Mendocino County Today: Sunday, Nov 1, 2015

• FB Halloween
• Costumes
• Severe Beating
• Manufactured Hazard
• PA Incorporation
• Allman Remarks
• Newspaper Editing
• Fire Survivors
• Police Reports
• Hil-o-gram
• School Walkout
• Fukushima Disaster
• Caltrans Says
• Everything's Mine
• Hell Jail
• FB Cleanup
• HRC History
• Homeless SF
• Electoral Numbers
• Cloverdale Fire
• Witchy Woman
• Daily Catches
• Uncle Sam

HALLOWEEN AT THE FORT BRAGG LIBRARY

 

HALLOWEEN AT THE FORT BRAGG SAFEWAY

(Photos courtesy, Susie de Castro)

“TEENAGER” is not a Halloween costume. Neither is “Dude.”

— Steven Colbert

ON SATURDAY, October 31, 2015 around 12:34 AM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Dispatch received a medical aid call from the 46000 block of Highway 162 in Dos Rios. The caller reported a fall victim with head injuries. This call was transferred to Howard Forest (CalFire) Dispatch and an ambulance was dispatched to the location. Around 1:05 AM Mendocino County Deputies observed a vehicle, travelling at an excessive rate of speed on Main Street in Willits. The deputies attempted to initiate a traffic stop but the vehicle refused to stop, ultimately leading the deputies to the former Howard Hospital Facility, before stopping. Deputies then discovered the driver was attempting to seek medical aid for the victim of the earlier fall victim call in Dos Rios. The vehicle and driver were given a Code 3 (lights and siren) escort to the new Howard Memorial Hospital Facility after deputies observed the seriousness of the victim's injuries. In the emergency room of Howard Memorial Hospital deputies learned the victim, a 35 year old female, had been assaulted at the residence on Highway 162 and had suffered life threatening injuries. The victim was later flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and then to Stanford University Medical Center for more advanced treatment. Deputies responded to and secured the residence while the Sheriff's Detective Unit was called out. Deputies and Detectives learned during the investigation the suspect, Arlon Strauss, had recently come to the property and had been staying there temporarily but his primary address was in Napa County. The investigation led to Arlon Strauss being named as the person responsible for committing the assault by striking the victim repeatedly with a blunt object. He was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of attempted murder and committing a felony that resulted in great bodily injury to the victim. His bail was set at $400,000. The victim was listed in critical condition. Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Sheriff's Tip Line at 707-234-2100.

FROM AN INTERVIEW with Albion-Little River Fire Chief Ted Williams in the recently published Autumn of 2015/Spring 2016 edition of Beth Bosk's New Settler Interview.

(Background note: The controversy over Mendocino Redwood Company's practice of poisoning millions of tanoaks to kill them, leave them standing, let them fall and thereafter increasing the volume of softwood on their forestlands has produced, among other things, claims that the practice is a hazard to firefighters because the smoke from the poisoned trees would be dangerous to firefighters who breathe it while fighting a forest fire. MRC and its supporters claim that there is no proof that such smoke is toxic and therefore firefighter safety in a hot fire of burning tanoaks is not increased by hack and squirt treatment. However, Williams points out that there is another, more well-documented, threat to firefighters if a fire were to break out in the dead standing timber areas treated by hack-and-squirt...)

Williams: "We have to decide when there is a small fire: do we send our volunteers out? They are unpaid. They are doing this to look out for their neighbors. Do we send them out there to work below snags? [The standing trees killed by MRC's hack and squirt practice.] These trees are lethal. The branches are called "widowmakers" because they are lethal. And the firefighters in the heat of the moment, maybe at night in an area they don't know, a lot of noise, diesel engines, chainsaws, hoses being pulled, water strikes… They aren't going to hear those branches snapping. It's not like they are out on a bird walk where they are quiet with binoculars and they can hear the danger. There wouldn't be a lot of warning. So it is a justified risk. The position it puts us in is either way we say "no, were not going to fight that fire" — a fire in a forest with alternating stands of standing dead trees — and the community watches as the firefighters gaze over the fire growing in size and becoming a serious threat. Or we send the firefighters out into an area where we know there are many manufactured hazards. Imagine having to call a family to say: "I'm sorry. But your loved one will not come home tonight because a tree fell." We had that happen on the Diablo fire in Tahoe just this last month. A 21-year-old was dead from a tree falling. That might have been from natural causes. But I'm suggesting we don't need another million of these intentionally killed and left standing snags added to the forest."

FORMER POINT ARENA MAYOR (and before that Fifth District Supervisor for 20 years in the 50s and 60s) Joe Scaramella in a 1983 interview discussed the reasons the tiny town of Point Arena was incorporated and his much later role as a City Councilman/Mayor there in the years just prior to the interview: “There were more than a dozen saloons in Point Arena in 1906 and different saloons had their own special customers. Russian and Finnish immigrants frequented places like the Eagle Hotel, while the Italians and Native Americans had their own watering holes. Those differences were put aside when the saloon owners banded together for city incorporation to fend off the ‘prohis’ [booze prohibitionists] and allow liquor to be sold under the state’s local option law. The saloon owners had to get people from nearby ranches outside the city limits to sign to get enough petition signatures so they paid for ranch-hands to stay in crowded Point Arena hotel rooms to meet the minimum 30-day residency requirements for voting, and they voted to incorporate by a narrow margin in 1908. My father’s saloon business was short lived. In 1906, a hill saturated with rain slid onto the building, wiping out the saloon and the small winery and brewery. The family was forced to spend the night in Gilmore’s livery stable. … The problem of serving on a City council in such a small town is the personal sacrifice of having to tell — sometimes former — friends and neighbors that they must do something or that they cannot do something. It is far more difficult to act as a representative sitting on a city council in a small town than as a senator of the US Senate. People in this community seem to expect that the council will let them do far more than reason permits or the law will allow. I don’t think Point Arena as a city will survive as a city for another 75 years. Cities are born, they mature, they develop, and they die. Point Arena is in its ripe old age.”

WHEN CAMPAIGNING for Sheriff back in 2006, Sheriff Tom Allman made some remarks that are very interesting in retrospect:

“If the Sheriff’s department didn’t have to spend so much time on medical marijuana, they might not need more deputies. I truly believe that if we can have our 48 deputies, and be able to ‘hand-off’ the medical marijuana compliance checks to Public Health, we will have adequate deputies,” And, “The fact that we do not have a jail honor Farm where non-violent inmates can grow food supplies for the jail, is of great concern.” Allman added that an honor farm would lower price of SWAP (where inmates have to pay for their own work release program during the day, then come to jail at night) would help reduce overcrowding. “All they do now is stay in jail and watch MTV,” said Allman. “If you can lower the jail population by 25% that means you can hold off on new jail for a few years at least. We need to work with the judges. And we need to start now.”

THE JOY OF BEING AN EDITOR — Getting out this newspaper is no picnic. If we print jokes, people say we are silly. If we don't, they say we are too serious. If we stick close to the office all day, we ought to be out and around hunting material. If we go out and try to hustle, we ought to be on the job in the office. If we don't print contributions, we don't appreciate genius. And if we do print them, the paper is filled with junk! If we edit the other fellow's write-up, we're too critical. If we don't, we're asleep. If we clip things from other papers we are too lazy to write them ourselves. If we don't, we are stuck on our own stuff.

--Homer Mannix, Editor, Anderson Valley Advertiser, February 18, 1958

SMALL MENAGERIE Displaced By Valley Fire Remains Homeless

by Jenna Lyons

Hundreds of animals left behind in the third most destructive fire in California’s history are slowly being reunited with their owners — or getting new homes.

When the Valley Fire that started Sept. 12 set more than 76,000 acres across Lake, Napa, and Sonoma counties ablaze, most people had little time to get themselves out, let alone round up pets and livestock. The fire killed four people, injured four firefighters and destroyed around 2,000 structures in just under a month before it was contained.

But the number of dead or displaced animals remains unknown.

“The nature of the fire — it was so fast. People literally didn’t have five minutes to evacuate,” said Brenna Sullivan, executive director of the Lake County Farm Bureau. “The number of loose animals running around ... it was just kind of a result of people not having any time to get out.”

Bill Davidson, who runs Lake County’s animal shelter, said it housed nearly 400 animals in Lakeport. About 90 percent of them were matched with their owners, but the remaining critters went up for adoption Thursday. That’s 10 dogs, 27 cats, two chickens, and three horses. There are also eight goats, but they won’t be available until Wednesday, Davidson said.

After the first two days of adoptions, six dogs, 16 cats, and the goats remain. Owner are encouraged to stop by the Lakeport shelter at 4949 Helbush Drive to look for lost pets.

Over at Napa Humane, executive director Jane Albert said about a third of the animals housed went home. Throughout the blaze, the shelter rotated a group of 10-15 animals in a mobile adoption unit parked beside the Lakeport shelter.

“Thankfully, there were some very happy reunion stories,” she said, “They were just so touching.”

Several animals are still in need, though, and residents can help Lake County’s efforts by donating to a fund for Lake Evacuation and Animal Protection, which has been tasked as the animal disaster response group.

Owners still searching for pets can check out several sites, including the Facebook page, PET Lost and Found for Lake County Fires.

(Courtesy, the San Francisco Chronicle)

ALARM: Report at 12:26 a.m. Wednesday that the building alarm at Big Lots on South Orchard Avenue had sensed motion on the roof. An officer responded and reported that the building appeared secure.

WOMAN WITH BREATHING MACHINE: Caller in the 200 block of South Orchard Avenue reported at 9:37 p.m. Wednesday that a woman with a breathing machine was using an outlet out front and cursing at the caller. An officer responded and advised the woman to move on.

CAMPERS UNDER BRIDGE: Caller in the 100 block of Mason Street reported at 10:16 a.m. Thursday that transients were camping under a bridge. An officer responded and cited them for camping within city limits.

SHERIFF’S REPORTS

The following were compiled from reports prepared by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office:

DUI: Ricardo (no middle initial) Garcianunez, 21, of Hopland, was arrested at 2:13 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of driving under the influence, and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The California Highway Patrol arrested him.

MARIJUANA CULTIVATION: Bradley (no middle initial) Mallett, 34, of Laytonville, was arrested at 11 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of marijuana cultivation, possession for sale, being armed with a firearm, possession of prohibited ammunition and manufacturing a controlled substance by chemical extraction. He was booked at the county jail under an undisclosed bail amount. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force arrested him.

MARIJUANA CULTIVATION: Kacy R. Steele, 38, of Laytonville, was arrested at 11 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of marijuana cultivation and possession for sale. She was booked at the county jail under $25,000 bail. The Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force arrested her.

WATER POLLUTION: Aaron (no middle initial) Still, 34, of Willits, was arrested at 12:02 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of water pollution, and booked at the county jail under $15,000 bail. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office arrested him.

POSSESSION FOR SALE: Robert L. Mattos, 68, of Lucerne, was arrested at 12:40 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of methamphetamine possession intended for sale, manufacturing a controlled substance by chemical extraction and committing offenses while released on bail. He was booked at the county jail under $50,000 bail. The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office arrested him.

DUI: Owen J. Smith, 57, of Sacramento, was arrested at 10:32 p.m. Thursday on suspicion of DUI, and booked at the county jail under $5,000 bail. The CHP arrested him.

JAMES JONES, 42, was arrested Monday for allegedly assaulting staff at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center, the Ukiah Police Department reported. According to the UPD, officers responded to the hospital at 10:38 p.m. Oct. 26 when it was reported that a man was assaulting staff members, and had tried to punch a security guard. When the officers spoke with him, he reportedly refused to calm down and had to be restrained. The suspect Jones of Ukiah, was arrested on suspicion of violating his probation and resisting arrest. He was booked into Mendocino County Jail.

WOMAN ALLEGEDLY SHOPLIFTS WITH PLIERS

A 28-year-old Ukiah woman was arrested last week on suspicion of shoplifting after reportedly using pliers to remove the store’s security device from clothing, the Ukiah Police Department reported. According to the UPD, the woman was seen by employees at Kohl’s on North Orchard Avenue removing earrings from their packaging and putting them on. The suspect then reportedly used pliers to remove the security devices from a pair of jeans and yoga pants, then put them on before leaving the store. She was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting and possessing burglary tools.

EVERY REGISTERED DEMOCRAT in the state gets a message from the Hillary campaign every day. This cretinous communique arrived this morning.

From: Official Hillary Campaign <info@hillaryclinton.com>

Date: Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 9:32 AM

Subject: Your free trip to Christina Aguilera’s house:

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/meet-hillary-at-christinas/

No purchase, payment, or contribution is necessary to win, and will not improve chances of winning.

UPDATED: Void where prohibited. Entries must be received between 10/30/15 and 11/1/15. Enter by contributing here or click here to enter without contributing. One (1) winner will receive invitation for winner and guest to attend official campaign event at Christina Aguilera’s home where they will meet Hillary; round-trip airline tickets from within the fifty U.S. States, D.C., or Puerto Rico to Los Angeles and one (1) night hotel accommodation (approximate retail value of Prizes: $2150). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. Promotion open only to U.S. citizens or residents of the 50 states, D.C. or Puerto Rico and 18 or older (or age of majority under applicable law). All prizes awarded. Promotion subject to Official Rules and additional restrictions on eligibility. Sponsor: Hillary for America 300 Cadman Plaza W, Brooklyn, NY 11201.

Paid For By Hillary For America

Hillary and Christina. Contributions or gifts to Hillary for America are not tax deductible.

HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS walked out of Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday morning in support of the deputy sheriff who was fired after violently arresting a black student.

Students reportedly chanted “Free Fields” in support of Ben Fields, a school resource officer and football coach who was caught on tape forcibly removing a black student from her desk, allegedly because she was disrupting class. The students walked into the school atrium and then returned to class after administrators addressed them.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

The Fukushima disaster is radiantly exposed in the Pacific Ocean, but as for people behind the disaster, it is treated like the Manhattan Project, circa 1942… Top Secret!

Still, “Its against international law to dump radioactivity into the sea, but that is precisely what is happening on a daily basis,” according to Dr. Keith Baverstock, former regional adviser for Radiation and Public Health, World Health Organization (“WHO”), speaker at the Citizen-Scientist International Symposium on Radiation Protection, October 23, 2015.

As intimated by Dr. Baverstock, inexplicably Fukushima is immune to international law, standards, and conventions, and nobody cares enough to do anything about it.

Surely, nobody intentionally caused the disaster behind the meltdown, similar to a chain reaction of falling dominoes: an earthquake, tsunami, massive flooding, black-outs, loss of power, hydrogen explosions, nuclear meltdown, and four years of highly radioactive water spewing into the Pacific Ocean, and who knows what else or where else?

(Robert Hunziker)

CALTRANS SAYS IT'S NOT DESTROYING SACRED SITES

From the California Department of Transportation:

Caltrans would like to take the opportunity to clarify some misconceptions and misinformation being circulated about the handling of cultural resources at the Willits Bypass project. This $300 million dollar highway improvement project will relieve congestion, reduce delays, and improve safety for traffic currently passing through Willits.

All State and Federal historical preservation laws are being followed.

Caltrans has worked closely with State and Federal historical preservation agencies, and will continue to do so.

All cultural resources identified during project development were avoided.

Caltrans worked with the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo as well as State and local historical societies to identify all known cultural resources within the bypass project area. The bypass project was designed to avoid impacting all these known resources.

Potential cultural areas are being properly handled.

Potential cultural areas, discovered after construction began, are being handled following all laws. These resources are being avoided if possible, or further investigations are being performed to clear the areas for construction.

Government-to-government meetings are being held every time a tribe asks.

District 1 has the highest concentration of federally recognized Native American tribes in California, and we always arrange government-to-government meetings with tribes and Federal Highway Administration whenever asked.

“EVERYTHING’S MINE” – said the gold;

“Everything’s mine”, – said the steel.

“Everything will buy,” – said the gold;

“Everything will take” – said the steel.

--Pushkin, 1827

THE REAL CRIMINALS IN SOCO

A Statement from the Police Accountability Clinic & Helpline

by Elbert ‘Big Man’ Howard

It is autumn of 2015 in Sonoma County. Amidst the vibrant colors of grape leaves and pumpkins is the reality of glaring news headlines. These greet us daily with tragic stories of the latest mass school (and other) shootings and the most recent killings and abuses of innocent people committed by law enforcement.

The public media has a field day analyzing, posturing and interviewing countless professors, medical and legal professionals, politicians and self-styled “experts” who present all their theories and solutions for the tragic bloodletting.

The political leaders and powerbrokers proclaim that they have answers for the American people as they actually bury their heads deeper in the sand and increase their double-talk of what can be done to end the violence. They do nothing to change the laws to stop the gun violence and murders in this so-called land of laws and nothing to stop rampant abuse and murders on the part of law enforcement.

In this system, those who have been elevated and handed the power to create solutions are instead spending their time and the public’s money on plotting their elections or re-elections. They raise a ton of money for their personal priorities and the public and justice be damned.

It has now been two years since 13-year-old Andy Lopez was shot down while walking to his friend’s house with a toy gun, killed by Sheriff’s Deputy Erick Gelhaus. Gelhaus still patrols the streets of Santa Rosa, free and unprosecuted, as Andy’s family, friends and supporters continue to seek and demand justice.

Now, on the eve of the anniversary of Andy’s death, comes this most recent local news: A lawsuit, filed Oct. 5 by attorney Izaak Schwaiger and the Scott Law Firm in San Francisco, now exposes Sonoma County as the “jail from hell.”

The Sonoma County Main Adult Detention Facility in Santa Rosa has become a center for torture and brutality for the inmates, whose care and wellbeing have been entrusted to the jail employees – these being the sheriff’s deputies. Not only are they not being cared for, but, to the extreme contrary, the suit claims that the inmates there have been beaten and subjected to the most inhuman treatment the sheriff and his deputies can inflict.

Much like the tactics supposedly used only in “Third World countries,” the suit contains statements describing how deputies from the Special Emergency Response team, dressed in all-black uniforms and ski masks, entered inmates’ cells, handcuffed them and then savagely kicked and beat them for up to five and a half hours.

Reports from inmates document being stripped naked, punched, body-slammed to the ground and receiving blows to their heads, as well as other atrocities. The fear described by the inmates, as they lay waiting for their turns to come, listening to other prisoners scream and beg these “officers of the law” to stop hurting them, is unimaginable.

These reprehensible, lawless acts are human rights violations, as well as violations of the U.S. Constitution. The county sheriff is in charge of and is responsible for what happens in the county jail facilities, as well as for the actions of the deputies working there.

In Sonoma County, Sheriff Steve Freitas is responsible, period! He and his deputies must be charged, prosecuted and put in prison for torture, human rights violations and any other proven crimes.

This will never occur as long as the investigators of the charges mentioned in the suit are the sheriff and the Sheriff’s Department itself! Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch has refused to investigate the charges herself and, instead, has directed witnesses to the Sheriff’s Department!

We demand that DA Ravitch bring in an outside investigating body as we believe it is ludicrous to even think that any investigation run by Sheriff Freitas, involving himself and his deputies, will ever be fair or done in the name of justice.

To the residents of Sonoma County in particular, and to people who believe in our Constitution and human rights in general, we say this: It is way past time to rid the community of this law enforcement cancer. Freitas always gets re-elected because he runs unopposed and because he is supported with money coming from the huge wine industry and other big business interests, as well as law enforcement agencies.

This has to change and change now! Change now in the name of Andy Lopez and in the names of the countless other victims of law enforcement! Sonoma County must have a new sheriff, new district attorney, new assistant DA and, in general, a change in leadership.

We support and recognize the courage of the two plaintiffs in this suit, Marqus Martinez and Daniel Banks, as well as that of their families. We also acknowledge the extreme courage of the approximately 20 other still-incarcerated inmates who wrote letters describing in detail much of the same abuse.

We support defense and civil rights attorney Izaak Schwaiger and the co-counsel from the Scott Law Firm in their quest for justice for the two defendants named in the suit. We support asking the court to appoint an independent monitor of Sonoma County’s Main Adult Detention Facility jail; this is the third suit now before the U.S. District Court against the facility, all involving unconstitutional violations on the parts of corrections staff.

We remind the public that October 22nd is the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. In Sonoma County, there will be an event on that day celebrating the life of Andy Lopez. For further details, please go to the website: justicecoalitionforandylopez.com.

We remind the public that October 22nd is the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. In Sonoma County, there will be an event on that day celebrating the life of Andy Lopez.

(This statement is made on behalf of PACH, the Police Accountability Clinic & Helpline of Sonoma County by Elbert “Big Man” Howard. a founding member of the Black Panther Party. Howard is an author, lecturer and community activist in Sonoma County.)

FORT BRAGG BEACH CLEAN UP

(Clean up due to many complaints for ages....and also because of the new trail planned. There have been dog attacks, etc.… Surprised the FBPD identified the problem as generated by transient camps. They usually shy away from that word. — Alice Chouteau)

* * *

On October 30, 2015, members of the City of Fort Bragg Public Works Department, Fort Bragg Fire Department, and Fort Bragg Police Department conducted a clean-up operation at the north end of Noyo Beach in Fort Bragg.

Over the past several months, the number of transient encampments in this area had drastically risen. As many of these subjects are indeed transient, they typically camp overnight, and leave any refuse or unwanted items behind. Due to the amount of refuse, the Police Department had deemed the area a priority matter and a potential environmental issue. Because of this, a coordinated effort by the previously listed agencies was taken to correct the problem.

The end result was the removal of approximately twenty full contractor bags (approximately 15 cubic yards) of refuse, and several miscellaneous items from the area.

The Fort Bragg Police Department has identified several critical components regarding keeping our beaches and remote areas clean and free of illicit activities. In an effort to prevent these conditions from reoccurring, the Police Department will be partnering with several other local agencies in order to establish a plan of action in order to address and prevent future problems. Part of the plan will include making these areas more accessible to law enforcement and local agencies in order to assist with patrolling and maintaining the areas. It will also include the removal and modification of underbrush to make the areas less desirable for illegal activities.

The Fort Bragg Police Department is asking for assistance from the public in order to maintain this area. We ask if anyone observes violations such as littering, camping, open fires, or open alcoholic beverages, to please contact us on our non-emergency line at (707) 964-0200. Anyone with questions, suggestions, or ideas on how to better maintain these areas, is asked to contact the Fort Bragg Police Department at (707) 961-2800. Anonymous information regarding other potential nuisances or problem areas can be left on the Crime/Tip Hotline at (707) 961-3049.

The Department would like to thank all those who participated in this clean up, and everyone that has assisted us in the past with similar issues.

IS HILLARY A CROOK?

by Jeffrey St. Clair & Alexander Cockburn

(From 1993 to 2001, Alexander Cockburn and I wrote dozens of articles on the political corruption of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their cronies in DC and Arkansas. In many ways, those years represented the golden age of political journalism, with a fresh scandal ripening each month. As Hillary cruises toward the Democratic nomination, if not the White House, it’s time to dig into the Clinton Files and resurrect the stories of sleaze, malfeasance and transgression from that feculent decade. — Jeffrey St. Clair)

* * *

In the spring of 1996, Hillary Clinton faced a situation unique in American history: the possible criminal indictment of a president’s wife. For two years a federal grand jury had been sitting in Little Rock, Arkansas, reviewing the Clintons’ financial dealings from 1978 through 1992. The episodes submitted to their scrutiny by independent counsel Kenneth Starr included the Clintons’ involvement in the Whitewater Development Corp.; HRC’s legal representation of James McDougal’s failing Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan; Madison’s possible financing of Clinton campaigns; HRC’s role in illegal real estate transactions in the Castle Grande development; the Clintons’ fraudulent financial statements submitted in loan applications in the 1980s; and more generally, the political cronyism and favoritism the Clintons took part in during their sojourn in the governor’s mansion in Little Rock.

Meanwhile, a separate federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. listened to Starr’s presentation of other episodes, including: “Travelgate”; the removal of Whitewater documents from Vince Foster’s office; and the reappearance of HRC’s billing records involving her work on the Castle Grande project while at the Rose law firm. HRC had previously testified under oath in a federal investigation by the Resolution Trust Corporation that she had nothing to do with Castle Grande.

Pending the explosive impact of an actual indictment, the public view of Whitewater and related matters seems to derive from the consensus of the press outside of committed foes of the Clinton administration such as the Wall Street Journal editorial page. In this view, Whitewater constitutes “a cover-up without a crime.” Hitched to this comfortable sentiment is the proposition that whatever the Clintons’ past peccadilloes, they occurred in the alien subculture of Arkansas, before Bill and Hillary stepped onto the stage of national history.

The most thorough survey of the Clintons’ dealings undertaken by a journalist – James B. Stewart’s Blood Sport: The President and His Adversaries – has elicited precisely this reaction. Discussing Stewart’s 500-page book, Maureen Dowd concluded in her New York Times column that there was nothing new, no smoking gun.

But armed with the details furnished by Stewart and the 1,000-page Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro report on Whitewater to the RTC, submitted on December 28, 1995, it is possible to lay out a simple narrative that’s devastating to the Clintons.

“Whitewater” represents a pervasive character trait of the Clintons: the exchange of money for political favors. It also represents a trait that caused an uproar when William Safire drew attention to it in 1995: namely, HRC’s untrammeled propensity to tell lies.

Whitewater began with a frantic appeal from the Clintons to their friend McDougal for money at a time when Bill Clinton was running for governor in 1978. McDougal duly located the Whitewater property outside the town of Flippen in the Ozarks and got the investment off the ground. Payback for McDougal was not long postponed. Elected governor three months later, Clinton appointed McDougal chief financial advisor in the new administration.

With even greater speed the Clintons and the McDougals reneged on commitments to make a 10 percent cash payment to a Flippen bank against 90 percent financing of their Whitewater purchase. Then they got another below-market-rate loan from a Little Rock bank, again in exchange of a marker against political favors. All these transactions breached Arkansas law, represented insider dealings beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, and constituted one more straw on the caving spine of the Savings & Loan industry. Frank Burge, a loan officer at the Citizens Bank and Trust Co. of Flippen, later told Stewart that when he presented the McDougal/Clinton deal to his board, he made the assumption–accepted by all present–that the plan was to have wealthy backers of Clinton “buy the lots at highly inflated prices as a clandestine means of funneling money into the governor’s pocket, thereby gaining influence.”

As matters turned out, a survey of the Whitewater property got delayed, and then Bill Clinton was rejected by the voters in 1980. Interest rates soared, killing the housing market. The balloon payments on both sets of loans began to wipe them out.

HRC began her notorious trading in the commodities futures market at the same time as the Whitewater purchase, made her $100,000 courtesy of Tyson’s Foods executives, and looked to Whitewater as a tax shelter for her gains, assuredly ill-gotten. In their federal income tax returns for the years 1978, 1979, and 1980, the Clintons deducted not merely interest payments on their Whitewater mortgages but also principal–$20,000 was the illegal portion of the deduction–thus helping offset her gain on the commodities scam. This was the reason the Clintons refused to release their tax returns for 1978 and 1979 during the presidential campaign and beyond, until 1994.

The morning after Bill Clinton’s re-election defeat in 1980, McDougal told Stewart he got a desperate call from HRC, saying, “You need to send us money. We need it right now, and we need all you can send.” McDougal remarked sourly to his wife Susan after the call that they had been subsidizing the Clintons’ share of the investment for the previous two years. The pattern continued. As Whitewater’s financial condition deteriorated, McDougal, fearing that a bankruptcy might tarnish Clinton’s political image, offered to buy the Clintons out of the deal. On four separate occasions Hillary adamantly refused, presumably because Whitewater was useful as a tax shelter, especially under HRC’s generous estimate of what constituted a legitimate deduction. At tax time, millions of middle class Americans thankfully review their banks’ reports of interest payments on mortgages. Very few of them–particularly not corporate lawyers giving tax advice to banks, as HRC was–confuse interest and principal as HRC later claimed she had.

McDougal bought Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan in 1981. Four years later Governor Bill jogged into McDougal’s office one morning and implored him to send some action HRC’s way. She was under pressure at Rose for not bringing in enough business. McDougal duly put HRC on a $2,000-per-month retainer as adviser to his S&L. By the mid-1980s Madison Guaranty was in poor shape and under pressure from federal regulators to tighten up and increase its cash reserves. McDougal had run out of banks to borrow money from, and so HRC came up with the idea–unprecedented in Arkansas–of a preferred stock issue. Permission was duly obtained for this unusual financing from the relevant state regulator, Beverly Bassett, a friend of the governor’s who had–before preferment as Arkansas Securities Commissioner–been a lawyer in Jim Guy Tucker’s firm. There she had worked on matters involving Madison Guaranty, thus making everything as cozy as could be.

One of the Clintons’ constant refrains from 1992 onward has been that in her capacity as partner in the Rose law firm, HRC stood at arm’s length from any dealings with state agencies. In fact, HRC was doing something much more lucrative, namely representing corporations on matters pending before state regulators. Having worked as a lawyer on Madison Guaranty business, Bassett knew very well the S&L was on the rocks. It was only because HRC made the call to her that Bassett gave the official thumbs-up for a preferred stock issue. Fortunately for any possible investors, Madison Guaranty was taken over by the feds, and McDougal kicked out, before the offering was made.

In 1994 HRC swore in a deposition to government investigators at the RTC that she A) never solicited any work from McDougal, B) had no role in the prospective preferred stock matter, and C) did not attempt to influence Beverly Bassett. Though her testimony has not been published, she presumably swore the same thing in her grand jury appearance and in her deposition to Starr.

A similar entanglement stems from HRC’s work on the Castle Grande deal. To the fretful gaze of McDougal in 1985, Castle Grande seemed like salvation for his beleaguered bank. The Castle Grande property was a tract of several hundred acres just south of Little Rock; the development plan involved a mix of industry, a shopping center, and mobile homes. There was a problem. Under state law the Madison subsidiary planning to handle the property could not be its sole owner. In the scam that apparently transpired, there were four principals: McDougal, Jim Guy Tucker, HRC, and Seth Ward, the father-in-law of Web Hubbell, the man in charge of the litigation shop at Rose law.

According to both Stewart and the Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro report, Ward was set up as a fake partner. As described in the report on the RTC’s investigation into Madison, the deals that ensued represented “a series of flips and fictitious sales.” Madison gave Ward an interest-free $1.15 million loan, for which he had no liability. The loan was used to buy a share in the Castle Grande property, thus enabling the whole transaction that was intended as Madison’s salvation (along with the preferred stock issue). Ward was handsomely compensated for his role as ghost dancer, getting a 10 percent commission on all the sales from that property–in the end totaling $300,000. In addition, Madison magnanimously paid Ward $400,000 for a 22-acre parcel in the property, twice its market value.

For his part in this insider dealing, Jim Guy Tucker–lieutenant governor in Clinton’s last gubernatorial term and then governor–was reindicted. (The first indictment was thrown out by a Clinton-appointed judge.) For their role in Castle Grande and other matters, the McDougals went on trial. HRC has professed complete ignorance. “I don’t believe I knew anything about any of these real estate parcels and projects,” she proclaimed in her deposition to the RTC. The RTC and the independent counsel asked Rose for billing records to buttress HRC’s assertions. Both the firm and the White House claimed they could not be located. Two days after the statute of limitations expired on the Castle Grande dealings, the records were miraculously discovered on a table in an office used by HRC to store papers in their private White House residence. The records show she billed Madison for 60 hours of work on the Castle Grande deal.

Not far from the Castle Grande property was a 500-acre parcel owned by International Paper, a timber company and the largest landowner in Arkansas. If Castle Grande was to help bail out Madison Guaranty, this property of International Paper was to be the salvation of the endlessly hemorrhaging Whitewater Development Corporation (WDC), still co-owned by the McDougals and the Clintons.

Ten miles southwest of Little Rock, the International Paper parcel had been high-graded (i.e., the most valuable timber taken out) and it was scheduled for tiny subdivisions for low-income folk and senior citizens. International Paper was offering the property to WDC for the very attractive price of $1,000 per acre. Casting about for a loan to finance the purchase, McDougal lit upon David Hale, a player in Democratic circles in Little Rock who was appointed municipal court judge by Clinton–and, by a fortunate concatenation of circumstances, the owner of Capital Management Services, a company licensed by the Small Business Administration to dispose of low-interest loans.

In a plea bargain accompanying indictment and conviction for his role in this affair, Hale has claimed that Governor Clinton twisted his arm to set up an SBA loan to Whitewater, which duly came through within two days, thus remaking government well in advance of the Clinton-Gore administration. The $300,000 from the SBA to the Whitewater Development Corporation went in part as down payment for the International Paper parcel, which accepted a note from WDC for the balance.

The sale went through in March 1986. By October 1987 Whitewater Development had defaulted on its payments. International Paper filed a foreclosure lawsuit, naming the Whitewater Development Corp. and the McDougals; conspicuously missing from the suit were the names of Bill Clinton and HRC. There is no doubt that International Paper was doing the Clintons an enormous favor by offering them a cheap price for commercial property near Little Rock, and by the subsequent omission of their names from the foreclosure suit. During this period in the mid-1980s, Governor Clinton signed what became known as the IP bailout. This was the Manufacturer’s Investment Sales and Use Tax Credit, which yielded the timber companies in Arkansas, including International Paper, $400 million in tax breaks.

By the time WDC defaulted on its payments, McDougal was a broken man, financially and psychologically. HRC sought and was gladly given power of attorney over the WDC. But from the events that followed, it appears that HRC was less competent to handle such matters than McDougal. For starters, under her stewardship Whitewater Development Corporation failed to file corporate income tax records for three consecutive years. These returns were eventually completed and filed by Vince Foster in the spring of 1993.

More serious were HRC’s dealings with the banks holding the Whitewater mortgage. Despite repeated pleas from the McDougals and the Flippen bank, the Clintons refused to submit personal financial statements. When finally forced to comply or face the calling in of the loan, Hillary prepared a document for the Citizens Bank and Trust Co. that greatly overestimated the value of the Whitewater investment and their personal net worth. For example, HRC said the couple’s stake in Whitewater was $200,000 when, in fact, the value of their investment was closer to $40,000. All told, HRC submitted at least three false financial-disclosure documents. This is a clear violation of federal law. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr used similar violations to secure indictments against other Whitewater players, including Jim Guy Tucker.

In the mid-1980s, the Citizens Bank at Flippen was bought by the larger Twin Cities Bank of Little Rock. In 1986 the loan managers evaluated the Whitewater development and concluded that the balance of the loan far exceeded the value of the property. They recommended that the loan not be renewed. This recommendation was overruled by the executive officers of the bank, who at the time were seeking a favorable ruling from the Clinton administration on changes to state banking practices. The ruling soon went in Twin Cities’ favor. Moreover, one of the vice-presidents at Twin Cities was Margaret Davenport, a close friend of HRC. On HRC’s recommendation, Bill Clinton appointed Davenport to the board of the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority, whence she steered several large bond issues to her bank. In return, HRC and the Rose law firm were rewarded with business from Twin Cities Bank.

It was under these fragrant circumstances that HRC stood exposed to indictment from two grand juries both for substantive crimes and for obstruction of justice. Even though those grand jurors declined to return a bill of indictment, the investigations exposed a series of unsavory financial transactions involving the First Lady and her subsequent deceptions about her role in them. It has always been evident to anyone looking at the evolution of the Arkansas Development and Finance Authority, and at Bill Clinton’s magical capacity to come up with political funding in moments of crisis, that there were many skeletons in Little Rock under the flimsiest of locks. But even today the press remains forgiving.

(A version of this article originally appeared in City Pages. Alexander Cockburn’s Guillotined! and A Colossal Wreck are available from CounterPunch. Jeffrey St. Clair is editor of CounterPunch. His new book is Killing Trayvons: an Anthology of American Violence (with JoAnn Wypijewski and Kevin Alexander Gray). He can be reached at: sitka@comcast.net. Courtesy, CounterPunch.org)

SF CITY HALL "NEGLECTING" THE HOMELESS?

The Chronicle's recent editorial (City Hall's neglect must end) raising the alarm about homelessness is confused, not about raising the alarm but about the recent history of homelessness in San Francisco:

San Francisco's leadership has neglected the city's homeless problem for years---and now it's reached a crisis point. Homelessness is not a new problem in San Francisco. For decades, it's evaded the best efforts of a succession of mayors, including those who believed they had bulletproof solutions.

Which is it? Have mayors neglected the homeless issue or have they tried and failed to solve the problem? I don't recall a single mayor who claimed to have a "bulletproof" solution to homelessness. A look at the Chronicle's archives on homelessness shows that it emerged as an important issue in the 1980s when Dianne Feinstein was mayor.

The problem with the Chronicle's editorial is that it doesn't acknowledge that homelessness has been a national problem for years:

This is a homegrown problem that's been exacerbated by the city's economic boom. Seventy-one percent of the homeless population were individuals living in San Francisco when they became homeless, according to January's count.

For the 71% conclusion, the Chronicle editorial is relying on an earlier Chronicle story that in turn relied on this year's Homeless Count Report that discusses a survey of a limited number of homeless people (page 27). But that survey is only about what the homeless themselves say about where they come from and how long they've been here, fostering the "common belief" that the homeless are long-time city residents fallen on hard times.

In truth San Francisco has long been a destination for the marginal and the potentially homeless, which the Chronicle itself has reported in the past.

Elsewhere in that recent Chronicle story on homelessness, there are numbers showing that Mayor Lee and City Hall haven't been twiddling their thumbs on homelessness since 2011:

Since January 2011, when Lee took office, the city has placed 3,551 homeless people in supportive housing. It is gradually adding to that stock of housing, with another 500 slots scheduled to open this fall. In that same time span, 3,432 people have been sent home with a free bus ticket to willing friends and family under the Homeward Bound program. That means 6,983 people have been moved off the streets in five years — more than the entire current homeless population. In the last dozen years, using the same strategies, the city has moved 21,000 homeless people off the streets — think of moving half of a capacity crowd at AT&T Park. The city reports it has been especially successful housing homeless veterans and the chronically homeless who have been on the streets for years.

By definition the 3,342 homeless bused out of the city by the Homeward Bound program were not from San Francisco, and I suspect almost all of the others are relatively recent arrivals, since the city is a destination for both high-end tourists and the marginal and the soon-to-be homeless.

The homeless numbers don't show a radical increase in the homeless (see the graphic above), but now they are more visible, often gathering in hard-to-ignore encampments:

"Pockets where people would hide and be out of sight are no longer available," said District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen. "It is forcing people to come out of the shadows."

(Rob Anderson, Courtesy, District5Diary)

ELECTION MODE

Dear Editor:

As we move into an election mode I have started to play around with various scenarios of electoral votes and in particular with the swing states. To win an election a candidate needs 270 electoral votes.. It should be noted that in general the blue states tend to be large populated areas located near water. For example, the Pacific Rim states with the exception of Alaska - California, Oregon, Washington and the Hawaiian Islands are solid Democratic states. The same with New York and the New England States plus the Great Lakes area with some exceptions. The red states tend to be smaller states in the greater Midwest and states of the old Confederacy. It should be noted California with 55 electoral votes has 20% of the electoral votes while Texas with 38 electoral votes represents 14%. It looks like the Democrats have at least 220 electoral votes in their pocket while GOP has around 190. Some of the swing states are Pennsylvania (20), Florida (29), Ohio (18) and Virginia (13). Since it looks like Hilary will have the nomination wrapped up early she will have a big advantage over the GOP which apparently will not have a candidate for some time to come. Key for the Democrats is to get the African-American, Hispanic, Asian and single women to the polls.

In peace and love,

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

FIRE AT THE CLOVERDALE MILL

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4689584-181/fire-extinguished-at-cloverdale-sawmill

YOU CAN SAY YOU MET HER LAST NIGHT

Witchy Woman

Raven hair & ruby lips

Sparks fly from her fingertips

Echoed voices in the night

She's a restless spirit on an endless flight

[Chorus]

Woo hoo, witchy woman

See how high she flies

Woo hoo, witchy woman

She got the moon in her eye

 

She held me spellbound in the night

Dancing shadows & firelight

Crazy laughter in another room

And she drove herself to madness with a silver spoon

[Chorus]

Ah, oh ah ah (waahaa)

Well I know you want a lover

Let me tell you brother

She's been sleeping in the devil's bed

And there's some rumors going round, someone's underground

She can rock you in the night-time 'til your skin turns red

— Don Henley, The Eagles

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 30, 2015 (Booking photos not posted.)

DEBRA BINDER, Kelseyville. DUI, possession of controlled substance.

MARTIN CASTRO, Hopland. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, probation revocation.

SHANNON CULBRETH, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun.

MARCOS FERMIN-GARCIA, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, probation revocation.

STEVEN GREEN, Ukiah. Failure to appear.

CHARLES HENSLEY, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

EUFECIO HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Possession of controlled substance, probation revocation.

GABRIEL HERNANDEZ, Ukiah. Possession of controlled substance, probation revocation.

THESSALONIAN LOVE, Apple Valley/Point Arena. Distribution of lewd material to seduce minor, contact with minor with intent to commit lewd act and sexual offense, brining obscene matter into or distributing within state/first offense, annoy or molest child under 18 after entering inhabited dwelling without consent, probation revocation.

JAVIER RAMIREZ, Ukiah. Paraphernalia, dirk/dagger.

THOMAS SANDERS, Willits. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

TYLER SHIVELY, Willits. Shoplifting, trespassing, probation revocation.

OWEN SMITH, West Sacramento/Ukiah. DUI.

KACY STEELE, Laytonville. Pot cultivation, sales.

AARON STILL, Willits. Water pollution, possession of drug smoking-injecting device, probation revocation.

FRANCISCO ZAMORA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

=============================

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 31, 2015. (Booking photos not posted.)

DUSTIN ALLEN, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, brandishing.

CHERLYN CAPE, Willits. Possession/under influence.

JACOB GARCIA, Ukiah. Parole violation.

ERIC GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Pot possession for sale, metal knuckles, switchblade, probation revocation.

WAYNE HALE, Covelo. Unspecified offense.

HEIDI HINTON, Willits. Controlled substance, probation revocation.

MICHAEL JAMES, Ukiah. Murder.

THOMAS LANGENDERFER, Albion. Mandatory supervision violation, resisting.

ARMANDO LLAMAS, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

JEROME MCMURPHY, Ukiah. Parole violation.

ANGEL MILLER, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

DAYNES PABO, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public.

BILLY RICKMAN, Ukiah. County parole violation.

ERNIE SALO, Fort Bragg. Failure to appear, probation revocation.

JAMES SANDERSON, New York, New York/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

GOZALO SOTO-GONZALEZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

ARLON STRAUSS, Willits. Murder.

LORA WALTON, Petaluma/Laytonville. Domestic assault.