Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Nov 7, 2015

• Fined Again
• Panthers Win
• Hendy Maintenance
• Dollar Rules
• AVHC Board
• County Vilification
• Yesterday's Catch
• MRC Ad
• Burn Season
• Donald Shakespeare
• Rebel Reporting
• Vote Counting
• Burl & Will
• FB Trail
• Train Test
• Vice News
• Keystone Pipeline
• Glass-Steagall Redux
• Bloomsbury Ghosts
• Business Women
• Corrected Version
• Ordinary Man
• Big Oil
• Craig's Cough

JUST IN: Grist Creek Aggregates has been given a second violation with a $150,000 fine. Details to follow soon.

ANDERSON VALLEY PANTHER WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM WON A HARD-FOUGHT FIVE GAME SHOWDOWN against Mendocino’s very competitive Lady Cardinals Friday night in what Mendocino Sports Plus called their “rubber match” in Boonville. With the win the Panther gals get an automatic entry into the Division 6 playoffs with favorable seedings throughout. Mendo went into the match riding a seven game winning streak. Anderson Valley won in five games when they hosted their first match this year in Boonville after Mendo went out to a 2-0 game lead only to lose the three following. Mendocino evened the series last Tuesday defeating their arch-rivals in five sets and snapping a 15-match, six-year losing streak against AV in the process. But in the end AV won 15-10 in the final game after four fairly even close games.

KATHY BAILEY EXPLAINS the probs at Hendy Woods:

There are two parallel maintenance issues going on at Hendy Woods. No amount of maintenance could have prevented the need for replacement of the water pipes. After more than 50 years, they are just crumbling, and the pipes also have an asbestos component as was common practice in the 1960s. (Is there nothing that did not contain asbestos in the '60s?)

Yes, regular maintenance and lack of a permanent maintenance person at Hendy Woods since Ted Holstine died has been a huge issue, but signs are extremely favorable that will soon change.

The current very temporary park closure is due to a construction issue. The horizontal drilling rig hit one of the existing pipes. A major problem with the old system is an inability to isolate pipe sections due to lack of valves. The repair to the old pipe has been made and they are awaiting the water test results. When the test shows "all clear" the park will immediately reopen although there will be temporary closures in parts of the park during the construction to avoid public contact with the equipment.

The Hendy Woods entrance sign is being refurbished at Chamberlain Creek. They do great work there so I am sure we will be happy with the results. There will be no change in the design of the sign.

RULES IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER?

To the Editor:

This replies to Mr. Peter Brown’s letter to the Ukiah Daily Journal Editor of October 28 that Dollar General should be allowed to build one of its 9100 Square box stores in Redwood Valley because, to paraphrase, “the rules are the rules, and Dollar General has complied with the rules.”

One of the “rules” that Mr. Brown seems to be unaware of is CP-RV-3, which is a portion of the County’s General Plan that is specific to Redwood Valley. This policy states in relevant part that the County shall promote improvement of the aesthetic character of the Redwood Valley downtown core. Mr. Brown also appears unaware of CP-RV-3.2 which states that commercial development on East Road shall have a consistent architectural theme and be compatible with the character of Redwood Valley. The Board of Supervisors has the responsibility to assure that these rules are met in the case of any proposed project. That is, a building permit can’t legally be issued unless it meets the requirements of the General Plan as well as the requirements of the Zoning and Building Codes; and the Board of Supervisors is the agency that makes that decision.

Mr. Brown also assumes there is a rule that says that if a project meets the requirements of the Building Code a Building Permit must be issued without regard to CEQA considerations or the General Plan. That is the rule in some cities and counties, it is not the rule in Mendocino County. Again, it is the Board of Supervisors that must decide whether or not the requirements of CEQA and the General Plan have been met even in the case of a project that complies with the Building Code and is consisting with the zoning of a piece of property.

If the environmental impacts of a particular type project — such as a 9100 square foot national chain box store in a small rural community such as Redwood Valley — have never been studied during the adoption of the General Plan and the relevant zoning code, then the law is clear that the environmental impacts of a project can and should be considered when the project is proposed.

Throughout history a lot of stupid and venal decisions have been made and justified on the theory that “a rule is a rule and it was my job to follow it.” We are lucky our Board of Supervisors looks beyond such a simplistic phraseology to determine what in fact all the relevant “rules” are and whether or not a proposed project in fact complies with those rules.

Alex Chehada, Redwood Valley

AV HEALTH CENTER OPEN FOR NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS APPLICATIONS

Hello everyone,

The Anderson Valley Health Center is looking for new board members who have time and the commitment to actively participate in the Board of Directors' and AVHC activities. We would especially but not only welcome younger community members with families who can represent this age group. This is a strictly volunteer position that is not open to close relatives of AVHC staff. A term is 3 years and you will be invited to join at least one working committee in addition to attending monthly Board meetings. Board members can expect to spend 10 to 15 hours per month on projects and meetings. You will help us make decisions that will affect the health of the organization and the broader community in the coming years.

Please call the Health Center (895-3477) for an application which can be left at the front desk when filled out or mailed to the AVHC (PO Box 338, Boonville). Thank you for considering supporting our local health center with your talents. We hope to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Heidi Knott Gundling,

AVHC Board of Directors Secretary

HOW MENDOCINO COUNTY STOLE FOUR CHILDREN FROM THEIR MOTHER

by James Marmon

Last weekend I received a call from a mother who is frantically fighting to regain custody of her four children who have been ordered adopted out by Judge Cindee Mayfield. The case is currently in the Court of Appeal of the State of California. The mother asked me if I would contact her appeals attorney and explain my involvement in her case and how her case actually came to be as it is now. I informed the mother that I would, but I wasn’t sure that my information would help unless she could amend her current appeal brief to include “Prosecutorial Misconduct.” She also asked me if I would write something in the AVA so that others would know her plight.

I agreed to do that as well.

On August 15, 2011, while working in the Willits office, I was summoned to [Mendocino Assistant Health and Human Services Director and Social Services Department Manager] Bryan Lowery’s office (my supervisor) regarding what appeared to be an urgent case. Lowery was on speaker phone while a newly appointed Social Worker 1 and I sat in the office for the phone conference. The SW I was reporting that two children on her voluntary caseload were seriously injured over the weekend, and that the mother, Kimberly Ortwein, did not acquire proper medical care for either child’s injuries. The SW I said she had contacted the mother and directed her to take the children to the Howard Memorial Emergency Room immediately.

Bryan Lowery instructed the SW I to call the hospital and place a medical hold on the children. He then directed me to accompany the SW I to the hospital and detain all four of the mother’s children. I informed Lowery that we needed to get a warrant first. The hospital hold would be in effect for four hours and we had plenty of time to get a warrant, especially since there was no exigency. He overruled my opinion and demanded that the children be detained immediately, even without an assessment of their welfare being conducted first.

In my 10 years of experience in CPS Emergency Response I had “never” been told to go pick up anyone’s child “sight unseen” without obtaining a court order first. Concerned that I could be sued, I refused to accompany the SW I in detaining those children. (County Counsel Jeanine Nadel, just a few short months earlier, had given a mandatory warrant policy training and told every social worker that they could be sued and that the County would not defend any social worker who violated it.)

On August 16, 2011, I was then directed by Bryan Lowery to write the Petition and Detention Report for the SW I who had never written either document before and had no idea as how to do so. The SW I was basically just a trainee who had just been promoted to a Social Worker I after being a social worker aide for several years. Lowery informed me that I was to write the documents with the information provided from the SW I only.

I emailed him a request to be completely relieved from the case but he declined.

In both the Petition and Detention Reports I was told to allege that serious harm had come to two of her children and that the mother failed to access proper medical attention for them without being prompted to do so. I was also supposed to allege that the mother’s two other children were at risk of serious injury due to the mother’s inability to properly supervise them; her other two children therefore needed to be kept in protective custody as well.

On August 17, 2011, I informed Lowery and Lynch that I needed the Emergency Room Discharge Reports to attach to the detention report. I had been asking the SW I for the hospital reports for two days and had not received them. Finally, she brought me an ER report for one of the children and told me that we probably did not want to attach it to the Detention Report, as it would not support the petition already filed regarding the children’s detention. I read the report and it clearly stated that the child had only sustained superficial wounds that did not require emergency room treatment and that the mother had properly cared for the wounds. Furthermore, the doctor checked the mandatory box regarding suspected child abuse as NO. (The mother later told me that the doctor was upset that CPS had ordered her to take her child to ER, and complained that it wasted the ER’s time and resources).

I immediately questioned the SW I as to where the other child’s medical report was and she informed me that there was a problem with that report as well. After reading that report I started explaining to the SW I that I had wasted over three hours preparing the Detention Report and that now we needed to rethink the whole process and possibly return the children to the mother immediately. I was concerned that the Agency’s reputation and credibility with the Court would become a bigger issue than it already was at the time. The case was a disaster from the very beginning.

While the SW I and I were speaking, Bryan Lowery called me into AJ Barrett’s office. [AJ Barrett is listed on the County’s Social Services Directory as one of five “Children’s Services Managers.”] I followed him into the office and I shut the door behind me before sitting down between the two of them. While seated I attempted to tell Barrett about how messed up the case was and the terrible job Lowery was doing. I also explained to him that not only was Lowery using poor judgment, that he did not meet the merit requirements to be supervising me in the first place. I informed Barrett that according to Merit System, a Social Worker Supervisor I couldn’t supervise a Social Worker V, only a Social Worker Supervisor II could do so. Lowery didn’t have a master’s degree, which prohibited him from ever being a SW Supervisor II. If anything, I should have been supervising him not the other way around.

The conversation became heated as I attempted to express my frustration with this case and the Agency in general, especially some of the agency's unusual policies and procedures that they had recently implemented. I informed them that I knew they were only being written to suppress me and were not in the best interest of the Agency.

I had made several serious allegations against the Agency to Director Stacey Cryer, CEO Carmel Angelo, and the Board of Supervisors about irrational practices being implemented. I had also complained about the staffing issues as well, especially in regards to unqualified social worker supervisors. The conversation ended and I went to lunch. When I returned an hour later I was met by the Welfare Fraud Investigator who had been summoned from Ukiah to Willits to have me escorted out of the office. He had me wait outside in my car for another hour while a letter was written and sent up to the Willits Office from Ms. Cryer in Ukiah. The letter stated that I was placed on administrative leave and that I was not to contact anyone in the County until further notice.

I was now faced with an ethical dilemma. Should I follow the unreasonable demands of the letter, or did I report what had happened in this case and correct the Agency from making critical mistakes? I chose the latter.

After I returned home that evening, I sent an email to the fraud investigator, County Counsel, Director Cryer, and CEO Angelo relaying to them how this case was being mishandled. The next morning at the Detention Hearing (August 18, 2011) County Counsel requested a 24 hour continuance which was granted by the judge.

On August 19, 2011, the Agency returned to Court with an amended petition without the medical neglect allegations, but they did not correct the information written in the Detention Report. Furthermore, they still did not attach any medical records with Detention Report. Instead, they attached pictures that the SW I took of the two children’s injuries on August 15, 2011. A trained social worker would never just attach just pictures of injuries of children to a report without all corresponding medical information from a physician. Pictures of injuries on children, especially infants or tots, are extremely inflammatory and can bias the best of us, judges included. The practice is discouraged among professionals and is considered extremely unethical. To make things worse, they left in the Detention Report the following paragraph:

“The mother has failed to protect the children from serious physical harm, and when they were injured, she failed to seek immediate medical care until told to do so by a family member or Child Protective Services (CPS) staff. The mother has repeatedly failed to provide supervision appropriate to the age development of each child. The mother minimized the extent or seriousness of the injuries, rather becoming defensive, asking what more could she possibly do? The mother did not demonstrate that she grasped the extent of the injuries, or that she understood how to prevent further injuries to any of her four young children.”

There were never any serious injuries to the children for the mother to minimize in the first place, and she actually had a better grasp on the extent of the injuries than any of the professionals involved. The medical reports stated that they were superficial wounds that did not require emergency room treatment, as noted by the ER doctor, and that the mother had appropriately cared for the wounds. I read the reports myself.

Not only did the Agency bias the judge, they also biased the psychologist that they ordered the mother to for an evaluation. The psychologist quoted the above paragraph in her report as part of her findings and criticized the mother’s abilities.

Ms. Ortwein explained to me that she was unhappy with being sent to the psychologist and was not as cooperative as she should have been. She stated that she didn’t answer the questions as well as she could have either, and just marked random bubbles without really reading the questions. The mother admits that she didn’t do well with the psychologist because she didn’t want to go in the first place. Ms. Ortwein had become upset with the Agency and their attempts to vilify her.

As a result of the detention of her children without a warrant, the Detention Report and then the Psychological Report, Ms. Ortwein has endured an up and down relationship with the Agency where she has had her children returned to her and taken away again, and eventually ordered out for adoption. As I read her 99 page appeal brief I was amazed as to what she has been through. But what’s even more amazing is how my complaint about Mr. Lowery’s initial directive in this case has gone from bad to worse.

County CEO Carmel Angelo, Stacey Cryer, and County Counsel’s decision to cover-up Lowery’s unlawful detention by withholding exculpatory evidence is unlawful and they could still be personally sued for it today. The Agency has definitely targeted Ms. Ortwein and has gone out of their way to vilify her. All this just because I made Lowery look bad and embarrassed him in front of one of his favored workers.

Since this particular incident first started in August of 2011, Lowery has been promoted to the second highest position in all of Health and Human Services, and the SW I has followed him through the ranks and now holds a high position in HHSA. I don’t consider her innocent in this; she made the decision to keep her mouth shut and follow Mr. Lowery’s directive even after I warned her about the need for the warrant, and to this day the medical records have never been made part of the court’s record. Lowery has taken good care of her by seeing that she rose rapidly through the ranks.

One has to think, had Ms. Ortwein’s case been assigned to a competent and qualified social worker in the first place, and if the Emergency Response Supervisor (Lowery) had been competent and qualified as well, would this mother’s children have ever needed to be detained?

Ms. Ortwein had come to the Agency three months earlier to ask for help. The Agency opened a voluntary case after her husband had been deported to Mexico, leaving her alone with no support in the home and no financial resources. The way she has been treated is beyond terrible. She has become a victim of a dysfunctional County organization which now involves Lowery’s former employer Tapestry Children’s Services, which is part of the mental health system. Ms. Ortwein's children have become a big funding source for the County’s community partners and has cost the taxpayer’s thousands and thousands of dollars over the past four years and will most likely cost thousands and thousands of dollars for many more years to come — “million dollar babies.”

When the agency first got involved in this case, the children were normal; not anymore, just ask the Tapestry MFT Intern that is involved in this case and is apparently calling all the shots now.

I’m considering turning this case over to Robert Powell Esq. the famous CPS defense attorney from San Jose who handled the Baby Emerald case after I contacted him a couple of years ago. I am currently working with him on a totally different Mendocino County Case in which a complaint is forthcoming. I can’t wait to explain Mendocino County’s Katie A. program to Mr. Powell; he already has questions about it in the other case and wants a breakdown. Ms. Ortwein’s appeal is a victory for me, and as promised, I will eventually vindicate myself and why I was terminated. Hopefully it will force the County to reinstate me. Whether I accept it or not will be my decision only. The main thing for me is that I can clear my name and restore my reputation and become employable again.

As Clint Eastwood would say, “when you hang a man, you better make sure he’s dead.”

CONCLUSION: “Child abuse and neglect are very serious problems. We applaud the efforts of social workers to address these matters and to protect the vulnerable victims of these crimes. “No one can doubt the importance of this goal.”

— Cf. Mincey v. Arizona, 437 U.S. 385, 393, 98 S.Ct. 2408, 57 L.Ed.2d 290 (1978). However, the rights of families to be free from governmental interference and arbitrary state action are also important. Thus, we must balance, on the one hand, the need to protect children from abuse and neglect and, on the other, the preservation of the essential privacy and liberty interests that families are guaranteed under both the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments of our Constitution”.

http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1083074.html

James Marmon, MSW.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 6, 2015

CURTIS ADAMS, Willits. Under influence and possession of controlled substance, loitering, resisting, probation revocation.

RONALD BAUMEISTER*, Ukiah. Drunk in public.

FRANCISCO DUENAS, Gualala. Battery, vandalizing phone lines, probation revocation.

ANTHONY GRANADOS, Ukiah. Under influence, paraphernalia, fake registration, probation revocation.

MIGUEL GUEVARA, Ukiah. Ex-felon with firearm, possession of drugs while armed, possession of controlled substance, metal knuckles, suspended license.

SCOTT HEIDINGER, Ukiah. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

MICHAEL LUCAS, Ukiah. Parole violation.

JOSE MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Possession of meth, probation revocation.

JOSEPH MENDOZA, Willits. Assault with deadly weapon with great bodily injury, resisting, false ID, probation revocation.

JACOB SELLMER, Redwood Valley. Vehicle theft.

DYLAN STAUFFER, Roseville/Willits. DUI.

WILLIAM VANTREESE, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

CLINTON WORCESTER, Philo. Domestic battery, battery, crikminal threats.

* * *

*WESTPORT MYSTERY. This man might well know where two bodies lie, but if he does he isn't saying. His name arose in the James Denoyer case back in 2007

(https://www.theava.com/archives/83)

“When I went back to Jim’s to look for my dad,” Ryan Neily remembers, “I found my dad's dog locked up in a truck at Jim's. I was up there poking around near the trailer where I'd lived, and I met Ron Baumeister up there. He told me my dad had left ‘months ago in his Mustang.’ Baumeister knows what happened,” Ryan Neily insists. “He knows something to lie like that because both my dad’s vehicles were at Jim's. The Mustang hadn’t moved. I called the Sheriff, and the next day the cops were there in force complete with cadaver dogs. They searched the whole place but found nothing. I know the cops wanted Ron to come in for a polygraph, but Ron didn't and hasn't been seen since, either, that I know of.”

* * *

In 2008, we wrote:

The police consider Denoyer “a person of interest” in the disappearances of David Neily and Donald Cavanaugh, two senior citizens who haven’t been seen since they made Jimmy Denoyer very, very angry. And now another man who Denoyer was said “to be tired of” is among the missing. Or at least the people and places he’s ordinarily in the proximity of haven’t seen Ronald “Ronnie” Baumeister in several months. Baumeister, like Neily and Cavanaugh, occasionally worked with Denoyer at Denoyer’s 20 acre ranch near Westport. Baumeister has also been seen at Denoyer’s 200-plus acre ranch off Scott’s Valley Road between Highway 20 and Lakeport. But Ronnie hasn’t been seen anywhere lately and he, too, had made Jimmy very, very angry.

MRC AD #3

http://www.hrcllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Letter-THREE-Final.pdf

MENDOCINO COUNTY BURN PERMIT SUSPENSION LIFTED

Willits – Effective Monday, November 9, 2015 at 8:00 AM the burn permit suspension in Mendocino County will be lifted. CAL FIRE Mendocino Unit Chief Christopher P. Rowney is formally cancelling the burn permit suspension and advises that those possessing current and valid agriculture and residential burn permits can now resume burning on permissible burn days. Agriculture burns must be inspected by CAL FIRE prior to burning until the end of the peak fire season. Inspections may be required for burns other than agriculture burns as well. This can be verified by contacting your local Air Quality Management District.

Burn permits will be required until the end of peak fire season. While cooler temperatures have helped to diminish the threat of wildfire, we are still in our fourth year of drought. Property owners and residents are asked to use caution while conducting debris or agriculture burns. Always use caution when burning, follow all guidelines provided, and maintain control of the fire at all times. Individuals can be held civilly and/or criminally liable for allowing a fire to escape their control and/or burn onto neighboring property.

Residents wishing to burn MUST verify it is a permissive burn day prior to burning. Call Mendocino County Air Management District, (707) 463-4391 for verification.

Pile Burning Requirements

Only dry, natural vegetative material such as leaves, pine needles and tree trimmings may be burned.

The burning of trash, painted wood or other debris is not allowed.

Do NOT burn on windy days.

Piles should be no larger than four feet in diameter and in height. You can add to pile as it burns down.

Clear a 10 foot diameter down to bare soil around your piles.

Have a shovel and a water source nearby.

An adult is required to be in attendance of the fire at all times.

Safe residential pile burning of forest residue by landowners is a crucial tool in reducing fire hazards. State, Federal and Local land management and fire agencies will also be utilizing this same window of opportunity to conduct prescribed burns aimed at improving forest health on private and public lands.

For more information on burning, visit the CAL FIRE website at www.fire.ca.gov.

SHAKESPEARE ON TRUMP

Here is Shakespeare’s take on Donald Trump:

“Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame

Is lust in action; and till action, lust

Is perjur’d, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;

Enjoy’d no sooner but despised straight;

Past reason hunted; and, no sooner had,

Past reason hated, as a swallow’d bait,

On purpose laid to make the taker mad:

Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;

Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;

A bliss in proof, and prov’d, a very woe;

Before, a joy propos’d; behind, a dream.

All this the world well knows; yet none knows well

To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.”

REBEL REPORTING: John Ross Speaks to Independent Journalists. Co-edited by Cristalyne

An excerpt from the forthcoming (December 2015) book:

(Bell and Norman Stockwell. ©2015 Hamilton Books/Rowman-Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7618-6660-2.

Book release party for REBEL REPORTING, and celebration of the life of John Ross on the fifth anniversary of his passing. Join co-editors Norman Stockwell and Cristalyne Bell, with special guests Tim Redmond, former editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian and journalist Mary Jo McConahay, author of Maya Roads: One Woman’s Journey Among the People of the Ranforest. 

La Boheme Cafe 
3318 24th Street at Mission: the heart of the Mission
. Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016
4-7 p.m. PST

For more information: <www.cafelabohemesanfrancisco.com>

MENDOCINO COUNTY STILL HAS 1,200 BALLOTS TO COUNT as of Wednesday.

According to Mendocino County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Susan M. Ranochak, the approximate district breakdowns are: Fort Bragg Unified School District – 312; Ukiah Valley Fire Protection District – 171; Russian River Flood Control – 522; Potter Valley Community School District – 126; and Potter Valley Irrigation District – 69 ballots to count.

Even more ballots may have arrived since Wednesday, however, as Ranochak pointed out that a new state law allows ballots that arrive up to three days after the election be counted, as long as they were postmarked either on or before Nov. 3, 2015.

“We may receive a few additional ballots, although we do not expect the numbers to change drastically,” Ranochak noted.

According to the latest results posted election night, Tyler Rodrigue was still leading the pack of candidates for two seats on the Russian River Flood Control and Water conservation Improvement District with 1,593 votes. Alfred White was in second with 1,408 votes, and Phil Baldwin was third with 854.

In the race for three seats on the Ukiah Valley Fire Protection District, David Haas was first with 645 votes, Patrick Garrett second with 528 votes, and incumbent Glenys Simmons with 515 votes. The top three vote-getters will earn seats. Incumbent Jerry Buzzard had 349 votes, and Scott Willoughby had 239 votes.

The elections office had 28 days to certify the election and the “Statement of Vote, which breaks down results by precinct, will be available at that time.”

For more information, call the elections office at (707) 234-6819.

WILL PARRISH AND BURL, his Partner, were Guest Speakers, at Grassroots Democracy/Celebrate the Commons class in Fort Bragg.

(Photo by Susie de Castro)

THE CITY OF FORT BRAGG will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the South Fort Bragg Coastal Trail on December 1, 2015 at 12:30.

Please come and join us for a short and sweet ceremony and some light refreshments before walking on our beautiful new trail.

The trail and Noyo Headlands Park will be open to the public into perpetuity after the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Thanks to you all for all your help with this most amazing and beautiful project! We could not have done it without you!

SMART TRAIN GETS DISSED, AGAIN

(Be sure to look at the comments.)

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/4647527-181/test-runs-reach-79-mph

VIEWING RECOMMENDATION: Vice News, best series of documentaries I've seen, especially those on global warming, which represent the clearest explanations of what's happening you are likely to get. I've watched Vice News on HBO and a couple on YouTube, but I'm sure they're available lots of other places.

DURING A FRIDAY AFTERNOON PRESS CONFERENCE, President Obama announced that his State Department has rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. "I agree with that decision," the president said. "For years, the Keystone pipeline has occupied what I'd consider an overinflated role in our discourse," he said. "All of this obscured the fact that this would not be a silver bullet for the economy, nor the express train to climate disaster." The reason for rejecting the oil pipeline, he explained, is that it "would not create meaningful job growth," would not lower gas prices, and would not assist in increasing energy independence. Allowing the Keystone pipeline, he concluded, would "undercut" America's stance as a global leader on climate change.

21ST CENTURY GLASS STEAGALL

Dear Editor,

Senator Feinstein tells me the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act is held in Committee. This Act introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren and John McCain separates Investment Banking from Commercial (savings) banks from using FDIC funds to bail them out. I wrote Senator Sherrod Brown in his capacity on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, whose Chair Senator Selby, Ala. is holding the Bill in Committee, of interest to voters all over the US.

”Please urge and lead your colleagues to move the bill S. 1709 to the floor for a vote in committee. The American taxpayers do not want their savings used for a bail-in for the unindicted Wall Street bankers and a looming economic collapse. I realize the Wall Street Banks control most of Congress people with appointees from think tanks like the Council on Foreign Relations and lobbying firms. Our only chance to avoid economic collapse is to pass the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, introduced by Warren and McCain, two courageous and far sighted Senators from both parties. Please use your influence to get the middle class and the poor out of jeopardy of a Derivatives Bust looming on the horizon.”

Sincerely,

Agnes Woolsey

Mendocino

THOSE GHOSTS OF BLOOMSBURY

by Manuel Vicent

(Translated by Louis Bedrock)

The four Stephen brothers and sisters, children of the biographer, editor, and mountain climber Leslie Stephen, lived in Kensington and were educated in the mummified manners of Victorian society until, upon the death of their parents, as a form of repressed rebellion, they moved to the district of Bloomsberry, a decadent neighborhood full of impoverished students and divorced couples.

In that Georgian house at 46 Gordon Square, the four siblings: Thoby, Virginia, Vanessa, and Adrian, began to live untethered lives with the new friends that Thoby had collected at Trinity College of Cambridge, a group called “The Apostles” who will be remembered less for what they set aside for art and literature than for being the first explorers of the new morality: freedom of lifestyle, elitism, and seduction that are the characteristics of contemporary culture.

Thoby’s friends were uninhibited young people in their twenties — Lytton Strachey, Clive Bell, Saxon-Sidney Turner, Walter Lamb, and Desmond McCarthy, later joined by Duncan Grand, Roger Fry, and Leonard Woolf. Only Virginia achieved relevance in the world of letters, and to a lesser degree Vanessa as a painter, thanks to her sister. Virginia neurotic from the time of adolescence, held together that gilded group, to which had been added the writer E.M. Forster, the economist Maynard Keynes, and the philosopher Bertrand Russell.

The presence of the girls among those guys was unusual. Some were homosexuals, “but not irrevocably”, as they would say. The aura of those times is highlighted by evanescent photos in which these creatures are seen in white pleated trousers and limp hats; the women with broad dresses and sunbonnets. They all had their country houses where they appeared reclining in hammocks during the interminable summer vacations or exotic journeys with the assurance that their happiness was merited after having undermined all social conventions; but their image as innocent collectors of butterflies could not conceal their turbulent passions.

Above all, they were worshippers of beauty, including at the moment of death, an event that Thoby was the first to experience as an aesthetic performance. When they were still very young, the four brothers and sisters traveled to Venice, Florence, Brindisi, Patras, Olympia, Athens, with trunks lined with sailcloth, passengers in luxurious cabins on all the ships, and first class carriages on The Orient Express.

Thoby and Vanessa got sick during the trip; she recovered, but that charming young man died in London of typhoid fever after having returned home. He was 26 years old. To die from a young person’s malady from Greece was supremely elegant. Some time later, his sister Virginia elevated suicide to the status of literature to the extent that a student who doesn’t know that the writer waded into the River Ouse with her coat pockets filled with stones could perhaps pass the exam for literature, but not the exam for psychiatry.

The repressed passions beneath the exquisite education flowed normally among this group of self-worshippers until Vita Sackville-West stormed into the life of Virginia Woolf. This famous pair met one another at a dinner given by Clive Bell in December of 1922. Four days later, Vita invited Virginia to lunch for just the two of them.

Each woman recorded her own impressions from this encounter. Vita told her husband: “I simply adore Virginia and you too will adore her. You will be overwhelmed by her charm and her personality. It’s completely natural. She dresses quite atrociously. Seldom have I become so captivated by anyone.”

Virginia noted in her diary: “She’s not to my demanding taste: overbearing, mustached, with the colors of a parakeet and the arrogance of the aristocracy, but without the genius of an artist.”

Despite this, Vita was the most turbulent passion of Virginia, a story of lesbian love plagued with jealousy.

Vita Sackville-West was a poet, novelist, journalist, traveler, but above all exercised the care free duties of an aristocrat born in the Castle of Knole with roots going back to the 16^th century, although upon her genealogical tree was also perched one Pepita, her maternal grandmother, daughter of a Spanish gypsy acrobat, married to a barbarian and later to a ballet dancer, and eventually becoming the lover of Lionel Sackville, whom she bore five children, among them the mother of Vita.

Vita married Harold Nicolson, diplomat, traveler, homosexual, who after fathering two children with her, placidly observed the procession of female lovers that paraded through the life of his spouse. There may have been as many as eighteen women with whom she had a lesbian relationship; although the most torrid was the one with Violet Tresusis, daughter of Alice Keppel, lover of Edward VII, the most literary, complicated, and unwholesome was with Virginia Woolf.

What was more attractive than De Vita’s beauty was her history at the Castle of Knole, the carefree manner with which she shattered the rules of an entrenched aristocracy.

In spite of this, she was treated as an intruder by the Bloombury clique—“an unnecessary import for our coterie” said Vanessa.

The two husbands, Leonard and Howard, contemplated with distant unease this drama between their wives, increasingly more intense and more inescapable until in December of 1925, they slept together for the first time at Long Barn, the house owned by Vita not far from the Castle of Knole.

It appears that it was Virginia’s initiative despite the more experienced of the two being Vita. From that day on, Vita never stopped fanning the embers of that fire although she pulled back from the flames at the last moment to keep the game going, until one day she abandoned Virginia.

Virginia, humiliated, wrote her novel Orlando, a biographical account of this passion, and thus revenge, jealousy, and melancholy scaled the heights of literature.

HELP CREATE THE NEW WOMEN IN BUSINESS NETWORK

November 2015 Networking Meeting Ukiah Valley Conference Center

Date: November 17, 2015 12:00 PM PST

Join us Tuesday, November 17, 2015

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Ukiah Valley Conference Center

200 S School St, Ukiah

COME SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

Speakers, mentors, accountability, evening, lunch or morning meetings, time management, Social Media/technology & how to use it to grow your business, Networking/cross promoting/referring

Join us THIS is your chance to give your input on the NEW Ukiah Women in Business, 2016 is full of promise with MANY options!

Lunch will be provided!

FREE for members, only $5.00 for non-members

RSVP to Susan David: sldavid1@gmail.com or 707-489-2737 by TUESDAY NOV 10th

OPENINGS: Opportunities to be a part of the Steering Committee - meets 1x a month & planning for 2016, contact either Catherine or Susan

.Catherine Reese: catherinereese1@hotmail.com

Susan David: sldavid1@gmail.com

CORRECTED VERSION

I'M AN ORDINARY MAN

Well after all, Pickering, I'm an ordinary man,

Who desires nothing more than an ordinary chance,

to live exactly as he likes, and do precisely what he wants…

An average man am I, of no eccentric whim,

Who likes to live his life, free of strife,

doing whatever he thinks is best, for him,

Well... just an ordinary man...

BUT, Let a woman in your life and your serenity is through,

she'll redecorate your home, from the cellar to the dome,

and then go on to the enthralling fun of overhauling you...

Let a woman in your life, and you're up against a wall,

make a plan and you will find,

that she has something else in mind,

and so rather than do either you do something else

that neither likes at all You want to talk of Keats and Milton,

she only wants to talk of love,

You go to see a play or ballet, and spend it searching

for her glove, Let a woman in your life

and you invite eternal strife,

Let them buy their wedding bands for those anxious little hands...

I'd be equally as willing for a dentist to be drilling

than to ever let a woman in my life, I'm a very gentle man,

even tempered and good natured

who you never hear complain,

Who has the milk of human kindness

by the quart in every vein,

A patient man am I, down to my fingertips,

the sort who never could, ever would,

let an insulting remark escape his lips

Very gentle man...

But, Let a woman in your life,

and patience hasn't got a chance,

she will beg you for advice, your reply will be concise,

and she will listen very nicely, and then go out

and do exactly what she wants!!!

You are a man of grace and polish,

who never spoke above a hush,

all at once you're using language that would make

a sailor blush, Let a woman in your life,

and you're plunging in a knife,

Let the others of my sex, tie the knot around their necks,

I prefer a new edition of the Spanish Inquisition

than to ever let a woman in my life I'm a quiet living man,

who prefers to spend the evening in the silence of his room,

who likes an atmosphere as restful as

an undiscovered tomb,

A pensive man am I, of philosophical joys,

who likes to meditate, contemplate,

far for humanities mad inhuman noise,

Quiet living man....

But, let a woman in your life, and your sabbatical is through,

in a line that never ends comes an army of her friends,

come to jabber and to chatter

and to tell her what the matter is with YOU!,

she'll have a booming boisterous family,

who will descend on you en mass,

she'll have a large wagnarian mother,

with a voice that shatters glass,

Let a woman in your life,

Let a woman in your life,

Let a woman in your life

I shall never let a woman in my life.

--Rogers & Hammerstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wefP_aEl6_I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPhsR0T_cjA

BIG OIL LOBBY SPENDING SOARS:

Western States Petroleum Association Spent Record $6.75 Million In 3 Months!

by Dan Bacher

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the largest and most powerful corporate lobbying group in Sacramento, set a new record for spending in one quarter when it spent an amazing $6,750,666.60 lobbying state officials in the third quarter of 2015 to lobby against Senate Bill 350, Senate Bill 32 and other environmental bills it opposed.

The latest lobbying expenditures contrast with the second quarter of 2015, when the group spent $1,398,403.48 and the first quarter, when the organization spent $1,141,037.53.

The money the group spent lobbying from July 1 to October 31, along with the millions spent by Exxon and other companies, enabled the oil industry to gut or defeat virtually every bill in the Legislature that it opposed in the last legislative session.

The total spent by the oil industry in the third quarter was an unprecedented $11 million to oppose Senate Bill 350, a climate change/renewable energy bill, noted Susan Frank of Clean Energy California. Because of the strong opposition to the bill by Big Oil and corporate Democrats that receive big donations from the oil industry, the bill's sponsors removed a key provision mandating a 50 percent reduction in petroleum usage.

What did the oil companies spend? Exxon spent approximately $414,000 in the third quarter, just under double the $223,000 it had expended earlier. Valero spent $582,000 in the third quarter, up from the $48,000 it had expended earlier in 2015.

The Sacramento Bee reported, "Combined with the $5.4 million that oil companies that lobbied on SB 350 reported spending earlier in the year, the new figures bring the industry’s total influence outlay for 2015 to $16.1 million." (http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article42348678.html#storylink=cpy)

The California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV) provided an even higher figure for the total oil industry spending this year to date, $18 million, in this year's California Environmental Scorecard: http://www.ecovote.org/Scorecard. "Reports just filed with the Secretary of State’s office show that from July 1 to September 30 the oil lobby in California spent an astounding $11 million to stop progress on climate and clean air policies, bringing their total spending to $18 million so far in 2015," the group said.

Sara Rose, the CEO of the California League of Conservation Voters, said the Western States Petroleum Association launched a "major, multimillion dollar campaign" to strip SB 350 of a provision to reduce petroleum use in California by 50% in the next 15 years, and to stop SB 32 (Pavley), which would have set greenhouse gas reduction limits to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. "Both SB 32 and the petroleum reduction provision of SB 350 passed the Senate, but failed to garner enough support in the Assembly," explained Rose.

The rise of the "Oil Caucus"

Rose said one of the most important stories of this legislative session is the rise of the “Oil Caucus” – a group of Assembly members including Henry Perea, Adam Gray, and Jim Cooper – whose campaigns are "funded directly and indirectly by polluter money, and who worked publicly on behalf of industry priorities, often at the expense of their own constituents."

With help from the "Oil Caucus," the oil industry was successful at halting other important bills aimed at better regulating its practices, according to Rose. These included AB 356 (Williams), SB 248 (Pavley), and SB 484 (Allen), which would have reformed the state’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) program by requiring disclosure of chemicals used in well treatments or injections, ensuring that oil and gas projects do not contaminate aquifers containing water suitable for drinking and irrigation, requiring the State Water Board to review aquifer exemption applications, and/or requiring the shutdown of illegal injection wells if regulators fail to shut them down.

"The industry also notably stopped a bill to protect the coast from oil spills (SB 788, McGuire), despite the fact that California is still recovering from the May 2015 Refugio oil spill, one of the biggest spills in decades," said Rose.

Ironically, the very same Big Oil lobbyist who led the campaign to defeat SB 788, Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chaired the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine protected areas" in Southern California that were imperiled by the Refugio Oil Spill. Even more ironically, Reheis-Boyd is also the lobbyist for the Plains All American Pipeline corporation that is responsible for the oil spill that fouled over 9 miles of the Santa Barbara coast and injured and killed big numbers of marine mammals, birds, fish and other marine life!

"In light of these observations," said Joey Racano of the Ocean Outfall Group, "isn't it interesting how the Western States Petroleum Association brought us the 2015 Santa Barbara Oil Spill while defeating legislation that would protect Marine Protected Areas from the threat of oil, fracking and chemicals associated with it?"

WSPA exceeds lobbying expenditures for all of 2014

To understand the power of Big Oil in California, it's essential to look at the spending by the oil industry this year in contrast with previous years. Last year the Western States Petroleum Association spent a record $8.9 million on lobbying, double what it spent in the previous year. In the first six months of 2015, the oil industry spent $6.2 million to lobby state officials, including $2,529,240 spent by the Western States Petroleum Association alone.

In the first three quarters of 2015, WSPA spent $9,290,106 total, a record for money spent in three quarters. That already exceeds the record $8.9 million the group spent last year.

When the figures for the fourth quarter are released in early 2016, the WSPA will undoubtedly set an outrageously high new record for money spent in one year to lobby legislators and other state officials.

WSPA filed the lobbying report with the California Secretary of State's Office at 2:23:12 PM on November 2: http://cal-access.sos.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1147195&view=activity&session=2015

In spite of the popular misconception that California is a "green" state, Big Oil has come to dominate environmental politics in California. WSPA and Big Oil wields its influence not just by spending its money on lobbying, but by dumping millions and millions of dollars into election campaigns, creating Astroturf groups and getting its officials and friends on state regulatory panels.

Big Oil spent a total of $266 million influencing California politics from 2005 to 2014, according to an analysis of California Secretary of State data by StopFoolingCA.org, an online and social media public education and awareness campaign that highlights oil companies’ efforts to “mislead and confuse Californians.” The industry spent $112 million of this money on lobbying and the other $154 million on political campaigns.

(http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/07/29/californias-biggest-secret-oil-industry-capture-of-the-regulatory-apparatus)

The Big Picture: Big Oil capture of the regulatory apparatus and media

The mainstream media has done a poor job to date covering the connections between fracking and other extreme oil extraction and Big Oil money and power in Sacramento. In fact, because of the neglect of this story by the LA Times and other media outlets, two of my investigative pieces exposing Big Oil's dumping of fracking wastewater and oil industry money and power are cited in Project Censored's #2 Story: "Oil Industry Illegally Dumps Fracking Wastewater," in the "Censored 2016" book that has just been published: http://www.projectcensored.org/oil-industry-illegally-dumps-fracking-wastewater/

You won't see mainstream media coverage either of how the Los Angeles Times and the California Resources Corporation, an Occidental Petroleum spinoff, recently teamed up to create "Powering California," a Big Oil propaganda campaign website. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/10/31/18779478.php)

Clean Energy California broke the story on their twitter page when they published an October 27 tweet from Western States Petroleum Association President Catherine Reheis-Boyd promoting the new site.

Reheis-Boyd tweeted, "Learn how California's #energy industry is quietly elevating the middle class & improving our quality of life: http://poweringcalifornia.com/"

The Powering California website, produced by a supposedly "independent" department of the Los Angeles Times, proclaims: "California oil and natural gas mean growth. They mean jobs. And, Californians need ample, affordable and reliable energy to thrive – to power our homes, farms, businesses and schools, fuel our cars, and produce products that we need and use every day."

Media Matters and the LA Weekly have written interesting articles on this collaborative effort between Big Oil and the Times, although both fall short of telling the bigger story — the capture of the regulatory apparatus and the corporate media in California by the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), the oil industry and other corporate interests for many years, something I have written article after article about.

Corporate media censors discussion of Big Oil lobbyist oversight of "marine protected areas"

Of course, you won't see any mention either by the Los Angeles Times or other corporate media outlets of how the same Reheis-Boyd, the WSPA President, chaired the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create questionable "marine protected areas" in Southern California from 2009 to 2012 — and served on the task forces for the Central Coast, North Central Coast or North Coast from 2004 to 2012.

No did the reporters and editors from these publications mention how Reheis-Boyd and other members of the task forces oversaw the creation of questionable "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from pollution, fracking, offshore oil drilling, military testing, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.

The greenwashing by state officials and MLPA Initiative advocates of a big oil lobbyist's leadership role in what passes for "marine protection" in California is one of the most disgusting political scandals of modern California politics, one that reveals the Big Lie behind the myth that California is a "green state." It demonstrates the oily, toxic core of the body politic in the "Golden State."

For more information about Big Oil money and power in California, go to: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/07/29/californias-biggest-secret-oil-industry-capture-of-the-regulatory-apparatus

CLEAN BILL FOR CRAIG

EarthFirst! COP 21 in Paris, France Affinity Group Forming Please accept my warmest spiritual greetings, Following my return to California from my ninth trip to Washington D.C. (since the summer of 1991 volunteering with the D.C. Catholic Worker), I have participated in May and again in September, with the Beyond Extreme Energy group, protesting the policies of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for their mindlessly issuing fracking permits (N.B. part of our group completed an 18 day water-only fast, the Franciscan Action Network set up information tables in McPherson Square to support our protest, Pope Francis of the Holy See gave us a public commendation, and President Obama sent Homeland Security around to be cordial to us following the Catholic pontiff's praise). Having reported all of the frontline details, and seeing it published in the finest of America's radical press, I returned to Berkeley, CA following the successful completion of our dissent at the FERC, which, by the way, concluded with the five FERC commissioners accepting copies from us of Pope Francis's encyclical, in which he endorsed emergency climate justice activism.

My coughing began about two weeks before I left the district; following a "widdershins banishing of the bogus energy of the belly of the beast" ritual, wherein we drove completely around the beltway with myself, rune specialist Jesse Schultz, and his partner the magical Pepper and her two cats, mantram chanting from several traditions, visualizing the denoument of just about everything defined as postmodern existential, and ultimately engaging our individual spiritual mojo silently. Upon my return to NorCal, I went to the Life Long Medical Clinic in Oakland where I have a membership.

The nurse sent me to Herrick Hospital for a chest x-ray, and to Quest Diagnostics for the standard blood/urine lab tests. In the two weeks that I waited for my second appointment to evaluate the tests, I suffered random fevers, a significant drop in energy in which I was sleeping up to fifteen hours per night, an ongoing cough and expectoration of system-manufactured mucus, and the nagging question of what I would do if I failed to dematerialize at the proper time, and instead had to deal with the possible problem of a corpse, and the dispensation of money that I inherited, which is in my checking account.

On my own initiative, I went to Kabuki Spa in San Francisco for sauna/steam sessions, took herbal homeopathic capsules sold at Berkeley's Lhasa Karnak herb store, took teaspoons of Chaywanprash purchased from the Jai Ho Indian Grocery in San Francisco's Fillmore district, an herbal concoction purchased from a Vietnamese pharmacy in Oakland's Chinatown, Holy Basil capsules from an ayurvedic company, Orbas menthol cough drops, Tylenol PM, in addition to cough syrup and an inhaler of albuterol prescribed for me.

On Friday November 6th, I had my test evaluation appointment at Life Long Medical. I have been informed by the Life Long Medical Clinic in Oakland, California, that my chest x-ray was "glorious", that my lab reports indicate that I have high cholesterol, a slight increase in blood pressure, and that I have a deficiency in vitamin D. I have been informed that my present situation of chest congestion is due to the fact of "where we are"; in other words, my environmental living situation on the earth plane, and that the nurse also coughs in the morning, and, that my casual smoking over the years at parties is not relevant. Furthermore, a clinic M.D. (in addition to the nurse) also reviewed my x-rays and lab tests, because I was so adamant that I had emphysema after 66 years of spontaneous bohemian living. The doctor asked the nurse to inform me that there is nothing seriously the matter with me!

This morning I was injected with a recently developed (and just arrived at the clinic for over 65 members) pneumonia vaccine. I was given a printout of my Quest Diagnostics lab tests. I was encouraged to make another appointment in three months for a follow-up appointment for lab tests to check my cholesterol level, and considering that I cannot guarantee that I'll even be in the San Francisco bay area three months from now, I agreed that I will at least call in to let the medical team know how I am doing.

The nurse gave me permission to celebrate the fact that I do not have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, by getting together with my longtime zen priest and hiking partner Steve Cunningham for a couple of rounds of Belgium brews, as long as I agreed to 1. Not smoke, 2. Not salt my food, 3. Go to Ocean Beach and get some sunlight, and 4. Schedule my next appointment at Japantown's Kabuki Spa.

In conclusion, I am seeking others to create a revolutionary ecological affinity group for the purpose of being at the Conference of the Parties #21 in Paris, France November 30th to December 11th, to intervene in history. If you are interested, I invite you to contact me, now that I do not have to plan for my long term COPD management, and eventual death. I am thanking you in advance for your cooperation.

All my hot love, Craig Louis Stehr

Email: CraigStehr@inbox.com