Press "Enter" to skip to content

Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Sep 22, 2015

* * *

PD DECLARES VALLEY FIRE ‘ONE OF CALIFORNIA’S MOST DESTRUCTIVE’

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4510599-181/valley-fire-containment-up-to

WE KNEW THAT, of course. But it’s getting truer and truer as the damage assessments come in. Now at about 76,000 acres / 75% containment, almost 2000 structures destroyed, about half of them homes. CalFire, Monday evening: “On Monday firefighters continued to mop up and secure more of the fires perimeter. Damage Inspection Teams have nearly completed surveys of the fire area to determine how many structures have been destroyed. A second survey has been initiated to confirm initial findings. Current data indicates that the fire has destroyed 1910 structures; including 1238 single-family homes, 23 multi-family homes, 64 commercial structures, and 585 other structures such as sheds and smaller outbuildings. As surveys are completed and additional data is confirmed, the number of structures destroyed may rise. The Valley Fire now ranks among the top three most destructive wildfires in California history With so many structures destroyed, the damage assessment continues."

VALLEY FIRE EVACUEES AT LAKE MENDOCINO STILL NEED HELP!

Hello everyone. I am managing the donations at the Bushy Campground at Lake Mendocino. It has come to me attention that someone has put a comment on my previous post that we are no longer accepting donations. This information is not correct. However, the list of my donation request has greatly changed. Here is the list of items I despretly need to build the areas to store all these awesome donations. 
Large Event Tents (25x60?)
 Sturdy Shelves (As many as possible)
 Wood (to build shelves)
 Rods (to make clothes racks) 
Screws 
Screw guns
 Pallets 
Boxes (Hoping to get more Mattix boxes for clothes because they work great! They are the ones seen in the photo. No tape required and not too big.)
 Duct tape (For labeling totes)
 Last but not least VOLUNTEERS to build shelves and sort through donations. Please contact me personally if you can help me with any of my requests. 
Also, Please share this post to help me get the word out.

Sharie Bishop

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205326878515014&set=o.1690018051233194&type=1

* * *

FORT BRAGG: ONE MAN'S EXPERIENCE

by Rex Gressett

I have been going to all the city council meetings, but recently at a city council meeting I was invited to the public works committee meeting. I enjoyed it very much. A few months ago I suggested that Channel 3, our new PEG TV station , that all committee meetings as well as the city council meetings be videotaped and made accessible on the web and broadcast on Channel 3 where appropriate. When I said this, there were those on the city council that rolled their eyes and said to me that it would never happen, but if it did it would amount to a revolution.

Nothing I was told would effect the operations of city government more than letting the people see what happens after the city council meetings, at committee. Now I believe it.

My original idea , if you can call it that, is that all government meetings should be accessible on the web and Channel 3 — city councils, Board of Supervisors, city councils in Willits, local governments everywhere in the county, and all of the committee meetings in Fort Bragg for sure and as much of the Ukiah stuff as possible.

They are all legally accessible . They are all officially public meetings. Anybody with nothing better to do could walk around and attend them all. But of course no one does. No one goes to committee meetings, except very occasionally for the directly interested. But it is at committee meetings that the negotiation, the give and take and the arm wrestling with the hows as well as the whats of government occurs. It occurs strictly in private. Nobody here but us politicians, and we are famously a uniquely forgiving and mutually accommodating clan. It would make great Internet video — boring but potentially highly illuminating.

My first committee meeting addressed the proposed use of Fort Bragg's iconic, town hall for community meetings. Now all meetings that have occurred in town hall for lo these many years have been conducted by the City. They occur only on City time and payroll and are conducted according to the City's agenda. City management of course understands that it, not the people, own town hall.

The brainstorming sessions about the mill, that went nowhere, all the jumped up city hype about the industrial arts building, the Cedar Street project to nowhere, all of the dog and pony shows for city management hype and all the sales jobs to the people on behalf of developers that have rented the city management to push their projects , the public part of all of it occurs at Town Hall.

I proposed by email to the city council and publicly at the city council meetings, that the public, that means the people of the city, should be allowed to use Town Hall without supervision. I proposed that if anyone could get one city council person to call a meeting , we could have a meeting on any subject in the building that we the people are said to own. Mike Cimilino put the proposal down in a simple four part plan and got them to agree to send it to committee. Dave Turner, our mayor, said to me at that city council meeting in his avuncular and sinister way that we would flesh it out in committee. Please come. I did and what we got was something quite different.

The good news is that we get to use our own Town Hall. The bad news is we get to use it one day a month on the second Tuesday of the month if there is no one else that wants to rent it for money. And we are limited by our mayor's sensibilities to the subjects that are permissible to discuss. No candidates. We have elected officials, thank you, and don't need to have more. Also No Politics. They scorned the ugly word. Nothing like what happened to me, Dave intoned, meaning his recall. And nothing about that troublesome ballot initiative that is causing so much trouble.

But concessions were made to me , as the promoter of what had become by that time a defunct idea. The Hare Creek development project, it was magnanimously announced, we can discuss this one time. But the main rule is that they get to pick and choose what is acceptable. The people of Fort Bragg asked for public meetings and got a City censor. I wonder how that is going to work out for them.

* * *

DEFENDING SHAWN

Dear Editor,

I am writing you in regards to a very slanderous & incorrect statement made in your paper as follows:

JUST IN from the streets of Fort Bragg: "Jan Owings was one of three people who died from a batch of Pehnol [sic; probably Phenol, perhaps a reference to over-the-counter sore throat medication, or, worse, to paint stripper] sold by an individual known locally as Tattoo Shawn. Mr. Shawn is an accomplished police informant and full-time heroin addict. Another victim of this drug is a former official at Hospitality House. He died in a van parked in the driveway of the recently fired pastors of a local church. The death was not reported for 6 hours as they debated their recourse. These people have moved to Idaho (for other reasons) and had the courtesy to take Tattoo Shawn with them along with his bride of recent weeks, the former director of the church."

In addition to the previous e-mail I have sent you I would also like to add that you contradict yourself in the same sentence.   You mention that Jan Owings died from over the counter medication or paint stripper, so you don't even know & then you say she bought it from Tattoo Shawn, but you don't even know what she bought, so how do you know he sold her anything? And furthermore if that stuff is available at the hardware store or Rite Aid, then why would she need to purchase it from him?  Seems like she could just go get it herself, I don't know?

Apparently you have all the facts though!

Sincerely,

Alycia Heater

Fort Bragg

* * *

C'MON, LET'S GET READY!

The 10th annual C'mon Home to Eat in October celebration is c'ming right up! The Anderson Valley Foodshed is once again creating a whole month of celebrations and events that encourage eating locally produced food. Plans are set for local food breakfasts, lunches, dinners, potlucks, a farm tour, gleaning days, pumpkin carving, a school lunch, a fermentation workshop, a local challenge for your eating plans, and much more. Look for the C'mon Home to Eat posters around the Valley, a posted calendar of this year's events, a weekly AVA report, and info at mendocinolocalfood.org.

Eating local food increases the nutritional value of your meals, contributes greatly to the local economy, reduces use of fossil fuel for food transportation and packaging, boosts food security, reduces waste products, and provides exercise if you grow it yourself. Buying and eating local food enhances community ties

How is local food defined? Of course the most local is your backyard, but we have AV farmers and ranchers that produce ample vegetables, fruits, oils, and meats. Grains grown in the Ukiah Valley are sold here. Fish, seafood, and salt come from the coast. Drawing a 100 mile radius around Anderson Valley is still pretty local.

What is this Challenge about? AV Foodshed would like to challenge you to eat as locally as possible for the month of October, meaning mostly food grown/produced within that 100 mile radius of AV. As the summer garden season culminates, October is harvest month and perhaps the easiest time to embrace this challenge.

Where can I buy local fresh produce, grains, and meat? The Boonville Farmers' Market is at the Boonville Hotel on Saturday mornings from 10-12:30. Anderson Valley Market, Boont Berry, Lemons Market, and Yorkville Market all have selections of local food—look for the shelf talkers that say local on them. You can eat out at Aquarelle*, The Bewildered Pig* when it opens, The Boonville General Store*, The Boonville Hotel*, Lauren's, Mosswood Cafe, Paysanne*, the Senior Center, Stone & Embers*, and the Yorkville Market Deli. (Stars* indicate almost all locally sourced ingredients. Lauren's stars the many local ingredients on her menu, and at the others ask for specials that feature local ingredients.)

Does it cost more to eat locally? Maybe. Maybe not. If you take into consideration the cost of driving, the older age (i.e. reduced flavor and vitamin content) of produce from afar, the time/cost of recycling packaging, the health benefits of local produce, and the community benefits of knowing your farmer, then eating locally may save you dollars.

Next week the October calendar of local food events for restaurants, cafes, stores, the Grange, the Shed, the school, and the AV Health Center will be out. If you want to jump ahead join in on Sustainable Discoveries farm/ranch/garden tour of the productive Acorn Ranch, Old Chatham Ranch, and Ravenridge plus a local food lunch on Saturday, September 26th (andersonvalleylandtrust.org). For those who want to look ahead to November, the Chestnut Gathering at the Zeni Ranch will be on Saturday, November 7. Meanwhile here is a preview from Jen Burnstad of the October gleaning activities in the works or “The Neighborly Practice of Foraging and Gleaning....or So Many Apples and Pears, So Little Time: Yes...it's that abundant time of year again where some of us can hardly keep up with our own gardens and orchards, yet the plentiful fruits ripening and falling to the ground in our neighbors' yards call to us to harvest them as well. If we collect more than we can use there are food banks and schools in our Valley and all around the County who welcome the surplus. All we need to do is share with each other the location of heavily laden trees, find out the owners and get permission to pick, and then rendezvous with our bags and boxes to gather, share, and distribute the offerings of the season.  Anyone who is willing to let our crew of gleaners access your orchard to pick what you don’t want—or if you want to join the Gleaning Team, please call Jen at 895-3243.  We will gather at the Boonville Hotel parking lot at 10 a.m. on Monday October 5th and Tuesday October 6th. We are especially looking for grapes, figs, persimmons, pomegranates, and kiwis besides the usual apples and pears.”

How local can you go in October and beyond?

— Barbara Goodell

* * *

I THINK there's a local angle to this one.

The current New Yorker has published "Assets and Liabilities — The mobster Whitey Bulger secretly worked for the F.B.I. Or was it the other way around?” by Patrick Radden Keefe

Joseph (the Animal) Barboza was a murderer for hire from New Bedford, Massachusetts, who came by his nickname after an altercation with a minor mafioso which he elected to settle with his teeth. Barboza ultimately confessed to seven murders, and bragged to associates that he had committed many more, but he had the good fortune to be employed by the Mafia at a moment when authorities were trying desperately to better understand organized crime. In 1961, J. Edgar Hoover stressed, in a memo, the imperative to develop “live sources within the upper echelon of the organized hoodlum element.”

Barboza became a prized informant: he served as a government witness, helping to convict members of the Patriarca crime family. In fact, he was so valuable that when authorities began looking into a 1965 murder that Barboza had participated in, his contacts at the F.B.I. engineered a scheme to protect him. Barboza was never prosecuted for this crime; instead, he took the stand as the government’s star witness and implicated four innocent men in the murder. His F.B.I. handler, an agent named H. Paul Rico, boasted afterward about the ease with which the bureau had set up four “pigeons” for a crime they did not commit. All four men ended up with life sentences. (They were cleared of the murder in 2001, by which point two of them had died in prison.)

In 1969, the government placed Barboza in witness protection, relocating him to California [Santa Rosa]. But in his new identity he killed a man, and when local [Sonoma County] prosecutors sought to try him for the murder, the F.B.I. concocted a second coverup, maintaining that the killing was an effort by the Mob to frame the Animal and dispatching federal agents to appear in court as witnesses for the defense. After prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge, Barboza served only four years. Upon his release, in 1975, he was promptly murdered. But the Boston F.B.I. continued to enjoy a relationship with one of his associates, Stephen Flemmi, a member of the Winter Hill Gang.

ETC.

* * *

THE LOCAL ANGLE? The 1990 bombing of Earth First! activist, Judy Bari, in downtown Oakland. The FBI never conducted a serious or even an unserious investigation of that spectacular event while granting Bari's ex-husband, Mike Sweeney, a curious exemption from Suspect Number One status. The only explanation for such an exemption is that Sweeney was and is a federally protected guy. An FBI spokesman, interviewed by Steve Talbot, leans towards Talbot on camera and says, in effect, "You know of course that the man in a woman's life is always the first suspect." But the man in Judi Bari's life told the feds to go away, that if they wanted to talk to him they'd have to come back with a warrant. They never came back.

Sweeney
Sweeney

THE FEDS had everything they needed to wrap up the alleged "mystery" of the attack on Bari but didn't do it. Given Sweeney's background as a kind of revolutionary Johnny on the Spot for bomb-related events of the 1960s in the Bay Area, I suppose he was a snitch for the feds all the way back to the fire bombing of the BofA branch in Isla Vista, about which he wrote at length, as a very young man, and with insider info, for Ramparts magazine. How an unknown young guy got an assignment from Ramparts on that particular subject is one more mystery in a case replete with them.

SWEENEY soon joined a Stanford-based group called Venceremos led by an English professor called H. Bruce Franklin. That band of fake revolutionaries planted bombs all over the place and managed at least one fully documented murder, that one of an unarmed young prison transport officer. Hispanic with a wife and two young children, the great revolutionaries bent him over and shot him in the back of the head.

THE RICH KID revolutionary bands of the sixties were rife with informants, and the one at Stanford was undone by snitches.

A DECADE LATER, there was a Sweeney-linked fire bombing of an airplane hangar at the old Navy Air Field west of Santa Rosa. Sweeney and Judi Bari, a married couple, lived next door and had opposed conversion of the airstrip to homes.

AND A DECADE AFTER the Santa Rosa Air Field bombs — one of them failed to detonate — Sweeney's ex-wife is blown up.

AND THIS GUY'S not a suspect?

SWEENEY, natch, has gotten away with it and now functions as Mendocino County's garbage bureaucrat. Ah, Mendocino County, where every day history starts all over again and you are whatever you say you are.

THE BARI CASE could be wrapped up tomorrow. All it would take is subpoenas for the dna of the primary suspects to match against the known dna from a confession letter written by the Bari bomber calling himself/herself The Lord's Avenger. The FBI has that envelope. They've closed the case. They said nobody would talk to them. (Female dna is on the stamp, male dna was found on the envelope's seal.)

* * *

Howard and Zack Memorial

H&Zmemorial

* * *

A DRUG commonly used to treat life-threatening parasitic infections has jumped in price to $750 per tablet, from $13.50, after being acquired by a pharmaceutical startup run by a former hedge-fund manager. The 62-year-old drug, Daraprim, was acquired by Turing Pharmaceuticals this year. Turing's CEO Martin Shkreli defended the price increase in an interview with Bloomberg Monday. “At the end of the day, the price per course of treatment — to save your life — was only $1,000," Shkreli said. Daraprim is still underpriced relative to its peers." He also explained that the company simply needed to make a profit on the drug. Biotech stocks plummeted Monday after Hillary Clinton announced that she would release a plan to combat high prescription-drug costs in response to the Turing incident.

A READER COMMENTS: This drug treats toxoplasmosis, a disease that is found in roughly 25% of the population of the United States. Now if you are young and in good health this is not an issue, you might feel a little minor fever and aches when first affected but your immune system handles it easily. But the parasite lives in you, and when you get older or become very ill and/or have to take medications for cancer, HIV, and organ transplant or something else where your immune system is impacted and weakened, then it can become threatening. Pregnant women also are at risk as is the fetus since it will pass through to the uterus. It is passed through food which is not well-cooked — rare meats, raw vegies and fruits as well as possible fecal contamination from surfaces, door knobs etc. In fact, because of distribution agreements and the cheapness of the drug, there are no generic forms available in the US or Europe. India has a generic but no one knows how effective it is and it has not been tested by the FDA. For the libertarians who have been defending this guy, he is robbing you blind. The ACA does not prevent him from jacking up the price. Your insurance pays for a percentage of the prescription and since the cost has risen so high the insurance premium rates for everyone will rise to cover the additional cost. The same is true for the folks with subsidized plans, so the amount the government pays also will rise.

* * *

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 21, 2015

Cramblett, Lindeboom, Magana, Pacheco
Cramblett, Lindeboom, Magana, Pacheco

SEAN CRAMBLETT, Redwood Valley. Pot cultivation, processing, possession for sale, possession of controlled substance.

SHAWN LINDEBOOOM, Healdsburg/Ukiah. Domestic battery.

RONAL MAGANA, Ukiah. DUI.

BETHANY PACHECO, Fort Bragg. Domestic assault, probation revocation.

Pardo, Piver, Reyes, Vionnet
Pardo, Piver, Reyes, Vionnet

DARIC PARDO, Ukiah. Burglary, vandalism, possession of burglary tools, probation revocation.

MARK PIVER, Ukiah. Community supervision violation.

LENOX REYES JR., Petty theft, county parole violation.

MAURICE VIONNET, Laytonville. Drunk in public, battery of peace officer, possession of controlled substance.

* * *

YesonITHE SAN FRANCISCO TENANTS UNION has endorsed Proposition I, the 18 month pause on market rate development. We would like to let you know about some easy ways to help our campaign.

We have a very difficult fight ahead. The developers, realtors and their City Hall allies will spend millions to distort Proposition I and frighten voters.

Fortunately, we have people power. We are asking for your help to get our message out. We know many of you are busy so we want to make it as easy as possible to help.

Here are some examples of low-commitment ways you can help:

Post a House Sign: Stop by our office (558 Capp Street) to pick up a house sign!

Get friends and Neighbors to Post House signs

Share or Like us on Facebook

Help Register voters

Help organize a house or block party

Come to a Phone Bank gathering

Make a Donation

Come to a Town Hall at Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center, 515 Cortland Street, Tuesday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m.

All help is welcome and encouraged. Please visit our website savethemission.org, click “Volunteer” and/or “Donate” and/or “Events” and let us know how you can help us Save the Mission.

* * *

Rocks (Photo by Annie Kalantarian)
Rocks (photo by Annie Kalantarian)

* * *

TAKE THIS, MARCO!

Editor:

Marco McLean adds to his curses against KZYX management as, "classically [sic] paranoid, tyrannical, greedy, conniving, false-faced…." But don't forget your old "utterly corrupt," Marco. I liked that one.

After a year and a half of indulging complaints from some names known on these pages, the Federal Communications Commission has renewed the broadcast license for KZYX&Z. The FCC declaration is posted in full on the station home page, kzyx.org, and is a pleasant read for those who can enjoy the driest of humor.

Gordon Black

Mendocino

* * *

PROTEST Wed, Sept 23rd at Pelican Bay

From:  Redwood Copwatch <peoplesARC@gmail.com>

Date:  Monday, September 21, 2015 at 1:00 AM

To:  <vervain@lists.riseup.net>

Subject:  Wed, Sept 23rd at Pelican Bay

Please join us on Wednesday, Sept 23rd to protest the sleep deprivation torture that began on the night of August 2nd in Pelican Bay SHU (50 days and nights), perpetrated by the guards. People in SHU cannot escape the constant noise, and they can't sleep. It's torture and it's really hurting them.

We are planning to set up outside of Pelican Bay State Prison on September 23rd (Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement

<https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/the-23rd-of-each-month -statewide-actions-to-end-solitary-confinement/>

in protest of the 30 minute so-called welfare checks, the excuse for the sleep deprivation. Also, of course, we are always demonstrating against CA prisons entombing people in solitary confinement, period.

Want to join us?  We will have a banner and music and information (you can learn, if you don't know much about solitary).  People have been writing letters, sending emails <https://app.box.com/s/neikioeuuora8enihwryahuxtkibootv>, and making phone calls about the sleep deprivation, which seems to be retaliation for two successful lawsuits settled on behalf of prisoners.*

The men inside will learn of our solidarity action which, we hope, will lift their spirits.

Throughout California, there will be Statewide Coordinated Actions To End Solitary Confinement on September 23rd.  And around the nation on that day, people will be doing actions.  Our nationwide effort on the 23rd of every month is called Together to End Solitary

<http://www.nrcat.org/torture-in-us-prisons/together-campaign>!

The 23rd represents the 23 or more hours that people in solitary spend every day in their cell.

Please call (707) 442-7465 or email peoplesarc@gmail.com if you want to join us.  We will leave for Crescent City Wednesday morning and come back in the evening.

Verbena of Peoples' Action for Rights and Community and Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (707) 442-7465

*Coleman vs. Brown, and Ashker vs. Brown. The constant noise and sleep deprivation is a distorted and abusive implementation of the "welfare" checks required by the Coleman settlement.

* * *

PBS/POV DOCUMENTARY, THE OVERNIGHTERS, on Wednesday, October 7th at 6 pm

Ukiah Library is proud to present our fifth documentary film in our monthly series, “First Wednesday PBS/POV Documentaries.” The screening of The Overnighters will begin at 6 pm on October 7th. This is a “Bring Your Own Dinner” event. When thousands of workers flocked to a North Dakota oil boomtown seeking well-paying jobs, they found few opportunities and no place to live. In response, Pastor Jay Reinke converted his church into a makeshift men’s dorm and counseling center, then faced fierce community opposition. (PG-13)

TAMORA PIERCE in a Live Streaming Author Visit on Tuesday, October 13th at 6:30 pm — Well known author Tamora Pierce will make a virtual visit to Ukiah Library at 6:30 pm on Tuesday, October 13. Meet your favorite author of strong girl fiction — and ask your questions.

* * *

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Hermann Hesse, in Steppenwolf, referred to planet Earth as a “labyrinth of chaos.”

Some Eastern thinkers prefer to the moniker: “realm of distortion,” when referring to our troubled planet.

Technical accuracy with words, being able to tell one thing from another, may be too elusive for the human psyche today.

Or as the old Nasrudin tale goes;

“When you die Nasrudin,” asked a friend, “how would you like to be buried?”

“Head downwards. If, as people believe, we are right way up in this world, I want to try being upside-down in the next.”

* * *

YAZZLE NEEDS A ROOM

I know this is months away, but I really need to find a place to stay for the June 2016 Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in Boonville. I cannot drive over the hill any more and also can't camp. I need a non-smoking room with a comfortable bed in someone's home, an inn, motel or even a house or cabin to rent for a single, quiet, non-smoking clean woman, who cannot pay a lot, but very willing to pay something reasonable. The Festival is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, June 17, 18 and 19th, 2016. I can also housesit, feed animals, water gardens, etc. I am fine with that, in case you are out of town. I am very responsible. Please call me with any leads or suggestions at 707-884-4703. Thanks very much.

10 Comments

  1. Judy Valadao September 22, 2015

    No candidates? No politics? No initiative? Hare Creek development, one time? What’s left? Oh, how about the City surrounded by a trail? Does that work? How about the Main St. project? Transfer Station? Maybe everyone could get together and exchange recipes or something? Nice try Rex but obviously the building that “belongs to the people” really doesn’t, does it?

  2. BB Grace September 22, 2015

    RE: “VALLEY FIRE EVACUEES AT LAKE MENDOCINO STILL NEED HELP!”

    “Here is the list of items I despretly need to build the areas to store all these awesome donations. 
Large Event Tents (25×60?)
 Sturdy Shelves (As many as possible)
 Wood (to build shelves)
 Rods (to make clothes racks) 
Screws 
Screw guns
 Pallets 
Boxes (Hoping to get more Mattix boxes for clothes because they work great! They are the ones seen in the photo. No tape required and not too big.)
 Duct tape (For labeling totes)
 Last but not least VOLUNTEERS to build shelves and sort through donations.”

    I’m asking because I don’t know, but I would think that being how serious this tragic disaster is, being Red Cross is there, why aren’t supplies like this being provided by the Red Cross disaster connections/ network/ UN, National Guard?

    I witnessed operations in Tulare County, State Park/BLM fires, crews came including Foster Farms and Sysco with mobile kitchen and retroom/shower trailers, set up dining and staging areas, they constructed what might as well been a military camp but they organized and processed displaced people, animals, medical, very quickly, much of the help was trained. I knew a chef who was commissioned to come in and cook through a Sysco Foods network.

    I know times change, but I would hope that by disasters we learn to provide better and so it’s concerning to read how the need supply list changed as I would think that the establishment of refugee camps would be something we could do well.

    I’m sorry that I am not able to personally volunteer and help. I respect and am grateful to know that there are people, volunteers stepping up and making a difference in a time of need.

    • james marmon September 22, 2015

      Red Cross doesn’t want these types of donations. They want money only so that they can provide their services internationally. Red Cross helps out initially but pulls out after a few weeks, leaving things to the Feds, State, and County to deal with.

      From what I understand, the best they have to offer to the fire victims is some short term motel vouchers.

  3. james marmon September 22, 2015

    RE: Valley Fire.

    The amount of donations coming into the area for the fire victims is just unbelievable. They are coming in from all over, even southern California. Last night I went by the Moose Lodge in Clearlake Oaks and they were unloading a large semi-truck load of donations in the dark. They were using a forklift that had lights, but it still looked pretty tricky as it was on uneven ground.

    These shelters have become distribution centers for fire victims only, and there appears to be plenty to go around.

    Unfortunately, just few short miles away is the poorest town in California and the 5th poorest town in America. Our children go without food, clothing, and adequate shelter on a daily basis. A lot of times the only good meal our children get is at school. Their clothes are dirty and torn, and many of the homes they live in are dangerous.

    I know this as a fact because I live here, and my niece is a code enforcement officer for Clearlake, what a job she has.

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/generalmoney/the-poorest-towns-in-america/ss-BBkTdDO#image=44

    It saddens me to see so much love being offered to the fire victims while my neighbors go without. We have nothing for our poor, there is nothing in Clearlake, no jobs and no future for our children, no dreams or hope.

    I’m happy that the fire victims are being helped, but please don’t ignore the city of Clearlake. The State and Federal government has done so for so many years. It is such a travesty to do so.

    Please open your hearts up for Clearlake too. I don’t see how anyone can feel good about what they are doing and not include Clearlake in their efforts. Sorry if I brought anyone down with my negativity.

    James Marmon, MSW
    (aka, Mr. Negative)

    • james marmon September 22, 2015

      The County of Lake has shit all over Clearlake too.

      • james marmon September 22, 2015

        5. Clearlake, California

        Town median household income: $25,061

        State median household income: $61,094 (8th highest)

        Town poverty rate: 30.2 percent

        Town population: 15,127

        “Clearlake is the poorest town in California, with a poverty rate of 30.2 percent of residents, compared with a state rate of 15.9 percent. The typical Clearlake household earned $182,161 less than the average household in the wealthiest town in the state. While lower income often correlates with lower educational attainment, 80.6 percent of adults in Clearlake had at least a high school diploma, roughly in line with the statewide rate.”

        We do get our kids to school, it is their only way out.

        • james marmon September 22, 2015

          My niece, the Code Enforcement Officer, is really concerned. Because she used to work for Lake County Social Services she knew that when she red tagged a house for unsafe conditions that the County would put the families up in motel rooms, and pay first month’s rent and deposit on another rental. She is worried that even with the help of Social Services that these people will not be able to find affordable housing due to the housing shortage caused by the Valley fire. The motel rooms are full as well.

          This will have a real negative impact on families with children. These families will become homeless and their children will be taken from them. She has no other choice, she can’t leave these children living in these shacks where the physical environment is dangerous and uninhabitable.

  4. james marmon September 22, 2015

    I hope that the rebuilding of Lake County doesn’t get outsourced to out of county contractors. We need to put our own people to work and keep as much money in Lake County as possible. Maybe many of our young men and women can become trained and/or skilled laborers, equipment operators or carpenters.

    If it wasn’t for a social worker 40 some years ago I don’t know what I would have done. I was in trouble with the law and sentenced to his diversion program. One of the first things he wanted to know from me, was what I thought I wanted to do with my future. After I thought about it awhile I told him I wanted to be a carpenter.

    A few weeks later, I was enrolled in a carpenter’s apprentice program and was taught a skill. That skill kept me alive for the next twenty five years or so. I was always able to find work wherever I went. All the way to New York and back, Wyoming, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, it didn’t matter, as long as I had my skills I could find some work anywhere, even if it was only day labor.

    I worked as an carpenter and/or laborer until I was 37 years old and became disabled. I then became a client of the California Department of Rehabilitation and with the help from another social worker I went to night school and got my GED which allowed me to eventually go on an obtain my Master’s degree in social work.

    I tell my stories to give others hope and a general idea of how we can evolve if given the opportunity. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, so let’s “get er done.” Lake County, lets turn this tragedy into a success story.

  5. Bruce McEwen September 22, 2015

    VLADIMIR NABOKOV:”…and I will contend until I am shot that art as soon as it is brought into contact with politics inevitably sinks to the level of any ideological trash.”

  6. Marco McClean September 23, 2015

    Gordon Black wrote: “Marco McLean [sic] adds to his curses against KZYX management as, “classically [sic] paranoid, tyrannical, greedy, conniving, false-faced….” But don’t forget your old “utterly corrupt,” Marco. I liked that one. After a year and a half of indulging complaints from some names known on these pages, the Federal Communications Commission has renewed the broadcast license for KZYX&Z.”

    Okay, Gordon, I never complained to the FCC. And the people who complained never did so to harm the station, nor could they have harmed it; the FCC /never/ removes a station’s license once granted, so your crowing that it spent two years thinking about it and then didn’t do it isn’t any kind of endorsement of quality, either of the FCC’s deliberations or of KZYX. Stuart Campbell bitches that it cost MCPB thousands of dollars to defend the station– well, Stuart Campbell sucks $5000 every month out of the station for himself, to do an hour of paperwork per week. It’s the exact same job that Bob Young does for zero dollars at KNYO.

    And for all the yay-team blattery that you have ever blatted in favor of the club of sleazeballs that runs KZYX entirely for their own benefit, you have never answered a single one of my points, such as that KZYX management pissed away four million tax-derived dollars on itself over the last 26 years, and further pissed away many times that in membership dues and contributions, to squat like a toad on three county-spanning educational-band frequencies and eject good people and throttle dissent, and in all that time you and most of the other airpeople, who are allowed to keep your shows only because you’re entirely mediocre and harmless to management, not to mention cheerleading territorial lapdogs, have never been paid a cent. The bosses are paid. You show up to work, you work, and /you/ should be paid.

    I don’t have time to go over again for you all the points I have ever raised in the AVA and the UDJ and the kzyxtalk listserv, Gordon, because I’m working on my Friday night KNYO show. I put about twenty concentrated hours every week into getting the show ready. If you, or Tim Gregory, or any of a couple dozen of the genially-stoned-sounding button-pushers and hourly station identifiers there have ever put even five minutes into preparing your shows I would be very surprised.

    Even so, I still want the email addresses of the airpeople at KZYX –as a member I’m part owner of the station, after all– in order to lay out a case to all of you for all of you to be paid. Again: there are many historical words for a system where the bosses are paid and wield all the power and the people actually doing the work are never paid and have no power at all, not even creative control over their own work.

    And I still contend that it’s a mark of Mary Aigner’s well-remunerated incompetence that my high-quality, interesting, informative and entertaining show wasn’t on the schedule at KZYX within six months of my offering it –in February of 2012– and still isn’t, and will never be as long as she’s in power. I understand several airpeople spoke up for me to no avail. Eduardo Smissen among them.

    I was talking with one of my real-world employers about this awhile ago. I said, “If I just let it go, then they win.” He said, “Marco, they won a long time ago.” That’s true; I see that. But it’s not right, and I feel like writing, and I write.

    Speaking of which, until I get access to the airpeople’s email list, will you click the three clicks necessary to cut and paste this letter into an email from you to the exclusive KZYX programmers’ listserv for me? I’d be obliged. Include my signature lines:

    Marco McClean
    memo@mcn.org
    http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

-