Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Mar 9, 2016

• Balanced Panthers
• Goldeneye Fire
• Flood Prediction
• Basketball Tourney
• Night Noise
• Hiker Found
• Roadside Assistance
• Election Results
• Water Releases
• Loser Tanoak
• Knife Fight
• Abortion Legality
• Easter Service
• Immunization Rates
• Clothes Swap
• Constipated Whale
• Peace Petition
• Yesterday's Catch
• Wild Cards
• American Charades
• Armiñana Interview
• Dignity Village
• Power Politics
• Idle Minds
• Challenging Authority
• Assemblage Art
• Broadband Bill
• Marco Radio
• DC Stehr
• Poetry Exhibition

ANDERSON VALLEY BANKS ON BALANCED ATTACK IN NORCAL TOURNAMENT PUSH

Good Panther basketball story by Lori Carter in the PD which begins:

"What the Anderson Valley boys basketball team lacks in height, it makes up for in balance. The five starters, with only one 6-footer, average between 11 and 8 points per game. The first man off the bench averages just under 8."

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/sports/5347398-181/anderson-valley-banks-on-balanced

THE LANDMARK APPLE DRYER at the Goldeneye Winery in Philo was gutted by fire late Tuesday afternoon. The blaze was reported about 4pm. Flames could still be seen flickering beneath the tin-roofed structure at 5 despite valiant efforts by Anderson Valley's volunteers to extinguish them.

Goldeneye is the former Johnny Peterson Ranch converted to its present function as tasting room. A woman reported to have been working in the dryer that had been converted to a guest cabin may have been injured, but how the fire started (some said it may have started in the wiring in an adjacent laundry room) and who may or may not have been injured are not yet known. Initial accounts of damage vary from “some of it was saved” to “it’s totaled.” The roof is still up, but…

 

HEAVY WEATHER ON THE WAY

Wowza: NOAA Predicting Record Flooding Friday. If This Holds, CA-128 Will Shut Down.

Maybe Highway 1 Too

We just clicked on the NOAA forecast for the Navarro River and found they are predicting a crest of 30.1' @ 5:00 pm Friday !! If that prediction holds - it will tie for the 15th highest "crest" since 1937 and will all but guarantee CA-128 will flood. NOAA predicts the river will reach 23.7' @ noon Friday (flood stage is 23-feet). And as we all know, sometimes 128 is closed when the river reaches 18-feet. of course, MSP will be keeping an eye on the NOAA predictions - we're the only media outlet on the coast to do so. On Sunday, NOAA predicted the Navarro would reach 27.9' on Friday and now they've scaled it UP a couple more feet. Conversely, they may be scaling this projected river level DOWN as the weeks goes on. The Navarro "crested" @ 21.12' @ 4:40 am Sunday - just under the 23-foot flood level and there was no closure of CA-128.

Current river conditions. The latest Navarro River level report from the USGS river gauge (8:15 am) had the Navarro River at 11.35' and discharging 24,385 gallons of water per second into the ocean. Historic Crests

(1) 40.60 ft on 12/22/1955

(2) 39.81 ft on 12/31/2005

(3) 39.13 ft on 01/16/1974

(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) 29.45 ft on 02/07/2015

(17) 26.70 ft on 03/24/2011

(18) 25.67 ft on 03/28/2012

(19) 25.57 ft on 01/20/2010

(20) 15.15 ft on 02/23/2009

(21) 14.10 ft on 03/29/2014

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

STILL PLAYOFF HOOPS TO BE PLAYED IN BOONVILLE
.

Panthers Draw #3 Seed In State Tourney, Host Game

The Anderson Valley boys varsity may have lost the Division 6 Championship last weekend to Emery (59-46) but they'll get a second bite of the apple Wednesday night in the 35th CIF State tourney. 
Anderson Valley drew the #3 seed and will HOST #6 seed Chester "Volcanoes" Wednesday @ 7:00 pm in Boonville, at the High School Gym. Both teams carry 22-6 records and Chester lost THEIR Division 6 playoff to Liberty Christian 45-27 (Chester was the #1 seed, Liberty Christian #2 in their bracket).
 Liberty Christian got a #2 seed in the State tourney with Emery getting the #1 seed.

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

WE THOUGHT we heard a distant wind machine from down around SoBo just before midnight Monday night. Has all my lonely agitation to mute these infernal machines gone for naught? But it could have been a large diesel pick up truck that drove by a few seconds later because I couldn't hear the fans as I started walking north to home, 300 yards from my workstation high atop the Farrer Building. At 11:30pm the Weather Underground said the temperature in Boonville was 37. The predicted low from various weather sites ranged from 36 to 45 overnight. Has the early bud break meant early noise, early sleep disturbance for the Anderson Valley?

DALTON FOUND DEAD

Time: 7:30 AM

Victim(s): Jamie Dalton (46 years-old from Ukiah, CA)

On 03-05-2016 at approximately 1:30 PM Jamie Dalton and a friend went hiking in the rural area to the southeast of the CALFIRE Howard Forest station located in the 17000 block of Highway 101 in Willits, California. During the hike the pair became disoriented to their surroundings and the friend instructed Dalton to shelter in place while the friend attempted to seek help by navigating the terrain alone. On 03-06-2016 at approximately 7:30 AM the friend contacted CALFIRE personnel and advised them of the situation resulting in a missing person report to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. A search for Dalton was initiated resulting in the assistance of personnel from the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue team, CALFIRE, Little Lake Fire Department and California Department of Fish & Wildlife. As of 03-06-2016 there were approximately 30 people involved in the search efforts with more mutual aid assistance expected on 03-07-2016. Areal search assistance was not available to date because of the weather conditions and will be evaluated again on 03-07-2016, as search efforts continue. Dalton is described as being a 46 year-old white male, 6 feet tall, weighing 180-200 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes (see photograph below). Dalton was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, a black shirt, tan shorts and black shoes.

UPDATE: On 3-7-16 the following Search and Rescue (SAR) teams responded to Mendocino County Sheriff's Office request for Mutual Aid in this search; California Rescue Dog Association, Sonoma County SAR , Contra Costa County SAR , Napa County SAR, Lake County SAR, Solano County SAR and Humboldt County SAR. Also responding to the request for assistance was the California National Guard Air Unit, California Office of Emergency Services Law Branch, Cal Fire Mendocino Unit, and Little Lake Fire Department. Approximately 70 searchers and 30 support personnel were fielded during this search incident. Around 1422 hours an all terrain vehicle (ATV) search team discovered a deceased male approximately 1/4 mile north of Laughlin Peak, along an old logging road. The male matched the description of the missing person and a deputy coroner was dispatched to the location. With the assistance of a California National Guard Blackhawk Helicopter the decedent was extracted from the woods and flown back to the incident command base, where his identity was confirmed as that of the missing person, Jamie Dalton, a 46 year old male who lived in the Ukiah area. The decedent was found dressed in a black leather jacket, a black shirt, tan shorts and black shoes. The weather during this search incident was cold, wet, with some snow and sleet falling in the area. A death investigation has been initiated and an autopsy is being scheduled. There were no obvious signs of trauma on the decedent and foul play is not suspected. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office would like to thank all agencies and volunteer search and rescue personnel who responded to assist on this incident.

19-YEAR OLD MOTORIST SEXUALLY ASSAULTED

On March 7, 2016, CHP dispatch received a call about an assault victim on Highway 101 South of Hopland. It was reported that the victim had been assaulted in the dirt turnout south of Hopland. Officer Simas was dispatched to the scene of the incident and while en route was advised that the victim had moved to McNabb Ranch Road. Upon Officer Simas's arrival the victim clarified that she had been sexually assaulted and gave a vehicle description and a description of the suspect. CHP dispatch broadcast a "be on the lookout" for the suspect vehicle. Sonoma County Sheriff's office located and detained the suspect, Alex Joseph Greene, 35, of Kelseyville, on Highway 101 near Geyserville. Ukiah CHP personnel responded to Sonoma County and transported the suspect and the suspect's vehicle back to Mendocino County. In Mendocino County district attorney investigators responded and assisted Ukiah CHP with this investigation. The suspect was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail at 8:30pm, March 7, 2016. The California Highway Patrol would like to remind all motorists of some important tips to stay safe in the event your vehicle becomes disabled. Stay inside the vehicle and keep your doors locked. Don't accept help from strangers. Use your cell phone to call for roadside assistance. Use your cell phone to call the Highway Patrol if you feel you are not safe.

(CHP Press Release)

TRANSLATION: 19 year old girl breaks down on the highway. 35 year old perv stops to "help." Alleged helper attempts to rape 19 year old.

TUESDAY ELECTION RESULTS:

Idaho:

Cruz: 44%, Trump 28%, Rubio 17%, Kasich 7%.

Michigan:

Sanders 50%, Clinton 48%.

Trump 37%, Cruz 25%, Kasich 24%, Rubio 9%.

Mississippi:

Clinton 83%, Sanders 17%

Trump 47%, Cruz 36%, Kasich 9%, Rubio 5%.

Hawaii:

(Not available Tuesday night)

THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS has upped releases from rapidly filling Lake Mendocino. The recent storms have produced a surplus of the precious stuff, most of which is sold off by the Sonoma County Water Agency which owns most of the water stored at Lake Mendocino behind Coyote dam. These discharges constitute the highest volume of releases from the lake in three years. Prior, the Corps husbanded the water, grudgingly doling it out because of drought-wrought shortages.

PAUL EDERER, a coastal forester who works for Campbell Hawthorne (Formerly G-P) writes:

A quick look at Google earth would show that many of the houses on Albion Ridge are not obeying laws already on the books about maintaining defensible space for fire safety. Firefighters should be focusing on that instead of what’s happening in the woods. Seems like a wildland fire would be low priority when there are structures at stake. I’ve seen CALFire refuse to enter a forest fire with standing dead snags so what keeps firefightera safe is using what is between their ears not laws and regulations.

Tanoak management has been going on in the county since the Indians and Imazapyr has been used for hack and squirt since the late 90s, Where are the ill effects and enormous conflagrations? Comparing the tanoak situation to the conifer die-off in the Sierras is comparing apples to oranges. And what is wrong with making a profit from the trees? If you can’t make money growing trees then maybe you can subdivide and put in more houses, more roads and more fire danger. Look at the Lake and Butte fires — not much hack and squirt there but 1400+ houses lost in the urban/wildland interface. Making money from it keeps the forest a forest. After decades of effort and a lot of people thinking about how to use it, tanoak is still a loser, so why not reduce its numbers and replace it with redwood or Doug-fir?

HOW TO TELL it's raining in Lake County: A Clearlake woman is accused of attempted murder in a knife attack on her live-in boyfriend. Embree Vance, 40, reportedly stabbed her 58-year-old boyfriend multiple times while he was engaged in a fight with her adult son. Police say they met up with the victim at St. Helena Hospital in Clearlake where he showed up with several stab wounds to the midsection. Officers went to to the house on Dam Road and found Vance and her son, Shandoah Vance, walking nearby. Police say they were both intoxicated. Investigators say she admitted stabbing the victim during an altercation between the two men. Police say she still had the knife in her possession. The son was also arrested for public intoxication.

ABORTION

In my many years of debating "pro-lifers" (for want of a better term), I've learned that they fall into two distinct categories: Those who who want to make abortion illegal again, and those who do not (in the former group, there are further distinctions, divisions and sub-categories, which I won't go into here). For now, let's stick to the initial two categories.

The distinction between the make-it-illegal and the keep-it-legal "pro-lifers" is an utterly crucial one, and it's a big mistake to lump them together. They are different creatures entirely, as unalike as a wolverine and a tapir. The former are dangerous, the latter pretty harmless. As long as a person does not wish to make abortion illegal again, he or she can, as far as I'm concerned, talk all they want about "when life begins," whether or not a woman has a "right" to abort, and so forth, and I actually have no argument.

I don't argue about "when life begins," and the rest of it, because all of that is irrelevant to the facts, which are that women seek abortion whether it's safe and legal or filthy and dangerous. They always have, and they always will, no matter how fine or nuanced our armchair discussions might be. We might as well argue about whether or not the tide should roll in and out on the beach. A lot of sound and fury that will have no effect whatsoever on the inevitable.

The only argument worth having, therefore, the only one where actual consequences are involved, is legality versus illegality. The moment someone crosses the line, advocating for recriminalizing abortion, then there's something real at stake. That's when I jump in like a buzzsaw.

(http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/way-it-was)

The other day, I asked John Redding a question: Does he wish to see abortion restored to illegality? Yesterday (after only minor prodding), he answered: No, he does not. I believe his answer got lost in the shuffle.

Let's give him credit where it's due: by answering No, he has stated that he is not in favor of the re-establishment of a system of savage, dirty, underground, sexualized vigilante punishment of women and girls who abort.

(Eleanor Cooney, Mendocino)

COMMUNITY EASTER “SON” RISE SERVICE,

Boonville, Public Service — Not at sunrise, but at 8am, there will be a Community Christian Easter Church Service and all are invited.

Time: 8 AM. Date: Easter morning, 3-27-2016

Place: In front of the Boonville Methodist Church, 13850 Highway 128, Boonville. Valley Bible Fellowship is hosting this for the entire Valley.

Come join us for a time of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There will be hymns, prayer, fellowship, refreshments, and reading of the Bible (the resurrection account). No admission and no offering will be taken.

For information call Pastor Dave Kooyers at (707) 895-2325

PARENTS are coming to their senses post-hysteria caused by science-illiterates spreading misinformation by that global fount of misinformation, the internet. Immunization rates for seventh-graders at Mendocino County are up 2% from last year. The 2015-16 school year was the first to be affected by a new California vaccination law that requires students to produce proof of vaccination status before first attending school. Home-schooled students are not required to be fully vaccinated. While SB 277 won’t require complete vaccinations until next school year, parents or guardians had to file “personal belief exemptions” and receive approval before the first of the year. Exemptions will no longer be granted, but a medical professional may grant an exception for children whose health may be compromised if they receive a certain vaccine. 94% of Mendocino County 7th graders were vaccinated. The lowest rate at a public school was Willits Charter with 77%. Instilling Goodness was the lowest private school at 47%. Both of these schools are heavy on quack parents.

IT'S TIME!

Mendocino Women's Clothes Swap

Saturday, April 9th, 2016

Saturday, April 9th, 2016 1:30 – 3:00

Spring rains are here and everything is blooming! It's spring on the Mendocino Coast. It's time to gather your not-too-used clothes, shoes, accessories, small household items, books, videos, CD's and DVD's, for the upcoming clothes swap. The ultimate recycling fun!

This is our 13th year to hold the swap having started in a home with 25 women and now taking over the Caspar Community Center. We are excited, as always, about sharing this event with our community of women. Let your friends who do not have e-mail know about the swap. We are asking for a $5 donation from everyone at the door to cover rental of the lovely space and production costs. What is left over will go to a local charity. This Swap is run entirely by energetic and generous volunteers (with no pay).

We are looking for volunteers to help with this fun event. Volunteers are what make this event possible. Helping out is fun. You get to transform the CCC into a boutique of wonderful clothes and other treasures, sort, clean up; leaving the space better than we found it, and delivering all the goodies not chosen to the local thrift stores. For volunteering - as a way to say thank you, you get to choose 5 items before the swap starts. To volunteer, please e-mail the contact person specified below for the area you”d like to work in. <mailto:mwatson@mcn.org> First come first served to the volunteer positions. Volunteer options are:

Set-up/Sorters

9:15/9:30-12:00 1:30-3:00 15 helpers needed

Cheryl Papp-Conwell

CONTINUING THE WHALE POOP DISCUSSION....

Blue whale poop may be the largest in terms of quantity per pooping event, as the blue whale is the largest animal ever to exist on earth (including the largest dinosaurs), and there have been reports of sperm whale "poop-balls" of over 100 feet in estimated diameter. However -- while I am not a marine biologist and do not guarantee the accuracy of this -- generally speaking, whale poop is liquid and not solid. It serves as essential fertilizer for the phytoplankton, and thus ocean health. I would find it highly surprising if anything that we would identify as scat, or poop, washed up on shore in a solid state. If you are interested in marine mammals, the Noyo Center for Marine Science is sponsoring a talk by highly qualified experts in cetaceans on March 19 from 4 to 5:30 at town hall in Fort Bragg. It will be very interesting.

PEACE CONVERSION & WORLD PEACE

John Lewallen, peace activist and author of the newly-published book Land of Frozen Laughter, will open discussion at the Occupy Mendocino meeting on March 19 on how to change the military-industrial system that is making world war. Lewallen will seek group endorsement of a Petition for a United Nations Peace Conversion Conference. The Occupy Mendocino meeting begins at noon at the Fort Bragg Senior Center.

CATCH OF THE DAY, March 8, 2016

CHRISTOPHER BUENROSTRO III, Ukiah. Hit & Run with injury or fatality, reckless evasion, controlled substance, receipt of stolen property, failure to appear, probation revocation.

ESTEBAN CAMARILLO, Reckless evasion, controlled substance, suspended license, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

JON CHAPMAN, Covelo. Honey oil extraction, meth for sale, armed with firearm, drugs while armed, receipt of stolen property.

CORY CRANFORD, Willits. Probation revocation.

FRANK DUTRA, Calpella. DUI.

GRADY GRAHAM, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

ALEX GREENE, Kelseyville. Anal or genital penetration by foreign object by force, violence, duress, menace, etc., kidnapping: forcibly or instilling fear, steals, takes, holds, detains or arrests any person, touching of intimate parts of another against their will.

JOSE MARTINEZ, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

DYLAN MCGINTY, Willits. DUI, resisting.

ROYCE MOORE, Lakeport. Failure to appear.

DOUGLAS PYLE, Eureka/Willits. DUI.

CHRISTOPHER WALRATH, Ukiah. Assault with deadly weapon not a gun, probation revocation.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

There are two "wild card" candidates running in the primaries this year, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Granted, Trump is a lot wilder than Sanders, but as far as Democrats go Bernie "the Socialist" is getting pretty far out there. This is the year of the wild card.

Like the last time the baseball Giants won the Series, when they backed into the playoffs as the lowliest wild card team, then woke up and beat all the better-record teams to win the title. That was the year of Bumgarner.

But here we are two years later, and Americans want their political candidates anti-establishment. So up pops Donald Trump, one of the most unlikely candidates of all time, who finds himself boasting and berating his way to the top of the Republican heap. The GOP establishment is terrified (as are we all) but Donald is the man of the moment and he is seizing the opportunity. Trump has not locked it up yet, but it is getting very close.

On the other side, the Democratic Party has done a better job of propping up their establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton, and suppressing the people's will for something a little more risky. Many Democratic voters deeply Feel the Bern but the donkey overlords are steadily tamping that fire, and that will be to their ultimate detriment.

For if it comes down to Trump, the ultimate outsider, versus Clinton, the ultimate insider, I think the crude huckster will win. He will have passion and excitement and energy on his side, whereas Democrats will be trudging to the polls with betrayal, anger, and disappointment. President Trump will be a nasty shock, but not a surprise, and it will be just what the donkeys deserve. Sometimes, when things get rough, it helps to have a lighter hand on the tiller.

--Mike Kalantarian

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

Bernie Sanders is no Socialist. He still thinks there’s a way to make our current system “Nice.” He’s at least not much of a Fascist, determined to merge corporate and State power. That ground is left to every single other declared candidate of the two major parties.

Of course Obama couldn’t prosecute the criminals on Wall Street. He told the truth. He believes their criminality has to be accepted, or the system itself dies. He is so much of the system that he can’t perceive that it isn’t an either/or situation; even if he accepts Wall Street criminality, the system still dies. Indeed, the criminality is a symptom of the death of the system. No way in H – E – double hockeysticks is the submissive authoritarian Obama capable of understanding that. If he should even get close, his mental universe begins to quaver so he scurries away.

Same for Clinton. She’s even worse; she’s got the Zbigniew Brzezinski Messiah complex. She thinks she can scheme a world war to destroy all of America’s enemies and leave America the global Imperial overlord. Talk about insanity.

Who knows what Trump really thinks, but he recognizes that a lot of Americans want a magical solution in which we all live happily ever after because a rude, crass, militantly ignorant “Everyman” says mean things to everyone we resent. That might be enough to get him elected President.

Cruz and Rubio are very sad figures who don’t seem to understand how anything works, but think if they can just recite some magic words, they will be rewarded like precocious schoolboys. They seem increasingly frustrated, disillusioned and betrayed as their expectations are unmet.

It really is like 3rd Century AD Rome. People are still comfortable enough to be willing to go through the cargo-cult mumbo-jumbo with a more or less straight face. It’s still anathema to mention that not only does the Emperor have no clothes, but no Empire either. Enough people still think their loyalty to the Elites will be rewarded, despite any evidence or experience to that effect, that they still go along with the charade even to their own great disadvantage.

The dishonesty, incompetence and stupidity that have risen to the top in America are not the cause of our system’s decline. It’s the opposite. The inherent self-contradictions of our system have prevented success, allowing only the stupid, dishonest and vicious to rise. That trend will only intensify. Prepare accordingly.

CUBAN-BORN COLLEGE PRESIDENT RUBEN ARMIÑANA

Talks about Impending Faculty Strike, Power, Cuba and Universities

Interview by Jonah Raskin

After twenty-four years at the helm of the institution that he has radically transformed, Sonoma State University President, Ruben Armiñana, will retire on July 1, 2016. But first he has to run a kind of gauntlet: a strike by faculty members that’s slated to run from April 13 to 15, and then again from April 18-19. If the strike does indeed take place, all 23 campuses of the California State University (CSU) system, will be involved. The mega institution of higher learning offers nearly 2,000 bachelor’s degree programs in almost 250 subject areas. It has 460,200 students, 24,405 teachers and 23,012 staff members.

If Armiñana is counting the days until teachers walk picket lines and carry signs, he’s not the only one. Twenty-two other CSU presidents, from San Diego and Los Angeles to San Jose and San Francisco, are also counting the days until the date, and hoping against hope that a settlement will be reached and a strike averted.

Not surprisingly, money is the stumbling block. The California Faculty Association, which represents teachers, is calling for a five percent raise for faculty members. The CSU is offering two percent. For the moment, the gulf between the two sides appears to be nearly irreconcilable.

Born in Cuba in 1947, Armiñana arrived in the United States as a boy with only a dime in his pocket, or so family legend has it. His mother and father sent him to the States when he was 14, soon after the triumph of the Cuban Revolution and the arrival of Russians from the Soviet Union who aimed to help build a communist economy on the island. Ruben Armiñana’s father, a lawyer and judge, was not a revolutionary, but in 1959 he officiated at Che Guevara’s marriage to his Cuban wife, Aleida March. Che and his guerrillas turned the Armiñana home in Santa Clara, Cuba, into their military headquarters and a base of operations that they used to attack and then defeat the army of the Cuban dictator, Fulgencio Batista. They didn’t recruit Ruben. Moreover, his parents sent him as far away from the revolution as they could.

“Make something of yourself in the States,” his parents told him. Indeed, he did. He attended Hill College, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of New Orleans. His degrees are in economics and political science.

While other Cuban-born American citizens have also served as university and college presidents in the U.S., Armiñana is the most visible, the best known and the most successful fund-raiser.

Ever since 1992, when he took office as president of SSU, he has raised millions and millions of dollars for the Jean and Charles Schulz Information Center, the Green Music Center and the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall, a state-of-the-art concert facility that has given SSU a national reputation and that some, though not all faculty members resented.

No wonder Armiñana has called himself “a beggar in a tie.” He adds, "I’ve had a good product to sell. I ask for investments, not for gifts and I ask investors who have been good at investing.”

* * *

Q: At all the entrances to SSU, signs from the California Faculty Association say, “I don’t want to strike but I will.” How likely is a strike?

A: There’s a distinct possibility. I was hoping that it would not happen on my watch. I don’t like strikes. A strike leaves a bad taste in almost everyone’s mouth. It creates tensions and brings about fractures that take years to heal. This strike is unprecedented because it’s system-wide. It’s big, complicated and complex.

Q: The strike couldn’t come at a worse time for you personally.

A: If I could persuade people to wait until next fall when I’m gone I would.

Q: What about the issue of increased pay?

A: For the past seven years, no one has had a salary increase except through promotion. Faculty members are underpaid.

Q: Is that something you say publicly?

A: Absolutely and the chancellor of the CSU system says it, too, but what the faculty is asking for might not be doable. The system is offering a two percent increase. The faculty wants a lot more. The other unions have a me-too clause. If the teachers get an increase they get an increase, too. The money just isn’t there to meet the demands.

Q: I’ve heard that money really is available.

A: Our campus doesn’t have it. I don’t have a drawer with millions. I tell people if you can find my secret stash I will give you 99% of it.

Q: Is there room for leeway between the CSA and the CSU?

A: Possibly. I can envision an increase of five percent over a three-year period, but not all at once.

Q: Graduating seniors seem to be worried about finishing classes and receiving their degrees.

A: No one wants to create undue stress on the students, especially those who are slated to graduate. I suspect that faculty will make accommodations and that students will receive credit even though actual classes won’t physically meet.

Q: Some teachers say that the strategy of the SSU administration is to divide students from faculty and then to conquer both.

A: We’re not that smart and we’re not that effective.

Q: Aside from the fact that you don’t like strikes, would you agree that teachers have a legal right to strike?

A: I respect their right to strike and to express their feelings. Still, the campus cannot allow safety to be threatened. We can’t have anyone blocking the entrance to SSU. I have asked everyone to be accommodating, flexible and understanding.

Q: You’d like the strike to be over as quickly as possible?

A: Like the flu, we’ll suffer through it. We just don’t want to create a situation where people are antagonistic to one another.

Q: The end of your time here at SSU coincides with a new chapter in Cuban/American relations. As a Cuban-born American citizen how do you feel about the opening, as it’s been called, between the two countries?

A: It’s the right thing to do. It benefits Cubans in Cuba and in the United States and it’s in the interests of the U.S., too. I’m in favor of diplomatic relations between the two countries and increased economic and cultural ties, too. The embargo of Cuba didn’t work. It didn’t topple the Castro government. It’s time for a change.

Q: Will you return to the land of your birth?

A: I hope to do so next year. I have not been back to Cuba since the 1970s when I traveled there with then Louisiana Congressman, John Breaux, to discuss trade relations. President Jimmy Carter approved our mission, but we were not successful.

Q: What would you like to do when you’re back in Cuba?

A: If possible, I would like to visit the cemetery where my grandfather and grandmother are buried. I’d like to enjoy a Cuban sandwich at a restaurant called La Caridad, and see my old home, school, church and the streets that I walked as a child.

Q: After your retirement will you continue to live in Sonoma County?

A: I am not sure. My wife, Marne, and I are considering our options. We could remain here where we have many friends, but we could also relocate to New Orleans where we met 29 years ago. Marne and I both know and like New Orleans. Another option is Austin, Texas, where I went to school and where I have many friends who retired there after long careers. There’s a rich cultural life in Austin. Marne liked it much better than she thought she would. In any case, we’ll be in Sonoma for a year after I no longer occupy the president’s chair.

Q: You’ve been fortunate to be married to the same woman all this time and to have many of the same interests.

A: She has Scandinavian roots while I’m a Latin American. She tends to be more thoughtful than me, and a better judge of character. We take a major trip once a year, usually to Europe and we travel well together. When we first met we discovered that we both collected nutcrackers. Now, we have 350.

Q: You also have your own collection of masks which is in your office and that you’ll take home with you when you leave.

A: The masks are all from Latin America and mostly from Mexico and Guatemala, but also from Peru, Colombia and Argentina.

Q: Do you also wear masks, metaphorically speaking, on the job?

A: As president I have to wear many different masks because I see many different people all day long and talk about many different subjects. I have, for example, my “Don’t Have Money Mask.”

Q: Faculty members often say that the president of a university has to serve the faculty and the students.

A: I mostly agree, though I would add that a college president also must serve the community. Public universities need to be integrated into the community. They can’t be isolated ivory towers.

Q: Universities often change slowly, don’t they?

A: We deliberate everything and we talk everything to death in the name of liberation. Universities rarely operate with a sense of urgency. That’s part of their legacy. The church as an institution doesn’t move with urgency, either. We’re both conservative institutions.

Q: Sonoma State is located in a region where citizens value slow food, slow money and a slow life style.

A: That’s one of the charms of this area and one of the impediments, too. We cherish the slow, but the slow has detrimental effects. We tend to strive for perfection and don’t have enough concern for the time factor. In journalism you might have a great story, but if you miss the deadline it loses its value. We have similar issues in academia.

Q: As SSU president are you a powerhouse?

A: One of the major misconceptions about universities is that the president and the administration have power. If you have a thirst for power don’t become a university president, though you can sometimes have the power of the pulpit. The job demands that you bring together different constituents. I can’t change a student’s grade and I have little say in the hiring of new faculty members. In the private sector it’s different. If a CEO says something, it’s done. Here it takes years before something gets a hearing.

Q: How would you like to be remembered?

A: I hope that Sonoma will remember me as a president who helped to bring greater recognition from the community to the university. I think I have made SSU more visible. Over the past two-and-a-half decades we have raised a half-a-billion dollars, mostly from people in the area. In part due to my efforts, the community has come to see this institution as a valuable asset.

Q: Do you know SSU’s new, incoming president, Judy Sakaki?

A: I’ve known her for fifteen years and have followed her career as she has moved from CSU Hayward, as it was once called, to Fresno to UC Davis and for the last ten years at the office of the chancellor in Long Beach. Judy is highly capable, thoughtful and bright. Her commitment to students is very strong, especially to first generation students of color. She’s excited to be coming here. I hope she has a honeymoon and that the strike doesn’t detract from the start of her new job.

MY HOMETOWN, Portland, Oregon, has a homelessness problem. Portland is often called the City of Bridges — more than a dozen cross the Willamette and Columbia Rivers — and beneath almost all, at one time or another, one sees miserable-looking camps constructed of tents, plastic tarps, and shopping carts. It’s impossible to avoid running into homeless people downtown, where ragged people sleep on park benches and in doorways, and where you can’t walk long without being hit up for spare change. You can hardly drive near the city center without encountering men or women holding up cardboard signs asking for money at an intersection...

About three-fourths of Portland’s homeless are addicted to drugs or alcohol, and roughly half have a mental illness of one kind or another, though many remain undiagnosed. “We see people with schizophrenia, depression, and trauma,” says Alexa Mason at the Portland Rescue Mission, another Christian nonprofit that provides food, blankets, and temporary shelter downtown. “Women on the streets are likely to be assaulted within 72 hours. Men get beat up. Just living outside is traumatizing...When you add that on top of schizophrenia or dissociative disorders, people keep getting worse. This is one thing that everybody in government, social services, and the business community agrees on.”

Not everyone on the streets is mentally ill, and not all are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Some just lost their jobs, slipped through the cracks, and found themselves in a maze from which they couldn’t escape. What almost all of them share, however, are weak social and family ties. “Almost everyone we help here is struggling without any support network,” says Mason. “A lack of family support is the one common denominator that unites almost everybody.”

Something that seems to be unique to Portland is a homeless encampment that is governed by the homeless themselves under a contract with the city:

...In 2000, before the courts struck down one of Portland’s sit-lie ordinances, a group of homeless people, tired of getting rousted from doorways downtown, pushed their shopping carts together under a bridge, pitched some tents, and called the place home. The city chased them from that spot, so they moved to another bridge and got tossed out again. Realizing that these people weren’t going away, the city finally relented and allowed them to pitch their tents on a city-owned lot near a drainage canal — across from the Columbia River Correctional Institution, a state-run prison, and on the other side of the fence from Portland International Airport. From Portland officials’ point of view, the location was perfect. They wouldn’t hear complaints from the neighbors because there weren’t any neighbors. The homeless campers dubbed their site Dignity Village, with the motto “Out of the Doorways.”

...Dignity Village costs local taxpayers nothing. Residents pay all their own utility bills, including $35 a month for space rent. They pitch in to pay for community water, electricity, garbage collection, and a wireless Internet account. The houses have no indoor plumbing and most aren’t wired for electricity, but three have solar panels, and all are kept warm in the winter with propane heaters. Charging stations for cell phones and laptops have been placed near the community kitchen, the community shower house, and the portable toilets. Rain catchment systems alleviate water costs.

I wondered aloud if the word “homeless” truly applies any longer to these people. “Technically,” Proudfoot says, “this is transitional housing. That’s why we want to get our own property. We won’t have to sit under a city contract any more.” Many residents have jobs, though they aren’t full-time. One guy mows lawns. Another chops and sells firewood…

— Michael Totten, City Journal (Portland)

DEFINING POLITICS

MSNBC and the Meaning of Politics

Melissa Harris-Perry left MSNBC in a righteous huff after the network honchos, on two successive week-ends, “pre-empted” her show with news about the 2016 presidential primaries. Also, they excluded Harris-Perry (and Joy Reid) from a discussion of black voters in South Carolina conducted by three white pundits.

MSNBC sent their highest-ranking black woman, Yvette Miley, to do damage control. Miley is very adroit and very loyal to the company, and the New York Times quoted her extensively on March 2:

Yvette Miley, a senior vice president for MSNBC, said that the network would ‘continue to find distinct and diverse voices.’

“If they’re judging us through the lens of the departure of Melissa Harris-Perry, we know we have the perception versus reality to manage,” she said. “But we’re going to meet the challenge to still provide meaningful programming that touches people.”

… Ms. Miley confirmed that she sent emails to producers that day [notifying them that MHP and Joy Reid want in on the South Carolina discussion] but said the fact that Ms. Harris-Perry did not go on the air was nothing more than the “ebbs and flows” of cable news, she said.

“I don’t think it was a purposeful intention to silence or not include her in the conversation,” she said…

As for MSNBC, Ms. Miley said, “We will spend nights thinking about what we could have done differently. But pursuing politics in this matter, and at this time, was the right call.”

Note that Ms. Miley uses ‘politics’ as a synonym for ‘electoral politics.’ This is exactly what the honchos at MSNBC and the entire corporate media — right, center and ‘left’ — want to achieve.

They want to pre-empt the very definition of politics, and channel it into a format they can control and profit from.

When Tom Paine wrote “Common Sense,” wasn’t he engaged in politics? When Dennis Peron started a Cannabis Buyers Club in San Francisco wasn’t he engaged in politics? When Melissa Harris-Perry discusses crimes against young black men committed by the police, isn’t she engaged in politics?

The broader your definition of politics, the more people will consider themselves political.

O’Shaughnessy’s stylebook says: politics is the study of who has power in any given setting — the office, the family, the county medical society, the city council, the marijuana ‘legalization’ movement, whatever — and how that power is upheld and how it is exercised and whose interests are served in the process.

Obviously, electoral politics is important; but it’s not the be-all and the end-all.

— Fred Gardner

“AS SMOKING GIVES us something to do with our hands when we aren’t using them, Time Magazine gives us something to do with our minds when we aren’t thinking,” Dwight Macdonald wrote in 1957. With smartphones, the issue never arises. Hands and mind are continuously occupied texting, e-mailing, liking, tweeting, watching YouTube videos, and playing Candy Crush.

— Jacob Weisberg

THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT, 1961, an on-line recollection

The authoritarian effect. During a two year period (give or take) Milgram paid subjects who thought they were participating in an experiment to assist an out of sight co-subject learn word pairs by shocking him. The actual subjects, the “teachers” observed the purported shocking apparatus which was actually demonstrated by giving the teachers mild shocks, in some cases. Milgram was attempting to discover why so many Germans participated in the Jewish Holocaust, and especially why so many claimed they “were only following orders”.

What astounded Milgram and the folks who assisted him was the number of subjects who at the request of an authoritarian figure in the room would shock the unseen “learner” step by step from the lowest apparent shock level to the highest even when the learner pretended to be in distress. Fully 65% went all the way and those who did not were often exposed to other variations of the experiment wherein they were allowed to observe two fake participants such that the “teacher” would refuse to go on. What Milgram concluded was that it is not just a minority of humans who have a tendency to want authority figures to direct their actions but rather a majority.

I was stationed in CA in the early 70’s when I watched a PBS series and a co-worker of mine was watching it at the behest of his night school prof. The co-worker and his classmates were discussing the Milgram experiments and were convinced that most if not all of them would have stopped delivering the fake shocks. One class the prof was late and when he barged in at the last minute he walked up to the board and wrote a question that appeared to have come from some other class he was teaching. The prof called on a couple of people for answers who stammered their “I don’t knows” and then he called upon a hapless woman and would not let her protestations allow her off the hook. He began angrily ridiculing her and questioning her desire to be in the class to the point that she started crying and still he would not let up. As suddenly as he had started the prof stopped his diatribe and said “see how easy it is”? To the great chagrin of the rest of the class it suddenly dawned upon them that not one other person rose to her defense and that the woman was the prof’s equivalent to Milgram’s “learners”.

ASSEMBLAGE ART FOR ALL:

Family Fun workshop works magic with found objects

by Roberta Werdinger

The next "Family Fun at the Museum" workshop will take place at the Grace Hudson Museum from 1 to 2:30 pm on Saturday, March 12. Inspired by the Museum's current exhibit, "In the Construction Zone: Mendocino County Assemblage Art," Cathy Monroe and Cassie Gibson will facilitate the creation of new art from old or repurposed objects. The event is free with Museum admission.

Assemblage art offers many possibilities and challenges. The coordinators for this Family Fun activity have been gathering potential materials to explore and play with but suggest that participants may also want to bring materials of their own: photographs, an interesting container or base, pictures or words from magazines or books, scraps from other projects, some small piece of junk or trash that catches the imagination or sparks an idea. Small shadow boxes, approximately three by five inches, and four-inch stencils for letters will be available along with some larger bases. The challenges of attachment will be met mostly with regular glue, hot glue guns, and string or wire. Assemblage is an art form that often evolves in the process so participants may find an inspiration they want to continue at home.

This workshop is recommended for children age ten and older. Space is limited so reservations are recommended by calling the Museum at 467-2836. Materials are included (but also note info in previous paragraph).

The Grace Hudson Museum is at 431 S. Main St. in Ukiah. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday from noon to 4:30 pm. General admission is $4; $10 per family; $3 for students and seniors; free to all on the first Friday of the month; and always free to members. For more information please go to www.gracehudsonmuseum.org or call (707) 467-2836.

The artwork is by Michael Wilson, "Indian Trader," from the Museum's current exhibit, "In the Construction Zone"

DEAR BROADBAND SUPPORTERS;

As everyone knows, legislation passed in Sacramento affects broadband in our rural counties. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has a program called the "California Advanced Services Fund” (or CASF) grant program to help fund infrastructure build out in high cost areas such as rural counties. Although not without it’s problems, this state program is an important part of the solution to the Digital Divide. Smaller Internet Service Providers such as WISPs can apply to the CASF for funding through a recent change in eligibility rules. In the past, providers have used this fund to build out infrastructure in Comptche, Laytonville, Covelo, and Boonville. The program is being utilized around the state, and currently there are 20 more applications submitted than funding available. The program is overall successful, and should be continued.

Unfortunately, the program is in danger of elimination due to lack of re-authorization. There is currently a bill, called the “Internet for Now” or AB 1758, which would extend the program until 2023 with funding from user fees (not new taxes). I have attached information about this bill. Unfortunately, it is meeting strong opposition from the bigger carriers (who don’t use the program) saying that the CASF program is not necessary, and that our rural counties are being served adequately. Broadband advocates strongly disagree, and ask that if you also think our rural areas are not adequately served, to send a letter to the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee where this bill is currently stalled. A super-majority of this committee must vote in favor, and this is the biggest hurdle currently in front of AB 1758.

Here are a few statistics to note and/or use in your email or phone call:

• In the 8 rural northern Ca counties, there are 46,800 unserved and underserved households (by the CPUC’s own data) or 11% of the households
• 
In Mendocino, the percentage of unserved and underserved households is 34%
• For comparison, the number of unserved/underserved households in the state as a whole is 5%

If you want to help, contact me (Trish@MendocinoBroadband.org) and I'll send you the letter template for you to edit as much as you wish, and send to the members of the Assembly Utilities and Commerce committee. I have an excel spreadsheet to send, with the email addresses (and phone numbers if you prefer to call) of all the committee members who should be contacted. You can just copy all the email addresses in one shot, paste into your email, and send. These letters should be sent asap, but please don’t wait longer than one week as the bill is in dire straights. Please send me a copy of your letter by including me as a blind cc, or emailing your letter separately to me.

Thanks so much for taking action on this important issue. If you want to do more, you can contact Assemblymember Jim Wood and Senator Mike McGuire and ask them to please co-sponsor this bill. Currently, neither of these elected officials are co-sponsors. I have letter templates and contact info if you want to send an email for this.

Thanks!

Trish

MARCO!

Suddenly, Seymour, International Women's Day.

I set up a new portable-radio-studio computer and tested the fix for last week's embarrassing internet streaming problem by playing random pieces from my music library for an hour and a half on 107.7fm KNYO Fort Bragg. Maria Muldaur and Bessie Mae Smith and Lord Buckley and a bunch more. Brigitte Bardot whisper-singing Bonjour Le Twat Toujours. Jonathan Coulton. Billie Holiday. Judy Henske. Annabella Lwin. Strongbad. Some rousing musical theater. Etc.

It's available for download via MediaFire for a little while before I delete it. And it's in stereophonic sound. I'm experimenting with using stereo; it's a cheesy gimmick, but it's becoming popular among the young people and it might be smart to get in on the ground floor.

Here: http://tinyurl.com/hcz3rez

Marco McClean
memo@mcn.org
http://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com

CATCHING UP WITH CRAIG

HERE: MLK Public Library, Washington D.C. NOW: 12:10 P.M. March 8, 2016

Warmest spiritual greetings, Please know that I am booked into Hostelling International-D.C. for six more nights. Since arriving here February 29th, I've been visiting with friends who have been active on the front lines of radical environmentalism and peace & justice, in addition to my going to the Smithsonian Mall, sitting silent meditation in the Crypt Church at the basilica plus attending Catholic mass upstairs on Sunday, and also have randomly been enjoying pints of Belgian or Irish beer with wild fish dinners. Meanwhile, I have contacted everyone whom I know worldwide, stating that I am fully open to creative suggestions insofar as future activities are concerned, which includes but is not limited to: 1. performing rituals in response to the ecological crisis, in addition to the routine protesting, 2. Creating theater and performing at appropriate locations relative to environmental campaigns, and peace & justice issues, 3. Literary collaborations, 4. Your suggestion here. If this interests you, please contact me at CraigStehr@inbox.com and by all means, if you are in the Washington D.C. area, enjoy the cherry blossoms, drink champagne, and be happy!

POETRY — a new art exhibition, March 19-May 19, Cloverdale Arts Alliance

"Poetry" Reflected In Visual Arts

Cloverdale Arts Alliance announces new exhibition, March 19 to May 19

Artists' Reception Saturday, March 19 from 5-7:30pm

Cloverdale, March 8, 2016 - The Cloverdale Arts Alliance is pleased to announce "Poetry," the upcoming new exhibition. The installation will run from March 19 to May 19, with an Artists' Reception from 5:00-7:30pm on Saturday, March 19. The featured resident artist for "Poetry" is Laura Paine Carr. Guest Artists are Judy Anton and Ann Frowick. Other resident artists included in this exhibition are Pamela Heck, Terry Holleman, Sharon Kozel, Paul Maurer and Hanya Popova Parker

Artist Statement for Laura Paine Carr: By taking the theme of the exhibit "Poetry" to paper, paint, and stitching, I am experimenting with a sort of creative multi-tasking. For this series I have been studying poetry by participating in an online writing class, attempting new (to me) forms of an ancient practice. Using words of Hafiz, God and myself, I am exploring the line of handwriting, marks of significance and general mutterings. A departure from my usual acrylic paintings, I find that the work remains profoundly abstract.

Artist Statement for Judy Anton: I attempt in my paintings to isolate what for me is emotional truth, what has often been described as "making the invisible visible." Reaching for the core of a thought, feeling or concept is what it most feels like. One of the great joys of working this way is that frequently it unfolds even to me as a mystery, the meaning or insight revealing itself only at the very end. At the same time, however, conscious aesthetic decisions are being acted upon moment by moment. As a result, I've come to respect the delicate dance of the rational with the intuitive, one leading at one moment, the other leading the next. The entire process, highly-charged at its best, feels like one of sharp focus and total engagement, and one that I experience as being lived out in a different state than that of "ordinary life."

Artist Statement for Ann Frowick: As the granddaughter of a blacksmith, I grew up loving the sights and smell of molten metal. I was mesmerized seeing simple materials, through hard work and imagination, become something completely new and glorious. Those memories and latent teachings became the bedrock of my art. My sculpture embodies the dance of flowing form in high polish bronze and reflects light and life. It engages the viewer of the art as the image of the viewer is reflected back to them. In that moment of engagement the two become one.

For more information, visit http://www.cloverdaleartsalliance.org

or call (707) 894-4410.