “it” was, then adding, “It will be a lot cheaper than the wildlife services. We do have an RFP for exclusionary work.” Haschak didn’t say what he meant by “having” an RFP either. Was it drafted? Planned? Released? Had bids been received? Haschak also mentioned “a lending library for non-lethal scare tactics.” And maybe some grants and maybe some stipends for educational purposes for “helping people implement these programs,” whatever “these programs” are. 

“It's a pretty robust program,” Haschak insisted, all indications to the contrary, “and it will come to the board in August.” Haschak didn’t say what was supposed to “come to the Board,”  but it doesn’t matter because nothing remotely related to “exclusionary work,” robust or otherwise, has appeared on any subsequent agenda.

Traci Pellar

On Tuesday morning Traci Pellar, a presentable and articulate Laytonville woman, told the Supervisors that she was on the County’s Fish & Game Commission and that she had wanted to bid on the Exclusionary Services RFP (which never came before the Supervisors as an agenda item for review/approval) but, she said, was disqualified because she didn’t have experience doing “paid” exclusionary work, instead doing it as a volunteer for over 20 years. County Counsel Christian Curtis replied that the RFP had gone out and added something about an “AB-5 requirement” which in his mind (only) was somehow relevant to the issue. Supervisor Haschak said he was in touch with County Counsel and Animal Care and Control and “we are trying to come up with a plan that works for exclusionary purposes.” 

Also back in June, Laytonville’s Jon Spitz complained about our coverage of the issue, and our quoting of former Laytonville federal trapper Chris Brennan, adding: 

“Mendocino County is presently in the process of contracting out for a wildlife exclusion technician who will work with County home owners on-site to exclude small wild animals (raccoons, skunks, squirrels, etc.) from damaging their property using non-lethal methods. The County is working with non-profits such as Project Coyote and the Mountain Lion Foundation to work with rural dwellers on how to exclude large wild animals (lions, bears, coyotes) from damaging their property, also using non-lethal methods. To dispense immediate answers on what to do when human/wildlife conflicts arise, the County is now in the process of setting-up a hotline telephone operator who will be fully trained in non-lethal conflict resolution.”

Unsurprisingly, none of that “work” has paid off.

In August of 2021 after the Board voted 3-2 to end the federal trapper contract/program, Spitz told KZYX that “John Haschak is working very hard to establish wildlife exclusion services in Mendocino County.”

Last June, some ten months later, Mr. Spitz wrote to us to say that “According to County Animal Care Services Director Richard Molinari, there was in fact one bidder for the job — who is now in the process of formally contracting with the County. While I certainly would have preferred there were more than one bidder for this contract, and I had hoped that setting-up this exclusion service would go a lot faster than it did, this innovative new program continues to grind its way through the County bureaucracy largely due to the tireless efforts of Supervisor Haschak.”

After more than a year, poor Supervisor Haschak’s tireless efforts have yet to “come up with a plan” despite “trying” and despite Mr. Spitz’s assuranes that it was complete or would be soon after last June. 

Here’s a woman who seems ready, willing and able to do at least some of it, but she’s somehow barred for some silly semi-legal reason while Haschak and his cheerleader Jon Spitz and the rest are still “trying” to come up with a plan? 

Meanwhile, if you have a wildlife or wild dog problem in your neighborhood, you might trying calling Mr. Spitz or Mr. Haschak and ask them how long it will be before you’ll get any assistance. Although so far, their time estimates have not been particularly reliable.

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MARINA ROSE ZEKLEY: As I drive around Mendocino county, every time I’m on the straight way on Comptche Ukiah or driving up Rd 409 I constantly am stressed by the massive thick undergrowth and brush on folks’ property. Is or will there ever be a county (or maybe I guess state?) incentive or program to encourage folks to take action? I know sometimes there are brush programs etc but this is a bit more than just that I think? This one person on Comptche Ukiah really cleared up their property (right after the straightaway) and GOSH it looks so safe!

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FROM AV SUPERINTENDENT SIMPSON:

It was hard to do, but I am proud of you

Dear Class of 2023,

Tonight's exercise of filling out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) was almost as hard as applying for college. I am proud of you. I know there were internet and tech challenges and you persevered. 

You have a whole bunch of staff members cheering you on. Mr. Corey-Moran, Ms. Ewing, Mr. Howard, Mrs. Malfavon, Mr. Alexis, and me, too. Thank you to our Mendocino College Financial Aide partners for coming to help. Thank you to Terri Rhoades and company for a delicious meal.

Your parents, many of whom had to go to work after the meeting, came too. that is huge. When I was a college senior my parents didn't help. What your parents did for you tonight was super cool. They were there, sharing personal information on taxes/income etc... to get you set up. Please tell them thank you with a grateful heart. Tonight, this was hard, but you did it. If you still need help, we will get you through it.

I saw your struggle. I saw your triumph. I saw your relief. I saw your pride.You got this.

Take care,

Louise Simson, Superintendent, Anderson Valley Unified School District, Cell: 707-684-1017

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Debark and Lift, Willits Redwood

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ED NOTES

BIG PRIZES go to the most fashionably didactic lit these days, which may or may not be actual lit. These three “debut novels” were among the five National Book Award fiction finalists announced on Tuesday:

“All This Could be Different,” by Sarah Thankam Mathews, follows a young, queer immigrant from India. (Of course the immigrant has to be queer.) Tess Gunty’s “The Rabbit Hutch“ takes place over the course of one week in an affordable housing complex in Indiana. (Of which there is no such thing) And in Alejandro Varela’s “The Town of Babylon,” a queer Latinx professor moves back to suburban Long Island to take care of his parents. (Two outta three for the “gay community.”)

The other two fiction finalists are “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories,“ by Jamil Jan Kochai, which follows characters in Afghanistan and in the Afghan diaspora (a murderous onslaught of a primitive society by the Bush Gang, which will be unmentioned in the stories) and “The Birdcatcher,” by Gayl Jones, which is about a group of Black American artists in Ibiza, including a sculptor whose husband tries to institutionalize her repeatedly for trying to kill him. (That poor woman. Why didn't he just let her kill him?)

JUST SAYIN' but the National Book Award winners in 1960, to pick a random year BEFORE THE FALL, were, like, real literature: Goodbye Columbus, by Phillip Roth; Ellway's biography of James Joyce; Life Studies by Robert Lowell; and the uniquely weird Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow.

WHEN OVER-INDULGED children from Everyone Gets A Trophy High Schools get to college: An NYU organic chemistry professor has been fired because 82 students signed petition to get rid of him for making the subject “too hard.” 

MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL always averts its eyes when things get violent (sic). Player fights, fights in the stands, fights between players on the same team, players screaming at coaches and most visuals that don't come with the game. During the Niners vs. the Rams last night, a skinny animal rights activist named Alex Taylor of a group called “Direct Action Everywhere,” ran onto the field with a purple flare to draw attention to his Utah comrades who got arrested for freeing pigs destined to becoming bacon. Viewers were told the game was delayed because “someone had run onto the field,” but that was all. No visuals. We learned the details Tuesday morning amidst a lot of gloating chuckles about the kid being body slammed by LA Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner. The most overrated coach in football, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, said after the game, “I saw Bobby Wagner take somebody out. That was kind of cool to see.”

AS A LEFT-LIB PUBLICATION, we get a lot of dupes writing in with versions of — Putin was provoked into invading Ukraine and that the Russians are winning the war, or are playing a kind of military rope-a-dope prior to winning the war and taking over all of Ukraine.

TO SWALLOW this bullshit you've got to also believe that Putin isn't a nationalist dictator but a legitimate head of state obligated to defend Mother Russia from US and NATO imperialism, and that every international media, from Al Jazeera to USA Today, is lying about Ukraine's battlefield successes.

YES, US and NATO imperialism would like to defang Putin and include Ukraine and Russia in mindless consumption of the type ascendent in the rest of Europe, but that doesn't justify Putin's murderous invasion of Ukraine, let alone his moving the needle ever closer to nuclear war.

ONE OF THE FEW things I agreed with Trump about is pulling the US out of NATO, many of whose members don't pay their fair share of the mostly USA-funded military defense of Europe. It was probably inevitable we got sucked into funding Ukraine, or mostly funding Ukraine, but considering the defense of Ukraine as a priority while our own country slides down the tubes is not defensible. But without US, Ukraine is done for. In the circumstances, I think we should be helping Ukraine while demanding Ukraine make a ceasefire a priority or lose US support.

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Milling

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STEVEN DUNLAP POSTS NEW HURRICANE UPDATE:

More about Hurricane Ian impact from the same friend in Punta Gorda, Florida:

“Rescue operations are underway. Many people being rescued by boats and helicoptors. Even cats are airlifted, clinging to their humans. People are helping each other from what I have seen and experienced. The National Guard is concentrating on the worst areas. Grocery stores, gas stations, Walmarts are trying their best. Long lines for everything. We have power now on my street, but not on other streets, we got internet today but it comes and goes. Better cell service today, but it too comes and goes. Fades in and out. We are on a boil alert in our county until further notice. The debris piles are huge. We may have garbage pick up this week. The rotting food must be gotten rid of. Whole cities are under water. It is mind boggling. Roads open, then have to close again due to floodwater shifts. We get lots of updates on our county and nearby counties as to status of power, internet, cell phone towers. There is so much going on its a hub of activity on my street alone. First responders everywhere. A nurse I know of cut herself badly when removing her hurricane shutters. She cannot find a tetanus injection available anywhere, for instance. No pharmacies open. Businesses are ruined, people's livelihoods gone.”

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DESCENDANTS OF SERRANUS HASTINGS SUE state and UC Hastings law school board to keep name, disputing link to racism

by Nanette Asimov

Days after Gov. Gavin Newson signed a bill to reverse an 1878 law requiring that UC Hastings College of the Law forever keep its founder’s name — or the state must repay descendants $100,000, plus interest — six family members sued on Tuesday to get their money back.

If California persists in removing Hastings’ name from the law school on Jan. 1, the interest rate would be an annual 7%, family and supporters said Tuesday at a press conference outside San Francisco Superior Court.

After 144 years, California would owe Serranus Hastings’ descendants more than $1.7 billion, The Chronicle calculated. That’s a lot of money, even if it were split among countless Hastings descendants. But the family members who filed the lawsuit said they’d be happy just keeping the name “Hastings.”

Their suit accuses the state and the Hastings directors of breaching the 1878 contract and seeks an injunction to stop the name change. One of the Hastings directors is himself a great-great grandson of Hastings, and voted this summer to get rid of the name. The suit rejects the claim that the founder was a racist who sponsored massacres of Native people. It says that unless the state keeps the name, it must pay up.

“You can’t have your cake and eat it, too,” said Guido Piotti, who joined the family’s suit on behalf of a group of Hastings alumni who say changing the name would dilute the brand and lead to lower salaries for graduates.

“I was shocked that they filed it,” said Assembly Member Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, who co-authored AB1936, which will change the school’s name to UC College of the Law, San Francisco next year. Newsom signed it into law on Sept. 23.

Ting said he heard no family objections during the six months of hearings about AB1936. The bill also requires that the school formally apologize to tribes, provides for academic support for Indigenous students who want to study law and pays for dozens of “restorative justice” programs.

Ting said he and Assembly Member James Ramos, D-Highland, worked with the school — “which has a lot of lawyers” — to ensure everything was legally sound. “I feel very good about our process,” he said.

College officials said in a statement that they will move forward with the name change but are “disappointed” by the lawsuit. “The bill’s passage was the result of a lengthy, deliberate and transparent process at the college that included years of research, several public hearings and input from a wide range of community stakeholders,” the statement said.

Descendants of the Round Valley and Yuki tribes massacred during the 19th century participated in the process.

“This was done fairly and justly,” said Nikcole Whipple, secretary of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, which Yuki Committee formed in 2020 to work with the school on a name change. Although the Yukis chose Powe’ N’om, meaning “one people,” as their preferred name, “we most definitely opposed ‘Hastings’,” Whipple said.

Historians say that Hastings, a wealthy rancher who was angry at cattle thieves, petitioned the government for militias to carry out the massacres.

Harmeet Dhillon, the family’s lawyer, said that Hastings, who was also the first chief justice of the California Supreme Court, has been the victim of “hit pieces.”

“There’s no denying there were atrocities against the Native people,” plaintiff Scott Hastings Breeze of Oregon, Hastings’ great-great-great grandson, said at the courthouse. “But Serranus Hastings petitioned the government for militias for protection” for his cattle. “There’s no direct proof” that he committed crimes, he said. Besides, he said, “it was a different world in 1860.”

It was the militias petitioned by Hastings that historians say carried out the massacres.

In addition to Scott Breeze, family members who are suing the school and the state are Breeze’s son, father and three sisters.

Breeze’s son, Colin Hastings Breeze of Oregon, is a recent graduate of the law school.

In 1878, their ancestor spent $100,000 in gold to found the University of California’s first law school. With the deal came a new state law: The school in San Francisco “ shall forever be known and designated as the Hastings College of the Law.” It would be independent of the UC Board of Regents. And a descendant of its founder would forever hold a seat on its governing board.

Among those the family is suing is Claes Lewenhaupt, a great-great grandson of Hastings and a member of the Hastings Board of Directors.

Hastings’ legacy “is a stain associated with the name and the college,” Lewenhaupt said in November when the board agreed to seek a name change. “To move forward with this is the right thing to do.”

Under AB1936, the college will no longer be required to have a descendant of Hastings as a board member. The lawsuit says that is also illegal, amounting to punishment without a trial.

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2022/2023 FISH AND GAME PROJECT GRANTS AVAILABLE

The Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission is currently soliciting grant applications for projects that benefit fish and/or wildlife in Mendocino County and comply with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife guidelines and codes. The Commission will submit recommendations to the Board of Supervisors for the awarding of grants in January 2023.. In Fiscal Year 2022/2023, the available amount for Grant Allocations is $25,000 total. Per the County Supervisor’s request, projects leading to wildlife and habitat restoration and rehabilitation will be prioritized.

Granting guidelines, application forms, and additional information are available on the Commission website: Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission /Grants .

All proposals must be received by 5:00 pm, October 15, 2022.

Proposals must be submitted by email to the Commission at: mendofishgamecommission@gmail.com.

Applicants must also mail or hand-deliver eight double-sided copies to: Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission, c/o County Planning & Building Services, 860 North Bush Street, Ukiah CA 95482.

Grant applicants are encouraged to attend the Tuesday, November 8, 2022 meeting of the Commission at the Ukiah Farm Advisors Conference Room, 890 N. Bush St, Ukiah, CA beginning at 6:00pm to make a brief (5 minute) presentation regarding their proposal.

Applicants without personal computers or internet access to the Commission website can request assistance from County branch libraries in Ukiah, Ft. Bragg, Willits, Coast Community (Pt. Arena), and Round Valley (Covelo) to download and print the application materials. Note: County library personnel can also assist with scanning and emailing completed proposals.

For additional information, please call Fish and Game Commission at (707) 234-6094, or email the Commission at mendofishgamecommission@gmail.com.

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Albion Bluffs

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WHERE TO CASH IN?

Editor: 

Making wine and spirits bottles recyclable is a great step forward. More important would be creating recycling centers where they can easily be redeemed for cash. Perhaps the place where they were initially purchased?

Stevie Lazo

Santa Rosa

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CATCH OF THE DAY, October 4, 2022

Acosta, Brunk, Corona, Doak

LUIS ACOSTA-GAMBOA, Kelseyville/Ukiah. DUI.

JOHN BRUNK, Fort Bragg. Trespassing, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

ISRAEL CORONA-RAMOS, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER DOAK, Willits. Battery on cohabitant, damaging communications device, resisting.

Hunolt, Kester, Maxwell

COREY HUNOLT, Manchester. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun. 

DEVIN KESTER-TYLER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-loitering on private property, county parole violation, resisting.

JAMI MAXWELL, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

Moore, Reyna, Vasquez, Walsh

NATHAN MOORE, Fort Bragg. Stalking and threatening bodily injury, violation of domestic violence court order with priors, controlled substance, paraphernalia.

JOSE REYNA-TORRES, Fort Bragg. DUI. 

JOSE VASQUEZ, Fort Bragg. DUI, no license, evasion.

WESLEY WALSH, Albion. DUI, no license.

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TWO YEARS OF HEAT AND COVID IN THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

In the San Joaquin Valley, the most productive agricultural area in the world, rural poverty is endemic. That poverty produced COVID infection rates far exceeding, per capita, any urban area in California. Rural communities enduring the pressure of low wages and bad housing became coronavirus hotspots.…

library.ucmerced.edu/Two-Years-of-Heat-and-COVID

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THE BEST THING about getting old is you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you’re tired, without lying.

— George Carlin

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CALIFORNIA WELLS RUN DRY as drought depletes groundwater

Amid a megadrought plaguing the American West, more rural communities are losing access to groundwater as heavy pumping depletes underground aquifers that aren’t being replenished by rain and snow. More than 1,200 wells have run dry this year statewide, a nearly 50% increase over the same period last year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. By contrast, fewer than 100 dry wells were reported annually in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

apnews.com/article/california-droughts-climate-and-environment-e49c8c5c34ead7ef7f83b770082f20bc

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THE DOCTOR who inspired Will Smith’s Concussion film, Bennet Omalu, spoke out Tuesday against Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s future employment in the NFL, insisting it’s time he call it quits. Tagovailoa suffered a traumatic brain injury playing against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 25, then suffered another traumatic brain injury in his next game on Sept. 29 after an unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant said he was safe to return to the field. “It’s time. You’ve suffered severe, long-term, permanent brain damage,” Omalu said to TMZ Sports. “If you love your life, if you love your family, you love your kids—if you have kids—it’s time to gallantly walk away. Go find something else to do.” The joint investigation by the NFL and the NFL Players Association into concussion protocol used on Tagovailoa is ongoing and has not made any conclusions regarding medical errors or protocol violations as of Saturday, though the NFLPA fired the consultant on Friday. (Daily Beast)

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Don’t worry, we’re all doomed anyway after Putin shoots his underwater nuke offshore on us. What’s not to like about a 1,200 foot tsunami? Only thing is, Putin never does what we expect him to. I heard he’s going to drop the big one unexpectedly on northern New Mexico. The sunsets there will be glorious.

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YOU ARE GETTING SO BEAUTIFUL they will have to make passport pictures of you 9 feet tall. What do you really want to do for a life work? Break everybody’s heart for a dime? You could always break mine for a nickel and I’d bring the nickel.

— Ernest Hemingway in a letter to Marlene Dietrich (1950)

photo by Brassaï, 1937

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CEO SAYS HE’S BEEN ’PRAYING FOR INFLATION’ Because It’s An Excuse To Jack Up Prices

The CEO of Iron Mountain Inc. told Wall Street analysts at a September 20 investor event that the high levels of inflation of the past several years had helped the company increase its margins — and that for that reason he had long been “doing my inflation dance praying for inflation.” The comment is an unusually candid admission of a dirty secret in the business world: corporations use inflation as a pretext to hike prices.

theintercept.com/2022/09/28/inflation-prices-investors-iron-mountain/

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“And then along came Hemingway. What a thrill! He knew how to lay down a line. It was a joy. Words weren’t dull, words were things that could make your mind hum. If you read them and let yourself feel the magic, you could live without pain, with hope, no matter what happened to you.”

—Charles Bukowski

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'FUTURE OF CLEAN WATER ON THE LINE'

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday began hearing oral arguments in a case that corporate polluters are hoping will take an axe to the Clean Water Act, a bedrock environmental law that protects the nation's streams and wetlands from industry exploitation.

The long-brewing case in question, Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, was brought by Idaho couple Chantell and Michael Sackett in partnership with the right-wing Pacific Legal Foundation — and with the backing of industry groups eager to curtail the federal government's authority to regulate and preserve the nation's waterways.…

commondreams.org/news/2022/10/03/future-clean-water-line-supreme-court-takes-challenge-bedrock-law

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GO NUKE

To the Editor:

Farhad Manjoo claims that nuclear power is too slow to help solve climate change. As we learned making our new documentary, “Nuclear,” this potent and clean power is the fastest way to displace fossil fuels. In fact, France switched nearly its entire grid from fossils to carbon-free nuclear energy in just 15 years.

Building a wind turbine is fast, but you need thousands of them to equal a single nuclear plant, and because wind is intermittent you also need massive, expensive transmission upgrades and batteries — and, if we’re honest, a lot of natural gas, a fossil fuel. All the carbon-free energy sources are useful, but nuclear is uniquely suited to quickly knock fossil fuels off the grid. It’s proven.

What France already did, the world should do now.

— Oliver Stone, Joshua S. Goldstein (The writers are the director and co-writer of the documentary “Nuclear.”)

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“THE SECRET OF LIFE IS HONESTY and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made.” 

— Groucho Marx

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UKRAINE, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4TH

While Kyiv’s army is gaining momentum on the battlefield in the east and south, much of the land it has recaptured has been razed and abandoned. Russia’s new recruits remain largely in the wings.

Ukraine says its offensives are gaining ground not just in the east, but also in the south.

A Ukrainian soldier says the army is liberating land ‘without people on it.’

A U.N. investigation finds that Russian forces are torturing civilian and military prisoners.

A new $625 million package of U.S. military aid will speed 4 more mobile rocket launchers to Ukraine.

The Russian defense ministry says it has 200,000 new recruits, but analysts have yet to see their impact.

Russian military bloggers say the country’s forces in Kherson Province face a bleak situation.

In Ukraine’s recaptured lands, residents of ruined towns still consider whether to flee.

Ukraine’s top diplomat tries to counter Russia’s narrative on Africa tour. 

(NYT)

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THE BIGGEST LOSERS

by Patrick Cockburn

Some pieces of news are too small to be observed by radar and other news items escape notice by flying beneath it. But some big news escapes notice simply because it is so big and people are too absorbed in the details of events to see the larger picture. What is being missed is the way in which the balance of power in the world is being changed by the Ukraine war.

Russia is likely to be the great loser, as many now take for granted. It failed after the invasion of 24 February to occupy Ukraine and has gone on failing ever since. A state that was supposed to be strong enough to confront Nato turns out to be incapable of holding territory at Kharkiv, a few miles from the Russian frontier.

But the European Union is also a loser. Its members can no longer draw on cheap Russian gas, putting it at a disadvantage when it comes to competing with the US and China. Energy hungry industries like aluminum, steel, fertilisers and glass in the EU will all be hit. The EU’s GDP growth rate was already well behind that of the US since the financial crash in 2008/9 and even further behind China and the East Asian states.

This article in Foreign Policy by Jeff D Colgan of Brown University argues that since President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24 February – and we entered a period of military and economic warfare in Europe – the door has opened for a return to a bipolar world. This once pitted the US against the USSR, then from 1991 the US dominated alone until the financial crash of 2008/9, when other powers, notably Russia had greater sway in the world.

But since the start of the Ukraine war, we are once more in a bipolar world in which the US competes with China, with Europe dropping in the rankings and Russia a husk if what it once was. It seems to me to be a bit oversimple, but worth thinking about, particularly the point about the competitive decline of the EU.

Cockburn’s Picks

The Faridaily sub-stack is one of the few Russian news outlets that appears to have access to the Russian elite and reports in a nuanced and objective way on what they are thinking and doing. Here are some excerpts from an article on Thursday:

Although many of our sources foresaw mobiliswation, most complained of Putin’s rashness and reluctance to explain his plans. ‘No one explains anything to anyone,’ said one disgruntled source close to the government. […]

‘There is a total lack of coordination; it’s a mess. Putin tells everyone different things,’ said a source close to the government. He said this applies not only to the economy but also how the war is run. ‘What were we doing in Kharkiv? No one has a clue – neither politicians nor the military.’

‘Putin always chooses escalation. And he will continue to choose escalation at any unpleasant juncture, up to and including nuclear weapons,” predicted another source close to the Kremlin.

Despite awareness of the impending catastrophe, nobody in Russia’s elite has tried to persuade Putin to stop the war for a long time. Whereas in the early months, figures like Alexei Kudrin, head of the Audit Chamber, tried to explain to Putin the consequences of his decisions, this is not happening today. According to our sources, Putin still repeats the mantra about Russia being surrounded by enemies and the machinations of NATO.

(CounterPunch.org)

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14 Comments

  1. Marmon October 5, 2022

    RE: BIDEN’S WAR AGAINST RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA.

    “The Biden Admin does not care about the American people. Permanent Washington loots us to serve the interests of the arms-manufacturing global oligarchy while we struggle to pay for rent, gas and groceries and our soldiers go on food stamps.”

    Tulsi Gabbard 🌺

    Marmon

  2. George Hollister October 5, 2022

    STILL ‘TRYING’ TO ‘WORK ON’ A WILDLIFE EXCLUSION PROGRAM reminds me of a quote from Thomas Sowell:

    “Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good. “

    • Harvey Reading October 5, 2022

      Uncle Tom speaks again?

  3. john ignoffo October 5, 2022

    Perhaps “provoked” is the wrong word. Certainly Putin was dared to invade. Who benefits from this avoidable tragedy? U.S. munitions manufacturers, energy companies, and even farmers are all seeing the profits/benefits of Putin’s criminal invasion. Thankfully NATO would never destroy a country without justification. PS. Would Hitler have hesitated to use a small nuclear device?

  4. Bruce McEwen October 5, 2022

    Putin wouldn’t use a small one. As his last hurrah—being guaranteed massive retaliation, he would use all his big ones. My cardiologist, Major Dempsey at Travis AFB would be one of Putin’s targets. Also, Ft. Lewis, to name a couple that spring to mind.

    I had a box of mousetraps and corks, as a boy w/ a science project to demonstrate a nuclear chain-reaction, and the same would apply to nuke retaliation, resulting in mutually assured annihilation.

    It would be for the best to keep the MSM from making us feel more assured that the powers that be can keep things under control.

  5. Bill Pilgrim October 5, 2022

    re: Ukraine
    Only historically ignorant “dupes” would believe the bullshit emanating from the US/NATO/Euro imperium that Russia’s SMO was “unprovoked.”
    Only vacant brains refuse to do simple research going back to the early ’90’s to see that the newly empowered neocons planned right from the end of the Cold War to disembowel Russia while it was down. Economist Jeffrey Sachs was in Washington then and has written about being told of plans to prevent Russia from ever recovering from its financial crash. Clinton joked about rubbing shit in Yeltsin’s face. Then we have the Project For A New American Century, The Wolfowitz Doctrine, and other position papers by the neocons to prevent any nation from challenging US domination.
    Only a brainwashed dupe would refuse to read the writing on the wall: The US is a failing empire willing to risk the future of the planet to maintain its hegemony.
    Only a nationalistic automaton would hail the Ukro-Nazis while refusing to consider other nations’ concerns.
    80 percent of the world’s governments do not support the US/NATO/Euro actions. They understand the colonial, imperialistic mindset behind them.
    Raise a Nazi salute to the warmongers leading the sheeple over a precipice.

    • Bruce Anderson October 5, 2022

      It was provoked only if you accept Putin’s rationales, which European countries don’t, and the US doesn’t because America’s imperial foreign policy has been pegged to containing Russia (and now China) since 1917. Citing Sachs? The man who crashed Russia’s economy paving the way to privatization of the Russian economy for Putin’s oligarchs? Jeez. And Ukro-Nazis are yer basic red herring, equivalent to claiming that American communists are a threat to America’s global hegemony. There are more nazis in the US than there are in Ukraine, a lot more.

      • Bill Pilgrim October 5, 2022

        https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2022/09/21/brainwashed-for-war-with-russia/
        “Unprovoked?
        The US insists that Russia’s invasion was “unprovoked”. Establishment media dutifully regurgitate that line, while keeping Americans in the dark about such facts (not opinion) as are outlined (and sourced) above. Most Americans are just as taken in by the media as they were 20 years ago, when they were told there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. ”
        Historian Barbara Tuchman addressed the kind of situation the world faces in Ukraine in her book “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam.” (Had she lived, she surely would have updated it to take Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine into account). Tuchman wrote: “Wooden-headedness…plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.”
        Spit out that kool-aid, man.

      • Harvey Reading October 5, 2022

        There are also a lot more people in the US. And, you seem to forget that NATO, under US domination, has been piling up missiles and forces along the Russian border for decades now. USans are the dumbest, most conditioned idiots on the planet, as one can easily tell, by reading your paper.

      • George Hollister October 5, 2022

        “The man who crashed Russia’s economy paving the way to privatization of the Russian economy for Putin’s oligarchs? Jeez.”

        Call if what it is, Fascism. The oligarchs are only as private as Putin will allow, and they had better not say, or do anything in conflict with Putin’s party line, or they might end up falling out of their multistory hospital room window. And they had better make sure their families are safely in residence in a distant foreign land, too. So it is back to the Soviet state, where heads of government played the role of the oligarchs of today, were just as corrupt, and likely made just as much money. Russian Fascism, and Communism are basically the same, and both, like the Mafia, have a terrible retirement plan. Of course Putin and all his associates know this.

        • Harvey Reading October 5, 2022

          What you describe would be a good prescription for robber barons in the US.

          We also should send Leon Skum to the next asteroid to be targeted by NASA to see if the impact changes the asteroid’s orbit. It’d be better than privatizing the space program, which, as I see it, is all this targeting of asteroids amounts to: making NASA look stupid and bad, so fascist and neoliberal politicians can privatize it. Talk about fascism… Once again, thank goodness that guys like you have no real power.

          By the way, I see that your alma mater, after you flunked out at Berkeley, is now called Cal Poly, Humboldt. Whadda joke.

  6. Bill Pilgrim October 5, 2022

    BTW. Sachs was discouraged by the neocons from advising Russia. That’s one of the points he has made. Instead, the Wall Street and U. of Chicago boys swept in and decimated the Russian economy even more.

  7. k h October 5, 2022

    I’m frequently surprised by the topics that bring the most comments. Today it is the topic of Ukraine, a country 6400 miles away from Mendocino County.

    I feel able to offer little insight on Ukraine. My opinions about it are meaningless. It’s concerning, don’t get me wrong. Surely it will effect our world in large and small ways, but there is nothing I can do to change the outcome from here.

    I have to focus on issues closer to home. Has anyone been arrested for stealing from the Botanical Garden? And what are people’s thoughts about the Patterson matter?

  8. Marco McClean October 5, 2022

    Marco here. Regarding the item about the Mendocino County Fish and Game Commission’s soliciting grant applications for projects that benefit fish and/or wildlife:

    A suggestion I made years ago and repeat every once in awhile, to solve the problem of destroying nature and animal and fish habitat, and the problem of using up all the resources and polluting the planet, and to solve the day-to-day human problems of drought and wildfire and erratic power delivery, is as follows:

    Stop putting up new houses and buildings all over the landscape, and stop replacing ones that fall into the earth. Make it prohibitively expensive to keep a private place out in a drought or flood or storm-damage or fire zone. And tear all the fences down that don’t fall down by themselves. And use less than half of all the money and materials that currently go into all those separate structures to instead start a pyramid on land already as ruined for nature as it can get– the middle of town, say.

    At first it would look like a square plateau maybe a quarter-mile on a side (that’s less than 10-percent of the size of current Fort Bragg CA). Offshore power generation by various new and old ocean-life-friendly methods, as well as power from solar means on the roof and proper sides of the structure, as well as cogenerated thermoelectric power and smart distribution of heat and coolth. And for backup, when the sun’s not out, and the wind’s not blowing, and the sea’s not waving, and the town battery’s being serviced: maybe one of the new, safe, small nuclear electric plants in a container box that they’re already making now for military bases and remote communities. Just switch it on like a radio in an emergency.

    As the landscape is reforested and re-wilded, burning occasionally, what will eventually be a steep, high pyramid is added to, floor by floor, employing anyone who needs a good union job, until everything is farms and forest and fishing and swimming holes and hiking and biking paths for miles and miles all around a single beautiful shining building of mixed-use spaces and businesses and theaters and schools plant-lined vaulted caverns and thousands of big, airy apartments, an entire town of activities and enterprise and creativity, including small factories, using real recycling, to make and repair almost everything people need. A free hospital. With efficiency of scale and volume, construction, materials, heat, and cooling costs and needs go way down per person without all the surface area of each of thousands of separate structures. One big water system taking in groundwater, river water, desalinated seawater, and using recycling/purification too, of course. All earthquake-safe, and who cares how much gasoline costs? because nobody would need a car. Work is a stroll away, and you can take your lunch hour (a full hour), or full four-day weekend, in nature, right outside.

    Just a lovely national-park-like environment a short walk (or even shorter tube ride) from even the deepest (well-lighted, well-ventilated, 3D video window-walled) living space. And, of course, fast aerial monorail service to all the other pyramid towns. And maybe airship shipping and travel. Gliding, too.

    Or we can keep doing what we’re doing the way we’re all doing it, and fifty years from now everything in this area and the wider world will be ten times uglier and worse and essentially dead. That time is going to pass whatever we do, and whatever we argue about and fight over regarding what’s important or moral or tasteful or God’s will or a communist outrage. All that has to happen for us to have a wonderful future instead of a terrible one, is for owner-class people to want this and be just a fraction less selfish in the short term. So that’s not happening, then. I’ll mention it again in a few years, when it’s even closer to way too late.

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

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