Mendocino County Today: Monday, Nov. 13, 2023

Rain Cometh | Gualala Beach | County Notes | Boletivore | Train Wreck | Sunset | Reinstate Chamise | Pothole Reflection | Grounded | Stehr Search | Starlings | Short-Term Rentals | Future Farmers | Boonville Potluck | Red Valley | Council Ultimatum | The Seafarer | Toy Drive | Pacific Horizon | Aging Hippies | Draft Notice | Ed Notes | Yesterday's Catch | Tweeker Takeover | My Mary | Fruit Flies | Conservation Easements | Plagiarism Software | Niners Win | Ukraine | Sins Man | Gaza | Quake Damage | Patty's Pardon | First Dunk | She's A Lady | Bond Double

RAIN WILL DIMINISH in Humboldt and Del Norte counties through the morning. A brief period of drier conditions is expected this afternoon and overnight until another wave of showers moves up from the south on the east side of a stalled low over the eastern Pacific. Chances for rain will continue through the week as this low slowly moves east through central California. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): I had clear skies & 50F at 4am but we will likely have a lot of cloud cover today & a slight chance for a sprinkle. It's looking wet tomorrow & likely Wednesday then unsure about the rest of the week. Our weather maker is far to the west of us & when/where it finally moves will determine what happens later this week.

COUNTY NOTES

(Repost from last July): First District Supervisor Candidate Carrie Shattuck has been trying to figure out where all the money is coming from to pay those costly outside lawyers to handle Mendo’s many lawsuits, including the pending cases. So far she has discovered, as we expected, that most of the cost is covered by the County’s General Liability insurance. But, Shattuck notes, Mendo’s general liability insurance now costs about $4 million a year, which is higher, proportionately, than other area Counties. Shattuck has also discovered that Mendo’s insurance costs are distributed and buried in the various departmental budgets by some arbitrary formula that assumes that departments should carry a proportionate load. This approach not only obscures the real cost of the County’s outside lawyers, but puts an additional burden on departments, most of which don’t incur much legal liability. As Probation Chief Izen Locatelli told the Board at a recent budget hearing, it’s not fair to burden the departments with a bunch of overhead costs over which they have no control and for which they can not be held accountable. But that’s apparently the way Mendo does it.

SPEAKING OF INSURANCE, we wonder if the County’s estimated $4 million a year in liability insurance is being looked at by the CEO’s elite Golden Gate Bridge cost savings team. Odds are very low that it is. 

* * *

DAN POTASH, covering the Mendocino Town Community Services District for the Mendocino Beacon last week reported that the District Board “heard concerns from residents and business owners regarding the lack of progress on a community water system…” Mr. Potash didn’t say which community water system he was referring to. Perhaps there are more than one. But careful readers will recall that in March of 2022 after the Big 2021 Drought Supervisor Ted Williams and State Senator Mike McGuire made a big announcement about a $5 million state grant that was supposed to finance the installation of a large water system for Mendocino:

“From Senator Mike Mcguire: Big news for the Mendocino Coast: The Village of Mendocino is one of the most water scarce areas in our region. After months of work, help is on the way! Nearly $5 million will be invested by the State to build desperately needed water storage tanks and new wells that will enhance water supply and fire safety. Big thanks to the Special Services District [Mendocino City Community Services District] for the tremendous job on the planning efforts. We’re thrilled to start moving dirt, getting these projects built and we’ll continue to work with the District to ensure the project’s success in the months ahead!” McGuire’s political buddy Supervisor Ted Williams added, “This is huge news for Mendocino. I do not know any of the details and I do not see anything on the district site just yet.” 

A couple of weeks later it was later reported that the project would take five years because it’s in the Coastal Zone and paperwork requirementrs for such a basic system will be much greater than the already large amount of paper required. McGuire’s big announcement didn’t mention waiving any of those requirements because of the supposed water emergency the Town was facing which rquired them to buy trucked-in water from Ukiah. Now, the entire project has fallen off the radar and doesn't’ even get a mention at the Mendo CSD meeting. 

(Mark Scaramella)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #1

The audit currently underway in Mendocino County is not what you think. Nobody will come out looking good or being vindicated or blamed. What will be interesting is that now that Cubbison has been removed and the Executive Office has functionally taken over the Auditor-Controller/Treasurer-Tax Collector office, the “response” section will only be written by CEO Darcie Antle and/or Sara Pierce. Chamise Cubbison, the actual duly elected and independent Auditor will most likely not be responding. Meaning, the response to the report from the County will be one sided entirely, which I don’t think is in the public interest, even if Cubbison is completely wrong. Therefore, there’s little value to it, just like Sara Pierce’s accusations of concealed bank accounts turned out to be politically motivated alarmism. … Darcie seems in way over her head. 18 analysts in the Executive Office? I thought that was an exaggeration but apparently its real. Darcie didn’t correct the board on that one. All I’ve seen is one report from the Golden Gate Bridge Initiative, talking about saving on gas by converting to an electric fleet! Never mind that you’re going to have to spend a bunch of money up front to convert the fleet, build a charging network in a county with over-stressed power infrastructure and regular PSPS events… all so presumably you could save on gas down the road. If you’re truly in a fiscal crisis, that’s all stuff you do in the good years to prepare for the bad ones. Darcie seems to think these magic consultants from RGS can come in, wave a wand and “fix” things. Darcie’s strategy so far seems to be “let’s spend more money to find ways to cut costs.” Good luck with that. Also, Gjerde says a Tesla Model 3 is now cheaper than a Honda Civic. No it’s not. Look it up! It’s closer than it used to be, only because of a $7,500 federal tax credit… a tax credit a government organization like the county does not get. These meetings are so painful to watch, but like a train wreck you almost can’t look away.

WRONGFUL SUSPENSION

To the Editor:

I’ve known Chamise Cubbison since she was a child. She’s always been honest and incredibly bright. I’ve heard from her co-workers that she’s diligent and hard-working, often arriving to the office before anyone else and staying long after others have gone home. I’m not a bit surprised that we, the people, elected her to the office of Auditor/Controller of Mendocino County.

Ms. Cubbison’s job requires her to question the spending and allocation of funds in every department of our county. She has been doing this, and many other duties, since being elected. While nobody actually likes to be audited, it is necessary to keep our system of checks and balances in order. If any county department is doing things inappropriately or incorrectly, it’s Ms. Cubbison’s job to question the actions of that department.

In her duties as Auditor/Controller, Ms. Cubbison has questioned the DA, Mr. Eyster, in his allocation of funds. This is her job. To me, it looks like Mr. Eyster is retaliating and slandering Ms. Cubbison and her reputation for questioning his actions. It is her job to question funding allocations in every department in our county, including the DA’s office. He has stated that Ms. Cubbison is a “pain in the ass.” This is one thing that Mr. Eyster is correct about. It is Ms. Cubbison’s job to be a “pain in the ass.”

The Board of Supervisors has taken a wrongful action against Ms. Cubbison. They decided to fire her without pay before they even talked to her or notified her they were considering this action. This is not only a huge mistake, but is likely illegal. If I understand the government codes correctly, the BOS has no right to fire an elected official unless that person has been convicted of a felony. (See Title 1, Division 4, Section 4, 1770 (h)). Ms. Cubbison has never been convicted of any wrong doing, let alone a felony. If the BOS had done their research, they would have discovered this. The applicable state government codes were read to the BOS meeting by Jim Shields. The BOS has no excuse!

Chamise Cubbison hasn’t had her day in court, yet. If and when she does, all of the facts will come out. Until that day comes, Ms. Cubbison should be reinstated in her job and should get all of her pay, including the funds for the time she was prematurely dismissed.

I’d like to see a written, public apology from the DA and his department. I’d also like to see the BOS admit their mistakes, apologize, and reinstate Ms. Cubbison. We were so lucky to have Ms. Cubbison in her role as Auditor/Controller. It’s a thankless job, even on a good day. And if the DA, BOS (and others) are going to concoct lies and slander her and attempt to ruin her reputation for doing her job, they should be removed! Nobody is above the law, including the DA and the BOS!!

Karen Lee

Ukiah

JEFF GOLL:  I haven't had my car since last Thursday afternoon as it conked-out going to get its 100,000 mile overhaul so more local images from Willits/Brooktrails.

WHERE THE HECK IS CRAIG?

MAZIE MALONE: I have called every facility could think of for Craig.

• Adventist Ukiah
• Ukiah post Acute
• Rocky Point Lakeport didn't answer
• Lakeport Post Acute
• Redwood Cove
• Cloverdale
• North-brook in Willits

He is not a resident at any one of those, possibly Rocky Point.

But maybe since it’s heart related he’s in St. Helena.

SHORT TERM RENTALS IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

From: "Annemarie" aweibel@mcn.org

I am reposting this information as this TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2023 the first COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SESSION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INLAND SHORT-TERM RENTAL ORDINANCE will be discussed. Information will also be shared about the Inland Short-Term Rental Ordinance process.

6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Fort Bragg Veterans Memorial Building
360 Harrison Avenue
Fort Bragg, CA 95437

In addition to these four community engagement sessions, Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services is requesting participation in a brief short-term rental survey. To participate in the survey, follow the link: https://forms.office.com/g/eCx3uHbgNa

For further information read the press release below.

Comments will be accepted until DECEMBER 28, 2023, BY 5:00 PM.

---

MENDOCINO COUNTY TO HOLD COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SESSIONS FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE INLAND SHORT-TERM RENTAL ORDINANCE

Online hosting services such as Airbnb, Vrbo, Expedia, and others allow individuals to rent out real property on a short-term basis, commonly known as short-term rentals. Short-term rentals throughout Mendocino County have implications for transient occupancy tax revenues, lodging options, housing stock, and neighborhood stability. Currently, the only short-term rental regulations within the County?s Zoning Ordinance are in its coastal regions, Division II (Coastal Zoning Code) and Division III (Mendocino Town Zoning Code). Despite these existing regulations, there are no explicit short-term rentals regulations for the inland areas of the County captured by Division I of the Zoning Ordinance.

To better address this Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services invites you to participate in hybrid and in-person community engagement sessions to learn about and discuss the Inland Short-Term Rental Ordinance process. These public engagement meetings will include an overview presentation, question and answer session, and details on how to provide comments. Planning and Building Staff will be available to answer questions. Public Meeting dates and times are as follows:

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2023 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Fort Bragg Veterans Memorial Building
360 Harrison Avenue
Fort Bragg, CA 95437

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2023 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Boonville Veterans Memorial Building
14470 Highway 128
Boonville, CA 95415

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2023 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Willits Branch of Mendocino County Library
390 E. Commercial St.
Willits, CA 95490

HYBRID MEETING THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2023 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Conference Room C
501 Low Gap Road
Ukiah, CA 95482

The public may also participate digitally in the November 30, 2023, meeting by sending comments to pbs@mendocinocounty.gov or orally via telecomment in lieu of personal attendance.

FOLLOW THE LINK TO JOIN THE WEBINAR: https://mendocinocounty.zoom.us/j/88109888224
OR ONE TAP MOBILE: +16694449171,88109888224# US+16699009128,88109888224#
US (San Jose) WEBINAR ID: 881 0988 8224

In addition to these four community engagement sessions, Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services is requesting participation in a brief short-term rental survey. To participate in the survey, follow the link: https://forms.office.com/g/eCx3uHbgNa

For further information on the Inland Short-Term Rental Ordinance process please visit the Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services project website at: https://www.mendocinocounty.org/departments/planning-building-services/ordinance-updates

You can also contact Mendocino County Department of Planning and Building Services via telephone at (707) 223-6650 for more information.

Please submit comments via email to pbs@mendocinocounty.gov or through U.S. mail to the following
address:

Mendocino County Department of Planning & Building Services
Attn: Short-Term Rentals
860 N Bush Street
Ukiah, CA 95482

Comments will be accepted until DECEMBER 28, 2023, BY 5:00 PM.

FUTURE FARMERS, AVHS, NOVEMBER 2023

BOONVILLE COMMUNITY POTLUCK

At the Boonville Brewery

Intersection of Hwys 128 & 253

with music by DJ Nasty

Theme: Favorite Cozy Weather Foods

Friday, November 17, 5-7pm

BILL KIMBERLIN: We are starting to see the vineyards change from summer green to a winter version of red here in Anderson Valley. I got my burn permit from the fire department today so I can start burning the pile of brush I have collected all summer. Not sure how global warming is going to effect Northern California but I used to say that if the ocean off of the Cliff House in San Francisco was five degrees warmer, there would be beach front hotels all the way to Daily City.

ASSIGNMENT: UKIAH - COUNCIL ULTIMATUM: OR ELSE!

by Tommy Wayne Kramer

Not wanting to be out-stupided by County Supervisors, our City Council has suddenly demanded the Palace Hotel must be fixed, bulldozed or moved to Laytonville within the next 30 days.

And we mean it! Or else! That’s final! Grrr!

The Palace Hotel has been empty and rotting for 40 years while one gaggle of council members after another built careers out of ignoring its problems. After decades of city neglect, now comes a 30-day deadline to draw up plans to fix the hotel up, tear it down, or drag a big blue plastic tarp over the whole mess.

(Cue laughtrack)

Disappear the Palace Hotel, the council says, so we may resume our focus on neglecting the abandoned Post Office and ignoring the soon-to-be empty Courthouse. And Curry’s furniture, and Denny’s. And graffiti.

What provoked all five council members into jolting themselves from their collective stupor to blurt out such silly demands? Even Sage Sangiacomo erupted into command mode:

“Blah Blah,” said Sage, “Safety is our priority, etc., blah.” (Not an exact quote from Justine Frederiksen’s recent UDJ story. But close)

Council rep Susan Sher, well-respected structural engineer, heavy crane operator and seismology expert, has had it. It’s time, she says, to do in the next 30 days what no one has been able to do in the last 40 years.

Sher, longtime construction crew boss, is quoted saying a 30-day deadline is “more than reasonable, and asking for more time is almost laughable if it weren’t so tragic.”

As the rest of us sit back and wonder: Where have these bozos been?

They didn’t know broken windows, sagging floors and collapsing walls got started the day the hotel closed? They’re ignorant of long-simmering Palace Hotel debates starting in the 1980s in letters, forums and elections?

They think most structural damage came from last winter’s rainfall? They think a deadline of 30 days, which my math equates to about two one-thousandths of 40 years elapsed, is “more than reasonable” ?

Meanwhile out on Low Gap Road it’s the same old once again deja voodoo repeated some more: Supervisors are obsessed with firing employees, hiring lawyers and blubbering about budget shortfalls and tax increases.

An all-star team of Council reps and Supervisors couldn’t run a lemonade stand. We cannot state with confidence which is more stupider than the other.

But remember: We elected them.

* * *

Fun with mail

Longtime readers may recall a column written years ago about our dead cat. Kittyboy had gone to his reward, but a greater reward awaited him had he lived a bit longer, because I’d bought him a subscription to Vogue.

For my $10 check Kittyboy was to have received 12 months of Vogue, the Magazine of Fashion Absurdities, and a free “glamorous tote bag.” We threw out the tote bag because it was ugly and because Kittyboy was dead.

The best thing about subscribing a dead cat to a braindead magazine came later, when new and unanticipated solicitations addressed to Kittyboy began arriving in our mailbox. Vogue is a publication for women with a lot of money but not much sense, happy to pay ridiculous prices to dress up in shower curtains or Hefty bags so long as such garments had recently been featured in Vogue.

No one ever went broke targeting morons with lots of money, unless the moron was a cat, and Kittyboy wasn’t even that. But we kept getting things sent to him in the mail: Vacation brochures, clothing discounts, invitations to the Oscars and lots of magazine offers, some of which promised free tote bags.

Even today, a decade gone, Kittyboy remains within a demographic circle advertisers cannot resist, and his mail, always ridiculous, keeps rolling in.

Now my point:

It is in this same spirit of idle amusement and pointless delight that I recently mailed, in Kittiboy’s name, Congressman George Santos $25 for his re-election campaign. George is my favorite politician and in danger of being my favorite public figure. He has no competition for 2023’s Funniest Elected representative.

George Santos (R: Jupiter) is a nonstop marvel. He’s Elizabeth Warren on steroids, but with a better hairdo.

If we captured and boiled down every mendacious, lying sociopath in Congress, and if we strained their remains through fine mesh cheesecloth, and then spiced it with cooked offal and nasal drippings, the result might be a petri dish casserole of Baked Soros Surprise we could bottle and sell as ketchup.

That would be a lie, but that would be the point.

George Santos lies when he says “Hello.” George Santos has told so many lies that if we wait long enough some of them may turn out to be true.

(It must, of course, be asked: Other than size, scope and success, how does George Santos much differ from Clinton, Inc.?)

Send money to Team George and your mailbox will bring delight for years to come.

(Tom Hine writes this. TWK takes credit. They live in Ukiah except when they live in North Carolina.)

MENDOCINO THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS ‘THE SEAFARER’ 

A Christmas Tale 

by Conor McPherson 

Mendocino Theatre Company is proud to announce its upcoming production of The Seafarer by Irish playwright, Conor McPherson, directed by Betty Abramson. Opening November 16 and running through December 17, at 45200 Little Lake Street in Mendocino, The Seafarer is a rare holiday play that contains gravitas and redemption. An all-star cast of three seasoned Mendocino County actors (Bob Cohen, Dan Kozloff and Steve Worthen) and two newcomers (John Craven and Byron Green) top the bill for this magical holiday play. Designing sets is Diane Larson, with lighting design by Dave Gealey, costumes by Janice Culliford and sound design by Susan Juhl. Patricia Price is Stage Manager. 

About The Play 

The Seafarer is a chilling tale about the sea, Ireland, and the power of myth. The New York Times calls The Seafarer a "dark and enthralling Christmas fable of despair and redemption that tingles with the author's acute and authentic sense of what is knowable and unknowable in life. The Seafarer may just be the pick-me-up play of the season.” The Seafarer is “a midnight-black comedy, one that wrenches laughter out of the despair of frustrated men whose lives have come to naught and, no matter what you're expecting at the halfway mark, you won't feel cheated when the curtain falls.” (Wall Street Journal) 

The Story

It’s Christmas Eve, and Sharky (Dan Kozloff) has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible, aging brother (Bob Cohen) who has recently gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky (Byron Greene and Steve Worthen) are holed up at the house too, hoping to play some cards. 

But with the arrival of a stranger from the distant past (John Craven), raises the stakes with impossible odds as Sharky may be playing for his very soul. 

Like many of Conor McPherson’s plays, the setting is a little supernatural, somewhat dark at first, then soars to toward the light of redemption in the end. The vividly drawn characters are both memorable and humorous and, although the night is cold, windy, and stormy the dawn brings a Christmas morning that Sharky and his friends will not soon forget. 

About The Cast 

Appearing on the MTC stage for the very first time in the role of the menacing Mr. Lockhart, is award-winning Sonoma County actor, John Craven. John is known throughout the San Francisco Northbay for his many and varied leading roles, earning audience and critical praise for over thirty years. John was most recently the recipient of the 2019 San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Outstanding Leading Actor for his role in Simon Stephen’s Heisenberg with Left Edge Theatre. John has also been featured in films including Burn Country (with James Franco, Melissa Leo and Rachel Brosnahan) and Freeland (with Lily Gladstone and Krisha Fairchild). 

The multi-talented, Byron Greene, who plays the role of Nikki, Sharky’s rival, was last seen in Woody Guthrie’s American Song, his very first role on the MTC stage. Byron originally hails from Carmel, California but is now a resident of Ft. Bragg. He is a guitarist, singer, and architect who makes his debut dramatic appearance in The Seafarer. 

This excellent cast is rounded out with three of MTC favorite actors. Dan Kozloff portrays Sharky, the protagonist of the story, a ne’re do well seaman who has recently stopped drinking, returned home to take care of his aging brother and mend the error of his past ways. 

Bob Cohen, a stalwart and founding member of the MTC, takes on the role of Richard, Sharky’s blind irascible brother. As Richard, Cohen displays a complex combination of desperation and humor during the long Christmas evening and the day leading up to it. Steven Worthen, plays Ivan, Richard’s close friend and his “eyes” for the night-long poker game the guys play, lends a note of optimism and warmth to every scene. Nervous and a bit bumbling, Ivan is just a good Irish soul who we can all identify with. Bringing together this band of rag tag band of miscreants is MTC Co-Artistic Director, Betty Abramson, widely known as one of Mendocino’s most accomplished directors. Betty was instrumental in the proposing The Seafarer for MTC’s 2023 Season. 

In A Nutshell 

The Seafarer runs November 16 - December 17 

Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 7:30PM and most Sundays at 2:00PM. There is no performance on the first Sunday. Tickets Price: $15 - $30

Please visit mendocinotheatre.org or telephone the Box Office at 707-937-4477 for more information and to purchase tickets. Tickets are on sale now. $15-$30. Group discount tickets are available for over 10 people. Mailing address: Mendocino Theatre Company PO Box 800 Mendocino, CA 95460 Office Telephone: 1-707-937-4477 

AV FIRE DEPARTMENT:

Can you believe it's already time for the toy drive? To donate: bring a new, unwrapped toy to a local collection location before December 8th. In past years, popular selections have been lego, soccer balls, and art or craft kits. Thanks so much to everyone who has donated and made someone's holiday a little brighter! Toy distribution is on Saturday, December 9th from noon to 3pm at AVFD.

You can drop off your new, unwrapped toy (ages 0-12, about $10-$15) or a monetary donation at any of the following locations: the Yorkville Post Office, AV Market, Lemon's Market, the Farmhouse Mercantile, and the Fire Station in Boonville. The toys will be collected on December 8th and handed out at the Anderson Vailey Fire Department Boonville Station, 14281 Hwy 128 - Boonville, December 9, 2023 - From 12:00-3:00p.m. Questions/more info: Call 707 895-2017.

AGING HIPPIE

I really hate to post this, but I have to since I think people should be aware of how the people I once grew up with are now seen in the eyes of (some, hopefully few) others. That is, as long as the former communards are still somehow recognizable as having lived on one or at least have lived an alternative lifestyle.

Here’s how the urban dictionary defines an aging hippie douchbag:

A 40 something, bald-headed dumbass with a scraggly-ass ponytail and typically sports a tie-dye t-shirt and crooked glasses. More often than not, they never were a hippie in the first place. A lot like a straight-up douchebag except they are always bald with a ponytail.

1. Look at the ageing hippie douchebag, God what a douche eh.

2. Check out the ponytail on that ageing hippie douchebag, wtf.

Here’s the definition of aging hippie liberal douche:

A former hippie with sterotypical beliefs, who may or may not still externally show their hippiness, and have liberal beliefs. This phrase was coined on an episode of South Park. An example of a possible ageing hippie is a man in his late fifties/early sixties, a full beard, but groomed, long straight hair, usually braided or tied into a ponytail, and openly speaks out their beliefs in the way of an activist.

Oh God, here comes that aging hippie liberaldouche, we better get out of here before we have to hear his bitching.

Who the hell writes the urban dictionary? Can someone please update these definitions? As far as I can tell, these definitions were written by a complete moron who can’t spell. I had to make numerous corrections before posting this shit.

— SM

KELLEY HOUSE MUSEUM: 

On this day in Mendocino Coast history…

November 12, 1918 - A number of young men returned to the Mendocino Coast, just days after being called up to serve their country during World War I. The armistice ending the war had been signed just the day before, and their military service was abruptly cancelled.

Two weeks earlier, the Mendocino Draft Board in Ukiah had mailed out notifications to 300 men to appear for physical examinations on November 3rd. The War Department needed new recruits to take the train from Ukiah to Kelly Field in Texas during the week of November 11th. Kelly Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entered World War I. In addition to training pilots and mechanics, this camp served as a reception and classification center, testing thousands of recruits before assigning them to specific jobs and squadrons for training.

On November 9th, M. H. Iversen, head of the County Draft Board, summoned a group of coast men who had passed their physicals to Ukiah to leave for Kelly Field on November 12th. Most took the morning train from Fort Bragg on November 11th. When they arrived in Willits, they were notified that their call to service had been cancelled on account of the signing of the armistice that day. Many continued on to Ukiah to assure themselves that no mistake had occurred.

Linwood Daniels, Charles Tannlund, Robert Hayter, A. E. Chalmers, Donald Kent, and Gerald Cummings were among the men who returned to the coast the following day.

ED NOTES

WEAPONIZING ANTISEMITISM: “What we've seen in recent years is the charge of anti-Semitism being weaponized to silence any criticism of Israel,” the Jordanian Queen Consort, whose parents were born in Palestine, said today. “Supporters of Israel who cannot defend Israel's actions or conduct - they revert to shutting the conversation down by equating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism… Being pro-Palestinian is not being anti-Semitic. Being pro-Palestinian does not mean you're pro-Hamas or pro-terrorism.” Queen Consort Rania's comments come as Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry claimed more than 12,000 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli airstrikes, an average of almost 400 people a day since October 7. This latest statement follows previous comments in which she said there was a “glaring double standard” around the world when it came to sympathy for the war's victims.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, November 12, 2023

EDGAR ARIAS, San Rafael/Ukiah. Pot transportation.

DESTINY ARNOLD, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

THOMAS BASALDUA, Ukiah. Suspended license for DUI.

LEONARD CAMPBELL JR., Hopland. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs.

JESUS DELGADO JR., Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, tear gas, probation violation.

VANESSA ELIZABETH, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JOHN MARKS JR., Ukiah. Robbery, conspiracy.

AARON MATTHEWS, Mendocino. DUI.

ANGELICO ORTIZ-MEJIA, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. Misdemeanor hit&run with property damage, no license. 

DAVID SCHRADER JR., Willits. Domestic battery.

DESIREE SHELLHART, Ukiah. Robbery, conspiracy. 

RONALD VALENTINE JR., Ukiah. Shoplifting, disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

TWEEKER TAKEOVER

by Paul Modic

When I got home from my trip I struggled with the padlock on the gate, finally got a wrench from my car and banged it open, and noticed my lounge chair was in the middle of the deck, though I knew I had taken it inside when I left. One of my rugs was out there crumpled up by the backup generator, along with a small pair of shoes next to a Costco tote: something was wrong! The sliding door was unlocked and I walked in and noticed dirty dishes on the counter and a nasty cooking pot encrusted with food in the sink. 

The bathtub was full of muddy water with a pair of jeans soaking in it, the shower curtain pulled down, most of the drapes yanked off their rods, and there was writing on the counter and door frame. “My house not yours!” said one line, the homeless tweekers lashing out at a world which they were usually not allowed to enter, ie, my guest cottage.

One bathroom drawer was filled with misc from my misc drawer in the kitchen, the laundry hamper had a pile of more misc junk in it, behind the building was a garbage bag filled with nice Ikea tablecloths, the missing drapes, a good-sized bra which seemed oddly familiar, a half-filled “Patron” tequila bottle, and many other random useless items. A bestseller by Michener was propped open on the retaining wall and there was a yellow stained “Island Tribe” dress hanging on the deck railing.

The kitchen window screen was missing, they must have come in that way.

I immediately suspected my friend’s son Max who’s been half-living out on the streets and the other half in a cabin in his parents’ backyard, he knows most of the town’s homeless residents (the street artist Ron is like his mentor). His parents came by the next day to check out the damage and try to deduce if it was he who had visited. 

The mother wanted me to call the cops in to take fingerprints and then haul her son to jail, thinking he needed a “wakeup call” to get his life together? I declined the suggestion, saying it was enough of a hassle already without police crawling around, compounding the interest. She looked in the freezer, picked up a package of fancy sausages, and said he would have probably taken them.

“If it were Max,” I said, “I imagine he’d just hang out, watch some TV, and eat some food. Maybe it’s an illusion but I still see him as a friend.” (He had done a lot of grunt work for me the year before, digging out invasive bamboo and scraping moss off the roof of the house.) They left after a while, convinced that it wasn’t their thirty-year-old kid because of the style of the writing. Later a neighbor came by to inspect the damage and offered his opinions and ideas about the culprits. 

After a couple days the shock of the invasion wore off and I put on a pair of vinyl gloves, got a bucket and bailed the muddy water out of the tub into the toilet, about twenty buckets worth. I pulled the plug and thankfully the water drained out, then reached in with my senior grabber and scooped out the pair of jeans and deposited them on an old grow pot outside.

I poured out the crusty saucepan in the yard, filled it with hot water and left it to soak, then tossed the Tupperware with my previously frozen turkey soup leftovers down the hill, along with the dried out pie mouldering in a bowl on the counter.

I took a bunch of pictures and over the next few days laundered everything which had been touched by the invaders, while waiting for the cleaning lady to arrive from Ukiah for an emergency exorcism of my tweeker demons. 

She showed me that though “Love” had been scrawled on the refrigerator, “Hate” was also there, hidden behind a small painting. She couldn’t get “Hate” scrubbed out so just re-covered it with the picture: her opinion was that it had been a young couple.

After a day wiping and scrubbing she had the place mostly back to normal, then we sorted through the misc which had been gathered up and I threw away a lot of it, though still saved many unnecessary items.

(Hanging out with Max’s parents for that half hour made me realize my problems were pretty small compared to theirs, having to deal with a mentally ill son on a daily basis.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

There’s a little ray of hope, broadcast and cable media viewing has fallen to less than 50% of viewership. Ah yes, more people are watching Youtube and Tik Tok. It will be challenging to work in those pharma ads with people having the attention span of a fruit fly.

R.D. BEACON

Over the years people come to me about trying to get conservation easement across my property, as a life resident of Mendocino County, and someone who's involved in preserving the land, not for the use by the tours with the strangers to come from near and far, protecting the land against wildfire in the decimation of individuals that destroys the plant life, and or the local serenity of the neighborhood, which these so-called environmentalists are forcing pushing their way across the landscape, every bad idea such as the Redwood Trail, as well as his conservation easements altogether the general public access across private property, the simple fact is when they do this becomes a greater fire hazard and more garbage that people have to clean up, the state of California has sufficient amount of access based on their park system, and they're unable to manage all of their land so a lot of it's close, the bleeding heart environmentalists that are moved into our County, are the ones that are responsible for it all disappearing, and by inviting more people, to destroy the landscape decimate fishing a walk on the grass pixel flowers, they are the ones that are destroying the land, if we take an example of bad management go to any one of these conservation easements and look at the garbage to spread around the neighborhood, old-time ranchers don't give these conservation easements, it's the newcomers that by land here and are trying to reduce your taxes, without giving a thought of what's doing what's happening to the environment, looking at the coastal commission and what they did, and the areas they exempted for their own use or their cronies, in the subdivision world, look the mess down at Sonoma County along the ocean, when you allow people to come to the countryside, you're allowing them to destroy the environment, and bimetal easements and ways to get across private property, to get to the beach, only results in the following decimation of the natural resources that all of us for hundreds of years are protected, and no one to clean up the mess that's the deals the rappers possible fire you may have on the beach that was spread to the wilderness, nobody minding the store environmentalists go home to the Bay Area, go to the cities where you came from and clean up your own neighborhood, get out of Mendocino County you made enough damage here, you put people out of work and under bridges by shutting down the timber industry, you put people out of work by all the things you've done to protect your fellow human beings but not the jobs that they held, before the city people arrived to Mendocino County we had no drug problem, we had no crime problem, and we had a strong work ethic everywhere, today it's down in the toilet we need to deport the city people back to where they came from many of the need to go back east with a prologue back to the cesspool that they crawled out of.

49ERS GAME GRADES: BROCK PURDY AND THE DEFENSE STAR IN BLOWOUT OF JAGUARS

by Michael Lerseth

The San Francisco 49ers emphatically snapped their three-game losing streak by overwhelming the previously red-hot Jacksonville Jaguars 34-3 on Sunday. 

Offense: A

Brock Purdy returned to “terrific” status, completing 19 of 26 passes for 296 yards, three TDs, a career-best 148.9 rating and no interceptions — important considering he had thrown five in the 49ers' three-game losing streak. Long live Christian McCaffrey’s games-with-a-TD streak, which ended despite repeated late-fourth-quarter attempts to extend it. McCaffrey still accounted for 142 yards (95 rushing, 47 receiving). George Kittle’s three catches went for 116 yards — 66 of them coming on the longest TD pass of Purdy’s career. 

Defense: A

Coordinator Steve Wilks may never leave the sideline. Brought out of the coaches’ box upstairs to oversee his formerly struggling unit on the field, Wilks had to be beaming after a five-sack, four-turnover effort that held a first-place team previously averaging 24.1 points to 3 and only 12 first downs. The domination began immediately as the Jaguars managed minus-1 yard on their first two possessions and finished the opening quarter with 20. Chase Young’s debut with the 49ers included a sack he shared with former Ohio State teammate Nick Bosa. 

Special Teams: A

Jake Moody made all six of his kicks from what was essentially extra-point distance: he had field goals of 39 and 35 yards and made all four extra points (which cover 33 yards). Mitch Wishnowsky averaged 47 yards on three punts, the first of which was a 56-yarder the 49ers downed at the 1-yard line. 

Coaching: A

Kyle Shanahan’s best move might have come long before kickoff when he (ahem) gently pulled Wilks down to the sideline with him. Offensively, Shanahan was thrilled to spread the wealth as four players scored touchdowns and seven caught passes. Under-the-radar move: deferring the choice to receive the ball at the start of the game paid off splendidly as the 49ers scored on the final play of the second quarter and the second snap of the third to put 10 points on the board without the Jaguars touching the ball. 

Overall: A!

UKRAINE, SUNDAY, 12TH NOVEMBER

The battle for dominance in the Black Sea raged on this week between Ukraine and Russia, as elsewhere each side’s forces continued the bitter fight for control in Ukraine’s east with winter looming.

Ukraine claimed it hit small Russian naval vessels with sea drones, demonstrating its determination to keep striking Russian positions at depth in occupied Crimea.

Meanwhile, a blast in Russian-occupied territory in Luhansk, eastern Ukraine, killed a pro-Moscow official, with a Ukrainian intelligence agency taking credit for the assassination.

ISRAELI FORCES NEAR A STRUGGLING HOSPITAL THEY SAY COVERS A HAMAS COMPLEX

Israeli officials say that Hamas has built a complex under Al Shifa, a major Gaza hospital. Hamas denies it is operating from beneath the hospital, whose patients face dire conditions amid power cuts.

by Matthew Rosenberg, Ronen Bergman, Aaron Boxerman and Vivian Yee

With Israel consolidating its hold on northern Gaza, its forces are closing in on a sprawling medical center that for Israelis and Palestinians alike has emerged as a symbol of the other side’s inhumanity.

By Israel’s account, Al Shifa — the name of the hospital — has become shorthand for Hamas’ willingness to turn its own people into human shields and sacrifice them as cannon fodder in the fight for global sympathy.

The militants, Israeli security officials say, have spent the better part of 16 years building a vast command complex under the hospital, and setting up similar bases underneath other medical facilities in the enclave. American officials agree, citing their own intelligence.

Hamas denies doing anything of the sort, and hospital officials say the facility houses nothing but the sick and injured and the medical professionals dedicated to helping them. In the estimation of most Palestinians, the obsession with Al Shifa is evidence of Israel’s willingness to target even the most helpless civilians without justification.

The hospital’s director, Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, flatly described the Israeli allegations as “untrue” in an interview on Friday.

While it is impossible to independently verify many of the assertions of either side, the competing claims are likely to be tested soon. The hospital, Israeli officials said, was spared in past Israeli operations out of concern for civilian life, but at the cost of leaving whatever may be underneath it intact.

It is a mistake that Israel will not repeat this time, the officials said. They say that the complex under Al Shifa is one of the principal Israeli targets of the war and will not be left untouched, despite the growing international outcry to spare Al Shifa and other hospitals.

“The hospitals will be surrounded, pressure will be put on people to leave,” said Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser. “I don’t see Israel going headlong against the civilians, but the hospital — or at least what’s underneath it — has got to be cleared out.”

Only that way, Mr. Freilich said, can Hamas’s rule in Gaza be ended, though “it’s not going to look good.”

Conditions at Al Shifa, Gaza’s main hospital, are dire. Hundreds of seriously ill and wounded patients and displaced people have been trapped inside as Israeli tanks and troops close in on the compound, and close-quarters combat is taking place nearby.

The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, said that at least five wounded patients had died on Saturday at the hospital, including a premature baby in an incubator, as a result of a power outage. Without fuel to run generators, the hospital has been plunged into darkness, the ministry and the hospital’s administrator said.

In recent days, Israeli soldiers have surrounded at least one other hospital in northern Gaza, stepping up their push to empty the facilities, according to Israeli military officials, as fighting around them intensifies.

At Al Rantisi Specialized Hospital for Children, the only medical center with a pediatric cancer ward in the strip, Dr. Bakr Gaoud, the head of the hospital, said Israeli forces moved in late last week, damaging the ground floor and destroying several vehicles before providing maps that showed a safe route out.

“We dragged our patients on their beds on the street to the south,” he said. “I was the very last one to leave the hospital.” He said the worst-off patients went to Al Shifa, while everyone else made their way south, away from the main area of fighting.

A second hospital, Al Nasr, was similarly emptied out by Israel on Friday, and the Health Ministry reported strikes against other hospitals over the weekend.

Al Shifa can no longer take in new patients, and staff members at the hospital say it is running out of food and water. There are about 1,500 patients, staff and displaced people there now taking shelter, according to Dr. Mohammed Zaqout, the Gazan Health Ministry’s general manager for hospitals.

Israel’s military said in a statement on Sunday that it was securing a route for civilians and patients to leave Al Shifa, suggesting that fighting was likely to intensify around the hospital.

American officials have warned Israel not to move against hospitals that are still treating patients, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said on Sunday in an interview with “Face the Nation” on CBS.

“The United States does not want to see firefights in hospitals, where innocent people, patients receiving medical care, are caught in the crossfire,” he said. “And we’ve had active consultations with the Israeli Defense Forces on this.”

Still, he agreed that Hamas is using hospitals and other civilian facilities as “human shields.”

Israel has long maintained that Al Shifa is among the most egregious examples, and its military has pushed its claims hard since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. It has shown reporters what it says is a 3-D representation of the complex, released audio recordings that purport to show Hamas fighters discussing the tunnels under Al Shifa and released two videos of interrogations in which captured militants discuss the tunnels.

None of it provides conclusive proof that a sprawling complex exists under Al Shifa. But eight current and former Israeli defense and intelligence officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have doubled down on the claim, describing in new detail what Israel’s security establishment believes it will find.

A large portion of the buildings that now make up the hospital were built by Israel when it ruled Gaza. It pulled out of the strip in 2005, opening a window for Hamas to take control, and by 2007 the militants had begun building the command center under Al Shifa, the Israeli officials said.

At first, Hamas simply dug out areas off the original basements of Al Shifa’s buildings, later going deeper and adding floors and connecting it to the vast network of reinforced tunnels it was building across Gaza, the officials said. They said it has since grown into one of the hubs of a vast tunnel system that crisscrosses Gaza.

A former senior official at Shin Bet, Israeli’s internal security service, said both Hamas and Israeli intelligence referred to the network as “the Metro” and compared the compound under Al Shifa to a major station of the New York subway system.

The former Shin Bet official and two other Israeli officials said the compound included several floors with designated spaces for meetings, living quarters and storage facilities. It can hold at least several hundred people, they said.

Israeli military intelligence said in a statement provided to The New York Times that “there are several underground complexes used by the leaders of the terrorist organization Hamas to direct their activities.” The complex relies in part on electricity diverted from Al Shifa, the statement said, and there are multiple entrances to it in and around the hospital.

Senior Israeli intelligence officials allowed The Times to review photographs that purported to show secret entrances to the compound from inside the hospital. Signs identifying the location as Al Shifa were clearly visible in the photographs, though their authenticity could not be independently verified.

American officials, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose sensitive intelligence, said they are confident that Hamas has used tunnel networks under hospitals, in particular Al Shifa, for command and control areas as well as for weapons storage.

The practice by Hamas has been longstanding, they said, adding that the United States and Israel have independently developed intelligence about Hamas’ use of the tunnel network under Al Shifa Hospital.

There are other accounts of Hamas using Al Shifa, as well. In 2008, armed Hamas fighters in civilian clothing were seen roving the hospital during a three-week war between the militants and Israel, according to New York Times reporting in Gaza at the time. The militants claimed to be security guards, but were seen killing alleged Israeli collaborators.

Six years later, during the next round of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the militants routinely held news conferences on the hospital grounds and used them as a safe meeting place for Hamas officials to speak with journalists, though these activities do not constitute military use.

After the war, Amnesty International said in a report that Hamas was using abandoned areas of Al Shifa, “including the outpatients’ clinic area, to detain, interrogate, torture and otherwise ill-treat suspects, even as other parts of the hospital continued to function as a medical center.”

Two Norwegian doctors who worked at Al Shifa during the war, Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse, disputed the reporting, and insisted that there was no Hamas presence at the hospital. Mr. Gilbert, an activist who describes himself as a “political doctor,” was particularly outspoken against Israel and was reportedly banned from Israel and Gaza in 2014. 

— NY Times

ANCHORAGE BUSINESS DISTRICT'S MAIN STREET after the 9.2 Earthquake on March 27, 1964.

THE POLITICS OF THE “TANIA” HEARST CASE: PATTY’S PARDON

by Warren Hinckle (September, 1999)

Pardon me, but pardon Patty Hearst? What’s the rush? So she can vote Republican in Y2K? Presidents frequently drop pardons as one of their last acts in office, but the powerful Hearst Corporation is working Bill Clinton over one-and-one half years ahead of the time the pardon train usually leaves the station to cleanse newspaper heiress Patty Hearst of the Symbionese stain in her past.

Why the rush? Unless it’s part of a deal with the criminal division of the Justice Department to pardon Ms. Hearst, who married her former security guard and is now Mrs. Shaw and a soccer mom extraordinaire in suburban Connecticut, in return for her providing damaging testimony aiding the government’s case against another former SLA gun moll, Kathleen Soliah, now Mrs. Sara Jane Olson and also a soccer mom in St. Paul, Minnesota. The FBI recently rudely yanked Soliah from a 23-year sojourn in domestic bliss to face trial in January on stale terrorism charges. San Francisco attorney Stuart Hanlon is defending.

Jimmy Carter, the president who saw a flying saucer, who, with the gentle prodding of the Hearst newspapers, commuted Patty’s prison sentence for bank robbery and urban guerrilla terrorism 20 years ago, has asked President Clinton to finish the job and pardon the girl. Al Gore and Janet Reno have also been massaged.

Funny, but the reason Carter, reading the lips of the Hearst press, gives for pardoning Patty — that she has led an exemplary life since the Symbionese Liberation Army dust-up and is now a “model citizen” with a daughter in her first year at Georgetown — applies exactly to Kathleen Soliah since her SLA tour of duty, down to the daughter in the first year of college. By any standard of fairness, the same reasons that Patty Hearst should be pardoned mandate that Kathleen Soliah should not be prosecuted.

There is abundantly more evidence that Patty Hearst participated in the fatal SLA bank robbery in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael (including Hearst’s admission in her 1982 candidly honest memoir, “Every Secret Thing,” that she was in on the tragic SLA bank heist) than the feds have to pin Kathleen Soliah even remotely to explosive devices near a police car in Southern California.

Yet now-soccer mom Soliah is being charged with a crime for which investigators admit they have no evidence, while now-soccer mom Hearst, who has admitted to being involved in a fatal bank robbery, has never been charged with that crime. The sins of the bad upper class rich girl Tania Hearst (Patty took the name from the brave guerrilla lady who fought and died with Che Guevara, while at the same time spying on Che for the KGB — so rich are the contradictions of the left in their complexity!) seem to be on a different level on the Justice Department dipstick of changeable crimes than the sins of the more middling class Soliah whose only apparent level of post-SLA prosperity comes from marrying a middlewest emergency room doctor.

The genius of the government’s plan, if genius it be, to put the coffin lid on the memory of the SLA is that a full pardon for Hearst, as former president Carter has requested of sitting president Clinton, would mean in the exacting lexicon of Hearst lawyers a pardon for all crimes known and unknown while the heiress was in her Tania mode. That would save Mrs. Shaw the craven embarrassment of having to seek immunity from being charged in the Carmichael bank robbery, because she would have already been forgiven everything by the Bubba in the White House and would be free to say whatever might please the government in the prosecution of Kathleen Soliah, on a speedy course toward trial in January.

There are suggestions that this is what government prosecutors (some of whom at this late date were no doubt in diapers — not red — when the SLA was in heinous flower) are hankering for. Tania Hearst-Shaw complained during an appearance on Geraldo that she couldn’t see why the government wanted her on the witness stand since she was a convicted felon and who would believe her? A little pardon (in this case, big) would go a long way towards changing that situation — the closet, the sex, the guns, the denouncing of her patrimony as “Hearst pigs,” the newspaper heiress reaching the age of retainer underground with a price on her head, such ugly stuff that would be washed away with a full pardon — which is the version of reality that the Hearst family newspapers have been seeking since they prevailed on the ever-compliant Jimmy Carter to commute Patty’s sentence two decades ago. Now they are close to the candle, and close enough to burn another exemplary suburban mom, Sara Jane Olson/Kathleen Soliah, in the process.

As the late Howard Gossage used to say, something in this violates the decent opinion of mankind. It is not right that one soccer mom be so belatedly railroaded and martyred so that another might complete the legal cleansing process to pass country club inspection and regain the privilege of the ballot in time to vote for W. in the millennium election.

“The similarities between the post-SLA lives of these two women are remarkable, in some ways almost identical,” said Stuart Hanlon, the attorney for the now-Mrs. Olson.

The government’s mean-spirited approach to a classically dead case against the long-vanished Soliah however makes a cleansed-Tania’s testimony against her former revolutionary soulmate almost indispensable. 

The feds apparently don’t think much of their bombing case, an opinion in which they are not alone, but will advance a legal theory against Kathleen Soliah that amounts to charging her with conspiracy against the US government by violence. In such cases, evidence of other crimes by members of the conspiracy is considered relevant.

Thus the United States government, in the first month of the new century, is planning to put the Symbionese Liberation Army on trial. If the SLA is proven guilty, and then-Ms. Soliah is proven to be a willing member of the SLA… legal bingo!

The residual, irresistible impulse to prosecute the left is deep in the DNA of the Justice Department careerists. It is incidentally ironic that the American left, what there is left of it, hated the SLA. Both old and new left were at first horrified by the romantic terrorism of the Symbionese hoods who thought the way to improve education in the ghetto was to murder the principal, and as the super-fem-rads running the SLA pursued their lonely, tragic search for the Fountain of Youth or a real revolutionary underground in America ended up despising the Symbionese perhaps even more than the right did; from the right perspective — the SLA was at least good red meat to be had. The feeling became mutual. “Man, if Angela Davis supported me, man, I’d commit suicide,” said Viet-vet turned SLA soldier Joe Remiro.

“I read every word of what Patty Hearst told the FBI and I think the government is going to have a hard time with this approach,” said Paul Avery, co-author of the most authoritative book on the SLA, “Voices of Guns.”

“The government didn’t believe her when they were debriefing her during the trial — even then Patty was snitching — so they didn’t use her as a witness in the trials of other SLA members. Even after her sentence was commuted, they didn’t use her to testify against Emily and Bill Harris,” Avery said.

But the insistent Hearsts want a pardon — and they have the carrot to hold out to Bill Clinton of the powerful upstate Albany Times-Union endorsing Mrs. Clinton for the Senate in New York state (the same Hillary-card political temptation is before the Clinton administration to let its Justice Department approve the challenged acquisition of the San Francisco Chronicle by Hearst to merge with its Examiner to make San Francisco a one-newspaper town.

Hearst tactics are rarely new, but often effective. The publisher of the Albany Times-Union, Timothy White, was sent to San Francisco early this year to take the helm of the Hearst flagship Examiner and hasten the Chronicle acquisition. Almost the first thing White did upon arriving in town was to offer Mayor Willie Brown — whom the editorial side of the Examiner fabulously hates — the Examiner’s endorsement for re-election if Brown would not oppose the merger. Brown opposed it.

Now a new generation of Justice Department zealots apparently wants to make sure that at least one soccer mom doesn’t get away with SLA murder back in the murky ages of the century.

“Getting a pardon for Patty in return for using her testimony against Kathleen is about the only way the government has a chance to convict her. I don’t think it’s much of a chance, but it’s their only chance. And I guess they’re going to take it,” said Avery, the author of “Voices of Guns.” 

SHE'S A LADY

Well, she's all you'd ever want
She's the kind they'd like to flaunt and take to dinner
Well she always knows her place
She's got style, she's got grace, she's a winner

She's a lady
Whoa, whoa, whoa she's a lady
Talkin' about that little lady
And the lady is mine

Well, she's never in the way
Always something nice to say, oh what a blessing
I can leave her on her own
Knowing she's okay alone, and there's no messing

She's a lady
Whoa, whoa, whoa she's a lady
Talkin' about that little lady
And the lady is mine

Oh, she never asks for very much, and I don't refuse her
Always treat her with respect, I never would abuse her
What she's got is hard to find, and I don't wanna lose her
Help me build a mountain from my little pile of clay
Hey, hey, hey

Well, she knows what I'm about
She can take what I dish out, and that's not easy
Well, she knows me through and through
And she knows just what to do, and how to please me

She's a lady
Whoa, whoa, whoa she's a lady (na, na, na, na)
Talkin' about that little lady (ooh-ooh-ooh)
And the lady is mine

Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Oh, oh, oh, she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Listen to me people, she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Hey, hey, hey, hey, she's a lady
Whoa, whoa, whoa, she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Talkin' about the little lady (she's a lady la-la-la-la-la)

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's a lady (la-la-la-la-la)
Oh, oh, oh, she's a lady
I can't live without my little lady
Oh, oh, oh, she's a lady

Composer: Paul Anka