Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Sep 30, 2015

• Agricultural Tensions
• Circular Firing Squad
• Wheel of Chance
• California History
• @Snowden
• 9-11
• Propaganda Limits
• Niners Uniform
• Yesterday's Catch
• Asphalt Smoke
• Children's Health
• Broadband Meeting
• Guy Debord
• Library Events

UPDATE: This being the season of agricultural tensions in the Mendocino County outback, the scanner crackled Sunday 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 multiple times, was finally located not very far from Highway 128 and Mountain House Road.

Deputies subsequently found a dead man in the garden where the almost dead man was finally located, and have since arrested Isidiro Lopez-Bernal, 26, of Ukiah, and Mario Godinez, 25, of Cloverdale, on suspicion of murder. The wounded man, still not identified, is from Windsor. He was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital where he remains in serious condition. He seems to have identified his would be killers.

* * *

INCIDENT: SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES - SHOOTING INCIDENT

Location: 37000 block of Highway 128 Yorkville
Date: 09-27-2015 Time: 7:18 AM
Victims: Victim #1: Name: Unidentified Adult Male
Suspects:
Suspect #1: Isidro Lopez-Bernal Age: 26, Ukiah
Suspect #2: Mario Godinez Age: 25, Cloverdale

Original Press Release:

On 09-27-2015 at 7:18 AM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a report of a possible shooting in Yorkville, California.

A person called into the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office dispatch center and advised they had received a telephone call from a 25-year-old Adult Male they knew who reported that he had been shot while at a marijuana garden.

Deputies were able to contact the 25-year-old Adult Male by calling his cellular telephone and were guided to a remote wooded location near the 37000 block of Highway 128 in Yorkville.

Upon contact the 25-year-old Adult Male was found to have multiple gunshot wounds and was subsequently transported by air ambulance to an out of county hospital for medical treatment.

The 25-year-old Adult Male had sustained life threatening injuries but is expected to survive those injuries at this time.

Sheriff's Detectives were summoned to the scene to further investigate the incident.

This investigation is on-going at this time and no further information is available for release.

Any updated information that does become available over time will be released by a subsequent press release.

Anyone with information that could assist Sheriff's Detectives is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office tip-line by calling 707-234-2100.

Updated Press Release:

On 09-27-2015 Sheriff's Detectives conducted a foot search of the area where the injured 25-year-old Adult Male was found.

Sheriff's Detectives traveled approximately .25 miles over mountainous terrain and located a marijuana garden site of approximately 200 plants.

An unidentified deceased Hispanic Adult Male with apparent gunshot wound(s) was found in close proximity to the garden site.

During the course of subsequent investigations Sheriff's Detectives arrested Isidro Lopez-Bernal (26-year-old male from Ukiah, California) and Mario Godinez (25-year-old male from Cloverdale, California) in connection with the incident.

Both were contacted and arrested in different locations in Cloverdale, California.

Both were booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of murder and robbery, each to remain in custody in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The injured 25-year-old Adult Male's involvement in the incident is still under investigation at this time.

The location of the marijuana garden site appeared to have been established as a result of a trespass onto privately owned property.

A forensic autopsy on the unidentified deceased Adult Male is scheduled for 09-29-2015 and identification is pending.

Anyone with information that could assist Sheriff's Detectives is asked to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office tip-line by calling 707-234-2100.

(Sheriff’s Office Press Release)

CIRCULAR FIRING SQUAD

From: Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, Thursday, September 24, 2015

To: John Anderson, Mendocino Redwood Company

Subject: Your ad

John,

I have taken a number of very deep breaths before writing. I did not appreciate being included in your political ad, especially without prior notice. It felt very manipulative — an attempt to use our good reputation as cover for your actions. The Fires Safe Council is deliberately a nonpolitical organization devoted to advocating for fire safety and preparedness for all residents of Mendocino County. We keep out of the pot wars and the timber wars precisely so that we can avoid any possible conflict with Mendocino County residents and their opinions. Our message is a simple one of personal safety for all. While nothing in the ad was untrue, exactly, we do not claim that the processes we are undertaking for the Board of Supervisors are in any way a substitute for the political actions that our fellow citizens feel moved to take. I'm working with my Board on a public response to your ad to disassociate us from it and your practices. I'm very sad to be put in this position. Please forward this as appropriate in your organization.

Signed

Madelin Holtkamp, Mendocino County Fire Safe Council

410 Jones Street, Suite C-3 Ukiah California 95482

* * *

From Bob Mertz, MRC

September 24, 2013

To: firesafe@pacific.net

Subject: Apology

Dear Madelin,

Please find attached a letter apologizing for putting you in the position you're expressing in your email to John Anderson. I will personally drop by the original letter tomorrow and hope to meet you personally. I am sending this electronically tonight to avoid another day going by of you wearing the weight of any bad feelings about the matter. The mistake is ours alone to shoulder. We share your enthusiasm for fire safety and communitywide involvement. I hope to meet you tomorrow.

Sincerely, Bob Mertz, Mendocino Redwood Company

* * *

Attachment: To: Madelin Holtkamp, Executive Director, Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, 410 Jones Street, Suite C-3, Ukiah CA 95482

Dear Madelin,

Please accept my apology. I am profoundly sorry that your agency was mentioned in our informational advertising about what we do in the forest. We have worked to have a good relationship with the Fire Safe Council. As you may recall, we visited with you about the tan oak approach we're using earlier this year, and interested members of the Fire Safe Council visited our forests to see firsthand what we were doing on September 22, 2015, and when they left, we had the impression that they were satisfied with what they had seen.

We value our relationship with the Fire Safe Council and all of those organizations with whom we come in contact and who are interested in our work from any perspective. We look forward to your Board's public response and sincerely express our regret that we put you and the board in this position. Believe me, we will be much more careful in the future. Wope this situation, once you've had a chance to respond, will allow all of us to move forward with the things we do every day.

We will share your note to John Anderson with everyone at MRC along with our letter of apology to you and to your board. We do understand your position and the position of the board and its role in our community. We would never intentionally do anything that might cause you embarrassment.

Please accept this sincere and public apology as an indication of our good faith intention to continue working productively with you and the Council in the future.

Sincerely, Bob Mertz, Mendocino Redwood Company

COUPLA WEEKS AGO, I was startled to see an editorial in the Independent Coast Observer (Gualala), called “Not Saintly.” The writer was my old friend, Chris McManus. Chris came out swinging against canonization of Junipero Serra by the Catholic Church. Easy Chris, easy girl.

I WAS STARTLED that the ICO, a mainstream publication so main stream it has never so much as touched either bank of the Gualala River, because, like, who cares what the ICO or any other outback publication, including this one, thinks about the Big Issues? What we all should be thundering about is local scandals, and the goddess knows we have plenty of those. But revealing or even commenting on local scandals can make people, and especially advertisers, very angry, hence thundering denunciations of Catholic politics, which is the business of Catholics who have always done a lot of crazy stuff.

MYSELF, I think the record makes it clearer than clear that the most severe atrocities against the native peoples were committed by the first white settlers, and we shouldn't forget that the State of California paid a thug named Jarboe to kill all the Indians in the entire Eel River Basin at a piece rate according to sex and age: children were about a buck each, women a little more, the elderly were merely knocked off for being present. Adult males paid the best per scalp. Jarboe, incidentally, was appointed Ukiah's first lawman.

THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES at least recognized Indians as human beings with human souls. Serra was trying to bring them immortality, not kill them. And disciplinary practices varied from mission to mission. Some padres were humane, some were sadists and psychos, just like today, actually. The first white people into California considered Indians simply as pests to be exterminated; they did the real damage from which Native Americans have never really recovered.

THE ONLY BOOK I've ever read that really gives you the feel of California in the period just after the missions and before and immediately after the gold rush is Blaise Cendars' “Gold.” Its focus is John Sutter of Sutter's Fort fame.

SUTTER bought out the Russians at Fort Ross when the Russians pulled out after exhausting the Coast's aquatic fur trade. Among the items Sutter picked up at bargain prices (and never paid for) were Russian military uniforms in which Sutter outfitted a couple of hundred of the biggest Indians he could find. He used his mounted force to keep order (he said) in the Sacramento Valley.

THE ENTERPRISING SWISS was his own government in NorCal, right up there with General Vallejo. He wasn't a bad old guy, all in all, drunk much of the time, much of the time with young women (very young women, from all accounts) from nearby tribes. The human deluge of the gold rush finished him and his vast and vastly productive holdings, off. If the walls of Sutter Fort could talk, visiting school children would hear tales unfit for young ears. Too bad the schools dull down California history. It's got everything.

EDWARD SNOWDEN joined Twitter on Tuesday, using the verified handle @Snowden. “Can you hear me now?” he tweeted. Astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson asked Snowden why he wasn’t on Twitter during a recent interview, and suggested the @Snowden handle. “That sounds good. I think we’ve got to make it happen,” Snowden replied.

9-11 — A FIRETRUCK with Jersey plates, wreathed by squadcars, sped, then crept toward the cloud. A man, lips bandaged to match his bowtie, offered a prayer to a parkingmeter. A bleeding woman in a spandex unitard knelt by a hydrant counting out the contents of her pouch, reminding herself of who she was from her swipecard ID. A bullhorn yelled for calm in barrio Cantonese, or Mandarin. The wind of the crossstreets was the tail of a rat, swatting, slapping. Fights over waterbottles. Fights over phones. Survivors were still staggering, north against traffic but then with traffic too, gridlocked strangers desperate for a bridge, or a river to hiss in, their heads scorched bald into sirens, the stains on their suits the faces of friends. With no shoes or one shoe and some still holding their briefcases. Which had always been just something to hold. A death’s democracy of – level execs and custodians, blind, deaf, concussed, uniformly tattered in charred skin cut with glass, slit by flitting discs, diskettes, and paper, envelopes seared to feet and hands — they struggled as if to open themselves, to open and read one another before they fell, and the rising tide of a black airborne ocean towed them in.

— Joshua Cohen

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Charlie Rose incessant insistence on repeating the US Deep State’s most recent propaganda points while Putin struggles to take the time to explain the facts beyond US propaganda reminds me of Noam Chomsky’s point long ago. Chomsky pointed out that in order to challenge the whole presumptions and endlessly trumpeted falsehoods of the US Corporate Media machine takes way longer than 30 second sound bites. It requires time to develop and provide the evidence for the background facts to derail the propaganda line. 
Anyone who simply repeats the meme’s of US support for democracy or Putin is evil repeated thousands of times across the US media machine has no need of evidence to refute these points. They are just accepted as “fact” (Although ironically the same “facts” may change next week as when Saddam Hussein goes from US ally to evil villain totally opposed to US interests! lol)
 Whereas to challenge the Corporate lies requires boring recitation of evidence and logic, ironically also as in Chomsky’s analyses, provided even by mainstream paragons like the NY Times.
 But in the back pages of the NY Times, Washington Post, etc.
 But the mask is coming off more and more with Wikileaks, Snowden and the sign of that is things like Jeremy Corbyn’s surprising 200 to 1 shot victory to become UK Labor Leader.
 The same thing is happening with Bernie Sanders in the US today which is way more shocking to the elites than the clown Trump…
You can’t fool people forever when it contradicts the reality they see in the their own lives with their own jobs or family or friend’s jos first outsourced, now offshored, and the real price of bread…

RED & GOLD FOREVER

AVA,

An open letter to Jed York —

Dear Mr. York:

Please don't change the Niners uniforms. Those black and red ones were ugly as sin. The red and gold were good enough to win five Super Bowls and many conference championships. Stay with the red and gold, that's the team's identity.

Louise Mariana, Mendocino

CATCH OF THE DAY, September 29, 2015

MARIO GODINEZ-GONZALEZ, Cloverdale. Murder, robbery.

SHAWN GORING, Pahoa, Hawaii/Ukiah. Pot sale, transport, furnish; unlicensed driver.

JACK GOUBER, Ukiah. Fighting or challenging, probation revocation.

ISIDRO LOPEZ-BERNAL, Ukiah. Murder, robbery.

LINDA LOZANO, Fortuna/Ukiah. DUI.

DONNA MAKI, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, receiving stolen property, probation revocation.

ALONSO MEZA, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, cultivation, processing, armed with firearm, ex-felon with firearm.

JONATHAN MIRAVALLE, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

RUSTI VASSAR, Willits. Under influence, suspended license, failure to appear.

COMPLAINTS OVER ASPHALT SMOKE, Dust and Odor Unresolved by Mendocino Air District

Background: On July 2nd 2015, the Friends Of Outlet Creek filed an Appeal with Mendocino County Air Quality Management District to challenge Grist Creek Aggregates (“Authority to Construct”) Permit Number 1416-5-01-15-26. The Air District Permit authorized a 500,000 ton per year parallel flow asphalt and rubberized asphalt hot mix batch plant to begin operation at 37342 Covelo Road, Willits (APN 036-190-26), on Outlet Creek, a sediment impaired tributary of the Eel River, and part of the Eel River watershed which supports protected salmonid species.

Current Issues:

Resident’s Complaints Unresolved By County Air District And Code Enforcement

County Air Inspectors Lack Required Certifications For Smoke Plume Evaluation

The asphalt plant facility began stockpiling very large piles of crushed aggregate in early August in preparation for production of rubberized asphalt in September, resulting in windblown dust intruding onto neighboring property and into Outlet Creek. Numerous complaints were filed by local residents with the Mendocino County Air Quality District, County Code Enforcement and County Environmental Health. The complaint record is growing, with local residents reporting minimal response from County agencies tasked with protecting public health.

The asphalt plant began ongoing daily trial production of asphalt in early September, resulting in at least 20 additional complaints by neighbors to the Air Quality District, County Code Enforcement and County Environmental Health. Neighbors report being chased from their homes by lingering brown smoke, black dust on their property, strong odors and loud noises as late as 10:00 PM in the evening, emanating from the asphalt facility. Smoke and odors are being trapped by the topography of the narrow Outlet Creek valley along Covelo road where the asphalt plant is located.

A Facebook link to videos taken by a local affected neighbor with property located above the asphalt plant shows recent daily asphalt smoke buildup in the area during facility operations over the last several days. Videos can be viewed here; http:www.facebook.com/Susan.crews.77715

The Air District appears unable to cope with the level of complaints generated by the Grist Creek Aggregates Asphalt Plant.

The California Air Resources Board (C.A.R.B.), which has oversight authority over the Mendocino Air Quality District, was contacted by the Friends of Outlet Creek seeking relief for local residents from the ongoing impacts of the new asphalt plant emissions.

Staff with the CA Air Resources Board confirmed that no inspectors at the Mendocino Air District hold current certification for Visible Emissions Evaluations, which are required in order for air inspectors to visually evaluate smoke plumes and opacity for emissions such as those currently emitted from the new Grist Creek Aggregates asphalt plant. Without current certification, air inspectors cannot write violation tickets to the facility for emitting excess smoke and pollution, and are unable to effectively fulfill their role in protecting public health.

Contact information for C.A.R.B. is included below; Public Information Office (media inquiries only): (916) 322-2990 ARB-Enforcement Division 8340 Ferguson Avenue Sacramento, CA 95829

For additional information, updates or questions, please contact Glen Colwell or Lyn Talkovski with Friends of Outlet Creek:

Glen Colwell - Email; glencolwell.paleographics@juno.com - Cell PH: 707-836-6595 Lyn Talkovski - Email; lyn@twinberry.net - Cell PH: 707-621-3214

and/or;

Rachel S. Doughty, Esq.
1202 Oregon Street
Berkeley, C A 94702
828.333.4703 828.424.2005 (cell)
rdoughty@greenfirelaw.com

FREE CHILDREN'S HEALTH FAIR IS ON SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4

UKIAH, CA -- It's time once again for the seventh annual Free Children's Health Fair "Wild About Health" which will be held this Sunday, October 4, from 11 - 3 p.m., at the Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center located on the Grace Hudson school campus in Ukiah. The fair is expected to attract more than 400 children and their families who will participate in free health screenings and gain valuable information about resources in the community. The event is sponsored by Ukiah Valley Medical Center (UVMC) and the Savings Bank of Mendocino County along with a coalition of community partners including the Boys and Girls Club, First 5 Mendocino, Healthy Kids Mendocino, Mendocino Community Health Clinic, North Coast Opportunities, Redwood Community Services, Shriners Hospital, Soroptimist International of Ukiah, Ukiah Unified School District, and Ukiah Valley Rural Health Center. A passport to health is given to each child upon arrival which challenges them to travel through the "jungle" of fun activities and health screenings. They will have the opportunity to visit over 30 interactive booths where they will learn about healthy eating, staying fit, fire safety - parents and care givers will also have access to valuable community resources all in one place!. At each booth the children's passports will be stamped and once they have filled their passport they can drop it off in a prize drawing for a chance to win one of several raffle items, including a brand new bicycle. Free health screenings such as dental, vision, diabetes, and hearing to name a few are available. Shriners provides a free screening clinic for children in need of specialized services for orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate. Over the years these screenings have helped to identify many children with health issues that may not have had access to the same kind of health care services otherwise. Also, new this year free flu vaccines will be offered to parents and caregivers. Kids are encouraged to bring their bikes and receive a free bike safety check-up and participate in the bike safety course. Those in need will also receive a free bike helmet and bike safety light. Other activities include a Kids' Challenge course, hands-on CPR demonstration, live DJ and exercise instruction.

Hundreds of families attend this event every year. While the kids are having fun at the booths, parents gain valuable information about available services from a variety of organizations in the community. Don't miss out on this great opportunity. Be sure to mark your calendar for Sunday, October 4! In addition to the major sponsors, the Free Children's Health Fair is made possible due to generous donations from the community. So far this year donations have been received from Alex Rorabaugh Recreation Center, Soroptimist International of Ukiah, Operating Engineers Local Union #3, Law offices of John P. Passalacqua, Pacific Redwood Medical Group, Dave's Bike Shop, Lucky's Supermarket and anonymous donors. For more information on how to get involved, make a donation or if you have questions, please contact Bridget Sholin at 707-467-5282 or Bridget.Sholin@ah.org.

THE MONTHLY PUBLIC MEETING of the Broadband Alliance of Mendocino will be held this Friday, October 2 at the Community Foundation, 204 S. Oak St., Ukiah.

The "call in" number is: 641-715-3341. Access code: 108 1131#

A special call-in guest will be Mitch Drake, Network Design Consultant (Chief Architect of Golden Bear Broadband) to provide updates on his current work and Q&A.

Reminder - please take the Outage Survey if you haven't gotten around to it yet: www.surveymonkey.com/r/another-outage

GUY DeBORD

Here's one for the AVA archival collection.

Guy Debord (1931-1994) was the most influential figure in the Situationist International, the notorious subversive group that played a key role in provoking the May 1968 revolt in France. "The Society of the Spectacle" (1973, 90 minutes) is Debord's film adaptation of his own 1967 book of the same name. As passages from the book are read in voiceover the text is illuminated, via direct illustration or various types of ironic contrast, by clips from Russian and Hollywood features ("Potemkin," "Ten Days That Shook the World," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Shanghai Gesture," "Johnny Guitar," "Mr. Arkadin," etc.), TV commercials, softcore porn, and news and documentary footage, including glimpses of Spain 1936, Hungary '56, Watts '65, France '68, and other revolts of the past. Inter-title quotes from Marx, Machiavelli, Clausewitz, Tocqueville, and Debord himself occasionally break the flow, challenging the viewers to question their own relation to the film -- and to the society as a whole. San Francisco filmmaker Konrad Steiner has produced a dubbed version of this film using Ken Knabb’s English translation as read by artist/scholar Dore Bowen. Konrad also located and reinserted the original English-language clips from the many quoted films (which in Debord's film were mostly dubbed in French). This enables English-speaking viewers to pay full attention to the images instead of trying to follow subtitles, and thus better perceive the complex interplay between montage, image, and language through which Debord presents his theses. This excellent dubbed version is now online at https://vimeo.com/139772287

THIS WEEK AT THE UKIAH LIBRARY

Week of Sept. 29th - Oct. 5th

All week make a date with a banned book, and take our banned book quiz.

There will be special crafts for teens at "Speak Your Stigma," on Wednesday, Sept. 30, from 2 to 3 p.m.

You are invited to read from your favorite banned book in our Banned Books Read Out on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 5 to 7 p.m.

First Friday Art Walk, October 2nd, 5-7:30 pm

Enjoy acorn crafting and adult coloring. Friends of the Library Booksale. Friday, 4:30-7:30; Saturday, 10-3:30. Music by Kim Monroe, snacks from Mama's.

Ukiah Library Celebrates American Craft Week October 2nd 5-7 pm with local weaver, Stephanie T. Hoppe, live music by Kim Monroe and yummy treats from Mama's.

Wednesday, October 7th at 6pm. "Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields." PBS POV documentary directed by Jesse Moss. Winner, Special Jury Award, 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Bring your own dinner!