Mendocino County Today: Friday, Dec. 15, 2023

Mild | Noyo Span | Cubbison Case | Scowl Bros | Slow Down | AV Students | Holiday Spirit | Breach Effects | Pudding Sky | Fort Bragg News | Schwinghammer Sentenced | Ocean Beach | County Notes | Local Shopping | Boonville Hotel | Ed Notes | Skatepark Swag | Book Juggler | Ivy Hill | Local Radio | Burn Calories | Marco Volunteers | Santa Trouble | Killed Hippie | Jimi 1967 | Kelley Restoration | Yesterday's Catch | SF Concern | Flying Saucers | Decider | Mobley Vision | Bear Bites | Bad Camper | Water Wars | Terrifying Fact | WaPo Spin | Emergency Test | Funding War | Royal Dunce | Genocide Joe | Smite Am'alek | Call Joe | UN Vote

MILD AND PLEASANT weather continues through the weekend with higher temperatures expected Saturday along coastal areas. Cooler temperatures and wet weather are expected Sunday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): Our upcoming series of rains has begun it's forecast meltdown right on schedule. Rain is very likely but how much & when is not so sure right now? 49F under partly cloudy skies this Friday morning on the coast. Dry & really warm thru tomorrow then rain Sunday & Monday, maybe more on Tuesday ? We'll see.

ATTORNEY GENERAL DOESN’T SUPPORT EYSTER’S RECUSAL FROM CUBBISON CASE

by Mike Geniella

State Attorney General Rob Bonta has dismissed a defense bid to disqualify Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster from prosecuting former county Auditor Chamise Cubbison because of the DA’s widely publicized past conflicts with her office.

The AG’s position, outlined in a 12-page court filing, puts the onus on Mendocino County Superior Judge Keith Faulder to make the decision. Arguments in front of Faulder could occur as early as Tuesday when Cubbison and a co-defendant are scheduled to enter pleas to a single felony charge of misappropriation of public funds.

Cubbison’s attorney Chris Andrian, a noted Sonoma County criminal defense lawyer, said he understands the AG’s legal arguments, but he questioned whether the state office understands the “toxicity” surrounding a high profile local case laced with politics.

Andrian said the AG’s office does not grasp the enmity that exists between the two elected Mendocino County officials, let alone “feeling the pulse of the community.”

Within two hours of the AG’s decision, Eyster formally filed a court declaration outlining what’s behind his planned prosecution of Cubbison, including claims that Sheriff’s investigators suggested more possible felony charges against the embattled auditor than previously disclosed. 

Eyster also said Cubbison’s co-defendant Paula June Kennedy, the County’s former payroll manager, and retired Auditor Lloyd Weer have denied participating in an alleged scheme to use an obscure County earnings code to obtain about $68,000 in extra pay for Kennedy. They accuse Cubbison of using the code to get around possible review by the county’s Executive Office, according to the DA’s declaration.

“Cubbison told her [Kennedy] to use the code but to keep the amount of the code authorized payments also inputted into payroll report under $1,000 so it would not get flagged by the CEO’s Office for review of the use of the code or the unauthorized payments,” according to Eyster.

Cubbison and Kennedy are expected to enter not guilty pleas at a hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday in front of Judge Faulder. The plea entries have been delayed for two months due to legal wrangling over Eyster’s alleged bias against Cubbison.

The Attorney General’s decision puts the decision on Faulder to decide whether Eyster should be given the green light to proceed with prosecution of Cubbison. 

The controversy surrounding Eyster’s filing of criminal charges against a fellow elected official has been further fueled by a sudden decision a few days later by the Board of Supervisors to suspend Cubbison without pay. She was not given the opportunity to publicly defend herself until two weeks later.

Cubbison has denied any criminal conduct, or personally benefiting from the extra county pay made to Kennedy. 

As backdrop to the tangled case is history of Cubbison and two Auditors before her tangling with DA Eyster since he took office in 2011 about travel expense claims, and his use of asset forfeiture funds for questionable expenses including covering the costs of annual staff parties labeled “continuous education training.” 

In 2021, Eyster took an unprecedented step of vehemently opposing Cubbison’s appointment as Acting Auditor before she ran for election a year later and won. The DA also publicly championed a controversial board move to consolidate two elected offices – Auditor/Controller and Treasurer/Tax Collector – into a combined office. Cubbison was chosen by voters to lead the combined offices to the DA’s chagrin, and their differences soon exploded into public view. 

The AG’s 12-page decision not to intervene in the Cubbison criminal case declared that the suspended Auditor and her attorney failed “to present evidence of a single prosecutorial decision or action that affected her right to a fair trial.” 

The office said it also was denying Cubbison’s request for an evidentiary hearing, contending that she and her attorney are not entitled to “go fishing” for facts or issues that her legal challenges so far have failed to provide.

The AG opinion was filed Tuesday afternoon in Mendocino County Superior Court by Bonta and Geoffrey Lauter, his supervising deputy attorney general. Eyster’s outline of the Cubbison case was filed a few hours later.

Cubbison’s attorney Chris Andrian said Thursday he is prepared to argue for the DA’s recusal in front of Judge Keith Faulder.

“It’s clear at the local level that the DA’s past conflicts with the Auditor prevents him from fairly prosecuting her for the crime he has alleged,” said Andrian. 

Eyster in his written declaration acknowledged that he offered Cubbison and her attorney at her scheduled arraignment Oct. 17 a deal to reduce her case to a misdemeanor in return for her resignation as Auditor. 

Because Kennedy did not have an attorney at the time, “We were unable to provide the same professional courtesy and invitation to talk to an attorney acting on her behalf,” said Eyster. Since then, Public Defender Mary LeClair has been appointed to represent Kennedy.

Eyster also confirmed earlier reports that it was CEO Darcie Antle and County Counsel Christian Curtis who triggered the criminal investigation of Cubbison and Kennedy.

Eyster writes that Antle and Curtis called late afternoon Sept. 1, 2022, to discuss with him the possible embezzlement of county funds “by at least Mendocino County’s Payroll Manager Paula June Kennedy.”

Eyster said Antle and Curtis had met with Cubbison and Kennedy earlier in the day, and believed Kennedy may have committed one or more crimes. The two top county officials also told him they were “suspicious of Ms. Cubbison’s demeanor at the meeting and at least some of her answers to questions posed to her about what she knew and when.”

Antle and Curtis were advised by Eyster to contact Sheriff Matt Kendall, according to the DA’s filed statement. Eyster said he learned that Kendall, Capt. Greg Van Patten, and Lt. Andrew Porter the next day were briefed during a meeting with Antle, Curtis, and Deputy CEO Cherie Johnson.

Lt. Porter was assigned to initiate a criminal investigation “of the allegations raised by the county administrators,” according to the DA statement to the court.

Eyster said when the investigative report was submitted to his office, it concluded three felony charges were possible.

“From my review of the crime reports provided by the Sheriff’s investigators the Payroll Manager was inserting an obscure earnings code on the payroll report that then allowed her to input a payment amount each and every pay period starting in 2019 to 2022 to collect monies not authorized by her position, Human Resources, or the Board of Supervisors,” according to Eyster’s court declaration.

During questioning by investigator Porter, Eyster said that Kennedy said she knew the extra pay she received during the Covid pandemic was not board authorized or “otherwise legal, but she believed that Auditor (Cubbison) must have figured out this as a novel way to get the Payroll Manager paid more money.”

Kennedy claimed to investigators that she made repeated attempts to have Cubbison “put her authorization of this scheme into writing.” Cubbison, however, ignored her requests or told Kennedy she was too busy and would get around to it at some later point that never came, according to the DA statement.

Cubbison has said the extra pay stemmed from an agreement between Kennedy and now retired Auditor Lloyd Weer, but Eyster’s declaration contends that Kennedy denied to investigators that she ever discussed the pay with the former Auditor. Weer also told investigators that he never discussed the extra pay scheme with either Kennedy or Cubbison.

Eyster said that Cubbison, Kennedy and Weer were all in agreement that the use of obscure code was ‘improper, and the extra monies paid out to the Payroll Manager were unauthorized as required by law.”

Eyster said his own DA investigators did “some follow-up investigation work in early or mid-2023 to supplement the investigation undertaken by the Sheriff,” apparently his rationale for taking more than a year to decide whether to file criminal charges against Cubbison who did not personally benefit from the payments.

Eyster defended his criminal filing against Cubbison.

“After reviewing all the reports, including recorded witness statements, and participating in a team charging meeting with my staff, I ultimately decided there was sufficient information developed in the overall investigation to partially accept the Sheriff’s charging recommendation” of filing a felony misappropriation of public funds against both Kennedy and Cubbison.

BRUCE MCEWEN NOTES: Earl Stanley Gardner has DA Dave Eyster’s scowl:

A READER WRITES: 128 Closure

I am not certain but, as far as I understand CalTrans will not officially recommend any county maintained road as a detour unless it absolutely critical. If they did, the additional wear and tear would be their responsibility and therefore require them to fund the maintenance. Sneaky work-around but typical bureaucratic BS.

That said, if y’all finds yourselves driving through Comptche please slow the eff down and watch for pedestrians crossing near the store! And kids are at school It’s a 25mph zone! Thanks

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH!

Congratulations to our AV Junior/Senior High Students of the month for December!  Award given by a teacher for students showing kindness, respect, citizenship, improvement or effort.

Aiden Boudoures
Fatima Cruz
Evelyn Escobar
Emily Barajas-Gomez
Emily Soto Perez
Allen Ford
Briselda Camarillo
Briana Balandran
Jose Zavala
Diana Perez
Tania Bucio
Anthony Rhoades
Vianett Camarilo-Balandran
Xochil Flores
Forrest Severn

Take care,

Louise Simson
Superintendent

NAVARRO ESTUARY AFTER BREACH

Today would be good for someone to take a boat trip up the Navarro estuary to see if there are dead fish on the banks or floating in the water after last evening's manual breach of the sandbar dam across the river mouth.

Some earlier incidents of manual breaching of the sandbar at the Navarro mouth led to reports of such results by direct observation. One such report by State Parks Senior Scientist Renee Pasquinelli was sent by email to a private list in October 2016. At the time she was in the Mendocino State Parks Division offices at Russian Gulch. I'll copy what she wrote below.

The other case was published in the Mendocino Beacon in September 1962 and was written by the paper's Elk correspondent. When I summarized that report in my post to the list late last night, I was working from sleep-deprived memory, and I wrote that the boaters smelled a stench from the thousands of dead fish they saw. On re-reading the article this morning after a challenge by Peter Lit, I found there was no mention of any smell, so I retract the part about a stench. My mistake. The 1962 Beacon reporter made her boat trip less than 24 hourrs after the bar was breached, so there wouldn't have been enough time for a rotting fish stench to develop.

Below is the full text of that 1962 Beacon report:

The Mendocino Beacon
Mendocino California
Elk News
Sep. 7, 1962
Page 7

Last week's item pertaining to the thousands of dying fish at the Navarro River, was written with information passed on to this reporter. This week I will relate what I saw myself. Labor Day, my husband, two children and I decided to take a boat ride up the Navarro to have a picnic lunch and swim. Jack Sparkman of the Navarro-by-the-Sea Inn generously lent us a boat and motor to use on our outing.

When we arrived at the river, we were surprised with the good news that the mouth had been opened. A group of guests at the Navarro-by-the-Sea Resort had been so appalled by the terrible waste of fish life that they had dug away by hand shovels the sandbar trapping the fingerlings. However, in my opinion they were too late. Even though the mouth of the river had been open all night there were still literally thousands of dead fish lying on the banks and on the river bed. Hundreds of Sea Gulls were feasting on the dead bodies.

As we went up the river, we kept seeing more and more dead fish. Some were up on the banks above the water line left when the water rushed out the newly opened mouth, some floating on the top of the water. About a mile above the mouth we witnessed nature's garbage disposals the buzzards at work. Approximately twenty five buzzards were busy cleaning up the carnage. Needless to say, this not a pleasant atmosphere for a holiday outing.

It seems a shame that one of the Mendocino Coasts largest rivers should be a scene of such waste.

Source: https://www.newspapers.com/article/mendocino-coast-beacon-navarro-river-san/136770236/ Clipped and shared by Jim Heid.

My comment: The reporter wrongly assumed that the breach came "too late" to save the dead fish. However, based on scientific studies , it was the premature breach (at Labor Day) that killed the thousands of fish by draining off the fresh water top layer and leaving the heavier salty layer that lacked oxygen to support life.  The reporter's name was not stated but she was the Elk correspondent to the Beacon at a time when the Beacon ran weekly brief reports from Elk, Albion, Comptche and Little River.

Below is what State Parks Senior Scientist Pasquinelli wrote about why artificial sandbar breaching is harmful to fish and other estuarine life:

On May 28th, 2016, Renee Pasquinelli of State Parks wrote:

I appreciate being brought in to the discussion; as you have stated, State Parks is responsible for management of the Navarro property.  We too have received questions regarding the closure of the river mouth. This situation has existed for decades; the difference is the previous tenant of the Mill Keepers house artificially breached the mouth (sometimes in the middle of the night) to protect his chemical shed. Below is a recent response that I wrote to Superintendent Loren Rex regarding the Navarro breaching question:

River breaching is subject to regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers, Regional Water Quality Control Board, State Lands Commission, and CA Department of Fish and Wildlife.  State Parks does not have the authority to simply breach the mouth.

Also, past studies have concluded that artificial breaching without adequate rainfall can be lethal to estuary species.  Estuaries contain salt and fresh water; the heavier salt water sinks to the bottom forming a highly saline lens beneath a somewhat freshwater upper layer. Breaching siphons off the top freshwater layer, leaving the highly saline layer beneath.  Organisms that were able to escape the toxic saline layer prior to breaching have been trapped at the bottom and killed by the saline "brine".  I have literally seen thousands of dead fish, crabs, and other organisms at the Navarro after an illegal breaching incident several years ago.

Unfortunately, the Navarro discussions escalate only when people see the closed river mouth and want access to the beach.  This stimulates a perception that something has to be done now.  Ideally, we need a long term management plan for the Navarro estuary.  As I recall from my past work in the Russian River area, Sonoma County Water Agency ultimately worked with Army Corps, the public, and the other regulatory agencies to develop a river mouth plan that included breaching but the work was justified to prevent flooding of private residences on the lower Russian River.  Also, as I recall, the compromise was that the river had to be monitored such that breaching could only occur when certain ecological conditions existed.

I would welcome the opportunity to work with CDFW and the other regulatory agencies to pursue funding for a long term plan.  For now, there is little threat to the Navarro facilities from the high water level (the Inn was raised a few years ago), and as I understand, there is a great potential for die off of sensitive species if illegal breaching occurs.

Please do keep me in the loop on the Navarro subject and I'll also continue to send you information that I receive from State Parks.

Regards, Renee

Renee Pasquinelli Senior Environmental Scientist California State Parks, Sonoma-Mendocino Coast District 12301 North Highway 1 ­ Box 11 Mendocino, CA  95460

I hope to post a report later today after getting a chance to check the Navarro mouth. Can anyone volunteer to take a look at the estuary by boat?

Nick Wilson

FORT BRAGG HIRES NEW CITY MANAGER & CITY CLERK

by Megan Wutzke

During the city council meeting, the council formally hired a new city manager and a new city clerk. The council also updated the ADU ordinances and submitted these changes to the California Coastal Commission. Police Chief Cervenka also presented two reports on the winter weather shelter and a contract for new body camera equipment and TASER 10 conducted energy weapons, respectively. 

Isaac Whippy, former finance director, took the position of City Manager, replacing Peggy Ducey. Diana Sanchez, previously the administrative analyst, replaced long-time clerk June Lemos as City Clerk. 

In 2022, the council adopted ordinances to update the inland ordinances concerning accessory dwelling units. However, those did not comply with the law at that time. In addition, California has recently passed a multitude of state laws creating housing, such as ADUs, JADUs, and urban split lots. As a result, the city needs to update its code to comply with these new regulations. 

Some of the required changes include allowing at least one attached or detached ADU and junior ADU in all zoning districts with a primary residential unit. ADUs are also allowed by right in multifamily housing developments, but 25% of all ADUs in these developments must be rented. In addition, duplexes are now a permitted use by right on all residential zoned parcels. 

During this discussion, there were a few regulations that the council could add. The City decided to update the ordinance to allow 1200 sq. ft. ADUs (the maximum allowed by state law) and also to allow ADUs on top of garages. 

New state regulations also allow urban split lots. This allows someone to either split an urban lot and build two lots on each of the resulting lots or not split it and build four units total. These splits must be roughly equal; no more than a 60/40 split. However, once you do an urban split lot, you cannot go through the ADU process on that same lot. 

The planning commission had been against allowing duplexes on urban split lots. However, the council decided in a 3-2 vote to allow 2200 sq. ft. duplexes on these lots. 

With the winter weather quickly approaching, the Extreme Weather Shelter Program will begin as well. The Fort Bragg Police Department assumed responsibility for the EWS in 2021, and program administration moved to the Care Response Unit in 2022. However, the extreme weather events in early 2023 caused the funding to dwindle faster than anticipated. 

Fort Bragg Police Department submitted a proposal for $81,900 to Mendocino County to fund the EWS. The proposal was approved for the full amount, and an additional year was added to the contract for the same amount. These funds will mostly go to the cost of motel rooms, which is the EWS’s primary method of getting people out of the extreme weather. 

Last winter, the EWS program housed 82 individuals, with 462 motel stays. According to Cervenka’s report, there was a 76% drop in police calls concerning homeless individuals between December 2021 and December 2022, a change he attributes to the EWS program. 

Cervenka also gave a report on a proposed contract with Axon Enterprises for new body camera equipment, new TASER 10 weapons, and new software and storage services for the body camera footage. In 2022, the city signed a five-year contract with Axon Enterprises for body-worn cameras and storage. However, this contract did not include unlimited storage, and the FBPD has already reached the contract’s limit. Axon has offered a new contract that provides new equipment and storage known as “Officer Safety Plan 10.” This new system will also cut down on time for the police department, who spend part of their time uploading and cataloging these videos and pictures manually. 

One piece of new equipment is the TASER 10, which will allow violent offenders to be subdued at a greater distance. According to Cervenka, this will increase the safety of everyone involved. 

The cost of the “Officer Safety Plan 10” is $54,309.09. The police department requested to utilize Asset Forfeiture- General Funds for the first year. FBPD has also applied for a grant from USDA to help offset this amount.

(Ukiah Daily Journal)

MINNESOTA MAN SENTENCED FOR KILLING BROTHER IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

The killing took place Sept. 12, 2021 near Westport. The defendant was convicted last month after reaching a plea agreement.

A Minnesota man was sentenced this week to 25 years to life in prison for the 2021 murder of his half-brother along the Mendocino County coast.

Mark David Schwinghammer, 41, was convicted Nov. 9 in Mendocino County Superior Court after reaching a plea agreement and pleading no contest to one count of murder.

Schwinghammer, a former resident of Rochester, Minnesota was convicted of killing Timothy Dalton Sweet in Westport on Sept. 12, 2021, which was their mother’s birthday.

According to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office, an autopsy concluded the 30-year-old Sweet suffered a stab wound to his neck and “ligature strangulation is a contributory factor" to his death.

Officials described Sweet as the father of a 6-year-old boy.

Sweet’s body was discovered partially submerged in water at the base of a rocky cliff near Westport, a small coastal community about 15 miles north of Fort Bragg.

An investigation began late Sept. 12, 2021 as a welfare check.

Schwinghammer sent “a threatening text message” to family members in the area and Sweet wandered from a home in the 37-000 block of Highway 1 in Westport, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported in September 2021.

Two deputies searched an area near Wages Creek Beach, near the RV park. They discovered Sweet’s body about a quarter-mile south of the beach.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, a rising tide forced one deputy to “tread through deep water to a safe point along the beach” while the other deputy stayed with the victim.

Firefighters from Westport and Fort Bragg were called in to perform a cliff rescue and remove the deputy and victim. The recovery was completed by 3:45 a.m. Monday.

Investigators served a search warrant at the Westport home later that morning and Schwinghammer was arrested on suspicion of killing Sweet.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

* * *

On-line coment:

Pretty sure I remember this one. Sheriff called up Westport Fire and said “Hey rappel down the bluff in the dark to retrieve that body.” The fire chief rightfully informed him that they don’t risk live people to “rescue” dead bodies in the dark and the Sheriff was mad. Ha ha ha. The sentence is not great because he now is eligible for parole in 12.5 years and at that point they might say “Hey- prisons are overcrowded and he seems fine now.” Again I say Capital Punishment would be a good tool in such cases. He would then plead guilty to avoid execution and accept the rightful sentence of life-no chance of parole. He should not be coming back out at us in the future. We don’t need more guys like this roaming about…

COUNTY NOTES: PROGRESS?

by Mark Scaramella

WORD CIRCULATING among county employees is that the Services Employees International Union has tentatively agreed to accept a new three year contract proposal from the County with a 5% raise over the next three years and no increase in health insurance premiums. 

Next Tuesday’s Board agenda has items for The Auditor/Treasurer and the Assessor/Recorder to have their own agenda items for a change. Although there’s no information about their “updates” will or should entail. 

The Board is also going to consider forming a Committee Committee: 

“Agenda Item 4f) “Discussion and Possible Action Regarding Board of Supervisors Standing Committee(s) Including 2023 Final Reports Out of Committee; Approval to Clear Referrals from Committee; and Formation of an Ad Hoc Committee to Further Review Any Matters Previously Referred to a Standing Committee if Necessary.” 

What Has The County Counsel’s Office Been Doing?

This month’s CEO Report finally has a section about the County Counsel’s office.

County Counsel Report

As of December 1, 2023, the bulk of the County’s active civil litigation (34 cases) is handled in house, with only 5 cases utilizing the assistance of outside counsel. County Counsel attorneys regularly appear in all departments of the Mendocino County Superior Court, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, and in federal courts, including the Northern District of California and US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. 

 During calendar year 2023, County Counsel attorneys assisted with closing 25 lawsuits filed against the County and have handled 65 bail bond matters. 

 During calendar year 2023, County Counsel attorneys have supported county departments with review and responses to more than 700 public records act requests, drafted at least 11 ordinances, and reviewed or drafted 191 resolutions. 

 During fiscal year 2023-2024, County Counsel attorneys have reviewed or drafted 665 contracts. 

 The dependency team of 3 attorneys currently manages 292 active litigation cases, advises Family & Children’s Services in prelitigation through appellate stages of child welfare matters, and assists with ongoing review of numerous records requests. 

 County Counsel represents the County Public Conservator, County Public Guardian, and Public Administrator in approximately 75 conservatorship (confidential LPS and probate) and decedent’s estates matters and represents Behavioral Health in Petitions for Assisted Outpatient Treatment and responses to referrals from criminal and justice courts for LPS conservatorship investigation. 

 County Counsel attorneys also collaborate with stakeholders and the courts in various areas, including recent implementation of dual jurisdiction protocol allowing for youth within the court’s jurisdiction to be served simultaneously by the dependency and justice courts; and preparing for implementation of CARE court (required in Mendocino and 49 other counties by December 1, 2024). 

— Christian Curtis, Mendocino County Counsel

This month’s CEO Report also finally acknowledges last June’s directive that the CEO report include some Assessment statistics. “During the June 20, 2023, Board of Supervisors meeting, the CEO was directed by General Consensus Of The Board to direct staff to publish a progress indicator on how many parcels have been assessed, the total dollar amount assessed, and staffing levels of appraisers in each Edition of the CEO Report, with a goal of closing the gap and reaching 85 percent (currently at or around 70 percent) over the next 24 months.” 

The CEO’s description of the June directive conveniently leaves out the word “monthly,” since that would indicate that they haven’t done anything for six months on the subject. Further, the Report has no assessmenst statistis, just a list of appraisers and their hours:

“1.) No information or data was provided from the department.

2.) No information or data was provided from the department.

3.) Staffing Levels from June 25, 2023 through November 30, 2023.”

The CEO adds: “The Executive Office has contacted the Assessor-Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters to request an update. The Assessor-Clerk-Recorder-Registrar of Voters will provide a verbal update during the Board of Supervisors meeting.”

Translation: Still no report.

SAFFRON FRASER: Hello oo! I did a little Christmas shopping in town. Boont Berry has neat stuff, Mugs and shirts and creams and self care stuff. Sweets and chocolate too. The Anderson Valley lending library has some cool books, I picked up a few. AV Market has Boontling books and other novetlies. Don't get me started on Rossi Hardware! I could get lost in there! Lemons market for shirts and stocking stuffers. I haven't even made it to Gowans or Jack's yet. Let alone the apple farm, or the Navarro store.there are plenty more shops to visit. Lots of tasting rooms have gift items too, locally crafted treasures. Omigosh, Hanes gallery, whoah. And I'm not even talking food or drink stuff. Shop local, support local businesses and makers of cool stuff. We have an abundance right here! Comment with more ideas.

THE ‘NEW’ BOONVILLE HOTEL, circa 1955 (via Marshall Newman)

ED NOTES

RUMOR of the week: “Heard today at the Point Arena city council meeting: Point Arena is one payroll away from bankruptcy. I think the financial situation in Point Arena is newsworthy, but I never see or hear anything about it in the news i’m reading or listening to. Maybe I need to change the station…”

SOURCES of the impeccable type say Assistant Mendo DA Dale Trigg has accepted a job with Sonoma County. Trigg has been Whisper to the DA's Shout. Whisper and Shout made a good team. The volcanic DA seems more and more isolated, mentally closing in on Captain Queeg territory. Steel balls as the DA's stocking stuffer?

A LOCAL OLD TIMER tells a story about when he was a kid out in Yorkville, circa 1920. One day, for the pure heck of it, he and a friend rigged a stick of dynamite in a tree and blew it up, causing adults all the way from Boonville to come running and providing a couple of twelve-year-olds a heck of a good time. These days, if a kid so much as implies that he’d like to do something that causes an adult the slightest emotional turbulence he is promptly cordoned off for hours of investigation by the authorities, heavy on the helping professionals.

SOMEWHERE in the therapeutic process, the perp, alleged or real, will be put on dope. 

COUPLA cases in point. Four twelve-year-old boys at a Redding junior high school managed to make the wire services a while ago for slipping laxatives into a substitute teacher’s drink. (I remember a Boonville kid who pooped in the teacher’s coffee cup, but Boonville kids being made of sterner stuff, nobody snitched the pooper off.) 

BUT UP IN REDDING, the entire school went on red alert until the four laxative commandos were identified by a therapist-in-training, who’d not only warned the teacher not to drink the laxative-laden drink, but gave her the names of the culprits. 

IT GOT WORSE. Even though the teacher hadn’t touched a drop of the E-Lax cocktail, the faculty of the Redding school wanted the four boys expelled. There was a special hearing before the school board and, over the stated objections of teachers and administrators, the four pranksters were allowed to stay in school. 

A NUT CASE of a principal, told an incredulous media, “Many on the staff do feel that the students should have been removed from Sequoia because they considered it an assault on the teacher. It was not a funny prank. It was really vicious and potentially harmful.” 

UH, NO, principal. Cyanide in the teacher’s drink would have been vicious and harmful, not a coupla tabs of X-Lax. 

THE POINT? The point you garrulous old coot? A friend of mine is fighting off a school district that wants to put his kid on Ritalin, pharmaceutical speed. His kid is a normal and normally active boy. It is normally active male children who get doped up everywhere in this country, and even with a ton of sensible literature screaming that little kids shouldn't be drugged, it continues everywhere.

COMPARING almost any California county’s recycling program with Mendocino County’s is to realize how deficient Mendocino County’s is. For example: In San Francisco, a resident can call an 800 number and, often that very day, a couple of guys will appear and haul off any used-up, non-functioning, large-sized appliance. Free! In Mendocino County? Well, there’s almost as many abandoned refrigerators alongside our back roads as there are redwood trees. To legally dispose of old refrigerators and stoves in Mendocino County, one pays with one’s body parts — the proverbial arm and a leg. 

UKIAH CITY MANAGER Sage Sangiacomo, takes in about $400 thou a year, perks included, so Ukiahans probably won't be surprised that Mr. S has entered his own city's Christmas decoration contest.

Guess which address is his:

List of Addresses

Feel free to go in any order.

This list is based from Redwood Valley going south to Ukiah

AV SKATEPARK: Last chance to order holiday gifts!

Redwood Drive-In Stocks AVSP Merch

Searching for that special something for that special someone? Search no further! Our student-made totes, shirts and buttons are sure to thrill any AV Skatepark Project enthusiast (or lover of slugs on wheels). Plus, all proceeds go toward building our future skatepark. 

All online holiday orders must be placed before tomorrow (Thurs 12/14) at 3:30pm (students' last work session before holiday vacation).

Visit avskatepark.org/shop to place your order now.

AV locals can now purchase Skatepark Project shirts, totes and buttons from the Redwood Drive-In in Boonville! Drive-in owners graciously offered to stock and sell student-printed merchandise, with 100% of the proceeds going to the AV Skatepark Project.

We are so grateful for the ongoing support of our local businesses!

The radio program Sports Phone will cover the AV Skatepark Project again this Sunday (11/12) at 7PM, on KZYX, Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. This is a live call-in program -- AV Skatepark supporters are encouraged to call in to express your enthusiasm for the mission!

Tune into KZYX at 90.7 FM or listen online at www.kzyx.org.

MALCOLM MACDONALD

My collection of true-life tales from around the county, Mendocino History Exposed, is now available at The Book Juggler in Willits. If you want to get lost in a book store, this is the place for you. Walk in at 182 S. Main Street in Willits only a mile or so south from the culminating events of Chapter X, “The Bridge,” in Mendocino History Exposed.

Check out the website at: thebookjuggler.com or give them a call, 707-459-4075, to get hold of this great read for yourself or as a holiday gift for others.

ELEANOR COONEY: 

Okay, my merry men and women, here's the latest: I collaborated with Art Ruben to write a novel based on his extraordinary actual life story. All you Baby Boomers will resonate with this tale, which takes place in the 50s and 60s, but it's for any smart grownup reader who digs a great character-driven story and good writing. Not for the PC, pearl-clutchers or the faint of heart! We're envisioning a Netflix series, at the very least. Think: Philip Roth meets The Wire. Some of the best writing I've ever done is between these covers. 

Go to Amazon.com and read the book description, and just try to resist!

ED NOTE: If Eleanor says it's good, it's good.

A READER WRITES:

I can chime in to support Marco’s informed rant about what it takes to operate a radio station. We have a community radio station in Covelo, KYBU, all volunteer, all legal. It takes us about $20,000 max a year to operate: the utilities, the royalties, the fees for streaming, money to subscribe to a few news and content sources, occasional repairs or upgrades to equipment, etc. After twelve years of operation this seems to be fairly consistent: $15,000-$20,000 a year. If we paid a manager I can’t imagine how it would take more than about four or six hours a week to administer all the clerical and CEO type functions. That includes even keeping the studio tidy. KZYX is a different model, serves a different need, and can’t really be compared to the very local, very low budget, no paid staff type of community radio station. Being able to have a listener base which can support people to investigate and report on relevant local news and commentary is valuable and desirable and KZYX, and KMUD to the north, are big enough to be able to do this. What a “station manager” does for a salary is beyond me, but what do I know? Our station, KYBU, is basically an anarchist collective, and certainly does not aspire to or emulate a corporate model. My two cents here is that the management money at KZYX could be better spent on paying for more locally developed content, not administration. When KYBU was figuring out twelve years ago how to get on the air and develop a support organization we were consistently warned away from any relationship with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR and that ilk. That model, including the management structure as well as the programming content, is essentially mainstream propaganda and a trap for those people who want effective, local, relevant radio programming.

MARCO MCLEAN FOR CHATLINE MODERATOR

Dear Superintendent Morse and school board members of MUSD.

I'm applying to become the administrator of the MCN Announce listserv. This will lift any burden of legal peril, real or imagined, from the shoulders of the school district and keep the Announce listserv exactly as it is, an open forum for sharing poetry and information, offering goods and services, listing yard sales and teevee and radio and theater show times and road information, commenting on life, and asking and giving help with this and that.

I have more than forty years of relevant experience.

I taught radio production, sound engineering and music recording at the old Mendocino Community School in the early 1980s. I taught at the Albion Whale School for five years. I put up an automatic public-access radio station in Mendocino in 1985, where people could call on the phone and be put on the air, and built a whole little radio station for the Whale School to play with.

I ran a wide-open variety teevee show on the Fort Bragg public access cable channel for years in the middle-late 1980s. I put up posters all over Fort Bragg and Mendocino, and every Wednesday people would come to Caspar, get a free plate of spaghetti and vegetables, and sign up on the blackboard. I'd switch on the camera in the back room, whereupon two little children, Andy and Cinnamin, would wind up the theme music box, and everyone took turns going in, doing their act, or presenting their project or lecture, or reading from the bible. Max Efroym often came to speed-paint on a pad of art paper, five minutes per painting. Sometimes there weren't enough acts to fill the two hour tape, and we'd play Scrabble on teevee. One time a woman brought in a whole choir of children in robes and stuffed the studio with them to sing. No director was necessary, no rules, no fuss. And no editing. I'd take the original tape and the equipment back to the high school and the librarian would put the tape on the channel at 6pm on Friday.

I edited the Mendocino Commentary newspaper 1990 to 1992, and edit/published Memo through 1997. Both of these were countywide newspapers, in which I printed everything everyone mailed in, from poetry to science to politics to memoirs, to whatever. One of my regular columnists sent elaborate diagrams and stories of his contact with space aliens and his interpretation of the secret meanings of bible shows that obsessed him. One columnist was Raven Earlygrow, mayor of Point Arena. There was Jill Taylor, and Jane Wagner, and a strange couple who had a long-running bad beef with the garbage collection company. There were always two full 11x17 pages of letters to the editor in 8-point and 9-point Helvetica. A woman wrote regularly on the subject of Aspartame ("Satan's Sweetener"). And there were so many more writers, including school kids. All the local poets participated. Also, half the inside front cover was devoted to /Flypaper/, a column of an accurate transcript of every word of every message on the answering machine. That's seven full years of freedom, no censorship, and never even a hint of legal problems.

In February of 1997 I folded the paper and went to countywide KMFB, where I did an all-night written-word radio show every Friday night for almost 15 years, reading aloud on the radio everything anyone sent me to read. And since then I've been doing the same thing on KNYO, and for awhile also on KMEC. This Friday Marshall Brown will be running a test of syndicating my show on the Mendocino High School's radio station KAKX too. If it all works, we'll settle on what part of the show is on both stations, and I'll organize the material accordingly and continue, week by week, from there. 2023 minus 1997 is 26 years of freedom on the radio, no censorship, and never even a hint of legal problems.

Probably most relevant is that I've been participating in unedited, unmoderated computer bulletin boards like Bob Blick's Spaghetti BBS, and Pat Hunt's Redwood Free Net, and Usenet newsgroups, since the early 1990s. No matter where you go or what the venue is, there are always one or two people who can't settle down and play right, just like in every other system in the world. Other participants quickly learn to ignore them, and if that's hard because they spew a dozen posts an hour of their grief and bile, participants can personally block them, or withdraw from the group, or do whatever pleases them. Participants learn whose work they want to read and whose they don't, and set their machine to reject the ones they can't stand. Or they can unsubscribe, just like changing the channel on teevee away from a show they don't like.

A listserv automatically sends each message instantly out to all subscribers. The only way to moderate or censor it would be for a person or group to camp in the way, get everything first somehow, and sit there reading it all 24 hours a day, rejecting some and passing the rest on. And if the moderator were to just read that clog of messages a few times a day and then pass them on in a lump, it would no longer be a real-time public bulletin board. The one current subscriber to the Announce listserv who insists how /easy/ it would be to moderate it means, by moderation, to simply summarily unsubscribe other writers from the listserv based on whether he agrees with their tone or not. And there's one current subscriber throwing waves of tantrum at the group because MCN won't ban a single other writer, an obvious troll who he keeps rising to and trolling back, winding himself up tighter and tighter, and blaming everybody else but himself for his own unhappiness. That's the worst of it: there is one person suffering, who can walk away at any time, but won't.

I hope you choose me to accept administration of the MCN Announce listserv. I think this is the best way to keep it as it is, serving thousands, working fine with some attendant noise that can be filtered out by subscribers as they please, which is the clear wish and understanding of the vast majority of subscribers.

Some subscribers want a different experience, a web-based forum version of the Announce listserv with a small amount of something like moderation being done for them. They can subscribe to Joseph Huckaby's Mendo.org, which is integrated with the listserv. If the Announce listserv is shut off, Mendo.org will instantly dwindle down to a tenth of its usefulness. Maybe that will impel readers and writers to move over there and build it back up again. That might not be so bad.

But I use the email Announce listserv for material for my radio show, and I'm on dialup a lot of my computer time. Email works fine on any system, even dialup internet service. More than a thousand others like the listserv the way it is, and I'll keep it that way: same title, same local system, same feel, same handful of cranks as there have always been. Thanks for your attention. Feel free to email me with questions and comments.

I've been getting a lot of encouragement to do this. I won't be encouraging my encouragers to write you and bug you.

Marco McClean, memo@mcn.org, https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

FROM THE AVA’S ON-LINE COMMENT LINE…

HIPPIES, 2.0

I don't think Hippie had to die — I think it was the women who killed it.

In every space I've been in — any time women have a large voice or say, things get worse. Worse because things get more disorganized, slower to resolve, more dramatic – less action. Men want results. Women want to talk about it. Men will kick a problem out. Women will think “it’s mean to kick the taker out.” Seems to apply to society as well — the more feminine a society becomes, the worse it feels. The less order and structure there is — and the hippies more than anyone needed that structure, structure isn't bad, hierarchy isn't bad, when it's based on legitimate skill, knowledge, and ability. But “IT FEELS BAD” — so says femininity — IT FEELS BAD AND HURTS FEELINGS. So we don't do it …and we slowly let everything ROT from inside because we have no more STANDARDS — even hippies had standards — but TOLERANCE was a weapon. Tolerance, Kindness, and BEING NICE = collapse and chaos. Takers have to be kicked out. Yes, it's mean. But we needed that order. We needed rules to live a new way — we needed order to our new revolutionary thought. Instead we got a lot of FEELINGS and because of that, we forewent doing the RIGHT thing in exchange for doing the NICE thing…

Good =/= Nice. And that was the Hippie’s problem. They let women run the show, feelings run the show, and it collapsed. Dreadfully so. BUT!! The good news is that New Age Hippies (or w/e you want to call us) have learned from the OG Hippie’s mistakes — we call your mistakes out, we see what you did wrong — we see you involved the wrong people, bad people, lazy people, soft and weak people — and it ruined you.

So thank you for your example. We’ll be sure to steer clear.

Our commune very much has a hippie vibe — BUT ALSO — we have order, we have rules, and weak, softness has no room here. Everything is objective. You met the standard box, or you didn't and you get kicked out.

And frankly I’m sure you and some readers will take exception to what I wrote and say how wrong and blind and hateful and bla bla bla I am — AND YET — Hippie is dead, that much is known. Who killed Hippie, well, we’ll just have to have our own opinions on the issue, but I think if someone is honest with themselves, they will fully admit what I'm saying is true. That isn't to say, to be clear, that women ARE a problem or bad or w/e. I love women lol. It's just to say that when a movement, or organization, or group, or culture, or society lets women into a leading role, it stagnates and dies, problems aren't dealt with, and bad people aren't handled quickly “because it's mean and hurts feelings.” Yea, well it killed Hippie. So clearly I'm not 100% wrong.

PRESENT AT THE CREATION 

by Sarah Nathe

Many of the people who had a hand in the restoration of the Kelley House 50 years ago are no longer with us. However, some were barely out of their teens when they got involved in sanding, scraping, stripping, and clipping, and they are still around. They have wonderful stories about those days, and unique perspectives on what the Kelley House meant to the community. One such young whippersnapper was Karen Latham, who arrived here in 1974, and I interviewed her recently.

After her 1972 graduation from high school in Berea, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Karen found her way to Humboldt County, enrolling in the College of the Redwoods in 1973. There she met and married Josh Lowell, a Mendocino lad, and with him she soon moved to Mendocino, taking up residence on the property of his mother, Laurel Moss, on the Comptche-Ukiah Road.

It was right around the time Beth Stebbins and Dorothy Bear, the founders of Mendocino Historical Research, Inc., were given the Kelley House by R.O. Peterson. Peterson, a prominent restaurateur and hotelier, had purchased the Mendocino Hotel property in order to restore and reopen it. The land happened to include the house, in which he had no interest, so he gifted it to MHRI in April of 1975.

The house had been falling apart for years and much had to be done to put it back together again: foundation work; repairs to porches, windows and siding; paint; and roof repair and shingling. And that was only the exterior. Dorothy and Beth engaged a hodgepodge of workers—seasoned professionals and rank amateurs, paid and volunteer, young and old, stoned and unstoned. Karen and Josh heard from a friend who was clearing weeds at the Kelley House that they could get part-time work there.

They joined the crew cleaning junk out of the house, ripping up old linoleum, and trying their hands at elementary carpentry. In the yard, Francis Casey was in charge of hacking back blackberry vines and noxious vegetation. The structural work was directed by Francis Jackson, a seasoned local contractor, following plans drawn up by Sam Waldman, a couple years into his architectural practice. Bob Collier was engaged to replace the redwood gutters and the gingerbread, as well as to paint the exterior of the house. He brought along Johnny Granskog, a retired mill worker, who offered to scrape the worn paint off the siding, the shutters, and the porches.

Stebbins and Bear, who founded MHRI primarily as a research organization, and who most enjoyed photographing historic homes, interviewing old timers, and writing about Mendocino’s history, did not originally dream of having the house. They knew that restoring and maintaining it would take time and resources, both of which would have to be redirected from research. However, they recognized the significance of the house to the history and landscape of Mendocino, so they began what would turn out to be a ten-year restoration effort.

Concerned about protecting the house while it was under construction, they asked Karen and Josh to be caretakers while living in the Kelley House kitchen (now the museum’s office). It was gutted and walled off from the house, a bedroom was created on its western side, and a very small bathroom installed there (now the curator’s office). Karen and Josh moved into these plush digs and lived there for about five years, exchanging their work on the house for rent.

In addition to endless interior tasks, Karen remembers installing a brickwork path from the back door of the house into the garden. She painted the flagpole that went up on the front lawn in 1979, shaved and smoothed out of a 40-foot redwood that Bill Lemos cut on his property. One winter she helped with the inventory of historic buildings undertaken by Eleanor Sverko.

Once restoration began on the house’s interior, Beth Stebbins, with her photographer’s eye, directed the work. She was very concerned that an authentic look be maintained. That was challenging in rooms with threadbare carpeting, paper peeling off the walls, and layers of paint slapped on over the years by renters. Old photos of Kelley family members taken inside the house helped, though they were sepia, and advice came from the California Office of Historic Preservation, part of California State Parks, which was reviving the Ford House across the street. On the wall in Beth’s office on the first floor, in what is now the Lemos Library, she hung a framed maxim: “Better to preserve than repair, Better to repair than restore, Better to restore than rebuild.”

Eventually, the house was made structurally sound, detailed appropriately, and decorated suitably. However, it was more than a handsome landmark or a frilly house museum, in Karen’s opinion. It provided a valuable gathering place, but, more than that, it was a community builder. Individuals and groups as various as the high school senior class, businesses, and the Daughters of the American Revolution donated funds. Old timers and newcomers worked together on it. “We created something special,” she said; “It was bigger than itself.”

(www.kelleyhousemuseum.org)

CATCH OF THE DAY, Thursday, December 14, 2023

MOHAMMED ADAM, Stone Mountain, Georgia/Laytonville. “Possession of money for use” (in drug transaction, presumably), conspiracy.

ALAN BURICA, Willits. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%.

CAREY FRANKLIN, Ukiah. Protective order violation, resisting.

GUADALUPE GUTIERREZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JAMES HOFFMAN SR., Ukiah. Parole violation, bringing controlled substance into jail.

ANDREW HOPPER, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun on a public safety officer, hit&run with property damage, evasion, probation revocation.

COLE ICKES, Fort Bragg. Parole violation.

JAY JACKSON, Willits. County parole violation, failure to appear.

ABDU KIMO, Clarkston, Georgia/Laytonville. “Possession of money for use” (in drug transaction, presumably), conspiracy.

JEANETTE LONG, Ukiah. Forgery, county parole violation.

SAM ROWE III, Willits. Paraphernalia, failure to appear.

ROLANDO RUIZ, Ukiah. Evidence tampering, paraphernalia.

YOHANA SEBAHTU, Stone Mountain, Georgia/Laytonville. “Possession of money for use” (in drug transaction, presumably), conspiracy.

MICHAEL TENICA, Fort Bragg. Narcotics for sale, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

JONATHON THOMPSON, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

RUSTI-ROSE VASSAR, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

BUSTER POSEY SAYS SAN FRANCISCO’S DRUG AND CRIME ISSUES THWARTED GIANTS’ ATTEMPT TO SIGN OHTANI

by Stephanie K. Baer

Former San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey struck a nerve after he suggested in an interview on Tuesday that the city's drug crisis and crime hindered the team's pursuit of Japanese baseball star Shohei Ohtani.

Ohtani signed a record 10-year $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers this week after much fanfare over where the two-time American League Most Valuable Player would end up. Among those vying for the star hitter and pitcher included the SF Giants, who reportedly offered Ohtani a nearly identical deal.

But, alas, Ohtani, who spent six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels, chose to stay in Southern California—and signed with San Francisco's rival. Now Posey, a member of the Giants' ownership group, says that the problems on the city's streets have made it difficult for the team to attract top free agents like Ohtani.

"Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives, is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs," Posey told the Athletic. "Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things."

The Athletic reported that Posey said perception affected the Giants' attempts to sign Ohtani. Though Ohtani never publicly expressed concerns about the city, Posey told the sports news outlet, "There was some reservation with the state of the city," within his circle.

The same issues were a factor in the failed efforts to bring Japanese outfielder Seiya Suzuki to San Francisco two years ago, according to the Athletic.

Posey's comments have caused a stir on social media, with people questioning why the player turned owner would put this bad energy out there—and has he been "doom-loop pilled"?

But also, is this really a problem for star professional athletes, many of whom can afford to live in the Bay Area's wealthy suburban enclaves?

Meanwhile, mayoral hopeful and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie used the comments to bolster his argument for a change at City Hall, saying "failed leadership" is causing people who work and live in San Francisco "to question whether or not they want to be here."

"It's time to bring in the replacements," Lurie said in a video posted to X. We need new leadership, and with new leadership, the San Francisco comeback will begin."

Whatever Posey's reason for airing these concerns, Giants CEO and president Larry Baer has been working to fight against this exact perception of San Francisco. Baer, a San Francisco native, is a co-chair of Advance SF, the group behind the recent marketing campaign aimed at boosting the city's image. Baer did not immediately respond to The Standard's request for comment Wednesday.

In October, the baseball executive told SFGate the city's bad reputation is "way overstated."

"To the extent that anybody thinks that’s true, if a player might think that, it’s because of this narrative that’s out there that we need to debunk and defeat," Baer said.

(SF Chronicle)

ESTHER MOBLEY: 

What I'm Reading

Here’s what’s come across my desk recently: 

Researchers in Switzerland have trained an artificial intelligence algorithm to identify certain wines, and it's apparently 100% accurate. Wine Enthusiast attempts to unpack what it means: Does it prove terroir exists from a scientific standpoint? Is A.I. the end of professional wine tasting? 

We’ve covered a lot of the new happenings in St. Helena this year, but it’s striking to see them compiled on one list: 7x7 published a weekend guide to the Napa Valley town, noting how it’s been a monumental year there.

The California Wine Country movies keep on coming. The latest is “Holiday in the Vineyards,” which follows a wealthy man trying to acquire a small vineyard and a real estate broker wanting to protect it from big business, all set in a fictional town based on Lodi. Wine Spectator has more on the movie, now streaming on Netflix.

'STANDOFF' NEAR TAHOE LEAVES BEAR DEAD, MAN BITTEN

In an extremely rare incident, a California man was reportedly bitten numerous times by a black bear in Sierra County Friday.

The Calpine resident told authorities he let his dog outside to use the bathroom as usual on Saturday evening, but noticed the dog bolted. When he went outside to find him, a bear emerged from his neighbor’s yard and “charged at him,” the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release. 

The bear then reportedly bit the man on the hand, wrist and leg. The man escaped back into his home, retrieved a shotgun and shot the black bear while the animal was in a standoff with his dog. The shotgun blast seriously wounded the bear. 

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife subsequently located and euthanized the bear, then took the remains to Sacramento to test for rabies. The man is recovering after receiving treatment for his injuries in a hospital.

“The bear had been shot at close range, was bleeding heavily and mortally wounded,” Capt. Patrick Foy at Fish and Wildlife told SFGATE over the phone Wednesday. “The decision was made to euthanize it through compassion.” Foy said a wildlife officer killed the bear on-site with a patrol rifle. 

It’s an exceedingly unusual example of a bear, outside, charging at and repeatedly biting a human. The sheriff’s statement did not detail if the bear had cubs or if the dog was acting aggressively. 

“Very, very, very rare. I’ve never heard of that happening,” said Ann Bryant, executive director of the Bear League, a wildlife rescue organization in Tahoe. “The only time I heard of such a thing in 30 years of dealing with bears in California would be if the bear was in an enclosed area with no way out, and the person was blocking its escape route. Then they may push a person out of the way and maybe scratch them.”

Foy and Bryant agreed that bears attacking dogs is also rare. Bryant said it has happened on occasion, if a dog has a hold of a mother bear’s cub.

Black bears — the only bear species still in California — have never killed a human in the wild in the state’s recorded history. “They don’t pick fights,” Bryant said.

WHO GETS THE WATER IN CALIFORNIA? Whoever Gets There First.

As the world warms, the state is re-examining claims to its water that have gone unchallenged for generations.

by Raymond Zhong

The story of California’s water wars begins, as so many stories do in the Golden State, with gold.

The prospectors who raced westward after 1848 scoured fortunes out of mountainsides using water whisked, manically and in giant quantities, out of rivers. To impose some order on the chaos, the newcomers embedded in the state’s emerging water laws a cherished frontier principle: first come first served. The only requirement for holding on to this privileged status was to keep putting the water to work. In short, use it or lose it.

Their water rights assured, the settlers gobbled up land, laid down dams, ditches, communities. Shrewd barons turned huge estates into jackpots of grain, cattle, vegetables and citrus. California grew and grew and grew, sprouting new engines of wealth along the way: oil, Hollywood, Apple, A.I.

Yet, still today the state is at the mercy of claims to water that were staked more than a century ago, in that cooler, less crowded world. As drought and overuse sap the state’s streams and aquifers, California finds itself haunted by promises, made to generations of farmers and ranchers, of priority access to the West’s most precious resource, with scant oversight, essentially forever.

For many beloved products — nuts and grapes, milk and lettuce — America depends heavily on California. Its farms produce billions of dollars more each year than those in Texas, Nebraska and other states far more defined by agriculture. Water sustains jobs and livelihoods across the state’s economy, which outranks those of all but a handful of nations. Yet in no state does rainfall vary more each year, swinging between deluge and drought in a cycle that global warming is intensifying at both ends.

With so many people, plants and animals competing for this fickle bounty, water fights have shaped California at every stage of development, all the way back to its infancy as a state, when its abundance seemed limitless and settlers took it as their duty to commandeer it. Now, Californians are being forced to confront the limitations of nature’s endowment in new and urgent ways.

And so, to address this most 21st century of crises, a state that prides itself on creating the future is first reckoning with its past.

In the Central Valley, home to some of the nation’s most productive cropland, officials are taking a hard new look at water rights that date back to the 19th century. They are asking farmers to provide historical records to back their claims and using satellite data to size up who is taking river water and how much. A Times analysis of state data identified many growers who reported their use in questionable ways.

In California’s rugged north, regulators are considering throttling supplies to cattle ranchers and other users who for decades have been siphoning too much from the streams, at times in open disregard of the law, worsening a collapse in salmon populations.

And in desert highlands of the Central Coast, the state’s efforts to stop groundwater depletion have spurred two of the world’s largest carrot growers to sue all of their neighboring landowners, big and small, so they can keep pumping.

California has been regulating river flows, however imperfectly, for more than a century. But it didn’t even begin restricting groundwater extraction in a major way until a mere decade ago. Farmers in many areas must now figure out how to stay in business by using less groundwater themselves — or by ensuring their neighbors do.

“The reality is that California had a pretty soft touch in water rights administration” compared with many Western states, said E. Joaquin Esquivel, the chair of the state’s water board, California’s main regulator. “The system worked for as long as it really could.”

Climate change is only deepening the strains on the state’s rivers, which are essential to cities and farms alike. In dry years, less snow is piling up in the mountains to feed them. And more of what does flow downriver ends up evaporating, soaking into parched topsoil or being pulled into the ground as farmers pump out the aquifers.

How California manages could have ramifications well beyond occasional curbs on watering lawns. In the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Valley’s enormous southern half, researchers estimate that more than half a million acres of farmland may need to be taken out of cultivation by 2040 to stabilize the region’s aquifers.

California is hardly the only place where people are reconciling with choices made generations ago about land, water and other shared resources. A Times data investigation this year found groundwater in distress nationwide and exposed a broad failure to address exploitation or even reliably track water use. Yet, few places have wrested such immense riches out of their natural inheritance as California has. New choices about how to share that inheritance might not be able to avoid cutting into one pot of riches or another.

“We can’t fix it without stepping on toes,” said David Webb, who has worked for decades to protect the Shasta River in California’s far north, one of many overworked streams statewide. Come summertime, it’s not unheard of that ranches and farms all but drain the Shasta to a trickle.

* * *

Fixing ‘Use It Or Lose It’

Nowhere do the strands of California water history get tangled into trickier knots than in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the vast fertile estuary where the main rivers that nourish the Central Valley pour into the San Francisco Bay, then out to sea.

Mr. Esquivel, the water board’s chair, called the Delta “our most wicked of problems.”

The heart of it is that many of the area’s farms and irrigation districts have been drawing from the Delta’s braided channels for well over a century, before the state even had a water board. This gives them extraordinary privilege in California’s seniority-based system: When there isn’t enough water to go around, they get first dibs. And for a long time, a lot of them didn’t have to provide the state with many details about how much water they actually used.

That is starting to change. Not only is the water board demanding more information from growers on their use, but it’s also starting this year to use satellite analysis that estimates how much evaporates from their fields, a powerful check on farmers’ claims.

All of this is helping the state form a clearer picture of where water goes in the Delta.

Yet growers’ self-reported numbers still contain peculiarities, suggesting that many are probably submitting ballpark estimates rather than precise measurements. The Times analyzed state data from 2010 to 2022 and found that monthly use reports associated with about a quarter of Delta water rights contained a significant share of duplicates — identical numbers, over and over, for months. Sometimes years.

Another issue: Many Delta growers claim not just one water right, but several. California’s use-it-or-lose-it system provides an incentive for them to report using more water than they actually do, or even to count the same use under more than one claimed water right.

Faulty or misleading data can have far-reaching consequences during drought. If lots of growers are double-counting their use, then officials may think less water is available for everybody else than there actually is.

David Weisenberger, the general manager of the Banta-Carbona Irrigation District, which claims rights on the San Joaquin River that date back to 1911, said he double-reported the district’s use for years to avoid losing its water rights.

Recently, he began providing more accurate accounting after the water board’s lawyers assured him that he wouldn’t be forfeiting the district’s rights by doing so. But part of him still worries about future cuts.

“Who knows what they’ll do?” he said on a recent bright morning, driving past neat rows of grapes in his district’s patch of the Delta.

Mr. Weisenberger’s father grew beans and grain in the Central Valley. His grandfather raised cattle. Water disputes used to be handled locally, he said. If someone didn’t think they were getting their rightful share, they would go talk to whoever might be taking too much upriver. Maybe they’d sue.

Neighbors held neighbors accountable, Mr. Weisenberger said, so state officials had no need to know how much water everybody was taking. Today, though, “they’re headed in the direction of ‘God squad’ — they know better than anybody,” he said.

Already in California’s most recent droughts, the board has used new data and analysis techniques to justify deploying aggressive emergency orders to stop thousands of growers in the Delta watershed from taking water. “Emergency regulations don’t leave any room for due process,” Ed Zuckerman, a third-generation Delta farmer, said. “We will fight it to our last breath.”

So far, though, it isn’t the Delta where the board’s efforts have prompted the fiercest complaints. Or the most blatant defiance.

* * *

The Battle Of Cattle And Salmon

Follow the Sacramento River 200 miles upstream, past its headwaters in the shadow of Mount Shasta, and you start to feel about as far from California’s coastal centers of influence as you would on Mars.

Morning mists hover in the pine-perfumed air. Cattle graze on lush mountain meadows. This is a proudly independent-minded corner of the state, with an on-again, off-again history of trying to secede from it.

It’s here that the water board this year began contemplating a quietly explosive policy: To protect the imperiled salmon that spawn in the Scott and Shasta Rivers, it is considering permanently limiting ranchers’ access to the streams, effectively circumscribing their long-established water rights. The board has done this in both rivers during California’s latest droughts. Now it might restrict their use for good, drought or no drought.

For decades, ranches and farms have been slurping the Shasta and Scott down to small fractions of their natural flows in dry years. Migrations of Chinook and coho salmon have plummeted, harming the Native American communities whose diet and culture center on the fish.

The problem received a burst of fresh attention in the severely dry summer of 2022, when some ranchers in the Shasta Valley flouted state orders to limit water use. To save their herds, they turned on their pumps. The river’s flows quickly dropped by more than half.

For eight days, this continued. And the water board was powerless to do anything but impose its largest possible punishment: a fine of $500 per day of illegal diversion, split between the 80 or so scofflaws. In other words, $50 each, a paltry price to pay.

In response, state lawmakers have put forth a bill that would increase penalties to $10,000 a day.

Mr. Esquivel, the water board’s chair, called stronger salmon protections “long overdue.” When it comes to the state’s treatment of the Karuk, Yurok and other tribes, “there’s a history that has to be acknowledged,” he said.

Economic development has transformed California’s northernmost landscapes in great waves. Fur trappers decimated the beavers. Loggers sawed through old-growth forests. Miners dredged the Scott River in pursuit of gold, creating a 600-acre gravel moonscape that remains to this day.

All throughout, salmon have paid a price. In the 1930s, as many as 82,000 Chinook migrated up the Shasta each fall. Last year, only 4,500 made the trip.

“Our religion was salmon,” said Kenneth Brink, the vice chair of the Karuk tribal council. “When the salmon went away, the people went away, the ceremonies went away.”

Ranchers, for their part, see a parallel threat in water restrictions. One directed at their way of life, rather than the tribes’.

Leaving so much water in the rivers would mean “immediate lights out” for agriculture, said Theodora Johnson, who raises cattle in the Scott Valley. “My kids are seventh generation here,” she said. “I have to do everything I can to try to save it.”

* * *

Antiquated, Unsearchable Records

To understand one reason California struggles so mightily to track its water, you might visit a small room in Sacramento that is jam-packed with some of the state’s most valuable mysteries.

There are documents written in the ornate cursive of bygone times. Corduroy-bound ledgers. Maps whose labels have come unglued. Sepia photos of charmingly unphotogenic subjects: dirt fields, pear orchards, wooden sluices.

These are the water board’s records of every water right it has handed out since the early 20th century. Millions of musty files, smelling of history. And they are unwieldy, unsearchable — a mess.

Starting next month, all of this forgotten paper will, for the first time, be scanned and made accessible online to help resolve water disputes and better parcel out supplies during droughts. But soon, the board could go even further, demanding more information from farmers who hold the state’s oldest water claims, those dating back to the pioneer era.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law giving the board express authority to investigate whether these users have valid rights and, if so, are using them appropriately — a prospect that has rankled farmers up and down the state.

In the Central Valley, “you’ve got so many water-rights holders who believe their water rights are whatever their granddaddy said they were,” said Felicia Marcus, a visiting fellow at Stanford and former chair of the water board.

At the moment, the board’s records on California’s senior-most water users are sparse. Deeds, maps and notices might well exist that would tell regulators more about the origins of longstanding claims. But many of those documents have spent the past century or more hidden away in libraries and courthouses, or locked up at farms and irrigation districts.

The water board is hoping to bring more of them out of the shadows.

No other state has “this arbitrary thing that says that you can’t even ask basic questions about the validity of a right” just because it’s old, said State Senator Ben Allen, who proposed the bill that the governor recently signed.

The water board will “start small” with its new powers, said Erik Ekdahl, its deputy director in charge of water rights. It will first ask growers to update records and data here or there. As Mr. Ekdahl put it, the board might ask things like: “Hey, can you go in and update your place-of-use map? Because right now the one we have is literally a bunch of 3-by-5 pictures that you’ve taken and drawn on with a Sharpie, and we can’t actually make heads or tails of it.”

Eventually, though, the board might start digging deeper. And that has farmers on edge.

That’s because files that might help validate someone’s 19th-century water claim might already be lost to time, said John Herrick, a lawyer who represents growers in the Delta. “You have to find somebody’s journal that said, ‘I got up today on Aug. 21 in 1890 and opened the sluice gate,’” he said. “Jesus! That doesn’t exist.”

* * *

Baby Carrots, Big Conflict

In a sun-scorched pocket of desert between the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Caliente Range, there is a length of Highway 166 flanked each summer by rows of lacy, bright-green stalks. These are the carrots of the Cuyama Valley, many destined to be clipped and shaved into those quintessential emblems of American supermarket ingenuity: baby carrots.

Of late, these carrots have become an emblem of something else, too: the state’s painful groundwater crisis.

About a decade ago — and, arguably, decades too late — California legislators finally did something about the fact that many of the state’s vital aquifers were being pumped dry beneath their feet. They passed a law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, to end overuse and depletion.

Seen one way, the law is remarkably optimistic. Its premise is that neighbors will be neighborly: Instead of issuing top-down orders on how to conserve, the law leaves it up to local groups to work it out among themselves.

But in retrospect, this may have overestimated Californians’ neighborliness when water is at stake.

In Cuyama, the corporate owners of the carrot fields are suing every other landowner in the valley: farms, vineyards, ranches, even the tiny school district. Their aim, effectively, is to make their neighbors share more of the burden of reducing water use under Cuyama’s sustainability plan. The case goes to trial next month.

“They know that their water table has gone down,” said Jim Wegis, who grows olives and pistachios nearby and is a defendant in the case. “It keeps going down. And they want us to help support their habit.”

Daniel T. Clifford, the general counsel for Bolthouse Properties, one of the plaintiffs, said the valley’s groundwater plan had left the companies no choice but to sue. The plan calls for total pumping to be cut by half to two-thirds over the next 15 years. So far, though, it is imposing those cuts only in the area of the valley that is dominated by Bolthouse and the other carrot giant, Grimmway.

“That’s not fair or consistent with California water law,” said Robert G. Kuhs, a lawyer representing the other plaintiffs, the owners of the land that Grimmway farms. “We strive to be good neighbors.”

In their section of the valley, the two carrot growers have used more water in recent decades than everyone else combined. Groundwater levels there are projected to fall by as much as seven feet a year, compared with two feet or less in other areas.

Others in Cuyama suspect that the carrot companies are trying to make as much money as they can in the valley before water restrictions make growing unviable and they move their operations someplace else.

Mr. Clifford, the Bolthouse Properties lawyer, said the carrot growers would always need to farm in Cuyama. The reason, he said, is all of us, the carrot-eating public.

“The American consumer has grown to absolutely rely” on being able to buy carrots 365 days a year, Mr. Clifford said. The high elevation of the Cuyama Valley makes it possible to produce them when it’s too hot to do so elsewhere. “They want that carrot year-round,” he said.

On this at least, he and Mr. Wegis, one of the neighboring growers his company is suing, can agree. Except that Mr. Wegis sees it as part of the problem.

“We as farmers have spoiled the public,” Mr. Wegis said. “Everybody’s used to going into the store and seeing everything they want, all the time.”

A separate Times analysis of self-reported water use in the Delta was based on state water board data from 2010 to 2022. Any reported amount of water use that was repeated more than once was counted as a duplicate, except for values of 0 or 1 acre-foot. In past guidance to Delta water users on avoiding double-counting under multiple water rights, the state board has suggested recording 1 acre-foot as a placeholder. If 25 percent or more of the monthly use values associated with a given water right were duplicates, then that water right was regarded as having a significant share of them.

(SF Chronicle)

MATT TAIBBI: 

Last week, Racket published “Lying Was the Only Plan Biden Ever Had in Ukraine,” after Joe Biden and National Security spokesman John Kirby declared Ukraine would be “overrun” and “lose the war” if Congress did not immediately pass a $61 billion aid package. After years of cheerleading, the abrupt proclamations, I wrote, “lifted the veil on years of untrammeled and proud — yet ultimately purposeless and sociopathic — lying by the Biden administration.”

This week, the Washington Post published almost exactly the same story, chronicling the same succession of “rosy assessments” on Ukraine offered by White House and military officials. However, the Post reversed the conclusion, faulting not the lies, but one accidental truth. “U.S. officials were ‘furious’ about leaks exposing Ukraine war concerns” is one of the more elaborate and ambitious spin jobs you’ll see. It’s impressive, but not easy to follow. In short:

Earlier this year, while America was resupplying Ukraine in preparation for a major counteroffensive, “the Pentagon sprung a leak”;

While U.S. officials had been making one confident prediction after another in public, the secret intelligence documents that slipped into public view thanks to Massachusetts Air National Guardsman and “Pentagon Leaker” Jack Teixeira showed a “catastrophic situation” which was “grinding toward a stalemate” and a “protracted war beyond 2023”;

This “provided a sharp contrast to Washington’s optimistic messaging on the war,” i.e. it made people like Biden, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and retired General Ben “Ukraine will liberate Crimea by August” Hodges look like jerks;

This “undercutting” of the administration’s “overly sanguine” assessments on Ukraine emboldened critics of the war, who have now turned “into a powerful bloc that has held up President Biden’s $106 billion supplemental funding request.”

If Teixeira hadn’t let slip that officials were freaking out in private about Ukraine’s prospects, members of Congress might not have been emboldened to filibuster Biden’s spending bill as they did last week. Therefore, learning the truth was bad, and we can blame the leaks, not the factory-produced river of hogwash dumped on the world for the last 22 months, for the dilemma now facing Biden and Ukraine. How’s that for Beltway bull-slinging? If I could make a balloon animal version, I’d be charging ten grand an appearance at birthday parties.....

ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

So how much cash did Zelensky end up with yesterday? He was looking for $100 billion. I did see somewhere Biden handed over $200 million out of the petty change jar, but what can you get for $200 million? Not a lot, probably a day's worth of artillery shells and rations for a few weeks. The US is paying the salary of the Ukraine Armed Forces, Civil Service, Social Security, hospital staff & teachers unions. Now that’s running into some serious money. One wonders, where is it all coming from? Have people in DC looked around and noticed how impoverished & squalid our own cities have become? Days are short & winter is closing in as battered & abused Ukrainian soldiers hunker down on the frozen steppe as Russian artillery shells fall on their heads.

MAUREEN CALLAHAN: 'The Crown' goes out with class and sass, giving us a dignified goodbye to the Queen while going all-in on William v. Harry, reimagining Charles, Camilla, and a young Kate Middleton, lacing it all with the perfect amount of camp. Harry, pardon the pun, is spared no indignity here. He is depicted as an angry, bitter, hopeless, recalcitrant loser whose simmering resentment of William would only ever lead to ruin. Worse, he's given a Three Stooges-like bowl cut with teeny tiny bangs. It's the look and effect of a dunce. He is twice staged on or near a toilet, drinking copiously, and lamenting his ginger-hood. 'I'm just jealous', he says to William in the first episode of series 6 part 2, called Willsmania. 'In the history of humankind, no one's ever screamed for someone with red hair'. That dialogue is the first of many cuts. Harry exists here as a mere foil to William, an also-ran, the much-pitied Number Two whose energy is only ever dark and disturbing...

ISRAELI GAZA HOLOCAST

Dear Editor and Major,

I am reluctant to write this, and am heart-broken to have to. I realize by so doing I risk alienating my Jewish friends, allies and acquaintances, but I must in light of the Amalek which is currently occurring in Gaza.

Amalek refers to the section of the Old Testament Bible -- Samuel 15: 2-3, ""Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I will punish what Am'alek did to Israel in opposing them on the way, when they came out of Egypt. Now go and smite Am'alek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass".

Samuel 15: 8, "And he took Agag the king of the Amal'ekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword".

This is the Biblical history we are confronted with today, one that cannot be ignored or glossed over.

"The past isn't dead, it's not even the past" -- William Faulkner.

Israel's siege today, yesterday and tomorrow represents a fulfillment of Am'alek. Postponed until today and tomorrow.

To take another point, Let's look at the 1947 boots-on-the-ground situation in then Palestine. European Jewish Immigrants -- in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe and in anticipation of imminent Jewish statehood -- strove to drive the native Arab Palestinians out of their rightful ancestral homeland. To achieve a 'Greater Israel'.

The displaced Palestinians (still) term this era as the 'Nakba' -- The catastrophe, wherein hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled from their homes to escape European Jewish slaughter. Such was the birth of the new-born state of Israel. Killing, slaughter and displacement. Nakba. Remember this term, this concept, this Reality.

The rapid influx of European Ashkenazi Jews overwhelmed the local indigenous Muslim Arabs along with indigenous Sephardic Jews, whom the European Ashkenazi considered 'primitive'.

Without belaboring the point, today's Gaza War represents the final act of the ethic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's hidden agenda has always been to cleanse Gaza and the West Bank of Palestinian presence.

These are not "West Bank Settlers", they are West Bank Squatters. In defiance of both Israeli and International Law.

The "War" will not end until Gaza is obliterated, both physically and metaphorically?

The Gaza "War" is one of retribution and revenge. Bibi Netenyahu has to have it to remain in power. As soon as it ends, his regime in Israel falls. Everyone knows this.

As long as Biden's administration supports this de facto genocide in Gaza, his standing will fall.

Biden needs to tell Netanyahu, " No more bombs, no more bullets, no more anything. You are a pariah. Your intelligence services knew of these plans of Hamas for over a year, yet did nothing to thwart them. You helped funnel 10s of millions of $ to Hamas over the decades in the hope that it would weaken the prospects of a two-state solution to this mess. You -- Bibi Netanyahu -- and your minions are complicit in this mess.

I don't expect my little screed herein will make much of a difference, but I am compelled to say it, write it.

This "War on Hamas" is another phony war, designed to distract folks from the reality that Zionist Israel means to cleanse both Gaza and the West Back of Palestinian habitation. All for the greater glory of a greater Israel  Prove me wrong, please.

There is no reasonable two-state solution here. Israel does not want and actively resists any such two-state solution. Hence Likud's support for Hamas.

— Lee Edmundson

JEFF BLANKFORT: 

“But in the meantime, [said Biden] we’re not going to do a damn thing other than protect Israel in the process. Not a single thing.

"But, folks, there’s a lot to do—a lot to do. We’re going to have to be—as strong supporters of Israel, we’re going to have to be honest about what we’re doing and what the goal is. The goal is Israel’s security. And if Israel—Israel’s sec—if there were no—many of you heard me say over the years: Were there not an Israel, we’d have to invent one—we’d have to invent one.

"I believe, without Israel as a freestanding state, not a Jew in the world is safe—not a Jew in the world is safe. It’s up to what happens at the moment.”

Call Genocide Joe Tues to Thursday morning (Eastern Time) at 202-456-1414 and remind him through the volunteer operator, that he's the president of the United States not Israel but for not much longer.