Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Sep 26, 2015

• Total Eclipse
• Valley Fire
• Doctor Guilt
• Yesterday's Catch
• Boehner Resigns
• Pope Speaks
• Free Weed
• Pasta Fazool
• Economic Reality
• MPA Meeting
• Game Over
• Civic Duty
• Barsamian Visit
• Library Events
• Water Maneuvers
• Weed Party
• Bearing Gifts
• Wood Carving
• Israel 2040
• Schwedt
• Voter Reg
• Fixing KZYX

THE FULL MOON RISES tonight tomorrow (Sunday) evening about 7 in near total eclipse and will be all the way dark ten or so minutes later and remain dark for a full 12 minutes.

VALLEY FIRE NEARS TOTAL CONTAINMENT, now at 92% around the 76,000+ acres. Nearly 2,000 structures destroyed as assessments continue. CalFire (Friday evening): “Firefighters continue to improve existing lines and mopping up hot spots across the fire area. Damage Inspection Teams have completed primary and secondary assessments of the structures destroyed by the Valley Fire. A total of 1958 structures have been destroyed including; 1280 homes, 27 multi-family structures, 66 commercial properties, and 585 other minor structures such as outbuildings and sheds. 93 structures have been damaged including; 41 homes, 7 commercial properties, and 45 other minor structures. All traffic restrictions denying access into the community of Cobb and the surrounding areas will be lifted tomorrow, Saturday, September 26, at 5pm. Some utility services have not been restored. For information regarding utility services, please contact (888) 565-2787.”

RESTORING POWER AFTER NEAR TOTAL DESTRUCTION IN LAKE COUNTY FIRE AREAS will take a lot of time, money and work.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4526111-181/in-valley-fires-wake-sprawling

AS FIREFIGHTING COSTS EXPLODE, FIRE PREVENTION LOSES OUT

Fire suppression is cannibalizing the Forest Service budget, leaving fewer resources for research, restoration and range-land management.

http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/As-Firefighting-Costs-Explode-Fire-Prevention-Loses-Out.html

FRIDAY was National Day of Remembrance for Murder Victims. On the morning of November 11, 2010, Susan Keegan, age 55, was found dead in the bathroom of her Ukiah home. Mother of two grown sons and married for 30 years, Mrs. Keegan had been bludgeoned to death, beaten over the head with a blunt object.

THE INITIAL POLICE investigation was botched, so badly botched that when present DA David Eyster took office and reopened the terrible end of Mrs. Keegan, Eyster's investigation resulted in the cause of Mrs. Keegan's death being changed from "accidental" to "homicide."

FIVE YEARS LATER, no indictment of the killer, aka Dr. Keegan, Susan Keegan's husband of 30 years.

WHY HIM? The doctor says his wife arrived at home on the last day of her life about 10pm, where she proceeded to drink and drug herself into a staggering stupor, finally falling in her bathroom, fatally striking the top of her head.

THE PROBLEM with this scenario, as Mrs. Keegan's many loyal friends point out, is that she was not a drop-fall drinker but a busy person who got up every morning and did things, and was going to go out and do things the morning she turned up dead. The drop-fall drinking community does not keep to schedules. The second problem with Doctor's Keegan's version of events is that his wife was struck more than once on the top of her head.

MRS. KEEGAN had spent a pleasant day in Santa Rosa with a good friend looking for a new place. She was moving on. The doctor was also moving on, but he was murderously unhappy that his wife was entitled to half the family's assets.

IF JOE THE TWEEKER'S wife was found dead in a similar set of circumstances, Joe would have been buried in state prison five years ago.

SO, WHY NO ARREST in the Keegan case? That's the mystery. How can you have a declared homicide with one person dead in the house while the alive person in the house says, against the evidence, that the dead person's demise was an accident?

THE DOCTOR hustled out within a week of his wife's murder and retained ace criminal defense attorney, Keith Faulder, a peculiar move for an innocent man, but one of many post-mortem moves The Doctor made that point straight at his guilt.

THIS IS ALL WORSE than a mere shame, it's serious dereliction of his responsibility to prosecute criminal homicide on the part of DA Eyster. Doctor Keegan should have been tried for his wife's murder five years ago.

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 25, 2015

JOSEPH ALLEN, Ukiah. Possession of and under influence of controlled substance, probation revocation.

JENIFER BORGES, Ukiah. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

CONNIE DAVIS, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale.

RODOLFO GONZALES-ALVAREZ, Ukiah. DUI, resisting.

JASON TUCKER, Fort Bragg. Petty theft-retail, probation revocation.

MERRILL WALRATH, Ukiah. Petty theft, contempt of court.

JOHN BOEHNER, Republican, Speaker of the House, has resigned. Always enjoyed Boehner's boozy press conferences where he appeared half-loaded, slurring his words as he strung out the cliches that constitute the cockamamie government policy as that policy is presented, then gulped whole, by major media stenographers. Boehner was more the old school country club Republican, a Rotary-type guy, corrupt to the bone but not a fanatic of the type now dominant in the Grand Old Party.

THE PUNDITS are saying Boehner was driven out by the now dominant nut wing of the Republicans. How can an ultra-normal like Boehner even deal with people who metaphorically bomb Planned Parenthood offices, let alone knock down a few drinks with them?

BOEHNER himself says he was so overcome by the Pope's address, he took a look at himself in the Grand Whiz Bang of things, and retired.

LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I don't get the Republicans who want to defund Planned Parenthood. I don't get their beef. Isn't abortion a spiritual-religious issue, the private business of the female citizen? I think reasonable people understand the arguments against abortion, that life is a miracle and therefore sacred and that killing it is, well, whatever it is to the lady involved. So how does life as a sacred miracle become the government's business, especially a government represented by male, professional officeholders? (Excuse the hazy theology here, but the nutballs, whose Manichean brains work exactly like the Taliban's, have never quite adjusted to women being independent of their control. I think that's always been the real abortion issue.)

THE DUNG OF THE DEVIL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTzd2AVWsl8

THE FULL ADDRESS TO CONGRESS:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?328063-1/pope-francis-address-joint-meeting-congress

(Pope Francis begins at about 19 minutes in…)

THERE WAS AN INTERESTING MOMENT when the Pope made a reference to preservation of life at every stage (at around 46 minutes or so), which the Repubs assumed was a reference to abortion and applauded loudly, but then the Pope deftly veered left on them and said the death penalty should be abolished, and the applause soon dissipated.

FRED GARDNER OF O'SHAUGHNESSY'S WRITES:

A Santa Rosa company called Care By Design has offered to provide $200 worth of CBD-rich cannabis free to qualified fire victims. Their sister company, Absolute Extracts, is doing the same with THC products. And an allied garden supply company, Left Coast Wholesale, is offering $300 worth of free gear to cultivators who were wiped out but intend to resume.

This is not a publicity stunt. I was at their HQ yesterday fact-checking a story for the new O'Shaughnessy's (Care by Design is the largest supplier of CBD in California) and heard staffers discussing the logistics of the giveaway.

Participating dispensaries as of yesterday were : Lakeside Herbal Solutions (Clearlake), California Member Services (delivery service), Peace in Medicine (Santa Rosa, Sebastopol), and SPARC (San Francisco). Fire victims should contact them for details. The only requirement is proof of residence at a burned-out site.

Cannacraft, the parent company of the three that are donating their products, has set aside $20,000 for "Project Releaf." Aren't they concerned that people who did not suffer a loss will try to take advantage of their generosity? A CannaCraft spokesperson was not so cynical: "We take people at their word about getting medical benefit from cannabis," she said, "and we'll take them at their word that the fire did them in."

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE IDYLLIC 50s

by Jeff Costello

I read with interest the online comment on growing up with the simple pleasures of small town Ohio in the 50s and 60s. Real eggs, a milkman and all the rest. There is something to be said for this, although I'm not sure I'd have been content to lick the milkman's castoff ice chunks all day in summer. It was already too late for me.

In 1954 progress was raging in the outlying areas of Hartford, Connecticut and though there was still a milkman, we didn't know his name, and the only farmer anyone knew about was the old guy with the dilapidated house and barn adjacent to our subdivision lot, and his field long grown over with weeds. The old man, once a week or so, would walk with his black leather shopping bag (his own bag - there's an idea that took fifty years to catch on) down the new street with the ticky-tacky little boxes, to the grocery store precisely one-third of a mile down the hill on Rt. 4. Streets in our development had phony names intended to sound classy or sophisticated. My parents' house was on Wyndwood Rd. A groaner even for a third grade kid. And this kind of thing grew into an awareness that conformity requires a certain amount of pretense.

The sameness of the "housing development" with its two types of dwellings - ranch and Cape Cod - and this could be a chicken-or-egg question - created or encouraged, or amplified, the deadly conformity that was a main theme of the 50's, the nice, ask-no-questions white America that the Trumptoids and double-digit IQ tea party and neo-nazi types want to "bring back." But then Elvis Presley appeared on TV and radio and began blowing it all to hell except Trump's sense of tonsorial beauty.

The old farmer, to us ticky-tacky kids, was weird, scary, crazy. In his matching dirty denim overalls and coat, his fashion sense was definitely not influenced by Robert Hall clothing ads on TV. He was a relic of an era we knew nothing about. We would sneak up there and look around in his barn at what I later learned were artifacts of real life in a time not so long gone by. "Property rights" being what they are in the USA, it occurred to me that the old man had to have gained permission to cross someone's yard to reach the street, and I wondered whose.

My parents were New Yorkers and the closest we ever got to a real farm was the occasional roadside stand "out in the country." My father called a woman who ran one of these "Pasta Fazool." She was Italian and my father being enough of a cook to discuss recipes with her, she encouraged him to make pasta e fagioli (literally spaghetti with beans) with her tomatoes. We never ate this at home, but many years later I remembered the woman called "Pasta Fazool" and made some, and it was good.

There were those of my generation just itching to escape the home town, get out there and experience whatever there was. Some because small town life was boring, oppressive even if it was pleasant. For me it was anarchy, pure and simple. My behavior and attitude were such that one day in high school, the principal's son cornered me in the hall and warned that I "better watch out," because he'd just read a book called The Catcher in the Rye and I was like the character Holden Caulfield. Headed for trouble.

HOMELESS CRISIS

Editor,

Blue-collar workers across the nation are being forced to make a choice between working and not making enough to pay for basic sustenance, and not working, thereby reducing their income in order to qualify for public benefits, where they very well might wind up financially better off than by continuing to work.

This explosive upward spiral of food, transport and housing costs versus blue-collar (and lower white-collar) income is destroying the continued viability of the USA as a First World nation. The people riding those Google and Apple buses believe their skills and work ethic are the reasons they're able to make their monthly condo or house payments with enough cash left over to buy this week's cool phone, electric cars, college funds for the toddlers and maybe a pair of San Francisco 49ers tickets twice a year. They could not be more mistaken. When this current tech boom implodes, those "valued" employees will learn their true value in this new America we reside in. They'll learn very quickly that they were lucky, not indispensable, and not at all valued.

I grew up in the 1970s, and at that time, a guy who worked the counter at the auto parts store, or as a grocery store checker… they could all get by. The percentage of their wages that went to housing, transportation and food was minuscule compared to what that percentage is today, and not just in the Bay Area, but across the nation.

Paul Domeier, San Jose

SWELLS COLLABORATE TO TALK (AND EAT?) FISH

Hello Mendocino MPA Collaborative members,

The goal of the MPA Collaborative Network is to engage experts in local MPA stewardship and management. We provide the information, structure, support, and inter-agency communication necessary to facilitate the creation of marine protected area collaborative groups that are uniquely suited to local needs. 

As part of the State of California’s Ocean Protection Council, we provide a forum for nonprofits, fishermen, tribal representatives, county governments, municipalities, academic institutions, scientists, teachers, and aquaria to work together to enhance understanding and

Collaborative Network staff work to make it easier for local experts to partner with the state, strengthening connections and facilitating the flow of information between these local MPA professionals and managing agencies, and working closely with California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife, State Parks, and Ocean Science Trust. 

Collaboratives are a key part of the Ocean Protection Council’s guiding principles for governing California’s MPA network, allowing the state to engage in meaningful partnerships at the local level, leverage resources, and ensure transparency.

Please mark your calendars for November 17th for the first North Coast Collaborative Forum at the RiverLodge in Fortuna. The forum will include representatives from state agencies and members of the Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte MPA Collaboratives. The meeting will be a full day with lunch provided, followed by a no-host happy hour at Eel River Brewery.

For those of you traveling from out of town, we can cover hotel rooms and some mileage costs. Anyone that needs a hotel room contact me with the date they need the room (1 or 2 nights) by the end of the month, if possible. I have a block of rooms reserved at the Best Western Country Inn in Fortuna.

Finally, we are working on a pre-forum survey to get your input on what you would like covered in the agenda, but in the meantime, please feel free to send me your thoughts and ideas. We want this forum to be productive and tailored to all of you doing the great MPA management work on the ground!

Thank you,

Calla Allison

Director, MPA Collaborative Network

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The point is, the Fed knows what’s going on but just looks the other way. They know their easy money isn’t building a strong, sustainable recovery. They know it’s being used to beef up leverage on risky bets so dodgy speculators can make a killing. They know it all, but they don’t give a rip. They just want to keep the game going a little bit longer, that’s all that matters to them. Heck, maybe Yellen has convinced herself that she can pull a rabbit out of her hat at the last minute and save us all from disaster? It’s possible, but I doubt it. I think she knows we’re goners. The economy is soft, the markets are zig-zagging wildly, and the whole bloody contraption looks like its ready to blow. She must know that the game is just about over. (Mike Whitney)

MASS MEDIA: RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR COUNTRY

by Ralph Nader

The mass media, with usual exceptions, have allowed themselves to be pulled down to the level of the political circus. If the Republican Party’s early primary campaigns for the presidential nomination had an elephant and a clown car, Ringling Brothers would be in trouble. It is hard for the Republican presidential candidates to resist temptation, defined by hyping an entertainment circus led by the chief circus barker – Donald Trump of gambling casino fame.

Sixteen candidates, after inexplicably excluding Mark Everson, the former IRS commissioner under George W. Bush and the first to announce, are hurling epithets, war-mongering bravados, and assorted boasts against one another. After their so-called debates, the media emphasize the insults of Trump and others against one-another. Reading the coverage and watching the TV clips, once comes away with the impression that snarls, quips, ripostes, and gaffes, now pass for news.

How rancid! How demeaning to our country and its people! It is bad enough that voters have been reduced to spectators watching a reality show with the candidates, bidding to become the most powerful person on Earth, with a finger on the button. It is bad enough that the ever-hovering Super PACs and their indentured candidates, save occasionally Rand Paul and John Kasich, don’t seem to want to be serious, knowledgeable, or at all compassionate toward the powerless and deprived.

This potpourri of poseurs made it possible for Carly Fiorina to rise to the “top tier” on the basis of a few statements that exude the feigned confidence of the failed corporate CEO she once was. The “roman candle” moment that had the political pundits call her the debate winner last week was her response to Donald Trump questioning “that face” becoming president. She calmly responded: “Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” just before he exercised his usual recovery ploy and exclaimed “she’s got a beautiful face and she’s a beautiful woman.” Will Rogers or Jon Stewart would have had a field day with that exchange.

Culpable as these candidates are, with varying degrees, in debasing the most fundamental electoral expressions of the people – the delegation of their sovereignty and power to elected representatives – the media accentuated the dismal trivia with questions that matched the vacuousness of the format.

The only business protected from government by our Constitution is the media — their right of free speech based in the First Amendment. Just look how the media are handling this public trust! As Jamie Larson, a reporter for the website Rural Intelligence, said: “The media ask questions about what candidates are saying but are not asking the questions they independently should be asking.”

Such as, I would suggest: “What is your record and position on corporate crime enforcement and what would you change so as to punish and prevent corporate criminality?” Or “People everywhere feel powerless toward government and business; half do not even vote. How would you specifically shift power from the few to the many so that the citizens can have more real choices of candidates and better control the abuses of electoral politics, government, and big business?” And “Have you ever supported specific empowerment strategies for the people?” Or “How would you increase voter turnout – say by having a voting holiday, more days for absentee voting, enacting a none-of-the-above option for voters, reducing or eliminating burdensome and meaningless voter registration rules?”

When voters decide they will no longer be mistreated and summon candidates to their own citizen-powered debates, the dynamics behind the campaigns will shift toward the citizenry.

It would not take more than 500,000 people connecting with each other to make all this happen. There are about 150 million registered voters. The media can indirectly create the climate for this civic engagement and shape of the presidential campaign as befits a deliberative, democratic society that is serious about its future and its children.

First, however, the press, TV, and radio have to reduce their endless appetite for focusing on political gossip, tactics, and who has raised more money.

And, the media have to have a higher estimate of their own significance. What say you, publishers, editors, and reporters? It’s your country too!

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!

DAVID BARSAMIAN will be Special Guest at the Grassroots Democracy/Celebrate the Commons class at Mendocino College, Fort Bragg Campus on November 12, 2015, at 6:00 p.m.

ANIME & MANGA CLUB

Fuse Bead Anime & Crunchyroll Manga

Last Wednesdays of the Month Starting October 28^th, 2-5 pm

Teens are invited to join our new anime & manga club. Activities will include making anime & manga characters from fuse beads, watching Crunchyroll, drawing characters, cosplay, & talking about manga! Snacks & materials will be provided. This event is recommended for teens aged 14 and up.

For more information – please contact Melissa at the Ukiah Library: 467-6434 or carrm@co.mendocino.ca.us

Sponsored by the Ukiah Valley Friends of the Library. 105 N. Main St. Ukiah

* * *

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH

During the month of November, the Mendocino County Library, Fort Bragg Branch is hosting National Novel Writing Month.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a nonprofit event that encourages kids and adults to tackle the challenge of writing a novel in November. Launched in 1999, NaNoWriMo inspires its 300,000+ participants with pep talks, a huge and supportive online community, and a host of web-based writing tools.

The Young Writers Program (YWP) offers an educator-friendly version of NaNoWriMo for kids and teens. In 2014, more than 100,000 students and educators participated. You can learn more about the YWP below.

The Fort Bragg Branch Library will be hosting events for both programs throughout the month of November. If you are interested in the program or want to find out more about NaNoWriMo, please contact Elizabeth at the Fort Bragg branch library.

MWD CONSIDERS PURCHASING DELTA ISLANDS IN TUNNELS' PATH

by Dan Bacher

In the classic movie "Chinatown," Noah Cross, the villain and the head of the water district who is played by the late John Huston, says, "Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water."

In a scenario eerily reminiscent of "Chinatown" - or when the LA Department of Power and Water bought up land in the Owens Valley in order to seize Owens River water - the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California is considering purchasing land in the imperiled Delta to "bring L.A. to the water."

In a statement, Restore the Delta (RTD) revealed that MWD's executive committee scheduled behind closed doors what appeared to be the purchase of parcels for the proposed massive Delta Tunnels project in its meeting on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 8:30 AM. Since it was a closed door meeting, nothing about the status of the purchase has been reported to the media or the public to date.

The agenda for the MWD Real Asset and Property Management Committee contained the list of these parcels within its public notice. “Delta Wetlands Properties; under negotiation: price and terms of payments; to be heard in closed session...” The item was 5b. on the agenda: http://www.mwdh2o.com/PDFWWACurrentBoardAgendas/09222015%20%20RPAM%20Agenda.pdf

The parcels consist of four islands - Webb Tract, Bouldin Island, Holland Tract and Bacon Island - that are now in agricultural production. The total acreage of the parcels is 20,000 acres. They are controlled by Zurich American Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of a swiss insurance company.

Restore the Delta pointed out that a number of these same parcels are listed in Delta Design Construction Enterprise [DCE] eminent domain documents that were obtained through a recent Public Records Act request. They are in the direct path for the construction of the Delta tunnels, as documented in the maps below.

To view the maps, go to:

http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tunnel_overlay9-18-15_S-1.pdf

http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tunnel_overlay_APNs9-18-15_bouldin.pdf

http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tunnel_overlay_APNs9-18-15_bacon.pdf

http://restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tunnel_overlay_APNs9-18-15_webb-1.pdf

The Westlands Water District, known for irrigating hundreds of thousands of acres of toxic, drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, initially indicated interest in being a party to this purchase of Delta land with MWD, a September 15, 2015 meeting agenda revealed.

(http://wwd.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/agendawp.pdf )

This meeting came the same day that the Obama administration and Westlands celebrated a sweetheart toxic soil drainage settlement. The agreement would increase the federal deficit by $340 million through forgiving Westland’s interest-free repayment obligations to the taxpayers for construction of the federal Central Valley Project. It would also effectively convert Westland’s current two-year water contract to a permanent contract for 890,000 acre-feet of water annually.

(http://yubanet.com/california/Groups-Slam-Sweetheart-Settlement-for-Westlands-Water-District.php# )

However, Westlands is apparently not going to make an offer to buy the islands. "Westlands hasn't made any offer to acquire the properties 'and it does not anticipate that the district will make such an offer," said Johnny Amaral, the district's genera manager of external affairs, in an email to the Sacramento Bee.

(http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article36068055.html )

Bob Muir, press spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District, didn't return my call asking for his comment on the apparent purchase. Muir also declined comment to the Sacramento Bee reporters on Monday.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, questioned why it was necessary for MWD to conduct its purchase of Delta land behind closed doors.

“In secret, it appears MWD is getting into the land management business acquiring properties for a project that is neither approved, nor, as proposed, complies with federal and state water quality and environmental protection laws. Why is it necessary for MWD General Manager Jeff Kightlinger to conduct such a transaction behind closed doors?” she asked.

These parcels are currently owned by the "Delta Wetlands Project," a public-private partnership for which the Semitropic Groundwater Storage District is the lead agency. Created several years ago, the Delta Wetlands Project included the conversion of two Delta islands, now in the path of the tunnels, for habitat and storage for water that could be sold to San Joaquin Valley growers, according to Barrigan- Parrilla.

According to the Delta Wetlands project description, the project was created to meet the criteria of the "co-equal goals of restoring Delta habitat and creating a reliable water supply as required under the Delta Reform Act of 2009." The project will transform Webb Tract and Bacon Island into two "reservoir islands" and Bouldlin Island and Holland Tract into two "habitat islands."

(http://www.deltawetlands.com/index.html )

Barrigan-Parrilla added, “Farmers, communities, and fishing groups that live in the Bay-Delta Estuary region feel like the potential takeover of land and water rights by the Metropolitan Water District of California is akin to what happened to landowners in the Owens Valley who secretly found their communities and water taken secretly by Los Angeles interests.”

She said the Delta Wetlands Project was originally created by "outside interests," and working relationships for water storage exist between Semitropic Groundwater Storage Agency and Metropolitan Water District. The working relationship between MWD and Semitropic is confirmed by a quick review of Semitropic’s website.

The Semitropic Water Storage District is described as “one of eight water storage districts in California and is the largest in Kern County. The District delivers water to nearly 300 customers for the irrigation of approximately 140,000 acres for agricultural uses. Semitropic also supplies energy to a variety of users and provides groundwater banking and storage services."

In the early 90s, Semitropic began its groundwater storage program. Semitropic currently banks 700,000 acre-feet of water in a groundwater storage bank with a capacity of 1.65 million acre-feet. The banking program contributes to “meeting the drought-year needs of more than 20 million people at 15 to 20 gallons per day" - and serves the Metropolitan Water District, along with the Santa Clara County and Alameda County Water Districts and other urban water agencies.

The allocations are 350,000 AF for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; 350,000 AF for the Santa Clara Valley Water District; 150,000 AF for the Alameda County Water District; 55,000 AF for Newhall Land and Farming Company; 30,000 AF for the San Diego County Water Authority; and 65,000 AF for the Zone 7 Water Agency.

As MWD considers purchasing four Delta islands, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) recently announced they have applied for the permits needed to construct the massive Delta Water Tunnels - even before the public comment period is finished on October 30. “They are ready to begin staging, planning and construction of this proposed project - even though the project has yet to be permitted by State and Federal Agencies," said Barrigan-Parrilla

Every scientific panel that has reviewed the project, ranging from the National Academy of Sciences to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, has criticized the so-called "science" behind the Delta Tunnels proposal. This month the Independent Science Panel for the Delta Stewardship Council determined that the project should be withdrawn because it lacked sufficient information to meet federal and state laws.

http://deltacouncil.ca.gov/docs/delta-isb-s-review-rdeirsdeis-bdcpcalifornia-waterfix

The tunnels would undoubtedly hasten the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and a host of other fish species, as well as imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

The final round of public comments on the California Water Fix, formerly called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) ends on October 30. If you want to stop the tunnels from allowing the words of Noah Cross to become a reality, you need to act now. Go to the Restore the Delta website to submit a public comment, sign their petition to send an automatic letter or create your own using their letter template:

http://restorethedelta.org/take-action-oppose-the-delta-tunnels/

CALPELLA? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?!

Free event coming up. October 2nd @ 6pm in Calpella. AG101 is hosting a Smok'n Gardener appreciation party! Everyone is invited and there is no charge! We will have free food and entertainment all night. Come dance, eat, and have a great time. Plus we will be giving out AG420 samples. Featuring the legenday Prezident Brown performing @ 10pm. Event starts @ 6pm with local Reggae Grooves, Now Time Sound with DJ's Seelo, Kapo and Joe-L. Rising Signs (Formerly Rootstock) performing @ 8pm. Master Maluco and Friends will amaze you with eye pop'n world class, high flyin Capoeira grooves. Performing @ 9pm Catered by Master Chef Luca Rubino. Oct 2nd in Calpella @ 6301 North State Street.

CHIEF HUFF PUFF COMES BEARING GIFTS

Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) today announced that the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded more than $5.2 million in grants to five tribes in Huffman’s 2nd Congressional District. The Hopland Band of Pomo Indians, Yurok Tribe, Hoopa Valley Tribe, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and the Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians received the grants under the Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS) grant program, which helps tribes enhance law enforcement, bolster justice systems, prevent youth substance abuse, address violence against women, serve crime victims, and support other efforts to combat crime.

The grant awardees include:

• $1,785,000 for Hopland Band of Pomo Indians
• $1,405,666 for Yurok Tribe
• $1,234,399 for Hoopa Valley Tribe
• $668,816 for Round Valley Indian Tribes
• $150,906 for Coyote Valley Band of Pomo Indians

“I am proud to represent all of these North Coast tribes and to work closely with them on their law enforcement and safety needs. This federal assistance will go far in helping tribes throughout my district hire police officers, assist victims, and keep tribal lands safe,” Huffman said.

(Huffman Office press release)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Whittling – isn’t that sitting in a front porch rocking chair with a knife and small piece of wood held in the non-whittling hand?

Not what I do. I usually work large pieces of lumber and they are secured to a bench for carving. A lot of carvers are in love with routers to remove background material. But with a large gouge (carving chisel) and a mallet I can remove far more material far faster and far more accurately. Indeed, “oh shit” is a very common refrain from those who use routers and end up plunging on the wrong side of a given line. But the biggest advantage/ benefit of hand carving is two-fold: No obnoxious machine router noise and no machine made saw dust to clog the sinuses and invade the lungs. Just a lot of innocuous wood chips that also make for some good landscaping decoration.

The trick is not to ‘go with the grain’ or avoid going against the grain but simply going across the grain. In that way, grain is marginalized altogether during the stage of developing form. Because nothing rebels as furiously as wood carved with dull tools or poor technique (stone carving is far less technically demanding than wood). Grappling with grain early in the process reveals the anxious carver too eager to arrive at a finish. But one has to look deeper that surface texture and coax the underlying form to reveal itself. In that regard, the true glyptic artist does not blast full steam ahead with predetermined set-in-stone plan, but instead ‘listens with eyes’ for the material itself to suggest spontaneous alternatives that only the process itself is capable of revealing.

Later on, after form has been developed, and one arrives at the finish stage, then going with the grain makes sense and one can punctuate the developed form with beautiful glistening facets that only a sharp chisel wielded by hand can produce—no sandpaper!

IN 25 YEARS THERE WILL BE NO STATE OF ISRAEL

Dear Editor:

Recently Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 25 years there will be no State of Israel. I do not know what he had in mind when he made the statement but I agree that there will also not be a State of Israel twenty five years from now. My reason is because of demographics. I should mention Israel does a very comprehensive census every year. There has been a decline in Jews due to the higher birthrate of Arabs. Since the six year war their has been a significant drop in Jews as a percentage of the population. The most current figures I have seen shows Jews at 75%, Arabs at 20% and 5% which were Christians, Druzes and other non-Jewish groups. In addition, when you include the occupied lands Arabs now outnumber Jews. Further immigration by of large numbers of Jews is doubtful and there is emigration because of economic conditions. It is doubtful Israel can maintain their apartheid policy under these conditions. There will a greater Palestine State controlled by the Arabs. I should say my comments should be tempered by the effects of climate change. Who knows in 25 years what changes have occurred in the area due to warming of the earth? There may be a long drought and very high temperatures which results in a significant depopulation of the area.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

YASMIN SOLOMON WRITES: We will be Registering Voters at the South Coast Youth Soccer Club Games tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 26th, from 9:30am - 12:30am, at the Point Arena High School Soccer Field, behind the High School.

We will also be at The Pay N' Take at the Gualala Comunity Center on Saturday, October 3rd from 8:30am until at least noon. We have Voter Registration forms in English and Spanish for Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.

We are having our Team Bernie Mendonoma meeting next Wednesday, September 30th at 3pm. All are very welcome. Location: Max Bollock's house, 46301 Bill Owens Road, Pt. Arena, 95468. Call for directions: 882-2023 or 884-4703. Please bring your calendars to plan the next meeting.

GO BERNIE!!!!!!!! DON'T MOURN--ORGANIZE!

HOW TO

Twelve Proposals for Good Governance

"KZYX&KZYZ is a non-commercial community radio station of Mendocino County. Its programming and operational philosophy is controlled by its membership, which is open to all." - from The Mission Statement

[The following was sent to MCPB/KZYX Board of Directors]

. . . are below. They are specific changes to the written Policies and Procedures for the Board and for Elections. Briefly, they are:

1. Allow members who join in January and February to vote in the election that year.
2. Announce Simple Living and Volunteer memberships.
3. Facilitate communication between candidates and the media/public.
4. Provide written notice of the annual membership meeting.
5. Prohibit use of the organization's resources by board and staff for campaigning.
6. Establish written procedures for replacing ballots.
7. Create member email list for periodic notices, schedules, outreach.
8. Establish/announce an interactive internet discussion service.
9. Create a Programmers Page for information about programmers.
10. Improve outreach for committee membership (standing and advisory).
11. Provide all requested non-confidential information.
12. Fully implement the Programming Policy, including the Program Advisory Committee.

Here are the details, with specific language for each Policy section:

Proposed Changes to KZYX&Z Policies and Procedures for Board Elections

1. Extend the deadline for becoming a member eligible to vote from December 31 to February 28, the date the Election Monitor certifies the eligible voter list. (Note: although February 28 is the certification date given on the chart, the wording in the Policy itself says February 20.)

Amend Section IV, Paragraph 6, to begin "February 28 is the deadline to become a member eligible to vote in that year's election. On February 28, the MCPB Election Monitor certifies…"

2. Publicly announce the availability of simple living and volunteer memberships during the election period, e.g., the winter membership pledge drive and the January mailing to the members.

Amend Section IV, Paragraph 2, by inserting "Membership requirements, including simple living rate and volunteer option" in the first section and "included in membership mailings" in second section.

3. Ask candidates for their email addresses and permission to disclose to any media or other person/group seeking to contact them.

Amend Section IV, Paragraph 3, by adding "Requests from each candidate their email address or other contact information along with permission to disclose to any media or other person/group seeking to contact them." Amend Candidate Application to request the information/consent.

4. Either establish an interactive internet discussion service on the kzyx.org website, or announce the availability of member-established services, e.g., KZYXTalk.

Amend Section IV, Paragraph 2, by adding "Availability of interactive internet discussion services established by either the organization or its members" to the first section.

5. Notify the membership in writing of the annual membership meeting, the final step in the process, when they are sent their ballots.

Amend Section IV, Paragraph 7, by adding "along with an announcement of the annual membership meeting" at the end of the first sentence.

6. Prohibit the use of organizational resources, including internal email lists, for campaigning for or against any candidate for the board of directors.

Amend Section IV by adding: "14. Use of the organization's resources, including internal email lists, to campaign for or against any candidate is prohibited. Exceptions: 1) the candidates' official statements; 2) an interactive internet discussion service that can be accessed the public.

7. Establish written procedures for controlling ballots and providing replacement ballots to those members who did not receive one.

(The Election Timeline (Section III) will be updated to reflect the above changes.)

Proposed Changes to MCPB Board of Directors Policies and Procedures Manual

1. Improve outreach to members for standing committees and advisory committees. Appointments to the Community Advisory Board must guarantee its diversity and independence, as required by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Program Advisory Committee established in 2008 will be fully implemented.

Amend Section 5.9, Division of Authority, by striking: "Encouragement should be given to station volunteers to participate in committee work. It shall be staff responsibility to communicate committee position openings to volunteers."

and adding: "Any current member who is not in the immediate family of a current director is eligible to serve on any Standing Committee and/or Advisory Committee. Each year there shall be an announcement - on air, on the website, and in the notice of election - of the current standing and advisory committees and the process for applying to serve on them."

(See KZYX&Z Programming Policy for details of choosing members of the PAC)

2. Provide requested information. Although public comment is permitted at the board meetings, requests for information are not always honored, even if the information is not protected by any confidentiality laws. A public radio station, supported by public funding, must share all non-confidential information with the public. A written policy requiring an informative response is necessary to give direction to future boards and staff.

Amend Section 9.1, Board Meetings, by adding: "The Board and Staff will respond to questions from the public, within reasonable time limits. All requested information will be provided unless its confidentiality is protected by law."

3. Improve station communication with members by establishing and maintaining an email list (non-interactive) that would allow station management to communicate directly with the members for limited purposes (e.g., the program guide required by Section 13.2, the notice of election, possible quarterly newsletter, outreach).

Amend Section 13, Public Relations, by adding "13.3: A membership email list shall be maintained and used for periodic announcements, including the notice of election and the program guide. The list will include all email addresses submitted by members; each message will include a method for opting out."

4. Improve programmer communications with the members and the public by creating a Programmers Page on the website. Each programmer would be allowed to post a paragraph about their work and interests and how people can contact them. A link to the page would be included on the main page along with the other drop-down menus.

Amend Section 13, Public Relations, by adding "13.4: A Programmers Page will be maintained on the website where current programmers can post brief information about their work and interests and how they can be contacted."

Finally, the Programming Policy, including the Program Advisory Committee, must be fully implemented.

These proposals address the issues of governance that have been raised over the past two years. They deliberately do not address finances or personnel, substantive issues that will require more discussion. They are intended to bring our policies and procedures in line with federal and state law, and our own bylaws, while increasing membership, increasing member participation in the elections and other governance, and improving communication between and among the board, staff, members, and the public. Please consider these proposals for adoption in the near future. They will be of great benefit to the organization, its members, and the listening public.

Sincerely,

Dennis O'Brien, Member

Ukiah