MONICA FUCHS WRITES: “We have known for some time that Mental Health services in Mendocino County are understaffed, underfunded and poorly managed. But since Monday night the building on 1120 South Dora Street in Ukiah is literally under water. A pipe burst (deferred maintenance issue?) and flooded the offices of Mental Health, Alcohol and other Drugs program and Public Health. County employees arriving Tuesday morning found their offices flooded up to 10 inches and started immediately trying to save client files, computer equipment and personal items. Later the same day a disaster clean-up company arrived and started to vacuum out the water, put up giant fans to circulate the air. In the meantime employees continued to evacuate their offices. On Wednesday morning the disaster clean-up company arrived to remove all their equipment telling the staff that they had been ordered to leave because they are not the company contracted with by the County insurance. No new clean up crew has arrived as of today, Thursday. As usual, no guidance from upper management, which gives lots of room for speculation and rumors. I feel that at this time the building is a health hazard, especially to employees and clients who have pre-existing conditions. So far no word if our offices will be moved, when the next clean up crew will arrive, if and when mildewing, molding carpeting will be removed. — Monika Fuchs, Philo”
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MR. TUBBS is the Fort Bragg man accused of beating an infant foster daughter to death. Ms. Sequiera is Mendocino County Assistan DA.
“Mr. Sequeira, My name is Wilson Tubbs. I read the article in the Ukiah newspaper on Saturday, January 19, 2013. If you plan on running my name down then you should at least tell the truth. I was arrested in 2010 but I was not ordered to any drug diversion program. I was told by the Judge not to get in any trouble for a year and he would dismiss the case. I went to N.A. meetings on my own. So I would appreciate it when you plan to run me down in the press you should speak the truth or I will come at you with a lawsuit for slander. All you have done so far is put my life and those of my wife and daughter in danger. So at least get it right. Thank you for your time. — Wilson Tubbs, Mendocino County Jail, Ukiah”
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COMMENT OF THE DAY #1: The reason there have been no efforts made to criminally investigate [Wall Street fraud] is obvious. Former banking regulator and current securities Professor Bill Black told Bill Moyers in 2009 that ‘Timothy Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury, and others in the administration, with the banks, are engaged in a cover up to keep us from knowing what went wrong.’ In the documentary ‘Inside Job,’ the economist Nouriel Roubini, when asked why there have been no such investigations, replied: ‘Because then you'd find the culprits.’ Underlying all of that is what the Senate's second-highest ranking Democrat, Dick Durbin, admitted in 2009: the banks ‘frankly own the place.’ — Glenn Greenwald
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DEMOCRATS, led by Dianne Feinstein, today listed the guns they want outlawed. Feinstein and Co. also want to ban magazines that carry more than ten rounds. The proposed bill would prohibit 158 combat-inspired rifles, including that Bushmaster XM15 that Adam Lanza used in the mass shooting of children in Connecticut. Feinstein introduced the original assault weapons ban, which became law in 1994 but expired in 2004. The proposed ban contains no sunset provision and protects 2,258 hunting and sporting rifles and shotguns, a provision aimed at undercutting gun-owner fears that Congress is intent on seizing legal guns in the aftermath of Newtown. The legislation also would ban any military-style weapon with a detachable magazine and a single military-style feature, such as a pistol grip, a flash suppressor or a bayonet lug or grenade launcher. The 1994 ban barred weapons with a detachable magazine plus two military-style features, which gave gun manufacturers too much leeway in refashioning weapons to comply with the law, Feinstein said. If the new proposal were to become law, a legal weapon could have a detachable magazine but not a pistol grip, for example. Under the previous law, such a weapon would have been allowed.
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THE ACLU CLAIMS that more than a quarter of the school districts in California, including three on the Northcoast, fail to provide English language instruction to all students who need it. The ACLU said more than 20,000 students in California did not receive any language instructional services, as mandated by state and federal laws. The organization threatened to sue the state Department of Education if the situation isn't remedied. Windsor, Geyserville and Ukiah are alleged to have between 9 and 12 percent of English learners not being served, according to the report. At the Ukiah Unified School District, more than 12 percent of the 1,469 students who needed English language instruction did not receive it, according to the report. Maria Armstrong, Ukiah's director of curriculum and instruction, told the Press Democrat that she was confident “that we are providing appropriate programs for our students.” The ACLU's press release did not say exactly how Ukiah and the other districts were out of compliance.
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COMMENT OF THE DAY #2 From Sports Illustrated: Last weekend, as the 49ers eked out a win over the Falcons, I was doing what most Bay Area residents do on a Sunday: riding a cable car with my gay, vegan friends. We were sporting ironic mustaches and drinking sustainably sourced microbrews. It's hard to remember much more, on account of all the weed we smoked. Anyway, word filtered back that Colin Kaepernick had played admirably for the local professional football team, which made us happy — even if his tattoos are a little Bible-y for us. (We prefer our ink agnostic and/or esoteric.) To celebrate, we considered storming a local coffee shop. Truth is, though, we're a bit tired of celebrating here in the Bay Area. You know, what with the Giants winning the World Series, the A's making that unreal late-season run, the climate being temperate for the 7,457th day in a row, Mitt Romney losing the election. Not to mention the Warriors sitting in second place in the Pacific Division, the equivalent of first place for any other NBA franchise. In these parts, we're not good at wallowing — we possess none of the capacity for bleak despondency of, say, a landlocked hellhole like Philadelphia… — Chris Ballard
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JOIN FRIENDS OF TRINIDAD FORESTS In Acting To Stop The Logging Practices Of Green Diamond!
Will we be able to turn this entire area into a State Preserve?
Immediate Threat: The Strawberry Rock Timber Harvest Plan (Tracking Code: THP #1-10-137 HUM) is an "eye opener" to all of us: 80 acres of clear-cutting is about to begin, literally in our own backyards! A year ago, tree-sits sprang up in response to this logging plan and are still intact, still stalling this forest from being clear-cut. Now we must bring more people in the community together, because urgent action is critical now, as the harvest could begin at any time!
Background: Over many generations, the community of Trinidad, CA, as well as visitors from out of the area, have found deep relationship and have informally adopted this site and its surrounding forest, thousands hiking in each year to appreciate one of the most extraordinary views. Strawberry Rock is considered sacred by the Yurok tribe, but Green Diamond still persists with its destructive practices in this beautiful and inspiring area..."on the block" now to be further destroyed and sold to profit corporate shareholders in total contradiction to our deepest values.
Ecological Importance: An intact forest is not only a crucial source of life and enjoyment for humans, it's also habitat for many species, which are either killed or forced from their homes as a result of clear-cuts and forest fragmentation, the last remaining stands here, of viable habitat for declining species of the North Coast.
Not understood by most people is how Strawberry Rock and the area between Little River at Moonstone Beach and Patricks Point was all Tsurai Village (Yurok Tribe ) lands, all sacred to them. Right next to this majestic boulder Green diamond has already crushed a smaller mound/rock into pavement gravel The depth of public ignorance of all these doings has been monumental, lacking visual evidence regarding the physical desecration of what these terms really mean. Such deceptions are the worst of any lies for the results they bring.
Green Diamond’s practices have been shown to be far more destructive than the 80s-90s plunder by Maxxam/Palco. Unfortunately, Green Diamond has chosen to follow the destructive path of their Simpson Timber roots, and the ecologically and economically bankrupt MAXXAM/Pacific Lumber Company, rather than the forward-looking and selective approach of HRC and the BLM. (from "Greenwash” By Gary Graham Hughes, Nov. 8th, 2012. We must act quickly, with our great collective strength of numbers to stop this present plan of clear-cuts around Strawberry Rock!
COMMUNITY MEETING to protest the Strawberry Rock Timber Harvest Plan:
* Sat. Feb. 9, "Trinidad Town Hall Meeting," 1:00 - 4:00
Come with your questions, share your ideas, tell your stories.
Help us send a message to Green Diamond
that we must have this Timber Harvest Plan stopped!
** Please Sign The Following Protest Petition:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopclearcuttingforestsaroundstrawberryrock/
* Check out our Photo site: "At The Center Of The Universe"
http://strawberryrocktrinidad.tumblr.com (courtesy Eileen Kitayama)
We urge all Community members to fill the Town Hall on Feb 9th. . . Join us in these vital Community efforts needed
to save our precious home environment. Only more massive public action now will be effective in stopping Green Diamond's momentum to begin cutting!
Friends Of Trinidad Forests, Forest Defenders Trinidad Tree Sit
For further info: Abe Brower 707-845-1643. Valuable resource info from E.P.I.C. (excerpts only) (Environmental Protection Information Center) Eye on Green Diamond- Dec. 18, 2012. By Rob DiPerna, (707) 822-7711, www.wildcalifornia.org
Instead of managing to grow big trees faster, Green Diamond plans to intensively manage for young, evenaged homogenous tree plantations through the application of clearcuts. These practices can cause significant modification to drainage patterns in the watershed and will result in generations of a significant amount of surface erosion. These effects will in turn be felt downstream as channel capacity in the Elk River proper is continually compromised. And under this companies controls our forests will never again become mature Old Growth with all of their biodiversity!
The State, for its part, has been shown to be complicit to Green Diamond's plans to intensively manage its holdings in such a sensitive and cumulatively impacted watershed.
Despite Green Diamond's appearance of compliance with the law through acquisition of Habitat Conservation Plans and other programmatic agreements, the company continues its rapacious march to convert recovering native forests into homogenous evenaged tree plantations.
If it were not for EPIC, the destructive activities of Green Diamond Resource Company (ex-Simpson Timber) would go unexposed and unchallenged. No other organization is watch dogging the timber industry in Northwest California like EPIC.
"The evidence is overwhelming that redwood forests are essential to the conservation of the species. Leaving them out of the final rule is a big mistake," remarked Andrew Orahoske, conservation director for the Environmental Protection Information Center.
"Independent scientific peer reviews have been crystal clear on owl recovery being tied to protection of old forest habitat especially as competition with the more aggressive barred owl increases
Corruption, mis-management, back-room deals, and late-night after-hours legislative shenanigans are the watermarks of Sacramento in 2012. Governor Brown's legacy of timber industry giveaways only confirms who it is that the government in Sacramento is intent upon serving. The real winners continue to be the landed timber aristocracy, and their business interests. The losers are the natural resources of this state and their protection for this and future generations.
So, Mr. Tubbs did not have a PC 1000 “deferred entry of judgment” for a completion of a drug diversion program. Where did Mr. Sequeira get his information, from CPS? Having worked for Mendocino County CPS for that past 5 years I can visualize the big “spin machine” at work. Acting HHSA Director Bryan Lowery is using his influence and uncanny manipulation skills to confuse everyone. If the District Attorney’s office thinks they are going to get a straight answer from the County, they have a lot to learn. The County and CPS are in high “cover up mode.” When Doug Losak and Bryan Lowery are at work you only get half truths and distorted explanations. The DA would do better not to rely on county in this case; the county is more concerned about their culpability not justice.
According to California Community Care Licensing (CCL), The Criminal Background Check Bureau (CBCB) also examines “arrest records” to determine if there is a possible danger to clients (Health & Safety Code sections 1522, 1568.08, 1569.17, and 1596.871). The exemption analyst for Mendocino County would have been notified of Mr. Tubb’s arrest by CBCB and that information should have been forwarded to the social worker assigned to the case so that he could determine if Mr. Tubbs was a suitable caregiver. Drug testing to and a psychological evaluation of Mr. Tubbs should have been requested at a minimum.
Cry me a river Mr. Tubbs. You murdered my son’s baby sister and you are worried about being slandered?! You are worried about the affects of all this on your wife and daughter? Perhaps you should have thought about all that before you beat and shook that baby to death. Did you bother to think about how your actions will (have) effect(ed) the people who loved Emerald? Just so you know, my 5 year old cries about losing his sister. He asks why YOU did that to her, why someone would hurt a baby. This will be something we will have to deal with for years to come. Your problems seem pretty minuscule and petty in comparison to what my child is going through due to your actions.