Mendocino County Today: Thursday, Feb 25, 2016

• Eberhard Case
• Prostitution Website
• KZYX Changes
• Sunday Bus Service
• Weed Farming
• Dear Chief
• Hateful Audience
• Yesterday's Catch
• News Etc.
• Heretic
• Finicum's Rainbow
• Rushdie Bounty
• Real Problems
• Dog Poop
• Obama's Fault
• Voter Reg Stats
• Library Events
• National Conventions

WILLITS JOURNALIST IN FEDERAL COURT

Newsman Puts Calif. Highway Patrol on Trial

by Nicholas Iovino

A jury heard opening statements and testimony Monday from two state troopers on the first trial day of a news photographer's false arrest suit against the California Highway Patrol in Federal District Court in San Francisco.

Stephen Eberhard says three CHP officers intimidated and arrested him to retaliate for his covering protests of a highway project in Mendocino County.

The state says the officers were simply "doing their jobs" and arrested Eberhard because he was trespassing.

Eberhard sued the CHP, the Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, and officials and officers from both agencies in April 2014. Caltrans was dropped from the suit in December, but Eberhard is still pursuing claims against the CHP, two officers who arrested him and a third officer who shoved him away from a construction zone in what Eberhard calls intimidation and harassment.

He says his arrest on July 23, 2013 was a blatant effort to chill his First Amendment rights and to stifle coverage of the Willits Bypass Project.

The $300-million project to reroute six miles of Highway 101 around the often-congested town center of Willits in Mendocino County became a target for environmental protests when construction began in the spring of 2013.

The Society of Professional Journalists-Northern California honored Eberhard with its first Photojournalist Award in 2015, recognizing his "efforts to document protests" against the project "after enduring months of harassment from police for his coverage."

In his opening statement, state prosecutor Harry Gower III said jurors will see and hear evidence that the officers who arrested Eberhard "did not care about the pictures he was taking" and arrested him for one reason alone — because he was trespassing.

Gower said Eberhard and his employer, The Willits News, were well aware of a policy requiring members of the media be accompanied by a Caltrans escort and wear a hard hat and reflective vest to enter the construction site.

Eberhard's attorney, Duffy Carolan, did not deny that Eberhard knew the policy existed, but said he was treated differently than other trespassers, most of whom were given warnings, citations and released, but not arrested.

The Highway Patrol described its relationship with journalists covering the protests as "a boxing match" the month before Eberhard was arrested, Carolan told jurors in her opening statement.

"When CHP believes it's in a boxing match with the media, it's the messenger that's going to go down every time," she said.

Protesters who had chained themselves to construction equipment were given citations and released, but Eberhard was arrested and held in jail for hours, she said.

"We think the evidence in this case will show Mr. Eberhard was singled out because what he was doing on the site in the months preceding his arrest," Carolan said.

Gower told jurors the case is not about "whether Mr. Eberhard was treated like a protester," and that Eberhard was arrested because he was trespassing in violation of a clearly communicated Caltrans policy.

The prosecutor said he will emphasize four points at trial: that Eberhard violated the Caltrans escort policy, that he was arrested for trespassing, that he cannot prove the officers had a retaliatory intent, and that Eberhard suffered no injuries from the arrest.

Anticipating the state's argument on injuries, Carolan told the nine-member jury the case is about principles, not an attempt to get damages from the state.

"CHP will say this is not a high damages case, but Mr. Eberhard was shamed and humiliated in his small community," she said. "He was made out to be a criminal, not a credible, unbiased journalist. Mr. Eberhard is here primarily to vindicate his rights."

Willits, pop. 5,000, is about 20 miles northwest of Ukiah, the Mendocino County seat.

Push Came to Shove

The first witness to testify, CHP Officer Teddy Babcock, admitted he shoved Eberhard out of a construction zone on May 21, 2013.

Babcock said he "turned" Eberhard and "pushed" him away from an area where construction workers were driving piles into the ground because Eberhard refused to obey his order to leave the "dangerous" construction zone.

Carolan zoomed in on a photo Eberhard took that day, showing two other people taking photos in the cordoned-off area, who did not appear to be subject to the same orders or aggressive tactics as her client.

"You never shoved anyone else during the bypass construction in the same manner as you did Eberhard that day?" Carolan asked.

Babcock acknowledged he had not shoved other trespassers in the same manner.

Carolan cited an earlier incident, in May, when Babcock ordered Eberhard to step away from two protesters as they were forced into a police car, preventing him from snapping a photo of the arrest.

The attorney said only Eberhard was forced to leave the area where the protesters were being arrested, because of who he was and the job he was doing.

Babcock said he remembered Eberhard "being there" during that arrest but that he did not recall him taking pictures.

On cross examination, Gower asked Babcock if he ever read The Willits News, saw Eberhard's pictures or discussed Eberhard with any other CHP officers or Caltrans officials. Babcock answered, "Not that I recall," to all those questions.

Babcock said he did not care that Eberhard was taking photos of him as he did his duty as an officer.

"They tell us at the police academy, 'You're there to do a job,'" Babcock said. "People take pictures of you all the time."

As for the pushing incident, Babcock said, Eberhard was walking toward a crane after entering a cordoned-off, dangerous construction zone without a Caltrans escort.

Babcock said he yelled at Eberhard to come back, but Eberhard looked back at him and ignored his order.

"I caught up to him and stopped him because I didn't want him to get hurt," Babcock said.

Eberhard has said in court filings that he was given permission to take photos of the first piles being driven for the construction project that day.

Babcock denied that he acted more aggressively toward Eberhard because he had taken photos of him arresting protesters in the weeks before that incident.

Arresting Officer Testifies

Next to testify Monday was CHP Officer Christopher Dabbs, one of the two who arrested Eberhard on July 23, 2013.

A videographer captured the initial interaction between Dabbs and Eberhard, before the arrest. Dabbs shakes Eberhard's hand in the video in what appears to be a friendly interaction.

Dabbs said he asked Eberhard what he was doing on the site and asked him to leave. Eberhard told Dabbs he would leave as soon the officer read him a dispersal order, which CHP officers were told to read as a warning to trespassers before making any arrests on the construction site.

As Dabbs was looking up the dispersal order on his phone, another CHP officer, Kory Reynolds, came over and interrupted him.

Carolan asked Dabbs if he remembered what Eberhard said to Reynolds at that moment.

"He told Officer Reynolds, 'I was going to leave. Officer Dabbs offered to read the order to me. I told him I was going to leave,'" Carolan said, asking Dabbs to confirm it.

Dabbs said he did not recall what Eberhard said at that time.

Carolan asked Dabbs if he remembered Eberhard complaining about his shoulders being in pain while he sat in the back of a police car with his hands cuffed for an hour.

Dabbs said he did not recall.

"And you told him, 'You should have thought about that before coming out here'?" Carolan asked.

The first day of trial ended on that note, with Dabbs responding that he did not recall saying that to Eberhard: "That's not something I would typically say."

Big Trial for a Small-Town Newspaper

The newspaper's longtime publisher testified Tuesday.

On the second trial day of photojournalist Stephen Eberhard's false arrest suit against the CHP, Debbie Clark testified that the assault and arrest tarnished his reputation and that of the newspaper. Clark retired two years ago after 33 years at The Willits News, the small community's weekly newspaper of record.

"It seemed as though he had been targeted, and we were concerned if he would be able to continue to cover the news," Clark said.

Clark said that covering the Willits Bypass Project — a $300-million, 6-mile rerouting of Highway 101 in Mendocino County — was crucial to her newspaper and community.

"This was one of the largest Caltrans projects in the state to be undertaken in many decades," Clark said in court. "It also had a great impact environmentally due to the fact that it was going to be impacting one of the greatest wetlands in the state of California."

When a SWAT team descended on the small town in 2013 to remove environmental protesters occupying the site, reporters had to place themselves in harm's way to cover the major news event, she said.

The confrontation caused the newspaper to seek an arrangement with the state Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, to allow its reporters access to the site to cover news events, including construction milestones and protests.

In response, Caltrans drafted a policy requiring members of the media to contact a Caltrans official to escort them on the site. Reporters also had to wear hardhats and reflective vests while on site.

"Caltrans was supposed to make every effort to come to the site and be with a reporter when we called," Clark testified. "We said we would do everything we could to accommodate this arrangement, but news doesn't always happen between 9 and 5."

Eberhard was arrested at about 6:30 a.m. on July 23, 2013, as he tried to snap photos of two protesters who had locked themselves to construction equipment.

Deputy Attorney General Micah Osgood asked Clark if anyone at Caltrans ever told her the media access policy applied only during business hours.

"No one told us that it didn't apply around the clock," Clark replied.

Osgood showed Clark an email that Caltrans District 1 Public Information Officer Phil Frisbie Jr. sent to her and other newspaper employees on May 20, 2013.

In the email, Frisbie voiced concern that Eberhard had entered the construction site at around 7 a.m. to photograph and interview protesters who had locked themselves to equipment that morning.

Eberhard had left a message with his Caltrans escort, who was not immediately available to join him on the site, according to the email.

"I want to make it clear again that we will not ask CHP to provide Steve with special treatment," Frisbie wrote in the email. "If he is in our construction area and not escorted, he is trespassing and subject to arrest like anyone else."

Prosecutors say officers were well within their rights to arrest Eberhard two months after that email because he violated the clearly communicated access policy.

But Eberhard's attorney, Duffy Carolan, said that CHP guidelines instruct officers not to arrest people for misdemeanors such as trespassing, unless special circumstances apply.

The two arresting officers — Christopher Dabbs and Kory Reynolds — cited an exception to the rule that says officers can arrest people for misdemeanors if they suspect the person will "continue or resume" the offense.

Carolan batted that one away, saying Eberhard had told the officers he was willing to leave the site. He asked Dabbs to read him a dispersal order, which CHP officers were told to read to trespassers to put them on notice and give them a chance to leave before being arrested.

As Dabbs searched for a copy of that order on his cellphone, Officer Reynolds walked over to Eberhard, refused to read the order and arrested the photographer and had his cameras seized, according to the officers' testimony on Monday.

Clark told the jury that before Eberhard was arrested, he was "highly revered" in Willits and appreciated for his avid volunteerism and dedication to the community.

His arrest opened the floodgates to community members who supported the Willits Bypass, who wrote defamatory comments on Facebook, painting him as an ally of the protesters rather than a credible, unbiased reporter, Clark said.

"These are people whose opinions are respected in the community, so when you have sheriff's deputies and Rotarians saying things like, 'They're a liar, a criminal. They're scum. They're George Zimmerman with a camera,' that you're a photographer that's been embedded with the protesters, these kinds of things rock your credibility, and they're very harmful and very hurtful and put you under a great deal of stress," Clark said.

Clark said she has known Eberhard for about 12 years. She worked for The Willits News as a reporter before she became its publisher.

Boxing Match with Media

Also testifying Tuesday was CHP Sgt. Steve Lott, who was asked about his comments, captured on a police dash cam recording, in which he described the Highway Patrol's relationship with the media as "a boxing match."

"Here's the whole thing with the media," Lott says in the muffled audio of the video recording from July 2013. "Some higher-rank officer was publicizing the first people arrested would always be the media in order to keep it from being documented. ... That's why I'm saying, limit your conversations with the general public. ... This is how we deal with the media, you know what I mean?"

Lott, a higher-ranking officer who was present the morning Eberhard was arrested, told the jury that his conversation with co-defendant CHP Officer Teddy Babcock was taken out of context and based on a rumor he heard from other officers.

Lott said he was simply conveying to Babcock that he should follow the chain of command to communicate with the media and the public.

"My analogy about the boxing match was not directed only to communication with the media," Lott testified. "It was regarding communication in general."

During cross-examination by the state, Lott added context to his comments, saying his discussion with Babcock came about when he tried to explain why he did not inform two protesters locked to equipment that they would be subject to arrest as soon as they unlocked themselves.

"[Babcock] expected me to let them know they could be cited and released [if they negotiated]," Lott said. "I said, 'No, that was not going to happen.' Whenever you have a situation with someone engaged in criminal activity, it's not law enforcement's duty to help them with their negotiations."

When asked why he decided not to intervene in Eberhard's arrest on the morning of July 23, Lott said he did not deem the arrest unlawful because Eberhard was on the site without an escort, in violation of Caltrans policy.

Asked about the CHP policy that officers should cite and release people for misdemeanors such as trespassing, Lott said it was more a recommendation than a policy.

"It says 'should' cite," Lott said. "'Should' is not a 'shall.' Anything officers are required to do is 'shall,' and there's no option."

All four CHP officers who have testified at the trial so far — Lott, Babcock, Dabbs and Reynolds — said they never read local news articles that portrayed the Highway Patrol in a negative light before Eberhard's arrest.

All four officers testified that they never read The Willits News, never saw Eberhard's photos before he was arrested and never intended to retaliate against him for the photos he shot.

Nonetheless, Eberhard's legal team will try to prove that officers were motivated by retaliation and a desire to chill his First Amendment rights when they assaulted and arrested him.

The trial will resume on Thursday.

(Courtesy, Courthouse News Service)

RECURRING RUMORS say that local high school girls are being prostituted through this website: mendocino.backpage.com. The site is organized like Craig's List. Its intro reads "Mendocino classifieds. Post free ads for apartments, houses for rent, jobs, furniture, appliances, cars, pets and items for sale" with an "adult" section offering English and Spanish-language speakers "erotic massages" and "escorts." We recall that a Ukiah High School girl was arrested last year for prostitution, and it seems the practice may be continuing.

RECENT STATION RETIREMENTS at Mendo Public Radio seem to me not only long overdue, but their replacements have radically improved the KZYX vibe, so to speak, and any enterprise fortunate enough to have the lovely and brilliant Angela DeWitt, even as an interim staffer is mos def headed in an upward direction.

RAOUL VAN HAL, headed south from Oregon, is replacing Angela as interim program director, as Angela's other obligations as mom, bookkeeper and Anderson Valley emergency services volunteer meant work overload for her. Station manager Lorraine Dechter said Tuesday that the station will soon be posting job announcements for a permanent program director and operations manager. Van Hal assumes his interim duties on Monday.

JERRY FRALEY is functioning as interim operations manager. Ms. Dechter said that Fraley has "already fixed our signal connection from Willits to Philo, and now is working on the Mendocino to Philo link. I expect our connections and quality to those studios will be better than ever when he is done. He worked up at KMFB when it was operational in Fort Bragg.” Ms. Dechter explained that the flurry of interims is aimed at determining exactly what the station's staffing needs are.

WE CONFESS that we're surprised and pleased to have enjoyed the second civilized exchange with a KZYX staffer, Ms. Dechter, since the station's inception a quarter century ago, Nicole Sawya being the other one.

MTA JUST SAYS NO

To the Editor:

I have a complaint. A lot of people without transportation (that’s all of us who depend on the Mendocino Transit Authority Bus system) can’t get too far on Sundays. I’m sure that some people who don’t have transportation would like to go out...go shopping, to the parks, to church, out to eat and just plain get out of their homes. It is also too hot to walk a lot of days. It is tough to get out when there are no bus (MTA) services on Sundays. Being cooped up is not good for me. Taxis are too expensive for a lot of people’s budgets. I have asked MTA for Sunday bus service for 15 years. I’ve always go the same answer. Never. The streets are crowded with cars. I get cabin fever. It drives me up the wall. They say they won’t have enough riders. But have they ever tried it? No. Or maybe 17 years ago.

Leslie Jo Feldman, Ukiah

MEETING ‘WHITE-MARKET NEEDS’

Ganjier Spring Kickoff Prepares Farmers for the Future Of the Cannabis Industry

by Jane Futcher

More than 1,100 people jammed the Mateel Community Center Saturday, Feb. 20, for eight panels on hot cannabis topics: seed breeding; creating “louder” terpenes; establishing appellations and terroir; bioremediation and sustainable organic farming methods; local and state regulations; best business practices, and patient access.

In a carnival-like atmosphere, exhibitors in tents outside the Mateel hawked everything from seeds and soil to chemical testing and trim machines.

“The most exciting aspect for me personally was to see standing room only at every panel,” said the Spring Kickoff’s executive producer Allison Edrington. “People in the cannabis community have a hunger for knowledge on how to do it right and meet white-market needs, and that is why we focused our education on sustainable business and farming practices and how to work with local government.”

In the sunshine outside the crowded but chilly Mateel meeting room, Laytonville’s Casey O’Neill of HappyDay Farms worked the California Growers Association’s (CGA) table, signing up new members and sharing information on California’s 2015 MMRSA — the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act.

Legendary commercial plant propagator and Ganjier co-founder Kevin Jodrey of Wonderland Nursery told the audience at the terpene panel that intoxicating plant aromas have incredible effects, particularly in boosting sales.

“Everyone is looking for a plant with outward expression that is loud, that holds throughout drying and processing,” Jodrey said. “If it has a low odor to begin with, it will remain that way.”

Jodrey recommended harvesting flowers early in the morning to protect from heat. Drying-area temperatures should be maintained at 78 degrees F. The ideal humidity, he said, is 48 percent.

Chemist Samantha Miller of Pure Analytics lab in Santa Rosa advised farmers not to use fans and heaters in drying areas because heat and blowing air can damage volatile terpenes.

A regulation panel talked of the financial costs and business challenges medical cannabis farmers face if they want to become compliant with state regulations.

”You are entering a regulated business,” said Praj White of Manhard Consulting in Eureka. “What is your business plan? Do you have an attorney? Do you keep accounting records? Do you know where are you headed weighed against the costs of compliance?”

White said farmers will need to create water-use and discharge plans, fix inadequately graded roads, enroll with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control District, be prepared to track and trace their plants and deal with zoning laws.

When asked if farmers should wait for the North Coast water district to issue notices of non-compliance before registering their gardens, White said no. “Would you rather have an angry bear or a happy bear? If you are in violation, they are not in such a good mood.”

Panelist Nathan Whittington, Humboldt chair of the CGA, noted that the new state cannabis regulations represent a huge change for medical cannabis farmers who, by necessity, have never usually kept written records. Now they must track income and expenses, create business plans, prepare and pay taxes, and become compliant with state and federal employment law.

Former Humboldt D.A. Paul Gallegos told the audience that the cost of compliance is “anybody’s guess.” He reminded growers — not that they needed reminding —that cannabis still falls under the Controlled Substances Act and is regulated by a federal government that takes the official view that marijuana has no medical value. Despite Congress having passed the Rohrabacher, Farr Amendment in 2014, requiring the federal government to respect state sovereignty over medical marijuana, Gallegos said the feds can and still do “go after individuals.”

“Get informed. Get empowered. Get reputable professional help,” Gallegos urged.

Executive director Natalynne DeLapp of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) heralded Humboldt County’s new medical marijuana, four-phase land-use ordinance.

“This is us,” DeLapp said. “This is all of us. This is investing in our community and not in another boom or bust economy like timber and fishing.”

A panel called “Establishing Appellations and Rebuilding Watershed as a Community” focused on the three factors that constitute a region’s “terroir” or epigenetic qualities: soil, topography and climate.

“Leave behind quantity and do quality,” said Frenchy Cannoli, a well-known horticulturist and hash maker who writes for Weed World. “You have to rely on yourself and protect your land because everything comes from this. If you don’t care for it you lose everything.”

Dave Royal of Earthworm Soil Factory in Chico said earthworm castings increase the soil’s microbial population and health. “It’s not about growth, it’s about health. Look at the health of the plant by increasing the biotic process of plant and soil.”

Watershed resources specialist Hollie Hall of Arcata urged farmers to plant cannabis directly in the soil, not in pots, which saving water and potentially improving soil. “Reuse and build soils and store water within the terroir,” she said. “That’s the water which has the perfect pH for your plants.”

Hall teamed up with Dan Mar of High Tide Permaculture and Alan Adkisson, founder of GroCachi, for a panel on site remediation, water use and sediment discharge.

“Where are your tanks? How are you managing riparian areas? Do you have a fifty-foot minimum setback from streambeds? How can we leave as much clear water as possible?” Hall asked.

Mar urged farmers to update their gray water storage, replace outhouses and keep spoils piles and gardens away from waterways.

Water-storage bladders are “short-term strategies,” Hall said, because bears and pigs can easily puncture them, creating devastating erosion problems.

Adkisson said that the whole North Coast region is in need of bioremediation. A lot of contamination came from the logging industry, he said. Of particular concern, he said, is glyphosate, contained in many herbicides. He said the run-off from correctly bioremediated land actually improves the watershed and reduces glyphosate. The government, perhaps with tax breaks, should compensate farmers who engage in land remediation that produces beneficial run-off, Adkisson said.

The Spring Kickoff’s Edrington believe the event accomplished its primary goal: to prepare the community for the cultivation and regulation in season ahead.

“The feedback we have received on the education has been phenomenal,” she said. “People felt like they walked away having more knowledge than when they came in, regardless of skill level, and that is exactly the kind of feedback I hoped for.”

(Jane Futcher is host of The Cannabis Hour, every other Thursday morning at 9 a.m. on KZYX FM/Mendocino County Public Broadcasting.)

CAPT. FORRINGTON WRITES TO FORT BRAGG'S POLICE CHIEF.

The Captain Is Among Many People Unhappy That They Couldn't Shoot Fireworks At Noyo Beach On The 4th Of July, A Long-Time Fort Bragg Tradition.

Hello Chief;

Thank you for your reply.

The problem is that your actions on the 4th were illegal. The police have no business stopping and searching people, or denying them the right to leave town on a public right of way to enjoy legally possessed items in a legal fashion. We are not supposed to be a police state.

Public safety was put in jeopardy as people went other places to set of their fireworks in a deep drought with extreme fire conditions, where no fire truck or emergency medical assistance was available.

Public safety concerns do not justify denial of rights and breaking the law. If a common citizen did that, that is what they would be told by the judge as they were being sentenced. Government officials should be held to an even higher standard as they are entrusted by the people with upholding the laws and defending the constitution.

The celebration on the beach is a long standing tradition and the folks in city hall have no right to impose their will on people outside their jurisdiction.

I for one am sick and tired of having my rights denied by public officials who “know better”. Our city government is corrupt.

The law is the law and I expect all public officials to uphold those those laws and protect our constitution.

The public is sick and tired of “public safety” being the excuse for the constant abuse of their rights. Life can involve danger, that is the nature of life.

I was born free and can remember being free and I am no longer so. When I moved to this town in 1979 we used to have 3 bands in town on the weekend and places to go have dinner and drinks, dance and socialize with our neighbors. Then some idiots in DC decided they “knew better” and unconstitutionally imposed the .08 law on unwilling communities. We rarely lost anyone on the highways due to drunk driving and had a low suicide rate.

Now we have no where to go and socialize, even the bowling alley is gone due to “no smoking, no drinking, no eating” laws and our suicide rate has sky rocketed throughout rural America because people are now shut-ins. Our domestic violence rate has soared and our divorce rates. Our DUI death rate remains unchanged. All they accomplished was to drive people to suicide.

In Ireland they issue “drunk driving” permits to rural dwellers because their suicide rate went up so high…

I am intent on making a stand here. I will keep on the FBI until they come and prosecute everyone in city government involved in these abuses and am going to begin a very active campaign locally to get people active.

I want my freedom and country back from PC idiots who are fearful of living and life. Petty tyrants have no business in public office.

We used to run our dogs on our beaches, and people are now illegally ticketed. My daughter paid a $375 fine several years ago for doing that. If I’d known the law back then, she wouldn’t have paid a dime and I would have sued the ticketing officer and the jurisdiction he represented.

Enough is simply enough. I am educating as many people who come into the museum as I can on these issues and will also be stepping up that process.

I am sorry you have been caught up in all of this. I support you folks and truly appreciate what you do. Just like I support our troops, who DIE to PROTECT OUR FREEDOMS.

I am hoping you will take appropriate action, i.e., arrest the city council and Marie Jones and Linda Ruffing for their illegal actions in defrauding people of their time, money and rights. If not I will have to include you in my actions, which I really find loathsome to do. This will include a lawsuit to force you to uphold the law.

I am composing the first ad I will be running in the Advocate, so please let me know your intentions as soon as possible.

Thank you for your service on the front lines.

Sorry the criminals in city hall have placed you in this position…

God Bless

Capt. Cass Forrington

(Cass Forrington owns the Seaglass Museum south of Fort Bragg.)

OVERHEARD IN POINT ARENA

Editor;

I overheard this on sidewalk in front of The Arena Theater after The Hateful Eight let out. There were two couples well into their 70s, and one of the men said in a very serious tone, "That Tarantino should be shot, really, I don't know what imprint he's trying to make!"

This remarkable comment was met with a bit of mumbling from the others and then dropped as they made for the car. If I hadn't seen the man’s face as he spoke I might've been tempted to think it in jest. Dead serious he was.

Marvin Blake, Elk

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 24, 2016

J.HUGO CARRILLO-FLORES, Talmage. Domestic assault.

MICHAEL DONAHE, Ukiah. Drunk in public. (Frequent flyer.)

GARRET FLANAGAN, Leadville, Colorado/Mendocino. Assault.

SEAN FLINTON, Fort Bragg. Drunk in public, probation revocation. (Frequent flyer.)

DARREN GONZALES, Manchester/Point Arena. Drunk in public.

MATTHEW MCCARTHY, Westport. Lewd/Lascivious on child under 14, Oral copulation of victim under 16, killing-maiming-abusing animals, possession or control of matter depicting sexual conduct of person under 18, ex-felon with firearm, prior sex offenses.

MATTHEW PAQUET, Ukiah. Drunk in public, false ID, parole violation.

VIRGIL RILEY JR., Ukiah. Possession of drug injection device, child endangerment, probation revocation.

AGUSTIN RUIZ, Ukiah. Domestic battery.

JORDAN RUSS, Cary, North Carolina/Ukiah. Pot sale, DUI, resisting.

NEWS, WEATHER, SPORTS

AVA,

I turned on the radio news the other day and the segment was, "so and so tweeted such and such to so and so." I was taken aback as I did not know that not only was tweeting an action, it was an action worth reporting on, it was a stand alone act.

Next came the segment called "making you live a better life" which is all very catholic in its pronouncements. This time Sanjay Gupta is giving advice on another common medical query, oh wait no he's giving family advice, consumer advice and yeah a little psychoanalysis to boot. Wow that felt a bit preachy and invasive to have this little Indian guy giving me snide advice on how to navigate the treachery of American life, considering all of my poor choices of course. I believe any dummy would deduce after a few segments of "making you live a better life" that the system is rigged and that we are all doomed.

On to the election the latest news I heard on the trending of the swing vote was a bit disheartening. Just as the African-American vote certainly propelled Obama to the White House, pollsters say blacks are overwhelmingly in support of Billary. Is it just spin? We shall see. Is Bernie an old white man? I guess we only use that slight for insidious purposes, never incisive ones.

At least we have had enough rain in the Bay Area this "winter" to do some water catchment for backyard gardening, but has anyone noticed that there is a viable grow season now smack dab in the middle of winter. Got to take advantage I suppose.

Reports on the health of the earth have been ominous for most of my adult life but one would have to say that there is a crescendo of sorts building. Downright worry for the earth is by now steady as a mantra, sleeping or waking, which leads me to the kicker, WTF are all these people doing in there cars? By themselves for Chrissakes. I just watched 20 cars fly by in the middle of the day and every single car was occupied by only one person. If I was an alien (maybe I am) I would say the only way people would behave like this is not by choice but by coercion.

In sports this week our basketball team is ranking as one of the best ever in history and are headed for a second straight title. The G-men are looking stout with great expectations in this even year for major league baseball in the NL West. The NFL has plotted its course for the extinction agenda jubilee 2020.

It makes my eyes water to see a young black man (hell, any young man) tell the NFL to fuck off.

All is well in sports land. Well, all except the panda, or Boston, depending on where you see it from. Breaking news, the boys hit spring training and Pablo Sandoval is overweight, or downright plump. Well he's fat every year but this year he's in Boston and he is being absolutely skewered for his weight. So this begs the question, "Was I wrong to call Bay Area sportscasters racist for treating the panda so harsh?" No, I was not wrong. The fact is that in Boston they are out and out proud racists whereas here in California we prefer to keep our racism veiled. And I reserve the right to skewer Irish-Americans for all of our inglorious shortcomings. Onward and until the final victory…

Nate Collins, Oakland

THE HERETIC

FINICUM’S RAINBOW

by Bruce Patterson

“I’m just not going to prison. Look at the stars. There’s no way I’m sitting in a concrete cell where I can’t see the stars and roll out my bed row on the ground. . . It’s OK. I’ve lived a good life. God’s been gracious to me.”

--La Voy Finicum, armed insurgent standing guard duty, two days before he was shot dead by an anonymous State Policeman in Harney Co., Oregon.

** *

I wasn’t going to write about LaVoy Finicum. Don’t speak ill of the dead, let sleeping dogs lie, never whistle past a graveyard and all that. I wasn’t going to write anymore about the Alamo at Bad Luck, neither, since it’d already become a nationally celebrated spectacle and every major media personality’s personal brand of Reality TV, all the storylines scripted, shallow and aimed to please. Sorry, LaVoy, but the media coverage was the real story. It was dishonest, gutless and about as deep as the puddle you made when you spat your tobacco juice into the sand. I could argue that the media coverage was disgraceful but I won’t.

Still… Imagine it’s the first Beatles tour of the USA and you’re a photo journalist filming for the Youth Market (and pitching an “Unprecedented Cultural Event”). To get at the meat of the story you’d interview as many female teenybopper Beatle Maniacs as you could get to sit still long enough for you to get a “good take.” Then you’d put the best “takes” “on the air” and away you’d go. When it comes to my man LaVoy, his mission and compadres, I’m talking that kind of mass media shallow. Except now it’s a half century later and the subject is death.

Since last January 2^nd I must’ve read 50 newspaper stories and listened to or watched 100 TV newscast “bulletins” about the “Takeover in Burns” or “The Standoff at Malheur” or “Day 39; new details now becoming available” yet I won’t bore you. But the plain fact is that after all that I still don’t know a damned thing about LaVoy Finicum. The one thing I thought I knew about him, that he was an “Arizona Cattleman,” has turned out to be wrong.

Now I’ve sort of gotten used to the imitation journalism we get all the time as the one, big, never-ending “American story” we so love imagining. In a racket as whacked-out and corrupt as this one, real journalism equals political subversion, and a call for real Law and Order counts as an incitement to riot. Also, since I know my cardinal points and appreciate the meanings of place and topography, I’m used to picking up a newspaper and reading that Las Vegas is east of LA and Santa Barbara lies north. The NY Times news syndicate—New Yorkers regard people from The City the way the French regard Parisians—shouldn’t even be allowed to write about anything happening overseas, much less anything happening west of the Continental Divide. I mean, you know it’s bad when a syndicated news story has no bi-line: trinkets by assembly line instead of trinkets handmade.

Like in the opening days of the occupation/liberation of Bad Luck Marsh, one of these lazy, candy-assed Yankee tinhorns referred to the 108-year-old, 189,000 acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a “bird sanctuary.” The next day, out to “save words,” all across the country it’s being calling it a bird sanctuary. Well, if Malheur is that, then the Smithsonian is an Alligator Farm down outside Swampwater, Alabama (“out there beside Tickbit”). The Mona Lisa is just another painting.

It used to be in this country that all major newspapers made use of the storytellers (and journalists) called “stringers.” If ever you were interested in something happening in, say, Mountain Home, Idaho, you called there and talked to your stringer. Why? Because whatever he or she didn’t know about Mountain Home, Idaho, they’d soon find out. Stringers also knew the local power structure and personalities and they could sniff out a story’s hook. Or, if you gave him or her a hook, they’d either sink it in the target or tell you why not.

Since we’re the only allegedly advanced country on earth that has an entire nationwide political party goose-stepping under the Golden Calf titled Cheap Fossil Fuels as God’s Gift to the Free World’s Energy Future Forever — such staunch Party Discipline bring tears of envy and admiration to the ghost of Joseph Stalin — the rest of us should rue the day we forgot how to dot our i’s and cross our t’s.

As crazy as the ancient-looking old bone rack was, LaVoy reminded me of some of the old-timers I’d worked with back in olden times and so I thought I should at least google his name before forgetting about him. He’s famous now so there must be a record of who he was and some clues about why he chose to die so needlessly so far away from home. Cause of Death: making false moves.

Now when I got this new Windows computer my old one, Windows XP, was so old the young computer tech had never even laid his hands on one (he also figured I must be some kind of penny-pinching weirdo for enduring the thing). This here new contraption is so much faster I decided to try going back to doing some of my research on the internet. So long as a person doesn’t mind taking orders from a machine, and never getting a straight, simple answer to a likewise question, “search engines” ain’t so bad (“How much horsepower this thing packing, anyway?”).

So I typed in my man’s name — just his name — and, even before I’m done, a half dozen options pop up on my screen like snipers out of spider holes. One option is just his name and I click on it hoping to get some biography. I mean, how much more direct can a person get than just He, Himself and Him?

Not a chance, my machine informs me. How about some of this, that and the other thing? So after some clicking and unclicking, I found and read my man’s obituary but, come on, everybody’s a saint after you’ve plugged them, and no kind of lie is beneath the broken-hearted and the weepy.

So instead of biography I get all kinds of references to the cold-blooded and premediated FBI execution of my man LaVoy and the COVER UP and — good god — I’m an ex-GI back in Klan Kountry except now it’s FBI’s turn to hafta “play nigger.” While I saw some poetic justice in it, I’m not a poet and, by my lights, wrong is wrong. The all but indisputable fact is that my man LaVoy committed suicide by cop and, guess what? I admire him for it. Life at any cost is no life at all. By refusing to ram the roadblock, or to come out his rig with his guns blazing, LaVoy proved he’d rather die than kill people and so maybe he was a real Christian after all. No doubt he was a warrior.

The only quality article I read during the entire ordeal was written by Nigel Duara for the LA Times: “A twist on a Founding Document,” 1/25/15. I can’t remember who coined the phrase “conspiracy theorist” but, in explaining what the occupation/liberation was all about, Mr. Duara’s focus on just where these self-appointed Citizens for Constitutional Freedom (Gee, what a neat idea!) got their ideas is illuminating. You know, like the Bundy bunches’ idea to seize all federal lands out West and then sell them to the highest bidder.

“What do I hear for Yosemite Falls? Come now, people. We’re talking Upper and Lower Falls in one discounted package with easy financing available. So what do I hear for Yosemite Falls?”

Now, if the above is such a bright-assed idea, how come you’ve never heard it? Ah, just try’n imagine all the things you’ve never heard of, pilgrim. Come, open your mind. Stretch your wings. Have the courage to believe any damned thing we tell you. What are the facts but the Devil’s playthings anyway?

Mr. Duara’s article introduced me to one W. Cleon Skousen, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire. At one time I myself was vehemently anti-communist but, unlike this guy, even in Vietnam I never saw Communists lurking behind every tree. Come on, even I knew it was only paranoids and demagogues who saw Communists hiding under their beds — traitors like that red-baiting Senator McCarthy and the wackos in the KKK, the Legion of Decency and the John Birch Society. Well, check this out: this W. dude (was W. inspired by J. Edgar or was it Kafka’s “K”?) was reportedly kicked out of the John Birch Society for being too rightwing Mormon, racist and nazified.

Now, to be fair, we should remember that, before the start of WW2, Adolph Hitler was held in higher esteem than FDR by America’s White Men of Means (Hitler wasn’t taxing them). It’s also a fact that among what passes for the USA’s God and Country brigade, President Truman was seen as a traitor for having “given away” China to the Chinese. Truman then betrayed the Chinese again by keeping Cash My Check’s invisible liberation army chained up in Formosa and thereby blew to smithereens our last best chance to rid ourselves of the Red Chinese once and for all.

Yet, to real hardcore “Conservatives” like W., Truman’s greatest crimes were passing a federal anti-lynching law — another shameless and outrageous federal usurpation of State’s Rights — and purging from the US military the Free World’s hale Caesar: the Most Honorable Admiral Douglass MacArthur. By firing MacArthur, Truman denied Allied Forces in Korea the military victory tens of thousands of our blue-blooded boys had earned with their lives and their blood. If that “stab in the back” wasn’t High Treason, what was?

Nowadays when these self-proclaimed True Conservative Christians like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and the rest of that Party of God proclaim it is the Divine Mission of our gloriously Godly American war machine to bring “peace” to the world and “security” to ourselves, they’re tipping their hats to W. Cleon Skousen. Might say they’re eating sesame seeds out of his hand. When these True Conservatives assert that America’s revolutionary fathers wanted this to be a Christian Nation subject to Christian Laws, they’re bowing to Godfather W. When they say that under the US Constitution the federal government is forbidden to own land, they’re giving W. a standing ovation.

When General Dwight D. Eisenhower settled into the White House, he didn’t do much better than Truman in W’s eyes. Eisenhower passively “allowing” the Soviets to crush the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 struck W. as so treasonous it seems to have totally unhinged him. By now America’s so-called Christian Conservatives were routinely accusing Eisenhower of being “soft on Communism” and weak on Law and Order, but W. saw in him something far more sinister. According to W., Eisenhower was a Soviet Agent. I shit you not.

The monkeys have escaped their cage, my zookeepers. If you value your bananas, you’d best help get them back all safe and sound to where they belong. Or, if by some chance you’re tempted to vote for one of W.’s disciples, or if you’ve always yearned for a hog-jowled, failed casino operator to be your personal Moses, then google the name “W. Cleon Skousen.” No matter what your politics, it’s always wise to look before you leap.

FOOTNOTE: According to the American Lands Movement, Custer never died for our sins. It was the Indian Givens who died for their own sins.

THE BOUNTY ON SALMAN RUSHDIE'S HEAD is raised in Iran, and there's nothing in the local media about it. Maybe there was something from the wire services in the Examiner, but I didn't see it. The Examiner no longer has a search function to verify that impression, and it no longer allows comments by readers. Nothing in the Chronicle or 48 Hills...where else would one look? Fog City Journal is dormant, SF Citizen doesn't do national/international issues, the SF Weekly had a Rushdie story last year, but it didn't even mention the fatwa. Nothing in Slate or Salon. Only The Huffington Post had an account.

A major writer has even a higher price put on his head by Muslem fanatics, and it's greeted with a yawn.

(Rob Anderson, District 5 Diary)

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

“And why the African-American community continues to support HRC is a mystery, as the Clinton-Bush policies have eviscerated the black working class… No the working class generally.”

I don’t know anyone who admits to supporting Hillary, but the ordinary people I see in the media, not the beholden politicians, all say things like: “I just loooove the Clintons” (the African-Americans) or “I want to be part of the historic moment” (white women over 40). None of them seem to know or care about policy or corruption or any of the real problems we have.

THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE:

Wednesday morning I was out for my usual walk around 6:30 a.m. when I saw a guy walking his dog. I watched as the dog pooped, then the guy turned to walk away. I mentioned to him that there were dispensers with free bags available if he needed one. He said, rather angrily, that he knew about the dispensers because he walked his dog there every day, and that he forgot to bring a bag with him. I asked if he would use one of the free bags, and he said that he was late for work and would come back later to pick up the poop.

Several things come to mind:

First — no need for the aggro. Too early and too nice a day, and the situation didn't warrant it. This may be his defensive default, but still.

Second — the dispenser was about 100 feet away. Would an extra 60 seconds really matter that much?

Third — realistically speaking, what are the odds of someone returning later to pick up the poop? Would you even remember where it is?

Fourth — the park is for the use of our community and the public at large. We, as individuals, ARE the community and the public. As such it is our responsibility to help care for and maintain such a beautiful addition to the town. Please be considerate of your neighbors and do what's right, even it it takes an extra minute. So — I got a bag and picked up the poop, and I'm not even a dog owner.

IT ALL OBAMA'S FAULT!

GOT IT RIGHT HERE

The most recent Report of Registration, is now posted on the Secretary of State's website

"http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/upcoming-elections/june-7-2016-presidential-primary-election/154day-presprim-16/

Contains PDF and XLS files of registration by county, by congressional district, by state senate district, by assembly district, by board of equalization district, by county supervisorial district, and by political subdivision of incorporated cities and towns within each county.

LIBRARY EVENTS

http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3696d38b68efac10f9e33fa9a&id=3db153de18&e=a3c5eb703b

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Warmest bursting-with-love spiritual greetings, I have just checked the dates for the two major U.S. political national conventions, conscious of the fact that there is no radical environmental presence organized to be there as of this time. Nothing new, really. I was at the Republican National Convention in 2000 in Philadelphia, in association with the other rads at the Puppet Space, eventually holding up my cardboard sign (in the rain) downtown, which read simply: "Climate Justice NOW!". Most people in Philadelphia had no idea what I was doing or represented, and they invited me to the outdoor Patti Labelle concert which was incredible, so that I'd feel more comfortable. Regardless, we ecorads did some significant climate justice themed flyering on a humid Friday afternoon; also, I chatted it up with Johnny Rotten as we pushed the wheelchairs 2.5 miles to the convention center during the Kensington Welfare Rights March. My report is in the Philly IMC archives entitled "Philadelphia Story". At the moment, I am at a public computer at the Berkeley Public Library. I have extended my stay at the Green Tortoise travel hostel in San Francisco until Monday February 29th at 11 A.M. Beyond Monday morning, I am available to go to an airport, or train or bus station. I am nomadic lifestyle mobile! [Nota bene: I have some spendable money.] I am immediately seeking other radical environmentalists, or you might refer to yourselves as revolutionary ecologists, to be creatively active now and through the November presidential election voting. From my point of view, at 66 years of age, it would be insane to retire to the bocce ball courts. And worse, a few of my more spiritualized friends remind me that I could just go ahead and dematerialize, although the Berkeley Hare Krishnas advise me that this is not sufficient, because I would miss the opportunity to take on a new immortal body, go on the tour of the spiritual sky with Lord Sri Krishna and his eternal consort Srimati Radharani, and at the proper time, continue on back to Godhead, the exact location of which is Lord Sri Krishna's planet Goloka Vrindaban. Any way you slice it, those of us who are willing and able need to get on the road (again). Feel free to contact me at CraigStehr@inbox.com

I am thanking you in advance for your cooperation, Craig Louis Stehr,

February 23, 2016 Anno Domini

* * *

2016 American National Political Conventions

Republican National Convention
July 18-21, 2016
Quicken Loans Arena
Cleveland, Ohio

Democratic National Convention
July 25-28, 2016
Wells Fargo Center & Pennsylvania Convention Center
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania