Mendocino County Today: Wednesday 7/24/2024

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YESTERDAY'S HIGHS: Covelo 107°, Ukiah 106°, Yorkville 105°, Laytonville 105°, Boonville 104°, Fort Bragg 73°, Mendocino 70°, Point Arena 59°

HOT WEATHER expected to continue in the interior through the day, followed by a downward trend for the remainder of the week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): 54F with clear skies this Wednesday morning on the coast. A few high clouds are passing overhead as well. Clear skies are mentioned a bit more than clouds in the forecast, so a mix of both as usual.

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CITY PUNKS GET COVELO-ED

On Monday, July 22, 2024 at approximately 3:11 P.M., Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Deputies were dispatched to a property in the 24000 block of Shady Lane in Covelo for a report of an in-progress burglary. It was reported that residents interrupted multiple subjects stealing marijuana, who subsequently fled the location in a red pickup and a U-Haul box truck.

Law enforcement from numerous agencies throughout Mendocino County responded to include representatives from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, CalFire Prevention Officers, California State Parks, and Round Valley Tribal Police Department.

A short time later, the caller to Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Dispatch provided updated information that a U-Haul box truck had returned to the property on Shady Lane and the residents confronted two of the suspects in their driveway. Sheriff’s Office Dispatchers then heard what they believed to be firearms being discharged over the phone line and the resident reported there was an exchange of gunfire between the residents and the suspects. The residents physically subdued two of the suspects until law enforcement arrived, while several other suspects fled the area.

Law Enforcement personnel arrived and detained 34-year-old Gary Casdell Fite from San Francisco, and 28-year-old Marcel Jamarie Earl Patterson from Richmond.

Fite and Patterson both had significant injuries to their faces, heads, and extremities which were reportedly caused by the residents prior to law enforcement arrival at the scene.

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Detectives were summoned to the scene to assist with the investigation. Fite and Patterson were transported to Howard Memorial Hospital to be treated for injuries sustained during this incident. Fite was arrested for violations of 213 PC (robbery), 29800 PC (prohibited person in possession of a firearm), and 12022.53 PC (armed with a firearm during the commission of a felony). Fite was booked into the Mendocino County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Patterson was unable to be incarcerated due to the significance of his injuries and was subsequently airlifted to an out-of-county hospital for further medical treatment. Charges against Patterson are pending while he is hospitalized for his injuries.

At this stage of the investigation, law enforcement does not believe the suspects or victims were shot during the exchange of gunfire while law enforcement personnel were responding. This case is actively being investigated by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and additional information will be released as it becomes available.

Anyone with information related to this investigation is encouraged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086. Information can also be provided anonymously by utilizing the non-emergency tip-line at 707-234-2100.

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SUPES GIVE THEMSELVES THEIR BIG RAISE

by Mark Scaramella

The Supes pay raise proposal got off on a bad start Tuesday when Supervisor Mulheren refused to let a county employee complain about it in advance so that she could “go serve her clients in the hills outside of Boonville.”

“I’m sorry,” said Mulheren, “but I’m just trying to follow the process.” The employee threw up her hands in exasperation as she left the podium for her Boonville appointments.

Supervisor Williams was surprised to learn from one speaker that there are at least 12 social services employees who are either homeless or living in substandard conditions. He asked for a tally because “that’s one of the benchmarks that should matter to us.”

Mulheren deflected the comment by referring it to a “team” (Mendo has a “homeless team”?) after which, she insisted, “I am certain there will be follow up,” adding, “I will follow up with you about those specific people.” But, of course, there will be no further public discussion of the situation.

Unfortunately, the discussion of a staff proposal to raise the Supervisors’ salaries by about $15,000 in two steps (about 12%) devolved into pseudo-technical questions of how the Board’s latest insulting raise was calculated, which counties were compared to for what, how much it would cost in total, whether employees have to pay an increased share of healthcare costs, etc.

But they mostly avoid saying about how bad the entire idea is and how hyper-hypocritical it is since the Board has spent the last few years bemoaning the County’s deficit, whatever it actually is.

In financially strapped times in the past at least some Board members realized how bad it looks to give themselves a raise while refusing them to other employees and imposing various cuts.

Not this bunch.

When Supervisor Glenn McGourty called those who disagreed with the large proposed raise “negative naysayers” and “haters,” none of his colleagues disagreed.

Akesh Eidi, President of the local Services Employees International Union Local 1021 got a round of applause when he began his remarks by saying, “You want to do what now?!”

Only Board critic Carrie Shattuck got close to the core of the problem, saying:

“The county is in a financial crisis. It has given raises to all the highest-paid officials recently while knowing we cannot afford them. How could the board possibly consider giving themselves raises while the county is in a financial crisis? The budget was just “balanced” using one time funds for the second year. The in-home support services people have been in here for more than a year trying to get $20 per hour. And they have heard over and over that you can't afford it. You have also tried to get lower paid staff to $23 per hour which this board expressed was a priority. Now you have the money to give yourselves raises? Our roads are terrible. Residents cannot even afford to fix their suspensions. Businesses are failing and leaving this county in droves. Tax revenues are down. This is big government at work right here. You are out of touch with the communities you are supposed to be serving. This board is not deserving of a raise. It is shameful and disrespectful to all county employees that this is even on the agenda today. You should be taking pay cuts not getting raises. It appears recalls are the only remedy for our out of touch supervisors.”

Supervisor Dan Gjerde bizarrely first claimed that the pay raise was “just clean-up language.” Then he whined about the fact that state law requires public officials to vote on the salaries of public officials, including themselves, in public and properly noticed meetings. Gjerde, of all people, who is smart enough and experienced enough to know what the process is for public official salaries, still can’t understand that he and his colleagues have had a net negative impact on the County and the people they are supposed to represent. And yet here they were insisting that they somehow deserve a big raise.

Supervisor Glenn McGourty took the opportunity to launch into “Full Colfax Mode” (with a dollop of Agnew):

“There is a group of people who no matter what we do or what we say are not going to like this. There is a lot of negative naysayers. They are very vocal. They are haters who don't like anything we do. And I'm sure we are going to hear from them. I'm also sure that there are people who say they are not being fairly compensated and they are probably right. Our wage structure given the recent inflation and everything else that has happened and we need to work more. Like Supervisor Williams has talked about some of the people at the bottom too. … This is a difficult job, by far. It is the hardest job of any that I've ever done. I have liked it and hated it at the same time. When things don't go well, when you don't get your way, you still have to suck it up and come up here and go at it again. And when people criticize you and you can't answer because there is information that is confidential, it's difficult for us. We all face it. We all suck it up. We keep coming back. We are trying to do the best we can. I think this is a fair proposition.”

(For those who came in late, when Board salaries were discussed at one of his last meetings in 2009, the late Supervisor David Colfax had said, “I’ve had too much of an investment in this organization and wasted too damn much time bickering over a crappy salary connected to a not terribly rewarding job. … It's not terribly, terribly exciting to put it very mildly.”)

McGourty whined that being a supervisor is “the hardest job of any that I've ever done”? That’s probably because McGourty spent most of his “career” in cush non-job in a guaranteed position with the local Ag Extension Office as a cosseted wine advisory, taking government-paid junkets to France and other places and producing decidedly non-scientific propaganda pieces that he foisted off on the public as “studies” for his pals in the wine industry.

It’s true that in the last few weeks McGourty has had to deal with a couple of complaints about his family situation which are understandably upsetting. But most of the criticism he and his colleagues has received is about bad Board decisions and Board detachment from County operations and the public. McGourty is certainly under no “confidentiality” restrictions to try to defend those dubious decisions and lack of action. Trouble is, like the pay raise itself, all he can do is offer his own opinion that giving himself a raise “is a fair proposition.” To McGourty and his fellow Supervisors, “a fair proposition” is simply that other people get raises (from the Supervisors) so why not us? Where’s his list of accomplishments that deserve a raise? What things did “not go [his] way”? When? Why? Could it be that he and his colleagues have no rational argument for getting a pay raise, much less having the gall to propose one?

Almost unbelievably, McGourty also whined about how hard it is to run for Supervisor, going door to door, going to candidates nights. The effort! The sacrifice! And for no pay!

Supervisor Haschak joined with his colleagues to whine about the “weird position” the salary discussion put him in, adding one of the craziest analogies we’ve ever heard: that “this process makes martyrs out of the Supervisors.” Thus transforming the poor, overpaid Supervisors into helpless victims of the legal process.

In the end, the result was all too predictable as the Board voted 4-1 with Williams bleating a token “no” vote to “approve the recommended action.” (Williams will probably not turn down the raise, however.) The “recommended action” being a proposal from their own captive human resources department to feather the Supervisors’ collective nest as the County faces unprecedented budget shortfalls, oblivious to their own calls for belt-tightening almost everywhere else.

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JIM SHIELDS

Pardon my crassness but at today’s meeting (July 23rd) dealing with the Board of Supervisors proposed salary raise, four out of the five collectively gave the finger to their respective constituents and county residents in general.

Supervisor Ted Williams cast the sole opposing vote, although he offered no explanation for doing so. My guess is he knew that the overwhelming number of District 5 residents were in the “No, hell no!” camp, and he voted accordingly. Of course, his four colleagues were facing the exact same situation but they responded with the extended middle digit.

So Williams has earned grateful appreciation, at least in this instance, for doing his job the way it’s supposed to be done.

Let me explain what I’m talking about.

Even though we find ourselves currently where, conservatively, at least 80 percent of County residents are staunchly opposed to the Supes ramming through a pay raise which they think is a great idea notwithstanding the fact this county is experiencing unprecedented fiscal distress. Keep in mind that never-before-seen state intervention in the form of two investigative audits to go along with an incomplete annual federal audit, are occurring in this county.

Notwithstanding the calamitous situation with finances, four-fifths of the Board believe they should be rewarded with a salary increase. Besides they argue, we gave all the other employees raises “bringing them up to market,” and we deserve the same treatment.

Here’s some friendly advice for the Supes:

Stop talking and start listening.

There’s a reason why we are all born with two ears but just one mouth. It’s difficult to hear what people are saying if you’re talking all the time. That’s why you don’t hear what the vast majority of your constituents are saying to you: You don’t deserve a pay raise because you haven’t been doing your jobs. The buck stops with you on all fiscal matters. Among other blunders, you recklessly weakened internal financial controls by your rash decision to consolidate the formerly separate offices of Treasurer-Tax Collector and Auditor-Controller.

The special internal controls audit just completed by the state Auditor’s office made that finding.

Supervisors don’t understand their role as elected officials. Elected officials are duty-bound to carry out the wishes/demands of clear majorities of constituents unless what they’re asking is unlawful or totally unfeasible, neither of which are applicable with the pay raise issue. It’s not the Supervisor’s job to substitute their judgment for that of their constituents when those constituents overwhelmingly demand a different course of action than that contemplated by the Supervisors.

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AUGUST FIRE SAFE MEETING DATE/TIME CHANGE

We'll be meeting at the Point Arena downtown park/playground on Tuesday, August 6, 4:30 - 6:30 for the third annual Point Arena Night Out for Safety and Liberation - a community gathering. Music, Finger food potluck, Games.

Night Out for Safety and Liberation and Fire Safe Point Arena are both about creating and sustaining safe, resilient neighborhoods. To continue to build a community that will sustain us, we need to know all of our neighbors, support all of our neighbors, see all of our neighbors…

Join us in the park to eat, play & connect with your neighbors.

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SUPES GIVE THEMSELVES THEIR RAISE, an on-line comment:

Supervisors vote to move ahead with raises, 4-1 with Williams as the only NO.

I have to give Bowtie Ted a shoutout. But then again I have to ask WHY? What’s behind this moment of clarity?

Ol’ Gump McGourty voiced his displeasure with the State Audit. Saying the BOS did their homework on the consolidation. A total lie!

Photo-Op Mo rambled on about how she just wants to make sure that future Supervisors are paid fairly. Really! Even saying she is trying to look for people to someday take her seat. How about Jacob Brown? Can anyone say, Recall.

Basement Dan wants everyone to know that this move is mandated. In other words, it’s out of their hands.

Punching Bag Haschak quoted Babe Ruth, no idea what it had to do with the subject. He also wants you to know he took a pay cut from his teaching job to be a Supervisor.

Probably the person who made the most sense was Carrie Shattuck. She suggested they take a pay cut. Kudos to Carrie, the truth hurts.

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LOCAL EVENTS (this week)

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ED NOTES

TODAY'S AWARDS CEREMONY: Supervisor Williams for voting no on the Supe's raise, knowing full well he'll get it anyway. and Kamala Harris for deliberately not attending the Netanyahu congressional appearance, not that the Biden Administration will act to impose a cease fire.

FOR PURE HYPOCRISY, give the winner's cup to the Democratic big shots who knifed Poor Old Joe in the back, then said he is a “patriot” and a “hero.”

THE POINT ARENA cartoonist who identifies himself as “Oliff” once drew a vivid cartoon history of the town for the Independent Coast Observer that represents an important contribution to local history. The drawings are based on what is known of the first wave of settlers. For instance, below a drawing of J.C. Halliday, 1854-1924, father of the late Dorothy Halliday of Point Arena, “Arrived from Nova Scotia in 1875 as a blacksmith. He opened a hardware store, livery stable, creameries, started the Bank of Point Arena, built the High School and Alder Creek Bridge, raised the Gualala bridge after the 1906 quake, and ran the stage from Mendo to Cazadero.” That stage, as I recall from the memoirs of the late Joe Scaramella, announced its arrival by bugle, the man at the reins rising to belt out a few notes to let people know the mail had arrived.

DOGS WHO LOVE TOO MUCH. I've never been an animal person; not out of hostility for animals but out of their absence from most of my life. But having come into possession of my nephew's dog because his street behavior in SF was, uh, inappropriate, I became a pet owner.

MY NEW FRIEND, however, presented certain unanticipated (by me) problems, the lesser of which was not really a problem but it was his omni-presence. He trailed me everywhere inside and outside the house. Even when I wasn't ambulatory, I'd look up and he'd be standing a few feet away, staring at me and wagging his tail. As a newspaper guy, I was unaccustomed to such intense approval. Suddenly, there was this creature beaming at me my every waking minute.

ONE DAY, early on in our mostly one-way relationship, I was walking my lovestruck buddy in San Francisco when a lady stopped me to talk to me about Pero. “Have you noticed how pitbulls make eye contact?” she asked. I hadn't because when he stood transfixed before me, rapt at the splendor only he could see, it hadn't occurred to me to even try to make eye contact with him. Why would I want to, especially given his already eerie preoccupation with me? If I made eye contact he might want to plunk down his 60 pound salivating self in my lap! I wondered if this kind of preoccupation with its owner was normal dog behavior? The lady who stopped me to talk dogs said it was.

PERO, Spanish for dog, was only part pit bull, although he looked a lot like a Pit and had the big bark of the species. He tended to hurl himself at people, including my colleague, The Major, who wasn't able to establish a non-violent relationship with my best friend even after months of daily interfaces, but the major (sic) prob in a multi-ethnic society was that Pero habitually lunged at males of color. He ignored females of color, which added up to a racist dog but not a sexist dog. My prob was that I was on the other end of the leash, me a white liberal of boundless goodwill for all humankind.

PERO'S racist behavior was especially embarrassing in the multi-cultural context of San Francisco. We'd be trucking along, me distracted by the sights and sounds of the city, when suddenly Pero would lunge, in full-throated, man-eating growl, at a male pedestrian of color. The male pedestrian of color would understandably frown at me, surely thinking, “Another paranoid white psycho race man and his psycho race dog.”

I WOULD APOLOGIZE to these random strangers for my dog's bigoted behavior, but in Boonville when he went off on my Mexican or Black friends they understood it was him, not me, and I was believed. But in the city, if I tried to apologize every time Pero behaved inappropriately, I'd have to recite my impeccably clean race record to disbelieving strangers, while Pero, the one creature on earth head over paws in love with me, stood by putting the lie to my protestations.

HAVING ACHIEVED full geezerhood, and then some, I'm surprised at how trivial hassles of yesteryear still flit across my mind screen. Like this one: A young man was leaned on by his wife and his wife's employer not to contribute to my paper. The guy's wife was a school counselor. Her scared hubby told me he feared for his wife's job if he wrote for me. I felt like saying if you're this fearful as a young man you'll be a cringing mound of jello by the time you hit middle-age, and it wasn't as if the paper lacked contributors, and it's not as if I knew the guy well enough to get seriously on his case. I wanted to tell him that if I were him I'd dump the wife, the job, the school mice, all the world if the choice was the one he seemed compelled to make which, not to be too grand about it, was the choice between self-respect or a life worrying about the wife's job at an outback high school.

THE YOUNG MAN had written an amusing little story about — of all things — kids playing marbles!

HE had traces of writing talent but no testosterone to go with it. And ever afterwards he would give me death glares whenever I saw him around town, as if his pathetic dependence and the school's fascism was my fault. I had tried to help him past the dwarfs, the editor said with a martyred sigh.

A TRAGEDY in one paragraph from Jody Martinez's This Was News column in the Sunday Ukiah Daily Journal: “Friday, April 17th, 1903 — Mendocino Dispatch-Democrat. Murder and Suicide at Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg was the scene of a tragedy this week. A Japanese stranger arrived in town by the steamer, and on Wednesday he went to the house of a Japanese prostitute whose name we have not learned, and shot her twice, once in the face and once in the body. He then turned the revolver upon himself, pulled the trigger and fell dead. The physician in attendance thinks the woman will live.”

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‘THE PROMOTER LITERALLY TOOK THE MONEY AND RAN’

No refunds for canceled Northern California music festival

by Aidin Vaziri

Organizers of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival, which was abruptly canceled last month, have informed ticket holders they lack the money to issue refunds.

The three-day outdoor festival, scheduled for June 20-23 at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville, was scrapped at the last minute due to “extreme financial challenges,” according to a message from the promoters.

Initially, the refund status was unclear, but in emails reviewed by the Chronicle, event promoter Gretchen Franz Smith confirmed no refunds would be forthcoming. 

“We are truly sorry for the unavoidable cancellation and the delay in getting information to you,” the promoter wrote. “Since the cancellation, we have been working diligently with See Tickets and professionals to try to find ways to lessen the painful impacts. We are devastated to inform you that SNWMF does not have sufficient funds to reimburse ticket buyers.”

Franz Smith noted that pre-show income, including ticket sales, covered costs such as artist advances, airfares, operational expenses, insurance, licenses, fees and advertising, most of which are “non-recoupable.” She added that festival insurance does not cover cancellations for low ticket sales.

The festival was supposed to feature dancehall and reggae artists like Busy Signal, Koffee, Steel Pulse, Third World and Barrington Levy. It is unclear whether the artists were paid in full. 

Responding to fee disputes filed with credit card companies, See Tickets claimed customers “received the goods purchased.”

Franz Smith did not respond to Chronicle requests for comment on Tuesday, July 23.

“We bought tickets online the first moment they were available, were ‘lucky’ to get the one of the very few premium RV campsites,” said Scott Romer of Rohnert Park. “Now we’re left with nothing.”

Based on receipts shared with the Chronicle, he spent $1,083.89 on two adult three-day passes for the festival and an RV camping fee.

“The promoter literally took the money and ran,” Romer said.

The festival has disabled comments on its most recent Facebook posts, including the notification of the cancellation.

Franz Smith co-founded the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in 1994 with her late husband Warren Smith. This year would have marked its 30th anniversary, known for attracting thousands for an immersive experience including camping, dance workshops and children’s activities.

As a consolation, Franz Smith said tickets would be honored at Reggae on the River 2024, produced by a different company, scheduled for Aug. 2-4 at County Line Ranch in Humboldt County, for those who registered in advance.

Romer said that the festival required an additional $50 fee for admission and does not offer the same amenities at its campsite, such as electricity and water hookups.

“We cannot apologize enough for this turn of events,” Franz Smith stated at the time of the cancellation.

(sfchronicle.com)

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DNA BREAKTHROUGH LEADS CLOVERDALE POLICE TO ARREST MAN IN DECADES-OLD MURDER OF 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL

Cloverdale police say a DNA breakthrough led to the arrest of a 62-year-old man in Sara Geer’s slaying two years after they reopened the investigation into the cold case and 42 years after Geer died.

by Amie Windsor

When 13-year-old Sara Geer’s partially undressed body was found in the backyard of an apartment complex off an alley in downtown Cloverdale on May 24, 1982, police took samples of blood and other fluids on her body.

Forty-two years later, those samples have helped lead to an arrest in the heartbreaking murder.

James Unick, 62, of Willows, California, was arrested Monday night and booked into the Sonoma County Jail on charges of murder, rape, kidnapping and lewd and lascivious acts with a minor in Geer’s death.

Unick has not yet been scheduled to appear in Sonoma County Superior Court, and information about who might represent him when he is arraigned was not yet available.

“Today represents a bittersweet victory for justice,” Cloverdale Police Chief Chris Parker said in a statement. “While nothing can undo the pain inflicted upon the Geer family and our community, we can finally offer some solace knowing that the perpetrator will be held accountable.

“This arrest is a testament to the dedication of our law enforcement agencies and the unwavering resolve of Cloverdale’s citizens.”

Cloverdale police have been working the case since former Police Chief Jason Ferguson reopened it in July 2021. Chief Parker continued pursuing the case, along with Cloverdale Detective Katie Vanoni and Kevin Cline, a private investigator.

Using DNA technology and traditional genealogical methods that find biological relationships between people — a method known as DNA sleuthing — the team identified a DNA profile from the time of the murder that led them to Unick, who lives about 120 miles north of Cloverdale in Willows, the Glenn County seat.

“You get a pool of people and chip away at the folks who are there,” Parker said. “Then you investigate and see if they were alive, if they had the ability to commit the crime, if they were of age.”

Authorities didn’t release any information about the circumstances surrounding the crime. Unick was previously arrested in December 1989 for carrying a concealed weapon in his car and driving with a suspended license. The charge for carrying a concealed weapon was dismissed, but he was convicted of driving with a suspended license. His license was revoked for two years and he was ordered to 40 hours of community service. Court records show he continued to drive on his license and failed to show up for community service hours. As a result, he was imprisoned in county jail for 10 days and ordered to pay a $2,000 fine.

Unick had a second previous arrest in Glenn County for exhibiting a deadly weapon, disobeying lawful order of court and resisting arrest from 1995. He plead guilty and was convicted of resisting arrest and was placed on probation for 36 months.

Parker said that he expects the evidence against Unick to stand up in court should the case go to trial.

“It’s him,” Parker said, adding that the odds are “630 trillion to one. We’re pretty confident.”

Parker said that Geer’s uncle was told of the arrest and was “very appreciative” in getting “some closure.” Geer was raised by her mother, who is deceased.

“Today, we stand united in solidarity with the Geer family as we witness the culmination of years of hard work and perseverance by our law enforcement officials,” said Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands. “This arrest signifies not only a step toward closure but also a reiteration of our commitment to ensuring safety and justice for all in Cloverdale.”

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RENEE LEE (Boonville): Finally justice for Sarah! She was a classmate of mine in elementary school that moved to Cloverdale and was murdered a few years later. Kudos to all of the LE involved in this case for their diligence! RIP, Sarah!

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ADVENTIST SAVES MOM

Dear Editor, We want to tell you about our fabulous Adventist experience!

It was as if five sprinters were speeding as fast as phones could carry them. They each passed the baton so quickly, that Frank Hartzell and I’s beloved mom, Anne Bobincheck, was saved and with seconds to spare.

These were not heroes in track shoes but with stethoscopes!

Five different Adventist doctors relayed mom from a scary ER visit on Sunday when she couldn’t breathe to pacemaker implant surgery on the following Saturday. We all wanted to say thanks for saving mom. It started when mom went to the Adventist Health Mendocino Coast ER and was treated by Dr. Samuel Martisius the ER doc (Dr. Sam to everyone). It wasn’t readily apparent why she couldn’t breathe. Anne’s pulse dropped low and came back and her blood pressure was high. Dr. Sam did all the tests and told Anne she needed to see a cardiologist ASAP. This wouldn’t be easy as she had not been to see one. Usually its a slow process. One has to call a doctor and see if you one can even get in. The official plan was for her to go to her primary physician two days later, on Wednesday and seek a referral. Dr. Sam wanted to get going faster. He went down the hall to Dr. Jason Kirkman, who reads and refers heart tests. While not a cardiologist, my cardiologist said he is trusted like he is one in the trade.

Dr. Kirkman got back to Sam and explained the apparent urgency of this situation. Dr Sam made a midnight fax referral to Dr. David Ploss, with Adventist in Ukiah. They also called. Frank called too. She saw her primary, Nate Lane at the clinic on Wednesday and went with his help and blessings to Ukiah on a very hot Thursday and Dr Ploss said the surgery wouldn’t wait. He talked to St Helena cardiac surgeon Dr. Matthew Cain. Who talked to us on the phone and got this emergency in gear. Frank was told by a scheduler it was impossible to sprint her in this quickly. But Drs Cain and Ploss made it happen anyway.

Heart surgeries don’t usually happen on weekends so he’d try to get her on Friday so we (she and daughter Linda) had to leave first thing Friday morning and get there as fast as possible. Trouble was, where would Linda stay? Motels are $600 and up in St. Helena. We met the wonderful “hospital concierge” Doug who rented Linda a room with a bed inside the hospital for $100 a night, with meals from the kitchen! He was just another awesome person.

Mom got a pinto bean-sized pacemaker implant from surgeon Dr. Susan Eisenberg. When Anne was getting prepped for surgery, she started crashing and boy did they move fast getting her in. Talk about timing. She is now breathing well. Has an awesome steady heartbeat and is even thinking better! Wowza. Thanks to Adventist Health for still being willing to let top doctors make these decisions it's getting more and more rare for human beings, even smart and caring doctors to prevail in this world, but our story shows how having a real human being to help is stil always the best.

We thank everyone very much!

Linda Hartzell.

Fort Bragg

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SEASON MEMBERSHIPS SELLING LIKE HOT CAKES--Get Yours Now!

Our Members ARE the UCCA! Greetings! Another stellar lineup of artists for 2024-25?--You betcha! And the UCCA board that chose these four groups is raving that this may be our most exciting season ever! Check them out, tell your friends, and buy your season membership for just $120 if you haven't already. Membership cards will be mailed out around mid-September in plenty of time before the first concert on Sunday, November 3.

If you're not sure whether or not you've already renewed, please email us for confirmation at info@ukiahconcerts.org  Not a season member yet? You can purchase your season ticket on the UCCA website, and we thank you in advance because that is how we are able to pay the deposits to our artists. For 2024-25 (November through May) the cost for the season is still just $120 for four fabulous concerts, and that includes two members-only catered receptions giving you, our season ticket holders, an opportunity to mingle with the artists in the company of your fellow music-loving UCCA supporters. You can also make a donation to the UCCA on on our site. It is donations that enable us to finance the balance of artist fees, pay production, printing, and rental expenses, and continue our Educational Outreach programs for local students.

For more information, contact the UCCA at 707-463-2738 or email us at info@ukiahconcerts.org We're looking forward to celebrating great music together with you!

The UCCA Board of Directors: Susanna Janssen, President Grace Magruder, VP of Marketing and Publicity Paul Yarbrough, Assistant in Marketing and Publicity Alex de Grassi, VP of Production Rodney Grisanti, Technical Director and Mendocino College Recording Arts Program Marilyn Simpson, Treasurer and Treasured Advisor Steve Pasternak, Recording Secretary, Sommelier Betty Davis, Hospitality Coordinator, Ticketing, and Treasury Assistant Roseanne Wetzel, Social Media, Advertising Sales Director Giny Chandler, Membership Director, Legal Counsel Wendy DeWitt, Educational Outreach Coordinator Russ Hardy, Volunteer-at-large Jackie Orozco, Volunteer-at-large, Community Outreach.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Tuesday, July 23, 2024

ARIANA ARNOLD, Hopland. Vandalism, contempt of court.

JAMES BELDEN III, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

BENJAMIN BONADUCE, Willits. Domestic violence court order violation, under influence, resisting.

FRANK CABRAL, Laytonville. Controlled substance, paraphernalia, ammo possession by prohibited person.

GARY FITE II, Oakland/Ukiah. Robbery of inhabited building in concert with others, felon with firearm, use of weapon during a crime.

GASPAR GOMEZ-CERVERA, Little River. Burglary, stolen property, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

GEORGE MENDOZA, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

JALAHN TRAVIS, Ukiah. Domestic violence restraining order violation, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

JACOB WALTRIP, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MARIJUANA INDUSTRY

by Paul Modic

How did we go from hippies sucking on the Green Nipple in the Roaring Eighties to the scene today with large legal pot plantations, surviving mainly by breaking the rules and selling weed on the black market, locally and out-of-state?

Starting at $1000 a pound in 1975 the price rose to $5000 by the early nineties, then after the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996 (legal for medical use), the price annually dropped as the hills filled with the greenrushers operating multiple light dep greenhouses, and everyone else had to grow more to make a still-good living.

When it dipped down to $1500 you had to grow so many plants that the Green Nipple was replaced by the Green Monkey: were you riding it or was it riding you? The challenge was juggling trimmers, weather, mold, powdery mildew, ripoffs, drying sheds, and the hardest part of the whole operation: trying to sell it. (Cops and helicopters had mostly disappeared from the list of stresses by then.)

When the price went below $1000 a pound, a lot of people around here stopped growing, then Proposition 64 passed overwhelmingly in 2016, bringing statewide legalization of cannabis for recreational use, and the price went to $500 and lower. None but the brave, naive, or desperate decided to wade into the legal system, make a deal with the devil, ie, the Humboldt County Planning Department and Board of Supervisors, and attempt to keep growing, while following often changing and expensive rules and regulations.

I ran into one grower from Salmon Creek at the bank a couple years into legalization who said, “Estelle told me it would cost $20,000 to go legal, now I’ve got $100,000 into it and it’s a big hassle, but I’m in too deep to stop and have to keep trying to finish the paperwork.”

Another guy from Ettersburg around the same time was complaining that it had already cost him a few hundred thousand dollars to “come into compliance,” he was still far from getting his license, and if he could do it all over, he wouldn’t. (He used to be handsome and youthful-looking but was spotted the other day looking old and haggard, and still struggling with his large weed farm.)

When another person, a former clone dealer from Sprowel Creek, had told me with a big smile that he was going legal I said, “Really? Why? You know what you’re getting into?” He had a beautiful piece of land, including a spring which started and stopped on his forty acres, one of the state requirements for licensing. California Department of Fish and Wildlife examined his land, discovered damage from logging decades before he bought it back in the seventies, and the expensive remediation costs would be more than the land was worth. (He dumped it at a loss.)

There are many stories like this, as businesses in town have closed, the hills have emptied out, and would-be farmers who got in late and have large land payments are abandoning their land. Many of those who are able to stay are looking for regular jobs with which to survive in this depressed economy, as the pound price plummets to $250. (Yet there’s still farmers with good connections growing and selling like it’s 2008, and may have a few good years left.)

Another big question is what’s going to happen to all those back-to-the-landers and old growers, now in their seventies and eighties, still living in their off-grid cabins in the middle of nowhere, without the steady income they had over the last forty years, and no retirement plan?

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WHY NOT?

Why Don't We Just Take Over?

Warm spiritual greetings,

Sitting here at a public computer at the Ukiah, California public library, having just read through the last three issues of the New York Times. Chaotic, visionless, spiritually completely lost, aggravating, insane, stupid, and dangerous. All the news that's fit to print.

I have one more dental appointment August 2nd, and then am free to go anywhere and do anything. I'd like to get a supportive base, if possible, in postmodern America. On the other hand, I could "wing it". Today I am not certain about the logistics, but the eastern seaboard is calling, which is fine with me. I feel like I am in the twilight zone at the moment in postmodern America. Maybe I should stop reading newspapers.

Feel free to communicate with me here:

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SHARON DOUBIAGO

I just found this, mine. on Memories or something from 10 years ago. How well I remember that night:

“Van Morrison. February 1980, but it is like yesterday, Leonard Cirino and I were to give a poetry reading in Cotati, at the City Hall. It was raining cats and dogs. We got there, in my Roses, my Ambassador Station Wagon, 3 pm, but no one showed. Only Michael Larrain who had arranged it. We waited around, expecting the mayor of Cotati as promised, the rain pounding. Did we read any of our poems? Someone came barreling in the front entrance, Van Morrison is coming to play across the street. He just called the place up, and asked if he and his band could come, no strings, no moola, no contract, no telling. So we gave up, were given $50 checks each from Poets & Writers (Michael), went running over. We danced 12 hours straight, till almost 4 am, the greatest music event of my life. The rain coming through the roof, I danced under that drip, cooling me off, dancing, dancing. Somewhere I have it written: The Time We Gave A Poetry Reading And The Only Person Who Showed Was Van Morrison. Like yesterday. A very great musician. Thanks dear Larry Shirey.

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"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. Since man is mortal, the only immortality possible for him is to leave something behind him that is immortal since it will always move. This is the artist's way of scribbling "Kilroy was here" on the wall of the final and irrevocable oblivion through which he must someday pass".

— William Faulkner

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LEAD STORIES FROM WEDNESDAY'S NYT

Biden Returns to a Vastly Different Presidency With Six Months to Go

Harris Rallies Exuberant Democrats in Wisconsin: ‘The Baton Is in Our Hands’ 

Netanyahu to Address a Congress Deeply Divided Over His Leadership

Netanyahu Seeks Support in U.S. Visit, but Will Find a Nation Distracted

Secret Service Director Resigns After Trump Assassination Attempt

Menendez Will Resign From Senate, Avoiding an Ugly, Intraparty Battle

Winter Olympics Will Return to Salt Lake City, Site of Bidding Scandal, in 2034

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

If I were Biden, and still had half a functioning brain, I’d hire several food testers at high expense, add extra layers of locks on my bedroom door, stay away from swimming pools surveilled by strange men in dark suits, and get my meds from mail order accounts with a fake name and secret P.O. Box.

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FOR ‘UNBANKED’ CALIFORNIANS, CASH IS STILL KING IN AN INCREASINGLY CASHLESS SOCIETY

by Kate McQuarrie

As a mother of six who works in a Los Angeles Jack-in-the-Box, Anneisha Williams can’t afford to pay steep bank fees. For her, every dollar matters, and overdraft fees have left her frustrated and fed up with banks — to the point where she no longer even uses them.

“When you have a big family like I have, those little dollars matter,” Williams told me. “I just had enough with each and every one of those banks because of all the high overdraft fees. It was just too much for me.”

But avoiding banks limits Williams’ options for managing her money. She has to use check cashing services, which take a percentage of her income, and relies mostly on cash, making saving extremely difficult. This is reality for the nearly 1 in 5 Californians who don’t have bank accounts and must often use costlier methods to access their money.

Black, Hispanic and low-income people are the most likely to be unbanked or underbanked, a status that can undercut economic mobility. Other populations, such as the elderly, noncitizens and unhoused people also are acutely affected by a lack of access to banking services.

For these people, cash is still king. The problem is many businesses have moved away from using cash — some are going entirely cashless — which was only hastened by the coronavirus pandemic.

This leaves folks who are already locked out of the banking system further shut out of the economy. An estimated 2 million Californians are unbanked with no access to banking institutions and 5.5 million more are underbanked — meaning that someone in the household has a bank account, but they still use higher fee financial services such as money orders, check cashers, money transfers or payday lenders.

Some cities, including San Francisco, have attempted a solution: forbidding retail businesses from going cashless, because that excludes too many people from participating in the economy.

But keeping cash in circulation is just a band aid — getting people banked is much harder. State legislators are starting to tackle that issue, too, through a new government banking program called CalAccount — although there is no guarantee the program will become law, and the earliest it could be implemented is not until January 2026.

California needs to find a way to keep low-income people engaged in an increasingly cashless economy. Besides, every dollar clearly states it is “legal tender for all debts public and private.”

The Unbanked Problem Is Deeper Than Your Pockets

The top reason Californians report for being unbanked is that they don’t have enough money to meet banks’ minimum account balance requirements. Steep and unpredictable bank fees? Forget it. With rising costs, many people just can’t afford to pay a $10 monthly service fee for a checking account or $25 to $35 per overdraft transaction.

Other people avoid banks to maintain their privacy or because they simply don’t trust banks.

Most of those households are low-income; 61% make less than $30,000 annually. Without a viable way to keep track of and save money, many Californians can’t improve their economic situation. They rely on cash and online payment services like CashApp to make purchases.

Williams used to have trouble making purchases at cashless businesses until she got her CashApp card, she said. Still, it frustrates her to have to pay small fees whenever she loads money onto the card or accesses her paychecks.

“My job doesn’t offer direct deposit, so that’s a big old fail, right there. So I have no other way but to just cash my check,” Williams said. “Somebody always taking from me, so I don’t know what to do.”

Check cashing fees usually scale up with the value of a check: It can cost $1 to $10 to cash a $100 check and up to $50 to cash a $500 check. Money order fees range from 60 cents to $4 per order, and money orders have a maximum amount of $500 to $1000. Buying multiple money orders a month for rent can add up.

Vulnerable Faces Of A Cash Economy

Groups of people have their own reasons for preferring cash: Some elderly people struggle with the technology of online financial services. Advocacy groups point out, people fleeing domestic violence rely on cash for safety, because electronic payments can easily be tracked.

Unhoused people commonly used to [panhandle] for cash, but many pedestrians don’t carry it anymore. Zac Clark, founder and executive director of the nonprofit The HomeMore Project, says unhoused people tell him that keeping cash poses a risk of theft for them, so many are trying to use digital systems. At the same time, without a home address, proper identification and enough money for minimum balances, people experiencing homelessness often can’t get bank accounts.

Mayra Rios, 43, says that without the help of a local women’s organization, she would still be unbanked. Rios, a street vendor in South Central Los Angeles, told me her children helped her set up online payment accounts like Venmo and Zelle for her business.

“It was hard in the past because I didn’t have credit, I didn’t have a bank account, I couldn’t buy anything like, for example, buying a TV,” Rios said through a Spanish translator.

Rios is grateful for the ability to accept cash and online payments at her business. While electronic payments account for more than half of her transactions, she said, at least another 40% still use cash.

Most people take for granted the ability to pay with a credit card, build enough credit to apply for loans or even have a secure way to save money and track expenses. These common privileges become insurmountable burdens for unbanked and underbanked Californians, intruding daily in their lives, making it more difficult to engage in the economy.

California has a responsibility to protect them.

Two-Part Solution For Californians

In recent years, government officials have begun to notice the struggle impoverished people face when buying goods or paying for services. One approach to solving the issue began in 2019 when San Francisco banned cashless brick-and-mortar businesses in an effort to keep retail accessible for all residents.

The ban sparked a statewide conversation about the effect of cashless businesses on customers who rely on cash. Former State Sen. Jerry Hill, a Democrat from San Mateo, introduced a bill in 2020 to require all brick-and-mortar businesses to accept cash statewide, but the proposal died in a committee.

As electronic payment methods grew, some businesses stopped accepting cash. In 2019 this sign was posted on a door at Freshroll Vietnamese Rolls and Bowls in San Francisco. State officials say unbanked customers still need to be able to use cash. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

More recently, the L.A City Council unanimously approved a ban on cashless retail in November, but it has yet to go into effect as city officials hammer out the language. Councilmember Heather Hutt, who introduced the ban, did not respond to requests for comment on its status or timeline for implementation.

While some business owners and residents have opposed these bans for various reasons — such as the cleanliness, ease and theft protection provided by electronic payments — the benefits of accepting cash, especially for those facing poverty, far outweigh the problems.

But banning cashless businesses only addresses one aspect of being unbanked or underbanked.

Assemblymember Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles three years ago reflected on his parents’ trouble accessing banking, telling me about his early memories of his parents storing cash beneath a mattress. He made it a goal to help other Californians access affordable banking.

In 2021, the California Legislature passed a law Santiago authored creating a commission to explore CalAccount, a proposed public, state-run banking system. Earlier this month, a resulting report validated Santiago’s belief in CalAccount’s potential but found that the largest feasibility questions remain: will enough banks and residents want to participate?

If California adopts the recommended program, it would offer zero-fee, zero-penalty, zero-cost and federally insured debit accounts to residents. But without those fees, there is little incentive for banks to promote CalAccount because it likely would not be profitable for them.

However, Santiago believes that CalAccount would allow banks to build trust with a massive untapped group of customers and that could lead them to use other bank services CalAccount wouldn’t offer. If just one federally insured bank is willing to participate, the program could begin helping people access banking.

Since most unbanked people don’t trust financial institutions, participation is a legitimate concern. Perhaps the report underestimates the allure of its zero-fee attributes: Both Rios and Williams said they would be interested in learning more about and potentially using the program.

“I just want something with no bank fees. That’s what I’m looking for,” Williams told me. “I want to be able to trust somebody with my money, to know that it’s okay.”

It’s a simple ask.

Unfortunately, with the government it’s never a simple answer. Even after the commission issues the CalAccount report to the Senate and Assembly banking committees later this year, a legislator would have to introduce a new bill to implement CalAccount.

But Santiago emphasized that these things take time. Even in the face of budget deficits, he is optimistic that CalAccount will become a key social safety net for Californians weathering economic storms.

In the meantime, business owners should keep unbanked and underbanked Californians plugged into the economy by simply allowing cash purchases.

No one should be turned away from a register simply because they only have cash, and no one should be locked out of opportunities to better their economic situation. The freedom and opportunity to attain a better life is, after all, the so-called American dream.

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FACTS NOT IN DISPUTE

by Rebeckah Diski

Last week, five Just Stop Oil activists were convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance and sentenced to up to five years in jail for planning to block the M25 in November 2022. The judge, Christopher Hehir, ruled that evidence relating to climate breakdown was ‘irrelevant and inadmissible’ and could not be used in their defence. The activists, representing themselves, ignored the judge’s instructions. They described the devastating impacts of global heating, cited the government’s legal climate commitments and told the jury they were being denied key evidence. Eleven protesters outside the court were arrested for holding signs that said: ‘Jurors deserve to hear the whole truth.’ The defendants were found in contempt and removed from the court. It took the jury only a day of deliberation to return a unanimous guilty verdict.

This can be interpreted as a kind of climate denial. Not outright denial of the facts, which in the UK at least is an extreme fringe position, but a refusal of the implications. During the trial, the prosecution read out ‘facts not in dispute’: the climate crisis is ‘an existential threat to humanity’ and global heating of more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels would be catastrophic. But those facts weren’t as salient as the traffic jams, disruption to business and cost of police time.

As Tad DeLay writes in Future of Denial, we are all, in a Freudian sense, repressing the reality of a climate changed future. It doesn’t bear thinking about, so we’d rather not. Reckoning with it leads to a daunting unravelling of the logic that structures our world. Under the Sky News announcement of the prison sentences on X, people made such comments as: ‘Common sense prevails’; ‘Great news … throw the keys away’; ‘About time!! Should have given them ten years!’

Sitting in a road is annoying; being late to a job interview is inconvenient; missing a funeral is upsetting. But the mass displacement of people, the failure of crops, the loss of entire species: these are rationalised as ‘externalities’, or ignored, or imagined as a distant prospect that will somehow be averted with capitalist ingenuity. The imprisonment of those who are trying to shake us out of this denial is discombobulating. Describing them as ‘fanatics’, Judge Hehir sentenced Roger Hallam to five years and the other activists to four years each, the longest sentences for peaceful protest in British history. Before last week, the record was held by Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who received three-year sentences for scaling the Dartford Crossing bridge and blocking traffic for two days in October 2022.

Trowland and Decker argued that the disruption they caused was proportionate to the urgency of the climate crisis, referring to the immense human suffering already caused. Sentencing them, the judge inverted this logic: ‘You plainly believed you knew better than everyone else and it did not matter if people suffered in consequence so long as it allowed you to impart your message. In short, to hell with everyone else.’ Decker, a German citizen who had previously had leave to remain in the UK, is now on immigration bail. The Home Office tracks him by a GPS ankle tag while he appeals a deportation order that would separate him from his partner and her children.

The punitive response was, in part, the authoritarian death throes of a beleaguered Conservative government. The right-wing media has enthusiastically participated, casting the ‘eco mob’ against the workaday commuter. The Sun was instrumental in last week’s case, having infiltrated Just Stop Oil’s Zoom call and passed evidence to the police. The journalist was given exclusive access to Hallam’s arrest.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and Public Order Act 2023 were trained largely on the direct action wing of the climate movement, although they made room for other targets, notably the rights of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Policy Exchange, the think tank co-founded by Michael Gove and funded by Exxon-Mobil, inspired much of the detail in the legislative assault on protest with its report ‘Extremism Rebellion’, which described Extinction Rebellion as a ‘subversive’ group planning to precipitate ‘the breakdown of democracy and the state’.

The Public Order Act is ostensibly aimed at preventing ‘disruption to the life of the community’, but its provisions largely focus on disruption to corporate interests. It introduces a new offence of interfering with key national infrastructure, including roads, rail, air transport, harbours, oil and gas exploration, production and refining, electricity generation and newspaper printing. In effect, it gave the police increased powers to stop protesters targeting oil and gas companies or trying to prevent the detention and deportation of migrants.

The new legislation itself ignited a wave of protest, with a Kill the Bill movement speaking to the thousands mobilised by Black Lives Matter in 2020, but ultimately losing momentum as pandemic lockdowns receded and the policing bill was forced through Parliament. Much of that organisation and energy has since been channelled into the pro-Palestine movement.

Young activists, in particular, are connecting struggles against fossil capital with those against racial injustice and colonial oppression. Youth Demand, an offshoot of Just Stop Oil, calls for an arms embargo on Israel as well as an end to new oil and gas licences in the UK. This cross-fertilisation has not gone unnoticed by the state: in May, John Woodcock, a cross-bench peer and government adviser on political violence and disruption, released a report on ‘protecting our democracy from coercion’, noting the overlap of tactics and personnel among the more radical elements of the movements for climate and Palestinian justice. He described these groups as part of a ‘far left subculture’ and recommended removing their rights to assemble and fundraise.

After a string of cases in which pro-Palestine and climate activists were acquitted of criminal damage offences, the then attorney general, Victoria Prentis, in February applied to limit grounds for defence, and judges have been increasingly zealous in their restriction of admissible evidence. The UN special rapporteur on environmental defenders, who attended last week’s trial, called it ‘a dark day for peaceful environmental protest’ that should ‘put all of us on high alert on the state of civic rights and freedoms in the United Kingdom’.

The new Labour government has said there will be no new North Sea oil or gas licences – Just Stop Oil’s original demand – but anyone expecting them to reverse course on protest may be disappointed. Keir Starmer, who supported Just Stop Oil during his leadership campaign, had a characteristic change of heart once leader, calling them contemptible. In June, he said they ‘must face the full force of the law’ for spraying cornstarch paint on Stonehenge, whose stones are home to fragile and rare lichens (which, incidentally, won’t survive the climate crisis). The incoming armed forces minister welcomed last week’s sentences as a ‘strong message’ to other activists.

Is this common sense? It is, of sorts. It’s the kind of common sense that Gramsci saw as constitutive of ruling-class hegemony: not good sense, but a set of ideas that props up the status quo and in which a wide range of people can find meaning and anchorage. It’s a common sense that says: ‘Of course we must do something, but not that.’ It’s a common sense that embraces fossil fuel companies and maligns climate activists as extremists; it applauds net-zero commitments even as we hurtle past the agreed target of 1.5°C of warming; it reconciles the oxymorons of ‘sustainable’ jet fuel and ‘carbon neutral’ coal mines; it says that private investment will save us; it countenances a world of mass extinction but not one without capitalism.

(London Review of Books)

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