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DRY conditions with cold overnight lows will persist through Tuesday morning. Light to moderate rain will impact the southern zones late Tuesday into Wednesday. More active weather is expected by late this week. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 38F under clear skies this Monday morning on the coast. Rain returns tomorrow evening then maybe a break on Wednesday then more rain after that thru the weekend. Of course there will be minor adjustments along the way.
AV UNIFIED CANNED FOOD DRIVE
Grade Level Competition Food Drive Begins Monday!
If you can, please take a moment to bring a can of food for the community. The grade level baskets will be up in the breezeway. All donations go to the food bank. I thank the Leadership class for their coordination of this important community event.
Take care,
Louise Simson, Superintendent
AV Unified School District
THE AV HOUSING ASSOCIATION’S WINTER FUNDRAISER for their Tiny Home Project is Sunday, December 3, 2023 at Weatherborne Winery in Philo (8750 Philo School Rd) from 6-9pm.
RSVP online: https://www.andersonvalleyhousing.org/events/winter-fundraiser or by phone at 707/895-3525.
Menu: Appetizers, Chicken Tortilla or Vegetable Soup, Ceasar Salad w/Garlic Bread, Sweets Bar, Locally donated wine. $50/person.
AV VILLAGE EVENTS AND BEYOND for the next 2 weeks! Our events are open to Everyone, pre registration may be needed – see individual events for more info.
https://andersonvalley.helpfulvillage.com/events
Note: We try to maintain this calendar as events change, especially AV Village events. Other events listed here are subject to change without notice so contact the particular organization/venue for the latest information.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us: Anica Williams, 707-684-9829, andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com
BILL ALLEN & FAMILY, AN UPDATE
Bill is still in the hospital in Alameda. I am still staying in Berkeley with an old friend, and am with him every day except for 2 times a month when I go home for a day and a half. Olivia comes up as often as she can. (Please see below for more concerning her) I have not wanted to give reports on Bill because his progress has been so up and down - one day so encouraging, the next discouraging. But the last 10 days have been pretty consistently good - we are really working to wean him of the trache tube, so that he can have it removed and be breathing through his nose (or mouth) instead of through his throat; that is supposed to allow the brain to engage more with the body, as well as, of course, be natural, and feel much better! He is doing an excellent job breathing through his nose; just working on managing the secretions he coughs up, by swallowing them. We are hoping that the tube will be able to be safely removed by the end of the year, and we can move him to a facility in the Santa Rosa area where he can get more rehab. We are working w/ a wonderful brain specialist now, thanks to Zoom, who is very helpful. Oh, by the way... we love getting cards with words of love and encouragement! They can be sent to Bill Allen, PO Box 602. Philo, CA 95466
As for Olivia, Lily Perez writes, "Anyone who has had the pleasure to share a moment with Olivia knows she sparks up any conversation and lights up whatever room she enters with her joyful personality. She is a kind, selfless, and amazing friend to many people. Now it is our turn to embody a fraction of those characteristics we all admire in her and lend a hand to our friend in need.
“Olivia's dad, Bill, and mom, Nancy were in a bad car accident in December, 2022, during which Bill suffered a traumatic brain injury. He has been hospitalized and is currently in a subacute ward hoping to move to a skilled nursing facility as healing continues. Life can completely change in just a moment, without any control. It could happen to any one of us. As fate would have it, it happened to the Allen family. The toll that an unexpected accident like this can have is not only emotional, in the world we live in, its impacts are financial as well. Crowdfunding has been done throughout the year to help with the medical expenses not covered by Bill's insurance - these funds have been very helpful to Olivia's family, but are reserved for direct medical expenses for Bill. Olivia has been traveling between Southern California and the Bay Area regularly to be with her dad during his recovery process and provide support to her mom, who rarely leaves her dad's side. Unfortunately, after so many trips, Olivia's car decided it could hang on no longer and is in need of major repairs so it can drive again. All of this means that Olivia has not been able to work as much as before, yet her expenses remain the same, if not greater. Nobody wants to imagine themselves or their families in this situation, but empathy can be a powerful way to make a meaningful difference in someone's life. This is why I invite you all, to consider making a donation, no matter how small, to help support Olivia during this time. Even $5 could buy Olivia coffee on her six plus hour drive to her dads or back to her home. $10 could buy her lunch. $20 could help with groceries. $50 could be a tank of gas, and $100 could help with a bill. Words of encouragement are also needed and appreciated! Any bit helps. Thank you for your consideration!”
It's easiest to go to facebook to donate - my facebook is Nancy MacLeod (Philo)
THE NELSON BROTHERS, FINNISH AMERICANS, FORT BRAGG
Dear Historical Society member,
We're really looking forward to our upcoming December Membership Meeting, Sunday, December 17, 2023, 11:30 at the Wharf Restaurant, 32260 North Harbor Drive, Fort Bragg. Our guest speaker will be Sylvia Bartley talking about “The Nelson Brothers: Finnish-American Radicals from the Mendocino Coast.” Sylvia co-edited the book by that name, which will be on sale at the event at half price ($12.50). Following lunch, the Historical Society is partnering with the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Historical Society for a tour of the Guest House Museum.
Lunch will be served to those who RSVP with a menu choice by Thursday, December 14. Cost: $25.00
Lunch includes: Sourdough bread and butter, Coffee, Tea (hot/cold), Soda. Choose your lunch from the following menu of six different delicious options:
- Chicken Caesar Salad: Romaine, capers, garlic croutons, parmesan cheese, house made Caesar dressing
- Bay Shrimp Louie Salad: Traditional garnishes, House made Thousand Island Dressing
- Clam Chowder Bread Bowl: House made New England chowder served in a sourdough bread bowl
- Fish And Chips: Beer Battered Rock Cod filets, Fries, Coleslaw
- French Dip: Sourdough roll, au jus, Fries, Coleslaw
- Alfredo Pasta W/ Bay Shrimp Or Vegetarian: Linguini, Asiago Cheese, Steamed Vegetables
Remember to RSVP with your menu choice to the Historical Society of Mendocino County office by Thursday, December 14. 707-462-6969 or info@mendocinocountyhistory.org
Pay at the event or in advance by mail (100 S. Dora Street, Ukiah, CA). Make all payments out to the Historical Society of Mendocino County.
Lastly, as we close in on the end of 2023, now is the time to remember us if you want to make a tax-deductible donation to the Historical Society of Mendocino County.
Send us a little (or a lot) of holiday cheer so we can keep these membership benefits coming your way.
Many thanks,
Tim Buckner, Executive Director
Historical Society of Mendocino County
SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF MENDOCINO
Jeanine Nadel, Presiding Judge, Keith Faulder, Assistant Presiding Judge, Kim Turner, Court Executive Officer November 21, 2023 Mr. Bruce Anderson
Anderson Valley Advertiser
PO Box 459
Boonville, CA 95415
RE: Your request to restore the former calendar access process.
Dear Mr. Anderson,
I write in response to your letter of October 16, 2023 to Presiding Judge-Elect Keith Faulder, asking that the court return to its former system of publishing court calendars. I do not know what six-step process you are referencing in your letter, but the court’s current publication of calendars is not overly burdensome, even for technologically challenged users.
There are two ways you can view cases on the court’s calendar.
First, you can view an alphabetical listing of parties with cases on calendar each day on the court’s website at:
https: //www.mendocino.courts.ca.gov/daily-court-calendar.
Second, you can use the Case Information Portal at: https://portal-camendocino.tylertech.cloud/Portal and “Search - Hearings” by date, judicial officer, case number or party name.
If you search by judicial officer, you can sort the list alphabetically, by hearing time, hearing type or case number.
The public has given the court positive feedback on the way these. calendars facilitate their ability to locate hearings.
I hope you will find these methods straightforward and simple to use. Thank you for sharing your views and opinions with the court.
Very truly yours,
Kim Turner
* * *
MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: The “Daily Court Calendar” offers a list of courtrooms and is supposed to provide parties or defendants for the current day. But that’s all. When we checked it on Sunday, of course, there were no cases listed. There’s no way to select a different day, making this “feature” essentially useless because you’d have to check it every day and there’s no way to look into the upcoming week or further to see what’s scheduled.
There’s also a “Calendar Plan” summarizing cases by courtroom. Unfortunately, when we checked it on November 26th it listed cases for the week of August 1, 2023 and nothing else.
The “court information portal” is basically broken. We entered names of cases that we have entered successfully in the past (e.g., Grewal, Harinder) and it first produced: “No cases match your search.” Upon retrying we got: “There was an error while processing your request. Please try again later.” When we tried again later we go the same result.
The “Search Hearings” feature produced nothing for Courtroom A for the next month, which we doubt is true. We gave up at that point.
ED REPLY: Maybe it is just me. But how about the rest of you? Is this new system better? Does it even work?
CALLING BOB ABELES, the Valley’s go-to computer specialist: Is it us, or is it them? Please advise.
TOURISM: JOKE WITHOUT A PUNCHLINE
by Tommy Wayne Kramer
Tourism in Mendocino County is the ship that never docks, the train that never slows, the freeway exit always closed for repairs.
Tourists in Ukiah: the dream that will not die, the hope that won’t come true, the colossal waste of money that gets flushed every fiscal year. We should know better. Some of us do.
If these are days requiring fiscal belt-tightening and eliminating ineffective county expenditures, then all offices, bureaus and centers dedicated to tourism should turn off their lights, empty their travel brochure racks and go home.
They will be missed by everyone. Except tourists.
Which brings us to the inevitable question: (What tourists? What indicates people from places other than Willits and Redwood Valley ever visit Ukiah except to buy gasoline?
Imagine, if you can, arriving here for the first time and rolling up State Street from the south end of town. Does Ukiah look similar to what most people imagine to be a tourist-friendly place, with the relentless graffiti and the dazed, dangerous and pitiful homeless population staggering about?
Would you and your family interpret the lonesome fruit peddlers standing on corners with their oranges, flowers and sadness, as Napa-like welcoming ambassadors? Our motels do not give the appearance of oases of comfort and relaxation, and that’s putting it in the most delicate manner possible.
The tourism industry is forever telling us, and more to the point telling our elected officials, how vital are its services and how great the strides they’ve made in luring the unsuspecting to town.
From a certain perspective it’s true that the travel industry is booming, because there are more people employed in the tourist-based “visitor” industry than there are actual tourists.
In the teeth of all this futility the expensive game goes on, and in fact the city and county appear to be doubling down on their mistakes. Witness the two offices within a couple blocks and a couple hundred feet of each other in downtown Ukiah.
Improbable as it is and as redundant and pointless as can be, it’s true: We have two shops dedicated to increasing tourism in this barren land of boarded up shops, a dying marijuana world and streets on which homeless, with their dogs and shopping carts, are the only pedestrians.
I recently visited the California Welcome Center office, which is paired with Ukiah’s Tourist Alliance, the Main Street Program, the Chamber of Commerce and the Visit Ukiah office in the downtown Conference Center. Do you wonder if any of their limited services overlap with each another?
The lush oriental-style carpet and expensive furnishings cry out for visitors, and if tourists don’t visit, who will? So I did.
I paused and browsed the numerous brochures on a rack outside the office, and it’s a good thing I did. Entering the grand and spacious (for Ukiah) lounge I interrupted a woman deeply involved with a cell phone. She looked up.
“Help you?” she asked, a greeting warm and welcome as a hole in the ice. I groveled, knelt and stammered. She waved a hand, directed me back out the door to the brochures, and got back to business with the phone.
She must have known I was pure Ukiah, not a tourist from somewhere swanky like Rohnert Park.
Yes, I’d tasted defeat, but I had my other card to play. To 105 West Clay I headed and 60 seconds later I arrived. But failed. I tried twice more that week and all three times was thwarted, it being thrice closed. Your turn.
I did spend time peering between slats of ill-closed blinds and spotted the inevitable travel brochure rack, the coffee pot and a big sign that said something like “Magic is Real.” Honest.
This carries on the area’s rich tradition of silly stupid slogans meant to reel in credulous people with nowhere to go, but hopefully persuaded to come to this adventure-laden land of weed, wine, and weird.
Who remembers “Hometown Days” or “U Know It’s All Here” with its coded U K I A H letters cleverly embedded in the slogan. More recently, “Near By, Far Out” which impressed city council members, but not tourists.
Well, what shall we do? How about taking our abundant supply of figurative lemons and making lemonade, with maybe a heavy slug of vodka? Why not peddle Mendocino County as Mendocino County, not just a chunk of geography north of Sonoma County?
If tourist offices are inevitable, and apparently they are, let’s have them focus on our history: Jim Jones, Charlie Manson, Hell’s Angel burial grounds, the pot farms and meth labs, the depraved Leonard Lake and partner Charles Ng.
Hire Bruce Anderson to write their pseudo-histories and have Martin Brown draw up colorful, pseudo maps.
At minimum the racks of local travel brochures won’t look like all the travel racks in all the other counties.
LARRY WAGNER: It has been a while since I did a FB post. Walking in the Gardens over this glorious weekend I noticed a butterfly landing on the flowers and as I got my camera (iPhone) ready, a second one landed. It is not just flowers that are beautiful here. I believe these are painted ladies.
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY
There is a straight line going from the DA opposing Auditor Chamise Cubbison from the very beginning, through Supervisor Williams excoriating her publicly at various meetings, through the effort to consolidate the two county financial offices headed by elected officials, to the campaign to replace our checks and balances with a new finance department under control of the Supervisors.
And finally to the shameful and reckless decision to prosecute our elected Auditor.
Apparently the Supervisors believe no one is watching. Maybe that is true. Maybe most people will only see the lurid headlines about alleged misuse of public funds. How many of us will see that the only thing wrong they could find was a possible administrative mistake left over from the previous Auditor?
How many more will have been wrongly led to believe there was a criminal act? No one has found that Cubbison ever received any of this money for herself. No one is disputing that Paula June Kennedy earned the money in question. So how is this a felony? Realizing they had nothing, the acting head of Cubbison’s office, controlled by the county executive, came up with some new lurid insinuations about secret accounts. Only it turned out that they weren’t secret accounts. Did the public hear the follow up disclaimer a week later?
What kind of absurd and morally bankrupt system do we have here in our County, that a few powerful local officials would even think of doing something like this?
CHRIS SKYHAWK:
A Threat To Our Local Democracy
Ongoing supporters of the 5th District Narcissist; Ted Williams might do well to pay attention to how he is leading our County into potential ruin;; I learned VERY hard lessons about that man in 2018 when we both were vying for the 5th District seat; lessons the rest of the county are now also getting.
BERNIE NORVELL:
RE: McGourty Report.
This storm has been brewing for some time and I have not seen much in the way of preparing for it. I also don’t see much in the way of any new information in the report. If your sales tax and TOT [bed tax] are down significantly maybe the issue is simply folks don’t want to come here and spend. So ask yourself why? Is your downtown on the upswing or downward spiral? What is being done to improve the situation. Do locals and tourists feel safe shopping in your community?
There is no money for raises in the Budget because raises weren’t put in the budget. Why wasn’t any level of a cola figured into the budget and work from there? Contracts are never unforeseen, they are either planned for or they are not. “Priorities are being placed on public safety employees,” that is the top priority in the California state constitution that we all swear to uphold. There are no brownie points for doing your job, it’s your job. “County vehicle, overhead, and utility cost will continue to increase.” We have heard discussions around cost saving methods but not much action. Talking about ways to reduce costs is the first step but not the last step. Make it a priority and make change, get started yesterday!
I cannot speak for Ukiah or Willits on water issues but Fort Bragg made it a priority. When this happens staff makes it a priority as well and things move forward. Of course other things get tabled but that’s how prioritization works. We do hire outside consultants to help with studies and such but for the most part our public works department of 3-4 employees gets it done with full support of council.
Set your goals and priorities and go to work. Make the tough decisions and stand by them. Get started yesterday and keep grinding. Remember, there are no brownie points for doing your job.
“If you can see the writing on the wall, read it.” — Cas Smith
SCOTT WARD: Spot on Bernie. The new Ukiah downtown streetscape certainly is a stark contrast to and accentuates the vacant store fronts, the desperate advertising using sandwich signs to clutter the sidewalk, the unabated graffiti everywhere, the mentally ill and bums walking the streets intimidating women and kids, the dilapidated tottering Palace Hotel, the older hotels being used for prostitution and junkie gatherings, shootings on Observatory Street, and on and on. Why would anyone want to spend their tourist dollars in inland Mendocino County? This rapidly approaching county budget train wreck has been a long time coming, and only the wilfully ignorant can feign surprise when the offal hits the fan.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Sunday, November 26, 2023
CRISTIAN AYALA-FARIAS, Patterson/Ukiah. DUI-alcohol&drugs.
WILLIAM BLETHEN, Fort Bragg. DUI.
JOSE CORNEJO, Ukiah. County parole violation.
MARCO DAVILA, Point Arena. Failure to appear.
CAREY DEBACA, Windsor. Suspended license for reckless driving, front lamp colors.
ROSS HOUSTON III, Ukiah. DUI, reckless evasion.
DANIEL LARUE, Napa/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
MARK O’KEEFE, Ukiah. Under influence.
WILLIAM RYAN, Ukiah. Refuse disposal in state waters, unlawful camping.
TYLER VANN, Ukiah. Domestic battery.
AND NOW A WORD FROM THE BOHEMIAN PUBLISHER
by Jonah Raskin
The publisher of The Bohemian read my story about him and the kerfuffle at that weekly paper which appeared in The Advertiser. Maybe you read it, too. The publisher thought that I had it all wrong. He didn’t censor the story, he insisted. He also said, “I don’t want to give the story additional legs,” though by reaching out to me he seemed to be doing the opposite. At the start of our phone conversation he asked if we could speak “off the record.” Now there’s a phrase familiar to readers of the Advertiser. When I said I wouldn't and couldn’t converse off the record, he agreed to converse on the record.
“We’re doing a good job covering the demonstrations,” he said. “We’re bound by journalistic ethics and we air more views than any other paper.” Just not the views of Peter and Will, two longtime contributors. “Journalistic ethics,” I said to myself. “They're few and far between.” Once upon a time, the communication studies program at Sonoma State University, where I taught, offered a course titled “Media Ethics.” We dropped it but kept the course on “Media Law.” That made sense to me. It still does.
On the record, the publisher said, “The story was not spiked. I just asked Peter and Will for additional reporting because it was all one sided.” The publisher reminded me that I had written for The Bohemian for many years. “Did you have a personal grudge against the paper when you wrote the piece for The Advertiser?” he asked and seemed to be trying to make me into the main topic of conversation. I assured him I had no axe to grind and I thanked him for publishing me over the years. The publisher also said that he'd been "set up" by the writers. He seemed to feel that he was the victim.
I’m reminded that reporters and editors need one another. Editors need reporters and reporters need editors, who are sometimes called “gatekeepers” and who are sometimes also called censors. Editors and reporters have to work together, though there’s often stress and even antagonism between them. They don’t have the same roles to play. Thanks, Advertiser for publishing my stuff and not censoring it, while recently another publication, whose name I won’t mention, did censor.
* * *
Background:
Raskin’s original: https://theava.com/archives/232783
Byrne article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/11/10/call-it-genocide-a-call-for-ceasefire/
Dan Pulcrano: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Pulcrano
SENIOR BENEFITS: LOW INCOME HOUSING
by Paul Modic
The HUD low-income senior housing complex in Garberville is a cute assortment of one bedroom cottages, between the hospital and the library, on the edge of town with views from benches out to the canyons toward Alderpoint Road. The previous manager, Patti Rose, envisioned the need for the housing back in the last century, worked for years organizing the project, and after complicated delays with permits and contractors, the senior village complex was finally approved, built, and it’s been operating for about twenty years. (Pattie Rose, local hero.)
Over the last couple years I’ve been encouraging, ie, semi-harassing, my senior friends to get the help they qualify for, and a few have applied for and received SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and food stamps. My latest mission is pestering them to get on the senior housing waiting list, even though they are still able to live in their rustic cabins out in the hills, though life is getting harder for these seventy-somethings, dealing with firewood and water systems. (Sometimes I think, jeez dude, just mind your own business, but as the unofficial “King of the Scammers,” or should I say “Court Jester,” I do have dirt road cred.)
I was about to gently suggest one more time that they get on the list, couldn’t hurt, but I needed to clarify one eligibility question before I continued my possibly annoying busybody behavior: If you own property, or are partners on a piece of land on which you live, would you still be eligible for this federal program?
When I drove up to the complex on Hallowe’en I ran into the resident maintenance man, a genial guy who is provided with the only two-room cottage where he and his wife live as part of his salary. He introduced me to the manager and I explained to her that I was looking for information about qualifying for residency, particularly about the question of owning real estate. (I didn’t get the answer on that visit but later someone told me that if you’re partners in a piece of land, the situation with my two friends, then you can’t readily sell it so you are eligible. However, that needs to be confirmed with HUD.)
I got the general lay-out from the very informative manager:
There are twenty living units which are completely empty when a tenant arrives, each new resident must supply all their furniture and everything else they need. They pay a third of their income for rent, their electricity use is gauged by the PGE box next to each cottage, and gas, phone, and any television or internet hookup is also their financial responsibility. (All the cottages have gas wall heaters, and there is a minimal complex-wide wifi signal, but it’s very weak.)
Sixteen dwellings have walk-in shower stalls and four have tubs with showers. The estimated wait time for one of the tub rooms is about two years and about four years for rooms with shower stalls, which are more desirable because elders find it more difficult to get into bath tubs.) The units at the ends of the grounds are the best because they have little patios attached, so far this year two cottages have become available for new residents.
There are currently sixteen women and four men living there with the minimum age requirement of sixty-two. One pet per residence is allowed with a weight limit of thirty pounds. A resident is allowed to have a caregiver live with them and, according to the current manager, the county will pay them for their services. A family member can also live with a resident as a caregiver and be paid by the county.
The income limit per resident is $28,000, $33,000 for a couple, and all the residents receive Social Security (SSA) or SSI. Any income a resident may get from an annuity, or other interest received from an investment, is counted as income. (You can have investments like stocks and bonds, and as long as you don’t take interest or dividend payments from your brokerage account it doesn’t count as income, but it will probably take longer to be approved.)
The manager says the job has a lot of computer work, for example inputting the rent cheques each month and filling out forms for HUD, also great benefits, and it’s nice working for the Christian organization which owns the place. (They let everyone off work early for Hallowe’en.) She got the forty-hour-a-week job in August, put in her one month notice the day before I talked to her, and is going back to Southern California where she has family members very ill, as well as an aunt who just went missing.
(As I was leaving the grounds I ran into a resident who said everyone is well-behaved except for one person. He’s belligerent, spray paints graffiti on the walls, and had spattered the managers face with spit while shouting curse words at her. She said that’s been going on for years but it’s been tolerated until recently when the police were called. Now there’s some legal action happening, a couple misdemeanors to deal with, which could get him kicked out.
“It used to be more fun with weekly bingo games in the meeting room,” she said, “but now we’re on lockdown because of that guy causing the problems.”)
Applications available at the office, and they do run background checks on potential residents.
COLLEGE SPORTS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AFTER THE DEATH OF THE PAC-12
by Ann Killion
The final weekend of the college football regular season was stuffed with drama and tension, rivalry games and the highest stakes.
Yet it was all pretty depressing from the West Coast vantage point, as the Pac-12’s implosion became final.
There was a serious disconnect when hearing all the flowery language about tradition and legacy while also knowing that, really, none of it means a damn thing. Not when Bill Walton’s “conference of champions” can be blown up so easily.
The conference that was born in 1915 took its final regular-season breath late Saturday night at age 108. Oh, there will be some weird, bastardized version of “Pac-something,” with the left-behinds Oregon State and Washington State.
But it will never be the same. College sports won’t be the same.
It was fitting that the end came in a surprising upset by Cal over UCLA at the iconic Rose Bowl — the place all Pac-12 teams once dreamed of reaching — at an hour when most of the decision-makers in the college football world were already asleep.
Over the years, “Pac-12 After Dark” has been a showcase for what’s right and wrong in college football. The time slot has produced some wildly entertaining games that have mostly been ignored by the rest of college football. And those same games have been used against the West Coast schools because attendance often hasn’t been great, because who wants to go to a college football game at 7:30 at night, without a glorious fall day of tailgating? It was all part of the ripping up and discarding of tradition.
It was also fitting that Cal embarrassed UCLA in their 90th and final meeting as conference siblings and rivals. After all, it was UCLA — more than any other school — that blew up the Pac-12. The Bruins played lap dog to crosstown rival USC, joining forces to bolt with the Trojans for the riches of the Big Ten. It’s one thing for a private school, USC, to make such a move, thinking only of its own glory and position. But UCLA is a public university, connected to Cal through tradition, the same governing body and the same tax dollars. Their two football coaches are, wretchedly, the highest paid public employees in the state of California. They are supposed to stand for something different.
To abandon Cal without a second thought was insidious, so it felt right and just to see the Bruins get embarrassed on their home field in their last meeting with Cal until the random scheduling gods find a spot for a one-time staple of West Coast college football to be played again.
My first college football game was UCLA-Cal, sitting on the Cal sideline with my Cal alumni parents. My first college football game as a college student was a UCLA-Cal game, sitting in the UCLA student section. So, yes, I’m a little bitter.
The ESPN broadcast was full of bittersweet moments. Dave Flemming and Brock Osweiler, both products of the Pac-12, still seemed in disbelief that the end was actually coming, the same way that most of us feel. ESPN aired a sentimental segment on the conference that felt like an obituary, full of glamor shots of the Rose Bowl and Heisman Trophy winners and the most beautiful college settings in the world.
And more than one observer pointed out on social media that the whole thing was ironic, because it was the battle and missteps over broadcast rights that ended the Pac-12. “ ‘Nobody wants the Pac-12 to end,’ … said on a network that could have saved it,” posted John Canzano, one of the journalists who has broken the most news on the death of the conference.
That this was a fabulous year for Pac-12 football was stressed over and over again. Deion Sanders’ Colorado team captured the nation’s imagination early before fading. USC face-planted despite the presence of 2022 Heisman winner Caleb Williams. Two top-six teams will face off in the final Pac-12 conference championship game: undefeated Washington and 11-1 Oregon, hoping for a place in the College Football Playoffs.
But the Pac-12 was never just about football, and that’s the real insult in all of this. The dissolution of the conference destroys one of the historic conferences for women’s basketball, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, baseball, volleyball, softball, water polo and so many other sports. The schools that formed their own real and true rivalries will now scatter to the Big Ten, the ACC and the Big 12.
Stanford women’s soccer will head back to ACC country this week to play in the College Cup in Cary, N.C. The Cardinal will face BYU — which roared back from an three-goal deficit to beat North Carolina, preventing a match with Tar Heels coach Anson Dorrance, who welcomed Cal and Stanford to the ACC with the pleasant thought that he hopes their soccer programs “die on the vine.” If the Cardinal get past BYU, they will face an ACC team in the final, either Clemson or Florida State. New conference rivalries will begin.
But the value of college sports is legacy and connection. Of linking generations and sharing collective lore. Of the “tradition” that was lauded throughout college football’s final weekend.
Out here in the West, such words rang hollow.
(SF Chronicle)
ALEX SMITH ON ESPN:
Former 49ers quarterback Alex Smith spared no one's feelings on ESPN's "Sunday NFL Countdown" when asked what he thought about recently retired Tom Brady's comments on the league.
Last week, the seven-time Super Bowl champ made an appearance on the "The Stephen A. Smith Show," and he was clear about where he thinks the NFL stands. "I think there's a lot of mediocrity in today's NFL," Brady said. "I don't see the excellence that I saw in the past."
"I don't think the coaching is as good as it was," he added. "I don't think the development of the young players is as good as it was. The rules have allowed a lot of bad habits to get into the actual performance of the game. I just think the product, in my opinion, is less than what it's been."
On Sunday, Smith was asked on ESPN if he had a rejoinder to Brady's comments.
"He hasn't been retired that long. He was just playing. He just won a Super Bowl in the current game," Smith exclaimed, referring to 2020 Super Bowl victory with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. "Is he discounting that one?"
Then, after a perfunctory pre-apology to his co-hosts, former Jets head coach Rex Ryan and Patriots stars Randy Moss and Tedy Bruschi, Smith launched into his unfiltered feelings about New England.
"He played in the most uncompetitive division, I think, in NFL history," Smith said. "I mean, you come out of training camp in the biggest cupcake division, you gotta take it to the playoffs right away."
The assessment was met with chortles of disagreement from former Pats Moss and Bruschi, as well as Ryan, who coached an AFC East division rival.
"I completely disagree with this," Smith continued as Ryan pulled a face. "I know he's referencing the rule changes over the middle to the receiver, but in my opinion I think the game has gotten better. There's more parity across the league. Quarterback play is at an all-time high, I think, across the league. You've got the best athletes playing the position. We didn't have this 30, 40 years ago."
Although Smith's time in San Francisco ended amid some animosity from 49ers fans, a lot has changed since 2013. Smith suffered a horrific compound fracture to his leg in 2018, requiring almost 20 surgeries and skin grafts to save the limb. Remarkably, he returned to the field in 2020, but he opted to retire the next year. He was hired a few months later by ESPN as an NFL analyst. Since then, he's been a relatively popular commentator and has worked his way back into the good graces of 49ers fans.
WILLIE PEP: Sometimes I feel like I've been living a hundred years. I've tasted too much, that's the trouble. I've tasted poverty as a child; I tasted what I thought was love and went through a few marriages; I came close to death in a plane crash and then tasted the sweet, pure taste of survival; I've tasted the applause of thousands of people and suffered the stinging and cruel criticism; and I tasted two miserable stints in the Army and the Navy during World War Two; but I've always been truthful and tried to smile through the good, the bad and the ugly times.
ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2
I have never understood why police chase someone just because they run after a traffic stop. If there is a reason to suspect the person of some crime that presents a current danger, yes. Does running itself create a reasonable suspicion that the person is or has been engaging in a crime? Is disobeying a police order to stop a chargeable offense? Is it just that, if the police order to stop is not enforced, that everyone will stop obeying a police order? Or that the police are held responsible for any crime a runner commits later? I think there must be some sensible reason for police automatically chasing but my lazy disposition can’t see it. Because, once committed to enforcement of an order to stop by chasing, there will be a good chance that someone will get hurt if the runner is actually caught. The runner or police.
IN MY LIFETIME, populations of wild animals have declined an average of 68%. So now wild mammals comprise only 4% of mammals on earth, the rest being us, our pets and livestock.
— Jem Bendell
THE LATEST FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
Israel and Hamas were at odds over the hostages and prisoners set to be released on Monday, the final day of a four-day cease-fire, putting their truce on shaky ground and raising questions about whether the pause could be extended.
Israel and Hamas each signaled a willingness over the weekend to prolong their truce if it allowed for more hostages and Palestinian detainees to be freed. But both sides have taken issue with the names presented by the other for the final day of exchanges under the deal, according to a person familiar with the negotiations, who said that officials from Qatar, the lead mediator, were trying to address the differences.
(nytimes.com)
ON LINE COMMENT OF THE WEEK #3
I don't want to see the word Pause anymore, You pause a Game, a Song, a Movie, You don't Pause a Bloody Genocide, You End it!
SAY SOMETHING ENCOURAGING
Editor,
We are experiencing a crisis of human connection. Rates of depression and anxiety continue to rise. And the pandemic threw gasoline on an already simmering flame of loneliness about which our surgeon general has written so eloquently.
In fact, a rich body of evidence suggests that the tiniest daily interactions actually do matter and can have a positive impact on health, well-being and a sense of belonging. In fact, one clever study demonstrated that people who have even the smallest gestures of connection with their barista experience a more “positive affect.” These connections with strangers can be delightful and deliver some of the most unexpected joys.
So just say hello to someone, hold a door open, make eye contact, remember the name of the server at your regular coffee shop, thank the kid bagging your groceries.
Less is not more when it comes to the need for human connection.
Reena L. Pande
Milton, Mass.
POWERFUL FORCES ARE FRACKING OUR ATTENTION. We Can Fight Back.
By D. Graham Burnett, Alyssa Loh and Peter Schmidt
The lament is as old as education itself: The students aren’t paying attention. But today, the problem of flighty or fragmented attention has reached truly catastrophic proportions. High school and college teachers overwhelmingly report that students’ capacity for sustained, or deep attention has sharply decreased, significantly impeding the forms of study — reading, looking at art, round-table discussions — once deemed central to the liberal arts.
By some measures you are lucky these days to get 47 seconds of focused attention on a discrete task. “Middlemarch” is tough sledding on that timeline. So are most forms of human interaction out of which meaningful life, collective action and political engagement are made.
We are witnessing the dark side of our new technological lives, whose extractive profit models amount to the systematic fracking of human beings: pumping vast quantities of high-pressure media content into our faces to force up a spume of the vaporous and intimate stuff called attention, which now trades on the open market. Increasingly powerful systems seek to ensure that our attention is never truly ours.
In the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution enabled harrowing new forms of exploitation and human misery. Yet through new forms of activity such as trade unions and labor organizing, working people pushed back against the “satanic mills” that compromised their humanity and pressed money out of their blood and bones. The moment has come for a new and parallel revolution against the dishonest expropriation of value from you and me and, most visibly of all, our children. We need a new kind of resistance, equal to the little satanic mills that live in our pockets.
This is going to require attention to attention, and dedicated spaces to learn (or relearn) the powers of this precious faculty. Spaces where we can give our focus to objects and language and other people, and thereby fashion ourselves in relation to a common world. If you think that this sounds like school, you’re right: This revolution starts in our classrooms.
We must flip the script on teachers’ perennial complaint. Instead of fretting that students’ flagging attention doesn’t serve education, we must make attention itself the thing being taught.
The implications of such a shift are vast. For two centuries, champions of liberal democracy have agreed that individual and collective freedom requires literacy. But as once-familiar calls for an informed citizenry give way to fears of informational saturation and perpetual distraction, literacy becomes less urgent than attensity, the capacity for attention. What democracy most needs now is an attentive citizenry — human beings capable of looking up from their screens, together.…
nytimes.com/2023/11/24/opinion/attention-economy-education.html
Scott Ward:
“This rapidly approaching county budget train wreck has been a long time coming, and only the willfully ignorant can feign surprise when the offal hits the fan.”
The same can be said about the proposal to remove the two dams on the Eel River, all done with the consent by our Democratic Party elected leaders beginning with Jared Huffman and ending with our Board of Supervisors. Of course when the offal hits the fan on that one, and the rivers are worse for fish, and Lake Mendocino is dry, who will recall why?
Dream on, George. The dams and diversions should never have been built, but you see them as good things, about all that could be expected from a member in good standing of the local upper class, not to mention being chief of the local farmers, whose livelihood derives from diverted water…subsidized by others through taxation.
You make it sound as if wealthy conservatives are the only people benefiting from water. The water is used by an entire region who vote the same as you.
The farmers are, and always have been, the major beneficiaries of diverted water.
Isn’t the majority of that diverted Eel water allocated to Sonoma County? Particularly for vineyards? If so, those voting blocks don’t consistently line up with our perceived State of (delusional) Jefferson here in Mendo County.
Sonoma County paid for Coyote Dam. But Coyote Dam, and Lake Mendocino are dependent on Eel River water. The next time we have a drought without Lake Pillsbury water, Lake Mendocino will dry up. as will the Upper Russian River. The Middle Fork of the Eel will likely do the same. The Ukiah Valley ground water basin will be threatened as well. That means places like Ukiah, Redwood Valley, Hopland, Cloverdale, and Geyserville will be in a world of hurt. What about the fish that depend on stored water during a drought? Remember where Mendocino got its trucked water during the last drought. That as Eel River water.
We are dismantling the Potter Valley project to meet an ideological goal based on faith and not science. Faith that a “free flowing” river is better.
The irony is 75% of the Marin Municipal Water District’s water comes from seven dams, all on Coho Salmon streams. Not a word from Jared Huffman on where his water comes from, all the while he is claiming all dammed rivers are bad for fish. Of course if asked about this hypocrisy his response will be, “but that’s different.”
George, you’re ‘way out of line when you pretend to be a scientist. You’re a forester in love with the timber crowd at best.
On the contrary, if the diversion hadn’t been built 100 years ago, it would be a good idea to build it now.
It has served very well for those 100 years even though it had flaws. Those could be avoided if built now, but, instead, they can be corrected now and the bounty it has provided can continue.
Destroying it now would destroy my home and the farm I have worked for over 50 years to enjoy and to pass on.
When I see so many entries in the booking log from Covelo, it makes me think they should have built a dam and flooded that valley.
The court calendar is clunky AF, but as of right now it shows a schedule for today. That said, it looks like someone hastily stuffed a link to a PDF in last night to make it look like it’s working. As a bonus, it tried to sign me into a Microsoft account when I accessed it. Pure amateur hour, IMHO.
HOW DOES THIS END?
Jim Luther writes:
“IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Peace won’t happen ‘till
Those who were last wronged become
Those who first forgive”
Thomas Friedman writes, in the same vein:
“I confess that as a longtime observer of the Arab-Israeli conflict, I aggressively avoid both the ‘From the river to the sea’ activists on the pro-Palestinian left and the similarly partisan zealots on the ‘Greater Israel’ Zionist right — not just because I find their exclusivist visions for the future abhorrent but also because the reporter in me finds them so blind to the complexities of the present.
They aren’t thinking about the Jewish mother in Jerusalem who told me in one breath how she just got a gun license to protect her kids from Hamas, and in the next about how much she trusted her kids’ Palestinian Arab teacher, who rushed her children to the school bomb shelter during a recent Hamas air raid. They aren’t thinking about Alaa Amara, the Israeli Arab shop owner from Taibe, who donated 50 bicycles to Jewish kids who survived the Hamas attack on their border communities on Oct. 7, only to see his shop torched, apparently by hard-line nationalist Israeli Arab youth, a few days later, only to see a crowdfunding campaign in Hebrew and English raise more than $200,000 to help him rebuild that same shop just a few days after that.
Over the last half-century, I have seen Palestinians and Israelis do terrible things to one another. But this episode that began with the barbaric Hamas attack on Israelis, including women, little kids and soldiers in communities alongside Gaza, and the Israeli retaliation against Hamas fighters embedded in Gaza that has also killed, wounded and displaced so many thousands of Palestinian civilians — from newborns to the elderly — is surely the worst since the 1947 U.N. partition days.
But those on all sides who read this column know that I am not one for keeping score. My focus is always on how to get out of this eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth horror show before everyone is left blind and toothless.
To that end, I devoted a lot of time on my trip to Israel and the West Bank this month observing and probing the actual day-to-day interactions among Israeli Arabs and Jews. These are always complex, sometimes surprising, occasionally depressing — and, more often than you might expect, uplifting — experiences. Because they reveal enough seeds of coexistence scattered around that one can still dream the impossible dream — that we might one day have a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River…”
Thomas Friedman, “The Rescuers”
NEW YORK TIMES, 11/22/23
I am with Thomas Friedman, and Jim Luther on this one. I also avoid engaging in pointless discussions on the moral merits of one side or the other, and there are as many sides here as there are tribes. And until those tribes overwhelmingly decide they can be tolerant of each other, the timeless on going wars will continue. Right now, those who want the wars to continue are having their way with the help of outside partisans. Peace is up to them, not to me, or to anybody else. Peace between cultures can be done, and has been done in other places.
Apologetics for the Zionist savages. Shame on you. That’s sort of like justifying the US for its multitude of wars based on lies since the end of the second war of the world.
The folks who started this round of fighting deserve no say regarding its consequent conduct. If they did not want to go there, they should not have started it.
The so-called Israelis should be resettled in Germany and should NEVER have been granted Palestine by the west. I suspect most of the inhabitants of “Israel” were the descendants of converts. Israel is a “state” based entirely on myth.
Good luck on changing history.
History gets revised when historians delve more deeply into the past and when they approach their work with an open mind rather than with foregone conclusions.
Rewritten, maybe. Changed, no. Facts are facts.
Not when a more recent fact replaces the older “fact”. Plus many “facts”, especially from the ancient past, were never facts but beliefs and superstition.
“Zionist savage?.” Since Hamas (who are 99% Palestinians) began chopping off the heads of infants, killing parents in front of their kids, burning people alive, raping women and young girls, and kidnapping non-combatants, the Anderson Valley Advertiser and here—the editors lead sycophant and misanthrope—have consistently attacked, ridiculed and misrepresented the people of Israel. Zionist? Why not just refer to them as Germans did 85 years ago: Juden! Yes, and add a death’s head and crossed bones next to that word. Only in Mendocino county could antiemetic comment become so vile…and I’m not the only one who notices. This newspaper has become an unbalanced soapbox for Hamas.
Save your outrage for the so-called Israelis, instead of supporting their mythology and lies. “Antiemetic”?
The Zionist savages should never have been granted the area that is now called Israel. It was a gutless move by a guilt-ridden west that gave into the Zionists, at the expense of the inhabitants of what is now “Israel”.
The current inhabitants had NO claim on the land they now occupy. My guess is that genetic analysis would show Palestinians more closely related to the ancient occupants of what is now Israel than the current “citizens” of “Israel”.
Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Let us know when you get that time machine working.
Believe in myths and lies if you choose. I prefer reality and facts.
Luther, Friedman. Hollister: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil…glittering principles above the fray as in Nazis Germany 1938.
Right, Koepf. Criticism of Israel’s thug-government makes the critic a Nazi. Check. Criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Check.
Thank you for clarifying things for us rustics.
Wrong. Your reading is a bit shallow and self-serving. I was writing to the point that so many intelligent people had their heads up in the clouds while utter evil lay below.
Your subtleties overwhelm my untrained mind. Apologies.
You’re welcome. Happy to assist.
The focus in the West is the conflict between Palestinians, and Israel. This conflict goes back, way back, before the Holocaust. And then there is the bigger overlying conflict between Shiites, and Sunnis mixed in with Arabs vs. non-Arabs, etc. None of these groups have any hesitation from killing each other, except when they sense they might be wiped out in return. “Coexistence” is defined as one culture in charge and all others are repressed. That is the way it is with all of them. On top of that, there are those who want to expand their domain with righteous war.
The difference with Israel is their culture is our culture.
Bravo to Tommy Wayne Kramer for exposing Ukiah for what it is, i.e., the result of Rodin’s (and Sher’s) “adequate preparation and a firm detailed grasp of many of the issues that we’ve had to confront and vote on” (direct quote from Rodin when attempting to justify her and Sher’s votes objecting to Duenas’s Mayoral appointment).
I have hesitated to talk about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict because I just did not understand it. Why would Hamas be so stupid as to brutally attack Israeli citizens? Why is Netanyahu going after the Palestinians with such abject brutality/gusto? The answer: neither side benefits (they think) by behaving morally or even in a civilized manner. Netanyahu, especially, as he faces arrest and imprisonment. Palestinians have nothing to lose (except the lives of innocent women and children, who don’t seem to matter that much to Hamas).
That said, it also is NOT in the interests of the military/industrial complex to make peace (or so they think).
The benefits of getting along are clearly illustrated in the movie “Belfast”, a story about Kenneth Branagh’s childhood in Belfast during the troubles (1969). I strongly recommend seeing this movie at this time in history. Ireland has gone from being a place where terrorism thrived to a place that is thriving, and supplying jobs and economic sustenance throughout the world. A success story that goes from strife (between Britain and Northern Ireland) to more recent times when those problems have been resolved by civilized people.
The cynicism of our world rejects such stories as sentimental pablum, unfortunately.
Our own Mendocino County has displayed this cynicism by allowing our law enforcement to take over money that was given to the county by voters to start a community mental health facility. Measure B was never meant to fund the jail. I predict this will haunt us for years to come, and justify the arrest and limitless incarceration of the “mentally ill” and “addicted” (all paid for by insurance, which I believe comes out of our federal taxes). Who benefits?
In adding mental health care to the new JAIL facility, even more money is added to the sheriff’s budget (a lot more money). The patients are subjected to an environment that has repeatedly been criticized as badly run, to put it mildly. The overrun on the jail addition is paid for by Measure B, to the benefit of outside contractors. Therefore it can be safely said that the overrun is the problem (and the beneficiary of this plan), and the county’s voters are expected to pick up the tab, however illegally it is done.
“I have never understood why police chase someone just because they run after a traffic stop.”
Well I am certainly glad you don’t understand this it clearly indicates to me you are likely a good person whom I highly doubt has spent much time in evading capture.
I will try to make this reply brief. In my experience people run from the police not because of the infractions peace officers see in front of them. Often folks are wanted for many different things including murder.
I have made many stops for infractions committed by a driver which turned into a “foot bail” and upon capture the rest of the story unfolds. Often these subjects were wanted on very serious crimes including homicide.
Also, peace officers are in the business of reporting the facts to the judge who then instills accountability. If we simply allowed everyone a pass if they decided to run, everyone would run.
So if the question is who is wrong, the subject who runs from the police? or the police for chasing? I think the answer is clear. Personal responsibility has to come back into style and I think we are currently living in that direction.
Just released that the Montgomery High School boy was found not guilty of manslaughter.
A good outcome, I think.
The kid was warned he may be jumped, so he arms himself with a 5” knife and defends himself when attacked. What a mess
Sad sad story on so many levels. I often wonder if we were to dive into this type of crime and dissect it at every intersection, similar to the fashion a plane crash is investigated. How many failures in our system would we find leading up to this outcome?
I have investigated and followed many cases involving homicides with our youth. There are many I simply can’t wrap my head around. We investigate them and present the evidence before the magistrate. When justice is served, no matter what the outcome is, it doesn’t bring someone’s child back. The best outcome for all is often still awful for everyone.
No matter the outcome I try to send some prayers up for all involved. Maybe that’s the best we can do during these times.