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Mendocino County Today: Saturday, Jan 16, 2016

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WEEKEND WEATHER Outlook for Northwest California from the National Weather Service:

A HIGH SURF ADVISORY is currently in effect from Saturday afternoon through midnight Sunday night.

ANOTHER PACIFIC STORM will bring heavy rain to the entire region on Sunday with the threat of urban and small stream flooding, along with possible flooding of main stem rivers.

GUSTY SOUTH WINDS will be possible along the immediate coastline late Saturday night through Sunday morning.

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UPDATE: NOAA Backs Off On 'Major' Flood Prediction -- New Forecast Still Has Navarro 5' Over Flood Stage

We thought the NOAA prediction earlier of a 36.3' Navarro River level was a bit extreme - it would have ranked in the top ten floods ever recorded (#8 actually) and saw they amended it back to 28.4' - still five feet above the 23-foot flood level and reason to close CA-128 (and Highway 1 at the Garcia River in Manchester). We'll continue to keep our eye on the river and our ear near the scanner when the deluge hits. (MSP)

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MSP'S 'EYE ON THE NAVARRO RIVER'

NOAA Says River To Reach 36.3' - Top 10 In Flooding

As MSP predicted, the NOAA forecast has (yet again) been changed - this time it has been scaled up to “MAJOR flooding” status just about guaranteeing the Navarro & Garcia rivers will flood and close CA-128 & CA-1 respectively. You can count on the Russian River overflowing its banks over US-101 in Hopland too !

It looks like the Navarro will exceed the flood stage (23-feet) on Sunday.

NavHt115

Historic Crests

(1) 40.60 ft on 12/22/1955

(2) 39.81 ft on 12/31/2005

(3) 39.81 ft on 12/31/2005

(4) 38.64 ft on 12/22/1964

(5) 38.20 ft on 12/15/1937

(6) 36.93 ft on 01/26/1983

(7) 36.34 ft on 01/05/1966

(8) 35.69 ft on 02/17/1986

(9) 35.44 ft on 01/24/1970

(10) 35.09 ft on 12/31/1996

(11) 33.42 ft on 01/17/1954

(12) 32.95 ft on 03/30/1974

(13) 30.49 ft on 01/09/1995

(14) 30.48 ft on 12/02/2012

(15) 30.10 ft on 12/11/2014

(16) 26.70 ft on 03/24/2011

(17) 25.67 ft on 03/28/2012

(18) 25.57 ft on 01/20/2010

(19) 15.15 ft on 02/23/2009

(20) 14.10 ft on 03/29/2014

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

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FRIENDS, READERS, AND THOSE JUST LOOKING FOR FREE FOOD AND DRINK, One more reminder that Saturday evening, 6:30 PM, I will be reading and signing copies of Outlaw Ford at Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino. For those too far away to attend, Outlaw Ford remains on sale at book stores throughout Mendocino County. Perhaps the easiest place to order copies is at Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino. Simply go to their website: gallerybookshop.com. If you are still unnerved by new-fangled contraptions like computers, go to the phone and call 707-937-BOOK. If you want a signed copy, let 'em know, and the Gallery Bookshop people will hogtie me to the signing tree in order to get you a personalized copy of Outlaw Ford. If you prefer the feel good sound of buying from a store called Four-Eyed Frog Books, check them out at www.foureyedfrog.com (That's right, no hyphen!) or call 707-884-1333. Malcolm MalcolmMacdonaldOutlawFord.com

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SELMA: THE BRIDGE TO THE BALLOT

Special Guest Speaker Professor Herb Kohl
Sunday, February 7, 2016 At 2pm
Coast Community Library, Main Street Point Arena

We present a short film produced by The Southern Poverty Law Center and Teaching Tolerance documenting the historic struggle for Voting Rights in the South, and the brave and inspiring students, teachers and activists who fought (and some died) a nonviolent battle to bring about the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and advance human rights in our country for us all.

Professor Herb Kohl, educator, author, and Civil Rights veteran will discuss the movement for Voting Rights for everyone in our country, which continues today.

A discussion will follow the film. Everyone is welcome, especially The Youth.

Voter Registration will be available, as well as refreshments.

This event is free.

Sister Yasmin, 885-4703.

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EVERY YEAR as King's birthday approaches, I offer the opinion that the very best King bio is Marshall Frady's in the Penguin edition. Not to be too much of a geezer about it, but I was there, so to speak, a foot soldier of the left when King was generally criticized for his non-violent strategies and ridiculed for his Christianity. He was also of course vilified in the daily media as a communist and for demanding too much, too fast. He was certainly among the very bravest figures of those low times, beginning his every day without police protection for himself and his family and not knowing if it would be his last. Frankly, I think these latter day celebrations are hugely hypocritical but, I suppose, harmless. Gets the libs out of the house for a while. From what I can gather the way King is memorialized in the schools leaves out entirely his social-economic radicalism and winds up a kind of big bowl of luke warm of wuv wrapped in multiculti-bullshit.

THE DAY AFTER KING was murdered, I was leafletting for a protest rally on Market Street when a young guy walked up and started screaming at me in vile but unimaginative terms about how happy he was that King was dead. I let him know that I was firmly committed to violence myself and would be happy to do it with him, not that I wanted to particularly over the very apostle of peace. But, criminy my fellow love bombers, a guy has his limits. People stepped in, cops were nearby, but I still remember it as emblematic of the times, emblematic of how twisted so many white tribalists are. They're less strident anymore but they're out there still in large numbers. And San Francisco was not at all the liberal bastion it has since become. The City was strictly, militantly segregated up through the 1970s.

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DOWN, DOWN GOES THE PONZI (and Mendo's retirement “system” with it)

AMERICAN stocks suffered another bad week after oil prices plunged below $30 on Friday and worries over China's shaky market continued to mount. The S&P 500 saw a 3% loss this week, while the Dow Jones and NASDAQ saw 3% and 4% losses, respectively. The Mendocino County retirement system is getting hammered, too, because it's heavily invested in the market. In 2008, Mendo's losses were about 25% of an already dangerously over-subscribed pension plan.

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TED SAYS COUNTY BROKER THAN BROKE

Subject: Sedition?

Happy New Year to my Farm Bureau Friends!

The joint meeting between the BOS and MCERA has moved around a bit. I believe the time is now settled. It will be this Tuesday, Jan 19, at the Ukiah Conference Center (200 So. School St), 2 to 4PM. Our MCERA meeting will be the same day, the same room and it starts at 8:30 AM.

As a side note, as you may know, the county audit report is out and the county financial position, measured by net worth on the balance sheet, has gone from a positive value to a deep negative value due to the govt. accounting rules forcing the pension debt to be accurately reflected on the statement. The negative net worth means our county assets have no value; the debts are larger than the value of our assets. I believe some would say we are technically insolvent or bankrupt as we would be unable to pay off our debt with the assets we have. The county pension plan did this to us. John D and his reform group will have several comments on this at the joint meeting.

The main purpose of the joint meeting is to present the actuarial valuation report for the year ended June 30, 2015.

I have written a short summary of my thoughts on this that I have attached for your perusal. I have done this as the protocol is for the chair and administrator to speak for the retirement board and they would rather not have someone like me spoiling the fun. Usually it is the standard “we are improving,” “everything is fine,” “don't worry, no problem,” “our experts have it under control.....” In reality, while I have tried to be patient, work with the board and learn all I can about these complicated plans, the problem just keeps getting worse.

The actuary, Segel, will be at the meeting presenting their report and telling us we should be more patient. In our last MCERA board meeting I was the lone vote against approving this report. I voted against it as it is the same flawed process that has produced the pension debt that has financially ruined our county. It hasn't only created the negative net worth situation, it has also absorbed every available dollar in funding to the detriment of all the other services in our county. It might sound funny to say “we have a really screwed up county with no services, but we have great pensions,” but I am also very worried about the plan's ability to pay the benefits we have promised. Not a single employee dollar or employer ever makes it into the plan. In fact, we also have to sell plan assets every month to make benefit and administrative plan payroll. As you will see in my attachment, while we had the most remarkable market recovery, our plan has continued to deteriorate.

Under the same flawed actuarial process, in 1996 the county borrowed to refill the pension plan telling us to trust this system. In 2002 the county borrowed again to refill the pension plan telling us this time it really is okay, just trust the process. These are our pension obligation bonds (POBs). When I started looking at this I was told it was all the market, when the market came back it would fine...At the date of the report they are presenting, June 30, 2015, the market had recovered more than any of us could have ever imagined. It is not all okay. Since 2008 the unfunded liability is up by 9 times. Since 2010 the unfunded liability has doubled. I don't think you have to be too smart to figure out something is seriously wrong here. What you will hear at the meeting is trust them again; it is really okay this time. Or, that by reducing the target rate it increased the underfunded amount. The truth is we only went about half way with where the target rate should be reduced. They will not tell you why they missed it all the times before; they will tell you trust us and send lots more money. Sometimes I dream our citizens will find the courage to stand up and tell them “JUST STOP IT!, No more of this hooey. We need to get to the bottom of this!.” Every time I hear these reports now I have either “what a fool believes” or “won't get fooled again” playing in the back of my mind. Call me an actuarial science doubter, but the county numbers seem to speak the truth.

I hope to see you Tuesday.

--Ted Stephens
MS-Taxation, MBA-Finance
707-545-8646
1101 College Ave., Suite 210
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Securities Offered Through FSC Securities Corp.
A Registered Broker/Dealer
Member FINRA/SIPC

PS. MCERA Meeting Locations for Tuesday There has been some confusion as to where all these MCERA related meetings will actually be this coming Thursday, Jan 19, so here goes it as I know it today: Normal MCERA meeting will be at MCERA office, 625-B King's Court, at 8:30 to 11:30AM. Investment training will be at the Ukiah Conference Center, 200 So School St, from 12:00 to 1:30 PM. Joint meeting will be at the Ukiah Conference Center, 200 So School St, from 2 to 4 PM.

PPS - Should be fun; we even have a “Joint Meeting Agenda” published! In our county when you tell folks you are going to have a “joint meeting” never know who will show up!

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I'LL HAVE the crab cocktail, hold the domoic acid. As of January 8, the state's Department of Public Health says the level of toxicity in crab taken from the Mendo coast has increased from 17% to 33%. You can get real sick if you eat crab with high readings, hence the ban this season so far on Mendo crab. I don't want to get anybody killed, but a fisherman told me crab is safe if you stick to its meat. But if you down the whole show, guts and all, when acid readings are high, and you eat a lot of it, you're at risk.

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ATTEMPTED KIDNAP?

A Ukiah High School student was grabbed from behind and assaulted Friday morning as she waited for the school bus, Ukiah Police Department Chief Chris Dewey said.

At approximately 6:30 a.m., Dewey said the girl was near the intersection of South Orchard Avenue and Cindee Drive. He said the girl was able to fight back against her attacker and fled the scene.

The at-large suspect was only described to police as a male adult wearing dark clothing.

Dewey said the UPD is currently investigating the incident and working with the Ukiah Unified School District.

Parents may find additional safety information to help protect their children via the UPD’s website at http://bit.ly/1JPkzJm.

Police are asking anyone that may have additional information regarding the incident to contact the UPD at 463-6262.

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SHARE YOUR DESPAIR

Subject: Mendocino County Mental Health Board

From: “Claudina A. Ortiz” <Claudina.Ortiz@dciinc.org>

Date: Fri, January 15, 2016 12:09 pm

The California law (W&I code 5604) states that “each community mental heath service shall have a mental health board consisting of 10 to 15 members ...which should reflect the ethnic diversity of the client population." The mental health board is charged to do the following:

1. Review and evaluate the community's mental health needs, services, facilities and special problems. 2. Review all county agreements 3. Advice the county board of supervisors and mental health director as to any aspect of the of the local mental health programs 4. Review and approve the procedures used to ensure citizen and professional involvement at all stages of the planning process for mental health services. 5. Write an annual report to the Board of Supervisor of the needs and the performance of the county mental health system. 6. Review and make recommendations on applicants for the appointments of a local mental health director. The mental health board recommendation should be include in the packet to the Board of Supervisors for their perusal. 7. Review and comment on the county's performance outcome data and communicate its findings to the California mental health planning council. 8. Board of supervisor can transfer more duties to the mental health board. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that, as part of its duties pursuant to subdivision. (b) The board shall assess the impact of the realignment of services from the state to the county on services delivered to clients on the local community.

For this writer, the Mental Health Board is a vehicle for Mendocino county citizens to have their voice heard about mental health services; concerns, problems and issues in our county. Furthermore, the mental health board cannot do the duties it is charged to do without the knowledge that the community has about mental health services. So please come share your stories, opinions and concerns about mental health services.

The mental health board meets monthly the 3rd Wednesday of each month. January 20th we will meet in Fort Bragg at 101 N. Franklin Street at 10:00 am If you cannot come on Jan , come on Feb 17 at 10 am in Willits at 221 S Lenore.

Contact John at (707) 937-1352 or Dina at (707) 468-1276

“Love recognizes no barriers, leaps fences and penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope” Maya Angelo

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COMPLAINT LODGED AGAINST UKIAH HIGH MUSIC TEACHER

by Justine Frederiksen

The music teacher at Ukiah High School was relieved of his duties three months ago after a complaint was filed by a student alleging misconduct.

According to the Ukiah Police Department, a female student in October of 2015 accused the teacher, who is not being named because criminal charges have not been filed, of making an “inappropriate comment,” which was described further as “a sexual innuendo.”

Lt. Sean Kaeser said the UPD’s investigation of the incident led them to determine that a charge of “harassing and annoying a juvenile” was applicable, and submitted its report to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office for review.

Kaeser said that charge is not deemed to be a sexual offense and to his knowledge would not require someone convicted of it to register as a sex offender.

A spokesman for the DA’s Office Wednesday said that the case was “under review,” adding that since the student did not report until October an incident that allegedly occurred several months earlier in the spring, the case required a “comprehensive review.”

Asked about the teacher’s employment situation this week, the Ukiah Unified School District declined to comment.

“The district cannot discuss confidential personnel matters,” said Superintendent Deb Kubin, adding however that “we are advertising for a temporary music teacher for Ukiah High School.”

The music teacher at Willits High School, Jered Sherrill, said he believes his colleague, whom he described as having “tons of experience, who knows all of his instruments inside and out and is just really a very nice guy and very good with the kids,” is out of a job for what he characterized as a false report.

“It seems to be a kid that has a vendetta,” Sherrill said, describing the most recent complaint as being filed by “the girlfriend of a kid that tried to get (him) fired last year over a grading issue. That complaint was found to be false.”

Sherrill said since the teacher was still in his probationary period with the Ukiah Unified School District, he was let go after the second complaint.

The displaced teacher was hired in 2014 and quickly expanded Ukiah High’s languishing band program from 20 to 80 kids under his leadership.

“He’s an expert in beginning instruments,” said Sherrill, adding that the district has hired a longtime substitute while it searches for a possible replacement, “but it’s really unlikely that the county will get another teacher as great (as he is). If this complaint is determined to be false, the district should re-hire him.”

“Ukiah Unified is absolutely committed to its music program,” Kubin said. “We are excited about how much our program has grown in the past few years, and will continue to fully support our music program and the students involved in it.”

(Courtesy, the Ukiah Daily Journal)

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DeerXing

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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

by Jeff Costello

A lot of nutty things appear in the AVA's “online comments” section, and we might want to include this one under that heading. The idle brain can come up with lots of strange thoughts, for sure.

This morning after seeing a lot of - too much - media on the Oregon bird sanctuary occupation by cowboy-hatted so-called patriots, I started thinking about the name Bundy. The sons of Cliven, Mormons both. Cliven spilled a lot of beans, without meaning to, about the mind of the white religious flag-waving population. Black people were better off as slaves, for instance. And federally-owned land belongs to the people, so Cliven, declaring himself “the people,” began exploiting the property as his own. He had, of course, no idea how dumb he sounded, but it was enough to draw a like-minded gun-toting crowd to help fight off the authorities. And now the sons of Bundy are ready to do it all again, trying to prove something or other, I have no idea what exactly.

Outside of Portland, Oregon is a very white place as is most of the Pacific Northwest. When I lived up there - early 90's - two incidents of cross-burnings in the yards of mixed-race families were in the news. Both, by the way, were on or closely adjacent to Navy bases - one on Whidbey Island and the other in Norwegian-themed Poulsbo. Just across Liberty Bay from the Keyport naval facility, which neither confirms nor denies the presence of nuclear weapons. Willkommen in Poulsbo, say the sidewalk trolls. Coincidence? Can't be sure. All I know about the Navy, other than rumors of seagoing buggery, is never play poker with a veteran of Navy service unless you want to be cheated out of your money. They're experts, or so one informed me.

It gives me the creeps to think about all the ultra-white “militia” types and their bunkers in Idaho filled with emergency supplies and guns, and I can picture them sitting down there eating from dehydrated food packets, waiting grimly for Obama or the U.N. to come after their precious firearms.

Anyway, I think of bible-thumping neo-nazi types and the Bundys all in the same breath. And suddenly I remembered a TV show called “Married with Children,” about a crude, rude and socially maladjusted white family called....yep, Bundy.

And so we come to the most famous Bundy of all, Ted, the notorious serial killer who described himself as “the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you'll ever meet.” (One may pause to notice that all the big time serial killers have been white). Ted got the name Bundy after his mother married someone with that name in Tacoma, Washington.

There must of course be decent, reasonable white Christians out there somewhere. And decent, reasonable people named Bundy, too. Right? Just askin'.

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CATCH OF THE DAY, January 15, 2016

Acosta, Aragon, Hensley
Acosta, Aragon, Hensley

ALBERTO ACOSTA, Talmage. Drunk in public, resisting, probation revocation.

NATHANIEL ARAGON, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

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

Mendoza, Roach, Velez
Mendoza, Roach, Velez

FRANCISCO MENDOZA, Redwood Valley. Domestic assault.

COLIN ROACH, Fort Bragg. Grand theft.

AMY VELEZ, Sonora/Willits. Conspiracy.

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WALTER WHITE AND THE STREETS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY

(aka Walter White, meth, and the streets of San Francisco)

by Lola Giusti

methteeth

Photo: Stephen Wagner, DDS/FACP

An example of what methamphetamine use does to teeth.

San Francisco has a methamphetamine problem. It’s bad.

I know because many San Franciscan meth users are coming to the dental school where I teach with broken, infected and missing teeth. I’m concerned.

Your mental image of a meth addict may be of a sunken-faced, wild-eyed street person with only a few remaining brown stumps of teeth. That picture is accurate for someone in the advanced stages of addiction. By the time we see these patients, few teeth can be saved.

But it may surprise you when you learn of a loved one, a teenager or twentysomething who is partying hard, just had a bad dental checkup that found six new cavities at the gumline and between front teeth. That is how the destructive dental effects of methamphetamine begin. Parents might not realize there is a connection between new cavities and recreational drug use.

Television viewers had a long and rewarding experience with the brilliant series “Breaking Bad.” Its central character, Walter White, dealt with the financial ravages of cancer by synthesizing and dealing in methamphetamine.

The world portrayed by the show’s characters included a swath of nefarious plots: criminal networking, money laundering, prostitution, murder and retribution. As terrifying as White’s conundrums were, they held the audience spellbound, waiting for the next plot twist to more fully reveal the underworld of methamphetamine. Yet the show never completely depicted the horror that methamphetamine wreaks upon its users’ health.

Meth users smoke, snort, inject or swallow pills (Yaba) of methamphetamine to experience the rush or “flash” that helps them feel more powerful, more in-control, less anxious about their lives. Meth devotees quickly experience a loss of inhibition as well as of judgment. And their numbers are growing.

More than 12 million people in the United States have tried methamphetamine at least once (4.7 percent of the population). Methamphetamine — also called speed, ice, glass or crystal — can be produced in small “labs” using such inexpensive ingredients as over-the-counter cold medications, battery acid, antifreeze, drain cleaner, lye or lantern fuel.

The toll of long-term meth abuse is startling: memory loss, aggression, mood disturbances, cardiovascular changes, malnutrition, auditory hallucinations and delusions. It devastates lives and families. What is less apparent is the effect of methamphetamine on the teeth.

Dentists can recognize a distinctive and often severe pattern of decay that seems to spread through a mouth like wildfire. In combination with clenching and grinding of the jaws, as well as a 12-hour high that causes a craving for sugary foods, the tooth decay meth unleashes is nearly impossible to reverse.

The evidence is in: Last month’s cover story in the Journal of the American Dental Association explains how methamphetamine damages teeth. Researchers began studying the mechanisms behind this rapid dental destruction and found that even a year after quitting meth, the user’s saliva remains acidic. When paired with poor oral hygiene, this biochemical phenomenon exerts a permanent effect on teeth and health.

In the not-so-recent past, full dentures were the hallmarks of the elderly. Today, too many patients in their 20s are undergoing full-mouth dental extractions and living with dentures. Dentists mostly feel that life with teeth is better than life without them.

What I need to say to you is this: If someone in your family, or circle of friends, is struggling with a meth addiction, get them help as soon as you can. The addiction is fierce, and it is intertwined with activities that are difficult to stop.

If you suspect that your loved one may be using, there are many support programs. Seek one out, because your loved one will need a program and your help to quit. Once those measures are in place, please get your loved one to a dentist — the sooner, the better.

(Lola Giusti, DDS, is an associate professor at the University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco and a fellow at the American College of Dentists.)

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ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

A drone delivery would be significantly superior to having to drive or walk to the local hardware store to pick up your Chinese made screwdriver… that got to the hardware store in a box on a freight truck.

I assume a boxcar or conex box of screwdrivers unloaded at an Amazon distribution center from a freighter from China then sent on delivery by electric drone is simply more efficient.

Sure, you’re not doing the folksy stroll on the nonexistent Main Street, passing by all the happy faces that make up your deeply intertwined community, but that’s because those days are long gone for the majority of us. It’s contrived. Replaced by outdoor malls and outdoor malls with condos. Space built for lease as opposed to built by need, over time.

But alas, we want the conceit. We want to walk to the store to buy a screwdriver made by old Caleb who works in the foundry up past Squirrel Level Ridge. And we all know those days are not coming back, those days we yearn for, unless we keep praying to the rain gods to crash everything.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d prefer the quaint scenario. But the idea that all production will or can be local is a daydream. Yep, UPS delivery will be going away, and in its place is will be drones, or a fleet of electric vehicles. The suburbs, regrettably, are not going away, we will be locked away in our homes, using electric car-shares when we need to. Enjoying products shipped by nuclear powered freighters.

Now, the next hope is that there won’t be people to earn a living after it all crashes. People destitute, people jobless. People replaced by robots. AI relegating humans to the role of HD screen addicted pets. We’ll be VR goggled-up and strung out on WIFI in virtual reality based planes of existence if anyone/thing decides to keep us around as all. That not techno-narcissism, it’s techno-fatalism and it’s here. 
There’s no going back come crash or come peak.

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THE ANTHROPOCENE AGE

Dear Editor:

Human impact has pushed Earth into the anthropocene

Recently the Guardian newspaper published an article about a working group of scientists including members of the Subcommission on Quaternary Srtratigraphy's anthropocene.. The question of whether humans' combined environmental impact has tipped the earth in to an anthropocene ending the current holocene which began about 12,000 years ago will be put to the International Commission on Stratigraphy for a determination if it should formally declared an epoch. Dr. Colin Waters leader of the group who wrote a paper that was published in the Science magazine made the following comments, "We could be looking here at a step change from one world to another that justifies being called an epoch.” “What this paper does is to say the changes are as big as those that happened at the end of the last ice age. A number changes were cited as evidence for their action: Pushed Extinction rates of flora and fauna far above the long-term average; because of fossil fuel burning increased the concentrations of CO2 since the industrial revolution up about 120 parts per million (ppm) at around 400 ppm and increasing; testing of nuclear weapons has left traces of isotopes through out the mid-latitudes of the earth; put so much plastic in our waterways and oceans that microplastic particles are virtually everywhere: over the last 100 years doubled the nitrogen and phosphorous in our soils with our fertilizer use. There is research indicating it is the largest impact on the nitrogen cycle in 2.5 billion years; and left a permanent marker in sediment and glacial ice with airborne particulates such as black carbon from fossil fuel burning.

Dr. Waters did not discuss what the the next epoch will be like but rather obviously it will be a challenge for humans. By 2050 CO2 will reach 450 ppm which will be an all time high. There is a large concentration of excess CO2 in the ocean which will start being released as the oceans get warmer and warmer. As the ocean level continues to rise island nations will disappear and coastal area with large populations will be flooded. As the world's  population  continues to increase there will be mass starvation. Much of the land will be become arid desert. By the year 2100 it is had to visualize a world that  as we have now. In peace and love.

Jim Updegraff

Sacramento

* * *

POETIC TRANSMISSIONS (MCN Listserve)

Daney Dawson: As for the symptoms, painful clicking in the ear has been proposed as a sign of EMF sensitivity. I am a walking experiment. If I experience this symptom, I know that it's not in my head.

Marco McClean: Daney, whose head is it in, then?

DD: I can almost bet that when this happens, someone near me has a phone and is receiving a message, or there are strong signals coming from one of the myriad sources of microwave pollution. I am a sensitive person who notices things in the environment. I would prefer not to ignore the things I witness, but to increase my awareness of subtle ways in which my body or mind are affected by the environment. It's in my interest to do so. Like I said, do your own research. Don't wait for “Daddy” to tell you what is real. Anyway, what is “real” is open to interpretation.

MM: It's open to poetic interpretation, yeah. If you can really sense micropower radio in any band of the spectrum below visible light, whether it's on or off and whether there's information in it or not, then you can do something no-one has ever demonstrated under controlled conditions being able to do. You have a unique superhero-level ability. Here -- I just read this last night; this story from before “the age of microwaves” may be something like the ticking sound you talked about. It has something to do with the jaw and muscles and nerves and the ear and the brain. In other words, it's in the man's head, or rather was. Many decades have passed and he's probably been killed by now by whatever he was worried about at the time would kill him: communism, fluoridation, Vatican II, rock and roll music.... http://boingboing.net/2016/01/14/mans-head-audibly-ticked-lik.html

DD: Never before the age of microwave have I had a similar experience.

MM: Daney, my lower back used to give me a great deal of pain. It hardly ever happens anymore. And I'm not allergic to things I used to be allergic to, but to some other things, and my knees hurt when it gets cold. Our bodies change as we get older, and our brains are part of our bodies. And things go wrong in the healthiest and youngest of brains and bodies. We're not fine Swiss clockwork; we're wet and messy inside, and we're not made to last forever in the same condition, hence adolescence, adulthood, old age and system failure. Along the way, anomalous blips: 60 or 80 colds, random infuriating annoyances, a few crushing griefs and exalting glorious successes, and little things going wrong and correcting themselves in the various parts. Giving in to superstition is a personal choice; it's not like being gay or gifted at math or blue-eyed or crippled or seriously crazy.

Marco McClean

memo@mcn.org

http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

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DropDeadTed

* * *

SAMPLE EMAIL FOR YOUR FRIENDS:

I just signed the following petition from Michael Moore and Democracy for America urging Michigan Governor Rick Snyder to resign for poisoning the drinking water of children and others in Flint. Please sign it as well -- we need to spread the word ASAP!

— Dennis Jones

Hi --

Have you heard the disastrous news out of Flint, Michigan -- my hometown and the community at the forefront of my first major documentary film “Roger & Me"? If you haven't, or even if you have, please take a moment to read this important message.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, along with the premeditated actions of his administrators, has effectively poisoned the children of Flint by allowing lead and other toxins to enter their drinking water. The consequences are devastating now and will be for generations to come.

For this outrageous catastrophe, Gov. Snyder must resign -- and go to jail.

To poison all the children in an historic American city is no small feat. Even international terrorist organizations haven't figured out yet how to do something on a magnitude like this.

I want to be absolutely clear here: If we don't attract national attention to what Gov. Snyder did, what happened in Flint could happen in all of our communities. That's why I need your help to bring Rick Snyder to justice.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder must resign -- and be arrested -- for his role in poisoning the water of children in Flint. Please join me and sign this important petition I am launching with my friends at Democracy for America.

Gov. Snyder and his staff and others knew that the water in the Flint River was poison -- but he decided that taking over the city and “cutting costs” to “balance the budget” was more important than the people's health (not to mention their democratic rights to elect their own leaders).

So he cut off the clean, fresh glacial lake water of Lake Huron that the citizens of Flint (including myself) had been drinking for decades and, instead, made them drink water from the industrial cesspool we call the Flint River -- a body of “water” where toxins from a dozen General Motors and DuPont factories have been dumped for over a hundred years.

And then he decided to put a chemical in this water to “clean” it -- which only ended up stripping the lead off of Flint's aging water pipes, placing that lead in the water and sending it straight into people's taps. State officials who tried to report this problem were ignored.

Gov. Snyder's callous -- and reckless -- decision to do this has now, as revealed by the city's top medical facility, caused “irreversible brain damage” in Flint's children, not to mention other bodily damage to all of Flint's adults.

The federal prosecutor in Flint, after many of us had called for months for action, finally opened up an investigation into the matter. Now we need Gov. Snyder to resign and face arrest, prosecution and conviction.

Rachel Maddow and other reporters have done great work drawing attention to this awful crisis. The facts are clear for the whole country to see. It's time for justice. It's time for Gov. Snyder to go.

Will you join me and DFA to fight for the children of Flint? Sign our petition to demand that Gov. Snyder resign -- and be arrested -- for his awful crime of poisoning an entire city's drinking water.

Thank you for joining me and DFA in standing up for justice in Flint.

Michael Moore

Filmmaker and Flint native

Democracyforamerica.com

* * *

WI-FI EXPERIMENT

Alan Rithim wrote: I challenge ANYONE who wants to tell me that wi-fi is safe to walk a mile in my shoes. A thousand milliwatts, full cycle, 8 inches from your head, 30 days. THEN come back on here and tell us about your opinion of nonionizing radiation and the legions of science's whores.

Marco McClean here. Challenge accepted, Alan. I, only an honorary member of the Legion of Science Whores, have a spare wireless router. I'll plug it in and put it under my pillow tonight, or rather tomorrow morning; I'll be working on putting my show together until about six or seven a.m. So give me a month then remind me on Valentine's Day to check for brain damage. Most of the indoor places where I work, and where I sleep every other week, are already within about ten feet of relatively powerful wireless routers, and it's been that way for at least ten years. Back when I was at KMFB, before we moved the broadcast booth to the office in town (which had a wireless router, by the way), I spent days in the shadow of the radio tower -- two several-thousand-watt transmitters used it, and often I worked in the transmitter shack with no shielding around the transmitter, all covers off. And I spent years teaching electricity to children, making and playing with really powerful high-voltage toys that shot sparks everywhere and lit up disconnected 40-watt fluorescent tubes from across the yard. At one point I burned my own face and arms with an old-fashioned bad-UV-heavy sunlamp. I've been sunburned and had my eyes painfully burned by the real sun, a single second of whose radiation on an ear is much more dangerous than a thousand years of a cell phone pressed against the same ear. Oh, and I had two chest x-rays last month. Numerous dental x-rays in my youth. And all my back teeth, upper and lower, were filled with metal before long before people started carrying phone around with them. While it's no fun to go to the dentist or be sunburned, none of these things seem to have permanently affected my equanimity. But I'll try the pillow treatment, just to please you, and we'll see.

* * *

Danger

* * *

THE DEFINITIVE WU WEI

Abbot Lau Defines “Wu Wei” Precisely

In conversation with Abbot Lau at The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas in Talmage, California, I asked him if the Daoist term “Wu Wei” had a more coherent English translation than “doing nothing.” Understanding that the practice is to not follow the impulses of the ego, or mind, and instead allow the Dao (spiritual absolute, God, divine essence, etcetera) to use the body and mind as its instrument for carrying out the higher will, Abbot Lau said to me: “A better English translation of “Wu Wei” is 'non-interference'. If anybody comes here doing nothing, they will be shown out!”

Craig Louis Stehr

EMAIL: CraigStehr@inbox.com

January 15, 2016

30 Comments

  1. LouisBedrock January 16, 2016

    Paul Street offers a scathing analysis of President Hope and Change’s State of the Union speech and especially his advocacy of the TPP in the on-line edition of Counterpunch of January 14 (www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/14/hate -of-the-union)

    Street writes,
    “And what is the TPP? It is among other things a fitting capstone to Obama’s rich history as a Trojan Horse for the unelected dictatorship of global capital…

    The TPP would ban capital controls, which let nations block disruptive inflows of ‘hot money’ from speculative investors and then escape before the bubble they create explodes. It would also block the passage of financial transaction taxes, … (it) also legitimizes the extensive privatization of public enterprises.

    A foreign corporation could sue and receive damages for anticipated profit losses resulting from an increase in the minimum wage…or the bans on the environmentally disastrous practice of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). …Food, chemical, consumer goods , and pesticide industries will be able to limit the ability of TPP governments to impose safety and environmental regulations on the things they sell and how they make them.
    Of critical and dark importance, the TPP constructs a new legal structure that transcends the existing, nation-based legal system. Big global corporations…will be able to turn to “investor-state settlement tribunals: corporate lawyer staffed panels that will effectively make their own law on behalf of big business.”

    Street closes by offering his “guess” that “the 44th U.S, president …knows very well that he is functioning as a tool of global capitalism’s endless war on democracy and the common good and that he enjoys it. He particularly enjoys hare-brained liberals and progressives who are still to this day bamboozled into thinking that he is anything more than a slithering neo-liberal snake, a shiny tool of the unelected and interrelated dictatorships of money and empire.”

    “Hare-brained liberals and progressives.”
    Hmmm, anyone we know?

  2. BB Grace January 16, 2016

    RE: Invitation to Mendocino County Behavioral Health Advisory Board (still refers to itself as Mental Health Board) Meeting @ OLD COAST HOTEL, 20 January 2016, 10 am until whenever

    The only reason to go to the next “Mental Health Board” meeting is to protest the occupation of the Old Coast Hotel. I guess I could apply for a permit to protest on Monday.

    An example of what you get working “with” the Mental Health Board, past member, William Russell, who’s letter you may have read in the UDJ, http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/opinion/20160110/it-is-broken-so-fix-it , sat as a “Public Interest” member of the board until Oct 2015, to which he brought decades of experience, education, and an inexpensive community vision that enables a peer to peer, so to speak, as it empowers/ “affords” to expand the underfunded and greatly appreciated Senior Peer to Peer program of Mendocino, one of the GOOD things about Mendocino County Mental Health that should be greatly expanded. The Board advised Dr. Russell to “forget it”. After months of participating, which like First District Supervisor Hamburg, Dr. Russell found himself sitting at meetings in silence watching the charade that gets nothing done (unless you count ineffectively changing the name) until he resigned.

    I respect Mr. Pinizzotto’s resignation and if Cryer had any integrity she would resign so the County can get someone who can do the job rather than defaulting to the Sheriff Department that ironically sells medical marijuana permits to the people that Cryer won’t treat, Prop 215 be damned! and why we have “homeless”.

    Though they will deny it, the Board open “House” invitation is to count those showing up as supporters for the Old Coast Hotel occupation by Hospitality House, which is notorious for internal and creating public problems.

    • james marmon January 16, 2016

      BB Grace is right, Cryer should have the decency to resign as well as Ms. Angelo (Nurse Ratchet). Their master plan to destroy what we had left of our community mental health program and shift millions of dollars of public funds into the private domain has proven to be disastrous. Money became the focus, not the lives of those who “truly” need mental health services. I say “truly” because I believe we are spending millions dollars unnecessary on children’s services which would be better spent on their mentally ill parents, which would be much more humane for all involved.

      As for Dina Ortiz, I first met her in 1999 when she interviewed and hired me for a Mental Health Specialist position at Lake County Mental Health. I’ll tell you this, she has always been a true advocate for the mentally ill and she could probably care less about what street or building we serve consumers at, she just wants them to be served. That’s her motivation, along with addressing stigma.

      I believe her invitation is sincere and that she really wants to hear from you folks in Fort Bragg. That’s going to be some meeting, I wish I could attend myself, stupid restraining order.

      As for the hiring of the new mental health director, according to Dan Djerde he was under the impression that the Mental Health Board unanimously chose Ms. Miller as the new director.

      Unanimously

      ADJECTIVE

      1.(of two or more people) fully in agreement:
      “the doctors were unanimous in their diagnoses”

      synonyms: united · in agreement · in accord · of one mind ·
      [more]

      •(of an opinion, decision, or vote) held or carried by everyone involved.

      synonyms: uniform · consistent · united · concerted ·
      [more]

      I’m like a lot of other folks, who in the hell is she? What are her politics? What are her plans moving forward? Why is she our savior?

      The vote took place in private proceedings, the public didn’t even know who the candidates were, let alone what they stood for.

      I’m very disappointed in the process, it was pitiful. I’ve never trusted the MHB or whatever it is called now, just because of shit like this, they too are spoon fed crap and eat it up.

      If the MHB are so impressed with Ms. Miller, then tell us about her. Why was she their unanimous choice. We deserve a letter from the MHB detailing their decision making process and why they love her so much.

      This woman must be something else.

      As for the Old Coast Motel, I try to stay out of that discussion and let the people of Fort Bragg fight it out, it is not a community that I’m that familiar with. I know the building was a great place for bar, and I raised the roof on it a few times in the 70’s, but otherwise I am unfamiliar with the building and it’s structural integrity as it stands today. Old buildings can be extremely costly to maintain. It could become a big money hole.

      I’m also concerned with capacity issues. It’s only going to house about a half of dozen clients at any given time. A new apartment complex type facility with offices on site would have been a much more rational direction to take. The nearly 2 million dollars being spent on this project could have helped so many more with permanent housing, but that would hurt the homeless count and reduce the need for more grants.

      James Marmon MSW.

      PS, I wouldn’t mind living in one of those transitional housing rooms at the hotel, as long as Anna Shaw comes along with the deal. Women used to get pretty wild in that building.

      • BB Grace January 16, 2016

        Mr. Marmon is correct about Dina Ortiz, who I also find to be a genuine advocate for Mental Health, and do not believe Ortiz’s invitation was intended to collect names to show support for Old Coast Hotel, however that is exactly what happens in my experience.

        I was invited to interview for a MHB membership last April when a large crowd showed up to support the Hospitality House buying the Old Coast and calling FB businesses “Greedy” and the people NIMBY’s. It really upset me. I saw on the April Agenda that someone had already been seated the previous month, so why was I invited? To be seated in a district that was not my own. TO BE SEATED IN A DISTRICT THAT WAS NOT MY OWN and sign the petitions going around trhe room FOR the Hospitality House. It’s astroturf, not grassroots.

        I resended my application and re-applied specifically asking to represent District 4, same district as Old Coast Hotel, which I have stayed out of the fight because I don’t live within FB City limits; However, I keep finding myself being manipulated into showing support. I recently resigned from an organization I happen to like that wanted me contribute for Hospitality House. I will not show support for the Old Coast Hotel in any way, shape or form.

        I figure requesting a permit to protest is a good way to officially protest on record.

        Years ago I would have organized a protest, possibly some street threatre with a medical marijuana “Smoke Hospitality out of the Old Coast rally”, or other fun stuff.

      • james marmon January 16, 2016

        I dedicate this song to Anna Shaw.

        • james marmon January 16, 2016

          “Is it really any wonder
          The love that a stranger might receive
          You cast your spell and I went under
          I find it so difficult to leave”

          • BB Grace January 16, 2016

            Oh wow, youtube tossed me a Joan Jett, I’m sure it was meant for Mr. Marmon

        • BB Grace January 16, 2016

          I bet she’s heard this song before:

  3. Jeff Costello January 16, 2016

    I have to disagree that white tribalists are less strident now. Aren’t they worse than ever?

  4. Trelanie Hill January 16, 2016

    Could a part of the County charter declare that the BOS have a conflict of interest in determining actuarial rates and many other provisions of the retirement system? The same BOS have refused to allocate needed capital to fund their very own retirement benefit.
    .
    The fox is deciding the stocking rate for the hen house and deciding where to borrow extra eggs to make the farmer believe the fox is protecting the nest. When the fox retires he gets plenty of eggs monthly even though most are borrowed.
    .
    If a newspaper journalist could retrieve a list of all the former Supervisors and their monthly retirement check amount and match that with the same Supervisors voting record on pension decisions ………
    .
    The retirement system needs to be abolished and the new County charter needs to set the new pay scale for the BOS.

    Just my opinion,
    Jim Hill
    Potter Valley

  5. Bill Pilgrim January 16, 2016

    re: MLK Jr Day. In meaningless clockwork fashion, the MSM will cue-up ten second sound clips of the “Dream” speech, completely omitting any reference to the speech that defined his thinking and goals near the end of his life: “Beyond Vietnam. A Time to Break the Silence,” also known as the Riverside Church speech – a condemnation of the militaristic, violent, exploitative, unjust economic system that is dominating America. Many believe that speech signed his death warrant.

    • Harvey Reading January 16, 2016

      Probably the best speech made in my lifetime.

  6. PhiloFred January 16, 2016

    A beautiful morning here in Philo. The clouds are parting, a gaggle of turkeys just walked a loop around the house, Ray LaMontagne is crooning on the radio. Fire up my daily AVA online read (over wifi, thus frying my brain), look at a nice closeup of meth teeth, read about our impending destruction by global warming and our future as a VR-addicted, AI-enslaved human drones. Thanks for killing my buzz, AVA (and keep it coming!).

  7. BB Grace January 16, 2016

    I’d like it very much if Dr. Jenine Miller could tell me what recovery means.

    Good contribution Susie!

    • james marmon January 16, 2016

      So, she’s part of the mess. What is her view on the “privatization” of services? Is she going to abort the abomination or what? They’re keeping her because she has a working relationship with Ortner, don’t kid yourselves. We still need their beds. She’s just as close to Orther as Mr. P was.

      I am so not surprised by this selection. Ortner owns us, where else are we going to lock up all our conserved clients. Furthermore, RQMC needs Ortner for placement of all their 18-25 year olds who suffer psychotic breaks and need to be conserved.

      It sounds like the sheriff’s facility is just going to be a “Acute” Crisis facility, unless he wants to consider a wing for the “Chronic.”

      SCHIZOPHRENIA

      ACUTE VS. CHRONIC

      ACUTE:

      DOES NOT SEEM TO RUN IN FAMILIES. MAY OCCUR AT ANYTIME DURING LIFE. USUALLY IN RESPONSE TO A MAJOR EMOTIONALLY TRAUMATIC EVENT. NOT PARTICULARLY RESPONSIVE TO ANTIPSYCHOTIC MEDICATION. TYPICALLY DOES NOT RECUR. (E.G., THE FISHER KING)

      CHRONIC:

      TYPICALLY FIRST APPEARS IN LATE ADOLESCENCE. GOES INTO PERIODIC REMISSION. AS PATIENT AGES, THE PSYCHOTIC EPISODES GET LONGER AND MORE SEVERE IN DURATION AND THE REMISSIONS GET SHORTER AND MORE INFREQUENT. USUALLY RESPONDS WELL TO ANTI-PSYCHOTIC MEDICATION.

      http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy301/Salinas/sec3.2/Abnormal/10.html

      • BB Grace January 16, 2016

        As you know Mr. Marmon, I have read many complaints against OMG and RQMG on the AVA and have observed representatives at MHBoard meetings. I understand what an ASO is, and a LLC, and I believe I understand why the County privatized, when looking at the demands by the WHO, Feds, State, Grants for requirments… Let me put it this way, If there are people such as yourself who actually believe you can do better than Ortner, why not come up with a plan and make a bid? County pays OMG and RQMG $20 Million.. isn’t anyone interested? Why isn’t the Union working to get it’s members employed, or give folks like you a new opportunity?
        I think what Mendocino County mental health lacks is a solid connection with USF Nursing and/or UC Berkley or Stanford graduate programs providing opportunity for new mental health leaders to expand programs that work and run Mental Health so Tom Allman doesn’t have to.

        • james marmon January 16, 2016

          I would love to physically be present in some of these meetings and meet others who might be interested in taking this task on. Unfortunately, I been informed that my opinion means nothing and ran out of town.

          I worked hard to come back and serve my community. Ms. Angelo just brushed me and others like me off. She knows what’s best for everyone involved.

          I was heart broken when I read that the MHB and BOS were going to hire the new director in secret proceedings without zero public input. With everything we’ve gone through a little more courtesy could have been provided.

          For both the MHB and BOS to vote unanimously on this person, it tells me that groupthink exists here. No one dared to descent. Same old crap, being told what to think. Who was Miller up against? Was she the best choice or just a better choice? I’d like to known who the others were.

          Just the way Dan Djerde said the words “unanimously” you would think he was reaching a sexual climax. He freaked me out! Why is that so important to everyone. I’m talking about the unanimous vote not the climax.

          the answer:

          Nurse Rachet (Carmel Angelo)would have spanked their little bottoms if they hadn’t.

  8. Eric Wilcox January 16, 2016

    Re: Mental Health Board
    Just as the Hospitality House is known as the Hostility House, the Mental Health Board should be renamed The Board Needing Mental Health…If it weren’t for them privatization would never have occurred. For my opinion the board is incompetent of the medical aspect of mental health and made their decision to privatize based on a “pitch” made by Pinozzoto which to the clinicians and therapists in both public and private practice new was a disaster in waiting. The board members can be evaluated as naive, incompetent, victimized, easily manipulated, but likely have much experience as mental health consumers in some way. They are like letting a cancer victim giving complete charge of their medical treatment. Narcissism must or anti-social tendencies must also pervade as some of them voted for privatization as quid pro quo to have their family members committed for hospitalization by Ortner.

    Which takes us to the Board of Supervisors; perhaps could be renamed of the Unsupervised Board. They were able to take the deranged advice of the Mental Health Board and finalize Pinozzoto, Cryer, and Nurse Ratchett’s conflict of interest privatization. There has to be some kick backs for the board somehow.

    Mental Health needs nationalization just like social services to prevent the insane, greed driven, self interest driven influences of the nutbags of the county boards.

  9. Eric Wilcox January 16, 2016

    Perhaps Mr. Marmon, you should team up with Mitch King to liven up the party with Anna?

  10. Jim Updegraff January 16, 2016

    TPP: MY main concern is will it be financially beneficial for the Pacific Rim states (California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia) if these states were a separate country their Combined GDP would be 5th or 6th in the world. In other wordsif TPP gives an economical boost to the Pacific Rim states I’m for it.

    The other issue is not if a few small counties should have their own state of Jefferson But if the Pacific Rim states be a separate country.

  11. Eric Wilcox January 16, 2016

    I can vouch for Jenine Miller’s competency since I worked under her my first year as a mental health clinician intern the last year before privatization. She was next in command of mental health under Tom P. at the end of my employment. Jenine is truly concerned about the welfare of the consumers of mental health services and likely the near complete lack of services at this time.

    She is politically competent as well, which depending on your view can be good or not. Right at the privatization date I spoke up to what was left of the staff at the time that it would not last, we know it will fail. She asked, “how long do you think before that will happen?” I countered with my best guess,”a year”. She frowned which I read as she thought I was underestimating. And, her frown was right. That frown had more insight about the reality of the next two years over the privatized mental health system than that system had of its consumers.

    I guarantee that most of the clinicians and staff in the county are very happy over having her at the head of mental health, and the consumers should have some sense of hope over the next couple of year.

    • james marmon January 16, 2016

      That’s good to know, maybe she’ll get some of you guys back to work? There’s a lot of unfilled positions left open in the County’s program. Maybe she can fill those positions with outreach and outpatient specialists and clinicians which would directly address our dependency on Ortner and RQMC.

      Let’s get some services out there for adults so we don’t have to take their children away from them. I know they bring a lot of money into the County, but we’ve lost our “human touch.”

      Knowing what we know now, we can fix this, but its going to take some forward thinking as well.

      And, for Christ’s sake, stop letting RQMC’s foster family agencies determine medical necessity for children’s mental health services. That should be done in-house so that there is no conflict of interest; the “appearance of” or “real”.

      Very few want me to be right on this one, but I am.

      Warning! Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger! Danger!

      • james marmon January 16, 2016

        Family and Children’s Services uses these foster care/adoption agency’s mental health diagnosis of children to vilify the parents in Dependency Court. Inflating a child’s needs just to provide services to them and make some money is destroying families, lives, and dreams.

        RQMC needs to realize just how damaging their overzealous practices are. They’re making things worse, not helping.

        Overzealous
        ADJECTIVE

        1.too zealous in attitude or behavior:
        “he’s been overzealous in handing out parking tickets”

        James Marmon MSW

  12. Eric Sunswheat January 16, 2016

    I suspect a number of errors in above ‘opinion’ article about meth and dentistry but am unable to yet gain access to facts or tentative conclusions in referenced study link at–

    http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Walter-White-meth-and-the-streets-of-San-6760055.php

    I probably need access to a dental library with computer subscription privileges, to dispel common myths from dentists, as new issues of JADA are now online only. Single payer dental insurance now!

    Eric

    http://jada.ada.org/article/S0002-8177%2815%2900977-0/pdf

    JADA – Journal of American Dental Association

    Purchase this article (PDF Included)
    $31.50 USD (24 hour access)

    December 2015Volume 146, Issue 12, Pages 875–885

    Dental disease patterns in methamphetamine users
    Findings in a large urban sample
    Vivek Shetty, DDS, DrMedDentcorrespondenceemail
    , Lauren Harrell, PhD
    , Debra A. Murphy, PhD
    , Steven Vitero, DDS
    , Alexis Gutierrez, DDS
    , Thomas R. Belin, PhD
    , Bruce A. Dye, DDS, MPH
    , Vladimir W. Spolsky, DDS, MPH

    http://jada.ada.org/article/S0002-8177%2815%2900977-0/fulltext

    Abstract
    Background

    The authors used a large community sample of methamphetamine (MA) users to verify the patterns and severity of dental disease and establish a hierarchy of caries susceptibility by tooth type and tooth surface.
    Methods

    Using a stratified sampling approach, 571 MA users received comprehensive oral examinations and psychosocial assessments. Three calibrated dentists characterized dental and periodontal disease by using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey protocols. The authors also collected data on substance use history and other attributes linked to dental disease.
    Results

    On all dental outcome measures, MA users evidenced high dental and periodontal disease, with older (≥ 30 years) and moderate or heavy MA users disproportionately affected. Women had higher rates of tooth loss and caries, as well as a greater prevalence of anterior caries. Current cigarette smokers were more likely to manifest 5 or more anterior surfaces with untreated caries and 3 or more teeth with root caries. Nearly 3% were edentulous, and a significant percentage (40%) indicated embarrassment with their dental appearance.
    Conclusions

    MA users have high rates of dental and periodontal disease and manifest a dose-response relationship, with greater levels of MA use associated with higher rates of dental disease. Women and current cigarette smokers are affected disproportionately. The intraoral patterns and hierarchy of caries susceptibility in MA users are distinctive.
    Practical Implications

    The prevalence and patterns of dental and periodontal disease could be used to alert dentists to possible covert MA use and to plan treatment. Concerns about dental appearance have potential as triggers for behavioral interventions.

  13. james marmon January 16, 2016

    Greatest band ever from Ukiah. Tiny Harris and the Talkabouts. My aunt and uncle, I miss them.

    • james marmon January 16, 2016

      Here’s one of my aunt and uncle’s greatest hits. It is still flying off the shelves. “Trucker’s Greatest Hits.”

      • james marmon January 16, 2016

        Here’s one uncle Tiny did with the famous country western singer Rose Maddox. The “Talkabouts,” my aunt Gladys, sat this one out.

        • james marmon January 16, 2016

          Check out the Memorabilia page on the link above, great gifts for everyone.

    • james marmon January 17, 2016

      “The Tiny Harris Band backed up some big names over the years, including Freddie Hart and Tammy Wynette. Harris mostly played rhythm guitar, but if he had to he could play just about instrument.

      On tour during most of the 1960s, Harris and his second wife, Gladys, hit cities large and small, from Nashville, Tennessee, to Jackpot, Nevada. They ended the decade entertaining troops in Vietnam.”

      http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2237924-181/grady-tiny-harris

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