Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, June 24, 2015

• Homeless Biz
• Sanhedrin Fire Contained
• Island Mountain Raid
• Adolescent Marijuana Use
• Timber Regs
• Feather
• Thirsty Billionaires
• Growers Initiative
• Ukiah Stabbing
• Yesterday's Catch
• Public Radio
• Achenbach
• PaintCare
• Flag Trouble
• County Vacancies

CITY OF FORT BRAGG PREVAILS IN LEGAL BATTLE OVER OLD COAST HOTEL PROJECT

Update on Old Coast Hotel Project

Yesterday, in Mendocino County Superior Court, the City of Fort Bragg presented its defense against a request for a preliminary injunction that was filed by a group opposing the City Council's decision to pass through State Community Development Block Grant funds to the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (MCHC) for the purchase of the Old Coast Hotel property. Judge Richard Henderson indicated at the outset of the hearing that he would not make a decision from the bench. He heard the petitioners' case and the response provided by the City, the State Attorney General's Office, and MCHC (who was granted the right to intervene in the underlying litigation). The judge did not grant the request for a preliminary injunction, but indicated that he would issue his ruling on the request for a preliminary injunction by June 23rd. (City of Fort Bragg Press Release)

HEADLINE FROM TUESDAY'S PRESS DEMOCRAT: "Judge refuses to halt homeless center in Fort Bragg." Haven't seen the judge's decision so it's impossible to evaluate his logic. But the term “homeless” needs a serious re-working. Back when words still had precise meaning, “homeless” meant a person who had not only lost his shelter through no fault of his own he desired to re-shelter himself. The term didn't mean people who were beyond the capacities of their families to endure, or people who preferred to live the vagabond life, or chronic drunks, incapacitated drug heads, or crazy people.

EXCEPT FOR VAGABONDS, aka bums, who generally keep movin' on, the present free range homeless population is composed of drunks, druggers and crazy people who used to be the collective responsibility of all us, and we took responsibility by housing the incapacitated in a state hospital system where some of them were able to regain themselves. People who were unable or unwilling to care for themselves were not permitted to live plein air, so to speak.

WHEN THE REAGANAUTS gutted the state hospital system, legions of college-educated hustlers haphazardly educated in psychological treatment fads took over well-paid responsibility for the walking wounded in privately owned group homes, outpatient operations run out of county social service and mental health bureaucracies, and temporary shelters like Hospitality House in Fort Bragg. These operations were supplemented by free lunch programs run by churches.

A CAREER FORT BRAGG-BASED DRUNK could live outside and get a free meal and a shower when he felt the need and go on drinking with periodic interventions by the police who hauled him over the hill to the County Jail as part of the County's ongoing catch and release program cynically presided over by the Superior Court of Mendocino County. Which isn't a program but a fact of local life as the police become de facto caretakers, if not caregivers, for the “homeless.”

THE “HOMELESS” now being big business presided over by handsomely compensated people like Anna Shaw, and Mr. Ortner of Yuba City, and a raft of publicly-employed people at Mendo Social Services and the County's half-privatized and perennially half-assed Mental Health bureaucracy, lots of people have a vested interest in things as they are.

PRIVATE BUSINESSES like the Ortner Management Group make money by cherry picking and “treating” the state and federally reimbursable homeless, as they now claim they will do when/if they take over the Old Coast Hotel in downtown Fort Bragg with, of course, the more attractive spaces in the graceful structure becoming offices for the mental health professionals allegedly rehabbing maybe a half-dozen or so dry drunks, lightweight tweekers, and non-volatile crazy people. Fort Bragg's homeless population will remain largely homeless, and probably grow as more and more of the no hope young retreat to the temporary solaces of dope and the bottle, permanently handicapping themselves for even a shot at a more or less "normal" life. But, of course, providing endless fodder for the "helping professionals."

THIS COUNTY has no way of evaluating the success of the Ortner Management Group's services, what Mendocino County is getting for the $7-8 annual million Ortner rakes in for treating the County's mentally ill. There will be no way of gaging Ortner's success at the Old Coast Hotel, just as there is no honest procedure for determining how successful he is at rehabbing his present clients. Nor is there is any way to evaluate what exactly Hospitality House does in the way of getting people off the streets; they simply announce that they're doing a swell job (as they bill by the minute) and the fuzzy warms feel warm and fuzzy as they retreat to comfortable homes behind locked doors. "Hey! I'm all for helping the homeless but keep them away from my house!" Anybody who questions the workings of the County's professional homeless helpers will be denounced as heartless, cruel, “stigmatizing,” and so on.

HOMELESSNESS, as it's now deployed as a catch-all for everyone out on the street, many of them preferring life out there because they can stay loaded and behave in an unacceptable manner, will continue to employ people as homelessness continues to grow and grow.

THE DISCUSSION of homelessness in Mendocino County is cynically self-interested because it's dominated by people who profit from it. Our political leadership doesn't discuss it all with a view to effective local strategies.

SO, MR. KNOW-ALL, what would you do about it? I'd begin with the assumption that no one unable or unwilling to care for himself be allowed to live on the streets. The County would re-route the millions now spent on blah-blah and exploitation by people like Ortner to a County-run farm on County-owned property staffed by people already on the County payroll as mental health employees. The homeless, all of them, would be required to live there and while there, earn their way. The Sheriff has had offers of donated property for just this purpose; the Point Arena Air Force Station would be a perfect site for a County-run, mandatory homeless shelter/camp.

OF COURSE if you think it's humane to allow people to drink and drug themselves to death on Main Street, or to allow the free range mentally ill to remain unhoused and uncared for, you're in good hands with the Ortner Management Group and the Mendocino County Mental Health Department.

WE UNDERSTAND that Henderson's decision on the Old Coast Hotel project will be appealed, that it's not ending here.

SANHEDRIN FIRE UPDATE

Upper Lake — The 25-acre Sanhedrin fire is now 100 percent contained. Firefighters are continuing mop-up activities are continuing this afternoon. Smoke from the fire may still be visible for the next few days along Highway 101 and to communities on the west side of the forest. The fire, reported Friday night around 7:30 p.m., is burning on private land within the Mendocino National Forest south of Little Signal Peak and east of the Sanhedrin Wilderness on the Upper Lake Ranger District. The cause is under investigation. For more information, please contact the Mendocino National Forest at 530-934-3316 or visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/mendocino

THE ISLAND MOUNTAIN MEGA-POT RAID

Mendo Sheriff’s Original Press Release Monday: 
"On Monday, June 22, at 7:00 am, Deputies from Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino Counties began serving several search warrants in the Island Mountain area associated with large-scale marijuana cultivation sites.
 Personnel from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were assisting Deputies as it was suspected that situations of water diversion, water theft and environment degradation would be discovered.
 Specific details of the search warrant services will be released on 06-23-2015 as information becomes available.”

“Official” Updated Press Release Says Little On Tri-County Bust


The Mendocino County Sheriff released an update on Monday’s “warrant service” (i.e., bust) at 11:27 am.

"Updated Press Release: 
On Tuesday, June 23, Deputies from Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino Counties continued marijuana investigation/eradication activities in Island Mountain based upon continued observations of significant marijuana cultivation sites.
 Personnel from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife continue to provide assistance with investigating situations of water diversion, water theft and environment degradation associated with any of the marijuana cultivation sites. 
Specific details of the marijuana investigation/eradication activities are pending at this time and will be released when information becomes available." 
And, while other media have been excluded from any REAL data from the raids, it appears the sheriff's office is "sweet" on North Coast News TV reporter Natalie Weber as she reported (last night): "While serving the search warrants, deputies with the Humboldt County Drug Task Force seized 8,000 marijuana plants, 30 pounds of processed marijuana, and four pounds of hash. No arrests were made."

ON-LINE COMMENTS RE BUST OF BIG GRO AT ISLAND MOUNTAIN

COMMENT 1: Raiding the grows which sustain the North Coast can not be good for the economy in these tough economic times.
 Of course they will claim “environmental degradation” while Fish 
and Game rubber stamp quarries and logging harvest plans. They will 
claim “water diversion” meanwhile up to 60% of the headwaters of the Eel River is diverted to the Russian River in Potter Valley. They will 
claim “water theft” as Fish and Game Rubber Stamps projects which 
dewater the Eel River such as they Willits Bypass. Mendocino County will claim “water pollution” mean while Mendocino County will approve 
Asphalt Plants along the floodbanks of the Eel River directly above where Salmon Spawn such as on Highway 162, Covelo Road Grist Creek asphalt plant which was recently approved… 
These days the Sheriff Department use of
 the term “Environmental Degradation” is just another term to support 
their War on Pot which is failing in support of a better way towards 
cannabis legalization. They use “environmental degradation” as a way of gaining support, although they never offer any evidence to support their claims: Most landowners have the legal rights to their spring water. 
These claims of environmental degradation never stand up in court but are used as a tool to gain support from a naive public for the failing war 
on cannabis.

COMMENT 2: I'm not against reining in the big grows that are diverting water in the summer and who have no water stored to cover their irrigation needs, but not one shred of scientific evidence will be presented to show fertilizers in the streams of these grows they're busting today. More drug war myths being greenwashed---it's easier for Lt. Hanson to say it to the media to make the cops look eco-groovy. 
As of last year nobody is actually doing water quality studies to prove runoff from pot grows one way or the other. Anyone with common sense knows that nutrients for cannabis are expensive and are normally spot applied. What's more plausible is by harvest time and the subsequent rainy season comes those nutrients will have been mostly used by the plants. And by the time the ground is saturated from the big fall storms to the point of surface runoff any small amounts of unused nutrients remaining in the soils will be highly diluted and dispersed in swollen streams. This ain't Central Valley agriculture where nutrient and pesticide runoffs from millions of acres of intensely cultivated fields is a very real and quantified problem that's widely known. But in order to villify pot growers and justify their budgets the cops conflate two radically different forms of agriculture.

SHERIFF’S UPDATE #2:

Island Mountain Operation Press Conference

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is currently participating in marijuana investigation/eradication activities in the area of Island Mountain. These activities are in connection with marijuana investigation/eradication activities of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office and the Trinity County Sheriff's Office. At this time the California Department of Fish & Wildlife is providing assistance with investigating situations of water diversion, water theft and environmental degradation associated with any of the marijuana cultivation sites being investigated/eradicated. Due to the remote location of Island Mountain it has been difficult to obtain updated information on the progress of the activities and the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office has received numerous ongoing inquires from the media about these activities. To aid in the dissemination of information, Mendocino County Sheriff Thomas D. Allman will be holding a press conference on Friday June 26, 2015 starting at 4:00 PM located at the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Donovan Conference Room (951 Low Gap Road in Ukiah, California). Those who are unable to attend in person can attend by telephone by calling 1-877-223-4490 and entering PIN# 97829. No information about the marijuana investigation/eradication activities will be released until the time of the press conference.

Respectfully,

Gregory L. Van Patten, Captain - Field Services, Public Information Officer

HALL MONITORING THE FUTURE

by O'Shaunessy’s News Service

Teenage marijuana use does not increase as a result of a state passing a marijuana law. That was the key conclusion of a team of researchers led by Deborah Hasin of Columbia University, who analyzed data from surveys conducted annually (1991-2014) involving 1,098,270 adolescents in 48 states. Hasin et al also found that teen use was higher to begin with and has remained so in states that passed medical marijuana laws. Their paper, Medical marijuana laws and adolescent marijuana use in the USA from 1991 to 2014: results from annual, repeated cross-sectional surveys, is in the current Lancet Psychiatry.

Hasin et al relied on the Monitoring the Future study, conducted by University of Michigan polling experts, some of whom co-authored the paper at hand. Their methodology is described in some detail. Polling experts survey students at some 400 schools every year. Now get this:

Advance notice to parents and students about the study included that participation was voluntary and responses were either anonymous (for 8th and 10th graders) or confidential (for 12th graders; responses of 12th graders are not anonymised so that they can participate in follow-up studies). All Monitoring the Future study procedures were reviewed and approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board.

Now just imagine you're a 12th grader in a Missouri high school and you know you're giving them your name along with your answers about marijuana use. You're applying to college, or considering the military...

If all Monitoring the Future study procedures were not approved by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board I might think that expecting 17 year olds to provide accurate answers about their illegal activity is the most unscientific thing I ever heard of.

How many experts does it take to analyze a survey? Haslin had eight co-authors. There were seven PhDs, one MD, one MS. Their bottom line was:

Implications of all the available evidence

Our two main findings, in conjunction with other evidence, suggest that state-level factors other than medical marijuana laws influence adolescent marijuana use. Because both human studies and animal models show that early adolescent use of marijuana increases the risk of important adverse effects in adulthood, the identification of large-scale societal factors that increase the risk of early use is crucial. Our study findings suggest that the debate over the role of medical marijuana laws in adolescent marijuana use should cease, and that resources should be applied to identifying the factors that do affect risk.

Many a helping professional's livelihood depends on the "important adverse effects" of marijuana. They're highly professional about helping themselves to our tax dollars. Just keep applying those resources, America.

EMERGENCY REGULATION ADOPTED FOR REMOVAL OF DEAD AND DYING TREES

(Ed note: Do not be misled into thinking that the below nice-sounding announcement will do anything about MRC’s millions of dead and dying tanoaks killed intentionally by hack & squirt with a poison called imazapyr. If you do think that, just go ahead and skip this entire Board of Forestry press release which is simply the usual streamlining of rules for corporate timber companies in the name of fire protection because it only applies to the removal of more or less merchantable timber that the companies would otherwise have to prepare extra paperwork to remove. There’s no money in logging dead and dying tanoaks.)

* * *

Date: June 23, 2015

Contact: Katie Harrell (previously Palmieri) 
Communications Director
 (510) 847-5482

Sacramento—The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection adopted an emergency regulation for the removal of dead and dying trees at their June 17th meeting. The adoption was made in response to the ever-growing number of drought-related dead and dying trees across the State that are mounting concerns over intensifying wildfire conditions. Under the regulation, drought has been added as a condition that can constitute an emergency action. This will allow individual landowners or Registered Professional Foresters (RPF; for projects that require an RPF) to apply for an exemption to cut and remove dead and dying* trees of any size without the typical timber harvest plan preparation and submission requirements as well as completion and stocking report requirements.

The US Forest Service, Forest Health Protection Program conducted special early season aerial surveys of Southern California and the Southern Sierras in April to get a preliminary assessment of forest conditions in some of the most severely drought-impacted areas of the State. Approximately 12.5 million dead trees were identified – 4 times that of all of California’s tree die-off in 2014. In 2014, an estimated 3.3 million trees died throughout the state, nearly double 2013 mortality rates.

“When you follow the trend of what is happening in California’s forests, it is clear we have a big problem,” said George Gentry, California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection Executive Director. “The drought is having compounding effects on the landscape, with more and more trees becoming stressed and dying directly from the drought as well as from the ever-increasing beetle populations as more trees become weakened and beetle populations are able to expand and thrive. By implementing this emergency regulation, the Board is empowering people to protect their homes and land this summer from catastrophic wildfires and hazardous falling trees.”

On average more than 100 Habitable Structures are destroyed each year by wildfires. These regulations will help to immediately facilitate the cutting and removal of dead and dying trees, which will reduce the risk of large, damaging wildfires; decrease home and structure losses; enhance firefighter and public safety; and reduce fire suppression costs. It will also help to prevent negative impacts to watersheds; fisheries and wildlife habitat; public health; water supply and quality; and local economies, while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

This regulation will be submitted to the Office of Administrative Law on July 1, 2015 and the public comment period will close at 5:00 p.m. on July 6, 2015. The emergency rule may be approved as early as July 11, 2015 and will be in effect for 6 months, after which time the Board has the option of two additional 90-day re-adoptions. The Board has not yet determined if they are going to pursue permanent rulemaking.

For the exemption application (1038(k)), go to http://calfire.ca.gov/resource_mgt/resource_mgt_forestpractice_harvestingforms.php after July 11, 2015. For more information on California’s forest health conditions or the emergency rule, contact Katie Harrell at (510) 847-5482.

*Trees classified as dying are those with 50 percent or more of the crown foliage dead or fading in color (excluding normal autumn coloration changes), or with evidence of successful bark beetle attacks around the circumference of the tree trunk.

Katie Harrell (previously Palmieri) 
Communications Director
BOARD OF FORESTRY AND FIRE PROTECTION
P.O. Box 944246
SACRAMENTO, CA 94244-2460
Website: www.bof.fire.ca.gov

THIRSTY BILLIONAIRES FILE COMPLAINT ALLEGING ILLEGAL DIVERSIONS OF ‘THEIR’ WATER

by Dan Bacher

The phrase “No good deed goes unpunished,” originally attributed to playwright Clare Boothe Luce, could accurately the current situation of farmers on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Three weeks after the State Water Resources Control Board approved a voluntary proposal by Delta farmers to voluntarily reduce their water use by 25%, the State Water Contractors (SWC), including powerful billionaire and millionaire corporate growers in the San Joaquin Valley, filed a complaint with the same board on June 16. The group requested the board to take action to “protect” State Water Project (SWP) releases from what it claimed were “unlawful diversions” in the Delta.

The group accused diverters south of the San Joaquin River - Delta farmers - of “substantial, unlawful diversions” that would “increase the burden on limited stored water supplies, affecting both the environment and other water users.”

“These landowners in the Delta have long-standing water rights that entitle them to water when nature provides it—but those rights do not entitle them to stored water paid for by others and intended for the environment. If nature ran its course, the Delta would not be suitable for drinking or farming this summer,” said Stefanie Morris, acting general manager of the State Water Contractors, in a press release.

She further alleged that landowners that continue to divert water from within the Delta are "taking" the stored state and federal water project supplies needed to meet water quality requirements.

“We’re depending on stored water to meet environmental needs, but without action from the state, keeping the Delta water fresh this summer will be like trying to fill a bucket with a hole in the bottom. We’ll be depleting reservoirs to make up for what diverters south of the San Joaquin River are taking out,” concluded Morris.

The California Sportfishing Alliance (CSPA) responded to the complaint by pointing out the irony of the water contractors claiming that Delta farmers, senior water rights holders, are “stealing” water that “belongs” to the contractors.

“State and Federal contractors, who have been illegally storing water that belongs to others for years, should not accuse Delta farmers of stealing some of their stolen water, on the basis of a seriously flawed study, with a long list of unsupported assumptions,” said Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), noted that “the pumps for the State Water Project have yet to be turned off one day during the drought while water quality standards are being violated in the Delta each and every day this year, impacting Delta urban water users and family farms.”

“We are perilously close to losing Delta smelt, and our iconic salmon fisheries, and despite Delta family farms already taking a voluntary 25 percent reduction in water use, the State Water Contractors believe the Delta should be made into a complete sacrifice zone for their water exports,” she said.

At the same time that the water contractors are demanding that Delta farmers stop raiding “their water," water-intensiver almond acreage in the San Joaquin Valley has increased dramatically in recent years, in spite of water contractor claims that protections for Delta smelt and salmon have made the Valley into some sort of modern-day “Dust Bowl.”

In fact, growers statewide expanded their almond acreage by 150,000 acres during the current drought. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/05/15/californias-thirsty-almond-acreage-grows-by-150000-acres-during-record-drought

Stewart Resnick, the Beverly Hills billionaire agribusiness tycoon, owner of Paramount Farms, and one of the biggest California contributors to both Democratic and Republican Party candidates, revealed his current plan to expand pistachio, almond, and walnut acreage during the drought at this March's annual pistachio conference that Paramount Farms hosted. Resnick is the co-owner with his wife, Lynda, of "The Wonderful Company," formerly Roll Global.

During the conference, Resnick gloated about the industry's 118 percent increase in pistachio acreage, 47 percent increase in almonds and 30 percent increase in walnuts over the past ten years, according to the Western Farm Press.

Resnick also told the publication that their 2020 goal is “150,000 partner acres ” and “33,000 Paramount acres.” (http://westernfarmpress.com/tree-nuts/paramount-farms-touts-record-pistachio-return-future? )

Under pressure by the Metropolitan Water District and the Kern County Water Agency that serves Resnick and other wealthy growers, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) mismanaged the Bay Delta Estuary and California’s reservoirs during the drought so that these agencies could continue to export as much water as possible, despite the devastating impacts on the Bay- Delta Estuary, according to Barrigan-Parrilla.

Barrigan-Parrilla said the Department and Bureau failed to hold back enough water for continued drought conditions despite warnings to do so by fishery and environmental water groups throughout the state.

“As the weeks go by, it becomes clearer and clearer that the only way to stop the over pumping of the SF Bay-Delta estuary, and Governor Brown’s planned tunnels project, is for an adjudication of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed,” she said. “The problem is that we do not have the water to meet the insatiable demand of special interest growers in California, like those in the Kern County Water Agency, or the Metropolitan Water District, which used up the majority of its three-year stored water supply in 2014, and only began to get serious about conservation this year."

During 2013 and 2014, the state and federal water agencies systematically emptied Trinity Reservoir on the Trinity River, Lake Shasta on the Sacramento River, Lake Oroville on the Feather River and Folsom Lake on the American River, in spite of it being a record drought. The agencies delivered massive amounts of subsidized Delta water to corporate mega-growers, Southern California water agencies and Big Oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking operations in Kern County. (http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2014/02/state-and-feds-drained-northern.html )

Salmon, steelhead and a host of other fish species are being driven closer to extinction by low, warm water conditions on the Sacramento and Trinity River systems spurred by the draining of reservoirs during a historic drought. But as the Brown administration mandates that northern California urban water users slash their water use by 25 percent and as Delta farmers voluntarily agree to a 25 percent in their water consumption, thirsty billionaire growers like Stewart Resnick brag about how they have expanded their almond, pistachio and walnut acreage during the drought.

NEW BALLOT MEASURE WOULD GIVE POT GROWERS ALL THE POWER

There’s a ballot initiative being circulated right now called the Mendocino Cannabis Commission 2015 which purports to set up an “advisory” commission to help frame the rules around marijuana growing in this county.

What it really does is set into stone a commission made up of marijuana growers and distributors who will tell the board of supervisors what they can and can’t do about marijuana growing and selling in this county.

Around lots of flowery language about protecting the environment and the rights of the people, this initiative first and foremost immediately repeals Section 9.31, the county’s marijuana growing limitations. It also makes taking water for marijuana growing a right. It exempts “family growers” from taxes and regulations entirely and then says “family grower” will be defined by the commission later. In other words, by the growers themselves. A “small” farmer is someone who makes less than $250,000 a year “net income” and also has special status.

Once this initiative is passed, the commission will dictate what rules they will live by, where they can grow, and how much they can grow because, once passed, the initiative language becomes a mandate that the board of supervisors must enact without argument. And, the initiative also states that once passed, it cannot be changed except to expand it. The all-powerful commission established here, by the way, would only be open to people nominated by members of the Mendocino Cannabis Policy Council, the Emerald Growers Association and the Small Farmers Association (a marijuana growers association).

This initiative will be sold as a great opportunity for Mendocino County residents to control their future as marijuana becomes legalized and preserve their environment, save the small grower from corporate (that word will undoubtedly be front and center) control of marijuana and ensure reasonable and local regulation of the industry. They’ll say the commission will only be providing “advice” to the board of supervisors. Don’t believe it.

What this initiative will do is make marijuana growers the law in this county and free them from having to worry about small things like elections of local representatives. Under this initiative, they will be the only ones in charge.

Petitioners may ask you to help get this measure on the local ballot. Our advice: Don’t sign.

* * *

UPDATE: APPARENTLY THEY DIDN’T SIGN:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4106328-181/mendocino-county-pot-panel-proposal

THE UKIAH POLICE DEPARTMENT issued this update Monday on the "stabbing/possible kidnapping" incident last Thursday near Oak Manor Park in Ukiah: 
"On Thursday, June 18th at about 7:30 pm, Ukiah Police responded to the 500 block of Oak Manor Drive near Oak Manor Park for a fight with a vehicle abandoned in the roadway. The
 subsequent investigation revealed one of the vehicle’s occupants had been stabbed, that he fled the scene, and was transported to the hospital by a witness. This victim was treated at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center for his stab wounds and later released.
 The other vehicle’s occupant was believed to have been forced into another vehicle and taken from the scene.
 Ukiah Police Officers and Detectives were able to tentatively identify the victim they 
believed to have been kidnapped from the scene. At about 1:35 am the following morning the suspect vehicle was spotted and a high speed vehicle pursuit ensued through city streets, and onto southbound US 101 and into Sonoma County.
 The fleeing suspect vehicle was disabled near the Lytton Springs exit, and three suspects were arrested and taken into custody. Items of evidence linking the vehicle’s occupants to the suspected kidnapping were located inside the vehicle.
 The driver of the vehicle, 25-year-old Roman Jose Soto, of Point Arena, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, criminal conspiracy, and possessing stolen property related to the event on Oak Manor Drive. Soto was charged with a second count of assault with a dangerous weapon for impacting a police vehicle during the pursuit, reckless vehicular evasion, and for violating probation. 26-year-old Ryan Adam Raya and a 16-year-old male juvenile, both of Ukiah, were also charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, possessing stolen property, and criminal conspiracy.
 Officers continued to search for the subject believed to have been kidnapped, and at about 2:00 pm on Friday, June 19th, located the subject at a residence in Ukiah. The victim had several stab wounds but denied having been kidnapped or forced into a vehicle.
 This investigation continues and anyone with information is asked to call the Ukiah Police Department at 707-463-6262."

(MSP NOTE--Jail records indicate Mr. Soto was arrested @ 2:16 am on Friday, June 19th, booked on six felony counts @ 10:37 pm ($50,000 bail) that evening and had his booking photo taken @ 3:15 am on Saturday, June 20. He is still incarcerated as of Tuesday, 11:00 am.
 The 5'6", 250-pound Ryan Raya was also arrested @ 2:16 am June 19th, booked on four felony counts at 1:09 pm Friday ($30,000 bail) and had his booking photo taken at 6:24 pm Friday. He is still in the Sheriff lockup on Low Gap Road as of 11:00 am Tuesday.)

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

CATCH OF THE DAY, June 23, 2015

BRANDON ENGLISH, Ukiah. Vandalism.

ANGELA GUTIERREZ, Potter Valley. Receiving stolen property.

RAMONA HALDERMAN, San Jose/Ukiah. Escape, probation revocation.

ROBERT HENDERSON, Benicia/Ukiah. Sale of meth, possession of drugs while armed, pot sales.

ALEXANDER RAMIREZ, Fort Bragg. Elder abuse/battery, probation revocation.

MARINA RODRIGUEZ, Olympia, Washington/Ukiah. Pot cultivation, processing, possession for sale.

ROGER SCHOENAHL, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

MOTECUHZOMA VAUGHN, Ukiah. Under influence of controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia, false ID.

ALLEN WHITAKER, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Parole violation.

WILLIAM WOOLDRIDGE, Fort Bragg. Pot sales.

PUBLIC RADIO

Marco McClean,

I applaud you in your efforts to keep the larger issues in the forefront. I wonder if Tim Gregory (and others) realize, the station has no license (KZYX) effective July 1, Mr. Coate's last day.

I said this once before, you Marco, or me, or Mr Sakowicz, Mr O'Brien, Mr. DeVall --- none of us, can MAKE or CAUSE the FCC to withhold the license renewal. We just can't do it. But, if the FCC sees cause for NOT RENEWING, they can and will.

At the June 29th Board of Directors meeting in Willits, 6 p.m. I hope we hear from the President, Mr. Campbell, as to why the station license hasn't been renewed. It isn't because I or someone wrote a letter to the FCC. There has to be probable cause for the FCC to not renew.

Marco, you are exactly correct when you show the number of memberships that constitutes the salaries of the PD and Underwriter positions. And yet. There are less volunteer programmers than say 3-4 years rc ago; less underwriters; less members; less grants and foundation gifts; and a $25,000 legal bill to be paid. This has to be accounted for in this coming Fiscal Budget, and was clearly not shown in the so-called audit given in May's Annual Membership meeting.

Mr. Gregory, if you feel that the volunteer programmers are connecting with the public, and visa versa, please, tell us how.

The current Program Director took Mr Nornan DuVall OFF THE AIR after he created the KZYX listserv. Why? She didn't want that kind of communication going on. She couldn't control it. She also has done NOTHING to invigorate the PAC and CAB committees. Mr. Gregory, please, tell us why these two important committees which are to directly interface with the community, are not active and haven't been for many, many years. This is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the ByLaws. Hmmm.

Maybe this is one reason the FCC isn't on board with renewing the KZYX license. Could it be because the current Program Director has fallen down on the job? Think about it. Better yet, let's talk about it!!!!

As a side note: I have never read a single word by the Program Director in any forum. She sits in the Board meetings and giggles and snickers , or like a bump on a log when by herself. In the May meeting when people like one member, who I shall call Dorothea, stood up and complained about the Supervisor's meeting and KZYX's coverage of an issue important, the PD was heard laughing at her. I complained to Mr Campbell about the unprofessional behavior of the PD and those sitting with her, including members of the news staff during Dorothea's comments. No respect for a member of the community. The herd mentality exists at KZYX and the current PD exhibits unprofessional, rude and disrespectful behavior. The community is paying her money to be so.

Mr. Gregory, if you really want to put your money where you mouth is, volunteer to create an open dialogue between the community and the programmers. Create a dialogue with the volunteers who want to communicate to one another, AND/OR, who wish to offer legitimate criticism about KZYX in an open forum. Let's see how far you get with the current PD and getting her support on this idea. Mr. Gregory, if you approach the PD, you may see yourself on the heap of volunteers who were thrown off the air for bringing up the idea.

How brave do you feel? Want to test it out?

Mary Massey

KZYX, Members for Change, Face Book

* * *

TARBABIES

"Tim Gregory" wrote: i'm back at my toshiba, marco and i have to say i agree with david. nobody needs a second asshole. step away from the tarbaby if you can...

You mean KZYX? That's the tarbaby, for me. I wish I didn't care, but I do. Second, about the money spent, forget it. Water under the bridge. I agree that 'where there is no memory, there is no blame', though...so: REMEMBER.

Okay, I'll remember. A great deal of that money is not under the bridge yet, though. John Coate has fled, but Mary Aigner and David Steffen, who you agree with, are still there, still superfluous, and still sucking $80,000 out of the station every year. That's 1,600 $50 memberships. That's nearly the entire membership base. They need to go. And do you think the board won't just install another GM who's just as bad as John Coate? Against all reason they praise him to the skies. They want another John Coate.

Third, try to get humbler in the face of the task of having a better operation come out of genuine discussion. On the board, with the board, after the board starts making moves. Be a contributor, marco, however that may be, like all us shlubs who keep shlubbing still...

When you say "after the board starts making moves", what do you mean? If you know, why not tell?

Four, I say civilization is a veneer on the jungle. civilization hasn't got it right yet, and neither has mcpb, inc.

I repeat: This conversation should be taking place regularly on the air, and in a forum on the KZYX web page, where boardmembers, and so-called management, and airpeople --and the public, who pay for the station with their taxes whether they like it or not-- can all participate equally, in the light. KZYX should have been hosting an open unmoderated forum on its webpage all along. The board that has been preventing this is still there, and still insulated from the members and public.

What we have with rural terrestrial radio is a challenge to survive media glut, and to keep serving community...

Survival is as easy as radio is cheap. KZYX' entire real-world operation doesn't come to $50,000 a year, and that's always been covered by the CPB grant. Survival is not an issue. The core control freaks' efforts to keep in control are what has caused all the problems at KZYX.

Spit up the Koolaid, Tim; it's not doing you any good sloshing around in there.

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

FORMER MAOIST MAKES GOOD

Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority was one of the first in the state to join PaintCare California in 2012, which is a program that picks up old paint, stain and varnish from more than 700 drop-off sites statewide today. In fact, it recently surpassed a milestone of more than 2 million gallons of old and unwanted paint that has been processed in the past two years. Mike Sweeney, General Manager of the Mendocino Solid Waste Management Authority, said they began recycling paint locally in 1996; modeling its program on Santa Cruz County's. This involved bulking usable latex paint in 55-gallon drums in about five colors and giving it away in four-gallon pails. Sweeney noted, "It has been a very popular program with around 8,000 gallons per year distributed. PaintCare provided us with a way to continue our program unchanged but receive reimbursement for our costs. For us it was a no-brainer. The only surprise to us has been that more jurisdictions don't choose to keep it local." Since 2012, Sweeney said they receive approximately $70,000 per year from PaintCare, which is based on direct reimbursement of their paint recycling costs. I thought you might be interested in a local story about how the PaintCare California paint stewardship program has benefited the authority, its profitability, and how it helps the local community through cost savings and convenient recycling of old and unwanted paint. Would you be interested in this story or possibly like more information?

You can also visit www.paintcare.org/california for additional details.

Thanks, Kim

Beeler Marketing
16400 Westview Rd
Lake Oswego, OR 97034
Mobile: 503.908.0808
www.beelermarketing.com
Follow us on Twitter <http://twitter.com/BeelerMarketing>

GETCHER REBEL FLAG HISTORY HYAR, BUBBA!

"The love of the old Union [that is, their idealization of it] was reflected not only in copying the federal constitution but also in the search for a flag. The [Confederate States] congressional committee appointed to design a flag received many suggestions for a modification of the Stars and Stripes and even to take over the flag itself. The result was the Stars and Bars, which continued the red, white, and blue colors but had only three stripes; the field was blue with [a circlet of] seven white stars. However, this was enough to confuse it with the United States flag. Confederate troops at the first battle of Bull Run had difficulty, in the heat and dust of battle, in distinguishing their own reinforcements from those of the enemy. To prevent a repetition of this a new banner, the Battle Flag, was designed, its red field crossed diagonally with a blue cross with thirteen white stars. Despite its wide use, however, this famous flag was never officially adopted. In May 1863 the Confederate congress adopted a second national flag, known as the Stainless Banner. It was pure white with the Battle Flag in the left corner. Because this flag, when hanging limp, looked too much like a flag of truce, the Confederate congress, on March 4, 1865 [a month before the end of the Civil War] changed it by placing a broad red bar across its end. This was the last flag of the Confederacy. ---Brittanica

(Submitted by Jay Williamson, Santa Rosa)

MENDOCINO COUNTY IS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS for anticipated vacancies on the following new Board or Commission openings:

Developmental Disabilities Board - Area 1 (2) General Members

Fish Rock Cemetery District (2) Trustees.

Note: A complete list of all new and existing vacancies and an application form is available on the County website:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/bos/Forms.htm.