Mendocino County Today: Friday, Nov. 10, 2023

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LIGHT RAIN will come to an end this morning. A front will approach Del Norte County on Saturday but will likely dissipate before bringing rain to the area. A more substantial area of low pressure will develop off the central California coast beginning on Sunday and stall for the next several days. Periods of rain and gusty winds will be possible through at least mid-week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A scant .02" of sprinkle from last night. A cloudy 50F this Friday morning on the coast. Clearing skies will give way to a nice fall weekend. Rain chances for next week have gone from LOTS to some to unknown currently. Stay tuned weather fans.

ARMED ROBBERY SUSPECTS LOOSE IN NORTH COUNTY

Law enforcement is on the lookout this evening for two vehicles occupied by a total of four armed men who are sought for their alleged role in a Laytonville robbery.

An officer safety bulletin came over the police scanner around 6:20 p.m. stating that four Hispanic males with “multiple firearms” fled the alleged robbery in a silver Ford F-250 and a white Jeep last seen driving south on Highway 101.

The robbery reportedly occurred around 5:30 p.m. and the suspects were said to carry “multiple firearms.” 

The Officer Safety Bulletin was directed to agencies in the county's southern reach out of concern the assailants were heading towards the area.

The details around the robbery itself are unknown at this point.

If you have any information, please contact the Mendocino County County Sheriff's Office by calling (707) 463-4086.

CLOSING THE BUDGET GAP, MENDO STYLE

by Mark Scaramella

Supervisor Dan Gjerde, Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, November 7, 2023: “I think we need to focus on implementing the cuts.” (Other supervisors had previously mused that some yet to be determined staff cuts would be required to balance next fiscal year's general fund budget.) “On that point, I mean, we've got three County employees who are working part-time on the Golden Gate Project, what they call the Golden Gate Project, looking at cost savings for the County. We are never going to solve the budget deficit with three county employees working part-time to solve the budget deficit. When I talk to people in the Executive office, I get redirected to the Golden Gate Project. They are the ones focused on making the structural changes and the cuts. That's not enough. By my count there are 18 people who are working for the CEO who are analysts or above in pay grade and responsibility and job description. I think we should direct the CEO to direct each of those 18 people to be assigned to work on at least one of the cost-saving ideas that have been captured and memorialized [sic] by the Golden Gate project. I am not privy to every single idea that has come in from County employees. I know of several items that have been discussed by this board that I have sent to the Golden Gate Bridge project which do not have a single county employee working on them right now because there is just the three of them. So I think we should give direction to the CEO to look through the 18 people who are analyst or above and who work for the CEO to go through that list and assign everyone on her team who is an analyst or above to work on at least one of those cost-saving ideas. I think we would see more forward movement than we are seeing right now. Some of these ideas… Right now, nothing is going to come forward unless the department that has a cost savings within it comes forward with implementing it. I don't think you can assume that within a department they will voluntarily, in every case, come forward with a proposal to save money. To get those departments to move we are going to need someone from the executive office working with the employees in the departments, the leadership of those departments, to track those ideas, work through the problems, and bring forward the implementation of those cost savings. Otherwise I think we are going to be here six months, a year from now and cost savings are going to be elusive and they are not coming forward and all we are going to see is bigger deficits with no solutions other than robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Shocking as this number sounds, this at least appears to answer the question some people had recently about how many people are working in the CEO's office. 

A normal person hearing this surprisingly large number, especially in the context of the budget deficit, would wonder why there are so many high level people in the CEO's office and what they are doing, not to mention how much they cost. Including salary and multiple benefits, eighteen such people would cost at least $100,000 a year each, or over $2 million a year. Add the CEO and the five supervisors which cost another million dollars a year and we have what should be the first item on the Board’s list of “cost savings ideas” (but won’t, of course).

Supervisor Gjerde later reported that there were 72 items on the Golden Gate Initiative project's list of potential cost savings, but nobody asked for the list.

The board has previously stated that “public safety” is a priority and should be exempt from any budget cuts. In rough numbers that means that only about 40% of the $90 million general fund, around $35 million or so, would have to absorb upwards of $7 million (or more if you include the pension deficit) in cuts. Or 20% reductions in staff for such departments as Planning and Building, Transportation, Environmental Health, Public Health, Agriculture, County Counsel, and of course, the Auditor Controller Treasurer Tax Collector and several other smaller offices. (We do not know if the Public Defender's office qualifies as “public safety.”) The board has also previously exempted positions related to “revenue generation,” which would translate even deeper cuts in other areas.

Of course if anyone were to propose such large cuts in those departments there would be significant pushback and, given this board's overall weakness, they would be paralyzed by having to consider such cuts in those smaller departments most of which are already understaffed.

We know of at least three four significant potential cost savings ideas that have come up before but are unlikely to be on the 72 items on the Golden Gate Bridge initiative's list: 1. Eliminate Mendo's juvenile hall which costs over $2 million a year for a dozen or so delinquents. 2. Consolidate law enforcement dispatch from four 24/7 operations to one 24/7 operation (as proposed years ago by then Sheriff Tom Allman after which everyone agreed that it was a great idea but nobody did anything). 3. Simply close selective officers for one day a week as was done back in 2009. 4. Cut the Executive Office and the Board salaries and benefits by 20%.

We heard this week that another senior staffer has been added to the CEO’s office to handle payroll who formerly worked in the already significantly understaffed tax collector's office, leaving that office with no experienced tax collectors.

Speaking of tax collectors, on the revenue side of the budget gap, the County has millions of dollars in uncollected taxes due — properties not on the tax rolls, improvements not (yet) assessed, new home buyers not (yet) assessed at higher market rates, tax bills not (yet) sent out, unsolved software problems, error corrections, and outright tax delinquents and lien sales. There are also indications that the Transient Occupancy Tax collections are falling short and are way behind and have not been audited since the last time former Treasurer Tax Collector Shari Schapmire hired an outside firm to audit the bed tax receipts a few years ago.

In the several hours the board spent whimsically discussing the budget and the oft-repeated need to close the budget gap, we heard nothing specific about possible cuts, nothing about revenue shortfalls and tax collection.

To add insult to irony, after Supervisor Gjerde's comments about not enough people working on the possible cost-saving ideas, the Board asked CEO Antle to look for a consultant to train the 18 CEO staffers in how to handle cost-saving ideas.

Only Supervisor Maureen Mulheren said she was against hiring a consultant for this purpose. The other four wanted CEO Antle to find a consultant or hire another senior staffer and make a proposal at a future meeting.

DRAINAGE, cont’d:

To Randy Burke, Gualala:

From Ted Williams

I've visited Gualala Court during periods of pooled water. Clarifying questions:

In the past 22 years, how many years has the county roads crew found it necessary to clear the drainage due to pooling water? 

Burke: At least 4 times.

Is the maintenance required only once per year to unblock? 

Burke: Before major storms.

If the same effort were scheduled prior to pooled water, do you believe the problem would be mitigated? 

Burke: Absolutely.

ted (Supervisor Ted Williams)

Burke: Thank you for looking into this issue.

HONORING BLANCHE BROWN: 

The AV Historical Society chose Blanche Brown for the Mendocino County “Her Story” temporary exhibit. The exhibit is on display at the Mendocino County Museum through Christmas Eve. Sunday’s event that was mentioned above will include the reading of An Ode to Blanche Brown as well as a sharing of the many contributions she made to Anderson Valley.

(Sheri Hansen)

AV VILLAGE MONTHLY GATHERING: WINTERIZING YOUR GARDEN WITH VICKIE BROCK

Sunday, November 19th, *3 to 4:30 PM

Anderson Valley Senior Center

Refreshments served

Join Vickie for a chat about how she gets her farm ready for the winter. Vickie will give a little history of how she got into farming, talk about what she does to close up her farm and how she gets ready for the new garden in the late winter/ early spring.

More info & to RSVP:

*Note earlier start time for the winter gatherings.

ODIS SCHMIDT DECEMBER FEATURED ARTIST AT CLOUD NINE

Show opens on First Friday, December 1, from 5-8 and continues through December 31.

Cloud Nine Art Gallery, 320 N. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg

In his own words: “I have always made things with my hands since I can remember from about 3 years old. When I was young, I build boats and carved things and drew and painted. Growing up in Detroit, I was interested in car design. After high school, I went to commercial art school for 2 years and then a fine art program for undergraduate school and grad school at Eastern Michigan University. I primarily studied design, printmaking and sculpture. I moved to CA in the early 70's and became a woodworker and designer. I had a career of 45 years working with my hands. I never stopped drawing or making pieces of art as well. I now make only what comes to mind. It is an endless experience of creating patterns and forms and I usually do not know the outcome of that Which I engage in. Often what I cut off or out of a piece of wood is more fascinating than the direction I was going. Always at the crossroads with much to learn, it is an endlessly meditative and enjoyable experience.”

Odis will give a brief talk about his art at 6pm with a Q&A. Have a glass of bubbly with light refreshments, mingle with friends, listen to Joe Pardini on guitar and view original art work on First Friday at Cloud Nine Art Gallery.

OPERA SHOWING AT ARENA THEATER

Dear AVV Members, volunteers and beyond, 

On Saturday, December 9, the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of “Florencia en el Amazonas” will be shown at the Arena Theater in Point Arena at 10 am. The composer, Daniel Catan, took inspiration for his music from “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Ticket prices for seniors are $24. 

Kathy Janes, one of our members who went on the Frida and Diego trip to San Francisco, wondered if others might be interested in carpooling. If you are interested, her number is 707-684-4089. 

Here is the Met's announcement: Florencia en el Amazonas, by the late Daniel Catan, will be the first Spanish-language opera to be performed by the company in nearly a century when it takes the Met stage on November 16 in Mary Zimmerman’s production. Nazet-Saguin will conduct a cast that includes Ailyn Parez as Florencia Grimaldi, Gabriella Reyes as Rosalba, bass-baritone Greer Grimsley as the ship captain, Matt Olivieri as the first mate, Mario Chang as Arcadia and Nancy Fabiola Herrera and Michael Chioldi as the feuding couple Paula and Alvaro. 

CHRIS PHILBRICK

The picture of Bill Holcomb’s 1956 Mercury convertible in your announcement that Bill is turning 90 has special significance for me. 

In 1960, my mother owned that car and I was a senior at Ukiah High School. A beautiful cheerleader, Arlene Wymer who was a sophomore, asked me if the cheer squad could borrow that convertible for a parade. I reported back to her that they could borrow it but only if I was the driver…I wasn’t stupid. She sat beside me in that parade and that led to many dates over the following years. My mother gave me the car and I drove it off to college at San Jose State University. Arlene and I recently celebrated our 59th wedding anniversary.

In 1967 my father, Don Philbrick, passed away at the age of 57 and we had to get everything off the old lumber mill site because the property was leased from Masonite Corporation. My Merc was parked in a garage at the mill site so I drove it over the hill to my brother Jerry’s ranch and parked it under a lean-to. I never realized that it wouldn’t move again for the next 20 years. Meanwhile every sort of animal had its way with that poor old Merc…horses, cows, squirrels…you name it.

In the mid-1980’s Jerry called me at my home in Fresno and said “Hey bro…I did something that you probably won’t be very happy about. I gave your merc to some old guy in Navarro who wants to restore it.” I replied, “That wasn’t your car to give away and I had plans to restore it myself when I retired.” To which he responded “I know. That’s why I decided to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission.” I’d never heard that phrase before and I’ve hated it ever since!

Anyway, last week I posted on Facebook a black and white photo of my merc in front of Arlene’s house in 1960 with her posing on the hood. The VERY NEXT day the picture of Bill in the restored merc appeared in your paper. It was an amazing coincidence because I have not seen that car since 1967.

You can be sure on December 16th I will mosey on over to Apple Hall, meet and congratulate Bill, and give my former merc a kiss on the fender for helping me meet that sophomore cheerleader… The love of my life.

BRUCE MCEWEN WRITES: My lady wife Marilyn, pictured in the ad below, went to interview Mr. Philbrick, at his home, right after she left hip replacement surgery and she swears to this day that a nicer, more considerate gentleman she’d never met.

CONGRATULATIONS TO AV UNIFIED’S STUDENTS OF THE MONTH:

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

Anderson Valley Unified School District

R.D. BEACON:

Further information having to do with the aircraft that is been buzzing around the past couple of days near elk and North Fort Bragg information that I managed to get from an FAA site by running the tail numbers are the following,

this information came from FAA site

it is unlawful for anybody to photograph your property for financial gain, if the county paid them to photograph property, the county and/or the flight service has to get up till release, and get your permission to take photos of your property, the only agency that I know of a 10 photograph property from the air is the federal government, but they're not doing it as a hired contractor, aircraft operators and owners when taking photos of private property are considered contractors, and are being paid, to take some photographs therefore they have to get a film release or a photo release from the landowner when taking photos of your private property, it is a sue-able offense

THE FIRST OF MANY GOOD TIMES WAS HAD BY ALL

This article was originally published in the Mendocino Beacon on May 29, 1975. We reprint it here to mark the 50th anniversary of the Kelley House.

The first open house at Kelley House last weekend was an auspicious occasion in the sense that it surely was a good omen for the future. The sun shone, the Mendocino High School Band played, the American Flag was presented (by Don Carpenter for the American Legion to James O’Donnell for Mendocino Historical Research), old-timers sat on the benches to enjoy the ceremonies, the garden path beckoned some, children tumbled on the grass, and the ice-cream and lemonade stands were busy.

Stationed inside the Main Street gate on the old driveway, Alden Rice, in duster and cap, was ready in his 1914 Chalmers, painted Brewster green (its first owner was John Ross, superintendent of the Mendocino Lumber Company), to take people for a spin around town. For two days, he drove happy passengers around the streets as they waved at bystanders and tooted at friends. A modest fellow, Alden never will toot his own horn regarding his place in Mendocino’s history. His grandfather Rice was a pioneer of the 1850’s and his grandfather Milliken was a prominent early doctor.

Responsible for the success of the weekend were many members and friends beginning with Helen Bedell and Barbara Bird (an MHR board member), who answered a plea for volunteers to help scrub down walls and windows. What a job that was! Kathy Neigum contributed a large can of Amway window cleaner that, having done its work, exposed a name scratched on one window: Elise.

Charlene Wills acted as coordinator for planning and secured the lemonade dispensers: Barbara Dennis, Alicia Corvin and Tim Furey. Gardeners Bonnie Key and Lea Anderson neatened the grounds, and Lea provided the blue table and benches. She also supplied the home-canned blackberries for the ice-cream, and it was so delicious and popular that, for the next party, they will make twice as much. Blayne Link and Betty Adams assisted on Sunday.

Indoors, the main attraction was Nannie Escola’s fine collection of ship pictures. The exhibit was titled “Ships of the Redwood Coast” and was on two walls, one devoted to “sailers,” the other to “steamers.” Two model ships added to the interest of the display: Herman Fayal’s schooner Bobolink and James O’Donnell’s steamer Cacique. Toni Lemos was chief hostess in that room, assisted by Connie Gomes, Florence Dahl and Anne Foote.

In the library room, visitors were welcomed on Saturday by Aldine Gorman, on Sunday by Elspeth Smith and Mamie Mendosa. Mamie was wearing not one but two beautiful watches that belonged to her aunt Etta Hatch Gordon. Ruth Eshelman’s scrapbook of MHR’s history has its own place on the round table in the library; [there are] 36 pages of photographs, drawings by Daryl McClure and Lee Burleson, and all the newspapers. Ruth calls it Book I. She has assembled this expensive book as her donation to MHR, and MHR thanks her for it.

Ruth was in charge of the DAR table in the other room across the hall where she showed the other fine scrapbook she has compiled on the Mendocino Chapter of the DAR. Her helpers at the booth were Aldine Gorman, Susan Pierce, Jane McCarthy and Vivian Dow.

In the same room were three large panels with historic pictures of Greenwood and Cuffey’s Cove, put up by the Greenwood Hobbyists, who are compiling the history of their area in a most gratifying and professional manner. Flower arrangements all over the house were the gift of Helen Pray from her garden which is well known for its beauty.

At large were directors Beth Stebbins, Dorothy Bear, Al Nichols, and staffers Nancy Curtis, Mike MacDonald and Carson Bauman. Mike was the one with the camera, Carson was the one with the hammer, and Nancy was everywhere, talking to people, running messages, change, ice, directions. Many signs were her handiwork.

Members Dr. and Mrs. George Bettencourt came from the farthest distance and brought with them several family heirlooms for the Kelley House. George’s mustache cup was a high school graduation gift, another cup was part of his mother’s dinner set, and a plate had the 1911 Christmas greeting of the Jarvis & Nichols Store. The linens were the kind we never see anymore.

Yes, it was a favored grand opening. Even the girl who reported her watch missing came back to say she had found it in the grass. On Tuesday morning, the restoration crew, under the able direction of Francis Jackson, was back on the job.

(kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, November 9, 2023

STACY EZELL, Ukiah. Willits. Disorderly conduct-solicitation of lewd act, failure to appear.

CHAD HAKE, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, resisting.

BRANDI MANJARREZ, Lolita/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MICHAEL MUNOZ, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI causing injury, special allegation: Great Bodily Injury to victim over 70 years of age.

ORLANDO MUNOZ, Ukiah. Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, paraphernalia.

JEREMY SAUNDERS, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, failure to appear.

ERICA SIMPSON, Willits. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CHRISTOPHER WEST, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

CAN PRESIDENT BIDEN'S EXECUTIVE ORDER DELIVER FOR CARE WORKERS?

by David Bacon

As the age of the US population continues to rise - and millions of people with disabilities, additional needs and children need care - so too does the country's insatiable demand for home healthcare and domestic workers. But years of underinvestment in the sector, and the chronic undervaluing of the important work carried out disproportionately by women of color (particularly those with an immigrant background) has left the sector in a perilous state.…

davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2023/10/can-president-bidens-executive-order.html

THE OLD MAN AND THE BACKPACK

by Marshall Newman

It is the third week of September and I am at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park, getting ready to embark on my first backpacking trip in nearly 35 years. The setting is familiar, as Tuolumne Meadows was the starting point for several backpacking trips in my 20s and 30s, but my anticipation for this journey is tempered by doubt. The young backpacker from those earlier trips has become a guy in his mid-70s and backpacking can be physically challenging. I am about to find out whether I was up to the challenge.

After hearing I was planning this trip, a few friends asked why. Unlike George Mallory’s quip a century ago about why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, “Because it’s there” wasn’t my motivation. Mine was “Because I can.” Decent health, halfway decent fitness and free mid-week days made it possible. There also was some carpe diem in my decision; I could have delayed the trip, but to not go relatively soon might mean not going ever. 

Other old stuff would be tested as well. I took my ancient Kelty backpack and – with a prediction of nights in the 30s – my old down sleeping bag, both purchased in the late 1960s. My backpacking stove from the 1980s also came along, though with a new pump and gas canister.

The trip was straightforward: three days and two nights, from Tuolumne Meadows (elevation 8,600 feet) to Glen Aulin and returning via the same route. The distance is approximately seven miles each direction, with 800 feet of elevation change. Piece of cake, right?

Well, yes and no. Even after leaving a few things in the car, my pack was heavier than expected. Hiking with a heavy pack - especially downhill - was hard on the knees. Runoff from this year’s massive snowpack made crossing Delaney Creek – no bridge, just rocks and a log – dicey. I got lost briefly when the trail crossed a stretch of blank granite. And the trail’s steep sections feature cobble stairs (to prevent erosion); nice for someone with small feet, but not so nice for someone with big ones (i.e. me).

I arrived at Glen Aulen after 5 p.m., later than anticipated and completely beat. Dinner featured a chocolate bar. Bedtime was at dusk, with the sound of nearby California Cascade to lull me to sleep.

Seriously sore muscles the next morning prompted a change in plan. Rather than remain in Glen Aulin and take a day hike downstream to see Waterwheel Falls, I hiked upstream two miles and found a campsite. The prospect of hiking the entire seven miles back to Tuolumne Meadows and then driving home to the Bay Area in a day made this two-day option an easy decision.

I woke the next morning to temperatures near freezing and a scattering of rain. Rather than hang around, I packed and got moving. The hike back to Tuolumne Meadows was slow but uneventful. A hailstorm hit as I arrived at my car and it rained the entire 40-mile drive to the park entrance on Highway 120. 

Overall, I fared well. Bruises on the inside of my elbows from swinging the pack on and off. Sore shoulders from its weight. Sore leg muscles that lasted a couple of days. 

Those who backpack do so primarily for the scenery, not for the challenge (folks tackling the Pacific Crest Trail being the exception). Scenery is where Yosemite backcountry excels, with sculpted peaks, shining granite domes, pretty lakes, clear streams, dense forests and impressive waterfalls. The massive 2023 snowpack, which delayed the opening of Highway 120 over Tioga Pass for nearly two months, made the backcountry particularly beautiful this year. Also less crowded, according to many.

A few notes for those considering a backpacking trip in Yosemite. 

Most national parks now requires a wilderness permit for backcountry camping. Creating an account at www.recreation.gov proved easy; actually booking the Glen Aulin campsite proved impossible. I finally got my reservation at the park entrance. However, that could be a problem during the summer, especially for popular backcountry campsites. The National Park Service has strict limits on the number of people who can camp at each site. By the way, the fee for a wilderness permit is $15.

Yosemite requires all backpackers to store their food in bear canisters. This concerted effort to keep bears from raiding campsites for food seems to be working; I didn’t see one during my three days. That said, a bear canister is a pain to pack: both with food and in a backpack.

Highway 120 through Yosemite – typically open from late May until the first snow in November - offers lots of great scenery. Unfortunately, most turnouts have cars parked from one end to the other, with no place to wait. 

During the summer months, there is a Hiker’s Bus that runs from Yosemite Valley to Tuolumne Meadows and back, stopping at various trailheads along the way. This bus would be perfect for one-way backpacks from Tuolumne Meadows to Tenaya Lake, May Lake, Ten Lakes Basin or White Wolf. 

Yosemite backcounty weather is unpredictable in summer and weather predictions are unreliable. Afternoon thunderstorms happen often enough in the High Sierra to suggest caution, especially when backpacking in exposed locations. They also can make backpacking and camping miserable. On the first day of my trip, there was thunder, lightning and rain just a few miles to the north – close enough to see and hear. 

Would I backpack again? Health, fitness and time permitting, absolutely! However, I would make a few changes. A new backpack, for starters. Also, packing lighter; fewer clothes and only essential stuff. And maybe convince a friend to share the experience.

Next year is right around the corner. Time to start planning.

WHO IS KILLING CALIFORNIA GIRLS? 

No, it's not Instagram and TikTok

by Mike Males

Officials have failed to stem domestic abuse victimizing teens, the real driver of violence and mental health troubles.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with leaders of both political parties, regularly accuse social media of “addicting” and “harming” children and teenagers.

Yet, while agonizing over teenagers’ safety and mental health, political leaders, health authorities, and media commentators have been strangely silent on a crucial issue: who is abusing and murdering teens — especially girls?

Over the past three years, Centers for Disease Control tabulations show an appalling 107 girls in California younger than 18 were murdered — a rate half that of the rest of the United States (including gun-happy Florida and Texas), but five times higher than that of other Western countries.

Authorities and commentators pretend the killings and abuses of girls simply result from peer troubles like school shooters, “teen dating violence,” “cyberbullying,” and kids finding loose guns. None openly confront who is really victimizing girls. FBI Supplementary Homicide Report tabulations show why.

Just 12% of girls who were victims of homicide had assailants under 20, compared to 68% killed by perpetrators 25 and older. Three in four killers of girls are men over 21.

Shooters 21 and over are the single biggest reason guns are the leading death instrument for young Americans. Bonta’s report on domestic violence and guns, released Tuesday, is a welcome step but still falls short of confronting the scope of household victimization of teens.

The harsh statistics show — but authorities refuse to admit — that teenagers are coping with the most troubled generation of parent-aged adults in documented history.

In California, where dismal trends are still better than those nationwide, the death rate from suicides, guns, overdoses and homicides soared among adults and parent teens by a staggering 108% over the past two decades. Meanwhile, teenage death rates from these causes have stayed steady, with an uptick and then decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authorities, interest groups, media reports and quotable “experts” have buried this devastating deterioration in adult behavior by pretending that gun killings, suicides and drug overdoses — all deeply stigmatized in American culture — are just teenage risks, by cherry-picking only those selected years that buttress their case — that is, lying with statistics. Bonta’s new domestic gun violence report reveals just how inadequate California’s information systems on adults’ victimization of teens remain.

Girls have tried to inform authorities and mental health professionals who their abusers really are, to no avail. In 2021, 13% of girls told the CDC’s Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey (the authoritative documentation of teenagers’ “mental health crisis”) they had been violently abused and 62% emotionally abused by parents and household grownups — 200% to 400% increases compared to similar surveys in 2008 and 2011.

Girls are many times more likely to be beaten, hit, kicked, physically injured and emotionally abused by grownups at home than by peers at school, dating partners, or cyberbullies. Girls are more likely to be abused by household grownups than are boys (48%). Domestic abuse regularly victimizes LGBQ youth of both sexes (77%).

Analysis of the CDC survey (which commentators waxing emotionally on “saving girls” from Facebook and smartphones evidently failed to do) clearly shows that violent and emotional abuses by parents and household adults drive every serious risk girls suffer, including homicide.

Compared to girls who aren’t abused, girls who report frequent abuse are much more likely to report poor mental health (3.3 times), being cyberbullied (5.2 times), being bullied at school (6.0 times), dating violence (7.9 times), gun carrying (15.1 times) and suicide attempts (15.1 times), and they get 40% fewer hours of sleep. Instead of silly lawsuits blaming social media, schools should implement later class hours that are healthier for teen biorhythms.

Abused and depressed girls use social media more than non-abused girls to find mental health and medical services, the CDC survey shows. Once parental abuse is included, social media disappears as a serious risk factor — a reality omitted in the dubious studies of social media that officials rely on.

Oblivious political leaders, mental health professionals and institutional authorities are evading the rising domestic abuse realities that teens have no luxury to shrug off. Instead, authorities stampede to blame popular scapegoats like kids and social media and strive to cut young people off from the online connections abused teens use to get help.

How long is this destructive charade going to continue? Teens’ so-called “mental health crisis” is not caused by Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and cyberbullies, but by troubled, abusive household adults and derelict authorities.

Bonta’s gun violence report is just the beginning of confronting these realities. His office, legislators, mental health practitioners and officials now need to dial down the culture-war distractions blaming teens and social media and move to forcefully confront the far more serious crisis of real household abuses victimizing young people, especially girls.

(Mike Males is content director for YouthFacts.org and senior researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.)

BANNING PHONES IN SCHOOL IS HARD. BUT IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

by Pamela Paul

The hardest rule I ever set for my kids was refusing them cellphones until high school.

I’d seen the research on the doleful effects of social media, screens and surveillance parenting on kids’ mental, physical and cognitive well-being. If it turns out that the data is wrong, I figured, they will have survived a mild deprivation in their relatively privileged lives and provided fodder for a future therapist’s couch.

“How did you manage?!” other parents asked, and I knew exactly what they meant. Much as parents don’t want to admit it, we need — or it feels like we need — our kids to have a phone.

They’ll be safer walking to school, we tell ourselves — fully aware that should they be hit by a car or snatched away, they won’t be texting Mom about the situation. Even in a school shooting, cellphones have as much potential for danger as they do for safety.

We tell ourselves the phone will give our kids a sense of independence, even though phone trackers let us know exactly where they are. It will teach our kids to be responsible, even though we pay the bill.

We may genuinely believe these little lies; we may just love the convenience. Phones let kids check the forecast themselves rather than yell for a weather report while getting dressed. Phones let kids distract themselves rather than distract us when we’re on our phones.

As much as we lament the besotted, agonized, needy relationship our kids have with their phones, that same phone lets parents off the hook. If we screw something up, we can always text: Remember your grandfather’s birthday! Don’t forget violin. So sorry, I can’t pick you up this afternoon. You forgot your Chromebook!

The news that some districts are cracking down on cellphones is thus a bewildering case of competing interests among kids, administrators, teachers, parents and other parents. It overturns many pro-tech school policies embraced before Covid and resorted to during lockdown. It’s also the smartest thing schools can do, and it’s about time it got done.

Years ago, schools largely rolled over on tech in the name of inculcating “21st-century skills.” Schools boasted Chromebooks for every child, wired education, all kinds of apps. According to the Department of Education, as of 2020, about 77 percent of schools prohibited nonacademic cellphone use. Note the caveat “nonacademic”; many schools had simply integrated phones into their curriculum.

When my kids were in middle school, for example, teachers repeatedly told kids to take photos of assignments; in science, recording images on cellphones was part of the lesson. In The Atlantic, Mark Oppenheimer described one school that “made no pretense of trying to control phone usage, and absurdly tried to make a virtue of being aggressively tech-forward by requiring phones for trivial tasks: At the beginning of the term, you had to scan a QR code to add or drop a course.”

Little surprise then, that a new study by Common Sense Media found that 97 percent of teen and pre-teen respondents said they use their phones during the school day, for a median of 43 minutes, primarily for social media, gaming and YouTube. According to the authors, students reported that policies about phone use in schools vary — sometimes from classroom to classroom — and aren’t always enforced.

Now the enforcers are coming in. As Natasha Singer reported recently in The Times, Florida has issued a statewide prohibition against student cellphone use in the classroom, and school districts elsewhere including those in South Portland, Maine, and Charlottesville, Va., have made similar moves. One district in Florida, Orange County, went so far as to ban phones during the school day entirely. The not-shocking result: less bullying, increased student engagement, even actual eye contact between students and teachers in the hallway.

We should know this by now. In 2018, a secondary school in Ireland decided to ban cellphones altogether. The result: a significant increase in student face-to-face social interactions. “It’s hard to measure, but we find the place has a happier atmosphere for everyone,” one administrator told The Irish Times.

It’s not the school’s job to police kids’ phone habits, something parents are acutely aware isn’t easy. And that gets to the thorny crux of the issue: Parents are often the problem. When one group of parents in my district confronted the administration about its lax policy toward cellphones, the principal said whenever he raised the issue, parents were the ones who complained. How would they reach their children?!

But if we expect our kids to comply with no-phones policies, we’ve got to get over the deprivation. Our own parents would just call the front office — in an emergency. Not because they wanted to make sure we remembered to walk the dog.

And really, if we’re trying to teach kids to be safe, responsible and independent, shouldn’t we give them the leeway to do so? Phones don’t teach kids these values; parents do.

For schools to enact what research overwhelmingly shows benefits students, we parents have to back them up. When parents say our kids are the ones with the cellphone problem, we’re just kidding ourselves.

FAST CAR

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we'll make something
Me, myself, I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
I got a plan to get us outta here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
Won't have to drive too far
Just 'cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

See, my old man's got a problem
He live with the bottle, that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
His body's too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody's got to take care of him
So I quit school and that's what I did

You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way

So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I-I had a feeling that I belonged
I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
We go cruising, entertain ourselves
You still ain't got a job
And I work in the market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You'll find work and I'll get promoted
We'll move out of the shelter
Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs

So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I-I had a feeling that I belonged
I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me'd find it
I got no plans, I ain't going nowhere
Take your fast car and keep on driving

So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulder
And I-I had a feeling that I belonged
I-I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so you can fly away?
You gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way

— Tracy Chapman

CALIF. WOMAN SAYS CANNABIS MADE HER PSYCHOTIC, STAB BOYFRIEND 100 TIMES

by Lester Black

The trial has begun for a California woman who said smoking marijuana caused her to stab her boyfriend over 100 times, killing him in his apartment in 2018.

Bryn Spejcher, 32, is facing a felony involuntary manslaughter charge in the death of Chad O’Melia, whom Spejcher admitted to stabbing and killing in a 2018 incident at the man’s apartment in Thousand Oaks, California, about 40 miles west of Los Angeles. The trial is taking place in Ventura County Superior Court. Jury selection began this week.

Spejcher was originally charged with murder, but prosecutors asked for the lesser manslaughter charge in September after a forensic psychologist found that Spejcher was “acutely psychotic” during the killing because she had recently smoked marijuana, according to the Ventura County Star.

The prosecutor’s request, which was approved by the trial’s judge, angered O’Melia’s family. The man’s father, Sean O’Melia, said that Spejcher knew what she was doing and “viciously and prematurely ended” his son’s life, according to the Thousand Oaks Acorn.

Ventura County Chief Deputy DA Paul Nuñez defended his office’s decision to lower the charge, saying that a forensic psychologist’s findings made it impossible to prove that Spejcher acted with malice when she stabbed O’Melia over 100 times. The existence of a specific intent to kill the person is required for any murder charge, according to the legal definition of the term. 

Spejcher told law enforcement after her arrest in 2018 that she had met O’Melia at a dog park in the spring of 2018 and started regularly seeing him, the Star reported in 2019, citing pretrial testimony from a detective who’d interviewed Spejcher in the hospital after the incident. On May 27, 2018, she went to his condo with her dog and allegedly proceeded to smoke cannabis out of a bong on O’Melia’s porch. She then said she didn’t feel any effects of the drug, so smoked more marijuana and then immediately started to feel sick, the officer relayed, according to the Star.

Spejcher, who was 27 at the time, told law enforcement that she then felt ill, had difficulty breathing and thought she was dying. She then proceeded to hear voices that told her to start fighting, at which point she started stabbing O’Melia, according to the Star. 

An autopsy found that O’Melia was stabbed more than 100 times, with wounds to nearly every part of his body, including his jugular vein and carotid artery. Spejcher also allegedly stabbed her dog and herself, requiring surgery to her right jugular vein, according to the Ventura County newspaper. 

Neighbors called police after they heard an altercation, then silence followed by a woman screaming, according to a 2018 report by KABC-TV, a local ABC affiliate.

The forensic psychologist said her violence towards her dog, despite her being an animal lover, was more evidence that she was experiencing psychosis, according to the Ventura County Star. 

Cannabis can cause temporary symptoms of psychosis in some users, although the link to using cannabis and engaging in violence is unclear. A 2021 study found that cannabis legalization was associated with an increase in the risk of violent self-harm for men under 40, but no increase in self-harm or assault for any other age or sex group. Young men use cannabis more frequently and psychotic disorders disproportionately affect young men, the study authors noted, which could explain the apparent increase in self-harm for young men following cannabis legalization.

THE TRAGIC VICTIMHOOD OF ‘DISINFORMATION EXPERTS’

by Matt Taibbi

On June 8th, the Washington Post ran, “These academics studied falsehoods spread by Trump. Now the GOP wants answers,” a story about how “records requests, subpoenas and lawsuits” were wielded as “tools of harassment” against “scholars” in the “field of disinformation.” In photo portraits, Kate Starbird of the University of Washington stared plaintively in the distance, a caption under one: “The political part is intimidating — to have people with a lot of power in this world making false accusations about our work.”

Starbird sits on an advisory committee for the 245,000-person, $185 billion Department of Homeland Security, but perhaps she meant “a lot of power” in a different sense?

When Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, and I first started working on the Twitter Files, none of us knew much about people who did “anti-disinformation” work. Before it became controversial, these “experts” didn’t seem bashful about security-state credentials. For instance, New Knowledge, the firm profiled by Susan Schmidt last week that authored a Senate report on Russian interference and was caught creating fake accounts in an Alabama Senate race, gained this cheerful description in VentureBeat after raising $11 million for “anti-disinformation”:

What further distinguishes New Knowledge is that its founders are AI and Homeland Security experts who grew up in the NSA and have worked as security advisers. [CEO Jonathon] Morgan, for instance, was an adviser for the U.S. State Department and published research at the Brookings Institution.

When lawsuits like Missouri v. Biden and then the Twitter Files began shining light on this direction, experts reinvented themselves as “scholars” or research fellows. That their LinkedIn pages often featured odd gaps, or periods listed as “consultants” to the military or the FBI, was apparently not important, nor that “anti-disinformation” is not an academic discipline. Even if they were very new arrivals to campuses, we were expected to show deference to new roles as “researchers,” much as campaign reporters were asked to stop calling Rick Perry a dummy when he put on glasses.

Reporters once didn’t fall for this sort of thing, reserving special bile for politicians or spooks who tried to pass themselves off as intellectuals. But these days they swoon like teen girls seeing the Elvis wiggle for the first time for “anti-disinformationists,” with anchors like Nicolle Wallace, Brian Stelter, and Rachel Maddow giving the “We’re not worthy!” treatment to anyone with intelligence credentials who utters dire prophecies about Trump and “fake news.”…

racket.news/p/the-tragic-victimhood-of-disinformation

BIG BROTHER IS FLAGGING YOU

A damning House report and new docs from the Twitter Files expose the "Election Integrity Partnership" as state censorship in a ski mask

by Matt Taibbi

“We just set up an election integrity partnership at the request of DHS/CISA,” wrote Graham Brookie of the Atlantic Council on July 31, 2020, according to a devastating new House report.

So much for “CISA did not found, fund, or otherwise control the EIP.” That’s what the public was told in March, after Michael Shellenberger and I testified to Jim Jordan’s Weaponization of Government Committee about the ubiquitous presence in the Twitter Files of the the Election Integrity Partnership, a cross-platform content-flagging operation set up ahead of the 2020 Trump-Biden election.

Nominally run by Stanford University, the EIP is really government censorship in a ski mask, a creature of the Department of Homeland Security and its sub-agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Despite media protestations to the contrary, this has never really been in doubt. Stanford Internet Observatory Director Alex Stamos told the world EIP was formed because CISA “lacked both kinda the funding and the legal authorizations” to do its “necessary” work.

Now, after a damaging new report packed with subpoenaed documents just released by the House Weaponization of Government Committee, a thorough exposé by Michael Shellenberger and Alexandra Gutentag at Public, and new documents in this space from both the Twitter Files and the Missouri v. Biden case, the public hopefully will have enough information to shut the door on one of the more infuriating and shameless ass-covering campaigns in recent memory.…

racket.news/p/big-brother-is-flagging-you

ANOTHER SHUT DOWN?

Editor,

I have a friend who keeps telling me, “If you’re not worried, you haven’t been paying attention!.” There is certainly plenty to worry about now. We have a new GOP Speaker of the House. Finally, right? What should concern us citizens of the greatest nation and democracy on earth the most is the looming shutdown of the entire US Government in a bit more than one week. 

This new Speaker, Mike Johnson R Louisiana, is THE foremost election denyer, far right winger, Bible thumber who hasn’t ever led anything in Congress before. 

And he is absolutely clueless as far as having any plan to avoid a shutdown. The clock is ticking. November 17 is only a week away. 

Frank Baumgardner

Santa Rosa

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Getting real sick of the keyboard warriors and their layers of fat, the Bidenistas and the Trumpistas living their lives in exactly the same way: cases of single use plastic beverages, big fat SUVs, obscene amounts of time in front of the TV. Same fucking thing, all of you.

NOT A WAR

Editor: 

Calling the conflict between Israel and Palestine a “war” is intended to hide the truth. There can be no war when there is such a huge power imbalance.

The Palestinians have no army, navy or air force. They have no bases for training soldiers. They don’t have the latest high-tech weaponry or surveillance system. Palestinians live under occupation by people who are backed by the largest military on earth — ours.

Gaza has no water, no food, no medicine, no fuel because Israel controls all those things. Now, many Gaza residents have no homes because Israel has destroyed them. Gaza is 50% children. Gaza has been under siege for 17 years. It’s a total power imbalance.

It’s time for Americans to ask more of our government. Only when the most powerful, the United States and Israel, lay down their weapons and raise up justice can the world know peace. Until then, call it a massacre, call it an ethnic cleansing, call it genocide, but you can’t call it a war.

Susan Collier Lamont

Santa Rosa

ON LIFTED WINGS WE LIVE A LIFE

Full of fancy and shiny things

Things that sparkle and attract

.

Above the deep ground around you

Where I am

.

Deep Deep Ground

.

We fly above this land in surveillance

Looking at ourselves

And one another

To admire the landscape when we can

.

On lifted wings we get through the tough days

The tears alone, of loneliness

In the sky

.

Horizon line appears

Above the sharp tree shapes

The Valley oasis

Visibility gives time slowness, condensed

.

I'll spend a lifetime here

Here

Here

Love

.

On lifted wings we triumph against nature

The dangerous ones and things

To nest and build nests

.

Thank God for my children

There is my community

If I left tomorrow there is

Still hope

.

Our nest and nests empty

Ourselves looked at and fancied

The deep ground tearfully

Asks where it is, alone.

.

If you have to ask Annie

She would tell you something nice

And she would tell you

.

Don't ever let me die without wings

Don't ever forget my lift

My wind I recognize

Mendy

Quincy

Astrid

Community

.

Remember my lift

.

In the deep ground for you, for me, and Annie.

For everyone to lift our wings

Once more

Before flying away

— Quincy Steele

UKRAINE, THURSDAY, 9TH NOVEMBER

Russia and Ukraine traded missile strikes in the 89th week of the war, using air power to overcome the perception that their forces on the ground had reached a stalemate.

“Russia controls the skies,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a news conference on November 4.

Moscow had provided a reminder of that air superiority the previous night, when it launched 40 shahed drones against Ukraine, one of the largest salvoes in recent weeks.

Ukraine said it shot down 24, but the remaining 16 struck critical infrastructure and civilian homes. Among the targets were a military facility in Ivano-Frankivsk and “infrastructure facilities” in Lviv and Odesa.

Two nights later, Russia again showed its superior firepower with a combination of 22 Shahed drones and four missiles of various types. Ukraine said it shot down 15 drones and two of the missiles, but the general staff said the remainder destroyed port infrastructure in Odesa and civil infrastructure in Kherson city.

That same night, Russia dropped 87 glide bombs into Kherson – the largest salvo of that munition so far in the war.

The worst strike came in broad daylight on November 3.

More than 20 soldiers were reported killed by a Russian Iskander missile when it hit an award ceremony for the 128th Separate Assault Mountain Transcarpathian Brigade in Zaporizhia.

“This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” Zelenskyy said in a video address. 

— Al Jazeera

‘BACK AND TO THE LEFT’: THE ZAPRUDER FILM

If there is a single piece of evidence that Warren Commission skeptics have held up as irrefutable proof of a conspiracy, it is what has come to be known as the “head snap”: the moment in the motion picture film captured by bystander Abraham Zapruder when the President is shot in the head and it snaps strongly to his left. This shocking and iconic image provides the climactic moment in Oliver Stone’s controversial conspiracy movie, JFK, shown repeatedly as actor Kevin Costner narrates: “This is the key shot. Watch it again. The President going back to his left. Shot from the front and right. Totally inconsistent with the shot from the Depository. Again—back and to the left… back and to the left…back and to the left.” 

But does this really prove a shot from the front? Medical experts convened by the Rockefeller Commission in 1975 evaluated the “head snap” and were “unanimous in finding that the violent backward and leftward motion of the President’s upper body following the head shot was not caused by the impact of a bullet coming from the front or right front.” 

Drs. [Werner] Spitz, [Richard] Lindenberg and [Fred] Hodges reported that such a motion would be caused by a violent straightening and stiffening of the entire body as a result of a seizure-like neuromuscular reaction to major damage inflicted to nerve centers in the brain.

Dr. [Alfred] Olivier reported that the violent motions of the President’s body following the head shot could not possibly have been caused by the impact of the bullet. He attributed the popular misconception on this subject to the dramatic effects employed in television and motion picture productions. The impact of such a bullet, he explained, can cause some immediate movement of the head in the direction of the bullet, but it would not produce any significant movement of the body.

An immediate movement of the head in the direction of the bullet, in fact, is what can be seen at the instant of impact, between Zapruder frames 312 and 313, as the President’s head moves forward (2.3 inches forward, according to one study), prior to the more obvious lurch to the left beginning in frame 314.

Other experts agree, including the members of the 1978 House committee’s forensic pathology panel (see below),⁴⁶ as well as Vincent Di Maio, a longtime forensic pathologist and author of the widely used textbook, Gunshot Wounds: Practical Aspects of Firearms, Ballistics, and Forensic Techniques. In response to a suggestion that a “transfer of momentum” from a bullet could be responsible for the head snap, Di Maio, without hesitation, said, “No. That’s make-believe. That’s [something out of] Arnold Schwarzenegger pictures.”

Even forensic expert Cyril Wecht, long one of the most vociferous critics of the Warren Commission, when asked whether it is a “matter of physics” that a body will move in the same direction as a bullet that strikes it, testified (in the murder trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez) that “some of the [Newtonian] concepts, indeed are applicable and relevant, but you have to then factor in the biological element, the entire neuromuscular system and so on, all of the voluntary and involuntary reflexive aspects of it.” “Sir [Isaac] Newton and others just never dealt with those things. … That’s just a very different situation.”