Mendocino County Today: Friday, Jan 16, 2015

• Crumb Solidarity
• Light Rain
• Coast Hotel
• Losak's Letter
• Regressive Taxation
• Weed Good
• Catch of the Day
• Weed Bad
• Memo of the Week
• Media Auction
• Human Suicide
• Stupid GOP
• kzyx.us
• Ai Weiwei
• Collapsing Ecosystem

WE THOUGHT OF R. CRUMB, former Mendo guy (Potter Valley) as soon as we heard of the attack on Charlie Hebdo. “Crumb lives in France. Hope someone gets him to draw something," was how the talk went in the AVA's office. And sure enough, here he is with a cartoon statement that is not only funny but perfectly encapsulates the entire controversy. Makes us proud to be Americans. Way to go, Bob!

INTERVIEW: Robert Crumb on the Massacre in Paris

CHANCE OF LIGHT RAIN in the next few days. Maybe a quarter of an inch, if we’re lucky. Here’s Weather Underground’s prediction, for example:

THE FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL, Lindy Peters dissenting, has voted 3-1 to allow the sale of the old Coast Hotel to the burgeoning Hospitality House and freshly privatized County Mental Health complex.

The stately old structure will be converted for use as transition housing. Tom Carine, a Fort Bragg native who now lives in the San Jose area has sold the landmark Hotel to Hospitality House for $900,000, hugely discounted from the more than $2 million Carine had marketed the property for for eight years with no buyers. (Mama Carine's legendary restaurant in Noyo Harbor, operated by her and her son Anthony, is also a Fort Bragg institution, and a favorite stop of generations of locals and tourists.)

TOM CARINE bought the Coast Hotel about 15 years ago. He and his wife Nina spent many thousands of dollars on its restoration and tried to operate it as a combination restaurant, bar and hotel from their headquarters in the South Bay. A previous owner (Tom Vargas?) had also obtained a public loan to fix up and operate the Coast but went broke, as did Tom Carine before he closed the place in 2008 as the Recession set in. Insiders say crooked employees were robbing Carine blind of register cash and expensive liquor. For a while, however, Coast racked up rave reviews for its food and elegant hospitality.

CARINE then put the Coast up for sale at an unreasonably high price that has kept it vacant since '08. The small-ish but substantial building is a little architectural gem almost dead center in the middle of Fort Bragg, and one of the few structures left in Fort Bragg reminiscent of the early 20th Century. Most places, historical preservation societies would not permit its conversion to something as prosaically unrelated as mental health projects. And Carine, when he closed his business in 2008, refused offers to lease the property to other restauranteurs.

(IN 1987, one night of spectacular and unpunished criminality, saw arsonists burn down the old Piedmont Hotel and the town's splendid 19th century library and the attached Ten Mile Court. The people responsible were never indicted, and records of DA Massini's “investigation” — 39 boxes of evidence and related material — have since disappeared. Fort Bragg is running out of historical buildings.)

THE CITY COUNCIL'S vote to convert the Coast Hotel to transition housing and related mental health services has not gone down well with many Fort Bragg residents. They argue that such a facility does not belong in the center of a town always struggling to establish itself as attractive to locals and visitors alike. Critics are also suspicious that the persons in favor — most of the speakers at the meeting where the Council voted for Hospitality House either work at Hospitality or have benefited from its services — had as much as three months advance notice that the Council would be voting on it, plenty of time to write letters in support. Critics had much shorter notice; they maintain that official Fort Bragg leaked notice to persons in favor but kept the general public in the dark.

AT THE CRUCIAL City Council meeting, some 15 Hospitality House workers spoke for their employer, 8 persons against. 80 letters appeared in support, 15 letters were on record as opposed.

ONE CRITIC wondered why the long vacant Carine Motel a few blocks south, or the empty lot across the street, also owned by the Carines, weren't considered as more suitable for an extension of Hospitality House. “I think,” this person said, “that Tom Carine is just giving his home town a final middle finger with this deal. He's still bitter about failing to make a go of the Coast himself.”

More info from the Fort Bragg Advocate:

Council allocates CDBG funds for mental health/homeless center in former Old Coast Hotel building.

EMAIL OF THE DAY

To County Counsel Doug Losak

Doug,

Mr. Morse apparently indicated to the media that you had sent me a letter responding to the Scaramella issues with respect to frost fans in Anderson Valley. I never received any correspondence from you, simply the brief phone call of December 5 in which you said you'd be back in touch with a substantive response. Would you please forward me a copy of the letter Morse referred to? Thanks.

Rodney Richard Jones, Post Office Box 189, Mendocino, CA 95460

ACCORDING TO A STORY in the New York Times this week, a new study has revealed that state taxes favor the richest residents. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy produced the study. The analysis, which looked at each state’s local tax burden, found the bottom fifth of earners pay as much as seven times as much of their income in taxes as the wealthiest residents in states such as Washington. The study finds that in 2015, the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will average 9.4 percent, and the top 1 percent will pay 5.4 percent. The study ranks each state by measuring how regressive (less equal) or progressive (more equal) systems are, based on income before and after taxes in each income group. “Virtually every state’s tax system is fundamentally unfair,” researchers wrote in the report. “Unfair tax systems not only exacerbate widening incoming inequality in the short term, but they also will leave states struggling to raise enough revenue to meet their basic needs in the long term.”

THE BENEFITS OF INDIAN POT GROWING

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3381274-181/ukiah-tribe-touts-benefits-of

CATCH OF THE DAY, Jan 15, 2015

DAVID AMADOR, Willits. Vehicle theft, receiving stolen property, addicted person driving a vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia.

RAFAEL AYALA JR., Ukiah. Outstanding prison/felony warrant.

CRAIG BRADY, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

NICHOLAS COCHRAN, Ukiah. Vandalism, probation revocation.

CHERYL COLVIN, Fort Bragg. Probation revocation.

WESLEY DICKSON, Ukiah. Petty theft, probation revocation.

KENNETH ELLER, McKinleyville/Fort Bragg. DUI causing injury.

FRED FARRIS JR., Los Angeles/Ukiah. DUI-Drugs, failure to appear.

CLEVON GRANT, Bronx, New York/Ukiah. Sale, transport, furnish pot.

HEIDI HINTON, Willits. Vehicle theft.

JERED JONES, Potter Valley. Driving without a license, probation revocation.

LUKE NORRIS, Willits. Drunk in public, bad Elvis impersonation.

FAUSTO ORDONEZ-RESTREPO, Willits. Child abuse/endangerment, vandalism.

JAKE SCHULER, Willits. Domestic battery, driving without a license, battery against police officer.

ROBERT VERVILLE II, Probation revocation, resisting arrest. (Frequent flyer.)

KELLYMAY WATTS, Fort Bragg. Possession of meth for sale, probation revocation.

SEAN WILSON, Willits. Under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.

IS POT TO BLAME for criminal behavior? Predictably, Nancy Grace thinks so. But to argue the other side of the debate, she brought in an unlikely adversary — the rapper 2 Chainz. Grace invited the 37-year-old “I'm Different” rapper on HLN to speak his piece about why marijuana should be legalized. In a 50-minute segment, the two went back and forth in a heated debate. Grace was well prepared to back up her opinion that marijuana should not be legalized. But 2-Chainz held his ground.

AN EXCERPT:

Grace: I want you to look at this video. Here's a guy named Melvin Blevin. He goes and pawns his camcorder. Look. This is what they find on his camcorder. Check it out. That's him, forcing his two-year-old to smoke pot.

2-Chainz: Well I've got something for you.

Grace: That's not just once.

2-Chainz: I've got something for you. Nancy. Let me tell you now.

Grace: I'm ready.

2-Chainz: I'm from the urban community. I'm from the inner city. Pawn shops are associated with a drug known as crack. Most of the time when people pawn things it's not to buy a sack of marijuana. It's to feed a high that's much more strenuous than a strain of weed. So I feel like that person was probably, he had a problem deeper than -- that guy was probably high on crack when he was doing that footage right there.

Grace: I guess they were high — on weed! I know that. When they searched the man's home they did not find crack. They didn't find heroin. They found weed.

2-Chainz: He couldn't afford it, could he? So he pawned the camcorder.

Grace: A shred. A shred! A hair of evidence that says that man who has pled guilty on these charges had a crack problem. No! You're just like pulling that out of the air because you know somebody that pawns something to get crack. All right. You can get a high. That's bad.

2-Chainz: You said he has a weed problem?

Grace: Yes. Yes he did.

2-Chainz: Did you see him smoking weed? Let's go to the video. Did you see him smoking weed on this footage right here?

Grace: Go right ahead my man. Roll the video.

2-Chainz: Who is actually shooting this video? Let's go to court! Who is actually holding the camera?

Grace: That I don't know. What I see is him forcing his baby to smoke pot!

2-Chainz: Are you sure it's him that's forcing the baby?

Grace: Yes.

2-Chainz: You sure it's not the babysitter? Maybe it's the babysitter. Maybe it's the uncle. Maybe it's the brother.

Grace: I see his hand! What you're doing right now, you are running all around me to try to prove -- he's already pled guilty. That part is over! This case…

2-Chainz: I would have taken this to trial.

Grace: There he is with the pot. And there he is giving the kid pot. So my point to you is — you say there are reasonable people that can smoke pot, used pot, and they won't involve their children and nobody else is going to get hurt. But what about these people? That's what makes me keep arguing about this 2-Chains. People like this! This guy, Melvin Blevin.

2-Chainz: It's the same thing we talked about earlier, darlin'. With the legalization of alcohol. You will find some footage like this in that case. But everybody is not doing this. Some people actually love their child. Some people know this is obviously wrong. So this is nothing to really argue about. These people are imbeciles. You can't use this case to make your case.

Grace: I've got a problem. As successful as you are, as rich as you are, as famous as you are, with this. "Smoking California weed with California whores." Excuse me. I left that one out. "Smoking California weed with California hos. True?

(end of clip)

MEMO OF THE WEEK

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE UKIAH DAILY JOURNAL? The Willits News? The Mendocino Beacon? The Fort Bragg Advocate? The Eureka Times Standard? The Lake County Record Bee?

Newsonomics: Digital First Media’s upcoming sale is producing some surprises

Bidders are preparing their final bids for a hodgepodge collection of small and large newspapers from coast to coast. Will another company — or private equity — swoop them all up as one?

by Ken Doctor

http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/01/newsonomics-digital-first-medias-upcoming-sale-is-producing-some-surprises/

MORE GOOD NEWS

Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/15/rate-of-environmental-degradation-puts-life-on-earth-at-risk-say-scientists?CMP=share_btn_link

GOP & ITS DEATH WISH

Dear Editor:

The GOP's action in rolling back the President's easing of deportation laws regardless of whatever action the Senate takes is a death wish for the GOP's chances in the 2016 Presidential election. The Republicans need to significantly increase its share of Latino voters and this action will ensure the election of a Democrat. Elections are decided by electoral votes and if the GOP which already has lost the African-Americans, Asian/Pacific Islanders and the single women's votes their voters might as well stay home. Elections are won in the six largest states all of which have large minority voters. The only exception is Texas but even in Texas there is a shift towards the Democratic party. Red states like Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana and Wyoming which have only 3 electoral votes don't amount to a can of beans. In looking at the actions of the GOP one can only say 'stupid is as stupid does'

Jim Updegraff, Sacramento

KZYX v. FREE SPEECH

Good Afternoon kzyx supporters,

The recent response of the Board of Directors to a request to conduct a membership mailing limiting what may and may not be placed on the mailed envelope is, to my mind, a violation of the First Amendment.

Any attempt to subdue the minority voice must be countered.

While kzyxtalk has enabled a conversation among those who took the time to sign onto the list.serv, it hasn't reached out to the general public.

Therefore today I've anchored kzyx.us to launch our many concerns.

We're now in need of some volunteers to design the website so it can be interactive and allow open conversation between anyone who wishes to express their opinion.

Let's keep the Freedom of Speech open and free.

Norman de Vall, Elk

JERRY BROWN'S TRUE ‘GREEN’ LEGACY: THE DEATH OF THE DELTA?

by Dan Bacher

The following is a revised transcript of the presentation that I gave when I was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame by Tom Stienstra, Outdoor Writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and award-winning author, at the ISE Show in Sacramento on January 11.

Tom Stienstra suggested that I include my 10 favorite destinations for fishing in California as part of my presentation today. These are the American River, Feather River, Sacramento River, Lake Valley Reservoir, Spicer Reservoir, Monterey Bay and Coast, Bodega Bay, San Francisco Bay, Fort Bragg and Trinity River.

Compiling this list was a really good exercise because although I’ve fished Costa Rica, Mexico, Alaska and British Columbia and many other places, this revealed that my favorite places to fish are close to home.

I also discovered that the one connecting thread of my 10 favorite destinations is that every one of these locations, from the Trinity River that is diverted to the Sacramento, to Monterey Bay, to Spicer Reservoir on the North Fork of the Stanislaus, is intimately connected to the Bay Delta Ecosystem.

If there is one message that I urge you to take home today, it is that if anglers, hunters and outdoors people don’t stand up now, this precious ecosystem and all of the great trout, salmon, steelhead, striped bass, halibut, and other fisheries that we enjoy will be lost forever.

There are two stories that I broke recently that really bring this home.

American River steelhead collapse – On December 29, I found out from the Nimbus Fish Hatchery manager the alarming news that only 10 adult steelhead have returned to the American River. Normally there would be hundreds or thousands of these fish. Last year there were over 335 adults by the same time. In banner years, over 2,000 steelhead would have returned by this time.

As one who has spent many hours in meetings, rallies and events working to restore the river, this is very disappointing. The previous low for the river was 200 fish in 1994.

Nobody’s really sure the reasons why the numbers are so low, but the mismanagement of Folsom Reservoir by the Brown and Obama administrations during the drought certainly played a key role. Folsom was drained to only 17 percent of capacity by the same time last year to provide export water to corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies. The cold water pool and carryover capacity were both imperiled by the draining and fishing was closed last winter to protect the steelhead.

Delta smelt and pelagic organism collapse – Last night I received dismal results of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. These revealed that the Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Delta, reached a new record low population level in 2014.

Department staff found a total of only eight smelt at a total of over 100 sites sampled each month from September through December.

The Delta smelt "index," a measure of abundance relative to the volume of water sampled, is 9, the lowest in survey history. Delta smelt abundance was highest in 1970 and has been consistently low since 2003, except in 2011, according to Steven Slater, CDFW environmental scientist.

The smelt was once the most abundant fish in the Bay-Delta Estuary. It is considered an indicator species because the 2.0 to 2.8 inch long fish is found only in the estuary and spends all of its life in the Delta.

The survey also revealed the continuing collapse of striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad in the Delta.

• The striped bass index is 59, making it the third lowest index in the survey's history. Age-0 (young of the year) striper abundance was highest at the survey’s inception in 1967.

• The longfin smelt index is 16, making it the second lowest index in history. Longfin smelt abundance was also highest in 1967.

• The threadfin shad index is 282, the sixth lowest in history and the seventh in a series of very low abundance indices. Threadfin abundance was highest in 1997.

• The American shad index is 278, the second lowest in history. American shad abundance was highest in 2003.

The dramatic decline of fish species this year is part of a long term decline, due to massive water exports out of the Delta, increases in toxic chemicals and the impact of invasive species.

The surveys were initiated in 1967, the same year the State Water Project began exporting water from the Delta. The surveys show that population indices of Delta smelt, striped bass, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad have declined 95.6%, 99.6%, 99.8%, 97.8%, 90.9%, respectively, between 1967 and 2013, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and Board Member of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).

Both the 2013 and 2014 indices for Sacramento splittail, another native fish found only in the estuary, were not released, but results from 2012 reveal that splittail indices have dropped 98.5% from 1967 levels. In 2011, the Brown administration presided over a record "salvage" of 9 million splittail in 2011, a record year for exports by the federal and state projects.

You can read the full report with graphs at: https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId=92840

What are some solutions to stopping this collapse, one that has been made much worse by the pro-corporate agribusiness policies of the Brown and Scharzenegger administrations?

First, we must strongly oppose federal "drought relief" legislation proposed by Congressman David Valadao that will make things even worse by overriding the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act.

Second, we must relentlessly oppose Governor Jerry Brown's Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the $67 billion twin tunnels under the Delta. The plan is based on the premise that taking more water from the Sacramento River above the Delta will "restore" the collapsing estuary. We should support the Environmental Water Caucus Responsible Exports Plan that sets a cap of 3 million acre feet year year and proposes creative conservation and recycling strategies for solving California's water crisis.

Third, join a fishery conservation or environmental justice organization of your choice. The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, California Striped Bass Association, California Water Impact Network, Klamath Justice Coalition, Friends of the River, Water for Fish and Save the American River Association are among the groups standing up for the fish. These are the groups that I work most closely with.

Fourth, representatives of fish groups, environmental groups and Indian Tribes need to get together and very stridently demand that Governor Jerry Brown, Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and DFW Director Chuck Bonham take emergency action above and beyond anything they are doing now, to address the mismanagement of our water resources to save Central Valley salmon and steelhead, Delta smelt and other species! We must DEMAND, not politely ask, that they take immediate action to address this crisis!

If things continue in the direction they are going, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento River winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley sturgeon and other species WILL become extinct in the coming years. We need to come up with new, creative, innovative and more confrontational organizing strategies to stop the state and federal governments from killing off what's left of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

For more information about the 2015 Outdoors Hall of Fame Inductees, including Armand Castagne and Roy Weatherby, go to: http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/Record-holding-angler-tops-state-Outdoors-Hall-of-5992309.php