Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023

By AVA News Service on September 2, 2023

COOL WEATHER will persist through Sunday. In addition, periods of beneficial showers are expected through Sunday, with isolated thunderstorms possible. Drier weather and near normal temperatures are then expected starting Monday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A few sprinkles & cloudy with a warm 59F this Saturday morning on the coast. We have a 60% chance of rain today & a 20% chance tomorrow. Morning fog & clearing skies are forecast for next week.

CELEBRATE LABOR DAY WEEKEND AT PAUL BUNYAN DAYS

The origins of Labor Day date back to 5 September 1882, when the General Assembly of the Order of the Knights of Labor convened in New York City. They paraded that day, and held a picnic. Whether that was the first time the term had been used is not known, but the event was afterward referred to as the Labor Day parade. The following year, they paraded on the first Monday in September, and shortly thereafter a resolution declaring the first Labor Day was adopted. By 1899, all but nine states had officially started observing the holiday.

Locally in Mendocino County, one of our timeless celebrations, Paul Bunyan Days takes place over the Labor Day Weekend in Fort Bragg. The event, established in 1939, will host the Belle of the Redwoods, Fireman's Ball, Logging Show, Kiddie Parade, Craft Faire, Trike Races, Fireman's Water Fight, Pie Sale and More!

Enjoy your weekend,

Tim Buckner
Executive Director, Historical Society of Mendocino County

Paul Bunyan Days, 1960: Gus Russell, Oregon, 2nd place, chopping contest

COVELO WEED SWEEP

During the week of Aug. 21, wildlife officers at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) led a Unified Cannabis Enforcement Taskforce (UCETF) operation in Covelo and the surrounding areas in Mendocino County. The operation was based on suspected illegal cannabis cultivation and associated environmental crimes.

Supporting agencies and staff included: Department of Cannabis Control, Regional Waterboard, Waterboard Division of Water Rights, California Department of Parks and Recreation, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Toxic Substances Control and CDFW environmental scientists.

Prior to serving the search warrants, a records check was conducted on the properties to determine what steps may have been taken to secure a county permit and state license. In this case, no county permits or state licenses to cultivate or manufacture commercial cannabis had been issued.

The operation targeted 29 properties, where officers located and eradicated over 41,000 cannabis plants, destroyed over 7,000 pounds of processed cannabis and seized 40 firearms. The estimated retail value of the illegal cannabis is $45,375,000.

Officers also detained 15 suspects and encountered several sites with suspected unregistered or unknown pesticides. Over 120 Fish and Game Code violations were documented, along with 34 Water Code violations.

These are ongoing investigations and no other information is available at this time.

Created in 2022, UCETF has been charged by Governor Newsom to increase cannabis enforcement coordination between state, local and federal partners. The Taskforce is co-chaired by the Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and coordinated by the Homeland Security Division of Cal OES. The taskforce includes more than two dozen local, state, and federal partners working together to disrupt the illegal cannabis supply chain.

CALIFORNIA STATE CONTROLLER AUTHORIZES AUDIT OF MENDOCINO COUNTY’S FINANCES

Just in time for Labor Day, State Controller Malia Cohen confirmed yesterday that her office has authorized an audit of Mendocino County’s finances, according to the Lake County News. Both the Board of Supervisors and the leadership of SEIU Local 1021, the county government’s largest labor union, have requested an audit, in light of the fact that last year’s financial reports have still not been completed.…

mendofever.com/2023/09/02/california-state-controller-authorizes-audit-of-mendocino-countys-finances/

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

“This is good news:

State Controller Malia M. Cohen Authorizes Audit of Mendocino County

SACRAMENTO — Today, State Controller Malia M. Cohen authorized an audit of Mendocino County after conversations with county officials who expressed concerns as to whether the annual financial reports required to be prepared and delivered to the state are correct and complete.

Controller Cohen acknowledged receipt of the request for an audit from the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, who voted unanimously to request the State Controller’s Office’s assistance to resolve what some officials have referred to as a ‘fiscal crisis’ within the county. ‘As California’s chief fiscal officer, the financial health of all 58 counties is of paramount importance to the overall fiscal wellbeing of the state,’ said Controller Cohen. Controller Cohen’s action also follows a recent warning issued that the county’s rating may be placed under review for possible withdrawal of credit rating unless the county completes its now-delinquent annual financial statements.

In response to the county officials’ statements concerning the fiscal uncertainty and instability of the county, Controller Cohen said: ‘My office will review the county’s internal controls. The failure to deliver timely financial reports as mandated by law could place the county at a competitive disadvantage and may drive up the interest rate beyond what the county would typically pay for such issuance.’

The audit has commenced and is underway.”

MARK SCARAMELLA wonders:

Which “county officials”?

What “concerns”?

Which “delinquent annual financial statements”?

Why do the “concerns” include whether the statements are “correct and complete” if they are “delinquent”?

A review of “internal controls”? The County pays a professional outside audit firm to review internal controls (and other bookkeeping processes) every year. Are the “county officials” saying the outside auditor didn’t have what they needed to perform their audit? Yet the County paid for it anyway? If they were unable to perform their audit, what did they specifically say was missing?

Auditor-Controller-Treasurer-Tax Collector Cubbison has repeated asked for and the Board has acknowledged that the Budget Ad Hoc Committee of Williams and McGourty agreed to provide a list of the specific documents they want. Yet so far, no such list or samples have been forthcoming.

You would think that if this problem is as serious as Williams et al claim, they would have formally listed the specific “concerns,” asked the Auditor for a response, and then written a board-approved letter to the State Auditor saying what they don’t like about the response. Instead, all we get is a cyber-post from one “county official” who is obviously giddy about this obviously half-assed pro-forma exercise and an uninformative press release from the state auditor. The “audit” they plan to conduct won’t do anything to solve their alleged “structural deficit.” At best it will address “internal controls” and credit ratings.

Did the “county officials” provide a list of the “delinquent annual financial statements” besides a generic gripe about a “balance sheet” to the State Auditor? Did they ask for a response from Ms. Cubbison before having their “conversations” with the State Auditor? Or is this just another “Get Cubbison” exercise masquerading as a financial review?

Did the State Auditor bother to ask the “County officials” for documentation of their “concerns”? Did the State Auditor ask for a response from Ms. Cubbison before “commencing” her audit?

Can you imagine a dumber way to approach this problem?

WE GOT A KICK out of the Supervisors’ pointless discussion on Tuesday about whether various (mostly “defunct”) commissions and committees should continue. (We agree that the Municipal Advisory Committees should stay, but they didn’t need to stir up that hornet’s nest in the first place by listing them. If there are problems with the MACs, deal with them directly.) The agenda item said that the purpose of the discussion was to save some money. Yet most of the expenses they cited that are so ripe for savings are for the cost of “staff time.” Now that they’ve deleted a number of the Commissions and Committees which were on the chopping block, many of which were long-overdue for a cut anyway and were described as “defunct,” including the “Climate Action Advisory Board” and the “Public Safety Advisory Board” that this Board so gleefully and expensively put into County Code in 2021 with some very ill-defined and toothless areas of responsibility), will we see any accompanying staff cuts (primarily in the County Counsel’s office) so that these committee deletions will translate into actual budget savings? Funny, that never came up.

FORT BRAGG FRIENDS DONATIONS AND BOOK SALE AND BOOKSHOP!

Three events at once!

Donations: As usual, donations of books, CDs, audiobooks, DVDs, and LPs will be gladly accepted in the alley to the left of the library from noon-3 on Saturday. This is an especially great time to donate, because the big book sale will be held over the weekend, starting Friday, and that will clear out everything we/they have. Please make sure your donations are free of mildew, mold, bugs, water damage, etc., and are not seriously outdated (like almanacs from 20 years ago, or “Reviews of Best of 2005 Films”)

The Sale: Sneak Preview from 4-8 pm tomorrow, for Friends of the Library Members only; then open season from 10-4 on Saturday and Sunday, held in the Community Room.

The Noyo Bookshop: Normal hours are 11-3, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. The bookshop is located in a former frozen fish container a little to the left of the Princess Restaurant (not the deli), at the very far end of N. Harbor Drive.

All of these efforts raise money for the Friends of the Ft. Bragg Library, which is working to build a major addition onto the existing library, on the lot they’ve purchased on N. Whipple next to the main building (on E. Laurel). How wonderful is that!?

UKIAH CONSTRUCTION UPDATES FOR THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

On the south side (Mill to Cherry), “potholing” will continue. Trenching for water and sewer utilities will likely begin during the week of September 11. Heads up—there are a LOT of underground utilities beneath the intersection of Gobbi and State, and when we get there, the traffic impacts in that area will be pretty significant. You might start thinking about alternative routes. :)

On the north side (Norton to Henry), work continues to install the new water lines. No interruptions to water service are planned. Some good news—we’ve installed numerous shut-off valves in the new lines, which will allow us to isolate water outages in the future to very small sections…which means fewer disruptions for fewer people. The next part of the project is to install the “joint trench” which will contain the new underground electric lines. Demolition of sidewalks is about a month out—more on that soon.

Connecting new water lines near Henry Street… with a smile! Thanks, Ghilotti!

SUPERVISORS VOTE TO RETAIN MUNICIPAL ADVISORY BOARDS

by Jim Shields

It’s a pleasure to let you know the Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday, August 29th meeting, voted unanimously to retain Municipal Advisory Councils (MACs) as an integral and vital part of the local governing process

Most folks figured out that once again County officials created a problem where there was none with this red herring of citizen committee “dissolution,” that was just a thinly veiled, all-out assault on public participation in the local government process.

County officials argued that by “dissolving” upwards of 29 citizen committees, including all six of the existing Municipal Advisory Councils (“MACs”) located in Gualala, Hopland, Laytonville, Redwood Valley, Round Valley, and Westport, was absolutely necessary to address what they claimed was a “structural deficit that is projected to grow to more than ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in fiscal year 24/25, at which would deplete most of the remaining reserves.”

That claim, along with similar assertions of the alleged adverse fiscal impacts of citizen committees is found in a 12-page memo-report prepared by the County Counsel’s office, that proved in the end to be heavy on rhetoric but woefully lacking in specificity.

To that point, Supervisor Dan Gjerde said, “We have a $7 million structural deficit. We probably have a $10 million structural deficit looking at next fiscal year. These cuts today are actually very tiny, and they’re kind of a distraction from the work that we need to be doing. Nevertheless, for whatever reason, this item landed on our agenda without consultation with the supervisors early on, when we have much bigger items to cut that are not even on our agenda yet.”

Gjerde also said that CEO Darcie Antle failed to follow standard agenda procedures: “I do think it’s unfortunate, because I have a standing request with the CEO that before any budget-cutting items come to the Board, that the CEO personally meet with each of the five supervisors, which is what a city manager would do, and make sure that there are at least three votes. But more importantly, that all five supervisors know of the proposal, and have an opportunity prior to publishing the agenda to have some input on the agenda. That didn’t happen here.”

As was mentioned at the beginning of this piece, another thing that didn’t happen was the dissolution of the six MACs. Here’s how it played out.

It seemed likely that on the day before the Tuesday meeting, there were three Supervisors who were going to support the retention of the MACs. Supervisors John Haschak and Dan Gjerde were onboard with their support of MACs from the beginning of this bad idea. It was also believed that Board Chairman Glenn McGourty was not in favor of terminating the MACs and supported keeping them in place. Supervisors Ted Williams and Mo Mulheren were known to favor terminating the MACs, and replacing them with non-profit organizations or NGOs (Non-Government Organizations).

However, at the start of the discussion on the proposed dissolution of the various citizen committees, Haschak requested a “straw vote” on how many of his colleagues supported keeping the MACs in place, as is. Haschak, Gjerde and McGourty all voted to retain the MACs, while Williams and Mulheren demurred.

Later, subsequent to lengthy public comment, all favoring retention of the MACs, the official vote was taken, and all five Supervisors joined in a unanimous vote to leave MACs in place.

At the meeting, I thanked the Board for doing the right thing, but it never should have gone as far as it did. So thank you to everybody who lent your voice to the effort, it didn’t fall on deaf ears.

I want to thank everybody who worked with me to get this problem solved, especially Sheriff Matt Kendall and Alison Pernell, Planning Commission Chair, for their great assistance on this issue.

Here’s just a few of the many comments from so many people who got involved in this issue.

“Dear Jim, Thank you for the ‘heads up’ regarding this agenda item. I wonder how much it cost the County to pay for this non-starter of a recommendation? Undoubtedly it cost many times the alleged costs of all the MAC’s and several of the other volunteer commissions and boards combined that are on the chopping block. This item caught me totally be surprise, so I can’t weigh-in other than to make it clear to Haschak that at the very least I strongly oppose the process! Great way for the BOS to show its appreciation for all the volunteer hours given to the betterment of the County by hundreds of citizens.” —Willits Resident

“Jim Shields, Adam Gaska, and Chris Boyd, a member of the Redwood Valley MAC, deserve a big round of applause for their published comments about the Board of Supervisors’ continuing mishandling of important local government functions, from Municipal Advisory Councils, cannabis regulations, and the forced merger of the Auditor’s and Tax Collector’s offices in a bid to undermine the current elected official who is now forced to oversee both. Thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser and Mark Scaramella for keeping up with issues that seldom receive attention as local media coverage continues a steep decline.”— Mike Geniella, Ukiah

“As someone who lives in an “outlying” area of Mendocino County, I am often frustrated by the lack of solicitation of ideas from those of us who don’t live in the Ukiah area. Because we are 1 hour away from the County seat, it can make participating in democracy difficult. The various advisory boards and MACs are great examples of how common folk can get involved in the process and have a voice. Lucky for us, the Laytonville Area Municipal Advisory Council gives us that voice. Please re-consider the proposal to dissolve the MACs. It’s a terrible idea.” — Jayma Spence, Laytonville

“MACs are vital to our local democracy. They are an efficient use of community resources, they aid local decision-making, and are vital to local democracy. As a Mendocino County Planning Commissioner, each time I review a project for its merit and facts, I always look to see what the local MACs comments are. This is important to me because I know that MAC comments represent more than a single voice, they represent a consensus of the community on any given topic. I find it extremely valuable to have community members discuss issues at length at their respective MAC meetings and provide county staff, boards and commissions with succinct comments that assist us in our decision-making. Dissolving the MACs will not solve the county’s budget woes, but it will suppress local democracy and participation. I urge you to maintain the status of MACs in Mendocino County.” —Alison Pernell, Mendocino County Planning Commissioner

“The MAC has been instrumental in connecting people in Redwood Valley, in augmenting a sense of community and cooperation. I’m sure this is true for the other MACs as well. An informed citizenry is vital for a healthy society. Nothing is more important, in this difficult age of divisiveness than bringing people together under a common purpose, and in ensuring that diversity is supported. This is a benefit unmeasured by County Staff, but it goes a long way toward ensuring that response to future challenges and emergencies will be better anticipated and coordinated. You can’t buy that. This is precisely the moment that calls for MORE citizen participation, not less. So let’s work together. — Chris Boyd, Redwood Valley MAC Board Member

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

It is never, not a busy week at AVUSD! Sports teams were wonderful and exhibited good sportsmanship. All soccer players have signed an expectations contract and had a strong victory this week with good citizenship. We are excited for that to continue. Volleyball and Football teams are presenting with distinction.

Just a reminder… no school on monday in honor of labor day! Relax and enjoy the day!

Elementary dates to remember:

First Student Recognition Assembly is September 19 at 12:30 p.m. (Weather permitting.)
Elementary Back-to-School Night: 9/27 at 5:30 p.m.

Junior/Senior High School dates to remember:

District Board Meeting, Open Session Tuesday at 5:30 in the High School Library
This Thursday, CTE and site council at 4:30 in the library

Parents of Seniors, please make sure you let me or Ms. Mendoza (mmendoza@avpanthers.org) know if you have any questions about the Senior trip. Those meeting dates will be noticed on Parent Square or email her or me directly. Students are planning the Memorial Day weekend trip. It will be from the Friday of Memorial Day through the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Details have not yet been approved, but if you would like to support the planning, now is the time!

Also, we are planning some fun Saturday camps and time for kids to come to school during the Winter Break. This is a requirement we need to meet to provide 30 extra days of school for families that are interested, but Charlotte Triplett is waving her magic wand to make it FUN! This is an optional program for kids in TK-6th grade. More news to follow.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

GRANGE NEWS

by Captain Rainbow

September will be a busy month for the Grange!

On the second Sunday - September 10th will be our unusual/usual pancake breakfast. We open the doors at 8:30 and close up shop at 11am. As usual we will have the same great deal, pancakes with our secret Grange recipe, gluten free if you wish, eggs and bacon, coffee and orange juice, tea and de-cafe available upon request. All the fixi'ns will be there as usual with Derek's master-full fruit toppings..and, as usual, along with seeing friends and neighbors, you will be serenaded by the Deep End Woogies bringing the perfect digestive tunes to the hall. No kidding, some folks come just for the music!

Now here's something a bit unusual. The Mendo County Fair in Boonville is bearing down Friday, September 22nd. Every year the AV Grange enters the Feature Booth competition and usually we create the exhibit at our 3rd Tuesday meeting, but now the fair board has moved the entry times of vegetables and flowers from Thursday the 21st to Wednesday the 20th. This doesn't give us enough time for our fabulous entry to be done.

So, after we cleanup from the pancake breakfast on September 10th it will be Seed Day at the Grange starting at 12 noon. For some of us it's our favorite “meeting” of the year. We lay out the backing designs for the Feature Booth and then everyone pitches in gluing the different colored seeds and beans. It's creative and fun and “many hands make light work”! You don't have to be a Granger to participate and children of all ages are welcome. Hang around after pancakes or come back at noon. It's a great way to get involved.

AV MUSEUM FRIENDLY CHAT SERIES: BOONTLING!

Sunday, September 17^th, 4 to 5:30 PM

*Anderson Valley Museum (Little Red School house)
Refreshments served

Come enjoy a chat with Rod Dewitt and Wes Smoot, aka Deekin and “harp” some Boont! This month's AV Village Gathering/Valley Chat is a collaboration between the AV Historical Society and AV Village! Everyone is welcome.

The Village recommends staying current on your vaccinations. Thank you!

More info & to RSVP:
Anderson Valley Village: (707) 684-9829, andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com
www.andersonvalleyvillage.org

Or the Anderson Valley History Society:
707-272-7248, andersonvalley.history@gmail.com
www.andersonvalleymuseum.org

*Note New location for this gathering.

ED NOTES

COUNTY HIGHWAY is a new, national, 6-issues a year, full-size newspaper founded by Walter Kirn and David Samuels, both of whom are familiar names to quality magazine readers. Kirn partners weekly with Matt Taibbi on-line and often appears in Harper's. Samuels is a long-form literary journalism guy. As a print dino, I've subscribed, and hope they make it at a time people under the age of 60 live in their all-purpose telephones, and paper-paper readers are few and fading.

THE COMPETITION for media attention is fierce, what with the cyber-deluge, podcasts, blogs, television, and radio. I'm continually surprised at the ava's survival which, more and more, depends on in-Mendo readers on-line while print readers in the Great Outside hold steady in a pincer-like context of ever-rising print and post office costs. And we're an entirely geriatric operation — three geezers yelling “Huh? What?” at each other all day every Thursday as our trembling, liver-spotted hands dispatch the beast from our Boonville headquarters.

COUNTY HIGHWAY bills itself as “America’s only newspaper.” Just a minute there, Bud. The Boonville weekly claims to be America's last newspaper, and is the last one of the no holds genre in a County where there are weekly papers outta Laytonville, Ukiah, Gualala, and sorta outta Fort Bragg. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat is no longer the dominant media on the Northcoast and becomes more amateurish every day.

NEITHER here nor there, but up until a couple of years ago I subscribed to the paper edition of the Chronicle, which I began reading at about age ten, and then only the sports page. But it got to be unreasonably expensive and I had to quit, having been a daily reader since 1948, with a few schizo, Chron-free years in the Marines and then the Peace Corps. I still read it on-line, and the Chron still has a great sports page led by Ann Killion.

THE AVA, I think, is now the only paper-paper available in the Anderson Valley, although a few locals get the NYT and WSJ in the mail in print form.

COUNTY HIGHWAY: “A magazine about America in the form of a 19th century newspaper.” Cover price: $8.50

Subscriptions: $50 a year for six 20-page issues. The sub price is a bargain for really good writers like its principals. (Expensive cover prices are required by national distributors for getting the mag in the vanishing venues where papers and magazines are still sold.)

THE NEW PAPER is a broadsheet laid out in a style much like the AVA, but with narrower columns. Their first edition was dated July-August 2023 and featured a lede by by Samuels entitled “King of the Con” about America’s fondness for con men and their suckers, and another lede entitled “The Miracle of America,” about a junkyard in Montana.

THE NEW YORKER'S cover price for a weekly edition is $8.99 and subscriptions are around $150 these days. There's more readable stuff in one edition of the AVA than there is in three-four editions of The New Yorker, says the AVA's resolutely provincial editor. The New York Times, going away, is the most boring publication in the English language, which is why I subscribe to it on-line wondering every morning why I do. It is redeemed only by Maureen Dowd and Russell Baker, the latter not appearing for some time probably because he's old, very old.

OF ITSELF, County Highway says it "is a 20-page broadsheet produced by actual human beings, containing the best new writing you will encounter about America. It features reports on the political and spiritual crises that are gripping our country and their deeper cultural and historical sources; regular columns about agriculture, civil liberties, animals, herbal medicine, and living off the grid, mentally and physically; essays about literature and art, and an entire section devoted to music.

“OUR NEWSPAPER comes out six times a year and will be delivered to your home in a transparent envelope. Once the paper is removed, you can hold it in your hands, fold it into quarters, and read it on your porch on a sunny afternoon accompanied by your favorite cup of coffee, cigarette, or can of beer.”

KIRK VODOPALS NOTES: I wonder if all the prius-driving KZYX listeners know that their local signal is powered by large diesel generators running 24-7 for over a year now (maybe more). Time to set up some stationary bikes and make it people-powered radio!

KZYX GENERAL MANAGER MARTY DURLIN REPLIES:

The severe winter storms that hit Mendocino County in late 2022 brought down the power lines leading to the Cold Springs site. Cal Fire, which operates the site and is responsible for the lines, brought in generators to power the dozen or so site users. But the generators have often failed to meet the heavy power demands, knocking the 90.7 frequency off the air multiple times a week for periods of 20 minutes to five hours.

…

Last week a group from CalFire walked the power lines leading up to the site, re-inspecting the damaged poles, lines, trees and vegetation along the way, as well as identifying access points to perform the repairs. The 1.6-mile route is steep, the easement is narrow, and the assessment of the damage was grim. As Duggan put it, “Pictures do not clearly identify how challenging this repair will be. The contractor will be utilizing a helicopter to replace 90-100% of the poles due to age, damage or missing condition.”

Throughout this ordeal, Cal Fire has been using its own personnel to service the generators at the site. These are employees who have other urgent tasks. This week the agency was scheduled to solicit bids from outside contractors to maintain the generators. The goal is to ensure that power to the site is continuous.

KZYX pays Cal Fire and the California Department of General Services to rent the Cold Springs site. The contract was negotiated a few years ago, with help from Sen. Mike McGuire, who intervened to secure a reduced fee which reflects KZYX’s status as a nonprofit FM Radio Emergency Broadcasting Cooperator, assisting Cal Fire as first responders. Still the fee is more than $12,000 this year. We pay a similar amount to the State for our site on Laughlin, and another fee at Bald Hill to a private owner for the Fort Bragg signal.

* * *

FROM KZYX THE NEWS DESK (KZYX Summer 2023 newsletter, Sep )

by Sarah Reith, KZYX News Director

There is never a dull day in the Mendocino County news. I’ve started producing occasional special programs on topics I think deserve a little more coverage, and I’m pleased to be getting so much more Covelo news from Eileen Russell, who is clued in to every aspect of the community in the north county. She even had a piece about a new trail in Covelo on KQED. I’ll be on vacation for a week this month, and I’m confident that our stringers and Victor Palomino can keep things going while I’m gone.

Shortly after I get back, I’ll be participating in a live event to benefit the KZYX building fund. Meg Smaker, a brilliant documentary filmmaker, will be sharing her film, “The Unredacted,” at Mendocino College in Ukiah on September 29. It’s about four Yemeni men who were held in Guantanamo for years without charges, then released to Saudi Arabia, where they attended the world’s first rehabilitation program for former jihadis. Ms. Smaker will be there in person to take questions during a Q&A after the screening. I’ll kick it off and then moderate queries from the audience. I’ve never done anything even remotely like that, so I’ll be doing my best to fake a certain amount of poise. Come to the screening and help me out with some great questions! Our membership director will be there with KZYX swag. Tickets are available at all the usual venues.

Another big local development is that three organizations (the Round Valley Indian Tribes, Sonoma Water, and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission) made a proposal to PG&E to continue the diversion from the Eel River into the Russian River after the Potter Valley Project is decommissioned. That was such a big deal, I decided to do a half-hour special on it, where we heard from the leaders of those organizations, some skeptical environmental and fisheries advocates, Congressman Jared Huffman, and Supervisor Dan Gjerde (who is also a KZYX programmer). That special is available on our website and at the KZYX News podcast.

On a tragic note, Mendocino County has the highest number of overdose deaths per capita in the state. August 31 was Opioid Awareness Day, so I’ve been checking in with providers, people who are in recovery, and those who have ideas and analyses about how to grapple with this epidemic. That was the topic of a second half-hour special, and it’s definitely not the last we’ll be hearing about it. The Board of Supervisors will hear a special presentation from the Fort Bragg chief of police on September 12 about the city’s efforts to guide young people into recovery, and Jacque WIlliams, who runs the Ukiah Recovery Center, continues to petition for Measure B funds to build a dormitory to expand her rehab and sober living services. I’ll keep bringing you stories from people who are trying to alleviate a public health crisis that’s devastating the whole community.

In between trying to get a full perspective on a few of the biggest issues, I’ve been attempting to keep up on local government meetings, county labor issues, the ongoing saga of the cannabis ordinance, and whatever else comes my way. Thanks for tuning in.

(Planting flags) Guests plant purple flags on the lawn at Adventist Health Ukiah Valley on August 30, to honor loved ones' struggle with opioids.

MAZIE'S STORY

by Mazie Malone

Well, I thought I would tell you a story, I am hopeful you will at the very least read it, maybe laugh! Often the truth is disguised in a pretty package that is full of crap, not the gift you were expecting, just a pile of BS. This story is still about Mental Illness and housing and Covid some of my favorite topics, lol. The reality is when dealing with any sort of systemic structure things are not as they seem. Probably why I hate politics but look my favorite subject revolves around social economic political control. Lord help me, any ways let's get to the story, I know you are dying to hear it.

Back in 2020 I worked somewhere in Ukiah that was a nonprofit whose function was to advocate and assist people with Disabilities and a lot of SSI/SSDI claims, this was a few months after being fired from Manzanita Services. Covid, Mental Illness Crisis, being fired and a new job to assist people with Disabilities in all these areas seemed awesome plus helped me to cope with the fact there was nothing I could do about anything happening around me. One of my best qualities is being adaptable but I could not morph into this work situation it was disgusting to my sensibilities. I confess my state of mind was probably a bit off due to all the stress, but my heart was in it, as always full force to assist those most vulnerable in their time of need. But none of that mattered because there seems to be some sort of impenetrable force field keeping people from being able to access and utilize services.

See the thing is in this particular area of non-profit Disability equates to ability no matter your Disability. The expectation is you must ask for the assistance you are seeking and do all the leg work to get it. And then it's not really assistance its advice and recommendations, sort of like dangling the carrot in front of the horse to get it moving. Interesting, don't ya think? A nonprofit taking federal money to fill a need so all disabled people may be self-reliant and advocate for themselves. They are capable and able, except some are not, some unable to follow directions, some cannot hear some have such cognitive impairment that they need help with extremely simple tasks that you and I take for granted. Yet they are not granted a "diversity waiver" I made that up, lol, because the nonprofit treats all disabilities as the same, there is no differentiation of need. You lost your right arm in a motorcycle accident you better find a way to write with your left because there is always a shit load of paperwork. Maybe you have Schizophrenia and cannot remember the time or date you need to see the parole officer (true story)! So how can you put everyone in the same box and not account for their actual needs? I would say delusional thinking and lack of brain cells but that's just my opinion, everyone's got one, right?

This was during Covid the end of 2020 some nonprofits received Covid grant money to assist people if they had lost income due to Covid. This particular organization because their main office was in Santa Rosa was granting people up to 5,000 dollars. The people requesting help had to prove their loss of income with bank statements and such then the Covid committee would review and deem some worthy of the funding. Important to note very few people in Ukiah know this place exists so the earmarked funds for our county were going down the drain. People would call asking for help with shelter and being homeless and there was nothing I could do except direct them where they might find help. Some people would be very mad yelling and threatening not getting what they wanted or expected. The kicker we had a housing program I mean they did, ha-ha but it was worthless.

So right before the holidays this dude my age shows up at the office, remember it's the height of Covid so no one comes to the office without an appointment with the exception of a few walk ins and my favorite client who I did in fact assist him in obtaining housing. Anyways this guy shows up Friday afternoon telling me he just got out of prison 3 days prior and needed quarantine before going into a transitional living environment and that someone from the Santa Rosa office had told him we would help him! That was a shocker actually helping someone, but I was excited to do something (nobody there did) and I think zoom made it easier for them to do nothing! I hate zoom because of this job and experience. So, let's call him George, he didn't know what he was going to do, he just being released from prison needed his Covid germs deactivated and un spreadable to his new roomies at the housing program. So, my gracious employers accommodated him and his need (never saw them accommodate anyone haha)! All that Covid money they needed to utilize so it was decided he was the guy so they housed and fed him for the required 10-day quarantine. They could not help one person in need of housing for the months I worked there, except this guy, George, lol, which don't get me wrong I was happy for him.

Our friend George was very cordial and respectful and very relieved that he could be quarantined and moved on to the program. This is where the utter ridiculousness comes in, he had Covid in prison 3 months prior to his release, and the transitional place accepted him but wanted to ensure his germs were annihilated before moving in. The Covid committee housed him at the Hampton Inn at 150 a night for 10 days, if I remember correctly it went up to 180 after the first 3 days. On top of that because they housed him, they were required to feed him for the full 10 days. A sum of 50 bucks a day was awarded to him for food via online gift cards which should have been 500, but for whatever reason they gave him 750 for the purchase of food. He was a happy camper living high on the hog for 10 days after a 5-year prison stent. Lucky man, alot of working families do not even spend that much on a months' worth of groceries! For me this equated to a few things, assholes run the show and that discrimination is hidden within a system claimed to advocate for those with disabilities whatever they may be. Pretentious bullshit. I could not take it anymore and quit, it was an experience, for sure, thank God it's over and I can talk about it.

George was afflicted with bipolar disorder, not sure of any substance issues but with his 5-year prison sentence I would assume he would have been drug free by that point. I am really clueless to why his living arrangement was that program? He was seemingly aware of his Bipolar we talked about things that led to his arrest and prison, he was very open about it. He went on to his program and I never saw him again, last year he was arrested. This is why Dual Diagnosis facilities are so important you need to treat the issues simultaneously as a whole. I had another client while working there older with Schizophrenia who also had been imprisoned for the previous 5 years but when he was released, he was not offered the same accommodations. He was sleeping outside in the cold, if not for my resourcefulness he would still be on the street. Mind you I was not supposed to aid this man, only counsel and advise of programs!! Advisement and coaching are great but sometimes it is necessary to take charge and help someone.

The Covid funds were meant for people with disabilities who lost income due to Covid, i.e., unable to work! I do not believe they meant working in the prison system, lol, but what do I know. Who gets help and who doesn't seem to be a matter of ignorance and assholes, thankful I am neither one!

Mazie Malone

ADVENTIST HEALTH MENDOCINO COAST HOSTS A DAY OF Remembrance and Hope Ceremony in commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day

August 31, 2023 (Fort Bragg, CA) — Community members and team members gathered on Thursday, August 31 to honor and remember those affected by drug overdose on International Overdose Awareness Day. The ceremony, titled "A Day of Remembrance and Hope," was led by Adventist Health Associate Chaplain Cynthia Wagner, with heartfelt speeches delivered by guest speakers Bethany Brewer from Fort Bragg Police Department and Dr. Barbara Killion from City Health. Special guests in attendance also included Gary Thomas with Behavioral Health and Pam Morgan from the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast Substance Use Navigation Team.

The event aimed to raise awareness about substance use disorder, address the stigma surrounding overdose, and acknowledge the grief experienced by families and friends who have lost loved ones. Attendees were presented with significant statistics to shed light on the severity of the issue, both nationally and within Mendocino County.

According to the data, more than 1 million people have lost their lives to drug overdose in the United States since 1999. Mendocino County, unfortunately, holds the distinction of being the county with the highest per capita overdose deaths in the state this year and has consistently ranked among the top five counties for the past five years. The rate of opioid overdoses in Mendocino County is three times higher than California's average. Shockingly, during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of preventable opioid overdose deaths in Mendocino County surpassed the number of COVID-19-related deaths, emphasizing the urgent need for attention and action.

Bethany Brewer, a Youth Success Coach for Project Right Now with the Fort Bragg Police Department, shared her personal story during the ceremony, highlighting the importance of providing support and resources not only to individuals struggling with addiction but also to their families and friends. Attendees were encouraged to approach Bethany, Gary, and Pam to learn more about the available resources within the community.

An emotional moment during the ceremony involved participants planting purple flags as a symbolic representation of loved ones affected by substance use or lost to overdose. This silent tribute served as a reminder that each statistic represents a unique individual, someone's family member or friend. The gathering collectively honored and remembered these precious lives, concluding the ceremony with a prayer.

In a call to action, the organizers expressed their desire to bring about change and reduce the alarming statistics by focusing on individual cases and offering compassionate support.

If you need help or know someone who needs help with drug use, you can reach a Substance Abuse Navigator at the following locations and numbers:

Mendocino Coast: 707-485-4302

Ukiah: 707-513-6469

Willits: 707-231-0749

We have a team ready and dedicated to help those in our community and many of these services are free.

(Adventist Health, Coast, Presser)

REMEMBERING MARJORY

Dear Friends,

Those of us who were guided to Mendocino in the seventies experienced the beauty and magic of that time. Marjory Waiting was here among us living that spirit, loving Mendocino and the people it attracted. In her mid-twenties she left her home in northern England, and while on the Pacific coast of Mexico, fell in love with a kindred traveler, Daniel. Spoken as Dah-nee-el in his native Cuban, together they sailed to California and made home in Little River. Marjory was gifted in several artistic mediums and chose air-brushing on ready-made garments as her main venue of support, this made her product light, transportable and sales affordable. She hand cut stencils from images she drew of flowers, butterflies, pixies, fairies, etc. She'd arrange the stencils atop factory "blanks", turn on her clunky, loud air compressor, clasp the air wand and spray. Voila! The generic, bland children's wear, camisoles, tank tops and tees transformed into colorful images of nature and fantasy. Some may remember her as "Fancy Nancy" this was her trade name for her painted work. She sold her pieces annually at the Mendocino Art Center Fair, at local events and arts & craft fairs in California. Marjory was a prolific artist and sold her work to hundreds of people. In 1976, during the Mendocino Whale War she made air brushed fabric appliques imploring “Save the Whales,” “Stop the Slaughter.” Locals would sew these onto the backs of their jackets, one is seen pictured in a National Geographic Magazine article, circa that era. A few years later, David Jones commissioned her to paint a piece of art for the new upstairs Sea Gull Cellar Bar. She painted in oils on canvas a winged fairy ascending. In December of 1980 about a dozen girlfriends gathered around her at the Cafe Beaujolais for a Bon Voyage brunch in her honor. She was leaving the US...it was time...she missed her family... she wanted to return to her homeland...she'd been gone seven years…her passport had expired…bittersweet.

Marjory visited Mendocino, twice since 1980, most recent in 2017, and was planning to visit again. Sadly, she discovered she was very ill a few months ago. She passed away in New Castle upon Tyne at the hospital on August 17, with her dear friend, Paul at her side. Marjory will be buried this Monday at 12:45 BST. Our deepest condolences and prayers are with her family and friends. Marjory was a beautiful person and special beyond measure. We are calling on friends who remember her to join us on Sunday, October 8 in Mendocino at 2 pm to celebrate her life. We'll meet on the headlands across the street from the Mendocino Hotel. Libations and sustenance to follow.

Love to all, from friends of Marjory, Zia, Cynthia and Nirmalaenchantedpasta@aol.com

CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, September 1, 2023

AURELIO ALCARAZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ANDRE ALMERAZ, Riverside/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JOSE ANDRADE, Oakland/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

CARMEN ARENS, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

GLENN BOSSOM, Covelo. DUI, failure to appear.

JOSE CORNEJO, Ukiah. Concentrated cannabis, county parole violation.

ISAAC GLAVIN, New Lisbon, Wisconsin/Ukiah. DUI.

TATE MADSON, Willits. County parole violation.

PEDRO REYES-HERNANDEZ, Madera/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs, no license.

KEVIN ROGERS, Laytonville. Robbery, stolen property, controlled substance, false ID, unspecified offense.

JEFF SANDERS, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

DARIUS SNEED, Ukiah. Transportation of controlled substance.

JASON SPLEISS, Tracy/Ukiah. DUI.

HOLLAND VANHORN, Willits. Suspended license, failure to appear.

SHAWN WICK, Pasco, Washington/Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, taking vehicle without owner’s consent, evasion.

MORE THAN ONE CAUSE

Editor:

In all the discussion about Scott Dam and the fate of Eel River salmon, I have seen almost no mention of the effects of climate change on the fish life cycle. Even though Scott Dam has been in place for over 100 years, one is led to believe that the current collapse of the Pacific salmon population is almost entirely due to Lake Pillsbury. This raises my suspicions.

I know “fish folk” have had a goal of removing Scott Dam for at least 40 or 50 years. They would have us believe that removing the dam will restore the river to historic flows of the past, with the salmon swimming wild and free. However, what happens if climate change has a different plan, and the river runs drier and warmer than ever?

This reminds me of a “freeway through the middle of Santa Rosa” moment. What seems like a good idea today may turn out to be a disaster 30 or 40 years hence. Just food for thought.

William Spita

Santa Rosa

MEMO OF THE AIR: Live on KNYO from Franklin St. all night tonight!

Marco here. Deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is like 5:30 or so. Or send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week.

For this show I'll be in the cluttered but well-lighted back room of KNYO's 325 N. Franklin studio, with its posters of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and so on, the winking-3D-Jesus-effect vampire-dragon woman from /Lair of the White Worm/, the rumbling, whooshing refrigerator (distinguished from when I'm doing the show from Juanita's place, when the background is rather more dogs barking, car alarms and police and emergency sirens). To call and read your work in your own voice tonight, the number is 707-962-3022. If you want to come in and perform in person, that's okay, but bring a mask to put on, and of course stay away if you have a tickly throat. It isn't just a tickly throat anymore. But if you're in perfect health and neither drunk nor nuts, fine, why not, and bring your guitar or oboe or accordion or whatever. I'll be in Fort Bragg next week, too; let me know enough in advance of that and I can set up the Jack Leung Memorial Electric Piano for you to use.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg as well as anywhere else via KNYO.org. Also the schedule is there for KNYO's many other terrific shows.

As always, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a candy store of whimsical, scientific and theatrical surprises to scarf up until showtime, or any time, such as:

Never Did No Wanderin', from A Mighty Wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiwnmdkCFiE

This Bulging River, from Waiting For Guffman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiwnmdkCFiE

And rerun: Y'all Are Brutalizin' Me, from Run Ronnie Run, which always reminds me of Lindy Peters and the various Gloriana Opera Company productions his presence graced. Like Mandy Patinkin, he's a big guy, but he had, and might still have, I don't know, a lovely Irish tenor. He really is Mister Fort Bragg, and if they change the name it would be a crime to call it anything but Lindy Petersville. Or The Palms. I'll discuss that again on the show. New and even better reasons have appeared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA3JUpQzOek

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

WHEN YOU ARE 24 and break into a 73 year old’s house and threaten him and his wife with a knife and didn’t know he was a Boxer…

…a US Marine, and Hand To Hand Combat Instructor. Semper Fi.

BREATHING IN, BREATHING OUT

Mind Absorbed in the Absolute, No Place to Go

Following morning ablutions, picked up all of the remaining litter around the Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center, and then walked to Plowshares picking up the litter along the fence near the airport. Enjoyed a free lunch, and then took an MTA bus to the Ukiah Public Library, presently in front of computer #4 tap, tap tapping away. Physically healthy, mentally stable, spiritually enlightened, and financially secure due to both the SSA and SSI disbursements being auto-deposited into the SBMC checking account. Breathing in and breathing out. Mind absorbed in the Absolute, no place to go! ~OM Namah Shivaya~

Craig Louis Stehr

A READER WRITES: Nice to see Fred Gardner mentioning Soros - The Orange One’s opposite number - “Snuffing Out Medical Marijuana,” AVA Aug 30. Also giving the skinny on Dr. Jeffery Hergenrather of Sebastopol. Take it from this long-time activist: The Early-Adopter Cannabis MDs are worth their weight in gold, and THEN some! — Namaste from slippery San Francisco

FOOTBALL KILLED THE PAC-12. Who else should we be mad at for its collapse?

by Ann Killion

UPDATE: ACC votes to add Cal, Stanford and SMU, signaling Pac-12’s end

While we wait for the bitter end, while we listen to the death rattle of the Pac-12 Conference, let’s process the stages of our grief. We’re way past denial and have already done depression. Bargaining? That doesn’t seem to be going well. And I’m not sure we’ll ever even get to acceptance.

Personally, I’m kind of stuck on anger and I think most of you are, too. So, who or what are you angriest at in this debacle? Who do you loathe the most?

I’m not even sure where to begin.

Do you most hate the warped college sports culture that values football above all else, even though the Pac-12 was so much better at so many other sports?

Do you despise a society that will sacrifice women’s sports and Olympic sports on the altar of the gridiron?

Do you loathe USC for starting this thing? Or UCLA for following like a lap dog? What about the UC Board of Regents for shrugging its collective shoulders over letting UCLA abandon Cal?

Do you detest Fox Sports for stepping in to squash a deal that would have kept a “Pac-9” largely intact? (Can we just agree to hate Fox for pretty much everything?)

Do you hate the arrogant leadership of Cal and Stanford for not understanding how far behind the curve the two schools have fallen? For their hubris, believing they would simply figure it out because they’re so much smarter?

Do you loathe the culture of each school for not understanding and embracing the value of sports? Cal, in particular, for being so historically hostile to athletics? The past regime of Robert Birgeneau and Sandy Barbour for leaving the school with crippling debt? What about the failings of Stanford’s current leadership, who ham-handedly tried to cut 11 sports not long ago, while touting its “home of champions” marketing tool for years without really seeming to care?

How much do you hate that the leadership at both schools will almost certainly use this situation — the chaos, the reduced revenues, the increased travel expenses — to start axing Olympic sports?

Do you despise the phony posturing of virtually all the schools involved that have pledged carbon neutrality and have set environmental sustainability goals but now have decided that flying athletes all over the country in the name of football profits is a perfectly acceptable idea?

What about the current commissioner of the disappeared conference, George Kliavkoff, who had no sense of urgency and operated as though the ground wasn’t shifting daily beneath his feet? Kliavkoff told reporters this week that he was focused on “winning a national championship,” a weird thing to say as his conference is being stripped down and sold for parts and he’s left being the commissioner of thin air. A national championship in what exactly? Futility?

Isn’t the leader on “list of loathe” Kliavkoff’s predecessor, Larry Scott? The absolutely inept former commissioner of the Pac-12 set the course on this path of doom, could never grasp the landscape he was tasked to understand, put the conference in a hole from which it could never recover and seemed more concerned about flashy offices and job perks than a competitive conference.

The entire thing is a gut punch, a slow-motion car crash that began years ago with Scott’s ascension, lasted through the conference’s insane 2018 rejection of an ESPN lifeline, peaked with the defections of USC and UCLA a year ago and is now down to the humiliation of two of our nation’s most storied universities waiting for the ACC to deem whether they are worthy of inclusion. If the ACC can pick up Cal and Stanford in the bargain box of the Pac-12 yard sale.

Despite the rationalizations of others, and the reality that it may be the only option, joining the Atlantic Coast Conference makes no sense. Not logistically. Not culturally. It means linking arms with people who don’t want you: North Carolina women’s soccer coach Anson Dorrance is probably not the only one who would like to see Cal and Stanford “die on the vine,” a perfectly awful thing to say. It means joining a conference that doesn’t understand your schools’ cultures, doesn’t care about your schools, will belittle your schools. Fun times!

The only silver lining is that this is probably only a way station. A place to stop for the time being until the next upheaval in college sports. Until college football figures out how to be its own thing and not destroy the rest of the collegiate sports world for its own gain.

This situation really doesn’t make sense to someone whose first memory of college football was attending a Cal game with my parents (both Cal alums) and looking out from Memorial Stadium past the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond to the Pacific Ocean. Whose college experience was spent a stone’s throw from the Pacific Ocean and the beaches of Santa Monica.

The Pacific Conference, and whatever number of schools it represented in my life — 8, 10, 12 — was cool. It was, as we laughed when Bill Walton bellowed it, the conference of champions. No, not football champions but other champions — women’s soccer, volleyball, water polo, softball, men’s and women’s basketball, and so many other sports. It was on the left coast. It was unique. It was ours.

It is almost gone. And there are plenty of reasons to be angry.

MAPPING THE PANDEMIC IN SAN FRANCISCO

by Jonah Raskin

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn professional.”

– Hunter S. Thompson

The pandemic has generated waves of anxiety and depression, but it has also been a boom to creativity. I’ve known both. I’ve felt isolated and alone, and I have also written and published a great deal that has been warmly received. For all those reasons and also because he’s a neighbor, I was delighted to sit down and talk to a San Francisco actor and playwright named Jeremy Julian Greco.

Greco, who is also a husband and a father as well as an actor and playwright, thought he might lose it and go crazy at the height of the pandemic. When he looked around him at Other Avenues, the coop grocery where he works and co-owns, he saw customers “snapping.”

Indeed, they snapped at him and at the other workers who tried to enforce the city’s rules and regulations about health, safety and sanitation that came down from Mayor London Breed’s office in Civic Center. Shoppers wanted their produce and they wanted it now. They often didn’t seem to care very much about masks, gloves and safety. Health be damned.

“I almost snapped,” Greco told me. His near-melt down led him to create The Big Snap, a book published by HuskyBoyPress, and to do much more. The Big Snap is also the name of Greco’s one-man show that maps the pandemic in San Francisco. It also traces human responses to it, especially at Ocean Beach at the edge of The City, which can feel far removed from skyscrapers and big box stores. Sealevel, a gallery on Irving Street, hosts Greco’s one-man show in September.

Greco told me that while he was stressed at work, he was also stressed at his home in the Outer Sunset, where he lives with his wife, two daughters and mother-in-law who suffers from dementia and who has never understood the pandemic, the need to wear a mask and the concept of quarantine.

At no time during the pandemic did Greco actually snap. Instead, he did what gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, urged his friends and followers to do when they faced difficult times. “When the going gets weird,” Thompson said, “the weird turn professional.” I think that means they keep a level head.

The pandemic has definitely been weird for most humans, no matter what continent they inhabit, and the weirdness isn’t over yet, not with the latest surge. Singer Songwriter, Billy Ocean, tweaked Thompson’s rallying cry and sang “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

During the pandemic, tough-guy, kind-hearted Greco aimed to heal his own soul and to help heal his own community that has been hit hard by social distancing and isolation. Greco didn’t see a shrink or take mind-altering drugs to help him cope. Rather, he reached for a camera, a tape recorder, notepads and pencils and went into the unknown, uncharted jungle created by the pandemic.

His journey took him across San Francisco, to places very near—he even interviewed his own daughters at home— and via Zoom to far away places, including Ireland.

“It was kinda boring because you had to stay inside for a long time,” his daughter Iris told him. Juliana Greco, his other daughter, expressed a common sentiment of the young: “I’m just a kid and I can’t make decisions by myself, because your parents decide everything.”

Greco took 365 photos—one a day for a year—and interviewed 14 people in depth. He transcribed all the interviews and selected the best parts which he brings to his one-man show. The people who survived and even thrived inspired him in much the same way that plagues have inspired writers throughout the ages, such as Daniel Defoe, the author of A Journal of a Plague Year (1722), and Albert Camus, the author of The Plague (1947). The COVID-19 lockdown figures in Ann Patcgett’s new novel, Tom Lake (2023).

Greco’s newly published book, The Big Snap, isthe size and shape of a coffee table book. It boasts color photos of Ocean Beach, the Pacific, spectacular sunsets, big fluffy clouds, sand dunes, walkers, runners, fishermen and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The book also includes a few photos of the author himself —wearing a mask. At the front of the book, Greco writes, “I’m a co-owner of a collective, not your stereotypical Burning-Man-loving, tofu-eating individual. I don’t like crowds and drum circles (especially in a desert). I choose to eat meat and I drive a fossil fuel usage car.”

Greco has also created a theater piece directed by Mark Kenward. Like the book, it’s called The Big Snap. Greco will perform it in September at the cozy Sealevel gallery. While major venues in The City have folded because of the pandemic, intimate venues like Sealevel on Irving Street have blossomed.

Jeana Loraine, the owner and operator of Sealevel, has turned her gallery and workspace into a community center and a lively space. On weekends, it’s used by painters, poets, musicians and playwrights, including Greco, a veteran of the stage who has performed solo shows—— inspired in part by the work of Anna Deavere Smith—in San Francisco, Marin County, Dallas, and elsewhere.

Loraine was born in Sacramento but spent most of her life in Switzerland. She and her Swiss husband settled in the Sunset District in San Francisco a decade ago. “One of the main ideas about Sealevel is to bring people together and strengthen the ties in the community,” she said. “Greco is a perfect fit.”

Like Anna Deavere Smith, Greco embraces what’s known as “documentary theater.” Like Smith, he crafts characters based on the interviews he conducts with real people. He uses body language, facial expressions and the rhythms of speech to bring them to life.

As Greco discovered, the pandemic is in some ways ready made for the stage. It offers dramatic moments, gut-wrenching scenes and colorful individuals, including San Francisco’s Republican Party mainstay, John Dennis, and Tony Cyprien, a storyteller par excellence and an advocate for social justice. Cyprien, who is Black, served time behind bars. He told Greco that life in San Francisco during COVID, under London Breed’s administration, reminded him of life in prison.

John Dennis, Tony Cyprien, plus six other real individuals, via the alchemy of Greco’s imagination, appear on stage as characters in The Big Snap. To watch Greco before a live audience is to witness the enduring magic of theater that not even a global pandemic has been able to stop. The show, as they say, must go on.

For more information contact Sealevel, 4331 Irving Street, (415) 848-9026 and ahoy@sealevelsf.com.

ONLY A SOCIAL MOVEMENT CAN WIN REAL IMMIGRATION REFORM

by David Bacon

At the beginning of the 1990s, Sahuayo, a small city of factories and craftspeople near Michoacan's Lake Chapala, could not provide enough work to support its growing population. People had been leaving Michoacan for years, seeking jobs in the maquiladoras on the border, or in the fields of California's San Joaquin Valley. But as the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect, the Mexican government devalued the peso, and a new wave of Sahuayenses were thrown into the migrant stream.…

avidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2023/08/only-social-movement-can-win-real.html

US FOREIGN POLICY in the 2000s emphasized giant overt ground invasions (Iraq, Afghanistan). In the 2010s it shifted emphasis to arming proxies (Yemen, Libya, Syria). In the 2020s it’s moved to staging massive proxy conflicts on the borders of its top two rivals (Ukraine, Taiwan).

With each adjustment it gets harder to perceive the depravity of the empire. It was easy when it was just Bush-style smash-and-grab ground invasions, but it’s been getting sneakier and sneakier about its murderousness to maintain international support and avoid antiwar sentiment.

And yet the empire is still just as murderous and destructive as it was under the Bush administration. Its creation of the Ukraine conflict is just as evil as anything Bush or Obama did. More so really, because now we’re getting closer and closer to nuclear annihilation. The task of opposing the empire’s warmongering has thus become more and more difficult, but it’s also getting more and more important. We do need to keep helping the public see what these bastards are doing and the destruction they’re causing and the armageddon they’re risking.

And people are getting left behind as the warmongering gets sneakier. Many people who opposed Bush’s warmongering are now cheerleaders for the US proxy warriors orchestrating conflicts with Russia and China. It’s important to work to keep the manipulators from confusing people.

— Caitlin Johnstone

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I have come to the unfortunate realization that this Country isn’t worth saving anymore.

$31 trillion in public debt.

$36 – $72 trillion in private debt.

Women who think they are men.

Men who think they are women.

Children being preyed upon by sexual deviants.

Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Religion is dead or dying as churches are useless.

Fathers are gone having been destroyed by the feminists.

Women have gone absolutely nutso.

Tattoos abound everywhere on everyone.

Drugs.

Established law is ignored while implied law is enforced.

Spanish is becoming the primary language.

English is being warped to mean things it never has meant before.

Everyone lies about their lives.

Nobody owns their land and never will own their land.

The nuclear family is dead.

Is this garbage, rot, decay, filth and depravity worth saving? I don’t know. Perhaps it is time to scrap it all, cull the herd significantly and start from a clean slate.

MY SISTER JUMPED OFF THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. 17 years later, those suffering have as little help as she did

by Amy Burton

Seventeen years ago my sister killed herself by jumping from the Golden Gate Bridge. Two weeks after she died, I knelt on the floor of her apartment, grief-stricken, packing her stuff into boxes. As I worked, someone handed me the day’s newspaper. A 16-year-old boy had just jumped to his death from the bridge. He rode his bicycle there from Marin County. He was a junior in high school. A skateboarder. Hours before he died, he ate lunch with his mom at their kitchen table. The boy stopped on the walkway of the bridge, got off his bike and leaned it against the 4-foot rail.

And then … gone.

I slumped over a box of my sister’s books, too stunned to speak. I gripped the newspaper article so hard I almost crumpled it. Sixteen years old. At the time I thought it was a one-two punch. Back-to-back shock. Now, years later, I see my sister’s and the boy’s deaths for what they are: part of the relentless, needless clockwork of suicides.

The numbers are staggering. An estimated 12.3 million people contemplate suicide each year. There are 1.7 million suicide attempts annually in the U.S alone.

In the time it takes you to read this essay, someone dies by suicide. This tragedy plays out every 11 minutes of every hour of every day. This is the clock we are all living by.

It needs to be fixed.

Ninety-three percent of Americans believe that suicide is preventable. It is.

When my sister died, she was in her 30s with an extended family, piles of friends and a wicked topspin forehand that helped her win tennis matches. She didn’t want to die. Her refrigerator door was plastered with invitations stuck under magnets. She had plans. She had a future. She was nearly finished with her doctorate in psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley. If she were alive today my sister would likely be working as a therapist or a psychologist. She’d be helping people much like herself.

Why wasn’t she saved?

Most people who die by suicide have a mental illness. For my sister, there was a 10-year gap between the onset of her illness and her diagnosis. Imagine an entire decade between the pain of a physical illness — say diabetes or cancer — and a diagnosis. Would the person be expected to survive?

Here in the Bay Area, our most iconic piece of infrastructure also happens to be an easy vehicle for those not receiving proper care to act upon their self-destructive impulses.

Soon after the bridge was built in 1937, a person leaped from its deck. It was suggested that a safety net be added. That didn’t happen. Decades of debate over a net followed. So, too, did decades of dying. My sister and the 16-year-old boy — and nearly 2,000 others — have been lost amid this inaction. With suicide prevention, delay equals death.

A life is lost at the Golden Gate Bridge every two weeks. Yes, it’s like clockwork.

In 2022, Congress allocated $2.14 billion to the National Institute for Mental Health, a boost of $37 million. This trend must continue. Proper financing for mental health care is long overdue, just as the bridge’s safety net is long overdue.

It’s not either/or. We need both.

In 2008 the idea of a net was finally approved by Golden Gate Bridge officials. The actual net was supposed to be completed a decade later, in 2018. Delays pushed it to 2021. Then 2023. And it has recently been delayed, yet again.

Then and now, month after month, bodies are pulled out of the water. My sister, floating face down in her signature bright blue windbreaker, was spotted by tourists near Alcatraz. The U.S. Coast Guard was called. They whizzed out and removed her with giant metal hooks. Other bodies, like that of the 16-year-old boy, are swept to the Pacific and never recovered. Their families are left wondering.

Meanwhile, the clock ticks.

Metal rods have been attached to the bridge’s span. They jut out like huge fingers, perfectly spaced — but without the full stainless steel mesh attached, the rods are useless.

What good is a partially built safety net?

The net’s completion is now slated for 2026. Can we even believe that? I doubt it. One thing is certain: We are scheduled for at least three more years of needless deaths on top of the thousands of lives already lost. In that time, someone reading this will probably, like me, lose a loved one to the Golden Gate Bridge.

It is lethal limbo.

When my sister and I were kids, we jumped on our neighbor’s trampoline. We were barefoot and had grass stains on our knees. She taught me how to double-bounce her. “Now, Amy!” she yelled, and I got the timing just right. She shot into the air, whooping.

After she died, I lay in bed and couldn’t get that image of her out of my head. My sister, high above me. Grinning. Her hair swooped up toward the sky, legs pedaling the air, falling.

My arms were raised up to her.

I still dream that I could turn the San Francisco Bay into our neighbor’s trampoline. I still dream that I could be right there for her, like I always was.

And that just one more time, I could catch her.

If you need help…

If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call the free 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing “988” 24 hours a day or text “HOME” to 741741 to reach a crisis counselor anytime.

(Amy Burton, a former San Francisco resident, is writing a memoir. Visit amyfayeburton.com or email amyfayeburton10@gmail.com.)

I CAN THINK of 40 better places to spend the summer, all of them in a hammock in my backyard.

— Harpo Marx, responding to an invitation to spend the summer on the French Riviera

I DIDN’T FEEL DEEPLY UPSET that Anita Hill was harassed. As far as I’m concerned, if somebody says something nasty to me, even though my job’s important, I feel up to putting him in his place. Anita Hill was grown-up and capable. But that bipartisan Senate committee attack on her was a spectacle, a group of powerful white males trying to destroy an innocent black woman to achieve a political goal. And using a black man to do it. I am really hostile about that, still today. I’m not hostile about a lot of things, but I’m hostile about that. I can never forgive Clarence Thomas for allowing himself to be used that way. But my harshest feelings are reserved for the sight of someone like Clarence Thomas taking Thurgood Marshall’s place. In my opinion, Thomas is a man who has sold out his black people in order to be accepted by the white establishment. Having him on the Supreme Court is the worst thing that has happened to African Americans in recent memory. Now, George Bush did good things for a lot of black people. His administration established a $300 million fund to help save and develop the historically black colleges. The Bush family personally gave major donations to Morehouse, and Mrs. Bush sat on their board. But George Bush also made us pay dues. That nomination was the dues, and as far as I’m concerned, the price was too high. Putting a Clarence Thomas up to replace an individual of Thurgood Marshall’s towering stature just violated everything I believe in. It made me know that my government would stick a knife through my heart and tell me it was good for me. I still can’t get over it.

— Joycelyn Elders

DISDAINFUL LIBERALS SHOULD LISTEN TO OLIVER ANTHONY

by Nicholas Kristof

What’s wrong here? A self-described high school dropout living in a camper with a tarp on the roof sings a plaintive cri de coeur about blue-collar workers being shafted by the wealthy, and it is right-wing Republicans who rush to embrace him, while Democrats wag their fingers and scold him for insensitivity.

Huh? Have Democrats retreated so far from their workingman roots that their knee-jerk impulse is to dump on a blue-collar guy who highlights “folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat”? If you’ve been on Mars for the past couple of weeks, I’m talking of course about Oliver Anthony, a country singer who a month ago was unknown and now has had his song, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” soar to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the past two weeks.

“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day,” Anthony laments. He blames the travails of workers on “rich men north of Richmond” — a swipe at Washington and elites generally. Some of his lines aren’t so different from elements in Franklin Roosevelt’s speech about “the forgotten man” or in Robert Kennedy’s elegy for “the shattered dreams of others.”

Yet in this case, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, labeled “Rich Men” the “anthem of the forgotten Americans,” and Fox News asked participants in the Republican presidential debate to discuss it. Meanwhile, some on the left pounced on it as rightwing propaganda and even as “racist trash.”

Does the left really want to leave battered, angry workers to be defended by a GOP that periodically guts unions, targets Social Security, resists health care coverage and opposes increases in the minimum wage?

Anthony, who calls himself “just some idiot and his guitar,” seemed taken aback by the assumption that he must be a rightwinger. He said his song was meant to blast politicians on both sides, including those in the GOP presidential debate who were trying to weaponize his words. “I wrote that song about those people,” he said.

I don’t agree with everything Anthony says, but his principal theme is that working-class Americans have been screwed over — and he’s right on that. He’s also correct that both parties bear some responsibility and have twiddled their thumbs as workingclass Americans die by the tens of thousands from drugs, alcohol and suicide.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figures offer a metric of the catastrophe: Average weekly nonsupervisory wages, a metric for blue-collar earnings, were higher in 1969 (adjusted for inflation) than they were this year. Meanwhile, bosses are earning far, far more.

A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies said that the CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, a concert company, earned $139 million in 2022 — while workers earned a median pay of $25,673. The report adds that since 2020 at Dollar Tree, where many struggling Americans shop and work, prices have increased, average worker pay has dipped, and the CEO’s stock holdings increased in value by more than 2,000%.

This is the context in which many working-class Americans have lost hope and are self-medicating or simply killing themselves. It constitutes a social great depression: We lose more Americans to “deaths of despair” every 10 days than the total of all the service members killed in two decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq — yet we have all been far too complacent about the suffering.

Anthony makes the valid point that these disparate social crises reflect a broader pathology that is holding America back. “People talk about epidemics in this country, and the homelessness and the drug use and the lack of skilled labor and the suicide rates,” he said. “Those aren’t problems; those are symptoms of a bigger universal problem … we don’t talk about it enough.”

Anthony said he dropped out of high school, earned a GED certificate and worked in a paper mill for $14.50 an hour until he fractured his skull in a workplace accident. He has wrestled with alcohol and drug use and with mental health issues, he acknowledges.

Liberals are properly attentive to racial injustice but have a blind spot about class, driven in part by unfair stereotypes that members of the white working class are invariably bigots. In fact, you can’t think seriously about inequality in America without contemplating race, but that’s also true of class. And as Harvard professor Michael Sandel has noted, one of the last acceptable prejudices is disdain for the less educated.

I wish Anthony hadn’t complained in his song about obese people on food stamps; that’s a horrible stereotype and was simply mean.

But just as Anthony should show more compassion for people struggling on food stamps, liberals should show more compassion for workers who have been left behind. It’s partly this condescension that has driven many working-class voters, initially white voters and more recently brown and Black ones as well, into the arms of conservative politicians who would shaft them even more.

If we’re going to achieve a more progressive agenda, then we need to win elections — and that means respecting workers rather than scorning them, insulting their faith and casually dismissing them as bigots. If we believe in empathy, let’s show some.

(NY Times)

HAPPENINGS AWAIT

by James Kunstler

“Even Americans who have no particular interest in freedom and independence in democracies worldwide, should be satisfied that we’re getting our money’s worth on our Ukraine investment.” — Sen. Richard Blumenthal

The Labor Day weekend looms like a gateway into an autumn hell-scape of political psychodrama, so enjoy those last clam rolls of the season before the zeitgeist darkens and events pound the shore like so many waves of hurricane surf. Further inland, where the Swamp lies burbling and skreeking, unseen hands work overtime to falsify reality in a leaderless nation. Everybody feels the unbearable tension of things as yet unhappened.

“Joe Biden” has LARPed his way to the final act of his performance. The evidence of his high crimes, and the covering-up of those high crimes by our lawless law officialdom, is piled high enough to eject him into the swales of infamy. We know exactly how the Ukraine grift went down — the documentation is stark and florid — as is the rest of family’s bribery operations in other lands not necessarily friendly to our own land. So, add treason to bribery and there you have the complete kit of perfidious treachery against the nation.

“Joe Biden” will be removed most likely by his own party before an impeachment inquiry can be launched in Congress. Not even The New York Times and CNN would able to ignore the horrific spectacle and the party’s own minions might be shamed into learning how they were hosed for so many years. The unseen hands that jammed “JB” into the White House can then figure out what to do about the hapless Kamala Harris while Congress turns its attention to impeaching Merrick Garland, Christopher Wray, Alejandro Mayorkas, and Xavier Bacerra. At least that’s how it might work if the USA was a sane polity.

Otherwise, the people of this land will have to choose between being rolled-over by a globalist coup or find other routes of resistance. One would be for the governors of several so-called Red states to end mail-in voting, get rid of computerized ballot-counting machines, bring back paper ballots, and declare that all voting and hand ballot-counting take place on one election day. Don’t believe those who say it can’t be done. If it’s not done, we’ll never see anything close to an un-rigged election in this country ever again.

In what might be one of his last official acts, “Joe Biden” announced last week that Americans would be “encouraged” to get a new-and-improved mRNA vaccine booster against the new Covid virus strain EG.5 “Eris” (named after the Greek goddess of strife and discord). The “president,” said he asked Congress for funding “for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works…. It will likely be recommended that everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not.”

Say, what…? Did the earlier vaccines not work, Joe? Most assuredly they did not. The shots injured, disabled, and killed a great many people, and it staggers the rational mind that the CDC is still pushing these shots. You might conclude that they’re pretending this didn’t happen to evade responsibility. After all, what would be the consequences if these officials admitted that all the previous Covid vaccines were ineffective and harmful? And what would be the reaction of the 81.3 percent of the population who got at least one dose of the previous vaccines and the 65.6 percent who are “fully vaccinated” with two or more shots? (Note, statistics from the CDC.)

I’ll tell you what would happen: the CDC officials and a great many other persons on the public payroll would be in court on criminal charges. And doctors and hospitals would be subject to so many lawsuits they would never again have time to actually practice medicine, while millions of people with damaged immune systems and wrecked organs take flight like so many black swans flapping into the setting sun of their own prematurely attenuated lives. If you care to be astounded, listen to this talk that Dr. Peter McCullough gave to an audience in New Hampshire a few days ago, calling out all the principals who devised the Covid-19 fiasco by name: Ralph Baric, Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszek, and Francis Collins, and then describing exactly how the dastardly act and the cover-up went down.

Speaking of happenings this autumn, expect the war in Ukraine to come to an end. The news media might omit to inform you about this, but it awaits. Russia will not trumpet its victory, so as to avoid inflaming America’s crazed neo-cons. Rather it will just quietly take charge of its successfully neutralized neighbor, make provision for some sort of administration over what remains of the rump state — in a way that affords Russia a sense of permanent security — at the same time that Russia commences new negotiations separately with several European nations to reestablish realistic relations.

The US will be delicately hung out to dry on this. Short of resorting to nuclear World War Three, there is nothing the US can do about it — except for the Democratic Party to blame the whole sorry thing on “Joe Biden” as he is forced to resign from office pending that aforesaid impeachment threat. No other explanation for the end of our Ukraine project will be required. The party of chaos will flounder a while in the very chaos that it induced, trying laughably to switch out Kamala Harris for Gavin Newsom — or some other ploy to stay in business. But the party will be so badly damaged by then that it will have no other option except to let Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in to drive out the remaining demons and save the venerable old org from suicide.

If you think that these various momentous happenings won’t affect the financial markets and the banking system in the coming season, prepare to be amazed. This is how America truly gets to feel the pain, and this might be how the pitchforks finally come out for the people who wrecked our country.

(kunstler.com)

Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I've crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard
And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall

UKRAINE, FRIDAY, 1ST SEPTEMBER

Russia says it stopped a Ukrainian attack late Friday on the Crimean Bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, that links the annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland.

Russia's newest nuclear weapons system — the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known in the West as "Satan II" — is now operational, a top Moscow official said. It will replace a Soviet-era missile system.

Flights serving Moscow were disrupted Friday by Ukrainian drones that targeted Russia's capital and the Kursk region bordering Ukraine, Russian officials said.

Ukraine says its counteroffensive has made some progress in the southeast, edging closer to Russia's sprawling network of fortified trenches. "We are moving forward," Kyiv's foreign minister told CNN.

29 Comments

Madeline Cline September 2, 2023

Re: Audit

The annual financial statements, specially the FY21-22 Annual Comprehensive Financial Review (ACFR) and FY21-22 Audit, are delinquent. Yes, this poses a threat to our credit rating, but it is also concerning for transparency and financial viability.

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/auditor-controller/financial-reports

Reply
- Ted Williams September 2, 2023
  
  Why is it late? The cause of delay is more concerning than the delay.
  
  The 2021-22 fiscal year ended June 30, 2022. 429 days ago.
  
  Reply
Mazie Malone September 2, 2023

Re: Golden Gate, so sad mental illness destroys lives, families and communities.

Re: The universe is not insane, lol, people are

mm💕

Reply
Ted Williams September 2, 2023

“ but they didn’t need to stir up that hornet’s nest in the first place by listing them. ”

Brown Act. The Supervisors don’t collaborate on the
agenda. I learn about the agenda at the same moment the public gains awareness.

Reply
- Eric Sunswheat September 2, 2023
  
  That’s perhaps current CEO mod of operation.
  Under past CAO model, Chair of Board of Supervisors set agenda with County staff, I believe.
  
  Reply
- The Shadow September 2, 2023
  
  Give me a break. If you’re not in the CEOs office asking what’s going to be on the agenda, you’re not doing your job. Yet, you claim you put things on the agenda so you’re once again obfuscating the facts. Trying to tell us that you didn’t know anything about the MAC’s is laughable. But I’m glad you’re spending your valuable time trolling the AVA comment section. 🙄
  
  Reply
  - Eric Sunswheat September 2, 2023
    
    Wake up! This is the segment of Jim Shields report, that Ted Williams alludes to Brown Act concern with what constitutes a serial meeting violation description contained herein if exercised. To wit:
    —>
    Gjerde also said that CEO Darcie Antle failed to follow standard agenda procedures: “I do think it’s unfortunate, because I have a standing request with the CEO that before any budget-cutting items come to the Board, that the CEO personally meet with each of the five supervisors, which is what a city manager would do, and make sure that there are at least three votes. But more importantly, that all five supervisors know of the proposal, and have an opportunity prior to publishing the agenda…
    – Jim Shields
    
    Reply
  - Ted Williams September 2, 2023
    
    The five Supervisors submit agenda summaries. The board Chair and Clerk of the Board author the agenda. I see the text the same time the public gains awareness, at publication, typically the Thursday before the Tuesday meeting. No more than two supervisors collaborate on the text of any single agenda item.
    
    Reply
- peter boudoures September 2, 2023
  
  Is the state going to charge the county to do the audit? Will they look close enough to recognize unknown bank accounts? Usually audits are done to collect unpaid taxes.
  
  Reply
  - Ted Williams September 2, 2023
    
    It does not appear the state will charge the county for the cost of audit.
    
    There were three routine audits underway by the state and now an additional non-routine audit will be started, focusing on internal controls.
    
    Sarah Reith covered it well:
    
    https://mendofever.com/2023/09/02/california-state-controller-authorizes-audit-of-mendocino-countys-finances/
    
    Reply
    - jetfuel September 2, 2023
      
      Vote No Confidence in this current Board of Supervisors!
      
      Ted Williams is like the adolescent who just set the barn alight then seeks praise for being the one to call the fire department.
      
      Recall, Remove, Vote No Confidence in the current Board of Supervisors. Coming soon!
      
      Reply
      - Ted Williams September 2, 2023
        
        The analogy breaks down when you consider that I’ve never had authority over the financial record, keeping or reporting. I’m the messenger.
        
        Reply
        
        jetfuel September 2, 2023
        
        Ted,
        
        I didnt buy the matches, they were in the barn when i walked in to clean it.
        
        An adolescent mind lives in the present, making excuses for all actions, whereas the adults in the room share a perspective of history and possible trajectory.
        
        Reply
      - Bruce McEwen September 2, 2023
        
        Throw more kerosene in the fire — no matter who started it — and then turn on the wind tunnel of howling criticism— wow, now I like get your crafty anonymyn, Jetfuel.
        
        Reply
  - Adam Gaska September 2, 2023
    
    Audits are done for many reasons.
    
    They look at systems primarily. Are BMP’s being followed. Are there safeguards in place. Is the data itself correct. Are the procedures and processes being followed. Back engineering to make sure that the system and data are correct.
    
    It’s not just to see if there is fraud and/or embezzling but to make sure there is integrity and reliability in financial operations.
    
    Reply
    - Mark Scaramella September 3, 2023
      
      Show me one state audit where they looked at best practices, data accuracy, or procedural propriety. I’ve seen hundreds of so-called “audits,” both in Mendo and outside of Mendo,, both in government and in private industry. They seldom do that, much as the public likes to think that they do, thinking perhaps that these audits are like the IRS and its storied (and exaggerated) reputation.. I guess, theoretically, this “audit” could be an exception. But I’d be happy to take bets on the subject. One of these days I’ll write about the time the Defense Contract Audit Agency “audited” one of my contract claim reports. Although the auditor was a sharp guy, he and everybody else involved simply mis-read the claim. Millions of dollars were at stake.
      
      Reply
Eric Sunswheat September 2, 2023

RE: See the thing is in this particular area of non-profit Disability equates to ability no matter your Disability. The expectation is you must ask for the assistance you are seeking and do all the leg work to get it.
— Mazie Malone
—> August 28, 2023
A new study found that despite the multiple challenges that married couples face when either one of them has increasing stages of dementia, it was linked to a low likelihood of divorce.
On the other hand, older adults who displayed behavioral issues like aggression and agitation were more likely to get divorced than those who had mild behavioral symptoms. The findings were recently published in PLOS One.
“Although divorce may be beneficial for some couples and a matter of safety when there is abuse, in general, divorce has substantial negative consequences for the psychological and financial well-being of individuals.
This is particularly the case for older adult women,” the authors of the study wrote. “At the same time, we have seen an increase in dementia prevalence among older adults, with a large literature showing the strain on close relationships that accompanies this disorder.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anuradhavaranasi/2023/08/28/dementia-associated-with-a-lower-likelihood-of-divorce/?sh=7a0176c57c1e

Reply
- Mazie Malone September 2, 2023
  
  More often than divorce, is facility placement! You can pay for care up to 6,000 a month to have your loved one medicated, less combative and cared for so you can stay married! ….
  
  I have stories about that too!! 😂✌️
  
  mm💕
  
  Reply
Stephen Dunlap September 2, 2023

“Ten Mile Beach yesterday” my eye………………..

Reply
- Chuck Dunbar September 2, 2023
  
  Cute little dog
  
  Reply
  - Chuck Wilcher September 2, 2023
    
    There was a dog?
    
    Reply
    - Emily Strachan September 2, 2023
      
      Exactly. The pictures of pretty young women with partially exposed breast don’t do anything for me . Where are the comparable male pictures?
      
      Reply
Jurgen Stoll September 2, 2023

“Is this garbage, rot, decay, filth and depravity worth saving? I don’t know. Perhaps it is time to scrap it all, cull the herd significantly and start from a clean slate.” Perhaps the author of this screed would like to lead the charge over the cliff. How bout we put the dinos out to pasture and let the younger peeps that get to live in this world we’ve left em take over.

Reply
Chuck Dunbar September 2, 2023

That Song

Good piece by Nicolas Kristof on Oliver Anthony and his now famous song. Kristof lives in the real world. He does a fine job, as he often does, of cutting to the chase—what measures will actually help folks in need, how can we get the job done. Good for him and good for Oliver Anthony.

Reply
- Bruce McEwen September 2, 2023
  
  Vicar, your collar is showing. Your Wokefield peer, Lord Kristof, approved the ditty so now you bless it with your benefice … making me afraid laconic Laz has taken your inventory pretty accurately… but I’ve often wondered how you dyed-in-the-wool blue-dog Democrats react (inwardly) to the Caitlin Johnstone posts — our two Steve’s have registered their annoyance with her down-to-earth expositions of the imperial fraud being perpetrated on us but you and a few others have been quiet as church mice who find themselves in a sinking vessel of hope..!
  
  My view is that David Yearsley was far more accurate but then he doesn’t enjoy the verisimilitude of a New Yorker of New York Times writer .
  
  Reply
Adam Gaska September 2, 2023

Clerk of the Board and CEO should meet with the board members separately to see if they have agenda items for the board meeting. Then COB and CEO should meet with chair to finalize the agenda. The chair has discretion to pull any items or make them discussion only.

So the chair should have either pulled the item about committee’s or made it discussion only.

I was at the BOS meeting to defend the MAC’s along with my own, The Redwood Valley MAC. It was fairly inconsiderate to let all the people in chambers who obviously were there for this item to wait then be excused while the board went into closed session. I feel for the Gualala MAC member who came and spent more than a full day to speak. Obviously we can respond via zoom but in some cases an issue is that important that we need to express ourselves in person. This is the level of dedication many of us have for our community. One would hope our leaders have that same level of dedication and that it expresses itself as consideration to those of us who are volunteers.

Many of the issues with the MAC’s can easily be solved through better training and policies that are available through the Brown Act trainings that are required of committee members. It seemed as if the real agenda behind this item was to stifle public participation in local policy.

Reply
- Jim Shields September 2, 2023
  
  I agree with Adam on the clumsy gaffe that occurred at last Tuesday’s meeting regarding the dismissive and rude treatment of the public. In fact, I was so put-off by it I posted the following comments on this site a few minutes after it occurred on Tuesday because it was the second time within a few weeks that a Board Chair fouled up the public comment process and etiquette. It occurred earlier when Mo Mulheren was acting Chair and cut off Chemise Cubbison during public comment. There was a little more to the incident than that, but that’s essentially what happened.
  Also, I’m tied up right now but I’ll post something tomorrow on how agendas are prepared under the Brown Act.
  
  Jim Shields August 29, 2023
  As you are probably aware, there’s great public interest in the today’s BOS meeting owing to the MAC dissolution issue, and there are people who took time off from work to attend the meeting and make comment to the Board. After completing just one action item, the Short-Term Rental (STR) issue, the Board adjourned at 11:50am to go into closed session. Chair McGourty announced the soonest they would return from closed session and re-open on action items would be 1:30pm. A woman who was present for the MAC issue told the Supes before they left the chamber, “The public has been waiting here all morning to make comment, some of us have jobs, and we’ve been politely quiet while waiting for this meeting to come to speak, and I think you are wasting the public’s time. This is a very important topic, it’s about the MACs.”
  McGourty responded, “I understand and I apologize but this is how things are done at the Board, it takes time.”
  The woman then said, “I would suggest re-organizing the agenda when there a lot of the public to make comments who have jobs.”
  Supes then exited stage left.
  Just as a courtesy to the public, unless there is some dire need to rush off to closed session, the public should be accommodated by addressing action items prior to closed session. I’ve chaired meetings all of my professional life, first in the labor movement and now in local government at both the water district and the Laytonville MAC. It’s really just a common courtesy to the public. You can do closed sessions either prior to commencement of open session or following adjournment of open session. It doesn’t cost you anything to organize the agenda so citizens are not inconvenienced.
  
  Reply
michael turner September 2, 2023

“ADVENTIST HEALTH MENDOCINO COAST HOSTS A DAY OF Remembrance and Hope Ceremony in commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Day “. Being at such a great remove, the Adventists may not have any real stake or passion in tackling community health urgencies, but they do offer lots of piety.!

Reply
- Mazie Malone September 2, 2023
  
  😂💕💕🙏✌️
  
  Reply

Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023

29 Comments

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