Mendocino County Today: Thursday, April 6, 2023

Evening Rain | Red Dawn | Elementary Update | Otter Talk | Benefit Deadline | Skunk Conductor | Training Towers | Blufflands Trail | Eye Clinic | Ed Notes | Crane Photos | Gloriana Showcase | GJ Invitation | Fortunate Partner | Guest Artist | Estuary Walk | Hire Tyson | Yesterday's Catch | Fully Woke | Going Electric | Ham Sandwich | Well Wishers | Public Schools | Snowbank | Tax Whistleblowers | Indictment Scorecard | Hunger Cliff | Support Group | Time Goes | Greasy Street | Twitter Labels | Carefully Selected | Intense Awe | Another World | Ukraine | New People | Public Executions | Fat Lady | Police Work | Good Doctor | Pagan Babies | Major Kong

A FRONT WILL CROSS the area today, bringing gusty south winds of 40 to 50 mph to high coastal ridges and around Crescent City. Consistent moderate rain will move in this evening with 0.5 to 2.5 inches around the area, with high precipitation amounts restricted to high coastal ridges. Moist weather will persist into the weekend, though much warmer conditions are highly likely for the interior on Easter Sunday. (NWS)

ANDERSON VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UPDATE

by Cymbre Thomas-Swett, Principal

A few updates for the week!

Important Upcoming Events:

Student of the Month Assembly is on Friday @ 12:45 - weather permitting!

Spring Break is coming! There is no school from April 10 - 14. We wish everyone a restful week off.

6th Graders & families:

Please begin bringing the items you will need for the Gold Trip on Monday April 17th. All items must be at school by Wednesday, April 19 in the afternoon so the bus can be loaded the night before. This includes any things parent chaperones are bringing as well.

Parent Panther Squad:

Any parent who would like to join the Panther Squad to come increase engagement on campus during recess times - now is the time to sign up!

All volunteers must complete the Panther Squad requirements:

Up to date TB test and 

Fingerprinting (the district will pay you back for the cost)

Sign a confidentiality agreement

Attend a Panther Squad training session at either AVES or AVHS

Panther Squad Parent Training dates at AVES: April 19 @ 5:30pm or April 26 @ 4pm (before Open House).

Summer School:

Registration is open for all students for Summer School! Look in yellow folders for the paperwork. When you register your child we need to know: if your child is attending the academic day or the academic day + ASP and the transportation plan for your child. Call the office if you need a new copy.

ASP Pick Up:

If you are picking up your child from ASP please come all the way to the green benches or into the building to sign your child out. We don’t want students walking into the parking lot without an adult.

Kindergarten & TK registration is open! Ask the office for a registration packet. Preschool registration is May 31st.

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.

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: Mendocino County BOS allocated PG&E settlement funds to construct firefighter training towers throughout the county. I'm ecstatic to see the Fort Bragg unit reaching completion. Special thanks to Chief Steve Orsi for taking it from a funded plan to implementation. The towers should bolster training for firefighters throughout the county.

TUESDAY TRAILDAY

The Navarro Blufflands Trail is a hidden gem on the Mendocino Coast. This coastal access trail offers stunning views from atop a high bluff to the rocky islands offshore, as well as a solitary experience. It travels west along a private property line and along a bishop pine windbreak to a steep bluff edge, where cliffs plunge into the sea. At low tide, you can see sea lions and harbor seals pulled out onto the offshore rocks below. The trail ends at a lush riparian area. This trail is on a public access easement on private property, required as a condition of a Coastal Commission permit. 

The Navarro Blufflands Trail is located just north of Mendocino Land Trust’s Navarro Point Preserve and travels 0.5 miles west of Highway One to the bluff. Look for mile marker 42.5 on Highway One, and park at the north end of the large Caltrans pullout. The trail can be difficult to find, but if you look for the brown “Coastal Access” signs that lead to the pullout just south of the trailhead, and see the map for more details, you should have no trouble locating this sweet trail.

For more information, check out our handy-dandy trail guide here: mendocinolandtrust.org/trail-guide/

ED NOTES

NICK DAVILA, last heard from when he was arrested for beating up a previous girlfriend, and has since jumped bail on that one, again distinguished himself during the recent big snows, abandoning his new girlfriend and her mother at their snowbound Spy Rock home. “Going to get help, ladies. Be back in a jiff.” Tabitha Herbschmitt and her mom were subsequently rescued by the Sheriff's Department, but Tabitha's ardor for Lover Boy seems undiminished as the couple now resides at Ten Mile. Davila is not only one of the more dangerous persons roaming the North County, he also seems to be the most sexually ambidextrous, having starred in gay porn films prior to his violent relationships with a series of unfortunate women. An all-purpose menace, Davila is said to be supporting himself by dealing fentanyl. Outback people who've encountered Davila consider him a 10 on a danger scale of 1-10. We've got to assume the guy is a high priority with the Sheriff's Department.

BACK IN EARLY JANUARY, I WROTE, Terrible Story out of Laytonville concerns a sordid parasite called Nick Davila, a drug salesman and performer in gay porn films.

Davila, 30, has lived in the Laytonville-Leggett area for a few years where he had managed to ingratiate himself with a young woman named Janelle Quinn, whose modest resources he looted as he steadily mistreated and robbed her before he severely beat the young woman into the hospital. She has since been retrieved by her family. Prior to Davila's assault on her, Janelle had been seriously disabled in a car accident, meaning he should be looking at a double felony for assaulting a handicapped person. The charming Davila has now threatened to kill his victim. 

JANELLE'S FATHER, Terry Quinn, has forwarded the following:

Janelle Quinn’s Accident & Assault

by Terry W Quinn

Nicholas Davila Fraud and Assault Charges against permanently disabled and defenseless ex-girlfriend Janelle Quinn.

Financial fraud charges, case #22-29199, Deputy Ochoa

Assault and battery charges, case #22-27562 Deputy Mendoza

We are in fear for her safety. He has threatened to kill her.

Janelle Quinn was in a near fatal car accident 7-14-2020

-She was in a coma and on life support for 12 days in the hospital over the period from July 14, 2020 to November 6, 2020

-She suffered 5 strokes, 

-Acute trauma to the body and brain,

-Severe memory loss, 

-Lost her spleen,

-Multiple broken bones and a fractured pelvis, 

-Permanent stroke related paralysis to her right side.

Janelle has dated Nicholas Davila since 2018. They are no longer together. He’s a convicted felon, a known drug user and distributor. This assault photo attached is typical of his frequent and violent rage. He is much more violent when he is under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Janelle’s jaw injuries are from Christmas Day 2022. She simply wanted to leave with her belongings.

We found out that Nicholas Davila has several aliases. Jimmy Coxx, Jimmy Clay…

These are his porn star names. Google him. (Ed note: On second thought, don’t. It’s not what most people want to see.) 

We also recently found out he was a former male prostitute under these names. Mr. Davila is well known in the Laytonville area as a convicted felon. It is also known that has been accused of many crimes including theft, breaking and entering, drug possession and distribution along with assault and battery, and weapons charges.

 He used Janelle’s identity to open Cash App, Facebook Pay and various financial accounts without her knowledge or consent. He also transferred Janelle’s funds from her personal bank account to these cash app accounts and used these funds at his own discretion without Janelle’s knowledge or permission. He has taken her debit card and her vehicle many times without her knowledge. Transported drugs, left drugs, paraphernalia and loaded weapons in her car and put her in harms' way many times.

The American with Disabilities Act prevents him from harming her in any way. All ADA and civil rights groups will be alerted. This will be forwarded to all law enforcement, the California state attorney general’s office and various women’s civil rights advocacy groups. Mendocino Supervisor Ted Williams has been alerted to this case and the Crimes committed against our daughter.

Mr. Davila will have to answer for mental, emotional, physical, and financial harm to our disabled and defenseless daughter, Janelle Diane Quinn.

We took Janelle to the Mendocino County Sheriff to file assault charges against Mr. Davila on Friday December 27. The photo is from the Ukiah Sheriff Station. Fearing for her safety and ours, we brought her to her home in Palmdale CA. The same day.

The attached 2020 photos are after she woke up from her 12 day Coma. The blunt force trauma caused her 5 strokes and permanent memory loss and brain damage. Janelle is unable to make common or important decisions for herself to this day. We are preparing a Power of Attorney on her behalf to help her and Conservatorship.

Again, We are in fear that Janelle is in imminent danger of attack from her ex-boyfriend Nicholas Davila. We fear for her safety. 

(Terry Quinn, Palmdale)

* * *

MET A FRIEND for an early lunch in Mendocino, a $35 lunch consisting of one simple entree, one cup of coffee, one muffin. I ask you…

TRUMP, PREDICTIONS from Boonville's global affairs desk. The recent charges won't go anywhere, just one more attempt to slay the beast begun by Democrats the day the beast announced for president. I think, though, that Trump is definitely gettable in Georgia where he tried to pervert that state's electoral system, and he might be gettable for inciting a riot on January 6. He's already viewed by his Magas as more of a martyr than Jesus Christ, the question being if there are enough Magas to propel their god back into the White House. Maybe. If Trump can beat back DeSantis, and the Democrats again foist off the ghostly, cadaverous figure of Joe Biden, Trump's got a shot at presidential reincarnation. However all this turns out, it's not going to turn out well for US.

AMERICA MAY BE devolving into low intensity civil war, but it's gratifying to see ava readers — easily the most literate, best looking newspaper demographic in these disunited states, writing to us with their reading lists. Michael Coad recommends:

‘Miles’, autobiography of the bad man of jazz, Miles Davis. (1989)

‘Simple Justice: The History of Brown v Board of Education and Black America’s Struggle for Equality, by Richard Kluger. (2004)

‘This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History’, by T.R. Ferenbach (1963) - still taught at West Point.

‘Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of WW2’, by Keith Lowe (2012).

Raymond Chandler’s final four novels, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye, Playback. Everyman edition (2002).

‘Arlott on Cricket: His Writings on the Game’, ed. by David Rayvern Allen (1985). A better game than baseball.

‘Grant’, by Ron Chernow (2018).

‘Wolf Hall’, by Hilary Mantel.

‘Shame the Devil’, by George Pellecanos, the best kept secret in crime fiction.

Last, and certainly least, ‘Spare’, by Prince Harry. Poor lad, abandoned by his Royal Family with only £100 million in the bank and a 5-bedroom cottage. Spare me.

From Michael Coad, Willits. (I purchase the AVA at Mariposa Marketplace.)

I'VE GOT TO ASSUME that someone has lead command during these massive local police turnouts.

“Law enforcement officers from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, CHP, State Parks, and Fish & Wildlife arrived and began deploying out in search teams, doing a room by room search assisted by school administrators. Additional resources of multiple ambulances from Adventist Health, Fort Bragg Fire Department, and Fort Bragg Public Works responded to the scene. Multiple air ambulances had been called and six US Coast Guard rescue helicopters were diverted to Fort Bragg should they be needed. The school was thoroughly searched and cleared.”

WOW! Turned out to be a hoax that was national in scope, but it sure scared hell out of everybody except, ahem, the unflappable management of the Boonville schools whose steady admin immediately figured out they were being scammed.

THE ANGELS third baseman, Anthony Rendon, was recently suspended for five games by Major League Baseball after video of a physical altercation with a fan in Oakland went viral. He was also fined. The Angels slugger was recorded grabbing a fan by his shirt at Oakland’s Coliseum ballpark after losing the season opener, 2-1, to the Athletics when the fan, Rendon says, called him a “bitch.” Rendon could have ignored the moron, of course, but he didn't.

HOWSOMEVER, LET THE RECORD SHOW that the Boonville weekly is all the way in support of Rendon. Too many sports fans seem to think because they paid their way in they can scream obscenities at opposing teams. Giant's fan behavior at the old Candlestick bordered on frightening, and spoiled the game for many people who brought their kids to the ballpark. I was very happy to see the management at the new park at 3rd and Townsend refusing to tolerate boorish behavior of any type, from drunks to the idiots who shout out obscenities. Used to be at Candlestick, especially in the leftfield bleachers, young guys showed up just to fight, and the air was blue in every area of the ballpark.

RITA CRANE wrote:

Despite the wild ride that is national and world politics, it's true, I still brake for beauty…..!  ;0)

These days I'm working on a show to hang at a winery in Anderson Valley where I've exhibited and sold matted and framed photos for years. Attached is the selection I'll be delivering to the winery on Thursday.

These images are luminous and colorful since I only bother taking pictures if they have a visually aesthetic future as prints:  when the light and conditions are right, in other words.  The most difficult image to produce was the sheep grazing.  It was dusk and the light was very blue, but with grey notes.  I did my best to re-create the peaceful, bucolic mood.

The last many years of drought have meant vineyards sadly turned brown as the leaves withered in the dry heat! These photos were taken around ten or more years ago, when we had plentiful rain and spectacular fall color. They were made for the tourist magazine Mendocino Traveler's Guide. Due to Covid, unfortunately the magazine stopped publication.  But now these images will get a place on a wall at a Scharffenberger Cellars near Boonville.

The manager there asked for typical Anderson Valley scenes: vineyards, sheep, and barns, so that's what I pulled together for him.

Now back to protecting democracy, civil, and human rights!  :0)

— Rita Crane Photography; P.O. Box 91 Albion, CA 95410; www.ritacranestudio.com

GRAND JURY INVITATION

“All qualified citizens interested in serving on the 2023/2024 Mendocino County Civil Grand Jury are invited to submit their applications to the Superior Court for consideration,” announced the Honorable Jeanine B. Nadel, Presiding Judge of the Civil Grand Jury. The deadline for application submission is Friday, May 31, 2023. 2023/2024 Grand Jury will be sworn in at the end of June 2023. 

Service on the Civil Grand Jury is an excellent opportunity to learn about the inner workings of government while providing a valuable service to the community. The 19 members of the Civil Grand Jury serve for one year and are empowered to investigate the operations of county, city, and district governments; provide civil oversight of local government departments and agencies; and respond to citizen complaints. The Civil Grand Jury sets its own agenda and meeting schedule. Much of the work is performed in small committees allowing for considerable flexibility in the work schedule and meeting locations. 

To attract more residents from the geographically distant regions of Mendocino County, the Civil Grand Jury is making it possible for interested members of the public to participate in a safe environment. The Civil Grand Jury has implemented remote meeting protocols to maximize participation while reducing the demand for travel. 

Grand Jurors are compensated $25 per full panel meeting, $10 per committee meeting and committee attendance at public meetings. Mileage is reimbursed at the current County of Mendocino rate. There is free onsite parking. Prior to being nominated, each qualifying applicant is interviewed by a Superior Court judge. Training for Grand Jurors will be provided in early July 2023 either remotely or in the County offices. 

To serve as a Civil Grand Juror, the following requirements must be met: 

• At least 18 years of age 

• United States citizen 

• Resident of Mendocino County for at least one year 

• Sufficiently fluent in written and spoken English 

• Not currently serving on any other governmental board or commission during the term

• Not presently holding a public office 

• Not personally active in any campaign of a candidate for elective office 

• Computer skills highly desirable 

Applications and related information are available on the Internet at: Grand Jury (ca.gov). The application may also be obtained in person at the Superior Court, 100 North State Street, Rm. 303, Ukiah or by calling the Grand Jury at (707) 463-4320. 

For more information contact: 

Chelsea Leher, Administrative Technician 

Superior Court of California, County of Mendocino 

100 N. State Street, Room 303 

Ukiah, CA 954825 

* * *

ED NOTE: Historically considered, Mendo's grand juries, once led by Jim Jones, yes, that Jim Jones, have often done public services by pointing up this or that civic dysfunction, only to be ignored by the criticized local bureaucracy. Don't expect our supine Superior Court, or our disinterested DA, to put indictment muscle behind Grand Jury findings. As is typical of official Mendocino County, the Grand Jury is merely one more Potemkin exercise.

BCORP MOMENT! We are proud to partner with Fortunate Farm just down the road in Caspar, CA. In addition to growing nutrient-dense, organic food, together we work to sequester carbon and build beautiful soil through reusing our spent grain as compost.

Learn more about our commitment to sustainability: https://loom.ly/shcHHr4

GUEST ARTIST, TOOBA IMRAN 

Star of ‘Paradise’ 

Mendocino Theatre Company is thrilled to welcome a brilliant new actor to Mendocino and the MTC stage. 

Tooba Imran, who portrays Yasmeen Al Hamadi in MTC’s upcoming production of Paradise by Laura Maria Censabella, was born in Pakistan where she lived until age 17 when her family established permanent residence in New Jersey, USA. After graduating from Rutgers University, Tooba moved westward to work as a television and film actress in the Los Angeles area. Last year she married Abdallah Saeed and relocated to Silver Spring Maryland where Abdallah runs a family owned business and Tooba is employed as an HR specialist at Amazon. 

Tooba's love for acting was born on the stage of her 2nd grade play “George and the Giant Peach”. What was then a dream became her passion when she enrolled in the Terry Knickerbocker acting studio (NY) and graduated from their 2-year Meisner conservatory program in 2021. She later kept up her training through recurring scene study classes at The Berg Studio in LA, CA. When not acting or watching good TV/film/theater - you will find Tooba with her two sweet cats - Al and Jammy - or launching a new clothing line. 

Tooba's purpose is not only to fulfill her love of acting but also to increase Muslim representation on stage and screen and utilize the power of story telling to change the negative portrayals of Muslim Americans on media. “I love that this play (Paradise) shows that religion and culture are two separate entities.” 

Real representation will be here when Muslim characters and stories can be more than just overtly good or bad. It will be complex and messy and unpredictable, and for that we need more Muslim writers and creatives, and certainly more women who have greater creative autonomy. “ I love that this play shows that religion and culture are two separate entities.” 

“We all know the power of film; we all know there's almost nothing more powerful than to see people on film that look and talk like you, like we do.” — Mira Nair 

Audiences can see Tooba perform in Paradise any Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday between April 27 and May 28 at Mendocino Theatre Company, 45200 Little Lake Street, Mendocino, CA. For more information about the play and to buy tickets, please call 707-937-4477 or go to Mendocinotheatre.org. 

HAVE YOU TRIED THE HIKE TO THE GLEN YET?

Try our new hiking trail along the Pudding Creek Estuary with an exclusive guided walking tour to The Glen. Enjoy the splendor of this magnificent 3.5 mile stretch, where osprey, blue herons, ducks, geese, deer, and other wildlife make their homes beneath the majestic coastal redwoods.

Our seasoned guides will lead you along this meticulously maintained trail, pointing out notable natural landmarks as you make your way to our pavilion at The Glen.

Once at The Glen, enjoy a picnic lunch and additional sights and trails before boarding the Pudding Creek Express for a train ride back to the station.

Check out our website (link in bio) to learn more about this adventure and other offerings for your next Skunk Train experience.

Great shot by @alliarayne

JON TYSON:

Hello Friends! My name is Jon Tyson. I moved to Anderson Valley in January of 2022.

I am offering IT and Music services/skills, for hire *or* for trade. All serious offers will be considered.

I have 30 years of experience building software systems, and along the way, I have learned a small ton about:

* Applications: Excel/spreadsheets, word processing, email, QuickBooks, Photoshop

* Software: designing & building software systems

* Hardware: computers, phones, physical & virtual servers

* Networks: internet, home, office

I am a musician, involved in the projects below, which are all active and performing in Mendo and the broader Bay Area:

* Live Band Karaoke SF: your guests become the lead singer of our fun & friendly band (electric or acoustic)

* What the Folk: acoustic duet, playing a mix of covers and originals

* Stakes Are Low: acoustic quartet; fun, upbeat, interesting covers with 4 lead singers

* Cancel Your Memberships: acoustic quartet; playing the second favorite songs from your third favorite bands

* Jeff Moss and the Cruise Control: electric rock band with dueling guitars and horns; all locals party band

* Burning Down the House: Talking Heads Tribute

* Audio Gear & Audio Engineering: gear and experience to amplify your event

Examples of past trades:

* Help with creating electronic invoices for a small business, in return for construction assistance

* Music for wine event, in return for dinner, lodging, and wine

Examples of skills I'm interested in:

* Carpentry

* Handy-person Skills

* Mowing/Weed Whacking

* House Cleaning

* And many more!

Reach out to me here, via Direct Message, if you are interested; let me know what you need and perhaps what you would offer in return. Let's see if we can help each other out.

(ED NOTE: Another facebook post without contact info. The AVA has no idea how to reach Mr. Tyson. Interested persons can check out his Facebook page.)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, April 5, 2023

RENE CABADA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, probation revocation.

DARIN CRUMRINE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JULIO DEVILLAR-ACEVEDO, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

CHRISTOPHER FRASER, Lakeport/Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, resisting.

ERIC GARCIA, Redwood Valley. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

JOHNNIE RADFORD JR, Oakland/Willits. Paraphernalia, parole violation.

SHANNON RIVER, Willits. Cultivation of more than six marijuana plants, marijuana for sale, conspiracy.

LANCE TREPPA, Ukiah. Failure to register with priors, county parole violation.

THE IMMORTAL ATMAN CHECKS IN

Emergency Message to Postmodern America

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

GRAPES WONDERS: “Will my Vedic brother consider a banana, instead?”

PG&E WILL BE READY

Editor: 

Sounds like a large increase in demand for electricity is on the horizon. No more gas water heaters and furnaces — going electric. Cooktops — going electric. No more gasoline cars — going electric. I marvel that elected officials seem to have confidence in the investor-owned utility that supplies electricity. Will it be ready? I’m sure that their management bonus plan will be ready. I am sure that the rate increase proposals will be ready. And no doubt the PR flimflam will be ready. But will the electrical supply and distribution system be capable, ready and affordable? One chicken, one egg, one basket.

Everett Van Gurp

Santa Rosa

LATE BREAKING

Eight column headline:
HAM SANDWICH GETS INDICTED!
Read all about it!

— Jim Luther

EXODUS FROM CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS SLOWS But Share Of Disadvantaged Kids Grows

by Jill Tucker

The pandemic-fueled exodus from California’s public schools largely leveled off this year, allowing some districts across the state to stave off more budget cuts and, in some cases, the need for school closures.

Overall, the state saw enrollment decline by just under 40,000 students in the fall, a significant improvement compared with the loss of more than 110,000 in the fall of 2021 and the departure of 160,000 in the fall of 2020, according to data released Tuesday. Across all districts, 5.85 million students were enrolled statewide. 

Among some of the state’s largest districts, San Francisco saw the most significant rebound, with enrollment at 55,537, a drop of just 55 students or a .01% decline.

“Certainly this is an optimistic sign that enrollment is stabilizing for San Francisco public schools,” said Superintendent Matt Wayne, adding that the district has significantly ramped up outreach efforts during the enrollment process. “We remain focused on offering the types of school experiences that students and families want.”

In Oakland, the district also saw a slowing in the enrollment decline, with a loss of 279 students or less than 1%, down to just over 34,000. Charter school enrollment in the district lost about 5% of enrollment year-over-year.

Sacramento and some other large districts continued to see a greater decline at nearly 2% compared with the 2020-2021 school year.

Local education officials have kept a worried eye on the loss of students over the past few years given the financial impact on schools and districts. State funding for each student equals about $17,000 and is based on enrollment and attendance. The loss of students has left many schools with significantly underenrolled schools and classrooms.

In Oakland, for example, the loss of 279 students just this year could mean a nearly $4.5 million hit to the district’s budget, although state legislators could decide to mitigate ongoing enrollment declines.

While traditional public school enrollment leveled out, charter school enrollment ticked up 1% while private schools saw a slight decline of just over 3,000 students. 

To some degree, the statewide rebound in enrollment comes from the expansion of transitional kindergarten, which allows more families to enroll their 4-year-olds in school. Currently, those students are counted as kindergartners in a two-year program, but that will change next year when transitional kindergarten becomes a separate grade.

While state officials lauded the slowing of enrollment declines, the pandemic appeared to leave an ongoing mark, with a 9% increase in the number of homeless students; a 2% increase in foster youth and students from low-income families; and a nearly 3% increase in students with disabilities.

Districts across the state continue to struggle with the COVID fallout, which harmed family stability and student social skills and exacerbated mental health issues, resulting in the need for more support systems to help the growing share of disadvantaged students.

“It has been a state priority to work to ensure that families are engaged in public schools and ensure that schools meet family needs,” the California Department of Education said in a statement. “Over the last four years, Governor Gavin Newsom, the Legislature, and state Superintendent Tony Thurmond have worked together to secure $23.8 billion in programs and initiatives to engage families and students in public schools, address and dismantle barriers to student success, and jumpstart learning recovery.”

NOT TO WORRY, AVERAGE INCOME PEOPLE

Editor: 

The author of a recent letter to the Press Democrat seems to have a misunderstanding of Rep. Mike Thompson’s cosponsorship of the IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act to reduce tax fraud. The bill was actually introduced by Republican Rep. Mike Kelly. This bipartisan bill is basically an update to the current program. According to Zukerman Law’s website, whistleblowers only receive payment if their claims meet the following criteria:

— The whistleblower provides specific and credible information that the IRS decides to take action on (a whistleblower cannot force the IRS to act on a tip).

— The information relates to tax underpayments of over $2 million (or if the subject of the claim is an individual, his or her gross income must exceed $200,000 for at least one of the tax years in question).

— The IRS collects tax underpayments resulting from the action (including any related actions).

I don’t believe the average citizen tends to have tax payments of over $2 million. So we can rest assured that Thompson and President Joe Biden are not asking anyone to squeal on their middle-class neighbor. The bill, as always, is concentrating on tax fraud by wealthy citizens and corporations.

Gordon Barbosa

Fort Bragg

THE HUNGER CLIFF SHOWS THAT THE GOP IS PRO-POVERTY

Millions of people are losing essential food assistance because Republicans want to impose work requirements that benefit corporations—not families.

by Jim Pugh

For much of the Covid-19 pandemic, families enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) were able to receive additional assistance each month. Known as SNAP emergency allotments, this extra support had a profound impact in ensuring that families with children could get enough to eat throughout the crisis, keeping an estimated 4.2 million people above the poverty line and reducing child poverty by 14% in the last quarter of 2021.

But that extra support disappeared this month. Despite its impressive impact, Congress failed to renew the SNAP emergency allotment, decreasing support for low-income families by $95 or more each month. While the amount may seem modest, it can be the difference between children eating dinner or going hungry multiple nights each week. And as a result, millions of people are fast approaching a hunger cliff.…

inthesetimes.com/article/hunger-cliff-snap-food-stamps-republicans-gop-work-requirements

(ED NOTE: Jim Pugh is an Anderson Valley High School Grad.)

AS TIME GOES BY

This day and age we're living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like third dimension

Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein's theory
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed

You must remember this
A kiss is still a kiss,
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by

And when two lovers woo
They still say, "I love you"
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by

Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny

Well, it's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by

Times don't change, right?
Sing it to me, Latifah

Oh, I'm singing it to you right now
'Cause we're talking about
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date

Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny

Well, it's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by
As time goes by

Time goes by

— Herman Hupfeld (February 1, 1894 – June 8, 1951) was an American songwriter whose most notable composition was "As Time Goes By". He wrote both the lyrics and music.

A LABEL was added to NPR’s Twitter account Tuesday calling the company “U.S. state-affiliated media.” Twitter CEO Elon Musklater quoted a passage from Twitter’s Help Center reading: “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.” “Seems accurate,” Musk captioned a screenshot of the passage in response to a tweet pointing out that the label had been applied to NPR. He apparently ignored the paragraph in the Help Center’s policy page specifically citing NPR as a “state-financed” media organization with editorial independence, which should not fall under the labeling policy. The label, which has been applied to the accounts of state-affiliated outlets like Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua, comes after Musk stripped The New York Times’ Twitter account of its verified checkmark after the newspaper refused to pay for it. (Daily Beast)

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

That is one galaxy of billions of galaxies, each with billions of stars. It awes me that it all was created by God, from a spot with infinite energy and zero dimensions.

A good statement is,

Before the universe was nothing? Who created the something?

Physics is theorizing some really far out stuff now.

Like the universe developed from a singularity, the infinite energy point in space. The description of a black hole is the same. Hmmm, are we a minuscule outgrowth of a black hole? We cannot see the edge of our universe, it is too old, let alone anything outside, so we do not know what is out there.

There are parallel universes, maybe. Maybe all created from a even bigger mega universe that might be part of an even bigger one ad infinitum.

Going the other way, we are composed of three trillion cells. Maybe each cell is its own universe, with components containing components from even smaller universes.

Just think each one of us might be a universe!

Anyway, an intelligence that we call God is at the helm of all these potential universes, I look his way with intense awe.

UKRAINE, WEDNESDAY, 5TH APRIL

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Poland to sign bilateral agreements and meet with his Polish counterpart. Meanwhile, the leader of Belarus, Russia's closest ally, is in Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin. 

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are visiting China, with Ukraine at the top of their agendas, less than a month after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Putin in Moscow.

Western officials say Russian forces have made “very slow progress” in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut over the past six months, despite committing large numbers of soldiers and suffering huge losses.

Poland announced the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Warsaw a few days before his arrival because “we don't feel so afraid of Russians anymore,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said Wednesday. 

“It wasn’t easy – and again we are very successful in hiding this information (of senior officials traveling to Warsaw) like we did with (US President Joe) Biden a few weeks ago – but we don't feel so afraid of Russians anymore and we decided to communicate (Zelensky’s visit) two days before to give the Polish people possibility to travel to Warsaw and participate in two leaders' speech,” spokesperson Lukasz Jasina said in an interview with CNN’s Isa Soares. 

“It wasn't easy because Warsaw today was blocked much more than during Biden's, Obama's or Trump's visits but it was worth it because there was a symbolism,” he added.

— CNN

WHERE A GALLOWS ONCE STOOD

by Francisco Garcia

An exhibition on public executions has to maintain a delicate balance: leaning too gleefully into the gore would be in bad taste, but it would also be a mistake to sanitise it. Executions at the Museum of London Docklands manages a decent compromise: sober without being tedious, unflinching but not bloodthirsty. Paintings and engravings are displayed alongside the writings of early anti-capital punishment campaigners and the last letters and petitions of the condemned. There are executioners’ “trade signs” of doubtful provenance and the fine silk shirt that Charles I may have worn on the scaffold. The exhibition covers the period from the first recorded hanging at Tyburn in 1196 to 1868, when executions were moved into jails and out of the public eye. According to the curators, there’s nowhere in the City of London more than five hundred metres from a spot where a gallows once stood.

Lee Anderson, the recently appointed deputy chair of the Conservative Party, was interviewed in February by the Spectator. He reeled off a series of hard right talking points: food banks are for feckless scroungers, the Royal Navy would do well to engage in a “stand-off” with migrants in Calais, and it was past time to bring back the death penalty. “Nobody has ever committed a crime after being executed. You know that, don’t you? 100 per cent success rate,” he said. He acknowledged the potential for miscarriages of justice, but insisted that anyone shown murdering someone on camera should be executed the “same week.”

His comments, as Rishi Sunak immediately told the media, are not representative of Conservative policy. Still, Anderson’s views are shared – as he well knows – by a large and vocal minority in British society. A recent YouGov poll shows that 49% of the country would support the death penalty for terrorists and child killers, and 34% support it in the case of all murders. Support tends to skew older and Tory, though the Instagram posts of “crime news aggregators” attract no end of “bring back hanging” comments from a younger crowd. When nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel was murdered in Liverpool last August, social media were filled with calls for an immediate return to capital punishment. There are regular petitions, which attract a few thousand signatures.

One of the notorious miscarriages of justice that preceded the 1965 Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act was the case of Derek Bentley, an illiterate 19-year-old with learning difficulties who was sentenced to death after a botched 1952 robbery in which his 16-year-old accomplice shot and killed a police officer. Even though Bentley was already under arrest when the shot was fired he was found guilty of murder and hanged in Wandsworth Prison a year later.

His conviction was finally overturned at the court of appeal in 1998, after decades of campaigning by his family. The lord chief justice, Lord Bingham, remarked that “it must be a matter of profound regret that this mistrial occurred and that the defects we have found were not recognized at the time.” Christopher Ecclestone starred as Bentley in Peter Medak’s movie Let Him Have Hit (1991), which I was shown at secondary school in the mid-2000s. We were encouraged to think of capital punishment as having been consigned to history by the forces of progress.

But its abolition was never as straightforward as that, and took longer than campaigners hoped. In late 1945, the National Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty had written to its members that the incoming Labour government would bring “success to our efforts within the next few years.” But the spectre of violent crime was being driven hard by the press and seemed, as George Orwell wrote in “The Decline of the English Murder,” to be taking on a baffling new randomness. Despite the outcry over well publicised miscarriages of justice, public support for capital punishment remained high, then as now. If abolition was a consequence of public opposition to the death penalty, it was an indirect one: by the 1950s, there was a growing nervousness among juries to convict in cases that involved capital crimes. Hanging had to be abolished, some people thought, to secure the conviction rate.

There is no imminent threat of a return to capital punishment, despite the tabling of a few rogue private members’ bills in the years since its abolition. The political consensus here, at least, is more resolutely liberal than public opinion (it is anyway impossible for as long as the UK remains a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights). There are currently 55 countries that still have the death penalty, including China, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The number has shrunk dramatically since the early 1990s.

Near the end of ‘Executions’ is a small block of text devoted to the 1840 public execution of François Courvoisier, a valet who had been convicted of cutting the throat of his aristocratic employer in London. Both Thackery and Dickens were present at the hanging and described their revulsion at the day’s giddy theatricality. Any ambivalence Thackeray may have once had concerning capital punishment, he wrote, had vanished: “I came away that morning with a disgust for murder, but it was for the murder I saw done.”

(London Review of Books)

POLICE WORK

by Gary Gorman

Emergency services in the city handle tactical jobs, SWAT jobs, scuba diving, car crashes, people on trains and HAZMAT (hazardous materials) jobs. I have a military tactical background, so I put in for the unit that deals with jumpers and I was accepted. I had done almost eight years on patrol. I know what I am saying sounds like horrible stuff, but you get a chance to help people. Most police work is either giving out summonses or making arrests.

The west coast sometimes gets too military. There’s a time to use force, but the majority of the time we are talking about citizens in our own country. I’m not a liberal by any means, but being too military is wrong. New York City cops look like slobs 99% of the time, but we get the job done by schmoozing and talking to people. With the hostage negotiation team, if someone’s life is in the balance, talk forever. Why endanger that person? God forbid you have to make a move, the moment of truth comes, you go and you do what you have to do. But sometimes on the west coast I think they are too quick to use force.

We don’t use gas in this city. If we do it’s an isolated interior thing. I’m not saying that we’re right for not utilizing that technique, but we’ve never had to. It looks better for the job. We don’t use water cannons, we don’t really use dogs. We use mounted horses, but they don’t trample people, we just kind of push people away. I’m 100% for discipline in the police department; yes sir, no sir. But for military tactics and the extended use of force, I don’t go for it.

I’m glad I haven’t lost my compassion. I see guys become hardened. I wish they would rotate people. You work in these situations and, as good as you are, it affects you. Constantly seeing people in death and pain is not good for you or for your family. Somebody that works homicide investigations, constantly secing that… You could be the greatest homicide investigator in the world, I think it has an impact on your family eventually. Or when you retire, you’re not the same person. Anyone who deals with people in stress should be rotated out periodically. A lot of guys get divorced, There’s a lot of substance abuse, usually drink.

I used to go home and spill my guts. I wouldn’t go into detail, but if something bothered me, your family are the people you can trust. They can comfort you. Talking it out is the best thing. When people keep their emotions, frustrations, fears or angers inside, that’s when I think they go off the deep end.

It’s interesting work. I wasn’t a super cop by any means, but I helped a few people along the way. If that’s all I do in my life I contributed something. My father and my brothers are cops. It’s a good job, an honorable job. It puts food on the table. Firemen sometimes say that they have the best job, but cops actually have seats to the whole world. I did security for the Shah of Iran. I’ve done security for Yoko Ono. Look at me, I’m not a 6’4” karate expert, but someone recommended me and I’ve been doing it for two and a half years. That’s something different that the average person doesn’t get to do — just to stay at the Dakota. Last night I laughed and thought, “Son of a gun, John Lennon’s piano, his pictures, and me of all people to be here.”

RANSOMING PAGAN BABIES

by Warren Hinckle

There is something to be said for the disadvantages of Catholic education, at least as it was in San Francisco of the logy, foggy 50s. For one thing, in grammar school I learned about ransoming pagan babies. We had to save our dimes to ransom the poor unbaptized creatures of China. To facilitate the financial aspect of this spiritual transaction, we purchased savings certificates—watermarked in the fuzzy purple of the nuns’ hectograph machine and resembling somewhat Blue Chip Stamps—which were popularly known as “Pagan Baby Stamps.” When we had accumulated sufficient markers, we were assured that a yellow pagan baby of our choice would receive a Catholic baptism. We also got to name it, with a saint’s name, of course. It cost $5 to ransom a boy, and $3 for a girl. The good Sisters explained that girls came cheaper, since the Chinese routinely drowned girls at birth, like baby kittens, because there were so many of them. This led to considerable discussion about the relative value of boys and girls, and provoked a compromise, arranged by the nuns, which was widely considered a bargain: for ten dollars we could ransom one boy and two girls.

The Catholic umbrella under which I grew up shaded a vacuum-sealed, middle-class and unflinchingly white ghetto. We all went to Catholic schools and our parents paid their dues and regularly received the sacraments, as did we kids, but it was more routine than a leap of faith. The Church seemed everywhere. Authority incarnate, yet it didn’t really connect. It was authority largely without terror. The Church I knew was not the Church of Savonarola, nor of James Joyce—it was too settled and comfortable to summon the fire and brimstone for Stephen Dedalus-type retreats. The priests who weren't stuck in the confessional box on Saturdays put on Pendleton sport shirts and went off to play golf at the Irish Catholic Olympic Club. Our confessors did scare us a little by warning we could lose our minds and maybe even our hair if we touched ourselves, but suggested that if we pulled hard on an ear it would dispel temptation. Naturally we tugged our ears, but otherwise the operating principle was to accept everything the Church taught while paying as little attention to it as possible. Thus we went to Mass on Sundays and sinned on Mondays and went to confession on Saturdays so we could receive Communion on Sunday and be in a state of grace to sin again on Monday.

I came to accept the Church for the tinsel, lazy, corrupt and at the same time appealing thing that it was. During those gray and quiet years, the Church was like some pervasive closed system dominating an endless science fiction novel, wherein it seemed the fate of the mutinous among us was to do continuous, dubious battle against it; there was great fun in the rum of rebellion, and we fought on in the not unpleasant expectation of losing. Changing the Church was no more real than changing the ocean.

This background ill prepared me for the liberal Catholic reformers with whom I became involved in the early sixties. I was astonished to find that there were Catholics abroad who actually thought that unyielding institution was going to improve itself and thereby improve the world. Most of the reformers I encountered had not endured sixteen years of Catholic education as I had, but had escaped to prep schools and secular colleges far removed from the bad breath and pimples of the workaday Church.

I found it difficult to believe that these earnest people were attempting to make a blushing bride of that fine old whore, the Church. While these reformers were shocked to discover how materialistic the Vatican really was, I had learned in grammar school that profitable moneychanging was the natural condition of the priestly calling. Our pastor used to stand in front of the altar during collections at Christmas Mass and exhort the faithful to “make it a green Christmas.” The reformers were freshly aglow with the illuminating theological proposition that the Church was as much human as divine. I knew that was the truth back in the third grade the first time I heard a nun fart.

I later watched the priests cream these well-meaning liberals: Lions 14, Christians 0. The odds were lopsided from the start. Just as the tougher, peasant Stalin made a better revolutionary than the more bourgeois and intellectual bolsheviks, these starry-eyed Catholic reformers with their idealized view of the Church were no match for the crafty and possessive priest-Pachucos who gave out karate chops instead of blessings. Most of the young priests who rushed to the aid of the reformers were likewise clobbered and have long since left the Church, along with a good percentage of the reformers. They succeeded in vulgarizing the Mass and making some other niggling reforms, and then drifted off to various new enthusiasms—anglicism, agnosticism, even astrology —leaving confusion in their wake, like little kids taking apart some gigantic radio set to improve the reception, then tiring of the project but not knowing how to put the set back together. These thwarted reformers then became bitter at the Church for doing what came naturally to preserve the monolith. The difference in my expectations of the Church of Rome and that of many of the liberal intellectual Catholics of the early sixties was that of 16 years in Catholic schools, which were susceptible to all the analogies of Stalag 17.