Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Oct 7, 2014

• Precipitous Fall
• Silly People
• Pinches' Views
• Audio Cuckoo
• Slappy Pokey
• Catch of the Day
• Ode to Ukiah
• Hunter Found
• Village Thieves
• Zombie Apocalypse
• Fire Fight
• Warning Signs
• Life Is
• People First
• Carroll Statement
• Laytonville Quakes
• Endless War

NO OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION yet, but the woman who seems to have deliberately driven off Highway One last week near Westport with her two small boys in the car is Athena Doyle, 34, of Eureka. Doyle's 1992 Isuzu landed on its roof on the beach, having plummeted more than 200 feet. Nicodemus Doyle, 2, remains hospitalized in Santa Rosa in critical condition. Isaiah Hacket-Doyle, 5, was not seriously injured, nor was his mother. They were reported missing in mid-August by Ms. Doyle's mother.

UKIAH CITY COUNCIL. As inland people are sooooo fully aware, at long last the silliest of the silly people are gone from the Council. No more Little Benj, no more Mari Rodin, no more Landis. Incumbent Scalamini, like town mayor Red Phil, has silly tendencies, but so far, other than an impulse to nit pick, he's been on task and, as an appointee, he's not up yet for election. Crane has been a veritable rock of commonsense, but he's not up for re-election, and when he does come up should be returned.

WE THINK Red Phil Baldwin has been mostly sensible and should be held over, and we think Jim Brown, former County probation officer, and Ukiah business woman Maureen Mulheren, will make for a return to reality-based city leadership for the County seat.

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL. Fort Bragg has lately suffered a Ukiah-like miasma, with Sillies dominant, especially after the smart and locally-focused Dan Gjerde went over the hill to serve as 4th District Supervisor. The fog belt sillies are attempting to insert the howlingly incompetent Mark Iancuaniello as replacement for Meg Courtney, who is retiring. Dave Turner and Heidi Kraut are running for re-election. They hope to be joined by Iancuaniello. Along with Courtney, Turner and Kraut comprised a silly majority, a fact confirmed by their attempt to shove Iacuaniello down Fort Bragg's unsuspecting throat. No one but....well, suffice it to say that no fully cognizant, fully responsible adult American could possibly vote for Iacuaniello who, of course, is a retired Mendocino County "educator."

THE FOG BELT SILLIES are desperately opposed to the candidacies of Michael Cimolino and Lindy Peters. Why? No real reason other than Peters and Cimolino aren't them. Which is reason enough to vote for Peters and Cimolino, and we urge Fort Bragg to do just that.

THIRD DISTRICT SUPES CANDIDATE TOM WOODHOUSE speaking to reporter Mike A'Dair of the Willits Weekly: “Ten or 15 years ago, I thought when we had emergencies or problems, government would be there handing us what we needed, and they had it under control. The time I’ve spent working with government, they do not have it under control. Government: its purpose is not to rescue us. We have to be involved and rescue ourselves and our neighbors. It’s really up to individuals. Everybody keeps saying: What can government do for me? Well, how much more money do you want to hand government to dole back to you? It’s not going to work. We’re going to have less money and a flat revenue and less money.”

SUPERVISOR PINCHES says he's got the numbers to prove that "interim" County Counsel Losak deserves every penny of the big raise he just got to about $150,000 a year. Pinches says Losak saves the County a lot more money than the County pays him because he contests a lot of the claims against the County rather than simply handing claimants money to go away, as has been the past practice. Losak goes into court himself to beat back the phoniest money demands. "Hell," Pinches said Monday, "the County gets sued every week. We can't just pay people to go away. Losak has done a great job for the County of Mendocino."

PINCHES, in his last term as 3rd District supervisor, added that he didn't think Losak's famous midnight romp, during which he was corralled by deputy Massie with some pot and a loaded but safely stored pistol in his car, was "all that big a deal. We've all made mistakes."

I HAD TO AGREE with the supervisor on that one. Back in the day, I slid through a stop sign in Boonville one late night, probably in a condition that would qualify me as legally drunk. At the time, a particularly volatile interlude that won me a bushel of threats, some of them serious, I often carried a gun, a loaded gun for which I had no carry permit. As the Sheriff's deputy pulled me over for running the stop sign, the gun slid out from under my seat. Fortunately for me, the cop, who I didn't know, didn't see it. Doubly fortunate for me, I don't act drunk unless I'm really, really loaded. I remember the cop saying, "Just because it's late and no one's around, you still have to stop at stop signs." No ticket. I said I agreed completely, and off I went, sweating more bullets than I had in the gun.

BACK TO PINCHES. Asked why he was supporting Woodhouse to succeed him, he said during his last election when Holly Madrigal ran against him, "She said some pretty harsh things about me, things that are hard to forget; if someone slaps you in the face then asks to borrow five bucks......" Pinches said he thought Woodhouse would be a good supervisor because he will be a "nuts and bolts guy," meaning a supervisor who comes with an entirely local focus rather than, as Pinches put, "A GMO and fracking" focus, "stuff that's not primary in a place where most people want good roads and pipes that don't leak."

IN THE RUN UP TO KZYX’S Big 25th Anniversary celebration on the 11th at the Boonville Fairgrounds, long-time hum&strum programmer and BigBash organizer Jimmy Humble put out a call for people to submit their favorite KZYX stories. There were zero takers, and zero detectable interest in the big party this week. On Monday, Humble posted on the KZYX Programmers listserve: “Well, no one offered any stories, so I guess I’ll have to make something up. Thanks anyway.”

HUMBLE didn’t ask us. If he had, we could have come up with a few without having to make anything up. For example the day the local UPS driver tried to deliver a package at KZYX. Next stop was the AVA. "Hey!" the UPS guy asked, "is KZYX weirder than usual?" Why?, we asked, observing that the place was always at least ten degrees off. "Well," the UPS guy said, "Jack Tysseling is sitting at the reception desk in a party dress, high heels and lipstick." We agreed that was a departure even for Audio Cuckoo. Or the time one of the higher-ups arrived late at night to discover her husband and another bigwig rolling around nude on the floor of the on-air studio. (Musta been the music.) Or the time then-station manager Phil Tymon and his “Leadership Mendocino” crew (including the then-Ukiah Police Chief) came back to KZYX's ramshackle premises after having a few beers at the Boonville Lodge and decided they’d do a joke “take over” of the station. The joke somehow morphed into a large but wasteful libel suit when the incident was written up from the perspective of the two women who were at the station at the time. Or the time Judi Bari lead a band of outpatients and treehuggers in a station invasion which resulted in a confrontation between Bari and loyal programmer Gordy Black. As Bari tried to push her way in, Gordy, shouting, "Fascist, fascist, fascist!" manfully (?) tried to muscle Bari aside. But Bari, the on-scene intellectual, shouting "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!,” shoved the cravat-wearing roue aside, soon gaining full possession of the on-air studio. You had to have been there, but take it from me, it was drop-fall hilarious. We could go on into, for instance, present manager John Coate's Queeg-like memos, but those are for the more refined precincts of humor.

LITTLE RIVER, MENDOCINO COUNTY – October has been designated, not only Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but Domestic Violence Awareness Month as well. A recent case in coastal Mendocino County serves as a perfect illustration that domestic violence is not always a man beating his wife – it can take the form of any two people in a close, or even casual relationship when an argument turns violent.

Early Sunday evening, October 5, Sheriff’s deputies were summoned to a home in Little River out on the peninsula overlooking Van Damme Beach. Little River is a small town of less the 200 people along Highway 1 just two miles south of the town of Mendocino, and features boutique inns, bed & breakfasts, and the Van Damme State Park. It is on the scenic rocky coastline Mendocino County is famous for.

According to a Sheriff’s press release, deputies arrived at the home and found a 65-year-old man suffering from a knife wound in his chest. The wound was not bleeding, as the knife had not broken his skin, but left a red mark. Deputies learned that he and Elaine Rita Matthews, 72, who lived together there, but were not married, had been in an argument. She reportedly slapped him, and poked him in the chest with a knife, leaving the red mark.

Deputies arrested Matthews on charges of felony domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon. She was booked at the Mendocino County Jail, with bail set at $30,000.

Elaine Matthews is notable in the community for her work in preserving an historical building in Mendocino. In 2008, she and Jim Meacham were honored by the Mendocino Historical Review Board for their work on the Denslow-Hayden House and guest cottage in Ukiah Street, a building dating back to 1875, according to the Mendocino Beacon.

Ken Kiunke, United Reporting Crime Beat Editor

ED NOTE: There's a lot more to this story, and we predict this woman won't be charged. Her significant other is a drunk, and when all the facts are in it will be revealed that Ms. Mathews was simply defending herself.

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 6, 2014

MYQ ATTANASIO, Fort Bragg. Battery, court order violation, probation revocation.

CRAIG BRADY, Ukiah. Domestic assault, probation revocation.

CHARLIE CRAWFORD, Cottonwood/Ukiah. Sale of meth, driving without valid license, failure to appear.

DARLENE DAVIS, DUI, probation revocation.

STEVE EVANS, Manson NC/Redwood Valley. Drunk in public.

DANA FLORES, Ukiah. Fugitive from justice.

DAVID FRANK, Redding. Sale of meth, probation revocation.

ANDRES FUENTES, Ukiah. DUI with priors, invalid driver’s license, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

DANIEL HEATH, Willits. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

COLE MARTINEZ, Livermore/Ukiah. DUI/Drunk in public.

ELAINE MATTHEWS, Little River. Assault with a deadly weapon not a firearm, domestic assault.

DWAYNE McKENZIE, Ukiah. Possession of meth, paraphernalia, under influence of controlled substance. (Photo not available.)

MICHAEL PELKEY, Fort Bragg. Under influence of controlled substance.

JOHANNA ROGERS, Willits. Possession of meth, under influence of controlled substance.

LUIS SANCHEZ, Potter Valley. DUI, driving without valid license, probation revocation.

ERNEST STEPHENS, Fort Bragg. Battery with serious injury, parole violation.

JAMES WELLS, Fort Bragg. Under influence of controlled substance, unreasonable noise and disturbance, use of offensive words in a public place to provoke violence, possession of smoking-injection device, probation revocation.

SCOTTY WILLIS, Ukiah. Domestic assault. (Frequent flyer.)

ODE TO UKIAH

Imagine our new courthouse, resplendent in the sun.

A shining example of justice for each and every one.

It will feature azure towers, awesome to behold,

amidst the floral bowers, a shocking waste of gold.

Imagine all the judges living the lives of Kings;

imagine all these splendors, and lots of other things.

Imagine all the liberals sharing all the wealth,

enjoying lavish salaries and of course the best of health.

You may say I'm just a schemer, but I'm not the only one.

Someday perhaps you'll awaken and see that we have won!

Sentinels of marble statuary will adorn the palatial grounds,

with Dan Hamburg as Michelangelo's David, offering a voyeur's view

between the knees of a horseshoe stairway, just like at Fountainbleu.

An intaglio of bas-relief grapevines will decorate the lofty eaves,

inspiring those who raise their eyes, to lift their wine glasses, too, please.

And anyone who doesn't like it won't be given any say:

Live, laugh, love — or else just go away!

A bust of Susan Jordan will grace the entryway.

The interior design contract will go to Martha Stewart, by the way,

with the stipulation that the motif includes all diversities; both the feminine and the gay.

Imagine the halls of justice done up in purple, pink and mauve.

Imagine Mary Aigner, so subtle, wise and suave.

In charge of the elevator music, the dress code, and the Human Resources Department — yes!

You who may say that I'm a schemer, may you toast in a fundamentalist hell.

And may the rest of us advise the Devil to turn and baste you well!

The commemoration by President Hillary Clinton will inaugurate a gilded age:

she will alight upon the rooftop of our stately bastion with a letter in her purse,

and descend to thank me personally, for saving Ukiah, the Center of the Universe.

Judge Ann Moorman shall preside like a rock star over a rejoicing choir of liberals in the jury box,

with all the male cynics shackled in the dock, awaiting deportation like a hamper of smelly sox.

Imagine the west side ambience spread through all of downtown!

Imagine random acts of kindness and beauty falling all around!

You may say I'm an ambitious schemer, Tommy Wayne Kramer, you may say that I'm not cool.

But just you wait until you see, you pathetic little fool.

Well, I don't want to go on all day in a tedious, negative way (like other editors always do).

But I'd like to say I told you so, to a certain few — namely to Bruce Anderson, and his surly sour crew.

I'd like to thank The Universe -- the only true Divinity -- for promising me this Editorship, devoid of masculinity,

and offer up my wants and needs, as gifts to this community.

Sure you may dismiss me as a schemer, but I'm not the only one.

Some day I hope you awaken and see what we have done!

With apologies to John Lennon,

— NotMari Rodin

ON SATURDAY, October 4, 2014, 9:07pm the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office was contacted in regards to a hunter missing in the Mendocino National Forest in Covelo. Responding Deputies learned the missing person, 16-year-old Kristopher Novo, was hunting with family members in the area of McCoy Ridge Road when he went missing. Novo was last seen walking in a westerly direction from the Mendocino National Forest M1 Highway approximately 1/2 mile from the family's camp on McCoy Ridge Road. Novo was reported to be in good physical health and clothed for cold weather. Novo was also reportedly in possession of a rifle and a small amount of food/beverages. The Sheriff's Office has initiated a Search and Rescue Operation which ultimately resulted in a mutual aid request of additional resources on October 5. As of October 6 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is being assisted by personnel from the Marin County Sheriff's Office, Lake County Sheriff's Office, Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, Napa County Sheriff’s Office, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, Bay Area Mountain Rescue, California Rescue Dog Association, California Department of Fish & Wildlife, United States Forest Service Law Enforcement, United States Forest Service Fire and California Highway Patrol.

UPDATE: On October 6, 2014 at approximately 12:45pm searchers located Kristopher Novo who was in good spirits and health with slight symptoms of dehydration. An initial report from the Operational Command Post indicate Novo was located near the Eel River approximately 15 miles south of where he was last seen hunting on 10-04-2014. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office thanks all personnel and public safety agencies who assisted in the search & rescue operation.

ON MONDAY, September 29, 2014 Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office contacted and arrested Bret Counterman, 21, of Mendocino, for multiple burglaries, and thefts, which had been committed in the Mendocino village. On 10-02-2014 at approximately 7:13 P.M., Deputies completed a consensual contact on Laura Reidy who was parked in a vehicle in the 18000 block of Highway 1 Fort Bragg, California. During the contact Deputies learned Reidy was in possession of numerous stolen items. These stolen items were found to be in connection with the Counterman case. Reidy was placed under arrest for being in possession of stolen property and transported to the Mendocino County Jail where she was to be held in lieu of $15,000 bail.

MUST BE THE SEASON OF THE WITCH

by James Kunstler

As the Governor goblins at the Federal Reserve whistle past the graveyard of dead Quantitative Easing, and the US dollar magically expands like a prickly puffer fish, and Mario Drahgi does what it takes with Euro duct tape to patch all black holes of unpayable debt from Athens to Dublin, and Japan watches its once-wondrous economy congeal in a puddle of Abenomic sludge (with a radioactive cherry on top), and China chokes on its dollar-peg, and Russia waits patiently with its old friend, Winter, covering its back — and notwithstanding the violent chaos, beheadings, and psychopathic struggles across the old Levant, not to mention the doubling of Ebola cases every 20 days, which the World Health Organization did not have the nerve to project beyond 1.2 million in January (does the doubling just stop there?) — there is enough instability around the globe for the gentlemen of Wall Street to make one last fabulous fortune arbitraging the future before the boomerang of consequence circles this suffering planet and finally accomplishes what the Department of Justice under Eric Holder failed to do for six long years.

It’s the season of witch and you should be nervous. Especially if you live in part of the world where money is used. Pretty soon nobody will know what any currency is really worth — at least for a while — or what anything else is worth, for that matter. Perhaps the fishermen of India will start using their worthless gold for sinkers. Jay-Z and Diddy will gaze down on their bling in despair, thinking, perhaps, they should have invested in Betamax players instead. In the time of anything-goes-and-nothing-matters, it’s dangerous to expect anything.

Here’s what I expect: the surge of the dollar is the crest of an historic Great Wave. A Great Wave is an awesome event, and its crest is a majestic sight, but soon the foam spits and hisses and the wave breaks and crashes down on the beach — say, out at the Hamptons — where hedge funders stroll to catch the last dwindling rays of a beautiful season, and all of a sudden they are being swept out to sea in the rip-tide that retracts all that lovely green liquidity, and no one is even left on the beach to weep for them. Indeed their Robert A.M. Stern shingled manor houses up behind the dunes are swept away, too, and the tennis courts, and the potted hydrangeas, and the Teslas, and all the temporal bric-a-brac of their uber-specialness.

And, of course, it being the season of the witch, that’s where the zombies come out for real — the tattooed savages who all this time have been stewing in their own rancid juices awaiting their turn to get jiggy with the nation that left them restlessly undead. I don’t think you can overestimate the depth of ill-feeling that the American public harbors for the cravens who engineered their USA into the biggest booby-trap the world has ever seen. The trouble is, they lost their humanity in the process, so when they have their way with the feckless folks tweaking the dials, you might want to contemplate moving to Finland.

Who can feel confident about the tending of things just now? The diminishing returns of the Information Age are about to bite our collective ass like an army of Orcs. The sum of all that digital magic is a nation completely incapable of telling itself the truth or acting honorably. Unemployment is down without employment being up. Candy Crush is making the world safe for democracy. We have the finest health care system in the world. ISIS is trying to compete with our homegrown videogame industry for supremacy in porno-violence (actually, I thought we already won that) but now we will obliterate all the bad guys in the world by remote control from the drone bunkers of Las Vegas, and that will show them. Thank goodness the long holiday season is almost upon us to juice the so-called economy ever-higher.

There has never been a crazier moment in history. The weeks before the outbreak of the First World War seem like a garden party compared to the morbid antics of these darkening days. America, you’ve been wishing fervently for the Zombie Apocalypse. What happens when you discover you can’t just change the channel?

Kunstler’s new World Made By Hand novel
 is now available! — “Kunstler skewers everything from kitsch to greed, prejudice, bloodshed, and brainwashing in this wily, funny, rip-roaring, and profoundly provocative page- turner, leaving no doubt that the prescriptive yet devilishly satiric A World Made by Hand series will continue.” — Booklist

AUTHENTIC FIRE FIGHT SOUNDS -- AKA DOWNTOWN COVELO ON A SATURDAY NIGHT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-mPTWaEVW4&src_vid=x19uoVfJnrM&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_2594

LIFE is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.

— Sherman Alexie

NO FREAKIN’ FRACKIN’

Editor,

Went to the Measure S meeting at the Grange Sunday night and was entertained by the roaring Raging Grannies singing No Freaking Fracking and more. Although one aspect of the measure is to stop the ridiculous obscene use of water in our drought ridden state and damage to the earth crust via fracking, it is more about local government and local voices. It turns the governmental priorities on the head by putting local communities on top, then county, then state and then federal. Alas, you think impossible! Right? Well it worked for conservative farmers in Pennsylvania in 2000 when they challenged a huge hog production determine to root itself in their pristine agricultural land with hog waste. When locals challenged the plan, they were told they could have minor control of details. They wanted none of it. They made similar local legislation as Measure S and big Hog backed off with a snort! The focus is on our state constitution which talks about individual and community voices having precedence, not corporate paid for legislation that violates our constitutional ideals. It’s worth a look at www.CRNMC.org or facebook.CRNMC.org. I know what I am doing. Voting yes for Measure S. It’s time to be heard and not ignored.

Greg Krouse, Philo

PS. Don’t support the water bond. It costs twice as much. It did not help schools. We are hardly out of debt. And the water and the money will go south. Think about it. Vote No on any Bond.

HOSPITAL BOARD SEAT

Norma Watkins writes: Mike Carroll is a friend and a man who knows something about running a business. His Candidate Statement is attached. Consider giving him your support for the Hospital Board.

* * *

From: Michael Carroll

You may not have heard. I am on the ballot for the Hospital Board in the election on November 4. I think I can help and I am willing to serve.

Since I am spending no money on this effort, I need your help to distribute this attached candidate statement to anyone you think is appropriate.

Also, there is a candidate night at Cotton Auditorium this Monday Evening October 6 at 6 PM.

Thanks, Mike

* * *

Michael Carroll for Hospital Board on November 4

My name is Michael Carroll. I am a local resident, a business coach, a woodworker and am running for the Hospital Board. My motivation is that I know I can make a difference.

My experience includes organizational development, leadership and management, marketing, financial planning, operations, and personnel — the nuts and bolts of real working organizations.

To me, a successful organization is not just about making money. It is about providing products or services to its customers in a fair and ethical way, providing jobs and careers to its employees, and leading and managing in a way that people are motivated and enjoy their work.

In the past 19 years, I have worked with and helped over 50 Mendocino County businesses, professional practices and individuals. Some of the long‐term coastal clients include Pacific Physical Therapy, Gallery Bookshop, the Good Life Café, and recently Trillium Restaurant. Please feel free to ask the owners of any of these companies about how I work with them to achieve their goals.

I have no preconceived notions about what the Healthcare District needs to do. I am approaching this challenge as I do all the organizations I work with, that is by first listening and asking questions. What I have is experience in guiding organizations to success.

All of the other candidates for the Healthcare District Board are smart people who have more hospital experience than I do. Like them, I am motivated to serve the best interests of the hospital and the community. What I bring is a record of success by being the catalyst to create well run organizations. If you want my help with the hospital board, please vote for me on November 4.

THREE SMALL QUAKES HIT SOUTHEAST OF LAYTONVILLE TODAY

The USGS reported three small temblors 7 miles SSE of Laytonville today.

1:03 pm - 2.2 magnitude, 1.8 miles deep.

1:20 pm - 2.0 magnitude, 2.4 miles deep.

1:56 pm - 2.0 magnitude, 0.4 miles deep.

WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!

South Coast People for Peace denounce the continuing expansion of the US war on the Middle East. Further bombing of Iraq and now Syria will create more terrorists by the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians. This is ENDLESS WAR. We also support the rights of the Palestinian people to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine and end the siege of Gaza. Diplomacy is the solution not further air or drone strikes which kill civilians and cause the people in the affected countries to hate the U.S. and join groups like ISIS. Join us to oppose war and human rights abuses every Monday at noon in front of the Gualala post office. We call for our country to:
• Stop bombing Syria and Iraq!
• U.S. out of the Middle East!
• End U.S. aid to Israel!
• Money for jobs, housing, healthcare, and education, not war and occupation!

For more information call Yasmin 884 4703 or Ellen at 271 9170, and visit our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/South-Coast-People-For-Peace/1488299098076641

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

"You can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb the world into Peace!" Michael Franti & Spearhead.

— Yasmin Solomon