Mendocino County Today: July 24, 2013

IT'S ALMOST HERE! Not-So-Simple Living Fair 2013 is in just a few days. We're ready for you, so make your way to the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville July 26 - 28 (workshops begin at 10am Saturday morning.) This promises to be another great event with some of our same great workshop presenters and also some new presenters and new topics. Music Friday night will be by Foxglove and Saturday night we will welcome back Pura Vida. For a complete run-down, including schedule of workshops, workshop descriptions and presenter information, visit our website http://notsosimple.info. See you there!

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TWO PROTESTERS LOCKDOWN AT WILLITS BYPASS CONSTRUCTION AREA/PHOTOGRAPHER ARRESTED

CHP officers guard a protester locked down to a machine on the Willits Bypass. (Photos from the EarthFirst Facebook Page.)

Two protesters—a man, Travis Jochimsen, and a woman known as Blue Heron—slipped past the California Highway Patrol early this morning and locked down to machines used to drain land in Mendocino County They are trying to bring attention to the Willits Bypass which they believe is environmentally harmful.  A credentialed photographer with the Willits News, Steve Eberhart, has been arrested this morning at the scene of the lockdown.

According to Eberhart’s editor, Linda Williams, “We’ve contacted our legal staff and he’ll be cited and released within the hour….I think.”  Williams says, “[Eberhart] was the only person arrested.  He had credentials from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office as well as our own credentials.”

“This,” she says, “is his first arrest…We’re trying to get him out of jail. It is our number one priority and then get his cameras.”

Caltrans spokesperson Phil Frisbie, Jr. explained that Eberhart entered the Willits Bypass construction area at 5:30 A.M. along with about 15 protesters, and when CHP ordered them all to leave, the others left but he refused. Frisbie says that the group of protesters ”…distracted the two CHP officers who were guarding two wick drain stitchers overnight.  The distraction allowed two other [protesters] to attach themselves to the stitcher towers which had been lowered to the ground for the night.”

According to Frisbie, “Steve knows that the media must have a [Caltrans’] escort to ensure their safety, and he could have left with the protestors and waited for a [Caltrans’] escort.”

An activist site, Save Little Lake Valley, claims that Eberhart was arrested “while waiting for his [Caltrans’] escort to arrive.”

Rick Shreve, an activist against the Willits Bypass, reports that as of 10 A.M. the protesters are still locked down. He says the protesters are “trying to stop the draining of the wetlands…They are continuing to stop work on the Bypass.”

Frisbie, however says, “We should be installing wick drains again tomorrow. Also, other work such as pile driving are continuing unaffected.”

—Kym Kemp, Courtesy, LostCoastOutpost.com

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AN EXTREMLY WACKY story in Sunday's Chron that there's a high incidence of obesity in Mendocino County because we don't have access to healthy food. The human focus of the piece was a couple of sedentary pudges who live in Gualala. In living fact, it's harder to eat bad in Mendocino County than lots of places in this fine, fat land of ours. But Gualala people are especially annoyed that the story somehow managed to overlook the town's two supermarkets, one more upscale than   the other, but both offering a wide variety of healthy and organic   foods. There's also a weekly Farmer's Market, an   organic health food store in Anchor Bay, two Food Banks, one in Gualala and one in Point   Arena, and several healthy eating places and grocery outlets in Point   Arena. Not a fast food restaurant anywhere on the Mendo coast until you get all the way to Fort Bragg where there's a McDonald's, and the only reason it's there is for the people who drive up from Modesto to get out of the summer heat. A few years ago "Men's Health" magazine named Gualala the healthiest place in the country. No exaggeration: You've got to search out bad food in Mendocino County.

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FORMER COP ARRESTED IN POT BUST — Law enforcement agents from Lake and Mendocino counties on Friday raided Reflections of Avalon, a Ukiah medical marijuana dispensary, and arrested owner Richard Erickson — a former Lakeport Police officer — according to authorities. Agents arrested Erickson, 60, of Lakeport, on suspicion of cultivating and possessing marijuana for sale, manufacturing a controlled substance and receiving stolen property. He is being held at the Lake County Jail under $150,000 bail. The Lake County Sheriff's Office, Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force and County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team served a search warrant at the business at about 7am July 19, according to MMCTF Commander Rich Russell. Russell and his Task Force agents were at the scene until about 3pm, during which time authorities arrested at least two other people who showed up at the business, allegedly to sell marijuana. One of the two arrestees allegedly intended to sell marijuana clone plants to the dispensary, and the other was selling between three and four pounds of processed marijuana, according to Russell. Agents seized about 25 pounds of processed marijuana at the scene, along with an unknown number of growing plants, cash and guns, including a Thompson submachine gun, according to Russell. Authorities had opened four safes and were working on a fifth when Russell left the scene, he said. The Lake County Sheriff's Office was preparing a press release Monday, but the information wasn't available Monday night. Erickson was an 11-year veteran with the Lakeport Police Department when he was terminated in 2006, the same year he was charged with misappropriating government funds for allegedly using police department equipment and time for personal reasons, including an affair with an 18-year-old woman. He was defended at the time by Don Anderson, who was elected Lake County District Attorney in 2010. Erickson was acquitted in 2007. (— Tiffany Revelle, Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

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ON JULY 18, 2013 at approximately 10:30pm, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched 575 Cropley Lane in Willits to investigate a reported assault with a deadly weapon. The weapon used was an automobile. The 51 year-old male victim reported that his wife's ex-boyfriend, Shelby E. Redenius, 42, of Willits, had attempted to run him down with a vehicle. Redenius is the father of his wife's two year-old daughter. The victim stated that he was driving his vehicle on Blosser Lane when Redenius began to follow him very closely in his pickup. Redenius followed him closely all the way to his home on Cropley Lane. When the victim stepped from his vehicle Redenius accelerated his vehicle toward him rapidly, coming within inches of him. Redenius spun his vehicle in tight circles around the victim and his car. Seated inside the victim's car throughout this incident were his 37-year old wife and her two year-old daughter. The victim stated that Redenius then intentionally drove his truck into the open driver's door of the victim's vehicle, bending it forward. Redenius then drove a short distance, spun his truck in a tight “doughnut” once more and drove away. The woman and her child were not injured. The damage to the victim's vehicle and other evidence at the scene supported the victim's version of events. Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies contacted Shelby Redenius at a Hwy 20 location where he was arrested without incident for assault with a deadly weapon. Redenius was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he is being held in lieu of $30,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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ON JULY 18, 2013, at about 8:15am, Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office stopped a vehicle on North Highway 101 north of Willits for a violation of the California Vehicle Code. Upon contact with the driver, Allen Feldman, 29, of Los Angeles, and the passenger Benjamin McCully, 30, of Hollywood, deputies detected the odor of marijuana emitting from the vehicle. A search of the vehicle revealed packaging materials commonly used for transporting marijuana and $92,010 cash secreted within the vehicle. Both subjects were arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on marijuana sales charges and are currently held on $30,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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ON JULY 18, 2013 at approximately 12:34pm Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to the 3800 block of East Side Calpella Road in Ukiah for a report of an assault with a deadly weapon (vehicle) and brandishing a firearm (rifle). On arrival Deputies were advised two male juveniles and a female juvenile, all age 16, had been riding their ATVs on their property when their neighbor returned home. The neighbor, identified as David Joseph Carr, 65, of Ukiah, was driving on the dirt road which accesses both residences when he suddenly accelerated and began spinning the rear tires and driving extremely fast. All of the juveniles were in the area of the road, returning their ATVs to their fenced in storage location when Carr swerved toward them, causing the three juveniles to pull out of the way and jump their fence. The juveniles advised Carr’s truck came within six feet of them when it passed. The three juveniles said they feared for their lives. Carr pulled to a stop in front of his residence and then went inside. The three juveniles also went inside their residence and began looking at Carr’s residence through their kitchen and dining room windows. All three juveniles said they watched as Carr came out of his front door carrying a rifle. They watched as Carr “shouldered the rifle” and pointed it toward their residence. The three juveniles advised they ducked to the floor, hid, and called 911. The three juveniles said this was not the first time Carr had pointed a rifle at them for riding their ATVs on their own property. Deputies observed the tire marks on the dirt driveway and saw the gravel was disturbed as if someone had been spinning their tires, and saw the tire marks swerved inward toward the juvenile’s residence. Deputies contacted Carr and his wife who were in their front yard watching through the overgrowth of grapevines. Both Carr and his wife were unarmed. Carr advised he had driven very fast down the road when he returned to his residence at the request of his wife, who had called him and advised the juveniles were “terrorizing” her by riding their ATVs on the juvenile’s property. Carr advised he was not trying to run over the juveniles when he drove to his house. Carr advised he did have a rifle but denied ever taking it out of the gun safe that was located in his front room, next to the front door. Carr admitted he had removed the rifle a week prior and went outside to investigate a loud noise that turned out to be the juveniles trying to get their ATV unstuck. Carr was arrested without incident for brandishing a firearm and booked in to the Mendocino County Jail, where he is being held on $30,000 bail. (Sheriff’s Press Release)

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EDITOR: I read an article in your publication written about Thomas Blackburn written in 2012. My interest is in reconnecting with his daughter, Stephanie mentioned in the article. I knew her briefly when we were attending college at U. of Colorado 1956-58. I am simply trying to reconnect and update our lives for the fun of it. I do not know if she married had children or…? And would like to. Could you forward this inquiry to the article writer and ask if he will send it to Stephanie. Thanks, Ron Phillips, R22059J@comcast.net

ED NOTE: That piece was written by Arthur Winfield Knight originally in the early 1990s and reposted last year as a “Blast From the Past.” Unfortunately, Mr. Knight has since passed away.

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COMMENT OF THE DAY, Lost Coast Outpost (HumCo) comment line — a man called Moviedad responding to a fire in a homeless camp near Garberville: “At some point, the wealthy-elites in control of our government are going to have to reestablish care for the mentally ill and the indigent. There are so many people on the streets that in any "civilized" society would be in a mental health institution being looked after. But, to fund their many tax-breaks for corporations and their executives, they have thrown the disabled onto the streets. They've tossed out surgery patients who couldn't pay, onto the sidewalks. In LA some were found wandering around with their IV bottles in tow. In Willow Creek at present, there are at least three individuals wandering around in the heat, who are completely unable to care for themselves. But our society has no concern. Our 'leaders' live the high life on working people's taxes, pay almost none of their own, and solve social problems like the Mafia. But eventually all the birds come home to roost, and the barbarian practice of throwing people on the street to die makes it uncomfortable for the public. 'Mommy, why is that scary old woman face down in her vomit on the sidewalk?' 'Because she's a loser Suzy..' It's hard not become harsh and unforgiving. I can't get my hands on those who are actually responsible, so blaming the victim becomes the norm. You see this in the interactions between police and the mentally ill. As far as the healthy living on the street with a backpack and a dog; you can see the desperation in their eyes. How long can some of these people make it before they do something? Jobs? Who has enough voluntary gullibility to buy into that BS? There are no jobs for these people. It would take a jobs-program that supplied a bed and a shower. These people are way too far gone to work for a private company. So they sit on the side of the road and they starve, and while they are starving they try to drink themselves to death. Us 'baby-boomers' reference the Nazi's a lot when talking about evil, it annoys some people, but fact is, we are the Nazi's now. Our system has become so corrupted with heartless fascists in key positions, that the concept of charity and compassion are treated as weakness. It's become so powerful that whenever some brave soul dares to expose the criminal behavior or murder, genocide and crimes against humanity; they are declared a traitor and our corrupt, illegal, unconscionable Mafia that pretends to be the government of the US, begins the process of putting a 'Hit' on them and murdering them. What does all this have to do with a Hobo-camp fire? Why is there a Hobo-camp? Why are there so many people destitute, barely clinging to sanity? Why do I pay more taxes in California than Exxon-Mobil? Why does the board of directors of Exxon get to become rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams on the oil resources that are legally owned by the 'People of the United States?' I just wanted to put my two-cents in on the 'homeless' situation before the 'brownshirts' all chimed in with their usual 'kill them all!' and 'Let it burn out all the vermin!' These willing slaves of the ruling class who inhabit the blogs to rail against their neighbors and families on behalf of, and benefit to, the true traitors to our constitution.”