Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Sep 29, 2015

• Grape Harvest
• Pretend Conservation
• 8-man Football
• No Photo
• Pot Shot
• Tesla Chargers
• Usal Trashed
• Guard Dog
• Killer Bees
• Rodriguez Arrested
• Martian Water
• Duck
• Adult Supervision
• Yesterday's Catch
• Dismaland
• Ballplayer Death
• Petaluma Protest
• Security Breach
• KZYX Finance
• Cancer Fundraiser
• Microfilm Reader

WE UNDERSTAND that the grape yield this year in the Anderson Valley was so small that the usual crews who work our vineyards simply went home because they're paid by weight and there wasn’t enough weight to make the harvest worth their while. Also, some of the locals who pick this time of year didn’t pick for the same reason — lack of remunerative heft. This left most vineyards, wineries and contractors with only their year-round employees and anyone else they could round up willing to work to bring in the remaining grapes. At least one contractor had to bring in outside labor crews via labor contractors. This year’s harvest was low compared to previous years, but all the vineyards came in at the same time making the labor situation even more dire in terms of labor availability. Normally, the harvest is a bit more staggered, but that last heat wave, the wine people say, ripened all the valley's grapes just about simultaneously.

MENDO LAND TRUST gives huge tax break to wealthy Mendo landowner for pretend conservation, i.e., not doing what he wouldn’t or couldn’t have done anyway.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4544422-181/mendocino-county-forest-protected-under

(Several hints as to what this was really about were sprinkled throughout this “preservation” story. Such as, “The owners agreed to sell the easement for 25% less than fair market value…” (Fair market value established by Guess Who.) “The land potentially could have been split into 12 parcels…” (In the opinion of Guess Who). “Miller said he also plans to eventually sell carbon offsets from the forest.” (For even more tax breaks, thanks to the easement he has now sold.) “Easement restrictions include a ban on logging within 100 feet of Brush Creek.” (Everywhere else in all the prized habitat is subject to conventional logging and such streamzones along creeks are already exempt from logging under existing logging rules.)

JIM YOUNG WRITES: "I read your analysis of Boonville football in the paper after the Apple Bowl. In sports, I figured you like to be accurate. Mendo and Boonville and the other teams in their league do not play football. They play 8 man football. This is a game on a smaller field with different rules. There are no regional playoffs (or what ever you suggested) for 8 man football. Boonville, with the 4 best athletes I’ve ever seen at the school at one time, will not be tested during the season, and will play the 2nd place team in the same league they are in for a made up playoff game called the Redwood Bowl and will beat them just as bad as they do during the season. Same old, same old as last year except Mendo will not be the second place team. I hope to surprise Cesar, Johnston, and Co. in basketball. You heard it hear first."

I PREFER to be accurate whatever the subject, Jim, and I was aware of the diff between 8-man and 11-man football. I've thought for a long time that the small schools of Mendocino County should combine for one football team and play up a league. Every small school in the County always has a few guys who can compete at a big school level, but most small schools, except Boonville this year, can barely field football teams, or not field teams at all, as is perennially the case with Covelo. (Which used to be a small school power until, well, the worst impulses of late capitalism took over the minds of young people, urban and rural.) The small schools of the big island of Hawaii, I believe, meet to play games against larger schools as one team, and I'm sure there are areas of this country where the small schools combine for the purpose of team sports.

THIS SEASON, Boonville is wiping out all small school competition so easily it can't be much fun for the players and it's certainly uninteresting for spectators. AV's most recent victim was Laytonville at Laytonville last Friday. Score? A lot to zero. Or next to zero. But Coach Kuny said Monday the Laytonville game was close — 14-2 — at the half, but AV quarterback Tony Pardini Jr. came out firing in the second half and Laytonville had no defense against his pinpoint passes. Coach Kuny also mentioned he's had some disciplinary probs with a couple of his players who seem to think they're exempt from the rules, but was miffed that AD Robert Pinoli wanted a mediation between him and the teen prima donnas. Count me with the coach: mediate what? Your football coach, the adult, is supposed to negotiate with his players?

I'LL BET our starting 8 could give Fort Bragg a pretty good go, 8 on 8. But Boonville is going to romp through this season's schedule unresisted. To repeat: If you took a half dozen of the best (or only) players from the County's far-flung small schools for one eleven-man team, the small schools would hold their own against big schools, sparing us an entire season of small school mismatches like we suffer most years. I'd like to see this year's dynamite Boonville team tested, really tested against tough competition.

OUR NEWLY ELECTED County Superintendent of Schools, Warren Galletti, is a sports guy. He ought to make viable small school team sports a priority, not only because sports are good for kids, but because he and his office could make it happen and because it ought to happen. (Covelo always has a handful of good athletes who don't get to compete in much of anything because the wider community has gone to hell, and seems likely to stay there for some time.)

JIM YOUNG, by the way, has developed an impressive water collection system at his Rancho Navarro home. The guy could give lessons. He says he "increased to 36,000 gallons his rainwater collection. Plenty for My acre garden. My house usage has plenty from our well. Nice not to worry. I get 3000 gals per inch of rain. Be full by 2016." Jim advises: "Water collection 101:

1. Put your tanks below your house. As Yogi B. might say, “If water flowed up hill we wouldn’t need tanks. "
2. If your tanks fill up before December 1st. add more tanks.
3. If your tanks never fill up, add collection surface area.
4. It always rains, even when it’s dry. (Maybe Yogi Berra again.)"

SCANNER EXCITEMENT SUNDAY. This being the season of agricultural tensions in the Mendocino County outback, the scanner crackled with a 7.20am report of a male gunshot victim "near Mountain House Road." It took a while — a long while — to find the guy, who had said he'd been shot "multiple times" but had no precise idea where he was other than "in a field near a dried up creek." That didn't exactly narrow down his location, but much was lost in translation over the ensuing three hours. With the medi-chopper waiting at the Boonville airport, a 25-year-old Mexican, bloodied and indeed shot, was finally located not very far from Highway 128 and Mountain House Road. Why and by whom he'd been shot is not known, but he was found in a "life-threatening condition" in a marijuana garden. The young man, whose hometown is Windsor, has not been identified for publication, was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

TESLA MOTORS plans to install 8 superchargers in central Ukiah near Alex Thomas Plaza, a sure sign that Elon Musk's electric vehicles are turning out to be a lot more viable than the experts predicted. There's a supercharger in Petaluma and one in Crescent City, but Crescent City is a long way from anywhere, and almost out of electric car range from Petaluma. (There's an interesting piece on Musk's various enterprises in the current New Yorker.) And darned if we don't have a couple at Al Green's Greenwood Ridge Winery right here in Philo. That's Al, always ahead of the curve, and a perfect placement for the touri with the money to afford a Tesla.

A READER WRITES: "We took a day off — the plan was two days but we stayed only one — to a local State Park for some R&R in a nearby ‘outback.’ Usal campground is on the beach from the main road 30 miles north of Fort Bragg. The way in is six miles of very steep, rutted and narrow logging "road" and thankfully we were warned to take a high clearance 4 wheel drive vehicle which we borrowed from my son and as a result, had no problem driving in. The campground is part of the Sinkyone Lost Coast King Range which is comprised of nearly vertical, heavily wooded mountains jutting straight up from the ocean to as high as 4,000 feet. At Usal Camp, the cliffs curve inward enough to have created a cove with a two-mile long black sand beach and a flat wooded area behind it in which the camp sites are situated. It's a gorgeous spot — trees, birds, elk, beautiful black sand beach, mountains, sky — and horrible. It quickly became clear that it is the gathering place for feral guys (mostly) to hang out and do reckless illegal things like shoot off guns and fireworks (M-80's, bottle rockets, etc, all illegal in CA) that echoed off the canyon walls sounding like we were in a war zone, play ‘music’ at any volume, drink and drug, and drive recklessly onto the beach or up the vertical mountains. The fireworks and the music happened during our one night stay, but most disturbing to us was the wanton destruction of the natural beauty of the place. Since no one polices the campground there were campsites everywhere in the woods, not just at picnic table or firepit spots, and on the beach. Everywhere the woods were trashed, slashed and hacked. Most disgusting of all (the outhouses are ancient and unusable) there was toilet paper and what goes with it, everywhere along with all other forms of garbage. We have written a letter to the State Park Director suggesting that something be done — either close the site or fix it up and hire a park attendant to keep order — since the parks and we, the taxpayers, are liable for anything that goes wrong there. And more importantly, it's a wilderness area, not a playground, and its wonders should be protected from the depredations of ignorant humans. It's certainly sad that in some humans the impulse to destroy is stronger than the impulse to create."

IT'S ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING that the State has allowed Usal to become a free fire zone, often literally. And as the above writer notes, there's trash everywhere. As a family venue — a quiet weekend camping with the kids — don't even try. Drunks, dope heads, sonic-level "music," gun fire, and bad behavior generally. Usal, on a Saturday night, with a hundred remedial readers stumbling around in the dark with their guns and surround-a-sound din might be the most comprehensively awful site on the Northcoast. One resident ranger wouldn't be enough. He'd be heavily outnumbered by the oafs and very far from help. I'd rather see Usal closed altogether than see it continue as a refuge for free range Thanatoids.

UKIAH AFTER DARK (a reader writes): “There’s a dog barking outside my back fence for 24 hours. The kind of bark that announces, "Hello, Dude, I've been abandoned. Duh!" This goes on for six-seven weeks. Every night. Meanwhile, I'm so distracted by the comings and goings at the "Prop 47 Store" next door, that I'm thinkin' it sounds like tweakers trippin'-out on a dying dog. Zombie Nation. So I go out investigating the next day after I thought the barker had croaked, and discover this glam couple out strolling with an adolescent German shephard. The marijuana testing laboratory is surrounded in electrified chain-link fence, crowned with razor-wire coils. This is where they live, a row of Italian blue cypress in the backdrop. The dog, poor soul, must guard the place all by himself all night long whilst the rest hang together and get high and cozy, testing the weed, whist he has to sit out in the cold light of the surveillance lamps and make the best of it. The ASPCA will be alerted if this happens again.”

AN AFRICANIZED BREED of honeybees, sometimes known as “killer bees” because of its swarming, aggressive and deadly nature when its colony is threatened, has found its way to the Bay Area for the first time, researchers say. The bees were found in a Lafayette subdivision called Reliez Valley, near the southeast side of Briones Regional Park, by UC San Diego researchers who have been tracking the bees’ movement throughout the state. Until now, the bees had been detected only as far north as Mariposa County in California’s more inland Central Valley, but are likely attracted by the Bay Area’s warming temperatures.

IT TOOK 47 DAYS, BUT ANOTHER 'WARRANT WEDNESDAY' SUSPECT BEHIND BARS

Manuel had been on the loose for 47 days since the Mendo Sheriff made him the object of a "Warrant Wednesday" Facebook post - August 12th.

From what we could put together from the Low Gap Road Mendo Sheriff Adult Detention Facility, the 5'9", 200-pound Mr. Rodriguez, from Covelo, was arrested by the sheriff's office @ 4:00 am Saturday, September 26, was booked on one felony charge @ 10:24 pm the same day and had his booking photo taken @ 1:15 am Sunday, September 27. He is still behind bars as of 4:00 pm Monday.

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

Manuel Rodriguez [was] wanted on a NO BAIL warrant for Terrorist Threats/Use of a Firearm. 
Height: 5' 9"...

NASA HAS DISCOVERED SIGNS OF WATER on Mars, NASA announced at a press conference Monday morning. "Mars is not the dry, arid planet we thought," NASA official Jim Green announced. Liquid water has never been detected outside of Earth. NASA found evidence that water formed dark streaks on the Martian surface known as as recurring slope lineae. "The discovery we're talking about today is most exciting because it suggests it would be possible for life to be there today," scientist John Grunsfeld said. The University of Arizona's Alfred S. McEwen and other authors of a 2011 study that suggested sloping lines seen on the Red Planet are formed by liquid water appeared at the conference.

SHE WHO RULES OVER THE DUCKS

In Fort Bragg. (Photo by Susie de Castro)

THE CRETINOUS CHARLIE ROSE WITH VLADIMIR PUTIN ON 60 MINUTES SUNDAY NIGHT

Putin has a huge advantage over any US President, actual or potential. Putin has nothing to lose by telling the truth. Don’t get me wrong; when he has more to gain by lying, he absolutely will. Putin is a stone-cold son-of-a-bitch, I have no doubt.

Any US leader has the disadvantage of having to cater to obsolete US cultural mythology and nostalgia for a time that never happened. That means nothing an actual or aspiring US leader can say can make any sense in the real world. Russia already went through the collapse that is coming for the US. The Russian people already recognize bullshit for what it is, and what it is not. There is lying bullshit they will put up with, and lying bullshit they will not tolerate. Putin knows exactly where this line is and he’s comfortable with it.

Putin would love to deal with a President Trump. He would know exactly how. Let Trump bloviate, then dictate terms that allow Trump to scrape some crumbs into his own pocket and declare victory to the credulous US pro-wrestling fans who make up his core demographic. Easy-peasy for Putin.

And, for the short term, probably better for America. Trump won’t do anything. Nothing at all. He’ll line his own pockets in ways more commonly seen in African despotisms. But he won’t fight any wars because he’ll know he can’t win a real war without the American people figuring out the whole might of our Empire is a sham. When you can’t take any casualties, you can’t fight a war. So Trump will talk tough, do nothing, and declare victory. There’s a lot of space there for Putin, not to mention Xi and Iran, to operate in.

The real loser will be Europe. They need the US to be their Imperial Overlord, and we’re clearly not up to the task for much longer. The EU bowed to the wrong master, when they really didn’t have to bow at all to anyone.

The only thing that would be worse for the US in the long term than a President Trump would be anyone else who is running. I’d prefer Sanders myself, but I’m not pretending he could get the toothpaste back into the tube. This thing has to collapse, and collapse it will. I would prefer that an adult take leadership as that happens, but I know better.

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 28, 2015

JOSHUA ANDERSON, Healdsburg/Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia, resisting, county parole violation.

RODERICK CASEY, Fort Bragg. Battery.

WILLIAM CLAPPER, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

LORI DOW, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

NICOLE HUMPHREY, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

SARAH MITCHELL, Laytonville. Domestic battery.

MICHAELIA RAFFA, Red Bluff/Ukiah. Under influence.

BERNADETTE SMITH, Manchester. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, probation revocation.

EDWARD STEELE, Ukiah. Unauthorized entry, possession of ammo, controlled substance, dirk-dagger.

NOW THIS IS AN ART INSTALLATION.

http://banksy.co.uk/

“UNLIKE MOST, a ballplayer must confront two deaths. First, between the ages of thirty and forty he perishes as an athlete. Although he looks trim and feels vigorous and retains unusual coordination, the superlative reflexes, the major league reflexes, pass on. At a point when many of his classmates are newly confident and rising in other fields, he finds that he can no longer hit a very good fast ball or reach a grounder four strides to his right. At thirty-five he is experiencing the truth of finality. As his major league career is ending, all things will end. However he sprang, he was always earthbound. Mortality embraces him. The golden age has passed in a moment. So will all things. So will all moments.”

— Roger Kahn, “The Boys of Summer”

ANIMAL ACTIVISTS PROTEST AT PETALUMA POULTRY PROCESSING FOR WORLD DAY FOR FARMED ANIMALS

Animal activists with Sonoma County Chicken Save and national nonprofit Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) are holding an all-day demonstration Friday outside Petaluma Poultry Processing, a local poultry slaughterhouse at 2700 Lakeville Hwy this Friday, October 2. Petaluma Poultry Processing slaughters chicken under the brand names Rocky, Rosie, and Sonoma Red.

This event is part of a coordinated, targeted series of demonstrations at slaughterhouses and other animal agriculture facilities around the world in observance of the 33rd annual World Day for Farmed Animals

This demonstration is being organized by local resident Lauren Ornelas. If you’d like to speak to her directly, please call 530-759-8482 or 530-848-4021. I look forward to giving you more details as I have them. A news release is below.

For more background, please see www.DayForAnimals.org.

Thanks,

Gary Smith

Evolotus PR (for FARM)

gary@evolotuspr.com

818-783-0569 office

818-618-3777 mobile

* * *

PETALUMA – All day Friday, local animal rights activists from Sonoma County Chicken Save, along with national nonprofit Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), will protest at Petaluma Poultry Processing, a local chicken slaughterhouse, to commemorate World Day for Farmed Animals.

Dozens of activists will peacefully gather to inform the public about the tragedy happening just inside, as well as offering “whistleblower cards” with information to help workers:

Date: Friday, October 2, 2015

Time: 9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Location: Petaluma Poultry Processing, 2700 Lakeville Hwy, Petaluma, CA 94954

“This protest memorializes and speaks out for animals who are brutally killed at Petaluma Poultry Processing,” said area resident Lauren Ornelas, who is organizing the event. “On World Day for Farmed Animals, we intend to tell the public that all animals raised for food face a gruesome slaughter and deserve our respect.”

World Day for Farmed Animals includes a coordinated, targeted series of demonstrations at slaughterhouses and other animal agriculture facilities around the world to oppose the abuses inherent in animal agriculture. In addition to (your city), protests will be held in more than 100 U.S. locations and in several other countries, including Canada, England, Spain, Chile, India, and Israel.

“There are 65 billion farmed land animals killed for food every year, who are confined, mutilated, and bred to grow so large, so quickly, that many of them literally suffer to death,” said Michael Webermann, FARM executive director. “Each year, World Day for Farmed Animals seeks to expose the public to the shocking truth of animal agribusiness, and companies like Petaluma Poultry must be held accountable.”

This year marks the 33rd year World Day for Farmed Animals has been observed. The international day of action typically includes vigils, marches, and demonstrations, and takes place each year on or around October 2 in conjunction with the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, an outspoken advocate of non-violence towards animals.

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way in which its animals are treated,” Gandhi famously said. For more information please visit www.DayForAnimals.org.

* * *

About FARM

For more than 30 years, Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) has worked to end the use of animals for food through public education and grassroots activism. As FARM has grown, so has public awareness of farmed animal abuse and the benefits of veganism. In addition to its 10 Billion Lives Tour - the organization's most ambitious undertaking yet - its grassroots initiatives include World Farm Animals Day, Great American Meatout, Compassionate Holidays, Vegan Earth Day, and more. FARM has been active since 1976 and was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit in 1981. FARM, recognized as one of the best charities in America by Independent Charities of America, is based in Bethesda, Md. and has volunteers in all 50 U.S. states and dozens of other countries. The organization is funded by contributions from individuals and foundations that care about animal rights, human health, and environmental integrity. For more information please visit http://www.farmusa.org.

URGENT! SECURITY BREACH!

Editor,

It's urgent that you change your security codes and passwords. Marco has replied to my AVA letter elsewhere, and you haven't even printed it!

Gordon Black

Mendocino

SUBSTANCE, NOT AUTO-REPLIES

Editor,

Responding to Tim Bray’s recent comment: “Does Sako just have an algorithm that automatically spits out the same tirade against the same people, whenever someone replies to the previous one? Maybe he subscribes to the theory that ‘a lie repeated often enough becomes truth.’ Either that, or he’s just become a tedious kook.”

I don’t know who you are Tim Bray, but let me respond for my part.

Sheila is correct in that I was not aware I needed to supply the names of the three men who were removed from the air by the Program Director while she and another female programmer were kept on because of their friendship, but who had violated the Safe Harbor policy KZYX maintains. I was not aware I had the opportunity to detail my complaint.

Some of the complaints were passed off by the FCC to be handled by other entities, for example, the EEOC. That does not mean a victory for the station. It only means other entities are better prepared to address the complaints and the complaints are out of the purview of the FCC. It does NOT mean the complaints do not have merit.

If you Tim, feel that everything is wonderful, then how do you explain that few NEW people have stepped forward from the community to become members of CAB and PAC? If you feel that all is terrific, how do you explain and reverse the trend of membership falling off, underwriting tanking and dollars falling off? Why is it the same small cluster of people nominate and elect themselves to the Board without the membership being a part of the process. Tim, how do you explain this to those of us reading this article?

Maybe you don’t agree with the method of those of us who have tried to bring these facts to the attention of the community which gives the money, but it doesn’t negate the facts.

On another note, you have attacked a Board Member who has been isolated and ostracized by the GM and current Board for bringing the many, many internal failings of this station to the public’s attention. It’s easy to attack others on the comfort of your home computer. You have reported NOTHING substantive, while Mr Sakowicz and others have reported facts witnessed firsthand.

On October 7, several KZYX members will conduct a review of the infamous John Coate financial reporting. An attorney will be present. Coate resigned the day after receiving the letter about the members inspection. Remember, as a staff person, Coate is/was NOT legally responsible for the station’s financial status/practices. The Board Members ARE. Do you blame Mr Sakowicz for wanting to know what he is legally responsible for especially after the concerted and orchestrated effort by Coate and select Board Members to keep the knowledge of the total financial picture out of his reach? 
Mr Sakowicz has a financial background and career. He does forensic accounting. Don’t you think he would recognize issues that were off if given the chance?

Tim, wouldn’t you want to know what you are legally responsible for in a case such as this? If not, you’re a dullard and a fool.

BTW, one of the features Mr Sakowicz requested in writing his FCC objection was that the license not be renewed until John Coate was removed. Funny how that came to pass, Tim. Coate is gone and the license is renewed.

Attacking people for how they report information is separate from the information itself.

If you should write to attack me for writing my response, or for just having concerns, it won’t change the facts that have already been identified and presented to you and the public who donate.

Dear Public, Pay attention to where and how your money is spent, not just by KZYX Board Members, but by all non-profits.

M Kathryn Massey
Mendocino, CA
KZYX, Members for Change

BIG RIVER WALK AND PADDLE FOR CANCER

SATURDAY OCTOBER 24th

WALK BEGINS 9:30 AM AT BIG RIVER STATE PARK

Walk or paddle for cancer this October at the 16^h annual Big River Walk and Paddle for Cancer!

We are celebrating our 20^th Anniversary at the Cancer Resource Centers and will be commemorating that milestone at our annual Big River Walk and Paddle for Cancer on Saturday, October 24th^th! The Big River Walk for Cancer is the primary coastal fundraiser for CRC. This community event brings people together to celebrate and remember family members and friends who have faced cancer.

The proceeds raised support CRC, the only direct service organization of it’s kind in Mendocino County. We providing necessary support services free of charge to those with cancer. Your donation helps CRC carry out its vision that no one face cancer alone in Mendocino County.

Participants may walk, run, or paddle. Individuals and teams are welcomed. Participants are encouraged to gather pledges to support CRC. Big River Walk and Paddle is a family-friendly event, for people of all ages!

Snacks are provided, and participants are eligible to win fantastic prizes provided by local businesses.

Adults $25 / Teens $10 / Children FREE!

Please register at www.crcmendocino.org.

For more information, give us a call at 937-3833.

NEW MICROFILM READER!

The Willits library has a brand new Microfilm Reader for public use during open hours.

We are so excited to have received our new microfilm reader! It is a state of the art SCANPRO 1100 from BMI Imaging Systems. This fancy machine digitizes the newspaper text, allows the user to print or scan to a flash drive, and can put multiple pieces together on one page. After the loss of our old microfilm reader, we are so pleased to be able to offer this incredible service. The Friends of The Willits Library provide a subscription to microfilm from the Willits News. Our Willits News microfilm collection dates back to March 12, 1892. If anyone is interested in viewing some microfilm, or trying out our machine, please give us a call at 459-5908 to set up an appointment. Bring a flash drive to save articles or print them out for 10 cents a page. We sell flash drives for $8 if you need to purchase one.