Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Oct 28, 2015

• Lintott Apology
• FB Initiative
• Winemaking
• Cannabis Hour
• Supermoon
• Laytonville Teens
• Marijuana Losses
• Lisa Returns
• Yesterday's Catch
• LaForge Sentenced
• SoHum Economy
• Intelligent Conversation
• Plaint
• Piano Concert
• Friday Art
• Willits Hospital
• Channel 3 Rebuild

FORMER MENDOCINO COUNTY District Attorney, Meredith Lintott, will soon regale County radio listeners with the following broadcast statement three times a day for a week on these four stations: KWNE, KMKX, KMFB, and KOZT:

"Hello. This is Meredith Lintott, former District Attorney for Mendocino County. In 2010, during my campaign to be re-elected District Attorney, I published a political campaign advertisement on the radio which stated or implied that Mr. Robert Forest had felony charges pending against him, that he had assaulted an unarmed man with a firearm, and that he had bribed my opponent to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Robert Forest did not bribe anyone. Mr. Forest did not have any criminal charges pending against him. And he did not commit an assault against an unarmed man with a gun. I personally dismissed all criminal charges that were pending against him more than two years before my campaign advertisement was broadcast on the radio. I want to confirm that I made the right decision when I'm dismissed the charges that were pending against Mr. Forrest. I apologize for the harm my statements have caused Mr. Forest, his family, and his businesses."

* * *

THE BACK STORY BEGINS WITH THIS REPORT IN THE AVA IN FEBRUARY OF 2008:

Fort Bragg’s Smoking Police Report

by Tim Stelloh

A cigarette.

That's what caused the argument between Robert Forest and Stanley Douglass one November afternoon three years ago [in 2005]. They were in downtown Fort Bragg, and Forest was walking from a coffee shop back toward the bar where, earlier, he'd had a couple drinks and where he'd parked his motorcycle. Douglass was walking along Franklin Street. They met. They scuffled. And that's when Forest, then 54, removed a .32 pistol from his pocket and aimed at Douglass, then 26.

That much is clear.

How that scuffle lead to a federal lawsuit filed two months ago claiming a former Fort Bragg cop had altered police documents, thus causing Forest's “wrongful” and “malicious” prosecution in the same case, is another story.

Which we'll get to.

First, a bit more on that cigarette. How the argument happened is still up for debate: According to police reports, Forest said he was walking back from Headlands Cafe when Douglass, who's black, approached him, grabbed him, demanded a cigarette. Forest told police that Douglass had said he was a gangbanger and that he'd rough Forest up. Forest also said he felt threatened, so he got his pistol — for which he had a concealed weapons permit (that would later be suspended).

Douglass put it differently. He told the cops that as he was walking past the bar, saw Forest and asked him for a cigarette. An argument followed, so Douglass started walking away — which is when Forest grabbed him and pulled out the gun. A witness provided police — and later the DA — with a version of events that more or less matched Douglass's. The police arrested Forest (who, it turned out, had been convicted 20 years earlier for carrying a concealed, loaded weapon), charged him with assault with a deadly weapon and forwarded the case to the DA's office.

Which is when things got weird.

About a month after the incident, Forest's arresting officer sent an email to recently hired Police Chief Mark Puthuff. The report had apparently been changed: Words had been rephrased. Conversations the officer never had had been inserted. Paragraphs where Forest described his side of the scuffle had been deleted.

“I was working on the supplement you had requested on this case, and when I began to re-read my (four-page) supplement to refresh my memory, I realized that it had been altered. No, I'm not kidding, it has literally been changed,” wrote the officer, Sgt. Brandon Lee. “I found some paragraphs inserted that I never put in there, and then found some missing as well. This is pretty typical fro [sic] FBPD. Anyway, I am sending you this email to let you know that I printed a copy of my supplement, with highlighted sections where the narrative had been changed or deleted. I find this very disturbing, because if I had not taken the time to review it, I never would have known it was like that.”

In the margins of the report, Lee scrawled comments noting which sections had been altered. “This is garbage,” he wrote at the top of the report, “and I would not testify to this under oath that I wrote this!”

Meanwhile, the DA's office was proceeding with the case — though shortly after Lee sent that email, prosecutor Tim Stoen learned of the problems at the police department. He learned that Lee had accused a veteran supervising officer, Lt. Floyd Higdon, of altering the report, according to court documents.

Forest, who once worked with Higdon as a reserve officer, had “professional and personal disagreements” with the lieutenant. The day Forest was arrested and booked, those differences were apparently on full display: Forest promptly asked if Higdon was the officer who'd ordered his arrest. (He was). “I should've known,” he told the arresting officer, Brandon Lee. When Lee asked if Forest could post bail in Fort Bragg, Higdon “insisted” that he be moved to Ukiah instead.

Shortly after these problems began, Higdon retired. He'd been on the force 25 years. He then left Mendo altogether for Merced in the Central Valley, where he's now a police commander; he'd been “recruited” by former Fort Bragg police chief Russ Thomas, he said. Higdon declined to comment on the charges, except to say he'd deny them and that he didn't alter anything.

Problems dogged the DA's case against Forest, however, and in January 2008, District Attorney Meredith Lintott dropped the charges against him. Nowhere in her decision did she mention the problems with Higdon and Lee; she simply said a conviction was not probable.

Tim Stoen, the prosecutor, still maintains that he would have gotten a guilty verdict if his boss had stuck it out. At the time, he made sure Fort Bragg PD knew how he felt.

“It seemed obvious to me that this conflict within the department was causing it to reverse position on the desirability of prosecuting Robert Forest despite the 'firearm seriousness' of the charge’,” he said, according to court documents. “At the preliminary hearing the defendant's first attorney stated in open court that the new chief of police [Mark Puthuff] himself had gone so far as to tell him — the defense attorney! — that Lieutenant Higdon had poisoned the reports in this case,” Stoen said. “After working for seven different elected District Attorneys, I cannot recall a single instance where the internal quarrels within a law enforcement department created a similar attempt to impugn the integrity of an ongoing prosecution.”

That “poison” is one of the central claims in Forest's federal case. So are the “disagreements.”

Nevertheless, the attorney representing Higdon — along with the city of Fort Bragg and the Fort Bragg Police Department, which are also named in the suit — said she's confident they'll win. “We believe the complaint to be unfounded and expect that will be the ultimate outcome,” said the lawyer, Nancy Delaney.

Donald Kilmer, Forest's attorney, said a tentative agreement has been in reached in the case, although details are yet to be worked out.

(Jonah Owen-Lamb contributed to this story.)

* * *

No Coverage for Ex-DA in Defamation Case

By Elizabeth Warmerdam

OAKLAND, Calif. (Courthouse News). January 12, 2015 — Mendocino County's former district attorney cannot rely on her insurance company to defend her in an election-related defamation lawsuit, a federal judge ruled.

Mendocino County District Attorney Meredith Lintott lost her 2010 bid for re-election to David Eyster. After the election, Eyster campaign donor Robert Forest sued Lintott for defamation based on statements made in a radio ad.

The ad accused Eyster of accepting improper campaign contributions from Forest and from others who had criminal cases pending.

The ad stated: "Eyster has also failed to tell you about the cash gifts to his campaign from men with pending felony cases; one in the amount of $2,000, another in the amount of $750. The most alarming, $10,000, comes from a man who assaulted an unarmed man with a loaded gun. Seeking a concealed weapons permit, he petitioned the court and was opposed by Lintott. The courts agreed with Lintott. Eyster has pocketed a $10,000 donation. Are concealed weapons permits now on sale in Mendocino County?"

In granting the Grange Insurance Association's motion for summary judgment on Jan. 5, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers added, citing stipulations: "Although none of the statements reference Forest by name, the comment about the 'most alarming' donation was about him and his identity was known to Lintott when she approved the advertisements."

Grange Insurance claimed it is not responsible for defending Lintott because the statements were not accidental, and therefore not covered by its policy.

During a debate, Lintott made similar comments about Forest, stating that he had assaulted a man with a loaded firearm and attempted to bribe a public official, according to Forest's defamation lawsuit.

Though Forest was never referred to during the debate either, Lintott based her statements on her "personal knowledge and inquiry regarding Mr. Forest," according to the ruling.

Forest did make a $10,000 contribution to the Eyster campaign. He claimed that the criminal charges to which Lintott referred had been dismissed by the time she made them.

Forest was charged in 2006 with felony assault with a firearm. Two years later, Lintott, then district attorney, appeared in court and successfully moved to dismiss the criminal complaint for insufficient evidence. Forest later petitioned for a finding of factual innocence, but was denied.

Forest sued Lintott in 2011, claiming that Lintott knew her statements were false because she had personally dismissed the criminal charges against him.

Lintott attempted to strike the complaint under California's anti-SLAPP statute. The state trial court ruled that the allegations based on statements made during the debate could not survive the SLAPP challenge, but the claim based on the radio ad could move forward.

"Allowing this action to proceed seems inconsistent with the profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide open. Forest has, however, at least with respect to the political ad, demonstrated the minimal showing necessary to defeat the special motion to strike," the state court said at the time.

The California Court of Appeal affirmed, finding that someone listening to the ad could have understood that it was stating, falsely, that Forest had a pending felony case against him.

Grange Insurance represented Lintott in the defamation case under a reservation of rights permitting it to disclaim coverage if any of the claims brought under the lawsuit did not fall under the policy's coverage.

Grange filed its own complaint, seeking a declaration that it does not owe a duty to defend or indemnify Lintott in the Forest action because the nature of the action is not covered under the policy.

"Grange contends that there is no coverage or potential coverage under the policy for Lintott in the underlying action because defamation is covered only if it is caused by an accident and Lintott's statements at issue in the Forest action cannot constitute an accident as a matter of law. The court agrees," Gonzalez Rogers wrote.

The policy provides coverage for bodily injury — which includes libel, slander or defamation of character — caused by an "occurrence," which is defined as "an accident." Therefore, for defamation to be covered, it must have been the result of an accident, Rogers found.

"With this in mind, there can be no reasonable argument that Lintott's statements concerning Forest were accidental. The unique context in which these statements were made, their substance, and Lintott's own declaration together establish that they were not. Lintott admits that she made the statements on more than one occasion, and indeed, approved of their dissemination on the radio during her re-election campaign.

"Moreover, Lintott researched and authored the allegedly defamatory statements; she admits that the statements are 'based upon my personal knowledge and inquiry regarding Mr. Forest' and she specifically 'prepared' and 'approved' the content of the radio advertisement. Accordingly, no reasonable fact finder could determine that the statements were accidental as that term has been understood.

"Lintott's statement that she believed the statements to be true and that she did not intend to cause harm to Forest is of no moment, for 'the insured's subjective intent is irrelevant' in determining whether such actions constitute an 'accident,'" Rogers ruled.

ABOUT THAT ‘NO SOCIAL SERVICES’ in downtown Fort Bragg initiative

(Fort Bragg City Council October 26th)

by Malcolm Macdonald

On Friday October 16, 2015, the Clerk of the City of Fort Bragg received a petition for a ballot initiative entitled “Prohibiting Social Services in the Central Business District.” On October 19th the City Clerk made a prima facie count of the signatures. Her estimate of valid signatures: 659. Current number of Fort Bragg, CA registered voters: 3,124. That makes the number of signatories to the proposed initiative approximately 22% (more precisely: 21.8%) of the voting populace of Mendocino County's second largest municipality.

Near the end of the October 26th Fort Bragg City Council meeting its five councilmen voted unanimously to send the petition on to the County Registrar of Voters for an official tally of the signatures. If the number of valid signatures remains above 15% of Fort Bragg's registered voters then the City must call for a special election on the initiative to ban social services from the central business district (CBD). However, if the date of that potential special election falls within 180 days of a regularly scheduled election the special election will be conjoined with the regular election. That appears to be the situation, so that the earliest a vote on this initiative could take place would be in the June, 2016 presidential primary election.

The initiative is a reaction to the City Council earlier in the year approving transitional housing units and office space for mental health assessments at the site of the Old Coast Hotel at the corner of Oak and Franklin Streets in Fort Bragg's CBD. Money for the purchase of the Old Coast Hotel was funded through a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). In September, the City of Fort Bragg's attorney, Samantha Zutler, stated that consistent with other provisions of the zoning code, if the initiative passes, the facility [Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center's new offices within the Old Coast Hotel] and other targeted social service organizations will become legal non-conforming uses, but the uses will not be prohibited.

The City Attorney went on: If Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center's right becomes vested before the measure takes effect, the retro-activity provision in the initiative would likely be subject to challenge as an improper interference with MCHC's vested right to operate the facility. The killer blow came in this Zutler legal opinion: Using a zoning ordinance to target a specific facility that exists to provide housing to low income persons, persons with disabilities, or persons receiving public benefits could be challenged as discriminatory and unlawful under state and federal laws.

That message was received loud and clear by all five council members in September, including Vice Mayor Lindy Peters, the lone vote against the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center move to the Old Coast Hotel site. At that September 14th meeting each of the five councilmen spoke against the proposed initiative, citing two main reasons: 1) the potential high costs to the city in litigation, and 2) the measure could also deny central business district locations to other, unquestioned, social service organizations.

Potential litigation attaches to the initiative's main clause. “This initiative clarifies and amends Title 18, Chapter 18.22 of the Municipal Code (Commercial Zoning Districts) to not allow by permit or otherwise specific land uses in the Central Business District, as that District is shown and described by Title 18 as of January 1, 2015.”

At the October 26th City Council meeting Peters said that he had approached some of those behind the initiative petition and told them retroactive enforcement would not stand up to legal actions. The City Council and staff, on October 26th, also discussed the potential cost of the special election. Having the petition signatures counted by the Mendocino County Registrar this past summer did not cost the city because the petition fell short by a single valid signature of reaching the 10% minimum of registered Fort Bragg voters to qualify for the ballot. However, if anything close to the 22% number of signatures holds up this time (the County has until December 2nd to verify) then the City of Fort Bragg will be charged for the count. City Council and staff estimated added election costs at anywhere between $10,000 to $35,000.

Apparently, those who organized the petition drive for the initiative are still intent on going forward. I say “apparently” because only a single supporter of the initiative showed up for the October 26th City Council meeting, but even he left well before the council voted 5-0 to send the petition and its 659 signatures to the County Registrar.

All that's left is a mess, a civic ballot measure that not a single current city council member supports, unknown amounts of litigation costs if the initiative should pass, the side issue of privatized mental health care and services (as of this writing Ortner Management Group, the private providers of adult mental health services in Mendocino County is not yet a tenant at the Old Coast Hotel site, but its subcontractor, Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center, is the new owner of the Old Coast Hotel property, subject to CDBG guidelines), and the literal mess that accompanies the daily meals served at or outside the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center's flagship entity, Hospitality Center. No short or long range solution has been proposed by “Hospitality” or the city fathers for the continual trashing of the Central Business District by some of the homeless who are served daily at Hospitality House. “Hospitality's” management and board are still pretty much in denial about the problems caused by dozens of loiterers on the streets, alleyways, and parking lots nearby the Hospitality House prior to, during, and after meals are served late each afternoon. There is very little monitoring of the meals served, so food, plates and utensils often end up as messes to be cleaned up by neighbors for several blocks around Hospitality House on any given day.

I've seen the photos. Food, trash, and worse on the front and back steps of Hospitality House's neighbors. Homeless who are served food by Hospitality House, but for whatever reason are not allowed to spend the night there can be viewed in photos taken by neighbors; homeless persons curled up on the front steps or porches of businesses in the neighborhood of Hospitality House, sometimes curled up with their Hospitality House food and plates scattered across those same porches, steps, lawns. You can find the Hospitality House meals strewn anywhere from Purity to Safeway, McPherson [sic] Street to Main Street.

Providing services for mental health clients at the Old Coast Hotel property may bring minor problems from time to time, but the real problem, the simple monitoring of those fed at Hospitality House has been largely ignored for years. You can't change that with a petition to ban social services in the central business district.

MENDOCINO COUNTY DISTRICT DAVID EYSTER will be Jane Futcher’s guest on the pledge drive edition of The Cannabis Hour, Thursday, Nov. 5 at 9 a.m. on KZYX radio. They will talk about cannabis and the law in Mendocino County— past, present and future. There will be time for a few call-ins toward the end of the hour at 895-2448. KZYX is at 90.7 FM Philo; KZYZ, 91.5 FM Willits and Ukiah, and 88.1 FM Fort Bragg. The station also streams on the Web, at KZYX.org. Together, they make up Mendocino County Public Broadcasting. To hear programs you may have missed, visit jukebox.kzyx.org

SUPERMOON!

LAYTONVILLE SUFFERS YET ANOTHER DEATH

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4670354-181/laytonville-grieves-over-another-teen

FIRES HIT POT FARMS HARD

California’s 2015 wildfire season has been one of the worst in recent times, scorching a massive amount of the state’s marijuana farms.

Fires in prime cannabis growing areas such as Calaveras County and Lake County have destroyed hundreds of pot farms and millions in total financial losses, the International Business Times reports.

Medical marijuana company Bloom Farms’ entire operations were consumed by the Butte Fire, which ravaged Calaveras County in mid-September.

“We were watching pine trees explode like matchsticks,” said Mike Ray, founder of Bloom Farms, to the Times. “You feel extremely small in the universe when you witness a forest fire from that close. Nothing could be done.”

Ray is concerned for his business, as well as the livelihood of many cannabis cultivators affected by the fires.

“I’m very, very worried about the future of the county,” Ray told the Times. “Calaveras is one of poorest counties in California and is dependent on the underground industry of cannabis. Many, many people will not be able to rebuild and will have to move somewhere else.”

Medical marijuana patients affected by the wildfires were at least able to properly medicate, as companies Care By Design and AbsoluteXtracts donated over $30,000 in cannabis products to victims of the fires.

“This disaster happened in our own backyard,” said the companies in a joint statement. “As a company that prides itself on putting patient needs first, we felt there was no better time to reach out and help our neighbors in their time of need.”

Although many farms will look to rebuild, the fires could change the future of cannabis cultivation throughout the region.

“I am going to liquidate and find a new location,” said an anonymous grower, whose crops were destroyed in both the Rocky and Valley fires, to the Times. “As this drought continues, it is obviously going to cause more wildfires and water shortages. It is going to force people to relocate. It is going to change how people grow, period.” (Oscar Pascual)

WE HADN'T HEARD from our favorite South Coast writer for more than a year, but here she is in the current Independent Coast Observer (ICO):

Editor:

I would like to thank Lois Falk of RCMS for calling in the helicopter a few weeks ago when she realized I might find out if there was baseball in heaven within the next half hour. When I was released from the hospital Sunday, Community Resources Connection volunteer driver Jerome Brooks bought my believed husband Greg Girard down to the hospital in Santa Rosa so we both could return home to our favorite place, Gualala. This is certainly a wonderful community.

Lisa Walters, Gualala

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 27, 2015

MICHAEL DONAHE, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MACARIO HERNANDEZ, Clearlake/Ukiah. Pot cultivation.

IGACIO HERNANDEZ-JIMENEZ, Clearlake/Ukiah. Pot cultivation.

JAMES JONES, Ukiah. Resisting, probationi revocation.

ERICA MARMON, Redwood Valley. DUI, child endangerment.

TAJ MCMINN, Ukiah. Domestic assault.

RICARDO MORA, Clearlake/Ukiah. Pot cultivation.

RICHARD OCHOA, Napa/Ukiah. (Unspecified violation leading to CHP arrest.)

FREDDY RODRIGUEZ-HERNANDEZ, Yuba City/Ukiah. Pot cultivation.

ADOLFO SILVESTIRE, Clearlake/Ukiah. Pot cultivation, possession of controlled substance.

ROBERT VERVILLE, Willits. Drunk in public, probation revocation.

GUN MOLL SENTENCED

UKIAH, Tues., Oct. 27. — Felony Sentencing. The final woman of three convicted of assisting and hiding Walter Kristopher Miller, the man convicted of attempting to murder a Sheriff's deputy, from a law enforcement dragnet was sentenced this morning in Department A of the Mendocino County Superior Court.

Knowing that Miller was being sought for attempted murder, Ashley Jo LaForge rented the motel room for Miller to hide in, the same motel room where Miller was arrested and the firearm that Miller used to attempt to murder the pursuing deputy was found.

LaForge, age 31, of Santa Rosa, convicted of being an accessory to attempted murder, was placed on supervised probation for 36 months by Judge Ann Moorman. As one of her terms and conditions of probation LaForge must surrender on December 8th to serve 180 days in the county jail.

While on probation, LaForge will be required to submit to search and seizure, drug testing, and she may not possess firearms, ammunition, and marijuana.

Today's sentencing concludes a related series of prosecutions that began in February 2013 and also resulted in Miller being sentenced to state prison for 181 years to life, Kamara Marie Page being sentencing to county prison for 36 months, and Alicia Marie Gallups being placed on supervised probation for 36 months and required to complete a residential drug treatment program."

(DA Press Release)

UNDERSTANDING SOHUM’S ‘LOCAL ECONOMY’

by John Hardin

In most of America, people understand that drug dealers destroy communities. Neighborhoods either band together to drive them out, or they fail to do so, and drug dealers take over, bringing violence, crime and poverty with them as they undermine community values, corrupt innocent youth, and drive property values down.

Here in SoHum, when the drug dealers arrived both property and community values had already hit rock bottom, and the youth they corrupted were largely their own. Today, after a couple generations of cultural inbreeding, our population now skews strongly towards the greedy, myopic, and ethically challenged, and have united around their shared willingness to exploit the injustice of cannabis prohibition rather than stand against it.

For some it has been a very profitable strategy, and now that they’ve become successful they don’t like to be reminded that their success has come at the expense of millions of poor working people who could ill afford it. They don’t want to see how good people, who make very little money, have to live in order to afford their medicine. And they especially don’t want to see the refugees of the War on Drugs, the ones who lost their jobs, lost their homes, and lost their way, and then show up here, hoping for some kind of break in the sleazy game that has already cost them so much of their lives.

Drug dealers create poverty all over the country, and then complain about all of the poor people around. Drug dealers just don’t care. Either they take drugs that suppress empathy, or they lack the faculty for it. Either way, they have intentionally chosen a path of personal gain at the expense of the larger community. They should not be trusted. They’ll say or do anything so long as they believe it will benefit them.

At first glance, they seem like decent people, and they talk a good game. They spew platitudes like a squid spews ink, and for the same reason — to conceal their sucking tentacles and genuine sliminess. “Community blah blah blah, sustainable, blah blah blah, positivity, blah blah…” they say, but to them, “community” means “me and my drug dealing friends”; “sustainable” means “maintaining a high-consumption lifestyle, indefinitely”; and “positivity” means “no matter how gross and slimy we are, I can always find something nice to say about us.” That’s what “community values” means to SoHum’s dope yuppies.

Still, a lot of people rely on them. Merchants love them. Merchants love stupid people with too much money because they easily become infatuated with shiny objects and purchase them. Non-profits love people with too much money and a guilty conscience. Where would community non-profits be without the boundless guilt of rich liberals? So the dope yuppies take advantage of working people, the merchants take advantage of the dope yuppies, and the non-profits take advantage of everyone’s guilty conscience and they call it “the local economy.”

Then they have the nerve to complain about all of the poverty they created, and wonder why no one wants to work for them. Oh, right, I want to work for one of our local merchants for $10-$15 bucks an hour, waiting on rude, obnoxious dope yuppies all day, just so I can spend half of my income on rent, if I’m lucky, and a quarter of it on overpriced cannabis that I need just to cope with the stress. Fuck that! I’d rather shit and piss on your front step, and beg for beer money on the sidewalk all day.

Why not? Do SoHum’s dope yuppies want cannabis consumers to continue to pay ridiculously high prices for cannabis? You bet they do! They’re lobbying right now for a regulatory framework that preserves prohibition prices and requires more law enforcement activity than ever.

Will Humboldt’s merchants, landlords, bankers and real-estate agents do anything to make SoHum more livable, comfortable, or affordable for working people? Fuck no! They’ll squeeze every last dime out of everyone in town, and then complain that it was such a bother and barely worth their time.

Will any of the non-profits, who have gladly accepted thousands upon thousands of hours of free labor, donated by people who lack adequate housing, ever launch a campaign to make housing affordable, and available to the people in this community who need it? I wouldn’t hold my breath. The non-profits around here are much more likely to buy up homes in the area and build new structures not to house people, but just to have a place to store all of the other crap they own. Besides, our local non-profits have more important things to do, like protecting endangered cannabis from salmon extinction, or looking out for some people’s civil rights, or providing subsidized entertainment for bored dope yuppies.

If you aren’t part of that dope yuppie/merchant/non-profit clusterfuck, they don’t even know you exist, except in the vaguest sense. By that I mean, they understand that all of their money and labor comes from somewhere, but they have no idea where. Together, they’re trapped in a death-spiral of greed, consumption and guilt that feeds on itself, while it sucks the life out of the the rest of the community.

The War on Drugs has ravaged this country, killing millions, and leaving millions more scarred for life, but here in SoHum, the War on Drugs is highly addictive, and too many people remain far too intoxicated by the money it brings in to recognize the damage it does right here in our own community.

(John Hardin writes at Like You’ve Got Something Better to Do.)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

It’s very hard where I live (and it’s supposed to be a “progressive” community) to find anyone who wants to have an intelligent conversation about what is going on. I guess the fact that we are standing on the edge of a precipice just hasn’t gotten most people's attention yet. I find myself staying home more and more to avoid having to paste a smile on my face and participate in conversations that are of absolutely no interest to me. If I do try to turn the converation towards things that I think are fast approaching, I get told to stop being negative. And even the few people who do seem to have a clue haven’t changed their lifestyles in any way, so it’s hard to believe that they really do get it.

PLAINT

Day after somber day,

I think my neighbors strange;

In hell there is no change.

Where's my eternity

Of inward blessedness?

I lack plain tenderness.

 

Where is the knowledge that

Could bring me to my God?

Not on this dusty road

Or afternoon of light

Diminished by the haze

Of late November days.

 

I lived with deep roots once:

Have I forgotten their ways —

The gradual embrace

Of lichen around stones?

Death is a deeper sleep,

And I delight in sleep.

— Theodore Roethke

PIANIST FRANK WIENS IN CONCERT

Coast Chamber Concerts presents pianist Frank Wiens on Sunday, November 8 at 3 p.m. in Preston Hall, Mendocino. Known for his technical brilliance, Mr. Wiens has performed in major concert halls across the world with an unrivaled concerto repertoire. He is a leading exponent of the Russian virtuoso literature and was invited to tour the former Soviet Union with numerous solo and concerto engagements. The Russian press applauded his “technical brilliance, clarity of color and richness of imagery.” Wiens recorded the gorgeous Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Slovakia National Orchestra a recording has become a treasured possession for its owners. Mr. Wiens’ program for his Mendocino appearance will include the Rachmaninov Sonata No. 2 as well as works by Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy and Chopin. The concert is in Preston Hall on Main Street on November 8 at 3 PM. Advance tickets ($20) are available at Harvest Market in Fort Bragg, and Out of this World in Mendocino, or at the door ($25). For additional information call Fort Bragg Center for the Arts, 707-937-1018

FIRST FRIDAY ART

On Friday, November 6^th, 2015, from 5:00-6:00 pm, the Mendocino County Library, Fort Bragg Branch is hosting First Friday Art, Fall Leaf Mason Jar Candle Holder. The Fort Bragg Branch Library will be hosting our First Friday Art event on November 6th from 5-6pm at the Fort Bragg Branch Library. For the month of November we will be making a fun adult craft. Participants will have the opportunity to make Fall Leaf Mason Jar Candle Holder. Stop by the Fort Bragg Branch Library and celebrate First Friday Art in November by making your very own Fall Leaf Mason Jar Candle Holder to enjoy.

NEW FRANK R. HOWARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL to Officially Open October 29 Willits, CA -- After three years of construction and anticipation, the $64 million new Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital (HMH) located on One Marcela Drive is set to officially open its doors on Thursday, October 29.

"This three-year construction process has taken longer than expected and the leadership team, providers and all staff, have been amazing in their determination and hard work throughout the preparation to open the new hospital," shares Rick Bockmann, HMH president and CEO.

"The next step is to officially open our doors and move our patients from the current hospital at One Madrone to the new facility on One Marcela drive, which is scheduled for October 29," he adds. The old hospital is just over a mile away from the new facility on One Marcela Drive, but the two buildings are worlds apart. "Aside from being earthquake-proof, the new HMH is designed for the patient experience. It's built to foster a healing environment for our patients," said Amy Ford, project manager for the construction. Community members who went on guided tours during the grand open house last month agree. "It's a hospital but it doesn't feel like it. It is so high-tech and yet it feels comfortable and inviting. The artwork is beautiful, every little detail is perfect," says Kathleen Goss after a tour of the new hospital.

In addition to state-of-art operating rooms and a spacious Emergency Department, the new hospital has beautiful artwork displayed, adding to that feeling of comfort and healing. "All the artwork was created by local artists in Mendocino County. We are the only art gallery open 24/7 and it adds to that healing atmosphere that we wanted our patients to feel," shares Bockmann.

Before HMH opens its doors, those patients currently receiving care at the old facility at One Madrone will have to be moved into the new facility. The move is scheduled the morning of Thursday, October 29 starting at 6:00 a.m.

"We expect that the move will go seamlessly. During that time, they will see ambulances going back and forth and I'd like to assure our community, this is just part of the move and not an actual emergency. We've taken every effort to plan this thoughtfully while keeping patient safety in mind and reducing the disruption to traffic on Main Street," he explains. Staff at the two facilities will spend half the day operating two fully staffed emergency departments until the last patient at One Madrone is able to be treated and transported to the new hospital on One Marcela Drive. Each hospital will have its own command center, where administrators and others will track the move's progress and handle any potential issues that may arise. "We've rehearsed the entire maneuver of moving the patients from the old hospital to the new hospital for months. Keeping our patients safe and comfortable is our first priority. Because we are so well rehearsed, we feel very prepared," Bockmann said.

Depending on the number of patients in the hospital that day, the entire process could take approximately four hours. As all patients are transported, they will be asked numerous times throughout the process to confirm their names and dates of birth so that everyone is accounted for at each stage of the transition. Karen Scott, VP for patient care staff has been preparing patients and patient families about what to expect on move day. "They're all excited to be part of this historical moment," Scott shares. Once the last patient to move has left the old hospital, the plan is to officially close it for good. Bockmann says the logistics of moving into the new facility are enormous. Because of the distance between the old and the new hospital, everything has to be meticulously choreographed.

The new hospital is more than double the size of the old one. It offers 25 private rooms with bathrooms, state-of-the-art operating rooms, a spacious emergency department with trauma bays, and a helipad, which was not available at the old hospital.

The move into the new hospital is expected to be complete by noon on Thursday, October 29.

Frank R. Howard Memorial Hospital is part of Adventist Health, a faith-based, not-for-profit integrated health care delivery system serving communities in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Our workforce of 28,600 includes more than 20,500 employees; 4,500 medical staff physicians; and 3,600 volunteers. Founded on Seventh-day Adventist health values, Adventist Health provides compassionate care in 19 hospitals, more than 220 clinics (hospital-based, rural health and physician clinics), 14 home care agencies, seven hospice agencies and four joint-venture retirement centers. We invite you to visit www.howardhospital.com for more information.

The new hospital on One Marcela Drive will officially open its doors for patients on Thursday, October 29.

CHANNEL 3 DOWN UNTIL NOVEMBER 1ST

http://mendocinotv.com/2015/10/22/channel-3-is-down-until-november-1st/