Mendocino County Today: Sunday, May 14, 2023

Warm | Peony | Mother's Day | Egret | AV Hospice | Kitten Fostering | Summer Classes | Flock | Starr Number | AV Events | Water Talk | Staff Up | TedZYX | Lupines | ACLU v Eyster | Ed Notes | Variety Show | Rummage Sale | Country Getaway | Gardens Art | Yesterday's Catch | Skyhound | Marco Radio | Dos Rios | Reparations | Boobs | Newsom Plan | Senate Candidates | Counter Programming | Alienation | 60s Remotes | Mighty Wurlitzer | Vast Miracle | Mini Mermaid | Facing Donald | Below Par | Ukraine | Sesame Heights | Captain Coward | Thistle

WARM WEATHER will continue across Northwest California today with little to no marine clouds. A few showers are or a thunderstorm are possible this afternoon and evening over the mountains eastern Trinity and eastern Mendocino counties. Thereafter, dry weather and slightly cooler conditions are forecast to occur early next week. Widespread coastal stratus is expected to return next week. (NWS)

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 97°, Yorkville 95°, Boonville 95°, Laytonville 92°, Hopland 87°, Fort Bragg 62°, Point Arena 57°

ED NOTE: As a peony lover from way back, I've always wondered why peonies weren't popular in this area. Off hand, I can't remember seeing one in the Anderson Valley, not that I've mounted a search, and not that I've had much success making up the peony deficit myself.

THE ORIGINAL MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION

by Julia Ward Howe (1870)

Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, disarm! The sword is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each learning after his own time, the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

HOSPICE OF UKIAH SERVICES ARE COMING TO ANDERSON VALLEY!

For over 41 years Hospice of Ukiah has been caring for our community in Mendocino County. They believe in life with comfort and death with dignity. They are funded entirely by donations and bequests, along with support of many volunteers in raising funds and providing care. Hospice of Ukiah accepts no government or private insurance and their services are without charge to anyone who needs them. Services beyond Ukiah are difficult to provide without donations to cover the medical staff, as well as the recruitment and training of volunteers.

Mark Apfel, MD and Judy Nelson, RN, have been providing services for Hospice of Ukiah in the Anderson Valley for many years. We want to expand services to the Anderson Valley to include a part-time nurse, a personal care assistant and more volunteers. The Anderson Valley Hospice Committee is under the auspices of Hospice of Ukiah. The committee currently is comprised of Judy Nelson, Lauren Keating, Donna Pierson-Pugh, Susan Bridge-Mount, Linda Murphy and Elizabeth Summers.

We are inviting community members who are interested to hear more about this program and possibly volunteer to join us, on Tuesday, May 23^rd at the Boonville Fire House from 2:00 to 3:00 pm.

We ask that the community support our efforts with a donation to help Hospice of Ukiah provide services in Anderson Valley. Checks can be written to Hospice of Ukiah with a note “for Anderson Valley.” The address for mailings:

Hospice of Ukiah, 620 Dora St., Ukiah, CA 95482.

(Susan Bridge-Mount)

KITTEN SEASON IS STARTING, AND WE NEED FOSTER HOMES!

If you or someone you know can help, please call 707-467-6453. You can read about our Kitty Foster Program here: mendoanimalshelter.com/programs-events/kitten-fostering-1

AV ADULT SCHOOL SUMMER CLASSES! 

English as a Second Language: 

Session 1 is May 22- June 28, Session 2 is July 3-August 7th

Beginner level (Wednesdays 5:30-8:30 p.m.), Intermediate level (Mondays 5:30-8:30 p.m.) 

Cost: $12 for the entire summer (1 session or both). FREE childcare during class hours.

Citizenship:

Tuesdays 6-8 p.m. and/or Fridays 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (no class during the month of June). This class is FREE.

Child Development classes in Spanish: 

June 5th to July 27th, Mondays and Wednesdays 5:30-8:40 p.m.

This is an online, for-credit, Mendocino College class held in Spanish and is part of a series of classes to obtain a preschool assistant teacher certificate.

Cost: Varies. Contact us asap for help applying for financial aid!

FREE childcare during class hours.

For English or Citizenship, you can register on the first night of your class or contact the Adult School at 895-2953 or adultschool@avpanthers.org.

A VALLEY READER WRITES: Does anyone know how to get a hold of Starr Automotive these days? I have an interest in a car that’s parked there on the straightaway. The old Starr number is defunct.

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE: List of Events

IS POTTER VALLEY ABOUT TO ‘GO DRY’?

by Mark Scaramella

Lame duck 72-year old Supervisor Glenn McGourty doesn’t get excited about much these days. In fact, the only subject that still energizes him is water for grapes. So we were not surprised that he sounded the alarm at last Tuesday’s board meeting, albeit tepidly, about the very real possibility that Potter Valley’s Eel River water supplement is about to be reduced if not eliminated. That could put Potter Valley back to pre-diversion water sources which at this point would mainly be some percentage of Lake Mendocino (if it’s full) or their private shallow wells. 

In the few instances when McGourty has something to “report,” he doesn’t bother with written reports or on-line posts so we have transcribed his remarks and the responses from his Board colleagues for the record.

McGourty: “I had a meeting with Congressman Mike Thompson to discuss the future of Scott Dam and Lake Pillsbury. It's an area that he [Thompson] represents. We had people in attendance from Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties trying to figure out what's going to happen with the [Scott] dam [upstream of Lake Mendocino which forms Lake Pillsbury]. As you may be aware there was a seismic study done that indicated that what was previously thought was a 1 in 10,000 chance that the dam would fall down if we had a 7.0 earthquake, they have moved back to a 1 in 900 chance. The media and PG&E went with that. So PG&E is not going to fill the dam this year completely. They have gates that normally brings the water level up another six feet and they are not going to do that. So it's questionable how much flow they are going to get through the Potter Valley Project to Lake Mendocino with the possibility that we will again have water curtailments by the end of the season, depending on what happens with irrigation and weather. Subsequent to that Congressman Thompson brought up the issue about whether this was going to be a long-term plan, and what we are finding out now is that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, has said that they need to do some additional studies before they can automatically make this a permanent decision. Meanwhile PG&E is moving very rapidly. They want to have a decommissioning plan [for Scott Dam] in place by 2025 and they want to take both dams down, the Cape Horn dam where the Potter Valley water is diverted as well as the Scott Dam. This indicates they kind of want to walk on the project. But by the same token they have to come up with a decommission plan that addresses all the environmental issues associated with it. So there was a discussion to kind of see where people were. Lake County wants the dam to remain. Sonoma County said that given the risk they can't see how they can come up with a new organization that would take water from the Eel River and how they could justify the risk and pay for keeping the dam in place. My point was that Mendocino County has not completely decided. We want to be assured that should Scott Dam come down we still have water for agriculture [mainly grapes] and Potter Valley and the Russian River system. So it was an interesting discussion. We also met with Congressman Huffman this week. Supervisor Mulheren and I were with him. His comment was that things were starting to move quickly. We have to be kind of be prepared to make a decision for Mendocino County where we want to be on this. We are moving forward with a water forum and the next step is to have a more engaged group that is going to discuss what kind of an economic structure could be put in place, a joint powers authority or a special district, how fees could be monetized and how things would be governed. All I can say is that things are moving more quickly than we thought for the Potter Valley project’s future and the discussions are going on.”

That wasn’t the only grape grower water problem McGourty wanted to mention. This one required some annotation.

McGourty: “Also, there is a proposal by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board to finally move through with their agriculture waivers program for discharge permits. I was wondering, what the heck is that? If you are discharging water from your property and you own a vineyard [especially if you own a vineyard like McGourty does] you will have to meet certain requirements that they are proposing. Their initial requirements all had to do with how much suspended particles are in the water. Of course, the problem with that is that we [we? We who? McGourty himself? McGourty and his vineyard owning friends? Certainly not the County, although to McGourty grapes and the County are all one big unit] are surrounded by water that comes into our [vineyard owners’] property which is loaded with sediment. We [vineyard owners] have no control of it. So the initial plan doesn't make any sense. There are different ways that it could be handled. So I talked yesterday with the Board and with Beryl Markeson at Fish Friendly Farming [a greenwashing grape grower front group], kind of advocating for an approach that has something more than just expensive monitoring [oh dear no, no one can ask grapes growers to pay for anything] but also has some cause and effect where we take a sediment inventory of how much sediment is coming off the property and then mitigate it. [I.e., delay and delay as much as possible.] That is what Napa Valley has done. They are in a different water region. We [who? McGourty?] are kind of advocating for the same thing. So that's another unfunded mandate coming down to local agriculture that is on top of our groundwater sustainability agency. And it's impactful.”

McGourty is chair of the Ukiah Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency. All they’ve done in their many years of existence is talk about groundwater and study groundwater and develop groundwater flow models. McGourty has never previously described that Agency as “an unfunded mandate” because it’s not. State grants cover their costs. They have certainly not mandated a single thing that might impact McGourty and his inland grape growers. And the Water Quality Board imposing requirements on grape growers has nothing to do with “unfunded mandates” because that term only applies to local government entities.

Supervisor Haschak jumped on board. 

Haschak: “Thank you. It seems like that [the Potter Valley diversion] is such a critical infrastructure project, a water project for our county that we should have a special meeting, a workshop or something where we can really find out about it. The whole board can have a discussion of where we are and what we need to be doing or do we need to be doing something at this point? If things are moving quickly then the Board needs to have that information.”

McGourty: “I agree 100%. Everything from local to federal. One other point that Sonoma County told us was that, if we accept that Lake Mendocino needs more storage then Mendocino County should be the leader. Which is something that I haven't thought about.”

McGourty hasn’t even thought about Mendo taking the lead on increasing Lake Mendocino storage? If true, that sounds like dereliction of duty!

McGourty: “They [the Sonoma County Water Agency] kind of feel like Lake Sonoma — they are not so concerned about whether or not there's more storage in Lake Mendocino. They would like to see the water continue coming from the Eel River but they don't care if we have more storage. So that is something Congressman Huffman’s been working on. I think we should have maybe a two-hour workshop where we can all be updated and aware because there are so many moving parts to this and they are moving quickly.”

Haschak: “That would be good.”

Supervisors Ted Williams: “I support the workshop. But I wonder if we could encourage our federal partner to host it. I'm afraid of the impression it gives when the county is hosting. I've been watching this and I don't think we have the authority, any real authority, and I don't think we have the funds even if we had the authority, we couldn't afford to do anything. So I don't want to give the public the impression that we are deciding how to react and what we should do. I don't think the County of Mendocino has much say in this. We could have a seat at the table and we should be advocating and basically begging the government to make sure that we don't go completely dry. But whatever they decide, it doesn't seem like we are really a deciding voice. Am I wrong?”

McGourty: “No, you are not. The moving parts are — the Feds are interested in water diversions for generating power, that's what the Federal Energy, FERC, that's what they do. The energy regulatory commission. So that's the first step. When PG&E steps away it will be up to the state water board to make a decision whether or not to continue the diversion and how the water will be allocated. Mendocino is way down on the list of who gets to decide, other than at some point we have to incur debt to pay for new facilities, and lawyers, and we will have to pay for the water and that is something that could be decided on a local basis.”

County Counsel Christian Curtis told Williams and McGourty that there might be some areas where the County has some authority.

Williams: “It would be great if those could come back with an explanation of what authority we have and what next steps. I imagine Supervisor McGourty would take the lead.”

McGourty: “I can. I can help set this up and try to figure out who should be at the table.”

Supervisor Dan Gjerde: “If our congressman could be there and his staff and the Sonoma County counterpart because they are working on a two-county proposal. My point that I would obviously raise is that I think those who consume the water should pay for it. And any liability if there is any that's created should be borne by the people who are using the water not the people who don't.”

Supervisor Mulheren: “I'm not sure that a workshop would be productive at this point. There is a lot of information and we could provide links to websites that provide information about where we are now. There is currently a new committee that's being developed, kind of a watershed users forum. There are still a lot of moving parts and I don't think that at this point a workshop would be productive. I think more information is helpful. I provide information. Supervisor McGourty provides information. We had a presentation to our LAFCO board that took maybe 15 or 20 minutes. I think a two-hour workshop at this point probably wouldn't provide the board with any more information than they could find with a Google search. I understand the need but I am a little concerned that it would not be an efficient use of time.”

McGourty: “I disagree. Our future is going to be based on this. The next 100 years of what happens to Mendocino County. We are at a point where there is a transition. The water supply that we have probably relied on since the 1800s is about to go away! [The diversion tunnel was dug by Chinese labor in the early 1900s.] Whether you live in this area or not, it is still an important part of the Mendocino County economy and it does affect us. So I, uh, you know, it, it… Without getting into a very emotional rant here (laughs nervously) I think it's important for the board to be informed because this is among the most, you know, changing things that's going to happen for not only this board but subsequent boards for a probably good 30 years.”

Williams: “I think Carre Brown would point out the farm gate multiplier. It probably affects other people in the ways they don't recognize. Supervisor McGourty, when you bring this back in a workshop or other format, I'm not impartial [sic], could you include a component separate from the diversion and Lake Mendocino? If there are properties that are going to go dry, farms that may not have water depending on these actions which we can't control, what's another route to get water flowing? Is there a plan B that doesn't involve the diversion? What would the funding requirement be? How would it be self-funded? I think Supervisor Gjerde has never missed a beat here on pointing out that folks on the north coast probably are not going to pay for a water subsidy for people who go dry after losing the diversion. It needs to be realistic and it needs to be self-funded. The people that are benefiting from it need to be the ones— what does that look like? I'm just asking that the agenda item you bring back at a future date include a component about a plan B, if relying on the state and federal government is non-viable.”

McGourty: “Okay. We can do that.”

And that was where it was left. No dates, no specifics, no committees? Someday if McGourty feels like getting around to it, he might try to figure out “who should be at the table.”

Of course there are options and “plan Bs.” Private pond expansion, renegotiation of water arrangements with the Russian River Flood Control District or the City of Ukiah, conservation, and leak reduction… (Potter Valley’s aging canal water distribution system is known to be quite porous.) Not that McGourty and Co will raise these options because they would cost the inland cheap water mafia money — they prefer to let the government pay for it (or just hand over more cheap water which there’s less and less of). But not so much lately, as Gjerde’s and Williams’s remarks indicate. 

It would be easy to dismiss McGourty’s “emotional rant” as his normal grape water supply paranoia. But we understand from other people well-informed on inland water that this is becoming a real possibility. Whoever replaces McGourty in January of 2025 will probably be faced with a bucketful of water questions and will need to do more than decide who should be at the table.

TED WILLIAMS on KZYX Wednesday morning with Karen Ottoboni: "The short-term housing is really problematic. I know in some circles there is a belief been if we just ban all vacation rentals we would have enough housing. I don't think it's true. When I look at the numbers and how those houses are being used it's really a mix. I've talked to a lot of those owners. Their space isn't available all year, they use it seasonally, or it's the upstairs, it's an outbuilding, they are not going to rent it full time, only part of the year. There are a lot of different scenarios that lead one to vacation rentals. Certainly some amount of houses are currently being turned into quasi-motels. And we are probably losing housing stock. I don't think it's anywhere near the number that gets kicked around as a rural legend. I want to get to the heart of the issue which is that if there's demand for housing why don't we see new houses being built? Part of that is wages. There is the state building code. It might make sense in San Francisco or Oakland, but try to do it in Mendocino County the numbers don't pan out. I think the county has a little culpability. We have been anti-growth for a long time. It looks like we've tried to make it difficult to build new housing. Rather than just -- Imagine that there are 100 houses in the county. Maybe four of them have short-term vacation rentals of some sort. You outlaw those, that might get you four houses. Maybe you get one house and you need 30. Let's get to the heart of the issue of demand. Why don't we see developers building?"

THE REBUTTAL: Lots of things to dispute there: 1. No one ever proposed to "ban all vacation rentals." 2. There is no "number that gets kicked around." If there was, Williams should have said what it was. "We" have not been anti-growth; the County just takes too long to process applications. And the Supervisors have never asked the Planning Department for a regular list of permits applied for with date and status to see how long they're taking to be approved and what the delays are. Then Williams engages in pure speculation about the numbers without the slightest basis other than his own personal opinion, saying that "outlawing" them might produce "one house" out of a hundred.

Despite these dubious if not outright incorrect or unsubstantiated claims, Williams then proceeded to denounce the only media in the County that is critical of him and his colleagues. And, not so incidentally, the only media that faithfully watches the supervisors gavel to gavel.

WILLIAMS ON LOCAL MEDIA: News reporting. Democracy depends on accurate journalism. And one of the biggest struggles and is, as you know, I read news. And I say, Hey, wait, I was there. That's wrong. That's not what happened. And that's been the biggest eye-opener for me. If I had not been there I would probably believe what I'm reading and I would think, Wow, this is a really dysfunctional place. How can these clowns be making such bad decisions? The reality is there are competing interests. A lot of regulation. They may have the same goal in mind but how they get there has to follow a strategy. I think KZYX does a good job of reporting. Sarah [Reith] tries. Doesn't get it 100%, nobody can. But in good faith she tries to share the truth of what's happened. And I'm very thankful for KZYX. There are other sources where it's just fiction. It's not personal for me. But I'm starting to see the long-term impact. If you have a public that doesn't trust their representatives to look out for their interests, you start to erode the whole public process and the decision-making process and you have electeds responding to, to dispel rumors, rather than fighting for public interest. I'm thankful for KZYX. But I'm concerned that as media has gone online and corporations have gobbled up local papers, the public doesn't have a lot of credible information to go on."

TRANSLATION: The only reliable coverage we get is from KZYX, that if the ava would shut up about what a poor job Williams and his colleagues are doing, only credible information about us would remain.

ACLU SUES EYSTER OVER BRADY LIST

by Matt LaFever

Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster found himself in the legal crosshairs of one of America’s leading voices for individual rights and civil liberties, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Court documents filed in May 2022 indicate the ACLU filed a civil lawsuit against DA Eyster for his office’s alleged refusal to respond to their public records requests submitted to assess the office’s implementation of legislation put into place designed to eliminate racial bias in California’s criminal convictions. The suit demanded the release of the requested documents and the payment of all legal expenses encumbered by the ACLU in their efforts to obtain the documents.…

mendofever.com/2023/05/14/aclu-sues-mendocino-county-district-attorney-david-eyster-for-refusal-to-divulge-public-records/

ED NOTE: Going bold here, but this suit by the ACLU, insofar as it's intelligible, seems a stretch, but I hope Eyster promptly responds. The ACLU isn't what it used to be, that's for sure, and off the top this seems like an ACLU attempt to shake down Mendo.

ED NOTES

THE ETERNAL CASE of Douglas Stone, the bandit of Black Bart Road (Redwood Valley) has been put over again. 

Joan Vivaldo writes: 

"DOUGLAS STONE, May 10, 2023 Hearing for Mental Health Diversion Motion.

Although scheduled a month ago, the Court was not prepared on May 10, 2023 to review the motion. Interested parties made yet another unnecessary trip to the courthouse before learning at 10:30am on May 10, 2023 that the hearing had been cancelled. The hearing for the Mental Health Diversion is now set for June 16, 2023."

IN MS. VIVALDO'S CASE, she drove up from San Francisco for the hearing that didn't happen in a case that began in April of 2020.

STONE SERVES NICELY as Exhibit A of (1) the default of our Superior Court to bring matters to a reasonably timely conclusion and (2) how persons of means can endlessly delay resolution of the charges against them by stalling procedures with, of course, the cooperation of our Superior Court.

MS. VIVALDO, back in 2020, recalls Stone's intrusions: “A man broke in when I wasn't here, but he came back last Friday night when I was here. He broke in through the window the first time.” The second time, Ms. Vivaldo said it was about 10:30 when she saw headlights pulling up her driveway. “I was just going to sleep upstairs when I saw the lights and then heard someone fiddling with the front door. I have a gun but I couldn't ever shoot anybody, so I just kind of crouched by my bed up in the loft when he came all the way into my house. I told him I'd already called the police and they were on the way. He mumbled something like, 'I thought there was a fire here,' and he turned around and left. He sounded almost apologetic, and I thought, ‘Well, somebody in his life maybe taught him some manners’.” 

The intruder turned out to be Mr. Stone, formerly a man of impeccable citizenship. 

The night he was confronted by the terrorized Ms. V, Stone, in his haste to flee her home, had run his truck off the road where he was still sitting amidst the plunder from previous intrusions when the deputy, having sped up the long, dusty Black Bart Trail past many other addresses of Stone’s robberies, spotted Black Bart’s spiritual descendant sitting dejectedly in his wrecked truck and arrested him. 

Stone still had the loaded handgun and pry bar he’d entered the widow’s home with. At Stone's Redwood Valley home, also on Black Bart Trail, deputies found a virtual treasure trove of stolen goods. 

There is speculation that Stone had been unhinged by the departure of his wife from their marriage, that prior to her leaving he had functioned normally. Who can know? Stone probably doesn’t know himself.

Ms. Vivaldo had previously lost a laptop, a printer, a collection of rare coins, and two large windows to Stone. The coins have been recovered. The laptop, the printer and the expense of two large windows are borne by her.

So off the perp goes to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked and briefly held on $75,000 bail. Which he quickly posted. While Stone was being processed in and out of the jail, the cops were going through his Redwood Valley house where they found lots of stuff stolen from homes up and down the Black Bart Trail. Stone was then arrested a second time, this time graciously turning himself in.

And here's where the Stone case got positively weird, as described best in the Sheriff's presser: “Stone was booked into the Mendocino County Jail a second time for Possession of Stolen Property, Unlawfully Possessing Marijuana for Sale, Manufacture of an Assault Rifle, Possession of an Assault Rifle, Possession of a Silencer, and Possession of Burglary tools. In accordance with the COVID-19 emergency order issued by the State of California Judicial Council, Stone's bail was set at zero dollars and he was released after the jail booking process…..” 

Breaking into an elderly woman's home with a loaded gun gets you no bail and released? But Stone wasn’t finished. Two days after terrorizing the widow, Stone was out on that no bail when a friend of Stone’s went over to Stone's house to return the dog he’d been babysitting for Stone. Stone greeted his visitor by charging out of his house waving a butcher knife, threatening to kill the visitor, kill his dog, kill his ex-wife and her dog, and kill her new boyfriend while he went about the mayhem.

Stone was arrested a third time in as many days and bail was set at $275,000. 

Which Stone's mom posted, and here we are going on four years later and the Mendocino County Superior Court put the lucky man's case over again.

THE JAN 6TH fundraising site for Maga rioters has already raised a little over a million dollars for the defense of Daniel Penny, the former Marine charged last week with second-degree manslaughter in the death of a homeless schizophrenic named Jordan Neely. 

Penny and several other male NYC subway riders had gallantly restrained Neely when Neely threatened them. Penny had Neely in a headlock for more than three minutes when Neely stopped breathing.

THE PENNY-NEELY CASE couldn't be better designed to exacerbate the prevalent social tensions as race demagogues with law degrees cynically try to cash in on street tragedies. The facts in this case, so far as they can be discerned from video of the event, consist of a street crazy, Neely, with a long history of violence, including two random attacks on elderly women that seriously injured both of them, had threatened random subway passengers when Penny, and at least two other samaritans, took pre-emptive action, subduing Neely before he could actually attack anyone.

AFTER WATCHING THE VIDEO of the sad event, the ava's forensic team has concluded that Neely's death was inadvertent, although it also seems obvious that Penny could have released his chokehold on Neely long before he did, especially given that he had two other guys helping him restrain Neely.

PUBLIC TRANSIT in the Bay Area is struggling, largely because of the perception that it isn't safe. As a former Muni rider on a regular basis, I can say there was inevitably a fellow passenger who fit the “undesirable” profile but seldom a passenger who either threatened or committed violence. 

SUPERVISOR MO MUHEREN, fervent supporter of The Great Redwood Trail who represents the unsuspecting Ukiah area as a supervisor, commented the other day on her facebook page that the ava's Brown Act complaint was lodged merely to sell newspapers, as if Mendo people were so fascinated by her and her bumbling colleagues that Boonville's beloved weekly was cashing in big time every time we mentioned them. This particular canard is routine because it's easier for the unequipped than engaging in adult conversations of the issues. Objectively, in terms of newspaper sales, the supervisors are a definite loss leader.

ON THAT SAME Mulheren thread another intellectual named Barbara Ortega dismissed the ava as “old white men,” a routine bit of bigotry in some circles where it's assumed that old white men are responsible for all the evil in the world. Well, Barbara..... you, you, you..... ageist, I was at the ballpark when all the bad stuff happened, and I can prove it!

WE'VE COMPLAINED FOR YEARS about the slo-mo transfer of the Northwest Pacific Railroad to the Northcoast's Democratic Party, and from them to former Democratic congressman, Doug Bosco, who also owns the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where exactly one scant but quizzical story (and quickly taken down) has appeared questioning how all this came about.

AND NOW the latest segue as the phony North Coast Railroad Authority becomes the even phonier Great Redwood Trail Agency, whose joint offices can be found at 419 Talmage Road, Suite M, Ukiah. (I've stopped by twice but found no one home both times.)

MIKE KOEPF neatly tied up the whole rancidly suspicious NCRA-Bosco-Redwood Trail package for those who think these events are all perfectly fine, legal even. And before Koepf, the SoCo Bohemian in a lengthy two-parter confirmed that we've been had by the fake rail agency, and had again by The Great Redwood Trail scam. (The Democrat's phony NCRA construct reached its absolute nadir when termed-out state assemblyman Dan Hauser was appointed boss man. For years now, however, long-time Democrat errand boy, Mitch Stogner, has been in charge of the non-existent rail line. And btw, it was the NCRA, a Democrat device, that sold the land on Perkins Street, Ukiah, for the new County Courthouse that nobody wants. Our over-large Superior Court, 9 judges for a population of 90,000 people, are mostly Democrats.)

IT'S PROBABLY the extra-long length of the complicated stories about the old Northwestern Pacific's transfer to the Democrat's phony NCRA that few people know about this breathtaking hustling from Bosco and associates.

THE PREVALENT UN-KNOWLEDGE of how it all happened can be attributed to the fragged attention spans these days of the average citizen, but to simplify beyond simplicity, the four completed miles of The Great Redwood Trail that run north-south along a stretch of Ukiah's industrial wasteland have cost between $1 and $2 million a mile, and The Great Redwood Trail, formerly the bogus Northcoast Railroad Authority, is now advertising for a director. What do you suppose the ultimate build-out of the Trail will cost, on the off chance it ever happens?

THE REVIVED AV VARIETY SHOW WAS SRO FRIDAY NIGHT

THE GREENWOOD CIVIC CLUB invites you to take part in the 34th Annual Elk Rummage Sale to be held Saturday and Sunday, May 20 and 21 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Greenwood Community Center in downtown Elk. Masks are highly recommended indoors. Discover antiques, collectibles, clothes, books, toys, housewares, furniture, tools, and more at bargain prices.

Come Saturday for the best selection and come back for the Sunday Super Sale! While shopping, feast on baked good, drinks and homemade tempting lunch items.

Credit cards now accepted! The Greenwood Civic Club is a non-profit organization. Proceeds from the annual event benefit community projects, the summer children's program and student scholarships. For more information, call Angela at 707-877-1130 or 509-630-971.

ANYONE LOOKING FOR A COUNTRY GETAWAY? 

It is on acreage, has huge water resources and is close to town in the Anderson Valley wine country. Not far from the local airport either. Maybe 40 minute drive to the ocean on the Mendocino Coast.

‘ART IN OUR GARDENS’ TOUR Coming to Ukiah Valley Next Saturday, May 20th

Ukiah Valley once again celebrates art, culture and the artists who live here! The ‘Art in Our Gardens’ tour is once again gracing Ukiah Valley next Saturday, May 20th. Enjoy a delightful day of meeting artists and viewing their art in the peaceful surroundings of beautiful gardens as twenty two artists display and speak about their art. 

This once a year event is presented by the Mendocino County Art Association celebrating their 75^th anniversary. It is free and runs from 10am to 4pm. For more information, maps and directions are available at the Corner Galley, 201 S State Street, Ukiah during the month of May. You can also visit Artsmendocino.org for more information.

In Ukiah the featured artists are Svetlana Artemoff, Katie Kight, Dorleen McBride, Mary Monroe, Laura Fogg, Katie Gibbs, Polly Palecek, Nancy Collins, Gina Greco, Georgine Hultz, Cindy Lindgren, Ann Maglinte and Diana Steele. In Ukiah the gardens hosting the many artists are Laura Fogg’s, Dorleen McBride’s and Cindy Lindgren. 

In Redwood Valley the featured artists are Wanda Bennett, Deborah Briggs, Jeanne Koelle, Marie Pera, Michael Riddell, Juanita-Joy Riddell, Susan Walker, Spencer Brewer & Esther Siegel. The gardens in Redwood Valley hosting the artists are Mike & Juanita Joy Riddell’s and Esther Siegel & Spencer Brewer’s. 

For more information call Cindy at 707-972-2094 or email kathleen@mendocinoartassn.org.

See you there for a day of sunshine, gardens and eye candy!

Spencer Brewer

CATCH OF THE DAY, Saturday, May 13, 2023

JOSEPH BUCKINGHAM, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CODY CALDWELL, Willits. Concealed dirk-dagger, probation revocation.

DAVID DORMAN, Ukiah. Evasion, resisting, probation revocation.

ANTHONY ESPICHA, Ukiah. DUI-drugs&alcohol causing injury, paraphernalia. 

DAVETTE HAYES, Covelo. Assault with firearm, use of firearm in a crime, assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury.

SACRAMENTO HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Defacing property of another person, probation revocation.

MATTHEW HILL, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

SCOTT KOPMAN, Willits. DUI, controlled substance, paraphernalia, DUI while on court probation, probation revocation.

JOSE NAVA-GARFIA, Cloverdale/Ukiah. Battery, protective order violation, probation revocation.

BRANDON WAGNER, Boonville. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MEMO OF THE AIR: Who day week.

"On the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool, in the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool, he was splashing, enjoying the jungle's great joys, when Horton the Elephant heard… a small noise.”

Here's the recording of last night's (2023-05-12) eight-hour-long Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and KNYO.org: https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0540

Email your written work and I'll read it on the very next Memo of the Air on KNYO.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not necessarily radio-useful but nonetheless worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together. Such as:

What retro-futurism is. This explainer is the actual cartoonist who wrote the headline, "Giant Radio Robots Play Ice Hockey at 300 Miles An Hour!" and also drew all the rest of the art for National Lampoon's retro-future /Popular Mechanics/ parody fifty years ago. He designed the aerodynamic (and hydrodynamic*) Bulgemobile. He's in excellent health for a 145-year-old. Good genes, a dry sense of humor, and mastery of Powerpoint will stand you in good stead.

https://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_mccall_what_is_retro_futurism

The complete catalog of Starship Enterprise bridges, whose keyboards and control panels, from the first bridge to the latest one, explode in shards and sparks in the operators' faces whenever another ship points a streak of red or blue or green light at any part of your ship. It's like voodoo, or foot reflexology. In the future, apparently, they've lost all knowledge of fuse technology, not to mention seatbelts.

https://boingboing.net/2023/05/08/tour-every-star-trek-enterprise-bridge-in-new-interactive-web-portal-from-roddenberry-archive.html

Romeo and Juliet set in Dunkin Donuts in Bwahsten. "Did he just bite his thumb at me? Joo see dat? Umbalievable."

https://boingboing.net/2023/05/11/if-romeo-and-juliet-took-place-at-a-dunkin-donuts-in-boston.html

And a small noise.

https://twitter.com/jennineak/status/1617846032687300608

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

1920 DOS RIOS, Mendocino County. All dressed up to catch the southbound train.

REPARATIONS

Editor: 

If California approves an apology and pays reparations to Black people for generations of discrimination, will the state approve the same for mistreatment and discrimination against Native Americans? This was their land, entered illegally. Their land was taken, they were forced onto reservations and into a lifestyle that was not theirs. They were discriminated against.

And the descendants of the Chinese who helped build the railroad over the Sierra? They were forced to labor under slavelike and extremely dangerous conditions. They too were discriminated against.

And women. They were denied the vote for 144 years after independence, they were denied entrance to most universities, were not allowed in some professions and sports and were paid less than males.

The evil of slavery was recognized. Union troops fought to end slavery, and many lost their lives for that cause. No one fought and lost life to free Native Americans and the Chinese from their unjust treatment.

The past is gone, we cannot change it, but we can improve the future. Money would be better spent fighting discrimination and injustice by recognizing it, admitting its existence and dealing with it appropriately.

Veronica Johnson

Windsor

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW

READER: I offered them $5 to let me take a picture. They said yes and decided to split the money between them. 

The lady on the left said for another $10 she'd show me her boobs. “That's OK, Ma'am,” I said. “I've seen a lot of boobs over the last 40 years.”

BALANCING ACT: NEWSOM’S PLAN TO COVER CALIFORNIA’S BALLOONING BUDGET DEFICIT

by Alex Kosseff

California’s estimated budget deficit has grown by $9 billion since January, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced today, though the governor downplayed the severity of its potential impact on critical government services and programs.

During a press conference at the California Natural Resources Agency in downtown Sacramento, Newsom unveiled a revised spending plan that will rely on some additional fiscal gimmicks — including shifting funding sources and internal borrowing — to address a projected $31.5 billion gap in the 2023-24 state budget.

“We have a $31.5 billion challenge, which is well within the margin of expectation and well within our capacity to address,” Newsom said.

Despite the growing shortfall, California’s overall budget is now expected to be $306 billion, including special funds, less than a 1% decline from the current fiscal year, a record $308 billion.

Newsom proposes to close the deficit by shifting $3.3 billion in existing commitments out of the general fund, including paying for $1.1 billion in climate spending and $1.1 billion in college student housing projects with bonds, and pulling back another $1 billion in unused money from programs such as middle class tax refunds and utility bill support for low-income residents.

Under the governor’s plan, the state would also borrow $1.2 billion from special funds and extend a $2.5 billion on managed care health plans to address the spending gap. Extensive savings would remain largely untouched, though Newsom did propose to make a $450 million from one reserve account.

California’s fiscal picture has largely worsened since January, when finance officials projected the state would face a deficit of $22.5 billion. Newsom called it a “modest shortfall” and proposed to delay some spending commitments, reverse recent steps to shore up the state’s fiscal health and shift around funding sources to limit program cuts.

Enduring high inflation, turmoil in the regional banking sector and a showdown in Washington, D.C., over raising the federal debt limit have all deepened the economic headwinds. Monthly tax revenues came in billions of dollars below forecasts this spring, and fears of a recession continue to loom, which Newsom said could reduce state revenues by tens of billions of dollars even in the mildest scenario.

“That is an uncertainty that we must take very seriously and very soberly,” he said.

Adding to the unpredictability, most Californians don’t have to file their income taxes until October because of the intense damage and disruption from winter storms. Officials estimate that $42 billion in payments will be delayed until the new deadline.

The governor’s updated budget proposal kicks off a month of negotiations with the Legislature, which must pass a budget by June 15 to get paid.

Legislative leaders have been largely optimistic about the budget situation, arguing that they have plenty of fiscal tools at their disposal to avoid deep spending cuts. Last month, Senate Democrats pitched raising taxes on large corporations, an idea that Newsom quickly rejected.

With less money to go around, however, the challenge is getting everyone to agree about what should take the hit. Some lawmakers have already raised objections to potential cuts for climate programs and public transit funding that the governor proposed in January.

It will be the first budget process for many of them; nearly a third of the entire Legislature was newly elected in November. And aside from a brief downturn at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, most have faced only surpluses and growing revenues during their tenures. Because of term limits, there are only a handful of legislators who were around during the last recession more than a decade ago.

(CalMatters.org)

CA SENATE CANDIDATES

Barbara Lee is ok. Schiff is unthinkable. The other lady is yer standard issue demo clone.

WALTER KIRN:

I’ll be honest, I don’t use Google that much anymore. I’m tired of that first page of BS and the second page of BS. I try to refine my searches such that I can get past that into a more focused set of results, or I go elsewhere. Across the board in terms of my media use, and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, I have adjusted my behavior because I know that I am looking at a monolith that wants to blot out much that’s of interest to me, at least at every turn.

And so counter programming that thing has become part of my behavior. People say, “Walt, why don’t you watch the news? Why don’t you watch cable more, da, da, da?” And it’s because I know what they’re going to say. I don’t need at this point to keep getting the same results, the same harangues, the same approved message battering me into submission. I can already write it myself in my head before I even get there. I’m trying to learn something new about the world and that’s getting harder.

THE COST OF SANITY in this society is a certain level of alienation.

— Terence McKenna

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I was watching some TV show about an elder woman comedian who hires a young woman as a joke writer.

One of her ongoing gags, for decades, was about how the older woman burnt down her ex-husband’s garage.

She tells the younger woman “Oh, that never actually happened. But the media said it did, and they wouldn’t ever print my denials, so I just make jokes about it”.

Like with Jerry Lee Lewis and the accusation that he was called Killer because he killed his wife.

That actually wasn’t true, he was called Killer for a different reason, but he didn’t bother explaining, he just went with the name.

You can’t fight the Mighty Wurlitzer.

NEVER LET YOURSELF lose sight of the reality that as bad as things are, the fact that there are things at all is vastly more significant than any of our puny human problems.

It's not something you can talk about all the time because people will think you're being callous about human suffering and all the problems that we do have, but the truth of the matter is that even if things were ten times worse than they are now, it would still be vastly less significant than the fact that we get to live in a world and perceive it and think about it and share ideas about it instead of nothing existing at all.

Yes, pay attention to our problems and do what you can to fix them, but never, ever let yourself lose sight of the fact that we are living in the middle of a continuous miracle of unfathomable beauty, and that we ourselves are inseparably unified with that vast miracle. If you only fixate on thoughts about our problems you will become bitter and ineffective in the fight against injustice, and more importantly, you will have wasted your time here failing to appreciate the wondrousness of a human life on this amazing planet.

— Caitlin Johnstone

NO PLAYING OSTRICH WITH TRUMP

As Sun Tzu says, ‘Know the enemy.’

by Maureen Dowd

My brothers Michael and Martin attended baseball’s opening day at the old Griffith Stadium in April 1951, with the Senators (as our team was then called) playing the Yankees. President Harry Truman had been invited to throw out the first pitch, and the stadium erupted in boos; Truman had just fired the extremely popular Gen. Douglas MacArthur as commander of the Far East, and the crowd was irate.

When the boys got home, Martin confessed to our father that he had stood up to boo the president before Michael pulled him down.

“Dad told me that President Truman was a great man,” Martin later recalled. “He said that if Truman fired MacArthur, he must have his reasons and that I should never boo another president. I never did.”

It seems so quaint now, the idea of respecting the president. Gallant has vanished; gladiatorial is in. Patriotism is no longer a premier American virtue. And to a large degree, we have Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch to thank for that.

Trump always ridiculed people, but when he brought that into the presidential arena, it was like injecting a virus of cruelty into the political bloodstream.

When I flip on Fox News at night, I cringe at the way they make fun of President Biden, the sick delight they take in sniping at any perceived infirmity.

Mitt Romney brought some rare Republican rectitude to the Capitol when he was asked about Trump being held liable for sexual abuse and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll trial.

“He just is not suited to be president of the United States and to be the person who we hold up to our children and the world as the leader of the free world,” Romney told CNN’s Manu Raju. (The Utah senator also earlier chided Representative George Santos, saying, “You don’t belong here.”)

Todd Young, the mild-mannered conservative senator from Indiana, made it clear Thursday, after Trump’s brazen performance at the CNN town hall, that he’d had enough.

He told reporters on the Hill that he would not be supporting the former president as the Republican nominee. Asked why, he replied, “Where do I begin?” — a bracing echo of Joseph Welch’s “Have you no sense of decency?” line to that earlier bully boy Joe McCarthy.

As a video circulates of Trump celebrating his CNN performance by dancing to “Macho Man” by the pool at Mar-a-Lago, we see Trump unplugged. The existential threat is aiming to get back in the Oval, this time without anyone trying to keep him from going completely off the rails, and with the scary new world of superevolved A.I. chatbots to help him lie and smear. (Trump posted a doctored video on Friday of Anderson Cooper saying “That was President Donald J. Trump ripping us” a new one “here on CNN.”)

Trump is spiraling into even more of a self-deluded narcissist, if that’s possible. And he’s even more obsessed with numbers — if that’s possible. When he was asked by the terrific Kaitlan Collins if he regretted his actions on Jan. 6, he began rhapsodizing about, and exaggerating, the size of the crowd that day.

“I have never spoken to a crowd as large as this,” he said, adding: “They were there with love in their heart. That was an unbelievable — and it was a beautiful day.”

He called one of the most heinous days in American history “a beautiful day.” He called the Black Capitol Police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, who was trying to break into the House chamber, a “thug.”

New Hampshire voters in the audience were cheering on Trump, and many even laughed when he crudely re-defamed E. Jean Carroll.

The town hall was enlightening — and frightening. But we needed that reminder to be on full alert, because Trump is not just an unhinged and dangerous extremist; he is also a cunning and dominating insurgent.

The argument that the media should ignore Trump and keep him under a bushel basket is ridiculous. You can’t extinguish Trump by not talking to him. He’s always going to find a platform.

Sun Tzu stressed that victory depends on knowing the enemy — “Force him to reveal himself.” Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s lawyer, did a skillful job of letting Trump convict himself in the deposition.

President Biden needs to see what he’s up against. There are only so many times Biden can say “C’mon, man!” in a debate. The more he sees Trump in action, the less likely he is to be steamrolled. Biden’s team has been blithely underestimating the opponent. The cascading indictments allow Trump to play the gilt-dipped martyr on an even larger scale.

The task is to challenge Trump and expose him, not to put our fingers in our ears and sing “la, la, la.”

“It strikes me as fundamentally wrong to deny voters a chance to see candidates, and particularly front-running candidates, answering challenging questions from journalists and citizens in open forums,” David Axelrod told me Friday. “You can’t save democracy from people who would shred its norms by shredding democratic norms yourselves.”

(nytimes.com)

UKRAINE, SATURDAY, 13TH MAY

Another explosion hit the Russian-occupied city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Saturday. The city has rarely been targeted during the conflict but was struck twice on Friday. 

Germany is supplying Ukraine with nearly $3 billion more in military aid, including 30 tanks. It is the biggest pledge of aid yet from a country that had been reluctant to send heavy arms for fear of escalating the conflict. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Rome, where he is meeting with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Pope Francis.

Russia tried to destroy a US-made Patriot air defense system in Ukraine last week, US officials say. The attack failed and the Ukrainian military instead intercepted the missile using the system –  their first known successful use of Patriot.

THE ISLAND of Giglio was where the Costa Concordia hit a rock, Captain Schettino having failed, or refused, to take proper soundings, which is pretty much what happened on the morning of July 2, 1816, when Captain de Chaumareys piloted the French frigate Medusa into shallow water near the coast of Senegal — though in his case it was sheer incompetence rather than a deliberate decision. As crew members noted, the waters into which the Medusa was sailing were ominously warm. The captain did not take note. The sea went green, and crew members worried. The captain did not. Sand scrolled in the waves. Floating cities of kelp appeared: trouble, crew members knew. The sea went clear: they were screwed. The Medusa ran aground on the treacherous Arguin Bank. Chaos ensued. The captain abandoned ship, and worse, cut the rope to the raft of survivors he had pledged to tow. Only 15 of 147 on the raft survived. Like the captain of the Medusa, Schettino sneaked off his own ship. He not only caused unnecessary deaths and ruined a half-billion dollar cruise liner, as well — very nearly — as a section of coastline and the livelihood of the Italians who live on the island where the Concordia capsized: he was a coward.

— Rachel Kushner