Mendocino County Today: Thursday 3/7/24

Sunny | Kwan Tai | Shields Update | New Lieutenants | Election Night | FFA Trip | Election Notes | Variety Show | Abandoned Vehicles | Liberty Control | Planning Workshop | Temple Entrance | New Coordinator | Neil Benefit | Ed Notes | History Day | Release Concert | Stupid/Lazy | Yesterday's Catch | Scooter | Sako Radio | Light Spot | Prop 1 | Blue Vote | Immigrants | Wimps | Obviously | Native Plants | Awkward Truths | For You | Locked Out | Soy Chorizo | Allegedly | Ferlinghetti | Party/Cult | Bed Maid | Sachs Interview | Think Differently

COOL MORNINGS will lead to clearing and dry days for the remainder of this week. A progressive low with multiple shortwaves will bring waves of unsettled weather to the area this weekend. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 46F with clear skies this Thursday morning on the coast, .13" collected from yesterday morning showers. Dry skies today & tomorrow then rain Saturday thru Tuesday, then a dry spell to follow? That would be a good thing Martha.

UPDATE ON JIM SHIELDS, PUBLISHER & EDITOR OF LAYTONVILLE’S MENDOCINO OBSERVER

On behalf of our family, I would like to thank all of our friends, family, acquaintances, readers, fans and community members for the outpouring of love and kindness and check-ins about my dad, Jim Shields.

As many of you know, my dad was recently hospitalized due to a serious lung infection that required drainage at St. Helena hospital in the beautiful Napa Valley. Post-procedure, he is doing well, although the recovery is much slower than any of us anticipated. We wanted to let you know if you have reached out directly to him via phone, text or email, he is receiving your correspondence (and reads/listens to it all!) but is unable to respond at this time. Simply because the guy is wiped out!

He wants everyone to know he appreciates your messages, well-wishes and support and says “thank you!” In the meantime, my husband Rolo and I are taking on some additional duties to help while he recovers. If you have any urgent messages or matters that need attending to, please reach out to me. I can be reached at (707) 984-6223 or jayma@laytonville.org

If you have any items for the Observer, please also send my way. We appreciate all the caring and kind staff who helped facilitate care for my dad, from the great ER team at Howard Memorial Hospital in Willits, to the support and advice we received from Doctor Gary and Nurse Cindy to the amazing team at St. Helena, we got lucky to have you all in our circle.

Living in a small town proves to be wonderful at times like these and for that, we are grateful for your love and kindness. Thank you!

Jayma Shields Spence

SHERIFF KENDALL, Wednesday morning, promoted James Elmore and Clinton Wyant to the position of Sheriff’s Lieutenant. Both lieutenants started their law enforcement careers as corrections deputies in the Mendocino County Jail, Wyant in 1999 and Elmore in 2006. Elmore and Wyant have carried out their duties with excellence throughout their careers as deputies, investigators, and supervisors. Please join the Sheriff’s Office in congratulating Clinton Wyant and James Elmore as they take on their command duties.

ELECTION NIGHT IN MENDOCINO COUNTY

by Carole Brodsky

For this year’s Primary Election, neither rain nor more rain delayed the 8 p.m. poll closures throughout Mendocino County.

According to Katrina Bartolomie, the county’s Registrar of Voters, Assessor, County Clerk and more, voters were encouraged to mail in their ballots due to the recent and tenacious inclement weather.

But not surprisingly, a steady stream of voters lined up outside the county Admin offices to drop off their ballots just before the 8 p.m. deadline. Bartolomie and staff were on hand to shut down the on-street ballot box and collect the evening’s last ballots just as the clock struck 8:00.

Because of the county’s geography, ballots from Gualala and Point Arena must be driven over to the county offices and do not arrive until after 10 p.m. Staff had been on hand since about 6 a.m. to prep for the evening’s count and to help voters sort out any technical issues.

The vote count was updated throughout the evening and results are posted on the county’s website. Bartolomie estimated there would be four updates throughout the night.

At 8 p.m., the first tranche of absentee ballots was reported. Donald Trump led the Republican Party’s choice for President with 1,265 votes. Nikki Haley trailed Mr. Trump with 323 votes. A total of 1,658 votes had been tallied.

President Joseph Biden unsurprisingly led the Democratic candidates with 3,754 out of 4,064 ballots cast. Green Party candidate Jill Stein garnered 23 votes.

With 6,689 votes tallied, Adam Schiff led in the race for the full-term U.S. Senate seat, with Steve Garvey gathering 1,418 and Katie Porter 946 votes. Schiff also led in the Partial Term category with 2,293 votes; with Garvey earning 1,606, Porter 1,467 and Barbara Lee with 1,004 votes.

The Second Congressional District House of Representative race was led by Jared Huffman with 4,698 votes. Chris Coulombe was in second place with 1,304 votes.

The Second Assembly District race was led by Michael Greer with 1,776 votes. Ted Williams received 1,441 votes, Rusty Hicks had 1,114 and Chris Rogers had 847. Ariel Kelly and Frankie Myers were nearly tied for fifth place with Kelly receiving 748 and Myers receiving 766 votes.

In local races, Madeline Cline had a comfortable lead for 1st District Supervisor with 837 votes. Adam Gaska had 319, Trevor Mockel 130 and Carrie Shattuck 119 votes.

In the 2nd Supervisorial District, Maureen Mulheren and Jacob Brown were nearly tied, with Mulheren receiving 540 votes and Brown receiving 516.

Bernie Norvell began the race for 4th District Supervisor with a commanding lead of 1,536 votes over Georgina Avila-Gorman’s 347 votes.

Yes votes for Proposition 1 were leading No votes – 3,983 to 2,914. And support for Measure R began the evening with a handy lead, with 5,601 Yes votes to 1,321 No votes.

Bartolomie stressed the importance of the many poll workers who are a key part of the smooth and accurate vote count in Mendocino County.

“We try to have the equivalent of four FTE workers at each polling place,” she explained, noting there are 38 polling places at 21 locations throughout the county. In addition, six extra-help vote counters will be spending the next few days counting votes. “Four of our counters have been here for some time, and we have two new counters this year.”

Regarding the recent ballot printing errors, Bartolomie noted she was very sorry for the mishap. “I’m also very proud that our vendor was able to correct the ballots so quickly.” Thus far, the only misprint issues staff have encountered were voters coming to the office with both ballots – unopened, requesting assistance to confirm which ballot to use.

A bigger problem Bartolomie had encountered is an ambiguous question posed by the Department of Motor Vehicles during license renewal. “The question asks, ‘Are you registered?’ she explains. This is resulting in people re-registering to vote. “I have spoken to DMV, and they are working on rephrasing the question.”

Updates to the vote count were scheduled to take place at 10 p.m. Tuesday, midnight and 2 a.m. on Wednesday. For online updates, visit the County of Mendocino website at Current Election Results | Mendocino County, CA.

(ukiahdailyjournal.com)

FOUR FFA MEMBERS traveled to Fortuna, Eureka, and Ferndale for the North Coast Regional FFA Speaking Contests and Regional Meeting.

We are so proud of Zoe Bennett for completing it the regional FFA Creed speaking contest. We are just as proud of her sister Emilia Bennett for completing in the regional Job Interview contest. It was a great experience for them.

Emilia and Julian Ochoa were our chapter's voting delegates at the regional meeting. Anthony and Zoe attended the meeting too.

After the meeting we made a few stops to see a salmon fisheries exhibit and giant coast redwood trees. On the Avenue of the Giants we stopped and hiked the 2.5 mile Drury/Chaney Groves. It was wonderful.

ELECTION NOTES

by Mark Scaramella

ONE DOESN’T HAVE to look very far to get an idea of a large segment of the Mendo electorate’s backward political leanings than the 42% vote that the loathsome Adam Schiff got in Mendocino County in the initial vote summary posted Tuesday night. Here you had a perfectly good progressive candidate, Barbara Lee, an veritable icon of progressives, a smart black woman, gravitas and all, the lone vote in Congress against Bush’s bogus war on Iraq, and all she got from Mendo’s “progressive” Democrats was a pathetic 11 percent. Mendo’s votes didn’t matter much in the statewide election, so voters were free to vote for the card-carrying progressive if they wanted to. But no: A very large chunk of Mendo did as Big Dem said and went for Schiff. Mark Mark’s Words: Schiff will make Diane Feinstein look good.

Speaking of doing what they’re told, Madeline Cline. The young Ms. Cline with no political experience besides being a paid wine lobbyist for a couple of years, and nothing in Mendocino County besides a residence at a vineyard, got almost 60% of the initial District 1 vote count. There’s a chance that the percentages could shift enough by the time the thousands of uncounted votes are toted up to force a runoff between Cline and Adam Gaska who got about 23% of the District 1 vote. But even if Gaska got all the Shattuck and Mockel votes he’d still need some Cline voters to switch which is unlikely. Gaska was a much more serious and experienced and Mendocino-rooted local candidate. But given the demographics and the entrenched wine interests in the First District, it seems unlikely that Gaska could get into a runoff, much less win in November. Cline’s higher than expected percentage shows again how tight a grip the wine mob has on voters in the First District. The wine mob sees Cline as a reliable autovote for anything the wine mob wants so they funded her campaign handsomely to get her elected. Whereas Gaska, while an actual grape grower himself as opposed to Cline, was seen as too thoughtful and independent and therefore not a reliable autovote for Wine. 

On the other hand, when the wine mob isn’t plopping their heavy thumb on the scales of local elections, things can get interesting and contested. Such as with the narrow 51-49% lead Maureen Mulheren has in early returns over her opponent, Jacob Brown, a former Marine and Ukiah business manager. Clearly, Ms. Mulheren isn’t going over as well as she thinks she is in Ukiah. Jacob Brown actually got more votes than Mulheren’s soul sister Mari Rodin got four years ago. But the final outcome in that race will have to wait for a few weeks while the Elections office takes their sweet time counting the votes.

Ever since Mendo went to mail-in ballots in the early 2000s, the final vote count has taken the entire 30 days allowed by law. Not that many years ago when people mostly voted in person at their local polling place, the outcome was known much earlier, typically late on election night, unless there was a very close election like the one in the 90s between Liz Henry and Heather Drum in Fort Bragg which Henry eventually won by one vote after at least two recounts. 

Mendo of late has become accustomed to the month-long delay. As recently as November of 2016 the vote was so slow in coming in that it became an issue for the Supervisors, some of whom openly complained; the Board at that time even offered some additional temporary staffing increases to the Elections office to speed things up. Then-Election Officer Susan Ranochak declined the offer. 

Here’s an excerpt of our coverage from back in November of 2016:

AS OF 4pm Thursday, two days after the election, not a single Mendo vote had been counted since election night. More than 31,000 mail-in ballots have been received, but County Clerk Susan Ranochak has only sent approximately 6,000 of them through the machines without releasing updated vote totals. Her office is covered in bins of ballots that haven't been opened yet. The 22,000 ballots received by Saturday should have been opened and counted by election night.

ONE SOURCE out on Low Gap Road put it this way: “Ranochak needs 30 people working on mail-ins in the days before the election, not the eight she has. She needs more voting machines and more people there, too. I saw Supervisor Gjerde down there Monday and he said she has never asked for extra help. Better yet, re-open the polling stations. By law, every vote cast at a polling place has to be counted election night. End of problem.”

A VISITOR to the Assessor’s office said that pending assessment work was being delayed because clerical workers from the Assessor’s Office (who also work for Ranochak) had been loaned to the Elections office. But our source for that suspected it wasn’t true because there didn’t seem to any improvement in the vote counting process.

MALCOLM MACDONALD COMMENTS: “In 2014 the total number of votes cast in the (final count) Fort Bragg City Council race was 4,729. The 2016 total (so far) is only 1,752. The 2014 race was for three council seats, 2016 is for two, so multiplying the 2014 total by 2/3 still means a final total of about 3,153. The 2014 FB Council race was a fairly high charged affair, but 2016 is a Presidential election year; therefore, one would expect roughly an equal or greater number of voters. Similarly there were 15,930 votes for three Mendocino Coast Healthcare seats in 2014. Though there are two four-year seats and one two-year seat up for election in 2016, that's still three seats. The total vote count should be somewhat similar, but there are only 7,225 votes accounted for at this point. Assessor-Recorder Ranochak's website has no updates beyond the two a.m. election night total AND no mention of estimated totals of votes still to be counted! There is a nonsensical column stating the number of precincts reporting, which states that in the Mendo Healthcare District fifty-nine out of fifty-nine precincts have reported. This falsely leads voters/citizens to believe that all the precincts, and all the votes, have been counted. If we hadn't had the nearly identical experience in 2014 to go by, citizens might be bamboozled into thinking this is the truly final vote count, when in reality it is nowhere near the final total. The simple question: What the heck is going on? That's the polite version. My advice to Ranochak: Finish this count, then offer your letter of resignation immediately thereafter. Advice to the Board of Supervisors: Find a way to deduct this recurring fiasco from Ranochak's pay and/or pension, then figure out a method for fixing this vote count fiasco before 2018.”

1,271 BALLOTS LEFT TO COUNT IN THE WILLITS CITY COUNCIL ELECTION: with only 627 votes counted in the “Final Election Night Report,” at least 66.96 percent of the vote has not yet been counted! A higher percent than ever before. Plus an unknown number of provisional ballots (there are 1,160 provisional ballots countywide to “review and process.” This according to a Saturday press release from Mendocino County Elections Office. “Our office is not open today (we are not answering phones), although we are here processing ballots and proceeding with our canvas procedures.”

THE ONLY ELECTION I can recall (and voter registrar Sue Ranochak can recall) that flipped actual results with the final, certified count was the 2014 Fort Bragg City Council election, where the Advocate-News reported Mayor Dave Turner was in fourth place, losing with “18 percent” (rounded figure), but with final results, Turner came in third, winning the third seat with 18.98% of the vote.

TO REPEAT: Why are so many ballots uncounted in the “Final Election Night Report”? Because floods of Mendocino County voters are dropping their ballots off at the polls on Election Day, and local voters are doing that because many of them were forced into “mail-in-only” precincts by the former registrar of voters when she, Marsha Wharff, closed most of the walk-in polling places in Mendocino County.

SUPERVISOR JOHN MCCOWEN, asked to comment on the glacial pace of Mendocino County election returns, had this to say: “Count me among those who believe the problem can best be addressed by increasing the number of traditional polling place voters and hiring extra help to process mail in ballots that arrive before election day. It is simply not in the public interest to count less than a third of the votes on election day and wait weeks for the final returns. Any issues involving cost, staffing, logistics, and security can be addressed if there is a willingness to do so. Any voter can vote by mail if they choose, but the thousands of voters who prefer voting at a neighborhood polling place on election day should have the option to do so.”

* * *

JON KENNEDY, Potter Valley, former candidate for First District Supervisor, posted the following note on Facebook before Election Day 2024:

“Mendocino County may have the worst elections department in the state. I predict a complete clusterf$#^ this election. Most likely a low voter turnout because of the multiple errors made this election cycle, so my predictions may not even sniff reality. Ok, easy one first. Supervisor Mulheren will win with somewhere in the 60% area. Could be higher. 

District 1 Supervisor. There's a very good chance one candidate will win tonight, even though there are 4. There's no entrenched bureaucrat being propped up by the local Dem party, and Covid didn't get in the way of campaigning, so if anyone wins tonight, based on the gobs of money spent and the impressive campaign, it'll be Cline. If there's a runoff, it will most likely be between Cline and Gaska.”

* * *

IT WILL BE INTERESTING to see if the runners-up in the First District Race — Gaska, Carrie Shattuck and Trevor Mockel — stay involved in County politics and to what extent. We certainly hope they do, including Mockel.

PS. PLEASE NOTE: A national IQ test will be held on November 5th, 2024.

AV VARIETY SHOW THIS FRIDAY & SATURDAY

Hey Boontlings! Looks like the weather is gonna be cooperating with this weekend’s 31st Anderson Valley Variety Show! Dress warm anyway and have an umbrella just in case! There’s gonna be parking lot hot food sales on Friday & Saturday night provided by AV High Senior Class so bring $$ for enchiladas & flautas!

SUPERVISOR TED WILLIAMS: I regularly receive reports of abandoned vehicles. The decision by voters to continue the program was a wise one. It's crucial for the county to enhance successful programs and eliminate those that are found to be ineffective.

NORM THURSTON: I have a different take on Mr. Liberty’s support of Madeline Cline. Liberty has very definite opinions about how things should be done, and will exert his influence if he believes it will get the result he wants. It is safe to say that, in general, older successful men may sometimes be influential in dealings with younger, ambitious women. So I contend that it is control, and not nihilism, that is motivating him. The reported vote tally for the 1st District is quite a surprise, as is the comparatively low number of total votes reported so far in the 2d District.

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS:

Planning & Building / Environment Health workshop

Supervisor McGourty and I are sponsoring a Planning and Building & Environmental Health “workshop” at the BOS meeting on March 26. It'll start at approximately 1pm, 501 Low Gap, Ukiah, with Zoom option. This is a rare opportunity for stakeholders to share constructive criticism directly with the board and department heads. The goal is to strength operations. Please save the date and share with builders.

ANICA WILLIAMS STEPS DOWN

Hello all -

I am sad to report that I am stepping down as the AV Village Coordinator - I have decided to go back to working at CA State Parks as an educator. I have really enjoyed meeting all the wonderful Valley folks and seeing all the great things you are doing here! I know the board will select a great person and things will run smoothly with new energy and insight!

Please help spread the news about the job opening: We are hiring a new Anderson Valley Village Coordinator! The coordinator job is great with a wonderful group of people (board members, members, volunteers, etc)!

Deadline for applications is Thursday, March 28, 2024. For more information and the application go to our website - it's on the Homepage: https://www.andersonvalleyvillage.org/

Job Opening: Anderson Valley Village Coordinator 8-10 Hours per week: pay range $22.-$25.00 DOE

The Anderson Valley Village is looking for new Coordinator.

We are looking for someone who:

1. Is passionate about and skilled in building community

2. Has strong interpersonal skills with all age groups including volunteers

3. Has the ability to solve problems creatively

4. Demonstrates proficiency in digital communications and database skills

Application and full job description are available on the Homepage of our website: www.andersonvalleyvillage.org

Anica Williams

Elk

LEND A HAND, IF YOU CAN! 

Please support this cause and lift up Tyler and his sweet family in this time of need! Reach out if you are interested in dinner tickets, would like to help, have something to donate etc. Tickets will be available at the local markets starting tomorrow. Any support is greatly appreciated!

ED NOTES

BEFORE IT CLOSED for good in September of 2002, the Georgia-Pacific mill in Fort Bragg imported construction site waste from various landfills in the Bay Area to feed its on-site power plant. That plant not only generated enough electricity to run mill operations there was enough juice left over to sell to PG&E. 

UNDER its license issued by Mendocino County Air Quality at the time, the G-P mill was permitted to burn wood waste products as its primary fuel, but was also allowed to burn some fuel oil, plus the imported construction site wood waste.

UNDER its revised license, the Fort Bragg mill could burn up to 300 tons per day of imported wood waste, igniting a chorus of complaints from Fort Bragg residents that the wood waste contained lots of bad chemicals, including antimony, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, vanadium and zinc, all of which were declared “twice below” federal EPA guidelines by Mendocino Air Quality officials.

AS I RECALL, G-P was stiffed for over a million dollars by PG&E for sales of electricity when PG&E's profit-making wing was split from the mother ship to protect PG&E's shareholders during the deregulation sweepstakes.

“AT GEORGIA-PACIFIC, the production of electricity is helping to keep our company afloat this winter,” Fort Bragg mill manager Ron Holen told the Press Democrat back then. “The plant shut down last Thanksgiving, laying off 215 workers, because of a lack of demand for wood products. But during the shutdown it has been running its power plant at full capacity, producing 6.5 to 7 megawatts — enough for 7,000 homes and businesses — and selling that electricity to PG&E.”

AIR QUALITY officials said that the Fort Bragg area sometimes exceeded federal standards for air quality when cloud cover was low and an inversion was created that trapped pollutants, but this was due to “particulates” from wood burning stoves, they said, not emissions from the mill. 

THE MILL was required to install new smokestack scrubbers in the early 1990s after a health risk assessment study was ordered by Air Quality. The particulate matter — that grimy black dust residents were familiar with that coated houses and cars — was due to woodstoves and backyard burning of yard trimmings and household garbage, according to Air Quality, neatly shifting blame to FB residents from G-P.

RETIRED G-P employees recall the days when the state’s CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting) program used the mill's boilers to burn tons of marijuana seized from local growers. Residents, however, had long suspected that G-P also occasionally burned old tires and other forms of hazardous waste in its boilers, especially under the cover of dark, foggy nights. 

AIR QUALITY staff promised complete protection for G-P employees who reported first-hand observations of anything other than wood waste and fuel oil going into the boilers, but there were never any confirmed complaints.

I WON'T miss dealing with the Post Office bureaucracy, hastening to clarify that the Boonville Post Office has never been anything but cheerfully efficient. Outtahere was always the prob. 

POST OFFICE CENTRAL has steadily made “innovations” which recently has required our weekly dispatch to be partly deposited in bags, partly in bins with special lids and straps that we have to buy, with accompanying weekly reporting requirements pegged to complicated math formulas even our resident math wizard, The Major, sometimes puzzles over every week.

WE HAVE TO store enough bins and bags and lids and straps in the crowded space of our combined office and living space to meet the demands of the weekly dispatch, resulting in quarters that might be called “industrio-beatnik,” a unique clutter certain to defeat even the most committed Feng Shui organizer. 

ALTHOUGH we've always paid mightily for second class mailing permit “privileges,” the Boonville weekly has always been treated by big city distribution as junk mail, which accounts for the paper's serendipitous arrivals in distant locales. One week the entire dispatch went missing. I sued the Post Office in small claims court, then handily located just down the street in the Boonville Justice Court. The Post Office sent three (count 'em) officials to beat back my modest claim, arguing, essentially, that stuff happens that the Post Office can't be held liable for. 

MAILING COSTS have steadily risen over the years to where we could no longer afford to send papers out of state, nevermind out of the country, and there went a nice slug of subscribers. Lesson learned? Big beats small. Whatever one's enterprise, it's all geared to corporo-convenience and the homogeneity that comes with it. 

ALEX DE GRASSI & THE REAL SARAHS CD RELEASE CONCERT MARCH 23

The Real Sarahs & Alex de Grassi are pleased to announce a CD release concert for their new recording, Everything’s Changed, on Saturday, March 23 at 7pm at SPACE Theater, located at 508 W Perkins in Ukiah CA. Tickets are now available online from Brown Paper Tickets, Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah, and Mazahar in Willits. For further information please contact office@degrassi.com.

The trio will be joined by two of the musicians who performed on the recording, bassist David Hayes and drummer Kirk Harwood, along with special guests to be announced. CDs will be available for purchase in the lobby, and following the concert, the audience can meet the artists and get their CDs signed. The artists will host a special pre-concert event for VIP supporters of the recording’s Kickstarter Fund and refreshments and wine and beer, courtesy of Barra of Mendocino and Anderson Valley Brewing Company, will be available for purchase in the lobby, with proceeds to benefit the Sun House Guild.

Two previously released singles from the recording, Across the Great Divide and Lichen on a Limb, have been receiving praise from media and public alike. The tracks have been prominently featured on both the Berkeley based KPFA Radio show Across the Great Divide and KPFK’s legendary Folkscene Radio of Los Angeles. Of the first single, KPFA Host Kevin Vance says “My listeners LOVE your version of Across the Great Divide!”, and Folkscene host Allen Larman says “great vocal harmonizing. I can’t wait to hear the entire album!” Digital release of the complete album will be available from all major steaming/downloading services in early April on the Tropo Records label via Six Degrees/Ingrooves distribution.

This recording project is a long time in the making. Begun at the very outset of the Covid pandemic, the early pre-production and arranging was done remotely by trading ideas over the internet and over the phone. The project was further slowed by Ms. Larkin’s life-threatening injuries from an auto accident, the loss of the duo’s gear in a house fire, and by other personal tragedies and setbacks. The completion of the project represents a triumph of resilience and determination that is reflected in the music and the lyrics, while the artist’s ability to adapt to the times and circumstances is reflected in the album’s title, Everything’s Changed.

The recording features seven originals by Larkin and Ryan, one traditional, and three unique arrangements of songs by Nanci Griffith, John Prine, and Kate Wolf. De Grassi is joined throughout by bassist David Hayes (Van Morrison), and on some tracks by drummer Kirk Harwood (Norton Buffalo). Guest appearances by electric guitarist Nina Gerber (Karla Bonoff, Kate Wolf), violinist Jeremy Cohen (Quartet San Francisco), vocalist/mandolinist AJ Lee, steel guitarist Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz (ALO), and percussion by Joe Craven (David Grisman) and Downbeat-poll winning percussionist Hamid Drake give these performances a sound that straddles the line between the Americana tradition and Contemporary Folk. The recording was produced by Alex de Grassi, mixed by multi-Grammy Award winning engineer/producer Chuck Ainlay in Nashvile and mastered by Gavin Lurssen at Lurssen Mastering in Los Angeles. For further information about The Real Sarahs, please visit therealsarahs.com. To learn more about Alex de Grassi, visit www.degrassi.com 

R.D. BEACON:

Remembering back, will place it served the best hamburger in the county, right down at, Noyo harbor, just a little west, at the bottom of the hill, a family business, Carine’s, Fish grotto, family that believed, that you should not walk away hungry, giant hamburgers, cooks away you wanted it, large bowls from clam chowder, huge baskets of, local fish, deep-fried, with french fries, long before the days of McDonald's, dried out hamburgers, and even in an out Burger, thin patty day serve you, cook so well done, can't take the meat, the only local spot, left anymore, is Jenny's giant burger, at the north end of Main Street, across from Denny's, in the old days we used to call it stony's, with high school kids would hang out, or hamburger and a shake, Fort Bragg had some, great little restaurants in the old days, like the club fort Bragg, open late, or across the street at the Windsor, or down the street to the Piedmont, hotel, best Italian food around, they're all gone, except for Jenny's giant burger it still here, but even if the former shadow, of itself from back in the 60s, in 1964, we had a A&W root beer, a local trucker, owned the business, we invented a special hamburger, that only the select few, knew about extra meat, avocado, thick cut bacon, with a lot of cheese, the owner made the burger my way, before the days of Burger King and some of the others we had our own, inside track, to better food, served to the loggers, and the big truck drivers, but like so many good things, it disappeared into the dust, just like the third-largest sawmill, and the world here in Fort Bragg, today there are no more sawmills on the coast, and you hear people say the timber industry is dead, I can tell you from experience it has not died yet, and we have more timber volume in our County today, then when we had it first starting out in the early 1800s, the trees were further apart 20 to 30 feet, so not much density, but today they are 1 to 2 feet away, there is more standing timber, ready to be harvested within the county, and there was in the old days, the industry is far from dead, not even dying, although there are parts of the state, due to the stupidity of landowners, and government officials, and do not clear the dying and diseased, vegetation away from the land, that are contributing to the, catastrophic wildfires, that we have been having, through the state, the stupidity of government, and the people that move in, from the East Coast, they cannot leave well enough alone, allowing local landowners, to manage their properties, like they have for hundreds of years, businesses disappear, because many times, the descendents and/or children, too lazy, to continue, what their parents started, they take the easy way out, those of us that are left, only can remember, how it used to be.

CATCH OF THE DAY: Wednesday, March 6, 2024

MICHAEL CASTLE, Ukiah. Stolen vehicle, criminal threats, probation denied-more than two felony convictions.

JESUS HERRERA, Willits. Disorderly conduct-under influence, vandalism, resisting.

GABRIELE JASYTE, Willits. Trespassing and occupying structure without consent.

MICHAEL LAMUN, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

NICHOLE SOTILLE-KONEVITCH, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

VICTOR VARELAS-RAMIREZ, Fort Bragg. Domestic abuse.

PEACE AND SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST: on KMUD, Thursday, March 7

On Thursday's show, our guests will be two of the world's leading peace and human rights activists -- Sharon Gaya Dolev, an Israeli, and Emad Kiyaei, an Iranian.

Sharon Gaya Dolev
Executive Director, Middle East Treaty Organization [METO]
Director, Israeli Disarmament Movement
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in Israel (2017 Nobel Peace Laureate)
 
Emad Kiyaei 
Director, American Iranian Council (AIC)
Principal, Interdisciplinary Global Development Group (IGD Group)
Adviser, United Nations Security Council during the Iranian nuclear negotiations (2013-2016).
 
Our show will focus on eradicating nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East through innovative policy, education, advocacy, and activism. 
 
KMUD
Our show, "Heroes and Patriots Radio", airs live on KMUD, on the first and fifth Thursdays of every month, at 9 AM, Pacific Time.
 
We simulcast our programming on two full power FM stations: KMUE 88.1 in Eureka and KLAI 90.3 in Laytonville. It also maintains a translator at 99.5 FM in Shelter Cove, California.
 
We also stream live from the web at https://kmud.org/
 
Speak with our guests live and on-the-air at: KMUD Studio (707) 923-3911. Please call in.

— John Sakowicz

MAZIE MALONE:

Proposition 1. Could do great good! I say could because it probably won’t. Talk is cheap and politicians are so often full of bullshit. The truth is there is no doubt we need treatment beds, and to get people the help they need for homelessness, addiction and mental illness. And some people are completely in need of mandatory forced treatment, Jake Kooy and Jahlan Travis both would benefit, our families and community could thrive. We must stop believing that allowing mentally ill people to suffer homelessness, addiction & hunger is freedom! Is it freedom to allow your demented grandma to drive to the store, take her pills or even go for a walk outside? No!!! It is Dangerous!!! We offer care and supervision at a high cost for our high risk cognitively impaired sweet and salty old folks to protect them from the dangers of neurocognitive decline ! The freedom to choose is not a choice when your brain is playing tricks on you and you are completely unaware of reality. We have to step in and prevent the danger and help people get a handle on their condition! For the last 50 years we have witnessed the increase in these issues with no real help, psych institutions were closed and communities became responsible for directing and providing help to this population of people. But what happened LE became in charge.! Those advocacy groups against prop 1 are not taking into account the serious issues of those who literally cannot help themselves! They make the assumption we are all the same and should be treated as such! That everyone has a well functioning brain and can make rational choices. However the truth is without the proper intervention and support structure it will not matter! It can take months even years to get to a stable place. It takes one moment one action one instant of proper intervention to change a persons trajectory. We do it for our elders for our kids for our animals, just not for those in most desperate need!

STRONGER BECAUSE…

Editor: 

It’s time to cut through the noise and tell the truth about immigration: Our economy and community is stronger because of it. Some leaders would have us think it’s a zero-sum game when our country takes in immigrants, but that’s not true at all.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the U.S. economy will grow by an extra $7 trillion over the next 10 years thanks to immigrants. But we don’t have to wait for the future to see how immigrants are strengthening the economy. In 2021, immigrants paid $524.7 billion in taxes. That’s money that helps fuel our nation’s K-12 schools, Medicaid and Social Security. Immigrants help support our communities as consumers and taxpayers.

Don’t believe it? Even Donald Trump’s appointed Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, recognized the massive contributions immigrants make in a recent national interview, saying, “A big part of the story of the labor market coming back into better balance is immigration returning to levels that were more typical of the pre-pandemic era.”

So let’s give credit where credit is due, stop the anti-immigrant rhetoric and end the zero-sum mindset. Immigration truly is essential for our economic growth and our communities’ prosperity.

Laura Elizares

Kelseyville

POST MODERN NOTES

Postmodernism Is Dead! Now What?

Sitting in front of computer #4 at the Ukiah, California Public Library @ 2:08 PM PST, realizing that postmodernism is dead. Increasing numbers of current guests at the Building Bridges Homeless Resource Center come in at night so compromised by having taken street fentanyl, that they appear to be sleep walking. More difficult to comprehend is that they are often accompanied by another who is known to be smoking methamphetamine. One wonders just how they can tolerate each other! The one is racing and the other is in slow motion. Go figure.

Meanwhile, the dental appointment yesterday went well. It's the small tooth next to the large gold crowned molar that has a cavity. It will take up to three weeks to get an answer from Partnership of California to see if the needed root canal will be cost covered, in addition to the crown. The dentist wrote a prescription for antibiotics, just in case pain increases. 

Read the New York Times as usual. Okay, obviously the Palestinians must be supported primarily in the region. Obviously, the Ukrainians must be supported against the insanity of communist aggression. Obviously, Joe Biden will be re-elected, regardless of the total chaos politically playing out otherwise. Obviously, the only really important question in regard to Donald Trump is why did he take the classified documents and hide them at his residences. A sixth grader would have made copies. Obviously, Taiwan must be defended against communist aggression. When do the communist Chinese leave Tibet, and get off of the north side of the Himalayan mountains? Why does KIm Jong Un keep saying that he can hit Los Angeles with an ICBM? When is the United States government going to realize that it was stupid to align with Pakistan, forcing Indira Gandhi to align with Leonid Brezhnev's soviet union? The most valuable new political ally on earth was lost, and now it is mostly an association for business reasons. [Meanwhile, Americans in droves benefit from yoga and related wisdom from the Sanatana Dharma. Thank you jnana yoga, with a touch of bhakti yoga for flavor.]

And obviously, if you still aren't a climate activist, you are an idiot. P.S. Are you recycling?

Finally, I am chillin' in California's Mendocino county. That's right, doing nothing of any great importance, watching the season's change. A monk at the nearby City of Ten Thousand Buddhas said: “The sage does nothing, yet everything gets done.” Obviously, he was joking. 

THREE AWKWARD TRUTHS:

Editor,

1. Jack Speer, the guy with the speech impediment who reads the news squibs for NPR, is perhaps suffering from the early stages of idioglossia or drinks too much muscatel.

2. The spork. There has been an uneasy silence for generations about the fact that the “fork” part doesn't work.

3. Gaza. The number of Palestinian civilians killed by the Israel military, 30,000, is steadily approaching the death toll of British civilians killed by the Nazis during Blitz. Ordinarily, those who run Israel and those who support them get touchy whenever their barbarisms are compared with those of the Nazis.

Malgré tout.

Volt-Voort

Rome, New York

WHAT IF MARIN COUNTY HELD AN ELECTION AND THEN LOCKED THE ENTRANCE TO THE CENTRAL IN-PERSON POLLING PLACE AN HOUR BEFORE THE POLLS WERE SET TO CLOSE?

by Eva Chrysanthe

Possibly the most iconic of Marin's in-person voting centers is located at Frank Lloyd Wright's labyrinthine Marin Civic Center, nicknamed “Big Pink” for its distinctive paint color. The fastest and most-used route to this particular, long-treasured County voting center is through the main entrance on Peter Behr Drive. In fact, for most Marinites, this entrance, with its pleasing gate made of vertical, gold-anodized grills, and its spectacular view of the hills to its north, is the only known entrance to the Civic Center's main building.

On any given day, you will see young mothers with their children, books in arms, stroll past these main entrance gates to travel to and from one of the County's most popular libraries. Others use the main entrance to attend Board of Supervisors meetings, or to visit the County Clerk, the Assessor, and other vital County offices, including the Registrar of Voters. But this entrance, sadly, had been fully locked at least an hour before the polls were set to close on March 5, 2024. For most of this time, there was no explanation of any alternate entrance.

I know about this only because a very young voter who had shown up to cast his ballot at that location called to alert me to the situation at 7:01 p.m. By that point, the youth had already started asking the security guard and various county staffers questions about why voters were being locked out before the polls closed. He was able to advocate for the unlocking of the gate, which eventually made it a little easier for those trying to get in:

What I was able to piece together from a combination of video, photographs, late-night interviews, and the persistence of that young voter, follows:

1. The entrance began to be locked as early as 6:30, when it was already getting dark, but no alternate instructions were posted for how to access the voting center via a back entrance at “Middle Arch”.

2. A woman who appeared to be working with or for the County emerged from the interior near he main entrance to shout to confused voters that they could use an unseen door across the street, walk up the non-handicapped accessible stairs, and cross back over to the main building. (This would put them on the second floor, from which they would have to find the first floor voting location without benefit of a map.) But this woman’s proposed work-around was not possible, because the door she instructed people to use was locked.

3. Multiple people attempting to vote in person were confronted by the gruff Barbier security guard who told them to “go around to the other entrance”, referring to the largely unknown “Middle Arch” entrance, which is a circuitous walk in the dark.

4. Others simply met a locked gate with no explanation and no other directions, and left either to try to vote at another location, or simply went home without voting.

5. Due to the persistence of the young voter, who was flanked by multiple citizens who also complained, the County apparently relented and unlocked the gates to the main entrance.

6. The gates, once unlocked, were subsequently re-locked for no apparent reason. The young voter again complained, and the gates were “re-unlocked.” Rinse and repeat. This locking and unlocking would continue, seemingly based on the whim of the Barbier security guard — but ultimately due to the County's own intransigence in locking out its own voting public.

7. The young voter was thus obliged to monitor the security guard's changing moods regarding the gate until 8 pm. This is an awkward, stressful, and vulnerable position for anyone, but especially for someone young.

8. At one point, a signboard was placed outside the gate with piece of 8.5” x 11” paper on which had been printed: “ENTRANCE CLOSED. USE MIDDLE ARCH.” But there were no instructions on the sign for how to walk or drive to “Middle Arch” and the only map was located (tantalizingly!) behind the locked gate.

This Is Fine:

Regardless of political outlook, everyone I was able to talk to about the apparently deliberate decision to restrict their access thought it was novel or bad. Some defenders of the County will no doubt suggest, “they should have mailed their ballots in before election day after work.” But there are good reasons for waiting to fill out one's ballot on election day — not least is which is the difficulty working people experience trying to cut through the misinformation regarding candidates, measures, and propositions. If your vote matters, shouldn't you wait to make the best decisions possible?

Further, while the mail-in/drop-off ballot is an important option, a mail-in ballot may not reach one's mailbox, or if received, it may get lost. In another not-uncommon scenario, voters may have filled in their mail-in ballot, and forgot to put it in their briefcase/backpack/purse prior to leaving the house for work. Still others simply don't trust mail-in/drop-off ballots. But whatever the reason, every voter has the right to vote in person. That right can obviously be obstructed, however, when the gates to the voting center are locked and no other clear instructions are provided.

Okay, So It's Not Fine, But The County Didn't Break The Law:

I checked the available law code around voting centers and it didn't appear to be have any specific requirements for counties with regard to voting centers. I reached out to an attorney in San Francisco who confirmed the likelihood that Marin County's Registrar of Voters had not broken any laws. That attorney did suggest, “it would be a great piece of activist litigation for a disabled rights group to sue.”

If that is the case, it certainly seems possible that a paper trail that began in mid-2023 would be relevant. In a series of letters to the Board of Supervisors there appear repeated questions and concerns about the County's decision to lock the gates to the main entrance prior to evening commission meetings, including the County's troubled (and now suspended) Human Rights Commission.

Then, as now, there was no signage instructing the public that there was a back-door entrance through Middle Arch.

Unfortunately, this is part of a larger pattern by the County, including, as detailed many times earlier, willfully destroying a full eight of the twelve AB1185 “Sheriff Civilian Oversight Working Group” meetings, from which the public itself had been barred.

Many of those letters from 2023 express concerns that the County was deliberately attempting to squelch public participation in supposedly public meetings by locking the gates early. Those same letters reference concerns about discrimination against disabled participants.

When the activity was a meeting of a County commission, it was bad enough. But when it interferes with one of the most basic political rights — voting — it represents a kind of “doubling down” on the County's contempt for the public. Especially since voting itself is such a limited political expression in the U.S.

Some years before I volunteered for (and sadly grew disenchanted with) President Obama, a classicist at the University of Texas wrote a book which he had conceived partly in reaction to our post-9/11 reality. In laying out the basis of “First Democracy: The Challenge of an Ancient Idea”, Paul Woodruff reminds us that a representative democracy is only the illusion of democracy.

The real thing, Woodruff maintains throughout his book, requires much more commitment than most Americans are aware of — but it is also far more inclusive than what we have. Our current status quo, he urges, is worth re-examining.

Marin's local vote totals are beginning to trickle in. There do not appear to be any surprises for the most powerful County seats. In fact, one Supervisor, Stephanie Moulton-Peters, represents a district so stagnant that no one even bothered to challenge her candidacy. Meanwhile, the poorest in Marin County, those who toil in the homes of the wealthy — the immigrants doing some of the most vital life-saving work of caretaking — can't even register to vote. But when they eventually gain that right to vote, will it be protected? Or will they be met with a literal locked gate?

THE SILLY FUROR OVER ‘ALLEGEDLY’

by Matt Taibbi

On Sunday, Kristen Welker of Meet The Press offered a throwaway line while introducing one of the show’s guests, former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley: Haley is now dialing back expectations. Haley also weighing in on the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over Mr. [Donald] Trump’s claim that he’s immune from criminal prosecution for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election.

Colleagues went bananas, pitchforking poor Welker for including the pro forma newsism “allegedly.” The inimitable Aaron Rupar protested that Trump didn’t “allegedly” try to overturn the 2020 election, “He really tried to do that. We lived through it!” Dash Dubrovsky of the Gen Z Perspective Newsletter complained, “Why is Kristen Welker whitewashing Trump’s crimes?” White House Deputy communications director Herbie Ziskend (imagine Louis C.K.’s “whiny house guest” voice here) simply wrote, “‘Allegedly.’ Please do better, folk.”

OVER AND OVER you see people enter western mainstream political parties with the stated goal of changing them from this inside, but instead it changes them. They think the problem is that the party just doesn’t have enough nice people in it, but it turns out trying to change a mainstream political party in the western empire by putting nice people in it is like trying to change an abusive cult by putting nice people in it: the cult doesn’t change, the people who go in just get indoctrinated. The cult isn’t bad because there aren’t enough nice cult members, the cult is bad because its entire purpose, function and founding doctrine is bad.

A mainstream political party in the imperial core exists solely to promote the interests of the empire. Everything in it is geared toward this purpose. That is its nature. If you join it, you either embrace its doctrines and help it act out its foundational purpose, or you get kicked out of the cult. You cannot change it. It can only change you. How many times does this have to happen before people learn the lesson?

— Caitlin Johnstone

INTERVIEW WITH JEFFREY SACHS ABOUT MEDIA AND THE WARFARE STATE

This interview I did with Jeffrey Sachs for his book club has just been released as audio and video. Feel free to post/embed/link if you can make use of it in some form.

Thanks,

Norman Solomon

Jeffrey Sachs interviews Norman Solomon about ‘War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine’

Watch the video