Mendocino County Today: Friday, Jan 30, 2015

• Hare Creek Vote
• Arik's Verdict
• Collapse News
• Mayoral Reasons
• Ukiah's Telescope
• Legal Grease
• Catch of the Day
• Drought Outlook
• American Pie
• Austerity
• Simpson University
• Mocking Marshawn
• Foodshed News
• Police Reports
• Tribal Pot
• KZYX Salaries
• Office Linebacker
• Legalization Strategies
• Museum Roadshow

UNTASTY PUDDING AT THE FORT BRAGG PLANNING COMMISSION

by Malcolm Macdonald

If you attend enough Council, Board, or Committee meetings and witness enough members of the public going off the deep end of this issue or that, then you might just develop an ounce of compassionate sympathy for the Board, Committee, or Council members who, by regulation, must sit there placidly, forbidden to react or respond.

Fort Bragg has seen some over-the-top speakers of the (arch) conservative ilk at the last two City Council meetings, pontificating against the “others” who make up the homeless and mentally ill portion of the populace. There's another variety of meeting-goer who never dares to step to the speaker's podium, but usually sits far enough back in the room that they can make crude remarks loud enough to be mildly disruptive while being heard by like-minded pals nearby; however, those simple-minded, fearmongerers don't have any edge on their Mendo-lib brethren and sisteren.

The proof of that un-tasty pudding was on display at the January 28 meeting of the Fort Bragg Planning Commission. More than a hundred souls packed the John Diederich Center on Dana Street at 6pm. Another dozen or so could be seen just outside the open doors. The purpose of the meeting: to adopt or deny a mitigated negative declaration for a 29,500 square feet shopping center just west of the intersection of Highways 1 and 20 and just north of Hare Creek (within the Coastal Zone) and whether to approve or deny permits for said shopping center. The centerpiece of the development: a Grocery Outlet store. Before the hearing started, Commissioner Stan Miklose (an owner of Down Home Foods at 115 South Franklin St.) recused himself because of financial conflicts.

Next, Fort Bragg's Community Development Director, Marie Jones, gave a 50-minute synopsis of the plan and mitigations the City has requested of the applicants (the property is owned by the Patton family who settled in Fort Bragg more than a century ago). Fifty minutes sounds long and here's where we get into the paradoxical contradictions of those you might label liberals of the Mendocino Coast (at least half the audience was made up of non-Fort Bragg residents). Many sat through Jones' explanation listening closely, perhaps even gaining the beginnings of an inkling of how much work goes into creating the documents necessary for the hearing. Others got restless, muttering snarky rejoinders to their closest neighbors, waiting for any slip of Marie Jones' tongue to grumble their displeasure — tiny mispronunciations stoked their restiveness as they awaited their turn to carry figurative torches and pitchforks of self-righteous liberal indignation to the speaker's podium.

But when the time came for public input, the muttering, grumbling snarky types were much like their cranky conservative counterparts two nights earlier at the City Council meeting. Most of those who had been disruptive enough for Planning Commission Chair Derek Hoyle to mildly admonish failed to rise to the podium. As usual, the grumblers pretty much always sit on their thumbs and gutlessly continue to mutter cheap, crude asides.

Most of those who took to the podium made valid points in a sane manner. Those points included questioning why Fort Bragg needs another large store, particularly a non-union outfit like Grocery Outlet. Doubts were raised about the location itself, one of the first Fort Bragg sites locals and tourists see as they drive west on Highway 20. This writer agrees that one of the last things anyone needs to see in the rolling fields west of the Highway One and 20 intersection is another shopping center.

Several speakers demanded that a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) be completed before the plan goes any further. Several others cautioned against traffic problems that the shopping center might create. Dale Moyer implored the Planning Commissioners not to “pave over paradise,” and all was groovy, baby…

Except for a few lapses in fact like one speaker chastising Grocery Outlet for only selling processed and GMO laden food while ignoring a recent news item that details how Grocery Outlet is expanding its natural, organic, specialty, and health food items. The reason, of course, is monetary. Those healthier products have been flying off the shelves.

This is what I despise about my fellow liberals: slipshod, slippery slope references in the public square. What's worse, most coastal liberals will listen to a half truth, nod agreement, or sing hosannahs just as fast as any Fox News worshipper in Ogallala, Nebraska. Even more aggravating are the most pompous libs, who, at whatever age, act like immature babies when they can't bully someone to their way of thinking.

Case in point, one Cal Winslow. After he spread his more than three minutes of “I-have-a-degree-from-Berkeley” wisdom some of the trained lib-labs offered applause, though Chairman Hoyle had cautioned against it from the onset of the meeting. When Hoyle reminded the crowd once again, in a relatively genteel manner, that applause could prove intimidating to those with opposing views, Mr. Winslow was clearly heard snarling, in a tone unsuitable for addressing a biting dog, “F**k Off!”

And there it is, the mantra of the BABY Boomers, the battle cry of Sixties refugees when they don't get everything exactly their way: F**K Off!

I am reminded of the “wave speech” at the end of Chapter Eight in Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: “We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.… So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”

The wave rolled back some more when the Fort Bragg Planning Commission finally considered the question of adopting the “Mitigated Negative Declaration” on the Hare Creek Shopping Center. They voted 3-1 (Commissioner Teresa Rodriguez the lone dissenter) in favor of the project. A majority of the crowd began chanting E-I-R over and over for perhaps thirty seconds. Perhaps not exactly what Mario Savio envisioned, but he might have smiled in bemusement.

Meanwhile David Gurney — If you don't know Dave Gurney, you've missed some great demonstrations of modern Mendocino Coast liberalism run amok whenever Dave's emotions get the better of him — paced the back of the hall shouting, “Shame on You! Shame on You!” I think it safe to bet an acre or two that his comments were directed at the three Planning Commissioners who dared vote in a manner not befitting the mind of David Gurney.

To complete the ironic wave rolling back on the old Sixties and Seventies Libs, as the Commissioners took up discussion on whether to approve or deny the permits for the Hare Creek Shopping Center, and while Commissioner Sage Statham verbalized doubts about part of the permitting process, little Davy Gurney shouted out that Commissioner Statham was in violation of a conflict of interest. If he hadn't been yelling, Gurney might have noticed which way Statham was leaning.

“There's a conflict of interest,” Gurney hollered. “Sage Stratham [sic] wants an office out there. That's a conflict of interest.”

Chair Hoyle said, “David Gurney, could you please be quiet,” then proceeded with the vote. Commissioner Rodriguez: No; Commissioner Hammon: Aye; Commissioner Statham: No.

And with that, before Hoyle cast a second, “Aye,” the permits were denied because a 2-2 count shoots down a project that needs a majority vote. I couldn't see Gurney's face, but let's hope there was a brief moment of embarrassment, if not awareness.

Members of the Patton family stated that they would appeal to the Fort Bragg City Council, so this issue is far from over. Here's hoping that by the time of that City Council meeting some of the angry old libs learn how to behave in public. ¥¥

* * *

More info…

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3454846-181/fort-bragg-planning-commission-split

THE AVA'S 5150 CORRESPONDENT

UKIAH, Jan. 29. — Jury Trial Result: A jury returned from its deliberations this afternoon with guilty verdicts against Arik Lee Caldwell, age 32, a transient. Caldwell was found guilty of two felony counts of resisting an officer. The prosecutor who presented the People's trial evidence was Deputy District Attorney Jon Hopkins. The defendant was represented by the Public Defender's Office. The investigating law enforcement agency was the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. The three day trial was conducted in Department A of the Superior Court.

(— DA’s press release.)

Background:

https://www.theava.com/archives/38602

INFORMATIVE EXCERPTS from a recent report about the Bypass Collapse by the always thorough Adrian Baumann and his fellow reporter Michael Mott of the Willits News:

“CalTrans expected to be done with clean up by the end of the Jan. 30. Structural work on the viaduct and other bridges, which had been suspended, resumed across the project. Work on the collapsed span, however, will not resume until engineers have determined the extent of the damage and conduct tests. It's very likely that the sections near the collapsed portion were also damaged, and the columns at the site were clearly tilted. Engineers will need to test and examine the whole area, understand what went wrong, and if the nearby structures were damaged, before reconstruction can begin. CalTrans maintains that, because the dry weather has allowed work to continue through the winter, this collapse will not actually significantly delay completion of the bypass.

* * *

“The cost of that section of the viaduct, also known as "frame 1," is roughly $3 million dollars according to CalTrans spokesman Phil Frisbie. However, CalTrans confirmed that the additional costs incurred by clean up, delays, and reconstruction will apparently not fall to CalTrans or the taxpayer, but will covered by Flatiron, likely through their insurance.

* * *

“Flatiron which is based in Colorado, with several divisions across the United States and Canada, has been building bridges for CalTrans since 1991. They are one of CalTrans biggest contractors. In July 2007 Flatiron, which at that time was called FCI Constructors, suffered another bridge falsework collapse, in Oroville. A 50 foot high span over Highway 149 came crashing down while workers were atop. Carpenter Jeffrey Doll rode the collapsing bridge down and was severely injured. Rob Sylvester, a FedEx contract driver, was also badly hurt when debris from the collapse crashed down on his truck. He was pinned inside for hours, and in 2010 settled out of court with Flatiron. He did not say how much he won, but did donate $25,000 to local firefighters. After an investigation CalOSHA eventually fined Flatiron $6,750.”

Baumann & Mott’s full report:

http://www.willitsnews.com/localnews/ci_27410131/willits-bypass-150-foot-bypass-span-collapses

FORT BRAGG'S MAYOR thinks it's a good idea to put a halfway house in the middle of town, and he also thinks the following program outline for the halfway house constitute sound reasons for supporting the program. “Pre-employment training, Tai Chi, meditation and self-recovery-management.”

AND THE PEOPLE running this scam, the Ortner Management Group, charge by the minute. Yes, by the minute. Which means while the “clients” are working on their Tai Chi moves, gazing into their linty navels during meditation sessions, and self-recovering, Ortner's standing there watching the big hand on his stop watch make him a multi-millionaire.

BESIDES WHICH, the subject of the Council meeting was the appropriateness of the site, the old Coast Hotel, not Tai Chi paths to mental health.

* * *

WHY I VOTED FOR THE WELLNESS CENTER at the Old Coast Hotel

by Fort Bragg Mayor Dave Turner

01/22/15 — Last week the Fort Bragg City Council was presented with the question: “Should the City allow Mendocino Hospitality Wellness Center to use $1.2 million in State and Federal grants to purchase and improve the Old Coast Hotel at 101 North Franklin?”

As a small businessman, my first thought went to “is this the best use of this Grand Old Lady?” I have often driven by Oak and Franklin wondering what someone might do with this beautiful restored building. I even imagined myself behind the bar, though that vision evaporated almost immediately.

Then I racked my memory: “How many years has this been empty?” This line of thought led to: “Why didn’t Fort Bragg support a bar and restaurant with their pocket books?”

My business on East Redwood is a neighbor of the Hospitality House on McPherson. The Hospitality House Board also oversees the Wellness Center. They have been good neighbors these last 15 years. They make sure their sheltered clients don’t interfere with my business or my customers.

The Wellness Center will provide case management and support for people who have mental health problems. Co-located will be the staff of Integrated Care Management Solutions (ICMS) who run the Mental Health Access Center and provide clinical assessments and crisis services. Wellness Center staff work closely with ICMS staff and currently case manage 60 people with serious mental illness. Having both at the same location will be a tremendous benefit for all the clients who need this critical care.

Wellness Center activities and programming include:

• Pre-employment training, Tai Chi, meditation and self-recovery-management.
• Case management and support for people who are or have been homeless in an effort to get them housed.
• Five units of transitional housing (the homeless shelter will remain on McPherson).

All Wellness Center administration and offices will be located at this location as well as 24-hour staffing so that they have oversight over all activities at this location 24 hours a day.

About five years ago, we witnessed the closing of the Ukiah-based Coast Community Center along with the loss of counseling services and 33 units of transitional housing. Suddenly 33 folks were faced with the prospect of having no housing. Up until then, a fragile ecosystem of housing had been developed: Homeless clients who had shown the ability to stay clean-and-sober as well as responsible enough to pay rent were placed in supervised transitional housing. As these folks progressed in their work and home life, many moved on to permanent independent housing. This created an opening for another homeless person or family to move into transitional housing.

Every person or family placed into transitional housing is one less homeless person or family in Fort Bragg.

Every person who learns employment skills and gets a job is a win.

Every person who gets needed medication makes for a safer, more productive life.

Together I believe we can all work toward a better Fort Bragg.

UKIAH OBSERVATORY GETS ITS TELESCOPE BACK

http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/news/ci_27414762/long-awaited-observatory-telescope-returns-ukiah

https://www.facebook.com/UkiahLatitudeObservatory

TAKE THREE JUDGES TO LUNCH ACROSS THE STREET AT PATRONA'S
(Watch the allowable "gift" grow. Next year it'll be $800 then....)

Commission On Judicial Performance
455 Golden Gate Avenue, Suite 14400
San Francisco, CA 94102
Contact: Victoria B. Henley FOR RELEASE
Director-Chief Counsel January 29, 2015
(415) 557-1200

Commission On Judicial Performance Announces Biennial Adjustment Of Gift Limitation

(California Code of Civil Procedure Section 170.9(d))

The Commission on Judicial Performance announces its adoption of $410 as the gift limitation for purposes of Code of Civil Procedure, section 170.9(d).

* * *

The commission is composed of three judges, two lawyers and six public members. The chairperson is Honorable Erica R. Yew of the Santa Clara County Superior Court.

For further information about the Commission on Judicial Performance, see the commission’s website at http://cjp.ca.gov.

CATCH OF THE DAY, January 28, 2015

PAUL BASTION, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ISRRAEL CARRILLO, Ukiah. Vandalism, parole violation.

HEALTH DEWOLF, Fort Bragg. Burglary, drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

SHAWN EBY, Ukiah. DUI-drugs, under influence of controlled substance.

SCOTT HEIDINGER, Hopland. DUI.

PATRICK HEPPE, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

VINCENT JONES, Talmage. Possession of drugs while armed, ex-felon with firearm, prohibited person with ammo, possession of controlled substance.

JOSHUA KEPLER, Ukiah. Possession of pot for sale, transport, furnish.

JONAH RENFORT, Willits. Possession of controlled substance for sale.

BILLY RICKMAN, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a firearm, criminal threats, vandalism, possession of controlled substance, county parole violation. (Frequent flyer.)

JOHN VARNEY, Fort Bragg. Assault with deadly weapon not a firearm, riding bicycle under influence of drugs or alcohol.

JOSEPH VENTURI, Ukiah. Possession of controlled substance.

ROBERT VERVILLE, Willits. Burglary, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

LARRY WILLIAMS, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

AMERICAN PIE

A long, long time ago

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile

And I knew if I had my chance

That I could make those people dance

And maybe they'd be happy for a while

 

But February made me shiver

With every paper I'd deliver

Bad news on the doorstep

I couldn't take one more step

 

I can't remember if I cried

When I read about his widowed bride

But something touched me deep inside

The day the music died

 

So bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

Singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

Did you write the book of love

And do you have faith in God above

If the Bible tells you so?

Now do you believe in rock and roll?

Can music save your mortal soul?

And can you teach me how to dance real slow?

 

Well, I know that you're in love with him

'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym

You both kicked off your shoes

Man, I dig those rhythm and blues

 

I was a lonely teenage broncin' buck

With a pink carnation and a pickup truck

But I knew I was out of luck

The day the music died

 

I started singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

Singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

Now for ten years we've been on our own

And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone

But that's not how it used to be

When the jester sang for the king and queen

In a coat he borrowed from James Dean

And a voice that came from you and me

 

Oh, and while the king was looking down

The jester stole his thorny crown

The courtroom was adjourned

No verdict was returned

 

And while Lenin read a book on Marx

The quartet practiced in the park

And we sang dirges in the dark

The day the music died

 

We were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

Singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

Helter skelter in a summer swelter

The birds flew off with a fallout shelter

Eight miles high and falling fast

It landed foul on the grass

The players tried for a forward pass

With the jester on the sidelines in a cast

 

Now the halftime air was sweet perfume

While the sergeants played a marching tune

We all got up to dance

Oh, but we never got the chance

 

'Cause the players tried to take the field

The marching band refused to yield

Do you recall what was revealed

The day the music died?

 

We started singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

And singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

Oh, and there we were all in one place

A generation lost in space

With no time left to start again

So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick

Jack Flash sat on a candlestick

'Cause fire is the devil's only friend

 

Oh, and as I watched him on the stage

My hands were clenched in fists of rage

No angel born in Hell

Could break that Satan's spell

 

And as the flames climbed high into the night

To light the sacrificial rite

I saw Satan laughing with delight

The day the music died

 

He was singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

And singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

I met a girl who sang the blues

And I asked her for some happy news

But she just smiled and turned away

I went down to the sacred store

Where I'd heard the music years before

But the man there said the music wouldn't play

 

And in the streets, the children screamed

The lovers cried and the poets dreamed

But not a word was spoken

The church bells all were broken

 

And the three men I admire most

The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost

They caught the last train for the coast

The day the music died

 

And they were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

And them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

Singin' "This'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die"

 

They were singin' bye-bye, Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry

Them good old boys were drinkin' whiskey in Rye

And singin' "This'll be the day that I die"

— Don Mclean

MORE CHILDREN DEPEND ON FOOD STAMPS now than they did at the start of the Great Recession. Around 16 million U.S. children under 18, or about 20 percent of the child population, received food stamps last year, according to a new report from Census Bureau on Wednesday. At the beginning of the recession, 9 million children received food stamps.

* * *

SAN FRANCISCO has one of the nation's wealthiest populations, so it may surprise you to
 learn that nearly one in four San Franciscans lives below the poverty line. Some 184,000 people, 23 percent of the city, qualify as poor, according to the Public
Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty. Moreover, the gap between rich and poor keeps getting wider. San Francisco has the fastest 
growing inequality spread in America, according to the Brookings Institution. The ratio is 
high because the city's wealthy households have incomes higher than in any other major
city ($353,000 at the 95th percentile). How do poor Americans survive as others enjoy a comfortable standard of living? Often by 
desperate scrounging and self-sacrifice just to put food on the table. A thread on the online forum Reddit recently explored the issue: "What do insanely poor 
people buy that ordinary people know nothing about?"

Reply comment:

“Oh god. Bags of frozen veggies and a couple packs of ramen can make a family meal. I used to buy these awful frozen chicken discs wrapped in bacon - they were terrible - filled with gristle and just nasty. Eating those with rice and frozen corn was a real treat. I ate kraft dinner (mac and cheese) every day for about 2-3 years because that was all I could cook while my mom worked. (I could have made spaghetti-os, but I hated those), That for dinner, and one of those cheap 99 cent pack donuts from the grocery store for breakfast. Lunch was Bologna sandwich and an apple. Finally, when I was about 10 or 11, I started teaching myself how to cook from my mom's old cook books so my meals got a lot better. All carbs, and cheap fats - scalloped potatoes, rice and cheap meats. My local bus service used to have paper transfers. So you'd pay your fare, get the paper transfer that was good for an hour, and then you'd use it for the next bus. But if you were only going to the station, you'd get a paper transfer anyway, then hang around the station for an extra 5 minutes to see if anyone needed it. Conversely, you'd wait around for people getting off the bus, to see if you could score someones transfer. This only worked if you weren't switching buses, but I got quite a few free rides this way (and gave many a transfer away) Going without meds, living in constant pain because you can't afford a prescription. I remember laying in my bed at night, and my mom would be sobbing in her bed from pain, because she couldn't afford the meds that would treat her rheumatoid arthritis or anything but generic Tylenol for her pain.”

* * *

SIMPSON UNIVERSITY named more than 275 students to the Dean's List for the fall 2014 semester. To be eligible for the Dean's List, a student must have a semester grade-point average of 3.50 or higher.

Kayla Holland of Redwood Valley (95470)

Joselyn Malik of Manchester (95459)

Simpson University, founded in 1921, has an undergraduate enrollment of more than 750 students and offers degrees in 27 majors. From its beginnings, Simpson University has sought to be a Christ-centered learning community committed to developing each student in mind, faith, and character for a lifetime of meaningful work and service. For more information visit simpsonu.edu.

We're excited to be celebrating our 25th year in Redding, Calif., and the opening of our new Science & Nursing Building. Learn more at simpsonu.edu/snbuilding.

COMMENT OF THE DAY

Under Roger Goodell the league continues to put players like Marshawn Lynch in a position to be mocked by the media, which seems to get a kick out of seeing people struggle on camera. As teammates we’re angry because we know what certain people do well and we know what they struggle with. Marshawn’s talking to the press is the equivalent of putting a reporter on a football field and telling him to tackle [Minnesota Vikings Fullback] Adrian Peterson.

— Richard Sherman, Seattle Seahawks cornerback

AV FOODSHED NEWS

Here's the lineup we have so far for the Winter Market this Saturday at the Winter Abundance gathering at the Fairgrounds in Boonville, 9am - 4pm. For more info on the gathering see http://mendocinolocalfood.org. There may be another update tomorrow afternoon if we hear from more vendors.

Anderson Valley Community Farm will have vegetables, jams, pesto, hot sauce, dried fruit, and frozen USDA meat (lamb, pork, and beef).

Petit Teton - We'll be there for a 9am opening and will be bringing hot soups, crackers, pretzels, cookies, fresh krauts and kimchi along with our array of canned items from jams and chutneys to pickles and relishes.

Saoirse Byrne - Mira has been making more of her hand drawn and printed postcards. I'll be there with her and bring my organic wool baby shrugs and recycled wool sweater vests.

Mike Garver - I am planning to set up a Zumba at the Grange table to sell punch cards for classes. I am also starting two new classes on Tuesday at 10:00 AM and Friday afternoon at 4:30 PM. I will be advertising these new classes as well. These classes will begin February 10 and February 13.

Bunny Bill Harper will be there with onion and leek starts, lemons and Kiffir lime.

WildeAcre Farm will be there with sauerkraut, creme fraiche, water kefir, milk kefir and gluten free almond chia muffins.

Also look for our AV Foodshed table for information on Foodshed events and this year's Not-So-Simple Living Fair.

* * *

The Mendocino County Farmers Market Association (MCFARM) is accepting applications for the position of Market Manager at the Boonville Certified Farmers Market. The Market Manager is an independent contractor and is responsible for ensuring that the market complies with MCFARM and state regulations, for market promotion and all other basic management duties. The Boonville certified market operates from 10-12:30 from May through October. The Market Manager is also a member of the MCFARM Operating Committee. For a copy of the application or for more details about the compensation or responsibilities of a Market Manager contact Scott Cratty at 707-462-7377 or cratty@comcast.net. The deadline to apply for the position is Tuesday, February 10 at 5pm.

* * *

Andy Taylor will be teaching First Aid at the Philo School of Herbal Energetics on Feb 7. Please contact Mary Pat Palmer mpatpalm@herbalenergetics.com

Andy describes the class: "We will discuss the traditional uses of plant medicines and and other modalities for minor injuries and other emergencies, as well as the theoretical uses of plant medicines when doctors and pharmacies are not available. We will also cover the use of plants and to aid in recovery from injury."

Matthew Wood says of Andy: "Andy Taylor is an experienced woodsman with loads of knowledge of first aide. I recommend his class highly. "----Matthew Wood, MS, Registered Herbalist…

Andy is an herbalist from Elk - a deeply green thumb and extensive knowledge of healing for humans and four leggeds.

* * *

Basic Botany and Plant ID; a beginning class open to all levels

Presented by the Anderson Valley Adult School in the Rancheria Classroom (by the bus barn) at the AV Elementary School

8 Monday evenings from 6-9 pm, February 23 - April 13, 2015, plus a Saturday field trip on March 28.

Sliding scale $45 to $90 for all 9 sessions

This class will start with some basics of botany & plant classification, then, using fresh specimens, discuss how to identify many native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers, as well as which garden plants are related to each other and to wild plants.

Teacher Jade Paget-Seekins, taught plant ID labs for 6 semesters as a graduate student at Humboldt State University.

For more information contact her at sagejade@gmail.com, or 707-895-3354.

COPS ON PATROL IN UKIAH

ON THURSDAY, January 22nd at about 6:50 AM Ukiah Police responded to the business at 558 North State Street for people camping. Officers contacted three subjects in sleeping bags, one of whom was identified as 23 year old Kenneth Leon James-Horton. As the officer was speaking with the subjects and preparing to cite them for violating the city’s ordinance against camping, James-Horton got up and tried to leave. James-Horton refused to follow officers’ commands, and once physically restrained threw his hands up and struggled with the officers. James-Horton was arrested for resisting arrest and camping within the city limits, and the other two subjects were cited for camping within the city limits.

ON THURSDAY, January 22nd at about 8:40 PM Ukiah Police responded to a residence in the 700 block of Waugh Lane regarding child abuse. Officers learned the four-year old child’s father, 28 year old Charles Alexander Blunt, had disciplined the child by striking the child with a coat hanger multiple times. The officers subsequently determined the child had visible injuries to the child’s facial area, and raised marks along the child’s backside. Officers noticed injuries along the child’s wrists, and determined Blunt had handcuffed the child to a table several days prior, while he left to the store returning at about 2:00 AM. Blunt was arrested for cruelty to a child and causing injury to a child.

ON FRIDAY, January 23rd at about 5:35 PM Ukiah Police responded to the Pear Tree Center, at 504 East Perkins Street for a subject who’d thrown a basketball at the victim’s vehicle. The suspect was seen leaving in a vehicle which officers spotted and stopped in the 400 block of East Gobbi Street. The passenger immediately fled from the vehicle and ran north along the railroad tracks with the officer in foot pursuit. The suspect was captured near Cleveland Lane and identified as 25 year old Phillip Ronnie Lopez, who had a warrant for his arrest for violating parole. Lopez was arrested for the warrant and for resisting arrest.

ON SUNDAY, January 25th at about 1:00 AM Ukiah Police responded to the 100 block of Observatory Avenue for a vandalism to a vehicle in progress. Arriving officers found the victim’s vehicle stopped in the middle of the roadway, and the victim was holding a juvenile suspect down on the ground. Two California Highway Patrol Officers had two additional juvenile suspects detained as well. Ukiah Police Officers determined the victim was in his residence nearby and heard his parked vehicle being damaged. The victim saw a group of subjects surrounding his vehicle kicking and hitting his vehicle. The victim saw the group walk onto Observatory Avenue and called the police, and followed the group in another vehicle. The group surrounded that vehicle as well in the middle of the roadway and began kicking and throwing rocks at the vehicle. The California Highway Patrol Officers were driving behind the victim’s vehicle and saw the group damaging the victim’s vehicle, and detained two of the suspects amongst the many that fled. Officers determined the two vehicles sustained damaged estimated at over $2000. A 17 year old female juvenile from Ukiah, a 15 year old male juvenile from Hopland, and a 15 year old male juvenile from Redwood Valley were arrested for felony vandalism.

ON SUNDAY, January 25th at about 5:00 PM Ukiah Police responded to the Sunrise Inn, at 650 South State Street, for an assault with a knife. Officer learned the victim was moving his 8 and 12 year old children and their belongings into a room, when a subject later identified as 42 year old Billy Joe Rickman, began conversing with them. The victim realized his cell phone had been stolen and confronted Rickman about it, who denied taking the phone. Later the 8 year old yelled to Rickman to return the phone, and Rickman became enraged and stabbed the tire on the victim’s vehicle. Rickman began to yell threats to the adult victim, and at one point told the 8 year old child he would kill the child. Rickman had the knife displayed and advanced towards the adult victim when a witness intervened. Rickman eventually left on his bicycle. On January 28th at about 10:50 AM a Ukiah Police Detective spotted Rickman in the Rite Aid parking lot, and attempted to contact Rickman who fled running east on Gobbi Street. Other officers responded and began to chase Rickman on foot into the Yokayo Center at 721 South State Street. A citizen stepped in front of Rickman and then took Rickman to the ground, and officers placed Rickman into custody. Rickman was found to possess several knives, as well as a methamphetamine smoking pipe, hypodermic syringes, and methamphetamine. Rickman was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, threats, vandalism, possessing methamphetamine, possessing drug paraphernalia, and resisting arrest.

LEONA’S INDUSTRIAL POT GARDEN hits legal snag

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3422671-181/legality-of-ukiah-tribal-pot

UNFAIR, UNBALANCED, INAUDIBLE

Subject: The latest signal problems at KZYX.
From: "Marco McClean" <memo@mcn.org>
Date: Thu, January 29, 2015 1:31 pm

Kelly wrote:

“Anyone else listening to the garbled radio signal?

Do we know why?

More STL problems?

Just wondering if it is going to clear up.

Thanks for any info.

Kelly”

And Erif wrote:

“All three of my radios coughed and spit; but not when I played KMUD. I tried streaming, but couldn't get the device to work. I find this pretty near impossible to listen to; it's much worse today than yesterday. It does seem to be in-studio, though, as there was an interview with someone yesterday and the interviewee was clear; the ZYX commentator pop-y. I tried calling this morning, but no answer. Is it possible they don't know?”

And KZYX General Manager John Coate wrote:

“…The main STL radios are about ten years old and are matched with the KZYX and KZYZ transmitters, which were installed at the same time. It is not new equipment, but it isn't that old either. It is within its normal life span. Still, like all equipment, it can, and sometimes does, break … Our long term debt is now around $16K. We pay it off by the month. It is not far from being low enough to pay it off in one final payment, but with so many demands on our resources, it is not time to do that yet…”

* * *

So I wrote:

John, here's a solution. You and the rest of the /Downfall/-bunkered high command at KZYX might volunteer to take a 50% cut in pay, use the resulting freed-up money to entirely replace the STLs with brand new ones and/or solve the routing problems another more permanent way, and pay power bills and assorted fees and phone bills and so on, and also pay off the standing debt and ensure there never will be debt in future. With money that you've been removing from the station in your normal paychecks. The best solution would be for you to give up your salaries entirely and be paid at the same rate per hour actually worked as the people struggling to do their shows.

— Marco McClean

YOU NEED A COVER SHEET, FOOL!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzToNo7A-94

ZIMMERMAN’S VICTORY LAPSE

by Fred Gardner

Professional reformers, longtime activists, and stakeholders in the marijuana industry attended an invitation-only meeting at the Waterfront Hotel in Oakland January 9 to discuss plans for a marijuana ‘legalization’ initiative to be on the ballot in California in 2016.

The invitations came from the Coalition for Cannabis Policy Reform (CCPR), a group led by Dale Sky Jones that was formed after the defeat of a legalization measure in 2010, and the Drug Policy Alliance, represented by lobbyist Jim Gonzales

The keynote speaker was Bill Zimmerman, a Los Angeles campaign consultant who is widely credited with masterminding the 1996 Proposition 215 campaign, which legalized marijuana for medical use in California.

Gonzales introduced Zimmerman by praising his autobiography, “Troublemaker,” and his courageous support for “the protesters at Wound Knee.” Gonzales actually said of Zimmerman, “He is a man who has found the secret of life, which is: do good things.”

Zimmerman seemed oblivious to the presence in the crowd of grassroots organizers who considered him and the Drug Policy Alliance usurpers who weakened Prop 215 and provided no help in the fight for implementation.

“I first took marijuana legalization seriously in 1995,” said Zimmerman, reading from a prepared speech, “at a meeting that George Zimmer hosted at Francesca’s Restaurant at the Oakland airport. At the time, I was not a marijuana activist, but I was an experienced ballot initiative campaign manager. So later that year, when the signature drive to qualify Proposition 215 began to collapse, I was asked to take over the campaign.” [Zimmer, who was in the audience, was then CEO of the Men’s Wearhouse. The meeting at Francesca’s was in January, ’96, according to others who were there.]

The Relevant Background

Zimmerman was hired for the campaign-manager job by Ethan Nadelmann, director of an NGO that is now called the Drug Policy Alliance. Nadelmann had the backing of enlightened billionaires —George Soros, Peter Lewis, John Sperling, and Laurence Rockefeller— and could write a check to get California’s medical marijuana initiative on the ballot. Most of the million Nadelmann raised went to the professional signature drive (which paid $1/per). Zimmerman becoming campaign manager was Nadelmann’s price for writing the check.

Note that Zimmerman and Nadelmann had nothing to do with writing California’s medical marijuana initiative, which had been drafted by Dennis Peron, William G. Panzer, Dale Gieringer, and Tod Mikuriya, with input from a broad entourage that had been meeting at the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club in the summer and fall of 1995. Nadelzimm never would have called for legalizing marijuana to treat any condition for which it provides relief. Fortunately, by the time they took over, it was too late to change the wording.

Gieringer and Panzer were among the Prop 215 proponents listening to Zimmerman’s version of 1996. Others included Mike and Michele Aldrich, Ellen Komp, Rob Raich, Jeff Jones, Marsha Rosenbaum and the aforementioned Zimmer.

“When I took the Prop 215 job,” Zimmerman recounted, “I commissioned a public opinion poll, and I asked the pollsters to add a question that was new to such polling. And the question was, ‘Are you personally acquainted with anyone who has used marijuana for medical purposes?’ I was amazed at the result: 33% of likely voters in 1996 answered yes to that question. That’s when I understood that medical marijuana was a winnable issue. And that it could be used as an opening argument for the eventual legalization of recreational use.”

It was honest of Zimmerman to admit that a third of “the people” knew more about marijuana than he did. And that he — running campaigns in California since the 1970s — didn’t understand the political significance of marijuana. And that he considered “legalization” the ultimate goal of the Prop 215 campaign.

Zimmerman went on: “Working with the Drug Policy Alliance, DPA, we sought two goals; legalizing medical marijuana in the short run, but preparing for a broader effort in the long run. The 215 campaign taught me about the many medical conditions that marijuana could alleviate, the many hundreds of thousands of patients who had been helped, the needless human suffering it could relieve, and when I finally understood all of this, and how important it was, I wanted to do more.”

And funding just happened to be available.

“So three days after the Prop 215 victory, with DPA’s support, we launched medical marijuana initiative campaigns in six other states. And the modern marijuana reform movement was born.”

A Credit Grab

That is a credit grab. “The modern marijuana reform movement was born” — to use Zimmerman’s silly image — in San Francisco in 1990-91, when Dennis Peron launched the Cannabis Buyers Club in response to the AIDS epidemic. The club enabled the Prop 215 campaign in 1995-96. DPA’s post-215 efforts to push weaker initiatives in other states represented the beginning of the cooling off of the super-nova that had exploded in California. It looked like expansion, but…

As Nadelmann funded Zimmerman to promote electoral initiatives in other states, California activists were denied resources needed in the crucial fight for implementation of Prop 215. In vain Dr. Tod Mikuriya asked DPA and the Marijuana Policy Project to underwrite what he called an “audit to promote compliance” on the part of all the agencies that would have to change their policies — Probation, Sheriffs, Police, Child Protective Services, etc. Tod finally undertook the project himself with the help of John Trapp, his assistant in running a very busy medical practice. For several years after 215 passed, Mikuriya was the only doctor in California known to readily approve cannabis in treating any condition for which it provides relief.

John Trapp wrote about the audit plan for O’Shaughnessy’s (Spring 2008). Tod rightly expected resistance to implementing Prop 215 from law enforcement, the medical establishment (especially addiction specialists), and inert government bureaucrats. With every passing year I realize how politically astute his audit scheme was. The idea was to have a young lawyer and/or an intern pressing all the relevant government agencies to rewrite their protocols in accordance with the new law, and using the media to publicize acts of noncompliance. The audit would have kept the drug warriors on the defensive.

Momentum is crucial in politics, and we, the people, had it when Prop 215 passed in November, 1996. The vote had been a huge rebuke to law enforcement — 56 to 44 YES! — over the opposition of every sheriff, police chief and DA in the state (except Terence Hallinan of San Francisco). But California Attorney General Dan Lungren immediately announced a “narrow interpretation” that encouraged cops to keep arresting and DAs to keep prosecuting people for cultivation, etc. Dennis Peron’s club was closed down (as “a nuisance” on seedy Market Street) and Tod Mikuriya prosecuted by the AG’s office. Law enforcement and government bureaucrats regrouped and pursued plans for a rollback, jurisdiction by jurisdiction. To this day they have blocked the full implementation of Prop 215.

DPA did not entirely pull the rug out from under California after the Prop 215 victory. In response to a threat by the Clinton Administration to revoke the licenses of doctors who approved marijuana use by patients, DPA filed suit to block any such action. Although the government’s threat had been made against Dr. Mikuriya, specifically, by Clinton’s Four-Star Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, the DPA strategists did not include Tod among the many co-plaintiffs in their lawsuit.

The Conant v. McCaffrey suit was crucial to our movement’s advance. (When your mission is to end the war on drugs, you can’t help but do right 90 percent of the time.) But excluding Mikuriya as a co-plaintiff was “pot baiting” (his term) on the part of DPA. Perhaps if Tod had been a co-plaintiff in Conant v. McCaffrey, the state attorney general might not have prosecuted him.

But back to Bill Zimmerman in 2015: “Our success has now altered the playing field. Now the looming possibility of full legalization has attracted many people to our movement. They are welcomed, even though they may not share our original public interest commitment...

“As you know, political campaigns target persuadable voters. And generally ignore those already committed to voting for or against. Our situation is no different. Speaking in very rough terms, polling indicates that about one third of likely voters strongly favor legalization. One third strongly oppose. And about one third tilt in our favor, but only halfheartedly. Our audience is that last third, not the third that already supports us...

Unity Good, Factions Bad

Zimmerman read on: “CCPR asked me to speak today about how we can win this ballot initiative fight. Instead, I want to talk briefly about how we can lose it. I see three ways to do that: First, we can demand too much. Second, we can divide into opposing factions. Third we draw a heavily funded opposition.

“The first way we can lose in 2016 is to go too far, to demand too much in the text of our initiative. Remember who we are speaking to, that last third of the voters, who are unhappy about marijuana, but reluctantly willing to legalize it... Our beliefs about what is right have to be put aside in the interest of what is possible.

“The second way we can lose is to divide our effort and break up into two or more factions.”

You may have noticed: it’s always the dominant faction that calls for unity and denounces factions.

Zimmerman: “Our differences must be governed [sic] by what is best for California, and must be determined by scientific data, not our own unsupported wishes and hopes.”

By “scientific data,” he means feedback from a pollster whose questions can be framed to provide answers that DPA wants. I once wrote an analysis of such a poll. See how easy it is to give the client the answer s/he wants by wording the questions appropriately.

Zimmerman warned that “new players with their own money” might back initiatives, resulting in more than one making the ballot. This would be “disastrous,” he claimed.

“Our opponents would jump at the chance to advertise our disagreements, and argue that we are so confused as to how to structure legalization, that we are unable to even agree among ourselves about how this dangerous move should be managed. That argument would be devastating to the voters that we need to target.”

Reform honchos always emphasize the importance of a unified message. This may be because they’re control freaks, personally, and/or because they don’t want to split the campaign funds with other reform honchos. In reality, two initiatives would give voters perspective. For example, an initiative legalizing marijuana for adults 18 and over would make another one legalizing the herb for adults 21 and over appear more “centrist.”

Zimmerman also expressed fear about getting outspent, although he didn’t explain how an initiative could be crafted to minimize that possibility. He said: “Statewide TV advertisement has often defeated popular ballot initiatives in California. I can tell you that from first-hand experience, having managed a single-payer healthcare initiative in 1974 that started with 70% support and got 27% on Election Day because of opposition advertising by health insurance companies.

“I have personally managed 17 drug reform ballot initiatives in ten states, losing only four. None of the thirteen victories had opposition TV advertising. All of the four defeats did.”

He only wins when he can outspend the opposition.

“The most damaging argument will come if we end up with more than one legalization initiative,” Zimmerman repeated. “That argument will go something like, ‘We support marijuana legalization just as much as many Californians do, but protecting kids and maintaining public safety is so complicated and difficult that even the legalization activists can’t agree on how to do it.’ There’s no effective response to that strategy if there are multiple initiatives on the ballot...

“If any of these very effective arguments are made by opponents on a multimillion dollar advertising campaign, my guess is that we will have to spend as much as four times as much as they do to neutralize them. Dramatic lies sit in one’s memory far longer than any hopeful truths.”

A great point to make to prospective donors — but it makes no sense when you think about it, Why should our truth cost four times more to get across than their lie?

Only DPA Can Save Us

Zimmerman: “While each of us should pursue what he or she thinks best, and do so vigorously, we will all have to compromise. Politics is in the end, the art of the possible. And to determine what is possible, we need to rely on scientific public opinion data.”

Which my company can provide. (Note the repeat of “scientific.”)

“In the next few months, we have to unify around a single initiative, and prepare to wage a unified campaign on its behalf. While many organizations represented in this room and elsewhere will contribute to that effort, only the Drug Policy Alliance is capable of leading it. The time has come to put aside past differences, and recognize this essential fact.

“The DPA has a large and centrally located operation in California. They are the only organization that has handled successful ballot initiatives here. They come with the experience and the financial resources that give us all the best chance we have. The logic is simple: to win, we have to unite. To unite, we need strong and capable leadership. Nobody has it to the extent the DPA does. The conclusion therefore is inescapable. I hope all of you, after pushing as hard as possible for everything you believe in, in the end will join with me in a unified and goal driven organization campaign managed by our friends in the Drug Policy Alliance. That is simply the best, and very likely the only way to succeed. Thank you.”

Audience Response

First up to the question mike was Ellen Komp, who worked hard on the Prop 215 campaign in ‘95-’96, and is now deputy director of California NORML. “I’d like to ask DPA to join the coalition, CCPR, which we’ve all been working so hard for,” she began.

“And second, because your organization, Americans for Medical Rights brought about the six-plant limit in the other states you ran the initiatives in... Can you think of a way that we can protect the cottage industry in California? How are we going to legalize it in a way that isn’t warehouse weed that costs $200,000 for a license like other states are doing?” (A reference to New York state.)

“Good question,” said Zimmerman, who had no answer and went on to blither irrelevantly, “What I said in my remarks about being goal driven I think is the way to answer the question... When we got that 33% ‘Yes’ response to the question ‘Do you know someone who has used marijuana medically?’ if you asked about legalization at that time, you would have gotten a very low number of people in favor of recreational distribution.”

Doesn’t this veteran campaign professional know that 33% of Californians voted for full legalization of marijuana in 1971? His surprise that one in three Californians knew a medical user in 1996 was equally revealing, given that AIDS patients were using en masse and that Dr. Mikuriya, Dennis Peron, Valerie Corral, and hundreds of grassroots activists had been carrying the message for many years. Bill Zimmerman was the beneficiary of a social movement and mass action (on the part of AIDS patients). An electoral campaign is only the tip of an iceberg. The public education campaign that precedes it is crucial to success.

The usually mild-mannered Dale Gieringer, a co-author of Prop 215, was next up to the mike. “You were wrong about the DPA having led every successful marijuana initiative,” he said. “May I remind you about Prop 215, organized by a grassroots group here in California with a lot less talent and a lot less experience than we have now. So I cordially suggest that the entire community of California be involved in the writing and the devising of this initiative. We can collaborate and work together on the polling and the writing, and everything else, but to say at this time that there’s one particular organization with an unblemished record in this is inaccurate.”

Zimmerman (gentlemanly): “No question, you’re right about how Prop 215 got off the ground. It was definitely a grassroots effort, it was written by grassroots people here in the Bay Area, and the first campaigning done on its behalf was certainly conducted by what can be described as a grassroots coalition. However, that coalition was unable to qualify the initiative for the ballot... We had to hire professional signature gatherers to qualify. That took money that the grassroots didn’t have. We then had to defend Prop 215 with advertising in order to build an electoral victory, and we did that with money that DPA organized.”

Ellen Komp put in, “But if you had just given that money to the grassroots, we could have done it!” Zimmerman cut off our Pasionaria with a brazen assertion: “I don’t think there are more than two people in the room that believe that. But to finish what I was saying...”

It was smart of Zimmerman not to ask for a show of hands or deal with Komp’s point — which is a relevant point, when it comes to evaluating DPA’s usefulness. How valid is their claim to credit for the victory of Prop 215?

As some in the room knew, support for medical marijuana was 60-40 in a poll taken by the reputable David Binder before Zimmerman became campaign manager. The lead went down after he took over, and was going down until the bust of the San Francisco Buyers’ Club in August attracted the attention of Gary Trudeau, who devoted a week of Doonesbury strips to the club’s martyrdom. Attorney General Lungren went apeshit and called a press conference to denounce Doonesbury! Every political cartoonist in the state aimed one at Lungren. Trudeau did another week’s worth of ‘toons in October.

“But to finish what I was saying,” Zimmerman huffed, “the recommendation that I made, that DPA lead the campaign, was not a recommendation that DPA is the only organization that play a role in that campaign.... I’m only arguing that DPA is the most qualified manager.”

Panzer: we can find other friends

Attorney Bill Panzer, who also helped draft Prop 215, told Zimmerman: “Back in 1996, we didn’t have the money. George Soros had the money... This time, there’s going to be other people with money. And you should talk to Ethan [Nadelmann] and let him know that what’s going to happen this time, if you guys don’t work with us: there’s going to be an initiative on the ballot that DPA has nothing to do with.”

Zimmerman smoothly shifted gears: “First of all, it’s not ‘you guys.” I’m not DPA, I’m not part of DPA, I have been a consultant to DPA over the years and at present I have no role in the upcoming campaign, and no role in the Drug Policy Alliance.”

Goldsberry: Who is to benefit?

Debby Goldsberry, a widely respected veteran activist, challenged Zimmerman’s contention that the initiative should be written with the undecided third of voters in mind. “To us,” she said, confident that she was speaking for many in the room, “the most important third is our third, because you are talking about my ability to feed my family, and that is the most important thing to me. I need a job and I need to feed my family. I’m not sure that DPA is going to create something that’s going to support me and my needs and we’re talking about a third of your voters. Now you’re asking if you can lead us, and you think you’re the best. I’m not convinced, and that’s why you need to join with CCPR. Because I really feel like they care about the third of the people that’s us.”

At last someone had gotten real. The wording of the winning initiative will determine the fate of thousands of mom-and-pop growers and chocolatiers and the dispensaries that distribute their wares.

MENDOCINO COUNTY MUSEUM ROAD SHOW COVERS COUNTY'S HISTORY

by Roberta Werdinger

The Mendocino County Museum presents the 2015 Mendocino County Museum Road Show, coming in March to a local theater near you. Now in its second year, the show features enactments of oral history stories by noted local actors and is accompanied by music both original and traditional by the Americana trio All About Sally. The Museum Road Show will play over the span of three weekends in March, at 7:30 pm for one night only each, at the following venues: Saturday, March 7 at Willits High School; Friday, March 13 at Arena Theater in Point Arena; Saturday, March 14 at SPACE Theater in Ukiah; Friday, March 20 at the Anderson Valley Grange in Philo; and Saturday, March 21 at Cotton Auditorium in Fort Bragg. There will be an additional matinee at 2 pm on Sunday, March 15 at SPACE Theater in Ukiah. Doors open half an hour early for guests to enjoy refreshments and pre-show music.

"We're bringing history to the people, bringing it alive, using the real words of the people who lived those stories," states Museum Road Show Artistic Director Linda Pack. Pack created the show from oral history accounts and historical archives with help from Ukiah Players Theatre director Kate Magruder. Pack and Magruder also act in the show, along with local talent Rick Allan, Ricci Dedola, Billy Hetherington, Nichole Phillips, and Tony Rakes. An old-fashioned proscenium arch, period costumes, and archival photos projected onto the stage flesh out the drama, along with tunes such as "Lorena," a song whose strains used to drift between enemy campfires at night after the battles of the Civil War. An original tune written by All About Sally member Dave Alden, "Ballad of Black Bart," will also debut during the show.

Located in Willits, the Mendocino County Museum decided to "take to the road" (via the Museum Road Show, that is) as a way of reaching folks directly in their communities to reflect their history and heritage back to them. The Museum itself is packed with stories and artifacts from every corner of the large and varied county it represents. Alison Glassey, Museum Director, comments, "The Mendocino County Museum is all about our local communities and cultures and this is a creative and unique way to understand and present them."

The cost for the Road Show is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors (ages 65 and over) and $10 for youth (ages 20 and under). Tickets are available online through www.MendocinoMuseum.org by calling the Museum at (707) 459-2736, or by visiting the Mendocino County Museum at 400 East Commercial Street in Willits during open hours, 10 am to 4:30 pm Wednesday through Sunday. The Road Show sold out last year, so advance tickets are strongly encouraged.