Mendocino County Today: Saturday 8/17/2024

Bumblebee | Shower Chance | Lake Rescues | Dead Creek | Fire Lessons | Election Candidates | Blackberry Festival | AVUSD News | Rail Chat | Shields-Studebaker Cemetery | New Chef | Institutional Dysfunction | Winter Wellness | Ed Notes | Kritter Karnival | Redwood Dance | Ukiah, Wo | Skyhawk Poster | Pressed Thumbs | Yesterday's Catch | Animal Facts | Monkeypox Origin | Hippie Life | Ancient Gluten | Affordable Housing | Odds & Ends | Marco Radio | Get Down | Gavin Questions | Doubtfire Absurdities | Tank Girl | Dem Soul | Reservist Walz | MAJA | Dem Script | Windmill Blowhard | Kuiper Kerfuffle | Charlie's Athletes | Come Monday | Tamale Hernandez | So Ugly | Cheetoh Solution | Lady Walz | Chicago Protests | Not Religion | Fail Gloriously | Water Confrontation | Shrink Graph

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AN UPPER LEVEL trough will continue to bring below average temperatures to inland areas through the weekend. Rain is expected today for Del Norte, Humboldt, and Trinity counties. A chance for thunderstorms also exist through today. Breezy winds are expected for Mendocino and Lake counties with a few light rain showers in the mountains and northern portions of the counties. Cool and dry weather is expected by tomorrow with temperatures gradually warming up into next week while still remaining near or slightly below seasonal normals. (NWS)

STEPHEN DUNLAP (Fort Bragg): It's mostly cloudy this Saturday morning on the coast with a warm 56F. Increasing clouds this morning leading to a 60% chance of light rain this afternoon. Clearing tonight then back to the nightly fog & morning clearing routine for next week. Does the early rain portend anything for the upcoming season? One can only wonder?

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FOUR PEOPLE RESCUED IN TWO INCIDENTS AT LAKE MENDOCINO

by Justine Frederiksen 

Four people were rescued this week in two separate incidents at Lake Mendocino, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority reported.

UVFA Battalion Chief Justin Buckingham said the first incident his crews responded to happened around 3 p.m. Thursday, when two women got into trouble near the lake.

“They got blown off the river, east of the lake, and were not feeling well,” said Buckingham, describing the women as middle-aged adults who were not on a boat, but on more of a “floating raft.”

To help them out of the water, Buckingham said the UVFA responded to the area with their boat, and afterward the women declined medical treatment and did not report any injuries.

The next morning around 9:30, UVFA crews responded again to people in trouble, this time two men who had “headed out fishing and forgot to put the plug in their boat,” said Buckingham, explaining that the two men were in the water and hanging onto the small boat when firefighters arrived Aug. 16.

The two men also declined medical treatment and did not report any injuries, Buckingham said.

Also responding to that incident were Cal Fire personnel, whom Buckingham said joined U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on their boat Friday. Buckingham said the USACE responded to the Aug. 15 incident, as well.

When asked whether this summer was shaping up to be a particularly busy one, Buckingham said this year the UVFA was likely to have more than 5,000 calls, something he had not yet seen.

“In 2022 we had 4,400, in 2023 we had 4,600, and this year we will definitely have 5,000 calls,” he said, noting that in July alone the UVFA had 512 calls. When asked how many of those were medical calls, Buckingham said the calls for service are typically about 60 to 65 percent medical-related incidents.

When asked if the UVFA considered keeping their boat at the lake for future responses, Buckingham said having the boat on a trailer, ready to be driven wherever it’s needed, gives them much more flexibility than having it positioned at the lake.

(ukiahdj.com)

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GRANGE FIRE PODCAST & STORY

AV Fire Chief Andres Avila:

The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council put out this podcast produced by former KZYZ reporter Sara Reith. It goes over lessons learn from the Grange fire, water supply issues, and the need to support the fairgrounds facilities. (About 11 minutes.)

Fire Safe Council: We have made a new arrangement with local journalist Sarah Reith to bring you occasional in-depth coverage of important local wildfire resilience-related stories, along with a corresponding podcast!

The first in this series could not be more topical as Sara Reith digs into the lessons learned from the recent Grange Fire near Philo and shares some important things we need to do to be better prepared for future disasters.

https://firesafemendocino.org/grange-fire-a-wake-up-call-for-infrastructure

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GRANGE FIRE A WAKE-UP CALL FOR INFRASTRUCTURE

The Grange Fire, which broke out in Boonville on July 25, highlighted some major infrastructure needs in terms of disaster response: namely, power and water. PG&E was knocked out, telecommunications were spotty, and the local radio station, which was in the evacuation zone, went off the air due to damaged equipment.

Anderson Valley Fire Chief Andres Avila said the 90-acre fire was a stark reminder of local vulnerabilities, as wildfires across the state devour hundreds of thousands of acres. The lack of water, he said, “daylights our Achilles heel to larger fires.” 

Firefighters turned to a private landowner and exhausted two sources of public water to douse the short-lived blaze. A proposal for a state-funded municipal water system in Boonville, which includes between 40-50 fire hydrants and two 150,000-gallon water tanks, is not scheduled to be online until the end of 2028.

Though CalFire directed human and animal evacuees to the county fairgrounds in Boonville, the power outage made the site mostly unusable as an evacuation center. 

Outbuildings on properties in the heart of the fire were lost, and one family lost their home. Agricultural business losses are unknown at this point. No deaths or injuries were reported. The cause is still under investigation, but it may have been ignited by sparks from a vehicle hauling a badly hitched-up trailer.

Avila said the fire broke out during a “drawdown” situation, as CalFire, which has jurisdiction in the area, was initially battling a blaze in Lake County. That left volunteer firefighters on the scene for hours until CalFire was able to provide heavy equipment and aircraft, which lay down retardant lines. 

Volunteer fire departments are stretched thin across the state. Avila says they need more of everything: more people, more resources, and an adequate staging ground for the large-scale emergency that’s just about inevitable in rural fire-prone California. He thinks the fairgrounds are a sensible investment, both as an evacuation center and a base camp for the hundreds of firefighters who would descend on the area during a major disaster. “That’s a huge influx,” he noted, adding that, “We’ve been talking about wildfire, but what happens when there’s an earthquake? Are we prepared, as a county, to have this site as staging or for evacuees coming in?”

The Grange Fire was contained by the end of the day, and mop-up operations took another two days. Avila estimates that putting out the 90-acre fire took about 130,000 gallons of water, from the fairgrounds, Hendy Woods State Park, and the privately owned Pennyroyal Farms, which donated water. He said the firefight “basically exhausted our two municipal sources,”  one of which is right across the street from the fire station. 

The Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show will celebrate its 100th year on September 13-15. Fair CEO Jim Brown estimates that, in a longer-lasting emergency, the fairgrounds, with its large buildings, commercial kitchen, barns, and restrooms with a few showers, could house up to 300 people. “The number thing we would need” to be a viable evacuation site, he said, is four to five generators with switchgears and leads. He’s still waiting for an analysis of the cost and the size of the generators he’d need. The fairgrounds has a backup diesel generator to operate the electric motors for two hydrants, but that infrastructure is only for the fire system. Once the firefighting water was drawn down, there was nothing left for sanitation or cooking. 

During the Grange Fire, there was one location that was available for some needs. The Anderson Valley Grange, which has a propane-powered generator, was able to provide bathrooms, battery packs for those with medical needs, and a place for people to rest, charge devices and go online.

Val Hanelt, the chair of the Anderson Valley Community Services District, is looking ahead for a long term solution with the municipal water system. It’s been in the works since 2013, and she says it’s in “a watershed moment” right now, with construction planning expected to be completed next year. Four years ago, the cost estimate for the drinking water portion of the project, which includes the fire suppression component, was $19 million. It would be paid for by state grants, though participants would pay monthly water rates. It’s voluntary, while a state-funded sewer system is compulsory. She shared details about the two 150,000-gallon  tanks. If all goes according to plan, they’d be sited on Hutsell Lane, near the intersection of Highways 128 and 253 by the end of the year 2028.

“Those two tanks are kind of critical,” she said, in that they would supply water pressure for a hydrant system that would travel all the way through town, serving the elementary and high schools, the clinic, a housing complex near the airport, the museum, and many of the small streets off of Highway 128, which is the main thoroughfare through the valley. There are about 240 parcels in the area of the proposed water project, which is supposed to go forward, as long as a majority of parcel owners do not object. One supporter is Avila, the fire chief.

“We’ve been doing firefighting in this area without this system for quite a while,” he acknowledged. “We’ve been dodging the bullet. So we either bank on dodging the bullet, which is not a wise idea, or we start planning for the future.”

Mendocino County is currently updating its Community Wildfire Protection Plan. If you support any of the ideas you read about today, you can share your thoughts with the consultants in charge of the update. If you’d like to see the county fairgrounds in Boonville get an upgrade so it can be used as an evacuation center, or you want water security in Anderson Valley, you can request that support for those improvements is included in the updated plan by emailing jayden.peterson@swca.com.  Please also share your ideas for important wildfire risk mitigation projects to be included in the plan update by using the form provided here so that we can keep track of and help advocate for your project.

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CANDIDATES FOR LOCAL MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN NOVEMBER

The County Elections Office has certified the nomination papers for five candidates to fill two vacant four-year seats on the Fort Bragg City Council this November. The candidates are: Bethany Brewer (personal trainer), Ryan Bushnell (coach & volunteer firefighter, listed as “equipment operator”), Scott Hockett (fishing boat/business owner), Lindy Peters (incumbent), and Melissa ‘Mel’ Salazar (listed as “talent manager/mom”). Incumbent Bernie Norvell will not be seeking reelection since he was elected Fourth District Supervisor. As far as we know, Norvell has not endorsed any candidate(s).

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There are two seats up for election on the Ukiah City Council: Josefina Duenas and Douglas Crane, incumbents. Both are running for re-election. New candidates are: Kris Mize (former Anderson Valley elementary school teacher, former curriculum coordinator at River Oak School in Ukiah, listed as “business owner/mother”), Heather Criss (Mendocino County Public Health administrator), John Strangio (Ukiah firefighter, listed as “self-employed”), and Jacob Brown (former candidate for Second District Supervisor, listed as “educator”).

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In Point Arena, the three incumbents, Jim Koogle, Jeff Hansen, and Dan Doyle, are running unopposed for their seats.

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In Willits, three seats are up for election, those of incumbents Saprina Rodriguez, Gerardo ‘Gerry’ Gonzalez, and long-time Councilwoman Madge Strong. Rodriguez and Strong are not running for re-election. So Incumbent Gonzalez will run to retain his seat along with Robin Leler (teacher), Michael Alaniz (“teacher/educator”), and former Sheriff/realtor Tom Allman. If Gonzalez and Allman were to be elected, Willits would have two former cops as city councilmen.

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Three people are running for three seats on the Anderson Valley Community Services District, Incumbents Valerie Hanelt, (appointed) incumbent Steve Snyder, and Structural Engineer Sash Williams. Incumbent Francois Christen is not running for re-election. So that probably means there will not be an election for the CSD seats. Mr. Williams has been involved in the District’s pending skate park project.

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AV UNIFIED NEWS

Dear Anderson Valley Community,

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to know our wonderful AVUSD staff and also many of our parents and students as we gear up for school to start on Monday, August 19! AVES had its orientation last night, and it was so much fun to see the bright and eager faces as students met their new teachers.

We learned that the Jr-Sr High School “orientation” has traditionally been a time to pick up course schedules and complete paperwork. We are hearing feedback that some 7th graders and their parents would like a little more “orienting” before their start. While there was an orientation at the end of the 6th grade year, we also want to assure you that our fabulous Jr High teachers will go over how to read the schedules and will be doing “Expectations Stations” at the very start of school. We appreciate your feedback and will keep it in mind for a more extensive 7th grade orientation at the start of school in the coming years.

Our construction continues to charge ahead! You will be amazed at the progress. We will always be grateful to Louise Simson’s work and the work of the community in getting these projects funded, planned, and underway!

• At the Jr-Sr High School, the main building has been painted and cement learning patios poured. Our science rooms are being plumbed with both cold and hot water and are ready for the installation of large, sliding doors, among other things. There will be continued construction as students return to campus, and these areas will be fenced off for safety. Pardon our dust! While there will be some minor inconveniences, the payoff with our new, beautiful campus will make it all worth it! We are also moving forward with the plans for our new track and, possibly, a new gym on the horizon. Stay tuned!
• At AVES, the traffic pattern was analyzed by our architect and, in order to qualify for additional updates to the school kitchen, we are being required to adjust the student drop-off and pick-up pattern. If you are an AVES parent, please follow the guidance of the adults out front (and review the note about parking in the handbook). The changes will make drop-off smoother and should eliminate the dangerous U-turns some drivers were making in front of the school. Thank you for keeping our precious students safe!

I’d like to give a “shout out” to the FFA team, who made a very impressive showing at the Redwood Empire Fair over the summer. Mrs. Swehla and Mr. Bautista went above and beyond, residing at the fairgrounds for several days! Our students and their animals won multiple awards. Way to represent your school, FFA team!

I’d also like to shout out Mr. Toohey, our athletic director, and our sports teams!

August 12 was the first day of soccer practice

August 20 will be a volleyball game at home, against Lower Lake at 5:00 p.m.

August 23 will be the first soccer away game, at Middletown.

August 23 & 24 will be an away volleyball varsity tournament at Upper Lake.

& more to come!

Our new principals are thrilled to be working with the amazing AVUSD community! Alyson McKay is leading AVES and Heath McNerney is at the helm of the Jr/Sr High School. We are grateful for the support of Cymbre Swett, former AVES principal, and Louise Simson, former Jr/Sr High principal, for their support and wisdom. They are both available for us to reach out to when we have questions about “how things go!” Contact information for the new admin team is below. We are delighted to serve this lovely community!

Alson McKay (AVES), 707-671-3628, amckay@avpanthers.org

Heath McNerney (AV Jr/Sr High), 707-671-3634, hmcnerney@avpanthers.org

Kristin Larson Balliet (Superintendent), 707-671-3620, klarson@avpanthers.org

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LOCAL HISTORIAN VALERIE HANELT:

I got an inquiry about the name of the Shields-Studebaker cemetery. Very briefly: James Shields was the first burial in this cemetery in 1860. He and his family were among the first pioneers in this area; his second wife was Dulcina Nunn (after his first wife died he brought Dulcina out from Missouri). His daughter, Candace Shields married John Gschwend (although all six of those children died of TB in 1900). This family (through the Nunns) was the forebears of Gschwends, Nunns, Maddox, Ward, McGimsey, Letcher, Rector… who, over the next generations, produced or were related to many of the Philo names you are familiar with now: Gowan, Studebaker, Schnider, Guntly, Eastlick, Moore, Moore, Whipple, Gossman, Dutro, Price, Bloyd, Mabery, Salmela, Price, Clow….

James Shields had six children and three of the children might also have been buried there. None of that first family’s headstones exist now — he is in an unmarked grave somewhere — not necessarily in this cemetery’s boundaries. The Shields-Studebaker cemetery is the final resting place for this extended family. I believe all the burials were somehow related to these names until the property became the property of the AV Cemetery District.

Mary A. Studebaker deeded the cemetery to the Cemetery District on March 22, 1939. By then there were about 145 family burials over quite a few generations — probably a lot more as those are just the ones I can document. (Side note: Byron Gowan was the notary public on that document).

So yes, the land was owned by the Studebakers when ceded to the district in 1939. But the first burial was James Shields in 1860 and his children went on to marry into the other families (and produce more generations) in Philo.

If you go to findagrave.com and search “cemeteries” and then type in Shields-Studebaker you will be able to see all the documented burials. If you know of someone who is not listed, or if you know anything about the many unmarked graves, I would love to hear from you. There are many concrete slabs as well as delineated graves that have lost their markers. There are important names I know are there but I don’t know exactly which graves are theirs.

Here is a short list of people who are buried there but I don’t know exactly where:

Andrew Guntly and wife Mary Barbara Scnider Guntly

William Main and grandson

Jules “Let” Moore and family members

Nunn, George Roland

Ridley family (series of graves, but which is which?)

Whipple, Burt, Cyrus, Elisha, Ernest – which empty spots among Whipple graves?

If you are a sleuth and would like to collaborate with me on some mysteries at Shields I would love for you to be in touch with me. Also, if anyone has early photos taken at any of the cemeteries those might contain valuable clues.

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Shields Cemetery Coordinates: 39.08780, -123.46940

Traveling west on Highway 128 from Philo to the coast, you will pass the Gowans' Fruit Stand on the left after about four miles. The highway then bends to the right and just as it bends again to the left and at highway marker 20.5, take the dirt driveway on the right. After passing a couple of residences you come to a ‘Y.’ Take the right and you will soon see the cemetery sign. There is a gate (always unlocked) to open and close before you reach the cemetery. There is plenty of parking and a magnificent view over the valley looking towards Philo. As in all the cemeteries there are a multitude of wildflowers in bloom in April and May. There is a large planting of Watsonia (a gladiola-like bulb) which blooms in May.

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BOONVILLE DISTILLERY

About Our New Executive Chef, Chris Morrison. He joins us with over 26 years of experience in the culinary industry, and is a Michelin star rated chef! He comes to The Boonville Distillery with inspiration, a strong sense of community here in Anderson Valley, and a passion for amazing food!

New Menu Highlights, House Smoked babyback ribs, Anderson Valley Beer Battered Fish & Chips, Boonville Distillery Tequila Lime Prawns, and Grilled Salmon with Vodka Cream Sauce. And that is just for starters! We are SO EXCITED to have you here with us Chris! You can try Chris’ creations Friday - Monday…

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JIM SHIELDS:

It's impossible not to recognize the seemingly institutional dysfunction in the governing process of this County, not to mention our country.

Too many elected officials and “public servants” who are classified as department heads, middle management, and “staff,” go out of their way to create problems when their main goal and purpose is to provide services to the public and solve problems when they arise. Most people don't have lofty expectations of their elected representatives. Most would settle for an adaptation of the Physician's Oath, “First, do no harm.”

Recently, the CEO’s office sent out the following press release:

“Board of Supervisors Recess—The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will observe its annual August Recess from August 1, 2024, to August 30, 2024. During this period, the Board will not hold Regular Board Meetings. This annual recess, implemented in 2022, allows Clerk of the Board staff to focus on essential behind-the-scenes tasks, including records filing, completion of annually required duties, and preparation for the upcoming year. While there are no Regular Board Meetings in August, the Members of the Board of Supervisors continue to hold/attend their other regularly scheduled committee and public meetings during the August Recess.”

Altogether, including the August “recess,” the supervisors will not meet in formal meetings for seven weeks. However, as the press release says, they will “hold/attend their other regularly scheduled committee and public meetings during the August Recess.”

A lot of folks are upset that the County is calling timeout for this “recess.”

Prior to the year of 2022 when this policy was first implemented by former County Executive Officer Carmel Angelo, the idea of a “recess” was unheard of. If the Clerk of the Board, who doubles as the CEO, can’t manage her staff so that they are completing “essential behind-the-scenes tasks, including records filing, completion of annually required duties, and preparation for the upcoming year,” the Supervisors need to find a new CEO, and perhaps a new staff, who can do their jobs and get their work done on time.

This is not a huge ask as in the past 50 years, previous Clerks of the Board and their staff never required a “recess” to do the their jobs.

Of course, during earlier decades, the Clerk of the Board was an independent position, organizationally under and reporting to the Board of Supervisors, not the CEO. As is the case with numerous governing process elements, procedures and policies were changed by the CEO, basically unchallenged by the BOS.

As I’ve said many times before, it never concerns me when our elected representatives take time off, no matter what the reason is. A congressman is gone on a two-week paid junket to the South of France, good for him, hope he has fantastic culinary experiences and plenty of five-martini lunches.

Here’s the deal.

Politics and the governing process are now so dysfunctional and unproductive, we are actually so much better off when politicians, including our Board of Supervisors, are absent from their august chambers because they are unable to make much mischief when they aren’t on the clock.

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ED NOTES

ON THE OFF CHANCE you’re unaware how far to the political right this country has moved over the last 50 years, please accept this reminder: President Richard Nixon was for national health insurance; he founded the Environmental Protection Agency; Nixon was for much higher taxes on unearned income, i.e., stock dividends etc., and the Nixon-influenced 1972 Republican platform opposed corporate relocation overseas, then described as large-scale tax evasion, now known as savvy fiscal management.

“THE GREAT MALEFACTORS OF WEALTH” excoriated by Republicans from Lincoln on up through the first Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Eisenhower, and Nixon? Celebrated today.

THE TRUMP CULT wouldn't believe, and would likely mostly disavow what The Terminator, a Republican, said when he was California's governor: “The strong have to help the weak. The rich have to help the poor. That’s the way it is.”

THAT'S the way it’s supposed to be, but the only national political person I can recall saying something like it and meaning it was Martin Luther King Jr. Of course saying it and acting on the sentiment got King murdered, but Schwarzenegger was the last human-type being to occupy the governor’s office in this state, and here we are.

KAMALA is being widely denounced for saying she's for Medicare for all, national health care being long ago assumed by the civilized countries of the world as a human right. The rolling ignoramus at the top of the Maga cult — more deranged by the day — says Medicare for all is “socialism,” a term his cult views as equivalent to kryptonite. He also said, in the course of one of his usual semi-coherent stream-of-consciousness appearances, that price controls on essential foods is “communism” — double kryptonite to his lockstep blue collar legions as they pay outrageous premiums for private health insurance and struggle to buy food and keep themselves sheltered.

PRIOR to becoming a Senior Citizen, and thus fully covered by national health insurance, I went without because I couldn't afford it. On my 65th birthday magico-presto, full coverage.

SENIORS get lots of essential services because they vote, although a rational, not to say humane society, would make the young its priority. As a MediCare geezer, many thousands of dollars have recently been spent to keep me alive.

YEARS AGO I regretted my harsh critiques of the Vegetarian Medical Monopoly based in Ukiah because I had to turn to them for hernia surgery. One never wants to be on the wrong side of the anesthesiologist, or that masked Adventist brandishing a scalpel. I was hoping to put it off until I was 65 when my Medi-Care kicked in, assuming that the Bush Gang hadn’t “invested” it and Social Security with their friends on Wall Street, as the leadership of both parties at the time had discussed doing as if it was a swell idea.

I DIDN'T HAVE health insurance. Like half the people in the country I couldn't afford it. I exercised, ate lots of fruit and vegetables, stayed away from the nuts, edible and the two-footed type kind who come with the newspaper business, gave up drinking, never was a doper, smoked only briefly as a kid. So there I was with my 110 over 70 blood pressure, low-normal heart rate, almost zero cholesterol and hoping I wouldn't be recognized at the Ukiah Med Center for financial negotiations and a pre-op exam, cursing Bill and Hillary at every stop, noting as I went that a large number of hospital employees didn't seem to be particularly healthy themselves.

THANKS to the Clintons and their funder-buddies at the insurance combines, the drug monopolies, the HMO’s, and the senior sectors of the AMA, unlike the rest of the industrial world we still didn't have single-payer health insurance.

FOR THE Adventists to slice me open and stitch up a hernia in my upper gut it would cost me $18,000 if I paid it off in installments; if I paid cash it would cost me about $7,500. How many Americans have $7,500 laying around? Few — certainly not me.

THE KID who gave me the bad news kept saying, “It’ll cost about” and “It’ll be right around,” like he was pulling numbers out of mid-air, which he may well have been doing. Another kid filling out my forms got the info just about half right, not that I bothered correcting him. I always figure confusion might work to my advantage somehow, not that it ever has. Funny how bill collectors always have your correct address and phone number, and funny how their math errors always work to their advantage.

THE TRUE COST for this simple procedure was “right around” $7,500. The Pay or Die price was “right around” $18k. Another guy in the “intake” room was being informed that what he needed done to keep him upright he’d first have to drag himself a half-mile west to the welfare department and apply for Medi-Cal to pay for it. I'd hold the doc at gunpoint before I’d apply for anything, at the Mendocino County Department of Social Services where, of course, the applicant will likely die before he qualifies for even a number ten can of commodity peanut butter and a mound of government cheese.

FORTUNATELY FOR ME, I was able to borrow the money from a pot grower at much lower interest than the vegetarians charged for the hernia repair. As I peeled off the moldy cash my friend had unearthed from his buried stash, the kid at the adding machine was all “Gosh, golly, this doesn't happen very often,” and it was on with the show.

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SUPERVISOR MAUREEN MULHEREN:

Well it’s been a while since I’ve been asked; anyone want to dunk me for a good cause?

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DANCE THE REDWOODS 2024

We are thrilled to invite you to the 2024 Dance The Redwoods show! Walk through the forest enjoying elegant dances up in the redwood trees with live music along the way. Be surprised. Be awed. Be dazzled.

Buy your tickets now before they sell out like last year!

https://mendocinodanceproject.org/upcoming

For questions please contact: mendocinodanceproject@gmail.com

See you among the trees,

Mendocino Dance Project

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UKIAH

People rushin' everywhere
If they'd only slow down once
They might find something there
Green trees and timber land
People workin' with their hands
For sure a different way to live
Gonna keep my cabin at hand
Retreat and live off the land
All around Ukiah, wo

The mountain streams that rush on by
Show the fish a jumpin'
And reflect the open sky
The fresh clean smell of the pines
Symbol of unchanging times
All around this sacred land
Strangely, though, I've found my way
Right here I'm gonna stay
In this land Ukiah, wo

— Tom Johnston (Doobie Bros)

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THUMBS ACROSS THE WATERS

Editor,

Get better soon, please!! I am sure you will and can make it, and I shall press my thumbs for you, as we say in Germany!

My husband and I have been in Boonville severaI times since the 1990 (I have even talked to you once in the General Store!), and I am one of your AVA-subcribers since decades.

The one of last week is very special to me because after having stayed in the Toll House several times, we always stayed in the Boonville Hotel, after Betty was gone and Barbara had left.

By the way: You surely know that Vernon Anthony Rawlins died on Oct 30, 2023.

And also by the way: Since more than 10 years I talk to Tom in SFO on the phone about old times, regularly every Sunday. He still has a very good memory and we have fun!

Keep up the good spirit, dear Bruce!

Very best regards sends

Hella from Bremen

ED REPLY: Hella kind of you to write, Hella, and doubly kind of you for your double thumbs for my recovery. I hope to see you again in Boonville. Hands across the water, and four thumbs to you.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, Friday, August 16, 2024

DEAN AMMONS, Lakeport/Ukiah. Parole violation.

BRITTON AZBILL JR., Covelo. Controlled substance, county parole violation.

EMERSON CALDERON, Fort Bragg. Paraphernalia, county parole violation, resisting.

MICHAEL GRAY, Morgan Hill/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

MANUEL GUZMAN, Ukiah. DUI, probation violation.

DARIN HAMMOND, Fort Bragg. Disorderly conduct-alcohol&drugs, probation revocation, resisting.

CRYSTAL MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

LORENZO MARTINEZ, Ukiah. County parole violation.

MICHAEL MILLER, North Highlands/Ukiah. DUI.

PAUL NELSON, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

MONIQUE ROBINSON, Ukiah. Domesic violence court order violation.

NORMA VERDUZCO, Willits. Disobeying court order.

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FRIDAY FUN FACT #4

William Sawyer (Coast Chatline): A mouse, a human and a giraffe all have the same number of cervical (neck) vertebrae” The mammalian vertebral pattern is 7 cervical vertebrae, with very few exceptions. This is not true for all vertebrates, however, because some salamanders may only have one neck vertebra while a bird, such as the swan, may have 24 or more cervical vertebrae in their long, graceful necks.

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Marco here. Two more facts: No matter the size of a mammal, from tiny shrew to African elephant, it takes very close to the same amount of time to urinate. And the penis of a blue whale is typically eight feet long.

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DIRT ROAD HIPPIES

by Paul Modic

Like many, I started out camping by a creek (Nooning), squatted in various abandoned cabins, lived in the middle of nowhere for years, and eventually moved from the hills back to the grid.

Looking back on life in the woods, we evolved from using candlelight to kerosene lamps, to a propane light (with radioactive thorium mantles), to solar panels with deep-cycle batteries powering 12 volt RV lights, to micro-hydro power and inverters, and finally to a backup generator to run a washer. (One morning I awoke in Jack Glick’s little ocean-view cabin and inside a kerosene glass chimney standing on the table was a mouse. How did it get in there without knocking it down?)

I was a real dirty hippie, taking a shower once a week at Nancy’s house, and putting 25 cents into the can by the tub. (It went up to 50 cents some years after that.)

Loneliness, desperation, and depression, ah those were the days, the stoned-all-day days. The longer I lived in the woods the more I drifted into socially-retarded isolation, living on Rosarita refried can beans and Bien Padre cardboard tortillas.

I did have some animal company: my old hippie door had been ripped apart by raccoons, and once I walked in, saw a skunk, and ran right out. This didn’t seem right so I went back in, shouted at it, then chased it out with a broom.

I reached a sort of peace with the raccoons: they got the upstairs and I stayed downstairs. Upstairs my bed was stained with raccoon piss and shit and downstairs mice and rats skittered along the shelves of food. I finally ended up at the neighbors' house in tears—the raccoons had taken over my house! (Somebody fixed the old door by lining the edge with sheet metal.)

It took years to dig deeper into isolation, many more to dig out of it, and now I can actually have a conversation.

The village was an interesting group of around sixty-six handmade houses containing about two hundred residents, many well-educated hippies, in a community with no communication between the houses, just one phone at the top of the mountain and another neighbor had a Cal-Autophone.

If we wanted to communicate directly we’d walk or drive to someone’s house and knock at the door, or maybe knocking was too square, man, maybe we just called out and walked right in. Town was also where we met in the early days: Whitethorn, Garberville, the swimming holes, and the parties of course. (Sex and drugs and rock ‘n roll, baby.)

Eventually we all got CB radios and communicated that way, and then Nat Childs innovated a phone system by making a cordless phone able to connect with its base unit up to six miles away. I was one of the first to have one of those, with those big antennas connecting to the Continental Telephone lines at the top of the mountain, and another down at the cabin. (We could actually connect to the internet with the “Nat phones” at 6800 bauds, though the connection would drop often when playing internet Scrabble.)

Finally near the end of the 20th century we got buried phone lines, later came satellite internet, and now that steep and foggy gulch of my dreams is as connected as anywhere.

(hillmuffin@gmail.com)

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AND DON'T EXPECT SEXUAL FAVORS

Seeking $450 mo. Senior California Housing

Housing is a human right, alright, but it is not right that there’s no affordable housing anymore. I’d take affordable housing which is supposed to be 30% of income. My social security is $1300 monthly. Thirty percent of that is about $450. I am wiling to pay $450 per month for senior housing in California. I need to leave the Royal Motel by 11 a.m. September 1st. For those of you with political connections, please forward my information so that I may remain a housed California resident. Thank you very much. P.S. I am not willing to do any slave work exchange and there will be no sexual favors. Trim your own hedges and get a masseuse. ~Peaceout~

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Facing East

Just finished a day of sending out email messages 1.To the eastern seaboard, particularly Washington, D.C. , because I choose to remain socio-politically active on the planet earth and 2.To just about everywhere imaginable in the State of California, because being based here would be a stability factor. I could always travel and go anywhere for frontline activist related participation and write about it. But I would have a home base to return to, which would be good. Meanwhile, my complaint with the United States of America, is that after 74 years of consistently being a good citizen, which includes 23 years of unpaid work with Catholic Worker (which is why my social security benefits are so relatively low), following graduation from the University of Arizona, plus having been fully on through the civil rights movement, the radical environmental movement, the peace movement, and individually successful cultivating a spiritual life, that I am now receiving nothing from the United States of America experiment with democracy. The monthly social security benefits are legally mine, and the government has no choice but to give that to me. Anything that I might add to this message would miss the point. You are welcome to contact me at any time. Yours for a global spiritual revolution in this insane quagmire of samsara,

Craig Louis Stehr, craiglouisstehr@gmail.com

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MEMO OF THE AIR: Good Night Radio show all night Friday night from Albion, live on KNYO!

Soft deadline to email your writing for tonight's (Friday night's) MOTA show is 6pm or so. If you can't make that, it's okay, send it whenever it's done and I'll read it on the radio next week. I might even check email on a music break and read it tonight anyway.

Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio is every Friday, 9pm to 5am* PST on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg and KNYO.org. The first hour of the show is simulcast on KAKX 89.3fm Mendocino.

Plus you can always go to https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com and hear last week's MOTA show. By Saturday night I'll put up the recording of tonight's show. Also there you'll find an assortment of cultural-educational amusements to occupy you until showtime, or any time, such as:

19th century (1800s) streaming services.

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/06/telefon-hirmondo-telephone-newspaper.html

A simple, nice, creative, free musical tool and toy.

https://www.onemotion.com/chord-player

And welcome! To MS-DOS 5 upgrade training! "The MS-DOS 5 upgrade is - a - /hit/, and no PC should be without /it/." Shaka, his eyes wide, his breathing shallow, his head asplode.

https://boingboing.net/2024/08/12/this-terrible-rap-video-will-help-you-upgrade-your-computers-operating-system.html

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

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DAVID SVEHLA:

Governor Gruesome… Good to see Gavin helping clean up a homeless camp. The universe loves symbolic gestures! Now if he could explain where the $24 billion in homeless funds went over the last year or three (“— I don’t know—” said he); or where the as -much -as 50$ billion dollars paid in “Unemployment Benefits” to the State’s Death Row inmates went under the watch of him and Cackles Harris went; or the whereabouts of the approximately 100,000 minor children brought across our open Southern Border? His over-riding the California Voters’ approval of a reinstated Death Penalty?

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FRED GARDNER:

June in San Francisco (Pride Month), the Orpheum Theater presented “Mrs. Doubtfire. The Musical.” I assume it was true to the movie, which was untrue to real life. Sally Field plays a very successful interior decorator married to Robin Williams, an under-employed actor. They have three children. After 14 years of marriage, wife ditches husband. Because she can’t get home to her Pacific Heights mansion till 7pm, she hires a nanny – Robin in drag. That a man can get made up as a woman and become unrecognizable to his wife and children is the film’s basic absurdity, but there are more. That a 13-year-old girl, a 12-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl would hang out together after school. That yuppie kids would have no extracurricular activities or separate friends. That there are no nannies from Central America in San Francisco. That a father can have a “healthy relationship” with his children posing as a woman. That an unemployed actor would skip a meeting with the owner of a TV network offering the break of a lifetime.

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BRUCE BRODERICK:

I've gotten tired of the doom loop that started in 2015 when Trump came down the escalator. These may not be the ideal candidates but I think they at least have a soul. Harris is moving in her own direction on Gaza and I believe there is more hope of resolving that nightmare with her in office than any other contender. Same with Walz.

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WALZ SHOULD BE LAUDED FOR HIS TIME IN NATIONAL GUARD

Editor,

How many people who criticize Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military service as a member of his state’s National Guard can say they or their families voluntarily served their country for 24 years?

Serving as a reservist while being employed full time takes a toll on military personnel and their families. As the widow of a retired Navy veteran, I supported my husband through 21 years of military service (four years active duty and 17 years reserve). He missed many birthdays and milestones with his family, but we felt that his time with the Navy was important.

Walz, whose service is being scrutinized now that he is the Democrats’ vice presidential nominee, could have retired at any time. He was never obligated to serve 24 years. We should be thankful for the men and women who choose to volunteer and praise them for their service.

Peggy Mahoney Whitehead

Novato

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

I’m sure there is going to be a post-convention blip for Kamala and Walz. The media is going to be all agog in the Democrat lovefest, hyping up the party narrative big time. Most likely any dissention among party rank and file will be quashed and any media coverage of protests among the unwashed masses will be not actively reported upon.

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ROBERT SCOTT HORTON:

Here's all you need to see from Trump's presser this afternoon in Bedminster, NJ. Trump: "The wind is ruining everything, killing all your birds, destroying the fields, all these gorgeous fields, you got windmills all over the place and you have birds. You want to see a bird cemetery, just go under a windmill. The bald eagle. These windmills knock them out like nothing." This man is a raging lunatic.

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GLEN KUIPER’S FIRING OVER A RACIAL SLUR DIVIDED BASEBALL. WILL HE GET A SECOND CHANCE?

by Susan Slusser

More than a year after Glen Kuiper lost his job broadcasting Oakland Athletics games for NBC Sports California for using a racial slur on the air — not for the first time — he remains out of work.

“I hope and pray that somebody gives me a second chance because I think my track record is pretty good,” he said. “I think I’m a pretty good announcer, and I’ve got a lot left in me.”

On May 5, 2023, during the A’s pregame show, Kuiper was enthusiastically discussing a trip he and analyst Dallas Braden had made to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum earlier in the day when he uttered the slur.

It was the second time Kuiper used the term on the air. He also did so in June 2020, while discussing depictions of Negro League players among the cardboard cutouts filling the stands during the pandemic. That factored into NBC Sports California’s decision to let him go.

Over the past year, Kuiper has gotten support from African Americans across baseball, including Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and former A’s players Dave Stewart and Shooty Babitt. In an interview with the Chronicle last month, Kuiper’s brother Duane, the former Giants player and longtime Giants TV broadcaster, offered a different explanation of the incident.

“He didn’t say the word,” Duane Kuiper claimed. “He mispronounced the word ‘Negro.’ That’s a huge difference. If you follow the trail of what led him to mispronounce that word, he was talking about a positive experience at the Negro League Museum that day.

“This was the perfect storm. If you’re going to create a recipe on how to misspeak a word like ‘Negro,’ every ingredient was there, including the fact that (a producer) was speaking to him in his ear while this was going on.”

Duane Kuiper said he never had cause to imagine his brother capable of using a racial slur.

“We were raised in a house where that didn’t fly at all,” Duane Kuiper said of their childhood in Racine, Wis. “Glen is about as far from being a racist of anybody that I know.”

Others, such as Mariners TV announcer Dave Sims, do not think Kuiper should be back in the booth.

“I couldn’t freaking believe he did it,” said Sims, who is a three-time Washington state Broadcaster of the Year and one of the few Black play-by-play broadcasters in baseball history. “That came right out, way too easy. That’s tough to recover from in our industry. You just can’t do that. No sale.”

For Sims, the fact that this was a second offense weighs heavily.

“Somebody told me, ‘You think this is bad, this is the second time’,” Sims said. ‘I said, ‘What? Wow.’ That’s really bad. It makes you wonder what someone says behind closed doors’.”

Harry Edwards, the preeminent sociologist who has written extensively about the intersection of sports and race, said that it’s crucial for teams and their broadcasters to react swiftly to slurs on the airwaves.

“I thought it was even more unfortunate when there was conversation about him having done it before,” Edwards said. “It’s important to address this because broadcasters really validate and project images, situations, nomenclatures, authoritative definitions. It’s so closely associated with the teams, with the organizations, with the communities that are involved and that are the general audiences — it matters tremendously.

“It’s a representation of the ownership, it’s a representation of the organization, it’s certainly a representation of the community in terms of the values and the deportment and so forth that the team is supposed to stand for and project.”

That said, Edwards believes that Kuiper deserves a second chance.

“We have to get to the place, especially in these turbulent times of division, where we cut each other some slack,” Edwards said. “Glen has been more than apologetic. He most certainly has not tried to defend what he said. Let’s get over it and move on. When it comes down to whether or not he should be able to broadcast again, he’s a hell of a broadcaster.

“That was terrible, it was embarrassing, it was offensive, but let’s move ahead.”

Kendrick, who has supported Glen Kuiper throughout, said he had hoped the announcer would not lose his job. “It’s an ugly and hateful and despicable word to utter, but I just could not condemn the man for what I truly believe was a mistake,” Kendrick said.

Glen Kuiper, 61, would like to find a job in his chosen profession. A 13-time Emmy winner, he played minor-league baseball for two years before earning a broadcasting degree from San Francisco State in 1990. It’s something of a family business: Duane has been one of the Giants’ announcers for more than 30 years and another brother, Jeff, is a longtime Giants TV producer.

“There are a lot of people who want to help, the list is long,” Glen Kuiper said. “I think people are initially hesitant, and I hope that goes away, but I’m aware it’s going to be somewhat of an issue for people.”

During the spring, Duane and Glen Kuiper appeared together on the streaming broadcast of a Giants game, prompting speculation that the team might be open to moving the youngest Kuiper into a broadcast role. That never happened; the interview was described as an informal pop-in by the Giants.

“I see how hard he’s trying to get back into the industry, and I see how quickly the doors are closed,” Duane Kuiper said. “Look, the Giants have been really, really helpful and positive, doing as much as they can, unlike the team that he worked for for 21 years. For whatever reason, (the A’s) just stuck their head in the sand, they just wanted it to go away, and what also goes away is the 21 years he spoke so highly of that organization.”

In the immediate aftermath, Glen Kuiper reached out to many Black people in sports, including former Oakland politician Robert Bobb and Stewart and his wife, baseball agent Lonnie Murray. Stewart and Murray were among those to publicly support Kuiper.

“There were a lot of people I needed to make sure were OK with me, and they all were,” Glen Kuiper said. “That sort of solidified in my mind that I am the person that I think I am. I understand why people may feel negatively about me; you wish you could just sit down and just have a conversation so they can get to know you a little bit. But that’s not realistic. That part’s hard, but I also have gotten validation from people that are very important to me.”

Those who spoke in Kuiper’s defense were heavily criticized by people who were angry at them for supporting a broadcaster who had uttered a slur twice. Stewart declined comment for this story, and Kendrick understands why.

“My good friend Dave Stewart spoke up because he has known Glen forever, he felt very similarly to how I did — and I was blown away by the amount of vitriol that was sent my way,” Kendrick said.

In the past year, Glen Kuiper said he has educated himself on race relations and, especially, the history of racism in baseball.

“That has done a lot of good for me, learning more about players’ struggles,” he said. “I needed to dig in and study this. I’ve learned a lot and it has given me a better understanding of everything, a better perspective. It’s something everyone should know about, especially baseball people. It’s important from a baseball standpoint, but really, just from a human being standpoint.”

While Kuiper won’t argue, as his brother does, that he mispronounced the word rather than using a racial epithet, Bay Area-based broadcaster Barry Tompkins, a four-time Emmy winner with nearly 50 years in the business, said he believes “it was so obviously just a slip of the tongue.”

“I really didn’t think there’d be the fallout there was because it really sounded to me like he just fluffed the word,” said Tompkins, who is white, and whose wife, former sports columnist Joan Ryan, works for the Giants.

“I know Glen, I know his whole family. That’s just not who he is. You can’t tell me people don’t know his character by now. It’s ludicrous for me to think that he would be a racist in any way, shape or form and, and to take that one step further, even if he had thought like that, he’s smart enough to never say it on television. It’s the kiss of death. There’s no question about it. You know you’re gone and your career is done.”

Glen Kuiper understands that might be the case with him.

“I know what the possibilities are here,” he said. “You just hope somebody gives you a second chance. I mean, that’s really all you can do. I really want to stay in the sports world, it’s been my whole life. But somebody has to give you that chance.”

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THE NO PRISONERS, END OF THE ROAD ELECTION

by James Kunstler

“It’s all projection of their own bad desires, bad actions, personal afflictions to the point where the best way to tell what they plan to do is to see what they accuse others of.” — El Gato Malo on Democrats

It’s fun to muse on the torrent of panicked, deranged texting between Democratic Convention delegates as a runaway train of malignant fates, bad choices, insane policies, delusional ideas, and feral emotion drives them to nominate a moron for president. The confusion and self-doubt must be epic. Are we really gonna do this? Is this really happening? You must imagine this is the same state of mind as, say, a car-full of drunken bridesmaids fishtailing down the highway at 70mph toward a telephone pole.

The mis-plays and subterfuges that brought them to this pass cannot be undone: the insult of letting “Joe Biden” front for a criminal blob government, the many hoaxes and the exorbitant lawfare lawlessness, the gross mismanagement of public affairs, wreckage of institutions, ruined economy, devalued dollar, destruction of households and communities, sexual lunacy and programmed mental illness — this is the party’s legacy. Are none among them even a little bit ashamed of the damage they’ve done to this nation? And maybe wondering about it between one another? Perhaps even anxious to make it stop?

And so, the delegates head to Chicago, a city in civic freefall, to either pretend to celebrate the capricious selection of utterly dubious leaders imposed on them by unseen hands, or, just maybe, to revolt against the evil cabal affecting to “defend our democracy” by squashing it. Of course that’s inside the convention. Lord knows what hijinks are being concocted for outside the United Center arena by the various tribes that run on hot yellow bile these dog days of summer — the Hamas mob, the sex freaks, Antifas, BLMs, assorted Bolsheviks, anarchists, utopians, climate change sob-sisters, Gramscian culture stompers, Spartacists, Trotskyites, Jacobins, Fabians, and plain old riffraff out for fun and loot. The gigantic parking wasteland surrounding the United Center on West Madison Street has the look of a perfect battlefield.

All that commences on Monday. In the meantime, much misdirection zings around the Trumpian opposition and the outlier Robert F Kennedy, Jr., as the intel blob that runs mainstream media attempts to seed dissension and confusion amongst them. It includes rumors that Mr. Trump made “a deal” with the blob to go all flabby in exchange for getting let off the hook on his many blob-contrived lawfare problems. The chance of that being true must be zero, even though New York Judge Juan Merchan has an opportunity to send the former president to jail on September 18. I would like to see him try that. It will surely prompt the most momentous and memorable tableau of symbolic resistance in US history since John Paul Jones yelled to the British ship Serapis requesting his surrender, “I have not yet begun to fight.”

As for RFK, Jr., stories circulate that Mr. Trump tried (and failed) to make a deal that would have got Bobby on-board as veep, or some other juicy assignment, if he would drop out of the race. But it’s hard to see exactly how that discredits either of them, since just about everybody expects Mr. Trump, if elected, to employ Bobby for, at least, cleaning up the public health and pharma sectors of the blob — an epic task he’s ideally suited for.

Then, there was malicious chatter late this week that Bobby had approached Kamala Harris with a proffered endorsement in exchange for a key position in her government — assuming that massive ballot fraud ensures her victory November fifth. Mr. Kennedy denied the rumor and went on to denounce the current incarnation of the Democratic Party as utterly inimical to everything it used to represent when his father and his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, were in office, especially on matters of free speech and censorship.

As that quarrel rolled out, Judge Christina Ryba kicked Bobby off the New York ballot for supposedly mis-stating that he was a New York resident on his own voter registration. He intends to appeal. New York has become a judicial sewer under Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

So, stand by now to see whether Kamala Harris and Tim Walz come out of next week’s convention Mixmaster the same way they went in: as bona fide candidates. At some point Ms. Harris will have to demonstrate some fitness for high office besides being a go-go dancer and a laugh riot. Tim Walz acts so unhinged in front of every audience that I expect the campaign to stuff him in a broom closet when the convention is over — should he actually still be on the ticket when all is said and done.

It seems at this point that the brooding Matron of Chappaqua will never get her “turn” in the White House after all. It must gall Hillary to see history change her out for an equity hire with half a brain. Politics is a cruel business. You’ll see just how cruel the next time they try to whack Mr. Trump in this No Prisoners, End of the Road election campaign. It will almost certainly get crazier from here.

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The hot tamales of New Orleans memory were popularized by Manuel Hernandez, an immigrant from Santiago, Mexico, who started peddling his wares from a cart on the corner of Carrollton and Canal in 1933. His wife, Rosena, was Sicilian, and his blend of spices was described as Mexican with “a touch of Italian flavor.” In 1960, he moved his business into a raised basement storefront at 4709 S. Carrollton (his daughter, Maria, ran a hair salon upstairs). By 1963, Manuel’s was selling at five satellite locations across the metro area. After he passed away in 1968, his son-in-law, William Schneider, took over the business.

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JOE FRAZIER should give his face to the Wildlife Fund! He so ugly, blind men go the other way!

— Muhammad Ali

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LADY PSYCHOLOGIST is running a call-in love advice show.

Caller: Hi, this is Steve from Los Molinos. My left testicle is turning orange.

Lady: Are you naked right now?

Caller: Uh-huh.

Lady: Do you have a bag of Cheetos in your lap?

Caller: [pause…] Whoooa! … You're good.

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MASS PROTESTS PLANNED FOR DNC SPOTLIGHT CHICAGO’S LEGACY OF POLICE REPRESSION

Legal advocates say Chicago cops have long targeted protesters as they prepare for a crackdown ahead of the convention.

by Mike Ludwig

The upcoming Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago has been drawing parallels to its 1968 predecessor for months now. Back then, members of the Chicago Police Department infamously attacked protesters and innocent bystanders on live television during a calamitous crackdown on crowds of anti-war protesters gathered outside.

While the violence of 1968 sticks out in the national memory, it’s only one piece of Chicago law enforcement’s long history of repressing social liberation movements that stretches back to the labor revolts of the 19th century.

Now, as tens of thousands of demonstrators prepare to descend on downtown Chicago to march on the 2024 DNC in protest of the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the decades-long effort to protect freedom of assembly and hold police accountable on the streets of Chicago is once again gaining national attention.

“There’s been an animus against leftist and progressive organizing throughout the history of Chicago — we’ve just perpetually seen the targeting and the retribution and violence against individuals who are progressive, leftist and in some cases liberal, protesting for different demands,” said Joey Mogul, director of partnerships at Movement Law Lab and a veteran attorney at the Chicago-based People’s Law Office, in an interview.

From the unlawful mass arrest of veterans and other demonstrators protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, to the police officers caught on camera beating protesters during the scandal-plagued response to the uprisings for racial justice in 2020, Chicago police are notorious for brutal crackdowns on activists. Their hostility has kept the department embroiled in controversy and expensive lawsuits for years after the crowds disperse.

Most recently, Chicago police have come under fire for their responses to various demonstrations and direct actions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Arielle Rebekah, a spokesperson for the anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace, said activists have observed a clear pattern of police targeting specific Black and Palestinian activists for harassment and arrest.

“It is very obviously targeted, because the people they are picking out are the people who are known protest organizers in Chicago. It is consistent, and too consistent to be accidental,” Rebekah said.

Mogul pointed out that Chicago has a long and “ugly history” of violent police crackdowns on large demonstrations that end in mass arrests in violation of the First Amendment.

“That includes in 2003 with the anti-Iraq war protests, the demonstrations in response to the NATO summit in 2012, the egregious violence and ‘kettling’ that we saw at some of the protests in support of Black lives in the summer of 2020,” Mogul said. “And most recently, we are seeing violence at protests gathering in response to the war on Gaza or the demands for a ceasefire, and in response to outrage over the police killing of Dexter Reed.”

Dexter Reed, a 26-year-old Black man, was shot 13 times and killed by police during a traffic stop on Chicago’s West Side in March. Medical examiners ruled the case a homicide. Police say Reed shot first, but protests broke out in recent weeks following the release of body camera footage showing officers firing almost 100 rounds. Reed’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the police of using violent and militarized tactics.

The protests over Reed’s death follow multiple cycles of outrage over racist and deadly police violence in Chicago, where the city council recently agreed to pay $57 million to settle three lawsuits over a range of police misconduct, including an unauthorized car chase that left a 15-year-old with a traumatic brain injury and unable to walk. Efforts by the community to reform the Chicago Police Department were so contentious and unsuccessful that the Justice Department stepped in and announced a consent decree back in 2018. That decree mandates the police department must improve training and policies around “impartial policing,” “use of force,” “crisis intervention,” and other areas under federal oversight.

Anger boiled over again during the summer of 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a nationwide uprising for racial justice.

On May 30, 2020, groups of Black and Brown youth who showed up to protest were trapped in downtown Chicago after former Mayor Lori Lightfoot ordered bridges to be lifted and public transportation shut down. The Chicago Freedom School, which teaches community organizing primarily to Black and Brown youth, opened its doors so the protesters could gather in safety and coordinate rides home as a 9 p.m. emergency curfew approached.

Chicago Freedom School organizers also provided bottles of water, pizza and granola bars to the stranded youth, which prompted a raid by Chicago police along with city inspectors who penalized the school for running a commercialized kitchen without a business license. The school was temporarily shut down under a “cease and desist” order that was described as a deliberate attack on Black and Brown youth exercising their First Amendment rights.

As counsel for the People’s Law Office, Mogul and other attorneys filed suit against the city and the police department and the “cease and desist” order was rescinded as part of a settlement with the Chicago Freedom School. While the city reprimanded the officials who handed out the unlawful order, they were later promoted within the Chicago bureaucracy, according to local reports.

“They weren’t selling this food for money, so it was clearly pretextual and outrageous, a way to prevent and chill the Chicago Freedom School from supporting these young Black and Brown people protesting police violence,” Mogul said.

The Chicago Freedom School was far from the only controversy arising from the Chicago Police Department’s response to the 2020 protests. The use of pepper spray and indiscriminate mass arrests during the uprisings came under intense public scrutiny. A report by the Inspector General for Chicago found that the department’s crowd management policies increased the likelihood that cops would violate the constitutional rights of demonstrators.

Under fire for these alleged First Amendment violations, the Chicago Police Department is rolling out new protocols for policing mass events and protests ahead of the DNC, including a new standard for ordering crowds to disperse only if three or more individuals are involved in “disorderly conduct” that could lead to “substantial harm.”

Top Chicago police officials have said “rioting” will not be tolerated during the DNC next week, and the city reopened a defunct courtroom to handle an anticipated multitude of cases in the event of mass arrests during the convention.

Considering the track record of the Chicago police, it’s no surprise racial justice and police accountability are a major focus of the city’s vast activist scene. Mogul said people coming to Chicago to protest the DNC should know that movement lawyers are coordinating across multiple organizations — including the Movement Law Lab, Palestine Legal, the National Lawyers Guild, and others — to provide legal support for activists. Protesters can access legal support from those organizations by calling this hotline: 1 (872) 465 4244.

“I think people have a right to protest and should feel comfortable doing so,” Mogul said. “But they should be smart, be wise, go with other people, and make sure that people who are not at the protest know they are there.”

(truthout.org)

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“WHEN YOU START THINKING about what people like, you start thinking about what people expect. Then you start pandering to people's expectations. Then you start talking about yourself in the third person. And then you end up overdosed in a hotel room. I learned very early on not to think about that. You go out there and do the best you can, and you do things that are interesting to you. Hopefully it will be interesting to other people. I don't want to be adequate. I'd rather fail gloriously making something strange, awesome but ultimately a failure.”

— Anthony Bourdain

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US CORPORATIONS PUMP AQUIFERS DRY IN MEXICO - POLICE KILL WATER DEFENDERS

Farmers are risking their lives to fight back against the US-owned factory farms that are destroying Mexico's water.

by David Bacon

On June 20, more than 200 angry farmers pulled their tractors into the highway outside the Carroll Farms feed plant in the Mexican town of Totalco, Veracruz, blocking traffic. Highway blockades are a traditional form of protest in Mexico. Every year, poor communities mount dozens, seeing them as their only way to get powerful elites to hear their demands.

At first, the Totalco blockade was no different. Farmers yelled at the guards behind the feed plant gates, as they protested extreme water use by Carroll Farms and its contamination of the water table. Then the police arrived in pickup trucks. They began grabbing people they thought were the leaders. One was Don Guadalupe Serrano, an old man who’d led earlier protests going back more than a decade. After he was put in handcuffs and shoved into a police car, farmers surrounded it and rescued him.

“Then four police grabbed me,” recalls Renato Romero, a farmer from nearby Ocotepec and a protest leader. “I was rescued too. But then more police arrived and began beating people. We put our bodies in front of their guns and said, ‘Shoot us!’ And they began shooting.”…

truthout.org/articles/us-corporations-pump-aquifers-dry-as-police-kill-water-defenders-in-rural-mexico/

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