Mendocino County Today: Saturday, May 9, 2015

• OMG Contract
• Smokehouse
• Taser Chat
• Vince Resigns
• Babbitt Today
• PD Headlines
• Newspaper Award
• Fog Rise
• Yesterday's Catch
• Aqualung
• Eel Diversion
• Initiative Response
• Criminalizing Youth
• Barn Yarn
• River Defense
• Costco Conundrum
• Collage Classes
• NSSL Fair
• Babushka
• Parent Mentors
• Foodshed News
• Beyond Extreme

FORT BRAGG PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ THIS CONTRACT TO DRAW THE ONLY CONCLUSION THAT CAN BE DRAWN:

https://www.theava.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/OMG-Hospitality-House-Contract-signed.pdf

SUPERVISOR WOODHOUSE’S statement just before the 4-1 Supe's vote Tuesday to study the fire danger of hack-n-squirt forest practices. Supervisor Hamburg was the dissenting vote, announcing "it's not enough". (We have to wonder if Hamburg remembers the nearly identical advisory measure he introduced just last week.) But Woodhouse remains incoherent, as below:

“I want to apologize to my fellow supervisors because I intend to bring back something, hopefully, a little more clear, at the next meeting so we can continue talking about fire safety. I know it’s very uncomfortable and I know it makes for a long meeting. I’ll try and be more organized at that time. I’m hoping my good buddy John is writing and not listening to me because he never does in coming up with a good written thing to tell our deputy. But thank you very much for your flexibility too. I really think it enriches the conversation when before you go to public comment you hear what each of us are thinking and see holes in what we’re saying and speaking more directly to the issue rather than just talking to air. I know that’s not the way that our Chair prefers to run it, but I really appreciate the flexibility today. It helped me and thank you.”

SUPERVISOR HAMBURG on taser use by by patrol deputies. A Blue Meanie guy from way back, he knows his Blue Meanie bloc vote will be ga-ga that he (1) brought it up (2) as he falsely and demagogically implies that the Point Arena shooting death could somehow have been handled without (clearly unintentional) lethal force by responding deputies (3) cast a yes vote anyway but precedes it with his usual Hamlet act that he's only voting yes "reluctantly."

Hamburg: “I noticed that there are 36 tasers on order. How many of our deputies carry tasers?”

Allman: “Every patrol deputy and sergeant carries a taser. We have some of the newer generation units so we don't have to replace those. I carry a taser. I will be very blunt. When a citizen asks me why I carry a taser I can tell you that the Sheriff's Office has not been involved in a physical bar fight probably seven years. We don't have physical confrontations on the street anymore because of the technology of tasers that allows us to deescalate a situation. I am not saying that it is deescalated by the utilization of the tasers, I'm saying the fact that the Deputy has a taser is enough for many people to put up their hands and say they will not fight anymore.”

Hamburg: “Do you think it is an effective deterrent?”

Allman: “I know it is. I can tell you that our workers compensation has dropped dramatically because we no longer go hands-on with people. We merely say that we have a taser in the fight is over at that point.”

Hamburg: “Approximately how many taser episodes do we have in a year?”

Allman: “Maybe two.”

Hamburg: “So a taser is used twice in a year?”

Allman: “Maybe two times in a year. Maybe one in the jail. They are all fully documented with a report of what led up to it, the incident itself, and then post taser use. The tasers in the jail are equipped with video cameras so that when you turn the taser on the camera automatically comes on. I would like to use that on the street but the taser video unit is much bulkier than when it has the camera. So we hope that as technology continues to reduce —”

Hamburg: “My last question, sir. This is a new generation of taser?”

Allman: “Yes.”

Hamburg: “And this is like a $50,000 item? Is that what it is?”

Allman: “I think a new taser is $1200.”

Hamburg: “No, I mean 36 of them. 36 new tasers.”

Allman: “Yes, $45,000-$48,000, yes.”

Hamburg: “Can you just very quickly sum up what is the new technology? Is it supposed to be safer in terms of its use? Or…?”

Allman: “I will explain briefly what happens when a taser is utilized. I am going to take mine out of the holster here. I have taken the cartridge out. When the taser is turned on, the red dot comes on, I will put a red dot on the wall there, and the flashlight comes on and it shows the deputy what the percentage of battery usage is. The cartridge is the important part. The cartridge has two prongs that come out with a 20 foot length of copper wire that both of them need to attach to the subject and then the stun is put in and demobilizes the suspect for five seconds. Also when this comes out there are small pieces of paper that come out of that actually have the serial number for this cartridge on them so that after a taser — let's say we have multiple tasers or usages, we would be able to go in there and clearly say when tasers were used and so forth. The battery that is in this taser right here is a memory device. And the memory cannot be defeated. When a taser is utilized the battery is removed from the taser and it is taken to the office and downloaded in a docking station and it is uploaded for information that goes to the District Attorney's Office of how many taser usages were given to that defendant, whether it was one or three, the exact time, the exact date, the scientific information clearly contained in the battery and in the cartridge itself.”

. . .

Hamburg: “Several people in my district have approached me, you know, got in touch with me by e-mail about the taser item. Everybody knows there's a lot of talk around the entire country about the increasing militarization of the police force and tasers have been used fairly recently in the Fifth District. There was a very tragic incident that happened in Point Arena that drew a good deal of attention. So I am going to reluctantly support this item. [rubs brow]. I think the Sheriff makes a good argument that taser use takes the place of more lethal force and to the extent it does that I think it's a good thing. We all hear about incidents that are, where just the very presence of certain types of weapons seems to lead their being used more and then questions are raised as to the amount of force that's used to subdue suspects. But I do believe that the Sheriff is being judicious in this regard and I am going to support the item. But I did need to bring it up. As I said, I had public interest in it and I wanted the greater public to hear why we are spending $50,000 to upgrade our taser capability in Mendocino County.”

Allman: “I would welcome an opportunity later in the year to give a full overview of taser usage throughout the county to make sure that the Board of Supervisors and the public is fully aware of how we're using them, how we train, and what the past usage has been.”

PHIL, WE HARDLY KNEW YE. Point Arena's new city manager has resigned. Poor guy. He's like a lot of new hires in Mendocino County — he walks blind into a dark civic room, and when his eyes adjust to the dark, we hear, “Let me out of here! These people are nuts!”

Here's a pre-backgrounder on Mr. Vince upon his departure from his previous job in Martinez.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_24341342/martinez-city-manager-resigns-abruptly

WILLITS' PALACE HOTEL — THE VAN

Back in the time before America lost its way, every town of any consequence had a nice hotel. Ukiah, a beautiful little place with giant elms the length of State Street on a graceful promenade to the County Courthouse, featured the Palace Hotel, the very last word in rural elegance and comfort, complete with a sedate restaurant and bar on the ground floor.

Up the road in Willits there was the Van, much like the Palace (and before that Willits had its own Palace).

Both disappeared into a criminal vortex of cocaine mortgages and neglect in the late 1970s and have been mostly abandoned since. They both thrived when the money people of both communities not only invested in the beauty of their towns they exerted their political influence in a way that ensured community pride. The money people these days take the money and run, withdrawing into the mausoleum-like sterility of gated neighborhoods — Mendocino County's very own Babbitt, the owner of the Savings Bank of Mendocino, Charlie Mannon, lives behind an electric gate in west Ukiah, hunkered down, biting his nails at the great Out There. If you've ever wondered why Ukiah and Willits look like hell now, this is the reason. The Babbitts of yesteryear have withdrawn. Babbitt, btw, despite the gauche boosterism he has since become synonymous with, was a great one for community beautification. Second btw: The novels of Sinclair Lewis, like the novels of his contemporary, more or less, Scott Fitzgerald, hold up quite well. You could be reading about now with both of them.

(Photos Courtesy, Ron Parker, Mendocino County Historical Society, http://rparker.pacificsites.com/)

HEADLINE, versions of, last two days of the Press Democrat:

“Police: Missing Rohnert Park girls found safe — Two girls missing since Tuesday when they were taken by their father were found safe Friday.”

THEY WEREN'T REALLY MISSING. Dad, with whom they feel safe and probably love, carried them off as, it seems, his child-like revenge for a custody dispute that didn't go his way. Or not far enough his way. At one point, Dad had legal custody, which usually means Mom has her "issues" as they say, "issues" being the contemporary catch-all for everything from homicidal tendencies to eating disorders. What the story is really about is the old one about children as pawns in a death-fight between two people who once had great affection for each other. The children are the victims here.

DEPARTMENT OF UNINTENTIONAL HILARITY

“Sharon DiMauro, publisher of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News and the Mendocino Beacon, will be attending the California Newspaper Publishers’ Association’s Press Summit in San Diego this week as a winner of the association’s challenge to complete the phrase: ‘A newspaper is...’ DiMauro won with her entry, ‘A newspaper is … the closest anyone will ever get to holding democracy in their hands.’ The theme of this year’s CNPA summit is ‘Leveraging our Strengths...Connecting our Communities.’ The CNPA includes newspapers from throughout California. DiMauro said of her winning entry: ‘My goal was to convey, in as few words as possible, the strong link that has always existed between newspapers and democracy. Newspapers are the watchdogs of government, shining the light in every corner, making sure the public is aware and the inner workings of the system are transparent and our leaders held accountable’.” (—Fort Bragg Advocate news item)

IF NEWSPAPERS hold democracy in their hands, Hello, Fascism. If the Advocate holds democracy in its palsied, liver-spotted hands, Fort Bragg is lost.

A READER WRITES: “These phony associations are always giving each other awards. Jeez, I even won an award. Once. Hey, I’ve got an entry: ‘A newspaper is like… A brothel without the fun’.”

WE’VE GOT A BETTER ONE. “A newspaper is a long end brothel without the sex.”

RANDY BURKE OF GUALALA WRITES: Navarro usgs gage — We have found up here on the Gualala River that every time the fog rolls in the bypass flows measured will plateau, and even rise when the fog is very dense. The old time locals tell me that when the fog rolls in, the trees take up less water and thus the rise or plateau (level holding at a steady rate for a day or so, or until the fog lifts). This may be the reason you see a plateau on the Navarro gage readout, especially if you experienced a finger of fog up through the river valley.

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 8, 2015

REGINALD DEMARTINI, Willits. Drunk in public.

DARREN GONZALES, Manchester/Point Arena. Drunk in public.

STEVEN KAEFER, Sunnyvale/Ukiah. Community supervision violation.

RICKY LEWIS, Ukiah. Domestic assault, probation revocation.

ROBERT MCCOEY, Ukiah. Suspended license.

SHERLYNN MEHTLAN, Ukiah. Court order violation, probation revocation.

MARCUS MELOY, Point Arena. Parole violation.

JOSHUA POLLARD, Hopland. Probation revocation.

JASON PRATT, Ukiah. Possession of drug paraphernalia, probation revocation.

AQUALUNG

Sitting on a park bench

Eyeing little girls with bad intent.

Snot running down his nose

Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes.

Drying in the cold sun

Watching as the frilly panties run.

Feeling like a dead duck

spitting out pieces of his broken luck.

 

Sun streaking cold

An old man wandering lonely.

Taking time

The only way he knows.

Leg hurting bad,

As he bends to pick a dog-end

Goes down to a bog to

Warm his feet.

 

Feeling alone

The army's up the road

Salvation a la mode and

A cup of tea.

Aqualung my friend

don't start away uneasy

You poor old sod

You see, it's only me.

 

Do you still remember

December's foggy freeze

When the ice that

Clings on to your beard is

Screaming agony.

And you snatch your rattling last breaths

With deep-sea-diver sounds,

And the flowers bloom like

Madness in the spring.

— Ian Anderson

PG&E PROPOSAL TO REDUCE EEL RIVER WATER DIVERSION RAISES DROUGHT CONCERNS

by Sarah Reith

On April 28, Janet Pauli of the Potter Valley Irrigation District opened her e-mail. “I read it three times,” she said. That’s what it took to absorb the news that PG&E had asked the State Water Board for permission to reduce flows from the Eel River diversion to critical levels.

This would be a reduction from 90 to 30 cubic feet per second coming through the powerhouse in Potter Valley. Pauli claims this would dry the East Branch of the Russian River and damage farms in both the Eel and Russian River watersheds. “No water going into Lake Mendocino,” she emphasized.

She said she would be satisfied with dry levels, or 50 cfs, coming through Potter Valley and 25 through the East Branch. She said she would be willing to revisit the terms on a biweekly basis.

Someone else who would like more communication is Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency. Like the Potter Valley Irrigation District, his agency is a party to PG&E’s federal licensing agreement. If the company wishes to re-negotiate the terms of this license, it must notify all parties to it.

On May 1, the State Water Board issued a Temporary Urgency Change Order to amend Sonoma County’s water rights to the Russian River. “We had assumptions based on our license,” Davis explained, adding that he would like to understand more clearly what the proposed flows are. “Lake Mendocino is quite reliant on flows coming through Potter Valley, now that it’s so dry.”

His agency did not have a proposal to counter PG&E’s, but it did agree to host a meeting on Thursday, May 7, with company representatives and other parties to the license agreement.

As of Thursday evening, the tentative understanding is that 75- to 80 cfs will come through the Potter Valley powerhouse; 25 cfs of that will go into the East Branch of the Russian River, 50 cfs through Potter Valley, plus five cfs for a ‘buffer.’

A Potter Valley Working Group, set to meet monthly, has emerged from the negotiations. All parties agreed on a target level for Lake Pillsbury of 10,000 acre feet. Pauli cautioned that the final language is not yet in place, but that PG&E is expected to file a proposal to that effect with the Federal Regulatory Commission on Monday.

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

MIKE JANI SPEAKS!

(From a recent report in the Willits News by their fine young reporter Adrian Baumman.)

In the wake the board’s failure to pass the initial resolution offered by Hamburg, supervisors Dan Gjerde and Woodhouse floated the working-group as a compromise solution that will allow all stakeholders to air their grievances and find a best path forward. However, Hamburg believes that the working-group is a delaying tactic at best, stating, “One of the parties to this working group is in my judgment and the judgement of my constituents, is making things worse. As you’re sitting around a table discussing this, one of the members of the working group is actively making the situation more hazardous and that doesn’t make sense to me.”

Hamburg indicated that he believes the next step should be a citizen’s initiative for the November ballot. Activists across the county have already begun work on just such an initiative, some saying that it will be patterned on last election’s Measure S which banned fracking through an unusual “community rights” framework.

Responding to the possibility that such an initiative could be passed by the citizens of Mendocino County, MRC’s Chief Forester Mike Jani stated that while MRC would never sue the county over such rules, that, ”It could very easily just result in a morass of lawsuits and the like. Which I don’t think that’s in the county’s best interest.” Adding, “It wouldn’t be us bringing a lawsuit against the county, there will be much larger organizations and business interests that would likely raise issue about this, because it has statewide implications.”

CRIMINALIZING YOUTH

The Origins of America’s Vicious War on Its Own Kids

by Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair

Ours is not the first era in which adults have persecuted the young and criminalized them. But in this country it’s not been done before with such methodical zeal, ever since that salesman of the virtues, Bill Bennett, co-chaired the Council on Crime in America and issued a 1996 report titled The State of Violent Crime in America containing these ominous words and utterly inaccurate predictions: “America is a ticking violent crime bomb. Rates of violent juvenile crime and weapons offenses have been increasing dramatically and by the year 2000 could spiral out of control.”

These were the years when headline-seeking criminologists like John DiIulio of Princeton and Northeastern’s James Alan Fox painted lurid scenarios of “superpredators”, meaning urban youth of color, swelling Generation Y by as much as 24 per cent. In 1997, Congressmen William McCollum of Florida stated during a floor debate that today’s youths are “…the most dangerous criminals on the face of the Earth.”

A slice of the crude, unlovely obvious: It’s not the criminalization of youth, it’s the criminalization of youth from certain neighborhoods, of certain ethnic origins. Did you know that what neighborhood you live in is now an element of probable cause? Yes, indeed, if you live in a “high crime” neighborhood, they can search you with less evidence you’ve done anything wrong. Hence, people in bad (read: poor) neighborhoods have less of a 4th Amendment than the rest of us. Three-quarters of the youth who are incarcerated are black or Hispanic kids of color. A black teenager is 6 times more likely to be incarcerated for a first-time violent offense than a white kid. A black teenager is 48 times (yes, you read that right, 48) more likely to do time for a drug offense than a white kid.

“The law has taken many terrible turns in the last few years, and the pit of the law is the juvenile justice system.” This is Catherine Campbell, a civil rights attorney in Fresno. “It stinks. It’s rotten to the core. It should be wiped away and started over. A lot of it begins with putting the kids of poor parents into foster care. That’s how authorities inspire hatred, anger, frustration and feelings of worthlessness. It’s the ‘I don’t give a fuck zone’, and with only a few months of that, most kids are pretty much destroyed. They are ‘criminalized’ when their behavior crosses over the almost unavoidable line of criminal behavior.”

We’ve made criminal behavior that wasn’t criminal ten years ago. Statutory rape is the latest craze – they had a little trouble figuring out what was wrong with an 18-year old having sex with a 16-year old, but then they decided it was too many teenage pregnancies, (Bill and Hillary Clinton’s prime obsession) and bammo, they were out looking for boys to bring in for statutory rape.

All kids commit crimes. Most adults commit crimes. We smoke joints, we have stolen if we don’t steal now, we walked the streets in groups (now called gangs, and just being in one is illegal), we lie on our tax returns, we commit crimes all the time. The point is not that youth is criminalized, but that only certain kids are criminalized, and these are kids from bad neighborhoods.

Campbell again: “The laws have changed, and they are so awful. Take civil commitment. Used to be the wisdom was you can’t predict criminal behavior. Now the wisdom is that a criminal is someone who committed a crime. He’s a criminal now, and will be forever. Nowhere is this theory more controlling than as to sex crimes. I had a client who at age 15 had sex with a 7-year old. Both boys. In the bathroom, at church. He was charged and convicted of lewd and lascivious behavior. He went to California Youth Authority. There he was diagnosed by diabolical, incompetent shrinks as a sexual psychopath, and they kept him in two years longer than his sentence based on our state’s new civil commitment laws that allow that to happen. He finally got out when some shrink (he won’t last) said the kid’s gay, let him go. They extended this kid’s term every time he had sex (he lived with other gay boys) or masturbated! Can you imagine? Six more months in the slammer for jacking off?

“They get them, and then if they’re the right kind, if they’re poor, of color, angry, and unsuccessful in school, they keep them. Through all means available, they keep them in the system. They search them, harass them, follow them, watch who they talk with, what they wear. The most minor infraction, they are back in jail, then they are sent away, or placed on probation, and then they are watched more.”

* * *

Do people realize how many “crimes” are committed in jails, juvenile facilities and prisons. A kid can go to California Youth Authority (CYA) for a burglary when he’s 16, and 4 years later he gets his third strike and he’s never even seen the streets. His entire adult life will be prison. There are no middle-class gangs, there are only lower-class gangs. And it’s a crime to be in a gang, and it’s more time in jail or prison if a crime is gang-related. You can’t really survive on the streets in those bad neighborhoods without being in a gang (if you’re male) so you’re criminal just because you’re alive and leave the house. Walk out the door, commit a crime. And of course the age at which you are an adult for jail and prison eligibility is lower every year. That’s part of that ugly companion to California’s Three-Strikes, Proposition 21, the anti-youth crime bill.

The drug laws are of course key to Criminalizing Youth. The trick is to take something almost everybody does, and then make it a crime. That way you can pick and choose who you want to mess with. Kids from all backgrounds use drugs, but again only kids from bad neighborhoods get criminalized for it. It gets a kid into the system, and once in he won’t get out unless he’s exempt, and an exemption is given to the kids with aggressive, middle class parents, who have good or passable grades.

The hysteria and lies about youthful criminals goes virtually unchallenged. There are some worthy souls, like UC Irvine’s Mike Males who published the excellent Scapegoat Generation: America’s War on Adolescents, back in 1996 and who has run a one-man truth squad on the actual stats ever since.

“Now,” Males writes, “the latest panacea for society seems to be restricting youths’ access to media and entertainment. One leading authority, former West Point psychologist David Grossman, argues that violent video games, movies and music make today’s teens more violent, even murderous. Certainly violent games (or Beatles music or even the Bible) might incite a disturbed individual, but Grossman and other media critics claim they’re warping an entire generation. Yet, the evidence cited is peculiar: Grossman blames violent media for the increase in aggravated assaults over the last 35 years, but he fails to note that assault rates peaked in 1992 and have since fallen sharply.

“A curfew can create vacant neighborhoods, which offer better opportunities for crime, while occupying police with removing law-abiding teenagers from public. In Vernon, Conn., among 400 curfew citations, police reported virtually no criminal activity, intoxication or other misbehavior by youths they cited and sent home.”

* * *

Back in 1997 California’s Office of Traffic Safety, warned that an “alarming population trend”–meaning more teenagers–would increase highway deaths and drunk-driving accidents. But teenage traffic deaths had been falling for two decades.

In fact, violent juvenile crime rates have plunged during the 1990s. Today’s teenagers, Males points out “are not more criminally prone than past generations. Youth felony arrest rates declined by 40% in the last 20 years while felony arrest rates for over age 30 adults increased. In addition, California’s general population aged by three years from 1978 to 1998, but its violent and felony arrestee population aged by six years. In 1978, the average violent crime arrestee was 21.5 while in 1998 the average violent crime arrestee was 27.7. Juveniles comprised 30% of California’s felony arrestees in 1978 but comprised less than 15% in 1998.”

Elsewhere Males notes that “older white adults display drug overdose death rates five to seven times higher than younger people of color, including for the major illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine (including crack), methamphetamine, and hallucinogens. However, young people of color are three times more likely to be arrested for drugs and sent to prison for drug offenses than older white adults. The result is that at all ages, a Californian of color is four to five times more likely to be imprisoned for a drug offense than a white compared to their rates of drug abuse. In fact, young people of color display the largest declines and lowest rates of drug abuse of any group.”

* * *

You’ve heard about the race to the bottom. Well, how about the race to the cradle? On November 16, Ohio legislators passed a bill authorizing the jailing of children as young as 10 years old. California’s legislators had better look to their laurels.

Courtesy, CounterPunch.org. Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His new book is Killing Trayvons: an Anthology of American Violence (with JoAnn Wypijewski and Kevin Alexander Gray). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net. Alexander Cockburn’s Guillotined! and A Colossal Wreck are available from CounterPunch. A version of this essay originally appeared in the December 2000 edition of CounterPunch.)

BARN TO YARN!

Dear All,

In my new position as Community Educator at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center (and representing Cooperative Extension for Lake and Mendocino Counties) I am looking forward to working more closely with our local media. We are looking forward to our new event "Barn to Yarn" on May, 23rd at which we will be following the journey from sheep to sweater, I would love to see you there! I am also inviting you as a member of the local press to visit for a rare opportunity next week and witness our "shearing school", in which people from across the USA travel to Hopland to learn the art of shearing a sheep with skill! Do let me know if you might be interested in joining us and we can arrange a time that would work for you. I have attached a poster and press release for our Barn to Yarn event and would be more than happy to speak with you more about this event and how you might be involved!

Many thanks,

Sincerely

Hannah Bird, Community Educator
Hopland Research & Extension Center
4070 University Road
Hopland, CA 95449
hbird@ucanr.edu

* * *

Announcing Hopland’s First Barn to Yarn Event

Have you ever wondered where your wool sweater came from? Or just how to keep a 160lb sheep still enough to shear it? Join the Hopland Research and Extension Center (HREC) team and friends on Saturday, May 23^rd, 10am-2pm to get the answers to these and many more questions.

Expert shearer Matt Gilbert will be offering demonstrations with a few of HREC’s flock of over 800 western whiteface sheep working as his models! Visitors will also have the chance to see different kinds of wool from the fine, soft merino to the long, coarse Navajo-churros and to learn how they are graded.

Throughout the day Leslie Jensen, program coordinator from Elkus Ranch Environmental Education Center, will be giving us a new use for Kool-Aid, using it to dye wool! To complete the process there will be spinning demonstrations, workshops for kids making simple spindles and even the chance to watch local weavers in action.

The day will provide opportunities for sheep farmers, fiber enthusiasts and families to get involved and learn more about every step of the process from sheep to sweater! Visitors will be welcomed to the HREC new conference hall, The Rod Shippey Building, and will have chance to picnic on the grounds of the 5,300 acre center. “We can’t wait to welcome the community to our beautiful site and to raise awareness of just one of the areas of research and education that we conduct up here. Our sheep are not only vital for the UC Cooperative Extension sheep shearing school but also for research into best management practices for rangelands and animal science,” commented Hannah Bird, HREC community educator.

Admission is $5 for adults, children under 12 are welcomed for free (online registration or checks preferred). HREC asks visitors to leave their pets at home to protect the site and the sheep resident there. Bring your own picnic and all utensils; some light food will be available from Mendocino 4-H. Visit http://hrec.ucanr.edu/ to find out more and purchase your ticket. Barn to Yarn will be held at the Rod Shippey Hall, 4070 University Road, Hopland, CA 95449 from 10am-2pm on May 23^rd. For more information contact Hannah Bird, (707) 744-1424, Ext. 105, hbird@ucanr.edu.

More on the University of California Hopland Research and Extension Center:

The Hopland Research and Extension Center is a multi-disciplinary research and education facility run by the University of California, Agriculture and Natural Resources Division. As stewards of more than 5,300 acres of oak woodland, grassland, chaparral, and riparian environments their mission is to find better ways to manage our natural resources and conduct sustainable agricultural practices, through science, for the benefit of California’s citizens.

More on the University of California Cooperative Extension:

UC Cooperative Extension is best described as a vast network of UC researchers and educators who work together to develop and provide science-based information to solve locally-relevant economic, agricultural, natural resource, youth development and nutrition issues.

Nestled within the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, our CE advisors live and work in every California county, applying research from the University of California to help local businesses and entire communities thrive. In turn, our experts partner with local innovators to develop and disseminate best practices through UC’s expansive local and global networks. Some of our programs include 4-H Youth Development, Master Gardeners, Expanded Food and Nutrition Education, and the Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program.

NORTH COAST ORGANIZES TO FIGHT DROUGHT RELATED THREATS TO RIVERS

by Dan Bacher

Tribal water activists will present short films about threats to Northern California’s rivers from Jerry Brown’s drought plans at Arcata’s D Street Community Center today, May 8, at 6:30 pm.

The films include the Yurok Youth Fish Kill video, Sovereigns Water and the Shasta Dam raise video, according to event organizer Regina Chichizola.

The speakers will explain that Northwestern California water from the Trinity River and Shasta reservoirs are piped hundreds of miles to benefit California’s agriculture industry, which continues to use 80 percent of California’s water on water intensive crops during the record drought.

“Even though average Californians are being asked to cut their water use, corporate agriculture interests are expanding their acreage in the driest areas of California,” said Chichizola, "and they are planning to destroy Northern California’s rivers and flood sacred sites to keep up their unsustainable water.”

Chichizola noted that almond acreage alone has gone up over 150,000 acres since the drought began, yet Governor Jerry Brown this Wednesday told environmentalists to "Shut Up" in response to criticism over his twin tunnel plans.

The film night will focus on impacts to Northern California’s rivers from water diversions and how politicians and corporate agriculture interests are using the drought to push through new harmful water policy and projects, such as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the Shasta dam raise, and drought legislation, while allowing the state’s aquifers to be drained

Native speakers will not only highlight how the proposed Shasta dam raise, which threatens over 40 actively used sacred sites of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and how the continued water exports to the Central Valley threaten the Trinity and Klamath River salmon and Tribes, but will also share efforts by Tribal activists and other river and salmon activists to stop what they called the "biggest planned water heist in decades."

The speakers include Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe; Jene McCovey, Yurok Tribe Member; Allie Hostler, Hoopa Valley Tribe Member; Dania Rose Colegrove, Hoopa Valley Tribe Member; Annalia Hillman, Yurok Tribe Member and Will Doolittle, Filmmaker.

Chief Caleen Sisk said the water bond, peripheral tunnels, Shasta Dam raise and other water projects now being planned by the state and federal governments are in in reality "one Big Project" that will destroy salmon, rivers and groundwater supplies.

“It does not make sense that people are separating the water puzzle into individual pieces, such as: the raising of Shasta Dam, Proposition 1, the Delta tunnels, BDCP, Sites Reservoir, Temperance Flat, CALFED, Delta Vision, BDCP, OCAP, the Bay Delta, Trinity/Klamath Rivers, the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, and water rights," said Chief Sisk. "It is all one BIG Project."

She emphasized, "These are not separate projects; they are all the same thing that the State is asking us to fund - California water being manipulated for the enrichment of some and the devastation of cultures, environments, and species all in the name of higher profits.”

For more information, call Regina Chichizola: (541) 951-0126.

JOB LOSS COMPOUNDED

Editor,

Regarding May 7th article, “Lawsuit opposed to Costco denied,” all seven claims were denied. For over a year good paying jobs and tax revenue that would have benefited Mendocino County and Ukiah have instead enriched Sonoma County and Santa Rosa. Those who would rather see these tax revenues and jobs benefit the local community can be proactive by boycotting the organizations that use their employees to file these frivolous lawsuits.

Gai Anderson, Ukiah

ED NOTE: Yep, but Costco is going to destroy many existing local markets and the jobs that went with THEM.

COLLAGE FOR KIDS ages 8-12 (younger of accompanied by adult). Bring your scissors and glue sticks and let’s make art! Thursdays: May 21, 28, June 4. 3:15-4:15pm behind Philo Ridge tasting room, TomTown, Boonville. Sliding scale, $20-$25 per kid for three classes. Class size limit: 12. 895-2483 or email Cindy at cintia@gmail.com. (Instructors Via Keller and Susan Gross)

THE HAWK ON PERMACULTURE

Not-So-Simple Folk,

The Not So Simple Living Fair is coming up and we are thrilled with what is happening this year. Amazing presenters on rural-living skills! (as you've come to expect). The kids area will be off the hook this year with Coyote mentoring. Music by Joe Craven and Mamajowali. Keynote presentation by Starhawk. Campfire Jam on Friday night. Tickets are available at a special low price until June 1st. Buy them now so you don't forget! $35 for the entire weekend (vs. $50 at the gate).

http://notsosimplelivingfair.brownpapertickets.com/

We can't wait to see you there!

Date: July 24, 25, 26, 2015

Cost: Pre-sale price - $25 per day or $35 for the weekend till June 1st.

After June 1st, $30 per day, $40 for the weekend. At gate, day of event - $35 per day, $50 for the weekend

Saturday concert/dance only $15.

Camping: $10 per car per night for fair attendees. $10 per person for concert only

Place: Mendocino County Fairgrounds, Boonville, CA. For more details, and for updates to the event as we post them, please go to www.notsosimple.info.

If you use Facebook and want to "Like" us there, we are also at

https://www.facebook.com/NotSoSimpleLivingFair

Yep, Starhawk.

We heard you were wondering who invited her and what she'll be getting paid. The NSSLF Organizing Committee selected her as our keynote for Sunday, and we're paying her $1000 which is what we usually budget for our keynote speaker. We're looking forward to hearing her tap into her permaculture work to help tie the event together.

Best, NSSLF OC

Not So Simple Living Fair July 24-26: Discount Tickets Available Now!

PARENT MENTORS WANTED FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION

Do you have experience navigating the special education system? Are you willing to volunteer a few hours each month to help mentor other parents/caregivers through the IEP process? Please join us for an information event to find out how you can put your collaboration skills to good use. The Mendocino County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) Community Advisory Committee is looking for parents/caregivers in each school district. Please join us on May 22nd, at the Mendocino County Office of Education SELPA Office (Elm Building) conference room and outdoor picnic tables for lunch (11:30AM - 1:30PM) and for an opportunity to learn more about how you can be a part of this important effort. Please let us know if you are coming by May 21st. Child care is provided if you let us know by May 19th.

For more information please contact: Karen Jason, kjason@mendocino.edu, (707) 468-3168 or Lisa Larimer Burtis, parentsupport@mcn.org, (707) 972-2261.

You can register online for this event at:

http://mcoe.k12oms.org/eventdetail.php?id=96672

PLANTS & PANCAKES — FOODSHED UPDATE

The Boonville Farmers' Market is Saturday at the Boonville Hotel, 10-12:30. C'mon down for local products and fun. We have two new managers - Amanda Bontecou and Valerie Kim. They are both AV farmers and have big plans for our market. Please support them and all of our farmers and artisans. There will probably still be more garden starts this week, in addition to the other great local products available there.

* * *

Also on Saturday is the plant sale at AV High School.

From Beth Swehla: We are getting ready for our annual Plant Sale. The sale will be this Saturday, May 9th, from 9AM to Noon, at the Ag Dept. We will have many vegetable starts, flower starts, some perennials, as well as some succulent gardens.

* * *

The AV Grange Mothers' Day Pancake Breakfast is Sunday at the Grange in Philo, 8:30-11:00. You can choose any combination of pancakes, eggs and bacon, with your choice of beverage. The pancakes are made with Mendocino Grain Project wheat, with a gluten free option as well. The AV Grange is seeking new members and is offering a free year to anyone wanting to join for the first time. You can sign up between pancakes on Sunday.

* * *

The AV Foodshed 3rd Sunday Potluck is May 17 at the Grange in Philo. After our meal at 6:00, we will talk some dirt with local composting enthusiasts. There are a variety of ways to turn your waste back into soil. Please bring your potluck dish, yourself and your friends and family to share a meal and maybe meet some new neighbors. This is also your opportunity to bring something from your garden or pantry to be delivered to the AV Food Bank the following week.

IF NOT, WHY NOT?

Nine in the Fourth Place of Hexagram #47 of the Yi Jing Warmest spiritual greetings, There is a serious reason for exercising caution in regard to the upcoming Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE) days of dissent May 21-29 in Washington D.C., in which the shutting down of the FERCus is being considered. Please know that I am now going to D.C. earlier than I'd previously determined, and will stay at a travelers hostel (two blocks from where I lived in 1991, when I was performing service at Olive Branch Catholic Worker House) near 11th & M. I am well acclimated to the Shaw neighborhood, and will be providing my own housing/meals independent of BXE. Otherwise, I am intensely looking forward to meeting everybody and contributing fully. It's on, baby!! Nota bene: Here are some BXE contacts for your eco-rolodex: 1. Jerry Stewart, email: jlstewct@gmail.com, 2. Lee at (703) 999-2634, and 3. Steve Norris at (828) 777-7816. I am also keeping "bailey" at the Earth First! Journal collective office in Gainesville, Florida advised of all developments. What would be enlightened, is to issue an independent callout to the entire green-black milieu to show up in Washington D.C. May 21-29 to participate in "shutting down the FERCus". That's what is really needed...realizing a point where the bullshit stops and it's time to deal. Here's the website: Beyond Extreme Energy is at http://beyondextremeenergy.org If not now, when? If not us, who? Craig Louis Stehr

Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com