Mendocino County Today: Sunday 3/3/24

Cold Showers | Little Lake | Joshua Freeman | Upcoming Election | AVUSD News | Firefighter Rollover | Pet Sugar | Ag Classes | Permit Fee | Fox Treed | Arrest Experience | Marina Manager | Blonde Joke | Birds | Ed Notes | Sunset | Jail ODs | Hopmunk Celebration | Fentanyl Effect | AV Events | Foodbank Days | District Race | SEIU Mockel | Vote Cline | Experience? | Political Discourse | Mendo Buildings | Morally Corrupt | Neil Benefit | Personal Peacefulness | Yesterday's Catch | Croc/Gator | Salmon Die-Off | Mom Devil | Stacking Firewood | Amerika | Marco Radio | Dealer | Pup Save | Mothman | Live Resin | Opium Den | Party Extinction | Bond | Protecting Narrative | Audit Success | Buzzword Definitions | Bipartisan Bombs | US/Ukraine | Hell & Earth | Love/Shame | Great Joy | Galloway Victory

SHOWERY CONDITIONS continue today, bringing small hail to the coast and snow accumulations as they track further inland. Activity should continue through the day today then wane tonight. Another system approaches Monday bringing mostly rain, along with snow in Trinity county above 3000 feet Monday afternoon and Tuesday. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): I have a partly cloudy 41F with .34" of fresh rainfall on the coast this Sunday morning. Less thunder today with showers. Rain Monday & Tuesday then a break for a few days. Overnight temps will warm up Monday night.

POTTER VALLEY RESIDENT JOSHUA FREEMAN FOUND DEAD IN RUSSIAN RIVER

On Friday, March 1, 2024 at approximately 10:05 AM, Mendocino County Sheriff's Office patrol personnel responded to the area of the Russian River near Norgard Lane, to investigate a report of a body discovered in the river. Sheriff's Office Deputies, Community Service Officers, and a Patrol Sergeant arrived in the area and met with personnel from the Ukiah Police Department. It was confirmed that an obviously deceased person was resting against a tree, still partially submerged in the swift-moving water.

Personnel from Ukiah Valley Fire Authority, Little Lake Fire District, and Hopland Fire Protection District were summoned to assist with recovering the deceased person. A Swift Water Response Team deployed and recovered the deceased person from the river. Law enforcement personnel recognized the individual as Joshua Scott Freeman of Potter Valley, a life-long Mendocino County resident.

No obvious signs of foul play were observed. At this time there is an active coroner's investigation to determine the classification and cause of Freeman's death. A forensic autopsy is pending for this coroner's investigation.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is requested to contact the Sheriff's Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086, or the anonymous tip line at 707-234-2100.

ELECTION DAY QUICKLY APPROACHING

With Election Day quickly approaching and with the probability of storms in Mendocino County, we want to remind voters to vote and return ballots at their earliest convenience. 

Friday will be the last day The Elections Office can mail ballots out to County residents. If you cannot locate your ballot; contact the Elections Office and staff will assist you with determining your options for casting a vote. The Elections Office can only count a ballot that is accompanied by your signature. Voters are reminded to put their return address on the envelope in which you mail your ballot and sign the envelope. Voters can visit a Polling Place on Election Day or come into the Elections Office at 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, any day prior to Election Day to get a ballot. If a person wishes to pick up a ballot for their spouse, that person must bring an authorization note from their spouse. 

Election law requires voted ballots be mailed by Election Day, preferably with a post mark, and received in by the Elections Office within 7 days of Election Day, or by March 12, 2024 to be counted. With the probability of storms voters may consider mailing their ballots prior to Election Day. Ways to return your ballot include taking your ballot to a Polling Location listed below on Election Day; using one of the Ballot Drop off location also listed below or mailing via USPS. 

If you have any questions, please call us at 707 234-6819 or email us at mcvotes@mendocinocounty.gov 

AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

What a week! Once again, congratulations to Anahi Anguiano and Marissa Alvarez and their student volunteers for staging the drunk driving awareness event last week. A huge debt of gratitude to Chief Avila and crew at the Anderson Valley Fire Department and to CHP and Cal Star. This was an unbelievable multi-agency effort for a good cause. Marissa and Anahi were featured in articles in the “Anderson Valley Advertiser” on Tuesday and in the “Ukiah Daily Journal” on Saturday. We appreciate the press recognition for this student-led education event.

Some important dates!

The College and Career Fair for students and their families 6th grade - 12th grade is Wednesday, March 13 at 4:50-7:30. Dinner by Ms. Rhoades will be served in the cafeteria (bring your plates to the gym) and then we have break out rooms with all kinds of college and career speakers including the Boonville Hotel, AV Fire, Fish and Game, Mendocino College, requirements for A-G, Mendocino Lumber, trade unions and much more! Call either school office to make your free dinner reservation for the family! This is a great opportunity to have your student start thinking about career and beyond and visit with your neighbors over a yummy dinner.

At the elementary school, Family Arts Night is planned for Thursday, March 21 at 5. This is an evening of art and poetry projects guided by Cathleen Micheaels and a tasty free dinner cooked by Miss Libby! Sign up at the elementary office.

Spring sports are in full swing with Baseball, Track, and Tennis and our Junior High Boys journeyed to a tournament for basketball this weekend. I am grateful to all of our coaches for taking this on.

I am going to close with some good deeds. A huge shout out to Omar Anguiano working on a weekend with Steve Rhoades to repair a teacher's car. Good deeds like that don’t happen in other places… I also would like to send our wishes for a speedy recovery to Bruce Anderson of the Anderson Valley Advertiser. He has been very supportive publishing the district’s news, sports scores, events and photos. The AVA has been a huge partner for sharing information within the community and beyond. I send Mr. Anderson warm wishes for restored health. He is still writing up a storm, but we miss seeing him in his hat and coat dressing up the streets of Boonville! We will see you soon Mr. Anderson!

Have a safe weekend.

Sincerely yours,

Louise Simson, Superintendent

Anderson Valley Unified School District

TED WILLIAMS

Brian Lewis is a Volunteer Firefighter serving Mendocino County for 5 years in Leggett. On the night of March 1st, Brian was responding to a fire call after hearing the town post office was on fire after a large redwood tree had been struck by lightning. Brian was on his way to respond in the storm when his vehicle hydroplaned resulting in a rollover. He was uninjured but his only vehicle was badly damaged. Immediately after the accident he got a ride and continued to assist the volunteer fire department at the scene of the fire, helping to keep the fire and electrical lines form continuing to burn the surrounding homes and buildings.

UKIAH SHELTER PET OF THE WEEK

Beautiful Sugar was born at the shelter last May and was adopted when she was 10 weeks old. She returned to the shelter in January; her adopter abandoned her at the shelter’s front door. Sugar is a very friendly and energetic young dog who will need lots of exercise. If you’re looking for a walking or jogging partner, Sugar is your gal! Sugar’s mom is a Husky and Sugar has a lot of the Husky traits. The AKC describes the Husky breed as: “Huskies were developed to work in packs, pulling light loads at moderate speeds over vast frozen expanses. They’re friendly, fastidious and dignified, quick and nimble-footed. As pack dogs, they generally enjoy family life and get on well with other dogs.” Sugar would enjoy a playful canine friend in her new home. Sugar is now 10 months old and a stunning 45 pounds.

For more about Sugar and all our adoptable dogs and cats, head to mendoanimalshelter.com For information about adoptions and to set up a meet and greet with one of our great dogs, call 707-467-6453. You can begin the adoption process on our website by filling out our Adoption Application. Check out our Facebook Page and please share our posts!

AV AG CLASSES

Have an incoming freshman or older student next year at Anderson Valley High School? Here are the awesome courses being offered in the Ag Dept next year. 

These courses involve hands on learning as well as developing leadership skills through involvement in FFA. Students have the opportunity to travel, meeting other students in agriculture from California and beyond. Students are also exposed to a wide variety of agriculture careers.

SCOTT WARD

I was at Planning and Building yesterday for a client to pull an electrical permit to change out a 200 amp service. The permit fee increased from $260 to $560. The fee increased over 100%! There is no way on God’s Green Earth that this is a reasonable fee. 

The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 for this usery. Because of my protestations about the unjustified and illegal fee increase, the CEO’s office now has Planning and Building staff using time clocks to track their time spent on assisting customers. 

This is being done after the fee increase was approved by the Board of Supervisors. Typical Mendocino County governance. Talk about shutting the barn door after the horse got out. 

I submitted a Public Records Request for a copy of the training materials used by county management to train staff on how to use the time clocks. The results of my request showed that there are no training materials. Some staff members I have spoken to have stopped using the time clocks altogether or make up the time spent on customer service. 

The county elected officials and its management staff are the reason Mendocino County is on a downhill slide. We deserve better.

CUFFED & STUFFED

Editor & Readers,

As a frequent flyer in and out of the Mendocino County Jail since 1986, almost 40 years, I have seen a lot. I've seen Sheriffs come and go, Jail staff come and go. And I have watched the world go round and round. Many things have changed and many remain the same. 

The one constant that I have witnessed and experienced is the conduct of the jail deputies in Ukiah. I hate to sound like the devil's advocate here, but they have always maintained a high level of professionalism. 

I can not speak to the validity of those who claim abuse by jail staff. I can only speak of my own experience. I am always left somewhat baffled by the stories I’ve read over the years in the AVA alleging such abuse. 

In reading with interest the allegations that Kelli Johnson has lodged against Mendocino deputies and jail staff, I am baffled by her claims. Forgive me for being critical and passing judgment. Allow me to explain my skepticism.

Kelli claims that she was left unseat-belted in the cop car? As someone who has been cuffed and stuffed in a cop car many times, I can say that it is the first thing they do. Not necessarily because they care about your safety, but it's a liability issue.

Once in the backseat everything you do and say is being recorded. Cops know that and that is why a seatbelt is mandatory. 

Kelli then claims they gave her a “rough ride” to Ukiah. Anyone who has ever driven Highway 20 knows that it is a rough road to drive. I would imagine it would be especially rough to a drunk chick in a cop car. It doesn't take three hours to drive from Fort Bragg to Ukiah on a good day. It's about an hour and a half, less for cops who tend to be heavy footed on the gas.

These two claims tend to cause my skepticism. 

In my humble opinion, this is what I believe happened:

I believe a self-entitled, spoiled ass brat came over from Sacramento and got drunk on the beach. She got drunk and acted like a crazy woman. Someone called the cops. The cops tossed her in the back seat of the patrol car and drove her to Ukiah where they dumped her at the jail. I believe she terrorized the cops who drove her to Ukiah by screaming profanities at them the entire trip like most spoiled brats do. Once in the jail her tirade continued. She was enraged at not being treated with Princess gloves. After all, “How dare you?! I am a lawyer!”

Now she is on this personal crusade to prove to the world that she was traumatized and abused by Mendocino cops and jail staff when in fact it's the opposite! Everyone who has had the misfortune of having contact with her that day surely were the victims of her tantrum and disrespect!

Again, this is only my personal opinion. If I could offer Kelli Johnson a bit of advice it would be to pick her battles more carefully. This is one she will not win. I would also remind her that she is local lucky her tantrum occurred in Mendocino County and at the Ukiah jail! If it had occurred in Sacramento the jail staff there would have handed her ass to her.

Nonetheless, good luck kill her. May she find some peace.

Respectfully,

Allen ‘Sonny’ Crow

Vacaville

PS. To my attorney, ally and friend Mr. Kevin Davenport who continues to come through for me with only seconds left on the clock, I appreciate you, brother.

THANKS FOR WOKING US

Editor,

In the February 21 edition there was a blonde joke.

Blonde jokes are no less hateful then black, yellow or brown jokes. The one in the February 21 edition is misogynistic and anti-white. Did you allow this joke because the bigot protagonist of the joke got what was coming to him? Well, this did nothing to cancel out the harm caused by proposing the “blonde joke” in the first place.

Why? Because as long as we are starting with the premise that “blondes are dumb or airheaded,” we are perpetuating that practice regardless of the conclusion of the joke. Any joke that is “funny” at the expense of another person's identity (race, gender, etc.) is a level of attack, especially those old, familiar blond, asian, black, mexican or “you fill in the blank” jokes that we grew up with.

Hating is not reserved for whites against blacks or men against women or anyone against anyone. Eliminating racism and sexism and all the "isms," comes down to eliminating all hate. Can we all deal with our own resentments another way?

Thank you for your time.

Patricia Hall

Gualala

ED NOTE: Here’s the offending joke. Readers can decide for themselves how offensive or sexist it is.

A blonde was in need of some quick cash, so she walked around her neighborhood, knocking on doors and asking people if they had any work she could do. Eventually, she found a man who offered to pay her $50 to paint his porch. The man gave her a can of paint and a brush, told her to let him know when she was done, and went back inside the house to watch TV with his wife.

Once the man had returned to his wife, he snickered loudly. His wife asked what the man had done, and when he told her, she remarked,“George, you are such an s.o.b. You know perfectly well our porch circles more than half of this house and will take that poor doofus woman forever to paint.”

About 30 minutes later, the blonde traipsed into the house with the paint can and brush, and proudly informed the man that she had finished her job. 

Amazed, the man handed her $50 and complimented her on the speed with which she had worked. 

The blonde replied, “Well, it was really hard, but I got it done easily after a while. Oh, by the way, it’s a Ferrari, not a Porsche.”

ED NOTES

NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished, as the old saw has it. An older lady I know in a community not far from here felt sorry for a “homeless man about 40,” so sorry she invited him to shelter himself in the winter months in her spare bedroom. “I told him he could stay here until spring,” the Samaritan says. “He never drank, didn't seem to use drugs, he was always very polite, and he was very neat and clean. I talked to his father once on the phone, and his father was so happy that his son had at last straightened up.”

The Samaritan seemed to be still happy at the memory of the homeless man's father's long-distance happiness, as she resumed her story, me dreading the outcome since the initial revelation of her in the context of a “homeless man about 40” sharing her apartment could not have a good outcome. 

The old lady continued. “His father died suddenly of a heart attack a week after I'd talked to him, but I know he died happy that his son was doing so well he'd even managed to go back to college. I have no idea what had happened to the son to cause his father to worry about him. I thought it would be impolite to ask, and the son was very quiet. I thought if he wanted me to know things about him he would have told me himself.” 

The Samaritan said the homeless man was “very tall — about 6'4", very lean and strong-looking. He wore his hair in a pony tail.” I'm thinking, uh oh. Dangerous person alert, maybe even a major psycho, doubly dangerous because he's fit, silent, neat, unknown background. And he's done lots of institutional time, which is where his orderliness comes from. Fitness too, maybe. The truly dangerous often seem to be in pretty good shape, perhaps realizing that a fit psycho is a more effective psycho.

”But when I asked him to leave when the weather warmed up, he started stalking me,” the old lady said, her fear audible. “He'd knock on my door at odd hours and run away. Or he'd throw pebbles at my windows late at night. the police almost caught him one night but he ran away, and I guess he was faster than they were. They know about him, but they can't catch him. He was scaring me. I saw him on the street one day and I told him, ’Nobody's rejected you. Nobody hates you. You don't have to do this to me.’ Then, just last night, he called me up to say he was filing a complaint against me for harassing him.

"I got into my car and drove to the police station. It was almost dark. He was outside talking into that night telephone the police have outside when their office is closed. When two policemen came outside to see what was going on he started to fight them. I couldn't believe it! They got him calmed down, handcuffed him and took him inside. They told me not to worry about him, that they'd take care of it. But he was out of jail the next day, and I don't know what to do because he says he's going to get me." 

He was out because the judge OR'd him, apparently ignoring the fact that the cops had had to take him into custody by force. I advised the old lady to immediately get a temporary restraining order and hope for the best. In the meantime, the police have stepped up surveillance of her place and everyone hopes for the best.

WAY BACK, when I was still young enough to be violence-prone myself, I got invited to a meeting of Coast Rotary because I was running for supervisor and they had to invite me. The “mixer” at the bar preceded an inedible meal and Rotary rituals, the whole affair painful beyond all reason. My assigned host, who I can still remember in a literal sweat out of the pure anxiety of his task, said to some guy at the bar, ”I'd like you to meet Bruce Anderson.” Without turning around the guy replied, “I don't want to meet you or Bruce Anderson,” as the other noon hour drunks laughed at his wit. I grabbed the guy by his shoulders and whirled him around on his stool and grinned into his rheumy eyes, “But I'd like to meet YOU!” and stuck out my hand. Which he shook. The next time I ran for supervisor, Coast Rotary didn't invite me to lunch, but once was enough. I bring it up to illustrate the point that violence, or the threat of it, is just about the only guarantee of civility we have left to us these days, especially in encounters with your outback Chamber of Commerce type, only two generations removed from the lynch mob. Thereafter, I mostly get hassled by the people I suppose you could call ”progressive” if you didn't know them. They sent crazy women and fey squaw men out to do their hassling, and if you even looked like you were going to put a hand on one of them they went for their cell phones for 911 and the Blue Meanies they were always complaining about. Myself, as an old school guy, I've always thought people should assume direct responsibility for their provocations whatever the consequences or shut up.

SEARCHING FOR ANSWERS

To the Editor:

It burns my ass raw that the Sheriff's Office does not take responsibility for the five fentanyl overdoses, including one overdose death, in the Mendocino County Jail.

Let me be clear: County corrections deputies are sworn to the "care, custody and control" of inmates, and that includes protecting inmates from themselves.

Some deputy failed somewhere. The big question is: How did the fentanyl get into the jail?

The second big question is: How much will the lawsuits that are sure to follow going to cost the County?

Let me explain.

Corrections deputies are mandated to strip search new inmates during the booking and housing process.

Inmates who take a prohibited item into a correctional facility or on property owned or controlled by a correctional facility, face a third-degree felony punishable by 2 to 10 years in state prison and a maximum $10,000 fine. Federal charges are also possible.

I worked in the Mendocino County Jail from 2000 to 2004 and was usually assigned to our maximum-security unit, also known as Administrative-Segregation (Ad-Seg). It was a tough job, but not once -- never! -- did contraband drugs find their way into my unit. I would have been fired if they had.

I strip searched inmates coming in from court or other activities outside my unit. And I routinely did surprise cell searches.

Let me outline the strip search process: The strip search procedure during booking involves the following steps 1-5: 

1. The search is done in a private setting and by a person of the same sex. 

2. The person being searched removes his or her own clothes. 

3. The search proceeds from top to bottom, and front to back. 

4. Deputies check the following during a visual search: hands, feet, armpits, mouth, hair, and body folds or creases around the genitals. 

5. Prisoners must also bend over, spread their buttocks with their hands and cough several times. In other words, body cavities must be checked. A flashlight can be used, if necessary.

In most jails, if a deputy has reasonable cause to believe that contraband is concealed, the inmate may be subjected to ion scanning or other non-intrusive tests for detection of drugs.

A substance detection/ion scanner test is a search using a handheld collection unit -- similar to the scanners used by the TSA at airports -- to take surface samples from the inmate’s hands, clothing, personal items, purses/handbags, packages or any other articles.

A positive test result may occur when an inmate has come in contact with drugs, knowingly or unknowingly, whether that inmate has used the drugs or not.

An inmate's body cavities can also be searched utilizing backscatter X-ray technology.

A backscatter X-ray body scanner is not a medical x-ray device; it will find items that have some degree of density, but not low-density items. However, transmission X-ray body scanners such as the Smiths Detection B-SCAN yield images similar to medical x-rays in that they can see through the body.

When a body scanner utilizing backscatter X-ray technology scans organic plant material it will not be seen on the scan because it is low density. Similarly, when using a backscatter X-ray body scanner, weapons will generally be seen but even those will require officers to use a keen eye at times. A low-profile knife or gun may just be visible as a break in the body contour. Pills many be visible if they are dense enough, such as tablets. Capsules are less likely to be discovered as they are often a lose powder or tiny pellet like material inside a thin plastic covering. However, this is not the case for body scanners utilizing transmission X-ray technology.

An inmate may also be ordered to pass through a metal detector.

In conclusion, I believe that the recent fentanyl occurred at our jail because inmates were not thoroughly searched, per policy and procedure, during the booking process.

Again, why not? How and why did County Jail personnel fail? Who failed?

And why does County Human Resources Department continue fail? Why is the County Jail so understaffed. Why is the County failing at recruiting qualified candidates for the job of corrections deputy, training them, and doing what is necessary to retain them?

Perhaps the lawsuits to follow will answer these questions.

John Sakowicz 

Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, 2000-2004 (Badge No. 2526)

Ukiah

STEVE HEILIG: Reality check: Illicit drugs have long been rampant in jails, but historically undetected by all official procedures as the substances were and are imported and distributed by corrupt staff and prisoners but rarely lethal. Countless ex-incarcerated users confirm this (my best friend said it was as easy or easier to score in his maximum security facility than outside it; the gangs worked with the guards, for profit). Fentanyl has just changed the risk picture dramatically as there’s no room for error, so ODs have spiked all over. That’s the current sad difference, on streets and jails/prisons, and even in hospitals and at otherwise more genteel social events. But drug use “inside” is far from a new problem.

ANDERSON VALLEY VILLAGE Calendar of Events

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 2 RACE turned into an expensive blizzard of campaign ads, replete with mud slinging

The campaign to replace Assembly member Jim Wood in District 2 has turned into a spending spree, driving a blizzard of mailers, television and digital ads touting resumes and smearing other candidates

by Andrew Graham

After over three grueling months campaigning up and down the North Coast from Santa Rosa to Crescent City, the five Assembly District 2 Democrats vying for a spot out of Tuesday’s primary election are surely ready for a break, win or lose.

So too, are many North Coast residents who own a television, social media account or a mailbox.

The campaign to replace Assembly member Jim Wood in District 2 — which encompasses much of Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte, Mendocino counties and the northern half of Sonoma County — has turned into a spending spree, driving a blizzard of mailers, television and digital ads touting resumes and smearing other candidates.

The total spending won’t be available until after the primary race. But the amounts disclosed so far by candidates and political action committees indicate more than $3 million in campaign funds raised or spent in pursuit of what as of Feb. 20 was 308,176 voters.

Early voting figures indicate sluggish turnout, at least in Sonoma County, which holds roughly half the registered voters. But voters have trended toward submitting their ballots later in recent elections, Sonoma County elections clerk Deva Proto said.

Veterans of the North Coast’s political scene say it's the most expensive race in at least the last decade. Open statehouse seats are rare, and the setup of California’s early presidential primary and the district’s demographics indicate just one Democrat will make it past March 5.

The sole Republican in the race, Del Norte school board member Michael Greer, is expected to pick up enough votes in right-leaning northern counties like Trinity and Del Norte to take the other top spot.

“This race involves a highly competitive and noteworthy set of (Democrat) candidates,” Sonoma State University Political Science professor David McCuan said. “High stakes. A ton of resources involved.”

McCuan said the high spending is a barometer of competitive races to come as a class of the superdominant Democratic Party’s lawmakers hits term limits and up-and-coming politicians lay into each other to replace them.

“Big money is here to stay in almost any open seat race,” he wrote in a text message to The Press Democrat.

Among the four big spenders in the race, Yurok Tribal Vice Chairman Frankie Myers and Santa Rosa City Councilmember Chris Rogers come in on the lower half.

Myers has reported raising a little less than $158,800. Candidates have not had to disclose all their spending, and won’t have to make a more complete filing until July.

No PACs have stepped in to support or oppose Myers in a significant way, according to the California Secretary of State’s website. But Assemblymember James Ramos, the first Native American candidate elected to the California Legislature, spent more than $6,400 in outside funding to promote Myers, alongside individual donations directly to his campaign.

Rogers has reported more than $336,000 in fundraising. A PAC supporting him also spent $56,086.

Mendocino County Supervisor Ted Williams has not reported any fundraising.

Driving most of the spending in Assembly District 2 are the campaigns of Healdsburg councilwoman Ariel Kelley and California Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks. And driving much of the negative spending are independent expenditures supporting one of those candidates, and attacking the other.

Kelley has raised more than $656,000. Of that, $250,000 comes from her own pocket.

For several weeks, a PAC backing Kelley and funded principally by her sister has been hitting Hicks, labeling him a carpetbagger and suggesting he covered up a sexual harassment scandal within state party leadership. That latter line of attack drew a cease-and-desist letter from the Hicks’ campaign, which warned television stations against airing it further.

The Hicks campaign in the letter noted he ascended to the chair after the sexual abuse scandal, which centered on the actions of a former chairman. Hicks and party leadership initially kept an investigation into his predecessor confidential at the wishes of the victims of sexual harassment, an attorney for the campaign wrote in the letter. The party later worked with victims and their attorneys to release portions of the report, according to previous posts Hicks made to the social media site X.

Hicks’ letter to television stations does not appear to have dissuaded them, as the ad has continued to run at least in some markets. On Friday, a spokesperson for the Hicks’ campaign said they have not filed lawsuits.

The PAC backing Kelley has spent around $379,800 on those attacks, according to filings posted the California Secretary of State’s website. That PAC appears to have focused its spending on negative campaigning; it does not list expenditures supporting Kelley.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

TO THINK THAT THE ONCE PROUD LABOR MOVEMENT HAS COME TO THIS…

LIBERTY FOR CLINE

Letter to the Editor

As a local employer something I look for in an employee is internal motivation. Some folks require external motivation but I find that to be a losing battle.

County Supervisors are no different and they are our employees, but their only external motivation comes every 4 years. That makes it all the more important to make sure we, the voters, select supervisors with internal motivation from the start.

That is why I’m supporting Madeline Cline for 1rst District Supervisor. She comes from a long line of hard-working business owners. I recognize in her the internal motivation needed to do the heavy lifting required to help our Board of Supervisors reinvent our local economy as we transition away from that which has supported this community for decades. This is no time for goldbricking at the helm. Join me in supporting Madeline Cline for 1rst District Supervisor.

Ross H. Liberty, President Factory Pipe, LLC World class manufacturer of powersports exhaust systems Ukiah

“Madeline Cline possesses a deep understanding of the unique needs of our local farmers and small businesses. She will bring experienced, trusted new leadership to move Mendocino County forward.” 

ED NOTE: Er, experience?

APPALLED & DISGUSTED

Editor: 

On one recent day, I received three political hit pieces in the mail. One was from supporters of Ariel Kelly attacking Rusty Hicks, one was from supporters of Hicks attacking Kelly, and one was from a Realtors’ group attacking Chris Rogers. I am beyond appalled and disgusted by such behavior. I was raised to never say something about a person unless it was something nice; political discourse has deteriorated to such a base level that it is no surprise that many people are no longer interested in taking part in the discussion. Please think about how you treat others and try to find positive things to say about candidates.

Stephen Pasternak

Ukiah

NOT THE PARTY I KNEW

Editor: 

Donald Trump has single-handedly destroyed the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan, who would turn over in his grave to hear the vitriolic words out of Trump’s mouth calling people vermin and telling Vladimir Putin to “do whatever the hell he wants.”

He is not the same man that I voted for twice. He is so full of revenge and retribution that he thinks of nothing other than how to get even for an election he full well knows he lost, but just can’t live with the results.

If you listen to his rhetoric, he repeats his lies over and over and over until people actually believe him. He uses the tactics of a cult leader, as Jim Jones did, to keep the MAGA group engaged. Even Republicans in Congress are drinking the Kool-Aid.

I cannot vote for a morally corrupt man who thinks he is on the same plane as Alexei Navalny and Jesus.

Please vote for Nikki Haley on Tuesday. I look forward to the day I can turn on the TV and not hear the name Donald Trump mentioned. The man is a threat to our democracy.

Margie Handley

Willits

SO YOU'RE 90: What's Next: Taking the Time...

by Gregory Sims

Usually we use that phrase "Taking the time, take the time, if you Just take., take your time, be mindful of the time, and so on- as an alternative to how one is proceeding, be careful, don't rush and sometimes if you're driving quite fast, it could be a call for "safety first". But it can be an alternative voice, a meditation as with Thoreau in last week's subject on internalization and taking the time to "redeem [my] spirituality, kindness, capacity to love and let my mind blend into my body as bodymind."(paraphrased). Living the wholeness of homeostasis (as an example) in addition to engaging in exercises and various games and other physicality it is worth our exploring the components of our body, particularly homeostasis.

When a factor is known that can shift a homeostatic state in one direction it is reasonable to look for automatic control of that factor or factors that act in the opposite direction. (Walter Cannon in Sims, et. al. 2014).

In particular it involves the regulation by an organism (person) of all aspects of its internal environment; this includes body temperature, salt-water balance, acid-base balance hydrogen-ion concentration- acid alkalinity, and blood sugar level. Allostasis translates these functions into somewhat related understandable psychological qualities. For example when I was telling a friend my struggle with the clock and he said with a bit of inference "so you're a captive of time." I had to admit I am not able to see the road at night and until the time change and longer days I miss some evening events. And it is a useful practice to look out the window when I'm home and peacefully look into the darkness. Peacefully, because when I've overstayed and need to pull over until a slower car comes by and I can follow it to my familiar turn off close to home it's a struggle, a challenge 'taking my time". I'm glad to be home when its dark. The allostatic translation is simply what is found in part how the physiology fits in with our psychology so as one path to becoming a whole person.

It seems perhaps a love of life is a learned resource (or relearned). Perhaps when we were infants a love of life came easily. With the many challenges to our gratitude/love for living we can use meditation, study, prayer which opens us to appreciation in the midst of loss or injury. And probably living with loss, uncertainty, injury and life ending events might be something we can look at together.

Just as I wrote that phrase- the lights went out and the uncertainty of "what's next" arose reminding me of mega discomfort about six years ago when the elimination of waste wasn't possible and of the need to be catheterized- then learning to do it myself. It was not fun. So the cancer had metastasized to my bones and the angle of death was at my door. But no, Dr. Fan had other plans for me. I still spend too much time with the docs. My department at Stanford also had other plans for me giving me the title "Provider," working on a project at the Ed. Rsh. Ctr.

There's a lot more to that story, but I think it would be good to move toward some final thoughts. Perhaps our best chance at attaining personal peacefulness is to listen to the harmonies of our bodies, our relationships, and the world around us.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Saturday, March 2, 2024

BRITTON AZBILL JR., Covelo. County parole.

KYLE HAMMOND, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SACRAMENTO HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Vandalism, probation revocation.

JOHN HILL, Laytonville. Annoying or molesting child under 18, parole violation.

JACOB JOHNSON, Gasquet/Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JESUS NAVA-SANDOVAL, Ukiah. DUI, probation revocation.

JORGE PEREDA-MARTINEZ, Philo. DUI with blood-alcohol over 0.15%, no license.

DAMON REICHARDT, Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

HISTORIC CALIFORNIA DAM REMOVAL, MEANT TO HELP SALMON, SEES MASSIVE DIE-OFF

Hundreds of thousands of young salmon are believed to have died this week at the site of a historic dam removal project on the Klamath River, after an effort to restore salmon runs on the newly unconstrained river went awry…

sfchronicle.com/california/article/klamath-dams-salmon-die-off-18700078.php

MITCH CLOGG

In this symphony of storms, a moment less Wagnerian, a halt of rain—even rain needs a break—a bright light—SUN! Good timing. Aaron, our firewood bringer, backs his rig down the driveway and dumps the load outside the woodshed, and Ellie stacks it.

This is the ultimate insult to manhood. She’s outside, moving a ton of stuff, while I tap, tap, tap. Eleanor’s a lot younger than me, but she ain’t no spring chicken neither. She has help from our friend Jerry, but it’s still not right. It’s my job. I search through the possibilities. Every part of me is in good working order except my southeast foot. At the top of my circadian cycle, I shuffle around without support. No walker, canes or crutches. Most of the time, though, I rely on those things. 

It’s now a high time in my C.C. I could stand around in the wood pile, wait till I’m not interfering and chuck a piece of wood, but how much wood can an old gimp chuck? I ass myself, then look around. I can do the kitchen! Vacuum the floor! Catch up on the sewing and mending that’s been piling up over the quarter-centuries, practice my embroidery. Not right, and here comes the rain again! Merde! Rattle of hail. Then new stripes of brilliant light, yellow as the sun comes out under the deck of clouds, way out over the ocean, sinking, sinking. 

The house is cool. My nose runs. Things you notice about old people become things YOU deal with now. Liver spots. Sore thumbs, hands that hate cold water, over-long distances and travel times to the toilet, words you know, like your partner’s name, dancing at the end of your tongue, refusing to go to your larynx, refusing to go to your mad consciousness.

The mucous is not mucousy. The flow from old people’s noses is purer than spring water and flows faster, faster than you can grab your handkerchief.

I’ve always carried the hippie bandana for a handkerchief, dark blue with a white, sort-of (there it is! What’s the damn word?) "paisley"—PAISLEY—design. Made in China, of course, except some of the old, raggedy, faded ones you bought in the five-and-ten-cent store. I can whip out my handkerchief as fast as a gun-slinger can draw, but the achievement is less: the drip is faster, every time. Plus I had throat cancer. You can’t imagine the mess that causes. A man named Sam and I went through it at the same time. In the morning, against your will, you glance in the bathroom mirror at your tongue, pale pink with sprays of tiny white spots. Those are “thrush,” swollen and painful papillae, taste buds and other software. Did I mention pain? Thrush’s big name is candidiasis. It doesn’t look like much, but it feels like you froze your tongue to a cold railroad track and then ripped it loose before the train got you. Candida albicans is always with you, but when you have throat cancer, they give you lots of steroids which notoriously lower your resistance to everything, and the imps come out. We also peel off dried mucous and stuff that normally lines the mouth but now makes an unwelcome skin on everything as you sleep—dry-mouthed because everything hurts, even water, and everything--to your sad, dead taste buds, murdered by the radiation they blast in your mouth like a Gatling gun to kill the cancer cells--tastes like industrial waste from some far-distant galaxy. But that was then, when I was merely a young-old man of sixty-seven, nineteen years ago.

When I was a kid, summering in Ocean City, Maryland, Old Mister Scott would pass by, maybe stop for a few words. He had a condition that made his nose grow big and spongey, very big and spongey. It wiggled when he talked. I hope to not add that to my inventory of age-related add-ons.

Thunk! Thunk! Woodchucks chucking wood, while I do my embroidery, girlie-man.

It ain’t just the leaky nose. I noticed young that when I went downhill on my bike in the cold, my eyes ran. That is, they teared up from the cold wind. Now I might notice a tear on my cheek because something funny happened on teevee. Gimme a BREAK!

MEMO OF THE AIR

All our sins and griefs to bear.

"The gypsies believe the bear to be a brother to man because he has the same body beneath his hide, because he drinks beer, because he enjoys music and because he likes to dance." -Ernest Hemingway

Here's the recording of last night's (Friday 2024-03-01) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA) and KNYO.org (and, for the first hour, also 89.3fm KAKX Mendocino): https://tinyurl.com/KNYO-MOTA-0582

This show was the first one I did from a new live remote setup in Albion, made of radio station leftovers, to save an hour’s round-trip drive to Fort Bragg in the stormy wet. Twenty-dollar MXR mic on a ten-dollar boom, an old dented Behringer mixer, a donated computer from the Vista era with fresh Xubuntu in it, and the sound quality is not too shabby.

Coming shows can feature your story or dream or poem or kvetch or whatever. Just email it to me. Or include it in a reply to this post. Or send me a link to your writing project and I'll take it from there and read it on the air.

Besides all that, at https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com you'll find a fresh batch of dozens of links to not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items I set aside for you while gathering the show together, such as:

"Put your meat hands together for the robot artist that all the raccoons have been talking about." https://catandgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2024-02-20-cgrobotartist.gif

Take 5 on Spanish guitar. https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2024/02/music-for-sunday-morning_069067123.html

Dokkedy dok-dok dokkedy dah. Dit daaah, dit-dah-dit-dah-dit-daaah. Wild! Better and better as it goes along. That bass player is the dictionary definition of vivid. She /prints/ herself on your memory. She really cuts loose at about two minutes in. And everybody else in this, too: what a band! What a show of joy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbcW7nxcP3E

And "Be nonchalant. Light a Murad cigarette." https://www.vintag.es/2024/02/rolf-armstrong.html

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

A POINT REYES SEAL PUP RESCUE IS SHOCKING SCIENTISTS

by Eric Brooks

While they visit Point Reyes beaches at various times throughout the year, the real action happens during mating and pupping season in the winter.

It’s then that these bull elephant seals — weighing as much as 5,500 pounds — are laser-focused on mating with 1,200-pound females and fighting off other dominant males to defend ownership of their personal mating colony, also known as a harem. They’re so motivated by those goals that they’ve been known to ignore and trample young 60-pound seal pups in the process.

So it was a surprise last month when a new paper published in Marine Mammal Science documented an apparent act of bull elephant altruism towards a pup. Even the two Point Reyes wildlife biologists who witnessed the display, which took place at Drake’s Beach on Jan. 27, 2022, were stunned.

“We both knew how very unusual it was,” said Matt Lau, a biological science technician at Point Reyes National Seashore. “Sarah [Allen] noted how rare it was and thought we should publish this and get it out to the academic arena so everyone knows about it.”

That day in January began as usual, with Allen and Lau out on Drakes Beach, conducting a count of males, females, and pups. As they passed a small harem, they noted that a female and her roughly 2-week-old pup were about 30 to 50 feet from the group and close to the water, likely attempting to cool off.

When they swung back around, the pup’s situation had worsened.

“We observed the same cow much closer to the water, but we also saw the pup out in the surf,” Lau said. “It’s pretty shallow surf on Drakes Beach, but the pups can’t swim at all until they are weaned. They’re pretty weak swimmers. You could see [the pup] struggling quite a bit. Its head was popping up and down.”

The waves, estimated at 3 to 6 feet that day, continued to pull the pup out to sea.

As the drowning pup cried for help and the female let out an “urgent” motherly shout, a nearby bull elephant seal engaged.

“We thought, ‘Oh, he’s going to try and mate with her,’” Allen told the New York Times.

But that’s not what happened.

The male — identified in the paper as the harem’s alpha — “approached the calling female, briefly touching his nose to her left flank,” the paper describes. The female then rebuffed him and continued calling toward her pup, and the male “instantly turned and charged across wet sand and into the surf, swimming swiftly out to the struggling pup.”

The male positioned his body to shield the youngster from the waves and used his head to push the pup back to shore.

Afterward, the female “bellowed in a voice usually directed towards males, and within seconds, the male trumpeted and then rested on the wet sand,” Lau, Allen and Codde noted in the paper.

Neither Allen nor Lau had seen anything like it. In fact, no one had — ever.

“I contacted a bunch of colleagues asking if they’d seen anything like this, and nobody had,” Allen told the Times.

Sarah Codde, a marine ecologist at Point Reyes, is listed as an author on the paper along with Lau and Allen. Since their paper came out, biologists in the field have reached out to the trio “to say this was a pretty cool sighting.”

“No one has ever heard of this before,” Codde told SFGATE in a phone interview. “We have also gotten a few emails from volunteers. They have mentioned that they’ve seen something similar, but not this. What Sarah and Matt saw was really active behavior to push the pup out of the way. What other volunteers have seen is the male lying next to the pup to kind of block the waves from coming in. This observation was very direct.”

Codde has been studying elephant seals at Point Reyes for 15 years.

“Normal elephant seal male behavior is they basically don’t even acknowledge the pups’ existence,” she said. “This male was fasting. They really try to conserve their energy to fight with other males or mate with females. For this male to leave the beach and go into the water to interact with a pup, it’s a really big deal.”

Another unusual aspect of the altruistic act is that the alpha male left his harem to save the pup, potentially opening it up for other males to take over, she added.

Codde theorized the unusual behavior could be a direct result of climate change, leading females and their pups to the water’s edge for a cooldown more often as higher-than-average temperatures impact breeding season.

It’s not entirely clear if the pup was the male’s offspring. But that is the assumption.

“He was so determined and directional in going out there, and so fast,” Allen added. “And then coming back in, he was so gentle.”

Lau said he was lucky to have his camera that day to document the incident.

 “I don’t think the scientific journal would’ve accepted our paper without [the pictures],” he laughed.

(SFgate.com)

‘KYRGYZSTAN METEOR’

Dear Editor, 

I hope you’re feeling more up to snuff!

Our Family Patriarch passed away the other weekend, at home. He was a USMC veteran from the SE Asia conflict, including countries where we were not supposed to legally be; a Chicago Police Homicide Dick (West Side!) who made his bones in the infamous I-57 Murders Case; and finally Chief of Security for the Chicago Public School system.

As you’d expect, he was quite the Cannaphobe, to put it mildly.

The ONE time he acquiesced to being “turned on” to the Herb it was live resin! He ASKED and I told him, Put a grain under your tongue, let it dissolve, relax and enjoy…

I’m SO glad I could interact with him in that way, even if just once. Live Resin is the cleanest, strongest, most body-accessible form of cannabis. When the opioids-synthetics or otherwise fail, try live resin! Or even before, why wait? Ask Pebbles, SHE’LL tell you! 

Namaste and Happy Healing. 

David Svehla 

In the City

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A Democratic Party extinction event would be the most beneficial development that could transpire in this failing American Empire.

Second most beneficial would be a Republican Party extinction event.

What is abundantly clear is that nothing can be fixed in this nation any longer by adding on to existing political structures, but only by tearing some of them down – particularly of the National Security State. And that, of course, is why both parties so desperately wish for Donald Trump to be removed from the equation.

Trump 1.0 did not fully understand that fact, but Trump 1.1, as flawed as he is, damn sure does. Having him back in the Oval Office with vengeance on his mind is, to be sure, a risky proposition, but it’s our only hope at this point.

I, for one, would give him a bulldozer outfitted with an array of chainsaws to go at it, and hope for the best.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY #2

Seeing Dr. Phil knock the women of The View back on their heels was a nice change of pace.

He talked about the harms done to children because of the covid policies and the children being trafficked to unknown parties due to the open border, and when the ladies tried to shut him down he wasn’t having any of it.

Someone who saw the exchange commented to me that she was surprised at how little concern they showed when Doctor Phil was telling them about lasting harm to very young children.

All they cared about protecting was the narrative.

CUT THE BULL

Editor: 

American politicians speak in platitudes because generalities evoke opinions minus the liability of facts. But Democracies grew from a populace wanting to discuss and be involved in the political process. For consensus to work at its best, voters need a clear understanding of the issues in dispassionate language. Problem-solvers do not have biases; politicians do. Legislators use ambiguities to avoid accountability. Fortunately, solutions usually determine the guilty.

So, to cut the bull distributed by malicious legislators, here are some definitions of buzzwords. A conservative is a lacky who lobbies for fewer business taxes, labor laws and benefits. A liberal is a person who campaigns to ease the burden of economic survival on the working class. A capitalist is a person who wants the working class to pay for every aspect of living. And they would charge the poor for breathing if they could meter the volume of use.

Tom Fantulin

Fort Bragg

TAIBBI & KIRN

Matt Taibbi: All right. Welcome to America this week. I’m Matt Taibbi.

Walter Kirn: And I’m Walter Kirn.

Matt Taibbi: Walter, how are you?

Walter Kirn: I’m good. I’m good. It’s getting springlike here in Montana, slightly, and I don’t know, I’ve started sort of emerging into the new year, looking forward to what I know is going to be the craziest year we’ve had in a string of crazy years. So I’m kind of prepping myself. I’m going to the gym, I’m eating right.

Matt Taibbi: You’re preparing for the apocalypse.

Walter Kirn: I want to be of use to my family in the difficulties that I’m sure are going to visit us all.

Matt Taibbi: They should have that at everybody’s local Y, like the apocalypse spinning class.

Walter Kirn: Exactly. It’s a great motivator.

Matt Taibbi: You’ll be running for your life.

Walter Kirn: And for some reason, I’m watching the rise of the Bitcoin price very carefully right now because I see Bitcoin as a proxy for anxiety in general. I think it’s finally settled in with the normie investing public, that it is digital gold. In this period what does anybody want but digital gold? The two things we like best digital and gold. And so as it soars to new heights and all this money starts flying into it, I get greatly fearful. I don’t know why.

Matt Taibbi: Yeah, well, you can definitely feel the general anxiety levels inching up nicely all across the board and notably that anxiety is connected to many different things, not just one thing. And we saw examples of that this week. I guess we should start with, it’s not often that news begins in the press, and that is the news story that something came out in the news. But we had a very significant development, I would say, in the course of the last week when the New York Times in the persons of Adam Entous and Mitchell Schwirtz published an article called The Spy War, How the CIA Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin.

This is the article that came out and it’s an expose. Once upon a time in the New York Times we came to expect every now and then there would be blockbuster pieces of investigative journalism. And so long ago there were still things that were genuinely like that in the Times I would even classify the massive audit of Donald Trump’s finances as being in that general genre. But this was a very different type of story that right up in the lead tells you that this is something entirely different.

Immediately tells you based on two hundred interviews with officials from three different countries, from Europe, Ukraine, and the United States, that there were listening posts in the Ukrainian Forest... It starts out at a listening post in the Ukrainian Forest, which is part of a CIA supported network of spy bases constructed in the past eight years that includes 12 secret locations along the Russian border. And then it goes on to describe a 10-year history of communication and cooperation between the CIA and Ukraine. And it is absolutely packed full of stuff that the public under normal circumstances would never get a whiff of.

And well, there’s a number of different angles to this. First of all, it exploded a whole bunch of myths and propaganda about how tight we were or not militarily and intelligence wise with Ukraine at the start of the war. But it also just kind of disclosed things that we weren’t expecting to hear. Walter, what was your initial reaction to this story?

Walter Kirn: Well, I was dumbfounded. My mind spun wondering who the audience for this was, what it was meant to do. We seem to be in a period in which the meta issue is continued funding for Ukraine. And so I guess I saw it in that context as a sort of stunning statement of just how dug in we are with them, for how long we have been and to what an elaborate level we are. And I suppose that the point was to say, this is your side, this is our side. We made a compact a long time ago. Here’s how knit together this effort is. You’re going to pull the plug on this, really? I mean, something like that.

Matt Taibbi: Yeah. So just to make clear the backdrop here, as you point out is there is still a pending vote on funding for the continuation of the war in Ukraine from the American side. Now, we just haven’t had a situation like this where Congress has actually threatened to pull the plug on a military conflict that the national security establishment wants. And right now we’re at a point where voters are telling specifically the House Republican caucus that they do not want a 95 billion military aid package, 61 billion of which is meant for Ukraine, that they don’t want a yes vote on this. It’s been delayed multiple times. Supposedly there’s a deadline on it, maybe even by the time this comes out on Friday, that question will be resolved. But yes, that vote hanging in the balance is in the background of this story, but that could mean a number of things.

Is this article meant to persuade people that we must continue this incredibly tight relationship? Because what kinds of things are being disclosed in this piece? And I just want to give one example. This is the kind of thing that got described over and over again. So they have this incredibly tight relationship that goes back to right after the Maidan coup essentially. They even talk about the new Ukrainian intelligence chief sort of cold calling the CIA and MI6 in the middle of the Maidan revolution and saying like, “Hey, we need help.” Kind of a ridiculously unbelievable scenario, but whatever. That’s what they’re placing the chronological beginning of this relationship.

HELL & EARTH

“I know, you never intended to be in this world.

But you're in it all the same.

So why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.

There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.

Bless the eyes and the listening ears.

Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.

Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it's happened.

Or not.

I am speaking from the fortunate platform of many years,

none of which, I think, I ever wasted.

Do you need a prod?

Do you need a little darkness to get you going?

Let me be as urgent as a knife, then, and remind you of Keats,

so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,

he had a lifetime.”

— Mary Oliver, from Blue Horses

IT IS ONE of the great joys of home ownership to fire a pistol in one’s own bedroom.

— Alfred Jarry

JEFF BLANKFORT:

"George Galloway began his victory speech on Friday morning with these words: “Keir Starmer: This is for Gaza.”

"It was a clear message that he sent the British Labour leader: “You will pay a high price for the role that you have paid in enabling, encouraging and covering for the catastrophe presently going on in occupied Palestine.” 

"Galloway declared his victory in a by-election here to be the beginning of a major change in politics. “I want to tell Mr. Starmer above all, that the plates have shifted tonight,” he said at the town’s election center.