Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Warm Interior | Arthur Hobbs | Sunset | AVUSD News | Caspar Concert | PG&E Proposals | Driver Sentenced | Creek Algae | Reentry Program | Suzi Watercolor | Water Tower | Cattle Brands | Bird Bits | Rainbow | Yorkville News | Katy Cleaning | Ed Notes | Zookeeper Admission | Homeless RFP | Covelo Fireman | Michael Donohue | Yesterday's Catch | LakeCo Lawsuit | Car Show | Labor Book | Demand More | Sensitivity Discussion | Penguin Man | Bad Food | Doomsday Prep | Lassen Eruption | Dwarf Problems | Smokey/Bandit | Foul Cloud | Israeli Complicity | Sand Castlers | Ukraine | Tomato Harvest

WARM TEMPERATURES will occur across interior portions of Northwest California through mid week, while periods of stratus impact the coast. Interior valleys will then warm toward the low 100s during late week. In addition, no rain is forecast to occur during the next seven days. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Clear skies & 50F this Tuesday morning on the coast. The forecast remains clear for now & brings in some breezy conditions for the weekend.

YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Ukiah 100°, Laytonville 98°, Covelo 97°, Yorkville 96°, Boonville 92°, Fort Bragg 68° (Death Valley's high/low yesterday was 123°/105°)

TRAGIC ACCIDENT claims the life of Boonville resident Arthur Hobbs IV; one dog retrieved at scene, second dog located after the accident; gofundme set up to help with expenses: gofundme.com/f/cover-funeral-costs-and-celebration-of-life

GoFundMe message: “Trying to get some money together so we can get my uncle cremated and have a celebration of life for him. His name was Arthur Hobbs, he lived in Boonville. He was a very special person to all of us and deserves to be celebrated. He was always doing for others and we need help doing this one last thing for him."

Mendocino Action News (Danilla Sands): facebook.com/groups/mendocinoactionnews/posts/1279613829341660/

FROM THE CHP: On July 15, 2023, at approximately 1010 hours, Fort Bragg residence post officers were dispatched to a fatal traffic crash involving a vehicle down an embankment and into a tree located near 40400 Mountain View Road east of State Route 1, in an unincorporated portion of Mendocino County. The driver was the sole occupant of a 2001 Ford F-150 pickup truck driving westbound on Mountain View Road, east of State Route 1 at an unknown speed. The Ford drove off the south roadway edge, struck a tree, and overturned down an embankment. The driver was pronounced deceased on scene at approximately 1058 hours. The crash is still under investigation, and it is unknown at this time if impairment is suspected.

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear AVUSD Community,

I hope you are doing well. I had a couple of weeks out of the office and it was good for reflection. In my last district, my nickname was “Speed”, nothing ever moved fast enough for me–achievement, physical plant improvement, engagement, you name it and I was always wanting more, more, more… Because kids deserve that…

I spent a few days away with my dog and no internet. I came back today and was reenergized with some conversations I had…First of all, Sid Frazier reflecting on the elementary school…We have started seeing transformation with the efforts of our district painter, Miguel. He works hard and diligently, and what a difference it makes. The septic contractors are plowing up the backfield. Change is coming… Sid shared with me the impact on morale when the physical plant is taken care of, and I agree. It’s never fast enough for me. If I dream it, I want it for our kids now.

I spent my last day of vacation on Sunday going through our State test scores. I am straight up, the scores are poor, and part of that is because somewhere along the way the kids decided it is cool not to be successful. But, we made a 10 percent improvement at the elementary in ELA and a six percent district wide improvement in ELA when you take out partial scores. Somewhere along the way, kids have got the vibe, achievement isn’t cool. I see it at our honor roll ceremonies… the parents have tears of pride in their eyes, and come but the kids don’t. Breaks my heart. Make your kids come please. This is really an amazing achievement. Stand up as a parent/guardian and say, “I am proud of you and this is important to ME that we attend”.

I saw kids in our credit recovery program scoring almost perfect fours in the State exams. What the heck is that about? Expect your kids to be in mainstream. They are brilliant. Let them shine. Easy isn’t cool. Scholarships are generated through struggle and not taking the easy path.

Folks, I raised a hard kid. I kicked his ass and held the line of expectation, and he now has a Master’s Degree and is a brilliant special education middle school teacher changing the lives of kids just like him. 

How can you help? Expect excellence. Demand excellence–tell me how we can help your kid.

I loved my conversation with david ballantine today… david–all kids should be a-g college prepared at our school whether they need it or not. That is true…a wise man…prepare them, expect them, support them, celebrate them…they can do it. Don’t ever let the pandemic be an excuse. I won’t…if your kid isn’t signed up for our college program, call the office and get them enrolled. They can do it. They need to do it. 

Just a reminder, we are cell phone free 7-12th grade next year. Talk to your student so they know the expectation. We are excited about how to re engage with students. Teachers will also be cell phone free! If your kid doesn’t comply, we will be calling you, so front-load that conversation so it isn’t a burden for you and we are on the same page.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent, Anderson Valley Unified School District

PG&E PROPOSES Reducing Russian River Flow and Transferring Potter Valley Project to Subsidiary

by Sarah Reith

The Potter Valley Project has two deadlines for public comment coming up next month. One is a proposal for a flow variance, which takes into account recent developments with the embattled water diversion facility.

The other is garnering statewide interest in PG&E’s request to transfer its non-nuclear generating assets to a subsidiary called Pacific Generation. That includes all its hydropower projects, some of which, like the one in Potter Valley, are running under expired licenses and are slated for decommissioning. Potter Valley has not been able to generate electricity since December of 2021, due to a broken piece of equipment in the powerhouse.…

mendofever.com/2023/07/18/pge-proposes-reducing-russian-river-flow-and-transferring-potter-valley-project-to-subsidiary/

METH DRIVER CONVICTED

Defendant Harvey Lee Rogers, age 71, of Ukiah, was sentenced last week in the Mendocino County Superior Court to 88 months in state prison.

The defendant stands convicted by an 11th hour change of plea of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of a methamphetamine causing injury to another person, a felony; inflicting great bodily injury on that victim causing him to become comatose due to brain injury; and also causing great bodily injury to the motorcycle passenger.

The defendant’s jury trial was originally scheduled to get underway on May 22nd, but the defendant decided four days prior to forego that trial and admit criminal culpability.

The driver of the motorcycle and his passenger were both badly injured when the defendant unexpectedly turned his vehicle into the path of the oncoming motorcycle on July 22, 2021.

As noted in the probation investigation, the motorcycle driver "died twice" after the collision due to cardiac arrest and respiratory failure; he was in a coma for three days; and in the hospital for a month.

This victim suffered multiple torn ligaments, a broken neck, a broken femur and torn femoral artery. His heel bone was shattered and had to be removed and he is now in constant pain. He also suffered a brain aneurism and now struggles with memory issues. Finally, he has a titanium rod in his leg (from his hip to his knee) held in place by twenty-three screws.

Likewise, the passenger on the motorcycle was also badly injured. She recalled for the court seeing bone sticking out of her leg and advised her femur was shattered. She was on life support for nearly two days and had swelling in her brain despite wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. She remained in the hospital for a month following the crash. 

In the past two years, this victim has had at least four surgical procedures -- the last one being this past February – with more surgical procedures anticipated. The victim’s ankle and knee are constantly swollen; she cannot play sports, run, bend her knee, dance, or wear heels. She uses a cane in the morning to walk around, as it takes a while for her left leg to get warmed up and moving. She still has a metal plate in her femur, which will need to be removed down the road.  A bone graft was taken from her hip and now one leg is crooked because her hip has turned outwards.

As a result of these injuries and the defendant having admitted being responsible for inflicting same, current California law characterizes the defendant’s crime as violent within the meaning of Penal Code section 667.5(c). 

The credits a violent criminal may attempt to earn towards early state prison release on state parole supervision is capped by statute at no more than 15 percent of the overall sentence, meaning defendant Rogers’ best case scenario should be incarceration in a state prison facility for a little over six years.  

The law enforcement agencies that investigated the crash and gathered the evidence supporting the defendant’s guilt were the Ukiah Police Department and the California Highway Patrol.  

A special note of thanks is extended to the medical first responders and Ascertain Forensics at Redwood Toxicology Laboratory in Santa Rosa for the laboratory work and analysis of the defendant’s blood sample. 

Had a trial been necessary, Ascertain Forensics was ready to provide expert testimony on the presence and level of methamphetamine detected in the defendant’s post-crash blood sample; as well as explanatory testimony as to how a methamphetamine-impaired driver tends to be more aggressive and reckless creating dangerous unseen conditions for others traveling on the local roads. 

District Attorney David Eyster handled the case and is the prosecutor who would have presented the People’s evidence to a jury had the defendant insisted on going forward with his trial.

MENDOCINO COUNTY REENTRY PROGRAM hosts open house on July 20

GEO Reentry Services and the Mendocino County Probation Department will host an open house on Thursday, July 20 from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Local officials, Probation and center staff, community partners, current program participants and program alumni will be on hand. Guests can learn about the reentry programs being offered and tour the facility.

Located at 579 Low Gap Road, the Mendocino County DRC serves individuals on probation and provides a structured combination of evidence-based programs, skill building, case management and community connections to help connect participants with resources and obtain essential needs. The program combines daily reporting with groups and treatment that focuses on sobriety and employment or full-time school enrollment when participants exit the program.

At the center, participants attend several groups, including substance abuse treatment; life skills development; cognitive behavioral treatment; parenting and family resources; emotional regulation and coping skills; employment skills building and career development counseling; and aftercare. Individuals move through phases at the center based on behavioral milestones.

Mendocino County opened the DRC in 2012 to focus on reducing the likelihood of reoffending, a long-term benefit to the community in reduced correctional costs and improving public safety. Since opening, the Mendocino County DRC participants have recidivated at a lower rate compared to a much higher rate statewide.

If you have any questions about the open house or the DRC, please contact Nicholas Canaday, Program Manager at (909) 361-2778 or ncanaday@geogroup.com.

PLEIN AIR THE TOWER

Sip and Paint with Suzi Long July 22 at Kelley House

Paint the iconic Kelley House water tower! Award-winning local artist Suzi Long will be your teacher and guide as you paint your own water color masterpiece. With patience and humor she will show you perspective and proportion strategies and a few tricks employed by artists everywhere. No experience necessary. Enjoy the beautiful view while sipping local wine provided by Fathers & Daughters Cellars, or sparkling cider. Supplies included. Tickets available online and in the museum until noon on July 22, or until event is sold out.

kelleyhousemuseum.org/event/water-tower-sip-and-paint-with-suzi-long/

THE HISTORY OF CATTLE BRANDS

On Sunday July 23, from 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. the Mendocino County Museum will host a lively afternoon conversation about the importance of cattle brands, community, and history!

Archives volunteer Carol Cox will share her adventures researching the Mendocino County Museum cattle brand collection.

While conducting her research, Carol met knowledgeable local residents who helped reveal the significant role cattle brands and ranching have played in Mendocino County history and into present day. Carol will be joined by local Rancher Dan Arkelian, Blacksmiths Jim and Maryanne Underhill, and a variety of community members who contributed to the effort.

Curator Linsey Dick will share cattle Brands from the Museum Collection, the 1852 Mendocino County Brand book, a quilt created to celebrate Stella James’ 50th Wedding Anniversary, and other unique brand-related objects from the collection. 

Program attendance is included with the cost of general admission. For more information, questions, and admission rates please visit www.mendocinocounty.org/museum or contact the Mendocino County Museum at museum@mendocinocounty.org or 707-234-6365.

(County Museum Presser)

SARAH KENNEDY OWEN: Regarding the raven/crow/swallow situation: Take heart, the crows may go away! We had a whole murder of crows living nearby in an oak tree. We could not hear them but the people who lived near the oaks must have gotten an earful. The crows have moved on and the ravens keep them out. However, I must say, I have never actually seen a crow or raven take babies out of their nest. That’s not to say it never happened. My biggest worry with the birds is the global warming situation, which makes it hard for the parents to keep the babies alive during the hottest days. Also, water is sometimes hard to get during a drought. If you look at the Capistrano swallows (and there is a beautiful book, written and illustrated by Leo Politi, “The Song of the Swallows,” for children, on the subject of the Capistrano swallows) you will notice that the mission where they returned had a huge fountain/birdbath which may have been what kept them coming back. Also, the practice of using pesticides on produce and grapes can kill a lot of delicious tidbits for the birds. So far, the birds do hunt in the vineyards and seem to be getting lots of food. But it could be that insect populations are going down, and thus the bird populations will diminish as well.

THE LATEST NEWS FROM YORKVILLE

Yorkville Community Benefits Association — July 2023

Best Party Ever! This Labor Day (Monday September 4th), we will hold our 33rd Ice Cream Social. 

With the pandemic in the rear view mirror we are restoring more of the super fun events of the Social. Look for the return of the Cake Walk with a special guest host the Cake Walk Fairy. Of course the awesome Book Sale will be sellin’ books by the inch. And, we’ll be grilling burgers and dogs, serving up classic homemade salads and homemade tamales too. The Silent Auction is already starting to look amazing. It wouldn’t be an Ice Cream Social without the main event- Ice Cream! Root beer floats and delicious cookies, pies and baked goods will round out your fabulous day! The whole community comes together to help put this event on, and we have many ways for you to get involved. From volunteering for a shift, to baking a luscious cake, or fabulous salad, from hosting a progressive lunch stop for the Silent Auction, to making a piece of art, we welcome your contributions. Please contact Lisa Bauer for any Silent Auction donations, and Val Hanelt for volunteering and/or food donations. 

If you’d like to donate or volunteer- We are looking for unique and creative Silent Auction items. Contact Lisa recycqueen@gmail.com Baked Goods for the Bake Sale and one-of-a-kind cakes for the Cake Walk. Contact Frosty curtisvfrost@gmail.com If you have books for the Book Sale you may drop them in the box at the Post Office or contact Valerie valhanelt@me.com And, we really need you to volunteer, it is a great way to meet the neighbors. Contact Valerie valhanelt@me.com At last, the new Fire Station is just about to spring to life. Yes, we know, we know. We have been promising a new building to house our new fire apparatus for years. Well, it is about to happen. Crane of Ukiah, our contractor, should be out and working on our new building within the month. Fast forward to this winter, when we hope to have a BIG party to celebrate the new fire station’s completion, giving us another good reason for a community gathering. Plans for that party are taking shape, so look for a notice in the late fall to early winter about our festivities. 

Also, watch the building come to life every time you pick up your mail at the Yorkville PO. The 2023 Quilt Is Gorgeous The Yorkville Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society has knocked it out of the park again. The 2023 Quilt is a sumptuous collection of colors and hues, radiant and tranquil, glorious in detail. The quilt is graciously created and sewn by the Sewing Circle and then donated to the YCBA by the ladies as a fundraiser each year. Their generosity has been shared with us for over 33 years! If you'd like a chance to WIN this gorgeous textile masterpiece, please contact Tina at theYCBA@gmail.com to get your tickets. Tickets will also be available at the Ice Cream Social and the Fair. The winning ticket will be drawn at the Fire Station opening festivities this year. Good luck! $2 each or 3 for $5 

Get Ready To Bid on A Whole New Experience 

For the Ice Cream Social Silent Auction 2022 we created a whole new category of cool items to bid on, Experiences! The idea is that people can sponsor a cool event, a dinner, a flight, a tour, a painting lesson, etc. Then the silent auction bidders can bid to win. Here are some excerpts from a few of this year’s participants (hosts and winners). Nancy and Curtis Frost created a “Jeep Tour of the Cooley Ranch”- here is their recap: 

It took a little thought and planning to come up with the idea and execute our Cooley ranch ride. We love sharing the place with others, making new friends all the while supporting a worthy cause. We would encourage others in our community to think about experiences they might be able to offer for the silent auction.

Experiences folks in the Bay Area might really appreciate.” 

Maybe a walk through the redwoods with a picnic lunch 

Maybe a cool morning hike at the fog layer with a bbq lunch at the end 

Or maybe a walk through a vineyard with discussion on growing/harvesting/making wine and a wine tasting" From Ray Triplett who was the winner of the Jeep Tour: "We were elated to win last year's first ever auction item for a tour of the very special Cooley Ranch. It was a fantastic event and our hosts, Frosty and Nancy, with help from Tom and Bob, were beyond gracious. Their hospitality and the activities - a delicious barbecue, rides in 4 wheelers, vineyard tour, wine tasting, and lots of stories and laughs - made it a day we will always cherish. 

This is a priceless experience and we highly recommend it!" One of the other events donated was “Dinner Under The Oaks”, hosted by Jim Bahan and Cassie Hughes, with culinary expertise of Chef Paul Horn. From Bill and Linda Nayes, the winners: “We were fortunate to be the winning bid for a “Dinner Under the Oaks” hosted by Jim and Cassie. Linda and I with six guests were treated to a culinary experience of great skill and creativity in an extraordinarily stunning setting. 

The venue “Under the Oaks”, though casual was very elegant and relaxing. It was a great experience and an exceptional means of supporting the Yorkville Community Benefits Association and I foresee intense bidding at the next event” Do you have a great property you’d like to share for a morning hike? Are you an avid birder and want to lead a bird walk? Want to teach someone a skill you have mastered? Or an evening of stargazing during a meteor shower? The possibilities are endless. Please contact Lisa Bauer with your ideas theYCBA@gmail.com Yorkville and beyond Fire Safe Happenings 

This year saw a lot of focus on fire. Voters in Mendocino passed Measure P, to bring funding to local fire departments and to fire prevention work through the county. This tax revenue will directly benefit the Anderson Valley Fire Department, of which our own Yorkville Fire Station is a component. We are very excited to have the potential for more fire equipment and resources for our first responders! And this means that chipping and other fire prevention services through the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council will continue. Also, the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, who provides increasingly competitive Mini-Grants to local fire safe councils and “roadsheds,” awarded our very own Yorkville Fire Safe Council and the Galbreath Preserve a mini-grant! This mini grant is intended to support the planning process for a series of prescribed burns on the Preserve, and provide public events in conjunction with that planning process. 

These events would give attendees hands-on experience with various aspect of the planning process including: site selection based upon the various goals landowners might set for their burn; the need for permits and the process to be followed; how to create a smoke management plan; site preparation required before the burn; and budgeting. We congratulate Margot Rawlins, the Galbreath Preserve local coordinator, and all who collaborated on this concept, and look forward to learning more about prescribed burns.

Finally, for those of you who want to get virtually real time notification of fires, both large and small, happening in California, you may want to look at Watch Duty, a notification service you can download for free on your phone. You then choose the counties you want to follow and you will receive notifications on the fire(s) happening in those areas.

www.watchduty.org 

Here’s to a safe fire season.

 The Virtual Farm Stand — Back in Fall! When Covid hit in 2020 — suspending our Ice Cream Social with its fundraising and get-together benefits — a group of bakers and food makers and artists got thinking. Why not offer the best of local produce and creative work online? Thus, the Virtual Farm Stand was born. Initially, our vision was to bridge the gap until the Ice Cream Social was offered again. But, wow, the Virtual Farm Stand took off! Our first year, 2020, sales more than doubled what the in-person Farm Stand made in 2019. In 2021 this increased by nearly $1,000, and in 2022 the Virtual Farm Stand took in over $4,500 in sales, roundups, and donations. All of the cost of goods were completely donated by the Virtual Farm Stand Volunteer Team. Meaning, 100% of the proceeds went to funding the Yorkville Fire Station. The Virtual Farm Stand will be back in the fall.

Would you like to join in by donating canned goods, foods, related craft/arts? The more we can offer, and the more variety, the better. Creative ideas: bring ’em on! Email Peter Brodigan brodigan@sonic.net or Adrian Card adriancard@gmail.com and we’ll loop back with you in September/October when we begin organizing the 2023 Virtual Farm Stand. 

A huge thank you to the 2022 Virtual Farm Stand Team Volunteers (aka Heroes): Becky Perelli, Deb Wallo, Doug Labat, Gerald Reis, Jill Hannum, Kathy Borst, Linda Nayes, Lisa Bauer, Margot Rawlins, Marti Lawrence, Nancy Armstrong-Frost, Sue Marcott, Tina Walter, Val Hanelt, and Whitney Cookson. And thank you, too, everyone who participated, bought items, and donated to the Virtual Farm Stand. Go, Us! Have You Considered a Legacy Donation to the YCBA? Recently, I updated my will and made an important addition: I added a legacy gift to the YCBA. My reasoning was simple: Appreciation. When I think of the camaraderie, the being-there, the pulling together to build this extraordinary community of Yorkville, I know the YCBA has always been smack in the center. 

Whether raising funds for buildings and programs to keep us firesafe and fire-aware, sponsoring events to bring us out of the hills and mingle together, or managing the minutia of details that give us a post office, a community center, and a fire house, the year-long and year-after-year work of the YCBA is overseen with selfless care. I have personally benefitted greatly from the efforts of the YCBA and the enormous commitment by the YCBA governing committee (all volunteer) and the Yorkvillians who have stepped up and chipped in time and again. Out of appreciation for all this work and our terrific community, I want to see these efforts supported into future generations. Acknowledging and remembering are always very personal decisions, but perhaps others share my feelings. You, too, may want to make a legacy donation to the YCBA. 

To learn more or get started, contact Lisa Bauer at theYCBA@gmail.com. We are looking for your ideas. The YCBA is continuously working to make our community a safer, better place to live. We will be reaching out to you in the near future to ask you about how you think Yorkville could be improved. We want your suggestions, ideas and energy around making the place we live and love better for all of us. Please Visit our Website The YCBA | PO Box 222, Yorkville, CA 95494 theYCBA@gmail.com 

ED NOTES

JIM SHIELDS of the Mendocino County Observer out of Laytonville is at ground zero. He described the ugly July 8th episode this way: 

A large crowd (25-30 people) of Laytonville residents were responsible for capturing and holding a man believed to have sexually assaulted a young girl until law enforcement officers arrived on the scene this past Saturday night, July 8th. 

While the accused man was roughed up a bit by a few people in the crowd at the Laytonville Elementary School, he didn’t appear to be seriously injured. Most of those assembled at the school arrived there in response to information sent out on social media. 

According the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Trevor Wilson, 19, of Laytonville, was arrested and booked into the County Jail on charges of kidnapping for robbery and rape, contact with intent to commit lewd act with a minor, and lewd/lascivious acts with child under 14 with force. Bail was set $250,000. 

Sheriff’s detectives are actively continuing their investigation and gathering evidence. It’s known that detectives have reviewed security camera footage at locations other than the elementary school where the incident ended shortly after 11 p.m. with Wilson’s arrest. 

There are additional details regarding this incident that we are not publishing at this time due to the ongoing investigation."

FIRST A DISCLAIMER: The following derives from two persons not associated with my long-time Laytonville colleague, which I want to make clear so Jim Shields doesn't get hostile treatment for what I say about the episode he describes above.

A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS BAIL? For an apparently non-coerced relationship between an 18-year-old male and a 13-year-old female? Of course Trevor Wilson should have known better, and he has no excuse for intercourse, if there was intercourse, with a lightly supervised 13-year-old who, as persons close to the matter say, is experienced way beyond her years, a common occurrence in our debauched society that forces young people into knowledge and experiences they're too young to emotionally absorb.

I'LL BE INTERESTED in how DA Eyster handles this one, but it seems obvious — to me anyway — that justice wouldn't be served by packing the kid off to state prison. And I wonder at the high bail. Capitulation to the mob? Wilson was punched a few times just before the police arrived, and fortunately they did arrive promptly or the mob undoubtedly would have harmed him.

WILSON'S VICTIM, the 13-year-old, is apparently saying she was assaulted, taken advantage of, perhaps out of fear of her parents, but people close to the case say the relationship between the two was ongoing, consensual, if a 13-year-old can be said to be consenting.

MONDAY AFTERNOON on deadline. Me, talking out loud to myself, “I might have to run over the hill to get a Powerball ticket.”

MY COLLEAGUE, The Major. “You'd go all the way to Ukiah for zero chance of hitting the jackpot?”

ME: “Would you drive to Ukiah for $875 million?”

THE MAJOR: "Do the math. Your odds of winning are the same as not playing, get it?”

ME, IRRELEVANTLY: “I sweated my way through high school algebra because everyone said I'd need it. Guess what? I'm 84 this very week and never once have I used algebra or even been asked to use it. I wish someone had told me those odds when I was 15.”

THE MAJOR: "If you don’t know any algebra you’re not likely to use it or even be asked to use it."

2023 HOMELESS HOUSING, ASSISTANCE AND PREVENTION PROGRAM

Department Social Services

Category Request for Proposals

RFP Number 040-23

Start Date 07/17/2023

Close Date 08/28/2023 2:00 PM

RFP Post Status Open

This request for Proposal (RFP) announces the intent of the County of Mendocino to publicly procure qualified entities and individuals for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Program Rounds 3 and 4 for a combined total of $4,409,922.72.

The purpose of the RFP is to retain multiple qualified Contractors or Vendors to provide direct and systemic support to persons experiencing homelessness and projects to improve the local homeless services delivery system.

Please see Request for Proposal for more information 

Vendors must submit four (4) copies of their proposal: Three (3) complete paper copy with original Vendor signature, and one (1) complete copy on USB Flash Drive. The proposal must be formatted in accordance with the instructions of this RFP. Promotional materials may be attached but are not necessary and will not be considered as meeting any of the requirements of this RFP. Proposals must be enclosed in a sealed envelope or package, clearly marked “Mendocino County RFP No. 040-23”, and delivered by 2:00 p.m. on August 28, 2023, to:

Mendocino County 

Department of Social Services

Attn: Veronica Wilson, Program Administrator

747 South State Street

Ukiah, CA 95482

Late or facsimile proposals will not be accepted. It is the proposer’s responsibility to assure that its proposal is delivered and received at the location specified herein, on or before the date and hour set. Proposals received after the date and time specified will not be considered.

Questions regarding this RFP should be directed to:

Mendocino County 

Department of Social Services

Attn: Veronica Wilson

747 South State Street

Ukiah, CA 95482

 wilsonv@mendocinocounty.org

100 YEARS AGO this past Thursday, July 13th Cuffey's Cove pioneer Michael Donohue passed away at the age of 99 years 8 and one half months.

He was born in County Tyrone Ireland in 1823 and entered the US through the port of New Orleans in 1847. In 1858 he married Catherine Donneley, also from County Tyrone and they homesteaded near Cuffey's cove in 1862. Their only neighbors at the time were Francisco Faria to the north, Nathaniel Smith at the west edge of their property and the Greenwood brothers to the south. By 1884 Donohue had sold 21 acres to L.E. White, which became the townsite of Greenwood, more commonly, but inaccurately known as Elk.

Michael and Catherine had eight children but neither of the boys lived long enough to carry on the name. Descendants can still be found, though, in several coast families.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Monday, July 17, 2023

ROBERTO CHAVEZ-SOUZA, Ukiah. Attempted murder, assault with firearm on person, robbery of inhabited dwelling, burglary, armed with fiream in commission of felony.

MINDY GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Stolen property, paraphernalia, drug possession in jail.

TABATHA JONES, Westport. Robbery, controlled substance.

BRITTANY KORVER, Ukiah. DUI.

ANTONIO LOPEZ JR., Hopland. DUI-alcohol&drugs, controlled substance.

ROBERT NUTT III, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ZAHIR PECHERON, Fort Bragg. Robbery.

BENJAMIN SCHNYDER, Branscomb. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

ROBERT VALADEZ, Ukiah. Protective order violation, county parole violation.

EDGAR VAZQUEZ-ALVARADO, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, evidence tampering, resisting, probation revocation.

MENTAL ILLNESS DROVE THEIR SON INTO THE WILDERNESS

They say police abandoned him to die

by Matthias Gafni

On Sept. 13, a CHP officer encountered Jesse Cavagna in pajamas and socks having an apparent psychotic episode. The officer took a photo and sent it to mental health officials, but the agencies never alerted police searching for the missing man.

When a California Highway Patrol officer arrived, responding to a concerned driver’s call, Jesse Cavagna told him his name was Free Willy. He said he was from “Texas, California,” and on a spiritual journey to “the Ark.”

Officer Joel Skeen appeared to recognize that Jesse was having a mental health episode on CHP dash-cam video of the Sept. 13 encounter. Several times he offered to take the 33-year-old man somewhere safe. But after about 10 minutes, Jesse broke free from Skeen and disappeared down a steep embankment. The officer sent a photo he had taken of Jesse to Lake County Behavioral Health officials that day.

Jesse’s body would be found 46 days later, about a mile from his encounter with Skeen.

The Lake County Coroner’s Office estimates that Jesse died “within several days” of the Oct. 29 discovery of his body, meaning he was likely alive for more than a month after the CHP encounter. An autopsy determined he died from his schizophrenia, with contributing factors of exposure to the elements and starvation.

How he came to be lost in the wilderness, and who is to blame, is the subject of a lawsuit his parents have filed against the California Highway Patrol, Skeen and Lake County Behavioral Health Services, as well as Lake County, the city of Clearlake, its police force and one of its officers, Brittany Shores. The civil action alleges they failed in their duties to protect Jesse by bungling that critical lead from the CHP encounter and violating almost a dozen state laws as well as Clearlake police and CHP policies.

Kim and David Cavagna say the photo Skeen took of Jesse, along with other information about the incident on Sulphur Bank Drive, was not shared with family or local law enforcement. That misstep, they say, caused the Cavagnas to spend most of September and October searching for Jesse miles from where he was last seen.

All along, the Cavagnas say, police only halfheartedly looked for their son, writing him off as a mentally ill drug user.

“Each defendant here is charged with special duties to protect Jesse, a severely handicapped person,” alleges the lawsuit, filed April 7 in federal court. “Each defendant failed to protect Jesse, thus, leading to Jesse’s long and painful death by way of being exposed to the elements.”

His parents believe Jesse’s case was handled improperly because of his mental illness. He should have been rescued, they say.

“I think people up here have real problems with people like him,” Kim Cavagna said in an interview. “Mentally ill people are stigmatized, and I think the agencies up here are calloused.”

The family’s attorney, Joel Siegal, said, “We can learn a lot about society by studying how we as a society deal with the most vulnerable. I don’t know what those last days, weeks or hours must have been like for him, but he must’ve been frightened, scared and all alone.”

Patrick Moriarty, an attorney representing the city of Clearlake, its police department and Officer Shores, said his clients empathize with the Cavagnas’ loss but dispute the allegations.

“The police department takes missing persons cases seriously and investigates them fully,” Moriarty, who filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on June 20, said in an email. “The City and department deny that their alleged actions or inactions caused Mr. Cavagna’s death.”

A CHP official said the agency could not comment due to the pending litigation. Officer Skeen did not return a request for comment. State attorneys also filed a motion to dismiss, alleging the CHP was immune from such lawsuits and arguing there was no evidence that Skeen’s actions led to Jesse’s death.

“There is a 46-day gap between Officer Skeen’s interaction with decedent and when decedent was found,” CHP attorney LeeAnn Whitmore argued in a June 26 court filing. “There are no facts showing circumstances that would have required a (police response), whether Officer Skeen’s action increased decedent’s peril or somehow caused his death.”

Lake County Behavioral Health officials did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for the agency denied the allegations in a response to the complaint. A judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the motions Oct. 19.

At one point during the encounter on Sulphur Bank Drive, the dash cam video shows, Skeen appeared to appreciate the risk of Jesse wandering around in his mental state.

“I can’t let you walk off on your own,” the officer told Jesse. “If something bad happens to you, it’s gonna be on my shoulders.”

Jesse Michael Cavagna was born Jan. 17, 1989, on an Apache reservation near Sedona, Ariz. Two years later, his family moved to Lower Lake, south of Clear Lake, where Jesse spent his childhood flipping rocks searching for lizards, climbing trees and riding his custom dirt bike with his sisters Felicia and Tiffany. He loved the “Jurassic Park” films and collected dinosaur toys.

“Jesse was a very smart child,” his mother Kim said. “His inclination was toward science and math.”

At Lower Lake High School, he played football and wrestled. His father trained him in a makeshift boxing gym in the family’s dusty barn.

Things seemed normal until 2008, when Jesse was about 19. “He said, ‘Mom, I think the TV is talking to me,’ ” recalled Kim, 58. Her family had a history of schizophrenia.

That year, Jesse started using drugs and his parents enrolled him in rehab. He soon moved into a drug treatment center on Cobb Mountain, farther south of the lake. But weeks later, David received a phone call from the facility. Jesse was struggling mentally, a counselor told his father, and he needed to come get him.

“I feel like I’m losing my mind, Dad,” David recalled his son saying to him on the drive home.

Jesse asked his mom to pray for the voices to go away. His face looked contorted, the couple recalled, as if he was seizing. Back in his old bedroom at the family’s Lower Lake home, Jesse would talk to himself, make loud noises at night and sometimes punch the walls.

“It was crushing,” recalled David, who at the time operated his own tree service. He began to realize that his son would not be able to take over the family business. “All these things I thought he would become.”

In 2009, Jesse had an episode so severe that he was involuntarily hospitalized, the first of 20 or so such hospitalizations, known as 5150s, over the next decade. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, a disorder that can disconnect thoughts and experiences from reality, causing confused speech or behavior. Doctors said he suffered from schizophrenia affective disorder, a version of the illness dominated by mood swings.

After a psychotic incident, Jesse was placed under conservatorship, a process allowing the county to care for individuals who are gravely disabled due to mental illness. Jesse became a regular with Lake County Behavioral Health, receiving outpatient services, medications and treatment as part of his conservatorship.

The medications were a challenge for Jesse, who felt like they reduced his symptoms but made him feel “miserable” and far from normal, his father said.

By late 2021, Jesse had spent three years hospitalized at Crestwood Behavioral Health, a mental health facility near Napa. Staff there decided to move him to a halfway house in Eureka, where his parents hoped he could adjust to normal life. In a Zoom call with Jesse’s county-appointed psychiatrist in September 2021, David said the doctor suggested he become his son’s “third-party assistant” when the conservatorship ended, helping Jesse get to appointments, shop and satisfy other needs.

With this arrangement, the psychiatrist removed Jesse from the conservatorship, David said. Jesse had lived alone before, but mostly in units operated by the county behavioral health department. Now Jesse’s parents rented their 32-year-old son a space in a mobile home park and secured him a trailer.

For a year he lived in Space 9B at the Southshore Mobile Park in Clearlake. Every day, his parents said, he would walk down Old Highway 53 to J&L Market to pick up cigarettes, energy drinks and snacks. He would sit outside his trailer on a chair, sometimes talk to his neighbors, and occasionally walk to the end of the dirt park road and jump into Clear Lake for a swim.

Eventually, Kim and David said, they were able to get Jesse into In-Home Supportive Services, a state program that allowed Kim to become his designated caretaker, helping clean his trailer, buy food and run errands.

Jesse, though, struggled to stay on his medications. In July, he scribbled in his notebook: “my fire in my heart is never out and it will continue to overcome all obstacles (that) defeat me I will win in the beginning to the end.”

In August the family had an intervention with Jesse, according to the lawsuit, telling him it was “urgent he start taking his medications because without them his mental condition was declining.” That month he feuded with a neighbor in the mobile home park, threatening violence. The neighbor obtained a restraining order against him.

Despite these incidents, Jesse’s parents said they felt his life had stabilized enough that they could leave him for a few days and take a short camping trip to Lake Tahoe. A couple of months earlier they had taken a brief trip to Eureka as a couple, and Jesse had stuck to his routine: walk to the market, pick up cigarettes and snacks, chat with neighbors, go for a swim. There had been no problems, so they weren’t concerned, his father said.

Kim Cavagna bought him groceries and supplies and explained that she and David would be gone from Sept. 11 to 14.

“Love you, Mom,” Jesse said as she walked out of the trailer.

Free Willy. Tony Hawk. Noah Levine.

Those were some of the names Jesse gave Officer Joel Skeen on Sept. 13 during his confused and winding narrative. He said his birthday was “700” and that he lived in Israel. “I’ve been walking for two days,” Jesse said at one point.

It’s unclear exactly when Jesse left his trailer the final time, but the time-stamped CHP dash cam video documents that he had made his way more than 6.5 miles north.

“Is there somewhere safe I can take you, if there’s a family member nearby?” Skeen asked him. “I don’t like you out here by yourself.”

The conversation ended when Skeen asked if he could check Jesse for pocket knives. He responded, “No, I gotta go, sir.” Jesse jogged away as Skeen unsuccessfully tried to grab him.

In court records, Siegal, the Cavagnas’ attorney, alleges Skeen failed to protect Jesse.

“Despite the fact that Jesse was shoeless and wearing pajamas, he easily evaded Officer Skeen, and reviewing the dashcam footage indicates that Officer Skeen made no real effort to secure Jesse,” Siegal wrote.

On the video, Skeen can be heard radioing dispatch that Jesse fled on foot northbound on Sulphur Bank Drive. The video shows Skeen driving back and forth slowly along the stretch of road looking for Jesse, eventually parking on the shoulder again.

Later, Skeen can be heard talking to Lake County Behavioral Health and calling Jesse an “obvious 5150,” a reference to state Welfare and Institutions Code section 5150, which allows authorities to detain someone who is experiencing a mental health crisis and threatening the safety of themselves or others. He ended the call by saying he would send the photo he took on his phone in the hope that the agency could identify Jesse.

“I’ll send you a text right now, please respond back if you recognize him or not,” Skeen said. “If he pops back up later today or something, then maybe we have something to go with.”

The Cavagnas’ lawsuit, though, claims that the CHP officer owed a “special duty” to Jesse to take him into custody as a 5150 after determining he was “gravely disabled.”

In the CHP’s request for dismissal of the lawsuit, attorney Whitmore argued that Skeen came upon Jesse two days before he was officially reported missing, and that there was no “continuing duty” or obligation to protect Jesse after he fled. She argued that officers “may” detain an individual they suspect falls under code 5150, but are not required to do so.

David Cavagna acknowledges that Skeen treated Jesse kindly during their interaction. But, David said, the officer failed to understand the critical nature of Jesse’s condition and left the scene, abandoning Jesse to die.

When she and her husband returned from Lake Tahoe on Sept. 15, two days after Skeen encountered Jesse, Kim Cavagna went to check on her son.

His door was open and his portable fan was spinning, but the trailer was empty. At first Kim figured he had walked to the store, but a neighbor told her he hadn’t seen Jesse in days.

“I’m thinking, ‘What the heck?!’ ” Kim recalled. “He’s not here and that’s not normal.”

She called the Clearlake Police Department and filed a missing persons report. She explained to Officer Brittany Shores that the family was especially concerned about Jesse’s safety due to his mental disability. Kim became frustrated, she said in interviews and the lawsuit, when the officer seemed to focus on the possibility that Jesse was searching for drugs. Shores appeared to lack training on how to launch a missing person search, the lawsuit alleges.

In her report, obtained by The Chronicle through a California Public Records Act request, Shores said she searched the area surrounding Jesse’s trailer immediately after Kim called police. She wrote that she interviewed Kim, who told her Jesse suffered from “drug inducted (sic) schizophrenia and is an active drug user.”

Kim told The Chronicle she had heard rumors from a neighbor that Jesse had been looking for drugs in recent days. She said she relayed this information, among many other potential leads, to police because “when he went missing I was open to all options just to find my son.” 

At the time, Kim said, she was scared and confused by the officer’s questions about drug use. She said she told the officer that the only thing she knew for sure was that Jesse had a family history of schizophrenia.

Shores did not respond to an email seeking comment. Moriarty, the attorney representing her, filed a motion to remove Shores, Clearlake and its police department from the suit in June, stating there was no evidence that Jesse’s mental illness led to a denial of police services, such as a search-and-rescue team, nor was there proof that Shores’ actions placed Jesse in a more dangerous position.

“Police and law enforcement agencies are not insurers of safety, and no duty existed to locate (Jesse) and prevent his death,” Moriarty wrote in the court filing.

David Cavagna told The Chronicle that while his son had sometimes used drugs in the past, he had stopped in recent years. His blood draws came back clean, he said.

The parents said communication with Clearlake police deteriorated quickly. Calls were not returned, they said. According to the lawsuit, an officer finally responded to David Cavagna, saying, “What do you expect us to do? I see in the report here that your son might be doing drugs, and is probably in a drug house!”

Believing police were doing nothing, David and Kim said they felt it was up to them to find their son. “They didn’t want to search for him,” Kim said. “They had him mis-profiled as a druggie in a drug house.”

“Nobody had a sense of urgency,” her husband said. “They were like, ‘Oh, he’ll turn up.’ ”

Police records say officers searched for Jesse in the area near his home on one occasion in September. It is not clear whether they conducted other searches that they did not document.

In the first week after Jesse went missing, David Cavagna said, he called medical and psychiatric hospitals and homeless shelters. When he called Lake County Behavioral Health Services and asked whether there had been contact with Jesse, the receptionist said no, according to the lawsuit.

His family printed missing posters and hung them along his normal walking route. With about a dozen friends, they searched the Anderson Marsh area, a state park on the southeast tip of Clear Lake, three times; they thought Jesse’s body might have floated there if he had drowned near the shoreline by his trailer. They checked routes leading to their home in Lower Lake, to tent encampments and to other major roads in Clearlake every day. The Cavaganas offered a $250 reward, and schoolteachers started a GoFundMe account.

Some Clearlake residents recognized Jesse but said they hadn’t seen him recently. His younger sister, Felicia Sears, posted on her Facebook page on Sept. 17, pleading for help from the public.

“There is no record in the hospitals, no police encounters, no mental health encounters. Please keep your eyes open. … It doesn’t make sense for him to disappear,” Sears wrote.

Five days later, she updated her post as a severe storm bore down on the area: “We are increasingly worried.”

Meanwhile, the Cavagnas said they tried to convince police that their son was not out looking for drugs.

On Sept. 27, Clearlake police Det. Leonardo Flores wrote in a report that he had spoken to Kim Cavagna by phone. He wrote that Kim “was trying to tell me that there was no evidence that he was using drugs and just had schizophrenia.”

Flores reviewed Shores’ body cam footage of her initial interview with Kim. In his summary of the video, Flores wrote that Kim told Shores she had heard her son had been trying to get drugs, but that she had never seen him take any. Shores asked Kim if Jesse’s schizophrenia was drug-induced, to which his mother reportedly replied, “Yeah. Probably. It’s probably hereditary, too. It’s both.”

On Sept. 28, more than two weeks after Jesse had disappeared, Clearlake police posted a short missing person notice on the department’s Facebook page. Without the information from his encounter with Skeen, the post listed inaccurate details, including about Jesse’s last known location and his physical description.

“We were looking in all the wrong places, because nobody told us anything,” David Cavagna said.

On Oct. 13, Jesse’s sister posted a Facebook update marking one month since her brother went missing.

“We were asked for dental records just in case a body pops up eventually. Otherwise, we don’t know of any searches or ongoing investigations to find Jesse. … This has been heartbreaking,” Sears wrote.

Then on Oct. 17, Det. Flores called Kim and David Cavagna. He asked for their son’s blood type and to bring his tooth or hairbrush for DNA in case a body was found.

Kim said she had lost hope and relayed new instructions to searchers.

“We told them,” she said, “to look for vultures.”

Hope was dwindling on Oct. 21 when Sears’ phone rang. It was an anonymous tip from a Lake County Behavioral Health Services employee, according to the family’s lawsuit, saying the agency had information in its system about Jesse’s whereabouts.

It was a Friday and the caller told Sears to phone the office Monday when it reopened.

“I didn’t think it was him,” Sears said of the tip. “I thought, there is no way Behavioral Health had this information at that point for more than a month that it could be him.”

The caller, though, said Jesse had given the fake name of Noah Levine. Sears’ ears perked up: It sounded like the name of one of Jesse’s favorite singers, Avril Lavigne. The caller also told Sears that her parents were approved in the system to receive information on Jesse, so there would be no privacy roadblocks.

On Oct. 24, David Cavagna called Lake County Behavioral Health. The tipster was right. For the first time, the agency shared what it knew about the Sept. 13 CHP encounter and released the photo of Jesse to his father. 

In the picture, Jesse is wearing a dirty, black, stretched-out “Deadpool” T-shirt and his hands are clasped, as if praying, with Clear Lake in the background. 

It had been more than a month since the photo was taken. It remains unclear why the photo wasn’t shared with family and law enforcement sooner — and why county mental health workers didn’t respond to the scene at the time.

Clay Drinnon, the behavioral health specialist who spoke to David Cavagna on Oct. 24, told the father he didn’t go out to assist Skeen that day because of a lack of cell phone service in that area, the lawsuit alleges. It’s unclear why that would have prevented him from traveling to the scene that day.

Drinnon, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment.

In his report on the incident — completed Nov. 27, a month after Jesse was found dead — Skeen said he had spoken to Drinnon and had texted him the photo of Jesse from their meeting. Drinnon did not recognize Jesse, but said he would share the photo with his colleagues at Lake County Behavioral Health and alert the officer if anyone could identify him, Skeen wrote in his report.

On Oct. 24, after speaking to Drinnon, David called Clearlake police to relay the news.

That same day, prompted by David’s call, Officer Nathan Williams called Drinnon, and apparently heard another version of events from the mental health official. According to Williams’ report, Drinnon said he was about to respond to the CHP incident but stopped when he learned Jesse had run off.

According to the report, Drinnon told Williams he had in fact recognized Jesse in Skeen’s photo, contradicting the CHP officer’s account that Drinnon could not identify him.

“Clay has numerous prior contacts with Jesse and knows him and his reported mental health issues,” Williams wrote.

That same day, after learning of the CHP encounter, Williams ran the name Noah Levine. Immediately, it popped up in the Clearlake police system as an alias Jesse had used — a clue law enforcement could have used to possibly identify Jesse on the day he disappeared.

In their lawsuit, the Cavagnas claim that among its failures, Lake County Behavioral Health Services should have told them about the CHP encounter because both Kim and David were listed on Jesse’s forms as people the agency could share his information with. They also allege the Clearlake police force failed to follow its own Missing Person Procedure, a document that outlines how to respond to such reports.

Jesse’s family was stunned, both by the developments and the lack of communication. While Jesse had not been reported missing on the day of the CHP encounter, there had been several opportunities for the agencies to alert one another once the report had been made, the family said.

“I was like, ‘Whoa! Law enforcement knew where he was on the day he went missing,’ ” Sears recalled.

On the afternoon of Oct. 24, a pair of Clearlake officers began searching the Sulphur Bank Drive area, police reports show. Officers spoke to residents from Sulphur Bank Mine Road, a lane at the bottom of the embankment Jesse had fled down, who said they had spotted him a month earlier. A man matching Jesse’s description had sat near a creek and asked a resident for water, one said, before they asked him to leave, fearing he was a squatter.

Kim drove to the Sulphur Bank area and searched, climbing down the steep embankment looking for signs of her son.

The coroner’s office would later estimate that Jesse was still alive as the search began anew. But Kim said there was still little effort from Clearlake police. She expected a fleet of ATVs and helicopters to comb the area; instead, officers looked for Jesse from their police car windows, and did not ask the sheriff’s office to deploy its search team, according to the lawsuit.

“Honestly, if they would’ve sent a search-and-rescue party like I asked even then, they would’ve found him alive,” Kim said.

A week later, David Cavagna was sitting in a barber’s chair when his phone buzzed. It was Nov. 1, his 64th birthday. He glanced at his cell and saw a Ring camera notification. A coroner’s deputy was standing on his front porch.

Three days earlier, a tribal member and his son from the nearby Elem Indian Colony had been walking the shoreline looking for artifacts when they found Jesse’s body. His left hand was outstretched, just touching the waterline, while the other was tucked under his face, according to the coroner’s report and the Cavagnas. He had no shirt on and his pajama bottoms were inside out. His T-shirt was found hanging on a bush.

His body lay about a mile from where he’d met the CHP officer almost seven weeks earlier.

The tribal member told a coroner’s deputy that he believed he had seen Jesse a month prior in the same area, bare-chested with a shirt wrapped around his neck like a cape. He told the deputy he had asked the stranger what he was doing, but the man scrambled off into the tule and disappeared, according to the coroner’s report.

The report concluded that Jesse’s body shut down as he starved and succumbed to the elements. He weighed about 230 pounds when he went missing, his parents said, and weighed just 155 when he was found. No drugs or alcohol were found in his system.

“I was just shocked. It’s hard to describe. I felt anger … I felt destroyed,” Kim said. “He suffered for 45 days. No food. No shelter. No shoes.”

“I always told him I’d be there for him,” David said, “but I felt helpless because I couldn’t find him.”

On Nov. 1, the Clearlake Police Department posted an update on its Facebook page, announcing that Jesse had been found dead. In the post, the department also explained that it had been notified about the Sept. 13 CHP encounter more than a month after it occurred.

Jesse’s sister responded to the post asking Clearlake police how they missed the encounter and had failed to contact behavioral health from the start.

“He was in the exact danger we warned you about,” she wrote. “We just needed your help.”

There are no specific policies requiring Clearlake police to contact Lake County Behavioral Health in the event of a mentally ill missing person, according to the department’s policy manual. However, the manual recommends “contacting other agencies involved in the case to determine if any additional information is available.”

Sears wrote her own post on Facebook, announcing her brother’s death and criticizing the handling of his case.

“I’m so sorry our system failed you brother. So many opportunities to help you and all went unanswered,” she wrote. “If we had known you were on Sulphur Bank that week we would have searched until we found you. We know how confused and scared you were. No one would listen to us but we knew you were in danger.”

Kim said she never got to view her son’s body, which had begun to decompose in the few days between his death and discovery. She had the coroner save a lock of his brown hair, which she keeps in a plastic bag.

“That’s all I got of my son,” she said. “That’s it.”

A coroner’s deputy drove the couple out to where their son was found, but they don’t like returning to the spot. Kim said it’s hard to think of her son left to die on the shore of the lake.

“I try to avoid it,” she said. “I just feel such sorrow and sadness for him. I can’t imagine what he went through.”

(SF Chronicle)

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN POWER FOR WORKERS?

A review of "Labor Power and Strategy", by John Womack Jr., edited by Peter Olney and Glenn Perusek, PM Press, 2023, 190pp with index and notes

reviewed by David Bacon

Half a century ago I got a job in a huge semiconductor plant, long before the internet.  In Silicon Valley's factories we tried to organize a union, arguing that this industry sat at the heart of the U.S. economy.  If workers in it had a strong union, we believed, we could use our power to change the world.

Perhaps the industry thought so too.  From the start, its titans were committed to keeping workers in their factories unorganized.  When Robert Noyce, cofounder of Intel, famously declared, "Remaining non-union is an essential for survival for most of our companies" we knew he was talking about us.

They'd brought together 250,000 workers in a single valley. What if we began to organize from plant to plant, we asked, much as autoworkers did in Detroit decades ago, and asserted sweeping demands not only for ourselves but other workers as well?  By targeting this strategic industry, might unions have been able to provide a bulwark against the loss of much of labor's power over the following decades? 

Of course, this did not happen. Most of us were fired and I was blacklisted.…

davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2023/07/what-does-it-take-to-win-power-for.html

THE WORLD SAYS: "You have needs -- satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky

RESIDENTS PLEAD FOR RACIAL SENSITIVITY during Blue Note Jazz Festival permit hearing in Napa

A public hearing held to formally permit the Blue Note Jazz Festival’s move to the Silverado Resort and Spa turned tense Thursday during its public comment period.

by Edward Booth

A public hearing held to formally permit the Blue Note Jazz Festival’s move to the Silverado Resort and Spa in Napa turned tense last week.

A Silverado resident at the Thursday meeting said she was concerned that festivalgoers might behave in ways that would threaten the neighborhood’s security. She referred to them as the “type of people” that “we would not like to invite to our homes” as opposed to being “golf enthusiasts.”

Her comment received backlash from other people in attendance, given the majority of artists scheduled to perform during the festival are Black.

This year’s lineup includes Mary J. Blige, Nas and Chance the Rapper.

Silverado resident Sue Sparks started her public comment by noting, though Blue Note Napa — including musical productions put on at the downtown jazz club and various related festivals — is a “wonderful thing,” the Jazz Festival’s impact on Silverado is worrisome.

“We’re going to need massive security,” she said. “We’re going to have people jumping over our fences into our pools. We’re going to have people walking all over our yards we work so hard to keep up.”

Mel Preimesberger, an area resident whose Silverado Highlands home burned down in the 2017 fires and who is Black, said at the meeting she had many of the same concerns about fire danger and traffic that had been expressed.

But she was upset to hear Sparks say the people attending wouldn’t be welcomed.

Preimesberger went on to say that she’d been to many festivals and concerts so she generally understood there would be concern about attendees.

At the primarily white BottleRock, she said, the stench of cannabis smoke took weeks to get out of her clothes.

Still, she pleaded for sensitivity.

“I’ve been to many events at the Blue Note, and one thing we were able to save from the fire was a saxophone that Kenny G had signed,” Preimesberger said of her home in the 2017 Atlas Fire — the Oct. 8, 2017, blaze that resulted in six deaths and 781 structures being destroyed.

“That was one of the few things we were able to save when he had performed there. I think there needs to be sensitivity in this room. I can’t believe you would say that.”

Sparks apologized to Preimesberger near the end of her comment.

A person who identified herself as Sparks’ sister, and declined to give her name to The Press Democrat, said Preimesberger had misinterpreted Sparks’ comments.

“She didn’t mean those people being African American. She meant the people going to the concerts,” she said.

“It has nothing to do with ‘those people.’ What it has to do with is the type of music is going to be rap, it’s going to be hip hop, it’s going to be controversial language.

“The acts that are booked are very sexually explicit, they waggle their tails all the time. I mean, it’s pretty much vulgar to me.”

Preimesberger responded that she’d paid a “heck of a lot of taxes here” and is invested in the community, and the term “those people” is a trigger.

“It’s the elephant in the room,” Preimesberger said.“It’s all Black artists. Come on, let’s just say it.”

Alan Goldstein also said during the meeting he was “troubled” by Sparks’ comments. But he felt that with proper limitations on the event — which he believed had been put in place — he saw it as a benefit to the community.

Following the meeting, Sparks said she felt she was misinterpreted and that her comments had to do with Silverado not being a proper venue for the festival.

“Blue Note is the most wonderful, fabulous music producer,” Sparks said. “What we are questioning is can this venue be protected. Is it really in their power?”

Preimesberger said after the meeting that the hurtful comment for her was about the concert attendees “likely not being people Silverado residents would invite into their homes.”

Racial bias has previously come up in relation to the Jazz Festival, which was held for the first time in Napa County last year.

Jonathan Butler, a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, had performed two shows at the 2022 Blue Note Jazz Festival then went for dinner at the St. Helena Goose & Gander restaurant, he said in an Instagram video last year.

He paid for the meal, “took care of the waiter,” but then was followed to his car by the manager of the restaurant, Butler said, who had asked whether he took “care of our server.”

The business later apologized to Butler — and he reportedly accepted the apology — but he called the encounter offensive and disturbing.

“He showed so much lack of respect for me and all of us who ate at the restaurant,” Butler said of the manager.

“I don’t think he’ll do that to a white person, but he did it to me. He felt comfortable to come up to me to tell me that ‘I’m coming to find out if you took care of my server.’”

The restaurant reportedly placed the manager on temporary leave and sought sensitivity training for the restaurant’s staff.

And last year, comedian Dave Chappelle, the festival’s host, took to the stage and noted Napa Valley is “a place not renowned for its diversity,” the San Francisco Chronicle had reported.

“This is the Blackest weekend it has ever seen,” Chappelle told the audience, according to the Chronicle report.

Chappelle later said he’d “never return” to Napa Valley if Grammy-winning pianist Robert Glasper wasn’t allowed to return to the stage past the St. Helena noise ordinance curfew time of 10 p.m., according to the Chronicle.

Glasper did return to the stage, and Chappelle is returning to host this year’s Jazz Festival, slated for July 28-30.

Alex Kurland, director of programming for the Blue Note Jazz Festival, said in a statement to The Press Democrat that the spirit of the jazz festival is progressive.

“Culturally, it is very important for Blue Note to champion artistic equality and freedom,” Kurland wrote. “Jazz represents these qualities, and the spirit of our festival embraces excellence and openness within a diverse range of music, culinary and art.”

Ken Tesler, managing director of Blue Note Napa, said he’s proud to have been a leader in attracting culturally diverse audiences to Napa County over the past seven years.

“Blue Note is deliberate to embrace Black business owners, artists and creators to be fully welcomed, embraced, respected and celebrated in the Napa Valley Marketplace,” Tesler said.

“We will not tolerate or stand for bigotry, gross racist comments and harmful language directed at our artists, ticket buyers, staff and community.”

(pressdemocrat.com)

BAD FOOD is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone... Bad food is fake food... food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people's ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives.

— Anthony Bourdain

KEEPING UP WITH THE DOOMERS:

(1) Rural areas will not fare any better as the starving gangs of hungry people will fan out to the rural areas and destroy them. If there is no food in the City they will go where the food is and that will be large multitudes. If an imminent hammer comes down it will affect us all. There is no safe place to hide or sit out the calamity.

(2) Keep the last round in your chamber reserved for yourself. There are many things far worse than death.

(3) I can see communities banding together and sharing resources. I can see churches bringing in their people to protect food, medicines and resources. Everything is about to become more and more localized. God help all of us.

(4) None of what you say will happen because when the grid goes down the rule of 3 takes over. The elements can kill a person in 3 hours. You will freeze to death if it is cold and you will suffer heat stroke if in the Sun for too long. People trying to walk their way out of the cities and suburbs will just die tired. Lack of clean drinking water will kill a person in about 3 days. Someone making their way out of their safe suburb into the wilds better be able to pack plenty of clean water for the trip because they wont find any along the way. Lack of food will put someone out of commission after about 3 weeks. Having to road march yourself around in the wilderness looking for people to sneak up on is hungry work. Good luck with that.

5) I’ll say it again, if you live in a city or suburb then there is no point in prepping. Just party like it is 1999.

THE WOKE MOB’S ASSAULT on Snow White and her seven dwarfs is far worse than anything Prince Charming did to her

by Piers Morgan

“Snow White” used to be a lovely, heart-warming film.

Who could fail to be inspired by the story of a beautiful princess rescued from the clutches of a wicked stepmother queen by seven kindly dwarfs, and a life-saving kiss from a handsome prince?

But that was before the joyless woke censorship police got involved to declare it “problematic.”

What part of it was a problem?

Try all of it!

First, she was called Snow White because her skin was very white, so obviously, that was branded racist.

Second, the handsome prince didn’t get her consent before delivering the magical kiss — so in the wake of the #MeToo campaign, he was condemned as a sexual predator.

Kazue Muta, a Japanese sociology professor and supposed “expert on workplace sexual harassment,” accused Snow White of promoting “quasi-compulsive obscene sexual acts on an unconscious partner,” and added: “You might think I’m ruining the fantasy of it all, but these stories are promoting sexual violence, and I would like everyone to be aware of it.”

How thoughtful.

But in fact, all I need to be aware of is that when Prince Charming kissed Snow White, he literally SAVED HER BLOODY LIFE, and they went on to live happily ever after.

Now, with chilling inevitability, the miserable cancel-culture cops have come for Snow White’s dwarfs.

Yes, apparently those lovable, hard-working, kind little guys Doc, Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Bashful and Sneezy are deeply offensive.

Not just because they’re all male, so that’s obviously disgustingly sexist and unacceptable, but more pertinently, because the characters are apparently demeaning to real-life dwarfs.

This claim was first made by the world’s most famous and successful dwarf actor, Peter Dinklage, who last year accused Disney of being responsible for “renewing damaging stereotypes” when it announced plans to remake the 1937 movie, saying, “You’re still making that f–king backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave … what the f–k are you doing, man?”

Disney, who’ve cast a Hispanic woman, Rachel Zegler, as Snow White to avoid the absurd bogus racism charges, bowed to pressure again, issuing a statement in response to Dinklage that said: “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.”

It turns out this meant abject capitulation to the whim of one man.

Leaked photos from the set last week showed that six of the seven male cartoon dwarfs have been replaced by human “magical creatures” of “all sizes, colors, and genders.”

Or rather, there are now six non-dwarfs, and one solitary dwarf.

As an instant firestorm of mockery blew up over the leaked images, panicky Disney shamefully lied, and said the photos, published by the Daily Mail, were fake.

Now it’s admitted they’re real, just not “official.”

Whatever.

The truth is that Disney’s once again surrendered to the woke mob and made itself look weak and ridiculous in the process.

As so often with such politically correct nonsense, many of the supposed “victims” Disney thinks it’s trying to protect from being exposed to harmful appropriation are furious.

Not least, other dwarf actors who’ve now missed out on plum jobs in a big Hollywood movie.

Professional wrestler Dylan Postl, better known by his ring persona Hornswoggle, accused Dinklage of being “hypocritical” and “selfish.”

He raged: “By being progressive in his mind, he is really doing the opposite and taking dreams away and potential roles from seven dwarf actors — I think it’s a shame. It doesn’t make any sense to me that we are taking one person’s voice for the whole community.”

Postl also pointed out that Dinklage has made millions from playing dwarf roles in blockbusters like “Game of Thrones” and “Elf.”

“Those checks cashed just fine,” he said. “He knew what he was getting himself in for there.”

Of course he did.

But he doesn’t seem to want the same opportunity for other dwarf actors, and it’s appalling that Disney has let him bully it into submission like this.

I don’t even understand the suggestion that Snow White’s dwarf characters are somehow humiliating.

As another dwarf entertainer, comedian Brad Williams, said: “They have jobs, you know? They got good friends. They got a house. They like to protect her [Snow White]. They’re diamond miners, so they’re rich. They’re self-made, wealthy.”

Exactly, so why all the faux offense?

Zegler told Vanity Fair: “People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is, because it needed that. It’s an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond ‘Someday My Prince Will Come.’”

Has she not met Meghan Markle?

More seriously, why on Earth would anyone be proud of making a “PC Snow White”?

There’s nothing, I repeat NOTHING, wrong with the first movie.

It was a terrifically enjoyable fairy tale that showed good triumphing over evil. 

But woke people don’t like escapist fun — in fact, they don’t like fun at all.

These dreary twerps prefer to scour every second of old films, just as they do old books or songs, desperately hunting spurious new reasons to pretend to be outraged.

The result, as one Twitter user scoffed, is “Snow White and the Seven Diversity Hires.”

And six actor dwarfs have been deprived of lucrative, career-enhancing work by virtue-signaling wokies trying to “help” them.

Great job, you liberal loons!

(New York Post)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The air of unreality emanating from the Crack House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave must have even the most indoctrinated of Dems going “WTF?” and “How do we dump this guy?” The baby-chomping Cannibal Joe video must have caused some anxiety for even some of the most hard cores.

I reckon the air of unreality surrounding our institutions is about chock full for how much bullshit the population can swallow without vomiting. I’ve never seen such an assault of nonsense on the senses as we’ve endured over the past going on 8 years now. Jebus H! Nearly a decade of utter codswallop spit at us incessantly as lying about everything has taken on an almost physical form, a miasmatic foul cloud of the worst-ever in my lifetime of experiences.

Will it ever wash off?

NEUTRALITY IS COMPLICITY

Editor: 

The recent Israeli military onslaught in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank should concern and distress all Americans, as our annual gift to Israel of $3.8 billion subsidized it, and our government stood by and allowed it to happen. Palestinians are tired of being excluded, oppressed in every way, living as prisoners in their own land under a brutal Israeli military occupation for 56 years. After all, Israel in 2018 made it a law that it is a nation-state for Jews only. What are millions of indigenous Palestinians to do? They will never disappear but will continue to resist with their lives and protect their families and homes. Please, let’s stop calling them “militants.” The oppressors are the militants, not the oppressed.

For decades, Israel has criminalized any resistance to its stranglehold on Palestinian land and its inhabitants. And it’s getting worse. Why shouldn’t Palestinians want to be free? Why shouldn’t they want to live on their own land with equality and dignity? Israel’s illegal occupation and theft of the West Bank, Gaza and Palestinian East Jerusalem is the root cause of the problem and the ongoing violence. Our neutrality is complicity and worse.

Therese Mughannam-Walrath

Sebastopol

UKRAINE, MONDAY, 17TH JULY

A Ukrainian security official claimed Kyiv is responsible for an attack on a key bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland, according to a source. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a “terrorist attack” and said Moscow would respond for the strikes.

Russia said it is pulling out of a UN-brokered deal that allowed for the safe passage of grain exports from Ukraine to the global market. The US and its allies slammed the decision, warning the move could worsen food insecurity and increase prices. 

A top Ukrainian general acknowledged the country is facing “difficult” conditions on the eastern front, with Russian forces redeploying around the city of Bakhmut.

On the southern front, Ukraine said it is advancing despite Russian airstrikes and a large concentration of landmines.