HOT WEATHER with moderate heat risk expected in the interior for the next 7 days. Isolated thunderstorms are possible over northern Trinity county Friday evening and again on Saturday. (NWS)
STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): On the coast this Thursday morning it is a bit cooler with 54F in the fog. Patchy drizzle is mentioned in our forecast many times into Saturday, then patchy fog returns to the wording. AKA the "stratus quo" continues.
I did not record any rain in July:
2023 Oct 1.82” Nov 3.24 Dec 7.73”
2024 Jan 10.22” Feb 14.40” Mar 10.04” April 1.98” May 1.77” June .27” July 0.00”
YTD 51.47”
JANE BOYD-ZENI: Do you in Boonville know this ass.
Passed on double yellow around a blind turn on 253. License Plate looks like BSDN536 (or close to that. Blew threw stop sign, passed on another blind turn then tried to pass this truck on left at stop sign.
A READER WRITES: With regard to the Williams recall, I find it interesting that Jill Ales is a high-ranking Behavioral Health manager who has spoken out at least twice during Board of Supervisors open session meetings in favor of Jenine Miller's contractual raise and promotion to the combined Mental Health/Public Health Directorship. This is important information for public consideration. Is this an attempt by the Schraeders to keep rubber stamping their contracts?
SUPERVISOR ELECT BERNIE NORVELL wins age class, comes in 7th overall.
ANDERSON VALLEY UNIFIED NEWS
Things are really moving along with the construction as we gear up for staff and students returning to school. Here are some highlights:
New windows have been installed across the front of the main wing and the crew is now working on the back of that wing and the science rooms. The huge, sliding glass doors for the science rooms will be going in soon as well.
Paint has been selected and mixed; we are on pace for the front of the school being completely painted before students return. Rather than the multi-colored (orange, yellow, brown, etc…) panels, a sedate tan color has been selected for the building and a slightly darker brown will grace the trim and doors. It is going to look slick and classy!
Once we began these updates, it highlighted the need to update the lighting at the front of the school. Current lighting is very old and not in good repair. We will be installing updated lighting that will be flush to the building.
Some classes will take place in temporary classrooms at the start of school; those have been set up and are receiving final touches (i.e. ADA compliant ramps) before students return. We'll be using these temporary rooms while the Science rooms and library are being completed on the back side of the main wing. These rooms are being retrofitted with "teaching walls" that will support the large, flat-screen TVs, large whiteboards, and will have covered storage behind these visual elements
Finally, we will be installing a whole new fire alarm panel, due to the previous system being very old and recently malfunctioning, causing several false alarms. (We are grateful to Chief Avila and the local fire department for their assistance and commitment to problem-solving with us over the past few weeks.)
Beyond construction updates, here are a few other things going on:
We are very proud of our FFA team, who will be showing animals at the Redwood Empire Fair in Ukiah, August 1-4.
We are working on recruiting football players; 12 of the 17-person varsity team graduated last year, and Mr. Toohey is looking for new players. Families will be receiving Parent Square notifications about this soon. Cheerleading practice will start after the start of the academic year.
New principals, Alyson McKay (AVES) and Heath McNerney (AV Jr-Sr High School) are now in daily. We are all enjoying the friendliness and support of the local community! Secretaries will be back in offices on August 5th, and families of new students can register at that time.
Elementary school teachers will return on August 12 and 13 for professional development to prepare for teaching the newly adopted Bridges mathematics curriculum.
The whole district staff will gather on August 15 for the traditional, annual staff breakfast and will engage in some fun professional development that day, as new administrators get to know our awesome team!
We are excited about the coming school year!
Kristin Larson Balliet, Superintendent
AV Unified School District
RE-ELECT LINDY!
Lindy Peters had the required valid signatures for his nomination papers.
Amanda Wolter, Assistant Clerk-Recorder/ Assistant Registrar of Voters
These are exciting times in the City of Fort Bragg. As we prepare for the next chapter in our history, we must be careful to protect the things that have always made our community such a special place to live.
We need to find ways to collaborate with the Hospital District to ensure quality health care for our residents. Our people are our greatest resource.
We need to provide water security for future generations by utilizing innovative techniques including marine-safe desalinization and long term water storage.
This Council recognizes our housing shortage and has set forth goals and policies to help create more housing opportunities for all.
We must continue to protect our ocean from offshore oil interests and instead explore the economic opportunities available here due to our proximity to the marine environment. The City continues to support the Noyo Center in this regard.
I have faithfully served this community for 22 years on the City Council and two terms as Mayor. I fully understand the importance of the job and the responsibility that comes with it. My institutional knowledge and sense of duty have compelled me to seek another term. I ask for your vote as together we help future generations continue to enjoy one of the greatest places to live in all of California. Thank you and please remember to vote!
Lindy Peters
City Council
Fort Bragg
OUR GARDEN PARTY IN JUNE WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!
To see more from the latest Anderson Valley Village monthly newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/8511b91594c7/anderson-valley-village-newsletter-august-5717080?e=358077c1c9
MANUEL ALVARADO STILL MISSING
On July 22, 2024 at approximately 8:43 PM, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted regarding a missing person in the Covelo area. The missing person was identified as 44 year-old Manuel Alvarado.
Sheriff's Office deputies contacted the reporting party who advised they were contacted by Alvarado's mother. Alvarado's mother had received a text message from her son saying goodbye, that he loved her, and she could find his body in the mountains near Covelo, California.
The reporting party was able to contact Alvarado by telephone and obtained the GPS coordinates for his current location, which showed he was approximately 19 miles east of the Covelo Valley south of Mendocino Pass Road. This area is known as Jumpoff Creek. Alvarado advised the reporting person that his phone was going to die and to send help to his location.
The reporting party did not know where Alvarado was living or why he was in Covelo.
Deputies, with assistance of Officers from the California Highway Patrol responded to the area of the GPS coordinates in an attempt to locate Alvarado.
Deputies and Officers utilized their PA system, sirens and emergency lights while in the area attempting to get the attention of Alvarado. Due to the darkness and extremely steep, harsh terrain, Alvarado was not located. Deputies attempted to conduct an emergency ping of Alvarado's cell phone which suggested the cell phone was either turned off, out of battery, or outside of it's service area.
A helicopter was requested from California Highway Patrol Northern Division Air Operations in Redding, CA who responded during the morning of 7-23-24 to assist with search efforts. The CHP helicopter flew the area for several hours and was unable to locate Alvarado.
On the morning of 7-24-24, deputies, along with members of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team, and the CHP Helicopter responded back to the location.
Deputies were able to locate a property in the area which was being used to grow marijuana.
Deputies contacted subjects on the property who confirmed Alvarado worked and lived at the location. The workers at the property stated they had been searching for Alvarado as well but had been unable to locate him. Several subjects advised they had responded to the location to search for Alvarado at the request of his family.
The subjects advised Deputies that Alvarado had been using controlled substances believed to be methamphetamine prior to his disappearance. These witnesses said Alvarado had become increasingly paranoid that someone was out to get him. The subjects advised Alvarado walked to the river, which was common practice, and had not returned.
Deputies were given permission to search the property where Alvarado had been working/living and did not locate any signs of foul play.
Search and Rescue members continued the search of the area both by foot and by helicopter and were unable to locate Alvarado.
Alvarado is still missing and considered at risk. Alvarado is described as a Hispanic male adult 5'8"-5'10", weighing approximately 210 pounds, black hair brown eyes and muscular build. Alvarado has tattoos on both arms. The attached missing persons fliers were provided by family members.
Further search and rescue efforts will continue and we are currently establishing search plans for these efforts.
Anyone with information regarding Alvarado's whereabouts is requested to call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch Center at 707-463-4086.
AN INVITATION TO PREVIEW NEW SCULPTURE AND NEW BARNS IN NAVARRO
Schedule a visit. I look forward to seeing you, the the sculpture garden and showroom are always alive with ART
New Work for extraordinary times Hydrosphere, bronze, granite, 14 x 6 x 6 inches Featuring: Rain Collection and Ice Melt a series of NEW sculptures
Beauty is a super power that cannot be denied, beauty creates an opening in our consciousness inviting us to focus our attention. My focus is on the extraordinary magnificence and equilibrium of Earth's natural design verses humanity's impact on the use and understanding of planetary preservation. Water is a case in point. The excess or scarcity of a single drop of water effects all life. Rainwater flows and fills streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs and aquifers deep below the earth’s surface. These valuable natural resources will determine our global future. The materials I choose have historical significance, bronze glass and stone are the building blocks in our cultural foundation. At around 3,500 BCE people learned how to super heat earth elements into a red hot liquid then cool the alchemy into sacred and material objects. For millennia humankind has honed observation into innovation. We call this innovation Science and Art. As we walk the earth’s time line we once again look to science and art for solutions to assuage extremes. My sculptures are contemplations, talismans, mere watermarks on the spectrum of our short presence on this beautiful planet.
Come visit, just text or call 707-357-3805
1200 Hwy 128, mile 15.08, Navarro
Artists of Anderson Valley Open Studios Veteran's Day Weekend 9th - 11th Rebecca Open Studio Thanksgiving Weekend Fri. 29th, Sat. 30th
JOHN SAKOWICZ ON KMUD, Thursday, August 1 at 9am…
Our guest for our show's first 30 minutes is Keith McHenry.
McHenry is co-founder of the global Food Not Bombs movement, which provides free meals to anyone who needs them. He is also a regular contributor to the ongoing series “Food Fight” on “Flashpoints.”
He said today: “The campaign to make it a crime to be homeless has been pushed by CIA-linked Joe Lonsdale’s Cicero Institute [he is also co-founder of Palantir]. That effort has just received another boost with California Governor Gavin Newsom signing an Executive Order directing state and local officials to start removing homeless people’s encampments noting that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v Johnson now empowers cities to enforce bans on sleeping outside in public.”
“Newsom’s order will cause much more suffering as the state and local governments increase their destruction of people’s survival gear and are forced to flee from location to location with their meager belongings.
SECOND GUEST
Our second guest for the second half of our hour show is Coleen Rowley.
A resident of Minnesota, Rowley was just with a group of peace activists at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They had a big red “Stop the Genocide” banner. See “For many RNC protesters, there is dissatisfaction with both Republicans and Democrats.” She notes that the local police were “dialogue police” who actually helped ensure peaceful protests.
Rowley has long connected an increase in domestic U.S. violence with wars. See her 2018 interview “FBI Whistleblower: America’s Culture of Violence Starts with Perpetual Wars.”
Rowley is a retired FBI agent and was named one of TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2002. Since 2004, she’s been speaking at academic and other professional venues with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. She is a long-time member of Women Against Military Madness and Veterans for Peace.
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.
We post our shows to our own website and Youtube channels. Shows may be excerpted in other media outlets.
Wherever you live, KMUD is your community radio station. We are a true community of informed and progressive people. Please join us by becoming a member or underwriter.
AV HISTORICAL SOCIETY EVENT: Valley Chat as Bill Seekins, a dedicated local researcher and historian, unveils his fascinating findings on the Anderson Valley railroads.
ED NOTES
‘THE PIRATES and the Mouse: Disney’s War Against the CounterCulture,’ by Bob Levin, Fantagraphics Books. Cloth, 270pp. $24. In 1963 the San Francisco Chronicle made 21-year old Dan O’Neill the youngest syndicated cartoonist in American newspaper history. As O’Neill delved deeper into the emerging counterculture, his strip, Odd Bodkins, became stranger and stranger and more and more provocative, until the papers in the syndicate dropped it and the Chronicle let him go. The lesson that O’Neill drew from this was that what America most needed was The Destruction of Walt Disney. O’Neill assembled a band of rogue cartoonists, called The Air Pirates, after a group of villains who had bedeviled Mickey Mouse in comic books and cartoons. They lived communally in a San Francisco warehouse owned by Francis Ford Coppola and put out a comic book, Air Pirates Funnies, that featured Disney characters participating in very un-Disneylike behavior, provoking a mammoth lawsuit for copyright and trademark infringements and seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Disney was represented by one of San Francisco’s top corporate law firms and the Pirates by the cream of the counterculture bar. The lawsuit raged for ten years, from the trial court to the US Supreme Court and back again — changing lives, setting legal precedent, and making clear the boundaries in a still unfolding cultural war. Novelist and essayist Bob Levin recounts this rollicking saga with humor, intelligence and skill, bringing alive the times, issues, absurdities, personalities and the changes wrought within them and us all.
WHENEVER I SEE lists of favorite books, I can't resist passing along my faves.
Phillip Roth said the ranks of serious readers are thinning and not being replaced because of the competition from visuals, music, the internet, radio, and the general absence of the time and the solitude books require, even if a book reader, or potential book reader, somehow eludes all these other distractions. Roth was right, and the evidence of the loss is everywhere, from the kid who has no ironic sense to the middle aged “activist” whose decoding skills are so poor he or she believes whatever their preferred famous person tells them. Hell, half of Mendo thinks Bush was behind 911 and Trump faked the attempt on his life. But I always knew there were lots of book dinosaurs among the AVA readers of our paper-paper because only a book reader would tolerate the paper’s 9-point type.
(1) ‘The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones,’ by Jesse Hill Ford. A strong novel about race relations in the South in the 1940s and 50s by a white writer who became a tragic figure himself after his one big book. Should be read along with Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ and Richard Wright’s ‘Native Son’ and ‘Black Boy.’
(2) ‘Ambrose Bierce and the Queen of Spades’ by Oakley Hall. A fictional but historically accurate look at the SF Bay Area circa the end of the 19th century with a lot of interesting bio about the great Bierce thrown in.
(3) ‘David Copperfield’ by Charles Dickens
(4) ‘As I Lay Dying’ and ‘The Reivers’ by William Faulkner. The former is pretty tough going — I had to read it three or four times as a 20-something to really get it, I thought, but when I read it again at age 40 or so, I realized what I’d gotten was maybe the narrative and some of the prose razzle, but it’s one of those rare, difficult books that causes you to thank yourself for working hard to understand it. (Pynchon’s ‘Mason & Dixon’ is a difficult book that’s not particularly rewarding, even if you can get past the ye olde language reconstructions.) ‘The Reivers’ is a very funny book, Faulkner’s only funny book.
(5) ‘Sentimental Education’ and ‘Madam Bovary’ by Gus Flaubert.
(6) Anton Chekhov’s short stories
(7) The Short Stories of Isacc Babel, just out in a new translation that critics say is awful but seemed fine to me, however my opinion might translate as an assessment of my abilities as a reader. So the translations aren’t perfect to native speakers, but if they don’t change meaning in a story changing way…
(8) ‘The Western Shore,’ by Clarkson Crane. Of interest as a portrait of student life in Berkeley and Berkeley itself in the 1920s.
(9) ‘Poor White’ and ‘Winesburg, Ohio’ by Sherwood Anderson. Rural life among struggling people in the middle west in the first quarter of the 20th century.
(10) ‘Miss Lonely Hearts’ and ‘Day of the Locust’ by Nathanial West. A nihilistic satire about the futility of individual attempts to alleviate human suffering, the second a nihilistic novel about Hollywood, both as applicable today as they were yesterday (1933 or so).
(11) ‘The Magic Christian’ by Terry Southern. Another satire, kinder than Lonely Hearts, and on the theme of Every Man Has His Price. Very funny.
(12) ‘Joe the Engineer’ by Chuck Wachtel A realistic novel about a contemporary American blue collar worker.
(13) ‘American Pastoral’ by Phillip Roth. (Particularly relevant to the Northcoast.) The over-indulged daughter of a prosperous American family is dragged down by the lunacies of the 1960s. This wonderful novel includes a fascinating mini-history of glove making among its many profitable diversions.
(14) ‘Pale Fire’ by Vladimir Nabokov. A very funny novel about a 999-line poem written by a deceased nutty American academic whose even nuttier neighbor devotes the rest of his life to explicating and promoting.
(15) ‘Executioner’s Song’ by Norman Mailer, “A true life novel” based on the real life of a petty crook and killer named Gary Gilmore.
(16) ‘Ethan Fromm’ by Edith Wharton.
(17) ‘Going Away’ by Clancy Sigal. A disillusioned leftist hits the road and half pints of White Horse, thinking about what went wrong. (Hint. It’s still going wrong.)
(18) ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ by Dalton Trumbo. If I’d read this book before I went into the Marines I’d never have gone. The single most subversive book in American literature. Told in the first person by a kid who went off to World War One and came back as a permanently mummified cripple, the boy eloquently argues that wars have nothing to do with the people who do the fighting and dying, which was certainly true of World War One but not true, unfortunately, of World War Two.
(19) ‘The USA Trilogy’ by John dos Passos. The true history of industrializing America in novel form. Like most of us, I tuned history out about the 10th grade when the teacher, primarily a football coach, and usually only a page ahead of the class, got to the Louisiana Purchase. I’d barely stayed awake for the Boston Tea Party. “No taxation without representation!” Ho hum. How about no taxation with or without representation? History was taught as a series of abstract events carried off by very grand Americans in a world peopled by much less grand populations who needed the grand figures to handle things for them. History these days is made more interesting to captive high school students, I’ve heard, but, from what I can gather is just as misleading, in that American history is presented as 400 years of serial atrocities, and the Klan remains poised to ride out as soon Maya Angelou and Howard Zinn aren’t looking. But when I read ‘USA’ as a kid I read with my eyes hanging out, feeling something like Born Agains must feel when God Himself first reaches out and touches them. USA is the best People’s History of America there is.
(20) ‘Daisy Miller’ by Henry James. This is the only James I could ever read without falling asleep, although I got all the way through ‘The Bostonians’ once and more or less profited from the journey, narcoleptic though it was. ‘Daisy Miller’ is the simpleton’s James but highly recommended as both literature and as representative of one of his primary themes — new money vs. old money, old aristos vs. the new American ones.
(21) ‘The Pistol’ by James Jones. America’s best novelist of World War Two, and The Pistol, along with The Thin Red Line, is the best combat fiction about the war.
(22) The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway.
(23) John Updike’s Rabbit trilogy. The life’s trajectory of Rabbit Angstrom, from his early 1950s incarnation as high school basketball star from the wrong side of the tracks to his moving up marriage to the daughter of a prosperous but primitive car dealer, and on through Rabbit’s estranged, trapped, mostly bewildered journey through the 1960s and on into premature cardiac care — a kind of white guy everyman, circa 1935-1980.
(24) ‘An American Tragedy’ by Theodore Dreiser.
(25) ‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville One of the few books you can read again and again and learn something every time.
(26) ‘Dubliners’ by James Joyce. The most perfect short stories in the language.
(27) ‘You Can’t Go Home Again’ by Thomas Wolfe. Lots of good stuff but always sneered at by the lions of the faculty lounge.
(28) ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Remarque. In the trenches with German soldiers of World War One.
(29.) ‘I Was Looking for a Street’ and ‘Something about a Soldier ‘by Charles Willeford (if you can find them). The fascinating autobiographies of a master of tough guy detective fiction. Willeford was an Army lifer who was trained as a cavalryman in America’s last cavalry, went on to become a decorated tank commander in WW Two, and wound up his military tour with the post-War army in the Philippines.
(29) ‘The Bad Communist’ by Max Crawford. Will the circle be unbroken?! An insider’s novel about the Stanford-based 1960s cult left and the murderously wacky politics that inspired a posse of English Department-led, under-grad Maoists to commit several murders. Ukiah-area book clubs failed to invite then-local guy Mike Sweeney of the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority to explicate this odd but lively rendition of a uniquely berserk chapter in American (pseudo) radical history. Sweeney belonged to that Stanford-based terrorist club and, years later, as an archetypal lone nut, blew up an airport hangar in Santa Rosa, and then his ex-wife, Judi Bari, crimes he has not yet been indicted for because he’s been sheltered from accountability by the FBI, local media, much of Mendolib, and the idiot sectors of the Bay Area and Northcoast left. Sweeney has since emigrated to New Zealand.
NICE EFFORT!
Editor,
… in the latest AVA. A picture of flowers- vital, a view of the Valley, a tip on where to sustainably and legally climb trees (In Oregon), a restaurant/ pub tip: Who doesn’t want to visit an Old Abalone Pub?
David Svehla
San Francisco
FRED GARDNER:
I had two brief encounters with Charles Schulz in 1984, the year that “home video” became the rage. A Healdsburg winery for whom I’d previously written a brochure said they’d decided on a video instead. I said, “We have that capability,” and bought a video camera on my way home. My nascent video production business soon found a great client: Russ Egbert, the pro who gave golf lessons at Oakmont, a community for well-to-do retirees built around a golf course. I would tape Russ giving a lesson, and the client would buy the tape and take it home to watch while practicing his or her grip and swing and follow-through. Mrs. Schulz was one of Russ’s clients, and I taped her twice. Each time her husband arrived to watch the last few minutes of her lesson and then to drive a few balls himself. He was tall –maybe 6’4– in fine shape, and his swing was perfect, as in could-have-been-a-pro. He was obviously a superb athlete, and gracious and affable in our brief exchanges.
CATCH OF THE DAY, Wednesday, July 31, 2024
GABRIELA AHUMADA-CORNELAS, Fort Bragg. DUI-alcohol&drugs.
ANTHONY BLACK, Kelseyville/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
JOSHUA COMPTON, Nice//Ukiah. Parole violation.
LORENZO CRUZ, Ukiah. Ammo possession by prohibited person.
BHAKTI DILLENBECK, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-loitering on private property, vandalism. (Frequent flyer.)
ROBERT GARDNER II, Ukiah. Burglary, burglary tools, felon with firearm, stolen property, ammo possession by prohibited person.
TARA HILL, Ukiah. Attempted car theft, attempt to keep stolen property.
JEFFERY HOCKETT, Fort Bragg. Attempt to expose obscene matter to minor, petty theft.
ADAM KESTER, Willits. Taking vehicle without owner’s consent, stolen property, petty theft with priors.
JUSTIN MCNIEL, Ukiah. Controlled substance for sale, probation revocation.
RYAN OKERSTROM, Willits. Public nuisance, trespassing.
GERARD PARKER II, Hidden Valley/Ukiah. Failure to appear.
BOBBY ROSTON, Ukiah. Parole violation.
ERIC WRIGHT, Ukiah. Solicitation of lewd act.
AS LONG AS I LIVE under the capitalistic system I expect to have my life influenced by the demands of moneyed people. But I will be damned if I propose to be at the beck and call of every itinerant scoundrel who has two cents to invest in a postage stamp. This, sir, is my resignation.
— William Faulkner resigning his job with the Post Office.
KYM KEMP UNFAIR TO BI-COMMENTERS
Editor,
I’ve been an anonymous troll, and there’s some freedom there to be snarky and unedited and to let your “id” flag fly, right? But if you use your real name you will forever be defined by that mean, nasty, stupid or regretful thing you might say. Being an anon troll lets you say what you really feel/think (more or less: “I hate you and I’m an asshole.”) and move on with life, your nasty side hidden, clean slate, nobody nose.
However I’m in a tweener situation here: Yes it actually feels good not being an anonymous troll anymore, after hiding for decades, but when I got a hankering the other day and felt like being a little flippant and rude, I thought I’d say a caustic thing or two under a fake name. Kym “busted me” quickly by replying in a comment to “me” about an inconsistency she noticed in comments from my two identities, and I was surprised and embarrassed to be caught playing troll. She knew I was that made-up name, that just doesn’t seem fair, and that’s why I’m starting a competing site. (jk)
Yes, that doesn’t seem fair, that once you disavow your “Freudian id,” your mysterious identitty, you’re unable to be truly anonymous anymore, for Kym knows. (Sure, no one else does, but she’s the most important one, the way I look at it, because I’m trying to build on this editor/writer thing, and now she knows I’m a stinking wannabe troll.)
How does she do it, how is she the all-knowing one who discriminates against Bi-commenters like this, shaming me and showing that I can’t hide from her, once I have the temerity to throw off my full-time troll shackles, and have my name listed next to my Internet Service Provider number? (Will we ever know the secrets of the temple?)
For example, when your comment pops up on her screen, whether anon or not, do all the fake or real names you’ve ever used over the years pop up also because of the ISP thang? (I remember one of them, yes, I was “Mingo” for awhile, and what were the other troll names I’ve used? I don’t remember, ask Kym, she probably has the list right there.)
Or maybe the fake names don’t appear like that, maybe she has to click a few buttons to see what she has on this person, this guy, ie me. (Trolls are probably overwhelmingly old guys who’ve been around long enough to think: better stay hidden.)
Is she so curious that she has to know everything, who everyone is, Bi-commenters included? (I know, I’m just as curious.)
What if Ernie Branscomb decides to go troll for a minute, is that so bad? Why does Kym have to know, doesn’t seem fair, lay off the Bi-trolls, free Ernie! (Oh, her all-knowing stance is probably payback for having to put up with denizens on her news website, disillusioned bottle-babies seeking discipline at the hand of a redheaded blackbelt, as they try to work through their issues.)
Paul Modic
Redway
FIRES BURNING AT ‘FULL TILT’ ACROSS THE WESTERN U.S. STRETCH RESOURCES
At least one person was killed this week by a wildfire in Colorado, and experts say hot, dry conditions are likely to spark more blazes.
by Rachel Nostrant
It took only a week for the Park fire north of Sacramento to grow into the fifth-largest in California history, signaling the potential for a destructive wildfire season across much of the Western United States. Almost 50 other large or notable fires were burning throughout the region on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker.
Although this year doesn’t yet compare to 2020, the most destructive wildfire season of the last two decades, the sheer number of fires currently burning in Western states — both big and small — has threatened to overwhelm firefighting resources at a rate that worries experts so early in the season.
“Normally we’re ramping up in July to get to that peak in August, early September,” said Alex Robertson, director of fire and aviation management for the U.S. Forest Service. But this year, he said, “we’re going into August already at our full tilt.”
At least one person was killed this week by a wildfire burning near Denver, and a historic mining town was leveled near Bakersfield, Calif. More than half a million acres of the Western United States have burned in the past week, according to the Times wildfire tracker.
Mr. Robertson said the Forest Service had already had to request about 80 aviation and fire operations experts from Australia and New Zealand to help manage the fires spreading in California and other states, including Washington, Oregon and Colorado.
It’s common for nations to share firefighting resources, but Mr. Robertson said it was unusual for the United States to need so much help by the end of July.
A wet winter and spring, which allowed vegetation to grow quickly, followed by record-breaking heat across much of the West have led to textbook fire-burning conditions, experts said. Climate change has been making heat waves in the region more intense and longer. July 22, two days before the Park fire began, was Earth’s hottest day on record, and some areas burned by the blaze experienced their warmest 30-day periods just before it broke out.
Weather forecasts in Western states including Washington, Oregon and Colorado promise more hot, dry conditions, said Ashton Robinson Cook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Temperatures across the region are expected to reach about 100 degrees Fahrenheit each day through the end the week, with little to no rain in sight.
Since the destructive fire season of 2020, when the August Complex fire burned more than a million acres across seven counties of Northern California, the last three seasons have been relatively calmer overall, though still with some devastating and deadly fires.
About seven million acres of the United States — roughly half the size of California — have burned on average over the last decade, said Candy Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center. About 4.4 million acres have burned so far in 2024, she said.
Experts are worried that firefighters will become fatigued too early in the season. “That happens to somebody when they’re home for three days, and then they’re out off again,” Mr. Robertson said.
Here are some of the most threatening fires now burning in the Western United States:
California’s Park Fire
The Park fire is by far the largest in the Western United States at this point. It has burned through about 390,000 acres since being started on July 24 by a burning car that was pushed into a ravine near Chico, Calif.
A suspect, who has been charged with felony arson, is set to appear in court on Thursday morning to enter a plea.
More than 5,500 firefighters have been called up to fight the blaze, which was 18 percent contained on Wednesday. About 360 structures have been destroyed, according to Cal Fire, and thousands of people have been placed under evacuation orders.
Twin Fires In Colorado
The Stone Mountain and Alexander Mountain wildfires in northern Colorado have spread to within miles of each other. They’re burning between Lyons and Loveland, north of Denver.
The Alexander Mountain fire grew rapidly, burning over 5,000 acres in its first 24 hours, because of the region’s dry conditions, the U.S. Forest Service said. That has made its path difficult to track.
Sheriff Curtis Johnson of Boulder County said in a news conference on Wednesday that one person had been found dead in a home as a result of the Stone Mountain fire — which has been referred to by some media outlets as the Stone Canyon fire — but provided no details.
Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado issued a disaster declaration this week because of the growing number of potentially destructive fires across the state.
Blazes In Washington State
In Washington State, firefighting crews have been clearing brush, setting up sprinklers and establishing fire lines to protect the community of Stehekin, a town on the northern tip of Lake Chelan that is accessible only by boat, from the nearby Pioneer fire.
The community has about 90 full-time residents, and despite an evacuation notice, some have chosen to stay in order to help with firefighting efforts. The fire has burned more than 30,000 acres and is now less than two miles from Stehekin.
To the south, the Swawilla I fire near Keller, Wash., has burned through about 50,000 acres over the last two weeks and was about 45 percent contained on Wednesday. Evacuation orders and warnings have been issued for more than a thousand people, according to the Confederated Colville Tribes Emergency Operations Center.
Another blaze, the Retreat fire, near the town of Naches in the central part of the state, has burned more than 30,000 acres in the last week and remains about 18 percent contained.
No deaths have been reported from the Washington fires.
(NY Times)
LAKE COUNTY SUPERVISORS PUT KELSEYVILLE NAME CHANGE ADVISORY MEASURE BEFORE THE VOTERS
by Elizabeth Larson
Voters across Lake County this fall will weigh in on the ongoing controversy over the proposed name change for the town of Kelseyville.
At the end of a three and a half hour long special meeting on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve a countywide advisory measure on the Nov. 5 presidential election ballot on changing the name from Kelseyville — which has been in place since 1882 — to “Konocti.”
Supervisors Bruno Sabatier and Michael Green voted against the measure, maintaining instead that the board needed to submit a recommendation directly to the federal agency now reviewing the proposal.
District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, along with County Administrative Officer Susan Parker, crafted two draft resolutions for consideration, one for all Lake County voters to consider and one that would only be voted upon by Kelseyville Unified School District residents.
The majority of those supporting the name change effort at Tuesday’s meeting advocated for the countywide vote, although many said the board should make the decision and not put it to voters.
It became clear that, whatever the result of the advisory measure, the Board of Supervisors is poised to recommend changing the town’s name to the state and federal agencies tasked with making the final decision, with members suggesting they would not honor a majority that opposed that decision.
While Pyska, whose district is ground zero for the matter, said she intended to remain neutral, the rest of the supervisors were clear in their support for changing the name of the town.
Proponents advocate for renaming the unincorporated community “Konocti” in order to stop honoring the memory of Andrew Kelsey, who along with Charles Stone brutalized natives during a two-year period. They were said to have enslaved, raped and killed tribal members, which prompted the tribes to kill them in 1849.
Their killings led to still more retaliatory killings by Kelsey’s brother and by the U.S. Army, the latter carrying out the Bloody Island massacre near Nice in May of 1850.
In October, the group calling itself Citizens for Healing submitted an application to the United States Board on Geographic Names, or BGN, which is within the United States Geological Survey.
The BGN website said it was created in 1890 “and established in its present form by Public Law in 1947 to maintain uniform geographic name usage throughout the Federal Government. The BGN comprises representatives of Federal agencies concerned with geographic information, population, ecology, and management of public lands.”
Kelseyville’s name change has gone to BGN because it’s not an incorporated community.
Pyska said she had spent a long time researching the process in order to bring options to the board.
She said the BGN has asked the supervisors for a recommendation, but that they “haven’t been able” to have that discussion. Pyska said she’s had some discussion with Supervisor EJ Crandell and Board Chair Bruno Sabatier.
Pyska said the options are no response, or to provide a response to BGN which is yes, no or neutral.
She said she wouldn’t give a recommendation, that she made a commitment to support the community through the process.
The ballot measure, Pyska said, is a nonbinding way to understand what people want, and the results can be provided to BGN as the recommendation.
“I think that this is going to cost money. I’m not sure that this is the best use of tax dollars to do,” and won’t get consensus, Sabatier said.
Supervisor Michael Green was not concerned about cost. He said he was surprised by the agenda item, as he was waiting for the board to do what BGN asked them to do and give an opinion.
“It is our right and responsibility to respond to BGN,” Green said.
Green said the board is one of the most diverse in Lake County history, referring to supervisors Crandall and Moke Simon, who are both Pomo. “You’re asking us to mute their voices.”
He said he felt using the school district boundaries was inherently unfair and “fatally flawed.”
“I have thought about this for a long time, how we work through this,” said Pyska, adding that Registrar of Voters Maria Valadez could speak to cost. “As far as the boundaries go, there is no perfect way to do this.”
In order to put the matter on the ballot, Pyska said it needed a defined voting district.
She urged them to move forward, “The sooner the better,” because “we’ve all been through a lot.”
Valadez shared some numbers regarding past elections, noting that the March presidential primary and the November 2022 general election both topped $300,000. This election won’t cost as much for the ballot measure alone as there are already other items on the ballot.
She said she couldn’t give an exact cost, although she estimated it shouldn’t cost more than $50,000 to add the advisory measure to the ballot, a number which would be repeated throughout the meeting, with Valadez not given a chance later to offer further explanation. She did, however, share further details with Lake County News, including emphasizing that she didn’t want to be held to that $50,000 number, which was just an estimate.
Simon said it was “a very delicate conversation we’re going to have today. It’s been kind of building up to this point I think.” He then suggested a vote needed to be countywide.
“I want the opportunity for the Indigenous people that have been here forever to see where we stand in this county. Every vote that we’ve taken, I think I know the outcome already. But I want it on the record. I want it on the record. I’ve walked through these halls. I’ve heard how racist this community is and I’ve seen and tried to work together and bring it together. I want to see if we’ve learned anything in the past 400 years here in this country, in this county, how we move forward. I want it on the record,” said Simon.
He said it’s an opportunity for him to really understand what kind of community he walks in and what kind of people are here. Simon said he thinks the county is moving in the right direction but the vote would solidify his thoughts.
Simon said he appreciated Green’s statement about silencing the native voices on the board, and he imagined for some people it’s scary to have tribal board members.
He said he hoped everyone was respectful, but that he didn’t agree with keeping the Kelseyville name.
A divided public
In the county’s eComment feature on its website, 34 comments were submitted. Of those, 27 were against the name change, with 26 supporting that the advisory measure be limited to Kelsyeville and one wanting it to be countywide. The remaining seven supported the name change and the countywide measure.
Another 25 individuals submitted letters posted with the meeting materials. Of those, 20 objected to the name change with the other five supporting it. Not all of them weighed in on the advisory measure.
Sabatier established a rule to allow only two minutes — rather than three — for public comment during Tuesday’s meeting.
Lake County News counted 63 total public commenters, of which 40 supported the name change — and most also spoke in support of countywide vote — while the remainder were against the name change or the vote, with a few specifically calling on the board to make the decision.
Community members who spoke noted the name change’s divisive nature, with some of them, like Rachel White — who chairs the Save Kelseyville group — stating that it’s been inflammatory and not about forgiveness.
Others said the matter is about addressing long standing trauma, especially for young people.
Still other commenters denied that the community is racist, and testified that residents are loving and supportive. Several also raised issues with being called racists and white supremacists because they didn’t support the name change.
There also were commenters who faulted the board, and Pyska in particular, for not taking more decisive action.
Numerous members of tribes around the lake spoke in support of the name change.
Patricia Franklin, a member of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo who attended via Zoom, supported the board making the decision but, failing that, going to a countywide vote. “The wounds are not old, they are present.”
Flaman McCloud Jr., chair of the Big Valley Pomo tribal council, said the supervisors should make the decision.
“The people voted to have you guys up there to speak for your districts,” McCloud said. “That’s what you should do.”
McCloud said every Lake County tribe is outside of the school district boundary, adding, “Yes, it does affect the whole county.”
Lorna Sue Sides, the name change proponent who submitted the application to BGN, didn’t want a vote, but rather wanted the board to send opinions to the BGN so the process could move forward.
“If it does go to a vote it’s going to be a very ugly campaign,” said Sides. “It’s going to pit neighbor against neighbor.”
Sides said she also wanted the county to address the name’s offense and the sins of Kelsey in the measure.
Mark Borghesani, owner of Kelseyville Lumber, supported an advisory vote of the Kelseyville community.
Borghesani said he’s spent his entire life in building up Kelseyville and building a brand. “At no time have we ever discussed honoring Andrew Kelsey.”
“Ripping the heart and the soul out of a town is not building bridges where there’s walls,” Borghesani said.
Retired attorney Peter Windrem said the name Kelseyville means different things to different people. Some see the ghost of Andrew Kelsey, while others see a beautiful friendly country town.
“The tragedy of the vote is that there's a winner and a loser. There's no compromise,” Windrem said. “It’s a winner and a loser. And that further divides these two communities. It is not a healing process at all.”
Windrem also didn’t think the name “Konocti” is a good option, and there hasn’t been a chance to discuss another name. He said the process also disregards the work over the last 50 or more years to make the town something other than the legacy of Andrew Kelsey.
“We need to take time and spend an immense amount of time trying to get a result that does not harm so many innocent people,” Windrem said.
The board was urged to make the vote countywide because, as Jesus Campanero of Robinson Rancheria’s tribal council told them, Kelsey’s genocide went all around the lake.
However, Kelseyville residents like Tammy Myers were frustrated at allowing people outside of Kelseyville to vote when they would not have the same impacts as residents.
Farmer Myron Holdenried pointed out the challenges for business and individuals when it comes to bureaucratic requirements of the name change. “Will the rest of the county have to do this? No,” he said, explaining his support for keeping the vote to the Kelseyville area.
Holdenried also asked, “Will changing the name really heal all of the problems?”
Beniakem Cromwell, tribal chair of Robinson Rancheria who lives in the Kelseyville Riviera, said he has an emotional commute, passing Bloody Island on the way to work.
Cromwell, who also formerly served on the Kelseyville Unified School Board, said the descendants of those who survived Kelsey should be able to vote, although he wished the board would make the determination.
Board expresses name change support
After the board closed public comment, which lasted about two and a half hours, Pyska said she hoped that everyone felt they had been heard.
She said they could have more discussions about what to do with data from vote, adding the vote does not have to replace a recommendation from the board.
Simon took issue with Pyska’s statements, asking why she hadn’t brought a decision on the matter to the board. “I’m ready to make a decision. You know my thoughts on it.”
He added, “I want to get it done.”
Responding to Holdenried’s question about whether the name change would heal all the problems, Simon said, “This name change happens, it will start the healing, whether you believe it or not, for the Indigenous people in this community,” adding the healing process will be a long one.
Green said he was surprised and disappointed that an alternative couldn’t have been a draft letter to BGN with a range of opinions.
Sabatier said asking for a majority vote goes against what the process is about. He suggested the hurt about changing Kelseyville’s name is the same hurt Indigenous people have had due to having their culture and names taken away. “You have more in common than you don’t.”
He added that the board should take the responsibility and respond to BGN.
Citing bad treatment of native peoples, Crandell claimed there’s a reason natives don’t live in Kelseyville. However, Crandell’s statement about Kelseyville not having Indigenous residents is not supported by U.S. Census data.
Census records show that people of American Indian or Alaskan Native descent accounted for 11% of the population of the Kelseyville census designated place in 2020, versus 7% in Lake County as a whole. In addition, the Indigenous population grew by 64% between 2010 and 2020 in Kelseyville, and by 42% countywide in the same time frame.
Valadez told the board that if they went forward with the election, she would ask the county counsel to conduct an analysis of the ballot measure.
Green questioned if it would be a fair election, as he said he had information that the Save Kelsyville group already had been fundraising since April. He suggested it was patently unfair.
When Valadez attempted to respond to Green’s statement, Green spoke over her and she was not able to respond.
He said Native Americans were decimated and future Native Americans were prevented from meaningfully participating “in what we’re proposing today.”
Crandell said the countywide advisory vote is the way to go because he suggested that in future years the board — with a different composition — could find itself once again facing the question.
Ultimately, Simon moved to hold a countywide advisory election, with the jurisdiction to be expanded to include the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport. The board voted 3-2 to pass the motion.
Registrar of voters further explains potential costs
On Tuesday afternoon, Valadez explained for Lake County News potential costs for the special election based on past elections.
She said the September 2021 gubernatorial recall election cost the county $250,000. The ballots and booklets alone were a little over $100,000, plus postage, supplies and services, and labor costs.
The general election of November 2022, which included the governor’s race and 11 special district elections in Lake County, cost around $322,000, she said.
The presidential primary this past March came in at about $300,000, Valadez said.
Standalone elections can run around $250,000. However, since there is already an election in November, Valadez said the advisory measure itself will be folded into that election and won’t cost as much.
The November ballot will be a full one. In addition to the U.S. presidential election, there will be 10 state ballot measures, the District 1 supervisorial race runoff, city council races in Clearlake and Lakeport, bond measures for the Kelseyville and Konocti Unified school districts, South Lake County Fire Protection District’s appropriations limit and potentially many more special district seats, Valadez reported.
(Lake County News)
COMMENTS (Upper Lake resident Betsy Cawn)
The chairwoman of Kelseyville’s “Save the Name” committee claimed that the 2023 action taken by the “Change the Name” proponents (seeking the US Bureau of Geographic Names approval for redesignation of the census tract) “blind-sided” the defenders whose 140 years of ownership entitle them to preserve their chosen designation.
Despite the fact that use of the former name (should the BGN choose to alter it) will NOT affect anyone’s use of legal documentation — birth certificates, bank accounts, signage and promotional literature, postal address, or social affiliations — opponents cited the non-existent burdens of changing personal or business nomenclature as a hardship falling most severely on “the elderly” needing special help to cope with the onerous tasks imposed upon them should the name be changed.
And despite the fact that the US Bureau requested input from the Board of Supervisors in late 2023 or early 2024, the resolution offered by District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska worked around the option of having the Board take a position either way. Adding the “advisory” ballot measure to the November 5 election delays the Board’s response and shields the Supervisors from alienating constituents in either camp.
Middletown Rancheria tribal chairman and twice-elected county Supervisor Moke Simon made clear his desire to conduct the county-wide election so that the question of whether or not Lake County is “racist” can be ascertained by the will of the voters. Citing the daily experience of tribal members — later reiterated in testimony from local and regional Native Americans (almost all with personal family connections to Lake County’s seven tribal nations) — the District 1 supervisor refuted assertions that historical atrocities have no bearing on the present lives of local tribal members.
Many members of the public excoriated the Board for deferring the issue to the typically small number of voters who participate in elections, calling for the Supervisors to do their jobs as representatives of their district residents. And a few Anglo-Americans expressed their indignation that they were being labeled as racist, citing their histories as civic contributors whose personal practices did not discriminate against any minority population members over decades of public service.
District 3 Supervisor Ed Crandell revealed the evolution of his comprehension of how military indoctrination required acceptance of racist condemnation of his own tribal members, as an “assimilated” Native American serving in the US Army. Crandell’s immediate family members descended from survivors of the May 15, 1850, US military massacre at Bloody Island, now a California Historical Landmark on Highway 20 in Upper Lake.
All aspects of the process leading to a decision on whether or not to change the name (and the proposed replacement) by the US Bureau of Geographical Names can be found on the website sponsored by the proponents: https://citizensforhealing.org.
FIREFIGHTERS SAY THIS MEDICINE COULD SAVE THEIR LIVES. WHY DOES CALIFORNIA WANT TO BAN IT?
Some Sonoma County firefighters are angry that the Board of Pharmacy is poised to cut off access to a drug that could extend their careers — and lives.
by Austin Murphy
As the massive Park Fire charred the landscape and darkened the skies 100 miles to the north, members of the California State Board of Pharmacy prepared to meet Wednesday in Sacramento.
Items on its agenda included “discussion and possible action” on a matter that could affect the health of many of the firefighters working to contain that 389,000-acre blaze.
The Board was poised to make it illegal for doctors in California to prescribe, and pharmacists to dispense, a group of sterile compounded substances, including one called glutathione, even though it is approved for compounding by the Food and Drug Administration.
If that vote passes, as expected, California will become the only state to cut off access to compounded glutathione.
Among those angered by this act of “regulatory overreach,” as one critic put it, are a group of Sonoma County firefighters and their advocates. Glutathione, they point out, has a long, proven safety record, and has shown great promise in lowering the levels of toxins found in the bodies of firefighters, whose line of work puts them at greater risk of cancer than the general population.
Glutathione (pronounced glue-tuh-THIGH-own), is an antioxidant made in the liver and in many tissues of the human body, explained Jen Riegle, a licensed naturopathic doctor at Wild Oak Medicine in Santa Rosa. Riegle also happens to be the daughter of two wildland firefighters. Physicians at Wild Oak have worked with local firefighters for years, making glutathione a central part of their protocols to treat and prevent cancer.
Inhaled through a nebulizer, glutathione acts as an expectorant to detoxify and heal the lungs, said Riegle. When injected through an IV, it prompts the body to release stored toxins.
Glutathione serves as a critical component, she said, in “the multistep process our livers carry out, to be able to package toxins up, and release them through our excretion routes.”
‘Major Loss For Our Patients’
During the 2017 Tubbs Fire, Riegle and Jenny Harrow-Keeler cofounded the Integrative Healers Action Network, which ran a base camp healing tent for firefighters, paid for by the Red Cross. They provided care that included glutathione IVs and breathing treatments. Firefighters would come off the line, eat, inhale nebulized glutathione, get some sleep, and disappear back into the smoke.
Partnering with the Integrative Healers Action Network and another Santa Rosa-based nonprofit, the Volunteer Fire Foundation, Riegle has over the last two years directed a pair of pilot research studies measuring the effectiveness of its glutathione-based protocol in lowering the level of various toxins in a small number of Sonoma County firefighters.
The results, she said, have been “incredibly encouraging.”
The first round, in 2023, included 10 firefighters from the three local agencies. They were tested before treatment, halfway through, and just after completion. The total number of high-range (95th percentile) toxins across all participants decreased 72.5%. Among the top three most prevalent toxins was glyphosate, with many participants showing levels two to three times the 95th percentile. By the end of treatment, glyphosate levels decreased 93%.
In the second round, earlier this year, the total number of high-range toxins across all 11 firefighters decreased 81.4%. Perhaps the most exciting result was that the total number of high-range PFAs, or “forever chemicals,” decreased by 80%.
“It’s a small sample size,” allowed Jacqui Jorgeson, founder of the Volunteer Fire Foundation. “But we feel the ripple effects of this study can’t be overstated for the fire service at large.”
Their hope is to get enough data to persuade firms or other entities to cover the costs of the tests — around $5,500 per firefighter — so the departments don’t have to dip into their own budgets “to pay for their own salvation,” as she put it.
But that research now stands to be kneecapped by the Board of Pharmacy, which is poised to cut off access to compounded glutathione. That, said Riegle, “would be a major, major loss for our patients.”
Hard Line Against Compounding Pharmacies
The reason’s for the board’s actions are unclear.
As of Tuesday afternoon, it had not responded to a list of questions The Press Democrat emailed on July 17 to its executive director, Anne Sodergren, and president, Seung Oh. (A public information officer with the Board acknowledged receipt of the questions the next day.)
Compounding is the pharmaceutical process of combining ingredients to create a medication tailored to the needs of an individual patient — medicine not available in a regular CVS or Walgreens.
Sterile compounding, which takes place in specially licensed facilities, is the method of preparing those medications in a sterile environment to prevent contamination.
In the past, the Board has justified its hard line against pharmacies that compound sterile drug products using bulk substances such as glutathione and or methylcobalamin, a form of vitamin B12, by pointing out that those substances lack a United States Pharmacopeia drug “monograph.”
According to the USP website, a monograph outlines the quality expectations for a medicine, and describes the tests for validating that the medicine and its ingredients meet those standards.
But, as lawyers for compounding pharmacies sued by California’s Board of Pharmacy have pointed out, it is lawful under both federal law and California law for their clients to use glutathione in their compounded sterile drug products even without the monograph. Both substances appear on the FDA’s Category 1 list, making them lawful to compound.
The Board has declared compounded sterile drug products “adulterated” if they contain “nonpharmaceutical grade” drug components such as glutathione or methylcobalamin.
However, as Doctor of Pharmacy Amy Summers, a consultant for compounding pharmacies, has pointed out, “the board’s standards of ‘pharmaceutical grade’ and ‘nonpharmaceutical grade’ are not even defined terms under California law, federal law, or elsewhere in the compounding industry.”
The Board members “aren’t legislators,” said Jorgeson of the Volunteer Fire Foundation. “They don’t have the jurisdiction to make a medicine illegal. So they’re taking this path. They’re essentially shadow-banning these legal substances.”
Losing access to this medication, she said, means “losing the most promising method doctors have to protect firefighters from cancer.”
Smoking Two Cartons Of Cigarettes
The leading cause of death for firefighters is not fire. In 2023, according to the 348,000-member International Association of Fire Fighters, 72% of its line-of-duty deaths were due to occupational cancer.
That’s alarming but not surprising to Bob Molesworth, an engineer with the Sonoma Valley Fire District. Molesworth, who’s been fighting fires for 22 years, was diagnosed with bladder cancer two years ago.
Doctors performed a transurethral resection, and injected chemotherapy into his bladder. “It was like it marinated in there for an hour,” recalled Molesworth.
After twice undergoing that procedure, his cancer went into remission. Molesworth told his urologist, “Hey, you’re a really nice guy, but I don’t want to keep coming back here annually to do this same procedure.”
Earlier this year, he took part in the detox study directed by Riegle.
Before beginning the treatment, Molesworth had 16 toxins identified in his body that registered in the “high” range. After a 12-week course, only two of those toxins were still in that range. In all, tests revealed elevated levels of 33 different toxins in his body. After the study, 20 of those toxins had returned to normal range.
Starting his treatment, Molesworth had elevated levels of 12 different PFA “forever chemicals” (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in his body — nine high, three moderate. After treatment, all had decreased, with six returning to normal levels.
Molesworth explained that it’s simply not possible to do the labor intensive job of fighting a wildland blaze, such as the Park Fire, to which he was dispatched on July 26, while wearing an unwieldy respirator.
“Maybe if you were ultramarathoner, or a sherpa,” he added. “But for most normal folks, it’s not going to work. Your work output is going to be very limited.”
The result is, they inhale a lot of smoke.
“I equate to smoking a couple cartons of cigarettes,” he said. “It is what it is.
“That’s why I’m grateful Wild Oak has this program.”
Joe Neeley, a retired geologist and volunteer at the Sonoma Valley Fire District, has been a firefighter for three decades. A prime candidate for Riegle’s first pilot study, he was also a skeptic.
After a meeting where the program was explained in detail, he told Jorgeson that “any new, untested scientific claim” prompted him to “put on my skeptic hat and say, ‘OK, you’ve gotta prove it to me.”
When the halfway test results came in, and he saw his toxin levels dipping, Neeley said, “OK, we’ve got something here.”
Upon seeing his final numbers, he remembers thinking, “This is good news for firefighters.”
Another participant in that study was Steve Akre, chief of the Sonoma Valley Fire District, now in his 37th year as a firefighter.
“I had 12 categories that were above the 75th percentile, and every single one of them went down as a result of the program,” he said. “My liver function improved, I had a lot more energy, I slept better. Overall I just felt a whole lot better.”
Akre, who has added his name to a petition calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom to “Stop the BoP” from eliminating access to these Category 1 substances, is a member of the Cal Chiefs Executive Board and president of a statewide joint powers authority providing workers' compensation and benefits to over 200 fire agencies.
At every board meeting, he said, “we go in and provide approval for settlement authority for firefighters and their families effected by cancer.”
Such discussions are “heart-wrenching, on a personal level,” he said. “But it’s also incredibly expensive, what we pay out for cancer treatments and death benefits from cancer.”
It makes no sense, he said,“to take away a tool from doctors that can be helping us on the preventive side of things.”
Akre made those points during the public comment period at the Board of Pharmacy’s June 18 meeting in Sacramento, which was scheduled to last two hours, but went at least twice that long, as speaker after speaker implored the board to reconsider.
Akre spoke of three close friends, all firefighters, who died of cancer at the ages of 35, 50 and 57. He mentioned the three members of his department diagnosed with cancer in the last two years.
He expressed appreciation that 10 members of his department had gone through Wild Oak’s glutathione-based detoxification program.
“We have seen how this program has greatly reduced the amount of cancer-causing toxins in our bodies.
“We need to expand the tools and resources available to our doctors, not limit them.
“While we signed up to serve, and willingly put our lives on the line protecting others, that does not mean we accept getting cancer.
“If we can prevent just one cancer-caused death, it is worth it.”
Fear Of The Unknown
The Board of Pharmacy consists of 13 members, serving four-year terms. Seven are registered pharmacists, appointed by Gov. Newsom, who also appoints four public members. The Senate Rules Committee and the Speaker of the Assembly each appoint a public member.
One of the Board’s 13 members, Doctor of Pharmacy Renee Barker, has a background in sterile compounding.
Opposition to the Board’s campaign against sterile compounding pharmacies extends well beyond the firefighting community, as evidenced by letters it received during the 45-day comment period preceding its proposed regulatory action.
Writing on behalf of Kaiser Permanente and its “nine million members in California,” Doctor of Pharmacy John P. Gray gave a thumbs down to the Board’s determination to override the United States Pharmacopeial standards. In stark contrast to the “deliberative and evidence-based process” used by the USP to write its compounding standards, Gray noted that “throughout the rule-making process,” the Board “has failed to provide any empirical evidence (e.g. peer-reviewed journal articles, meta-analyses, etc.) to support any of its proposed compounding regulations.”
Other critics seemed to regard the Board’s proposed action as an extreme solution to a nonexistent problem.
The 400-plus member California Hospital Association questioned the “necessity and value” of the proposed regulations, given “the existing and extensive federal set of USP compliance standards — developed with scientific rigor, stakeholder input, legal recognition, and a commitment to public health and safety” — and the fact that “no evidence has been presented by the BoP suggesting systemic challenges or indicating patients have been placed in harm’s way.”
As firefighters and their advocates keep pointing out, the people who stand to be hurt by this new prohibition are those who already place themselves, willingly, in harm’s way.
(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)
WHY JOSH SHAPIRO WOULD BE A DANGEROUS CHOICE AS HARRIS’S RUNNING MATE
by Jeff Cohen & Norman Solomon
Kamala Harris has gained strong support as the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. Putting Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on the ticket would likely fracture that support.
The most divisive issue among Democrats is the U.S.-enabled Israeli war against the civilian population of Gaza. To unify the party and defeat Trump’s MAGA forces, Harris needs to distance herself in a meaningful way from Joe Biden’s Gaza policy. If she does so, she can win back the votes and energy of young activists, progressives, racial justice organizers, Arab Americans and Muslims – many of whom devoted weeks or months of their lives in 2020 to defeating Trump on behalf of the Biden-Harris ticket.
But a Harris-Shapiro ticket would jeopardize all that.
Today, parallels are apparent with pivotal events of 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson – increasingly unpopular among Democrats and others because of his Vietnam War – stunned the political world by announcing he would not seek reelection. At the Democratic convention in Chicago, the party nominated LBJ’s vice president, Hubert Humphrey, as its standard-bearer. Humphrey’s halting efforts to distance himself from Johnson’s war policy were too little, too late, and he was unable to connect with many of the dedicated Democratic activists and voters who were antiwar. Failing to detach himself sufficiently from the president’s war policy, Humphrey lost a winnable election to Republican Richard Nixon.
If Harris now chooses a running mate who intensely connects her to Biden’s policies on the Gaza war that are so unpopular with much of the Democratic base, party unity – and the chances of defeating Trump – would be undermined.
Overall, Josh Shapiro is liberal and sometimes progressive on domestic issues (though notably not on fracking or tax subsidies for private schools). But on the contentious issue of Israel’s relentless war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Shapiro sounds much less bothered by the lethal violence than by U.S. ceasefire activists, many of whom he has demonized. Here’s a bit of the history:
In 2021, after Ben & Jerry’s (a company founded and led by Jewish Americans) refused to sell its products in Israel’s illegal settlements, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro threatened the company by urging Pennsylvania state agencies to enforce a constitutionally suspect law targeting advocates of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel over its discriminatory policies. Shapiro smeared such advocates by claiming that “BDS is rooted in antisemitism” – although the effort has wide support globally, including from many Jews, as a thoroughly nonviolent tactic in advancing Palestinian rights.
After the horrific Hamas attack of October 7, several dozen Pennsylvania-based Muslim groups wrote a letter protesting Governor Shapiro’s one-sided comments: “Not only did you fail to recognize the structural root causes of the conflict, you chose to intentionally ignore the civilian loss of life in Gaza.” Responding to the letter after Israeli bombs and missiles had killed more civilians in Gaza than had been killed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, the governor’s spokesman said: “We all must speak with moral clarity and support Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Last December, after he amplified the Capitol Hill demagoguery of MAGA Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Gov. Shapiro contributed to the firing of the University of Pennsylvania president. Referring to UPenn’s president, Shapiro said: “I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide.” By then, after two months of Israeli bombing, more than 17,000 Gazans had been killed, mostly women and children – and later that month, Israel was charged with violations of the Genocide Convention in South Africa’s filing at the International Court of Justice.
In early April, after Democratic governors in other states had called for a ceasefire in Gaza, Muslim leaders in Philadelphia criticized Shapiro for his refusal to do so.
Beginning in late April, Gov. Shapiro and his office repeatedly prodded campuses to “restore order” and take action against student encampments, including the University of Pennsylvania Gaza Solidarity Encampment which called on the college administration to provide greater transparency on university investments, divest from Israel, and reinstate the banned student group Penn Students Against the Occupation.
On May 9, Shapiro invoked student “safety” in demanding the encampment be shut down. Police shut it down the next day, arresting 33. In two different interviews, Shapiro seemed to compare campus ceasefire activists, many of whom are Jewish or students of color, to “white supremacists camped out and yelling racial slurs” and “people dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia making comments about people who’re African American.”
In May, as activism continued to grow over Israel’s lethal violence against civilians in Gaza, Gov. Shapiro issued an order aimed at Israel’s critics that revised his administration’s code of conduct to bar state employees from “scandalous or disgraceful” conduct – a vague and subjective directive criticized by the legal director of Pennsylvania’s ACLU as a possible violation of free speech protections.
In a July 23 tweet on X, progressive leader and former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner wrote: “Choosing Governor Josh Shapiro for Vice President would be a mistake. Governor Shapiro compared pro-peace protesters to the KKK. That’s simply unacceptable & would stifle the momentum VP Harris has. Hopefully she is looking to build a broad coalition to beat Trump.”
A broad coalition to defeat Donald Trump and the fascistic MAGA movement is exactly what we need. Making Josh Shapiro the nominee for vice president is exactly what we don’t need.
Stridin’ Out
Goin’ Places
These heels were made for walkin’
And that’s just what they’ll do
PDQ now Donald
They’re gonna walk all over you
— Jim Luther
CHECKING THE CHECKERS: "BORDER CZAR"
by Matt Taibbi
The “Border Czar” insanity has hit new depths. In the last 48 hours we’ve raced from denial to paradox, with head-scratching stops in between. In the first stage, “Kamala Harris Wasn’t a Border Czar” became “Kamala Harris Wasn’t a Bad Border Czar.” This is from the new Reuters piece, “Republicans call Harris a failed border czar. The facts tell a different story":
Tasked to deal with the root causes of migration. [Vice President Harris] immediately ran into the enormity of the mission. The region is riddled with corrupt government officials, the drivers of migration are deeply rooted in economic inequality and social factors. “She was given a very hard, difficult, convoluted portfolio,” said U.S. Senator Chris Murphy.
As we say in Boston, the job was wicked hahd. Not only that, she didn’t even have it! “Harris was never given the portfolio of border czar,” is how Reuters put it, adding, “Instead, Biden asked Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to reduce poverty, violence and corruption in Central America’s Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as engage with Mexico.” Of course, Reuters used different language in 2021:
The new line is an open paradox: Harris was never given a border mandate, and that job she never got was also an impossible cross to bear.
The idea is everywhere. The New Yorker went on at length about the “political peril” of the “day-to-day, on-the-ground operational emergency” Biden dumped on Harris, while insisting that “at no point. has she been in charge of managing the border.” The New York Times just published a story saying Biden “did not assign, responsibility of overseeing the enforcement policies,” but also sniffled: “Some of her allies felt she had been handed a no-win portfolio,” citing the “scale of the gulf in economic opportunity between the United States and Central America.” NPR somehow played up the “treacherous” urgency of her assignment while underscoring it was a long-term “root causes” gig in the same sentence. And so on.
Beyond the regular press, even would-be watch-the-watcher outlets like Politifact are gaslighting the public to an extraordinary degree to complicate a simple story, setting an ominous tone for the Trump-Harris* race (I’ll remove the asterisk when I’m convinced Harris will really be the nominee). They’re using every old trick in the book, and some new ones…
racket.news/p/checking-the-checkers-border-czar
HOLLOW POINT
by Tom Stevenson
For Britain’s defense intelligentsia, a new government means new opportunities. Newly elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made an “iron clad” commitment to increase military spending and to “make sure our hollowed-out armed forces are bolstered and respected.” But in the run-up to the general election, and since, there has been a concerted effort to solicit the new government for even more.
Earlier this month, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, Matthew Savill, published a paper, “A Hollow Force?,” arguing that Britain’s armed forces are in need of serious attention. The idea that they have been hollowed out has some obvious validity (even if it is borrowed from the Conservative former defense secretary Ben Wallace). The navy has two aircraft carriers but only enough deployable vessels to form one carrier group. The army doesn’t have sufficient tanks, self-propelled artillery or combat engineers to form the armored divisions it thinks it should have.
For Savill this is a matter of urgency because Britain faces a rogues’ gallery of threats, “with Russia and China in the vanguard, Iran and North Korea following close behind, and non-state groups like Yemen’s Houthis filling in the gaps.” How can the UK claim to be a “leading country in NATO,” Savill asks, if its military is “less than the sum of its parts”?
During the general election campaign, the former head of the Secretary of State’s Office for Net Assessment and Challenge (SONAC), Rob Johnson, said that Britain’s “defenses are too thin” and the armed forces “cannot defend the British homelands.” Spending 3% of GDP “at a minimum” was needed to get the house in order.
Last month, General Patrick Sanders marked his retirement as chief of the general staff by giving an exit interview to the Sunday Times in which he said the armed forces were “worn down” and ammunition stockpiles “dangerously low.” Starmer’s decision to maintain the Conservative government’s pledge that military spending would rise to 2.5% of GDP was not enough, Sanders said. “Closer to 3%” of GDP was needed because Russia, China and Iran were “new axis powers” representing a threat “more dangerous” than Nazi Germany.
Britain’s defense intellectuals like to pose as bold dissidents speaking hard truths. But their recommendations are formulaic, if not identical: an incipient crisis in the military, a lack of equipment and a cluster of dangerous enemies mean that Britain should greatly increase military spending, ideally to 3% of GDP or more (even as the chancellor warns that the nation’s finances are in a far worse state than previously thought).
Given the poverty of foreign policy discussion in Britain, this is hardly surprising. If there are no schools of security thought here, it is because there is no serious debate on any of the substantive topics. The role of the defense intelligentsia is instead to agitate for higher military budgets, the better to serve US interests. The Ministry of Defense established SONAC in 2022, it said, to prevent “groupthink.” So far it appears to have had just one thought: Britain should spend more on its military forces.
The new Labour government has gone out of its way to make clear that when it comes to foreign policy, continuity with the Conservatives is the order of the day. The secretary of defense, John Healey, made his first foreign trip to Ukraine to send a message that there would be no shift in support for the war effort there. Labour has restored funding to UNRWA, and there are reports that it may suspend some arms sales to Israel, but in most respects its approach to Israel’s attack on Gaza will be very similar to that of the last government.
In its election manifesto, Labour committed to conducting yet another Strategic Defense Review, following the 2021 Integrated Review, 2021 Defence Command Paper and 2023 Integrated Review Refresh. But Starmer intends to change so little of British foreign policy that he has retained the main foreign policy adviser to the last three Conservative prime ministers, John Bew.
The Strategic Defense Review is being led by George Robertson (Tony Blair’s first defense secretary), the retired general Richard Barrons and Fiona Hill, a former Trump adviser and John Bolton associate. Robertson celebrated his appointment by stressing that Britain faces an axis of evil like the one George W. Bush warned about, but with China and Russia taking the place of Iraq. These states, Robertson said, form “a deadly quartet of nations increasingly working together.”
If this is the threat justifying rearmament of Britain, it is the stuff of crackpot fantasy. A Russian army that cannot seize Kharkiv is obviously not an existential threat to Britain. And the only conceivable war between the UK and China, Iran or North Korea would be an expeditionary war chosen by the UK itself.
In reality, the UK’s geographical position makes it arguably the most secure country in Europe. It has the region’s largest military budget (the fifth largest in the world). Constant procurement scandals and wasteful mismanagement are matters of serious concern. But they do not demonstrate the need for comprehensive rearmament.
There are good reasons why states in more secure geographical and political positions (Spain, Portugal, the UK) might have smaller standing land armies. Yet prevailing attitudes in both Spain and Portugal are markedly different from those in Britain. Félix Arteaga, a senior analyst at the Elcano Royal Institute, recently complained that in Spain “everything to do with defense is seen as a risk.” Britain, on the other hand, cannot escape the canard of “leadership,” which is held to be necessary even as it is recognized as impossible.
For many years the fashion in Britain has been for the expensive and prestigious over the cheap and effective. The former UK national security adviser Mark Sedwill recently pointed out that the US Marine Corps is 30% larger than Britain’s conventional forces and has 50% more aircraft, yet costs 20% less.
The British government has made commitments to provide, in extremis, three divisions to a NATO land force for use in Eastern Europe. Concern about whether the British army can live up to those commitments is fair enough. But the idea that the problem might lie in the level and type of commitment, rather than in the scale of British armored land power, is almost never addressed.
Advocates of even higher British military spending like to talk about Russia and other supposed “peer adversaries.” But Britain’s actual role in present military engagements is a less popular topic. The evils of China and Russia are common themes. The fact that US and European support for Israel’s assault on Gaza is basically run from British bases in Cyprus goes unmentioned.
It isn’t in the interests of the secure states of Europe’s west for there to be large wars in its east. But the conventional military balance, even excluding US forces, is already overwhelmingly in favor of Europe and against Russia. And to argue that higher military spending would automatically increase security ignores the response function of the putative enemies. Raising larger and better equipped military forces tends to inspire a corresponding increase in effort by potential adversaries. Critically, it also increases the chance that those forces will be used in ways that actually decrease security for the home population, as in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen.
The intellectual environment in Britain hasn’t changed much since before the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Official enemies are inflated. Dissent, however minor, is smeared as enemy propaganda (Kremlin talking points, Chinese information warfare). Deviation from orthodox worship of American hegemony is treated as incomprehensible.
Wednesday was a difficult day, in which a letter was received from the Social Security Administration informing me that whereas I missed a phone meeting in May, (which I didn’t know about)my SSI would be stopped if I don’t make the phone appointment August 8th. A trip to the offices in Ukiah resulted in being told that the local office could do nothing, and I needed to call the office in Crescent City. Hopped on the next MTA bus and returned to the Royal Motel, and got the phone call answered by their system with four minutes to spare. Was able to leave a message with the district manager, but was cut off before finishing and was asked what my box number is. I’ve no idea what that means…what box number?? Then, wrote the district manager a letter detailing the fact that none of my information has changed, that there has been no increase in income, that I cannot have a phone interview on August 8th because I’m not at Building Bridges now where they were going to call, and that I have to exit the Royal Motel on Monday and thus cannot have a phone interview on August 8th from there, and that Cricket delisted my phone because I “didn’t make enough phone calls”. Lastly, I pointed out that if they do nothing, and just deposit my social security benefits into the Chase checking account ongoing, then everything will be fine. Hopped on an MTA bus and got to the Ukiah Post Office five minutes before closing, and paid $30.45 for overnight delivery…guaranteed to be delivered on Friday. The good news is that the current social security benefits are being received. Whereas my last dental appointment is on Friday, I may leave Mendocino County. Am in contact with the anti-nuclear war (i.e. peace) vigil in front of the White House where I’ve been fifteen times since June of 1991. I could get there. Of course there is no housing offered. Have until Monday morning to see what Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and the Goddess, can do to make this real. I’m ready! ;-))
Craig Louis Stehr (Email: craiglouisstehr@gmail.com)
Hi Craig,
When you received the letter about the increase in SS Benefits, they may have scheduled a hearing, and it hopefully is noted in that letter. If it is not there, is it possible SSA mailed a separate Notice of Hearing to Building Bridges and you did not receive it? As far as the box number goes, I believe that would be in the Notice of Hearing Letter. If you have no phone access, is it possible to be at BB and use their phone to complete the SSA hearing. You can also ask for an extension unsure if it will be granted, You can go to Disability Services & Legal Center on Talmage Road and see if they can assist you with the hearing. Are you still receiving Case Management and Housing Navigation Services through our Continuum of Care?…If there is something else I can do to assist you let me know.
mm 💕
Hope this helps Craig…
https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/handbook/handbook.01/handbook-0133.html
mm 💕
Hi Mazie, Thank you for sending the SSA link, which enabled an email to be sent explaining the entire situation. The overnight delivery letter will arrive at the district manager’s desk in Crescent City on Friday. I have explained thoroughly that my income is unchanged, and that there is no reason whatsoever to STOP the SSI. They have been advised that they may continue sending mail to the Building Bridges address, but I am no longer there. They may contact me via telephone at the Royal Motel, but my exit date is Monday August 5th at 11 a.m. If anybody wishes to be practical, I am contactable via email at craiglouisstehr@gmail.com. I never miss an email! I have thoroughly explained to the Social Security Administration that there doesn’t have to be any problem; simpy continue depositing my monthly SSA and SSI benefits into the Chase checking account. Regardless, I will henceforth go where I need to go and do what I need to do. And besides, whereas I am not this body and I am not this mind, what are they going to do to Parabrahman anyway??? Peaceout.
Updated Redwood Coast Express Schedule Eureka to Ukiah ONLY $2
POSTED ON: APRIL 4, 2024
Redwood Coast Express (RCX) Route: Updated Schedule
Humboldt Transit Authority will be operating a new weekday express route between Eureka and Ukiah starting January 16th, 2024….
UPDATE: Schedule changes effective February 12, 2024, see below.
Download a printable schedule.
https://hta.org/new-express-route-eureka-to-ukiah/
Curious to know what the editor’s stance on the Kelseyville name change is since he is so against the Fort Bragg name change. There are places in Lake county that feel haunted to me from all the settler violence. I can feel the past violence that occurred there in my bones. The last time I was passing through Kelseyville, I happened upon the little cemmetary where the Kelsey brothers are buried. It was spring time and the graveyard was covered with native wild flowers – Warrior’s Plume, Mule’s Ear, Shooting Stars, Ithuriel’s Spear. There was something very uplifting and cleansing to see how the earth had transformed the flesh and bones of such evil people into pure beauty. I’m okay with the name change myself.
I was amazed at how many words were needed to convey the Kelseyville situation. Kind of.
It lost me about halfway through…which is of no surprise, I suspect.
Have a nice day…
Laz
I think place names, however unhappy their origins, serve as a perpetual reminder of our bloody country’s bloody origins, that changing them amounts to editing out history, an ongoing temptation in a country that mass-buys Tidy Bowl and regularly suffers mass delusions. The Kelsey bros were, as you say, evil. I doubt even the drooling-est Magat denies that, but the Fort Bragg case is different. The FB name changers not only want to erase history, they are falsifying the known facts claiming, for instance, that soldiers were sent north to expedite the slaughter of Indians. Not true. Soldiers were sent north to try to protect Indians AND settlers The worst slaughters of Indians were inland, the Eel River Basin. Honest Abe sent soldiers there, too, but there was little they could do in the vastness of the territory. Worse, the FB posse, ten or so desperately virtue signaling, tightly-wrapped newcomers, are bribing high school kids to write essays containing a false version of Fort Bragg’s origins.
” License Plate looks like BSDN536 (or close)”
When I left CA in 2002, passenger cars started with a numeral, followed by three letters, then three more numerals. My guess (probably outdated), is 8SDN536.
Fred Gardner, I suppose that I would be a little weird if all I had was files on Charles Schulz but that’s not the case. I am a true crime researcher and have done research for TV, movies, authors, podcasts, documentaries, etc. The Nelson shooting was unusual and had the added draw of the involvement of a celebrity, Charles Schulz. While I did not compile the Nelson shooting file for a client, I am occasionally asked for ideas about stories that have never been told so I keep a stash of crimes that I find interesting.
I included the pdf in my email to the AVA. I wish they had provided a link to it; you may not have thought I was all that weird.
Oakmont is not a community for well-to-do retirees. It was designed in the late 60’s and 70’s as a retirement community for the middle class. It is still populated by people who are on a fixed income though there are some newer areas of the community that have larger and more expensive homes. There are two golf courses in Oakmont, and both are open to the public. I know this because I live in Oakmont and I’m definitely not well-to-do.
On “A reader writes”
The BOS is supposed to take the recommendations from that nasty little board that just won’t go away, the BHAB.
Yet, our meetings are set the day after the BOS meetings, no one has even asked our board for an opinion on any of these contracts(as required by law), and we(the BHAB), have yet to fully discuss any issue to give any kind of informed opinion. So far, I’m ok with the director. She has been good with us considering the state of our board, wandering with no direction. No, really my first year was a battle just to be heard beyond BHAB members and associates. I believe we have done well holding our ground and very much in line with Supervisor Williams, asking to set some benchmarks, ways to audit the actual performance of each and every one of those contracts. There is no way anyone is going to like to be challenged when they wear that everlasting phony smile.
I’ve talked about Supervisor Williams coming to me personally to ask what was needed. That was before he stalled the contracts. Yet we have this issue of not having BHAB recommendations which are likely to also be required by law. For anyone that wants them, I get all the numbers, every month. Continuum of care is utterly failing. We have no crisis response other than one person at this time and the bottom end number to call for any situation is convoluted.
Some are working to change these things, many others resist, while most do nothing but complain. That is the way of things apparently. Like a close in knife fight…
What are the recommendations from the BHAB?……………………….would like to see that? Will check the BHAB links. ..There are 3 Mental Health Workers employed for Dual Crisis Response… And unsure how many and who for the MOPS program which I am wondering if the 2 programs are actually utilizing same staff? Just curious why on earth the BHAB has not fully discussed the issues, if the BHAB is ineffective it is not because you are lacking members, it is a leadership issue. I surely don’t take offense that you include me as one of the complaining parties because that is not at all what I am doing, been there done that, doesn’t work. However, you sharing your experience of the BHABs inability to be a part of the decisions made by the BOS really makes it look bad, why would anyone want to join? As far as what the truth of why the contracts were stalled was actually between me and another person who submitted a boat load of questions for review by the Supervisors.
Enjoy Your Day
mm 💕
You are a piece of work. How about just leaving me alone. I’m dead tired of yours, or anyone else’s attacks upon me, or the board I sit. You generally have no idea what you are talking about, especially this ghost thing called “Dual Response”. We have as I said, one person, for any type of mental health call. I have yet out of dozens of interactions that I have personally witnessed in this year, ever seen UPD even once try to call for a crisis worker.
My role is to inform the public, you don’t have to listen, much less respond with another attack. You create chaos with misinformation. It is not appreciated.
Ahhhhh
Mr. Donegan, I am not attacking you however you are on the BHAB and your statements are contradictory and some incorrect such as the ones about Crisis Response. I will be more than happy to not address you personally the next time I find it necessary to add my 2 cents to your statements. The thing is as an advocate for families and people with SMI it is absolutely my job to listen, and you are right could have chosen not to respond and I have on other statements you have made, but ignoring this one would make me invaluable as a knowledgeable advocate! So is this the old switcharoo? I ask a questions, you attack me? …Fun times, thanks,
mm 💕
Cannabis and Gratitude is the answer.
MAGA Marmon
Hahaha James,
Gratitude is the attitude …………maybe if I smoked a doobie him and I could get along….haha …….j/k I am not a partaker of the stuff…….I do accept heartfelt apologies though. ………… thanks for the laugh.. 💕
mm 💕
Re: Re-electing Lindy Peters. I don’t live within city limits, so I don’t get a vote, just the opportunity to express an opinion. Lindy should be mayor or on the city council or at least be in an ombudsman position –something in the city government structure– at the time, surely before 2030, when the name of the city is changed to Lindy Petersville. It’s not such a big deal if the name becomes The Palms, but it couldn’t hurt to be ready. I’m beginning to think that a compromise can be made using both, so the name would be The Palms/Lindy Petersville, like Minneapolis/Saint Paul or Albury/Wodonga or Festus/Crystal City, so nobody has to feel left out.
I read Paul Modic’s Lament about Kym Kemp busting him for using too many anonymous aliases. I have not used aliases for years… and years. When I first started commenting I used the alias “Don Quixote”. It seemed strangely appropriate to me.
I discovered that I can be an unmitigated asshole and I was getting to enjoy it too much. I used big words and was even mean to some of my best friends. After all, who would know? I discovered that I didn’t like who I was becoming. My father always said that “you are who are when nobody knew what you would do”. And “your word is your bond, and you name is your honor.” My father was no paragon of virtue, but he at least knew the path to get there.
I’m not above a little hyperbole, and some would say that I exaggerate a small bit. But, when I sign my name at the bottom people at least know who the bullshiter is.
I really enjoy Paul Modic’s recent bend toward honesty. He has revealed much of what many of the locals already suspected. That people moved to Humboldt County because we had some of the highest welfare in then State. And, we had scoundrels in the welfare department that would freely sign up anybody and their kids for welfare… and anybody elses kids. Some kids were being paid welfare for numerous families. At the time of the Newcomers coming we had judge by the name of Charles M. Thomas that refused to allow any prosecution charge for any drug crime. He threw them all out of court. He was the newcomer hero. He was the judge that allowed “the species defence” on Marijuana.
The people that called themselves “Back to the landers”, I have, and still do call them “Newcomers.” Paul is the quintessential spokesman and witness for the people that moved to Humboldt. Many have become good friends and valuable members of our community. It is amazing how things turn out. Welcome to the “Named people world” Paul you are interesting and valuable to our community. Glad that you finally have a name… The statute of limitations have expired… lol.
Ernie Branscomb. (Don Quixote)