Mendocino County Today: Monday, Nov. 28, 2022

Damp Chill | Wreath Sale | Shot Dog | 48 Colts | Burl Kendall | Pet Ranger | Animal Groups | Bragg Water | Holiday Sale | Elk Events | Summer Swim | AV Water Projects | Yellows | Philo Produce | Ed Notes | St. Anselm | Dog Behavior | Projunior | Legalizing Weed | Poster Ruminations | Tax/Probe | Police Reports | Yesterday's Catch | Vacaville Move | Ponzi Bros | Giusti Prayer | China Camp | Crumb Sale | Niner Win | Banbury Visions | FL > CA | Citizen Kane | Dry Rivers | Inheritance | Native Americans | Sioux Women | Bartok Composition | True Artist | Disappointed Republican | Kovel Postman | Ukraine | Soviet Barbie | Black Holes | Shiva Dance

WITH THE PASSAGE of a weak cold front overnight, slightly below average afternoon temperatures and chilly overnight temperatures are expected to continue through this week. Light rain and high elevation snow are expected throughout today with clearing into Tuesday. A significant winter storm is expected by mid to late week. (NWS)

WHO SHOT THE BAZORS’ DOG?

To The Residents of Pudding Creek Road (Fort Bragg): On Thanksgiving evening my family returned home to find that our dog Sid had been killed by a hunting arrow while in our dog kennel with our other two dogs. Our dog kennel is located along Pudding Creek Road in our backyard. If you saw or heard anything between 4:00pm-7:30pm on 11/24/2022 please contact us at 707-234-0527. Our address is 30600 Pudding Creek Road.

Thank you, the Bazor Family

MY FATHER, BURL KENDALL

by Matt Kendall, Mendocino County Sheriff

My father, Alonzo B. ‘Burl’ Kendall left us on November 18, 2022, at the age of 87. He moved on comfortably and quietly while relaxing in his chair at the home of his daughter and son-in-law in Willits.

He was preceded in death by his wife Judith Colleen Hurley Kendall who passed in May of 2003, his brother Herbert Leon Kendall in 2016, and his grandson Justin Shane Dale who passed in 2021.

My father was born in Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast on March 13, 1935, to Alonzo Francis Kendall and Fern Anderson Kendall, at the Fort Bragg Hospital which is now the “Sign of the Whale.” They returned to the family ranch on the Garcia River in Point Arena the following day. Three years later his brother Herbert Leon was born.

My father lived with his parents on the Garcia River until about 1942 when World War II began. His parents separated and both moved to the Bay Area to help with the war effort. His father worked at the Mare Island Shipyards, while his mother worked as a nurse in San Francisco. During this time, he went to live with his grandparents Courtney and Ada Kendall in Point Arena. Courtney Kendall’s home was located where the Point Arena High School currently sits.

Dad often spoke of his childhood and the shenanigans he and his brother got into. Dad spoke about hunting deer and quail around Point Arena. Fishing on the Garcia River and playing down at the wharf with Leonard Craig's children. 

An aunt and uncle, John and Beatrice Acquistapace, lived in Irish Beach and he would often provide quail to them occasionally sneaking a robin in with the cleaned birds. Dad said Uncle Johnny never complained and dad opined his Italian relatives preferred robins to quail anyway. 

Dad told me a story of hunting quail in the Manchester cemetery with his brother. At one point Uncle Herb called out to him, “Burl come here; I think you’re dead.” Dad said he walked to where his brother was standing and found a headstone marked “Alonzo B. Kendall,” his great grandfather’s place of burial. Dad said he was about 12 years old at the time, and it was the first time he had ever thought of his mortality.

Dad often spoke of his grandparents. He described riding the steamship ‘Seafoam’ from Point Arena to San Franciso with them. He also told me stories of his childhood and traveling from Point Arena to Boonville with his grandfather Courtney Kendall. He told me they would stay at the Boonville Hotel which his Great-Grandfather Alonzo Burnham Kendall had built. 

Dad enjoyed the family history in Mendocino County and told me it took almost a full day to drive from Point Arena to Boonville with his grandfather. My father relished hearing about the pioneers and the family history within the county. 

Dad lived in Point Arena with his grandparents until he reached his teenage years, and they sold their ranch and moved to Santa Rosa. Dad attended Piner School, and eventually moved in with his mother and stepfather near Petaluma. 

Dad would leave every summer and go work somewhere. Sometimes logging, sometimes mill work, and occasionally a union job. All required hard work, at the time they also required that he lie about his age. Dad explained the old driver’s licenses were fairly simple to alter when the need arose. 

He spoke of working at the Comptche sawmill with Fritz Kuny. He said Fritz Kuny could turn the worst job on earth into an entire shift of fun. He worked for Don Philbrick whom my father always referred to as “Mr. Philbrick.” Dad spoke of Mr. Philbrick with great reverence, stating he was an honest and fair man. Dad later employed Mr. Philbrick’s grandson at Cal-fire. I know he felt honored to have this young man working for him.

Dad graduated from high school and moved north to Eureka where he went to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He worked on a section crew, then the bridge and trestle crew and eventually he moved up to the rank of carpenter. At age 19 he became a locomotive fireman on the old steam engines. These engines burned crude oil. Dad said he enjoyed this job, but he recalled that if you weren’t paying attention, you could cause the engine boiler to explode. 

One night in 1955 Dad said he was called into work and met with an engineer in the railyard. He entered the train engine and couldn’t find the firebox. The engineer explained this engine was diesel-electric and his new job was throwing a switch to sound a horn at the rail crossings. Dad said after this trip he realized he would probably be out of a job soon. The following week he met with an Air Force recruiter. 

Dad joined the Air Force in late 1955 in hopes he would become an electrician. While completing his medical screening they found he had an issue with an uncommon form of color blindness which didn’t allow him to see subtle shades of color. He was immediately reclassified and assigned to the position of air policeman. Dad completed basic training in Texas. Shortly after completing training, he found himself in Germany where he was stationed until the beginning of 1960. 

He had a K-9 sentry dog named Carlos. Dad had grown up with hunting dogs, specifically hounds and bird dogs. It wasn’t long before he grew bored of patrolling missile pads. Dad was an avid outdoorsman who could load ammunition. In a short amount of time, he was turning M1 Carbine ammunition into small shotgun shells which could be fired through his issued rifle. He and his fellow air policemen began the task of training their dogs to hunt rabbits. Dad said it was a great way to pass long nights and the German residents around the air base would trade beer and cigarettes for rabbits. The soldiers later purchased fine German air rifles which assisted greatly in protecting the missiles from rabbits. He told me the sentry dog houses were the perfect place to hide contraband such as air rifles as no one on the air base was brave enough to enter the kennels. Dad was stationed in Germany for many years and spoke about his time there. He said it was an incredible time and he enjoyed every moment. 

Dad returned to the United States after an honorable discharge from service. He immediately reached out to his Uncle Johnny and Aunt Beaty Acquistapace asking if he could come stay with them at Irish Beach. Johnny had a dairy in Irish Beach and dad milked cows for room and board while he looked for a job. Dad always loved Uncle John and Aunt Bea. We purchased several dairy calves from them over the years. Once I was allowed to ride in the bed of an international pickup truck all the way from Irish Beach to Covelo with a drop calf. My younger brothers had to sit in the cab with dad green with envy. They were about 4 years old, and I was maybe 7 at the time, so it was a good call on dad’s part. 

In 1960, my dad went to work for the Mendocino County Department of Transportation as a truck driver and heavy equipment operator. He worked with Jerry Gilmore and Daryl Holloway. One night Jerry Gilmore told my father he had a niece named Judy Hurley who was coming over and asked my father if he would like to meet her. Dad met her and 21 days later, they were married in Reno, Nev. 

They were married in 1960 and lived in Point Arena. Dad worked for Mendocino County while mom worked for Ralph McMillan in the General Store. Dad would get off work at the county yard and then work a few hours a night pumping gas at Joe Scaramella’s gas station while he waited for mom to get off work. Dad often bragged just a little that he and mom had three jobs when many people were having trouble finding one. My parents were married for five years before they had any children. 

In 1965, my oldest sister Britt Kendall Grable was born. The next year, in 1966, dad took a transfer to Covelo. Much of the property his family had owned on the coast had been sold and his opportunities for hunting were getting fewer and fewer. Dad always enjoyed the forests around Covelo. 

Mom and Dad were living in Covelo when my second sister Amy Kendall Dale was born in 1967. I was born in 1969 and then came the twins, Mark, and Luke Kendall in 1973. 

Dad took a job with the California Division of Forestry and Fire Protection (now CAL-FIRE) in 1968 and worked for them until he retired in 1992. Dad rose to the rank of Captain, however never promoted beyond that point. I asked him why he had not, and he told me it would have required us to move which he had no interest in, and he wasn’t going to leave mom with “you heathens,” his favorite description of his three sons. 

Over the years I have spoken with many firemen who worked for dad. I have always been proud of the fact he was well respected as a good captain who was fair and honest to a fault.

Dad purchased a 10-acre parcel out on Hamms Pass Road surrounded by National Forest when we were young. We spent much of our time out there hunting, fishing, trapping, and cutting firewood. We built a small cabin out there and spent nearly all summer and every fall in this area. Dad would have spent every day of his life in the forest if work had not gotten in his way. Covelo in my childhood was a place of incredible freedom. Bicycles turned into horses which lead to long trails into the forest. I am certain this is why my father loved this place. 

Following his retirement, Dad would spend summers traveling a little and growing a vegetable garden with mom. Cutting firewood, raising a few head of cattle, helping all of his children with building projects, or other labors which needed to be tended to. He continued chasing his passion for fishing, hunting, and spending long days in the forest. Dad was always one hell of a buck hunter. 

We took several trips to go hunting or fishing as he grew older. Mom passed in 2003 and somewhere around 2015, we began to realize Dad’s memory was having some problems. This slowed him down quite a bit. Eventually, my oldest sister Britt took on the lion’s share of caring for my father. A registered nurse by trade, she had the skills and knowledge to keep him healthy and at home on his place. Dad was able to remain with family until his passing. 

The last few years of his life, he continued to enjoy long drives and days in the forest, looking for bucks, bears, quail, and grouse. As his memory grew worse and he forgot our names he still knew he wanted to go for a ride in the forest which we often took.

Burl Kendall was a good husband and father. He was a good provider and a calm and caring force in the lives of his children. I can say with certainty he and my mother always did their best for all of us. I don’t believe we could have asked for anything more. 

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Ranger was found at Lake Mendocino and avoided capture for over a week until a Park Ranger was finally able to get him. Ranger’s been in a wonderful, dog-loving foster home and doing great. He’s a smart guy and picks up training quickly. He's slow to warm up to people, but give him a few minutes and he’ll be your best buddy. Ranger knows sit, down, roll over, and back-up. He’s completely housetrained, doesn't bark much, enjoys being inside, and we’re working on crate training. Ranger’s learning to be non-reactive to other dogs and doing well, but he needs to be an only dog right now, and NO cats for Ranger! He would be better with older children, as he is a big boy! Ranger is 3 years old, 72 pounds, and neutered — so he’s ready to leave shelter life behind and celebrate the holidays in his new home. Ranger is the longest-stay dog at the shelter, and all staff and volunteers would be over the moon to see him get adopted. For more about Ranger and our other dog and cat guests, head to https://www.mendoanimalshelter.com. For information about adoptions, please call 707-467-6453. 

SOLVING FORT BRAGG'S WATER PROBLEMS

Fort Bragg City Council Agenda Item 8D, November 28, 2022

Title: Receive Report and Consider Adoption of City Council Resolution Authorizing City Manager to Execute Related Documents for the Purchase of 582+/- Acres Currently Owned by Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District and Approving Budget Amendment No. 2022/23-09, Amount Not to Exceed $2,420,579 

Issue: 

The months of August, September and October are critical to determining how well Fort Bragg managed a drought emergency. These months also provide the City with invaluable information to prepare for what could be a third year of drought in the summer and fall of 2023. The impact from the high tides increases as the flows in the Noyo River drop over the course of the summer and early fall. At the start of August/September, the flows in the Noyo River are low, which means that even during low tides the amount of water the City is able to pump from the river is limited and at high tides the saline content means that the water is not able to be treated by the City’s Water Treatment Plant. 

The Summers Lane Reservoir levels are at capacity in the spring and are held for the late summer months to draw from to subsidize the limited amount of water available in the Noyo River. With the arrival and implementation of the Desalination-Reverse Osmosis Treatment System in 2021, we can now bridge the supply gap during high tides in the Noyo River. 

Water Supply Available

As explained previously, the City of Fort Bragg’s water supply system relies solely on three surface water sources: Waterfall Gulch (tributary to Hare Creek), Newman Gulch (tributary to Noyo River), and the Noyo River (diversion at Madsen Hole). In 2015, the City’s water supply system could only store small amounts of water that provided enough to maintain proper water system pressure and to provide a safety margin for fire-fighting flows. Six years later, the City has made progress with water storage with the addition of a 1.5 million gallon finished water storage tank and the Summers Lane Reservoir with a raw water capacity of 14.7 million gallons (45 acre feet). This brings our total water storage capacity to 22.6 million gallons, which is approximately 45 days of storage, under emergency conditions with average daily use of 500k gallons/day. 

During the winter and spring, pumping of the Noyo River is used only to supplement the Waterfall Gulch and Newman Gulch sources. The two tributary sources generally provide a higher quality of raw water and gravity-feed to the water treatment plant, whereas water from the City’s Noyo River diversion must be pumped. As summer progresses and the flows in the tributary streams diminish, the Noyo River diversion is used more frequently and in greater quantities. In July, Waterfall Gulch and Newman Gulch provide approximately 40% of the City’s water needs and 60% of summer water supply comes from the Noyo River. As the water levels in the Noyo River drop and the high tide levels rise, increased salinity levels in the Noyo River impact the City’s ability to pump from this water source. City water usage typically peaks July through September. 

Over the past ten years of reduced rainfall, our spring fed sources have steadily declined. Both Newman Gulch and Waterfall Gulch have decreased in flow by more than half. Preparation for these cyclical weather patterns is essential for the safety of our customers and economic resilience. 

Analysis

The City has been battling with water supply options for a number of years (since the 1990’s). We’ve looked at utilizing train cars to transport water, trucking water, solar dehumidifiers, we have reviewed over 1000 wells in the area and studied related documents of old. Potential surface water sources and water rights have been looked through, and most recently, desalination of ocean water and raw water storage. 

The City has done a great amount of work by completing several water projects and researched dozens of storage and new and innovative sources with some success. As our existing sources continue to be impacted by our current weather patterns, staff is pushing the limits of water source opportunities and water storage to secure safe drinking water for our customers and reserves for fire protection. Our City is geographically isolated, and staff makes decisions/recommendations that consider reliability and necessary resilience related to our location. 

Most recently, we have been searching for a location that will provide space for a large water storage project. Several properties were reviewed according to our criteria. The Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District (MCRPD) property was the best fit for the project. This property consists of 582 acres (six parcels) that are primarily zoned Timber Production/Forest Land. At just shy of one square mile, the property provides more than enough space for construction of three 45 acre foot reservoirs. These reservoirs are expected to be similar in size to that of our Summers Lane Reservoir. Three reservoirs will require approximately 30 acres of land. This location provides convenient connection to infrastructure allowing gravity flow to our raw water line, therefore conveying water to our treatment plant. Another benefit is the proximity to high power PG&E transmission lines. Our reservoirs require a floating cover to suppress algal growth and evaporation. The City’s existing reservoir has floating balls to reduce the effects of sunlight which has worked extremely well. It is our hope to install floating solar panels on the new reservoirs to generate roughly 3 Mega Watts of electricity. 

There is however, an elephant in the room that mustn’t be ignored. These parcels support some of the most sensitive natural communities in the state and in some cases the world. The City has been working very closely with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) on this project. They have provided the most available science to the City. CDFW has stated that given the irreplaceable and endemic nature of the Sensitive Natural Communities onsite, the cost to mitigate impacts to these Sensitive Natural Communities would be very high and given the limited amount of remaining habitat, potentially impossible to secure. However, there are a few locations where transitional soils are present allowing for minimal impact to rare plant life. The City has also discussed this project with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Lake and Streambed Alteration Division (CDFWLSA). This project provides off stream storage which greatly reduces impacts to the stream aquatic ecosystem. Both CDFW Divisions are very supportive of this project. 

So what do we do with the other 550 acres? The vision is to develop a Community Forest with the remainder of the site. The property is expected to be preserved through a deed restriction or a conservation easement. The Sensitive Natural Communities on site and the plant species that comprise them are endemic to the Mendocino Coast and due to the oligotrophic soils composition, they are irreplaceable. There are grant funds available for preservation and protection of this property. 

Full Agenda Item: cityfortbragg.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11474272&GUID=24078AAC-6215-4019-A5EB-2C09A5D31EEE

WHAT ABOUT HOLIDAY FROLIC IN ELK?

Editor,

Peter Lit just called me to see if i'd read the latest AVA. I said I had just grabbled it out of my mailbox and had not. He referred me to the front page article, Holiday Frolic & Fun for Everyone, a great listing of things to do and see during this merry season. But alas, he pointed out, Elk was left out! But there were listings for Sonoma and Lake counties. Knowing me as a sometimes communications person in Elk, he thought I should be the one to get Elk on the list.

This is certainly not a criticism of Terry’s research and reporting, and all of the events and their sponsors are wonderful organizations. Just an oversight, I’m sure. But Elkians are your neighbors and friends! There is time for one or both Elk events to be listed in the paper and online versions of the AVA, if you are willing. Folks do like options. I’m copying the text from my posts on the MCN Announce Listserv and the Elk List. Snip out what you need.

1. Holiday Arts an Craft Fair

The Greenwood Community Church is sponsoring its 22nd annual Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair on Saturday, December 3, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The fair will be held at the Greenwood Community Center in downtown Elk. Take home jewelry, pottery, wreaths, food products, bath & body items and other handcrafted delights for all ages. Come support your local organizations and artisans. Funds raised will help maintain the historic Greenwood Community Church. Snacks and lunch will be available for purchase from the Greenwood Preschool “family.”

For more information, contact Mary O'Brien at (248) 917-3369 or moclapperton@hotmail.com.

Read more at elkweb.org/holiday-arts-and-crafts-fair/

2. Holiday Street Fair

Come and enjoy an evening of shopping, dining, and music in downtown Elk. On Friday December 9th from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm, businesses are staying open late for a festive holiday evening. Enjoy seasonal choral music, dine on tamales and tostadas at Queenie’s from 5:00 - 7:00 (reservations suggested), and do your holiday shopping at the Artist's Collective, Doug Browe Ceramics, the Elk Store, and Matson Mercantile. Visit and shop each local business to be entered into the holiday raffle. Get your packages wrapped and pick up postage stamps and flat rate boxes too! elkweb.org/3rd-annual-holiday-street-fair/

Thanks for your consideration.

Cindy Johnson

Elk

ANDERSON VALLEY DRINKING WATER PROJECT UPDATE

The Acquisition Draft Agreement with the Anderson Valley School Board is being submitted to their sub-committee for review. We are also requesting permission to put a well at the Community Park which currently is on the High School grounds. The park may be transferred to the AVCSD and that would mean that particular well is on the AVCSD property. The School Board is voting on the transfer of the Community Park to the AVCSD on Nov 8. Additional testing of wells (pump tests and water quality) has resulted in Jack’s recommendation to not pursue one well. Two other locations are being studied; both owners are willing. One is a good prospect, and Jack is in town today to test the other well. If both work out there will be enough capacity for the project. Once the components work out, there will be enough information to prepare the draft water rates. This would allow public outreach to start in the early months of 2023 leading up to the Prop 218 vote. This presupposes that all negotiations go to final approval with the CSD board. Jack took questions and reviewed the time-line for the project. 

(Minutes of October Water Project Committee meeting)

* * *

REGULAR MEETING OF THE WATER PROJECTS COMMITTEE

Anderson Valley Community Services District

To be held via teleconference Phone # 669 900 6833 Zoom Meeting ID 845 5084 3330 Password 048078

Public comments must be submitted by 10:00am on December 1st, 2022 electronically to water.avcsd@gmail.com

Thursday December 1st, 2022 at 10:30am

Call To Order And Roll Call:

Recognition Of Guests And Hearing Of Public:

Consent Calendar: Minutes From November 3, 2022

Changes Or Modification To This Agenda: 

Report On Drinking Water Project:

Report On Wastewater Project:

Public Outreach:

Concerns Of Members:

Adjournment:

KIM BAXTER, PHILO:

Sun-dried apples and pears. 100% organic. Nothing but sun and water.

I also have ground pear and apple powder. I'm still sorting out the price of the ground fruit options. I'll follow up with another post. I've been using both as breading for meat, in smoothies, etc... The pears are sweet and, great as a snack. I tried both the pears and apples as dog treats. Some dogs gobble them down and some dogs drop them.

Pears are Comice. Apples are Gravenstein and Cox Pippin. Mixed is also an option.

They come in a really nice, resealable, mylar pouch. I also have pound-sized pouches that look basically like a bag of chips.

* * *

GIVE THE GIFT OF AN IMMUNE SYSTEM BOOST to your friends and family this season!

Organic elderberry juice. 16 oz $22

I bought these bottles with my heart instead of my head. My hope was that they are so nice that no one would throw them away. If you already bought a bottle from me I will take it as a return and sell you the next bottle of juice for $18.

If you don't care about the bottle and if you would bring me a swap-out for a PINT-sized, wide-mouthed Mason jar or similar the price is $18. The quart jars are my stock.

I take a big dose every day although it's mostly used when you are actually sick. I mix it 1:1 with honey and make an evening cocktail. It's delicious.

ED NOTES

JUST MAILED in my tear-stained property tax of $2,882.85, half of the annual $5,765.70. The other half is due in six months, the whole up $654.14. I don't entirely resent paying local taxes, but resent the hell out of paying federal taxes for all the usual lib reasons, especially those lush salaries for career officeholders as they magically become multi-millionaires for “serving.” (Themselves.) Locally, I wish I could withhold supervisor pay and benefits simply because they are taking public money under false pretenses, the primary pretense being that they have failed under the long years of Mommy Dearest to establish sensible policy and see to it that it's carried out. This group of supervisors, with the noble exception of Haschak, who earnestly tries to do a responsible job, does not function competently as a board of directors. (We apologize to Haschak for initially dismissing him as Flakey Foont.) The last five supervisors who did a smart, conscientious job? There have been lots of individual supervisors over the years who did honest work, but they were always out-numbered by the dummies and the opportunists, leavened by the occasional certified mental case. As local government complicated itself, people got elected who were and are incapable of sifting truth from untruth. But they all get their nice retirement checks whether or not they did honest work, and our property taxes go up and up to support an apparatus as rotten at the top as it's ever been.

JUST as it seemed that the smaller vehicles were about to disappear into Ukiah's yawning potholes, and the larger ones having to get their front ends realigned every time they risked a drive through the county seat, Seldom Seen Sangiacomo, phantom city manager, gave the go ahead to pave Ukiah's primary traffic thoroughfares. 

JOHN HALL: Today’s PD, pg A7, “More Great Redwood Trail lawsuits” by Sonia Waraich, Eureka Times Standard.  Two different law firms from the “midwest” are soliciting landowners adjacent to the Great Redwood Trail. 

WHICH IS VERY ODD given that the trail, beyond the two grim miles of pavement in Ukiah, will never happen, but it's not surprising given the dumbed down Bar Exam and the increasing number of legal sharks out there.

THAT KID who shot up the gay bar in Colorado was raised by a crazy single mother who left tweaker-dad, also an obvious whacko who became a pornography “actor” calling himself Dick Delaware. How could the shooter not grow up to be some kind of public menace? There are armies of them out there, maybe not all that many red flag cases but certainly enough of the terminally estranged to ensure the now daily mass shootings.

WHY SO MANY MASS SHOOTINGS? I'd say the overall cause of social collapse is, obviously, capitalism, the winner-take-all social-political organization of the economy presently collapsing into a state of all against all while 60 million people are declared “food insecure.” And heat insecure, too, if you're part of the food insecure who live in the cold states. You can't do away with basic standards of behavior plus a failed system of mass education plus huge sectors of impoverished people plus the sanctioned celebration of the vulgar and the tawdry plus a corrupt political system plus easy gun access plus pornography, and expect sane people to come out the other end. What kind of society celebrates a Madonna and a Snoop Dog? Answer: a doomed society. 

ST. ANSELM'S WINS KEZAR TOURNEY!

DOGS IN PUBLIC PLACES, an on-line comment: Dogs and humans co-evolved over tens of thousands of years. They’d lurk around camp, in trade for scraps, they’d bark when a roving tribe of strangers rustled the brush. Fast forward. Now we live in dense enclaves, supported by elaborate systems and structures that eliminate discomfort and risk. Now we leave our armored huts to “relax” in nature. Back when the beaches were a buffet for sea lions, grizzlies, wolves, and mountain lions, a pack of poodles might have been a welcome presence.

I don’t know…there’s a certain expectation that one’s behavior towards say a bear or mountain lion affects the outcome in an interaction. We don’t always get it with domestic dogs. They should behave like puppies on a calendar right? Perhaps a majority of dog owners shouldn’t have them, but people need to know that our reactions trigger certain behaviors too. We have to live the way things are, not keep beating our heads against what should be. You had a stick? A dog grabbed it? Whack the freaking dog! Let go and get another stick! Do some people attract dogs’ attention with subtle freak outs? My mom is 76 and walks a grumpy fat Chihuahua every day, off leash (as a scofflaw) on popular dog trails…encountering pitbulls, even poodles! (clutch the pearls!) She has never experienced aggression from other dogs or dog owners.

I have an acquaintance who insisted on picking out the biggest pitbull in a litter of puppies. The dog is sweet, but never let off leash or out of a small yard, even in a private rural setting. He goes batshit crazy if he can escape, and knows the routine: owner starts screaming and freaking, it becomes a game of keep away! At least. If the poor guy ever got to go to the beach, he’d stay away from any people lest they try and leash him!

MISSPENT YEARS, SQUANDERED LIVES

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Suppose you were living in Mendocino County in 1972 and suppose that, being young and idealistic, you wanted your life to have meaning. You wanted to devote yourself to a Cause.

Plenty of options: You could choose to Save the Whales, Save the Redwoods, Save the Rainforest, Stop Acid Rain, Stop Nuclear Power, Off the Pigs, Stop Big Oil, or join Zero Population Growth.

Or you could devote all your time and energy to legalizing marijuana. Yes, you could defend and promote the sacred herb so that a world of uptight greed-freaks might mellow and find peace, truth and harmony among their brothers and sisters. It made so much sense to promote a natural, life-affirming, mind-expanding, love-enhancing gift from nature that you had no second thoughts devoting your life to marijuana’s future.

Which helps explain how you came to be sitting at a cheap folding table on the sidewalk in front of Safeway gathering signatures for an upcoming statewide vote to decriminalize marijuana.

Even if it meant missing your son’s Little League playoff games until enough signatures had been gathered. 

There was more, of course. Much more. There were leaflets to distribute, benefits to be organized, Hansen & Raitt (“Mixed Nuts”) to be recruited to play the Casper Inn next weekend For free. Again. 

Letters to the editor must be written and legislators harangued. Vacations cancelled because a big rally was planned in San Francisco that week, and you might get to speak at a panel discussion. Priorities, right?

But that’s how much it mattered, that’s how important a cause it was, the future hanging so much in the balance between corporate swine focused on profits versus a blossoming future focused on cooperation, trust, enlightenment and brownies. 

So much at stake, and it was only 1978! You’d hardly begun to waste your entire existence, the one life you were given, on so ephemeral a cause, so worthless a goal, filled with memories now too painful to recall.

But not in 1983. There were more rallies in Sacramento, another ballot initiative, t-shirts to be sold, Hansen & Raitt to be bullied (this time sweetened with a promise they’d actually be paid) and a two-day drive to Phoenix to take part in the annual NORML convention. Plus funerals for three teenagers who’d OD’d, and having to console their bewildered, weeping parents: How could we have allowed them to start smoking marijuana at 12 years old?!?

Sad, but no stopping now. Weed proponents had recently come up with novel, semi-honest medical approaches to justify legalization, featuring stories like “Pot Cures Glaucoma” and “Marijuana Gives New Hope to Cancer Patients” and lots of others. 

Plus the half-measures in between, all modest but all triumphs: Zip-ties, 25 plants per person, turkey bags, less than an ounce for personal use, medicinal marijuana, THC-free hemp, CBD shops on every corner.

Then suddenly the heavens trembled, the blinding sun broke through, and cries of “Yes! We Did It” rang across California. But just as quickly dark clouds gathered and corporate money flooded into the once holy gardens of mom and pop growers. Greed slithered in, confusion set in, dissension elbowed in, dissolution swept the county, regrets were voiced and then shouted. 

Rather than free spirits dancing joyfully to the bliss of the cosmic high and mind-opening experiences, came a head-on collision of 21st century politics: business and reality. 

Inevitably, the rules, regulations, fees, paperwork and government bureaucracy overwhelmed growers. It quickly became easier to open a bubonic plague testing center than obtain a permit to legally grow marijuana in Mendocino County, unless your name was RJ Reynolds or Lorillard.

Now in the cold winter of your years you survey the wasted wreckage of a life dedicated to the idiotic promotion of a dubious product for the amusement of marginal sorts at a financial return of not enough to live on.

Maybe you should have remained in West Phlegm, Oklahoma and married your high school sweetheart. You might have taken the family on vacations to Grand Canyon, Disneyland, Niagara Falls and to see the redwoods in Northern California. 

You might have even dabbled (rarely) in marijuana, but at least your friends and neighbors wouldn’t all be criminals in the illegal drug trade.

And maybe today your oldest boy would be playing second base for the White Sox and your daughter wouldn’t have ended up in rehab when she was 15.

Oh well. Que sera sera. Live and learn, huh?

FRED GARDNER NOTES:

That graphic Grange Movie ad in the 11/16 edition reminded me...

Add Lookalikes: David Harris and Chris Hedges. And there's something similar about them politically, although Hedges took it all the way and I don't think Harris did. He wrote a good book about Noriega and another about the Stanford activist who killed his seducer, Allard Lowenstein, a prime mover in the McCarthy for President campaign (and CIA man).

Dylan's riff about divorce lawyers reminded me that Judge Moorman's old friend Chris Andrian changed his specialty from “family law” to “criminal defense” after taking a bullet in the shoulder from the enraged spouse of a client. I think I'm remembering correctly. The old cranium ain't want it used to be.

WINDFALL PROFITS TAX ON OIL COMPANIES Appears Delayed Until January

by Jim Shields 

According to a CalMatters report, the much ballyhooed proposed tax on California oil company windfall profits is not expected to be seriously considered until January of the new year. Initially Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to enact a windfall profits tax was set to be introduced in a special legislative session beginning on Dec. 5

However, the specifics of the proposal aren’t likely to surface until the start of the special session, the same day legislators will be sworn into office, according to Newsom’s office.

Legislators don’t expect to take substantive action on the issue until January, when the next legislative session officially starts. The office of Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a San Diego Democrat, said in a statement:

“The Dec. 5 session will be focused on swearing in of new members and organizational matters, and may include taking steps to establish and organize the special session. We anticipate working with the Governor and his team on the special session/windfall penalty and rebate issue once we convene in January.”

Newsom has proposed returning revenue from the new tax to Californians in the form of rebates, similar to those the state is currently sending to Californians.

Big Oil interests are gearing up for a political fight-to-the-death once the proposed law is introduced. Millions of dollars will be spent by oil companies to cajole legislators to cold-shoulder the bill. They’ll tell Sacramento politicians that approving a new tax will be a politically perilous move and could be unpopular amid concerns of an impending recession and California’s projected $25 billion budget deficit for the next fiscal year. Blah, blah, blah …

Next week, the California Energy Commission is scheduled to hold a meeting on Nov. 29 with oil industry executives and experts to seek more information about gas price spikes, refinery disruptions and record industry profits.

We’ll find out soon if our elected representatives are going to protect citizens from pricegouging at gas pumps.

Workers and the ever-shrinking middle class are getting hammered economically at every turn.

It’s way past time to put a stop to the illegal fixing of the marketplace by these corporate outlaws. We’ll see soon who our state legislators stand with — or lay down for.

Attorney General Appoints Special Counsel for Trump Probes

The latest from Courthouse News is that Attorney General Merrick Garland on Jan. 18th named a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago and his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Garland appointed Jack Smith, a former federal prosecutor who has also investigated war crimes abroad, to handle the investigations. The attorney general said Smith will begin his work as special counsel immediately and will be returning to the U.S. from The Hague, Netherlands, where he was the chief prosecutor for a special international criminal court.

Smith is “a veteran career prosecutor,” according to Garland, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in New York for nine years, prosecuting matters “ranging from gang murders of police officers to civil rights violations.”

In 2020, Smith returned to the Justice Department to serve as chief of the Public Integrity Section, where Garland said he “led a team of more than 30 prosecutors who handled public corruption and election crime cases across the United States.”

Garland called the investigations involving Trump an “urgent matter” and said that they will be done more expeditiously with Smith now overseeing them.

The decision to appoint a special counsel to take over the Justice Department’s investigations of Trump comes just days after he announced that he is running for president again in 2024.

During his announcement at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Trump called himself a “victim” of the Justice Department and tried to frame its investigations as politically motivated. His bid for the presidency doesn’t shield him from any potential indictments.

“In certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor to independently manage an investigation and prosecution,” Garland said Friday. “Based on recent developments, including the former president’s announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president’s stated intention to be a candidate as well, I’ve concluded it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel.”

As special counsel, Smith will be able to “exercise independent prosecutorial judgment to decide whether charges should be brought,” Garland said.

In the Mar-a-Lago probe, which burst into public view after FBI agents seized around 11,000 documents from the property in August, a district court appointed a special master to review the documents to assess Trump’s claims of privilege and for the return of personal property.

Last month, the 11th Circuit refused to give the special master access to the classified documents that were retrieved, allowing them to be used in the criminal probe. Multiple witnesses have already been called before a federal grand jury in Washington.

If any prosecution is brought regarding Trump’s or his campaign’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, it is likely to happen soon as the House Jan. 6 committee and a Georgia district attorney are moving towards conclusions of their separate investigations into the matter.

Several witnesses close to Trump and his campaign have already testified this year in both investigations. The House Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed the former president himself, but so far he has managed to dodge testimony through court challenges.

A 6-4, 230-POUND SITUATION

On Tuesday, November 15, 2022 at 7:52 P.M. Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were approached by an adult male who asked to speak with them about a situation.

During the contact the Deputies learned Dilan Gregory, 31, 6-4 and 230 pounds, had threatened to physically harm the adult male. The Deputies initiated an investigation and attempted to locate Gregory.

The Deputies located Gregory later that night while conducting follow-up investigations into the reported threats.

During the investigation, the Deputies developed probable cause to believe Gregory violated California penal code by making Felony Criminal threats.

The Deputies arrested Gregory and he was subsequently booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was to be held in lieu of $20,000 bail.

========================

PARENTLESS PARENTING

On Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at approximately 1:15 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies were dispatched to a possible domestic violence incident that was reported to have occurred near a business located in the 45000 block of Main Street in Mendocino.

Deputies arrived and learned the involved parties had left the area on foot, with a small female child, headed toward the bluffs on the Mendocino Headlands. Deputies obtained a description of the involved parties and began checking the area.

Shortly after, Deputies located the four-year-old female child with a good samaritan behind the Mendocino Presbyterian Church. This good samaritan told Deputies that he was approached by an adult male and adult female, and they asked him to watch their child and they left the area.

Deputies located Flash Blanton, 50, and Amanda Dearth, 41, both of Fort Bragg, who matched the description provided by witnesses, on the Mendocino Headlands State Park, behind the Presbyterian Church. Deputies determined that a domestic violence incident between them had not occurred; however, Deputies continued their investigation into the safety and welfare of the female child.

Deputies learned that Dearth was the mother of the female child, and she did not know where her child was presently located. Deputies determined that Dearth was intoxicated to the point that she could not exercise care for the safety of the female child.

Deputies also discovered Blanton was a sex offender who was out of compliance with his sex offender registration requirements.

Based on the results of the investigation, Blanton was arrested for Child Endangerment and Failure to Register as a Transient Sex Offender; Dearth was arrested for Child Endangerment.

Social Workers from the Mendocino County Child Protective Services responded to the location and took protective custody of the female child.

Blanton and Dearth were booked into Mendocino County Jail where they both were to be held separately in lieu of $25,000 bail.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, November 27, 2022

SEAN AMBROSE, Ukiah. Elder abuse resulting in great bodily harm or death.

EVELIO BUESO-ROMERO, Antioch/Ukiah. DUI, false ID, suspended license for DUI.

CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT, Peoria, Arkansas/Ukiah. Battery with serious injury, robbery, use of weapon, witness intimidation, no license. 

KERRI JOHNSON, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MICHAEL LANGLEY, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SHAWN LATINO, St. Louis, Missouri/Ukiah. DUI, misdemeanor hit&run.

IRVING MARES-LORENZO, Sunnyvalle/Ukiah. Controlled substance, more than an ounce of pot.

ORLANDO MUNOZ, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, county parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

SAMUEL SANCHEZ, Ukiah. Protective order violation, parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

RONALD SARENIUS, Ukiah. Vehicular manslaughter in commission of unlawful act without gross negligence.

DESTINY STURDIVANT, Medford, Oregon/Ukiah. Failure to appear. 

ASHLEE WILSON, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear.

GIUSTI'S IN VACAVILLE

Editor,

I finally got here to Vacaville where I will probably spend the next 18 years or leave in a pine box.

I had real trouble getting my paper at North Kern prison. I left Alan Crow there in protective custody where that professional con artist belongs. I wonder how many of us he's informed on in his letters and in his work for the District Attorney Dave Eyster?

I missed the August 1 edition, three in September and three in October and none so far in November so I'm shy at least eight editions that I paid for! It's probably just that chintzy North Kern prison. They're probably too cheap to hire full-time mail workers. Anyway, hope you can make it up to me. I still enjoy reading the Advertiser, a touch of home, and writing stories.

I have to buy a television now. Money really tight with me. Could you or any reader that believes me pay for my next year's subscription? One thing for sure since my arrest, Mendoland is minus two pervs (and possible killers of hobos and homeless people) who were protected by informing to the Ukiah police on mostly homeless people. I will find justice in the appellate or supreme court system.

David Giusti BS 7708

PO Box 4000, 2100 Peabody Rd

Vacaville, CA 95696

FEELING GIUSTI’S PAIN

An Open Letter to Mr. David Giusti:

I have a tremendous amount of compassion for your continued mental and emotional suffering. Sitting in a cell facing the realization that you will never see freedom again no doubt compounds the issues you suffer from. I have known you many years and am saddened at your impending demise and unfortunate legacy you leave your family and children. It is my sincere hope that you can find some peace in spite of the adversity you face. I enjoy your broad knowledge of baseball and hope to read more of your commentaries in the future. Take care, my old buddy, my prayers are with you.

Alan Crow

Vacaville

PS. To my brother with that million-dollar smile, Patrick Redmill, I love you my brother. And we'll see you back home.

BILL KIMBERLIN: There is an historic place in Marin called “China Camp.”

My mother took me out here when it was used as a movie set for the film, “Blood Alley” staring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. It was my first introduction to special effects. As we walked into the set, tricked out to imitate a place in China, I bumped against a stack of boulders with my seven year old shoulder. They MOVED! What had just happened? Ah, they were fake. Grown-ups had jobs working in motion pictures as Special Effects guys. This location is but a few miles from where I worked for George Lucas for twenty years doing the special visual effects for Star Wars and a lot of other movies. You can find these stories in my book, “Inside The Star Wars Empire: A Memoir” traditionally published by Roman & Littlefield/Lyons Press. Now in paperback. Or, go to my website...billkimberlin.com

R. CRUMB: We're offering a 10% sale on everything on our site for the CyberMonday Sale. You don't need any coupon code to receive the discount. All you have to do is order and you'll automatically receive the 10% discount on comics, books, t-shirts, hats, giclée prints and serigraphs. This offer is good Sunday night through Monday: crumbproducts.com

49ERS SHUT OUT THE SAINTS AS DEFENSE DELIVERS A 13-0 BEATDOWN

by Eric Branch

Playing on a short week after an emotional prime-time win that was preceded by a long road trip, the San Francisco 49ers fell flat against a losing team Sunday. But only about half the team looked lethargic. The 49ers overcame their offensive letdown against the Saints because the NFL’s top-ranked defense delivered another beatdown.

The 49ers, who arrived without having allowed a second-half point in three straight games, didn’t allow a point for 60 minutes to deliver a 13-0 win over the Saints at Levi’s Stadium.

The 49ers improved to 7-4 with their fourth straight victory, which matches their longest winning streak since they started 8-0 in 2019.

On Sunday, the 49ers’ defense continued to resemble the 2019 unit that carried them to their last Super Bowl appearance. In fact, Sunday’s shutout was their first since the 49ers beat Washington, 9-0, on Oct. 20, 2019.

The 49ers haven’t allowed a point in 94 minutes and 19 seconds of game action, dating to second quarter of their 38-10 win over the Cardinals last Monday in Mexico City. In addition, they haven’t surrendered a point in after halftime in 126 minutes and 5 seconds, a stretch that began in the fourth quarter of their 44-23 loss to the Chiefs on Oct. 23.

The 49ers kept their streaks alive by twice turning away the Saints inside their 5-yard line.

First, with the 49ers leading 13-0 with about 11 minutes left, safety Talanoa Hufanga forced a fumble when he drilled running back Alvin Kamara at the 1-yard line after a five-yard reception. After the ball popped into the air — and several players failed to corral it — linebacker Dre Greenlaw recovered the loose ball.

On New Orleans’ next drive, the Saints (4-8) had 1st-and-goal at the 4-yard line with about six minutes left. And failed to gain another yard. New Orleans’ last chance was extinguished when Pro Bowl pass rusher Nick Bosa dropped Andy Dalton for a 7-yard sack on 4th-and-goal.

The 49ers limited the Saints to 14 first downs and 260 yards while forcing two turnovers, both fumbles by Kamara.

The defensive performance allowed the 49ers to overcome a largely inert effort from their offense. The 49ers had just 99 of their 317 yards after halftime.

The offense overloaded with stars received a second-quarter kickstart from an unexpected source: Jauan Jennings. On a team filled with big-money skill-position players, Jennings, the wide receiver with a modest paycheck and resumé, provided a needed boost.

Jennings (6 catches, 49 yards) did almost all his damage on the 49ers’ only touchdown drive. Jennings had catches of 13, 12 and 12 yards before he capped the 57-yard march with a 5-yard touchdown catch 19 seconds before halftime.

Running back Elijah Mitchell, who was playing in his third game since returning from a knee injury, exited with a knee injury after he had carry for no gain on the third play of the third quarter. Mitchell was ruled out of the game late in the third quarter and spent much of the second half seated alone on a bench, surrounded by Gatorade coolers.

Mitchell, who had offseason knee surgery, missed seven games after he suffered a sprained MCL in the season opener. His knee issues are among a host of injuries the 2021 sixth-round pick has suffered in a career in which he’s missed 13 of 28 games. Last year, Mitchell suffered a concussion and also missed time with a sprained shoulder, broken finger and broken ribs.

Despite Mitchell’s medical file, the 49ers traded running back Jeff Wilson to the Dolphins for a fifth-round pick on Nov. 1. Without Mitchell for most of the second half, Christian McCaffrey’s backup was undrafted rookie Jordan Mason. Rookie running back Ty Davis-Price, a third-round pick, was inactive.

The Saints entered tied for the NFL lead in turnovers (19) and had the league’s worst differential (-12). They almost immediately provided more charity. Kamara lost a fumble on the game’s fourth play when linebacker Fred Warner punched the ball with his right hand and defensive end Samson Ebukam recovered the loose ball.

The turnover led to 38-yard scoring drive that was capped by Robbie Gould’s 24-yard field goal, which gave the 49ers a 3-0 lead.

Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t throw an interception for his fourth straight game, extending his streak to 137 passes without a pick. However, Garoppolo had a host of near misses.

With the 49ers leading 10-0 early in the third quarter, Garoppolo’s pass went directly to Alontae Taylor, who returned the interception 48 yards to the 49ers’ 8-yard line. However, the play was nullified by an illegal contact penalty, away from the play, on cornerback Chris Harris.

On the 49ers’ first drive, Garoppolo and tight end George Kittle appeared to have a miscommunication on a 3rd-and-goal pass into the corner of the end zone and cornerback Paulson Adebo nearly had an interception.

Garoppolo completed 26 of 37 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown (94.7 rating).

* * *

GAME GRADES: No let-up by the defense in fourth straight win

by Michael Lerseth

Offense: OK. Apparently this unit had trouble clearing customs out of Mexico City, but it also seemed as if every 49er on this side of the ball dealt with an injury at some point Sunday. Jimmy Garoppolo was under constant pressure, but he completed 26 of 37 passes for 222 yards and had his fourth consecutive no-interception game. The ground game struggled, gaining 96 yards (3.3 average). The story in the next week might be the health of RB Elijah Mitchell and WR Deebo Samuel.

Defense: Excellent. This is getting serious. The Saints had five possessions inside the 49ers’ 43-yard-line and came away with bupkis. It was the 49ers’ first complete-game shutout since Week 7 of the 2019 Super Bowl season and was the fourth straight game in which they didn’t allow a second-half point. This victory had several parents: Talanoa Hufanga and Fred Warner each forced fumbles, and Nick Bosa’s weekly sack gave him 11.5 in 11 games. The Saints managed just 14 first downs and 260 yards, including 63 rushing on 22 carries (2.9 average). The last time the Saints were shut out? Week 17 of 2001 (pre-Drew Brees) by the 49ers.

Special teams: Below Par. A quiet day, although without Robbie Gould (field goals of 24 and 46 yards) it would have been a one-score game down the stretch. The Saints’ lone field goal try went wide left, but it’s hard to credit the 49ers for that. Mitch Wishnowsky averaged 43.8 yards on his four punts.

Coaching: Good. In the first half, Kyle Shanahan successfully challenged a completion that would have put the Saints on the 49ers’ 8-yard line. On the same drive, he accepted a holding call and allowed the Saints to replay third down instead of possibly kicking a field goal; an incompletion left the Saints too far back to try a kick. Pregame, the 49ers deferred after winning the coin toss, which worked to perfection as the 49ers scored with 19 seconds left in the second quarter to make it 10-0, then kicked a field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter.

Overall: Good. Only the Chiefs and Dolphins (with five straight wins) are hotter than the 49ers right now, and Miami (8-3) is next up on the dance card. QB Tua Tagovailoa will present a tougher test for the defense than Arizona’s Colt McCoy last Monday or Andy Dalton on Sunday. The key takeaway against the Saints? The 49ers’ defense is strong enough to carry the team to victory even when the offense hits the snooze button.

VISIONS FROM BANBURY ENGLAND (by Randy Burke)

JUMPS SHIP

Editor: 

My husband and I are two of the many people who have left California for Florida. This decision I’ve never regretted. Although we are third-generation Californians, we came for the climate and, yes, the safety of an adequately funded and trained police force that doesn’t send you a form when your car gets broken into.

With no state income tax, we’re saving money, too. We bought a house at a price we haven’t seen in California in 30 years.

Yeah, that’s freedom, plus the fact that if we fly an American flag in our yard or have a sticker on our car, we don’t get things thrown at it or our car keyed.

It’s sad to move from family and loved ones we will miss and not see as often. But it came down to where we wanted to live in our retiring days — nice weather, great health care, friendly people from all over the world, new history to learn, diverse opinions that are discussed, not shouted at each other. I feel free from the cancel culture here. I can just be myself. And that’s what I call freedom. It has nothing to do with slavery, except perhaps how I felt trying to make a living being retired in California.

Sharon Hamilton

Clearwater, Florida

LONG STRETCHES OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER HAVE RUN DRY. What’s Next?

by Laurence C. Smith

Last month, record low water levels in the Mississippi River backed up nearly 3,000 barges — the equivalent of 210,000 container trucks — on America’s most important inland waterway. Despite frantic dredging, farmers could move only half the corn they’d shipped the same time last year. Deliveries of fuel, coal, industrial chemicals and building materials were similarly delayed throughout the nation’s heartland.

This critical river and its tributaries — responsible for transporting more than $17 billion worth of farm products and 60 percent of all U.S. corn and soybean exports annually — has been stricken by drought since September, amid a time of global grain shortage and soaring food prices. While water levels will recover modestly this week, thanks to some upstream rain and snow, the long-term forecast remains dry.

Conditions are even worse in the southwestern United States, where an ongoing 22-year drought — now the harshest in 1,200 years — has shriveled Colorado River reservoirs, straining water supplies for farms, cities and hydropower from the Hoover Dam. Across the Atlantic in Germany, warmer temperatures and longer droughts have shrunk the Rhine River, making navigation harrowing on a waterway responsible for up to 80 percent of the country’s ship-bound cargo.

Economic powerhouse rivers like these are being sucked dry not only by climate change but by fast-growing cities and farming operations that need more water. Agriculture is the single largest consumer of freshwater, and global food demand is still rising.

There are no new rivers left to tap. We must learn to do more with less.

Radical new thinking is the only way to make sure our rivers endure. The good news is that we are already reimagining what rivers can do — and what they can be.

Because rivers deposit sand, plugging shipping channels and reservoirs, their power to move sediment is normally framed as a problem to be fixed by dredging. But in Louisiana, where coastal wetlands are disappearing rapidly, a roughly $2.2 billion proposal is advancing to divert part of the Mississippi River into Barataria Bay, where additional sediment can help protect it from rising sea levels. Using BP settlement money from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe, the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion would mimic natural delta-building processes in a place that has lost hundreds of square miles of coastal land over the last century. Projects like this one make the Mississippi’s ability to move sediment an asset rather than an expense.

If reservoirs fall to the point where they can barely be used for hydropower, they can still be used to store intermittent wind and solar energy — by recycling water that has already passed through the dam’s turbines back into its reservoir.

One outlandish proposal to do this at a massive scale reimagines the Hoover Dam as a three-billion-dollar renewable energy battery, connecting it to vast new solar and wind farms. While logistical issues make this particular idea a moonshot, there are plenty of opportunities to connect dams with renewable energy farms at a much smaller scale and lower cost. Editors’ Picks

Creative opportunities also exist for small, low-impact hydropower technologies — including modernized water wheels that can be retrofitted into existing or historical dam structures. Some technologies require no existing structures at all. Hydropower projects that are small enough to operate in reduced flows and small rivers can generate clean, renewable electricity with little environmental downside. Already some 200 low impact projects in the United States have been approved or are pending certifications, and across Europe there may be nearly 30,000 more potential sites at old mills.

Simply ripping out obsolete structures can have a big effect, too, restoring rivers to a free-flowing state with tremendous ecological and recreational benefits. Federal regulators have just approved an extraordinary plan to demolish four aging dams that for a century have been blocking salmon spawning runs on the Klamath River in California and Oregon, drawing protest from Native American tribes and fishermen. Rivers restore their old characteristics amazingly quickly once their shackles are removed. Based on studies of smaller dam demolitions on the Elwha River and others in the Pacific Northwest, salmon should begin recolonizing their ancestral waterway almost immediately.

Some bold ideas require no modification of rivers at all. New space-based technologies can track freshwater levels globally, helping to enforce international water-sharing agreements and strengthen river forecasting models. Laser measurements from NASA’s ICESat-2 satellite demonstrated the potential for this recently. Next month, the United States and France will launch the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite, a new radar technology that will blanket the Earth with three-dimensional measurements of water levels and river discharge. These data, if proven after testing, could help all nations manage their freshwater resources with observations both within and outside their borders.

Throughout history, societies have grown and prospered along rivers. Today, nearly two-thirds of us live alongside them. The ways in which societies use rivers have changed drastically over time, giving rise to cities, powering the Industrial Revolution and populating the world’s arid lands through massive dams and water diversion schemes, among other transitions. It’s time now to reimagine our relationship with rivers once again.

(Laurence C. Smith is a professor of environmental studies and earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Brown University and the author of “Rivers of Power: How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations and Shapes Our World.”)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I'm from one of those white American families that had stories about Cherokee ancestry. In our case, it was at least potentially plausible as the family traces back to early settlers (mid 1700s) in western North Carolina, which was the original home of the Cherokee. Unfortunately, extensive genealogy research never turned up any evidence of tribal affiliation, and eventually we completely debunked it with DNA tests which showed not a trace of Native American ancestry. Some of my distant cousins (mostly those who still lived in western North Carolina) had over-identified with the family legend and were shocked and disappointed.

Although in most cases, no one in the family received any economic benefits by claiming to be Native American, I do know of one distant cousin who claimed to be “Eastern Cherokee” on a college application in the 1990s (before DNA tests were available) and received a grant intended for Native American students.

As a descendant of settlers, I understand the desire to let ourselves off the hook for the violent displacement, land theft, and genocide of Native Americans. It is easier to think that our ancestors were victims rather than perpetrators. It is a painful truth to face, but face it we must if there is any hope of righting these historical wrongs. If you want to honor Native Americans, don't claim ancestry without appropriate proof, instead, educate yourself about Native American history and support Native American programs and causes.

IF THE READER were so rash as to purchase any of Bela Bartok's compositions you would find that they each and all consist of unmeaning bunches of notes apparently representing the composer promenading the keyboard in his boots. Some can be played better with the elbows, others with the flat of the hand. None require fingers to perform or ears to listen to.

— Frederick Corder

MAKE THIS DECISION today: Will you be a good and honest writer, or would you rather be famous, loved, noticed? Tell me, because there are different paths for these two divergent goals. The decision to be a true artist is lonelier and slower, but it will lead to better work and, I think, a better life. Very rarely you will be a good and honest writer and also know a little comfort and some attention and the well wishes of a crowd. This is very rare.

— Tennessee Williams/Interview with James Grissom/1982

IT’S TIME, AGAIN, FOR MY BROTHER KEVIN

by Maureen Dowd

This Thanksgiving, for the first time in years, my brother Kevin and I could both say we’ve had enough of Donald Trump. But that’s not to say he and I agree on much else. Once again, here’s Kevin with his annual view from the starboard side of the Dowd family:

The midterms are over, and the results are disappointing. A red wave did not materialize, and the Democrats and President Biden were not made to pay for their actions of the past 22 months.

These include the Afghanistan debacle; cashless bail, which favors criminals over victims; 40-year-high inflation; a two-year invasion at our southern border; record gas prices; a dangerous drawdown of the strategic petroleum reserve; the further decline of our education system; the weakening of our military; and the total embrace of wokeness to divide the country. All of that, with the president’s approval rating deep underwater and 81 percent of Americans believing that the country is headed in the wrong direction, should have produced the anticipated Republican surge. But the president emerged from the elections thinking that Democrats’ relatively good fortune was due to his policies, not in spite of them.

Republicans must take a large share of the blame. Their messaging was late or nonexistent, letting Democrats persuade swing voters to believe the only issues that mattered were Trump, abortion and the supposed threat to our democracy.

Candidates must fit their district. Don’t pick a conservative for a moderate district. Intrusions by Rick Scott and Lindsey Graham on hot-button issues hurt. The Republicans must persuade supporters to vote early, not wait for Election Day. Democrats often amass large leads from early voting, forcing Republicans to come from behind.

Donald Trump is radioactive. His insistence on picking candidates based on their loyalty to him cost Republicans control of the Senate in consecutive elections, and his attacks on other Republicans are despicable. Historians will judge his presidency in more generous terms than the media does now, and we will be forever in his debt for saving the country and the Supreme Court from Hillary Clinton, but his effectiveness has passed.

His announcement that he will run again was greeted with resounding silence from Republicans the next day. Rupert Murdoch stripped Trump of the formidable Fox defenses. Trump’s isolation was made plain at his announcement party, where the only member of Congress in sight was Madison Cawthorn, who lost his own primary.

A third Trump run will simply settle old scores with political enemies and the press and ignore the repair work that the G.O.P. needs to be done.

The Democrats’ better-than-expected results emboldened Mr. Biden, to the nation’s detriment. He will likely run again (he’d be 82 at his second inauguration) and said after the midterms that he intends to change “nothing.” “The more they know about what we’re doing, the more support there is,” he said, as if his policies were a luscious bœuf bourguignon simmering over the heat of roiling inflation.

There are some bright spots. Republicans have won the House and ended the torturous reign of Nancy Pelosi. With that victory come the purse strings, which should put Democratic profligacy on the skids.

Republicans’ first order of business should be impeaching the odious Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, who has presided over the disgraceful situation at the border, wearing incompetence like a badge of honor. In just the last fiscal year under his watch, over 2.4 million migrants have been encountered at the border, over 500,000 have evaded capture, and over 850 deaths have occurred.

Republican hopes for 2024 must rest with their new superstar, Ron DeSantis, who won almost 60 percent of the vote in his race to be re-elected governor of Florida, paving the way for four new G.O.P. House members. His handling of Hurricane Ian was only his latest feat, building on his popular defense of parental rights in education, his support of the police and his fight against wokeism.

The pandemic lockdowns, spurred by teachers’ unions, resulted in a disastrous drop in the nation’s test scores and pulled back the curtain to what children were being taught. I do not want my elementary school grandchildren hearing about sexuality from a stranger or being labeled an “oppressor.” Stick to math and reading; there is enormous room for improvement.

Republicans must now wait two more years for redemption. The Senate field in 2024 has Democrats defending 23 seats. With two more years of Biden’s mistaken policies, rising crime in our major cities, bone-crushing inflation and an impending recession, Republicans should have another golden opportunity. Carpe diem.

Here’s hoping for the new year, Kevin.

UKRAINE, SUNDAY, 27TH NOVEMBER

Russia may be prepping to abandon embattled nuke plant; Russian says troops need more docs, equipment: Live Ukraine updates

by John Bacon

The Russian military could be preparing to abandon the beleaguered Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant it has occupied since March, a top Ukraine energy official says.

Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine's nuclear energy operator Energoatom, told the Ukraine TV show TSN that Russians could transfer control of the plant to the International Atomic Energy Agency, although he provided no timeline. 

“It looks like they're packing and stealing whatever they can find,” Kotin said.

The area around the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe's largest, has been battered by missile strikes for months and has been offline much of the time. IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi has repeatedly warned that a nuclear catastrophe could result if fighting in the region is not halted.

Russian attacks cut off essential power to all four of Ukraine's nuclear power plants last week, forcing operators to conduct high-risk procedures.

“We must do everything we can to prevent nuclear accidents at any of these nuclear facilities, which would only add to the terrible suffering we already witnessing in Ukraine,” Grossi said.

(Guardian.com)

IN OUR TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENT, the effects of gravity on space and time are so small that they are insignificant, but in astro-physics, which deals with extremely massive bodies, like planets, stars and galaxies, the curvature of space-time is an important phenomenon. All observations have so far confirmed Einstein's theory and thus force us to believe that space-time is indeed curved. The most extreme effects of the curvature of space-time become apparent during the gravitational collapse of a massive star. According to current ideas in astrophysics, every star reaches a stage in its evolution where it collapses due to the mutual gravitational attraction of its particles. Since this attraction increases rapidly as the distance between the particles decreases, the collapse accelerates and if the star is massive enough, that is, if it is more than twice as massive as the Sun, no known process can prevent the collapse from going on indefinitely.

As the star collapses and becomes more and more dense, the force of gravity on its surface becomes stronger and stronger, and consequently the space-time around it becomes more and more curved. Because of the increasing force of gravity on the star's surface, it becomes more and more difficult to get away from it, and eventually the star reaches a stage where nothing — not even light — can escape from its surface. At that stage, we say that an 'event horizon' forms around the star, because no signal can get away from it to communicate any event to the outside world. The space around the star is then so strongly curved that all the light is trapped in it and cannot escape. We are not able to see such a star, because its light can never reach us and for this reason it is called a black hole. The existence of black holes was predicted on the grounds of relativity theory as early as 1916 and they have lately received a great deal of attention because some recently discovered stellar phenomena might indicate the existence of a heavy star moving around some unseen partner which could be a black hole.

Black holes are among the most mysterious and most fascinating objects investigated by modern astrophysics and illustrate the effects of relativity theory in a most spectacular way. The strong curvature of space-time around them prevents not only all their light from reaching us, but has an equally striking effect on time. If a clock, flashing its signals to us, were attached to the surface of the collapsing star, we would observe these signals to slow down as the star approached the event horizon, and once the star had become a black hole, no clock signals would reach us any more. To an outside observer, the flow of time on the star's surface slows down as the star collapses and it stops altogether at the event horizon. Therefore, the complete collapse of the star takes an infinite time. The star itself, however, experiences nothing peculiar when it collapses beyond the event horizon. Time continues to flow normally and the collapse is completed after a finite period of time, when the star has contracted to a point of infinite density. So how long does the collapse really take, a finite time or an infinite time? In the world of relativity theory, such a question does not make sense. The lifetime of a collapsing star, like all other time spans, is relative and depends on the frame of reference of the observer.

In the general theory of relativity, the classical concepts of space and time as absolute and independent entities are completely abolished. Not only are all measurements involving space and time relative, depending on the state of motion of the observer, but the whole structure of space-time is inextricably linked to the distribution of matter. Space is curved to different degrees and time flows at different rates in different parts of the universe. We have thus come to apprehend that our notions of a three-dimensional Euclidean space and of linear flowing time are limited to our ordinary experience of the physical world and have to be completely abandoned when we extend this experience.

— Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics (1975)