Mendocino County Today: Monday, September 29, 2014

• Big THPs on the Albion
• Big Raise for the Midnight Rambler
• Generation Wuss
• Community Rights Road Show
• Catch of the Day
• Andy's Birthday Card to Craig

THE FISHER FAMILY of San Francisco owns the Mendocino Redwood Company and the Humboldt Redwood Company. They've made pots of dough in the garment industry and, it almost goes without saying, are politically well-connected. They own Old Navy and The Gap, among other interests, retail supermarkets made wildly profitable by sweat shop labor. Robert Fisher is an “honorary trustee” of the National Resources Defense Council along with fellow current Trustee Robert Redford.

THE FISHER'S TAKEOVER of L-P, much of G-P, and almost all of Charles Hurwitz's Pacific Lumber in Humboldt County, made them the largest private landholders in Northern California, maybe in the state.

THEY GOT OFF to a pretty good public relations start here in Mendocino County with promises to log sustainably and responsibly. Unlike L-P and G-P, Mendocino Redwoods managers were and are accessible.

MRC'S CHARM OFFENSIVE continues with television ads (played often during Giants baseball games) about how Home Depot and other giant lumber outlets only buy MRC lumber because MRC takes good care of the wild places where the lumber originates. MRC is even “certified” by the Forest Stewardship Council. (Athought it’s more of a self-certification than anything else. See https://www.theava.com/archives/17970)

THERE WERE, HOWEVER, IMMEDIATE grumbles from local gyppo loggers that MRC wasn't walking any more lightly on the land than the cash-in logging by L-P and G-P that ignited the protests of the 1990s.

AND THERE WERE SCATTERED complaints when MRC sprayed the garlon-like herbicide, imazapr, on junk hardwood trees, a hard-labor practice carried out, predictably, by immigrant Mexican crews not resident in Mendocino County. Of course poisoning unwanted swathes of forest is faster and cheaper than having crews cut them down and remove them. But the chemical practice imperils water supplies, nearby streams, the workers applying it, and creates a fire hazard with acres of poisoned, dead trees waiting to fall down in already drought-dry forests.

MRC now has unprecedentedly large timber harvest plans ready for the healthy forest lying between Albion and Comptche, areas L-P somehow didn't get to. We're all accustomed to cuts of 50 to 150 acres, but 758 acres (Redwood Gulch), 838 acres (Comptche) with 50 to 76 percent cuts?

LOG PRICES ARE UP, the Mendocino Redwood Company is a business. The Fisher family isn't running a charity up here, but you'd have to go back to the 19th century for logging on the scale about to commence in the area of the “wild and scenic” Albion River.

* * *

MRC FACT SHEET

-Herbicide Use-

MRC hack-and-squirts imazapyr into the trunks of hardwood trees, and foliar (leaf) sprays triclopyr and glyphosate on brush. Previous to 2008, their herbicide use was predominately imazapyr, but because lots of brush sprouted back after the 2008 lightning fires, they've been doing a lot more of the foliar sprays the past few years. Here's the percentages used for 2011:

imazapyr 57%
triclopyr 37%
glyphosate 6%

-Amounts of Poison Used-

MRC reports on their website pounds of "active ingredient" used each year, which is approximately half the total weight of poison product used (50% active, 50% inert). One gallon weighs about 8.34 pounds. Over the past 15 years of MRC ownership, the following averages of self-reported poison use are:

5,689 forested acres poisoned per year
4,202 pounds (active ingredient) used per year
8,405 pounds total poison (including inerts) used per year
1,008 gallons total poison used per year

This stuff is highly toxic, it only takes a few milliliters to kill a big tree. MRC's standard prescription is one milliliter imazapyr per three inches diameter. To approximate how many trees would be in each poisoned acre, MRC foresters guessed 227 (9" diameter trees). If you take the yearly average of acres poisoned (5,689) and multiply that by 227 (trees per acre) you get well over a million trees (1,291,403) poisoned every year.

-Catastrophic Waste-

One cord of tanoak yields 27.5 million carbon-neutral BTUs, equivalent to the energy in 300 gallons of propane (madrone performs even better at 337). Those million-plus poisoned trees per year represent approximately 220,000 cords of hardwood, containing over six trillion BTU's, or the energy produced by over 65 million gallons of propane.

-Poison Costs-

It costs MRC $180 to poison one acre, or $300 to cut it. Their toxin costs recently dropped as the patent on imazapyr ran out and cheaper generics became available. The brand of imazapyr they use now is called Polaris AC.

-How Quickly a Poisoned Tree Dies and Decomposes-

After poisoning, it takes about a month for the tree to die. Most of the leaf fall probably occurs within a year, but the limbs and trunk can remain standing for quite awhile. Depending on conditions, MRC guessed three to seven years before much of the poisoned tree hits the ground. Dead trunks have been seen standing ten years after receiving their lethal injection.

-Lack of Proper Testing-

MRC self-tests for herbicide runoff after the first big rains (what they call "first flush"). How careful and rigorous and well-placed these tests actually are, we don't know, but MRC said they performed the run-off test at 17 different sites (downstream from poisoned areas) in the autumn of 2012 and detected no runoff. Which sounds good, until you start probing a little more...

One of the problems is they are only testing for the single active ingredient used at each site (imazapyr, triclopyr, or glyphosate) but not all their breakdown products (quinolinic acid being an example of a breakdown product of imazapyr). There is no testing for all the inert ingredients and surfactants, and all their breakdown products, that are included in these toxic applications. So this first flush testing is incomplete, as far as scope goes.

Additionally, MRC performs absolutely no testing (for all these myriad chemicals and their breakdowns) in the soil, groundwater, streams, plants, and wildlife (both aquatic and terrestrial).

Note: the European Union banned imazapyr in 2003. Their concerns seemed to be based on imazapyr's persistance and mobility, it's ability to get into the groundwater, and it's extreme toxicity to aquatic plants and life. For this reason, extensive groundwater testing should be done wherever imazapyr is being used to such an extent.

No research has been found on air-contaminants when these poisoned trees burn.

-Poisoned Trees Burning-

The Mendocino Lightning Complex Fires of 2008 burned a total of 54,817 acres. MRC owns 10% of Mendocino County, so one would expect that approximately 10% of that total, or 5,482 MRC acres would have burned. However, MRC hosted an astounding 23,196 of those burned acres (42% of the total, or more than four times what the odds would expect). 26% of that MRC burned acreage was in deadzone areas, which works out to 6,031 poisoned acres burned during that summer of 2008.

Incidentally, the total cost of fighting that fire was upwards of 53 million dollars, whereas MRC's CA Fire Prevention Fee for 2012 was a whopping $115, for one habitable structure.

* * *

MRC HAS FILED unprecedentedly large-acreage timber harvest plans for their forests lying between Albion and Comptche. Sue Miller, as below, has objected to one of the most destructive plans...

To: Leslie A. Markham, Deputy Chief, Forest Practice, Cal Fire, 135 Ridgeway Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA

santarosapubliccomment@fire.ca.gov

From: Susan Miller, September 10, 2014

Dear Ms. Markham,

The following are my comments regarding the Railroad Gulch THP No. 1-14-080 MEN submitted by MRC.

The 758 acres of this plan with 76% tree removal is way too large and steep for governmental agencies to be able to monitor, oversee, or evaluate, and will result in deforesting the forest, will displace, damage and kill wildlife, cause soil loss which will end up in the creeks and streams, destabilize the existing slide areas, and effectively destroy the productivity and diversity of the forest land. It will result in the irreversible damage to and removal of resources from the public commons and create undesirable cumulative adverse environmental impacts.

The Albion River. the major water system in the THP area is a State of California Wild and Scenic River, designated in 2003. The adverse cumulative environmental impacts which will result from proceeding with this plan will degrade the anadromous fishery values, wildlife and their habitat. It will impair scenic and recreational qualities, degrade soil, water, and the natural character and free-flowing condition of the river. The plan makes a mistake on Page 41 where it states the Albion River and Railroad Gulch “are not ' “wild and scenic” ' rivers under state or federal law.”

In addition, MRC is self monitoring their own activities. The California Public Resources Code states that the free-flowing condition and natural values of the river are not to be adversely impacted or degraded. It is simply not possible for this massive plan to be carried out without significant adverse and irreversible environmental impacts.

It is a conflict of interest to have MRC operate this massive timber operation (758 acres and 75% tree removal with winter time operations) with its potential to permanently and significantly damage the environment of the river ecosystem while also reporting on themselves if damage occurred or could have been prevented. MRC is not even marking setbacks but leaving setbacks up to the operators' judgment and then evaluating and reporting on their own compliance. This plan cannot be carried out without permanent degradation of the ecosystem so it follows that it will be impossible for the same corporation that created this clearly destructive plan and who claim there will be no significant adverse environmental effects caused by the plan, to self monitor, self evaluate, and report on themselves.

According to MRC's analysis, it will take about 135 years to grow back the mass of trees removed. That is beyond all of our lifetimes. MRC shouldn't be allowed to cause such impacts so far into the future. The plan will have an adverse cumulative impact on climate change with depleted oxygen production and increased carbon dioxide concentration.

MRC should not allowed to do anything and everything they want to with “their land” whenever they want to because it will create cumulative adverse environmental impacts and adversely affect public common environmental resources inside and outside of the plan boundaries. These operations which will cause soil loss, siltation and loss of or adverse effects on endangered, rare, and special concern species including the Northern spotted owl and Coho Salmon, Steelhead Trout, rare and endangered plant species including the Bolander Pine and Pygmy Cypress (only 2000 acres are left in the entire world which contain these 2 species). Pages 36-7 state the endangered cypress and pine will be “avoided to the extent feasible”. Feasible for whom? That should not be allowed because they must be preserved and not impacted, whether MRC self reports it is feasible or not.

Wintertime timber operations only make this situation worse because on top of the adverse effects of dry weather activities, there will be further soil disturbance, soil loss, and road degradation.

MRC's mission statement on Page 2 is in direct opposition to the activities listed in the plan. This plan fails to comply with all 4 of MRC's stated mission objectives. The plan also fails to comply with CEQA because their mitigated negative declaration is insufficient and does not state the truth that there will be no significant adverse environmental effects. As a concerned citizen, I dispute MRC's claim there will be no environmental impacts that they can't mitigate and then to report on themselves whether or not they achieve mitigation. This plan requires an EIR, which would clearly outline the true effects of the planned operation.

This THP is too large in scope and too devastating to the forest ecosystem to simply state there will be no adverse impacts. For example, use of roads in unstable slide areas will result in significant adverse environmental impacts. Adverse effects increase in winter time operations. Many of the 41 reported shallow slide areas are just below existing roads. This problem will be exacerbated with reconstruction, new construction and use of roads, especially in the winter operations. I don't believe MRC's operators will have enough time to be able to properly and adequately prepare all the sites and roads for rain to prevent soil loss based on weather forecasts. In no way should this corporation be able to operate during the winter season.

Thousands of cubic yards of displaced soil will be created and it will be impossible to control. Mendocino County's grading ordinance forbids allowance of any soil loss. On page 43 it states disturbed soil in areas of 100 square ft. or less will not be treated at all, leaving areas the size of bedrooms to lose soil which will end up in the waterways. What are the on the ground conditions and cumulative environmental impacts resulting from the conduct of and self monitoring of MRC's previous THP's in the coastal watersheds?

Anadromous fish bearing streams are within the borders and just outside the borders of the proposed operations and they will surely be impacted from this excessive “harvest”. These fish, including the Coho Salmon and Steelhead Trout, both listed as Federal National Marine Fisheries Service threatened species inhabiting Federally recognized Critical Habitat areas within and just outside of the plan boundaries. The impacts will include dewatering of anadromous fish bearing streams, higher stream temperatures due to dewatering and removal of at least 50% of shade canopy, stream bed disturbance from construction and use of stream crossings, and soil entering the streams which will silt over important fishery rearing areas.

What will be the total number of gallons of water drafted from the streams? On page 87 it states there are 15 stream drafting sites. On page 42 it states 15,000 gallons will be drafted per day from just one site. From the map of the water drafting sites, it appears much water will be taken and the watercourses could be and will be dewatered. This huge amount of water drafting using 15 separate water drafting sites all along the Wild and Scenic River system will not protect the fishery and wildlife values. MRC is supposed to self monitor to prevent excessive take of water from watercourses. This is a conflict of interest.

The biological diversity in the plan area is rich. There are many endangered and rare species and species of special concern. Neither Cal Fire nor MRC can deny that the planned operations will have an irreversible adverse impact on these species. MRC states there will be no impacts on the endangered species living near the waterways. This can't be true because of the plans for water drafting and reduction of free-flowing water and dewatering of the streams, operations very near and in streams, construction and use of stream crossings, cutting and removal of trees, large machinery use in and near streams, removal of much of the canopy, and increasing the water temperatures. This plan will take 758 acres of forest away with the 76% tree removal and 50% removal in unmarked stream protection zones and deep slide areas. The plan will remove the forest and animals and leave a dead area baking in the sun with ¾ of the trees gone.

Page 134 states MRC is leaving sufficient vegetation intact to minimize soil loss. How can this be true when only 1 in 4 trees is left? The 3 identified deep slide areas were last mapped in 1999. This needs to be updated to actual conditions in 2014. In this unstable area with steep slopes up to and over 70%, and 3 deep slides and 41 shallow slides, what is today's ground truth? If the slopes are over 65% the hazards are extreme. This is not acknowledged.

This plan is grossly inadequate. There will be excessive water drafting and dewatering of streams, creation of thousands yards of sediment which can land in the waterways, 76% tree removal, disturbance, elimination and displacement of wildlife, sedimentation of watercourses on and off the plan area, and winter operations on these steep slopes subject the area to increasing the existing and creating new landslides. This plan will be devastating to the entire Railroad Gulch and Albion River area and it adversely affects the public good, public commons, and the diversity of natural resources. And, the plan does not protect the natural character of the wild and scenic river. The cumulative environmental impacts will be irreversible and devastating.

Please deny approval of this plan on the basis of irreversible adverse environmental impacts, reduction of natural diversity, cumulative impacts on the environment and misuse of resources contributing to the public commons and public good.

Here is a list of 5 THP's from MRC that I know of for 2014 near Albion and Comptche and their acreage. As I mentioned, these plans are 3 or 4 times the size of average of plans for other areas:

1. 1-14-023 MEN 1417 acres !!! 10 miles W of Ukiah includes Daugherty, Johnson, Horsethief, Gates, Snuffins, and Bottom Creeks, and Little N Fork Navarro River. T15N R14W sec 3,4,5,9, T16N R14W Sec 29-35
2. 1-14-077 MEN 979 acres 2 miles E of Navarro includes S Branch N Fork Navarro River. T15N R14W 18,19, T15N R15W 13-16, 22-24
3. 1-14-089 MEN 835 acres called Big Gulp. 4.3 miles E of Navarro N. Fork Navarro River. T16N R15W sec 25,26,34,35,36
4. 1-14-080 MEN 758 acres called Railroad Gulch 3 miles E of Albion. Lower Albion Watershed, T16N R17W sec 23-26, T16N R14W sec 19, 30
5. 1-14-??? MEN 700++ acres will be submitted in 30 days. 2 miles W of Comptche. Middle Albion and South Fork Albion River Watersheds, Tom Bell Creek, N and S forks Albion River. T15N R17W sec 4, 8-11, 14-17, 23,26

THE BOARD OF SUPES, on October 7th, are set to approve a contract for newly promoted "Interim" County Counsel Doug Losak. Losak had been "Acting" County Counsel since his appointment to that position on February 25 following the hasty departure of his predecessor, Tom Parker, who was obviously told to resign or be fired. The contract with Losak is rumored to include a pay raise from Losak's current pay of $107,390 per year to $143,291 per year. (And can anyone explain the diff between "interim" and "acting" aside from the huge jump in pay?) No explanation has been offered to justify such an outrageously large pay jump. (These characters are 9-5, civil service lawyers, and they don't do much when they are at "work". They farm out all the tough cases, for which the county pays separately. And they even farm out negotiations with county employees!) And Losak hasn't exactly distinguished himself in office, at least not in a positive light.

THE APPOINTMENT OF LOSAK puts the Supes squarely on a collision course with Sheriff Tom Allman. Following the Supes announcement out of Closed Session on Monday that they were appointing Losak, the Sheriff showed up at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday for public expression to blast Losak, expressing dismay that the Supes would consider a raise for Losak. Allman told the Supes he didn't care if they kept Losak on the job but giving him a pay raise was "inappropriate" (to say the least) given Losak's late night bust for driving down the highway with an unregistered concealed handgun and a bag of dope stashed under the front seat of his car.

LOSAK WAS BUSTED on July 3, 2012, shortly after the Supes had appointed him "Acting" County Counsel for the first time, following the elevation of Jeanine Nadel to the Superior Court bench. Losak, after trying to ride out the storm of his widely reported midnight ramble (with the apparent support of Supervisor's Hamburg and Pinches) resigned as Acting County Counsel but kept his job with the county. At the time, Hamburg, a long time dope grower, was quoted as saying it was no big deal for public officials in Mendocino County to be involved with marijuana. Pinches said it was "no different than if you stopped a lady on the street and found lipstick in her purse." Anywhere else Losak would have been in the unemployment line, but this is Mendocino County where public officials simultaneously lament being a national poster child for marijuana but go out of their way to reinforce the Marijuana/Mendo link.

HAMBURG'S SUPPORT FOR LOSAK is probably also payback for the blatant efforts of County Counsel and the Mental Health Department (run by Hamburg's pal Pinizotto) to manipulate the legal system to spring Hamburg's adult son from jail, have the county foot the legal bill to get a conservator appointed, and get Hamburg's son into a treatment facility with the county again paying the bills. We understand that lots of county jail inmates who have committed crimes are also more or less mentally ill. But we also understand there is a process to get into a treatment facility, which may take as long as six months. Hamburg's son, with the assistance of Pinizotto and the County Counsel's office, leap-frogged a dozen or more jail inmates who were waiting for a bed to open up in a treatment facility. And it is very unusual for County Counsel to seek a conservatorship for a private individual with wealthy parents like Hamburg. Judge Moorman was not pleased that young Hamburg had been spirited out of the county without her approval or knowledge and initially seemed determined to demand answers. But Moorman since seems to have fallen back into full on "we are all nice people here in Mendoland" mode and nothing more has been said of the highly unusual marshalling of highly placed public officials and public money to get special treatment for Hamburg's son, and that treatment paid for by the taxpayers of Mendocino County.

ALLMAN TOLD THE SUPES he has forbidden Losak to be involved with any legal matters involving the Sheriff's Office. "I am here to tell you there is a conflict of interest," continued Allman, pointedly referring to Losak's status as "the only County Counsel on searchable probation." Allman continued that it was an insult to his deputies, who have been forced to take a 10% pay cut for the last several years, for the Board to consider any pay increase for Losak. The details of the rumored pay raise will be known when the Oct. 7 agenda comes out for the Board of Supes, but it is widely rumored to include a boost to $143,291 per year, the same as Tom Parker got before he was forced to resign.

HAMBURG AND PINCHES (based on their public comments when Losak was busted in 2012) are most likely solidly behind Losak, but a cursory analysis of the 5-0 vote to appoint Losak on an interim basis points to a compromise. Losak has been "acting" since February? Six months hasn't been enough time for the Supes to evaluate Losak's performance on the job? They need to appoint him "interim" for up to another year to properly evaluate him? Oddly, based on a review of BOS agendas, Losak has not had a formal performance evaluation since he was appointed back in February. Which is in sharp contrast to CEO Carmel Angelo.

ANGELO WAS APPOINTED CEO five years ago after the sudden resignation of the hapless Tom Mitchell (a resignation that was, like Tom Parker's, almost surely forced). Mitchell was unable to handle the economic collapse that hit the county in 2008. Under Mitchell the county was hemorrhaging red ink. Mitchell was famous for saying: "I'll look into it" but never presented any findings or recommendations for the Supes to act on. Angelo had already proven herself as Director of HHSA where she reduced the workforce, including by layoffs, to produce a balanced budget. With the support of the Supes, Angelo pursued a strategy of reducing the countywide workforce, including layoffs, and a 10% across the board pay cut to balance the budget. Since then the Supes and Angelo have held the line on pay raises, paid down debt, built the county reserves to record levels and restored the county's credit rating.

ANGELO'S PREDECESSOR, the hapless Mitchell, was paid $180,000 a year. Angelo was hired at $150,000, a cut of $30,000 from her predecessor. More than five years later, Angelo, who's done a pretty good job under difficult fiscal circumstances, is still making the same $150,000 with no increase in pay and very little thanks. The Supes seem unable to even agree on her performance. "Public Employee Performance Evaluation - Chief Executive Officer" has been on the Supes agenda four times since April, including Sept. 22, the same day Losak was appointed Interim County Counsel. And every time, the only report out of closed session for the CEO has been "direction given to staff." But the direction is not clear. Is Angelo doing a good job? Should she get a raise? A new contract? The Supes seem unable to decide. In contrast, the first time Losak was on the agenda, the evaluation gets skipped and he gets appointed interim for a year with a huge boost in pay.

SHERIFF ALLMAN appears willing to spend some of his considerable personal and political capital in challenging the Supes decision to reward the bumbling Losak. And rightly so. Allman and his deputies, like every other county employee, have taken that 10% pay cut for years. And aside from the occasional county planner and deputy district attorney, the county's cops have avoided getting arrested or convicted for dope and gun charges. It seems very odd to put Losak at the head of the rewards line given his questionable judgment. Even discounting his arrest, on the basis that guns and dope are the Mendo equivalent of Mom and apple pie, we still have Losak's romantic affair with a high ranking county employee who was herself under investigation by Losak's office. And Losak consistently comes up with the wrong answer when the Supes turn to him for advice during a meeting. Which is probably why the Supes approved a contract with an outta-here law firm for $250,000 a year to conduct labor negotiations with county employees. If any one of the six attorneys in the County Counsel office, including Losak, were competent, the county wouldn't need to spend a quarter of a mil on outside attorneys.

ALLMAN AND DA DAVE EYSTER are paid around $125,000 annually, with the other elected department heads getting somewhat less and the appointed departments ranging down to about $80,000 for Air Quality and the Library Director. None of them can be happy that Losak is about to eclipse them all. Or can they? If Allman is mainly upset that Losak will be paid more than he is, one solution is to boost the Sheriff and DA to the $145,000 range. Eyster is known to have complained loudly that County Counsel, (whether it was Jeanine Nadel or Tom Parker) should not be paid more than the DA. Is this the first shot in the county loosening up the purse strings, at least for its top worker bees?

IN JANUARY OF 2012 when the Supes voted to cut their own pay, Hamburg, echoing his grasping predecessor David Colfax, who'd complained about the "crappy pay for a crappy job," the dependably sanctimonious Hamburg complained how "challenging" it was to live on only $68,000 a year before launching into a lengthy comparison of a Supes pay to that of various middle managers and deputy sheriffs. If Losak's is the first to cash in with a fat pay raise, will the other department heads and Hamburg be next in line, begging bowls extended? Or will three of the Supes come to their collective senses on Oct. 7 and realize that they are on the brink of unraveling the hard nosed but necessary budget decisions they have made over the years?

BRET EASTON ELLIS on 'Generation Wuss': When Millennials are criticized...they seem to collapse into a shame spiral and the person criticizing them is automatically labeled a hater, a contrarian, a troll....

My huge generalities touch on their over-sensitivity, their insistence that they are right despite the overwhelming proof that suggests they are not. If there doesn’t seem to be an economic way of elevating yourself, then the currency of popularity is just the norm now and so this is why you want to have thousands and thousands of people liking you on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler (sic) — and you try desperately to be liked. The only way to elevate yourself in society is through your brand, your profile, your social media presence..... Millennials can’t deal with that kind of cold-eye reality. This is why Generation Wuss only asks right now: please, please, please, only give positive feedback please..... People won’t like you, that person may not love you back, kids are really cruel, work sucks, it’s hard to be good at something, life is made up of failure and disappointment, you’re not talented, people suffer, people grow old, people die.

WHO DECIDES what happens here? This October 2-10, the Community Rights Road Show will tour Mendocino County in Support of Measure S with nationally-known speaker Paul Cienfuegos. Measure S is a Community Bill of Rights declaring that We the People of Mendocino County have the right and duty to protect water in the county. To enforce our right to protect water, both on and beneath Earth's surface, this ordinance bans any fracking or fracking-related activities in the County. Measure S is on the ballot this November. Paul Cienfuegos has been helping communities reclaim their rights for almost 30 years. He founded Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County and now travels the country giving workshops promoting civic action to claim community rights. This is your chance to learn about our Community Bill of Rights claiming our right to protect water and ban fracking in the county and an opportunity to join the effort. Each road show stop will include discussion about Measure S, a community potluck, and some locations will have LIVE music to dance into the night! For more information on Measure S or The Community Rights Road Show please visit: the Community Rights Network website http://crnmc.org or www.YESonS.me Look for the Community Rights Road Show posters in your town for the dates the Road Show will be in your area in early October!

Locations and Dates:

• Thursday October 2 - Covelo- Library Commons- 6pm- MARJO WILSON TRIO
• Friday October 3 - Willits - Little Lake Grange - 6pm - WILD MENDOHOULAS
• Saturday October 4 - Ukiah - Farmer's Market - 9am - 11am
• Saturday October 4 - Fort Bragg - Inglenook Grange - 5:30pm - STEVEN BATES
• Sunday October 5 - Mendocino Community Center - 11am - 2:30pm
• Sunday October 5 - Anderson Valley Solar Grange - 5:30pm - DJ spinning tunes
• Monday October 6 - Laytonville- Grange - 6pm - Rap and Rock
• Thursday October 9 - Redwood Valley - Frey Vineyards - 5:30pm - SOUL SHAKEDOWN
• Friday October 10 - Point Arena - Druid Hall - 5:30pm - SOUL SHAKEDOWN

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 28, 2014

RANDY GIBNEY, Fort Bragg. Assault, failure to appear, probation revocation.

JOSEPH GROSECLOSE, Oakley, California. Drunk in public.

GABRIEL KRAGLER, Upper Lake. Failure to pay.

DEBRA LINCOLN, Covelo. Harboring a felon suspect, probation revocation.

EUGENE WINTERHAWK LINCOLN, Covelo. Burglary, ex-felon with firearm & ammunition, trespassing, possession of meth.

JASON McCAWLEY, Garberville. Carrying a switchblade.

MIGUEL MOLINA-PEREZ, Ukiah. DUI.

NICK SHANNON, Fort Bragg. DUI.

DANIEL SPRINGSGUTH, Martinez/Redwood Valley. Domestic assault, under influence of controlled substance.

THE ONLY GUY…

Happy birthday, Craig Stehr. Do you get social security now?

Not sure why you wasted your Chi to bizarrely dis me in the AVA, possibly reducing my credibility, therefore DIMINISHING my ability to raise contributions from those people and pay you back. Seems kind of self-defeating self's foot shooting. Got my $366 speeding ticket paid off the day it was going to jump to $700. Fortunately my mom sent me $300 for my birthday that all went to the ticket. Only $66 had to come out of my food money. Lost six pounds in the last week. Down to 186. Got the ticket trying to get to the wake in Fortuna of the father of a family of autistic women who are all friends of mine. You met him. Vern Harden the Tarzan animal trainer who also trained the MGM lion, Jackie. I hosted his 93rd birthday in my campaign office. They were counting on me to get his favorite music downloaded from youtube (Abba and Buckethead!), but major computer problems turned that into a six-hour hassle that resulted in my being late and getting the ticket. Damn! I never speed. But my van bench seats and everything else was emptied out for my trip to the RRR. This was my first drive since then, and so the van was much lighter and much faster, which is why I was over the limit. Now my computer's hard drive and power supply are going to cost me $5-600 next week or else I'm without computer. There goes apartment rent. Fortunately Rick can manage to send me $200 toward that.

So, anyway, back to the REVOLUTION. My most recent FB status update which I also just posted at Roselle's will follow my prior status post to ingratiate myself to 3,800 FB friends to get pennies. Maybe it will help: Naomi Klein and Bill Maher this weekend on Real Time, began echoing five of my points. Points only I have been making until now. Good on them! Naomi is now talking about how the climate crisis is "destabilizing" the planet (for 27 years my preferred term has been climate destabilization). She's calling out liberals as deniers (as recently as my last blog post I called out Al Gore as A Green Climate Denier). Bill said we have to fight the climate like we fought WWII. He pointed out we stopped making cars then for three years. She says what's needed now is new leadership to replace those who got us here. Damn! Think how much further along we would be if I had been supported to do national road shows and make videos to get those things discussed for the last 16 years when Earth Island Journal published my Madhouse Century warning of the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, instead of being pushed into five years of homelessness by vile people in my own movement and left to die. But none of these people mentioned Greenland or Antarctica or the essential need to start shutting down all of our coastal nukes (at least!). I'm still the only guy on the planet providing that leadership. So I hope you will make a contribution today so that we don't lose another 16 years, way after it's too late to stop the Greenland ice sheet from full collapse and another 20 feet, added to Antarctica's 20 feet for 40 feet increase of sea level this century and 100 nukes are blowing up from Florida to Maine, Diablo Canyon to Seattle. No one else is helping me. Only you, the people who have been following my work and learning, can make this happen. You saw me lose the last four years of campaigning because I didn't even have money for gas or printers, or even to eat. I had a $4.20 donation rate and only two of you could be bothered to make even a four dollar contribution, and the last time I got even one of those was two years ago. And I still haven't heard from Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben or Bill Maher yet. I'd appreciate you writing to them and telling them to promote and support me and my messages. There were no demands made at the climate march or the UN climate summit! or by Bill or Naomi on the show. Without me out there showing the way, the Bioregional war effort to shut down all nukes and fossil fuels in ten years, I fail to see how the climate movement, even the heroic climate justice movement will change a thing. http://CaffreyforCongress.org/donate

Call to Evolution: Mike et al. I'd like your thoughts, encouragement or discouragement about whether or not we should, as part of the Year of Outrage Against Climate Destabilization and Climate Criminals: A Year of Direct Actions, use Earth Day 2015 to organize a climate march sized sit-in around the Capitol building. 400,000 people surrounding the Capitol building. I love the image. Maybe do the same thing around the White House later in the year, like on Obama's birthday. Workers did it during the Depression. Another around the Pentagon to demand green peace conversion and the retreat of the American empire. Fuck the Climate March having "no demands," as McKibben said the night before. We need to be making fucking demands every month from here on out, at least until WAIS and Greenland ice sheet collapse and we're surfing to Kansas. Seen my latest blog post calling out Al Gore for his somnambulistic Climate Unreality 24-hour snooze-a-thon infomercial for smart grids and green consumerism? http://caffreyforcongress.org/news-from-hq/bloggy/94-good-snooze Have a great day, bud! — Andy The Pres Caffrey