Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023

TEMPERATURES WILL TREND WARMER across interior valleys during mid to late week. Otherwise, dry weather is expected through Friday, followed by a slight chance of thunderstorms across the Klamath Mountains Saturday and Sunday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 52F under clear skies this Wednesday morning on the coast. Our very pleasant & quiet weather pattern remains the forecast until further notice. Although looking at the satellite you can see the fog looms nearby.

JUST IN: Our sources tell us that City Health on Cypress Street in Fort Bragg is closing September 23, because it wasn't drawing enough people. A letter was sent to current patients. The people it did draw mourn its loss, with one patient vowing to follow Dr. Killion and her staff wherever they go. 

COME JOIN the AV Panther Football and Anderson Valley Cheerleading On Friday Fair - September 22th @ Mendocino County Fairgrounds for their first Home Game And Apple Bowl Vs Laytonville! Football game starts at 5pm and cheer routine at 6pm! Don’t miss it! 

MORGAN BAYNHAM: The County Fair wants your entries, veggies are do to be brought to the fair on Wednesday before the fair. The Fair needs more entries. Please double check the Fair premium book to verify the date that your entries should be submitted to the fair. Call the office (707.895.3011) if you’re not sure. We want your stuff! Enjoy our home town Fair.

A MEMORIAL SERVICE for Mike Owens is being held on September 30th at 1pm at the Veterans building/Senior Center in Boonville. It is going to be a potluck. Everyone is welcome.

BE THERE! 

Our 100 Years of Unity Club in Anderson Valley Community Celebration is scheduled for October 3rd at the Children's Park adjacent to the Health Center. Unity members and their spouse or partner are all cordially invited. If you have a portable chair, bring it.

THE MOST DRAMATIC MOMENT at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting began when a presentable young woman took to the podium during public expression to complain about her arrest last week in Mendocino. 

“My name is Kelli Johnson. Last Tuesday I was the recipient of a free VIP tour of the brutal and inhumane conditions at the Mendocino County Jail. I got to see first-hand a litany of egregious constitutional violations. Despite committing no crime, Officer Jensen arrested me Tuesday afternoon as I was walking to the beach with nothing but the clothes on my back and a glass of water. Before I could even take a sip, Officer Jensen snatched the glass from my hand and smashed it into the street. He then shoved me into the back of a police car and I was sent on a grueling three-hour journey from this beautiful beach town to the Ukiah jail. I was severely dehydrated and begged for water. The officer steadfastly refused. He also refused to stop to let me use the bathroom. I was desperate. I had a bladder infection and I could not wait. The officer specifically instructed me to soil myself in the car. But since my hands were cuffed behind my back I had to struggle to scootch my sweatpants down inch by inch and lean my butt over the bucket seat and urinate on the floor, twice. Unfortunately, it is significantly easier to scootch down my pants than to pull them back up when your hands are handcuffed behind your back.. When we arrived at the jail my pants were still down and when the car door was opened my genitalia was exposed to half a dozen officers gathered to see the show. At this point I was having the most severe panic attack of my life. The officers chained my feet and dragged me out of the car, slamming me into a wall. The officers pinned me to the wall with brute force. Three officers. Officer Lopez twisted my wrists so hard that it almost broke. I cried and wailed but his vice grip would not release one iota. His utter lack of empathy triggered a memory of when I was the victim of a sexual assault. I begged him to stop touching me. But his supervisor said, You don't get to pick. They then dragged me down a long corridor, carrying my entire upper body by the chain of my handcuffs. The sharp edge of the cuffs buried itself into my wrist and I cried and wailed in agony. They threw me into a solitary confinement chamber with nothing but a small cup of water and a grate full of piss. They had taken my shoes. They were in the cop car. I left them there. They took my shoes. I was begging them for my shoes. I begged them for a phone call. How long was I going to be left in here? The room was, like, this big and it was all white and freezing cold. I had no shoes. I did not have my glasses. I was not even wearing underwear. I had my sweatpants and a sweatshirt and that was it. I could not even see. They left me. I was begging them. [Sighs.] Then the clock switched and it hit seven. It switched. It was like day and night. The nighttime officers came onto the scene and they took these broken shattered pieces that remained of me and swept me up, gave me a sweatshirt, they took me to the crisis clinic and they brought me back to myself. I drove here. I woke up at four in the morning to drive here from Sacramento to tell you to your face that this has to end now! It is incumbent upon you to root out this ingrained culture of toxic abuse! The Mendocino Sheriff's daytime officers do not serve and protect. They traumatize and torture. This is the most traumatic experience of my life. I beg you to fix it. I would like to request that the next meeting you have this agendized on it and I would like a list of concrete actions that you are taking to ameliorate these horrible, egregious violations of the supreme law of the land. Specifically, I would like officers Jensen and Lopez to be fired immediately. I invite you to review the surveillance footage. And I insist that you fire every officer who participated in or spectated this assault. I have a handout for you.”

Ms. Johnson got a round of applause the Coast residents in the overcrowded church meeting room.

Board Chair Glenn McGourty's response: “Okay, so I was not expecting that.”

And then they returned to their regular programming.

* * *

Kelli Johnson of Sacramento was booked on September 5, 2023 at 4:02pm for “disorderly conduct-under influence of drug,.” She was released without bail on September 6 at 9:52pm. 

According to LinkedIn, Ms. Johnson is a staff attorney for the California Air Resources Board in Sacramento. 

Since she got no response from the Board, and given her reference to “the surveillance footage,” and the level of intensity of her presentation, we have probably not heard the last of Ms. Johnson. Ms. Johnson’s next steps could include filing a claim against the County, and/or filing a lawsuit. 

From Deputy Michael Jensen’s facebook page:

(Mark Scaramella)

ED NOTES

“WALKING TO THE BEACH” in Mendocino with a glass of water in her hand, Kelli Johnson, a Sacramento attorney, told the Board of Supervisors today, “a deputy snatched the water out of my hand and threw it to the street” and threw me in the back of the police car. Handcuffed behind her back on the long drive to Ukiah, upon arrival Ms. Jensen described what she said was a “VIP tour” of the County Jail. (Ms. Johnson's full account of her ordeal is recounted above.) The aggrieved young woman presented her account of her mistreatment to the supervisors today (Tuesday) in Mendocino. 

IF EVEN A THIRD of her story is true, and it's the second one like it I've heard, the two deputies directly involved need some serious instruction in public relations. Ms. Johnson traveled from her home in Sacramento today to demand of the supervisors that deputies Jensen and Lopez be fired, along with the Jail staffers who participated or “spectated,” as she put it, to the indignities allegedly heaped upon her. 

THERE'S NO REASON to hard-ass young women like this, and Lopez and Jensen, and the leering Jail staffers she said enjoyed glimpses of “my genitalia” can probably stand by for some harsh remediation from Sheriff Kendall. And the County can look forward to paying mightily for Ms. Johnson's grievance.

OF COURSE THE ARRESTING DEPUTIES will say that Ms. Johnson was drunk and disorderly and screamed threats at them so, as per arrest protocols, we had to handcuff her for our own safety. She urinated twice in the back of our vehicle, and was still drunk and combative at the Jail where she was discovered not to be wearing anything under her sweat pants. Her story is not true.

I WONDER if it's just me, but how about you, my fellow geezers and geez-etts? I drove over the hill to Ukiah this morning to get new tires when it occurred to me that it was probably the last time I'd have to buy a new set, the old set being down to the threads and probably would have worn down to the rims if my son-in-law hadn't demanded, “Buy new tires. These aren't safe.” Yes, my last set of tires. I felt liberated at the thought. Last trip to the dentist coming right up. Last trip to the doctor, I hope. Last Covid shot some time ago, and then the so-called boosters and I got Covid anyway. Cost me my voice, not that I miss it. Saves me from talking too much. The last doctor I saw had painted her toenails purple. She looked like she was about 15. I don't trust anybody under the age of 70. “Count backwards from ten,” she said. I stumbled at six but sailed on uneventfully to one. “You're not senile,” she said. I have increasing trouble remembering names, but I took a true-false lit-history quiz recently and didn't miss a one. I'll bet a lot of the elderly, presented with questions in the true-false format, would find their true memory undiminished.

AT THE TIRE SHOP — Les Schwab Tires, who parlayed a cowboy youth in Eastern Oregon into a national fortune in tires, and is this a great country or what? I won't hear a word against it! The young woman at the counter asked, “What size are your tires, Mr. Anderson?” I have no idea, I replied. “What make is your car, Mr. Anderson?” she asked. Got me again, I said, helpfully adding, Some kinda hermaphrodite Ford, I think. “A what kind of Ford?” the kid asked, taking a closer, assessing look at the lunkhead before her. Half fuel, half electric, I assured her. I'm not trying to be difficult, I explained, but I've never paid any attention to cars. To me they're only tools, like hammers, only you can ride cars places. She laughed. Women are never so attractive as when they're laughing. She said, “If you'll get the registration I'll get the tire size and we'll be all set,” and together we walked a few feet to my Ford Hermaphrodite to get the facts, me wondering why not just sell me the tires and get on with it, but she was young and smiling, and outside, away from the industrial scents of the waiting room, it was crisp and early fall and even Ukiah was promising. 

ON THE MASTHEAD of an old Fort Bragg Chronicle, c. 1913, “A Good Paper For All Good People.” There were fuzzy warms even then on the Mendocino Coast, but the booze ad from the same edition of the paper offered both relief and medical advice: “If rough strong whiskey burns your mouth, gags you when you swallow it — what will it do to the delicate lining of your stomach? Drink Cyrus Noble — mild and pure.”

WASHBURNE’S GUGGENHEIM GRANT

Good day, AVA, and readership. Flynn Washburne here. I am writing to inform of my intent to apply for a Guggenheim grant. They ask that I submit the names, email and home addresses of four persons who are “familiar with your work and to whom the Foundation may write for judgment concerning your abilities, especially in relation to your proposal.” That being essentially a more cohesive and comprehensive book-length version of my work for the AVA. So, if any of y’all would like to assist in this matter I would be very grateful and would certainly remember you in my acknowledgements. I think I’m actually ready to do this. I thank you all in advance and hope you are well and thriving. 

Please send emails to lettersandsodas77@gmail.com

Flynn Washburne

* * *

Mark Scaramella Replies:

To the best of my knowledge Mr. Washburne’s popular contributions to the AVA from 2013 to 2020 are listed and can be found at: https://theava.com/archives/author/flynn-washburne

KIRK VODOPALS: Here's an example of potential improvements to downtown Boonville that could help to reduce speeding. It's a real problem for sure.

DRAFT COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT PLAN Public Review Period (September 12 – October 2)

With grant funding from the California Coastal Commission, and support from the California Sea Grant, the City of Fort Bragg and Noyo Harbor District will soon begin the Noyo Harbor Blue Economy Visioning, Resiliency and Implementation Plan (The Plan). This effort will provide much needed analysis for informed decision making as we develop a shared vision for our coastal community. Findings from The Plan will result in several updates to both the City of Fort Bragg and Mendocino County’s Local Coastal Programs.

The Plan is part of a larger regional effort of the Noyo Ocean Collective, an expanding network of for profit and nonprofit businesses, academic institutions, and government, working to position our coastal region for blue economy investment. The “Blue Economy” represents a diversification of ocean based businesses – in order to support our existing fishing industry and local heritage, while developing new and innovative industries to address some of our most challenging environmental, physical, social, and economic issues.

(Fort Bragg City Presser)

CARRIE SHATTUCK:

What happened to reports like this? 

I'm curious to see if there will be updates in the CEO reports as “has been implemented” was stated in the Grand Jury response to “track vital staffing statistics such as job vacancy rates and turnover…”

WHO KILLED LES CRANE?

A person of interest was brought in and questioned in the cold case murder investigation of Les Crane, who was murdered in Laytonville in 2005, and they also had a DNA sample taken.

The documentary will be out in February 2024, and hopefully some arrests are made by then!

whokilledlescrane.com

Timeline of events.

September 16, 2022

Leslie Charles Crane was murdered at 2:30 am on November 18th, 2005 by a group of four to six masked men. Les was a prominent medical cannabis activist, dispensary owner and caretaker to thousands of patients in California. Les came to California with $100 and his dog, where he survived the first few months from the generosity of the local Mendocino County food banks. 

This is a timeline showing all of the events leading up to the night of the murder, including newspaper articles, court dockets, and other information compiled from sources on the internet, as well as what took place directly after the murder. This is the first of several information drops that will take place in the next couple of weeks, which will include completely new information never seen before by the public. 

August 13th, 2004: Les has attorney Robert Boyd file a complaint to get $3740 back from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s. There is no record of Les being arrested, yet his money ,and who knows else, had been seized by the Mendocino County Sheriff. No arrest of Les is shown prior to the date of this case being filed. So most likely, Les was amongst the many who were robbed by police and expected to just shut up and take it. (Mendocino County Court Website)

February 6th, 2005: Article titled “Food Bank Drive Ends With $78,000” the top donor is listed as “Les Crane, Mendo Remedies”. The second highest donors were Compassionate Caregivers and Parducci Winery, who both gave $1,000. 

Beginning of May, 2005: Les hears rumors about a robbery that was set to take place at his house and alerts police to come take a report regarding the plan he was told was set to happen. Police took a report and looked around the property, but left without incident. ( 2019 Ava article)

May 13th, 2005: Les win’s the asset forfeiture claim to have the Sheriff return $3740 plus whatever else was seized. (Mendocino County Court Website)

May 16th, 2005: Les is raided by Mendocino County Sheriff and COMET. They seize 30 South African gold Krugerands and 5000 Purple Urkle clones. Even though the police had seized his property now for a second time, he still had not been arrested or charged with any crime. (The Ava article and Mendocino County Court Documents)

May 17th, 2005: Attorney Bob Boyd files a civil lawsuit on behalf of Les seeking to have his property returned from the previous days raid. The suit sought the value of each clone as one pound per plant, as well as a return of the gold coins, which would be worth roughly $60,000 in todays market. (Mendocino County Court Records)

June 13th-17th, 2005: Les takes out a personal add in the Ukiah Daily Journal that reads “ATTENTION All Prop 215 patients, if you had your Garden raided, please call Les Crane at Mendo Spiritual Remedies.”.

June 16th, 2005: Article in the Ukiah Daily Journal by Quincy Cromer titled “Laytonville Vows To Remain In Business.” The article is regarding a recent court ruling that gave the Feds the right to raid dispensaries, yet Les was now claiming he was a church and that he was going to sue the feds. Page 1 Page 2

Late July-Early September: Les Crane leased a property in Ukiah on State Street with the intention of opening a dispensary, but the city of Ukiah just passed an urgency ordinance not allowing any new dispensaries to open in the city. 

September 6th, 2005: Article from Ukiah Daily Journal by Seth Freeland titled “Cannabis Group Will Continue Dispensing” The city of Ukiah officials issue a letter threatening Crane and Hemp Plus Ministry not to open. 

September 28th, 2015: In the face of massive opposition from city of Ukiah officials, Les Crane opened his second dispensary in Mendocino County called Hemp Plus Ministry. Les took out a full page add in the Ukiah Daily Journal the day Hemp Plus Ministry opened that printed a long article with his thought’s, a poem by his friend and manager of the Ukiah location, Patrick Duff, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence for people to sign. A video was also produced and published regarding the first day by Duff, which includes the only known video of Les Crane speaking. (4:20 of Video). 

October 12th, 2005: A case management statement is filed by the Mendocino District attorney regarding the forfeiture case regarding the 5,000 clones and 30 South African Krugerands that were taken in the raid on Les’s home by the Mendocino County Sheriff back in May. The case management conference is set for October 21st. (Mendocino County Court Records)

October 13th, 2005: Article from the Ukiah Daily Journal by Seth Freeland is published, titled “Cannabis Group Will Continue Dispensing” Duff, acting on behalf of a representative for Hemp Plus is quoted as saying “What I do in my (our) church is my business,,,Charlie Stump ( a Ukiah official) has no authority over a church.”. 

October 19th, 2005: Les is arranged on two felony charges from the raid on his home back in May. He is charged by DA Norm Vroman with cultivation and possessing marijuana for sale. Les is not present this day in court and it is stated that he is seeking an attorney.

October 21st, 2005: A case management conference is held between Les’s attorney, Bob Brady, and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s office. Mendocino County Court Records)

October 25th, 2005: Article in the Ukiah Daily Journal written by Quincy Cromer titled “Cannabis Cultivator Charged By DA”. Les claims in the article he was told by DA Norm Vroman that he could grow as long as it was in a 10 by 10 foot canopy. Vroman denied ever talking to Les, saying “I don’t believe I ever told anyone it was legal to grow marijuana unless they have a doctor’s recommendation. Page 2

October 26th-28th, 2005: Les pays for more than a dozen people from around the country to come and stay in Laytonville to attend the first ever United Cannabis Minister’s conference, which was held at area 101. Les donated six pounds of cannabis to make a massive batch of holy anointing oil, which was given out to the participants who took the oil home with them.

November 2nd, 2005: Les is formally arraigned at the Ukiah Courthouse where is represented by attorney Omar Figueroa. Court records show that the case will be held over until November 16th for a plea agreement and booking. (Mendocino County Court Records)

Morning of November 16th, 2005: Les buys $7,000 for 350 Turkeys, and delivers them to the food banks in Mendocino County so everyone could have a turkey the next week on Thanksgiving. 

Afternoon of November 16th, 2005: Les let many of his patients know of his court date, where prior to walking into battle he’d be handing out free cannabis to anyone who came and showed him support. Les stood on the back of his pick up truck handing out piles of fine cannabis to anyone who showed up. (Eye Witness Account)

November 16th, 2005, 1:30 pm: Les appears with Attorney Omar Figueroa at the Ukiah Court House, but instead of taking a plea deal, Les changed his plea to not guilty and Figueroa filed a motion to dismiss, as well as a demurrer, which surprised DA Norm Vroman, who had expected Les to take a plea deal. (Mendocino County Court Records)

November 18th, 2005, 2:30 am: Later reports show that 4 to six men storm into Les’s house screaming “this is a raid” and murdered Les Crane in his bedroom. Crane’s girlfriend, Jennifer Drewery, and Crane’s friend/employee, Sean Dirlam, were both injured in the invasion and taken to the hospital.

November 19th, 2005: Article in the Ukiah Daily Journal, only this time it was written by Laura Clark, titled “Les Crane, Marijuana Distributor, Brutally Slain”. Jennifer Drewry gave this description “Les was sleeping in his bed, and I was sleeping in another bed. Four to six guys, they wearing all black with black masks. They busted down the door and all you could hear is ‘this is a raid, this is a raid, this is a raid’” Jennifer also noted that the voices of the men sounded young. The article goes into great detail on Page 2.

December 4th, 2005: Article in the Ukiah Daily journal written by editor KC Meadows titled “How we Do it”. In the article she reports “that we lost reporter Quincy Cromer to the Ukiah Police Department”. Cromer was the only Ukiah Daily Journal reporter to ever interview and write on Les Crane, and he is currently still a police officer with the Mendocino County Sheriff. 

December 14th, 2005: A hearing is held on Les’s criminal charges at the Ukiah Courthouse where the District Attorney refused to drop the charges against Les due to the pending asset forfeiture case. (Mendocino County Court Records)

December 17th, 2005: Sheriff Tony Craver abruptly resigns, citing a bad back as the cause for his early retirement. 

September 21st, 2006: DA Norm Vroman dies of a heart attack. Vroman, who did 9 months in federal prison back in 1992 for tax evasion, was set to be raided by the FBI for the possession of unauthorized weapons. 

CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, September 12, 2023

RICHARD BOBST, Whitethorn/Ukiah. DUI.

CELSO MATTOS, Sausalito/Ukiah. DUI.

JACOB PARMELY, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JASON RAY III, Ukiah. Under influence, probation revocation.

A VERY FINE vegetal fiber weaving tradition (yes, baskets) in northeastern California, among the Achumawi / Atsugewi / nine Pit River nations. Women made these conical burden baskets which they used in gathering food, weaving fibers, whatever; and also carried babies on their backs in them. The gorgeous patterns are woven with the greatest skill. They are weavings. 

They're often described as Hat Creek or Pit River baskets, this one is labeled "Hat Creek Twined Burden Basket, c. 1890," made from pine root, bear grass, and maiden hair fern. The motifs on these baskets also appear on women's hats in these cultures and in the wider Plateau region. (I posted about the basket hats a few years ago.) I don't know the significance of them, though they are reminiscent of Tree of Life motifs in many parts of the world.

MIDLIFE ADVENTURE

by Jeff Burroughs

I always had the crazy notion that I would live forever, but now, as I quickly reach the age of 50 and my body finds it increasingly necessary to fail me, it is most likely that I won’t. Therefore, it was decided by me, that I needed to revisit a place that I have long held dear to my heart, a place that I recall with great fondness, when I felt most alive, the wild trout streams of my boyhood home in Northern California.

So, with my gear packed and my expectations held high, I headed out West to see some old friends of mine.

The two-hour drive to the mountains was quite uneventful, however I did take some time to stop along the road to fully appreciate the beauty of my surroundings, something that I rarely did in my youth.

On the evening of the first day, I made camp on a river flat near the crumbling foundations of an old sawmill.

The mill had once boasted of having over one hundred workers in its employment, but that was a long time ago and there is no one left to dispute that claim. To the casual observer, even one blessed with the noblest of intentions, looking at this empty place now, one could scarcely believe such a thing possible. However, with careful considerations applied to the imagination, one may catch glimpse of a once bustling and glorious scene. A long lost monument to mans triumph over the land, reduced to rusty old derilect machinery and passive weathered boards rising up through the tall thistle that nearly consumed the entire mill flat.

Oldtimers used to say that some time around the late 1920s the mill had fallen under new management and apparently the new owner refused to spend a dime on the required everyday matainence. Unsafe and shoddy repairs lead to a noticeable decline in productivity but the mill somehow maintained enough profitability to continue the practice and shoo away all naysayers, but everyone knew the mill’s days were numbered.

By the time the great depression hit in 1929, it was to be the final nail in the coffin for the sawmill.

With a crooked mill owner at the helm, it came as little surprise to anyone when workers returned to work one Monday morning only to find that the owner had skipped town, leaving the workers unemployed and worst of all, unpaid. As the hours ticked away and with no word of a possible reprieve, the workers’ dispositions understandably disintegrated into mob mentality.

Arming themselves with the usual “mob” type weaponry, the fevered workers took out their rage on the mill property, if for nothing more than to satisfy their lust for vengeance. They busted into the mill’s company store and began to loot its contents. Others were encouraged to find compensation for their lost wages in the piles of valuable lumber. So as the day progressed the men went about their labors to make such sensible ideas a reality.

That evening a huge rainstorm hit the area that was like no other storm before or since. Non-stop rain and torrential downpours led to a great flood that caused the once docile little creek to leave its banks and wash away everything on the flat. All the trucks and wagons loaded with lumber were turned upside down. Thousands of boards floated away in the ever-growing flood water currents.

Throughout the night the workers tried desperately to save anything of value, but by 4am the next morning everything was gone, even the company store, which was the largest of the mill site structures. Someone once told me that many years later, when they were trout fishing about five miles below the old mill site, they found what they believed to be the last remnants of what was once the old sawmill. Old rusty bed frames with the springs still attached, chunks of locally manufactured bricks and even a bottle of Burgermister Beer, still full of beer. Not much when one considers the size of the mill and the large amount of goods that the company store would have had in stock at the time of the great flood.

I guess only the workers’ ghosts know the final results of their frantic desperation on that horrible day and night.

My hike into the mill site was way more difficult then I remembered it being. Some sections of the road were completely gone and the sections that hadn’t slid away were mostly unrecognizable.

Large washouts, entangled broken trees and rock slides pushed me to the narrow deer trails around the cliff edges. I had to double back numerous times, but I finally arived at the old mill site with just enough usable daylight left to forage for firewood. I built a small cook fire around some stones I collected, turned on my little transistor AM radio to an old Jack Benny radio program then retrieved the small cooking pot and a can of chili beans from my backpack. After a small battle with a rusty can opener I emptied the chili beans into the pot that I had carefully positioned on two hot stones. I hovered over the fire and took in the warmth of the flames. With a hot steaming pot of chili beans bubbling for my dinner, I leaned back against an old log and enjoyed every spoonful of the chili. My thoughts began to wander, undisciplined, but quite focused when given room to do so.

The radio yielded enough reception to hear the Jack Benny program which ocassionally brought forth an audible laugh from deep in my belly. I enjoyed this moment immensely and to this day I look back on it as one of my fondest of memories.

With the dancing flames casting eerie shadows on the tree limbs and grasses around my makeshift camp I tossed the last big piece of wood onto the fire. My eyelids grew heavy, so I made my way to where I had laid out my sleeping bag. Everything I had brought with me on this trip to give me some sort of reasonable comfort I had foolishly left out exposed to the elements. The dewpoint hit the flat sometime while I was feasting on my chili beans and I hadn’t noticed. Now everything was hopelessly damp, but how can anyone be blamed for such negligence with the powerful distraction of a steaming hot pot of camp cooked chili beans? It’s a known fact that camp food tastes better than anything else on earth, especially after a long day of hiking for someone my age.

Fatigue laid heavy on my body and I felt it get the better of me, but it was an easy victory for I did not resist its influence. The last thing I remember was the fire’s final moments, when flames gave way to glowing embers and the voices coming through my little AM radio speaker slowly were fading away into the darkness of night.

Though I cannot prove it, I am quite certain I fell asleep with a smile on my face. I thought how I hadn’t felt that happy in years. I drifted away into a pleasant slumber.

That night I dreamed of fishing the cold clear waters of the stream near my camp, hungry trout rising to take the hand-tied fly I presented to them. The little creek that ran past my campsite had always yielded some great trout fishing. What wonderful memories I have of that place.

I woke to a frosty cold morning and the night's darkness giving way to first light. The sun was just about to creep over the horizon but it had yet to capture the dawn. Small birds stirred in the trees above my Camp and they began singing their joyful songs of morning’s arrival. “I must hurry myself, I thought, before that sun breaks over the hills and shines into the small waters of the creek because everyone knows that trout, especially wild trout, despise the sun. A wild trout that has taken to retreating into the shadows is a very formidable opponent indeed. I imagined a great day ahead of me and I couldn’t wait to get started living every moment of it.

THREE HIKERS HAVE GONE MISSING ON THE PACIFIC CREST TRAIL. Will They Ever Be Found?

by Gregory Thomas

The Pacific Crest Trail tempts the world’s hikers as an escape into soul-satisfying solitude. There are soaring peaks, wildflowers and lakes, camaraderie and trail magic, and perhaps a life-clarifying experience.

But author Andrea Lankford knows of a darker underbelly of the West Coast’s 2,650-mile wilderness trail. Her fascinating new book, “Trail of the Lost,” peels back the PCT’s pretty veneer, revealing an ecosystem that harbors strange and sinister personalities, including fugitives, fraudsters and trolls.

“Dedicated urban dwellers may not feel it, but the siren song of a long trail casts a wide spell,” Lankford writes. “Especially for anyone seeking respite from the judging eyes of civilization — like, say, criminals needing a hideout.”

Lankford, 59, of Tuolumne County, spent 12 years in her 20s and 30s as a National Park Service ranger performing search and rescue for missing hikers in Yosemite, Grand Canyon and other national parks. She left the service — “burned out, overworked, jaded” from an overload of “grim and tragic experiences,” she told the Chronicle — and solo thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail before pursuing a second career in nursing.

In 2010, drawing from her years with the park service, Lankford published an acclaimed memoir, “Ranger Confidential: Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks.”

Her new book, out now from Hachette Books, follows prolonged, volunteer-driven search investigations into the mysterious cases of three separate thru-hikers — all men ages 25 to 34 — who went missing on the PCT in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively, and have not been found. Two of the three vanished in Southern California; the other disappeared in the mountains of Washington.

In Southern California, authorities have stopped actively investigating the disappearances, according to Lankford. In Washington, officials still occasionally coordinate on-the-ground searches, she said.

“When a hiker goes missing, a government agency might search for a couple of days (or maybe a week), but after that, when the odds for survival turn bleak … the victim’s family is on their own,” Lankford writes.

Stepping in to fill the void is a small cohort of obsessive amateur investigators who coordinate via social media and pursue leads, keeping hope alive for the families of the missing. While reporting the book, Lankford, a self-described compulsive problem solver, became swept up in their efforts and spent years working with the volunteers, hunting for clues and interrogating theories.

Exhausting the possibilities of these disappearances revealed to Lankford what she calls “a constellation of perils” facing PCT thru-hikers.

One million people are believed to set foot on the PCT each year. They include outdoor lovers keen to test themselves against the rugged landscape and novice thru-hikers hoping to find meaning from a six-month pilgrimage in the woods. Hikers must overcome or avoid natural hazards like snow and ice, blazing heat and rushing streams, rockslides and mountain lions — many of which are contributors to the 16 known thru-hiker deaths on the trail, the earliest of which occurred in 1983.

But Lankford spotlights a more menacing variety of trail users out there, among them, she says, kidnappers, con artists and so-called trail trolls — the vagabonds who live illegally along the route, leeching on the hospitality and goodwill of the trail community.

As the investigations into the three missing hikers unfold, Lankford comes to believe that troublesome actors may have played a role in some of the disappearances.

Complicating the effort is the boisterous online trail community that has taken root on social media which, like the PCT, is a magnet for all kinds of strange and inexplicable conduct. For example, Lankford encounters a hunter in Washington who, she writes, falsely and repeatedly claims to have seen one of the missing hikers, sending investigators down a dead end. One of the cases attracts a man peddling a pseudoscientific DNA-frequency-finding device that can allegedly pinpoint a corpse using a relative’s fingernail clippings.

“The Facebook missing-hiker groups were like a Wild West saloon. You’ve got scammers, catfishers, mansplainers, womansplainers. Then every once in a while a quiet hero walks into the saloon and is a hero for the family” of the victim, Lankford said.

If there’s a protagonist in “Trail of the Lost,” it is Cathy Tarr, a middle-age retired pharmacy manager from the East who is fixated on bringing closure to the victims’ families. Tarr has no personal connection to the missing hikers but is bothered by their cases and is determined to find answers. She founded the Fowler-O’Sullivan Foundation in 2020, a nonprofit devoted to searching for lost PCT hikers, and remains actively mobilizing search parties both in California and Washington.

“I hope this book gets into the hiking community,” Tarr told the Chronicle. “I hope it doesn’t scare people away from the trail, but I want them to be aware — the weirdest things can happen on this trail.”

Lankford feels confident that the scope of possibilities she lays out in “Trail of the Lost” covers whatever happened to the three missing hikers. It’s hard to know what happens on the trail, she said, because it is so vast and remote, and also because the spectrum of motivations behind any given thru-hike is broad.

“A thru-hike on the PCT has psychological implications for a person. Many of them are seeking a new way of life,” Lankford said. “That’s a much different behavioral set point for a searcher to understand how they might behave. It opens the possibility that one or more of them just walked away” and don’t necessarily want to be found.

Lankford hopes her book helps uncover new leads. If one were to materialize, she and Tarr “would be on it immediately.”

PROPOSAL FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGE DELIVERY MET WITH RESISTANCE

by Molly Jarone 

A proposal to adopt a needle exchange program in Placer County has come under fire from law enforcement officials. The proposal was submitted to the state’s Department of Public Health by Safer Alternatives through Networking and Education, known as SANE. An application on the department’s website lists a fixed location in Sacramento County as well as a home delivery option to southwest Placer County, including Auburn, Loomis, Lincoln, Roseville and Rocklin.

“Services in Placer County will be offered by home delivery and pick-up only,” the application said. “Participants can request a discreet delivery through a designated phone line and expect a delivery the same or next business day.”

The proposed service hours would be 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

A letter of opposition filed with CDPH, Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Wayne Woo and Probation Chief Marshall Hopper said they strongly objected to the proposal because it lacked transparency and evidence to support its practices.

“Their estimate to collect 200,000 syringes is not supported by any empirical evidence of past practices,” the letter said. “In fact, while they keep a strict account of how many syringes they hand out, they only collect data on ‘pounds’ of used syringes/waste collected. This is clearly an opaque figure that lacks the transparency necessary for public officials to make informed decisions on programs that directly impact the citizens of this county.”

Woo and Hopper also raised concerns about the “unintended consequences” of a needle exchange in Placer County. The letter cited examples of other needle exchange programs in Seattle and Santa Ana that did not require drug users to turn over dirty hypodermic needles, resulting in needles littering public spaces.

“The Placer County Sheriff’s Office is adamantly opposed to any program that normalizes and promotes illegal drug use in this County,” the letter said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who utilize safe needle exchange programs are more likely to enter recovery programs, citing a 2006 comprehensive review of international studies as evidence.

The CDC also stated needle exchange programs reduce infections stemming from the repeated use of hypodermic needles. SANE’s application is now within a 45-day window to receive public comment before the issues a decision. Residents can submit their public comments in writing through a comment form.

Comments must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. Sept. 21.

(Sacramento Bee)

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” 

— Frank Lloyd Wright

AN UNSPOKEN PREMISE of capitalism is that one day people will invent some technology which allows humanity to keep consuming at a frenetic pace and keep expanding the economy without destroying the biosphere we depend on for survival. That’s the only way to make capitalism look like a sustainable model for our planet.

But that isn’t going to happen. We’re never going to consume our way out of the ecosystemic problems we consumed our way into. Technology has helped our species in many ways, and will continue to, but no amount of technological innovation is going to make it possible to continue infinite economic expansion on a finite planet with finite resources and an ability to absorb a finite amount of disruption.

Human behavior itself is what needs to change — and it needs to change drastically, and it needs to change soon. No amount of technological innovation will ever circumvent that urgent need. We’re like a smack addict trying to figure out ways they can keep using at a high volume without compromising their relationships and employment. We’re like a miserable narcissist believing he can become happy if everyone in his life changes to accommodate his inner demons and facilitate his happiness.

Everyone wants change and nobody wants to change. But that is what’s being asked of us. In the age of Bernays capitalism shifted from a need-based economy to a desire-based economy which tugs at the strings of the ego to fuel an insatiable drive to consume and produce and reject contentment with the way things are, and we’re going to have to uproot what those strings are attached to in order to survive. Believing human consciousness can remain chained to these frenetic egoic patterns which drive us to consume and hoard and flail around in a constant state of restlessness and discontentment without destroying the biosphere if we can only come up with the right clever new trick is just a form of spiritual bypassing to avoid doing the real work that needs to get done in ourselves.

Our species has come to its adaptation-or-extinction juncture in its development on this planet, and the adaptation that’s being asked for is a drastic change in human consciousness. We’re going to have to grow up and become a conscious species now. Daddy Technology isn’t coming to our rescue. It’s on us. It’s time to wake up and free ourselves from the dream of egoic consciousness so we can begin collaborating with each other and with our ecosystem toward a healthy and harmonious world.

— Caitlin Johnstone

BRUCE MCEWEN: Saturn eating his children by Francisco Goya. 

According to biographer Evan S. Connell, this picture depicts the reluctance of aging officials to step down, like the anthropology professor who won’t move into emeritus and let the younger associate professors move into tenure, or a president, a congresswoman, a senator, a publisher — what-have-you — to retire at long last, eh?

MIKE GENIELLA: For the record, I am all for a thorough investigation of alleged influence peddling by Hunter Biden before and during his father's presidency. But while we are it, let's look at Ivanka Trump's ties to China, Russia, and other world business tycoons, and the $2 billion dollar deal her husband Jared Kushner struck with the Saudis soon after the Trump gang of grifters left the White House. In the meantime, House Speaker McCarthy is shameful, bowing to pressure from the MAGA wack jobs to keep his job. He knows credible evidence should launch an impeachment inquiry. Republicans talk about controlling costs and reining in liberal spending but they keep burning up taxpayers' money like binge boozers at a karaoke bar. Pathetic.

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I think it is quite reasonable to ask questions of President Biden’s fitness for another four year term, but the lack of scrutiny on the right for former president Trump fitness on the same basis is a tad strange to me. The former President is old, and has a habit of saying many nonsensical things in a “sun-setting” rambling style that leaves me with the impression that he has also lost a step or three from his use of language earlier in his career. In any case, I think he is one fast food embracing, golf club hitting, cholesterol clogging heart attack away from leaving this planet if dementia doesn’t get him first.

BEAR FOUND IN ABANDONED ZOO in village occupied by Russian troops to be brought to Scotland.

A bear found as one of the last animals alive in an abandoned zoo liberated from Russian occupation is to be brought to Scotland. Named Yampil, after the village in Donetsk Oblast, where he was found by Ukrainian forces last October, the bear is to be adopted by Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder. Rescuers who found the Asiatic black bear said he was starving, filthy, and close to death. They found that almost all of the other 200 animals at the zoo had been killed.…

scotsman.com/news/world/bear-found-in-abandoned-zoo-in-village-occupied-by-russian-troops-to-be-brought-to-scotland-4297657

UKRAINE, TUESDAY, 13TH SEPTEMBER

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin met at a Russian space center Wednesday. US officials have warned Putin could use the summit to seek arms for his invasion of Ukraine. For his part, Putin signaled he could help Kim's space program.

The Ukraine war has left Putin internationally isolated and in need of fresh ammunition and shells after 18 months of war. Kim said he would "always be standing with Russia."

On the ground in Ukraine, Ukrainian forces attacked the Crimean city of Sevastopol, a major base for the Russian Black Sea fleet. Russian officials said at least 24 people were injured and two ships damaged.

The attack appears to have been the most ambitious yet launched on the port by Ukrainian forces. There have been previous drone attacks on Sevastopol, as well as attempts to penetrate the harbor with maritime drones.  

THE MILLS OF THE GODS

by James Kunstler

“We didn’t love freedom enough.” — Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Do you think that more than half of the US public may be getting a little irked with “Joe Biden’s” lawfare elf, AG Merrick Garland, as he rolls one innocent J-6 protester after another into decades of hard-time for strolling through the US Capitol building — while the special counsels assigned to only a few of the Biden family crimes play hide-the-salami with due process?

For all their cheap talk about “our democracy,” it’s a little scary to see what Democratic Party lawyers actually think of the legal system that is supposed to allow a society based on liberty to function fairly. Court filings last week indicate that Special Counsel David Weiss is about to indict Hunter Biden on that gun charge they have used as the joker in a three-card Monte game for going on five years.

Last time, they ran the game before Delaware federal judge Maryellen Noreika, she detected a teeny-weeny, sneaky clause in the plea agreement to a watered-down gun charge that would have granted immunity to Hunter B from any other past wrongdoing, including, of course, the entire alleged Biden family racketeering operation that had the First Son acting as prime broker and bag-man for tens of millions of dollars in bribes from foreign actors in countries less than friendly to US interests, funneled into any number of Biden family shell corporations. Judge Noreika nixed the plea agreement.

Now, Mr. Weiss’s crew seems to be saying that the immunity clause is still tied to any plea deal answering a forthcoming September 29 indictment. The move would appear to be timed to exactly the moment that a House impeachment committee would begin its inquiry into the Biden family’s moneygrubbing activities. In ordinary House committee hearings, DOJ officials like to use the excuse of “an ongoing investigation” to demur from answering questions. Merrick Garland has done this dozens of times. Will they now try to upgrade that to “an ongoing prosecution?” Could that move lead to a constitutional impasse, requiring the Supreme Court to rule? Or does a House impeachment panel enjoy special privileges of inquiry?

It also appears that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FLA) intends to force the issue of opening an impeachment ASAP against “Joe Biden.” In last January’s maneuvering to seat a new Republican House majority, Mr. Gaetz pushed through an agreement that the process to remove and replace the Speaker of the House could be activated by one vote. Mr. Gaetz reiterated last week that he means business. He’s the one vote.

The argument that Republicans should leave hands-off “Joe Biden” so they can run against the feeble old grifter in 2024 is preposterous because there is no way that the “JB” can possibly run for reelection under any circumstances. It’s just another trip being laid on the American public — and one that illustrates how tragic and dangerous is the absence of an honest news media for challenging such insolent gambits. The President can barely totter into a room now without making some embarrassing pratfall or gaffe. He couldn’t possibly survive a debate, especially with all the new records of his crimes unearthed since the last time around in 2020 when he pretended to know nothing about his son’s business dealings.

Anyway, the actual issue is not whether it’s politically advantageous to lay off “Joe Biden,” but the irrefutable fact that he (and the shadowy figures running his regime) are wrecking the country. He (they) can do a lot more damage in the many months leading up to January, 2025, especially around the dangerous idiocy that the US foreign policy gang pursues so blindly in Ukraine. You might argue that the “president” would never be convicted (actually booted out) in a Democrat majority Senate trial following a productive House impeachment. But both procedures would be televised and recorded for play on a thousand Internet channels, despite the connivance of a complicit legacy news media. And the public will finally see the case against “Joe Biden” and his family laid out carefully, precisely, and coherently, with high and grave decorum. Even some percentage of ring-fenced Democratic voters may have to finally conclude that something has gone very wrong in our country and in their own party.

(kunstler.com)

DISASTER ANNIVERSARY 911: AmBUSH

by Steve Heilig

22 years ago on September 11 what has long been simply called “911” happened, followed by great mourning and anger, but soon it was a wasted opportunity for international unity and reflection and reform. Instead war and torture were coming, against all wisdom, and millions of us were protesting en masse in the streets to no avail. Tragedy in Iraq was soon piled upon tragedy in NYC. Then came a wholly predictable wave of delusional “truthers” who were sure they had inside information that the whole thing was planned (presumably many of them more recently moved on to what they term the “plandemic”). Madness comes in many forms, but it never improves things.

Here at home I was asked to contribute to an 2003 art show titled “AmBush.” My collage wound up as the poster piece for the exhibit, plus on the cover of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. It put Bush Jr. and Saddam and Guantanamo and H. Bosch and King Crimson and oil and money and death into it in a few hours of anger and disgust. Yes it’s undeniably macabre, and bizarre, maybe even sacrilegious, and on opening night an elegant couple who visited the sweet little gallery where the exhibit was held took one look, said “That is some weird shit,” and left. But the reality out there was much worse and I doubt they really wanted to look at that either. Who really did? It was also so horrible, made triply so for being pointless and preventable.

Many were left wondering, likely forever: If the 2000 election, particularly in Florida, had been called differently and Bush was installed as President, what might have turned out differently, even better? It sure seems so. Couldn’t have been much worse. “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead,” said Hemingway. And add their families and other loved ones; maybe especially them. Turns out who is in high office does matter, even if you don’t fully support them; something to ponder still.

(Dedicated to the late great Suzie Mills, who conned me into being part of her art show)