Mendocino County Today: January 19, 2014

MATEEL’S BLATANT VIOLATIONS

Dear Mr. Anderson,

I wanted you to know about this. I can't get any of the "news agencies" in SoHum to look into this (see attachment).  My concern is the unpermitted and unapproved amount of water used for the event in 2013. They had been approved to use 60,000 gallons and ended up using 279,000 gallons after the fact. And now asking for 700,000 for 2014, wow.  My other concern, was that 27,600 gallons of waste and grey water they generated and disposed of onsite, in a "leach field", that was not approved by the Water Quality Control Board.  It would seem the Mateel Community Center would rather make money than help protect the South Fork Eel River. Or another way of saying it, the Mateel Board of Directors internalizes the profits and externalizes the degrading cost to the river and wildlife habitat.  This is how people of a black market underground economy think, the acorn doesn't fall too far from the tree…

Thank you for your time and consideration, Ed Voice, Redway

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RECORD DROUGHT:

New satellite images show the true extent of the record drought hitting California, as the state declares an emergency and seeks federal aid.

The NOAA images show how the state's landscape is parched with minimal snow cover and the land dried out compared to the same time last year.

The dry year California experienced in 2013 has left fresh water reservoirs with a fraction of their normal reserves and slowed the normally full American River so dramatically that brush and dry riverbed are showing through in areas normally teeming with fish.

'We can't make it rain, but we can be much better prepared for the terrible consequences that California's drought now threatens, including dramatically less water for our farms and communities and increased fires in both urban and rural areas,' Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement.

'I've declared this emergency and I'm calling all Californians to conserve water in every way possible,' he said, in a move that will allow him to call for conservation measures and provide flexibility in deciding state water priorities.

Speaking at a news conference in San Francisco, he said the drought threatens to leave farms and communities with dramatically less water and increases the risk of fires in both urban and rural areas.

He appealed to residents to keep a lid on water use with the aim of reducing overall consumption by 20 percent, telling them that 'this takes everybody pitching in.' He warned that mandatory conservation programs may be initiated down the road.

In a sign of the severity of the drought, some of the state's reservoirs are at their lowest levels in years. The Folsom Reservoir near Sacramento is so low that the remains of a Gold Rush-era ghost town - flooded to create the lake in the 1950s - are visible for the first time in years.

The state's mountain ranges, where runoff from melting snow provides much of the water for California's thirsty cities and farms, have just 20% of the snow they normally have at this time of year, officials noted.

Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir in California, is down from its historical average by nearly half.

Other sources of water, including the massive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, are also affected, prompting cities to dip into reserves and forcing farmers to scramble. Some public agencies may be able to purchase just five per cent of the water that they contracted to buy from the state.

Adding to concerns, January and February are usually the wettest months in much of the state, but 2014 has so far been mostly dry, with little precipitation expected, according to the National Weather Service.

In declaring a drought emergency, Brown said he did not know if he would be successful in persuading the federal government to free up funds for drought relief but he would try his best.

'It's important, first of all, to awaken all Californians to the serious matter of drought,' he said, also warning of upcoming 'conflicts and different perceptions on how water is to be allocated.'

Water has long been a contentious issue in California, where it has been diverted from mountain lakes and streams to irrigate farms and slake the thirst of metropolitan areas.

Many of the state's efforts to deal with the problem are controversial, including a $25 billion plan to divert water from above the delta by sending it through a pair of huge tunnels.

For many in the state's $44.7 billion agriculture business, water scarcity is a problem made worse by a recent switch to orchard-style crops such as almonds and olives. Unlike vegetables or cotton, which grow in fields that can be left fallow in dry years, the trees need water every year.

Already, there were signs of competing priorities among groups that contend for water and will be closely watching how state officials use their new flexibility in allocating it.

Assemblywoman Connie Conway, the leader of the Republican minority in the state Assembly who represents a heavily agricultural area in central California, expressed hope that with the declaration more water could go toward 'Valley farmers and workers who depend on water to feed the world.'

John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, said his group's concern was for the health of salmon and a fishing industry that supports tens of thousands of jobs in California and Oregon.

'If the drought declaration results in more attention to saving the salmon that are in the Sacramento Valley rivers, and which are in dire need of attention, then that is good thing,' he said.

Doug Obegi, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said California has a complex system that allocates water to areas that laid claim to it first - often over 100 years ago - and which many view the system as unfair.

'Because it's so contentious, there are times when it's hard to make progress,' Obegi said.

But in some ways the state has done well. Over the last 40 years, the state's agriculture industry has doubled the revenue per drop of water used, largely from improved efficiency and changes in the plants grown, Obegi said.

(Text and photos courtesy the London Daily Mail.)

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DROUGHT FALLOUT. A LostCoastOutpost.com reader comments:

“This may be the year when the majority of local growers learn basic math, if they haven't already: (Gallons per day per plant) X (number of plants) X (days of irrigation) = how much water you need to store. The slow learners are going to go bust.

I do a lot of water work in SoHum and all the springs I have been keeping flow records of for years are at record low flows including my own, but I have enough to fill my tanks. There simply won't be any water and growers will only be able to plant what they have the water for. The smart ones are putting in winter water storage or have done so, but will there be enough rain before June to fill the big tanks and ponds?

The cost of hauling water for the entire season is simply not economically feasible. Last year growers were forced to haul water just to finish their crop and that cuts into their bottom line seriously, but it was better than losing the whole crop.”

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BURNING PERMITS REQUIRED JANUARY 20, 2014

Willits – Due to continued dry conditions throughout the County,  CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit Chief Christopher P. Rowney advises Burning Permits are required prior to ANY outdoor burning on State Responsibility Lands (SRA) in Mendocino County effective 12:01 AM Monday, January 20, 2014. In addition, the lack of rainfall in Mendocino County has resulted in unusual fire hazard conditions that require a suspension of burning on SRA lands until those conditions are abated by a significant change in weather and fuel moisture. Burning Permits may be obtained at CAL FIRE’s Howard Forest Headquarters office Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM. Additionally, permits may be obtained from 8 AM to 5 PM at the following CAL FIRE locations. Not all CAL FIRE Stations are staffed seven days a week; please contact your local Station to assure staffing will be available to assist you. Please remember that the permits are suspended until fire hazard conditions are abated and the suspension is lifted.

CAL FIRE STATIONS
Location / Phone

• Boonville Station, 895-3323
• Covelo Station, 983-6499
• Howard Forest Station, 459-7413
• Fort Bragg Station, 964-5673
• Leggett Station, 925-6414
• Point Arena Station, 882-2151
• Ukiah Station, 462-7448

Burning Permits can also be obtained from the following local agencies (Note: the following agencies only issue permits within their respective districts): Laytonville, Little Lake (Willits), Redwood Valley-Calpella and Brooktrails Fire Departments Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM. CAL FIRE reminds everyone that it is their individual responsibility to use fire safely and to prevent fires. Visit www.ReadyforWildfire.org for more information on how to prepare for and prevent wildfires. Anyone with question about this declaration is urged to contact the nearest CAL FIRE facility.

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RECOMMENDED VIEWING: “Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer.” Probably like a lot of people I laughed when I heard the name of this Russian band and then became vaguely aware that the Putin government had put them in jail. I didn't know why Pussy Riot had been arrested for “hooliganism,” that handy, catch-all Rooskie charge, until I watched this fascinating documentary made by two men, one English the other Russian. The all-female band, three of them anyway, that got itself arrested arose from a feminist art collective whose purpose is to get rid of Putin by outraging major sectors of his support — the Russian Orthodox Church, police and the military, and conventional people generally.

THESE GIRLS are plenty provocative, for sure. Watching it, I thought about the difference between them and American punk provocations like, say, the Naked Guys, here in San Francisco and Piss Christ, is these particular Russian art provocateurs are a lot smarter than their Anglo-American equivalents seem to be, and much more articulate as they wrap their actions in a political analysis that claims by shocking the squares they make the point that Putin is a dictator who has to go before Russia can become any kind of cool, tolerant society. You see Americans trying to rile the conventional and you think, “You know what? You're real boring. There's a difference between exhibitionism and an artistic political statement.”

I WAS UNABLE to follow Pussy Riot's logic. I don't see how having group sex in Red Square and jumping up on the altar of a church while singing a song called, “Mother of God, chase Putin away,” that one followed up by a treatise on “God's shit,” accomplishes much of anything beyond making a congregation of old ladies cry. The group also runs up on uniformed female cops and lays big, deep kisses on them, an act that would probably get you shot if you tried it here in Gun Land. The upshot was that Putin comes off as reasonable, pointing out that one of the Bolshevik's first acts was to bulldoze that church for a public swimming pool, and the first thing a lot of believers did when the Soviet Union collapsed, along with its currency, was to somehow scrape together the money to rebuild it. As Putin points out, cynically in his case, I'm sure, is that a truly democratic society begins by tolerating most perspectives short of incitements to race hatred.

MOST INTERESTING, to me anyway, were the scenes of the Russian courtroom and the interviews with the girl's parents. The Russians seem to be eating well, maybe as well as our fatso-watsos, and I have no idea how they recruit their cops, but the faces on a lot of them would stop most American crime in its tracks. Russian cops, male and female, are some big, scary-looking hulks.

MOST AFFECTING were the interviews with the parents of the provocateurs, especially the mystified mother of one of them. She's reminiscent of the parents you used to see interviewed when Hippie got rolling here on a mass scale back in '66-'67. But unlike our serenely oblivious population, Russians still live with the fresh memory of real deprivation and mass dislocation, not to mention a government that ruled by disappearance and the midnight knock on the door. “I don't know where we went wrong,” this uncomprehending mother cries. “We did everything for her, lived for her. Now people call me at night and say they are going to kill her and rip the arms off our granddaughter.” The American equivalent used to be, “God knows I tried. He (or she) was such a happy child, trotting off to school with his little dog following along after him. Why he became a drug addicted communist I'll never know. Rock and roll maybe.”

ONE PARENT of a Pussy Rioter says he did indeed raise his daughter to be an artist of the provocative type. He says of seeing her on television in a starring role in Pussy Riot's public sex demo, something like, “If I saw people I didn't know having sex in the streets I would stop to watch. But my daughter? I don't think so.”

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CRIME OF THE WEEK

Victims Of Texas Pot Rip-Off Arrested for Being Ripped Off

On January 13th at about 7:50pm Ukiah Police responded to the 1000 block of South State Street for the report of a subject possibly armed with a firearm, near a hotel. The suspect was then reported to have left in a vehicle, which officers located parked in the 100 block of Talmage Road. Officers contacted 39 year old Charles Dale Maxfield and 28 year old Christopher Michael Gonsman, both of Ukiah, neither of whom had a firearm. Officers did locate a knife with a large wooden handle inside the vehicle, as well as numerous bags of loose marijuana, some bud marijuana, and over $8000 in what was later determined to be counterfeit US Currency. After obtaining statements from both suspects and witnesses, officers determined Maxfield and Gonsman had sold an unknown amount of marijuana to two subjects from Texas at a nearby hotel. Maxfield and Gonsman left but soon determined they had been paid with counterfeit money, and returned to the hotel to find the buyers had left. Maxfield and Gonsman were seen leaving the hotel and one of them likely had the knife in his waistband, the large handle of which was likely mistaken for the handle of a firearm. Maxfield and Gonsman were arrested for sales of marijuana and criminal conspiracy, and Maxfield also with possessing counterfeit money.

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MANBEATER OF THE WEEK:

Obviously, Ashley didn’t do anything to the guy that he didn’t have coming.

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THE DOORBELL GOES AROUND NOON. I'm expecting Antony Crolla, the photographer, so don't look through the window and open the door to find what I take to be a builder with a loose piece of flex in his hand and what could be a meter. He says he's working at a house nearby but needs to check our drain which may have a hairline crack. He makes to come in, but I say that if there is any work needs doing we have a builder of our own and in any case my partner deals with all that. He then claims to have spoken to my 'boyfriend' who says it's OK. I shut the door on him and telephone R,, the so-called builder meanwhile banging on the door. R, of course has never spoken to anyone, so I go back to the door where, as soon as I open it, the caller gets his foot in the door (literally). Bridget, who's downstairs, now comes up and at the sight of a third party he takes fright, retreating to a white van waiting opposite with its engine running which drives off so quickly I fail to get the number. Thinking about it afterwards, where he went wrong was in not being ingratiating enough or trying to explain what the 'drain problem' was and graduating straight to the frenzied banging on the door; 'your boyfriend' didn't help either. Like all crooks he was affronted when his honesty was questioned, if only because it implied a criticism of his performance. (— Alan Bennett)

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NEEDED: THREE OBAMA SPEECHES FOR THE PEOPLE

An Open Letter to the President

by Ralph Nader

Dear President Obama:

All the daily decisions and crises you have to confront must not preclude occasional addresses to the country that rise to the level of statesmanship, transcending the hurly-burly of politics and executive branch administration.

There are three areas where the people need the views and vision of their President.

1. A major address on the resources and preconditions necessary for the government to wage peace as a continual policy of statecraft and not just sporadic initiatives between waging war or engaging in other violent conflicts. Consider the enormous disparity of time, power and money allocated to preparing for or waging military assaults with what is devoted to prevention of conflict and other fundamentals of securing the conditions for peace. The tiny U.S. budgets for nuclear, chemical and biological arms control with the Soviet Union and other nations over the years have certainly produced positive returns of incalculable magnitude and importance.

We have military academies but no peace academies. Vast sums are allocated for research and teaching about war and military tactics, but very little for peace studies at our schools and universities. You may wish to meet with former Washington Post columnist, Colman McCarthy, who teaches peace in the Washington D.C. area schools and has written pioneering books and articles that include his compelling arguments for having peace studies adopted in high schools and colleges around the country (see http://www.salsa.net/peace/conv/ for more information).

2. Earlier in 2009 and again in 2011 I wrote to urge you to address a large gathering, in a convenient Washington venue, for the leaders of nonprofit civic organizations with tens of millions of members throughout the United States. Not receiving a reply, I sent my request to the First Lady, Michelle Obama, whose assistant replied saying you were too busy.

You were, however, not too busy to address many business groups and also to walk over to the oppositional U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Well, it is the second term and such a civic gathering could be scheduled at your convenience. You could use this occasion to make a major speech on the importance and means of advancing the quality and quantity of civic groups and their chapters which, taken together, are major employers. Your advisers could even justify the effort as stimulating a jobs program by urging larger charitable contributions from the trillions of dollars of inert money in the hands of the upper economic classes.

3. Strengthening democratic processes and expanding democratic institutions and participation by the people are cardinal functions of the presidency. Indeed, Harvard Law Professor, Richard Parker in his little, seminal book: Here the People Rule (Harvard University Press, 1998) argues that the constitution authorizes the President “to facilitate the political and civic energies of the people.”

A major address on this topic should be right up your experiential alley from both your early experience in Chicago of observing and confronting the power structures’ many forms of exclusion and mistreatment of the populace and your more recent accommodation to that power structure and its influence over Congress.

As has been said, democracy is not a spectator sport. It requires a motivated citizenry, along with rights, remedies, and mechanisms that facilitate people banding together as candidates, voters, workers, taxpayers, consumers and communities. Concentration of power and wealth in the hands of the few who decide for the many is the great destroyer of any society’s democratic functions. It was Justice Louis Brandeis who, memorably, stated that, “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” And another well-regarded jurist, Judge Learned Hand declared, “If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice.”

As “politics” is seen by more people as a dirty word and as the people move from cynicism about political institutions to greater withdrawal from them, including public meetings, primaries, elections and referenda, they need a president who addresses these disabling symptoms of a weakening democratic society from the local to the state to the national levels of our political economy.

Such an address will have positive reverberations beyond the general public. Depending on your scope, recommendations and announcements, it will reach the youth of our country, our high schools, universities, workplaces and professional schools. Why it may even affect the moribund, technical routines of the Harvard Law Review (where you were president in 1990) as well as other law schools, bar associations and lawyers who aspire to higher estimates of their own professional significance (see my remarks “The Majesty of the Law Needs Magisterial Lawyers” before the Connecticut Bar Association June 17, 2013 http://nader.org/2013/06/18/the-majesty-of-the-law-needs-magisterial-lawyers/). If law means justice, as it should, then the rule of law needs presidential refurbishing to strengthen the fiber of our democracy.

I hope you will see the merit of these three suggestions. A copy of this letter is being sent to the First Lady, Michelle Obama, whose staff may be responsive in a different manner.

I look forward to your reaction.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader

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RICHARD KARCH WRITES:

CALL TO ACTION: We learned on Wednesday that the College of the Redwoods administration plans to eliminate 3 of the 4 remaining full-time faculty members of our local College of the Redwoods campus. Only the woodworking instructor would remain full-time. Clearly this is a crushing blow to our campus as we have known it. If you believe a fully functioning community college is essential to our community, please let the college administration know how you feel about this. There is a board meeting this Saturday, January 18th, at 10 am in Eureka at which you can make public comment during the first few minutes of the meeting. Also on the agenda is a discussion of CR?s ?next 50 years.? Public comment can also be made when that agenda item is addressed, probably around noon. No official action will be taken at this meeting. If you can attend the meeting in Eureka, please do so. If not, please write to all of the CR trustees:

• Rick Bennett: bennett@sunstarcom.net
• Colleen Mullery: cbm@humboldt.edu
• Tracy Coppini: tcoppini@gmail.com
• Bruce Emad: bruceemad@gmail.com
• Richard Dorn: redorn@suddenlink.net
• Tom Ross: trr@northcoast.com
• Sally Biggin: sbiggin@thegrid.net
• Barbara Rice: barbrice@mcn.org
• Mohamad Alnakhlawi: student-trustee@redwoods.edu
• Kathy Lehrner: kathy-lehrner@redwoods.edu

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ON-LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY:

The sad truth of the matter is that there are too many people who were born into this “Consumer Lifestyle” that is heavily promoted by all industries and even tens of decades of leadership. It now drives our economic system. We have a momentum that will be, in my opinion, impossible to stop with any brevity. For Christ’s sake, we wrap vegetables individually in plastics, we sell water in plastic bottles! We order anything we can imagine via computer and it is delivered to our doorsteps within a few days. This machine is not going to stop, regardless of the specter that looms over us. Our two major political organizations are for sure bought and sold daily by the very companies that cause global warming. We even allow nuclear power plants to exist on the shores of our life giving oceans! In a nutshell, we are screwed. Can we do something? Anything? Sure... but will we? Not likely, my friends.

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THE CAFFREY CAMPAIGN IS STARVING

Political Virtual Postmodern American Fundraising Appeal Warm spiritual greetings, Please appreciate the fact that I lent Caffrey for Congress (California District 2, which is Marin County and the coastal strip up to the Oregon border) $300, which was from my social security retirement check, in September. The money, plus other money which I helped to raise, was used to rent a space underneath candidate Caffrey's apartment in Garberville, CA, which now serves as his campaign headquarters. At present, I have been informed that he is struggling to keep the rent paid, needs more food to survive, and his campaign manager Austin G. Barnett, recently moved from Salt Lake City with previous campaign management experience, is penniless. Now, I understand as well as anyone the value of service to society. Nevertheless, I am flummoxed as to why California's District 2 is in such dire straits, that electing a more radical candidate than the incumbent requires that I and the Caffrey for Congress crew must make extreme sacrifices. I need to receive my $300 back for my own survival! The Caffrey for Congress campaign could then reimburse YOU for the amount. Please understand that I am presently in New Orleans, at the request of my longtime friend Jamie “Bork” Loughner, who is damaged due to having the Ku Klux Klan affiliated police beat the shit out of her years ago, when she attempted to stop the unnecessary demolition of public housing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. She has inadequate medical and social service support here in Louisiana; for my update, check out https://www.theava.com/archives/27123 and please scroll down to the last item. I realize that there is only a remote possibility that anyone will wire me or mail me $300, and then allow the Caffrey for Congress campaign to reimburse the money. But then, it would be even more ridiculous if I did not ask for help. And lastly, don't worry that I will get so much money beyond the $300, that you therefore need not help out. If I do receive mon! ey in excess of $300, I promise to give anything beyond $300 to Jamie “Bork” Loughner, who really really really does deserve to receive something positive from the postmodern American confusion. Nota bene: If you are coming to New Orleans for Mardi Gras or Jazz & Heritage Festival, feel free to telephone us at (504)302-9951. Peace and Love, Craig Louis Stehr Craig Louis Stehr c/o Jamie “Bork” Loughner 333 Socrates Street New Orleans, LA 70114 Telephone: (504)302-9951 Email: craigstehr@gmx.us Blog: http://craiglstehr.blogspot.com

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THE FOLLOWING were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office:

Marijuana Sales, Gun -- Christopher S. Beam, 43, of Mendocino, was arrested at 3:09 p.m. Wednesday on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale, cultivating marijuana, possessing a gun or ammunition while prohibited, being an ex-felon with a gun and violating his probation terms, and booked at the county jail. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force arrested him.

DUI -- Mitchell E. Elm, 71, of Ukiah, was arrested at 3:10 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The MCSO arrested him.

Domestic Violence -- Ashley J. Parker, 22, of Ukiah, was arrested at 8:18 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of domestic assault and resisting arrest, and booked at the county jail. The Ukiah Police Department arrested her.

Vehicle Theft -- Scott L. Franks, 27, of Ukiah, was arrested at 12:08 a.m. Friday on suspicion of vehicle theft, grand theft and receiving stolen property, and booked at the county jail under $15,000 bail. The UPD arrested him.

Marijuana Transport -- Robert T. Peck, 27, of Las Vegas, was arrested at 2:30 a.m. Friday on suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale, having illegal weapons and conspiracy, and booked at the county jail under $30,000 bail. The Willits Police Department arrested him.

Marijuana Transport -- Matthew M. Resar, 30, of Eureka, was arrested at 2:30 a.m. Friday on suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale and booked at the county jail under $30,000 bail. The WPD arrested him.

DUI -- Alexander N. Poulides, 37, of Willits, was arrested at 7:43 a.m. Friday on suspicion of driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit, and booked at the county jail. The California Highway Patrol arrested him.

DUI -- Shawn Ganapoler, 27, of San Rafael, was arrested at 9:43 a.m. Friday on suspicion of driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol level greater than the legal limit and public intoxication, and booked at the county jail under $10,000 bail. The UPD arrested him.