Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Dec 8, 2015

• Possible Flooding
• Jessalyn Missing
• Firefighter Awards
• WEC Closing
• Redwood Classic
• Pearl Harbor
• Lyme Timber
• Being Seen
• Yesterday's Catch
• Clueless & Leaderless
• Klamath River
• Ulrich
• European Proclivities
• Nicolini Art
• Superfun Girlboss
• Purple Blobs
• Everybody's Talking
• Mendocino Town

FLOOD POTENTIAL WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY for small streams & urban areas

A series of storms will bring periods of moderate to heavy rain to Northwest California on Wednesday and Thursday. Expected rainfall amounts: 3 to 5 inches across Del Norte and Humboldt Counties and 2 to 3 inches in Mendocino and Trinity Counties.

Rapid and significant rises are expected the main steam rivers but the rivers are expected to remain below flood stage. Rapid and significant rises are also expected on the small stream and tributaries. Small stream flooding is possible especially in Del Norte and Humboldt Counties.

Standing or ponding water is expected in low-lying areas and in those areas with poor drainage. Also urban street flooding is expected where the storm drains are plugged with leaves or are unable to keep up with the rainfall.

Listen to NOAA weather radio or your local media for the later updates on this situation.

--National Weather Service

MISSING WOMAN SAID SHE WAS GOING TO A HUMBOLDT MARIJUANA FARM TO WORK

Jessalyn Dean was last seen by her roommate at the end of September. According to her mother, Toni Dean, the missing 27-year-old told the roommate that she was going to work on a marijuana farm in Humboldt County.

On October 5, Toni Dean says a message purporting to be from her daughter came from her Facebook account. “It did not sound like her,” said the worried mother. It said that she just wanted to be left alone. “When she left here in Portland, she was extremely depressed,” Toni Dean said.

After repeated attempts to contact Jessalyn, Toni filed a missing person report with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. “I’ve left message after messages on Facebook. Her voicemail is full….Her ex-boyfriend is still paying for her phone. We are hoping to get it pinged.”

When last seen Jessalyn Dean had dread extensions. She is approximately 5’4″ and weighs about 105 pounds. She has blue eyes and light brown or blonde hair.

She has a tattoo on the inside of one wrist (a circle with a line through it) and a tree tattooed up her right thigh and onto her torso. Her septum and lip are pierced. Though she was not wearing nose and lip jewelry in her last photos below.

Jessalyn had a Canon Rebel and was into photography. She also did fire dancing and loved festivals, according to her mother.

If you have sighted her or have any information, please contact Toni Dean at (503) 830-8378 or email her at toni.shaw9@gmail.com.

(Courtesy, KymKemp.com (Redheaded Blackbelt))

AV FIRE CHIEF ANDRES AVILA gave out a number of awards to the Valley's many dedicated volunteer firefighters and emergency responders at Saturday’s night’s 2015 Awards Dinner at River’s Bend (formerly Wellspring).

Specialists: Fleet mechanic Steve Weir, Communications/Radios: Terry Ferrelly, CalFire’s Dave Diggs.

2015 Retirees Rob Giuliani, Fred Woolley.

New recruits: Moy Perez, Abraham Sanchez, Christopher Starik, Cameron McKenzie-Chapter, Judy Diaz.

Medical Responders: Aaron Martin, Antoinette von Grone, Holly Newstead, Sara McCarter, Terry Gowan.

Firefighters: Olie Erickson, Scott Fraser, Fal Allen, Ben Glaus.

Engineers: Paul Soderman, John Keevan-Lynch, Colin Wilson, Kyle Clark.

MedStar Medic Tyler Miles, recently assigned to Valley, was introduced to the crew.

Lieutenants: Angela Dewitt, Carlos Espinoza, Tina Walter, Nick Schwartz, Charlie Paget-Seekins, Rusty Pronsolino.

Captains: Sarah Farber, Kris Kellem.

Battalion Chiefs: Jim Minton, Clay Eubanks, Roy Laird.

Also recognized District staff: Secretary Patty Liddy, GM Joy Andrews.

Rookie of the Year: Moi Perez.

Engineer of the Year: Fal Allen.

Medical Officer of the Year: Aaron Martin.

Officer of the Year: Angela Dewitt.

Firefighter of the Year: Ben Glaus.

WILLITS ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER TO SHUT ITS DOORS

by Jennifer Poole

After 25 years, the Willits Environmental Center office in downtown Willits is closing its doors. In a letter to members, the WEC’s board of directors described the decision to give up the office as “agonizing.”

“We have been wrestling with this decision for over a year,” the letter reads, “but are now finally able and willing to face the present reality that none of us on the board is prepared to launch into any new projects at this time that would justify the cost of keeping our present office space.”

Board members did vote unanimously to keep the membership organization alive, maintaining the WEC’s nonprofit status and continuing to operate “in accordance with our mission and bylaws.”

But without the office – and the road-side sign which advertised events and editorialized on local and global environmental issues – the WEC will undoubtedly be a less visible force in Willits.

Founders Ellen and David Drell – with a group of like-minded citizens – opened the WEC in 1990, after a successful campaign to prevent a bio-mass power plant from opening in Willits.

The WEC has been involved in a number of environmental issues over the years: organizing forums to spotlight the environmental damage from illegal marijuana grows on public lands (and organizing actual cleanups, too), the REMCO pollution issue, and successfully opposing Waste Management Inc.’s proposal for a “dirty MERF” at the Little Lake Industries site on Commercial Street.

This “material recovery facility” would’ve taken a mixed stream of garbage and recyclables from all over Mendocino County and Humboldt County. “The WEC was opposed to that,” Ellen Drell said, “and really felt that what Jerry Ward [of Solid Waste of Willits] was proposing, a major recycling facility on Blosser Lane – a “clean MERF” – was the way to go, rather than to go with a big multinational corporation in downtown Willits.

With the WEC as a base of support, Ellen Drell ran for Third District supervisor in 1994, against rancher John Pinches, who ended up winning decisively. Jim Eddie had served as the Third District’s representative on the board for 20 years, since 1974.

“There were seven candidates in the primary,” Ellen Drell said. “It was the first time in many, many years that the Third District engaged in a real campaign, since Jim Eddie had been our supervisor, uncontested, for so long. We had three debates, and the campaign brought a lot of issues forward, that had not come up before in the Third District, a lot of environmental issues. It was good, even though I lost pretty soundly.”

The Drells are lifelong wilderness advocates who are proudest of their “biggest” achievement: adding a total of 140,000 acres of forestlands to the federal wilderness system. In 1984, the Drells, working with a statewide group, the Citizens’ Committee to Save Our Public Lands, traveled to Washington, D.C., to advocate for adding 40,000 acres of public lands to the Yolla Bolly Wilderness. Most recently, the Drells organized support for Congressman Mike Thompson’s 2006 bill that designated 100,000 acres of new wilderness lands in Mendocino County.

“The WEC was really pivotal in developing the political support for that,” Ellen Drell said, “which Mike Thompson needed, in one of the most environmentally hostile Congresses ever – at that time, at least. The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously supported the wilderness bill in 2006, as did the City of Willits. The City of Ukiah supported it. Art Harwood supported it. We got pretty much unanimous political support, and that helped a lot.

“For me personally,” Ellen Drell continued, “I’m very proud of that. It’s a long-term success – unless Congress decides to dismantle the Wilderness Act. The wild public lands in our district are unique and spectacular, and diverse. And even though a great percentage of the people who live here haven’t seen them in person, we should all be proud that we recognized their magnificence.”

“It’s what we’re most proud of,” David Drell added.

But there’s no doubt, that for most local people, the Willits Environmental Center and the Drells will be remembered for their opposition to the Willits bypass, which campaign began only a year or two after the WEC opened its doors.

“Since 1992 the WEC has been in the thick of trying to halt, or dramatically shrink the size and impacts of the Willits bypass project, an iconic example of why humanity is facing the frightening consequences of global warming,” the WEC letter to members reads.

Over the years, the WEC continued to try “to move the powers that be, from the Willits City Council on up, to support an appropriate fix to the traffic congestion in Willits, including an appropriately scaled bypass if necessary.”

But eventually, despite years of organizing – including bringing Walkable Communities expert Dan Burton to town for a “transformative” three-day workshop jointly sponsored by the City of Willits and the Willits Chamber of Commerce – on-the-ground protests and litigation, the Willits bypass has become a reality, with 87 percent of the construction work completed as of November 20, as Caltrans recently reported to the Willits City Council.

“In the end,” the WEC letter says, “we were overwhelmed by a simple but all-powerful political reality – the City of Willits wanted a bypass. The consistent local support for a bypass and apparent disregard for the consequences to the natural environment made it possible for Caltrans to have its way and foist this irreversible assault on our community and our valley.

“It is in this context that we board members need a break. We are emotionally worn down by this long, and at least for Willits and the ecosystem of Little Lake Valley, unsuccessful effort.”

Ellen Drell emphasized several times how all the various work the WEC did was made possible by many volunteers and supporters: “There’s a ton of people who helped, and who deserve recognition,” she said. “Thank you to all the many people who helped and supported our efforts in so many ways over the years.” The letter singles out for praise board members Autumn Kessner and Dave Beebe, who’ve signed up more than 70 new or renewed WEC members during a membership drive over the last several months.

But it’s not just new members that are needed, Ellen Drell said, “it’s new energy. And maybe with us stepping aside, others can step up.” She cited as one positive example a group forming in Laytonville to try to establish a hiking trail from Cahto Peak right through the wilderness. “This would be a great hiking trail for local folks,” she said. “It’s beautiful; not just an hour’s stroll, but a real wilderness experience.”

THE REDWOOD EMPIRE'S oldest high school hoops tournament — 58th consecutive — played out in Boonville over a very long basketball weekend just past with a team from San Francisco, Stuart Hall, emerging triumphant late Saturday night, defeating a tenacious Cloverdale quintet featuring the latest McMillan, scion of that town's famous basketball family.

FIRST COUPLA days of play featured serial mismatches with the winners triumphing by an average of 30 points. It was refreshing to see a local team, Cloverdale, make it into the championship game. The McMillan kid can really play, as can a couple of his teammates. And they're young. Cloverdale people remember when the boy's father, Craig, led Cloverdale to back-to-back state championships. Local sports fans were absolutely delighted when Cloverdale knocked perennial Marin powerhouse Branson clear into the loser's bracket.

A STRONG Anderson Valley team, ably coached by Detective Luis Espinoza of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department, handily dispatched Tomales, 62-42 in their opening match. The good guys were lead by Abraham Sanchez with 17 points and Jared 'Three Point' Johnston with 10.

THRUST into the winner's bracket, Anderson Valley took on Pinewood of Los Altos, falling to the visitors, 61-47. AV fired up way too many low percentage shots and turned the ball over constantly. Athletically, I thought AV was superior to the visitors — a collection of smallish, pasty-faced urban waifs with one kid about 6'6" who could, as they say, "tread water in a test tube" — but the string bean was tough inside, reaching up and over the Boonville boys for unimpeded scores. Anderson Valley got a big game out of Alejandro Soto with 18 points but otherwise drew an offensive blank. Anderson Valley gave the city boys all they could handle, and will easily win league play, although Jim Young will certainly argue that his Mendocino Cardinals are a lock.

THE PANTHER'S cold-shooting good guys then lost to Head Royce, 48-29, but overall more than held their own over the weekend.

THREE CLOVERDALE players, Marcus Poe; Jayson McMillan; and Luke Pope were named to the all-tourney team.

PEARL HARBOR FROM A 10 YEAR OLD'S VIEW

by Charlotte Anderson

Ed note: Charlotte Anderson is my cousin, my late cousin I should say. Charlotte was a retired Santa Rosa teacher who lived much of her life in Healdsburg. She and her family lived in Honolulu when the Japanese attacked. She wrote her memory soon after. I was two and also lived in Honolulu with my family when the daylight attack occurred on December 7th. My father had taken me and my brother out for a calming ride. He returned to complain to my mother, "Ruth, they're taking these goddamned maneuvers way too far. They have our guys dressed up as Japs and there are explosions all over town." He said for years that the Japanese planes came in so low over Honolulu you could see the faces of the pilots. "These aren't maneuvers," my mother shouted, "we're being attacked!" My father was nonplussed. "Attacked? Attacked by who?" Poignant aside. The Japanese woman who worked for my grandfather crawled all the way from the street up to his door, begging his forgiveness for Pearl Harbor, an abasement we might recall the next time Trump or one of the other clown posse demands we refuse sanctuary to Syrian refugees.

* * *

As I awoke on this Sunday morning I could tell from the murmurs coming from my parents bedroom that something different was happening. I went in there to see them sitting up in bed looking out the windows towards the Waianae Mountains and Kolekole Pass. In the distance was a huge column of smoke and there were little "silver things" circling around the smoke and diving into it. My dad said that the Army had been having maneuvers that weekend and it looked like something was on fire, perhaps in the gulch behind Wheeler Field. He said, "Let's go see what's happening." So off we go down the hill from our house on Karsten Drive, Wahiawa, Oahu, Territory of Hawaii. It was December 7, 1941.

My mother was in the front seat with my father while my dog Tippy and I were in the back. We got to Wheeler Airfield where the army was in the process of constructing a series of outdoor hangars, simply three-tiered walls to form a "U." At this time there were only piles of dirt so we stopped between two piles and looked at Wheeler. Two our right the hangars were on fire, and straight ahead on the ground were lines of airplanes also on fire. Above that was a column of smoke and there were planes circling and diving down. We were horrified! My dad thought that someone had made a horrible mistake and instead of bombing the gulch behind the airfield had missed and hit the real field. While we were watching and listening we heard "booming" sounds coming from the direction of Honolulu so we continued down the road through Kipapa Gulch and up to where we could look over Ewa and Pearl Harbor. There were huge columns of smoke billowing up from Pearl and lots of "silver things" in the air. I remember dad saying that perhaps someone mistakenly hit one or more of the oil storage tanks that lined the Honolulu side of the harbor.

At that point mother reminded dad that we were having company around noon (a Navy commander), so we had better get to the store and back home. Returning to Wahiawa, we stopped at our usual Japanese grocery store, there to be told that the island was being bombed and attacked by the Japanese. Just as that was sinking in we heard the noise of the planes out in the street. Everyone rushed out and saw a plane headed our way (north to south, or from right to left facing the street.). We heard something "zing" past us so we all automatically ran back into the store and dropped down on the floor behind the shelves. We heard the whine and zing of bullets (just like the movies) as the plane came low and strafed (a word that later came into my vocabulary) the street. The moment we heard the plane lift and leave we all rushed out to the street. I was in time to see the plane start to bank right, toward Wheeler Field, and then nose dive down and crash. I will never forget that and the sight of the big red suns painted on the wing. (Subsequently we learned a guard at the water reservation — one person who had both a gun and ammunition — got a lucky shot in and hit the pilot as he was flying low.)

After seeing and experiencing all that and after hearing a radio message at the store (our first radio contact) to remain at home, we decided to return to the house!

When we got home we turned on the radio and heard, "This is the real McCoy. Japanese are attacking Oahu. Stay at home." We were also instructed to boil all our drinking water and not show any lights at night. Dad spent the rest of the day blacking out (another new phrase!) the essential room: the bathroom!

The only other vivid memory of that day was when I had to go to bed. I spent a long time looking out the window wondering if the Japs were coming back and if I would ever wake up if I allowed myself to go to sleep.

The Japs did not come back, but nobody knew from moment to moment if they would or would not attack again. Schools were closed, and people were asked to stay at home until further notice. We heard that the Army was going to take Leilehua School since it was separated from Wheeler Field by only a wire fence. So mom went to get her records and as much athletic equipment as she could salvage. While she was doing that I picked up used 50-caliber machine gun parts and made myself an 8-inch machine gun. I also picked up two bullets in my classroom.

Dad was asked to patrol the neighborhood which was rather scary as we lived near an army reservation. The soldiers had gone, but dad didn't. Klaxon air raid sirens were installed in a relay system Wahiawa proper and another of dad's duties eventually was to crank the klaxon when he heard the one below. Schools were closed until further notice so we more or less stayed home. We spent many evenings with our bachelor neighbor who would buy food and asked mother to cook for us all. We would eat early in his large glassed in garage and then go inside his NOT blacked out living room to listen to shortwave radio broadcasts of Tokyo Rose. I remember one of the first broadcasts said that the Pacific Fleet was at the bottom of the ocean. We had driven by Pearl Harbor by then and we knew for a fact that was not true despite the tremendous loss of life and extensive damage.

Christmas of 1941 there were very few Christmas trees and those available were too few and too expensive so dad bored holes in a wooden dowel and stuffed Ironwood branches into it. Mom said it was the most symmetrical tree she'd ever had!

Early in 1942 we were all registered, fingerprinted, given shots, and issued gas masks. When school was to take up again in February, Leilehua classes were farmed out go all over the area in private homes and in huts in the pineapple fields. It was decided that I would go into Honolulu to stay with my grandparents during the week and go to Panahou School. The US engineers had taken over the Panahou campus so my fifth grade class was at Manoa Elementary and the sixth grade was at the Teachers College on the University of Hawaii campus. Both were within walking distance, of course, as gas, tires and liquor were rationed (another new word!). Those were the only items officially rationed. However, shortages and high prices effectively "rationed" many other items.

We had many air raid scares but nothing ever came of them. My uncle dug an air raid shelter in his backyard and there was a large shelter behind my grandparents house to be shared by three families. Dad refused to dig one. He said that air raids were usually at night and he'd rather stay in his comfortable bed than go into a dark shelter with spiders, centipedes and scorpions.

One kind of funny thing happened early in 1942 was that the volcano on the Big Island erupted. No one was allowed to show a light after dark under penalty of us a stiff fine but someone neglected to tell Pele! One could read a newspaper outside from the volcano!

Another amusing incident I remember was seeing an ammunition truck going through Wahiawa one day with a soldier sitting on the top singing "I Don't Want To Set the World on Fire"!

Since we lived "in the country," mom and I had decided it would be a good idea if I learned to operate our car. I was only 10 but I was 5 feet tall and had no problem reaching the pedals. After that I'm sure we had the cleanest car on the island as I offered to wash it so I could back it out! We had a long driveway so I backed the car all the way to the road and then brought it forward to wash. Afterward I backed it all the way out and then drive it forward into the carport!

Besides the blackout every night, having to be careful of gasoline, and having to carry a gas mask everywhere, other overt signs of war were gun emplacements on the hills and barbed wire at Waikiki. The latter seemed quite ridiculous even to us youngsters as we knew there was no break in the reef offshore and no one with any sense would try to cross the reef.

In February 1942 school began again and besides being in an odd location it wasn't much different. We had to carry our gas masks and instead of fire drills we had air raid drills when we would have to go into the bomb shelters for a length of time. In sixth grade we had victory gardens where we grew carrots, radishes, onions and lettuces under the tutelage of our Japanese gardener!

Almost half the population of Oahu was Japanese but they were not treated the way they were on the West Coast. Officials removed certain ones whom they had targeted as "enemies," but the rest carried on in their usual or even "war effort" jobs. We continued to work with and be friendly with the Japanese we had always known. We schoolchildren had the Japanese separated into two separate races: Our country was fighting the "dirty Japs," but we were friends and schoolmates of Japanese!

At the end of 1942 dad was offered a promotion if we moved to the San Francisco area. We had a lot of arrangements to make. Tippy, our springer spaniel, had to travel on a special animal convoy which was only available every six months. We had to estimate the closer one to our departure which was not exactly booked to the day! Tippy had to have a special doghouse and three weeks rations! She left sometime in April and arrangements were made for her to be housed with a vet in San Francisco.

We sold the house and since Dad worked for the government the army came to pack us. Mother and Dad moved in with my uncle and aunt and we were on 24-hour call to leave. One day in May when I got home from school Mom and Dad said, "That was your last day at school. We leave tomorrow." I couldn't even call my friends to say goodbye.

Mom and Dad had taken our luggage to the pier and we were to appear next morning to leave. This was about the 15th or 16th of May, 1943. We got to the dock and got our cabin assignment. Dad was classified as an Army officer so we were lucky. We had a "state room" — a two bunk room with a third bunk shoved in so no one could sit up in bed. But we had our own room with a wash basin. One drawback was that the ship was the former German ship "Orinoco" taken over in the Canal Zone, refitted as an Army transport, and renamed the "USAT Pueblo." However, everything was still written in German — the water faucets, showers, restrooms, etc. It was very interesting! We had to carry our life preservers every time we left the cabin. However, we were fortunate to meet a couple of the ship's engineers who played pinochle with us and who got us nice Kapok deck chairs. They made sitting on the bare decks a bit more comfortable.

We were in a convoy of four or five ships plus two destroyer escorts. The usual four and a half day trip took nine days — zigging and zagging every 15-20 minutes! The ships had target practice the first day out and later we had a "sub scare." Then one day a "shellshocked" victim jumped overboard. (We had a lot of casualties aboard as well as civilians.) The ship could not stop (too dangerous), but we did circle back, a feat which took the better part of an hour at our speed! One of the destroyers came back at full speed to search but all was in vain.

I'll never forget the tears as we steamed under the Golden gate Bridge. It gave everyone "chicken skin" (goosebumps). We landed at Fort Mason on May 25, 1943 and went to the Hotel Californian. I remember looking out at San Francisco's "dim out" from our hotel room and remarking how wonderful it was to see "lights" again!

RECURRENT RUMORS say Mendocino Redwood Company will probably scoop up Hawthorne-Campbell. Campbell was essentially the purchasing agent for the state of Washington's retirement fund when Campbell bought up Georgia-Pacific's Mendo holding for the Hawthorne Timber Company in the late 1990s. If MRC does the deal they would then own 15% of Mendocino County. Hawthorne is mos def for sale, MRC is mos def interested.

FROM THE PROSPECTUS: "The Hawthorne Timberlands are largely within a single, contiguous block of highly productive forests which typify the unique Redwood Belt of Northern California. The standing inventory, averaging 21.2 MBF (17.7 MBF conifer) short log scale per forested acre, will support both immediate and long-term cash flow. The long term sustained yield is indicative of the future plantation growth potential characteristic of site index 119 timberlands. The blocked configuration provides for fee access control through secure gated access. With numerous domestic log demand centers in Eureka, Scotia, Willits, Ukiah, and Cloverdale, the local market outlook for premium Redwood logs is possibly the most optimistic in Northern California. In addition, multiple export facilities for Douglas-fir and whitewoods can be found in Oakland, Richmond, and Eureka, CA…"

* * *

HOLD ON. A knowledgeable guy just called to say he was related to someone who works for Campbell and they say the Campbell Group timberland has been sold to an east-coast outfit called "Lyme Forestry." We looked up "Lyme Forestry" and ended up at lymetimber.com where they declare: “The Lyme Timber Company LP is a private timberland investment management organization (TIMO) that focuses on the acquisition and sustainable management of lands with unique conservation values. Since its founding in 1976, the Company has followed a disciplined and value oriented approach to investing in forestland and rural real estate. The Company’s current portfolio includes over 550,000 acres located in New York, Wisconsin, Florida, Maine, Colorado, Tennessee, Virginia, Delaware, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana and the Canadian province of Quebec.” It's also possible that the timberland isn't for sale, but the Washington State Investment Board (employees pension fund) could be looking for another management company besides the Campbell group…

YOUR ATTENTION, PLEASE

by Jeff Costello

And in the news today, the world situation looks… pretty bad, folks. —R. Crumb, Despair Comics 1972

You have to be arrogant to achieve anything in this life. —Catherine Breillat

Rhymes with Trump:

Dump

Sump

Pump

Bump

Hump

Lump

Chump

So the one percent has all the money and/or power to control things, the bottom percent — whatever percent it is — are begging on street corners with cardboard signs, while most in the middle seem preoccupied with some form of vanity, or are just trying to be noticed. "You're nobody in America unless you're on TV" said the Nicole Kidman character in the movie To Die For. The majority of American People (in a Bush Sr. accent, Pee-Pull) seem to be struggling for attention. Look at me. Notice me. Even if they have to go out and shoot people.

Maybe it's the final existential crisis, in an overpopulated world. The more of us there are, the harder it is to stand out from the crowd. As if we need to be sure we're really here. Or there. Selfies. Righteous statements on facebook. Lots of adjective abuse on there. "These are the most frightening pictures you will ever see!" Look at my cat. Look at my dog. Look at me. The guy with the Harley, setting off car alarms with his deliberately out-of-tune blap blap blap engine. Look at me, I'm having an effect!

I saw an obnoxious-looking neon pink metalflake-painted car with the license plate UBCNME. A woman complaining loudly that some guy "didn't even notice me." One man to another: "Good to see you." The reply: "It's good to be seen." As if being noticed was the primary purpose of life. When I was a kid in high school, I bought my clothes in a store where the customers were mostly black. They knew what was good, cool. Back in school, where cool meant something I got this comment from the preps with the blue blazers, khaki pants and penny loafers: "How far did you chase the nigger to get that shirt?" Only much later did I come with the obvious reply: "Just as far as the store where he buys his clothes." (A classic bit of treppenwitz, German term for the snappy comeback you think of after the fact, when it's too late). The shirt was pretty loud, I guess, because the principal called me into the office to complain about it. He said I just wore it "to get attention." I suppose now he was right but it was a pretty minor offense. He was right, but I was sixteen years old, and at my advanced age I've long realized that being noticed is not altogether a good thing. And if you do get a lot of attention, what are you going to do with it?

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 7, 2015

AMANDA DUMAN, Hopland. Suspended license.

JOSHUA JACQAUES, Garberville/Ukiah. Probation revocation.

VERNON KNAPP SR., Fort Bragg. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

LOUISE MARTIN, Laytonville. Pot possession for sale, conspiracy.

JOSHUA SCHRECKENGOST, Richmond/Ukiah. DUI.

SIMONS VANAGAS, Laytonville. Pot possession for sale, conspiracy.

SHINING A LIGHT

by James Kunstler

The just-released movie Spotlight is about a Boston Globe investigative reporting team circa 2001-02 that uncovered and documented a vast network of child sex abuse by priests in the Catholic Church that had been on-going for decades. More to the point, Spotlight revealed the institutional rot at the very top of the Boston Catholic Church hierarchy, led by then-Cardinal Bernard Law — which marinated church personnel in a code of secret atrocious behavior enabled by systematic lying and deception. In effect, the church gave permission to its foot-soldiers, the parish priests, to engage in whatever sexual antics they wished to, with a tacit promise to shield them from the reach of the courts. The civil authorities of Boston, heavily Catholic due to Boston’s demographics, assisted the church by throwing up every legal obstacle they could to deter the victims and their advocates in the search for justice — and to put an end to the predation of children by priests.

That was the story that Spotlight told, and it did that very economically, without grandstanding. But the movie had another message for me, as someone who has been involved in the media going back more than 40 years when I was an investigative newspaper reporter myself. The message was that the institutional support for great journalism that allowed the Globe’s Spotlight reporting team to do its job is now gone-baby-gone. All the newspapers in the USA, and even the TV and radio news networks, are running these days on skeleton crews. At least that is true of the old flagship organizations such as the Boston Globe and CNN. They just don’t have the reporters out in the field. The front-page or flatscreen interface that the public sees conceals ghost organizations that barely have the reporting resources and the reach to discover what is actually going on in the world.

The dying newspapers — and they really are on life-support at this point, including the Globe and The New York Times — can’t pay teams of reporters like the Spotlight crew to work through years-long investigations. But what the movie also ought to remind us is that the hierarchical competence at such an enterprise, the layers of editors who know what they are doing and understand the boundaries and conventions of their own society, is also disastrously AWOL in the new Wowee-Zowie era of instant cell-phone networking, Facebook, and Instagram. In a word, leadership has been made to seem dispensable.

What gets left out of the story, as usual, are the diminishing returns of technology. In the news business — that is, the business of informing society what is actually going on — that blowback is leaving the public not just uninformed or misinformed, but additionally clueless about what they have lost. The result is a society increasingly shaped by delusion and paralysis. For example, The New York Times has gone from being the “newspaper of record” to being the leading dispenser of wishful thinking by a feminized political Left preoccupied with feelings over truth. (This, by the way, helps to account for the remnant media’s hatred of Vladimir Putin, a leader who doesn’t apologize for acting like one. And, of course, a man.) The Old Gray Lady is also reduced to overt cheerleading for its avatar (Monday’s lead op-ed: HILLARY CLINTON — How I’d Rein In Wall Street Ha!), and making excuses for our grift-and rackets-based polity (Paul Krugman: The Not-So-Bad Economy Ha Ha Ha!).

At the local level, the news situation is simply pathetic. The surviving local newspapers are little more than bulletin boards for news releases from interested parties. They’ve fired all their reporters. Soon the papers will all be gone and the vaunted wondrous Internet will be little more than a grapevine and a rumor mill. The “cloud” that everybody thinks is so marvelous will look more and more like an epochal fog — and we’ll be lost in it. These are the wages of our techno-narcissism, a society now marinating in cluelessness the way the Catholic church, as depicted in Spotlight, marinates in pederasty and deceit. It is frankly hard to see a way out of the cultural predicament. Two things, at least, are necessary to break out of this hall of mirrors: men acting like honorable men, and hierarchies of leadership with the integrity to actually lead. For now, the USA is not interested in those things.

(James Kunstler’s third World Made By Hand novel is available! The Fourth and final is complete
 and in production for May 2016 publication)

NEW POST AT KLAMBLOG

Reporters and editors,

The new post is especially for you. Here's the link

http://klamblog.blogspot.com/2015/12/klamath-politics-tests-kbra-friendship.html

Here's how it begins:

Those who pay attention to Klamath River Basin issues are by now very familiar with claims that former Klamath adversaries - Farmers, Tribes, Fishermen and Environmentalists - have overcome former conflicts, forged friendships and now support each other. Five years after the KBRA Water Deal was signed, those claims are still being made, not just by the "parties" that signed the Deal but by politicians, newspaper editors and a host of fellow travelers. A recent announcement by the Yurok Tribe <http://klamblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-yurok-tribes-kbra-withdrawal.html>, one of the KBRA's main architects, stating that it was withdrawing from the Deal because it was no longer possible to obtain the benefits for the Klamath River it had negotiated, has not stemmed the rhetorical claims that harmony now reigns among the Basin's tribes and irrigators.

And here's how it ends:

KlamBlog challenges the Klamath Water Users Association and the Family Farm Alliance to take a public position on Walden's draft legislation. We challenge those reporting on Klamath issues to put the question directly to the two organizations: Do they support Walden's draft legislation or do they stand with the tribes in opposition?

I'll be hoping your reports ferret out what is going on behind the scenes rather than just repeating the press release spin.

Felice Pace

Klamath, CA 95548

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

On holiday in rural France I was struck by the formal politeness of the people. It was nice in a way but also tiring. I remember the ferry back to Dun Laoghaire from Cherbourg. When the boat got in sight of the Irish coastline you could practically hear the Irish passengers sigh with relief. Soon we were able to drive off in a relaxed if somewhat disordered fashion, no longer waiting for some French voice to find fault with some petty infringement or other. In Germany, we took a short break once in Triere, which is probably at the more relaxed end of the Teutonic spectrum. Our hotel was a stone’s throw from the town (and the Porta Nigra) but it took ages to get home as you daren’t cross the road before the little green man flashed. An English friend of mine who had studied in Lund in Sweden once told me how he had walked through knee high snowdrifts in that town in the middle of the night without a soul in sight. He came across a figure, barely recognizable in the falling snow, waiting for the same little green man in an abandoned snowscape. This is one basic reason Ireland should get out of Europe, and Britain too, probably.

DEAR READERS and enthusiasts of my art and writing,

I'm in the final stages of putting together my art show at Beyond Baroque and desperately need to raise enough money to finish framing and matting my artwork. I have created three different Dead Rock Star tshirts which are hand-screened in a local UNION shop and printed on 100% cotton union made tshirts. The shirts are only $18 each, and each sale will help me raise the rest of the money I need to finish putting together my show.

Here is the link to my Etsy shop or you can order directly from me: https://www.etsy.com/shop/KimNicoliniArt?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Also, I'm enclosing an image from the poster for the show. I hope you can come!

Kim Nicolini

ANNOYING COMMUNICATION ON THE DAY

Friend -- 

When reporters ask me what it means to be a “girlboss” (this really happens!), I tell them it’s about the humility of knowing you can’t accomplish anything alone, and that being an empowered woman as part of a team means you really can do anything.

 I know that Hillary is going to be the ultimate girlboss as our next president, but she needs all of us on her team to help her win the White House! 

To help her get there, my husband Will and I are throwing a holiday party for Hillary in New York City. It’s going to be a super-fun winter wonderland full of families, and I would love for you to be our VIP guest. All you have to do is add your name for a chance to join us.

 I think it’s so great that you’re on Hillary’s team, and I would love to meet you and your family in New York. The campaign will cover your flights and hotel, and I bet you’ll even have time for some shop windows and ice skating. (Rockefeller Center or Central Park, you can’t go wrong.)

 Ok, so like a good girlboss, I’m going to recap our next steps:

You: Add your name at this link

Drew: Plan a kickass party

Hillary: Keep working hard to become our next president!!

Sound good to you? See you in New York!

Thanks!

Drew Barrymore

WEIRD, BLOB-LIKE CREATURES of El Niño Invoke Horror Along Pacific

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/weird-blob-like-creatures-of-el-nino-invoke-horror-along-pacific-1449450440-lMyQjAxMTE1MjAzNzgwMTcxWj

EVERYBODY'S TALKING AT ME

I can't hear a word their saying

only the echoes of my mind,

People are stopping and staring

I can't see their faces,

Only the shadows of their eyes...

I'm going where the sun keeps shining,

Through the pouring rain

Going where the weather suites my cloths...

Banking off the northeast wind,

Sailing on a summer breeze

Skipping over the ocean like a stone

 

wha wha ah ah ah whaaaaa...

 

I'm going where the sun keeps shining,

Through the pouring rain

Going where the weather suites my cloths...

Banking off the northeast wind,

Sailing on a summer breeze

Skipping over the ocean like a stone

 

Everybody's talking at me,

Can't hear a word their saying

Only the echos of my mind...

And I won't let you leave my love behind...

I won't let you leave...

I won't let you leave...

I won't let you leave...

— Fred Neil

50 YEARS OF HEARINGS AND COUNTING

Mendocino Town Plan Public Hearing

On December 8, 2015, at 1:30 p.m. the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will hear agenda item 5(c): Noticed Public Hearing - Discussion and Possible Adoption of a Resolution Approving Further Clarifying Revisions to the Mendocino Town Local Coastal Program, as Effectively Certified by the California Coastal Commission, and as Amended by the Board of Supervisors on December 9, 2014, Including the Mendocino Town Plan (Chapter 4.13 of the General Plan) and the Mendocino Town Zoning Ordinance (Division III of Title 20 of the Mendocino County Code)/Local Coastal Program Implementation Program, and Directing the Submission of the Mendocino Town Local Coastal Program Update Amendment to the California Coastal Commission for Certification Pursuant to the California Coastal Act of 1976, as Amended (Division 20, Public Resources Code) (Continued from October 20, 2015).

The Board of Supervisors invites anyone wishing to make public comment to attend the meeting or submit comments to the Board of Supervisors at bos@co.mendocino.ca.us.

Released by:

Carmel J. Angelo

Chief Executive Officer/Water Agency Director