A “PROGRESSIVE” in Mendocino County is a liberal trying to distance him/herself from the Democratic Party while unfailingly voting for Democrats. In the Bay Area a “progressive” is a communist who’s afraid of being called a communist. Which reminds me of a funny episode in a long ago Frisco mayor’s race when the communist candidate, Ms. Bermudez, was described as the communist candidate by a writer in The Independent, a weekly newspaper whose coverage of local politics is a lot better than that served up by the rest of the Bay Area media. In the very next issue of the paper an indignant letter-to-the-editor from the communist’s campaign manager denounced the Independent for “red baiting.”
SLEEP, an on-line comment: “As society slowly spirals out of control, there is no one single topic more deserving of investigation (and all the funding necessary to get there) than better sleep, along with simple obvious things like 90% of people fail to physically tire themselves at all during the day (walking helps but exercise is better) are incapable of emotionally handling minor everyday stresses (thanks to “social media” and ridiculous “news” telling me I should be “terrified” of some idiotic thing) along with the rational sadness caused by they're not getting ahead economically as the greed-mongers have bribed etc. to keep the playing field anything but level, people's sleep has suffered. And the best way to be at your peak and fight back against these malignant forces (except the last one, that would take a courageous congress which will never happen as it is right now) is to sleep; restfully, fully and unstressed. So sacrifice the next aircraft carrier or unneeded manned aircraft (drones made you obsolete already) and instead spend that money helping people instead of killing them.
SLEEP, the editor's opinion, which he passes along on the off chance it's of assistance to the ancients who read this paper. I agree wholeheartedly with the above comment, so far as it goes. I get a solid hour of vigorous exercise a day, as I have for many years, which probably accounts, at least partially, for my longevity. Stress? Double, even triple the exercise. Additionally, I don't eat after 6pm while mostly maintaining modest portions when I do eat rather than the constant temptation of straight-up gluttony, and I stopped drinking, except for an annual quality whiskey binge around Christmas. I do fine on 7 hours of sleep, even 6 hours if I can get in an afternoon nap. I often take a couple of Tylenol PMs an hour before lights out, which in my case, as an obsessive-compulsive, is 9pm. (Obsessive-compulsion disorder, doesn't seem neurotic to me but seems necessary in my line of work, the disappearing newspaper business.) I sleep with my bedroom window open year-round, which my sorely put upon wife adjusted to early in our marriage as the poor thing adjusted to all manner of her husband's quirks. None other than Ben Franklin recommended an open bedroom window, explaining that closed bedroom windows are contra-indicated because they lock in communicable diseases like flu, which circulate best in closed spaces.
THE CHRON has cancelled its comment line because, they have explained, it was too difficult to prevent the maliciousness of too many commenters. The Press Democrat runs a tight comment line, while MCN, the Mendocino Coast's chatline overseen by the Mendocino School District, has recently weathered arguments about demeaning exchanges, deciding to continue a wide-open comment policy, resulting in about one in every fifty comments being relevant to life as it's lived in Mendocino County. The rest is a half-dozen of the same guys insulting and threatening each other. I edit the AVA comments because I think the MCN policy allows way too much vituperation, most of which is boring because it's so hackneyed. (Like most people I enjoy a well-phrased insult.) But I try to edit out witless insults of the blunderbuss personal type. Allowing it, imo, lets in fake name trolls and, in the end, is not only boring but discourages sane people from commenting at all. I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with Nikki Haley, a person wrong on every other issue, but I agree with her opinion that commenters on whatever medium should identify themselves with their real names.
I WAS STARTLED then saddened by the Press Democrat's recent front page story that first said an unidentified elderly woman was missing in the Cazadero area. Then the missing person was identified as Johanna Lynch, “suffering early onset dementia” was still missing. Subsequent issues of the paper described the all-out search for Johanna and, finally, the young reporter on the story for the rose-free ‘Rose City’ daily, Madison Smalstig, identified Johanna properly as the well-known West Sonoma County journalist at her Russian River Times that she had been for many years.
I KNEW JOHANNA for much of her tenure at the Times. We collaborated on a few stories; I enjoyed a coffee or two with her, and I often talked with her by telephone, and always I was intrigued by her back story, which I was reluctant to ask her about because I always sensed her reserve behind her posh Brit accent. Johanna was very smart, a good, clear writer and, in her unique presence in the cast of wild NorCal personalities she found herself in, she was refreshing in her sense of herself, her decorousness.
I CAN'T IMAGINE Johanna succumbing to “early onset dementia,” whatever that is, and what's early about the onset of any disability in a person well into her eighties? I'd like to have the name and bona fides of the quack who suggested Johanna had lost possession of herself, that one Sunday she simply wandered out her front door and forgot her return path. I don't believe it. I'll bet an autopsy would show heart failure, or stroke — something tangible. I know Johanna would have laughed at her uncomprehending journalo-sendoff by the Press Democrat.
HE'D UNDOUBTEDLY DENY saying it, but even Donald Trump said back in 2020 that individuals and trusts worth more than $10 mil should be smacked with a 14.25% tax on their net worth, which would raise an immediate $5.7 trillion, eliminating the national debt in a year and freeing up for worthwhile public projects the $200 annual billion in juice the national debt presently costs taxpayers. Such a tax would tap Trump himself for an estimated $725 million. Under the Trump plan, the upper middle-class — the $150,000 a year people — wouldn’t even be touched.
NOT NEARLY heavy enough on the millionaire class, but a return to the 1960 tax rate of 90 percent on the super-rich would do economic wonders for our depleted, dying country in restoring at least a minimum of security to the seriously struggling millions.
JOHN KENNEDY was assassinated on November 22nd, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, where thousands of Texans had turned out to see him, to catch even a glimpse of the last truly charismatic president we've had. I liked Kennedy in my politically naive youth. I still admire him in many ways. He was one of only two candidates I've worked for as a precinct gofer. The other was George McGovern. My house was McGovern headquarters for all of Mendocino County. We had the voter lists and made hundreds of calls on George's behalf, a deluge of verbal abuse resounding back at us through Mendo's phone lines. “That communist? Are you kidding?” Mendo went something like 80 percent for Nixon. Of course most of the Mendolib demographic was still playing naked grabass up in the hills in '72 and couldn't be bothered to electorally participate, but then and now I didn't understand how it was intellectually, emotionally possible to vote for Nixon. And then we had the comprehensively destructive W. Bush regime, and then Trump, a straight-up fascist.
I GO BACK AND FORTH on the Kennedy Assassination, which I'll always put in caps since that event, non conspiracy or conspiracy, amounted to a coup by the evil bastards who run this country to this day. My opinion is heavily influenced by the latest I've read on the case, but mostly I've thought Kennedy was the victim of a tight conspiracy to kill him.
FOR THESE REASONS: Oswald was a wholly implausible character. A lightly educated young guy goes from the Marine Corps of 1956 to Russia, renouncing his citizenship, then takes his citizenship back and returns to the US with a bride who just happens to be the daughter of a KGB colonel? Please. Oswald unaccountably gets a job overlooking Kennedy's route to downtown Dallas from where he shoots the president, an easy shot of about 150 feet, especially easy with the scoped rifle he did the deed with. (It's all bullshit that the Italian-manufactured rifle was antiquated and unreliable; gun guys have time and again replicated the fatal shots with the same issue gun from the same vantage point.) Then Oswald is shot to death in the basement of the Dallas Police Department (!) by a low rent assassin who claims to have been so distraught by Kennedy's death that he had to, just had to, knock off the perp. And the government has sequestered documents related to the Assassination to this day because, obviously, they implicate our government in the event. Now we have eight doctors who did the Kennedy autopsy saying that a bullet hole in Kennedy's throat meant someone was also shooting at him from the front. Yeah, there was a murder plot, maybe two plots — Oswald firing from the rear, and another shooter from the front. Were they associated? Probably, in some way. The two best books on the event are Don DeLillo's novel, Libra; and Norman Mailer's non-fiction Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery.
SCOTT WARD: While I was the building official for the City of Healdsburg there were several unreinforced masonry building renovations in the downtown area. Much of the work to be done was above the public sidewalk. There are pedestrian protection requirements in the California Building Code that address this type of work. Installing scaffolding with pedestrian protection is a very common practice in the Bay Area. There are several companies that specialize in this area. The Ukiah building official is making the correct call here. In my view, the current owners of The Palace Hotel using the excuse that they cannot find anyone to meet the minimum life safety public protection requirements in the California Building Code with regards to scaffolding is just another example of kicking the can down the road and ignoring the imminent hazard the Palace Hotel presents to the public.
WE ALL KNOW about the outrageous treatment of Japanese during World War Two, but virtually nothing is known of similarly arbitrary round-ups and persecutions of Italians. The Germans, by contrast, suffered very few sequestrations during the war, especially considering that thousands of them were organized into pro-fascist organizations and made no secret about where their sympathies lay.
FASCIST SENTIMENT among Italian-Americans was much less prevalent than it was among Germans, and there was virtually no sympathy among first generation Japanese Americans for Hirohito. Most Japanese had emigrated to escape a stifling feudal social system in the mother country. Ditto for Italians.
THE ONLY MENTION I’ve seen about Italian-American difficulties during the War here in Mendocino County was one of those “from 50 years ago” blurbs in one of the Coast papers about two Greenwood men being relieved of their rifles and jailed briefly because they’d allegedly been overheard making pro-Mussolini statements.
LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I suppose, I seldom give blood unless the blood bank is taking deposits in my immediate vicinity, which the area blood bank used to do on a regular basis, setting up its blood-letting apparatus on the stage of the high school gym. I’ve always wondered why the blood bank couldn't be a mobile depository, one that could wheel right up to a donor’s home for a pint or two.
YEARS AGO, I tried to sell a pint of my precious bodily fluid at one of those cash for blood storefronts, this one in Eugene, Oregon. I was interested in writing about the process and, of course, I could use the 25 bucks. In the waiting room I was surrounded by an extraordinarily unhealthy-looking collection of obviously desperate donors, almost all of them men. But when it was my turn to give, the young woman told me, “Sorry, sir, you're too old.” I knew I was considerably past my sell-by date, but the rejection rankles still, especially given the precarious health of my fellow would-be donors.
SPEAKING of insults, remember when Jon Carroll wrote in the SF Chronicle: “We should just breathe deeply and think that it will not always be like this, but right now 90 percent of the truly amusing humans on the planet are north of Salinas and south of Boonville, and we should remember it and watch for artifacts of the accidental collaborations.”
I WROTE IN to Carroll that his geographic cut should have been south of Navarro and 15 miles east of Elk.
WAY BACK I had a very odd experience at SF City Hall — beneath City Hall to place the site exactly. I was instructed to see a man about a foster home rate for some City kids I was responsible for at the time. When I arrived for my appointment, I was directed to the basement elevator, and when I got to the basement I was told to descend another floor by stairs that were only slightly more negotiable than a rope ladder would have been.
THERE, to one side of a dirt floor strewn with planks, was a plywood door. Mr. So and So had his name plate fixed to the door by an oversized nail that obliterated the middle of his name. I knocked. “Enter,” a male voice said. I didn’t know if I should or not. It was positively spooky down there, and it was obvious to me that I was probably a rare visitor. I pushed through the plywood to find a bright-eyed old boy staring back at me from a desk in the chaotic middle of mounds of file folders, a beatific smile on his face. He looked wholly deranged, but was quite friendly and as garrulous as any topside outpatient. It was obvious I was his first visitor in many moons; maybe his first official visitor ever. We chatted for almost an hour about matters having nothing to do with my reason for being there. My host asked me if seagulls could talk. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” I replied. “I talked to a crow once.” My host came right back with, “Oh yes, Crows are very talkative.” My open-mindedness on his zany comments seemed to please him, although I understood why the City kept him in the basement. Finally, I told this unique bureaucrat why I had come. He asked, “Well, what do you think is fair compensation for the wonderful work you’re doing?” he asked with no hint of irony. I named a figure. He said, “Surely you need more than that.” I knocked it up a couple of hundred bucks. “That’s all?” he asked. And that was it. I got the rate I asked for. That was the long and the short of the foster home rate-setting process for the City and County of San Francisco. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that the state stepped in to establish a more or less orderly rate-setting system; before that millions were allocated on the pick-a-number system, each county doling out the tax dollars any old way. And just as many millions were stolen, you can be sure of that.
SOME NICE hypocrisy from Westside Ukiah 'liberals' Mari Rodin and Susan Sher as they dissented from the Ukiah City Council's 3-2 vote to appoint Josefina Duenas as mayor for the coming year. Despite Duenas' election to the Council, Rodin and Sher said Duenas was unfit for the mayor position because, well, because she is deaf and, as an immigrant, her English is deficient.
UKIAH'S stated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is not good enough for Rodin and Sher, while the embattled (and insulted) Ms. Duenas points out the obvious: “I am representing the diversity, not only the Latino immigrant, but also the deaf, the handicapped, the poor, so I think that the voters choose me for a reason. And it will be my honor to do the best I can.”
SHER, WHO LED a movement to ban Tommy Wayne Kramer from the Ukiah Daily Journal, argued, “I think we all have a responsibility to be prepared for meetings, be very familiar with the issues. Returning inquiries from fellow council members, from staff and from constituents, and meeting with constituents when we’re requested to…I guess I need to know whoever is mayor is ready to take on those duties, and has the time and the energy and the interest in doing it.”
WHICH MAKES IT CLEAR that in Sher's view, Ms. Duenas, whose turn it is to be mayor according to the Council's mayoral rotation, shouldn't function as mayor, probably shouldn't be on the Council, the pesky voters who elected her notwithstanding.
RODIN, currently functioning as mayor, explained, “I am supportive of diversity, equity and inclusion. But for me, it doesn’t substitute for qualifications. It’s not a free ride. So I wouldn’t vote for Vice Mayor Duenas to be the mayor simply to add diversity or equity or inclusion. That just goes against my principles (sic)…I need to adhere to my role as a city council member, which is to support a mayoral candidate who meets the qualifications necessary to perform as the mayor. And that’s my duty to the city and to constituents. And I really appreciate the sincere efforts that Vice Mayor Duenas has made in this past year. But to me, she hasn’t demonstrated adequate preparation or a firm detailed grasp of many of the issues that we’ve had to confront and vote on.” (Direct quotes from Mendofever)
ABSORBED A GRUELING doc on Frontline called "20 Days in Mariupol," as the Russians launched bombs indiscriminately on the Ukranian port city, hitting many civilian sites including hospitals and killing many children. I thought it was grueling just watching the shocking destruction of Mariupol, but Israeli's even more indiscriminate bombings of Gaza were more thoroughly destructive than the Russians have managed in Mariupol.
ACCORDING to the most recent, pre-cease fire stats I could find, since the barbaric attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7th, Israel has dropped 25,000 tons of retaliatory bombs on the 2.3 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and it is a strip of land roughly the dimensions of the Anderson Valley, about 25 miles long, 12 miles wide.
15,000 GAZANS have been killed in retaliation for the murders of 2400 Israelis by Hamas, but the body count is undoubtedly much higher because many Gazans, including many children, are buried under the rubble of their population centers.
NELSON REDDING: It occurs to me that running for elected office in California is equivalent to fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic. Or wanting the job of captain of the Titanic after it's been hit by the iceberg. I've known a few assembly and senate members over the years. Almost to a person, they say they have little ability to accomplish anything other than what the party leadership wants. None of them actually opted out because of this for they were addicted to the attention and visibility accorded to them.
JIM SHIELDS WRITES: Caltrans never ceases to amaze. Their so-called free dump day is false advertising. I tried to get it set up to have the drop-off point at the High School parking lot or Harwood Park parking lot, but the authoritarian brain trust at Caltrans nixed those sites and opted for 22-mile distant Willits. How many folks do you think are going to load up their Laytonville junk for a 44-mile-plus round trip to Willits. All the other free dump days on the Northcoast were held in the towns where the people actually live. Sheer arrogance, incompetence and stupidity.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS STATEMENT: "Assemblymember Jim Wood appointed to Speaker Pro Tempore by Speaker Robert Rivas."
CALL ME JUDGEMENTAL, but didn't Wood just announce he was leaving politics to care for his aged mother?
I’VE ALWAYS WONDERED why it was impossible to find a cup of hot chocolate like dear old mum used to make, and now I know I haven’t been alone: Donna Chabon of SF writes: “My mom made pretty good hot cocoa for us kids from scratch. But the best was in 1969 on my first trip to visit friends living in Mexico. They took me to breakfast at the Hotel Oceano in Puerto Vallarta. My friend Mirielle (a French Canadian whose husband just happened to own the hotel) said, ‘You have to have hot chocolate.’ She was right. In Mexico it is the best. So Idris, ask your mom to buy Abuelita or Ibarra Chocolate and some good canned evaporated milk with almost equal parts of water. Heat gently in saucepan. As it warms, drop in a wedge or two of chocolate to melt. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon to break up the chocolate. Once it’s melted (do not boil), use a wire whisk or handheld electric mixer to get it nice and frothy (if using a blender, pour carefully into only one-third of the jar as hot liquid splashes, and use a slow speed). Add a little whipped cream if you like, then tell us how it turned out. The ‘secret’ to Mexican chocolate is its almond and cinnamon flavoring.) Of course, the camaraderie of going out is what should make a meal/drink taste better, and for a mom to share with her daughter a meaningful moment over favorite hot drinks is very special. And, yes, it is disappointing and awful to spend $5 on a dud. I am sure other readers are responding, and I, too, want to know where we can go out to get really good hot cocoa, without having to travel to Mexico. Is this possible?
SUPERVISOR GLENN MCGOURTY (report to Redwood Valley Municipal Advisory Council, via Monica Huettl): “A perfect storm is brewing as we try to develop the 23-24 budget. … Sales tax, transient occupancy tax, and property taxes are down, and costs of all sorts are up due to inflation. There are cost overruns with the new jail construction. The agreement was made in 2016, to include a new wing for inmates with mental health problems. Inflation has driven up costs at the rate of approximately $1 million per year (the State Fire Marshall took two years to review the new jail plans). Measure B funds will be borrowed to build the jail. The BOS is seeking help with funding from State Senator McGuire and Assemblyman Wood. The employees need a raise, but there is no money for wage increases, and open positions in some departments will not be filled. The county is prioritizing public safety employees, such as the Sheriff’s department, and departments that bring in revenue. Some services will be curtailed. County vehicle, overhead, and utility costs will increase.
The County has very limited staff to work on water issues, unlike Ukiah, Willits, and Fort Bragg, which employ professional water personnel. The County is responsible for everything from the new state laws requiring monitoring and reporting on groundwater and wells, to stormwater runoff and quagga mussels.
Amir Mani, PhD, EKI Environment and Water Consulting, prepared a report suggesting that the County form a matrix of expertise from across existing departments, rather than fund a department of water.
UC Cooperative Extension Hydrology and Climate Change Advisor Dr. Laura Garza will be starting in January to work with our community on water issues. I especially acknowledge Janet Pauli for extraordinary leadership and time dedicated to finding a solution to keep the Upper Russian River Watershed with a dependable water source.”
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 willfully ignorant can feign surprise when the offal hits the fan.
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
ON-LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK
[1] I pray for America multiple times a day. It seems like God does not listen to my prayers or at least he is ignoring them. On the other hand, perhaps he is hearing my prayers and is still upholding this Country that is struggling to stay upright under the massive mountain of debt and corruption at its top. I don’t know. What I do know is that I can still have a Thanksgiving feast this year. For that I am grateful and I am very aware that this year may be the last Thanksgiving feast I get to enjoy. America, as corrupt as her Government and people have become, is still the single best option for the regular joe on this planet. There are no other places I’d rather be living at this time.
[2] Each day you wake up and get to live, eat, breathe, etc, that is a day to be thankful for. Things always seem to be bad in the moment, but then in retrospect not so bad. All in all, we here have it pretty good. On Thursday I am going to eat my turkey, drink some beer, and get a good night’s sleep. Sounds pretty peachy to me.
[3] I do think things are going to continue to get bad, but it seems like I may live in a different country. There are no bread lines around here. I don’t know where the people are getting money for their cars and gas, but they seem to be doing OK. Maybe it’s because they are all two breadwinners. My wife bought a turkey that was 21 pounds yesterday, it was fresh and it was $22. A buck a pound for turkey isn’t too bad so I’m not so sure how many people are going to be starving, or foregoing Thanksgiving this year. I still get almost everything I order online from groceries to tools to distractions in a timely manner. Gas is currently about $3.13 at its lowest. My homeowners and auto insurance tried to jack up my premium by $2000. I was able to find an alternative namebrand company that actually saved me nearly $2500. No doubt there’s an apocalypse coming but I’m not sure it’s arrived yet.
[4] Another thing that really engaged my thinking was the proliferation of “marriages” where people wrote their own “vows” that essentially eliminated the very concept of a vow, promising nothing except “as long as we both shall love” – probably until next week. What could be more ridiculous than making a vow that destroys the entire concept of a vow? I deeply offended some people by asking why they didn’t just shack up, rather than vowing to shack up until something better came along or they just lost interest. These were the “promises” made by a generation that seemingly couldn’t be relied upon for anything except to give in to every passing impulse. People who hung signs saying “if it feels good, do it” were proclaiming their pride in having no principles of any kind. Vows, promises? Just some words you said to get something that you probably wouldn’t want a week later.
[5] 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?
[6] 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.
[7] 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!
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