Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Feb 5, 2015

• Flood Watch
• Bear Killing
• Counterfeit Bills
• Vaccinate
• Pot Tax Refunds
• Police Reports
• Catch of the Day
• Forest Conservation
• Nazi Xmas
• Medicare for All
• Repeal 215
• Crawling Sniper
• Propagandistic Fiction
• MHAB Meeting
• Funk Armageddon
• KZYX Candidates
• Tequila Sunrise

NAVARRO RIVER PREDICTED TO FLOOD and close Highway 128 by Friday. 
The National Weather Service has issued a "Flood Watch" starting Thursday evening through Friday evening.

Flood watch for a portion of Northwest California including the following areas: Mendocino Coast, Mendocino Interior, North Coast Interior & Redwood Coast. From Thursday evening through Friday evening
 a strong frontal boundary will bring 3 to 6 inches of rain to the area. Local amounts to 8 inches are possible over higher terrain and on the southwest facing slopes.
 Rivers and small streams will rise rapidly and low lying areas may become flooded.

Precautionary/Preparedness actions. A Flood watch means there is a potential for flooding based on current forecasts.
 You should monitor later forecasts and be alert for possible flood warnings. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding develop.

CHARGES DROPPED against Mendocino County deputy’s wife in bear killings

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3463001-181/charges-dropped-against-mendocino-county

COUNTERFEIT $100S IN FORT BRAGG.

Local businesses need to be aware of a counterfeit money scam here in the City of Fort Bragg. Someone is passing off “washed” $5 dollar bills as $100 dollar bills. The way they are doing this is “washing” the ink off of a $5 dollar bill and photo copying the front and back of a $100 dollar bill onto the “washed” $5 dollar bill. The bill has the look and feel of real money because it is an actual $5 dollar bill that has been washed of the mint ink and replaced with a color photo copy of a $100 dollar bill to the front and back of the bill, so the counterfeit marker pins will not show the paper as fake. There are, however, several tell-tale signs that the $100 dollar bill is fake and actually a $5 dollar bill. If you hold the $100 dollar bill up to the light you will see the ghost image of Lincoln rather than Franklin and the sewn in security thread strip running vertical on one side of the bill says $5 dollar bill rather than $100 dollar bill. The real bills also have color shifting ink used in the numeral on the lower right corner of the face of the note, change color when the note is viewed from different angles. The ink appears green when viewed directly and changes to black when the note is tilted. There may be other denominations being washed and photocopied, but the fake $100 bills printed on real washed $5 dollar bills are what have been recovered so far. Fort Bragg Police Department asks that you please contact us at 707-964-0200 if you receive a counterfeit bill of any denomination that does not match the above security features for the face value of the money. It would be very helpful if you could get a good description or identifiers of the person passing the money, a license plate number and what kind of car they are driving, if possible. You may also notify the Police Department anonymously by calling our Crime Tip Hotline at 707-961-3049 if you have any information concerning who may be passing this counterfeit money in our community.

(FBPD Press Release)

ACT RESPONSIBLY: VACCINATE

Editor,

Parents do not have the right to act irresponsibly. Anything irresponsible parents do that harms children can and will be used against them in the court of public opinion. Children have the right to immunization.

If parents cannot afford to immunize their children, vaccinations will be provided at public expense without cost to them. Do you understand your parental and societal responsibility? Good, now take your kid to the doctor.

Tad Chase, San Mateo

MARIJUANA IS MAKING COLORADO SO MUCH MONEY the state may have to give some of its $50 million windfall to taxpayers

by David McCormack

Colorado has generated so much money from recreational pot taxes that the state is bound by law to pass some of the tax money directly on to residents.

Voters legalized marijuana in 2012 on the understanding that revenue raised would go to schools, but a 1992 voter-approved constitutional amendment means some of the $50 million gathered in taxes in the first year of legalized pot must be given to taxpayers as a rebate.

The amendment requires Colorado to pay back taxpayers when the state collects more than what's permitted by a formula based on inflation and population growth. Over the years, Colorado has issued refunds six times, totaling more than $3.3 billion.

For once Republicans and Democrats are united and say there's no good reason to put pot taxes back into people's pockets, and now state officials are scrambling to figure out how to avoid doling out the money.

It may have to be settled by asking Colorado voters, for a third time, to cast a ballot on the issue and exempt pot taxes from the refund requirement.

Republicans concede that marijuana is throwing them off their usual position of wanting tax dollars returned to taxpayers.

But they also tend to say that marijuana should pay for itself — that general taxes shouldn't pay for things like increased drug education and better training for police officers to identify stoned drivers.

'I think it's appropriate that we keep the money for marijuana that the voters said that we should,' said Republican Senate President Bill Cadman. His party opposes keeping other refunds based on the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights but favors a special ballot question on pot taxes.

'This is a little bit of a different animal. There's a struggle on this one,' said Sen. Kevin Grantham, one of the Republican budget writers.

After legalizing marijuana in 2012, Colorado voters returned to the polls the following year and approved a 15 percent excise tax on pot for the schools and an additional 10 percent sales tax for lawmakers to spend.

Voters were told those taxes would generate about $70 million in the first year. The state now believes it will rake in about $50 million.

But because the economy is improving and other tax collections are growing faster, Colorado is obligated to give back much of what it has collected.

Final numbers aren't ready, but the governor's budget writers predict the pot refunds could amount to $30.5 million, or about $7.63 per adult in Colorado.

'It's just absurd,' said Democratic state Sen. Pat Steadman, one of the Legislature's budget writers.

The head-scratching extends to Colorado's marijuana industry. Several industry groups actively campaigned for the pot taxes but aren't taking a position on whether to refund them.

Mike Elliott of the Denver-based Marijuana Industry Group said it isn't pushing for lower taxes, but that's an option lawmakers don't seem to be considering. State law doesn't bar lawmakers from cutting taxes without a vote.

Lawmakers have a little time to figure out how to proceed. They'll consider pot refunds and a separate refund to taxpayers of about $137 million after receiving final tax estimates that are due in March.

When they talk about pot refunds, they'll have to figure out if the money would go to all taxpayers, or just those who bought pot. Previous refunds have generally been paid through income tax returns, but Colorado also has reduced motor vehicle fees or even reduced sales taxes on trucks.

Lawmakers seem confident that the refund mechanism won't matter because voters would approve pot taxes a third time if asked.

'This is what the voters want, and if we're going to have (pot), and the constitution says it's legal, we damn well better tax it,' Steadman said.

(Courtesy, the London Daily Mail/AP)

ON WEDNESDAY, February 4, 2015 at approximately 4:45 AM Mendocino County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a residence located on Henderson Lane in Covelo, California in an attempt to serve an arrest warrant, and search warrant, for a wanted person named Winterhawk Eugene Lincoln, 37, of Covelo. Upon arrival at the Henderson Lane address Deputies were unable to locate Lincoln. Deputies then responded to Tabor Lane, in Covelo and located Lincoln's vehicle parked at a residence. As Deputies approached the residence they heard what sounded like movement from within the residence and somebody running out a back door. Deputies where unable to locate Lincoln during an initial search of the area. A short time later, Deputies, along with their K9 partners, where able to pick up a fresh track. Deputies then located Lincoln hiding in a dirt hole that he had dug in an effort to elude law enforcement detection. Lincoln was taken into custody without incident for the three outstanding arrest warrants (burglary, a felon in possession of a firearm or ammunition and trespassing with $140,000 total bail). In connection to the arrest, a search warrant was served at an undisclosed location, at which time Deputies located numerous firearms, mostly rifles and a shotgun, along with ammunition. Lincoln was transported to the Mendocino County Jail where he was booked for the arrest warrants and the additional charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and a felon in possession of ammunition. Lincoln was to be held in lieu of $100,000 bail for the additional charges.

(Sheriff’s Press Release)

* * *

ON SUNDAY, January 25, 2015 at about 11:40 PM Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office were detailed to the report of a suspicious subject at a vacant residence in the 24000 block of Tulip Drive in Willits, California. Upon arrival Deputies contacted Patricia Kerjci, 61, of Willits who was standing in the driveway of the residence near her vehicle. Deputies noted there were several items of property strewn around on the ground near her vehicle which they believed had come from inside the vacant residence. Deputies established probable cause that Kerjci knew the residence was vacant and that she had entered the residence to remove items that included light bulbs and window blinds. Kerjci was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of burglary and was to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

(Sheriff’s Press Release)

* * *

ON SATURDAY, January 10, 2015 at approximately 2:21 AM, a Deputy with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office stopped a U-Haul truck bearing Arizona license plates in the 1300 block of South State Street in Ukiah, California for a vehicle code violation. When the U-Haul stopped, a second Honda CRV bearing California plates stopped and was believed to be a trailing vehicle. Upon contacting the driver and passenger of the U-Haul, there was a strong odor of marijuana emitting from the storage compartment.

An additional Deputy contacted Martin Lopez, 19, of Hawthorne, who was driving the Honda. There was a strong odor of marijuana emitting from the Honda as well. The occupants of the U-Haul were found to be Cody Batchelor, 25, of St. Charles, Missouri (driver) and Francisco Villa 30, of Kelseyville (passenger). All three subjects were detained and both vehicles were searched. The U-Haul contained approximately 50 pounds of processed marijuana. The Honda contained paperwork connecting Lopez to the U-Haul and it also contained a small amount of marijuana. All three subjects were booked into the Mendocino County Jail for suspicion of transporting marijuana for sale and were to be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

* * *

ON SATURDAY, January 24, 2015 at approximately 10:13 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to Schlafer’s Chevron, located in the 44000 block of Main Street in Mendocino, California to a reported burglary that had just occurred. A witness reported observing an intoxicated white male who was about 6 feet tall weighing about 200 pounds, wearing a cabbie newsboy style hat, baggie shorts and a black coat, break a window of the business. The suspect was observed entering the business through the broken window and stealing candy bars, chips and bottled soda. Deputies responded to the business and began processing it for evidence and interviewing witnesses while other Deputies searched the township of Mendocino for the suspect. Deputies located a subject matching the suspect description, staggering on the edge of the roadway in the 10400 block of Lansing Street in Mendocino. The subject, Hunter Graham, 19, of Auburn, was heavily intoxicated and had recent lacerations on his hands and legs. Deputies noticed glass shards on the back of his jacket and his shorts contained nineteen candy bars. Graham was placed under arrest for 460(b) PC (2nd Degree Burglary) and was booked into the Mendocino County Jail where he was held in lieu of $15,000.00 bail.

CATCH OF THE DAY, Feb 4, 2015

ERIN BLACKWELL, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

MATHEW GARDINER, Ukiah. Probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

LISA HODGES, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.

ASHLEY LAFORGE, Ukiah. Sale/transport/furnish pot, possession of drug paraphernalia, conspiracy.

JEREMIAH LUNA, Ukiah. Domestic assault, battery of peace officer, resisting arrest, probation revocation.

STEVEN LUNA, JR., Ukiah. Dometic assault, battery of peace officer, resisting arrest, probation revocation.

RUSSELL MAPLE, Ukiah. Outstanding misdemeanor warrant.

ROBERT MYERS III, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

DOUGLAS OATES, San Diego/Ukiah. Drunk in public.

DANIEL YEOMANS, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

AGREEMENT ON USAL REDWOOD FOREST CONSERVATION EASEMENT

CAL FIRE to Monitor the nearly 50,000 acre Working Forest

Sacramento - An agreement with the Redwood Forest Foundation Inc. (RFFI) has transferred a conservation easement to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) of nearly 50,000 acres of the Usal Redwood Forest. The agreement was reached in December, 2014 for CAL FIRE to assume responsibility for monitoring a conservation easement on the 49,576 acre Usal Redwood Forest in Mendocino and southern Humboldt counties. "The acquisition of the Usal conservation easement will provide CAL FIRE with a great opportunity to showcase the importance of maintaining working forested landscapes," said Duane Shintaku, CAL FIRE's deputy director for Resource Management. "These lands will demonstrate how forests can provide for clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, wood products and increasing carbon sequestration to offset the negative impacts of climate change." CAL FIRE has many years of experience with managing working forests conservation easements under its Forest Legacy Program. Working forest conservation easements encourage active forest management, which increases the forest's resiliency and health, increases carbon sequestration, mitigates climate change, improves growth, and contributes jobs and revenue to the local economy. In addition to becoming a site of forest restoration and improved wildlife and fish habitat, the Usal Redwood Forest is a prolific carbon storage machine. Coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) stands are known to have the largest measured biomass per acre, making them a tree species that is highly desirable for long-term carbon sequestration projects. RFFI is working with the Climate Action Reserve and the California Air Resources Board to verify and register the significant amounts of carbon that will be sequestered in perpetuity as a result of their forest management. CAL FIRE will ensure that the conservation easement requirements, including the carbon sequestration goals, are met. CAL FIRE, in the role of conservation easement holder, will ensure that land subdivisions never occur on this property. With an area almost twice the size of San Francisco, the Usal Redwood Forest is the largest working forest conservation easement in California. Recently Usal Forest managers began an ambitious "Bio-char" project, turning waste woods into a valuable soil amendment. Bio-char is a type of charcoal that helps sequester carbon and therefore has the potential to mitigate climate change. This unique project will provide economic and social benefits to the community, and significant environmental benefits such as clean air, water, and wildlife habitat. For more information on CAL FIRE's Forest Legacy Program visit www.fire.ca.gov.

(CalFire Press Release)

CONGRESSMAN HUFFMAN CO-SPONSORS MEDICARE-FOR-ALL BILL

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2015/february/doctors-group-hails-reintroduction-of-medicare-for-all-bill

Doctors group hails reintroduction of Medicare-For-All Bill

February 4, 2015

Single-payer health program would cover all 42 million uninsured, upgrade everyone’s benefits and save $400 billion annually on bureaucracy, physicians say. A national physicians group today hailed the reintroduction of a federal bill that would upgrade the Medicare program and swiftly expand it to cover the entire population. The “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” H.R. 676, introduced last night by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., with 44 other House members, would replace today’s welter of private health insurance companies with a single, streamlined public agency that would pay all medical claims, much like Medicare works for seniors today. Proponents say a Medicare-for-all system, also known as a single-payer system, would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, improve patient health, restore free choice of physician, eliminate copays and deductibles, and yield substantial savings for individuals, families and the national economy. "The global evidence is very clear: single-payer financing systems are the most equitable and cost-effective way to assure that everyone, without exception, gets high-quality care," said Dr. Robert Zarr, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, a nonprofit research and educational group of 19,000 doctors nationwide. "Medicare is a good model to build on, and what better way to observe Medicare's 50th anniversary year than to improve and extend the program and its benefits to people of all ages?" Zarr, a Washington, D.C.-based pediatrician, continued: "An expanded and improved Medicare-for-All program would assure truly universal coverage, cover all necessary services, and knock down the growing financial barriers to care — high premiums, co-pays, deductibles and coinsurance -- that our nation’s patients and their families are increasingly running up against, often with calamitous results. Such a plan would save over $400 billion a year currently wasted on private-insurance-related bureaucracy, paperwork and marketing. That's enough money to provide first-dollar coverage for everyone in the country without increasing US health spending by a single penny."

REPEAL PROP 215

We agree with the Board of Supervisors that it's high time to look at what will happen in our county when the inevitable legalization of marijuana in California is achieved. There are productive conversations to be had about how legalization could affect our environment, our finances, our law enforcement and our culture. But what we never see discussed - and what we think is a very important aspect of legalization - is what happens to Prop. 215. We think that any legislative or ballot effort to legalize marijuana throughout the state of California must include the repeal of Prop. 215. Prop. 215 has been a disaster for the state. It's well-meaning purpose - to provide medical marijuana for the grievously and terminally ill - quickly turned into a nightmare when greedy people ready to make large amounts of quick untaxed cash, aided and abetted by unscrupulous and equally greedy doctors handing out medical marijuana prescriptions, made marijuana cultivation a neighborhood menace and an environmental calamity. Neither the Legislature nor the courts could help because Prop. 215 had been so broadly written it gave a virtual blank check to anyone who wanted to grow pot for profit. If Prop. 215 is not repealed as part of the overall legalization of marijuana use and cultivation in this state, the same greedy growers will continue to claim a medical exemption from whatever regulations come with legalization. With legalization, the state can say, for instance, that all marijuana growing must be carried out on agriculturally zoned land or indoors under strict conditions and include regulations about fertilizers, pesticides and water use. The production would likely be taxed. If Prop. 215 in still in place, however, your neighbor could still claim a doctor's recommendation to grow 100 plants of "medical" marijuana, free of taxation, using your shared water table on the other side of your fence. And it would be as easy to sell on the black market as it is now. There are those who will argue that legalization will bring the price of pot down to a point that makes it unprofitable to grow in the back yard. But regardless of the price, there will be plenty of black market pot needed just over the state borders and Prop. 215 will give those black market growers all the room they need to maneuver. If we repeal Prop. 215 in conjunction with legalizing marijuana, we make all marijuana growing outside the agreed upon cultivation rules subject to prosecution. With marijuana legal, there will be no shortage of places to get it for the recreational smoker or for the medical user. We tried giving people a chance to grow a little pot in the back yard. Greedy people made a mockery of that experiment. If we are going to legalize marijuana it must be treated like the industry it has become.

(— K.C. Meadows. Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

ARMY VETERAN: ‘American Sniper’ is Dangerous, but Not for the Reasons You’d Think

by Brock McIntosh

After watching the movie “American Sniper,” I called a friend named Garett Reppenhagen who was an American sniper in Iraq. He deployed with a cavalry scout unit from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed near FOB Warhorse. I asked him if he thought this movie really mattered. “Every portrayal of a historical event should be historically accurate,” he explained. ”A movie like this is a cultural symbol that influences the way people remember history and feel about war.”

Garett and I met through our antiwar and veteran support work, which he’s been involved with for almost a decade. He served in Iraq. I served in Afghanistan. But both of us know how powerful mass media and mass culture are. They shaped how we thought of the wars when we joined, so we felt it was important to tell our stories when we came home and spoke out.

I commend Chris Kyle for telling his story in his book “American Sniper.” The scariest thing I did while in the military was come home and tell my story to the public — the good, the bad and the ugly. I feel that veterans owe it to society to tell their stories, and civilians owe it to veterans to actively listen. Dr. Ed Tick, a psychotherapist who has specialized in veteran care for four decades, explains, “In all traditional and classical societies, returned warriors served many important psychosocial functions. They were keepers of dark wisdom for their cultures, witnesses to war’s horrors from personal experience who protected and discouraged, rather than encouraged, its outbreak again.”

Chris Kyle didn’t view Iraq like me and Garett, but neither of us have attacked him for it. He’s not the problem. We don’t care about the lies that Chris Kyle may or may not have told. They don’t matter. We care about the lies that Chris Kyle believed. The lie that Iraq was culpable for September 11. The lie that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The lie that people do evil things because they are evil.

The film “American Sniper” is also rife with lies. This was not Chris Kyle’s story. And Bradley Cooper was not Chris Kyle. It was Jason Hall’s story, a one-time actor in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and screenwriter for “American Sniper,” who called his film a “character study.” Don’t believe him. His movie is as fictional as Buffy Summers.

In the movie’s first scene, Cooper faces a moral dilemma that never happened in real life. Cooper suspects a boy is preparing to send an improvised explosive device or IED, toward a convoy of approaching Marines on the streets of Fallujah. Either he kills a child or the child kills Marines. A soldier next to Cooper warns, “They’ll send your ass to Leavenworth if you’re wrong.” In writing this line, Hall implies that killing civilians is a war crime and U.S. military members are sent to prison for it. If U.S. soldiers, including Kyle, don’t seem to be getting punished for killing civilians, then they must not be killing civilians.

Garett and I agreed that even if that boy was a civilian, nothing would have happened to Cooper for shooting him. Both of us were trained to take detailed notes with the understanding that if something went wrong, it would be corrected in the report. Americans were responsible for thousands of Iraqi deaths and almost none were held accountable.

During one incident in Iraq, Garett was involved in a firefight that left six to seven civilians dead. He received his orders from an intelligence officer who got his intelligence wrong. He led Garett and a small convoy to an Iraqi deputy governor’s compound, which was supposedly under attack. As the convoy approached, the soldiers spotted a cluster of trucks with armed Iraqis. The armed Iraqis saw the American convoy inching closer, but they didn’t fire. It seemed obvious to Garett that these Iraqis were not who the intelligence officer was looking for. Then the officer screamed, “Fire!” Confused, no one in the convoy pulled their triggers. “I said fire goddamn it!” Someone fired, and all hell broke loose. In the ensuing chaos, one of the Iraqi trucks struck a civilian seeking cover on the sidewalk. As it turned out, those armed Iraqis were the deputy governor’s own security detail. The officer didn’t go to Leavenworth.

In Hall and Cooper’s Fallujah, it’s as if the Americans just found a city that was already laid to waste. The movie leaves out America’s bombardment of Fallujah. An officer explains that the city has been evacuated, so any military-aged male remaining must be an insurgent. Conveniently, every Iraqi that Cooper kills happens to be carrying a rifle or burying an IED, even though the real Chris Kyle wrote that he was told to shoot any military-aged male. Obviously, every non-insurgent did not evacuate Fallujah.

“Many Iraqis didn’t have cars or other transportation,” Garett explained. “To get to the nearest town, you’d have to walk across very hot desert, and you wouldn’t be able to carry much. So a lot of residents just decided to stay indoors and wait it out. It’d be like telling people in San Antonio that they have to walk to El Paso; then they come back home and their city is bombed and contaminated with depleted uranium.”

So what brought Bradley Cooper’s character to Iraq? Early in the film, Hall sets the stage for the moral theme of the movie. When Cooper was a child he sat at a kitchen table with his father, who explained that there are only three types of people in the world: sheep who believe “evil doesn’t exist,” wolves who prey on the sheep, and sheepdogs who are “blessed with aggression” and protect the sheep. In this world, when Cooper watches the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings on television, there is only one explanation: just evil wolves being evil. So he joins the military. When Cooper watches September 11 on television, there is one explanation: just evil wolves being evil. So he goes to war with them.

Amazingly, Hall and Cooper’s war seems to have absolutely nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. It’s about al-Qaida, which in real life followed the United States into Iraq after we invaded. Cooper’s war also seems to have nothing to do with helping Iraqis, only killing them. Except for the military’s interpreters, every Iraqi in the movie — including the women and children — are either evil, butchering insurgents or collaborators. The sense is that there isn’t a single innocent Iraqi in the war. They’re all “savages.”

Finally, it seems that a voice of criticism will be heard through the character of Marc Lee. When Lee voices his skepticism, Cooper asks, “Do you want them to attack San Diego or New York?” Cooper somehow wins with that absurd question. Later in the film, Navy SEAL Ryan Job is shot in the face. Distraught, Cooper decides he should lead a group of SEALs back out to avenge Job’s death, which is portrayed as the heroic thing to do. While Lee and Cooper are clearing a building, an Iraqi sniper shoots Lee in the head. The audience is then at Lee’s funeral, where his mother is reading the last letter that Lee sent home expressing criticism of the war. On the road home, Cooper’s wife asks him what he thought about the letter. “That letter killed Marc,” Cooper responds. “He let go, and he paid the price for it.” What makes Cooper a hero, according to the film, is that he’s a sheepdog. In Jason Hall’s world, Lee stops being a sheepdog when he questions his actions in Iraq. He becomes a sheep, “and he paid the price for it” with a bullet from a wolf.

Hall claims his film is a character study, yet he shamelessly butchered Marc Lee’s real story (and part of Kyle’s) to promote his moral fantasy world and deny legitimacy to veterans critical of the war. Here’s the truth: On the day that the real Ryan Job was shot, the real Marc Lee died after stepping into the line of fire twice to save Job’s life, which apparently was either not “sheepdog” enough to portray accurately in the movie or would have taken the focus off of Cooper’s reckless heroics. You can’t have people believe that critical soldiers are actually not sheep, can you? And as it turns out, Kyle never said those things about Lee’s letter and never blamed Lee for his own death for being skeptical of the war. (Here is Marc Lee’s actual last letter home in full.)

Chris Kyle was like so many soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He believed in doing the right thing and was willing to give his life for it. That trait that drives many veterans is a truly special one I wish we all had. Was Kyle wrong that the Iraq War had anything to do with September 11, protecting Americans, seizing weapons of mass destruction, or liberating Iraqis? Without a doubt. But that’s what he was told and he genuinely believed it — an important insight into how good people are driven to work for bad causes. Was Kyle wrong for calling Iraqis “savages”? Of course. In one interview, he admits that Iraqis probably view him as a “savage,” but that in war he needed to dehumanize people to kill them — another important insight into how humans tolerate killing, which was left out of the movie.

So enough about Chris Kyle. Let’s talk about Cooper and Hall, and the culture industry that recycles propagandistic fiction under the guise of a “true story.” And let’s focus our anger and our organizing against the authorities and the institutions that craft the lies that the Chris Kyles of the world believe, that have created a trail of blowback leading from dumb war to dumb war, and that have sent 2.5 million veterans to fight a “war on terror” that persists in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan. Critics and nonviolent organizers can be sheepdogs too.

MENTAL HEALTH ADVISORY BOARD TO MEET FEBRUARY 18, 2015.

The Mendocino MHAB meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 10:00 am in Willits at the Willits Integrated Services Center located at 221 S. Lenore Ave., in the Atlantic Conference Room. The meeting is intended for members of the public interested in supporting their local mental health services system. Public members are encouraged to attend the meeting to ask questions and give testimony. MHAB meeting agendas are published at: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/hhsa/mh_board.htm. For more information about the MHAB please contact Mental Health Advisory Board, Chair, John Wetzler, by emailing johngwetzler@gmail.com or by calling 707-937-3116

THE ARMAGEDDON OF FUNK (1965/2006)

(In Memory of James Brown)

 The one thing that can solve most of our problems
is dancing.” – The Godfather of Soul

Watts rebels. A tethered cosmonaut “walks” in space.

T.S. Elliot, Nat King Cole, and Sir Winston Churchill die.

Malcolm is murdered. The “Grateful Dead” is born.

Sekou Sese Mobuto steals and sells the Congo.

Che crosses Lake Tanganyika as “Tatu” to take it back.

Ginsberg Howls, speaking “flower power” in the city

where I first imagine. The entire Northeastern United States

blacks out. The Voting Rights Act is passed. U.S. troops

deploy to Da Nang, Vietnam. Gang of Four ascends.

My only worry, at ten years old, is what will happen to

the world if James Brown dies?

Monks rebel. Pluto is no longer a planet. The sun eclipses.

Robert Creeley, Coretta Scott King, and the King of Tonga

die. Monks are murdered in Myanmar. The Dead still

play live. Congo holds its first “true” elections since

Lumumba’s assassination. Howl turns fifty. Jack Hirschman,

communist, is Poet Laureate of the city where I first imagined.

Deadliest heat wave since the Dust Bowl plagues Midwest.

Voting Rights are extended another inadequate quarter.

Saddam Hussein hanged. Forbidden City evicts Starbucks.

— Michael Warr

MEET THE CANDIDATES

To the Editor:

Below is a final list of candidates for the KZYX Board of Directors:

At-large:
 Ed Keller
, Doug McKenty

District 5:
 Dennis O'Brien, Clay Eubank

District 2:
 Tony Novelli, Benj Thomas

That said, I hope the current Board Directors and station management — both — can resist the urge to meddle in the elections process. Meddling will only result in more complaints to the FCC and the CPB. Please, let the station's 2,300 members decide who to elect to the Board during the 2015 elections cycle.

What does that mean?

It means no endorsements, especially by KZYX management — the General Manager, John Coate, the Program Director, Mary Aigner, the Operations Manager, Rich Culbertson, and the Business Manager, David Steffen are employees that the KZYX Board of Directors oversee.

KZYX management must not be allowed to help elect their next boss. I repeat: Management must not be allowed to help elect their next boss. Boards must be independent. Must be independent by law. This is especially true for the Boards of nonprofit corporations. Likewise, no sniping by management. No disparagement of any candidate. Finally, no get-out-the-vote by management. In other words, management should stop sticking their noses and fingers in Board business.

Let me put this another way.

Recruiting and selecting Board Directors without due care is the first cardinal sin that a Board can make in the elections process. It is only superseded by conflict of interest. And conflict of interest means helping friends get elected.

We sometimes select friends, relatives, and business associates often because we believe that they will share our vision, support our views, and make meetings pleasant. And sometimes because we can’t find anyone else. We sometimes recruit influential or wealthy individuals because they will contribute substantial sums to the organization and connect us to their network of other influential and wealthy persons. All of this sounds well and good, but it's not. The station's 2,300 members — and only them — are in a position to select directors who are going to attend meetings, provide real oversight, and govern using their independent judgment. Installing friends on the Board flies in the face of independent judgment.

Also, helping friends get elected to a Board represents a failure to cultivate board diversity. This is another cardinal sin.

Time for a little history.

KZYX's initial Board was made up of friends and advisors of the organization’s founder, Sean Donovan — a con man.

Paraphrasing from The Anderson Valley Advertiser, April 24, 2013: "The station was founded — poisoned in the well — by a hustler named Sean Donovan who lived in Boonville at the time. Donovan subsequently left town, but not before he billed the station thirty grand for his work getting it going! Donovan structured the non-profit in a way that enhances top-down management, appointing trustees he cannily assessed as pliable in the authoritarian direction, mostly fagged out old hippies who could be depended on to do what he told them to do. Lately, as the hippies have died off and wealthy libs moved in, the station's trustees have been a mix of, ah, the disinterested and the uninformed, with a few pompous lawyers thrown in to whom the anonymous trustees defer because, 'Hey! This guy's a lawyer. He knows.' Hence, the station's very structure [as set up by Donovan] makes it impossible to reform."

Sounds like some things never change.

So what's wrong with friends helping friends get elected in the here and now of 2015, twenty-five years after Donovan?

Well, this approach to Board recruitment can lead to the “usual suspect” syndrome. In the case of KZYX, this is where the same individuals who agree with one another, and who also generally agree with station management — leaving management's decisions unquestioned and unchallenged — are institutionalized onto our station’s Board.

If our station is, in fact, run by a group of “usual suspects,” what we now need is to consider mixing it up by creating a matrix of skills, experiences, and backgrounds that would add valuable perspectives to the Board. In a word, we need "diversity" — especially, diversity of viewpoint. And that means we also need Board members who will question and challenge management.

Some things are very broken at KZYX. Equipment often fails. Why? Because it's old. Station management doesn't make the necessary investment in new equipment. Hence, the broadcast signal is often down. Nothing but dead air. Dead air. For a whole day. Or longer. Several times a years. Unacceptable.

Also, members are excluded from decision-making. For example, programming is solely decided by one person — Mary Aigner. Again, unacceptable.

Worse, programmers who disagree with management or who otherwise "rock the boat" — Doug McKenty, Norman De Vall, Beth Bosk, Marco McClean, Johanna Schultz, Sister Yasmin, and myself, just to name a few — are purged from the station. We lose our shows. Mary Aigner fires us. This is censorship. It's why the FCC has held up the renewal of the station's licenses. Censorship. Totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable at a presumably public radio station.

Another thing. No Ukiah studio. KZYX desperately needs a Ukiah studio. Ukiah is the county seat. Much, if not most, of county and city news comes from Ukiah. So why is KZYX located in Philo? In the middle of nowhere? Philo, with a population of 349? Oh yeah, I forgot. Mary Aigner lives in Philo. Unacceptable.

Finally, other things are broken at KZYX. Really broken. Let me list a few more. Monies earmarked for the Ukiah studio are missing. Management's salaries are not disclosed. Several incidents of battery against women on station premises have not been investigated. And KZYX receives low marks for affirmative action by not advertising every open job at the station. All unacceptable.

In conclusion, KZYX is not in startup mode. We may be stuck, at least temporarily, with a number of Board Directors who regularly fail to meet their legal duties of care. They may be too loyal to station management — the management who helped get them elected to the Board in the first place. But here's the rub. Amidst all the media attention on cases involving intentional misconduct, we should recognize that the vast majority of Board Directors simply don’t understand what they are supposed to be doing and believe that they will not be held accountable for their inaction.

They're wrong, of course. Board Directors can be sued. And the station can lose its FCC licenses and CPB funding.

And that's why I'll be hiring an attorney out of my own pocket to act as a "poll watcher" during KZYX's upcoming elections. Too much is at stake. There should be no meddling in elections by the current Board of Directors. And especially no meddling by management.

Yours very truly,

John Sakowicz

KZYX Board of Directors (2013-2016), Board Treasurer (2014)

* * *

MCPB Board Election Candidates' Forum

We are planning the candidates' forum for Thursday, March 5th, starting at 7:00PM. We anticipate it going for 1-1/2 hours, and it will be held at the Philo studio. I am emailing to request confirmation that you will participate in that on-air discussion of the issues. Please let me know one way or the other; there is a bit of a time pressure for printing the mailing materials, and I would appreciate hearing back from you today. In addition, I wanted to let you all know that Dina Polkinghorne has withdrawn her name as a candidate. Here is the final list: District 2: Tony Novelli, Benj Thomas; District 5: Dennis O'Brien, Clay Eubank; At-large: Doug McKenty, Ed Keller.

— Stuart Campbell, KZYX Election Coordinator

TEQUILA SUNRISE

It's another tequila sunrise

Starin' slowly 'cross the sky, said goodbye

He was just a hired hand

Workin' on the dreams he planned to try

The days go by

 

Ev'ry night when the sun goes down

Just another lonely boy in town

And she's out runnin' 'round

 

She wasn't just another woman

And I couldn't keep from comin' on

It's been so long

Oh, and it's a hollow feelin' when

It comes down to dealin' friends

It never ends

 

Take another shot of courage

Wonder why the right words never come

You just get numb

It's another tequila sunrise,this old world

still looks the same,

Another frame, mm...

— The Eagles