Mendocino County Today: Friday, August 18, 2023

INTERIOR TEMPERATURES will remain slightly above normal today through Saturday and then diminish early next week. The threat of isolated thunderstorms in the interior will persist for next several days. Storms are forecast to produce some precipitation and perhaps gusty winds. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A foggy 58F this Friday morning on the coast. A chance of rain remains now for Sunday only. All west coast weather eyes are on now Category 4 Hilary heading towards Baja. It currently looks like the moisture will miss our region & head east of us.

OUTSIDE WEATHER REPORT (Elizabeth Mitchell)

1.  Canada as of 6:30 am August 17, 2003: Wildfire buffeted western Canada on Tuesday. A blaze on the opposite end of the country in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has forced the evacuation of more than 16,000 people, compounding the national anxiety over out-of-control wildfires upending peoples' lives.  As wildfires buffeted western Canada on Tuesday, a blaze on the opposite end of the country in Halifax, Nova Scotia, forced the evacuation of more than 16,000 people, compounding the national anxiety over out-of-control wildfires upending peoples' lives.  Halifax is important because it is where half the population of the Northwest Territories lives.

2.  A Hurricane is coming at you.  Here's a picture.

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FBI RAIDS UKIAH BUSINESS AND CEO’S RESIDENCE

by Matt LaFever

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the California Highway Patrol raided West Coast Ag Products this morning, a pesticide and herbicide manufacturer located within the Carousel Industry Park north of Ukiah. 

Agents also searched a residence on the 400 block of Kennwood Drive. Talk around the neighborhood indicated the raid began around 6:00 a.m. when agents were heard pounding on the door demanding to be let inside.

Records from the Mendocino County Superior Court Portal indicate West Coast Ag Products CEO Chris Hale was involved in a lengthy civil lawsuit regarding the business with claims of unfair business practice.

Property records indicate Hale lives at the Kennwood Drive address raided by agents this morning.

We have reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation San Francisco field office for information about the raid but as of publication have yet to hear back.

(mendofever.com)

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HILARY BECOMES CATEGORY 2 HURRICANE AND IS EXPECTED TO STRENGTHEN

Torrential rain is expected to hit the Southwestern United States starting Friday.

by Judson Jones

Tropical Storm Hilary became a hurricane early Thursday morning as forecasters warned it would continue to rapidly strengthen through the day and could potentially bring “significant impacts” to Mexico and the Southwestern United States this weekend.

As of Thursday afternoon, the storm, the eighth named storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season this year, had sustained winds of 110 miles per hour, with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical disturbances that have sustained winds of 39 m.p.h. earn a name. Once winds reach 74 m.p.h., a storm becomes a hurricane, and at 111 m.p.h. it becomes a major hurricane.

Hilary formed 470 miles off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico, on Wednesday and was moving west-northwest toward Baja California. The hurricane strengthened into a Category 2 on Thursday, and it was expected to further intensify later on Thursday and become a major hurricane of Category 3 or higher later Thursday. On Saturday and Sunday, before making landfall, it will rapidly weaken as it moves over colder waters.

Because of the storm’s angle to the coast, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact landfall location, but forecasters are fairly confident that Hilary will continue on its current trajectory, turning north on Friday and moving parallel to the coast.

Hilary will bring up to six inches of rain, with isolated higher amounts, across portions of the Baja California Peninsula through Monday morning, with the possibility of flash flooding, meteorologists said Thursday. Rain will begin Friday in portions of the Southwest and will peak Sunday into Monday.

Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego, said a worst-case scenario for Southern California would be if the track shifted farther west and made landfall in California, which could produce much stronger winds and larger surf. The only tropical cyclone to truly make landfall in Southern California was an unnamed storm in 1939 that made landfall in Long Beach, she said.

The better scenario for California could be worse for Arizona and Baja California. If the storm tracks farther east into the Baja California peninsula over the next couple of days, the moisture and heavy rainfall would be shifted east.

A difference of just 100 miles or so in the track of the storm could mean a large change for the expected weather, forecasters with the Los Angeles weather office said.

A tropical storm warning was issued by Mexico’s government for the southern portion of Baja California Sur from Cabo San Lazaro southward and Los Barriles southward. A tropical storm watch also stretched from north of the west coast of the Baja California peninsula to Punta Abreojos and north of the east coast of the Baja California peninsula to Loreto.

Waves generated by the storm could also form life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season has been very active over the past few weeks, but most of these recent storms have tracked west toward Hawaii, including Hurricane Dora, which helped enhance extreme winds that led to the devastating wildfires on Maui.

It is “exceedingly rare” for a tropical storm to come off the ocean and make landfall in California, Ms. Sullivan said. However, storms have come close or weakened before coming ashore, still causing flooding and dangerous winds, like Kay, a post-tropical cyclone, last year. Sometimes storms even move across the state from Mexico; in 1997, Hurricane Nora made landfall in Baja California before moving inland and reaching Arizona as a tropical storm.

Hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific began on May 15, two weeks before the Atlantic season started. The seasons run until Nov. 30.

Complicating things in the Pacific this year is the development of El Niño, the intermittent, large-scale weather pattern that can have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world.

In the Pacific, an El Niño reduces wind shear, a term that refers to changes in wind speed and direction. That instability normally helps prevent the formation of storms, so a reduction in wind shear increases the chances for storms. (In the Atlantic, El Niño has the opposite effect, increasing wind shear and thus reducing the chances for storm formation.)

Hawaii is in the central Pacific but is occasionally affected by storms that form to the east. It is unusual, however, for a named storm to make landfall in Hawaii, given that the state’s land area is small and divided among several islands. The last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii was Iniki, in 1992. In 2020, Hurricane Douglas avoided a direct hit on the state but nevertheless produced damaging winds.

An average Eastern Pacific hurricane season has 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes. The Central Pacific typically has four or five named storms that develop or move across the basin annually.

There is solid consensus among scientists that hurricanes are becoming more powerful because of climate change. Although there might not be more named storms overall, the likelihood of major hurricanes is increasing.

Climate change is also affecting the amount of rain that storms can produce. In a warming world, the air can hold more moisture, which means a named storm can hold and produce more rainfall, as Hurricane Harvey did in Texas in 2017, when some areas received more than 40 inches of rain in less than 48 hours.

Researchers have also found that storms have slowed down over the past few decades.

When a storm slows down over water, it increases the amount of moisture it can absorb. When the storm slows over land, it increases the amount of rain that falls over a single location, as with Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which slowed to a crawl over the northwestern Bahamas, resulting in 22.84 inches of rain at Hope Town over the storm’s duration.

These are just a few ways that climate change is most likely affecting these storms. Research shows there may be other impacts as well, including storm surge, rapid intensification and a broader reach of tropical systems.

Derrick Bryson Taylor and Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting.

(NY Times)

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UNCOMFIRMED WORD TRICKLING OUT from (Adventist) Coast Hospital says that several radiology employees walked off the job a recently and were soon re-hired at an inland Adventist facility in either Willits or Ukiah. We’ve also heard that Coast Hospital is losing money from a combination of declining customers/patients and ongoing billing problems. Adventist Inc. being famously closed about such things, we have been unable to confirm any of this, so our sources close to the hospital asked us to put up a notice to see if anyone has heard or knows about these developments. 

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ADAM GASKA, a member of the Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council, helpfully sent along the full set of notes that Supervisor Glenn McGourty provided to their recent Council meeting to clarify his remarks about their Finance Department plans.

McGourty: “Plan to create County Finance Department: Both Supervisor Williams and I are developing a long-term plan for how Mendocino County can move from the present model of an elected Treasurer Tax Collector Auditor Controller to a County Finance Department (like Yolo and Marin Counties) as a way of insuring that people handling the county’s finances are qualified for the job, rather than elected. The justification is that presently there are inconsistencies in reporting our accounts, delays in critical reports and difficulties in knowing what our county financial balances are. Any changes will require a county wide vote to create such a department.”

So at least they acknowledge that voters would have to approve this stuff. But McGourty does not point out that the process is expected to take up to four years, or more. As we understand the Yolo County arrangement, they have an appointed (not elected) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) which may be what McGourty has in mind. But it took three tries to get voter approval in Yolo so that could extend the timing to even more than four years, after which lots of things could change. Back in December when the Mendo Board rashly consolidated the Auditor and Tax Collector, a retired Chief Administrative Officer from Yolo County told the Board that their consolidation (into a CFO) succeeded because the incumbent Auditor was “an absolute superstar” who was a full participant in the consolidation. Have the Supes identified Mendo's superstar who would lead Mendo’s conversion? Do McGourty and Williams expect staff (whom they've frequently insulted and snubbed) to add this to their already heavy workload? Or will they just try to get the voters to approve it and then figure it all out later if the voters approve — an unlikely outcome given the public’s distrust of this current Board. Not to mention how much could change in four years or more.

WE ALSO NOTED the irony of McGourty again insulting the current financial staff saying that the new department/position would “insure that people handling the county’s finances are qualified for the job, rather than elected…” That could easily apply to the (elected) Board itself. It would be nice if the people handling the county’s management were qualified for the job rather than elected.

(Mark Scaramella)

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DOWN HOME FOODS JOB OPPORTUNITY

Down Home Foods - Natural Food Store has an immediate job opening.

Must have good people skills. Apply in person, please no phone calls or emails.

Located on Franklin St near the Coast Cinema in Fort Bragg.

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IT DOESN’T GET MUCH BETTER than sitting on the porch on a hot summer day, and enjoying a freshly picked Elberta peach from Potter Valley’s Langdon Day Farms.

ED NOTE: I'll second that. Geniella gave me three of those Langdons, and I'm here to tell you there are peaches and then there are Langdons.

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GREAT DAY IN ELK

The 47th annual Great Day in Elk will be held on Saturday, August 26, from noon until dusk, a benefit for the Greenwood Community Center.

The noontime parade will travel through downtown Elk to the community center for the day’s festivities. All afternoon there will be games and contests with prizes, do-it-yourself crafts projects for children, plus a greased pole with a $100 bill at the top.

This year’s live entertainment features music by BoonFire, beats by DJ Nutrishious, and belly dancing. There will also be a silent auction, a cake auction and a raffle. Food and drinks will be served all afternoon, with dinner from 4 to 7.

The little coastal town of Elk is located five miles south of Highway 128 on Highway 1. For more information email Mea Bloyd at meabloyd@gmail.com or visit the Elk community website: www.elkweb.org

Please leave dogs at home.

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

THAO PHI: For a relatively young and newbie to the local political scene, I gained all the positive aspects of running for a city council campaign without inheriting the civic burden. (The three seats that filled got a little over ~2000 votes, I got 1500 votes. For effort/time/resource ratio, I feel I did pretty well.) I am a planning commissioner for the city of Ukiah and a county employee. Economic development in the city and county look bleak. Human services need more support to ultimately help our fellow neighbors. I have no plans to run for supervisor, as it is a difficult job for what the pay actually is. You could make a similar salary as a senior program manager or more as a director in the county than a supervisor. The compensation versus being in the public eye with legacy decisions + effects made prior to when you were supervisor and having demands from any different constituents makes it a tough gig. I am rooted in this community and want to stay but do not feel politics, at least for me anyway, is the route to make the kind of positive impact I am hoping for. May the best candidate get the 2nd district seat. I anticipate to host a district 1 candidate forum out at the City of 10k Buddhas later this year.

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APPLES OVER GRAPES

Editor: 

We’ve been buying a forty-pound box of Gravenstein apples for many years, to make applesauce and apple pies to freeze. In the Western U.S. there are no better apples for this purpose. When we moved to the Bay Area in 1960, there were hundreds of acres of Gravenstein apple orchards near Sebastopol. For many years we would drive up from Los Altos to buy a box. Then some years ago we moved to Napa. That has made our annual trek to buy apples much easier.

Gradually the apple trees began to disappear and wine grapes took over the landscape. Now the landscape is covered with rows of grapevines. Presently there are just a few Gravenstein apple growers left in the area. These growers still have the wonderful apples, but can’t find pickers to take them from the trees and put them in boxes.

Money is handed out to those who are having a difficulty in their lives. Those that are physically fit could form a pool of workers that could do seasonal jobs to earn that money.

California is overflowing with wine grapes and wine. For many in the business it is a status symbol to own vineyards and a winery. Many of these could be turned back to producing crops, such as apples and wheat to feed our country. Currently the Midwest is finding that the weather is making it much more difficult to produce a reliable wheat crop.

Richard B. Cady

Napa

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

Called Gallery Books in Mendo today to preorder that Ivanka Trump book, “Grandpa is ‘Golfing.’” They laughed at me, of course, but told me to “hang on, son, it’ll be out soon.” (Chuck Dunbar)

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THE SMOKING LAMP IS LIT

Mendocino County: VMC and MCA Celebrate Local State Fair Cannabis Award Winners

Mendocino Cannabis Alliance and Visit Mendocino will host a Private Reception honoring local California State Fair Cannabis Award winners from 2022 and 2023 on Sunday from 4 - 5 PM.

The reception will take place inside the consumption lounge at The Bohemian Chemist (9000 CA-128 Philo, CA 95466).

Doors will open to the public at the market from 5 - 6PM.

This event is generously hosted by Jim Roberts and Brian Adkinson of The Bohemian Chemist / The Madrones / The Brambles and sponsored by Visit Mendocino County, with food by Wickson Restaurant.

Please let us know if you will be able to attend!

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CALFRESH HEALTHY LIVING COMMUNITY OUTREACH

This Request for Proposal (RFP) announces the intent of the County of Mendocino to contract with community-based organizations to provide CalFresh Healthy Living (CFHL) education in their regional communities.

The purpose of the RFP is to fund community-based organizations to provide CalFresh Healthy Living Nutrition and Physical Activity Education programs in their regions. The scope of work will include evidence-based nutrition education and physical activity education, provided to children, parents, and other adults thus promoting healthy eating and food choices, cooking classes, increased water consumption, physical activity, and garden-enhanced nutrition education in complementary settings to the target population.

Please see Request for Proposal for more information 

Vendors must submit two (3) copies of their proposal: one (1) complete paper copy with original Vendor signature, and one (1) complete copy as a PDF, and one (1) complete copy in WORD by email. 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. 048-23”, and delivered by 2:00 p.m. Thursday, September 14 2023 to:

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:

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PUBLIC HEALTH CONSULTING

This Request for Proposal (RFP) announces the intent of the County of Mendocino to contract with a consultant to assist in the development and completion of large-scale plans required for Mendocino County, Public Health accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB), and for health department programs such as nursing and prevention planning. Public Health seeks an experienced consultant who will use the PHAB Standards & Measures with a high level of skill and familiarity to prepare such plans.

The purpose of the RFP is to identify a qualified consultant to carry out these significant objectives in collaboration with Mendocino County, Public Health employees. The scope of work includes, the development and completion of large-scale plans required for Mendocino County, Public Health accreditation, quality improvement, strategic planning, Local Public Health System Assess

Please see Request for Proposal for more information 

Vendors must submit three (3) copies of their proposal: one (1) mailed paper copy with original Vendor signature, one (1) complete copy as a PDF by email, and (1) complete copy in WORD by email. 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. 047-23”, and delivered by 2:00 p.m. Thursday September 14, 2023, to:

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:

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LEE EDMUNDSON:

More Braxton Bragg background:

Braxton Bragg graduated 5th in his West point Class of 1837.

He commanded Fort Marion in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), in Florida.

He served with distinction in the Mexican-American War (1846-1948).

Lt. (later Captain) Bragg commanded an artillery battery. His timely arrival with battery in the battle of Buena Vista helped turn back the numerically superior Mexican forces. After this action, for his bravery, he was promoted Brevet Captain. He returned to the United States a war hero.

Married Eliza Brooks Ellis, the daughter of a wealthy sugar plantation owner, in 1849.

He resigned his US Army commission in 1855, and settled on his wife's 1600 hundred acre sugar plantation (which she no doubt inherited from her father), outside of Thibodaux, Louisiana, which was worked by 105 slaves.

He and Eliza opposed the concept of secession. However, Bragg was serving as a Major in the militia when secession came; shortly thereafter promoted to Brigadier General, and then absorbed into the Confederate army. And so, like Robert E. Lee and thousands of others, he went with his State. And embraced treason against the United States.

The rest, as they say, is history.

For my part, Bruce, I'd prefer to not be judged by the worst mistake(s) I've ever made. I think an equal standard might -- and should be -- applied to Bragg and all the rebels (my great-grandfather was among them) who fought to dissolve the United States. Wasn't that what the general Amnesty issued Christmas Day, 1868, all about? "Unconditionally and without reservation...full pardon and amnesty for the offense of treason against the United States".

Someone recently wrote that we have far greater issues to deal with than this proposed re-naming of Fort Bragg. I concur.

My Best,

Lee

PS: the given name Lee never appeared in my family lineage until after the Civil War. My great-grandfather, Atkins Tabor Edmundson, served in the Georgia Militia under Lee at Appomattox. My Great Uncle was the first Lee in my family, and then me. Do I change my name?

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #3

There is absolutely no reason for any public sector worker to settle for below inflation pay increases. Why should the cost of everything except their labor increase? The argument against has been that it will drive inflation is clearly nonsense since there have been over a decade of real terms pay cuts and inflation has marched on regardless. Politicians who are out of ideas are flailing around looking for someone or something else to blame for years of abject failure, knowing that the media has plowed a fertile course for blaming everything on migrants or working people and not the government officials.

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WHO CLOSED MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITALS IN CALIFORNIA?

Three Guesses, It Wasn’t Reagan

by Jim Shields

Given the UDJ’s series on the homeless-mental health-substance abuse issue, I thought it would be timely to take a look at one chapter of mental health history in California that I’ve written and spoken about for many years. It should help shed light on why it is so difficult to provide mental health care for those in the most dire need of it.

There is a longstanding belief that when Ronald Reagan was governor in the 1960s, he “closed down” the state’s mental hospitals, thus leading to today’s epic mental health crisis that includes a large component of the mentally ill who wander homeless in our cities and rural areas.

So-called mental health care professionals to this day scapegoat Reagan for the abysmal failure of a system that has never experienced any kind of success. But one thing Reagan didn’t do was “close down” the state’s mental health hospitals located in all of the 58 counties. He didn’t close a single hospital. He never even closed a single room in a single hospital. 

So who closed the hospitals?

The patients in the hospitals did by exercising their new freedoms under a landmark California law enacted 50 years ago that created a “Mental Health Patient’s Bill Of Rights” that became the model for many other states in this country. You could say mental health patients after the law was passed, voted with their feet: They left their rooms and walked out the hospital’s front doors, never to return.

Two legislative forces actually determined the fate of mental health care in this state. You might call them acts with unintended consequences. Here’s the history.

In 1967, the Lanterman–Petris–Short Act (LPS Act) a so-called “bill of rights” for those with mental health problems passed the Democratic-controlled Assembly 77-1. The Senate approved it by similar margins. Then-Gov. Reagan signed it into law.

It was co-authored by California State Assemblyman Frank Lanterman, a Republican, and California State Senators Nicholas C. Petris and Alan Short, both Democrats. LPS went into full effect on July 1, 1972.

The bi-partisan law came about because of concerns about the involuntary civil commitment to mental health institutions in California. At the time, the act was thought by many to be a progressive blueprint for modern mental health commitment procedures, not only in California, but in the United States. 

Its main purposes were:

• To end the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of mentally disordered persons, people with developmental disabilities, and persons impaired by chronic alcoholism, and to eliminate legal disabilities;

• To provide prompt evaluation and treatment of persons with serious mental disorders or impaired by chronic alcoholism;

• To guarantee and protect public safety;

• To safeguard individual rights through judicial review;

• To provide individualized treatment, supervision, and placement services by a conservatorship program for gravely disabled persons;

• To encourage the full use of all existing agencies, professional personnel and public funds to accomplish these objectives and to prevent duplication of services and unnecessary expenditures;

• To protect mentally disordered persons and developmentally disabled persons from criminal acts.

Initially, mental health advocates pushed for community-based mental health facilities that would replace the closed mental hospitals.

But that never happened because even though post-Reagan the legislature was still controlled by Democrats, no major funding for new community-based mental health facilities ever occurred. And that situation basically is still the case today.

The second force at work in the mental health care issue were the courts and what is known as “deinstitutionalization.”

During the 1960s, many people began accusing the state mental hospitals of violating the civil rights of patients. Some families did, of course, commit incorrigible teenagers or eccentric relatives to years of involuntary confinement and unspeakable treatment. To get the picture, think of the movie “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and the sadistic Nurse Ratchett. The new law ended the practice of institutionalizing patients against their will.

By the late 1960s, the idea that the mentally ill were not so different from the rest of us, or perhaps were even a little bit more sane, became trendy. Reformers dreamed of taking the mentally ill out of the large institutions and housing them in smaller, community-based residences where they could live more productive and fulfilling lives.

A mental patient could be held for 72 hours only if he or she engaged in an act of serious violence or demonstrated a likelihood of suicide or an inability to provide their own food, shelter or clothing due to mental illness. But 72 hours was rarely enough time to stabilize someone with medication. Only in extreme cases could someone be held another two weeks for evaluation and treatment.

As a practical matter, involuntary commitment was no longer a legal option that created a whole new dilemma: How do you make a sick person better who refuses help? By definition a mentally ill person is incapable of making rational decisions concerning their health. 

The LPS Act emptied out the state's mental hospitals but resulted in an explosion of homelessness. Legislators never provided enough money for community-based programs to provide treatment and shelter.

Lanterman later expressed regret at the way the law was carried out. “I wanted the law to help the mentally ill,” he said. “I never meant for it to prevent those who need care from receiving it.”

But that's exactly what has happened for the past five decades.

There’s no argument that the mental health care system is in shambles in California — well, the whole United States for that matter. Disregarding federal funding for the moment, looking solely at California, last year $7.2 billion was targeted to address homelessness, and $6.7 billion was spent on mental health. Last year, there were an estimated 172,000 homeless statewide, which equates to spending nearly $42,000 per homeless person, and $9,718 was spent per mental health client.

Of course, in all likelihood not a single homeless person or mental health patient received anything close to those amounts. So where did the money go? Well, it went to feed the voracious, ever-expanding Homeless-Mental Health Industrial Complex, notwithstanding the fact that the worsening crisis signals that nothing we’re presently doing is ever going to work.

Isn’t that sort of the definition of insanity?

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A NEW DONATION: THE WEDDING DRESS OF CARRIE COSTA-FAYAL 

by Marguerite O’Brien

This past week the Kelley House Archives received an exceptional donation from the Costa-Fayal family, the wedding dress of Carrie Costa. This dress consists of a skirt and detached bodice in pale blue with a decorative border of blue and gold sequins and beads, and white lace trim. The dress is in excellent condition for being nearly 120 years old, Carrie Costa having worn this dress when she married Manuel Costa on December 25th, 1904.

Caroline “Carrie” Correia-Silva was born in the Azores Islands of Portugal on December 7th, 1887, and came to Mendocino County in 1904 when Manuel Costa decided he wanted a mail-order-bride from home. At the time of her marriage, Carrie had just turned 17 years old, and was 11 years younger than her groom. Together the couple had 12 children: Emily, Marie, Manuel, Johnnie, Herman, Adelaide, Anthony, Virginia, Elveria, Margaret, Albert, and Delphina. Unfortunately, Manuel was in an accident in 1930 and died of his injuries on January 14th, leaving Carrie to raise the children on her own.

For two years Carrie managed to care for the family with the aid of her two eldest sons who found jobs to support the family after their father died. However, in 1932 she married her brother-in-law, Antone “Tony” Fayal, who had also been a witness at her first marriage. He was reportedly an extremely kind and loving stepfather to her children and was lovingly referred to as “Uncle Tony.” They lived happily together for 36 years until Tony passed away in 1968. Carrie then continued to live in their house in Fort Bragg until she passed away on April 11th, 1977 at the age of 89. She was survived by 61 direct descendants including her 12 children, 27 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren. She was interred in Hillcrest Cemetery with her first husband, Manuel Costa.

The Kelley House is extremely grateful to be the recipient of such a lovely item that tells the story of a brave young woman who always persevered for the sake of her family. As a small nonprofit, our collections and operations rely on generous donations such as this. The Kelley House Museum strives to be a space to gather, investigate, interpret, and connect visitors to the shared histories of the Mendocino Coast. However, we cannot achieve these goals without the support of our community and the tireless efforts of our volunteers. Since today, August 17th, is National Nonprofit Day we would like to encourage you to consider a financial or material donation to the Kelley House Museum to help us continue to preserve the history of this unique place. Online donations: https://www.kelleyhousemuseum.org/support-donate/

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CHUCK ROSS: 

On this date in 1871 - 152 years ago - the shipping news from the San Francisco Examiner. 

Many of the departures were for distant ports or Sonoma County doghole ports; Fisks Mill, Fort Ross, Stewarts Point. But then we do see some Mendocino County landings; Hardscratch, Salmon Creek, Bowen's Landing, Gualala, Fish Rock and Cuffey's Cove.

But line item 2 is of interest, the steamer Wayanda, captain Scammon with no destination, just a "cruise."

Captain Charles Melville Scammon was notoriously tight-lipped about his destination. While he is sometimes called a "naturalist" he played a huge part in the near-extinction of the California Gray Whale, when he discovered their calving grounds at what is now called San Ignacio Lagoon. Once his secret was out the place was called Scammon's Lagoon for a century.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, August 17, 2023

VINCENT BERTAIN, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

JULIE BOND, Ukiah. under influence, paraphernalia, vandalism, evidence tampering, willfully-maliciously falsely sounding an alarm, evasion. 

KENTON COLBERG JR., Disorderly conduct-drugs&alcohol, vandalism, resisting.

GEORGE DALSON, Willows/Ukiah. DUI, controlled substance, paraphernalia ammo possession by prohibted person, evasion.

ALEXANDER FOUCAULT, Redwood Valley. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, fighting.

THOMAS FREY, Redwood Valley. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

WILLIAM GOFORTH, Willits. Controlled substance, failure to appear, probation revocation.

RYAN JONES, Ukiah. Stalking-threatening bodily injury, fighting.

SHYANN MACLEAN, Willits. Domestic battery.

TAMARA MEACHAM, Union Gap, Washington/Ukiah. Controlled substance, metal knuckles.

ROSAMON OWSTON, Point Arena. Drug sales, paraphernalia.

SOPHIA PICENO, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

WAYNE THORNTON, Willits. Stalking-threatening bodily injury, fighting.

RUSTI VASSAR, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

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PIZZALEAH!

Join Krissy from Boonville Barn at PizzaLeah in Windsor on Friday August 25!

PizzaLeah Co-Owner and award-winning Pizzaiola Leah Scurto will be highlighting two delicious pizza specials featuring Boonville Barn Collective chile products, including:

Pizza with Sungold tomato sauce w/ Boonville Barn's Smoky Piment d'Ville, garlic, olive oil, finished stracciatella and Boonville Barn's Yahualica chile flakes

Pizza with candied bacon made with brown sugar and Boonville Barn's sugar rush chile powder, fresh peaches, blue cheese and green onion

Woman-owned farm Boonville Barn Collective will be popping up at PizzaLeah on Friday the 25th from 3-8:30pm, selling their signature, sustainably grown chile powders and chile flakes at the restaurant that are featured on the pizzas.

If you haven't made it to PizzaLeah yet, it's worth the drive (which also isn't too long!)! Grab some friends and head on down to Windsor and grab some pizza with us!

These specials will be available from Tuesday August 22-Sunday August 27 at PizzaLeah. Take a peek at the 2 pizza specials!

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JOHN REDDING:

File this under "A Cause Waiting to Happen".

Governor Newsom claims that CA is leading the way for all the other state and is a model for the rest of the country. Well, not when it comes to school choice (among other things). 32 states have school choice, 7 have universal choice, but CA has neither. You might say that CA is lagging behind, not leading.

Have you checked to see how our local schools are doing? If you want to see the brutal reality, use this link.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/SchoolDirectory/results...

Or I can spare you the effort. The local schools here and in Mendocino are a level 2 of 5, which the CA Dept of Education deems unacceptable. Are your kids learning to read, write and do math? Maybe, if they are in the 25% that meet the standards. Check out the graphic.

School choice is a cause waiting to happen. 

https://www.cde.ca.gov/SchoolDirectory/results...

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DE-GAMIFY THE EARTH

by Caitlin Johnstone

Basically the problem is that our whole planet has been gamified. All the Earth’s life, resources and geography have been folded into this sick game where people commodify them into points called money, for no other reason than to score as many points as possible.

A tree is worth a set amount of points in the game. A fish, a liter of water, a barrel of oil, or an acre of land are each worth a set amount of points. Human labor is worth a set amount of points, and the products it produces are worth a greater amount of points. Nothing’s what it actually is in the game; first and foremost it’s the number of points it can be used to score. Someone who’s quite adept at the game never sees things in and of themselves, they see only their point-scoring value.

Everything’s been reduced to the value of the points it can be used to score, and all of human behavior is driven by this point-scoring game. Food, shelter and resources are not allocated in whatever way would best serve human interests, they’re allocated based on the play dynamics of the game. The ecosystem is not treated in ways that benefit its thriving, it’s treated in whatever way scores the most points in the game. People are not treated with care and respect, they’re treated in accordance with their point-scoring ability in the game.

There are a few key differences between this game and other games. Firstly, other games won’t leave you homeless and hungry if you lose. Secondly, in most other games the players start out on an even playing field, whereas in this game everyone starts out with a wildly unequal number of points and a wildly unequal ability to score more of them. Thirdly, other games tend to have an end point where a winner is declared and the game is over, whereas in this game players just keep racking up as many points as possible for as long as their mortality allows. Fourthly, other games aren’t destroying the world.

In the days before the game, a human who killed an animal, gathered some berries and mushrooms, cut some firewood and obtained some water was done obtaining things for the day, because he had as much as his one human body could use. Now that the world has been gamified and everything has been turned into points, there’s no level of obtaining that amounts to “done for the day”. According to the rules of the game, the more points the better, so if one human can find a way to kill a million animals, harvest ten million plants, cut down an entire forest and secure ownership rights to an entire freshwater spring and convert them all into points in a single day, he’s got every incentive to do so and nothing incentivizing him not to.

This is unsustainable. We can’t keep relating to our planet in terms of point-scoring in a crazy made-up game.

In order to have a healthy planet, we must first de-gamify the earth. We must begin approaching our world in accordance with reality as it actually is, not in accordance with this weird game we made up in our minds. We must build new systems in which we’re all collaborating toward the good of everyone and the good of our biosphere, not competing against each other to score more points. Not until we are relating to terrestrial life on terrestrial life’s terms will we have the ability to live in health and harmony.

At a certain level of maturity you’ve got to put down the video game controller, go outside, and start living your life. It’s as true of our collective species as it is of the individual.

(caitlinjohnstone.com.au)

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JUST IN FROM FANTASY LAND

Anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act aka Biden's “Build Back Better” plan-- something to celebrate!

The Democrats are taking a victory lap on the anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a law that has transformed the U.S. economy and for which not a single Republican voted.

The IRA was the eventual form President Joe Biden’s initial “Build Back Better” plans took. It offered to lower Americans’ energy costs with a 30% tax credit for energy-efficient windows, heat pumps, or newer models of appliances; capped the cost of drugs at $2,000 per year for people on Medicare; and made healthcare premiums fall for certain Americans by expanding the Affordable Care Act.

By raising taxes on the very wealthy and on corporations and bringing the Internal Revenue Service back up to full strength so that it can crack down on tax cheating, as well as saving the government money by permitting it to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, the IRA was expected to raise $738 billion. That, plus about $891 billion from other sources, enabled the law to make the largest investment ever in addressing climate change while still bringing down the federal government’s annual deficit.

The law has driven significant investment in U.S. manufacturing. Indeed, the chief executive officer of U.S. Steel recently said the law should be renamed the “Manufacturing Renaissance Act,” as manufacturers return previously offshored production to the U.S. That same shift has brought supply chains back to the U.S. These changes have meant new, well-paid manufacturing jobs that have been concentrated in Republican-dominated states and in historically disadvantaged communities.

Scientists Alicia Zhao and Haewon McJeon, who recently published an article in Science, today wrote that the IRA “brings the US significantly closer to meeting its 2030 climate target [of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 50—52% below 2005 levels], taking expected emissions from 25—31% below 2005 levels down to 33—40% below.”

While Republican presidential candidates took shots at the IRA today—former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley called it “a communist manifesto”—Democrats have pointed out that Republicans have been eager to take credit for IRA investments in their districts without mentioning either that they voted against the IRA or that they are still trying to repeal it.

— from Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American column

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UKRAINE, THURSDAY, 17 AUGUST

The first container ship to depart from Ukraine since the Black Sea grain deal collapsed has reached Romanian waters, tracking data showed Thursday.

It comes after President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of targeting global food security following a drone attack on a Danube River port — the seventh such recent assault on Ukraine's ports.

Ukraine does not expect US-made F-16 fighter jets to arrive this year, a Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson said. Kyiv has been pleading for the advanced jets for more than a year, arguing they will bolster its air defenses.

Some 10,000 people endured a temporary power outage after Russian missiles struck Dnipropetrovsk Thursday. Meanwhile, Russian air defenses destroyed a Ukrainian drone over the southwest Belgorod region.

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TRY TO LEARN to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. 

Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough. 

— Ernest Hemingway

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PLAINS DIARY: FLAT EARTH SOCIETIES

by Alexander Cockburn (1998)

East to west transition into the Great Plains is sly. Nature pulls a sleight of hand. Suddenly you’re a bug on a billiard table stretching a thousand miles, across the Dakotas and Montana, to the Rocky Mountain front; a thousand miles south and west through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma to Texas; and another thousand miles up through Manitoba, Saskatchewan to Alberta. 

When the sun shines on the plains, the receding perspectives toy artfully with the light and the dappled prairie glows. Under a leadgray sky, churning by at a steady 80 mph, league after league, the landscape becomes mercilessly dreary. A slap of real rain comes as a relief.

From Minneapolis we turned the ’64 Chrysler New Yorker a steady 80 mph northwest along I-94 to Fargo and stopped at a funky motel with some fine 50s era neon. These days over half the motels in America are owned by East Indians called Patel. Here was one of them. “It’s football homecoming in Fargo tonight,” said Mr. Patel. “Everything’s full. Try 50 miles on.” We ended up at a tiny place, $32 a night, not far from Valley City, a farm town in the Sheyenne Valley. 

The next day a young man bursting with pride in Valley City’s virtues and attractions claimed that the railroad trestle bridge north of town was the biggest in America. “What about the one west of Marathon on the Florida Keys?,” I confidently enquired. The young man looked cunning. “Yes, if you multiply the length by the height.”

I photographed Barbara, with a cabin 50 feet behind her, then a tree, then nothing till the curve of the Earth. About the only things that photograph really well on the plains are tornadoes and dust storms. People end up diminished, standing next to tipis or ponies or sod cabins. Farmers have always done badly in photographs. Who wants to pose next to a pile of corn, or a heap of dung? Who wants to take the picture, or “make a photograph,” as the lens folk so pretentiously put it? Better wait, as Walker Evans did, until the farmer and the family have been evicted and are looking properly doleful beside the Ford A.

Notice how no one ever smiles in the Depression portfolios of Evans or of Dorothea Lange? But I bet they did, round the campfires as they headed west. Maybe, as Evans or Lange prowled among the Okies at their halting spots looking for haggard women and somber urchins, the fathers enjoying a nip of bourbon would call the kids to order and the whole family would stiffen up for the snap, just like William Burroughs every time he caught sight of a camera. It’s extraordinary how successful has been this obliteration of the innate human capacity for good cheer and looking on the bright side. Someone should go through the old contact sheets and hopefully find some color shots of Okie merriment. The day that happens the history of the Depression will change.

But on the northern plains there wasn’t even a tornado or dust storm to capture on film, nor Okie cars heading for the promised land. All you could do was photograph windblown farmers. Somewhere in North Dakota, just north of Mandan, we found a little local paper chronicling the youthful adventures of an old man called Geisler, a German, like many on the northern plains. Amidst the Depression he’d stolen a dime from his mother’s purse (all that was there) and ridden the rails to Lodi, CA, cheery enough except for some nasty moments atop the railroad car going through a 14-mile tunnel, half cooked from the steam coming back from the engine. The more seasoned hobos had all gone off the roof and into the wagon cars miles earlier. Every time the train would go through a bum or two would die.

Once in Lodi Geisler got a job picking fruit and soon bought a car for $5 from a woman who wanted “to get the Ford off her lawn.” Now he trundled fruit to market. Tiring of this he drove a pal to Long Beach and parleyed with girls waiting for the Navy ship to come in. They all partied for a week in the car, then he sold it and went off to Arizona and soon found himself wandering through the red light district of Phoenix. A hooker told the young man about a good job in a small shop putting packing crates together. A few weeks later his family in North Dakota called the local police to tell him it was time for spring planting and he was needed on the farm. The cops came and told him his ma was really sick and he should get himself back. Five days later he was back on the farm, riding a tractor and telling the story off and on for the rest of his life.

It’s hard for a small farmer to make a go of it on the plains. When we drove through North Dakota farmers were dumping grain across the border with Canada in protest against cheap imports. A few hundred miles farther on, in Kooskia, ID, we heard about a man from North Dakota who’d put his farm on the market and headed across the Rockies. A few years later his farm was still up for sale. So each year he goes home, puts in the crop, commutes back and forth, around a thousand miles each way. Some say the plains should be returned to the status of “buffalo commons,” that in the end everyone will leave except the folks running huge corporate farms.

A tongue of cold came down out of Canada and the temperature dropped by 30 degrees. It was still a golden fall but winter was not far away, waiting up there by the North Pole to roll down south across the Arctic Circle, down through Saskatchewan and into North Dakota. Maybe that’s why the state looks so tidy. Chalk some of it up to small-holder pride, remnant of the old populist tradition, same way as Vermont looks so much neater than New Hampshire, but perhaps those Scandinavian and German farmers feel that unless you have everything straightened away by Nov. 1, a minus-80 windchill will sneak through a window left ajar, find the furnace not working and leave you flash-frozen by dawn.

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