Mendocino County Today: Tuesday 8/13/2024

Wasp | Cooling | Larry Carr | Poppies | Remembering Randy | Boonville Projects | Shelter Cove | Help Ariana | Clean Team | Bomb Squad | Ducks | Navarro Restoration | Jumbo's Win-Win | Fair Entries | Vintnerviews | Petroglyph Query | Ed Notes | Meigsville | Broadband Money | Hop Stilts | Bridge Meeting | Yesterday's Catch | Samsara Quagmire | 9 to 5 | Charles Bukowski | Homeless Residence | Grammar Stickers | Underdog Day | Huckleberry Jam | Park Firefighters | Drinking Water | Rural Charging | Tax Debate | Stuffed Burger | Coach Memories | DEI Hiring | Squishy Party | Now Recording | Determining Disinformation | 57 T-Bird | Start Over | Penmanship Class | Talking Israel

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BELOW AVERAGE TEMPERATURES are forecast in the interior this week and this weekend. Gusty winds are forecast to develop each afternoon in Mendocino and Lake counties through end of the week. Occasional stratus and patchy fog will return to coastal areas tonight and stick around through mid week. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): A cooler 48F under clear skies this Tuesday morning on the coast. Clear skies today, patchy fog tomorrow then mostly clear rest of the week. No really.

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LARRY CARR, a long-time resident of Yorkville, has died. We don’t yet have any particulars, but Mr. Carr had been ill recently. His wife Ann Carr, long-time popular local Postal Clerk, died last April (2023) after 61 years of marriage. We hope to have an obituary in the next few days.

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RANDY BLOYD TRIBUTE-CELEBRATION OF LIFE

December 11, 1971-July 29,2024

Navarro, California

August 10th, 2024

by Kira Brennan

So for those of you who don’t know me. My name is Kira Brennan and I grew up in Navarro. We lived in the Big white house on the way to the dump. We were the Hippi kids, and our neighbors, the Bloyds and the Mayberry’s, were the Logger-Redneck kids. Our family had a white Dodge Coronet station wagon with fake wood paneling. Their family had an orange Plymouth Road-Runner- a bitchin’ race car.

They… ‘owned’ Navarro.

As a long-time friend of Randy, and the Bloyd family-I am honored to be here today. On behalf of the Bloyd family-I thank you for being here today.

I am so sorry for your loss. I am so sorry for our loss of a truly unique human-being.

This valley has seen wave after wave of change over time. The Bloyd family, over generations, have lived through this history.

From Wilderness, to the Pomo Indians who resided on these lands.

From Homesteaders, to the Logging Boom, to the Apple Orchards and Sheep Pastures, this land saw change.

From the ‘Hippis’, (Back-to-Landers) and the ‘Brite-Liters’ who arrived from the ‘Flat-Lands’, to the Marijuana grows and the $100 bills that became the local currency.

Vineyards expanded. The Mexican Community grew.

We watched our Navarro River and the fish diminish.

All of this is still here. The history of the valley, this heritage lives on in the fabric of Randy’s being, and his family’s roots.

So, I’d like to take a moment, each one of us, and think about our Randy. Touch into your own heart, and think about the way he touched yours. How did Randy show up in your life??

Did you get to walk the creek with him and pick blackberries?

Did he show you a video of a salmon he saw in the North-Fork? Or an arrow-head he had found?

Did you ride a dirt-bike with him out there in the forest and the hills that he loved?

Did he just show up, Budweiser in hand, ready to share whatever woe or wonder of the day?

Did he make a split rail fence for you? His last act of pride and love?

Did he do work for you? The hardest worker I have ever seen. Do you see Randy everywhere? In the mowed lawn, the remnants of a burn-pile, the wired together fender?

Did he take you to Blue-Rock on his mule that seemed to drive sideways on a cliffs edge?

Did you save fish with him in the dry season?

Did he bring his chain-saw and cut a tree and make firewood for you?

Did he take something you had discarded and make some use of it?

Did he show you his new home? His new kitchen?

Did you have coffee with him in the morning?

Did he care for you in some way or another?

Randy will always be a part of this land, this landscape, of our inner landscape.

We stand here today, in a shared love for Randy.

There is no other person like him.

He is from another era, a renegade. A person who stayed outside of the law, but followed his own moral compass.

He deeply loved, and followed each one of his passions.

He was deeply loyal, and would do anything to help you, or be there for you.

He was a ”wheeler-dealer”-always some ‘thing’ that could be sold or traded.

He would figure out how to get some vehicle running-wiring something to something else, and against all odds, get that damn thing to run.

When he moved to Donlad Dukes - the ‘Glovers’ - it’s like he took his rightful place. The Gate-Keeper.

Randy was there. Watching over things. Welcoming you into whatever project, or mood he had going on.

It’s hard to imagine a life without Randy, zipping in and out of our lives.

He will be missed.

And he will never be forgotten.

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BOONVILLE PROJECTS UPDATE

by Valerie Hanelt

I want to give you an update about Boonville projects. First of all, the Drinking Water and Wastewater projects are nearing the end of the planning process (after ten years) and entering the LAFCo process. Then we will send out a letter to all parcels in the boundaries of the included parcels (240 for drinking, about 150 for sewer/wastewater) and see if the proposed rates we will charge meet with acceptance. This is called the “218 Protest Vote.” If we get through that without 50% plus 1 protests we can go into the construction grant phase. We are looking at construction over two years, hopefully 2026 and 2027.

Once those projects are installed Caltrans is coming in with the “Complete Streets” grant. This is a very large grant that will provide sidewalks and bike lanes as well as resurfacing. It might include some funding for our bench project (this might be a different grant). But the main thing is figuring out what we want “sidewalks” to look like as well as how we are going to figure out parking and bike lanes. This grant concentrates on the main drag of Boonville from the Highway 253 intersection to the Anderson Creek bridge.

Sash William, Johnny Schmitt, and Marcus Magdaleno have agreed to be the project leaders to work with Caltrans and our local folks over the next 3-5 years. They will be arranging meetings to gather your input and eventually meet with Caltrans engineers on the ground and in meetings.

We have a starting plan that was developed by the Valley Trails group in 2014. Burt Cohen is one of the original Valley Trails Committee members and Burt we are so grateful for that early work. I know ten years seems like a long time to hear more about this project. But it was just dormant, not dead. After working on the Water Projects for all this time, this timeframe is starting to look about right for State projects. Also, the Caltrans surveying that was done this spring through Boonville will be the baseline info on their easements.

Start thinking about what you want the main street of Boonville to look like. Start collecting ideas about sidewalk treatments and other features while you are traveling and visiting other towns. Let’s keep a folder. Do we want traditional cement? Or a different treatment? How will parking work? How can we keep enough parking spaces? What do bike lanes look like? These are all questions for us to provide input.

Sash, Johnny and Marcus will be organizing a meeting before long (and maybe a group walking discussion?).

Please feel free to share this info with anyone who might like to be involved and have input. Have them let us know they would like to be on this thread.

There is also all the recreation and public use planning possibilities with the new 20 acre area for the treatment plant distrbution area. But that is a future topic.

Valerie Hanelt is Chair of the Anderson Valley Community Services District Board. The CSD can be reached at 895-2075. Their website is avcsd.org where additional project information can be found.

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ARIANA WHITE:

Woke up in a panic from a Personal emergency happened so now im awake…Ugh.

I just Wish Society was more Giving/Helping of others instead of most being so Cold….idk I'm Desperately in need of food I don't have a way to cook most of the time, we do have kettle/HotPot though! Which would make soups like chicken top Ramen or tea or anything you can make with a kettle, I have electricity to use it but now i don't have a electric stove to use to make real meals….ugh….Broke as usual living homeless is to hard with the prices of food and everything!

Can anybody help us we need Ice for our chest…. tha struggle is ridiculous! Please i can pay you back for anything anyone helps me with my cell is (707) 472-6418 if ypu have any questions or answers even…were here on the very North End of Ukiah…..Plesae i havent eaten in almost two days. cant get a ride to the food Bank even… or if I could find someone even to go with my card for me?

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UKIAH/GIBSON CREEK CLEAN UP PROJECT

I am interested in organizing community beautification days, cleaning up some of the most blighted, most visible areas in and around Ukiah.

I am wondering if anyone would be interested and available to clean up Gibson Creek adjacent to Orchard Plaza Saturday August 31st. Start in the morning at the Orchard Street underpass and head east. I can arrange supply's-garbage bags, grabbers, etc. I can request UPD provide security if anyone living in the creek objects to the clean up. This would not be a kid friendly event. There is human excrement and hypodermic needles. Wear gloves and maybe even a Tyvek suit. I can probably also supply coffee and snacks.

I am looking for at least 5 volunteers, hopefully 10-20. The more the merrier.

Call. 707-272-5477.

On facebook: Ukiah CA Vagrant Watch

(Adam Gaska)

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BOMB SQUAD CALLED AFTER POLICE UNCOVER EXPLOSIVE DEVICE

At approximately 3:00am on the morning of August 10^th, 2024, a Ukiah Police Department Officer was conducting routine security checks of the businesses on Airport Park Boulevard due to recent concerns regarding trespassing and illegal camping. 

The Officer noticed a tent hidden behind a large wooden sign just to the south of the Sourdough Bread  Company. The officer approached the tent and found it to be occupied by a white male adult. The male in the tent began acting suspicious, and the officer immediately suspected that the individual was providing false identification. 

The officer developed probable cause to check the tent for the individual’s identification, and the officer located a homemade explosive device. Upon further investigation the officer also found a loaded flare gun,  pepper spray, numerous shuriken’s (ninja stars), and methamphetamine. 

The officer located several debit cards which identified the suspect as Kenneth Lindaas. A records check on Lindaas revealed that Lindaas had numerous aliases, several non-extraditable warrants from around the county,  and criminal history spanning twelve different states. Lindaas was also a convicted felon, making him prohibited from possessing the flare gun and the pepper spray.  

After securing the explosive device, UPD contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad and requested their assistance. SC Bomb Squad Deputies responded and determined that the explosive device found in Lindaas’ tent was a “”very sensitive” combination of a firework mortar, black powder, and had BB’s and or ball bearings inside to act as shrapnel. The device was safely detonated, ending any potential threat to the community. Lindaas was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of 18715(A)(2) PC, 29800(A)(1) PC, 22810 PC, 22410 PC, 11377(a) H&S, 148.9(a) PC.

As always, UPD’s mission is to make Ukiah as safe a place as possible, and we are grateful for the help that we received from the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office during this investigation. If you would like to know more about crime in your neighborhood, you can sign up for telephone, cellphone, and email notifications by clicking the Nixle button on our website; www.ukiahpolice.com.

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JEFF BURROUGHS

I was asked to be on the board of the Navarro River Restoration Project back in the 1990s as the representative for sport fishing and watershed history. After just one meeting it was clear that the whole thing was a sham. I constantly challenged the blatant misuse of the entire water system. The amount of water that the vineyards took from the creeks and river was staggering. I tried to put a stop to it but I was brushed aside saying the restoration group was not here to be the police but rather to make suggestions in a final report that should be helpful to future endeavors pertaining to river restoration. Water level monitoring showed that during a land owners pumping cycle in summer months actually drained the creek completely dry! When I was told that those creeks werent rearing habitat for juvenile salmon and Steelhead, I damn near fell out of my chair in disbelief. Even when I brought up the fact that some vineyards, when preparing new land for planting grape vines were sterilizing the soil with poison that killed everything down to 6 feet, no one seemed too concerned. Oh that's right, we don't want to upset the big money vineyards by putting out a comprehensive, finger pointing report. Well then what the hell was the point of the restoration group if we let all the water get sucked out if the creeks and river which subsequently kills all the fish? We had a chance to nip this problem in the bud before it got out of hand and it developed into a lost water table and alge blooms choking off every living thing the river… but we didn't do it. I tried, I really did try.

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WHY THIS S.F. COCKTAIL WHIZ JUST OPENED A ROADSIDE BURGER STAND IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE

by Jess Lander

San Francisco cocktail whiz Scott Baird, formerly of Trick Dog and 15 Romolo, opened an old-fashioned roadside burger stand on Sunday in an unexpected location: Anderson Valley wine country.

Set in a 120-year-old building on Highway 128 about three hours north of San Francisco, Jumbo’s Win-Win (8651 Hwy. 128, Philo) brings nostalgia-inducing burgers, fries and soft serve ice cream to the budding wine region, which Baird said is seriously starved for “comfortable, fun and affordable” restaurants.

“There are a couple of great restaurants that I really love in town, but they’re just not affordable on the regular,” said Baird, who moved to the rural area in 2020. “I wanted a place for high school kids to work, for families to go eat, a place we can all kind of count on.”

While Anderson Valley wines are growing in popularity, the rustic region, which has only three small hotels, has notably struggled with tourism. The best known restaurant in the area is at the Boonville Hotel, helmed by former Healdsburg Shed chef Perry Hoffman, but the $75 tasting menu isn’t local-friendly. So Jumbo’s, which will be one of the only restaurants in Anderson Valley to operate seven days a week, has created quite the buzz.

“People are pumped,” said Baird, noting that roughly 15 people stopped by every day in the weeks leading up to the opening. “I might as well have run for public office doing this.”

About four years ago, the James Beard-nominated San Francisco native quietly disappeared from the city’s bar scene after he stepped away from his partnership with Trick Dog co-founder Josh Harris. “I felt like I’d had enough,” he said. “I felt like I’d lost my way with making drinks, and I felt like I’d done all I’d needed to do to scratch the itch.”

He was still consulting for hotel bars in Nashville, Savannah and New Orleans, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, like many people, he sought refuge outside the city. Baird and his family landed on a 25-acre former pot farm complete with pet mini-cows in the quiet, redwood-dotted Anderson Valley, a “very special place,” said Baird, with its “own gravitational pull.” He and his wife Molley Green had recently welcomed their third child, Jumbo — a name chosen by his older brother — and with no bars to run, it was a chance for Baird to step up as a father. “I’d missed out on all the young time of my other kids’ lives,” he said, “so I spent two years getting to raise my son in a way I didn’t with my other two kids.”

For a while, he resisted the pull of another brick-and-mortar. He busied himself with other projects, like founding Donna’s Pickle Beer, a Milwaukee lager with fresh pickle brine, which he’ll pour at Jumbo’s and will soon be sold in nine states. But he always looked at an empty, old-timey building on Highway 128, formerly home to the Anytime Saloon, and thought it would make a great burger stand.

Finally this spring he decided to go for it. “We were going to call it the Win-Win. But Molley said, ‘You know, Jumbo really loves hamburgers, and Jumbo’s Win-Win is a really good name,’” Baird recalled. They ran it by the family, and Jumbo’s older brother Jasper eventually came around to the idea, especially once Baird promised to name the fries after him.

A Gott’s-inspired burger stand might seem out of Baird’s usual wheelhouse. The only cocktails on the menu at Jumbo’s will be wine-based: a frosé and a slushy sangria. Nevertheless, he’s taking on the role of chef-owner. “I’d probably rather cook than make drinks,” he said, claiming that his mother refused to send him to culinary school. “It’s my favorite thing to do.”

Affordability is important to Baird, who said he’s purposely keeping Jumbo’s profit margins low to allow people to come more frequently. All menu items are priced at $15 and under, and he claimed he’ll be happy if he breaks even. The counter-service menu is short and simple, and he doesn’t plan on making many changes. “No one is ever mad that In-N-Out has the same menu all the time,” he said. “You know exactly what you’re going to get and you’re happy about it.”

There’s a classic burger ($10 single, $14 double), a smashburger ($9 single, $13 double) and a hot dog ($9) topped with dill pickle and jalapeno relish, sweet corn, mustard and pickled mustard seeds. Baird said diners shouldn’t sleep on the fried rock cod fish sandwich ($13), and the fried chicken sandwich ($14) has a Japanese touch, topped with crunchy chile kewpie. There’s also a veggie melt ($13), a couple of salads ($15) and Jasper’s hand-cut fries ($5), store-bought from a brand called Sidewinder. Shaped like a potato chip, Baird described it as “a really ‘get the sauce’ french fry with a crispy crunch to it.”

Baird is sourcing whole animals from the 15,000-acre Mailliard Ranch in Anderson Valley’s Boonville. In addition to burgers, he’s planning to dry age several cuts of steak and offer steak frites ($20-$40) at dinner. There will be occasional specials, like beef tartare or Korean short ribs. “In the evenings, we’re going to become an odd little steakhouse,” he said.

For dessert, Jumbo’s has apple hand pies ($5), an homage to the region’s agricultural history with apples long before wine grapes took over, and soft serve ($4-$6) from organic dairy Straus Family Creamery.

Soft serve comes with topping combo, like churro crunch with cornflakes, cinnamon sugar and butter, or fennel pollen honey, olive oil and salt. The wine list is also short, simple and affordable, featuring some of Anderson Valley’s smallest, little-known brands that are “kind of hiding,” Baird said. The frozen drinks — one made with strawberry, honey, peach and mint, and a spiced hibiscus, passionfruit and blood orange fruit punch — are kid-friendly, but adults can add wine to make them boozy.

Green handled the design, focusing on what she coined “delicious colors.” The exterior was painted a shade of dark chocolate — which from the road, looks black — with the restaurant’s name spelled out in giant white letters. Inside, wood panels and curtains are the color of ketchup and mustard. She preserved the old bar top and tables and added faux taxidermy to the walls: A black bear head that hangs over the kitchen window was purchased on a visit to Joshua Tree; wooden deer heads came from the Alameda Flea Market; and shark heads originated from a carnival in Mexico. The bathrooms feature hand-painted tiles from a local artist depicting signature representations of Anderson Valley — even a marijuana leaf. “It’s something to look at while you pee,” she said.

The restaurant seats about 55 people indoors, and an outdoor patio provides additional seating. Baird hopes to host tournaments with the Buck Hunter arcade game that’s nestled in a corner.

With Jumbo’s, Baird is digging deeper into his new Anderson Valley roots, but he’s also started to ease his way back into the San Francisco scene. He was called upon to create the drinks menu for Starlite, the recent reopening of the famous Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, and he’s consulting on the new menu at the Final Final sports bar, which has new owners. “I felt an overwhelming responsibility to make sure it was done well and taken care of. It was an honor to be involved in that program,” he said of Starlite.

“That kicked me back in,” he continued. “I thought I was done with it. I realize I’m not.”

Jumbo’s Win-Win. 8651 Hwy. 128, Philo. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. jumboswinwin.com.

(SF Chronicle)

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THE DEADLINE FOR ON-LINE ENTRIES in this year’s Mendocino County Fair is Thursday, August 29 at midnight. To submit an entry for judging on-line go to www.mendocountyfair.com and look for “Entry Forms.”

Categories include: livestock, photography, floriculture, wool crafts, baked goods, art/painting, clothing/textiles, etc. This year’s fair is September 13-15.

(Terry Sites)

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ANDERSON VALLEY’S GROUND FLOOR WINERIES

Featuring interviews with Brad Wiley, Norman & Theresia Kobler, Ted Bennett and Deborah Cahn (Navarro Vineyards), Zac Robinson (Husch), Allan Green (Greenwood Ridge), and Lulu Handley (daughter of Milla Handley of Handley Cellars).

On line video at: www.youtube.colm/watch?v=Fa2a25aA-4W1

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KERRY SKYLES:

I'd like to hear stories about this rock with petroglyph looking designs on it up on Spyrock.

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ED NOTES

ONE OF THE LEAD stories in this morning's Chron: “Why this SF Cocktail Whiz Just Opened a Roadside Burger Stand in the Middle of Nowhere. … Scott Baird has opened Jumbo's Win Win in Anderson Valley.”

HARUMPH. DOUBLE HARUMPH! First off, we're dead center in somewhere special, as the whole world recognizes as certified by innumerable laudatory media accounts going back many years. Mr. Baird, maestro of the cocktail and proprietor of Jumbo's, didn't write the headline or the story beneath it, and we wish him well. But there are several restaurants in the Anderson Valley priced reasonably enough for locals to enjoy an occasional meal out, two of them in the Buckhorn, another truly wonderful breakfast and lunch place down the street at Mosswood, and of course Rickson's, also in Philo. And then there's my fave, the Redwood Drive-In right next door to AVA headquarters, Gringo-Mex fare from early every morning until 9pm every night.

A STORY that still bothers me, and bothers me even more in my semi-dependent, mute dotage, occurred years ago in Ukiah. According to eyewitnesses, in the Dora Street parking lot of a Ukiah doctor, Carleen Hagood deliberately ran over her 89-year-old mother as the old lady sat in her wheelchair on the sidewalk. Hagood had just off-loaded the old girl from the Hagood van when Carleen backed her van up, revved the engine, and, with a running start, propelled the vehicle into her mother, thus ending the life of a woman who may have been Mendocino County’s toughest, most resilient senior citizen.

HOW THE OLD LADY survived her daughter’s care long enough to finally be run over is miraculous. Daughter had previously been cited for assaulting mom in the lobby of the Ukiah Civic Center, for wheeling the old lady down the street in hundred degree weather with mom wrapped in layers of cold weather clothing and an overcoat, and for breaking mom’s leg “turning her over in bed.”

CARLEEN herself was nuts, obviously, and clinically paranoid, photographing the door knobs of her house to capture the fingerprints of non-existent intruders. And there was the time she painted her mother’s anus blue “so doctors could tell it from bed sores.”

CARLEEN WAS 60 when she finished Mom off. The DA, as always prepared to shoot the wounded, piled on the charges, neglecting, of course, to indict the helping professionals who'd failed to protect the old lady. Carleen was indicted for second-degree murder, infliction of pain on an elder, vehicular manslaughter, special allegations of use of a deadly weapon, her vehicle, vehicular manslaughter, special allegations of infliction of pain on an elder, and causing the death of someone over the age of 70. I guess Carleen was packed off, but I can't recall the case's disposition.

AMERICA is not a happy country to grow old and defenseless in. The Hagood case is undoubtedly only an extreme instance of many thousands of less dramatic cases of the dependent elderly spending the tail end of their golden years in bed pan torture chambers. The Hagood case is one of a limited person, half-cracked herself, left in the position of caring for her senile, bed-ridden mother when, objectively, mom needed professional nurses, but that option doesn’t exist in this country unless a family can afford it, and few families can.

ACCORDING TO HER DOCTOR, the old lady had been a “vegetable” for years, which is no excuse for her being vehicularly pureed by her deranged daughter, but to charge the daughter as if she were a more or less responsible person is almost as grotesque as the circumstances of the old lady’s last years. If anybody should be charged, it should have been the incompetents at the Mendocino County Department of Social Services who were well aware of the old lady’s situation but failed to intervene.

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BILL KIMBERLIN:

If you look at an early map of California you will see a town named “Meigsville.”

That is the original name of the current town of Mendocino. You will also notice, while in the town of Mendocino, that one one side of the street to the North are Victorian era houses and retail buildings while on the other side there are no buildings at all except for those belonging to the public park which is now there. That is because the San Francisco lumber baron, Henry Meigs built his mill there and then abandoned it, moving it to a more suitable spot nearer the mouth of Big River.

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MENDOCINO COUNTY AWARDED $51 MILLION FOR BROADBAND ACCESS

Last week, the California Public Utilities Commission awarded Mendocino County $51 million to expand internet access. This funding is part of the $2 Billion Last Mile Federal Funding Account Grant Program, which aims to enhance internet connectivity in underserved and unserved communities across California

The fifth round of grants will benefit City of Ukiah, City of Fort Bragg, Round Valley Indian Tribe, Comcast, Marin County, Surfnet, and Hankins Information Technology, serving Marin, Mendocino, San Benito, Santa Cruz, and Sutter counties. Would you like to work on a story with the California Public Utilities Commission to discuss how these grants will help bridge the digital divide in your county?

The full press release: https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/news-and-updates/all-news/fifth-round-of-grant-awards-for-last-mile-broadband-infrastructure-projects-across-california

The grant announcement as well full data on the grants: https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M537/K568/537568960.PDF.

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LOCAL HOP FARMS OF HOPLAND, UKIAH & POTTER VALLEY

They didn’t pick the hops on stilts. What they would do on stilts is pull the vine up from the top, off the supports, and drop it down on the ground. Women and children would sit on the ground and pick the hops off. Whole families of the local Pomo Tribes, Hispanics & white men would come out to the hop fields for the harvest.

Hop picking definitely brought all local nationalities of families together.

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SAVE THE ALBION BRIDGE

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

On Aug 13, Tuesday, the Albion Community will have a meeting with Caltrans to hear and respond to the plans for restoring or replacing the Albion Bridge. All interested persons can attend and speak directly to the planners from Caltrans. It is a good opportunity, and in preparation there are several documents attached to help you be informed. Please take a look and Plan To Attend! 6 pm at the Whitesboro Grange on Navarro Ridge Road.

Annemarie Weibel

Albion Bridge Stewards to confront Caltrans at meeting Tuesday about plan changes for the iconic bridge, by Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Voice, August 9, 2024

Caltrans has a snazzy new Albion River Bridge website https://www.albionriverbridgeproject.com/ sporting simulations of what three replacement bridges could look like. A viewer can take a virtual drive on new concrete arched or non-arched bridges and even get a hawk’s eye view of what they would look like from above. But the activist group the Albion Bridge Stewards will have a key question for the state agency at a Aug. 13 public meeting about the rollout: “When did Caltrans stop considering rehabilitation or replacement and go straight to replacing the bridge?” asks the Stewards’ Jim Heid.

Caltrans has spent a decade telling the Albion community that its two tall Highway 1 bridges would need to be replaced. Then, after battling community resistance from 2010-2017, Caltrans promised to consider rehabilitation on equal footing with a replacement for the Albion River Bridge. All documents said, “replace or rehabilitate.”

The Salmon Creek Bridge, located less than a mile away, had no rehabilitation option and was set for replacement before the Albion River Bridge. Caltrans had Salmon Creek Bridge on the schedule to start in 2025 but then a serious problem with soil contamination https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-1/d1-projects/salmoncreeksandblastwasteabatement under that bridge was discovered, resulting in a new process with an uncertain completion date.

Then in July, Caltrans put forward Albion River Bridge, which was supposed to be replaced or rehabilitated after Salmon Creek, as a $135 million replacement-only project. Said Heid: “There was a process, and the community said they wanted to consider rehabilitation. We were waiting to hear more about rehabilitation. Now that option has disappeared. We plan to ask why.”

Manny Machado, spokesman for Caltrans in Mendocino County, provided the following response by email: “The rehabilitation alternatives were extensively analyzed. During the analysis of proposed alternatives, the rehab alternatives did not meet the purpose and need of the project. The rehabilitation alternatives did not improve roadway alignment and sight distance at the north of the bridge that has been indicated as a priority improvement for Caltrans by Mendocino County. The rehab alternatives would also conflict with the policies and priorities of the California Coastal Plan. For these reasons and others, the rehab alternatives were eliminated from consideration.”

The white wooden rails on the Albion River Bridge are unique. but Caltrans says they must be replaced with modern steel railings. In the 80-year history of the bridge, the only time anyone remembers the railings giving way was when a car traveling at a high rate of speed crossed the double yellow line and caused a tractor-trailer with a full load of logs to swerve and break through the railing and fall to the rocks below. The driver survived. Frank Hartzell/The Mendocino Voice

Heid said Caltrans is expected to work with the community and seek additional community input before coming to any decision about rehabilitation. He said Caltrans is motivated to replace the bridge because maintenance comes out of the Caltrans budget while federal funds would pay for most of the replacement cost: “What strikes us about Caltrans’ plans is a fundamental lack of imagination. It’s more of a budgetary shell game than it is a genuine transportation infrastructure need.”

Caltrans insists the bridge is outdated, too narrow, and dangerous in an earthquake or tsunami. But apart from natural disasters, the agency does not say it presents any danger now or in the future.

“If the bridge were dangerous they would be required to close it tomorrow,” said Heid. “It doesn’t even have a weight limit.”

California’s last tall wooden highway bridge

The Stewards emerged from a community effort that began a few years after the turn of the century to save a unique and beloved community icon. The Albion River Bridge is the last tall wooden highway bridge in California. It was built during World War II when war rationing made steel unavailable. Redwood of sufficient size was mostly gone by World War II and was declared off-limits by the war rationing board, which rejected the original concrete design. Everything had to be recycled. The steel girder deck that stands on wooden legs was an old railroad bridge from the famous Feather River Canyon. The legs were old-growth Douglas Fir trees trucked in from Oregon for the critical replacement effort.

But don’t all bridges have to be replaced someday? Heid points to reports and articles posted on the Stewards website https://savehighway1.org/ from engineers and old-growth wood experts. For example, Dr. Hassan Astaneh, a UC Berkeley engineering professor, got involved in the process back in 2014, criticizing Caltrans for saying the Albion River Bridge had to be replaced and accusing the state agency of distorting facts to meet its goals.

“Take the Golden Gate Bridge,” Heid continued. “It is also functionally obsolete and it does not meet current design standards. But that bridge is regularly maintained and it is going to be around for decades or centuries.”

Heid said that Caltrans has not been performing needed maintenance on the Albion River Bridge nor has it done the obvious work that would prolong its life.

The Stewards field about 12 people at their monthly meetings, which have been held via Zoom since the pandemic. The group includes an architect, planners, local preservationists, and environmentalists, Heid said.

Environmentalists got more involved a decade ago when Caltrans said the old bridge would have to be trucked away to a toxic waste site, possibly out of state at an enormous cost. Plus, the state agency wasn’t even sure if any waste facility could take it. Caltrans has no current estimate for the cost of post-demolition removal of the bridge, nor does it have an answer on whether there is any place that will take it. Still, Machado said demolition is estimated at less than $5 million.

Locals demanded the bridge be recycled and repurposed if it had to be taken down. During the years of back and forth with Caltrans over the bridge, locals got Albion River Bridge listed on the National Register of Historic Places https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21237 and the California Register of Historic Resources. “That was very hard to do,” said Heid of the effort by fellow members of the Stewards. He said it does not stop the bridge from being destroyed, but it does make it more difficult.

These old-growth Douglas fir timbers of the Albion River Bridge are still consider safe for a bridge that just celebrated its 80th birthday. Frank Hartzell/The Mendocino Voice

The Albion Bridge Stewards have formed an alliance with a group, Keep Big Sur Wild https://www.keepbigsurwild.org/big-sur-bridge-rail-replacement-project, that is fighting Caltrans’ efforts to upgrade the railings on California’s second most famous bridge (after the Golden Gate), in Big Sur.

The Stewards learned that Monterey County’s Board of Supervisors and planning commission have been involved in the battle, with planners turning down Caltrans and the board denying the state’s appeal. “Here the county is mostly just a rubber stamp for whatever Caltrans wants,” Heid said, referring to Mendocino County.

Heid has also learned that in other parts of the state where historic preservation is deemed important, narrow bridges have a light at both ends that a bicyclist can activate and ride across safely. He also points out that many other bridges and sections of Highway 1 are also nearly impassable for bicycles, including Big River Bridge at the entrance to Mendocino.

At one time, Caltrans had a plan to replace both of Albion’s towering bridges at once, leaving Albion stranded in the middle. That proposal, in particular, drew community blowback. Caltrans had pitched it as a way to get all the delays over at once, but quickly changed its plans to do the bridges one at a time.

Heid said the project will cause years of unneeded delays and cripple businesses like the two upscale restaurants and Inns that are at opposite ends of the bridge, as well as the Albion Grocery and the Albion River Campground & Flats Cafe, the big campground under the bridge that fills up with visitors. Many tourists come up State Highway 128 to visit the entire Mendocino Coast, not just Albion.

“With three to five years of delays, they might just decide to go to Napa instead,” predicted Heid. Caltrans has argued that a new bridge would be a boon to the local economy for decades to come. They have also said in past interviews that many people favor the new bridge but are less vocal than the Stewards.

Caltrans has a survey https://www.albionriverbridgeproject.com/survey/ on its new website. When this reporter tried the poll, all the answer choices were reasons Caltrans says the bridge needs to be replaced, ranging from better safety to the undocumented need for metal railings instead of wood.

“I tried the first question on the survey and there was nothing among the choices about any interest in historic preservation or any choices I wanted to make. So that was it for me,” said Heid. “That’s not a survey, that’s a sales job. “

Timeline of bridge replacement projects

In the email, Machado wrote that the bridge provided a fantastic service but is simply at the end of its functional life. “As a testament to the expert Caltrans crews, the bridge has been maintained for 80 years, far exceeding the service life. The culmination of deficiencies of the bridge has indicated the need for replacement. The replacement alternatives are consistent with internal policies for advancing the multimodal network and with the California Coastal Plan.”

Machado provided the following timeline for the two Albion replacement projects:

•The Salmon Creek Bridge project began the project approval and environmental document phase in July 2024 with construction scheduled to begin in 2030. Early estimates indicate three to five years of construction.

•The Albion River Bridge project is scheduled for construction in 2027. Depending on the alternative selected, construction is estimated to take between three and five years.

No other bridges on the Mendocino Coast from Navarro to Westport are currently set for replacement. Upgrades are being done to the Jack Peters Creek Bridge just north of Mendocino. The Hare Creek Bridge had been on the schedule for an upgrade or even replacement over the past 13 years but was recently taken off the schedule by Caltrans.

The Albion Bridge meeting is Tuesday, August 13, 6-7:30 p.m. at Whitesboro Grange, 32510 Navarro Ridge Road, Albion. Caltrans asks that people take the survey on the Albion Bridge website and RSVP to info@albionriverbridgeproject.cominfo@albionriverbridgeproject.com

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Monday, August 12, 2024

RICO ACOSTA, Redwood Valley. Failure to appear.

JUAN FLORES, Covelo. Failure to appear.

OMAR GALVAN-SANTANA, Redwood Valley. DUI.

MIGUEL HERRERA-CHOLULA, Potter Valley. DUI.

KYLE JOHNSON, Hidden Valley Lake/Fort Bragg. DUI, hit&run by runaway vehicle causing property damage.

JOHN SIMMONS JR., Antelope/Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

MALISSA WARNER, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol, resisting. (Frequent flyer.)

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COSMIC RALEYS

Liberation from the Quagmire of the American Samsara

Just returned to the Royal Motel from a bus trip to Raley’s, for a Monday afternoon indulgence at the Peet’s coffee bar. Whereas the library in Ukiah is closed today, the excursion is timely. The entire day is being spent watching the mind’s thoughts, and identifying with the witness of those thoughts. This is the jnana yoga practice of freeing oneself from the quagmire of samsara. To not identify with the delusional thoughts of constant worry, and attenuating anxiety is a crucial spiritual practice in a postmodern world that is increasingly chaotic, imploding, and insane. The solution is to stop identifying with the body and the mind, and your problem is solved. Here is the last word from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj on Parabrahman (or the spiritual Absolute): https://youtu.be/T2urWD7znNg

Craig Louis Stehr

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THE NINE-TO-FIVE is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you.

— Charles Bukowski

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THE ILLUSTRIOUS MR STEHR

Hi Editor!

This is a longshot, but the massive Institute On Aging on Geary (3595) at Arguello has a sizable residential component that takes Homeless people. San Fran spends more money on them than Any City in the USA; this money is filtered thru 600 (no, not a typo) different NGOs, Nonprofits, well-wishers and virtue-signalers. The Manager is Michael Murphy.

Thanks again for helping Hindus like Craig, Homos like Tosca, etc.!

Namaste,

David Svehla

San Francisco

PS. Clarification: The Residential part of the IOA under Michael Murphy is called the Coronet, after the old deco movie palace formerly on the site (Star Wars made its Frisco premiere here).

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GRAMMAR STICKERS

Editor,

DonOld Trump is past tense.

Kamala Harris is future perfect.

— Elvin Woods

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FIGHTING FOR FREE SPEECH During ‘Underdog Day At The Capitol’! Rational Arguments from Educators Run Into The Wall

by Eva Chrysanthe

https://marincountyconfidential.substack.com/p/fighting-for-free-speech-during-underdog

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SUPPORT PARK FIRE FIREFIGHTERS

Dear Editor,

The Park Fire, started July 24 by an arsonist near Chico, has now charred 427,000 acres of Butte, Tehama, Shasta and other northern California counties. During less than a month it has threatened 2,350 structures and destroyed 636 structures, and partially damaged 47 others. These numbers include homes and businesses that Californians have worked for their whole lives to build, maintain and live in.

Leona Judson’s letter, “Denying Firefighters’ medication,” underlines how an antioxidant med, glutathione, would significantly “lower toxin levels” for firefighters. However it appears the state’s Bureau of Pharmacy is holding up its implementation.

The Park Fire stands as the 4th largest California wildfire. According to a recent CalFire online report 33 helicopters, 141 Hand Crews, and 513 Engines are at work. “Mutual aid” firefighters from throughout California are on the scene, along with crews from faraway Texas and Utah.

So far, anyway, thanks be to God, and to effective CalFire leadership, no residents or firefighters are dead. Pray for them.

Frank H. Baumgardner III, formerly a volunteer firefighter

Santa Rosa

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FINAL DRAFT FY 2024-25 FUND EXPENDITURE PLAN FOR THE SAFE AND AFFORDABLE DRINKING WATER FUND

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans

The consideration of adoption will be held on Tuesday, August 20, 2024.

Please review the Agenda for more details.

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CALIFORNIA’S GREAT DEBATE RESUMES ABOUT HOW TO COPE WITH VOLATILE SWINGS IN TAX REVENUES

by Dan Walters

For the last two decades, California’s governors and legislators — and lobbyists for countless groups with stakes in the state budget — have engaged in a running debate over ever-increasing volatility in tax revenues.

As the revenue stream grew, personal income taxes became the dominant source. The state’s highest-income taxpayers generated half those taxes largely from profits on their investments, which can vary widely year to year.

Moreover, as revenues became less predictable the state’s spending became less flexible. For example, a 1988 ballot measure, Proposition 98, requires that about 40% of state revenues be spent on public schools and community colleges.

When revenues plummeted during the Great Recession and the state faced historically large budget deficits, then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders created a commission to recommend solutions to revenue volatility.

The commission debated for months but was hopelessly divided over whether to overhaul the tax system to de-emphasize income taxes or increase budget reserves to cushion periodic decreases in revenues. Its report, favoring the former approach, was promptly filed away and largely forgotten.

A few years later, Schwarzenegger’s successor, Democrat Jerry Brown confronted the lingering deficits from the Great Recession’s sharp revenue declines. He covered the gaps with a temporary tax increase approved by voters in 2012, primarily income taxes on the wealthy, and proposed a “rainy day fund” to ease the impact of future revenue downturns.

Voters approved that approach in 2014 and the reserve, along with other smaller reserve funds for specific purposes, amassed substantial balances, roughly $30 billion, during the ensuing half-decade.

Gov. Gavin Newsom used reserves a bit in 2020 to offset a revenue decline during the COVID-19 pandemic and, when facing a nearly $50 billion budget deficit this year, he and the Legislature turned to them again.

Initially Newsom proposed a $13.1 billion draw from reserves, but the final 2024-25 budget approved in June took just $5.1 billion from the rainy fund and envisions another $7.1 drawdown in 2025-26. It also largely drains two other reserves, including one for schools.

This year’s deficit resulted from a massive overestimate of revenues by Newsom’s administration in 2022, rather than an economic turndown, and some critics have complained that misusing reserves this year could leave them unable to cope with a recession.

The wonkish debate over budgets, reserves and revenue volatility resumed this week during an Assembly Budget Committee hearing — specifically over whether the state needs a larger rainy day fund.

Newsom, whose 2022 projection of a huge budget surplus from explosive revenue gains proved to be incredibly wrong, now wants the state to avoid spending estimates of windfall revenues until they are actually in the bank — a prudence that should have been adopted many years ago.

However, his proposal and/or increasing rainy day reserves run afoul of groups that believe the state should be spending more on support for poor Californians rather than setting more money aside.

Scott Graves of the left-leaning California Budget & Policy Center warned legislators that “significantly raising the cap for the rainy day fund could tip the balance too far in the direction of saving, leaving less revenue to meet the immediate needs of Californians. This would make it harder to address poverty and inequality and to create an equitable California where everyone can share in the state’s prosperity.”

The hearing essentially sets the stage for a potential 2026 ballot measure to revise the state’s budget reserve, but it could also renew the revenue aspect of the perpetual debate, because in 2030 the latest extension of Jerry Brown’s 2012 income tax increase will expire.

(CalMatters.org)

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WHO WILL COACH THE COACHES?

Reflections on Tim Walz & High School Football

by Jonah Raskin

The recent stories about Tim Walz — the governor of Minnesota, and Kamala Harris’s running mate — which have emphasized his days as a football coach, reminded me of my years as an athlete who played football and lacrosse and who also wrestled in the 158-pound weight class — all under the watchful eyes of a handful of high school coaches. I remember the name of the football coach, Alfonso Donofrio, a short, stocky fellow, who picked me to be the co-captain of the team and who emphasized the desire to win. So did I. More than anything else in high school, I wanted to win the football games we played on Saturdays against teams from Babylon, Riverhead, Port Jefferson and our arch rival, Amityville.

We defeated Amityville, 21 -14 my senior year when Newsday selected me for the all-star Suffolk County team which worked wonders for my ego and persuaded Columbia College to accept me as a freshman in the fall of 1959, albeit ill prepared for learning. High school football stunted my academic growth. I did not play college football; the competition was intense and the locker room and gridiron a long bus ride from the campus at 116th Street & Broadway to Baker Field near the northern tip of Manhattan Island.

I played rugby for two years in college. Rugby was not an official Columbia team, but rather a club that drew upon athletes enrolled in the medical school and the law school who had played Ivy League football for Princeton and Yale. We used the school’s locker room and the football field for practice and games. We had winning seasons, season after season. I played Saturday after Saturday, and after our victories joined my big, heavy muscular teammates, like Paul Zimmerman, in pubs where we sang bawdy songs and drank beer and a beverage called a shandy, a mix of beer and 7-up which I favored. Once, Pat Moran, from Ireland, battled a Black South African. It was ugly.

The university did not provide the rugby club with a coach. We coached ourselves and did exceedingly well without one. We were in our 20s, we were talented and adults in many ways capable of making decisions and carrying them out on our own. We proved that we didn’t need a coach, though junior high school and high school athletes do need one, and preferably a coach as conscientious as Tim Walz who took the job seriously.

Sixty or so years after I graduated from high school, I wonder who coaches the coaches. Probably, they learn from experience, and like Walz are able to turn losing seasons into winning seasons. There's nothing like failure to teach you how to succeed.

I’m willing to believe that Walz learned as much from the football players as they learned from him. First and foremost, he understood and still understands the necessity of teamwork; without it, winning seasons will be elusive. And without teamwork, he and Kamala won’t make it to the White House. They seem to inspire one another.

I also suspect that they’re learning about politics and campaigning from one another. True, they have different styles, different ways of addressing crowds and different vocabularies, but the differences make for a powerful offensive weapon that Trump and company might not be able to stop.

Huntington High School boasted an assistant football coach. He and I were as close as a coach and a player could be. David Goldstein, who was Catholic and not Jewish, as his name suggests, taught me how to breathe when I was out of breath — expel air and the lungs will do the rest, he said. It worked for me. Goldstein also emphasized conserving my energy so it lasted from the opening kick off to the final whistle that ended the game. In high school, I was closer to the coaches than to the classroom teachers, even close to the coach for the lacrosse team who yelled at me not to bleed on my jersey when I bashed my nose against my helmet and blood poured out. An asshole, he didn’t even offer me a bandage. I wore a scar for years. Someone should have taught that coach manners and empathy.

I got back at him at the graduation ceremony when I explained to the crowd that he was a lush and drank cocktails at a bar in town and had to call a cab to get home. Unlike Walz and unlike Donofrio and Goldstein, he was dispensable, and should not have been the coach for teenage boys like me on the lacrosse team. Fortunately, he didn’t prevent the high school from making me a three-letter man, an honor I forgot by the end of my freshman semester at college when I learned how to read and study and take exams. Go Kamala and Tim. Beat Trump and his idiotic fellow candidate. I’m on your side.

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THE PARTY LINE IS A MIGHTY SQUISHY LINE

by James Kunstler

“I’ve never heard her [Kamala Harris] say anything original or observant; at her best, she simply recites the party line. At her worst, she’s too lazy to memorize the party line.”— Lionel Shriver

Does anybody know what this shape-shifting chimera passed off as “our democracy” actually is? I will tell you. Like everything else in the Democratic Party’s tool-bag these days, it’s the opposite of what it appears to mean, namely: You, the demos, give us, officialdom, the power to take whatever we like from you: your savings, your liberty, your stuff, your identity, and your posterity — because we are the boss-of-you, and don’t you forget it… and, by the way, the beatings will continue until morale improves.

It’s really that simple, though the deceptions cooked up to hide it are convoluted to the max. Like: engineering the illegal entrance to the US of millions from other lands and then using procedural hocus-pocus such as motor-voter registration and public assistance applications (free money + automatic voter registration) to stuff the election drop-boxes with the ballots of non-citizens — who, get this, don’t even have to be the ones casting those ballots, which can just be harvested, like so many oven-ready pullets, by lowly hired shills. If you catch onto the ruse, you’ll be instructed that borders are arbitrary roadblocks to social justice thrown up by the old white male patriarchy, and that these are “free and fair elections.” And if you object loudly enough, you lose your job, your livelihood, your Facebook account, and maybe get thrown into solitary confinement for a year. Our democracy.

Meanwhile, we’re enjoying the spectacle of this evil party’s candidate selection tour with their joyful warriors/avatars, Harris and Walz — joyful because they laugh and laugh in the absence of articulating any actual views on the particulars of governance, and it’s infectious to witness all that mirth. There is, of course, an artificially strenuous air about all this hoopla. It rolls out in an alternative reality like one of those summer techno-pop raves where everyone is stoned on MDMA. The dream girl gets launched into center-stage by invisible forces and is joined by her prom king, and it’s just so heartwarming to get waved at by the grinning, hand-holding couple nobody voted for. This is your demos-free ticket!

Will anybody at the imminent Democratic National Convention notice how this all mysteriously came to be? And might there be any active consternation over it? Perhaps even a welling movement to pull the plug on this rave? You may be apt to wonder what is going on in the Chappaqua redoubt of She-Whose-Turn-Has-Been-(so far)-Thwarted, HRC, boss-of-all-girl-bosses, putatively retired from public life. She’s been awfully quiet since that night over a week ago when she was obliged on-stage somewhere to hug and air-kiss Ms. Harris, and made a face seconds after as if she had thrown up in her mouth.

Is she stewing in the broth of grievance but still and nonetheless tirelessly working her phone to canvas the delegates of that looming party meet-up? She might remind them that the DNC (that is, the Democratic National Committee, Inc), went broke in 2016 and got bailed out by the Clinton Foundation checkbook, and, Jeez, we can’t seem to find any repayment check from all’y’all. It seems maybe you owe us… something.

And, by the way, HRC could remind said delegates: you have allowed a laughing hyena who drinks her lunch to land at the head of the ticket for the worst reasons (viz., DEI) minus any votes from the party membership, and then managed to duct-tape a China-owned, Cluster-B head-case to her as the veep sidekick… and maybe when all the hee-hawing and hooting dies down, you’ll discover what a pair of losers you’ve allowed to be undemocratically implanted to (ha!) represent you. And also, by the way, I happen to be available as her capable-and-experienced replacement… whom you can actually vote for on the convention floor, if you manage to get your shit together. . . you know… our democracy, and all. Just sayin’.

That is, I’m just sayin’ what She might be thinkin’ (and sayin’). I am in no position to predict any actual outcome, but it’s hard to imagine any winning moves by the Harris & Walz team in actual play-by-play. In case you have forgotten amid all the week-long laughter and euphoria, there are important national issues to discuss about how to manage the malevolent leviathan the federal government has become, and many dilemmas and threats the people face. And there are very different records of each team’s views on these things, party by party.

Some of that discussion could happen in the (so far) one scheduled September 10 debate. If Mr. Trump can manage to be polite, he can press Kamala Harris to explain herself on things like the wide-open border, failure to negotiate with the Russians to end the Ukraine War, her party’s antipathy to public safety, her party’s promotion of gender identity insanity, its Gestapo-style lawfare operations, its endless hoaxes, and its disgraceful documented efforts to censor free speech. The record is pretty clear on all of that, and there’s a fair chance that Ms. Harris can’t possibly explain it away. Or laugh it off.

Mr. Trump has requested two more head-to-head debates, which Ms. Harris apparently wants to forego. Mr. Trump has come up with an excellent alternative: two “town hall” format appearances in which he fields questions from citizens, or from news reporters, or some combo of both. That would be much to his advantage, without Ms. Harris on stage to defend her positions — or, more likely, to dodge any coherent reply by repeating “racist racist racist,” and laughing her head off.

That is, if she even remains the nominee. Let’s see how it goes this week leading to the convention. For instance, if she and Mr. Walz can still weasel out of taking any questions from the news media. Or whether the White House (remember “Joe Biden” still lives there) and his blob compadres can engineer a major escalation into world war, to take everybody’s mind off the election race. Or if any tremors of apprehension emanate from the delegate corps packing their rolly-bags for the dreaded party confab in Chicago. You have to kind of wonder if they’re bringing any riot gear.

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FOIA FILES: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

The University of Washington, through its Center for an Informed Public, has played an outsize role in shaping "anti-disinformation" campaigns.

by James Rushmore

How do “anti-disinformation” researchers know what “disinformation” to resist? How do they decide what is and is not true?

This past May, Racket received some new FOIA results from the University of Washington and its Center for an Informed Public. Since its inception in December 2019, the CIP has sought to “translate research about misinformation and disinformation into policy.” Spearheaded by Professor Kate Starbird, the CIP analyzed the spread of online “misinformation” during the COVID-19 pandemic, partnering with medical professionals in an ostensible effort to dispel vaccine hesitancy among expecting families. Later, it put together a report on the most influential Twitter accounts shaping discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

More recently, it’s been working on an information literacy curriculum meant to help librarians “address and navigate problematic information in their local communities.”

Racket has filed multiple FOIA requests with the Center. Recently we received several productions. The first reached us in June, when we received over 1,000 pages of emails and documents. These further illustrate the CIP’s extensive influence, multitude of projects, and role in helping form initiatives like the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) and the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP). We’ve uploaded all of the documents to the Racket FOIA Library, where you can access them for free. One of the key issues in the emails pertains to the question posed above.

What system do anti-disinformation researchers use to settle on the “false and misleading” narratives for study? If you guessed “not much of a system at all,” it appears you’d be right.

On February 10, 2021, lawyer Eric Stahl of Davis Wright Tremaine reached out to Julia Carter Scanlan, the director of strategy and operations at the CIP, with questions about a draft of a final report of Stanford’s Election Integrity Partnership, in which the CIP was a participant. Stahl had been tasked with conducting a legal review before publication. In his correspondence with Carter Scanlan, he asked an obvious question: “How do the authors of the EIP determine that a statement is false/disinformation or worthy of a ‘ticket’?”

Stahl’s concern was simple: what if someone claimed they’d been falsely accused by the EIP of “tweeting disinformation”? He then explained to the anti-disinformation researchers the negligence standard, known to all journalists: If a reporter “checks their facts, pursues reasonable leads, and doesn’t ignore relevant sources,” he or she is off the hook for defamation.

You can get things wrong, but you have to at least attempt to check facts. In that vein, he said, “it would be helpful to know how you decide something is false,” and if there is an “articulable standard."…

https://www.racket.news/p/foia-files-university-of-washington

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JULY OF 1957 my dad drove this beauty home right off the show room floor. Had the famous ThunderBird engine 312ci if i remember. He traded a Sinclair gas station owner a couch to have dual exhaust put on. I was 9 years old. I remember the hot summer nights, top down and a ride to the Dairy Queen.

Thanks for all the comments. My dad was a graduate of the 1946 class Henry Ford Trade School in Detroit and a Ham radio operator as you can tell by the license plate. He later became a tool steel sales and service engineer for Carmet. Co. Tool steel cutting tools for the big 3. He passed away at the age of 43 in 1969 while I was in the Navy. He left us too soon.

I really miss the 50s. It was an awesome time to be living in America.

(via Old Car Enthusiast)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m having a hard time understanding why, at this stage of the collapse, anyone would want to be president of the USA.

This may sound silly but apart from such things as being an officer in the US Army, working for the US State Department, teaching history and government, etc, I also have a love for Civilization type RTS (real time strategy) games and have been playing them for 25 years.

If I found myself in a game where I was this deep in debt, with people that were sick, dumb, obese, without morals, and had lost its “bonus” attribute (we are a frontier civilization) then I’d nuke it all and start over.

Certainly, I’m not the only one that would play the game this way.

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EXCERPT from Nigel Hamilton's War And Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey D-Day To Yalta, 1943-1945