Mendocino County Today: Saturday, May 21, 2016

• Aubrey Benefit
• Kuny Returns
• Solar Teepees
• SF Dinosaur
• Faulder Vote
• Simpson Recants
• Cigarette Tax
• Kelsay Sentenced
• Charter Thought
• Juvenile Delinquent
• Ghost Writing
• FB Meetings
• Pets!
• Homeless Evictions
• FB Museum
• Urgency Ordinance
• Yesterday's Catch
• Religious Diatribe
• Slag Hour
• Pension Liabilities
• Writing Classes
• Retro Sunday
• Biological Complexity
• Tranny Lifestyle
• Planning Commission

A DINNER AND MUSIC BENEFIT for long-time Elk and Albion Teacher's Aide Lynda Aubrey will be held Saturday, May 21 at the Greenwood Community Center in Elk.

Lynda is recovering from chemotherapy and radiation treatments for neck and tongue cancer. The proceeds will help to ease Lynda's financial burden as she recuperates over the next couple of months. The fundraiser starts at 4 p.m. with appetizers and drinks while local singers, musicians and dancers will provide entertainment. The performers are Lavender Grace, Chris Skyhawk, Sue Nagle & her band Sue Mommie's Kitchen Band playing earth grooves infused with reggae, rock, and funk music, and belly dancing by Nicole Fish & Trillium Tribe. A spaghetti dinner will be served from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Starting at 8 p.m. one of Lynda’s favorite local bands -- Pura Vida -- will play Afro-Caribbean dance music. The bar will be open all evening and desserts will be available for purchase. There will also be a raffle and a silent auction with over hundred items. Donation at the door is $20. Children under six years of age free. No dogs please. For more information call Anna Marie Stenberg at 964-9109.

KUNY BEGINS RECOVERY

by Phil Barber

Anyone who ever coached against or played for Danny Kuny on the football field knows the guy is a fighter. And Kuny, 61, who retired as Anderson Valley coach last November, has been waging a real battle over the past week and a half.

He is recovering from major injuries after getting pinned by a 160-foot pine tree in a logging accident on May 10 in the Sierras.

“I’m a very lucky man right now to be alive,” Kuny said from Ukiah Valley Medical Center, from which he was expecting to be discharged to an acute care facility Thursday or Friday.

Kuny, a lifelong logger, was felling trees as an independent contractor in Calaveras County, in the area burned by the Butte Fire last fall, when the severed sugar pine got caught in the canopy of a sizable oak tree. As Kuny walked uphill past the oak, the pine tree collapsed a limb of the oak and came crashing down.

“I never saw it coming,” Kuny said. “It hit me, and then it came off the ground and hit me again.”

He was pinned under the tree for 45 minutes before his logging partner heard the muted blasts of Kuny’s safety whistle. He was half-buried and the pine was squeezing his lungs. His partner finally found him, then ran back down the hill to retrieve a chainsaw before finally extricating Kuny.

“The last two minutes, my lungs were starting to give way,” Kuny said.

After being transported by gurney, by ambulance and then by helicopter, the patient arrived at Doctors Medical Center of Modesto. He had sustained five broken ribs and fractured the tips of vertebrae T1 through T8. Surgeons operated on his mangled ankle that night. “And I was bruised from the tips of my toes to the top of my head,” Kuny said.

The family has started a GoFundMe site to help defray some of the costs.

Fortunately, he had no head injuries and no significant damage to his spine or internal organs.

Meanwhile, his wife, Tammy Hewett Kuny, had just arrived at her grandmother’s house in Arkansas when she got the call about Danny’s injuries on the morning of May 11. It took her another frantic day to get to Modesto. Fortunately, other family members were able to get to Danny earlier.

The Kunys are grateful for the care they have received at the two hospitals mentioned above. Danny’s second stop was another matter. Garden City Healthcare Center was supposed to oversee his recovery. But it took about an hour for the Kunys to reject the facility. Danny demanded to be released. According to Kuny, he had to climb into a bedside wheelchair himself. An orderly wheeled him out of the hospital and simply left him on the sidewalk to wait for Tammy and the car. He had no meds and no destination.

So the Kunys wound up making a grueling nine-hour drive from Modesto to Ukiah. The only thing Danny had to stabilize his back was a seat belt.

“That drive almost killed me,” he said. “It took forever. By the time we got here, I’m pretty sure I was in shock.”

Things are much better now. In fact, Kuny, who has been chopping trees for 47 years, is already plotting his return to the woods.

“This is not gonna keep me down,” he said. “I’m gonna heal up and get back on the job by August or September. It’s gonna take more than this to keep me down.”

Tammy Kuny isn’t necessarily thrilled with her husband’s career choice, but she has reconciled it by now.

“I wanted him to get out of it years ago,” Tammy said. “He did, for me, but he was very unhappy. He went back to it and I accept it, and I pray for him every single day he’s out there. He wouldn’t be happy doing anything else, and I want him to do what makes him happy.”

For years, that has included football. Danny has been coaching off and on since 1988, when he started at Boonville High. His most recent stint at Anderson Valley included a 26-4 overall record and two NCL III championships (one was a co-title) in three years.

Is there more football in Kuny’s future?

“You know what? I’m not sure right now,” he said. “There’s other things I want to do. Some things you feel like you’re good at and can do well. Football is one of the things I felt good about myself, and I do well with kids. I don’t know yet, to be honest. I already had some offers. I’m just not ready to make a commitment.”

First things first for this battered but resolute coach.

(Courtesy, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

MONTANA PODVA, candidate for Supervisor, 1st District, against super-entrenched incumbent Carre Brown, offers this idea for homelessness:

"Homelessness must be addressed by providing low cost housing that a person on disability or Social Security can afford to rent or own. This could include insulated teepees under $10,000 with solar panels for heating, cooking and lighting."

THE CITY THAT WAS

My memories of San Francisco straddle the archetype city and its simulacrum. I miss coffee shops with customers who love books, life and want to waste time telling and listening to stories. I miss the cornucopia of neighborhoods, the swirl and mixture of languages and voices; the old with the young, the rich with the poor — all joined in a dance of difference in a city no one owned, yet which offered itself to everyone. Most, I miss seeing faces rather than heads mired in the quicksand of screens. I know. It's the future. That's why I am content to be the dinosaur, savoring what was always recognizable as here and is now vanishing as quickly as San Francisco hit by delete on a computer keyboard.

— Stewart Marshall Lindh

WHY I’M FOR FAULDER

Editor,

I wanted to let you know that Bruce McEwen's article concerning judge candidates Patrick Pekin and Keith Faulder in this week's AVA was great and spot on. Although, I have to be honest when I saw Keith had an endorsement by Eyster I was a little concerned. Perhaps, even disappointed! However, seeing Paul Tichinin supporting Mr. Pekin — essentially equalizes the standing.

I first met Mr. Faulder when he was acting DA. I requested an appointment to see him regarding concerns I had had in the unlawful dismissal of an elementary school principal in Point Arena. He not only scheduled an appointment to see me but once I presented the information to him he order a "cure and correct" letter to be sent to the district. However, once the infamous DA Lintott was sworn into office, one of her first duties was to overturn Faulder's letter. Essentially, stating the board and/or superintendent had done nothing wrong!

On September 9, 2013, a "well-documented complaint" (according to retired chief investigator, Tim Kiely) was filed with the District Attorney's Office, regarding blatant violations to the California Public Records Act (6253) and Government Code 54954.7 against the Point Arena Union Unified School District. Mr. Kiely used to live in our area so he informed me he was quite "knowledgeable of the area and the school district."

Several months later, I was informed by Mr. Kiely the complaint made it to Eyster's desk and he was awaiting authorization from the DA to sign off on it.

However, I received a phone call later informing me Eyster stated he had "six months to a year to rule on a misdemeanor." When I called back six months later, Kiely had resigned and the new chief investigator, Kevin Bailey (who was very nice) could not locate the complaint. It had disappeared from Eyster's desk probably into the "circular file."

REMEMBER, all the "leg work" had been done and Eyster essentially had only to give a thumbs up or a thumbs down but couldn't take the time to even look at the summary — it was below the quality of cases he has to deal with for him pause to do so!

Mr. Faulder has my vote and to those I know I have asked they also vote for him in spite of his endorsement by our present DA! I'm not going to fault him for that because he looks after all community members and not a select few!

Respectfully,

Suzanne Rush

Manchester

BOBBY SIMPSON RECANTS

(Simpson is the Former General Manager of Louisiana-Pacific's Western Division)

I am writing to recant my support of Measure V. I believe there is a better solution to resolving this matter.

I initially supported Measure V because I oppose the use of herbicides in the Coastal Redwood Region. I am retracting my support for Measure V because if approved citizens may use Measure V to file frivolous lawsuits against landowners. I firmly believe the best silviculture and economic solution for overstock of tanoak trees is to create a viable tanoak market that incentivizes landowners to selectively harvest tanoak trees rather than kill them. But until tanoak markets are opened, I grudgingly support the use of herbicides because it is the only silviculture solution to allow foresters to reduce the overstock of tanoak trees. I believe landowners should consult with fire agencies and adjacent neighbors prior to herbicide treatment of tanoak trees to alleviate the concerns of fire safety.

Herbicide treated tanoak trees increase the risk of forest fires because dead and dying trees have considerably less moisture than live trees. Low tree moisture allows trees to ignite much faster and burn hotter. This is scientifically indisputable. I previously stated I had seen MRC maps that indicated the lightning complex fire of 2008 was exacerbated by the density of dead tanoak trees on MRC lands. There are others who will attest to my statement. However, I believe the 2008 Mendocino fires would have occurred with or without the presence of dead tanoak trees. And I know MRC did everything possible to put these fires out quickly.

I first witnessed the impacts of “hack & squirt” treatment of tanoak trees in May of 1992 while serving as GM of Louisiana-Pacific’s Western Division. The location was near the Navarro Store. I was horrified by what I saw and I knew LP had to provide its foresters a better silivculture option for reducing the overstock of tanoak trees. I previously indicated LP eliminated the use of herbicides in 1993. I was wrong. After reviewing LP internal purchase requisitions, it is clear that LP’s use of herbicides continued. However, by 1995 LP consumed and exported a total of 400,000 green tons of tanoak per year which resulted in a negligible use of herbicide. A 1995 picture of the Calpella tanoak whole log chip yard provides a visual of LP’s tanoak program. Unfortunately, the tanoak pulp chip market is no longer available. Until new tanoak markets emerge, I find myself grudgingly willing to support herbicide use because it is the only silviculture practice that will reduce the overstock of tanoak trees. And an overcrowded forest will not grow quality hardwood or softwood timber.

I encourage supporters and opponents of Measure V to work cooperatively to alleviate safety concerns and to support the effort to open new markets for tanoak trees.

Sincerely,

Bob Simpson, Willits

---

From: Bob Simpson <simpsonbob@live.com>
Subject: Correction
Date: May 23, 2016 at 7:09:25 AM PDT
To: "webeditor@www.theava.com" <webeditor@www.theava.com>

Good Morning Bruce: I am contacting you this morning to correct information inserted at the bottom of my original email and recant.

1. I am not a Mendocino County registered voter
2. My primary residence is in Granite Bay, CA
3. I own property in Mendocino County (Potter Valley)
4. I own property in Humboldt County (Samoa)
5. My startup company is Simpson Tanoak Products. The company will be located in Samoa, CA. The company is not expected to be in production until October 2016.

PILING ON

Our hard-hitting legislators will certainly endorse an initiative that will place a $2 tax on cigarettes per pack. Enough signatures have been elected to qualify an initiative boosting the sin tariff for the November 8th ballot, making it an average of $7.50 to wreck your lungs. The legalization of the recreational use of marijuana will also be on the ballot, but pot smoke is, like, harmless.

KELSAY SENTENCED

Ukiah, Thurs., May 19. Christine Kelly Kelsay, age 35 of Willits, the now-notorious Laytonville embezzler appeared for judgment and sentencing this morning before the Honorable Ann Moorman, the Superior Court judge who presided over the April jury trial. Following the presentation of victim impact statements personally delivered by Abbe Arkelian and Michael Braught, the Court also heard sentencing arguments from District Attorney David Eyster and Kelsay's defense attorney. A defendant is given an opportunity to directly address the judge at sentencing and apologize for their crime if he or she desires to do so. Kelsay declined this opportunity by standing mute.

In pronouncing sentence on Kelsay before the standing room-only gallery, the Court imposed a five year prison sentence and, as required by law, split that five year commitment between four years of incarceration in the "local prison" and one year of mandatory supervision. Because of day-for-day credits intended by the Legislature to ease prison overcrowding, it is believed that Kelsay's sentence will keep her behind bars at the Sheriff's Low Gap facility until April 10, 2018. Thereafter, she will be monitored on mandatory supervision for the following 12 months. Mandatory supervision is, in many ways, the same as parole with many terms and conditions. Kelsay's terms and conditions will include that the defendant not act as a fiduciary or otherwise participate in handling money for any organization or entity.

A restitution hearing will be scheduled for a later date. While the Court today found that the restitution owed to the victims shall be at least $484,443, the future hearing will address whether that number should be increased due to additional losses caused the victims by the defendant, as well as the victims' expenses of investigation. The resulting restitution order shall include per annum interest at the legal rate of ten percent.

(District Attorney Press Release)

A READER COMMENTS on Measure W: "The county already takes forever to come to decisions and to my thinking, the charter concept is just another layer of butt, with aging, arrogant hippies and self righteous millennials calling the shots."

AT LAST — A PLAIN OLD-FASHIONED JUVENILE DELINQUENT

On 05-18-2016 at approximately 6:04 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to a 14-year old male juvenile vandalizing a vehicle in the 29000 block of Highway 20 in Fort Bragg, California. It was reported the male juvenile was in possession of a screwdriver, crowbar and hammer, which were being used to vandalize a gray minivan parked on the edge of the roadway. While enroute to the location, Deputies received updated information that the minivan had been reported stolen out of the city of Willits. Deputies had taken a report earlier in the day where contents of the vehicle had been discovered in the area of James Creek, near mile post marker 19 on Highway 20. Deputies arrived and located a male juvenile in the driver’s seat of vehicle attempting to start the ignition of the vehicle with a screwdriver. The male juvenile was taken into custody for a violation of 496D PC (Possession of Stolen Vehicle) and transported to the Mendocino County Juvenile Hall.

AFTER MEASURE U

by Malcolm Macdonald

When I entered this world the Macdonald family had already been engaged in the dual activities of cattle ranching and sheep herding for decades. On the Great Plains, at the turn of the 19th Century into the 20th, such contradiction could get a man shot or a family run off their land. One branch of my ancestors lived for a time on the Nebraska sandhills in the 1900s and 1910s when the only sheep man in the vicinity was a fellow respected far and wide since his youth when he stood up to a notorious outlaw. Readers can find a fictionalized version of this figure in my novel Outlaw Ford. When the Macdonalds of the Albion River began to run sheep as well as cattle, they did so as well established members of the local community, folk who were capable of seeing both sides of an argument, potential peacemakers in a disagreement or feud. Of course, it didn't hurt those peacemakers to have in-laws like the Robertsons, several of whom, though not hotheads, were considered by their contemporaries to be skilled marksmen.

Which brings us to Fort Bragg's Measure U, an initiative aimed at prohibiting social service organizations within the town's central business district (CBD), unless the organization happened to be in place before New Year's, 2015. From far and wide to actual citizens of Fort Bragg there are pretty much only cattlemen and sheepherders on this issue. Darn few individuals want to acknowledge let alone tackle the cluttered complexities surrounding the move of the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (MCHC) into what was once (more than a decade ago) the Old Coast Hotel on Franklin Street. The passage or failure of Measure U will not bring an end to the verbal sniping, frustration, and mistrust on any side of this issue. It's that last phrase that most don't see. There aren't simply two sides. There are folks who won't vote for Measure U, but still have concerns about the ability of MCHC to provide adequate mental health services. There are downtown business owners who may vote either way, but passage or defeat on Measure U will not clean up their business premises from messes that can be linked to those fed at MCHC's flagship location, Hospitality house; however, the homeless who cause the messes are not always Hospitality House or MCHC clients, just transients here for the good weather season or “trimmigrants” waiting for marijuana season or... The transient and local homeless problems go on and on.

So vote for Measure U, right? If it passes, the measure may not provide wording adequate to move MCHC out of the Old Coast Hotel. Despite protestations to the contrary from far and near the passage of Measure U could lead to a miasma of lawsuits. Even if Measure U passes and no lawsuits result, its mere passage will create some kind of blowback from Mendo-lib forces. The far flung problems of homelessness, mental health, and social services cannot be solved by a range war at the ballot box. There will be too many sheepherders and cattle drovers left over after the last shot, I mean ballot, is counted.

The city manager, the mayor and Fort Bragg's city government as a whole is going to have to provide ample notice for all future projects and the so-called Concerned Citizens of Fort Bragg are going to have to come out into the open and take a much fuller role in civic affairs, a role that extends beyond snide whispers and catcalling criticism on isolated side issues, too often uttered after the fact.

One of the ugly little half truths about the Hospitality Center getting a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to obtain the Old Coast Hotel concerns the issue/image of the concerned citizens (and everyone else) having only have 4-5 days notice on the matter in January of 2015. Lost in that canard (a fine word that literally means a cackling duck) is the fact that the City of Fort Bragg held a rather widely attended public hearing eight and a half months earlier (in March, 2014) concerning the approval of said same Community Development Block Grant to be used for the purpose of moving MCHC into a mental health services location at 300 N. Harrison Street. At that hearing and around town at the time, some of the same people opposed to MCHC's move into the Old Coast Hotel suggested that the 300 N. Harrison St. locale was too close to a park frequented by children and some also suggested that a more appropriate location would be within the central business district (CBD) of Fort Bragg. Opponents of MCHC have been mythologized in certain quarters as some sort of salt of the earth protectors of what is best for Fort Bragg. Readers might want to go back to my Jan. 21, 2015 piece: “One of the more vocal opponents to the 300 N. Harrison Street project also wrote a letter to the city last March [2014], which stated, in part, 'We also feel it would [be] much easier to police a facility of this sort if it were located in the business area instead of a residential area…'”

And this, from the same article: “So at the January 12, 2015 Fort Bragg City Council meeting to consider authorizing essentially the same CDBG as last March, but for the Old Coast Hotel site, the person who wrote the letter asking that a mental health services center be located in the business area expanded her thinking to ask, 'Why is Fort Bragg the chosen spot for this? Why isn't it some place more centrally located?' When push comes to renewed CDBG shove, for some 'not in my backyard' becomes not in my whole town. Thus was the thinking of some of the people who packed the City Council meeting to object to the Hospitality Center acquiring the Old Coast Hotel. The same mindset and worse pops up on websites supposedly dedicated to happenings in Fort Bragg: 'I dont think Fort Bragg is big enough for housing for the homeless,' or 'All the handouts need to stop!!! Every church needs to shut down and not cater to them. They need to get into a program or get out of fort bragg.'”

That mindset has softened, publicly, in the last year or so, but the proponents of Measure U might as well own up to the cold truth that a portion of their support still comes from such a mentality.

Regardless of the CBD question, when the deal for the 300 N. Harrison St. building fell through it was clearly stated by the mayor and other city officials at a well attended city council meeting that MCHC, with the city's help, would look for another location within Fort Bragg for MCHC to move centralized mental health services to. For more than six months anyone paying the remotest amount of attention to this issue was aware that MCHC was actively looking for another location. Anyone who paid attention to the well attended civic meetings regarding the 300 N. Harrison location would also have been aware that MCHC had been given approval for the community development block grant. Any concerned citizen of Fort Bragg or any passer through could have taken a more active role in following MCHC's search for an alternative to 300 N. Harrison.

As previously stated, the CDBG project was already approved at a publicly attended city council meeting in March of 2014. The grant was not subject to change based on a secondary location at the former Old Coast Hotel. In short, the city council meeting of January, 2015, didn't even need to include the Old Coast Hotel move. Of course, MCHC's board of directors should have much more fully taken public input into account during their search for a secondary location after the 300 N. Harrison Street deal fell through. In addition, individuals within Fort Bragg's city government (the city managers and some members of the city council) should not have thrown up a defensive wall around themselves when it became obviously apparent that a significant number of Fort Bragg residents had serious reservations about both the 300 N. Harrison and Old Coast Hotel sites. Instead they marched straight ahead under the banner of certainty that they were doing the right thing.

Well, sometimes, as anyone who has watched Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing can tell ya, just doing what you are damn sure is the right thing can end you up in something akin to a literal or figurative riot. It seems apparent to the point of cliché that more openness is at the root of solving the problems in Fort Bragg, openness on the part of city government, the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center, and the so-called “Concerned Citizens" who seem to do all their strategizing in secret conclaves. Up or down on Measure U gets us no further than Mookie picking up that trash can, again. Though race is the primary subject of Spike Lee's film, those concerned with the problems in Fort Bragg would do well to watch or re-watch Do the Right Thing.

This was advertised in last week's piece as part of my sojourn through four public meetings in three days, with a bull calf castration thrown in for time consumption if not good measure. The first of those meetings was the Fort Bragg City Council, at which these days there is always some sort of reference to the Mendocino Hospitality Center. Hence the previous, multi-paragraph discussion. Fort Bragg residents or anyone on the Mendocino Coast who thinks that Fort Bragg's city government or its city council meetings are not pretty darn open to public scrutiny needs to attend some of the other board and committee meetings that go on around the Mendocino Coast. The less said about the way the Mendocino Art Center (MAC) board conducts a public meeting might be the best choice for the time being. The insatiably curious can take a look at Mendocino TV's coverage of the May meeting. Though the organization does seem to be making some progress this year on the economic front, the mere presence of a camera, microphone, and a writer from the AVA converted at least two MAC board members into rants that those media sources were in some sort of conspiratorial cahoots with four local blacksmiths also present at the gathering. I'm fairly sure the Mendocino TV camera operator didn't have any prior dealings with said blacksmiths and yours truly had never laid eyes on or conversed with any blacksmiths before.

After the bellows of media conspiracy and an abrupt adjournment I did have a thoughtful conversation with a couple of the non-ranting MAC board members which gave me hope for coming days and months. That evening I attended a lengthy, relatively meticulous meeting of the Albion Little River Fire Protection District's board of directors.

With so much attention on Fort Bragg's city government and the issues surrounding homelessness and mental health, matters at the Mendocino Coast District Hospital (MCDH) are potentially of even broader importance. The most eye opening matters concern the bottom line. While MCDH has been slightly improving its month to month numbers, there are huge financial questions to be answered. Start with about $17 million in capital budget projects that need attending to.

You hear talk about crumbling infrastructure in the good old U.S.A., try a $2.5 million roof repair at the coast hospital, an equal amount for Emergency Room renovations, $2 million for electrical upgrades, almost a half mill for the not yet completed repair of the nurse call system. I can go on and on. One long time MCDH board member said at the Finance Committee meeting I attended (pre-castration and conspiracy accusations) that things get fixed at MCDH after said thing breaks, that goes for dishwashers all the way to air ventilation systems in the operating room.

Throw in the cost of constructing a new hospital before 2030 and you've got mega money needs in the near and long term. The latest proposal from administration at MCDH is a possible end to all obstetrics (OB) services at Mendocino Coast Hospital. It is about a million dollar money loser annually, with those losses mounting each year recently while the number of births at MCDH have declined to approx. 85 for this fiscal year. The elimination of all OB services at MCDH will likely prove an emotional issue as well as, if not more so, than a financial one. Those who desire input on this or any of the myriad financial issues surrounding MCDH had better start attending the hospital's board meetings and/or its Finance and Planning Committee get-togethers.

* Neither sheep nor cattle were injured in the construction of the author's website: malcolmmacdonaldoutlawford.com

ACHILLES

Meet one of the shelter's senior dogs--though you'd never know he was 10 years old. Achilles loves to go for walks and has great leash manners. He is also smart and seems to learn rules quickly, so we think he'll make an easy transition into his forever home. This gorgeous guy has a very sweet manner. We know it takes a special soul to adopt an older dog and we hope you're out there, AVA fans. This great dog has many years left to be your companion. Achilles is a mixed breed dog, and weighs in at 82 pounds. Achilles is fully sponsored by Bug A Bull K-9 Education Program, so his adoption fee is covered. For information about Achilles, call the shelter--467-6453, and make sure to check out www.mendoanimalshelter.com for the most current news about the shelter's dog and cat guests.

* * *

PENELOPE

It’s difficult to believe that a kitty-cat supermodel like Penelope does not have a home--but we are betting one of the AVA's loyal blog readers will adopt this beauty. Penelope is a mature kitty at three years of age, and thus likes cuddling more than racing around: a window sill or cat tree would be dreamy. Penelope is not fond of other cats, so she will need to be the only feline in her new home. She is currently a guest at Farm Supply in Ukiah, so you can meet her there. Be sure to check out the shelter's website for the most current information on all dog and cat guests: http://www.mendoanimalshelter.com/

HOMELESS EVICTIONS: DISPLACED AND CONFUSED PEOPLE AT RISK AND POSSIBLY ‘DANGEROUS’ TO RESIDENTS

by Kym Kemp

(Photos provided by a reader.)

Hippie Hill, an area north of Garberville which had been an illegal campground for homeless and transients, was cleared of the last of its residents today. One homeless advocate wonders where those people will relocate and what will happen to them and a Redway resident wonders if they will relocate near him putting his home and family in danger.

“A couple of days ago there was 30 people up there – maybe more,” said Lois Cordova, a homeless woman and advocate who was on site monitoring the final evictions. “Now those people are wandering around the streets.”

Cordova worries that the people removed from the area will just move to other nearby areas but without their support systems. “There’s still a lot of places for people to camp around here but there’s not any people to camp together and help each other,” she said. And, she said, social services can’t find their clients to help them now.

Referring to a well-known local but homeless man, Cordova said, “Mental health was up there looking for Vern…Mental health couldn’t find him. When somebody has a place they go back to all the time, then you could find them.” Now she says Vern is displaced and confused. “He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know that he can’t be there….He’s one of those people that really needs to be in care.”

In addition Cordova believes that many of the increasing number of transients or homeless in the Southern Humboldt area that people have complained about actually are just displaced people who are more visible now that they have been evicted from their camps.

THE GUEST HOUSE MUSEUM ROAD SHOW

by BB Grace

Act I

New York City is investing $43 Million into their “New Museum” this year, as cities all over America invest tens of millions into their museums with new wings, additions and restaurants with fine dining attracting millions of tourists. The City of Fort Bragg has decided that museums are for private proprietors like the Triangle Tattoo Museum (356 North main Street) and the Glass Beach Museum located seven miles south of Glass Beach (17801 North Highway One -- priced out of a closer location). I highly recommend visiting both museums. Meanwhile, the time has come, perhaps long overdue, to try something new with the City owned house few see, and fewer care about called, The Guest House Museum.

Inspired by the popular hippy tribute with “authentic artifacts” at the Mendocino County Museum (400 East Commercial Street in Willits) and replicated by the Mendocino Area Parks Association at CA State Parks' Greenwood Museum and Visitor Center (15 miles North of Point Arena), The Guest House Museum in Fort Bragg, operated by the Fort Bragg-Mendocino Coast Historical Society with North Coast Brewing Company, are stepping up hippy tributes by establishing a “living art” exhibition with respect to the Hospitality Center Annex at the Guest House Museum titled: “The Guest House Museum Road Show”, with volunteer artists AKA rejected from the Hospitality Center, living in various locations around and under the Guest House Museum and City property.

The project is a work of love by “We LOVE Fort Bragg” organizations who appreciate the 1892 old growth redwood house rotting away. Knowing there are few old growth redwood craft homes around, preserving the Guest House is not as important as establishing an asphalt road on the Koch Headlands in the name of “trail” for the sum of an undetermined amount of millions needed to maintain and police what is built for big trucks like Los Angeles' “the Strand”. As if you miss your tax money? NOT! Look at all these taxes on the ballot. WOW! There will never be another Guest House, so it's time to put it in its proper place: Irrelevant! This is it. It's little of all Fort Bragg has left of an important era which enabled everyone living on the Coast today that opportunity, thus the Guest House Museum continues to stand rotting as an opportunity for all, especially the homeless, who are not as rotten as the Guest House Museum. And that's not for lack of local volunteer efforts. The VOLUNTEER docents are on the front line, NOT PAID while the folks being paid by the City you have to look for. Ever notice that?

Union Lumber and Georgia Pacific companies retained craftsmen to preserve the finest redwood in the world used to built the Guest House and to replicate and repair damages to coping and wainscoting, keeping the wood vibrant and gorgeous. The redwood trees were centuries, if not over a thousand years, old when felled. The redwood in the house had to be perfect because UL – GP needed to impress guests who stayed in the house with intentions to purchase shiploads of redwood and wood products. City landscapers do an excellent job hiding the neglect the City perpetuates with it's lack of interest. The California Western Rail Road AKA Skunk Train, a shadow of what once was a spectacular ride through redwoods, with music, food, fun, and very popular tourist attraction, now lends it's tracks to the ambiance at “The Guest House Museum Road Show” for the “living art” exhibit. It's crucial to Fort Bragg leadership that visitors to Fort Bragg know the altruistic intent to deliver to the homeless the very best Fort Bragg has to offer, Guest House Museum included. The live art exhibition changes daily with authentic artifacts such as bikes, back packs, dirty bags, cigarette butts, wrappers, bottles, cans, cups, needles, dogs, spent condoms, the smell of marijuana, break-ins and, on special occasions, live visits from desperate homeless persons for added excitement.

Finally on it's way to being an internationally acclaimed homeless and low income fast food tourist destination, Fort Bragg City's self-congratulations and self-serving propaganda including aggressive kumbaya-ing from service organizations supporting the investment of over a million dollars to buy The Old Coast Hotel located in Fort Bragg Central Business District, which stood for HOPE for small businesses, and lauded over as if the tax-sucking Hospitality Center's processing homeless plantation, and new mental health services were tax payers.

Apparently the visionaries on the Hospitality Center Board and City Council perceived that the new changes to Fort Bragg may encourage more residents than ever to seek mental health services in getting over and overcoming what's going on in the name of “GO Fort Bragg”, and why they decided as Napoleons and Neros that the Old Coast Hotel would better serve the community as a mental health and homeless check in center than a destination for a rare redwood house made into a museum and fine dining establishment.

Lest we forget, Fort Bragg has little water which is aggressively monitored, and why expanding the North Coast Brewery is in the works, possibly damming Pudding Creek to make it happen. Word has it this “trail” is going to attract more folks than Disneyland ($17 Million to build Disneyland), so heads up Braggers! Hit the trail, left, right, left, right, and stay on that asphalt trail tourists will come so far and wide to stride with you. Oh, and don't touch the glass on Glass Beach! $500.00 Fine!! Remember, don't turn your back on the Ocean as you might get blown down the cliff and out to sea, never turn you back to Fort Bragg or the might Pacific Ocean wind may blown you onto Main Street up Oak to Franklin and into the Hospitality Center.

The message is stout: Cheers to Fort Bragg's permanent exhibit, The Guest House Museum Road Show, brought to you bu the Hospitality Center Annex and located at the City's rotton redwood house (343 North main Street). It's FREE!!! (not the stout, that's expensive but good) Children and pet friendly. Open to the public 11 – 2 pm. The live art exhibit will be there 24/7. Welcome one; Welcome ALL, and that means the hungry, drunk, drugged, and seriously needing meds, and oh, please sign the Guest Book Museum registration so the City knows the Guest House is not haunted, though it sure looks like it with all the rot and dead tree branches on the West side of the holly tree, shingles falling, rain gutters nails rusting away and probably what attracted the live art exhibit of zombies (I didn't say that) to The Guest House Museum Road Show. It's ALL GOOD! No worries. Those folks on the back lawn, behind the fence, in the bushes and under the porch are not Hospitality Guests, their ours and more important than locals and the Guest House Museum put together, so Y'all come by and take a gander at the Guest House Museum Road Show, next to the big City clock that's 10 minutes fast. Where ever Fort Bragg is going with this show, we're not going fast enough by City time. Drink up. See ya on the Stand.

Act II

"Museum"

I drink sweet wine for breakfast, I slept about an hour or so

Smiled a little in the silence deciding on where to go.

"Meet me under the whale in the Natural History Museum,"

I think that's what she said, a little bit sad about having to leave them.

Yawning in the sun, like a child I run.

But don't do it if you don't want to, I wouldn't do a thing like that.

No, don't it if you don't want to, I wouldn't do a thing like that.

How little do you speak of beauty, isn't it a shame, what of it?

Maybe you should go get a power ring, you'd make all your troubles go.

There she stood in drag, just-a lookin' cool in astrakhan.

She's lookin' just a little wiped out, she said I looked like Peter Pan.

Yawning in the sun, oh baby, like a child I run.

But don't do it if you don't want to,

I wouldn't do a thing like that.

Oh no, no, don't do it if you don't want to,

I wouldn't do a thing like that.

Don't do it.

--Donovan “Mellow Yellow” 1967

MENDO DOOBIE DOO

Board Of Supervisors Adopts 9.31 Marijuana Cultivation Urgency Ordinance—

During the May 16 & 17, 2016, Board meetings, the Board of Supervisors’ Medical Marijuana Ad Hoc Committee presented an urgency ordinance amending Chapter 9.31 of Title 9 of the Mendocino County Code. The urgency ordinance was declared necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety. It was reported that the amendments to the existing Chapter 9.31 of the Mendocino County Code are necessary to establish registration and permitting requirements, as well as additional measures to protect the environment, that will provide for additional enforcement capability by the County and limit further degradation of the environment. The urgency ordinance passed upon a unanimous vote of the Board.

In addition to protecting the public peace, health and safety as stated above, the urgency ordinance adopts a more stringent definition of legal parcel than was previously in effect; adopts new requirements for wildlife exclusionary fencing, secure storage of fertilizer and other soil amendments; and requires anyone cultivating more than 25 plants to apply for, obtain, and comply with numerous conditions designed to limit community and environmental impacts.

The purpose of the urgency ordinance is to create local regulation of medical marijuana that is consistent with State law in order to protect the public peace, health and safety by balancing the needs of medical patients and their caregivers with the needs of the community to be protected from public safety and nuisance issues. Because of the passage of the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA) in California, and the concern that, if left unregulated, there will be a substantial increase of marijuana activity in the County, the ordinance seeks to limit harmful environmental impacts that are sometimes associated with marijuana cultivation.

The amendments to this ordinance do not change the previous twenty-five (25) plant per parcel limit, however, it provides for an exemption to the twenty-five plants (25) per parcel for marijuana growers that were cultivating marijuana prior to January 1, 2016, allowing for up to fifty (50) plants (or the defined equivalent square footage) on a legal parcel of no less than five (5) acres and up to ninety-nine (99) plants (or the defined equivalent square footage) on a legal parcel of no less than ten (10) acres. All prior requirements regarding setbacks, security measures and location remain.

The amendments to this ordinance are to terminate once replaced or superseded by alternate medical marijuana cultivation provisions, or no later than June 30, 2017, whichever is first.

A full copy of the urgency ordinance is available on the County’s website at: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/bos/mendoreg.htm.

For more information regarding the urgency ordinance, please contact County Counsel’s Office at (707) 234-6885.

Released by: Carmel J. Angelo

Chief Executive Officer

CATCH OF THE DAY, May 20, 2016

(Unavailable due to Booking Log Server error.)

RELIGIOUS DIATRIBE # 46

by Louis S. Bedrock

“Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,

Alone, shall come fulfilment to our dreams...”

(Wallace Stevens, “Sunday Morning”)

* * *

I don’t like the word “atheist”, which means “without god”. How can I be with something that isn’t there? As P.Z. Meyers observed, “Something that is invisible and impalpable is indistinguishable from something that doesn’t exist.”

I also dislike the expression “There are not atheists in foxholes.” I’ve faced death three times. On not one of these occasions did I pray or think of god.

1. Many years ago I drove a yellow cab in Philadelphia. I worked nights. The veteran drivers told me stick to the airport, Penn Station, and Center City. Mostly black North Philly and West Philly were dangerous areas: holdups and muggings were common. Even the black drivers avoided these areas. But I soon discovered that there were a lot of people in these neighborhoods who needed a cab, and since cabs were scarce, they were grateful to find one; they tipped more generously than many of the Center City tightwads. So it was in North Philly and West Philly where I worked almost exclusively

Most of my customers were working people. They were tired, cold, eager to get home, and relieved to find a cab. I didn’t lose a lot of time looking for fares: they were looking for me.

There were no bad incidents until that day when I picked up the young guy with the crew cut on North Broad Street near Temple University.

He seemed like a nice kid at first. He was soft spoken, and he directed me to an address in the northeastern part of the city. But as we drove, his character took on a schizophrenic quality.

He would shout at me suddenly: “You were supposed to turn there!” or “Drive faster!” or “Slow down!” Then he would talk softly and ask where I was from, my ethnic background, and what kind of music I liked.

However, he also began asking disquieting questions: “Have you ever been in Vietnam?” “Have you ever looked death in the face?” “Have you ever known you were going to die?”

He whispered one sentence, shouted the next.

We wound up at a badly lit, run down project in the middle of a rubble strewn nowhere. I glanced at the meter, which showed that he owed me $3.50. When I turned to tell him, he was pointing a small automatic pistol at my face.

—Are you going to pay me or are you going to shoot me?

—I’m going to pay you —he said—.

He handed me a five-dollar bill and said,

—Keep what’s left.

As he walked off, I slid over to the passenger side, rolled down the window, and called him back.

—You know you scared the hell out of me with that gun.

—You should never be scared, man. Life is a day-to-day thang —he replied and walked off into the night—.

He walked off and I drove off. I had to stop after a few blocks because I had started to shake. I pulled over and tried to will myself calm. For the first time in my life, I had looked death in the face. I did not pray or offer thanks to Jehovah or Jesus. Fuck them. I breathed deeply and sought to recover my equilibrium.

2. It was winter--non-riding season, and I was running up and down the stairs to maintain muscle tone in my upper legs. I lost my footing, crashed down the stairs on my back, and woke up on the landing with the back of my head and my shirt wet and sticky. When I tried to get up, my back was flooded with such intense pain that I cried out involuntarily.

I touched the back of my head to see if I were bleeding; I was not: the wetness came from the water in the cat’s bowl, which my head had struck. The wetness in my shirt was also water, not blood.

The pain in my back and the absence of feeling in my legs and feet convinced me that I had broken my back and perhaps damaged my spinal column. Unwilling to live as a invalid, I decided to kill myself and crawled toward my office where the Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolver was hidden under some papers in the bottom right drawer of my desk.

As I crawled, feeling returned to my legs and feet. The intense back pain reminded me of the pain I felt after a bike accident in which I had broken my collarbone and cracked two ribs. I was now convinced that I had not broken my back, but rather several ribs (three it turned out). Instead of going to the office, I went to the bathroom for two or three Ibuprofen tablets to stifle the pain until I could get to the hospital.

I didn’t call Athena or Allah for help. Athena might exist, but she frightens me. Allah is the imaginary god of fanatical imbeciles who think several dozen virgins are waiting to greet them after they blow themselves up and kill a lot of infidels like me.

3. He had a gun and he looked like he would use it. We kept our hands on our heads and avoided any sudden movements.

Most of the people at the party were black and casually dressed. I stood out. I had come directly from work and was attired in a jacket and tie. The gunman referred to me scornfully as “Professor”. “You, professor—get over here. Let’s see your wallet.”

The son of a bitch sneered as I handed him the wallet and had the temerity to turn his back on me as he examined its contents, as if to say, “This white sissy in a tie and jacket is no threat to me”. I jumped him, threw a full nelson on him, and wrestled him to the floor.

He still had the pistol until Larry stomped on his hand. Several others piled on and beat the crap out of the assailant. The windows were opened to ventilate the rooms and let out the marijuana smoke and the cops were called.

The gun turned out to be just half a gun—the barrel and the cylinder. But I hadn’t known that when I jumped the guy. I did not pray for help before acting. Neither Jesus nor Apollo was by my side. This is not surprising because they’re both myths.

I was the hero and also the butt of jokes for the duration of the party. Among the nicknames for me that evening were “Clark Kent” and “Shaft”.

In the current issue of *Free Inquiry*, Doug Traversa writes about his near death experience while serving in Afghanistan as an air force officer:

— Despite the mistaken certainty that I was about to die, I did not revert back to my former beliefs. I am an atheist to this day, even after facing what I was sure would be my last day on Earth. I felt no need to fall on my knees and pray. There are indeed atheists in foxholes...

Finally, I must mention the death of my mother from mestastacized breast cancer. It had attacked her skeletal system and the pain was excruciating. Even the high doses of morphine did not assuage the pain. In one of her lucid moments, she asked my sister and me to kill her.

Mother was a non-believer and a practical person. I would have ended her life and confronted the consequences if I were the only person involved. My sister, however, had three children; two of whom were still in school. She could not go along with my proposal to give Mom a massive overdose of morphine.

Like Meersault, I did not go to my mother’s funeral. I was undergoing radiation treatment for prostate cancer that had “gone outside the pocket”. Nevertheless, I had stayed with her for ten hours or longer every day during her final agony. My sister was there at least fourteen hours each day.

She died in the arms of her two children. I had fulfilled my filial responsibility and felt no need for homage to the empty vessel that was her cadaver.

There are freethinkers in foxholes and on the front line. There have been many gods and there have always been those of us who are skeptical about their existence. I doubt that any of these supernatural superheroes ever existed.

Those good Christians who doubt the existence of infidels may be suffering the consequences of learning that 1+1+1=1, virgins give birth, messiahs walk on water and resuscitate the dead, and deceased messiahs get up and walk around like zombies three days after they die.

Grow up.

SPORTS TALK GETS EVEN WORSE

Guys,

I used to wonder what Alexander Cockburn was getting on about when he would trash Bob Dylan on an annual basis. In my own far removed sense of reaction to the irreverance of "hippie" culture I really liked that piece that the AVA once ran called 'Dylan Bows Out.’ Something about that piece just tickles me. I identified with Dylan’s indignation for freeloading dirtbags who mar the counterculture. In my attempt to be less lazy about my musical tastes in various peripheral genres I decided to brush up on my rock and then my folk. Well good fortune has it that John Prine was a local guy when I was growing up and so I had some good exposure to mine from my musical past. So I listen to some John Prine, then some Guthrie of course, Pete Seeger, then Jimmie Rodgers, Uncle Dave Macon, etc.

So I come across this Martin Scorcese flick on Robert "Bob Dylan" Zimmerman and it's just a complete revelation. The guy is a total thief and phony fuckin scoundrel. In one of the performances he is filmed close up and his head is frozen and cocked a bit to the side, his blue eyes are glassy and glimmering while transfixed in a daze, the words are regurgitated from his throat region, and right then and there he was revealed to me as a complete reptile. Now I can't stand him or his old songs that I used to abide. It is a visceral distaste I have for Bob Dylan, the cheap ripoff.

My other visceral distaste is a newly promoted right wing blowhard addition from the Murph & Mac show on KNBR 680 who unfortunately for the Irish is named Patrick Conner.

They gave this slag his own hour from 5am to 6am weekdays.

This guy clearly represents the demographic of the chemically debased sports perspectives of the eternally embattled white male listening audience. I am sure all the closet racists just love him to the core. The thoroughly undeserving dominant culture scored points this morning when a new "poll" revealed that 9 out of 10 native americans don't mind the Redskins name for the NFL team from Washington DC. Not sure who they asked. From the indignation displayed by Patrick Conner one would think that throughout the long anglo-native encounter that in fact it is Patrick Conner who has been put out, no bloody island massacre memories for this peabrain. He deserves to have his eyes pried open, dosed with ayahuasca, and taken on a virtual trail of tears. May he find himself in a place rich with spirits and ghosts and may they haunt him for the deeds he is defending.

Can you tell I am mad at this ratbag? Oh yeah, he lives in the tenderloin… Sweet dreams.

Tell you what, they may have asked some living dupes if the redskins moniker bothered them, and they may have found enough dupes who were not bothered by it. Let’s see if some of those many spirits, ghosts and demons that surely wander and haunt california, with it's recent history so rich with wrongdoing, let's see if they take issue with the hatred of Patrick Conner. Let us see. Unless your people were collaborators with the British your ancestors would not be proud. You are outmanned and outgunned on all sides. Good luck, bro.

Your eternal Irish enemy, Fenian Collins

IT COULD HAPPEN HERE

The Danger in Not Recognizing Unfunded Public Pension Liabilities -- A $11.5 Billion Error in Chicago

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-19/chicago-s-pension-fund-troubles-just-became-11-5-billion-bigger

IF YOU'VE BEEN MEANING TO WRITE

Or if you don't want to get stale over the summer, Molly Dwyer is offering two writing classes. Try your hand.

Norma

A TASTE OF THE GOOD OL’ DAYS

with $1 entrance fee—June 5

Retro Sunday! Community Appreciation Day At Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

Flash back to the early 1960s and the origins of Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens with $1 admission for everyone on Sunday, June 5, from 9:00am to 5:00pm. The coastal community has supported the Botanical Gardens for more than 55 years. This annual community appreciation day’s old-fashioned pricing is the Gardens’ way of sharing the love. For those who have not visited in a while, come see what’s new and blooming this spring. Tour the expanded organic demonstration Vegetable Garden. Delight in rhododendrons, roses, coastal wildflowers, and so much more. Introduce a friend to the Gardens or bring your family and spend the day wandering the 47 acres of botanical bliss. Find inspiration for your home garden, have a family picnic, walk the dog, or find a quiet spot to melt the day away... just a few ideas to get you started. Memberships will be 10% off during Retro Sunday. Members of the Gardens enjoy multiple benefits, including first notification of special events, bigger discounts during store and nursery sales, and a Customer Appreciation punch card for Rhody’s Café. Plus, as part of a Reciprocal Admissions Program, Gardens members enjoy free or discounted admission at nearly 300 gardens nationwide! Enjoy special retro pricing at Rhody's Garden Café on Sunday—just a buck gets you a delicious single-scoop of Cowlick’s ice cream. Looking for new and exciting plants for your home, a fresh scarf for summer, or in need of some new tools or garden decor? Show your support for local business and the Gardens by shopping The Garden Store and Nursery on the Plaza. Both are open daily and there is never an admission fee to shop! Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens is located at 18220 North Highway 1, two miles south of downtown Fort Bragg and just six miles north of Mendocino. For more information, visit www.gardenbythesea.org.

Roxanne Golnar
Marketing Coordinator
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens
18220 N Highway 1 | Fort Bragg, CA
www.gardenbythesea.org

GIVEN such biological complexity, human sexuality and gender can fairly only be represented on a continuum — versus a binary conception — with the most “male” on one end and most “female” on the other. All sorts of mixtures and nuances exist toward the mid-point of the continuum, where “confusion” between male and female can and does exist... A healthy society might accept it and even call it a rich pageant of life.

— John Grant

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

And then we have the sad case of Ernest Hemingway’s youngest son, Gregory, a cross dressing transvestite who ended up, late in life, getting breast implants, hormone shots, and his dick removed: the whole nine yards. Believe me, if you think being tranny is somehow a glamorous lifestyle, read about Gregory Hemingway, who died in a Miami jail cell in 2001. It’s also pretty clear it was an overwhelming compulsion which was impossible for him to resist. He wasn’t stupid — he had it together enough to become an MD. Oddly enough, his family realized there might be a problem when Gregory was arrested in a woman’s restroom in an LA movie theatre, an incident which appalled his mother and caused her death a few days later.

* * *

All’s I can say is, the patriots and hard men who command the Russian, Chinese, NKorean, Iranian and ISIS armed forces must look at the new openly homosexual Army secretary, Obama’s Mom Jeans, Lady Generals, and female, homosexual and transgender troops of America’s new model army and rub their hands together, lick their lips, and shake their heads at their blessed good luck. Most likely they can’t believe it and are pinching themselves and slapping each other on the back.

THE MENDOCINO COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION AGENDA for the Special Meeting on June 2, 2016 has been posted to the department website at:

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/planning/meetings.htm