Mendocino County Today: Friday, Dec 25, 2015

• Merry Christmas
• Hard Freeze Warning
• Holiday Mailbox Gang
• Asset Forfeiture
• Catch of the Day
• Kid Stories
• Concussion Movie
• Bargain Books
• Deportation Raids
• Steelhead Rebound
• KZYX Committee Assignments

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[abbreviated holiday post]

HARD FREEZE WARNING in effect from midnight tonight to 9 am PST Saturday.

The National Weather Service in Eureka has issued a hard freeze warning, which is in effect from midnight tonight to 9 am PST Saturday. (The hard freeze watch is no longer in effect.)

• Low temperatures: low 30s near the immediate coast. Away from the immediate coast, upper 20s.
• Locations include: Boonville, Branscomb, and Philo.
• For a detailed view of the hazard area, visit http://www.Wrh.NOAA.Gov/map

Precautionary/Preparedness Actions:

A hard freeze warning means sub-freezing temperatures are imminent or highly likely. These conditions will kill crops and other sensitive vegetation.

THE MAIL BOX GANG

On 12/24/2015 Deputies from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office noticed several mail boxes open along the rural areas of Highway 253 and Robinson Creek Road.  Closer inspection revealed the mail boxes appeared to have been ransacked and several items of mail were strewn down the roadway.  Due to previous mail thefts in the area, and with the approaching Christmas Holiday, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office had begun surveillance of several locations in some of the rural areas fearing further mail thefts would occur.  Deputies viewed surveillance materials and were able to identify a vehicle associated with the theft.  Deputies began searching the Ukiah area for the vehicle and located it at 1340 North State Street, the Discovery Inn.  Deputies learned the vehicle was associated with subjects in a particular room.

Detectives contacted Daniel Montalvo, 29, of Ukiah, in the room and entered the room seizing it for search warrant.  Also located in this room were Shannon Archer, 45, Joshua Dean, 22, and Lewis Dishman, 33, all of Ukiah.  Joshua Dean initially used a false name stating he was another person.  Deputies received a search warrant for the room and the vehicle from a judge of the Mendocino County Superior Court and served the search warrant.  Located in the room were firearms, drug paraphernalia, pepper spray, stolen mail from multiple locations throughout the Ukiah Valley including the Highway 253 area as well as burglary tools and indicia of occupancy.  A search of the vehicle was also completed, Deputies located stolen firearm components as well as stolen property from locations within the Ukiah valley.  Shannon Archer was found to have convictions which precluded her from possession of firearms.  Deputies were able to positively identify Joshua Dean through photographs and learned he had outstanding arrest warrants for parole violations as well as local warrants.  Montalvo, Dishman and Dean were arrested and booked on charges of Criminal conspiracy, Mail theft, Possession of stolen property and possession of burglary tools.  Dean was also charged with impersonation of another.    Archer was arrested and booked for Felon possessing a firearm and Felon possessing pepper spray.  An investigation into this case is continuing as more victims are being located.  If you have any information regarding this crime or believe you may have been a victim in this case please contact the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at (707) 234-2100.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT JUST SHUT DOWN A HUGE ASSET FORFEITURE PROGRAM

by Christopher Ingraham

The Department of Justice announced this week that it's suspending a controversial program that allows local police departments to keep a large portion of assets seized from citizens under federal law and funnel it into their own coffers.

The "equitable-sharing" program gives police the option of prosecuting asset forfeiture cases under federal instead of state law. Federal forfeiture policies are more permissive than many state policies, allowing police to keep up to 80 percent of assets they seize -- even if the people they took from are never charged with a crime.

The DOJ is suspending payments under this program due to budget cuts included in the recent spending bill.

"While we had hoped to minimize any adverse impact on state, local, and tribal law enforcement partners, the Department is deferring for the time being any equitable sharing payments from the Program," M. Kendall Day, chief of the asset forfeiture and money laundering section, wrote in a letter to state and local law enforcement agencies.

In addition to budget cuts last year, the program has lost $1.2 billion, according to Day's letter. "The Department does not take this step lightly," he wrote. "We explored every conceivable option that would have enabled us to preserve some form of meaningful equitable sharing. ... Unfortunately, the combined effect of the two reductions totaling $1.2 billion made that impossible."

Asset forfeiture has become an increasingly contentious practice in recent years. It lets police seize and keep cash and property from people who are never convicted — and in many cases, never charged — with wrongdoing. Recent reports have found that the use of the practice has exploded in recent years, prompting concern that, in some cases, police are motivated more by profits and less by justice.

Criminal justice reformers are cheering the change. "This is a significant deal," said Lee McGrath, legislative counsel at the Institute for Justice, in an interview. "Local law enforcement responds to incentives. And it's clear that one of the biggest incentives is the relative payout from federal versus state forfeiture. And this announcement by the DOJ changes the playing field for which law state and local [law enforcement] is going to prefer."

Previous research by the Institute for Justice has shown that when states have stricter forfeiture laws, cops are more likely to pursue forfeiture cases under federal law as a means of bypassing those stricter state restrictions.

In California, for instance, police are allowed to keep 66.25 percent of forfeiture proceeds under state law, but 80 percent if they opt for the federal equitable sharing route. And forfeiture figures reflect this: In 2013, California police forfeited $28 million worth of cash and property under state law, but $98 million under federal law, according to the Institute for Justice's research.

It's unclear how much of the total national forfeiture haul will be affected by the DOJ's change, since many states don't make their forfeiture data public. But as the case of California shows, it is potentially significant: In that state in 2013, nearly eight out of every 10 dollars of forfeited property went through federal law. Under this change, that flow of cash would be shut off.

Some law enforcement groups are less than happy with the change. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) said in a statement that "this decision is detrimental to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve."

In a letter sent to President Obama, the leaders of Congress, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the heads of six law enforcement groups -- including the IACP and the National District Attorney's Association --  wrote to express "profound concern" over the changes: "This shortsighted decision by Congress will have a significant and immediate impact on the ability of law enforcement agencies throughout the nation to protect their communities and provide their citizens with the services they expect and deserve."

The National Sheriff's Association was even more critical. "While Congress and the President vacation in peace and tranquility, law enforcement knows all too well that the criminals, terrorists, and criminal aliens do not take a holiday," the group wrote in a statement.  "Those seeking to do us harm can rest easier knowing one less tool can be used against them."

But reformers point out that the change doesn't impact law enforcement's ability to seize goods from suspected criminals -- it only changes their legal options for keeping what they take. The change "does not stop police and prosecutors from chasing criminals," McGrath said in a statement. "[Police] are frustrated because Congress put on hold their chasing cash."

Regardless, the change may not be permanent. In its letter, the DOJ hints that it may be able to restart payments later: "By deferring equitable sharing payments now, we preserve our ability to resume equitable sharing payments at a later date should the budget picture improve." The DOJ hopes to "reinstate sharing distributions as soon as practical and financially feasible," the letter concludes.

(Courtesy, the Washington Post)

CATCH OF THE DAY, December 24, 2015

SHANNON ARCHER, Boonville. Ex-felon with firearm.

RANDAL BONACORSO, Ukiah. Grand theft, fraud.

HENRY DELCARLO, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, witness intimidation.

LEWIS DISHMAN, Ukiah. ID theft, possession of burglary tools, petty theft, conspiracy.

DAVID FRANK JR., Redding/Ukiah. DUI with priors, pot cultivation, controlled substance.

GERALD FULLER, Clearlake Oaks/Ukiah. Domestic assault, false imprisonment, no license, probation revocation.

DARYL HAMMOND, Boonville. Vehicle theft, controlled substance, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

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

JOSHUA NELSON-DEAN, Ukiah. Receiving stolen property, ID theft, possession of burglary tools, petty theft, conspiracy, failure to appear, parole violation.

SEAN STORM, Point Arena. DUI causing injury.

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“Here I confess: for thirty years I have hated those stupid space movies, as much for their badly-written scripts (all mumbo-jumbo exposition of nonsensical story-lines between explosions) as for the degenerate techno-narcissism they promote in a society literally dying from the diminishing returns and unintended consequences of technology.”

Umm, gee… you do know these to be children’s movies, right? The scripts dealt with broad themes written to keep little people following along. They used the Campbellian odyssey structure to tell a simple hero’s tale. The movies were great for selling toys, not metaphysics a la Bergman.

Ironically, the author runs the risk of falling into the same trap that the overgrown (adult) perpetual adolescents whose behavior he laments do; namely, being unable to distinguish childhood appropriate behavior and accoutrements from those of the adult realm.

In other words, it’s a kid’s Disney film, don’t you too mistake it for anything more.

WHY THE MOVIE ‘CONCUSSION’ SPELLS TROUBLE FOR THE NFL

and moral angst for the rest of us…

by Dave Zirin

Why do I believe the film Concussion will deliver a teeth-rattling blow to the NFL? Why am I sure this Christmas-release Oscar hopeful will raise far-reaching questions about the price we collectively pay for loving football? Why can I guarantee it will it even further erode the already-subterranean reputation of league commissioner Roger Goodell? Because Concussion has something most “message films” do not possess: It’s expertly paced and one hell of a film. If you didn’t really give a damn about the tobacco industry but found yourself riveted by Michael Mann’s The Insider, then this is your film — whether you watch football or not. The pacing, the acting, the kinetic athletic sequences, the use of familiar names, stories, and uniforms, give Concussion an accessible verisimilitude that does not only educate. It shocks.

The dramatic structure of the film is as tried and true as Hollywood itself: it’s a David vs. Goliath story, an honest person vs. the powerful, one human vs. the machine. It’s John Henry. It’s Norma Rae. It’s Karen Silkwood. It’s Rocky Balboa. But what sets this story apart is not the structure or even the content: It’s the moment. Concussion is the true tale of Dr. Bennet Omalu — brilliantly played by Will Smith — and his effort to get the National Football League to acknowledge the existence of the brain disease he discovered, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Dr. Omalu first identified the football-related brain disease in examining the brain of Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, who died at age 50 in 2002. Webster’s mind was so deeply damaged that he was living in a van, using Super Glue to keep his rotting teeth in place and tasing himself as a method of handling the pain.

The NFL has still not come to terms publicly about what happened to people we cheered — like the late Webster, Dave Duerson, and Junior Seau. Unlike most other message films, Concussion is stepping into a live debate that has consumed the nation’s most popular sport for the last seven years. This is not a dramatization, aided by hindsight, of a historical issue long put to bed. It’s not about the well-known perils of smoking. It’s stepping right into something that resembles a pit of vipers but more accurately is a 3,000 mile-wide media hydra, drawing its lifeblood from the National Football League’s economic reach. We live in a time when the NFL is the most popular cultural product this nation produces. In a time of more channels, more choices, more websites, more podcasts, and more options, the NFL’s ratings and reach have only increased and entrenched. The league is pure power, but demonstrably built on a foundation of broken lives. As so many politicians and corporate heads laud Roger Goodell for all he has done to “make the game safer,” Concussion points a finger at the $44 million-a-year man and calls out the emperor for being buck-naked in public.

The film is already provoking discussion beyond the sports jockosphere. Now, as a tie-in with the film, we have NFL veterans—boyhood heroes of mine — like former New York Giant Leonard Marshall talking to Yahoo Sports about his post-playing, concussed life and saying, “I just noticed that my behavior was starting to change. My patience, or lack of patience, was starting to diminish. I would forget things, forget financial responsibilities, take things for granted, have a short fuse with my daughter, a short fuse with my ex.”

As such, the film goes beyond the artistic success of its actors, script, and pacing to pose a moral question to critics and sports networks. It is about the pull of corporate pressure vs. the public’s right to know. Despite the efforts by the NFL and absurd sports-radio hosts trying to turn whether to play football into a “red state/blue state issue,” even rock-ribbed right-wing Republicans like Mike Ditka are saying that he wishes kids would “take up golf” instead. Science is real, and the media now have to weigh not only the quality of the film but their responsibility to not bury a film that could save lives. If it didn’t sound like a gross 1980s straight-to-Cinemax release, Concussion could be retitled Informed Consent.

We have the right to know the costs of imbibing this game. See this film, and learn who has stymied our access to this truth. You will learn something from seeing this film, but Concussion is a triumph precisely because it doesn’t beat you over the head. Instead, it goes right to your other nerve centers, as you reel from thrills to disgust to tears to anger. For many of us, some of that anger will be directed at ourselves.

(edgeofsports.com)

HUNDREDS OF FAMILIES TO BE DEPORTED FROM US within days as Homeland Security plans raids on immigrants who fled wars in Central America

by Euan McClelland

The U.S Department of Homeland Security is preparing for a series of raids aimed at deporting hundreds of families who have flocked to the country since the start of last year, it has been reported.

Citing people familiar with the operation, the Washington Post said the nationwide campaign to deport the illegal immigrants by U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement could start as soon as early January.

It would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America.

More than 100,000 families - many with children - have made the journey across the south west border since last year.

The operation would target only adults and children who have already been ordered for removal from the United States by an immigration judge, the newspaper said.

It said the operation has not been given final approval by DHS. However, the number of people targeted is expected to be in the hundreds and possibly greater.

Adults and children would be detained wherever they can be found and immediately deported.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Experts say that the violence that was a key factor in driving people to flee Central America last year has surged again.

The pressure for deportations has mounted because of a recent court decision that ordered DHS to begin releasing families housed in detention centres.

Immigration advocates expressed concern about the plan.

Gregory Chen, director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Post: 'It would be an outrage if the administration subjected Central American families to even more aggressive enforcement tactics.'

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, added: 'I'll believe it when I see it.

'What share is this going to be? It's a drop in the bucket compared to the number they've admitted into the country.'

(Courtesy, the Daily Mail On-Line)

AMERICAN RIVER STEELHEAD NUMBERS REBOUND FROM LAST YEAR

by Dan Bacher

(Rancho Cordova) The number of steelhead showing now at Nimbus Fish Hatchery is greatly improved from last season, in spite of continuing low releases of 500 cfs from Nimbus Dam into the lower American River.

This year is much different from last season, when a total of only 154 steelhead were trapped by hatchery staff from December through mid-March.

In contrast, the hatchery has trapped over 148 steelhead as of December 22. Last season only 10 steelhead had been trapped by December 29.

“There are lots of steelhead in the hatchery, said Gary Novak, Nimbus Fish Hatchery manager. “I’m floored.”

The hatchery has spawned a total of 27 pairs to date compared with only 31 pairs all of  last season.

“The males are above average size and the females are also large,” he said, leading to speculation that some of the steelhead may have stayed out in the ocean for an extra year and have come up the river as 4-year-olds.

We won’t know for sure until scale samples of the steelhead are analyzed by biologists. Most steelhead return to spawn as three-year-olds on the American River.

The number of eggs taken from the fish to date is 198,278. That’s more than the total for the entire season last year, 192,278 eggs.

“We averaged about 6,000 eggs per female last season,” he said. “This season we’re seeing over 7,000 eggs per fish.”

However, to put the current steelhead run in perspective, banner years for steelhead on the American have seen up to 2,000 adult steelhead counted by this time of year.

The numbers of fall-run Chinook salmon, including jacks and jills (two-year—old fish), showing at the hatchery are now also above those trapped last year. The facility has trapped 9,716 salmon, including 7,326 adults and 2390 jacks and jills,  this season.

Last year hatchery staff counted a total of 8,343 salmon, including 7,048 adults and 1,295 jacks and jills.

The hatchery has taken 8 million eyed salmon eggs to date. “Overall, the numbers of salmon are typical of those we’ve seen here in recent years,” said Novak.

“The water at the hatchery was warm in the beginning, but the cold snap we got cooled the water down and brought up fresh fish from the Sacramento,” he explained.

He noted that they have already sent 2 million eggs to the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery, in addition to the eggs they have on hand at Nimbus, as insurance against any unforeseen disaster.

KZYX MEANS BUSINESS!

(SAKO DOESN'T MAKE THE CUT)

Committee assignments 2016

Executive Committee

• President: Meg Courtney
• Vice-president: Jane Futcher
• Treasurer: Clay Eubank
• Secretary: Bob Page

Audit Committee

• Chair: Bob Page
• Member: Ed Keller

Bylaws & Policies Committee

• Chair: Meg Courtney
• Members: Eliane Herring, Mary Aigner, Stuart Cambell

FAQ Ad Hoc Committee

• Chair: Jenness Hartly
• Members: Ellen Saxe

Personnel Committee

• Chair: Benj Thomas
• Members: Barbara Lamb, (Sheila Dawn Tracy)

Long Range Planning Committee /Strategic Plan

• Chair: Meg Courtney
• Members: David Steffen, Jane Futcher

Finance Committee

• Chair: Clay Eubank
• Member: Dan O’Connell

Fundraising and Membership

• Chair: Jenness Hartley
• Members: Meg Courtney, David Steffen, Diane Hering, Katherine Keegan

Programming

• Chair: Jane Futcher
• Member: Mary Aigner, Tim Bray

Equipment & Construction

• Chair: Ed Keller
• Member: Rich Culbertson

Nominating and Elections

• Chair: Jane Futcher
• Members: Ed Keller

CAB Liaison

• Chair: Benj Thomas?
• Members: Toni Novelli, Steven Fish… At large: Bob Bushansky