Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 5, 2023

COLD MORNING TEMPERATURES will give way to highs in the mid 50s today. Gusty south winds will arrive tomorrow evening with 0.5 to 2.5 inches of rain throughout the area with the highest rain and gusts restricted to high coastal ridges. Temperate, moist weather will persist into the holiday weekend. (NWS)

THE INIMITABLE SUE DAVIES

Sue Davies was born in 1947 and raised on a farmstead lost in the vast Nebraska corn fields. Hand-pumped water, wood-stove heat, kerosene lamplight, and a one-room school house to age 8 grew a resilient, down-to-earth young girl. Sue was always at the top of her class, because she was the only one in it. She lived her high-school teenage years at a parochial girls boarding school, which explicably fostered her sense of daring and urge for adventure.

Upon graduating, Sue immediately fled Nebraska to seek her future on the road selling magazine subscriptions door to door. She worked every nook and cranny town in the U.S. and Alaska, driving one high-performance, distance-shrinking car after another. Her passion for fast driving later led her to racing stock-cars on weekends for kicks.

Sue settled in the Oakland hills. On the Oakland shipping docks, she honed her street smarts operating a catering truck owned by the Hells Angels. Sue finished her career driving again throughout the U.S. placing March of Dimes gumball machines in every business she could persuade. Nobody I knew ever handled a dollar more capably or read people better than Sue. My reply to her ad in a newspaper want-to-meet column must have been a good read. We met, then partnered for the next 38 years.

Sue lived directly on the Hayward fault line. After the possibly prophetic Loma Prieta earthquake, Sue promptly packed and moved from Oakland to bucolic Anderson Valley, where we had bought sheep grazing property with a cabin. She happily traded the relentess urban cacophany for the sounds of the wind rustling the trees, birds chirping by day, frogs singing at night, and rain pelting the roof. She found the human contrivances of TV, radio, even music, interruptive to her new-found serenity. Her sole exception was the annual Variety Show.

Sue was extremely happy partially reliving her Nebaraska roots: well-water, a wood-burning stove, and solitude. Sue befriended Bernie the Raven, Bobby our Bobcat, Mom the Doe, who yearly bore a fawn near our house, and Stinky, who lived under the deck. She hiked the surrounding logging roads daily and brought home wild flowers as tiny souveniers of her explorations.

Sue wasn't actively religious, but she was very spiritual. The ephemerality of nature itself best explained the reality of everything else. Sue had the sheep and fences removed from our property in the hills, and she planted trees and oak grass to help nature recover. Eventually, the gnawed, barren land regrew into rambling, willowy-grass, tree-covered terrain.

Unfortunately, Sue's new world in Anderson Valley wasn't as perfect as she had anticipated. Shortly after moving here, Sue unwittingly contracted Lyme Disease. It was another unpredictable side of nature. She spent the following 30 years combating its increasingly debiliating effects.

Sue's unending search for solutions for combating Lyme Disease led her to becoming Anderson Valley's foremost Lyme Disease advocate. Her booth at the annual AV Wildflower Show educated and forewarned many unknowning visitors and new, brightlighter residents. Her bane was the infamous ignorance and denial of effective treatment by the established medical industry, whose mantra could well be, "If we don't treat it, you don't have it."

Sue's honesty and ethics were unquestionable and her forthrightness sometimes unnerving. She was unemotional about everything – stoic might be a better word. Her savvy insights were indispensible. She expressed her love for me with devoted concern for my welfare – keeping me organically fed, ozonated watered...and always on pavement.

Sue's social life centered on AV's Unity Club and ICW (Independent Career Women). But with the Pandemic lock down, Sue retreated to her comfy recliner and spent her days and evenings reading. She consummed a library of nature, biographic and history books. They gave her a sense of vicarious adventure and a broader perspective of life's inexplicabilities.

From the very beginning of the Covid pandemic, Sue firmly refused all vaccinations. Her logic for refusing was, if a car is running out of gas and coasting to a stop, injecting octane booster won't help.

I believe Sue's resolute Nebraska heritage gave her both strength and peace when it really mattered: discovering that the Lyme symptoms she had spent decades fighting, were actually of advanced cancer. Pragmatically as ever, she described her too-late discovery and unavoidable fate as, "It is what it is."

Sue's earlier, extemporaneous graze through life evolved into her belief of a predestined order for everything. She didn't find her trust in heaven and reincarnation at all conflicting. One was for the spirit, the other for the body.

Approaching the end, Sue strained to whisper a question: What I was going to do with her body? I told Sue, she wished to be cremated, and that would be so. I also told her I would bury her ashes near the house next to a redwood sapling. The nutrients would help nuture the young redwood as it grew, and she would live on as part it for hundreds of years to come. Sue whispered back, “Good.” That was the last she spoke.

Sue Davies died March 9, 2023. She was the most caring, life-loving woman I've ever known. I will miss her forever.

Bob Karol, Philo CA

MISSING JUVENILE IN THE HOPLAND AREA, 2-year-old Hispanic Male Juvenile responds to “Johnny”. Last seen wearing a white shirt no jacket and brown pants approximately 3 feet tall 40 Pounds brown hair brown eyes. Reported missing approximately noon 4/4/2023, possibly walked away from a residence in the 15000 block of Mountain House Road Hopland. Search and rescue and Law enforcement are actively searching the area. Any sighting or information call Mendocino Sheriff Dispatch 707 463 4086. (Mendocino County Sheriff)

UPDATE: The missing boy was found alive and well and has been reunited with his parents.

HAND-PAINTED CERAMIC TURKEY

My name is MariBeth Switzer. I live in Marysville, CA. My Aunt Jeanie Rossi spent nearly her whole life in Boonville. About 25 years ago she hand painted a ceramic turkey. It is gorgeous and very special to me. Before I knew it she had placed the turkey in a bazaar or some such thing and the turkey was either sold or won. I would like to place an ad offering to purchase the turkey. Can you help me with that? I appreciate your time and help.

Bethy Switzer <bethyswitzer@gmail.com>

WHEN HOAXES AREN’T FUNNY

by Cat Spydell

On Sunday I had just returned from a rare weekend away with my adult daughter Cassidy, visiting dear friends as five of us met Saturday evening in Sebastopol to hear a familiar band play at the HopMonk Tavern. We met up there, traveling from Seal Beach, Sacramento, Philo, and Fort Bragg, with one friend driving from just a few minutes away to the venue. After a great evening of dancing to the music, the next day we all had breakfast together (we recommend Fandee’s Restaurant in Sebastopol), and after we ate, we all went our own ways.

Cassidy and I took Highway One home together. I enjoyed the oceanside scenery as Cassidy slept for over an hour in the car, and I thought how wonderful that this busy mom of two holding down a full-time job with the Fort Bragg school district could get some good rest on our fun overnight adventure.

On Monday, as we settled back into our respective work week routines, I got a text from Cassidy while she was on the job at Fort Bragg Unified School District at about 1:30 p.m.

We are in lockdown. There’s a shooter at the high school. 4 people have been shot.

Every nerve in my body was on high alert as Cassidy and I continued to text. I felt helpless. I knew she was in a neighboring building, not directly on the Fort Bragg High School campus where the shooter was reported to be, but I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Cassidy and her co-workers had been told by police to lock the office doors and get under desks and stay low until released. Those district employees had no idea what was happening just outside their doors as hundreds of neighboring employees and students at the location were hiding and fearing for their lives. The high school was now swarmed by police and emergency personnel. Soon nearby Dana Gray Elementary School was under lockdown as well.

In Cassidy’s office, a co-worker whose daughter was in the high school’s classroom received a text:

Mom, if I don’t live through this, know I love you.

Everyone was terrified. All the employees were shaking in fear and hugging each other. Cassidy happened to have her one-year old son, my grandson Grayson, with her and was holding him trying to keep him quiet under the desk, wondering if they would both make it out alive.

Here is what Cassidy later wrote about the incident.

“Today was a horrific reminder that we are not ever as safe as we feel, falling into the daily routine, the base level of trust and comfort we feel can be ripped away so fast. I was sitting at work today, I had Grayson with me in the office, a nice, normal day. We get notice that we are on lockdown. Not much later I hear that we have 4 students shot. I sat on the floor behind my desk holding my baby, terrified, with my coworkers, shaking, crying, trying to keep calm, relying on very little verified information, trying to figure out what we could do, if we were safe, what was happening. We cried and prayed for our students, the faculty at school, the first responders who went in without hesitation. All to find it was a sick, disgusting hoax. It is not nothing to the students, parents, and everyone else involved. This was traumatic for our whole community.”

Soon enough by about 2:20 p.m. after the police did a thorough search of the campus, it became apparent that there was not a shooter at the high school. After the lockdown was released, unbelievably the same reports of a shooter on campus occurred at the high schools in Ukiah and Willits. Apparently this is a “thing” called “swatting,” which is the practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to dispatch armed police officers and other personnel to a specific address. Swatting has been happening nationwide since the recent tragic actual school shooting during which six people, three of them children, lost their lives on a Nashville, Tennessee, school campus last week.

Now that everyone from the Fort Bragg incident is known to be okay, the local news in Mendocino is tritely using the word “hoax” to describe what happened at Fort Bragg High today. A hoax connotates a joke, something amusing.

Having hundreds of people hiding from a shooter and fearing for their lives while on a school campus is not a hoax: that actually happened. It is also no joke that the parents in the Fort Bragg community thronged the schools to try and make sure their kids were okay, fearing for their children’s lives, and also, mental stability after such a traumatic incident. There’s no joke about frayed nerves, tears, confusion, and fear. Hoax is a word that lessens what happened and demeans the experience these people all endured. Even in our own family, Cassidy’s father, brother, and those close friends we just spent the weekend with, were experiencing the drama with her, through her texts. I still have a pit in my stomach from what we witnessed, even secondhand, today due to a “hoax.”

Of course, luckily, no one was shot and there may not have even been a gun discharged on campus, although there are employee reports of a noise “like gunfire” moments before the lockdown that may be attributed to fireworks or explosives of some sort. But to everyone experiencing the pandemonium, from those parents hearing about it on the news and swarming the schools, to bus drivers who couldn’t get to the kids to pick them up, to school personnel hearing conflicting stories, to people like me envisioning their kid (and grandkid) being hunted like prey by a shooter, it was very real, and did not feel like a hoax at all.

Chuck Pittman. Ukiah High School senior. 1946. Grandfather to Green Bay Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

THE ETERNAL BATTLE AGAINST CALTRANS’ POISON SPRAYING

Editor,

Caltrans used 421,000 pounds of herbicide to kill weeds on state highways and freeways last year, but not in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, where this chemical spraying has been on hold for THIRTY-FIVE years! There’s a bill in the CA Assembly AB99 which would require that Caltrans develop an integrated pest management program for statewide use, do some training, provide advance notice of herbicide spraying, report annually on where, what and how much herbicide it uses with the key requirement being for counties that have an IPM program or restrict their own roadside spraying and other similar Caltrans will have to adopt IPM in that county.

We tried to get into AB99 that it would be IPM without herbicides but can’t get it this time around, tho there’s promise this is the beginning and the first time the legislature will oversee what’s going on with Caltrans spraying with the intent of dialing it down. We want much more but can support this. I’ve attached my 3-minute testimony in the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials committee last week (as one of two speakers allowed) and would love it if AVA would interview me or otherwise write a story about this bill and the current status with Caltrans spraying in our counties and statewide.

Patty Clary, Executive Director Californians for Alternatives to Toxics

600 F Street, Ste 3 #911 Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 834-4833 or 530-625-5153

PS. I contacted three Mendo supervisors and couldn’t get the interest of one on this issue.

Humboldt’s chair of its now liberal/progressive board of supes, Steve Madrone, wrote a letter of support for AB99 but in Mendocino I can’t yet find even an enviro interested in getting this before the Board or carrying it in any way. I’m having more luck with the notoriously difficult to get to Hoopa and Yurok tribes than with your supes. I’ll send a packet of info to two of them, including newspaper articles about when Mendocino requested Caltrans to not spray in 1997 and how it doesn’t, and how this isn’t guaranteed in any way.

* * *

In 2014 Els Cooperrider remembered those days in 1997 when she and other local opponents of Caltrans’ herbicide spraying took to the streets:

Cooperrider:

“In 1997 the Mendocino Enviromental Center asked me to help stop CalTrans from spraying toxic herbicides on the highways. There had already been local protests and grumbling. In response CalTrans set up an advisory committee from the community. I called Charles Peterson, who was our County Supervisor in the 5th District and asked him to appoint me to it, which he did. We as members of the committee demanded to know what they were spraying. So they opened up their books to us showing what, when and where they were spraying. With my background in chemistry and biology I found out what each of the chemicals did. Of course, RoundUp was just one of them. [Ed note: RoundUp has since been banned in several countries and hundreds of successful high-value lawsuits have been won against its manufacturer, Monsanto, costing them over $10 billion. California has recently added RoundUp to the state’s Proposition 65 list of cancer causing chemicals.] CalTrans justified using these chemicals to kill plants, because they don’t hurt people. There is nothing to worry about. It’s a biocide, but it doesn’t hurt people or animals or fish. But I discovered that there is only one atom of difference between a molecule of hemoglobin and a molecule of chlorophyll — our lifeblood and plant’s lifeblood — and that is the magnesium and the iron right in the middle. I had not known that and was just blown away. So I made a huge illustration with them side by side and showed it at one of our protests in front of the County Supervisors. I also produced a pamphlet that listed all of the herbicides they were spraying and next to it the two molecules, along with the effects of what these chemicals do, which I took from a Caltrans Environmental Impact Report. That made a difference. Soon enough I got word that I was being sued by Monsanto for putting out “false and misleading” information about their products. That just gave me more fuel. I printed out and distributed more of them. As it turned out Monsanto didn’t come after me because there wasn’t anything to come after me for. I was just stating the facts, not slandering them.

There were lots of people working on this project, not just me, and we were not getting anywhere. We had persuaded the Board of Supervisors to ask CalTrans to stop spraying, and we had protested around the county, but CalTrans ignored the Supervisors, so we decided we would have to engage in civil disobedience. I asked the group to please consider having the civil disobedience done not by the young whippersnappers among us, but just those who were old enough to be grandparents. I thought we would have more impact because so often young people are wrongly dismissed by the authorities as not having anything better to do, that they’re not productive citizens, they’re just being disruptive. Everyone agreed.

I offered myself for the second action and decided that one long straight stretch of Highway 101 before you go up the Willits grade that had good visibility was a good place to do it without anybody getting hurt. And I knew that CalTrans was about to spray that section.

On March 6, 1997 we set it up with supporters behind the fences with signs, on both sides of the freeway. Traffic was light. Sequoia and I were let off on the shoulder, crossed the highway to the median strip and stationed ourselves in the way of the oncoming CalTrans 5-truck spray convoy. When they saw us up ahead, they stopped. They soon started moving again, but we weren’t moving. So they slowed way down and pulled into the fast lane to go around us and continued spraying. For the next few months there was this lonely green patch on the freeway where we stood. Soon, two Highway Patrol cars pulled up and they told us to get in the front seats, I in one car, Sequoia in the other. Mine was a female patrol officer and she said to me, “Thank you for what you are doing. I don’t like to step in that stuff, which I have to do every time I pull somebody over, and then I have to go home. I’m going to take you back to all your supporters over there.”

It’s amazing when you think about it… most people won’t speak up or protest because there will be repercussions. People don’t use the power they have because they are afraid. And they are afraid for a good reason… because they have to bring home a paycheck. They need to pay their mortgage… they need to put food on the table. So we are all held hostage by that. But when a person does break that mold, it’s so refreshing. I’ve kept my mouth shut plenty of times to keep my job. The older I get, the more I speak up because I realize we are all being held hostage. We have so much power and we aren’t using it. We are all afraid. I find it amazing that people don’t know what their power is. If we rose up we could transform this country in no time.

The next day, Rick Knapp, who was the director of CalTrans District 1 was very upset by that action and announced that they were suspending all roadside spraying in Mendocino County because they were afraid that somebody was going to get killed… and they haven’t sprayed since. I found out later that it is more expensive for them to spray than to mow anyway.”

MENDOCINO COAST HEALTH CARE DISTRICT 2023

by Malcolm Macdonald

As of January the Mendocino Coast Health Care District (MCHCD) has four new members on its Board of Directors. To the credit of the board’s new treasurer, the public can now see most of the bank statements for the district’s accounts.

The bad news is that the statements from the accounts at Bank of America and Tri Counties Bank don’t add up to a lot in the big picture of a district faced with financing a seismic retrofit to the coast hospital.

MCHCD, like many special districts, possesses a Local Agency Investment Fund (LAIF), akin to a savings account or rainy day fund. There is approximately $3.5 million in the Hhealthcare District’s LAIF account. The Measure C fund that taxpayers contribute to every year contains about $3 million as well. That Measure C money has restrictions on it, so is not truly money available to the District for its every day expenses, but for needed equipment and repairs inside the operations of the hospital, which is run by Adventist Health.

That leaves the Mendocino Health Care District with the dollars in those Bank of America and Tri Counties Bank accounts. According to the monthly bank statements presented as supporting documents at the MCHCD Board’s first Finance Committee meeting of the year the Bank of America accounts total approx. $2.7 million and the Tri Counties accounts equal about $ 1.36 million. The combined total being just over $4 million.

MCHCD Board Treasurer Jade Tippett has yet to produce statements from the District’s accounts at Savings Bank of Mendocino County. Speculation tends to modest amounts therein.

Even with another million in the Savings Bank accounts and dipping into the $3.5 million in LAIF savings, the Healthcare District is nowhere near the amount needed to fund a seismic retrofit for the coast hospital.

Of course, we haven’t yet taken into account some of the long term liabilities faced by the Mendocino Coast Health Care District. There’s the 2016 refunding of bonds. The District owes over $3.25 million on those, with more than a half million due this year. There’s $835,000 owed on a Help II Loan (HELP stands for Hospital Emergency Loan Program), over $165,000 of that this year. The District owes almost a quarter million dollars in loan payments to United Healthcare this year, $420,000 overall. Add into that the federal government wants a refund of $1.3 million from MCHCD in CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security) funds.

At the Thursday, March 30, MCHCD regular meeting the Board of Directors voted to pay a $408,013 refund claim to the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). The rest of the board, chiefly Sara Spring the one holdover board member, persuaded Tippett to hold off paying a million dollars in reconciliation money to Adventist Health. Spring’s main concern seemed to be that Tippett had not provided documentation supporting the million dollar transfer. That documentation may well exist and within weeks that could be another million out of the District’s bank accounts.

If you add up those potential payments during this year alone, they amount to more than $3.5 million. Subtract that from the $4 million in the Tri Counties and Bank of America accounts... Well, you can do the math. Toss in another $3.5 million still owed long term in bond refunding and loans from Help II and United Healthcare... Equals a financial picture closer to red than black numerals.

The lease between the District and Adventist Health does provide for $1,750,000 in rental income each year. That lease agreement also requires the District to deposit $2 million annually in an Improvements Fund to be used for repairs and improvements to the hospital or replacement of fixtures, furniture and equipment within the hospital.

The bond payments, the debt to United Healthcare, and the HELP II loan all date to financial woes before any of the prior board took office in 2019 or before the affiliation with Adventist Health was consummated in 2020. In the late summer of 2022, the prior board of directors at MCHCD achieved a minor financial miracle relocating the ambulance crew into the AJ Gray building on the hospital campus. This included remodeling a portion of that building in two months time for a little under $32,000. This was less than half of an original cost ceiling of $75,000.

Despite practical successes like that, not a meeting goes by in 2023 without the new board playing the blame game on its predecessors. More about this next time.

PRESENTING THE AV HONOR ROLL, Spring 2023

STICKS & STONE

Dear Mr. Anderson,

As you are aware, I represent Doug Stone in the ongoing Mendocino County Superior Court proceedings. I have occasionally been sent copies of articles concerning Mr. Stone’s case that you have published and recently signed up so that I could review your past coverage of the case.

I know that most of your stories report the observations of Ms. Vivaldo. I have gotten to know her and have no objections to anything that she has reported. As I think she understands, since I took over from Attorney Runfalo, I have not done anything to delay the proceedings. The delays in specific hearings that have occurred have been the result of issues over which neither I nor Mr. Stone have any control -- e.g. the fact that the preliminary hearing was suddenly assigned to Judge Pekin who could not complete the hearing the week it started because of his calendar, the unexpected decision of Judge Shanahan to recuse herself and the district attorney’s failure to file responses to Mr. Stone’s motions.

In contrast, I am very concerned about some of what I assume are comments you wrote as “ED NOTE.” The following statements in your note are false:

1. Mr. Stone is not “well-connected” in any way that has affected the scheduling of his case.

2. Since I took over as his attorney he has not asked for or received “endless delays with a view to the case simply vanishing one of these days into mental health counseling.”

3. Mr. Stone is not “from an old guard Mendo family.”

4. The prosecutor has not alleged he made “mistakes like 30-40 burglaries,” nor is there any good faith basis to assert that Mr. Stone committed any burglaries other than those he is charged with.

5. Mr. Stone was not “deranged via methamphetamine.”

I am extremely concerned that your false statements are deliberately intended to influence the court’s decision on the mental health diversion motion, which I only filed recently based on changes in California law that went into effect this year. I am also concerned that your statements will substantially bias potential jurors. I do not know what the readership of your paper is. But I assume it is read by a significant number of individuals who, if there is a jury trial, will be called as potential jurors. Because of the false and inflammatory nature of your “ed note,” there is a good chance that your decision to publish it so close to the start of a trial will substantially complicate and delay jury selection; and, depending on how many potential jurors have read or learned of them, make it necessary to remove the trial from this county.

Court proceedings aside, I request that you immediately retract and correct your false statement that Mr. Stone was “deranged via methamphetamine.” In the police and psychological reports I have read since taking on this case I have not seen any evidence or allegations that Mr. Stone used methamphetamine. So I was very surprised to see it in your note. As I’m sure you understand, this is a very serious and extremely prejudicial statement of fact.

I also request that you provide the basis for your false statements of fact that Mr. Stone is “wellconnected” and “from an old guard Mendo family.” Neither statement is true.

There is also absolutely no basis in any reports that I have seen that Mr. Stone committed “30-40 burglaries.” It’s clear to me that you made these statements without reviewing case materials or doing any independent investigation. If you had reviewed the record, you would know that he was only charged with burglaries at three locations — and that there is no commonality in those burglaries except that two of them involved burglaries in locations where horrific fires occurred.

You also seem to have no real understanding of Mr. Stone’s experience as a fire fighter, and his well-documented and severe PTSD related to his experiences responding to unimaginably horrific vehicle accidents and wildfires.

My most immediate request is that you correct your flatly false statements of fact that Mr. Stone was “deranged via methamphetamine,” that he is “well-connected” and “from an old guard Mendo family,” and that he committed 30-40 burglaries. I also hope that you will devote some time to learning about what has actually driven the grossly egregious over-prosecution of Mr. Stone. If you do so, given your concerns about official misconduct involving the district attorney, I believe your view of this case will change.

If you would like to discuss the case, please call me.

Yours Truly,

Michael Clough

Attorney for Douglas Stone

Oakland

ED REPLY: In fact, I didn't know you were representing Mr. Stone because I'm not interested in who's representing him. I simply lamented, and thought I'd made it clear, that via a combination of judicial sloth and jive filings by Mr. Stone's lawyers, including you, that his case is now three years old. Gratuitous filings like your recent claim of a flawed police search and a request for a mental health evaluation by multiple shrinks three years after Mr. Stone's arrest are the kinds of delays only well-heeled defendants can afford, as their lawyers and lazy judges pervert the legal system to keep them out of jail.

Judge Pekin's calendar? Elaborate, please. Judge Shanahan recused herself? Why? Our judges have resorted to the latter dodge for years whenever it is politically convenient to them, and Pekin and Shanahan weren't the only two Mendo robes involved in shuffling this case unto old age.

1. By Mendo standards, Stone’s admirable years as a firefighter won him a good reputation with firefighters and police, the nearest thing we have in this county to an influential class and, I daresay, none of them want to see him in prison. That's influence, counselor.

2. Isn't it you who is belatedly (and frivolously, imo) challenging the search of Stone's property three years after the fact? And now want a psych evaluation?

3. Not from an old guard family? I'll stipulate to that, but he's got the dough to fund this circus, which positively qualifies him as gentry in the Mendo criminal social hierarchy.

4. 30-40 burglaries, I'll concede may be a stretch, but there were certainly more than he was charged for.

5. Was it the white powders that led Stone from the path of righteousness, or did he veer off without chemical assistance? If he went astray in full possession of his faculties, he's the first night time intruder to manage it since dope became prevalent.

My statements are not “deliberately intended” to influence anybody, least of all jurors, few of whom these days read anything that doesn't appear on their telephones. I do think your mental health diversion request is another strategy to continue this case until it dies of old age, and I don't blame you or your client, but I do blame the Mendocino County Superior Court for permitting these endless delays. You say the trial is about to start? I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm sorry if you or your client is distressed when I say I am extremely skeptical of PTSD in this case. And if the DA is egregiously pursuing Stone he's doing it in slow-motion.

Editorial comment, Mr. Clough, it's permitted. Maybe you should read up on it.

STORM CALFRESH TIMELY REPORTING WAIVER for Mendocino County

Replacement benefits for Mendocino County Households affected by recent winter storms and power outages

Mendocino County households receiving CalFresh benefits who experienced food losses due to the March 7th winter storm event may request replacement benefits until April 6, 2023. The California Department of Social Services reports that the Food and Nutrition Service has authorized a Timely Reporting Waiver for CalFresh Households who lost food due to this winter storm event. Households will be given until April 6, 2023, to request a replacement of their food loss.

To request replacement benefits for the March Winter Storm Events, please contact the Mendocino County Department of Social Services Employment and Family Services Division by calling: 707-463-7700 in Ukiah or 707-962-1065 in Fort Bragg. Households can also come into the offices at 737 S State Street in Ukiah or 764 S. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg.

BOONVILLE QUIZ THIS THURSDAY NIGHT

Yes, Brainiacs, this coming Thursday, April 6th, is the first Thursday of the month so the Quiz will take place at Lauren’s at The Buckhorn in Downtown Boonville, beginning at 7pm…

You know it makes sense.

Hope to see many of you there.

Cheers,

Steve - The Quizmaster

FIRST FRIDAY ART WALK APRIL 7, 2023

Art Walk: emphasis on ART and WALK. Ukiah is a very walkable town. Join artists and their hosts for an evening of art, music and refreshments as you stroll from one venue to the next; each showcasing local art and artistry. Held in Historic Downtown Ukiah on the first Friday of each month, the First Friday Art Walk is the perfect way to relax your body, mind and soul. This enjoyable evening begins at 5:00 p.m. and promises to delight your senses; all while enjoying the company of others.

The Lot on Main, corner of Main Street and Standley

The Lot provides opportunities to connect local artists with the community. In April they will have close to 15 artists and a live DJ. Some artists include Tim Poma, Eel River Crafts, 3PA, Elias with fluid art, Mason DeGuzman with graphite portraits , and more! DJ Seshwann will be providing free live entertainment from 5pm - 7pm. Wood carving artist Jarrod Flowers will be carving all day Friday and Saturday, the 7th and the 8th.

W Real Estate, 101 N State Street

W Real Estate is featuring local artists who are participating artists with the Veterans Art Project. The Veteran Arts Project supports local artists who have served in the United States Armed Forces or are currently active duty and their spouses, and caregivers.

Show will feature Robert Permenter (painting) and Gabee Permenter(painting and ceramic) plus Marybeth Burkhardt (ceramics) and others.

Bona Marketplace, 116 W Standley Street

From Leslie Bartolomei "I enjoy travelling near and far, exploring all the beauty our amazing world has to offer. Whether it be natural or manmadel'm inspired by the variety and complexity of ancient sites and landscapes. My husband and I share Scottish roots and are particularly fascinated by Pictish, Viking, Neolithic and Medieval structures, history and folklore. You'll find a couple of my husband's pictures are here as well. This exhibit highlights photos from a visit to Scotland and Iceland in the fall of 2022. Our adventure found us winding our way through time from modern Glasgow, Scotland and Reykjavik, Iceland to ancient castles and cathedrals; glaciers and fjords. I'm excited to share my "Travels through Time" exhibit with you. Thank you in advance for visiting me at Bona Marketplace. All pieces in this exhibit are available for copies in the same size or smaller. Please enquire if interested."

Ukiah Library, 105 N Main Street

Making Space for a Changing Mind: An Art Exhibit The Ukiah Library staff invite the community to join us for Art Walk Ukiah on Friday, April 7th from 5-7 pm. Come enjoy an exhibit by local artist Michael Eich, titled “Making Space for a Changing Mind; an Art Exhibit.” Mr. Michael Eich makes space for painting, wherein colors might initiate a storyline, including texturing, scrapping, collaging, and scribbling. He likes the idea of oneness, of time out, and of a changing mindset, as seen in his artwork. The Ukiah Branch Library will be hosting live music by Richard Jeske. Watercolor doodling materials will be available for in-person painting or as a Take & Make. Enjoy a book sale by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library as you browse the Art Walk. Buy some See's Candy and support the Friends of the Library. This exhibit is free to the public, open to all ages, and sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library and Mendocino County Library. For more information, please visit www.mendolibrary.org or contact wetzelr@mendocinocounty.org or the Ukiah Branch Library at 707-463-4490 <+17074634490>.

Corner Gallery, 201 South State Street, Ukiah

Corner Gallery Ukiah will host two of their most recent members in the front windows. Painter Jill Millward will surprise us some of her current work, while Darrell Carpenter, who works with a unique technique of collage and paint, will also present what he’s been doing. On the MCAA wall, Wanda Bennett will present three oils, one of Koi fish and two still-life paintings. McKinzie Vanderpool is the new young artist and plans to exhibit charcoal sketches. For the First Friday reception, 5-8pm, we will enjoy the music of Steve Hahm. Corner Gallery, 201 South State Street

Art Center Ukiah, 201 South State Street, Ukiah

Art Center Ukiah, with its exhibit "Re-Us It," is featuring art which deftly uses materials which might otherwise be discarded. Tin addition to our community artists, we are pleased to include artwork from both Pomolita Middle School and Mendocino College. Opening reception 5-8 pm

Mama’s Medicinals, 328 N State Street, Ukiah

Mama’s Medicinals is happy to welcome Tim Poma is a painter who specializes in landscapes and stylized still lifes. Bold strokes of bright cheerful colors that conjure joy, and uplift the Spirit trademark his style. Nathan Valensky is a visual artist inspired by neo-expressionism and pop culture. His work juxtaposes familiar caricatures of well known personalities with the unknown and uncertainty of our own thoughts.

Grace Hudson Museum, 431 S Main Street, Ukiah Live music and refreshments will be on offer. The current exhibit, “The Curious World of Seaweed,” will be on display. Featuring the extraordinary layered artwork of Josie Iselin, the exhibit explores the surprising science and history behind seaweed, its longstanding connections with indigenous peoples, and the human impact that threatens its existence. The exhibit includes Pomo seaweed gathering baskets, and a few other surprises. First Fridays are also a great opportunity to discover or get reacquainted with the museum’s core galleries and Wild Gardens. As always on First Fridays, admission is free.

For more information contact, Mo Mulheren at Ukiah Valley Networking at ukiahvalleynetworking@gmail.com or text her at 707-391-3664

JIM DODGE WRITES:

Just got my AVA of March 29 on April 4 and was arrested by the Dr. Doo cartoon and Warren Buffet quote.

As someone who spends as time as possible with the Pacific Ocean in order to refresh my humility, I would be willing to bet a running '98 RAV against an ounce of beach sand that a low tide, the water moving away from beach, not coming in (high tide), would be more likely to reveal who was swimming naked. That assumes, to make the trope truly accurate, that all the swimmers are stationary rather than following the flow of water. Warren Buffett, as my machinist friends are fond of saying, doesn't know whether his asshole is bored or punched.

Less glaring, but if still annoying, is his use of “whose,” the genitive (possessive) case of “whom,” which he has evidently mistaken for the contraction “who's”(who has). As my same machinist friends tell me all the time, I'm woefully prone to pick the fly shit out of the pepper — no doubt true — but I don't relish eating fly shit on my baked potato or sprinkling botched metaphors on my brain; both contain toxic bacteria that can eventually sicken you to the point you grow a hump and accept slop as a way of life.

COME ON OUT AND CELEBRATE AND SUPPORT ARENA THEATER at their Cocktail Party and Art Auction on Sat. April 15 at 5:30pm. Delicious treats from Franny’s and delightful live music with Bryn Harris and the Blue Souls. arenatheater.org

THE FRESNEL LENS at Point Cabrillo is still paused at this time! We are in communication with the Coast Guard, while our motor is being repaired. We look forward to the day when our lens is back in action, shining its light to sea as it was designed to do!

For now, there is a curtain hanging in the lantern room window, in order to protect the lens from the sun on these bright days of Spring. The three ton lens has been lifted off of the ball bearings, to ensure that they stay in perfect condition.

Once that motor is re-installed, we plan on holding a re-lighting ceremony to celebrate the lens being put back in action. Stay tuned on social media for more updates!

Thank you to @jaysonhooper_ for this beautiful shot

BILL HOLCOMB PRESENTS “Anderson Valley Memories” on April 16, the second AV Historical Society Valley Chat

Greetings from the Anderson Valley Historical Society Board. We want to be sure everybody remembers about our next Valley Chat event. Come meet us in the Rose Room just next to the Little Red Schoolhouse Museum on Anderson Valley Way on Sunday, April 16, when longtime Valley resident, and everybody’s pal, Bill Holcomb, presents “Anderson Valley Memories.” Come hear Bill’s recollections about his life in the Valley. Then, if you like, share your own. Stories, yarns and tall tales all welcome! It’s going to be an entertaining storytelling circle. The doors open at 3:30 pm for socializing, snacks and drinks, and Bill’s storytelling commences at 4:00 pm. This month’s Valley Chat is also doing double duty, as we’re also serving as the monthly group event for the Anderson Valley Village. If you’re interested in hearing entertaining oral history about bygone days in the Valley, this event is for you. It’s bound to be fun for all ages. Food, drinks and admission are all free.

And don’t forget our third Valley Chat, to be held on Sunday, May 21, when Fal Allen presents “The History of the Anderson Valley Brewery.” It’s been a long, colorful road from the Brewery’s beginnings to our current fine establishment, and Fal knows the story. As always, admission will be free, with snacks and drinks provided. All are welcome!

Our first event, held on March 19, was a blast, as Bill Kimberlin shared stories, highlighted by videos and photos, about his career in the film industry, including working on the Stars Wars movies. Thanks to Bill for kicking off our Valley Chats series so well. We had a lively crowd and a great time.

(Jerry Karp)

JAMES KESTER: “Executive Barbershop, Ukiah“ 11x14 inches, ink on Bristol board. Commissioned.

Enjoyed doing this a lot, and got to try out some new Micron pens. (Not as smooth as I like, and the nibs tend to be a little brittle. Or maybe I've got the artistic prowess of a caveman.)

(courtesy Lisa Porzio Brocchini)

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS APRIL MEETING

The League of Women Voters of Mendocino County will hold its April meeting on Tuesday, April 18, from 6-7:30pm. The meeting will be held via Zoom.

Four local presenters will give a comprehensive update on the former GP Mill Site; history, ecology, planning rules and legal status will be covered.

There will be time for discussion and questions. The Zoom link for the meeting can be found on the League's website: https://my.lwv.org/california/mendocino-county; look under the calendar tab.

For more information, call 707-937-4952.

Pat Dunbar, Publicity, pdunbar@mcn.org

THE BOONTLING CLASSIC IS BACK! The North Coast Striders is pleased to announce that the 38 Annual Boontling Classic 5K Footrace will be held on Sunday, May 7th, at 10:00am at the Anderson Valley Elementary School in Boonville. Runners and walkers of all ages are welcome.

Ribbons will be awarded to the top three finishers in ten age divisions, as well as plaques for the top man, woman, and non-binary runner. A post-race drawing will be held with prizes generously donated by local Anderson Valley businesses.

Online registration will be available at: http//runsignup.com/boontlingclassic through May 7, 2023. In-person registration will be available on the day of the race only, starting at 8:30am.

For more information contact race directors Zane Colfax or Angie Setzer at zane.colfax@gmail.com or via phone or text at 334-233-9607.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, April 4, 2023

ANGELICA DELGADO, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

ANGEL ECHEVERRIA, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

CLINT HARBOUR, Willits. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

MIGUEL LOPEZ-CEJA, Ukiah. Reckless driving.

BERIAH MARTIN, Ukiah. Marijuana cultivation, marijuana for sale, conspiracy.

NATHAN MOORE, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

RICHARD OLSTAD, Fort Bragg. Controlled substance, no license, parole violation.

CAMELOT

by Ken Hurst

Even though it was still in rehearsal at the Lincoln Center, a revised version of the great play ‘Camelot’ is already full to the brim with large crowds.

My wife Joanadele and I drove to Woodland to fly JetBlue to New York City with Lucinda Talkington to see the play at the Lincoln Center. Lucinda's daughter Merrilee is in the play.

I love the excitement of New York City. Our driver had a great New York accent as we drove in the local traffic. “Hey, youse got to watch out for this $26,000 beauty when you are scratching around here. That speck of space is mine every time I'm here. Youse better watch out for me.”

We went to see Camelot on our first day we were there. It was a fine first-half. But the second half was downright terrific. Merrilee was Morgan Ley Morgan and she reminded everyone she was Morgan, a scientist who used her brain to make decisions, not her feelings.

We went to a large Chinese restaurant after the play along with several members of the big crowd who loved the play.

The next day we had our tour of some of the landmarks of the city. We went to Central Park across the street from the Dakota. It took me a few moments to realize that this was the scene where John Lennon was murdered. I broke down, not crying out loud, but tears were coming. When people try to decide who was the greatest Beatle I think of ‘Imagine,’ the song that is the greatest thing to come from John Lennon of all the Beatles.

We went to see the Statue of Liberty, the great gift the French gave to us.

We went to eat at an underground city. Like anywhere else we got a burger and fries at Wendy's.

It had been a glorious day.

The next day we flew home on JetBlue and it was magic miles because all seven hours were fun. We soon had our cat in our arms at Lucinda's home in Woodland.

Jacqueline Kennedy said her husband loved the play and, "Don't let it be forgot that once there was a spot for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot."

VEDIC CHANTS ARE THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION NO ONE ASKED

Vedic Chants, Self Realization, and the Stupidity of Postmodernism in America

Awakened early by a staff person at the Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center in sunny Ukiah, California, informing that Walgreen's was calling to advise that Adventist Health had phoned in two more prescriptions related to high blood pressure which could be picked up. The beauty sleep interrupted, moved right into morning ablutions, and then walked to Plowshares Peace and Justice Center for a free hot meal, before taking the MTA bus to get the latest pills. Indeed, a water pill and some potassium! Sauntered up Perkins Street to the Ukiah Public Library, and am right this moment on computer #5 tap, tap tapping away. Not the body, not the mind, Immortal Self I am. I'm ready to roll out and perform eco-direct action, before the climate destabilization situation makes the planet earth unlivable. I am accepting money here: Paypal.me/craiglouisstehr. Please enjoy sanskrit vedic chants which will stabilize basic sanity in postmodern America. Earth First!...We'll Save the Other Planets Later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KgoqAuvnUo â˜º

Craig Louis Stehr 1045 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482 Telephone Messages: (707) 234-3270 Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I think a lot of people are like me. Frustrated. Deeply frustrated. Why? Because they know things aren’t right, that the life we are living is a fraud. But it is ALL they know. It is all they were taught and, like me, they don’t know what the hell to do about it.

Vote? We know our election systems a fraud. Contact a Representative or a Senator? Get a canned response for an entirely different issue. Run for office? Get destroyed by lies, slander and libel and who can afford to pay the financial cost. Pay off our debt? Still have to pay property taxes. Go to church? The churches are just as corrupt. Focus on our family? The world is destroying our families through technology.

I don’t know what the hell to do anymore other than sit back, try to prepare as best as I know how and wait for whatever comes. As I have said before, I will keep the last round in my gun reserved for the very end. No way will I rot in prison, a re-education camp or be eaten alive. I don’t fear death.

CALIFORNIA MAY CHANGE ITS MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING. Why That Might Cut Some Services

by Kristen Hwang

For the second time in as many years, Gov. Gavin Newsom is pushing for major reform of California’s mental health system, this time by overhauling the way counties spend mental health dollars and placing a bond measure before voters to build more psychiatric beds.

County behavioral health advocates and local service providers fear programs will be cut, and, much like the controversial CARE Courts legislation — which passed last year and allows individuals to petition a court to force seriously mentally ill people into treatment and housing — say Newsom’s initial announcement came as a shock.

“We listened to the press conference just like you,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, executive director of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, which represents organizations that provide child welfare, foster care, juvenile justice and youth behavioral health services.

The proposal is being pitched as a solution to the state’s ballooning homelessness crisis, but experts doubt it will make any kind of meaningful dent. No one has published bill language for the proposal, but Newsom unveiled two major changes during his March state-of-the-state tour:

• Divert 30% of existing Mental Health Services Act money toward housing people living on the streets who are severely mentally ill;

• Use a bond measure to generate between $3 billion and $5 billion for 6,000 residential psychiatric treatment beds.

Voters passed the Mental Health Services Act nearly two decades ago as a ballot initiative that levied a 1% tax on state millionaires to fund local mental health programs. Substantial changes to the act are subject to voter approval because it originally passed as a ballot measure in 2004.

The proposal aims to reprioritize a significant portion of the state’s existing behavioral health system to focus on what Newsom characterized as the state’s “most acute challenge,” which is the number of homeless people with mental illness and substance use disorders. Only about 20% of California’s approximately 172,000 homeless people have a severe mental illness, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but the issue plays an outsized role in state politics.

“It’s unacceptable what we’re dealing with at scale now in the state of California,” Newsom said. “We have to address and come to grips with the reality of mental health in this state and our nation.”

Newsom, who made reducing homelessness a key part of his gubernatorial campaign in 2018, is contending with the reality of homelessness increasing by nearly 32% in the past four years. Though he has called out counties for not acting aggressively enough and dedicated nearly $10 billion to address the problem, he has also faced harsh bi-partisan criticism for what many view as a political stunt in threatening to withhold money from counties and failing to significantly increase the state’s housing stock.

Newsom’s proposal is backed by several lawmakers, including former Assemblymember and current Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who co-authored the original act, and Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat from Stockton who co-authored the CARE Court legislation and who has staked the remainder of her term on advancing mental health changes.

Those who do the on-the-ground mental health work in the state, however, say they have major concerns about such a large system shake-up. The focus on housing and the need for more behavioral health treatment beds is welcome, Stoner-Mertz said, but shouldn’t detract from the current workforce crisis and other problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One-third is a big chunk of money,” Stoner-Mertz said. “The question in our minds is what is the approach and process to solving some of these problems. We would welcome greater partnership around that.”

What the mental health funding proposal would change

On Wednesday, state officials revealed new details about the proposal. It changes the categories counties would be required to invest in, focusing most of the money on homeless adults. Counties would be required to spend 30%, or roughly $1 billion annually, of their Mental Health Services Act dollars on housing homeless people with serious mental illness or drug addiction. They would also direct 35% of the funds to full-service partnerships for these individuals, which include clinical treatment and social supports co-designed by the client and the program.

The remaining 35% could be used for a combination of existing programs like mental health prevention and early intervention, infrastructure and workforce investments, although officials made it clear that workforce would be a priority. Innovation grants that have historically been part of the program do not have any dedicated funds. The proposal also opens the door to using the money for people who struggle with addiction but don’t have additional mental health needs.

In contrast, current regulations give counties broad flexibility in using the money. A minimum of 38% must be spent on full-service partnerships, although counties can spend up to 70% on these services. (Full-service partnerships are intensive wraparound services designed to do “whatever it takes” to meet the client’s long-term needs. They can include things like 24/7 case management, clinical treatment, and housing.) About 19% is reserved for prevention and early intervention programs, much of which focuses on children, and 5% for innovation. Some counties choose to use a portion of the funds for workforce and infrastructure needs.

There are some concerns about whether counties have historically met minimum spending requirements, particularly for full-service partnerships, but there’s no question that the money has become an integral part of the state’s behavioral health system, making up nearly one-third of all spending. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion. Newsom’s proposal introduces standardized accountability measures and reduces the amount of money counties are allowed to keep in reserves.

In addition, language will be placed on the 2024 ballot asking for a general obligation bond to pay for 6,000 psychiatric and substance abuse treatment beds. These beds would serve approximately 10,000 people annually, according to a fact sheet from Newsom’s office, by providing long-term residential treatment. An undetermined portion of the bond funds would be used to house homeless veterans.

For many mental health organizations, the bond to increase residential care capacity is much easier to swallow than prescriptive changes to how mental health dollars are spent. The state faces a shortage of more than 7,700 adult psychiatric beds, according to a 2021 RAND reportcommissioned by the County Behavioral Health Directors Association.

“We really appreciate the administration looking at the report that we did, and the focus on building out infrastructure is wonderful,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association. “But we continue to need the same kind of focus on workforce and funding for services ongoing.”

At the same time that Newsom is advancing this proposal, his January budget delays $1.1 billion in other behavioral health investments over the next two years, including money intended to increase treatment capacity for adults and kids in crisis, and money for workforce development.

What are the primary concerns?

There’s no telling how exactly existing mental health priorities will get reallocated, but cuts are nearly inevitable given how heavily counties rely on the dollars. The money is “braided into the fabric of all things in our safety net,” Doty Cabrera said.

But some of the most pressing questions come from those who work with children and families. Currently, at least half of the money earmarked for prevention and early intervention must be used for children and young adults.

“This is the only protection from our perspective that is actually going to keep a focus on young people and keep a focus on more upstream services,” said Adrienne Shilton, director of public policy for the nonprofit California Alliance of Child and Family Services.

That money is potentially on the chopping block under the new proposal, as are innovation grants that have catalyzed multi-county programs to improve services for communities of color and LGBTQ folks.

Historically, Medi-Cal — the state’s public health insurance program for extremely low-income residents — has not covered behavioral health prevention programs, which is where the Mental Health Services Act becomes important. The money was intended to allow counties the greatest amount of flexibility in meeting local needs, particularly when other funding streams came with restrictions, said Toby Ewing, executive director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.

“It is designed to be a counterpoint to historic restrictions that were in place for Medi-Cal,” Ewing said.

At the same time that the money gives counties the ability to provide services beyond Medi-Cal, they also use qualifying program expenses to draw down matching Medi-Cal federal funds, effectively expanding local mental health programs. Collectively, counties use about half of the money on services that qualify for matching federal dollars, Doty Cabrera said.

With about $1 billion earmarked for housing, which the federal government will not pay for, the mental health system may face between $500 million and $1 billion in lost federal revenue, Shilton said, if Newsom’s proposal is approved.

Dr. Mark Ghaly, state secretary for Health and Human Services, disagrees with the assumption that these changes mean cuts will happen. The administration’s team has heard the same concerns in stakeholder meetings following the announcement and will work with counties “to try to maintain as much as we possibly can with them,” Ghaly said.

“There is no reason why we won’t be able to do a lot on the prevention and early intervention side,” Ghaly said.

He also notes that this proposal can’t be considered alone. It is part of a larger strategy to improve mental health services in the state, which includes sweeping changes to Medi-Cal, a children’s behavioral health initiative and investments in crisis response. One piece of the puzzle seeks permission from the federal government to use Medi-Cal dollars on housing, which would allow counties to still draw down a significant portion of matching funds.

“All of these things come together, build on each other, and I would like to say catalyze one another to promote the transformation,” Ghaly said. “This is, in my mind, government doing well.”

Will this help homelessness? Not really.

The proposal has been couched as a solution to California’s explosive homelessness problem, which consistently tops the list of voter issues.

“We’re fooling ourselves that if we don’t address that fundamental need that we can turn this thing around,” Newsom said during his press conference, backed by more than a half dozen officials who detailed homeless issues from state, county, city and personal perspectives.

But the public perception that California’s homelessness crisis is caused by psychiatric emergencies and drug addiction is a false one. Rather, decades of politicians upholding restrictive zoning laws and obstructive environmental policies have pushed California to the bottom of affordable housing rankings and are the primary drivers of homelessness in the state. Other factors, like changes to the state’s criminal justice system, also contribute. Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UC San Francisco Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, said no amount of spending on mental health will improve the state’s overall homelessness problem.

Still, she and other medical professionals who work primarily with unhoused people say the most vulnerable people on the streets are those with untreated mental illness, and prioritizing housing is the most important thing the state can do for that population’s physical and mental health. People living without shelter also face dismal health outcomes, and discharging a patient back to the street is a recipe for swift deterioration.

Even local and county behavioral health groups that have raised concerns about the proposal acknowledge the need for more housing for their clients, but they fear an inversion of the current problem — housing without services — will result.

“My concern is robbing Peter to pay Paul,” said Debbie Manners, president and CEO of Sycamores, a Los Angeles behavioral health and child welfare agency. Sycamores serves about 500 children and families daily through its school-based mental health program. Two years ago the state allocated $4.4 billion to a Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative, but it’s a one-time investment.

“I’m not sure how that will fill in the gap. I don’t think it will fill the gap,” Manners said.

Unfortunately, limited funding is the reality of this year’s budget cycle, with the Legislative Analyst’s Office projecting a $24 billion deficit.

“You don’t want to pit one need for money against another, and I get that,” Kushel said. “On the other hand, it isn’t really possible to serve this population without their having housing.”

THE WAR ON WOKE

Editor:

What a choice, Mike Pence or Ron DeSantis for president. It’s like choosing between being burned at the stake or drawn and quartered. Pence never spoke out about Donald Trump’s outrages, except the once when he knew he couldn’t get away with it legally. DeSantis has nothing to offer but a fundamentalist religious view of morality when it comes to a woman’s body and what shouldn’t be taught in schools, all wrapped up in an obnoxious and bullying temperament.

Then there’s Trump, leading these wannabes and his followers in the great war against woke. And what is woke? In plain parlance it means awakened, as in eyes wide open, senses alerted, mind ready to listen and judge, open for possibility to learn. This is what the political right hates, fears and wants to shut down. Of course, it is these good folk who want to tell you what to think, how to act, what to believe and above all not to question. It is the opposite of intelligence and seeking your own answers.

To the right wing, woke means doing away with civil rights, human rights, integration, equity and diversity. We’ve seen this before, and now we must confront it again. This is the war on woke and it’s no joke.

Will Shonbrun

Sonoma

I WILL NOT be a common man because it is my right to be an uncommon man. I will stir the smooth sands of monotony.

— Peter O’Toole

“I dream of painting and then I paint my dream” — Vincent van Gogh, *Spring Blossom*, Arles, 1888-9

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 4TH APRIL

Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, doubling the military alliance’s border with Russia in a blow to President Vladimir Putin amid his invasion of Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the stakes for cooperation between Washington and the European Union “cannot be higher,” as the war tests diplomatic ties for Western leaders.

A hearing for a woman detained in connection with an explosion that killed a prominent Russian military blogger at a cafe in St. Petersburg is taking place Tuesday in Moscow.

The US is preparing to officially declareWall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich as wrongfully detained in Russia, which will trigger government resources to work towards his release, according to two US officials.

US President Joe Biden’s administration announced an additional package of military aid to Ukraine totaling $2.6 billion on Tuesday.

The package includes $500 million in drawdown equipment, such as ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and additional munitions for the Patriot missile system, artillery and mortar rounds, heavy fuel tankers, and tactical recovery vehicles. It is the 35th drawdown of US equipment for Ukraine since August 2021.

The administration is also allocating $2.1 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, which intend to produce a “significant package of air defense capabilities” including air surveillance radars and counter-unmanned aerial system 30mm gun trucks, as well as Javelin anti-armor systems and 23 million rounds of small arms munition.

The Pentagon’s release announcing the aid on Tuesday reiterated that the US would continue to work with its allies to “provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its immediate battlefield needs and longer-term security assistance requirements.”

“BY THE TIME you reached 12 rur de l'Odeon your hunger was contained but all of your perceptions were heightened again. The photographs looked different and you saw books that you had never seen before.

Sylvia Beach and Ernest Hemingway in Paris, at Shakespeare and Company

‘You’re too thin, Hemingway,’ Sylvia would say. ‘Are you eating enough?’

‘Sure.’

‘What did you eat for lunch?’

My stomach would turn over and I would say, ‘I am going home for lunch now.’

‘At three o’ clock?’

‘I didn’t know it was that late.’

‘Adrienne said the other night she wanted to have you and Hadley for dinner. We'd ask Fargue. You like Fargue, don’t you? Or Larbaud. You like him. I know you like him. Or any one you really like. Will you speak to Hadley?’

‘I know she‘d love to come’.”

-- Hunger Was Good Discipline

A Moveable Feast,

Ernest Hemingway

A conversation of two legends who created the Paris of 1920s and made it eternal!

And that hunger of a young man in Paris always takes him a long way at least to them who possess dreams.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK -against- DONALD J. TRUMP, Defendant.

THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SECOND COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 842457, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRD COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 842460, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

FOURTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Account check and check stub dated February 14, 2017, bearing check number 000138, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

FIFTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about March 16, 2017 through March 17, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 16, 2017 and transmitted on or about March 16, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SIXTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about March 17, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, bearing voucher number 846907, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SEVENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about March 17, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust Account check and check stub dated March 17, 2017, bearing check number 000147, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

EIGHTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about April 13, 2017 through June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated April 13, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

NINTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 858770, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated June 19, 2017, bearing check number 002740, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

ELEVENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about May 22, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated May 22, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWELFTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about May 22, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 855331, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about May 23, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated May 23, 2017, bearing check number 002700, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

FOURTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about June 16, 2017 through June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated June 16, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

FIFTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 858772, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SIXTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about June 19, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated June 19, 2017, bearing check number 002741, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

SEVENTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about July 11, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated July 11, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

EIGHTEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows: The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about July 11, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 861096, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

NINETEENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about July 11, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated July 11, 2017, bearing check number 002781, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTIETH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about August 1, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated August 1, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-FIRST COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about August 1, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 863641, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-SECOND COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about August 1, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated August 1, 2017, bearing check number 002821, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-THIRD COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about September 11, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated September 11, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-FOURTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about September 11, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 868174, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-FIFTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about September 12, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated September 12, 2017, bearing check number 002908, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-SIXTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about October 18, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated October 18, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-SEVENTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about October 18, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 872654, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-EIGHTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about October 18, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated October 18, 2017, bearing check number 002944, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

TWENTY-NINTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about November 20, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated November 20, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTIETH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about November 20, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 876511, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTY-FIRST COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about November 21, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated November 21, 2017, bearing check number 002980, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTY-SECOND COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about December 1, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated December 1, 2017, marked as a record of Donald J. Trump, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTY-THIRD COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about December 1, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an entry in the Detail General Ledger for Donald J. Trump, bearing voucher number 877785, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

THIRTY-FOURTH COUNT:
AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows: The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about December 5, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, a Donald J. Trump account check and check stub dated December 5, 2017, bearing check number 003006, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. District Attorney GJ #8-5

The People Of The State Of New York -Against- Donald J. Trump, Defendant.

Indictment Falsifying Business Records In The First Degree, P.L. §175.10, 34 Counts.

Alvin L. Bragg Jr., District Attorney A True Bill

9 Comments

Marmon April 5, 2023

RE: TRUMPED UP CHARGES

Bragg reportedly is having second thoughts on yesterday’s arrest. His staffers are saying he knows he’s in hot water for prosecutorial misconduct and could spend 1 to 5 years locked up.

Marmon

- Bruce Anderson April 5, 2023
  
  Wishful, wistful, fantasy-think, Jimbo.
  
Marmon April 5, 2023

RE: NPR PROPAGANDA

Elon Musk has directed Twitter to label National Public Radio (NPR) as “state-affiliated media,” a designation previously reserved for media outlets in autocratic countries such as China and Russia.

“State-affiliated media is defined as outlets where the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution,” read a memo Musk circulated announcing the decision, adding “Seems accurate.”

https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/breaking-twitter-slaps-npr-with-state-affiliated-media-label-mstef/?utm_source=proude&utm_medium=twitter

Marmon

- Eric Sunswheat April 5, 2023
  
  —>. December 28, 2022
  “While other billionaires’ media empires are relatively well known, the extent to which [Microsoft co-founder Bill] Gates’ cash underwrites the modern media landscape is not,” Alan MacLeod wrote for MintPress News in November 2021.
  
  MacLeod examined more than 30,000 individual grants awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and found the foundation had donated “more than $319 million to fund news outlets, journalism centers and training programs, press associations and specific media campaigns, raising questions about conflicts of interest and journalistic independence,” Project Censored summarized.
  
  “Today, it is possible for an individual to train as a reporter thanks to a Gates Foundation Grant, find work at a Gates-funded outlet and to belong to a press association funded by Gates,” MacLeod wrote.
  
  “Recipients of this cash include many of America’s most important news outlets, including CNN, NBC, NPR, PBS and The Atlantic…
  
  “[T]here are clear shortcomings with this non-exhaustive list, meaning the true figure is undoubtedly far higher. First, it does not count sub-grants—money given by recipients to media around the world,” because there’s no record of them, MacLeod reported.
  
  “For a tax-privileged charity that so very often trumpets the importance of transparency, it’s remarkable how intensely secretive the Gates Foundation is about its financial flows,” Tim Schwab, one of the few investigative journalists whose reporting has scrutinized the tech billionaire, told MintPress…
  
  “No major corporate news outlets appear to have covered this issue,” only a scattering of independent outlets, Project Censored noted. This despite the fact that “As far back as 2011, the Seattle Times published an article investigating how the Gates Foundation’s ‘growing support of media organizations blurs the line between journalism and advocacy.'”
  https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/media-bias-and-the-most-censored-news-stories-of-2022-part-two/Content?oid=19370598
  
Lee Edmundson April 5, 2023

Bragg’s indictment consists of 34 counts of Falsifying Business Records. Tenuously tied to a Federal connection somehow in thus far untested legal waters.

This indictment — in my humble opinion — is unwise, and should never have been forwarded, as Bragg’s predecessor determined.

Thus far, the strongest case against Trump is in Georgia, where he recorded interfering with the 2020 election results. His criminality is all on tape!

This New York trial isn’t scheduled for hearing again until December. This is the beginning of April. Go figure.

I’ll leave it to the criminal justice system to deal with Mr. Trump. In the meantime… Basta!

- Bruce Anderson April 5, 2023
  
  Yep. They’ve got him cold in Georgia and I’d add inciting a riot on Jan 6th, although that would be hard to charge as a felony since his Magas were already there and lots of them were probably going to riot with or without El Blimpo.
  
Cotdbigun April 5, 2023

” Vedic Chant”
I noticed that tap, tap, tapping away on computer # 4 is far superior to the tap, tap, tapping away on computer #5. I remember the fascinating prose a couple weeks ago on computer #3, please repost. If I recall correctly it was related to a post or pre modern relining of free abolution on a bus.

Grapes April 5, 2023

Gripes

Will my Vedic brother consider a banana, instead?

Craig Stehr April 5, 2023

Warmest spiritual greetings from computer #5 at the Ukiah Public Library. Following the usual morning of ablutions at the homeless shelter, a free sumptuous brunch at Plowshares, and an MTA bus ride, am right here right now, fully woke to the fact that I am not this body, and I am not this mind, and I am the Immortal Atman. The body-mind complex is only the instrument for the higher will. Let us all indraw the mind and anchor it in the heart chakra. Chant OM, and regularly listen to the vedic mantrams available on You Tube. Just take care of what is within; woke that what is without is, well, without. Remember always: the real you is not affected by anything at all. You are free. ~Peaceout~
Craig Louis Stehr
1045 South State Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
Telephone messages: (707) 234-3270
Send money for eco-revolution here: Paypal.me/craiglouisstehr
Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com
5.IV.’23

Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, April 5, 2023

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